1677: 29 Charles 2 c.9: Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Act

1677: 29 Charles 2 c.9: An act for taking away the writ de hæretico comburendo.

BE it enacted by the King’s most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That the writ commonly called Breve de hæretico comburendo, with all process and proceedings thereupon, in order to the executing such writ, or following or depending thereupon, and all punishment by death, in pursuance of any ecclesiastical censures, be from henceforth utterly taken away and abolished; any law, statute, canon, constitution, custom or usage, to the contrary heretofore or now in force, in any wise notwithstanding.

[A saving of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. 1 Salk. 135, 136.]

II. Provided always, That nothing in this act shall extend or be construed to take away or abridge the jurisdiction of protestant archbishops or bishops, or any other judges of any ecclesiastical courts, in cases of atheism, blasphemy, heresy or schism, and other damnable doctrines and opinions, but that they may proceed to punish the same according to his Majesty’s ecclesiastical laws, by excommunication, deprivation, degradation and other ecclesiastical censures, not extending to death, in such sort and no other, as they might have done before the making of this act; any thing in this law contained to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

Source: Pickering, Statutes at Large, vol. 8. See also Statutes of the Realm at British History Online.

See also 2 Henry 4 c.15: De heretico comburendo.

Further reading: Wygiera “Decriminalizing Heresy“; Wikipedia.