The Mortuaries Act 1529 (21 Hen. 8. c. 6), sometimes called the Statute of Mortuaries12 The Reliquary 149 was an act of the Parliament of England. It was one of the "anti-clerical" acts meant to reduce the power of the clergy, passed along with the Probate Act to limit the fees that the clerical courts could collect.
Such fees had been the source of dispute, for example, in Hunne's Case. In connection with that case it was suggested the clergy had murdered a father who was accused of heresy after he lost a court case over unpaid mortuary fees for his deceased child.
The act put limits on the amount of mortuary fees based on the amount of assets of the deceased, abolished fees for married women and children, and called for payment of fees for deceased travellers in the place of their usual habitation.
Section 1 In this section, the words of commencement and the words "of det by writ byll plaint" were repealed by section 1 of, and schedule 1 to, the Statute Law Revision Act 1948 (11 & 12 Geo. 6. c. 62).
The whole act was repealed by section 87 of, and the fifth schedule to, the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963 (No. 1), which came into force on 1 March 1965.
Notes
References Halsbury's Statutes, Archibald John Stephens. The Statutes relating to the Ecclesiastical and Eleemosynary Institutions. 1845. Volume 1. Pages 127 to 130. Amos. Observations on the Statutes of the Reformation Parliament. 1859. Pages 235 and 236.