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QUIETISM

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 750 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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QUIETISM , a complicated religious See also:

movement that swept through See also:France, See also:Italy and See also:Spain during the 17th See also:century. Its See also:chief apostles were See also:Miguel de See also:Molinos, a Spaniard See also:resident in See also:Rome; See also:Fenelon, the famous See also:French divine, and his See also:country-woman, Madame Jeanne See also:Marie See also:Guyon. Quietism was essentially a reaction against the bureaucratic ecclesiasticism always latent within the See also:church of Rome, though it had come more especially to the front during the struggles of the See also:counter-See also:Reformation carried through by the See also:Jesuits. A See also:Catholic cut to the orthodox See also:pattern did not look, and would have thought it wrong to look, beyond the spiritual fare provided for him by the ecclesiastical authorities; all his relations with his Maker were conducted through the intermediacy of the Church. In the dogmatic See also:sphere he believed whatever the Church believed, because the Church believed it; to the Church's institutions—the sacraments and the See also:confessional—he looked for guidance in the See also:practical affairs of See also:life. Protestantism had tried to put an end_to this See also:state of things by sweeping away the Church altogether, but the Quietists were more tolerant than See also:Luther. They did not wish to abolish the Church; they admitted that it was a necessary See also:stage in the See also:evolution of the human soul; but' they insisted that it could only bring a See also:man on to the lowest slopes of See also:Paradise. Those who aspired to be really See also:holy must learn to look beyond the Church, and enter into immediate, See also:personal relations with their Maker. But how were they to do so? Like their contemporaries, the French Jansenists,1 and the See also:Quakers and See also:Anabaptists of See also:northern See also:Europe, the Quietists See also:fell back on a See also:doctrine of immediate See also:inspiration of the individual See also:conscience. To the many See also:God spoke only in See also:general terms through the Church; but to the few He made His will directly known. But how did He do so?

How distinguish the See also:

voice of God from the vagaries of our own See also:imagination? Quietism offered an easy test. The less" sense of proprietorship " a man had in his own See also:good actions—the more they came from a source outside himself—the surer might he be that they were divine. If, on the other See also:hand, they were the See also:fruit of his deliberate thought and will, that was enough to show that they did not come from God, but from his sinful self. Hence the first See also:duty of the Quietist was to be " passive." So far as was possible he must numb all his spontaneous activities of every See also:kind; then he could See also:fold his hands, and wait in dreamy meditation until inspiration came. And since all our activities have their See also:root in See also:desire, the shortest road to passivity was to suppress all desires and wishes of every kind. Thus the See also:great See also:object of the Quietist was to " sell or kill that cruel beast, self-conscious will." Then he would be dead to See also:hope and fear; he would be icily indifferent to his See also:fate, either in this See also:world or the next. Thenceforward no human tastes or affections would stand in the way of his performing the will of God. He was, as Fenelon said, like a See also:feather blown about by all the winds of See also:grace. His mind was a See also:mere tabula rasa, on which the Spirit printed any pattern that it See also:chose. Hence arose the great Quietist doctrine of disinterested love. " The Quietists maintain," says a contemporary writer, " that See also:Christian perfection means a love of God so absolutely See also:free from all desire of happiness that it is indifferent to salvation.

The soul is moved neither by hope nor fear, nor even by the foretaste of eternal See also:

bliss. Its only See also:motive is to do the will and promote the See also:glory of God. Other things are of no See also:account: neither grace, nor merit, nor happiness, nor even perfection, in so far as it attaches to us. See also:Nay, the soul must be ready to renounce its hopes of See also:heaven, and the scrupulous will often feel themselves See also:bound to do so; for in the last and fiercest trials they are invincibly persuaded of their own damnation. In this See also:sentence of condemnation they generously acquiesce; and thenceforward, having nothing more to lose, they stand tranquil and intrepid, without fear and without remorse. This is what the Quietists See also:call the state of holy indifference. Their soul has lost all wish for See also:action, all sense of proprietorship in itself, and has thereby reached the See also:summit of Christian perfection " (See also:Andre, See also:Vie du Pere See also:Malebranche, ed. Ingold, See also:Paris, 1886, p. 271). Quietism is an outgrowth from the See also:mysticism of the great 16th-century Spaniards, St Teresa and St See also:John of the See also:Cross, though it would be unfair to hold them responsible for all the utterances of their disciples. Certainly St Teresa made much of " passivity," but she only regarded it as a See also:refuge for a few specially constituted souls; whereas the Quietists designedly brought it within the reach of everyone. In St Teresa the passivity itself was balanced by a strong See also:attachment to the virtues of the active life, and an equally strong devotion to the Church.

Among the Quietists both these checks disappear, and passivity becomes the one and only test of holiness. But if passivity is all in all, there is no See also:

room for the virtues of the active life; all Quietists cherished the See also:ancient saying that one moment's contemplation is See also:worth a thousand years' good See also:works. Still less room had they for the Church. It only professed to See also:guide men to God; but those who had already found God stood in no need of a guide. Nay, they did not even stand in need of See also:revelation. " If See also:Christ be the way," wrote the Quietist Malaval, " let us certainly pass by Him to God, but he who is always passing never arrives at his See also:journey's end." Such utterances go far to explain the severity with which the See also:Roman Church tried to See also:stamp out the later developments of Quietism. In its earlier stages, before it had crystallized into a definite doctrine, the ecclesiastical authorities had been tolerant enough. The See also:Spanish See also:monk, Juan Falconi, who is generally reckoned as the See also:father of Quietism, died in the odour of sanctity in 1632; some See also:thirty years later his See also:fellow-countryman, Molinos, trans-ported his doctrines to Rome, where they gained unbounded popularity with bishops and cardinals, and even with See also:pope See also:Innocent XI. In 1675 Molinos published the Guido Spirituale, the great See also:text-See also:book of his school. But his success soon aroused the suspicion of the Jesuits, the great champions of militant ecclesiasticism. " Passivity " accorded See also:ill with a zealous frequentation of the confessional, their chief centre of See also:influence. Failing to turn public See also:opinion against Molinos in Rome, they brought pressure to See also:bear on See also:Louis XIV. through his See also:confessor, Pere La See also:Chaise.

At the instance of the French See also:

ambassador Molinos was arrested (1685); his papers were seized, and his chief disciples examined by the See also:Inquisition. Two years later he was convicted of See also:heresy, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. The later stages of the Quietist See also:drama were played out in France. Here Quietist ideas had See also:long been spreading under the leadership of enthusiasts like See also:Francois Malaval (1627-1719), a See also:blind layman of See also:Marseilles. A more romantic figure was Jeanne Marie Guyon (1648-1717), a widow of good See also:family and remarkable personal See also:charm, who devoted her life to missionary journeys on behalf of " passivity." In 1688 fate brought her to the French See also:court, where she made a great impression on Mme. de Mainter.on and other persons of quality. But her most illustrious See also:captive was Fenelon, then See also:tutor to the See also:duke of See also:Burgundy, eldest son of the Dauphin. " They met," says 'See also:Saint-See also:Simon; " they pleased each other, and their See also:sublime amalgamated." In other words, they corresponded with a freedom that Fenelon afterwards had cause to regret. For Mme. Guyon's paradoxical and extravagant See also:language soon scandalized her See also:friends. In 1693 she was examined by See also:Bossuet, and dismissed with a severe caution. Further imprudences led to her See also:arrest, and a long imprisonment in the See also:Bastille. On her See also:release in 1703 she settled down quietly at See also:Blois, where she died in 1717.

Mean-while Fenelon had become involved in her fortunes. When Bossuet first took action, Fenelon defended her with a zeal that See also:

drew down suspicion on his own See also:head; and he was only promoted to the archbishopric of See also:Cambrai after See also:signing what was really a disguised retractation (1695). Meanwhile Bossuet was at See also:work on an Instruction sur See also:les etats d'oraison, which was intended to distinguish once for all what was true in Quietism from what was false. Fenelon, feeling sure that Bossuet would do the Quietists less than See also:justice, determined to be beforehand with him. While Bossuet's book was still in the See also:press, he suddenly brought out an Explication See also:des maximes des See also:saints (1697). The little See also:volume raised a violent See also:storm. For two years Fenelon was at See also:bitter See also:feud with Bossuet; he was banished from See also:Versailles; finally, he was censured by the pope (1699), although in very measured terms. For Fenelon by no means shared all the ideas of Mme. Guyon; in the language of the divinity See also:schools he was, at most, a " semi-Quietist." For the more ecstatic See also:side of Quietism, so much in See also:evidence with his friend, he had no See also:taste whatsoever; but he thought that " passivity," when interpreted with large modifications, led the way to a state of peaceful, other-world serenity highly grateful to the denizens of a crowded court, where was much splendid ennui and but little See also:peace. Further, he was the counsellor of many over-scrupulous souls; and Quietist disinterestedness, also much modified, enabled him to tell them that they were not necessarily castaways because they suffered much from " spiritual dryness," and seldom enjoyed the sweets of piety. But in the See also:heat of See also:battle with Bossuet, Fenelon carried his principles beyond all reasonable See also:bounds. The theme of his See also:Maxims is that, as men grow in holiness they become utterly indifferent to themselves.

Not only do they cease to covet the consolations of See also:

religion; they lose all incidental See also:pleasure in its exercise. Their whole soul is taken up in loving God; and they neither know nor care whether God loves them in return. But Bossuet had little trouble in persuading the world that Wenn ich See also:Dick liebe, was geht es Dick an? is but a sorry See also:foundation on which to build up a personal religion; and the condemnation of the Maxims proved the deathblow to See also:official Quietism. But flickers of " passivity," not always easily distinguishable from the teaching of Molinos, are still here and there produced by violent reaction from the prevailing legalism of the church of Rome.

End of Article: QUIETISM

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