Under Henry IV the first act was passed by Lords and clergy,
apparently with the assent of the House of Commons, for punishing
heretics by burning at the stake, and the first martyr suffered in
that reign. Later, the Lollards, or followers of Wycliffe, who appear
in many cases to have been socialists as well as religious reformers,
were punished by imprisonment, and occasionally with death. The whole
number of martyrs, however, was small.