act of faithn.

1528 W. Tyndale That Fayth Mother of All Good Workes f. lvij Prayer is the frute effecte, deade or acte of faith & is no thinge but the longinge of the herte for tho thinges which a man lacketh.

1546 G. Joye Refut. Byshop Winchesters Derke Declar. f. lvi^v By this onely act of faith [sc. belief in God through Jesus] is man iustified.

1582 in Bible (Rheims) Rom. iii. 22 (margin) To beleeue in him, here compriseth not only the act of faith, but of hope & charitie, as the Apostle explicateth him self.

1628 Field's Of Church (ed. 2) iii. App. 211 If the priest therefore not onely outwardly, but inwardly also, by the acte of faith, present the sufferings of Christ in the body of his flesh to God,..hee bringeth much good vpon himselfe.

1705 J. Collier Ess. Moral Subj.: Pt. III 16 'Twas a noble Act of faith to throw themselves upon Providence.

1802 Ann. Reg. 1801 (Otridge ed.) i. 11 Money..has now..become..a metaphysical thing: and the Act of Faith, in which it consists, is expressed with great propriety on the thinnest paper.

1895 Athenæum 23 Feb. 242/3 Pre-suppositions, axioms, postulates.., are discovered by analysis to be a necessary ingredient of knowledge; and their acceptance is an act of faith, which is justified by its results.

1939 V. A. Demant Relig. Prospect vii. 186 The ‘existential theology’ declares that human life can gain religious meaning only by a bare act of faith.

2000 Church Times 14 Apr. 17/4 Each painting or sculpture is itself an act of faith, religious or otherwise, on the part of the artist.

1600 R. Churche tr. M. Fumée Hist. Troubles Hungarie viii. 314 In the end the solemne day being come, wherein they pronounce and execute their iudgements, naming this the Act of the faith [Fr. l'Acte de la Foy], the night before they cause them who are repentant to be confessed.

1656 Manasseh ben Israel Vindiciæ Judæorum i. 11 The act of the faith (which is ordinarily done at Toledo) was done at Madrid, Anno 1632.

1709 London Gaz. No. 4565/1 On the thirtieth of the last Month an Act of Faith was held in this City [sc. Lisbon] by the Inquisition.

1787 A. W. Costigan Sketches Society & Manners Portugal II. xxxiv. 207 Every body, however, assured me, that my father would certainly come out with honour in the first Act of the Faith (Auto da Fè) that should be made.

1803 J. Walker Defence of Order i. 41 Dare ye, Iberian Acts of Faith to blame, While, on the Loire, ye celebrate the same; And..to Orleans lead Devoted innocents?

1841 R. Blakeney Jrnl. Oriental Voy. xiii. 138 When any of the prisoners died, they were buried without ceremony in the prison, and if judged deserving of death, were afterwards dug up and burned at the act of faith.

1908 N. E. Adler Auto de Fé & Jew i. 11 This resultant was..[the Inquisition's] sentence, its action, its act of faith.

1954 P. Horgan Great River I. ii. xxvi. 253 He was ordered to perform an act of faith by walking, bareheaded and barefoot, in a penitent's robe.

2010 M. C. Thomsett Inquisition Introd. 6 Most infamous among these methods was the auto-da-fé, or ‘act of faith’. This was a ritual including prayer and mass, followed by the reading of findings.