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 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN BIGELOW 
 
 NEW. YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 MDCCCLXXXII
 
 COPYRIGHT BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNEKS SONS 
 
 1882 
 
 Press of Francis Hart & Co., N. Y.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 FATHER ALBERTINI'S ADVENTURE WITH THE 
 "MALE MARITATE" "!L GUIDA SPIRIT- 
 
 UALE " OF MOLINOS I-l6 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE JESUITS COMBINE WITH Louis XIV. AGAINST 
 MOLINOS FATHER SEGNERI ENTERS THE 
 FIELD AGAINST THE QUIETISTS MOLINOS 
 IMPRISONED BY THE INQUISITION 17-28 
 
 i 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 QUEEN CHRISTINE OF SWEDEN RENOUNCES HER 
 CROWN AND ENTERS THE ROMAN CHURCH 
 SHE TAKES MOLINOS FOR HER SPIRITUAL 
 DIRECTOR 29-43 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FATHER MABILLON, THE BENEDICTINE, AT ROME 
 
 FATHER PETRUCCI AND THE INQUISITION.. 44-55
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF MOLINOS. . . 56-68 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE SENTENCE, AS RE- 
 PORTED BY THE HOLY OFFICE 69-80 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 DID MOLINOS ABJURE? His TRIAL A MOCKERY 81-88 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FURTHER PERSECUTION OF THE QUIETISTS 
 THE SECRECY OF THE CONFESSIONAL VIO- 
 LATED THE POPE DISCIPLINED FOR SUS- 
 PECTED QUIETISM THE DEATH OF MOLINOS 89-106 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. LETTER FROM THE CARDINAL CARACCIOLI 
 TO POPE INNOCENT XI. ON THE PROGRESS 
 OF QUIETISM IN NAPLES 107-110 
 
 B. CIRCULAR LETTER FROM CARDINAL CIBO 
 
 AGAINST THE QUIETISTS III-II2 
 
 C. BULL OF INNOCENT XI. AGAINST MICHEL 
 
 DE MOLINOS AND HIS DOCTRINES 113-127
 
 MO LINOS THE QU I EXIST
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Father Albertini's adventure with the Male Maritate 
 // Guida Spirituale of Molinos. 
 
 IT will soon be quite two hundred years since an 
 obscure Neapolitan priest, named Albertini, came 
 up to Rome with the special purpose of getting the 
 ear of the Christian world to certain theological views 
 more or less peculiar to himself. He had the good 
 fortune to be the friend, or a dependent, of Monsignor 
 Cibo, the Cardinal Secretary of State, which was worth 
 to him at least a lodging in the Vatican. 
 
 Albertini was provincial in his training and man- 
 ners, and withal was possessed with the idea that the 
 world could not get on well without the aid of the 
 treatise on theology with which he was armed, but for 
 the printing of which he had failed to secure the neces- 
 sary permission of the Master of the Sacred Palace. 
 To accomplish his benevolent purpose without the 
 required license, he procured type and a printing- 
 press,
 
 2 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 press, to be brought to his apartment, which chanced 
 to be over that occupied by the Master of the Sacred 
 Palace, and in due time set his press to work. The 
 noise it made was so unusual, that it was not long in 
 attracting attention. The offense was, of course, 
 detected and reported to the Pope, 1 and orders imme- 
 diately issued for Albertini and his theology to quit 
 Rome. The Cardinal Secretary of State, however, 
 thinking that nothing more would probably be heard 
 of the press or of its proprietor, did not press the 
 execution of the Pope's orders. While thus lingering 
 at sufferance in Rome, and on one of the hottest days 
 of August in the year of grace, 1685, Albertini 
 observed a squad of the pontifical police taking pos- 
 session of the entry to his domicil. He not unnat- 
 urally hurried to the conclusion that they were in quest 
 of him. Though at the moment of the discovery 
 stripped to his shirt and drawers, he had such a whole- 
 some dread of a Roman prison that, without stopping 
 to perfect his toilet, he fled up the stairs, crawled out 
 on the roof, and took refuge in the first opening that 
 offered him a chance of escape or concealment. It 
 proved to conduct to the interior of a convent of 
 Repenties a sort of closed house appropriated to the 
 seclusion of women of equivocal characters, donne male 
 maritate. Now it so happened that among the recent 
 additions to this frail circle was a damsel of great 
 
 1 Clement X., elected 1670, died 1676. 
 
 beauty,
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 3 
 
 beauty, una bellissima, as she was styled by the 
 chronicler of this incident, with whom Albertini had 
 a slight acquaintance. The inmates of the house, see- 
 ing a man descending among them in such guise, and 
 in defiance of the terrible excommunications always 
 impending over male intruders, took it for granted 
 that it was the bellissima who had attracted him. 
 Whether impelled by jealousy or consternation, for 
 on this point history is silent, they rang the convent 
 bell, and in a moment poor Albertini, in his hasty 
 toilet, was surrounded by a throng of curious and very 
 noisy, not to say indignant, women. In spite of his 
 vehement protestations that he meant no mischief, it 
 was some time before the alarm of the caged birds 
 could be quieted. They finally accepted his explana- 
 tions, however, and allowed him to return to his quar- 
 ters, which he thought it prudent to exchange without 
 unnecessary delay for others outside of the Roman 
 territory, 1 and beyond the range of the papal police. 
 
 Now it so happened that the sbirri who so fright- 
 ened Father Albertini from his proprieties were not in 
 pursuit of him at all, but of a Spanish priest who stood 
 charged with the grave and, in the city of the Caesars, 
 far less tolerable crime of heresy, and who chanced 
 to occupy an apartment immediately opposite to his 
 own. This alleged heretic was Michel de Molinos, a 
 gentleman of Spanish extraction, who was just then one 
 
 1 Correspondance intdite de Mabillon et de Montfaucon 
 avec I'ltalie, v. i., p. 107. 
 
 of
 
 4 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 of the greatest ecclesiastical lions in the papal domin- 
 ions, and who had been actively engaged for many 
 years at Rome in sowing the seeds of one of the most 
 formidable schisms that ever disturbed the peace of the 
 Latin church a schism which, only a few years later, 
 was to array against each other, in open and bitter 
 hostility, the two most illustrious prelates of the Galli- 
 can church, and which twice seriously threatened to 
 interrupt the friendly relations of the French and 
 pontifical governments. 
 
 Molinos was of a noble Spanish family of Minozzi, in 
 the diocese of Saragossa, in Aragon, where he was born 
 December 21, 1627. He took his theological degree 
 at Coimbra, and, after a career of some distinction 
 in his own country, went to Rome, where he speedily 
 acquired a wonderful popularity as a spiritual director. 
 In 1675 he published a little book entitled // Guida 
 Spirituale? The substance of its teachings was that 
 
 1 // Guida Spirituale was first in 1699 without any publisher's 
 
 printed at Rome, in Italian, in imprint, or even the place of 
 
 1675; it was afterward pub- its publication, entitled, "The 
 
 lished in Spanish at Madrid Spiritual Guide which disen- 
 
 in 1676, then at Saragossa in tangles the soul, and brings it 
 
 1677, and then in Seville in by the inward -way to the getting 
 
 1685. Bernino, Hist, di Tutte of perfect contemplation and the 
 
 I' Heresie, v. 4. This work went rich treasure of internal peace. 
 
 through twenty editions in dif- Written by Dr. Michel Moli- 
 
 ferent languages in the space nos, Driest. Translated from 
 
 of six years, 1674-1680. An the Italian copy." 
 English translation appeared 
 
 the
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 5 
 
 the soul of man is the temple and abode of God, which 
 we ought, therefore, to keep as clean and pure from 
 worldliness, and the lusts of the flesh, and the pride of 
 life as possible. 
 
 The true end of human life ought to be, as far as 
 possible, the attainment of perfection. In the progress 
 to this result, Molinos distinguishes two principal 
 stages or degrees, the first attainable by meditation, the 
 second, and highest, by contemplation. In the first stage 
 the attention is fixed upon the capital truths of religion, 
 upon all the circumstances under which religion has 
 been commended to us, objections are wrestled with, and 
 doubts which might trouble the soul one by one are 
 resolved and banished. In this stage it is the reason, 
 mainly, that acts, and often, if not altogether, in oppo- 
 sition to the will or the natural man. One, however, 
 does not reach the higher stage of devotion till the soul 
 ceases to struggle, till it has no farther need of proofs 
 or reflection; till it contemplates the truth in silence 
 and repose. This is what is termed retirement of the 
 soul and perfect contemplation, in which the soul does 
 not reason nor reflect, neither about God nor itself, 
 but passively receives the impressions of celestial light, 
 undisturbed by the world or its works. Whenever the 
 soul can be lifted up to this state, it desires nothing, 
 not even its own salvation, and fears nothing, not 
 even hell. It becomes indifferent to the use of the 
 sacraments and to all the practices of sensible devo- 
 tion, having transcended the sphere of their efficacy. 
 
 "The
 
 6 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 " The Divine Majesty knows very well that it is not 
 by the means of one's own ratiocination or industry 
 that a soul draws near to Him and understands the 
 divine truths, but rather by silent and humble resig- 
 nation. The patriarch Noah gave a great instance of 
 this, who, after he had been by all men reckoned a 
 fool, floating in the middle of a raging sea wherewith 
 the whole world was overflowed, without sails or oars, 
 and environed by wild beasts that were shut up in the 
 ark, walked by faith alone, not knowing nor under- 
 standing what God had a mind to do with him." ' 
 "Consider the blinded beast that turns the wheel of 
 the mill, which, though it see not, neither know what 
 it does, yet does a great work in grinding the corn ; 
 and although it taste not of it, yet its master receives 
 the fruit and tastes of the same. Who would not 
 think, during so long a time that the seed lies in the 
 earth, but that it were lost ? Yet afterwards it is seen 
 to spring up, grow, and multiply. God does the same 
 with the soul when He deprives it of consideration and 
 ratiocination. Whilst it thinks it does nothing and 
 is, in a manner, undone, in times it comes to itself 
 again, improved, disengaged, and perfect, having never 
 hoped for so much favor." 2 Prayer he calls the sword 
 of the Spirit, prayer frequent and prolonged. "It 
 concerns thee only," he adds, "to prepare thy heart 
 
 1 The Spiritual Guide, p. n. Our citations are made from 
 the English version of 1699. 2 The Spiritual Guide, p. 12. 
 
 like
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 7 
 
 like clean paper wherein the Divine Wisdom may im- 
 print characters to His own liking." 
 
 Those who endeavor to acquire virtues by much 
 abstinence, maceration of the body, mortification of 
 the senses, rigorous penances, wearing sack-cloth, 
 chastising the flesh by discipline, going in quest of sen- 
 sible affections and fervent sentiments, thinking to find 
 God in them, such Molinos considered were in what he 
 termed the external way, the way of beginners, which, 
 though to such it might be useful, never would conduct 
 them to perfection, " nor so much as one step towards 
 it, as experience shows in many, who, after fifty years 
 of this external exercise, are void of God, and full of 
 themselves (of spiritual pride), having nothing of a 
 spiritual man but the name." 1 
 
 " The truly spiritual men, on the other hand, are 
 those whom the Lord, in his infinite mercy, has called 
 from, that outward way in which they had been wont 
 to exercise themselves ; who had retired into the inte- 
 rior part of their souls ; who had resigned themselves 
 into the hand of God, totally putting off and forgetting 
 themselves, and always going with an elevated spirit to 
 the presence of the Lord, by means of pure faith, with- 
 out image, form, or figure, but with great assurance 
 founded in tranquillity and rest internal. These blessed 
 and sublimated souls take no pleasure in anything of 
 the world, but in contempt of it, in being alone, for- 
 
 1 The Spiritual Guide, p. 77. 
 
 saken
 
 8 MO LINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 saken and forgotten by everybody, keeping always in 
 their hearts a great lowliness and contempt of them- 
 selves ; always humbled in the depths of their own 
 unworthiness and vileness. In the same manner they 
 are always quiet, serene, and even-minded, whether 
 under extraordinary graces and favor, or under the 
 most rigorous and bitter torments. No news makes 
 them afraid. No success makes them glad. Tribula- 
 tions never disturb them, nor the interior, continual 
 Divine communations make them vain and conceited ; 
 they always remain full of holy and filial fear, in a 
 wonderful peace, constancy, and serenity." 1 
 
 " The Lord," he says, " has repose nowhere but in 
 quiet souls, and in those in which the fire of tribula- 
 tion and temptation hath burned up the dregs of pas- 
 sions, and with the bitter water of afflictions hath 
 washed off the filthy spots of inordinate appetites ; in a 
 word, this Lord reposes only where quiet reigns and 
 self-love is banished.* * * * 
 
 " Afflict not thyself too much, and with inquietude, 
 because these sharp martyrdoms may continue; perse- 
 vere in humility, and go not out of thyself to seek aid ; 
 for all thy good consists in being silent, suffering and 
 holding patience with rest and resignation ; then wilt 
 thou find the Divine Strength to overcome so hard a 
 warfare. He is within thee that fighteth for thee ; and 
 He is Strength itself. 3 * * * 
 
 The Spiritual Guide, p. 76-80. 2 The Spiritual Guide, p. 91. 
 3 The Spiritual Guide, p. 112-113. 
 
 "By
 
 MO LINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 " By the way of nothing thou must come to lose 
 thyself in God (which is the last degree of perfection), 
 and happy wilt thou be if thou canst so lose thyself. 
 In this same shop of nothing, simplicity is made, 
 interior and infused recollection is possessed, quiet is 
 obtained, and the heart is cleansed from all imperfec- 
 tion." 1 
 
 There is nothing in these doctrines of passivity 
 which had not been taught by many of the most highly 
 
 1 The Spiritual Guide, p. 157. 
 
 La Bruyere left behind him 
 a little treatise, entitled Dia- 
 logues sur le Quiftisme, now de- 
 servedly forgotten. The only 
 thing in it worthy of its author's 
 wit is a caricature of this doc- 
 trine of quiet and passivity, in 
 a supposed quietistic version of 
 the Lord's Prayer. It is sup- 
 posed to be brought by a peni- 
 tent to the director under 
 whose instruction she has been 
 trained, and whose approval of 
 it is requested. 
 
 Director: Speak, my child; 
 your motive is praiseworthy. 
 
 Penitent : Listen, now, to my 
 composition. 
 
 Director : 1 am attentive. 
 
 Penitent : O God, who art 
 no more in Heaven than on 
 Earth or in Hell, who art 
 
 everywhere, I neither wish nor 
 desire your name to be sancti- 
 fied. You know what is suita- 
 ble for us, and if You wish it to 
 be it will be without my wish- 
 ing or desiring it ; whether 
 Your Kingdom comes or not is 
 to me indifferent. Neither do 
 I ask that Your will be done on 
 Earth as it is done in Heaven. 
 It will be done in spite of my 
 wishes, and it is for me to be 
 resigned. Give us all our daily 
 bread which is Your grace, or 
 do not give it ; I neither desire 
 to have it or to be deprived 
 of it. So if You pardon my 
 crimes as I have pardoned those 
 who have wronged me, so 
 much the better. If, on the 
 other hand, You punish me by 
 damnation, still so much the 
 better, since such is Your will. 
 
 esteemed
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 esteemed mystical writers of the Church, by St. Bona- 
 ventura, St. Theresa, John of the Cross, the Baroness de 
 Chantal, St. Francis de Sales, and others, some of whom 
 indeed had been canonized as saints. 1 The doctrines 
 were presented in a simple and unaffected style, and 
 the book, as well as its author, acquired a prompt and 
 extraordinary popularity. The Spiritual Guide received 
 
 Finally, my God, I am too en- 
 tirely abandoned to Your will 
 to ask You to deliver me from 
 temptations and from evil. 
 Dialogues Posthumes du Sieur 
 de la Bruyere sur le Quittisme, 
 
 P- 193- 
 
 1 Corbinelli, the private sec- 
 retary of Marie de Medicis, and 
 one of the correspondents of 
 Madame de SeVigne", in a let- 
 ter dated Oct. 24, 1687, says : 
 
 " I am now occupied svith the 
 propositions of Molinos, and 
 as I have been assured that 
 they are in conformity with the 
 teachings of St. Theresa and 
 other mystics, I have read the 
 Chdteau de I' Ante and her other 
 works, and the result is that I 
 have met there almost all the 
 doctrines of the condemned 
 priest." Lettres de Madame de 
 Sevigne', de sa famille et de ses 
 amis. 1822. Vol. 8, p. 414. 
 
 A few weeks later, Nov. 24, 
 1687, Corbinelli writes again : 
 
 " I still passionately love 
 jurisprudence, but that has not 
 prevented my reading all the 
 works of St. Theresa, in which, 
 I think, I have found all the 
 propositions of Molinos. I 
 have made a collection of Chris- 
 tian or mystic maxims of this 
 saint, and have conversed 
 about them with some very, 
 very learned Cartesians, who 
 all believe that the equivocal 
 expressions which lean most to 
 paradox bring their authors to 
 the stake according as their 
 judges are more or less igno- 
 rant. Now, it is known for 
 certain that those who compose 
 the tribunal of the Inquisition 
 are ignorant in a supreme 
 degree. Cardinal Petrucci 
 waits for them under the elm, 
 and they dare not attack him, 
 the
 
 MO LINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 the formal approbation of five famous doctors, four of 
 them Inquisitors and one a Jesuit, and within six years 
 passed through twenty editions, in most European 
 tongues. 
 
 Its author's acquaintance and friendship was sought 
 by people in the greatest credit, not only at Rome, but 
 
 because he has talent and 
 learning, joined to great dig- 
 nity. ' St. Francis of Sales said 
 the good pleasure of God is the 
 sovereign object of the indif- 
 ferent soul, so that it would 
 prefer Hell if that were God's 
 will, than Paradise without the 
 will of God. It would even 
 prefer Hell to Paradise, if it 
 knew that such was only a little 
 more the good pleasure of God, 
 that is, as he explains himself, 
 if his damnation was a little 
 more agreeable to God than 
 his salvation. 
 
 The Baroness Chantal, a dis- 
 ciple of St. Francis, said : 
 
 "If it please God to make 
 my abode in the hells, I will 
 be content with it." 
 
 A. de Foligny said : "Though 
 I should be damned, I would 
 never cease repenting and 
 
 I In this Corbinelli was unfortunately 
 mistaken. Petrucci was not only com- 
 pelled by the Inquisition to abjure, but 
 
 stripping myself of everything 
 for the love of God. If, O my 
 God, You must cast me into 
 hell, delay no longer." 
 
 Catherine of Sienna : " If it 
 were possible to feel all the 
 torments of the demons and of 
 damned souls, nevertheless I 
 could never call them torments, 
 so much happiness would pure 
 love yield me." 
 
 The Mystics sustained these 
 paradoxes upon Biblical au- 
 thority, quoting St. Paul (Rom. 
 9:3) who says : ' ' For I could 
 wish that myself were accursed 
 from Christ for my brethren, my 
 kinsmen according to the flesh, ' ' 
 and Moses (Exodus, cA.j2J,\vho 
 says to the Lord, "Yet now if 
 Thou wilt, forgive their sin ; 
 and if not, blot me, I pray thee, 
 out of the book which thou 
 hast written." 
 
 was forbidden to reside within his 
 bishopric, which he finally resigned.
 
 12 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 in other parts of Europe by correspondence. Among 
 his followers were three fathers of the Oratoire, who 
 soon afterwards received cardinal's hats, and even the 
 popes who successively occupied the pontifical chair 
 during his residence in Rome took particular notice 
 of him. The Cardinal Odescalchi was no sooner 
 raised to the pontificate as Innocent XL, than he pro- 
 vided Molinos with lodgings at the Vatican, and such 
 was his esteem for him that he is said to have formed 
 the purpose of making him a cardinal, and to have 
 actually seJected him for a time as his spiritual 
 director. 1 
 
 With such evidences of protection in high quarters, 
 and with so much in his theology of unworldliness 
 and devoutness to commend it to the understandings 
 as well as to the hearts of the faithful, the popularity 
 of Molinos grew apace. He seemed to them another 
 St. Paul, sent to emancipate them from the thrall of 
 image-manufacturers and an idolatrous and costly 
 ceremonial ; to bring them nearer to God and farther 
 from priestcraft and obscurantism. He was neither 
 greedy nor ambitious. He sought no place, nor would 
 he accept any, not even a cardinal's hat. A priest 
 at Rome without ambition was such an unusual phe- 
 
 1 Journal de M. I' Abb Dor- de la Constitution Unigenitus, 
 sanne, etc., contenant I'histoire Vol. i, p. 20. Madame Guyon ; 
 et les anecdotes de ce que s'est sa vie, sa doctrine, et son in- 
 pass^ de plus inttressant, a fluence, par L. Guerrier. Paris, 
 Rome et en France, dans I 'affaire 1881, p. 131. 
 
 nomenon
 
 MOL1NOS THE QUIETIST. 13 
 
 nomenon that it alone would have sufficed to make 
 him famous. Every one who was sincerely devout, or 
 who wished to be thought so, adopted "the Method 
 of Molinos," and many who wished promotion at Rome 
 saw no surer nor speedier way to it than to establish 
 good relations with him and his friends. Queen Chris- 
 tine, of Sweden, then the lioness of Rome, was under 
 his direction, and made his gifts and piety a favorite 
 theme of her extensive correspondence. Cardinal 
 d'Estrees, who represented Louis XIV. and his govern- 
 ment at the pontifical court, and who was one of the most 
 accomplished courtiers of his time, felt it to be worth 
 his while to identify himself with the new departure, 
 and to put Molinos in correspondence with important 
 people in France. He even went so far as to procure 
 the translation into the Italian tongue of a book written 
 a few years before The Spiritual Guide by a blind 
 French clergyman, 1 favoring the doctrines of Quietism. 
 About the same time a Father Petrucci wrote many 
 letters and one or more treatises in favor of the con- 
 templative life as taught by Molinos, for the special 
 
 1 The title of this book was published at Venice in 1675. 
 
 Oraziono di Pure Fede. It was It finally fell under the censure 
 
 written in French, and origi- of the Inquisition, and was 
 
 nally published in France, condemned by Pope Innocent 
 
 with the approbation of some XL, in common with many 
 
 of the doctors of the Sorbonne other books savoring of Quiet- 
 
 and of Cardinal Bona, in 1669. ism, in 1688. 
 The Italian translation was 
 
 edification
 
 I 4 MO LINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 edification of nuns. Bishop Gilbert Burnet, who 
 chanced to be in Italy during the winter of 1685, 
 wrote home " that the new Method of Molinos dotli so 
 much prevail at Naples that it is believed he hath 
 above 20,000 followers in the city. He hath writ a 
 book which is intitled // Guida Spirituale, which is a 
 short abstract of the Mystical Divinity ; the substance 
 of the whole is reduced to this, that, in our prayers 
 and other devotions, the best methods are to retire the 
 mind from all gross images, and so to form an act of 
 Faith, and thereby to present ourselves before God, 
 and then to sink into a silence and cessation of new 
 acts, and to let God act upon us, and so to follow his 
 conduct. This way he prefers to the multiplication of 
 many new acts and different forms of devotion, and he 
 makes small account of corporal austerities, and reduces 
 all the exercises of religion to this simplicity of mind. 
 He thinks this is not only to be proposed to such as 
 live in religious houses, but even to secular persons, 
 and by this he hath proposed a great reformation of 
 men's minds and manners. He hath many priests in 
 Italy, but chiefly in Naples, that dispose those who 
 confess themselves to them to follow his methods. The 
 Jesuits have set themselves much against this conduct 
 as foreseeing it may weaken the empire that super- 
 stition hath over the minds of the people ; that it may 
 make religion become a more plain and simple thing, 
 and may also open the door to enthusiasms. They 
 also pretend that his conduct is factious and seditious ; 
 
 that
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 15 
 
 that this may breed a schism in the Church. And 
 because he saith in some places of his book that the 
 mind may rise up to such simplicity in its acts that it 
 may rise in some of its devotions to God immediately, 
 without contemplating the humanity of Christ, they 
 have accused him as intending to lay aside the doctrine 
 of Christ's humanity, tho' it is plain that he speaks 
 only of the purity of some single arts. Upon all those 
 heads they have set themselves much against Molinos, 
 and they have also pretended that some of his disciples 
 have infused it into their penitents that they may go 
 and communicate as they find themselves disposed 
 without going first to confession, which they thought 
 weakened much the yoke by which the priests subdue 
 the consciences of the people to their conduct. Yet 
 he was much supported, both in the kingdom of 
 Naples and Sicily. He hath also many friends and 
 followers at Rome. So the Jesuits, as a provincial of 
 the Order assured me, finding they could not ruin him 
 by their own force, got a great king, that is now ex- 
 tremely in the interests of their Order, to interpose, 
 and to represent to the Pope the danger of such inno- 
 vations. It is certain the Pope understands the 
 matter very little, and that he is possessed of a great 
 opinion of Molinos' sanctity ; yet, upon the complaints 
 of some cardinals that seconded the zeal of that king, 
 he and some of his followers were clapt into the Inqui- 
 sition, where they have been now some months, but 
 still they are well used, which is believed to flow from 
 
 the
 
 16 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 the good opinion that the Pope hath of him, who saith 
 still that ' he may err, yet he is still a good man.'" 1 
 
 I Some letters containing the Italy, etc., written by G. Bur- 
 account of what seemed most net, D. D., to T. H. R. B., etc. 
 remarkable in Switzerland, Amsterdam, 1686. Letter 4.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Jesuits combine against Molinos Father Segneri enters the field 
 against the Quietists Molinos imprisoned by the Inquisition. 
 
 E secret of the extraordinary popularity of Moli- 
 nos was betrayed by some of its inconvenient 
 consequences. While his disciples became usually 
 more strict in their manner of life, more retired, more 
 devout and indifferent to the world, they showed a 
 corresponding indifference to the exterior rites of the 
 church; they were seen less frequently at mass, made 
 little account of corporeal austerities, chaplets, and 
 relics, neglected the confessional and pilgrimages, and 
 were growing less lavish in their expenditures for 
 masses for their deceased friends and kindred. 
 
 This was a state of things which could not be per- 
 mitted to go on indefinitely. If the external acts of 
 devotion were to be slighted ; if transgressors were to 
 go directly to their Maker with their budget of sins for 
 forgiveness or indulgences, and if they had no occasion 
 to leave their rooms to ask intercession for the deliver- 
 ance 
 
 2
 
 18 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 ance of the souls of their deceased relatives from pur- 
 gatory; if the Confessional with its perquisites and its 
 precious secrets was to be closed, how was the Church 
 to be supported ; how were they to know the secrets of 
 foreign cabinets ; who were to supply the cardinals with 
 their princely revenues ; who build costly temples ; 
 how support the armies of the Pope and the Inquisi- 
 tion ? This was a practical aspect of the situation, 
 which seems first to have presented itself to the Jesuits, 
 who were then as now the driving-wheel of the Roman 
 Curia. They saw at once that Quietism or Romanism 
 must go to the wall ; that there was not room in 
 Europe for both; and they were not long in deciding, 
 so far as it depended upon them, which should stay and 
 which should go. They employed all the power and 
 artifice of the Order to alarm foreign sovereigns, and 
 induce them to believe it their duty to interfere at 
 Rome in behalf of the Church, whose interests were 
 being compromised by Molinos ; they branded the fol- 
 lowers of the Spanish mystic with bad names, the 
 readiest weapon of malevolence, and set to work 
 systematically to denounce him and his doctrine, in 
 official as well as private correspondence, and through 
 the press. In the selection of the person who was to set 
 their squadrons in the field, they showed great sagacity. 
 Father Paul Segneri 1 was then the foremost 
 
 Father Segneri was born novitiate with the Jesuits in his 
 in Nettuno, on the aist of thirteenth year ; was ordained 
 March, 1624 ; commenced his priest at twenty-nine ; was then 
 
 preacher
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 19 
 
 preacher among the Jesuits in Italy. In the midst of 
 his labors as a missionary in the northern part of Italy, 
 he received from his chief at Rome a bundle of Quiet- 
 istic books, with directions to prepare an antidote to 
 them. In 1680, and just five years after // Guida 
 Spirituale first appeared, Father Segneri wrote a small 
 volume at Florence, entitled " Concordia tralafatica e 
 la Quiete" (Harmony between effort and Quiet, or 
 works and faith). 
 
 Father Segneri was much too discreet in his work 
 to attempt to depreciate the contemplative life. On 
 the contrary, he began by artfully magnifying it, and 
 censuring those who would make light of it, but he 
 insisted that few were capable of leading it, and none 
 should aspire to it but those specially called to it by 
 God. "These spiritual fathers," he said, "expose 
 souls to much risk. They should consider that out of 
 so many people Moses only was called into the thick 
 darkness where God was." ' "As the waters go down 
 from the mountains by the valleys," or middle way 
 (Psalms, 104-8), so the way of the saints is ; now 
 meditation, now contemplation, as they shall find most 
 
 sent to teach in one of the served by the press, are em- 
 Jesuit schools at Pestoia, bodied in eleven octavo vol- 
 where he remained until 1665, umes of sermons, of so much 
 when he commenced mission merit that they still hold a re- 
 work in the northern part of spectable place in the religious 
 Italy, and continued there till literature of the Latin Church. 
 1692. The fruits of his labors, ' Concordia trafatka e Quiete, 
 so far as they could be pre- p. 9. 
 
 expedient."
 
 20 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 expedient." He insists that the state of contemplation 
 can never be a fixed or permanent state, and objects 
 therefore to closing the middle way, as some modern 
 writers have proposed, who teach that, once called by 
 God to Contemplation, we should never return to 
 Meditation. 
 
 Segneri does not mention Molinos, nor any other 
 Quietist by name, in this book, but throughout seems 
 anxious to have his controversy, if possible, not with 
 them, only with their doctrines, and to make no more 
 bad blood than was necessary. The tenderness with 
 which the Quietists are approached by Segneri shows 
 to what extent their power was recognized at Rome. 
 
 But, cautious and forbearing as he was, Father 
 Segneri was not long in discovering that he had been 
 putting his hand into a hornet's nest. His biographer 
 tells us that no one would believe what a mass of 
 anonymous letters he received, teeming with abuse and 
 fearful threats. 
 
 The same year that the Concordia was written, 
 Segneri published a "letter in reply to the exceptions 
 which a champion of the modern Quietists has taken 
 to an assailant of their method of prayer." 
 
 These writings so exasperated the Quietists that, in 
 a few short months, its author found himself, instead 
 of Molinos, on the defensive. Complaints against the 
 Concordia were also lodged at the Inquisition, and its 
 author did not know how soon it, as well as himself, 
 might be burned for heresy. It had become for Segneri
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 21 
 
 a struggle for life, and, laying aside all other cares, he 
 put forth his whole strength in making good all he 
 had said against the doctrines of the Quietists, in a 
 work entitled A Bundle of Doubts about Prayers of 
 Pure Faith, of Faith Alone, of Simple Faith, or of 
 Quiet, with their Solutions, for a Soul Desirous of not 
 Missing the True Method of Prayer. This also was 
 written as a reply to Malvalle's Prayer of Pure Faith, 
 the book already alluded to, which Cardinal d'Estrees 
 had, in his early zeal for Molinos, caused to be trans- 
 lated into Italian. It was accompanied by a petition 
 or siipplica addressed to Pope Innocent XI., in behalf 
 of the book entitled La Concordia tra la Fatica e la 
 Quiete nelV Orazione, which the followers of Molinos 
 "are trying to have condemned by the Holy Office," 
 and dated Florence, November 28, 1681. 
 
 This petition begins by recapitulating some of the 
 heretical doctrines during the previous holy year which 
 had been permitted to circulate among the faithful, 
 and especially the doctrine that "those who meditate 
 do not imitate Christ ; that those who meditate do not 
 adore God in spirit and in truth ; ' that those who 
 meditate bury their talent of faith in an abyss of 
 reasonings; that, while everything was created to be 
 in the image of God, those who meditate leave God 
 aside, and retain only the image ; that he who medi- 
 tates is an unregenerate, a Nathaniel who stands under 
 1 The title of this book was The Easy Method in the form of 
 a Dialogue to Exalt the Soul to Contemplation. 
 
 the
 
 22 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 the tree of life considering the roots, branches, and 
 leaves, but never tasting its fruit," and so on. He then 
 sets forth at some length the objections to this sort of 
 theology, and closes with the following appeal : 
 
 "I, nevertheless, most Holy Father, considering 
 one day these disorders and knowing by my own ob- 
 servation the injury which they have occasioned and 
 continue to occasion to souls, was overtaken by an 
 irresistible impulse, which appeared to me to come 
 from God, and inflamed me to write hastily a little book, 
 in which I have confuted these errors, and have enti- 
 tled it Concordia tra lafatica la Quiete neir Orazione, 
 to show that in these things we ought not to leave God 
 alone to work in us, but that we ought also to do our 
 part according to- the various states in which we may 
 be placed. This little book so much displeased the 
 author assailed, though not named by me, that there 
 reached me immediately after from Rome an anony- 
 mous letter, most offensive in tone, which assured me 
 as a certainty that the book should be prohibited. I 
 have remarked the effects of this and other letters 
 which succeeded it ; in the fierce tempest which the 
 adversaries have raised to verify what they have writ- 
 ten, and under the special pretext that my book is 
 wanting in charity. This, I know, cannot be main- 
 tained, since I condemn no one, but only their sayings, 
 and since to the charity due to any individual what- 
 ever there is a greater charity due to the universal 
 Christian Church, which charity I exhibit in the expos- 
 ures
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 23 
 
 ures given in my little book of the dangers liable to 
 result from the incautious reading of these authors. I 
 therefore pray your Holiness to graciously consent that 
 Father Gian Paola Oliva, my general, may name some 
 persons to speak in my behalf, as I am absent from 
 Rome, and there show how true is what I have said in 
 this little book, which on my knees I burn to lay at 
 your feet, not out of solicitude for my personal fame, but, 
 engaged as I have been for seventeen years in mis- 
 sions to so many important dioceses, it seems to me 
 that it must impair my authority and credit among the 
 people to know that my teachings had incurred the 
 solemn censure of the Inquisition. Besides which, to 
 condemn my book is indirectly to approve of the doc- 
 trines I have assailed. Wherefore, I pray your Holi- 
 ness, by your love of the Holy Church, to have my 
 book examined with the aid of some persons to be 
 assigned to speak in my behalf, because I am sure you 
 will see how much these doctrines abound not only in 
 absurdity but mischief." 
 
 The books of Segneri, and those of Molinos and 
 Petrucci, were examined by the Inquisition. The latter 
 two appeared in person. Segneri, it may be inferred 
 from the foregoing supplied, did not appear. Indeed, 
 the sympathy of Rome was so strongly with the 
 Molinos party at that time, that he probably deemed it 
 prudent not to put himself within the jurisdiction of the 
 Holy Office. 
 
 After a protracted and tedious investigation, Moli-
 
 24 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 nos and Petrucci succeeded so effectually in justifying 
 themselves that their books were approved, while those 
 of Segneri were censured as scandalous and heretical, 
 and put into the index with two or three books writ 
 against Quietism. It was soon after this decision that 
 Petrucci was made a bishop, a significant indication of 
 the sympathies of the Pope, from which the Molinos 
 party derived fresh courage and strength. 1 
 
 While this attack was making in the north, another 
 was made in the south. In the beginning of the year 
 1682, the Cardinal Caraccioli makes the growth of Qui- 
 etism in Naples the subject of serious representations to 
 the Pope, by which, as he expresses himself, " the devil 
 has transformed himself into an angel of light." He 
 complained that some of the victims of this new faith 
 "have not been able to bring themselves to say the 
 holy rosary nor even to make the sign of the cross, 
 saying that they could not and would not do it, nor 
 recite any vocal prayer, because they were dead in the 
 presence of God, and these exterior acts were of no 
 service." He tells of "others in this prayer of quietude, 
 
 i The Jesuits, finding the this subject at the expense of 
 Pope so favorable to their ad- the Pope : 
 
 versaries, had prayers put up J'ai 1& dessus un conte & faire ; 
 
 in their monasteries for his con- L ' autre J ur t<*ant e affaire. 
 
 J,e Chevalier de Sillery, 
 
 version to Romanism. Consul- En par iant de ce pape ci 
 
 Orations SUr Us Affaires de Souhaitant, pour la paix publique ; 
 
 /' Pir/itf Qu ' il x f(U rend " Catholic > ue 
 
 Et le Roi Jaques Huguenot, 
 La Fontaine had his joke on Je trouve assez bon ce bon mot. 
 
 when
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 25 
 
 when the images of the saints, and even of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, present themselves to their imagination, hasten 
 to drive them away with a shake of the head, because, 
 they say, they separate them from God. Their 
 blindness is so great that one of them took it into his 
 head one day to throw down a crucifix because it pre- 
 vented him from uniting himself with God, and made 
 him lose the Divine presence." The cardinal also 
 complains of the frequent use of the communion, even 
 among the married laity, as another evidence of hereti- 
 cal pravity. 1 There is not a word, however, in this 
 letter to imply anything otherwise irregular in the lives 
 and general deportment of the inculpated devotees. 
 
 Despairing of bringing the Pope to take ground 
 against Molinos by any of the considerations they could 
 present, the Jesuits appealed to Louis XIV., with whom 
 their Order was then all-powerful. To do their will 
 was the price he was required to pay for the license 
 they gave him to violate any or all the commands 
 of the Decalogue. To be esteemed more Catholic 
 than the Pope, and more fastidious about keeping the 
 purity of the faith than the Holy Office itself, was a 
 reputation worth having for a monarch who was 
 always trying to secure the advantages of religion 
 without any of its privations, and the respect of his 
 subjects without deserving it. Pere la Chaise, the 
 King's confessor, made the King believe that nothing 
 he could do would contribute so much to ensure all 
 
 1 Appendix A. 
 
 these
 
 26 
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 these results as to bring about the condemnation of 
 Molinos, his disciples, and doctrines. Next to the pleas- 
 ure of living without any religion himself, Louis XIV. 
 most enjoyed persecuting religion into other people. 
 He yielded to the specious arguments of his wily confes- 
 sor, and gave orders to Cardinal d'Estrees to denounce 
 Molinos to the Holy Office, and to press his condem- 
 nation with the utmost vigor. 1 To most men occupy- 
 ing the attitude which d'Estrees had taken towards 
 Molinos and his doctrines, these orders from Versailles 
 would have been embarrassing. But d'Estrees was a 
 
 1 A correspondent of the 
 period, writing from Versailles, 
 August 3, 1686, thus refers to 
 the French influence in effect- 
 ing the disgrace of Molinos : 
 " They report from Rome the 
 arrest of many obstinate Quiet- 
 ists. It is the King who made 
 the Cardinal d'Estre'es speak 
 of it last year to the Pope, and 
 who, by his remonstrances, 
 obliged His Holiness to try 
 Molinos, their head, for whom 
 it is certain the Pope had a 
 particular esteem. He had even 
 given a bishoprick to Petrucci, 
 who has written pretty much 
 the same things as Molinos, 
 and who is regarded at Rome 
 as the first of his disciples. 
 They pretend that the Pope 
 
 would have scarcely permitted 
 him to be brought to trial if 
 the King, extending his zeal 
 against hereticks beyond the 
 limits of his own states, had 
 not ordered Cardinal d'Es- 
 tre'es to expose to him the 
 necessity of opposing such a 
 fascinating heresy. It was be- 
 cause of these remonstrances 
 that the congregation of the 
 Holy Office labored the past 
 year on the trial of Molinos. 
 The Cardinal d'Estre'es, who 
 is one of them, exposed, with 
 much science and zeal, what 
 is dangerous in the doctrine, 
 and with such success that 
 the congregation put Molinos 
 and some of his sectaries in 
 prison." 
 
 courtier,
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 27 
 
 courtier, and he enjoyed an official residence at Rome 
 extremely. Before the cock could crow thrice, he 
 was ready to burn Molinos. He presented himself 
 promptly at the Vatican to testify to the Pope the 
 astonishment of his sovereign that while he, the eldest 
 son of the Church, was using all his power Jo purge 
 his kingdom of the scourge of heresy, His Holiness 
 was extending the hospitalities of the Vatican to a 
 corrupter of souls, a notorious scoffer of the practices 
 and ceremonies of the Church. 
 
 Innocent XI. sent the ambassador to the Holy 
 Office with his masters complaint. D'Estrees present- 
 ed himself before the Inquisitors with extracts from 
 the book of Molinos, which, as he insisted, concealed 
 mysteries of wickedness which Molinos should be 
 required to explain. The astonished Inquisitors asked 
 the cardinal-ambassador how it happened that he had 
 been so long the intimate friend of so bad a man. 
 The cardinal-ambassador had the effrontery to reply 
 that it was only a pious fraud, which he had permitted 
 himself to perpetrate that he might the better pene- 
 trate the inmost thought of the pernicious mystic. And 
 to shut off all discussion, he added that in doing this 
 he had merely conformed to the rules and usages of 
 the Holy Office. 1 
 
 The Inquisitors comprehended that with such a 
 man to deal with, it was necessary to act, not to debate. 
 
 1 Madame Guvon ; sa vie, sa doctrine, et son influence, p. 137. 
 
 The
 
 28 
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 The Jesuits, strengthened by such a formidable ree'n- 
 forcement, cried " heresy " louder than ever, and as 
 they had a controlling influence at the Holy Office, they 
 finally succeeded, in 1685, in procuring a new order for 
 the arrest of Molinos. It was the execution of this 
 order which led to the ridiculous adventure of Father 
 Albertini with the Male Maritate before referred to. 
 Molinos was sent to the prisons of the Inquisition, and, 
 according to the usage of that institution, all his papers 
 were seized to be searched for evidence that would com- 
 promise him, and all his property placed under seal to 
 defray the expenses of his confinement and trial. 1 
 
 1 The expenses of the Inqui- 
 sition were entirely defrayed by 
 the fines and confiscations of 
 condemned heretics. When the 
 arrest was made, all the proper- 
 ty of the suspected heretic was 
 seized, and if, as rarely happen- 
 ed, he was found innocent, only 
 that portion of his property was 
 restored to him that remained 
 after all the costs of his arrest, 
 trial, and detention had been 
 paid. The cost to the accused, 
 whether innocent or guilty, was 
 the same up to the end of the 
 investigation. It is needless 
 to say that, under such a sys- 
 
 tem, few upon whom the offi- 
 cers of the Inquisition once laid 
 their hands were found inno- 
 cent, especially if they had any 
 property, were in possession of 
 any troublesome secrets, or had 
 any faculty and inclination to 
 propagate opinions not in har- 
 mony with the policy and inter- 
 ests of the Roman government. 
 Some 12,000 letters were found 
 in his escritoire, and about 
 4,000 scudi, the joint fruits of his 
 extensive spiritual commerce. 
 Historia di Tutte I' Heresie, 
 descritta da Domenico Bernino, 
 v. 4, p. 714.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Queen Christine, of Sweden, renounces her crown and her religion 
 
 Enters the Roman Church Takes Molinos 
 
 for her spiritual director. 
 
 A MONG other eminent personages who had been 
 ^~*- captivated by the doctrines of Molinos, and led 
 to take a strong personal interest in his fortunes, was 
 the eccentric Christine, ex-Queen of Sweden, to whose 
 friendly offices he was now greatly beholden. 
 
 Christine was one year older than Molinos. She 
 was the daughter of the great Gustavus, whose pre- 
 mature death at Lutzen raised her to the throne of 
 Sweden when only six years of age. Maturing early, 
 in her eighteenth year she dismissed the regency by 
 which the government had been conducted, and as- 
 sumed, not only in name but in fact, the full duties 
 of sovereignty. Her devotion to the public business 
 and her influence in the councils were a theme on 
 which all the foreign representatives at her court loved 
 to dwell. She was, withal, renowned for her beauty, 
 and, probably, the most accomplished woman of her 
 
 years
 
 30 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 years that ever sat upon a throne. The savans of her 
 own and foreign countries vied with each other in 
 writing panegyrics on her genius. Her biographer 
 counted up two hundred of them. 
 
 "At the age of fourteen," 1 she has told us, "I 
 knew all the languages, all the sciences, and all the 
 accomplishments that they attempted to teach me. But 
 since that time I have learned many others without the 
 help of any master, and it is certain that I never had 
 a master for learning either German, French, Italian, 
 or Spanish." 2 With Vossius she read the most im- 
 portant Greek authors of antiquity, and even the 
 fathers of the Church were not suffered to remain 
 unknown to her. It was, doubtless, from him, too, 
 that she early acquired the disastrous habit of walking 
 by sight and not by faith in matters of religion. 3 
 Heinsius stocked her library with choice books and 
 costly manuscripts from Italy. Descartes was in the 
 habit of meeting her every morning at five o'clock, to 
 talk philosophy and to hear her trace the points of 
 resemblance between his teachings and those of Plato. 
 "If I tell you," says Naude, "that her genius is 
 altogether extraordinary, I shall utter no falsehood, 
 
 1 La Vie de Christine, ecrite be disposed to gainsay this 
 par ellememe. latter statement. 
 
 2 So far as the Queen's 3 It was of Vossius that 
 French is concerned, no one Charles II. of England wittily 
 who has read any of her com- said that ' ' He believed every- 
 positions in that language will thing but the Bible." 
 
 for
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 31 
 
 for she has seen everything, she has read everything, 
 she knows everything." 1 It was infinitely to her credit, 
 too, that, wiser than the wise men of her generation, 
 she anticipated the judgment of posterity upon Gro- 
 tius, and gave to him her confidence and protection, 
 when to do so was to provoke the formidable malice 
 of Richelieu. With all her attractions, she withstood 
 all the importunities of her suitors and counsellors to 
 marry. " I should, no doubt, have married," she 
 says, farther on in her autobiography, " if I had not 
 felt myself possessed of the strength to dispense with 
 the pleasures of domestic life." 2 The obligations that 
 she might have felt to form a matrimonial alliance for 
 the sake of her country she believed herself to have 
 removed by settling the succession to the crown, with 
 the consent of the Estates, upon her cousin Charles 
 Gustavus, who had been one of the many unsuccessful 
 suitors for her hand. 
 
 In both these eccentric determinations, Christine 
 was influenced, if not controlled, by a purpose which 
 had long been germinating in her mind, to change her 
 religion. When only nine years of age, hearing for 
 the first time the doctrines of the Catholic faith 
 expounded to her, and, among other things, that the 
 unmarried state was considered meritorious in that 
 church, she exclaimed, "Ah, how fine that is; I will 
 be of that religion." Unhappily, the religion in which 
 
 1 Naude h. Gassendi, Oct. 19, 1652. 
 
 * La Vie de Christine, Icrite par ellememe. 
 
 she
 
 32 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 she was brought up was to one in her position more 
 an affair of state than of conviction. Unhappily, too, 
 it was administered as an affair of state. The long 
 harangues to which she was required to listen bored 
 her. So did the heavy and unsympathetic compan- 
 ionship of her country-people. To escape them she 
 surrounded herself with the most illustrious citizens of 
 foreign lands whom she could persuade to reside at her 
 capital. Among those whose society proved especially 
 agreeable to her, in the frame of mind to which events 
 had brought her, was the confessor of the Portuguese 
 minister at her court, Macedo, a Jesuit priest. The 
 minister spoke no language but Portuguese, and 
 Macedo acted both as his interpreter and as his 
 priestly adviser everywhere. The Queen found pleas- 
 ure in leading Macedo to talk on religious topics, 
 while the minister was flattering himself that they 
 were deep in the mysteries of Portuguese politics. 
 Thus, secure from suspicion by the presence of a third 
 person, though that person knew nothing of what was 
 passing, she confided to Macedo the perilous secret of 
 her real or pretended religious doubts and troubles. 
 We say pretended, because it can never be known 
 how far this adventure, which was to conduct her to 
 such serious results, originated in a taste for intrigue, 
 and how far in the agitation of her conscience. Sud- 
 denly Macedo disappeared from Stockholm. The 
 Queen pretended to take his departure in great dud- 
 geon, and sent in pursuit of him with orders to bring 
 
 him
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 33 
 
 him back. Of course he was not taken. She had 
 actually sent him to Rome to explain her troubles and 
 dispositions to the general of the Jesuits, and to ask 
 that one or more of the most trusty members of the 
 Order be sent to consult with her as to the best means 
 of extricating herself from the web of obstacles which 
 circumstances had woven around her, to a repudiation 
 of the religion of her fathers, and to her entering 
 the Latin communion. 
 
 Precisely at the time of Macedo's disappearance, 
 Christine made known to the Estates her intention to 
 abdicate, saying, of course, nothing of her intention to 
 change her religion. Two Jesuits, named respectively 
 Molinos and Casati, were promptly despatched from 
 Rome to superintend, not so much her conversion 
 as her abjuration. That her purpose to enter the 
 Latin communion was fixed before Macedo was sent 
 to Rome for reinforcements, there is no doubt. In the 
 first paragraph of the report which Casati makes of 
 his mission to Pope Alexander, he says: "In obe- 
 dience to the wishes of your holiness for a short 
 memorial of what passed, in regard to the Queen's reso- 
 lution to renounce her kingdom for the purpose of 
 becoming Catholic, I am compelled to go back a step 
 that I may explain the cause thereof in conformity 
 with statements from the mouth of the Queen 
 herself," etc. This confirms what is sufficiently dis- 
 closed by her notification to the Estates of her intention 
 to abdicate, simultaneously with Macedo's departure 
 
 for 
 3
 
 34 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 for Rome. The account which Casati gives of his first 
 reception by the Queen farther betrays the same fore- 
 gone conclusion. 
 
 f( * * * While the Queen was at supper, two 
 gentlemen complained that it was very cold, and the 
 general reproached them, declaring that two Italians 
 who had come thither in his company had shown no 
 such fear of cold. The Queen, hearing this contest and 
 inquiring the cause of their contending, was told that 
 two Italians were coming. She asked if they were 
 musicians; but the general replying that they were 
 two gentlemen travelling to see the country, her 
 Majesty said that she would by all means like to see 
 them. We were immediately informed of all this, and 
 advised to go to court on the following day. On the 
 following morning we were accordingly conducted 
 thither by Signor Zaccaria Grimani, a Venetian noble, 
 who introduced us to pay our respects to Count Mag- 
 nus de la Gardie, her Majesty's prime minister, that 
 through him we might obtain the honor of kissing the 
 hand of her Majesty. He received us with much cour- 
 tesy, and assured us that her Majesty would have much 
 pleasure in seeing us. It was then the hour of dinner, 
 and her Majesty came out into the ' Vierkant,' when we 
 were directed to approach her Majesty, and having 
 kissed her hand, we made her a short compliment in 
 Italian (for so she had commanded, although she had 
 caused us to be informed that she would reply in French,
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 35 
 
 since she understood it ), suitable to the character we 
 had assumed, and she replied with the utmost urbanity. 
 Immediately afterwards, the marshal of the court, 
 and with him all the other gentlemen, set forward 
 towards the hall wherein the table was laid for dinner, 
 and I found myself immediately before the Queen. She, 
 who during the night had thought over the matter of 
 the two Italians, and reflecting that it was precisely the 
 end of February, about which time it had been written to 
 her from Rome that we should arrive, had begun to 
 suspect that we were the persons whom she was look- 
 ing for: thus, when we were but little distant from the 
 door, and that nearly all the company had gone out 
 of the ' Vierkant,' she said to me in a low voice, ' Per- 
 haps you have letters for me ? ' and I having replied, 
 without turning my head, that I had, she rejoined : 
 t Do not name them to any one.' While we were dis- 
 coursing after dinner on the matters that had occurred, 
 we were joined by a person who made us various com- 
 pliments in French, and then proceeded to inquire if 
 we had letters for her Majesty. I began at once to 
 give ambiguous replies; that we were not there for 
 business ; that we had no letters of recommendation, 
 &c., until at length he repeated all that, in our short 
 and fortuitous colloquy, the Queen herself had said to 
 me. I then perceived that he could not be sent 
 by any other than herself, yet for the greater security I 
 asked for his name, and hearing that he was John 
 Holm, I gave him the letter. The following morning, 
 
 nearly
 
 36 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 nearly two hours before the usual time for going to 
 court, John Holm gave us to know that her Majesty 
 would speak to us. We went immediately, and had 
 hardly entered the ' Vierkant,' where there was no one 
 then but the officer on guard, than the Queen came forth 
 and appeared to be surprised, either because none of 
 the gentlemen were yet there or because we had been 
 the first to arrive. She put some few questions to us 
 respecting our journey, then hearing the officer, she 
 asked him if any of the secretaries had yet appeared. 
 He replying that they had not, she commanded him 
 to go and call one of them, when he did not return for 
 an hour. When he was gone, her Majesty began to 
 thank us courteously for the pains we had taken in 
 making the voyage on her account ; she assured us that 
 whatever danger might arrive to us from being dis- 
 covered, we should not fear, since she would not suffer 
 that evil should befall us. She charged us to be 
 secret and not to confide in any one, pointing out to 
 us by name some of those to whom she feared lest we 
 might give our confidence in process of time. She 
 encouraged us to hope that if she should receive satis- 
 faction, our journey would not have been made in vain. 
 She questioned us respecting the arrival of Father 
 Macedo, and how we had been selected to visit her 
 court ; and related to us in what manner the departure 
 of Father Macedo had taken place." * 
 
 1 Paoli Casati ad Alessan- Ranke, History of the Popes, 
 dro VII. Sopra la Regina di vol. iii., p. 430. 
 Suecia Bibl Albani, quoted by 
 
 Christine
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 37 
 
 Christine seems to have thought, once or twice, 
 that she hesitated to separate herself from the country, 
 the people, the church, and the God of her fathers ; 
 but she was mistaken. The yearning of her nature 
 for change, for sensation, for penetrating the mystery 
 and enjoying the sensation of private life, about which 
 she had golden dreams, had laid fast hold upon her. 
 It made all public business distasteful. She thought, 
 to use her own expression, that she saw the devil 
 when one of her secretaries approached her with 
 despatches for her signature. Neither could she endure 
 the society and manners of her people. Her most con- 
 stant and welcome guest was the Spanish ambassador, 
 who was privy to her religious tendencies, and who was 
 authorized to offer her an asylum in his master's 
 dominions, as well as to arrange all the preliminaries 
 with the Pope for her reception into the Latin Church. 1 
 
 Neither the entreaties of Oxenstiern nor of the aged 
 Count de Brahe, who had placed the crown on her 
 youthful head, could shake her determination. Hav- 
 ing secured to herself, as she supposed, an adequate 
 income, by a charge upon some of the revenues of the 
 kingdom, on the 24th day of June, 1654, and in the 
 
 1 Pallavicini, in his life of by religion and by her Catho- 
 Pope Alexander VII., says: lie Majesty, but when it was 
 " The ministers of the Spanish known that this could not be 
 court, when Molinos first pro- done but with offence to re- 
 posed this thing, would by all ligion, the king was pleased to 
 means have had the Queen re- become the patron of so high- 
 tain the kingdom, both because minded an act." 
 of the advantage to be gained 
 
 twenty-ninth
 
 38 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 twenty-ninth year of her age, she abdicated her throne, 
 and, with her suite, quit Sweden to seek what she 
 expected would prove a more congenial home and 
 more congenial employments. On her way through 
 Brussels she abjured Lutlieranism ; at Innspruck she 
 formally embraced the Catholic faith; at Loretto she 
 offered her crown and sceptre to the Virgin Mary, and 
 upon the invitation of the Pope went to Rome, where 
 she was received with all the pomp and circumstance 
 of a triumphant sovereign, or, perhaps it would be 
 more correct to say, as the trophy of a triumphant 
 prelate. 
 
 For several years to come we find Christine a sort 
 of lioness in partibus. Now in Rome ; now in other 
 parts of Italy ; now in France ; then in Rome again ; 
 but she was so eccentric, so exacting, and so lawless, 
 that her departure was generally a more welcome 
 event than her arrival, everywhere. 
 
 She finally took up her permanent abode at Rome, 
 where, as a royal convert, she was of more account than 
 she could hope to be anywhere else. 
 
 In the course of time, and in consequence of unfore- 
 seen political vicissitudes in Sweden, her revenues were 
 cut off, and she found herself reduced to a state of 
 humiliating dependence. She was obliged to appeal 
 to the Pope then Alexander VII. for aid, masking 
 her purpose in the form of a request that he would 
 require the bankers of Rome to cash her drafts, which 
 had fallen into discredit. The Pope, who had doubt- 
 less
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 39 
 
 less carefully estimated her business value, sent her 
 10,000 scudi, and afterwards settled upon her a pension 
 of 12,000 scudi per annum, to be expended, however, 
 under the supervision and audit of Cardinal Azzolini, 
 whose subsequent devotion and assiduity in her service, 
 it is needless to say, calumny has not spared. He 
 afterwards became her principal heir. 1 Christine was 
 not long in realizing what all sovereigns had before her, 
 who by abdication had hoped to retain the luxuries 
 of power without bearing its burdens, that a queen 
 without a kingdom was a divinity without a temple, 
 whose worship was soon abandoned. She soon wearied 
 of the obscurity which had been gradually settling down 
 upon her, and of the indifference of the world to her fate, 
 which it was no one's policy longer to disguise. She 
 pined for her abdicated throne and power, and upon 
 
 1 About two years before her Pope gave me was the only stain 
 
 death, the successor of Alexan- onmylife. I received it from the 
 
 der, Pope Innocent XI., found hand of God as the greatest 
 
 or made a pretext for depriving mortification by which he could 
 
 the Queen of her pension of 12,- humble my pride. I plainly 
 
 oco scudi, of which he caused see that I have entered into 
 
 communication to be made His grace, since he has done me 
 
 through Cardinal Azzolini. In the singular favor of taking it 
 
 a letter which she immediately from me so gloriously. * * I 
 
 addressed to the cardinal, she pray you to thank Cardinal 
 
 assures him that he had given Cibo and the Pope, on my be- 
 
 her the most agreeable news, half, for discharging me from 
 
 " God, who knows my heart," this obligation." Mtmoires 
 
 she adds, " knows I do not lie. concernant Christine, Reine de 
 
 The 12,000 crowns which the Suede, vol. ii., p. 260. 
 
 the
 
 40 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 the death of her cousin and successor, Charles Gus- 
 tavus, in 1660, returned to Sweden and tried to recover 
 them, but without success, the Swedes naturally resent- 
 ing her insults and her apostasy. She also offered her- 
 self as a candidate for the thrones successively of Poland 
 and Naples, but with no better success. She was now 
 and from henceforth to be counted among the curiosities 
 of Rome, as purely such as St. Peter's dome or the mar- 
 bles of the capitol or the frescoes of the Vatican ; that 
 and nothing more. Like the Santissimo Bambino, she 
 was used to work such little miracles for the church as 
 required the prestige of royal blood and religious 
 apostasy. 1 
 
 The History of Louis XL, by Du Clos, was con- 
 demned by the French Parliament for the remark that 
 La devotion fut de tous temps fasile des Reims sans 
 pouvoir. Whether true of all crownless queens or not, 
 it is certain that Christine, in common with most con- 
 verts to a new faith, was not content with being as papal 
 as the Pope. That satisfied neither her intelligence, 
 nor her judgment, nor her ambition. She could do 
 nothing temperately. Nor could she tolerate any mys- 
 
 1 Voltaire, in some verses Q ui connut tout et ne crftt rien. 
 
 which he addressed to Queen ue 'f Saint , f " e canonUe - 
 
 Que damne le Luth^nen, 
 
 Ulrique, of Sweden, concludes Et que la gloire i mmor taiise. 
 a sketch of her predecessor, 
 
 Christine, as follows : The last Ime - P erha P s ' does 
 
 more credit to Voltaire s gal- 
 
 Christine des arts le maintien ; 
 
 Christine qui c^da pour rien. Iantl 7 than tO hls character as 
 
 Et son Royaume et votre Egiise, a historian or a prophet. 
 
 teries
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 41 
 
 teries. Her active mind and morbid taste for excitement 
 soon lifted her into the nebulous atmosphere of mys- 
 ticism, and she yearned for a supremacy in the church 
 which she had inconsiderately surrendered in the state. 
 If she could not be a queen, she would be a St. Cather- 
 ine, or a St. Theresa. When Molinos arrived in Rome, 
 he brought to her a letter of introduction from the Arch- 
 bishop of Palermo, and it goes almost without saying 
 that he was immediately received into her confidence 
 and under her protection. 
 
 She promptly addressed to the archbishop the fol- 
 lowing letter : 
 
 " ROME, December 13, 1681. 
 " MY LORD ARCHBISHOP OF PALERMO : 
 
 ' ' D. Michael de Molinos presented me the letter from 
 your Holiness, which I received with much pleasure, 
 from the particular consideration which I entertain for 
 your goodness and virtue, of which it testified. Your 
 Holiness may be assured of my readiness to cooperate 
 according to my ability in the advancement of the 
 cause for which I sent the Canon Laffarte to that court. 
 Thanking your Holiness for your cordial expressions 
 in my behalf, I recommend myself earnestly to your 
 holy sacrifices, and pray God for your true prosperity. 
 
 " P. S. I also recommend myself to the holy sacri- 
 fices of that saintly man, although I have little faith in 
 saints who eat ; but, at all events, the sacrifice always 
 has its effect." 1 
 
 1 Memoir es concernant Christine, Reinede Sutde, vol. iv., p. 36. 
 
 Four
 
 42 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 Four months later, Christine writes to the arch- 
 bishop another letter, which is important for the evi- 
 dence it furnishes of the interest taken in Molinos and 
 his doctrines by an officer of such high rank in the 
 church, and also of the need which Molinos was already 
 beginning to experience of official protection. 
 
 " ROME, April 8, 1682. 
 
 " I did not sooner answer the letter of your Holiness 
 of the 2Oth of January, so confounded was I by what 
 you wrote concerning our Doctor Molinos. Though 
 you thank me so abundantly for the protection I have 
 extended to him, your Holiness knows that he cannot 
 lack the protection of God, who is truth and justice it- 
 self, and whose cause is his cause. Our Molinos there- 
 fore cannot be overwhelmed by his adversaries, what- 
 ever persecutions he may be compelled to endure. I 
 am, however, beholden to your Holiness for the af- 
 fectionate sentiments which your Holiness expresses 
 on this occasion, and your Holiness may be assured 
 that I shall not cease to protect Molinos, about whom 
 your Holiness shall know all that takes place. Recom- 
 mending myself," etc. 
 
 About three years from the date of this letter, the 
 Archbishop of Palermo was translated to the archie- 
 piscopate of Seville, which was regarded as a substantial 
 evidence of his favorable standing at the pontifical 
 court, where, up to this time at least, friendship for 
 
 Molinos
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET 1ST. 43 
 
 Molinos did not seem to bring bad luck. In the post- 
 script to a letter dated Nov. II, 1684, congratulating 
 the archbishop upon his promotion, the Queen writes : 
 
 " * * * I take our Molinos to witness the sin- 
 cerity of the sentiments of esteem and affection which 
 I profess towards your Holiness, and I hope to have the 
 opportunity of showing by actions the real justice I do 
 to the worth of your Holiness." 
 
 This letter shows how greatly their relations had 
 changed in the three short years since "our Molinos" 
 was first presented to the Queen. It is no longer the 
 Queen but the priest who is the patron.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Father Mabillon, the Benedictine, at Rome 
 Father Petrucci and the Inquisition. 
 
 AS the resistance of the water to a ship increases 
 with its speed, so the hostility to Molinos in- 
 creased with his popularity. In a letter written in 
 June, 1685, seven months after the preceding, Chris- 
 tine writes again to the Archbishop of Seville: "Our 
 Molinos is more and more persecuted, but I hope that 
 he will triumph more and more so long as he finds 
 innocence protected by the Lord our God. My Lord, 
 we need patience. Gold is refined in the furnace, and 
 truth will be victorious in the end, so please God." 
 
 The tone of this letter is ominous. Evidently the 
 clouds that were gathering over Molinos were growing 
 more portentous and sullen. 
 
 Among the important arrivals at Rome in the spring 
 of 1685 was Father Mabillon, of the famous Congrega- 
 tion of St. Maur, to prosecute a mission confided to 
 him by Letellier, then Archbishop of Rheims, for 
 
 the
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 45 
 
 the collection of books and manuscripts in Italy with 
 which to enrich the library of his royal master, Louis 
 XIV. Mabillon's private letters, written from Rome to 
 his brethren of St. Maur, sometimes by his own hand 
 and oftener by the hands of one or two of the brethren 
 of his Order who accompanied him, contribute much 
 precious information in regard to some of the succeed- 
 ing stages of the war upon the Quietists information 
 all the more valuable because it reaches us through a 
 source little liable to the refracting influence of parti- 
 sanship, and because it was given in the freedom of as 
 much confidence as in those days one monk could be 
 supposed ever to have in another of his own Order. 
 
 Molinos, as we have said, was arrested only a few 
 days before Mabillon's arrival. It was the theme of 
 every social circle. The most eminent and influential 
 people were divided in opinion, less as to the justice of 
 his treatment than as to the relative strength of the 
 embattled combatants. Before the Inquisition had laid 
 hands upon him, and while it was simply a struggle 
 with the Jesuits, Molinos had troops of powerful and 
 outspoken friends, but when it was known that he had 
 fallen into the slimy and inexorable embrace of the 
 Dominican octopus, none but hot-heads felt like speak- 
 ing or writing with freedom about him. The forces 
 antagonized were formidable and, on one side at least, 
 as merciless as the grave. The Pope Innocent XI., 
 though known to be friendly to Molinos, was seventy 
 years of age, quite infirm, saw very few people, and 
 
 trusted
 
 46 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 trusted none. What sacrifices, if any, he would make 
 to protect Molinos, or, if any he could make would be 
 effective, no one could guess, while every one knew 
 that no battle was ever fought with the Jesuits success- 
 fully without sacrifices. 
 
 The first notice of Molinos which appears in the 
 correspondence of the Benedictine emissaries is the 
 following paragraph of a letter signed by Claude 
 Estiennot, and dated from Rome, July 30, 1685. Mo- 
 linos had been in prison already several weeks. 
 
 " * * * Sleep in peace, but do not make the 
 prayer of Quietism as some do here who are called 
 Quietists. They are the new Illumines who give every- 
 thing to the soul and deny the body nothing, rejecting 
 vocal prayers, penitential acts, and mortifications, &c. 
 There is a large number of them in prison, where they 
 will have leisure to make the prayer of Quietism. 
 Nevertheless, the writings of Dr. Molinos are under 
 investigation, preparatory to his trial. We will send 
 you the result." 1 
 
 On the day following that on which the foregoing 
 letter was written, they wrote again : 
 
 "ROME, July 31, 1685. 
 
 " * * * I sent you a word in the last touching 
 Dr. Molinos, the Spanish priest. They have put him, 
 
 i Corrtspondance in/dite de notices d'lclaircissements, etc., 
 MMllon et de Montfaucon par M. Vattry. Lettre xlii. 
 avec I' Italic, accompagnt de 
 
 as
 
 MOLfNOS THE QUIBTIST . 47 
 
 as I wrote you, in the Inquisition. We do not yet know 
 precisely what are the causes of his imprisonment. 
 They have also put there for the same cause some 
 ecclesiastics, some secular persons, and even some ladies 
 of quality. I have met some very sensible and fair- 
 minded people who speak of Molinos in very favorable 
 terms, and who said he was a very humble and disin- 
 terested man. All do not share these sentiments, but 
 it is better to believe good than evil. They may well 
 have abused the teachings of this ecclesiastic. He is 
 not the first person put into the Inquisition whose 
 innocence was subsequently conceded." 1 
 
 One week later, the Benedictines refer again to this 
 subject, and make special allusion to the interest taken 
 in his case by Queen Christine: 
 
 "ROME, August 7, 1685. 
 
 " * * * Some say that the affair of the Quietists 
 will end in smoke. The Queen of Sweden continues her 
 protection to Doctor Molinos, the head of this party. 
 They say that this Spaniard was never more splendidly 
 treated than since his arrest, through the liberality of 
 this princess, 2 who is exerting her influence to have him 
 liberated. They are very severe here with all who circu- 
 late scandalous news. A Spanish priest, who is charged 
 with this offence, has been arrested, and will be lucky 
 
 Ibid., Lettre xliv. he had need, from her kitchen. 
 
 1 The Queen used to send Mem. concern. Christine, vol. 
 him, daily, everything of which iv. , p. 36. 
 
 if
 
 48 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 if he gets nothing worse than the galleys. An old man 
 of sixty years, who wrote at this priest's dictation, and 
 distributed the calumnies, was hung on Friday last. 
 All this, joined to the affair of the Quietists, has given 
 currency to a clever pasquinade. Pasquin tells Mar- 
 forio he is going to quit Rome. When asked the 
 reason for this resolution, he replies : ' He who talks is 
 sent to the galleys, he who writes is hung, and he who 
 is quiet goes to the Inquisition.' 1 So he thinks it time 
 to quit Rome." 
 
 On the same day, Porcheron, one of the Benedictines, 
 opens the case of Molinos more fully, although with 
 characteristic prudence abstaining, as they all do 
 throughout their correspondence, or at least until after 
 the decisions of the Holy Office had been pronounced, 
 from committing themselves to any positive opinions on 
 the merits of the questions at issue. 
 
 " ROME, August 7, 1685. 
 
 it * * * Nothing is more divided than Rome 
 about Molinos and the Quietists. I observe that most 
 fair-minded people agree that this doctor was irreproach- 
 able in his life and morals. Don Jean 2 sends to Mon- 
 signore de Rheims 3 two books and other facts pro and 
 
 1 Chi parla e mandate in 3 Letellier, Archbishop of 
 galera ; chi scrive e impic- Rheims, who succeeded Col- 
 cato ; qui sta quieto va al Santo bert in the councils of Louis 
 Officio. XIV., under whose auspices 
 
 2 Mabillon. Mabillon and his party were 
 
 con
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 49 
 
 con by the post. I have read none of this, but learned 
 Frenchmen who have read them find nothing to con- 
 demn in them. 
 
 "The most rational objections to the pretended 
 innocence of Molinos are : 
 
 " First. That no one is arrested by the Holy Office 
 who is not two-thirds convicted in advance of the offence 
 for which he is arrested. 
 
 " Second. He was on excellent terms with the Pope, 
 who, not disliking Spaniards, would not have changed 
 his opinions if good reasons had not been given him to 
 do so so good even that he is reported as saying : 
 ' Veramente siamo ingannato. ' l 
 
 " Third. The Queen of Sweden and Cardinal 
 Azzolini, 2 both friends of Molinos, have exerted them- 
 selves to know the end of the affair so far as the 
 prisoners are concerned. The Queen received for 
 reply that they could not reveal to her any part of 
 this secret, except that the evil was great, greater than 
 was supposed. After all, I believe one may reasonably 
 say that ' the great sin ' of these people was the 
 possible consequences, the fear that they should be- 
 come a sect which would be the more dangerous for 
 growing up in the bosom and noblest parts of the 
 
 sent into Italy, and to whom * Azzolini, it will be re- 
 the Her Italicvm, written on his membered, was the cardinal 
 return, was dedicated. charged by the Pope with the 
 
 1 Truly we have been de- supervision of Christine's 
 ceived. finances. 
 
 Catholic
 
 So MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 Catholic faith. For it is well you should know, my 
 dear friend, that the propositions l of our lords make 
 us pass here and throughout Italy, still more in Spain 
 and in many parts of Germany, and even among the 
 English and Dutch Catholics, for little better than 
 heretics. * * * They have hung the secular who 
 wrote against the Pope and the Court of Rome. The 
 Pope wishes the priest who was guilty of the same crime 
 should die also. When one asks specifically what this 
 secular has written, they say (I trust through discontent 
 with the pontifical court) that he had only made a 
 pasquinade on the late ceremony of the Haguene'e, 
 saying that the parade had made the snail leave his 
 shell ; in other words, that the Pope had been constrained 
 by this occasion to be borne from his chamber to his 
 chapel to receive homage. 2 Apropos of this, a joke is 
 current which they put in the mouth of Pasquin. He 
 says he means to quit Rome at once. Why ? ' Because 
 if a man here speaks, he is sent to the galleys ; if he 
 writes, he is hanged, and if he keeps silent, he is thrown 
 into the Inquisition' (Per che qui parla va in galera, 
 gut scrive e spiccato, qui e quieto e inandato al Sant' 
 Officio). These three horns of Marforio's dilemma relate 
 to the secular who had been hung for writing as 
 
 'The four propositions adopt- 2 Innocent, for reasons suf- 
 
 ed by the French bishops in ficient for himself, had been 
 
 1682, setting new bounds to leading a very secluded life, 
 
 the authority of the Papacy in and was very inaccessible. 
 France. They were written by 
 Bossuet. 
 
 above,
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 51 
 
 above, to the ecclesiastic who was sent to the galleys 
 for having written what was dictated to the secular, 
 and finally to Molinos, who, for being the chief of the 
 Quietists, had been sent to the Holy Office." 1 
 
 Only five days after the date of the foregoing letter, 
 we have a letter from Bossuet, in the course of which 
 it transpires not only that the Molinos prosecution was 
 attracting the attention of the hierarchy in France, 
 confirming what Burnet had learned from a provincial 
 of the Jesuits, that they were using Louis XIV. to work 
 their purposes upon the Spanish iconoclast, but also 
 that to those of his acquaintance who had known 
 Molinos and here is probably an allusion to Cardinal 
 d'Estrees, with whom Bossuet was in correspondence, 
 and who had hitherto been a friend of Molinos the 
 prosecution was a surprise. It was not till five or six 
 years later, and when Fenelon ventured to say that 
 Madame Guyon might be a Quietist without necessarily 
 deserving to be roasted, that the Bishop of Meaux put 
 on his war-paint : 
 
 "We are awaiting the issue of the Molinos affair, 
 which has not a little surprised every one, and espe- 
 cially those who had known Molinos in Rome. I know 
 persons so zealous for him that they wish to believe 
 everything done against him is the work of a secret 
 cabal, and that he will come out of it not without 
 honor; but what we see of it has not that aspect." 
 
 Bossuet knew too well, and to his sorrow, the 
 power of the Jesuits over the King and the power of 
 1 Ibid., Letter xlvi. 
 
 the
 
 52 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 the King at Rome, to suppose that an obscure Spanish 
 priest could long make head against such a combina- 
 tion. 
 
 The friends of Molinos, however, were still active, 
 and some of them courageous. Even the Archbishop 
 of Seville did not shrink from manifesting his cordial 
 sympathy, nor from exerting all his influence to sus- 
 tain him. The following letter from Queen Christine 
 is in reply to one of his appeals : 
 
 "ROME, November 17, 1685. 
 " My Lord Archbishop of Seville: 
 
 " Your Holiness's letter of the 28th of August was 
 very welcome, as well on account of the affection as 
 of the esteem I feel for you. I sympathize sincerely 
 with your sorrow for the troubles of Dr. Molinos, of 
 which I heard with infinite displeasure. Your Holiness 
 is right in assuming that I extend to him my protection, 
 and you may be assured that I shall continue to do so. 
 I only regret that it does him so little good. I console 
 myself, however, with the hope that, before such a just 
 and wise tribunal as the Holy Office, innocence will 
 finally triumph over imposture and malignity, as it is 
 the cause of God, and I am confident that His Provi- 
 dence will rule everything to His greatest glory and 
 service. Meanwhile, I thank your Holiness for your 
 obliging expressions in my behalf, and commend myself 
 to your holy sacrifices, praying God to preserve and 
 prosper you." 
 
 The
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 S3 
 
 The Queen somewhat overestimated her firmness. 
 It is stated in the Theatre Europeen for the year 1687 
 that she threw into the fire, in the presence of her 
 domestics, all the letters and books of Molinos. " If this 
 be true," says her biographer, " it was as a precaution, 
 seeing that the Pope himself did not escape the pur- 
 suits of the Holy Office." ' 
 
 Father Petrucci, who, as we have seen, had lent his 
 pen to the propagation of the doctrines of Quietism, was 
 so hotlypursued by the Inquisitors, that the Pope, to save 
 him, was obliged to make him a cardinal, 4 and he seems 
 to have been the only one of the disciples to whom friend- 
 ship for Molinos brought any luck, at least in this world. 3 
 
 1 Mem. Cone. Christine, vol. 
 ii. F p. 186. 
 
 1 It is a curious and suggest- 
 ive peculiarity of the tribunal 
 of the Inquisition, that it had 
 no jurisdiction over the Pope, 
 his legates, nuncios, cardinals, 
 bishops, or familiars. They, 
 however, were not wholly irre- 
 sponsible. Poison and the dag- 
 ger always remained, and they 
 have usually proved quite as 
 good judges of heresy as the 
 Inquisition. 
 
 Secular sovereigns are not 
 among the privileged. 
 
 3 " The cardinal [Petrucci] 
 was afterwards prosecuted on 
 
 account of his female devotees, 
 whom he called canonesses, 
 and, it is said, made wear 
 the tonsure. He was likewise 
 accused of frequenting too 
 often the monastery belonging 
 to the barefooted nuns of St. 
 Theresa, in which he preached 
 up the Molinist doctrine of pray- 
 ing in quiet and tranquillity, to 
 which he gave the name of holy 
 repose. And it is said that the 
 greater part of these nuns were 
 infected with this delusion, and 
 that the cardinal had laid his 
 hands a little too familiarly 
 upon more than one of them 
 Besides, he kept some young 
 His
 
 54 
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 His promotion was good for the following distich from 
 Pasquin : 
 
 " Crimine sunt similes ambo, sed dispare sorte, 
 Ostrum Petruccius ; vincla Molinos habet." 
 
 (Their crime the same, yet how unlike their fate : 
 To one the purple and to one the prison's gate.) 
 
 men and women in a country- 
 house he had, not far from the 
 place of his residence, whither 
 he went often to divert himself. 
 All these matters appear in the 
 cardinal's trial, by the declara- 
 tion of a certain she-bigot called 
 by the name of Frances, whom 
 the cardinal had many and 
 many a time instructed in this 
 matter of holy reposes. She con- 
 fessed freely everything the 
 cardinal had taught her, and 
 said, moreover, that he had at- 
 tempted to lie with her in an 
 unnatural way. 
 
 "Besides, a great many other 
 she-devotees were well affected 
 to this cardinal, who owned 
 publicly that they received in- 
 struction from him, and that he 
 allowed them a monthly pen- 
 sion of five-and-forty giulios 
 ( about six dollars American 
 money), which the cardinal 
 was wont to distribute to them 
 
 with his own hand. This delu- 
 sion began to spread itself so 
 far, that many other women 
 gave themselves up to this life, 
 being continually in prayer, 
 and enjoying the holy repose, 
 as they called it, exactly in 
 the same manner as it was 
 recommended by that wicked 
 wretch Molinos, of whom the 
 cardinal was a disciple, having 
 been instructed by him, and 
 having received from him many 
 of his doctrines in writing. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the strict 
 inquiry made into this cardi- 
 nal's life, bymany vigorous pro- 
 ceedings.yet he has always been 
 found innocent as to anything 
 of sensuality and covetous- 
 ness, which are the two poles 
 on which the malice of man- 
 kind, and especially of the 
 Quietists, usually turns. Never- 
 theless, because of the scan- 
 dals which some of his disci- 
 ples
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 55 
 
 pies had given, the Inquisition 
 obliged the Pope to recall him, 
 and to make him renounce his 
 bishopric, that his female devo- 
 tees and hisotherdisciplesmight 
 have no further hopes of seeing 
 
 him any more in those parts." 
 The Present State of the Court 
 of Rome, or the Lives of the 
 Present Pope, Clement XI., and 
 of the Present College of Car- 
 dinals, p. 125.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Trial and Condemnation of Molinos. 
 
 MOLINOS did not quail before the gathering storm. 
 Nothing, not even the promise of his freedom 
 nor immunity from torture, could make him admit the 
 charges of impiety imputed to him, nor abjure the doc- 
 trines he had taught. "The reports which Cardinal 
 Conti has from Rome," writes Father Segneri to Cosmo 
 the Grand Duke, on the nth of January, 1686, "are, 
 that Molinos, being interrogated by the Congregatione 
 Graciosa l if he had need of anything, replied, ' De 
 nada,'and said nothing more, and it is believed he will 
 stand firm. Signor Cardinal Azzolini 2 was absent from 
 the Congregation, and with another cardinal was 
 excused on account of indisposition, which gives food 
 for much speculation. The difficulty of the Pope's 
 interfering in the deliberations of a Congregation 
 
 1 A Jesuitical euphemism for 3 The friend of Queen Chris- 
 the Tribunal of the Inquisition, tine and of Molinos.
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 57 
 
 causes them to be much protracted; it not being 
 possible, without his Holiness, easily to reconcile the 
 diversity, of views." ' 
 
 It was evident from the tone of this note that the 
 Pope was now the only obstacle to the conviction of 
 Molinos. But even popes have their masters in Rome. 
 Months rolled on, Molinos still in prison and the ques- 
 tion of his guilt or innocence still undetermined. The 
 delay was ominous. Those nearest the Pope and most 
 in his confidence, who before had made no secret of 
 their sympathy with the prisoner, fled to cover. Nay, 
 there was but too much reason to fear that the Pope 
 himself was beginning to weaken, for in February of 
 1687, a circular signed by Cibo, the Cardinal Secretary 
 of State, was issued in obedience to instructions, not, it 
 is true, from the Pope, but, what was worse, from the 
 Sacred Congregation itself, and addressed to "all 
 potentates, bishops, and superiors in Christendom, 
 warning them to break up all the schools, associa- 
 tions or brotherhoods in which, under the pretext of 
 spiritual conference, certain directors without any 
 experience of the ways of God known to the saints, 
 and perhaps even with evil intent, feigned to lead souls 
 in prayer which they call quietude, or pure love and 
 interior faith, and other names." 2 
 
 It was apparent that a circular of this character from 
 the Cardinal Secretary, who, as well as his master, was 
 
 1 Lettere inedite, p. 53. 8 Appendix B. 
 
 not
 
 58 MOL1NOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 not a little compromised by his friendship for Molinos, 1 
 would never have issued had not the enemies of the 
 mystic gained the ascendant. Like evidences of the 
 activity of the Jesuits reached Rome from abroad, 
 especially from France. From Spain, too, the omens 
 were growing unfavorable. The Inquisition of Aragon 
 solemnly condemned // Guida Spirituale, and imposed 
 upon it all the customary penalties for printing, 
 selling, or reading a heretical book, quite regardless of 
 the fact that the same work had twice before received 
 the approval of the Inquisition of Spain, and a Latin 
 version of it had been printed at Leipsic with the 
 "approbation" of the Archbishop of Seville. 2 
 
 Encouraged by all these evidences of approaching 
 triumph, the Jesuits proceeded to hunt up and arrest all 
 who had been instrumental in disseminating or coun- 
 tenancing the doctrines of Molinos. Nor these only, 
 but all who by the terrors of torture or the shame of 
 
 1 La Bletterie, the friend and Molinos. But to be sure of your 
 
 correspondent of Fe'nelon, in Highness having one, I have 
 
 one of his letters Sur la relation thought it best to enclose to you 
 
 de Quiethme, says that Innocent a copy sent to me. It will suit 
 
 XI. had put himself under the me to have it again when your 
 
 spiritual direction of Kfolinos. Highness gives me theprivilege 
 
 (Euvres de Fe'nelon, vol. 10, p. of seeing you again before your 
 
 74. departure. I wish to hope this, 
 
 1 " FLORENCE, Jan. i, 1686. because the evil is by Divine 
 
 " I cannot doubt that Father favor diminishing." Lettere 
 
 Serra has sent you the edict of inedite di Paolo Segneri, p. 49. 
 Spain against the Guida of Dr. 
 
 the
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 59 
 
 the San benito could be made to disclose any evidence 
 which might be made a pretext for the arrest and con- 
 viction of others. The prisons were thronged ' with 
 the fruit of these pursuits, and one might have sup- 
 posed from visiting them that Quietism was, if not the 
 only crime known to the Roman law, the only crime 
 which was committed, or, at least, that was punished by 
 imprisonment. Owing to the secrecy with which the 
 doings of the Inquisition are conducted, but little is 
 known of the charges against, or of the punishment of, 
 multitudes who perished in this ruthless raid. Some 
 glimpses of their proceedings, however, have shone 
 through the private correspondence of the period, from 
 which the rest may be judged. Not being able to dis- 
 cipline Petrucci, to whom the wings of a cardinalate had 
 been given to enable him to fly above his pursuers, 
 
 1 " Suddenly, in 1687, the In- of his country-houses on the 
 
 quisition caused the arrest of sea-shore. There was general 
 
 two hundred persons, among consternation at Rome and 
 
 them Count and Countess Ves- throughout Italy. Every one 
 
 piniani, Don Paolo Rocchi, trembled for himself, and not a 
 
 confessor of Prince Borgia, voice was raised in behalf of 
 
 the nephew and secretary of Molinos. This priest, who for 
 
 Cardinal Petrucci, while the more than twenty years had 
 
 cardinal himself was obliged sustained at Rome the reputa- 
 
 to hide for a time. Cardinal tion of a saint, passed all at 
 
 Caraffa and the Cardinal Ci- once for the wickedest man of 
 
 ceri had the same inquietudes, the age." Madame Guyon; sa 
 
 Don Livio, the nephew of the vie, sa doctrine, et son inftu- 
 
 Pope, thought it prudent to ence, par L. Gue rrier, p. 138. 
 quit Rome, and retired to one 
 
 they
 
 6o MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 they at last seized upon his unfortunate amanuensis, 
 the Abbe Taya, whom they frightened nearly to death. 
 Etiennot wrote to his brethren at St. Maur Mabil- 
 lon and his companions had already left Italy some 
 letters which, besides giving important details of the 
 Abbe Taya's troubles, and of others in the same 
 category, throw much valuable side-light upon the 
 methods and purposes of the Inquisitors. On the 2d 
 of July, 1687, he writes: 
 
 "It is wished that the sentence of Molinos be pro- 
 nounced, and a well-informed person told me that what 
 could would be done to save him from burning. This 
 affair has afflicted the Holy Father extremely. The 
 captain of the Piazza d'Espagna has died in the castle 
 of St. Angelo. He has thus escaped prosecution." ' 
 
 "ROME, Aug. 5, 1687. 
 
 * * Thursday evening, after various com- 
 plaints addressed to the Holy Office against the poor 
 Abbe Taya for what he had said and written, and for 
 having prepared an apology for the opinions of Car- 
 dinal Petrucci and the Quietists, and printed it, the 
 police went to his apartment, took him, and put him in 
 prison. He at first fainted. When he came to, he 
 asked only that they would notify Cardinal Petrucci 
 that they were taking him to the Holy Office. A com- 
 missioner of the Holy Office was sent at the same time 
 to seize his books and papers. If they find the disser- 
 
 Cor. intdite de Mabillon, &c., v. ii. , p. 68. 
 
 tation
 
 MOL1NOS THE QUIETIST. 61 
 
 tation there it will go hard with him. Monsignor Ci- 
 ampini, with whom he had come to reside, had luckily 
 dismissed him some months before. This has afflicted 
 his friends, but Monsignor Victori, who came to see me 
 this morning, avowed that he had drawn this upon 
 himself by his talk and by the obstinacy he has shown 
 for the Quietists. What -will afflict him is that when 
 the news of his arrest was communicated to Monsignor 
 the Cardinal Petrucci, the cardinal declared that he 
 had never asked him to write for him, nor had any 
 need of his help for his justification. Here is a poor 
 fellow lost. As for Monsignor the Cardinal Petrucci, 
 they tell me that he is now printing a work in which he 
 disavows, recalls, or explains the opinions or expres- 
 sions in his book which are thought too strong, and 
 that he has testified to the Holy Father that he had 
 believed he was writing and speaking the truth, but if 
 the Holy Father judged differently, he was ready to 
 submit, retract, &c. As for Molinos, no one knows 
 what to say. I have a copy of his trial. It fills almost 
 a ream of paper. In the two hundred and sixty prop- 
 ositions there are some which are not excusable. A 
 part are already condemned. I will endeavor to send 
 you the decree by the next opportunity." * 
 
 In a letter written a few weeks before this, Estiennot 
 had given the following details of the progress of the 
 trial of Molinos, with which his correspondent is here 
 assumed to be acquainted : 
 
 1 Cor. inldite de Mabillon, &c., vol. ii., p. 76. 
 
 " They
 
 62 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 " They are still in hot pursuit of Molinos. A friend 
 has allowed me to overlook the record of the trial. 
 * * * There are two hundred and sixty propo- 
 sitions drawn from his letters and writings, most of 
 which are untenable, and others are expressed in very 
 harsh terms. They say that we shall see, before very 
 long, most of these propositions condemned by the 
 Holy Office. Not a word has yet been said of his book. 
 It is not five years since it was approved by this court, 
 and how can it so soon decide to condemn it? That 
 will come, but it takes time." 1 
 
 On the 1 2th of August, we hear again, from the 
 same source, of Father Taya : 
 
 "ROME, Aug. 12, 1687. 
 
 * * * A Father Boussy, of the Chiesa Nuova, 
 having composed an apology for Molinos and Cardinal 
 Petrucci, showed it and handed it for examination to 
 Abbe Taya, who found it very well done. They after- 
 wards showed it to Cardinal Cibo, who gave a permis- 
 sion by word of mouth to a bookseller to print it. 
 This became known. The books were seized; Father 
 Boussy went and accused himself before the Holy 
 Office and thus drew himself out of the affair, while the 
 poor Abbe Taya, who was not the author of the 
 treatise, has had to pay for all. They say that he has 
 confessed and avowed all, and that by this means he 
 will be able the sooner to draw himself out of the busi- 
 
 1 Cor. inttdite de Mabillon, vol. ii., p. 49.
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 63 
 
 ness. But with all this he is a lost man, and has 
 nothing more to hope from this court." ' 
 
 "ROME, Aug. 19, 1687. 
 
 " * * * I have a copy of the Abbe Taya's 
 apology for Cardinal Petrucci. It is not badly done, 
 but he has printed it without the permission of the 
 Master of the Sacred Palace ; he has talked too freely ; 
 in fact they were not well disposed toward him (lui en 
 voulait), and for some time have been waiting their 
 opportunitatem. " 2 
 
 At length, after twenty-two months' close confine- 
 ment ; after enduring tortures to compel inculpating 
 confessions, of which the world has been permitted to 
 know nothing, except what they are entitled to infer 
 from the well-known usages of the Inquisition; after 
 all the letters he had received for more than twenty 
 years had been put into the crucible of their malignity, 
 to extort from them poison that would kill and not 
 betray ; after hunting down every man, woman, and 
 child in Rome not too formidable by their rank or con- 
 nections, who could be induced by their fears or their 
 hopes to repeat real or imaginary conversations with 
 the accused, Molinos was brought forth from his dun- 
 geon to receive the judgment of the Inquisitors. 
 
 On the morning of the 3d of September, 1687, the 
 church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, at Rome, 
 
 6 Cor. intdite de Mabillon, vol. 2 Cor. inldite de Mabillon,vo\. 
 ii., p. 81. ii., p. 84. 
 
 was
 
 64 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 was thronged at an early hour. The stalls, or palchi, 
 of which a large number had been erected for the occa- 
 sion, were filled by the nobility and with prelates of 
 distinction. The college of cardinals, the General of 
 the Inquisition and all his officers, were there, too, 
 seated opposite each other upon a platform reserved 
 for them. Every remaining place to sit or stand upon 
 in that vast temple was occupied, for had it not been 
 posted upon all the churches in Rome that on that day 
 and in that church the officers of the Inquisition were 
 to proclaim the result of their inquiries into the alleged 
 heresies of Molinos ? To insure a large attendance, and 
 to give to the impending ceremonies as much as pos- 
 sible the air of a popular manifestation against the 
 accused and his followers, the public had been also 
 notified, several days before, that an indulgence would 
 be accorded of fifteen years to all, and of forty years 
 to some, who should assist at the ceremonies of this 
 auto dafe. 
 
 It was a gala day for Rome, and all its population, 
 from the highest to the lowest, seemed to have been 
 condensed within the walls of this famous church, 
 which resounded with the murmur of conversation, 
 with the flutter of dresses and of fans, and which within 
 the memory of men then living had witnessed the 
 humiliation of Galileo. In the curiosity excited by every 
 new or conspicuous arrival, in the gayety of the scene, 
 in the pleasure of unexpected meetings and joyous 
 greetings, in the quickened wit and lively repartee, 
 
 which
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 65 
 
 which are the familiar incidents of an unoccupied crowd, 
 the occasion which had brought the assembly was almost 
 forgotten. Suddenly the noise is hushed, the motion 
 of fans is suspended, and all eyes are directed towards a 
 side door nearest the platform occupied by the Inquisi- 
 tors. An aged monk, attended by an officer, was 
 approaching with a slow and solemn pace. His hands 
 in manacles were held in front of him. In one of them 
 he bore a candle. With a self-possessed, though some- 
 what severe expression, he walked slowly towards the 
 place assigned him by his attendant, fronting at once 
 the cardinals and the Grand Inquisitors. 
 
 Molinos, the man upon whom now every eye in the 
 vast and breathless assembly was fixed, was about sixty 
 years of age. His frame was robust, his movement 
 dignified and majestic. A settled expression of melan- 
 choly sat upon his face; his complexion was quite 
 dark, and his nose was both long and sharp. He wore 
 the frock of his Order, descending to his heels, and 
 having the soiled and shabby look which daily use dur- 
 ing nearly two years' confinement in prison sufficiently 
 explained. The scene in which he bore so conspicuous 
 a part seemed to find no reflection in his face. It 
 expressed no emotion, but said in language more elo- 
 quent than words, " This is your hour and the power of 
 darkness." We are indebted to Estiennot, who was 
 one of the spectators, for the fairest and, indeed, for 
 almost the only account of it which was ever published, 
 though it is given but as " a brief extract from a long 
 
 letter 
 
 5
 
 66 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 letter written from Rome " ; on the very day of the 
 ceremonies it describes. 1 
 
 "ROME, September 3, 1867. 
 
 " To-day, in the Church of Minerva, in the presence 
 of the college of cardinals and of an innumerable crowd, 
 Molinos made his abjuration. We counted over fifty 
 boxes (palchi) in the church, filled with ladies and of 
 the highest nobility. In the other boxes were prelates, 
 religiosi, seminarists, and there was not a place that 
 was not crowded with people. Molinos was conducted 
 to the platform facing the cardinals and the tribunal 
 of the Holy Office, consisting of consulting prelates, of 
 the General of the Dominican Order, of the Commis- 
 sioner, of some of the Qualifiers who qualified the 
 propositions, and other agents of the Holy Office. 
 Molinos stood with a policeman by his side, who, from 
 time to time, wiped his face. In his hands, which were 
 manacled, he held a burning candle. From the pulpit 
 near the criminal, one of the fathers of St. Dominick 
 read, in a loud voice, an abstract of the trial. It was 
 observed that his face, while this lasted, about three 
 hours, as when he entered and left, was full of contempt 
 and defiance, especially at the commotion of the 
 
 1 The suppression of the linos was condemned, and in 
 larger part of the letter prob- which any apology for him or 
 ably finds its explanation in his writings is threatened with 
 the concluding paragraph of all the penalties of the major 
 the papal bull in which Mo- excommunication. 
 
 people,
 
 MOLING S THE QUIET I ST. 67 
 
 people, who, as they heard the account of some of his 
 graver villainies, shouted boisterously, ' To the stake ! 
 to the stake ! ' (fuoco,fuoco). During all this, Molinos 
 did not even change color, but made his feeling of con- 
 tempt only the more conspicuous. He did not even 
 bow his head when several times the names of Jesus, 
 Mary, and the Holy Sacrament were pronounced. 
 Whence many concluded that he abjured, not from a 
 detestation of the heresy which he heard read, but to 
 avoid being made a spectacle of in the Campo di Fiore, 
 where he would have been burned alive. The abstract 
 of the trial consisted of two parts. One regarded the 
 sixty-eight dogmatic propositions which are printed, 1 
 and accessible to every one. Of these there is nothing 
 more to be said. The second relates to his wickedness, 
 especially in sensual matters. Some of his offences 
 were the following : For twenty-two years he had 
 not confessed, because, as he affirmed, he knew that in 
 all that time there was not material enough for a venial 
 fault. During all his life he had not observed Lent, but 
 on Fridays and Sundays had eaten as well flesh as fish. 
 To some of his pupils he professed to have uttered 
 prophecies. 
 
 " In giving a dirty shirt, which he brought to Rome 
 from Spain, to one of his friends, he advised him to 
 keep it with care, because after his death it would be 
 recognized as a most important relic (una grandisima 
 reliqua). 
 
 i Appendix C. 
 
 "To
 
 68 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 "To the guard who bound and brought him 
 through the street to the Holy Office, he said that he 
 was the special agent of God, and that he (the guard) 
 would be punished. After the reading of the trial 
 was over, he was stripped of the long frock of the 
 priest, and clothed with the garment of penance, with 
 the cross on the back, showing through all the ceremony 
 of excommunication his accustomed intrepidity and 
 contempt. He was condemned to close confinement 
 in the Holy Office for the rest of his life, to wear the 
 garment of penance, with the cross on his breast, to 
 confess four times a year, at Christmas, Easter, Pen- 
 tecost, and All Saints' Day, and besides to recite the 
 credo every day, a third part of the rosary, and to med- 
 itate the mysteries. All his writings, as well manuscript 
 as printed, are proscribed under the heaviest penalties. 
 
 " On the following day, the 4th, the two brothers of 
 Casa Leone, of the diocese of Como, one a priest and 
 the other a layman, made their second abjuration. 
 The first showed signs of repentance, but the second 
 appeared as defiant as Molinos. The matters read 
 from the abstract of the trial were similar, but not as 
 abominable as those about Molinos." ' 
 
 The propositions which were read to him, and of 
 which he was found guilty, were sixty-eight in number, 
 though they are nearly all merely variations and exag- 
 gerations of a single theme. 
 
 1 Cor. inedite de Mabillon, &c., v. ii., p. 95.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Proceedings of the Trial, as reported by the Holy Office. 
 
 AN abstract of the trial of Molinos was prepared, 
 apparently by some officer of the Inquisition, to 
 give such information and produce such impressions 
 of Molinos as it was thought desirable to have propa- 
 gated in other quarters where Quietism had found 
 friends. We have already cited a letter of Estiennot, 
 in which he speaks of sending such an abstract to St. 
 Maur. The Abbe Renaudot, writing to Bossuet some 
 ten days after the trial, speaks of sending him one. " I 
 have read," he says, " the entire trial, which occupies 
 more than a ream of paper, but I have not dared to 
 ask my friends here to give me a copy of so long a 
 document. I send you, instead, an abstract of the 
 whole, made by the hand of a master, with various 
 letters. It has required some days to copy them." 
 Father Germain thanks Magliabecchi, on the 6th of 
 October, 1687, for sending him a similar document. 1 
 In the Magliabecchi collection of manuscripts, now be- 
 
 1 Cor. indd. de Mabillon, &c., v. ii., p. 113. 
 
 longing
 
 TO MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 longing to the National Library in Florence, there is 
 an abstract of this trial, the one, doubtless, from which 
 the copy sent to Father Germain was made. This 
 and those referred to in the letters of the abbes Ger- 
 main, Renaudot, and Estiennot are, no doubt, the 
 same, and may, therefore, be regarded as the most 
 "official" record of the proceedings which consigned 
 Molinos to perpetual imprisonment and a premature 
 grave that exists outside of the Vatican. Though pre- 
 pared obviously in a spirit of foregone hostility to the ac- 
 cused and of blind servility to the accusers, it gives many 
 facts in regard to the nature of the offences sought to 
 be fixed upon Molinos which are curious, and deserve 
 to be read, if only to show us how much the world has 
 gained in tolerance, humanity, and common sense in 
 two hundred years. 
 
 ABSTRACT OF THE TRIAL AND SENTENCE OF 
 MICHEL DE MOLINOS, SON OF PETER MOLINOS, 
 SIXTY YEARS OF AGE, A SPANIARD, OF THE 
 PROVINCE OF ARAG^N, OF THE DIOCESE OF 
 SARAGOSSA. 1 
 
 He was declared, by witnesses, to have taught 
 divers doctrines which treated as lawful the commission 
 of filthy, obscene, and beastly acts ; with using to this 
 end the sacred robes and instruments ; also with 
 
 Codice MS. Magliabecchiano variorum anon, in classe 
 xxv., 116, da pag. 178 a pag. 183. 
 
 having
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 71 
 
 having taught the lawfulness of detraction, resent- 
 ment towards one's neighbor, anger, blasphemy; with 
 cursing God and the saints, and with execrating the 
 consecrated robes. He assigned for his excuse that 
 these acts were the works of the devil, who operated 
 as God's instrument, and that such violence should be 
 regarded as necessary. Moreover, that they were not 
 called to do penance for acts thus provoked, neither 
 ought they to praise them nor to confess them, but to 
 leave them unpunished, and, if scruples on account of 
 such acts came, to make no account of them, because 
 they were done without the consent of the higher 
 nature, but solely by the force of the devil. 
 
 Moreover, he was suspected of having committed 
 acts of sensuality with seventeen persons, and, besides, 
 with sixteen between sex and sex, also with abusing 
 the confessional. Being questioned on these last accu- 
 sations, he denied absolutely the commission of such 
 obscenities. He confessed to have esteemed many of 
 the above-mentioned acts lawful, by reason of the 
 demoniac pressure aforesaid, which, however, did not 
 obscure the light of the superior part of the reason 
 which remains illuminated, to consider these acts law- 
 ful, in proof of which he produced a writing he had 
 made, which contained several examples from the 
 sacred Scriptures, such as Samson, Jacob, David, 
 Jeremiah, and Elias, all of whom, by constraint of the 
 devil, perpetrated acts of wrath, sensuality, of blas- 
 phemy, and others like them. 
 
 In
 
 72 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 In this writing are thirteen assertions, as may be 
 seen in the printed propositions. 
 
 Hence, a rule for knowing if such constraint ema- 
 nates surely from the devil, and if the soul assents to 
 it. The rule is to notice whether the soul is conscious 
 of not being disunited from God, and that it is not 
 abstracted from prayer and union with God, being 
 assured of this, that all things come from God. 
 
 He says that, beyond this, a man ought to make 
 no effort to provoke such constraint, but to act entirely 
 as moved by God, to whom in all things he is submitted. 
 
 He confessed to have not counselled all kinds of 
 persons in this way, but with some he proceeded differ- 
 ently, because of the shame they had for such acts, and 
 not to frighten them from the confessional. 
 
 In the second place, he taught another prayer, 
 called " Contemplation," consisting of an entire aban- 
 donment to the will of God, and in this prayer the 
 soul is totally dead to itself and to its own powers, and 
 does not either do or think but what God wills ; and, 
 though they should experience from this prayer no 
 sensible advantage, they must not, on that account, be 
 discouraged. On this point, fourteen approved good 
 witnesses testified that they had been instructed by 
 him to bring themselves into the presence of God 
 without using any acts of external devotion, not even 
 the sacraments, and in this way satisfied their highest 
 affections without knowing if they were real affections 
 or merely sensual desires. 
 
 The
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 73 
 
 The remedy he proposed for the temptations which 
 might arise in such exercises was to assume a state of 
 indifference and passive submission, without renewing 
 any acts of will or other powers, they being obstacles 
 to the quiet which the soul enjoys. All the powers 
 should passively concur in this prayer, which the 
 intellect cannot bend to its operations ; nay, the 
 whole soul, by becoming dead to the world, might 
 esteem it proper to go naked through the Piazza 
 Navona. 
 
 Moreover, he taught that, while in such prayer 
 they ought not to do reverence to the sacraments or 
 sacred images, because it impaired the effect of its 
 operations ; nay, he broke and caused to be broken 
 the crucifixes and sacred images as impediments to 
 prayer ; and if one feels a desire to break forth into 
 such acts of self-indulgence, he ought not to complain 
 and make resistance with thinking of Paradise, or of 
 Hell, or of death, nor have recourse to the saints for 
 succor or assistance in liberating him, because he 
 should be in all things and always submissive to the 
 will of God, even joined to Him, and when people 
 appeal to God through the saints .as a matter of habit, 
 they are like so many parrots who scream but want 
 nothing ; and, further, that one ought not to pray 
 God to be delivered from sin, nor for any favor, nor 
 to be spared chastisements, because that would evince 
 a disposition to resist the will of God and to question 
 his justice. 
 
 That
 
 74 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 That a soul in this prayer should not pray that he 
 might again do the will of God, because that would be 
 an exercise of free will, nor should one pray God for 
 the conversion of sinners, nor for the dead, nor to be 
 delivered from evils. 
 
 That the saints had not attained to this perfection, 
 because they walked by sensuous ways. Besides, there 
 were many other propositions, which are given to the 
 press. 
 
 Twenty witnesses testified that in these exercises 
 they did not scruple at acts of impurity, of kissing, and 
 of complaining, because the superior parts of their 
 nature were rendered insensible; and they took the 
 communion without confessing themselves or other 
 preparation, as they would partake of a cake. 
 
 That the performance of these external acts of 
 devotion were for little children, not for perfected men. 
 On this point, many original letters of Molinos were 
 produced, in which he confessed his approval of these 
 practices, calling them by various titles the " prayer 
 of quietude," " fixed contemplation," " the state of in- 
 difference," " mystic death," " holy idleness." 
 
 Interrogated upon this point, he said that this doc- 
 trine could only be verified by those who followed the 
 extraordinary ways, and by no others. He admitted 
 that all the petitions of the Lord's Prayer were useless, 
 except " thy will be done." 
 
 He confessed that for many years he had found 
 many persons at the confessional without need of abso- 
 lution,
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 75 
 
 lution, because they were perfect in the extraordinary 
 ways of quiet. 
 
 He confessed that God wills the physical act of 
 sinning, " il materiale del peccato" denied having 
 taught that the interior fear of offending God was use- 
 less, only the external and sensible fear; and more- 
 over, he declared that he had taught that a soul 
 mystically dead is not subject to divine precepts, and 
 that the divine law is for sinners and not for such souls. 
 
 Moreover, he confessed to having taught that it 
 was lawful to eat flesh on Friday and Saturday in Lent, 
 and other prohibited days, because the annihilated soul 
 is not subject to this law. He confessed upon interro- 
 gation that he had never kept Lent here in Rome ; to 
 have frequently violated it on Fridays and Saturdays, 
 by secretly eating fish and flesh. He said that making 
 vows to God trenched upon God's freedom, and there- 
 fore was not a good thing. He declared that the mystic 
 souls should believe themselves incapable of sin 
 impeccabili because God, who operated in them, 
 was impeccable. This was confirmed by two letters, 
 in which he said that God bound the powers of the 
 soul ; that God operated in mystic souls, whereby they 
 were rendered impeccable. 
 
 Being interrogated, he confessed to have never 
 asserted the impeccability of a soul which does not see 
 beyond the practical act of sinning. 
 
 He was declared to have said that the mystic death 
 alone lifts the soul into the beatific vision on the 
 
 earth ;
 
 76 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 earth ; this was confirmed by a responsive letter, in 
 which he cites the example of St. Paul, who was lifted 
 into the third heaven, and by another letter in which 
 he asserted that to such a soul may be said, Beati 
 mundo corde, and here on earth, and he confessed 
 it all. 
 
 It was declared by more than a hundred witnesses 
 that he had approved of private meetings (It con- 
 venticoli) for -men and women, although he denied 
 this. Moreover, he caused himself to be esteemed a 
 saint, saying, when taken to prison by the policeman 
 who bound him, " Know you who I am ? I am Doctor 
 Molinos. Oh, how many there are in Rome who 
 would pay something handsome to have the good 
 fortune to stand here and speak to Doctor Molinos! 
 This is a favor which God has conferred upon you. 
 How many there are who have come to speak with me 
 and I have declined to receive them, causing them to 
 be told that I was not at home, or that I slept! But I 
 could not say this to you. You have at last found your 
 guardian angel." Then he exhorted him to quit the 
 trade of a policeman, as dangerous to his salvation, and 
 apply himself to the comprehension of his dogmas. 
 " Yes, think well of it," and so beating his hands now 
 and then as he went along the streets, dropping his 
 eyes and then raising them, he said to the officer, 
 " What have you concluded ?" 
 
 It was further deposed that he had received and 
 much commended many anagrams on the name of 
 
 Michel
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 77 
 
 Michel Molinos, which were writ in his praise, calling 
 them prophetic and divine sayings, and among them 
 were three in which he was represented as a holy man 
 of God and the honey of God, and such as were most 
 acceptable to him, he corrected and sent to some 
 persons. 
 
 A friar said to him that a certain monk was a saint. 
 He replied that this was a very great mistake, because 
 to know a holy man it required a most holy man, and 
 he alone could know it. To another he pretended to 
 have received one of his shirts all stained and dirty, 
 and said, " Keep this, because I wore it on my journey 
 from Spain to Rome, and after my death it will be a 
 precious relic." Being interrogated, he replied that, in 
 regard to the policeman, as in regard to the anagrams, 
 he had not said any of those things to praise himself, 
 but by the manner of his speech to make a stronger 
 impression upon the policeman in favor of becoming 
 acquainted with his dogmas. To the monk's state- 
 ment, he replied that he had intended to say that no 
 one was able to shine with a brighter light than his, 
 which was another way of acknowledging his own 
 nothingness. As to the shirt, he denied having given 
 it to any one whomsoever; that it had been taken 
 from him. 
 
 Two witnesses asserted that he spoke evil to them 
 of the Holy Office (the Inquisition), saying it was 
 incapable of comprehending his writings. This also 
 he denied having said. 
 
 Propositions
 
 78 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 Propositions against the Holy Office attributed 
 to him : 
 
 First. Superiors ought to be obeyed in external 
 things only; as to interior things, God alone. 
 
 Second. It is a ridiculous doctrine which says that 
 we should regulate our consciences in submission to 
 bishops or prelates. 
 
 Third. The exposure of the interior life is a 
 secret fraud. 
 
 Fourth. In the world there is no tribunal com- 
 petent to require a revelation of the contents of letters 
 in matters of conscience. 
 
 Being interrogated, he replied, that one ought not 
 to reveal interior acts, neither to superiors nor to pre- 
 lates, nor to the Holy Office, except in judicial pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 Finally, he was declared to have for a long time 
 been in the habit of indulging with two ladies the 
 habit of kissing and embracing one another, of taking 
 immodest liberties with their persons respectively; with 
 frequently passing naked through their rooms, with 
 rubbing one against another, with witnessing these 
 women frequently when urinating, and many other 
 things which it would be immodest to mention. And 
 he gave the women to understand that such acts were 
 not sinful, but that they ought to become accustomed 
 to them to the end that in the hour of death they 
 might have no scruples. 
 
 Being
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 79 
 
 Being interrogated of these allegations, he admitted 
 them all, affirming that they were not sinful, because 
 they were the work of the senses without the assent of 
 the superior nature which was united to God. 
 
 Being interrogated de credulitate, he replied that 
 he believed himself superior to the danger of falling 
 into sin, because of his habit of mortifying the flesh in 
 this way. He finally said that he recognized the Holy 
 Office as superior to his doctrines, and that he sub- 
 mitted himself in all things to the Holy Mother 
 Church, confessing that he had erred and that he 
 repented. 
 
 He was condemned as a dogmatic heretic to close 
 imprisonment for life (ad arctos carceres in perpetuo), 
 to wear the penitential habit with the sign of the cross 
 over his garments for the rest of his life; and the 
 further penance was imposed of reciting the Apostles' 
 Creed every day, the third part of the Most Holy 
 Rosary every week, to confess sacramentally four times 
 a year, and with the license of his confessor to partake 
 of the communion. 1 
 
 When the record of the trial and the series of con- 
 demned propositions had been read through, Molinos 
 was conducted to the feet of the Commissario of the 
 Inquisition, before whom he is reported to have 
 
 J See also Hlsloria di Tutte the bull of Pope Innocent 
 I ' Heresie, descritta da Domenico XI. beginning Ccelestis Pastor, 
 Bernino, torn, iv., p. 721, and 1687. 
 
 solemnly
 
 8o MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 solemnly abjured all the errors attributed to him by 
 the tribunal, after which he received absolution from 
 the Commissario, who then required him to remove 
 his monkish frock and clothe himself with the customary 
 penitential garment with the cross on the back. He was 
 then conducted to a cell in the dungeons of the Holy 
 Office, which he was destined never to leave again till 
 death mercifully opened its door for him. 
 
 The decree of the Inquisitors was immediately con- 
 firmed by the bull (Ccelestis Pastor) of the Pope, in 
 which the sixty-eight propositions that are alleged to 
 have been extracted from the writings of Michel de 
 Molinos and condemned as heretical were recited. 1 
 
 1 Appendix C.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Did Molinos abjure ? His trial a mockery. 
 
 IT is idle to discuss the fairness of a trial conducted 
 like this in secrecy, and by a tribunal constituted, 
 like the so-called " Sacred Congregation," not to judge, 
 but to condemn ; but there are some features of it 
 which deserve greater prominence than we have given 
 them in our hasty narrative. 
 
 First. None of the propositions condemned purport 
 to be literal citations from any writing of Molinos, nor 
 is the context of any proposition given, if there is 
 any in which the words of Molinos are used, by the 
 light of which only it could be fairly interpreted. In- 
 deed, Father Mabillon, who was in Rome when Mo- 
 linos was arrested, tells us that it was there understood 
 that Molinos was not condemned for anything found 
 in his published writings, but for the contents of let- 
 ters written to divers persons, or at least for depraving 
 expositions of those doctrines to his friends. 1 
 
 1 "Michel Molinos, Hispanus bus moralibus doctrinam, corn- 
 presbyter, ob suspectam in re- prehensus est jussu Romanaa 
 
 The 
 6
 
 82 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 The writer of Several Letters from Italy concern- 
 ing the Quietists treats all the stories of lewdness attrib- 
 uted to Molinos as impudent calumnies, set only to 
 blast him and his doctrine, and that no proof was 
 ever brought of it. D'Alembert speaks of him also as 
 " a great director, and yet a good man, for which the 
 Pope did him justice, two titles for making a man 
 many enemies." l 
 
 Second. The name of no witness is given upon the 
 authority of whom all the allegations of scandalous 
 conduct and teaching are made, nor was the accused 
 permitted to confront them, or even to know their 
 names. 
 
 Third. Not one of the twelve thousand, or, as some 
 authorities have it, twenty thousand, letters found in 
 his possession, and which, not his books, are made the 
 chief witnesses against him, are produced or quoted. 
 Had they furnished the proofs of the scandalous life 
 
 inquisitionis, aliis aliter atque rem ad Hispanica inquisitione 
 
 aliter de eo opiniontibus. Liber proscriptus est, Romana asgre 
 
 ejus qui Manuductio Spiritualis ferente, quod occupatum esset 
 
 inscribitur, hispanice primum, ejus rei ab aliis judicium) sed 
 
 deinde italice multoties Romae ob scriptas ad diversas episto- 
 
 editus est, libellis scriptis las, aut certe ob pravas ipsius 
 
 atque editis impugnatus, sententiae interpretationes a 
 
 quos in indicem censores re- suis affectis factas, in carce- 
 
 tulerunt. Inde inferunt con- rem fuisse conjectam ex quo 
 
 jectores, Molinum, non ob li- non facile se extricabit." Iter 
 
 bri vulgati doctrinam (tametsi Italicum, Jul. 10, 1685. 
 
 is post comprehensum aucto- See the letter cited infra. 
 
 charged
 
 MOLINOS THE QU1ETIST. 83 
 
 charged in the semi-official report of his trial, why 
 were the Inquisitors two years in establishing his guilt, 
 and why was not the Christian world satisfied of the 
 justice of his condemnation, by the publication of at 
 least one of these inculpating documents ? 
 
 Fourth. Molinos is represented as having confessed 
 that he had been a false guide, and to have abjured 
 the errors imputed to him. 
 
 There is abundant reason to believe this a most 
 wanton falsehood. Segneri himself, whose testimony 
 to the firmness of Molinos may be taken au pied de 
 la lettre, writing to the Grand Duke Cosmo just seven- 
 teen days after the scene at the Church of the Mi- 
 nerva, on the 3d of September, says : 
 
 " I am profoundly sensible of the benign attention 
 your Highness has shown in sending me, by a special 
 messenger, the proceedings on the trial of the unhappy 
 Molinos, of whom it grieves me to see so many signs 
 of obstinacy. This, in him, is the extreme of wicked- 
 ness, and all proceeds from the profound pride which 
 has led him to change the spirit of the Church from 
 one into another " (da uno in un altro). ' 
 
 No one was likely to be better informed than 
 Segneri, the chosen champion of his Order in the war 
 against Quietism a war upon the result of which his 
 own liberty was, in a measure, depending. 2 No one 
 
 1 Lettere inedite dl Paolo Seg- condemnation of Molinos was 
 nerl, p. 102. Segneri's Concordla tra la 
 
 2 Not till four years after the Fatica e la Quiete taken out of 
 
 was
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 was more interested than he in knowing and proclaim- 
 ing the surrender of his enemy. His information, how- 
 ever, was that all the talk and all the givings out about 
 the abjuration of Molinos were morally of a piece with 
 the whole trial, a pious fraud. 
 
 If Molinos confessed and abjured, when did he do 
 it? Before or after the condemnation? Did he resist 
 imprisonment, and the torture, and public shame for 
 two years before he recanted, and was his public con- 
 demnation deferred until he was enfeebled by imprison- 
 ment and other means familiar to the Inquisition, or 
 was he incarcerated for life because he would not 
 abjure ? 
 
 the Index and allowed to be 
 published at Rome. In one 
 of his letters to the Grand 
 Duke Cosmo from Rome, Feb- 
 ruary 24, 1691, Father Seg- 
 neri writes : ' ' We were in 
 Rome on Thursday, the 23d. 
 Here, by good luck, I found 
 Signer Cardinal Colonna, one 
 of the Conclave, another di- 
 vine favor. To-day I spoke 
 with him. I found him in the 
 best of humor, and he told me 
 how to conduct in the diffi- 
 culties which beset me in conse- 
 quence of the censure of the 
 Concordia." Lett ere ined. di 
 Paolo Segneri, p. 144. 
 
 On'the I7th of March, three 
 
 weeks after the foregoing, Seg- 
 neri writes again: "On Sun- 
 day I completed the revision 
 of the Concordia, with the aid 
 of the Master of the Sacred 
 Palace and of Father Fabri, 
 Conventual and Consultor of 
 the Holy Office, who were 
 the two revisers assigned by 
 the. Holy Congregation. From 
 both I received every courtesy, 
 while all was settled in my own 
 way. But this would not have 
 been so easily accomplished 
 except by personal presence. 
 Thus the first purpose of my 
 coming to Rome is accom- 
 plished." Ibid., p. 149. 
 
 Bernino,
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 85 
 
 Bernino, a contemporary witness, and one who had 
 difficulty in finding words strong enough to express his 
 detestation of Molinos, admits, in his History of Her- 
 esies, that it was not until after twenty-two months' 
 imprisonment that Molinos showed any disposition to 
 abjure. 1 
 
 But why was he kept in prison after he had abjured, 
 when if enlarged he could have done so much more 
 than any other person more even than Pope or 
 Inquisitors themselves to disabuse his followers and 
 bring them back from their delusions ? If he abjured, 
 why have we not the fact over his signature ; why was 
 never a line from his pen allowed to reach his disciples 
 or the public from the time he returned to his prison ? 
 Why were none but his jailer and persecutors per- 
 mitted to see him or hold any intercourse whatever 
 with him for the ten long years that he languished 
 in confinement before death came to his release ? If 
 he had seen the error of his ways, why prevent him 
 so carefully from using the remnant of his days in 
 opening the eyes which he had darkened by his 
 counsels? Probably no single one of the Inquisitors 
 who had condemned Galileo a few years before, for 
 teaching the Copernican theory in regard to the 
 earth's motion around the sun, had any doubt that he 
 
 1 " Scorsi ventidue mesi di essi." Historia di Tutte I'Her- 
 carcerazione, provati li delitti, esie, descritta da Domenico Ber- 
 e contestati gli errori, egli mos- nino,fin al anno 1700, vol. iv., 
 trossi disposto all abjura di p. 721. 
 
 was
 
 86 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 was teaching the truth, or that his faith in that theory 
 was unshaken by their persecutions and condemnation 
 or his own abjuration of it ; yet, when he had abjured, 
 he was at once allowed to leave Rome and to write 
 and publish what he pleased, providing it did not favor 
 the Copernican heresy. It is absurd to suppose they 
 would have been less worldly wise in their treatment 
 of this comparatively unprotected priest or less alive 
 to the advantages of his enlargement as a means of 
 vindicating their treatment of him. 
 
 Fr. Bruys, the author of L'Histoire des Papes, as 
 published in 1732-3, and while authentic information 
 from living witnesses of this transaction was accessible, 
 speaks of the firmness of Molinos in defying the tor- 
 ture of the Inquisitors as an undisputed fact in his 
 day. He says : 
 
 "The Inquisition put many of these sectaries (the 
 Quietists) in prison, and among them Doctor Molinos, 
 one of their chiefs. They gave him the question to 
 make him disclose his accomplices. * * * To 
 remedy the disorders occasioned by them, the Pope 
 created a Congregation specially to attend to this busi- 
 ness. * * * Nevertheless, Molinos remained firm 
 in these opinions, despite the torments to which the 
 Holy Office subjected him, to extort from him an 
 abjuration of his impieties. The Pope pushed the busi- 
 ness with much warmth, but Doctor Molinos and his 
 adherents defended themselves with such subtlety as 
 to surprise the cardinals and theologians who exam- 
 ined
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 87 
 
 ined them. Finally, the General Congregation of the 
 Inquisition gave their sentence, by which Molinos was 
 condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and to abjure 
 sixty-eight propositions, which are reported in the 
 Mercures for the month of October, 1687. One of 
 these writers protested, in the month following, that 
 he only reported them to satisfy public curiosity, and 
 not to propagate heresy. 'For,' added he, 'one needs 
 to have a disordered mind to find anything to their 
 taste in this jumble of propositions, which, in my judg- 
 ment, are falsely attributed to Molinos. According to 
 all appearances, some good Jesuit father must have 
 amused himself in imagining all these absurd impi- 
 eties, and God knows what these pious souls are 
 capable of doing. Has one ever seen more contradic- 
 tions? I think not; and I maintain that Molinos was 
 never capable of such maunderings. If he were, what 
 is the good of making such a noise at Rome over a 
 crazy man ? But when we wish to destroy a person, 
 nothing must be neglected. It is enough to say that 
 the struggle is with a stronger party.' 
 
 "Many others were also persuaded of the inno- 
 cence of Molinos, and, in fact, to believe him guilty 
 of the horrors imputed to him is to suppose that this 
 doctor was one of those visionaries who, even when not 
 sleeping, reason like dreamers, without any coherence 
 in their words or principles, or else that he was simply 
 an impostor who wished to gratify his vanity, if nothing 
 worse, in persuading devout people of the most 
 
 strange
 
 88 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 strange and convenient paradoxes, such as that the 
 most sensual pollutions contribute to the greatest 
 advances in the way of purification and illumination. 
 It is at least certain that the principles which are 
 attributed to him renew spiritual and carnal origenism, 
 as any one will admit who has read the History of 
 Origenism, by Father Doucin. It is none the less true 
 that the Jesuits who cry so loud against the theory of 
 Molinos accommodate themselves very readily to his 
 morals in their practice. This we may see now in the 
 scandalous history of the Jesuit Girard and his devoted 
 Cadiere." 1 
 
 1 Histoire des Popes, vol. v., p. 391.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The further persecution of the Quietists The Secrecy of the Confessional 
 
 violated The Pope disciplined for suspected Quietism 
 
 The Death of Molinos. 
 
 AT the close of the melancholy scenes at the Church 
 of the Minerva on the 3d of September, 1687, the 
 vast throng which had witnessed them, leisurely retired 
 to their respective homes, soon to forget, in the dis- 
 tracting pleasures and cares of their daily life, the 
 wretched priest who had been tormented and blasted 
 before them to make a Roman holiday. Molinos, too, 
 retired, not to his books, and his friends, and his cher- 
 ished duties, but to the dungeon which for some two 
 years already had been his cheerless home. Till now 
 he may have indulged some illusions in regard to his 
 fate. He knew he had warm, faithful, and powerful 
 friends, and he, better than any one else, perhaps, 
 knew to what extent the Pope had faith in the purity 
 of his life, the spirituality of his teachings, and the 
 cruel injustice of his punishment. But when he heard 
 the sentence of the Inquisition, he must have realized 
 
 that
 
 go MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 that he was returning, like Galileo, some three- 
 quarters of a century before, to a cell "which he was 
 only to exchange for that narrower one which opens 
 daily and is destined to receive us all." 1 No one now 
 ventured a word for this "son of perdition." As 
 soon as it appeared that the arms of his friends were 
 shortened and powerless to save, there was a general 
 sauve qui peut among his disciples. Every pulse of 
 sympathy was suppressed, every compromising scrap 
 of a letter or paper was sought for and burned, and 
 silence was the only friend now left to plead the cause 
 of Molinos. 
 
 The Jesuits followed up their advantage. They 
 compelled everyone who had been known or suspected 
 of consorting with Molinos to join in and swell the cry 
 of execration against Quietism, which was started by 
 the rabble in the Church of the Minerva on the 3d of 
 September. The mad dog had been taken and 
 chained up. The next thing was to muzzle or destroy 
 those whom he had bitten. Curious revelations fol- 
 lowed. The trail of the serpent was traced into the 
 sacred precincts of the Vatican. Only three days after 
 the sentence of Molinos, Estiennot, who is still our 
 best witness (though it will be remarked that his views 
 of Molinos and his doctrines have undergone important 
 modifications since the latter was officially proclaimed 
 z.filius perditionis), thus unbosoms himself to his St. 
 Maur correspondent : 
 
 1 Galileo to Cardinal Barberini, Dec. 17, 1631. 
 
 "ROME,
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 91 
 
 "ROME, Sept. 30, 1687. 
 
 * * * A writing on the subject of the Quiet- 
 ists has appeared here and been denounced to the 
 Holy Office. It was written by the Marquis de Pal- 
 lavicini, the master of the chamber of Cardinal Cibo. 
 He has been cited, but as he wrote but what the cardinal 
 dictated, his Eminence has wished him to father the 
 work, and not avow the cardinal's authorship. The 
 Marquis was not willing to do this. Thereupon his 
 Eminence dismissed him, and he has retired. Many 
 other persons are in trouble with this Quietism, to 
 whom, perhaps, out of respect to their rank and char- 
 acter, nothing will be said. It is inconceivable how 
 many people who pass for being clever have given in 
 to these illusions. Monsignor d'Estrees was one of 
 the first to get his eyes open, and has pushed things 
 most vigorously. Monsignor the Cardinal Ottoboni, 1 
 who, being bishop of Bresse, had found these illuminati 
 in his diocese doing a great deal of mischief and giving 
 him embarrassment, has also declared strongly against 
 them, and not spared them. 
 
 it * * * They say that Cardinal Petrucci is at 
 work upon his justification,or perhaps a retraction of the 
 opinions found in his letters and writings, but nothing 
 has yet appeared that I have seen. The Commission- 
 ers who have been sent to his diocese have not yet 
 reported. It is only known that deaconesses and 
 
 1 Afterwards Pope Alexander VIII. 
 
 priestesses
 
 92 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 priestesses were found there. God grant there was 
 nothing worse." 
 
 A little later, Estiennot writes again : 
 
 " ROME, Oct. 31, 1687. 
 
 ee * * * They jo not find much against the 
 morals of Cardinal Petrucci ; the evil is in his doctrine. 
 An Augustine monk was taken yesterday to the prisons 
 of the Holy Office ; I cannot give his name. All we 
 know is that it was for Quietism. 
 
 " The Rev. Father Appiani, Jesuit, has been 
 judged and condemned to three years' close confine- 
 ment, during which time he is to see no one, not leave 
 his chamber, have neither fire nor lights, to fast on 
 bread and water Fridays. Besides this, he is to spend 
 seven years in the ordinary prison. He is thought to 
 have got off at a bargain. They have also imprisoned 
 two famous Quietists, who dogmatized." 
 
 Father Appiani did not trouble them long. He 
 went mad, and died very soon after his sentence. 
 
 But the audacity of the Jesuits was not exhausted 
 by the imprisonment of Molinos and the extirpation of 
 his conspicuous disciples, nor even by the humiliation 
 of bishops and cardinals and cardinal secretaries of 
 state who had been suspected of countenancing him. 
 They did not shrink from bearding the Pope himself in 
 the Vatican, and putting him upon his purgation. It 
 is authentically stated that a committee of Inquisitors 
 
 waited
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET 1ST, 93 
 
 waited upon the old Pope, already in the last year of his 
 life, to test his soundness on the all-absorbing ques- 
 tion. The secrets of the confessional even were not 
 respected in this war of extermination. But such facts 
 are best stated by contemporary witnesses. 
 
 "Molinos 1 was clapped up by the Inquisition in 
 May, 1685, and so an end was put to all discourses 
 relating to him, and in this silence the business of the 
 Quietists was laid to sleep till the pth of February, 
 1689; then, of a sudden, it broke out again in a much 
 more surprising manner. The Count Vespiriani and 
 his lady, Don Paulo Rocci (confessor to the Prince 
 Borghese) and some of his family, with several others, 
 in all seventy persons, were clapped up, among whom 
 many were highly esteemed, both for their learning 
 and piety. The things laid to the charge of the 
 churchmen were their neglecting to say their breviary, 
 and for the rest they were accused for their going to 
 the communion without going at every time first to 
 confession ; and, in a word, it was said that they neg- 
 lected all exterior parts of their religion, and gave 
 themselves up wholly to solitude and inward prayer. 
 
 "The Countess Vespiriani made a great noise of 
 this matter, for, she said, she had never revealed her 
 method of devotion to any mortal but to her confessor, 
 and so it was not possible it could come to their knowl- 
 edge any other way but by his betraying that secret; 
 
 1 See The Substance of Several Letters sent from Italy concerning 
 the Quietists, supplement to The Spiritual Guide. 
 
 and
 
 94 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 and, she said, it was time to give over going to con- 
 fession if priests made this use of it, to discover those 
 who trusted their secretest thoughts to them. And, 
 therefore, she said that in all time coming she would 
 make her confessions only to God. This had got vent, 
 and I heard it talked of up and down Rome ; so the 
 Inquisitors thought it more fitting to dismiss her and 
 her husband than to give any occasion to lessen the 
 credit of confession. They were, therefore, let out of 
 prison, but they were bound to appear whensoever 
 they should be called for. I cannot express to you the 
 consternation that appeared, both in Rome and many 
 other parts of Italy, when, in a month's time, about 
 two hundred persons were put in the Inquisition, 
 and all of a sudden a method of devotion that had 
 passed up and down Italy for the highest elevation 
 to which mortals could aspire, was found to be her- 
 etical, and the chief promoters of it were shut up in 
 prison. 
 
 " But the most surprising part of the whole story 
 was that the Pope himself came to be suspected as a 
 favorer of this new heresy, so that, on the I3th of 
 February, some were deputed by the Court of the 
 Inquisition to examine him, not in the quality of 
 Christ's vicar or St. Peter's successor, but in the 
 single quality of Benedict Odescalchi. What passed 
 in that audience was too great a secret for me to be 
 able to penetrate into. * * * A strict inquiry was 
 made into all the nunneries of Rome, for most of their 
 
 directors
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 95 
 
 directors and confessors were found to be engaged in 
 this new method. It was found that the Carmelites, 
 the nuns of the Conception of the Palestrino and 
 Albano, were wholly given up to prayer and contem- 
 plation, and that, instead of their beads and their 
 hours, and the other devotions to saints and images, 
 they were much alone, and oft in the exercise of 
 mental prayer. * * * I am told that men are now 
 more puzzled in their thoughts with relation to the 
 business of Molinos than ever. It was visible that his 
 abjuration was only a pretended thing, for in effect he 
 has abjured nothing ; his party believe that they are 
 very numerous, not only in Rome, Italy, Spain, France, 
 and in all these parts of the world, but that they have 
 many followers even in America itself. One sees them, 
 now, in almost all the churches in Rome, some of 
 them praying in corners with their hands and eyes 
 lifted up to heaven, and all in tears and sighs, which 
 was no small trouble to those who thought they had 
 quite routed them, but find they were not so much 
 quashed as it was thought they would have been by 
 the mock triumph that was made upon Molinos, nor 
 did they believe a word of those reports that were 
 spread of his lewdness. 
 
 " They said there was no proof ever brought of it, 
 and that there are many thousands in Rome of both 
 sexes that conversed much with him, that say these 
 stories that were given out concerning him are impu- 
 dent calumnies, set only to blast him and his doctrine ; 
 
 and
 
 96 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 and the truth is this seems much to be confirmed by 
 the bull that condemns his books and his doctrine, in 
 which no mention is made of his ill life and hypocrisy, 
 which had been very probably done if the matter had 
 been well proved ; since this would not only have satis- 
 fied people, but would have very much confirmed the 
 accusations of these horrid opinions that are laid to his 
 charge, which would have appeared with much evidence 
 if it had been found that his life had agreed with those 
 tenets ; for though it had been a just inference to con- 
 clude him guilty of those things because they were 
 charged on him in the bull, yet one may reckon it 
 almost a sure inference that he is not guilty of them 
 since the bull does not tax him for them." 
 
 On the I2th of August, of the year 1689, in which 
 this memorable visit of the Inquisitors took place, Pope 
 Innocent XI. died, and with him the last hope, if any 
 continued to be indulged, of the release of Molinos. The 
 last few years of his life the Pope spent in the greatest 
 seclusion, even holding his consistories in his chamber. 
 He was succeeded by Cardinal Ottoboni, who took the 
 title of Alexander VIII., on the i6th of October, 1689, 
 and in the eighty-first year of his age. He was the 
 cardinal who, as bishop of Bresse, we have seen two 
 years earlier hunting the Quietists out of his diocese, 
 and who signalized his accession to the pontifical throne 
 by such scandalous nepotism as to make it the talk of 
 all Europe. Even the prudent and gentle Mabillon 
 did not scruple to make it the subject of an indignant 
 
 protest
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 97 
 
 protest in his correspondence with Rome, 1 and Pasquin 
 gave wings to the scandal by the remark, "Qu'il aurait 
 mieux valu pour I'Eglise etre so. niece que safille" 
 
 Of Molinos personally, nothing further is known, 
 except that he continued to drag out a solitary exist- 
 ence in the little cell, piccolo, stanza, to which he was 
 conducted from the church, for another ten years, 
 practically as isolated from the world as if in his grave, 
 and died on Holy Innocents' Day, December 28, 1696, 
 in the yoth year of his age.* 
 
 THE doctrine of Quietism in its day involved 
 as important interests as any of the theological differ- 
 ences of our own time ; it divided church and state ; tons 
 of books were written about it, which are now forgotten, 
 
 1 " Quod ut feliciter tandem 
 exsequatur, Deum Opt. Max. 
 votis, quibus possum, inter- 
 pellate non desino : an vero 
 effectus votis responsurus sit, 
 adhuc in anticipiti res pendet. 
 Illud sane optassem quod apud 
 te, vir eminentissime, de- 
 ponere non verebor, ut ab 
 ecclesise negotiis gerendis, 
 et splendido aliquo recte facto, 
 potuis quam ab amplificatione 
 families suae Pontificatum 
 suum inchoasset. Id enim 
 
 et spem omnium quam op- 
 timam ubique de ipso con- 
 ceperant, confirmasset et ala- 
 cres ad majora speranda effe- 
 cisset. Verum quid modo a 
 prasmatura nepotis juvenis 
 promotione et ab ilia turba 
 nepotum in urbem confluen- 
 tium expectandum sit, sane 
 non facile est conjicere." Cor- 
 re'spondance intdite de Mabillon 
 et de Montfaucon, vol. ii., p. 205. 
 2 Hist, di Tutte I'Heresie da 
 Bernino, vol. iv., p. 721. 
 
 and
 
 9 8 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 and even the questions it involved are now scarcely 
 known. Nevertheless, they were not unimportant, nor 
 are they unworthy of the curiosity of the Christian 
 student. To what extent the soul may detach itself 
 from the earth, and by what road of purification it 
 may most readily and completely unite itself with God, 
 will always be living problems and of incalculable 
 importance. The doctrine of Quietude or Passivity 
 was no invention of Molinos, but was the essence of 
 mysticism, not only of the early Christian church, but 
 more or less definite traces of it may be discerned in 
 the religions of all the oriental nations which have left 
 a literature. Even the Stoic philosophy was but a 
 pagan phase of Quietism, while the Epicurean was the 
 pagan phase of the church which denounced Quiet- 
 ism. The one taught endurance, and faith in the 
 final triumph of what was for the best. The other 
 taught a reliance upon human expedients as the 
 highest security for human happiness, and a cor- 
 responding mistrust of any superior guaranties. Till 
 the seventeenth century, the Latin church had success- 
 fully utilized this school of mystics. It canonized 
 Theresa, Francois de Sales, and John of the Cross, who 
 taught as unqualified Quietism as Molinos and Madame 
 Guyon, whom a few centuries later it imprisoned, and 
 Fenelon, whom it degraded. 
 
 This difference in the treatment of the early and of 
 the later mystics does not imply any change in the 
 policy of the Latin church, any more than a change of 
 
 our
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 99 
 
 our clothing with the change of the season imports a 
 change in the person that wears it. It was easy for 
 the church to utilize the visions of St. Theresa, the 
 raptures of St. Francis, and the morbid taste for suffer- 
 ing of St. John of the Cross, for they strengthened the 
 hierarchy by illustrating the power of religious feeling, 
 but unaccompanied by any effort to control or direct, 
 and still less to curtail that power. It was not so easy, 
 indeed it was found impossible, to utilize the intensely 
 subjective speculations of the Quietists of the seven- 
 teenth century, who, unlike their predecessors, car- 
 ried out the mystical dogmas to their logical conse- 
 quences. Like the others, they held their intercourse 
 directly with God, but unlike them, they threw away 
 much of the machinery of the church through which 
 that intercourse had been held, and upon which the 
 church depended largely for its power and authority. 
 If the penitent could go directly to God with his 
 trouble, and feel sure of a response directly from God, 
 what need of images, pilgrimages, rosaries, crosses, 
 relics, ashes of the dead, dry bones, consecrated rags, 
 and all the other innumerable contrivances by which 
 the faithful are held in the thrall of the church? 
 
 This Molinos mysticism savored too much of the 
 German mysticism of the fourteenth century, which 
 contributed so largely to undermine the power of 
 Rome, and prepare the way for the Protestant Refor- 
 mation. It was, therefore, as natural for the church to 
 silence Molinos as it was for it to canonize St. Theresa. 
 
 The
 
 ico MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 The monk was logical, the nun was not. The monk 
 was polarized positively and the nun negatively. To 
 an invalid whom a zephyr would refresh, a breeze might 
 prove fatal. 
 
 Molinos was unquestionably a reformer. The dis- 
 cussions which he provoked and the doctrines to which 
 he became a martyr were an important contribution to 
 the depaganization of religion in Europe. He failed 
 where monachism failed, though in a different way. 
 The monk sought to escape from temptation by taking 
 refuge in the cloister and the desert. The Quietists 
 sought the same end by an annihilation of the appe- 
 tites which breed temptation. Instead of resisting the 
 propensities of the natural man, he delivered the 
 natural man up rather a prey than what he should 
 be a sacrifice. Both overlooked the vital fact that 
 wherever man can go, Satan can follow him, and that 
 whatever may be the spiritual plane we occupy, our 
 temptations to sin will be proportioned to our powers 
 of resistance ; that every incident in our lives is but a 
 providential trial of our faith ; in other words, it asks 
 us the simple question whether, in what we do or leave 
 undone in regard to it, we will do what we believe to be 
 right, or what we do not believe to be right; whether 
 we will yield to the appetites of the natural man, or 
 whether we will hear the voice of God when He calls, 
 and His knock when at our door. Man's only formida- 
 ble enemies are those of his own household. To flee 
 from the world and its duties, or to destroy the weapons 
 
 God
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 101 
 
 God has provided us for resisting them, comes to the 
 same thing in the end. Life on earth is a perpetual 
 struggle between the forces of good and evil, and any 
 attempt to avoid the struggle is a fatal cowardice, sure 
 to result sooner or later in capitulation to the enemy. 
 In looking directly to God, and not to middle men, 
 for light and grace, Molinos was in advance of his 
 church, and it was that faith which made him strong 
 and gave him throngs of followers. In neglecting to 
 appropriate such light and grace to the duties of life ; 
 in rolling his talent up in a napkin, instead of using it 
 in his Master's business ; in treating man's creation 
 rather as a freak of the Almighty than as a means for 
 His glorification, Molinos made the mistake which 
 wrought his ruin. He was doubtless a pure man, and 
 a thoroughly pious man, but, like Fenelon, who fell in 
 the same way only a few years later, he was enslaved 
 by the traditions of the church in which he had been 
 trained, and from which he had not the strength to 
 emancipate himself. Like Icarus, however, they both 
 fell in attempting great things. 
 
 SINCE the preceding pages were in type the author's 
 attention has been directed to a recent English publi- 
 cation of rare interest and merit, entitled "John 
 Inglesant; a Romance," in which Molinos, doubtless for 
 the first time, figures as a part of the machinery of a 
 work of fiction. John Inglesant is " a philosophical 
 
 romance,"
 
 102 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 romance," and one of its purposes seemed to be to keep 
 alive in the world a healthy distrust of the paganizing 
 influences of the Latin Church. 
 
 Of Molinos and his martyrdom the author takes sub- 
 stantially the same view that is presented in these 
 pages that he was a pure and spiritual-minded man, 
 who wished to reform the church and vitalize religion, 
 but that the controlling influences at Rome wished 
 neither the one nor the other, and made an example of 
 him to deter others from repeating the experiment. 
 The work concludes with a brief statement of the issue 
 between Molinos and the Jesuits, or perhaps it would 
 be more correct to say between Protestantism and 
 Papism Jesuitism being a logical necessity of the 
 papal system, which I am sure those of my readers 
 who have not chanced to meet with the original will 
 thank me for reproducing here : 
 
 I said to Mr. Inglesanti that I was greatly interested in 
 the events of the last age, in which he had been so trusted 
 and prominent an actor, and that I hoped to learn from him 
 many interesting particulars ; but he informed me that he knew 
 little except what the world was already possessed of. 
 * * * It appeared to me that he was not very willing to 
 discourse upon these by-gone matters of state intrigue. 
 
 Seeing this, I changed the topic and said that, as Mr. Ingle- 
 sant had had much experience in the working of the Romish 
 system, I should be glad to know his opinion of it, and whether 
 he preferred it to that of the English Church. Here I found 
 
 1 John Inglesant, a romance by J. H. Shorthouse, p. 440.
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 103 
 
 I was on different ground. I saw at once, beneath the veil of 
 polite manner which was this man's second nature, that his 
 whole life and being was in this question. 
 
 " This is the supreme quarrel of all," he said. "This is not 
 a dispute between sects and kingdoms ; it is a conflict within 
 a man's own nature nay, between the noblest parts of man's 
 nature arrayed against each other. On the one side, obedience 
 and faith ; on the other, freedom and the reason. What can 
 come of such a conflict as this but throes and agony ? I was 
 not brought up by the Papists in England, nor, indeed, did I 
 receive my book-learning from them. I was trained for a 
 special purpose by one of the Jesuits, but the course he took 
 with me was different from that which he would have taken 
 with other pupils whom he did not design for such work. I 
 derived my training from various sources, and especially, in- 
 stead of Aristotle and the schoolmen, I was fed upon Plato. 
 The difference is immense. I was trained to obedience and 
 devotion ; but the reason in my mind for this conduct was 
 that obedience and devotion and gratitude were ideal virtues 
 not that they benefited the order to which I belonged, nor the 
 world in which I lived. This I take to be the difference be- 
 tween the Papists and myself. The Jesuits do not like Plato, 
 as lately they do not like Lord Bacon. Aristotle, as inter- 
 preted by the schoolmen, is more to their mind. According 
 to their reading of Aristotle, all his Ethics are subordinated 
 to an end, and in such a system they see a weapon which they 
 can turn to their own purpose of maintaining dogma, no mat- 
 ter at what sacrifice of the individual conscience or reason. This 
 is what the Church of Rome has ever done. She has traded 
 upon the highest instincts of humanity, upon its faith and 
 love, its passionate remorse, its self-abnegation and denial, its 
 imagination and yearning after the unseen. It has based its 
 
 . system
 
 104 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 system upon the profoundest truths, and upon this platform 
 it has raised a power which has, whether foreseen by its authors 
 or not, played the part of human tyranny, greed, and cruelty. 
 To support this system it has habitually set itself to suppress 
 knowledge and freedom of thought, before thought had taught 
 itself to grapple with religious subjects, because it foresaw that 
 this would follow. It has, therefore, for the sake of preserving 
 intact its dogma, risked the growth and welfare of humanity, 
 and has, in the eyes of all except those who value this dogma 
 above all other things, constituted itself the enemy of the hu- 
 man race. 
 
 " The Church of England," I said, seeing that Mr. Ingle- 
 sant paused, " is no doubt a compromise, and is powerless to 
 exert its discipline, as the events of the late troubles have 
 shown. It speaks with bated assurance, while the Church 
 of Rome never falters in its utterance, and I confess seems to 
 me to have a logical position. If there be absolute truth re- 
 vealed, there must be an inspired exponent of it, else from 
 age to age it could not get itself revealed to mankind." 
 
 " This is the Papist argument," said Mr. Inglesant; " there 
 is only one answer to it absolute truth is not revealed. 
 There were certain dangers which Christianity could not, as 
 it would seem, escape. As it brought down the sublimest 
 teaching of Platonism to the humblest understanding, so it 
 was compelled, by this very action, to reduce spiritual and 
 abstract truth to hard and inadequate dogma. As it incul- 
 cated a sublime indifference to the things of this life, and a 
 steadfast gaze upon the future, so by this very means it en- 
 couraged the growth of a wild, unreasoning superstition. It 
 is easy to draw pictures of martyrs suffering the torture un- 
 moved in the face of a glorious hereafter ; but we must ac- 
 knowledge, unless we choose to call these men absolute fiends, 
 
 that
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 105 
 
 that it was these self-same ideas of the future, and its relation 
 to this life, that actuated their tormentors. If these things 
 are true, if the future of mankind is parceled out between 
 happiness and eternal torture, then, to insure the safety of 
 mankind at large, the death and torment for a few moments 
 of comparatively few need excite but little regret. From the 
 instant that the founder of Christianity left the earth, perhaps 
 even before, this ghastly specter of superstition ranged itself 
 side by side with the advancing faith. It is confined to no 
 church or sect ; it exists in all. Faith in the noble, the un- 
 seen, the unselfish, by its very nature encourages this fatal 
 growth ; and it is nourished even by those who have sufficient 
 strength to live above it, because, forsooth, its removal may 
 be dangerous to the well-being of society at large as though 
 anything could be more fatal than falsehood against the Di- 
 vine Truth." 
 
 "But if absolute truth is not revealed," I said, "how can 
 we know the truth at all?" 
 
 " We cannot say how we know it," replied Mr. Inglesant, 
 " but this very ignorance proves that we can know. We are 
 the creatures of this ignorance against which we rebel. From 
 the earliest dawn of existence we have known nothing. 
 How, then, could we question for a monent? What thought 
 should we have other than this ignorance which we had im- 
 bibed from our growth, but for the existence of some divine 
 principle, ' Fans -veri lucidusj within us ? The Founder 
 of Christianity said, ' The kingdom of God is within you. ' 
 We may not only know the truth, but we may live even in 
 this life in the very household and court of God. We are 
 the creatures of birth, of ancestry, of circumstance ; we are 
 surrounded by law, physical and psychical, and the physical 
 very often dominates and rules the soul. As the chemist, 
 
 the
 
 io6 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 the navigator, the naturalist attain their ends by means of 
 law, which is beyond their power to alter, which they cannot 
 change, but with which they can work in harmony, and by so 
 doing produce definite results, so may we. We find our- 
 selves immersed in physical and psychical laws, in accordance 
 with which we act, or from which we diverge. Whether we 
 are free to act or not, we can at least fancy that we resolve. 
 Let us cheat ourselves, if it be a cheat, with this fancy, for 
 we shall find that by so doing we actually attain the end we 
 seek. Virtue, truth, love, are not mere names ; they stand 
 for actual qualities, which are well known and recognized 
 among men. These qualities are the elements of an ideal 
 life, of that absolute and perfect life of which our highest cul- 
 ture can catch but a glimpse. As Mr. Hobbes has traced the 
 individual man up to the perfect state, or Civitas, let us work 
 still lower, and trace the individual man from small origins to 
 the position he at present fills. We shall find that he has at- 
 tained any position of vantage he may occupy by following 
 the laws which our instinct and conscience tell us are divine. 
 Terror and superstition are the invariable enemies of culture 
 and progress. They are used as rods and bogies to frighten 
 the ignorant and the base, but they depress all mankind to the 
 same level of abject slayery. The ways are dark and foul, 
 and the gray years bring a mysterious future which we cannot 
 see. We are like children, or men in a tennis-court, and be- 
 fore our conquest is half-won the dim twilight comes and stops 
 the game ; nevertheless, let us keep our places, and above all 
 things hold fast by the law of life we feel within. This was 
 the method which Christ followed, and He won the world by 
 placing Himself in harmony with that law of gradual develop- 
 ment which the divine wisdom has planned. Let us follow 
 in His steps and we shall attain to the ideal life, and, without 
 waiting for our ' mortal passage,' tread the free and spacious 
 streets of that Jerusalem which is above."
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 LETTER FROM THE CARDINAL CARACCIOLI TO POPE INNO- 
 CENT XI., WRITTEN FROM NAPLES, JAN. 30, 1 682. 
 
 Very Holy Father : 
 
 If I have any reason to comfort myself and render thanks 
 to God, that many souls confided to my care apply themselves 
 to the holy exercise of mental prayer, the source of every 
 heavenly benediction, I ought not the less to be afflicted by 
 seeing others inconsiderately wandering into dangerous ways. 
 For some time, Very Holy Father, there has been introduced 
 into Naples, and as I learn into other parts of this kingdom, 
 the frequent use of passive prayer, which some call the prayer 
 of pure faith, or of quietude. They affect the name of Quiet- 
 ists, making no meditation nor vocal prayers, but in the actual 
 exercise of prayer holding themselves in perfect repose and 
 silence, as if mute or dead. They pretend to make a prayer 
 purely passive. In effect, they strive to remove from their 
 mind and even from their eyes every subject of meditation, 
 presenting themselves, as they say, to the light and breath of 
 God, which they expect from heaven, without observing any 
 rule or method, and without preparing themselves by any 
 reading or reflection. The masters of the spiritual life are 
 accustomed to propose such aids to beginners, that by re- 
 flection on their own defects, on their passions, and on their 
 
 imperfections
 
 io8 MOLINOS THE. QUIETIST. 
 
 imperfections they may ultimately correct them, but they 
 themselves pretend to lift themselves to the most sublime 
 state of prayer and contemplation, which comes only from the 
 pure goodness of God, who gives it to whom he pleases, and 
 when he pleases so they visibly deceive themselves, 
 imagining that, without passing through the exercises of a 
 purifying life, they may, by their own strength, open to them- 
 selves at once the way of contemplation, without thinking that 
 the ancients and the moderns treating of this matter teach 
 unanimously that passive prayer, or the prayer of quietude, 
 cannot be practiced except by those who have attained to the 
 perfect mortification of their passions and are already far 
 advanced. It is this irregular method of making prayer 
 through which the devil has finally transformed himself into 
 an angel of light, about which I have to make this recital to 
 your Holiness, not without very great horror. 
 
 Among them are some who reject vocal prayer entirely, 
 and it has happened that some, long exercised in the prayer 
 of pure faith and of quietude under the lead of these 
 new directors, having subsequently fallen into other hands, 
 have not been able to bring themselves to say the holy 
 rosary, nor even to make the sign of the cross, saying that 
 they could not nor would not do it, nor recite any vocal 
 prayer, because they were dead in the presence of God, and 
 that these exterior acts were of no service. A woman 
 brought up in this practice is always saying, " I am nothing, 
 God is all, and I am in the abandon, where you see me, 
 because it so pleases God." She does not wish to confess 
 any more, but daily to take the communion ; she obeys no 
 one, and makes no vocal prayer. Yet others, in this prayer 
 of quietude, when the images of the saints and even of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ present themselves to their imagination, 
 
 they
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 109 
 
 they hasten to drive them away with a shake of their head, 
 because they say they separate them from God. They 
 pursue this ridiculous and scandalous course even at the 
 public communion, imagining that they ought then to leave 
 Jesus Christ to think only of God. Their blindness is so 
 great that one of them took it into his head one day to throw 
 down a crucifix, because, he says, it prevented him from 
 uniting himself with God, and made him lose the divine 
 presence. They are in the error of believing that all the 
 thoughts which come to them in the silence and in the repose 
 of prayer are so many lights and inspirations from God, and 
 that being in the light of God they are under no law, hence it 
 happens that they believe themselves permitted to do every- 
 thing without distinction that at such times enters their 
 mind. 
 
 These disorders oppress me, who am, however unworthy, 
 the vine-dresser appointed to the culture of this vineyard, and 
 render an exact account of it, with all the respect which I 
 owe to your Holiness, as to the great father of the family, 
 in order that, knowing through your wisdom the poisoned 
 root which produces such growths, he may employ all the 
 strength of his apostolic arm to cut them and tear them out 
 by the very roots; the more so because on this subject 
 opinions are spreading which deserve to be condemned. 
 Since I have been here, a manuscript treating of the prayer 
 of Quietude has been presented to me for permission to print 
 it; it contained so many censurable propositions that I have 
 refused permission and retained the book. I perceive that 
 pens are being prepared on all sides to write some dangerous 
 things. I pray your Holiness to give me such lights and 
 means as you may judge fitting, that I may anticipate the 
 graver scandals with which this city and diocese are threat- 
 ened.
 
 no MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 ened. I cannot prevent myself from also giving your Holi- 
 ness notice of the usage of daily communion introduced here 
 among even the married laity, who, without exhibiting any 
 progress in spiritual life, as they should do in so frequently 
 approaching the holy table, give, on the contrary, instead of 
 edification, much scandal. Your Holiness cannot ignore 
 what you have ordered in a general decree specially recom- 
 mending to confessors by whose judgment the daily com- 
 munion of the laity should be regulated, that in permitting it 
 they should remember above all to make manifest the large 
 preparation and the great purity which the soul should bring 
 to the holy table, and yet experience shows but too plainly 
 that, without any regard to the pious notifications of your 
 Holiness, most of the laity frequent the holy communion 
 daily, of which I feel myself obliged to complain to your 
 Holiness as a manifest abuse, for which I pray you to pre- 
 scribe a suitable remedy with special instructions, which I 
 shall follow as the guide which ought to lead me safely in the 
 direction of souls. I very humbly kiss the feet of your 
 Holiness. 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 THE CARDINAL CARACCIOLI.
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 CIRCULAR LETTER OF CARDINAL CIBO, WRITTEN FROM 
 ROME, FEBRUARY 15, 1687, TO ALL POTENTATES, 
 BISHOPS, AND SUPERIORS OF CHRISTENDOM, BY ORDER 
 OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE HOLY OFFICE. 
 
 Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord and Brother : 
 
 The Sacred Congregation having been advised that in 
 various parts of Italy there are forming or already established 
 schools or companies of associations or brotherhoods under 
 divers names in the churches, oratories, and in private houses, 
 under the pretext of spiritual conference, sometimes of 
 women only, sometimes of men only, and sometimes of both 
 sexes, in which certain directors, without any experience of 
 the ways of God frequented by the Saints, and perhaps even 
 with evil intent, feigning to lead souls to prayer which they 
 call quietude, or pure and interior faith, and other names ; 
 although they seem at first by their principle imperfectly un- 
 derstood and in practice very bad, to propose nothing less 
 than the highest perfection of every kind ; nevertheless, they 
 insinuate by degrees, into simple minds, very grievous and 
 pernicious errors, which finally end in manifest heresies and 
 shameful abominations, with the irreparable loss of the souls 
 who put themselves under their direction with the sole desire 
 of serving God, which it is only too well known has happened
 
 112 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 in some places. The Cardinal Inquisitors General, my col- 
 leagues, have judged it suitable to charge you at once, by -this 
 letter addressed to all the bishops of Italy, to make a careful 
 and diligent search of all for all these new associations and 
 such as differ from those established heretofore, and which 
 have been from all time frequented by Catholics, in order that 
 if you find any of them that you have them immediately 
 broken up, and that you do not permit the establishment of 
 any more of them, but recommend specially to directors of 
 consciences to walk the highway to Christian perfection with- 
 out singularity; that you have great care that no one sus- 
 pected of these novelties intrude himself into the direction of 
 the nuns either orally or in writing, for fear that this pestilence, 
 spreading in the monasteries, bring corruption among the 
 spouses of Christ. In remitting all to your prudence, we do 
 not pretend by this provisional ordinance to take from you 
 the faculty of pursuing in the court of law those who may be 
 found guilty of these insupportable errors. Nevertheless, we 
 do not cease to labor here to clear up this matter, that in time 
 we may be able to make known to Christians the errors they 
 will have to shun. I desire you every sort of prosperity. 
 Your very affectionate colleague, 
 
 (Signed) 
 ROME, Feb. 15, 1687. THE CARDINAL CIBO.
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 BULL OF INNOCENT XL AGAINST MICHEL DE MOLINOS. 
 
 Innocent, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, -witnesseth : 
 
 The heavenly shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, desiring 
 through his ineffable mercy to liberate the world lying in 
 darkness and error from the power of the devil, which has 
 held it since the fall of our first parents, humbled himself to 
 become flesh in testimony of his love for us, and offered him- 
 self to God a living sacrifice for our sins, having fastened upon 
 the cross the seal of our redemption. When ready to return 
 to heaven he left on the earth the Catholic Church, his spouse, 
 like that Holy City New Jerusalem descending out of heaven, 
 having neither stain nor wrinkle, being one and holy, equipped 
 with the arms of his omnipotence against the gates of hell ; he 
 has transferred its government to the prince of the Apostles 
 and his successors, that they should keep sound and entire the 
 doctrine received from his lips, that the flock purchased with 
 his blood should not fall into ancient errors through their 
 taste for depraved opinions, as we learn from the holy script- 
 ures that he especially recommended to Saint Peter. For to 
 what other of his Apostles has he said, " Feed my sheep" ? 
 And again I have prayed for you that your faith might not fail, 
 and when you shall be converted, strengthen your brethren. 
 So we who occupy the chair of St. Peter, and are clothed with 
 his power, not by our own merits but by the impenetrable 
 wisdom of Almighty God, have always had in our heart a 
 
 solicitude 
 8
 
 H4 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 solicitude that the Christian people should keep the faith 
 preached by Jesus and by his Apostles, which has come down 
 to us by a constant and unbroken tradition, and is to continue 
 to the end of the world according to the promises. 
 
 Now, as it has been reported to our apostleship that one 
 Michel de Molinos has taught, orally and by writing, impious 
 maxims, and has even preached them under the pretext of the 
 prayer of quietude, contrary to the doctrine and practice 
 of the Holy Fathers from the foundation of the Church, and 
 has plunged the faithful adherents of the true religion and of 
 Christian piety into the greatest and most shameful errors : 
 We, who have it so much at heart that the souls confided to 
 our cares arrive safely at the port of safety, purged of all 
 the errors of depraved opinions, have ordered, upon very 
 good grounds, that the said Michel de Molinos be put in 
 prison. Afterwards, having heard, in our own presence and 
 in the presence of our venerable brothers, the cardinals of the 
 holy Roman Church ; the Inquisitors General of the whole 
 Christian State specially deputed by apostolic authority, and 
 many doctors in theology ; having also taken their votes viva 
 voce and in writing, and having carefully considered, imploring 
 the assistance of the Holy Spirit, we have ordered, and with the 
 unanimous advice of our said brothers we decree, the con- 
 demnation of the below written propositions, of which Michel 
 de Molinos is the author, which he has admitted to be his, 
 and which he is proved and has confessed to have dictated, 
 written, communicated, and believed, as set forth more at 
 length in his trial and in the decree made by our order the 
 28th of August, 1687. 
 
 I. Man should annihilate his powers : that is the interior 
 way. 
 
 2. To
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 115 
 
 2. To wish to operate actively is to offend God, who 
 wishes to be sole agent; hence, we should abandon our- 
 selves wholly to Him, and remain afterwards like an inanimate 
 body. 
 
 3. The wish to do any good work is an obstacle to per- 
 fection. 
 
 4. Natural activity is an enemy of grace ; it is an obstacle 
 to the operations of God and to true perfection ; for God 
 wishes to act in us, but without us. 
 
 5. The soul annihilates itself by inaction, and returns to 
 its beginning, which is the divine essence in which it 
 remains transformed and deified. Then, also, God remains 
 in Himself; for then there are no more two things united, 
 but one single thing. It is thus that God lives and reigns in 
 us and the soul annihilates itself, even in its operative power. 
 
 6. The interior way is that in which one knows neither 
 light nor love nor resignation, nor is it necessary even to 
 know God. In this way one advances directly to perfection. 
 
 7. The soul should never think of recompense, nor of 
 punishment, nor of paradise, nor of hell, nor of death, nor of 
 eternity. 
 
 8. It ought not to desire to know if it is following the 
 will of God, nor if it is sufficiently resigned to that will or 
 not; nor is it necessary that it should know its own state 
 and proper nothingness ; but it should remain as an inani- 
 mate body. 
 
 9. The soul ought not to be mindful either of itself or of 
 God, or of anything, for in the interior life, reflection is 
 pernicious, even such as one makes on his own human acts 
 and defects. 
 
 10. If by his own defects he scandalizes others, it is still 
 not necessary that it should be made the subject of any 
 
 reflection,
 
 Ii6 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 reflection, provided there was no actual will to scandalize, 
 and it is a great grace of God to be unable to reflect on one's 
 own short-comings. 
 
 11. If in doubt whether we are in the right or the wrong 
 way, it is not necessary to reflect. 
 
 12. He who has given his free will to God ought to have 
 no further anxiety about anything, neither of hell nor of 
 paradise ; he ought not to have a desire of his own perfec- 
 tion, of virtues, of his sanctification, nor of his salvation, of 
 which he ought to purify himself of the hope. 
 
 13. After remitting our free will to God, we must also 
 abandon all thought and care of what concerns ourselves. 
 Even the care of doing in ourselves, without ourselves, His 
 divine will. 
 
 14. It does not become him who is resigned to the will of 
 God to ask of Him, because to ask is an imperfection, being 
 an act of the personal will and of the personal choice. It is to 
 will that the divine will be conformed to our own ; hence this 
 word of the Evangel, "Ask and ye shall receive," was not 
 intended by Jesus Christ for interior souls who have no will. 
 In this way, truly, souls reach the point that they cannot ask 
 anything from God. 
 
 15. Even as the soul ought to ask from God nothing, so 
 it ought to thank Him for nothing, both being acts of the 
 personal will. 
 
 16. It is not proper to seek indulgences to diminish the 
 penalties due to our sins, because it is better to satisfy 
 divine justice than appeal to the divine mercy the one 
 springing from the pure love of God, and the other from 
 selfish love of ourselves, and is neither grateful to God nor 
 meritorious, because it is seeking to flee the cross. 
 
 17. The
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 117 
 
 17. The free will being remitted to God with the care and 
 the knowledge of our soul, we need have no more concern 
 about temptations, nor trouble in resisting them, unless nega- 
 tively and without any other effort. If nature asserts herself 
 let her assert herself it is but nature. 
 
 18. He who in prayer serves himself with images, figures, 
 ideas, or even his own conceptions, does not adore God in 
 spirit and in truth. 
 
 19. He who loves God in a way that the reason proves 
 and the understanding conceives that he ought to be loved, 
 does not truly love God. 
 
 20. It is ignorance to say that in prayer we should aid 
 ourselves by reasoning and reflections when God does not 
 speak to the soul; God never speaks His speech in His 
 actions, and He acts in the soul whenever it makes no ob- 
 stacle to His action by its thoughts and its operations. 
 
 21. In prayer we should remain in a faith obscure and 
 universal, in quietude, and in forgetfulness of all particular 
 thought, even of the distinctive attributes of God and of the 
 Trinity. We should also remain in the presence of God 
 to adore Him, to love Him, and to serve Him, but without 
 the production of acts, because in them God takes no pleasure. 
 
 22. This knowledge by faith is not an act produced by the 
 creature, but it is a knowledge given of God to the creature, 
 which the creature does not know is in him and does not 
 know to have been in him. The same may be said of love. 
 
 23. The mystics with St. Bernard distinguish in the scale 
 of the cloisters four degrees reading, meditation, prayer, and 
 infused contemplation. He who stops always at the first 
 round cannot mount to the second. He who remains con- 
 tinually at the second cannot arrive at the third, which is our 
 
 acquired
 
 n8 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 acquired contemplation, in which we must persist through life 
 unless God lifts the soul without any desire on its part up to 
 infused contemplation, which, ceasing, the soul should descend 
 to the third step and there so fix itself that it may not again 
 return either to the second or to the first. 
 
 24. Whatever thoughts occur in prayer, even impure ones, 
 or against God and against the saints, the faith, and the sacra- 
 ments, providing one does not entertain them voluntarily, but 
 only tolerates them with indifference and resignation, do not 
 prevent the prayer of faith ; on the contrary, they perfect it, 
 because the soul then remains more resigned to the divine 
 will. 
 
 25. Although asleep and altogether insensible, he does 
 not cease to be in prayer and actual contemplation, because 
 prayer and resignation are but the same thing, and while 
 prayer lasts, so long resignation lasts. 
 
 26. The distinction of three ways purificative, illumi- 
 native, and unitive is the absurdest thing which has been 
 said by mystics, for there is but one only way, and that is the 
 interior way. 
 
 27. He who desires and stops at sensible devotion neither 
 desires nor seeks God, but himself, and he who walks in the 
 interior way sins in desiring it and in exciting himself in holy 
 places and at solemn festivals. 
 
 28. Disgust for spiritual goods is profitable, for it purifies 
 self-love. 
 
 29. When an interior soul revolts from intercourse with 
 God or virtue, it is a good sign. 
 
 30. All sensibility in the spiritual life is an abomination 
 and nastiness. 
 
 31. No contemplative practices the true interior virtues, 
 because they ought not to be recognizable by the senses : it 
 is necessary then to banish the virtues. 
 
 32. Before
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 119 
 
 32. Before or after communion, interior souls do not 
 require any other preparation or actions of grace, than to 
 abide in ordinary passive resignation, because that supple- 
 ments in a more perfect manner all the acts of virtue which 
 are or can be made in the common way; that if at com- 
 munion there rises in the soul sentiments of humiliation, of 
 requirement, or of gratitude, they should be suppressed 
 whenever you see they do not come from a special inspira- 
 tion of God. In other cases they are the emotions of nature 
 which is not yet dead. 
 
 33. The soul that is walking in the interior way does 
 wrong to awaken in itself, by any effort at solemn festivals, 
 sentiments of devotion, because all days to the interior soul 
 are alike; all are solemn festivals. I say the same of sacred 
 places, for to it all places are alike. 
 
 34. It does not become interior souls to give thanks to 
 God in words and with the tongue, because they should 
 remain silent without opposing any obstacle to the operation 
 of God in them. Thus they find as fast as they resign them- 
 selves to God they are less able to recite the Lord's Prayer 
 or Pater Noster. 
 
 35. It is not fitting for interior souls to do virtuous 
 actions of their own choice and by their own forces, for then 
 they would not be dead. Nor should they testify love to the 
 Blessed Virgin, the saints, and the humanity of Jesus, because 
 that, being sensible objects, the love of them must be of the 
 same quality. 
 
 36. No creature, neither the Blessed Virgin nor the 
 saints, should have a place in our hearts, because God alone 
 wishes to fill and possess it. 
 
 37. Under the strongest temptations even, the soul ought 
 not to resist them with explicit acts of opposing virtues, but 
 rest in the aforesaid love and resignation. 
 
 38. The
 
 120 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 38. The voluntary cross of mortifications is an insupport- 
 able burden and without fruit, hence it should be laid aside. 
 
 39. The holiest action nor the penances of the saints 
 suffice to efface from the soul the slightest stain. 
 
 40. The Holy Virgin has never done a single exterior act, 
 and yet she has been the holiest of all saints. One may, 
 therefore, attain to holiness without exterior acts. 
 
 41. God permits and wishes to humiliate us and to con- 
 duct us to a perfect transformation, that the devil should do 
 violence to the bodies of some perfected souls which are not 
 possessed, even to the making them to commit animal actions, 
 even while awake and without any mental obfuscation, even 
 to physically moving their hands and other members against 
 their will. The same is to be understood of other actions, 
 bad in themselves, but which are not sinful in this connec- 
 tion, because there has been no consent. 
 
 42. These acts of earthly violence may occur at the same 
 time between persons of opposite sexes, and even push them 
 to the accomplishment of a wicked action. 
 
 43. In past ages, God made saints by the agency of ty- 
 rants, now he makes them by the agency of demons, who, 
 exciting in them these violences, lead them the more to 
 despise and annihilate themselves, and abandon themselves 
 totally to God. 
 
 44. Job blasphemed and yet he did not sin, because it 
 was a violence of the demon. 
 
 45. St. Paul felt in his body the violences of the demon. 
 Hence he wrote, "The good I would, I do not; the evil I 
 would not, that I do." 
 
 46. These violences are more suited to annihilate the soul 
 and conduct it to a perfect union and transformation. Indeed, 
 there is no other way so short and sure. 
 
 47. When
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 121 
 
 47. When these violences occur, we must let Satan act 
 without opposing with any effort or endeavor, but to remain 
 in nothingness, and although there should result illusions of 
 the senses or other brutal acts, or even worse, we should not 
 disquiet ourselves, but put away our scruples, doubts, and 
 fears, because the soul is thereby more enlightened, fortified, 
 and purified, and acquires a holy liberty. Above all, we 
 should avoid confessing. It is well not to accuse ourselves 
 of our acts, because that is the way to subdue the demon and 
 to lay up treasures of peace. 
 
 48. Satan, the author of these violences, strives, after- 
 wards, to persuade the soul that they are great sins, in order 
 that we may be disquieted and advance no farther in the 
 interior way. Hence, to render his efforts abortive, it is 
 better not to accuse ourselves, especially as they are not sins, 
 even venial sins. 
 
 49. By the violence of the demon, Job was betrayed into 
 strange excesses at the very time that he raised his pure 
 hands to heaven in prayer, as is explained in the sixteenth 
 chapter of his book. 
 
 50. David, Jeremiah, and many holy prophets suffered 
 these violences from without in like shameful external 
 actions. 
 
 51. There are many examples in the Holy Scripture of 
 these violences in external actions, bad in themselves, as 
 when Samson killed himself with the Philistines, when he 
 married an alien, and sinned with Delilah, things forbidden 
 and sinful ; when Judith lied to Holofernes ; when Elisha 
 cursed the children; when Eli burned the chiefs of King 
 Ahab, with their troops. One is only in doubt whether this 
 violence came directly from God or from the agency of 
 demons, as happens to other souls. 
 
 52. When
 
 122 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 52. When these violences, even shameful ones, happen 
 without troubling the mind, then the soul may unite itself 
 to God, as, in fact, it is all the time united. 
 
 53. To know in practice of such if any act in other persons 
 proceeds from this violence, the rule which I have is not only 
 derived from the protestations which souls make that they 
 have not assented to these violences, nor that it is impossible 
 that they have sworn falsely that they had not consented, 
 nor that they are souls advanced in the interior way, but I 
 judge rather from an actual light, superior to all human and 
 theological knowledge, which makes me know certainly, with 
 an interior conviction, that such an action comes from vio- 
 lence. Now I am certain that this light comes from God, 
 because it comes to me joined to the conviction that it comes 
 from God, so that it leaves not the least shadow of a doubt 
 to the contrary, just as it happens sometimes that God, 
 revealing something to a soul, he convinces it at the same 
 time that the revelation comes from Him, so that he cannot 
 doubt it. 
 
 54. The spiritual, who walk in the common way, will be 
 much confused and deceived at death with all the passions 
 they will have to purify in the other world. 
 
 55. By this interior way one succeeds, though with much 
 trouble, in purifying and extinguishing all the passions, 
 so that one no longer feels anything whatever, nothing, 
 nothing, nor does one feel any more inquietude than if the body 
 were dead, nor does the soul experience any more emoti o. 
 
 56. The two laws and the two lusts, the one of the soul 
 and the other of self-love, subsist so long as self-love sub- 
 sists ; hence, when it is once purified and dead, as happens 
 in the interior way, then also perish the two laws and the two 
 lusts; one falls no more, one feels nothing any more, not 
 even a venial sin. 
 
 57 . By
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 123 
 
 57. By acquired contemplation, one reaches a state in 
 which one commits no more sin, mortal or venial. 
 
 58. We reach this state by not reflecting on our acts, 
 because faults come from reflection. 
 
 59. The interior way has nothing to do with confession, 
 confessors, cases of conscience, theology, or philosophy. 
 
 60. God renders the confession impossible to advanced 
 souls, when they once begin to die to reflections or are already 
 dead to them. He supplies their place with as much pre- 
 serving grace as they would receive from the sacrament. 
 Hence, in this state, it is not good for souls to frequent the 
 confessional, because it is impossible to them. 
 
 61. A soul arrived at the mystic death can wish nothing 
 but what God wishes, because it has no more a will, God 
 has taken it from him. 
 
 62. The interior way conducts, also, to the death of the 
 senses. Besides, an evidence that one is in a state of anni- 
 hilation, which is mystic death, is that the exterior senses no 
 more represent to us sensible things than if they were not, 
 because they can no longer make the intellect apply itself 
 to them. 
 
 63. By the interior way one attains to a fixed state of 
 imperturbable peace. 
 
 64. A theologian has less disposition for contemplation 
 than an idiot : first, because he has not a faith as pure ; 
 second, he is not so humble ; third, he has less anxiety for 
 his salvation ; fourth, he has a head full of phantasms, chi- 
 meras, opinions, speculations, so that the true light can never 
 enter it. 
 
 65. We should obey superiors in exterior things. The 
 vows of obedience only extend to things of this nature, but 
 for the interior it is otherwise. There but God and the 
 Director alone enter. 
 
 66. It
 
 124 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 
 
 66. It is a new doctrine in the Church, and a laughable 
 one, that souls in their interior should be governed by bish- 
 ops, and that, the bishop being incapable, they should present 
 themselves to him with their director. It is, I say, a new 
 doctrine, since it is not taught either in the Scriptures or by 
 the Councils, in the canons or bulls, or by any saint or 
 author, nor can it be, the Church not judging things concealed, 
 and every soul having the right to choose what seemeth to it 
 good. 
 
 67. It is a manifest fraud to say that one is obliged to 
 expose his interior to the exterior forum of superiors, and 
 that it is sinful not to do it, because the Church does not 
 judge things concealed, and souls are prejudiced by these 
 deceptions and dissimulations. 
 
 68. There is no faculty nor jurisdiction in the world com- 
 petent to order the letters of directory of the interiors of souls 
 to be communicated, hence it is well for people to be advised 
 that this is an enterprise of Satan. 
 
 The which propositions, in the opinion of our aforesaid 
 brothers, the cardinals of the holy Roman Church and in- 
 quisitors general, we have condemned, noted, and effaced 
 as heretical, suspicious, erroneous, scandalous, blasphemous, 
 offensive to pious ears ; rash, enervating, destructive of 
 church discipline, and seditious, respectively, and equally so 
 everything which has been published on the subject, oral, 
 written, or printed. We have forbidden each and every one 
 to speak of, in any way write or dispute about the said propo- 
 sitions and others like them, to believe, keep, teach, or prac- 
 tice them. We have deprived the offenders now and forever 
 of all dignities, honors, benefices, and offices, and have 
 declared them unfit to ever hold any; at the same time, we 
 
 have
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 125 
 
 have struck them with anathema, from which they can never 
 be delivered, save by us or our successors, the Roman 
 Pontiffs. 
 
 Besides, we have forbidden and condemned, for our pres- 
 ent decree, all the books and all the works of the said Michel 
 de Molinos, in whatever place or tongue they may be printed ; 
 forbidding every person, of whatever degree, profession, or 
 condition, or by whatever title, from daring, under any pretext 
 whatever, in any language, in the same, or in different or 
 equivalent terms, or anonymously or under a feigned or bor- 
 rowed name, from printing or even reading them, or keeping 
 by him copies, printed or in manuscript, but to carry them im- 
 mediately to the ordinaries of the place or to the inquisitors 
 against the venom of heresy, under the penalties above 
 stated, with order to the said ordinaries and inquisitors to 
 immediately burn them. Finally, to punish the aforesaid 
 Molinos for his heresies, errors, and shameful deeds by pro- 
 portionate chastisements, which shall serve as a warning to 
 others, and his correction. Having read all the trial by our 
 said congregation, and heard our very dear sons, the con- 
 suiters of the Holy Office, doctors in theology and canon laws, 
 with the unanimous vote of our venerable brothers, the car- 
 dinals of the holy Roman Church, we have condemned, with 
 all the forms of justice, the said Michel de Molinos as guilty, 
 convicted, and confessed, and, although penitent, as a formal 
 heretic, to the punishment of a narrow and perpetual prison, 
 and to salutary penances, to which he will be held to submit 
 after having made a formal abjuration according to the form 
 which will be prescribed to him; we hereby ordering that 
 on the day and hour indicated, in the Church of Santa Maria 
 de la Minerva, in this city, in presence of all our venerable 
 brothers, the cardinals of the holy Roman Church, prelates of
 
 126 MOLINOS THE QUIET I ST. 
 
 our court, and of all the people who will be invited there by 
 the concession of indulgences, the tenor of the trial will be 
 read, the said Michel de Molinos standing upon the platform. 
 So of the sentence to follow it, and after the said de Molinos, 
 reclothed in a penitential habit, shall have publicly abjured 
 the aforesaid heresies and errors, we have given power to our 
 dear son, the Commissioner of our Holy Office of the Inquisi- 
 tion, to absolve him, in the ordinary forms of the Church, 
 from the censures he had incurred, in full execution of our 
 ordinance of the 3d of September of the current year. And 
 although the aforesaid decree, made by our order, has been 
 printed, published, and posted in public, for the better instruc- 
 tion of the faithful, nevertheless, for fear that the remem- 
 brance of this apostolic condemnation should be effaced with 
 the lapse of time, and in order that Christian people in- 
 structed in Catholic truth may walk more surely in the way of 
 Catholic truth, following in the steps of the sovereign pontiffs, 
 our predecessors, by our present constitution, we approve 
 anew and confirm the aforesaid decree, and order that it be 
 put into execution, condemning, besides, definitively and 
 reproving the said propositions, the books and manuscripts of 
 the said Michel de Molinos, of which we interdict and forbid 
 the reading, under the same penalties to be inflicted upon the 
 offenders. Ordering, besides, that the present letters shall 
 have force, and shall forever remain in vigor and in full effect, 
 that all ordinary judges and delegates, of whatever authority, 
 shall be bound to judge and determine in conformity with 
 them; all power to judge or interpret them otherwise being 
 taken from each and all of them, hereby declaring null and as 
 not occurring any judgment to the contrary on these matters, 
 from whatever person or authority emanating, knowingly or 
 ignorantly ; wishing faith to be given to these presents, when 
 
 printed,
 
 MOLINOS THE QUIETIST. 127 
 
 printed, signed by a notary, and sealed with the seal of a duly 
 authorized ecclesiastical dignitary, as would be due to their 
 originals. Let no one, therefore, permit himself to violate or 
 disregard this our present approbation, confirmation, con- 
 demnation, reprobation, punishment, decree, and wish. Let 
 him who shall dare attempt it know that he will call upon 
 himself the indignation of Almighty God and of the blessed 
 apostles Saint Peter and St. Paul. 
 
 Given at Rome, at the Saint Mary Majora, the 2Oth of 
 November, 1687, of the incarnation of our Lord, and the I2th 
 of our pontificate. 
 
 (Signed) F. DATAIRE. 
 
 J. F. ALBANI, 
 
 Register at the Secretariate of Briefs.
 
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