According to her contemporaries, this peasant visionary, who was the daughter of devout farmers, spent her childhood doing charitable works and spending long hours in prayer.
The Duke of Alba, his cousin King Ferdinand and Cardinal Cisneros (who became regent of Castile), convinced the episcopal hierarchy that La Beata enjoyed a special inspiration available to very few.
[8] Antonio de la Peña and Diego Victoria transcribed Maria's stream-of-consciousness Book of Prayer, and printed it circa 1518.
[9] The name of alumbrados ("illuminati"), says the orthodox Catholic Encyclopedia (1907–1914), was assumed by some 16th-century Spanish "false mystics" who claimed — like La Beata de Piedrahíta — to have a direct connection with God.
"They held that the human soul can reach such a degree of perfection that it contemplates even in the present life the essence of God and comprehends the mystery of the Trinity.
The Catholic Encyclopedia specifically states that although La Beata de Piedrahíta "is cited among the early adherents of these errors...it is not certain that she was guilty of heresy".
Their ideas found wide responses among Spanish Catholics, though the Inquisition proceeded with relentless energy against all suspects, citing before its tribunal even St. John of Avila and St. Ignatius of Loyola.