Mark, a very interesting link to Joan of Arc. Thanks.

 

Robert

PS. I am new to this community, I find this community to be very interesting.

 

Robert

Welcome to the site Robert. I am reasonably new myself, and find there are some real characters taking part in discussions.

I consider Flashman to be the "court jester". He always comes up with interesting theories regardless of the subject matter, unless the subject is weapons.

Tommytalldog usually keeps him in line though.

Jimbert

-Tincan.   Burning at the stake was popular in Catholic and Protestant lands. There were three methods of burning at the stake. In the first method, burning wood was piled around a stake driven into the earth. The prisoner hung from the stake from chains or iron hoops. In the second method (popular in punishing witches), the prisoner again hung from a stake, but this time the wood was piled high around the victim so the observers could not see her pain and suffering as she burned. In the third method (popular in Germany in the Nordic countries), the victim was tied to a ladder which was tied to a frame above the fire. The ladder was then swung down into the flames.

Law required that victims be strangled before burning at the stake, but many victims were deliberately burned alive. This violence was used as both punishment and warning, similar to the sacrificing of criminals in front of an audience at the Roman  Colosseum. 

Originally, burning at the stake was primarily used for women convicted of treason (men convicted of treason were hanged, drawn and quartered). Later, burning at the stake became a popular punishment for men and women accused of heresy or witchcraft.

The 16th and 17th centuries saw a whitch-hunt such as the world had never seen. Rumors spread like wildfire of people participating in wild witches' Sabbats, the adoption of animal forms, and ritual cannibalism. Superstitious fear flung accusations everywhere, and the population lived in terror. As many as 200,000 people were burned at the stake for witchcraft during this time. Burning was believed to cleanse the soul, tantamount for those accused of witchcraft or heresy.

Henry the VIII's daughter, Mary Tudor ("Bloody Mary") gave birth to England's most famous burnings at the stake. One of her victims was the sometime Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, in 1556. During the course of Bloody Mary's five year reign, she was responsible for 274 burnings. Her victims were condemned of heresy--being Protestant.

In the 17th century, during the Spanish Inquisition, burning at the stake was a popular choice for punishment since it did not spill the victim's blood (the Roman Catholic Church forbade this). The burning meant the victim would have no body to take into the afterlife.

Burning at the stake began to fall out of favor in the 18th century when more "humane" methods of capital punishment rose.

PeterB

These scenes remind me of the anti smoking putsches at boarding school

Cheers

Peter R

Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake as a heretic in 1431, that particular form of punishment was introduced for heresy in England and her lands in France in 1401.

Mark;

 

I married a convent school Catholic. Is it still open season? Is this what they call rough shootin'? Peter B please advise.

 

Cheers

Peter

She was nominally tried by the Church, but the English ensured that the judges were pro-English and her trial took place in Rouen, the centre of English operations in France. She was burnt at the stake by English soldiers. So in short the answer is, we did. 

Joan was 19.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Owl

She was burned as a relapsed heretic for wearing male clothing.  She was found guilty at her first trial but was promised freedom if she would leave off wearing male clothing, and she agreed.  Then her jailers took away the female clothing she had been brought, leaving only her old male clothing to wear.  She put it on, was charged with relapsing back into heresey and burned. 

 

ps. there is a rumor that she wasn't actually burned but that green wood was used so there was lots of smoke and she was taken away to safety.  The same rumor states that she was the Dauphin's sister.  This rumor is based on her skill at laying artillery pieces (don't go there Flash) and that after the date of the burning, a young woman showed up in southern France who looked alot like her and was equally good with cannon.   

As to who started the whole burning at the stake thing, I don't know but I do know that Nero dipped Christians in some sort of solution and used them for street lights.

Man's inhumanity to man never ceases to amaze me.

All rumours that Bully Dawson and I used to roast the juniors in front of the study fire are actionable