Representation of an Auto de fe, as depicted by Pedro Berruguete (around 1495^[1]). Pedro Berruguete (c 1450 &ndash 1504 was a Spanish painter his art is regarded as a transitional style between gothic and Renaissance.

The phrase auto de fe refers to the ritual of public penance of condemned heretics and apostates that took place when the Spanish Inquisition or the Portuguese Inquisition had decided their punishment (that is, after the trial). Penance is repentance of Sins as well as the proper name of the Catholic and Orthodox Christian Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief especially a religion that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief The Spanish Inquisition started and was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile to maintain The Portuguese Inquisition was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, João III. Auto de fé in medieval Spanish means "act of faith". The phrase also commonly occurs in English in its Portuguese form auto-da-fé. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal.

In the popular imagination "auto-da-fé" has come to refer to burning at the stake for heresy. Execution by burning has a long history as a method of Punishment for Crimes such as Treason, Heresy and Witchcraft

History

The auto de fé involved a Catholic Mass; prayer; a public procession of those found guilty; and a reading of their sentences (Peters 1988: 93-94). The Mass is the Eucharistic celebration in the Latin liturgical rites of the Roman Catholic Church. Prayer is the act of attempting to communicate with a Deity or spirit A procession (via Middle English processioun, French procession, derived from Latin processio, itself from procedere, to go forth advance In Law, a sentence forms the final act of a Judge -ruled process and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function They took place in public squares or esplanades and lasted several hours: ecclesiastical and civil authorities attended. ^[2] Artistic representations of the auto de fé usually depict torture and the burning at the stake. Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental is intentionally Execution by burning has a long history as a method of Punishment for Crimes such as Treason, Heresy and Witchcraft However, this type of activity never took place during an auto de fé, which was in essence a religious act. Torture was not administered after a trial concluded, and executions were always held after and separate from the auto de fe (Kamen 1997: 192-213), though in the minds and experiences of observers and those undergoing the confession and execution, the separation of the two might be experienced as merely a technicality.

The first recorded auto de fé was held in Paris in 1242, under Louis IX. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city ^[3] The first Spanish auto de fé took place in Seville, Spain, in 1481; six of the men and women who participated in this first religious ritual were later executed. Seville ( Spanish: Sevilla, see also different names) is the artistic cultural and financial capital of southern Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The Inquisition enjoyed limited power in Portugal, having been established in 1536 and officially lasting until 1821, although its influence was much weakened with the government of the Marquis of Pombal, in the second half of the 18th century. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo 1st Count of Oeiras 1st Marquis of Pombal (in Portuguese, Marquês de Pombal, pron Autos de fé also took place in Mexico, Brazil and Peru: contemporary historians of the Conquistadors such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo record them. The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. This article is about the Spanish explorer soldiers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuriesfor other uses see Conquistador (disambiguation A Conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1496 &ndash 1584 was a Conquistador, who wrote an eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards under Hernán They also occurred in the Portuguese colony of Goa, India, following the establishment of Inquisition there in 1562-1563. Goa ( Konkani: गोंय /ɡɔ̃j/ is India 's smallest state in terms of area and the fourth smallest in terms of population. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country 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

Cultural references

Auto da fé as burning a heretic at the stake is a symbol used widely throughout the arts. The Portuguese form, auto-da-fé, is in the eponymous line from Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire. This page is about the novelist For his father the politician see Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov. Pale Fire (1962 is a Novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is presented as a poem titled "Pale Fire" by John Shade, a fictional author “I recall seeing [John Shade] from my porch, on a brilliant morning, burning a whole stack of [his drafts] in the pale fire of the incinerator before which he stood with bent head like an official mourner among the wind-borne black butterflies of that backyard auto-da-fé. ”^[4]

"Miss Morgan nearly screamed with relief. She walked a little unsteadily toward the stake. The free man turned and saw her. For a second he seemed surprised, but immediately recovering, he bowed. Coming from a man with torn overalls and a matted beard, the bow was ridiculous and charming. “I’m the teacher,” Miss Morgan explained breathlessly. “I was just out for a walk, and I saw this house. For a moment I thought this auto-da-fé was serious. ” Junius smiled. “But it is serious. It’s more serious than you think. For a moment I thought you were the rescue. The relief is due at ten o’clock, you know. ”^[5]

Auto-da-Fé is also the English-language title of a novel by Elias Canetti (Die Blendung 1935)

In the Spanish Inquisition segment of Mel Brooks' movie History of the World, Part I, Torquemada (Brooks) has the following musical exchange with his monks: "Auto Da Fé, what's an Auto Da Fé?" "It's what you oughn't to do but you do anyway!"

In Chapter six of 'Candide' by Voltaire there is an Auto-da-fé. Elias Canetti ( 25 July 1905, Rousse, Bulgaria – 14 August 1994, Zurich, Switzerland) was a The Spanish Inquisition started and was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile to maintain History of the World Part I is a 1981 Film written produced and directed by Mel Brooks. --> Candide ou l'Optimisme (1759 is a French Satire by the Enlightenment Philosopher Voltaire, English translations of which François-Marie Arouet ( 21 November 1694 30 May 1778) better known by the Pen name Voltaire, was a French Leonard Bernstein's musical adaptation features a song called "Auto-da-Fé. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> WikipediaWikiProject Classical music#Biographical_infoboxes Candide (1956 is an Operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the Novella of the same name by Voltaire "

Auto Da Fé is the title of an album by Industrial band SPK. Industrial music is a loose term for a number of different styles of Experimental music, especially but not necessarily Electronic music. SPK, formed in 1978 in Sydney, Australia, was a 1980s and early 1990s Industrial music and Noise music group

Auto Da Fe is the name of a rock climbing route at Mount Arapiles in Victoria, Australia. Mount Arapiles is a rock formation that rises 369 metres above the Wimmera plains in western Victoria, Australia.

Notes

References

• Arouet, Francois-Marie (Voltaire) (1758). Candide
• Kamen, Henry. (1997) The Spanish Inquisition : A Historical Revision. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
• Lea, Henry Charles (1906–1907). A History of the Inquisition of Spain (4 volumes). New York and London.
• Nabokov, Vladimir. (1989) Pale Fire. First Vintage International Edition. Random House. New York.
• Peters, Edward. (1988) Inquisition. New York: The Free Press.
• Stavans, Ilan. (2005) The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature. Random House, Inc. New York
• Steinbeck, John. (1932) "The Pastures of Heaven". Penguin.
• Whitechapel, Simon (2003). Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition. Creation Books. ISBN 1-84068-105-5

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia
• (Spanish) La Inquisición Española: origen, desarrollo, organización, administración, métodos y proceso inquisitorial