YEPES, DIEGO de. - Hieronymite writer, bishop of Tarazona, b. at Yepes (Toledo) in 1530 or 1531, d. at Tarazona in 1614.
Prior of the monastery of la Sisla at Toledo, in 1576 he there became acquainted with St Teresa of Jesus, whose confessions he heard for some time. Later becoming prior at S. Lorenzo el Real (Escorial), he was for many years confessor to Philip II and Philip III. Elected bishop of Tarazona on 27 Sept. 1599, he was a zealous pastor there. An excellent Castilian writer, his name was included in the Catálogo de Autoridades de la Lengua of the Spanish Academy. Among his books should be mentioned the Historia particular de la persecución de Inglaterra y de los mártires mas insignes que en ella ha habido desde el año de 1570... (Madrid 1599); De la muerte del rey Phelipe II (Milan 1607); and above all the great work, whose authorship has been disputed since the 16th century: Vida, virtudes y milagros de la bienaventurada virgen Teresa de Jesús (Madrid 1587, published several times; Italian trans., Naples 1615), one of the fundamental books on the reformer of Carmel.