1724: Sister Geltruda and Fra Romualdo, at a Palermo auto de fe

ExecutedToday.com ^ | April 6, 2017 | Henry Charles Lea

[CheshireTheCat]

...When, in 1718, Savoy exchanged Sicily with Austria for Sardinia, the Emperor Charles VI would not endure this dependence of the [Inquisition] tribunal upon a foreign power and procured, in 1720, from Clement XI a brief transferring the supremacy to Vienna. In accordance, however, with the persistent Hapsburg claims on the crown of Spain, the Inquisition remained Spanish. A supreme council for it was created in Vienna, with Juan Navarro, Bishop of Albarracin as chief who, although resident there gratified himself with the title of Inquisidor-general de Espana, but in 1723 he was succeeded by Cardinal Emeric, Archbishop of Kolocz.

Apparently it was deemed necessary to justify this elaborate machinery with a demonstration and, on April 6, 1724, an auto de fe was celebrated at Palermo with great splendor, the expenses being defrayed by the emperor.

Twenty-six delinquents were penanced, consisting as usual mostly of cases of blasphemy, bigamy and sorcery, but the spectacle would have been incomplete without concremation and two unfortunates, who had languished in prison since 1699, were brought out for that purpose. They were Geltruda, a beguine, and Fra Romualdo, a friar, accused of Quietism and Molinism, with the accompanying heresies of illuminism and impeccability. Their long imprisonment, with torture and ill-usage, seems to have turned their brains, and they had been condemned to relaxation as impenitent in 1705 and 1709, but the sentences had never been carried out and they were now brought from their dungeons and burnt alive....

[CheshireTheCat]

One is never safe from the Inquisition. They do not forget about you; they are just busy going after others they are more concerned about, but they will eventually get around to you.

[humblegunner]

Sister Geltruda and Fra Romualdo, at a Palermo auto de fe

Speak English.

[freedumb2003]

Auto-da-fé? What's an auto-da-fé?
It's what you oughtn't to do but you do anyway

[PLMerite]

For a long time I thought “audo de fe” was some kind of foreign term for a car show.