Gustenhover
A goldsmith who resided at Strasburg in 1603. In a period of much danger he gave shelter to one M. Hirschborgen who is described as good and religious. In return for the hospitality of his host he gave him some powder of projection and departed on his journey.
Gustenhover indiscreetly made transmutation before many people, which in due course reached the ears of Rudolph II. himself, an amateur alchemist. He forthwith ordered the Strasburg magistrates to send the goldsmith to him. He was accordingly arrested and guarded with the greatest vigilance. On learning that he was to be sent to the Emperor at Prague he disclosed the whole business and requesting the magistrates to meet together asked them to procure a crucet and charcoal, and without his coming near them to melt some lead. On the metal being molten he then gave them a small quantity of a reddish powder on which being thrown into the crucet produced a considerable amount of pure gold.
On being brought into the presence of the Emperor he confessed that he had not himself prepared the magical powder and was wholly ignorant of the nature of its composition. This the Emperor refused to believe in spite of the repeated protestations of the goldsmith. The powder being at length exhausted, Gustenhover was set to the now impossible task of making more gold. He sought refuge from the fury of the Emperor by an alchemical blasphemy accursed by all sons of the doctrine. Convinced that the alchemist was concealing his secret, the Emperor had him imprisoned for the rest of his life. It is believed that Hirschborgen who presented Gustenhover with the powder was no other than Alexander Sethon (q.v.), who at that period was travelling Germany in various disguises.
Guyon, Madame (1648-1717): Jeanne Marie Bouvières de la Mothe, a celebrated mystic and quietest who suffered much persecution at the hands of the Church of Rome.
She was born at Montargis on April 13th, 1648, and early showed a passion for martyrdom and religious exercises. As she grew older vanity took the place of devotion, for she was both witty and beautiful. At the age of sixteen she was forced into a marriage with the wealthy M. Guyon, more than twenty years her senior, in whose household she was exposed to insult and cruelty. Broken in spirit she turned once more to religion, and consulted a Franciscan, who advised her to seek God in her heart rather than in outward observances. From that time she became a mystic, aiming at the suppression of all human hopes and fears, and desires, and the attainment of a completely disinterested love of God. She embraced every form of suffering, physical and mental, and even eschewed spiritual joys. In 1680 M. Guyon died, and his widow was released from bondage. Henceforth she embraced the doctrine of quietism. In losing the gifts," she said, "she had found the Giver, and had reached an ideal state of resignation and self-suppression." She went to Paris, expounded her theories with earnestness and charm, and gathered an illustrious circle about her. Here also she made friends with Fénélon. But the persecutions of the Church increased She herself requested that a commission be appointed to examine her doctrine and writings. Three commissioners were chosen, among them Bossuet, the champion of the Church, her erstwhile friend and now her bitter enemy. Gypsies Her writings were condemned, and she herself incarcerated at Vincennes. For four years she lay in the dungeons of the Bastile, while Bossuet used every means to calumniate her name and doctrine. In 1702, her health broken, she was released and sent to Blois where she died in 1707. Her last years were blessed with peace and resignation, and such a submission to trials as she had ever shown.