CHAPTER XXT-

At this time I had my first acquaintance with the
Bishop of Meaux, to whom I was introduced by an
intimate friend, the Duke of Chevreuse. I gave liim
the foregoing history of my life, and he confessed,
“ that he had found therein such an unction as he had
rarely done in other books, and that he had spent three
days in reading it, with an impression of the presence
of God on his mind all that time.”

I proposed to the bishop to examine all my writ¬
ings, which he took four or five months to do, and then
advanced all his objections; to which I gave answers,
but from his unacquaintance with the interior paths, I
could not clear up all the difficulties which he found in
them.

He admitted that looking into the ecclesiastical his¬
tories for ages past, we may see that God has some¬
times made use of laymen, and of women to instruct,
edify, and help souls in their progress to perfection;
and I think one of the reasons of God’s acting thus, is
that glory may not be ascribed to any, but to himself
alone. For this purpose, he has chosen the weak
things of this world, to confound such as are mighty.
1 Cor. i. 27.

Jealous of the attributes which men pay to other
men, which are due only to himself, he has made a
paradox of such persons, that he alone may have the
glory of his own works. I pray God with my whole

S40

THE LIFE OF MADAME GUYOH.

heart sooner to crush me utterly, with the most dread¬
ful destruction, than to suffer me to take the least
honor to myself, of anything which he has been pleased
to do by me for the good of others. I am only a poor
nothing. God is all-powerful. He delights to operate,
and exercise his power by mere nothings.

The first time that I wrote a history of myself, it
was very short. In it I had particularized my faults
and sins, and said little of the favors of God. I was
ordered to burn it, to write another, and in it to omit
nothing anyway remarkable that had befallen me. I
did it. It is a crime to publish the secrets of the king;
but it is a good thing to declare the favors of the Lord
our God, and to magnify his mercies.

As the outcry against me became more violent, and
Madame Maintenon was moved to declare against me,
I sent to her through the Duke of Beauvilliers, request¬
ing the appointment of proper persons to examine my
life and doctrines, offering to retire into any prison
until fully exculpated. But my proposal was rejected.
In the meantime, one of my most intimate friends and
supporters, Mons. Fouquet, was called away by death.
I felt his loss very deeply, but rejoiced in his felicity.
He was a true servant of God.

Being now determined to retire out of the way of
giving offense to any, I wrote to some of my friends,
and bade them a last farewell; not knowing whether I
were to be carried off by the indisposition which I then
labored under, which had been a constant fever for
forty days past, or to recover from it.

Referring to the Countess of G. and the Duchess of
M., I wrote, “ When these ladies and others were in
the vanities of the world, when they patched and

THE LIFE OF MADAME GUYON.

341

painted, and some of them were in the way to min
their families by gaming and profusion of expense in
dress, nobody arose to say anything against it; they
were quietly suffered to do it. But when they have
broken off from all this, then they cry out against me,
as if I had ruined them. Had I drawn them from
piety into luxury, they would not make such an out¬
cry. The Duchess of M. at her giving herself up to
God, thought herself obliged to quit the Court, which
was to her like a dangerous rock, in order to bestow
her time on the education of her children and the care
of her family, which, till then, she had neglected. I
beseech you, therefore, to gather all the memorials you
can against me; and if I am found guilty of the things
they accuse me of, I ought to be punished more than
any other, since God has brought me to know him and
love him, and I am well assured that there is no com¬
munion between Christ and Belial.”

I sent them at the same time my two little printed
books, with my commentaries on the Holy Scriptures.
I also, by their order, wrote a work to facilitate their
examination, and to spare them as much time and
trouble as I could, which was to collect a great number
of passages out of approved writers, which showed the
conformity of my writings with those used by the holy
penmen. I caused them to be transcribed by the
quire, as I had written them, in order to send them to
the three commissioners. I also, as occasion presented,
cleared up the dubious and obscure places; for, as I
had written them at a time when the affairs of Molinos
had not broken out, I used the less precaution in
expressing my thoughts, not imagining that they would
ever be turned into an evil sense. This work waJ

342

THE LIFE OF MADAME GUYON.

entitled, “ The Justifications.” It was composed in fifty
days, and appeared to be very sufficient to clear up the
matter. But the Bishop of Meaux would never suffer
it to be read.

After all the examinations, and making nothing out
against me, who would not have thought but they
would have left me to rest in peace ? But quite other¬
wise, the more my innocence appeared, the more did
they, who had undertaken to render me criminal, put
every spring in motion to effect it. I offered the Bish¬
op of Meaux o go to spend some time in any com¬
munity within his diocese, that he might be better
acquainted with me. He proposed to me that of St
Mary de Meaux, which I accepted; but in going thithei
in the depth of winter I had like to have perished in
the snow, being stopped four hours, the coach having
entered into it, and being almost buried in it, in a deep
hollow. I was drawn out at the coach-door with one
maid. We sat upon the snow, resigned to the mercy
of God, and expected nothing but death. I never had
more tranquillity of mind, though chilled and soaked
with the snow, which melted on us. Occasions like
these are such as show whether we are perfectly
resigned to God or not. This poor girl and I were
easy in our mmds, in a state of entire resignation,
though sure of dying if we passed the night there, and
seeing no likelihood of anyone coming to our succor.
At length some waggoners came up, who with difficulty
drew us tlirough the snow.

The bishop, when he heard of it, was astonished,
and had no little self-complacency to think that I had
thus risked my life to obey him so punctually; and yet
afterwards he denounced it as artifice and hypocrisy.

THE LIFE OF MADAME GUYON.

343

There were times indeed when I found nature over¬
charged; but the love of God and his grace rendered
sweet to me the very worst of bitters. His invisible
hand supported me; else I had sunk under so many
probations. Sometimes I said to myself, “All thy
waves and thy billows are gone over me.” Psal. vlii.
7. “ Thou hast bent thy bow and set me as a mark for

the arrow; thou hast caused all the arrows of thy
quiver to enter into my reins.” Lam. iii. 12. 13. It
seemed to me as if everyone thought he was in the
right to treat me ill, and rendered service to God in
doing it. I then comprehend that it was the very man¬
ner in which Jesus Christ suffered. He was numbered
with the transgressors. Mark xv. 28. He was con¬
demned by the sovereign pontiff, chief priests, doctors
of the law, and judges deputed by the Eomans, who
valued themselves on doing justice. Happy they who
by suffering for the will of God under all the like cir¬
cumstances, have so near a relation to the sufferings of
Jesus Christ !

For six weeks after my arrival at Meaux, I was in a
continual fever, nor had I recovered from my indispo¬
sition, when I was waited on by the bishop, who would
fain have compelled me to give it under my hand, that
I did not believe the Word incarnate, (or Christ mani¬
fest in the flesh). I answered him, “that through the
grace of God, I knew how to suffer, even to death, but
not how to sign such a falsehood.” Several of the
nuns who overheard this conversation, and perceiving
the sentiments of the bishop, they joined with the
Prioress, in giving a testimonial, not only of my good
conduct, but of their belief in the soundness of my
faith.

344

THE LIFE OF MADAME GTTY0N.

The bishop some days after, brought me a confess¬
ion of faith, and a request to submit my books to the
Church, that I may sign it, promising to give me a cer¬
tificate, which he had prepared; but on my delivering
him my submission signed, he, notwithstanding his
promise, refused to give the certificate. Some time
after, he endeavored to make me sign his pastoral let¬
ter, and acknowledge that I had fallen into those errors,
which he there lays to my charge, and made many
demands of me of the like absurd and unreasonable
nature, threatening me with those persecutions I after¬
wards endured, in case of non-compliance. However, I
continued resolute in refusing to put my name to
falsehoods. At length, after I had remained about six
months at Meaux, he gave me the certificate; but find¬
ing Mad. Maintenon disapproved of the certificate he
had granted, he wanted to give me another in place of
it. My refusal to deliver up the first certificate enraged
him, and as I understood they intended to push mat¬
ters with the utmost violence, “ I thought that although
I were resigned to whatever might fall out, yet I ought
to take prudent measures to avoid the threatening
storm.” Many places of retreat were offered me; but
I was not free in my mind to accept of any, nor to
embarrass anybody, nor involve in trouble my friends
and my family, to whom they might attribute my
escape. I took the resolution of continuing in Paris, of
living there in some private place with my maids, who
were trusty and sure, and to hide myself from the view
of the world. I continued thus for five or six months.
I passed the day all alone in reading, in praying tc
God, and in working. But the 27th of December, 1695,
I was arrested, though exceedingly indisposed at that

THE LIFE OF MADAME GUYON.

345

time, and conducted to Vincennes. I was three days
in the custody of Mons. des Grez, who had arrested
me; because the king would not consent to my being
put into prison; saying several times over, that a con¬
vent was sufficient. They deceived him by still stronger
calumnies. They painted me in his eyes, in colors so
black, that they made him scruple his goodness and
equity. He then consented to my being taken to Vin¬
cennes.

I shall not speak of that long persecution, which
has made so much noise, for a series of ten years
imprisonments, in all sorts of prisons, and of a banish¬
ment almost as long, and not yet ended, through
crosses, calumnies, and all imaginable sorts of suffer¬
ings. There are facts too odious on the part of divers
persons, which charity induces me to cover.

I have borne long and sore languishings, and
oppressive and painful maladies without relief. I have
been also inwardly under great desolations for several
months, in such sort that I could only say these words,
“ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me !” All
creatures seemed to be against me. I then put myself
on the side of God, against myself.

Perhaps some will be surprised at my refusing to
give the details of the greatest and strongest crosses of
my life, after I have related those which were less. I
thought it proper to tell something of the crosses of my
youth, to show the crucifying conduct which God held
over me. I thought myself also obliged to relate cer¬
tain facts, to manifest their falsehood, the conduct of
those by whom they had passed, and the authors of
those persecutions of which I have been only the acci¬
dental object, as I was only persecuted, in order to

446

THE LIFE OF MADAME GUY ON.

involve therein persons of great merit; whom, being
out of their reach by themselves, they, therefore, could
not personally attack, but by confounding their affairs
with mine. I thought I owed this to religion, piety,
my friends, my family, and myself.

While I was prisoner at Vincennes, and Monsieur
De La Reine examined me, I passed my time in great
peace, content to pass the rest of my life there, if such
were the will of God. I sang songs of joy, which the
maid who served me learned by heart, as fast as I made
them; and we together sang thy praises, O, my God !
The stones of my prison looked in my eyes like rubies;
I esteemed them more than all the gaudy brilliancies
of a vain world. My heart was full of that joy which
thou givest to them who love thee, in the midst of their
greatest crosses.

When things were carried to the greatest extremi¬
ties, being then in the Bastile, I said to thee, “ O, my
God, if thou art pleased to render me a new spectacle
to men and angels, thy holy will be done !

December, 1709.

[Here she left off her narrative, though she
lived a retired life above seven years after this date*
What she had written being only done in obedience to
the commands of her director. She died the 9th of
June, 1717, at Blois, in the seventieth year of her age]

the end.

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