Those of you who are new to The Anne Boleyn Files may be interested to know that when I published my book The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown I also created a website with an interactive timeline showing the events of that fateful spring. You can find the timeline, as well as other extras and resources, at www.thefallofanneboleyn.com.
Today’s event on the timeline is John Skip’s controversial Passion Sunday sermon. Here is an extract:
On the 2nd April 1536, Anne Boleyn’s almoner, John Skip, preached a rather controversial sermon in front of the King. Skip’s theme was “Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato?” or “Which of you can convict me of sin?”.
Skip spoke “defending the clergy from their defamers and from the immoderate zeal of men in holding up to public reprobation the faults of any single clergyman as if it were the fault of all.” He also used the example of the Old Testament story of King Ahasuerus “who was moved by a wicked minister to destroy the Jews” but Queen Esther stepped in with different advice and saved the Jews. In Skip’s sermon, Henry VIII was Ahasuerus, Anne Boleyn was Queen Esther and Thomas Cromwell, who had just introduced the Act of Suppression of the Lesser Monasteries into Parliament, was Haman, the “wicked minister”.
Click here to read the full article.
The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Claire Ridgway is available from Amazon.com and other online book retailers.
