Auto Da Fe

Auto da Fe is the Spanish for "Act of Faith;" it was a ceremony which consisted in the public burning of heretics condemned by the Inquisition. The Inquisition or "Holy Office," was a tribunal in the Roman Catholic church, instituted in 1248, for the discovery, repression, and punishment of heresy, unbelief, and other offences against religion. It was established in various countries, but nowhere did it proceed with such rigor as in Italy and Spain. The victims of the Inquisition were burned because the church was forbidden "to shed blood," an axiom of the Roman Catholic being, "Abhorret Ecclesia a sanguine" (the church is untainted with blood). The day chosen was usually a Sunday between Trinity and Advent. Very often All Saints Day. The first Auto da Fe was held at Seville, 1481, the most splendid, at Madrid, 1680; the last in Mexico, as late as 1815. Philip II. of Spain was a great patron of the Inquisition and seemed to take pleasure in its operations. He reverently attended the burning of his subjects, saying, "Better not reign at all than reign over heretics." We quote an instance from Motley's "Dutch Republic":--

"Early in January of this year, the King being persuaded that it was necessary everywhere to use additional means to check the alarming spread of Lutheran opinions, had written to the Pope for authority to increase, if that were possible, the stringency of the Spanish inquisition. The pontiff, nothing loath, had accordingly issued a bull directed to the inquisitor general, Valdez, by which he was instructed to consign to the flames all prisoners whatever, even those who were not accused of having 'relapsed.'

"The first auto-da-fe consummated at Valladolid was on the 21st May (1559), in the absence of the King, of course, but in the presence of the royal family and the principal notabilities, civil, ecclesiastical, and military.

"It being afterward ascertained that the King himself would soon be enabled to return to Spain, the next festival was reserved as a fitting celebration for his arrival. Upon the 8th October, accordingly, another auto-da-fe took place at Valladolid. The King, with his sister and his son, the high officers of state, the foreign ministers, and all the nobility of the kingdom, were present, together with an immense concourse of soldiery, clergy, and populace. The sermon was preached by the Bishop of Cuenca. When it was finished, Inquisitor-General Valdez cried with a loud voice, 'Oh God, make speed to help us!' The King then drew his sword. Valdez, advancing to the platform upon which Philip was seated, proceeded to read the protestation. 'Your Majesty swears by the cross of the sword whereon your royal hand reposes, that you will give all necessary favor to the holy office of the inquisition against heretics, apostates, and those who favor them, and will denounce and inform against all those who, to your knowledge, shall act or speak against the faith.' The King answered aloud, 'I swear it,' and signed the paper. The oath was read to the whole assembly by an officer of the inquisition. Thirteen distinguished victims were then burned before the monarch's eyes, besides one body which a friendly death had snatched from the hands of the holy office, and the effigy of another person who had been condemned, although not yet tried or even apprehended. Among the sufferers was Carlos de Sessa, a young noble of distinguished character and abilities, who said to the King as he passed by the throne to the stake, 'How can you thus look on and permit me to be burned?' Philip then made the memorable reply, carefully recorded by his historiographer and panegyrist: 'I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal, were he as wicked as you.' In Seville, immediately afterward, another auto-da-fe was held, in which fifty living heretics were burned, besides the bones of Doctor Constantine Ponce de la Fuente, once the friend, chaplain, and almoner of Philip's father. This learned and distinguished ecclesiastic had been released from a dreadful dungeon by a fortunate fever. The holy office, however, not content with punishing his corpse, wreaked also an impotent and ludicrous malice upon his effigy. A stuffed figure, attired in his robes and with its arms extended in the attitude which was habitual with him in prayer, was placed upon the scaffold among the living victims, and then cast into the flames, that bigotry might enjoy a fantastic triumph over the grave. Such were the religious ceremonies with which Philip celebrated his escape from shipwreck, and his marriage with Isabella of France, immediately afterward solemnized. These human victims, chained and burning at the stake, were the blazing torches which lighted the monarch to his nuptial couch."

This auto-da-fe was solemnized less than five years before the birth of Shakespeare, who wrote: "It is the heretic who builds the fire, not he who burns in it." The name auto-da-fe-Act of Faith-designating the tragical solemnity--was perhaps adopted from an idea that one must hold his faith very firmly or he could not bear to perpetrate such atrocities for propagating it. It was the supreme act of faith.