37°
ConBtitvtlonal History.
[chap.
Statute ‘de
Iiaeretico.*
Trial and
execution
of Sawtre.
Question of
the writ ‘ de
Iiaerotico
eoɪnbu-
rendo.*
their own churches, and that none should teach heresy, hold
conventicles, or favour the new doctrines : if any should offend,
the diocesan of the place should cause him to he arrested and
detained in his prison till canonical purgation or abjuration,
proceedings for which should take place within three months of
the arrest : if he were convicted he should he imprisoned by the
diocesan according to the measure of his default, and fined pro-
portionably ; but if he should refuse to abjure, or relapse after
abjuration, so that according to the canons he ought to be left
to the secular court, he should be given up to the sheriff or
other local magistrate and be publicly burned1. By this act
then the bishop had authority to arrest, imprison, and try the
criminal within three months, to detain him in his own court,
and to call in the sheriff to burn him. The parliament which
passed the statute broke up on the ɪoth of March.
The archbishop however had not waited for this to make an
example. The heretic clerk Sawtre during the session of par-
liament had been brought before the bishops in convocation,
tried and condemned2. On the 26th of February the king’s
writ was issued for his execution. The coincidence of the two
events is somewhat puzzling: the execution of Sawtre under
the royal writ has led the legal historians to believe that prior
to the passing of the act of 1401, it was possible, in the case of
a condemned heretic, for the king to issue a writ ζ de haeretico
comburendo’ analogous to the writ ‘de excommunicatoccapi-
endo3.’ But no other instance of the kind can be found4; and
most probably no such process had ever been followed. Why
Arundel should have hurried on Sawtre’s execution by royal
writ instead of waiting until by his own order to the sheriff the
sentence could have been enforced under the act, is not clear;
* 2 Hen. IV, c. 15; Statutes, ii. 125.
2 Wilk. Cone. iii. 254. 3 Blackstone, Comm. iv. 46.
4 Although Blackstone declares that a writ of the kind is found among
our ancient precedents, and refers to Fitz Herbert, Natura Brevium, 269,
the only example of the writ given there is the writ in Sawtre’s case ; and
Fitz Herbert’s argument (or that of his editor), that such a writ could
only issue on the certificate of a provincial synod and was not a writ of
course but specially directed by the king in council, is based on that
single example.
XiX.] Legislation on Heresg. 371
unless, as there is some authority for supposing, he anticipated
a popular attempt at rescue1. It was under these circum- First exe-
i 1 - ɪ ∙ Γ T 11 1 L . CUtion for
stances that the first execution ɪor Lollard heresy took place m Loiiardy.
England. By the laws and customs of foreign states burning
was the regular form of execution for such an offence; in
England it was the recognised punishment due for heresy in
common with arson and other heinous crimes2 ; and there was
nothing apparently in its enforcement here that shocked the
feelings of the age.
The act of 1401 neither stopped the growth of heresy nor ι≡1f∏0i-
, , _ n . rn, . 1 π . . ency of the
satisfied the desires of the persecutors. Ihe social doctrines, statute,
with which Wycliffe’s rash followers had supplemented the
teaching of their leader, had probably engaged the sympathies
of the discontented in the project of unseating the new king.
In the parliament of 1406 a petition was laid before Henry, Greatpeti-
r » л τxτ η 1 - η Ji tion of X406.
supported by the prince of Wales and the lords, and presented
by the speaker of the commons3. In this document the action
of the Lollards is described as threatening tlιfe whole fabric of
society ; the attacks on property endangered the position of the
temporal and spiritual lords alike ; to them were owing the
reports that king Bichard was alive, and the pretended pro-
phecies of his restoration : the king was asked to enact that
any persons promulgating such notions should he arrested and
imprisoned, without bail except by undertaking before the
chancellor, and should be brought before the next parliament,
there to abide by such judgment as should be rendered by the
king and the lords ; that all lords of franchises, justices,
sheriffs, and other magistrates should be empowered and bound to
take inquest of such doings by virtue of this statute without any
special commission, and that all subjects should be bound to
assist. Henry agreed to the petition, and the statute founded Act founded
upon it was ordered to take effect from the approaching up°u lt'
Epiphany and to hold good until the next parliament. Strange N0 remit
to say, nothing more was heard of it ; whether it was merely f°u°ws∙
1 Adam of Usk (p. 4) mentions an alarm of a Lollard rising in London
during this session of parliament.
2 Above, p. 365 ; Eritton, i. 42.
s Rot. Earl. iii. 583, 584 ; see above, p. 38.