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SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE (d. 1417)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 67 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR See also:JOHN See also:OLDCASTLE (d. 1417)  , See also:English Lollard See also:leader, was son of See also:Sir See also:Richard See also:Oldcastle of Almeley in See also:Herefordshire . He is first mentioned as serving in the expedition to See also:Scotland in 1400, when he was probably quite a See also:young See also:man . Next See also:year he was in See also:charge of See also:Builth See also:castle in See also:Brecon, and serving all through the Welsh See also:campaigns won the friendship and esteem of See also:Henry, the See also:prince of See also:Wales . Oldcastle represented Herefordshire in the See also:parliament of 1404 . Four years later he married See also:Joan, the heiress of See also:Cobham, and was thereon summoned to parliament as See also:Lord Cobham in her right . As a trusted supporter of the prince, Oldcastle held a high command in the expedition which the young OLDCASTLE Henry sent to See also:France in 1411 . Lollardy had many supporters in Herefordshire, and Oldcastle himself had adopted Lollard opinions before 1410, when the churches on his wife's estates in See also:Kent were laid under See also:interdict for unlicensed See also:preaching . In the See also:convocation which met in See also:March 1413, shortly before the See also:death of Henry IV., Oldcastle was at once accused of See also:heresy . But his friendship with the new See also:king prevented any decisive See also:action till convincing See also:evidence was found in a See also:book belonging to Oldcastle, which was discovered in a See also:shop in Paternoster See also:Row . The See also:matter was brought before the king, who desired that nothing should be done till he had tried his See also:personal See also:influence . Old-castle declared his readiness to submit to the king " all his See also:fortune in this See also:world," but was See also:firm in his religious beliefs . When he fled from See also:Windsor to his own castle at Cowling, Henry at last consented to a See also:prosecution .

Oldcastle refused to obey the See also:

archbishop's repeated citations, and it was only under a royal See also:writ that he at last appeared before the ecclesiastical See also:court on the 23rd of See also:September . In a See also:confession of his faith he declared his belief in the sacraments and the See also:necessity of See also:penance and true confession; but to put See also:hope, faith or See also:trust in images was the See also:great See also:sin of See also:idolatry . But he would not assent to the orthodox See also:doctrine of the See also:sacrament as stated by the bishops, nor admit the necessity of confession to a See also:priest . So on the•25th of September he was convicted as a heretic . Henry was still anxious to find a way of See also:escape for his old comrade, and granted a See also:respite of See also:forty days . Before that See also:time had expired Oldcastle escaped from the See also:Tower by the help of one See also:William See also:Fisher, a See also:parchment-maker of Smithfield (See also:Riley, Memorials of See also:London, 641) . Old-castle now put himself at the See also:head of a wide-spread Lollard See also:conspiracy, which assumed a definitely See also:political See also:character . The See also:design was to seize the king and his See also:brothers during a Twelfth-See also:night mumming at Eltham, and perhaps, as was alleged, to establish some sort of See also:commonwealth . Henry, forewarned of their intention, removed to London, and when the See also:Lollards assembled in force in St See also:Giles's See also:Fields on the loth of See also:January they were easily dispersed . Oldcastle himself escaped into Herefordshire, and for nearly four years avoided See also:capture . Apparently he was privy to the See also:Scrope and See also:Cambridge See also:plot in See also:July 1415, when he stirred some See also:movement in the Welsh See also:Marches . On the failure of the See also:scheme he went again into hiding .

Oldcastle was no doubt the instigator of the abortive Lollard plots of 1416, and appears to have intrigued with the Scots . But at last his hiding-See also:

place was discovered and in See also:November 1417 he was captured by the Lord Charlton of See also:Powis . Oldcastle who was " sore wounded ere he would be taken," was brought to London in a See also:horse-See also:litter . On the 14th of See also:December he was formally condemned, on the See also:record of his previous conviction, and that same See also:day was hung in St Giles's Fields, and burnt " gallows and all." It is not clear that he was burnt alive . Oldcastle died a See also:martyr . He was no doubt a man of See also:fine quality, but circumstances made him a traitor, and it is impossible altogether to condemn his See also:execution . His unpopular opinions and See also:early friendship with Henry V. created a traditional See also:scandal which See also:long continued . In the old See also:play The,Famous Victories of Henry V., written before 1588, Oldcastle figures as the prince's boon See also:companion . When See also:Shakespeare adapted that play in Henry IV., Oldcastle still appeared; but when the play was printed in 1598 Falstaff's name was substituted, in deference, as it is said, to the then Lord Cobham . Though the See also:fat See also:knight still remains " my old lad of the Castle," the See also:stage character has nothing to do with the Lollard leader . pelled him also to withhold his submission alike as " a See also:Christian, a theologian, an See also:historical student and a See also:citizen." The publication of this See also:letter was shortly followed by a See also:sentence of ex-communication pronounced against See also:Dollinger and See also:Professor Johannes See also:Friedrich (q.v.), and read to the different congregations from the pulpits of See also:Munich . The professors of the university, on the other See also:hand, had shortly before evinced their See also:resolution of affording Dollinger all the moral support in their See also:power by an address (See also:April 3, 1871) in which they denounced the Vatican decrees with unsparing severity, declaring that, at the very time when the See also:German See also:people had " won for themselves the See also:post of See also:honour on the battlefield among the nations of the See also:earth," the German bishops had stooped to the dishonouring task of " forcing consciences in the service of an unchristian tyranny, of reducing many pious and upright men to See also:distress and want, and of persecuting those who had but stood steadfast in their See also:allegiance to the See also:ancient faith" (See also:Friedberg, Aktenstiicke z. ersten Vaticanischen Concil, p .

187) . An address to the king, See also:

drawn up a few days later, received the signatures of 12,000 Catholics . The refusal of the See also:rites of the See also:Church to one of the signatories, Dr Zenger, when on his deathbed, elicited strong expressions of disapproval;) and when, shortly after, it became necessary to fill up by See also:election six vacancies in the See also:council of the university, the feeling of the See also:electors was indicated by the return of candidates distinguished by their dissent from the new decrees . In the following September the demand for another and a See also:free council was responded to by the assembling of a See also:congress at Munich . It was composed of nearly 500 delegates, convened from almost all parts of the world; but the See also:Teutonic See also:element was now as manifestly predominant as the Latin element had been at See also:Rome . The proceedings were pre-sided over by Professor von Schulte, and lasted three days . Among those who took a prominent See also:part in the deliberations were Landammann See also:Keller, Windscheid, Dollinger, See also:Reinkens, Maassen (professor of See also:canon See also:law at See also:Vienna), Friedrich and See also:Huber . The arrangements finally agreed upon were mainly provisional; but one of the resolutions plainly declared that it was desirable if possible to effect a See also:reunion with the See also:Oriental See also:Greek and See also:Russian Churches, and also to arrive at an " under-See also:standing " with the See also:Protestant and Episcopal communions . In the following year lectures were delivered at Munich by various supporters of the new movement, and the learning and eloquence of Reinkens were displayed with marked effect . In France the See also:adhesion of the See also:abbe See also:Michaud to the cause attracted considerable See also:interest, not only from his reputation as a preacher, but also from the notable step in advance made by his See also:declaration that, inasmuch as the See also:adoption of the standpoint of the Tridentine canons would render reunion with the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches impossible, the wisest course would be to insist on nothing more with respect to doctrinal belief than was embodied in the canons of the first seven See also:oecumenical See also:councils . In the same year the Old Catholics, as they now began to be termed, entered into relations with the historical little Jansenist Church of See also:Utrecht . Dollinger, in delivering his inaugural address as See also:rector of the university of Munich, expressed his conviction that See also:theology had received a fresh impulse and that the religious See also:history of See also:Europe was entering upon a new phase .

Other circumstances contributed to invest Old Catholicism with additional importance . It was evident that the relations between the See also:

Roman See also:Curia and the Prussian See also:government were becoming extremely strained . In See also:February 1872 appeared the first See also:measures of the See also:Falk See also:ministry, having for their See also:object the See also:control of the influence of the See also:clergy in the See also:schools, and in May the See also:pope refused to accept See also:Cardinal See also:Hohenlohe, who during the council had opposed the See also:definition of the See also:dogma, as Prussian See also:minister at the Vatican . In the same year two humble See also:parish priests, Renftle of Mering in See also:Bavaria and Tangermann of Unkel in the Rhineland, set an example of See also:independence by refusing The rites were administered and the See also:burial service conducted by Friedrich, who had refused to acknowledge his See also:excommunication .

End of Article: SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE (d. 1417)
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