his point our interest in the transactions, and our desire to
ascertain the accuracy of the accounts in every particular begin to
increase; for our estimate of the tone and temper of Henry's mind, and
the real nature of his conduct, will be affected by a very slight
change of expression and turn of thought. Was Henry V. a persecutor
for religious opinions?

[Footnote 273: The Chronicle of London states that
the convocation assembled on the day of St. Edmund
the King, and continued until December; and "that
the archbishop and bishops, at St. Paul's Cross,
accursed Sir John Oldcastle on the Sunday, after
the dirge was performed royally at Westminster for
Richard II., on the removal of his remains."]

[Footnote 274: Archbishop Arundel (says Anthony a
Wood), who never proceeded beyond the degree of
bachelor of arts in this University [Oxford] or any
other, decreed by a provincial council, 1404, that
none should preach except privileged or licensed.]

Perhaps the more satisfactory course will be, first to give the (p. 358)
statements of Fox, and one or two others, who have taken the view
of the case least favourable to Henry, and then to add the account of
the transaction as it is recorded by the Archbishop, on whose record
Fox informs us that the ground and certainty of his own history of
Lord Cobham depended. Almost all subsequent writers copy the
martyrologist exclusively and implicitly, though often with much
additional colouring.

Fox, who certainly follows the original statement in Archbishop
Arundel's register much more faithfully, than those who have taken
their facts from him, and heightened them by their own exaggerated
colouring, gives an unfavourable and an unfair turn to the whole
proceeding by one or two strokes of his pencil. His version of the
affair is this: "The King _gently_ heard those bloodthirsty prelates,
and _far otherwise than became his princely dignity_; notwithstanding
requiring, and instantly desiring them, that in respect of his noble
stock and knighthood, they would deal favourably with him, and that
they would, if possible, without all rigour or extreme handling,
reduce him to the Church's unity. He promised them also, that, in case
they were content to take some