I came in here to mention him. He wasn’t burned at the stake, but his torture sounded at least as bad, lasting as it did over the course of a couple of days. His refusal to utter a plea meant that he kept his estate, passing it on to his sons-in-law when he died, so it’s not clear how much of his refusal to plead was meant as a big ol “fuck you” to his executioners, and how much was meant to preserve his estate for his heirs. Also, he was already 70, so he may have have thought “meh, I’m not gonna live much longer no matter what.” He’s not the only one who refused to plead, but he’s perhaps the most famous.
It depends. If your executioners are merciful, they’ll stoke a raging bonfire that sears your lungs and renders you unconscious in fairly short order. OTOH, if they’re total dicks, they’ll keep it on simmer and slowly roast you. The Wikipedia page on death by burning mentions a number of instances of people being burned at a deliberately slow pace, resulting in the victim lasting many hours before finally expiring.
I am eternally grateful to Jesus for putting in the part about “save us from the time of trial” in the Lord’s Prayer, because I am not sure I could hold out even if it was something I considered important.
There are people like Thomas Cranmer, however. He was an early Protestant, and forced to recant his denial of the supreme authority of the Pope. He then publicly renounced his recantation in a sermon, and was condemned to burning at the stake.
When the fire started, he deliberately put his right hand into the hottest part of the flame because that was the hand he used to sign the recantation. :eek: He then put his head and face into the flames, breathing in, so that he died relatively quickly after that.
What I say to others:
What I believe about the situation:
What I think I want to do in the future where it happens:
When it happens and I do something different. Ya think?:
What I say I would do, What I think I can do, and what I actually do are quiet likely for me so they will be so far apart that they are on different planets.
Haven’t been burned at the stake, ( not that some folks would like that ) but in my life I have way more than one thing happen or I did that would be exactly the way the OP framed it. Minus the burning of course…
Burning at the stake is a terrible, extremely painful way to die. I’d like to think I have the courage of my convictions… but I suspect I would crumble and say whatever the theocratic assholes wanted to hear in order to quench the fire.
