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LUISA DE CARVAJAL (1568-1614)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 437 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LUISA DE See also:

CARVAJAL (1568-1614)  , See also:Spanish missionary in See also:England, was See also:born at Jaraicejo in See also:Estremadura on the 2nd of See also:January 1568 . Her See also:father, See also:Don Francisco de See also:Carvajal, was the See also:head of an old and wealthy See also:family which produced many men of See also:note . Her See also:mother, Dona Maria, belonged to the powerful See also:house of See also:Mendoza . Both were See also:people of pious See also:character . The mother died in 1572 from a See also:fever contracted while visiting the poor, and the father took the disease from his wife, and died of it . Luisa and a See also:brother were See also:left to the care of their See also:grand-aunt Maria Chacon, governess of the See also:young See also:children of See also:Philip II . On her See also:death they passed to the care of their maternal See also:uncle, Francisco Hurtado de Mendoza, See also:count of Almazan . The count, who was named See also:viceroy of See also:Navarre by Philip II., was an able public servant in whom religious zeal was carried to the point of inhuman See also:asceticism . His niece attracted his favour by her See also:manifest disposition to the religious See also:life; she sent her own See also:share of See also:dinner to the poor, See also:ate broken meats, wore a See also:chain next her skin, and invited humiliation; and at the See also:age of seven-teen she was instructed by the count to make a surrender of her will to two See also:female servants whom he set over her, and by whom she was repeatedly scourged while naked, trampled upon and otherwise See also:ill-treated . But when Luisa came of age she refused to enter a religious house, and decided to devote herself to the See also:conversion of England . The See also:execution of the Jesuit emissary See also:priest, See also:Henry See also:Walpole, in 1596 had moved her deeply, and she prepared herself by learning See also:English and by the study of divinity . A lawsuit with her brother caused temporary delay, but she secured her share of the family See also:fortune, which she devoted to See also:founding a See also:college for English See also:Jesuits at See also:Louvain; it was transferred to Watten near See also:Saint Omer in 1612, and lasted till the suppression of the See also:Order .

In 16o5 she was allowed to go to England . She established herself under the See also:

protection of the Spanish See also:ambassador, whose house was in the See also:Barbican . From this See also:place of safety she carried on an active and successful propaganda . She made herself conspicuous by her attentions to the See also:Gunpowder See also:Plot prisoners, and won converts, partly by persuasion, partly by helping See also:women of the very poorest class in childbirth,and taking See also:charge of the children . Her activity attracted the See also:attention of the authorities, and she was arrested in 1608 . But the protection of the Spanish ambassador Zuniga, and the See also:desire of See also:King See also:James I. to stand well with See also:Spain, secured her See also:release . In 1613, while staying at a house in See also:Spitalfields, where she had in fact set up a disguised nunnery, she was arrested with all the inmates by the pursuivants of See also:Abbot, See also:archbishop of See also:Canterbury, who had been on the See also:watch for some See also:time . Her release was again secured by the new Spanish ambassador See also:Gondomar, who played with effect on the weakness of King James . By this time, however, the Spanish authorities had begun to discover that she was a See also:political danger to them, and recalled her . Luisa, who had hoped for the See also:crown of martyrdom, was bitterly disappointed, and resisted the order . Before she could be forced to obey she died in the Spanish ambassador's house on her birthday, the 2nd of January 1614 . Her See also:body remained as an See also:object of admiration for months till it was carried back to Spain .

The See also:

original authority for the life of Luisa de Carvajal is La See also:Vida y Virtudes de la See also:Venerable Virgen Dona Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza (See also:Madrid, 1632), by the Licentiate Lorenzo Munoz . It is founded on her own papers collected by her English See also:confessor See also:Michael Walpole . It is largely autobiographical, and contains some examples of her See also:verse . The Vida y Virtudes is summarized by See also:Southey in his Letters from Spain and See also:Portugal (1808) . A life was written by See also:Lady Georgiana See also:Fullerton (1873), in which much that is shocking to See also:modern sentiment is concealed . See also Quatre Portraits de femmes, by La Comtesse R. de Courson (See also:Paris, 1895) . There are several references to Luisa de Carvajal in the Records of the English See also:Province of the Society of Jesus, by Henry See also:Foley (1897-1883) . (D .

End of Article: LUISA DE CARVAJAL (1568-1614)
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