But notwithstandyng, when as they yet could not be taken, neither would appeare, the Archbyshop sittyng in hys tribunall seate, procedeth to the sentence of excommunicatiō agaynst them. What afterward happened to them, in the register doth not appeare: but lyke it is, at length they were forced to submit themselues.

MarginaliaThe second apprehension of the Lord Cobham.Concernyng sir Iohn Oldcastle the Lord Cobham, and of his first apprehension, with his whole story and life, sufficiently hath bene expressed before, pag. 536. how he beyng committed to the Tower, and condemned falsely of heresie, escaped afterward out of the Tower, and was in Wales about the space of. iiij. yeares. In the which meane tyme, a great summe of money was proclaymed by the kyng, to him that could take the sayd sir Iohn Oldcastle, either quicke or dead. About the end of which foure yeares beyng expired, MarginaliaThe L Powes playeth Iudas.the Lord Powes, whether for loue and gredynes of the money, or whether for hatred of true and sincere doctrine of Christ, seekyng all maner of way how to play the part of Iudas, at length obtayned his bloudy purpose, and brought the Lord Cobham bound, vp to London: which was about the yeare of our Lord. 1417. and about the moneth of December. At which time there was a Parliament assembled at London, for the relief of money the sametyme to be sent to the kyng, whom the Byshops had sent out (as ye heard before) to fight in Fraunce. The recordes of whiche Parliament do thus say: that on Twesday the. xiiij. day of December, and the. xxix. day of the sayd Parliament, Syr Iohn Oldcastle of Cowlyng, in the Countie of Kent, knight, being outlawed (as is afore mynded) in the Kyngs bench, and excōmunicated before by the Archbishop of Canterbury for heresie, was brought before the Lordes, and hauing heard his sayd conuictions, aunswered not thereto in his excuse. Vpon which recorde and processe, it was adiudged, that he should be takē as a traytour to the king and the realme: that he should be caryed to the tower of Lōdon, and from thence drawen through London vnto the new gallowes in S. Gyles without Temple barre, and there to be hanged, and burned hangyng.

Commentary on the Woodcuts     Close

As the most distinguished of all Lollard supporters, it is interesting to reflect on the different ways in which Oldcastle was pictorially celebrated by his posthumous admirers. He was one of those granted a larger woodcut in the 'Book of Martyrs' from 1563 on (one of the five for the period from Wyclif to Luther), but not in the guise in which he had appeared in some earlier publications. The visual 'description' presented to Foxe's readers showed him, unsparingly, suffering the final penalties of the law that condemned him, as guilty of both heresy and treason, to be hanged and burnt hanging at the place of his offence. He is suspended in chains from the new gallows in St Giles's Fields (scene of that earlier insurrectionary assembly), inside the wooden structure of which the exterminating fire, curiously and unconvincingly, is somehow contained and framed. Hemmed in by the pikemen this seems to be an awed and silent all-male throng (including a few religious). Oldcastle's death took place where his followers had gathered and died a few years before. If this was an indisputable martyrological image, it replaced a very different knightly martial image that had adorned both John Bale's Brefe Chronycle in 1544 and Foxe's own Rerum in Ecclesia Gestarum in 1559. Here the warrior of Christ advances into the fray with drawn sword, antique armour and a shield bearing the image of the crucifixion. By 1563 a 'description' of this kind was unthinkable. CUL copy: As with the Hus and Hierome cuts, the detailing is excessive, indeed, crude in places. The foliage in the distance is very bright green and smudged on the far right-hand side. WREN: there is little shading added to the outfits; indeed, the whole picture is coloured in rather a pale wash. There is, however, some bright green foliage in the distance.

MarginaliaTreason falsely surmised.As touchyng the pretenced treason of this Lord Cobham falsely ascribed vnto him in his inditement, rising vpō wrong suggestion and false surmise, and aggrauated by rigour of wordes, rather then vpon any grounde of due probation, sufficiētly hath bene discoursed before in my defence of the sayd Lord Cobhā, agaynst Alanus Copus, pag. 547. MarginaliaVide supra. pag. 547.where agayne is to be noted, as I said before, how by this appeareth, that þ^e Lord Cobhā was neuer executed by force of the inditement or outlawry, because, if he had, he should then haue bene brought to the barre in the kynges bench, and there the Iudges should haue demaūded of him, what he could haue sayd, why he should not haue dyed: and then not shewing sufficient cause for the discharge or delay of execution, the Iudges should haue awarded and geuen the iudgement of treason: whiche beyng not so, it is cleare he was not executed vpon the inditement. Besides, to proue that he was not executed vpon the Inditement, and the outlawry, the maner of the execution proueth it, because it was neither the execution of a traytour, nor was the whole punishment therof pronounced by the iudge, as by due order of law was requisiite.

Finally, as I sayd before, here I repeate agayne, that albeit the sayd lord Cobham was attaynted of treason by the Act, and that the Kyng, the Lordes, and the commons assented to the Act: yet al that bindeth not in such sort (as if in deede he were no traytour) that any man may not by search of the truth, vtter and set forth sincerely and iustly, the very true and certaine cause, whereupon his execution did follow. Which seemeth by all circumstances and firme argumentes, to rise principally of his Religion, which first brought him in hatred of the Byshops: the byshops brought him in hatred of the Kyng: the hatred of the kyng brought him to his death and Martyrdome. And thus much for the death and execution of this worthy seruant of Christ, Lord Cobham.

Moreouer, in the recordes aboue mentioned it followeth, how in the sayd Parliament, after the Martyrdome of this valiant knight, motion then was made, that the Lord