His lodgings were searched and instead of evidence of the "libels" there was found an Arianist tract, described by an investigator as "vile heretical conceits denying the eternal deity of Jesus Christ found amongst the papers of Thos. Kydd (sic), prisoner ... which he affirmeth he had from C. Marley (sic)". It is believed that Kyd was tortured brutally to obtain this information. Kyd told authorities the writings found in his possession belonged to Christopher Marlowe, a fellow dramatist and former roommate. Kyd “accused his former roommate of being a blasphemous traitor, an atheist who believed that Jesus Christ was a homosexual,” an uninformed confusion over the Arian and Early Gnostic concept of homoousios. Unfortunately, Kyd was with Marlowe at the wrong place at the wrong time. Marlowe was summoned by the Privy Council after these events, and, while waiting for a decision on his case, was killed in an incident in Deptford involving known government agents. Kyd was eventually released but was not accepted back into his lord's service. Believing he was under suspicion of atheism himself, he wrote to the Lord Keeper, Sir John Puckering, protesting his innocence, but his efforts to clear his name were apparently fruitless. The last we hear from the playwright is the publication of Cornelia early in 1594. In the dedication to the Countess of Sussex he alludes to the "bitter times and privy broken passions" he had endured. Kyd died later that year at the age of 35, and was buried on 15 August in St Mary Colechurch in London. In December of that same year, Kyd's mother legally renounced the administration of his estate, probably because it was debt-ridden. St Mary Colechurch was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and not rebuilt. Thus Thomas Kyd's grave was lost to posterity. Works The dates of composition are approximate. Don Horatio (partially extant in The First Part of Hieronimo, c. 1586) The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1587) The Householder's Philosophy (translation, 1588) The Murder of John Brewen (pamphlet, 1592) Fair Em (attributed, c. 1590) Arden of Faversham (attributed, 1592) Solyman and Perseda (attributed, c. 1593) Cornelia (translation of Robert Garnier, 1594) King Leir (attributed, 1594) References Bibliography Philip Edwards, The Spanish Tragedy, Methuen, 1959, reprinted 1974. . Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe, Vintage, 2002 (revised edition). (especially for the circumstances surrounding Kyd's arrest). External links Thomas Kyd