Letter (number unidentified). To Mother Aña de la Encarnación, Alba de Termes, February, 1574

PRIORESS OF SALAMANCA=

News of the convent at Alba. The Saint sends a trout to Father Medina. Messages.

Jesus be with your Reverence!

LET me know how you are, you and all your daughters, and give them my kind regards. How I wish that I could enjoy the society of the communities both of Salamanca and Alba at the same time!

I think that I shall have less trouble here than I expected, and there is a hermitage looking over the river, as does the cell in which I sleep, so that I can enjoy watching it while I am in bed, which is a great delight. I feel better in health to-day than usual. Doña Quiteria has the fever; she says she misses the nuns at Salamanca. They have sent to Alba for a doótor to attend Señora Doña Jeronima, who is still suffering. Pray for her as we do. I feel anxious about her. May God have you in His care!

The trout I am sending you came to-day from the Duchess. It seemed such a fine one that I engaged this messenger to take it to my Father, Master Fray Bartolomé de Medina. Should it reach you in time for dinner, will you send it to him at once by Michael with the enclosed letter. Even if it arrives later, do not fail to forward it to see if he will bring himself to write me a few words.

Be sure to let me know about your health, and to eat meat for the present. Let them tell the doctor about your debility; remember me kindly to him. May God be ever with you, whatever happens! Amen. Give my kind regards to Father Osma whom I miss very much at Alba. Let Juana de Jesus write and tell me how she is: she looked very ill on the day I left.

■' Father Bartolomé de Medina, a Dominican, and professor at Salamanca and Alcalá. He was at first very prejudiced against St. Teresa and spoke of her in a sermon in the cathedral of Salamanca as one of those women who wander from place to place who had better remain at home with their pra}ers and spinning. Hearing of this, she was most anxious to see him and speak to him of her soul and the object of her foundations and give him her Life to read. She did so which so satisfied him that in another sermon he said: 'Señores, I spoke some unconsidered and wrong words about a nun who is founding houses of Discalced religious. I have seen and talked with her, and without doubt she has the divine Spirit and walks by a very sure way.' The Saint declares in her relation to Father Rodrigo that no one so reassured her as he did after he had read her books and heard her confessions and that they remained close friends.

To-day is Wednesday and midnight has struck. Yours,

Teresa de Jesus.

How are the Countess and the corregidor's wife ? Please enquire on my behalf and let me know. I will write and tell you how your sister is, and will not send off Navarro until I hear. I will forward to vou a small sum of money. He will take you the sixteen reales if I remember them to-morrow; I forgot them to-day. If Lescano' asks for money, give it to him and I will repay you, as I told him to go to you if he wanted anything. However, I do not exped: that he will require any payment.

LVIII

Prefatory note

St. Teresa had reached Segovia on March 1 8 and had made the foundation next day. The 'agitation' caused by the visit of Fathers Gracian and Mariano to Andalusia and 'the pain it would cause the General ' alludes to events following those stated in the introduction to her letter to the King dated June ii, 1573.

' Finding that the appointment of Fray Baltasar de Jesus (Nieto) as Superior and Visitor of the-Discalced was unwelcome to them, a month or two later (June 30), Vargas sought for some one to make Superior who had been professed as a Discalced religious. On August 4, Fray Baltasar retired to Pastrana where he conferred the patents on Jerome Gracian, a recently professed Carmelite of the Reform who with the permission of the Provincial of Castile was about to go to Andalusia as Mariano's companion. The two friars went first to Toledo to consult Father Antonio de Heredia who was acting there as Prior of the Calced Carmelites. Mariano was ordained deacon in that city on September 19. They then went to Granada where they received a warm welcome from Vargas who, edified by their lives, not only confirmed Gracian's authority as Superior of the Discalced but, towards the end of September, also constituted him Visitor of all the Carmelites of Andalusia, both Calced and Discalced. The two friars then travelled to Seville where they met Augustin Suarez, Provincial of Andalusia. Father Gracian showed him the patent constituting him Superior of the Discalced of Andalusia but said nothing of the other patent which appointed him Visitor and Reformer of the Calced ot Andalusia, so making him the Provincial's Superior. On St. Luke's day, Gracian restored the Priory of San Juan del Puerto to the Provincial. Choosing for himself the novices he considered suitable for the Reform, Father Gracian resigned the rest to Suarez and left secretly next night with them after Matins for a Calced priory in Seville. However, the friction between the Calced and Discalced friars there became so great that, with the Archbishop's permission and relying upon the patents given him (although they remained unpublished), Gracian, on January 5, 1574, went with his friars in strict secrecy to a hermitage given him by the Archbishop. Here he erected a priory of fathers of the Reform called Nuestra Señora de los Remedios near the Priory in which he had been staying. Hence fresh disturbances arose. Vargas, fearing lest Suarez should obtain the suppression of this Priory from the king, wrote to the latter blaming the Calced severely and praising the Discalced. (March 15, 1574). The Andalusian Caked- Carmelites, finding they could get no help from the king or the Archbishop, became alarmed and sought aid from the Father General. Thus they who but a few years before had repudiated Rubeo's authority in such matters and had obtained from the Holy See Apostolic Visitors not belonging to the Order, now appealed to the General against those very Visitors! It was at this time that St. Teresa wrote to the Prioress of Valladolid saying: 'Oh! If you only knew what an agitation is secretly being made in favour of the Discalced! We ought to thank God for it! It has all been caused by the two who went to Andalusia: Gracian and Mariano. My joy is tempered by sorrow at the pain it will cause our Father General. '

After having sent patents tor the foundation bt a priory and convent at Almodovar on June 21, 1574, Rubeo heard for the first time of the erection of Discalced priories at Penuela, Granada, and that of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios at Seville, also of the nomination of Gracian, not only as Superior of the Discalced (Vice-Provincial, as he had styled himself in his letter to Didacus de Leon) but also as Visitor of the province of Andalusia, in opposition to all the General's concessions and prohibitions. Rubeo immediately (on August 3) obtained a revocation of all the Visitors' powers from the Holy See, but postponed the publication of the Brief containing the revocation until the next General Chapter should be held. Meanwhile, the Apostolic Nuncio in Spain, having learnt of the Brief, used his authority as legate on September 22, by constituting Reformers of the Carmelite Order to replace the Visitors and nominating Pedro Hernandez as Reformer of Castile, and Vargas and Jerome Gracian jointly as Reformers of Andalusia. This decree was confirmed on December 27 by the Supreme Pontiff.

The General, who had hitherto received no reliable information as to what had been done in Andalusia either from St. Teresa, Gracian, Mariano, Baltasar, or any one else, wrote two letters to the Saint, the first dated October, 1574, the second January, 1575. These letters, which were to be read at the next General Chapter, asked for a full account of what had happened and blamed Gracian and Mariano severely tor ambition and disobedience. St. Teresa was at Veas at the time, engaged on making a foundation there by the Bishop's order, and was quite unaware that Veas was on the borders of Andalusia. By divine permission, Rubeo's letters did not reach her until they were forwarded to her at Seville on June 15, 1575, the General Chapter then being over. Consequently no letters or representations from the Discalced were heard by the Chapter, as the definitor and socius from Andalusia and Castile had not arrived, nothing being known ot the subject save the complaints from Andalusia.