Execution by burning
Execution by burning has a long history as a method of
punishment for
crimes such as
treason and for other unpopular acts such as
heresy and the putative practice of
witchcraft (burning, however, was actually less common than
hanging,
pressing or
drowning as a punishment for
witchcraft). For a number of reasons, this method of execution fell into disfavor among governments in the late
18th century; today, it is considered
cruel and unusual punishment. The particular form of execution by
burning in which the condemned is bound to a large
stake is more commonly called
burning at the stake.
If the fire was large (for instance, when a large number of prisoners were executed at the same time), death often came from the
carbon monoxide poisoning before flames actually caused harm to the body. However, if the fire was small, the convict would burn for a few minutes in pain until death from
heatstroke or loss of
blood plasma. Typically, the executioner would arrange a pile of wood around the condemned's feet and calves, with supplementary small bundles of sticks and straw called
faggots at strategic intervals up his/her body. Unless the authorities were particularly vindictive against a prisoner, family and friends could bring additional faggots to make the death more humane.
When applied with skillful
cruelty, the prisoner's skin would burn progressively in the sequence: calves, thighs and hands, torso and forearms, breasts, upper chest, face; and then finally death. On other occasions, people died from
suffocation with only their calves on fire. In many burnings a rope was attached to the convict's neck passing through a ring on the stake and they were simultaneously strangled and burnt. In later years in England, some burnings only took place after the convict had already
hanged for a half-hour. In some Nordic and
German burnings, convicts had containers of gunpowder tied to them or were tied to ladders and then swung into fully burning bonfires. A container of gunpowder tied at the neck might be used to bring about a quicker (and thus more merciful) death, since the victim would suffer only until the gunpowder was heated enough to explode. Some prisoners refused this.
Burning was used as a means of execution in many ancient societies. According to ancient reports,
Roman authorities executed many of the early
Christian martyrs by burning. These reports say that in some cases they failed to be burnt, and had to be
beheaded instead.
Under the
Byzantine Empire, burning was introduced as a punishment for recalcitrant
Zoroastrians, due to the belief that they worshipped fire.
The Roman Emperor
Justinian ordered death by fire, intestacy, and confiscation of all possessions by the State to be the punishment for heresy against the Catholic faith in his
Codex Iustiniani (CJ 1.5.), ratifying the decrees of his predecessors the Emperors
Arcadius and
Flavius Augustus Honorius.
In
1184, the
Synod of Verona legislated that burning was to be the official punishment for
heresy. This decree was later reaffirmed by the
Fourth Council of the Lateran in
1215, the
Synod of Toulouse in
1229, and numerous spiritual and secular leaders up through the
17th century. The Church considered the interment of the intact body as a requisite for final resurrection; burning precluded resurrection, and thus was considered appropriate for both temporal and spiritual execution.
Among the best-known individuals to be executed by burning were
Jacques de Molay (
1314),
Jan Hus (
1415),
St Joan of Arc (
May 30,
1431),
William Tyndale (
1536),
Michael Servetus (
1553),
Giordano Bruno (
1600), and
Avvakum (
1682). Anglican martyrs
Hugh Latimer and
Nicholas Ridley (both in
1555), and
Thomas Cranmer (
1556) were also burned at the stake.
In the United Kingdom, the traditional punishment for women found guilty of treason was to be burnt at the stake, while men were
hanged, drawn and quartered. There were two types of treason,
high treason for crimes against the Sovereign, and
petty treason for the murder of one's lawful superior, including that of a husband by his wife. In
1790, Sir
Benjamin Hammett introduced a bill into
Parliament to end what is now widely considered a barbaric practice. He explained that the year before as
Sheriff of
London he had been responsible for the burning of
Catherine Murphy, found guilty of
counterfeiting, but that he had allowed her to be hanged first. He pointed out that as the law stood, he himself could have been found guilty of a crime in not carrying out the lawful punishment and, as no woman had been burnt alive in the kingdom for over fifty years, so could all those still alive who had held an official position at all of the previous burnings. The act was duly passed by Parliament and given
royal assent by King
George III (30 George III. C. 48).
[Burning at the stake]Contrary to popular belief, people are still accused of witchcraft and burnt today (most notably in
Africa). Executions by burning (from modern
witchhunts) have occurred as recently as
2000 in
India and
Kenya.
*
List of burned heretics*
Witchcraft*
Witchhunt
