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
There was not any kind of infamy, error, sorcery, or sacrilege, of
which they did not accuse me. As soon as I was able to be carried to
the church in a chair, I was told I must speak to the prebend. (It was
a snare concerted between Father La Mothe and the Canon at whose house
I lodged). I spoke to him with much simplicity and he approved of what
I said. Yet, two days after they gave out that I had uttered many
things, and accused many persons; and from hence they procured the
banishment of sundry persons with whom they were displeased, persons
whom I had never seen or of whom I never heard. They were men of honor.
One of them was banished, because he said my little book is a good one.
It is remarkable that they say nothing to those who prefixed their
approbations, and that, far from condemning the book, it has been
reprinted since I have been in prison, and advertisements of it have
been posted up at the Archbishop's palace, and all over Paris. In
regard to others, when they find faults in their books, they condemn
the books and leave the person at liberty; but as for me, my book is
approved, sold and spread, while I am kept a prisoner for it.
The same day that those gentlemen were banished, I received a letter de
cachet, or sealed order to repair to the Convent of the Visitation of
St. Mary's, in a suburb of St. Antoine. I received it with a
tranquillity which surprised the bearer exceedingly. He could not
forbear expressing it, having seen the extreme sorrow of those who were
only banished. He was so touched with it as to shed tears. And although
his order was to carry me off directly, he was not afraid to trust me,
but left me all the day, desiring me to repair to St. Mary's in the
evening. On that day many of my friends came to see me, and found me
very cheerful, which surprised such of them as knew my case. I could
not stand, I was so weak, having the fever every night, it being only a
fortnight since I was thought to be expiring. I imagined they would
leave me my daughter and maid to serve me.
CHAPTER 20
On January 29, 1688, I went to St. Mary's. There they let me know I
must neither have my daughter nor a maid to serve me, but must be
locked up alone in a chamber. Indeed it touched me to my heart when my
daughter was taken from me. They would neither allow her to be in that
house, nor anybody to bring me any news of her. I was then obliged to
sacrifice my daughter, as if she were mine no longer. The people of the
house were prepossessed with so frightful an account of me, that they
looked at me with horror. For my jailer they singled out a nun, who,
they thought, would treat me with the greatest rigor, and they were not
mistaken therein.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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