page_title: Shirt of Flame
section_title: Roman Catholic
hierarchical_section_title: Shirt of Flame / Roman Catholic
caption_attribution_description: Español: La obra representa un auto de fe presidido por Santo Domingo de Guzmán, fundador de la Orden de los dominicos.English: Saint Dominic presiding over an Auto-da-fe. From the sacristy of the Santo Tomás church in Ávila.
context_page_description: The phrase Shirt of Flame refers either to a specific form of the poison dress trope in folklore, or to a particular type of clothing given to people about to face burning at the stake.
context_section_description: In Roman Catholic countries such as France, Italy and Spain, heretics after their trial were confined until the execution. The shirt of flame in the auto-da-fe under the Inquisition also was worn at different times through the centuries. Often the outfit for those to be burned were funny hats, and a shirt or tabard with flames, and sometimes imps and demons, sewn upon them. These images were used to terrify the convicted heretics, as well to subject them to ridicule and abuse as they were paraded to the place of execution. 
  In Spain, special clothing such as the sanbenito was worn as part of their penance. Often made of yellow or faded sackcloth, these shirts used special symbols, including the Cross of Saint Andrew, for the convicted. The humiliation of the shirt of flame outfit was part of the punishment, and also was used to warn others of the penalties of nonconformity in faith, speech and practice.
  Heretics were often people who did not conform to church teachings or doctrine. Many of them remained Catholic in most of their beliefs, but felt that they had betrayed that church or strayed from the church's teachings. Unlike areas with larger Protestant communities, the heretics were shamed and humiliated, rather than seeing themselves as martyrs to the Protestant religion. The shirt of flame worn by these men and women was never a gown of pride or sacrifice, but of despair.
caption: The clothing worn by the two convicted men in the lower center-right of the painting, waiting for their execution in turn, is made to ridicule and to invite shame and abuse.
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