Auto-da-fé

Auto-da-fé, literally Act of the Faith in Portuguese, was the burning of a heretic alive, a sentence awarded by the court of the Inquisition in Spain. The occasion was a ceremony held by the court of the Inquisition, preliminary to the execution of a heretic, in which the condemned, dressed in a hideously fantastic robe, called the San Benito, and a pointed cap, walked in a procession of monks, followed by carts containing coffins with malefactors' bones, to hear a sermon on the true faith, prior to being burned alive. The most infamous auto-da-fé took place in Madrid in 1680.