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FIFTY-EIGHTH VOLUME

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF ST. TERESA

VOL. II.

ROEHAMPTON : PRINTED BY JAMES STANLET.

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF ST TERESA

BY

HENRY JAMES COLERIDGE

OF THE SOCIETY OT^ TESUS

VOLUME THE SECOND

LONDON

BURNS AND GATES

LIMITED

GRANVILLE MANSIONS \V

1887

PREFACE

THE long delay which has ensued between the publi cation of this volume and that of its predecessor, has not been owing to any abandonment of the design of the complete work, but mainly to an attempt to make the translation of the Letters of St. Teresa as perfect as possible, and to arrange them in such a manner as not to interfere too much with the onward progress of the narrative of her Life. But, after all, they cannot be used for this purpose as much as could be wished, and it has been found impossible to persevere with the original design of publishing all the letters in English. Such a plan would have involved the extension of the work to four or five volumes. It is with much regret that the design has been given up, and the plan followed in the present volume adopted in its place. All the letters are here mentioned, and an account, more or less detailed, is given of all that seem to have any importance, whether as contributing something to the illustration of the history, or as throwing light on

vi Preface.

the very beautiful and most interesting character of St. Teresa. But the number of the letters that have been translated in full has been greatly diminished, and by this means it has been possible to bring the story and the account of the letters to a point within a few years of the death of the Saint

The history that remains to be told, in the last volume, which will follow this in the course of the present year, unless some unforeseen hindrance should arise to prevent it, is as interesting as any portion of her glorious career. For it contains the final triumph of the cause of her Reform of Mount Carmel, which was the great work of her life, the arrangements for the separate Province of the Discalced Carmelites, as well as her last foundations and several of her most inter esting letters. The charm of St. Teresa's character increases upon us as we proceed to a better acquaint ance with her, and it is hoped that the publication of these volumes may help to make her better known in the country of St. Simon Stock, which has fur nished many very holy subjects to the glorious Order of our Lady.

H. J. C.

31, Farm Street, Berkeley Square, Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany, 1887.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. Eighteen months at Ai'ila.

St. Teresa at the Incarnation

Convent i

Reforms introduced . . 2 Her great gentleness . . 3 St. John of the Cross as con fessor . ..... . • 4

His life at the Convent . . 4 Anecdotes .... 5

St. Teresa's spiritual state . 6 Described in the Castle of the

Soul 7

Ecstasy of the two Saints . n Letter to Dona Maria cle

Mendoza . . . .12 The "Cartel" from Pastrana 17 Jerome Gratian and his

parents . . . .18 Thoughts of entering the

Society . . . .20 The Carmelites at Alcala . 20 Visit to Pastrana . . .21 He enters the Reform . .21 Answer to the challenge . . 22 Teresa's letter to Philip II. . 24 Letter to Father Ordonez . 25 Teresa sent to Salamanca . 28 Letters to Juana de Ahu- mada . . . . .28

NOTE TO CHAPTER I. . .31

CHAPTER II. A Visit lo Salamanca.

Leaving Avila ... 33

The journey . . . -34

The house at Salamanca . 34

The eve of St. Michael . . 35

Prayer of Teresa . . . 36

Trouble after the opening . 37

History of the Foundations . 38

The Convent at Valladolicl . 39

Casilda de Padilla . . 39

Story of her vocation . . 40

Death of Ruy Gomez . . 45

The Princess of Eboli . . 45

At Pastrana . . . .46

Distress of the nuns . . 47

Invitation to Segovia . . 47

Letter to Father Banez . . 49

His assistance to Casilda . 50

Teresa at Alba de Tormez . 52

NOTE TO CHAPTER II. . 54

CHAPTER III. Segovia.

Teresa at Segovia ... 55 Troubles after taking pos session . . . 56 She is helped by a Canon . 58 Translation of the nuns from Pastrana .... 59

Vlll

Contents.

PAGE

They arrive at Segovia . . 60 Death of Isabella of the

Angels . . . .61

Trance of St. Teresa . . 62

Vision of St. Albert . . 64

And St. Domine ... 64

Beatrix of the Incarnation . 66

Letter to Mary Baptist . 69

Proposed foundation at Veas 71

Letter to Father Bane/.. . 72 And to Don Teutonic cle

Braganza .... 73

Letter to Antonio Gay tan . 76

NOTE TO CHAPTER III.

77

CHAPTER IV.

TJie Reform in Andalusia.

The Apostolical Visitors . 79 Reform spreading in Anda lusia 80

Two Friars detained by the

Visitor . . . .81 Monastery of St. Juan del

Porto .... 82

Balthasar of Jesus . . 82

Hermits of the Sierra Morena 83

Jerome Gratian in Andalusia 85

Made Vicar by the Visitor . 87 Monastery of the Reform at

Senile . ; . .88

Anger of the Mitigated Friars 88

They write to Rome . . 89

Imprudence of the Discalced 89 Gregory XIII. revokes the

powers of the Visitors . 90

The Xuncio in Spain . . 91

St. Teresa's Constitutions . 92

Prioress of St. Joseph's . 93

Mistake about Veas . . 93

Fra Hernandez ... 94

Foundresses at Veas . . 95

CHAPTER v.

Teresa at Veas.

Teresa at Valladolid . .100 Letter to Father Banez . 101 Her account of Father Her nandez .... 102 Letter to Don Teutonio . 103 Projected foundation at

Madrid .... 104 Letter to Father Luis de

Granada .... 105 Anecdotes .... 106 Help of St. Joseph . . 107 Arrival at Veas . . . 107 Her Life sent to the In quisition .... 108 Veas found to be in Anda lusia 109

Jerome Gratian at Veas . no

Meeting with St. Teresa . in Gratian orders her to found

at Seville . . . .112

Letter to the Bishop of Avila 113

Her Superiors not informed . 114

Her desire to go to Madrid . 115 Answer to her prayer . .116 Gratian's command. . .116

NOTE TO CHAPTER V. . 117

CHAPTER VI. Beginnings at Seville.

The journey to Seville . .118 Her statements as to Father

Gratian .... 122

Ludolph's Life of Christ . 124 Mistake as to the house at

Seville .... 125 Difficulty with the Arch bishop .... 126 He grants permission . . 127 Misery of the Convent . . 127

Contents.

IX

PAGE

The Princess of Eboli and

the Lift . . . .128 Approbation of the Holy

Office .... 130 Teresa's letter to the General 131 Commentary on it . .137 Proposed foundation at Cara-

vaca . . , . .139 Teresa's account . . .140 Nuns sent from Malagon . 142 Letter to Antonio Gaytan . 143 Letter to the King . . 144 Grati.in appointed Visitor by

the Nuncio . . . 146 Arrival of Ix>renzo dc Cepeda 147 Letter to Juana de Ahumada 147 "Teresita" .... 149 Gratian begins his visits . 150 Visit from Observantine

Friars . . . . 151 News of the Chapter at

Piacenza .... 152 Difficulties of Gratian . . 152 Council of the Discalced . 153 Gratian's measures . .154 Alarm of Teresa . . .155 Letters of this time . .156 The Convent at Toledo . 157 Warnings to Gratian . . 158

NOTE TO CHAPTER VI. 160

CHAPTER VII. The Dctree t>/ Rcclusion.

The Chapter at Piacenza . 161

The Discalced Friars blamed 162

Mission of Father Tostado . 162 Intended extinction of the

Reform . . ' . . 163

The General Rossi . . 165

Decree about St.Teresa . 166

Communicated to her . . 167

Intervention of Gratian . 167

Her letter to the General . 168

Remarks upon it . . .175 Teresa and the General . 176 The Council of Trent . .177 Troubles in the Convent . 178 Visit of the Inquisitors . . 179 Account of herself to Father

Rodrigo Alvarez . .180 His approbation of her spirit 185 The new house at Seville . 1 86 Gratitude to Garcia Alvarez . 187 Entrance into the new house 189 Great function . . . 189 The Archbishop and St.

Teresa . . . .189 Letter to Ambrose Mariano . 190 Her sanguine hopes . . 193 Letters to Mary Baptist . 194 State of the Convent of the

Incarnation . . . 196 Indecision as to her residence 198 Letter to Rodrigo de Moya . 201 The Convent at Caravaca . 202

NOTE TO CHAPTER VII. .

CHAPTER VIII.

Retirement at Toledo.

Great number of St. Teresa's letters . . . .

Their importance .

Relation to the history .

Mode of dealing with the letters ....

Leaving Seville .

At Toledo .

Difficulties at Malagon

Letters about entertaining Friars at the Convents .

The Prioress at Seville .

Her reserve with St. Teresa .

Letters to her .

Anne of St. Bartholomew

Chapter at Moraleja

204

205

206 207

208 209

210

210

2TI

212 212 213 215 215

Contents.

Protest of the Discalccd

Friars . . • .216 Chapter at Almodovar . .217 -Differences among the Friars 218 The mission to Rome neg lected . . . .219 The royal authority . . 200 The Mitigated Friars in

Andalusia . . . .221 Success of Gratian . .221 Ambrose Mariano at Toledo 222 Convent of Paterna . . 223 Difficulties of the Nuncio . 224 Death of Ormaneto . . 225 Great danger of the Reform . 226

NOTE TO CHAPTER VIII. . 227

CHAPTER IX. Family Letters from Toledo

Letter to Lorenzo de Cepeda 229

To Luis de Cepeda . . 230 To Diego de Guzman . .231

To Lorenzo de Cepeda . 232

His verses .... 237

To the same . . . 240

To the same . . . 243

NOTE TO CHAPTER IX. . 247

CHAPTER X. Letters to Convents of the Reform.

The first novice at Seville . 248

Letter to Mary of St. Joseph 251

Difficulties at Caravaca . 252

Letters to Mary of St. Joseph 253 The Fathers of the Society at

Seville . . . .254

Nicolas Doria . '., . 255

Indiscreet mortifications . 256

Nuns not to be Latinists . 257

PAGE

The Prioress at Malagon . 258 De Velasquez . . . 259 Reform at Paterna . . 260 Letters to Mary of St. Joseph 261 Value of her health . . 262 Letter for the New Year . 263 A letter of banter . . 264 Teresita and Isabella Gratian 265 Postulants at Seville . . 266 Message to the nuns at Pa terna . . . .267 Letter of spiritual direction . 269 Gratian at Madrid . . 271 Letter to Mary Baptist . 272 Casilda de Padilla to be pro fessed ... - 273 Disputes about money . 274

NOTE TO CH-APTER X. . 276

CHAPTER XL

Letters to the Friars of the Reform.

Teresa and Father Gratian . 278 Dr. Velasquez . ., • 279 Letter to Gratian at Almo dovar .... 279 Dona Juana Dantisco . . 281 Antonio de Jesus on the

Chapter .' . .282

Fear about the Nuncio . 283 Hosv to use the friars of the

Mitigation ... 284 Letters to Gratian and Ma riano . v • 2&5 Letter to Mariano . . 286 Mariano and the House at

Madrid .. • ., . .287

Good news from Veas . . 288

The Book of the Foundations 289

Letter to Mariano • ... . 290

Letters to Gratian .,• •. 291

The maripose . . •, 292

Warning to Gratian . . 293

Contents.

XI

1\\(,K

Father Juan de Jesus as

i St. Teresa writes to the Kin

c^

323

Visitor ....

295

Tostado defeated at Court

326

Gratian summoned to Mad

Letter to Don Teutonio

de

rid

296

Braganza .

.

327

Letter to Gratian .

297

The Interior Castle

.

330

Desire for new foundations .

298

Plan of the work .

.

33i

Letter to Mariano

298

The Mansions

.

332

Question as to bare feet

299

Completion of the work

.

335

Opinion of St. Teresa .

300

Accident to Teresa

336

Friars to be well fed

300

Painful resetting .

337

Manual work

300

Father Gaspar de Salazar

337

The Monastery of Mount

His desire to enter Carmel

338

Calvary . . ...

301

Letter of the Provincial

.

338

Great austerities .

302

Answer of Teresa

.

339

Letter to Gratian

3°4

Reason of her indignation

.

342

Letter to Mariano

3°4

Attractiveness of Carmel

.

343

The Carta del Vejamen

3°5

Father Gaspar remains

.

344

Teresa's sportiveness .

306

Francis of Salcedo

307

NOTE TO CHAPTER XII.

346

Julian of Avila . ' .

3°7

St. John of the Cross .

308

Lorenzo de Cepeda

308

CHAPTER XIII.

NOTE TO CAAPTER XI.

310

Miscellaneous Letters.

Fewer letters at this time

,

347

CHAPTER XII.

Less to write about

.

348

After the Death of the Nuncio.

Letter to Mary of St. Joseph To Anne of St. Albert .

349 349

Philip Sega ....

312

To Mary of St. 'Joseph

.

351

Effect of Ormaneto's Death

313

Letters to the Chaplain

at

Accusations against Gratian

314

Malagon .

.

352

Teresa's letter to the King .

314 Complaints against the Su-

The charges recanted .

316

perior

.

353

Death of Mgr. Covarrubias

317

Another letter to the Chaplain

354

Quiroga and Tostado .

318

Severe remarks

.

355

Teresa at Avila .

318

Letters to the Bishop

of

The election at the Incarna

Avila . .

355

tion .....

3*9

Letter to Mary of St. Joseph

357

Excommunication of the ma

To Alonzo de Aranda .

.

358

jority ....

320

And the Duchess of Alba

.

3S«

Jealousies of Religious

321

The Interior Castle

.

359

Efforts of St. Teresa for peace

322

Letters to Mary of

St.

Absolution by Fra Maldonado

322

Joseph

.

360

Seizure of St. John and his

companion . .

323

NOTE TO CHAPTER XIII. .

361

Xll

Contents.

PAGE

PAGE

eilAPTER XIV.

To Doiia Maria de Mendo/a 377

Consignor Sega and the Reform.

To Mary of St. Joseph . . 378 To Gratian .... 380

The new Nuncio . .

363

To the same . . .381

Statement by Teresa .

364

To the same, about Malagon 382

Gratian inactive .

365

Two letters to the same . 384

Prostration of the Friars

365

Letter to Mary of St. Joseph 385

The Nuncio's brief against

How to deal with infirm

Gratian . • » .

^66

minds . ; . . 386

His opinion of Teresa . A gleam of light . Decree of the Royal Council

o

367 368

369

Father Domingo Banez . 386 Brief of the Nuncio . . 387 Language against Gratian . 388

Perplexity of Gratian .

37°

Memorial by St. Teresa . 388

Teresa's line with him .

371

Instructions for deputies to

Andalusian Carmelites at

Rome .... 389

Pastrana . .

373

Letter to Juana de Ahumada 391

Submission of Gratian .

•370

Letters to Gratian . . 391

Displeasure of the King

o/ o 373

Letter to Father Paolo Her-

Discalced Friars at Madrid .

374

mandez . . .393

Letter to Gratian .

375

Conclusion .... 397

To Roque de Huerta .

375

To Francis de Cepeda .

376

NOTE TO CHAPTER XIV. . 398

CHAPTER I.

Eighteen months at Avila.

WE left St. Teresa, at the close of our last volume, installed, much against her own choice, but for the immense glory of God and good of the souls com mitted to her care, in the difficult post of Prioress of the Convent of the Incarnation, at Avila. Her government of that convent was to last for three years, according to the rule, though we shall find that, before the end of that time, she was ordered by her Superiors to absent herself, for the purpose of aiding her children of the Reform in various places. Her work at the Incarnation itself was soon accomplished, at least as far as concerned the intro duction of greater regularity and observance, and of a more perfect spirit of charity. Nothing could resist her gentle and most wise government. Her object was by no means to insist on anything like the adoption, by the nuns of the Incarnation, of the reformed rule which she had herself restored else where, and by which she lived. She aimed solely at the perfect observance of the rule of the convent itself, and at the removal of the abuses which had gradually crept in, aided very greatly by the large ness of the number of the inmates of the convent, B 2

Eighteen months at Avila.

and by their great poverty. There had always been in the convent a certain number of souls very dear to God, and these formed the nucleus of the reno vation which the new Prioress aimed at introducing. St. Teresa herself would hardly allow us to call her the Prioress. She had, at the very beginning, made over this place to our Blessed Lady, who helped her devoted servant in all her undertakings for the glory of God. We may pause a moment to recapitulate, more at length, the measures of improvement which gradually, and in no very long time, transformed this large convent into a community of fervent and happy nuns.

In the first place, St. Teresa was in no hurry. She let things right themselves by degrees, gaining every day somewhat of greater ascendency and influence by her sweetness and chanty. The first thing was to gain the hearts of her subjects, and for this she had to employ no further means than that of making herself always accessible to them, and making it a delight to them to be with her. Thus her presence did a great deal. The recreations became delightful from her charming and holy con versation. There had been a custom of singing songs of no great edification at these meetings, and within a short time it came about that her own pious canticles had insensibly taken their place. The parlours, to which a number of the gentlemen of the town were in the habit of coming, to pay long visits to some of the religious, were abandoned by these last in heart, before any prohibition was issued on the subject. After a time, a stricter rule was

Eighteen months at Avila.

almost insensibly established. This did not please certain of the visitors. One of these gentlemen found that when he came to the parlour to ask for a certain religious, he was always politely dismissed without seeing her. He determined to ask for Teresa herself. She came, and listened with the utmost calmness to his remonstrances, which seem to have been expressed strongly and with rudeness. When he had finished, Teresa spoke in a tone of authority. She begged him to leave the convent at peace. He would not be allowed to see the nun in question. She threatened, if he continued his importunate visits, to inform the King of his behaviour. He went away a wiser man than he came, saying that the Prioress was a person with whom no one could play. It is said that the Governor of the city came himself to compliment her on her success. At last the keys of the parlours were placed in the hands of one of the religious belonging to the holy minority of which we have just spoken, and the abuse was at an end.

The historian of the Reform of Carmel tells us that one of these religious came to urge St. Teresa to take stronger measures at once, but the Saint refused. She told her that there were as many as fourteen chosen souls in the convent, for whose sake our Lord would have spared the world the chastise ment of the Flood, if they had been living then. However, she got Isabella of the Cross to come from Valladolid, to take the place of Subprioress. This holy nun had been herself a religious of the Incar nation, and thus there could be no objection to her return. Thus the exactness and solemnity of the

Eighteen months at Avila.

Office in choir, and other similar points of strict observance, were provided for, even when Teresa herself was not able to direct the sacred services. Gradually the exterior penances were resumed, the Office was recited with extreme devotion, the holy practices of spiritual reading and conversation, of silence and mortification, flourished almost as much as if the convent had been one of the Reform itself. The younger religious in particular were won over by the charm of the character and conversation of their Prioress, and began to rival one another in the holy practices of the most austere asceticism. After some time, Teresa had the opportunity of putting a seal to the work already begun by obtaining the services of two friars of the Reform, one of whom was no less a person than St. John of the Cross himself, as the confessors of the convent. The nuns asked her to procure them a director, who would guide them in her own ways. She sent on the petition to the Visitor Apostolic, and Father Her nandez, acting on her suggestion, ordered St. John and Father Germanus of St. Mathias to undertake the office of confessors to the religious.

It was no slight sacrifice, humanly speaking, to the burning zeal of St. John, who was then in the position of Rector of the College of the Reform at the University of Alcala, occupied in the training of the young students who were to become the friars of the first generation of the new Order. Thus he had to leave a most important post. But the com panionship of St. Teresa must have had many charms for St. John, and he took up the new work assigned

Eighteen months at Avila.

to him with all his energy and fervour. Under his direction, it is not wonderful that the restoration of discipline and fervour went on rapidly. A little hermitage just outside the enclosure was his abode. He never left it except for the purpose of discharging his duties in the convent. He was very strict in not making or receiving the least presents, in the great modesty and reserve of his manners, in making no difference between one of the nuns and another, and in speaking only of spiritual matters and interests.

Some beautiful anecdotes, some of which concern St. John, belong to this time. It may have been before the arrival of the new confessors that, on the feast of St. Sebastian, Teresa had a famous vision of the Blessed Virgin, whom she had made Prioress. She was standing at the Office in the middle of the oratory, about to begin the chant of the Salve, when the statue of our Blessed Lady, which she had placed in the stall of the Prioress, seemed to vanish, and in its place Teresa beheld the Queen of Heaven herself, surrounded by a multitude of angels, who were floating in the air over the stalls of the religious. Our Lady told Teresa that she had done well to place her in that stall, and she promised that she would be present at all the praises which the nuns of the convent offered to her Son, and would herself present them to Him.

Some months later than this, Teresa was kneeling at the little grille of Communion, about to receive It from the hands of St. John of the Cross, when she observed that he broke the Sacred Particle in two, seeing that another Sister had come up to

Eighteen months at Avila.

communicate. Teresa had told him that she loved large hosts, though she knew perfectly well that there was no difference between large and small. But it came into her head that he had done this, in order to give her a little mortification. Then our Lord appeared to her, and told her to fear nothing, for no one could separate her from Him. Then, as she tells us in one of her Relations, she had an imaginary vision, and our Lord gave her His right hand, saying " Behold this nail, it is the sign of our alliance, from to-day thou shalt be My spouse. Till now thou hadst not merited this. Henceforth thou art to look on Me not only as thy Creator, thy King, thy God, but thou art to take care of My honour, as My true spouse. My honour is thine, and thine is Mine." 1 She adds that this favour produced in her an immense effect, and she could not help crying out to our Lord, either to change her meanness or to cease doing her so many favours. The rest of the day she felt out of herself for happiness. She drew from this vision a great profit for her soul, and a great confusion at seeing that she did not know how to give anything to her God in return for His favours to her.

It seems clear, when we examine closely the various Relations which remain to us from the pen of St. Teresa, concerning the most marvellous part of her life, her spiritual history, that it was about this time that she passed into the highest and most perfect of the various mansions or dwellings, to use her own expression, of which she afterwards gave so

1 Relation.

Eighteen months at Am la.

wonderful an account in the most sublime of all her works on this Divine subject. The Castle of the Soul was not written till a period in her life later than this. But we seem to be safe in considering that, when she wrote the description to which we refer, she had already been experimentally acquainted with it for a time, the beginning of which may be dated from this residence of hers in the Convent of the Incar nation. It was a time of some kind at least of comparative repose, allowed her before the years of conflict and suffering which were already preparing for her. We have other marvellous communications related by her which seem to belong to this time. It may probably have been now that our Lord communicated to her, as a pledge of their mutual union, all that He possessed, the labours and suffer ings of His Passion, and told her to ask of His Father as a thing of her own whatever she desired. At another time, when she was unable to continue her prayer on account of a violent headache, He told her that the souls whom God loved the most were those whom He tried the most. Again, He told her that it was a mistake to found any assurance of spiritual sweetness and the like. The true assurance is the witness of a good conscience. Another time she was in trouble because she was not strong enough for fasting and abstaining as she desired. Our Lord told her that there was sometimes more self-love than fervour in these desires of fasting. Another time she was thinking of the great penances of the celebrated Catharine of Cardona, and was almost inclined to go against her confessor, who would not let her imitate

8 Eighteen months at Avila.

them. Our Lord told her that her obedience was more pleasing to Him than all the mortifications of Catharine. It was at this time also probably that she enjoyed the wonderful intellectual vision of the Divine Trinity, in which the Eternal Father looked on her with loving complacency, saying He had given her His Son, and the Holy Ghost, and the Blessed Virgin to be her Mother. He bade her not endeavour to enclose Him in herself, but to enclose herself in Him.

We shall not quite immediately find St. Teresa plunged into that great conflict for the very existence of her Reform, which filled up a considerable part of the remainder of her life. It is well, however, to know that it seems likely that, even before she left the Convent of the Incarnation, as we shall presently see, for Salamanca, in the year 1673, she had already passed into that stage of a most wonderful and serene union with God of which she gives a description in the part of the Castle of the Soul of which we are speaking. The Castle of the Soul is the most systematic of her spiritual works, the fruit of her ripest experience in the ways of prayer. It seems to breathe the pure and tranquil air of the mountain- top, the summit of her own Carmel, which the roar of the waves below, the cries of misery ami strife from the plain on which it looks down, can neither disturb nor reach,

Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

We shall see that the work itself was written at a time of the utmost trial and suffering. Yet it

Eighteen months at Avila.

explains the deep tranquillity and peace in which Teresa lived while the storm was raging all around her, and to which she seems to have been raised at the time at which we are now arrived. That con tinual intimate sense of the presence in her soul of the Three Divine Persons, of which she speaks as the ineffable fulfilment of that promise of our Lord, "If any one love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him" — vivid enough to be always actual, yet not so vivid as to absorb the soul and prevent its attention to outward duties — is surely enough to secure to the heart of a Saint like Teresa, as far as may be on this side of the grave, a foretaste of the very same repose and peace which has its perpetual home in Heaven. She tells us, that while its fruit is a great desire of and advance in perfection, and, amidst all its serenity, an extreme watchfulness and care against the slightest voluntary fault, it has at the same time other effects which distinguish it from the preceding states of the soul by their peaceful and tranquillizing influences. The fears of delusion, at times so great a torment, vanish : dryness is almost entirely absent : even what we may venture to call the impetuous rapture of ecstasies, becomes rare. jJor, on the other hand, have the faculties of the soul, the senses, or the imagination, any longer the power to disturb its peace.

This blessed state is not given, however, without a purpose of its own, not that the soul may be bathed in perpetual joys, but that it may be more than ever faithful to its obligations, that it may work and suffer

io Eighteen months at Avila.

greatly for its Lord, with Whom its thoughts and affections are continually occupied. Its desires of labouring for Christ are inflamed and enhanced : crosses, even the very greatest, are light to it, and have no power to separate its centre and essence from its perfect union with God : it rejoices more than ever in persecution, and as to mortification, its only pain is that it cannot undergo all that it desires. Before, at times, it almost died away at the feeling that it was still in exile, still separated from the full possession of the great good it loves so intensely : now, it forgets itself altogether, it desires one thing alone, the glory of God, and to be able to increase that, it is willing to remain in its prison. " You have seen," says Teresa, " how ardently these souls desired to die in order that they might enjoy the presence of our Lord, and what a martyrdom it was to them to have this exile prolonged. Now they are so inflamed with the desire to serve Him, to cause His name to be blessed, to be of use to some single soul, that far from sighing after death, they desire to live a long course of years, and in the midst of the greatest sufferings, too happy if at this price they may be able to procure for their Divine Master in some matter, however little it may be, some part of the praises that He deserves. If they had the certain assurance that they should pass at once, on leaving the prison of the body, to the enjoyment of the sight of God, and if they had presented to their minds the thought of the glory of the Blessed, yet neither would touch them, because now they desire neither that sight nor that glory. The glory they desire, is to

Eighteen months at Avila. 1 1

be able to do something for the service of their Crucified God, above all when they consider how many are the offences that He receives, and that the souls who are detached from everything else, and seek His honour alone, are so few." 2

But we must return to St. Teresa, at the time when she received the favour already mentioned, after the occasion when St. John of the Cross gave her the broken particle at Communion. Another anecdote of this period is connected with the same holy companion of our Saint. It was on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, and the two Saints were conversing in the parlour of the convent, St. Teresa on her knees on one side of the grille, and St. John seated on the other. They were both caught up in an ecstasy, and seemed to be in Heaven. It happened that the portress, Beatrix of Jesus, had to deliver some message to St. Teresa, and knowing that she was in the parlour, knocked gently at the door. No answer came. She knocked again, and, at last, opened the door. There she saw St. Teresa and St. John, both raised above the ground in the air, unconscious of her presence. She could not refrain from calling some of the other nuns to see the prodigy. St. Teresa afterwards laughed it off, in her charming way, saying that people must take care of talking of God with good Father John, for he not only went into ecstasies himself, but made others do the same.

The letters of this period of the life of St. Teresa are not very numerous, but some of them are ex-

- Castle of the Soul, Seventh Mansion.

12 Eighteen months at Avila.

tremely characteristic. We have seen in her letters to Diego Ortiz, in the last volume, how well she knew how to reconcile perfect courtesy with the firmness necessary in order to secure the religious of her convents from the inconvenient conditions in sisted on by thoughtless founders and benefactors. We have also at the present date a letter of the Saint to her old and most valued friend, Dona Maria de Mendoza, the foundress of Valladolid, in which she has to put in exercise all her wonderful ingenuity and charity, for the sake of freeing that community from one of the very greatest of evils, the enforced presence of uncongenial inmates. It seems that Doila Maria was using her authority to oblige the Prioress of Valladolid to accept two novices, one of her own sending, and another sent by a Father of the Society of Jesus. Neither of these was fit for the life or likely to be a pleasant companion for the religious. One of them had a defect which does not seem, at first appearance, very fatal, but which the careful charity of St. Teresa objected to in the strongest way. This young lady had a bad squint. The letter is as follows. St. Teresa begins in her usual way of affectionate expansiveness to her old friend.

LETTER xxix. — To the most illustrious Lady Dona Maria dc Mendoza.

JESUS.

May the grace of the Holy Ghost be always with your ladyship !

I have often thought of your ladyship in this weather

Eighteen months at Avila. 13

that we have, and have feared that its severity might do you harm. It seems to me that it has not failed to do so. Blessed be God ! that we shall see eternity without any change of seasons or weather. May it please His Majesty that we may so pass this time, as to be able to enjoy that great good ! This place has tried me so, that one would not think I had been born here. I think I have hardly had six weeks of health since the beginning, but our Lord saw that without something of it I could not do anything, and now He does all Himself. I am good for nothing but to take care of myself. Particularly, three weeks ago, He gave me, beside rny quartan fits, a pain in my side and a quinsy. One of these troubles would have been enough to end me, if that had been God's will, but it seems that it is not to be that He will do me this favour. I was bled three times, and got better. The quartans left me. But the fever never leaves me, and so I am to take a purge to-morrow. I am troubled to see myself so good for nothing. Except for Mass, I never leave my corner, nor can I. A pain in my jaw, which I have for the last six weeks, gives me most trouble.

I relate all these troubles of mine to your ladyship, that you may not blame me for not writing to your ladyship, and that you may see the boons which our Lord gives me, giving me always what I ask. Certainly, it seemed to me impossible, when I came here, that my poor health and natural weakness could abide so much work. There is abundance of ordinary business in what turns up in these convents, and there are other affairs besides which wear me down, even without this house. So you see, as St. Paul says, that all things can be done in God. He gives me this scanty health, and yet with it He does everything, so that I laugh at myself sometimes. He leaves me without a confessor, so that I have no one to turn to for a little relief. I must take the greatest care about everything.

14 Eighteen months at Avila.

But for what concerns the needs of the body, great kindness has not been wanting. In the town they have given me many alms, so that I burthen the house only for food, and even this I would rather not do. The alms which Dona Magdalena gave us are now finished. Up to this time we have given a meal to the poorest of the nuns, with the help of the charity of her ladyship and other persons.

When I see the nuns so quiet and good, it pains me to see them suffer. They are truly as I say. We have reason to praise our Lord for the change He has wrought in them. The most violent are now more contented, and are quite well with me. This Lent there were no visits, whether of men or women, even parents, which is something very new in this house. All goes on with great peace. Truly there are here great servants of God, and all are getting better. My Prioress does these marvels, and that we may under stand that it is so, our Lord has ordained that I should be in a state that makes it look as if I had come to hold penance in abhorrence, and were fit for nothing but to nurse myself.

And now, that I may have every kind of suffering, the Mother Prioress of that house of yours writes to me that your ladyship desires that a nun should be received there, and that your ladyship is displeased because you have heard that I have not been willing to take her, and I am to send her leave to receive her, and also another, sent by Father Ripalda. I have been thinking that she must be deceived, and it would pain me if this were true. For your ladyship can scold me or command me, and I cannot believe that your ladyship would be displeased with me, without telling me so. You must do it to get rid of those people, and you must only appear to be angry. If it is so, it would give me much consolation. For those Fathers of the Company, I know how to deal with them, for they

Eighteen months at Avila. 15

would never take any one unfit for their Order to do me a favour. If your ladyship chooses to enjoin this abso lutely, there is nothing more to be said. It is clear that in that house, and in all our houses, you can command, and it is mine to obey you. I would then send to the Father Visitor, or to the General, to ask for leave, for it is against our Constitutions to take any one with the defect that lady has, and I cannot give leave against the Con stitutions. It must be one of those two that does it. They should learn meantime to read Latin well, for it is ordained that no one is to be received without knowing Latin.

For the discharge of my conscience I cannot omit saying to your ladyship, what in such a case I should do, after having recommended the matter to our Lord. I set aside, as I say, the case that your ladyship desires it, for in order not to give you annoyance, I am ready for anything, and I shall say no more about it. Only I beseech your lady ship to consider it well, and look more to the good of your house. For when you see that things are not very well there, you will be troubled by it. If it were a house of many nuns, some defect might more easily be passed over. But where they are so few, it is reasonable that they should be select, and I have always seen this intention in your lady ship, so much so that, though I find nuns at every turn, I have never ventured to send any one to your house, because I desired that any one for you should be of such capacity that I have not found any one such as I could wish. And so, in my opinion, neither of these ought to be received, for neither holiness, nor courage, nor dis cretion of so high a degree, nor talents, do I see in them, as that the house will gain by having them. But, if it will lose by them, why does your ladyship wish that they should be taken ? There are plenty of convents to make it up to them, where, as I say, there being many nuns, those things

1 6 Eighteen months at Avila.

would be more easily passed over. But in our houses, any one who is taken ought to be fit to be Prioress, or to take any office that may fall in her way.

For the love of our Lord, let your ladyship consider the matter well, and see that it is always right to look more to the common good than to private good, and that, as they live there locked up together, the one with the rest, and have to bear one another's defects, with the other burthens of the Order — and that this is the greatest of all, when they do not hit it off together — let your ladyship do us this kindness also, as you are always doing us favours. Leave the matter to me, if you like, as I will settle every thing with them. But if nevertheless your ladyship abso lutely insists on it, we must do as you say, and as I say, it will be your ladyship's affair if all does not go well. As to what Father Ripalda says, I see no harm in it, if circum stances were different. But here we are at the beginning of things, and we must take care not to tarnish the house. May our Lord ordain all as it may be the most for His glory, and give your ladyship light to do that which is most convenient, and may He preserve you to us for many years, as I pray Him to do, for I do not forget this, how ever bad I may be.

I kiss the hands of her Excellency the Duchess, and of my lady Dona Beatrice, of my lady the Countess, and of Dona Leonora. Let your ladyship write to me, I mean command me, what it is your will should be done in the whole matter. I think that by leaving the case on your ladyship's conscience, I shall secure my own. I don't think this is a little thing for me to do, for in all our houses there is not a nun to be found who has so notable a defect, nor would I take one for anything. It seems to me that it will be a continual mortification for the others, for they are always so much together, and as they love one another so much, it will be a cause of continual com-

Eighteen months at Avila. 17

passion for them. The good Magdalene they have there is enough — would to God these were like her ! To-day is the yth of March [1572],

The unworthy servant of your ladyship,

TERESA OF JESUS,

Carmelite.

The Mother Superior kisses the hands of your ladyship many times over. I am very well with her.

We find among the letters of St. Teresa at this time, a document which can hardly be called a letter, and on which it will not be necessary for us to linger long. It seems that when St. John of the Cross came to the Convent of the Incarnation, he brought with him, from the religious Fathers and novices at Pastrana, a kind of cartel of defiance to the nuns among whom he was to labour. We shall speak presently of the contents of this cartel, so strange to modern ideas. But it is more important to remark that it seems to have been the first communication between St. Teresa and the soul of one who was afterwards to become very closely connected with her, one whose history must be understood in order to a full comprehension of that of her Reform. We speak of the famous Father Jerome Gratian of the Mother of God, who was at that time a novice, as it seems, at Pastrana.

The whole story of the life of this celebrated man might well be told separately, though it is not altogether easy to understand certain portions of it. He was to meet St.Teresa at a somewhat later period, and to remain from that moment a child of predi- C 2

1 8 Eighteen months at Avila.

lection to her, sharing1 her counsels and labours even more than St. John of the Cross himself. It appears that he had become a novice of the Reform shortly after the date of the letter to Dona Maria de Men- doza, of which we have just given a translation. He had entered at Pastrana, to which place he had gone for the purpose of arranging with the Prioress of the convent for the reception, as a novice among the nuns, of a lady penitent of his own. The Prioress had been so struck with him, that she had set her nuns to pray that he might himself join the Reform. Their prayers had been successful, and Jerome Gratian had himself entered the monastery of the friars at Pas trana. As we shall hear so much of Father Gratian in the remainder of the Life of St. Teresa, we may make this the place for introducing him to our readers, although his career does not cross that of St. Teresa for some little time to come.

Jerome Gratian was born in 1545, at Valladolid, of parents of the highest distinction, but still more worthy of honour for their great virtues. His father, Diego Gratian de Alderete, was successively secretary to Charles V. and to Philip II., and his mother, Juana Dantisco de Curiis, was the daughter of the Ambassador of Poland at the Spanish Court. Her father was a man of great piety and integrity, and, when he had given his daughter in marriage to Diego Gratian, he returned to his native country, and there devoted himself to the service of the Church, first as priest and afterwards as bishop. Diego Gratian was himself a man of great cultivation, as well as of great piety. He was a distinguished classical scholar, the

Eighteen months at Avila. 19

translator into Castilian of Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch, as well as of some of the works of the Fathers of the Church. His marriage with Juana Dantisco was blessed with no fewer than twenty chil dren. They grew up holily around their parents, who gave them the best of educations in their own example of immense charity to the poor, and other Christian virtues. Here again we come across the solid religious character of the Spanish families of that epoch.

Both parents lived to a great age, and it is said of Dona Juana that she preserved, even as an old woman, the beauty for which she had been famous as a girl and a bride. They were great friends of St. Teresa, and after her death they owed, each of them, some special favours to her intercession. The childhood of Jerome was holy, pure, fervent, dutiful, pious. He was first educated in the College of the Society of Jesus at Valladolid. At the age of fifteen he was sent to the University of Alcala, where he had as his teacher the famous Alonzo Deza, one of the glories of Spain at that time, both for learning and for piety. Jerome was one of his most dis tinguished pupils, and he made Alonzo the director of his conscience as well as the guide of his studies. He was ordained priest at Alcala, and taught there for some time after finishing his own studies. At the time at which we first hear of him in connection with the Reform of Carmel, he was already a promi- ment man in the world of letters and theology, a good preacher, one on whom in the natural course of things the highest preferments of the Church might

2O Eighteen months at Avila.

have fallen, if he had not already made up his mind to renounce all things for the sake of entering the religious state.

It appears that the first thoughts of this promising young priest were for the Society of Jesus, under the care of whose Fathers much of his youth had been spent. These Fathers knew well the excellent qualities which he possessed. The secrets of vocations are among the mysteries of the Providence of God, and it is idle to pry into them. We are told that Jerome Gratian had actually made arrangements to be ad mitted to the Novitiate of the Society, when some unforeseen circumstances made him delay his entry for a while. The Carmelite historians tell us that he had all along been haunted with the thought that he was to be one of the sons of our Lady, in her Order of Mount Carmel, and that he had resisted this inspiration for the sake of choosing an Order for which in some respects he might be more fit, on account of his not very robust strength, and other qualities. Some of the strangest features in his history become more intelligible when it is remem bered that he was brought up in the spirit of the Society, and retained it to a great degree to the end of his life.

But Gratian had seen the young Carmelite students of the Reform at Alcala, where they attended the lectures as well as himself, and had been much struck with their austerity and piety. There was thus a battle going on in his heart, and he seemed to fly from the instances of the Blessed Mother of God as if he were afraid of finding himself obliged to enter

Eighteen months at Avila. 21

the Reform. Such at least is the account given by his historians. Humanly speaking, his career would probably have been very different if he had perse vered in his intention to enter the Society, for which his talents well fitted him. He would have been spared the tempestuous life which he had afterwards to lead, with its tragic catastrophes and obscure end. But he would not have been the Father Gratian of St. Teresa. Most certainly the work that he did for the Reform was, at the time, essential for its welfare, and even for its existence. In the Society he would have found himself at home, in the midst of spirits like himself, while it is clear that among the Reformed friars he found little sympathy. But he would not have found the particular blessing attached to the work which he had to perform, in aid of that of St. Teresa. Her grateful devotion to him was his protection, but only as long as she lived.

The Saint has herself told, in her own gracious manner, the story of the vocation of Father Gratian, and the way in which he was conquered for the Order of our Lady by the prayers of Isabella of St. Dominic and her Sisters in religion. She tells us in the same place of the severe trial to which he was subjected for a part, at least, of his year of novitiate, during which the Prior of Pastrana was absent, and his place, as Master of Novices, taken by a young and inexperienced religious, a man given to melan choly, and very severe in the austerities which he imposed on those who had the lot to be his subjects. It may have been under the training of this untoward Superior that Father Gratian was when he sent, in

22 Eighteen months at Avila.

the name of the community, and, as is supposed, by the hands of St. John of the Cross, the kind of challenge to the nuns of the Incarnation of Avila of which we have spoken.

We only know the contents of the challenge, quite Spanish in character, from the answer to it, drawn up by St. Teresa herself in the name of the nuns. It appears to have been a challenge to them to say what they would do in the way of austerities and the like for those of the challengers who might procure them some spiritual favour. Those who would make the most generous sacrifices would probably be accounted the victors in this strange imitation of the contests of chivalry. The chief value of the paper consists in the light which it throws on the character of St. Teresa and of her companions in the convent. She begins by saying that the nuns acknowledge that they are quite unequal to the contest to which they are invited, and that none of them, Teresa of Jesus less than any one, has been bold enough to accept the challenge as it is given. Then she makes fun out of the difference between the circumstances of the challengers and of the nuns who are chal lenged. The latter are in the midst of the huge Convent of the Incarnation, and the former in a peaceful retreat, with few companions and nothing to disturb their quiet and recollection. Then she goes on to say that, notwithstanding all disadvant ages, such and such a nun will promise such and such spiritual presents to the champions among the friars who will do this or that for her.

Thus Beatrice Suarez must have been Infirmarian,

Eighteen months at Avila. 23

and have had something to do with the care of Teresa herself, for she is said to be ready to give two years of her merits, acquired in taking care of "very troublesome invalids," to any one who will obtain of our Saviour to keep her in His grace day by day, and enable her only to speak with reflection and for the glory of God. The Mother Subprioress will also give two years of merit to any one who will obtain of our Lord that she may get rid of her self-will. Here also we can see a joke lurking behind the words. Another nun offers to the challenger who will help by praying to our Lord by the sufferings of His Passion to give her certain graces, a share of the merit she gains in the time which she spends each day at the feet of our Lady. " No small time either," adds the letter, and the words must have been put in for her by St. Teresa. Offers of this sort are made by some two dozen of the Sisters, and at the end comes the proposal of Teresa herself, which we can almost hear her reading aloud for the amusement of her Sisters. She was, of course, the Superior of the house, and therefore she offers to any one of the friars who will once a day make a firm resolution to bear for his whole life a Superior who is stupid, vicious, gluttonous, and ill-conditioned, the half of what she merits during the day by her sufferings and other things, "which after all is not much to speak of." And so the cartel went back, probably amid a good deal of pleasant mirth, which served to make one recreation, at least, pass more joyously than ever.

Nearly at the same time with this incident of the cartel we find the first of the letters which have been

24 Eighteen months at Avila.

preserved to us from St. Teresa to the King, Philip II.3 It is short, and does not explain itself, for it refers to some unnamed favours which she was asking by the intervention of a certain licentiate, Juan de Padilla, who appears to have been a virtuous priest of her acquaintance. She tells the King that prayers are made for him in all the convents of the Order, and mentions his young son, Don Fernando, who had just been recognized as heir to the throne, though only in his second year. This young Prince did not live more than five or six years. He was the son of the fourth wife of Philip, Anne of Austria.

Another letter about this time is very interesting, as it gives St. Teresa's views on a question of which we hear more in our own day than was usually heard in hers. The convents of the Carmelite nuns in Spain were not likely to be asked to undertake the care of the education of girls. But it appears that there was a question at Medina del Campo of the foundation of an institution for the reception of poor girls or orphans, and that this was to be in some way under the authority of the Superior of the convent. It seems clear from the language of this letter that this pious plan originated with the good Jesuit Fathers, and was not very acceptable to the nuns. The same letter deals with another matter connected with the convent. Mention has been made in the last volume of the good lady Dona Helena de Quiroga, whose daughter Geronima was to enter the convent. But it seems that there were some money difficulties about the redemption of a pension which had to be 3 Letter xxxv.

Eighteen months at Avila. 25

paid 'out of Dona Geronima's fortune, which St. Teresa was anxious to have settled before the girl was received, as she was still very young, and the convent ought not to be troubled with obligations of that kind. The correspondent to whom the letter is ad dressed is Father Ordonez of the Society of Jesus. The letter is addressed in the original —

LETTER XXXVI. — To the very Magnificent and Rev erend Sefior, the Father Ordonez of the Company of Jesus, my Lord.

JESUS.

May the grace of the Holy Spirit be with your honour ! I should like to have much leisure and health to say certain things of importance, as it seems to me. But I have been in such a state since your messenger came, without com parison worse than before, that it will cost me much to say what I can. I am so poorly that I shall be long, for all the pains I take to be short. This House of the Incarnation makes me notably worse. May it please God that I gain some merit by it !

As this affair of ours seems to be near its conclusion, it has given me much anxiety, especially since the letter of the Father Visitor, saying that he leaves the matter to our Father Master Dominic and to me, and he tells him that he gives us his powers. For I am always timid in a matter in which I have any voice. It seems to me that I shall make a mistake about the whole. It is true that I have recom mended it to our Lord, and the nuns here have done the same.

It seems to me, my Father, that we must consider much all the inconveniences, for if it does not turn out well, it is certain that before God and the world your honour and my-

26 Eighteen months at Avila.

self will have to bear the blame. So your honour need not think much whether it is settled a fortnight sooner or later. I am glad of what your honour says in your letter, that for those two things only the Prioress is to have anything to do with it. I think it is very important to take care that to do one good work, another is not left undone, as your honour says.

As for the girls being so many in number as your honour says, it always displeases me. I think that there is all the difference between black and white, between teaching women and having a number of them together, and the same with boys. There are so many inconveniences in having many girls together, which prevent doing good, that I cannot now tell them. Only it is important to have a fixed number, and when it gets beyond forty, it is far too much, it is nothing but confusion. They would disturb one another, and the thing would not be good. I am told that at Toledo there are thirty-five, and there can not be more. I tell your honour, that so many girls and so much clatter, by no means is it well ! If for this, because the numbers are not so great, some people will not give their alms, then let your honour go on little by little, there is no hurry, and make your congregation holy. God will help you, and for the sake of the alms, we must not injure the substance of the work.

It will also be desirable that, for the choosing of the girls who are to enter, there should be two others having votes besides the Prioress. This will be much observed. If the Prior of St. Andrew's would be so good as to do this, it would be well, or one of the Regidors, or both, and that these should take account of the expenses, so that the Prioress has nothing to do with that, either to see to it or to hear about it, as I said at the begin ning. It will be necessary to see to the qualifications of those who are to enter, and the number of years they

Eighteen months at Avila. 27

are to stay. All this should be settled betwQen your honour and our Father Dominic, and then consulted over with the Father Provincial of the Company, and with Father Balthasar Alvarez. What other things will be necessary, some of those we talked over when I was there, especially the forbidding the girls to go out. But what seems to me the most important are the two first which I have men tioned. I have experience of what it is to have many women living together. God deliver us from it !

Concerning what your honour says — and I think the Prioress wrote about it — as to the not redeeming the pension, your honour must understand that Lady Dona Geronima cannot enter, nor have I the power to let her enter, unless the pension is redeemed first, or else the Lady Dona Elena take the matter on herself, so that the house may lose nothing in the way of paying rent, and may be quite free. For I understand that the leave was only given by Father Provin cial on that condition, and it seems to me that we should be defrauding if we did it.

In fine, it cannot be done. I quite see that all this is a great burthen for Dona Elena. One way might be not to begin the church just yet, or that Lady Dona Geronima should not enter so soon, and this would be the best, for she would be older. It has occurred to me that we should not build too much on a foundation which may fail us, for how do we know that this young lady will persevere ? Your Reverence should consider this much. It is better to do this some years hence, and that it should last, than do a thing now at which people may laugh, or even some dis credit be done to virtue.

It is also a matter to be considered, if we adopt this expedient now, what it is that we are dealing with? For there does not appear to be anything certain at present, and the Father Visitor will ask, whom have we to make the con tract ? I should be free from care of this business, if the

28 Eighteen months at Avila.

Father Visitor would do it. Now I must seem to be some thing, without being worth anything.

I beg your honour to give many compliments from me to Sefior Asensio Galieno, and give him this letter to read. He is always doing me kindnesses in everything. It has been a great consolation to me that my papers are there in safety. This bad health of mine makes me fall into many faults. Anne of St. Peter does not care so little for her children as to send them to Medina, it never crosses her mind. The day after to-morrow I shall be off, if I do not have some new attack, and it will have to be a great one if it is to stop me. The letters have all been already sent to St. Giles, but there is no answer. To-morrow, Tuesday, they will procure one. I commend myself to the prayers of the Father Rector. Your honour's unworthy servant and child,

TERESA OF JESUS.

The last paragraph of this letter contains a refer ence to St. Teresa's approaching departure from Avila to Salamanca, where the sufferings of her spiritual children called loudly for her presence, and whither she was sent by the order of the Father Visitor. We reserve the account of the reasons for this visit and of its issue for the next chapter. Before concluding this, however, we must briefly mention the few letters which remain of this period to her sister, Juana de Ahumada, at Alba de Tormes. The first of these is dated early in February, 1572, only a few weeks, therefore, after the appointment of St. Teresa as Prioress in her old convent.4 Teresa speaks of her health much in the same way as, a little later, to Dona Maria de Mendoza. She mentions the great

4 Letter xxviii.

Eighteen montJis at Avila. 29

improvement in the state of the convent, and attri butes it to our Blessed Lady. There are some complaints of the neglect of Juana to send letters for their brother Lorenzo, who was still in America, and also about a trouble which had arisen between Juan de Ovalle and his brother Gregorio on the one hand, and the nuns of the convent at Alba on the other. The dispute related to a small path or alley, and how it was ended we do not know. The last paragraph of the letter contains an affectionate mes sage to the niece of St. Teresa, on whose entrance as a Carmelite nun the Saint had set her heart : " I kiss the hands of those Seiioras, and of my Beatrice. Much I should delight to have her here with me." She had to fight long with the young lady's fondness for the world, for she was beautiful, high-spirited, and brilliant to an uncommon degree. Teresa tri umphed in the end, but it was not till after her own death.

We have another letter of St. Teresa to her sister, written on the 2/th of August in the same year, but it is so imperfect and short, that it is of little import- ance.5 Teresa says that she herself is so much better that she is afraid it cannot last. But another letter, written a month later than the last,6 speaks of her having passed the summer well. She declines very graciously the proposal of a certain Dona Anna, who had two sisters in the Convent of the Incarnation, to come and live at Avila, either in the convent or elsewhere, in the hope, apparently, that her sisters might be of some help to her. Teresa says they

5 Letter xxx. 6 Letter xxxi.

30 Eighteen months at Avi la.

are both very poor, dependent on their convent for the necessaries of life, and that the rules forbid the entrance of externs into the convent. She speaks also very kindly of some of the religious of the Incarnation, who had entered on trial among the nuns of the Reform, not all of whom had been able to bear the rigours of the new rule. We are told that when some of these came to the convent at Medina del Campo, where the Saint happened to be, she chose a time when it would not be observed to go with another Sister to prepare their cells, sweep them, and put them in order. She said to her com panion, that as those ladies had come to help them, it was just she should do what she could to serve them.

A third letter to Juana de Ahumada is dated March 2, I573-7 In this also she tells her sister that she is well. She has received with joy a letter from her beloved brother, Lorenzo de Cepeda, of whose return to Spain we shall soon hear more, There are two other notes of the Saint of this period. In one of these, to a gentleman called Maldonado Bocalan, she acknowledges a present of some fowls for the Convent of the Incarnation.8 In another she says she sends St. John of the Cross to the Prioress of Medina del Campo, to help a religious there who was given to deep melancholy, and was thought to be possessed.9 She says that God has given to him the power to deliver such sufferers, and that he has lately cast out three legions of devils in Avila, forcing them, in the name of God, to tell him their names.

7 Letter xxxiv. 8 Letter xxxii. 9 Letter xxxiii.

Note to Chapter I. 31

NOTE TO CHAPTER I.

It has been stated in the Preface to this volume, that it becomes necessary, at the stage of the Life of St. Teresa which we have now reached, to refrain from the attempt to give all her letters in full. Some account of them, however, must naturally be expected in a work like the present. We propose, at the end of each chapter, to give a list of the letters which belong to the period embraced by that chapter, and to add any remarks that may be called for concerning their contents.

Don Vicente de la Fuente gives us the following letters as written during the time of St. Teresa's sojourn as Prioress in the Convent of the Incarnation, before leaving it for Salamanca, as is related at the end of the preceding chapter.

1. (xxvii.) To Doiia Isabel de Jiinena, at Segovia, from the Incarnation at Avila, at the beginning of 1572. This letter has been already printed in this work, vol. i. p. 392. Father Bonix differs from Don Vicente de la Fuente as to its date.

2. (xxviii.) To the Senora Dona Juana de Ahumada, her sister. From the Convent of the Incarnation at Avila, February 4, 1572.

Some account of this letter is given at p. 28.

3. (xxix.) To the most illustrious Senora Dona Maria de Mendoza. From the Convent of the Incarnation at Avila, March 7, 1572.

This letter is translated in full, p. 12.

4. (xxx.) To the Senora Doiia Juana de Ahumada, her sister. From Avila, August 27, 1572.

Referred to at p. 29.

5. (xxxi.) To the Senora Dona Juana de Ahumada, her sister. From the Convent of the Incarnation, Avila, September 27, 1572.

Referred to at p. 29.

6. (xxxii.) To the Senor Maldonado Bocalan. From the Convent of the Incarnation at Avila, February I, 1573.

Referred to at p. 30.

32 Note to Chapter I.

7. (xxxiii.) To the Mother Mary of Jesus, Prioress of Medina del Campo. From the Incarnation at Avila. (Uncertain date.)

Referred to at p. 30.

8. (xxxiv.) To her sister, Dona Juana de Ahumada. From the Incarnation at Avila, March 2, 1573.

Referred to at p. 30.

9. (xxxv.) To the Sacred C&sarean Catholic Majesty of the King our Lord ( Philip II.). From Avila, June u, 1573.

Referred to at p. 24.

[Although this is the first of St. Teresa's few letters to the King which have been preserved, it seems certain that it was not naturally the first. The Carmelite historian tells us that in 1569, when she was on her way to the foundation of Sala manca, St. Teresa sent certain communications to the King by the hand of the Infanta Juana. Among other things she is said to have bade him " remember, that King Saul had been chosen and anointed."]

10. (xxxvi.) To Father Ordonez, of the Society of Jesus. From Avila, July 29, 1573.

Translated at p. 25.

CHAPTER II. A Visit to Salamanca.

THE time had now come for St. Teresa to go forth once more from the Convent of the Incarnation, where she had remained quiet for more than a year and a half. She had left the convent of Salamanca in a deplorable state, for the nuns were in a hired house, and they had no power of reserving the Blessed Sacrament where they were. They had other incon veniences to endure, but this was by far the worst. They had practised themselves so thoroughly in mortification and self-abnegation, that they would have made it a matter of scruple to wish for a better lodging, if only they could have had with them the Blessed Sacrament. Their want of this was an in tolerable hardship. They had long been begging St. Teresa to come to them. She felt their condition all the more, as it was her habit never to leave a new foundation until she could see the nuns suffi ciently provided, so as to be able to practise their religious rule in peace.

She had taken advice, we are told, at Avila, and had been discouraged by the Father whom she con sulted from leaving her place at the Incarnation. At length the order came to her from the Father Visitor, D 2

34 A Visit to Salamanca.

Hernandez, and she prepared to set out. It was in July, in the worst heat of the summer. She had for her companions a nun of the Incarnation, Dona Quiteria, Father Antonio of Jesus, the friar of the Reform, and the ever faithful Julian of Avila. The journey was to be made by night, in order to avoid the ex cessive heat of the sun, and the party were mounted on donkeys. There were, as usual, some strange adventures on the way. One night a donkey, which had to carry a large sum of money for the necessary expenses of the transfer of the nuns of Salamanca to a new house, as to which some agreement had already been made with a person of that place, wandered away from the rest of the party, and the accident was only discovered on their arrival at the hotel where they were to rest themselves. A messen ger was sent out to look for the missing animal, and found it at last quite unmolested by the side of the road. Another night the party lost one another. The night was very dark, and one of the priests who was with St. Teresa had to beg her to stop where she was, till he found the others, from whom they had got separated. He found them, but could not find his way back to her, and much time was spent in searching for her everywhere. At last she ap peared with the other nun. They had had to rouse a labourer in a cottage from his sleep and pay him well for bringing them back to the right road.

On their arrival at Salamanca, all things seemed at first to go well. The house which was now pro posed was in a good situation. The bargain was struck, the arrangements for payment by instalments

A Visit to Salamanca. 35

made, and the leave of the King obtained. This was necessary for the sale, because the house belonged to a property legally tied up. But the house required considerable expenses and repairs, which would take time, and it was necessary to finish everything, so that the nuns might take possession before the feast of St. Michael. If they failed in this, they would have to renew their tenure of their original dwelling- place. Here were all the materials for possible dis comforts and difficulties. St. Teresa, immediately on her arrival, wrote to the gentleman from whom the purchase was made, in order to hasten matters.1 All must be finished, she says, in a few weeks, and she begs him to come to Salamanca immediately, to sign the necessary papers. But, if this cannot be, she begs him to give her leave to begin at once to make the necessary partitions for the cells and the rest of the house, of which she says there were as many as two hundred to be put up. As soon as Pedro de la Vanda, the gentleman referred to, had given his leave, the work was begun under the personal superintend ence of St. Teresa, who found a little room from which she could watch everything. The artisan em ployed to do the work afterwards gave testimony in the process for her canonization, and he declared that on one occasion the Saint had insisted that the workmen, who were about twenty, should have some thing to drink, and that the wine had been marvel lously multiplied to satisfy their thirst.

Notwithstanding all exertions, however, the eve of St. Michael came and found the repairs, to all

1 Letter xxxvii.

36 A Visit to Salamanca.

appearance, by no means sufficiently advanced. What was worse than all, a deluge of rain fell, and the church was not yet covered in. They had bought a tenement adjoining the house, in order to make the church large enough, and this had necessitated some building, which was not finished. Teresa tells us, in her simple way, that she went to pray to our Lord and begged Him in future either not to put such hard things upon her, or to take away the obstacles to their being accomplished. However, she says, the good Nicolas Guttierez, a friend already mentioned in the story of the first foundation of Salamanca, told her that God would provide for all, and, she adds, his confidence was not vain, for on the day of the feast, when the people began to assemble for the ceremony, the sun shone out. Anne of Jesus, who was present at the time, gives us some further par ticulars. She says it was eight o'clock at night, and there were still some altars to be dressed. The rain was still falling in the church. "Not knowing what to do," continues Anne, " I went with two other reli gious to find the Saint, who was with Julian of Avila and the licentiate, Nieto, chaplain of our convent at Avila. I said to her with great resolution, 'You know what time it is and what we have got to do before to morrow. Pray to God that the rain may cease/ 1 Pray yourself,' she said, a little put out by the confidence which I manifested in her prayers. ' Pray, since the matter is so pressing, and you imagine that God will hear me at once.' Then I went away, and," says Anne, " I had no sooner reached the court close by, than I saw the heaven full of stars, and as

A Visit to Salamanca. 37

calm as if it had not been raining at all. This sudden change encouraged me, and I went back to the Saint, and was bold enough to say to her further : ' It has ceased raining ; but you might as well have asked this change of weather of God sooner, and then the people who have left the church would have helped us to dress it.' This made her laugh a great deal." The next day, St. Teresa tells us, there was a great crowd of persons in the church, Mass was celebrated with music, and the Blessed Sacrament was placed there with great solemnity. A great Franciscan orator, P. Diego Estella, had been invited to preach, and this of itself was enough to fill the church. The house was in a good situation, and people began to know it and to love it.

However, the joy did not last long. The day after the ceremony, Pedro de la Vanda came to Salamanca and made a great deal of trouble about what had been done. St. Teresa had to propose to leave the house, but nothing would satisfy him. It seems that the property came to him by his wife, and that this lady wanted to have the purchase- money at once, contrary to the agreement, in order to provide dowries for her two daughters. The affair dragged on, and twelve years after this the Carmelite nuns had again to migrate. Nor was it till 1614 that they found a permanent home in the fine con vent which is still theirs. This was long; after the

o

death of St. Teresa. She says that nowhere had her daughters more to suffer than at Salamanca, but by the grace of God they had suffered joyfully. She never knew them unhappy because their house did

38 A Visit to Salamanca.

not belong to them. Nothing mattered much when they remembered that our Saviour had not where to lay His Head.

The troublesome business of this new house for her nuns did not prevent St. Teresa from finding time at Salamanca to begin a work which has lasted to our day, and will last on as long as the Catholic Church itself lasts in the world. It was there that she began the History of the Foundations, the most generally popular and entertaining of her works. She had written the history of the foundation of St. Joseph's of Avila in the year 1562, at the order of Father Garcia de Toledo, then her confessor. At Salamanca her confessor was Father Juan Ripalda, of the Society of Jesus. Having seen the account of the foundation of St. Joseph of Avila, he now enjoined on her to continue the work with the rela tion of her other foundations, as well as of the foundations of the Discalced Carmelite friars. She was frightened at the order, on account of her health and many occupations, besides her poor memory and other difficulties. But our Lord bade her go on, saying that obedience gives strength. She began the work on the feast of St. Louis, King of France, August 25, 1573, that is in the very middle of her great anxieties on the score of her new house of Salamanca.

We have another letter to Juana de Ahumada, her sister, written from Salamanca, but it is of no great length or importance.2 She is delighted to hear that Juan de Ovalle is better, and talks about her own

2 Letter xxxix.

A Visit to Salamanca. 39

quartan fits, which are better, but she had to pass the last night almost without sleep. Pedro de la Vanda's affair goes on well, but so slowly ! Teresa must remain at Salamanca, for there is no one in the house who understands anything about business except herself. She mentions giving the habit to a postulant, of whom she speaks very highly, saying she is made for the Order, and she has some fortune moreover, which helps matters on. This was a young lady of Salamanca, in religion Leonora de Jesus, who did not live many years, though she was highly valued in her community. The rest of the letter contains salutations and messages. Teresa stayed at Salamanca till the year 1574 had begun, and we find that while she was there two fresh causes of anxiety and exertion came to her from different quarters.

We may first speak of the mixture of consolation and anxiety which came to her from the convent of Valladolid. She could not but rejoice at a great victory of grace over the attractions of the world, especially when the victory was won by one who was almost a child, and in favour of the Reform of Mount Carmel. But it must have cost her some anxiety to see her niece, Mary Baptist, who was the Prioress of Valladolid, having to struggle against the influence of a powerful and distinguished family in maintaining the right of one of its children to give herself up to God. Among all the vocations of which St. Teresa has given us the account, there is none more charmingly related than that of Casilda de Padilla. Casilda was the youngest of three children, one brother and two

A Visit to Salamanca.

sisters, of the Adelantado of Castile. Her father died soon after her birth, and the titles and property of the family passed into the hands of his eldest child, Antonio de Padilla. This young man, however, at the age of seventeen, entered the Society of Jesus. The eldest sister, Dona Luisa, succeeded to his honours, but she too was struck with the nothing ness of the world and renounced her inheritance in favour of the young Casilda, who was but eleven years of age.

It is not said that, at this time, Dona Luisa was already a nun, but we find it proposed, afterwards, that Casilda should enter the convent where her sister was. She may have lived awhile in retirement at home. This is a kind of vocation which meets us constantly in the most Catholic countries, where the heathen idea of the dishonour of the state of virginity in the world, and of the necessity, for those who wish to serve God in continence, to enter some convent, seems to be continually rebuked by the most illustrious examples in all ranks of life. The child who thus became the heiress of so much wealth and greatness seems at first to have taken pleasure in her new position. The family, as is so frequently the case, determined to preserve the fortune which was thus placed in the hands of a girl for some one of the same name. Thus Casilda was betrothed to an uncle, many years her senior, though much younger than her father. At her age she could have known little either of the responsibilities or of the serious happi ness of the married state. She liked her betrothed, •was happy in being petted and made much of by

A Visit to Salamanca. 41

him, accepted his presents with childish glee, and even found the days weary when he was away or had left her to herself. But Casilda was of a more serious turn of mind than appeared from her first enjoyment of her new position. Even before the time of which we are speaking, she had found reason to ask herself whether the joys which were so soon over, and so liable to interruption, could be worth much.

Just about this time, her betrothed went away for a journey, and Casilda was left alone. Her habits of piety, which had been laid aside, were resumed, and she asked herself a further question. Why had her brother and sister given up their wealth and honours to her, and what must be the value of these eternal goods for which they could so easily despise what was so much esteemed by others ? She ran off to Dona Luisa and asked her help. She too, she said, wanted to love God alone and give up all for Him. Luisa thought it was a piece of childish fervour, and told her not to talk of such things. But why then, Casilda asked her, had she herself done what she had ? She declared that she would have nothing to do with the fortune, and would renounce it, like her sister.

Casilda's mother was still alive, and she appears to have sympathized with her child's desires, though she was very much afraid of appearing to oppose the wishes of the family. We may let St. Teresa herself relate the story of her entrance into the Carmel of Valladolid.

42 A Visit to Salamanca.

When Dona Casilda saw that even saying the Rosary was no longer a pleasure to her, she feared she might become even worse and worse, and thought she saw clearly that by coming to this house, she could make her salvation certain. She therefore made up her mind altogether, and one morning she and her sister came here with her mother, and as it happened, all entered the monastery, but without suspicion that she was going to do what she did. When she found herself inside, no one could thrust her out. She cried so earnestly that she might be left, and she used such words as astonished everybody. Her mother, though in her heart glad, was afraid of her kindred, and would not have her remain, least it should be said that she was doing this by her persuasion. The Prioress also was of the same mind, for she looked upon her as a child, and thought there ought to be a longer trial of her vocation. This was in the morning. They had to remain there till the evening, and to send for her confessor and for the Father Master Friar Dominic, who was mine, of whom I spoke in the beginning, but I was not there at the time myself. That Father saw at once that this was the work of the Holy Spirit of God, and gave her great help, while having much to bear with at the hands of her kindred. He promised his help to her for coming back another day. She went away this time, but after earnest importunities, lest they should blame her mother. Her good desires continued even to grow stronger. Her mother began to speak privately to her kindred, and the secret was kept from coming to the knowledge of the bridegroom. They spoke of it all as childishness, 'and said she must wait till she became of age, for she was not yet twelve years old. She replied to this by saying, that as they thought her old enough to be married and left in the world, how came it that they did not find her old enough to give herself to God ? She spoke in such a way as made it plain it was not

A Visit to Salamanca. 43

she herself who was speaking. The matter could not be kept so secret as to escape the knowledge of the bride groom. When she found he was aware of it, she did not think it well to wait for him, and on the feast of the Conception, when in the house of her grandmother, who was also to be her mother-in-law, she asked her to let her go out with her governess. Her grandmother, to please her, gave her consent, and she went out in a carriage with her servants.3

St. Teresa goes on to tell the story how Casilda managed to get into the door of the convent by getting a number of faggots placed there as a present, and then, when the door was opened to take them in, rushing in and clasping the statue of our Lady, imploring the Prioress not to send her away. Then came another long series of struggles with her kinsfolk, and at last they could only get her out by an order from the King. She had re mained in the convent from the feast of the Imma culate Conception till that of the Holy Innocents. After that, she was taken by force to her mother's house.

Her mother [says St. Teresa] was weary of so much trouble and gave her no help whatever. On the contrary, she seemed to be against her. It may be that her mother was only trying her, at least she told me so afterwards, and she is so saintly that whatever she says is to be believed. However, the child did not so understand her. Her con fessor also was extremely opposed to her, so that she had no help but in God, and in a young woman in her mother's service who consoled her. Thus she lived in great weari ness and distress, till she was twelve years old. Then she 3 Book of the Foundations ', c. xi. 3.

44 A Visit to Salamanca.

found it was proposed, now they could not hinder her profession, to make her enter the monastery in which her sister was, because it was not so severe. When she saw this, she determined to find some means or other for carry ing out her resolution, and accordingly one day, going with her mother to Mass, while the latter went into the con fessional in the church, she asked her governess to go and request one of the Fathers to say Mass for her. When she was gone, she put her clogs in her sleeves, and taking up her dress ran in all haste towards this monastery, which was a good way off. The governess not finding her in the church, rushed after her and as she was drawing near asked a man to stop her. The man said afterwards that he found himself unable to stir, and so let her go. Casilda having entered by the outer door of the monastery, shut it and began to call out. When the governess arrived, she was already within the monastery, and the nuns gave her the habit at once.4

It is easy to see that an affair of this kind would not fail to create both sensation and trouble to the monastery. However, Casilda had the law on her side, and nothing could be done to prevent her perseverance. All this seems to have happened somewhat later than the time at which we have now arrived, for Casilda's first visit to the convent of Valladolid seems to have been in the July of the year 15/3, about the time of Teresa's journey to Salamanca. Thus the feast of the Immaculate Con ception, on which she made her way into the convent for the first time, was in the December of the same year, and her enforced residence with her mother, until she reached the age of twelve, must have begun

4 Book of the Foiindations^ c. xi. 7.

A Visit to Salamanca. 45

on the feast of the Holy Innocents, just before the end of the year. Her visit in July was to witness the clothing of a holy religious, Stephania of the Apostles, who became a lay-sister on the feast of the Visitation, July 2, 1573.

In the same month an event happened which indirectly caused a great amount of annoyance and suffering to St. Teresa and her religious children at Pastrana. This was the death of the well-known Counsellor and Minister of Philip II., Ruy Gomez, the Prince of Eboli. We have already heard of the double foundation at Pastrana, of a convent for the nuns of the Reform as well as of a monastery for the friars of the same. We have also heard of the strange and wilful Princess, a foolish and frivolous lady, much younger than her husband, and by no means worthy of him. She had already caused infinite annoyance to Teresa, by her behaviour with regard to the precious manuscript of the Saint's life, which she had insisted on possessing for a time as a great treasure, and then had let it become the common reading and talk of the lowest members of her household, in which it was held up to ridicule. It was in consequence of this lady's vagaries that the book got into the hands of the Inquisition, where it was examined and honourably approved. We shall speak of this a little later.

At last the death of her husband gave free scope to the follies and vanities of the Princess of Eboli. She was herself the foundress of the convent at Pastrana, and so must be treated with all respect and courtesy. She declared at once that she must

46 A Visit to Salamanca.

leave the world, and determined to take the habit of Mount Carmel in her own convent. This happened immediately on the death of the Prince. Father Mariano, who had assisted Ruy Gomez in his last moments, entreated her to pause, but nothing would serve the lady but to set off, then and there, for the convent, without announcing her approach. Father Balthasar of Jesus, who had also been present when the Prince died, managed to get to the convent before her, and prepare the Prioress for the un welcome visitant. It appears that this good Father, in his simplicity, thought that he was the bearer of welcome tidings. The Prioress assembled the nuns, told them that it was impossible to oppose the will of the foundress, and they made the best preparations that they could. She had already put on the habit by the side of her husband's body, Father Mariano being obliged to give it her. On her arrival, she ordered the Prioress to give the habit to two atten dants whom she had brought with her. After some delay, for the Prioress had no powers of herself to give the habit, this demand was acceded to by the advice of the Prior of the monastery. Meanwhile, the Prioress had prepared a cell for the Princess in a room near herself. But this would not satisfy her, she must needs go at once to the refectory, where she insisted on sitting in the lowest place, although, as foundress, she should have sat in the first

Her fit of humility did not last long. She v/as as full of caprice as if she had been in her own palace. The next day, she must needs receive the visits of condolence from the Bishop of Segovia, the

A Visit to Salamanca. 47

Governor of Pastrana, and the persons of dignity and rank who had been invited to the funeral. The parlour was too small, and the Prioress asked her to receive her visitors at the grille of the chapel. But she insisted on having them all received inside the inclosure, thus entirely destroying the solitude of the nuns. It was represented to her by the Prioress that such things could not be in a convent of Carmelites, but nothing would persuade her to act reasonably. The affair went on for a long time. Teresa wrote to her, but her letter was badly received and increased the bad humour of the Princess. After a time she went to live in a hermitage in the garden, then she went outside the cloister for a few clays, and at last went back to her own palace. But she took with her her bad humour, and resentment against the nuns took the place of her devotion to a life of penance. She stopped the building of the church, which was not yet finished, and she with drew her alms from the convent, as well as the payments which her husband had assigned for its support. They were thus reduced to the utmost distress.

About the same time, that is, towards the end of the year 1573, Teresa received, while still at Sala manca, an invitation to found a new convent at Segovia. In the course of her stay at Salamanca, she had received from our Lord, while she was in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, a command to found a new Carmel at that place. It does not appear that any one made direct proposals for this foundation. Two ladies of Segovia, a widow and

48 A Visit to Salamanca.

her daughter, were ready to supply the first expenses, and their cousin, a gentleman of the city, undertook to manage the business part of the foundation. Teresa could do nothing without leave of the Father Visitor, Hernandez, and he had made up his mind that, for the present, it was better for her to attend to the convents already founded. Moreover, she was still Prioress of the Incarnation.

I was in Salamanca at the time [she says], and wrote to the Commissary, saying that he was aware that the Most Reverend the Father General had commanded me never to fail to make foundations wherever an opportunity occurred, that the Bishop and city of Segovia had consented to admit a convent of the Order, which I would found, if he would order me, that I was informing him for the satisfaction of my conscience, and whatever orders he might give, I should be safe and contented. It was plainly the will of his Majesty, for he commanded me at once to make the foun dation, and gave his permission, at which I was much astonished, remembering what I had heard him say on the subject. From Salamanca I found means to have a house hired for us, for since the foundations in Toledo and Valladolid were made, I had felt it was better for many reasons to take possession first, and then look for a house of our own. My chief reason was that I had no money wherewith to buy a house, that the monastery once founded, our Lord would provide me one forthwith, and that a better site might then be selected.5

She tells us that there was at first no difficulty, for the house was taken by the lady already men tioned. " But that there might be no foundation made without some trouble, I was always unwell

5 Book of the Foundations, c. xxi. 2.

A Visit to Salamanca. 49

during the six months that I was there. Besides, I had gone there inwardly ill at ease, for my soul was in very great dryness and darkness ; I had a fever upon me, and loathed my food, and many other bodily ailments which for three months oppressed me sorely."

Before we pass on to the story of the foundation itself, which will show us that Teresa had other things to suffer at Segovia besides what she mentions in the passage just now quoted, we may pause to give some account of the letters which remain of this period, while she was still at Salamanca. The letters which we possess of this period are very few. One of the most important of these is addressed to her great friend and confidant, the celebrated Domingo Banez, of the Order of Friars Preachers, who had so much to do with the direction of her soul. It seems to have been written in the January of 1574, before she left Salamanca.6 She begins by speaking of her health, and wonders that Fra Domingo has not re ceived a long letter she had sent him by way of Medina, " in which I speak of my evil and my good," meaning the state of her soul. He has been preach ing some sermons to the nuns of Valladolid, and she has heard a great deal about them, and is very envious. She would like to be at Valladolid, espe cially as he is now Superior there. Her Superior he has always been, and cannot cease to be so. However, as she deserves nothing but crosses, she praises our Lord, Who is always sending them to her.

6 Letter xl. E 2

50 A Visit to Salamanca.

It seems that at the time this letter was written, Teresa must have been under the impression that the girl Casilda de Padilla was still at the convent at Valla- dolid, not having yet returned home, after her first entry on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. What Teresa says about her to Fra Domingo is worth quoting.

The affair of that angel may do great good to other souls, and the greater the row made about her, the greater good would be done. I see no inconvenience in it. The whole harm would be that she must leave the convent, and in this, as I say, our Lord will do other good, perhaps move some other soul, which perhaps might be lost but for this. The judgments of God are great, and when some one is so much in earnest in loving Him while she is in so great a danger, as all that noble class are, it is not for us to refuse them, nor to fail to expose ourselves to some trouble and annoyance, for the sake of good so great. As for human means of dealing, and worldly complaisances, all seem to me to be simply ways of detaining her and giving her more torment. She has only thirty days before her, and it is clear that in that time, even if she repented of what she has done she would not say so. But if by this means there may be some pacification, and her cause may be well justified, and your honour thinks so, that she should be detained, though after all it will be simply a time of deten tion, then I say, God be with her ! It is not possible that since she leaves so much for Him, He will not give her much, since He does so much for us who give up nothing for Him.

Teresa adds that she is much pleased that Fra Domingo is on the spot to help the Prioress, and

A Visit to Salamanca. 51

she hopes that God will bring the whole matter to a good ending. The affairs with Pedro de la Vanda still hang on, and there is some difference possible between him and his wife. She speaks also of the poor nuns at Pastrana. Though the Princess has left them, they are, as it were, in prison. The Prior of Atocha was in the town lately, and did not dare to go and see them. The Princess has quarrelled with the friars also, and Teresa does not see why such slavery should be submitted to any longer. She tells him that she gets on well with Fra de Medina. The truth was that he was a great critic, and rather severe upon her at the time, but he came round afterwards. Things would be quickly smooth with him, she says, if we had much talk, but he is so busy that she hardly gets to see him. The letter is written in a cheerful and affectionate tone, which shows the great confidence which St. Teresa placed in Fra Domingo. As for Fra Bartholomew de Medina, we find the Saint, a little later on than this time, sending him a splendid trout which the Duchess of Alba has sent to her, and she urges the Prioress of Salamanca to take care that he has it before dinner time, but in any case to send it. She wants to see whether he will write her a line ! Such are the ways of Saints with those who scoff at them.

It may be hoped that the present was acceptable to the good Father. He is mentioned more than once in the letters of Teresa about this time, as a person she was desirous to conciliate, and we know that after this time he became a great friend and admirer of the foundress at whom he had laughed.

52 A Visit to Salamanca.

This letter was written to Anne of the Incarnation,? whom Teresa had left as Prioress at Salamanca, when she quitted that city, not without regret. Her great friend Father Balthasar Alvarez was now there, as Rector of the College of the Society, and he had introduced to her Don Teutonio de Braganza, with whom we shall presently find her in correspondence. The letters to Anne of the Incarnation contain many affectionate messages to those she had left behind in Salamanca, both in the convent and outside it. She was particularly sorry to leave one of the religious of Salamanca in an almost dying state. She was to stay two days at the Castle of Alba de Tormes, where the Duchess Dona Maria Henriquez had obtained leave from her Superiors to detain her. This sojourn gave occasion afterwards to a famous passage in one of her later works, the Castle of the Soul, in which she mentions the multitude of precious objects which came before her eyes all at once in one of the rooms of the palace, and the way in which she turned all to an occasion of giving glory to God. In her letter to Anne of the Incarnation, written just after she had passed from the Castle of the Duchess to the convent, she speaks of her delight in having a cell in which she could look out of the window as she lay in bed, and see the river and the valley.

We have another sprightly letter of hers, written from Alba de Tormes on this occasion, to the good Bishop of Avila, Don Alvaro de Mendoza.8 It is chiefly memorable for the gentle reproach she sends to his sister, Dona Maria. She " kisses her hands

7 Letter xlii. 8 Letter xli.

A Visit to Salamanca. 53

many times over," and she says that our Lady seems to defend her daughters far better than Dona Maria her subjects, for she hears that the lady has not said a word to help them in all this business about Casilda de Padilla. But, she says, the Lord helps that little angel. What He does for her is a thing now quite new in the world. She thinks that He has ordained that she should be left to fight alone, that she may understand better that she owes all to Him, since she has such battles to fight, and she gives great praise to His Majesty for this. The letter concludes by mentioning her desire to pass a day or two at the Convent of St. Joseph, before re-entering that of the Incarnation, but she does not know whether leave has been obtained for it or is necessary.

54 Note to Chapter II.

NOTE TO CHAPTER II.

The letters of the time embraced in this chapter are as follows :

1. (xxxvii.) To Pedro de la Vanda, of Salamanca. From Salamanca, August 7, 1573.

Referred to at p. 35.

2. (xxxviii.) To the same. From Salamanca, October 6, 1573. A very short note, written after the nuns had entered on posses sion of the new house. St. Teresa tells the gentleman whom she addresses that he asks more than she is obliged to pay, but that their having taken possession makes her very willing to do " whatever your honour bids us."

3. (xxxix.) To Juana de Ahumada, her sister, at Alba de Tormes. From Salamanca, November, 1573.

Some account of this letter is given at p. 38.

4. (xl.) To the Very Rev. Father Master Fra Domingo Banes. From Salamanca, beginning of 1574.

Quoted and referred to at p. 49.

5. (xli.) To the most illustrious Lord Don Alvaro de Men- doje, Bishop of Avila. From Alba de Tormes, beginning of 1574. Referred to at p. 52.

6. (xlii.) To Mother Anne of the Incarnation, Prioress of Salamanca. From Alba de Tormes, beginning of 1574.

Referred to at p. 52.

CHAPTER III.

Segovia.

FROM Avila, where she must have arrived early in the new year, St. Teresa was to set out for the new foundation of Segovia, of which mention has already been made. She was accompanied by St. John of the Cross, by the good priest Julian of Avila, and by a certain gentleman named Antonio Gaytan, who begged to be allowed to be of the party, " as he was never so happy as when he had much fatigue and trouble to undergo for the service of God." The nuns of the party were, besides St. Teresa, two whom she had taken with her from Salamanca, Maria of Jesus and Isabella of Jesus, both natives of Segovia and well connected in that city, and also Guiomar of Jesus, who was taken from Alba de Tormes, and Isabella of St. Paul, Teresa's own cousin, whom she took from Avila.

The house in which the foundation was to be made at Segovia had been hired for the nuns by a worthy lady of the place, Dona Anna de Jimena, who afterwards entered the convent with her daughter. The same good friend had provided whatever was necessary, and there did not seem much prospect of trouble in the business. The plan of St. Teresa, as

56 Segovia.

has been said, was to take a house provisionally, and then when once installed, to look out for a more convenient site if that did not suit them. They arrived at Segovia on the day before the feast of St. Joseph, March 18, 1574. On the way, Julian of Avila tells us, he asked the good Mother whether she had the licence of the Bishop for the new founda tion. It had been given, but no written document was forthcoming to attest the fact, and this created some alarm in the minds of Julian of Avila and St. John of the Cross, as they knew that the Bishop of Segovia was not at that time in his episcopal city. On consultation, it was decided by St. Teresa that they should take possession of the house without asking any further leave, as the Vicar-General might perhaps raise difficulties if he were asked.

Accordingly, on the morning after their arrival, they went from the house of Dona Anna, where St. Teresa and her nuns had slept, and Mass was said and the Blessed Sacrament installed in the tabernacle. Then came the storm. A Canon of the Chapter happened to pass by on his way to say Mass, and seeing the cross over the door of the house — for the porch had been turned into the chapel — he went in, and was induced by the devotion and peaceful aspect of the place to ask leave to say Mass there himself. He was at the altar when the Vicar-General himself came in. He knew, it seems, that the leave had been given, but he was offended that he had not been consulted, as the Bishop was absent. He scolded the Canon for saying Mass in such a place, and asked angrily who had put the Blessed Sacrament there.

Segovia. 57

There was no one at first to answer him. The nuns were safe in their new cloister inside, and did not show themselves. Julian of Avila tells us that he ran and hid himself under a staircase. Even the brave Antonio Gaytan fled from the fury of the ecclesiastic. But St. John of the Cross, humble, ready for any suffering, and imperturbable in his tranquillity, pre sented himself. The Vicar threatened that if they did not all decamp on the spot, he would have them put into prison, and after venting his anger a little longer, left the place with a constable at the door, " I know not for what purpose," says St. Teresa. " It helped to frighten a little those who were there. As for myself, I never cared much what might happen after taking possession. All my fear is before. I sent for certain persons, relatives of one of the Sisters who was with me, chief people in the place, to speak to the Vicar-General, and tell him that I had had the sanction of the Bishop. He knew that well enough, as he said later. What he wanted was to have been told of it beforehand ; that I believe would have been much worse for us." It seems that Julian of Avila got the Rector of the Jesuits to go, and assure the Vicar of the fact, but it made little im pression on him. At last they got a juridical infor mation drawn up by the persons who had been present when the licence was given by the Bishop, and with this the Vicar was forced to be content. It ended by his leaving the nuns in peace, with leave to have Mass said, but he would not allow them the Blessed Sacrament, because it was only a hired house, and not their own.

58 Segovia.

Julian of Avila tells us that the fury of the Vicar- General brought out strongly the brave character of St. Teresa. Nothing could disturb her or discomfit her. She spoke to the Prelate with great boldness, and, at the same time, great courtesy. It was evident that she was helped in the matter by God. She had to remain many months at Segovia before the diffi culties were ended, for they had to buy a house of their own, and when they had accomplished this, which cost a large sum, they had two or three lawsuits on their hands, with the Chapter and with two communities of religious close at hand. "O Jesus/' she cries, " what it is to have to contend against many minds ! When I thought everything was settled, we had to begin again ; it was not enough to give them what they asked for, some other inconvenience came to light. It seems nothing when I speak of it, but it was much to endure."

She tells us, in her account of the matter, that she was greatly helped by the canon who had said Mass in the chapel on the first day of the foundation. He was Don Juan de Orosco y Covarrubias de Leyva, and after saying Mass he asked to see Teresa, who came to him with Isabella of St. Dominic. St. Teresa told him, before he began to speak, that he was especially bound to help her, as his aunt, Dofia Maria de Tapia, was her cousin. He became for some time chaplain to the nuns. Before she left Segovia, St. Teresa predicted to him that he was to be raised to high position in the Church. He was afterwards made Bishop of Guadix. " At last," she adds, " when we had paid money enough, everything was settled.

Segovia. 5 9

Our lawsuit with the friars of the Order of Ransom remained, and it was necessary for us to go with the utmost secrecy to our house. When they saw us in possession, which was a day or two before Michaelmas, they thought it better to compromise the matter for a sum of money. The greatest anxiety which these troubles occasioned me was that it wanted only seven or eight days to complete my three years in the Incarnation."1

St. Teresa is here speaking of the office of Prioress, which she still held in the Convent of the Incarnation at Avila, and which she was anxious to lay down at the right day, having some fear that the nuns might proceed in her absence to a re-election. We shall speak presently of her return to Avila, after the final settlement of affairs at Segovia. But there are some incidents of her sojourn in the last-named city which must first be mentioned. In the first place comes the translation of the poor suffering community of Pastrana from the convent in which they were under going so much persecution from their foundress, the Princess of Eboli. Things had been going from bad to worse with this strange lady. She had been written to by St. Teresa, but without effect. She had been warned that, if the Sisters could not be left to observe their rule in peace, the convent must be dissolved. The Venerable Catharine of Cardona, of whom we shall soon hear more, is said to have visited the convent during this time, and to have spoken in severe language to the Princess for her vexatious conduct. She told the Princess that she had been

1 Book of the Foundations, c. xxi. 8.

60 Segovia.

present at Matins in the choir, and had seen angels with drawn swords ready to take the part of the religious. It was all in vain. After due consultation with the Carmelite Provincial, Father Angelo de Salazar, with Father Hernandez the Commissary, Fathers Bafiez and Ferdinand de Castello, she sent to the Princess to beg her humbly that she would not deprive the nuns of the support which had been agreed upon for them, and on which alone they subsisted. It was Father Ferdinand himself, a man of great authority and influence with the King, who undertook this embassy. He was received with scant courtesy, and could gain nothing.

As soon, therefore, as there was a house at Segovia to which they could come, and even before the purchase of the new convent, Teresa stnt her faithful friends, Julian and Antonio, to bring the nuns from Pastrana to the new foundation. Isabella of St. Dominic, the Prioress, had a catalogue of all that the Princess had given to the convent made and juridically attested, and then she sent for the Corre- gidor of the town, and begged him for the love of God to take charge of them. It was necessary to arrange for their flight with the utmost secrecy, as the people of the place, as well as the Princess, did not wish them to leave. However, they set off at midnight, walking through the streets till they got safe out of the town, and then entered the carnages prepared for them. They reached Segovia in the Holy Week of 1574, not long, therefore, after the arrival of Teresa and her companions. At one point of their journey, when they had to cross a river, they

Segovia. 6 1

were in imminent danger of death, and it was after wards found that at that precise moment Teresa had commended them specially to the prayers of the nuns with her at Segovia. Isabella of St. Dominic was made Prioress of Segovia at once. The Princess sent a bishop after them to demand the furniture and other valuables which she had given them, and then the report of the Corregidor was produced to satisfy him. The Princess also begged them to take the Sister whom she had forced on them on her own entry, but who had been left behind in the convent at Pastrana. It does not seem certain whether this request was complied with.

While remaining at Segovia on account of the difficulties which beset the foundation of the convent in a house of its own, Teresa was not unmindful of the invalid she had left in a dying state at Sala manca. Isabella of the Angels had entered the Order at Medina del Campo in 1569, and had been four years at Salamanca when Teresa left it. After the departure of the Saint Isabella had got rapidly worse. Her face had become so changed that the Sisters hardly recognized in her the same person. But what was worse than her bodily sufferings, she was terribly tried by scruples and anxieties about her spiritual state. So things went on till the feast of St. Barnabas in June. The day of the Blessed Son of Consolation seemed to have brought little of that Divine refresh ment to her, and the nuns only left her to hear Mass themselves, not without great anxiety.

On their return they found her altogether changed. Her face was like her old self, her eyes were shining

6 2 Segovia.

like stars, her whole countenance was full of joy, which she could not keep to herself. " Blessed be God ! " said the Prioress, " you seem so much better, Sister. What is it that makes you so happy ? " " O Mother ! " she answered, " to-day these miseries are to end for me, and I am to go and enjoy the good which I desire." "Who has told you this, that you are so certain of it ? " " She has told me, who can know." The Prioress sent the other nuns away, and then asked her what it was that had happened. She said that during Mass Teresa had been with her, had given her her blessing, smiling on her and caressing her face. She had bidden her not to be

o

foolish, not to give way to fear, to place her confi dence in what her Spouse had done and suffered for her, and had told her that God had prepared great glory for her, and that she believed she was to enter on it that very day. Then Isabella added that she seemed to herself to be already in possession of the glory, that she felt an indescribable peace of mind, as if she had never had to fight at all. She remained in that state of tranquillity all day, until, leaving two or three with her, the rest of the nuns went to choir for Matins.

It was Friday, on which day there was a public discipline in the refectory. But they had hardly begun this, after Matins were finished, when every one singly felt so strong an impression that Isabella was passing away, that they stopped after the first strokes, and all went together to the infirmary. It was eleven o'clock at night. They found her, indeed, dying. They placed the crucifix and the blessed

Segovia. 63

candle in her hands, and began the Credo. She answered perfectly each single article, and then, when they had finished the words, Et vitavi eternam, she breathed out her happy soul. Her body, we are told, became at once so beautiful and almost radiant, that it gave the impression of some miraculous favour. As, for certain reasons, the funeral had to be con ducted outside the cloister, as in a public church, the prodigy was witnessed by a large number of the inhabitants of the town, who showed great devotion. It became necessary to ask some gentlemen and noblemen to act as guards to the bier. On the very day on which this took place, St. Teresa wrote to the Prioress of Salamanca, and mentioned two things in her letter which she could not have known if she had not been in the convent. At the hour of her visit to Isabella she was in a trance at Segovia, and the nuns could not rouse her, notwithstanding all their efforts. She seemed like one dead. She answered their inquiries, when she came to herself, evasively. But in the course of the next year, when she was at Veas, and had sent for Anne of Jesus to be Prioress at that new foundation, the latter plied her so much with questions about what had passed, that she told her that it was true that she had been wi" i Isabella, that God had showed her the glory which the good nun had earned in her five years of religion, and that it was as great as that which many others who had lived most correctly had scarcely attained in fifty years of the same life.

A little later in the same year St. Teresa was favoured by a vision, the report of which rests on the

64 Segovia.

sworn testimony of Father Yanguas, of the Dominican Order, who was her confessor at the time. It was on the day of St. Albert, the founder of the Order of Mount Carmel. As Teresa was going up to Com munion, she saw on her right hand our Lord and on her left hand St. Albert. After her Communion our Lord left them together, telling her to refresh herself with the Saint. Then St. Albert told her many things concerning the Order, and in particular spoke to her of the great expediency, for the success of the Reform, that the Discalced Carmelites, both friars and nuns, should be entirely separate from the older Order, and formed into a community of their ownr with their own superiors. It may have been at this time that Teresa became perfectly convinced of this necessity, which she always urged to the best of her power. It would have been well indeed if this advice had been taken, and it was in the end the issue to which things came, not before there had been grave dissensions and consequent scandals.

There was at Segovia a monastery of Dominican friars, in the chapel of which St. Dominic had often prayed and done penance. When the time came for Teresa to leave Segovia, she wished to visit this chapel, and was taken thither by Father Yanguas and the Prior of the monastery. She remained long absorbed in prayer, and after she had made her confession and received Communion, our Lord appeared with St. Dominic. He bade her, as on the former occasion, entertain herself with His servant, and then St. Dominic told her how much he had to suffer in the foundation of his own Order,

Segovia. 65

and assured her of his help in the trials which she was to undergo. She went away full of holy con solation. Another anecdote of this time relates how Teresa had given a nun some verses to copy out, that they might be read to amuse the nuns at recreation. The good Sister seems to have thought it was rather a superfluous and useless occupation for a Carmelite religious, and so she sat awhile in her cell, discussing with herself the prudence of such an order. St. Teresa passed along the passage and opened the door of the cell. " Write on, my child," she said, " these things are necessary to help us through life ; make no more reflections."

Before we pass on to the journey of Teresa to her own Convent of the Incarnation, which she reached before the three years of her superiority had alto gether expired, we must pause to say a few words on the letters which remain to us of this period while she was at Segovia. We have altogether eleven of these, a number very much less, for the length of time, than we shall find written by St. Teresa some what later on. We have now come to the time of her life when her correspondents seem to have made a point of preserving her letters, no doubt on account of the very high esteem in which she was now generally held for sanctity. We are on the eve of a period of her life when her activity as a letter writer became immense, and it is a serious difficulty to her biographers to strike the right mean between the impossible insertion of the letters in their entirety, and the too possible loss to the reader which is incurred by any selection. Teresa's chief corres- F 2

66 Segovia.

pondent at this time was her dear niece, Mary Baptist, the Prioress of the convent at Valladolid, of which Dona Maria de Mendoza was the foundress, and to which the enthusiastic child, Casilda de Padilla, had lately betaken herself. Mary Baptist had a marked character of her own, of which we shall see traces as we go on in the history. This makes us regret that we have not both sides of this correspond ence of hers with her aunt. Some of the letters of this good Prioress might have amused us. We have five letters to Mary Baptist, beginning in May and ending on the very eve of the departure of Teresa for Avila. In the first of the series2 she answers a letter of her niece, which must have given her the news of the death of one of the nuns of the convent of Valladolid, who can have been no other than Beatrix of the Incarnation, concerning whom St. Teresa has left us a most beautiful chapter in her book of the Foundations. She too had been only a short time in religion, but in that short time she had accumulated merit most rapidly.

The nuns and the Prioress declare that they never saw in her during her whole life here, anything whatever that might be regarded as an imperfection : they never saw her change countenance, but always cheerful and modest, a certain sign of the inward gladness of her heart. There was no gloom in her silence, for though a very great observer of silence, she was not in such a way that one could call it singular. She was never heard to utter a word with which fault could be found, nor known to have preferred her own opinion. She never made an excuse for 2 Letter xlv.

Segovia. 67

herself, though the Prioress, in order to try her, would find fault with her for things she had not done, as is the custom in these houses by way of mortification. She never com plained of anything, never of any of her Sisters, never by word or look did she hurt the feelings of anybody in all the duties she had to do, nor did she ever give anybody reason to think that there was any imperfection in her, nor was it possible to accuse her in chapter of any shortcomings, not withstanding the very trifling character of the faults which the correctors of faults there say they have observed. Her outward and inward tranquillity in all circumstances was marvellous. It had its source in her ever thinking of eternity, and of the end for which God made us.3

After speaking of her obedience, her charity, and her patience under her severe sufferings, Teresa goes on to tell us how she came to die.

It happened that certain persons, for great offences, were to be burnt in the city of Valladolid. She must have known that they were about to die not so well prepared as they should have been, which caused her the most painful distress. So she went in great trouble to our Lord, and begged of Him most earnestly the salvation of those souls, and offered in return to suffer all her life long every pain and torment she could bear, either in exchange for that they had deserved, or for the securing their salvation, for I do not remember distinctly the words she used. That very night her first attack of fever came on, and she was always in pain afterwards till she died. The criminals made a good death, which seems to show that God heard her prayer. *

An abscess formed internally, and the medicines given to her did her no good, but it soon discharged

3 Book of the Foundations i c. xii. I. 4 Ibid. 3.

68 Segovia.

its matter of itself, and thus she had relief. This made her almost unhappy, and on the feast of the Holy Cross she threw herself on her bed in a fit, weeping-, and begged her Sisters to pray that she might have much suffering.

It is very common [says St. Teresa] for souls given to prayer to wish for sufferings when they have none, but it is not common for many, when they have them, to bear them and be glad. This was the case with Beatrix. She concealed her sufferings as much as possible, and told the Sisters that she would not change places with them for anything. She kept her eyes so fixed on our Lord, for Whom she was suffering, that she kept her secret to herself as much as she could, in order that those who were about her might not see how much she had to bear, and unless when the pain was sharp, she hardly complained at all.5

After telling us of her mortification, her great contentment, and other virtues, St. Teresa tells us of her holy death.

About a quarter of an hour before her death, her pains ceased altogether. She then in great peace lifted up her eyes, there was a joyous expression in her face, which seemed to shine, while she herself was as if gazing on something that filled her with gladness, for she smiled twice. All the Sisters around her, and the priest himself, so great was the spiritual joy and delight they then felt, could only say that they thought themselves in Heaven. In this joy I am speaking of, with her eyes directed to Heaven, she drew her last breath, looking like an angel, for so we may believe, because of our faith and her life, that God took her to His rest in recompense of her earnest desire to suffer for His sake.6

s Book of the Foundations, c. xii. 4. 6 Ibid. II.

Segovia. 69

" So that saint is at rest," says St. Teresa in her letter to Mary Baptist. She wonders how any one can be troubled at her loss, or feel anything but envy of her. Then she turns to her own niece and tells her tenderly that she is herself much afflicted at the trouble which she has herself had in the matter, and which she has to meet in all the affairs which her position of Prioress bring to her. It seems that Mary Baptist desired more solitude and quiet for herself, but St. Teresa tells her that it is more for her salvation that things should be as they are. She has to make herself a saint anyhow, and it is better for her to desire more solitude than to enjoy it.

St. Teresa then refers in somewhat ambiguous language to the state of affairs in Andalusia and elsewhere, where a considerable movement was going on in favour of the Discalced Carmelites. This was caused by the mission into the country of Father Gratian and Father Mariano. We shall hear more of this in a following chapter. But it is almost prophetic in St. Teresa that she says that the pleasure she feels in the advance of the interests of the Reform is con siderably modified by the displeasure which she is sure it will cause to the Father General, Rossi, whom she loves so much, and she adds that she sees the weakness of their own position. She refers her cor respondent to Father Banez for information. She has apparently been told of some sharp words said about her by Father Medina. She says that it does not disturb her the least, but rather amuses her. She would care more for a half a word from Father Domingo Banez. Father Medina owes her nothing,

70 Segovia.

and does little for her. He is without experience of the convents at which he laughs, he does not know what goes on there, and he does not care for them like Father Banez, who takes them up as an affair of his own. The letter closes with some tender expressions of affection to Mary Baptist herself, and some fond messages to Casilda.

The next letter written to Mary Baptist must have been sent soon after the death of Isabella of the Angels at Salamanca, as her death is mentioned in it as a piece of news.? Teresa, of whose miraculous presence with the dying nun we have spoken, tells her niece that Isabella is certainly with God, " And I am here a worthless do-nothing!" There are passages in this letter about herself, and her anxiety as to the danger of some person of whom she writes which are not intelligible to us at this distance of time, and with no name to guide us. In the next letter to her niece, she speaks against the practice of having too many out-sisters for a small number of nuns, and also of the trouble which the Chapter of Segovia are giving her in the dispute about the house for which the nuns were in treaty.8 Another letter, written in September, while the affairs of the foundation were still unsettled, shows that Teresa has given up the hope of being able to pass by Valladolid on her way to the Incar nation at Avila.9 She is in great need of money to finish the business, and asks that it may be lent to her if it be possible. But she writes again before the end of the month that all is at last settled, and they have got the money of which they were in need.

? Letter xlvi. 8 Letter xlvii. 9 Letter xlviii.

Segovia. 7 1

" Glory be to God ! " I0 It is in this letter that we find her speaking for the first time to her niece of the next foundation which was planted and determined on while she was at Salamanca and Segovia, the foundation at Veas. This, as it turned out, was the cause of a great change in the onward course of the Reform, as will be explained presently.

It seems that Mary Baptist had been alarmed at the idea of such a foundation, on the ground that, being in Andalusia, Veas was beyond the part of Spain in which the General had given Teresa leave to found her convents. In this case the rather fidgetty niece saw more clearly than her aunt. Teresa tells her that Veas is not in Anda lusia, and this letter is valuable as showing not only her care to avoid anything like disobedience to the General, but also the great number of appli cants which she appears to have had for admission to her convents. Such is almost always the case in a thoroughly Catholic country, at a time of revival. At such times it is noticeable that the stream of vocations, which seem to spring up naturally, and to require fresh channels to be made for it, flows most copiously in the direction of what is most austere and severe, especially when that particular Institute has the blessing of having at its head a person like St. Teresa, esteemed widely as a saint. Although she had just begun the convent at Segovia, she had already more vocations than she could find places for, and she says that even after Veas, there will be need to found another convent. It must be remembered

10 Letter xlix.

72 Segovia.

that the foundations had been comparatively quiet since Teresa had been appointed Prioress of the Incar nation, also that there were not at that time so large a number of Institutes to choose from as in the present day, when we have witnessed a great develop ment, especially in France, of active Orders. It is not wonderful that convents like those founded by St. Teresa should be in much request. She speaks in the highest terms of some of the new nuns at Segovia, and she says that others are about to offer themselves for the convent.

Perhaps the most characteristic letter of this period is one written by St. Teresa to her beloved Father Banez.11 He seems to have sent her a novice who had no money for her dowry, and to have begged St. Teresa to'admit her for love. Her answer is affectionate and gracious in the highest degree.

The grace of the Holy Spirit be with your honour and with my soul. It is not wonderful that many things should be done for the love of God, since the love of Fra Domingo is so powerful, that what seems good to him, seems good to me, and that what he likes, I like. It is an enchantment which seems never to end. Your Pard has pleased us much.

It seems that in some parts of Spain some of the peasants are called " culipards," for some reason or other, and Teresa takes up the name, this girl being one of them.

She has been so out of herself since she came in for joy, that she makes us praise God. I think I shall have 11 Letter xliv.

Segovia. 73

the heart to make her a lay-sister, since your honour has taken up the cause, and so I have settled that she is to be taught to read, and we shall act as she turns out. My spirit has understood hers well, though I have not talked with her, and there are some of the nuns here that cannot stop, she has set them off praying so much that they can do nothing else. Believe me, Father, it is a delight to me every time that I take some one who brings nothing with her, and who is taken for the sake of God alone. When I see that they have no means and might have to give it up on that account, I see that God does me a particular favour in letting me help such persons. It would be a great joy to me if they could all be so, and I do not remember that any one whom I have thought suited for us has been refused for not having money. It has been a particular joy to me to see God doing your honour so much favour as to give you such works to do, and to see this one come. You have been a father to those who have little power themselves, and the charity which God gives you for this makes me so happy that anything in the world I would do if I could to help you in such good works.

It seems that this girl had a companion, who was also sent by Father Bafiez and nothing will serve Teresa, but to take her also. So she goes on.

And then the weeping of the girl she brought with her ! It looks as if it would never end ! I don't know why you have sent her to me here ! The Father Visitor has already given the leave, and this is a beginning for him to give more, with the favour of God, and perhaps we shall be able to take this little weeper also, if it pleases your honour, but at Segovia I have no more room for her. This Pard has found a good father in your honour. She says she cannot believe that she is here. Her joy is a thing to praise God

74 Segovia.

for. I have also had to praise Him for the sight of your great-nephew, who came with Dona Beatrix. It was a great consolation to see him, but why did not you tell me of it ?

She also mentions in this letter having had a visit from Father Melchior Cano, the nephew, as it seems, of the great writer of that name. She speaks with great delight of the younger Father, who is said to have died in odour of sanctity. If all were like him, she says, they might found plenty of convents of contemplatives.

It seems to have been at Salamanca, during her last stay in that city, that St. Teresa became acquainted with one who was afterwards a distin guished prelate, Don Teutonic de Braganza. He was of the illustrious house of that name, and was a student at the University of Salamanca when Teresa went there from her Convent of the Incarnation. Like many others of the best students of the University, he put himself under the spiritual direction of Father Balthasar Alvarez, then Rector of the College of the Society in the city. Father Balthasar put him in relation with St. Teresa, and from that time forth he became her fast friend and benefactor. We have two letters written to him at this time from Segovia, which seem to have been the beginning of their correspondence. He must have opened his soul to her about prayer during the time of their acquaintance at Salamanca, for she consoles him under some scruples which he felt on the score of an apparent tepidity which she attributes to the fatigues of a journey which he had lately taken,

Segovia. 75

and the disorder which had crept in at that time as to the regulation of the hours of his day.12 Peace, she says, will soon return to his soul. She thanks him for some alms which he has given to her and her Sisters. She mentions the news which he had given of the death of the King of France, Charles IX., and of the prayers that she has made for that country, as also for Don Teutonic himself, who had benefited her Order. He seems to have had a design of founding a monastery of friars of the Reform at Salamanca, but Teresa foresees difficulties. She begs him earnestly to make the acquaintance of the Visitor, Father Hernandez, when the latter comes to Salamanca, and hopes everything from the influence of Don Teutonic with him. She sends kind messages to Father Balthasar Alvarez, whose health is in a poor state, and asks that he may be told how well she gets on with the Rector of the College of the Society at Segovia, though she has unfortunately differences with some other religious on account of the house which she has purchased in their immediate neighbourhood. The foundation of Segovia cost her more trouble in this way than in any other.

In the second letter I3 which we possess from Teresa to Don Teutonic she begins in her graceful way with a reproaching him for the address of one which he had sent her, in which he had probably loaded her with honourable titles, after the fashion of the time in Spain.

12 Letter Hi. *3 Letter liii.

76 Segovia.

The grace of the Holy Spirit be with your lordship !

I declare to you if you address me again in such a manner I shall not answer the letter. I do not know why you wish to give me displeasure, for so it always is for me, though I have never felt it so much as to-day. Let your lordship find out from the Father Rector how he addresses me, for that and no more is what ought to be put, and the address you have put is quite inconsistent with my Order. I am consoled to hear that he is well, for I was anxious about his health. I beg your lordship to give him my compliments.

The remainder of the letter refers to passing matters, but it contains one truly Teresian bit of advice about mental prayer, in which Don Teutonic found some difficulty, so that he was tempted to abandon it. She tells him not to think anything of the temptation, but to be sure that his will is set upon prayer, and delights to be with God. The trouble comes from a fit of melancholy. Sometimes when he finds himself in difficulties of this sort, he should go somewhere where he can see the sky, and walk about, praying all the time. That is quite possible, and our weakness has. needs of contrivances like this when it is hard pressed. To do such things is to seek God, for we seek the means of remaining in His presence, and the soul must be led on sweetly.

We have also a letter of this time to Antonio Gaytan,14 of whom mention has already been made, and another to a gentleman of Avila, Mateo de las Penuelas, who seems to have had some office like that of Procurator of the Convent of the Incarnation, and to have written to Teresa about the temporal

x< Letter 1.

Note to Chapter II L ^^

needs of the community.15 St. Teresa left Segovia, as has been said, in time to reach Avila before the gth of October, the day on which her office of Prioress expired. Many of the nuns wished to re-elect her, but she entreated them not to do so, as she was so much needed for her own houses. They then asked her to suggest some one to take the vacant place, and she named the Subprioress, Isabella of the Cross. About the same time Mary of St. Jerome, the Prioress of St. Joseph, obtained leave from the Bishop to resign her post there, and the nuns were thus able to elect Teresa Superior of her own convent of predilection. Before we proceed to the next incident in her life, the foundation of Veas, we must pause to take a glance at the progress of the Reform among the friars of the Order, which has been alluded to in some of the letters lately given, and was now to be the cause of the most serious of all the troubles in the Life of our Saint.

NOTE TO CHAPTER III.

The letters belonging to this chapter are as follows : i. (xliii.) To the Father Master Domingo Banes. Date uncertain.

This letter is very short and somewhat obscure. St. Teresa seems to refer in one place to the Prioress of Valladolid, where Father Bafiez was stationed, as needing help. She was too much troubled by the idea that the nuns were going to re-elect her as Prioress. St. Teresa says she thinks it is December 3. Thus it appears to have been written before she left Salamanca, in 1573.

's Letter liv.

7 8 Note to Chapter III.

2. (xliv.) To the same. From Segovia, middle of 1574. Quoted at p. 72.

3. (xlv.) To Mother Mary Baptist, Prioress of Valladolid. May 14, 1574.

Mentioned at p. 66.

4. (xlvi.) To the same. June, 1574. Mentioned at p. 70.

5. (xlvii.) To the same. Segovia, July 10, 1574. Mentioned at p. 70.

6. (xlviii). To the same. Segovia, September n, 1574. Mentioned at p. 70.

7. (xlix.) To the same. Segovia, end of September, 1574. Mentioned at p. 71.

It is in this letter that St. Teresa assures Mary Baptist that Veas is not in Andalusia. She mentions her plans for the foundation, and speaks very highly of one of the ladies who are to found the convent.

8. (1.) To Antonio Gaytan, of Alba, at Salamanca. Segovia, June, 1574.

Mentioned at p. 76.

A short letter. It contains some advice about prayer, and also some details about the foundation of Segovia.

9. (li.) To the same. Uncertain date. Another short letter, chiefly on spiritual matters.

10. (lii.) To the most illustrious Lord Don Teutonio de Braganza. Segovia, July, 1574.

Mentioned at p. 75.

11. (liii.) To the same. Segovia, July 3, 1574. Mentioned at p. 75.

12. (liv.) To Mateo de las Penuelas, at Avila. Segovia. Mentioned at p. 76.

CHAPTER IV.

The Reform in Andalusia.

WE have frequently made mention of the Apos tolical Visitors, appointed at the instance of the King, for the administration of the provinces of the Order of Mount Carmel in Spain. It was one of these, Father Hernandez, of the Order of St. Dominic, who was the prime mover in the act of authority which had placed St. Teresa in the stall of Prioress at her former Convent of the Incarnation, at the begin ning of the three years just expired. This appoint ment of Apostolical Visitors was a measure taken by the Holy See at the request of Philip II., who had not been at all satisfied with the direct results of the visit of the General Rossi, out of which sprang the whole movement of the Reform of St. Teresa. The Mitigated Friars had, in fact, been too strong for the General. The appointment of the Visitors had taken place in 1571. Father Pedro Hernandez, the Visitor of Castile, seems to have proceeded with much prudence, although some of his acts, like that of the nomination of St. Teresa, must have seemed to the subjects of the Order somewhat arbitrary. But the invincible patience and sweetness of St. Teresa had made that step, at all events, a success. Another

8o The Reform in Andalusia.

step of Father Hernandez was equally successful, at least for the time. We have said that St. Teresa had leave from the General Rossi to found convents of nuns in Castile alone, but he had afterwards added permission to her to found two monasteries of men in the same province. The result was the foundation of Durvelo and Pastrana. The monastery at Durvelo was afterwards removed to Mancera. But the Apos tolic Commissaries were not bound by the limita tions imposed on Teresa by the General, and as early as 1571, Hernandez had proceeded to the foundation of another monastery. This was on the mountains of Altomira, on the borders of the district of Toledo. Before this, however, the College of the students of the Reform had been opened at Alcala. Hernandez had appointed Father Balthasar of Jesus, the Prior of the monastery of Pastrana, to be his own Vicar for the purpose of new foundations, and it was through him that the new foundation at Altomira was made in the last week of November, 1571. Seven friars were placed there, and gave immense edification by their austerities and holiness of life.

Meanwhile, the influence of the Reform was spreading among the subjects of the Andalusian province, which was placed under the charge of another Dominican friar, Father Vargas, as Visitor, at the same time that Hernandez was appointed Visitor of Castile. Many of the Mitigated Carmelite friars were sent by their Superiors into Castile for the sake of studying at the famous University of Alcala, founded by Cardinal Ximenes, and there they met with other students of the Reform sent thither for

The Reform in Andalusia. Si

the same purpose. We have already mentioned that St. John of the Cross was Superior of these Reformed students at the time when St. Teresa obtained him for the Convent of the Incarnation as confessor in 1572. It was impossible for the students of the Mitigation not to be attracted by the perfect observance and severity of life which they saw in the pupils of so consummate a master, and from this time began a kind of draining off of the best of the Andalusians to the new rule. One of the first thus to become a Discalced Carmelite was a man of much note, Father Andrew a Sanctis, who is said to have had a revelation of the Reform of St. Teresa thirty years before it was begun, and to have asked so long before for leave to join it whenever it came into existence.

The feeling among the Andalusians grew so strong, that Father Vargas asked Father Balthasar of Jesus to give him some of the Discalced to found a monas tery in Andalusia. But Father Balthasar excused himself for the time. However, as early as 1572, before St. Teresa had been sent on her mission to Salamanca, as has been said, a house of the Reformed Friars had been founded in Andalusia. The foundation had come about in a curious way. Two friars of the Reform, Father Diego Heredia of St. Mary, and Father Ambrose of St. Peter, had been allowed by the Visitor of Castile to pay a visit to Granada, the native place of the former. At Cordova they fell in with Father Vargas, and he immediately detained them, writing at the same time to beg Hernandez to allow him to do so. Hernandez consented, and G 2

82 The Reform in Andalusia.

Vargas then turned out some Mitigated Friars who lived in a small monastery at St. Juan del Porto, and placed his two new subjects there, where a com munity was soon gathered around them, partly from the Mitigation itself, and partly by the entrance of new religious. The infection spread. The first step had been taken, and taken in a rather arbitrary manner. The Mitigated Friars might well complain that they had been turned out to make room for their Reformed brethren, and that this had been done with out any leave either of Provincial or General, by the sole authority of the Apostolical Visitor.

Our readers have already heard the name of Father Balthasar of Jesus, a man of much eminence and high reputation, who was for some time Prior of Pastrana, and in that capacity had become very inti mate with Ruy Gomez, the Prince of Eboli, of whose death we have already spoken. The year before the Prince died, this distinguished Father had spent some time in Andalusia. The Prince had for the moment recovered his health. He had asked Father Balthasar to go to the southern province in order to settle some family dispute between himself and his son-in-law, the Duke of Medina Sidonia. Father Balthasar had taken as his companion a certain Gabriel de la Penuela, who belonged to the Andalusian Province, but had, by leave of the Apostolical Visitor, passed over to the Reform in the autumn of 1572. The pair were accompanied by some of the Andalusians from the monastery of Altomira, and also by one of a community of hermits in the Sierra Morena, whom it was thought easy to change into Carmelite Friars

The Reform in Andalusia. 83

of the Reform. They were well received at Granada, where the Archbishop and the Conde de Tendilla, of whom we shall hear more hereafter, became their strong patrons and friends. The Conde was at that time in military command at Granada, It is not necessary to give a detailed account of the proceed ings of the Reformed Friars now introduced into Andalusia, further than to say that they finally obtained the Hermitage, as it was called, of the Martyrs' Mount, built by Ferdinand and Isabella after the conquest of Granada, in memory of the numberless Christians there martyred by the Moors. There were some difficult conditions attached to the transfer of the Hermitage, but they were afterwards overcome, and the place became a very famous monastery of the Reform. Father Balthasar of Jesus was also able to give the new habit to the hermits of the Sierra Morena. He was then called back to Castile by the returning illness of the Prince of Eboli, who, as we know, died in the summer of the year in which St. Teresa left her retirement at the Incar nation to assist her daughters in Salamanca. This was in 1573.

The state of things was strained enough already, for the introduction of the Reform into Andalusia had been forbidden by the General Rossi, and it was not likely that so strong a step would escape his notice, or not provoke his resistance. But the story of the provocations furnished to the General by the Friars of the Reform is not yet needed. Nor have we yet come to the incidents by means of which St. Teresa herself became involved in the troubles

84 The Reform in Andalusia.

which followed, as they were sure to follow, from the high-handed manner in which the Discalced Car melite Friars were proceeding. In the year i573> which saw St. Teresa leave the Incarnation for Sala manca, Father Vargas, the Apostolic Commissary in Andalusia, invited two other friars to come and take up the work which Father Balthasar of Jesus had just left. One of these two was Ambrogio Mariano, of whose adventurous life something has been said in the former volume. St. Teresa had met him at Madrid, and had there persuaded him to join the new Reform. Mariano accepted the invitation of Vargas with great readiness, and as he had to ask for a companion on his journey, he determined that this companion should be no other than Father Jerome Gratian, of whom we have already heard.

Father Jerome's name is so soon to appear as that of a friar placed in the most conspicuous possible position, that it is well for us to remember that he had at this time only completed his noviceship for a few months. He had entered at Pastrana in March, 1572. He was now twenty-eight years of age. Not withstanding this, . his character, his abilities, and perhaps more than all, his connections at Court, made him too promising a subject for the Commis sary or for Father Balthasar to hesitate about using him, as we shall see. It was arranged that Balthasar of Jesus, who was detained in Castile, should make Jerome Gratian his Vicar in all the powers of governing the Reformed Monasteries which Vargas had given him. But it was feared that Hernandez would not easily allow two such subjects to be withdrawn from his own

The Reform in Andalusia. 85

jurisdiction in Castile. So Mariano went to Father Angelo de Salazar, the Provincial of Castile, and after obtaining leave to go to Granada on private business — a pretext which seems to have been freely used at this time — added that he would require a companion, " Might he take any one he chose ? " The Provincial gave leave unsuspiciously, and Ma riano immediately took with him Father Jerome Gratian. There was some delay in their journey, for while he was on the way, Mariano received orders from the General to receive Sacred Orders, as he was as yet only a layman, and on this account there had to be a delay of some months. Finally the pair arrived at Granada, and were cordially welcomed by Fra Vargas, who just at this juncture had been elected Provincial in his own Order of the Domi nicans. We find in all this history a remarkable facility on the part of those concerned in the Reform of Mount Carmel of passing on their powers from one to another. Whether rightly or not, Fra Vargas, who was delighted with Gratian, and perhaps eager to get the burthen off his own shoulders, at once made Fra Jerome his own Vicar in the office of Apos tolical Visitor, or Commissary of the Carmelites. Jerome was most unwilling to undertake the work, all the more because Father Angelo de Salazar had now discovered what had taken place, and wrote ordering both Mariano and Gratian to return at once to Pastrana. Here Vargas stepped in with his power as Commissary, and bade them both remain, as they were under his jurisdiction.

The characters of these two men had a great

86 The Reform in Andalusia.

influence on the subsequent course of affairs in Andalusia. Mariano was, as might have been expected from his history, a man of strong measures and fiery temper, indefatigable in work, severe on others, and unable to refrain from violent language concerning anything of which he did not approve. St. Teresa had often, as she says herself, to oppose and moderate him, and to plead his cause with those whom he had offended. Gratian's qualities were very different. He had the sweetest and gentlest manners, the knack of winning hearts at once, with out sacrificing principle, or giving way too far. But he had the fault of being young in years and still younger in religion, and he had not been long enough in the Order of Mount Carmel to have become pene trated with the spirit of recollection and the love of solitude and austerity which are amongst its characteristics. He had still the spirit of the Society of Jesus, to which he had first intended to give himself as a subject. We shall find St. Teresa herself gently remonstrating with him for being too fond of preaching and of the confessional, for which he was better suited than for the government of a number of men of strong and even violent character, or for the very trying conflicts which were inevitable at that period in the history of the Reform of Mount Carmel.

Gratian's first measures in his new office were very judicious. He at once broke up the establishment of the Reform at St. Juan del Porto, and restored the house to the Carmelites of the Mitigated Observance, from whom it had been taken. He sent back some

The Reform in Andalusia. 87

subjects who had come over to the Reform. The rest of the friars of the dissolved house he took with him to Seville, where they lived in the monastery of the Observants, until such time as he could find a house for them separately. This was a great trial to both communities. The difference in dress, and the additional mortifications of the Reformed Friars, were enough of themselves to constitute a continual provo cation to their brethren. Besides this, Gratian and Mariano soon acquired immense favour with the people outside. The patience of the Observants soon gave way, and they began to object and to find fault with everything. They were emboldened by the knowledge that their own General had lately ex pressed his disapprobation of the measures taken by some of the Reformed Friars, and that Hernandez, the Commissary of Castile, was not so favourable to them as before. This last fact is not to be wondered at, when we consider that Fra Hernandez had himself suffered under the sharp practice which had deprived the Reform in Castile of two of its best men.

Still Gratian, though much urged by Mariano to leave the monastery of the Mitigated Friars, would not do so till he had a monastery of his own for the Reformed Friars. The Archbishop proposed to lodge them in a part of his own palace, but this offer was gratefully declined. Gratian was then offered a her mitage which would have suited in all respects, but it was close to the monastery of the Observant Friars, and thus might have brought about a collision between the interests of the several communities. This also was declined. After some time a convenient place

88 The Reform in Andalusia.

was found, and the new community duly established there. Gratian had taken pains to keep his plan secret, and the Discalced Friars had gone to their new house privately, two and two, on the eve of the Epiphany, 1574. The house was opened, and Mass sung on the feast day itself. But this step exasperated the Observants. Their Subprior presented himself to Gratian, with another friar, Diego de Leon, Bishop of Sodor, and expressed great astonishment, on his own part and on that of his community, that such a measure should have been taken without the concur rence either of the General or of the Provincial, and he requested Gratian to show the papers which gave him authority for what had been done. Gratian replied with great gentleness. His powers, he said, had already been made known to the Provincial and other Fathers, at the time when he restored to them the Monastery of St. Juan a Porto, and they were now in the hands of the Archbishop, who would doubtless show them to any who had a right to see them. This did not satisfy the Observants. They determined to apply to the King to prevent the new foundation, but Vargas wrote to Philip to apprize him of the state of the case, and their application, when made, was made in vain. Philip, we know, was desirous of forwarding the cause of Reform, and it was by his application that the Apos tolical Visitors had originally been appointed. He remained always a firm friend to the Reform, though, as we shall see, he was displeased at some of the measures taken by its chief friars in the course of the history, and for a time withdrew his protection

The Reform in Andalusia. 89

from them. The incidents which we have been relating took place while St. Teresa was at Salamanca, and during the interval which elapsed before her again starting from Avila for the foundation of Segovia.

Baffled at Madrid, the Observants had recourse to Rome. We have said enough to make it seem very natural that the authorities of the Order at head-quarters could not look with a very favourable eye on the proceedings of the Apostolical Visitors and their delegates. We know Rossi, the General, to have come to Spain with the most sincere desire of remedying the relaxations which had crept into the Order, especially, as it seems, in Andalusia, and we know also how he was impressed by St. Teresa, and how he had encouraged and ever charged her to continue her foundations, giving her also power to found two monasteries of friars, though her per missions were limited to Castile. But matters had now gone much further than the General could approve. It is quite clear that St. Teresa had nothing whatever to do with the steps which we have been relating, although, as she had been the originator of the Reform, even among the friars, it was natural, that, by persons at a distance, she may have been considered as responsible for all that was done in that direction.

By a great want of prudence of which St. Teresa never would have been guilty, the onward progress of the Reform in Andalusia, even after it came into the hands of his own subjects, such as Balthasar and Gratian, does not seem to have been reported or explained to the General by them. They were

90 The Reform in Andalusia.

acting without him, and in virtue of powers which were undeniably valid for the purposes for which they were used. Still, they were powers which for the moment set him aside, though it must have been obvious that the state of things was altogether exceptional and could not last. What Gratian and Mariano did not do, the Carmelite Friars of the Observance did for them, and in a way of their own. They were not likely to use very soft colours in their descriptions of what had lately passed. All things considered, we can find no reason in the com plaints made by some of the historians of this period against Rossi, as if he had lent himself too readily to the enemies of the strict Observance. We find him indeed as late as 1575 allowing the foundation of a new monastery of the Reform at Almodovar in Castile. This is the more surprising, as the measures taken by Rossi in a contrary sense date from an earlier period.

The new foundation at Seville had been made by Father Gratian in 1574, early in the year, while St. Teresa was preparing for her foundation of Segovia. In the course of the spring or early summer, the complaints of the Observant Friars must have reached Rome. In the month of August, Rossi obtained from the Pope, Gregory XIIL, letters which recalled the powers of the Visitors Apostolic, who had been appointed at the instance of the King. Rossi, from motives of prudence, did not use these letters, meaning to produce them at the meeting of the General Chapter of the Order in the following spring. But the fact that the letters had been

The Reform in Andalusia. 91

obtained became known in Spain, and reached the ears of the Papal Nuncio, Ormaneto, who was a great supporter of the Reform. Philip also heard of it, and, at his instance, and by the advice of some of the most eminent members of his Council, who in clined to the same idea, Ormaneto immediately con firmed by his own authority the commission that had been given to Vargas, and joined with him in solidum Father Jerome Gratian. The letters of the Pope to the General contained no clause which limited the powers of the Nuncio. To satisfy him self, Ormaneto wrote to Gregory XIII., or to the Cardinal Secretary, and was told that it was not the intention of His Holiness to restrain him in the full use of his faculties as Legate a latere, for the purpose of the reform of religious orders. Thus the blow aimed against the Reform was for the moment averted. But at the same time an open opposition was declared between the Papal Nuncio and the General of the Carmelites.

There was no reason why St. Teresa herself should have been mixc d up in the conflict which was thus inevitable, and in which it was clear at first sight that the power arbitrarily exercised in consequence of the action of the Papal Nuncio was temporary in character, while on the other hand, that of the General and the Order was lasting as well as ordinary. Teresa seems to have known of what was passing in Andalusia, and some of her expressions, in her letters already quoted to Mary Baptist, show that she quite understood the real danger to which the Reform was being exposed. But she had always kept strictly

92 The Reform in Andalusia.

within the law. Her feelings towards the General were of the strongest dutifulness. She loved him like a father, as he had indeed proved himself to be to her. She always kept him informed of her proceed ings in the foundation of convents, she always acted in perfect obedience, and while she obeyed the Apos tolical Commissaries, she had done nothing beyond the faculties given her by Rossi. This had been the case even with the Constitutions which she had drawn up, as well as with her foundations. Before the visit of the General to Spain, she had obtained leave from Rome to make certain Constitutions for the govern ment of her convents, and when Rossi gave her leave for her further foundations, she obtained from him also the leave for introducing the Constitutions into them. Thus there was perfect uniformity in all the convents founded by her. They were under the jurisdiction of the Provincial, only the Convent of St. Joseph of Avila had been founded under that of the Bishop, as has been said. But the monasteries of the Reform, even in Castile, had not adopted her Constitutions. The Superiors seem to have made them for themselves in each case, and thus there was no uniformity. Neither, of course, had Teresa any influence in determining the course of conduct followed by the Apostolical Visitors, or by the Friars of the Reform to whom their powers were delegated.

This was the state of things when, in the October of 1574, St. Teresa returned to Avila, and after the election at the Convent of the Incarnation was over, retired for a short time to her beloved house at

The Reform in Andalusia. 93

St. Joseph's, the cradle of her Reform, where she was soon elected Prioress. We have now to see how it was that she became involved, against her will, in the conflict between the two branches of the Order, and came, in consequence, to incur the displeasure of the General, whom she had been at such pains to obey to the letter. We have already mentioned the convent at Veas which was proposed to her, as far back as her sojourn at Salamanca in the previous year, but the foundation of which she had been obliged to delay on account of the difficulty which had beset the foundation at Segovia. St. Teresa has left us, in one of the most beautiful chapters of her work on the Foundations^ an account of the manner in which this foundation of Veas came about. The account is far too long for our pages, but we must endeavour to abridge it without hurting it.

We must notice, in the first place, that both Teresa and her Superior, Fra Hernandez, were led into the foundation by a mistake. She was at Salamanca, as has been said, when the messenger came to her with a letter from a lady of Veas, the parish priest, and other persons there, asking her to come and found. They had a house ready, and there would be no difficulties in her way. Veas was at a great distance from the part of the country in which, her convents had hitherto been founded, and on this account she was adverse to accepting the offer. Moreover, Fra Hernandez, her Superior, the Apos tolical Commissary for Castile, had just expressed himself adverse to new foundations, and it was there fore seemingly certain that he would not grant the

94 The Reform in Andahisia.

requisite permission. But the General had charged her not to omit making any foundation for which occasion offered, and as Fra Hernandez was at Salamanca himself, she could not do less than ask him about this offer.

It is curious also that Fra Hernandez did not feel inclined to grant the permission, but he bethought him of a way of refusal which would not wound the feelings of the petitioners. Veas was subject to the jurisdiction of a military Order, the Knights of St. James, and their leave would be necessary for the foundation of a convent, and was not likely to be given. Hernandez knew that for a long time these permissions had been unattainable, as the matter had to go before the Royal Council, which was in the habit of refusing them. So he suggested to Teresa that it was better not to give pain to these good people, with whose devotion he was much edified. She might write to them to say that pro vision would be made for the foundation as soon as they had leave for it from the rightful authority. This answer, which he thought would put an end to the business quietly, was in fact a pledge on his part and on that of St. Teresa, that the convent would be founded on the fulfilment of a certain condition, which, as it turned out, was ultimately accomplished.

The convent was founded by two young ladies, sisters, the daughters of a gentleman named Sancho Rodriguez de Sandoval, married to Catalina Godinez. The eldest daughter, Catalina, had been fond of the world, and full of a kind of personal pride, up to the

The Reform in Andalusia. 95

age of fourteen, an age in Spain at which girls in those days were considered marriageable. Catalina had several offers, and she was one day thinking over one which was in all appearance good enough for her. She said to herself, however, that her father was content if she married an eldest son, but that she considered that her nobility ought to begin with herself. And then she cast her eyes on the title above a crucifix which hung in her room. At that moment her heart was changed. The thought flashed across her of her own pride, her utter un- worthiness, the sufferings and the humiliations of our Lord for her. She saw in a vision her own heart full of corruption and worms. She came out of her trance, which must have lasted some time, with an ardent desire of suffering for Him all the torments of the martyrs, and a longing for humiliation and penance. She made on the spot vows of chastity and poverty. She heard a noise over her head, which shook the whole house, and her father ran in from an adjoining room to ask what had happened. Nothing had happened that could be discovered, but she always believed that the noise and roaring which she had heard was made by the enemy of her soul in anger at his loss of her. She soon began to besiege her parents with prayers to let her enter religion. She spent three years in this way, keeping regular hours of prayer, mortifying herself in every way, even disfiguring her face that she might not be an object for suitors, for she was still pursued by offers of marriage. She had no director, and her penances were inordinate, or such as to seem so.

g6 The Reform in Andalusia.

She spent great part of the night in prayer, and during a whole Lent wore her father's coat-of-mail next her flesh. At the end of three years she put on the dress by which girls were known in Spain who had consecrated themselves to God. She did this without telling her father first, and made her appearance in a public church in this dress on the feast of St. Joseph, hoping thus to escape op position, and so it proved.

In the fourth year after her conversion she began to suffer from a complication of diseases, fever, dropsy, disease of the heart, and even a cancer in her breast which had to be cut out. She remained in this state for seventeen years. Her father died the year after she had put on the habit of a " devote," and her sister soon began to imitate and emulate her practices of piety and mortification. Their mother allowed them to occupy themselves in charitable works, especially in the teaching of poor girls. But, such was the state of opinion in Spain, they were obliged to desist from this, as the parents of the girls thought it beneath them to let their children be taught for nothing. The mother of these two young ladies died five years after her husband, and Catalina wanted to become a nun at once. She was persuaded by her family that it would be a better work for her to found a convent in her own native place, than to go to a distance, especially as she and her sister could furnish the necessary funds from their own fortunes. Then came the difficulty which has been already mentioned, that of the town being under the juris diction of the Knights, and the consequent necessity

The Reform in Andalusia. 97

of application to the Council, which was at that time in the habit of refusing all such petitions. At this time Catalina had been for eight years in a continual fever, as well as a constant sufferer in other ways. But she had received from our Lord a promise that she should be able to go to Madrid herself in the spring for the purpose of urging her petition. Accor dingly, when pressed to give up her plan, on account of her continuous illness, which, as was said to her, would have been enough to make any Convent, if she had been already there, wish to dismiss her as useless, she said that if she had strength given her within a month, it would be a sign that our Lord was pleased with her plan. Ribera tells us that she made this answer at the end of December, and that, on the vigil of St. Sebastian, in the January following, she was completely and marvellously cured and her health became perfect.

St. Teresa tells us of what she had suffered at the hands of the physicians, like the woman mentioned in the Gospels, and the account makes us shudder at the barbarous treatments of those days. " In eight years she was bled more than five hundred times, and cupped so often that the marks were still to be seen on her flesh. Sometimes salt was applied, because one of the physicians said it was good for drawing out the poisonous humours which caused the pain in her side. This she underwent more than twenty times. What is more wonderful still is that, whenever the physicians told her that this remedy was to be had recourse to, she used to long for the time when it was to be used, without any fear what- H 2

98 The Reform in Andalusia.

ever, and she herself encouraged the physicians when they cauterized the cancer, which was often done, and on other occasions, when other violent means were used. She says that what made her wish for suffering was the desire to know if those longings she had for martyrdom were real. She received the sacrament of the last anointing twice, once in such imminent peril that the physician said there was not time enough to send for the Holy Oil, and that she would be dead before it could be brought to her. She never abandoned her trust in our Lord, being certain that she was to die a nun."1 Her petition was at first refused again and again, but after some months she found means to apply straight to the King, and he, hearing that the Convent was to be for the Discalced Carmelites, gave permission at once.

There were also some very wonderful circum stances about her choice of the Order. "About twenty years before, she went to rest one night anxious to find the most perfect Order in the world, that she might become a nun in it, and she began to dream she was walking in a very steep and narrow path in the utmost danger of falling down a precipice, when she saw a bare-footed friar, who said to her, * Sister, come with me.' On seeing Fra Juan de la Miseria, a lay-brother of the Order, who came to Veas when I was there, she said that he seemed to be the very person she had seen. The friar took her to a house where there were a great many nuns, but there was no light in it beyond that given by the lighted candles which the nuns carried in their hands.

1 Booh of the Foundations, xxii. 18.

The Reform in Andalusia. 99

She asked them to tell her what Order It was. All kept silence, and lifting up their veils, showed counte nances cheerful and smiling. She assured me that she saw the faces of the very Sisters she has seen here, and that the Prioress took her by the hand and said to her, ' Child, I want you here,' and showed her the Constitutions and the Rules. When she awoke from her dream she was very joyous, for it seemed to her that she had been in Heaven, and wrote down what she remembered of the Rules."2

She said nothing of this for some time, but after that a Father of the Society passed that way, and she showed him the paper, saying that if she could find the Order she would enter it at once. The Father told her it was the Rule of the convents which were now being founded by the Mother Teresa of Jesus, and this determined her to apply to St. Teresa. The answer received, as has been said, was in the event more favourable than either St. Teresa or Fra Hernandez meant it to be. At that time also she was again ill. She prayed with great confidence to our Lord and to our Lady, whom she implored to help her by the sorrow which she felt when she had our Lord dead in her arms. An interior voice bade her take courage. When all was settled, she wished to enter her convent as a lay-sister, but she was put under obedience to accept the veil of the choir. We must relate, in the next chapter, how the foundation was finally effected.

- Book of the Foundations, xxii. 21.

CHAPTER V. Teresa at Veas.

WE have seen that St. Teresa returned to Avila early in October, 1574, and was in time to surrender her office of Prioress of the Incarnation at the appointed day. Some of the nuns wished very much to re-elect her, but there was not perfect unanimity in their wish, the Provincial was against it, and she herself felt the great inconvenience of her frequent absences from a house which required so much atten tion, and was in so great need. She was asked to recommend some one as her successor, and this she did by advising the election of the Subprioress, who had ruled in her absence. At the same time the office of Prioress in the Convent of St. Joseph was vacated by the resignation of Mary of St. Jerome, a resignation clearly made for the purpose of giving the nuns there the opportunity of electing Teresa in her stead. This was done, but her stay at St. Joseph's was not to be long. We have heard already of the troubles at Valladolid, on account of the resolution of Dona Casilda de Padilla to enter as a religious in that convent, and things were now in a condition to require the presence of Teresa to bring the whole affair to a conclusion. She succeeded in arranging the matter, though it seems from a later letter that

Teresa at Veas. 101

the family of the Padillas managed to leave the young lady without any very large dowry on her entrance into religion. It must be remembered that her elder brother and sister had also left the world, the one for the Society of Jesus, the other, as it seems, for another convent, before Casilda did the same. It is natural that the elders should be cared for in whatever distribution was to be made, as well as the younger child.

We have a letter of St. Teresa written, apparently, from Valladolid at the end of the year 1574, for she mentions in it a sermon of Father Banez on the subject of the value of tribulations, which was preached on the feast of St. Thomas. Teresa cannot find words enough for her delight at this sermon. She was always fond of hearing the Word of God, 'and Fra Baiiez was the Father of her soul whom she regarded with a special love. In the same letter,1 which is to Doiia Anna Enriquez, a noble lady at Toro, she also mentions with great affection her first Father, Father Balthasar Alvarez, who has been staying with her correspondent for a few days. She tells Dona Anna, however, that she does not write to this good Father, much as she should like to do so. But letter-writing was a torment to her, and she writes when and to whom she is obliged, and has no time for more. Then she breaks out, in her characteristic way, in the praise of God, Whom we shall have to enjoy without any insecurity for all eternity. As for this world, with all its separations and changes, it is not worth much thought.

1 Letter Ivi.

IO2 Teresa at Veas.

We have also either one letter or two — for there seems to be some doubt on this point, — written about this time by Teresa to her dear friend Doria Maria de Mendoza, the sister of the Bishop of Avila, and the foundress of the convent at Valladolid. Perhaps the two letters are really two copies of one and the same, with some additions. In any case both of them refer to the same subject, the admission of a postulant or postulants recommended by Dona Maria. Let us hope that we have not here one of those about whom Teresa had written her famous letter mentioned in a former page. She urges Dona Maria to make the acquaintance and cultivate the friendship of Father Hernandez, the Apostolic Visitor of the Reform in Castile. The most characteristic passage is one in which St. Teresa lets us see that Father Hernandez did not spare her occasional reproofs. " This Father Visitor gives me life. I don't think he will be de ceived about me, as all others are, for it pleases God to let him understand how little I am worth, and at every step he finds me out in imperfections. It is a great consolation for me, and I take care that he may understand my failings. It is a great relief to walk with perfect openness with him who is to us in the place of God, and this I shall have as long as I am with him."2 She mentions also that Fra Domingo Banez had been chosen Prior at Truxillo, and that the Dominicans of Salamanca had petitioned the Father Provincial to leave him with them. Truxillo, she says, is a place which would not suit his health at all.

- Letter Iv.

Teresa at Vcas. 103

We have also another letter3 written by Teresa at this time from Valladolid to her friend, Don Teutonio de Braganza. In this letter she mentions as many as four foundations to which she has to attend, after she has despatched that of Veas, whither she is to go presently. ; These four were, at Zamora in the kingdom of Leon, at Torrijo in the diocese of Toledo, the third at an unnamed place, and the fourth in Madrid. All these were beset with difficulties, and she is evidently disinclined for the first three. The founda tion in Madrid was one for which she ardently longed, and of which she felt the great importance. But it was not given her to accomplish it in her lifetime. The foundation of Zamora she does not like, because the founder will not be able to help much, and the place is poor for the support of a convent. Torrijo seems to have been a place in which Don Teutonio was himself interested, and Teresa very courteously tells him that nothing but an order from him would induce her to accept it. There appears to have been a proposal for the admission into the new community of some persons who were to be indispensable to it, on account of the fortunes which they would bring. She points out that it would be impossible to take such persons, as it would not be possible to send them away if they did not suit the Order. The other proposed foundation seems to have been in a place where some devout ladies, who were already formed in their spiritual life, as beale, living a life by rule in their own homes, wished to become Car melites. She says she would rather have to found

3 Letter Ivii.

1O4 Teresa at Veas.

four convents of nuns of her own, in which those who entered would learn in a fortnight the way of life of the Order, than take such persons whom it would be so difficult to transform, even if they were saints, into a new method of life. She has taken two at Toledo, she says, and they go on well, but she would not like to take the responsibility of others, who are, as she thinks, more given to hardness of life and exterior penances, than to prayer and mortification. Here again she turns the refusal in her gentle, humble way, and says that she will make more inquiries, since his lordship holds it good.

Later in this letter she speaks of the foundation of Madrid, as if she recognized the importance for her convents in general that there should be one in the capital. But she meets with extraordinary resistance. There seems to have been opposition on the part of the Ordinary, and she says the foundation cannot be made without his leave, according to the patents she has, and the Council of Trent. She then gives an enthusiastic account of the sanctity of some of the nuns at Valladolid. " I tell your lordship," this is a favourite expression of hers, " that there are souls here which have been to me a motive for praising God almost continually, at least very frequently." Stefania of the Apostles, the nun at whose clothing Casilda was present when she first conceived the idea of entering herself, is very good, and seems to be a saint, but Sister Casilda de Padilla astonishes her. It is clear that God is working in her. She has much natural ability, beyond what could be expected at her age, and she has a great gift of prayer, which

Teresa at Veas. 105

God has given her since she took the habit. She is full of joy and of humility. Both of them must have known Don Teutonic, for they commend them selves much to his prayers. But Teresa says she does not encourage their writing to him, for she wishes to keep off the danger of vanity, as if there was much account made of them, though they are as simple as Brother Juniper himself, and she does not want Don Teutonio to think of what little women say, since he has got a spiritual Father to rouse him up, and God to love him. In this letter she also speaks of some affair which is going on at Rome in which he is interested, which may perhaps have been the affair of his promotion to the coadjutorship of the Cardinal Archbishop of Kvora, to which post he was appointed a few years later.

There seems also to be some reason for placing at this time another short letter of St. Teresa, which is not dated. It is addressed to the famous Dominican Friar Luis of Granada. She tells him that she writes to him because Don Teutonio has ordered her so to do, and she sends him a message from that prelate desiring a visit from him. She says she is among the many persons that love him in the Lord, for the great and universal good which he has done by his writings, and that if her condition had not forbidden it, she should have spared no pains to see him whose words delight her so much. She begs of him the alms of prayers, commending her to the Lord, and says she has great need of them, for she is placed in the eyes of the world, and people have far too high an opinion of her. She understands the value of his life, and for

io6 Teresa at Veas.

this reason has often ventured to ask our Lord that it may be a very long one. The letter is a model of beautiful charity and courtesy.4

Teresa went from Valladolid for a short stay to Medina de la Campo, where she was present on the octave of the Epiphany, at the clothing of the young- lady, Geronima de Ouiroga, of whom mention has been made in the letter to Father Ordonez already cited. She went to Avila, and then again to Toledo and Malagon, on her way to Veas. Her route took her to Almodovar del Campo, where she passed the night in the house of a gentleman, Martin Garcia, whose wife was Isabella Lopez. They had eight children, who were brought to Teresa. She lifted up her veil to look at them, and then told the mother that she had among them one who would attain to great sanctity, and be the helper of many souls, and also the author of a great Reform. Then she stroked the shoulder of another son, whose testimony was taken at the process of her canonization, and said to him, " Little saint, consider that you will have need of great patience, for you will have great blows to bear in this valley of tears. What say you to that ? " And the little fellow answered that he would be as patient as he could. She repeated her words about the great blows, and then added that time would show that one of the children there standing would be as it was five years after its death. These pre dictions were accurately fulfilled. The child first spoken of was the famous John Baptist of the Con ception, lately beatified, the Reformer of the Trini-

4 Letter Iviii.

Teresa at Veas. 107

tarian Order. The second child here spoken of was Antonio, who had very great sufferings to endure all his life, and there was one of the sisters, who became a nun, and whose body was found to be incorrupt five years after her death.

Another anecdote of this journey shows the ready devotion of Teresa to her Father, St. Joseph. In crossing the Sierra Morena, the carriages in which the nuns were were very nearly falling over a precipice, and they had got to a point where it seemed to be equally impossible to go on and to turn back. Teresa begged her Sisters to join her in praying to St. Joseph Then a voice as of an old man was heard, bidding them stop, for to go on would be to fall over the precipice. The same voice told the drivers what way to turn, and they soon found themselves in a broad and good road. They must needs look for the old man who had helped them. But they could find no one near the spot, and Teresa told her companions that it was the voice of St. Joseph, and it was of no use to look for any one else. They had also to get across the river Guadalimar, and there was no ford for the carriages. It was proposed that the nuns should get out and cross the water on horseback, but this troublesome alternative was avoided by their finding themselves, they did not know how, on the further side of the stream.

St. Teresa arrived at Veas on February 18, 1575. She and her companions stayed with the ladies who were to found the convent for a few days, and then possession was taken on the feast of St. Mathias. It was under the dedication of St. Joseph of our

io8 Teresa at Veas.

Saviour. Anne of Jesus was appointed Prioress. The two sisters, Catalina, or Catharine, and Maria de Sandoval, took the habit immediately. Catalina was called Catalina of Jesus, and her sister Maria of Jesus. It was Catalina's birthday. She was forty- one years old. The convent flourished from the first. A third novice, Isabella of Jesus, soon appeared, and, after her, others who became in time remarkable for virtue, Catalina of St. Albert, Lucia of St. Joseph, a sister of Father Gregory of Nazianzus, and Mary of the Conception. Another novice who had seemed to promise much was soon found wanting in the qualities required for religion, and when Anne of Jesu?, who was fresh in her office of Prioress, hesi tated about dismissing her, our Lord told her not to be afraid, for He would give her four more in her place.

One of the promised four was a cousin of the two foundresses, and the others were afterwards very dis tinguished. Anne of Jesus, the two foundresses, Isabella of Jesus, and Catalina of St. Albert, are among those whose names have lived in the annals of Carmel as those of religious who had received very great favours from God. St. Teresa stayed in the convent about three months. It was here that she received letters from Valladolid, in which the nuns of her convent and her friend, Don Alvaro de Mendoza, the Bishop of Avila, informed her that the Inquisition had got possession of the book of her Life for exami nation. This, as has been said, was the consequence of the imprudence and perhaps of the malice of the Princess of Eboli. Teresa was more alarmed at first,

Teresa at Veas. 109

and bade her nuns pray for her. The next morning she told Anne of Jesus to give thanks to God, for she had received an assurance from our Lord, that she was to fear nothing, as the cause was His own. The matter would result in gaining for the books greater esteem and reputation. We shall return to this subject in due time, but we must now speak of what was in truth by far the most important occur rence of this stay of St. Teresa at the convent of Veas.

We have seen that in one of the letters lately quoted to her niece, Mary Baptist, Teresa had had the difficulty laid before her that Veas was in Anda lusia, and that she had answered that it was a mistake, the town being five miles within the frontier. It is certain that she would never have gone to Veas, if she had not ascertained, as she thought, that the city was in Castile, It turned out, however, that she was misinformed. Veas belonged to Andalusia, and Mary Baptist was quite right in warning her aunt that it was so. It was on the Castilian side of the frontier, but it belonged to the southern province, as certain parts of English counties are, or used to be, enclosed in the middle of other counties. Thus Teresa had crossed the line within which her foundations were permitted by the General, and she had done this at a time when the state of things made it most important to her not in any way to mix herself up in the quarrels of which something- has lately been said. It was not a simple mistake, it had consequences far more important than itself. Rossi would easily have forgiven an inadvertent trans-

1 10 Teresa at Veas.

gression of his permissions, if the step taken by St. Teresa had not led to other acts of hers of which, as things were, he could not approve. Most unfortu nately, as it might seem, it was at Veas that she first fell in with Fra Gratian, whose appointment as Superior in Andalusia we have lately mentioned. She was at once charmed with this new and fasci nating recruit to the cause of the reform. He seemed to her a man sent from Heaven for the cause which she had so much at heart, and from this time she made herself his enthusiastic admirer and defender with all the force of her great and simple nature.

We last heard of Gratian at Seville, but he had been summoned to Madrid in consequence of the decision to which Philip the Second had come, of supporting, with the aid of the Nuncio Ormaneto, the cause of the Reform against the Mitigation, and even against the General. But Gratian may have heard of the arrival of Teresa at Veas, or at least of her intention to found there, and he knew, what she did not, that Veas was in Andalusia, and therefore within the jurisdiction lately conferred on him. He may have had no other motive for taking Veas on the road to Madrid than that of indulging a very natural desire to make the acquaintance of the true mother of the Reform to which he had given himself, and in whose affairs he was now forced to act so prominent a part. But the new foundation was under his authority, and he had a right to see to it. Gratian was not an ambitious man. He would gladly have thrown off the burthen of the charge which was fixed upon him, and we shall see reason to think that his

Teresa at Veas. 1 1 1

character was far better fitted for more quiet times. He was indeed unfit for the special anxieties and the rapid decisions to which it was necessary that men in his position must expose themselves. Where could he find light and courage so well as in the conver sation of Teresa of Jesus ?

It is easy to understand how she was charmed with him when she saw him. He was probably well acquainted with her character from the friars with whom he had been conversant since his accession to the Reform, and he was certain to approach her with the utmost veneration. It needs but little to explain his eagerness to see her, and it does not require much more to account for his readiness to involve her in the same tempestuous enterprise in which he was himself, against his will, engaged. On this meeting turned the remainder of the life of St. Teresa, and it was the first stage in a series of crosses which seemed likely, at one time, to overwhelm her with grief, and make her end her days in misery, if such a lot had been possible for one whose will was so entirely united to that of God. And yet this was the Providential way by which the Reform was to be saved from destruction. It cannot be doubted that the prayers of Teresa and her spiritual children, and the personal sufferings which were inflicted on her, on account of her apparent participation in what seemed to the General and his counsellors at Rome as the rebellion of the Discalced Friars against the central authorities of the Order, brought down the blessings which always fall on the sufferings of saints. Thus, if Teresa had not been a partner in

1 1 2 Teresa at Veas.

the proscription which was soon to strike Gratian and his companions, they might have been swept away in the stream which their imprudence had done so much to let loose.

However, in the newly- founded convent of Veas there was nothing but joy at the visit of the Father Provincial, which was prolonged, much to the delight of Teresa and the nuns, beyond the time which had been originally contemplated.

O my mother [writes Teresa to the Prioress of Medina del Campo] how I have desired that you could be with me these days ! Know that in my opinion they have been the best of my life, without exaggeration ! The Father Master Gratian has been here these twenty days. I tell you, that although I have seen so much of him, I do not yet understand fully the value of this man. In my eyes he is perfect, and, for our purposes, better than we could have known to ask of God. What your Reverence and all our Sisters have to do now is to ask His Majesty to give him to us for our Superior. With this I could lay aside the burthen of governing these houses. Such perfection, with so much sweetness, I have never seen. May God hold him in His hand and guard him ! For nothing in the world would I have missed having seen him and dealt so much with him. He has stayed here waiting for Mariano, and we are very glad that he has been so long. Julian of Avila has lost his heart to him, and all the rest likewise. He preaches admirably. I quite think he has improved since you saw him, for the great troubles through which he has passed must have made him much better. Our Lord has brought things round, so that I take my departure, with the favour of God, for Seville next Monday. I am writing more particularly to Fra Diego how it all is. The sum of the matter is that this house is in Andalusia, and as Father

Teresa at Veas. 1 1 3

Gratian is Provincial of Andalusia, he has found me his subject without my understanding it, and so as such he has the power to order me to go. Besides this, as we were just going to Caravaca, the Council of Orders having given the permission, it turns out that it is worth nothing, and so it has been determined to make the foundation of Seville at once. It would be a great consolation for me to take you with me, but I see that to take you away now would be the destruction of your house, besides other inconveniences. I think before the Father Master Gratian returns to these parts you will meet, for the Nuncio has sent for him, and when you get this he will be at Madrid. I have had much better health than usual, and this place is well for me. What a much better summer I should have with your Reverence than in the fire of Seville !6

The letter ends by assuring the Prioress that there will be much better communications from Seville, so that she may expect to hear more frequently.

About the same time St. Teresa wrote to her old friend the Bishop of Avila to tell him of her movements. She says that she was calculating on spending a pleasant summer at Avila or at Valladolid, when " Father Gratian came here, the Provincial of Andalusia, by commission from the Nuncio, who appointed him after the Counterbrief." This seems to mean, after the brief of revocation of the powers of the Commissaries obtained by the Father-General, on which the Nuncio, after consulting the Pope, had taken up the matter on his own authority.

He has such good qualities that I should be delighted that he should kiss your Lordship's hand, to see whether I

6 Letter ix. I 2

H4 Teresa at Veas.

am deceived. He himself desires much to see your Lord ship, as I have told him all the kindness which you are always doing to the Order. It is a great joy to me to see so good a man in it. In fine we leave for Seville next week, on Monday. It is fifty leagues. I am well persuaded that he would not have forced me, but his will was so set on it, that I should have remained with a great scruple in not doing this, for not complying with obedience, as I always wish to do. For my own part I did not like it, and moreover I have no great inclination to go in all this fire to pass the summer in Seville. May God be served hereby, for as for me it matters little how I am. I beseech your Lordship to give me your blessing, and not to forget to commend me to our Lord.7

These two letters, written at the time when Teresa had made up her mind to do as Father Gratian desired, show her enthusiasm for her new friend, and also a certain reluctance, most natural under the circumstances, to undertake the work thus unex pectedly pressed upon her. She does not tell her correspondents all that had passed. She had found herself in Andalusia only by a mistake, and she had been sent to Veas by her Superior, Father Hernandez. It would only have been courteous on the part of Father Gratian to let Hernandez know what had happened, instead of taking advantage of the mistake which had given him so much power over the move ments of St. Teresa. It is not certain whether Father Hernandez had not by this time ceased to be Visitor, but, if that were the case, the Provincial of Castile, Father Angelo de Salazar, would have had a right

7 Letter lix.

Teresa at Veas. 115

to be consulted as to the movements of the Saint, who belonged to his province.

In neither case could there be any doubt as to the issue of the application. It would certainly have been met with a refusal. The sharp practice of getting subjects of Castile to cross the border into Andalusia, and then become independent of their own Superiors, for the purpose of joining the Reform in the southern province, had become almost a habit among the promoters of the Reform. This had no doubt most seriously irritated the General and others at Rome against the " fugitives," as they seemed to be. Gratian was now using an accident to add Teresa to the number of these black sheep, of whom he himself was one and Father Mariano another. He had a saint to deal with, and, as we see, he practically prevailed with her by using his authority. She had no wish to go to Seville and she had a strong wish to go elsewhere. We have already seen how much she thought of the proposed foundation at Madrid. It was now the time for that. It was supposed that the Princess Juana and Dona Leonora de Mascarenhas would help her with the King, and that foundation once made, the Reform would be under his eyes, and he would be constantly reminded of its needs and prompted to give it his protection. Thus an immense benefit seemed to be within the grasp of Teresa if she had gone at this time to Madrid.

Moreover, on account of the withdrawal of the powers of the Visitors, the convents in Castile would now need some efficient assistance, such as Philip could

1 1 6 Teresa at Veas.

give, and it was very necessary for them that Teresa should not be at a distance. All this Teresa, with her usual frankness, laid before Father Gratian. He was unmoved. He had already told her that she was now his subject, and must do as he bade her. He now bade her consider the matter before God again, which of the two foundations, of Seville or Madrid, should be made. It happened, as she has told us in her letter to Don Alvaro de Mendoza, the Bishop of Avila, that she had some nuns with her who were destined to the foundation of Caravacas. These might be transferred either to Madrid or to Seville. To which place should they go ? This was the momentous question now to be settled.

Teresa obeyed Father Gratian, and told him next morning that God preferred the foundation of Madrid. Father Gratian replied that his opinion was that she should go to Seville. She immediately made her preparations for departure, choosing the nuns who were to accompany her, and the rest. Gratian had never seen obedience of this kind before. He asked her how it was that she had so promptly given up what was told her in revelation at the mere expression of his opinion. She replied that she might be deceived as to the truth of a revelation, but she could not be deceived in doing what her Superior told her to do. He bade her consult our Lord once more. Our Lord told her that she had done well to obey, that the interests of the Reform and of Madrid would not suffer, but that she would have great sufferings, though she would succeed in the foundation of Seville. Thus ended the delibera-

Note to Chapter V. 117

tion. Gratian went off to Madrid, and Teresa selected the nuns who were to go with her to Seville. She took with her six, one of whom was Maria de Salasar, the relation of the Duchess de la Cerda, who became known in the New Carmel as Mary of St. Joseph. Teresa speaks of her in one of her letters of this time as of a person entirely made to be Superior, and she filled this post in the new convent. We owe her much, for she preserved a great number of the letters of the Saint to her.

NOTE TO CHAPTER V.

The following are the letters of this period :

1. (Iv.) To the most illustrious lady, Dona Maria de Mendoza. From Avila, November, 1574.

Quoted at p. 102.

2. (Ivi.) To the most illustrious lady, Dona Ana Enriquez, at Toro. From Valladolid, December 23, 1574.

Quoted at p. 101.

3. (Ivii.) To Don Teutonio de Braganza, Archbishop of Evora. From Valladolid, January 4, 1576.

Quoted at p. 103.

4. (Iviii.) To the venerable Father, Master Fra Luis de Granada, of the Order of St. Dominic (undated).

Quoted at p. 105.

5. (lix.) To Don Alvaro de Mendoza, Bishop of Avila. From Veas, May u, 1576.

Quoted at p. 114.

6. (Ix.) To the Mother Prioress of the Discalced Carmelites of Medina del Campo. From Veas, May 12, 1576.

Quoted at p. 112.

CHAPTER VI.

Beginnings at Seville.

THE journey to Seville was not likely to be free from incidents of a troublesome and even dangerous character, such as are so familiar to us in these travels of St. Teresa. She herself tells us of some of them, and others are recorded by her companions, notably the good Julian of Avila.

We set out for Seville, with my good companions, Father Julian of Avila, Antonio Gaytan, and a Discalced Friar. [This friar had received the habit in Veas from Fra Jerome, and took the name of St. Gregory of Nazianzus]. We travelled in carriages well covered, for that is ever our way of travelling, and when we came to an inn we took a room, good or bad as it might be, at the door of which a Sister received what we had need of, and even those who travelled with us never entered it. We made all the haste we could, yet we reached Seville only on the Thursday before the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, having suffered on the road from the heat, which was very great, for though we did not travel on the holydays, I must tell you, my Sisters, that as the sun in its strength struck the carriages, to go into them was like going into Purgatory. By thinking sometimes of Hell, at other times that we were doing and suffering something for God, the Sisters travelled in great cheerfulness and joy, for the six Sisters who were with me

Beginnings at Seville. 1 1 9

had such courage that I think I could have ventured to go with them into the country of the Turks, and they would have been brave enough to do so. Or, to speak more correctly, our Lord would have made them brave enough to suffer for Him, for that was their desire and their conversation, being exceedingly given to prayer and morti fication. For as they were to live so far away, I took care they should be such as were fitted for the work, and all my care was necessary, so great were the troubles which arose, some of which, and they were the heaviest, I will not speak of, because it might touch certain persons.

One day before Pentecost, God sent them a very heavy cross, which was my falling into a very violent fever. They called upon God, and that, I believe, was the cause of its going no further, for I never had before in my life a fever of that kind which did not become much worse. They threw water over my face, but it was so warm, because of the heat, that it hardly gave me any refreshment at all. I cannot help telling you of the poor lodging we had in this our need. They gave us a small room like a shed, which had no window, into which the sun poured when the door was open. You must remember that the heat was not like that of Castile, being much more oppressive. They laid me on a bed, but as it was so uneven, I would have preferred being laid on the floor. I could not lie on it, for it seemed to be made of sharp stones. At last I thought it better to rise and go on, for it seemed to me easier to bear the heat of the sun in the open country than in that little room. Oh, those poor souls in Hell ! for them there is no change, for that seems a relief, even if it be from one suffering to another. It has happened to me to have a violent pain in one side, and to find an apparent relief in changing my place, though I had as violent a pain in the other. It was so now. I was not at all distressed, as far as I remember, at my illness, the Sisters felt it much more

I2o Beginnings at Seville.

than I did. It was the good pleasure of our Lord that its extreme violence did not last more than one day. A little before, I do not know if it was two days, something else befell us that placed us in no slight danger, when crossing the Guadalquivir in a boat. When they had to ferry the carriages across, they could not keep them close to the rope, and they had therefore to make a tack on the river, although in tacking also the rope was of some help to them. However, it happened that those who held the rope either let it go or lost it, I do not know which, and the boat went off with the carriage, away from the rope and without oars. I was more concerned for the distress of the ferryman than about the danger. We began to pray and the boatmen to shout. A nobleman in a neighbouring castle was looking out on and pitying our condition. He sent people to our succour, for at that mqment we had not yet lost the rope, and our brethren with all their might were holding on to it. The force of the current, however, was too much for them, and some of them were even thrown down. A little boy of the ferryman, whom I shall never forget, stirred up my devotion exceedingly. He must have been, I think, about ten or eleven years old. His distress at the sight of his father in trouble was such as to make me give praise to God. But as His Majesty ever tempers our trials with His compassion, so it was this time, for the boat struck on a sand-bank, on one side of which the water was shallow, whereby they could come to our relief. We should have found it very hard to recover our road, because it was now night, if one who had come from the castle had not become our guide.

A greater trouble than those I have mentioned befell us on the last day of Whitsuntide. We hurried on so as to reach Cordova early in the morning, that we might hear Mass unseen by anybody. We were directed to go, for greater retirement, to a church by the side of the bridge.

Beginnings at Seville. 121

When we were ready to cross, we were without the permis sion necessary for carriages, which only the Governor could give, and as people were not yet up, two hours passed away before it was obtained, and a great crowd came about us to find out who were the travellers. We did not care much about this, for we were perfectly concealed. They could not see us. When permission was given, the carriages could not pass through the gate of the bridge. It was found necessary to use the saw, or something of the kind, I know not what, and that occasioned the waste of more time. At last, when we reached the church, in which Father Julian of Avila was to say Mass, we found it full of people, for it was dedicated to the Holy Ghost. It was a great solemnity, and a sermon was preached ; of this we knew nothing. When I saw it all I was greatly distressed, and I thought it would have been better for us to have gone on without hearing Mass, than to be in the midst of so much confusion. Father Julian of Avila did not think so, and as he was a theologian, we had all of us to yield to his opinion. All the others who were with me would perhaps have followed mine, and it would have been very wrong. We alighted close to the church, though nobody could see our faces, for we always wore our large veils. It was enough to disturb everybody to see us in them, and in our white mantles of coarse cloth which we wear, and in our sandals of hemp. As it happened, as we were entering the church, a good man came up to me, and made a passage for us through the crowd. I begged him to take us to one of the chapels. He did so, and closed it upon us, nor did he leave us before he had led us out of the church again. A few days after he came to Seville, and said to a Father of our Order that he thought that, because of the service he had rendered us, God had been very good to him, for a large estate, of which he had no expectations, had come into his possession. I tell you, my daughters, that those were some of the worst

122 Beginnings at Seville.

moments I ever passed, though you may, perhaps, think nothing of it, for the people were in confusion, as if bulls had entered the town. I therefore did not wait for the usual hour for quitting that place, though there was no place near where we could take our rest at noon. We found it under a bridge.1

The historians of the Reform tell us more things concerning this journey, which St. Teresa passed over, because they might turn to her credit. In one place they were resting in a field, when they saw a number of peasants and soldiers quarrelling, and as they were using arms and knives, there was danger of bloodshed and even of the loss of life. The religious gathered in fright around Teresa, but she, with perfect courage and coolness, walked straight to the place of the con flict, and spoke to the combatants, reminding them of the presence of God, Who would one day judge them. They threw down their arms at her approach, and were reconciled on the spot.

As we are now come to the time when St. Teresa identified herself more or less with the direction given to her by Father Jerome Gratian, it is well to place before the reader the statements which she has left behind her in relation to this close connection. They must have been written at Veas, or more probably at Seville. The first of them may be placed at Veas. In this she tells us that she confessed to him sometimes at Veas, but without placing him on the same level in her mind with the other confessors she had, among whom we are no doubt to place, in the first rank, Father Banez and Father Balthasar Alvarez. One

1 Book of the Foundations, xxiv. 3 — 8.

Beginnings at Seville. 12^

day she tells us that she saw our Lord in the form in which He usually manifested Himself to her, and that He stood between her on His left hand and Father Jerome Gratian on His right. He took the right hand of each, and said, uniting them, " Here is he whom I will that you hold in my place as long as you live, and I will that you both have the same way of seeing in all things, for thus it behoves it to be." She adds that this vision conveyed to her so great an assurance of its truth, that she did not hesitate to acquiesce in the command, though she thought of the other confessors whom she had had for a long time, especially one of whom she thought with love and respect, and she thought it might be doing him a wrong. Our Lord told her twice over not to fear in this matter, and she resolved to be faithful to the order for the rest of her life, and to follow in all things the opinion of Father Gratian, provided that it was not plainly against the law of God.

Teresa adds that she felt a great peace in her soul after this. Another time she says that she was spend ing the Monday of Whitsuntide in the hermitage of Ecija, — this was on the journey to Seville, and the day after her great attack of fever, — and she remem bered the great graces she had before received on that festival, of which she speaks in the book of her Life, and then began to think what more she could do to evidence her gratitude to God. After a long battle with herself, for she thought that there might be great difficulties about the execution of such a vow, she made a vow to follow all her life what Gratian

124 Beginnings at Seville.

should tell her, provided it were not against God or the Superiors whom she was obliged to obey. In order to avoid scruples, she made her vow relate only to serious matters, not little things which might be neglected without injury to obedience, such as points regarding the care of health and the like. She men tions here that it was not the custom of the Order to open the interior to the Superior as such, nor to do what she also promised to do, to hide from him none of her faults nor any of her sins. In short, she undertook to consider him in all things, both exterior and interior, as in the place of God.2

The favour received some years before at Avila was that she had been reading the Life of our Lord by Ludolph of Saxony, and had considered the marks by which, according to that great writer, those who are beginners and those who are making progress, and those who are perfect, may discern whether the Holy Ghost is with them. It seemed to her that, according to these marks, the Holy Ghost was with her. She gave great thanks to God, and she remem bered that before this year she had read the same things, in the same book, without finding herself in the state in which she then was. Then she had a vision of a most beautiful dove, which hovered over her for the space of an Ave Maria, and then vanished, leaving her in an ecstacy of joy. It was this Life of Jesus Christ which was brought to St. Ignatius in his illness, and which converted him, and it is delightful to find its pages connected also with this beautiful anecdote of the life of St. Teresa.

2 Relation vi.

Beginnings at Seville. 125

Teresa and her companions arrived at Seville on the 26th of May, and were at once plunged, without any fault of their own, into a sea of troubles. These troubles were in great measure owing to the in experience of Father Gratian himself in matters of this kind. No precautions had been taken to secure their favourable reception by the authorities. The Archbishop, Don Cristoval de Rojas, who had been at the Council of Trent, a very highly distin guished prelate, was a great friend of the Reform, and, as he had been so kind in the matter of the establishment of the friars, it had not been thought worth while to secure his permission for the foun dation of the nuns. Father Gratian was at Madrid, and he had left the arrangements to be made by Father Mariano, who had hired a small house for the nuns in a street near the gate of the city. It seems almost incredible, but Gratian, who had not as yet had much experience in the foundation of convents, had thought to delight the good and friendly prelate by the unexpected arrival of Teresa and her nuns. The Archbishop was indeed a friend, and, as we shall see, it was his unbounded reverence for Teresa that ultimately smoothed the difficulties which at one time seemed insuperable. But he had his own rules, based on experience, for action in these matters, from which he never departed, and one of these was diametrically opposed to the establishment of such a convent as that which was now contemplated.

Mariano had already discovered the mistake, but he was afraid at first to tell Teresa how the matter

126 Beginnings at Seville.

stood. But when she came to propose to enter her house in the usual way, by having Mass said and reserving the Blessed Sacrament, Mariano began to equivocate, and at last had to confess that there was no permission for the convent Teresa had come all that way into Andalusia, and this simple preliminary step had not been taken for her! More than this, the Archbishop had this invin cible repugnance to the foundation of new convents unendowed. There were already in Seville a great number of poor convents, and the alms of the faithful were overburthened by them. So the Archbishop had made this rule, to which he always adhered, that no new convent was to be founded without revenues. Teresa had spent all her money on the journey. She and her nuns possessed nothing, except their habits, some pieces of stuff, and the coverings of their carnages.

The difficulty was at last overcome, but it cost Teresa a month of the greatest suffering. "The Archbishop allowed us," she says,

—but it must have been after urgent pressing on the part of Mariano, to have Mass said on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, and that was the first. He sent a message to the effect that no bell was to be rung, or even set up, but that was done already. We continued thus for a fortnight, and I know that I had made up my mind, but for the Father Commissary and Father Mariano, to go back with my nuns, and with very little regret, to Veas, and make the foundation of Caravaca. I had much more to bear with during those days, how long it was I do not remember, I think it was more than a month, for our immediate departure

Beginnings at Seville. 127

would have been less intolerable, seeing that the existence of the convent had been made public already. Father Mariano would never let me write to the Archbishop, but he won him over by degrees himself, and by the help of the letters of the Father Commissary from Madrid.2

She tells us that she was relieved from scruple by the fact that the Mass had been said by leave of the Archbishop, who had sent one of his own chaplains to say it for them. She was most afflicted by the distress of Father Gratian. The friars of the Mitiga tion also came to ask her by what authority the convent had been founded. She showed them her patents from the General, but would not let them have a copy. It was supposed in the town that the Archbishop approved of the foundation, and thus the Mitigated Friars were made less hostile, or at least, less vexatious. The end did not come till the Arch bishop came himself to see Teresa. He was charmed, as people usually were, with her frankness and plain ness and humility. He told her to do as she willed, that he approved everything beforehand, for the glory of God. Then the Blessed Sacrament was brought, that very day, and the inclosure established. Mary of St. Jerome was made Prioress, and the regular observ ance began.

Although the permission of the Archbishop secured the existence of the convent, matters were still in a very miserable state. The house was small and inconvenient, they had no furniture or means, and the religious had to lie on the bare ground. As for food, they were as badly on" as it was possible to

- Book of the Foundations, xxiv. 12.

128 Beginnings at Seville.

be without starving. They had no friends in the city to help them. The Archbishop was quite right in the general principle which he had adopted, and from which he only swerved in this particular instance on account of the immense esteem in which he held Teresa herself. This did not make him support her and her nuns. There were rich and pious people in Seville, but their charities were already occupied with the wants of other communities. What was still worse, a pious lady, Doiia Leonora de Valera, actually set herself to relieve the necessities of the new community. All would thus have been right, but Doiia Leonora was anxious to hide herself, and thus sent her alms by the hands of a third person, who took upon herself to improve on her commission, and divert to other ends the money sent. This state of things went on for several months. At one time they had no food but some herbs they gathered in their poor garden, and they had hard shifts to find any wood to light a fire with, in order to cook them.

We have already mentioned the blow that fell on Teresa before she left Veas, in the intelligence which reached her that the book of her Life had been placed in the hands of the Inquisition. The blow had come, as our readers know, from the mingled imprudence and malice of the Princess of Eboli, who was at this time at enmity with the Order, on account of the late troubles at Pastrana. This lady had, as has been said, obtained possession of the manuscript of the book which is commonly known as the Life of St. Teresa by herself, although it is not so much a life as an account of her methods of prayer. Teresa had at

Beginnings at Seville. 129

first refused to let the silly and mischievous lady see her writing. But this refusal only provoked the curi osity and pique of the Princess more than ever. She knew that the Duchess of Alba had a copy, and that the book had been entrusted to the care of Doiia Luisa de la Cerda. How then could it be refused to her ? At last she got the book from Teresa, on the express condition that no one but herself should see it. It was easy for the Princess to make the promise, but she could not keep it, and perhaps had no intention of keeping it. Her triumph was to have it, not to read and to study it, and how could this triumph be real, unless she imparted her success to others ? So the book passed about from hand to hand, like some curiosity, among the household of the Princess first, and then among the fine ladies of the Court of Madrid. This was the state of things when the Prince died. After that the Princess made her famous effort to live in her own convent of Pastrana, with what success has already been said. The dissolution of the convent, and the flight of the nuns, made her an open enemy of the Reform, and so of Teresa herself. She took her revenge by putting the precious volume into the hands of the Inquisition.

It was no light thing in Spain, at that time, to get into the hands of the Holy Office. The case of Magdalen of the Cross had not been forgotten, and it is little exaggeration to say that there was the strongest possible presumption against the reality of visions and revelations of women, such as were con tained in the book referred to. It is not certain whether the book had not already been submitted to J 2

130 Beginnings at Seville.

the Inquisition of Madrid, by Father Banez, who was, of course, a great friend and admirer of St. Teresa. Holiness and learning did not themselves escape examination. John of Avila had been himself im prisoned, and Luis de Leon had been condemned. Teresa, with all her supernatural courage, was not brave by nature, and her humility and diffidence in herself were continually prompting her to fear whether, in all the marvellous ways by which she had been led, there had not been at least some admixture of delusion. We know that at one time she had been very much under the influence of one or two men of no great learning or judgment, who had encouraged her fears in this regard. Moreover, the book of her Life contained the record of some of the revelations on which, with the approval of her guides, she had acted in the work of the Reform, and thus anything that threw suspicion on these, would naturally cast discredit on that. This was just at the time when the conflict was beginning which must certainly cost her an immense amount of anxiety and pain, even if the cause of the Reform emerged victorious.

The blow from the Princess of Eboli came at a moment when it was even more painful than it might have been at other times. Souls like Teresa are hurt by the very fact of being made the subject of public criticism, and much more when the slightest slur is cast on their purity of faith or loyalty to the Church. It is a great trial to them to have been even falsely accused and suspected without foundation, a trial which is not entirely compensated for by the most signal acquittal. The fact still remains that they have

Beginnings at Seville. 131

been suspected, and that the tribunals have taken cognizance of the charge. In this case the issue of the examination was what we might have expected, and indeed, as has been said, she had been assured while at Veas by our Lord that there was nothing to fear. The Holy Office examined the book, and gave it a perfect approbation. This probably raised the re putation of St. Teresa to a height at which it had not stood before, and thus the attack was turned so as to add to her honour and influence. It was however, the prelude to other vexations which soon followed. The house at Seville had been imposed on Teresa most imprudently, and it was to be a source of con tinual trial for a long time to corne.

The order of time has now led us to one of the most interesting of the letters of St. Teresa, written from Seville, not long after her arrival, to the General Rossi, partly in defence of herself, but much more of the Fathers of the Reform, who had been seriously misrepresented to him by their Mitigated brethren in Andalusia. We know that Teresa always regarded the General with intense filial affection. He had shown her very great kindness in his visit to Spain, and it was, in fact, by his authority that she had begun the work of propagating the Reform. For herself and her own nuns she would have been content with the single Convent of St. Joseph of Avila, founded, before the visit of Rossi, under the authority of the Holy See. It was the General who had given her patents for other foundations, and had even per mitted a certain small number of foundations of friars of the same Order. We can also see traces, in her

132 Beginnings at Seville.

correspondence and in her works, of the care which she took to keep him informed of all that she did in the way of new foundations. The movement among the friars had by this time altogether outrun any control on her part, and she could not help the action of the Apostolic Visitors in favour of the further extension of the Reform, although she saw from the first that there must soon be an internecine conflict, which in any case must cause much pain to the General. And, considering the manner in which she had herself now become involved in the Anda- lusian movement, it was natural for her to fear greatly that the displeasure which was certain to fall on the Discalced friars might be extended to herself.

The letter which follows was written from Seville, as has been said, on the i8th of June.

JESUS.

The grace of the Holy Spirit be always with your lordship !

Last week I wrote to your lordship at much length by two hands, for I desired that the letter might soon reach your hands. Yesterday, the lyth of June, brought me two letters from your lordship, much indeed desired by me, the one dated last October, the other last January. Though they were not so lately written as I could have wished, they gave me much consolation, especially because your lordship's health is good. May our Lord so grant it ever, as we are continually praying in these houses of yours. Every day we make a particular prayer in choir for you, and without that, all take care to pray for you, for they know how much I love your lordship, and they know no other father but you, and so they love your lordship very much, as is but right, for they have no other good thing in

Beginnings at Seville. 133

the world but their vocation, and they are all so happy in it that they can never do enough in the way of gratitude to your lordship who has made them what they are.

I wrote to your lordship about the foundation of Veas, and that another is asked for in Caravaca, the licence for which has been given, but with such inconvenient con ditions. ... I also wrote to your lordship the causes for which I have come to found in Seville. May our Lord grant what is my end, namely, to smooth over the matters of these Discalced Fathers here, and that it may not annoy your lordship, and may I see it so to be ! I want your lordship to know that I inquired much about Veas when I got there, lest it might be in Andalusia, for in no way did I intend to come thither, if it was. But so it is, Veas is not in Andalusia, but it belongs to that province. I found that when the convent had been founded more than a month. As the nuns were already in the house, I thought it was better not to abandon the convent. This also was partly the reason why I came here. But my principal desire is, as I wrote to your lordship, that you should understand the matter of these Fathers. Although they justify themselves, and though in all truth I see they are nothing but true children of your lordship, and desire not to give you pain, yet I cannot exempt them from all blame in the matter. They seem now to begin to understand that it would have been better to proceed in another way, so as not to annoy your lordship. We have great battles, especially myself and Mariano, who is a man of great impetuosity, while, on the other hand, Gratian is like an angel. If he had been alone, .he would have done very differently, but he came here •because he was sent for by Father Balthasar, who was then Prior of Pastrana. I tell your lordship, that if you knew him you would be most glad to have him as a son, and such indeed I know him to be, and even Mariano the same.

This Mariano is a man of virtue and penitence, who has

134 Beginnings at Seville.

made himself known by all for his learning and ability, and your lordship may believe as a certainty that he has been moved by zeal for God and for the Order, only, as I have said, it has been exaggerated and indiscreet. I see no ambition in him at all, only, as your lordship says, the devil stirs up these concerns, and Mariano says many things which look like ambition. He has made me suffer many times, and as I know him to be a man of virtue I let it pass. If your lordship could hear him, you would not fail to be satisfied with him. He told me to-day that he could not be quiet till he had thrown himself at your lordship's feet. I have already written that both of them have asked me to write to your lordship to make their excuses, and so I shall only say- here what I think I am obliged to say, as I have already written once. First, let your lordship understand, for the love of our Lord, that I hold all the Discalced Friars as nothing in comparison with even the slightest touch of your lordship's habit. It is so indeed, it is to strike me in the eye to give your lordship the slightest displeasure. They have not seen, nor will they see, this letter, though I have told Mariano that if they are obedient your lordship will be merciful to them. Gratian is not here. Let your lordship believe that if I see them disobedient I will not see them again nor listen to them. But I cannot be as much your daughter as they profess themselves your sons.

I will say what I think — if it is foolish, let your lordship pardon me. As for the excommunication, this is what Gratian, the one at the Court, writes to Mariano. The Father Provincial, Fra Angelo, told him that he could not have him in the monastery, for he was excommunicate, and so he went to the house of his father. When the Nuncio heard of this, he sent to call to him Fra Angelo and scolded him much, saying that he was insulted when those who were there, because he had ordered them to come, should be spoken of as excommunicate, and any one who said they

Beginnings at Seville. 135

were so should be punished. Then he went back to the monastery, where he now lives, and he is preaching before the Court.

My Father and my Lord, this is not the time for measures of this sort. Gratian has a brother who is secretary to the King, who likes him much, and the King, as I have had reason to know, is not unfavourable to the Reform. Even the Calced Fathers say they cannot under stand how your lordship can treat as you do men so full of virtue, and that they themselves would delight in living with the Contemplatives,4 whose virtues they see, but your lordship prevents this by their excommunication. They say one thing to your lordship, but another thing here. They go to the Archbishop and say they do not dare to inflict these punishments, because they are soon to go to your lordship. They are a strange set ! My lord, I see one side as well as the other, and our Lord knows that I speak the truth, and I believe that the Discalced are, and will turn out to be, the more obedient of the two. Where your lordship is, you do not see what is passing here, but I see it and I say it, because I well know how holy your lordship is, and how much you are a friend to virtue.

Some of these Calced Fathers have come here to see me, especially the Prior. He is very good stuff. He came that I might show him the patents with which I had made this foundation. He wanted to have a copy of them, but I would not give it, le|st we might have a suit set on foot. He saw I had power to found. For, in the patent which your lordship sent me in Latin, after the coming of the Visitors, you give leave and say I may found " in all parts,' and thus the learned understand it, for your lordship does not assign place or kingdom, or give any limit, only you say, in all parts. It is even set me under precept, so that I

4 The Contemplatives was the name given to the Reformed Friars by the others.

136 Beginnings at Seville.

have had to labour as much as or more than I have strength for, being so old and worn out. Even the strain I had to put myself to at the Incarnation has not done me any harm. God gives me greater favours every day ; may He be in all things blessed !

As for those friars whom they have received from among the Caked, I have already told Mariano. Gabriel de la Penuela, he says, got the habit by a trick ! He came to Pastrana, and said that Father Vargas, the Visitor of Andalusia, had given it him, and when this was known, he took it himself. For some days past they have been about to send him away, and so they will do. The other one is not now with them. The monasteries were founded by the command of the Visitor Vargas, with the apostolic authority which he held. For here they consider that the principal point of the Reform is the foundation of monasteries of Discalced, and so also the Nuncio, when he appointed Father Antonio de Jesus to visit, gave licence to 'him to found monasteries. He would have done better not to do this without asking your lordship's leave first, and if Teresa of Jesus had been here then, perhaps this would have been looked to better. For with me it was never a question of founding houses without the leave of your 'lordship, and in this matter Fra Pedro Hernandez, the Visitor of Castile, did very well, and I owe him much for never forgetting to take care not to displease your lordship. But the Visitor here gave so many leaves and faculties to those Fathers of the Reform, urging them also at the same time, that if your lordship could see what they had of this kind, you would understand that they were not 'so much in fault. They say that they never sought to have or keep the friendship of Father Gaspar, but that he it was that sought them and begged them ever so much. As for the house which they took away from the Order, they have given it up again.

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Many other things they say in their own defence, so that I see they have not acted with so much of malice, and when I consider the great troubles they have passed through, and the penance that they do, and when I see that they are truly servants of God, it gives me pain to hear that they are in disgrace with your lordship.

It is certainly true that they live very well, and in great recollection, and among those whom they have received there are more than twenty who are making their courses, or whatever they call them. They are certainly very holy, and of good heads. What with the house here at Seville and that at Granada and La Penuela, there are more than seventy of them, I think I have heard. I do not see what is to become of all these, nor how it will look to all the world, being in the reputation which they are, unless we may all have to suffer for it. For with the King they are in high credit, and this Archbishop says they are the only true Carmelites. Pray let not your lordship make them leave the Reform. Believe me that although you may have all the reason in the world for this, it will not appear so. For your lordship to refuse to keep them under your protection, they do not desire it, no, nor does your lordship, who is a servant of our Blessed Lady, or that she should be dis pleased with your lordship for abandoning those who desire, at the cost of their toil and sweat, to increase her Order. Things are in such a position, that there is a need of much consideration.

The unworthy daughter and subject of your lordship,

TERESA DE JESUS.

Besides giving us so much insight into the char acter of the writer, this letter explains many things which might otherwise have seemed unintelligible. In the first place, we see how independent Teresa kept herself of participation in the excesses, as they

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may be called, of the Reformed Friars, and how completely she kept herself under the obedience of the General. She writes with great freedom, and we see that she has been in the habit of communi cating most openly to him all that she has done. Already, before she has been many days in Seville, she has written two letters to the General to explain her proceedings, which might seem to be contrary to his permission. She points to the root of the evil in the arbitrary action of the Commissary Vargas. He, no doubt, was within his right when he set aside the central authority of the Order. But he would have been far more prudent in acting in harmony with the General, who was, after all, bent on further ing the Reform as far as was in his power. She blames Mariano and the rest, but she finds their excuse in the fact that Vargas urged them on.

She also explains incidentally the reason she had for not thinking herself disobedient in founding in Andalusia, notwithstanding the original prohibition of Rossi. For in the patents he had last sent her, since the appointment of the Visitors, he had used the word " everywhere " without limitation. This also explains why the Prior of the Mitigation, when he saw the patents, did not make the objection that the General had limited her to Castile. This latest patent is not mentioned elsewhere, and it would seem that St. Teresa did not wish to have to act on it, as far as Andalusia was concerned. But she knew the permission and its extent, and it served her in good stead here, for it saved her the necessity of putting forward the commands she had received from Father

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Gratian, as Superior in Andalusia, to go to Seville. The only part of the letters which seems obscure is the passage in which she says that her having been at Veas and rinding that it belonged to Andalusia, had something to do with her going on to Seville. We must read here between the lines, but what she says about the patent is enough to justify her action. We know that if she had never gone to Veas, she would never have gone on to Seville, because it was the finding herself at Veas that made her think it right to obey Father Gratian as her Superior. This, however, she does not put forward in her letter to Father Rossi. It will turn out that this letter had no effect on the measures of the General. It could not have reached him in time to influence those measures.

We find at about the same date as this letter to Father Rossi, another to her faithful friend, Antonio Gaytan, which refers to a matter of which incidental mention has already been made, the projected foun dation of a convent of the Reform at Caravaca. This was a place not very far from Veas, and St. Teresa, had, as has been said, hoped to found the two con vents about the same time. She was deterred from carrying out her project by certain difficulties which had arisen, while on the other hand, the urgent desire of Father Gratian that she go at once to found at Seville made her divert the nuns whom she intended for Caravaca to this newer foundation, which was to cost her so much. She gives her own characteristic account of the beginnings at Caravaca in the Book of the Foundations.

'140 Beginnings at Seville.

When I was at St. Joseph's at Avila, about to depart for the foundation of Veas, of which I have spoken already, with everything settled except the immediate preparations for the journey, there came to me a special messenger from a lady who lived at Caravaca, called Dona Catalina, to tell me that three young women, after hearing a sermon by a Father of the Society of Jesus, had come to her house, determined never to quit it till a monastery should be built in that place. It was an act which they must have arranged with that lady, who is the person who helped them in the foundation. They were children of the greatest persons in that town. One was the daughter of Rodrigo de Moya, a very great servant of God, and a man of great prudence. They had money enough among them for a work like this. He knew what our Lord had done in the foundation of the monasteries, having heard of them from the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who always countenanced and helped us. When I saw the earnestness and fervour of these souls, who sent so far for the Order of our Lady, my devotion was kindled, and I felt a great wish to further their good intention. Having ascertained that the place was near Veas, I took with me more nuns than I was in the habit of doing, purposing to go thither, when the foundation in Veas should be settled. For judging by the letters, I thought we could not fail in making the arrangement.

But my plans were of little use, for our Lord had de creed otherwise, as I said in the history of the foundation of Seville. They had obtained permission of the Council of the Orders, but it was such as made me give it up, though I had resolved to go thither. The truth is, that when I had found out at Veas where the place was, that it was so far away, and what a labour it would be to visit the nuns, and that Superiors might take it amiss, I was not very willing to go and make the foundation. However, as I had raised certain expectations, I begged the Father Julian of Avila

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and Antonio Gaytan to go and see how the matter stood, and to put an end to it if they should think it right to do so. They found it had been very much neglected, not by those who were to become nuns, but by Dona Catalina, who was the chief person concerned in it, and who lodged the young women in a room by themselves, as if they were already withdrawn from the world. The nuns were so earnest, especially two of them (I am speaking of those who were to become nuns) that they completely won over Julian of Avila and Antonio Gaytan, so much so, that they had the deeds drawn up before they returned, and came away, leav ing the nuns in great joy. They were so much pleased themselves with the place and the country, that they did nothing else but say so, at the same time admitting that the road was bad. When I saw the matter settled, but the licence delayed, I sent back again the good Antonio Gaytan, who, out of affection for me, willingly undertook all this trouble. He and Julian of Avila were very eager about the foundation. In truth', we must thank them for this foundation, for if they had not gone thither and arranged it all, I could have done very little for it. I told Antonio Gaytan to go and put up the turn with the grating where they were to take possession, where the nuns were to remain till they found a proper house. He remained, therefore, many days there. It was in the house of Rod- rigo de Moya, who, as I said before, was the father of one of the young girls, and who had given us a part of it. He was there many days, exceedingly well pleased and busy with this.

When they had obtained the licence, and when I was about setting out on my journey, I heard that by one of the clauses of the permission the house was to be subject to the Commandery, and that the nuns were to yield obe dience to the knights. That I could not allow, because it was to be a house of the Order of our Lady of Mount

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Carmel, and accordingly they applied for another licence, and here, as in the case of Veas, they could not get it. But the King now reigning, Don Philip, was so good to me that, on my writing to him, he gave orders for the issuing of the licence, so ready is he to help those religious whom he knows keep their rule. For when he had heard of our way of living in the convents, and of our observance of the primitive rule, he helped us in everything, and so I earnestly beg of you, my daughters, always to make special intercessions for his Majesty, as we do at present. Then, as this other application had to be made for a licence, I departed for Seville, by order of the Father Provincial, who was then, as now, the Father Master Fra Jerome Gratian of the Mother of God, as I said before, and the poor children continued shut up till the following New Year's Day. It was in February they had sent the message to Avila. The licence now was very soon obtained, but, as I was so far away, and in the midst of so much trouble myself, I could not help them, and was very sorry for them. They wrote to me very often in their great distress, and I could not bear to keep them in that state any longer. 3

She then tells us how it was arranged that the nuns should be sent from Malagon, though she could not go with them.

I arranged that the Prioress should be one who, I was confident, would do exceedingly well, for she is much better than I am. Taking with them whatever was necessary, they departed with two of our Fathers of the barefooted Carmel ites, for the Father Julian of Avila and Antonio Gaytan had some days previously returned to their homes, and I did not like them to go with them, because the place was so far off and the weather so bad, for it was now the end of

3 Book of tJic Foundations , xxvii. 4, 5-

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December. The nuns on their arrival were received with great joy at the place, particularly by the ladies who were shut up so closely. The monastery was founded, and the Most Holy Sacrament carried in on the feast of the Name of Jesus, 1576. Two of them took the habit at once, the other was much given to melancholy, and the evil must have been increased by her confinement, to say nothing of the closeness of it, and her penances. It was settled that she should return home with one of her sisters. *

St. Teresa goes on to insist on the duty of gratitude for the gift of perseverance in religion, considering how this lady had been allowed to be so useful for the foundation, and then had failed by her low spirits. It appears that she afterwards went to the convent and was professed in due time.

The letter to Antonio Gaytan, of which mention has been made, is dated from Seville, July 10, 15/5. St. Teresa calls him " my good founder," alluding to his services in her foundations. She mentions having had a visit from the Archbishop of Seville, who has given them flour and money and much favour. Things are going on well. Gaytan need not be troubled. She mentions also that the new licence for Caravaca has been given, and asks her friend to take up the matter again. This must be for the second visit which is mentioned in the foregoing ex tract from the book of the Foundations. She says that if the "founders" had not taken the nuns to Segovia, they would still be at Pastrana, alluding to the services of Gaytan and Julian of Avila in the trans lation of the nuns from the latter place to the former.

4 Book of the Foundations, xxvii. 7.

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She says nothing can be done further until they know how matters are going at Madrid, in which matters Don Teutonic has exerted himself very greatly. The remainder of the letter contains nothing of importance.5

Of the same date with this familiar letter to her friend Antonio, we find another to a very different personage, King Philip II. It shows completely how, from the beginning of the trouble of the Reform, Teresa discerned clearly the simple remedy for all the divisions, and the violent measures which were taken from day to day, in the separation of the Discalced Carmelites into a province of their own under their own Provincial. This was the measure ultimately adopted, and an immense amount of ill- feeling and misery would have been spared, if it had been taken at once. The letter should be given in full.6

JESUS.

The grace of the Holy Spirit be with your Majesty always.

When I have been, with- much pain, commending to our Lord the affairs of this sacred Order of our Lady, and con sidering the great necessity in which it is, that these begin nings of good which our Lord has wrought in it may not come to nought, it has come to my mind that the best way to remedy our evils is that your Majesty should understand in what consists the complete establishment of the edifice in per fection, as well as the advantage of the Calced Fathers and their increased profit. For forty years I have lived in this Order, and looking on all things concerning it, I see clearly, that if there is not made a separate province of the Discalced, 5 Letter Ixiii. 6 Letter Ixiv.

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and that soon, much injury will be done, and I consider it will be impossible that our affairs can go on. As this is in the hands of your Majesty, and seeing that the Virgin our Lady has been pleased to take your Majesty for the support and remedy of her Order, I am now so bold as to write this, for the purpose of entreating your Majesty, for the love of our Lord and of His glorious Mother, that your Majesty order it so to be done, for it is greatly to the interest of the devil to prevent it, and he will not fail to suggest numberless inconveniences in this measure, while in truth they do not exist, but it is, on the contrary, good in every way.

It would be a great help to us, if, in this time of begin nings for us, the charge of government were committed to a Discalced Father, whom I have lately come to know, called Gratian. Though he is young, yet I have had to give our Lord great praises for what He has given to this soul, and the great things which He has done by his means, healing many evils, and so I think He has chosen him for great good to this Order. May our Lord so order things, that your Majesty may be pleased to do Him this service and so command.

For the favour done to me by your Majesty in giving the licence to found at Caravaca, I kiss your Majesty's hands many times. For the love of God I beseech your Majesty to pardon me, for I see that I have been very bold, but considering that He hears the poor, and that your Majesty is in His place, I do not think that I shall dis please or weary your Majesty. May God give to your Majesty as much comfort and as many years of life as I pray Him to give, and as the good of Christendom re quires.

The unworthy servant and subject of your Majesty,

TERESA DE JESUS,

The 1 9th of July. Carmelite.

K 2

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It can hardly be known whether Philip II. acted in consequence of this letter of St. Teresa. But it is certain that steps were taken at Madrid by the Nuncio soon after it was written, which pledged him, and probably the King, to the support of the Reform, unhappily not in the way suggested by Teresa. On the 2nd of August the Nuncio gave Father Gratian the brief appointing him Apostolic Visitor of the Carmelites of the old Observance in Andalusia, and Superior of the Reformed Carmelites both in Anda lusia and in Castile. This last appointment was what Teresa desired, and for the time it protected the Reform against the measures which were being de vised against it. But at the same time the appoint ment of Father Gratian to the onerous office of Visitor of the Carmelites of the Mitigation was doubly dangerous. It placed him in a post of authority over the very enemies who were so bitter against the Reform, and it took him away from the care which was required for the progress of the latter. What St. Teresa wanted was not the subjugation of the older Carmelites, but the independence of the new Institute, which was sure to flourish if it were left to itself and did not interfere with the Mitigation, nor the Mitigation with it. Moreover, as Teresa and her friends were soon to find out, it was a dangerous thing to lean too much on the authority of the Nuncio, not because the power of the Holy See was not supreme, but because Nuncios might be recalled or might die, and an Order lives on. However, the step was taken, and there was nothing to be done but to make the best of it. After all, Gratian was

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a man who might do immense good by visiting the Mitigated monasteries and convents in a spirit of sincere charity and prudence, in the same spirit which Teresa had herself displayed when forced into authority in her former convent of the Incarnation. He seems to have given due notice of his appoint ment to the Friars of the Mitigation in Andalusia, in order that they might have time to offer whatever remonstrance or opposition they thought right.

It will be remembered how opportunely St. Teresa, when she was in great difficulties about the foundation of her first convent at Avila, had received a sum of money, unexpectedly sent her from Peru by her good brother Lorenzo de Cepeda. Just at the time which we have now reached, when she was equally in want at Seville, and was on the eve of still greater troubles, Providence sent her the consolation of the arrival of the good Don Lorenzo in Spain. He came home with his brother Pedro, and with his own children. His wife had died some time before. Another brother, Geronimo, had died in Peru. Two remained there, Fernando and Agostino. Teresa hastened at once to communicate the good news to Juana de Ahumada, living with her husband at Alba de Tormez.

To her sister, Juana de Ahumada.

JESUS.

May the grace of the Holy Spirit be with you, dear one, and may He let you enjoy our brothers, for, glory be to the Lord, they are already at San Lucar. They have written to day to the Canon Cueva y Castilla here, to let us know, Seiior Juan de Ovalle at Alba, and me at Avila, as they think

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I am there. I think they will be greatly consoled to find me here. But the joys of this life have all their troubles with them, that we may not make ourselves tipsy over them !

You must kno\v that our good Geronimo de Cepeda died like a saint at Nombre de Dios. Pedro de Ahumada is come, and Lorenzo also. I am told his wife is dead, but this must not afflict us. I know what her life was ; it is a long time since she began to practise prayer, and her death was such as to astonish all, as the person who told me of it says. He has lost also another boy. He brings with him three, and the little Teresa. They are well, glory be to God. I am writing to them to-day, and sending them some little things.

They will be here, I am told, in two or three days. I think they will be delighted to find me so near. God's ways astonish me, to bring me them here when they seemed so far away. I am writing to day to our Father Gratian at Madrid, and so I send this by that way, as it is more certain, and your honour may have the news sooner. Do not weep for him who is in Heaven, but thank our Lord that He has brought us the others.7 [August 15.]

The rest of the letter is full of kindliness and thought for all. Juan de Ovalle is not to start for Seville till she has seen Lorenzo, for the heat at Seville is terrible, and perhaps Lorenzo may have business to keep him in those parts, in which case Juana might have to come with her husband. She tells her of the appointment of Father Gratian, and recommends him to her sister. If he is in those parts, any attention paid to him she will consider as paid to herself. Kind messages are sent to Antonio Gaytan, a visit is to be paid to the Marquesa, to tell her that

7 Letter Ixv.

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Teresa is well, and a good nun, sister of Juan de Ovalle, to whom Don Pedro was much devoted in old days, is to be congratulated on his return. The Prioress of the convent, and all the Sisters, as well as the Prioress of Salamanca, are not forgotten. This letter was written on the 12th of August, the feast of St. Clare.

We shall hear a good deal more of Lorenzo de Cepeda in the course of our history, as well as of his bright child, " Teresita," who became from this time the especial darling of her aunt. It seems to have been at once proposed that she should enter the convent at Seville. Even at that early age — when she was not yet twelve — she wished to be a Carmelite. There seems to have been a question raised as to the possi bility of her admission, and Father Gratian, to whom the matter was of course referred, seems to have allowed of her residence in the convent, and to have done this in a manner which relieved Teresa of all scruple. In a letter written about this time (the 2nd of September),8 she tells him that they have con sulted Father Henriquez, one of the best theologians of the Society, who has told them that it had been decided by the Congregation of the Council that a girl under twelve could not receive the habit in the usual way, but that she might be brought up in the convent. A Father of the Order of St. Dominic gave the same reply. So "Teresita is already in the house, wearing a habit like a nun. She is like the familiar spirit of the community. The father, Don Lorenzo, is full of joy, and all the nuns are delighted."

8 Letter Ixvi.

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Her aunt describes her as having something angelic about her, and she amuses them all at recreation with her stories about the Indians and the voyage — "much better than I could tell them," says Teresa. She is glad that the nuns are not annoyed by it all, and she longs for the day when she can present her to Gratian. It will be a great blessing for such a soul to be brought up away from the world. She thanks Gratian in her usual gracious way for having been so kind as to arrange it all as he has.

In the same letter to Father Gratian, we find St. Teresa speaking of the prospects of the visitation which he was about to make of the Carmelites of the Observance in Andalusia. We have already men tioned this appointment of Father Gratian by the authority of the Nuncio. It was made on the 2nd of August, soon, therefore, after the King had received the letter addressed to him by St. Teresa. It was not what St. Teresa counselled, but it is probable that the counsellors of Philip, and the Nuncio Ormaneto himself, thought comparatively little of the prudent plan suggested to the King. Gratian appears to have begun the execution of his onerous office by the comparatively easy part of it. He went through the convents and monasteries of the Reform in Castile. With the convents he had little to do. The monasteries of the friars would naturally give him more trouble, on account of the different manner in which the Rule was observed in each. There was unity in the Constitutions by which the nuns were regulated, because Teresa had obtained leave to give them her own Constitutions. Among the friars, each

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Superior appears to have introduced regulations of his own. Gratian remedied this by reducing them to uni formity in this respect. He spent about three months in this task, and thus it was November before he undertook the more difficult work of the visitation of the Calced Carmelites in Andalusia.

Teresa tells him, in the letter from which we have already quoted, written nearly at the end of Sep tember, that she has had a visit from the Provincial of the Observantines, as well as from the Prior of the Monastery of Seville, and from Father Caspar Nieto. She tells Gratian that they had all expressed them selves ready to obey him, and to further his measures of Reform to the best of their power. She, on the other hand, had assured them, from what she knew of his manners and methods, that he would adopt no measures which would breathe a spirit of severity. Thus, at the time at which this letter was written, there seemed, at least to the sanguine mind of St, Teresa, some hope of the successful issue of this most delicate undertaking.

The visit of these Observant Friars was probably brought about by the notice which Gratian had taken care to give them of his approaching visit. It appears that before acting on his powers, he had taken the step of consulting the leading friars of the Reform as to the policy which he should pursue. In this he would only have done what it might have been natural and harmless for him to do under ordinary circumstances. The termination of the questions now at issue did not depend on the reception accorded to him by the friars in Andalusia, nor, perhaps, on

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anything that could then have been done in Spain, except that one measure which Teresa had so earnestly recommended. If the King and the Nuncio had set themselves at once to obtain the erection of the Reform into a separate Province, peace at least would have been secured. It was in this way that peace was at last obtained. But it was well known in Spain that the General of the Order, and the Chapter that had lately been held at Piacenza, were deter mined on measures hostile to the Reform, and that 4 well-known Fra Tostado was soon to arrive, with the mission of executing them. Thus the Observants could say that they were fighting in defence of their Order, and that their resistance was approved by its highest authorities. This was enough to make the commission given to the Apostolical Visitor one of extreme danger and delicacy. If it had been carried out in the same spirit which St. Teresa had herself shown in her government of the Convent of the Incarnation, it might perhaps have succeeded. For then the best friars of the Observance would have been gradually won over, and there would have been no dissensions to heal when the Commissary of the General had appeared on the scene.

Under the circumstances of the case, Jerome Gratian would have had a better hope of succeeding if he had followed his own instincts and the advice of St. Teresa, instead of throwing himself upon the advice of the stern and uncompromising men who had been so long the leaders of the Reform. His character and spirit were altogether different from theirs. He was as a child by their side, not yet thirty

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years of age, quite recently recruited to the Order. They must have looked on him as a novice set to govern them, by the favour of the King, and, per haps, the excessive devotion of Mother Teresa. In such a position, he should have acted without them. The cause of the Reform was in his hands, and he had been selected for his work precisely for the very qualities which he possessed and which they did not possess. To call them to his counsels was to act as a general who is afraid of responsibility, and convokes a council of war composed of independent and reck less officers.

The historian of the Carmelites gives us an ac count of the discussion, in which Gratian appears to have stood alone in his opinion. He seems to have thought that the advice of St. Teresa would carry all the votes. His plan was, considering what was al ready known as to the decrees of the General Chapter and the mission of Father Tostado, that, notwith standing the strong position which he occupied by the appointment of the Nuncio and the support of the King, he would do best to confine his acts of authority to the convents and monasteries of the Reform. He would intimate his appointment to the others, but would leave them free either to appeal against any exercise of his powers, or to invite him to use them. If they asked for copies of his com mission, he would give them. In short, his plan was to act with authority only where his authority was welcome, and so likely to be used with success.

Gratian was the Provincial Superior of the assem bled friars, as well as the Apostolical Visitor. They

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listened to him with respect, but without conviction. They were strong, severe men, with but little of that sweetness and gentleness, to produce which the prac tice of great mortifications is not enough, without the interior spirit and constant communion with God in prayer. Antonio of Jesus spoke after Gratian, and declared that he could not advise the moderate mea sures proposed. He was the very first friar of the Reform, and of great personal authority. Others followed in the same strain, but the debate was decided by a fiery speech of Ambrose Mariano. He declared that there was a time for peace and a time for war, and that now was the time for war. The Calced Carmelites must be reduced by rigour, if they would not yield to the Visitor's authority. The General might be angry, he might misconceive their intentions and hold them as rebels, but they must endure this, for it was an honour to suffer and to be calumniated for the sake of their holy Order. Mother Teresa was worthy of all respect, but she was mis taken in thinking that the end in view could be obtained by the gentle measures which she had recommended. Gratian must go on his path as Visitor manfully, and use, if necessary, all the wea pons of coercion which would be placed at his dis posal by the ecclesiastical and secular authorities. It is probable that the speeches, as given in the history, give rather what the author composed for the Fathers than their very words. But it is not likely that there is any misrepresentation as to the opinions of the assembled friars.

Gratian had gained nothing, therefore, by consult-

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ing the friars. He found himself almost alone, and if he followed his own convictions he must now do it in the teeth of all his religious brethren. This was the condition of things when he reached Seville early in November. He seems to have made up his mind to follow the advice of Mariano, and thus to adopt a line of conduct not only ruinous in itself, but for which he was altogether unfit. He appointed the feast of the Presentation of our Blessed Lady for his visit to the monastery of friars of the old observance. He took with him two friars, Fathers Antonio and Bartholomew of Jesus. He read to the assembled friars the patent which appointed him Visitor and Superior of all the Carmelites in Andalusia. They demanded copies of the Brief, and these he refused. A storm at once arose, and the clamour and confusion were so great that a messenger ran to tell Teresa and her nuns that Gratian's life was in danger. She was so alarmed as hardly to be able to go on reciting the Divine Office, but she heard a voice saying to her, "Woman of little faith, lay aside thy fear, all is going well!" Mariano, who was probably the suggester of the evil counsel ac cording to which Gratian refused to give a copy of his patent, sent off and secured the aid of the Governor of the city and the Archbishop, and the friars were forced, against their will, to exterior sub mission. Only one, however, of the whole number acknowledged Gratian's authority. It was Father John Evangelist, the Subprior. Such a victory, ob tained by force, was tantamount to a defeat.

A well-known Carmelite Bishop, Diego de Leon,

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who held the bishopric of Sodor, happened to be at Seville at this time, and exerted himself to calm the angry spirit of the friars. Gratian left the monas tery, and a report of the affair was sent to Madrid. The Canon Juan de Padilla is mentioned as having supported the cause of the Visitor, and it seems that the reluctant friars were gradually reduced to accept certain points of reformation. The Subprior was made Vicar in the place of the Prior, who was either ill or absent. Other posts of authority were filled by friars of the Reform. Some good disciplinary changes were introduced. A noviceship was estab lished, of which Gratian made himself the first master. The younger friars were made to study. The Pro vincial, Father Agostino de Suarez, was sent away to a distant monastery, some new Superiors were placed elsewhere, and two friars were sent through out the province to exact obedience to Gratian. But the opposition managed to send two Priors of monas teries to Rome, to ask the Holy Father to rescind all the powers imparted to the Visitor by the Nuncio. Such was the result of the attempt to carry out the Visitation against the will of the friars who were to be reformed thereby. Meanwhile, the blow was about to fall on St. Teresa herself, which was to have the effect of placing her before the world as a person in disgrace, and to hinder for a long time the progress of her foundations.

Before we pass on to this, we may pause to finish the account of the letters of this time. The first to be mentioned is one of uncertain date, written to a member of her own family, it is' uncertain to whom.

Beginnings at Seville. 157

It must have been written a little later than that to Juana de Ahumeda, already mentioned. It mentions the arrival of Juana with her husband at Seville, for the purpose of seeing her newly returned brother and his family. They found that Don Lorenzo had gone to the Court, to try, as was the custom of those days, whether anything could be got for him from the favour of the King. He returned, as we learn later on, without obtaining anything. Teresa says he has determined to spend the winter at Seville, and go straight to Avila in the spring. He is much better since his arrival in Spain.9

Another undated letter to Father Gratian, shows us how much he had need of the experience which St. Teresa had spent so many years in acquiring, and also how free she was in pointing out to him the mistakes which he might make by indulging his own natural lenity. He had been visiting the convent of Toledo, and there was soon to be a vacancy in the office of Prioress. She tells him that the present Prioress, whose health is miserable, had still better be re-elected, as almost all the nuns are so devoted to her. This nun was Anne of the Angels, one of the original four of the foundation of St. Joseph's at Avila. "She is rather fond of cats," St. Teresa says, by which she apparently means to allude to a fond ness on the part of the good Prioress for the friars of the Mitigation. But she is very painstaking, and has many virtues. St. Teresa says that none of their convents is more in need of capable subjects than that of Toledo. But it seems that Gratian had held

9 Letter Ixvii.

158 Beginnings at Seville.

out hopes, in some cases, that particular religious might be transferred to other convents if their own did not suit them, whether from reasons of health or for other less cogent causes. Teresa protests against this as a great mischief. She tells Gratian that she understands the weaknesses of women better than he does. She says that it is most dangerous to encourage the thought that a change of convent is possible under any circumstances, except in the case of a new foundation, when some nuns must be taken from convents already existing. Even from this she has seen so much mischief, that she has wished at times that no more new foundations could be made, so that even this possibility might be cut off. "Believe me this truth, and if I die don't let it be forgotten, that with persons of enclosed Orders the devil wishes nothing more than that they should come to think such a thing possible." She adds that she had asked leave from the General that subjects might be changed from one convent to another, when the former was prejudicial to their health, but that she had seen so many inconveniences in it, that she did not think it ought to be permitted except for the advancement of the Order, as in the case of new foundations. " It is better that some should die, than that all should be injured by such a permission." She begs him also to withdraw from the Superior at Malagon some permissions which she had herself granted to her, as to the reception of postulants without reference to a higher Superior. This leave had been granted because several nuns had lately been taken from her convent for new foundations.

Beginnings at Seville. 159

She speaks with beautiful humility about her delight at resigning all the care of the government of these convents to Gratian. She tells him how delighted St. John of the Cross — " Senequita," little Seneca, she calls him — is to find himself under his rule. The letter concludes with some amusing remonstrances at the little care Gratian takes of himself. He has had two falls from a donkey, and this concerns her much. He must take more covering at night, as it has begun to be cold. At the time she writes, affairs at Seville were going on better.10

10 Letter Ixix.

160 Note to Chapter VI.

NOTE TO CHAPTER VI.

The letters of this time are the following :

1. (Ixi.) To a person at Avila. From Seville, June 4, 1575. A short note about some money.

2. (Ixii.) To the Most Reverend the General of the Order of Mount Carmel, Fra John Baptist Rossi, of Ravenna. From Seville, June 18, 1575.

This letter is translated in full at pp. 132, seq.

3. (Ixiii.) To Antonio Gaytan, of Alba-, From Seville, July 10, 1575.

This letter is referred to at p. 139.

4. (Ixiv.) To King Philip II. From Seville, July 19, 1575. Translated at p. 144.

5. (Ixv.) To the Senora Dona Juana de Ahumada, her sister. From Seville, August 15, 1575.

Partly translated at p. 147.

6. (Ixvi.) To Father Fra Jerome Gratian, of the. Mother of God. From Seville, September 27, 1575.

Referred to at p. 149.

7. (Ixvii.) To a lady, her relative. From Seville, October

24, 1575-

Referred to at p. 157.

8. (Ixviii.) To Dona Catalina Hurtado. Date uncertain. A note asking for prayers.

9. (Ixix.) To Father Fra Jerome Gratian, of the Mother of God. From Seville, end of 1575.

An account of this letter is given, pp. 157— 1 59-

CHAPTER VII. The Decree of Reclusion.

BUT it is now time to give a more full account of the proceedings in Italy against the Reform, and indeed, against St. Teresa herself, to which reference has more than once been already made. The General Chapter of the Order of Mount Carmel had been held at Piacenza in the month of May, about the same time, therefore, with the first meeting between Teresa and Father Gratian at Veas and her subsequent jour ney to Seville. Gregory XIII. had enjoined on the assembled Fathers to take steps towards the restora tion of the ancient observance, and for its preserva tion where a return had already been made to it. He also enjoined on them to take strong measures against refractory subjects, especially any who had set up or accepted houses against the will of their Superiors, and the like. This injunction was probably suggested to him by the General, who considered the proceedings of the friars of the Reform in Andalusia as acts of disobedience, although no step seems to have been taken without the authority of the Nuncio. We have seen that the General had already induced the Holy Father to cancel the appointments of the Visitors named by the Nuncio, and that after this L 2

1 62 The Decree of Reclusion.

had become known in Spain, the Nuncio had con sulted the Holy See, and had received an answer that his powers as Legate for the reformation of the religious Orders were not curtailed or recalled. We have thus a curious instance of a conflict arising be tween the General of an Order on the one hand, and the Nuncio of the Holy See and his delegates on the other, in consequence of want of perfect support from head-quarters. It is difficult to see how the disturbances which naturally ensued could have been avoided under such circumstances.

The decrees of the Chapter of Piacenza made es pecial mention of the Discalced Friars in Andalusia, who were severely blamed for having fixed themselves beyond the limits allowed to them by the General, that is, in the Province of Castile. They were to be threatened with punishments and censures, and, if necessary, the aid of the secular arm was to be called in against them. But more was designed than the simple punishment of offenders. Father Jerome Tostado, a distinguished Portuguese Father, was sent into Spain, with plenary powers as Visitor, and the object of his visit was little less than the destruc tion of the Reform, as far as it could be said to have a separate existence of its own. His instructions, according to the not entirely impartial account given by the Chronicler of the Reformed Carmel, were to compliment the King on his zeal for reformation, and to congratulate him on the progress which had already been made towards the desired end. The General had instructed Tostado to place the most distinguished of the Discalced Friars in certain offices

The Decree of Rechision. 163

in the unreformed monasteries, where their example and influence would be both a stimulus and a help to the others. On the other hand, some of the best subjects of the old observance were to be placed in the Reformed monasteries, in order that they might there catch the spirit of the renovated rule. The intention which was thus masked was, we are assured, the simple destruction of the Reform. Its subjects would be living in monasteries where the old rule was observed with all its mitigations. They were to abandon their distinctive dress and peculiar practices, and yet they were to be supposed, each man for him self, still to keep the new rule.

Whatever may have been the intention which animated these instructions, it is certain, at first sight, that the Reform could not have survived the introduction and execution of the measures which were contemplated by their framers. Everything leads us to see the simple necessity of the separation on which St. Teresa insisted so urgently from the first, and which was, after so much disturbance and waste of time, adopted in the end. It is not difficult to see that the measures determined on in the General Chapter may have gone considerably beyond the line which the General Rossi, if left to himself, would have adopted. There is no doubt that Rossi was most sincerely desirous to see his Order reformed, although he could hardly have thought it possible that it should be universally brought back to the strict observance which had been revived by St. Teresa. As early as the year 1524, under the Ponti ficate of Clement VII., it had been arranged by a

164 The Decree of Reclusion.

General Chapter held at Venice that the Order should be reformed in a different way, which was usually followed in the case of other similar reformations. This was by the establishment in each province of houses of stricter observance, to which subjects who felt moved to such a life might betake themselves, or might be sent by their Superiors. Rossi had been eager for some reform from the very beginning of his own Generalate, in 1563, when he had obtained leave to visit the provinces. But we have already seen that his visit to Spain in 1566 had been in great measure a failure, on account of the opposition made to his plans of reform by the Andalusian friars, who had managed to poison against him the mind of the King. He had, however, contributed most powerfully to the future reform by the patents which he gave to St. Teresa, and it is natural to think, that if the friars of the Reform had conducted them selves with the same prudence and moderation which she always showed, and had kept the General in formed of their proceedings, he would have been as favourable to them as he had been to her.

The appointment of the Apostolical Visitors by the authority of the Nuncio, Ormaneto, may have given some chagrin, perhaps, to Rossi, but he could not have been seriously hostile to measures which, after all, were only intended to advance an end which he had so much at heart. The truth seems to be, that the Castilian Visitor, Father Hernandez, ma naged affairs with much more moderation and pru dence than his Andalusian colleague, Father Vargas. It is needless here to recapitulate the many steps

The Decree of Reclusion. 165

taken in Andalusia which must have been obnoxious to the General. In the year before the meeting of the General Chapter he had obtained, as has been said, the revocation of the powers of these Visitors by the Pope. This revocation, as we have seen, came to nothing, but the subsequent conduct of the chief agents of the Reform in Andalusia certainly does not seem to have been such as to make Rossi think that revocation an unadvisable measure.

There was no reason why Teresa should have been mixed up, in the mind of the General and of the Chapter, with the proceedings in Andalusia, if they had but known the real state of the case. But her name was as a tower of strength to the party of the Reform, and it was natural that those who were opposed to the Reform should not discriminate very carefully between her cause and that of the seem ingly rebellious friars. The one false step which she had made, in founding at Yeas, could not well have been known in Italy at 'the time of the General Chapter and of the appointment of Tostado as Visitor. But the Friars of the Reform in Spain were not likely to be silent about her virtues and influence, and their opponents would be ready enough to mix up her name in the complaints which they forwarded to Italy. In truth, the very high reputation which her convents must have gained furnished the Reform party with the strongest possible arguments. Here were women keeping the primitive rule in its strict ness. How could it be impossible for men to do the same? Again, the convents of the Reform might se'em to many to require the existence of friars of

1 66 The Decree of Reclusion.

the same Observance to direct and govern them. It was impossible to be hostile to the Reformed friars and at the same time to be perfectly content with the Reformed nuns. It is very probable indeed, and this seems to have been the impression of Teresa herself, that false reports concerning her participation in the acts of the friars had reached the ears of the General. In any case, she was made the subject of a special decree of the Chapter.

St. Teresa speaks of this decree against her, and of the spirit which it seemed to breathe, in a famous passage of her Foundations, the language of which is so moderate and humble as to give immense weight to the complaints which she nevertheless makes.1 She says she had already told her children how her foundations had been made, not only with the approbation of the General, but, after the first, under a special command from him. She says that her obedience in this matter was the greatest of her joys. She would have been happy enough to rest from her labours, but the General told her he could not allow this. He wished to see as many foundations as there were hairs on her head. When the Chapter came to be held, it would be natural and fair that some approbation and praise should have been given to a work which had resulted in an increase of the Order. On the contrary, the authorities of the Chapter not only enjoined on her to cease from her work of the foundations, but to choose one of the convents already founded in which she was to live, and on no account leave it for any pretext whatsoever. She adds that

1 Book of the Foundations, xxvii. 17, seq.

The Decree of Reclusion. 167

she became aware at the same time that men whom she does not scruple to call "ill- willed and suspicious," had drawn over the General to their own way of thinking, and this, she says, caused her great pain. The prohibition to leave the convent in which she might be placed she speaks of as a kind of imprison ment. She says there is no religious woman who may not go from one house to another by order of the Provincial. Two charges of serious moment were at the same time made against her, and she says that one of these calumnies amounted to an impu tation of infamy. She breaks out into a beautiful passage on the joy which comes with suffering and injustice, and on the lesson which they convey of the worthlessness of human praise. We shall speak of these charges presently.

The decree against St. Teresa arrived in Spain in the course of the autumn months, and was first of all communicated to the Provincial of the Observance in Castile, P. Angelo de Salazar, with orders to inform her concerning it. He was an old friend, one who knew her very well and venerated her greatly. He delegated his unpleasant duty to one of the Carmelite friars at Seville, Father Ulloa, who had so great a respect for Teresa as to hesitate to execute the commission. But she overcame the difficulty herself. She had heard of the decree from another source — such things easily get wind — and she wrote to beg him to communicate it to her at once. She was ready to set out immediately for one of the Castilian convents. But Father Gratian intervened. As Apostolical Visitor he might have dispensed her

1 68 The Decree of Reclusion.

altogether from any obligation to obey. But he probably knew her too well to put so severe an order upon her. However, as the winter season had already set in, he ordered her not to leave Seville till it was over, least the journey should seriously impair her health. This is the reason why we find her still remaining at Seville until the following summer.

She poured out her heart on this trying occasion, one of the greatest pains of her life, in a letter to Rossi himself which has happily been preserved. The exact date is not certain, as the signature has been cut off. But we cannot be wrong in placing it at the end of the year 1575, or the beginning of 1576.

JESUS.

The grace of the Holy Spirit be always with your lord ship. Amen.

Since I have been in Seville, I have written to your lordship three or four times. I have not done so oftener, because the Fathers who have come back from the Chapter told me that your lordship was not at home, but had gone to visit the houses at Mantua. Thanks be to God that that business has been happily concluded. In those letters I also gave an account of the convents which have been founded this last year. They are three, at Veas, at Cara- vaca, and here. Your lordship has in them as your subjects some very great servants of God. Two of them have revenues, the last here is founded in poverty. As yet it has not a house of our own, but I hope in the Lord that it will soon have one. As I feel certain that some of these letters of mine have reached your lordship's hands, I do not, in this letter, give a full account of all.

I said in them how great a difference there is between

The Decree of Re elusion. 169

talking to these Discalced Fathers, Jerome Gratian and Mariano, and the things that I hear of them from Italy. They are most certainly true sons of your lordship, and substantially, I would be bold to say, none of those who talk so much in these matters are superior to them in this respect. As they have made me their mediator, that your lordship might restore your favour to them — for they them selves did not dare to write — I entreated your lordship in these letters with all the earnestness of which I am capable, and so I entreat now, for the love of our Lord, that your lordship will do me this kindness, and give some credit to what I say, since there is no reason why I should say anything but the whole truth. I should even think it an offence to God if I were not to say it, and especially to a Father whom I love so much, and if I could be silent without going against God, still I should hold it for a great want of good faith and think it very ill. When we shall stand before His tribunal, your lordship will see what you owe to your true daughter, Teresa of Jesus. This is the only consolation that I have in these matters. I well know that there will be those who will say the contrary of me. But as such all understand me, and shall understand me, as far as I can make them, as long as I live, I mean persons not led by passion.

I wrote to your lordship of the commission which Father Gratian had from the Nuncio, and that at that time the Nuncio had sent for him again. Your Paternity will know before this that they gave him the commission over again, to visit the Discalced nuns and friars and also the province of Andalusia, I know most certainly that Gratian refused this last as long as he could, whatever may be said to the contrary, but it is the truth, and his brother, the Secretary, was equally averse to it, as a matter which could not be carried out without great trouble. But the thing once settled, if these Fathers would have believed me, the affair

1 70 The Decree of Reclusion.

might have been carried out without any hurt to any oner in a very brotherly way. To this end I did all I could, as was only reason, and besides, since we have been here they have helped us in all things, and, as I wrote to your lordship, I find among them persons of talent and learning, and I wish very much it were the same in our province of Castile.

I have always been fond of making a virtue of necessity, as they say, and so I should have wished that, when they set themselves to resist, they would have considered whether they could carry out their resistance to a good end. But on the other hand, I am not surprised that they should be tired of all the visitations and novelties which we have had for our sins these many years. May it please God that we may know how to get some profit from it all ! His Majesty chastises us much. But now the Visitor is of our own Order, it does not appear so much to its discredit, and I hope in God, that, if your lordship shows favour to this Father, so that people may understand that he is in your lordship's good grace, the business will be done very well indeed. He is writing to your lordship, and desires very much what I say, and not to give your lordship any displeasure, and that he may be considered as your obedient son.

I do then once more now entreat your lordship, for love of our Lord and of His glorious Mother — whom your lord ship loves so much, and whom this Father also loves in like manner, for it was because of his great devotion to her that he entered this Order — I beg that your lordship will answer him, answer him with kindness, and let alone other things of the past, even though he may have committed some faults therein, and take him as very much your son and subject, for so in truth he is, and that poor Mariano the same, though sometimes he does not know what he is at. I should not be surprised if he had written to your lordship things he does not really desire, from want of knowledge

The Decree of Reclusion. 171

how to explain himself. He declares that he never had any intention, either in word or in deed, to give annoyance to your lordship. As the devil gains so much when things are,understood as he desires, it must be he who has been at work in helping one, who without desiring it, has con ducted his affairs badly.

Let your lordship rather consider that it is the part of children to make mistakes, and the part of fathers to pardon and not look into their faults. For love of our Lord I entreat your lordship to do me this favour. Consider that there are many reasons why this should be. It may be that your lordship does not understand things at that distance, as I do who am on the spot, and that, although we poor women are not good at giving advice, yet still we do some times hit the mark. I cannot understand what harm can come of it, but, as I say, much good, I mean in your lordship's admitting to favour the men who, if they had the opportunity, would most willingly cast themselves at your feet. God never declines to pardon, and thus if it were to be made known that your Paternity is pleased that the reform should be made by your own subject and son, whom for the sake of this, you delight to pardon, all would be well. If there were but many to whom such a work could be committed ! But since, as it seems, there are not any with the talent which this Father has, as I am certain your lordship would say if you could see him — why should not your lordship let it be seen that you are glad to have him as your subject, and that all may understand that this reformation, if it is well done, is so by means of your lordship and your counsel and advice? When people see that your lordship is pleased with him, all is smoothed at once. I should like to say a great many things on this matter. I beg our Lord to grant that your lordship may understand what is good for this purpose. My words have for some time had no weight with your lordship. I am well assured that if I am

172 The Decree of Rcclusion.

mistaken in what I say, it is not my will that is wrong. Father Antonio of Jesus is here, and he could not do less than he has, though like the other Fathers, he has begun to make a defence of himself. He is writing to your lord ship, and perhaps he may have better success than I — and may your lordship conclude as is best, as to all that I am saying. May our Lord do as He has the power and as He sees ought to be done !

I have been informed of the decree which is come of the General Chapter, that I am not to leave one house. It was sent hither by the Provincial, Father Angelo, to Father Ulloa, with an order to notify it to me. He thought it would give me much pain, inasmuch as the intention of those Fathers who procured it had been to give me pain, and so he kept it back. It must be a little more than a month that I got them to give it to me, as I knew of it from another quarter. I tell your lordship for certain, that as far as I can understand myself, it would have been a great joy and delight to me if your lordship had written to order me this, and that I had thus seen that you had com passion on the great travails that I, who am equal to but little suffering, have had to pass through in these founda tions, and that as a reward for them you give me the order to rest. Even considering the way in which it has come, it has given me much comfort to be able to be quiet. As I have so great a love to your lordship, I have not been able, even though this is a boon to me, not to feel hurt that it should have come on me as on a person of great dis obedience, and that Father Fra Angelo should have been able to make it public at the Court, before I knew anything about it, so that it appeared that great force was being put upon me. And so he wrote to me that it might be set right by the Papal Camera, as if it were not a great relief to me ! Be quite sure that even if I could not, without the greatest possible labour, do what your lordship orders me,

The Decree of Rcclusion. 173

it would never cross my mind to cease to be obedient. And never may God bring me to such a pass as to find \vhat I like against the will of your lordship ! I can say with truth, and our Lord knows this, that if I had any relief in the toils, discomforts, afflictions, and evil speakings that I have had to undergo, it was to know that I was doing the will of your lordship and was pleasing you. And so it will be this that will please me in doing now what your lordship orders me. I wished to execute it at once, but it was Christmastide, and as the journey is so long, they did not permit me, considering that it was not your lordship's will that I should risk my health, and thus it is that I am still here. Not that I intend to remain always in this house, but only till the winter is past, for I am not at home with the people of Andalusia. And what I beg very much of your lordship is, that you will not leave off writing to me wherever I may be. For now I have no more business affairs, a thing which certainly is a great pleasure to me, I fear that your lordship may forget me, though I shall not give an occasion for it, for although your lordship may stop writing, I shall not leave off writing on my part, for my own relief.

In these parts it has never been understood, nor is it understood, that the Council and the Apostolic Letters take away from the Superiors the power of ordering nuns to go to other houses, for the affairs or the good of the Order, and many such affairs may turn up. I do not say this for myself— for 1 am now worth nothing, and I do not speak of staying in a house, where I should have a certain comfort and repose, but even in a prison, if I understood it gave pleasure to your lordship, I would willingly stay all my life — but that your Paternity may have no scruple about what has been done in the past in my case. Although I had the patents, yet I never went anywhere to make a foundation, as, moreover, it is clear I never could, without having the written leave of the Superior. Thus Father Fra Angelo

1 74 The Decree of Rechision.

gave it me for Veas and Caravaca, and Father Gratian gave it me for coming here, for he had then the same commission from the Nuncio as he has now, although he did then use it. And yet Father Fra Angelo has said that I was an apostate and was excommunicated. May God forgive him ! Your lordship knows and is witness that I have always done what I could that your lordship should be well with him, and to give him satisfaction, I mean in things which were not against the pleasure of God, and yet I have never been able to get him to be well with me.

It would be much better if he were as much displeased with Valdemoro. He is Prior at Avila, and has sent the Discalced Fathers from the Incarnation, to the great scandal of the people, and he treats the nuns there, when the convent was in such a state as to give great occasion for praising God, in such a way, that it is pitiable to see the great trouble they are in. I hear by letter from thence that to take the blame off him they put it on themselves. The Discalced Fathers have now come back, and as I am informed, the Nuncio has given orders that no other of the Order of Carmel are to hear the confessions. The dis comfort of these nuns has given me great pain. They do not give them anything but bread, and a great deal of dis quietude besides. It makes me pity them much.

May God remedy all this, and preserve your Paternity to us for many years ! I am told now that the General of the Dominicans is coming here. If God would but grant me the favour that your lordship should chance to come ! although, on the other hand, I should feel for all the labour it would cost you. So I must be content to put off this satisfaction for eternity, when there will be no end, and then your lordship will know what you owe me. May our Lord, of His mercy, be pleased that I may deserve it.

I recommend myself much to the prayers of their Paternities, the reverend Fathers who are your lordship's

The Decree of Rechision. 175

companions. The subjects and daughters of your lordship here beg that you will give them your blessing, and I beg the same for myself.2

Few of St. Teresa's letters are more perfectly characteristic of her than this. She is far more anxious to win the General over to favour Gratian and Mariano, than to defend herself. She does not deny the faults that may have been committed, and she puts their claim to pardon at the hands of the General on the good of the Order, the kind fatherly feeling of the General himself, the excellence of the men whom she is recommending, and her own personal entreaty. Perhaps Rossi was not altogether free in the matter. The Andalusian friars had been able to defeat his own personal efforts to bring them to a better observance, and, however considerable may be the authority of the General of an Order, that of a General Chapter is superior to his. In any case, it would hardly have been in his power to go against the universal or dominant feeling of his subjects. We have no means of knowing how far Rossi was overruled by the friars of the Chapter. St. Teresa evidently considered that he was not so much over ruled as overpersuaded.

Teresa avoids saying too much about the autho rity of the Nuncio. At the time at which she wrote Gratian and his assistants were for the moment triumphant. There was no open resistance to them in Andalusia. Teresa speaks of the prudence of those who make a virtue of necessity, but she says no more. Her plan evidently was that Rossi should

- Letter Ixxiv.

1 76 The Decree of Reclusion.

adopt Gratian as his own deputy or Visitor, and so unite in him the ordinary jurisdiction which he could confer, to the extraordinary powers committed to him by the Nuncio. If this had been done, the work of reformation might have gone on more smoothly, and the hot Andalusian friars might in time have been satisfied. The General and his counsellors had probably determined to obtain the support of the Holy See against the Nuncio, if that were necessary, and they must always have been mindful that religious Orders are pretty sure to survive the anta gonism of individual prelates, such as the Nuncio. It is sad to see so much zeal, so many good intentions on both sides, ranged one against the other. Ormaneto had worked heartily and success fully with the great Catholic Reformer of the day, St. Charles Borrorneo, the man of strong purpose and strong measures. He had no scruple at all in acting with a high hand, and he had the King with him. It is certain that Rossi was himself an eager reformer. Nay, it is almost equally certain that a large proportion of the Andalusian Carmelites themselves wrere in favour of a return to stricter observance. There were here all the elements of a peaceful settlement of the matter, if the foremost actors in the dispute had been bent on conciliation.

The most touching part of the letter of which we are speaking is that in which St. Teresa speaks so openly of her own pain, not so much at the mandate itself of her reclusion in one convent, as at the form in which it was cast and the manner in which it was communicated to her. These showed her that the

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General was personally displeased. The false repre sentations against her had reached him, and had been believed. No one could be surprised if her sudden departure for Seville after the foundation of Veas had been misunderstood and misrepresented. But it does not appear that this could have been known in Italy at the time of the decree, for the General Chapter was held before the foundation at Veas. It must have been known before the decree reached Seville. Father Gratia n had used his powers too sharply. He had been unable to resist the temptation of having the services of Mother Teresa for his own work, when she had come unwittingly under his jurisdiction. The authorities of the Castilian province would hardly understand her conduct, and we do not know that she had apprized them concerning it. But she might have expected that Rossi would remember her extreme openness and filial devotion to himself. He treated her as a disobedient child, and left it to others to signify his decision to her. Saints who have laboured as she had do not value human praise. But they feel very keenly coldness, distrust, and blame on the part of those whom they have faithfully served as the representatives of God. Thus their keenest sufferings come from the hands of their Supe riors, ill informed of the facts of their conduct.

It appears that the mandate for her reclusion contained some reference to the Decree of the Council of Trent concerning the observance of inclo- sure by nuns, and Teresa seems to have considered this reference as implying that she had acted illegally in her frequent journeys for the sake of her founda- M 2

178 The Decree of Re elusion.

tions. She declares, therefore, that she has never acted on the patents given her by the General for the purpose of these foundations without the written leave of her Provincial Superiors, and she reminds Rossi that the learned men whom she has consulted never understood the words of the Council or of the Motu Proprio as forbidding Superiors to give such permissions in extraordinary cases such as hers. We shall speak presently of the troubles in the Convent of the Incarnation, in consequence of the action of Father Valdemoro, to which she refers at the close of her letter.

About the same time as the date of this letter, the happiness of the little community of nuns whom St. Teresa had brought with her to Seville was disturbed by the fancies of a novice whom they were obliged in the end to dismiss. She was a young lady who had been accepted by Teresa on the strong recommendation of some priests, rather against her own judgment. The praises lavished on the novice were excessive. Teresa told them that unless their protegee were to work miracles, their credit would be gone. The novice soon found the religious discipline irksome, and began to make complaints. She did not like the " manifestation of conscience " which is usually made to Superiors. She accused the Prioress of turning it into a confession of faults. Her imagination ran away with her so far that, after she had left the convent, as she did of her own accord and without saying that she was going, she invented a charge that the nuns were sometimes tied down that the Superior might flog them.

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Teresa had allowed these priests, her friends, to hear her confessions, and it was on their advice that she left the convent, and spread injurious reports against it in the city. Some of these charges were more grave than others, and Teresa speaks of one as reflecting on the character of the nuns. The Prioress, Mary of St. Joseph, of whom we shall hear a good deal presently, tells us the nuns were accused of the errors of the Illuminati ; that it was said they went to Communion with their faces uncovered ; and a great deal was made of the very simple fact that, as the place in which they received Communion was exposed to the full rays of the sun, they turned their faces to the wall in their devotions at that time. We must remember that the sect in question was giving a good deal of trouble at that time, and that the Teresian nuns were all strangers to Seville. Father Gratian, who was then at Seville, went one day to pay a visit to Teresa, and he found the street half-full with horses and mules and equipages, the officials of the Inquisition having just arrived to examine into these charges. When he reached the parlour Teresa received him with her countenance full of joy. She had conceived a hope of having some great ignominy to suffer, and she always delighted in this when her conscience told her that there was no foundation for the charge. Gratian, however, was in consternation. She told him to fear nothing. God would take care that no stain fell on the fair fame of His servants. The event was as she had said. The Inquisitors soon discovered the utter falsehood of the charges, and the priest who had served as the accuser was severely reprimanded.

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On this occasion Teresa told Father Gratian that God had revealed to her in prayer that nothing would come of the matter. It may probably have been in connection with this trouble, or perhaps with that, already mentioned, when the Book of her Life was placed in the hands of the Inquisitors, that Father Rodrigo Alvarez, of the Society of Jesus, was asked to examine the spirit of Teresa. Father Alvarez was a very holy and learned religious, a man very far advanced himself in the secrets of the spiritual life, and the acquaintance which St. Teresa made with him on this occasion gave her another venerated friend in whom she could always afterwards confide. She took the occasion to open her whole interior history to him, not only in the Book of her Life, which was now placed in his hands, but in two letters or statements of considerable length which we still possess. In the first of these she sketches rapidly and with a master hand the various states of prayer of which she had treated before in the book already named. She devotes a paragraph or two to each stage, recollection, the state of interior peace and repose, what she calls the sleep of the powers of the soul, the state of union, in which the will is entirely united to God while the memory and intelligence are free to act, and then the more entire absorption in which they also are, ..as it were, caught up, then ecstasy and " rapt," between which two she draws a clear distinction, and then the "flight of the spirit" to God. She speaks beautifully of the wonderful effects of these states of prayer on the increase of the virtues in the soul. She distinguishes also the

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various kinds of transport, and other manners of prayers of which it is not easy to give an epitomized account. She adds a few words on the security of these states against illusion, on which she says she could speak more at large if she had time. " God knows whether these states are good or not good, but, as far as I can judge, it is impossible not to see their effects and the great advantages which the soul derives from them." After a wonderful passage on the vision of the Blessed Trinity, in which she refers Father Alvarez to her book, she concludes by telling him that she cannot answer some questions he had put to her. Perhaps he was trying to prove her by them.

In the second of these letters, which we may call the second part of this Relation, St. Teresa speaks of herself in the third person, and gives an account of her manner of conduct since the time when she had first begun to practise prayer. She gives a long catalogue of the theologians and confessors with whom she has had to deal in this matter, beginning with those of the Society, Father Araoz, Father Francis Borgia, Father Gilles Gonzalez, Father Balth.isar Alvarez, and others. She mentions among them Father Ribera, " who was at the first time very ill- disposed towards her, from what he had been told about her, until he had conversed with her himself." She mentions also her communications with Father Gutticrez, and with St. Peter of Alcantara.

For ten years, she says, she went on being tried and tested in all ways, and yet she could never have her desire, for her raptures and ecstasies continued

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still. Many prayers were made and many masses offered with the intention that God might be pleased to lead her by another way, but all in vain. At the same time she made undeniable progress in virtue, as was noted by those who knew her best. She then says that about thirteen years before the time at which she was writing, Don Soto de Salazar, who was afterwards Bishop of Salamanca, came to Avila, where she was in the Convent of St. Joseph. He was then an Inquisitor. She opened her whole state to him, and he encouraged her, saying that all that she saw and heard in her prayer tended to confirm her more and more in the Catholic faith. This was also her own experience. It was at his suggestion that she wrote down the statement which was communi cated to the famous Master John of Avila, who consoled her, and bade her also write the beautiful book which we know as the Way of Perfection. Still, with all this, she was occasionally visited by her former fears on the subject of illusion, and thus she was led to ask leave to open herself from time to time to several famous Dominican Fathers, who had once been her confessors. She gives an account of them.

The first is Father Vincent Baron, who was her confessor while at Toledo, being at the time Consultor of the Holy Office. He reassured her very much. She then mentions Father Pedro Ybanez, and Father Dominic Banez, who was her confessor for six years, and whom, as we know, she continually consulted by letter when he was not at hand. She names also the good Father Bartholomew de Medina, Professor at

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Salamanca. Knowing, she says, how much he was prejudiced against her, from what he had heard of her, she consulted him the more willingly, as she was sure he would tell her more frankly than others if she was under delusion. Father Philip de Meneses comes next, who at one time had had the charity to come to Avila on purpose to see her, that he might un deceive her if she was under illusion, or defend her against false charges if she was not. He was well satisfied with her, she says. She names also Father Salinas, the Provincial, and Father Lunar, the Prior of the Dominican monastery at Avila. The last on the list is Father Diego Yanguas.

She says that she has always been ready to do what she was ordered in these matters. If the super natural communications or favours which she had received had ever occasioned the slightest sentiment in her contrary to the Faith or to the law of God, she would have known without more trouble that it was the work of the devil. She never regulated her conduct according to the inspirations received in prayer. She told all to her confessors, and obeyed them without repugnance if they told her to do the contrary. She could never be so certain as to swear that what passed in her came from God, though she had great reason to believe that this was the case in great part, on account of the effects and the graces which she received. She mentions Father Dominic Bailez as the one with whom she has had the most constant communication, and she gave to him the Relation of her life, which, as she has heard, he sub mitted to the Holy Office.

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She says further on that she has always done her best not to offend God in any way, and also that she has always been obedient. She has thought that these two things gave her security, that, even if her supernatural communications came from the devil, they would not prevent her from saving her soul. Since she has experienced these things, she has felt more and more inclined to do what is most perfect, and has also almost always had a great desire for suffering. She has rejoiced in persecutions, and has loved the persons who persecuted her, and she has had a great attraction to poverty, and to solitude, and an ardent desire to be quit of this place of exile in order to see God. She has never thought of anything like dissimulation.

Her visions have not been bodily, but have come in a manner so subtle and intellectual, that she has sometimes and at first thought they were only imagi nations. At others she has not been able to think this. Her fears of delusion have been very great. On one such occasion, she heard an interior voice saying, " It is I, fear nothing," and then her soul was filled with a great calm. She has also found herself wonderfully strengthened by her visions. They had become less frequent at the time of her writing this Relation, but she is never without suffering, greater or less. She has always a great fear of doing any thing that may offend God, and a great desire of accomplishing His will in all things. She has also a great desire for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

She ends this Relation by explaining to Father

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Rodrigo what is the " intellectual vision " of which she has spoken. The whole document breathes the purest simplicity and humility, and by that alone, as well as by the exquisite spiritual doctrine which it contains, it may well have satisfied the good Father. His entire approbation of her spirit and writings in all points was, at this time, a great help to her. She was a stranger in Seville personally, although not unknown by her great reputation. But the saints in their lifetime are not always free from suspicion, perhaps it would be more true to say that they are seldom without it. In the Spain of those days, as has been said, there was a great reaction against all claimants to supernatural communications, on account of several delusions in such matters which had not been at once detected. The lives of the little com munity which Teresa had brought with her without any invitation, and, as it turned out, much against the will of the Archbishop, were in themselves enough to silence all opposition in the minds of those who came to make their acquaintance. But the Mother Teresa was still a person about whom tongues were much occupied, in consequence of the reports which were current as to her supernatural favours. In such matters ordinary people can be no fair judges, although it is not uncommon to find that their dis qualification is unknown to themselves. Father Rodrigo Alvarez was well known in Seville, where he enjoyed, most deservedly, a high reputation for sanctity and learning. The hearty approbation of a man of his character and position was thus of the greatest service to Teresa and her spiritlual chidren.

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It was her constant habit not to leave the com munities which she introduced to place after place as a Foundress, until she had seen them thoroughly well provided with a suitable home. There had been some occasions in which this had not been possible, there were none in which she did not do all in her power for this purpose. Now that she was under sentence, so to say, of banishment and reclusion, it seemed as if she might have to leave the community at Seville in great destitution, and without a house such as was suitable to them. Providence, however, came to her aid in this matter also. Don Lorenzo de Cepeda was as much afflicted as his sister at the state of things, and he had far more material means at his command than she. St. Teresa tells the story in her own beautiful way in the Book of the Foundations. They had recourse to St. Joseph and our Blessed Lady, in honour of whom they made several processions. Negotiations were begun for the purchase of some houses, but it always happened that when the con tract was almost concluded, they were broken off. She implored our Lord to let the religious find a suitable house, as they had a great desire to serve Him. He told her that her prayer was heard, she was to leave Him to work. She was full of joy. The next thing was that her brother began to treat with the owner of a house in a very good situation, but which Teresa did not like, because it was old, and they would almost have had to rebuild it from the foundations. She was inclined to disappointment, because she thought that, after all, it was not as good a residence as she had hoped for. Then the plan

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came suddenly to an end by the refusal of the owner, who was to have an exorbitant price, to sign the contract at the appointed time.

St. Teresa speaks with her usual overflowing gratitude of the assistance which she and her nuns

o

received at this time from a good priest of Seville, named Garcia Alvarez. He took up the cause of the community from the first, said Mass for them daily, though he had to come some distance, and it was very hot. He was always against the purchase of the house lately mentioned, and when that plan was at an end, he found another which was suitable in all respects, and Don Lorenzo bought it almost at once. There seem to have been great difficulties, notwith standing, in the way of their taking possession. The house was close to a Franciscan monastery, and thus there arose once more a trouble, which frequently meets us in such histories as this. The Franciscans were afraid that the close neighbourhood of the two communities might interfere with their resources. They lived themselves on the alms of the neighbour hood, and now the Carmelite nuns would be their rivals. Seville, as we know, was a very rich city, but it was thought that there were already too many com munities living on alms. The Archbishop, we know, was of this opinion. We gather from the account of St. Teresa that the good friars did not wish to push their opposition so far as to go to law with the nuns, as had been done elsewhere, or perhaps the distance was just beyond the limit which would have given: them a right to do this. However, the purchase had. been made rather precipitately, and we hear of Don;

1 88 The Decree of Reel us ion.

Lorenzo having to hide himself for fear of some prosecution on the part of the vendors. The matter ended, after a considerable delay, in the entrance of the nuns into their new abode in peace. It was not till the end of April that this was done, and the matter had been on hand since the beginning of Lent. The delay was more irksome to Teresa, because it was necessary for her not to linger on, and she might appear disobedient to the order of reclusion.

It was determined to enter the house secretly, in order to avoid alarming the Franciscans too much. The nuns went by night, fearing, as Teresa tells us,- that every shadow they saw might be a friar. Garcia Alvarez said Mass for them at daybreak, and then all fear was at an end. There was still a great deal to be done for the house, the chapel had to be arranged, and some repairs and other works to be carried out, and it took about a month to set everything in order. The nuns remained inclosed on the ground floor, and Don Lorenzo supported them, besides undertaking all the other expenses. Few people gave them any alms, as it was supposed that, living in a private house, they were sufficiently cared for. But Teresa mentions to her nuns the great kindness which they experienced from the Prior of the Carthusian monas tery, de la Cuevas, who was continually helping them to the utmost of his power.

At last all was ready, and the Blessed Sacrament might be placed in the chapel. This was the formal act in the opening of new convents and monasteries. St. Teresa wished all to be done quietly. Her motive

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was still that her good neighbours, the Franciscans, might not be annoyed. But Garcia Alvarez and the Carthusian Prior did not agree with her. They spoke to the Archbishop, and he decided that the opening should be made in a manner which showed his vene ration for Teresa, and his delight at having her nuns in his city. It was settled that on the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension the Blessed Sacrament should be carried in procession from one of the churches to the new convent. The streets were hung with tapestry, and many preparations were made, quite unusual in Seville. Garcia Alvarez arranged a fountain that was to play sweet-scented water. There was a fine orchestra of music. An immense crowd of people were present at the function. An accident occurred in the evening, which might have led to the most serious results, but this was providentially averted. It was, and probably still is, the custom in Spain to use a good deal of gunpowder on such festive occasions. Cannon and guns and mortars are fired, and the like. A man, who had a quantity of gunpowder with him, set it on fire by accident. He was not hurt, but the flames spread to the cloister, the roof of which was blackened, though a beautiful yellow and crimson hanging was not injured.

The Archbishop himself — this is not mentioned by St. Teresa — carried the Blessed Sacrament in the procession. After the function, he came into the inclosure to pay the nuns a visit. Teresa was there on her knees to receive his blessing with the rest. The prelate, however, threw himself on his knees before her, and made her give her blessing to him. He

i go The Decree of Reclusion.

.certainly could not show in any more marked manner his immense veneration for her sanctity.

Teresa had thus the consolation of leaving her Sisters at Seville in a far better condition than might have been hoped, considering the abnormal manner in which the foundation had been made, and that the city itself was, for the time, the chief battlefield of the war, for so it must be called, between the two branches of the Carmelite Order. Gratian was not at Seville when the convent was finally opened by the Archbishop. The cause of his departure is men tioned in a letter from Teresa to Father Ambrose Mariano at Madrid, written about three weeks before the opening. It is a most Teresian letter, and shows us a side of her character different from that which comes into prominence in her letters to the General Rossi.

She begins by giving Ambrose a good scolding. He is a man of a most provoking condition. " I tell you " — her favourite phrase — " that one must have much virtue to write to you." He has commu nicated his naughtiness to her " Father," the Licen tiate Padilla — a man of much influence in Madrid. He too never writes to her, and never sends any kind messages. May God forgive them both ! At all events, she is so much in debt to Padilla, that how ever much he may neglect her, she cannot treat him in the same way, and she begs that the letter she now writes may be considered as addressed to him as well as to Mariano. As for him, when she considers all his behaviour, she is reminded of the text which speaks of the curse on him who trusts in man. How-

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ever, as it is well to return good for evil, she writes to him now to tell him that they had taken possession on the feast of St. James (the ist of May), and, that the friars were as quiet as death. It seems that a certain Navarro had stopped their mouths, at the request of Father Gratian.

Then she tells him how good the house is — it is said that they bought it for nothing, and that now they would have to pay for it a much larger sum. Gratian and every one else are in high satisfaction. Then she turns to the subject of the advent of the Visitor Tostado. A friar had arrived at Seville the day before the letter was written, who had seen him at Barcelona, and had a letter from him (as his own monastery was at Seville), in which he took the style of Vicar-General of the Order in all Spain. She mentions some other items of news to the same effect. The Provincial, Father Agostino Suarez, whom Gratian had sent away, was expected back, and it was said that he was armed with a brief from the Pope, restoring him to his functions. The Pope was said to be very favourable to the friars of the Observance. She had herself been told this, on the authority of a person of great credit.

The Archbishop and the Governor of Seville, who were both on the side of the Reform, had advised Gratian not to stay in Seville to await the arrival of Tostado, or of the others, because if they notified their powers to him, he would not know what to do until he had seen the Nuncio. So Gratian had gone towards Madrid, not continuing his visitation on the way, for the Observant Friars were in such a state of

1 9 2 The Decree of Reclusion.

excitement, that it would be impossible to gain any good. She prays our Lord to make them worthy of being brought to a better state. She was full of con fidence in the prospects of the Discalced. Gratian has left Father Evangelist, the Prior whom he had appointed in the great monastery of Seville, as his Vicar during his absence. Evangelist is preparing for a gre.it blow, but she thinks as he is not the head of the Reform, they will not notify their powers to him. The Governor — this is significant — holds him self in readiness to help him if anything is done. The Archbishop has summoned the Superior of the Observant Monastery to a place of his own near Seville, and if he and the Prior are not able to show that what Gratian as Visitor has done is invalid — and this, she thinks, they cannot — much will have been done. May the Lord dispose all things to His own service, and may He deliver Ambrose "from the song of the siren" — by which we are informed, by the annotator on these letters, St. Teresa means the seduc tions of the Court.

She goes back again to speak of the beauties of the new house. One of the municipal officials had brought his wife to visit them, had made them presents, and declared there was no better house in Seville. She enlarges on the goodness of the garden and the beautiful views. It has cost them infinite trouble, but she is well content after all. It is better even than she thought. She mentions the approaching assembly of a chapter, of which Mariano has told her. We shall hear more of this as the history proceeds. Now she prays that it may turn to the

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service of God, as it will, if Mariano's statements come true.

" May God preserve you," she ends up, " not withstanding all your faults, and make you a great saint." She begs him to keep her well informed of the turn which things may take. She adds a post script which shows considerable alarm. The air is full of false rumours. But it is said that Tostado was at Carmona, and that a great number of monas teries have yielded him obedience. She cannot be without fear at what may be done at Rome. She remembers the past, referring probably to the with drawing of the powers of the Visitors by Gregory XIII. All, however, she is convinced, will end well. The Carmelites of the Observance must have some thing to go upon, otherwise they would not be so foolish as to come to Seville, for they are not aware that Gratian has left that place. The whole letter3 gives a picture of the state of things at the time. The appointment of Tostado was a step which could not but produce great confusion among the Carme lites in Spain. The Nuncio had already appointed his Visitor, and the two were certain to come into collision. It is very probable that St. Teresa was right in saying that the friars of the Observance had something to rest upon. The authorities of the Order had direct access to the Holy Father, and had already once succeeded in inducing him to cut short the work of the Visitors. They might reckon on working on Gregory XIII. against Ormaneto, if that should be necessary. St. Teresa's confidence, in the ultimate issue of the conflict, at the same time, was

3 Letter Ixxvi. N 2

1 94 The Decree of Reclusion.

not unfounded. She was sure of the integrity of her cause, and that the Reform of Carmel was a work desired by God. Such a work was certain to meet with opposition, which might seem to triumph for a time, but which could not ultimately blind the eyes of the rulers of the Church.

As we are about to close the account of this long sojourn of St. Teresa at Seville, it will be well to say a few words of the letters of this period. We have already inserted or referred to several of the most important of these letters. We have besides these, a series of three to her much-loved niece, Mary Baptist, the Prioress of Valladolid, written the first on the New Year's Eve, December 31, I575,4 the second a few weeks later, in January, 1576, and the last on Low Sunday, the 2Qth of April, of the same year. The first is chiefly on domestic matters. She is amused at the importance with which Mary Baptist tells her that some day she will tell her what she thinks on certain matters. She must have some grand advice to give ! She is glad to hear that her friend, Dona Maria de Mendoza, the foundress of Valladolid, is better of a fever which she had. She sends complimentary messages to her and to her brother, the Bishop of Avila. She speaks of her devotion to Father Gratian, which leaves her soul in perfect liberty, but she is full of pain at the labours he has to undergo as Visitor of the Obser vant Friars.

Teresa then tells Mary Baptist about the order of reclusion which has been sent her. If she were quite free, she would have been at Valladolid by this time.

4 Letter Ixxi.

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The order has been given, evidently, as a mark of censure on her, and is intended to pain her. But it seems to her so good a thing, that she hardly expects to enjoy the benefit of it. If she were to choose her own residence, many reasons would lead her to choose Valladolid, among them would be that Father Bafiez is there, and her niece also. But Father Gratian will not let her leave Seville for the present, and as he has his authority from the Nuncio, it is superior to that of the General. How it will end, she knows not. It would be a great relief to her to be out of all the trouble and tumult of the Reform which was being carried on, but our Lord does not choose her to be free of it. She is told she is to leave in the summer. The foundation of Seville will lose nothing by her absence. We know that she had the highest confi dence in Mary of St. Joseph, the Prioress of Seville, and considered her the perfection of a Superior. Her health is better where she is, and in a certain sense she has more rest. She thinks that the good people of Seville do not make quite so much of her, or esteem her so highly, as some who know her in Castile. But it will be better for other reasons that she should settle in Castile. One of these reasons is that she will be nearer her own convents. May our Lord arrange it all ! Wherever she is sent, she will be happy.

Then she speaks of her brother Lorenzo. He has got rid of his fever. He had been to the Court, and had got nothing by it. But his own fortune will enable him to live comfortably. He may try another visit to the Court, as, when he went, it was an un favourable moment. He gets on as well as possible

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with Juana de Ahumada and her husband, Juan de Ovalle. They pay him all kind of attentions, and he thinks that it gives them pleasure that he should be fond of them, and so he is. There is a good deal about a young lad whom Mary Baptist had recom mended as a page to Lorenzo's children, and who was patronized by Father Baiiez. She hears, by the bye, with regret that the latter is to leave Valladolid for Toro. At least this will make her care less if she is not sent to Valladolid. She thinks she will be sent wherever she may be most wanted.

She speaks of having written to Mary Baptist about the Prioress whom she had sent from Seville to the new foundation of Caravaca. A postulant whom Mary Baptist had sent to Caravaca had been received there with much joy. She hopes that the foundation had been accomplished about Christmas, but she has heard nothing.

She sends loving message to Mary of the Cross — she was one of the first four of St. Teresa's Reform — and to others at Valladolid, and she complains that they have not told her how their chaplain is, and how the seasons suit him. She is afraid Mary Baptist does not obey the Subprioress as she ought. (She had been put under obedience as to the care of her own health.) "O Jesus, how little we know ourselves! May His Majesty give us light, and keep you for

me

The affairs of the Convent of the Incarnation were in a miserable state, as we have already seen in Teresa's letter to the General. She now sends a message to Isabella of the Cross, the Prioress, to say that she can help her better where she is than by

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coming to Avila, and she hopes that if God preserve the Pope, the Nuncio, the King, and Father Gratian for a year or two, all the trouble will be settled in a very good way. If any one of these fail, then all is lost, considering the present attitude of the General. But then God will remedy the evil in another way. She is thinking of writing to the General, as being more devoted to him than ever, as she loves him so much, as she is bound. But she is much afflicted at seeing him act as he does through evil information. We shall see before long how truly Teresa under stood the state of the question then in agitation. One of the four she names did die before long, and his death brought the cause of the Reform into the very extreme of peril. But God brought matters round again in His own way.

It seems to have been usual among the convents to send verses to one another, or to the Superiors, on such occasions as the New Year. St. Teresa says they have none of these things at Seville. It is not the time for them. Rather let Mary Baptist and her nuns recommend Father Gratian earnestly to God. It is pitiful to see how God is being offended. May He remedy it, and keep her from offending Him ! To serve Him, her life is as nothing, she could sacri fice many lives for that. She adds one line of post script, to say that her brother Lorenzo is not going to become a friar. It seems that this good man had at one time intended it. Teresa was too prudent to allow him.

The next letter to Mary Baptist is written, as has been said, a little later. 5 The most important para-

5 Letter Ixxii.

198 The Decree of Reclusion.

graph which it contains is that in which Teresa tells her niece that it is not so likely as it was that she will be sent to reside at Valladolid. There were reasons for it which do not now exist. The Nuncio seems to have told Father Gratian, his representative in the matter, that Teresa was to go on making foun dations as before. This is altogether against her own wish. She declares that she will found no more unless the Nuncio bids her himself. What has been done is enough. Gratian is about to begin his visita tion of the Calced Friars, apparently in Castile. We have already seen that this intention was altered by the arrival of Tostado.

Her brothers, she says, want to get her to travel with them to Castile, perhaps to Avila. But she leaves it all to the decision of Gratian. The nuns at Valladolid, she has heard, have been full of jubilation at the rumour of her approaching arrival. She hopes God will reward them for their goodwill. But let them believe her, they must never root their joy on things that pass, if they do they will be cruelly dis appointed. She sends a loving message to " her Casilda," who probably had written to her.

She is much afflicted at an illness of Father Baiiez, and fears he has been doing too much penance in Advent. He probably had an attack of rheumatic pains. Mary Baptist must see that he has his feet well covered at night. She herself feels these sharp twitches most keenly. She could not have even her enemies have them. What must she feel when it is Father Banez who has to suffer ? There is a good deal also about a postulant who is recommended by the good Fathers, and one or two other topics.

The Decree of Reclusion. 199

The last of these letters to Mary Baptist is written just before the taking possession of the new house at Seville, of which mention has already been made.6 Teresa has just heard that they will then be allowed to enter. The former occupant seems to have ob jected to go, and as the house had been bought very cheap, Don Lorenzo had been made the object of a kind of persecution on the part of the owners, who wished to get more out of him, and troubled the nuns with some vexatious law proceedings, of which the account is not very clear. At all events, Don Lorenzo had to hide himself in the monastery of the Carmelite friars. All this has made the time a very hard one for St. Teresa. She tells her niece that she had suffered more at Seville than she had to suffer after the foundation of St. Joseph's at Avila. The matter is not yet over when she writes. There was to be an appeal to the Court, for there seemed no likelihood of any end to the business at Seville. She praises Don Lorenzo most highly. He thinks nothing of his own sufferings, and is only troubled at those of the Sisters.

She speaks of the falsehoods that had been spread abroad against them by the novice who gave so much trouble. Well, all that is as nothing to what she has said of them since. But God gives to Teresa a great grace in the immense joy in which her soul was en compassed. The poor novice, it seems, had entered another convent, and Teresa is informed she has lost her head. Among other things she had said that the Carmelite nuns were tied up to pillars and then beaten with rods. And there was worse than that

6 Letter Ixxv.

2OO The Decree of Rechision.

said of them. God had evidently intended to keep them a little under the press. However, Mary Baptist must not be anxious. Teresa hopes, as soon as the new convent has been settled, to be able to leave Seville, for the Franciscans seem no longer to make any opposition to the house. She praises the nuns of Seville highly, especially the Prioress.

We know that Mary Baptist was rather fond of giving bits of advice. One of these, which it might have been well for Teresa to have attended to the year before, was about going to Veas, without finding out whether it was really in Castile or in Andalusia. One of her late topics was the title of Don which was given to her little nephew, Lorenzo's son. Teresa says it was usually given in South America to all who had Indian slaves, and she has spoken to Lorenzo about it, as it seems not to have been usual at home. Lorenzo was willing to give it up, but Juana de Ahumada and Juan de Ovalle interfered behind her back, as they gave the same title to their own son. She says it is quite a shame, in Avila everybody is Don. She is sorry about it, but does not care for it on her own account, and she does not think she will succeed with her brother, on account of the opposition of the uncle and aunt.

Then there is some complaint about Teresa, the niece, who is said to have written to the licentiate Padilla. She was a girl then of only seven or eight. Mary Baptist had got it into her head that Teresa thought of nothing but her brother and sister. She says she might well think of them, being what they are — but she hints that she is glad that Lorenzo is in hiding in the monastery, for he cannot come to her

The Decree of Reclusion. 201

so often, and this is a relief, although he is as good as possible, and gives way whenever she tells him. There are other such topics in the rest of the letters. At the end she says, that she does not get on well with the Andalusians, and shall be glad to find her self in the " Land of Promise," that is, Castile.

There is only one other letter of this time of which particular mention need be made. It is addressed to Rodrigo de Moya, at Caravaca.7 This gentleman was the father of one of the young ladies whose resolute devotion had brought about the foun dation of the convent in that city. The convent had been formally founded on January I, 1576, when the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the chapel. Diffi culties seem to have arisen after this had been done, and it had been represented to Teresa that the Prioress, Anne of St. Albert, had in some way acted contrary to the wishes of this good friend, who had for some time given the new community hospitality in a part of his own house. Caravaca was under a double jurisdiction, the commander of the military order on the one hand, and the Bishop on the other. The great difficulty had been, as in Veas, to obtain the leave of the Knights, or rather of the Council of Orders at Madrid. Teresa had used her great influence with the King in both cases, and it had been in that way that the licence had been obtained. It seems that, so much stress having been laid on the licence of the Order, the nuns and their friends on the spot had not bethought them of securing the consent of the Bishop. Thus a great difficulty was raised on the part of the Vicar-General. It seems

7 Letter Ixxiii.

2O2 The Decree of Reclusion.

that when Teresa found that the Bishop's leave had not been obtained, she took the matter into her own hands, and wrote to him.

This letter to Rodrigo de Moya is an example of the perfect courtesy and dignity of its writer. She tells him of the surprise with which she had heard that there was any difference between himself and the Prioress, as she was always speaking of him in her letters with the greatest gratitude and affection, as of one who was of the greatest comfort and use to herself. Teresa is delighted to find from his letter to herself that there has been no trouble between them. She assures him that she is in no ways discontented at the price which has been given for the new house. She is always ready to pay a third or even half more than the house is worth, for the sake of seeing her Sisters in a good place. For good water and a good view alone she would willingly give more than the house at Caravaca has cost. Glory be to God, that all has been so well settled ! She bids him have no fear that the convent may be dissolved on account of the new difficulty. Convents are not so easily destroyed. She seems to have been already in correspondence with the Bishop, who will soon be at Caravaca, and who will arrive there quite ready to admit the foundation. " He is a perfect gentleman, and has relatives and friends who will do all in the world to oblige me, so there need be no doubt about that"

Teresa tells him also that she had had her fears about the convent, just because there had been so little trouble, before this, about its foundation : " There is always trouble about all houses in which

The Decree of Reclusion. 203

our Lord is to be well served, because that gives the devil so much pain." She ends with affectionate compliments to his wife and himself. The letter is dated Septuagesima Sunday, 1576.

The convent had in fact been formally founded on the first day of the New Year, 1576. St.Teresa, finding that she could not herself leave Seville, sent her nuns from Malagon, with Anne of St. Albert as Superior. The others were Barbara of the Holy Ghost, Anne of the Incarnation, Juana of St. Jerome, and Catalina or Catharine of the Assumption. Two Discalced Friars accompanied them. They arrived at Caravaca on the feast of our Lady's Expectation, the 1 8th of December. They stayed with Rodrigo de Moya till the feast of the Circumcision, and then entered in possession. The house was then only hired, and they must have removed in the course of the spring to the house which was purchased for them, of which St. Teresa speaks.

204 Note to Chapter VII.

NOTE TO CHAPTER VII.

The letters of the time embraced in this chapter are as follows :

1. (Ixx.) To Diego Ortiz, of Toledo. From Seville, either December 26, 1575, or January 26, 1576.

Diego Ortiz was the founder of the convent at Toledo, and seems to have asked St. Teresa to use in his behalf the influence of Father Gratian's brother, the Secretary of the King, about some affair in which he and his family were concerned. This letter is her answer, full of kindness and courtesy, explaining that much could not be done at present, on account of the ill ness of the Secretary.

2. (Ixxi.) To Mother Mary Baptist, her niece, Prioress of Valladolid. From Seville, December 30, 1575.

An account of this letter is given, pp. 194, 195.

3. (Ixxii.) To the same. From Seville, beginning of 1576. An account of this letter is given at pp. 197, 198.

4. (Ixxiii.) To the Cavalier Rodrigo de Moya, of Caravaca. From Seville, February 19, 1576.

An account of this letter is given at pp. 202, 203.

5. (Ixxiv.) To our Most Reverend Father Fra John Baptist Rossi of Ravenna, General of the Order of our Lady of Carmel. From Seville, beginning of 1 576.

Translated in full at pp. 168, seq.

6. (Ixxv.) To Mother Mary Baptist, Prioress of Valladolid. From Seville, April 29, 1576.

An account of this letter is given, pp. 199, 200.

7. (Ixxvii.) To Father Fra Ambrose of Mariano of St. Benedict. From Seville, May 9, 1575.

An account of this letter is given at pp. 190, seq.

207

in be she

CHAPTER VIII.

Retirement at Toledo.

WE have now reached a period in the Life of St. Teresa, at which one portion of the materials collected for our use to some extent overpowers the other. In a work which professes to give an account, not only of the Life, but also of the letters of the Saint, it is quite possible that under particular circumstances we may find the number of letters quite out of proportion to the incidents of the time. In the life of a Saint who by her vocation was necessarily retired and obliged to refrain from mixing much with the affairs of the world outside, it might seem strange if she had a large correspondence, but not, if she had such a cor respondence to carry on, to find that her letters occupied a very large share of her time, at least, in comparison with anything deserving of special record in her daily life. For the life in the blessed homes of prayer and penance, which is so beautiful in the eyes of Heaven, and so helpful to the world outside — which ignores its obligations and is unconscious of the benefits which it receives, day after day, from the victims of heavenly love in the cloister — must neces sarily be a round of the same duties and occupations from year to year. Whatever strikes the eye of the historian in such a life must either belong entirely to the spiritual world or must be something in itself

Retirement at Toledo. 204

ial or abnormal. In general the days flow on nbroken peace, and though there is abundance of ^appiness, there is but little change. Thus, to the eyes of the world, lives spent in prayer and contem plation have no history.

The life of St. Teresa had hitherto been, for con siderable portions of time, a life of as much tran quillity as that of other cloistered nuns like herself. But there had also been very serious departures from this general rule. After she had once begun to entertain and to endeavour to realize the project of a reformed convent, she had been plunged in all the anxieties and conflicts of which the former chapters of this work contain the record. It had been against the grain with her to have to go about so much, to see so many people, to deal with authorities and others for all the concerns which her several founda tions involved. She did not escape the usual lot of reformers, however loyal and fervent and single- minded, in rousing as much opposition in some quarters as enthusiasm in others. It was inevitable that, by the time she was named as Prioress of her old Convent of the Incarnation, her relations with persons of influence half over the country must have been multiplied and her correspondence increased in proportion. Thus, without any design, and quite unconsciously, she had become a great letter writer. In general, her letters are what her conversation must have been — simple, straightforward, full of brightness, and even of fun, of showing the most delicate chanty, exquisite discernment, practical wisdom, and refined courtesy. They must be read in the original to be appreciated, though they are not always easy reading.

Retirement at Toledo. 207

Certainly, no version of them exists that can be considered as at all adequate. To her convents she certainly wrote frequently, for she was the guide and mother of all the Superiors. Then had come the chance, as it appeared, which had thrown her for the moment under the authority of Father Gratian, and which had led her into all the troubles with which we have lately been occupied. For some time her life had been one of great activity, and no doubt, with all her anxiety to see the storm which had gathered round the Reform averted, she could not but have rejoiced in the prospect of the enforced rest to which she was now sentenced by her Superiors.

It was nearly four years from the time at which we have /now ^arrived, when peace was at last given to the djsmdfeu Carmelites of Spain by the adoption of the very simple measure which had been urged by St. Teresa from the beginning of the troubles between the two Observances. As she was under sentence not to leave her convent, it might have seemed that now at last the time of rest had come, and the historian might content himself with relating the incidents of the conflict while it lasted, and the manner in which an accommodation was finally brought about. This history might have been expected rather to run parallel to the life of our Saint than to be a record of matters in which she was personally concerned. It would have been well if she could have had more to do with these affairs than she had. It would have been well for the friars of the Reform if they had been under the rule of St. Teresa, as the Servites, men as well as women, had once been governed by St. Juliana Falconieri. It

208 Retirement at Toledo.

would have been well if Gratian and the rest could have let her influence them far more than they did. But they were far too self-confident for this. Even St. John of the Cross, one of themselves, a man whom they could not but revere, was in a minority on no less important a point than that of the end of their Institute itself. He, as well as St. Teresa, had to be a looker- on of acts which he did not approve. Thus Teresa's letters of this time are more a series of her com ments and warnings, than a direct narrative from her pen of matters in which she had a personal part. We cannot leave the history out, but still she was not its guiding spirit.

These years contain more interesting revelations of her strong and beautiful character than others of her former life. This is not simply because of the incidents in which that character displayed itself, but from the multitude of her letters which remain to us. And yet it seems to be quite ascertained that she must have written many others, perhaps even more than those which we actually have. She mentions in a letter of this period that she had been forbidden by her physician to go on writing after midnight, as she had sometimes done, so numerous were the calls upon her charity in this respect. She speaks in a letter from Toledo to Gratian at Seville, of her correspondence " killing her." It is natural that this should be the time during which her corres pondence increased to its largest dimensions, and strange as it may seem, it appears true that this Carmelite nun of the sixteenth century was as active with her pen as many modern men of business in these days of the penny post. Of course there are differ-

Retirement at Toledo. 209

ences in the importance of the letters which have come down to us. But it is also true that a biographer who could do exactly as he wished might willingly put every one of the surviving letters before his readers. Moreover, they are necessary in great measure to the completeness of the biography, on account of the many incidental notes which they furnish for the illustration and explanation of the life itself. But we find it impossible to continue anything like a complete translation of the letters. They would cer tainly involve the enormous prolongation of the work on which we are engaged. We must henceforth adopt somewhat of a new method in the arrangement of our work, and especially in what now becomes more prominent than ever among its features, namely, the letters which have to be mentioned or quoted in the text. We shall have to classify these under the heads of the different classes to whom they were addressed, devoting single chapters to some of the more important of the series thus formed. But our first care must be to give a clear narrative of the events which were passing outside the peaceful walls of the convent, which some of the writers of her Life designate as the " prison" of St. Teresa. It could only be called by such a name in a very technical sense indeed, and, as we shall see, she was from time to time compelled by obedience to leave it.

Teresa left Seville on the 4th of June, accom panied by the good Father Gregory of Nazianzus, of whom we have already heard, Alphonso Ruiz, and her brother, Don Lorenzo, with his little daughter Teresa, or, as she is often called, Teresita. They arrived at Malagon on the nth of the month, and O 2

2 TO Retirement at Toledo.

she stayed there a few days, by order of Father Gratian, to settle some matters in the convent of her nuns there. We find her writing to Father Gratian on the 15th.1 She mentions the care which her brother, Don Lorenzo, had provided for all that could make her journey easy. There could have been nothing very magnificent about the manner in which a gentleman of his position would travel, but as he was the furnisher of the whole expense, and took care that Teresa should suffer no discomforts, it appears, though she does not mention it in this letter, that she was found fault with by several watchful critics, as having gone to Toledo with some worldly pomp.

The convent at Malagon was founded by Teresa's great friend, Dona Luisa de la Cerda, and, as has been said in the account already given of the founda tion, the house in which the nuns had been placed was in the midst of the little town, and consequently much exposed to disturbance and noise. The new convent of which mention is also made in that account was not yet built, and we find that at the time of this visit of Teresa the inconvenience was found to be pressing, and there was an idea of trans ferring the foundation to Paracuellos, a place near Madrid, which belonged to Dona Luisa, who was more ready to help them there than in Malagon, though she afterwards built the new convent in the latter place. Teresa discusses the question with Father Gratian. This question of Malagon turns up from time to time. The most important part of the letter, however, is a most characteristic passage on

1 Letter Ixxvii.

Retirement at Toledo. 211

a subject which was very dear to the heart of the Saint, though its importance would not strike a mind unused to the dangers of admitting anything, in religious communities, which may lead to any in fringement of the perfection of the religious spirit. It seems that Gratian, who was quartered in the great monastery at Seville, into which he had so much trouble in making his way as Visitor, was not loath to take his meals occasionally elsewhere, and that he was frequently fed by the nuns of the new convent, just founded by St. Teresa.

With any one else she would have been very per emptory in prohibiting such a practice. With him, however, as Superior, she must proceed in a different way. So she earnestly begs him to forbid the nuns to give any one at all, except himself, any refection in the parlour. Of course, she says, he being the Prelado, does not count. Gratian seems to have had reasons for this practice (though it is condemned by the historian of the Order), on account of the dif ference of dietary between the Discalced and their Mitigated brethren. Teresa says there are many inconveniences in the custom, which need not be mentioned. It is enough that the nuns are so poor that if they give dinners to the friars — that was the greatest danger, as no one else would be likely to apply to their hospitality — they would have nothing left for themselves. It seems that Father Hernandez, the Visitor of Castile, had made a strict rule against the practice, and she tells Gratian now that the nuns would be greatly consoled to know that he also insisted on the observance of the regulations. She does not refrain from putting the matter in the

212 Retirement at Toledo.

plainest way. The nuns, she says, are all young, and it is best and most secure that they should not hold conversations with the friars. This is a thing of which there is more reason to be afraid for them, than anything else. For this reason it is that she insists upon it so much. She ends by begging Gratian to forgive her plainness of speech. We find the same matter urged very strongly in a letter to the Prioress of Seville, of which we may speak presently, and we shall hear more of the matter later on.

There are two letters2 of this time written from Malagon to this Prioress, who became henceforth one of Teresa's most frequent correspondents. In one of Teresa's letters to her she tells her very frankly that she had been pained to some extent by the great reserve with which she had treated her while at Seville, and we gather from this that this most saintly soul was troubled by extreme reserve. She was no stranger to Teresa, having been one of her earliest acquaintances and confidantes as to her design of founding the Convent of St. Joseph at Avila, although she was not free to enter the Order till the time of the foundation of Malagon. But we shall hear enough of Maria de Salazar, as she was before she entered religion, and need not linger over her history now. In the first of the letters of which we now speak, Teresa urges the matter of the parlour with the same earnestness as in the last to Gratian. She speaks, as was only natural to her, about the business in hand with Dofia Luisa, the old patroness of Mary of St. Joseph. The rest of the letter has no special importance, though it shows us the bright

2 Letters Ixxviii., Ixxix.

Retirement at Toledo. 213

grateful character of its writer, and her care for all who belonged to her. She sends some money as alms, and is especially careful, as we see in other letters also, to send kind messages to " S. Gabriel," a lay-sister, as it seems, who had been her Infirmarian at Seville. The other letter is short, as she has to send it" off in a hurry by Father Gregorio, who is returning to Seville. She sends kind messages to every one, including the mother and sisters of Father Gratian. Teresita, her niece, she says, cannot make up her mind to like any nuns as well as those at Seville.

Mary of St. Joseph seems to have written before receiving the first of the letters just now mentioned, assuring St. Teresa of her affection, and making excuses for her great reserve. Teresa answered her soon after, on the 2nd of July, from Toledo, where she had just arrived. The letter is full of all the tenderness and graciousness of the Saint. She does not understand what she is asked to forgive. As long as Mary of St. Joseph loves her as much as she is loved by her, she is satisfied both for the past and the future. She is persuaded that her reserve, which she says was the greatest pain that she received from her, was not her fault. She might have had great conso lation in her troubles at Seville, if the Prioress had been more externally affectionate, but God thought fit to deprive her of that joy. If her sufferings purchased any blessing to the Prioress and her Sisters, she would gladly have had more of them. She tells her, as has been said, that she had indeed suffered, but that the letter just received has effaced all from the memory. The rest of this letter is either about business matters, showing the strong good sense of

214 Retirement at Toledo.

the writer in all such concerns, or kind mention of friends at Seville, and the help they have secured for the convent. She mentions however, with blame, some severe dealings of Mariano and Antonio of Jesus, with the Mitigated Friars, and says that Gratian has been pained by it. He is well, and the Nuncio has approved of his not returning at present to Anda lusia.3

We have another letter to Mary of St. Joseph, written a few days after this. Teresa tells her that she is for the present staying at Toledo, though she may be sent out from time to time by her Superiors. On this account she has sent away Teresita, whom her father has taken to Avila, where she hopes that he will settle down in a home of his own. She seems to have received a large packet of letters from Seville, and, although they have not wearied her, far from it, she begs that in future the Sisters will arrange among themselves what to tell her. She has had three times over a description of what had been done on the feast of Corpus Christi, when the good Garcia Alvarez had provided for a fine ceremony. May God reward him ! She asks for news of the Discalced Fathers. May it please God that all the severity that has been used to the friars of the Mitigation may do some good ! She sends a message to Mariano and Antonio. She is about to enter on the same path of perfection with them, in not writing to them, as they do not to her. She mentions the order given by the King to Gratian to address himself in future to the President of the Royal Council, and to Mgr. Quiroga. May God grant that this may succeed ! Gratian has 3 Letter Ixxx.

Retirement at Toledo. 215

great need of prayers, and she recommends also the Reverendissimo Father General, who has just broke his leg by tumbling from his mule. The letter ends with greetings and blessings.4

Teresa had gone to Toledo from Malagon, though it seems that soon after her arrival Gratian ordered her to make a short excursion to Avila. She returned to Toledo, leaving Avila on the 9th of August, and we have a letter written on the way to the nuns at Veas, of which we must presently give some account. It was on this return from Avila that she took with her one who was to be ever afterwards her inseparable companion, the Venerable Anne of St. Bartholomew. Teresa had been told in a vision at Seville to take her as her companion, and certainly the event proved how much this association tended not only to the comfort of the Saint in her toils and journeys, but also to the spiritual profit and improve ment of the great servant of God, whose life thus became linked with hers.

Having thus settled Teresa in Toledo, we may pause to resume the thread of events in relation to the struggle between the two Observances of Mount Carmel. Before Teresa left Seville, a step had been taken by the friars of the Mitigation which was the natural consequence of the mission of Father Tostado, of which mention has been made. This step was the convocation at Moraleja of a General Chapter of the Province of Castile, by the authority of the Provincial, Fra Angelo de Salazar. Tostado had not yet arrived, at least he does not seem to have been present, but the decrees which were passed at Moraleja were quite

4 Letter Ixxxi.

2i 6 Retirement at Toledo.

in conformity with the spirit of his instructions. Three priors of reformed monasteries in the Province of Castile were summoned to the Chapter. Two of these, the Prior of Mancera, Juan of Jesus, and the Prior of Pastrana, Diego of the Trinity, set off at once to the Nuncio at Madrid, to ask for instructions how to act. Ormaneto told them to go, but not to suffer any change to be made in the statutes of the Reformed Friars, nor any decrees to pass against Father Gratian.

The two Priors then made the best of their way to Moraleja, but they found on their arrival that the most important part of the business of the Chapter had been already accomplished. They were in time, however, to protest, though their protest was listened to without producing any change in what had already been determined. Decrees had been passed which embodied the instructions from Italy already men tioned. Some change was to be made in the dress of the Mitigated Friars. They were to wear habits of the colour adopted by the Discalced, and their cloaks were to be shortened. On the other hand, the Discalced were to use the same sandals or footgear with the Caked, and to abandon the use of the rough serge which they wore. They were to be called henceforth by the name of Contemplatives, the others by that of Observants. They were to live in the same monasteries, but each were nevertheless to observe their own Rule.

The Prior of Mancera spoke strongly against these regulations, and told the Chapter that he should observe none of them except with the sanction of Gratian, the Nuncio, and the King. This was the

Retirement at Toledo. 217

issue of the Chapter of Moraleja. The Reformed Friars, Fathers Juan and Diego, went back to Madrid to inform the Nuncio of what had passed. The decrees were cancelled by the royal authority, and Gratian was told in future to address himself for all that concerned the Reformed Carmel to the President of the Royal Council, the Bishop of Segovia, and to the Inquisitor-General, the Bishop of Concha. This happened in July, before St. Teresa proceeded to Toledo from Avila, as has been said above. The next bit of news which we have of the affairs of the contending parties is that early in the month of August the dreaded Tostado arrived in Madrid, and there had some discussions or rather disputes with Gratian about their respective authorities. The Nuncio, or the King, or both, protected Gratian, and Tostado went off into Portugal, to which country perhaps his commission extended.

Another step in the conflict was now taken by the friars of the Reform. Gratian convoked a Chapter of the Reformed, by virtue of his authority as Commissary. They met, in September, at Almodovar del Campo. Their decisions were much more reasonable than those of the other Chapter, as they were confined to matters which strictly concerned their own Observance. In the first place they chose four Definitors. This is the name given in some Orders to the Fathers who are next in authority to the General in the Order, and to the Provincial in the Province. One of these, Antonio of Jesus, was to take the place of Gratian if he were absent, or if he were to die. The next measure was one of which there was the greatest necessity, as has been said. It was the provision for uniformity in the

2i8 Retirement at Toledo.

observance of the Constitutions in all the monasteries. In this respect the nuns had been already provided for by the care of St. Teresa, but up to the present moment no such provision had been made for the friars, among whom each Superior had devised a fashion of observance of his own. Father Juan of Jesus, Prior of Mancera, was appointed, apparently, to draw up some common Constitutions which might be introduced everywhere. There followed then a discussion which revealed the serious difference of opinion among the chief Fathers of the Reform on a .most vital point — a difference which afterwards worked itself out in a manner very calamitous to Gratian himself.

Everything tends to show us that he had, in truth, a different idea of the end of the Carmelite Order from that which prevailed among many of the older disciples of Teresa, including the saintly John of the Cross him self. We have seen that Gratian had been educated by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, and his ways of proceeding were in many respects such as would have been more congenial to the atmosphere of the Society than to that of Carmel. He was for con sidering that the end of the Order of Carmel was twofold, the practice of prayer, and the spiritual assistance of the neighbour. Others did not deny that the Carmelites should assist their neighbours in their spiritual needs, but they considered prayer and contemplation to be the chief matters, and the others secondary. We here come on a difference nothing less than vital. It would seem that the majority of the assembly was more inclined to follow Gratian than St. John of the Cross. Another matter was also

Retirement at Toledo. 219

discussed, namely, the excessive care and time spent on the chanting of the sacred services, which St. John thought distracted the friars from their practice of mental prayer. In this matter he was more successful. Another matter was the transference of the Monas tery of la Pefiuela to a more healthy spot, which was afterwards carried out, and the last, the most important of all in the eyes of St. Teresa, was the sending of deputies to Rome to plead the cause of the Reform, either with the General and his " Curia," or with the Pope and the Cardinals. There was indeed too much reason for the fear that the Pope might easily be induced to take the side of the General and other authorities of the Order against the Reform, which was considerably misrepresented in Italy by the active enemies which it had created. Father Juan of Jesus and Father Pedro of the Angels were named for this most important embassy, but with the sin gular want of prudence which characterized the friars of the Reform, they loitered till it was too late. The two deputies lingered over other business. Indeed, as has been said, one of them was appointed to draw out the Constitutions which were to be uniformly observed. The other was sent to carry out the new arrangement for la Penuela. It is strange that Gratian, at least, should have listened so little to St. Teresa's urgent advice. But here again we must remember that his education and connections made him naturally inclined to think less of Rome than of the Court of King Philip, and he had never had any dealings at all with the General and other authorities of the Order.

It was probably a common thing among the reli-

22O Retirement at Toledo.

gious Orders in Spain to look to the royal authority as practically supreme in their matters. We have seen that when the General Rossi had himself come as Visitor, with the desire of reforming the Order in the Peninsula, the friars of Andalusia had found means to frustrate his efforts by means of the royal autho rity. The same authority was now on the side of the Reform as it had been carried out, and they had also the Nuncio as their patron. Gratian was powerful at Court on account of his family connections, and he had just succeeded in thwarting the attempts of Tostado to interfere with him. Rome was at a dis tance, and the journey and suit would cost a great deal of money, which was not so easily procured. And thus no one but Teresa saw the danger. Ormaneto might die, or might be changed for a successor more con genial to the Italian Fathers. Or the mind of Philip might change — all the more as the friars were not free from great danger of offending him by blunders of their own. Thus it came about that this measure also was neglected. Perhaps the number of men among the friars collected at Almodovar who were fit for such a mission was not very great. But it is difficult to think that if Gratian, Antonio of Jesus, and some others, had been as convinced of the neces sity as was St. Teresa herself, means could not have been found for securing the Reform from so great a peril as that which might at any moment become urgent.

It seems that about the same time at which the Discalced Friars in Castile were thus regulating their own affairs at Almodovar, the Mitigated Friars in Andalusia were upsetting all that Gratian had done

Retirement at Toledo. 221

in his office of Visitor in their Province. Mention has been made of Father Augustin Suarez, the Pro vincial whom Gratian had deposed. He appears to have received some letters from Rome stating that the commission of Gratian had been recalled, and in consequence he proceeded to Seville and called together the friars of the Province at Ezija. He removed all the Superiors who had been appointed by Gratian, and drove Father Juan Evangelista out of the community altogether. Evangelista had been named by Gratian Vicar in the great monastery in Seville. He was received with open arms by the Discalced. However, for the time, Gratian, who went to Seville from Almodovar, was able to reduce the monastery once more to obedience. He showed that the letters from Rome were supposititious, and ap pointed a new Vicar. He also, as it seems, convinced Father Suarez of his duty to submit. Still, however, he appears to have acted with imprudent rigour in two respects. In the first place, he never showed the Vicar of the Observance the brief of the Visitor confirming his powers. In the second place, he called in, not the power of the Archbishop, but of the secular governor, to support his claim. He appointed a new Superior in another great monastery of the Province, that of Granada. About the same time, the Monastery of la Penuela was transferred to a spot near Veas, where a good priest had built himself a kind of hermitage among the mountains. The arrival of the friars was a source of great delight to the newly-founded convent at Veas. In the next year, however, a new monastery was built and founded at la Penuela, the people in the neighbourhood being

222 Retirement at Toledo.

extremely desirous still to have some of the friars among them.

Soon after this we find that St. Teresa at Toledo was visited by the indefatigable Ambrose Mariano, who afterwards left her for Madrid, where he remained a long time occupied with the affairs of the Reform. It appears that his business related to a proposal that had been made for placing the Discalced Friars in Salamanca, but not in a position which in the opinion of St. Teresa it was at all fit for them to occupy. It was proposed that they should take charge for a few weeks of a community of reclaimed women, whose ordinary manager, a certain Juan Diaz, a disciple of Juan of Avila, had some reason for absenting himself from his charge. Teresa saw all the inconveniences of the plan. The work was not one that they were at all fit for, and it was besides only temporary. There was, doubtless, in the mind of Mariano the thought that they might thus obtain a footing in Salamanca, where it would be very useful for them to have a foundation. This subject will come up from time to time in the letters of Teresa to Mariano and Gratian.

We have here an instance of the sort of projects which occupied the minds of the chief of the Discalced Friars, at the time when they ought to have been labouring with all their forces to secure their very existence by the separation of the Reform from the older observance. This was the essential point at stake, and yet no one but St. Teresa herself seems to have recognized its importance. There was also a general want of perception of the folly of setting the Reformed Friars to the work of bringing the others round to the stricter observance, while their own posi-

Retirement at Toledo. 223

tion was so extremely insecure. It was a high-handed measure, but one for which the Nuncio was mainly responsible, to make Gratian the Visitor of the Miti gated Friars, and it did not decrease its imprudence that the Chapter of Piacenza and the authorities of the Order had armed the recalcitrant religious with the best possible arguments for resisting the efforts of the Commissary. Tostado had been baffled for the time, and Gratian had his moment of triumph, more external than real, for the Carmelites of Andalusia must have submitted merely externally, and with the hope in their hearts of a speedy reversal of the victory gained by Gratian. He himself was thoroughly disgusted and wearied with the conflict, as far as it regarded his office of Visitor, which he seems again to have endeavoured to resign. But the King and the Nuncio would not allow him to set himself free from an office which he discharged so well.

It was apparently early in the course of Gratian's sojourn in Andalusia, that he brought about the reform of a convent of Mitigated Carmelite Nuns at Paterna, a place not far from Seville. These nuns had been made the objects of an infamous and foul calumny, which, if it had been true, must have brought about the absolute ruin of their reputation. Gratian as Visitor examined the matter, and established the perfect innocence of the accused, who seem at the same time to have been somewhat wanting in dis cipline and observance. In consequence of this, two nuns of the Reform were sent from the new convent at Seville, who remained at Paterna rather more than a year, and effected a great change for the better in the community. We shall find this mission referred

224 Retirement at Toledo.

to, from time to time, in the letters of the Saint, who was anxious that the two " Reformers " should not expect too great an improvement all at once, and also that they should not be left too much alone,. a lay-sister was sent to keep them companions.

There seems good reason for thinking that Or- maneto himself was inclined to act in the direction of the creation of the separate Province which was the object of the prayers of St. Teresa. Curiously enough,, there are some traces in the history of this last year of the life of the Nuncio of an effort made to turn the mind of the King altogether against him, and even to bring about his dismissal from Spain, with a refusal to accept any more Nuncios from Rome. The matter is an obscure piece of history, and seems to have had nothing to do directly with the affairs of the Carmelites. It must remain doubtful whether the complaint was against the interferences of the Nuncio with the religious Orders, but it seems to have been aimed at Ormaneto himself.4 The matter blew over, and so there is no need for speaking of it at any length. But it may probably account for the delay which practically prevented the action of Ormaneto. Early in the year after that of which we are now speaking, Ormaneto sent for Gratian to Madrid, and at the same time he seems to have been in communication with St. Teresa, asking from her patents and papers connected with her foundations, and for a list of the subjects in the several convents whom she thought fit to be nomi-

4 Some account of the matter will be found in the Bollandists on St. Teresa, n. 746, 747. St. Teresa's great friend Juan de Padilla was implicated in the matter, and declared innocent by the Inquisition.

Retirement at Toledo. 225

nated Superiors. She herself, as we shall see, was alarmed lest he should be intending to follow the same method with the Mitigated nuns as with the Mitigated friars, that of setting over them Superiors of the Reform. But it may perhaps have been that he was meditating the erection of the separate Province by an act of his own authority.

In any case, however, the Reform was soon to be deprived of the powerful aid which it had hitherto found in Ormaneto. Teresa had mentioned in one of her letters in the previous September, which will be noticed more fully in another chapter, that a friend of hers who had often received intimations of ap proaching events, and as often been found right, had warned her that the life of Ormaneto was not to be prolonged much further. In May, 1577, she writes to Seville, evidently expecting some action on the part of the Nuncio, that then was the time when the Order needed the prayers of all. She bade her daughters not to lose sight of these great interests, for, by God's grace, they would soon see a favourable issue, or, if not that, the ruin of their hopes. Never was prayer so needful as then. Before that letter reached its destination, Ormaneto was dead. He was so strict with himself, and so great a practiser of poverty, that there was no money left in his coffers for his funeral, the expenses of which were defrayed by the King.

The death of the good Nuncio marks a crisis in

the history of the Reform, the importance of which

cannot be exaggerated. It is clear that St. Teresa

must have foreseen the entire change which might

P 2

226 Retirement at Toledo.

ensue in the prospects of her children. Whatever might come, there could be no hope of any successor to Ormaneto who would be more zealous than he in espousing their interests, and there might be great danger of one who might even be as zealous in opposing them. We shall see how it was to be. In the first stage of its existence the Reform of Mount Carmel had been supported by the General of the Order, by the Nuncio, and by the King. In the second stage, the Nuncio and the King had protected it against the General. The history which now fol lowed was to show whether the King could, or would, support it against the united efforts of the General and the Nuncio. But here we may well pause, for the sake of spending some time on the consideration of the letters of St. Teresa which belong to the period which was closed by the death of Ormaneto. Jt must be remembered that in mentioning his decease here, as the close of the short period on which we are now engaged, we have anticipated the order of time, so far as that the letters of which we are now to speak were written in the course of several months before his decease.

Notes to Chapter VIII. 227

NOTE TO CHAPTER VIII.

The letters referred to in the foregoing chapter are the following :

1. (Ixxvii.) To Father Jerome Gratian of the Mother of God. From Malagon, June 15, 1576.

Mentioned at p. 210.

2. (Ixxviii.) To Mother Mary of St. Joseph, Prioress at Seville. From Malagon, June 15, 1576.

Mentioned at p. 212.

3. (Ixxix.) To the same. From Toledo, June 18, 1576. Mentioned at p. 213.

4. (Ixxx.) To the same. From Toledo, July 2, 1576. Mentioned at p. 213.

5. (Ixxxi.) To the same. From Toledo, July n, 1576. Mentioned at p. 214.

CHAPTER IX.

Family Letters from Toledo (1576 — /J77).

ST. TERESA'S letters of this time amount to more than seventy. They must be divided under several heads, and it will perhaps be the most convenient arrange ment that we can make, if we take first in order the few letters which remain to us addressed to members of her own family outside the walls of religion — for she had a tolerably brisk correspondence, as we have seen, with her niece Mary Baptist, the Prioress of Valladolid, which we may for the time keep separate from the rest of these letters. We may begin with the good Don Lorenzo de Cepeda, of whom we last heard as escorting his sister to the convents of Malagon and Toledo, after having munificently helped her in the anxious business of the new foundation of Seville. After leaving his sister at Toledo, Lorenzo went on to Avila, and began to settle himself and family in the city. This step was taken at the advice of St. Teresa, and we have a long letter of hers to him on the arrangement of his household. He seems, in truth, to have made her his director in everything, and even to have put himself under obedience to her. This was ultimately approved of by her confessor, though she was herself considerably averse to the undertaking of such a charge. It» is said that she

Family Letters from Toledo. 229

once bad a scruple about the frequency of his visits to the convents at which she was staying, but that our Lord reassured her, as His law gave her brother a right of which her religious state could not deprive him.

In the letter1 of which we are speaking Teresa describes herself as very comfortably lodged in her convent at Toledo, with a cell looking out on the garden, but somewhat distracted by the multitude of her visitors. She mentions also that Father Gratian had enjoined on her to finish the book of her Foun dations. At Avila, whither Lorenzo had now gone, lived Juan de Ovalle, and his wife, Juana de Ahumada, and we learn a little bit of their interior history from some cautions she gives concerning them to her brother. Juan was of a touchy and jealous disposition, which made him somewhat difficult to live with. Teresa says that, in old times, her own intimacy with Doiia Guiomar de Ulloa had been looked on by him with no favourable eyes. He had now written to her to complain about another near relation of Lorenzo's who is called in the letter Cimbron, and 'who seems to have had more to do with Lorenzo than Juan himself. At least so thought the good Juan. She makes excuses for him, and praises him highly for the real goodness of his character. A paper was joined to this letter in which Teresa sets down a few things which Lorenzo might otherwise forget. His boys must not be allowed to be idle, otherwise they will grow up as vain and silly as any in Avila. They should be sent for their studies to the College of the

• 1 Letter Ixxxii.

230 Family Letters from Toledo.

Society. Lorenzo must not expect to have many visits from Francis de Salcedo, or from Master Daza. He must go to see them, for they live at a distance from the house in which he is lodged, and to profit by their conversation he must see them alone. He had better not for the present take any fixed con fessor to the exclusion of others. He is not to have too many servants in his house, but to begin, at all events, with as few as he can manage with. She tells him very plainly that he has always been in clined to expensiveness and display, and must now mortify himself in this respect. The children are not to begin to ride as yet — let them go about on foot and attend to their studies. The date of this letter is at the end of July, 1576.

The next in the series of these family letters2 brings us across another of the family, Luis de Cepeda, her cousin, a son of the good uncle who had met Teresa and her brother when children — when they were running away in the hope of going to be martyred among the Moors— and brought them home to their mother. The letter acknowledges an alms of a few ducats which Don Luis had sent for two of the family, one a nun at the Incarnation, and the other, Beatrix of Jesus, acting as Superior at Malagon during the illness of the actual Prioress. Teresa says that the nun of the Incarnation will be the most in need, and that Dona Beatrix was doing well, indeed, better than she expected, in her office at Malagon. It seems that Don Luis came to her, like the rest of the family, for advice, for she tells him not to mind

- Letter cxxii. •

Family Letters from Toledo. 231

if his devotions cannot be so regular just now, when he is much overwhelmed with active work. She will be quite content if, when this strain is over, he resumes his more devout ways of living. This letter is dated the 26th of November.

We have next a couple of letters to another of her family, Don Diego de Guzman y Cepeda,3 the son of her sister Maria de Cepeda, of whom we have spoken in our first volume. He had married, twelve years before this, his cousin, Jeronima de Tapia, and had just lost her by death. The letter is a calm, loving bit of consolation.

JESUS.

May the grace of the Holy Spirit be with your honour, and give you the consolation which is fit on so great a loss, as it seems to us now. But our Lord Who does this, and Who loves us more than we love ourselves, will make us some day understand that it is the greatest good that He could do to my cousin, and to all of us who love her so much, because He always takes souls away when they are in their best state. Your honour must not con sider that life is now to be very long for you, since every thing is short that comes to an end so soon ; but you must consider that it is but a moment that may remain to you of loneliness, and put everything into the hands of God. His Majesty will do that which is most advantageous. It is a great consolation to see a death which gives us so much of certain security that she is to live for ever. And let your honour believe that, if our Lord takes her away now, it is that, when she is in the presence of God, your honour and your children may have greater assistance from her. May His Majesty hear us, in our most earnest prayers to Him,

*3 Letters cxxxv., cxxxvi.

232 Family Letters from Toledo.

and grant your honour conformity with all that He does, and light to understand how short is the duration of the pleasures and the pains of this life.

It seems, from the other short note written about the same time to the same nephew, that Diego lost a child almost immediately after the death of his wife. Teresa writes to ask him to do some little matter of business for her brother, Pedro de Ahumada, and adds a touching sentence about the little angel who has followed the mother so soon to Heaven. " She was a weakly child, I have been told, and our Lord has done us all a favour in calling her to Himself. But it is a particular favour to your honour, to have so many in Heaven to aid you in the troubles of this life."

We now come to a very characteristic letter to Don Lorenzo,4 written at the beginning of the year 1577, in answer to one of his. She says she must be very short, as the messenger gives her no time. The letter consists of a number of short paragraphs, in each of which she touches some practical matter. Lorenzo is not to read anything that she may write to his son Francisco. He has confidence in his aunt, is of a melancholy disposition, and must not be scared from opening himself to her. Some papers she has left at Avila must be sent carefully packed up, and the key of the little chest in which they are must be sent also. They were probably spiritual writings, which she does not wish others to get hold of. If she finds Lorenzo has shown them to any one, she won't give him another opportunity of such treachery !

4 Letter cxxxvii.

Family Letters from Toledo.

She must have her seal sent, one with the Name of Jesus on it. She can't bear sealing her letters with the other which she has, on which there was a death's head. She reminds him of, or repeats, what she has said in a letter which may not have reached him. A house he has bought — probably his new purchase of the estate of La Serna — used to have the name of having a part of it in a dangerous state. He must be careful about this at once. Then she mentions what has already been noticed, that the Nuncio has sent to her for her patents, papers, and lists of names. She must have the list of the nuns at St. Joseph's, signed by the Subprioress, — no, she is herself Prioress, and her signature will do if the other sends her the list, dates of profession, and the rest, which she can copy for the Nuncio and sign it herself. She answers some inquiry of her brother's about prayer, referring him to the book of the Way of Perfection, and also to her Life.

Teresa then begins to scold him in her inimitable way. It seems he had made a vow or a promise about not committing any venial sin. In the first place, he has done it without her leave. This is a fine kind of obedience ! She does not like the subject, either. The resolution not to commit venial sin is very well, but the promise is dangerous, as such a promise might make a venial sin, if committed, mortal. Her own vow, to which he seems to have referred, was with qualifications. She would not dare to do as he has done, for even the Apostles sinned venially. Our Lady alone never did so. He had better get it commuted at once, the Jubilee is still going on,

234 Family Letters from Toledo.

and it is a good time for such things. It is easy to sin venially, and it is the mercy of God, Who knows our natural weakness, not to make more of it than He actually does.

It was just like Lorenzo, that, when he had bought the property of La Serna, he should at once begin to be scrupulous about it, and to think that the business of its management would take him away from his prayer. Teresa tells him plainly that the thought comes from the devil, who wishes to prevent him from giving God due thanks for the mercy which has been shown him. He has thus provided honourably for his children, and every one speaks of his good fortune. Does he think that there is no trouble about living on rents ? She seems to mean that Lorenzo was thinking of avoiding the trouble of looking after his property and spending money on its cultivation, by the alternative of investing his money in securities, which cost no trouble, just as many people now prefer the funds to the cultivation of land, or the care of an estate. She tells him he will have, even in the other case, plenty of trouble about securing the payment of his dues. She bids him thank God and set to his business. He is not to think that the more time he has, the more he will pray. Time well spent, as time spent on the affairs of his children's future is, never takes from prayer. God often gives more in a minute than in long spaces of time, and work is not to be rated by the amount of time spent on it. As soon as Christmas-tide is over, let him look up his papers and put everything in good train. What is spent on La Serna, is well spent, and it will be a pleasant thing

Family Letters from Toledo. 235

to go and spend a few days there in the summer. Jacob and Abraham, and St. Joachim, were not the less saints because they looked after their flocks and herds.

Everything, she says, wearies us, because we wish to fly from exertion. To this remark of St. Teresa her latest and best Spanish editor adds a few words in a note, saying that here she has put her finger on the wound which was at that time working great mischief in Spain. People preferred income from investments to income gained by their own labour and exertion, on account of the epidemic vice of the country, idle ness. She adds that God gives her plenty of troubles, and takes care that it should do her good. Lorenzo in all these matters of business should go by the advice of Francis de Salcedo, to whom she commends herself very much, as also to her brother, Pedro de Ahum ad a, to whom she would gladly write if she had time, as letters from him give her consolation. To Teresita she sends a loving message that she is not to fear that she loves any one as well as she loves her, that she is to give away some pictures she has of hers, but not what she had set apart for herself, and to give some of them to her brothers.

Lorenzo had written some kind letters to Seville which had been sent on to Teresa at Toledo, and delighted her and the nuns much. His politeness and gallant ways no one will ever be able to deprive him of, except by depriving him of life, and she holds the nuns of Seville to be true saints. He seems to have sent her a carol on the Holy Name, which pleased them all very much. She has nothing to send in

236 Family Letters from Toledo.

return, except some poor rhymes she made long ago, and which her confessor bade her make to give enter tainment to the nuns, with whom she had been taking recreation of late. They are set to a pretty air which she would like the young Francis, her nephew, learn to sing them to. " A fine mark of progress this," she says. God has been very good to her of late. She is astonished at the favours which He bestows upon her brother. It is one thing to desire devotion in prayer, and another thing to ask for it. The best of all is to do as he does, leave ourselves in the hand of God in the matter. He must go on the path He has marked out for him, and it is more important than he may think. She gives him some cautions about the sudden impulses to prayer, with which he occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night. He may then sit up for a little, but he must take care that he has his full sleep, and also not to catch a chill. He seems to have been disposed to desire more fear and sense of the judgments of God, and in this he was certain to have an ally in the good Francis de Salcedo. Teresa tells him not to desire this, as God draws him on by the way of love. He must not think that it is always the devil who disturbs his prayer, for God sometimes withdraws the gift for good reasons, and then it is as great a blessing as when He grants much of it. The prayer which God gives him is much better than the thought of Hell.

She then turns to the subject of the answers of some of the nuns to the explanations which had been given by various pious persons to some words which had been spoken to her in prayer, " Seek thyself in

Family Letters from Toledo. 237

Me," and which she had sent to her brother, to com ment upon. The Bishop of Avila, her great friend, Don Alvaro de Mendoza, had ordered the explanations to be sent to her. We shall speak of this matter further on.

Teresa ends the letter by assuring her brother that his letters do not trouble her, but give her great com fort, though she has but little time to answer them. " To-night," she says, " I have given up my prayer to write." She had no scruple at all, only she is sorry not to have more time. Then she remembers that Toledo is very badly supplied with fish, which is a great hardship on people who have to live on meagre fare, and she begs her brother, who has sent some giltheads to the convent, to see if he can get some fresh sardines, and if so, to give them to the Sub- prioress of St. Joseph's, at Avila, to send them on to Toledo. They can't even get a fresh egg at Toledo. However, she is better than she has been for a long time past, and is able to keep the rule of the community, which is a great consolation. Then she comes back to the carols he has sent, and sends him hers, which, as she says, have neither head or tail, but serve for the recreation well enough during the Christmas time. She writes out what she can remember. God forgive him for making her lose so much time ! Still she thought she had her senses about her when she wrote them. She was then with Dona Guiomar, to whom she sends her good wishes.

The next letter^ which we possess to Don Lorenzo is dated a few weeks later than the last, and seems

5 Letter cxliii.

238 Family Letters from Toledo.

to continue it very naturally. Teresa writes with wonderful freedom and openness to her brother, and her correspondence with him gives us an insight into ways of judging practical matters outside the routine of religious life, which we might not have opened to us without it. There are also other letters to Lorenzo, written shortly after this, of which it is well to say a few words. We return to the first, dated the i/th of January, which takes up many points which had been included in its predecessor. She had told him to keep her writings secret. Lorenzo took alarm, and asked whether he was bound to obey under pain of sin. She answers, no, but it is enough for him to know that it will give her great pain if he is communicative on this matter. His vow, of which she has written, is, she tells him, declared to be null by her confessor. She had also asked Dr. Velasquez about his being under obedience to her, and told him her own repugnance to this. She has been told that it is no harm, provided there is no vow, either to her or to any one else. She is delighted that he has found himself able to open himself to St. John of the Cross, who has great experience in the matter of prayer. " Francis," she says, " has some, but not of the state of prayer" in which Lorenzo then was. She appa rently speaks of Francis of Salcedo.

She speaks of our Lord's great favours to herself and to her brother. She tells him that for the last week, after a season of great dryness, her ecstasies and ravishments had returned to such an extent that he would wonder how she can at the same time attend to affairs and letters. The ecstasies come on

Family Letters from Toledo. 239

at Matins, and at other times in public. It is a great inconvenience. She had been glad of the change after the dryness which she has mentioned, because it showed her how entirely we are dependent upon God in all these matters. She then speaks of some favours which he has experienced in the prayer of quietude, and explains some verses in those which she had sent him, in which she said that " God gives pain without wounding, and that without pain His love detaches us from all creatures." Although in truth it is a wound which the love of God makes in the soul, yet it does not know whence or how the wound comes, nor whether it is wounded, nor what it is, only that it feels a delicious pain which makes it complain, and so say, as is said in the verses, " Thou givest pain without wounding, and without pain destroyest all love of creatures." Because when the soul is truly touched by this love of God, it gets rid, without pain, of all attachment to creatures, so that nothing of that kind is a tie to it, which cannot be the case where there is not this love of God. The love of any created thing is a pain, and a much greater pain is the separation from such love. Teresa then answers various ques tions which he had put to her about what passed in himself in prayer and after prayer, and she gives him the wisest directions to all such matters.

She sends him a hair-shirt, but he is to use it only when he finds a difficulty in recollecting himself in time of prayer, or when he feels a great desire to do something for God, as it is very useful for rousing up love. He is never to wear it when he is dressed for the day, or when he is to sleep. It may

240 Family Letters from Toledo.

be worn on any part where it causes some pain. She sends him this hair-shirt with some misgiving, because his temperament is sanguineous, and anything may do him harm, but it is such a satisfaction to do any little thing for God when one is full of His love that it is well to try this. When the summer comes on she has some other little thing of the kind for him to try. He is to write and tell her how he gets on with this little plaything, " for a plaything indeed it is, when we try to do some chastisement on ourselves, remembering that which our Lord suffered." It amuses her that her brother sends her comfits, presents, and money, and she sends him hair-shirts.

The rest of this letter is made up of greetings and short messages. She mentions, among other things, that a rich postulant is about to enter at Seville, whose fortune will be enough to pay off a great part of their debt to Lorenzo, which is the wish of the postulant, who insists on beginning at once. When she is professed she will pay off the whole. This had been a great charge on St. Teresa's mind. Gratian is at his work, putting things in order by his visitation, and is succeeding wonderfully. At the end of the letter she sends her other brother Pedro a little hand- warmer for his fingers, as he is so much in the church.

The second letter of which we spoke, to Lorenzo,6 is dated the loth of February. St. Teresa has been ill, and is now better. She had taken some medicine to fit her for fasting during the Lent, but on that day she had so many letters to write, and business to

6 Letter cxlvi.

Family Letters from Toledo. 241

get through, that she sat up writing till two in the morning, a thing which made her head ache terribly, but which did her good, because the doctor has now ordered her never to go beyond midnight, and also sometimes to dictate, instead of writing herself. In short she had been using herself up, and now things had been set right. So if his honour sees sometimes that a part of her letters to him are not in her own hand, he will know how it is. He must not go on sending her sweets. Sweets are not for her, she will eat some of them this time, but in future it will annoy her. He has been taking the discipline without her leave. This must not be. Let him read over her letter, and go by what she has said — twice a week at most, and the hair-shirt once a week, but not if it hurts him by bringing blood. It is better and more penitential to take these mortifications in small measures, and then break his own will by stopping out of obedience. He must remember to tell her about the effects of the hair-shirt.

Lorenzo had told her of certain disagreeable movements which he had experienced in time of prayer, of which she bids him make no account at all. She tells him of what she had heard from a very learned and spiritual man, that he had met with a person who for similar reasons had been told to give up communicating except once a year, and who was greatly afflicted thereat. He had told him to make no account of his troubles, but to communicate every week. Lorenzo is to see Master Julian of Avila from, time to time, and Teresa tells him that if he wishes to do him any kindness it might be by way of alms, Q 2

242 Family Letters from Toledo.

for she knows that he is very poor. Lorenzo is to sleep not less than six good hours. At their age their bodies must be taken care of, lest they ruin the spirit altogether. She speaks of the state to which she had been reduced a few days before, when she was afraid to say Office or read, or do anything, although already on the mend. She was as anxious then to get sleep as he seemed to be not to sleep. He had spoken of a kind of fear that had come over him in prayer. She tells him it is that his soul feels the approach of the evil spirit. She bids him use holy water largely, sprinkling it all round him, that it may reach the enemy. She has had much experience of its good effects, even when he was tormenting her terribly.

She tells him that she stands to what she has before said about the meaning of her verses, although he does not like it. However, she confesses that she was so unwell the day she wrote to him, and had so much to do with business and letters, that it was a wonder she got through. " It was a miracle that I did not send to the Bishop of Cartagena a letter I had written to the mother of Father Gratian. I made a mistake in the direction, and it was already put into the cover, and I have great thanks to give to God for that matter, for I had spoken in this letter of what had passed between his vicar and the nuns at Cara- vaca, and it would have seemed an absurdity — a man, too, whom I have never seen ! " It seems that the chaplain had been forbidden to say Mass for the nuns at Caravaca, but that the matter was now arranged.

" We are still anxious," she tells him, " about the return of Tostado to the Court." He must pray

Family Letters from Toledo. 243

about the matter. The Prioress of Seville has sent her the letter which Lorenzo had written to her nuns, which consoles her very much. The rest of the letter is on passing matters, only one of which need detain us. The good Lorenzo was anxious about the lawful ness of some expenses in the way of plate and furni ture, to which he was to be put if he set up his estab lishment in the usual way. She says she has consulted her confessor, Dr. Velasquez, on the point, for she did not like not to do all she could to help him in ad vancing in sanctity. Dr. Velasquez had answered that, as he had his children to marry and start in life, it is well for him to have his house furnished and supplied as is proper for his condition. He is to understand how little these things matter in them selves, whether for good or for evil, and so not think too much of them. For the rest — for Lorenzo seems still to have had some yearnings for a more perfect life, perhaps for the religious state which he at one time thought of entering — he must have patience. " God always takes His time in bringing good desires to their accomplishment, and He will do so with your honour. May He preserve you to me, and make you a great saint ! Amen."

There is still another letter to Don Lorenzo7 of about the same date, and it continues some of the subjects which are touched in this. She begins by begging him to get his son Francis to send her some good pens well cut, for she can't get any that suit her in Toledo. We may imagine that her demands on the stationery of the convent must have been

7 Letter cxlviii.

244 Family Letters from Toledo.

somewhat unusual. Francis is on no account to be hindered from writing to her. His father seems to have thought of this, perhaps to save her trouble, but she evidently wants to keep the confidence of the boy, and she insists. He is content with a short letter, which can do her no harm. She has had a serious illness, and has been alarmed lest she should find her self incapable of anything. She is better now, thanks to some pills she has taken — the mischief came through fasting at the beginning of Lent. She had pains in head and heart both, and she seems to have really feared that she might be becoming incapable. She encourages Lorenzo by saying that she is in good hope that her head will soon get stronger ; at present she could not attempt a regular prayer. She takes all the remedies and helps that are necessary.

After saying so much about her weakness, she says it is not to prevent her writing to him. That would be too much of a mortification. She will not permit him to wear his hair-shirt as he desires. He must obey, and excuse her if she does not let him have his own way. However, she sends him another hair-shirt, which he may wear all day twice in a week, but he is not to sleep in it. Little Teresa, also, has been asking for instruments of penance, and her aunt sends her a hair-shirt and a discipline — " very rough." Julian of Avila has sent a very good account of his little peni tent. Lorenzo has told her that he has had experience of great dryness. She is glad of it, for she has been praying our Lord to send it him, though she thinks the account he gives of it shows it not to have been very much. There is always a strain of fun under-

Family Letters from , Toledo, 245

running her directions to her brother. She gives the most precise rules for him as to the wearing or not wearing of his hair-shirt, and the taking of the dis cipline, and as he is somewhat self-willed, she reminds him of what Samuel said to Saul about obedience and sacrifice. And he is to remember to take his full tale of sleep, and make a sufficient collation. He was of a melancholic turn, and had to be carefully watched.

She tells him with great joy that she has good news about her papers, that is about the manuscript of her Life. The Grand Inquisitor, Don Caspar de Quiroga, who has just been named Archbishop of Toledo, has read them himself, and told Dona Luisa de la Cerda, that not only is there no harm in them, but that they contain " many excellent things." He is much in favour of the Discalced friars, and wonders why Teresa has not made a foundation in Madrid. We know that this was her great desire, and that it might have been accomplished by this time but for the obedience imposed upon her by Father Gratian. This news is to be told in great confidence to the Bishop of Avila, the Mother Subprioress, and to Isabella of St. Paul, who was at this time apparently Prioress of the Incarnation. There is also good news from Seville. Half the price of the house has been paid already, and what Beatrix and her mother have promised will be more than enough for the rest. She has also had the joy of receiving a letter — Lorenzo had probably sent it — from her younger brother, Augustin, in Peru, but Lorenzo ought to have waited for her to write before he sent the answer

246 Family Letters from Toledo.

to his brother. However, she hopes to get a letter to him by another way. Lorenzo seems to have been astonished at what she had said in her last about the efficacy of holy water in driving away the evil one. She spoke from experience, and she has told her ex perience to several great theologians, who have said nothing against it. But as Lorenzo says, it is enough to go by the teaching of the Church.

Then come the greetings and the little bits of news. She sends a kind message to Francis of Sal- cedo and Pedro de Ahumada. She asks Lorenzo, if he can, to give Juan de Ovalle some money to buy some sheep. It will be a real alms, as well as a mark of kindness, which will greatly oblige him. Then she remembers her pens again, and says she has changed her pen ever so many times since she began the letter, and it is that which makes her handwriting so bad, and not her illness. Even St. Teresa, perhaps, did not like to confess to bad writing. There is some rather obscure language about a workman whom Don Lorenzo was employing. Her companion, Anne of St. Bartholo mew, praises him up to the skies, and the Prioress backs her up by saying he is a good workman. Teresa always has found another whom she names the most intelligent. She adds a postscript that Tos- tado is coming again. The world will soon be talking of all their affairs. Gratian is well, but she wishes he were out of it all, that is, of course, of the office of Commissary for the Visitation of the Mitigated friars. She speaks of the kindnesses she has received from various houses of her nuns, at Seville, at Salamanca, and at Caravaca* They had probably sent her some

Note to Chapter IX. 247

presents hearing that she was ill, and also that Toledo was a place where provisions were scarce and bad. She mentions especially some shads sent all the way from Seville, which were very eatable. She is especi ally delighted with the good will with which these presents are sent.

NOTE TO CHAPTER IX.

The letters referred to in this chapter are the following :

1. (Ixxxii.) To Don Lorenzo de Cepeda, her brother. From Toledo, July 24, 1576.

An account of this letter is given at p. 229.

2. (Ixxxiii.) To the same.

This is a memorandum added on to the preceding letter. It is mentioned at p. 229.

3. (cxxii.) To Don Luis de Cepeda, her cousin. From Toledo, November 28, 1576.

An account of this letter is given, p. 230.

4. (cxxxv.) To Don Diego de Guzman y Cepeda, her cousin. From Toledo, at the end of 1576.

A translation of this letter is given, p. 231.

5. (cxxxvi.) To the same. Same date. Mentioned at p. 232.

6. (cxxxvii.) To Don Lorenzo de Cepeda, her brother. From Toledo, January 2, 1577.

A full account of this letter is given at pp. 232, seq.

7. (cxliii.) To the same. From Toledo, January 17, 1577. A full account of this letter is given at pp. 238, seq.

8. (cxlvi.) To the same. From Toledo, February 10, 1577. An account of this letter is given at pp. 240, seq.

9. (cxlviii.) To the same. From Toledo, February 27 and 28, 1577-

An account of this letter is given at pp. 243, seq.

CHAPTER X.

Letters to Convents of the Reform.

OUT of the large number of letters of St. Teresa which belong to the period on which we are now engaged, it will be convenient to select, as forming a class by themselves, those which were addressed to. the Prioress of the last of her foundations, the convent at Seville, adding also the very few which remain addressed to other convents. The difficulties which had to be overcome in the precipitate foundation at Seville have already been explained, and things were becoming comparatively tranquil at the time which has now been reached. It is in a letter mentioned in a preceding chapter that we first find Teresa men tioning the first lady who had entered as a novice at Seville, Beatrix of the Mother of God, whose pro fession she thinks should be pressed on. She has given a beautiful account of this chosen soul in her Foundations,1 which is unfortunately too long to be inserted here in her own words. We must try to give the substance of it in an abridged form. Beatrix of the Mother of God was a country girl of good and pious parents. An aunt, who had no children of her own, begged her from her parents, and as she showed herself very fond of the child, who was but seven years

1 Book of the Foundations, xxvi. 3, seq.

Letters to Convents of the . Reform. 249

old, some friends of hers, who seem to have hoped to inherit some property from her, invented a story to rid themselves of the intruder. They declared she had given some money to one of them to buy some poison with which to murder her aunt. The story was believed, and the child sent home in disgrace. Her mother, who also believed in her guilt, treated her very severely indeed, with the object of forcing her to confess her crime. Providence at last inter fered by chastising most severely the authors of the false charge, who all died in great pain, after con fessing their calumny. The child had never been tempted to make a false confession, and grew up with many favours from God. When she was twelve years old, she happened to read a Life of St. Anne, in which it is said that the Saint's mother, Merencia, was in the habit of frequently conversing with the religious who lived on Mount Carmel. This gave her a ^reat devotion to the Order. She made a vow ol chastity, and promised to become a Carmelite nun. The old Life which she read is found in many of the early editions of Ludolph's Life of Christ, and it is a pleasure thus again to come across that most beautiful book.

Her vow of chastity brought her into trouble. When she was of a marriageable age, her parents betrothed her without her consent, and, on her refusal to marry, they ill-treated her again, perhaps not quite so severely as on the former occasion, but still it seems that even her life was in danger. She was three months in bed, unable to move. " It seems very strange," says St. Teresa, " that a young girl who

250 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

never left her mother's side, and whose father, as I have heard, was so prudent, could be thought so ill of, for she was always pious and modest, and so charitable that whatever she could get she gave away in alms." This refers to the impression which pos sessed her parents, that her reluctance to marry had a disgraceful motive behind it. "When God our Lord wishes to give any one the grace to suffer, He has many ways of doing so. Some years after this, however, He made them see the goodness of their child. They would then give her what she wanted for her almsdeeds, and the persecutions were changed into caresses. Nevertheless, everything was a trial to her, because of her wish to become a nun, and she lived on, as she told me, in great distress and sadness of heart."

After this she had a vision of the Prophet Elias. " She was with her father and two women from the neighbourhood, when a friar of our Order came in, clad in serge, as they are now, and barefooted. They say his countenance was cheerful and venerable, but he was so old, however, that his beard, which was long, looked like silver threads. He stood close beside her, and began to address her in a language which neither she nor any of the others understood, and when he had done speaking he made the sign of the Cross over her three times, saying, 'Beatrix, God make thee strong/ and went away. The friar could nowhere be found when he was sought for, and the vision made a great change in her, which all who knew her noticed." She had yet many years to wait before she came across Father Gratian who was with

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 251

difficulty persuaded to hear her confession, she being young and beautiful. He told her that there would soon be Carmelite nuns in the city, and that they should receive her immediately. Thus she became the first recruit of the new Reform in Seville, but even then she had to run away and scheme in order to enter. However, her parents came round soon, and the mother gave a large alms to the new convent. This happened very soon after the first arrival of St. Teresa and her nuns in Seville. Teresa, in the letter of which we are speaking, gives as one reason for her speedy profession that she might thus be rid of her temptations. She found the religious life hard to bear, and was in some danger. It turned out that, three days before her profession, which took place as St. Teresa wished, she was entirely delivered by our Lord, and was beside herself with happiness. Her father had died soon after her first entry into the convent, and her mother became a nun herself, giving all her property to it as an alms.

The correspondence with Seville is full of little matters of business and personal traits, which can hardly be fully grasped except by a complete trans lation. Our next letter to Mary of St. Joseph is dated the /th of September.2 Teresa hopes that as God has delivered them from Father Tostado, He will also put an end to their other troubles. As long as the Father General is displeased with them, they will have occasion enough of gaining merit by suffer ing. She tells Mary of St. Joseph that she has made friends with the postmaster at Toledo, whose kindness

2 Letter xcii.

252 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

will greatly facilitate their correspondence, and, what was even more important, make it safe. But she begs to be informed what is the proper title to give to this gentleman — has he a right to be called Magnifico ? She regrets her brother's departure, because he feels it so much. She has the most glowing account of Teresita from the nuns at St. Joseph. She is full of virtue, and desires the lowest employments, all the more, she says, because she is niece of the foundress. Teresa herself is glad to be parted from those she loves, just for the reason that she is afraid of feeling her attachment too strongly.

She tells her correspondent not to receive a pos tulant without a dowry under the present circum stances of the convent, and she forbids her to be sending to her at Toledo presents of orange-flower water, and the like, while she is so anxious about the means of subsistence for their convent. She tells her to take whatever she has to spend for the carriage of her letters out of a sum of forty ducats which her convent owes to St. Joseph's at Avila. She mentions in a postscript some difficulties which beset the nuns at Caravaca, which made them think of migrating to Granada. A short letter written about this time to the nuns themselves is given in the correspondence.3 She urges them to have more confidence in God. The convent has only been founded a short time, and they must wait some years and see how things turn. If there is no improvement, it may be taken as a sign 'of the will of God that they should change their place, and the matter might be arranged according to

3 Letter Ixxxiv.

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 253

the direction of Superiors. She speaks also in this letter of her great sorrow at the ill-health of the Prioress of Malagon.

Two days later (the 9th of September) we find another letter4 to Mary of St. Joseph, on which we need not linger. It is full of matters of business, advice about the reception or non-reception of pos tulants — one who is of a melancholy disposition, although a near relative of their great friend Garcia Alvarez, must be simply refused — and injunctions not to get rid too easily of the capital which some of them have brought. There is a passage about her niece Teresita, who, she says, does honour to the nuns of Seville, even if they have had some trouble in training her. She begs that they will pray for her, especially the nun who had been her teacher. There is a little better news from Malagon — the Prioress has ceased to bring up blood.

The next three letters on the list are short and unimportant to us. 5 Teresa is anxious to have news about Father Gratian, who was evidently not a good correspondent to her, and not to be depended on for intelligence, and about the difficulty the nuns at Seville had as to a supply of water, of which however there are hopes by means of the influence of a certain Fra Bonaventura, a great man among the Franciscans, at present Visitor. She insists with the Prioress against filling the house with postulants without dowries — she ought first of all to pay off certain debts

4 Letter xciii.

5 Letters xcv. xcvi. xcvii. The letters are dated September 20, 22, and 26.

254 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

and dues, for which Lorenzo de Cepeda had advanced money.

We have another letter, rather more important, to the same Prioress, written on the 6th of October.6 She is still anxious for news of Gratian, and gives the Prioress a gentle scolding for her silence. She tells her of her brother Lorenzo's purchase of the estate of La Serna, more than a league from Avila. It has cost him 14,000 ducats, and seems to promise well, with its pasture land, cornfields, and woods. They are to pray for him. Somehow there has been a confusion about the packages which came with the family from Seville, and which were sent on at once to Avila, whither St. Teresa at the time expected to go. Teresita has lost her large Agnus Dei, and some emeralds to boot. They are to be looked for, if possible. It seems that some of the Fathers of the Society at Seville were supposed to have deterred ladies from entering the convent there, saying it was too severe a rule. Garcia Alvarez should be sent to speak to them. It would be well that some of the Fathers should be got to hear the confessions some times. That would drive away their fears. The rest of the letter is mostly on personal matters. The Prioress is not to be afraid of telling Teresa, when ever she wants money to give Gratian good food. She is anxious about his dietary at the monastery where he is staying.

The next letter,7 October I3th, is of the same character. Mary Joseph had been ill. She must on no account take to drinking the water of sarsaparilla.

6 Letter xcix. ^ Letter c.

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 255

Teresa mentions again her brother's purchase of La Serna, and asks for prayers. She envies the nuns some sermons which Gratian has been preaching. If they have by chance room for a lay-sister, there is a relation of his who has been applying to Teresa with great perseverance. She speaks also of a little sister of his, a gentler character than Teresita, and extra ordinarily clever. In the next,8 we are told that Teresita has found her Agnus Dei and her jewels. The Prioress of Malagon has been saying she was better in order not to give Teresa pain. She is now very weak. Then there is some news of the old friend of Mary of St. Joseph, Dona Luisa de la Cerda, and her daughter Doiia Guiomar Pardo, and Teresa returns to the subject of Gratian's taking his food with the Mitigated Friars, to which she is much opposed. What is spent on him in the convent of Seville is to be set down to the convent of Avila. Sarsaparilla is again forbidden in a letter of the 3ist of October,9 in which she shows a good deal of alarm because Gratian has written to say he has had no letter from her for some time, whereas she has been writing continually. She seems to have had good reasons for fearing that her letters were sometimes intercepted, and on this account we find her using false names in her correspondence with Gratian. We hear in this letter, for the first time, of a man who was afterwards to become very prominent in the Carmelite Order, Nicolas Doria. He was then at Seville, and a priest, and Teresa is glad that he should hear the confessions of the nuns. He had not

8 Letter ci. 9 Letter ciii.

256 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

yet entered religion. She tells the Prioress in this letter to make Gratian eat meat sometimes. In her next letter10 (the 8th of November) Teresa gives very particular directions how letters to Gratian are to be addressed by her and sealed. He had better send his through the Prioress for greater security. She insists again on forbidding the reception of novices without money as long as the house is so much in debt, and she pleads strongly for one of their creditors, Alfonso Ruiz, who wants his money for his sheep at Malagon. She says she has asked her brother to help him.

Thus it is that all these letters contain little marks of character which let us know St. Teresa better. The next, written on the nth of November,11 begins with her anxiety about the health of the Prioress. How she envies them having Gratian so much to themselves ! They are all to take great care that the Discalced Fathers do not get to know about Gratian dining at the convent. It must never be permitted for any other Superior, and they must take care against making a bad precedent for the future. The letter also contains a truly Teresian touch. She has heard that a kind of mortification had been intro duced at Seville which was practised at Malagon, where the discipline seems to have been severe, and the nuns accustomed to it. This mortification con sisted in the Superior's giving an order to a nun to give another a sudden buffet. She says she thinks it is the devil who suggests such things, under colour of perfection, for they clearly put souls in danger of offending God. The nuns are not to be treated in

10 Letter cxviii. " Letter cxix.

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 257

such a way. They are not slaves, and mortification is only to serve for advancement in good. She com plains that certain Prioresses invent things out of their own heads, which give her a great deal of pain when she hears of them.

In another letter, of the igth of November,9 St. Teresa scolds the Prioress for writing her dates at full, "perhaps to hide her bad figures." The Prioress has also sent her some letters for Father Mariano. They are well enough, she says, but there is too much Latin. Heaven preserve her nuns from being Latinists ! they must be simple, and not rheto ricians. So the Prioress has gained something by sending her letters open ! She says they will be pretty well mortified in making their confessions to Father Gratian, to whom she sends a message that she has just made a general confession to her new confessor, Dr. Velasquez, "the person of whom I spoke to him," and it cost her twenty times less trouble than when she made it to him. She recom mends her new confessor to the prayers of the com munity. She is delighted with him, and she is not easily contented. She is very glad that the nuns of Seville have not invited to hear them a certain priest there who gave her immense pain while she was there. " It seemed," she says, " that God chose her to have nothing but sufferings and annoyance in that place." She goes back to what she had suffered from the Prioress herself. However, she is glad that Mary of St. Joseph is satisfied as to her affection for her. The Prioress of Caravaca had also hurt her in some

9 Letter cxx. R 2

258 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

unmentioned manner, but now she feels great regret at what she did. She has sent her a habit to wear which suits her well at Toledo, where it is very cold, and where no linen is worn in the summer — where, moreover, the fast is kept very exactly. So she is beginning at last to lead the life of a true religious. God grant that it may last !

She gives some news of the Prioress of Malagon, who tells her that her lungs are untouched, and that another nun has had the same disease, and has got perfectly well. Then she enlarges on the sufferings of the convent at Toledo. There are many ill, and they are very poor, have no money, no flour, and plenty of debts. Gratian has ordered the convent at Salamanca to pay them four hundred ducats which were owing to them by that house, and it is doubtful whether that will be enough to get them out of their trouble. Teresa lays the blame of their present con dition on the too great freedom they have used in spending and giving, a fault which she wishes to see less prevalent among her Prioresses.

As we have mentioned Dr. Velasquez more than once, we may as well place here the account of the manner in which he had become St. Teresa's con fessor at Toledo. It is found in a letter to Father Gratian,10 in which, as it was to him and might there fore be in danger of interception, she uses false names of persons concerned. She herself is Angela, la negra de Angela, our Lord is Joseph, and Gratian himself is Paul. The letter shows how important it was for Teresa to have just the right person as her confessor,

10 Letter Ixxxv.

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 259

wherever she was, and that one good and holy man might be less fit for her than another, for reasons which few would at once discern. At Toledo she had chosen as her confessor the Prior of the Geroni- mites, a very good religious, and he had been in the habit before of paying her frequent visits. As soon as she began to confess to him, his visits ceased. Teresa could not divine the cause. One day she was told in a vision that the confessor who would suit her the best, was Dr. Velasquez, a great theologian, one of the Canons of the Cathedral, who afterwards became Bishop of Osma. She was in some trouble at this, because the Prior was already well acquainted with the condition of her soul, and her history. She could not take the advice of Gratian, as he was at a distance, and it was rather a pain to her to go from one confessor to another. In her perplexity she took advantage of a visit from Father Caspar de Salazar, the Father of the Society who, when Rector at Avila, bad encouraged her so much to make the foundation of her first convent. She put the whole matter before him and asked his advice. Father Caspar told her to follow the advice given her in the vision. After this the Prior came to the convent, and when the Prioress asked him why he had ceased his visits, he said he could not account for it, he had greatly wished to come, but had always been prevented in some unin telligible way when he was on the point of setting out.

Dr. Velasquez, when he was invited to hear Teresa in confession, promised to come every week, and said it would give him as much joy as if he had been

260 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

made Archbishop of Toledo. He became a most devoted and useful friend, and Teresa soon found herself quite at home with him. In the letter to which we refer, she imparts her joy to Gratian with her usual openness and simplicity, and begs him to give her an obedience to do whatever the Canon tells her.

The next letter to the Prioress of Seville is dated a week later, the 26th of November.11 It begins by a reckoning up of letters which may be supposed to have been lost on the road. In one of these she had told the Prioress of the entrance at Toledo of Gratian's young sister Isabella, and of her own delight in making the acquaintance of his mother. She had also sent a parcel of letters from the nuns at Toledo containing questions to Gratian, and as he has not given any answer, she fears that they also may have been lost. We have seen that the convent at Seville had been used by Gratian for the reform of a convent of Mitigated Carmelite Nuns at Paterna, a place not far from Seville. Two nuns had been sent. Teresa fears they may have to suffer, as the convent is very poor, in other respects she envies them their work. She sends them an instruction which is to be for warded. As long as they are so few, they must not attempt to chant the Office.

In this letter Teresa mentions a plan which her enemies had conceived of getting her sent out of the country, apparently to South America. " God forgive them," she says. They have done her a great service in spreading so many lies against her, because the

xt Letter cxxi.

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 261

very number of them will prevent people from be lieving them. She also mentions here her old expe rience about confessors — that good theologians are better than spiritual persons who are without learning. There seems to have been some trouble on the point of confession at Seville, and she writes a letter for Garcia Alvarez which she leaves open, that the Prioress may judge of it as well as the Prior of the Chartreuse. She has better news of the Prioress of Malagon, and begins to hope that she may live.

In another letter, of November the 3Oth,12 this good hope about the Prioress of Malagon is contradicted. Her improvement is changed for a turn the other way, and she felt a great disgust for all nourishment, a very bad sign in her great weakness. Teresa men tions the marriage of Dona Guiomar Pardo, daughter of Dona Luisa de la Cerda. She is anxious about Gratian's expenses, as it seems he had to find money to support some of his monasteries. The Prioress is again urged to see to his needs. Teresa is highly amused at what she is told of the diligence of the Subprioress in keeping the accounts, and sends a kind message to her "dear Gabriel," the sister who had nursed her. The next letter speaks of her joy at the success of Gratian's visitation, and desires to have a copy sent her of his regulations. He has written a very good paper for Garcia Alvarez, probably about the confessors of the convents. This letter is written on the 3rd of December.13 Four days later she writes again, having just received a packet of letters, the

12 This letter is omitted here in the last Spanish edition. 13 Letter cxxiii.

262 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

bearer begging to have the answers at once. She must be short.14 Gratian has written about the care which the Prioress takes of him, and Teresa thanks her warmly. He has been given to the Reform by our Lord, and his merit is so great that there will never be any one who should be treated in the same way. The Prioress is commended for her prudence, as well as her charity. She must remember that the Institute is in its infancy, and that it will not be always so. They must take care not to leave behind them a dangerous example, and the Superiors who may come hereafter may not always have the same virtue and sanctity with Gratian. It is clear that Teresa was extremely anxious that he should be treated well, but not less so that no harm should creep in by the attentions lavished on him.

A letter from Malagon has brought better news of the Prioress. Teresa speaks of the great value which she sets on her, and all that she tries to do for her, body and soul. " Her health is most necessary to us. But yours, my dear child, is incomparably more precious and more necessary." The Prioress had been ill, and Teresa was always urging her to take more care of herself. She has also just received letters from Veas and from Caravaca, the latter of which she sends on to be read by the Prioress and by Father Gratian. This was apparently on account of some complaint against Mary of St. Joseph contained in the letters.

The next two letters, of the I3th and 2/th of December,1^ may be passed over with little comment.

14 Letter cxxv. *$ Letters cxxix., cxxxi.

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 263

Teresa speaks of a marvellous cure for fever which she had once used with success, the inhaling, appa rently, of a wonderful concoction, as to which we should be afraid to trust our powers of translation. She is rejoiced also at a prospect of a supply of water, and that the good Prioress has got money to pay what she owed for the departing year. The last of these letters is written at two in the morning. She speaks of the proposed monastery at Toledo hopefully.

Teresa begins the new year of this correspondence with a most graceful and affectionate letter to Mary of St. Joseph.16 She is so delighted with her letters, and, above all, at the proof that they afford that her reserve and shyness are at an end. She tells her that there are few persons whom she likes better to talk with or write to, and that she must believe that she is quite to her taste. She bids her remark, if she has not done it already, that she never writes to Father Gratian without writing to her also. She would gladly treat her dear Gabriel in the same way. She is so glad to hear that Gratian is well, and she puts it down to the care of the Prioress. She sends messages to Father Antonio of Jesus, of whom she speaks in a former letter as if he had made a vow never to write to her. So she does not write to him, and she wishes him not to know how often she writes to the Prioress and Gratian. She ends by speaking of her brother Lorenzo, who makes great progress in perfection, and says that all the favours he has in prayer are owing to the Carmelites of Seville.

1(5 Letter cxxxviii.

264 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

The next letter, to Mary of St. Joseph,17 of which the Spanish editor says esta escrita in tono festivo, is at once most characteristic of St. Teresa and most baffling to her translators. It is full of fun and banter, while all the while she is perfectly well aware of the fact that many true things are said in jest. It seems that there was a little lack of simplicity about this good Prioress, and St. Teresa may have thought it well to quiz her somewhat now and then. At all events, the tone of the letter is in keeping with such a purpose. The delicacy of the fun and the subtlety of the irony make it impossible to translate it adequately. She begins by complaining, " before I forget it," that Mary of St. Joseph has not told her anything about a good Dominican friar, Bartolomeo de Aguilar, who is at Seville, and who has been of great service to her. A very good and prudent friend such as he is ought not to be lost.

Then again, " before I forget it," she banters Mary of St. Joseph lightly about a list of alms, and an account of what they have gained at the convent by their work. Please God it be all true, but perhaps the Prioress has been playing the fox and trying to come round her ! She fears something of the same sort in her account of her health. Then there is a passage about the Prioress of Malagon, the water of Loja, Father Gratian and his mother, and so on. Then she comes back to the Prioress. How vain she must be in being half Provincial ! — for Gratian was now away. She is highly amused at the style in which she sends her some verses — ll the Sisters send

*7 Letter cxii.

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 265

you these couplets" — as if she herself was not the manager of the whole ! After all, the verses may pass — no one will talk about them ! Please God their intention is always right ! " Here I am," she says, " burthened with a heap of letters," and she is slipping into writing " impertinences." Mary of St. Joseph seems to have praised a rich postulant. Teresa for gives her. She should like to see them without anxiety. Then she gives a poke about their debt to her brother Lorenzo : " Although my brother is making so much progress in virtue, that he will gladly help you in everything."

Then there comes a funny passage about her niece Teresita, and " mi Bela," that is, Isabella, the young sister of Gratian who was at Toledo. Mary of St. Joseph seems to have said something by way of com parison of the two. Teresa says that if Isabella had the natural graces of Teresita, besides her own super natural gifts, they might expect great things of her, she is so intelligent, so clever, so gentle, anything can be made of her, she is wonderful. " The girl has some poor little images of shepherds and nuns, and one of our Lady, and not a feast-day comes but she invents something so pretty with them in her hermi tage or at recreation." She makes verses too, and sings them so nicely, they are all astonished. But Teresa has one great trouble about her. She has a bad mouth, lumpish, heavy, cold — and yet she is always laughing, and the effect is bad. She leads Teresa a life of it, with the number of times she has to tell her to open it, or shut it, or not to laugh. After all she says truly, it's not her fault, but her mouth's. But Teresita

266 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

is full of grace, body, figure, and all, she is a beautiful sight, though her aunt confesses it to Mary Joseph as secret. Perhaps " Bela" will improve as she gets older. " There you have the girls painted for you," she says, " that you may not think I tell stones when I say one is better than the other." The rest of the letter is much in the same style. She takes care to mention how much she has been pleased with the letter of " mi Gabriela," the good Sister, her late infirmarian, and who was now charged with the care of the health of the Prioress. The letter is not dated, but must belong to the beginning of this year, 15/7.

On January 17, 1577, we find a joyous and most characteristic note, dashed off apparently in a few minutes. Teresa is delighted with the good news that Mary of St. Joseph has sent her, for she is in better health, and has hopes of this postulant, who may bring with her money enough to pay off what the house owes. May God grant that there may be no hitch in it all ! She is to watch carefully over the girl, for she deserves all care. Teresa herself has little time for a letter, for she has to write to Avila and Madrid, and to other places as well She has had all the letters mentioned to her, but she fears that one of hers to the Carthusian Prior, which she had sent open for Mary of St. Joseph to read, has been lost, for she has said nothing about it. They must be lonely at Seville now that Father Gratian has gone. Garcia Alvarez is to be told that he must be more than ever their Father now. Gratian, as has been mentioned, was about this time summoned to Madrid by the Nuncio.

Teresa would like to write to the two who have gone

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 267

to Paterna, and this letter is to be sent on to them, " that they may see that I am well." She has been pleased with their letter, and what they tell her about their confessor and a girl called Margaret, but they are not to be surprised if the other nuns do not come on quite so fast as they might wish. They are not to exact too much of them in matters where there is no sin. God must have His time to work, and they must not be driven to despair. It is not well that the Superior should allow them to say rude things to her, unless she is able to seem not to hear. Those who govern convents must understand that, beyond the observance of the rule, they are to let God work with their subjects, and themselves to bear all with great sweetness. Then Teresa sends a mild rebuke to the nun who was acting as Prioress at Paterna. " Tell her that in all her letters she makes no more account of San Jeronimo" — Isabella of St. Jerome, her com panion in the mission — "than if she was not there, and perhaps she does more than she herself. Tell her to tell me how she is, and tell Isabella to write it to me, and that both of them must put their confidence in God for success in everything, and not think that they can do anything of themselves." The letter ends with an anxious paragraph about Gratian, who she fears has gone off on his journey without money, and apparently she sends him some by the Prioress. l%

The first part of the next letter to Mary of St.

Joseph, which is dated the 26th of January,19 is taken

up with thanks for some sweetmeats of various kinds

which have been sent to her by the Prioress. She

18 Letter cxlii. *9 Letter cxlv.

268 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

goes into details, as if they were the most important matters in the world. Some of them were for the invalid at Malagon, and Teresa now hopes for her recovery by means of some water of Loja, a city near Granada, which is to be sent on. But the great matter pressing on St. Teresa's mind is that she seems to have just discovered the true import of the prohibi tion contained in the decree of reclusion of which we have heard so much. She says that it forbids, not her only, but all nuns, to leave their convents on any pretext whatsoever, so that no one can henceforth be sent to make a new foundation anywhere. She is terribly alarmed, and with her characteristic energy- sets to work at once to remedy the danger as far as that is possible. This is by sending posthaste to Father Gratian, to give, in his office of Apostolical Commissary, a declaration that, notwithstanding the decree, the nuns are to be at liberty to leave their convents for purposes of the good of the Order, as was the custom heretofore. She is very urgent with the Prioress to send on the papers to Gratian at once, as it will be of no use unless the declaration is made before his power as Commissary expires, which as she says, may be any day now. She seems to have seen that, even if a new and separate province were set up for the Discalced Carmelites by the authority of the Nuncio, in which the Reformed Nuns would be under the jurisdiction of the Reformed Provincial, still this would not be enough for the purpose in view, without some such declaration on the part of an authority higher than that of the Provincial. She speaks as if they had all been very foolish not to take the precau-

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 269

tion which she now urges before. The rest of the letter is chiefly about matters of health and the like.

The next letter which requires our notice is dated the 2nd of March.20 It is very much confined to matters of spiritual direction. She approves the method of prayer of the Prioress, and tells her it is no want of humility to recognize the gifts that may be imparted to us by God in prayer, so long as we remain perfectly convinced that they are gifts and do not belong to us. She speaks also of the prayer of Sister Beatrix, the novice of whom we have already had to speak. She approves of the prayer, but she insists most strongly on the necessity of prohibiting her from speaking to every one about these matters. She says that Mary of St. Joseph is obliged to enforce this as Prioress. She reminds her how carefully Sister St. Jerome, the nun men tioned lately as having been sent to Paterna, had been prevented from talking of things of that kind in her own experience, and she expresses a fear whether they have been prudent in letting her go to Paterna. In fact, as we learn from other sources, she had got into trouble there through the bad advice of a confessor, who had told her to write down what she thought were her revelations. She mentions having heard from the Prioress of Veas that her nuns addressed themselves to her for direction, to the exclusion of the confessor, and she is evidently afraid of the nuns at Seville opening their experiences, of the kind of which she speaks, to confessors and others who are not well versed in such matters. It

29 Letter cl.

270 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

must be remembered that the Prioress of Veas was the famous Anne of Jesus, whom St. John of the Cross called a Seraph, and of whom Father Bafiez said that he thought her Teresa's equal in sanctity, and in natural qualities her superior. Teresa tells the Prioress that the nuns may write to her about these interior movements, rather than trust them selves to persons who have had no experience. She evidently had no great confidence in many of the confessors at Seville, from one of whom she herself had suffered very much.

This letter seems to have caused some little trouble at Seville, where Father Gratian had told the nuns to open themselves freely as to matters of prayer to Garcia Alvarez, the priest who heard their confessions ordinarily. Teresa therefore revokes what she has said as far as it applied to the Prioress and others, who were in the same path with her.21 In another letter, on the 6th of May, she approves of the opinion which Garcia Alvarez had expressed about the burial-place of the nuns being the cloister, and says that he should be the person to enter the convent to assist the religious when they are dying, being their confessor. The Discalced Friars are too far ofT, and, even if they were nearer, the confessor is the proper person. This was occasioned by the death of one of the community at Seville, whom she speaks of as a little angel gone to enjoy the sight of God, but she tells the Prioress not to mention certain extraordinary things, which she seems to have said in a kind of delirium, and in the same way

21 Letter cliii.

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 271

not to pay attention to certain similar declarations of Sister Beatrix. "What I specially admire in the latter is her great charity — pray thank her for me." There was probably a little bit of Teresian fun concealed under these last words. Towards the end of the letter she speaks of the affairs of the Order as being in a good way, the Nuncio having sent for Gratian to Madrid to arrange them finally. In the first of these two letters she says how much she has rejoiced at the entrance of Nicolas Doria into the ranks of the Reform. This took place on the 24th of March.

There are but two more letters of this period to the good Mary of St. Joseph.22 In the first of these, written on the I5th of May, Teresa thanks her for a multitude of presents which she has sent her, and laments the poverty of the country in which she finds herself, which prevents her from returning the bounty in kind. We gather from this letter that the "little angel" who had gone so soon to Heaven from Seville was Sister Bernard, for she speaks again about the place where she should have been buried in the cloister, not in the choir, and she gives orders also about her renunciation of her property, which goes to her parents as her heirs, they being still alive, and not to the convent. The Prioress ought to be content If the parents give what they undertook to give when she entered. "Whatever we do," she says, "people will always say we act from motives of interest." She mentions Mother Brianda, the Superior of Malagon, who has come to Toledo, where St. Teresa

22 Letter clvi.

272 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

was nursing her. She seems better since she has been at Toledo. Again she speaks of the Nuncio having sent for Father Gratian. The last letter of which we have to speak is dated the 28th of May.23 Gratian is at Toledo on his way to Madrid. He is well and is a little stout. God be thanked ! He has gone to preach in the convent where his sister was a pensioner. Tostado is already at the Court, and the affairs of the Order are at their most critical point, and there is the greatest need of prayer. Teresa was right, for in a few days Ormaneto was no more.

Some few remaining letters of this period, not ad dressed to the Prioress of Seville, may well be included in this chapter. There is first a short letter24 written by Teresa to her old and firm friend, Don Alvaro de Mendoza, the Bishop of Avila. It is dated from Toledo, September the I5th, and announces that she has been ordered by her Superior, that is, by Father Gratian, to go to her Convent of St. Joseph at Avila, where she seems still to have been holding the office of Prioress. It is a letter of courtesy and friendship, and contains little that need detain us.

Some weeks Iater25 comes a letter to her niece, Mary Baptist, Prioress of Valladolid. St. Teresa scolds her soundly for disobedience — she had told her not to be bled any more, and she has done it after all. Now she has some pain in the head, for which Teresa is sorry. The letter, which is written on the 2nd of November of this year 1576, is made up of references to small matters, which we have not sufficient acquaint-

23 Letter clviii. 24 Letter xciv. 2S Letter cxi.

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 273

ance with to understand it completely. She mentions a number of bits of news, among others that Don John of Austria had just gone off to Flanders, in the disguise of a servant of a Flemish nobleman.26 She commends him to the prayers of the nuns. In the kind messages she sends to various persons we find Casilda de Padilla mentioned. Her profession was approaching. As she was only fourteen, a dispensa tion had to be sought from Rome to allow of her taking her vows. There was considerable trouble, as usual in such cases, about her property. The case was singular. Her brother, the natural heir to the majorat, had renounced it on entering the Society of Jesus, her only sister had followed him, entering a convent, and she had renounced her right in favour of Casilda. This girl of fourteen therefore was the heiress to the whole fortune. Now she was to be professed at Valladolid, and it seemed unfair that, as she was doing exactly what her brother and sister had done, she should dispose of the whole property as she chose. Her mother was said to wish her to give it all to the convent. A claim was put in, and ultimately allowed, that under the circumstances, the brother's right should be considered first.

26 Don John was on his way to take the post of Governor of the Netherlands, where he died about two years after this time. It was given out that he would take the route by Barcelona and the north of Italy, but he started from Abrojo at the end of October, in disguise, as St. Teresa says, as a Moorish slave of Ottavio Gonzaga, with only three servants, and took the route through France. A great plan had been conceived by the Pope that he should invade England from the Netherlands, liberate Mary Queen of Scots, then a prisoner at Sheffield, and marry her.

S 2

274 Letters to Convents of the Reform.

At the time of which we are speaking, the matter had not been settled, and there was a good deal of bickering. The matter is mentioned in the two or three letters of this time into which it could come. It is mentioned in a letter2? to Brianda of St. Joseph, Prioress of Malagon, who must have returned from Toledo before the end of the year 1576. It was proposed to leave the matter to the " conscience " of a certain Don Pedro, perhaps the next heir after Casilda, and Dr. Velasquez declares that they cannot do this against the will of Casilda herself. It seems, how ever, after all to have been left to Don Pedro, and the family proposed to give the girl five hundred ducats besides the expenses of her profession. " A mighty large sum !" says St. Teresa — and even this was not to come at once. As a matter of fact, all she got was an annual pension, and she was so much fretted by the opposition, that Teresa had told her that if they gave her nothing at all, she was not to mind.

In this letter Teresa writes most affectionately about Brianda, and gives a number of directions for the care of her health. She writes at the same time to Mary Baptist28 at Valladolid, where Casilda was to be professed. She is disgusted with the world — where money interests come in, sanctity goes to the wall altogether, and so she hates it more than ever. She urges the profession of Casilda at once, whatever comes, but the Prioress should not yield her rights without her Superior's leave, that is, Gratian's. She writes again on January 21, I577,29 congratulating the newly-professed girl with all her heart, and rejoicing

27 Letter cxxxii. 2SJ Letter cxxxiv. 29 Letter cxliv.

Letters to Convents of the Reform. 275

that the matter had at last been settled to the con tentment of Dona Maria, her mother. These are all the letters to her convents which fell within the period embraced in this chapter, that is, before the death of the Nuncio Ormaneto.

276 Note to Chapter X.

NOTE TO CHAPTER X.

The letters belonging to this chapter are the following :

1. (xcii.) To Mary of St. Joseph^ Prioress at Seville. From Toledo, September 2, 1576.

An account of this letter is given, pp. 251, seq.

2. (xciii.) To the same. From Toledo, September 9, 1576. Mentioned at p. 253.

3. (xcv.) To the same. From Toledo, September 20, 1576. Mentioned at p. 253.

4. (xcvi.) To the same. From Toledo, September 22, 1576. Mentioned at p. 253.

5. (xcvii.) To the same. From Toledo, September 26, 1576. Mentioned at p. 253.

6. (xcix.) To the same. From Toledo, October 6, 1576. • An account of this letter is given, p. 254.

7. (c.) To the same. From Toledo, October 13, 1576. An account of this letter is given, p. 254.

8. (ci.) To the same. From Toledo, October, 1576. An account of this letter is given, p. 255.

9. (ciii.) To the same. From Toledo, October 31, 1576. An account of this letter is given, p. 255.

10. (cxviii.) To the same. From Toledo, November 8, 1576. Mentioned at p. 256.

11. (cxix.) To the same. From Toledo, November n, 1576. An account of this letter is given, p. 256.

12. (cxx.) To the same. From Toledo, November 19, 1576. An account of this letter is given, p. 257.

13. (Ixxxv.) To Father Jerome Gratian at Seville. From Toledo (without date), 1576.

Mentioned at p. 258.

14. (cxxi.) To Mary of St. Joseph, Prioress of Seville. From Toledo, November 26, 1576.

An account of this letter is given, p. 260.

15. To the same. From Toledo, November 30, 1576. Mentioned at p. 261.

Note to Chapter X. 277

16. (cxxiii.) To the same. From Toledo, December 3, 1576. Mentioned at p. 261.

17. (cxxv.) To the same. From Toledo, December 7, 1576. Mentioned at p. 262.

1 8. (cxxix.) To the same. From Toledo, December 15, 1576. Mentioned at p. 262.

19. (cxxxi.) To the same. From Toledo, December 27, 1576. Mentioned at p. 262.

20. (cxxxviii.) To the same. From Toledo, January 3, 1577. Mentioned at p. 263.

21. (cxli.) To the same. From Toledo, January, 1577. An account of this letter is given, p. 264.

22. (cxlii.) To the same. From Toledo, January 17, 1577. An account of this letter is given, p. 267.

23. (cxlv.) To the same. From Toledo, January 26, 1577. An account of this letter is given, p. 267.

24. (cl.) To the same. From Toledo, March 2, 1577. An account of this letter is given, p. 269.

25. (cliii.) To the same. From Toledo, April 9, 1577. Mentioned at p. 270.

26. (civ.) To the same. From Toledo, May 6, 1577. An account of this letter is given, p. 270.

27. (clvi.) To the same. From Toledo, May 15, 1577. An account of this letter is given, p. 271.

28. (clviii.) To the same. From Toledo, May 28, 1577. Mentioned at p. 272.

29. (xciv.) To Don Alvaro de Mendoza, Bishop of Avila. From Toledo, September 15, 1576.

Mentioned at p. 272.

30. (cxi.) To Mary Baptist, her niece, Prioress of Valla- dolid. From Toledo, September 2, 1576.

An account of this letter is given, p. 272.

31. (cxxxii.) To Brianda of St. Joseph, Prioress of Malagon. From Toledo, December 17, 1576.

Mentioned at p. 274.

32. (cxxxi v.) To Mary Baptist, Prioress of Valladolid. From Toledo, end of December, 1576.

Mentioned at p. 274.

33. (cxliv.) To the same. From Toledo, January 21, 1577. Mentioned at p. 274.

CHAPTER XI.

Letters to the Friars of the Reform.

THE letters written during this important period by St. Teresa to Father Gratian and the one or two other Fathers of the Reform her correspondence with whom remains to us, might naturally be expected to be interesting in a different manner from those which belonged to her intimate correspondence with the Prioresses of her convents, over which she seems to have watched as foundress with the most loving anxiety. Though we have several of her letters to Gratian at this time, we have by no means all, and we have no letters of his in return. This is perhaps not owing simply to the fact that her letters were thought far more worthy of preservation than those of any of her correspondents. It seems probable that Gratian, and Mariano, her chief correspondent after him, did not write much to her. At this distance of time, it seems a matter of surprise that they were not con tinually seeking light and counsel from her. But great as may have been their veneration for her personally, they seem too frequently to have been guided by counsels far inferior to hers in wisdom, although Gratian at least seems to have had some most happy inspirations. Moreover, the correspond-

Letters to Friars of tkc Reform. 279

ence is, as has been said, incomplete. It is therefore chiefly valuable to us in the same way with the correspondence with the convents already mentioned, that is, as affording us so many glimpses into the heart and mind of St. Teresa. Such as it is, however, we must most gratefully avail ourselves of the frag ments which remain.

We have already mentioned the manner in which it was providentially brought about that Teresa should have as her confessor, while staying at Toledo, the Dr. Velasquez of whom mention has been made. Two short fragments follow next in order after the letter in which she relates this to Father Gratian, in one of which she tells him how she has been reading over the history of Moses and the manner in which God dealt with the Egyptian King who would not listen to him, the catastrophe of the Red Sea, and the rest. She rejoices to think that God is so powerful, and that no one can hurt His servants, and how much less is the deliverance about which they themselves are so anxious to gain. She speaks of her Eliseus battling in the same cause as Moses.1

We come next to a letter written to Gratian while at the meeting of which we have spoken, at Almodovar del Campo, in September, 1576. She tells him, in the first place, of the departure of the dreaded Tostado for Portugal. God be praised for it ! The greater part of the letter refers to an authori zation which the Discalced Friars had been asking

1 Letters Ixxxvi., Ixxxvii. This passage about Moses and the Red Sea is given also in Letter cii. of the new Spanish edition. There seems to be some mistake here.

280 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

for at the Court, apparently for a small residence or house in Madrid itself, but which had been refused them, with an intimation that a statement from the Nuncio of his approbation would bring the desired consent. She says it is an authorization which has been granted easily before, in the case of the founda tion of the monastery at Almodovar, and she cannot help fearing that there are influences from Rome brought to bear against them, the hand of the Nuncio being held back by instructions from the Pope, who will probably grant any number of Briefs to their enemies as long as he hears only one side. She wishes, for that reason, that there might be some Discalced Friars sent to Rome — the mere sight of their lives would be enough, and they would bring back authorizations for many new houses. She was already working in vain at the one point on which the whole battle was to turn.2 There is another letter, written the day after the former, in which she repeats her news about Father Tostado, and adds that Father Olea has written to her saying that there was nothing to fear, for that " Methusalem," that is, the Nuncio, had determined to separate the two Observances, as she had always wished. In this letter she also refers to the reaction and revolt against all that Gratian had done in Andalusia, which had been the consequence of the advent of Tostado, and dis cusses the question who should succeed the Prioress of Malagon, who was most seriously ill, as we have already heard more than once. It seems that Gratian wished to leave the nomination in the hands of Teresa

~ Letter Ixxxviii.

Letters to Friars of the Reform. 281

herself, but she declines the responsibility, and bids him act as he thinks best."3

The next letter,4 as it is printed in the Spanish edition, is made up as, we are told, of various frag ments which belong to this time. It is easy to separate its contents under two heads, and for our purpose it is sufficient that the whole comes from the hand of St. Teresa. It is dated the 2Oth of September. It begins by urging Gratian not to think that he can accomplish everything by a stroke. He was visiting the monasteries of the friars, which he might very well have left to the Provincial. Gratian stayed a day or two at each small house, made a number of regulations, as he thought, for the better, and went away. The moment his back was turned all things went on as before. We here have another revelation of his want of experience. The next part of the letter — very probably another letter in reality — speaks of the delight Teresa has had from the visit of Gratian's mother, Dofia Juana Dantisco. Teresa is perfectly charmed at her openness and simplicity of character, qualities in which she hints that the mother is better even than the son. Doiia Juana and herself have come to know one another as if they had been friends all their lives. Gratian had told her to open the grille of the convent to his mother, as if she was not ready to open to her her whole heart ! Then there is a daughter also, another Juana, who is at present at a school for young ladies in Toledo, who has also charmed Teresa immensely. Indeed, she seems to have been ready to admire and love every

3 Letter Ixxxix. 4 Letter xc.

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one of the family of Father Gratian. Teresa says she should like very much to have this Juana to keep her sister company, for one of the daughters, now known as Isabella of Jesus, had already entered the Order at Toledo. She has some hopes of this, appa rently, for Doiia Juana the younger was thinking about it. There is a good deal more about other members of the family. This part of the letter also contains what looks like an intimation that our Lord had lately renewed to St. Teresa the revelation by which He had assured her that for the rest of her life she was to be guided by Gratian.

The letter, or another fragment joined on to it, then goes on to speak of the Chapter of Almodovar, then lately concluded. Antonio of Tesus has told her wonderful things about it all. Gratian's part has been admirable. Teresa especially rejoices that they have established " zelators " in the monasteries, and urges also that manual labour should be insisted upon. But the point on which she speaks most strongly is the idea of gaining the establishment of the separate Province for the Discalced, by means of the authority of the General. We know how fond she was of Father Rossi, and how much she always desired to bring about a good understanding between him and the Reformed Friars. She urges this her favourite plan with all her power. If money is wanted, money will be forthcoming. If the affair cannot be settled with the General, then they must go to the Pope, but she thinks the first plan much the best, as it will put an end to all ill-feeling with their Superiors. She urges the immediate despatch of the envoys for

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Rome. The present time is a good one. The Nuncio is favourable to them, but his support is precarious on account of the state of his health. In this as in other letters she speaks of him by the name of Methusalem, expressive of her desire that he might have a very long life.

Some time before this she and her friends had begun to use feigned names in their letters, in order to puzzle their adversaries who were supposed to be on the look-out to intercept their correspondence. She goes on to tell Gratian of a pious person who had before received particular revelations as to the future, which had come true, who had told one of her friends that the Nuncio was soon to die. She tells Gratian there fore to look on his office of Visitor as soon to come to an end, and she tells him also how Father Hernandez in Castile had used the Provincial to visit for him. She seems to wish him to use the Andalusian Pro vincial, Father Augustin Suarez, as his delegate. She tells him quite plainly that people are complaining of him for his supposed partiality, thinking that he lets himself be governed too much by Father Evangelista, who had been Subprior of the Mitigated Friars, and had come over to the Reform. The postscript to the letter — if it be not a fragment of another letter tacked on to this — repeats the advice not to kill himself by the visitation of the nuns, and reminds him that "Methusalem" himself has said lately, even to so great an enemy of their as Tostado, that he could not last long, and that in two months Tostado might have it his own way. It seems possible that we have here an intimation that Ormaneto already knew that he

284 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

was to be superseded, even if his health did not fail. This may even have paralyzed all his efforts in favour of the Reform. He may, at times at least, have thought of leaving the business to his successor.

In another letter, 5 written somewhat later, St. Teresa seems to explain what she had said about using some friars of the Mitigation in the visitation. She says that she thinks it would be well to use the least blameworthy of those friars to carry out his plans. She says that the Provincial she has named might have done. He was not at all bad if he had not showed so much shiftiness. This very prudent sugges tion does not seem to have been acted upon, at least in many cases.

We already know how little attention was paid to the grave state of affairs as urged so persistently by St. Teresa. Gratian went on with his visitation, which was to lead to nothing, and the great affair of the envoys to be sent to Rome went to sleep, till it was too late. She writes mournfully, at the end of September,6 to one of the Fathers, Juan de Jesus, that she has the smallest possible power in the matter. She has asked already in vain that a letter might be written to the General. Her request goes unnoticed. The Father Visitor, Gratian, has a number of persons who counsel him differently, and he listens to them. She begs Father Juan to do what he can — it will be of more avail than her own exertions. He was, indeed, as we have seen, himself one of the chosen delegates, but he was employed in other matter, 5 Letter xci. 6 Letter cviii.

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especially in the visitation, in which, as we shall see, he did not please St. Teresa.

We come next to a batch of letters written in the month of October, to the two Fathers, Jerome Gratian and Ambrose Mariano. In the first of these,? dated the 2ist of October, which is addressed to Gratian, Teresa congratulates him upon the com parative submission with which he has been treated by the Mitigated Friars in his visit, although it appears that he had committed the imprudence of not showing them the Brief which authorized him to act. This, she tells him, is never done. She wishes him well out of the whole business of the visitation, and left to the government of the Discalced. Then there is an alarm, because Father Angelo de Salazar is reported to have said that the nuns cannot leave their convents even for foundations, and that this has been declared by the General. She says she has been doing this with patents from Father Angelo himself, as in the case of Caravaca. She wants Gratian to see this supposed declaration, if possible. Another para graph relates to the proposal to settle some Discalced Friars in Salamanca in the temporary charge of a house of reclaimed women, a thing against which she again protests as contrary to their vocation. After all, as they have the Bishop for their friend, they are quite likely to gain their object of being able to found a house of their own at Salamanca, without this dangerous expedient. The next letter,8 in the middle of October, is to Mariano. She laughs at him for calling her Reverend and Sefiora — it would seem that

"' Letter civ. 8 Letter cv.

286 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

they had both gone over to the Mitigation ! Mariano was designing, as we know, the foundation of a house for the friars at Madrid, a thing for which Teresa also longed. It would seem that they had nowhere to go in that city unless they took up their abode with the friars of the Mitigation. But she bids him be content with any small beginning he can make. A letter of the Nuncio, she has already told him, will settle the matter of the licence for the house.

Her next letter,9 dated the 2ist of October, is long, and to the same Mariano. It begins by dealing with the matter of two novices, whom her nuns did not want to receive to profession, but who were recom mended respectively by Father Olea of the Society, and Nicolas Doria, who was soon to enter the Reformed Carmel. She quizzes Mariano for thinking that she needs any recommendation from him of a cause supported by Father Olea, who she knows well, and had many reasons for regarding with gratitude. Ingratitude, she says, is not her dominant fault. But when it is a matter of conscience, the claims of friend ship must give way. The nuns who had rejected Father Olea's novice were persons of great beauty of soul, and could not have acted without very good reason. Moreover, the novice in question has a dower sufficient to enable her to enter elsewhere, where she might be gladly welcomed, and it is not, as Mariano seems to suppose, any disgrace to a young lady not to have succeeded in a Carmelite convent of the Reform. A great many who try are continually leaving. However, to satisfy Father Olea, she has

^ Letter cvi.

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persuaded the nuns at Salamanca, where the matter occurred, to try the lady for another year, and if she herself has opportunity to pass by that convent she will inform herself most accurately of the whole business. As for the novice recommended by Nicolas, although he is satisfied with her, Teresa has infor mation from other sources, and finds out that the postulant is unfit for the Order. She rallies Mariano on his saying that he could tell the young person had a vocation merely by looking at her face. " We women are not so easy to know, and many persons have heard the confessions of such women for years, and never known their characters at all, because they have only what they are told by themselves in con fession to judge from." Let the good Nicolas, if he wishes to see his friends in these convents, send persons of good abilities, and then he will see that they will not be rejected for want of dower.

Teresa is also highly amused at the manner in which Mariano has proceeded in the matter of the new house at Madrid. She had herself seen no objection to their beginning with a small house for the lodging of the friars, and having leave to say Mass there, as might be done for a secular gentle man. But Gratian had opposed this way of acting, thinking it better to wait till they could get leave for a regular monastery. And then Mariano had begun on a larger scale, preparing for a considerable number of friars, the church and all, without having as yet obtained the necessary licence ! She says she would never buy a house without leave of the Bishop. It had been forced on her at Seville, and she had

288 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

suffered enough for it. He can do nothing at all without a letter from the Nuncio, with that all is easy. She has also heard of his addressing himself to the Calced Friars for help, but she is far from sharing his confidence in their good dispositions. She mentions particularly the Prior of Avila, Valdemoro, of whom we have already heard and shall hear more.

Further on in the letter she repeats her objection to the settling their friars at Salamanca, even for a time, in the charge of the house of reclaimed women. Of this we have already said something. The rest of the letter treats of various subjects. She adds a postscript, in which she crows over Mariano, sending him some letters she has received about the success of her nuns at Veas, the Prioress of which convent was the famous Anne of Jesus. They had managed to procure for the friars of La Penuela the new house and establishment of which we have already spoken. He must see that her nuns were worth more than their Reverences, himself and his companions, at Madrid. They had also received some very good novices, with considerable dowers. One of these was a cousin of the Conde de Tendilla, a man of great note at that time. This lady has brought as well as herself a number of precious gifts to the convent, of which Teresa gives a catalogue. However, the convent at Veas has got into a lawsuit, and she recommends the care of it to Mariano, who is to see what can be done by the aid of some friends. It was after this letter that St. Teresa wrote that to Father Juan de Jesus, mentioned above.

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The Spanish editor gives us later on three letters,10 or fragments of letters, to Father Gratian, which appear to belong to this time, but only one is dated, October 23. They speak chiefly of matters of prayer, and of the opinion formed by Teresa of the spiritual state in regard to prayer of several persons mentioned. The last two of these fragments speak of the case of a girl or woman at Seville, with whom she was afraid Gratian might be induced to have something to do, apparently one who had some strange spiritual expe riences, in which the Saint suspected that imposition was mixed up, if not even diabolical agency. She entreats Gratian to be very cautious, and not to have anything to do with it. He may get into the hands of the Inquisition, or perhaps be exposed to some infamous calumny. She begs him on no account to go to the house of the person concerned, " lest that should happen to you which happened to St. Marina, I think it was." She warns him also against taking too little sleep.

A few days later, the 3ist of October, she writes to tell Gratian11 that the Book of the Foundations* which he had enjoined on her to continue, approaches its completion. " See how well I obey ! I always think that I have this virtue when I receive an order. If it is only given me in joke, I always should do it heartily, and this business I do with much more goodwill than all the letters I have to write, which take the life out of me." She says she does not know how she finds time for it all, and still she has a little to spend with our Lord, Who gives her

10 Letters cvii., cviii., cix. " Letter ex.

T 2

290 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

strength for all. She mentions also the matter of the two novices about which she had written to Mariano. Nicolas Doria had taken the rejection of his postulant very well. Not so, however, the good Father Olea, and she breaks out about the difficulty of being perfect saints in this life. She is writing on the eve of All Saints. She says she took the habit on All Souls day — the exact year, as we know, is a matter of dispute.

Teresa's next letter belonging to this series, is to Father Ambrose Mariano at Madrid.12 It is dated the 3rd of November. She has received a visit from " the good Valdemoro," whom she evidently does not trust. He was the Prior of the Mitigated Friars, at Avila, and made great professions of friendship, which his actions by no means confirmed. Ambrose believed in him. She tells him that Valdemoro talked of St. Paul having been a persecutor and then a friend. " If he will do but the tenth part of what St. Paul did, we will pardon him all he has done and all he is to do." He wanted his brother, a Mitigated Friar, and a good preacher, to be admitted to the Reform. She says that as they are in need of preachers, it might be well to have him. On the other hand, Gratian has laid down the rule to send back all the friars who have come from other Orders, and so he is not likely to admit him. She thinks the best friendship she can show Valdemoro is to recommend him to God. She is anxious about the health of "our good Father Padilla," their great friend at Madrid. The devil is sure to make war on him, as he has done so many

12 Letter cxii.

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great and good works. She adds she has given Valdemoro a letter for Ambrose : but the latter is to understand that her last word and will is that that should be done which is most for the service of God.

The next day she writes to Gratian13 at Seville, telling him that the Brief has come from Rome for the profession of Casilda de Padilla, the "little angel" at Valladolid, of whom we have already heard some thing. She asks Gratian to let her be professed at once, and not to be kept waiting till he can come himself for the ceremony. She tells him also about Valdemoro's visit, and the proposal as to his brother. She fears that they may soon lose " Methusalem," that is, the good Nuncio, and wishes to have every thing settled as soon as possible about the place of her residence. Gratian seems to have been thinking of her settling at Malagon, where her presence might be useful, the Prioress being so ill, and negotiations going on with Dona Luisa de la Cerda for the build ing of the new convent. She ends by begging them to pray much for " Methusalem and the greater Angel," that is, the Nuncio and Mgr. Covarubbias. Casilda seems to have been professed at once, but five years later she was persuaded to change her convent, and became Abbess of a Franciscan house at Burgos. She afterwards deeply regretted her change, and lived to give evidence in the process of St. Teresa's canonization. It is said that when she was a little child she had fallen asleep in the Saint's lap.

The next letter14 is to Father Gratian, written in

13 Letter cxiii. 14 Letter cxiv.

292 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

the middle of this same month of November. She is full of joy at the accounts she receives of the success of his visitation. It seems that when Gratian was left to himself, and allowed to work upon the friars whom he was sent to visit in his own gentle and prudent way, he was at his best. He had a difficult and thankless task to perform with the Mitigated Friars, but he did it very well, showing no rigour, not acting too much with authority, winning hearts, and at the same time using great prudence. Teresa is full of wonder at his ingenuity and adroitness, as well as at his other virtues. Mariano has sent her from Madrid the letters he has received from Gratian, and she can hardly contain herself. She contrasts his way of proceeding with that of a certain Fra Diego of St. Bonaventure, who was visiting the Franciscans, and acting with rigour and severity, " thinking," as she says, "that nothing was difficult, and, after all, gaining nothing." So she praises the God of Israel in His creatures — and Gratian is to go on, seeking His honour and glory, and seeking nothing for him self. She goes on in this strain, and then checks herself. " How foolish I am, and how my Father will laugh when he reads this ! "

" May God forgive those ' butterflies/ they enjoy without any trouble what it cost me so much to enjoy when I was there." " Butterflies " — maripose is the name by which she designated her own nuns, in the letters of this time — the Mitigated Nuns were "grass hoppers," or cigalas. There is a pretty story, related by one of the witnesses for her canonization, that some years after her decease they were talking at

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Seville about her precious death, and that a mantle of hers which was there kept was suddenly rilled with white butterflies. It is also said that on the evening before the translation of her body to Avila in 1585, a great butterfly was seen to come out of her grave at Alba de Tormes. She goes on to say how glad she is that they have found a way of giving some refresh ment to Paul without its being noted. She says she has written them a good deal of foolish advice, and now they are taking their revenge. We here come upon the betrayal of Teresa's precautions about Gratian's habit of taking his meals sometimes in the convent parlour. We gather from the following sentences that the nuns had taken to feeding him as their chaplain, and that he had become aware of what she had written on the matter to the nuns. She gets out of it in her own beautiful way. " Why is one to deprive oneself of the happiness of refreshing a little one who has so much need, and who labours so hard ! But the virtue of my dear Paul (Gratian) soars higher than such considerations, and now he knows me better than ever." And then she quietly says that she begs him to eat there lest there might be some failure of food for him elsewhere — except for that reason, she does not like his being their chaplain. For all the rest, she would gladly have endured all that the foundation of Seville has cost her for the sake of the opportunity of giving him a little solace, that he might not have to dine with seculars. The letter ends with a paragraph about some arrange ments about the daughter of Dona Elena de Quiroga, who was entering at Valladolid, and whose dowry

294 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

was to be spent in a certain way which she names. The houses that had been once founded in poverty, that is, without income, she wished to see still pre served as they were.

We find next on our list a fragment written J5 to Father Gratian to warn him against certain risks which he might run in his simplicity and openness with the nuns. He seems to have opened to them his own feelings and thoughts, laying aside the Supe rior altogether. In this Teresa sees danger. She says she is much more afraid of the harm that comes from men than from all the devil may do, and all her nuns are not to be treated in the same familiar way as herself, nor to be allowed to be too much off their guard with their Superior. She tells him she has always been careful in her dealings with her spiritual children, not to let them see in her any defects, although she has so many. Then again she breaks out about her own silliness in saying such things to him ; but both of them have to give an account to God of the great charge which they have received, and not to God only, but to the world. Then she asks his pardon, but begs him not to read in public her letters to him. People have very different degrees of intelligence, and Superiors should never be so open in certain matters, and she may often write of matters which relate to third persons. She ends beautifully, " As I should not like any one to hear what I say to God, nor disturb my solitude with Him, so also it is with Paul/' that is, with Gratian.

In her next letter16 to Gratian, dated the iQth of

xs Letter cxv. l6 Letter cxvi.

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November, St. Teresa says she has just received the report of certain regulations which Father Juan de Jesus has been making in one of the convents, and she complains of them loudly. This is what she has always feared in the Order — not without reason, as it appears — that Superiors might come who burthen and overwhelm the religious with new regulations. It does no good, she says. Some people think they have made no visitation, unless they leave behind them a mass of regulations. One of these regulations was that there was to be no recreation on days of Communion. Well, she says, priests say Mass every day, and if they have their recreation, why should not the other poor souls have theirs ? Father Juan says that the houses he has been to have never been visited, and that therefore all these regulations were needed. Some might be, perhaps. She thinks that their Order has no room for these rigorous trouble some persons, but there are enough of them in it.

In two other paragraphs of this letter she mentions the idea of a foundation of nuns at Granada, but expresses a doubt whether a Visitor has power to found, and she speaks also of the displeasure which she has incurred from Father Olea, who is angry because his novice was not received. Subjoined to this is a fragment in which she speaks most highly of Gratian's sister, already mentioned, Isabella of Jesus.17

Teresa wrote again to Father Gratian at the end of November. If she did not know that all good comes from the hand of God, she might be inclined 17 Letter cxvii.

296 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

to a little vainglory, so much does she hear of the good he is doing. She alludes in this letter to many matters of which we should be glad to know more, and she studiously uses ambiguous language, and is very short. Father Evangelista has been elected " Vicar Provincial," as we are told by some writers, and Teresa is glad. There has been some alarm at Paterna, as if the cigarras, or Mitigated Nuns, were in opposition, and the maripose might have to go. She is glad it is not true. The Archbishop of Seville has appointed a Visitor for his convents, of whom Gratian has given a good report, and there is a mysterious reference to the alarm of the latter when he found the street in which was the convent of the Reformed Nuns full of the officials of the Inquisition and their equi pages. Gratian has been on some begging excursion, at which she is amused, but he has forgot to tell her who was his companion. There is good news of " Methusalem " — he is better, and even without any fever. But, she adds, she is prepared for anything : nothing that happens can shake her confidence in the ultimate success of their cause. There are divers other allusions, over which we need not linger.18

In her next letter to Gratian, which is dated the 7th of December, Teresa urges him not to delay going to Madrid, to which place he was summoned by the Grand Inquisitor, Caspar de Quiroga, Arch bishop of Toledo. They have great obligations to him, as well as great need of his support. She mentions in this letter that she has received an appli cation for a new foundation of nuns at Aguilar de 18 Letter cxxiv.

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Campo, a good city not far from Burgos. An old widow lady had written, offering a house with a good amount of income, and her petition had been backed up by a Father of the Society. Aguilar is a long way off the other convents, except Valladolid, but Teresa evidently wishes the foundation may be made if it can, and by others instead of herself. What is striking in the letter is that she speaks as if there were no lack at all of young persons desirous of entering these severe convents. This seems to be her great motive, that so many souls desirous of serving God so perfectly may not be disappointed. Gratian is to be careful to tell her what he wishes. She mentions also hopefully the state of things at Paternal

The next letter to Father Gratian, which is dated soon after the 7th of December, is full of the extreme affection which Teresa bore to him. Mariano has sent her the letter which he has received from Gratian, giving an account of what he has been doing in Andalusia. She is enchanted. His words about the holiness of the religious state are full of majesty. He may well think that he is well with our Lord. May He be blessed for showing her so much favour, and giving to him so much light and force ! God is evidently aiding him, and he need not fear that he may not succeed in what he undertakes for His glory. She envies him and Father Antonio for the sins which they prevent, while she is doing nothing but desire for good. There are references in the letter to matters as to which we are very imperfectly en- 19 Letter cxxvi.

298 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

lightened, such as the false charges which she speaks of as having been made, which exceed in folly all she could imagine. It is a great grace to have such trials to bear.

Teresa also speaks of a letter from the Prioress of Paterna to Gratian, which is a cause of consolation. When she sees the good that the nuns from Seville are doing there, she has a great desire to see the foundations continue. There is one as to which she has already written to him, proposed by the Prioress of Medina del Campo. As she is scrupulous as to meddling in such matters against the will of the Father General, she has consulted Dr. Velasquez con cerning it, and he has recommended that Dona Luis de la Cerda should be asked to write to the Spanish Ambassador at Rome to solicit the permission. Velasquez would send all the necessary informations, and if the General does not consent, he advises recourse to the Pope, who might be told what patterns of perfection these convents are in all Spain. She thinks of doing this, and has already written for advice to Father Ripalda, her great friend, former Rector of the Society at Burgos. She suggests that her old friends, Antonio Gaytan and Julian of Avila, should be sent to Aguilar with full powers, as was done for the foundation at Caravaca. Towards the close of the letter St. Teresa speaks of the great delight she had had at Veas, where she first met her Paul, and when he wrote to her signing himself her hijo querido — " beloved son," and how on reading the words, as she was alone, she cried out, que tenia razon! — "how true it is !" His sister, Isabella of Jesus,

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sends him a message that it is rather too much of a good thing for him never to answer a single one of her letters.20

We come now to a very important letter, written on the 1 2th of December, to Ambrose Mariano, at Madrid. The first part refers to the same subject which is treated in the last letter to Gratian. Teresa is still full of the joy and consolation which she has gathered from the account of his proceedings in Andalusia. It is clear that the happy time has come to her of seeing the fruit of her own labours and prayers in the blessings which attend the active work of her spiritual children. She goes on to urge on Mariano not to forget to have inserted in the decla ration which he is having drawn up about the leave for new foundations, that this leave is to apply to convents of nuns as well as monasteries of friars. She mentions again what Dr. Velasquez has said about the convents, of their being mirrors of per fection to the country, and the like, and about the application to be made to Rome. Then she turns to some matters which concern the friars, especially the Constitutions and regulations, which are to be made, and this is the most important part of the letter to us.

Father Juan of Jesus had said that it was her desire that the religious should go entirely barefooted. It seems that St. John of the Cross and some others were for this, and that Teresa was quoted on that side. This amuses her, she says, for she has always been of the contrary opinion, and forbade Antonio of

"• Letter cxxvii.

300 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

Jesus, the first friar of the Reform, to do this. She has always desired that subjects of good talents should enter, and an over-rigorous austerity might frighten them away. There is a difference between the footgear of the Discalced and the Calced, which was necessary, and that is all. She may have said that the one feel the cold as much as the other. What she has said is that she disapproves of young friars with entirely bare feet being mounted on good mules, and she says she has known them ride when they might just as well have walked. They may ride for a long journey, or for some other necessity, but it does not look well, and she hopes it will be forbidden, and Mariano can write to Gratian about it.

But she does insist very strongly on the priors being bound to give their subjects good food. As to this, they have gone to great lengths in the way of austerity, and it has given her much pain. She was suffering in this way the day before she got Mariano's letter, to which this is an answer. She has thought sometimes that the whole Reform would be at an end in a day or two, if they go on as they have done. She hopes God will console them, and is glad to find that Mariano agrees with her on this point.

Another thing which she has always insisted on is the introduction of manual labour — a most im portant point when there is no study carried on. Let them make baskets, or what not, and let them do it at the time of recreation, if there is no other. She says she is a great friend of pressing on strongly in virtue, but not in rigour and excessive austerities,

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as may be seen in her convents. " It could not be otherwise, seeing how little penance I do myself." She praises God very much for giving Mariano so much light on these matters. " It is a great thing to desire in all things only His glory and honour. May His Majesty give us the grace to die a thousand deaths for that. Amen, amen."21

In illustration of what is said in this letter about the extreme austerities of the friars, it may be well to turn for a moment, by way of specimen, to what the Chronicler of the Order tells us of the way of living at the Monastery of Mount Calvary, to which la Penuela had been transported a little before this time. He quotes the words of one of the friars who had been there. " The first year the penitence was so extreme, that it may be said that many days at that time the friars ate nothing that had been cooked — only bread and fruit — and this with so much con tentment and satisfaction that no one thought about it. Many were delighted that there should be no trouble taken about cooking or preparing the food — they were content with raw herbs and fruit, and were full of joy. On feast-days they had some crumbs fried in oil, and if they were not ordered to eat them out of obedience, many would not do so, thinking them needless. ..." He then mentions the arrival of St. John of the Cross, in the third year of the monastery's existence, and the great fervour which the presence of the Saint excited. The Chronicler then goes on : " After the time when there was no fire used for cooking in the monastery, it seemed well

-T Letter cxxviii.

302 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

to the Vicar to moderate the rigour. The herbs were to be cooked on festival-days, and then divided on plates, and a little garlic added, and that was all the regalo. On first-class days a little pulse was added, but so little that half a dozen was a rich portion. They seldom had fish, and four months might pass without any being seen in the refectory." The reason given for this is characteristic. They were not far from the Guadalquivir, which in that part is well stocked with dainty fish, as good as first-rate trout. These primitive hermits " thought that the greedy appetite never says ' enough,' and that one good mouthful opens the way for another. What is given to-day as a dainty, is to-morrow considered a neces sity, as often happens in monasteries, and then good bye very soon to abstinence and temperance, with irreparable mischief to prayer and religious quiet." And so they would have no fish at all, because the fish they could get were so good !

The first year they drank only water, then a vine they had planted began to bear, and a little wine was given to those who needed it most. It was also given to the devout guests who came to the monastery. They had to eat what the religious ate. " At first," says the writer, " they said nothing, in order not to show themselves discontented with what gave so much delight to the hermits," but after a time the rigour was too much for them, and they sent in food of their own, which the cook prepared for them, " not with the delicate spices of India, but with simple garlic, a great deal more wholesome. The friars hated going out, begged for nothing to eat, were

Letters to Friars of the Reform. 303

content with what the soil of the place produced, which they cultivated with their own hands, without admitting any secular labourer. They sowed their own corn, tilled it, worked in the vineyard, the garden, and the rest. In this work they spent their mornings after leaving choir till the time of the High Mass. In the evening, after Vespers, they went to their work again, until the time came for mental prayer. One religious stood in front of the rest as they worked, reading aloud a book, to which all listened in silence. If any one got tired, he changed places with the reader, who took to the spade instead with great charity. They used signs instead of speaking, when there was great necessity. A secular, dressed partly like a lay-brother, went on errands in case of need, the rest stayed at home. They had good health in winter, but the heat of the summer made them ill. The special diet for the sick was furnished by the house, nothing was sent for from outside. In the morning they had a little porridge, or some grated bread, lentils, or a piece of gourd, instead of fowl," says the Chronicler, "for they knew they might not eat it, not to break their holy absti nence. All the sick were put in one room, the best in the house. They had only one coarse mattress, and the wardrobe had in it only one shirt." The Chronicler goes on to speak of various instances in which the monastery had been preternaturally assisted when things were at their very worst. We can imagine that St. Teresa might well fear that rigour of this kind would destroy the Reform. The next chapter in the Chronicle contains a number of

304 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

wonderful instances of mortification and self-humili ation.22

Teresa's next letter to Father Gratian is dated the Qth of January. He has been ill, and she has sent letters to all the convents to pray for him. Now he is recovered, and she must write again to spread the good news, and put an end to the anxiety of her nuns. He tells her he has been making a confessional — as if he had nothing else to do. He must really moderate his zeal — we cannot expect miracles. Then she speaks of her nuns, especially those that are sent to reform others. The greatest service to be done them is to provide them with good confessors. They must have some one to comfort and support them under all their strict enclosure and discipline. She begs him, in all places where there are monasteries of friars as well as convents of nuns, to forbid the former to go to the convents where there is an attempt at reformation. The letter ends with some passages of affection. She wishes to be very good indeed, in order to pray better for her Paul.23

The next letter in the Spanish collection is to Mariano, at Madrid. It seems to be of uncertain date, and is placed in a different order in other collections. It is full of allusions and references which are not clear to us, and on this account we must pass it over.24 Another to the same, dated the 1 6th of February, 25 speaks of his having been ill and having recovered. She only wonders he is alive,

~ Chronica dos Cannelitas, t. i. 1. 3, c. 53.

23 Letter cxxxix. 24 Letter cxl. -s Letter cxlvii.

Letters to Friars of the Reform. 305

with all the trouble he has to go through. In this she mentions that her old friend, Fra Pedro Her nandez, formerly the Visitor of Carmel in Castile, has been to see her. He says that if Tostado has any power over the Visitors, they can do nothing but obey, for the Commissaries have no power to create a Province or elect Definitors. This seems to refer to the Acts of the Chapter of Almodovar, in which Definitors had been elected by the authority of Gratian or the Nuncio. There are also two other letters to Mariano, which require more knowledge than we possess as to facts to explain them com pletely. They are dated the 22nd of February and the 1 5th of March.26

It was about this time that St. Teresa wrote a letter which became famous in Spain as la Carta del Vejamen — "the bantering letter," and which may remind us in some degree of the fun which she made of the cartel or challenge sent by the friars of Pastrana to the nuns of the Incarnation. We have already said something on the subject of this letter. The occasion was this. She had mentioned to her brother, Lorenzo de Cepeda, some words of our Lord's to herself, " Seek thyself in Me," and she* asked him to find out their meaning. The matter was communicated to the little "spiritual world," if we may so speak, living at Avila, where Lorenzo was, and it was agreed that Francis of Salcedo, Julian of Avila, and St. John of the Cross, should each write an explanation, as well as Don Lorenzo himself. The commentaries were to be submitted to

26 Letters cli. and clii. U 2

306 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

the nuns of St. Joseph's. The Bishop, Don Alvaro de Mendoza, hearing of this, desired the four com mentaries to be sent to Teresa at Toledo, and that she should pass judgment upon them.

As we do not possess the documents thus laid before her, we cannot completely understand her remarks upon them. She is bent all through in making her fun out of them, at the same time hinting at the truths which they seem to her to have mis understood or forgotten. Thus the letter is an instance of her delicate bright sportiveness, which is more intelligible to ordinary readers than what she says about each of the commentaries. She begins by telling the Bishop that if obedience did not oblige her, she would decline the office of judge, and that she would not want very good reasons. It is not — as the nuns with her suggest — because her brother is one of the competitors, so that she might be suspected of unjustly favouring him. All the four writers are equally dear to her, and all have aided her in her troubles. Her brother, indeed, came to her last of all, when the cup of their sufferings was nearly finished, but he has had his part, and will have more by-and-bye, by the grace of God. Next, she says that she hopes to find the grace to say nothing which may give occasion for a denunciation of her to the Inquisition. Her head is quite worn out by the number of letters and other business she has had to get through since last night. However, obedience can do anything. So she will do what the Bishop orders her. She did hope simply to amuse herself by reading the commentaries, but he orders her to do more.

Letters to Friars of the Reform. 307

Then she proceeds to pull her friends' comments to pieces. The words, she says, " Seek thyself in Me," are evidently the words of our Lord, the Spouse of souls. Francis of Salcedo must be wrong, then, for he takes them to mean that God is in all things. A fine discovery ! He also talks of understanding and union. But every one knows that in union the intelligence is inactive. How then can it seek anything ? He quotes the verse, " I will hear what the Lord shall speak in me." The verse is very well, but as she is determined to find fault with all he says, she maintains it has nothing to do with the question, because it is not listen, or " hear," but seek. Worse and worse, if Don Francis does not retract, she will denounce him to the Holy Office, which is next door to her. All through his paper he keeps on saying, " This is from St. Paul," "The Holy Ghost says this or that." And then, at the end, he declares that what he has written is full of nonsense ! Let him retract at once, or see what will come.

Then she falls on Julian of Avila. He begins well and ends badly. He was not asked to explain how the "uncreated light "and the "created light" unite to one another, but how we are to seek ourselves in God. He was not asked to say what a soul feels when it is perfectly united to its Creator, and whether in that state it differs or not from its Divine object. In union, the intelligence loses its natural activity, and cannot occupy itself on such questions : if it were not so, there would be no difficulty as to the differ ence between them. Thus she runs on, but she

308 Letters to Friars of the Reform.

forgives Julian of Avila, because he has not been so long as St. John of the Cross.

St. John seems to have enlarged on the necessity of dying entirely to the world in order to seek God. That, she says, would do very well for persons who wished to make the Exercises of St. Ignatius. But we should be badly off if we could not seek God before we are dead to the world. Did not Magdalene, the Samaritan woman, the Chanaanite mother, find God before they died to the world ? St. John also says a great deal about the necessity of union with God. But when people have this union, they are not to be told to seek Him, for they have found Him already.

Heaven deliver us from those spiritual people who want to bring everything, without examination and without choice, to perfect contemplation ! After all, we must be grateful to Father John— he has ex plained so well what we did not want to know ! This is the good of talking of God — we so often get what we did not expect. This has happened to Don Lorenzo. We owe him much for his verses and answers. He has told us more than he thinks, and as he has given us a little recreation, we will forgive him for talking about things so much above him, as he himself confesses. Still, he deserves reproof for the advice he gives to devout souls without their asking him, to practice the prayer of quiet — as if it depended on themselves ! God grant him some profit from his intercourse with men so spiritual. His paper has pleased her, though after all she thinks he ought to be much ashamed of it.

Letters to Friars of the Reform. 309

She sums up by saying that it is impossible to decide which of the commentaries is the best, since no one of them is free from fault. Let them correct themselves — and perhaps it would be well if she too corrected herself, lest she should resemble her brother in his want of humility. After all, all these gentlemen are excellent, and they have missed the truth only from flying too high, for, as she has already observed, a person who was already in union with God could not be told to seek Him, having Him already. Thus she will end her extravagancies, and will put ofF answering a letter that Monsignor has sent her till another time.

io Note to Chapter XL

NOTE TO CHAPTER XI.

The letters which belong to this chapter are as follows :

1. (Ixxxvi.) To Father Jerome Gratian of the Mother of God. From Toledo, middle of 1576.

Mentioned at p. 279.

2. (Ixxxvii.) To the same. Same date. Mentioned at p. 279.

3. (Ixxxviii.) To the same. From Toledo, September 5, 1576.

Mentioned at p. 280,

4. (Ixxxix.) To the same. From Toledo, September 6, 1 576. Mentioned at p. 281.

5. (xc.) To the same. From Toledo, September 20, 1576. An account of this letter is given, p. 281.

6. (xci.) To the same. From Toledo, September, 1576. Mentioned at p. 284.

7. (xcviii.) To Father Juan of Jesus. From Toledo, Sep tember, 1576.

Mentioned at p. 284.

8. (civ.) To Father Jerome Gratian, of the Mother of God. From Toledo, October 21, 1576.

An account of this letter is given, p. 285.

9. (cv.) To Father Ambrose Mariano. From Toledo, October, 1576.

Mentioned at p. 285.

10. (cvi.) To the same. From Toledo, October 23, 1576. An account of this letter is given, p. 286.

11. (cvii.) To Father Jerome Gratian. From Toledo, October 23, 1576.

12. (cviii.) To the same. Date uncertain.

13. (cix.) To the same. Date uncertain. These three letters are mentioned at p. 289.

14. (ex.) To the same. From Toledo, October 31, 1576. Mentioned at p. 289.

Note to Chapter XL

1 1

15. (cxii.) To Father Ambrose Mariano. From Toledo^ November 3, 1576.

An account of this letter is given, p. 290.

1 6. (cxiii.) To Father Jerome Gratian. From Toledo, November 4, 1576.

An account of this letter is given, p. 291.

17. (cxiv.) To the same. From Toledo, November, 1576, An account of this letter is given, p. 292.

1 8. (cxv.) To the same. From Toledo, November, 1576. An account of this letter is given, p. 294.

19. (cxvi.) To the same. From Toledo, November 19, 1576. An account of this letter is given, p. 295.

20. (cxvii.) To the same. From Toledo. Uncertain date. Mentioned at p. 295.

21. (cxxiv.) To the same. From Toledo, end of November, 1576.

An account of this letter is given, p. 296.

22. (cxxvi.) To the same. From Toledo, December 7, 1576. An account of this letter is given, p. 297.

23. (cxxvii.) To the same. From Toledo, December, 1576. An account of this letter is given, p. 297.

24. (cxxviii.) To Father Ambrose Mariano. From Toledo, December 12. 1576.

An account of this letter is given, p. 299.

25. (cxxix.) To Father Jerome Gratian. From Toledo, January 9, 1577.

An account of this letter is given, p. 304.

26. (cxl ) To the same. From Toledo. Date uncertain. Mentioned at p. 304.

27. (cxlvi.) To the same. From Toledo, February 16, 1577. Mentioned at p. 304.

28. (cli.) To Father Ambrose Mariano. From Toledo, February 22, 1577.

29. (cliii.) To the same. From Toledo, March 13, 1577. These two letters are both mentioned, p. 305.

CHAPTER XII.

After the Death of the Nuncio.

THE death of Monsignor Ormaneto, which was the occasion of so much suffering to St. Teresa and her children of the Reform, was only accidentally con nected with the change which now comes over the history on which we are engaged. Ormaneto was already superseded when he died. His successor, Philip Sega, had already been named, and had received the strong bias against the Discalced Carmelites which was made known almost at once on his arrival in Spain. At the time of Ormaneto's death he was in Belgium, having been sent, as it seems, on a special mission by the Pope to John of Austria, taking with him a large sum of money as a contribution to his intended descent on England. He was Bishop of Ripa Tran- sone, but had been in Rome on ecclesiastical affairs, and there his ear had been completely gained by the General and other men of influence among the Car melites, who were now bent on destroying all difference of Observance throughout the Order. In this the Carmelite Superiors had been aided by Cardinal Buoncompagni, the nephew of the reigning Pope. Thus the storm would have burst on the Reform in Spain, even if Ormaneto had not died just when he did. But if St. Teresa's advice had been followed,

After the Death of the Nuncio. 313

and if there had been no delay in arranging the all important matter of the separation of the Reformed from the other religious, and the erection of a new Province, Sega would have found it difficult to carry out the views with which he entered Spain in the August of 1577, two months or so after the death of. his predecessor.

As soon as the death of Ormaneto became known, Father Gratian, always eager for release from his thankless work as Visitor, applied to the Chief In quisitor and the President of the Council, Monsignor Covarrubias, for permission to surrender an office, all the powers of which, as he understood, ceased with the demise of the Nuncio who had conferred them. But he was not allowed to do so. The King and his advisers desired the work to go on, and learned theo logians at Alcala, Toledo, and Madrid, gave their opinion that as the work was not accomplished, the commission lasted on. At the same time Tostado, who was about himself to commence the visitation of the monasteries and convents, for which he had powers from the General, was forbidden to exercise these powers. Thus Gratian returned to Andalusia to con tinue his visitations, and Tostado was obliged to content himself with minor, but not less efficacious, annoyances to the Discalced Friars, among whom there were naturally many whose consciences were not altogether at rest on the important question as to who was their lawful Superior. He used his autho rity from the General to forbid the Discalced to receive novices, and to order them to be subject to the Mitigated Friars in all places where there was a

314 After the Death of the Nuncio.

monastery of each Observance. He evidently did not think himself bound by the King's prohibition, and used his authority on all occasions when he could do so with safety.

Early in the autumn, and before the arrival of the new Nuncio, there were some serious accusations made against Father Gratian on the score of his conduct at Seville. The nuns of the convent were also charged with grave misconduct, and the infamous charges reached the ears of the King. St. Teresa immediately wrote to Philip. The accusations were attested by two Discalced Carmelite friars, who had been seduced by the other party, and forced to sign the memorial in question. One of them was Fra Miguel de la Columna, and the other Father Balthasar of Jesus, a man of very considerable eminence among the Reformed. The letter of which we speak must be given in its entirety, as it is one of the most remark able of St. Teresa's few letters to the King.

JESUS.

May the grace of the Holy Spirit be ever with your Majesty. Amen.

There has come to my knowledge a memorial which has reached your Majesty against the Father Master Gratian. I am astonished at the boldness of the devil and the Calced Fathers. For they are not content to defame this servant of God — for so he is in truth, he is always giving all of us edification, so that they always write to me from the convents which he visits that he leaves them with a new spirit — but now they are at work to cast disgrace on our convents also, where our Lord is so well served. For this purpose they have made use of two Discalced Friars, one

After the Death of the. Nuncio. 3 1 5

of whom, before he became a friar, was a servant in these convents, and did things there sufficient to make people understand that he was often weak in judgment. Of this Discalced Friar, and of others who have been inflamed against the Father Master Gratian, because it was he who had to punish their faults, it has been sought by the friars of the Observance to make use, making them sign absurd things ; and it would give me amusement to read what they say is done by the Discalced, for it would indeed be monstrous for any of our habit to do them — only that I am restrained by the mischief which the devil may work thereby.

For the love of God I implore your Majesty not to allow such infamous testimonies to be received in the courts. For the world is so bad, that however much the contrary is proved, it may be that some suspicion will remain some where if we give any occasion for it, and it may be of damage to the Reform that any stain at all should be cast on what, by the goodness of God, is in so true a state of reformation. This your Majesty may see, if it so please you, by some attestations which Father Gratian has caused to be made with regard to these convents on certain points, by grave and holy persons who are acquainted with the nuns.

For those who have written these memorials, information may be had as to their motives, and, for the love of our Lord, let your Majesty look to this, for it is a matter which concerns His honour and glory. For if the friars of the Observance see that account is made of these allegations, and that they tend to put an end to the Visitation, they will accuse him who has to make it of heresy, and where there is not much fear of God left, they will easily find evidence.

I pity indeed the sufferings of this servant of God, who bears himself with so much uprightness and perfection in all, and this obliges me to entreat your Majesty either to protect him, or to cause him to be removed from the

3 1 6 After the Death of the Nuncio.

occasion of all these dangers. He is the child of persons in your Majesty's service, and does not himself at all lack merit. Truly he has seemed to me to be a man sent by God and His Blessed Mother, and it was his great devotion to her that drew him to this Order to be my help, for it is more than seventeen years that I have been suffering alone from these Fathers of the Observance, and I do not know how to endure longer, as my feeble strength is not sufficient.

I beseech your Majesty to pardon the length at which I have written. The great love which I bear to your Majesty has made me venture, considering that as our Lord bears with my indiscreet complaints, so also will your Majesty endure them. May it please Him to hear all the prayers that are made by the Discalced religious, men and women, that He will preserve your Majesty many years, since we have no other support on the earth but your Majesty.

The unworthy servant and subject of your Majesty,

TERESA DE JESUS,

Carmelite.1 In St. Joseph's of Avila, September 18, 1577.

In less than a month after the date of this letter, the whole calumny against Gratian and the nuns was exploded. The two witnesses, Fra Miguel and Father Balthasar, retracted their statements before public notaries in the Presence of the Blessed Sacra ment. This was on the 8th of October. Miguel declared that he had not written a word of the charge himself, and had been compelled by threats and force to sign his name. On the 24th of October he also wrote a penitential letter to the King. Father Balthasar about the same time wrote to Gratian to

1 Letter clxix.

After the Death of the Nuncio. 317

ask for pardon, declaring that the moral conduct of all the members of the Reform was most holy, and that he had been led to make the charge because he had been falsely informed that Gratian had done him some injury. The rest of the accusations were examined by order of the King, and the perfect innocence of the persons charged was fully established. So far the triumph was complete. But we see amid what dangers the work committed to Father Gratian was carried on. A Father of long standing and considerable authority could be found to defame his Superior on account of a supposed injury. And what must be thought of the length to which passion was leading some, at least, of the friars of the Mitigation, when such charges could be invented and signed, by one at least of the witnesses, under the influence of force ?

The next incident in the history was occasioned by the death of Monsignor Covarrubias, the Bishop of Segovia, who has been already mentioned as having been assigned to Father Gratian by the King, as the person to whom he was to have recourse in all his needs, along with the Chief Inquisitor, Caspar de Quiroga, who had recently, to the great delight of St. Teresa, been promoted to the great archbishopric of Toledo. The death of Covarrubias, a zealous friend of the Reform, left Monsignor Quiroga alone in his charge of the matter, and Philip, in consequence, placed the affairs of the Carmelites under the care of the whole Royal Council. At the same time he ordered Tostado, who was acting as Vicar of the General, to show all his faculties and commissions from his own

3 1 8 After the Death of the Nuncio.

Superiors to the Council, and not to act upon them until they had been duly examined and approved by the royal authority. Tostado, in consequence of this, commenced a suit, with the object of exempting himself from this obligation, and this suit lasted till the end of the year 15/7, and may account for the breathing-time which was to some extent enjoyed by the Reform during these months. The suit did not, however, prevent him, as has been said, from executing his commission as far as he dared, and he soon found that he had a powerful ally in Monsignor Sega.

The letter of St. Teresa which has just been quoted is dated from Avila. She had left Toledo some time late in July, with the leave either of Gratian or some other Superior, for the purpose of placing her first convent of St. Joseph under the obedience of the Order. It had been founded, as we know, for special reasons, under the obedience of the Bishop, and that arrangement had probably been the means of its salvation, or at least of its security from many molestations. But the time had now come, as our Lord told her, when it was fitting that the convent should be under the obedience of the Order. She consulted her confessor, Dr. Velasquez, who encouraged her to go to Avila and arrange the matter. The Bishop, Don Alvaro de Mendoza, had either just been, or was just about to be, translated to the see of Palencia, and thus the time was favourable. Teresa, however, had naturally some difficulty in obtaining his consent. The Convent of St. Joseph was very dear to him, and he had already

After the Death of the Nuncio. 3 1 9

arranged for his own burial within its walls. He probably did not wish to deprive his successors of the consolation and honour which he had himself derived from it. However, Teresa, as usual, was successful in the end. She says that she put before him certain evils which might result to the nuns if they were left, as it were, isolated from the Order. He was so well affectioned towards them that he considered the matter carefully, and found, as she tells us, other reasons for the change stronger than those which she had alleged. So he gave his consent. The nuns, whose consent was also necessary, were more difficult to gain. But they also yielded to Teresa's reasoning, especially as the good Bishop was going away, and they might at any time lose her.

It was in the October of this year that another great trouble came to be dealt with by the prudence and energy of the Saint. The triennium of the Prioress of the Convent of the Incarnation was coming to an end, and a considerable body of the nuns were desirous of again electing St. Teresa. It does not seem quite clear whether the election had been accomplished at the time when the disputes concerning it first broke out, or whether the intention of electing Teresa was only announced or suspected. The matter was communicated to Tostado, and he immediately sent the Provincial of the Mitigated Friars to hold the election, threatening censures and excommunication on those who gave their suffrage to Teresa. It seems that they ought to have been subjected to censures if they voted for a nun of

320 After the Death of the Nuncio.

another community. But Teresa had been professed in that house, had lived there a great part of her life, her dowry was there, and she might return thither if she chose. Perhaps Tostado was ignorant of the facts. The election was made by the Pro vincial, the nuns voting singly, and, as it seems, openly, for the Provincial, as he received the votes which were given to Teresa, told the nuns they were excommunicated, and tore up and burnt the papers. Nevertheless, Teresa was elected, fifty-five nuns voting for her and forty- four against her. The recalcitrant nuns were interdicted from hearing Mass and entering the choir, even when Office was not being recited, and of course were excluded from the sacraments. The Provincial came the next day, wishing to make a new election, but the majority of the nuns declared they had already elected their Prioress, and could not vote again. The Provincial called the minority together. He declared their nominee, Anne of Toledo, elected, and sent the acts to Tostado for confirmation. The others declared they would only obey Mother Anne as Vicaress of the true Prioress. St. Teresa exerted herself to the utmost, both to induce her nuns to accept the other as Prioress, and also to obtain the absolution of the excommunicated majority. The theologians at Avila unanimously denied that the excommunication was valid.

It is probable that we do not know either all the causes or the amount of the irritation against the Reform which existed, especially, it seems, at Avila, among the friars of the Mitigation. The Carmelites of the Observance, nuns as well as friars, probably

After the Death of the Nuncio. 321

felt that the Reform was a slur on themselves personally, more than on any other of their religious brethren or sisters. Avila was the birthplace of the Reform, and it would never have been born if the observance of the Rule had been perfect at Avila. We have seen how angrily St. Teresa was received when she was imposed on the nuns of her old convent as their Prioress. Her wonderful grace and prudence and sweetness won them round, as we have also seen. But the friars of the Mitigated monastery could not have liked her. Then she had brought two friars of the Reform into the convent as confessors to the nuns, and although one of these was St. John of the Cross, still the mere fact that those two were there, and that they themselves were not, must have* been a source of constant annoyance to the Mitigated Friars, especially as the Convent of the Incarnation remained under the Mitigated Rule and under its Superiors.

The most common and the most mischievous and deplorable fault of religious persons is their jealousy, a fault the results of which fill many a long page in their histories, whether of communities or of single persons. As the nuns of the Incarnation were of the Mitigated Rule, and still showed so much unmis- takeable devotion to St. Teresa, they may have seemed in the eyes of the friars to be traitors and apostates, at least, enemies in their own camp. The Mitigated Province of Castile cannot have relished the visitatorial powers of Father Gratian, even though he used them with discretion and gentleness. Much less were they likely to be conciliated by such fire- v 2

322 After the Death of the Nuncio.

brands as Mariano and Antonio of Jesus. Worldlings may have chuckled or sneered at seeing the children of the cloister far more angry and vehement about what seemed to outsiders a small matter, than they themselves might have been over a more important quarrel. There seems to have been at Avila a wound that was always open between the Mitigated and the Reformed. The passions excited may not, after all, have been so very violent, but when the actors in such scenes are religious or ecclesiastical persons, it is not impossible, as we shall presently see, that they may thus, in their mistaken zeal, go to excesses of violence which seem almost incredible.

It took many weeks to bring matters even to an apparent close. St. Teresa laboured with all her might to obtain two things — to get .the nuns relieved from the excommunication, and to induce the majority, who had voted for her, to accept Mother Anne of Toledo as their Prioress. The removal of the excommunication was a serious business, as it could only be done by a Superior, and in this case the Superiors were all hostile. However, about the end of November the King enjoined on the Nuncio to order Tostado to see to the absolution of the nuns from all censures. Tostado obeyed, but the work was done in the most disagreeable way. The Mitigated Prior of Toledo, Fra Maldonado, was deputed to give the absolution, but he left the nuns more oppressed than before, for they were treated as having committed a great sin in desiring St. Teresa as their Prioress. At the same time the two Discalced confessors, St. John of the Cross and Fra Germanus, were

After the Death of the Nuncio. 323

violently seized and carried away. St. John had the habit of the Reform torn from his back, and was clothed by force with another of the Observance, and both he and his companion were flogged, and treated with the utmost harshness. St. John, whose place of confinement was kept entirely secret, is said to have been kept in his cell for nine months without a change of raiment. His shoulders were permanently injured by the mangling to which he was subjected. Father Germanus, who was taken to Moraleja, was treated with less severity. The crime alleged against them was probably disobedience to the orders of the General or of his Vicar, Tostado. The true reason, as we gather from a letter of St. Teresa, was, as it seems, that the two Discalced confessors were the only persons who could assist the nuns in their pleadings to the Royal Council, against the illegal violence to which they had been subjected in the matter of the election of Prioress. St. John was not a man for lawsuits, but when there was no one else to help the nuns, and when the justice of the case was clear, it is not unlikely that he may have exerted himself in their behalf. The friars of the Mitigation had been confessors of the Convent of the Incarnation before the appointment of the two obnoxious Fathers, and they now returned to their old office.

The seizure of the two confessors was made at night, between December the 3rd and the 4th. St. Teresa wrote immediately to the King.

JESUS.

May the grace of the Holy Spirit be ever with your Majesty. Amen.

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As I am firmly convinced that our Lady has been pleased to make use of your Majesty and to take you as the protector and resource of her Order, I cannot cease from having recourse to your Majesty in the affairs thereof. For the love of our Lord I beseech your Majesty to pardon me so much boldness.

I am well persuaded that your Majesty has been in formed how the nuns of the Incarnation took measures to bring me thither, thinking that I might bring them some relief by which they might be delivered from the friars, who certainly disturb them greatly in the recollection and reli gious observance at which they aim, and they are certainly entirely to blame for that lack of these blessings which is felt in that house. The nuns were much mistaken in their thought, for as long as they remain subjects of those who hear their confessions and visit them, my going there is of no profit, at least that can last. I always said this to the Dominican Visitor, and he understood it well.

For some remedy to the evil, while God permitted, he placed there in a small house a Discalced Friar, so great a servant of our Lord, that he was an edification to all, and another to accompany him, and the whole city was aston ished at the very great good which he did there, and they hold him for a saint, as in my opinion he is and has been all his life.

The late Nuncio, informed of this, and of the mischief which the friars of the Observance had caused, after taking large informations from the people of the city, sent an order under pain of excommunication that these Discalced friars should return — for the Calced Friars had ejected them with great rudeness and much scandal to the city. And he ordered under pain of excommunication, that no one of the Observance should go there on business, or to say Mass, or to hear confessions, but only the Discalced or secular priests. This measure put the house into a good state, until the Nuncio died. Then the Calced friars returned, and all

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the disquiet also, and they never showed by what authority they were empowered to do this.

And now a friar who came to absolve the nuns, has caused them so much annoyance, and without any order or justice, that they are extremely afflicted, and are not free from the penalties which they endured before, as I am told. Besides all else, they have taken away their confessors, which they say is the act of the Vicar Provincial, and it must be he, for it is more in his way to make martyrs than others, and he has them prisoners, in his monastery. They took the locks off the doors of the cells, and seized them in the room where the papers are kept.

The whole place is greatly scandalized at their boldness, since the friar who did this was not Superior, nor did he show any authority for acting thus, these friars being under the Apostolical Commissary, and this town being so near where your Majesty is, it seems that they had no fear of him who can do justice on earth, nor of God. I am full of pity at seeing these friars in their hands, they would be better off among the Moors, for perhaps they would get more compassion. This friar, too, who is so great a servant of God, is so weak from all that he has suffered, that I fear for his life.

For the love of our Lord I beseech your Majesty to command that they may be quickly rescued, and that order be given that all these poor Discalced may not suffer as they do at the hands of those of the Observance. They do nothing but hold their tongues and suffer, and so they gain much, but great scandal is given to the people. The same friars have this summer seized Fra Antonio de Jesus at Toledo — a blessed old man, the first of all our friars, and all without cause. They go about saying that they will make an end of all of us, according to the orders of Tostado. Blessed be God ! But those who ought to be the instruments for preventing offence to Him, are the causes of so many sins, and every day are worse and worse.

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If your Majesty does not order a remedy to be applied to our troubles, I know not where they will end, for we have no one on earth but your Majesty. May it please our Lord to preserve you to us many years ! I trust in Him that He will grant us this favour, as He sees that He has so few men to look to His honour. We pray this of Him continually, all of us, the servants of your Majesty and myself, the unworthy servant and subject of your Majesty,

TERESA DE JESUS,

St. Joseph's at Avila, December 4, 1577.* Carmelite.

This letter, though it produced fresh orders from the King, did not bring about the liberation of St. John of the Cross, who remained in confinement about nine months. The reason why he could not be delivered was that no one could find out where he was detained. The other friar was treated with less severity. The poor nuns of the Incarnation suffered their vexations for some months more. Probably no authority but that of the Nuncio could restore the confessors to the convent, and this seems to have been the great hardship, the same Fathers of the Mitigation being the Superiors of the nuns and their confessors also. Early in the December of this year, 1577, however, a short gleam of triumph shone on the Reform, for the formidable Tostado was finally cast in the suit in which he was engaged, and after acting for some time as Commissary to the Nuncio Sega, he went off once more into Portugal. The Nuncio had not yet shown any powers enabling him to interfere with the Reformed Carmel, and Gratian still retained his faculties, though he did not use them.

2 Letter clxxiv.

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We cannot do better than follow the Bollandist Life of St. Teresa in giving here, a little before its time, a letter of the Saint herself, which lights up many of the obscurities of the history. Towards the end of October, her great friend, Don Teuton io de Braganza, was nominated to the archbishopric of Evora in Portugal, and the letter of which we speak Is written by way of congratulation to him, while Teresa at the same time answers an application of his for some nuns of the Order for his own country. The letter is dated January 16, 1578. The letter is a long one, and we must endeavour to mention the most important of its contents.

The first part of the letter, which is occupied with congratulations and good wishes and the like, may be passed over in silence. After a time Teresa comes to the troubles of the Discalced Friars and nuns, and she says that if she had not been certain that they were striving to keep their Rule in rectitude and truth, she should sometimes have feared that their enemies would have gained their end, which was to destroy this beginning of good things which the most sacred Virgin had brought about in her Order. She is astonished at the multitude of the charges, the diligence used to discredit these reformed religious, especially Father Gratian and herself, who were the persons principally aimed at, the testimonies and memorials and the like, drawn up against them. His lordship would be astonished if he knew the case, how so much malice could have been in vented. But she hears that they gain greatly from it all, the nuns with a recollection so perfect that it

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seemed as if no one was touching them, and Gratian also with a marvellous perfection of virtue.

She enlarges on the praises of Gratian. God was pleased, she said, that the accusers should withdraw their charges, and for the rest, clear proof of the innocence of the accused resulted from the inves tigation of the Council. The devil is evidently anxious to get rid of the good which goes on in these houses. She mentions the sufferings of the nuns of the Incarnation, who were not allowed to hear Mass for more than fifty days. She speaks of the violence with which St. John of the Cross and his companion were taken away from the convent, although they were subjects to the Commissary Apos tolic, Father Gratian, and she does not know how it will all end. She apologizes for enlarging on all these matters, but she delights in letting Don% Teutonic know what passes here. Tostado had been much favoured by the new Nuncio, who had told Father Gratian not to continue his Visitation. But he is still Apostolical Commissary, for the Nuncio has not yet shown his powers, nor prohibited Gratian to use his. Gratian had gone to Alcala and Pastrana, where he had hid himself in a grotto, and had never used his powers, or done anything since he went there. He desires much not to go on with the Visitation, and so they all wish. They are in a very sad plight, and unless they can get a separate province, no one can tell what may come. Gratian had written to her saying that if Tostado came to Pastrana to visit, he should obey him, and wished others to do the same. But by God's mercy, Tostado never came that way.

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The Calced Fathers say, however, that he is the man who manages all, and that he is bringing about the Visitation — that is, as it seems, the Visitation of the Discalced by the Calced. This was, in fact, just what had been done by Ormaneto when he made Gratian and others visitors of the Observant Friars. The wheel was to come round. Teresa says that it will kill them outright.

She tells Don Teutonic that she writes all this to him because he felt such great obligations to the Order, and also that he may see the great difficulties that lie in the way of a foundation of her nuns in his new diocese. In the first place, she mentions the prohibition to the nuns to leave their houses, and her own seclusion in one, under pain of excommunica tion. It is done to prevent new foundations, and she has great compassion for the multitudes of souls that are calling for the convents, in each of which, also, the number is so small. The late Nuncio had told her to go on founding, notwithstanding the order, but she is determined not to do so, unless either the General or the Pope enjoins it. It has been by no fault of her own that she has ceased to labour, but now God has given her rest in her weariness. Still if she could have done anything for Don Teutonic, it would have been a recreation, instead of a toil, so much does she desire to see him, and she would count it a grand thing if she were sent to his diocese. This refers to the desire of Don Teutonic that a foundation should be made there.

But then there is the other objection, that her patents from the General were only valid for Castile,

3 3O After the Death of the Nuncio.

and she must have new powers for Portugal, which at present the General is not likely to give. They might easily be obtained from the Pope, if Father Gratian's collection of testimonials as to the life led by the nuns, and the spiritual fruit which they produce wherever they live, were laid before His Holiness. She says she has never read this document, fearing that there might be in it a great deal about herself. What she would like would be for the General to give her faculties for founding in Spain. She thinks perhaps that Don Teutonic may have a friend in the Cardinal Protector of the Order, who was the Pope's nephew, and if he could bring this about he would serve God greatly, and make the Order most grateful to him.

Then there is another difficulty, that Tostado is Vicar-General of the Order in Portugal. No one of the Discalced will fall into his hands with impunity 1 and he will certainly do all he can against them in Portugal, if he can't succeed in Castile. After his last attack on the Convent of the Incarnation, the King had issued another order by which he was forced to bring his letters of authority to the Council. They were taken away, and have not been restored. They have also letters of the Apostolical Visitor — she speaks of the Visitor before Gratian — by which their convents can only be visited by one delegated by the General, and he must be a Discalced. Now there is none such in Portugal, and without it, there would be an end to the perfection of the convents.3

It was in the latter half of this year, 1577, that

3 Letter clxxxii.

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St. Teresa wrote her beautiful treatise called the Interior Castle, or the Castle of the Soul. It was begun in June at Toledo, and finished at St. Joseph's in Avila, on the eve of St. Andrew, the 2Qth of November, in the same year. We have already made some mention of this work, in the first chapter of the present volume, using its later chapters, which describe the most sublime state to which perfect souls are raised, as an account of the condition in which St. Teresa seems to have been during many years of her life, long before the time at which the book itself was written. As we have given some account of her earlier work, the Way of Perfection, in the former volume, it seems natural that we should here do the same with the Castle of the Soul. But, in truth, there is a great difference between the two works. The last is, as might be expected, far more sublime than the Way of Per fection, and its subject matter raises it very far above the easy intelligence of ordinary readers, indeed, of all who have not some experience in the lofty paths of prayer of which it treats. It must be enough to give a. succinct outline of a work like the Interior Castle.

The plan of the work is contained in the opening chapter, in which St. Teresa speaks of the dignity and beauty of the soul.4 " It is a castle, composed entirely of diamonds or very clear crystal, in which there are many apartments, just as in Heaven there are many

4 In this account of the work we shall use the translation published in the year 1852 by one who did very much in his own day towards making St. Teresa known in this country, the late Canon Dalton.

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mansions. The soul of a just man is nothing else but a Paradise, wherein the Lord thereof takes His recreation. What a beautiful room that ought to be, think you, in which a King so powerful, so wise, so pure, so full of every perfection, delights Himself? . . . However enlarged our understanding may be, it is unable to comprehend the beauty of a soul, just as it cannot comprehend Who God is, for He saith Himself that He created us in His own image and likeness." She goes on to insist on this thought of the misery of our ignorance of ourselves. " Let us imagine then that this Castle (as I have said) has several mansions or rooms, some above, some below, and others on the sides, and that in the centre of all is the principal room, in which subjects of the greatest secrecy are discussed between God and the soul." Then she enlarges on this comparison, and speaks of the diffi culty of understanding the various gifts and favours which God bestows on His favoured servants, which are to be, more or less, described under the heads of the various rooms or mansions.

The gate by which we are to enter the Castle is prayer and consideration. " I speak of mental as well as vocal prayer : being prayer, it should be made with attention : for she who does not consider with Whom she speaks, and who she is that asks, and of Whom she asks, knows little of prayer, however much her lips may move." " Whosoever shall accustom himself to speak with the Majesty of God, as he would talk with his slave, without considering whether he speaks properly or no, but who speaks only what first comes into his head, or what he may have learnt

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by heart by having repeated it at another time — this I do not consider to be prayer, and God grant that no Christian may pray in this manner among you, my Sisters." There is a good deal more to the same effect Then follows a chapter in which she describes the miserable state of souls in mortal sin. This is done with great power. " No darkness is more dark, nor is anything so black and foul as such a soul. . . . The sun itself, which gave it such lustre and beauty, though still in the centre of it, is nevertheless as if it were not there. ... I know a person to whom our Lord was pleased to reveal the state of a soul in mortal sin. She said she thought that if men only considered and well understood such a state, no one would commit a sin, even though he were to suffer the greatest torments possible in order to avoid the occasions. . . . She said she had received two benefits from the favour God had bestowed upon her, in showing her the miserable state of a soul in mortal sin. The first was an exceedingly great fear of offending Him, and therefore she was continually beseeching Him not to let her fall, as she saw such dreadful evil would follow. The second benefit was that she obtained thereby a looking-glass to excite humility in her, for she knew that the good which we do is not originally from ourselves, but from the fountain in which the tree of our souls is planted, and from this sun which gives heat to our actions."

She then speaks of the souls who are, as she says, in the First Mansions. They have already some good desires. They practise both vocal and mental prayer. But they do not this with all the attention necessary,

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because they are still full of distractions, they let the pleasures of this world or the cares of life occupy them, and so they bring with them into these man sions a number of venomous insects, as it were. The remedy for this state, which will ensure them further progress, lies in prayer and humility.

This account of the opening of the work before us is enough at least to give us some idea of its plan. The respective Mansions, as they follow one on the other, are the descriptions of the various stages in the onward progress of the soul. The Second Mansions give the state of the souls who have got some way on in their self-reform. They know their dangerous state, they have to some extent conquered, but they have not yet freed themselves from all the occasions of sin. They are not dead to themselves. Their state, therefore, is one of trying conflict. God sends them many calls in various ways, external and in ternal, and the devil also plies them with his wiles.

The Third Mansions contain the souls who have got beyond these difficulties. They avoid dangerous occasions, shun venial sins, practise recollection, penance, and prayer, in which they sometimes have great consolation, and the gift of tears. But they are very much tried by dryness and desolation, and need great humility to enable them to persevere, and great conformity to the will of God.

In the Fourth Mansions, St. Teresa comes to the beginning of the degrees of supernatural prayer, and the mansions which follow go on from degree to degree. She distinguishes between " contents," which are the fruit of our own diligence and work, and

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"delights," which are the free gifts of God. She soon reaches the prayer of Quiet, and describes its effects in her own bright way. In the Fifth Mansions the main subject is the prayer of Union, and in the sixth we enter on that of "locutions," ecstasies, rap tures, visions " imaginary " and intellectual, and their wonderful effects. The Seventh Mansions describe the still higher state of the soul of which we have given some account in the first chapter of this volume.

St. Teresa, as has been said, wrote this work between Trinity Sunday, 1577, and the end of that year. She was at Toledo when she began it, and she finished it in her own Convent of St. Joseph at Avila. It was first urged on her by her confessor, Dr. Velasquez, but the order of obedience under which she wrote seems to have come from Father Gratian. It is, like all of her works, full of constant digressions, which are, however, always to the point, and always most valuable and beautiful. And although it is true that a great part of the subject of which she treats must always be far above the comprehension of those who have no practical experi ence of the wonders of the kingdom of Prayer, it by no means follows that ordinary Christians will not find in these sublime pages a great number of practical lessons which they may turn to very great account indeed.

Thus this beautiful treatise was written in the midst of great pressure and anxiety, and while St. Teresa, as she tells us, was suffering continually in her head. The new year, 1578, was to bring forth a fresh crop of trials and calamities for the Reform.

336 After the Death of the Nuncio.

Up to the time of which we speak, there had been a sort of lull in the conflict. Although Ormaneto was dead, and his successor as hostile to the Reform as the first-named had been favourable, he had not as yet begun to act strongly for its destruction. We shall see in the course of the next year what were the measures which he took, and how far they were successful.

On the Christmas Eve of this year, 1577, Teresa met with a dangerous accident and broke her left arm. She had reached the top of a flight of stairs which led into the choir, carrying a light in her hand, when a sudden swoon seized her, and she was thrown violently to the bottom of the stairs. She cried out to our Lord that the devil had wanted to kill her, and our Lord answered her that it was so, but that He Himself was with her. The nuns thought her dead, but the broken arm was the only mischief. It cost her enormous sufferings. There was a woman at Medina del Campo who was supposed to have great skill in setting broken limbs, though she seems to have been a very rough practitioner. This woman from Medina was sent for, but she was too ill to come, and sent directions for the treatment of the patient, which gave her no relief. She did not come to Avila till April, 1578, bringing with her a com panion to help in the resetting, for the limb, appa rently, had been badly set and had to be broken again. The pain which Teresa underwent may be imagined, but, as she foresaw how great it would be, she sent the nuns away from the infirmary, in which she lay, to the choir, and there gave herself over to

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the executioners, as they may well be called. During the terrible operation she meditated on the violence with which our Blessed Lord was stretched on the Cross. When the nuns returned, they found her quiet and joyous, saying she should have been very sorry to have missed such an occasion of suffering. She had another accident of the same sort more than two years later, and from that time she could no longer use her arm, and had to be helped to dress herself.

We may as well add to this chapter some account of a correspondence which happened a little later than this accident to St. Teresa, and in which she appears in the novel character of an apparent oppo nent of some, at least, of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus. She had always owed and felt the deepest gratitude to them for their invariable kindness and support. Besides her own gratitude, which was one of her favourite virtues, she had a most sincere esteem and affection for the Society. There are several points in her Constitutions which show the influence of its rules, and indeed the spirit of the two Orders, though in each perfectly distinct and peculiar, is also kindred and similar. But differences must sometimes arise even among saints, and in this particular case it required all her prudence and delicate wisdom to avoid something of a quarrel. Father Gaspar de Salazar, one of her very earliest friends and sup porters, had always kept up his deep interest in her work, and this interest was now increased by a kind of chivalrous sympathy, because her Reform had enemies so many and so powerful, and appeared to W 2

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be in great danger of suppression. Father Caspar was one of the most distinguished men of his day. He was thought to have a peculiar gift of intelligence in cases of sublime and peculiar vocations, as in that of the famous Catharine of Cardona, who lived for a long time a life of extreme penance in a cave, dressed as a man. St. Teresa seems to have kept up an occasional correspondence with him. And although she had no part in the desire which came over him at this time to leave the Society and throw himself into the ranks of the Discalced Carmelites, she mentions in one of her letters to Father Gratian that she had long thought he was not in his right place in the Society. It seems clear that if the way had been open to him, and he had taken the step, she would not have disapproved it.

The rumour of Father Caspar's desire reached the ears of his Provincial, Father Juan Suarez, a man himself of great eminence and sanctity, known to Teresa, whose confessor he had been. As was pretty sure to be the case, the report reached him with a good many additions accumulated on its way. It was said that Father Caspar was acting on the advice of St. Teresa, and that either he or she had had a revelation on the subject. It was also reported to the Provincial that St. Teresa had written letters saying that she was opposed to the design of Father Caspar. The imputed object was that these letters might give a false impression as to any part she might take in the matter. Here there were quite elements enough for a serious misunderstanding. The Provincial unfor tunately went, as it seems, rather too far in the action

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which he took. He sent to the Rector of the College at Avila, Father Gonzalez de Avila, a letter to be delivered to St. Teresa on the subject. Father Gonzalez, as well as the Provincial, was well known and highly esteemed by the Saint, and had been her confessor.

The Provincial's letter stated that if it were to come to his knowledge that a religious of another Order was thinking of entering the Society in his Province, where there were twenty-six houses and colleges, and he thought that it was not well to receive him, he should with the help of God have written within one day to all the Superiors who had faculties for receiving him, not to do so, and the letter would have reached most of them within a week, and all of them within a fortnight. If there fore Mother Teresa of Jesus thought it undesirable to receive Father Salazar into her Order, let her write a letter to the Superior of the Order, that he may communicate it to the rest, or by her writing a letter to each Superior they might all be informed within a fortnight. It is more than that since Mother Teresa knew of this, and the Superior of the Carmelites. That would be effectual diligence, with the help of God. It is evident that there was some suspicion in Father Suarez' mind as to the connivance of Teresa. Her answer is addressed to the Provincial himself.

JESUS.

May the grace of the Holy Spirit be ever with your honour. Amen.

Father Rector has given me a letter from your Paternity which certainly has astonished me much. Your Reverence

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says in it that I have urged that Father Caspar de Salazar should leave the Company of Jesus, and pass to our Order, because such is the will of our Lord, and so He has revealed. As to the first point, His Majesty knows, and this will be found to be the truth, that I have never desired this, much less urged it with him. And when something concerning it came to my knowledge, which was not by any letter from him, I was so disturbed and pained at it that it did me no good at all with my bad health at this season, and this is so short a time ago, that I think I must have heard of it long after your Paternity. As to the revelation of which your Paternity speaks, as I have not written or heard anything about this determination of his, so also could I have known nothing about any revelation at all. But even if I had had what your Paternity calls a " disvelation," I am not so simple as to desire that so great a change should be made for such a cause, so as to communicate it to him. For I have, glory be to God, been taught by many persons as to the value and credit which are to be given to such things. And I do not believe that Father Salazar would make any account of them, if there were nothing else in the matter, for he is a man of great prudence.

As to what your Paternity says about these things being looked into by the Superiors, that is certainly an excellent thing, and your Paternity can so order it. For it is very clear that he will do nothing without your Paternity's leave, at least so I think, and without giving you notice. Never will I deny the great friendship between Father Salazar and myself, and the great benefits he has done me, though still I hold it for certain that in what he has done for me he has been more moved by the service of our Lord and His Blessed Mother than by any other regard. I think it has happened that neither of us for two years have seen a letter from the other. It is an old friendship, and that itself shows that in other days he has seen me more in need of help than now, for then our Order had only two Discalced Fathers, and it

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would have been better for me to strive for this change in him then than now, when, glory be to God, we have, I think, more than two hundred, and among them persons quite competent to guide us in our poor way of proceeding in God's service. I have never thought that the hand of the Lord would be more shortened for the Order of His Mother than for the others.

For what your Paternity says, that I have written letters in order that it might be said that I opposed this step, may God not write me in His book if such a thought ever passed through my mind ! This strong language, as I think it, must be forgiven me, in order that your Paternity may understand that I only deal with the Company as one who has its interests in her heart, and I would lay down my life for them as long as I understand that it would not be for the service of our Lord to do the contrary. His secrets are deep, and as I have had no more part in this business than what I say, and of this God is the witness, so for the future I should .wish to have no more part in it. If this is made a fault of in me, it is not the first time that I suffer without any fault. My experience is that when our Lord is satisfied, everything becomes smooth. I can never believe that even for serious causes His Majesty will permit His Company to take part against the Order of His Mother, since He used the former for the restoration and renovation of the latter, much less that he will allow it for so slight a matter as this. And if He were to permit it, I think it very possible that what they think to gain on one hand they may lose on the other.

Of this great King we are all vassals. May it please His Majesty that the servants both of the Son and of the Mother may be such, that like valiant soldiers we may look only to the banner of our King in order to follow out His will, and if we of Carmel do this in truth, it is clear that those of the Name of Jesus will not desert us, as has been so often threatened by some. May God vouchsafe to

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preserve your Paternity many years. I know the kindness you are always doing us, and however miserable, I am always commending you to our Lord. I beseech your Paternity to do the same for me, for it is now half a year since troubles and persecutions are ceaselessly raining down on this poor old woman, and this matter now is not the least of them. After all, I give your Paternity my word that I shall not tell Father Salazar to do this, nor tell any one to tell him to do it on my part, as I have never done so.

The unworthy servant and subject of your Paternity,

TERESA DE JESUS.

February 10.

It is clear that the charge which aroused St. Teresa's indignation more than anything else that was said about her, was that which insinuated that she had written letters that people might believe that she was opposed to the step contemplated by Father Salazar, while she was secretly favouring it. It was a strong charge for a man in the Provincial's position to think of making. In a letter to Father Gratian about this business, she tells him that she knows it is said. She always adhered to her reso lution not to give in to the request that she would now write to Father Salazar himself not to attempt the change, and to the Superiors of the various Carmelite houses not to receive him. The answer to the letter which has just been translated was con veyed to St. Teresa by the Rector of Avila. The Pro vincial expressed his sorrow at the pain his letter had occasioned, and begged that she would read it over again when the first impression had passed away. He said that then she would see that it had not been so

After the Death of the Nimcio. 343

very strong. He added that he should be greatly pleased if she would do as he asked, in writing to the monasteries and to Father Salazar, and this request was again expressed by the Rector himself. But St. Teresa replied by insisting both on her impression of the letter which she had received, and on her refusal to do more than she had done.

Although the intention of Father Caspar de Salazar came to nothing, probably on account of the opposition of his Superiors, there seems to have been more ground for the fears of the Fathers of the Society than we might imagine. There was some thing very attractive to men who had a strong leaning to great austerity and recollection, in the mixture, as it might have appeared, of the severe life of penance with active occupation in the service of their neigh bours, which was exhibited in the Reform of Mount Carmel. We have seen that, even among the Dis- calced Friars themselves, there was a division of opinion, which afterwards bore somewhat bitter fruit, as to the end of the Order. Some thought it was almost as Apostolical as the Society itself. Father Gratian, who was the most prominent friar in the eyes of the world, though inferior to St. John of the Cross in reputation for sanctity, had been a pupil of the Society, and had even made his arrangements for entering the novitiate under his former masters, when his chance visit, as it seemed to be, to Pastrana, brought about his sudden resolve to enter as a friar of the Reform. It may well have been the case that his sudden change was not altogether unresented by some in the Society. If one or two well known

344 After the Death of the Nuncio.

Fathers, such as Caspar de Salazar, had made such a change as that of which we speak, there would have been much occasion for jealousy and resentment among those whom they might seem to have deserted. It is stated in the Life of Fra Juan de la Miseria — the companion of Ambrose Mariano, to whose in efficient hand was committed the task of painting St. Teresa — that at one time there were eight of the Society together who wished to take the habit of the Reform, but that the Carmelite Fathers determined not to receive them, in order not to offend the Society. The same thing occurred to members of the Trinitarian and Jeronimite Orders, some of whom were received.

It would appear, also, that Father Caspar thought that the change which he contemplated was the will of God, and that in this he relied on some vision, either of his own or of another. So far the Pro vincial of the Society had some foundation for his remark about " disvelations," but he was wrong in attributing them to Teresa, or supposing that she knew anything about them. In a letter written to Father Gratian on February 16, 1578, to which we have already referred, although she maintains her resolution not to write to Father Caspar as the Pro vincial requested, and although she says that it would not be well to refuse to receive him, if Gratian had the power, she adds that she is afraid that these " matters of prayer " may have had too much influence with him, that he has sometimes attached too much credit to them, that she has told him this ^rnany times, but it has not sufficed. In another

After the Death of the Nuncio. 345

letter, a little later, written on the 2nd of March of the same year, she says that Father Caspar has answered her former letter of discouragement by telling her that it was the devil that made her write it, and other things of the same sort, that her letter made him laugh, and did not change him a bit, that she is like a mouse afraid of the cats, and that he has promised our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, holding Him in his hand, and the like. There is a good deal more in the letters on the subject, on which we need not dwell. St. Teresa does not seem to have been aware that no other Order except the Carthusian was considered as more severe than the Society, so that the common law, by which religious may pass to a more strict Order, could not have been used in this case. The Bull of Gregory XI II., which gives the General power of dismissing subjects, even professed, or of sending them to other Orders, was not in existence at the time of which we are writing. 5 Teresa was probably also ignorant of the original Bull of Paul III. on which the Society is founded. The importance of the incidents spoken of in this chapter have led us to pass over several letters of lesser moment, and we proceed in the next chapter to repair the omission.

5 This Bull is dated 1582. See Suarez, DC Rcligiow, torn. iv. Tract. 10, lib. xi. cap. 2.

;46 Note to Chapter XII.

NOTE TO CHAPTER XII.

The letters which belong to this chapter are the following :

1. (clxix.) To the King, Philip If. From Avila, September

13, 1577.

This letter is translated at pp. 314—316.

2. (clxxxii.) To Don Teutonio de Braganza, Archbishop elect of Evora. From Avila, January 16, 1578.

A full account of this letter is given at pp. 326, seq.

3. (cixxxiii.) To Father Juan Suarez, Provincial of the Society of Jesus. From Avila, February 10, 1578.

This letter is translated at p. 339.

4. (clxxxiv.) To Father Gonzalo dc Avila, Rector of the Society in Avila. From Avila, February, 1578.

This letter is a companion or supplement to the preceding. St. Teresa defends her view of the letter which she had there answered, and her conduct in refusing the request that she should actively and publicly interfere in the matter to which it referred.

5. (clxxxv.) To Father Jerome Gratian. From Avila, February 16, 1578.

This letter is mentioned at p. 344.

6. (clxxxvi.) To the same. From Avila, March 2, 1578. Mentioned at p. 345.

CHAPTER XIII.

Miscellaneous Letters (/577).

THE letters of St. Teresa, as they have come down to us, are by no means equally distributed, even over the comparatively few years of her life to which they belong. They have been very numerous in the year with which we parted in the last chapters, and we have now come to a period in which, on the other hand, they are comparatively few. For the last half of the year 1577, an<^ in the middle of which the Nuncio Ormaneto died, we do not find so many as in the corresponding period of 1576. Many circumstances besides the accidents which must naturally have de prived us of so large a portion of her correspondence, may be assigned as causes for this. While St. Teresa was at Toledo, she had probably more frequent opportunities of dispatching letters than when at Avila. During a very considerable portion of the period of which we are now speaking she was at Avila. Again, the circumstances of the Reformed Carmel were far less favourable now than before to any great activity. The death of the good Nuncio brought consternation into the Teresian camp, and although his successor did not at once declare himself an open enemy of the Reform, his prepossessions were well known. Tostado, claiming to act as Vicar of

348 Miscellaneous Letters.

the General in Spain, was the most prominent figure now that the Nuncio was dead. Although it was decided by theologians that the powers of Father Gratian had not expired with the life of Ormaneto, there was much hesitation and doubt about the matter, both in the mind of Gratian and of others of the chief men among the Discalced. In any case, there was a cessation of activity, while the cause on the issue of which the admission of Tostado to use his powers depended, was being discussed at Madrid. Thus there was not so much to write about. The incidents mentioned in the last chapter, the troubles at the Convent of the Incarnation, the violent re moval of the two Discalced confessors, and the rest, brought out, as we have seen, some activity on the part of St. Teresa, and but for them, we should have but little to tell until the moment came for the new Nuncio, Mgr. Sega, to act strongly against the Reform and its representatives. We have already inserted some of the letters which relate to these incidents, as well as of those which were occasioned by the desire of Father de Salazar to enter the Carmelite ranks, and thus there are fewer to be examined in the present chapter. The point of time which has been named as that of the more energetic action of the new Nuncio against the Reform, will furnish a natural break in our narrative, inasmuch as that action brought matters to the final crisis, after which the bright days for which St. Teresa had so long sighed and prayed, began to dawn on her persecuted children. When that time came, St. Teresa was within four years of her death.

Miscellaneous Letters. 349

The first letter which we find on the list before us is to Mary of St. Joseph, the Prioress of Seville.1 It is entirely taken up with matters of detail. Teresa is so ill that she dictates the first twenty lines, and then takes the pen into her own hand, her brother Lorenzo having come in the meantime to interrupt her dictation. He is on his way to Madrid, probably to press his claims for notice on the Court. Both are full of sympathy for the troubles of the Prioress. St. Teresa bids her take a slave girl, who may be trained to be a good servant for the convent, and kept in it at the work of a lay-sister, without pro fession, for any length of time. She is not to be pressed on to perfection. Teresa insists on this more than once. Let her be taught to keep the essentials. She lets her take a postulant, and says that they will need many, as several are dying. We know that Sister Bernard was lately dead, and the Subprioress was on the point of death. She mentions Brianda of St. Joseph, the Prioress of Malagon, who was with her at Toledo, sending kind messages and asking for prayers, "With all her illness, she keeps me in good company." This letter is dated June 28,

1577-

A few days later we have a letter to the Prioress of Caravaca, Anne of St. Albert. She was the foundress of the convent, and Teresa held her in very high estimation. She begins by declaring how she desires to be with her and see her, with her ponds of water and fowls, but she is not worthy of it. She did not know how much she loved her till she

1 Letter clix.

35O Miscellaneous Letters.

found herself thus longing for her company. She gently hints to her certain rules for her guidance of her nuns — they are all to be made perfect, but not all exactly after the same fashion. One who has lately been clothed must be treated like an invalid, it is enough if she does her best, and keeps the Com mandments. There are always difficulties at the beginning. People who have means are taken that the convents may be founded, that they may help to maintain the others. It is just to be indulgent to one who has helped at the beginning — if she has a good soul, see in it the dwelling-place of God. She tells her that Gratian, the Visitor, is much pleased with her, and that he says she is one of the best Prioresses he has met with. This she tells her in order to encourage her to deal with the other just men tioned, sweetly and patiently. As she is alone, God will help her.

She tells her of the death of Ormaneto, and that Gratian's commission does not expire. Tostado is at Madrid, and wants to begin his Visitation in the name of the General, but the King is opposed to this. There is great need of prayer — in the convent of Toledo they have been making processions. Caravaca must not be behindhand. Gratian is in communication with the Bishop about the house at Caravaca — which seems to have been in some diffi culty, and all will be settled soon.

The remainder of this letter, which is a perfect example of St. Teresa's delicate prudence and charity, is made up of short bits of intelligence, or instructions. She ends by exhorting the Prioress to show great

Miscellaneous Letters. 351

deference to Dona Calatina de Otelora, the lady to whom the beginning of the convent was owing. She is to try to give her pleasure in everything. "In gratitude would never look well in us." Any letter she may send to one of the nuns is to be delivered at once, and answered.2

A little later, the nth of July, there is another letter to Mary of St. Joseph, Prioress at Seville. It is in many respects on the same subjects with the last letter to the same religious. The most interest ing passage in it, as illustrating St. Teresa's character, is one which contains instructions how to deal with a postulant who was strongly recommended by the Archbishop. Their obligations to this prelate were, as we know, very great indeed, and they were not likely to be deficient in the evidence given of their gratitude. At the same time, the postulant was unfit. Gratian had seen her, and considered her a beata melancolica — and they had already suffered enough from such persons. It would be better not to let her enter than to send her away soon after her entrance. However, Teresa bids Mary of St. Joseph try to make her acquaintance, and judge for herself. If she thinks her unfit, then it might be well to get Father Nicolas Doria — who had entered the Re formed Order in the spring of this year, greatly to the joy of its members — to speak to the Archbishop, representing the mischief done by such persons. If this could not be done, the affair was to be pro tracted, in hopes of some favourable time.3

The next letter shows us St. Teresa dealing with

" Letter clx. 3 Letter clxi.

352 Miscellaneous Letters.

some religious whom she thought seriously to blame, as well as, in part, their confessor, to whom the letter is addressed, in answer to one from him. We have already heard a good deal of the Convent of Malagon, which had now become a subject of great anxiety to Teresa. The Prioress, Brianda of St. Joseph, had fallen into bad health, and the letters of this time have constantly mentioned the changes, for the better and for the worse, which occurred in her state from time to time. She had been moved to Toledo, for change of air, and also to prevent her from occupying herself in the details of the management of her convent, for which she was unfit A new " Presi dent" had been appointed, Anne of the Mother of God, and she thus superseded Teresa's cousin or niece, Beatrix, who had been a nun of the Incar nation, and had been sent as second in command while Brianda was ill. The nuns at Malagon seem to have had some troublesome elements among them. One of them had once been possessed by a devil. They had at first been very much opposed to their Prioress, Brianda, and then had come to be so devotedly attached to her as to be ready to obey no one else.

The letter before us must be read in connection with an earlier letter to the same chaplain, written on the 1 7th of April. That letter is chiefly occupied with answers to some questions which had been addressed to St. Teresa through him, but it betrays here and there the annoyance which she felt at the state of things in the convent. First there is some trouble about a sister of his who is a nun there.

Miscellaneous Letters. 353

Mother Brianda had written to her about it, and she thinks they had better abide by what she had settled. Teresa herself will not meddle. Then there is a Sister Mariana, who seems to have had some difficulty because she could not read Latin well. But Teresa does not mind this, and wishes her to make her pro fession when the proper time comes. It is enough that she knows how to recite the Psalms and pay attention to the rest of the Office. This is what learned men consider sufficient. She leaves the matter, however, to his Reverence and the Mother President. Then she sends kind messages to two other Sisters, John Baptist and Beatrix, and tells them that they need not open themselves about spiritual matters to the President, unless they find consolation in doing so. It is enough if they have their chaplain. But she begs him to tell them to have done with their complaints against the President. "The poor woman doesn't kill them, nor keep the community in distraction. She gives them all they have need of, for she is full of charity." She adds that she understands what they want, but that nothing can be done at present. Then she complains strongly of the change which has come over the religious of that convent. Time was when they could not bear Mother Brianda, whom now they adore ! Their per fection of obedience has a good deal of self-love in it, and hence they are punished on that point. Here they are at fault. She says she should be less surprised at all this if they had not the chaplain to whom she is writing — a gentle hint that she does not think him altogether without blame.

X 2

354 Miscellaneous Letters.

It seems that between the date of this letter4 and the July in which the next letter of which we now speak was written, things had gone from bad to worse. We gather that Beatrix, who had now been superseded, had not done her best in supporting the new Presi dent, who had been sent to them by Father Gratian. Nor had the chaplain, who had great influence over their minds, done his part to reconcile them to the new appointment. He was himself in some way out of sorts, whether with her, or with his own position. It was in this state of things that Teresa now wrote to him, not without severity.

She begins by telling him that his letter has given her great pain, that things were not worse in any convent of hers than at Malagon. She does not understand what the nuns have to complain of in their Superior. The fact that she has been placed there by Gratian ought to be enough for them. They clearly want intelligence, and the fault is the chaplain's, who has so much influence with them, and he might have brought them round if he had taken the pains with them which he took on some former occasions. The result would be that they would see no more of Mother Brianda, even if God gave her health, and their losing him as their confessor. This is the way in which God deals with those who serve Him so badly. They would see what came of all their con tentiousness. Indeed they always led her this kind of life. This was to be told to Beatrix. Teresa is so displeased with her she can hardly bear to hear her named. She is to be told that if she opposes the

4 Letter cliv.

Miscellaneous Letters. 355

Superior in anything, and Teresa hears of it, it will cost her dear. His Reverence is to teach them, as he has hitherto done, to unite themselves closely to God and not raise so many difficulties. Does he fear there are others like Anne of Jesus ? (she was the one who had been " obsessed "). She would rather see them so than see them disobedient. When she learns that any one offends God she has no patience — otherwise God gives her a great deal. She then gives some instructions. Anne of Jesus may receive Communion, after due examination. Teresa would rather see her kept without It for a month, but she leaves that to what Brianda may write to him. She disapproves of the nuns having so much communica tion with their confessor, a Discalced friar, and Gratian as well as herself does not like them always to have the same. The new Superior tells her that she finds in the chaplain a certain want of openness and cordiality. She is writing to her, but in a way not to show she has heard from any one else. The devil has begun a mischief which must be defeated at once, or things will go from bad to worse. She would Lament his no longer remaining with the nuns, but the peace of his soul must be preferred to their advantage.4

We pass over a few fragmentary notes, hardly worth being counted as letters,5 and come to two letters to the good Bishop of Avila, now about to be promoted to the see of Palencia. In the first she speaks most gratefully of his having arranged for the visitation of the Convent of Sfc Joseph by a Superior who knows the Constitutions from experience. This

4 Letter clxii. s Letters- clixiii,— clxvi.

356 Miscellaneous Letters.

is probably a reference to the recent submission of the convent to the Order, instead of to the successors of the Bishop himself. He need not fear that they will suffer too much from the loss of his charities, as the convents will help one another. What they will lose will be his presence. She also alludes to a matter which he had at heart, the marriage of his niece, daughter to Dona Maria, and also to Master Daza, whom she recommends gracefully and urgently for some preferment, for it seems that Daza was poor, a most deserving person, and had set his heart upon a canonry. He has a great devotion to the Bishop, and his lordship owes him something, and should leave every one contented before he goes away. She thinks Daza would -take anything that came vacant, even less than a canonry. It will look well. Not all are obliged to love his lordship with so much dis interestedness as the Carmelite nuns, who only require that he should love them, and that God may preserve him many years. The letter is dated the /th of September.6

In the next letter the arrangement for his niece's marriage to the Duke de Sesa is completed, and St. Teresa felicitates him in her cordial manner. She thanks God for it, for it has cost her much care and anxiety for many days. She is glad to learn it is so considerable a match. It is true the duke is older than his bride — it would have been more inconvenient if he were younger. " Ladies are always more loved by husbands who are well on in age, especially when they have so many excellent qualities as Dona

6 Letters clxvii., clxviii.

Miscellaneous Letters. 357

Maria." The Bishop has just sent them an alms in time of need ; it has been given to Don Francis of Salcedo more than to the nuns, for he was so afflicted at their poverty — more than themselves, for they always trust in God. He had told her that he meant one day to write to his lordship, Seiior, pan no tenemos, but she hindered him, for she so greatly desired to see the Bishop without debts. Here is a little Teresian touch. Don Alvaro seems to have been rather too lavish in spending. At the end of the letter she rejoices that he has denied himself an occasion of such indulgence, by not entertaining at the approaching fair, a time at which, apparently, some people kept rather an open house. She mentions that Father Gratian will not allow her to go as Prioress to the Convent of the Incarnation.

The next letter is that to Philip the Second, about the calumnies against Father Gratian, dated the I3th of September, which has already been inserted in a previous chapter.7 Another follows it immediately, to Mary of St. Joseph, the Prioress of Seville, describing what has passed at Avila, and telling her how the calumniators of Gratian had retracted. The letter seems to have been written in October.8 There is little in it which would be new to the reader. She says at the end how much she dislikes the idea of going as Prioress to the Incarnation. She has no wish to find herself " in that Babylon, especially with very bad health, which is worse to her there." She men tions how much Dona Luisa de la Cerda, the old friend of Mary of St. Joseph, helps them, and bids her

7 Letter clxix. 8 Letter clxx.

358 Miscellaneous Letters.

nuns .commend her much to God, as also the Arch bishop of Toledo, and they are never to forget the King.

It seems that Juan de Ovalle had some prospects of help in advancement from the Archbishop, lately promoted, and the next Ietter9 informs him that Teresa has heard that his Bulls are come from Rome, so that Juan may set out if he thinks well. This letter is dated the iQth of October. On the loth of November she wrote to Alonzo de Aranda, a priest of Avila, who was then at Madrid on account of some legal business. He seems to have been a great friend of the convent. After felicitating him on the issue of the cause, she tells him of the miserable state of the nuns of the Incarnation, who had voted for her, and asks him to see what can be done towards their abso lution from the censures which they were supposed to have incurred. The same matter is the subject of a letter to the Duchess of Alba, written on the 2nd of December, and therefore before the violent seizure of St. John of the Cross and his companion. Teresa has to congratulate the Duchess on a marriage which has been arranged for her son. After this she turns to her own business, and implores the help of the Duchess, and the Duke, her husband, whom may God preserve as the resource of the poor and afflicted. Fra Pedro Hernandez is said to have been sent to the Court by the Duke, and nothing can be better, as he knows both parties in the matter. Teresa begs the Duchess to urge this on. It is a matter which con cerns our Blessed Lady, for her Order is now fiercely

9 Letter clxxi.

Miscellaneous Letters. 359

attacked by the devil, and has need of protection. Many good subjects of both sexes are now hindered from entering it as long as they think they will have to remain subject to the Calced Friars. Under the government of their own Fathers all has gone well with them.10

The next letter in the series is the second to Philip the Second, which is printed in the preceding chapter. It relates to the violence used at the Con vent of the Incarnation, and the seizure of the two Discalced Fathers.11 We come next to a letter addressed to a Father at Granada, who is supposed to be Father Caspar de Salazar, of whom we have already heard so much. It is not however certain that the letter was addressed to him. It is dated the 7th of December, and treats of the matters then going on. The most important passage of this letter is that in which, in studiously ambiguous language, Teresa speaks of the book on which she has lately been occupied, the Interior Castle, implying that she herself considers it much superior to the book of her Life, which her correspondent had before seen.

We have another short note written on the loth of December to Juan de Ovalle and her sister, from which we gather that his journey to Toledo did not produce the result he desired, and he is still urging Teresa to interest herself. She declares that she has done what she can, and is now writing a third time to Dona Luisa. She speaks of the nuns of the Incarna tion as having been absolved from their censures, but still suffering as much as before.12

10 Letter clxxiii. " Letter clxxiv. Ia Letter clxxvi.

360 Miscellaneous Letters.

There remain two more letters of this time to Mary of St. Joseph at Seville. The first is only begun in St. Teresa's hand, and continued by her secretary. She speaks of the miserable state of the nuns of the Incarnation, and of the violence and ill-treatment suffered by St. John of the Cross and his companion. This ill-treatment she partly describes, but it seems to have been much worse even than in her description. St. John's shoulders were so lacerated by the beating given him at Avila and at Toledo, that they bore the traces and effects to the end of his life. The Prior of Avila took Fra Germano to Moraleja, and boasted to the nuns on his own side when he came back that he had taken good care for the keeping of the traitor. Fra Germano's mouth was flowing with blood. It must be remembered that strong measures were rife in Spain, where the traditions of the Moorish wars were still in full life. The friars of the Observance looked upon these holy men as traitors, rebels, apos tates, and when animosities based on religious motives, however mistaken, get possession of such souls, there is hardly any barbarity which seems strange to them. St. Teresa was quite right to tell the King she would rather see her friends among the Moors. She says the nuns of the Incarnation are much more afflicted on account of their holy confessors than for them selves.13 The other letter to Mary of St. Joseph is on the same subject, written before the former could have been received, and by another way. When she wrote this, the friars had been sixteen days in captivity. As Christmas is coming on, and no business can be

13 Letter clxxvii.

Note to Chapter XI I L 361

done at Court till after " Kingtide," she is afraid it will last much longer — as in truth it did. The greater part of the note is made up of salutations and mes sages. It ends with a strict injunction. " Observe that I command you very seriously to obey Gabriel in all that relates to the care of your health, and I enjoin on her in the same way to take care of your Reverence, for I see that your health is of importance to us." This letter is dated the iQth of December.14

NOTE TO CHAPTER XIII.

The letters belonging to this chapter are the following :

1. (clix.) To Mary of St. Joseph, Prioress at Seville. From Toledo, June 28, 1577.

An account of this letter is given, p. 349.

2. (clx.) To Anne of St. Albert, Prioress at Caravaca. From Toledo, July 2, 1577.

A full account of this letter is given, p. 349.

3. (clxi.) To Mary of St. Joseph, Prioress at Seville. From Toledo, July 11, 1577.

An account of this letter is given, p. 351.

4. (cliv.) To the Licenciate Caspar de Villanneva at Malagon. From Toledo, April 17, 1577.

An account of this letter is given, p. 352.

5. (clxii.) To the same. From Toledo, July, 1577. An account of this letter is given, p. 354.

6. (clxiii.) To the religious of the Convent of Toledo. From Segovia or Avila, August, 1577.

7. (clxiv.) To Maria de Jesus. No date.

8. (clxv.) To Mother Catharine of Christ. No date.

9. (clxvi.) To Mary Baptist, Prioress at Valladolid. No date.

These four are merely short notes.

14 Letter clxxviii.

362 Note to Chapter XIII.

10. (clxvii.) To Don Alvaro de Mendoza, Bishop of Avila-, at Olmedo. From Avila, August, 1577.

An account of this letter is given, p. 355.

11. (clxviii.) To the same. From Avila, September 6, 1577. An account of this letter is given, p. 356.

12. (clxx.) To Mary of St. Joseph, Prioress at Seville. From Avila, October, 1577.

Mentioned at p. 357.

13. (clxxi.) To Senor Juan de Ovalle, brother-in-law of the Saint. From Avila, October 19, 1577.

Mentioned at p. 358.

14. (clxxii.) To Alonzo de Aranda, a priest of Avila. From Avila, November 10, 1577.

An account of this letter is given, p. 358.

15. (clxxiii.) To the most illustrious lady the Duchess of Alba. From Avila, December 2, 1577.

An account of this letter is given, p. 358.

1 6. (clxxiv.) To Father Caspar de Salazar (?) at Grande. From Avila, December 7, 1577.

Mentioned at p. 359.

17. (clxxvi.) To Juan de Ovalle. From Avila, December 10, 1577.

Mentioned at p. 359.

1 8. (clxxvii.) To Mary of St. Joseph, Prioress at Seville. From Avila, December 10, 1577.

19. (clxxviii.) To the same. From Avila, December 19, 1577. Both these letters are spoken of at p. 360.

CHAPTER XIV.

Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

WE may now proceed to carry on for a few months longer the history of the Reform of St. Teresa, after the death of the Nuncio Ormaneto, and the appear ance in Spain of his successor, Philip Sega. As we have seen, the new Nuncio did not at once display all the hostility with which he was animated towards the Reform, probably on account of what he saw of the attitude and dispositions of Philip the Second, and perhaps also in order that he might not seem too suddenly to reverse so entirely the policy of his predecessor. The war was carried on in the mean while by Father Tostado and others, but after the final defeat, so to call it, of the Visitor sent by the General, the Nuncio seems to have come forward in his place. Meanwhile, Father Gratian was dis playing his own inherent gentleness and meekness, though there were not wanting friends to urge on him that the present time was one which required rather the opposite qualities of courage, fearlessness, and energy. We have among the letters of St. Teresa one which may serve us as a kind of summary of the incidents of the time before us in the present chapter, and we can use this as we have used her last letter to Don Teutonic de Braganza in a former

364 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

chapter. This letter, or, as it might more aptly be called, statement of the case, is addressed either to her friend, Roque de Huerta, a gentleman at Madrid, who was much interested in her affairs and frequently very helpful, or to some one in the same relation to her. It was written about the middle of August,

1578.'

She tells us that the first step of Mgr. Sega was to require Gratian to bring to him all the faculties which he had received from Ormaneto for the execu tion of his office of Visitor, as well as the reports which he had drawn up of the Visitation itself. In this last point the command was not easily obeyed, and it may have shown some inexperience that it should have been given. For the papers containing the account of such Visitations may sometimes have in them matters which have been confidentially com municated about particular persons, and which ought to be kept secret. However, Gratian was disposed to yield obedience to the injunction. But he was, as it were, between two fires, and he had to consider whether his submission to the Nuncio in this point might be displeasing to the King, under whose pro tection he had been acting all through. He went in his perplexity to the new Archbishop of Toledo, Mgr. de Quiroga, who laughed at him, and told him he had no more courage than a fly. He should lay the matter before the King. Gratian objected that this might offend the Nuncio, and the Archbishop replied that it was always lawful to have recourse to a Superior. Gratian then went to the King, who

1 Letter ccv.

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 365

promised to consider the matter, and sent Gratian back to his monastery without doing more.

This seems to have happened early in the year 1578. The argument on which the theologians who advised the King proceeded, was that as the Nuncio had not yet shown his powers for interfering in the matter, Gratian was right in not giving up the duty committed to him by Ormaneto. However, Gratian, if he did not surrender his faculties and papers, did not for the space of nine months act on them in any way, although he was informed on good authority that the Nuncio had declared that he had never forbidden him to continue his Visitation. It was said also that Sega had been asked to declare the powers possessed by Gratian null and void, and had replied that he had no power to do that.

This inactivity of Father Gratian was contem poraneous with a kind of silent prostration of the Reformed Friars in general. No doubt they did not see clearly their duty with regard to the Nuncio on the one hand or Gratian on the other. Their chief men, moreover, were scattered or in retirement. St. John of the Cross was in prison, Father Antonio of Jesus, the oldest and most venerable of all, had a long illness in the spring of this year 1578, Gratian, as has been said, did nothing, and Mariano was still at Madrid on the look out for opportunities of helping on the cause of the Reform, but he was injudicious and seems to have effected little. Indeed he dis pleased the Nuncio, and seems to have contravened his express orders in not residing, at least for some considerable space of time, in the monastery of

366 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

the friars of the Observance. Meanwhile Tostado was not idle. He had been foiled in his suit at the Court, but he had many opportunities of annoyance, which to him were occasions of advancing the best interests of the Order. He was St. Teresa's great object of apprehension during the earlier part of the year. But in the month of May he seems to have taken his final departure from Spain, though it is not quite certain whether he betook himself to Portugal or to Italy.

In July, 1578, the Nuncio Sega took a decided step, which did not tend to the good of the Reform. He sent out a Brief declaring Father Gratian no longer Visitor of the Order, and he at the same time enjoined on the Provincials of the Observance to visit the houses of the Discalced, where they were to punish those who were worthy of punishment, and to appoint new Superiors, where they thought this advisable, which Superiors, however, were not to be taken from the ranks of the Mitigated Observance. This measure was a simple reversion of the plan of former Visitors, who had appointed Reformed Friars to visit the monasteries and convents of the Miti gation. Sega might have thought that the Reformed Friars could not resist a measure which was exactly an imitation of the measures which they had them selves been the persons appointed to carry out. He also ordered great vigilance to be exercised, in pre venting any new foundations on the part of the Reformed. These orders produced much confusion in the ranks of those against whom they were aimed. They came out in the name of the Nuncio, thus

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 367

representing the Pope, and it was clear that they were entirely in harmony with the wishes of the General of the Order and his councillors. Theo logians again laid down the principle that as the Nuncio had not produced his powers from the Pope, his orders had no authority. This opinion seems to have been adopted by St. Teresa. She was, however, as desirous as ever for peace, and as clear as ever in the one object she kept before her mind for the securing of peace, that is, the constitution of a separate province for the Reformed friars and nuns. Any path that led to this was welcome to her, and she did not despair of gaining her desire at the hands of the representative of the Pope. As a matter of fact it was in this way that the ultimate solution was arrived at, as we shall see, though not without a great amount of suffering to her and hers. What St. Teresa feared most of all was the return of Father Tostado, with his powers from the General confirmed and supported by the Nuncio. In that case, there was little to be expected but the total extinction of the whole work on which she had been so long occupied. This seems to have been the state of her mind in the August of this year 1578.

It is said by the Chronicler of the Order that about the same time some foundation was laid for a better understanding with the Nuncio himself. He had, as has been said, come from Italy with his mind full of prejudices against the principal friars of the Reform, as well as with a very bad opinion of Teresa herself. He is said to have spoken of her as a restless woman, running about from place to place, willing to

368 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

be taught by no one, contumacious in her behaviour to authorities, one who invented bad doctrine under the appearance of piety, who broke the laws of enclo sure as laid down by the Council of Trent, as well as the commands of her Superiors, and who despised the Apostolical precept by which women are for bidden to teach. It is amusing at this distance of time to read such an opinion of our Saint, especially when we remember that Sega was a prelate of great distinction, a good servant of the Church, highly trusted by the Holy See, and one whose sources of information were the communications which he had received at Rome from the very highest authorities in the Order of Mount Carmel. These things show us "what was the state of opinion in Italy, and perhaps among the officials of the Roman Curia, and Teresa is not the only saint and founder of whom such opinions have been entertained in high quarters, although the truth generally makes itself known at last, and the instinct of the Holy See preserves it from being fatally deceived. In this case, as has been said, there was, thus early in the period of the struggle for the very life of the Reform, a change for the better, in so far as such a change could be produced by the enlightenment of the Nuncio as to the real character of Teresa herself. The Discalced Prior of Mancera, Father Juan of Jesus, had to go to Madrid on some business of his monastery, and spent some time with the Calced Friars there. He had at last an oppor tunity of speaking with the Nuncio himself, and he took the occasion to speak so strongly and fully on the subject, that the Nuncio is said to have promised

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 369

that he would for the future protect the Reformed Friars, and never let them be made subject to the friars of the Mitigation.

This gleam of light did not last long. In the same month of August a strong step was taken on the part of the Royal Council on the side of the Reform, which probably provoked Mgr. Sega, and determined him to act decidedly against the Discalced Friars. A decree of the Royal Council was made, by which all magistrates were ordered to consider as void and of no validity any edict which the Nuncio might put forth with regard to the Religious Orders. This was probably grounded on the fact that the Nuncio had not as yet shown any powers from the Pope authorizing him to interfere in such matters. But it was an act of decided hostility. It was fol lowed by another, not so public, but which almost forced on Sega some action in the contrary direction. The new Bishop of Avila, Maurice de Pazos, had been appointed as successor to Mgr. Covarrubias as President of the Royal Council, and he now sent for Father Gratian, and ordered him to continue his work as Visitor, which, it will be remembered, he had intermitted for many months. The order was a natural companion to the edict already mentioned, by which the magistrates were told to consider as invalid any action of the Nuncio. It appears that the Royal Council wished to continue the work which had been begun by Ormaneto, and in the same way, without taking any notice of the Nuncio. All was to be done by the support of the royal power. It was natural enough also that Gratian should shrink from Y 2

370 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

the order now laid upon him. He went to the Presi dent, and begged most humbly to be excused. The President replied that what was enjoined on him was the will of God and of the King, and that no one could resist that. Then Gratian asked if he ought to go to the Nuncio to explain his conduct, but the President forbade him to do so. He was to come to the President himself in all emergencies. He gave Gratian the fullest possible powers, by means of which he might invoke the aid of the secular arm whenever there was any necessity.

It appears to have been the general opinion among learned men in Spain that the Nuncio had no powers against the Religious Orders. St. Teresa tells us that all former Nuncios had shown what faculties they had of this kind before using them, but Sega had done nothing of the kind. He had himself said things which implied that he had no powers to show, and it was also stated that the King had remonstrated seriously with the Holy See against such measures as seemed likely to occur to Sega against the Reformed Carmelites. We have probably the common view of the matter which prevailed among the ecclesiastics about the Court in the injunctions given to Gratian by the Bishop of Avila.

But after all, a man like Gratian was hardly likely to be satisfied with the position in which he now found himself. Although brought up among people who were devoted and favoured servants of the Crown, he could hardly have liked the prospect of finding himself in open collision with the representa tive of the Pope in a matter of religion. On the other

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 371

hand, there was the danger of alienating the King, by whose authority the Reform had hitherto been supported. Such support was now more than ever needful to it on account of the change of policy on the part of the Nuncio. Again there was an immense peril imminent, unless the measures which Sega might contemplate could be averted. He was said to wish that the Visitation of the convents and monasteries should be carried out by Tostado himself, who had his authority from the General, and was determined to root out the Reform as far as was possible. In the letter which we have been quoting or following, St. Teresa tells us his instructions were to leave only two communities of the Reform, to guard against any increase of the number of the Discalced, and to insist on identity of habit for both Observances. She says that Gratian had reluctantly submitted to take up the burthen of the Visitation for the sake of the Discalced, who might otherwise have had no support, and that he had felt most keenly the order to submit to the Nuncio the reports of his Visitation, because they contained many things respecting the characters and lives of individuals, which had been communicated to him under the seal of secrecy. The order, in fact, practically enjoined on him to defame many and to offend many more.

Teresa's line with Gratian at this time, as we shall presently see when we have her letters before us, was to encourage him to hold his own even against the Nuncio, but if possible to explain matters to him with gentleness and openness. Above all he was to use every means in his power in pressing for a separate

372 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

province. This was to be perpetually before him, whether he were dealing with Nuncio or King or President or any one else. This was the point on which the whole matter hung, and it was easy to show that all the scandals which had taken place had arisen from the fact that the Discalced had not a province of their own. But it was no easy matter for Gratian to obtain an audience from the Nuncio. He was prejudiced against Gratian himself, and he had but lately been plied with fresh accusations against him on the part of some Carmelite Friars from Anda lusia, who busied themselves moreover in spreading among the Reformed monasteries the letters of the Nuncio, already mentioned, deposing Gratian from his office of Visitor. A grave crisis was brought about by the activity of these men. Gratian, after a short visit to Madrid, where he does not seem to have obtained a listening from the Nuncio, had retired to Pastrana, and had taken with him Father Mariano. They found at Pastrana Antonio of Jesus, the first of the Dis calced Friars, as has been said. There they were caught by the Andalusian emissaries of the Nuncio, Fathers Suarez and Coria, who required the Discalced Friars to submit to them as representing Sega. A hurried consultation was held by Gratian with the friars of the monastery. Opinions differed as to the question of submission or resistance. It fell back on Gratian to determine on the spot on some decided line of conduct. He had at Pastrana a man of noted sanctity, Fra Benedict of the Blessed Virgin. The two retired into a cell, to discuss the matter. The secular authorities, in obedience to the royal injunc-

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 373

tions, were already prepared to interfere and protect the Discalced Friars from the representatives of Sega. But Gratian gave way. He assembled his friars in chapter, that they might make their submission to the Andalusian envoys. After this he surrendered all the faculties, given him by Ormaneto, and all the papers relating to his office of Visitor. The victory of the Nuncio was complete. This took place in August,

1578-

Gratian had acted, we may suppose, with perfect conscientiousness in making this submission. He was a man averse to conflict in any shape, most of all to a conflict with the representative of the Supreme Power in the Church. In what he had done he was certain to offend the King, and instead of making his sub mission, he could have protected himself by using the powers which the President of the Royal Council had placed in his hands precisely for such an emergency. The King, moreover, was his patron, and the patron of his family, as well as the great, and now the only, support of the Reform. It must have cost Gratian much to offend Philip. This was also the most dan gerous of the two alternatives, for the King could easily have obtained for him pardon if, in obedience to him, he had resisted a Nuncio, who had not shown his powers. It seems clear that Gratian acted from the best motives, though his action was not likely to please either Philip or the more fiery spirits among the Discalced Friars themselves. As a matter of fact, Philip from this time forth withdrew his protection, at least for a considerable time. He would not go on protecting men who would not protect themselves.

374 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

Thus the Reform was brought into greater danger even than what was involved in the submission now made to the Nuncio's authority.

The next step in the history seems to have been a journey of Gratian, Antonio, and Mariano to Madrid, apparently for the purpose of explaining their con duct to the Royal Council. But they were not allowed this opportunity. The Nuncio had probably become aware that their conduct in submitting to him had displeased the King, who was thus inclined to leave them to their fate. Still it was of importance for him to cut off all chance of their persuading the Royal Council to take them again under its protec tion. Sega determined to prevent any access to the Council at all. On their arrival in Madrid, he ordered them into prison at the monastery of the Caked Friars, forbade them to say Mass, and allowed them neither to receive nor to write letters. After a time they were separated, and placed in different monas teries, Mariano in a monastery of the Dominicans, and Antonio in one of the Discalced Franciscans. Gratian remained in the house of the Carmelites of the Mitigation. Here, for the present, we may leave them, for the sake of turning to St. Teresa and her letters written during the period of which we have been speaking.

We have already spoken of some of the letters written early in the year 1578, such as that to Don Teutonic de Braganza, dated the i6th of January,2 that to Father Juan Suarez, the Provincial of the Society, about the matter of Father Caspar de a Letter clxxxii.

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 375

Salazar, dated the loth of February, and that to Father Gonzalo de Avila, the Rector of the College at Avila, on the same subject,3 as well as that in which St. Teresa gave an account of the transaction to Father Jerome Gratian.4 This is dated the i6th of February. It was followed on the 2nd of March by another letter, partly on the same subject, partly on spiritual matters, and on matters concerning the Reform, and Gratian's own scruples about using his powers. She tells him his letters show a certain melancholy, and that he ought to be better satisfied with the reasons given him. What was really to be feared was that the friars of the Observance might get hold of him as he went from place to place. There is a passage also about Father Salazar, from which it seems that she had come to think that Gratian could not admit him without leave from his own Superiors, but that she hoped that something might be done at Rome by means of the Conda de Tendilla, a man of much note in those days, whom we shall meet again ere long. It does not seem certain whether the Conde went at all at this time. He was certainly in Madrid in the following spring.5

The next letter in the series is to Roque de Huerta, already mentioned as a great friend of St. Teresa and her Reform. He was Secretary of the Royal Council, and was thus able to help his friends in many ways. The letter6 before us is taken up with complaints about the ill-treatment of the nuns of the Incarnation, at the hands of the Pro-

3 Letters clxxxiii., clxxxiv. 4 Letter clxxxv.

5 Letter clxxxvi. 6 Letter clxxxvii.

376 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

vincial and the Prior of the Caked Friars, and she begs that these hardships may be laid before the Council. The suit dragged its slow length along for a long time after this, but it is evident that the zeal and charity of St. Teresa knew no rest. The same subject comes up again in the next letter, dated the loth of March,? to Father Gratian. Incidentally it throws light on the treatment of St. John of the Cross by the Calced Friars. He and his companion were the chief supporters and agents of the poor nuns of the Incarnation, and, after their removal, the cause on their side naturally languished for want of helpers. Thus it was a great stroke of policy on the part of the Provincial of the Observance to keep St. John out of sight, and to deprive him of all power of aiding the nuns. This letter also contains an account of some applications for admission to the convents. At the end she says how much she wishes to make her con fession to Gratian, for at Avila, where she then was, she had not the same advantages in this respect as at Toledo, where, as we know, she had the good Dr. Velasquez.

The next letter on the list is one of those graceful affectionate notes which Teresa wrote now and then to some among her many relatives with whom she had no constant correspondence or intercourse. It is written some time in the Lent of 1578, which was very early. It is probable that the person to whom it is addressed was Francis de Cepeda, the nephew of St. Teresa, who had married his own cousin, Maria de Ocampo. She refers in the first paragraph to the

7 Letter clxxxvii.

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 377

accident in which she broke her arm. Isabella of St. Paul was the daughter of Francis.

JESUS.

The grace of the Holy Spirit be with your honour.

It pleased God that it was not the right arm which was broken, and so I can write. I am better, glory be to God, and can keep Lent. I shall get on very well with the presents that your honour is always sending me. May our Lord repay your honour ! and although your kindness is done to me, Sister Isabel of St. Paul has so strong a temp tation to love me exceedingly, that it is a still greater kindness to her. It is a great joy to me to be in her company, it seems to me like that of an angel, and I am glad also that your honour is well, and your ladies, whose hands I kiss many times.

The death of that good lady has filled me with com passion. It is only a short while ago that I wrote to Seiior Don Teutonic, to wish him joy of the good issue of the engagement, in answer to a letter of his. I owe him much. Those gentlemen have great sufferings to undergo. It seems indeed that they are servants of God, for it is the best boon that He can give us while we live, for the only thing that so short a life is good for, is that by it we can gain an eternal life. I praise our Lord for this, that your honour is not negligent in this matter, and so I pray Him that it may always be with you, and your ladies also. Lorenzo de Cepeda kisses their hands and yours many times.

The unwotthy servant of your honour,

TERESA DE JESUS.

We have next in order a letter of condolence to Teresa's old friend, Dona Maria de Mendoza. The date seems to be uncertain. It seems to be written

378 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

in Holy Week, as Teresa refers to the sufferings of our Lord and His Blessed Mother at that time. Doiia Maria seems to have lost either a daughter or some very near relation, and Teresa pours herself out in the tenderest sympathy and consolation.^ Then we come to our familiar acquaintance, Mary of St. Joseph, the Prioress of Seville. The letter which St. Teresa wrote to her on the Good Friday of this year is full of characteristic touches. She wishes Mary of St. Joseph and her nuns a happy feast, and is glad they are well. Her own arm is painful, and her head bad also, she cannot follow the recital of the office. It is best for her to be so. She wishes she could write at greater length, and is much grieved at the distance of space between them. "They will be united in eternity." As for certain young ladies who were applying for admission at Seville, and of whose defects Mary of St. Joseph had written — if they had money enough to pay for the house itself, she is not to admit them. If they have not a good judgment, their defect is against the Constitutions, and incurable. Then again one spoken of was only thirteen, at that age they shift and change a thousand times over. " Before I forget it," she disapproves of the sisters writing down what passes in their prayer. The inconveniences are many, if she had time to write them. Such a habit takes away from the liberty of the soul, and may lead to illusions. If she remembers it, she will tell Gratian this (who may perhaps have encouraged it). In any case let Mary of St. Joseph tell him what she says. She adds most characteristi- 8 Letter cxc.

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 379

cally, " If these things are matters of real weight, they will never forget them ; if they forget them, there is nothing to speak about." The nuns are going on well enough, as far as she can judge ; if anything can do them harm, it will be the making much of what they may see or hear. Their scruples they may take to the Prioress, " God will grant her light to guide them." She knows so well the danger of thinking over what has to be written, and how much the devil can do in such matters, that she insists on this. If she had made anything of what Sister St. Jerome had seen or heard, there would have been no end to it, although she thought some of the things quite certain. The profit of such boons is for the soul itself. Then there comes a little cut, " What Sister Elias says is very good, but as I am not so learned as she is, I don't know who the Assyrians are." She sends a kind message to Sister Elias, nevertheless.

She tells her correspondent that, at that time, their hopes as to the affairs of the Reform were better than they were represented to be at Seville. She asks for some orange-flower water, but it must be sent carefully, lest it be spilt on the way. She sends a number of kind messages — to the good Carthusian Prior, Garcia Alvarez, and " mi Gabriela." Thus the letter ends, with an occasional bit of fun. " If Isabel of St. Francis had been sent for nothing else [she had been sent to Paterna as Prioress, and had now returned] but to praise you and your nuns up to the skies, she would have executed her mission per fectly. Teresita sends kind messages, and Don Lorenzo is well." 9

s Letter cxci.

380 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

Our next letter is one of great importance, written to Gratian, on the i$th of April. It seems that the friars of the Reform were now thinking of taking a very hazardous step, which indeed, as we shall see, they afterwards actually took. Relying on some vague permission given them by the former Visitor, Father Hernandez, the Dominican, they had con ceived the idea of making and erecting a Province of their own by the choice of a Provincial. The project must have been seriously entertained as early as the date of this letter, while as yet the Nuncio had not begun to act strongly against Gratian and his friars. St. Teresa was always opposed to it, and in the letter before us she gives Gratian the opinion of two learned men whom she had consulted at Avila, Master Daza and Doctor Rueda, a man of great judgment and learning. They were both strongly against the plan, especially the latter. The election of a Provincial was an act involving jurisdiction, and only the Pope or the General could give the power. Such a step would at once set the Mitigated Friars crying out that the Reformed were desirous of throwing off obedience to any one, by electing a Provincial by their own authority. The step would be misrepresented. The Pope would more easily grant a separate Province than confirm a Provincial so elected. He might grant the Province if the King were to ask for it. If the King did so, their enemies would think of them with more respect.

Teresa suggests various ways of approaching the King. The deputies should also be sent to Rome. The favour might have been asked by this time if

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 381

all their friends had united in urging it on the King. At all events the King should be consulted before they ventured on the election which was proposed, as he would not like to find himself unable to confirm it after it was made. Gratian would lose all credit for discernment if he took such a step hastily. Dr. Rueda said that it would have been less objectionable if the Dominican Visitors had made the election, than if it was made by the Priors. Teresa says she loses all courage when she thinks of the blame that may fall on Gratian, not without an appearance of reason, if he takes so imprudent a step. She adds a good deal more about the ways of carrying out the advice of Dr. Rueda, and ends this part of the letter by exclaiming at herself for the " impertinences " with which she troubles Gratian. The remainder of the letter relates to the entrance of his sister into one of the convents, and other personal matters.10

The next letter11 to Gratian, written the day after the last, is in a desponding tone. Teresa is afraid that the Calced Friars may seize Gratian, as they had already seized St. John of the Cross. She sees that they think they are in the right, having the Superiors of the Order on their side, and they see also that the King does nothing. This was before the royal decree enjoining on the magistrates to take no account of the edicts of the Nuncio. There is a question of the convent in which his sister is to be admitted as a novice, and Teresa is expecting her mother with the girl at Avila, but it was at Valladolid that she finally entered. Teresa advises Gratian not to come, for

10 Letter cxcii. " Letter cxciii.

382 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

fear that his journey might be known, and is even opposed to the plan of Dona Juana Dantisco, his mother, of going on to Valladolid. The question of the clothing occupies three more short letters, one to Dona Juana, and another to Gratian himself.12 In the last letter she mentions the terrible operation she had to undergo, when the woman from Medina came to set her arm.

The next letter13 takes us back again to Malagon, and all the troubles between the nuns there and their temporary " President." Father Gratian seems to have sent Father Antonio de Jesus to visit them, and the good old man listened to the first story that he heard, and made matters worse than before. It looks as if the chaplain to whom St. Teresa had before written severely had aggravated the troubles instead of soothing them. Teresa is evidently afraid that the complaints of the nuns will gain too much credence from Gratian himself. She speaks strongly, and begs that her letter may be torn up as soon as read — in which request, we are happy to say, Gratian did not indulge her.

She begins by complaining of Father Antonio's credulity. He is a saint, but God has not given him the talent to deal with such matters. He wants to act without hearing both sides. Then she acknow ledges that the President has not all the qualities necessary for government. But her faults are such as are noted in the community alone, and do not dis credit the Order outside. She had herself written to tell the nuns at Malagon that Gratian himself would

12 Letters cxciv., cxcv., cxcvi. *3 Letter cxcvii.

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 383

be there soon, and put all things to rights. It would be a great mistake to make Isabella of Jesus Vice- Prioress : she has been tried already, and the nuns made a joke of her. Teresa anticipates that the good Brianda of St. Joseph cannot now live long, and it would be foolish to depose the present President, Anne of the Mother of God, merely for a day or two. Then she deals with the accusations against her. She was said not to be very free and liberal with the Discalced Friars, but this had been enjoined by Gratian himself. Teresa has found her very generous. The fact is, every word she says is caught up and perverted. If St. Clare herself were to be sent to govern that convent, she would be found full of faults, on account of the evil influence that was working on the nuns.

She is charged also with not taking care of the sick — a pure calumny, for she is very charitable. The fact is, the nuns think that the absence of Mother Brianda is a slur on them, and that Malagon is a place where a great many people passed, and so very much in the eyes of the world. The truth was that Brianda of St. Joseph had been sent away for her health by order of the physicians. Father Antonio had tried to persuade the religious to give up talking about her, not even to name her. Nothing could be better. Gratian must consider the matter most care fully. What is wanted is a Superior like Isabella of St. Dominic, a good Subprioress, and the sending some of the nuns to other houses. She speculates a good deal on the possibility of getting them Isabella as a Prioress. At all events let Gratian write at once

384 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

to stop Father Antonio from making changes : he will make a martyr of the President, who is a true saint.14 This letter is dated the Qth of May.

We have another letter to Gratian written a few days later — the I4th of May. It treats of a number of matters, none of very great importance. Mary Baptist, the Prioress of Valladolid, had somehow allowed a Mitigated Friar to give the habit to Gratian's sister, although he was himself expected with his mother. Teresa is displeased. Then it seems there was still a talk of making Teresa Prioress of the Incarnation. She begs off as much as she can, and there is a doubt whether Gratian has the power to insist on it. Without the Discalced confessors, it would be foolish to accept it, unless the convent were transferred to the Reform altogether. Father Antonio de Jesus has been finding fault with her "dear Paul,'* and this also afflicts her.J5

Teresa writes again to Gratian on the 22nd of May.16 The first part of the letter relates to the affair of Father Caspar de Salazar, which was not yet at an end, or, if at an end, was not forgotten. Some Fathers of the Society had been speaking strongly on the matter to Gratian, and Teresa had also heard that the Fathers at Toledo were blaming her. It seems that Gratian had refrained from answering a letter he had received from Seville. Teresa is glad. ." It is better to deal with them very humbly, for they have done much for us, and we still incur great obligations to many of them." As to herself, she says she has done all she ought, and

J« Letter cxcvii. *$ Letter cxcviii. l6 Letter cxcix.

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 385

even more, to please them in the matter. This means that she and Gratian have both been too much influenced by a desire to please them. On both sides there has been a good deal of this earth. She, however, is content. She only hopes our Lord is so too. If what Father Caspar intended to do was wrong, as they say, then it ought to be a pain to them that it has been made known to so many people. In another part of the letter she urges that there ought to be no delay in sending their deputies to Rome.

The next letter is to Mary of St. Joseph, who was again in trouble. Teresa begins by acknow ledging the presents she has sent, especially the orange-flower water, which arrived quite safe. The quantity was large, and she begs her to send no more. She is better, and must begin to practise mortification. Mary of St. Joseph had invented a wonderful stove, of which Teresa had before spoken to Gratian with admiration. Now she is having one made of the same pattern. All are in admiration at Mary of St. Joseph's cleverness. But she has pains in her heart, and Teresa is much afflicted that she should have so much to suffer, and in so much loneliness. But worse than this, one of the nuns has shown signs of a disordered mind. Teresa gives prudent orders about her treatment. The Prioress is to be with her as little as she can, on account of her own disease : this Teresa enjoins on obedience. Two of the nuns are to be chosen, strong persons in sound health, and they are to take care of and visit the poor sufferer, and the rest are to mind z 2

386 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

their own business, think or at least speak little about her, and by no means be afflicted as in the case of another sick person. "Those who are in that state do not know their ill, as others do," and there is no offence of God in it. She tells her how St. Eufrasina had tended and cured a nun in such a state. There would be no occasion of merit if there were no such sick souls in convents. She would be much more disturbed if she saw imperfections or disquiet in her nuns. " To enjoy the Crucified, we must take up the Cross — not that we ought to ask for it, as my good Father Gregory thinks we ought, for those whom God loves, He takes care that they shall have theirs, as His own Son." At the end of the letter we find Teresa asking her correspondent to get a full col lection of the sermons of Father Saluzzo, the Dominican preacher, and she gives a list of the sets which she requires. The matter is to be managed secretly. The letter is dated the 4th of June.17

About this time Teresa's old friend and guide, Father Domingo Banez, seems to have written to offer if possible to come and see her in the next vacation from his professorial labours. She writes with the utmost gratitude and affectionateness, saying how much she should enjoy it, but she does not like him to take so troublesome a journey on her account, .and she has no very great need. She tells him she has made up her mind that our Lord intends her in this life to have nothing but cross after cross. The letter is dated the 28th of June.18

We pass over two short notes to Father Gratian/9

*? Letter cc. l8 Letter cci. ^ Letters ccii. cciii.

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 387

and come to a letter written to him on the Qth of August. It will be remembered that it was on the 22nd of July that Mgr. Sega issued his brief or edict deposing Gratian from his office of Visitor, and subjecting the friars and nuns of the Reform to the jurisdiction of the Calced Provincials as Visitors. This letter of St. Teresa is therefore the first which we have from her written after this step of the Nuncio. This must be kept in mind in considering the letter. Gratian was at Valladolid, and apparently keeping his place of residence a secret except from a few persons. The brief of the Nuncio was sent to the various convents and monasteries, requiring them to pay obedience to him, " and to no one else " — a clause in which Teresa found something to rejoice at, inasmuch as it shut out the jurisdiction of the Calced Friars. The brief was notified to Mariano on the 3rd of August ; it was sent to Valladolid about the same time, or before, since Teresa heard of its notification there when she wrote this letter. While she was herself writing, a Calced Father came to the door of the convent of St. Joseph's where she was, and notified it to the Prioress. It seems that Teresa was passed over on purpose. She had received letters from her friend, Roque de Huerta, at Madrid, saying it was very important that all should give identical answers, and that he was very anxious Gratian should at once go to the capital. St. Teresa discusses in this letter the expediency of this. She wishes, above all things, that he should be safe. She fears for him at Valladolid. He might be arrested any morning going to say Mass, or returning from

388 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

the church. In Old Castile he would be safe, if he took great precautions. If he were there, she would not urge him to go to Madrid. It seems that she had written to Father Padilla at Madrid, and was advised by the Superiors both of the Dominicans and of the Society at Avila, that Gratian had better not go to the Court till Padilla had answered.

She grieves greatly over the language in which Gratian is spoken of in the brief. But she sees in it nothing but a participation of the Cross of our Lord, for God loves him so much. All he has done has been done with the advice of good and learned men, in the best manner, and with the best intentions. She thinks the wording of the brief can hardly be the Nuncio's own. She mentions also a rumour that it had come from Rome, but this she does not believe to be true. She hopes for everything still, if they can only be saved from being placed under the rule of the Mitigated Friars. So the letter is full of her buoyant, courageous, tranquil spirit, as well as of her extreme affection for Gratian.20

The next document in the collection of letters before us is the memorial already referred to, which seems to have been addressed to Roque de Huerta, or some other secular person, in the August of this year. It relates to the conduct of Father Gratian after the death of the Nuncio Ormaneto, and has already been used in our own narrative. It is followed by another document, which seems to be an instruc tion for those who were to go as deputies to the Father General to plead the causes of his Reformed 20 Letter cciv.

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 389

children. It is here and there obscure, and is cer tainly imperfect. The document as it lies before us in the Spanish edition is far more nearly complete than in others. St. Teresa says that there are three things which it is most important to urge on the most Reverend General. First of all, he must be disabused of the false reports which have reached him concern ing her own conduct, by which reports she had been represented as disobedient. He is a pastor, and is bound to hear both sides of a question which relates to one of his subjects. But if, on examination, he finds her in fault, let him chastise and punish her, and let there be an end to her disgrace with him. Nothing can be worse to her than to know he is annoyed at her. Parents pardon even great faults to their children, and in the present case, instead of being in fault, she has endured great labours and hardships in founding these convents, supposing she was doing his pleasure. Besides that, he is her Superior, she bears him immense love for his own sake, and it is hard for so many servants of God in the convents to be in his disgrace, when they at least are without fault.

The second thing is that, as the Apostolical Visi tations are over — those ordered by the Nuncios — his Paternity will appoint Superiors to visit the convents and monasteries, and that they may be of the Primi tive Rule, and not of the Mitigation. She is so strong •on the point of not having Superiors of the Mitigation that she says it would be better to be under the Ordinaries than that.

She speaks strongly in favour of Gratian. The Provincial, whoever he is to be, must take charge of

3QO Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

the monasteries and convents, as to all matters of mortification and perfection, and she wishes, if it were possible, that Gratian should be appointed, on account of the great satisfaction he has given and the great profit which the religious have derived from his visits. This is the best thing, but it may be impossible, as the most Reverend General seems to think as badly of Gratian as of Teresa herself. She mentions Father Antonio de Jesus and Father John of the Cross, as good. She ends by saying that, whoever be chosen, let him not be one of the Mitigation, and let him not be an Andalusian. There is an amusing passage about certain dues which were to be sent to the General on occasion of the Visitation. The nuns will be delighted to pay them, even twice over, if they could have Father Gratian. This is not to be said to the General himself, but to some of the Fathers about him.

The third thing to be desired is that the General should not tie the hands of the Superior whom he may choose, more than would be done in another Order. Such prelates had always the power of taking nuns from a convent in order to make a new foundation, and it is in that way that religious orders take root and spread. This liberty has been infringed by the decree of the General Chapter of Piacenza, where it was especially ordered that Teresa herself should remain in one convent. It was her habit, in accordance with the patents which she had received from the Father General, to go to make new foundations in this way, and the result has been great benefit and edification to all.21

21 Letter ccvi.

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 391

We pass over a note to her sister, Juana de Ahumada,22 and come to a series of letters to Father Gratian, which nearly land us at the end of the time embraced in this volume. The first of these is dated the I4th of August. Gratian had passed by Avila on his way towards the Court, and had left St. Teresa in great affliction, seeing how downcast and pained he was. She was a little relieved at hearing from the good Roque de Huerta of the "letters of provision" which had been sent him, that is, the orders to all the magistrates to protect him against any measures of the Nuncio. But she is grieved to find that these letters are only for his protection as Visitor, and she fears that something may come from Rome against him. In truth, the Royal Council had all along been urging him to continue his Visitation, while he, on the other hand, was not fit for such a contest, and wished to lay it all aside, as St. Teresa also had always wished. She tells him in this letter that he is not the man for affairs in which there may be two opinions. In fact, he did not like to fight against the Nuncio. Teresa encourages him as much as possible, bids him do nothing that looks cowardly, only to fear God. He should talk respectfully to the Nuncio, and explain that all he desires to do is to prevent Father Tostado from destroying the whole Reform. His great aim with every one should be to get a separate Province.23

She writes again, on the 24th of August, full of hope and courage, but she will not be happy till she hears he has spoken with the Nuncio. She advises

23 Letter ccvii. =3 Letter ccviii.

39 2 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

him to go the first time in company with the Conde de Tendilla. She asks whether it be well to send the Nuncio a present, now that they are under his juris diction. She tells him that the General has written a letter to one of the nuns at the Convent of the Incarnation, and fears he has been informed amiss about the late troubles there. This gives her an opportunity of urging again the despatch of envoys to Rome. Probably the instruction she hnd lately spoken of was meant for their direction.24 Teresa sends him another letter at the end of August. Gratian has written a letter full of misery and melancholy. She cannot answer it at length. It seems as if she had herself written to the Nuncio, as she sends a letter to him which Gratian must get rightly addressed. One of his sisters had better write it. Then she laughs at him for his scruples, because men are agreed that until the brief had been notified to him, Gratian can go on with a good conscience. It would be a mistake to surrender himself to the Nuncio before the President had smoothed matters over. He had better speak to the Nuncio first in the presence of the President. Then, for God's sake, let him not go on prophesying evil, and talking about his thoughts. God will arrange all well. Let him keep himself well concealed, that is the great point. He is not bound even to say Mass, as she has ascer tained, and he knows himself. If he is so wretched in the good condition in which he now is, what would he be if he had to undergo what Father John of the Cross has had to suffer ?25

=4 Letter ccix. -$ Letter ccx.

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 393

Two short notes follow which relate to St. John of the Cross himself. She tells Gratian how much he has had to suffer, and suggests that it should be told to the Nuncio. These fragments are dated at the end of August and the middle of September.26 The last letter of this time is dated the 2Qth of Sep tember. It is a fragment, and seems to be part of a longer letter urging the despatch of the deputies to Rome. The Fathers chosen are good — both are friends of the Society, which will help them. Every body is astonished at the Reform having no agents there, while the worthy Mitigated Friars had it all their own way. She says in a postscript that she hears that one of the Society is at Madrid, a great friend of hers, and she shall write to him. This is Father Paolo Hernandez, her letter to whom we shall presently translate. She wrote at the same time to the King, and as we have seen, to the Nuncio. These letters would have indeed been valuable to us. But they are lost, and we must content ourselves with this statement of her case to Father Hernandez.

JESUS.

May the grace of the Holy Spirit be with your honour, my Father.

Eight days ago I received a letter from the Prioress of Toledo, Anne of the Angels, in which she says that your honour is in Madrid. It has given me great consolation, for it seems to me that God sent your honour thither for some relief in our troubles, which I say to your honour are so great since this August year, that it would have been a great relief to me to see your honour, just to tell you some "6 Letters ccxi., ccxii.

394 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

of them, for to tell all is impossible. The end of it all is that we are in the condition which the bearer of this letter will describe to your honour. He is a person who loves us much, and shares our troubles, and we can entirely trust him. The devil cannot abide the earnest and perfect manner in which our Lord is served in these houses of Discalced friars and nuns, and I tell your honour that you would be greatly consoled to hear of the perfection which they attain. We have now nine houses of Discalced Friars, and many good subjects in them. But, as there is not yet a separate Province for them, it is impossible to describe the vexations and troubles which they have to suffer from those of the Mitigation.

At present, under God, the whole good or evil of our Reform is in the hands of the Nuncio, and, for our sins, he has received from the friars of the Mitigation such informa tions concerning us, to which he has given so much credit, that no one can tell how it will end. Of me they say that I am a restless and vagabond person, and that all the convents which I have founded have been founded without leave of Pope or General. Your honour can see whether worse things could be attributed to me as to my conduct or my Christi anity ! Many other things which cannot be repeated do these blessed friars say about me, and also about Father Gratian, who has had to be their Visitor. It is a pitiable thing, all these testimonies, the one inconsistent with the other, and I tell your honour for certain that he is one of the great servants of God whom I have had to deal with, a man of great honesty and purity of conscience. Your Reverence must believe that in this I am saying the truth. In short, he has been brought up by the Society all his life, as your honour may know. The whole matter had its rise at Alcala, and the Nuncio is very angry with him for certain causes, but if the truth was heard, there would be very little or no cause for blame to him. It is just the same with myself, but I have done nothing at all against the service

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 395

due to him, unless it be that I obeyed a brief which he sent hither, with a perfect goodwill, and wrote him a letter with all the humility I could.

I think all this comes from above, and our Lord desires that we should suffer. So there is no one who takes the side of the truth, or says a good word for me. I say it with truth to your honour, that I have no trouble or pain on my own account. Only it seems to me that if it were proved that what these Fathers say of me is not true, perhaps the Nuncio would not believe what they say of Father Gratian, and that is the most important point for us. So I am sending you a copy of the patents of authorization which I have received, because the Nuncio says that our condition is altogether bad, on the ground that our houses have been founded without licence. I well understand that the devil is using all his power to discredit these houses of ours, and so I am desirous that there should be some of God's servants to take their part. Ah ! my Father, when time of necessity comes, how few are the friends we can find !

They tell me that your honour is very acceptable to the President, and that you are now at Madrid on his account. I believe that he has been informed of all these things, and of much more, by the Nuncio. It would do us much good if your honour would disabuse him, as you may be called an eye-witness, as indeed your honour is of my soul. You would thus do, I think, a great service to our Lord, and let your honour tell him of what great importance it is that what has been begun in this sacred Order should go on, for our Order was indeed fallen low. They say that our Reform is a new Order, and a modern invention ; let them read the primitive Rule, which is what we keep without any mitiga tion, and in the rigour which the Pope gave to it at the beginning. Let them believe only what they see, and let them know how we live and how the Caked live, and not listen to them, for no one can tell where they have got hold of so many things that are false with which they attack us.

396 Monsignor Sega and the Reform.

I also beg of your honour to speak on my part to the Father who is the confessor of the Nuncio, and salute him on my part, and let your honour inform him of the whole truth, and lay it on the conscience of the Nuncio not to publish things so much to my prejudice without informing himself about them, and tell him that although I am a miserable creature, still I should not venture to do such things as they say of me. This, if your honour thinks it good to do — otherwise, not.

Your honour might show him, if it seems good to you, the authority on which I have founded the convents. In one of the patents there is a precept not to leave off found ing them. Our Father General wrote to me a letter, when I had asked him not to bid me found any more, that he desired that I should found as many convents as I had hairs on my head. It is not reasonable to cast discredit on so many servants of God by these testimonies. They of the Society have, I may say, created me and given me being, and I think therefore it would be reasonable to declare the truth, and that so grave a personage as the Nuncio, who has come to reform the Orders, being not of this country, should be informed who are to be reformed and who are to be favoured, and who ought to be chastised for so many false hoods.

Your honour will see what is to be done. What I do entreat, for the love, of our Lord and His precious Mother, is that since your honour has favoured us ever since you knew us, you will do it in this necessity. They will repay you very well, and your honour owes me this for my good will, and also for the defence of the truth, in whatever manner you may see to be most convenient. I entreat your honour to keep me informed of all things, and especially of your state of health. Mine has been very poor. Our Lord has tried me very much in all ways this year, but what I suffer myself would give me little pain, did He not let me see that because of my sins these servants of God have to

Monsignor Sega and the Reform. 397

suffer. May His Majesty be with your honour, and preserve you. Let me know if it is true, as I hear, that you will stay some time at Madrid. To-day is the feast of St. Francis. The unworthy servant and true daughter of your honour.

TERESA DE JESUS,

From Avila, October 4, i5y8.27 Carmelite.

If we take this letter, together with others written by St. Teresa about the same time, and again, later on, whether when the danger to the Reform became even still more imminent, or after the most acute crisis was passed, we can see from them how very rightly she is venerated in the Church and in the Carmelite Order as the true Mother and Foundress of the Reform. The other Saint, whose name is associated with hers, was in God's good Providence kept in retirement, even in confinement, at the critical turning-point of the history. All that we know of the action of St. John of the Cross shows us how entirely he was the child, so to say, of St. Teresa, but, although his sanctity might have given him great influence among the other friars, he does not seem to have been recognized by them as being as wise and sagacious as he was holy. The other prominent figures are all of the most secondary importance, except that they sometimes committed themselves to acts of imprudence the effect of which was by no means secondary. It was Teresa, therefore, alone, who saw clearly, judged wisely, acted energetically. All that comes from her bears the mark, not only of high sanctity, but of an intelligence enlightened and

-7 Letter ccxiv.

398 Note to Chapter XIV.

guided by God for the carrying out of one of His great works for the benefit of His Church. St. Teresa had the most admirable and ductile materials to work with in the formation of the nuns of her Order. But in the battle of the Reform the nuns could only pray, and their prayers and hers no doubt won the ultimate victory. The men with, or even under, whom she had to work, and who were prominent figures in the conflict, were not as helpful as they might have been, and many of her difficulties came from their impru dence and want of sagacity.

NOTE TO CHAPTER XIV.

The letters belonging to this chapter are as follows :

1. (ccv.) To Rogue de Huerta (?) From Avila, August, 1578. An account of this letter is given, p. 364.

2. (clxxxvi.) To Father Jerome Gratian. From Avila, March 2, 1578.

Mentioned at p. 375.

3. (clxxxvii.) To Rogue de Huerta. From Avila, March 9, 1578.

Mentioned at p. 375.

4. (clxxxix.) To a relation (Francis de Cepedd) (?) From Avila, Lent of 1578.

This letter is translated, p. 377.

5. (cxc.) To Dona Maria de Mendoza. From Avila, Holy Week, 1578.

Mentioned at p. 377.

6. (cxci.) To Mary of St. Joseph, Prioress at Seville. From Avila, Good Friday, 1578.

An account of this letter is given, p. 378.

Note to Chapter XIV. 399

7. (cxcii.) To Father Jerome Gratian. From Avila, April

15, 1578.

An account of this letter is given, p. 380.

8. (cxciii.) To the same. From Avila, April 17, 1578. An account of this letter is given, p. 381.

9. (cxcix.) To Dona J uana Dantisco. From Avila, April 17, 1578.

10. (cxcv.) To Father Jerome Gratian. From Avila, April 26, 1578.

11. (cxcvi.) To the same. From Avila, May 7, 1578. These three letters are mentioned, p. 382.

12. (cxcvii.) To the same. From Avila, May 9, 1578. A full account of this letter is given, p. 382.

13. (cxcviii.) To the same. From Avila, May 14, 1578. Mentioned at p. 384.

14. (cxcix.) To the same. From Avila, May 22, 1578. An account of this letter is given, p. 384.

15. (cc.) To Mary of St. Joseph, Prioress at Seville. From Avila, June 4, 1578.

An account of this letter is given, p. 385.

1 6. (cci.) To the Rev. Father Domingo Banez. From Avila June 28, 1578.

Mentioned at p. 386.

17. (ccii.) To Father Jerome Gratian. From Avila. Un certain date.

1 8. (cciii.) To the same. Uncertain date. These two notes are mentioned, p. 386.

19. (cciv.) To the same. From Avila, August 9, 1578. An account of this letter is given, p. 387.

20. (ccvi.) Memorial for the deputies to Rome. See p. 389.

21. (ccvii.) To Dona Juana de Ahumada. From Avila, August 8, 1578.

Mentioned at p. 391.

22. (ccviii.) To Father Jerome Gratian. From Avila, August 14, 1578.

Mentioned at p. 391.

23. (ccix.) To the same. From Avila, August 19, 1578. Mentioned at p. 392.

400 Note to Chapter XIV.

24. (ccx.) To the same. From Avila, end of August, 1578. Mentioned at p. 392.

25. (ccxi.) To the same. From Avila, August, 1578.

26. (ccxii.) To the same. From Avila, September, 1578.

27. (ccxiii.) To the same. From Avila, September 29, 1578. These three fragments are mentioned at p. 393.

28. (ccxiv.) To Father Paolo Hernandez, of the Society of Jesus. From Avila, October 4, 1578.

This letter is translated at pp. 393 — 397.

AUTHOR

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Coleridge, H. j.

The Life and Letters of St. Teresa Volume II

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