“Danger in the Convent: Colonial Demons, Idolatrous Indias, and Bewitching Negras in Santa Clara...

Danger in the Convent: Colonial Demons, Idolatrous Indias, and Bewitching Negras inSanta Clara (Trujillo del Peru)

Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 7:1 | © 2006 Rachel Sarah O'Toole

Danger in the Convent: Colonial Demons, IdolatrousIndias, and Bewitching Negras in Santa Clara(Trujillo del Perú)1Rachel Sarah O'TooleUniversity of California, Irvine

1. In early 1674, troubling rumors began to circulatethroughout the city of Trujillo on the northern Peruviancoast. The local nuns of Santa Clara were said to bebewitched by bad spirits or perhaps possessed bydemons. Surprisingly, these reports originated from theSanta Clara convent itself, as religious women therealong with their servants swore that malicious spiritswere inciting causing them to disobey clerics, becomerepulsed by the Host, and experience demonic visions. Inresponse, the Franciscans arranged exorcisms and themunicipal council sponsored religious processions toexpel the demonic from the sole female religiousinstitution of the provincial city.2 The Inquisition'scommissioner began to take testimony from inhabitantsof the city and members of the convent. Laypeople ofTrujillo speculated about the causes of the enchantmentwhile members of the Dominican order debated theveracity of the nun's possession. Within Santa Clara,multiple narratives emerged as nuns and members oftheir household blamed one another for allowingidolatrous indias or bewitching negras into the nunnery.3In particular, one young nun, Juana Luisa Benitesclaimed that legions of torturing demons led by a sexualpredator, a "black man," continually afflicted her.4Inquisitors would later turn their attention andcondemnation to the unorthodox beliefs and practices ofJuana Luisa Benites and her close companion, AnaNuñez. But, for a long time to come the nuns, theirdependents, and their servants would continue to blameanother for contaminating the convent with dangerous"others," in spirit and corporeal form.

2.

This article unpacks the accusations circulatingamong inhabitants of the Santa Clara convent to explorehow the dangers identified imagined by the nuns andtheir servants reflected and reproduced racial hierarchiesof local colonial society. In contrast to the Inquisitors'concerns with orthodoxy, women within the nunneryconstructed accusations of witchcraft that markedboundaries between rural and urban, enslaved and free,as well as varying levels of acculturation and acceptancewithin colonial society. Utilizing scholarship regardingthe convent as a place for women's autonomy as well asa microcosm for the reproduction of colonial hierarchies,this article works to understand the construction of racialideologies and colonial differences. For those witheconomic privilege or elite social status, convents servedas schools for girls and offered relief from domesticabuse.5 Convents housed financially independentwidows as nuns and laywomen who constructedalternative households within the convent's walls.6Convents even offered opportunities to enslaved women

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who could manumit themselves or their offspring withthe funds earned through their independent commerce.7Some nunneries housed beatas, donadas, and otherreligious women who were not permitted to take formalvows because of their casta (their colonial designation asa mestiza or a mulata).8 Thus, women and girlsregardless of their social status could find shelter andrelief in the colonial convents including that of Trujillo'sSanta Clara. Simultaneously, as Kathryn Burns hasexplained, convents produced and reproduced colonialhierarchies within and beyond their walls.9 Professednuns formed familial blocks to control political alliancesand economic strategies of their convent.10 Nunsmaintained rules of membership that excluded allAfrican-descent women and many indigenous women aswell as those that could not prove their "purity of blood"or pay a sufficient dowry.11 Finally, as this article willexplore, nuns of the black veil relied on the work oflarge numbers of servants, slaves, and other femaledependents.12 Convents, then, provided alternative,independent locations for many women and girls whileat the same time replicating, and adding to, colonialhierarchies, discrimination, and stereotypes.

4.

This article examines how elite and non-elite womenof Santa Clara replicated colonial tensions betweendependence on non-Spanish laborers and the perceptionof them as dangerous. The inhabitants of the conventexploited the spiritual or magical position ofnon-Spaniards while at the same time stigmatizing andshunning them.13 By contextualizing the cultural formsof danger within the social relations of the convent, thefollowing exploration blends methodologicalapproaches. Elite and non-elite women called on culturalforms of danger within a context of their own socialpositions to defend themselves in a period of crisis. Yet,nuns could also rely on theological and socialconstructions of women's weakness to the devil.Professed women also invoked an imaginary of dangerthat was "Indian" or "African" by blaming women ofcolor for causing the bewitchment of the Santa Claraconvent. Thus, professed women called on a commonlyaccepted discourse as ecclesiastical and secular officialsaccused African, negra, and mulata women ofunorthodox religious practices just as early modernEuropeans and colonizers imagined the devil as a negro,mulato, or black sexual predator.14 Trujillo's religiouswomen employed these cultural constructions and theevent of demonic possession to prove their piety.15 Atthe same time, the nuns marked their location as whitewomen among women of color during a demonicepisode. Thus, elite women of Santa Clara constructedevil as they constructed racial hierarchies from theirpositions as colonizers and slaveholders. Still,indigenous women and African-descent women couldcapitalize on distinct relations with the demon. In theconvent (as in many colonial households), indigenouswomen were a simultaneously dangerous and ubiquitouspresence. They were associated in the colonizers' mindwith witchcraft, idolatry, and other magical powers, butprovided indispensable labor.16 Slaveholders' fear thatenslaved women controlled their masters with witchcraftwas only heightened by a dependency on African-descent women, enslaved and free, who were essential tothe coastal and urban economies.17 Additionally, thedevil was a useful ally to enslaved African women and


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their free counterparts who appealed to the devil to wardoff excessive punishment from their owners or served asintermediaries between clients and witchcraftspecialists.18 Thus, Santa Clara's women of color calledon valences of colonial fears and demonic powers todistance themselves from Africans and "Indians" in acontinual maintenance of colonial hierarchies.

6.

In the case of Santa Clara, nuns were slaveholdersand colonizers themselves, and they may have invokedand associated the demon with people of color becausethey wished to control and to contain laborers, servants,and slaves on whom they depended and, yet, feared.19

Trujillo's landholding and merchant elite profited fromtheir trade of wheat and sugar to Panama, Lima, andother Pacific ports in exchange for African slaves fromCartagena and textiles from the Andean highlands.20 Inthe later half of the seventeenth century, skilled Africanslaves worked on sugar haciendas and in localhouseholds while indigenous men and women provideddomestic labor, transportation, and fieldwork.21

Meanwhile indigenous communities struggled againstongoing appropriation of lands, water, and labor asanti-idolatry trials against Andean ritual specialists wererevitalized in the mid-seventeenth century.22 In thiscontext, Santa Clara's demonic possession reveals howcolonial expectations of piety and evil stereotypedindigenous and African peoples even as women of coloremployed these cultural codes to elevate and to defendthemselves and others. Cultural expectations andintimate relations influenced the internal status of theconvent's inhabitants and suggest the effectiveness of adynamic and cultural approach to the analysis of colonialhierarchies. To demonstrate the usefulness of thisapproach, the first section of the article explores howJuana Luisa Benites and her associates imagined thedevil as a "black man" while enslaved women employedthe devil as a defense against the demands of slavery.The second section reconstructs the social relations ofTrujillo's sole female convent to expose how colonialhierarchies were predicated on patronage as well ascultural assumptions.

Envisioning the Demonic within Slavery7.

When Juana Luisa Benites became demonicallypossessed, she summoned a powerful force, at once auseful associate and a dangerous ally. In doing so, shefollowed other orthodox Catholics who understood thatGod could employ the devil in order to test Christianswith demonic trials and temptations.23 This heterodoxusage could be useful to nuns as well as their servants.24

Rather than implore the saints, indigenous inhabitants ofthe Americas and enslaved Africans called on the devilto save them in what Laura Mello e Souza identified asthe hell of the colonial slavery society.25 Nuns seeking toprove their piety and enslaved women calling forprotection invoked or relied on the devil. Thesecontrasting uses of the devil illustrate distinct butinterrelated locations of colonial hierarchies in imaginedand actual terms.

8.

According to Juana Luisa Benites, her demonicpossession was a divine test of God that mirrored writtenaccounts of saints' lives and other devotional teachings.To her Franciscan confessor, she explained that, likeother holy women, she had undergone trials since her


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childhood that included men and women who took herinto remote areas where they tempted her with carnalacts even as a young girl.26 She also confessed that as aseven-year-old girl she had experienced the appearanceof a sexualized demon when the penis of her assailanttook the form of a demonic snake and then disappearedwhen the man expelled liquid into her body. Without theprotection of her father who failed to recognize her as alegitimate daughter, Juana Luisa Benites may haverepressed the memories of sexual assault until she gainedthe protection and support of her Franciscan confessor.27

10.

Once in the convent, she recognized these actions as"offenses against God" and tried to correct herself as anovice. Following the instruction of other femalereligious and written devotional models, Juana LuisaBenites explained that she dedicated herself to frequentprayer, mortification of the flesh, good works, andattending Mass until she became so sick that doctors,confessors, and superiors ordered her to cease her acts ofpenance.28 Still, even before other inhabitants of theconvent became possessed, Juana Luisa Benites believedthat she was undergoing a struggle to win God's grace.She admitted to her Franciscan confessor that shecontinued to feel a penetration of a "member" that issuedsemen into her vagina even while she was praying.29

Immediately before and during the upheaval in SantaClara, the devil exerted his dominance by penetrating"her from behind" and then held her down whileunnamed men and women touched her indecently.30 Atthis point, Juana Luisa Benites expressed her sexualassault within a narrative of her demonic visitations that,under the direction of her Franciscan confessor, couldserve (if not curtailed by the Inquisition) as a divine trialof her religious piety and virtue.

11.

In one sense, she may have been recalling an episodeof childhood rape. Yet, she framed her memories ofsexual violence within the language of mysticalexperience to distance herself from her own past. Beforethe outbreak of demonic possession in Santa Clara, sheblamed her past and present demonic visitations on thesins of her parents (a priest and a single woman) whichincluded a haphazard baptism.31 Convinced that Godhad promised her peace, her confessor covertlyre-baptized her as Juana Luisa de Gracia. Consequently,the young woman experienced her soul filled withinternal happiness, profound humility, and otheressential characteristics of an ideal nun.32 According toJuana Luisa Benites, she survived God's multiple andviolent tests in the form of demonic possession and wasrewarded with a proper marriage to the divine instead ofsuccumbing to the devil.33

12.

Yet, Juana Luisa Benites' spiritual battles had onlybegun. Throughout 1674 and into 1675, Franciscansfound themselves unable to expel the demons from theSanta Clara convent or exorcise the nuns who werepossessed by evil spirits. In February of 1674, the city ofTrujillo became aware of the convent's affliction whenthey witnessed Juana Luisa Benites writhe like a snakefrom the nun's choir to the altar during a nighttimeMass.34 Inhabitants of the convent and the city'spopulace debated whether divine or demonic forcescontrolled her. Rivals of the Franciscans, the Dominicansquestioned whether members of the order of St. Franciswere capable of conducting effective exorcisms and


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quieting the convent under their purview. When anothernun became possessed in August of 1674, Trujillo'sInquisitorial commissioner (allied with the Dominicans)began to take testimonies regarding the veracity of theafflictions in the convent including their divine ordemonic origins.35 Demonic possessions continued tospread. By December of 1674, the Inquisitioncommissioner reported to his superiors in Lima thatbetween twenty-three and twenty-six nuns of the SantaClara convent were possessed with bad spirits.36

Frightened that the convent's possession was a warningor a punishment from God, authorities sponsoredprocessions.37 Then, the Inquisition's commissionerbecame ill.38 In his absence, Trujillo's Dominicansbadgered the Franciscans whose incompetence theybelieved had allowed the nunnery under theirsupervision to disrupt into chaos.39 Still, the conventcommunity continued to report possessions and rumorsof demonic pacts even as exorcisms continued, in somecases, daily.

14.

When the Inquisition appointed a new commissioner,the focus quickly turned to Juana Luisa Benites and hersupporters. The Inquisitors were skeptical of the truespiritual nature of Juana Luisa Benites' experiences withGod as well as with the Devil. By the later part of theseventeenth century, religious authorities in theAmericas were wary of mystical experiences and nolonger found demonic possession to be a plausible eventas theologians moved into the realm of more rationalexplanations for physical and mental manifestations ofthe devil.40 More particularly, Inquisitors asserted thatJuana Luisa Benites was an impostor who had lied aboutdetails of her birth when she professed and who had infact been baptized correctly according to the records ofher rural parish.41 They admonished her for not resistingthe childhood rape, quizzing her as to why she had notcried out or reported the assault to her father, people inthe household, or her caretakers in the convent as anytype of sexual activity made her an unlikely mystic.42

Her admission to her confessor was taken as furtherevidence of her impropriety (and the incompetence ofthe Franciscans). Furthermore, investigating clericsfound Juana Luisa Benites lacked the humility andobedience necessary for a mystic. Rather thanacquiescing to clerical authority, she had trumped theirabilities when she successfully exorcised the demonsthat controlled her friend, Ana Nuñez, when clerics hadfailed.43 Theological evaluators, under the direction ofLima's Inquisitors, were most disturbed by the hereticalproposition of the two women (and their Franciscanconfessor) that Juana Luisa Benites was a saint whoemployed virtuous defenses against carnal temptationsof demonic legions.44

15.

From these chaotic mutual accusations, theInquisition (assisted by Dominican allies) began to buildits case against the unauthorized Franciscan attempts tobeatify Juana Luisa Benites and the unorthodox practicesof the two young nuns. In August of 1675, theInquisitorial representative ordered the Franciscans toturn over their records of all the exorcisms in theconvent and confiscated the papers and drawings of thetwo young nuns.45 By November, sending the materialsto the Inquisitorial Tribunal in Lima, by November,officials from the Holy Office began to exclusively


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investigate Juana Luisa Benites and Ana Nuñez. Asrepresentatives of the Inquisition attempted to restoreorder in the convent by forbidding contact between thenuns and the Franciscans, the "scandal" quieted inTrujillo.46 Inquisitors and their theological advisorsbelieved that they had found the source of Santa Clara'sdisorder. Inquisitors and their theological consultantsdeclared that the young nuns were incapable ofexplaining their visions and therefore had either liftedthem entirely from basic prayer books or repeated whatthey had heard from their confessor.47 In 1678, Lima'sHoly Office denounced the unorthodox practices of theFranciscan confessor and found that Juana Luisa Benitesand Ana Nuñez had faked their mystical experiences. In1681, the Inquisitors in Lima, the capital of theviceroyalty of Peru, ordered the incarceration of JuanaLuisa Benites and Ana Núñez whom they had judged tobe "imperfect nuns," guilty of "false and diabolicillusions" and sentenced them to the Holy Office's secretjails.48 As "false mystics," the two women joined otherwomen who did not fit into the normative of holiness orwhose authority threatened Church hierarchy and vanishfrom the historical record.49

17.

Regardless of the Inquisition's ruling, Juana LuisaBenites' descriptions of her experiences, including thenature of the devil, reflected her understanding ofCatholic imagery and mystical experiences. For her, aswith many other Catholics, the demon could appear asan aggressive or dangerous animal such as a rat, toad,bull, or a snake.50 The young nun also employedbaroque imagery in her description of the battlesbetween good and evil. According to her confessor, sheexperienced visions of "beautiful" blonde angelssurrounded by white light who protected her from sexualassault and temptation of the demonic, ugly, dark figureswho continued to appear at night.51 In doing so, theyoung nun called on a baroque sensibility thatenvisioned the demon as a "dark man" or a "dark-skinned man."52 For example, Juana Luisa Benites mayhave patterned herself on the example of Saint Rose ofLima, a prevalent figure in baroque Peru, who battled asemi-nude, dark, and fierce demon in well-knownMexican image from the later part of the seventeenthcentury.53 These forms were common in the devotionalliterature as well as the religious imagery, scripture, andsermons that Juana Luisa Benites had been exposed tosince she came to the convent as a three-year-old girl.54

18.

Within the culture of the convent, Juana LuisaBenites also interpreted particular trials of a "dark" andsexualized demon within a paradigm of divine testing ofher faith. As she explained to her confessor, the demonfirst appeared in her life when she was three days old.She recounted a thin worm, like a "yellow hair," enteredher and later emerged in the form of a sambo, anindigenous-African-descent man, and another version ofthe demon.55 Again, the sexualized form of the devilwas common test of Christian resolve in early modernEuropean and colonial literature as a dark figure couldforce subjects to relinquish control of their minds andbodies.56 Juana Luisa Benites' supporter, companion,and fellow nun, Ana Nuñez also experienced similarvisions of the demon during the uproar in Santa Clara.Ana Nuñez described the demon as an "insolent andhorrible mulato, so abominable." The figure appeared in


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the corner of the confession room during an exorcism ofher friend, Juana Luisa Benites. In her testimony to theInquisition, Ana Nuñez that she took the devil'sappearance as a test of faith and she implored God tointervene as the representation caused her great horrorand fear.57 As with Juana Luisa Benites, the fright wassexualized as Ana Nuñez employed the term"abominable," signifying a sinful carnal act as well as adomineering stance.58 The sexualized demonic formsresonated with female mystical experiences in Mexico.As described by Norah Jaffary, visionaries absorbedtropes of sexual temptation and dark men to describe "intheir own visions how �black' devils appeared to themand tempted them to sin."59 Indeed, both women evokedrecognizable imagery as their descriptions elicitedexorcism. Additionally, the demonic apparitions wouldhave helped to build her case that she was a truemystic--if the Inquisition had not ruled the opposite.60

20.

By naming a particular demon as a sambo or amulato, Juana Luisa Benites also positioned herself as aninnocent beset by "dangerous" men of color. In doing so,she called on distinct colonial imaginary of African andAfrican-descent men. In the context of the Iberianslaveholding Americas, slaveholders associated the devilwith trickery, deformity, plurality, and chaos often inconjunction with a "mulatto-like figure."61 ReadingJuana Luisa Benites' apparitions in this context, thedemon tricked Juana Luisa Benites. First, he appeared asa golden worm and then as a dusky sambo. Both formswere dangerous as worms were associated with diseaseor magic and a sambo was associated with indigenousand African populations.62 Furthermore, the young nunalso conjured a chaotic and overwhelming "fiercemulato” who tested her resolve. In this way, the youngnun described an early modern image of a sexualizedand dark demon in the colonial terms of African-descentmen.

21.

In the Americas, members of a slave-owning societycommonly identified demons not only with African-descent men, but specifically with those who resisted.63

Illustrating this projection, in his mid-seventeenth-century missionary account friar Pedro Urraca explainedthat when he was crossing the Panamanian isthmus totake his post in a Peruvian monastery, he fell behind thegroup he was traveling with. He recounted that as hewalked with his rosary he was pushed into a turbulentriver by a negro demon whose eyes gleamed with fire.64

It is not accidental that Urraca wrote about his encounterwith a negro demon in Panama. In his relación, he alsodescribed his travels across the Atlantic Ocean, along thePacific coast, and into the Andes. During this period,Spanish travelers in the mountainous terrain between theCaribbean and the Pacific Ocean feared the armed bandsof escaped slaves who were rumored to attack caravanswith the assistance of indigenous inhabitants.65 Themanifestation of the devil invoked by Urraca was alsoconnected to what or whom he expected to see in theshadowy trails of the thick forest near Portobelo. Here,fugitive slaves bands monitored the port town wheretransatlantic merchants sold enslaved Africans toSpaniards from throughout the southern viceroyalties.66

Whether real or imagined, fugitive slave resistance--chaotic and treacherous much like the demon--was acause for concern among slaveholders and their


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associates.23.

Juana Luisa Benites also envisioned the demonwithin the powerful colonial categories of African-descent men that fit with Trujillo slaveholders'expectations and fears. Slave owners, including the nunsof Santa Clara, relied on the strength of enslavedlaborers and their ability to work. In the laterseventeenth-century, administrators of the northerncoastal haciendas testified that some slaves traveled toneighboring estates and towns where they participated in"crazy behavior making the nights into days and losingsleep, and rest that makes them miss [work] and takesaway their health."67 Slaveholders not only resentedslaves' insolence, but their slaves' strength and ability towork was a constant preoccupation of slaveholders whoconnected efficient production with labor control. Inaddition to the profit, slaveholders understood that theyneeded to control enslaved laborers. Managersmonitored slaves as they worked and checked onwhether enslaved men or women had completed theirassigned daily tasks.68 Slaveholders and their associatesfeared the resistance of enslaved people. To enforce theirorders and to defend themselves against runaways in aneconomy based on the control of enslaved men as wellas enslaved women, overseers carried weapons (lances,daggers, and firearms).69 In the slaveholders' mind, laborability and slave cooperation with a slavery economywas connected to the attitudes of enslaved men andwomen. Overseers justified extreme punishments(sometimes resulting in death) by categorizing certainslaves as having "bad will," "bad nature," and laziness incontrast to the slaves, often skilled, whom they trustedand called by name.70 Thus, slaveholders describedslave resistance as an imposition against their profitmargin as well as a cultural affront to their authority.Juana Luisa Benites, therefore, constructed the demon bycombining the terms of baroque religiosity withslaveholders' fears of enslaved resistance.

24.

Visions of resistant African-descent men were alsoshared by other young nuns in addition to Juana LuisaBenites. During the demonic possessions in Santa Clara,doña Francisca de Moncada also had a vision of a hugeand "fierce zambo” emerging from the shadows andattempting to take her out of her bed.71 She reportedbeing so terrified, that she froze. In all likelihood, therewas not an actual man of indigenous-African descentman in the communal dormitory of the Santa Claramonastery. Yet, doña Francisca de Moncada imaginedthe demon with characteristics that resonated with thefears of other Trujillo slaveholders who anticipated theviolent resistance of enslaved men. For example, slaveowner doña Leonor de Toledo claimed Phelipe minaattempted to kill his wife María Josepha (her domesticslave) and therefore she feared his "hatred and barbarity"as well as his criminal notoriety.72 Doña Leonor deToledo (or her attorney) added language to emphasizehow Phelipe mina (probably from the Atlantic AfricanGold Coast) was a dangerous and intimate threat to herhousehold. In doing so, she invoked and projectedSpanish colonial assumptions regarding enslavedAfricans into a domestic dispute between an enslaved,married couple. Similarly, the black-veiled nun, doñaFrancisca de Moncada, imagined that evil becameincarnate in the image of a threatening zambo in herbedroom.

25.


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Ana Nuñez, the companion and defender of JuanaLuisa Benites, also had a vision of an insolent African-descent boy that coincided with slaveholders' fears ofenslaved men as "devilishly" resistant. The young nunexplained that she was horrified when a negrito appearedand began to scratch and to claw her during the SantaClara period of demonic possession.73 She recognizedthe insolence, aggression, and "blackness" of this figureas markers of a demonic apparition. In a religious sense,the appearance of the negro devil could have been awarning against misdeeds or sins of Ana Nuñez or othermembers of the convent.74 Yet the form of the warningwas not merely that of a "black" devil, but of a youngslave who misbehaved and even injured her. Thus, AnaNuñez imagined a frightening arrogance that alsoterrorized other slaveholders as enslaved men physicallyresisted the control of their owners, but also committedpublic acts of disrespect. For example, in a 1662criminal case against Gaspar Bran, Trujillo officialscharged the enslaved Senegambian man with killinganother slave but found his crime of slapping the face ofa Spaniard, a clear attack on Iberian honor, to be equallyor more significant.75 Likewise, in an effort to maintainsocial order in the valleys, an attorney denounced anenslaved foreman on a local hacienda for insulting andassaulting an overseer in front of other slaves in a blatantact of disrespect to Spaniards.76 For local officials,resistant slaves were unproductive laborers whosedisruption of local hierarchies required vigilance. AnaNuñez, in turn, incorporated these fears into herimagination of an arrogant and defiant "negrito" demon.

26.

All three young nuns who saw an African-descentdevil were part of a slaveholding class that feared theresistance of its exploited labor force. Drawing on theirsocial status and spiritual training, the women combinedtheir localized experiences with their religiousknowledge to fuel their visions of the demonic duringthe mid-1670s episode in Santa Clara. Doña Francisca deMoncada was probably related to the owners of a largesugar mill and wheat mill in the neighboring Chicamavalley staffed by over twenty enslaved men andwomen.77 While not as prosperous as the Moncadas, theparents of Ana Nuñez (Juana Luisa Benites' close friend)lived on a hacienda in the Chicama valley where theyretreated for a year to collect her dowry so she couldbegin her novitiate.78 Juana Luisa Benites' mother wasrelated to the magistrate of Trujillo who owned slavesand the Benites family who owned a small hacienda alsoin the Chicama valley.79 Yet, the Benites were moreaspirants to the status of hacendado and the young nun'suncle was a minor official who collected tribute from thediminished numbers of indigenous communities in therelatively poor valley of Jequetepeque.80 Still, the youngnuns were part of their families' economic strategies asprovincial Spanish colonists saw dowries for theirdaughters, aunts, or sisters' profession as nuns to be asound investment.81 As nuns, female family membersvoted on the convent's investments, served as abbesseswho cultivated the favors of local authorities, or oversawthe convent's treasury.82 In short, the young nuns werepart of a local network predicated on the control and theexploitation of African-descent laborers. Their visions of"black" male demons reflected the combined anxietiesand aspirations of their extended families and socialclass.

27.


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In addition to its nuns coming from slaveholdingfamilies, the Santa Clara convent itself was aslaveholding institution. In the mid-seventeenth centurythe nuns attempted to make a transition, as did othersfrom Trujillo's propertied classes, from lands that weregrazed or cultivated by indigenous villagers to wheatfarms or sugar haciendas staffed by enslaved men andwomen.83 The economic transition was accompanied byan increased availability of enslaved laborers. By thelater half of the seventeenth century, the transatlanticslave trade into the Spanish empire had recovered fromits mid-century decline resulting in more sales of captiveAfricans into the northern coastal markets.84 With thedowries supplied by incoming nuns as well as feescollected from the families of seglares (or wards) likeJuana Luisa Benites, the abbesses and their Franciscanadministrators modestly developed the institution'sproperties to include more enslaved laborers.85 Inaddition, the nuns relied on the wages of their slaves,men and women, who sold wares in the streets ofTrujillo or labored in neighboring households.86 SantaClara nuns and laywomen, therefore, were members of aslave-holding institution. As the enslaved populationincreased on the northern coast in the second half of theseventeenth century so did the dependency ofslaveholders on their slaves. The demonic visions of theSanta Clara nuns in the mid-1670s coincided with thesetransformations of a slavery society.

28.

Slave resistance, however, was not merely imaginedin colonial Trujillo. Enslaved men (and women) refusedto work, verbally rebuffed orders, and removedthemselves from forced labor. Indeed, physical assaultwas possible in Trujillo as when, for example, FranciscoMina seized a pistol and a knife to retaliate against hisowner who was whipping him.87 Within the environs ofthe convent, enslaved women may have had availablethe powers of the demon to resist the conditions of theirenslavement. Two nuns recounted how administrators oroverseers had brought three sick, enslaved women,Annica, Juana, and an unknown negra, from theconvent's rural estate to the nunnery around 1665. In theconvent, the nuns and their servants worked to cure theenslaved women and perhaps refrained from the corporalpunishment more common on the rural estates.88 Yet, theshelter and food of the convent did not help. Thereligious women believed that in the countryside anotherenslaved woman had bewitched the three slave womenwho entered the convent for treatment or convalescence.Perhaps the nuns needed to believe that curing theenslaved women was beyond their abilities. Or perhapsthe enslaved African woman, Annica, her unnamedcompañera, and Juana (a negra) may have helped toconstruct potent reputations.89 One imagines thatenslaved women who were ill enough to be sent to theconvent for recovery were not particularly physicallyfearsome. Yet, their sick bodies and eventual death madea clear impression on the nuns. Some Santa Clarainhabitants suggested that Juana Luisa Benites had beencontaminated when she later inhabited the same cell thathad once housed the bewitched enslaved women.90 Thenuns' memory suggests that accusations or associationswith witchcraft made enslaved women dangerous andpotent, qualities that may have been useful to even themost powerless slaves.

29.

Women of color who were assumed to be possessed


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or have contact with the demon enjoyed a temporarypower. Juana Nuñez, the samba slave of Ana Nuñezemployed her temporary state of demonic possession toaccuse Juana Luisa Benites, a professed nun, of causingSanta Clara's chaotic uproar. Juana Nuñez declared infront of other servants and nuns that the young nun hadmade her and her mistress become demonicallypossessed. Her owner, Ana Nuñez, was a close friendand defender of Juana Luisa Benites. Also, Ana Nuñezwas coming under intense Inquisitorial scrutinyregarding the disruption in the convent and herrelationship with Juana Luisa Benites. Hence, AnaNuñez punished her slave woman and forced her toretract her denunciations. While Juana Nuñez acquiescedto her owner, she had acted within the guise of demonicpossession to make an accusation she would haveprobably kept to herself under normal circumstances.91

In this way, the presence of the devil empowered womenof color to articulate wrongdoing or to accuse otherseven if they saw themselves, like their owners or otherslaveholders, to be pious and orthodox Catholics.92

31.

Other laywomen ascribed the power of the devil toMaría de los Angeles, an elderly slave who worked on arural estate and whom they called "Mother of the Devil."Although it is difficult to know whether María de losAngeles considered herself a "big witch" or attempted tocommunicate with the devil, her power was tangible. Alaywoman testified that the enslaved negra had causedher to become possessed by demons.93 Later, the beataretracted her accusation perhaps fearful of María de losAngeles or the Inquisitorial inquiry into associates of asuspected "witch."94 Yet, it is also possible that thelaywoman was a client of María de los Angeles and thusknowledgeable of her powers. Like other workingwomen as well as slaves, she may have contracted withMaría de los Angeles to invoke the demon for assistanceor for protection during her former life as a "sinful"woman.95 While Inquisitors sought to eradicate falsedemonic possession and to prosecute "witches," enslavedwomen could employ witchcraft, demonic favor, or eventhe suggestion of such for their own benefit or financialgain.

32.

On a daily level, enslaved women employed thepotency of demonic possession to resist overwork andpunishment. Juana, another enslaved negra of theconvent, asserted that she was demonically possessedand therefore should not be physically punished by herowner. In this way, the appearance of demonicpossession was an effective strategy because the nun didnot whip her possessed slave.96 Likewise, a mulata slaveof a professed nun was reported to succumb to trancesand not move for hours in a manner that her ownerinterpreted as demonic possession.97 While it is possiblethat the unnamed enslaved mulata believed that she waspossessed by the devil, she may also have been able torest and to avoid punishment during these episodes. In asense, the enslaved mulata reversed the hierarchy of aslaveholding society as she briefly held power over herowner. As suggested by Ruth Behar, the possessedenslaved women "tamed" their nun-owners who mayhave feared provoking their slaves' demonic potency anddid without their services during these episodes.98 In thisway, the demonic became a tool for enslaved women toresist aspects of slavery inside and outside the convent.

33.


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In the context of colonial Trujillo, the nuns who hadvisions of resistant and arrogant negros, mulatos, andzambos reflected common concerns of slaveholders. Thecalificadores or the "secular clergy who acted astheological evaluators and censors" pronounced thatJuana Luisa Benites and her companion Ana Nuñezlacked the moral virtues to be mystics as well as failed todemonstrate the true signs of demonic possession.99

Apart from the Inquisitors' findings, local people inTrujillo including the women of Santa Clara did notconcern themselves with the reports of manifestations of"dark" devils in the convent. When asked to explain whythe convent had become demonically possessed, mostnuns and laywomen testified to the dangers of negrawitches. What individuals imagined as demonicexpressed how they marked and reproduced criticaldistinctions between members of the slaveholding classand enslaved women. Juana Luisa Benites and her twoassociates envisioned the demon as an African-descentman as part of a mystical argument to prove theirinnocence and purity. For certain laywomen andenslaved women, the demon also helped them bolstertheir claims as victims of the devil and slaveholders. Yet,only in the most exceptional cases could subalternwomen who envisioned themselves as demonicallypossessed or bewitched make a case for mystic or saintlystatus, and only temporarily.100 Dangers, howeverconstructed by women of the convent, suggest colonialdivisions even within the spiritual imaginary.

"The India was not suspect": Idolatrous "Indians"and Convent Patronage

34.

Women within the convent articulated the dangersthat they imagined by remembering their own foiblesand by accusing others of allowing curses and charms topenetrate the convent. As a matter of practice, theInquisitors had and were pursuing additional chargesagainst indigenous men and women accused of idolatryas well as African-descent slaves suspected of witchcraftin the Trujillo region.101 Also, the Inquisitors' questionsreflected ecclesiastical assumptions that indigenous andAfrican people as well as their descendants were likelyto commit acts of heresy, blasphemy, and witchcraft.102

In their testimonies, the women of Santa Clararesponded to these queues by associating danger withindigenous objects and "Indian" people. Yet, thelaywomen and the nuns of the convent also defendedindigenous women and other dependents who, in turn,blamed unattached, rural women, indigenous andAfrican, for the dangerous disorder in the convent.Indigenous servants and slave women used theirproximity to the nuns to defend themselves againstInquisitorial suspicions. They also clearly marked theirdistance from rural women who did not live or work inthe convent in order to defend their superior positions asinhabitants of the convent. Thus, nuns, laywomen,servants, and slaves within the convent expressed theirmutual dependencies in contrast to "outsiders." In doingso, all members of the convent regardless of their castareproduced colonial hierarchies that both inverted andsustained colonial order.

35.

Serving as confessors and exorcists, clerics ascribedthe disorder in Santa Clara to indigenous people andAndean methods of enchantment. The Augustiniansbelieved that an indio laborer had buried a figure, like adoll, when he was working inside the convent.103 Also,


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the friars recounted that their farm's overseer had saidthat an indio claimed the cause of the Santa Clarapossession was the discovery of some buried eggs.104 Inboth instances, the witnesses (an educated bachiller andan elderly Augustinian from Andalucia) recalledEuropean witchcraft practices of using an object tobewitch. As anti-idolatry campaigns had recentlyconcluded, ecclesiastical authorities would have beenaware that, in the act of revenge or retaliation, Andeanspecialists would create and bury a bulto (a figure orform) in the home of the individual whom they wishedto curse.105 A Franciscan cleric engaged in the exorcismof Santa Clara expressed a more definitive hypothesisthat rural indigenous people were to blame for SantaClara's uproar. A young seglar (a servant or dependent ofthe convent) confessed that an indigenous couple in theChicama valley supplied her with stones to carry in herclothing and herbs to refresh women's "private parts" inorder to attract men.106 Perhaps guided by manuals thatdescribed indigenous men as hechiceros or "sorcerers,"or based on common clerical suspicions the Franciscanexorcist explained that the indio must have had a pactwith the demon.107 By pointing to an indigenousresident of a rural reducción, a likely suspect ofsuperstitious "Indian" practices, the cleric attempted todeflect further investigation of his charge, the youngseglar.108 The potency of indigenous idolatry thustrumped the sin of the young woman who, theFranciscan cleric asserted, had been tricked by thedemon into polluting the convent, a bastion of religiousobservance.109

37.

The young seglar, Isabel de San Joseph, however,was less willing than the Franciscan cleric to blame theindigenous couple even as she defended her ownprecarious position within the convent. In her testimony,she identified herself as Isabel Gonsales thus associatingherself with el siglo or the secular world outside of theconvent. She explained that she and her mother hadsought out Juan Cristal y Bissaria, the indigenous man,to heal her mother. The rural indio extracted snakes fromthe belly of her mother who, subsequently, recovered.Like many other colonial peoples, Isabel Gonsales (andher mother) were clients of the indigenous healer and shemay have wished to defend him. When faced with herconfessor and an Inquisitorial inquiry, Isabel Gonsalesblamed her actions on the devil, a common strategy ofthe early modern era, and not the temptations of thereligious healer.110 Perhaps she was fearful of retributionfrom Juan Cristal y Bissaria who, as a ritual specialist,could harm as much as heal according to Andeanunderstandings of "supernatural" forces that lacked theEuropean binary of good versus evil.111 At the sametime, Gonsales implicated Juan Cristal y Bissaria and hiswife, Juana María, as she sought to protect herself. As aquarterona de mulata and illegitimate daughter, theyoung woman was fortunate to be recognized by herfather and accepted as a seglar and servant in the cell ofAna Pardo, a nun of the white veil.112 Yet, theInquisition's investigation of Santa Clara's demonicpossession had only exposed her engagement withidolatry. Traveling into the countryside with only hermother also threatened her doncella status, critical factorin her ability to marry well or to take vows as a tertiaryin the convent. Thus, she retreated to the recogimiento ofthe convent as her confessor, a more powerful patriarchthan her father in these circumstances, testified on her


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behalf to the Holy Office.113 In doing so, she allowedher confessor to discursively separate her as a free,urban, recogida (enclosed woman) from rural "Indians"who made their living, supposedly, from an intimatepatronage with the devil.

39.

Even nuns within the convent blamed indigenousidolaters and sorcerers during the Inquisitorialinvestigations of the mid-1670s disturbance. A professednun from the indigenous village of Motupe explainedthat she, after many terrifying sleepless nights, hadfound a dead frog under her mattress.114 By suggestingthat the dead animal was the cause of her insomnia and"extraordinary shakings," the nun suggested anindigenous source for the convent's bewitchment.Extirpating clerics, and perhaps Santa Clara nuns, knewthat indigenous sorcerers hid objects such as dried toadsto curse or to cause illness in targeted individuals.115

The profesa from Motupe, like Isabel Gonsales, was alsoin a vulnerable position as, at age thirty-eight, she didnot have the funds (or the status) to take the black veil ormove out of the common dormitory.116 Furthermore,being from Motupe, an indigenous reducción, theprofesa may have wanted to call attention to her status asa victim of an indigenous curse rather than a perpetrator.Likewise, another young nun of the black veilremembered that her family had received a cargo of icefrom the highlands (a region of dense indigenouspopulations) and had given a piece to Juana LuisaBenites to wash her infected "women's parts."117 Similarto a hidden curse of the frog, the sierra snow allowed apotentially enchanted indigenous element into not onlythe body of the convent, but also nuns' bodies.118 In bothcases, servants and dependents in the convent sought toexonerate themselves and to suggest an indigenoussource for the curses in the convent.

40.

In contrast, professed nuns of the black veil includingthose who held powerful offices in Santa Claraconfessed patronage as well as clientage with indigenousmen and women. To the Inquisition, the nuns blamedtheir servants and slaves for bringing superstitiousobjects and potions into the convent.119 Yet, in manyways the nuns sought these services. In fact, the formerabbess explained that years ago she had sent for acurandero (healer) or "sabio indio" ("wise Indian") fromSantiago de Cao in the Chicama valley to cure a mestizanovice from Cajamarca in her care. She allowed theindigenous man to be alone with his patient in her cell, aclear violation of the convent's recogimiento orenclosure regulations and a clear indication of her trust.The healer prescribed a diet without salt or ají (hotpepper), a usual religious purification regime forAndeans.120 Thus, while anti-idolatry extirpatorstargeted indigenous healers and herbalists, a variety ofclients, including the religious leader of the Santa Claraconvent, sought their help in times of need.121

Simultaneously, the abbess invoked a colonial fear ofindigenous women in order to secure her patronage (ormatronage) relationship with the mestiza novice. Sheordered servants to burn the novice's clothing that hadbeen sent by her indigenous mother from Cajamarca.The abbess hoped that by destroying the clothes, shecould reverse the "Indian" mother's curse and cure themestiza novice.122 The novice explained that her"Indian" mother had not wanted her to become a nun.Yet, she did not suspect that her mother had caused her


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illness. The former abbess, it appears, sought to sever thenovice's ties with her indigenous heritage, an additionalhurdle against a future religious career of the Cajamarcamestiza.123 In denigrating the novice's indigenousbackground, the abbess underlined both the power of theindigenous mother and the necessity of the indigenoushealer. Even as the controversy broke out regarding thepotential demonic possession of Santa Clara, the formerabbess continued to justify her actions and protect thewomen who had been novices under her tenure. Hertestimony to the Inquisition in the mid-1670s indicatesthat in the convent, as Kathryn Burns has suggested,"nuns became the matriarchs of their own alternativefamilies" that included dependents and clients.124 Thus,the institution's matriarchs defended their own againstcharges of contaminating the convent.

42.

Patronage, or rather matronage, was a criticalcomponent in how women of the convent imagineddanger. Nuns may have agreed with supervising priestsand inquiring Inquisitors that indigenous objects andpeople could bewitch the convent. Yet, the nuns hadmore complicated relationships with potentialindigenous “hechicheras." These “hechicheras” mighthave included life-long servants who secured foodstuffs,located artisans, and brought unofficial news that nunsneeded for the maintenance of the convent and their ownhouseholds.125 For example, doña Maria Margarita deLescano remembered that the mother of a young servanthad brought some cooked corn into the convent for hersamba daughter and other servant girls to eat. Sheexplained that two kernels danced by themselves andsuggested that Augustina, the "Indian" mother who hadbrought the corn may have polluted the convent in somemalicious way.126 Doña Joana de Quiros recalled thesame incident, but the young samba was her servant,and, therefore, she probably had a patron-client relationwith the mother, Augustina. When the Inquisitorialjudges inquired, doña Joana de Quiros guessed that anant or a worm had made the kernels move as she flatlydeclared that "the india was not suspect."127 As a nun ofthe black veil, doña Joana de Quiros employed her statusto defend the girl and the woman who were a part of herextended household. At the same time, her testimonyindicates that the category of an "idolatrous" orsuspicious india was constructed according to a level ofintimacy or proximity. Elite women, secure in theirpositions, could defend or be public about their intimacywith indigenous (or "Indian"-like) women. Unlikemestizas, quarteronas, or other women of lower status,nuns of the black veil did not fear or try to hide anassociation with indigenous women, especially thosewho they had incorporated into their extendedhouseholds.

43.

The Inquisitorial inquiry also reveals how the elitenuns defended their "matronage" of women who soughtrefuge in Santa Clara, one of the only institutions offemale recogimiento in Trujillo. In addition to defendinga novice from Cajamarca, the former abbess disagreeddirectly with the Inquisition's representatives when theysuggested that the cause of the convent's bewitchmentswere two marginal women whom she had accepted intothe convent. The former abbess heard that a professednun suggested that Paula Jurado, a mestiza, may havebeen a witch.128 Without being called, the former abbessappeared before the Inquisitorial judges. She explained


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that she was moved to discharge her conscious becauseof the great disorder and confusion within Santa Clararegarding whether demonic possession or witchcraft hadseized the community. Years before, an ecclesiasticalcourt had found Paula Jurado, a mestiza daughter of anindia, guilty of bewitching a priest of the Cathedral and,pregnant with his child, sentenced her to exile. Theformer abbess had accepted Paula Jurado into theconvent where she had professed as a nun only to leavebecause, according to the elderly nun, she had not beenliked.129 During the mid-1670s Inquisitorial inquiry ofthe Santa Clara possession, two other professed nunssupported the former abbess' testimony. The two elderlynuns explained that though many rumors circulatedabout Paula Jurado many years before, she had been avirtuous novice.130 In the same testimony, the elderlyabbess recounted that twenty years ago an india, or asamba, named Juana de la Cruz had entered the conventto serve God, but disappeared after a few days.131 Thus,the former "manager" of the convent defended thedecisions she had made during her tenure as well asrefuted Inquisitorial presumptions and popular rumorsdredged up by the ecclesiastical inquiry into thepossession of Santa Clara in 1674 and 1675.132

Inquisitors suggested that women of dubious sexualreputations who were indigenous or African-descentmay have caused the convent's calamities. While elitenuns may have agreed in principle, they defended theirindigenous and mixed-descent dependents and, in doingso, redefined the dangers to their institution. For the elitenuns, danger was not simply "Indian" or "black" womenor men. Suspicious people came from outside theconvent and dangerous objects were those not directlyconnected to their households. Their usage suggests howcolonial hierarchies were continually recreated."Matronage" and household relations influenced thelocation of individuals in the convent's hierarchysuggesting that cultural stereotypes such as "bewitchingIndians" were flexible categories that required continualmaintenance.

Conclusions45.

The Inquisitorial inquiry of the demonic possessionof Santa Clara in Trujillo provoked a range ofexplanations which were bound to local realitieswhereby indigenous women and men provided domesticservice along with enslaved African women. Juana LuisaBenites' projected fears were most directly linked to thedevotional literature that she and her confessor consultedand landholders' anxieties regarding the control ofenslaved laborers. Trujillo's hacendados reproduced theimage of a dangerous black man partly because theirprosperity relied on the control of largely malepopulations of African and African-descent men. Yet,slaveholders, like the women within Santa Clara,interacted with free and enslaved women who theyaccepted within their walls on permanent as well astemporary basis. Thus, the servants and nuns of SantaClara imagined that those most intimate and yet, perhapsmost alien, had caused their calamity.

46.

Indigenous men and women from the rural valleys ofChicama and Lambayeque who still lived in colonialreducciones were a source of urban inhabitants' fear.While indigenous men and women worked, lived, andprospered in the city, the most potent indios and indiaswere located in the highlands of Cajamarca or the


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hinterlands of the coastal valleys. Likewise, the negrasfrom the local haciendas invoked a similar dread amongurban domestic workers who carefully marked theirassociations with religious women inside the convent.Even Juana Luisa Benites located her sinful flaws withher illegitimate birth in the indigenous reducción ofPacora, hence her nickname of "La Pacora" among theconvent community. For the urban convent inhabitants(and others), rural arenas dominated by indigenous orAfrican communities were dangerous zones where evengood Catholics could access idolatry and witchcraft.Still, patronage relationships affected how the women ofSanta Clara imagined the dangers to the convent andthemselves. The danger to the convent was more thancolonial demons invoked by young nuns, and includedcolonializers' construction of bewitching negras andidolatrous indias.

Endnotes1 I thank Joan Bristol, Leo Garofalo, Cathy Komisaruk,and an anonymous reviewer for the Journal ofColonialism and Colonial History for their helpfulcomments and careful critique. I thank MargaretChowning, Ann Kakaliouras, and Danielle McClellanfor their suggestions. A John Carter Brown LibraryPost-Doctoral Research Fellowship supported by theNational Endowment for the Humanities (2004), aVillanova University Faculty Summer ResearchFellowship and Research Support Grant (2004), anAlbert J. Beveridge Grant for Research in the History ofthe Western Hemisphere from the American HistoricalAssociation (2003), and an Off-Campus DissertationFellowship to Spain from the Graduate School at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1998)funded research for this article.

2 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. "Copia de diferentesdichos y hechos de la causa que en este Santo Oficio sesigue sobre las Religioisas fue se hallan obsesar en elConvento de Santa Clara de la Ciudad de Truxillo destereyno del Peru," Leg. 1648. Exp. 6 (1677), [firstdocument], ff. 1, 4v, 147v.

3 Fernando Cervantes, The Devil in the New World: TheImpact of Diabolism in New Spain (New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1994), 126�127.

4 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], f. 36.

5 Luis Martín, Daughters of the Conquistadores: Womenof the Viceroyalty of Peru (Albuquerque: University ofNew Mexico Press, 1983), 77, 80�81

6 Electa Arenal and Stacey Schlau, "Introduction:Reclaiming the Mother Tongue: History and SpiritualPolitics," in Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in their OwnWorks (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,1989), pp. 3; Kathryn Burns, Colonial Habits: Conventsand the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru (Durham:Duke University Press, 1999), pp. 130�131; EllenGunnarsdóttir, "The Convent of Santa Clara, the Eliteand Social Change in Eighteenth Century Querétaro,"Journal of Latin American Studies 33 (2001), p. 271;Susan A. Soeiro, "The Feminine Orders in ColonialBahia, Brazil: Economic, Social, and Demographic


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Implications, 1677�1800," in Latin American Women:Historical Perspectives, Asunción Lavrin, editor(Westport: Greenwood Press, 1978), pp. 188�189;Nancy E. van Deusen, Between the Sacred and theWorldly: The Institutional and Cultural Practice ofRecogimiento in Colonial Lima (Stanford: StanfordUniversity Press, 2001), 95, 99, 102.

7 Martín, Daughters, 188�189.

8 van Deusen, Between, 129, 135, 137.

9 Burns, Colonial, pp. 5�6, 118�119, 124�125. Seealso Arenal and Schlau, “New Spain: (Arche)Types,(Archi)Texts," in Untold,. 339.

10 Martín, Daughters, 178�179, 184�185, 192�193,25 �258.

11 Martín, Daughters, 180�181, 185, 258�259;Soeiro, "Feminine," 185; María Isabel Viforcos Marinas,"Las reformas disciplinares de Trento y la realidad de lavida monástica en el Perú virreinal," in El MonacatoFemenino en el Imperio Español: Monasterios,beaterios, recogimientos y colegios, Manuel RamosMedina, coordinador (México: CONDUMEX, 1995),530.

12 Arenal & Schlau, " New Spain," in Untold, pp. 339;Martín, Daughters, 179, 188�189.

13 I thank Leo Garofalo for this direct phrasing.

14 Ruth Behar, "Sexual Witchcraft, Colonialism, andWomen's Powers: Views from the Mexican Inquisition,"in Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989), p. 193;Martha Few, Women Who Live Evil Lives: Gender,Religion, & the Politics of Power in Colonial Guatemala(Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002), pp. 30 � 31,70 � 71. For discussion of the devil as a negro, mulato,or black figure, see Rosalva Loreto López, "LaSensibilidad y el cuerpo en el imaginario de las monjaspoblanas del siglo XVII," in El Monacato Femenino enel Imperio Español: Monasterios, beaterios,recogimientos y colegios, Manuel Ramos Medina,coordinador (México: CONDUMEX, 1995), p. 545;Rosalva Loreto López, "The Devil, Women, and theBody in Seventeenth-Century Puebla Convents," TheAmericas 59:2 (October 2002), pp. 188, 193; EdelmiraRamírez Leyva, "El Demonio en el discurso de algunosprocesos inquisitoriales," in El Monacato Femenino enel Imperio Español: Monasterios, beaterios,recogimientos y colegios, Manuel Ramos Medina,coordinador (México: CONDUMEX, 1995), p. 345;Laura de Mello e Souza, The Devil and the Land of theHoly Cross Witchcraft Slavery, and Popular Religion inColonial Brazil (Austin: University of Texas Press,[1986] 2003), 156, 161, 163 � 166, 207, 220. For thesexual nature of the devil, see Behar, "Sexual," p. 191;Cervantes, Devil, pp. 88 � 89, 110; Sonya Lipsett-Rivera, "' Mira lo que hace el diablo': The Devil inMexican Popular Culture, 1750 - 1856," The Americas59:2 (October 2002), 207 � 211, 213; Stacey Schlau, "'Yo no tengo necesidad que me lleven a la inquisición':Las Ilusas María Rita Vargas y María Lucía Celis," inMujer y cultura en la colonia hispanoamericana


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(Pittsburgh: Instituto Internacional de LiteratureIberoamericana, University of Pittsburgh, 1996), 189.

15 Paulino Castañeda Delgado and Pilar HernándezAparicio, "Los delitos de superstición en la Inquisiciónde Lima durante el siglo XVII," Revista de la Inquisición4 (1995), 11 � 14; Cervantes, Devil, 22, 88, 103, 106,110, 130; Lipsett-Rivera, “Mira," 204, 211; LoretoLópez, "Devil,". 181 � 200; Loreto López,"Sensibilidad," 542 � 543; Michelle Marshman,"Exorcism as Empowerment: A New Idiom," TheJournal of Religious History 23: (Oct. 1999), 265 �281; René Millar Carvacho, Inquisición y Sociedad en elVirreinato Peruano: Estudios sobre el Tribunal de laInquisición de Lima (Lima: PUCP, 1998), 248 � 249;Kathleen Myers, "The Mystic Triad in Colonial MexicanNuns' Discourse: Divine Author, Visionary Scribe, andClerical Mediator," Colonial Latin American HistoricalReview 6:4 (Fall 1997), 480; Schlau, “Yo,” p. 189;Moshe Sluhovsky, "The Devil in the Convent,"American Historical Review 107:5 (Dec. 2002), 1379 �1411; Souza, Devil, 80, 163�166, 207; Alison Weber,"Demonizing Ecstasy: Alonso de la Fuente and theAlumbrados of Estremadura," The Mystical Gesture:Essays on Medieval and Early Modern Spiritual Culturein Honor of Mary E. Giles (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000),145.

16 Behar, "Sexual," 184, 192; Cervantes, Devil, pp. 29,37; Nora Jaffary, False Mystics: Deviant Orthodoxy inColonial Mexico (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,2004), 104�105; Kris Lane, "Taming the Master:Brujería, Slavery, and the Encomienda in Barbacoas atthe Turn of the Eighteenth Century," Ethnohistory 45:3(Summer 1998), 482; Kenneth Mills, Idolatry and ItsEnemies: Colonial Andean Religion and Extirpation,1640 � 1750 (Princeton: Princeton University Press,1997), 117; Irene Silverblatt, Modern Inquisitions: Peruand the Colonial Origins of the Civilized World(Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), 170�179.

17 Behar, "Sexual," pp. 197�198; Few, Women, pp. 45,56; Sousa, Devil, 230.

18 Sousa, Devil, 127, 164.

19 Cervantes, Devil, pp. 25, 29, 35, 37; Souza, Devil,127, 251�253.

20 Susan Ramírez, Provincial Patriarchs: Land Tenureand the Economics of Power in Colonial Peru(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986),100�101.

21 Ramírez, Provincial, 100, 110�111, 116�117,161�163.

22 Mills, Idolatry, 11.

23 Arenal and Schlau, "A Book Containing the Life ofMadre María Magdalena, Professed Nun of theConvento del Señor San Jerónimo of Mexico City, andDaughter of Domingo Lorravaquio and of Isabel Munoz,His Legitimate Wife," in Untold, 376�377; Cervantes,Devil, 106; Loreto López, "Sensibilidad," 543; Weber,"Demonizing," 145.


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24 Cervantes, Devil, 35, 52, 71, 83, 93; Souza, Devil,164.

25 Souza, Devil, 251, 253.

26 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 97v, 98v�99.

27 For a historical discussion of women's strategieswhen faced with sexual assault, see Sharon Block,"Bringing Rapes to Court," Common-Place 3:3 (April2003).

28 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], f. 98; Loreto López, "Devil,"185�186; Kathleen Myers, "Introduction," Word fromNew Spain: The Spiritual Autobiography of MadreMaría de San José (1656 � 1719), Kathleen Myers,editor (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1993),23�24;

29 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 97v, 140v.

30 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], f. 36. Lourdes Blanco,"Poder y pasión: espíritus entretejidos," in El MonacatoFemenino en el Imperio Español: Monasterios,beaterios, recogimientos y colegios, Manuel RamosMedina, coordinador (México: CONDUMEX, 1995),369 � 380.

31 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], f. 99, 99v�100.

32 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 100v�101; Marshman,"Exorcism," p. 277; Arenal and Schlau, "An Account ofthe Origin and Foundation of the Monastery of SanJoaquin, of Discalced Carmelite Nazarene Nuns, in theCity of Lima," (Lima: Royal Press of FoundlingChildren, 1793) reprinted in Untold, p. 325; Sluhovsky,"Devil," 1403.


34 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [first document], f. 5v.


36 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [first document], f. 55.

37 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], f.1

38 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], f. 13v.


40 Cervantes, Devil, pp. 126, 130.


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42 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 98v�99v. Jaffary, False,p. 48.

43 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 15v, 33, 244v, 265v. Forthe importance of personal virtues such as humilityamong "true" mystics, see Jaffary, False, 83�84, 107.

44 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], f. 267. For a discussion ofAna Nuñez's role in the hagiographic creation of JuanaLuisa Benites see Lourdes Blanco, "Las monjas de SantaClara: El Erotismo de la fe y la subversión de laautoridad sacerdotal," in El Nombre del Señor:Shamanes, demonios y curanderos del norte del Perú,Luis Millones and Moises Lemlij, editores (Lima:Biblioteca Peruana de Psicoanalisis, 1994), 197. For theInquisition's ruling regarding heresy rather thanignorance, see Jaffary, False, 80.

45 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], f. 120vv


47 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 240v, 242, 244.

48 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document] ff. 283, 284, 284v.

49 For variances of women's unorthodox as well asorthodox religious authority see Jaffary, False, 60�63.83. For an example of local elites patronizing nuns whobecame possessed by the devil, see Gunnarsdóttir,"Convent," p. 269. For mystics' fear of the Inquisition,see Arenal and Schlau, "Introduction," p. 7; "SpiritualHousekeepers of the Spanish Empire: The Apóstolas ofPeru," 300, "Account," 333, and “New Spain," 358.Schlau, “Yo," 184.

50 Loreto López, "Devil," 188.

51 Loreto López, "Sensibilidad," 544 � 545; RamírezLeyva, "Demonio," p. 344. For similar imagery of amystical nun, see María Anna Agueda de San Ignacio,"Letters," in Arenal and Schlau, Untold, p. 395; Arenaland Schlau, "Life of Madre María Marcela CapuchineNun of the Convent of Querétaro," in Untold, 408 �409; Lipsett-Rivera, “Mira,". 213; Loreto López,"Devil,". 188, 193, Myers, "Introduction," 13, 21 � 22.

52 Loreto López, "Devil," p. 188; Loreto López,"Sensibilidad," p. 544; Ramírez Leyva, "Demonio," p.344.

53 Luis Miguel Glave, De Rosa y Espinas: Economía,Sociedad y Mentalidades Andinas, Siglo XVII (Lima:IEP, Banco Central de Reserva del Perú Fondo Editorial,1998), 182 � 183.

54 Arenal and Schlau, "Introduction," Untold, p. 7;Lipsett-Rivera, “Mira," p. 206; Myers, "Introduction,"


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13; Nancy van Deusen, "The World of Ursula de Jesús,"in The Souls of Purgatory: The Spiritual Diary of aSeventeenth-Century Afro-Peruvian Mystic, Ursula deJesús, Nancy E. van Deusen, editor (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press, 2004),15.

55 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], f. 42v. The vision wassimilar to the demonic appearance of a snake that alsopenetrated nuns' cells, another metaphor of penetration.Loreto López, "Devil," 197.

56 Cervantes, Devil, pp. 88 � 89, 110; Jaffary, False, p.132; Lipsett-Rivera, “Mira," pp. 207, 209; Loreto López,"Devil," 187; Sluhovsky, "Devil,". 1399; Souza, Devil, p.163.

57 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [first document], f. 49v.

58 Pete Sigal, "(Homo)Sexual Desire and MasculinePower in Colonial Latin America: Notes toward anIntegrated Analysis," in Infamous Desire: MaleHomosexuality in Colonial Latin America, Pete Sigal,editor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 9;Ward Stavig, "Political �Abomination' and PrivateReservation: The Nefarious Sin, Homosexuality, andCultural Values in Colonial Peru," in Infamous Desire:Male Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America, PeteSigal, editor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,2003), 144.

59 Jaffary, False,. 133.

60 Ramírez Leyva, "Demonio," 346; Weber,"Demonizing," 154.

61 Souza, Devil, 156 � 157.

62 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 9, 35. Mills, Idolatry,132. Thanks to Leo Garofalo for pointing out thesignificance of the worms in Andean colonial society.

63 Souza, Devil, p.126.

64 Felipe Colombo, El Iob de la ley de gracia, retratadoen la admirable vida del siervo de Dios, venerable padrefray Pedro Urraca, del real, y militar orden de NuestraSeñora de la Merced� (Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1674),p. 5.

65 Carol Jopling, Indios y negros en Panamá en lossiglos XVI y XVII: Selecciones de los documentos delArchivo General de Indias (Antigua: Centro deInvestigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica, 1994), 359.

66 Fray Diego de Ocaña, Un Viaje Fascinante por laAmerica Hispana del Siglo XVI (Madrid: Stvdivm, 1969[1605?]), 19 � 24; Antonio de Herrera, HistoriaGeneral de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas yTierra Firme del Mar Oceano (Madrid: Officina Real deNicolas Rodriguez Franco, 1730 [1601]), 29 � 30.

67 ADL. Corregimiento (Co). Criminales (Cr).“Expediente seguido por Juan de Melgar, vecino deTrujillo y dueno del trapiche Nuesra Senora del Rosarioque está en valle Conache contra Antonio Branillo,


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sambo libre y de María Agustina samba viuda por haberatacado a Francisco Mosinga, su negra esclava." Leg.248. Exp. 2664 (1688), ff. 41v � 42; Archivo Generalde la Nación (AGN). Compañía de Jesús. Colegio deTrujillo. Patrimonio. Rural. “Estado de hacienda.Fernando Santiago Concha. El padre Fernando SantiagoConcha informe sobre el estado de la haciendaChongoyape, perteneciente al colegio de Trujillo, alpadre Antonio Garriaga Provincial del Perú." Leg. 85(1714), f. 1v.

68 ADL. Cabildo (Ca). Cr. “Expediente seguido por donBachiller Diego de Escobar abogado de la RealAudiencia de Lima y alcalde ord. de Trujillo contra unnegro Francisco Carabell sobre haber herido en la cabezaa un himbre Rodrigo de Salazar." Leg. 80. Exp. 1362(1644).

69 For an armed overseer see ADL. Co. Cr. “Expedienteseguido por Andrés de Careaga, Alcalde de la SantaHermandad, contra Juan Gomez de Cabrera, mayordomoque fue de la hacienda de Facalá; sobre haber herido aJuan de Aguirre en la pendencia que tuvo con FranciscoRamos." Leg. 245. Exp. 2513 (1640), ff. 29v, 34v.

70 ADL. Co. Cr. “Mandamiento de don Francisco PittaCatrillón, corregidor de Trujillo para que se haga cabezade proceso contra un negro de casta arara Sebastianesclavo del maestro de campo don Albaro CaberoTinoco, por haber dado de punaladas a AlonsoRodriguez, su mayordomo." Leg. 247. Exp. 2616 (1677),ff. 1, 2. 3; Archivo Arzobispal de Lima (AAL).Inmunidad Eclesiastica. “Trujillo, hacienda de Tulape,valle de Chicama, autos de inmunidad que sigue unnegro llamado Luis Congo contra el alcalde ordinariodon Pedro de Alza." Leg. 17. Exp. 1 (1719), ff. 5v, 10,12, 13, 15, 18v, 20v. For an overseer relying on Juanbran, the sugar master, to defend him against allegationsof extreme physical abuse see ADL. Co. Cr. “Denunciaanónima de la muerte (no firmo por miedo) contra Juande Flores, indio, del virrey, hecho por un mozo que sigueal alcalde provincial don Juan Garcia de Bracamonte."Leg. 248. Exp. 2632 (1679), ff. 5v � 6v.


72 ADL. Ca. Cr. “Expediente seguido por el senor Lic.don Joseph Lino Queri, alcalde ordinario de Trujillo,contra el negro Phelipe casta mina esclavo de don Josephde Sousa Dagama y Brito, vecino de Trujillo; sobrehaber herido malamente a María Josepha, negra castamina, esclava de Leonardo de Toledo, viuda de donJoseph Eugenio de Quevado." Leg. 83. Exp. 1482(1723), f. 6v.


74 Myers, "Introduction," 21.

75 ADL. Ca. Cr. “Expediente seguido por don FranciscoGutierrez de Espinoza, alcalde provincial de la SantaHermandad de Trujillo contra Gaspar Bran negroesclavo de don Albaro Cavero Tinoco y otros esclavossobre haber dado muerte a Hernando de Atalia, negro."Leg. 80. Exp. 1400 (1662), f. 20.


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76 ADL. Co. Cr. Leg. 247. Exp. 2616 (1677), f. 18.

77 ADL. Protocolos. Garcia. Leg. 166 (1661), ff.616v-618v; ADL. Co. Ordinarias (Ord). “Autos seguidospor fray Agustín de Yebes, prior del convento de NuestraSenora de la Asumción del orden de Nuestro PadreSanto Domingo del valle de Chicama, contra MartínAlonso Romero; sobre pago de 162 pesos y 4 reales quele debe al dicho convento y lo demás deducido." Leg.205. Exp. 1474 (1684); ADL. Ca. Ord. “Expedienteseguido por don Sebastian Garcia regidor perpetuo deTrujillo contra el Capitan Pedro Gomez de Moncada yMagdalena Hurtado su mujer, sobre deslinde de suhacienda y ingenio de Chicama." Leg. 22. Exp. 477(1667).

78 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], f. 113. Ana Nuñez's familymay have been related to Juan Núñez Holguin, alabrador managing his mother's hacienda, San Antoniode Padua with four adult slaves in the Chicama valley.ADL. Co. Ord. “Autos que sigue don Francisco Nunezde Balsera, albacea y tenedor de bienes de LeonorGonzález, su madre; sobre restitución de una haciendaSan Antonio de Padua; Chicama." Leg. 196. Exp. 1310(1660) or Capitan don Pedro Núñez de la Haba, theowner of the larger estate of San Francisco de Asis.ADL. Ca. Cr. “Expediente seguido por el Capitan Garciade Bracamonte Dávila, alcalde provincial de la SantaHermandad de Trujillo contra el mulato Pedro Miguelsobre haberle dado una herida en un brazo a su amo elCapitan don Pedro Núnez de la Haba." Leg. 81. Exp.1426 (1687).

79 ADL. Co. Ord. “Demanda de Andrés de Arroio,negro criollo, esclavo del Capitán don García deBracamonte Dávila, alcalde provincial de la SantaHermandad de Trujillo, preso en la carcel publica sobresu venta por los malos tratamientos del dicho su amo."Leg. 209. Exp. 1554 (1692); ADL.Ca. Ord. “Expedienteseguido por don Juan de Urdanegui, vecino de la ciudadde Trujillo, Albacea y tenedor de los bienes de su suegrodon Domingo Benites, sobre realización del ynventariode la hacienda San Francisco de Paula ubicada en elvalle de Chicama." Leg. 29. Exp. 596 (1697).

80 ADL. Co. Pedimientos. “Protector de naturales ennombre de don Francisco Solano, principal deJequetepeque...sobre que no le compelan ni apremien alpago de tributos ni de servicios personales." Leg. 285.Exp. 4203 (1691).

81 Burns, Colonial, pp. 136�141; Gunnarsdóttir,"Convent," 258, 264.

82 Martin, Daughters, 26 �261.

83 Manuel Burga, De la Encomienda a la haciendacapitalista. El valle de Jequetepeque del siglo XVI al XX(Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1976), 100, 117,123; Ramírez, Provincial, 97, 111.

84 Jonathan Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise,Greatness, and Fall 1477�1806 (Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1995),. 944; Henry Kamen, Empire: How SpainBecame a World Power 149 �1763 (New York:HarperCollins, 2003), 430.


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85 For the property holdings of Santa Clara in theTrujillo valley, see ADL. Protocolos. Nuñez de Valcera.Leg. 186. "Arrendamiento de una chacra," #24 (1688),ff. 33v�35v; ADL. Protocolos. Lopez Collado y Daza.Leg. 373. "Arrendamiento de tierras Sacachique," #47(1725), ff. 89v�91; ADL. Protocolos. San Román. Leg.228. "Venta de la chacara." #144 (1725), ff. 235�243.

86 ADL. Ca. Ord. “Expediente seguido por dona Luisade Otero, viuda, albacea y tenedora de los bienes delCap. don Juan Saenz de Vidaurre, su marido regidorperpetuo que fue de Trujillo; sobre testamento einventario de los bienes y demás." Leg. 26. Exp. 554(1687), f. 7v; AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg.1648. Exp. 6 (1677), [second document], ff. 195, 197;Burns, Colonial, pp. 114�115; van Deusen, "World,"27.

87 ADL. Ca. Cr. “Expediente seguido por el senor Lic.don Juan Moncada y Galindo, abogado de la RealAudiencia de Lima, regidor, alférez real, alcaldeordinario de Trujillo contra un negro Francisco de castamina, esclavo del doctor de Vicente Santilla, cura de ladoctrina de Cangullo, en el obispado de Guamanga;sobre habersele resistido a su amo con un cuchillo ydemás." Leg. 82. Exp. 1466 (1710), ff. 2, 2v, 3v, 10v.

88 Martin, Daughters, p. 189; van Deusen, Between, p.111.

89 Few, Women, p. 131.


91 Sluhovsky, "Devil," 1390, 1393.

92 See the example of María Martínez whose pact withthe devil gave her power to counsel clients includingSpanish women. Silverblatt, Modern, pp. 172 � 174.



95 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], f. 107; Behar, "Sexual," 191;Lisa Sousa, "The Devil and Deviance in Native CriminalNarratives from Early Mexico," The Americas 59:2(October 2002),. 178; Souza, Devil, 229�230.



98 Behar, "Sexual," 197.

99 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 241, 242v, 244v�245v;265�266v, 281v; Jaffary, False, 22.

100 For example, see the case of Ursula de Jesús, vanDeusen, "World," p. 49.


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101 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 5v, 9.

102 Cervantes, Devil, pp. 29, 37; Few, Women, pp.70�71; Souza, Devil, p. 164; van Deusen, "World," 19.




106 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 6v�7.

107 For examples of missionaries employing writtenguides to indigenous idolators see Pablo Joseph deArriaga, Extirpación de la idolatría del Perú (Lima:Geronymo de Contreras, 1621); Bernardo de Torres,Crónica de la provincia peruana del Orden de losermitanos de s. Agustin nvestro padre� (Lima: IvlianSantos de Saldaña, 1657), pp. 61, 62, 79.

108 Mills, Idolatry, p. 117. For other examples ofwashing, divining, and magic see Behar, "Sexual,"p.190. Women of diverse social standing sought outwomen who healed with herbal baths that they wouldsometimes administer themselves. AHN, Consejo deInquisición. Tribunal de Lima. Relaciones de causas defé. Libro 1031 (1678), f. 223.

109 Sluhovsky, "Devil," 1399.

110 Lipsett-Rivera, “Mira," p. 211; Sousa, "Devil," p.109.

111 Nicholas Griffiths, The Cross and the Serpent:Religious Repression and Resurgence in Colonial Peru(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996), 95.

112 María Emma Mannarelli, Pecados Públicos: LaIlegitimidad el Lima, siglo XVII (Lima: Ediciones FloraTristán, 1994),. 154, 174; Martín, Daughters, p. 258; vanDeusen, Between, 99.

113 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [seconddocument], ff. 6v�7.



116 Burns, Colonial, 150.

117 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 73, 213v. Blanco,"Monjas," 188.

118 Sluhovsky, "Devil," 1406.

119 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 174, 175v.

120 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6


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(1677), [second document], f. 172; Griffiths, Cross, p.222.

121 Griffiths, Cross, p. 68; Mills, Idolatry, 11, 111, 117.




125 Martín, Daughters, p. 191.





130 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 195, 197v.

131 AHN. Inquisición. Procesos de fé. Leg. 1648. Exp. 6(1677), [second document], ff. 71�71v, 193v.

132 Also, the abbess may have been forced to accept theaccused women into the convent. Soeiro, "Feminine," p.189; van Deusen, Between, 59, 77.

Copyright © 2006 Rachel Sarah O'Toole and The Johns HopkinsUniversity Press , all rights reserved.


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