At Turin she found temporary refuge and rest in the house of the
Marchioness of Prunai, but appears to have spent only a few months of
1684 in that city. She longed to return to evangelistic work in France.
Accordingly in the autumn she went to Grenoble, and had great success in
her labours, but, through the hatred of her enemies, was obliged to quit
the place secretly, leaving her little daughter in charge of her
faithful maid La Gautière. She had already commenced authorship, at
Thonon, by writing, during an interval of much-needed rest, her book
entitled _Spiritual Torrents_. At Grenoble she began her commentaries on
_The Holy Bible_, and here she published her famous work, _A Short and
Very Easy Method of Prayer_, which speedily ran through several
editions. So, by word of mouth, and by pen, she taught, and "the new
spirit of religious inquiry," as she calls it, spread and prevailed. It
was indeed the _old_ spirit of inquiry, as old as the days of the
apostles, and its basis was the principle which she clearly enunciates,
"that man is a sinner, and that he must be saved by repentance and faith
in Christ, and that faith in God through Christ subsequently is, and
must be, the foundation of the inward life." Such a bold proclamation of
Gospel truth could not but rouse the anger of the clerical party at
Grenoble. The persuasive missioner was soon the centre of a storm of
wrath and indignation, which the friendly Bishop Camus, afterwards a
cardinal, was unable to allay. Early in 1686 she left Grenoble for
Marseilles, where she hoped to find refuge for a while. But her fame had
preceded her. "I did not arrive in Marseilles," she records, "till ten
in the morning, and it was only a few hours after noon when all was in
uproar against me."
In this excitable city she remained only eight days; but in that short
space some good was effected. Now began a series of wanderings in search
of a home. Arriving at Nice, she felt acutely her desolate state. "I saw
myself without refuge or retreat, wandering and homeless. All the
artisans whom I saw in the shops appeared to me happy in having an abode
and refuge." After a stormy voyage to Genoa, she reached Verceil, on the
Sessia, and after a stay of a few months amongst kind friends, but
precluded from public work by ill-health, she decided to return once
more to Paris, and there pursue her labours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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