SHP History B
1B Crime and punishment
Crime and punishment 1450-1750
2.6 Heresy
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2.6 Heresy: offending God and
misleading other people
Learning outcomes
What were regarded as heresies in
By the end of this topic you should be able to:
this period?

describe what heresy is and how Church
leaders saw any views that differed from the
official Catholic teachings as heresy and used
Church courts to punish heretics

identify how the role of government in
punishing heresy increased

explain how the Reformation impacted on the
laws against heresy

explain how these laws were finally repealed.
In the late 14th and early 15th century, the
followers of a man named John Wycliffe
(died 1384) criticised the Catholic Church.
He claimed that the Bible should be
available in English, not Latin; that the
leader of the Catholic Church (the pope) did
not have more authority than the Bible; that
the Church should not sell ‘indulgences’
(forgiveness for sin); and that, in the
Communion, the bread and wine did not
actually turn into Christ’s body and blood.
This challenged Catholic beliefs and greatly
angered the leaders of the Catholic Church,
who described him as a ‘master of errors’
and a heretic.
What is heresy?
Heresy is having a set of beliefs or actions that are
different from the established religious beliefs and
ways of behaving. Heresies were thought to offend
God and tempt other people into wrong beliefs.
Christianity was the religion of by far the majority of
Britons at this time and so, when we are talking
about heresy here, we are talking about
disagreements between Christians. In 1350, the
Catholic Church was the established faith;
however, in the 16th century, Henry VIII seized
control of the Church in England, and matters of
faith became more complicated.
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Source A: An
illustration of the
execution of a
heretic.
Wycliffe’s followers were known as Lollards.
He escaped persecution but, 43 years after
his death, his body was dug up, his remains
were burned and thrown into a river. His
followers were, however, persecuted. Laws
against heresy were established in 1382,
1401 and 1414. These show us how
Christian rulers were keen to support the
Church in stamping out beliefs that they
thought were wrong and leading people
astray.
Source B: John A. Wagner and Susan
Walters Schmid, Encyclopedia of Tudor
England (2011).
A 1382 measure allowed sheriffs [local
royal officials] to arrest and imprison
heresy suspects for later trial in church
courts. In 1401, Paliament… authorised
the execution of Lollards… This statute is
significant because it charged secular
authorities with carrying out the burning
of anyone convicted of heresy in
ecclesiastical [Church] courts. A statute
[law] of 1414 expanded the government’s
role in detecting and punishing heresy.
SHP History B
1B Crime and punishment
Crime and punishment 1450-1750
The end of the heresy laws
During the 16th century Reformation things became
more complex. As the Church in England became
divided between Catholics and Protestants, both
sides burned to death the others as heretics
depending on whether they were in charge or not at
the time. Under Henry VIII (ruled 1509-1547),
Protestants were burned for ideas similar to
Wycliffe’s. After 1534, Catholics were executed
when they would not accept Henry VIII as leader of
the Church of England. These Catholics, though,
were executed more for treason than heresy.
After Elizabeth I became queen in 1558,
there was a sharp drop in executions for
heresy. The laws against heresy were
repealed in 1559. The Catholics she
executed were actually killed for treason –
opposing her right to rule. However, people
could still be executed for ‘blasphemy’,
which was insulting or showing contempt
towards God.
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The impact of the Reformation
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2.6 Heresy
Under Henry VIII’s Protestant son, Edward VI
(ruled 1547-1553), one person was executed for
denying that Jesus Christ was a real human being
and another was executed for denying that Jesus
was God. Under Henry VIII’s Catholic daughter,
Mary (ruled 1553-1558), about 290 Protestants
were burnt as heretics. In 1554 she had brought
back heresy laws that had been repealed by Henry
VIII and Edward VI.
The Reformation made things complicated
because, with the monarch claiming to be head of
the Church from 1534, heresy could also be said to
be treason (acting against the royal authority). In
addition, the monarch had the power to execute
opponents (including heretics), which was not
something the Church had been able to do on its
own authority. It had needed the cooperation of the
monarch to use the death penalty. Under a ruler
such as Mary, the full power of the state was
increasingly used to support the Church in rooting
out those accused of heresy.
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Source C: Protestant bishops Hugh Latimer and
Nicholas Ridley are burnt at the stake in Oxford,
16th October 1555. Fox's Book of Martyrs, 1563.
In 1612 the last person was executed for
blasphemy in England and the last in
Scotland in 1697, for denying the belief in
the Trinity (God the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit). Despite this, people were still
punished in other ways. In 1656, James
Naylor was whipped, branded and had a red
hot poker bored through his tongue because
he claimed that he was Christ. By this time
the trials were no longer occurring in the
Church courts, but in the ordinary courts,
and the death penalty was no longer used
for such crimes.
Summary

The Church tried to punish people whose
ideas differed from official beliefs.

The government supported this and this
support increased when the monarch
became head of the Church.

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By the end of the 16 century,
punishment for heresy finally ended.

But punishment for blasphemy continued.
Activities
1 What is ‘heresy’? Using this unit and your
own research, write a definition of this
crime.
2 Explain (with examples) how the
punishment of heresy changed and
developed between 1382 and 1559.
3 How did the Reformation impact on
treatment of this crime?
4 Read Source A. Why were the laws of
1382-1414, so important in the history of
the punishment of heresy in England?