The Lives, Sentiments and Sufferings of Some of the Reformers and Martyrs Before, Since and Independent of the Lutheran Reformation (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1867. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVII. JANE MARY GDION. Of the life and voluminous writings of this eminently gifted woman and true reformer, our limits will only permit a comparatively brief outline. She and Fenelon, though not professing any fellowship or connection either with the Protestants or with the Jansenists, have become identified with the history of the religious awakenings in France during the reign of Louis XIV. Neither of them, it is true, saw through the whole of the great mass of errors in the doctrines of the Romish church; though they seem to have looked over them to something far better, and to have seen much further than the ceremonial limits of popery. This was especially the case with the subject of this notice. Fenelon himself, as a man, may almost be said to have been an unconscious Protestant; but, as a priest, he was nevertheless a Papist. Both of them, though still cherishing their connection witli the papal system, in which they had been educated, were in reality permanently efficient in the work of reformation, and in spirit were unquestionably more evangelical than many of the acknowledged reformers themselves. Jeanne Marie Bouvieres de la Mothe was born in the year 1G48, at Montargis, a town about fifty miles south of Paris, and was the daughter of Claude Bouvieres, Seigneur de la Mothe Vergonville. When she was about four years of age, at the solicitation of the Duchess of Montbason, a friend of her father's, who requested the favor of his little daughter's company in her temporary retirement, she was placed with her in the convent of the Benedictine Nuns in Montargis. During this early period of her life, through the merciful visitations of divine love, she had many religious impressions, and made resolutions to lead a life of devotion to her Hea...