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.