A Handbook to the Life and Times of St. Theresa
and St. John of the Cross. By E. Allison Peers. (Burns Oates. 21s.) THE contribution of the late Professor Peers to the study of religious and cultural life of Spain in the sixteenth century is well known. In his last work he performs the considerable service of writing what is at once an intro- duction and an index to the strange pas- sionate world of the great Carmelites. Part I forms a history of the Carmelite Reform; in Part II there are short bio- graphies of the large number of persons involved as well as lists of convents and chronological tables of events. However, it is St. Theresa and St. John of the Cross who will always interest the general reader: Theresa with her practical organising ability and John with his lyricism and feeling for nature. Anyone who wishes to know some- thing of the world in which they lived should go to Professor Peers: he treats it with sympathy, but throws a more critical eye on
the events he. is recording than historians of the Carmelite order have generally done. The richness of this world is astonishing: fascinating quirks of thought and personality occur at every turn. One day perhaps We shall have a proper investigation into Spanish thought during the siglo d'pro. Professor Peers has done much to pave the way. A.11.
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