An auto-da-fé in Spain: the accused are led in procession by the Inquisitors to their trial. Engraving, 1749.

The Spanish Inquisition was a council to combat heresy, authorized by a papal bull in 1478 and established by King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella in 1480 as responsible to the Crown, not the Church. It used secret procedures and judicial torture, and burning its victims in public ceremonials. With its independence from papal interference, the Inquisition soon became an instrument of the Spanish Crown's build-up of absolute power in the 16th and 17th century. It was finally abolished in 1834

The auto-da-fé, the public ceremony at which sentences were pronounced, was an elaborate celebration. Under the inquisitor general were 14 local tribunals in Spain and several in the colonies

London (at the King's Arms in St Paul's Church-Yard) : J. Hinton, 1749.

1 print : etching ; platemark 20.5 x 23.8 cm

The publick procession of the prisoners at an auto de fé or act of faith in Spain.

Wellcome Collection 30393i