What a difference three quarters of a century makes...

From the very beginning of Clark Ashton Smith's June, 1934 story The Colossus of Ylourgne:

"It was widely thought, among the people of that vicinage, that his departure had been prompted by a salutary fear of ecclesiastical thumbscrews and faggots."

I bet I was supposed to think of the Inquisition, and not the Chorister. Ah well, sometimes linguistic drift brings out the ten-year-old in me. Pardon me while I wriggle and snicker.