asked leave from the reverend father Buenacasa, then prior of the convent, to go and live with her as a spiritual guide. The prior, foreseeing some great advantage, gave him leave, so he went for good and all to be her lodger and master of the house. When the father was in the house, he began by degrees to give permission to the people now and then to see the blessed, through the glass of a little window, desiring them not to make a noise, for fear of disturbing the blessed in her exercise of devotion: She was in her own room, always upon her knees, when some people were to see her through the glass, which was in the wall between her room and that of the reverend. In a few months after, the archbishop went to see her, and conversed with her and the father Navarro, who was in great friendship with, and much honored by his Grace. This example of the prelate put the nobility in mind to do the same. The viceroy not being permitted by his royal representation to go to her, sent his coach one night for her, and both the father and the blessed had the honor to sup in private with his Excellency. This being spread abroad, she was troubled with coaches and presents from all sorts and conditions of people. Many sick went there in hopes to be healed by her sight; and some that happened to go when nature itself was upon the crisis, or by the exercise of walking, or by some other natural operation, finding themselves better, used to cry out, a miracle, a miracle! She wanted nothing but to be carried on a pedestal upon the ignorant's shoulders: The fame of her sanctity was spread so far, that she was troubled every post day with letters from people of quality in other provinces, so the reverend was obliged to take a secretary under him, and a porter to keep the door; for they had removed to another house of better appearance and more conveniency. Thus they continued for the space of two years, and all this while the reverend was writing the life of the blessed; and many times he was pressed to print part of her life; but the time of the discovery of their wickedness being come, they were ta ken by an order from the holy inquisition.

The discovery happened thus: Ann Moron, a surgeon's wife, who lived next door to the blessed, had a child of ten months old; and, as a neighbor, she went to desire the reverend to beg of the blessed to take the child and kiss him, think ing, that by such an holy kiss, her child would be happy forever. But the reverend desiring her to go her elf ana make the request to the blessed, she did it accordingly. Mary Guerrero took the child, and bid the mother leave him with

her for a quarter of an hour. Ann Moron then thought that her child was already in heaven; but when in a quarter of an hour after, she came again for the child, the blessed told her, that her child was to die the night following, for so God had revealed to her in a short prayer she made for the child. The child really died the night following, but the surgeon, as a tender father, seeing some spots and marks in his child's body, opened it, and found in it the cause of its unfortunate death, which was a dose of poison. Upon this suspicion of the child's being poisoned, and the foretelling of his death by the blessed, the father went to the inquisitors, and told the nature of the thing.

Don Pedro Guerrero, the first inquisitor, was then absent; so Don Francisco Torrejon, second inquisitor went himself to examine the thing, and seeing the child dead, and all the circumstances against the blessed, he then ordered that she and the reverend, and all their domestic servants, should be secured immediately, and sent to the holy inquisition. All things were done accordingly, and this sudden and unexpected accident made such a noise in town, that every body reasoned in his own way, but nobody dared to speak of the inquisitor. At the same time every thing in the house was seized upon, with the papers of the reverend, &c. Among the papers was found the life of the blessed, written by father Navarro's own hand. I said in the beginning that he was bewitched, and so many people believed; for it seemed incredible that so learned a man as he was in his own religion, should fall into so gross an ignorance as to write such a piece, in the method it was found composed; for the manuscript contained about six hundred sheets, which by an order of the inquisitors, were sent to the qualificators of the holy office, to be reviewed by them, and to have their opinions thereupon. I shall speak of these qualificators, when I come to treat of the inquisitors and their practices. Now it is sufficient to say, that all the qualificators, being examinators of the crimes committed against the holy catholic faith, examined the sheets, and their opinion was, that the book entitled the life of the blessed Mary Guerrero, composed by the reverend father Fr. Michael Navarro, was scandalous, false, and against revealed doctrines in the scripture, and good manners, and that it deserved to be burnt in the common yard of the holy office, by the mean officer of it.

After this examination was made, the inquisitors summoned two priests out of every parish church, and two friars out of

every conven, to come such a day to the hall of the holy tribunal, to be present at the trial and examinations against Mary Guerrero, and Michael Navarro. It was my turn to go to that trial for the cathedral church of St. Salvator. We went the day appointed, all the summoned priests and friars, to the number of one hundred and fifty, bes des the inquisitors, officers of the inquisition, and qualificators; these had the cross of the holy office before their breasts, which is set upon their habits in a very nice manner. The number of qualificators I reckoned that day in the hall, were two hundred and twenty. When all the summoned were together, and the inquisitors under a canopy of black velvet, (which is placed at the right corner of the altar, upon which was an image of the crucifix, and six yellow wax candles, without any other light,) they made the signal to bring the prisoners to the bar, and immediately they came out of the prison, and kneeling down before the holy fathers, the secretary began to read the articles of the examination, and convictions of their crimes.

Indeed, both the father and the blessed appeared that day very much like saints, if we will believe the Roman's proverb, that paleness and thin visage is a sign of sanctity. The examination, and the lecture of their crimes was so long, that we were summoned three times more upon the same trial, in which to the best of my memory, I heard the following articles:

That by the blessed's confession to Michael Navarro, this in the beginning of her life says: 1st. That the blessed creature knew no sin since she was born into the world. 2d. She has been several times visited by the angels in her closet; and Jesus Christ himself has come down thrice to give her new heavenly instructions. 3d. She was advised by the divine spouse to live separately from her husband. 4th. She was once favored with a visit of the holy trinity, and then she saw Jesus at the left hand of the Father. 5th. The holy dove came afterwards and sat upon her head many times. 6th. This holy conforter has foretold her, that her body after death shall be always incorruptible; and that a great king, with the news of her death, shall come to honor her sepulchre with this motto: "The soul of this warrior* is the glory of my kingdom." 7th. Jesus Christ, in a Dominican's habit, appeared to her at night, and in a celestial dream she was overshadowe by the spirit. 8th. She had taken out of purgatory

*Guerrero, in Spanish, signifies v arrior.

seven tir es the soul of her companion's sister. (What folly!) 9th. The Pope and the whole church shall rejoice in her death; nay, his holiness shall canonize her, and put her in the litany before the apostles, &c.

After these things, her private miracles were read, &c., and so many passages of her life, that it would be too tedious to give an account of them. I only write these to show the stupidity of the reverend Navarro, who, if he had been in his perfect senses, could not have committed so gross an error -(This was the pious people's opinion.)-The truth is, that the Blessed was not overshadowed by the spirit, but by her confessor; for she being at that time with child, and delivered in the inquisition, one article against the father was, that he had his bed near her bed, and that he was the father of the new child, or monster on earth.

Their sentences were not read in public, and what was their end we know not; only we heard that the husband of the blessed had notice given him by an officer of the holy office, that he was at liberty to marry any other he had a fancy for; and by this true account the public may easily know the extravagancies of the Romish confessors, who, blinded either by their own passions, or by the subtleties of the wicked beatas; do commit so great and heinous crimes, &c.

There is another sort of beatas, whom we call endemonia das, i. e. demoniacs, and by these possessed the confessor gets a vast deal of masses. I will tell you, reader, the nature of the thing, and by it you will see the cheat of the confessor and the demoniac. I said before, that among the beatas there are two sorts, young, and of middle age, but all married; and that the young undertake the way of confessing every day, or three times a week, to get opportunity of going abroad, and be delivered a while from their husbands' jealousies: But many husbands being jealous of the flies that come near their wives, they scarcely give them leave to go to confess. Observe further, that those women make their husbands believe that out of spite, a witch has given them the evil spirit, and they make such unusual gestures, both with their faces and mouths, that it is enough to make the world laugh only at the sight of them. When they are in the fit of the evil spirit they talk blasphemously against God and his saints; they beat husbands and servants; they put themselves in such a sweat, that when the evil spirit leaves them for a while, (as they say,) they cannot stand upon their feet for excessive fatigue. The poor deceiv ed husbands, troubled in mind and body, send for a physician;

but this says, he has no remedy for such a distemper, and that physic knows no manner of devil, and so, their dealing being not with the spirit, but with the body, he sends the husband to the spiritual physician; and by that means they are, out of a good design, procurers for their own wives; for really they go to the spiritual father, begging his favor and assistance to come to exorcise, i. e. to read the prayer of the church, and to turn out the evil spirit out of his wife's body. Then the father makes him understand, that the thing is very troublesome, and that if the devil is obstinate and positive, he cannot leave his wife in three or four nights, and may be, in a month or two; by which he must neglect other business of honor and profit. To this the deluded husband promises that his trouble shall be well recompensed, and puts a piece of gold in his hand, to make him easy; so he pays beforehand for his future dishonor. Then the father exorcist goes along with him, and as soon as the wife hears the voice of the exorcist, she flies into an unmeasurable fury, and cries out, do not let that man (meaning the exorcist) come to torment me (as if the devil did speak in her and for her.) But he takes the hysop with holy water and sprinkles the room. Here the demoniac throweth herself on the floor, teareth her clothes and hair, as if she was perfectly a. mad woman. Then the priest tieth the blessed stole, i. e. a sort of scarf they make use of among other ornaments to say mass, upon her neck, and begins the prayers. Sometimes the devil is very timorous, and leaves the creature immediately easy; sometimes he is obstinate, and will resist a long while before he obeys the exorcisms of the church; but at last he retires himself into his own habitation, and frees the creature from his torments; for, they say, that the devil or evil spirit, sometimes has his place in the head, sometimes in the stomach, sometimes in the liver, &c. After the woman is easy for a while, they eat and drink the best that can be found in the town.

A while after, when the husband is to mind his own business, the wife, on pretence that the evil spirit begins again to trouble her, goes into her chamber and desireth the father to hear her confession. They lock the door after them, and what they do for an hour or two, God only knoweth. These private confessions and exercises of devotion continue for several months together, and the husband loth to go to bed with his wife, for fear of the evil spirit, goes to another chamber, and the father lieth in the same room with his wife on a field-bed, to be always ready, when the malignant spirit comes