Free thinking women, oh my!
This week we explored beatas, unofficial nuns who were still very religious and devoted to the Catholic church. These nuns were not officially recognized by the church but lived in convents and did about everything an official nun did. The Inquisition was often on the watch for nuns like this for signs of heresy because of the fact that they did not go through the same things like women who became official nuns. We looked at two cases recently of two beatas who got in trouble with the church and had a run in with the inquisition. The first of these was a beata by the name of Marina de San Miguel who was arrested by the Inquisition in November and question for 4 months before “released”. The Inquisition brought people in “arresting them” and they held them in captivity for an unset period of time, then for a week or so they would bring the person in or questioning asking northing but open ended questions. Since the person doesn’t know why they were arrested it makes them think of anything they could possibly have been arrested for and they’ll confess all sorts of things. Marina confessed of a conversation wit ha man about whether or not Satan exists, something that could be considered heresy but the Inquisition sent her back to think some more. As the weeks dragged on her confessions got weirder and she confessed to masturbating to an image of God, having a relationship 20 years ago with her nephew, and a couple other random things to try and figure out why she was being held. This tactic used by the Inquisition was very effective in weeding out heretics or getting information on other people if the person they had presently wasn’t one.
The next case was of the beata in the movie we watched whose love for knowledge and free thinking began to get her in trouble with the church. She had a ton of books and poems she had written and tons of artifacts around her room but free thinking people and especially women were seen as dangerous in the eyes of the church. This didn’t help with the fact that the Archbishop actually hated women and thought they had a certain role within the church and this further got Juana in trouble when she spoke out against him. Although she had gained some respect from the Vice Roy and his wife and a few others that did not stop the Church from condemning her and to try and force her back into the path of God.
The point of all this is that beatas were dangerous women because they were unofficial nuns who had access to the same education official nuns did but were targeted more for not taking the same steps.