Note 49 — COBHAM HALL, KENT.

One of the husbands of this lady was Sir John Oldcastle, who, in the reign of Henry V., attached himself to the Lollards. He was cited to appear before the Archbishop of Canterbury, and sentenced to death as “a heretic; who together with others, to the number of twenty men, called Lollards, had conspired to subvert the clergy and kill the king.” Having been outlawed upon treason and excommunicated, he was removed from the Tower to the “New Gallows” in St. Giles’, where he underwent his sentence—“to be hanged, and burned hanging.” At the place of execution, it is said, he desired Sir Thomas Erpingham, “in case he saw him risen the third day after, that he would then be a means to procure favour to the rest of his sect.” His “Tryal” before the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1 Henry Fifth, A.D. 1413, “on the Saturday after the feast of St. Matthew,” in the Chapter House of St. Paul, is reported in the State Trials. It is curious to note the language in which the prelate is stated to have addressed the doomed recusant:—“We repeated in soft and moderate terms, and in a manner very courteous and obliging, all our proceedings against him.” “We replied with much patience, and in a courteous and affectionate manner.” “We besought him, with tears in our eyes, and exhorted him in the most compassionate manner.” Such, and similar phrases, record the “gentleness” with which he was doomed to a cruel death. The archbishop could “make nothing” of the brave Lollard. He openly avowed that the only honour he vouchsafed to the Image of the Cross was, to “keep it clean, and in his closet;” declared his belief that he was “the true successor of St. Peter, who followed him in the purity of his life and conversation;” and protested that he “desired absolution only from God.” For the said “detestable crime of heresy” he was ordered to die; “by the advice and consent of men famous for discretion and wisdom;” and was “dispatched with all convenient expedition.”