A Woman At Norwich
A WOMAN AT NORWICH
Cicely Ormes, of the city of Norwich, wife of Edmund Ormes, was arrested on the day that Simon Miller and Elizabeth Cooper were executed. She drew the attention of the officers to herself by speaking encouraging words to the two prisoners on the way to the stake. For this she was put in prison and soon after taken before the chancellor for examination.
The chancellor offered to release her “if she would go to church and keep her beliefs to herself” and told her “she could hold to any faith she would.”
But she answered, “I will not enter your church.”
Then the chancellor told her he had shown more favor to her than he ever did to any person, and he didn’t want to condemn her because she was only a foolish young woman.
Cicely replied that if she was only a foolish young woman, he shouldn’t be worried about her belief. Foolish or not, she was content to give up her life for a cause so good.
The chancellor then read the sentence of condemnation and delivered Cicely Ormes to the care of the sheriffs of the city. Cicely was a young woman in the prime of life, uneducated, but very earnest in her cause. She was born in East Dereham and was the daughter of Thomas Haund, a tailor. The first time she was brought before the magistrate, she recanted but was afterward so troubled by her conscience that she wrote a letter to the chancellor to let him know she repented of her action. But before the letter could be delivered, she was arrested, tried, and convicted.
Cicely Ormes was burned on September 23, 1557, between seven and eight in the morning. When she came to the stake, she kneeled down and made her prayers to God. That being done, she rose up and said, “Good people, I believe as I have been taught from the Bible. This I do, and I will never change my mind. My death is a witness of my faith to all present here. Good people, as many of you as believe the same as I do, pray for me.” When she had said this, she laid her hand on the stake and saw it was black—she was burned at the same stake as Simon Miller and Elizabeth Cooper—and wiped it on her dress. After she had been bound and the fire was lit, she clasped her hands together against her heart, turning her face upward, and raised her hands little by little, until they fell helpless at her side when she died.