§ 43. THE LOLLARDS. 353
and was tried in 1391 and convicted. Whether he was burnt or died in prison, Foxe says, he could not ascertain.
The number suffering death by the law of 1401 was not large in the aggregate. The victims were distributed through the 125 years down to the middle of Henry VIII. 's reign. There were among them no clergymen of high renown like Ridley and Latimer. The Lollards were an humble folk, but by their persistence showed the deep impression Wyclif's teachings had made. The first martvr3 the poor chaplain of St. Osythe, WjlHam_SAwtiie,-^ied^.M before the statute for
burning heretics was passed. He abjured and then returned again to his heretical views. After trying him, the spiritual court ordered the mayor or sheriff of London to " commit him to the fire that he be actually burnt." ^ The charges were that he denied the material presence, condemned the adoration of the cross and taught that preaching was the priesthood's most important duty.
Among other cases of burnings were John Badby, a tailor of Evesham, 1410, who met his awful fate chained inside of a cask ; two London merchants, Richard Turming and John Claydon at Smithfield, 1415 ; William Taylor, a priest, in 1423 atSmithfield ; William White at Norwich, 1428 ; Richard Hoveden, a London citizen, 1430 ; Thomas Bagley, a priest, in the following year ; and in 1440, Richard Wyche, who had corresponded with Huss. Peter Payne, the principal of St. Edmund's College, Oxford, took refuge in flight, 1417, and became a leader among the Hussites, taking a prominent part as their representative at the Council of Basel. According to Foxe there were, 1424-1430, 100 prosecutions for heresy in Norwich alone. The menace was considered so great that, in 1427, Richard Flemmyng, bishop of Lincoln, founded Lincoln College, Oxford, to counteract heresy. It was of this college that John Wesley was a fellow, the man who made a great breach in the Church in England.
1 Gee and Hardy give the sentence and the Fasc. the proceedings of the trial. It is a matter of dispute under what law Sawtrd was condemned to the flames. Prof. Maitland, in his Canon Law, holds that it was under the old canon practice as expressed in papal bulls. The statute De comhurendo was before parliament at the time of Sawtr^'s death. 2a
354 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
The case of William Thorpe, who was tried in 1397 and again before Arundel, 1407, is of interest not only in itself, but for the statements that were made in the second trial about Wyclif. The archbishop, after accusing Thorpe of having travelled about in Northern England for 20 years, spreading the infection of heresy, declared that he was called of God to destroy the false sect to which the prisoner belonged, and pledged himself to " punish it so narrowly as not to leave a slip of you in this land." ^ Thorpe's assertion that Wyclif was the greatest clerk of his time evoked from Arundel the acknowledgment that he was indeed a great clerk and, by the consent of many, " a perfect liver," but that many of the conclusions of his learning were damned, as they ought to be.
Up to the close of the 14th century, a number of la^^men in high position at court had favored Wycliffism, including Sir Lewis Clifford, Sir Richard Stury and Sir John Clanvowe, all of the king's council. Sir John Cheyne, speaker of the lower house, the Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Erpingham and also the earl of Salisbury. ^ This support was for the most part withdrawn when persecution took an active form. With Sir John Oldcastle, otherwise known as Lord Cobliam from his marriage with the heiress of the Cobham estate, it was different. He held firm to the end, encouraged the new preachers on his estates in Kent, and condemned the mass, auricular confession and the worship of images. Arundel's court, before which he appeared after repeated citations, turned him over to the secular arm "to do him to death." Oldcastle was imprisoned in the Tower, but made his escape and was at large for four years. In 1414, he was charged with being a party to an uprising of 20,000 Lollards against the king. Declared an outlaw, he fled to Wales, where he was seized three years later and taken to London to be hanged and burnt as a traitor and heretic, Dec. 15, 1417.^ John Foxe saw in him " the blessed martyr of Christ, the good Lord Cobham."
1 The proceedings are given at great lengtli by Foxe and by Bale, who copied Tyndale's account. Sel. l^o?•^•s of Bp. Bale, pp. G2-133.
2 Walsingham, II. 244 ; Knighton, II. 181 ; Chron. Angl., p. 377.
' WaLsinghatn, II. .328, says he was hung as a traitor and burnt as a heretic. Usk, p. 317, reports he " was hung on the gallows in a chain of iron after