List of people burned as heretics

This is a list of people burned after being deemed heretics by different Christian Churches. The list does not attempt to encompass the list of those executed by burning for other reasons (such as victims of witch hunts or other persecutions). The Catholic Encyclopedia states that "with the formal recognition of the Church by the State and the increase of ecclesiastical penalties proportioned to the increase of ecclesiastical offences, came an appeal from the Church to the secular arm for aid in enforcing the said penalties, which aid was always willingly granted...deviations from the Catholic Faith, were by the State made punishable in civil law and secular penalties were attached to them."[1] Canon 3 of the Ecumenical Fourth Council of the Lateran, 1215 required secular authorities to "exterminate in the territories subject to their jurisdiction all heretics" pointed out by the Catholic Church,[2] resulting in the inquisitor executing certain people accused of heresy. Some laws allowed the civil government to employ punishment.[3] After they were convicted by the Church, they were turned over to the local government for execution because of religious restrictions that kept ecclesial clergy from actually carrying out the executions.

During the Leipzig Debate prior to his ex-communication, then-Catholic priest Martin Luther made commentary against the morality of burning heretics to death. His position was summarized as "Haereticos comburi est contra voluntatem Spiritus" (It is contrary to the Spirit to burn heretics).[4] As such, it was one of the statements specifically censured in the 1520 papal bull Exsurge Domine.[5] When he failed to accept the bull and give a broad recantation of his writings, he was excommunicated in the subsequent 1521 papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.