Richard Hunne was an English

merchant tailor In the Middle Ages or 16th and 17th centuries, a cloth merchant was one who owned or ran a cloth (often wool) manufacturing or wholesale import or export business. A cloth merchant might additionally own a number of draper's shops. Cloth was ext ...

in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

during the early years of the reign of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

(1509-1547). After a dispute with his priest over his infant son's funeral, Hunne sought to use the English

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

courts to challenge the church's authority. In response, church officials arrested him for trial in an ecclesiastical court on the capital charge of

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

. In December 1514, while awaiting trial, Hunne was found dead in his cell, and murder by church officials was suspected. His death caused widespread anger against the clergy, and months of political and religious turmoil followed.

Life

In March 1511, Hunne refused to pay the standard mortuary fee, the baby's christening robe, to the rector of

St Mary Matfelon St Mary Matfelon church, popularly known as St Mary's, Whitechapel, was a Catholic then after the English Reformation a Church of England parish church on Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel, London (in the county of Middlesex until 1889). It is repea ...

Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...

, Thomas Dryffeld, after the funeral of his dead five-week-old son called Stephen. The matter was not pursued by the

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

until Hunne and a friend challenged the rector of

St Michael Cornhill St Michael, Cornhill, is a medieval parish church in the City of London with pre-Norman Conquest parochial foundation. It lies in the ward of Cornhill. The medieval structure was lost in the Great Fire of London, and replaced by the present bui ...

over the title to a tenement in November 1511. Hunne was then sued by the rector of St Mary Matfelon for the mortuary fee and appeared in the ecclesiastical Court of Audience, presided over by

Cuthbert Tunstall Cuthbert Tunstall (otherwise spelt Tunstal or Tonstall; 1474 – 18 November 1559) was an England, English humanist, bishop, diplomat, administrator and royal adviser. He served as Bishop of Durham during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI of ...

, chancellor to the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

, in April 1512. The court found in favour of the rector. On 27 December 1512, Hunne attended

vespers Vespers /ˈvɛspərz/ () is a Christian liturgy, liturgy of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Catholic (both Latin liturgical rites, Latin and Eastern Catholic liturgy, Eastern Catholic liturgical rites), Eastern Orthodox, Oriental O ...

at the same church and the priest refused to proceed with the service until Hunne left. According to the account of Hunne in

John Foxe John Foxe (1516/1517 – 18 April 1587) was an English clergyman, theologian, and historian, notable for his martyrology '' Foxe's Book of Martyrs'', telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the sufferings of En ...

's ''

Acts and Monuments The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a two-par ...

'',
at hrionline.ac.uk the priest shouted "Hunne, thou art accursed and standest accursed!", meaning by this that Hunne had been Excommunication, excommunicated by the ecclesiastical court. Hunne responded in January 1513 by suing the priest for

slander Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making wikt:asserti ...

claiming his character and business had been ruined by the priest's accusation. He also counteracted with a ''

praemunire In English history, or ( or ) was the assertion or maintenance of papal jurisdiction, or any other foreign jurisdiction or claim of supremacy in England, against the supremacy of the monarch. The 14th-century law prohibiting this was enforced ...

'' charge against the church court in which he had been arraigned and argued that its authority derived from a

Papal legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the Pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title '' legatus'') is a personal representative of the Pope to foreign nations, to some other part of the Catho ...

and therefore was a foreign court which could have no legitimate

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...

over the

King of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers Constitutional monarchy, regula ...

's subjects. The London clergy responded by again charging Hunne, this time for

. Hunne was then sent to the Lollards' Tower of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

, after a raid on his house in October 1514 had uncovered an

English Bible More than 100 complete translations into English languages have been produced. Translations of Biblical books, especially passages read in the Liturgy can be traced back to the late 7th century, including translations into Old and Middle Eng ...

with a prologue sympathetic to Wycliffe's teachings. Hunne was found hanging in his cell on 4 December 1514, and the circumstances were suspicious. There was widespread anger against the clergy among the populace of the City of London. The Church went ahead with Hunne's heresy trial in spite of his death, and he was duly condemned. His corpse was

burned at the stake Death by burning is an list of execution methods, execution, murder, or suicide method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a puni ...

on 20 December. Hunne's accusers claimed that he had committed suicide, but they could not convince the coroner's jury, which in February 1515, charged William Horsey, chancellor to the

Bishop of London The bishop of London is the Ordinary (church officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury. By custom the Bishop is also Dean of the Chapel Royal since 1723. The diocese covers of 17 boroughs o ...

, and two other church officials with Hunne's murder. The political and religious crisis continued to grow. Bishop FitzJames of London wrote to the King's Chancellor, Archbishop Wolsey, asking him to persuade the King to prevent Horsey being put on trial. He said that Horsey would not get a fair trial because of the strength of public feeling, which had built up against the Church: "...if my chancellor be tried by any twelve men in London, they be so maliciously set in favor of heretical depravity that they will cast and condemn my clerk though he be as innocent as Abel." The king eventually intervened to stifle the situation. Horsey was kept in prison until the anger in London abated. Then he was brought before a civil court, but King Henry had ordered his attorney general to see that the case was dismissed on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Horsey went free, but the public anger was exacerbated by his release, and

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

became more and more involved. To calm the situation, Wolsey went before Parliament and on his knees made an apology to them on behalf of the clergy. Wolsey's real aim, however, was to get Parliament to agree to the case being tried in Rome. Then, the king intervened, rejecting Wolsey's proposal and stating that the sovereign of the realm had previously made his decision and that no one had a right to overrule his decision but God himself. Wolsey later fined Horsey and expelled him 160 miles from the capital. Horsey lived out the rest of his life in great poverty.

Aftermath

In 1515, as a result of this affair, Parliament debated whether to approve a bill to restore to Hunne's children the property that had been forfeited when their father was found, posthumously, guilty of heresy. The

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

petitioned

to reform the law on mortuary fees and an attempt was made to extend laws against

benefit of clergy In English law, the benefit of clergy ( Law Latin: ''privilegium clericale'') was originally a provision by which clergymen accused of a crime could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead in an ec ...

. None of the proposed laws was enacted. Foxe recounted Hunne's case as evidence of the unfairness and unaccountability of English ecclesiastical courts on the eve of the

English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...

. He also presented Hunne as a martyr and one of the forerunners of the

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

that would soon enter England in the wake of

Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...

's protest. An anonymous account, "''The enquirie and verdite of the quest panneld of the death of Richard Hune which was founde hanged in Lolars tower''", published in 1537, suggests that its author also saw parallels between Hunne's case and the Henrician Reformation's attempt to bring ecclesiastical courts under state control.

References

Notes

Select bibliography

* Bernard, G.W. ''The Late Medieval English Church: Vitality and Vulnerability before the Break with Rome''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012 (Chapter 1: "The Hunne Affair," pp. 1–16). * Dale, Richard. "The Death of an Alleged Heretic (Richard Hunne: d.1514) Explained" ''Reformation and Renaissance Review'': 15:2: 2013. * Davis, E. Jeffries. "The Authorities for the Case of Richard Hunne (1514–15)." ''The English Historical Review'' 30, no. 119 (July 1915): 477–488. * Ogle, Arthur. ''The Tragedy of the Lollards Tower'': Oxford: Oxford University Press: 1949. * Smart, S. J. "John Foxe and 'The Story of Richard Hun, Martyr.'" ''Journal of Ecclesiastical History'' 37 (1986): 1–14. * Wunderli, R. "Pre-Reformation London Summoners and the Murder of Richard Hunne." ''Journal of Ecclesiastical History'' 33 (1982): 209–24. * Marius Richard "Thomas More"- Chapter 8 the Richard Hunne Affair.

External links

Woodcut of Hunne in Lollards Tower from the ''Book of Martyrs''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunne, Richard Prisoners murdered in custody English murder victims People murdered in England People excommunicated by the Catholic Church English people who died in prison custody Prisoners who died in Kingdom of England detention Lollard martyrs English tailors Year of birth missing 15th-century births 1514 deaths 15th-century English businesspeople 16th-century English people People from Whitechapel Deaths by hanging 16th-century tailors Year of birth unknown People convicted of heresy