The Second Apprehension of the Lord Cobham.
Concerning sir John Oldcastle the lord Cobham, and of his first apprehension, with his whole story and life, sufficiently hath been expressed before, how he, being committed to the Tower, and condemned falsely of heresy, escaped afterwards out of the Tower, and was in Wales about the space of four years. In the mean time, a great sum of money was proclaimed by the king, to him that could take the said sir John Oldcastle, either quick or dead: who confederated with the lord Powis (who was at that time a great governor in Wales), feeding him with lordly gifts and promises, to accomplish their desire.
About the end of which four years being expired, the lord Powis, whether for love or greediness of the money, or whether for hatred of the true and sincere doctrine of Christ, seeking all manner of ways how to play the part of Judas, and outwardly pretending him great amity and favour, at length obtained his bloody purpose, and most cowardly and wretchedly took him, and in conclusion brought the lord Cobham bound up to London; which was about the year of our Lord 1417, and about the month of December; at which time there was a parliament assembled in London, for the relief of money the same time to be sent to the king, whom the bishops had sent out (as ye heard before) to fight in France. The records of which parliament do thus say: That on Tuesday the fourteenth day of December, and the nine and twentieth day of the said parliament, sir John Oldcastle, of Cowling in the county of Kent, knight, being outlawed (as is afore minded) in the King's Bench, and excommunicated before by the archbishop of Canterbury for heresy, was brought before the lords; and having heard his said convictions, answered not thereto in his excuse. Upon which record and process it was adjudged, that he should be taken as a traitor to the king and the realm; that he should be carried to the Tower of London, and from thence drawn through London, unto the new gallows in St. Giles without Temple-Bar, and there to be hanged, and burned hanging.
Thus, after long process, they condemned him again for heresy and treason, by force of the aforenamed act; he rendering thanks unto God, that he had so appointed him to suffer for his name's sake.
And, upon the day appointed, he was brought out of the tower with his arms bound behind him, having a very cheerful countenance. Then was he laid upon a hurdle, as though he had been a most heinous traitor to the crown, and so drawn forth into St. Giles's-fields, where they had set up a new pair of gallows. As he was coming to the place of execution, and was taken from the hurdle, he fell down devoutly upon his knees, desiring Almighty God to forgive his enemies. Then stood he up and beheld the multitude, exhorting them, in most godly manner, to follow the laws of God written in the Scriptures, and, in any wise, to beware of such teachers as they see contrary to Christ in their conversation and living; with many other special counsels. Then was he hanged up there by the middle, in chains of iron, and so consumed alive in the fire, praising the name of God, so long as his life lasted. In the end he commended his soul into the hands of God, and so departed hence most christianly, his body being resolved into ashes. And this was done A.D. 1418, which was the fifth year of the reign of king Henry V.; the people, there present, showing great dolour. How the priests that time fared, blasphemed, and accursed, requiring the people not to pray for him, but to judge him damned in hell because he departed not in the obedience of their pope, it were too long to write.
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Thus rested this valiant christian knight, sir John Oldcastle, under the altar of God, which is Jesus Christ, among that godly company, who, in the kingdom of patience, suffered great tribulation with the death of their bodies, for his faithful word and testimony