We are entering a season when we set fire to things: sparklers, fireworks, bonfires, and guys named Guy Fawkes. This is rather bizarre since, erm, Guy Fawkes wasn’t actually burned; he was hung, drawn and quartered, and convicted for being a traitor in service of the Pope. He was not burned as a heretic. (But don’t let that spoil the party.)
I’m not suggesting we get the history right by erecting gallows in town squares on 5 November. That won’t end well. Besides, who doesn’t love a good fire? (Okay, maybe not Greta Thunberg.) The English were certainly partial to a fire, at least until 11 April 1612, when Edward Wightman - essentially a Trinity-denying Anabaptist - became the last man burned for heresy. Should we have a national festival on 11 April where we burn an Edward?
My suggestion is to have the fires on 16 October and remember two guys - or, at least, a Hugh and a Nicholas - since that is the day on which Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned just outside Balliol College, Oxford in 1555.
