The Threat of Women Visionaries in the Inquisition

"The second part of the book examines another aspect of the action of the tribunal: the preservation of the Catholic Orthodoxy. In the early sixteenth century the Inquisition had to deal with alumbradismo, a movement of religious spirituality considered heretical because of its supposed resemblance to Protestantism. The followers believed that the Holy Spirit inspired them and illumined their way to God. Both men and women, lay and religious, learned and uneducated, emerged as spiritual leaders to teach interior prayer and interpret Sacred Scripture. The cases of Francisca Hérnández and María Cazalla, who were honored as beatas and visionaries, are analyzed by Mary E. Giles and Angel Alcalá."
 

 Women in the Inquisition: Spain and the New World. Edited by Mary E. Giles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Notes. Bibliography. Index. x, 402 pp. Cloth, $40.00. Paper, $19.95.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/hahr/summary/v080/80.2guibovich.html