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Last person to be burned at the stake for heresy in England

Edward Wightman (1566 – 11 April 1612) was an English radical Anabaptist minister, executed at Lichfield on charges of heresy; he was the last person to be burned at the stake in England for such a crime.

Edward Wightman was born in 1566. He attended Burton Grammar School and entered the clothiers business of his mother's family. Eventually, he served an apprenticeship as a woollen draper in the town of Shrewsbury. He married Frances Darbye of Hinckley in 1593 and settled in Burton upon Trent. Apart from his mercer's business in Burton he also became a minister of the local Anabaptist church.

Wightman became involved with the Puritans and in 1596 was chosen as one of the leaders assigned to the investigation of demonic possession of 13 year old Thomas Darling. This suggests that by the mid 1590s Wightman was an important and well respected public figure, taking part in the newly formed movement that began to hold sway over Burton's society and politics. His involvement in the Darling case proved a turning point in his life, making him entirely amenable to the possibility of unmediated spiritual intervention. Darling claimed not just to be possessed by the devil, but engaged in a series of 'spiritual wars' in which both demonic and angelic voices were said to emanate from him:

As I know at this present for a certainty, that I have the spirit of God within me: so do I with the like certainty believe, that in my dialogues with Satan, when I [quoted] sundry places of scripture, to withstand the temptations he assaulted me with: I had the spirit of God in me, and by that spirit resisted Satan at those times, by [quoting] the scriptures to confound him.

Wightman's adoption of "heresy" commenced with his understanding of the mortality of the soul, adopting the "soul sleep" view of Martin Luther. In one of his early public messages he preached that "the soul of man dies with the body and participates not either of the joys of Heaven or the pains of Hell, until the general Day of Judgment, but rested with the body until then". Between 1603/4 and 1610/11, he became more active and vocal. According to court records, he was a prolific writer, although none of his writings have been found to date. He came to the attention of the local church authorities and a warrant for his arrest was issued. The order instructed the constables of Burton to immediately bring him before the Bishop of Lichfield Richard Neile (or Neale) for interrogation.

Wightman set about putting together a compendium of his theology for his upcoming hearing and defence. Perhaps thinking that he would at least be allowed time to plead his case, he delivered copies of it to members of the clergy in an effort to shore up support but, perhaps as a last resort, he delivered a copy to King James I, a move that would ultimately seal his fate. No copy survives. James I came to the English throne in 1603, "thinking himself a competent judge of religious questions and disposed to take seriously his title of 'Defender of the Faith'". Since 1607 he had been engaged in a battle of books with Roman Catholic apologists over the Oath of Allegiance, both personally and by encouraging others to write in his defence. "One of the central planks of the king's case was the preservation of his catholic orthodoxy through his adherence to the three great creeds of the church, the Apostles', the Nicene and the Athanasian". Wightman was fully aware of the king's firmly orthodox stance, yet he set about to combat both his State and Church. Of the handful of fragments of his defence treatise that have survived, he refers to the doctrine and "heresies of the Nicolaitan; most of all hated and abhorred of God himself  the common received faith contained in those three inventions of man, commonly called the Three Creeds  the [Apostles'], Nicene and Athanasius Creed, which faith within these 1600 years past hath prevailed in the world". Wightman had by now isolated himself from all orthodox groups, calling into question many tenets of orthodox belief, arguing "that the baptizing of infants is an abominable custom  the practice of the Sacraments as they are now used in the Church of England are according to Christ his Institution  [and affirming that] only the sacrament of baptism [is] to be administered in water to converts of sufficient age of understanding converted from infidelity to the faith". However what finally spelled his end was his public rejection of Trinitarianism. It was presumably on these points that he so vehemently rejected the formulae of the Nicene Creed of 325 and the Athanasian Creed of 381. He claimed that the doctrine of the Trinity was a total fabrication, stating that Christ was only a man "and a mere Creature and not both God and man in one person [Although this did not mean that Christ was a man like all others but] only a perfect man without sin". King James was by now more set than ever in securing the execution of Wightman, since in the intervening years he had launched a dual campaign against heresy at home and abroad.

Little is known about the subsequent fate of Edward Wightman's wife and children. It is known, however, that one son, John, was born on 7 January 1599 in Burton. John's son, George (1632–1722) emigrated to North Kingston, Rhode Island, in 1660.