How to make a martyr… why can’t this fool just act like the heretic he is… at his own execution, for God’s sake.

Johannes (John) Huss of Bohemia, Czech reformist burned by the Roman Catholic Church as a “heretic” on July 6th, 1415 in Constance (Courtesy: Story of Liberty by Charles Carleton Coffin)
The procession crossed the bridge and halted in a meadow, between the gardens of the city and the gate of Gottlieben. Here the execution was to take place. Being come to the spot where he was to die, the martyr kneeled down, and began reciting the penitential psalms. He offered up short and fervent supplications, and oftentimes repeated, as the bystanders bore witness, the words, “Lord Jesus, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”"We know not,” said those who were near him, “what his life has been, but verily he prays after a devout and godly fashion.” Turning his gaze upward in prayer, the paper crown fell off. One of the soldiers rushed forward and replaced it, saying that “he must be burned with the devils whom he had served.” Again the martyr smiled. The stake was driven deep into the ground. Huss was tied to it with ropes. He stood facing the east. “This,” cried some, “is not the right attitude for a heretic.” “that you silence the goose, but a hundred years hence there will arise a swan whose singing you shall not be able to silence.”
He stood with his feet on the targets, which were mixed with straw that they might the more readily ignite. Wood was piled all round him up to the chin. Before applying the torch, Louis of Bavaria and the Marshal of the Empire approached, and for the last time implored him to have a care for his life, and renounce his errors. “What errors,” asked Huss, “shall I renounce? I know myself guilty of none. I call God to witness that all that I have written and preached has been with the view of rescuing souls from sin and perdition; and, therefore, most joyfully will I confirm with my blood that truth which I have written and preached.”
At the hearing of these words they departed from him, and John Huss had now done talking with men. The fire was applied, the flames blazed upward.
“Do not believe,” he says to the people, “that I have taught anything but the truth.” No trembling of the lips - no whitening of his cheeks. He is going to testify to the truth. Why should he fear? Truth and liberty are eternal, and will live when emperor and pope have passed away. Truth makes men free, and it will be glorious to die for freedom. The fagots are piled around him - bundles of dry sticks. The executioner stands with his torch. “Renounce your error,” shouts the Duke of Bavaria. “I have taught no error. The truths I have I taught will seal with my blood.”Burn him.” The executioner holds his torch to the fagots. “John Huss,” says Fox, “began to sing with a loud voice, ‘Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.’ And when he began to say the same the third time, the wind so blew the flame in his face that it choked him.”
Poggius, who was secretary to the council, and Aeneas Sylvius, who afterwards became Pope, and whose narratives are not liable to the suspicion of being coloured, bear even higher testimony to the heroic demeanour of both Huss and Jerome at their execution. “Both,” says the latter historian, “bore themselves with constant mind when their last hour approached. They prepared for the fire as if they were going to a marriage feast. They uttered no cry of pain. When the flames rose they began to sing hymns; and scarce could the vehemency of the fire stop their singing.”
What is it that the people hear coming from that sheet of flame? “Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”It is the song which the angels sung above the pastures of above the pastures of Bethlehem. And this: “We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory.” It is Gloria in Excelsis. The smoke blinds him, the flames are circling above his head. Yet the voice goes on: “Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on me.” The flames wrap him round, his head falls on his breast.
Huss had given up the ghost. When the flames had subsided, it was found that only the lower parts of his body were consumed, and that the upper parts, held fast by the chain, hung suspended on the stake. The executioners kindled the fire anew, in order to consume what remained of the martyr. When the flames had a second time subsided, the heart was found still entire amid the ashes. A third time had the fire to be kindled. At last all was burned. The ashes were carefully collected, the very soil was dug up, and all was carted away and thrown into the Rhine; so anxious were his persecutors that not the slightest vestige of John Huss–not even a thread of his raiment, for that too was burned along with his body–should be left upon the earth.