A Curious History

of the Holy Spirit upon his own, because these could sometimes be nothing more than the transports of a strong, preoccupied imagination, just as lovers are accustomed to forge agreeable illusions for themselves—and lovers fashion dreams for themselves original: "Et somnia sibi fingunt amantes." A quote from Virgil’s Eclogues.—or else the impressions of the spirit of lies, which takes advantage of a melancholic temperament The original term "atrabiliaire" refers to "black bile," one of the four humors thought in early medicine to cause deep sadness or religious mania. to deceive and to ruin him.

And indeed, the same spirit that had pushed him into the Jesuit order, and which possessed him so absolutely under that black habit, in the most ardent heat of his Loyolism Devotion to the principles of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits., and among the terrifying shadows of the Chamber of Meditations, was that very same spirit which birthed in him a disgust for it. It drew him out after fifteen years to employ him in "higher and more significant things," which he describes in his declaration in a somewhat monkish jargon and with very inflated terms. He did this with such skill that, while speaking very favorably of his assignments in Paris and Picardy after having "de-Jesuitized" himself and joined the party of the Jansenists A Catholic theological movement that emphasized original sin and divine grace, often in conflict with the Jesuits. (because those places are very far from Montauban, where people preferred to believe him rather than go there to see for themselves), he says nothing at all about what happened in Bordeaux, Bazas, Toulouse, and at the Hermitage of Graville. There, changing his name for the second time and taking that of Jean of Jesus-Christ, just as he had previously had himself

named Jean of Saint Nicholas so as not to be recognized as Labadie, he became a Carmelite and took the white habit—in spite of the Jesuit habit—on the first day of the year 1650. However, it would have been very necessary for him to enlighten the reader about all of this in the second edition of his declaration, since Mauduit Michel Mauduit, a contemporary critic and theologian. had, two years earlier, reproached him with the particulars and many surrounding circumstances. This included not only the nuns of the third order in Toulouse, whom he had made to stand entirely naked so he could preach to them in that posture about the "state of innocence" based on the principles of Adamism A radical religious belief that sought to return to the naked innocence of Adam before the Fall., but also regarding all his other extravagances at Graville. These he attributed to the movements of the Holy Spirit, which inspired him there to write dancing songs in honor of the God of the Mass, revealed to him that the world would end in the year 1666 (which is the year in which he began to trouble our Churches), and established him as the Precursor and the first Promoter of His reign. Just so, he has now set himself up here as the Herald of the reign of Jesus Christ and of the Fifth Monarchy A millenarian belief that a fifth world empire, led by Christ, was about to begin. through the outbursts of the most arrant Quakerism Used here as a derogatory label for radical spiritualism that relies on "inner light" rather than established church authority. that was ever found.

But it matters much more to us, according to our purpose, to declare in what manner he has acted among us, and what have been the transports of his spirit and the extravagances of his conduct—which is easy to make known, since the acts of our Classes The "Classis" is a regional governing body in the Reformed/Presbyterian church structure....