Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/686

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QUIGLEY


610


QUILON


deadened, and the soul, willing only what God wills, enjoys an imperturbable peace: this is the mystic death. They who pursue this path must obey their superiors outwardly; even the vow of obedience taken by religious extends only to outward actions, only God and the director enter into the soul's interior. To say that the soul in its interior life should be governed by the bishop is a new and verj' ridiculous doctrine; for on hidden things the Church passes no judgment (5.5-68).

From this suramarj' it is readily seen whj' the Church condemned Quietism. Nevertheless, these doctrines had found adherents even in the higher ranks of the clergy, such as the Oratorian, Pietro Matteo Petrucci (1636-1701), who was made Bishop of Jesi (16S1), and raised to the cardinalate (1686). His works on Mysticism and the spiritual life were criticized by the" Jesuit Paolo Segneri, and a con- troversy ensued which resulted in an examination of the "whole question by the Inquisition, and the proscription of fifty-four propositions taken from eight of Petrucci's"writings (1688). He submitted at once, resigned his bishopric in 1696, and was ap- pointed by Innocent XII Apostolic visitor. Other leaders of the Quietist movement were: Joseph Beccarelli of Milan, 'who retracted before the In- quisition at Venice in 1710; Francois Malaval, a blind lavman of Marseilles (1627-1719); and es- pecially " the Barnabite Francois Lacombe, the director of Mme. Guyon, whose \-iews were embraced by Fenelon.

The doctrine contained In Fenelon's "Explication des Maximes des Saints" was suggested by the teach- ings of Molinos, but was less extreme in its principles and less dangerous in its appUcation; it is usually des- ignated as Semiquietism. The controversy between Bossuet and Fenelon has already been noticed (see FfiNELON). The latter submitted his book tothe Holy See for examination, with the result that twenty-three propositions extracted from it were condemned by In- nocent XII in 1699 iDenzinger-Bannwart, 1327 sqq.). According to Fenelon, there is an habitual state of the love of God which is wholly pure and disinterested, ^\-ithout fear of punishment or desire of reward. In this state the soul loves God for His own sake— not to gain merit, perfection, or happiness by loWng Him; this is the contemplative or unitive Ufe (Props. 1. 2). In the state of holy indifference, the soul has no longer any voluntarj- dehberate desire in its own behalf axcept on those occasions in which it does not faith- fullv co-operate with all the grace vouchsafed to it. In "that state we seek nothing for ourselves, all for God; we desire salvation, not as our own deliverance or reward or supreme interest, but simply as some- thing that God is pleased to ^ill and that He would have us desire for His sake (4-6). The self-abandon- ment which Christ in the Gospel requires of us is simply the renunciation of our own interest, and the extreme trials that demand the exercise of this re- nunciation are temptations whereby God would purify our love, without holding out to us any hope evcnin regard to our eternal welfare. In such trials the soul, by a reflex conviction that docs not reach its innermost "depths, may have the in\-incible persuasion that it is justly reprobated by God. In this in- voluntarj- despair it accomplishes the absolute sacri- fice of its own interest in regard to eternity and loses all interested hope; but in its higher and most inward acts it never loses perfect hone which is the disin- terested desire of obtaining the Di%-ine promises (7-12). While meditation consists in discursive acts, there is a state of contemplation so sublime and perfect that it becomes habitual, i. e. whenever the soul pray.s, its prayer is contemplative, not discursive, and it needs not to return to methodical meditation (15- 16). In the pa.ssive state the soul exercises all the virtues without ailverting to the fact that they are


virtues; its only thought is to do what God wills; it desires even love, not as its own perfection and happiness, but simply in so far as love is what God

isks of us (18-19). In confession the transformed

soul should detest its sins and seek forgiveness not as its own purification and deliverance but as some- thing that God wills and that He would have us will for His glorj- (20). Though this doctrine of pure love is the evangeUcal perfection recognized in the whole course of tradition, the earlier directors of souls exhorted the multitude of the just only to practices of interested love proportioned to the graces bestowed on them. Pure love alone constitutes the whole in- terior life and is the one principle and motive of aU actions that are deliberate and meritorious (22-23). ^Miile these condemnations showed the determined attitude of the Church against Quieti.sm both in its extreme and in its moderate form, Protestantism con- tained certain elements which the Quietist might have consistently adopted. The doctrine of justification by faith alone, i. e. without good works, accorded verj- well with Quietistic passivity. In the "^^sible Church" as proposed by the Reformers, the Quietist would have found a congenial refuge from the con- trol of ecclesiastical authority. And the attempt to make the religious life an affair of the individual soul in its direct deaUngs with God was no less Protestant than it was Quietistic. In particular, the rejection, in part or in whole, of the sacramental system, would lead the devout Protestant to a Quietist attitude. As a matter of fact, traces of Quietism are found in early Methodism and Quakerism (the "inward light"). But in its later developments Protestantism has come to lay emphasis on the active, rather than the inert, contemplative life. 'U'hereas Luther main- tained that faith without work suffices for salvation, his successors at the present day attach httle im- portance to dogmatic belief, but insist much on "re- ligion as a life", i. e. as action. The Cathohc teach- ing avoids such extremes. The soul indeed, assisted by Divine grace, can reach a high degree of contem- plation, of detachment from created things and of spiritual union -with God. But such perfection, far from leading to Quietistic passivity and Subjectivism, implies rather a more earnest endeavour to labour for God's glon,', a more thorough obedience to la^\'ful authority and above all a more complete subjugation of sensuous impulse and tendency.

HiLGERS, Zur Bibiioffraphie des Quietismus in Centratbtatt /. Bibliothekswesen (Leipzig, 1907), 24; Heppe. Gesch. der guielist. Mystik in der kath. Kirche (Berlin, 1875, Protestant view) ; Nicole, Refutation dts principales erreurs des quietistes (Paris, 1695); BBUNETifeRE, La quereUe du. quiitisme (Paris. 1882); Biqelow, Molincs the Quietist (New York, 1882) ; VArGH.tN, Hours with the Mystics (London, 1856; New York, 1893); Hilgers, Der Index d. i-erbotenen Bucher (Freiburg, 1904) ; Genn.^ri, De fatso mysti- cismo (Rome, 1907); P.iquier, Lt- Quietisme in Rerue du Clergl frantais. LIX (1909), 257 sq.; Poruix, The Graces of Interior Prayer (tr. London, 1911), with bibliography ; see also bibliography under F^KELON ; GuTON ; Molinos.

E. A. Pace.

Quigley, James Edward. See Chicago, Arch- diocese OF.

Quignonez. See QtriSoNEs, Francis.

Quilon, Diocese of (Quilonensis), in India on the Malabar coivst, suffragan of \'erapoly, comprises the southern half of the native state of Travancore, and the British territories of Tangacherrv- and Anjengo. It stretches from the northern branch of the River Ranee down to Cape Comorin. is bounded on the east bv the slope of the Ghauts, and on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the coast of which, however, there ia one narrow strip belonging to the Diocese of Cochin. Out of a total population of 1,600,000, the Cathohca nmnber 116,090, having 161 churches and 29 ch.apel3, served hv 59 priests, of whom 17 are Discalced Carme- lite Fathers from various provinces of Europe, the rest being native clergy. The bishop's residence, cathedral, and the preparatory seminary with 32