Friday, December 17, 2010

Introduction and Prologue - The Way of Perfection - Teresa of Jesus - St. Teresa of Avila


THE WAY OF PERFECTION







         Page Contents



Introduction

Translator's Note                   

General Argument

Protestation

Prologue












   THE WAY OF PERFECTION


by  ST. TERESA OF AVILA
       Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada,

Translated & Edited 
by  E. ALLISON PEERS

from the Critical Editon of

     P. SILVERIO DE SANTA TERESA, C.D.
______________________________________

            The Way of Perfection
_____________________________________


Although St. Teresa of Avila lived and wrote
  almost four centuries ago,
her superbly inspiring classic
  on the practice of prayer
is as fresh and meaningful today
  as it was when she first wrote it.

The Way of Perfection
   is a practical guide to prayer
setting forth the Saint's counsels and directives
   for the attainment of spiritual perfection.

Through the entire work there runs
          the author's desire
  to teach a deep and lasting love of prayer

beginning with a treatment
    of the three essentials of the prayer-filled life
      - fraternal love,
      - detachment from created things, and
      - true humility.

St. Teresa's counsels on these are
   not only the fruit of lofty mental speculation,
   but of mature practical experience.

The next section
   - develops these ideas and
   - brings the reader directly to the subjects
      of prayer and contemplation.

St. Teresa then
   - gives various maxims for the practice of prayer and
   - leads up to the topic which occupies the balance of the book
      --a detailed and inspiring commentary on the Lord's Prayer.

Of all St. Teresa's writings, The Way of Perfection
  is the most easily understood.

Although it is a work of sublime mystical beauty,
   its outstanding hallmark is its simplicity
 which instructs, exhorts, and inspires all those
   who are seeking a more perfect way of life.

"I shall speak of nothing of
which I have no experience,
     either in my own life or in observation of others, or
which the Lord has not taught me in prayer."   -- Prologue

Almost four centuries have passed since St. Teresa of Avila,
  the great Spanish mystic and reformer,
committed to writing the experiences
  which brought her to the highest degree of sanctity.

Her search for, and eventual union with, God
  have been recorded in her own world-renowned writings--
      - the autobiographical Life,
      - the celebrated masterpiece Interior Castle and
      - The Way of Perfection
      - as well as in the other numerous works
        which flowed from her pen while she lived.

The Way of Perfection was written
   during the height of controversy
which raged over the reforms St. Teresa enacted
   within the Carmelite Order.

Its specific purpose was
   to serve as a guide in the practice of  prayer and

it sets forth her counsels and directives
   for the attainment of spiritual perfection through prayer.

It was composed by St. Teresa
   at the express command of her superiors,  
 and was written during the late hours
   in order not to interfere 
        with the day's already crowded schedule.

Without doubt it fulfills the tribute
   given all St. Teresa's works
by E. Allison Peers, the outstanding authority on her writings:

"Work of a sublime beauty
    bearing the ineffaceable hallmark of genius."


  





 CONTENTS


Introduction

Translator's Note:

General Argument

Protestation

Prologue

Chapter 1
   
    Of the reason which moved me
       to found this convent in such strict observance

Chapter 2

    Treats
      of how the necessities of the body 
           should be disregarded and
      of the good that comes from poverty

Chapter 3

    Continues
       the subject begun in the first chapter and
    persuades the sisters to busy themselves constantly
       in beseeching God to help those who work for the Church.
    Ends with an exclamatory prayer

Chapter 4         

    Exhorts the nuns to keep their Rule and
    names three things
       which are important for the spiritual life.
    Describes the first of these three things,
       which is love of one's neighbour, and
    speaks of the harm which can be done 
        by individual friendships

    Appendix To Chapter 4

Chapter 5

    Continues
       speaking of confessors.
     Explains why it is important 
       that they should be learned men

Chapter 6

    Returns to the subject of perfect love, already begun

Chapter 7

    Treats
       of the same subject of spiritual love and
     gives certain counsels for gaining it

Chapter 8

    Treats
      of the great benefit of self-detachment,
      both interior and exterior, from all things created

Chapter 9

    Treats
      of the great blessing that shunning their relatives
        brings to those who have left the world and
     shows how by doing so they will find truer friends

Chapter 10

    Teaches
      that detachment from the things aforementioned 
         is insufficient
         if we are not detached from our own selves and
      that this virtue and humility go together

Chapter 11

    Continues to
      treat of mortification and
     describes how it may be attained in times of sickness

Chapter 12

    Teaches
      that the true lover of God must care little for life and honour

Chapter 13

    Continues to
    treat of mortification and
    explains how one must renounce 
         the world's standards of wisdom
       in order to attain to true wisdom

Chapter 14

    Treats
      of the great importance of not professing anyone
       whose spirit is contrary to the things aforementioned

Chapter 15

    Treats
      of the great advantage which comes
        from our not excusing ourselves,
        even though we find we are unjustly condemned

Chapter 16

    Describes
      the difference between perfection
       in the lives of  contemplatives and
       in the lives of those who are content with mental prayer.
     Explains 
       how it is sometimes possible for God
         to raise a distracted soul to perfect contemplation and
       the reason for this.
     This chapter and that which comes next 
       are to be noted carefully

Chapter 17

   How not all souls are fitted for contemplation and
    how some take long to attain it.
     True humility will walk happily along the road
     by which the Lord leads it

Chapter 18

    Continues
      the same subject and
    shows how much greater are the trials of contemplatives
      than those of actives.
    This chapter offers great consolation to actives

Chapter 19

    Begins to treat of prayer.
    Addresses souls who cannot reason with the understanding

Chapter 20

    Describes
      how, in one way or another, we never lack consolation
      on the road of prayer.
    Counsels the sisters to include this subject continually
      in their conversation

Chapter 21

    Describes
      the great importance of setting out 
        upon the practice of prayer
        with firm resolution and
      of heeding no difficulties put in the way by the devil

Chapter 22

    Explains the meaning of mental prayer

Chapter 23

    Describes
      the importance of not turning back
       when one has set out upon the way of prayer.
    Repeats how necessary it is to be resolute

Chapter 24

    Describes
      how vocal prayer may be practised with perfection and
      how closely allied it is to mental prayer

Chapter 25

    Describes
      the great gain which comes to a soul
       when it practises vocal prayer perfectly.
    Shows how God may raise it thence to things supernatural

Chapter 26

    Continues
      the description of a method for recollecting the thoughts.
    Describes means of doing this.
    This chapter is very profitable for those 
      who are beginning prayer

Chapter 27

    Describes
      the great love shown us by the Lord
        in the first words of the Paternoster and
      the great importance 
        of our making no account of good birth
       if we truly desire to be the daughters of God

Chapter 28

    Describes
      the nature of the Prayer of Recollection and
    sets down some of the means 
      by which we can make it a habit

Chapter 29

    Continues to
     describe methods for achieving this Prayer of  Recollection.
    Says what little account we should make
     of being favoured by our superiors

Chapter 30

    Describes the importance of understanding
     what we ask for in prayer.
    Treats of these words in the Paternoster:
      "Sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum".
    Applies them to the Prayer of Quiet, and
     begins the explanation of them

Chapter 31

     Continues
       the same subject.
      Explains what is meant by the Prayer of Quiet.
     Gives several counsels to those who experience it.
      This chapter is very noteworthy

Chapter 32

    Expounds these words of the Paternoster:
     "Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coelo et in terra."
    Describes how much is accomplished by those
      who repeat these words with full resolution and
    how well the Lord rewards them for it

Chapter 33

    Treats
    of our great need that the Lord should give us
      what we ask in these words of the Paternoster:
      "Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie."

Chapter 34

    Continues
      the same subject.
    This is very suitable for reading after the reception
      of the Most Holy Sacrament

Chapter 35

    Describes
      the recollection which should be practised after Communion.
    Concludes this subject with an exclamatory prayer
      to the Eternal Father

Chapter 36

    Treats
     of these words in the Paternoster:
     "Dimitte nobis debita nostra"

Chapter 37

    Describes
      the excellence of this prayer called the Paternoster, and
      the many ways in which we shall find consolation in it

Chapter 38

    Treats
      of the great need which we have 
         to beseech the Eternal Father
      to grant us what we ask in these words:
       "Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, 
         sed libera nos a malo."
     Explains certain temptations.
     This chapter is noteworthy

Chapter 39

    Continues
      the same subject and gives counsels
       concerning different kinds of temptation.
    Suggests two remedies
       by which we may be freed from temptations

Chapter 40

    Describes
      how, by striving always to walk in the love and fear of God,
      we shall travel safely amid all these temptations

Chapter 41

    Speaks
      of the fear of God and
      of how we must keep ourselves from venial sins

Chapter 42

    Treats
      of these last words of the Paternoster:
      "Sed libera nos a malo. Amen."
      "But deliver us from evil. Amen."

  




   PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS


A.V.--Authorized Version of the Bible (1611).

D.V.--Douai Version of the Bible (1609) .


Letters--Letters of St. Teresa.
Unless otherwise stated, the numbering of the Letters
  follows Vols. VII-IX of P. Silverio.

Letters (St.) indicates the translation
of the Benedictines of Stanbrook (London, 1919-24, 4 vols.).


Lewis--The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, etc.,
translated by David Lewis, 5th ed.,
with notes and introductions
by the Very Rev. Benedict Zimmerman, O.C.D., London, 1916.


P. Silverio--Obras de Santa Teresa de Jesus,
editadas y anotadas por el P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D.,
Durgos, 1915-24, 9 vols.


Ribera--Francisco de Ribera,
Vida de Santa Teresa de Jesus,
Nueva ed. aumentada, con introduction, etc.,
por el P. Jaime Pons, Barcelona, 1908.

S.S.M.--E. Allison Peers, Studies of the Spanish Mystics,
London, 1927-30, 2 vols.

St. John of the Cross--
The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross,
Doctor of the Church, translated from the critical edition
of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D.,
and edited by E. Allison Peers, London,
1934-35, 3 vols.

Yepes--Diego de Yepes, Vida de Santa Teresa, Madrid, 1615.
  
  





  TO THE GRACIOUS MEMORY OF


P. EDMUND GURDON

SOMETIME PRIOR OF THE CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY

OF MIRAFLORES

A MAN OF GOD

INTRODUCTION

We owe this book, first and foremost,
  to the affectionate importunities of the Carmelite nuns
    of the Primitive Observance at Avila,
and, in the second place,
  to that outstanding Dominican who was also
 St. Teresa's confessor, Fray Domingo Banez.

The nuns of St. Joseph's knew something
  of their Mother Foundress' autobiography,
and, though in all probability 
     none of them had actually read it,
they would have been aware
that it contained valuable counsels
   to aspirants after religious perfection,
of which, had the book been accessible to them,
  they would have been glad to avail themselves.

Such intimate details did it contain, however,
   about St. Teresa's spiritual life
that her superiors thought 
   it should not be put into their hands;

so the only way 
   in which she could grant their persistent requests
        was to write another book
dealing expressly with the life of prayer.

This P. Banez was very anxious that she should do.

Through the entire Way of Perfection there runs
     the author's desire
to teach her daughters to love prayer,
   the most effective means of attaining virtue.

This principle is responsible for the book's construction.

St. Teresa begins by describing the reason
  which led her to found 
      the first Reformed Carmelite convent

   --viz.,
      the desire to minimize the ravages
           being wrought, in France and elsewhere,
           by Protestantism, and,
      - within the limits of her capacity, to check the passion
           for a so-called "freedom", which at that time
           was exceeding all measure.

Knowing how effectively such inordinate desires
  can be restrained by a life of humility and poverty,
St. Teresa
   extols the virtues of poverty and
   exhorts her daughters to practise it in their own lives.

Even the buildings in which they live should be poor:

on the Day of Judgment
   both majestic palaces and humble cottages will fall and
she has no desire that the convents of her nuns
  should do so with a resounding clamour.

Chapters 1-3  

In this preamble to her book,
  which comprises Chapters 1-3,
the author also charges her daughters very earnestly
  to commend to God those
      who have to defend the Church of Christ
       --particularly theologians and preachers.

Chaps. 4-15
The next part of the book (Chaps. 4-15)
   stresses the importance
   of a strict observance  of the Rule and Constitutions, and

before going on to its main subject- prayer-
   treats of three essentials of the prayer-filled life -
            - mutual love,
            - detachment from created things and
            - true humility,
               the last of these
                    being the most important and
                    including all the rest.

With the mutual love
     which nuns should have for one another
she deals most minutely,
     giving what might be termed homely prescriptions
        for the domestic disorders of convents
     with the skill which we should expect of a writer
        with so perfect a knowledge 
     of the psychology of the cloister.

Her counsels are the fruit,
     not of lofty mental speculation,
     but of mature practical expedience.

No less aptly does she speak of the relations
     between nuns and their confessors,
so frequently a source of danger.

Since excess is possible even in mutual love,
  she next turns to detachment.

Her nuns must be detached
      from relatives and friends,
      from the world,
      from worldly honour,
    and--the last and hardest achievement--
      from themselves.

To a large extent their efforts in this direction
  will involve humility,
for, so long as we have 
  an exaggerated opinion of our own merits,
       detachment is impossible.

Humility, to St. Teresa,
   is nothing more nor less than truth,
which will give us
    the precise estimate of our own worth
that we need.

Fraternal love, detachment and humility:
   these three virtues,
if they are sought in the way these chapters direct,
   will make the soul mistress and sovereign
over all created things  - a "royal soul",
    in the Saint's happy phrase,
the slave of none
     save of Him Who bought it with His blood.

Chaps. 16-26
The next section (Chaps. 16-26)
   develops these ideas, and
   leads the reader directly
        to the themes of prayer and  contemplation.

It begins with St. Teresa's famous extended simile
  of the game of chess,
in which the soul gives check and mate 
  to the King of love, Jesus.

Many people are greatly attracted
   by the life of contemplation
because they have acquired imperfect and misleading notions
   of the ineffable mystical joys
which they believe almost synonymous with contemplation.

The Saint
   protests against such ideas as these and
   lays it down clearly
that, as a general rule,
    there is no way of attaining to union with the Beloved
         save by the practice of the "great virtues",
    which can be acquired only at the cost
          of continual self-sacrifice and self-conquest.


The favours which God grants to contemplatives
  are only exceptional and of a transitory kind
and they are intended
   to incline them more closely to virtue and
   to inspire their lives with greater fervour.

And here the Saint propounds a difficult question
  which has occasioned no little debate
among writers on mystical theology.

Can a soul in grave sin enjoy supernatural contemplation?

At first sight, and judging from 
  what the author says in Chapter 16,
the answer would seem to be that,
  though but rarely and for brief periods,
       it can.

In the original (or Escorial) autograph, however,
  she expressly denies this,
and states
   that contemplation is not possible for souls in mortal sin,
      though it may be experienced by those
   who are so lukewarm, or lacking in fervour,
      that they fall into venial sins with ease.

It would seem that in this respect
   the Escorial manuscript reflects the Saint's ideas,
        as we know them,
 more clearly than the later one of Valladolid;

if this be so, her opinions in no way differ
  from those of mystical theologians as a whole,
who refuse to allow that souls in mortal sin
  can experience contemplation at all.

St. Teresa then examines a number of other questions,
   on which opinion has also been divided
and even now is by no means unanimous.

Can all souls attain to contemplation?

Is it possible, without experiencing contemplation,
  to reach the summit of Christian perfection?

Have all the servants of God
   who have been canonized by the Church
necessarily been contemplatives?

Does the Church ever grant non-contemplatives beatification?

On these questions and others often discussed 
   by the mystics
much light is shed 
   in the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters.

Then the author crosses swords once more with those
  who suppose
     that contemplatives know nothing of suffering and
     that their lives are one continuous series of favours.

On the contrary, she asserts, they suffer more than actives:
    to imagine that God admits to this closest friendship
          people whose lives are all favours and no trials 
    is ridiculous.

Recalling the doctrine
   expounded in the nineteenth chapter of her Life
she gives various counsels for the practice of prayer,
   using once more the figures of water
 which she had employed
   in her first description of the Mystic Way.

She
  consoles those
      who cannot reason with the understanding,
  shows how vocal prayer may be combined with mental, and
  ends by advising those who suffer from aridity in prayer
      to picture Jesus as within their hearts and
      thus always beside them-- one of her favourite themes.

Chaps. 27-42
This leads up to the subject which occupies her
  for the rest of the book (Chaps. 27-42)  - the Lord's Prayer.

These chapters, in fact,
   comprise a commentary on the Paternoster,
   taken petition by petition,
   touching incidentally upon the themes
            of Recollection, Quiet and Union.

Though nowhere expounding them as fully
    as in the Life or the Interior Castle,
she treats them with equal sublimity, profundity and fervour
    and in language of no less beauty.

Consider, for example, the apt and striking simile
   of the mother and the child (Chap. 31),
used to describe the state of the soul in the Prayer of Quiet,
   which forms one
        of the most beautiful and expressive expositions
    of this degree of  contemplation
         to be found in any book on the interior life whatsoever.

In Chapter 38,
   towards the end of the commentary on the Paternoster,
St. Teresa gives a striking synthetic description
  of the excellences of that Prayer and of its spiritual value.

She enters at some length into the temptations
  to which spiritual people are exposed
when they lack humility and discretion.

Some of these are due to presumption:
they believe they possess virtues which in fact they do not--
  or, at least, not in sufficient degree
to enable them to resist the snares of the enemy.

Others come from a mistaken scrupulousness and timidity
  inspired by a sense of the heinousness of their sins, and
  may lead them into doubt and despair.

There are souls, too,
  which make overmuch account of spiritual favours:

these she counsels to see to it that,
   however sublime their contemplation may be,
they begin and end every period of prayer 
   with self-examination.

While others
   whose mistrust of themselves makes them restless,
are exhorted to trust in the Divine mercy,
   which never forsakes those who possess true humility.

Finally, St. Teresa writes
   of the love and fear of God  --  two mighty castles,
 which the fiercest of the soul's enemies will storm in vain--

and begs Him, in the last words of the Prayer
   to preserve her daughters, and all other souls
        who practise the interior life,
   from the ills and perils which will ever surround them,
         until they reach the next world,
    where all will be peace and joy in Jesus Christ.

Such, in briefest outline, is the argument of this book.

Of all St. Teresa's writings
   it is the most easily comprehensible and
   it can be read with profit by a greater number of people
       than any of the rest.

   It is also (if we use the word in its strictest and truest sense)
     the most ascetic of her treatises;
    only a few chapters and passages in it, here and there,
      can be called definitely mystical.

   It takes up numerous ideas already adumbrated in the Life
     and treats them in a practical and familiar way-
        -objectively, too, with an eye
               not so much to herself
               as to her daughters of the Discalced Reform.

   This last fact necessitates her descending to details
      which may seem to us trivial
    but were not in the least so to the religious
        to whom they were addressed and
        with whose virtues and failing she was so familiar.

Skillfully, then, and in a way profitable to all,
   she intermingles her teaching
          on the most rudimentary principles of the religious life,
             which has all the clarity of any classical treatise,
   with instruction on the most sublime and elusive tenets
              of mystical theology.  
  






                           ESCORIAL AUTOGRAPH


The Way of perfection--or Paternoster, as its author calls it,                       
   from the latter part of its content--was written twice.

Both autographs have been preserved in excellent condition,
the older of them in the monastery of San Lorenzo el Real,
   El Escorial, and
the other in the convent of the Discalced Carmelite nuns
   at Valladolid.

We have already seen how Philip II acquired
  a number of Teresan autographs for his new Escorial library,
among them that of the Way of perfection.

The Escorial manuscript bears the title
   "Treatise of the Way of Perfection",
but this is not in St. Teresa's hand.

It plunges straight into the prologue:
both the title and the brief account of the contents,
  which are found in most of the editions,
are taken from the autograph of Valladolid, and

the humble protestation of faith
  and submission to the Holy Roman Church
was dictated by the Saint for the edition of the book
   made in Avora by Don Teutonio de Braganza -
 it is found in the Toledo codex,
    which will be referred to again shortly.

The text, divided into seventy-three short chapters,
  has no chapter-divisions in the ordinary sense of the phrase,
though the author has left interlinear indications
  showing where each chapter should begin.

The chapter-headings form a table of contents
  at the end of the manuscript
and only two of them (55 and 56) 
  are in St. Teresa's own writing.

As the remainder, however, are
  in a feminine hand of the sixteenth century,
they may have been dictated by her to one of her nuns:
they are almost identical with those which she herself wrote
  at a later date in the autograph of Valladolid.

There are a considerable number of emendations in this text,
   most of them made by the Saint herself,
whose practice was to obliterate any unwanted word
   so completely as to make it almost illegible.

None of such words or phrases was restored
   in the autograph of Valladolid-
    -a sure indication that it was she who erased them,
      or at least that she approved of their having been erased.

There are fewer annotations and additions in other hands
  than in the autographs of any of her remaining works,
     and those few are of little importance.

This may be due to the fact
   that a later redaction of the work was made
for the use of her convents and for publication:

the Escorial manuscript
   would have circulated very little and
   would never have been subjected 
      to a minute critical examination.

Most of what annotations and corrections of this kind
  there are were made 
      by the Saint's confessor, P. Garcia de Toledo,
whom, among others, she asked to examine the manuscript.

There is no direct indication in the manuscript
   of the date of its composition.

We know that it was written at St. Joseph's, Avila,
  for the edification and instruction 
of the first nuns of the Reform,

 and the prologue tells us
   that only "a few days" had elapsed between
         the  completion of the Life and
         the beginning of the Way of perfection.

If, therefore, the Life was finished at the end of 1565
    [or in the early weeks of 1566] [1]
  we can date the commencement of the Way of  perfection
     with some precision.
[But even then there is no indication as to
     how long the composition took and
     when it was completed.]

A complication occurs in the existence,
    at the end of a copy of the Way of perfection
which belongs to the Discalced Carmelite nuns of  Salamanca,
    and contains corrections in St. Teresa's hand,
     of a note, in the writing of the copyist,
    which says:
         This book was written in the year sixty-two-
          -I mean fifteen hundred and sixty-two."

    There follow some lines in the writing of St. Teresa,
       which make no allusion to this date;
     her silence might be taken as confirming it
                    (though she displays no great interest
                     in chronological exactness)
     were it not absolutely impossible to reconcile such a date
       with the early chapters of the book,
     which make it quite clear
        that the community of thirteen nuns was fully established
      when they were written (Chap. 4, below).

There could not possibly have been so many nuns at St. Joseph's
  before late in the year 1563,
in which Mar de San Jeronimo and Isabel de Santo Domingo
  took the habit,

and it is doubtful
   if St. Teresa could conceivably have begun the book
before the end of that year.

Even, therefore, if the reference
   in the preface to the Way of perfection   
        were to the first draft of the Life (1562), and
        not to that book as we know it,
there would still be the insuperable difficulty
   raised by this piece of internal evidence. [2]

We are forced, then,
   to assume an error in the Salamanca copy and
   to assign to the beginning of the Way of perfection,
         the date 1565-6.  

                     __________________


                          Notes  

[1] Cf. Vol. I, pp. 2-5, above

[2] See also the reference,
in the "General Argument" of the Valladolid redaction,
to her being Prioress of St. Joseph's
when the book was written.
Presumably the original draft is meant.






    VALLADOLID AUTOGRAPH.


In writing for her Avila nuns,
St. Teresa used language 
      much more simple, familiar and homely              
  than in any of her other works.

But when she began to establish more foundations
  and her circle of readers widened,
      this language must have seemed to her
            too affectionately intimate, and
      some of her figures and images may have struck her as
             too domestic and trivial,
      for a more general and scattered public.

So she conceived the idea
   of rewriting the book in a more formal style;

it is the autograph of this redaction
  which is in the possession of the Discalced Carmelite nuns
  of Valladolid.

The additions, omissions and modifications
    in this new autograph
are more considerable than is generally realized.

From the preface onwards,
  there is no chapter without its emendations
and in many there are additions of whole paragraphs.

The Valladolid autograph, therefore,  is
  in no sense a copy, or even a recast, of the first draft,
  but a free and bold treatment of it.

As a general rule, a second draft, though often
  more correctly written and logically arranged
  than its original,
is less flexible, fluent and spontaneous.

It is hard to say how far this is the case here.

Undoubtedly some of the charm
  of the author's natural simplicity vanishes,
but the corresponding gain in clarity and precision
  is generally considered greater than the loss.

Nearly every change she makes
  is an improvement; and

    this not only in stylistic matters,
       for one of the greatest of her improvements is
          - the lengthening of the chapters and
          - their reduction in number from 73 to 42,
       to the great advantage of the book's symmetry and unity.

It is clear that St. Teresa intended
   the Valladolid redaction to be the definitive form of her book
since she had so large a number of copies of it made
   for her friends and spiritual daughters:

   among these were
      the copy which she sent for publication
               to Don Teutonio de Braganza and
      that used for the first collected edition of her works
         by Fray Luis de Leon.

For the same reason
   this redaction has always been given
preference over its predecessor
    by the Discalced Carmelites.
  
  




                                       TRANSLATOR'S NOTE


In the text of each of the chapters,
  of the Valladolid autograph
there are omissions--some merely verbal,
  often illustrating the author's aim 
       in making the new redaction,               
  others more fundamental.

If the Valladolid manuscript
   represents the Way of perfection
as St. Teresa wrote it
   in the period of her fullest powers,

the greater freshness and individuality
    of the Escorial manuscript
are engaging qualities, and
   there are many passages in it,
       omitted from the later version,
   which one would be sorry to sacrifice.

In what form, then,
     should the book be presented to English readers?

It is not surprising if this question is difficult to answer,
since varying procedures have been adopted
  for the presentation of it in Spain.

Most of them amount briefly
   to a re-editing of the Valladolid manuscript.

     The first edition of the book,
           published at  Avora in the year 1583,
     follows this manuscript,
           apparently using a copy (the so-called "Toledo" copy)
               made by Ana de San Pedro and
              corrected by St. Teresa;

      it contains a considerable number of errors, however, and
         omits one entire chapter--the thirty-first,
        which deals with the Prayer of Quiet,
            a subject that was arousing some controversy at the time
            when the edition was being prepared.

      In 1585, a second edition
              edited by Fray Jeronimo Gracian,
         was published at Salamanca:
      the text of this follows 
              that of the Avora edition very closely,
         as apparently does the text of a rare edition
              published at Valencia in 1586.

     When Fray Luis de Leon 
              used the Valladolid manuscript
         as the foundation of his text (1588)
      he inserted for the first time
           - paragraphs and phrases 
             from that of El Escorial,
      as well as
          - admitting variants from the copies 
                corrected by the author:

          he is not careful however, to indicate how and where
             his edition differs from the manuscript.

Since 1588, most of the Spanish editions
  have followed Fray Luis de Leon 
with greater or less exactness.

The principal exception
  is the well-known 
    "Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles" edition,
in which La Fuente followed a copy
    of the then almost forgotten Escorial manuscript,
  indicating in footnotes some of the variant readings
    in the codex of Valladolid.

In the edition of 1883, 
   the work of a Canon of Valladolid Cathedral,
         Francisco Herrero Bayona,
  the texts of the two manuscripts 
         are reproduced in parallel columns.

P. Silverio de Santa Teresa gives the place of honour
   to the Valladolid codex,
on which he bases his text,
  showing only the principal variants 
       of the Escorial manuscript
but printing
   the Escorial text in full in an appendix
   as well as the text of the Toledo copy referred to above.

The first translations of this book into English,
   by Woodhead (1675: reprinted 1901) and Dalton (1852),
were based, very naturally,
   on the text of Luis de Leon,
       which in less critical ages than our own
       enjoyed great prestige 
       and was considered quite authoritative.

The edition published in 1911 
      by the Benedictines of Stanbrook,
  described on its title-page as
    "including all the variants"
        from both the Escorial and the Valladolid manuscript,
  uses Herrero Bayona and
     gives an eclectic text based on the two originals
     but with no indications as to which is which.

    The editors' original idea of
       using one text only, and
       showing variants in footnotes,
    was rejected in the belief
        that "such an arrangement would prove bewildering
               for the generality of readers" and
        that anyone who could claim the title of "student"
               would be able to read the original Spanish and
                would have access to the Herrero Bayona edition.

Father Zimmerman, in his introduction,
  claimed that while the divergences between the manuscripts
     are sometimes "so great
  that the [Stanbrook] translation resembles a mosaic
     composed of a large number of small bits, 
        skillfully combined",

    "the work has been done most conscientiously, and
    while nothing has been added to the text of the Saint,
     nothing has been omitted,
        except, of course, what would have been mere repetition".

This first edition of the Benedictines' translation
  furnished the general reader
     with an attractive version of
         what many consider St. Teresa's most attractive book,

   but soon after it was published
     a much more intelligent and scholarly interest
   began to be taken in the Spanish mystics
      and that not only by students
         with ready access to the Spanish original
          and ability to read it.

So, when a new edition of the Stanbrook translation
   was called for,
the editors decided to indicate the passages
   from the Escorial edition
  which had been embodied in the text
    by enclosing these in square brackets.

In 1911, Father Zimmerman,
    suspecting that the procedure then adopted by the translators
would not "meet with the approval of scholars",
    had justified it by their desire
        "to benefit
              the souls of the faithful
              rather than the intellect of the student";

     but now, apparently, he thought it practicable
          to achieve both these aims at once.

    This resolution would certainly
          have had the support of St. Teresa,
    who in this very book describes intelligence
          as a useful staff to carry on the way of perfection.

    The careful comparison of two separate versions
            of such a work of genius
      may benefit the soul of an intelligent reader
      even more than the careful reading of a version
           compounded of both by someone else.


When I began to consider
    the preparation of the present translation
it seemed to me that an attempt might be made
    to do a little more for the reader
        who combined intelligence with devoutness
     than had been done already.

I had no hesitation about basing my version
   on the Valladolid MS.,
which is far the better of the two,
   whether we consider
        the aptness of its illustrations,
        the clarity of its expression,
        the logical development of its argument or
        its greater suitability for general reading.

At the same time, no Teresan
   who has studied the Escorial text
can fail to have an affection for it:

         its greater intimacy and spontaneity and
         its appeal to personal experience
    make it one of the most characteristic 
         of all the Saint's writings--
  
    indeed, excepting
             the Letters and
             a few chapters of the Foundations,
       it reveals her better than any.

     Passages from the Escorial MS.
        must therefore be given:

     thus far I followed 
       the reasoning of the Stanbrook nuns.

Where this translation diverges from theirs
    is in the method of  presentation.

On the one hand
  I desired, as St. Teresa must have desired,
that it should be essentially her mature revision of the book
    that should be read.

For this reason
  I have been extremely conservative
     as to the interpolations admitted into the text itself:
  I have rejected, for example, the innumerable phrases
    which St. Teresa seems to have cut out
          in making her new redaction
    because they were trivial or repetitive,
    because they weaken rather than reinforce her argument,
    because they say what is better said elsewhere,
    because they summarize needlessly [3] or
    because they are mere personal observations
         which interrupt the author's flow of thought, and
          sometimes, indeed, are irrelevant to it.

I hope it is not impertinent to add
  that, in the close study
      which the adoption of this procedure has involved,
   I have acquired a respect and admiration 
               for St. Teresa as a reviser,
       to whom, as far as I know,
    no one who has written upon her has done full justice.

    Her shrewdness, realism and complete lack of vanity
      make her an admirable editor of her own work, and,

     in debating whether or no to incorporate
           some phrase or passage in my text
      I have often asked myself:

          Would St. Teresa have included or omitted this
           if she had been making a fresh revision
              for a world-wide public over a period of  centuries?"

At the same time, though admitting
    only a minimum of interpolations into my text,
 I have given the reader
    all the other important variants in footnotes.

I cannot think, as Father Zimmerman apparently thought,
  that anyone can find the presence
       of a few notes at the foot of each page
   "bewildering".

    Those for whom they have no interest
        may ignore them;
    others, in studying them, may rest assured
       that the only variants not included
            (and this applies
                   to the variants from the Toledo copy
                   as well as from the Escorial MS.)
        are such as have no significance in a translation.

I have been rather less meticulous here
  than in my edition of St. John of the Cross,
where textual problems assumed greater importance.

Thus, except where
    there has been some special reason for doing so,
I have not recorded
    alterations in the order of clauses or words;
    the almost regular use
           by E. of the second person of the plural
           where V. has the first;
    the frequent and often apparently purposeless 
         changes of tense;
    such substitutions, in the Valladolid redaction,
         as those of "Dios" or "Senior mio" for "Senior";
    or merely verbal paraphrases as
              (to take an example at random)
              "Todo esto que he dicho es para . . ."
        for "En todo esto que he dicho no trato . . ."

Where I have given variants
    which may seem trivial
         (such as "hermanas" for "hijas",
          or the insertion of an explanatory word, like "digo")
    the reason is generally
        that there seems to me a possibility
        that some difference in tone is intended, or
        that the alternative phrase gives some slight turn
             to the thought
         which the phrase in the text does not.

The passages from the Escorial version
   which I have allowed into my text 
          are printed in italics.

Thus, without their being given undue prominence
      (and readers of the Authorized Version of the Bible
      will know how seldom they can recall
          what words are italicized
                  even in the passages they know best)
    it is clear at a glance
       how much of the book was intended by its author
          to be read by a wider public than the nuns of St. Joseph's.

The interpolations may be
    as brief as a single expressive word, or
    as long as a paragraph, or even a chapter:

    the original Chapter 17 of the Valladolid MS., for example,
      which contains the famous similitude 
          of the Game of Chess,
    was torn out of the codex by its author
       (presumably with the idea that so secular an illustration
          was out of place)

     and has been restored from the Escorial MS.
        as part of Chapter 16 of this translation.

      No doubt the striking bullfight metaphor
          at the end of Chapter 39
       was suppressed in the Valladolid codex 
          for the same reason.

With these omissions 
  may be classed a number of minor ones--
         of words or phrases
  which to the author may have seemed 
         too intimate or colloquial
   but do not seem so to us.

Other words and phrases have apparently been suppressed
  because St. Teresa thought them redundant,
whereas a later reader finds
  that they
        make a definite contribution to the sense or
        give explicitness and detail
           to what would otherwise be vague, or even obscure. [4]

A few suppressions seem to have been due to pure oversight.

For the omission of other passages
  it is difficult to find any reason, so good are they:
       the conclusion of Chapter 38 and
       the opening of Chapter 41
    are cases in point.

The numbering of the chapters,
   it should be noted,
follows neither of the two texts,
   but is that traditionally employed in the printed editions.

The chapter headings are also drawn up on an eclectic basis,
   though here the Valladolid text is generally followed.

The system I have adopted
   not only assures the reader
         that he will be reading
                 everything that St. Teresa wrote and
                 nothing that she did not write,
   but that he can discern almost at a glance,
         what she meant to be read by her little group
                 of nuns at St. Joseph's and also
          how she intended her work to appear
                 in its more definitive form.

Thus we can see her both
    as the companion and Mother and
    as the writer and Foundress.
In both roles she is equally the Saint.

But it should be made clear
- that
    while incorporating in my text
         all important passages from the Escorial draft
               omitted in that of Valladolid,
     I have thought it no part of my task
         to provide a complete translation
               of the Escorial draft alone, and

- that, therefore, in order to avoid the multiplication of footnotes,
     I have indicated only the principal places
   where some expression in the later draft
     is not to be found in the earlier.

In other words,
  although, 
    by omitting the italicized portions of my text,
      one will be able to have as exact a translation
           of the Valladolid version
      as it is possible to get,
  the translation of the Escorial draft 
      will be only approximate.

This is the sole concession
      I have made to the ordinary reader
   as opposed to the student,

and it is hardly conceivable, I think,
  that any student to whom this could matter
     would be unable to read the original Spanish.

One final note is necessary on the important Toledo copy,
  the text of which P. Silverio also prints in full.

This text I have collated with that of the Valladolid autograph,
   from which it derives.

In it both St. Teresa herself and others
  have made corrections and additions--
     more, in fact, than in any of the other copies extant.

No attempt has been made here
   either to show what the Toledo copy omits
   or to include those of its corrections and additions--
          by far the largest number of them--
   which are merely verbal and unimportant, and
    many of which, indeed, could not be embodied
          in a translation at all.

But the few additions which are really worth noting
  have been incorporated in the text
     (in square brackets
      so as to distinguish them from the Escorial additions)

and all corrections which have seemed to me 
  of any significance
will be found in footnotes.
_________________________________

[3] E.g., at places where a chapter ends in E. but not in V.

[4] One special case of this class is the suppression in V.
of one out of two or three almost
but not quite synonymous adjectives 
  referring to the same noun.  
  





                 BOOK CALLED WAY OF PERFECTION. [5]                  


Composed by TERESA OF JESUS,
         Nun of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel,
addressed to  the Discalced Nuns 
        of Our Lady of Carmel of the First Rule.  [6]

                      General Argument of this Book

J. H. S.

This book treats of maxims and counsels
which Teresa of Jesus gives 
             to her daughters and sisters in religion,           
      belonging to the Convents
which, with the favour of Our Lord
      and of the glorious Virgin, Mother of God, Our Lady,
  she has founded according to
      the First Rule of Our Lady of Carmel.

In particular she addresses it to the sisters
   of the Convent of Saint Joseph of Avila,
 which was the first Convent, and of
 which she was Prioress when she wrote it. [7]

                 __________________________

                                             Notes

[5] With few exceptions,
the footnotes to the Way of perfection are the translators.

Square brackets are therefore not used 
    to distinguish them from those of P. Silverio, as elsewhere.

Ordinary brackets, in the footnote translations, 
     are placed round words inserted to complete the sense.

[6] This title, in St. Teresa's hand, 
appears on the first page of the Valladolid autograph (V.)
which, as we have said in the Introduction,
is the basis of the text here used.

The Escorial autograph (E.) has the
words "Treatise of the Way of Perfection"
in an unknown hand,
followed by the Prologue, in St. Teresa's.
The Toledo copy (T.) begins with the Protestation.

[7] These lines, also in St. Teresa's hand,
follow the title in the Valladolid autograph.

P. Banez added, in his own writing, the words:
"I have seen this book and my opinion of it is written
at the end and signed with my name."
 Cf. ch. 42, below.
  





                                PROTESTATIONS [8]


In all that I shall say in this Book,
I submit to what is taught by Our Mother, the Holy Roman Church;           

if there is anything in it contrary to this,
   it will be without my knowledge.

Therefore, for the love of Our Lord,
I beg the learned men who are to revise it
  to look at it very carefully and
  to amend any faults of this nature
    which there may be in it and
   the many others which it will have of other kinds.

If there is anything good in it,
   let this be to the glory and honour of God
and in the service of His most sacred Mother,
  our Patroness and Lady,
whose habit, though all unworthily, I wear.
                 ________________________

                                     Notes:

[8] This Protestation, taken from T.,
was dictated by St. Teresa
for the edition of the Way of perfection
published at Avora in 1583 by D. Teutonio de Braganza.  
  




                                         PROLOGUE


J. H. S.

The sisters of this Convent of Saint Joseph,   
     knowing that I had had leave
       from Father Presentado Fray Domingo Banes,  [9]                             
          of the Order of the glorious Saint Dominic,  
  who at present is my confessor,
          to write certain things about prayer,

   which it seems I may be able
              to succeed in doing

     since I
      have had to do
              with many holy and spiritual persons,
      have,
              out of their great love for me,
         so earnestly begged me
              to say something to them about this
      that I have resolved to obey them.

I realize that the great love
       which they have for me
     may render
              the imperfection and
              the poverty of my style
           in what I shall say to them
        more acceptable than other books
           which are very ably written
       by those who [10] have known
            what they are writing about.

I rely upon their prayers,
     by means of which the Lord may be pleased
  to enable me to say something
     concerning the way and method of life
  which it is fitting should be practised
                 in this house.

If I do not succeed in doing this,
      Father Presentado,
   who will first read what I have written,
     will either
          put it right or
          burn it,
     so that I shall have lost nothing
          by obeying these servants of God,
      and they will see how useless I am
          when His Majesty does not help me.

My intent is
    to suggest a few remedies
         for a number of small temptations
    which come from the devil, and
    which, because they are so slight,
         are apt to pass unnoticed.

I shall also write of other things,
    according as the Lord reveals them to me
    and as they come to my mind;

  since I do not know what I am going to say
    I cannot set it down in suitable order;

    and I think it is better for me not to do so,
   for it is quite unsuitable
       that I should be writing in this way at all.

May the Lord lay His hand
           on all that I do
   so that it may be in accordance
           with  His holy will;

   this is always my desire,
       although my actions may be as
   imperfect as I myself am.

I know that I am lacking
       neither in love
        nor in desire to do all I can
            to help the souls of my sisters
        to make great progress
            in the service of the Lord.

It may be that
      -  this love,
      -  together with my years and
      -  the experience which I have
              of a number of convents,
   will make me
       more successful
              in writing about small matters
       than learned men can be.

For these,
          being themselves strong and
          handing other
              and more important occupations,
    do not always pay such heed to things
          which in themselves seem of no importance
    but which may do great harm to persons
           as weak as we women are.


  For the snares laid by the devil
       for strictly cloistered nuns
               are numerous
       and he finds that he needs new weapons
               if he is to do them harm.

       I, being a wicked woman,
           have defended myself but ill,

       and so I should like my sisters
           to take warning by me.

I shall speak of nothing
     of which I have no experience,
           either in my own life
           or in the observation of others,
           or which the Lord has not taught me
                      in prayer.

A few days ago I was commanded
    - to write an account of my life
    - in which I also dealt
         with certain matters concerning prayer.

It may be that my confessor will not wish you
         to see this,
   for which reason I shall set down here
       some of the things
                which I said in that book and
       others which may also seem to me necessary.

May the Lord direct this,
    as I have begged Him to do,
    and order it for His greater glory.
Amen.
                    __________________

                                     Notes:

[9] The words "Fray Domingo Banes" are crossed out,
probably by P. Banez himself.
T. has: "from the Father Master Fray Domingo Banez,
Professor at Salamanca."
Banez was appointed to a Chair
at Salamanca University in 1577.

[10] The pronoun (quien) in the Spanish is singular,
but in the sixteenth century it could have plural force
and the context would favour this.

A manuscript note in V., however
(not by P. Banez, as the Paris Carmelites--
Oeuvres, V, 30--suggest),
evidently takes the reference to be to St. Gregory,
for it says:
"And he wrote something on Job,
and the Morals, importuned by servants of God,
and trusting in their prayers, as he himself says."  
  




         End   of   


      Introduction






     Translator's Note                   

     General Argument

     Protestation

      Prologue