am so wicked, I should have sought for others. That which was a
venial sin, they told me was no sin at all; of that which was
most grievously mortal, they said it was venial. [3]

7. This did me so much harm, that it is no wonder I should speak
of it here as a warning to others, that they may avoid an evil so
great; for I see clearly that in the eyes of God I was without
excuse, that the things I did being in themselves not good, this
should have been enough to keep me from them. I believe that
God, by reason of my sins, allowed those confessors to deceive
themselves and to deceive me. I myself deceived many others by
saying to them what had been said to me.

8. I continued in this blindness, I believe, more than seventeen
years, till a most learned Dominican Father [4] undeceived me in
part, and those of the Company of Jesus made me altogether so
afraid, by insisting on the erroneousness of these principles, as
I shall hereafter show. [5]

9. I began, then, by going to confession to that priest of whom I
spoke before. [6] He took an extreme liking to me, because I had
then but little to confess in comparison with what I had
afterwards; and I had never much to say since I became a nun.
There was no harm in the liking he had for me, but it ceased to
be good, because it was in excess. He clearly understood that I
was determined on no account whatever to do anything whereby God
might be seriously offended. He, too, gave me a like assurance
about himself, and accordingly our conferences were many. But at
that time, through the knowledge and fear of God which filled my
soul, what gave me most pleasure in all my conversations with