An “Auto de Fe” or act of faith was a combination of a religious ceremony and a public event staged to read and pass sentence on those who the Spanish Inquisition had found guilty. It demonstrated the power by the Church. The practice began in Seville in 1481 and ended in Mexico in 1850. During these centuries, close to 32,000 people perished in the flames.

Although the Spanish Inquisition was the most famous and prolific, the Catholic inquisition practice began in Rome with Pope Innocent III and Pope Gregory IX in the thirteenth century for the purpose of combating heretical groups.

The Spanish Inquisition investigated charges that those who had converted to Christianity had reverted back to their original religion or were saying things that branded them as heretics. Many of these charges arose as prisoners were tortured and asked to name other heretics. The Inquisition determined acts against the church, rather than whether people had broken civil laws. This tribunal tried people for sins instead of ordinary crimes.

Most of the people condemned in Spain were former Jews or Moors (Muslims). In Mexico, the Inquisition attacked mainly people of Spanish origin. Instead of executing the local natives and blacks, the Inquisition punished them by whipping. The Spanish crown passed laws to protect the blacks and natives feeling that they were too newly converted to understand the Inquisition.

Mexico City, in 1649, held a very elaborate “Auto de Fe”. All the local secular leaders both Spanish and Native attended. Several reports written at the time indicate that 40,000 people attended this ceremony.

A parade was followed by the reading of a sermon by the Bishop. Next, and official read a list the sins committed by the condemned and a pronouncement of the punishments.

Each condemned person had a confessor who stayed with that assigned prisoner during the Auto de Fe. The confessors tried to get their charges to repent. To avoid execution, the accused had to repent before the reading of the sentence. A condemned person who repented and promised to correct the confessed erring ways would be saved. Instead of execution, the punishment would usually be imprisonment and confiscation of property.

After the sentences were read, the condemned were turned over to the civil authorities. If they repented after the sentence was read, they would be killed, usually by garrotting, before being burned at the stake. Those who did not repent were burned alive. The Church passed judgment as to guilt and determined the punishment. The civil authorities carried out the punishment.

"If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned" – John (15:6)
Although those operating the Inquisition had plenty of scripture references to support their activities, it is hard to associate a faith of "love thy neighbor" and "turn the other cheek" with such barbarous activities.