Vol. 1 - History of the Catholic Church from Renaissance to French Revolution

that translations of the book appeared almost immediately in nearly
every country of Europe. The teaching of Molinos was denounced to the
Inquisition by the Jesuits and the Dominicans, and in 1687 Innocent
XI. issued the Bull /Coelestis Pastor/,[1] in which he condemned
sixty-eight propositions put forward by Molinos. The author having
been arrested was obliged to make a public recantation, and remained a
prisoner until his death (1696).

According to Molinos perfection consists in a state of self-
annihilation in which the soul remains entirely passive, absorbed
completely in the contemplation and love of God. By means of this
passivity or complete surrender of the human faculties to God the soul
of man is transformed, and is in a sense deified. While in this
condition there is no need to act or to desire to act, to think of
rewards or punishments, of defects or virtues, of sanctification,
penance, or good works, nor is there any necessity to resist carnal
thoughts or motions since these are the works of the devil. Such a
system, founded nominally on the pure love of God, and leading of
necessity to the overthrow of law, morality, and religious authority,
found great favour in Italy and Spain, where it required all the
energies and powers of the Inquisition to secure its suppression. It
was backed by the Oratorian, Petrucci, afterwards created a cardinal
(1686), whose books on the spiritual life were attacked by the Jesuit,
Paul Segneri, and condemned by the Inquisition.

Quietism found favour in France through the writings and teachings of
Francis Malaval of Marseilles and of the Barnabite Pere Lacombe. The
individual whose name is most closely identified with Quietism in
France is, however, Madame Jeanne de la Mothe Guyon, a young widow who
on the death of her husband gave herself up to the practice of prayer
and to the study of the principles of the spiritual life. Admitting as
she did the fundamental doctrine of the system of Molinos, namely,
that perfection consists in a state of self-abnegation in which the
soul is wrapped up completely in pure love of God, she rejected most
of the absurd and immoral conclusions that seemed to follow from it.
According to her, and more especially according to her principal
defender, Fenelon, pure love of God without any thought of self-
interest or of reward or punishment, constitutes the essence of the
spiritual life, and must be the principle and motive of all deliberate
and meritorious acts. This teaching constitutes what is known as Semi-
Quietism. Madame Guyon published several works and gave many
conferences in various cities of France. The close connexion between
her teaching and the mysticism of Molinos attracted the unfriendly
notice of the French authorities, particularly as Louis XIV. was a
strong opponent of Quietism. As a result Madame Guyon and her
spiritual director, Pere Lacombe, were arrested in Paris (1688), but
owing to the interference of Madame de Maintenon, Madame Guyon was
released.

Fenelon, then a priest and tutor to the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of
Louis XIV. and prospective heir to the throne of France, was deeply
interested in the teaching of Madame Guyon whose acquaintance he had
made in Paris. Fenelon, while rejecting the false mysticism of de
Molinos, agreed with Madame Guyon in believing that the state of
perfection in this life is that in which all righteous acts proceed
from pure love without any hope of reward or fear of punishment, and
that all virtuous acts to be meritorious must proceed directly or
indirectly from charity. This teaching found a strenuous opponent in
Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux. A commission consisting of Bossuet, de
Noailles, then Bishop of Chalons, and Tronson, superior of the
Sulpicians, was appointed to examine the whole question (1695). A
little later Fenelon, who had just been promoted to the Archbishopric
of Cambrai, was added to the list. The conference met in the Sulpician
seminary at Issy, and as a result thirty-four articles were drawn up,
all of which were accepted by Madame Guyon and Pere Lacombe. The
former having returned to Paris was arrested, and forced to sign
another recantation of her theories and to promise that she would
never again attempt to spread them. From that time till her death in
1717 she took no further part in the discussions.

But the controversy regarding Semi-Quietism was to be carried on
between the two greatest churchmen and literary giants of their age,
namely, Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, and Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambrai.
Bossuet, not content with the partial victory that he had secured at
the Issy conference, determined to expose the dangerous tendencies of
Madame Guyon's teaching by a short statement of the Catholic doctrine
on perfection and the spiritual life. This he did in his book