Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 5738

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5738. The heat was borne in by those who were in the western quarter, - by monks who believed themselves to be Christ, and wanted to be worshipped as gods on the ground that they possessed heaven and thus had power over the souls of men, and on that account behaved themselves in external form like saints, so that they might induce the simple to believe that they were in a manner gods. But when they were at length explored, they were inwardly profane; for every single one who was not willing to acknowledge them as gods they held in deadly hatred, and with such vindictiveness, that, in the last degree of their ferocity, they wished to kill them. Thus, they were inwardly devils. In order to seduce all others wherever they could, they devised arts so that they could let in heats, and this in divers ways and from various places, both good and evil. And this they effected by means of transfers, which can take place in the other life; for such things can be transferred to others. They wished, by this means, to induce a faith that they were gods.


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