The Burton ‘Heretic’ BURTON–ON–TRENT is an English town ttThat baptism with a dark claim to fame. This is the is to be admini- birthplace of the last man in England to be stered only burned at the stake, who died in 1612. to converts In the Seventeenth Century, the Church of sufficient had a strong hold over ordinary people’s age and lives. They feared its teaching about eternal understanding punishment, and the king could easily ttThat Christi- arrest you and imprison you for disagreeing anity was with it. If you didn’t believe what the Church not wholly taught, you were in big trouble. professed and Edward Wightman was a man who preached in wanted to believe what was right. It is likely the Church. that he had access to a copy of the English To Edward Wightman, it mattered what Bible which was newly circulating. We learn you believed. It wasn’t enough to agree most about him from the Royal Writ from with the priest; everyone had a duty to find King James I sent to the Bishop of Lichfield the Bible truth out for themselves, and then in 1612 ordering Wightman’s arrest and to stand up for it. Such an attitude is still execution. quite rare today. Real Beliefs The Christadelphians, who produce Glad Tidings, base their beliefs on the Bible and The writ tells us that Wightman believed: no other authority. In fact, we agree with ttThat there is no Trinity of Persons, the Wightman that the things he believed are Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in what the Bible teaches. the unity of God He was burnt at the stake in Lichfield ttThat Jesus Christ is not God Market Place on 11th April 1612, where ttThat the Holy Ghost is not God co– a plaque still commemorates his status equal with the Father and the Son as ‘the last person in England so to die’. History has labelled him a heretic, ttThat the soul is mortal but perhaps he should be remembered ttThat the soul does not go to heaven because he read the Bible for himself. when a person dies Paul Tovell Glad Tidings | 5.