The
bold spirit of the man, provoked by persecution and stimulated by zeal,
was urged to attempt the most criminal enterprises; and his unlimited
authority over the new sect proved that he well merited the attention
of the civil magistrate. He formed in his retreat very violent designs
against his enemies; and despatching his emissaries to all quarters,
appointed a general rendezvous of the party, in order to seize the
person of the king at Eltham, and put their persecutors to the sword.[*]

{1414.} Henry, apprised of their intention, removed to Westminster:
Cobham was not discouraged by this disappointment; but changed the place
of rendezvous to the field near St. Giles; the king, having shut the
gates of the city, to prevent any reenforcement to the Lollards from
that quarter, came into the field in the night-time, seized such of
the conspirators as appeared, and afterwards laid hold of the several
parties who were hastening to the place appointed. It appeared, that
a few only were in the secret of the conspiracy; the rest implicitly
followed their leaders: but upon the trial of the prisoners, the
treasonable designs of the sect were rendered certain, both from
evidence and from the confession of the criminals themselves.[**] Some
were executed; the greater number pardoned.[***] Cobham himself, who
made his escape by flight, was not brought to justice till four years
after; when he was hanged as a traitor; and his body was burnt on
the gibbet, in execution of the sentence pronounced against him as
a heretic.[****] This criminal design, which was perhaps somewhat
aggravated by the clergy, brought discredit upon the party, and checked
the progress of that sect, which had embraced the speculative doctrines
of Wickliffe, and at the same time aspired to a reformation of
ecclesiastical abuses.

* Walsing. p. 385.

** Cotton, p. 554. Hall, fol. 35. Holing, p. 544.

*** Rymer, vol. ix. p. 119, 129, 193.

**** Walsing. p. 400. Otterborne, p. 280. Holing, p. 561.

These two points were the great objects of the Lollards; but the bulk of
the nation was not affected in the same degree by both of them. Common
sense and obvious reflection had discovered to the people the advantages
of a reformation in discipline; but the age was not yet so far advanced
as to be seized with the spirit of controversy, or to enter into those
abstruse doctrines which the Lollards endeavored to propagate throughout
the kingdom