Here's one that you probably know about: being burnt at the stake was a favorite method of execution in the middle ages. You likely know that in the late middle ages there was a fanatical persecution of witch-burning; there are some pretty exaggerated numbers out there of how many were killed, but even conservative estimates suggest that the number of people burned as witches was in the six figures. But an even more common criminal executed by burning was the 'heretic'. By 'heretic' read anyone who disagreed in some way with the local religious authorities. In Catholic countries, that was mostly Protestants; in Protestant countries, that was mostly Catholics. But in both, it was also weirdo mystics and free-thinkers too. Obviously, being burned at the stake was an awful and agonizing method of death. But in some occasions it did lead to some memorable last words; especially if the guy being burned at the stake was a Protestant. The early reformer Jan Hus (in what is today the Czech Republic) was burned at the stake for opposing Catholic corruption; "Hus" is Czech for "goose", and the legend holds that when he was at the stake he said "today, this goose is cooked, but one day there will be a swan you will not be able to cook". Protestants came to believe that his last words were a prophetic prediction of how, 100 years later, Martin Luther would bring about the Protestant reformation. Later on, in England, the Catholic Queen "bloody" Mary burned two Protestant leaders at the stake, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley. According to legend, Ridley was (understandably) shaking with fear, but Latimer called out to him "Play the man, Ridley! Today we shall light such a candle that by God's grace will never be put out in England"! And a few years later, Bloody Mary was dead, and Protestantism restored to England for good.