Line, Anne (d. 1601)

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Line, Anne (d. 1601)

Catholic Englishwoman condemned as a heretic . Executed at Tyburn, England, in 1601.

During a period of Catholic persecution in England during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Anne Line, a middle-aged woman, not only harbored Catholic priests, but allowed them to conduct masses in her home. She was eventually captured by authorities as she was helping a priest to escape and was condemned as a heretic. She was ordered to die on the gallows. Just before her execution at Tyburn in 1601, she angered onlookers by kissing the gallows and proclaiming: "Where I received one [priest], I would to God I had been able to receive a thousand."

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