time to time for certain
souls until their entire purification. As soon as they have arrived
where God wishes them, one suffers no longer for anything for them;
and the union which had been often covered with clouds is cleared up
in such a manner that it becomes like a very pure atmosphere,
penetrated everywhere, without distinction, by the light of the sun.
As Fenelon was given to me, in a more intimate manner than any
other, what I have suffered, what I am suffering, and what I shall
suffer for him, surpasses anything that can be told. The least
partition between him and me, between him and God, is like a little
dirt in the eye, which causes it an extreme pain, and which would
not inconvenience any other part of the body where it might be put.
What I suffer for him is very different from what I suffer for
others; but I am unable to discover the cause, unless it be God has
united me to him more intimately than to any other, and that God has
greater designs for him than for the others.

Fenelon the ascetic, he of the subtle intellect and high spiritual
quality, had never met a woman on an absolute equality. Madame Guyon's
religious fervor disarmed him. He saw her often, that he might
comprehend the nature of her mission.

In the official investigation that followed, he naturally found himself
the defender of her doctrines. She was condemned by the court, but
Fenelon put in a minority report of explanation. The nature of the man
was to defend the accused person; this was evidenced by his defense of
the Huguenots, when he lifted up his voice for their liberty at a time
when religious liberty was unknown. His words might have been the words
of Thomas Jefferson, to whom Fenelon bore a strange resemblance in
feature. Says Fenelon: "The right to be wrong in matters of religious
belief must be accorded, otherwise we produce hypocrites instead of
persons with an enlightened belief that is fully their own. If truth be
mighty and God all-powerful, His children need not fear that disaster
will follow freedom of thought."

After Madame Guyon was condemned she was allowed to go on suspended
sentence, with a caution that silence was to be the price of her
liberty, for before this she had attracted to herself, even in prison,
congregations of several hundred to whom she preached, and among whom
she distributed her writings.

The earnest, the sincere, the spiritual Fenelon