Letter 270. To Father Gracian, Avila, April, 1579

Concerning the two nuns who had caused the scandal at Seville.

... I am amazed and grieved at these two souls : may God convert them ! It seems as though all the furies of hell had met at the Seville convent to deceive and blind people both within and outside it. I assure your Paternity that, from the moment I heard of the trial, my one fear was of that which has come to pass — that some calumny should be brought against Paul. That unprincipled deputy-Prioress had always fostered certain grave slanders, and this dread has beset me for days. O Jesus, how it has distressed me ! No trial through which we have passed is of any account compared with this. God has indeed taught us how little we should depend on creatures, however good they may be, and that we ought to be wary and less simple. God grant that this may suffice for Paul and myself ! . . .