Crime and Punishment / 1530s-1600s
Crime and Punishment: Heresy and Treason
Religious change made heresy and treason much more serious in the Early Modern period.
What To Remember
- Heresy was religious belief against the official Church; treason was a crime against the monarch.
- Henry VIII's break with Rome linked the monarch's authority to the Church of England.
- As the official religion changed, religious disobedience could become both heresy and treason.
Religious change
Henry VIII changed the English Church during the 1530s by breaking from the Pope and making the monarch head of the Church in England.
Edward VI then pushed Protestantism further, Mary I restored Catholicism, and Elizabeth I restored a Protestant settlement.
These swings made religion closely linked to loyalty, politics and state power.
Heresy and treason
Heresy was seen as a crime against the Church and against God.
Treason was a crime against the king or queen.
Once the monarch controlled the Church, refusing the official religion could be treated as an attack on royal authority as well as a religious offence.
Punishment
Heretics could be burnt at the stake, though many recanted by publicly stating they had changed their beliefs.
Treason was punished even more brutally, often by hanging, drawing and quartering for men convicted of high treason.
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 is a key example: Catholic plotters who tried to kill James I and Parliament were convicted of treason and executed.
Revision Prompt
Why did heresy and treason become linked in the Early Modern period?