Having been delivered from the hands of the soldier into which she had fallen in her wanderings, she became known to the archbishop of Cambray, under whose sanction she established a small society of nuns. She soon, however, became restless in her new occupation, in which she does not seem to have been successful. The archbishop withdrew his countenance, and for a time she returned to her native country, where she is said to have “passed many years in privacy and in. a great simplicity of life.” On the death of her parents she became entitled to some fortune, which she at first declined, but afterwards took possession of. She seems then to have become the head of a hospital at Lille for some time (1653, etseq.), but scandal having broken out in connection with it. she left and fled to Ghent (1662).

Here, apparently, she entered upon the higher prophetic phase of her life. “God revealed great secrets to her,” which she began to proclaim; and soon she gathered around her a few ardent disciples. Her prophetic views were specially expounded in one of her books published at this time at Amsterdam, entitled The Light of the World. Some of her disciples formed the design of settling in the island of Noordstrand in Holstein. At first she seems to have declined to join them, but afterwards set out for the purpose. She did not remain long, disturbances having arisen not only against her opinions, but in the ranks of her own followers. She was evidently impatient of sharing her influence with any one, and is said to have been of very difficult and self-willed temper. She returned to Holland, and died there in 1680.

It is difficult to give any estimate of A. Bourignon’s character and opinions. So far as appears, she was a visionary of the ordinary type, only distinguished by the rare persistency and audacity of her pretensions. Amidst all her enthusiasms she seem to have known how to look after her own interests. She is said never to have given alms to the poor, not even to the hospital which she superintended. She was willing to assist with her hand, but not with her money. Her main idea about religion was that it was a mere internal ecstasy, independent of both church and Bible. She had innumerable visions, from which source she chiefly drew her religious inspiration and knowledge. Among others she saw in vision Antichrist and Adam before the Fall; and she describes the appearance of the former minutely, even to the colour of his hair. Her visions and views she gave to the world in numerous treatises and pamphlets.

Her followers in Holland seem to have dwindled rapidly away, if they ever had any of the life of a distinct sect; but, strangely, her influence revived in Scotland in the beginning of the 18th. century, so much so as to be a source of alarm to the Presbyterian Church, and to call forth not only one but several Act3 of the General Assembly in denunciations of her doctrines and earnest caution against their contagion. These Acts are found severally in 1701, 1709, and 1710; and even at this last date it is alleged that “the gross heresies and errors going under the name of Bourignianism are greatly prevailing in the bounds of the national church.” This is the explanation, no doubt, of the fact that Bourignianism is amongst the heretical sects which the clergy of the Church of Scotland are taken bound to “disown” at their ordination in a series of questions appointed to be put in 1711. The very name, however, is now generally unknown in Scotland, notwithstanding this strange survival of it; and should any one turn to the Act of Assembly of 1701, which professes to enumerate the opinions of Μ. Antonia Bourignon, and describes them as “impious, pernicious, and damnable,” he will hardly get more light as to the nature of these opinions than elsewhere. They present an unintelligible conglomeration without coherency or order,—such subjects as the denial of election, the permission of sin, and the bondage of the will being mixed up with the quality of Christ’s human nature, the perfection of the present life, and “that generation takes place in heaven, aud that there are no true Christians in the world.” Mlle. Bourignon’s works were published in French at Amsterdam in 1686, in 19 vols. 8vo. Her Vie exteriezιre, by herself, to be found in the first volume is the chief authority for the earlier part of her life. La Vie continuée de Mlle. Bourignon, which occupies the whole of the second volume (author’s name not given), treats of her life at length, but in a semi-legendary manner. Three of her works at least have been translated into English,— An Abridgment of the Light of the World, London, 1786; A Treatise of Solid Virtue, 1699; The Restoration of the Gospel Spirit, 1707.