to the diocesan or his commissarj', and the eher'ff, may- or, and bailiff" were, after sentence promulgated, to re- ceive them, and in a high yilace, before the people, to cause them to be burnt. The law did not remain a dead letter. It was not long before a victim was found. The ecclesiastics were only too zealous for an example that might strike terror among the people, and espe- cially the Londoners, who were " not right believers in God, nor in the traditions of their forefathers; sustain- ers of the Lollards, depravers of religious men, with- holders of tythes," etc. The victim selected was " one William Sautre, a good man and a faithful priest, in- flamed with zeal for true religion," who in the Parlia- ment of 1401 required that he might be heard for the commodity of the whole realm. The suspicions of the bishops were excited, and he was summoned before the ecclesiastical court. His views were in substance those of the Lollards. He was at first induced to recant, but after his previous trial before the bishop of Norwich was known, as well as his submission and subsequent re- lapse, there was no disposition to show him mercy. By the king's order, " in some public and open place within the liberties of the city" of London, he was " committed to the fire." So bold a measure, not frequent in Eng- lish history, naturally terrified the Lollards. They kept themselves secret from the eyes of the bishops. To the king they could no longer look with confidence or the hope of relief. The son of AYickliffe's patron had be- come the tool of the bishops. His usurped power was sustained by their alliance. As the hopes of relief from the burdens of taxation which had been inspired by the promises made at his accession began to die out, his pop- ularity waned. Complaints were heard from various quarters. The old partisans of Eichard II began to murmur, and, to retain his throne in security, Henry IV was compelled to throw himself more and more into the arms of the Church, and concede everything which the prelates might demand. The " cruel constitution" of archbishop Arundel was the fitting ecclesiastical coun- terpart of the civil statute that legalized the burning of the Lollards. It forbade any one to preach, " whether within the Church or without, in English," except by episcopal sanction. Schoolmasters and teachers were to intermingle with their instructions nothing contrary to the determination of the Church. No book or trea- tise of Wickliffe was to be read in schools, halls, hospi- tals, or other places whatsoever. No man hereafter, by his own authority, shoidd translate any text of the Scripture into English or an}' other tongue, by way of a book, tract, or treatise. No one should presume to dis- pute upon articles determined bj' the Church contained in the decrees, decretals, etc. Every warden, provost, or master of every college, or principal of every hall within the Universit}' of Oxford, was, at least once ev- ery month, to inquire diligently in the, college with which he was connected whether any scholar or inhab- itant thereof had proposed or defended anything con- trarj' to the determinations of the Church, and the fail- ure of duty in this respect was to be visited by depriva- tion, expulsion, and the greater excommunication.
But all the precautions of the bishops and the se- verity of persecuting laws were ineff'ectual to suppress the hated opinions. Fox narrates the examination of William Thorpe (1407) and the burning of John Badby (1409). The latter event seems to have created sym- pathy for the Lollards on the part of the Commons. In the eleventh year of Henry IV (1410) they prayed that persons arrested under the obnoxious statute might be bailed and make their purgation, and that they might be arrested by none but sheriffs and lay officers. This petition, however, did not secure the ro_yal approval. The influence and support of the Church wouhl doubt- less have been lost to the king if he had j-ielded to the wishes of the Commons. Other measures which they proposed, designed to set limits to ecclesiastical usurpa- tion, while they gave unequivocal evidence of the un- changed spirit of the nation, met with Uttle more succesa
LOLLARDS
496
LOLLARDS
In 1413 Henry IV was succeeded by his son, Henry Y. The change, however, did not open any brighter prospect to the persecuted Lollards. The beginning of tliis reign was signalized by a new triumph of the Church. The king surrendered his friend, Sir John Old- castle, lord Cobham, to the machinations of his perse- cutors. He was arrested, imprisoned, arraigned before the archbishop and his assessors, pronounced a heretic, and excommunicated. His offence was regarded as of the most aggravated character. He was not only him- self hcretically inclined, but he had employed his wealth and influence to support Lollard preachers, and tran- scribe and disperse heretical books. So powerful and bold was the organized conspiracy of the priesthood against him that the king did not venture to interfere in his behalf. He was abandoned to his fate, but by some means escaped from prison, and only some years later was arrested, and subjected to the tardy but sure vengeance of his persecutors. It was not only by his surrender of lord Cobham that the new monarch signal- ized his subservience to the interests of the hierarchy. In his first Parliament a law was enacted against the Lollards, who were considered as the principal disturb- ers of the peace not only of the Church, but of the whole kingdom, uniting, as the preamble of the act states, in confederacies to destroy the king and aU other estates of the realm. Hence aU magistrates, from the chancel- lor to the sheriffs of cities and towns, were required, on entering office, to take an oath that they would use their whole power and diligence to destroy all heresies and errors, commonly called loUardies, and assist the ordinaries and their commissaries as often as required by them. It was moreover enacted " that whatsoever they were that should read the Scriptures in the mother tongue (which was then called Wickliffe's learning) should forfeit land, cattle, body, life, and goods from their heirs forever, and so be condemned for heretics to God, enemies to the crown, and most arrant traitors to the land." No sanctuary or privileged ground within the realm, though permitted to thieves and murderers, should shelter them. In case of relapse after pardon they should be hanged as traitors against the king, and then burned as heretics against God.