s of the court, were there to witness the
spectacle. By rendering the heir of the crown thus early familiar with
the tender mercies of the Holy Office, it may have been intended to
conciliate his favor to that institution. If such was the object,
according to the report it signally failed, since the woeful spectacle
left no other impressions on the mind of the prince than those of
indignation and disgust.

The example of Valladolid was soon followed by _autos da fe_ in Granada,
Toledo, Seville, Barcelona,--in short, in the twelve capitals in which
tribunals of the Holy Office were established. A second celebration at
Valladolid was reserved for the eighth of October in the same year, when
it would be graced by the presence of the sovereign himself. Indeed, as
several of the processes had been concluded some months before this
period, there is reason to believe that the sacrifice of more than one
of the victims had been postponed, in order to give greater effect to
the spectacle.[439]

The _auto da fe_--"act of faith"--was the most imposing, as it was the
most awful, of the solemnities authorized by the Roman Catholic Church.
It was intended, somewhat profanely, as has been intimated, to combine
the pomp of the Roman triumph with the terrors of the day of
judgment.[440] It may remind one quite as much of those bloody festivals
prepared for the entertainment of the Caesars in the Colisaeum. The
religions import of the _auto da fe_ was intimated by the circumstance
of its being celebrated on a Sunday, or some other holiday of the
Church. An indulgence for forty days was granted by his holiness to all
who should be present at the spectacle; as if the appetite for
witnessing the scenes of human suffering required to be stimulated by a
bounty; that too in Spain, where the amusements were, and still are, of
the most sanguinary character.

The scene for this second _auto da fe_ at Valladolid was the great
square in front of the church of St. Francis. At one end a platform was
raised, covered with rich carpeting, on which were ranged the seats of
the inquisitors, emblazoned with the arms of the Holy Office. Near to
this was the royal gallery, a private entrance to which secured the
inmates from molestation by the crowd. Opposite to this gallery a large
scaffold was erected, so as to be visible from all parts of the arena,
and was appropriated to the unhappy martyrs who were to suffer in the
_auto_.

At six in the morning al