Dictionary of Heretics, Dissidents, and Inquisitors in the Mediterranean World
Edizioni CLORI | Firenze | ISBN 978-8894241600 | DOI 10.5281/zenodo.1309444
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The burning in effigy was a penalty that could be imposed by the Inquisition on a defendant declared contumacious. It consisted of burning an image of the latter. This practice was applied both by the medieval Inquisition and by the three early modern Inquisitions (Roman, Spanish, and Portuguese). The burning in effigy was followed by the confiscation of the defendant’s property, thus representing a financially advantageous solution for the inquisitorial tribunals. On the other hand, by resorting to such a measure the court acknowledged its own failure in locating and punishing the defendant in person (for this reason, burning in effigy was not employed with great frequency).
Bibliography
- Italo Mereu, Storia dell'intolleranza in Europa. Sospettare e punire: l'Inquisizione come modello di violenza legale, Bompiani, Milan 1988.
- William Monter, Effigie, in DSI, vol. 1, pp. 430–431.
- Giovanni Romeo, L’Inquisizione nell’Italia moderna, Laterza, Rome-Bari 2002.
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et tamen e summo, quasi fulmen, deicit ictos
invidia inter dum contemptim in Tartara taetra
invidia quoniam ceu fulmine summa vaporant
plerumque et quae sunt aliis magis edita cumque
[Lucretius, "De rerum natura", lib. V]