Friends and Enemies: The Last Years

Abstract

War resumed in May 1618. The Isabel Clara Eugenia provides a detailed description of the attack by Protestant forces on the Castle of Antwerp. The English and Louvain nuns decided that they did not want to confess to Discalced Carmelite priests, which put them at odds with Ana de San Bartolomé and the hierarchy. Finally, the Congregation in Rome decided that the rebel convents would come under the jurisdiction of their respective bishops, not the hierarchy of the order. Ana’s sadness turned to rage when Anne of the Ascension, the English prioress, attempted to make a new foundation in Bruges under the jurisdiction of the Bishop. Ana’s Meditaciones sobre el Camino de Cristo reveals her distress over these events.