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Quietism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Rufus M. Jones
Rufus M. Jones
Affiliation:
Haverford College
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Extract

It has been too much the custom to treat Quietism as a sporadic type of religion, as a sort of capricious “sport,” to use a familiar botanical term, expressing itself in two or three famous, but solitary and isolated, mystics on the continent of Europe, and to assume that later evidences of Quietism must be traced back to the teachings of these few rare expounders of it. I am convinced, on the contrary, that these select individuals were only luminous examples of a profound religious tendency, which, in varying form of expression, swept over the entire western world in the latter part of the seventeenth and the early part of the eighteenth centuries, flooded into the consciousness of all who were intensely religious, and left an “unimaginable touch” even on the rank and file of believers. It was a deep and widespread movement, confined to no one country and it was limited to no one branch of the Christian Church. It burst forth in sundered places and spread like a new Pentecost, through kindled personalities and through quick and powerful books of genius.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 1917 , pp. 1 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1917

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References

1 The Mystical Element of Religion, Vol. II, p. 133.

2 Taylor's Life of Christ (Edition of 1850, London), Vol. II, p. 139.

3 Taylor's Life of Christ (Edition of 1850, London), Vol. II, p. 140.

4 It was printed at the end of Madame Guyon's Moyen Court of 1690, and is in the first volume of her Opuscules Spirituels (1704).

5 Op. cit., p. 101.

6 Ibid. p. 105–106.

7 Ibid. p. 108.

8 Burnet's Three Letters Concerning the Present State of Italy, 1688.

9 It is said that twenty thousand letters of consultation were found in his apartments on the day of his arrest.

10 The Spiritual Guide; Introduction, Observation II.

11 Ibid. Chap. I. There is a very interesting passage in John Woolman's Journal, in which precisely the same view of prayer is expressed: “The place of prayer is a precious habitation. … I saw this habitation to be safe—to be inwardly quiet, when there were great stirrings and commotions in the world.” Journal (Whittier's Edition), p. 236.

12 The Spiritual Guide, Part I, Chap. VIII.

13 Ibid. Part II, Chap. XIX.

14 Ibid. Part I, Chap. XIII.

15 Ibid. Part II, Chap. VII.

16 The Spiritual Guide, Part II, Chap. XX.

17 Fénelon, in a letter of March 18, 1702, speaks of “many books on pure love” in general circulation. Heinrich Heppe in his Geschichte der quietistischen Mystik (Berlin, 1875) gives a large amount of valuable material for the study of the less wellknown Quietists.

18 Sa Vie Extérieure par elle-même, and Sa Vie Continuée par Pierre Poiret give much interesting biographical material.

19 Quoted from A. R. MacEwen's Antoinette Bourignon (London, 1910), p. 75.

20 MacEwen, op. cit., p. 108.

21 The most important of her “englished” writings are: The Light of the World (London, 1696); Treatise of Solid Vertue (1699); Light Risen in Darkness (1703); and The Renovation of the Spirit (1707).

22 The story of her experiences was written by a religious sister, in two duodecimo volumes of 550 and 350 pages. An admirable summary of this work was made for the use of Friends by James Gough and published in Bristol in 1772.

23 This is a common expression of the mystics and indicates her acquaintance directly or indirectly with mystical writings. Brother Lawrence uses the more common phrase to express his experience. He says, “By faith I learn more of God, and in a little time, than I could do in the schools in many a long year.”

24 It is certain that Fénelon and Brother Lawrence knew each other. In the little sketch of Brother Lawrence (written probably by M. Beaufort, Grand Vicar to Cardinal de Noailles) reference is made to a visit which Fénelon made to Brother Lawrence during the latter's illness. Brother Lawrence also frequently refers in his letters to books which teach the method of prayer and the way to practise the presence of God, and he tells of other Brothers who have attained higher experiences than he has.

25 First Letter. This is a well-known phrase in the writings both of Madame Guyon and of Fénelon.

26 Autobiography of Madame Guyon, translated by Thomas Taylor Allen (London, 1898), Part I, Chap. II.

27 Autobiography, Part II, Chap. VII.

28 Ibid. Part II, Chap. VIII.

29 Autobiography, Part I, Chap. VIII. I have greatly condensed the account.

30 Autobiography, Chap. XI.

31 This account of “the first stage” of her spiritual life is based on Chapters IXXII of the Autobiography.

32 Autobiography, Chap. XXI.

33 M. Masson: Fénelon et Madame Guyon. Documents nouveaux et inédits (Paris, 1907), Lettre XIV.

34 Autobiography, Chap. XXVIII.

35 The story of his life is briefly told in Jean Philipaux, Relation de l'origine, du progrès, et de la condamnation du Quietisme (1732), pp. 1–32.

36 Autobiography, Part I, Chap. XXVIII.

37 Ibid. Part II, Chap. VIII.

38 See experience of T. Story: “He called for my life and I offered it at His footstool; but He gave it me as a prey with unspeakable addition, etc.” Story's Journal (1747), p. 20.

39 Autobiography, Part II, Chap. III.

40 Autobiography, Part II, Chap. XI. She gives extraordinary instances of business sagacity, which she believes was divinely supplied.

41 Ibid. Part II, Chap. XVII.

42 Autobiography, Part II, Chap. XVIII.

43 Ibid. Part II, Chap. XX.

44 This strange extract from her Autobiography is printed in Masson's Fénelon et Mme. Guyon, pp. 1–12. It is more boldly prophetic and apocalyptic than my brief quotation would indicate.

45 Letter XC in “La Correspondance sur l'affaire du Quietisme” in Les Œuvres de Fénelon.

46 He very positively declared that he had no contact with Molinos, either directly or indirectly, nor had he read Molinos' writings.

47 These two Treatises are published in her Opuscules Spirituels (Cologne, 1704), 2 Vols. She was a very voluminous writer and her complete works fill 40 volumes: Œuvres Complètes (Paris, 1789–1791).

48 See Torrents, Chap. I, Secs. 1–3, and IV, Sees. 1–8.

49 Torrents, Chap. V, Sec. 19.

50 Ibid. Chap. IX, 7–8.

51 Ibid. Chap. IV, 2; Chap. IX, 1–8.

52 Moyen court, Chap. XXII.

53 Accusations against the morals of Madame Guyon were very carefully investigated and no sufficient ground was found for thinking that her character was immorally tainted.

54 Bausset's Life of Fénelon (London, 1810), Vol. I, p. 101.

55 See Fragment of Autobiography, in Masson, op. cit., pp. 8–9.

56 Masson, op. cit., pp. 3–4.

57 Ibid. pp. 5–7.

58 Letter LII.

59 Ibid.

60 Ibid. LIII.

61 Letters XLII and XLIII.

62 Letter II.

63 See Biog. Fragment and Letters XXXI and CVIII.

64 Letter XXIII.

65 Ibid. XXIX.

66 Ibid. XVI.

67 Ibid. XXIV.

68 Ibid. XXXV.

69 Ibid. XLI.

70 Ibid. III.

71 Ibid. XXXV and XXXVIII.

72 Letter VII.

73 Ibid. XXI.

74 Ibid. XI.

75 Ibid. XX.

76 Ibid. III.

77 Ibid. L.

78 Ibid. XLVII.

79 Letter CXIV.

80 Viscount St. Cyres' François Fénelon (London, 1901), p. 129.

81 See Delacroix, Étude sur le mysticisme (Paris, 1908), p. 196.

82 Bossuet's États d'Oraison.

83 Letter CII in “Correspondance sur l'affaire du Quietisme.” Œuvres de Fénelon, Tome IX. See also Bausset's Life of Fénelon, Vol. I, pp. 134–147.

84 Explication des Maxims des Saints sur la Vie intérieure (1697).

85 Maxims, Chap. XXVII.

86 Ibid. Chaps. V and VI.

87 Letter XXVIII.

88 Ibid.

89 Letter XXXVII.

90 Ibid. XXXV.

91 Ibid. XV.

92 Ibid. XXXI.

93 Ibid. VI.

94 Letter CXXXIII.

95 Spiritual Letter, No. CCIII.