Bishop Gilbert Burnet: "History of the Reformation of the Church of Engl...

 

Ecclesiastical immunities from civil courts becomes a conflicted and contested issue. This is debated in Convocation and Parliament. Hunne, an alleged Wycliffite owning a Wycliffe Bible, hanged in prison, occasions the debate. It was alleged as a suicide, but an inquest showed a homicide. He had been in the Lollards’ Prison at St. Paul’s under ecclesiastical arrest. Who should be held accountable and where? Those of the Bishop’s household? A Royal court or an ecclesiastical court? Londoners were unhappy about the burning of Hunnes’ body at Smithfield and the coverup for the Bishop’s boys (41ff.). The King is conscious of this tug-of-war between the temporals and spirituals.


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