Auto-da-fé

An auto-da-fé (/ˌɔːtoʊdəˈfeɪ, ˌaʊt-/ AW-toh-də-FAY, OW-; from Portuguese auto da fé [ˈawtu ðɐ ˈfɛ], meaning 'act of faith'; Spanish: auto de fe [ˈawto ðe ˈfe]) was the ritual of public penance carried out between the 15th and 19th centuries of condemned heretics and apostates imposed by the Spanish, Portuguese, or Mexican Inquisition as punishment and enforced by civil authorities. Its most extreme form was death by burning.

For other uses, see Auto-da-fé (disambiguation).

Saint Dominic anachronistically presiding over an auto-da-fé, by Pedro Berruguete (around 1495)[1]

History

From the 8th to the 15th centuries, much of Spain was controlled by Muslims. Around the 11th century, growing suspicions of Jews prompted Christians to unite against the Muslims and Jews. From that point, Spain became a political soup of different powers and territories, each with its own policies regarding the status of Jews and Muslims. By the 13th century almost all of modern Spain was under Christian rule. Ferdinand III of Castile boasted of being the king of three religions.[2] This tolerance, however, did not last long.

In the 14th century, Dominican and Franciscan priests called on Christians to expel the Jews from Spain, blaming Jews for social problems and stirring the Christian majority to destroy synagogues, burn Jews alive, and impose forced conversion. Jews would be forced to attend sermons and have Christian preachers outline what the Christians viewed as the errors of their ways.[3]

New laws segregated the Jewish population and limited the occupations that were still open to them, with the ultimate goal of conversion. More than 100,000 Jews converted. Once converted, these New Christians joined the "conversos" class, who were afforded the legal and social privileges of a full Christian in society. Many New Christians took advantage of their elevation in status and embraced Christian privileges. After a few generations, the converted Jews identified as nothing more or less than "regular" Christians, and Spain was almost uniformly Christian.[4]

This uniformity brought with it new sources of anxiety. "The mistrust of the Jew as an outsider gave way to an even more alarming fear of the converso as an insider".[5] The differences between religious classes had formerly been very clear. Laws and customs codified Christian dominance in Spain. Once the Jews converted, however, many Christian Spaniards believed that they no longer knew whom they could trust and who could possibly be a treacherous heretic at heart.[6]

In an attempt to assuage these fears, Limpieza de sangre (Purity of Blood) laws were put in place that traced the bloodline of Christians New and Old to see if they had Jewish ancestry. In doing so, Spain divided its Christian class along ethnic and religious lines, "othering" those with Jewish blood much as it had prior to conversion. Influential Christians believed that there was something different in the essence and soul of the person that could not be cured by religious conversion. With these laws came the resurgence of the blood libel.[7]

On 1 November 1478, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile received permission from Pope Sixtus IV to name inquisitors throughout their domains in order to protect Catholicism as the one true Christian faith. The decree originally applied to the Crown of Castile—the domain of Isabella—but in 1483 Ferdinand extended it to his domain of the Crown of Aragon. Autos-da-fé became quite popular throughout the Spanish realm, competing with bullfights for the public's attention and attended by royalty.[8]: 245  Though Ferdinand's action met with occasional resistance and resulted in the assassination of the inquisitor Pedro de Arbués by converted Jews in 1485, between 1487 and 1505 the processing and trying of more than 1,000 heretics was recorded by the Barcelona chapter, of whom only 25 were ultimately absolved.[9]

An auto-da-fé in Seville, illustration from 1870

Once granted permission from the Pope to conduct inquisitions, the monarchs began establishing permanent trials and developing bureaucracies to carry out investigations in most of the cities and communities in their empire. The first Iberian auto-da-fé took place in Seville in 1481: the six accused were found guilty and executed.[10] Later, Franciscan missionaries brought the Inquisition to the New World.

The exact number of people executed by the Inquisition is not known. Juan Antonio Llorente, the ex-secretary of the Holy Office, gave the following numbers for the Inquisition excluding the American colonies, Sicily and Sardinia: 31,912 burnt, 17,696 burned in effigy, and 291,450 reconciled de vehementi (i.e., following an act of penance).[8]: 123  Later in the nineteenth century, José Amador de los Ríos gave even higher numbers, stating that between the years 1484 and 1525 alone, 28,540 were burned in person, 16,520 burned in effigy and 303,847 penanced.[8] However, after extensive examinations of archival records, modern scholars provide lower estimates, indicating that fewer than 10,000 were actually executed during the whole history of the Spanish Inquisition,[11] perhaps around 3,000.[12]

The Portuguese Inquisition was established in 1536 and lasted officially until 1821. Its influence was much weakened by the late 18th century under the government of the Marquês de Pombal.

Autos-da-fé also took place in Goa, New Spain, the State of Brazil, and the Viceroyalty of Peru.[13][14] Contemporary historians of the Conquistadors, such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo, recorded them. Although records are incomplete, one historian estimates that about 50 people were executed by the Mexican Inquisition.[15]

Process
1683 painting by Francisco Rizi depicting the auto-da-fé held in Plaza Mayor, Madrid, in 1680.

The auto-da-fé was a major aspect of the tribunals[16] and the final step in the Inquisition process. It involved a Catholic Mass, prayer, a public procession of those found guilty, and a reading of their sentences.[17]

An Inquisition usually began with the public proclamation of a grace period of 40 days. Anyone who was guilty or knew of someone who was guilty was urged to confess. If the accused were charged, they were presumed guilty.[18] Officials could apply torture during the trial.[19] Inquisitors were required to hear and record all testimony.[20] Proceedings were to be kept secret, and the identity of witnesses was not known to the accused.

Officials proclaimed the prisoner's sentence after the trial and administered it in an auto-da-fé. The auto-da-fé was not an impromptu event, but thoroughly orchestrated. Preparations began a month in advance and only occurred when the inquisition authorities believed there were enough prisoners in a given community or city. The ritual took place in public squares or esplanades and lasted several hours with ecclesiastical and civil authorities in attendance.[21]

An all-night vigil would be held in or near the city's plaza, with prayers, ending in Mass at daybreak and a breakfast feast prepared for all who joined in.[22]

The ceremony of public penitence then began with a procession of prisoners, who bore elaborate visual symbols on their garments and bodies. These symbols were called sanbenito, and were made of yellow sackcloth. They served to identify the specific acts of heresy of the accused, whose identities were kept secret until the very last moment. In addition, the prisoners usually had no idea what the outcome of their trial had been or their sentencing.[23]

The prisoners were taken to a place called the quemadero or burning place, sometimes located outside the city walls. There the sentences were read. Prisoners who were acquitted or whose sentence was suspended would fall on their knees in thanksgiving,[24] but the condemned would be punished. Artistic representations of the auto-da-fé usually depict physical punishment such as whipping, torture, and burning at the stake.

The auto-da-fé was also a form of penitence for the public viewers, because they too were engaging in a process of reconciliation and by being involved were given the chance to confront their sins and be forgiven by the Church.[25]

Condemned by the Inquisition wearing a sanbenito carrying the cross of St. Andrew (Francisco de Goya).

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 featured an auto-da-fé held by the people of Lisbon after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake in chapter six of his satire Candide (1759). The university of Coimbra decides that this "great ceremony was an infallible means of preventing the earth from quaking".
  • Edgar Allan Poe – In "The Pit and the Pendulum", Poe uses the auto-da-fé as a reference point for the narrator as he tries to determine what is happening to him.
  • Giuseppe Verdi – In his 1866 opera Don Carlos, Verdi includes a pivotal scene in the third act that depicts the beginning of an auto-da-fé in front of the Cathedral of Valladolid in Spain where heretics are about to be burned at the stake.
  • Herman Melville – In Moby-Dick, near the end of Chapter 54, mentions auto-da-fé in passing: "'Though there are no Auto-da-Fe's in Lima now,' said one of the company to another; 'I fear our sailor friend runs the risk of the archiepiscopacy. Let us withdraw more out of the moonlight. I see no need of this.'" In "The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade" (1857), set on a Mississippi steamboat filled with colorful characters and the Devil himself as the con-man, Melville weaves an allegory on how easily one may win over a person's, or for that matter, an entire people's confidence. The story begins and ends with the appearance of mysterious young men, the latter of whom is described as wearing tattered red and yellow clothes reminiscent of "a victim in auto-da-fe". The book opens with the words "Dedicated to victims of Auto da Fe."
  • Leonard Bernstein composed and produced a musical adaptation of Voltaire's Candide in 1956, featuring a song called Auto-da-Fé that includes the chorus, "It's a lovely day for drinking and for watching people fry", referring to the spectacle of public executions.
  • Elias Canetti won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981 for his work, especially his novel Die Blendung (1935), literally "The Blinding", translated into English as Auto-da-Fé (1946).
  • Fyodor Dostoevsky begins a chapter of The Brothers Karamazov with a "splendid Auto-da-Fé". The chapter is famously called "The Grand Inquisitor".
  • In Thornton Wilder's 1927 novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey, a central character, the friar Brother Juniper, is burned for heresy in an auto-da-fé in early 18th-century Peru. Although the novel is fictional, autos-de-fé did occur in Lima, Peru at least as late as 1733.[26]
  • Tennessee Williams wrote a one-act play entitled Auto-da-Fé (1938).
  • Roger Zelazny wrote a short story, "Auto-da-Fé", which appeared in Dangerous Visions, 1967.
  • In Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, the final climactic book burning is repeatedly referred to as an auto-da-fé.
  • Man of La Mancha, 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman. It tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition.
  • Mel Brooks - In the movie History of the World, Part I, the Spanish Inquisition sing a musical number and reference the auto-da-fé.
  • The Mars Volta - In the song Televators (on their album De-Loused in the Comatorium), the auto-da-fé is referenced during the chorus.

References
Notes
  1. Saint Dominic presiding over an Auto-da-fe at Prado Museum
  2. Lerner, Saul (2013). "A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism by Phyllis Goldstein". Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies. 31 (4): 152–155. doi:10.1353/sho.2013.0080. ISSN 1534-5165. S2CID 170539033.
  3. Guerson, Alexander (2010). "Seeking remission: Jewish conversion in the Crown of Aragon, c. 1378–1391". Jewish History. 24 (1): 33–52. doi:10.1007/s10835-009-9103-1. ISSN 0334-701X. JSTOR 25653811. S2CID 159938019.
  4. Ray, Jonathan (28 April 2011). "Whose Golden Age? Some Thoughts on Jewish-Christian Relations in Medieval Iberia". Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations. 6 (1). doi:10.6017/scjr.v6i1.1585. ISSN 1930-3777.
  5. Wheatcroft, Andrew (2004). Infidels: A History of the Conflict Between Christendom and Islam. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-58836-390-9.
  6. Veldt, S. (1 August 2007). "Christian Attitudes toward the Jews in the Earliest Centuries A.D." Dissertations.
  7. Biale, David (2007). Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol between Jews and Christians. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-93423-8.
  8. Cecil Roth (1964). The Spanish Inquisition. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-00255-3.
  9. «La Inquisició» Archived 16 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Històries de Catalunya, TV3, s.d.
  10. Cullen Murphy, God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, pp. 65–69; ISBN 978-0-618-09156-0
  11. Dedieu, p. 85; Perez, pp. 170–173.
  12. Monter, p. 53.
  13. Wojciehowski, Hannah Chapelle (2011). Group Identity in the Renaissance World. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 215–216 with footnotes 98–100. ISBN 978-1-107-00360-6.
  14. Marcus, Jacob Rader (1999). "36". The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book, 315–1791. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. pp. 202–203. ISBN 0-87820-217-X.
  15. Jose Rogelio Alvarez, ed. "Inquisicion" (in Spanish). Enciclopedia de Mexico. VII (2000 ed.). Mexico City: Sabeca International Investment Corp.. ISBN 1-56409-034-5
  16. Perry, Mary Elizabeth; Cruz, Anne J., eds. (1991). Cultural Encounters: The Impact of the Inquisition in Spain and the New World. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07098-1.
  17. Peters, Edward. Inquisition. New York: The Free Press, 1988.
  18. Edwards, John (1997). Netanyahu, B.; Roth, Norman (eds.). "Was the Spanish Inquisition Truthful?". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 87 (3/4): 351–366. doi:10.2307/1455191. ISSN 0021-6682. JSTOR 1455191.
  19. Hassner, Ron E. (26 May 2020). "The Cost of Torture: Evidence from the Spanish Inquisition". Security Studies. 29 (3): 457–492. doi:10.1080/09636412.2020.1761441. ISSN 0963-6412. S2CID 219405563.
  20. "Inquisition and Society in the Kingdom of Valencia, 1478-1834". publishing.cdlib.org. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  21. Many of the public autos-da-fé were described in contemporary published works listing the dignitaries in attendance, the condemned and their sentences. See, for example, Matias de Bocanegra, Auto general de la fé ..., Mexico: 1649
  22. Potter, Robert. The Auto de Fé as Medieval Drama. University of California, Santa Barbara. pp. 110–115.
  23. IV, John F. Chuchiak (2012). The Inquisition in New Spain, 1536–1820: A Documentary History. JHU Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0449-3.
  24. Potter, Robert. The Auto de Fé as Medieval Drama. University of Santa Barbara. pp. 115–119.
  25. Parker, Charles H.; Starr-LeBeau, Gretchen, eds. (2017), "Ecclesiastical Discipline's Expanding Reach and Decline", Judging Faith, Punishing Sin: Inquisitions and Consistories in the Early Modern World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 251–340, ISBN 978-1-107-14024-0, retrieved 12 January 2022
  26. "Relacion del auto de fe" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 February 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
Bibliography
  • Arouet, Francois-Marie (Voltaire) (1758). Candide
  • Dedieu, Jean-Pierre (1987) L'Inquisition. Les Editions Fides
  • Goldstein, Phyllis. A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism. (Brookline: Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, 2012)
  • 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) - vol.1,vol.2,vol.3,vol.4. New York and London.
  • Monter, William (1990). Frontiers of Heresy. The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Land to Sicily. Cambridge University Press
  • Perez, Joseph (2006) The Spanish Inquisition: A History, Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-11982-8, ISBN 978-0-300-11982-4
  • Peters, Edward. (1988) Inquisition. New York: The Free Press.
  • Rawlings, Helen. The Spanish Inquisition: The Historiography of the Inquisition. (Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 2006).
  • Roth, Cecil. The Spanish Inquisition. (W.W Norton & Company, New York Press, 1964)
  • Stavans, Ilan. (2005) The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature. Random House, Inc. New York
  • Whitechapel, Simon (2003). Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition. Creation Books. ISBN 1-84068-105-5
  • Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim. Assimilation and Racial Anti-Semitism: The Iberian and the German Models. (Leo Baeck Institute, New York Press, 1982).
  • Miscelanea de Zapata, Mem. histórico español: colección de documentos, opúsculos y antigüedades que publica la Real Academia de la Historia (in Spanish, 1851) vol.XI, p.202
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