Brewer's: Act of Faith

(auto da fé)

in Spain, is a day set apart by the Inquisition for the punishment of heretics, and the absolution of those who renounce their heretical doctrines. The sentence of the Inquisition is also so called; and so is the ceremony of burning, or otherwise torturing the condemned.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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