Auto-da-fé

This article is about the ritual. You may be looking for the memory of Arno Dorian or the memory of Aguilar de Nerha.

"The Lord spake and he said, 'If a man abide not in me, he is cast into the fire, and he is burned.'"

―Tomás de Torquemada presiding over a auto-da-fé.^[src]

Aguilar de Nerha escaping an *auto-da-fé*

An auto-da-fé (English: act of faith) was a ritual of public penance of condemned heretics.

The auto-da-fé was originally a ritual used by the Spanish Inquisition, in which the accused would prove their good faith to fellow Christians. However, the proceedings often ended with the accused being condemned to death, in some cases by burning at the stake, and so the term therefore came to refer to the burning itself.^[1]

History

The first auto-da-fé took place in 1481 in Seville, when six people were burned to death.^[2]

In 1491, the Templar Gaspar Martínez planned to burn a captive Assassin alive.^[3] Fortunately, the Italian Assassin Ezio Auditore assassinated Martínez and rescued the Assassin before the execution could be carried out.^[4]

In 1492, a team of Spanish Assassins, led by Aguilar de Nerha, assassinated Gustavo Ramírez's executioner before he could perform an auto-da-fé.^[5]

Later that year, Aguilar, María, and their Mentor Benedicto were subjected to an auto-da-fé in Seville by Tomás de Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition, with King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile in attendance. Although Benedicto was executed, Aguilar and Maria were able to free themselves and fight their way out of Seville to escape.^[1]

During the French Revolution, auto-da-fé took on the meaning of a revolutionary act of faith directed against Christian clerics.^[6]

In 1683, Francisco Rizi made the oil painting entitled Grand Inquisition. In 2016, a copy of it hung in the Council of Elders' meeting room.^[1]