From Ignatius Loyola to John of the Cross: Spirituality and Literature in Sixteenth-Century Spain

The 16th century saw the rise of movements of religious reform which, in Spain as elsewhere, contributed to make the history of the period such a ferment. In these essays Terence O’Reilly is concerned with the writings produced by these movements, notably Illuminism, the early Jesuits, Erasmianism, and the Carmelite reform, and with the mixture of medieval and new literary conventions that they display. The book first deals with Ignatius Loyola and his Spiritual Exercises, examining its ori...