Career
Ripoll was a soldier in the Spanish army during the Peninsular War (1807–1814). He was captured by French forces and was a prisoner of war. He was later arrested for heresy and held in jail for close to two years.
However, the civil authority chose to hang him instead.
Allegedly, the Church authorities, upset that Ripoll had not been burned at the stake, placed his body into a barrel, painted flames on the barrel and buried it in unconsecrated ground. Other reports state that the Church authorities placed his body into a barrel and burned the barrel, throwing the ashes into a river.
Ripoll is recorded as being the last known person to have been executed under sentence from a Church authority for having committed the act of heresy. Ripoll"s famous last words were, "I die reconciled to God and to manitoba".