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There was bound to be a revulsion against this. An ascetic reaction reared
its head. On October 20 a great light appeared, and a voice came from it,
making itself known as Christ, and commanded him to forswear this wicked world and
serve God in the wilderness for six years. The painter clearly suffered more
from these holy apparitions than from the earlier demoniacal ones; it was only
after two and a half hours that he awoke from this attack. In the next attack the
holy figure surrounded by light was much more unfriendly. He issued threats
against him for not having obeyed the divine behest and led him down into Hell so
that he might be terrified by the fate of the damned. Evidently, however, this
failed in its effect, for the apparitions of the figure surrounded by light,
which purported to be Christ, were repeated several more times. Each time the
painter underwent an absence and an ecstasy lasting for hours. In the grandest of these ecstasies the
figure surrounded by light took him first into a town in whose streets people were
perpetrating all the acts of darkness; and then, in contrast, took him to a
lovely meadow in which anchorites were leading a godly life and were receiving
tangible evidence of God’s grace and care. There then appeared, instead of Christ,
the Holy Mother herself, who, reminding him of what she had already done on
his behalf, called on him to obey the command of her dear Son. ‘Since he could
not truly resolve so to do’, Christ appeared to him again the next day and
upbraided him soundly with threats and promises. At last he gave way and made up his
mind to leave the world and to do what was required of him. With this decision,
the second phase ended. The painter states that from this time onwards he had
no more visions and no more temptations.