| Citation |
NYGWPB.762.015
28 Jan 1762:22 (995)
London: . . . Letter from Lisbon (?), dated Sept.22.
"The Auto de fe which we had on the 20th, exceeded all we
have ever seen in magnificence. Boxes were built round the
square da Rosico. All the regiments of horse and foot
surrounded the square to the gate of the Dominican Convent,
and each soldier had eight charges. The scaffold built in
the Cloyster of St.Dominic, on which the criminals had their
sentence read to them, was in a form of a theatre, richly
adorned. All the nobility, the judges, and great officers
of State, were present, but none of the Royal Family. A
grand entertainment was given in the Convent, by the
Inquisitor Nuno de Mello, to all the nobility. The number of
criminals amounted to fifty-four, including three in effigy,
Father Malagrida was the only person burnt at a stake, for
writing, in prison, heretical books, and pretending to the
spirit of prophecy and revelation. The effigy of Francis
Xavier de Oliviera was burnt, with the book which he wrote
against the Inquisition. Among the criminals, there was
also a Franciscan charged with pretending to prophecy, and a
Dominican charged with Molinism. But Malagrida alone wore
the habit of his order. When the procession was ended, the
troops took possession of the avenues, and picked up 161
recruits."
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