A Leader of the Lollards The Trouble and Persecution of the Most Valiant and Worthy
Martyr of Christ Sir John Oldcastle, Knight, Lord Cobham After that the true
servant of Jesus Christ, John Whitcliffe, a man of very excellent life and learning,
had, for the space of more than twenty-six years, most valiantly battled with the
great Antichrist of Europe, or Pope of Rome, and his diversely disguised host of
anointed hypocrites, to restore the church to the pure estate that Christ left her in
at His ascension, he departed, hence most Christianly, in the hands of
God, the year of our Lord 1384, and was buried in his own parish church at
Lutterworth in Leicestershire.
No small number of godly disciples left that good man behind him to defend the
lowliness of the gospel against the exceeding pride, ambition, simony,
avarice, hypocrisy, sacrilege, tyranny, idolatrous worshipings,
and other filthy fruits of those stiff-necked Pharisees, against whom
Thomas Arundel, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as fierce as ever was Pharaoh
Antiochus Herod, or Caiaphas, collected in St. Paul's Church at London a universal
synod of all the papistical clergy of England in the year of our Lord 1413,
as he had done divers others before, to withstand their most godly enterprise.
The principal cause of the assembling thereof was to repress the growing and
spreading of the gospel, and especially to withstand the noble and worthy Lord
Coburn, who was then noted to be a principal favourer, receiver, and
maintainer of those whom the bishop named lollards, especially in the diocese of
London, Rochester, and Hereford, setting them up to preach whom the bishops
had not licensed, and sending them about to preach, holding also and teaching
opinions of the sacraments, of images, of pilgrimage, of the keys, and church of
Rome, repugnant to the received determination of the Romish church.
It was concluded among them that without any further delay process should be
awarded out against him, as against a most pernicious heretic.
Some of that fellowship, who were of more crafty experience than the others,
thought it not best to have the matter so rashly handled, but by some preparation
made thereunto beforehand, considering the said Lord Coburn was a man of great birth,
and in favour at the time with the king, their counsel was to know first the king's
mind.
This counsel was well accepted, and thereupon the archbishop, Thomas
Arundel, with his other bishops, and a great part of the clergy,
went straightways unto the king, then remaining at Kennington, and there
laid forth most grievous complaints against the said Lord Coburn, to his great
infamy and blemish, being a man right godly.
The king gently heard those bloodthirsty prelates, and far otherwise then became
his princely dignity, notwithstanding requiring and instantly desiring them that
in respect of his noble stock and knighthood they should yet favourably deal
with him, and that they would, if it were possible, without all rigour or
extreme handling, reduce him again to the church's unity.
He promised them also, that in case they were contented to take some deliberation,
he himself would seriously commune the matter with him.
Anon after, the king sent for the said Lord Coburn, and as soon as he was come,
he called him secretly, admonishing him betwixt him and him, to submit himself to
his mother the holy church, and as an obedient child to acknowledge himself
culpable.
Unto whom the Christian knight made this answer?
You, most worthy prince, saith he, I am always prompt and willing to obey,
forasmuch as I know you are a Christian king, and the appointed minister of God,
bearing the sword to the punishment of evildoers, and for safeguard of them that
be virtuous.
Unto you, next my eternal God, owe I my whole obedience, and submit
thereunto, as I have done ever, all that I have, either of fortune or
nature, ready at all times to fulfil whatsoever ye shall in the Lord command
me.
But, as touching the pope and his spirituality, I owe them neither suit nor
service, forasmuch as I know him, by the Scriptures, to be the great
Antichrist, the son of perdition, the open adversary of God, and the
abomination standing in the holy place.
When the king had heard this, with such like sentences more, he would talk no
longer with him, but left him so utterly.
And as the archbishop resorted again unto the king for an answer, he gave him his
full authority to cite him, examine him, and punish him, according to their
devilish decrees, which they called the laws of holy church.
But forasmuch as the Lord Cobham did not appear at the day appointed, the
archbishop condemned him of most deep contumacy.
After that, when he had been falsely informed by his hired spies and other
glozing glabberers that the said Lord Cobham had laughed him to scorn,
disdained all his doings, maintained his old opinions, contemned the church's
power, the dignity of a bishop, and the order of priesthood, for all of
these was he then accused, in his moody madness, without just proof, did he openly
excommunicate him.
This most constant servant of the Lord, and worthy knight, Sir John Oldcastle,
the Lord Cobham, beholding the unpeaceable fury of Antichrist, thus kindled against
him, perceiving himself compassed on every side with deadly dangers, took paper and
pen in hand, and wrote a confession of his faith, both signing and sealing it with
his own hand, wherein he answered to the four chief articles that the archbishop
laid against him.
That done, he took the copy with him, and went therewith to the king,
trusting to find mercy and favor at his hand.
The king would in no case receive it, but commanded it to be delivered unto them
that should be his judges.
Then desired he, in the king's presence, that a hundred knights and esquires might
be suffered to come in upon his purgation, who he knew would clear him of all
heresies.
Moreover, he offered himself, after the law of alms, to fight for life or death,
with any man living, Christian or heathen, in the quarrel of his faith.
The king, and the lords of his council, accepted.
Finally, with all gentleness, he protested before all that were present that he would
refuse, no matter of correction, that should, after the laws of God,
be ministered unto him, but that he would at all times, with all meekness,
obey it.
Notwithstanding all this, the king suffered him to be summoned personally in
his own privy chamber.
Then said the Lord Cobham to the king that he had appealed from the archbishop to the
throne, and therefore he ought, he said, in no case to be his judge.
And having his appeal there at hand, ready written, he showed it with all
reverence to the king, wherewith the king was then much more displeased than afore,
and said angrily to him that he should not pursue his appeal, but rather should tarry
in hold, till such time as it were of the pope allowed.
And then would he, or nilled he, the archbishop should be his judge.
Thus was there nothing allowed that the good Lord Cobham had lawfully required,
but forasmuch as he would not be sworn in all things to submit himself to the
church, and so take what penance the archbishop would enjoin him, he was
arrested at the king's commandment, and led forth to the tower of London.
When the day of examination was come, which was the twenty-third of September,
the Saturday after the feast of St. Matthew, Thomas Arundel, the archbishop,
sat in Caiaphas's room in the chapter-house of St. Paul's, with Richard
Clifford, Bishop of London, and Henry Bolingbroke, Bishop of Winchester.
Sir Robert Morley, knight and lieutenant of the tower, brought before him the said
Lord Cobham, and there left him for the time, unto whom the archbishop said these
words.
Sir John, in the last general convocation of the clergy of this our province,
ye were detected of certain heresies, and by sufficient witnesses found
culpable, whereupon ye were, by form of spiritual law, cited, and would in no case
appear.
Upon your rebellious contumacy, ye were both privately and openly
excommunicated.
Notwithstanding, we neither yet showed ourselves unready to have given you
absolution, nor yet due to this hour, would ye have meekly asked it.
Unto whom the Lord Cobham said that he desired no absolution, but he would gladly
before him and his brethren make rehearsal of that faith, which he held and intended
always to stand to.
And then he took out of his bosom a certain writing concerning the articles
whereof he was accused, and read it before them.
As for images, I understand that they be not of belief, but that they were ordained
since the belief of Christ was given by sufferance of the church to represent and
bring to mind the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and martyrdom and good
living of other saints.
And that whoso it be that doth the worship to dead images that is due to God,
or putteth such hope or trust in help of them as he should do to God, or hath
affection in one more than in another, he doth in that the greatest sin of idle
worship.
Also I suppose this fully, that every man in this earth is a pilgrim toward bliss or
toward pain, and that he that knoweth not, ne will not know, ne keep the holy
commandments of God in his living here, albeit that he go on pilgrimages to all
the world, and he die so.
He shall be damned.
He that knoweth the holy commandments of God, and keepeth them to his end,
he shall be saved, though he never in his life go on pilgrimage, as men now use to
Canterbury, or to Rome, or to any other place.
Then counseled the archbishop with the other two bishops, and with divers of the
doctors, what was to be done, commanding him for the time to stand aside.
In conclusion by their assent and information, he said thus unto him,
Come hither, Sir John.
Ye must declare us your mind more plainly.
As thus, whether ye hold, affirm, and believe, that in the sacrament of the
altar, after the consecration rightly done by a priest, remaineth material bread or
not.
Moreover, whether ye do hold, affirm, and believe, that as concerning the
sacrament of penance, where a competent number of priests are, every Christian man
is necessarily bound to be confessed of his sins to a priest ordained by the
church or not.
This was the answer of the good Lord Cobham, that none otherwise would he
declare his mind, nor yet answer unto his articles, than was expressly in his
writing there contained.
Then said the archbishop, unto him, Sir John, beware what ye do, for if ye
answer not clearly to those things that are here objected against you,
the law of holy church is, that we may openly proclaim you a heretic.
Unto whom he gave this answer, Do as ye shall think best, wherewith the
bishops and prelates were amazed and wonderfully disquieted.
At last the archbishop again declared unto him, what the holy church of Rome,
following the saying of St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and of the holy
doctors, had determined in these matters.
No manner of mention once made of Christ, which determination, saith he,
ought all Christian men both to believe and to follow.
Then said the Lord Cobham unto him, that he would gladly both believe and
observe whatsoever holy church of Christ's institution had determined, or yet
whatsoever God had willed him either to believe or to do, but that the Pope of
Rome, with his cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of that
church, had lawful power to determine such matter as stood not with his word
thoroughly, that would he not, he said, at that time affirm.
With this the archbishop bade him to take good advisement till the Monday next
following, which was the twenty-fifth day of September, and then justly to answer,
especially unto this point, whether there remained material bread in the sacrament
of the altar, after the words of consecration, or not.
The Lord Cobham perceived that their uttermost malice was purposed against him,
and therefore he put his life into the hands of God, desiring his only spirit to
assist him in his next answer.
When the said twenty-fifth day of September was come, Thomas Arundel,
the archbishop of Canterbury, commanded his judicial seat to be removed from the
chapter-house of Paul's to the Dominic friars within Ludgate at London.
And as he was there set, with a great sort more of priests, monks, canons,
friars, parish clerks, bell-ringers, Sir Robert Morley, knight and lieutenant
of the tower, brought the good Lord Cobham, leaving him among them as a lamb
among wolves.
Examination of the Lord Cobham.
Then said the archbishop unto him, Sir John, we sent you a writing concerning
the faith of the blessed sacrament, clearly determined by the church of Rome,
our mother, and by the holy doctors.
Then he said unto him, I know none holier than is Christ and His apostles.
And as for that determination, I what it is none of theirs, for it
standeth not with the Scriptures, but manifestly against them.
Then said one of the lawyers, What is your belief concerning holy church?
The Lord Cobham answered, My belief is, that all the Scriptures of the sacred
Bible are true.
All that is grounded upon them I believe thoroughly, for I know it is God's
pleasure that I should so do.
But in your lordly laws and idol determinations have I no belief.
For ye be no part of Christ's holy church, as your open deeds do show.
But ye are very antichrists, obstinately set against His holy law and will.
The laws that ye have made are nothing to His glory, but only for your vain glory
and abominable covetousness.
And as for your superiority, were ye of Christ, ye should be meek ministers and no
proud superiors.
Then said Dr. Walden unto him, Swift judges always are the learned
scholars of Wycliffe.
Unto him the Lord Cobham thus answered, As for that virtuous man Wycliffe,
I shall say here before God and man, before I knew that despised doctrine of
his, I never abstained from sin.
But since I learned therein to fear my Lord God, it hath otherwise, I trust,
been with me.
So much grace could I never find in all your glorious instructions.
Then said Dr. Walden yet again unto him, It were not well with me, so many virtuous
men living, and so many learned men teaching the Scripture being also so open,
and the examples of fathers so plenteous, if I then had no grace to amend my life
till I heard the devil preach.
The Lord Cobham said, Your fathers, the old Pharisees, ascribed Christ's
miracles to Beelzebub and His doctrine to the devil, and you as their children have
still the selfsame judgment concerning His faithful followers.
They that rebuke your vicious living must needs be heretics, and that must your
doctors prove, when you have no Scripture to do it.
Then said He to them all, To judge you as you be, we need go no further than to your
own proper acts.
Where do you find in all God's law that ye shall sit in judgment on any Christian
man, or yet give sentence upon any other man unto death, as ye do here daily?
No ground have ye in all the Scripture so lordly to take it upon you, but in Annas
and Caiaphas, who sat thus upon Christ, and upon His apostles, after His
ascension.
Of them only have ye taken it to judge Christ's members as you do, and neither of
Peter nor John.
Then said some of the lawyers, Yes, forsooth, sir, for Christ judged
Judas.
The Lord Cobham said, No, Christ judged him not, but he judged himself,
and thereupon went forth, and so did hang himself.
But indeed Christ said, Woe unto him for that covetous act of his, as he doth yet
still unto many of you.
For since the venom of Judas was shed into the church, he never followed Christ,
neither yet have ye stood in the perfection of God's law.
Then the archbishop asked him what he meant by that venom.
The Lord Cobham said, Your possessions and lordships.
For then cried an angel in the air, as your own chronicles mention,
Woe, woe, woe, this day is venom shed into the church of God.
Before that time all the bishops of Rome were martyrs in a manner, and since that
time we read of very few.
But indeed since that same time one hath put down another, one hath poisoned
another, one hath cursed another, and one hath slain another, and done much
more mischief besides, as all the chronicles tell.
And let all men consider well this, that Christ was meek and merciful,
the pope is proud and tyrant, Christ was poor and forgave, the pope is rich and a
malicious manslayer.
Then a doctor of law called Master John Kemp plucked out of his bosom a copy of
the bill which they had before sent him into the tower by the archbishop's
council, thinking thereby to make shorter work with him.
My Lord Cobham, saith this doctor, we must briefly know your mind concerning
these four points here following.
The first of them is this, and then he read upon the bill.
The faith and determination of Holy Church touching the blessed sacrament of the
altar is this, that after the sacramental words be once spoken by a priest in his
mass, the material bread that was before bread is turned into Christ's very body,
and the material wine is turned into Christ's blood.
And so there remaineth in the sacrament of the altar from thenceforth no material
bread nor material wine which were there before the sacramental words were spoken.
Sir, believe you not this?
The Lord Cobham said, This is not my belief, but my faith is, as I said to you
before, that in the worshipful sacrament of the altar is Christ's very body in the
form of bread.
Then read the doctor again.
The second point is this, Holy Church hath determined that every Christian man,
living here bodily upon earth, ought to be shriven of a priest,
ordained by the church, if ye may come to him.
Sir, what say you to this?
The Lord Cobham answered and said, A diseased or sore-wounded man hath need
to have a sure wise cururgeon and a true, knowing both the ground and the danger of
the same.
Most necessary were it, therefore, to be first shriven unto God, who only
knoweth our diseases and can help us.
Then read the doctor again.
The third point is this, Christ ordained St. Peter the Apostle to be his vicar here
in earth, whose sea is the church of Rome, and he granted that the same power which
he gave unto Peter should succeed unto all Peter's successors whom we now call popes
of Rome, by whose special power, in churches particular, be ordained
prelates and archbishops, parsons, curates, and other degrees besides,
to whom Christian men ought to obey after the laws of the church of Rome.
This is the determination of holy church.
Sir, believe ye not this?
To this he answered and said, He that followeth Peter, most nigh in pure living,
is next unto him in succession.
But your lordly order esteemeth not greatly the lowly behaviour of poor Peter.
Whatsoever ye prate of him, neither care ye greatly for the humble manners of them
that succeeded him till the time of Sylvester, who, for the more part,
were martyrs.
With that one of the other doctors asked him, Then what do ye say of the pope?
The Lord Cobham answered, He and you together make whole the great Antichrist,
of whom he is the great head.
You bishops, priests, prelates, and monks are the body, and the begging
friars are the tail.
Then read the doctor again.
The fourth point is this.
Holy church hath determined that it is meritorious to a Christian man to go on
pilgrimage to holy places, and there specially to worship the holy relics and
images of saints, apostles, martyrs, confessors, and all other saints besides,
approved by the church of Rome.
Sir, what say you to this?
Whereunto the Lord Cobham answered, I owe them no service by any commandment
of God, and therefore I mind not to seek them for your covetousness.
It were best ye swept them fair from cobwebs and dust, and so laid them up for
catching of scathe, or else to bury them fair in the ground, as ye do other aged
people, who are God's images.
It is a wonderful thing that saints, now being dead, should become so covetous
and needy, and thereupon so bitterly beg, who all their lifetime hated all
covetousness and begging.
But this I say unto you, and I would all the world should mark it, that with your
shrines and idols, your feigned absolutions and pardons, ye draw unto you
the substance, wealth, and chief pleasures of all Christian realms.
Then said the archbishop unto him, Sir John, you must either submit yourself
to the ordinance of holy church, or else throw yourself, no remedy,
into most deep danger.
We require you to have no other manner of opinion in these matters, than the
universal faith and belief of the holy church of Rome is.
And so, like an obedient child, return again to the unity of your mother.
The Lord Cobham said expressly before them all, I will no otherwise believe in these
points than what I have told you here before.
Do with me what you will.
And with that the archbishop stood up and read a bill of his condemnation,
all the clergy and laity veiling their bonnets.
Forasmuch as we have found Sir John Oldcastle, Knight, and Lord Cobham,
not only to be an evident heretic in his own person, but also a mighty maintainer
of other heretics against the faith and religion of the holy and universal church
of Rome, and that he, as the child of iniquity and darkness, hath so hardened
his heart, that he will in no case attend unto the voice of his pastor.
His faults also aggravated or made double through his damnable obstinacy,
we commit him to the secular jurisdiction.
Furthermore, we excommunicate and denounce accursed not only this heretic here
present, but so many else besides, as shall hereafter, in favour of his
error, either receive him or defend him, counsel him or help him, or any other way
maintain him, as very forters, receivers, defenders, counsellors,
aiders, and maintainers of condemned heretics.
And we give straight commandment that ye cause this condemnation a definitive
sentence of excommunication concerning both this heretic and his forters,
to be published throughout all dioceses, in cities, towns, and villages,
by your curates and parish priests, at such times as they shall have most
recourse of people.
Let the curate everywhere go into the pulpit, and there open, declare and
expound his process in the mother tongue, in an audible and intelligible voice,
that it may be perceived of all men, and that upon the fear of this declaration
also the people may fall from their evil opinions conceived now by seditious
preachers.
After the archbishop had read the bill of his condemnation before the whole
multitude, the Lord Cobham said with the most cheerful countenance, Though ye judge
my body, which is but a wretched thing, yet am I certain and sure that ye can do
no harm to my soul, no more than could Satan unto the soul of Job.
He that created that will of his infinite mercy and promise save it.
I have therein no manner of doubt.
He fell down upon his knees, and before them all prayed for his enemies,
holding up both his hands and his eyes towards heaven, and saying, Lord God
eternal, I beseech thee, of thy great mercy sake, to forgive my pursuers,
if it be thy blessed will.
After this the bishops and priests were in great discredit, both with the nobility
and commons, for that they had so cruelly handled the good Lord Cobham.
The prelates feared this to grow to further inconvenience towards them,
wherefore they drew their heads together and consented to use another practice,
somewhat contrary to that that they had done before.
They caused it to be blown abroad by their feed-servants, friends, and babbling Sir
Johns, that the said Lord Cobham was become a good man, and had lowly submitted
himself in all things unto holy church, utterly changing his opinion concerning
the sacrament.
Thereupon they counterfeited an abjuration in his name, that the people should take
no hold of his opinion by anything they heard of him before, and so to stand the
more in awe of them, considering him so great a man, and by them subdued.
When the clergy perceived that policy would not help, but made more and more
against them, then sought they out another false practice.
They went unto the king with the most grievous complaint, that in every quarter
of the realm, by reason of Wycliffe's opinions, and the said Lord Cobham,
were wonderful contentions, rumors, tumults, uproars, confederations,
dissensions, divisions, differences, discords, harms, slanders, schisms,
sects, seditions, perturbations, perils, unlawful assemblies, variances,
strifes, fightings, rebellious rufflings, and daily insurrections.
The church, they said, was hated.
The diocesans were not obeyed.
The ordinaries were not regarded.
The spiritual officers as suffragents, archdeacons, chancellors, doctors,
commissaries, officials, deans, lawyers, scribes, and psalminers were
everywhere despised.
The laws and liberties of holy church were trodden underfoot.
The Christian faith was ruinously decayed.
God's service was laughed to scorn.
The spiritual jurisdiction, authority, honor, power, policy, laws, rights,
ceremonies, curses, keys, censures, and canonical sanctions of the church were
had in utter contempt, so that all, in a manner, was come to naught.
And the cause of this was, that the heretics and lollards of Wycliffe's
opinion were suffered to preach abroad so boldly, to gather conventicles unto them,
to keep schools in men's houses, to make books, compile treaties,
and write ballads, to teach privately in angles and corners, as in woods,
fields, meadows, pastures, groves, and in caves of the ground.
This would be, said they, a destruction to the commonwealth, a subversion to the
land, and an utter decay of the king's estate royal, if remedy were not sought in
time.
And this was their policy, to couple the king's authority with what they had done
in their former council of craft, and so to make it thereby the stronger.
For they perceived themselves very far too weak else to follow against their enemies
what they had so largely enterprised.
Upon this complaint, the king immediately called a parliament at Leicester.
It might not, in those days, be Holden at Westminster, for the great favour that the
Lord Coburn had, both in London and about the city.
Thus were Christ's people betrayed every way, and their lives bought and sold.
For in the said parliament the king made this most blasphemous and cruel act to be
a law for ever, that whatsoever they were that should read the Scriptures in the
mother tongue, which was then called Wycliffe's learning, they should forfeit
land, cattle, body, life, and goods from their heirs for ever, and so be condemned
for heretics to God, enemies to the crown, and most errant traitors to the land.
Besides this, it was enacted, that never a sanctuary nor privileged ground within the
realm should hold them, though they were still permitted both to thieves and
murderers.
And if, in any case, they would not give over, or were, after their pardon
relapsed, they should suffer death in two manner of kinds.
That is, they should first be hanged for treason against the king, and then be
burned for heresy against God.
This book is continued on disc 3.
Fox's Book of Martyrs by John Fox.
Disc 3.
Then had the bishops, priests, monks, and friars a world somewhat to
their minds.
Many were taken in divers' quarters and suffered most cruel death, and many fled
out of the land into Germany, Bohemia, France, Spain, Portugal, and into the
welds of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, working there many marbles.
Sentence of death being given, the Lord Cobham was sent away,
Sir Robert Morley carrying him again unto the tower, where, after he had remained a
certain space in the night season, it is not known by what means,
he escaped out and fled into Wales.
A great sum of money was proclaimed by the king to him that could take the said Sir
John Oldcastle either quick or dead, who confederated with the Lord Powys,
who was at the time a great governor in Wales, feeding him with lordly gifts and
promises.
About the end of four years, the Lord Powys, whether for greediness of the
money, or for hatred of the true and sincere doctrine of Christ, seeking all
manner of ways how to play the part of Judas, and outwardly pretending him great
amity and favour, at length obtained his bloody purpose, and most cowardly and
wretchedly took him, and brought the Lord Cobham bound up to London, which was about
the year of our Lord 1417, and about the month of December, at which there was a
parliament assembled in London.
It was adjudged that he should be taken as a traitor to the king and the realm,
and that he should be carried to the tower, and from thence drawn through
London, unto the new gallows in St. Giles, without temple-bar, and there to be hanged
and burned hanging.
Upon the day appointed, the Lord Cobham was brought out of the tower with his arms
bound behind him, having a very cheerful countenance.
Then he was laid upon a hurdle, as though he had been a most heinous
traitor to the crown, and so drawn forth into St. Giles' field.
As he was come to the place of execution, and was taken from the hurdle,
he fell down devoutly upon his knees, desiring Almighty God to forgive his
enemies.
Then stood he up, and beheld the multitude, exhorting them in most godly
manner to follow the laws of God written in the Scriptures, and to be aware of such
teachers as they see contrary to Christ in their conversation and living.
Then was he hanged up by the middle in chains of iron, and so consumed alive in
the fire, praising the name of God so long as his life lasted, the people there
present showing great dollar.
And this was done A.
D.
1418.
How the priests that time fared, blasphemed, and accursed, requiring the
people not to pray for him, but to judge him damned in hell, for that he departed
not in the obedience of their pope, if it were too long to write.
Thus resteth this valiant Christian knight, Sir John Oldcastle, under the
altar of God, which is Jesus Christ, among that godly company, who,
in the kingdom of patience, suffered great tribulation with the death of their bodies
for his faithful word and testimony.