Bale says, “Anon after, that Act was proclaimed throughout the realm, and then the bishops, the priests, and the monks, had a world somewhat to their minds. For then were many taken in divers quarters, and suffered most cruel deaths. And many fled out of the land into Germany, Bohemia, France, Spain, Portugal, and into Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, working there many marvels against the false kingdom, too long to write. In the Christmas following was Sir Roger Acton, knight, Master John Browne, and Sir John Beverly, a learned preacher, and divers others, imprisoned for quarrelling with certain priests. In January following, A.D. 1413, was the before-named Sir Roger Acton, Master John Browne, Sir John Beverly, and _thirty-six_ more, of whom the more part were gentlemen of birth, convicted of heresy by the bishops, and condemned of treason by the temporality, and, according to the Act, were first hanged and then burned in the Giles-field. In the same year, also, one John Claydon, a skinner, and one Richard Turning, a baker, were both hanged and burned in Smithfield by that Act, besides what was done in all other quarters of England; which was no small number, if it were thoroughly known.” Fox calls Sir Roger Acton “this worthy, noble, virtuous knight,” in giving an account of the dreadful persecutions of these faithful martyrs of Christ. Wycliffe’s ashes were not allowed to rest in quiet: for, A.D. 1415, by the council of Constance, forty-four conclusions, drawn from his writings, were declared to be heretical, and their author condemned as an obstinate heretic. Inquisitors sought his bones, which were ordered to be dug up and cast upon a dunghill; but the sentence was not executed till A.D. 1428, when Pope Martin V. sent order to Fleming, bishop of Lincoln, once a professed favourer of the reformed doctrine. The inquisitors obeyed the order of the bishop--the bones were burnt, and the ashes were cast into the adjoining rivulet, Swift. From Lutterworth, as Dr. Fuller beautifully remarks, “this brook conveyed his ashes into the Avon; Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas; they into the ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are emblems of his doctrine, which is now dispersed all over the world!”