451 degrees isn't so nice for human flesh, either

Thanks to TiL for reminding me that today in 1556, Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake for being "a bit too Protestant" (arguably a balancing by Bloody Mary for Henry VIII's execution of Thomas More for being a bit too Catholic). One of the "Oxford Martyrs" (the other's being Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley), Cranmer was "saved for last", as his recantation was more sought after by Mary. He was, you may recall, the author of The Book of Common Prayer.

The Oxford Martyrs are, at this point, perhaps most widely remembered because Ray Bradbury quoted the last words of Latimer in Fahrenheit 451:

Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.

I would like to think that while I stood on a pyre with a bag of gunpowder hung around my neck, I would have the wherewithal to say something that exceptional. Sadly, I doubt I'd be able to get it out over the whimpering and keening.