dowry. One little detail concerning her haste in entering the
convent has been preserved by the Reforma and the
Bollandists, [9] though neither seem to have understood its
meaning. On leaving the convent of the Incarnation for
St. Joseph's in 1563, St. Teresa handed the prioress of the
former convent a receipt for her bedding, habit and discipline.
This almost ludicrous scrupulosity was in conformity with a
decision of the general chapter of 1342 which said: Ingrediens
ordinem ad sui ipsius instantiam habeat lectisternia pro se ipso,
sin autem recipiens solvat lectum illum. As St. Teresa entered
the convent without the knowledge of her father she did not bring
this insignificant trousseau with her; accordingly the prioress
became responsible for it and obtained a receipt when St. Teresa
went to the new convent. The dowry granted by Alphonso Sanchez
de Cepeda to his daughter consisted of twenty-five measures,
partly wheat, partly barley, or, in lieu thereof, two hundred
ducats per annum. Few among the numerous nuns of the Incarnation
could have brought a better or even an equal dowry.

The date of St. Teresa's profession being thus fixed on the 3rd
of November, 1536, some other dates of the chronology must be
revised. Her visit to Castellanos de la Canada must have taken
place in the early part of 1537. But already before this time
the Saint had an experience which should have proved a warning to
her, and the neglect of which she never ceased to deplore, namely
the vision of our Lord; [10] her own words are that this event
took place "at the very beginning of her acquaintance with the
person" who exercised so dangerous an influence upon her.
Mr. Lewis assigns to it the date 1542, which is impossible seeing
that instead of twenty-six it was only twenty-two years before