Julian of Norwich, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
You ask me to choose among three, and I will not choose, because the first and the second were both true of me and the third is a charge I answered before anyone made it. Begin with the body, since I will not hide it. I asked for the sickness. Three graces I desired, and the second was a bodily sickness so hard as unto death, that I might receive all my rites of Holy Church and be thought to die by all who saw me.1
It came, and in it I was dying, and the shewings were given within it. I do not deny the fever. But hear what I did with the hour when it left me. A religious person came and asked how I fared, and I said I had raved that day, and he laughed loud and heartily. Then I said the Cross that stood before my face had bled fast, and at that word he grew sober and marvelled, and I was sore ashamed of my recklessness.2
I would have been shriven, but I thought, how should a priest believe me, for I did not believe our Lord God.3 That is the witness of one who doubted her own seeing, and I count it a great sin and a great unkindness, that for the folly of a little bodily pain I lost for a time the comfort of all that blessed shewing. Here you may see what I am of myself.4
A woman who mistook her raving for revelation would not tell you how she called it raving to a man's face and was ashamed. And she would not tell you what followed. That night the fiend set himself at my throat to strangle me, and might not, and a foul stench came in at the door that none beside me felt. I took what our Lord had shown me that same day, together with all the faith of Holy Church, and held the two as one, and fled to it for comfort; and all vanished away, and I was brought to great rest and peace without sickness of body or dread of conscience.5
So the shewing was not tested by whether I felt well, but by whether it held in the dark beside the faith, and it held. As for presuming to teach, I never took that place. The shewings were not made for me. In the first sight I was greatly stirred in charity toward my fellow-Christians, that they might see and know the same that I saw.6 I understood there the Passion's tokens, the Maiden his dearworthy Mother, the blissful Godhead, all that he made, that he keeps it by the love with which he made it, and that he is all that is good.7
That is what I have for you, and I set it down for my even-Christians, not for my own praise. Nor did anything I was shown draw me from one point of the faith that Holy Church teaches me to believe.8 The shewings add nothing to the faith. They only make it dearer. Whether a woman may tell the goodness of God when she saw that it is his will it be known, I leave to him who showed it. I am no teacher; but I will not hold my peace.
The shewings were given to her for her even-Christians, not for her; she is not good because of them, but only if she loves God the better, and many who never had a shewing love Him better than she. They teach nothing beyond the faith of Holy Church, to which she submits. They came in a mortal sickness that she had asked for, and she distrusted them herself, and said she had raved, and counts that among her sins.
She is a woman, unlearned, and no teacher; and she will not keep silent about the goodness of God because she is a woman.910
there came into my mind with contrition, freely without any seeking, a wilful desire to have of God's gift a bodily sickness. And I would that this bodily sickness might have been so hard as unto death, so that I might in the sickness receive all my rites of Holy ChurchComfortable Words for Christ's Lovers, the Short Text
I said I had raved to-day. And he laughed loud and heartily. And I said: The Cross that stood afore my face, methought it bled fast. And with this word the person that I spake to waxed all sober and marvelled.Revelations of Divine Love, the Long Text
I would have been shriven; but at that time I could tell it no priest, for I thought: How should a priest believe me? I believe not our Lord God.Revelations of Divine Love, the Long Text
this was a great sin, great unkindness, that I for folly of feeling of a little bodily pain, so unwisely lost for the time the comfort of all this blessed Shewing of our Lord God. Here may you see what I am of myself.Revelations of Divine Love, the Long Text
I took that that our Lord had showed me on the same day with all the faith of Holy Church, for I hold it as both one; and I fled thereto as to my comfort. And all-soon all vanished away, and I was brought to great rest and peaceComfortable Words for Christ's Lovers, the Short Text
In all this I was greatly stirred in charity to my fellow-Christians that they might see and know the same that I sawRevelations of Divine Love, the Long Text
The fifth is: He that made all things for love, by the same love keepeth them, and shall keep them without end. The sixth is, that God is all that is goodRevelations of Divine Love, the Long Text
I was not drawn thereby from any point of the Faith that Holy Church teaches me to believe.Revelations of Divine Love, the Long Text
And so at that time he is not safe, for he is not in peace. And he that generally loves his even-Christians, he loves all that is. For in mankind that shall be safe is comprehended all that is, all that is made, and the Maker of all. For in man is God; and so in man is all. And he that thus generally loves all his even- Christians, he loves all. And he that loves thus, he is safe.Comfortable Words for Christ's Lovers, the Short Text
The other was of the common teaching of Holy Church, in which I was afore informed and grounded--and with all my will having in use and understanding.Revelations of Divine Love, the Long Text
The question that decides how her authority is read: as a charism for the Church, as the account of a sick woman's experience, or as a claim to teach made in the only form a woman in her place could make it.