The early sixteenth century was a time of great change for religion. Many people felt that the rites and practices of the Roman Catholic Church had become bloated and mercenary. Martin Luther, a German priest, found the selling of “indulgences” particularly galling. These had become a way for people to pay to have their sins forgiven. He nailed his concerns to the church door in 1517 and those issues, now known as the “95 theses” were copied and translated across Europe.

The ensuing debates and controversy eventually led to Martin Luther’s excommunication, and he had to take refuge in a castle. He was effectively an outlaw and subject to arrest or even execution if he left. While there he translates the Bible into German for the first time. Ordinary people could now read it in their own language, only priests or learned people could read the Bible in Latin. People began to make up their own minds about Church matters

In England a series of laws were passed which gradually separated us from the Catholic Church. First money that used to be paid to the Pope was stopped and then Henry is confirmed as Supreme Head of the English Church. Next, a formal gathering of church officials decides, that as Henry was the Supreme Head of the Church, he could disregard all further requests and orders from the Pope. This ends our association with the Roman Catholic Church and sets off a chain of consequences that are still being felt today.

Two years later schoolmaster and scholar, Thomas Lambert, is accused of heresy and imprisoned. Hoping perhaps that Henry VIII shares his modern views he appeals to the King for justice. That sets the scene for what follows.

Thomas Lambert was educated at Cambridge University and had come to believe some of these new religious ideas. Perhaps fearing persecution for believing these things he moved to the city of Antwerp, Belgium. He didn’t go far enough though as a few months later he was arrested and brought back to England to stand trial. That trial was abandoned when his chief accuser, the Archbishop of Canterbury died and perhaps Mr Lambert should have left the country again.

Instead, he left the priesthood and set up a small school in London teaching Greek and Latin.  He could not or would not keep his views to himself, after all this was important stuff and a person’s eternal soul was at risk if things were not done right. After church one Sunday, he started a debate with a local priest and was asked to submit his views in writing. That writing damned him and he was arrested for heresy.

Henry VIII decides to hold a debate with him in Westminster Hall. The Hall was set up for a public hearing, with Bishops in attendance and raked seating for the audience. The King opened the proceedings and then left it to his Bishops to argue the case. After five hours of debate, when it became clear that Thomas was not going to change his mind, he was sentenced to be burned alive.

Henry asked for his agony to be extended as a warning to other heretics. So as Thomas’s legs began to burn, he was lifted high on pike staffs and held there to die more slowly.

What was the crime that he committed, the crime that required this most cruel public burning?



He denied the literal presence of Christ in the bread and wine of the communion ceremony.