Three slightly different methods of burning were used. The first, consisted of using a heap of faggots piled around a wooden stake above which the prisoner was attached with chains or iron hoops. The British and Spanish Inquisition preferred this method as it had the greatest visual impact.
The second method, mostly used on witches, was to tie the condemned to the stake and heap faggots all round them, effectively hiding their sufferings from sight so that they died inside a wall of flames . It is said that Joan of Arc died by this method.
The third method, used in Germany and the Nordic countries, involved typing the prisoner to a near vertical ladder, the top of which was tied to a frame, and then swinging them down onto the fire.
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The witch was strangled first, and then her corpse--or sometimes her unconscious or semiconscious body--was tied to a stake or dumped into a tar barrel and set afire. If the witch was not dead and managed to get out of the flames, onlookers shoved her back in.
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Burning, by the way, didn't mean being burned alive. If you recanted (admitted you'd made a mistake and were sorry), you were killed beforehand, and then your body was consigned to the flames.
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In France, Germany, Switzerland, and Scotland, almost all of the executed were garroted before the flames were lit.
There seem to be several different ways. I think I'll use the first method, but some of my victims may be killed beforehand. *lol* I sound like a serial killer!
7 comments:
Being burnt alive was a horrible way to die, especially following some of the more gruesome tortures.
Enjoy your tea!
Thanks for writing Feena. Very interesting. I hope we get to read more about the first draft and various witchy topics...
Yeah-- humans never really had a "golden age of enlightenment" did they? Getting shoved back in a burning barrel... now I don't think I will mind so much when I get "attacked" (verbally) by Right Wing Christians. ("Witchcraft is the work of Satan!" etc)... I can't wait to read the first draft! Glad to hear you got some writing done!!!
PS-- Isn't garroted the same as gutted?
Garrotting is a form of strangulation. Sometimes in films they use piano-wire, but in the old days they often used an actual device where someone sat on a stool with their back to a post. A rope was put around their neck and the post, a stick placed into a loop in the rope and twisted to tighten it. In later versions metal collars were used instead.
Gutting is probably more like a form of disembowelment, and part of a ‘hanged, drawn and quartered‘ execution for treason.
According to Wikipedia a person would be:
Dragged on a hurdle (a wooden frame) to the place of execution.
Hanged by the neck, but removed before death.
Disembowelled, and the genitalia and entrails burned before the victim's eyes; the heart was the last to be removed and was then shown to the victim before the entrails were burned.
Beheaded and the body divided into four parts (quartered).
You know, I read some of my entries and think, aren't I a lovely girl! *lol*
Bear in mind that in England, witches were hanged and not burnt. I think they were hanged in America as well.
The reason is, that in England witchcraft was a felony under criminal law, not a heresy under ecclesiastical law. Heretics were burnt in England and everywhere else. In Europe and Scotland, witchcraft was regarded as a heresy and tried under ecclesiastical law, therefore those found guilty were burnt.
The activities that witches were accused of in England were different as well. In Europe and Scotland they were accused of attending Sabbats, making pacts with the devil, sacrificing babies (especially midwives), and the osculam infamum (kissing each other's rear ends). In England, they were accused of having familiars, which they suckled at their witch's teats, and using witchcraft to harm others.
Malleus Maleficarum was known in England (and used by Matthew Hopkins) but it was not as influential here as it was in Europe.
That's really useful yvonne thank you :-) I knew that witches were normally hanged in England, and I'm getting round that by making the witch-hunter Scottish, where they did burn them. It causes controversy in the village because some people don't agree with this manner of death.
I'll make sure that I use the right law and form of trial. I imagine that priests would sit on Scottish trials, and non-clergy in England?
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