him with feathers; there he was left exposed four hours.”
Such spectacles must have caused at first indignation, then contempt.
No less insulting than such punishments were the penitential garments of those condemned by the Holy Office, called san-benitos. These were a kind of scapulary of linen or other cloth, yellow or flesh-red in color. There were three kinds, known respectively by the names samarra, fuego revolto and san-benito—the latter being also a name common to all.
The samarra was worn by the relajados, or those handed over to the secular arm to be garroted or burned alive. It bore, painted upon it, dragons, devils, and flames, amid which the criminal was represented as burning.
The garment known as fuego revolto was that of those who had abjured, and for this reason the flames were painted upside down, as if to signify that the wearers had escaped from death in the fiery embrace.