Studies in mystical religion

Excerpt: ...important event in Merswin's life--the purchase of Griinenworth, or the "Convent of the Green Isle." This was purchased, according to the narrative, by Merswin, and fitted up as a quiet retreat--"a mystic nest"--for the Strasbourg circle of the Friends of God, a sort of " school of prophets" for which the most important books of this mystical collection were written. Merswin himself is supposed to be the author of the account of the founding of the retreat. He brings in his mysterious "Friend," and gives the entire transaction a miraculous colouring. He says that during the night of October 9, 1364, the "Friend of God," in his Oberland home--" six days' journey " from Strasbourg--dreamed that he was ordered by God to go to his friend Rulman Merswin, and help him to found a "nest" in Strasbourg for the Friends of God. The same night, in a dream, Rulman Merswin himself had a revelation that he ought to found such a retreat in Strasbourg! 1 The Book of the Two Men, containing the story of the conversion of the "Friend of God." Both men were opposed to the idea of founding such a retreat, and they refused to follow the suggestion made in their dreams. The night of the following Christmas they both simultaneously in their respective homes fell seriously ill at midnight; the illness increased until they were at the point of death; suddenly, at precisely the same time, they were told in indescribable visions to found the retreat! The "joint" illness lasted for nearly two years, when a general paralysis of their limbs rendered them both helpless! They were now told that this condition would last until they followed the will of God. At length they yielded, and immediately they ...

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