Two hundred people met in Spain in a public reading of the Bible to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

The reading took place in Plaza Mayor in Madrid, where during the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, heretics and apostates were tried and condemned before being burned to death outside the city walls.

Spain's Bible Society organised the reading with Evangelical Council of Madrid. The city sponsored the event.

Last Sunday, the 200 evangelicals read from a version of the Bible translated by Protestant monks Reina and Valera, exiled by the Inquisition.

Men and women took turns to read the different chapters of St John's Gospel.

There were five public trials in the Plaza Mayor of Madrid from 1621; of 162 people accused, 29 were sentenced to death by fire. Many more were hanged or clubbed to death.

The Spanish Bible Society was formally established in 1836 by Jorge Barrow, but Bible Society missionaries had been working in the country for several decades before that.

This year is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 theses on the door of the castle chapel in the German town of Wittenberg  and is being celebrated with events around the world.