Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/533

A.D. 1414.] it had established itself at the Revolution of 1688, by the Act of Toleration, and yet, even here, not so wholly established itself, but that the conflict of opinion, though mollified and separated from, the burning stake and the dungeon, should go on, as it will go on from age to age, still stimulating inquiry, and ultimately establishing, if not uniformity of faith, at least "the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace."

Room in the Lollards' Tower, Lambeth Palace, in which the Reformers were confined.

The Church, startled at the new phenomenon of the laity assuming the office of self-inquiry and self-decision, and still more by the obstinacy with which the people maintained this novel function, began to punish and coerce. The prelates persecuted the reformers, and the reformers, raised to a sublime sense of their own right by a nearer approach to Christian truth, rebelled as vigorously. The war of opinion assumed its bitterest aspect. The Church, too far removed from the experience of the primitive ages, had again to learn the power of persecution to produce that which it would destroy; that to lop the boughs of religious opinion is only to strike deeper its roots; that in casting stones on a martyr, you are only piling him up a monument; that endeavouring to hew down the tree of any faith that has a sap of vitality in it, is only to scatter its seeds by every stroke of the axe, and where you level a single stem to disseminate a forest.

In a fatal hour, Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, obtained the statute De heretico comburendo, by which William Sawtre had been burnt, and now again sought to apply the same deceptive remedy. With this intent he applied to Henry for permission to indict Lord Cobham, as the head and great encourager of the sect, for heresy, and by his public execution to strike terror into the whole body of reformers. Henry, however, was too averse by nature to persecution, and too mindful of his old friendship for this nobleman, to accede at once to so violent a measure. He undertook to have some conversation with Lord Cobham on the subject himself, observing very truly to the primate that gentleness and persuasion were the best moans of conversion. He therefore called Cobham into his closet at Windsor, and exerted the knowledge which he had acquired of school divinity at Oxford to convince his friend. But Lord Cobham, fresh from the zealous perusal of the Bible itself, and from the earnest discussion of its truths amongst his Lollard associates, was more than a match for the royal casuist. He maintained the truth of his doctrines with the boldness of a man who knows that he is right, and that on questions far above all the decision of kings. It was, in fact, the very worst resolution that Henry could have come to, that of himself arguing the point with the great apostle of the new faith; for nothing so soon excites anger and resentment in the mind as religious controversy, especially where the party which has begun with high pretensions feels himself defeated. Words probably of severity arose between the king and Lord Cobham, for the latter suddenly left Windsor and withdrew to his own house of Cowling in Kent.

Henry now seems to have lost his tenderness towards his old friend in the awakened feeling of a determination to subdue where he failed to convince, and to have given Arundel permission to take his own way with the offender; for, immediately on Lord Cobham's withdrawal, there appeared proclamations ordering all magistrates to apprehend every itinerant preacher, and directing the archbishop to proceed against Cobham according to law; that is, the recent law against heresy. This alarming measure brought back Lord Cobham to Windsor, having drawn up a confession of faith, probably in conjunction with his most eminent friends. This confession still exists, subscribed by Cobham himself, and on looking it over at this time of day, one is at a loss to discover in it what any true Catholic could object to.

It begins with the Apostles' Creed and the doctrine of the Trinity, and then declares that no one can be saved unless he be a member of the Church. "Now the Church