(INQUISITION)

The autos-da-fe or “acts of faith” staged by the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition were highly spectacular exhibitions of the power of the Catholic Church, during which the supposed enemies of the faith were ritually exorcized. The sermons preached on these occasions were an essential ingredient of those autos-de-fe in which “Judaisers” were condemned to be burnt. Prominent preachers from the upper hierarchy of the Church addressed themselves to the accused as unrepentant, stubborn Jews, and did so in terms of the most outrageous vituperation. In reality, the sermons were not meant for the miserable victims, but instead intended to impress the spectators, as an act of justification of the pitiless persecution of heresy. See Cassuto, Alfonso. Bibliografia dos Sermoes de Autos-da-Fe impressos. Coimbra: Tipografia da Atlantida, 1955. Glaser, Edward. “Sermons at Autos-da-Fe: Introduction and Bibliography”, Studies in Bibliography and Booklore of the Library of Hebrew Union College, II (1955), 53-78. Vekene, Emil van der. Bibliotheca Bibliographic Historiae Sancta Inquisitions. Vaduz: Topos, 1982-1992, 3 Vols., vol. 1 (1982). With thanks to Dr. Harm den Boer of the Department of Spanish Literature at the University of Amsterdam for his research assistance