SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, LORD COBHAM.
IN travelling by railway from the picturesquely situated little town of Kington, in Herefordshire, to Eardisley, on the Hereford, Brecon and Merthyr Railroad, one passes the little station of Almeley. As the train is slowing up to the station, one sees on his left hand—that is, on the east side—several rough- looking grass-grown heaps, with trees growing here and there. This is the site of an ancient fortress occupying the place of a Roman encampment, and known as Oldcastle, where the family of the Old-castles resided, and where, according to the best accredited accounts, Sir John Oldcastle was born about 1360.
Of his early years we know nothing, save that, as a young man, he went to excesses in pleasure and sin, being a boon companion of the Prince of Wales, who succeeded his father as Henry V.
At what time he became the subject of converting grace is not easy to discover; we know, however that he became a friend and disciple of Wycliffe, and a zealous promoter of the doctrines his master taught, and a devoted and courageous leader of the Lollards after Wycliffe’s death. It was by Wycliffe’s writings that he was led to Christ; and as he had been well-known and honored for his courage and valiant deeds as a soldier, so now he became conspicuous for his zeal for the gospel and the salvation of souls, and his courage and daring in the propagation of the true faith. Having married Lady Cobham, of Cowling Castle, near Rochester, he took his seat in Parliament as Lord Cobham. In the house he made no secret of his attachment to the true faith; he even went the length of saying, "That it would be very commodious for England if the pope's jurisdiction stopped at the town of Calais, and did not cross the sea." A daring thing to be said in such a place, at such a time.
In Herefordshire, in Kent, and elsewhere, he laid out himself to promote the gospel. In Herefordshire there were many of Wycliffe’s followers—Lollards they were called-and they were sometimes fain to secrete themselves in the forest of Burghill, and other safe places, to escape their pursuers. Cowling Castle was thrown open to the itinerant preachers, who made it the center of their operations in that county. In fact, Cobham both encouraged and protected the "Gospelers," as they were sometimes called," Evangelists," as we should now name them. He would even stand by their side in complete armor and sword in hand, ready to do and dare in the good cause. The excellencies of his character won for him the title of “The good Lord Cobham," and by this term he is frequently mentioned in history.
The bishops, especially Arundel of Canterbury and his brother of London, were greatly incensed that Lollardism had such a free course and prevailed almost universally. They would gladly have imprisoned or burnt all the preachers, but they had many to sympathize with them and help them, and it would have been a clever cast of the net that would take them all. They resolved, therefore, to secure and silence, if not destroy, their courageous leader; but they must go to work warily.
The king, who had been very much of a rake in his earlier days, when he put on the crown, put on also a garb of piety. He became zealous for the church, and was no friend to the Lollards. He retained, however, some remnants of his old friendship for Cobham. The bishops sought to make use of this for their own purposes. They appealed to the king against Cobham. The king said he would try his powers of persuasion on the old knight. Accordingly he sent for Cobham, and exhorted him to abandon his new opinions, and submit himself to his mother, the church.
Cobham's reply was worthy of him— "You, most worthy prince, I am always prompt and willing to obey, forasmuch as I know you are a Christian king, and minister of God; unto you, next to God, I owe my whole obedience, and submit me thereunto. But as touching the pope and his spirituality, truly I owe them neither suit nor service, forasmuch as I know him by the Scriptures to be the great antichrist, the open adversary of God, and the abomination standing in the holy place."
This bold speech displeased the king; he would interpose no further in behalf of his former friend; and the bishops had their way. Arundel summoned Cobham to appear before him on 2nd September, and answer to the articles accusing him of heresy. Acting on his declaration that he owed neither suit nor service to the pope and his vassals, he paid no attention to the summons of the haughty prelate. Arundel then prepared citations, and had them posted on the gates of Cowling Castle, and on the doors of Rochester Cathedral. Cobham's friends and retainers as speedily tore them down. Arundel had still another weapon; he forthwith excommunicated the gallant and courageous nobleman. Those who know the terrible clauses which the greater excommunication contains may well hold their breath at the impious daring of the proud satellite of Rome.
Nothing dismayed, Cobham sat down and drew up a confession of his faith, after the manner of what is called the Apostles' Creed, but couched mainly in the words of Holy Scripture. This he carried to the king, craving to have it examined. Henry would not even look at it, but referred him to the archbishop as his judge. He was soon made a prisoner in the Tower of London. Thence, on 23rd September, 1413, he was brought before the archbishop, and the bishops of London and Winchester.
The archbishop offered him absolution, if he would submit and confess himself. He replied by reading a written statement of his faith, a copy of which he handed to Arundel. The court then adjourned until the following Monday, when it met in the house of the Dominican Friars on Ludgate Hill, with a numerous array of bishops, doctors, and friars. Again he was offered absolution if he would submit and confess.
“Nay, forsooth, will I not," said Cobham, "for I never yet trespassed against you, and therefore I will not do it."
Then followed a scene worthy of the painter's pencil; nay, worthy of the recording angel. Falling on his knees on the pavement, and stretching out his hands towards heaven, he said, "I shrive [confess] me here unto Thee, my eternal, living God, that in my frail youth I offended thee, O Lord, most grievously, in pride, wrath, and gluttony, in covetousness, and in lechery. Many men have I hurt in mine anger, and done many horrible sins; good Lord, I ask Thy mercy." Then rising up, the tears streaming down his face, he turned to the people and cried, " So, good people, for the breaking of God's law these men never cursed me; but now, for their own laws and traditions, they most cruelly handle me and other men."
When the court had recovered from the effects of this scene, it proceeded to examine the noble witness for the faith of Christ, on the four articles which were the ground of his accusation. The first of these was concerning the real presence of Christ in the sacrament. Cobham held to the Scripture, and his adversaries appealed to the decisions of “the church."
“What do you think of holy church?” asked Arundel.
Cobham replied, “Holy church is the number of them that shall be saved, of which Christ is the Head."
“What do you say of the pope?” asked one of the doctors.
“He and you together," said Cobham, “maketh the whole great antichrist. The pope is the head; your bishops, priests, and prelates, and monks, are the body; and the begging friars are the tail, for they hide the wickedness of you both with their sophistry."
The Bishop of London said, " Sir, ye wot [know] well that Christ died on a material cross."
"Yes," was Cobham's reply, "and I wot also that our salvation came not by that material cross, but by Him alone that died thereon; and well I wot that holy St. Paul rejoiced in no other cross than Christ's passion and death."
After other questioning and similar spirited and faithful replies, Cobham was condemned to be burned as a heretic, and was had back to the Tower. Fifty days' interlude was granted before the date of execution. Meanwhile his enemies bestirred themselves. The unrighteous law of the church and the state had their victims in their grasp, what more could they desire? What? to bring him to abjure his so-called errors? But since he would not and could not, they would do it for him; and by a forgery, equally clumsy and detestable, they declared that he had renounced his heresies, and had professed the most unbounded homage to John XXIII., one of the three rival popes, and a man whose character was simply execrable. But they overshot their mark, as their cunning master often does. Few believed the slander and lies of the priests.
Meanwhile, by the aid of friends or the connivance of the governor, Lord Cobham escaped from the Tower, and fled to Wales. Nothing intimidated by the loss of their leader, the Lollards—as the preachers and professors of the gospel were called-put forth strenuous efforts to diffuse their faith. To arrest their progress and put a stop to the “contagion “of their teaching, a charge, worthy of its authors, was brought against them. There was to be a great field-preaching gathering of London citizens outside the gates. This was magnified into a plot, with Cobham as its head, to dethrone the king, murder the royal family, overthrow the government, pull down Westminster Abbey and all the cathedrals, and confiscate all the possessions of “the church."
The king in person led an army against them-against a throng of unarmed citizens, with their wives and daughters. There was no resistance, but many were cut down on the field, and many were taken prisoners, of whom Sir Roger Acton and twenty-eight others were put to death as traitors. Meantime, a thousand marks were offered for Lord Cobham, dead or alive; but so highly was he esteemed, that no one laid hands on him until, after four years' wandering, the cupidity of Lord Powis, of Powis Castle, Welshpool, Montgomery, sought and obtained the price of the noble martyr's blood. At a place called Broniarth, in the parish of Guilsfield—near the spot where the reservoir of the Liverpool Waterworks has recently been made—he was taken, after a resistance in which one of his legs was broken. He was carried to the Tower, taken before the lords, charged with and condemned for treason and heresy.
Long before this, however, the archbishop who condemned him in the first case had gone to his account to answer for the blood of God's saints. Cobham had prayed that his enemies might be forgiven, but how far this was answered we know not.
At length the day came for his execution. He was brought out with his hands pinioned behind him, but with a holy joy lighting up his countenance. With all possible marks of ignominy the sentence was carried out. He was placed on a hurdle, and drawn through the streets to a place in St. Giles' Fields, outside Temple Bar. Arriving at the place of execution, he fell on his knees and again prayed for his persecutors; then, standing up and turning to the people, he exhorted them earnestly to follow the teaching of God's holy word, and to beware of those teachers whose lives showed that they neither possessed the spirit of Christ nor loved His doctrine.
With an excess of cruelty, he was hung by chains around his waist and suspended over the fire, making the torture more horrible. He maintained his constancy and joy through all, praising the Lord so long as breath remained, in his latest moments commending his soul into the hands of his God and Savior.
"Thus," says Bale the chronicler, "rested this valiant knight, Sir John Oldcastle, under the Altar of God, which is Jesus Christ, among that goodly company which, in the kingdom of patience, suffered great tribulation, with the death of their bodies, for His faithful word and testimony; abiding there with them—the fulfilling of their whole number, and the full restoration of His elect." R. S.