Item genre: Vision

British Library: Add. MS 4454
The religious meditations, verse and autobiographical writings of Katherine Austen (1664-83)
Katherine Austen (Author)

Item 9 (Commentary, Compilation, Dream, Prophecy, Vision), fols. 10r-17r

A compilation of records of prophetic dreams and visions from diverse sources, and commentary on them, including reference to Katherine Austen's own dreams and visions.

[Written on versos only except fols. 10v and 12v (see items 9.2 and 9.6).]


British Library: Add. MS 4454
The religious meditations, verse and autobiographical writings of Katherine Austen (1664-83)
Katherine Austen (Author)

Item 9.2.2 (Vision), fol. 10v

Tis certainly declared that there was a drop of blood fell from the ceiling at Greenwich

...

This was when the old King and the nobles come to see the curiousness of the statue worth 1000 pounds


British Library: Add. MS 4454
The religious meditations, verse and autobiographical writings of Katherine Austen (1664-83)
Katherine Austen (Author)

Item 9.2.3 (Vision), fol. 10v

A man was murdered. One cut off his hand and hung it up in the Castle of Camberig.

...

Twas thought the soul of the murdered lay in the hand til the murderer appeared.


British Library: Add. MS 4454
The religious meditations, verse and autobiographical writings of Katherine Austen (1664-83)
Katherine Austen (Author)

Item 9.3 (Prophecy, Vision), fol. 11r

John Donne's prophetic vision of his wife, when he was travelling in France, drawn from Izaak Walton's The Life of Dr John Donne.


(Author)Izaac Walton

When Dr Donne was in France with Sir Henry Wotten, he left his wife in Engl[and] big with child.

...

And they found that about that very time, his wife was brought to bed of a dead child, very hardly escaping her life.

[Whether Austen sourced this anecdote from the first printed version is uncertain. It appears for the first time in the 4th edition of Walton's Life of Donne (1675); while Austen continued to add anecdotes to Book M until the 1680s (see item 9.2.4), this anecdote is on a page that follows the manuscript's original foliation, and for this reason is most likely to have been transcribed in the 1660s.]


British Library: Add. MS 4454
The religious meditations, verse and autobiographical writings of Katherine Austen (1664-83)
Katherine Austen (Author)

Item 9.7 (Commentary, Prophecy, Vision), fols. 13r-16r (rectos only; versos blank)

Records of visions and miracles experienced by historical, classical and biblical personages, and reflection on the nature of visions and miracles.


British Library: Add. MS 4454
The religious meditations, verse and autobiographical writings of Katherine Austen (1664-83)
Katherine Austen (Author)

Item 9.7.1 (Commentary, Vision), fol. 13r

The Fathers observe of the Sibyls, and other oracles, that they were possessed with such shakings and transports as bereaved them of their reason.

...

As I have been assured of some in great darkness of soul have had such visions of light, as both cleared, and cheered them ever after.


British Library: Add. MS 4454
The religious meditations, verse and autobiographical writings of Katherine Austen (1664-83)
Katherine Austen (Author)

Item 9.7.2 (Vision), fols. 13r-14r (fol. 13v is blank)

A vision experienced by a minister, Mr Lancaster, as reported by John Gauden, Bishop of Worcester .

Doc. Gauden was credibly informed that 20 years past, a very mild and worthy minister (Mr Lancaster)

...

and with the close of which harmony he gave up the ghost.


British Library: Add. MS 4454
The religious meditations, verse and autobiographical writings of Katherine Austen (1664-83)
Katherine Austen (Author)

Item 9.7.3 (Vision), fol. 14r

A vision experienced by a Dutch minister, as reported by Ralph Brownrig, Bishop of Exeter.

Doc. Brownrig told this story, that a Dutch minister, who was a most plain hearted religious man

...

Upon the back of this man's coat was seen a print most perfectly of a man's hand, which by being dry and the rest of his clothes wet, was plainly seen by them all.


British Library: Add. MS 4454
The religious meditations, verse and autobiographical writings of Katherine Austen (1664-83)
Katherine Austen (Author)

Item 9.7.4 (Commentary, Dream, Meditation, Religious writing, Vision), fols. 14r-15r (fol. 14v is blank)

A discussion of prophetic visions and miracles, compared to revelation by God's word.

If any had told Socrates that he saw a divine vision, he presently esteemed him vain and proud.

...

Yet we are not to conclude God in his Law, as that he should have no prerogative, nor so to bind him up in his ordinances, as that he never can, or never does work by an extraordinary way of Revelation.


British Library: Add. MS 4454
The religious meditations, verse and autobiographical writings of Katherine Austen (1664-83)
Katherine Austen (Author)

Item 9.7.5 (Biblical writing, Commentary, Vision), fols 15r-16r (fol. 15v is blank)

A discussion of Elijah and Elisha, particularly Elijah's experience of miracles, based on 2 Kings 1-2.

Elisha begged a portion of Elijah's spirit, of his example and graces.

...

Neither must he [Elijah] die an ordinary death.