98 ACT 
of the will. There are voluntary and fpontaneous afts; 
the former are produced by the operation of the foul, the 
latter without its privity or participation. 
Act, in the univerfities, fignifies a thefis maintained in 
public by a candidate for a degree ; or to iliew the capa¬ 
city and proficiency of a ftudent. The candidates for a 
degree of bachelor and mailer of arts are to hold philofo- 
phical adts; and thofe for bachelor of divinity, theologi¬ 
cal afts, &c. At Oxford, the time when mailers or doc¬ 
tors complete their degrees is alfo called the aEl; which is 
held with great folemnity. At Cambridge, they call it 
the commencement. 
Act of Faith, Auto da Fe, in the Romifh church, is 
a folemn day held by the inquifition, for the punilhment 
oi heretics, and the abfolution of the innocent accufed. 
They ufualiy contrive the auto to fall on fome great fefti- 
- val, that the execution may pafs with the more awe and 
regard ; at lead it is always on a Sunday. 
The auto da fe may be called the laft adt of the inquifi- 
torial tragedy; it is a kind of gaol-delivery, appointed as 
oft as a competent number of prifoners in the inquifition 
are convidted of herefy, either by their own voluntary 
or extorted confefiion, or on the evidence of certain wit- 
nelfes. The procefs is thus :—In the morning they are 
brought into a great hall, where they have certain habits 
put on, which they are to wear in the proceffion. The 
procellion is led up by Dominican friars; after which 
come the penitents, fome with fan-benitoes, and fome 
without, according to the nature of their crimes; being 
all in black coats without fieeves, and bare-footed, with a 
wax candle in their hands. Thefe are followed by the 
penitents who have narrowly efcaped being burnt, who 
over their black coats have flames painted with their points 
turned downwards, Fuego revolto. Next come the nega¬ 
tive and relapfed, who are to be burnt, having flames on 
their habits pointing upwards. After thefe come fuch as 
profefs doftrines contrary to the faith of Rome, who, be- 
fides flames pointing upwards, have their pifture painted 
on their breads, with dogs, ferpents, and devils, all open- 
mouthed, about it. Each prifoner is attended with a fa¬ 
miliar of the inquifition; and thofe to be burnt have alfo 
a Jefuit on each hand, who are continually preaching to 
them to abjure. After the prifoners, comes a troop of 
familiars on horfeback; and after them the inquilitors, and 
other officers of the court, on mules; lad of all, the in- 
quifttor-general on a white horfe, led by two men with 
black hats and green hat-bands. A fcaffold is eredled in 
the Terriero de Paio, big enough for two or three thou- 
land people; at one end of which are the prifoners, at the 
other the inquilitors. After a fermon made up of enco¬ 
miums on the inquifition, and inveftives againft heretics, 
a pried afcends a delk near the middle of the fcaffold, and 
having taken the abjurations of the penitents, recites the 
final fentence of thofe who are to be put to death ; and de¬ 
livers them to the fecular arm, earnedly befeeching at the 
fame time the fecular power not to touch their blood, or 
put their lives in danger. The prifoners being thus in the 
hands of the civil magiflrate, are prefently loaded with 
chains, and carried firft to the fecular gaol, and from 
thence in an hour or two brought before the civil judge; 
who, after afking in what religion they intend to die, pro¬ 
nounces fentence, on fuch as declare they die in the com¬ 
munion of the church of Rome, that they fhall be firft 
ftrangled, and then burnt to afhes; on fuch as die in any 
other faith, that they be burnt alive. Both are immedi¬ 
ately carried to the Ribera, the place of execution ; where 
there are as many ftakes fet up as there are prifoners to be 
burnt, with a quantity of dry furze about them. The 
ftakes of the profeffed, that is, fuch as perfift in their he¬ 
refy, are about four yards high, having a fmall board 
towards the top for the prifoner to be feated on. The ne¬ 
gative and relapfed being firft ftrangled and burnt, the 
profeffed mount their ftakes by a ladder; and the Jefuits, 
after feveral repeated exhortations to be reconciled to the 
church, part with them, telling them they leave them to 
ACT 
the devil, who is Handing at their elbow to receive their 
fouls, and carry them with him into the flames of hell. 
On this a great fhout is raifed; and the cry is, “ Let the 
dogs’ beards be made;” which is done by thrufting fla¬ 
ming furzes fattened to long poles againft their faces, till 
their faces are burnt to a coal, which is accompanied with 
the loudeft acclamations of joy. At laft, fire is fet to the 
furze at the bottom of the ftake, over which the profeffed 
are chained fo high, that the top of the flame feldom 
reaches higher than the feat they (it on; fo that they ra¬ 
ther feem roafted than burnt. There cannot be a more 
lamentable fpeftacle; the fufferers continually crying out, 
while they are able, Mifericordia per amor de Dios, “Pity 
for the love of God!” yet it is beheld by all fexes, and 
ages, with tranfports of joy and fatisfaftion. 
Act, in dramatic poetry, fignifies a certain divifion or 
part of a play, deligned to give fome refpite both to the 
actors and fpeftators. The Romans were the firft who 
divided their theatrical pieces into acts ; for no fuch divi- 
fiotis appear in the works of the firft dramatic poets. 
Their pieces indeed confided of feveral parts or divifions, 
which they called protafis, epitafis, catajlafis, and cata/lro- 
phe ; but thefe divifions were not marked by any real in¬ 
terruptions on the theatre. Nor does Ariftotle mention 
any thing of afts in his Art of Poetry. But, in the time 
of Horace, all regular and finifhed pieces were divided 
into five aCts. 
Act of Grace. See Grace. 
Act, among lawyers, is an inftrument in writing for 
declaring or juftifying the truth of any thing. In which 
fenfe, records, decrees, fentences, reports, certificates, &c. 
are called aEls. 
Act of Parliament, is a ftatute, aft, oredift, made 
by the king with the advice and confent of the lords fpi- 
ritual and temporal, and commons, in parliament affem- 
bled. The oldeft of thofe now extant, and printed in our 
ftatute books, is the famous Magna Charta, as confirmed 
in parliament 9 Hen. III. though doubtlefs there were 
many acts before that time, the records of which are now- 
loft, and which poflibly at prefent pafs for parts of the 
ancient common law. 1 Blackji. 85. 
An aft of parliament is the exercife of the higheft earth¬ 
ly authority that this kingdom acknowledges. It hath 
power to bind every fubjeft in the land, and the dominions 
thereunto belonging ; nay even the king himfelf, if parti¬ 
cularly named therein : and it cannot be altered, amended* 
difpenfed with; fufpended, or repealed, but by the fame 
authority of parliament; for it is a maxim in law, that it 
requires the fame ftrength to diiTolve as to create an obli¬ 
gation. 1 Blackji. 186. 
The method of citing adts of parliament is various. 
Many of the ancient ftatutes are called after the name of 
the place where the parliament was held that made them ;. 
as the ftatutes of Merton and Marleberge, of Weftmin- 
fter, Gloucefter, and Winchefter. Others are denominated 
entirely from their fubjeft; as the ftatutes of Wales and 
Ireland, the Articuli cleri , and the Prerogativa regis. Some 
are diftinguiftied by their initial words, as the ftatute of 
Quia emptores terrarum, and that of CircumfpeEle agatis. But 
the moil ufual way of citing them, efpecially (ince th£ 
time of Edward II. is by naming the year of the king’s 
reign in which the aft was made, together with the chap¬ 
ter or particular aft according to its numeral order. Id. 85.. 
Statutes are either general, or fpecial ; public, or private. 
A general or public adt is an univerfal rule that regards the 
whole community ; and of this the courts of law are bound 
to take notice judicially and ex officio-, without the ftatute 
being particularly pleaded, or formally fet forth by the 
party who claims an advantage under it. Special or pri¬ 
vate afts are rather exceptions than rules, being thofe 
which only operate upon particular perfons, and private 
concerns; and of thefe the judges are not bound to take 
notice, unlefs they be formally ftiewn and pleaded. Ibid. 
There are three points to be conlidered in the conftruc- 
tioii of an aft of parliament; the old law, the mifehief, 
and 
