The Life Of Saint Teresa Of Avila Carlos Eire by Carlos Eire 9780691164939, 0691164932 instant download after payment.

Kept under lock and key by the Spanish Inquisition for two decades, this book could have been swept into oblivion as mere ashes, since some of its early readers itched to burn it. Alonso de la Fuente (1533–92), a Dominican friar, had this to say about the Vida when he denounced it to the Inquisition: “This book . . . has the venom of heresy within it, so secretly expressed, so well disguised, so smoothly varnished, that those who are ignorant as well as those who are the subtlest of theologians in the world can use it as a sealed and closed manual or as scripture read in the dark of night, unnoticed by Catholic ears.” The only inspiration Teresa could have received, charged Fray Alonso, was from “an evil angel, the same one who fooled Mohammed and Luther and all other heresiarchs.” And the most convincing proof of its demonic derivation, he added, was the fact that Teresa dealt with subjects that “exceeded the capacity of any woman.”1

Fortunately, other early readers were awed by its unique contents, reckoned its rare worth, and kept the flames at bay, circulating some clandestine copies, waiting impatiently for the right moment to share the text with the world. When that moment finally came, not long after the author’s death, this book—which she was ordered to write so theological experts and ecclesiastical elites could discern whether or not she was genuinely holy—quickly became one of the most significant in the Catholic tradition. Then, over the next few centuries, as quarreling cooled among Christians, it gradually gained recognition outside Catholic circles, even in the secular world, as one of the most extraordinary autobiographies ever penned, and as one of the world’s greatest religious books.

Fittingly, as this text prevailed over all who sought to suppress it in its own day, so does it continue to prevail over all reductionist attempts to circumscribe its essence or to wedge its significance into any tidy pigeonhole, spiritual or secular.