I am flummoxed - I Googled and got no definition and searched the SDMB but got no hits, yet I know Cecil did a column decades ago mentioning it.
It is a legal term, right? Something about a way death occured that is neither murder nor suicide? I know as a term it means something like “act of faith” or something, but doesn’t it have a specific legal meaning in some courts internationally?
Help a guy out!
You’ll get more results with the spelling auto-da-fe.
Auto-da-fe, or auto de fe: defined here.
And I think you might be misremembering Cecil…I don’t recall reading a column about auto-da-fe, but there is one on felo-de-se.
Okay - so I screwed up on two fronts - both the spelling of the term in question AND the term in question being, well, the wrong term.
Well done and thank you for the help on both fronts!
So much for being the WordMan :rolleyes:
I’m glad you said that! 
Before Dex gets in here, can we at least take Otto DeFey off the table as a source for the term? 
I can just imagine his story now…
“It’s what you oughtn’t to do but you do anyway.”
Hey Torquimada, whaddya say?
My favorite bit from that movie! 