The
following Medieval vision was taken from (http://www.carleton.ca/~jopp/3850/5-2.htm),
Carleton University in Canada. It was part of the reading required for a history
course. Though the girl was a catholic, rather than being pro catholic, it
is actually anti-catholic.
History 3850 Readings
Millennialism
NA PROUS BONNET (BONETA)
Na (1) Prous Bonnet, the daughter of Durand Bonnet, of the parish of Saint-Michel
de la Cadière in the diocese of Nîmes, an inhabitant of Montpellier
since she was around seven (so she says), was arrested there as one accused
and suspected of the heresy of the Beguines who were burned, and was brought
to the prison at Carcassone, as is established by her confession made in legitimate
judicial proceedings. She spoke freely, willingly, and without interrogation
on the sixth of August, in the year of our Lord 1325.
She claimed that on Good Friday, four years before she made the confession
written below, while she was in the church of the Franciscans in Montpellier
listening to the service with some other people, she adored the crucifix,
as it is customary to do. When she had made her adoration in this way and
had returned to her seat, after the mass was over and most of the people had
left the church, the Lord Jesus Christ transported her in spirit (that is,
in her soul) to the first heaven. When she was there she saw Jesus Christ
in the form of a man as well as in his divinity. He appeared to her and showed
her his heart opened like the door of a lantern. Out of this heart came rays
of the sun, but, brighter than rays of the sun, which illuminated her all
over. Immediately she saw, clearly and openly, the divinity of God, who gave
her his heart in the spirit. She said, "Lord, I have little to recommend
myself," and Christ replied," I will give you more if you are faithful
to me."(2)
She
drew near to him and put her head beneath Christ's body, and she saw nothing
but that great light which Christ gave to her in those rays. Then she returned
to the place where she first saw that light and looked on Christ himself,
and thus gazing at the rays, little by little they covered the whole of Christ's
body. When this had been seen and done, Christ replaced her in her seat where
she had been before. Then she came to herself with great weeping and tears,
in great fervor and love toward God, and she wanted her companions and other
people to know what had happened. ...
...She
claims that she frequently saw the Lord God face to face, and he came there
in the form and appearance of a man. Afterwards an indulgence was preached
at Maguelone and she wanted to go to it, but the Lord prevented her from going
and said to her, "Shall I be the Lord of one soul?" He then added,
"Saint John the Baptist was the herald of the advent of Jesus Christ's
holy baptism, and you are the herald of the advent of the Holy Spirit."
...
She
further claims that the divinity which God gave to her formed for itself a
body of the spirit of more precious and more pure understanding than the one
she had, and there was no angel nor archangel nor saint in paradise who might
have become involved in this or impeded it.
...
Asked
about it, she says she was never told any of these things by any living person,
but it was God alone and the Holy Spirit who gave her knowledge of them. She
says she wants to live and die in the aforesaid beliefs, because God, who
has never lied, told her they were true, and she does not believe that he
lied to her. Again, she said that if this present pope, that is, Pope John
XXII, and the cardinals, prelates, and doctors of the sacred page should tell
her and demonstrate by reason and by the authority of holy scripture that
the aforesaid things, which she holds and claims that she believes and holds,
are erroneous and heretical, and should warn her to revoke the aforesaid errors,
she would neither believe nor obey them, because, as she said, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who told her the aforesaid things, is more learned and more prudent
than all the men in the whole world.
...She
claims that the new time of the Holy Spirit and the new age of the church
began with Brother Pierre Déjean and continues in herself, as she said.
Thus there is now a new age of the church in which it is necessary to believe
in the work of the Holy Spirit.
...
Likewise,
when questioned, she said that God commanded the sacrament of matrimony to
be maintained and observed in that way it was performed between Adam and Eve
and in Saint John,(11) and in the same way in which the marriage was performed
when Christ was present in the nuptials with the Blessed John, although, when
questioned, she said she did not know in what way that marriage was performed.
...
Likewise
she said that every day and night and every hour she sees God in the spirit,
and he never leaves her; she says that Christ himself wishes to be head of
the church and to rule souls, and that henceforth he will not permit them
to be ruled by any pope, even if another should be elected by the cardinals,
since the papacy is permanently annulled.
********
Notes:
(1)Short
for domina.
(2)This
exchange may be translated incorrectly. For some reason Christ begins to speak
Provençal at this point.
(11)Presumably
John 2.
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