Agnes Grebill

'''Agnes Grebill''' of Tenterden (died 1511) was an English Lollard martyr from Kent.

== Biography == Information about Grebill's life mostly comes from evidence given against her by members of her own family during her heresy trial in 1511.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Tanner |first=Norman P. |title=Early sixteenth-century Lollard women |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-50538 |access-date=2025-04-05 |website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-50538#odnb-9780198614128-e-50538-headword-7 |doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 |archive-date=30 November 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241130115820/https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-50538 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Her husband was a weaver who worked in Tenterden and Benenden, Kent. When Grebill was about thirty she was converted to Lollard beliefs by the teachings of John Ive and William Carder.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Hartley |first=Cathy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pDtEe4FKolUC&q=grebill |title=A Historical Dictionary of British Women |date=2003 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-1-85743-228-2 |pages=191–192 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Sweetinburgh |first=Sheila |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G3f32EUj3GgC&dq=Agnes+Grebill&pg=PA174 |title=Later Medieval Kent, 1220-1540 |date=2010 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-0-85115-584-5 |pages=174 |language=en}}</ref> Grebill and her husband later instructed their sons (John Grebill and Christopher Grebill) in Lollardy and were central figures in a network of those with Lollard beliefs in the county of Kent.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> In line with Lollard beliefs, Grebill was anticlerical and felt that confession could only be good if "made to a priest being the follower of Peter and being pure and clean in life."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marshall |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M7S_DgAAQBAJ&dq=Agnes+Grebill&pg=PA109 |title=Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation |date=2017-01-01 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-17062-7 |pages=109 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1511, Grebill was brought to trial before Archbishop William Warham of Canterbury,<ref name=":0" /> along with her husband and sons, accused of heretical beliefs.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last1=Bose |first1=Mishtooni |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LuAzDwAAQBAJ&dq=Agnes+Grebill&pg=PA55 |title=A Companion to Lollardy |last2=Somerset |first2=Fiona |last3=II |first3=J. Patrick Hornbeck |date=2016-02-15 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-30985-2 |pages=55 |language=en}}</ref> When tried, she was at least sixty years old.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lutton |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QH0aSkG6--wC&dq=Agnes+Grebill&pg=PA155 |title=Lollardy and Orthodox Religion in Pre-Reformation England: Reconstructing Piety |date=2006 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-0-86193-283-2 |pages=155 |language=en}}</ref> Grebill was the only member of her family who refused to recant,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ward |first=Jennifer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f1rwZxGiInMC&dq=Agnes+Grebill&pg=PA193 |title=Women in England in the Middle Ages |date=2006-10-12 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-0-8264-1985-9 |pages=193 |language=en}}</ref> and her husband and one of their sons later testified against her.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Muir |first=Elizabeth Gillan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2WUDwAAQBAJ&dq=Agnes+Grebill&pg=PA177 |title=Women's History of the Christian Church: Two Thousand Years of Female Leadership |date=2019-01-01 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4875-9384-1 |pages=177 |language=en}}</ref>

Archbishop Warham pronounced Grebill an "obstinate heretic."<ref name=":0" /> She was handed over to the secular courts<ref name=":0" /> and was burned at the stake,<ref name=":3" /> dying alongside four other female Lollards.<ref name=":1" />

== References == {{reflist}} {{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Grebill, Agnes}} Category:1511 deaths Category:16th-century English women Category:Lollard martyrs Category:People executed for heresy Category:Executed people from Kent Category:16th-century executions by England