MURDER of RICHARD HUNNE
In the early years of the reign of King Henry VIII,
Richard Hunne, a financially secure Merchant Taylor in the City of London,
refused to pay the fee demanded by the priest when he conducted the burial
service of Hunne’s infant son. The priest demanded the christening gown, and
Hunne would not give it to him. From this squabble, charges of heresy were made
against Hunne who retaliated with charges of slander and raised the fundamental
question of who was in charge of England? The Pope in Rome? Or the King in
Westminster? Richard Hunne did not cause the separation of the Church of
England from the Church of Rome, but his murder was closely connected with the
issue that rocked England.
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