And in Thy mighty will to find
The joy, the freedom of the mind.”
Her friends were not idle, and finally, by the intercession of Madame de Miramion, Madame de Maisonfort, and the Duchesses Beauvilliers and Chevreuse, acting through Madame de Maintenon upon the king, Madame Guyon was released in October, 1688. On being set free she took up her residence at the house of Madame de Miramion, and resumed her labor for souls as opportunity presented itself. Early in 1690 her daughter was married to Count de Vaux, a man of high character, brother of the Duchess de Bethune and nephew of the Duchess de Charost; and as the child was scarcely fourteen she went to live with her a little way out of the city. Here Fénelon visited frequently, and when she had once more returned to Paris, hiring a private house for herself there in 1692, he met her much.
What of her influence upon him? Those not in sympathy with her ideas, by whom indeed the inner things of the kingdom are pertly dubbed “nonsense,” have called her “the evil genius of his life,” and ascribed to her what they are pleased to term his ruin and downfall. We are very certain that he did not himself regard either it or her in that light. They had very much in common. There was the same hunger after the highest religious attainments, and their ideas as to the path were at bottom the same. Fénelon had the theological training which she lacked, and hence found difficulty with many of her expressions, which seemed to him objectionable and liable to misapprehension, as doubtless they were. But it seems altogether probable that at this time she was more advanced in the spiritual life, more perfectly taught of God, than he. Hence, in the extended correspondence which took place between them, covering a space of some two years or more, from its beginning in November, 1688, it is usually he who asks the questions and seeks for explanations. She responded with entire patience and deep religious insight, taking all possible pains, as may well be supposed, with so distinguished yet so docile a pupil. To one with so clear an intellect and so sympathetic a spirit she could express her thought with the utmost freedom, and his enlightened, powerful mind, untrammeled by the prejudices which so often prevented—and always prevents—correct perceptions, readily saw the validity of her views. She herself says: “I was enabled in our conversations so fully to explain everything to Fénelon that he gradually entered into the views which the Lord had led me to entertain, and finally gave them his unqualified assent. The persecutions which he has since suffered are the evidence of the sincerity of his belief.” If he was greatly indebted to her, as everything appears to prove—and as many other eminent men have been to godly women—for getting into a much closer conformity to the will of God, it is no wonder that he was never willing to unite with her enemies in her condemnation, although every earthly motive was on that side.
It was in 1692 that the acquaintance of Madame Guyon with Madame de Maintenon became somewhat intimate, so much so that she was often invited to the royal palace at Versailles, and was introduced to the celebrated institution at St. Cyr. Being given liberty to visit the young ladies there, she talked with them on religious subjects, and speedily acquired the strongest possible influence over them. This soon brought her name into general notice, and excited once more intense hostility. One of her servants was bribed to poison her, and almost succeeded. She suffered from the effects for seven years. It is at this time that Bossuet—confessedly the leader of the French Church by reason of reputation, learning, and intellectual strength—became alarmed at the reports he heard of the strange influence of this woman in high quarters, and determined to put forth his splendid powers for the extinction of what he deemed a new heresy. His first interview with her took place in September, 1693, his second, January 30, 1694. He found much to admire in her positions, but he judged by the head rather than the heart, and was not fully satisfied. Accordingly she wrote to Madame de Maintenon, asking that a number of suitable persons might be selected to carefully examine her doctrines and her morals; for her character as well as her teachings had been loudly assailed, as is customary in such situations. The king approved of the plan, and appointed three commissioners, the most eminent for virtues and talents that could well be selected, which was a marked tribute to the intellectual power and personal influence of Madame Guyon. They were Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux; M. Tronson, Superior of the Seminary of St. Sulpice; and M. de Noailles, Bishop of Chalons, afterwards the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris. These persons had many meetings in 1694 and 1695, and drew up what were known as the Articles of Issy. Fénelon, being on terms of the greatest intimacy with these three theologians, was in frequent communication with them concerning the matter, and was often consulted, especially by Bossuet, while the articles were being framed. When they were completed he was asked to sign them, which, after a few changes and the addition of four articles which he deemed essential to prevent misconception, he gladly did. Even Madame Guyon gave her assent to them, although they bore rather hardly on some of her positions, without mentioning her name, and were expressly designed to protect the public against her alleged extravagances.
She was at this time in a sort of confinement in the Convent of St. Mary, in Meaux, under Bossuet’s supervision. He had many interviews with her, and, in a letter to the prioress of the convent, said expressly that “he had examined the writings of Madame Guyon with great care, and found in them nothing censurable, with the exception of some terms which were not wholly conformed to the strictness of theology; but that a woman was not expected to be a theologian.” He also, at her desire, after six months’ residence, gave her a certificate speaking in the most favorable terms of her character and conduct. But no sooner was she again in Paris than her enemies started at once into life. The king was alarmed lest Quietism—a system of faith and practice at the complete antipodes from his own—should gain further currency, and Madame de Maintenon, taking her cue from him, as she always did, ranged herself promptly with its enemies. Bossuet also, finding that he had been more lenient toward her than was politic, demanded back from Madame Guyon his certificate. This she could not consent to surrender, and he set himself with full determination to crush her. December 27, 1695, she was arrested and incarcerated in the castle of Vincennes, where she underwent for nine months a very severe imprisonment. She says: “I passed my time in great peace, content to spend the remainder of my life there if such should be the will of God. I employed part of my time in writing religious songs.” In August, 1696, she was transferred to another prison at Vaugiraud, a village near Paris, where she remained till September, 1698, and was then immured in one of the stern, dark towers of the dreaded Bastile, where she remained four years more in solitary confinement. Just previous to her commitment there she writes: “I feel no anxiety in view of what my enemies will do to me. I have no fear of anything but of being left to myself. So long as God is with me, neither imprisonment nor death will have any terrors.” A little later she writes: “I, being in the Bastile, said to Thee, O my God, if Thou art pleased to render me a spectacle to men and angels, Thy holy will be done. All that I ask is that Thou wilt be with me and save those who love Thee. As for me, what matters it what men think of me or what they make me suffer, since they can not separate me from that Savior whose name is engraven in the very bottom of my heart. If I can only be accepted of Him, I am willing that all men should despise and hate me. Their strokes will polish what may be defective in me, so that I may be presented in peace to Him for whom I die daily.” Her language was:
“In vain they smite me. Men but do
What God permits with different view:
To outward sight they hold the rod,
But faith proclaims it all of God.”