DE HAERETICO COMBURENDO

De haeretico comburendo: translation

Lit. 'on the burning of heretics'. This statute of 1401 determined that heretics, having been convicted of heresy by a spiritual court and subsequently refusing to recant, were to be handed over to the secular authorities to be burned at the stake. It was inspired by the authoritarian Archbishop Arundel; few were actually burned at the stake, however. Between 1401 and 1485 there were only 11 such cruel executions. -

Cf. Constance, Council of