Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
de haeretico comburendo
n. [Law Latin "of burning a heretic"] Hist. 1. A writ ordering the execution by burning of a heretic who, after having already been convicted of heresy by the bishop and recanted, was again convicted by a secular court. - Also termed writ de haeretico comburendo. "And . .. we 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 4617 (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). 0 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 1 544 1899).
writ de haeretico comburendo
See DE HAERETICO COMBURENDO.