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A Thesis for the Decree of Ph.D., in the University of Edinburgh By "MQLINOS AM) THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE SPIRIT OF QUIETISM. n A Thesis for the Decree of Ph.D., in the University of Edinburgh by. H. A. A^new, M.A. , BJL., Research Student in the Dejrt., of Ecclesiastical History (Faculty of Divinity) in the University. OCTOBER CONTENTS. CHAPTER. PAGE Int r o due t i on. 1 1. Hoots of Quietism: Neoplatonism, Dionysius. 3 2. Islamic Mysticism & Passivism in (a) the East; (b) Spain. Jewish influences. 21 3. Golden age of Mysticism (a) Spain; (b) The Netherlands. 43 4. The Alumbrados of Spain. 6? 5. The Illuminati of Italy. 88 6. Miguel Molinos: Valencia, Rome. 118 7. His Works. 137 8. The Growing Opposition. 163 9. The Trial. 179 10. Quietism in France. 200 11. Permanent worth of Quietism. 214 BIBLIOGRAPHY. INTRODUCTION: Beneath the anti-Reformation rigourism of the 17th century Spain and Italy, a school or thought was developing - and teaching men a doctrine of stillness and non-resistance. This is the school whose history and aims we now propose to investigate. The principal idea of this research is not only to judge the immediate influences which caused Molinos to expound his doctrine of Quietism, but to trace the close cultural contacts between the old and the new, and to draw attention to that particular mystical and semi-mystical atmosphere to which Spain was exposed by reason of its geographical and political position. As this thesis is only a chapter in the history of movements I have not attempted to do more than briefly outline the antique elements which might help to further our under­ standing of this growth of Quietism and the quietistic spirit in the 17th Century. Yet these elements must not be regarded as unimportant. Nor have I attempted to claim that Miguel de Molinos is an original mind, nor do I credit him with aiming to establish a synthesis between the hidden past and the present, between the Roman Church with its hard stone walls of ritual and formalism, and the Reformed Church with its freer atmosphere stimulating/ - 2 - stimulating to creative effort. Rather, we must look upon Molinos as the leader of a movement of men seeking a faith which exalts the individual above the Church; men who had a desire to find a direct road to God without the help of intermediaries. For them Molinos formulated the theory and practice of the Inner Life. It may "be of worth to trace some of the many streams from the Quietistic Spring. It might be suggested, though it may not be possible to prove, that Molinos is the source refreshing many spiritual movements of that age - Quakerism and various religious Reforms - but we must not be surprised that certain similarities prove a world wide exchange of ideas. A comparison of dates of different translations of "The Spiritual Guide" bears testimony to the influence of Molinos on the life of the age. It was a new emphasis, a seeking to bring the breath of life and the warmth of love to the religion of the 17th century. It was an attempt to liberate human thought, to break away from stereotyped formalism and dogma both of which were deadening the life of the Eoman and of the Reformed Churches in that sterile period. In short his work and his failure is one act in the drama of the soul f s struggle against external things. CHAPTER 1. ROOTS OF QUIETISM: EEOPIATONISM. DIONYSIUS We may briefly define Quietism as a variety of mysticism whose fundamental principles are: that it is necessary to annihilate oneself in order to be united to God; that the most perfect love of God consists in holding oneself in a state of passive contemplation, without reflection, or using any of the faculties of the soul; and being indifferent to anything that may happen to us in this state of quietude. In this state there is no need of prayer, or good works, or following any discipline. This mystic system culminates in MLguel de Molinos (1628-1697) a Spanish priest, who set the doctrine in order, gave it literary form, and became known from one of his key ideas as "Conquisi/tador de la Nada" the conqueror of the Nothing - as Unamuno names him. Our problem being to find a fuller answer to the questions "What is Quietism?" and "Who were the Quietists?" makes it necessary to answer another question, "Whence?" Most Spanish students up to a recent date regard Quietism as, in the main, having its foundations in the aberrations/ - 4 - aberrations of Teresan mysticism. Dean Inge supports this largely. But an increasing number in Spain hold that other and alien influences materially assisted and guided this development. If we trusted Molinos himself, he would have us believe that all of the thoughts of the Guia Espiritual came direct from the Holy Spirit. To that we might reply as Von Hiigel does to a similar claim made by George Fox: "Behind George Fox was all the gospel of St. John". For Quietism is a unity knit to a long past, and is therefore a very complex movement. Me cannot say that any one man was the sole author: we know it did not issue ready born from the brain of Molinos. Our task is to trace some of its sources, and tabulate some of the various movements and forces which were behind it, and which determined the nature of its development. "There are two types of piety," says Professor Heiler "which are at one in the pursuit of life, love and blessedness ... the religion which affirms, and that which negates personality; the experience of God which leans on history, and that which dispenses with history ... transformation of the world, and flight from the world."' 1 ' Though to most it was thought to be ever the part of Christian philosophy to live among the shadows, to order them/ (1) Paterson, "The Nature of Religion", p.55. - 5 - them, and to discipline them; there has ever "been in Christianity the conflict of two tendencies, corresponding to differences in human temperament; "one of attachment, a religious society which mingles with and moulds the non- religious association of human life. And a world fleeing religion, a school of solitude wherein single heroic souls learn to practise a maximum of detachment". ' The one relies upon organisation "to will, to plan, to work are wholly man's; man can, therefore must". ' ' Such a spirit must, of necessity, think more of the formal outward organism of the church. The other temperament finds its strength in the inward thought "the word is very nigh ... in thy heart ".^' Hence there is a tendency to rest rather than to do; to wait for that word of power: the only desire being for that unity in which God is visualized by St. John "I and the Father are one". Since the mere power to do comes from God, therefore "the true and essential preparation for any action ... in life, seems to be the repose of one's own powers; the absence of all efforts of self direction, of all strain and striving, the annihilation of all confidence in one's own capacities, the complete quiet of the 'creature'".' ' Von Hiigel, Essays on Philosophy & Religion, p.248 Martindale, St. Augustine, p.22. 8 Dt., JO. 14. II Harvard Review, Vol. 10. p. 3. - 6 - The two temperaments can coalesce and form a balanced type such as a St. Paul, who thirsts in his soul for God, passing over "the weak and beggarly elements" of external forms into the rapt moment when nl live,yet not. I,but Christ liveth in me n . Yet he does not contemn the framework of the Christian society as he gives directions about worship, rules about fasting, and ordinances. In Greek thought we have Aristotle and Plato, whose names have become symbols of like opposing principles. It is outside our purpose to study the real Aristotle with his dualism, his eternity of the world, his far-away God, his philosophy of reason. He had his influence, though Aquinfcs,A. who counted himself a disciple of the great Greek, chose only such parts of him as fitted into the Church's teaching.^ ' We are rather concentrating on the great service of Plato in maintaining and moulding the faith of the early Church in a time of extreme philosophic difficulty. Also we are acknowledging the debt of the mediaeval Church to the Platonic School in its struggle between religious perception, and meddling dialectic. Plato stood as the symbolic leader of all those who believed in the personal apprehension of the Divine by the human/ (1) D'Aygalliers, Ruysbroeck The Admirable, p. 243. - 7 - human conscience. All such had the Platonic desire to obtain a vision of Beauty and of Diety, not by he art-searching, but by loving: for they believed that God was meant to be enjoyed, and not analysed. This is mysticism: that rich and many sided type of religion; that effort of the mind to grasp the Infinite. Our task is not to detail a history of mysticism, but rather to show how easily and how everywhere it developed a quietistic tendency. The effort in mysticism has been to keep detachment and contemplation within reasonable limits - for these ideas which are central in mysticism contain in them a temptation to take a passive attitude, not only to God, but to life. Von Hulgel will have it that "there are two currents in mysticism itself. In one the decisive terms are Passivity, in which the soul is, and receives; Fixedness; and Oneness.
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