The Inquisition of Francisca: A Sixteenth-Century Visionary on Trial

225 Pages·2005·0.61 MB·English

by  Francisca de los Apostoles

THE INQUISITION OF FRANCISCA
THE
OTHER VOICE
IN
EARLY MODERN
EUROPE
A Series Edited by Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil Jr.
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Francisca de los Apóstoles
THE INQUISITION
OF FRANCISCA
A Sixteenth-Century
Visionary on Trial
(cid:1)
Edited and Translated by
Gillian T. W. Ahlgren
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
Chicago & London
Francisca de los Apóstoles, 1539–after 1578
Gillian T. W. Ahlgrenis professor of theology at Xavier University. She is the
author of three books, most recently Entering Teresa of Avila’s “Interior Castle.”
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2005 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2005
Printed in the United States of America
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN: 0-226-14222-1 (cloth)
ISBN: 0-226-14224-8 (paper)
The University of Chicago Press gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the
Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United
States Universities toward the publication of this book.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The inquisition of Francisca : a sixteenth-century visionary on trial /
edited and translated by Gillian T.W. Ahlgren.—1st ed.
p. cm. — (The other voice in early modern Europe)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-226-14222-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-226-14224-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Francisca, de los Apóstoles, b. 1539?—Trials, litigation, etc. 2. Trials (Heresy)—
Spain—Toledo. 3. Inquisition—Spain—History—Sources.
I. Ahlgren, Gillian T. W., 1964– II. Series.
KBR128.5.F73 2005
272'.2'094643—dc22
2004022020
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Series Editors’ Introduction ix
Volume Editor’s Introduction 1
Volume Editor’s Bibliography 37
Letters and Vows 43
Transcript of the Inquisitional Trial
of Francisca de los Apóstoles 61
Appendixes
A. Theological Consultants’ Assessment 159
B. Analysis of Accusations 163
C. Cast of Characters: Biographical Notes 165
D. Chronology of the Trial 171
Series Editors’ Bibliography 177
Index 191

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project has a long gestational history. I first discovered Francisca de
los Apóstoles’s story in 1991 while working at the Archivo Histórico
Nacional in Madrid. At that time, I was examining inquisitional trials of alum-
bradasin order to locate Teresa of Avila’s inquisitional encounters in a broader
context of female religious experience and inquisitorial prosecution. The
story was compelling. It seemed important to recover Francisca’s voice for
history and to learn from her trial. I returned to Madrid in 1995 on a Xavier
University Faculty Research Sabbatical, which allowed me to transcribe the
trial and begin to analyze its contents. At that time, I also received grant sup-
port from the American Academy of Religion and the Program for Cultural
Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and U.S. Universities. A
second faculty research sabbatical in the fall of 1999 enabled me to prepare
the manuscript for publication.
Conversations with many colleagues over these years have made this
publication possible. I am particularly indebted to Marcia Colish, Mary E.
Giles, Kathleen Granrose, Elizabeth Rhodes, Ricardo Saez, Alain Saint-
Saens, and Alison Weber. I would also like to express my appreciation to
María Dolores Alonso Roldán, who is in charge of the Inquisitional Section
of the Archivo Histórico Nacional, for her professionalism, expertise, and
kindness. Xavier University has provided me with a number of excellent
undergraduate research assistants. My thanks to Karin Rademaker, Nancy
McDonald, and Lea Minniti for their careful and painstaking work.
Equally important in the genesis of this particular book was the solidar-
ity, prayer, and good wishes of friends and colleagues. My thanks go to all
who have fielded telephone inquiries, have seen me squinting at the micro-
film reader and suggested I go home and rest, or have listened and made sug-
gestions as I hammered out interpretive theories. During the final pushing vii
viii Acknowledgments
stages, your prayers were profoundly important to me, turning the whole
project into a labor of love.
This study is hardly the definitive work on Francisca. Further study of
her trial will surely elicit more conversations and a deeper understanding of
the complex web of social, political, and religious movements in sixteenth-
century Spain. It is certainly my hope that Francisca’s voice, lost to us for over
four centuries, will continue to speak to us for some time in the future.
Gillian T. W. Ahlgren
THE OTHER VOICE IN
EARLY MODERN EUROPE:
INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES
Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil Jr.
THE OLD VOICE AND THE OTHER VOICE
In western Europe and the United States, women are nearing equality in the
professions, in business, and in politics. Most enjoy access to education,
reproductive rights, and autonomy in financial affairs. Issues vital to women
are on the public agenda: equal pay, child care, domestic abuse, breast can-
cer research, and curricular revision with an eye to the inclusion of women.
These recent achievements have their origins in things women (and some
male supporters) said for the first time about six hundred years ago. Theirs is
the “other voice,” in contradistinction to the “first voice,” the voice of the edu-
cated men who created Western culture. Coincident with a general reshap-
ing of European culture in the period 1300–1700 (called the Renaissance or
early modern period), questions of female equality and opportunity were
raised that still resound and are still unresolved.
The other voice emerged against the backdrop of a three-thousand-year
history of the derogation of women rooted in the civilizations related to Western
culture: Hebrew, Greek, Roman, and Christian. Negative attitudes toward
women inherited from these traditions pervaded the intellectual, medical, legal,
religious, and social systems that developed during the European Middle Ages.
The following pages describe the traditional, overwhelmingly male views
of women’s nature inherited by early modern Europeans and the new tradition
that the “other voice” called into being to begin to challenge reigning assump-
tions. This review should serve as a framework for understanding the texts pub-
lished in the series the Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Introductions
specific to each text and author follow this essay in all the volumes of the series.
TRADITIONAL VIEWS OF WOMEN, 500 B.C.E.—1500 C.E.
Embedded in the philosophical and medical theories of the ancient Greeks were
perceptions of the female as inferior to the male in both mind and body. Similarly, ix