BURNING, or Brenning, in our old customs, denotes an infectious disease, got in the stews by conversing with lewd women, and supposed to be the same with what we now call the venereal disease.
In a manuscript of the vocation of John Bale to the bishopric of Ossory, written by himself, he speaks of Dr Hugh Weston, who was dean of Windsor in 1556, but deprived by Cardinal Pole for adultery, thus: "At this day is lecherous Weston, who is more practised in the arts of breech-burning, than all the whores of the stews. He not long ago brent a beggar of St Botolph's parish." See STEW.