Editing Death by burning (section)

==Historical use==
===Antiquity===
====Ancient Near East====

====Old Babylonia====
The 18th-century BCE law code promulgated by [[Babylonian King]] [[Hammurabi]] specifies several crimes in which death by burning was thought appropriate. Looters of houses on fire could be cast into the flames, and priestesses who abandoned cloisters and began frequenting inns and taverns could also be punished by being burnt alive. Furthermore, when a man committed [[incest]] with his mother after the death of his father, both mother and son could be ordered to be burned alive.<ref>''Roth'' (2010), [https://books.google.com/books?id=awrOHv-gtqQC&pg=PA5 p. 5]</ref><ref>''Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative'' (2024), [https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/464358]</ref>

====Ancient Egypt====
In [[Ancient Egypt]], several incidents of burning perceived rebels alive are attested to. [[Senusret I]] (r. 1971–1926&nbsp;BC) is said to have rounded up the rebels in campaign, and burnt them as human torches. Under the civil war flaring under [[Takelot II]] more than a thousand years later, the [[Osorkon III|Crown Prince Osorkon]] showed no mercy, and burned several rebels alive.<ref>''Wilkinson'' (2011): Senusret I incident, [https://books.google.com/books?id=P07rgiJjsk4C&pg=PA169 p. 169] Osorkon incident, [https://books.google.com/books?id=P07rgiJjsk4C&pg=PA412 p. 412]</ref> On the statute books, at least, women committing adultery might be burned to death. [[Jon Manchip White]], however, did not think capital judicial punishments were often carried out, pointing to the fact that the [[pharaoh]] had to personally [[Ratification|ratify]] each verdict.<ref>''White'' (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=GVhQ_lDWq0EC&pg=PA167 p. 167]</ref>

====Assyria====
In the [[Middle Assyrian period]], paragraph 40 in a preserved law text concerns the obligatory unveiled face for the professional prostitute, and the concomitant punishment if she violated that by veiling herself (the way wives were to dress in public):
{{blockquote|A prostitute shall not be veiled. Whoever sees a veiled prostitute shall seize her ... and bring her to the palace entrance. ... they shall pour hot [[Pitch (resin)|pitch]] over her head.<ref>''Schneider'' (2008), [https://books.google.com/books?id=4hHLe60cYBcC&pg=PA154 p. 154]</ref>}}

For the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Neo-Assyrians]], mass executions seem to have been not only designed to instill terror and to enforce obedience, but also as proof of their might. Neo-Assyrian King [[Ashurnasirpal II]] (r. 883–859 BC) was evidently proud enough of his executions that he committed them to monument as follows:<ref>''Olmstead'' (1918) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1946342 p. 66]</ref>{{blockquote|I cut off their hands, I burned them with fire, a pile of the living men and of heads over against the city gate I set up, men I impaled on stakes, the city I destroyed and devastated, I turned it into mounds and ruin heaps, the young men and the maidens in the fire I burned.}}

====Hebraic tradition====
In [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] 38, [[Judah (biblical person)|Judah]] orders [[Tamar (Genesis)|Tamar]]—the widow of his son, living in her father's household—to be burned when she is believed to have become pregnant via extramarital sexual relations. Tamar saves herself by proving that Judah is himself the father of her child. In the [[Book of Jubilees]], the same story is told, with some differences. In Genesis, Judah is exercising his patriarchal power at a distance, whereas he and the relatives seem more actively involved in Tamar's impending execution.<ref>''Reeder'' (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=PiNSpBdtsCgC&pg=PA82 p. 82]</ref>

In [[Halakha|Hebraic law]], death by burning was prescribed for ten forms of sexual crimes: the imputed crime of Tamar, namely that a married daughter of a priest commits adultery, and nine versions of relationships considered as incestuous, such as having sex with one's own daughter, or granddaughter, but also having sex with one's mother-in-law or with one's wife's daughter.<ref>Full list in ''Quint'' (2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=2nEZQXWsXG4C&pg=PA257 p. 257]</ref>

In the [[Mishnah]], the following manner of burning the criminal is described:
{{blockquote|The obligatory procedure for execution by burning: They immersed him in dung up to his knees, rolled a rough cloth into a soft one and wound it about his neck. One pulled it one way, one the other until he opened his mouth. Thereupon one ignites the (lead) wick and throws it in his mouth, and it descends to his bowels and sears his bowels.}}

That is, the person dies from being fed molten lead.<ref>Quotation from ''Ben-Menahem, Edrei, Hecht'' (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=J-ZE_BJpJnIC&pg=PA111 p. 111]</ref>

====Ancient Rome====
[[File:Siemiradski Fackeln.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Nero's Torches]]]]
According to [[Christian legend]], [[Roman Empire|Roman]] authorities executed many of the early [[Martyr#Christianity|Christian martyrs]] by burning, including the [[military saint|warrior saint]] [[Theodore Tiron|Theodore]] and [[Polycarp]], the earliest recorded martyr.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.iv.iv.html|title=ANF01. The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus – Christian Classics Ethereal Library|website=ccel.org}}</ref> Sometimes Roman immolation was carried out using the ''[[tunica molesta]]'',<ref>[[Juvenal]] has an extended description of the tunica molesta, the punishment as meted out by Emperor [[Nero]] as contained in [[Tacitus]] matches the concept. See ''Pagán'' (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=bHzMYrWHjVoC&pg=PA53 p. 53]</ref> a flammable tunic:<ref>''Miley'' (1843), [https://books.google.com/books?id=iSsLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA223 pp. 223–224]</ref>

{{blockquote|... the Christian, stripped naked, was forced to put on a garment called the tunica molesta, made of papyrus, smeared on both sides with wax, and was then fastened to a high pole, from the top of which they continued to pour down burning pitch and lard, a spike fastened under the chin preventing the excruciated victim from turning the head to either side, so as to escape the liquid fire, until the whole body, and every part of it, was literally clad and cased in flame.}}

In 326, [[Constantine the Great]] promulgated a law that increased the penalties for parentally non-sanctioned "abduction" of their girls, and concomitant sexual intercourse/rape. The man would be burnt alive without the possibility of appeal, and the girl would receive the same treatment if she had participated willingly. Nurses who had corrupted their female wards and led them to sexual encounters would have molten lead poured down their throats.<ref>[[Codex Theodosianus]] [http://ancientrome.ru/ius/library/codex/theod/liber09.htm#24 9,24]. Law text found in ''Pharr'' (2001), [https://books.google.com/books?id=-ROBb7SIvYgC&pg=PA244 pp. 244–245] The full law was changed in context to the penalties just 20 years later by Constantine's son, [[Constantius II]], for free citizens aiding and abetting in the abduction, to an unspecified "capital punishment". The full severity of the law was to be kept, however, for slaves. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-ROBb7SIvYgC&pg=PA245 p. 245], ''ibidem''</ref> In the same year, Constantine also passed a law that said if a woman had sexual relations with her own slave, both would be subjected to capital punishment, the slave by burning (if the slave himself reported the {{nowrap|offense—}}presumably having been {{nowrap|raped—}}he was to be set free).<ref>Law text in [[Codex Justinianus]] [https://droitromain.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/Anglica/CJ9_Scott.gr.htm#11 9.11.1], as referred to in ''Winroth, Müller, Sommar'' (2006), [https://books.google.com/books?id=4smZ4JjGJcsC&pg=PA107 p. 107]</ref> In 390 AD, Emperor [[Theodosius I|Theodosius]] issued an edict against [[male prostitute]]s and brothels offering such services; those found guilty should be burned alive.<ref>''Pickett'' (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=XH-SMq-NKf0C&pg=PR21 p. xxi]</ref>

In the 6th-century collection of the sayings and rulings of the pre-eminent jurists from earlier ages, the [[Digest (Roman law)|Digest]], a number of crimes are regarded as punishable by death by burning. The 3rd-century jurist [[Ulpian]] said that enemies of the state and deserters to the enemy were to be burned alive. His rough contemporary, the juristical writer [[Callistratus (jurist)|Callistratus]], mentions that arsonists are typically burnt, as well as slaves who have conspired against the well-being of their masters (this last also, on occasion, being meted out to free persons of "low rank").<ref>See ''Watson'' (1998) '''Ulpian''', section 48.19.8.2, p. 361. '''Callistratus''', sections 48.19.28.11–12, p. 366</ref> The punishment of burning alive arsonists (and traitors) seems to have been particularly ancient; it was included in the [[Twelve Tables]], a mid-5th-century BC law code, that is, about 700 years prior to the times of Ulpian and Callistratus.<ref>''Kyle'' (2002), [https://books.google.com/books?id=x4vekGBc_McC&pg=PA53 p. 53]</ref>

====Ritual child sacrifice in Carthage====
{{further|Tophet|Moloch}}
[[File:Bardo National Museum tanit.jpg|left|thumb|100px|Tanit with a lion's head]]

Beginning in the early 3rd century BC, Greek and Roman writers commented on the purported institutionalized [[child sacrifice]] the North African [[Carthaginians]] are said to have performed in honour of the gods [[Baal Hammon]] and [[Tanit]]. The earliest writer, [[Cleitarchus]], is among the most explicit. He says live infants were placed in the arms of a bronze statue, the statue's hands over a brazier, so that the infant slowly rolled into the fire. As it did so, the limbs of the infant contracted and the face was distorted into a sort of laughing grimace, hence called "the act of laughing". Other, later authors such as [[Diodorus Siculus]] and [[Plutarch]] say the throats of the infants were generally cut before they were placed in the statue's embrace<ref>On ritual description, Plutarch, and in general, see ''Markoe'' (2000), [https://books.google.com/books?id=smPZ-ou74EwC&pg=PA132 pp. 132–136] On Diodorus, see ''Schwartz, Houghton, Macchiarelli, Bondioli'' (2010), [http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009177 Skeletal remains..do not support] on phrase "the act of laughing", see ''Decker'' (2001), [http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/uc_decker_carthrel3.htm p. 3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315024147/http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/uc_decker_carthrel3.htm |date=15 March 2009 }}</ref> In the vicinity of ancient Carthage, large scale graveyards containing the incinerated remains of infants, typically up to the age of 3, have been found; such graves are called "tophets". However, some scholars have argued that these findings are not evidence of ''systematic'' child sacrifice, and that estimated figures of ancient natural infant mortality (with cremation afterwards and reverent separate burial) might be the real historical basis behind the hostile reporting from non-Carthaginians. A late charge of the imputed sacrifice is found by the North African bishop [[Tertullian]], who says that child sacrifices were still carried out, in secret, in the countryside at his time, 3rd century AD.<ref>'''Generally accepting''' the tradition of child sacrifice, see ''Markoe'' (2000), [https://books.google.com/books?id=smPZ-ou74EwC&pg=PA132 pp. 132–136] '''Generally skeptical''', see ''Schwartz, Houghton, Macchiarelli, Bondioli'' (2010), [http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009177 Skeletal remains..do not support]</ref>

====Celtic traditions====
[[File:The Wicker Man of the Druids crop.jpg|thumb|right|267px|An 18th-century illustration of a wicker man. Engraving from ''A Tour in Wales'' written by [[Thomas Pennant]]]]
According to [[Julius Caesar]], the ancient [[Celts]] practised the burning alive of humans in a number of settings. In Book 6, chapter 16, he writes of the [[Druid]]ic sacrifice of criminals within huge [[Wicker man|wicker frames shaped as men]]:
{{blockquote|Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of [[Salix viminalis|osiers]] they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames. They consider that the [[oblation]] of such as have been taken in theft, or in robbery, or any other offence, is more acceptable to the immortal gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting, they have recourse to the oblation of even the innocent.}}

Slightly later, in Book 6, chapter 19, Caesar also says the Celts perform, on the occasion of death of great men, the funeral sacrifice on the pyre of living slaves and dependents ascertained to have been "beloved by them". Earlier on, in Book 1, chapter 4, he relates of the conspiracy of the nobleman [[Orgetorix]], charged by the Celts for having planned a ''coup d'état'', for which the customary penalty would be burning to death. It is said Orgetorix committed suicide to avoid that fate.<ref>''Julius Caesar, McDevitt, Bohn'' (1851) '''On penalty for conspiracy''', [https://books.google.com/books?id=7FsIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA4 p. 4] '''On criminals in large wicker frames''', [https://books.google.com/books?id=7FsIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA149 p. 149] '''On funeral human sacrifice''', [https://books.google.com/books?id=7FsIAAAAQAAJ&pg=P150 pp.&nbsp;150–151]</ref>

====Baltic====
Throughout the 12th–14th centuries, a number of non-Christian peoples living around the Eastern [[Baltic Sea]], such as [[Old Prussians]] and [[Lithuanians]], were charged by Christian writers with performing human sacrifice. [[Pope Gregory IX]] issued a [[papal bull]] denouncing an alleged practice among the Prussians, that girls were dressed in fresh flowers and wreaths and were then burned alive as offerings to evil spirits.<ref>This case, and a number of others in ''Pluskowski'' (2013), pp.[https://books.google.com/books?id=-8NykshHHesC&pg=PA77 77–78]</ref>

===Christian states===
[[File:Filip2 albigensti.jpg|thumb|The burning of the [[Catharism|Cathar]] heretics]]
====Eastern Roman Empire====
Under 6th-century Emperor [[Justinian I]], the death penalty had been decreed for impenitent [[Manicheans]], but a specific punishment was not made explicit. By the 7th century, however, those found guilty of "dualist heresy" could risk being burned at the stake.<ref>''Hamilton, Hamilton, Stoyanov'' (1998), [https://books.google.com/books?id=uH-8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA13 p. 13, footnote 42]</ref> Those found guilty of performing magical rites, and corrupting sacred objects in the process, might face death by burning, as evidenced in a 7th-century case.<ref>''Haldon'' (1997), [https://books.google.com/books?id=pSHmT1G_5T0C&pg=PA333 p. 333, footnote 22]</ref> In the 10th century AD, the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantines]] instituted death by burning for [[parricides]], i.e. those who had killed their own relatives, replacing the older punishment of ''[[poena cullei]]'', the stuffing of the convict into a leather sack, along with a rooster, a viper, a dog and a monkey, and then throwing the sack into the sea.<ref>''Trenchard-Smith, Turner'' (2010), [https://books.google.com/books?id=2ombkgpGt_AC&pg=PA48 p. 48, footnote 58]</ref>

====Medieval Inquisition and the burning of heretics====
[[File:Templars Burning.jpg|right|thumb|Burning of the [[Knights Templar]], 1314]]

The first recorded case of heretics being burnt in Western Europe in the [[Middle Ages]] occurred in 1022 at [[Orléans]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rice |first=Joshua |date=1 June 2022 |title=Burn in Hell |journal=History Today |volume=72 |issue=6 |pages=16–18}}[https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/burn-hell]</ref> Civil authorities burned persons judged to be [[Heresy|heretics]] under the [[medieval]] [[Inquisition]]. Burning heretics had become customary practice in the latter half of the twelfth century in continental Europe, and death by burning became statutory punishment from the early 13th century. Death by burning for heretics was made positive law by [[Pedro II of Aragon]] in 1197. In 1224, [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor]], made burning a legal alternative, and in 1238, it became the principal punishment in the Empire. In [[Sicily]], the punishment was made law in 1231.

In England at the start of the 15th century, the teachings of [[John Wycliffe]] and the [[Lollards]] began to be seen as a threat to the establishment, and draconic punishments were enacted. In 1401, Parliament passed the ''[[De heretico comburendo]]'' Act, which can be loosely translated as "Regarding the burning of heretics." Lollard persecution would continue for over a hundred years in England. The [[Fire and Faggot Parliament]] met in May 1414 at [[Grey Friars Priory]] in [[Leicester]] to lay out the notorious [[Suppression of Heresy Act 1414]], enabling the burning of heretics by making the crime enforceable by the [[justices of the peace]]. [[John Oldcastle]], a prominent Lollard leader, was not saved from the gallows by his old friend King [[Henry V of England|Henry V]]. Oldcastle was hanged and his gallows burned in 1417. [[Jan Hus]] was burned at the stake after being accused at the Roman Catholic [[Council of Constance]] (1414–18) of heresy. The council also decreed that the remains of [[John Wycliffe]], dead for 30 years, should be exhumed and burned. This [[posthumous execution]] was carried out in 1428.

====Burnings of Jews====
[[File:Doutielt1.jpg|thumb|Representation of a massacre of the Jews in the 1349 Anti-Jew riots, that was justified by allegations that Jews were behind the [[Black Death|Black Death Epidemic]]. ''Antiquitates Flandriae'' ([[Royal Library of Belgium]] manuscript 1376/77).]]

Several incidents are recorded of massacres on [[Jews]] from the 12th through 16th centuries in which they were burned alive, often on account of the [[blood libel]]. In 1171 in [[Blois]], 51 Jews were burned alive (the entire adult community). In 1191, King [[Philip Augustus]] ordered around 100 Jews burnt alive.<ref>Both incidents in ''Weiss'' (2004), [{{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=oJOvpkHg7msC |page=104 }} p. 104]</ref> That Jews purportedly performed [[host desecration]] also led to mass burnings; In 1243 in [[Beelitz]], the entire Jewish community was burnt alive, and in 1510 in [[Berlin]], 26 Jews were burnt alive for the same crime.<ref>''Prager, Telushkin'' (2007), {{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=VK0llzUqQ2YC |page=87 }}</ref> During the "[[Black Death]]" in the mid-14th century a spate of large-scale [[Persecution of Jews during the Black Death|massacres]] occurred. One libel was that the Jews had [[well poisoning|poisoned the wells]]. In 1349, as panic grew along with the increasing death toll from the plague, general massacres, but also specifically mass burnings, began to occur. Six hundred Jews were burnt alive in [[Basel]] alone. A large mass burning occurred in [[Strasbourg]], where several hundred Jews were burnt alive in what became known as the [[Strasbourg massacre]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/jewish/1348-jewsblackdeath.asp | title=Internet History Sourcebooks Project }}</ref>

A Jewish man, Johannes Pfefferkorn, met a particularly gruesome death in 1514 in [[Halle (Saale)|Halle]]. He had been accused of having impersonated a priest for twenty years, performing [[host desecration]], stealing Christian children to be tortured and killed by other Jews, poisoning 13 people and poisoning wells. He was lashed to a pillar in such a way that he could run about it. Then, a ring of glowing coal was made around him, and gradually pushed ever closer to him, until he was roasted to death.<ref>''Bülau'' (1860), {{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=z4YBAAAAQAAJ |page=423–424 }}</ref>

====Lepers' Plot of 1321====
Not only Jews could be victims of mass hysteria. The charge of well-poisoning was the basis for a [[1321 lepers' plot|large-scale hunt of lepers in 1321 France]]. In the spring of 1321, in [[Périgueux]], people became convinced that the local lepers had poisoned the wells, causing ill-health among the normal populace. The lepers were rounded up and burned alive. The action against the lepers had repercussions throughout France, not least because King [[Philip V of France|Philip V]] issued an order to arrest all lepers, those found guilty to be burnt alive. Jews became tangentially included as well; at [[Chinon]] alone, 160 Jews were burnt alive.<ref>''Richards'' (2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=saXbAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA161 pp. 161–163]</ref> All in all, around 5,000 lepers and Jews are recorded in one tradition to have been killed during the Lepers' Plot hysteria.<ref>''John, Pope'' (2003), [https://books.google.com/books?id=-_fnv5pmECsC&pg=PA177 p. 177]</ref>

The charge of the lepers' plot was not wholly confined to France; extant records from England show that on [[Jersey]] the same year, at least one family of lepers was burnt alive for having poisoned others.<ref>''Smirke'' (1865), [https://books.google.com/books?id=G4dbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA326 pp. 326–331]</ref>

====Spanish Inquisition====
{{See| Auto-da-fé}}
[[File:Anneken Hendriks, Dam, Amsterdam, by Jan Luyken.jpg|thumb|The burning of a 16th-century Dutch [[Anabaptist]], [[Anneken Hendriks]], who was charged with heresy]]
The [[Spanish Inquisition]] was established in 1478, with the aim of preserving Catholic orthodoxy; some of its principal targets were "[[Marranos]]", formally converted Jews thought to have relapsed into [[Judaism]], or the [[Moriscos]], formally converted Muslims thought to have relapsed into [[Islam]]. The public executions of the Spanish Inquisition were called [[autos-da-fé]]; convicts were "released" (handed over) to secular authorities in order to be burnt.

Estimates of how many were executed on behest of the Spanish Inquisition have been offered from early on; historian [[Hernando del Pulgar]] (1436–{{circa|1492}}) estimated that 2,000 people were burned at the stake between 1478 and 1490.<ref>[[Henry Kamen]], ''The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision.'', p. 62, (Yale University Press, 1997).</ref> Estimates ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 burnt at the stake (alive or not) at the behest of the Spanish Inquisition during its 300 years of activity have previously been given and are still to be found in popular books.<ref>On mercy, and 50,000 estimate, for Marranos ''Telchin'' (2004), [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K7QH76_HdIC&pg=PA41 p. 41] On 30,000 estimate of Marranos ''killed'', see ''Pasachoff, Littman'' (2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=z4eaj09hscAC&pg=PA151 p. 151]</ref>

In February 1481, in what is said to be the first auto-da-fé, six Marranos were burnt alive in [[Seville]]. In November 1481, 298 Marranos were burnt publicly at the same place, their property confiscated by the Church.{{citation needed|date=August 2019}} Not all Marranos executed by being burnt at the stake seem to have been burnt alive. If the Jew confessed his heresy, the Church would show mercy, and he would be strangled prior to the burning. Autos-da-fé against Marranos extended beyond the Spanish heartland. In Sicily, in 1511–15, 79 were burnt at the stake, while from 1511 to 1560, 441 Marranos were condemned to be burned alive.<ref>''Cipolla'' (2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Sggys-_O-2cC&pg=PA91 p. 91]</ref> In Spanish American colonies, autos-da-fé were held as well. In 1664, a man and his wife were burned alive in [[Río de la Plata]], and in 1699, a Jew was burnt alive in [[Mexico City]].<ref>''Stillman, Zucker'' (1993) '''On the Río de la Plata incident''', see ''Matilde Gini de Barnatan'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=yq7VUKWz5dwC&pg=PA144 p. 144], '''on Mexico City incident''', see ''Eva Alexandra Uchmany'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=yq7VUKWz5dwC&pg=PA128 p. 128]</ref>

In 1535, five Moriscos were burned at the stake on [[Majorca]]; the images of a further four were also burnt in [[effigy]], since the actual individuals had managed to flee. During the 1540s, some 232 Moriscos were paraded in autos-da-fé in [[Zaragoza]]; five of those were burnt at the stake.<ref>''Carr'' (2009), [https://archive.org/details/bloodfaithpurgin00carr/page/101 p. 101]</ref> The claim that out of 917 Moriscos appearing in autos of the Inquisition in [[Granada]] between 1550 and 1595, just 20 were executed<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/spanishinquisition2|title=The Spanish Inquisition A Historical Revision 4th Ed. By Henry Kamen|last=Henry Kamen|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> seems at odds with the English government's state papers which claim that, while at war with Spain, they received a report from Seville of 17 June 1593 that over 70 of the richest men of Granada were burnt.<ref>List And Analysis of State Papers Foreign, Jul 1593 – Dec 1594. v. 5; p. 444 (595): by Public Record Office ({{ISBN|978-0114402181}})</ref> As late as 1728 as many as 45 Moriscos were recorded as having been burned for heresy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Matar |first=Nabil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z2QRd_rbWu8C&pg=PR21 |title=Europe Through Arab Eyes, 1578–1727 |date=2008-11-12 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-51208-4 |page=xxi |language=en}}</ref> In the May 1691 "bonfire of the Jews", Rafael Valls, Rafael Benito Terongi and [[Caterina Tarongí|Catalina Terongi]] were burned alive.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/world/europe/07iht-spain07.html|title=In Majorca, Atoning for the Sins of 1691|first=Doreen|last=Carvajal|newspaper=The New York Times|date=7 May 2011|access-date=20 October 2018}}</ref><ref>[[Nachman Seltzer]], ''Incredible'', Shaar Press, 2016</ref>

====Portuguese Inquisition at Goa====
In 1560, the [[Portuguese Inquisition]] opened offices in the Indian colony [[Goa]], known as [[Goa Inquisition]]. Its aim was to protect Catholic orthodoxy among new converts to Christianity, and retain its hold on the old, particularly against "Judaizing" deviancy. From the 17th century, Europeans were shocked at the tales of how brutal and extensive the activities of the Inquisition were.{{Citation needed|date=June 2017}} Modern scholars have established that some 4,046 individuals in the time 1560–1773 received some sort of punishment from the Portuguese Inquisition, of whom 121 persons were condemned to be burned alive; 57 actually suffered that fate, while the rest escaped it, and were burnt in effigy instead.<ref>Already noted originally by ''Hunter'' (1886), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Vdv7AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA253 pp. 253–254], see also ''Salomon, Sassoon, Saraiva'' (2001), pp. 345–347</ref> For the Portuguese Inquisition in total, not just at Goa, modern estimates of persons actually executed on its behest is about 1,200, whether burnt alive or not.<ref>See extensive table at [[Portuguese Inquisition]], ''de Almeida'' (1923), in particular p. 442</ref>

===="Crimes against nature"====
[[File:Burning of Sodomites.jpg|left|thumb|Burning of two [[homosexuals]], [[Richard Puller von Hohenburg]] and Anton Mätzler, at the stake outside [[Zürich]], 1482 ([[Spiezer Schilling]])]]

From the 12th to the 18th centuries, various European authorities legislated (and held judicial proceedings) against sexual crimes such as [[sodomy]] or [[bestiality]]; often, the prescribed punishment was that of death by burning. Many scholars think that the first time death by burning appeared within explicit codes of law for the crime of sodomy was at the ecclesiastical 1120 [[Council of Nablus]] in the [[Crusades|crusader]] [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]]. Here, if public repentance were done, the death penalty might be avoided.<ref>See for '''first time''' ''Heng'' (2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=pRXvHbNLPQ0C&pg=PA56 p. 56] on '''option of public repentance''' ''Puff, Bennett, Karras'' (2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=QThLAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA387 p. 387]</ref> In Spain, the earliest records for executions for the crime of sodomy are from the 13th to 14th centuries, and it is noted there that the preferred mode of execution was death by burning. The Partidas of King [[Alfonso X of Castile|Alfonso "El Sabio"]] condemned sodomites to be castrated and hung upside down to die from the bleeding, following the Old Testament phrase "their blood shall be upon them".<ref>''Pickett'' (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=XH-SMq-NKf0C&pg=PA178 p. 178]</ref> At [[Geneva]], the first recorded burning of sodomites occurred in 1555, and up to 1678, some two dozen met the same fate. In [[Venice]], the first burning took place in 1492, and a monk was burnt as late as 1771.<ref>'''On Geneva and Venice''', see ''Coward, Dynes, Donaldson'' (1992), [https://books.google.com/books?id=y8_Ya2s3zN8C&pg=PA36 p. 36]</ref> The last case in France where two men were condemned by court to be burned alive for engaging in consensual homosexual sex was in 1750 (although, it seems, they were actually strangled prior to being burned). The last case in France where a man was condemned to be burned for a murderous rape of a boy occurred in 1784.<ref>''Crompton'' (2006), [https://books.google.com/books?id=TfBYd9xVaXcC&pg=PA450 p. 450]</ref>

Crackdowns and the public burning of a homosexual couple sometimes led others to flee out of fear of a similar fate. The traveller [[William Lithgow (traveller and author)|William Lithgow]] witnessed such a dynamic when he visited [[Malta]] in 1616 :{{blockquote|''The fifth day of my staying here, I saw a Spanish soldier and a Maltezen boy burnt in ashes, for the public profession of sodomy; and long before night, there were above an hundred bardassoes, whorish boys, that fled away to Sicily in a galliot, for fear of fire; but never one bugeron stirred, being few or none there free of it.''<ref>''Lithgow'' (1814), [https://books.google.com/books?id=whMwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA305 p. 305]</ref>}}

In 1409 and 1532 in [[Augsburg]] two [[pederasts]] were burned alive for their offenses.<ref>''Osenbrüggen'' (1860), [https://archive.org/details/dasalamannische00osengoog/page/n308 p. 290]</ref>

====Penal code of Charles V====
In 1532, Holy Roman Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] promulgated his penal code [[Constitutio Criminalis Carolina]]. A number of crimes were punishable with death by burning, such as coin [[forgery]], [[arson]], and sexual acts "contrary to nature".<ref>specified as men or women found guilty of same-sex sexual behaviour or guilty of having had sex with animals.</ref> Also, those guilty of aggravated theft of sacred objects from a church could be condemned to be burnt alive.<ref>As late as in 1730 [[Poznań|Posen]], a church robber had his right hand cut off, and the stump covered in pitch. Then, the pitch was ignited, and the person was burnt alive on a pyre as well. ''Oehlschlaeger'' (1866), [https://books.google.com/books?id=F41aAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA55 p. 55]</ref> Only those found guilty of ''malevolent'' witchcraft<ref>No fixed penalty was placed on performing acts of witchcraft that had caused no harm</ref> could be punished by death by fire.<ref>All in ''Koch'' (1824) '''Coin forgers''': [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_q_o6AAAAcAAJ/page/n125 <!-- pg=52 --> Article 111, p. 52], '''Malevolent witchcraft''': [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_q_o6AAAAcAAJ/page/n68 <!-- pg=55 --> Article 109, p. 55] '''Sexual acts contrary to nature''':[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_q_o6AAAAcAAJ/page/n61 <!-- pg=58 --> Article 116, p. 58], '''Arson''':[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_q_o6AAAAcAAJ/page/n64 <!-- pg=61 --> Article 125, p. 61], '''Theft of sacred objects''': [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_q_o6AAAAcAAJ/page/n157 <!-- pg=84 --> Article 172, p. 84]</ref>

====Witches and heretics====
[[File:Wickiana5.jpg|thumb|Burning of three witches in [[Baden, Switzerland|Baden]] (1585), from the [[Wickiana]] Collection|alt=]]
Burning was used during the [[Witch-hunt#Early Modern Europe and Colonial America|witch-hunts of Europe]], although hanging was the preferred style of execution in England and Wales. The penal code known as the [[Constitutio Criminalis Carolina]] (1532) decreed that sorcery throughout the [[Holy Roman Empire]] should be treated as a criminal offence, and if it purported to inflict injury upon any person the witch was to be burnt at the stake. In 1572, [[Augustus, Elector of Saxony]] imposed the penalty of burning for witchcraft of every kind, including simple [[fortunetelling]].<ref>''Thurston'' (1912) [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15674a.htm%20New%20Advent Witchcraft], 2010 web resource.{{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> From the latter half of the 18th century, the number of "[[Witch trials in the early modern period|nine million witches]] burned in Europe" has been bandied about in popular accounts and media, but has never had a following among specialist researchers.<ref>Professional researchers in the 19th, and early 20th century tended to ''refuse'' giving any quantification at all but, when pushed, typically landed on about 100,000 to 1 million victims</ref> Today, based on meticulous study of trial records, ecclesiastical and inquisitorial registers and so on, as well as on the utilization of modern statistical methods, the specialist research community on witchcraft has reached an agreement for roughly 40,000–50,000 people executed for witchcraft in Europe in total, and by no means all of them executed by being burned alive. Furthermore, it is solidly established that the peak period of witch-hunts was the century 1550–1650, with a slow increase preceding it, from the 15th century onward, as well as a sharp drop following it, with "witch-hunts" having basically fizzled out by the first half of the 18th century.<ref>See [[Wolfgang Behringer]] (1998) on the history of witch-counting, and on specialist academic consensus, [http://www.historicum.net/themen/hexenforschung/thementexte/rezeption/art/Neun_Millionen/html/ca/0e43e9dea3a4144c50997da6aa74bd34/ Neun Millionen Hexen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128080612/https://www.historicum.net/themen/hexenforschung/thementexte/rezeption/art/Neun_Millionen/html/ca/0e43e9dea3a4144c50997da6aa74bd34/ |date=28 January 2019 }} Originally published in GWU 49 (1998) pp. 664–685, web publication 2006</ref>
[[File:Jan Hus at the Stake.jpg|thumb|left|[[Jan Hus]] burnt at the stake]]
[[File:Stilke Hermann Anton - Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake.jpg|upright|thumb|''Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake'', by [[Hermann Stilke]] (1843)]]
Notable individuals executed by burning include [[Jacques de Molay]] (1314),<ref>Contemporary description of the burning at Ile-des-Javiaux in ''Barber'' (1993), [https://books.google.com/books?id=GEu58-OIT1MC&pg=PA241 p. 241]</ref> [[Jan Hus]] (1415),<ref>Extracts of eyewitness report at website of Columbia University, ''Peter from Mladonovic'' (2003), [http://www.columbia.edu/~js322/misc/hus-eng.html How was executed Jan Hus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306132946/http://www.columbia.edu/~js322/misc/hus-eng.html |date=6 March 2013 }}</ref> [[Joan of Arc]] (1431),<ref>Reconstruction of Joan of Arc's death scene in ''Mooney, Patterson'' (2002), [https://books.google.com/books?id=0hYWzuecyHMC&pg=PA1 pp. 1–2] excerpt from ''Mooney'' (1919)</ref> [[Girolamo Savonarola]] (1498),<ref>Eyewitness account provided in ''Landucci, Jarvis'' (1927), [https://archive.org/stream/ldpd_10273453_000#page/n169/mode/2up pp. 142–143]</ref> [[Patrick Hamilton (martyr)|Patrick Hamilton]] (1528),<ref>According to eyewitness [[Alexander Ales]], Hamilton entered the pyre at noon, and died after six hours burning, see ''Tjernagel'' (1974, web reprint), [http://www.wlsessays.net/node/1535 p. 6] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707174042/http://www.wlsessays.net/node/1535 |date=7 July 2010 }}</ref> [[John Frith (martyr)|John Frith]] (1533),<ref>Description of John Frith's death in ''Foxe, Townsend, Cattley'' (1838), [https://books.google.com/books?id=5hA5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA15 p. 15]</ref> [[William Tyndale]] (1536), [[Michael Servetus]] (1553),<ref>Detailed description of Servetus' death at ''Kurth'' (2002) [http://www.salon.com/2002/11/12/goldstone/ Out of the Flames]</ref> [[Giordano Bruno]] (1600),<ref>A perfunctory official notice of the manner of his death 17 February 1600, is contained in ''Rowland'' (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Gus_rugtLN0C&pg=PA10 p. 10]</ref> [[Urbain Grandier]] (1634),<ref>Apparently, Grenadier had been promised to be strangled prior to his burning, but his executioners reneged on that promise as he was fastened to the stake. See '''modern monograph''' ''Rapley'' (2001), in particular [https://books.google.com/books?id=lxlHuai91ZsC&pg=PA195 pp. 195–198], for a '''classic description''', see [[Alexandre Dumas]] on the execution details in ''Dumas'' (1843), [https://books.google.com/books?id=t64SAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA424 pp. 424–426]</ref> and [[Avvakum]] (1682).<ref>Alan Wood describes Avvakum's execution as follows: ''Avvakum and three fellow prisoners were led from their icy cells to an elaborate pyre of pinewood billets and there burned alive. The tsar had finally rid himself of "this turbulent priest"'', ''Wood'' (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=VZZLAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA44 p. 44]</ref> Anglican martyrs [[John Rogers (Bible editor and martyr)|John Rogers]],<ref>''Foxe, Milner, Cobbin'' (1856), [https://archive.org/details/foxesbookofmarty00fo/page/608 pp. 608–609]</ref> [[Hugh Latimer]] and [[Nicholas Ridley (martyr)|Nicholas Ridley]] were burned at the stake in 1555.<ref>''Foxe, Milner, Cobbin'' (1856), [https://archive.org/details/foxesbookofmarty00fo/page/864 pp. 864–865]</ref> [[Thomas Cranmer]] followed the next year (1556).<ref>''Foxe, Milner, Cobbin'' (1856), [https://archive.org/details/foxesbookofmarty00fo/page/925 pp. 925–926]</ref>

====Denmark====
In Denmark, after the 1536 [[Reformation]], [[Christian IV of Denmark]] (r. 1588–1648) encouraged the practice of burning witches, in particular by the law against witchcraft in 1617. In [[Jutland]], the mainland part of Denmark, more than half the recorded cases of witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries occurred after 1617. Rough estimates says about a thousand persons were executed due to convictions for [[witchcraft]] in the 1500–1600s, but it is not wholly clear if all of the transgressors were burned to death.<ref>For Denmark, see ''Burns'' (2003), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Qr6_q-chR6MC&pg=PA64 pp. 64–65]</ref>

====England====
[[Mary I]] ordered hundreds of [[Protestants]] burnt at the stake during her reign (1553–58) in what would be known as the "[[List of Protestant martyrs of the English Reformation#List of Marian Martyrs|Marian Persecutions]]" earning her the epithet of "Bloody" Mary.<ref>[[John Foxe]] is particularly mentioned in being assiduous at documenting such cases of persecutions. See, ''Miller'' (1972), [https://books.google.com/books?id=3S89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA72 p. 72]</ref> Many of those executed by Mary are listed in ''[[Foxe's Book of Martyrs|Actes and Monuments]]'', written by [[John Foxe|Foxe]] in 1563 and 1570.

[[Edward Wightman]], a radical Anabaptist from [[Burton on Trent]], who publicly denied the Trinity and the divinity of [[Christ]] was the last person burned at the stake for [[heresy]] in England in [[Lichfield|Lichfield, Staffordshire]] on 11 April 1612.<ref>For a claim of the last heretic burned at the stake, see ''Durso'' (2007), [https://books.google.com/books?id=68jfRYQo3zsC&pg=PA29 p. 29]</ref> Although cases can be found of burning heretics in the 16th and 17th centuries in England, that penalty for heretics was historically relatively new. It did not exist in 14th-century England, and when the bishops in England petitioned King [[Richard II]] to institute death by burning for heretics in 1397, he flatly refused, and no one was burnt for heresy during his reign.<ref>''Sayles'' (1971) [https://books.google.com/books?id=HVQLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA31 p. 31]</ref> Just one year after his death, however, in 1401, [[William Sawtrey]] was burnt alive for heresy.<ref>''Richards'' (1812), [https://books.google.com/books?id=JRkwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1190 p. 1190]</ref> Death by burning for heresy was formally abolished by Parliament during the reign of King [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] in 1676.<ref>''Willis-Bund'' (1982), [https://books.google.com/books?id=2gA9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA95 p. 95]</ref>

The traditional punishment for women found guilty of treason was to be [[Burning of women in England|burned at the stake]], where they did not need to be publicly displayed naked, whereas men were [[hanged, drawn and quartered]]. The jurist [[William Blackstone]] argued as follows for the different punishments for females and males:
{{blockquote|For as the decency due to sex forbids the exposing and public mangling of their bodies, their sentence (which is to the full as terrible to sensation as the other) is to be drawn to the gallows and there be burned alive<ref>Direct citation in ''McLynn'' (2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ylf8t7uSGJEC&pg=PA122 p. 122]</ref>}}

However, as described in Camille Naish's "Death Comes to the Maiden", in practice, the woman's clothing would burn away at the beginning, and she would be left naked anyway.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} 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. Commenting on the 18th-century execution practice, Frank McLynn says that most convicts condemned to burning were not burnt alive, and that the executioners made sure the women were dead before consigning them to the flames.<ref>''McLynn'' (2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ylf8t7uSGJEC&pg=PA122 p. 122]</ref>

The last person condemned to death for "petty treason" was Mary Bailey, whose body was burned in 1784. The last woman to be convicted for "high treason", and have her body burnt, in this case for the crime of coin forgery, was [[Catherine Murphy (counterfeiter)|Catherine Murphy]] in 1789.<ref>Comprehensive list at capitalpunishmentuk.org, [http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/burning.html Burning at the stake].</ref> The last case where a woman was actually burnt alive in England is that of [[Catherine Hayes (murderer)|Catherine Hayes]] in 1726, for the murder of her husband. In this case, one account says this happened because the executioner accidentally set fire to the pyre before he had hanged Hayes properly.<ref>''O'Shea'' (1999), [https://books.google.com/books?id=YvdKyEJo0osC&pg=PA3 p. 3]</ref> The historian [[Rictor Norton]] has assembled a number of contemporary newspaper reports on the actual death of Mrs. Hayes, internally somewhat divergent. The following excerpt is one example: {{blockquote|The fuel being placed round her, and lighted with a torch, she begg'd for the sake of Jesus, to be strangled first: whereupon the Executioner drew tight the halter, but the flame coming to his hand in the space of a second, he let it go, when she gave three dreadful shrieks; but the flames taking her on all sides, she was heard no more; and the Executioner throwing a piece of timber into the Fire, it broke her skull, when her brains came plentifully out; and in about an hour more she was entirely reduced to ashes.<ref>See website article, [http://rictornorton.co.uk/grubstreet/hayes.htm The Case of Catherine Hayes] at [http://rictornorton.co.uk/ rictornorton.co.uk] See also the detailed synthesis at capitalpunishmentuk.org, [http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/hayes.html Catherine Hayes burnt for Petty Treason]</ref>}}

====Scotland====
[[James VI of Scotland]] (later James I of England) shared the Danish king's interest in witch trials. This special interest of the king resulted in the [[North Berwick witch trials]], which led more than seventy people to be accused of witchcraft. James sailed in 1590 to Denmark to meet his betrothed, [[Anne of Denmark]], who, ironically, is believed by some to have secretly converted to Roman Catholicism herself from [[Lutheranism]] around 1598, although historians are divided on whether she ever was received into the Roman Catholic faith.<ref>"Some time in the 1590s, Anne became a Roman Catholic." ''Wilson'' (1963), p. 95 "Some time after 1600, but well before March 1603, Queen Anne was received into the Catholic Church in a secret chamber in the royal palace" ''Fraser'' (1997), p. 15 "The Queen ... [converted] from her native Lutheranism to a discreet, but still politically embarrassing Catholicism which alienated many ministers of the Kirk" ''Croft'' (2003), pp. 24–25 "Catholic foreign ambassadors—who would surely have welcomed such a situation—were certain that the Queen was beyond their reach. 'She is a Lutheran', concluded the [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] envoy Nicolo Molin in 1606." ''Stewart'' (2003), p. 182 "In 1602 a report appeared, claiming that Anne ... had converted to the Catholic faith some years before. The author of this report, the Scottish [[Jesuit]] [[Robert Abercromby (missionary)|Robert Abercromby]], testified that James had received his wife's desertion with equanimity, commenting, 'Well, wife, if you cannot live without this sort of thing, do your best to keep things as quiet as possible.' Anne would, indeed, keep her religious beliefs as quiet as possible: for the remainder of her life—even after her death—they remained obfuscated." ''Hogge'' (2005), pp. 303–304</ref>

The last to be executed as a witch in Scotland was [[Janet Horne]] in 1727, condemned to death for using her own daughter as a flying horse in order to travel. Horne was burnt alive in a tar barrel.<ref>''Pavlac'' (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=KCjlptFEMZsC&pg=PA145 p. 145]</ref>

====Ireland====
[[Petronilla de Meath]] ({{circa|1300}}–1324) was the maidservant of Dame [[Alice Kyteler]], a 14th-century [[Hiberno-Norman]] noblewoman. After the death of Kyteler's fourth husband, the widow was accused of practicing [[witchcraft]] and Petronilla of being her accomplice. Petronilla was tortured and forced to proclaim that she and Kyteler were guilty of witchcraft. Petronilla was then flogged and eventually burnt at the stake on 3 November 1324, in [[Kilkenny]], Ireland.<ref name=":1">''de Ledrede, Wright'' (1843)</ref><ref>de ''Ledrede, Davidson, Ward'' (2004)</ref> Hers was the first known case in the history of the [[British Isles]] of death by fire for the crime of [[heresy]]. Kyteler was charged by the [[Bishop of Ossory]], [[Richard de Ledrede]], with a wide slate of crimes, from [[Magic (paranormal)|sorcery]] and [[demonism]] to the murders of several husbands. She was accused of having illegally acquired her wealth through [[witchcraft]], which accusations came principally from her stepchildren, the children of her late husbands by their previous marriages. The trial predated any formal witchcraft statute in Ireland, thus relying on [[ecclesiastical law]] (which treated witchcraft as [[heresy]]) rather than [[common law]] (which treated it as a [[felony]]). Under torture, Petronilla claimed she and her mistress applied a magical ointment to a wooden beam, which enabled both women to fly. She was then forced to proclaim publicly that Lady Alice and her followers were guilty of witchcraft.<ref name=":1"/> Some were convicted and whipped, but others, Petronilla included, were burnt at the stake. With the help of relatives, Alice Kyteler fled, taking with her Petronilla's daughter, Basilia.<ref>Story of flight in contemporary chronicle ''Gilbert'' (2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=R_w-CZ0eXnYC&pg=PR134 p. cxxxiv]</ref>

In 1327 or 1328, [[Adam Duff O'Toole]] was burned at the stake in Dublin for [[heresy]] after branding [[Christian scripture]] a fable and denying the [[resurrection of Jesus]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/burnt-at-the-stake-was-the-original-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-ireland|title=Burned at the stake was the original punishment for blasphemy in Ireland|date=11 May 2017|website=IrishCentral.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/regionals/wicklowpeople/news/heretic-was-burned-at-the-stake-27855759.html|title=Heretic was burned at the stake|website=The Irish Independent|date=11 August 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/blasphemy-from-being-burned-at-the-stake-in-1328-to-a-25000-fine-in-2017-449655.html|title=Blasphemy: From being burned at the stake in 1328 to a €25,000 fine in 2017|date=9 May 2017|website=Irish Examiner}}</ref>

The brothel madam [[Darkey Kelly]] was convicted of murdering shoemaker John Dowling in 1760 and burned at the stake in Dublin on 7 January 1761. Later legends claimed that she was a [[serial killer]] and/or [[witch]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2018/02/15/darkey-kelly-brothel-keeper-of-dublin/|title='Darkey Kelly', Brothel Keeper of Dublin|first=Sarah|last=Murden|date=15 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Cathy Hayes |url=http://www.irishcentral.com/news/was-irish-witch-darkey-kelly-really-irelands-first-serial-killer-113340849-237364711.html |title=Was Irish witch Darkey Kelly really Ireland's first serial killer? |publisher=IrishCentral.com |date=12 January 2011 |access-date=4 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://nosmokewithouthellfire1.podomatic.com/ |title=PodOmatic &#124; Podcast – No Smoke Without Hellfire |publisher=Nosmokewithouthellfire1.podomatic.com |date=19 January 2011 |access-date=4 March 2015}}</ref>

In 1895, [[Bridget Cleary]] (née Boland), a [[County Tipperary]] woman, was burnt by her husband and others, the stated motive for the crime being the belief that the real Bridget had been abducted by [[fairy|fairies]] with a [[changeling]] left in her place. Her husband claimed to have slain only the changeling. The gruesome nature of the case prompted extensive press coverage. The trial was closely followed by newspapers in both Ireland and Britain.<ref name="McCullough-NYT">''McCullough'' (2000), [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE4D91E3AF93BA35753C1A9669C8B63 The Fairy Defense]</ref> As one reviewer commented, nobody, with the possible exception of the presiding judge, thought it was an ordinary murder case.<ref name="McCullough-NYT"/>

====Greece====
The [[Greek War of Independence]] in the 1820s contained several instances of death by burning. When the Greeks in April 1821 captured a [[corvette]] near [[Hydra (island)|Hydra]], the Greeks chose to roast to death the 57 [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] crew members. After the fall of [[Siege of Tripolitsa|Tripolitsa]] in September 1821, European officers were horrified to note that not only were Muslims suspected of hiding money being slowly roasted after having had their arms and legs cut off but also, in one instance, three Muslim children were roasted over a fire while their parents were forced to watch. On their part, the Ottomans committed many similar acts. In retaliation they gathered up Greeks in [[Constantinople]], throwing several of them into huge ovens, baking them to death.<ref>[[William St Clair]], ''That Greece Might Still Be Free'' (2008) ''Hydra incident'', p. xxiv, ''those suspected of hiding money'', p. 45, ''the three Turkish children'', p. 77, ''baked in ovens'', p. 81</ref>

====Last judicial burnings====
According to the jurist {{Interlanguage link multi|Eduard Osenbrüggen|de}}, the last case he knew of where a person had been judicially burned alive on account of arson in Germany happened in 1804, in [[:de:Hötzelsroda|Hötzelsroda]], close by [[Eisenach]].<ref>''Osenbrüggen'' (1854), [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_C-4PAAAAYAAJ/page/n33 p. 21] For a similar, more modern assessment, as well as locating the incident to Hötzelsroda, see Dietze (1995)</ref> The manner in which Johannes Thomas<ref>Last name "Mothas" used in extended account in ''Bischoff, Hitzig'' (1832), real name "Thomas" given in ''Herden'' (2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=wVNuf9VEhGkC&pg=PA89 p. 89]</ref> was executed on 13 July that year is described as follows: Some feet above the actual pyre, attached to a stake, a wooden chamber had been constructed, into which the delinquent was placed. Pipes or chimneys filled with sulphuric material led up to the chamber, and that was first lit, so that Thomas died from inhaling the sulphuric smoke, rather than being strictly burnt alive, before his body was consumed by the general fire. Some 20,000 people had gathered to watch Thomas' execution.<ref>On the manner of execution according to the original account, see ''Bischoff, Hitzig'' (1832), [https://books.google.com/books?id=88dCAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA178 p. 178] Contemporary newspaper notice, ''Hübner'' (1804), [https://books.google.com/books?id=jyVEAAAAcAAJ&pg=PT964 p. 760, column 2]</ref>

Although Thomas is regarded as the last to have been actually executed by means of fire (in this case, through suffocation), the couple Johann Christoph Peter Horst and his lover [[Friederike Luise Delitz|Friederike Louise Christiane Delitz]], who had made a career of robberies in the confusion made by their acts of arson, were condemned to be burnt alive in Berlin 28 May 1813. They were, however, according to [[Gustav Radbruch]], secretly strangled just prior to being burnt, namely when their arms and legs were tied fast to the stake.<ref>'''Original account''' by investigating police officer Heinrich L. Hermann, ''Hermann'' (1818) '''Gustav Rudbrach's mention''' ''Rudbrach'' (1992), [https://books.google.com/books?id=3JOVbGPdrjYC&pg=PA247 p. 247] '''Precise moment of strangulation''' ''Gräff'' (1834), [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_ucZDAAAAcAAJ/page/n61 p. 56] '''Modern newspaper article''' ''Springer'' (2008), [http://www.welt.de/regionales/berlin/article2489746/Das-letzte-Feuer.html Das Letzte Feuer]</ref>

Although these two cases are the last where execution by burning might be said to have been ''carried out'' in some degree, Eduard Osenbrüggen mentions that ''verdicts'' to be burned alive were given in several cases in different German states afterwards, such as in cases from 1814, 1821, 1823, 1829 and finally in a case from 1835.<ref>''Osenbrüggen'' (1854), [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_C-4PAAAAYAAJ/page/n33 pp. 21–22, footnote 83]</ref>

=== Colonial Americas ===
[[File:Execution of Mariana de Carabajal.jpg|thumb|Execution of [[Francisca Nuñez de Carabajal|Mariana de Carabajal]] (converted Jew), [[Mexico City]], 1601]]

====North America====
[[File:Modocs Scalping and Torturing Prisoners.jpg|thumb|Native Americans scalping and roasting their prisoners, published in 1873]]
[[Indigenous peoples|Indigenous]] North Americans often used burning as a form of execution, against members of other tribes or white settlers during the 18th and 19th centuries. Roasting over a slow fire was a customary method.<ref>''Scott'' (1940) p. 41</ref> (See [[Captives in American Indian Wars]].)

In [[Massachusetts]], there are two known cases of burning at the stake. First, in 1681, an [[Slavery in British America|enslaved woman]] named Maria was accused of trying to kill her enslaver by setting his house on fire. She was convicted of arson and burned at the stake in [[Roxbury, Massachusetts|Roxbury]].<ref name="Maria, Burned at the Stake">CelebrateBoston.com (2014), [http://www.celebrateboston.com/crime/puritan-burned-at-stake-maria.htm "Maria, Burned at the Stake"]</ref> Concurrently, an enslaved man named Jack, convicted in a separate arson case, was hanged at a nearby gallows, and after death his body was thrown into the fire with that of Maria. Second, in 1755, a group of enslaved people accused of having conspired and killed their enslaver,  Mark and Phillis were executed for his murder. Mark was hanged and his body [[gibbet]]ed, and Phillis burned at the stake, at [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]].<ref name="Mark and Phillis Executions">[http://www.celebrateboston.com/crime/puritan-mark-and-phillis-executions.htm Mark and Phillis Executions] (2014)</ref>

In [[Montreal]], then part of the colony of [[New France]], [[Marie-Joseph Angélique]], an enslaved woman, was sentenced to being burned alive for an arson which destroyed 45 homes and a hospital in 1734. The sentence was commuted on appeal to burning after death by strangulation.

In [[New York City|New York]], several burnings at the stake are recorded, particularly following suspected [[Slave rebellion|slave revolt]] plots. In 1708, one woman was burnt and one man hanged. In the aftermath of the [[New York Slave Revolt of 1712]], 20 enslaved people were burnt (one of the leaders slowly roasted, before he died after 10 hours of torture)<ref>''McManus'' (1973), [https://books.google.com/books?id=2H3S1OLtmagC&pg=PA86 p. 86]</ref> and during the alleged [[New York Conspiracy of 1741|slave conspiracy of 1741]], at least 13 enslaved people were burnt at the stake.<ref>''Hoey'' (1974),[http://www.americanheritage.com/content/terror-new-york--1741 Terror in New York–1741]{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 1731, 51-year-old [[Delaware]] housewife Catherine Bevan was burned for murder, and in 1746, Esther Anderson was burned in [[Maryland]] for another murder.<ref>{{Cite web |title=DeathPenaltyUSA, the database of executions in the United States |url=https://deathpenaltyusa.org/usa1/other.htm |access-date=9 May 2022 |website=deathpenaltyusa.org}}</ref>

In an opinion piece published in the [[Washington Post]], [[Emory University]] historian [[Kali Nicole Gross]] asserted that 87% percent of the women executed by burning at the stake in the US and its predecessor colonies between 1681 and 1805 were Black.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gross |first=Kali Nicole |date=25 February 2022 |title=The historical truth about women burned at the stake in America? Most were Black. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/25/black-women-history-burned-at-stake/ |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |quote=In his diary entry on Sept. 22, 1681, Increase Mather - father of the legendary clergyman Cotton Mather and later a president of Harvard College - wrote of "a negro woman who burnt 2 houses at Roxbury July 12." The woman, Maria, described as a servant - often a euphemism for an enslaved person at the time - of Joshua Lambe, was convicted of arson for using a hot coal to set fire to the house of a local doctor and Lambe's home...Beginning with Maria's execution and ending with the last known woman burned at the stake - which, according to the Espy File on U.S. executions from 1608 to 2002, was a Black woman in North Carolina in 1805 - the overwhelming majority of women to face the fatal fires of justice, 87 percent, were Black.}}</ref>

====South America====
The last known burning by the Spanish colonial government in [[Latin America]] was of Mariana de Castro, during the [[Peruvian Inquisition]] in [[Lima]] on 22 December 1736<ref>René Millar Carvacho, ''La Inquisición de Lima: Signos de su Decadencia, 1726–1750'' (DIBAM, 2004)</ref> after she had been convicted on 4 February 1732 of being a [[Judaizers|''judaizante'']] (a person who was privately practicing the Jewish faith after having publicly converted to Roman Catholicism).

In 1855 the Dutch [[abolitionist]] and historian [[:nl:Julien Wolbers|Julien Wolbers]] spoke to the Anti Slavery Society in Amsterdam. Painting a dark picture of the condition of slaves in [[Suriname]], he mentions in particular that in 1853, "three Negroes were burnt alive".<ref>''Woblers'' (1855), [https://books.google.com/books?id=WqcNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA205 p. 205]</ref>

==== West Indies ====
In 1760, the slave rebellion known as [[Tacky's War]] broke out in [[Jamaica]]. Apparently, some of the defeated rebels were burned alive, while others were gibbeted alive, left to die of thirst and starvation.<ref>''Waddell'' (1863), [https://archive.org/details/twentynineyears00waddgoog/page/n30 p. 19]</ref>

In 1774, nine enslaved Africans in [[Tobago]] were found complicit of murdering a white man. Eight of them had first their right arms chopped off, and were then burned alive bound to stakes, according to the report of an eyewitness.<ref>''Blake'' (1857), [https://archive.org/details/historyofslavery1857blak/page/154 pp. 154–155]</ref>

In [[Saint-Domingue]], enslaved Africans found guilty of committing crimes were sometimes punished by being burnt at the stake, particularly if the crime was attempting to foment a slave rebellion.<ref>{{cite book|title=Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People, 1492–1995|last1=Heinl|first1=Robert Debs|last2=Heinl|first2=Michael|last3=Heinl|first3=Nancy Gordon|year=2005|orig-year=1996|edition=2nd|publisher=Univ. Press of America|location=Lanham, Md; London|isbn=0761831770|oclc=255618073|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/writteninbloodst00hein}}</ref>

===Islamic countries===
The sources may manifest religious, legal, and political ideas quite an evolution from the chronological aspect and different from those that prevailed in early [[caliphate]]s since the practice of burning convicted person is forbidden in the [[Sharia Law]].<ref>'' Marsham, Andrew'' (2017), "Attituded to the Use of Fire in Executions in Late Antiquity and Early Islam: The Burning of Heretics abd Rebels in Lay Umayyad IraqA." In I. Kristó-Nagy & R. Gleave (Eds.), ''Violence in Islamic Thought from the Qur'an to the Mongols'' (pp. 106–127). Edinburgh University Press.</ref>

====Followers of a false claimant of prophethood====
The Arab chieftain [[Tulayha|Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid ibn Nawfal al-Asad]] set himself up as a prophet in 630 AD. Tulayha had a strong following which was, however, soon quashed in the so-called [[Ridda Wars]]. He himself escaped, though, and later was reconverted to Islam, but many of his rebel followers were burnt to death; his mother chose to embrace the same fate.<ref>''Zurkhana, Houtsma'' (1987), [https://books.google.com/books?id=wpM3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA830 p. 830]</ref>{{Citation needed|reason=Please refer to a trustworthy sources, such as Muslims' classical books|date=December 2016}}

====Catholic monks in 13th-century Tunis and Morocco====
A number of monks are said to have been burnt alive in [[Tunis]] and [[Morocco]] in the 13th century. In 1243, two English monks, Brothers Rodulph and Berengarius, after having secured the release of some 60 captives, were charged with being spies for the [[English Crown]], and were burnt alive on 9 September. In 1262, Brothers Patrick and William, again having freed captives, but also sought to [[proselytize]] among [[Muslims]], were burnt alive in Morocco. In 1271, 11 Catholic monks were burnt alive in Tunis. Several other cases are reported.<ref>''Digby'' (1853), [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K06AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA342 pp. 342–345]</ref>

====Converts to Christianity====

[[Apostasy in Islam|Apostasy]], i.e. the act of converting to another religion, was (and remains so in a few countries) punishable with death.

The French traveller [[Jean de Thevenot]], traveling the East in the 1650s, says: ''"Those that turn Christians, they burn alive, hanging a bag of Powder about their neck, and putting a [[Pitch (resin)|pitched]] Cap upon their Head."''<ref>''De Thevenot, Lovell'' (1687), [https://books.google.com/books?id=6q9EAAAAcAAJ p. 69]</ref> Travelling the same regions some 60 years earlier, [[Fynes Moryson]] writes:
{{blockquote|''A Turke forsaking his Fayth and a Christian speaking or doing anything against the law of [[Muhammad|Mahomett]] are burnt with fyer.''<ref>''Moryson, Hadfield'' (2001), [https://books.google.com/books?id=fl6gkL5h6A0C&pg=PA171 p. 171]</ref>}}

====Muslim heretics====

''[[Certain accursed ones of no significance]]'' is the term used by [[Taş Köprü Zade]] in the ''Şakaiki Numaniye'' to describe some members of the [[Hurufiyya]] who became intimate with the Sultan [[Mehmed II]] to the extent of initiating him as a follower. This alarmed members of the [[Ulema]], particularly Mahmut Paşa, who then consulted Mevlana Fahreddin. Fahreddin hid in the Sultan's palace and heard the [[Hurufi]]s propound their doctrines. Considering these heretical, he reviled them with curses. The Hurufis fled to the Sultan, but Fahreddin's denunciation of them was so virulent that [[Mehmed II]] was unable to defend them. Farhreddin then took them in front of the [[Üç Şerefeli Mosque]], [[Edirne]], where he publicly condemned them to death. While preparing the fire for their execution, Fahreddin accidentally set fire to his beard. However, the Hurufis were burnt to death.

====Barbary States, 18th century====
[[John Braithwaite (author)|John Braithwaite]], staying in [[Morocco]] in the late 1720s, says that apostates from Islam would be burnt alive:
{{blockquote|''THOSE that can be proved after Circumcision to have revolted, are stripped quite naked, then anointed with Tallow, and with a Chain about the Body, brought to the Place of Execution, where they are burnt.''}}

Similarly, he notes that non-Muslims entering mosques or being blasphemous against Islam will be burnt, unless they convert to Islam.<ref>''Braithwaite'' (1729) On apostates citation, see [https://archive.org/details/historyrevoluti00braigoog p. 366], on the conditional fate of non-Muslims, see [https://archive.org/details/historyrevoluti00braigoog p. 355]</ref> The chaplain for the English in [[Algiers]] at the same time, [[Thomas Shaw (divine and traveller)|Thomas Shaw]], wrote that whenever capital crimes were committed either by Christian slaves or Jews, the Christian or Jew was to be burnt alive.<ref>''Shaw'' (1757), [https://archive.org/details/travelsorobserv01shawgoog/page/n282 p. 253]</ref> Several generations later, in Morocco in 1772, a Jewish interpreter for the British, and a merchant in his own right, sought from the [[Mohammed ben Abdallah|Emperor of Morocco]] restitution for some goods confiscated, and was burnt alive for his impertinence. His widow made her woes clear in a letter to the British government.<ref>''Stillman'' (1979), [https://archive.org/details/jewsofarablands00stil/page/310 pp. 310–311]</ref>

In 1792 in [[Ifrane]], Morocco, 50 Jews preferred to be burned alive, rather than convert to Islam.<ref>''Kantor'' (1993), [https://books.google.com/books?id=1SD_AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA230 p. 230]</ref> In 1794 in [[Algiers]], the Jewish Rabbi Mordecai Narboni was accused of having maligned Islam in a quarrel with his neighbour. He was ordered to be burnt alive unless he converted to Islam, but he refused and was therefore executed on 14 July 1794.<ref>[http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsys~josdates JOS Calendar Conversion Results], ''Hirschberg'' (1981), [https://books.google.com/books?id=g_mh5fuel0QC&pg=PA20 p. 20]</ref>

In 1793, [[Trabluslu Ali Pasha|Ali Pasha]] made a short-lived ''coup d'état'' in [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]], deposing the ruling [[Karamanli dynasty]]. During his short, violent reign he seized the two interpreters for the Dutch and English consuls, both of them Jews, and roasted them over a slow fire, on charges of conspiracy and espionage.<ref>''Tully'' (1817), [https://books.google.com/books?id=QBkQAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA365 p. 365]</ref>

====Persia====
During a famine in [[Persia]] in 1668, the government took severe measures against those trying to profiteer from the misfortune of the populace. Restaurant owners found guilty of profiteering were slowly roasted on spits, and greedy bakers were baked in their own ovens.<ref>''Ferrier'' (1996), [https://books.google.com/books?id=5CLkDgmVs1QC&pg=PA94 p. 94]</ref>

Dr C. J. Wills, a physician traveling through Persia in 1866–81, wrote that:<ref>''Wills'' (1891), [https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7180554M/In_the_land_of_the_lion_and_sun p. 204]</ref>
{{blockquote|''Just prior to my first arrival in Persia, the "Hissam-u-Sultaneh", another uncle of the king, had burned a priest to death for a horrible crime and murder; the priest was chained to a stake, and the matting from the mosques piled on him to a great height, the pile of mats was lighted and burnt freely, but when the mats were consumed the priest was found groaning, but still alive. The executioner went to Hissam-u-Sultaneh who ordered him to obtain more mats, pour [[naphtha]] on them, and apply a light, which 'after some hours' he did.''}}

==== Malaya ====
Although not burning with the use of fire, a practice was documented in 19th-century Malaya of sewing a live human in a buffalo hide and left it exposed to the burning sun which caused the hide to shrink and led the person to be squeezed to death.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Winstedt |first=Richard Olof |url=http://archive.org/details/historyofmalaya0000wins/page/180 |title=A History of Malaya |publisher=Marican |year=1962 |location=Singapore |pages=180 |language=en}}</ref>

===Roasting by means of heated metal===
The previous cases concern primarily death by burning through contact with open fire or burning material; a slightly different principle is to enclose an individual within, or attach him to, a metal contraption which is subsequently heated. In the following, some reports of such incidents, or anecdotes about such are included.

====The brazen bull====
[[File:Pierre Woeiriot Phalaris.jpg|thumb|Perillos being forced into the brazen bull that he built for Phalaris]]

Perhaps the most infamous example of a [[brazen bull]], which is a hollow metal structure shaped like a bull within which the condemned is put, and then roasted alive as the metal bull is gradually heated up, is the one allegedly constructed by Perillos of [[Athens]] for the 6th-century BC tyrant [[Phalaris]] at [[Agrigentum]], [[Sicily]]. As the story goes, the first victim of the bull was its constructor Perillos himself. The historian George Grote was among those regarding this story as having sufficient evidence behind it to be true, and points particularly to that the Greek poet [[Pindar]], working just one or two generations after the times of Phalaris, refers to the brazen bull. A bronze bull was, in fact, one of the spoils of victory when the [[Carthaginians]] conquered Agrigentum.<ref>''Grote'' (2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=62HlSNN2lqQC&pg=PA305 p. 305, footnote 1]</ref> The story of a brazen bull as an execution device is not unique. About 1,000 years later in 497 AD, it can be read in an old chronicle about the [[Visigoths]] on the [[Iberian Peninsula]] and the south of France:
{{blockquote|[[Burdunellus]] became a tyrant in Spain and a year later was ... handed over by his own men and having been sent to [[Toulouse]], he was placed inside a bronze bull and burnt to death.<ref>Quote and extrapolation to be found in ''Collins'' (2004), p. 35</ref>}}

====Fate of a Scottish regicide====
[[Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl]] was a Scottish nobleman complicit in the murder of King [[James I of Scotland]]. On 26 March 1437 a red hot iron crown was placed upon his head, was cut in pieces alive, his heart was taken out, and his body was thrown into a fire. A papal [[nuncio]], the later Pope [[Pius II]] witnessed the execution of Stewart and his associate [[Sir Robert Graham]], and, reportedly, said he was at a loss to determine whether the crime committed by the regicides, or the punishment of them was the greater.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VoJnKgmUH54C|title=Encyclopaedia Perthensis; or, Universal Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, Literature, &c.|chapter=Scotland|volume=20|year=1816|location=Edinburgh|publisher=John Brown, Anchor Close|page=131}}</ref>

====György Dózsa on the iron throne====
[[File:GeorgheDoja.jpg|thumb|right|Dózsa's execution (contemporary woodcut)]]
[[György Dózsa]] led a peasants' revolt in [[Hungary]], and was captured in 1514. He was bound to a glowing iron throne and a likewise hot iron crown was placed on his head, and he was roasted to death.<ref>''Klein'' (1833), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ppwAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA351 p. 351]</ref>

====The tale of the murderous midwife====
In a few English 18th- and 19th-century newspapers and magazines, a tale was circulated about the particularly brutal manner in which a French midwife was put to death on 28 May 1673 in Paris. No fewer than 62 infant skeletons were found buried on her premises, and she was condemned on multiple accounts of abortion/[[infanticide]]. One detailed account of her supposed execution runs as follows:
{{blockquote|A gibbet was erected, under which a fire was made, and the prisoner being brought to the place of execution, was hung up in a large iron cage, in which were also placed sixteen wild cats, which had been catched in the woods for the purpose.—When the heat of the fire became too great to be endured with patience, the cats flew upon the woman, as the cause of the intense pain they felt.—In about fifteen minutes they had pulled out her entrails, though she continued yet alive, and sensible, imploring, as the greatest favour, an immediate death from the hands of some charitable spectator. No one however dared to afford her the least assistance; and she continued in this wretched situation for the space of thirty-five minutes, and then expired in unspeakable torture. At the time of her death, twelve of the cats were expired, and the other four were all dead in less than two minutes afterwards.}}

The English commentator adds his own view on the matter:{{blockquote|However cruel this execution may appear with regard to the poor animals, it certainly cannot be thought too severe a punishment for such a monster of iniquity, as could calmly proceed in acquiring a fortune by the deliberate murder of such numbers of unoffending, harmless innocents. And if a method of executing murderers, in a manner somewhat similar to this was adapted in England, perhaps the horrid crime of murder might not so frequently disgrace the annals of the present times.<ref>''Stevens'' (1764), [https://books.google.com/books?id=DIsfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA522 pp. 522–523]</ref> }}
The English story is derived from a pamphlet published in 1673.<ref>For full title and provenance, see item 357 in ''Nassau'' (1824), [https://books.google.com/books?id=MDlbAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA17 p. 17]</ref>

===Pouring molten metal down the throat or ears===

====Molten gold poured down the throat====
In 88 BC, [[Mithridates VI of Pontus]] captured the Roman general [[Manius Aquillius (consul 101 BCE)|Manius Aquillius]], and executed him by pouring molten gold down his throat.<ref>''Steel'' (2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ae63Gjp21SgC&pg=PA98 p. 98]</ref> A popular but unsubstantiated rumor also had the [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]]s executing the famously greedy Roman general [[Marcus Licinius Crassus]] in this manner in 53 BC.<ref>[[Marcus Licinius Crassus]]</ref>
[[File:HulaguInBagdad.JPG|thumb|[[Hulagu Khan|Hulagu]] (left) imprisons Caliph Al-Musta'sim among his treasures to starve him to death (medieval depiction from "Le livre des merveilles", 15th century)]]

[[Genghis Khan]] is said to have ordered the execution of [[Inalchuq]], the perfidious [[Khwarazmian dynasty|Khwarazmian]] governor of [[Otrar]], by pouring molten gold or silver down his throat in {{circa|1220}},<ref>''Saunders'' (2001), [https://books.google.com/books?id=nFx3OlrBMpQC&pg=PA57 p. 57] According to the 13th-century historian [[Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi|al-Nasawi]], the governor Inal Khan (who had assassinated the [[Mongol]] ambassadors and thus given Genghis Khan cause to invade), had the molten gold poured into his eyes and ears, rather than down his throat. ''Cameron, Sela'' (2010), [https://books.google.com/books?id=SAX5ohFkcVgC&pg=PA128 p. 128]</ref> and an early-14th-century chronicle mentions that his grandson [[Hulagu Khan]] did likewise to the sultan [[Al-Musta'sim]] after the [[Siege of Baghdad (1258)|fall of Baghdad in 1258]] to the Mongol army.<ref>Crawford regards the Hulagu story as a legend ''Crawford'' (2003), [https://books.google.com/books?id=BfNqgYlo9fMC&pg=PA149 p. 149]</ref> ([[Marco Polo]]'s version is that [[Al-Musta'sim]] was locked without food or water to starve in his treasure room)
[[File:Theodor de Bry 78.jpeg|thumb|[[Theodor de Bry]] engraving of a Conquistador being executed by gold]]
The Spanish in 16th-century Americas gave horrified reports that the Spanish who had been captured by the natives (who had learnt of the Spanish thirst for gold) had their feet and hands bound, and then molten gold poured down their throats as the victims were mocked: "Eat, eat gold, Christians".<ref>''Cummins, Cole, Zorach'' (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=IUKBQfzKlIYC&pg=PA99 p. 99]</ref>

From the 19th-century reports from the [[Rattanakosin Kingdom (1782–1932)|Kingdom of Siam]] (present-day [[Thailand]]) stated that those who have defrauded the public treasury could have either molten gold or silver poured down their throat.<ref>''Begbie'' (1834), [https://books.google.com/books?id=0MwNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA447 p. 447]</ref>

====As punishment for inebriation and tobacco smoking====
The 16th-/early-17th-century prime minister [[Malik Ambar]] in the [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]] [[Ahmadnagar Sultanate]] would not tolerate inebriation among his subjects, and would pour molten lead down the mouths of those caught in that condition.<ref>''Eaton'' (2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=DNNgdBWoYKoC&pg=PA121 p. 121]</ref> Similarly, in the 17th-century [[Sultanate of Aceh]], Sultan [[Iskandar Muda]] (r. 1607–36) is said to have poured molten lead into the mouths of at least two drunken subjects.<ref>''Peletz'' (2002), [https://books.google.com/books?id=q4TA4hjqjJ0C&pg=PA28 p. 28]</ref> Military discipline in 19th-century [[Burma]] was reportedly harsh, with strict prohibition of smoking [[opium]] or drinking [[arrack]]. Some monarchs had ordained pouring molten lead down the throats of those who drank, "but it has been found necessary to relax this severity, in order to conciliate the army."<ref>''Buckingham'' (1835), [https://books.google.com/books?id=qrhHAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA250 p. 250]</ref>

Shah [[Safi of Persia|Safi I]] of Persia is said to have abhorred [[Tobacco smoking|tobacco]], and apparently in 1634, he prescribed the punishment of pouring molten lead into the throats of smokers.<ref>''Berger, Sicker'' (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=4jjhnbu8ytEC&pg=PA6 p. 6]</ref>

====Mongol punishment for horse thieves====
According to historian Pushpa Sharma, stealing a horse was considered the most heinous offence within the Mongol army, and the criminal would either have molten lead poured into his ears, or alternatively, his punishment would be the breaking of the spinal cord or beheading.<ref>''Sharma, Srivastava'' (1981), [https://books.google.com/books?id=nKJiBUFrmfoC&pg=PA361 p. 361]</ref>

===Chinese tradition of Buddhist self-immolation===
Apparently, for many centuries, a tradition of devotional [[self-immolation]] existed among [[Buddhist]] monks in [[China]]. One monk who immolated himself in 527 AD explained his intent a year before, in the following manner:
{{blockquote|The body is like a poisonous plant; it would really be right to burn it and extinguish its life. I have been weary of this physical frame for many a long day. I vow to worship the buddhas, just like Xijian.<ref>''Benn'' (2007), [https://books.google.com/books?id=dWL6EEkL8goC&pg=PA3 p. 3]</ref>}}

A severe critic in the 16th century wrote the following comment on this practice:
{{blockquote|There are demonic people ... who pour on oil, stack up firewood, and burn their bodies while still alive. Those who look on are overawed and consider it the attainment of enlightenment. This is erroneous.<ref>''Benn'' (2007), [https://books.google.com/books?id=dWL6EEkL8goC&pg=PA198 pp. 198–199]</ref>}}

===Japan===

While the earliest record of death by burning in Japan appears in "[[Nihonshoki]]", on [[:ja:石川楯|Ishikawa no Tate]] and [[:ja:池津媛|Iketsuhime]] during the reign of [[Emperor Yuryaku]], the contemporary code of law hasn't survived and the historical authenticity of this event is uncertain. The oldest preserved written code, [[Yōrō Code]] didn't mention death by burning. It still included capital punishment but it was either death by strangulation or death by cutting with sword. 

The historically reliable earliest record of death by burning was ruled by [[Oda Nobukatsu]]. 

In the first half of the 17th century, Japanese authorities sporadically persecuted [[Kirishitan|Christians]], with some executions seeing persons being burnt alive. At [[Nagasaki]] in 1622 some 25 monks were burnt alive,<ref>''Lee'' (2010),[https://books.google.com/books?id=LKj2B9vd7HsC&pg=PA121 pp. 121–122]</ref> and in [[Edo]] in 1624, 50 Christians were burnt alive.<ref>''Matsumoto'' (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=kF1sTidtP_sC&pg=PA73 p. 73]</ref>

Tokugawa Shogunate included death by burning alive into their criminal code. Arsonists were often sentenced to death by burning but not always. They might be sentenced to exile instead. 

At [[Meiji Restoration]] death by burning was abolished in 1868[https://www.moj.go.jp/content/000096623.pdf].

===Mughal Empire===
[[Bhai Sati Das]], a [[Martyrdom in Sikhism|Sikh martyr]] was burned with [[cotton wool]] soaked in oil on the orders of [[Emperor Aurangzeb]] after he refused to convert to Islam.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Corduan |first1=Winfried |title=Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World Religions |date=2013 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0830871971 |page=383}}</ref>

===Indian widow burning===
{{main|Sati (practice)|l1=Sati}}
[[File:A Hindoo Widow Burning Herself with the Corpse of her Husband.jpg|thumb|A [[Hindu]] widow burning herself with the corpse of her husband, 1820s]]
[[File:Burning of a Widow.jpg|thumb|''Ceremony of Burning a Hindu Widow with the Body of her Late Husband'', from ''Pictorial History of China and India'', 1851]]

''Sati'' refers to a [[funeral]] practice among some communities of [[Indian subcontinent]] in which a recently widowed woman [[Self-immolation|immolates herself]] on her husband's [[funeral pyre]]. The first reliable evidence for the practice of ''sati'' appears from the time of the [[Gupta Empire]] (400 AD), when instances of sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones.<ref name="Shastri">Shakuntala Rao Shastri, ''Women in the Sacred Laws''{{snd}}the later law books (1960), also reproduced online at [http://www.hindubooks.org/women_in_the_sacredlaws/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408222221/http://www.hindubooks.org/women_in_the_sacredlaws/|date=8 April 2014}}.</ref>

According to one model of history thinking, the practice of ''sati'' only became really widespread with the [[Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent|Muslim invasions of India]], and the practice of ''sati'' now acquired a new meaning as a means to preserve the honour of women whose men had been slain. As S. S. Sashi lays out the argument, "The argument is that the practice came into effect during the Islamic invasion of India, to protect their honor from Muslims who were known to commit mass rape on the women of cities that they could capture successfully."<ref>''Sashi'' (1996), p.115</ref> It is also said that according to the memorial stone evidence, the practice was carried out in appreciable numbers in western and southern parts of India, and even in some areas, during pre-Islamic times.<ref>For Yang's full discussion back and forth, see ''Yang, Sarkar, Sarkar'' (2008), [https://books.google.com/books?id=GEPYbuzOwcQC&pg=PA21 pp. 21–23]</ref> Some of the rulers and activists of the time sought actively to suppress the practice of ''sati''.<ref name="Columbia">S.M. ''Ikram, Embree'' (1964) [http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/ikram/part2_17.html XVII. "Economic and Social Developments under the Mughals"] This page maintained by Prof. [[Frances Pritchett]], [[Columbia University]]</ref>

The [[East India Company]] began to compile statistics of the incidences of ''sati'' for all their domains from 1815 and onwards. The official statistics for [[Bengal]] represents that the practice was much more common here than elsewhere, recorded numbers typically in the range 500–600 per year, up to the year 1829, when Company authorities banned the practice.<ref>These statistics are further researched and discussed by other scholars, for their reliability (in particular, ''objections'' to that) and representation, see '''For detailed official statistical information 1815–1829''',''Yang, Sarkar, Sarkar'' (2008), [https://books.google.com/books?id=GEPYbuzOwcQC&pg=PA23 pp. 23–25] see pages 24 and 25 in particular, history behind them, p. 23</ref> Since the 19th and 20th centuries, the practice remains outlawed in the Indian subcontinent.

[[Jauhar]] was a practice among royal Hindu women to prevent capture by Muslim conquerors.

In [[Nepal]], the practice was not banned until 1920.<ref>''Mittra, Kumar'' (2004), [https://books.google.com/books?id=hYEQGam5hVgC&pg=PA200 p. 200]</ref>

The practice of burning widows has not been restricted to the Indian subcontinent; at [[Bali]], the practice was called ''masatia'' and, apparently, restricted to the burning of royal widows. This practice is probably resulted from the spread of Hindu culture into Southeast Asia. Although the Dutch colonial authorities had banned the practice, one such occasion is attested as late as in 1903, probably for the last time.<ref>For notice of estimate of last time, see ''Schulte Nordholt'' (2010), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZUVlAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA211 pp. 211–212, footnote 56] For estimate of restriction to royal widows, see ''Wiener'' (1995), [https://books.google.com/books?id=GE1uc1UNXNYC&pg=PA267 p. 267]</ref>

===Sub-Saharan Africa===
C. H. L. Hahn<ref>Biographical entry of C. H. L. Hahn at [http://www.klausdierks.com/Biographies/Biographies_H.htm BIOGRAPHIES OF NAMIBIAN PERSONALITIES]</ref> wrote that within the O-ndnonga tribe among the [[Ovambo people]] in modern-day [[Namibia]], abortion was not used at all (in contrast to among the other tribes), and that furthermore, if two young unwed individuals had sex resulting in pregnancy, then both the girl and the boy were "taken out to the bush, bound up in bundles of grass and ... burnt alive."<ref>''Hahn'' (1966), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8Z3FQXOiNEC&pg=PA33 p. 33]</ref>

===Indigenous cannibalism===
====Americas====
Even fateful encounters with [[Human cannibalism|cannibal]]s are recorded: in 1514, in the Americas, Francis of Córdoba and five companions were, reportedly, caught, impaled on spits, roasted and eaten by the natives. In 1543, such was also the end of a previous bishop, [[Vincente de Valverde|Vincent de Valle Viridi]].<ref name="Perckmayr">Perckmayr, Reginbald (1738). ''Geschicht- und Predigbuch'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=3lpBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA628 p. 628]</ref>

====Fiji====
In 1844, the missionary John Watsford wrote a letter about the [[internecine war]]s on [[Fiji]], and how captives could be eaten, after being roasted alive:
{{blockquote|At [[Mbau]], perhaps, more human beings are eaten than anywhere else. A few weeks ago they ate twenty-eight in one day. They had seized their wretched victims while fishing, and brought them alive to Mbau, and there half-killed them, and then put them into their ovens. Some of them made several vain attempts to escape from the scorching flame.<ref>''Calvert, Rowe'' (1858), [https://archive.org/details/fijiandfijiansi00rowegoog/page/n290 p. 258]</ref>}}

The actual manner of the roasting process was described by the missionary pioneer David Cargill, in 1838:
{{blockquote|When about to be immolated, he is made to sit on the ground with his feet under his thighs and his hands placed before him. He is then bound so that he cannot move a limb or a joint. In this posture he is placed on stones heated for the occasion (and some of them are red-hot), and then covered with leaves and earth, to be roasted alive. When cooked, he is taken out of the oven and, his face and other parts being painted black, that he may resemble a living man ornamented for a feast or for war, he is carried to the temple of the gods and, being still retained in a sitting posture, is offered as a propitiatory sacrifice.<ref>See ''Hogg'' (1980)</ref>}}

===Legislation against the practice===
In 1790, Sir [[Benjamin Hammett]] introduced a bill into the British [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] to end the practice of judicial burning. He explained that the year before, as [[Sheriff]] of London, he had been responsible for the burning of [[Catherine Murphy (counterfeiter)|Catherine Murphy]], found guilty of [[counterfeit]]ing, 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 more than half a century, so could all those still alive who had held an official position at all of the previous burnings. The [[Treason Act 1790]] was duly passed by Parliament and given [[royal assent]] by King [[George III]] (30 George III. C. 48).<ref>''Wilson'' (1853), [https://books.google.com/books?id=JdkHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA4 p. 4]</ref> The [[Parliament of Ireland]] subsequently passed the similar [[Treason by Women Act (Ireland) 1796]].{{fact|date=October 2023}}