Auto-Da-Fé
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): (n.) A session of the court of Inquisition.
(2): (n.) An execution of such sentence, by the civil power, esp. the burning of a heretic. It was usually held on Sunday, and was made a great public solemnity by impressive forms and ceremonies.
(3): (n.) A judgment of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal condemning or acquitting persons accused of religious offenses.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
Or Act of Faith, a ceremony held by the court of the Inquisition in Spain, 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 famous auto-da-fé took place in Madrid in 1680.
