Burned at the Stake: Definition!

I'm wondering if we want to build sections into the project overview:

- timeline
- Geographic? We could make a map ...
- By crime accused of?
- myths / facts

For an example of the last - no witches were burned at Salem in 1692. In fact I don't think execution by burning was used in Colonial America?

I'm not entirely happy with this project yet.

- can we get some resource information compiled?
- should we break it out further into sub projects ?

-- for heresy
-- for witchcraft
-- for other crimes (treason?)

- what about self immolation as a protest? I think that should be it's own project, related to "state sponsored mass murders" and "suicide" ?

Thoughts, please.

And there's also the methods question. Not sure if that should be separated also.

Need more info !

Ok I'll start a little further down as first anticipated. You mention subprojects. For treason that might be a good Ideer.
In Denmark Treason was punished with ax, sword or hanging, not burning.

OFcause again the witches in Salem was hung by the neck, so there is variations. So I do believe that Treason here migt be better of in another project connected to this one of cause.
Reason for this is that burning ussually was the punishment used when it came to church matters. That also passed on into the protestant areas with the different fractions of christians. A remnant from the middleages.

So maybee the project should start with a little esplaining of why they used this method. That would or at least might clarify some of the issues here

When it comes to heresy and witches that is coing to be diffecult to seperate. Especially in the Catholic area, but also in some protestant areas it was a hair fine line that was very undefined!

Reason for this was the definition of a witch. The church wanted the wich to have sold her soul to satan.Therefor they were apostated from the one true church!
So was other christian groups as well, although they might not have sold there soul. But the definition is as said very unclear.

So the best way to go I believe is to make clear that burning mostly was connected to church matters amd ofcause problely mostly in Europe, since the Salem witches was hung, but punished for the same crime.

How this difference in execution methods is to be integrated I am not sure. BEcayse if we call it burned on the stake, the Salem withes do not belong here!
But then again the Salem withctrial comes later than many of the Eropean witchtrials.
They were mostly compiled in the timeframe of 1550-1650 and then slowly lessens as the religious fever died ot as well.
In Denmark there was a small outbreak around 1690-1700. Here they did not use burning either, so maybee the burning method was going out of fasion or what ever you would call it.

Therefore maybee some sort of time line with at least the witchtrials would be an interesting thing to add to the project, since that might show some changes in the way the trials also changed!

Selfburning is not a punishment and I believe belong more into a catagory with civil protest and the like.!

Maybee we could also have a project that descripe different execution methods and why they used them? Ok maybee a little macabre but it could be useful.
Or maybee have a little section on how it was punished in different areas. In Denmark for instance the wise woman was not executed and very rarely punished. That was different in other areas of Europe!

Sorry for writing a novel! I have some more thoughts, but lieve it at that for now.!

Excellent, Anette, very clarifying. I was having trouble connecting "heretics" (inquisition) with "witches.". Can you renounce & repent of witch - hood ?

Burning was a religious practice.

So "if" there were any secular only uses, that would be different.

I think burning witches was still used fairly recently in Africa. I don't think native American witches were burned though.

Huh. Apparently burning at the stake "had" been used for treason ?

From http://www.witchcraftandwitches.com/trials.html

Execution by burning, especially the particular form commonly called “burning at the stake” in which the condemned were bound to a large stake surrounded by burning faggots of wood, had a long history as a method of punishment for crimes such as treason and heresy. It was also used as a punishment for witchcraft during this period, although it was actually less common than hanging, pressing or drowning. This method of execution fell into disfavour among most governments in the late 18th Century, and today is considered cruel and unusual punishment.

PETTY treason ...

From http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/hayes.html

The crime of Petty Treason.
In these male dominated times, men were considered more valuable in law than women.  So if a woman killed her husband, she was guilty not merely of murder but the much more serious crime of Petty Treason.  Petty Treason was defined by the Treason Act of 1351 and encompassed the killing of a master by a servant, a husband by his wife, or an ecclesiastical superior by his inferior. These crimes were seen as an assault on the majesty of the State, as well as the actual victim, and were perceived at the time to be against the natural order of things. Therefore, the punishment for Petty Treason was much more severe than for ordinary murder. Women convicted of petty treason were burned at the stake up to 1793, after which they were still drawn to the place of execution but then hanged in the normal way up till 1825, when the crime of Petty Treason was abolished, the offence being reclassified as ordinary murder.

I have not heard of any amarican witches to be burned.

About the Chrurch practise. The danish civil lega system took over these methods of punishment were before the reformation a chruc matter but then given over to the civil courts. But still had something to do with religious matters!

especially in the "inquisition area or should I say in the area were the fighting for control for one specific religious Christian fraction heretics and witces was very much seen as the same. The opposition was descriped as the devil and therefor hunted as heretic.

It also was about the question of how to purify the area for otherwise thinking people. They believed that in a country or certain area. (This goes for Denmark as well) that If they did not God would surely punish all of them.
It was their religious duty to do so!

A deviant, wether seen as a witch, that of a heretic or otherwice not conforming to standard would therefor become a target of the authorities or their neighbors!

Was burning used for the equivalent of "petty treason" ?

Burning was used were the soul needed purification. Saving the soul.
Witchcraft as such was one of the most dreadful crimes you could commit. Not only did you harm your fellow neighbors, but you also harmed the church and God, your country and your king!
So your sins needed to be cleaned of of you, so that your soul at least could be saved!