Books Fatal to Their AuthorsDitchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
History
Books Fatal to Their Authors
Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Authors; Prohibited books
Molinos was
tried in 1685, and two years later was conducted in his priestly robes
to the temple of Minerva, where he was bound, and holding in his hand
a wax taper was compelled to renounce sixty-eight articles which the
Inquisition decreed were deduced from his book. He was afterwards doomed
to perpetual imprisonment. On his way to the prison he encountered one
of his opponents and exclaimed, "Farewell, my father; we shall meet
again on the day of judgment, and then it will be manifest on which
side, on yours or mine, the Truth shall stand." For eleven long years
Molinos languished in the dungeons of the Inquisition, where he died in
1696. His work was translated into French and appeared in a _Recueil de
pièces sur le Quiétisme_, published in Amsterdam 1688. Molinos has been
considered the leader and founder of the Quietism of the seventeenth
century. The monks of Mount Athos in the fourteenth, the Molinosists,
Madame Guyon, Fénélon, and others in the seventeenth century, all
belonged to that contemplative company of Christians who thought that
the highest state of perfection consisted in the repose and complete
inaction of the soul, that life ought to be one of entire passive
contemplation, and that good works and active industry were only fitting
for those who were toiling in a lower sphere and had not attained to the
higher regions of spiritual mysticism. Thus the '[Greek: Aesuchastai]'
on Mount Athos contemplated their nose or their navel, and called the
effect of their meditations "the divine light," and Molinos pined in his
dungeon, and left his works to be castigated by the renowned Bossuet.
The pious, devout, and learned Spanish divine was worthy of a better
fate, and perhaps a little more quietism and a little less restlessness
would not be amiss in our busy nineteenth century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account