Develop-
ment of
policy.
Tenour of
the act of
1414.
374 Constitutional History. [chap.
attempt at revolution followed1 ; and Henry V in the parlia-
ment of 1414 proceeded to legislate finally and more fiercely
against the remnant of the heretic party. Arundel was dead,
and, whateverhad been his influence in forwarding or in pre-
venting the measures proposed in 1406, the king proceeded to
legislate on the principle which was then propounded. That
principle was to make heresy an offence against the common
law as against the canon law, and not merely to use the secular
arm in support of the spiritual arm, but to give the temporal
courts a co-ordinate power of proceeding directly against the
offenders. If we suppose that Henry V was now acting under
the advice of the Beauforts, as may be generally assumed when
he acted in opposition to the advice of Arundel, this policy may
be described as the policy of the Beauforts ; and the cardinal’s
expedition to Bohemia may be regarded as a later example of
the same idea of intolerance. But it is not necessary to look
for the suggestion further than to the king himself, who, in the
full belief of his duty as maintainer of orthodoxy, no doubt
thought it incumbent upon him to place himself in the van of
the army of the church. The purport of the act is as follows :
in the view of the recent troubles caused by the Lollards and
their supporters, the king, with the advice of the lords and at
the prayer of the commons, enacts that the chancellor, treasurer,
judges, and all officers of justice shall on their appointment
swear to do their utmost to extirpate heresy, to assist the ordi-
naries and their commissaries ; all persons convicted before the
ordinaries, and delivered over to the secular arm, are to forfeit
their lands as in case of felony, the lands which they hold to
the use of others being however excepted ; they are also to
forfeit their chattels to the king. So far the act is only an
expansion of the law of 1401 : the following clauses go further :
the justices of the bench, of the peace, and of assize are now
empowered to inquire after heretics, and a clause to that effect
is to be introduced into their commissions : if any be so indicted
the justices may award against them a writ of capias which the
sheriffs shall be bound to execute. The persons arrested are to
ɪ See above, p. 82.
XiX.] Législation against Heresg. 375
be delivered to the ordinaries by indenture to be made within
ten days of the arrest, and are to be tried by the spiritual
court : if any other charges are laid against them in the king’s
court they are to be tried upon them before being delivered to
the ordinary, and the proceedings so taken are not to be taken
in evidence in the spiritual court ; the person indicted may be
bailed within ten days ; the jurors by whom the inquest is to
be taken are to be men who have at least five pounds a year in
land in England or forty shillings in Wales ; if the person
arrested break prison before acquittal, the king shall have his
chattels, and also the profits of his lands until he be forth-
coming again, but, if he dies before conviction, the lands go to
his heirs1. In 1416 archbishop Chichele followed up this act
by a constitution directing an inquiry by ecclesiastical officers,
empowered to take information on oath, and authorised to
imprison the accused until the next convocation, in which
report is to be made to the archbishop of the whole pro-
ceedings 2.
The act of 1414 is the last statute against the Lollards, and Laterat-
~ o , tempts to
under it most of the cruel executions of the fifteenth and six- legislate,
teenth centuries were perpetrated. It was not however the
last occasion upon which parliamentary action was attempted.
In 1422 the Lollards were again formidable in London, and the
parliament, on the petition of the commons, ordered that those
who were in prison should be at once delivered to the ordinary
according to the statute of 1414 ; a similar order was given in
1425 s. In 1468 Edward IV, with exceptional tenderness,
rejected a petition that persons who had committed the acts of
sacrilege which were attributed to the Lollards should be
regarded as guilty of high treason4.
Outside the parliament the still unextinguished embers of Change of
political Lollardy continued to burn ; in the attempted rising feeling with
of Jack Sharp in 1431 the Lollard petition of 1410 was repub- SatdiLothe
Iished and circulated5, and it is not improbable that some
1 2 Hen. V, stat. i. c. 7 ; Statutes, ii. 18ɪ sq.
3 Johnson’s Canons, ɪɪ. 482. 3 Rot. Part. ɪv. 174 202.
4 lb. v. 632. 5 Above, p. 115.