Sentenced in the city of Ghent to be burned alive at the stake next to the church of St Peter, for having sex with another man; the first documented execution for homosexual acts in Western Europe.

John De Wettre, a young "small knife-smith" from Ghent, condemned for sodomy, was burned alive after a show-trial ordered by the Church.

John, 29, took two hours to die as the flames kept going out. He watched his legs blacken and fall off, as his torso then slid down the stake unsupported. He died in the flames his last memories being the jeers and boos of the vast crowd.