Agnes Prest was an English Protestant martyr from the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary

Mary I of England

Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

, dying on August 15, 1557, at Southernhay near Exeter

Exeter

Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...

. According to Foxe's Book of Martyrs

Foxe's Book of Martyrs

The Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe, more accurately Acts and Monuments, is an account from a Protestant point of view of Christian church history and martyrology...

, she lived near Launceston, Cornwall, and was married to a Catholic husband. She left her husband over his Catholicism, but, when forcibly returned to him, was accused by her neighbours and brought before the Bishop of Exeter. When questioned, she denied the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation

Transubstantiation

In Roman Catholic theology, transubstantiation means the change, in the Eucharist, of the substance of wheat bread and grape wine into the substance of the Body and Blood, respectively, of Jesus, while all that is accessible to the senses remains as before.The Eastern Orthodox...

, and for this and her continued attacks on Catholicism, she would be eventually sentenced to death. While temporarily at liberty after the questioning, she is said to have met a Dutch stonemason in Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....

, then known as St. Peter's Church, who was repairing the statues. According to Foxe, she said to him "What a madman art thou, to make them new noses, which within a few days shall all lose their heads," at which point she was forcefully returned to custody, and, when she continued unrepentant, was eventually burned to death.