Note 261 — Chapter V

Brandt, History of the Reformation, etc. i. 261, 266. The executions were latterly accompanied by additional atrocious cruelty. “It being perceived with what constancy and alacrity many persons went to the fire, and how they opened their mouths to make a free confession of their faith, and that the wooden balls or gags were wont to slip out, a dreadful machine was invented to hinder it for the future: they prepared two little irons, between which the tongue was screwed, which being seared at the tip with a glowing iron, would swell to such a degree as to become immovable and incapable of being drawn back; thus fastened, the tongue would wriggle about with the pain of burning, and yield a hollow sound” (i. 275).