SOURCE: Thune, Nils. “Dr. Pordage and Mrs. Leade as Religious Personalities.” In The Boehmenists and the Philadelphians: A Contribution to the Study of English Mysticism in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, pp. 174-212. Uppsala, Sweden: Almqvist & Wiksells, 1948.

In this excerpt from his study of the influence of Jakob Boehme on Protestant mysticism in England, Thune takes a psychological approach to interpreting Lead's prophetic writings. Thune maintains that her personal background and the religious fervor of the mid-seventeenth century led to the sensationalism of her descriptions of spiritual experiences; however, he also argues that Lead's capacity for leadership and her “psychic ability” place her in the category of the genuinely great mystics.

2. Mrs. Leade's Personality in the Light of Her Mystic Experiences.

A) the Psychological Structure of Mrs. Leade's Experiences.

As indicated above, the full outbreak of Mrs. Leade's mysticism began with the vision of Virgin-Wisdom she experienced in...