Hunne's case

Scandal when a London merchant, Richard Hunne was found hanging in his cell in the Bishop of London's prison 4 December 1514 while awaiting trial for heresy. The church claimed he had committed suicide out of guilt but it was widely believed that the charge of heterodoxy was only brought by Bishop Fitzjames because Hunne had challenged the church's right to levy a mortuary tax on the death of a parishioner. Hunne's corpse was burned by the church authorities, preventing its examination but a coroner's court charged the bishop's chancellor, Dr Horsey, with murder. The church protested that lay courts had no authority over the clergy and the case was taken up by the growing anticlerical movement. It was brought before Henry VIII twice but ended in compromise: Horsey was fined and forbidden from living in London but was not formally prosecuted.