The Life of Venerable Mother Margaret of Jesus, Religious of the Reformed Order by Seraphicall St Teresa compiled by E: B: her ghostly father and Canon of St Gummarus in Lier[re] 1

This text was written by Edmund Bedingfield in the period between Sister Margaret’s death in August 1679 and his own the following September. ² Bedingfield does not mention Sister Margaret’s exorcism, concentrating rather on the divine favours realised during her life as a whole. Perhaps, almost 30 years later, the exorcism no longer seemed so central to her experience as, inevitably, it had at the time; or perhaps Bedingfield thought he had given sufficient attention to this event in his previous, albeit unpublished, account. Even so, the omission does seem significant, and may indicate that the author wished to protect Sister Margaret’s increasingly blessed reputation, something which this Life indeed seems intended to promote.