The Auto da Fe was a public ceremony orchestrated by the Inquisition where the sentences of prisoners were carried out. The source details one such event held in Madrid on June 30, 1682, after a proclamation a month prior. It was a significant public spectacle attended by the entire Spanish court, including the King and Queen.

The ceremony visually emphasized the Inquisition's authority, with the Grand Inquisitor's chair placed higher than the King's. The secular monarchy was actively bound to support the religious tribunal. The King and the whole assembly took an oath to protect the Catholic faith, eradicate heretics, and enforce the Inquisition's decrees. The King's presence, even during the grim punishments, was mandatory as his coronation oath required him to sanction the tribunal's actions.

Punishments varied, but the most severe was burning alive. At the 1682 Auto da Fe, twenty-one individuals were burned, including twenty men and women and one renegade Mahometan. Other prisoners, like fifty repenting Jews and Jewesses, were sentenced to long confinement and forced to wear a yellow cap. The tragic nature of the event was highlighted by a seventeen-year-old Jewish woman's plea for mercy to the Queen from the scaffold, which the Queen, despite her pity, dared not respond to due to the Inquisition's power. The public ceremony itself was protracted, with the Mass and reading of sentences lasting from noon until nine in the evening.

Beyond the public sentencing and executions, the Inquisition also employed brutal torture methods. While the number of torture sessions was limited to three, they were severely inflicted. These methods included ropes cutting into flesh, dislocating shoulders by violently twisting arms, and chains bruising the body and dislocating wrists and shoulders. Prisoners who survived these torments were often crippled and diseased for life when they were discharged, indicating the lasting physical damage inflicted before the Auto da Fe.

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