Auto de fe

Spanish for "act of faith", the auto de fe (plural autos de fe) was the ritual public execution by fire of condemned heretics and apostates that took place when the Inquisition "relaxed", that is, released, the condemned to the secular arm. Obdurate prisoners were burned alive, but if they were reconciled to the church, they would be strangled at the stake before the faggots were lit. The phrase is also common in English in its Portuguese form auto da fe (or auto da fé).

The first auto de fe took place in Seville, Spain, in 1481, when six men and women were executed. Autos de fe also took place in Portugal, Mexico, Brazil, and Peru, and are recorded by contemporary historians of the Conquistadors such as Bernal Diaz[?]. The last auto de fe took place in 1790.

References

Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. (Yale University Press, 1999). ISBN 0300078803

---This revised edition of his 1965 original contributes to the understanding of the Spanish Inquisition in its local context.

Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain (4 volumes), (New York and London, 1906-1907)

Simon Whitechapel, Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition (Creation Books, 2003). ISBN 1840681055