Gradual
diminution
of import-
ance.
The question
of Iieresy
and its
treatment.
364 Constitιdio,nal History. [cπap.
greater matters it was seldom heard of. The kings, who freely
availed themselves of the powers which they obtained by good
understanding with Rome, were tolerant of pretensions which,
except in one point, were little more than pretensions. That
one point, the drawing of revenue from England, was indeed
contested, and now and then was the subject of some sharp
recriminations, in which the parliament as well as the king had
to speak the mind of the nation. But most of the mischiefs
caused by the old system of appeal, a system which at once
crushed the power of the diocesan and defied the threats of
metropolitan and king, were extinguished by the growth of
sound principles in the courts of law, by the determined policy
of the statute of praemunire, and by the general conviction that
the decisions purchased at Rome could not be executed or en-
forced except with the leave of the courts at home. The papal
policy had become obstructive rather than aggressive ; its legal
machinery was becoming subservient to royal authority, not a
court of refuge or of remedy : and, had not the doctrinal reforma-
tion given to the remodelled Curia a new standing ground, which
on any theory was higher than the old position of territorial
and pecuniary adventure into which it was rapidly sinking, the
action of the papacy in England might have altogether ceased.
It was a curious coincidence that the great breach between
England and Rome should be the result of a litigation in
a matrimonial suit, one of the few points in which the Curia
had continued to exercise any real jurisdiction.
In the foregoing outline of the legislative and judicial rela-
tions of church and state, the subject of heresy has been set
aside for more particular treatment. It is a subject which
comes into prominence as the older constitutional questions
between the two powers become less important ; and its interest
is, from the point at which we have arrived, mainly prospective.
It has however great importance both legally and socially, and
the history of the legislation concerning it, so far as we can
now follow it, furnishes most valuable illustrations of the curious
interlacing of the spiritual and temporal polities on which we
have had again and again to remark.
XiX.] Legislation on Heresy. 365
404. The English church had up to tlɪe close of the four- immunity
teentlι century been singularly free from heresy1 : it had es- froɪn bɪere-
caped all such horrors as those of the Albigensian crusade, and 'c err°r'
had witnessed with but slight interest the disputes which
followed the preaching of the spiritual Franciscans. Misbelief
and apostasy were indeed subjects of inquest at the sheriff’s
tourn, and the punishment of ‘ mescreauntz aperteɪnent atteyntz ’
was burning2. If however there was any persecution of heresy Becognised
in England before the year 1382, it must have taken the e∞iesiasti-
° *,. . . . . cal law.
ordinary form of prosecution in the spiritual court ; the heretic
when found guilty would, after his forty days of grace, be
committed to prison by the writ , de excommunicato capiendo,’
or ‘ significavit,' until he should satisfy the demands of the
church3. But it is highly improbable that if any such cases
had occurred the scrutiny of controversial historians and of
legal antiquaries should have alike failed to discover them.
The first -person against whom any severe measures were Wyciiffe the
x o , , first import-
taken was John AVycliffe himself. He had risen to eminence as ant person
j TAiiii . . prosecuted
a philosophic teacher at Oxford. Although he was in the main for heresy,
a Realist, he had adopted some of the political tenets of the
Franciscan Nominalists, and, hating the whole policy of the
mendicant orders, had formed views on the temporal power of
1 The early cases of medieval heresy in England are these; (ɪ) the ap-
pearance of certain ‘pravi dogmatis disseminatores ’ in 1165 or ιι66; they
were 4Publicani/ and spoke German ; they were condemned in a council,
held at Oxford, to be branded, flogged and excommunicated, and were
proscribed by the Assize of Clarendon. They quitted England after
making one convert ; R. Diceto, i. 318 ; Will. Newb. lib. ii. c. 13. (2)
An Albigensian was burned in London in 1210. (3) In 1222 a deacon
who had apostatised to Judaism was condemned in a council at Oxford
and burned ; Ann. Wykes, p. 63 ; or hanged, M, Paris, iii. 71. (4) There
were alarms about heresy in 1236 and 1240 ; and royal writs were issued
restraining the action of unauthorised attempts at persecution ; Prynne,
Records, ii. 475, 560; cf. M. Paris, iv. 32. (5) There is a curious and
obscure case, that of Richard Clapwell (Ann. Dunst. pp. 323, 341) ; in the
years 1286-8,. he was excommunicated by the archbishop, made his way to
Rome, was silenced there, and died mad. (6) In the troubles of the
Franciscans, some of the unfortunate friars are said to have perished in
England; Ann. Mels. ii. 323 ; but the authority for the statement is in-
sufficient. See above, vol. ii. p. 492.
3 Britton, i. 42, 179 ; cf. Fleta, p. 113.
3 Gibson, Codex, ρ. 1102 ; Rot. Claus, (ed. Hardy), ii. 166 ; Rot. Parl.
ni. 128.