Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 6087

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6087. QUEEN CHRISTINA. She dwelt in a house, which was quite elegant and splendid from such things as were within [meubler*]. There were servants there to attend upon her, but not altogether her own - still, sufficient for politeness. She is in a certain spiritual world which corresponds to spinning. Thither went C[harles] XII, in order to talk; and at length they went out. It was through a spacious, paneled gallery. Immediately afterwards, she told how she conversed with the Cardinals in Rome; which was in a familiar way with all kinds of pleasantries, always bantering them, as it were, yet understandingly, by various devices, whereby she represented many things which charmed [their] minds: she wished, for example, [persons] to appear naked before them; to which they replied, saying, that this could not be, and would be unbecoming. She said, that it was becoming, because to go naked is always to appear in pure truths; to which they assented. She showed in various ways what sort she was. She next related various things, how she conversed with the Pope, whom, also, she sometimes pleased by her ways; and, being asked what she thought of Christ, she replied that He was the High Pope; to which he replied that He was not, because He gave the power to Peter, and thus to him. He said that [she] affirmed this of the Son of God, by whom he meant the human from the mother; but she replied that [He is] the Son of God from eternity, who is equal to the Father, and, since the Father was above the Pope, He was also. To this, the Pope, on reflection, could make no reply: nevertheless, he wished her not to tell others; but, still, [she] insisted that it could not be otherwise. - After this, she spoke with the Cardinals, and told them to swear themselves upon the creed of Athanasius. They said they had sworn it before; but she compelled them, by her pleasant ways, to affirm it yet again with a certain oath - which was done. She then said, that it is there laid down that His Divine was in His Human, like the soul in the body, and that thus it is One Person; and then she strenuously insisted that they must not separate them, - that, since the body apart from its soul is not a man, there is not anything that could give anything; consequently, that His soul had given what was its own [to His body], inasmuch as they are one; and that thus the Son of God, as respects both [soul and body], is not able to give away what He still possesses. Today, also, she bantered the Cardinals, nor were they able to reply. They confessed that the Lord, since the Divine and Human constitute one Person, was above the Pope, and ought to be so acknowledged. They gave way to her, and assented; for she fascinated them by those pleasantries and her familiar talk, because she was a queen. She also told the Cardinals that the papal power is Divine, since, according to their doctrine, it was given to the Son, who also was God, and who was able to receive it because He was God and the Only begotten Son; but to bestow Divine Power on a man who is not God, this the understanding does not accept. She also asked what is meant by the Rock [Petram]. The Pope replied that it was the Lord and so forth. * A French word meaning, to furnish. -TR.


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