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Auto de fé

If the sentence was condemnatory, this implied that the condemned had to participate in the ceremony of an auto de fé (more commonly known in English as an auto-da-fé) that solemnized their return to the Church (in most cases), or punishment as an impenitent heretic. The autos de fé could be public (auto publico or auto general) or private (auto particular).

Although initially the public autos did not have any special solemnity nor sought a large attendance of spectators, with time they became expensive and solemn ceremonies, a display of the great power shared by the Church and the State, celebrated with large public crowds, amidst a festive atmosphere. The auto de fé eventually became a baroque spectacle, with staging meticulously calculated to cause the greatest effect among the spectators. The autos were conducted in a large public space (frequently in the largest plaza of the city), generally on holidays. The rituals related to the auto began the previous night (the "procession of the Green Cross") and sometimes lasted the whole day.

The auto de fé frequently was taken to the canvas by painters: one of the better-known examples is the 1683 painting by Francisco Rizi, held by the Prado Museum in Madrid that represents the auto celebrated in the Plaza Mayor of Madrid on 30 June 1680. The last public auto de fé took place in 1691.

The auto de fé involved a Catholic Mass, prayer, a public procession of those found guilty, and a reading of their sentences. They took place in public squares or esplanades and lasted several hours; ecclesiastical and civil authorities attended. Artistic representations of the auto de fé usually depict torture and the burning at the stake. 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 fé, 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, during the reign of Louis IX. The first Spanish auto de fé did not take place until 1481 in Seville; six of the men and women subjected to this first religious ritual were later executed.

The Inquisition had 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. The Marquis, himself a familiar, transformed it into a royal court, and the heretics continued to be persecuted, as so the "high spirits".

Autos de fé also took place in Mexico, Brazil and Peru: contemporary historians of the Conquistadors such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo record them. They also took place in the Portuguese colony of Goa, India, following the establishment of Inquisition there in 1562–1563.