"Bargains in books are rare today, but one would be hard put to find in American publishing anything superior to these in content and format." The Parish Visitor Francisco de Osuna: The Third Spiritual Alphabet translated and introduced by Mary E. Giles preface by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. "Just to love the exercise of recollection is a gift from God...." Francisco de Osuna (c.1492-1540) Francisco de Osuna (c. 1492-c. 1540) was born in the Seville region of Spain on the eve of that country's golden age of mysticism that saw the sublime achievements of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. Osuna entered the Order of Friars Minor of the Regular Observance when Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros was spearheading a reform movement that encouraged believers to nourish a simple, Christ-centered, inner spirituality. In the midst of the controversy over the nature of true interior prayer that raged during the 1520's between the advocates of recollection (recogimiento) and those who practiced abandon (dejamiento), Osuna wrote a series of maxims as a practical guide for recollection. These he arranged into a series of "Spiritual Alphabets," the third of which appears in this volume. Long recognized for its influence on the famous Spanish Carmelites of the sixteenth century, The Third Spiritual Alphabet is itself a masterpiece of mystical literature that will richly repay those who seek its treasures.

Ana Domenge, who later founded the Dominican convent in Perpignan, composed a written account of her spiritual intimacies with God while being held in terrible conditions in a secret prison in Barcelona. Ines of Herrera del Duque, a leather tanner's twelve-year-old daughter whose messianic prophesies captivated both children and adults, was burned at the stake along with many of her followers. Nine years after the death of Catarina de San Juan, the Inquisition banned copies of her image and biography, fearing that a cult was forming around this popular holy woman in Puebla, New Spain. Inquisitors enlisted the assistance of Mari Sanchez's daughter to prove that this Jewish converso was guilty of practicing Judaism in secret, an accusation that led to her death. In "Women in the Inquisition, " Mary E. Giles brings together scholars from literature, history, and religious studies to explore women's experiences under the Inquisition in both Spain and the New World.

Based on fresh archival work, the essays provide a broader perspective on the Inquisition than has previously been available. Examining the stories of fifteen women in the context of this fearful Catholic institution in both Spain and the New World, the contributors chronicle a broad range of "crimes" against the Catholic Church, including sexual transgressions, the practice of crypto-Judaism, and the writing and preaching by alumbradas that undermined Catholic orthodoxy. The accounts, representing the experiences of girls and women from different classes and geographical regions, also include the trials' vastly divergent outcomes ranging from burning at the stake to exoneration.