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A staunch opponent of the Jesuits’ hardline position on the oath of allegiance and the head of England’s secular clergy, the Archpriest George Blackwell was housed in the Clink prison on the south bank of the Th ames, in Southwark, and to visit him (and Edward Gage) Luisa had to brave London Bridge, which was then the only way to cross the river on foot. Blackwell was fi rmly of the opinion that the oath was licit because he held that the pope ‘would not at any time excommunicate his majesty’. As for the newly transferred priest, though she writes ‘garner’, she is almost certainly referring to Th omas Garnet, who had escaped custody in the 1590s while on his way to the English College in Valladolid. Aft er his return to England he was arrested at the time of the Gunpowder Plot, before fi nally making his way to Luisa’s foundation at Louvain. His fi nal return took place in September 1607 but he was apprehended six weeks later and his execution the following year had a great impact on her. In terms of the popular imagination, interest in Garnet’s Straw had already waned along with another miraculous story, that of the ‘niño de milagros’, an infant who could cure illnesses for both Catholics and Protestants by making the sign of the cross (see L92). Th e letter was written just a few weeks aft er the ‘Flight of the Earls’, when the earl of Tyrone and other Irish leaders fl ed to the continent, thereby giving rise to widespread fears that Spain might once again intervene in Ireland. Th e letter also clarifi es some of the fi nancial issues raised in L83. Her house in the calle de Toledo had been acquired in return for a promise to pay 1,000 ducats; a receipt dated January 1603 states that 300 ducats had been handed over leaving 700 (around £250 at the time) outstanding (see also ACSAV, series ii, libro 8, no. 84). Living with Luisa and Ann Garnett, is Helena or Eleanor Dutton or Duton, but her identity is a mystery. Given the circles Luisa moved in, she conceivably may be related to the Anthony Dutton who features in the investigations into the Gunpowder Plot; even so, it has been suggested this name was an alias used by another of the conspirators. Juan Basilio’s Flos Sanctorum was fi rst published in Zaragoza in 1578, whereas Antonio Nebrija’s Spanish–Latin Vocabulary fi rst appeared c. 1495. Juan de Ávila died in 1569 and his work, ‘Listen, O Daughter’, was written for a nun seeking spiritual guidance, one of its themes being the advocacy of interior prayer as well as good works.

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To Father Joseph Creswell London, 4 October 1607.

I hope your honour will by now have received two more letters of mine, and I shall go on writing to you most scrupulously and by any means possible. Don Pedro’s secretary showed me what you said about this in your honour’s letters. I should tell you, sir, that in spite of all my eff orts I still do not know when the posts go, either because they keep it completely quiet, or because they tell me so late that, even today, I did not know Rivas was going, even though I had asked. I think he will head off tomorrow at the latest, so your honour can see how short the time is for someone who has to write their own letters and who is in indif-ferent health. Anyway, all one can do is be patient, as I have said in other letters. When there is no other option available, I shall write by way of Flanders, sending the letters to Father Baldwin.

Mister German got out of jail one night last week thanks to the eff orts of a Catholic youth held there who was trusted a lot by the jailer. Th is is a good thing because the prison was full of plague, twelve having died already, with three of them sharing the same quarters as the priest. Th e next day they took Mister Gar-ner there, who had escaped from the Bridewell when the sainted Drury died, and once before that when the queen was alive.

Th e Archpriest is in the Clink, still of the opinion that the oath can be taken according to the interpretation he gives it, which is that the pope cannot excom-municate except to set an example, and there will be no need to go down that route in England. Having looked at the oath and at his arguments, they are all utter nonsense and without rhyme or reason, but no one is strong enough to get him to see the light. I saw him three or four days ago, and we discussed it a great deal. He seems to be on the defensive, although he tries to hide this by laughing it off .

I cannot go on too long here, or write to friends about anything given the shortage of time.

Lady Doña Ana María de Vergara has written to me twice saying she will give 500 ducats to anyone I name for a certain charitable work. I have written to her about this through various people, most recently Don Pedro’s servant, the one who took the dogs. My packet went to Leonor de Quirós, and in it I nominate your honour. Please be so kind as to take receipt of them if they are handed over, sir, but do not send them with merchants from England or any English-men there, or we will lose it all, however trustworthy they may seem, sir. Send it through the Fuggers or whichever way they send money to Louvain, or to Father Baldwin, which is the best way even though it might take a while. And in the interim it could actually accrue some interest for the novitiate if the Fuggers, or whoever should have it, choose to give something since it is such a pious cause.

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Anyway, I think I have been more than clear on this. As for my paying fees or interest to the Company on the 700 ducats I owe them, I have already given you a full explanation in previous letters to your honour, saying that it is perfectly clear that not one real is due over and above the original sum of 700 ducats that I owe them, either morally or legally, as you will have already seen from the rea-sons I have already given.

Mister Edward Gage is still being held in the Clink. Th ey have already released his son, George. Th ey never mention the Child of the Miracles now, nor is there any discussion of the Straw. All the talk is of Spain breaking the peace and sending an armada against England. Th e departure of the earl of Tyrone, an Irishman, makes them even more afraid. I see that those who jeered so loudly at Spain and poured scorn on her power are now fearful, the government as well as the people, inside and outside London. If the peace treaty with Holland is a good one, it will be just what this kingdom needs, or at least come as a great relief to the Catholics. If not, it will be a source of great calamity. But Our Lord is powerful enough to draw advantage out of any predicament, be it war or peace. I have been hoping that something good will come from Flanders, but I do not know just what the outcome will be. May Our Lord look mercifully upon it and enlighten our good lord and king, whom He saw fi t to bestow on us.

Th e Superior and all the rest are in good health. Th ree from the Benedictine Order have arrived and two more were on their way. I think they are already here. As for your honour’s brothers, one has come from Germany, another from Rome, plus the one who came from Valladolid. In hurrying, I am not sure if I am getting all this straight. In any case, I have been really ill lately with the heart complaint I suff ered from over there, though I am recovering more quickly now, which is God’s response to necessity. His Majesty does not wish me to be capable of giving up chicken and the like without feeling ten times worse as a consequence, and His most sweet Majesty provides for everything. May He be glorifi ed forever, and may He preserve your honour as I desire.

London, 4 October 1607.

With me is a sister of Mistress Elena Duton, who is a fi rst cousin of Father Gar-net and a good companion. Th e plague is on the increase. 177 have died this week, which is fi ft y more than last week. It is a strange outbreak this one, which never seems to let up.

Luisa

I would really like to have the Lives of the Saints by Basilio Santoro, which was already in print in an expanded and corrected edition in four parts when I left .

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I beg your honour to buy them with any money you have for me. Dear Pedro Marañón will look for them as well as works of Master Ávila, those being the Audi fi lia, with its Life of the author, and the Letters, and that is all. Th e latter should be the latest edition, and also Antonio’s Latin and Spanish vocabulary. Please send them here when you get the chance, either all together or one at a time, sir, or to Flanders with any friends or merchants you can trust a little. Send them to señor Don Pedro, or perhaps his servant (the one who took the dogs) can bring them over with any other things my lady Doña María sends. I kiss her hands many times. I thought to send a letter with Rivas to her ladyship, but they have only just told me, at the very last moment, that he is going, so I am not sending a reply to the duchess of Medina either. I will do that by way of Flanders, and also to Father Espinosa.

To Father Joseph Creswell, of the Society of Jesus. May God preserve him many years, etc.

Madrid.

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Luisa raises the possibility that Mariana might set up a Reformed Augustinian con-vent in the Spanish Netherlands. Ana María de Vergara (rather than Ana María de Çamudio) is most probably the benefactress she has in mind. None of Luisa’s original letters to Mariana are known to have survived; this is unfortunate as the punctua-tion added by Abad to these highly convoluted letters is problematic. For instance, in the passage ‘No hay pensar, señora de mi alma, en su compañía de vuestra merced, porque la hermana pequeña torna de mala gana a entrar en la perserverencia’, Abad sees ‘señora de mi alma’ as Luisa’s invocation of Mariana; in this translation, ‘de mi alma’ is taken to be dependent on ‘no hay’, which leaves both ‘this [poor] soul’ and ‘lit-tle sister’ as oblique references to Luisa herself as she comments on her determination not to abandon England to join Mariana. Th at the idea of leaving London was once again in the air is backed up by the testimony given at the inquiry into her sanctity by the Catalan, Juan de San Agustín, one of the two Augustinian preachers in Ambassa-dor Zúñiga’s household. He recalled that at some stage during the fi ve years he knew her in London, Luisa prompted him to write to Mariana and advise her to leave Spain for Flanders. Luisa had indicated that, if Mariana went to the Netherlands, she might fi nally accept the veil from Mariana. Luisa extricated herself from this promise by subsequently revealing to San Agustín that God had not supported Luisa’s promise in her prayers (Proceso, f. 44v). Incidentally, ‘señora de mi alma’ is a term which Luisa always uses to describe Mariana, although later it is also applied to her cousin, the marchioness of Caracena, and there is a possibility that she addresses Ana de Jesús in this way (see the fragmentary text of L95).

To Mother Mariana de San JoséLondon, 14 December 1607.

To my lady, Mother Mariana de San José, Prioress of the Augustinian Recollect Nuns.

Your honour always owes me a debt of letters, yet I owe you so much for everything else. I hold your honour’s letters in such high regard that I shall never cease to off er you good reason to write them and so remember me in your prayers, madam. I only learnt about this post very late on, and have been caught out with quill in hand. Being in such a hurry, I wonder how it will play in har-

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mony, grating as it is, on the delicate keys of love? So pressed am I, that the fl ow is disturbed at every turn, but as the fl ame rises it sails like a light craft on a calm sea which travels, almost unnoticed, thousands of leagues in a short space of time.

If Our sweet Lord should see fi t to let us see your honour close at hand, how much to His greater glory this would be! Th e Carmelites now have three houses in Flanders, but your order, madam, is even more suited to those lands. With any modest income that could be raised over there, I would try to raise the matter confi dently with her highness from over here, because without that fi nan-cial shield, many would come together to object, of course. If only they knew in Spain how much Spain owes to God and how much less need they now have of spiritual support of this type, not so much energy would be poured into work over there nor would there be much disgust for doing the same to help souls from other lands. Commend this greatly, madam, to Our Lord and all His fl ock.

If only Doña Ana María wanted to go to Valladolid and, once her aff airs had been settled, help out with money, she could visit the prisons of England on the way! What a marvellous venture she has become involved in! I take her to be brave and certainly she is careful. I have written to Doña Ana María Cortés, just as Inés wrote to me about this. But what good could a letter from me do? It is like trying to move an enormous column with an ear of straw, if Our Lord chooses this as his instrument. Yet I accept that in this instance it may meet with success, and so, trusting in your honour’s prayers, I shall cast my net into the sea.

I sail on through this tempest, and once I have overcome my diffi culties with the language I think I shall come to engage more with the enemy, who does not fear me while I have not yet mastered it. Th e heart’s sacrifi ce always grows because whatever one sees increases it, and respite is rare, apart from that which Our Lord gives us inside. To see the Catholics suff er causes dreadful distress and affl iction. Th ey wear them down with every diabolical trick in the book, strip-ping them of their wealth with countless acts of tyranny, just because of their faith. Th ey hold such long and prolix enquiries, leaving no stone unturned, that the last man standing, as it were, can go where he likes. Th ey are all so scattered that many months can go by without two priests coming across each other, or a lay person being able to fi nd a priest when in urgent need of one, at least not without taking enormous precautions fi rst. And generally speaking, because there are so many sects, everything is utterly riven with hearty disputes and intrigues, there being splits between them even over the slightest discrepancy. Unbridled self-interest governs everything, as I think you can see. Now I must tear myself away from any further talk of this land which is full to the brim with the bile of dragons.

I will tell your honour nothing about my rough and ready labours here until there is something more to please the eye, when Our most sweet Lord shall be so pleased.

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Give me news of your health as it is never mentioned in the letters from Madrid. Please, my lady, do not think about this poor soul joining your com-pany, because your little sister has, with bad grace, resolved to carry on with living in this wilderness of the spirit, and what it suff ers will not begin to match bodily suff ering, no matter what is done to it.

Th e other day they told me that Don Pedro and the two Augustinian fathers went out very early, just as I was ready to go to his house for mass. It was already almost ten or just gone, because mass is usually at twelve, and fi nishes at around one. I felt distraught, not knowing if I could fi nd a mass far away let alone nearby. I went to the only place I could be sure there would be one, but they came to the door telling me to go away, because the justice was inside looking for priests. Th en it occurred to me that there were some very poor people in their tiny house quite a long way off , where some people got together in times of need, so I went there and found someone about to say mass, who had just come to England from Spain. Not daring to go out again before the midday meal because of some malicious neighbours, we all ate a very modest meal and I came back drenched and covered in the mud from thereabouts, but glorifying Our Lord, who has so charitably maintained me in this sovereign mercy every day.

Rivas’s departure has been put back a little and this has allowed me to get this far, although with every line I expect a knock at the door asking for my letters. So in order to write to Inés I will fi nish off here, begging Our Lord to preserve your honour as I desire. Amen.

From London, 14 December 1607.

Luisa

To my lady Mariana de San José, Prioress of the Augustinian Recollect Nuns. May God preserve her many years, etc.

Valladolid.

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Th ere are a number of textual issues with this letter. Th e letter is clearly dated 17 December with Abad’s date of the 16th clearly being a typographical error. Further-more, a still earlier date, probably of the 14th, was crossed out. In spite of Abad’s numbering, the possibility remains that it was written aft er the undated L92, also written to Creswell, where Luisa again deals with the polemical writings of the time. Finally, what has survived does not appear to be the fi rst page. As for the ‘liuelo’, it is hard to ascertain what she is referring to as she cites both briefl y and at second hand. It is known that Robert Persons’s A Treatise Tending to Mitigation had arrived in England around this time, and certainly by October 1607, but in this work he was more concerned to argue that Catholics could be loyal in all temporal matters than to defend the exclusive nature of the Church of Rome. It may be that Luisa had caught whiff of a work being prepared by King James. His defence of the oath of allegiance of 1606 also included a full English translation of a trio of works condemn-ing it, viz. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine’s letter to Archpriest Blackwell dated Rome, 18/28 Sept. 1607, along with a pair of papal letters from September 1606 and August 1607. Bellarmine argued that to deny the supremacy of Rome resulted in ‘dissolving of the state of the whole body, and of all the members’, whereas in the fi rst papal brief Paul V had ordered Catholics not to enter Protestant churches, hear their sermons, or take part ‘in their rites or ceremonies’. What is problematic is that, although James had been draft ing this defence of his oath since November 1607, the fi rst printing of Triplici Nodo only appeared in February 1608; for which, see King James VI and I, Political Writings ed. J. P. Sommerville (Cambridge, 1994), esp. pp. 101, 88, and xx. Luisa’s views on the correct training for missionary priests, involving humanistic studies, prayer and mortifi cation, is important since she donated about 14,000 ducats for the Jesuit college in Louvain, though this letter reveals this was only a fraction of what was necessary. Pace Abad, the prince refers to Prince Henry (1594–1612) not to his younger brother, Charles, who was born in 1600. Licentiate Luis Arias, who had worked for her as a lawyer during her long legal battle, had died in 1605 (L29).

To Father Joseph CreswellLondon, 17 December 1607

... they say that, in his little book, he took the opportunity to show that all bish-ops in the world must be subject to the bishop of Rome, or cease being bishops,

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because being a bishop, as well as countless other things and ceremonies that they and the Protestants retain in spiritual matters, are in fact parts separated and removed from the Church of Rome and that they should therefore either acknowledge her authority or not use this category of position, name and offi ce.

A great many priests are still coming over and they tell me that the Catholics are already starting to complain that so many are being sent that the kingdom is full. Th ey say that that most of them are mere youths with little experience and not much in the way of spirit. Aft er they leave the college, I would like to see arrangements made for them to be placed somewhere, but still under the Company’s direction, where they could became versed in greater mortifi cation, prayer and spiritual instruction than was possible during their studies. Th ey have their work cut out in those seven years to get them out of nappies, so to speak, to give them a good education, and to set them on the path to virtue. And yet this is not enough for England, where greater holiness than that is needed. What is more, with the diffi culties of living here, and lack of books, they forget much of their studies. It would be better if they spent six months or a year doing revision, as they do in Spain, because anyone who does not revise cannot be considered well-schooled in letters.

Just lately a youth arrived from Rome but was discovered. I do not know if it was the Council or the bishops of Canterbury and London who found him. I think it was the bishops. Th ey summoned him and asked,

‘Are you Catholic?’‘Yes, I am,’ he replied.‘Have you been in Rome?’‘Yes,’ said he.‘How many masses did you hear, a hundred perhaps?’‘Another two hundred at least’, he replied, so they asked him,‘Are you intending to go to church?’ ‘Yes’, he said, ‘I shall certainly go.’ ‘Well, how can you, being a papist and having heard so many masses in Rome, imagine that this can be done with a clear conscience?’, they asked. He said, ‘I think no such thing, rather that it is very bad to go to church

against one’s conscience.’ ‘Th en how do you propose to go?’, they asked. He said, ‘Th is is not my fault but yours, as you want me to do what is wrong.’

Th ey asked, ‘Are you prepared to take the oath?’He said, ‘Yes, I am.’ ‘Are you able to take it?’, they asked.He said, ‘It cannot be taken without doing wrong and committing a great

sin.’

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‘Well, how is it that you are such a bad man that you want to do something that is wrong?’, they asked.

He said, ‘Th is is not my fault but your fault.’ And to many questions he always replied in the same way, ‘Th is is not my

fault, is your fault’. And when they tried to push him further, he turned the tables on them and said, ‘Th is is your fault’ because you want to force others to do bad things. And so, sir, as a joke, whenever anyone asks why we have done this, that or the other, we have got into the habit of saying, ‘Th is is not my fault, it is your fault’. I wanted to tell you this while the post was waiting to go off , in case it might amuse your honour as it did me.

I received great favour from everything you said, sir, in all four letters I received from you. I was delighted to receive a letter from Doctor Álvarez, as I was to see him free from the encumbrances of marriage, and with such great desire that I think it can only have come from his considerable love for Our Lord. If Rivas does not delay longer than promised, I will write to him with another post, as I am indebted to him for his great charity while I was ill, and I dutifully acknowledge this before God. Please pay for my books, sir, using any money which has been given or will be given to me, because I cannot accept that it should come from the novitiate. If you try to do this, I shall neither accept the books nor ask your honour for anything else.

I wish to know whether you have been able to do anything about this busi-ness involving Arias. Th e removal of the judge was a terrible thing. When I fi rst found out about it, it weighed heavy on my heart, and all because of a letter from Father Espinosa. If Our most sweet Lord sees fi t that those 40,000 ducats for the novitiate should be forthcoming, and that the king should become the patron, then it will be very well set up. In fact he can become patron because it will never be known, the secret being kept between such people as your honour, Father Persons, and the like.

I would love to know, just for me, who they have in mind as the next ambas-sador, just to see if I can more or less gather whether he will be suitable for England. His older servants say that Don Pedro is much healthier here than he was in Spain, but he will not stand for this being said if he fi nds out. Please do not talk about it to his wife, or let anyone know what I have written, sir. He is desperate to leave, and I am not surprised, as it is a very dispiriting existence here. Only those who love to be at complete liberty to sin seem able to enjoy being here, but no other sort of intelligent person given the state it is in. Our Lord let him move back, and I trust He shall.

Th ey say the prince wants to marry in Spain. When Don Pedro went to see him recently, he asked him,

‘When might you go to Spain?’‘Sir, I hope it will be soon,’ he replied.

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So he answered, ‘Look to it that you do not have to leave without me, because I want to go with you. Meanwhile, come to me oft en so we can enjoy ourselves and go hunting.’

How infuriated Don Pedro would be if he got to know I had written this or anything else to your honour. I imagine that is why he sometimes tries so hard to ensure that I do not fi nd out about the messengers. Please burn this letter, sir, and with the utmost care, I beg you.

I shall fi nish off by asking Our Lord to preserve your honour and attend to you in all things, as I would desire for myself.

From London, 17 December 1607.

Luisa

Rivas has been held up for a while for some despatch, perhaps from the Palace. Th ey tell me Don Pedro has fi nished his pouch, but it will go off late, so I am closing mine. I beg you to pass these letters on carefully, sir, as it would not do if they were lost. Some of them have enclosed prints of the kind I usually send.

To Father Joseph Creswell of the Society of Jesus. May God preserve him many years, etc.

Seeing that Rivas has given me time to write to my nuns in Valladolid, I beg your honour not to lose the letters.

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For all her claims to have cut herself off from the world and her family, Luisa’s need to unburden herself from time to time remained powerful; and, perhaps even more than with Mariana de San José, she was most able to express her frailty to Inés. She explains how receiving the transubstantiated bread in public was an ordeal, given her acute sense of unworthiness. Moreover, Luisa never claimed to be particularly mystical, and in her blunt way Inés later said that, as far as she was aware, Luisa did not favour ‘Reuelaçiones o raptos o estassis o como los llaman’ (Inés’s Draft Submission, Proceso, f. 30); therefore, we can only speculate what was understood between the two women when Luisa confi ded that, when God said to her to come to Him, she did, just as she had done in Spain (‘llegaos y llego ynes como alla’). Th e verses she asks for from her collection are nonetheless highly mystical in content, and the ballad about St Igna-tius Loyola is almost certainly Lope de Vega’s poem, En aquella monte serrado, which treats of the fi rst Jesuit’s vision of the Virgin Mary while at Montserrat. Interestingly, she calls Juan de la Cruz’s poem ‘o llaga de amor’ instead of ‘llama’ (i.e., the wound, not the fl ame, of love). Pedro de Reinoso collaborated closely with Mariana de San José and together they founded a convent for Recollect Augustinians in his native city of Palencia. For Inés López, see L30.

To Inés de la Asunción London, 17 December 1607

Even though I do not need your letters to be reminded of you, nor think that mine are necessary for you to fulfi l my wish to remember me to Our Lord, I never want to stop writing to you in whatever way time allows. I do not remem-ber if I wrote to you aft er I received a long one from you a while ago. It certainly had not lost its bloom, in fact it was better than a fresh one! Above all it was very soothing to me, because you give a very detailed account of yourself, revealing, in the course of the discreet story you told, things which are of great comfort to me. Because I wish to see you progress as far as possible in the love of Our Lord, I deserve the favour that you have shown me in this, and may show me in the future.

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You cannot imagine how much worse I feel, as although it might seem over there that this kind of suff ering lift s the spirit easily and increases it in leaps and bounds, experience shows the opposite. Instead it is a life full of obstacles to per-fection, things which hamper the spirit. And whoever does not pay the utmost attention on the path towards pleasing Our Lord will surely lose their footing, as they struggle against the biting cold, with snow and icicles covering all that the eye can see. One searches for fi re, my dear Inés, but rarely does one see a fl ame rise up here or there, and then it is hidden, leaving only that fi re which God knows to be burning within the hearts of his servants, visible to Him alone, beneath the thick skin they present to the world. I do not deny that for those who are fully ablaze in the roaring fi re of God’s love and watchfulness, everything depends on fi nding ways to increase it, because these same challenges to virtue turn into drops of molten gold, and the precious stones and diamonds enveloped in great tribulations and extraordinary suff ering can each lift a soul out of its misery. But woe betide the weak and careless such as myself ! When I consider my vocation and see just what I am, it is with shame that I approach the altar for communion. It feels as though all those present can see this, and it would be a welcome relief to receive communion by myself or somewhere more private. Despite this, I try to hope in my sweet Lord that that day will be the last of my great suff ering and His endless patience, and I pray for it. But I never achieve it, and so my cries of despair grow louder. If I wish to punish myself for once by doing without the bread of heaven, then it seems to me intolerable and brutally excessive, and I am overcome by an emotion which will not consent to my carrying it out. When all is said and done, and I fi nd myself in the hands of the Spiritual Guide who says, ‘Come to me’, and I do go, Inés, as I did over there. I beg you, open the door to the pity I do hope you have for me, help and encourage me, and ask for as many prayers as possible from your holy companions, and from Isabel, our dear sister. If I see that I am at least improving in what hurts me the most, I will gratefully let you know. Sometimes I want to talk about all this with those whom I dearly love, but my refl ections as I explain it cause me so much suff ering that I put them to one side and swap them for thoughts of a diff erent kind about what I owe to God for what I do through Him.

Be so kind as to send me the verses that are in the book I left with you by Father Friar John of the Cross, Adónde te escondiste, amado, O llaga de amor viva and En una noche escura, and a folder which Quirós and Doña Catalina kept hold of, with a romance on Father Ignatius and others on the Nativity. Mind you do not forget, and I am sending you this little image of St Sebastian.

I really need the scissors and spindles for the gold, because here I think they would be very well received, as there is not one person here who knows how to spin gold, and they spend a lot on bringing it from Italy. Even just hearing how it is spun gives people great pleasure. I think it would sell very well, and we can-

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not fi nd any work worth mentioning to do or anywhere that will give it to us, because those who have the shops are all heretics. If you are a Catholic they will not let you have one nor hold any public offi ce whatsoever. Even if I want to send for scissors, I do not know how to go about it, although I expect there must be somebody who will bring them if they are put in a box for Father Creswell. Tell me how you will be able to help me. I would pay a very good price in advance to get some really good ones. If you did not think it would be too much, I would ask for those recently-made ones I left with you. I will give you whatever you want for them and for the spindles, in money, books or anything else.

Keep an eye out just in case Father Richard Walpole leaves the college, as all my things would have to be kept at your convent. I have already written to his honour about this, and I think to the Mother Prioress. Please also send me the recipe for making those little white sugar cakes with cinnamon, and Doña Catalina de Chaves’s marzipans, as we need to avoid idleness and this is what will sell best here.

I kiss the hands of Doctor Martínez. I wrote him a long letter in reply to his last one which came with the verses, as I recall. I shall be very happy if he has received it, and I ask him to remember me in his prayers, and I ask the same of Don Pedro de Reinoso with all due respect and reverence, and likewise of Father Luis de la Puente from the bottom of my heart.

Th e messenger has done me great honour in allowing me time to get this far. If he has not yet gone, I will fi nish off by sending the packet, as they say that Don Pedro has fi nished doing his.

May Our Lord preserve you, my Inés, and give you the health and love that I beg of His Majesty.

London, 17 December 1607.

I am sorry that I have no print to send to Isabel. Our sweet Lord will provide us with one another time.

Luisa

I beg my lady Doña Marina for her blessed help, and that of my lady Inés López, our dear friend.

To my sister, Inés de la Asunción, Recollect Nun of glorious St Augustin. May God preserve her, etc. Valladolid.