Spiritual Convictions (2)

Abstract

A fourth indicator of heretical belief is sometimes the phraseology of wills. The ‘Protestant’ preamble not only failed to commend the testator’s soul to Mary or the saints, but also asserted her or his confidence in its salvation through God or Christ alone. Three Plymouth wills are typical. ‘I commend my soul unto Christ Jesu, my maker and redeemer’, declared William Amadas in 1553, ‘in whom and by whom is all my whole trust of clean remission and forgiveness of my sins.’ In 1560 William Lake expected Christ’s merits to provide ‘a full redemption and satisfaction for the trespasses that I have done or committed …, so that my most wretched soul may be saved amongst thy saints’. In 1562 Joan Lake expressed her assurance of salvation ‘by no other means’ than the suffering of Christ.¹