Auto de Fe

Auto de Fe, glossed in Robert Jordan’s reflection as “the act of faith,” is a religious expression he uses to describe a cultural pattern of ritualized killing. His comparison gives violence a historical and ideological dimension, but its force lies equally in his recognition that the distinction he tries to draw between his side and its enemies cannot absolve him.

Meaning and Historical Association

Robert Jordan associates Auto de Fe with a religious inheritance that, in his view, precedes the newer faith brought from the far end of the Mediterranean. He imagines that inheritance as never truly abandoned, only suppressed and concealed until war and inquisitions bring it back into public life. The phrase therefore links killing to a recurring cultural ritual rather than treating it as an isolated act.

Robert Jordan’s Moral Reckoning

The expression arises as Robert Jordan considers a conversation with Agustín about fear and an unnamed “other.” Jordan initially reads Agustín’s state as fear before action, but then recognizes that something beyond fear may be involved. His thoughts turn from Agustín to his own past: he challenges himself not to invent a flattering history about the Berbers or ancient Iberians, and admits that he, like soldiers by choice, has sometimes enjoyed killing. His recollection reaches from Usera and Extremadura to repeated train operations, making the admission an accumulation rather than a single exception.

Contrast and Complication

Jordan distinguishes the violence of his side from the ritual tradition he attributes to its opponents, but he immediately tests that moral separation against his own conduct. He warns himself not to idealize Anselmo: a hunter kills animals, a soldier kills people, and neither description makes killing innocent. Anselmo’s reluctance to kill people remains a meaningful contrast, yet Jordan refuses to turn it into an uncomplicated moral ideal. By the end of the reflection, Auto de Fe has become not only an accusation against an enemy tradition but also a measure of Jordan’s own compromised judgment.