Crimes punishable by burning

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By the end of the thirteenth century, several offences against either one's lord, or one's king, were treasonable.

High treason, defined as transgressions against the sovereign, was first codified during King Edward III's reign by the Treason Act 1351. It clarified exactly what crimes constituted treason, following earlier, somewhat "over zealous" interpretations of England's legal codes.

For instance, high treason could be committed by anyone found to be compassing the king's death or counterfeiting his coin. High treason remained distinct though, from what became known as petty treason: the killing of a lawful superior, such as a husband by his wife.Though twelfth century contemporary authors made few attempts to differentiate between high treason and petty treason,
enhanced punishments may indicate that the latter was treated more seriously than an ordinary felony.
As the most egregious offence an individual could commit, viewed as seriously as though the accused had personally attacked the monarch, high treason demanded the ultimate punishment.
But whereas men guilty of this crime were hanged, drawn and quartered, women were drawn and burned.

In his Commentaries on the Laws of England the 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone noted that the sentence, "to be drawn to the gallows, and there to be burned alive", was "full as terrible to the sensation as the other". Blackstone wrote that women were burned rather than quartered as "the decency due to the sex forbids the exposing and publicly mangling their bodies".
However, an observation by historian Jules Michelet, that "the first flame to rise consumed the clothes, revealing poor trembling nakedness",
may, in the opinion of historian Vic Gatrell, suggest that this solution is "misconceived". In The Hanging Tree, Gatrell concludes that the occasional live burial of women in Europe gave tacit acknowledgement to the possibility that a struggling, kicking female hanging from a noose could "elicit obscene fantasies" from watching males.

Heresy

Another law enforceable by public burning was De heretico comburendo, introduced in 1401 during the reign of Henry IV. It allowed for the execution of persons of both sexes found guilty of heresy, thought to be "sacrilegious and dangerous to souls, but also seditious and treasonable." Bishops were empowered to arrest and imprison anyone suspected of offences related to heresy and, once convicted, send them to be burned "in the presence of the people in a lofty place". Although the act was repealed in 1533/34, it was revived over 20 years later at the request of Queen Mary I who, during the Marian persecutions, made frequent use of the punishment it allowed.


De heretico comburendo was repealed by the Act of Supremacy 1558, although that act allowed ecclesiastical commissions to deal with occasional instances of heresy. Persons declared guilty, such as Bartholomew Legate and Edward Wightman, could still be burned under a writ of de heretico comburendo issued by the Court of Chancery.
The burning of heretics was finally ended by the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Act 1677 which, although it allowed ecclesiastical courts to charge people with "atheism, blasphemy, heresy, schism, or other damnable doctrine or opinion", limited their power to excommunication.