Life of St Teresa of Jesus, Teresa of Avila [top ten books to read TXT] 📗

§ 15, she speaks

of the death of Father Pedro Ibañez, which appears to have taken

place on 2nd February. This, at least, is the date under which

his name appears in the Année Dominicaine, and the Very

Rev. Prior Vincent McNabb tells me that there is every reason to

think that it is the date of his death.

8. When about A.D. 1452 certain communities of Beguines demanded

affiliation to the Carmelite Order, they were given the

Constitutions of the friars without any alterations.

These Constitutions were revised in 1462, but neither there nor

in the Acts of the General Chapters, so far as these are

preserved, is there the slightest reference to convents of nuns.

The colophon of the printed edition (Venice, 1499) shows that

they held good for friars and nuns: Expliciunt sacrae

constitutiones novae fratrum et sororum beatae Mariae de Monte

Carmelo. They contain the customary laws forbidding the friars

under pain of excommunication, to leave the precincts of their

convents without due licence, but do not enjoin strict enclosure,

which would have been incompatible with their manner of life and

their various duties. St. Teresa nowhere insinuates that the

Constitutions, such as they were, were not kept at the

Incarnation; her remarks in chap. vii. are aimed at the

Constitutions themselves, which were never made for nuns, and

therefore did not provide for the needs of their convents.

9. Reforma lib. i., cap. 47. Bollandists. no. 366.

10. Chap. vii. § 11.

11. Chap. v. § 2.

12. Constitutions of 1462. Part i., cap. x.

13. Chap. xxiii. § 17.

14. Deposition for the process of canonisation, written in 1591.

Fuente, Obras, vol. vi., p. 174.

15. See the notes to chapters vii. § 11; xvi. § 10; xx. § 6;

xxiv. § 4; xxvii. § 17. At the end of chapter xxxi. we are told

on the authority of Don Vicente that the “first” Life must have

ended at this point.

16. Bollandists, no. 1518.

17. Lettres, edit. Grégoire. I., pp. 13 (18 May, 1568); 21

(27 May); 35 (2 November).

18. Reforma, vol. i., lib. v., cap. xxxv., no. 9. Bollandists,

no. 1518.

19. If the latter, it must have been very much shorter than the

second edition, and can scarcely have contained more than the

first nine chapters (perhaps verbatim) and an account of the

visions, locutions, etc., contained in chapters xxiii.-xxxi.,

without comment.

20. Chap. xxxiii. § 7.

21. Chap. xxxiv. § 8.

22. Chap. xvi. § 2.

23. Chap. xvii. § 7.

24. Chap. xxviii. § 10.

25. In the Prologue to the Book of Foundations, Father Garcia de

Toledo, her confessor at St. Joseph’s Convent, is said to be

responsible for the order to rewrite the “Life”; but in the

Preface to the “Life” St. Teresa speaks of her “confessors” in

the plural. Fathers Ibañez and Bañez may be included in the

number. See also ch. xxx. § 27.

26. Chap. xviii. § 11.

27. Chap. xiii. § 22. In chap. xvi. § 12, the Saint says: “I

wish we five who now love one another in our Lord, had made some

such arrangement, etc.” Fuente is of opinion that these five

were, besides the Saint, Father Julian de Avila, Don Francisco de

Salcedo, St. John of the Cross, and Don Lorenzo de Cepeda,

St. Teresa’s brother: but this is impossible at the date of this

part of the “Life.” It is more probable that she meant Francisco

de Salcedo, Gaspar Daza, Julian de Avila, and Father Ibañez, the

latter being still alive in the beginning of 1564, when this

chapter was written. It is more difficult to say who the three

confessors were whom St. Teresa desired to see the “Life”

(ch. xl. § 32). If, as I think, the book was first handed to

Father Garcia de Toledo, the others may have been Francisco de

Salcedo, Baltasar Alvarez, and Gaspar de Salazar.

28. Chap. x. §§ 11 and 12.

29. This is the second reason why the letter could not have been

addressed to Father Ibañez in 1562.

30. Edited by Don Francisco Herrero Bayona, 1883 p. 4.

31. Ibid., chap. xli. (see Dalton’s translation, chap. xxv.).

32. Ibid., chap. lxxiii. See the difference in Dalton’s

translation, chap. xlii.

33. Fuente, Obras, vol. vi., p. 275.

34. See the following Preface, p. xxxvii. Lettres, ed. Grégoire,

ii., p. 65. P. Bertholde-Ignace, Vie de la Mère Anne de Jésus,

i., p. 472.

35. In the Prologue to the Book of Foundations, St. Teresa says

that Father Garcia de Toledo ordered her to rewrite the book the

same year in which St. Joseph’s Convent was founded, i.e. 1562,

but seeing that she only spent a few hours there and that the

principal difficulties only arose after her return to the

Incarnation, it appears more probable that Father Garcia’s

command was not made until the spring of the following year, when

she went to live at St. Joseph’s.

36. Chap. x. § 11.

37. See Historia Generalis Fratrum Discalceatorum Ordinis

B. Virginis Mariae de Monte Carmelo Congregationis Eliae.

Romae, 1668, vol. i., pp. 340-358 ad ann. 1604.

38. See Carmel in England, by Rev. Father B. Zimmerman,

240 sqq.

St. Teresa’s Arguments of the Chapters.

J.H.S.

J.H.S. Chapter I. [1]—In which she tells how God [2] began to

dispose this soul from childhood for virtue, and how she was

helped by having virtuous parents.

Chapter II.—How she lost these virtues and how important it is

to deal from childhood with virtuous persons.

Chapter III.—In which she sets forth how good company was the

means of her resuming good intentions, and in what manner God

began to give her some light on the deception to which she

was subjected.

Chapter IV.—She explains how, with the assistance of God, she

compelled herself to take the (Religious) habit, and how His

Majesty began to send her many infirmities.

Chapter V.—She continues to speak of the great infirmities she

suffered and the patience God gave her to bear them, and how He

turned evil into good, as is seen from something that happened

at the place where she went for a cure.

Chapter VI.—Of the great debt she owes God for giving her

conformity of her will (with His) in her trials, and how she

turned towards the glorious St. Joseph as her helper and

advocate, and how much she profited thereby.

Chapter VII.—Of the way whereby she lost the graces God had

granted her, and the wretched life she began to lead; she also

speaks of the danger arising from the want of a strict enclosure

in convents of nuns.

Chapter VIII.—Of the great advantage she derived from not

entirely abandoning prayer so as not to lose her soul; and what

an excellent remedy this is in order to win back what one has

lost. She exhorts everybody to practise prayer, and shows what a

gain it is, even if one should have given it up for a time, to

make use of so great a good.

Chapter IX.—By what means God began to rouse her soul and give

light in the midst of darkness, and to strengthen her virtues so

that she should not offend Him.

Chapter X.—She begins to explain the graces God gave her in

prayer, and how much we can do for ourselves, and of the

importance of understanding God’s mercies towards us.

She requests those to whom this is to be sent to keep the

remainder (of this book) secret, since they have commanded her to

go into so many details about the graces God has shown her.

Chapter XI.—In which she sets forth how it is that we do not

love God perfectly in a short time. She begins to expound by

means of a comparison four degrees of prayer, of the first of

which she treats here; this is most profitable for beginners and

for those who find no taste in prayer.

Chapter XII.—Continuation of the first state. She declares how

far, with the grace of God, we can proceed by ourselves, and

speaks of the danger of seeking supernatural and extraordinary

experiences before God lifts up the soul.

Chapter XIII.—She continues to treat of the first degree, and

gives advice with respect to certain temptations sometimes sent

by Satan. This is most profitable.

Chapter XIV.—She begins to explain the second degree of prayer

in which God already gives the soul special consolations, which

she shows here to be supernatural. This is most noteworthy.

Chapter XV.—Continuing the same subject, she gives certain

advice how one should behave in the prayer of quiet. She shows

that many souls advance so far, but that few go beyond.

The matters treated of in this chapter are very necessary

and profitable.

Chapter XVI.—On the third degree of prayer; she declares things

of an elevated nature; what the soul that has come so far can do,

and the effect of such great graces of God. This is calculated

to greatly animate the spirit to the praise of God, and contains

advice for those who have reached this point.

Chapter XVII.—Continues to declare matters concerning the third

degree of prayer and completes the explanation of its effects.

She also treats of the impediment caused by the imagination and

the memory.

Chapter XVIII.—She treats of the fourth degree of prayer, and

begins to explain [3] in what high dignity God holds a soul that

has attained this state; this should animate those who are given

to prayer, to make an effort to reach so high a state since it

can be obtained in this world, though not by merit but only

through the goodness of God. [4]

Chapter XIX.—She continues the same subject, and begins to

explain the effects on the soul of this degree of prayer.

She earnestly exhorts not to turn back nor to give up prayer even

if, after having received this favour, one should fall.

She shows the damage that would result (from the neglect of this

advice). This is most noteworthy and consoling for the weak and

for sinners.

Chapter XX.—She speaks of the difference between Union and

Trance, and explains what a Trance is; she also says something

about the good a soul derives from being, through God’s goodness,

led so far. She speaks of the effects of Union. [5]

Chapter XXI.—She continues and concludes this last degree of

prayer, and says what a soul having reached it feels when obliged

to turn back and live in the world, and speaks of the light God

gives concerning the deceits (of the world). This is

good doctrine.

Chapter XXII.—In which she shows that the safest way for

contemplatives is not to lift up the spirit to high things but to

wait for God to lift it up. How the Sacred Humanity of Christ is

the medium for the most exalted contemplation. She mentions an

error under which she laboured for some time. This chapter is

most profitable.

Chapter XXIII.—She returns to the history of her life, how she

began to practise greater perfection. This is profitable for

those who have to direct souls practising prayer that they may

know how to deal with beginners, and she speaks of the profit she

derived from such knowledge.

Chapter XXIV.—She continues the same subject and tells how her

soul improved since she began to practise obedience, and how

little she was able to resist God’s graces, and how His Majesty

continued to give them more and more abundantly.

Chapter XXV.—Of the manner in which Locutions of God are

perceived by the soul without being actually heard; and of some

deceits that might take place in this matter, and how one is to

know which is which. This is most profitable for those who are

in this degree of prayer, because it