of his elect. The which He grant, in effect, who is one God eternal! Amen.
Treason falsely surmised.Thus have you heard the whole matter concerning the martyrdom of the good lord Cobham, as we have gathered it partly out of the collections of John Bale and others.* As touching the pretensed treason of this lord Cobham, falsely ascribed unto him in his indictment, rising upon wrong suggestion and false surmise, and aggravated by rigour of words, rather than upon any ground of due probation, sufficiently hath been discoursed before in my defence of the said lord Cobham, against Alanus Copus; where again, it is to be noted, as I said before, and by this it appeareth, that the lord Cobham was never executed by force of the indictment or outlawry, because if he had, he should then have been brought to the bar in the King's Bench, and there the judges should have demanded of him, what he could have said, why he should not have died; and then not showing sufficient cause for the discharge or delay of execution, the judges should have awarded and given the judgment of treason: which being not so, it is clear he was not executed upon the indictment. Besides, to prove that he was not executed upon the indictment and the outlawry, the manner of the execution proveth it, because it was neither an execution of a traitor, nor was the whole punishment thereof pronounced by the judge, as by due order of law was requisite.
Finally, as I said before, here I repeat again, that albeit the said lord Cobham was attainted of treason by the act, and that the king, the lords, and the commons, assented to the act: yet all that bindeth not in such sort (as if indeed he were no traitor) that any man may not, by search of the truth, utter and set forth sincerely and justly the very true and certain cause whereupon his execution did follow. Which seemeth by all circumstance and firm arguments, to rise principally of his religion, which first brought him in hatred of the bishops; the bishops brought him in hatred of the king; the hatred of the king brought him to his death and martyrdom. And thus much for the death and execution of this worthy servant of Christ, the lord Cobham.
*This[1] is not to be forgotten, which is reported by many, that he should say: that he should die here on earth after the sort and manner of Elias; which, whether it sprang of the common people without cause, or was foreshowed by himself, I think it, not without good consideration. That it sprang not without some gift of prophecy, the end of the matter doth sufficiently prove; for, like as when Elias should leave this mortal life, he was carried by a fiery chariot into immortality; even so the order of this man's death, not being much unlike, followed the figure of his departure. For he, first of all, being lifted up upon the gallows, as into a chariot, and encompassed round about with flaming fire; what other thing, I pray you, did this most holy martyr of Christ represent, than only a figure of a certain Elias, flying up into heaven, who went up into heaven by a fiery chariot.[2]
Such, gentle reader, are the fruits of Wickliff's doctrine. Now let- ↑ See Edition 1563, p. 281.—Ed.
- ↑ Among the many rumours, which either the superstition of the age, or the subtlety of the lord Cobham's enemies were accustomed to circulate respecting him, was the following: "That at the time of his execution he requested sir Thomas Erpington to procure protection to the followers of Wicklilf, and the maintainers of the antipapal doctrines, in case he (the lord Cobham) should rise from the dead the third day." See Walsingham's History, page 400. The reader will perceive, in this absurd charge, a distorted version of the above narration.—Ed.
