Letter 101. To Don Lorenzo de Cepeda, Avila, Toledo, July 24, 1576

Don Lore?ízds house hold and health, CharaBer of yuan de Ovalle. Book of Foundations and the Life, Some little presents.

JESUS !

May the grace of the Holy Spirit be ever with you !

OH, how tedious the last fortnight has been! However, thank God, your health is good; I was very glad to hear it. What you tell me about your house and the number of your servants does not seem extravagant. The 'Master of the ceremonies' made me laugh heartily: I assure you it amused me immensely. You can trust her implicitly, for she is very good and sensible. Remember me most kindly to her when you see her : I owe much to her and to Francis de Salcedo.

I am sorry to hear about the pain you suffer: the cold has begun to affed: you very early in the season. As for me, I feel better than I have for many a year. I have a very nice cell with a window looking over the garden. But little of my time is taken up by visitors, and were it not for having to write numerous letters, I should be too happy for such a state of things to last, for it never lasts when I am well off. If only you were near me, nothing would be wanting, though I could bear your absence if God would favour me by granting you good health. May He reward you for your care of mine ! I was greatly consoled for your absence by knowing how concerned you were about me. I trust God that our separation will not last so long that I shall miss the wintry cold of Avila ! At any rate, in spite of the suffering it causes me, I shall not avoid going there nor delay doing so for a single day, for when God so wills, He gives us health wherever we are. Oh, how far more I wish for health for you than for myself! May God grant it you as He can if He chooses !

Juan de Ovalle has written me a very long letter exaggerating his afFeftion for you and what he he would do for you. He has unfortunately taken up the idea that Cimbrón' is the only person for whom you care and that he orders or countermands everything concerning your affairs. This was the reason my sister did not visit you. I am sure that all these feelings come from jealousy: it is his charafter. I suffered much from it on account of my friendship with Doña Yomar.' His whole complaint is about Cimbrón. He is very childish in some ways but was extremely kind and affeétionate to you at Seville, so for the love of God I entreat you to be patient with him. I wrote and told him my opinion and how fond I knew you were of him, adding that he ought to be glad that Cimbrón was taking charge of affairs. I said that he ought to be very careful to please you and that you would send him money if he asked for it ; that it was best for

' Pedro or Peralvarez de Cimbrón, St. Teresa's cousin. Doña Yomar de Ulloa.

lo THE LETTERS OF ST. TERESA both of you to remain at home; and that perhaps the matter was providentially arranged. I laid the blame on him and excused Peralvarez. The worst of it is that I believe he is coming here, so that I shall have gained nothing by opposing his journey. I pity my sister deeply, but we all have much to suffer. I could swear that he wishes to please and help you. God has not given him grace for more. He gives some people fine charad:ers so that they may bear in patience with the rest, as you must do.

I fancy the Agnus Dei is in the little case, unless it is in the parcel; the rings will be with it. I have asked the Subprioress to send you the case in order that you may take the manuscript of The Foundations out of it. You are to wrap it up in paper, seal it, and forward it to the Mother Subprioress, for the nuns there have to deliver something or other to my companion with one of my mantles which we were in a great hurry to return them. There are some other papers — what they are I cannot say — but I wish no one to see them. That is why I ask you to take them out for I do not objedt to your reading them or The Foundations, The key of the case is broken: will you give orders that the lock is to be taken off and kept in a box until another is made. In the case is the key of the portfolio containing my correspondence which I directed should be forwarded to you. Among it I believe you will find some notes on prayer which you are welcome to read. Will you also take out a paper relating to the particulars of the foundation at Alba and return it with the rest, for as the Father Visitor has told me to finish writing The FoundationSyX need the manuscripts to see what I have written already and to complete the account of the foundation at Alba. I am sorry for it as I should have preferred keeping for myself the short time left when I have finished writing letters. However, it does not seem the will of God. May He be pleased to accept my services !

I must tell you that the Prioress of Valladolid writes saying that Doña Maria de Mendoza made a copy of the book which was in the hands of the Bishop and that he took it away from her. I am glad on your account, for when I go to Avila we can claim the copy and you can read it. Say nothing about it to any one. When the Bishop returns you can ask him for it.

I will write to Seville as you suggest for I do not know whether the letter has been delivered. Why make so much of four reales} They have not been put in the letters and if the bearer had known that they contained anything of the sort, he would not have delivered them.

The Mother Prioress here is very well considering her ailment. She and all the sisters send you kind remembrances. We have all prayed a great deal for your health. I send you some quinces for had begun writing the Book of Foundations and had reached chapter xx, which deals with the foundation at Alba de Tormcs. The initials at the beginning of the memoir of Teresa Laiz (ch. xx, 2) mark the place where she resumed the narrative in i 576, at Father Gracian's request.

the cook to make into jam for your dessert, also a pot of marmalade for you and another for the Subprioress of St. Joseph's who tells me she is very weak. Tell her to eat it herself; and give none of yours to any one else but take it yourself for love of me. Let me know when you have finished it. Marmalade is very cheap at Toledo and I am not buying it with money belonging to the convent. Besides, Father Gracian ordered me under obedience to a¿l as before, for what I held was not my own but the property of the Order. On the one hand I was sorry: on the other it was a relief, as I have many expenses here, were it only the payment for messengers to take my letters. I am grieved at the heavy cost and its frequent recurrence.