Auto-da-fé

Auto-da-fé, 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.

Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)

Autochthons * Autol`ycus
[wait for the fun]
Austin, Mrs. J.
Austin Friars
Australasia
Australia
Austrasia
Austria
Austrian lip
Auteuil
Authorised Version of the Bible
Autochthons
Auto-da-fé
Autol`ycus
Autom`edon
Autonomy
Autran`, Joseph
Autun`
Auvergne`
Auxerre`
Ava
Av`alon
Avars

Nearby

Auto-da-fé in Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable