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The phrase auto de fe refers to the ritual of public penance
Penance

Penance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Catholic and Orthodox Christian Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession....
 of condemned heretics
Heresy

Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief....
 and apostates that took place when the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition was an ecclesiastical tribunal established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile....
 or the Portuguese Inquisition
Portuguese Inquisition

The Portuguese Inquisition was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, Jo?o III. Manuel I of Portugal had asked for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515, but was only after his death that the pope acquiesced....
 had decided their punishment (that is, after the trial).






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Pedro Berruguete Saint Dominic Presiding Over An Auto Da Fe (1475)
The phrase auto de fe refers to the ritual of public penance
Penance

Penance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Catholic and Orthodox Christian Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession....
 of condemned heretics
Heresy

Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief....
 and apostates that took place when the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition was an ecclesiastical tribunal established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile....
 or the Portuguese Inquisition
Portuguese Inquisition

The Portuguese Inquisition was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, Jo?o III. Manuel I of Portugal had asked for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515, but was only after his death that the pope acquiesced....
 had decided their punishment (that is, after the trial). Auto de fé in medieval Spanish (and in Portuguese) means "act of faith". The phrase is used most frequently in English in its alternative Portuguese form auto-da-fé.

In the popular imagination, "auto-da-fé" has come to refer to burning at the stake
Execution by burning

Capital punishment by combustion, , has a long history as a method of punishment for crimes such as treason, heresy and witchcraft . This method of execution fell into disfavor among governments in the late 18th century; today, it is considered cruel and unusual punishment....
 for heresy.

History

The auto de fé involved a Catholic Mass
Mass (liturgy)

The Mass is the Eucharistic celebration in the Latin liturgical rites of the Roman Catholic Church. The term is used also of similar celebrations in Old Catholic Churches, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism, and in some largely High Church Lutheranism Lutheranism regions, including the Scandinavian and Baltic states countries....
; prayer; a public procession of those found guilty; and a reading of their sentences. The ritual took place in public squares or esplanades and lasted several hours: ecclesiastical and civil authorities attended. Artistic representations of the auto de fé usually depict torture
Torture

Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadism gratification of the torturer, as was the case in the Moors M...
 and the burning at the stake
Execution by burning

Capital punishment by combustion, , has a long history as a method of punishment for crimes such as treason, heresy and witchcraft . This method of execution fell into disfavor among governments in the late 18th century; today, it is considered cruel and unusual punishment....
.

But, neither torture nor burning at the stake took place during an auto de fé, which was a religious ritual . Torture was not administered after a trial concluded. Executions were always held after and separately from the auto de fe .

The first recorded auto de fé was held in Paris in 1242, under Louis IX
Louis IX of France

Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was List of French monarchs from 1226 to his death. He was also Counts of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was a member of the House of Capet and the son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile....
. The first Spanish auto de fé took place in Seville
Seville

||-||}Seville is the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of Andalusia and of the province of Seville ....
, Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
, in 1481; six of the men and women who participated in this first religious ritual were later executed.

The Inquisition enjoyed limited power in Portugal, having been established in 1536 and officially lasting until 1821. Its influence was much weakened by the late 1700s under the government of the Marquês of Pombal. Autos de fé also took place in Mexico, Brazil and Peru. Contemporary historians of the Conquistador
Conquistador

Conquistador is the name given to the Spaniards soldiers, leaders, List of explorers, and adventurers involved in the conquest of the Americas following the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492....
s, such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo
Bernal Díaz del Castillo

Bernal D?az del Castillo was a conquistador, who wrote an eyewitness account of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards under Hern?n Cort?s, himself serving as a rodelero under Cort?s....
, recorded them. They were also held in the Portuguese colony of Goa
Goa

Goa is India's smallest states and territories of India in terms of area and the List of states and territories of India by population. Located on the west coast of India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its western...
, India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, following the establishment of the Inquisition
Goa Inquisition

The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Inquisition acting in the Indian state of Goa and the rest of the Portuguese empire in Asia. It was established in 1560, briefly suppressed from 1774-1778, and finally abolished in 1812....
 there in 1562-1563.

Cultural references

The auto da fé, usually represented as a heretic being burned at the stake, is a symbol used widely in the arts, especially in Europe.

  • Voltaire
    Voltaire

    Fran?ois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Age of Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosophy known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberty, including freedom of religion and free trade....
     featured an auto-da-fé held by the Portuguese Inquisition
    Portuguese Inquisition

    The Portuguese Inquisition was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, Jo?o III. Manuel I of Portugal had asked for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515, but was only after his death that the pope acquiesced....
     after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake
    1755 Lisbon earthquake

    The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, took place on November 1, 1755, at around 9:40 in the morning. The earthquake was followed by a tsunami and fires, which caused near-total destruction of Lisbon in Portugal, and adjoining areas....
     in chapter six of his satire Candide
    Candide

    Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a ian the Age of Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, English translations of which have been titled Candide: Or, All for the Best ; Candide: Or, The Optimist ; and Candide: Or, Optimism ....
     (1759). Leonard Bernstein
    Leonard Bernstein

    Leonard Bernstein was a multi-Emmy-winning and Academy Award for Original Music Score nominated American Conductor , composer, author, music lecturer and Piano....
     composed and produced a musical adaptation in 1956, featuring a song called "Auto-da-Fé" which included the chorus line "It's a lovely day for drinking and for watching people die", referring to the spectacle of public executions.


  • Herman Melville
    Herman Melville

    Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet. His first three books gained much attention, the first becoming a bestseller, but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime....
     dedicated his novel Confidence Man (1857) to "victims of auto-da-fe."


  • Elias Canetti
    Elias Canetti

    Elias Canetti was a Bulgarian-born novelist of Sephardi Jewish ancestry who wrote in German language and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981....
    , the Nobel Prize
    Nobel Prize

    The Nobel Prize , established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prize in Literature, and Nobel Peace Prize in 1901....
    -winning author, wrote a novel Die Blendung (Auto-da-fé) (1935), tr.1946 into English.


  • Tennessee Williams
    Tennessee Williams

    Tennessee Williams was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee", the state of his father's birth....
     wrote a one-act play entitled Auto-da-Fé. (1938)


  • Auto-da-fé, is in the eponymous lines from Vladimir Nabokov
    Vladimir Nabokov

    Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a Multilingualism Russian-American novelist and short story writer.Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian language, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist....
    ’s novel Pale Fire
    Pale Fire

    Pale Fire is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is presented as a poem titled "Pale Fire" by John Shade, a fictional author, with an introduction and commentary by a fictional friend of his....
     (1989).


Popular

  • Mel Brooks' movie History of the World, Part I
    History of the World, Part I

    History of the World, Part I is a 1981 in film film written, produced and directed by Mel Brooks. As he does in many of his other films, Brooks also gives himself a great deal of time in front of the camera, this time playing five roles: Moses, Comicus the stand-up comedy philosopher, Tom?s de Torquemada, Louis XVI of France, and Jacques,...
     (1981) featured a passage set in the Spanish Inquisition
    Spanish Inquisition

    The Spanish Inquisition was an ecclesiastical tribunal established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile....
    . Torquemada (Brooks) had the following musical exchange with his monks:
"Auto Da Fé, what's an Auto Da Fé?"
"It's what you oughtn't to do but you do anyway!"


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