The process against the demoniac María Pizarro (d. 1572) in 1571 is a unique example of many of the issues discussed above. The drama described in the testimonies of the witnesses and its tragic end, eventually culminating in the fulmination of one of the principal exorcists, Francisco de la Cruz, at the auto de fe of 1578, embodied and exemplified the contemporary doctrinal pessimism concerning individual salvation and the ability of humans to resist diabolical attacks. From the available documentation there emerges a clear perception that an important battle for María's soul was taking place, a battle fought by herself and her exorcists in the first instance, but also by angels, saints and demons in the spaces in and around María's body. Just as her body and soul were conceptualized as a miniature City of God under siege, so too she was feared by many to be in danger of becoming a structural weakness through which diabolical forces might penetrate the greater City of God – the Christian community of which she formed a part.

In 1571 Fray Alonso de Gasco, Prior of the Convent of Santo Domingo in Quito, denounced María, his former charge, for diabolical compacts in a letter to the Archbishop of Quito. She had, he asserted, deceived him and his colleagues, all theologians, and caused them to confuse the diabolical with the divine. Gasco also sent a copy of the letter to the Inquisition in Lima, thereby initiating the tragic closing acts of a gripping drama that entangled numerous high-profile members of the viceroyalty. The consequences of María Pizarro's possession coming to the notice of the religious and secular authorities were to rock Peruvian society, as a network of outspoken Jesuits and Dominicans, all involved in the exorcisms, were put on trial alongside María, and were subsequently removed from the public eye and ear.