Candide | Chapter VI

Chapter VI

How the Portuguese Made a Beautiful Auto-Da-Fé to Prevent any Further Earthquakes; and how Candide was Publicly Whipped

AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE had destroyed three-fourths of Lisbon, the sages of that country could think of no means more effectual to prevent utter ruin than to give the people a beautiful auto-da-fé; for it had been decided by the University of Coimbra, that the burning of a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible secret to hinder the earth from quaking.

In consequence hereof, they had seized on a Biscayner, convicted of having married his godmother, and on two Portuguese, for rejecting the bacon which larded a chicken they were eating; after dinner, they came and secured Dr. Pangloss, and his disciple Candide, the one for speaking his mind, the other for having listened with an air of approbation. They were conducted to separate apartments, extremely cold, as they were never incommoded by the sun. Eight days after they were dressed in san-benitos and their heads ornamented with paper mitres. The mitre and san-benito belonging to Candide were painted with reversed flames and with devils that had neither tails nor claws; but Pangloss's devils had claws and tails and the flames were upright. They marched in procession thus habited and heard a very pathetic sermon, followed by fine church music. Candide was whipped in cadence while they were singing; the Biscayner, and the two men who had refused to eat bacon, were burnt; and Pangloss was hanged, though that was not the custom. The same day the earth sustained a most violent concussion.

Candide, terrified, amazed, desperate, all bloody, all palpitating, said to himself:

“If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others? Well, if I had been only whipped I could put up with it, for I experienced that among the Bulgarians; but oh, my dear Pangloss! thou greatest of philosophers, that I should have seen you hanged, without knowing for what! Oh, my dear Anabaptist, thou best of men, that thou should'st have been drowned in the very harbor! Oh, Miss Cunegonde, thou pearl of girls! that thou should'st have had thy belly ripped open!”

Thus he was musing, scarce able to stand, preached at, whipped, absolved, and blessed, when an old woman accosted him saying:

“My son, take courage and follow me.”

  • auto-da-fé – [Portuguese] “act of the faith”; it was a public ceremony held by the Inquisition in which heretics were tried, condemned, and executed by being burned at that stake. After the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, a large auto-da-fé was held in a fruitless attempt to ward off further earthquakes.
  • sages – wise and experienced individuals
  • infallible – perfect, flawless, unable to fail
  • Biscayner – a native of the Vizcaya province of Spain
  • “rejecting the bacon” – Jews were prohibited from eating pork.
  • approbation – an expression of approval or praise; commendation
  • incommoded – disturbed, inconvenienced, bothered
  • “They were conducted…incommoded by the sun.” – Candide and Pangloss were put in prison cells.
  • san-benitos – The san-benito was a kind of loose garment painted with flames, figures of devils, the victim's own portrait, etc., worn by persons who were condemned to death by the Inquisition when they went to be burned at the stake due to an auto-da-fé. Those who expressed repentance wore a garment of the same kind, covered with flames directed downward, while those worn by Jews, sorcerers, and renegades bore a St. Andrew's cross on the front and back.
  • mitres – headdresses worn by Jewish religious leaders for ceremonial purposes
  • habited – dressed
  • cadence – rhythm or beat of music
  • accosted – confronted