The Autobiography of Madame GuyonGuyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte
Religion
The Autobiography of Madame Guyon
Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte
Catholics -- France -- Biography; Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte, 1648-1717
They bethought themselves of one thing further likely to favor their
scheme. They knew I had been at Marseilles, and thought they had a good
foundation for a fresh calumny. They counterfeited a letter from a
person at Marseilles (I heard it was from the Bishop) addressed to the
Archbishop of Paris, or to his official, in which they wrote the most
abominable scandal. Father La Mothe came to try to draw me into his
snare, and to make me say, in the presence of the people whom he had
brought, that I had been at Marseilles with Father La Combe. "There
are," said he, "shocking accounts against you, sent by the Bishop of
Marseilles. You have there fallen into great scandal with Father La
Combe. There are good witnesses of it." I replied with a smile, "The
calumny is well devised; but it would have been proper to know first
whether Father La Combe had been at Marseilles, for I do not believe he
was ever there in his life. While I was there, Father La Combe was
laboring at Verceil." He was confounded and went off, saying, "There
are witnesses of its being true." He went immediately to ask Father La
Combe if he had not been at Marseilles. He assured him he never had
been there. They were struck with disappointment. They then gave out
that it was not Marseilles but Seisel. Now this Seisel is a place I
have never been at, and there is no bishop there.
Every imaginable device was used to terrify me by threats, forged
letters, and by memorials drawn up against me, accusing me of teaching
erroneous doctrines, and of living a bad life and urging me to flee the
country to escape the consequences of exposure. Failing in all these,
at length La Mothe took off the mask, and said to me in the church,
before La Combe, "It is now, my sister, that you must think of fleeing,
you are charged with crimes of a deep dye." I was not moved in the
least, but replied with my usual tranquillity, "If I am guilty of such
crimes I cannot be too severely punished; wherefore I will not flee or
go out of the way. I have made an open profession of dedicating myself
to God entirely. If I have done things offensive to Him, whom I would
wish both to love, and to cause to be loved by the whole world, even at
the expense of my life, I ought by my punishment to be made an example
to the world; but if I am innocent, for me to flee is not the way for
my innocence to be believed."
Similar attempts were made to ruin Father La Combe. He was grossly
misrepresented to the king, and an order procured for his arrest and
imprisonment in the Bastile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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