against them in the dark, and it has never been asserted by any one that those troops met with the least resistance.

No time was lost in bringing the prisoners to trial. A special commission was issued for that purpose, directed to judges, the lord mayor, and others; it bears date the very day laid in the indictment as that on which the alleged riot took place, namely, the 10th of January; and on the 11th, as we learn from the royal proclamation against Cobham, the convictions had taken place. The only persons whose names have reached us are Sir Roger Acton, a man of parts and fortune; Mr. Browne, a gentleman of family; and Beverley, the preacher. All were sentenced for both treason and heresy. In what way they were tried for the latter no where appears, nor have we any account of the trial under the commission; but on all was inflicted capital punishment, and some were burnt as well as hanged. The numbers who suffered are stated with some variation by different writers, but no one makes them amount to more than thirty-nine, or less than twenty-seven. The 24th or January was the day on which this sanguinary execution in these very suspicious circumstances took place. The pretence set up in the indictment of twenty thousand men being assembled is plainly a fiction; not above seventy were taken, though no resistance was offered; and such a large body would not have taken flight merely because their expected succours from the city never arrived; nor would

there have been the entire want of proof against the people under which the whole case so signally labours.

The obscurity which hangs over all the circumstances of this popular movement extends not more to its suppression and its consequences, than to its object and design. The only contemporary author who touches with any particularity upon the subject, states little or nothing with certainty; and even though strongly disposed to take part against the Lollards, he only gives the matters which he relates as current rumours. A plot deeply laid to kill the King and all his brothers, the great lords, prelates, and abbots, is the grave offence of which he says they were accused.' Later writers have asserted that the offence of Sir R. Acton and Browne was the having aided Cobham in making his escape from the Tower; while the concourse in St. Giles's Fields was only to hear Beverley, the open resort to a conventicle being at that time prevented by the active measures of the Primate. But whether there was any riotous meeting or not, it seems to result fairly from an attentive examination of whatever has reached us upon the subject, and especially of the proceedings connected with it, as they appear on record, that few questions of historical controversy are more free from reasonable doubt than this, and that every view leads to the disbelief of any treasonable conspiracy

2

T. Wals., 431. T. Liv., 7. T. Elm., 31.

2 Hall, 49. Hol., iii. 63.

and any rebellious assemblage; while the bitter hatred of the ecclesiastics towards the new sect eagerly caught at any semblance of a turbulent movement for inducing the court to make common cause with themselves against the Reformers, and treat heretics as rebels.'

Although it will be anticipating events which happened somewhat later, there is a manifest convenience in here bringing Lord Cobham's story to a close. He appears to have thrown out some threats against Lord Abergavenny, who had been engaged in persecuting the Lollards; but he, having intimation of their intention to molest him, collected a considerable force near Tewkesbury, and secured some of them. These he put to the torture, in order to discover the place in which their leader was supposed to have a collection of arms and money; and, by means of their cruel sufferings, extorted from them the confession that in the walls of a certain house there was a place of concealment. It is not stated distinctly that any money or arms were found, but only that there was discovered a banner with a cross and the sacramental elements painted upon it. No trace was found of Cobham.

The persecutions of the sect continued under Chichele, who succeeded Arundel in the primacy; and one William Clayden, for giving holy orders to his own son, and making him celebrate mass on his wife's recovery from childbed, was cited, interrogated, and

Note XXVIII.

publicly burnt in London as a heretic. Indeed, the unsparing exercise of persecution, in its most cruel shape, forms the melancholy and disgraceful characteristic of Henry's reign. During the first four years the severities thus witnessed only led to the Reformers worshipping in secret, and their vexation when detected. But, as tyranny is ever suspicious, especially when it assumes the habit, so natural to it, of cruelty and injustice, these objects of oppression were objects of suspicion also, and it was easily believed that men would exact vengeance if they could, who had so good ground of resentment. Hence it was usual to impute whatever discontent broke out in any quarter, especially if followed by a disturbance of the peace, to the Lollards and their chief. Thus the Scots attacked Roxburgh, and were instantly repelled; but it was immediately said that Cobham had made them undertake this inroad during Henry's absence in France, bringing with them the person who was supposed to be Richard living in Scotland, and that Cobham had held a conference on the subject with William Douglas, at Pontefract. This story rests upon a most improbable rumour current at the time; for nothing can be less likely than his exposing himself to the risk of capture by coming across the island, and to one of the most important strong places of the crown. At the same time he was reported to be concealed in a peasant's house near St. Albans. The abbot had it searched, but Cobham was not found. The rumour adds, that

G

some of his followers, acquainted with his schemes, were secured, and that he was sorely grieved, lamenting the discovery and defeat of his great project: a story manifestly impossible to be true, as he had escaped, if he ever was there. Besides, no proceedings were ever taken against his supposed followers; nor were they, like the Welchmen, compelled by torture to confess. The foundation, however, of the whole fable is plain enough. The abbot found in the poor Lollard's house some missals, or mass books, with the images defaced, and the Virgin's name erased. These he sent to the King, who handed them over to the Primate, in order that he might influence the minds of the people against the Reformers, by exhibiting in his sermons such proofs of their hostility, not merely to the images, but even to the names of saints.'

A real event, however, and one that led to disastrous consequences, was approaching. Early in the winter of 1417, the Lord Powis, getting scent of Cobham's retreat, set upon him with some men, and they succeeded in taking him, after a resistance in which he was wounded somewhat severely. The parliament was then sitting, and desired not to be dissolved until he should be brought before them. This was done; and the wounded man, being conveyed to London in a litter, along with his chaplain, was placed at the bar by Powis. The record of his outlawry for the St. Giles's affair, and the sentence for heresy in the spiritual court, were then read,

1 Note XXIX.-Hol., iii. 92.