Brief Chronicle Concerning Examination and Death of John Oldcastle, Part 8
☞The cruell complaynt of the clergye / and tyrannouse acte thervpon made
NEuer came this abiuracyon to the handes of the lorde Cobham / neyther was yt compyled of them for that purpose / but onlye therwith to bleare the eyes of the vnlerned multytude.The deuyll hath not more wayes to myschefe. And whan they perfeyued that polycye wolde not helpe / but made more & more agaynst them / than sought they out an otherfalse practyse.Ex statut… parliamenti regis Henrici .v. They went vntounto the kynge with a most greuouse complaynt / lyke as they ded afore in his fathers tyme / that in euerye quarter of ye realme by reason of Vvycleues opinyōs and the seyd lorde Cobham / were wonderfull contencyons / rumours / tumultes / vprours / confederacyons / dyssencyons / diuysyons / dyfferences / dyscordes / harmes / slaunders / scysmes / sec…es / sedycyons / perturbacyons / parels / vnlawfull assemblyes / varyaūces / stryfes / fyghtynges / rebellyouse ruffelynges / & daylye insurreccyons.The clamoure of papistes. The churche they sayd… was hated. The dyocesanes were not obeyed. The ordynaryes were not regarded. The spirituall offycers / as Suffraganes / Archedeacons / chauncellers / doctours / commyssaryes / offycyals / deanes / lawers / serybes / and sommeners were eueryevery where despysed. The lawes and lybertees of holye churche were troden vndre fote. The Christen fayth was ruyuouslye decayed.They crye a…ce for theyr bellyes. Gods seruyce was lawhed to scorne. The spirituall iurisdiccyon / auctoryte / honour / power / polycye / lawes / rytes / ceremonyes / curses / keyes / censures / and canonycall sanccyons of the churche / were had in an vttre contemt. So that all in a maner was come to nought.
And the cause of this was / Christ alwayes too bleth thē.that the heretyques and lol…ars of Vvycleues opynyon / were suffered to preache abrode so boldelye / to gather conuentycles vntounto them / to hepe scoles in mēnys houses / to make bokes / compyle treatyses / and wryte balettes / to teache pryuatlye in angles and corners / as in wodes / feldes / medowes / pastours / groues / and in caues of the grounde.An olde practyse of theyrs yet vsed. This wolde be (they sayd) a destruccyon to the commen welthe / a subuersyon to the lande / and an vttre decaye of the kynges estate ryall / yf remedye were not sought in tyme. And this was theyr polycye to cople the kynges auctoryte with that they had done in theyr former counsell of craft / and so to make yt therby the strongar. For they perseyued themselues verye farre to weake els / to folowe against theyr enemyes that they had so largelye enterprysed.A parlament at Leycestre. VponUpon this complaynt / the kydge immedyatlye called a Parlament at Leycestre. It myght not in those dayes be holden at Vvestmynstre for the great fauer that the lorde Cobham had both in London and abought the cyte. yet were they deceyued. That they doubted most lyghted there sonest vponupon them.
Robertus Fabianꝰ in chrom…is. Vvalden. in fasciculo. Fabianꝰ ī chronicisA byll was put in there agayne by ye commons agaynst theyr cōtynuall wastynge of the temporaltees / lyke as yt had bene twyse afore by procurement of the seyd lorde Cobham both in ye dayes of kynge Rycharde the seconde / anno 1395. and also of kynge Henrye the .iiii. annadomini. 1410 whervpon was growne all this malyce afore specyfyed) but this was than workemanlye defeated by an other propre practyse of theyrs. They put the kynge in remembraunce to clayme his ryght in Fraunce / & graū ted him thervnto a dyme with other great subsydye of moneye.A practyse. … Thus were Christes people betrayed euerye waye / and theyr lyues bought and solde by these most cruell theues. For in the seyd Parlament the kynge made this most blasphemouse and cruell acte / to be as a lawe for euer.Vvalden. ad Martinum papā li. 2. ca. 46 & in sydone. Polydorꝰ. That what so euer they were that shulde reade the scripturs in the mother tonge which was than called Vvycleues lernyng) they shuld forfet lande / cattell / bodye / lyfe / and goodes from theyr heyres for euer / and so be condemned for heretyques to God / enemyes to the crowne / and most errande trayters to the lande.
Besydes this yt was enacted that neuer a sanyctwarye nor pryuyleged grounde within the realme shuld holde them / though they were styll permytted both to theues and mourtherers.Christ hath lesse fauer thā theues. And yf in case they wolde not geue ouer / or were after theyr pardon relapsed / they shuld suffre death in two maner of kyndes. That is. They shuld fyrst be hanged for treason agaynst the kynge / and than be burned for heresye agaynst God and yet neyther of both commytted.Neuer tyraūt more cruell. The begynnynge of that acte is this. Pro eo quod magni rumores &c. Anon after was yt proclamed through out the realme / and than had the Bysshoppes / Prestes / Monkes / and fryers a worlde somwhat to theyr myndes. For than were manye taken in dyuerse quarters / and suffred most cruell death.Vvalden. ad Marti num papā li. 2. ca. 50. De sacramentalibus ca. 53. And manye fledde out of the lande into Germanye / Boheme / Fraunce / Spayne / Portyngale / and into the welde of Scotlande / Vvalys / and Irelande / workynge there manye marueyls agaynst theyr false kyngedome to longe to wryte. In the Christmas folowynge was syr Roger Acton knyght / mastre Iohan Browne esquyre / syr Iohan Beuerlaye a letned preacher / & dyuerse other more attached for quarellynge with certen prestes / and so inpresoned.Vvalden. Fabianꝰ. Io. maior Polydorꝰ. For all menne at that tyme coude not pacyentlye suffre theyr blasphemouse bragges.
The complaynt was made vntounto the kynge of them / that they had made a great assemblye in saynet Gyles felde at London / A greatlye.purposynge the destruccyon of the lande and the subuersyon of the cōmon welthe. As the kynge was thus infourmed / Vvalden. ad Martinum / & in prologo de sacramē tis.he erected a banner (sayth Vvalden) with a crosse thervpon (as ye Pope doth commonlye by his Legates / whan he pretendeth to warre agaynst the Turke) and with a great nombre of menne entred the same felde / where as he founde no soche companye. yet was the complaynt iudged true / bycause the Bysshoppes had spoken yt at the infourmacyon of theyr Prestes.Vvhat Thomas Vvalden was. All this hath Thomas Vvalden in dyuerse of his workes / which was at the same tyme a Vvhyght or Carmelyte fryre and the kynges confessour / & partlye yt is towched both by Robert Fabyane and by Polydorus / Vergilius in theyr Englyshe chronycles / but not in all poyntes …yghtlye as is to be s…ane in the preface asore. In the meane season syr Iohan Oldecastell the lorde Cobham escaped out of the tower of London in the nyght and so fledde into Vvalys / where as he contynued more than .iiii. yeares after.Fabianꝰ. Polydorꝰ▪ inchronicis
Some wryters hauehave thought this escape to come by the seyd syr Roger Acton and other gentylmenne in dyspleasure of the Prestes / A cōiecture of wryters.and that to be the chefe occasyon of theyr deathes / which myght wele be / but Vvalden doth not so vttre yt / which regned the same selfe tyme.Iohan maior. lib. vi. cap. ix. historie Scotorum. In Ianuarye next folowynge was the afore named syr Roger Acton / mastre Iohan Browne / syr Iohan Beuerlaye / and .xxxvi. more (of whom ye more part were gentyll menne of byrthe) conuicted of heresye by the Byshoppes / and condemned of treason by the temporalte / and accordynge to the acte / were fyrst hanged and than brent in the seyd saynct Gyles felde. In the same yeare also was one Iohan Claydon a skynner and one Rycharde Turmyne a baker both hanged and brent in Smyth felde by that vertuouse acte / Robertus Fabianꝰ in chronicis.besydes that was done in all other quarters of Englande / which was no small nombre yf yt were now througlye knowen.