Editing Death by burning (section)

===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>