rm as a definite national
policy, and the grandson and great-grandson of Isabella, Charles V. and
his son, King Philip, showed themselves equally ardent in the defence of
the Catholic faith, even if their ardor did not lead them to treat with
inhumanity some member of their own family. Spain gloried in this
religious leadership, exhausted herself in her efforts to maintain the
cause of Rome in the face of the growing force of the Reformation, and
not only sent her sons to die upon foreign battlefields, but ruthlessly
took the lives of many of her best citizens at home in her despairing
efforts to wipe out every trace of heresy. This whole ecclesiastical
campaign produced a marked change in the character of the Spanish
people; they lost many of their easy-going ways, while retaining their
indomitable spirit of national pride, and became stern, vindictive, and
bigoted. In the process of this transformation, the women of the country
were perhaps in advance of the men in responding to the new influences
which were at work upon them. The number of convents increased rapidly,
every countryside had its wonder-working nun who could unveil the
mysteries of the world while in the power of some ecstatic trance, and
women everywhere were the most tireless supporters of the clergy. It was
natural that this should be the case, for there was a nervous excitement
in the air which was especially effective upon feminine minds, and the
Spanish woman in particular was sensitive and impressionable and easily
influenced. Among all of the devout women of this age living a
conventual life, the most distinguished, beyond any question, was
Teresa de Cepeda, who is perhaps the favorite saint of modern Spain
to-day.

Teresa's early life resembled that of any other well-born young girl of
her time, although she must have enjoyed rather exceptional educational
advantages, as her father was a man of scholarly instincts, who took an
interest in his daughter's development and sedulously cultivated her
taste for books. When Teresa was born in 1515, the Spanish romances of
chivalry and knight-errantry were in the full tide of their popularity;
and as soon as the little girl was able to read, she spent many hours
over these fascinating tales. Endowed by nature with a very unusual
imagination, she was soon so much absorbed in these wonder tales, which
were her mother's delight, that she often sat up far into the night to
finish the course of some absorbing