In England from Wicliffe to Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

Chapter 7
Martyrdom of Lord Cobham
THE dispersion of this unarmed assembly, met
in the darkness of the night, on the then lonely and
thicket-covered field of St. Giles, to listen, it might
be, to some favourite preacher, or to celebrate an
act of worship, was followed by the execution of
several Lollards. The most distinguished of these
was Sir Roger Acton, known to be a friend of Lord
Cobham. He was seized at the midnight meeting on
St. Giles' Field, and was inlmediately thereafter
condemned and executed. The manner of his death
has been variously reported. Some chroniclers say
he was burned, others that he was drawn on a
hurdle to Tyburn, and there hanged. Two other
Lollards were put to death at the same time–Master
John Brown, and John Beverly, formerly a priest,
but now a Wicliffite preacher. "So many persons
were apprehended," says Holinshed, "that all the
prisons in and about London were full." The
leaders only, however, were put to death, "being
condemned," says the chronicler, "for heresy by the
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