Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/685

 QUIETISM

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QUIETISM

recalls the indifference aimed at by the Oriental mj-s- tics. The Wiseman is he who has become independent, and free from all desire. According to some of the Stoics, the sage maj- indulge in the lowest kind of sensuality, so far as the body is concerned, with- out incurring the least defilement of his soul. The Neoplatonists (q. v.) held that the One gives rise to the Xous or Intellect, this to the world-soul, and this again to indi\ndual souls. These, in consequence of their union with matter, have forgotten their Divine origin. Hence the fundamental principle of moraUty is the return of the soul to its source. The supreme destiny of man and his highest happiness consists in rising to the contemplation of the One, not by thought but by ecstasy (eico-Tao-is).

The origin of these Quietistic tendencies is not hard to discover. However strongly the Pantheistic con- ception of the world may appeal to the philosophic mind, it cannot do away with the ob\-ious data of ex- perience. To say that the soul is part of the Di\-ine being or an emanation from God enhances, apparently, the dignity of man; but there still remains the fact that passion, desire, and moral e\-il make human life anj-thing but Divine. Hence the cra^■ing for deliver- ance and peace which can be obtained only by some sort of withdrawal from action and from dependence on external things, and by a consequent immersion, more or less complete, in the Di^-ine being. These aberrations of Mysticism continued even after the preaching of Christianity had revealed to mankind the truth concerning God, the moral order, and human destiny. Gnosticism (q. v.), especially the Antino- mian School, looked for salvation in a sort of intuitive knowledge of the Di\-ine which emancipated the "spiritual" from the obligations of the moral law. The same Quietistic tendency appears in the teaching of the Euchites, or Messalians (q. v.), who main- tained that prayer frees the body from passion and the soul from e\-il inclination, so that sacraments and penitential works are useless. They were condemned at the STOod of Side in Pamphilia (3S3) and at Ephesus (431). The Bogomih (q. v.) of the later Middle Ages were probably their lineal descendants.

Medieval Quietism is further represented in the vagaries of Hesychasm (q. v.), according to which the supreme aim of life on earth is the contemplation of the uncreated hght whereby man is intimatelj' united with God. The means for attaining to such con- templation are prayer, complete repose of body and will, and a process of auto-suggestion. Among the errors of the Beguines (q. v.) and Beghards con- demned by the Council of Vienne (1311-12) are the propositions: that man in the present life can attain such a degree of perfection as to become utterly im- peccable; that the "perfect" have no need to fast or pray, but may freely grant the body whatsoever it craves; that they are not subject to any human au- thority or bound by the precepts of the Church (see Denzinger-Bannwart, 471 sqq.). Similar exaggera- tions on the part of the Fraticelli (q. v.) led to their condemnation by John XXII in 1317 (Denzinger- Bannwart, 484 sqq.). The same pope in 1329 pro- scribed among the errors of Meister Eckhart (q. v.) the assertions that (prop. 10) we are totally trans- formed into God just as in the sacrament the bread is changed into the Body of Christ; that (14) since God wills that I should have sinned I do not wish that I had not sinned; that (IS) we should bring forth the fruit not of external actions, which do not make us good, but of internal actions which are wTought by the Father abiding within us (Denzinger-Bannwart. 501 sqq.).

Quite in accord with their Pantheistic principles, the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit (thirteenth to fifteenth centurj-) held that they who have reached perfection, i. e. complete absorption in God, have no need of external worship, of sacTaments, or of prayer; XII.— 39

they owe no obedience to any law, since their will is identical with God's wiU; and they may indulge their carnal desires to any extent without staining the soul. This is also substantially the teaching of the Illu- minati (Alumbrados), a sect that disturbed Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

It was the Spaniard Michael de Molinos who de- veloped Quietism in the strictest sense of the term. From his writings, especially from his "Dux spiri- tualis" ^Rome, 1675), sixty-eight propositions were extracted and condemned by Innocent XI in 16S7 (Denzinger-Bannwart, 1221 sqq.). The key-note of the system is contained in the first proposition: man must annihilate his powers and this is the inward way (via interna) ; in fact, the desire to do anjihing actively is offensive to God and hence one must abandon one- self entirely to God and thereafter remain aa a lifeless body (prop. 2). By doing nothing the soul anni- hilates itself and returns to its source, the essence of God, in which it is transformed and divinized, and then God abides in it (5). In this inward way, the soul has not to think either of reward or of punish- ment, of heaven or hell, of death or eternity. It must not concern itself about its own state, its defects, or its progress in \'irtue; ha\-ing once resigned its will to God it must let Him work out His will without any action of the soul itself (7-13). He who has thus committed himself entirely to God must not ask any- thing of God, or render thanks to Him; must take no account of temptations nor offer any active resistance; "and if nature be stirred one must permit its stirring because it is nature" (14—17). In praj-er one must not use images or discursive thought, but must remain in "obscure faith" and in quiet, forgetting everj- dis- tinct thought of the Divine attributes, abiding in God's presence to adore, love, and ser\-e Him, but without producing any acts because with these God is not pleased, '^"hatever thoughts arise during praj-er, even though they be impure or against faith, if they are not voluntarily encouraged nor voluntarily ex- pelled but are suffered with indifference and resigna- tion, do not hinder the prayer of faith but rather enhance its perfection. He who desires sensible de- votion is seeking not God but himself; indeed, everj' sensible effect experienced in the spiritual life is abominable, filthy, unclean (18-20).

Xo preparation is required before Communion nor thanksgi\-ing after other than that the soul remain in its usual state of passive resignation; and the soul miist not endeavour to arouse in itself feelings of devotion. Interior souls resign themselves, in silence, to God; and the more thorough their resignation the more do they realize that they are unable to recite even the "Pater Xoster". They should eUcit no acts of love for the Blessed Virgin or the saints or the Humanity of Christ, because, as these are all sensible objects, love for them is also sensible. External works are not necessarj- to sanctification, and peni- tential works, i. e. voluntarj- mortification, should be cast off as a grievous and useless burden (32—40). God permit.^ the demon to use "\-iolence" with certain perfect souls even to the point of making them per- form carnal actions either alone or with other persons. When these onsets occur, one must make no effort but let the demon have his way. Scruples and doubts must be set aside. In particular, these things are not to be mentioned in confession, because by not confes- sing them the soul overcomes the demon, acquires a "treasure of peace", and attains to closer union with God (41-52). The "inward way" has nothing to do with confession, confessors, cases of conscience, theol- ogj', or philosophy. Indeed, God sometimes makes it impossible for souls who are advanced in perfection to go to confession, and supplies them with as much grace as they would receive in the Sacrament of Penance. The inward way leads on to a state in which passion is extinguished, sin is no more, sense ia