Sexualidad perseguida y monjas embarazadas en el Virreinato de Perú a inicios del siglo XVII

Abstract

This article seeks to study the breakdown of the closure that occurred in different female monasteries in the Viceroyalty of Peru at the beginning of the 17th century. During those years, the post-Tridentine bishops had to dealt with an uncomfortable reality: episodes of active sexuality in many women’s monasteries and, consequently, the existence of pregnant nuns. Analysing the case of three monasteries located in the cities of Quito and Popayan, we will try to show in these lines which were the limits of the Council of Trent and, at the same time, to underscore the strategies that a great number of nuns developed to hide all trace of their monastic infractions.