HUGE crowds watched in horrified silence as convicted heretic Edward Wightman was burned at the stake in Lichfield's Market Place yesterday. And, according to Richard Neile, Bishop of Lichfield, Wightman "died blaspheming".
    Yet only two weeks earlier, on April 11, Wightman was dragged from the flames at his first 'burning', after crying out that he would recant. But after a few days in the cells at Guildhall, the former Burton businessman turned preacher "blasphemed more audaciously than before", thus condemning himself to a second, fatal, return to the stake.
    Wightman's story is a strange and tragic one, particularly for the family he has left behind. For many years he ran a successful mercer's business in Burton-on-Trent, and lived happily with his wife and small son.

    But all this was to change once he began attending Puritan meetings in and around Burton. Soon he became a preacher himself, and attracted attention as his views became more and more extreme.
    The authorities began to take an interest in the outspoken Wightman, particularly when he denounced the Trinity as false, and claimed he was the Messiah. Yet he continued to preach unmolested -- until, foolishly, he presented a petition to King James I last year, in which he expounded his belief.
    The King, angered by Wightman's outrageous claims, look immediate action. He ordered the Bishop of Lichfield to carry out an examination of "the preacher who claims he is the Messiah".
    Within weeks Wightman was brought before the Consistory Court at Lichfield, accused of heresy. After a sensational trial lasting several days, he was found guilty and handed over to the civil authorities to be executed by burning.
    When the sentence was publically announced in the Cathedral just eleven days before Christmas, Bishop Neile preached a long and moving sermon in which he confuted Wightman's heresies.
    The convicted man remained in prison for the next three months until, on March 9, the King signed his writ to the Sheriff of Lichfield, George Collins, commanding him to execute the sentence of burning "in some public place within the city of Lichfield".

    Wightman's fate was sealed -- but there was more drama to come in a case that was already a national sensation.
    The date fixed for Wightman's public burning was April 11 -- the day before Easter -- in the Market Place at Lichfield. Hundreds of onlookers saw the condemned man chained to the stake, and the fire lit. In the hush that followed, Wightman -- already scorched by the flames -- was clearly heard to cry out that he would recant. Some of those nearest the fire rushed forward and pulled away the burning faggots, scorching themselves in the process.
    A form of recantation was taken to the still-chained Wightman, who read it and professed. His chains were removed and he was taken back to prison below Guildhall.
    That should have been the end of the case of Edward Wightman, convicted heretic who recanted at the stake. But more was to come.

    

An artist's interpretation of the scene in Market Square when Edward Wightman was burned at the stake.

'BLASPHEMED'

    After a fortnight in the cells Wightman was again taken before the Consistory Court to make a formal recantation. But by this time the outspoken preacher had recovered from his fright at the stake, and, in the words of Bishop Neile, "blasphemed more audaciously than before".
    The writ was renewed, and once more Wightman was taken to the Market Place and chained to the stake. The flames were lit ... but this time there was no recantation from the doomed man.
    As the flames engulfed him, Edward Wightman, the ex-mercer who claimed to be the Messiah, died as he had lived -- blaspheming and unrepentant.