is country. Acting the "part of the
good Samaritan," he earnestly endeavoured to withdraw him from those
sentiments the publication of which had made him obnoxious to the law;
and he employed the means which his high station afforded him of
suspending the King's writ even at the very moment of its execution,
promising the offender pardon on his princely word, and a full
maintenance for his life. He could do no more: his humanity had
carried him even then beyond his authority, and, considering all the
circumstances, even beyond the line of discretion; and, when he found
that all his efforts were in vain, he left the law to take its own
course,--a law which had been passed and put in execution before he
had anything whatever to do with legislation and government.

CHAPTER XXX. (p. 348)

THE CASE OF SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, LORD COBHAM. -- REFERENCE TO HIS
FORMER LIFE AND CHARACTER. -- FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS. -- THE
ARCHBISHOP'S STATEMENT. -- MILNER. -- HALL. -- LINGARD. -- COBHAM
OFFERS THE WAGER OF BATTLE. -- APPEALS PEREMPTORILY TO THE POPE. --
HENRY'S ANXIETY TO SAVE HIM. -- HE IS CONDEMNED, BUT NO WRIT OF
EXECUTION IS ISSUED BY THE KING. -- COBHAM ESCAPES FROM THE TOWER.

1413.

The death of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, and the circumstances
which preceded it, require a more patient and a more impartial
examination than they have often met with. But it must be borne in
mind throughout that our inquiry has for its object, neither the
condemnation of religious persecution, nor the palliation of the
spirit of Romanism,--neither the canonization of the Protestant
martyr, nor the indiscriminate inculpation of all concerned in the sad
tragedy of his condemnation and death,--but the real estimate of
Henry's character. The pursuit of this inquiry of necessity leads (p. 349)
us through passages in the history of our country, and of our church,
which must be of deep and lively interest to every Englishman and
every Christian. It is impossible, as we proceed, not to fix our eyes
upon objects somewhat removed from the direct road along which we are
passing, and, contemplating the state of things as they were in those
days, contrast them fairly and thankfully with what is our own lot
now.

It were a far easier work to assume that all who were engaged in
prosecuting Sir John Oldcastle were men of heartless bigotry,
unrelenting enemies to true religion, devoid of eve