Joyce Lewis

She was a Catholic, but she began to question her faith, according to the partisan martyrologist John Foxe,[2][3] after the martyrdom of Lawrence Saunders on 8 February 1555.

Her move to being a Protestant was led by the brother of another martyr, Robert Glover, who died the same year.

[1] Her previous devotion to Catholicism was replaced by "irreverent behaviour in church" which came to the notice of Ralph Baines, the Bishop of Lichfield.

Lewis spent a year in jail before she was taken, with the comfort of the priest Augustine Bernher, to be burnt at Lichfield on 18 December 1557.

Lewis was said to have been aware of the impact of her own death and she had consulted to maximise the value of her sacrifice.

Joyce Lewes in Foxe's Book of Martyrs . "Mistress Joyce Lewes, a gentlewoman born, was delicately brought up in the pleasures of the world ..." The illustration is meant to show how the messenger of her accusation was forced to eat his message.