When one thinks of religious persecution one's first thoughts are of the Spanish Inquisition, but England was no stranger to torture and death in the name of religion. When King Henry VIII first broke away from the Catholic Church, establishing the Protestant Church of England most subjects were sufficiently indifferent in their beliefs that they went along with the Established Church and were thus able to avoid conflict with the state. But there was a small minority, including the famous Sir Thomas More, who would not abandon their consciences and deeply held beliefs and who ultimately wound up imprisoned, tortured, and sometimes put to death.

The problem for true believers in England was that the Established Church kept changing. King Henry VIII was followed on the throne by his Catholic daughter Mary, "Bloody Mary" as she was nicknamed, and during her short reign 300 Protestants were hanged or burned at the stake. When Mary's Protestant sister Elizabeth ascended the throne she persecuted Catholics, executing 200 during her reign. During both their reigns as well as Henry VIII's, various forms of physical torture were used on admitted heretics to elicit the names of friends with whom they had conversed. During most of Elizabeth's reign, fines, imprisonment, and the hanging were the main forms of punishment, but toward the end of her reign and by her own act the queen brought back the "stake and fagot" to punish religious dissenters. The term "fagot" refers to a bundle of sticks that surrounded the stake as fuel for the fire.

Edward Wightman grew up during the reign of Elizabeth I and knew very well the dangers of religious non-conformity. He was a devout Protestant who like other Protestants believed that every man should be able to interpret the Word of God according to his own belief. He belonged to a radical group known as Separatists who tried to break off from public churches and assemble in private houses or elsewhere to worship God in their own way. The Separatists stood in contrast to the Puritans who wanted to purify established religious and secular institutions from within.

Some of Edward Wightman's beliefs were consistent with the Baptists who first organized in England under that name in 1611. But some of his views were considered extreme even among other Protestant leaders with whom he associated. Their strategy in general was to persuade him by force of argument to change his positions.

The Court was very harsh on him. In a trial that lasted from November 19 through December 5, he was convicted of 11 distinct heresies, some of which were so obscure they had never even been heard of before. Some of his contemporaries claimed that if he actually believed all that he was convicted of then he had to have been either an idiot or a madman, neither of which was the case. He was excommunicated and publicly denounced, and on December 14, 1611 was condemned to burn at the stake. A warrant by the King set the date of execution at March 9, 1612.

As the flames began to sear his flesh he cried out something unintelligible which was interpreted by the crowd of onlookers as a recantation of his views. The crowd therefore assisted the sheriff in releasing him from the stake. However, he refused to formally retract his views in writing and continued to preach heretical opinions. Therefore on April 11, 1612 he was again tied to the stake and his body reduced to ashes.

It is said that he died so cheerfully but cruelly that the popular sentiment created made authorities fearful to condemn another to the same fate. Perhaps this is true, for he was the last religious martyr in England to die in this manner.

Reference: THE WIGHTMAN HERITAGE, Wade C. Wightman, Gateway Press, Baltimore, Md. 1990.