Editing Death by burning (section)

===="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>