DE HAERETICO COMBURENDO

de  haeretico  comburendo  (dee  hi-ret-i-koh  kom-by<<schwa>>-ren-doh),  n.[Law  Latin  “of

burning  a  heretic”]  Hist. 1.A  writ ordering  the  execution  by  burning  of  a  convicted  heretic  who

refused  to  recant,  or  was  convicted  of  heresy  again  after  recanting.  —  Also  termed  writ  de

haeretico comburendo.

“[W]e find among our ancient precedents a writ de haeretico comburendo, which is thought

by  some  to  be  as  ancient  as  the  common  law  itself.  However,  it  appears  from  thence,  that  the

conviction of heresy by the common law was not in any petty ecclesiastical court, but before the

archbishop himself in a provincial synod; and that the delinquent was delivered over to the king to

do  as  he  should  please  with  him: so  that  the  crown  had  a  control  over  the  spiritual  power,  and

might  pardon  the  convict  by  issuing  no  process  against  him;  the  writ  de  haeretico  comburendo

being  not  a  writ  of  course,  but  issuing  only  by  the  special  direction  of  the  king  in  council.”  4

William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 46–47 (1769).

“But the case of Sawtre (1400) is a clear case in which the rule of the canon law was applied.

He was convicted of heresy before the Bishop of Norwich and recanted his heresy. He fell again

into  heresy,  and  was  condemned  by  the  archbishop  and  his  provincial  Council,  as  a  relapsed

heretic.  On  this  conviction  the  king  issued  a  writ  de  haeretico  comburendo.  This  case  clearly

shows that the common law recognized the rule  of the canon law ….” 1 William Holdsworth,  A

History of English Law 617 (7th ed. 1956).

2. The first English penal law against heresy, enacted in 1401 (2 Hen. 4, ch. 15). • The law

authorized  the  burning  of  defendants  who  relapsed  or  refused  to  abandon  their  heretical

opinions.“The first English statute that denounced the penalty of death against heretics was passed

in the  year 1401. Whether before that statute the law that was in  force in  our land  demanded  or

suffered that such persons should be burnt is a question that has been eagerly debated; on it in the

days of Elizabeth and James I depended the lives of Anabaptists and Arians; it has not yet lost its

interest; but it is a question that buzzes in a vacuum, for until Lollardy became troublesome there

was  too  little  heresy  in England  to  beget a  settled  course  of  procedure.”  2  Frederick  Pollock  &

Frederic Maitland, The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I 544 (1899). [Blacks Law 8th]