The punishment of those convicted was made a public event, conducted with solemnity and pomp. Begun in the early hours of the morning, the auto-da-fé (literally, act of the faith) would last late into the night. Clergy and prominent citizens would seek “ringside” seats, the better to contemplate the condemned in their final moments of agony in the fire. Shouts and cheers of the fanatical rabble would often drown out the cries of the victims.

[Picture on page 21]

An auto-da-fé, according to an engraving of the time