1708. Carta de Manuel de Santa Leocadia, religioso confesor, para su hijo de confesión Pedro Pablo Díez, boticario.

Letter from Manuel de Santa Leocadia, a priest and a confessor, to Pedro Pablo Díez, an apothecary.

The author writes his parishioner Pedro Pablo Díez, of whom he is the confessor, to tell him about what has happened to him lately, about his health and about other people.

Between 1708 and 1711, Pedro Pablo Díez was accused of being a deceiver and a deceived. This process is related with the one filed as legajo 105, expediente 04, a lawsuit against Manuela Ramos (PS6143 and PS6191); and with the process filed as legajo 104, expediente 07, a lawsuit against Manuel de Santa Leocadia, also known as Manuel de Paredes, a discalced Carmelite friar from Toledo.

The accused, from Alhóndiga, worked as an apothecary in Yepes (Toledo) and was married with Petronila González. He had a daughter from a previous marriage, named Paula Díez, who is mentioned in some of the letters. Thirteen letters were joined to the proceedings. The first two (PS8127 and PS8128) are independent from the others, and were seized from the writing desk of the accused when he was arrested. The other letters were handed over by Petronila González. The accused claimed that he did not decide what he had written in the letters, because he let himself be guided by Manuel de Santa Leocadia, who was his confessor. He related that Manuel de Santa Leocadia ordered him to write down everything he gave him during the confession, every eight days. He also claimed to have invented the visions he had described to his confessor to generate his interest in him.