Editing Death by burning (section)

====Medieval Inquisition and the burning of heretics====
[[File:Templars Burning.jpg|right|thumb|Burning of the [[Knights Templar]], 1314]]

The first recorded case of heretics being burnt in Western Europe in the [[Middle Ages]] occurred in 1022 at [[Orléans]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rice |first=Joshua |date=1 June 2022 |title=Burn in Hell |journal=History Today |volume=72 |issue=6 |pages=16–18}}[https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/burn-hell]</ref> Civil authorities burned persons judged to be [[Heresy|heretics]] under the [[medieval]] [[Inquisition]]. Burning heretics had become customary practice in the latter half of the twelfth century in continental Europe, and death by burning became statutory punishment from the early 13th century. Death by burning for heretics was made positive law by [[Pedro II of Aragon]] in 1197. In 1224, [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor]], made burning a legal alternative, and in 1238, it became the principal punishment in the Empire. In [[Sicily]], the punishment was made law in 1231.

In England at the start of the 15th century, the teachings of [[John Wycliffe]] and the [[Lollards]] began to be seen as a threat to the establishment, and draconic punishments were enacted. In 1401, Parliament passed the ''[[De heretico comburendo]]'' Act, which can be loosely translated as "Regarding the burning of heretics." Lollard persecution would continue for over a hundred years in England. The [[Fire and Faggot Parliament]] met in May 1414 at [[Grey Friars Priory]] in [[Leicester]] to lay out the notorious [[Suppression of Heresy Act 1414]], enabling the burning of heretics by making the crime enforceable by the [[justices of the peace]]. [[John Oldcastle]], a prominent Lollard leader, was not saved from the gallows by his old friend King [[Henry V of England|Henry V]]. Oldcastle was hanged and his gallows burned in 1417. [[Jan Hus]] was burned at the stake after being accused at the Roman Catholic [[Council of Constance]] (1414–18) of heresy. The council also decreed that the remains of [[John Wycliffe]], dead for 30 years, should be exhumed and burned. This [[posthumous execution]] was carried out in 1428.