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tion; and then, both as a traitor and a heretic, he was suspended alive in chains, upon a gallows, and burned to death," "with the praises of God in his mouth, and the spirit of his Savior in his heart,"* A. D. 1417.

It is, perhaps, needless to add, that the charge of treason against lord Cobham and his associates, has but little evidence to support it. Hume, to be sure, gives full credit to it:t this, perhaps, was to be expected from a historian who is ever willing to believe any bad thing of a man of piety. Russell (Modern Europe, Let. 45) agrees with Hume: but his account of the matter-notwithstanding his reference to original authorities-seems little else than an abridgement of Hume's. The learned and indefatigable martyrologist, Fox, utterly repudiates this charge of treason against Cobham. So does Rapin, and Turner, and Milner, and Le Bas. Turner says: "It is all a series of surmise and rumor, of alarm and anticipation. That any plot was formed there is no evidence, and the probability is, that artful measures were taken to alarm the mind of the king into anger and cruelty, by charges of treason and rebellion and meditated assassination." Milner thinks it probable that Henry himself finally discredited these charges against Oldcastle and the Lollards. The general deportment of these people gave the lie to all such accusations. They are described, says Milner," as having been always peaceable and submissive to authority."

But, the accusations of the clergy had their designed effect: they destroyed the life of the hated nobleman, and kindled anew the flames of St. Giles' against the unfortunate followers of the "Gospel Doctor."

* Milner and Le Bas.

+ Henry V. Chap. 19. Quoted by Le Bas, p. 367. See also Milner's Life of Lord Cobham.

Still" mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." About the year 1422, the archbishop of Canterbury wrote to pope Martin, "that the Wicklivists in England were grown to be so many, that they could not be suppressed without an army.'

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Had it been a few centuries earlier, we might have to record the bloody deeds of some Simon Montfort; and a repetition of the horrid tragedy of Beziers.† But it was too late for the holy vicar and his willing servants to carry on their murders on the same magnificent scale which the 12th and 13th centuries had allowed. They were compelled to slake their thirst for blood, by butchering men by scores instead of thousands. But they did" what they could.”

"Between the years 1428 and 1431," says the martyrologist," there were about the number of ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY men and women in Norfolk and Suffolk, brought and examined before the bishop of that diocese, for the profession of the christian faith, some of which escaped more easily, but most of them were cruelly handled, and some of them burnt."

The poor Lollards found some respite from clerical persecution during the tumultuous reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV. and V, and Richard III; a period of English history renowned for the bloody civil wars between the houses of York and Lancaster-both of which aspired to the throne, and by turns attained it. These conflicting claims, by which the whole nation was divided into two great par

* Clarke, Chap. 56.

Montfort was the Popish commander of the armies of crusaders against the Albigenses. Beziers was one of their cities which was taken by storm, in which 23,000 persons, without respect to age or sex, were indiscriminately slaughtered.-See Jones's Hist. of the Christian Church, Vol. II. Chap. 5. Lond. ed.

ties, for thirty years (from 1455 to 1485), filled the kingdom with deeds of violence and crime, and deluged it in blood. The success of Henry, earl of Richmond, heir of the house of Lancaster, and the defeat and death of Richard III, on the field of Bosworth, at length terminated the bloody struggle. The conqueror ascended the throne, under the title of Henry VII; and, espousing in marriage the lady Elizabeth, heiress of the house of York, united the claims of both parties under one crown; secured undisputed possession of the throne of England, and gave peace to his harassed subjects.

This prince seems to have emulated the persecuting deeds of his ancestors, Henry IV. and V. Like them he courted the favor of the pope and his clergy, by burning the worthy followers of Wickliffe. "To the Lollards," (so were God's people nicknamed) says Fuller, "he was more cruel than his predecessors." *

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An aged priest, so firmly rooted in the heresies of Wickliffe, that all the clerks and doctors of Canterbury were unable to remove, or even to shake him,"† seems to have been the first victim of this reign. The king himself, undertook to convert him, as his namesake had lord Cobham; and though the royal disputant is said to have si lenced and conquered his opponent, yet the aged man was burnt to death for his heresy.

Joanna Baughton, a widow of quality, of fourscore years of age, was another memorable victim of this reign of cruelty. "She was accused of heresy in holding many of Wickliffe's opinions. Persuasions and threats both failing to draw her from the truth, her gray hairs were given to the flames; and when she was in the flames, she cried unto * Quoted by Le Bas. + Fox, quoted by Le Bas.

God to receive her soul; and so quietly yielded up the ghost."

Another godly confessor, one William Tylsworth, was burned to death for his heresy, in a fire which his own daughter was compelled to kindle.

- Thomas Chase, after being imprisoned, and manacled, and almost starved, was "strangled and pressed to death in the prison," by order of bishop Woodbine.*

These examples must suffice as illustrations of the demoniacal cruelty with which the followers of scriptural and primitive truth were persecuted during the reign of Henry VII. and the early part of the reign of Henry VIII.+ "The extent of havoc, inflicted by this awful infatuation of the clergy and the sovereign, may be tolerably estimated, even from the somewhat sportive hyperbole of a correspondent of Erasmus; who declares, that the frequency of executions at Smithfield had advanced the price of firewood in the neighborhood of London."‡

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But the day of retribution was drawing on. The cry of the oppressed had entered the ears of the God of Sabaoth. "THE BEAST was about to receive a deadly wound; and from a source least anticipated. An account of this must be reserved for another chapter.

* Clarke.

+ Le Bas, p. 380.

The reader will find in Clarke's English Martyrology, numerous cases of equally cruel persecution during the first twenty years of Henry 8th's reign, with those mentioned under the reign of Henry VII.

16*

CHAPTER X.

ERA OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION-REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 1509--1547.

HENRY VII. died April 22d, 1509; and was immediately succeeded by his son Henry VIII. The joy of the people at the accession of this prince was equalled only by their satisfaction at the death of his tyrannical and miserly father.

Few monarchs have commenced their reign under auspices more favorable, or with promises more flattering. Few reigns have been more eventful to the English nation. Uniting in his own person the conflicting claims of York and Lancaster; carefully instructed in the literature of the day; distinguished for his dexterity in all the manly exer cises of the age; in the vigor of youth; with a beautiful countenance, and an attractive address; with a government firmly established by the vigorous arm of his father; with overflowing coffers; with a united and obedient people;— what more could a monarch, or a nation desire of outward advantages. Yet, all these had Henry VIII, on ascending the English throne.

Soon after the settlement of the government under its new head, Henry proceeded to solemnize a marriage, which had been previously arranged by his father, with Catharine, the widow of Arthur, the late prince of Wales, Henry's eldest brother. This event, of itself so unimportant, became the occasion of an ecclesiastical revolution in England as wonderful as it has been celebrated.

The first twenty years of Henry's reign furnish few materials for our history. Lollardism, though long persecuted, still survived in the country, as "Lollard's tower," the

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