QUIETISTS, a religious sect, famous towards the close of the seventeenth century. They were so called from a kind of absolute rest and inaction which they supposed the [7:18:792]soul to be in when arrived at that state of perfection they called the unitive life; in which state they imagined the soul wholly employed in contemplating its God, to whose influence it was entirely submissive, so that he could turn and drive it whither and how he would. In this state, the soul no longer needs prayers, hymns, and the like, being laid, as it were, in the bosom and between the arms of its God, in whom it is in a manner swallowed up.

Molinos, a Spanish priest, is the reputed author of Quietism, though the Illuminati in Spain had certainly taught something like it before. The sentiments of Molinos were contained in a book which he published at Rome in the year 1681, under the title of the Spiritual Guide. For this he was cast into prison in 1685; but he afterwards publicly renounced the errors of which he was accused. This solemn recantation, however, proved unavailing, inasmuch as it was followed by a sentence of perpetual imprisonment, and he died in prison in the year 1696. Molinos had numerous disciples in Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands. One of the principal patrons and propagators of Quietism in France was Marie Bouvières de la Mothe Guyon, a woman of fashion, remarkable for goodness of heart and regularity of manners, but of an unsettled temper, and subject to be drawn away by the seduction of a warm and unbridled fancy. She derived all ideas of religion from the feelings of her own heart, and described its nature to others as she felt it herself. Accordingly her religious sentiments made a great noise in the year 1687; and, after accurate investigation, they were declared unsound by several men of eminent piety and learning, and professedly confuted in the year 1697, by the celebrated Bossuet. Hence arose a controversy of greater moment between the prelate last mentioned, and Fénélon, archbishop of Cambray, who seemed disposed to favour the system of Madame Guyon, and who, in 1697, published a book containing several of her tenets. Fénélon’s book was, by means of Bossuet, condemned in the year 1699, by Innocent XII.; and the sentence of condemnation was read by Fénélon himself at Cambray, where he exhorted the people to respect and obey the papal decree.

A sect similar to this had appeared at Mount Athos in Thessaly, near the end of the fourteenth century; it was called Hesychasts, meaning the same with Quietists. They were a branch of the mystics, or those more perfect monks who, by long and intense contemplation, endeavoured to arrive at a tranquillity of mind free from every degree of tumult and perturbation. In conformity to an ancient opinion of their principal doctors, who thought there was a celestìal light concealed in the deepest retirements of the mind, they used to sit every day, during a certain space of time, in a solitary corner, with their eyes eagerly and immoveably fixed upon the middle regions of the belly, or navel; and boasted, that whilst they remained in this posture, they found, in effect, a divine light beaming forth from their soul, which diffused through their hearts inexpressible sensations of pleasure and delight. To such as inquired what kind of light this was, they replied, by way of illustration, that it was the glory of God, the same celestial radiance that surrounded Christ during his transfiguration on the Mount. Barlaam, a monk of Calabria, from whom the Bar-laamites derived their denomination, styled the monks who adhered to this institution Massalians and Euchites; and he gave them also the new name of Umbilicam, Gregory Palamas, archbishop of Thessalonica, defended their cause against Barlaam, who was condemned in a council held at Constantinople in the year 1341.

The Mahommedans seem to be no strangers to Quietism. They expound a passage in the seventeenth chapter of the Koran, “0 thou soul which art at rest, return unto the Lord,” of a soul which, having, by pursuing the concatenation of natural causes, raised itself to the knowledge of that being which produced them and exists of necessity, rests fully contented, and acquiesces in the knowledge of Him, and in the contemplation of his perfection.