I'm currently reading Churchill's History of the English speaking peoples. I'm enjoying it for the most part since I'm a fiend for English history but one think that I don't remember coming across in my undergraduate course was the de Heretico Comburendo.
Churchill says that >[i]n 1401 a terrible statute, De Heretico Comburendo, condemned relapsed heretics to be burnt alive, and left the judgment solely to the Church, requiring sheriffs to execute it without allowing an appeal to the Crown."
It seems that Henry relinquinshed a very important right that the previous Kings had fought to keep. Furthermore, it seems that it is very foolish to do that since, in theory, couldn't He himself be accused of heresy (this being around the time of the Lollards) and that the archbishop would be the only one to rule on his fate?
Why would Henry have done this? What advantage does it give him?
Massive Edit: Henry IV, not V. Thanks to r/Rittermeister for pointing it out.
I'm not sure whether the error is Churchill's or one of transcription, but Henry V would not become king for another 12 years after 1401 (though it's true he increasingly exercised his father's authority from 1410). He can't have passed a statute in 1401; he was 14 years old at the time.
After deposing Richard II, Henry IV was left in a slightly precarious position - he needed the political influence of the Church to shore up his survival. Heresy during this period in England was considered a matter which unsettled and disturbed the right order of society through fomenting religious and political dissent - Wycliffe and Lollard connections to the Peasant's Revolt in 1381 were foremost in mind of secular and religious ruling classes. It was to both the monarchy and Church's advantage to act against it by putting into place a law which frankly was common practice on the continent for centuries already.
No king at this point would have any fear of a serious accusation of heresy. As much as he needed the Church, the Church needed him. This was held in tension for the balance of the 15th century and famously exploded with Henry VIII.