On the accession of Henry V, Archbishop Arundel, whom Walsingham describes as the most eminent[pg 254] bulwark and indomitable supporter of the church,[750] renewed his attack on the Lollards, and endeavoured to serve Oldcastle with a citation. Failing to accomplish this he caused him to be arrested. The bold defence made by the so-called heretic, when before his judges, gained additional weight from the reputation he enjoyed for high moral character. Nevertheless he was adjudged guilty of the charges brought against him. A formal sentence of excommunication was passed, and he was remitted to the Tower for forty days in the hope that at the expiration of that time he might be found willing to retract. This, however, was not to be.
Meeting of Lollards in St. Giles' Fields, 12 Jan., 1414.
He contrived to make his escape from prison,[751] and shortly afterwards appeared at the head of a number of followers in St. Giles's Fields. Great disappointment was felt at not receiving the assistance that had been expected from city servants and apprentices. According to Walsingham, no less than 5,000 men, comprising masters as well as servants, from the city, were prepared to join the insurgents, had not the king taken precautions to secure the gates. As soon as it was discovered that the young king had made ample preparations to meet attack, the Lollards took to flight. Many, however, failed to make good their escape, and nearly forty paid the penalty of their rashness with their lives.[752][pg 255] Walsingham was probably misinformed as to the number of the persons who were prepared to assist the Lollards. The fact is that, to the respectable City burgess, Lollardism was a matter of less moment than was the scandalous life led by the chantry priest and other ministers of religion, and this the civic authorities were determined to rectify as far as in them lay. Between the years 1400 and 1440, some sixty clerks in holy orders were taken in adultery and clapt into prison by ward beadles.[753] Nevertheless the clergy, and more especially the chantry priest, continued to live a life of luxury and sloth, oftentimes spending the day in dicing, card playing, cock fighting and frequenting taverns.
The last Statute against the Lollards, 1414.
The recent abortive attempt of Oldcastle gave rise to another Statute against the Lollards,[754] by which the secular power, no longer content with merely carrying into execution the sentences pronounced by ecclesiastical courts, undertook, where necessary, the initiative against heretics. Archbishop Arundel, the determined enemy of the Lollards, had had no hand in framing this Statute—the last that was enacted against them.[755] He had died a few months before parliament met, and had been succeeded by Henry Chichele.
The king's offer of pardon refused by Oldcastle, 1415.
Early in the following year (1415) the king made an offer of pardon to Oldcastle, who was still at large, if he would come in and make submission before[pg 256] Easter.[756] Instead of accepting so generous an offer, Oldcastle busied himself in preparing for another rising to take place as soon as the king should have set sail on his meditated expedition to France. Lollard manifestoes again appeared on the doors of the London churches; whilst Oldcastle himself scoured the country for recruits, to serve under a banner on which the most sacred emblems of the church were depicted.[757]
Trial and execution of Cleydon, a Lollard, 1415.
In August (1415) another Lollard, John Cleydone by name, a currier by trade, was tried in St. Paul's Church before the new Archbishop and others, the civic authorities having taken the initiative according to the provisions of the recent Statute, and arrested him on suspicion of being a heretic. The mayor himself was a witness at the trial, and testified as to the nature of certain books found in Cleydon's possession; they were "the worst and the most perverse that ever he did read or see." Walsingham, who styles Cleydon "an inveterate Lollard" (quidam inveteratus Lollardus), adds, with his usual acerbity against the entire sect, that the accused had gone so far as to make his own son a priest, and have Mass celebrated by him in his own house on the occasion when his wife should have gone to church, after rising from childbed.[758] Having been convicted of heresy by the ecclesiastical court, the prisoner was again delivered over to the secular authorities for punishment.[759] Both he and his books were burnt.[760]
Oldcastle taken and executed, 1417.