It rarely happened, upon this one-sided method of trial, that an accused person was acquitted altogether.

If he escaped burning or perpetual incarceration, he was almost certainly exposed to the public ceremony of penitence, with its attendant infamy, fines, civil disabilities, and future discipline.

Sentence was not passed upon condemned persons until they appeared, dressed up in a San Benito, at the place of punishment.
This costume was a sort of sack, travestying a monk's frock, made of coarse yellow stuff, and worked over with crosses, flames, and devils, in glaring red.

It differed in details according to the destination of the victim: for some ornaments symbolized eternal hell, and others the milder fires of purgatory.

If sufficiently versed in the infernal heraldry of the Holy Office, a condemned man might read his doom before he reached the platform of the _auto_.