a religious and ceremonial execution. auto-da-fe means 'Act of Faith'.the first auto-da-fe was in seville, spain, in 1481. an auto-da-phe combined the Judicial ceremony of the Inquisition with vociferous sermons. An individual could be denounced for having lapsed back into his old religion or committing heresy.

Although the Inquisition and the Auto-da-Fe was used on anyone accused of heresy, its main victims were Jews. The inquisition accused people of backsliding or heresy for actions such as not eating pig, washing hands before prayer, changing clothes on the Sabbath, etcetera.

Over two thousand Auto-da-Fe's are said to have taken place in the Iberian Peninsula and its colonies. The number of victims in Spain alone is estimated at 39,912, many of whom were burned alive. Some were burned in effigy. Others, convicted posthumously, were dug up and burned - and the property they left was confiscated from their heirs. Approximately 340,000 people, many of them Jews, suffered at the hands of the Inquisition, although the vast majority were given lesser punishments. The last Auto-da-Fe was held in 1790.in this song the manics compare the coronation with the auto-da-fe: like in the case of the auto-da-fe everyone who was different and thought otherwise was eliminated, in contemporary society people who think otherwise are also persecuted, in a foucaultian (see michel foucault) sense.