auto-da-fé

Inquisition's public execution

Auto-da-fé was the public ceremony in which the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions pronounced judgment on accused heretics.

The phrase is Portuguese for "act of faith." Those condemned might be burned at the stake, though the ceremony itself was the sentencing, not the execution.

The term now applies figuratively to any ritualized destruction, especially the burning of books or ideas: The bonfire became an auto-da-fé of banned literature.

punishment

burning

Combustion in progress

immolation · garrote · strangulation · flames · death · torture · sanction · penalty · condemnation · sentence

ceremony

procession

Formal moving line

public · plaza · scaffold · sermon · proclamation · condemnation · crowd · solemnity · torch · pyre

inquisition

heresy

Belief opposing official doctrine

tribunal · accused · trial · confession · interrogation · denouncement · relaxation · Seville · Lima · Goa

religious

heresy

Belief opposing official doctrine

blasphemy · dogma · absolution · penance · reconciliation · abjuration · Catholicism · salvation · excommunication · anathema

Opposites
judicial fairness

auto-da-féfair trial

Impartial judicial proceeding

due process · habeas corpus · presumption of innocence · rule of law · acquittal

treatment of the accused

auto-da-fépardon

Official release from punishment

amnesty · clemency · absolution · mercy · reprieve

Family

auto, automatic, autonomy, automobile, autograph, autonomous, automation, autocratic, autopsy

Familiarity
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Used worldwide · Timeless · Negative · Rated PG-13