A True Nobleman

A True Nobleman

John Oldcastle was part of the nobility, but more important, he was truly noble.

PRIOR TO the Reformation the leading English reformer was John Wycliffe, born about 1329. He received a doctorate in theology from Oxford and served as a lecturer at the university and as a rector of local churches. Wycliffe taught that the Bible was the sole authority for faith and practice. He denied the Roman Catholic teaching of transubstantiation that claims that the bread and wine of Communion in the Mass actually becomes the body and blood of Christ. He repudiated the Catholic Church teaching that the sinner, unable to do sufficient penance to atone for his sins, is able to draw on the spiritual treasury of the surplus merits of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints, called indulgences. He attacked the infallibility of the papacy and tried to have religious orders abolished.

Although Wycliffe died in 1384, his influence continued. His followers were called Lollards by their enemies, a term that seems to have meant “mumblers.” By 1395 they had become an organized church with ordained ministers and spokesmen in Parliament. Their following was strongest among the middle and artisan classes. To contain the growing influence of the Lollards, Parliament passed a statute in 1407, “On the Burning of a Heretic,” aimed specifically at the followers of Wycliffe. It stated that any heretic convicted by a church court could be turned over to the state to be burned.

After the death of Wycliffe the Lollards were leaderless until in 1410 Sir John Oldcastle stepped forward. Up to that time only a few nobles had been followers of Wycliffe, but they had drawn back when persecution arose. John Oldcastle was different. He had been a soldier who had fought for England. During the Welsh Wars he had become a friend of King Henry IV’s son, Henry, the prince of Wales. (Shakespeare’s character Falstaff in Henry IV is modeled after John Oldcastle, though Shakespeare made him more boisterous than he was in real life.) When Oldcastle married Jan, heiress of John, the third Lord Cobham, he became part of the nobility and in 1409 was made a member of the House of Lords as a baron.

In 1413 Oldcastle’s friend, the prince of Wales, became King Henry V. Soon after the archbishop of Canterbury called a synod of the English clergy to bring charges against Oldcastle for being the leader of the Lollards. Realizing that Oldcastle was a friend of the new king, the archbishop and his bishops went to the king to present their case. The king indicated that he would speak to Oldcastle himself. Hearing firsthand Oldcastle’s vigorous opposition to the Catholic Church, the king turned against his friend and gave the archbishop permission to bring his charges against him.

John Oldcastle was arrested and on September 25, 1413, was brought to trial before the archbishop and his bishops. The archbishop addressed him by his title, saying, “Lord Cobham, we once again require you to have none other opinion than the universal belief of the Holy Church of Rome.” Oldcastle answered, “I will none otherwise believe in these points than I told you afore. Do with me what ye will . . . though ye judge my body . . . yet am I certain that ye can do no harm to my soul. He that created that will of his infinite mercy save it; I have therein no manner of doubt. Concerning these articles, I will stand to them to the very death by the grace of my God.”

Oldcastle was sentenced to death, but the outcome was not what the archbishop had planned. Oldcastle escaped from the Tower of London, and soon it was the archbishop who felt the stroke of death rather than Oldcastle. Four years later Oldcastle was arrested a second time and hanged and then burned.

The condemned outlived the condemner by several years.

Reflection

When we are betrayed like John Oldcastle was by his friend King Henry, our natural reaction is to want revenge. But God is a righteous judge, and we must place our case in his hands. He will do what is right and ultimately vindicate his people.

Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God. For it is written, “I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it,” says the Lord.

Romans 12:19