Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Tracy Vie Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. When we
Speaker 1: were talking about Bodiam Castle not long ago, Holly, you
Speaker 1: mentioned that medieval history is one of my favorites. Would
Speaker 1: you like to know what my first thought was? Of
Speaker 1: course I would. I haven't done any of that and
Speaker 1: so long now. The reason that's funny is I had
Speaker 1: just done like two weeks before that. The thing is
Speaker 1: Zoe and Theodora. While great, they they're not quite in
Speaker 1: my very favorite niche of medieval history because what I
Speaker 1: really really love is all the mystics and the abbesses
Speaker 1: and the anchor rights and like the writing that they
Speaker 1: have left behind about their lives and they're ariants in
Speaker 1: the world. And it's been way longer since we covered
Speaker 1: something in that particular focus. I think the last time
Speaker 1: with that was Julian of Norwich, which was back in
Speaker 1: so longer ago than Zoe and Theodora. So today we
Speaker 1: have Terrace it a Carda Hana who was a nun
Speaker 1: in what's now Spain in the fifteenth century. Terrace It
Speaker 1: a Carta Hana lived in a society that considered women
Speaker 1: to be inferior, and she was also deaf and chronically ill,
Speaker 1: living in a society that considered that to be a
Speaker 1: divine punishment rather than just part of the human condition.
Speaker 1: And her family were also Conversos that her her grandfather
Speaker 1: had converted from Judaism to Christianity, and that was at
Speaker 1: a time when persecution against both Jews and Conversos was
Speaker 1: really widespread. So there was a lot that was working
Speaker 1: against her. And in spite of all that, she wrote
Speaker 1: to treatises that have survived until today, and those two
Speaker 1: treatises represent multiple firsts in Spanish history. Teresa was part
Speaker 1: of the Cartagena Santa Maria family, who lived in the
Speaker 1: Kingdom of Castile in what is now Spain. Spain as
Speaker 1: we know it today did not exist yet. Instead, the
Speaker 1: Iberian Peninsula was divided into five kingdoms, Castile, Leon, Aragon, Navarre,
Speaker 1: and Portugal, which were all under Christian rule, as well
Speaker 1: as the Islamic Emirate of Granada. So, as we noted earlier,
Speaker 1: the family had Jewish ancestry, but they had converted to
Speaker 1: Christianity by the time Teresa was born. Teresa's grandfather had
Speaker 1: originally been known as Selomo ha Levi, and he had
Speaker 1: been the chief rabbi of the city of Burgos. He
Speaker 1: had been one of the city's most prominent Jewish citizens,
Speaker 1: and at this time Burgos was home to the largest
Speaker 1: Jewish community in the Kingdom. But on July one of
Speaker 1: thirty or one, he converted to Christianity along with four sons,
Speaker 1: a daughter, and his three brothers. His wife refused to
Speaker 1: convert and their marriage was dissolved at the time of
Speaker 1: his conversion. He was baptized as Pablo de Santa Maria,
Speaker 1: and sometimes his name is anglicized as Paul of Burgos.
Speaker 1: People converted from Judaism to Christianity for a lot of
Speaker 1: different reasons during this era. In some cases it was
Speaker 1: a genuine act of religious conviction, but in others, people
Speaker 1: in a position of relative power or security realized that
Speaker 1: they could only stay in that position if they converted.
Speaker 1: So that might be a pragmatic decision or one that
Speaker 1: was really made under duress, but a lot of the
Speaker 1: time it was not a freely made choice at all.
Speaker 1: Many people converted to try to escape persecution or violence.
Speaker 1: There were also forced baptisms and people who converted only
Speaker 1: under the threat of death. During this time. Much of
Speaker 1: Pablo's own writing about his conversion has not survived. Historians
Speaker 1: have cited his personal ambitions and a fascination with Thomas
Speaker 1: Akeness as possible factors. The timing of the families conver
Speaker 1: Jian is relevant as well. Anti Semitic persecution and violence
Speaker 1: had been increasing in the region since the early twelfth century.
Speaker 1: It had worsened in the wake of the Black Death
Speaker 1: in the mid hundreds, and then during the Castilian Civil War.
Speaker 1: This war pitted the monarch paid for the First against
Speaker 1: his half brother, Enrique the Second. Pedro was believed to
Speaker 1: be friendlier and more sympathetic toward the kingdom's Jewish population
Speaker 1: than his predecessors had been, and Enrique used this as leverage,
Speaker 1: whipping up anti Semitic resentments and attacking Jewish communities directly.
Speaker 1: Enrique the Second ultimately defeated Pedro and took the throne
Speaker 1: in thirteen sixty nine, and as king, he issued decrees
Speaker 1: that further restricted Jewish people's rights. Then, on ash Wednesday
Speaker 1: of art Deacon Ferrando Martinez led a mob against the
Speaker 1: Jewish community of Seville, killing at least four thousand people
Speaker 1: and baptizing others by force. Anti Semitic violence spread from there,
Speaker 1: including to Burgos, where most of the Jewish population was
Speaker 1: forcibly baptized to raise. His grandfather and his family converted
Speaker 1: to Christianity either about a year before or shortly after
Speaker 1: all this happened, so it seems incredibly likely that the
Speaker 1: increasing hostility and violence, and possibly this specific massacre, were
Speaker 1: also part of this decision. Pablo to Santa Maria had
Speaker 1: been one of the most prominent people in the Jewish
Speaker 1: community of Burgos before his conversion, and he continued to
Speaker 1: rise in prominence as part of the Christian community afterward.
Speaker 1: By fourteen o two, he had been named Bishop of Cartagena.
Speaker 1: In fourteen twelve he became Bishop of Burgos. He served
Speaker 1: as a royal chancellor in the courts of both Enrique
Speaker 1: the Third and One the Second of Castile, and was
Speaker 1: one of Juan's tutors when he was still a boy.
Speaker 1: In these roles, he also worked against the Jewish community
Speaker 1: that he had previously been part of. He drafted anti
Speaker 1: Jewish laws in his work as chancellor. He also became
Speaker 1: a favorite of Antipope Benedict the thirteenth who issued a
Speaker 1: broadly anti Semitic bull in fourteen fifteen. So this was
Speaker 1: during the Western Schism, That's when the Pope in Rome
Speaker 1: was being opposed by an antipope in Avignon, and so
Speaker 1: even though Benedict's bull wasn't really officially connected to the
Speaker 1: formal Catholic Church in Rome, it did influence later bulls
Speaker 1: that were issued by other popes as well. Discussed in
Speaker 1: a bit. This wasn't necessarily typical of conversos, but the
Speaker 1: Santa Maria family became very powerful and well connected. Diplomats
Speaker 1: and royals were frequent guests at the family home. Other
Speaker 1: notable people in the family included Pablo's brother, Alvar Garcia
Speaker 1: de Santa Maria, who was a royal scribe and chronicler
Speaker 1: in the court of one the second Pablo's son, Gonzalo
Speaker 1: Garcia de Santa Maria, was a diplomat as well as
Speaker 1: a professor at the University of Salamanca and became Bishop
Speaker 1: of Placentia. Another son was Alonso de Cartagena, who was
Speaker 1: a bishop and a scholar. He translated works by Seneca
Speaker 1: and Cicero and wrote a commentary on Aristotle's ethics. Pedro's
Speaker 1: third son was Pedro de Cartagenah, who was Terrace's father.
Speaker 1: He was a knight in the court of One the
Speaker 1: Second and a counselor to several monarchs. These included Enrique
Speaker 1: the Fourth, who came to power in fourteen fifty four,
Speaker 1: as well as Fernando and Isabel, who united the kingdoms
Speaker 1: of Aragon and Castile when they got married in fourteen
Speaker 1: sixty nine. Teresa was born into this family sometime around
Speaker 1: four Her mother was Maria de Serabia, and Teresa was
Speaker 1: their second daughter, probably their third or fourth child, and
Speaker 1: there's really not a lot of documentation about her or
Speaker 1: her life. This was not uncommon, It was true of
Speaker 1: all of the women in her family. Most of the time,
Speaker 1: their names only appear in things like Will's marriage documents
Speaker 1: and birth documents. Were their firstborn sons. However, based on
Speaker 1: the evidence that we have, the family does seem to
Speaker 1: have prioritized education for all of their children, regardless of
Speaker 1: their gender. Teresa wrote that she attended the University of Salamanca,
Speaker 1: and that's something that was probably only possible thanks to
Speaker 1: her uncle being a professor there. Since women were not
Speaker 1: allowed to formally enroll, and it doesn't seem as though
Speaker 1: Teresa was the only one of her sisters to be educated.
Speaker 1: There's also a record in the family library which was
Speaker 1: very expansive of one of her sisters checking out a
Speaker 1: volume by Roman scholar and philosopher Boetheus. This was written
Speaker 1: in Castilian and Latin, which means that she could read
Speaker 1: one or both of those languages. Also, according to these
Speaker 1: library records, she never returned that book, which I just
Speaker 1: find hilarious. Her fine was levied by the modern era
Speaker 1: and it's twenty two million dollars. There is one document
Speaker 1: detailing members of the family that suggests that Teresa was
Speaker 1: betrothed at some point, but the identity of her fiance
Speaker 1: is a little bit vague, and we do not know
Speaker 1: why they didn't marry. Instead, Teresa became a nun, and
Speaker 1: we're going to talk more about that after a sponsor break. So,
Speaker 1: as we said earlier, there's just not a lot of
Speaker 1: documentation of Teresa to Cartagena's life. One of the surviving
Speaker 1: documents we do have is a petition that her uncle Alonso,
Speaker 1: Bishop of Burgos, submitted to Pope Nicholas the Five at
Speaker 1: the Vatican. He did that on her behalf in April
Speaker 1: of fourteen forty nine. She would have been in her
Speaker 1: early twenties at that point. Alonso was requesting that she
Speaker 1: be allowed to transfer from the Franciscan order to the
Speaker 1: Cistercians or the Benedictines. When he made this request, she
Speaker 1: was probably a Clarion nun also known as the Poor
Speaker 1: Claire's in the Franciscan monastery of Burgos. Alonso doesn't give
Speaker 1: a specific reason for this request. At the time, it
Speaker 1: was only considered acceptable to change religious orders if you
Speaker 1: were moving to one that was perceived as being stricter
Speaker 1: than the one that you were leaving. Leaving the Franciscans
Speaker 1: at all was considered apostasy, which is why the request
Speaker 1: had to go to the Vatican. Alonso just says that
Speaker 1: Teresa is quote no longer able to remain comfortably with
Speaker 1: peace of mind in a monastery and order of this
Speaker 1: type for specific and reasonable causes. He says that she
Speaker 1: had found quote a kind welcome with both the Cistercians
Speaker 1: and the Benedictines, sort of suggesting that maybe her welcome
Speaker 1: had not been very kind with the Franciscans. This could
Speaker 1: have been something as simple as a personality conflict, but
Speaker 1: it's also possible that this was related to Terrace's status
Speaker 1: as a conversa. Although Terrace's own family had become even
Speaker 1: more powerful and prominent after their conversion, a lot of
Speaker 1: times this was just not the case. Many Jewish people
Speaker 1: saw conversos as traders and apostates, and a lot of
Speaker 1: Christians viewed them with suspicion, believing that their conversions were
Speaker 1: not genuine and that they were still secretly Jewish. This
Speaker 1: could linger even generations after a conversion, with old Christians
Speaker 1: whose families all was had been Christian seeing new Christians
Speaker 1: as a threat. Some of this was directly connected to
Speaker 1: anti Semitism, but within some monastic communities there was also
Speaker 1: a perception that new Christians were more likely to have
Speaker 1: unorthodox beliefs that bred division and religious descent. During Raise
Speaker 1: the Dakartaganah's lifetime, that Franciscan order was becoming increasingly anti converso,
Speaker 1: and some of the loudest anti converssive voices in the
Speaker 1: church were Franciscan, and in January of fourteen forty nine,
Speaker 1: just a few months before her uncle Alonso made this petition,
Speaker 1: anti Converso riots had started in Toledo and then spread
Speaker 1: to other are parts of Castile. This uprising started after
Speaker 1: Chief Minister Alvaro de Luna levied a tax to help
Speaker 1: pay for a war, and that tax was to be
Speaker 1: collected by a tax collector who was a conversio. Pedro Sarmiento,
Speaker 1: who was a local official, first attacked this tax collector's property,
Speaker 1: and then he rallied a much larger attack on the
Speaker 1: Converso population in general. More than twenty people were killed
Speaker 1: and many new Christians homes were destroyed. In the wake
Speaker 1: of this violence. Alonso de Cartagena wrote Defense Sorrium Unitatis
Speaker 1: Christiana or Defense of Christian Unity, which was a biblical,
Speaker 1: legal and philosophical defense of conversos from discrimination and violence.
Speaker 1: He argued that God had saved all of humanity and
Speaker 1: that these types of divisions went against God's law. It's
Speaker 1: possible that, considering the Franciscan Order's attitudes, increasing anti Converso
Speaker 1: violence in general, and Alonso's own argument on this subject,
Speaker 1: that he felt compelled to act on Terrace's behalf, or
Speaker 1: it's entirely possible that she actually went to him for help.
Speaker 1: We just really do not know. Yeah, whatever the situation was,
Speaker 1: the Vatican approved Alonso's request. Terrace A most likely moved
Speaker 1: to the Cistercian monastery of Huelgas, which is just outside Burgos.
Speaker 1: Records for most of these religious communities haven't survived until today.
Speaker 1: In some cases they were destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars,
Speaker 1: so there's some conjecture here, but this would have been
Speaker 1: a really logical choice. It was in Burgos, so Teresa
Speaker 1: wouldn't have had to move very far, and it was
Speaker 1: also a really prestigious monastery. It was a popular choice
Speaker 1: for wealthy and high ranking people to send their daughters
Speaker 1: to to be educated. So this was a respected enough
Speaker 1: religious community that terraces being there would have reflected really
Speaker 1: well on the rest of her family, including her uncle Alonso.
Speaker 1: In May of fourteen forty nine, Alonso followed up with
Speaker 1: a set petition to the Vatican, this time requesting that
Speaker 1: Teresa be granted whatever stipend was common among the nuns
Speaker 1: of her new order, and requesting that she be eligible
Speaker 1: to become abbess in her new community when she reached
Speaker 1: the age of twenty five. This petition was also granted,
Speaker 1: so these two petitions are pretty new discoveries. They were
Speaker 1: published as part of a doctoral thesis in two thousand one,
Speaker 1: and from there they caught the attention of established scholars
Speaker 1: of Teresa to Cartagena and her work, and since then
Speaker 1: historians have drawn a couple of logical conclusions from these
Speaker 1: two documents. One is that, based on the text of
Speaker 1: the second petition, Teresa hadn't turned twenty five yet in
Speaker 1: fourteen forty nine, so that helps narrow down the year
Speaker 1: of her birth. Then the other is that at this
Speaker 1: point Teresa could still hear, because if she had been deaf,
Speaker 1: she would not have been considered a candidate to become
Speaker 1: an abbess. In July of fourteen fifty three, Alonso de
Speaker 1: Carta Hana drafted a ill that bequeath Terrace so one
Speaker 1: florins quote to subsidize her maintenance. He died on July twelve,
Speaker 1: fourteen fifty six, so that's three years later, and based
Speaker 1: on time frames into Race's own writing, that is also
Speaker 1: around the same time that she became deaf. That writing
Speaker 1: was Arbaldela Delos and Thermos, or Grove of the Infirm,
Speaker 1: and in this work she describes being chronically ill during
Speaker 1: her childhood and adolescence, and then becoming deaf in her prime,
Speaker 1: and then, based on how people typically bracketed their ages
Speaker 1: during the medieval period, that would have been sometime in
Speaker 1: her late twenties or early thirties. In Grove of the Infirm,
Speaker 1: she describes having been deaf for about twenty years at
Speaker 1: the time of actually writing that, so she was probably
Speaker 1: in her forties or fifties when she wrote this, and
Speaker 1: that would have been some time in the fourteen seventies
Speaker 1: or eighties, So we'll get into more details shortly, but
Speaker 1: Grove of the Infirm is an account of Terrace's own
Speaker 1: experience with deafness and an exploration of how it ultimately
Speaker 1: brought her closer to God. Its second half is an
Speaker 1: extended meditation on the virtue of patients, and after it
Speaker 1: began to circulate outside of her monastery, people accused her
Speaker 1: of plagiarizing it, so a couple of years later she
Speaker 1: wrote Admirascion operam Day, or wonder at the Works of God,
Speaker 1: which defended her own right as a woman to write.
Speaker 1: So both of these works suggest that Teresa was really
Speaker 1: well read, especially when it came to works of religion
Speaker 1: and philosophy. Both of these treatises incorporate her interpretations of
Speaker 1: Bible verses, and they draw from the work of a
Speaker 1: lot of other philosophers and theologians. This includes the work
Speaker 1: of St. Augustine of Hippo Roman philosopher Belitheus, St. Jerome
Speaker 1: of Strident, Pope Gregory the First, and Sat. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Speaker 1: These treatises each represent some firsts in Spanish literature. The
Speaker 1: consulario is a literary genre encompassing various works of consolation
Speaker 1: and comfort, including things like poems, songs, treatises, and orations.
Speaker 1: Grove of the Infirm is part of this genre, and
Speaker 1: while these types of works were widely read and distributed,
Speaker 1: it's the only one from fifteenth century Spain that we
Speaker 1: have from a woman's perspective. This is also probably the
Speaker 1: first work on deafness by a deaf person in Spanish literature.
Speaker 1: Wonder At the Works of God is described as Spain's
Speaker 1: first piece of feminist literature. It was also written during philosophical, literary,
Speaker 1: and ethical debates about the nature of women and women's
Speaker 1: place in society that was taking place in fifteenth century Spain,
Speaker 1: and Wonder At the Works of God is the only
Speaker 1: contribution to that conversation that was written by a woman.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about these works in some more detail after
Speaker 1: another sponsor break to raise the Cartagenah's grove of the firm.
Speaker 1: It's not exactly an autobiography. She really doesn't say much
Speaker 1: about herself or her life at all. The only place
Speaker 1: where she's even personally identified by name is in the prologue,
Speaker 1: which was written by a copyist and not by her.
Speaker 1: The copyist gives Terraces name and says that she's a nun,
Speaker 1: but it omits the name of her order. Not sure
Speaker 1: if that's accidental or deliberate. Teresa also does not say
Speaker 1: much at all about her monastic community or her daily
Speaker 1: life there. Instead, she writes at length about her own
Speaker 1: experience with deafness, something she describes as profoundly isolating. She
Speaker 1: describes feeling shut off from the rest of the world,
Speaker 1: metaphorically taken to an island that she calls opprobrium hominum
Speaker 1: at abiecio plebus, or the scorn of all mankind and
Speaker 1: outcast people. That sounds bleak to me, but really this
Speaker 1: would have been especially isolating for her given the time.
Speaker 1: While the deaf community. Today, a tends to describe deafness
Speaker 1: as a difference rather than a disability. That was just
Speaker 1: not the case in fifteenth century Spain. Deafness was seen
Speaker 1: as a disability, and disabilities were seen as punishments from God,
Speaker 1: and they were heavily stigmatized. Deaf people were also marginalized
Speaker 1: under Spanish law, especially if they couldn't speak. People who
Speaker 1: couldn't speak could not inherit property, and that was something
Speaker 1: that was in effect until the sixteenth century. Although there
Speaker 1: were some efforts to teach deaf children to speak, because
Speaker 1: of this legal requirement for inheritance, there was really no
Speaker 1: system of deaf education when Teresa lived. That wouldn't really
Speaker 1: happen until the sixteenth century either, So because of all
Speaker 1: of this stigma and other barriers, it's unlikely that Teresa
Speaker 1: had many or even any other deaf people around her
Speaker 1: to share their experiences and knowledge with her. And although
Speaker 1: there were monastic sign languages going back to at least
Speaker 1: the tenth century, these were typically more oriented towards necessary
Speaker 1: communications during periods of silence, rather than things like daily
Speaker 1: conversations or providing interpretation during religious lessons or services. Basically,
Speaker 1: Teresa would have been surrounded by hearing people in an
Speaker 1: environment that had very little in the way of accessibility.
Speaker 1: To add to all of that, her uncle Alonso to
Speaker 1: Cartagenah's death at around the same time that she became
Speaker 1: deaf might have added another layer to her grief. That's
Speaker 1: compounded by a passage and grove of the infirm that
Speaker 1: some historians and literary critics have interpreted as being a
Speaker 1: reference to her own family quote. Even if one is
Speaker 1: the son of a duke, an admiral, or a marquise,
Speaker 1: if he is inflicted with a great suffering or an
Speaker 1: embarrassing wound, not only his friends and relatives hold him
Speaker 1: in contempt, but his own father and mother will dispatch
Speaker 1: him quickly from their house and put him where he
Speaker 1: can cause no detriment or disorder. So there's some speculation here,
Speaker 1: but it's possible that by losing her uncle, Teresa was
Speaker 1: really losing her biggest supporter within her family. Although Teresa
Speaker 1: could speak after becoming deaf, she chose not to. She
Speaker 1: wrote that the highest purpose of speech was to praise God,
Speaker 1: although in her opinion, that was really the last thing
Speaker 1: that most people were using it for. But its second
Speaker 1: highest purpose was to ask questions and be answered, and
Speaker 1: that was something she felt she couldn't do after losing
Speaker 1: her hearing. She wrote quote speech is pointless without hearing,
Speaker 1: like faith without works, and she described her vow of
Speaker 1: silence as something that God had commanded her to do.
Speaker 1: Although her writing contains a lot of bitterness and grief
Speaker 1: around her hearing loss, Grove of the Infirm is also
Speaker 1: a work of consolation. One of Teresa's possible influences in
Speaker 1: this is a work called Book of Consolations of Human
Speaker 1: Life by Pedro de Luna, who later became Antipope Benedict.
Speaker 1: He wrote about deafness as bringing people closer to God,
Speaker 1: and he advised deaf people to take consolation in the
Speaker 1: fact that being deaf kept them from hearing the evils
Speaker 1: and temptations of the world. And he also drew a
Speaker 1: distinction between the health of a person's body and the
Speaker 1: health of their soul. Terise A builds on a similar argument,
Speaker 1: drawing from her own experience. She writes about taking incredible
Speaker 1: solace in reading and writing, calling her books quote wondrous
Speaker 1: graftings from healthful groves, and she describes eventually finding her
Speaker 1: deafness as quote a kind solitude, a blessed solitude, a
Speaker 1: solitude that isolates me from dangerous sins and surrounds me
Speaker 1: with sure blessings, A solitude that removes me from things
Speaker 1: harmful and dangerous to both my body and soul. While
Speaker 1: reflecting on the Bible and works of theology and philosophy,
Speaker 1: terise that comes to the conclusion that God's particular love
Speaker 1: for her ultimately led him to choose her to become deaf,
Speaker 1: something that then caused or to suffer, but which ultimately
Speaker 1: also brought her much closer to Him. Her deafness removed
Speaker 1: worldly distractions from her spiritual life. In the end, she
Speaker 1: describes her deafness as something that brought her a spiritual
Speaker 1: peace and that made her better able to hear quote
Speaker 1: the voices of holy doctrine that scriptures teach us. She
Speaker 1: also writes a link on patients and the ability of
Speaker 1: suffering to transform the seven vices into virtues. It was
Speaker 1: not common at all in fifteenth century Castile for women
Speaker 1: to write works that were meant to be read beyond
Speaker 1: their friends or family. In Grove of the Infirm, Teresa
Speaker 1: takes a lot of the same steps we've talked about
Speaker 1: in other women writers works on the show. To cushion
Speaker 1: the fact that the piece was written by a woman,
Speaker 1: she is often very self deprecating, framing her understanding as
Speaker 1: just the simple and unsophisticated thoughts of a humble woman. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We this has come up in other women writers, especially
Speaker 1: during the like medieval and modern period, with this sort
Speaker 1: of tone of I just don't know anything. I'm just
Speaker 1: a simple woman, so don't listen to me at all,
Speaker 1: but don't just start my thoughts, right, that's kind of
Speaker 1: keeping everything at a distance from her. She also notes
Speaker 1: at the beginning of this work that it was written
Speaker 1: in a response to a virtuos to Senora or a
Speaker 1: virtuous lady who had requested it. This might have been
Speaker 1: Lady Juanna de Mendoza, who was wife of the poet
Speaker 1: Gomes Enrique, and she was a lady in waiting to
Speaker 1: Isabelle the First when she was still a princess. Wonder
Speaker 1: at the Works of God is specifically addressed to Wanna,
Speaker 1: so it would make sense for her to also be
Speaker 1: the virtuous lady and Grove of the affirm who is
Speaker 1: just not specifically named in places. Teresa also implies that
Speaker 1: she's more broadly writing for anyone who is deaf or
Speaker 1: chronically ill, so to sort of add another layer of
Speaker 1: of buffering around her. There's this whole idea that she's
Speaker 1: not writing out of her own ambitions or vanity. She's
Speaker 1: writing in response to someone else's specific request and for
Speaker 1: a community that was seen as disadvantage. She also says
Speaker 1: specifically that she turned to writing to keep from falling
Speaker 1: into the sin of idleness, idleness being a particularly dangerous
Speaker 1: companion for her solitude. All of this careful cushioning did
Speaker 1: not wind up protecting her, though, according to her own writing,
Speaker 1: both men and quote some discreet women claimed she had
Speaker 1: plagiarized a man's work in Grove of the infirm. It's
Speaker 1: possible that one of these critics was the bishop who
Speaker 1: replaced her late uncle. Yeah, to be super clear, nobody
Speaker 1: seems to have found any fault with the actual things
Speaker 1: that she wrote, just the idea that she was the
Speaker 1: one that wrote it. Right. You couldn't have done this,
Speaker 1: you silly. So she wrote a response ad Morascio and
Speaker 1: Oprahm Day or wonder at the Works of God. That's
Speaker 1: a title that sort of merges together both the vernacular
Speaker 1: and Latin, and in this work she writes about people
Speaker 1: approaching growth of the infirm with sort of a wondered
Speaker 1: bafflement at the very idea that a woman had written it,
Speaker 1: and she described this as insulting to her but offensive
Speaker 1: to God. Teresa draws a distinction between wonder and awe
Speaker 1: at the works of God, and wonder mixed with incredulity.
Speaker 1: In her mind, the latter s's doubts about God's work
Speaker 1: and put more focus into whatever inspired this sensation than
Speaker 1: on God himself as the source of all creation. Teresa
Speaker 1: also notes that people just take it for granted that
Speaker 1: men right, because men have been writing things for so long,
Speaker 1: but that mistakes a human custom for a natural fact.
Speaker 1: Quote because for men to write books, learn sciences, and
Speaker 1: use them are activities that they have engaged in for
Speaker 1: a long time, and it seems the natural course, and
Speaker 1: that is why no one marvels at it. And since
Speaker 1: women have not been accustomed to it, nor do they
Speaker 1: learn sciences or possess an understanding as perfected as that
Speaker 1: of men, it is considered extraordinary. But it is not
Speaker 1: a greater wonder, nor is it easier for God's omnipotence
Speaker 1: to do either one or the other, because he who
Speaker 1: could or can engender men's understanding of the sciences could
Speaker 1: just as easily engendered women's understanding of them, even if
Speaker 1: women's reason is imperfect or not as able or sufficient
Speaker 1: to receive or remember as men's reason. She also states
Speaker 1: without question that she, a disabled woman, wrote Garden of
Speaker 1: the Infirm, and that people seemed to have decided that
Speaker 1: was impossible. But if it was impossible for a disabled
Speaker 1: woman to write a treatise, that meant that it was
Speaker 1: in fact miraculous, and to deny that was to deny
Speaker 1: all the work of God. That didn't mean that her
Speaker 1: work should be put on a pedestal. Though she wrote
Speaker 1: that God's miracles were continual, happening all the time and
Speaker 1: all around. Many of those articles show Mundane that people
Speaker 1: took them for granted and wonder at the works of God.
Speaker 1: To raise the both buys into an undermines the gender
Speaker 1: roles of the day. She writes that God made the
Speaker 1: sexes different to complement one another, using a metaphor of
Speaker 1: the bark and the pith of the tree, the sturdy
Speaker 1: bark has to be there to protect the tree's delicate
Speaker 1: inner workings in order for the tree to flourish. This
Speaker 1: was a pretty common metaphor in the day, but a
Speaker 1: lot of times it was used in the reverse of
Speaker 1: how she did. Women. In a more typical presentation, we're
Speaker 1: seen as the outer, less refined bark, while men were
Speaker 1: represented as the more refined, more advanced inner pith, and
Speaker 1: she had it as the opposite framing of that. She
Speaker 1: also notes that God did not arrange these differences into
Speaker 1: a hierarchy with men being superior to women. It was
Speaker 1: people who did that. She also uses the story of
Speaker 1: Judith and Hollow Farnies as a whole example of the
Speaker 1: point she was making that it was God that gave Judith,
Speaker 1: an unexpected person, to the power to defeat hall phonies.
Speaker 1: In that story, Terrace, It concludes with a discussion of
Speaker 1: the powers of the soul, which are understanding, memory and will,
Speaker 1: and how they can come together to strive for good.
Speaker 1: She describes God as patient and wonderful with all of humanity,
Speaker 1: showing sinners, mercy and Greece. So we don't know how
Speaker 1: this second work was received, and really we know almost
Speaker 1: nothing else about raise that a Cartagena Beyond this point,
Speaker 1: we don't know how she spent the rest of her life,
Speaker 1: for how long she lived, or where she was buried.
Speaker 1: It's possible that she was still living when the Spanish
Speaker 1: Inquisition was established in seventy eight. It's even possible that
Speaker 1: she wrote those works after the Inquisition had started, and
Speaker 1: some literary critics have interpreted Growth of the Infirm as
Speaker 1: a metaphorical consolation, not just to the people she specifically mentioned,
Speaker 1: which is anyone who was sick or disabled, but scifically
Speaker 1: to converse ose as well. There were thirteen thousand conversos
Speaker 1: who were tried of suspected heresy just during the first
Speaker 1: decade of the Inquisition. In four eight one, Pero Lopez
Speaker 1: del Trigo copied both Grove of the Infirm and Wonder
Speaker 1: At the Works of God so that they could be
Speaker 1: placed in a museum. We don't know why, and we
Speaker 1: don't know who asked him to do it, but he
Speaker 1: was a friend of Terrace's father, so it might have
Speaker 1: been at his direction. That is literally the only reason
Speaker 1: we still have these two treatises today. The first reference
Speaker 1: to Terraces treatises in other works dates back to the
Speaker 1: late eighteenth century. And the first commentary on it was
Speaker 1: written by Jose Amador de los Rios in eighteen sixty five.
Speaker 1: Grove of the Infirm and wonder At the Works of
Speaker 1: God were published in full for the first time beyond
Speaker 1: that one copy in a museum in the twentieth century,
Speaker 1: and that's really when historians and literary critics started studying them.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even confirmed that Terrace it was definitely part
Speaker 1: of the Cartagena Santa Maria family until nineteen fifty two.
Speaker 1: It's a discovery that came from the work of Spanish
Speaker 1: historian Francisco Cantera Burgos. The kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre,
Speaker 1: and Portugal expelled their Jewish population in the fourteen nineties,
Speaker 1: the Emirate of Granada was conquered in with its Muslim
Speaker 1: population forced to convert or leave. This placed the whole
Speaker 1: Iberian Peninsula under Christian rule, but efforts to eliminate Jewish
Speaker 1: and Muslim influences continued, including the passage of blood purity
Speaker 1: laws that declared anyone with a Jewish or Muslim ancestor
Speaker 1: to be considered legally Jewish or Muslim. However, Terraise's family
Speaker 1: was declared to be of pure blood meaning not Jewish.
Speaker 1: In sixteen o four, I read a whole paper that
Speaker 1: was about the idea that that maybe it was about
Speaker 1: the idea of how her can so heritage may have
Speaker 1: influenced her writing because we didn't really get into it
Speaker 1: in any kind of specificity, but like, she doesn't mention
Speaker 1: Jesus a lot, there's a lot less mention of Jesus
Speaker 1: than one might expect in a medieval religious work. Um.
Speaker 1: And so that it was drawing a conclusion of whether
Speaker 1: being a conversa affected that or influenced how she was writing. Um.
Speaker 1: And then it got to the point about her family
Speaker 1: sort of being retroactively declared to have quote pure blood,
Speaker 1: and how that sort of retroactively erased her whole identity
Speaker 1: as being part of conversial family. Okay, and I have
Speaker 1: some listener mail to take us out. This is from
Speaker 1: Christa and Krista wrote after our Freedom Summer episode. Christa says, Hi,
Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy, I was so excited to see the
Speaker 1: episode on Freedom Summer shipped up in my feed. I
Speaker 1: first learned about Freedom Summer when attending a history class
Speaker 1: at Miami University Yeto of Ohio. My professor added in
Speaker 1: a last minute requirement to passing the class volunteering at
Speaker 1: the Freedom Summer reunion being held in Miami. I'll admit
Speaker 1: I was annoyed at the extra requirement at first, but
Speaker 1: then became intrigued about the project's impact on the civil
Speaker 1: rights movement, a topic that was rarely taught in my
Speaker 1: small town high school. There's a memorial set up outside
Speaker 1: of the church on the Western Campus, the part of
Speaker 1: Miami University that housed the trainees in honor of Freedom
Speaker 1: Summer and those that lost their lives. Your episode expanded
Speaker 1: my knowledge about the three men that disappeared and whose
Speaker 1: names rest on the memorial plaque. I always thought of
Speaker 1: that spot as a peaceful but somber place. Knowing that
Speaker 1: one of the men had just left from there before
Speaker 1: disappearing really pressed upon me the importance of it all.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your lovely podcast. I'm constantly sharing with
Speaker 1: my husband, friends and students the interesting things I learned
Speaker 1: from you each week. Krista, so thank you so much
Speaker 1: for sending this. Krista um There's two pictures in the
Speaker 1: and the email, and one is a picture of the
Speaker 1: Ohio Historical marker for Freedom summer um. And the other
Speaker 1: is the space that Krista was talking about on campus,
Speaker 1: which looks kind of like an amphitheater. Um. It does
Speaker 1: look like a really lovely and somber place, And I
Speaker 1: honestly would probably also be frustrated if I were in
Speaker 1: college and my professor at the last minute said to
Speaker 1: pass this class, you have to volunteer for a thing.
Speaker 1: That would probably uh rubbed me the long the wrong
Speaker 1: way a little bit too, regardless of what specifically the
Speaker 1: thing was, because I remember college is being a busy
Speaker 1: time and I don't love last minute additions to things
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to do. Yeah, I'm not a big fan
Speaker 1: of like, um obligatory surprises. Yeah, yeah, we had a thing. UM.
Speaker 1: So I went to the University of North Carolina at
Speaker 1: Asheville and there was a multi part humanity these series
Speaker 1: that we had to take to graduate, and every semester
Speaker 1: that you were in Humanities, you had to go to
Speaker 1: a certain number of what they called cultural events. And man,
Speaker 1: people hated going to cultural events, but in general you
Speaker 1: got to choose them. Sometimes there would be ones that
Speaker 1: like professors particularly wanted you to do, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: like you got to class and somebody was like, you
Speaker 1: gotta go through this cultural event tonight or you failure class.
Speaker 1: So anyway, um, thank you so much Christoph or sending
Speaker 1: this email and these pictures. This really does look so lovely,
Speaker 1: like such a beautiful spot on the campus. If you
Speaker 1: would like to write to us about this or any
Speaker 1: other podcast, where at History podcast at i heart radio
Speaker 1: dot com. But we're all over social media Admiston History.
Speaker 1: That's where you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Speaker 1: And you can subscribe to our show on the iHeart
Speaker 1: radio app and Apple podcasts and anywhere else you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Stuff you missed in History Class is a
Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.