CHAPTER m

After Father La Combe was gone, the persecution
raised against me became more violent. But the Bish¬
op of Geneva still showed me some civilities, as well
to try whether he could prevail on me to do what he
deshed, as to sound how matters passed in France, and
to prejudice the minds of the people there against me,
always preventing me from receiving the letters sent
me. The ecclesiastic and his family had twenty-two
intercepted letters, opened, on their table. There was
one wherein was sent me a power of attorney to sign,
of immediate consequence. They were obliged to
put it under another cover, and send it to me. The
bishop wrote to Father La Mothe, and had no difficulty
to draw him into his party. For he was displeased
with me on two accounts. First, that I had not settled
on him a pension, as he expected, and as he told me
very roughly several times. Secondly, I did not take
his advice in everything; besides some other interests
he had in view. He at once declared against me. The
bishop made him his confidant. It was he who uttered
and spread abroad the news about me, which they sent
him. They imagined, as was supposed, that I would
annul the donation I had made, if I returned; that,
having the support of friends in France, I would find
the means of breaking it; but in that they were much
mistaken; for I had no thought of loving anything but
the poverty of Jesus Christ. For some time yet, the

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Father acted with caution towards me. He wrote me
some letters, which he addressed to the Bishop of
Geneva, and they agreed so together, that he was the
only person horn whom I received any letters, to which
I returned very moving answers; yet he, instead of
being touched with them, became only more irritated
against me.

The bishop continued to treat me with a show of
respect; and yet at the same time he wrote to many
persons at Paris, as did also the sisters of the house, to
all those persons of piety who had written letters to me,
to bias them as much as possible against me, and to
avoid the blame which ought naturally to fall upon
them, for having so unworthily treated a person who
had given up everything to devote herself to the service
of that diocese; for after I had done this, and was not
in a condition to return to France, they treated me
extremely ill in every respect. There was scarcely any
kind of false or fabulous story, likely to gain any credit,
which they did not invent to cry me down. Beside my
having no way to make the truth known in France, our
Lord inspired me with a willingness to suffer every¬
thing, without justifying myself; so that in my case
nothing was heard but condemnation, without any vin¬
dication.

I was in this convent, and had seen Father La
Combe no further than I have mentioned; yet they did
not cease to publish, both of him and me, the most
scandalous stories; a3 utterly false as anything could
be, for he was then a hundred and fifty leagues from
me.

For some time I was ignorant of this. As I knew
that all my letters were kept from me, I ceased to won-

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229

der at receiving none. I lived in this house with my
little daughter in a sweet repose, which was a very
great favor of Providence; for my daughter had for¬
gotten her French, and among the little girls from the
mountains had contracted a wild look and disagreeable
manners. Her wit, sense and judgment, w’ere indeed
surprising, and her disposition exceedingly good.
There were only some little fits of peevishness, which
they had caused to arise in her, through certain con¬
trarieties out of season, caresses ill applied, and for
want of knowing the proper manner of education. But
the Lord provided in regard to her, as I shall tell.
During this time my mind was preserved calm and
resigned to God. My silence was great; and for some
time I had leisure to taste of and to enjoy the Divinity
in my little cell. Afterwards that good sister almost
continually interrupted me; and I answered everything
she desired of me, both out of condescension, and from
a principle which I had to obey like a child.

When I was in my apartment, without any other
director than our Lord by his Spirit, however favored
therein, as soon as one of my little children came to
knock at my door, he required me to admit the inter¬
ruption. He showed me that it is not the actions in
themselves which please him, but the constant ready
obedience to every discovery of his will, even in the
minutest things, with such a suppleness, as not to stick
to anything, but still to turn with him at every call.
My soul was then, I thought, like a leaf, or a feather,
which the wind moves what way soever it pleases; and
the Lord never suffers a soul so dependent upon, and
dedicated to him, to be deceived.

Most men appear to me very unjust, who readily

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resign themselves to another man, and look upon that
as prudence. They confide in men who are nothing,
and boldly say, “ Such a person cannot be deceived.’'
But if one speaks of a soul wholly resigned to God,
which follows him faithfully, they cry aloud, “That
person is deceived with his resignation.” Oh, my
divine Love ! Dost thou want either strength, fidelity,
love, or wisdom, to conduct those who trust in thee,
and who are thy dearest children? I have seen men
bold enough to say, “Follow me, and you shall not be
misled.” How sadly are those men misled themselves
by their presumption ! and how much sooner should
I go to him who would be afraid of misleading me;
who trusting neither to his learning nor experience,
would rely upon God only !

Our Lord showed me, in a dream, two ways by
which souls steer their course, under the figure of two
drops of water. The one appeared to me of an unpar¬
alleled beauty, brightness and purity; the other to have
also a brightness, yet full of little fibres or streaks;
both good to quench thirst; the former altogether
pleasant, but the latter not so perfectly agreeable. By
the former is represented the way of pure and naked
faith, which pleases the Spouse much, it is so pure, so
clear from all self-love. The way of emotions or gifts
is not so; and yet it is that in which many enlightened
souls walk, and into which they had drawn Father La
Combe. But God showed me, that he had given him
to me, to draw him into one more pure and perfect. I
spoke before the sisters, he being present, of the way
of faith, how much more glorious it was to God, and
advantageous for the soul, than all those gifts, emotions
and assurances, which ever cause us to live to self.

THE LIFE OF MADAME GUYON.

231

This discouraged them at first, and him also. I saw
they were pained, as they have confessed to me since.
I said no more of it at that time. But, as he is a per¬
son of great humility, he bid me unfold what I had
wanted to say to him. I told him a part of my dream
of the two drops of water; yet, he did not then enter
into what I said, the time for it being not yet come;
but when he came to Gex, to make the retreats, our
Lord made known to me, as I was at prayer in the
night, that I was his mother, and he my son. I told
him the circumstances of a certain time past; and he
recollected that it was the time of so extraordinary a
touch with which the Lord favored him, that he was
quite overwhelmed with contrition. This gave him
such an interior renovation, that, having retired to
pray, in a very ardent frame of mind, he was filled
with joy, and seized with a powerful emotion, which
made him enter into what I had told him of the way of
faith. I give these things, as they happen to come to
my remembrance, without carrying them on in order.

After Easter, in the year 1682, the bishop came to
Tonon. I had occasion to speak to him, which when I
had done, our Lord so pointed my words that he
appeared thoroughly convinced. But the persons who
had influenced him before, returned to the charge.
He then pressed me very much to return to Gex, and
to take the place of Prioress. I gave him the reasons
against it which I have mentioned before. I then
appealed to him, as a bishop, desiring him to take care
to regard nothing but God in what he should say to
me. He was struck into a kind of confusion; and then
said to me, “ Since you speak to me in such a manner,
I cannot advise you to it. It is not for us to go con-

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trary to our vocations; but do good, I pray you, to this
bouse.” I promised him to do it; and having received
my pension, I sent them a hundred pistoles, with a
design of doing the same as long as I should be in the
diocese. The bishop said to me farther, “ I love Father
La Combe. He is a true servant of God; and he has
told me many things to which I was forced to assent;
for I felt them in myself. But,” added he, “when I say
so, they tell me I am mistaken, and that before the end
of six months he will ran mad.” He told me, “he
approved of the Nuns, which had been under the care
and instruction of Father La Combe, finding them to
come up fully to what he had heard of them.” From
thence I took occasion to tell him “ that in everything
he ought to refer himself to his own breast, or to the
instructions there immediately received, and not to
others.” He agreed to what I said, and acknowledged
it to be right; and yet no sooner was he returned, than,
so great was his weakness that he re-entered into his
former dispositions. He sent the same ecclesiastic to
tell me that I must engage myself at Gex; and that it
was his sentiment. I answered, that I was determined
to follow the counsel he had given me, when he had
spoken to me as from God, since now they made him
speak only as man.

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