Arundel was vehement in his sturdy assertion of
Transubstantiation as a litmus test for doctrinal orthodoxy, using it to stifle dissent. One such example was
John Wycliffe, who posited an alternative view of the
eucharist in his 1379 treatise
De Eucharistia. Wycliffe's teachings -
Lollardy - were strongly resisted by both the religious and secular authorities. King Henry IV passed the
De heretico comburendo, i.e. on the burning of heretics, in 1401. This act recited in its preamble that it was directed against a certain new sect "who thought damnably of the sacraments and usurped the office of preaching." It empowered the bishops to arrest, imprison, and examine offenders and to hand over to the secular authorities such as had relapsed or refused to abjure. The condemned were to be burnt "in an high place" before the people. This act was probably due to the authoritative Arundel. Its passing was immediately followed by the burning of the first victim, William Sawtrey, a London priest. He had previously abjured but had relapsed, and he now refused to declare his belief in transubstantiation or to recognize the authority of the Church.
Arundel and the ecclesiastical authorities continued the work of repression. In 1407, a synod at Oxford under Arundel's presidency passed a number of constitutions to regulate preaching, the translation and use of the Scriptures, and the theological education at schools and the university. In 1410, a body of Oxford censors condemned no less than 267 propositions collected out of Wyclif's writings. These different measures seem to have been successful at least as far as the clergy were concerned, and Lollardy came to be more and more a lay movement, often connected with political discontent.
No further executions occurred until 1410, and the penalty was seldom carried out by the bishops. Only eleven people were recorded to have been burnt from 1401, to the accession of
Henry VII in 1485. Others were executed as traitors for being implicated in overt acts of rebellion. Still, it was Arundel who made possible the use of
execution by burning to enforce orthodoxy. Due to this, he was selected by the
BBC History Magazine as the
15th century's worst Briton, and in 2006, he was selected by the
BBC History Magazine as the 9th worst Briton in the last 1000 years. Arundel also supported the prerogatives and divine institution of the
Papacy. He was less popular with Henry's son and successor,
Henry V. He died
19 February 1414.
