himself of his clothes, then dropping on his bended knees clasped
the stake to which he was to be fastened: he was first bound naked
to the stake with wet ropes, and then with a chain, after which
not small, but large logs of wood with sticks thrown in among them
were piled around him up to his breast; then when they were being
set on fire he began to sing a sort of hymn, which the smoke and
the flames hardly put a stop to. This was the greatest mark of his
soul of fortitude: when the executioner wanted to light the fire
behind his back, so that he should not see it, he called out,
'Come here, and set fire to it before my eyes; for if I had been
afraid of it, I never should have come to this place, which it was
in my power to have avoided.' Thus did this man, perish, who was
excellent in everything but faith. I saw the end of him; I watched
every scene of it. Whether he acted from conviction or contumacy,
you would have pronounced his the death of a man who belonged to
the school of philosophy. I have laid before you a long narrative
for the sake of occupation; having nothing to do I wanted to do
something, and give an account of things very different, indeed,
from the stories of the ancients; for the famous Mutius did not
suffer his arm to be burnt with a soul so bold, as this man his
whole body; nor Socrates drink poison half so willingly as he
endured burning."

I shall now place the passage before the reader in the Latin, as
it was written by Bracciolini, with some words in Italics, upon
which I shall afterwards comment:--

"_Cum pertinacius_ in erroribus perseveraret, per Concilium
haeresis damnatus est, et _igni_ combustus. Jucunda fronte et
alacri vultu ad _exitum_ suum _accessit_, non _ignem_ expavit,