Most Serene Duke Landgrave,

I received and read with delight your letter, most Serene Duke, written to me on the first day of July. I hope that after that day the last printed work, called Vera Christiana Religio, has come into your hands. If it be pleasing to you, you may perhaps order that some learned men among the clergy in your Duchy, present and lay open their judgments concerning it; but I pray that such learned men among your clergy be chosen as love truths and take delight in them because they are truths. If others are chosen, they will not see in this work a single grain of truth, but everything therein will be in shade.

As to what is told concerning the daughter of the Prince Margrave in Schwed,* that I predicted her death, this is a fiction invented by some chattering new maker. I have not been there, nor have I written anything concerning her. As to what is told concerning the brother of the Queen of Sweden, however, that is true; yet this must not be deemed as a miracle, but only as something memorable, similar to the memorabilia recounted concerning Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin and others, which are written in the work; for such memorabilia are not miracles, but are merely testimonies that, as to my spirit, I have been introduced by the Lord into the [spiritual] world, and thus, that I speak with angels and spirits.

As concerns the persons mentioned in the attached sheet, I have not spoken with four of them, namely, Bellisle, de Dombelles, Kameke, Bock, but six months ago I did speak with Stanislaus, King of Poland,** and this in a company where he was, and in which no one knew that it was he; for it was the delight of his life that he wished to be in companies incognito, and so to talk with spirits and angels as one of them and thus familiarly. Afterwards I saw him transferred to the northern quarter, and I heard that he was there promoted to the administration of a society of Roman Catholics over which he is set as Prince Moderator.

I have spoken at times with the Roman Pontiff who last died.*** After his death, he stayed with me for three days, and when he left, he descended to companies which consist of Jesuits, and presided over them for a month. I also saw him ascending therefrom, and then also it was given me to speak with him. But it is not allowed me to publish more concerning the course of his life and concerning his state. Of him who filled the Pontifical office thirty or forty years ago,**** see in the work, n. 820.

Ever most solicitous and obedient in all that concerns your honor and command, I remain, Most Serene Duke and Landgrave, your most humble servant Eman. Swedenborg

Amsterdam, July 13, 1771

* Swedenborg wrote Swett. ** When the Russians, in 1734, entered Poland to set Augustus of Saxony on the throne, Stanislaus, the rightful King, was forced to flee. Subsequently he renounced all claim to the Polish throne upon the condition, among others, that he retain the title of King of Poland. He died in 1766. Swedenborg first met him in the spiritual world on Sunday, Nov. 16, 1768. He had seen him before, but without knowing who he was, "although all the spirits had been eager to know this." Therefore Swedenborg had asked him his name, and "since, in the spiritual world, no one can hold back the truth, the King not only told him his name but forthwith became so confidential with him that he at once led him to his daughter, the late Queen of France" (Cuno's Memoirs, p. 12). The daughter here referred to is Marie Leszczynska (1703-1768), the wife of Louis XV of France. *** In 1771 "the last pope" was Clement XIII who died on Feb. 2, 1769; yet in his next letter to the Landgrave, Swedenborg says that it was Benedict XIV, Pope Clement's immediate predecessor whom he met. This, however, seems clearly to have been a slip; for Benedict XIV died in 1758 and his character as an evil man had been fully manifested by 1771. See SE 5843 seq. That it was Clement XIII whom he met, is indicated by the statement that he presided over the Jesuits; for during his papacy, Clement XIII strove greatly, though in vain, to prevent the Jesuits from being expelled from France, Portugal and Spain. **** Clement XII, Pope 1730-1740, died Feb. 6, 1740.