Book I. Dialogue XV: On the acts of the condemnation of the Quietists: the precautions taken by the Bishops in condemning errors not to harm the teaching of the saints
I
Q. What are these Acts inserted by the Bishop of Meaux at the end of his Instruction Pastorale ?
A. They may be divided into three articles. In the first are two letters from two Cardinals against the growing Quietism in Italy, with the principal errors of Italian Quietism, translated from Italian; these are very much the same as those we have seen condemned here. In the second is the Bull of Innocent XI, bearing the condemnation of Molinos, with five decrees of the Roman Inquisition, condemning various letters and books which favour these errors. In the third are the Ordinances of the four Bishops or Archbishops of France against the same errors, with a letter from the Bishop of Geneva to his clergy.
Q. What is the date of these decrees of the Inquisition ?
A. The first three are dated 1688, the fourth 1689 and the last 1692.
Q. What are the books condemned in the first three decrees ?
A. The works of Fr. Benedict Biscia; several propositions in the writings of Molinos: Malaval’s book on contemplation; the Alphabet pour savoir lire en Jesus Christ by Jean Falconi, with a summary of his life and three letters; the Analysis of Mental Prayer 3 by Fr. Lacombe.
Q. What are the other books condemned by the last two decrees ?
A. The Interior Christian, the Italian version; The Rale of Perfection, by the English Fr. Benedict Canfield; Moyen Court et tres facile de faire Oraison: Rtgles des Associes a VEnfant Jesus: another letter of Falconi’s; Oeuvres Spirituelles, by de Bernieres Louvigny; a collection of various writings on Quietism; three letters on the state of Italy, written in 1688.
Q. What is the date of the Ordinances of the four Bishops of France?
A. The first, that of de Harlay, Archbishop of Paris, was dated 1694; the second, that of Bossuet, 1695 5 the third, that of the Bishop of Chalons, in the same year, 1695, as also the fourth, that of the Bishop of Chartres.
Q. What did these Ordinances contain ?
A. (i) The general condemnation of all the errors we have examined in detail; (ii) the condemnation of the books containing these errors; (iii) certain salutary warnings against flying, as one might say, from one extreme to the other.
Q. What are the books condemned in all these Ordinances ?
A. There are five only; but these are the chief among those we saw condemned by the decrees of the Inquisition of Rome, namely: the Moyen Court, the Explication du Cantique des Cantiques, the Regie des Associes a VEnfant Jesus,1 Malaval’s book, and the Analysis of Mental Prayer, by Fr. Lacombe. To which the Bishop of Chartres added a manuscript entitled Les Torrents Spirituels, by the same author as the Moyen Court and the two following books.
Q. You are aware of the criticisms of certain people when, in an affair which had caused so much disturbance, there appeared only the writings of a woman, a layman, and a priest till then unknown, with a simple manuscript ?
A. And you have forgotten what the Bishop of Meaux in his most modest zeal said at the beginning of this Instruction that it was for the love of God and his Church that he undertook a task so ungrateful as the seeking out of an infinite number of errors in small books of little merit; which in the opinion of many were more worthy of contempt than to be the occupation of Bishops and to be given a reputation of sorts by their censure ?... However, all the vain discussions of men will do nothing against either the fact nor the justification of the condemnation by the four Bishops, whose unanimous views against the errors of the Quietists are developed to demonstration by the Bishop of Meaux.
Q. But what should be the reply to those who ask what kind of prodigy it might be by which this condemnation had so promptly extinguished such a great flame, so completely that since then not the least spark of it has ever appeared, at least in books, for we may see that for the last hundred years the reiterated condemnations of the whole Church have merely kindled minds, sharpened pens, and flooded whole towns and provinces with books, writings, leaflets and apologies ?
A. This parallel being irrelevant to our subject I have nothing to reply to it; but you are well aware that most people have no taste for any kind of spirituality, still less for the most perfect sort: as for refined varieties like this, or as they should rather be called, excessive, outrageous and far-fetched varieties, they are with reason regarded as pure fanaticism; who then would have presumed to be their defender and apologist ? Moreover you must know that as by a singular stroke of his Providence God has permitted that, ever since the birth of Quietism, nearly everybody has fortunately 1 Book I, § 10.
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confused the most gross variety with the most spiritual, all kinds of Quietists have ever been regarded with opprobrium as wicked people. When it pleases God to attach such ideas of infamy to any sect, so far from their sentiments being spread they are forced to be concealed as were those of Quietism; thus they pass away and vanish with their partisans.
But is it true that in the public mind all Quietism is thus thought dishonourable ?
A. This fact is so notable that there are in many places Directors very enlightened in the interior ways, who have yet never had the courage to speak on suitable occasions of the prayer of repose and quiet, lest they might be suspected at once of quietism, and their ministry as well as themselves be discredited. I agree there are some, and I have even known such, whose more courageous zeal would not blush in case of necessity to teach the true doctrine; but ask them why, and they will reply as I do, that God has given them grace to sacrifice all fears for their reputation..
Q. But if the suspicion of Quietism is so dishonourable, surely good men would be scrupulous about having such suspicions of their neighbours, or inspiring such suspicions, without strict proof; how is it then that there are people who, seeing a few ill understood words in a book, in a letter, in a discourse, cry out unscrupulously and without any other examination.
‘ This is Quietism, this is written and spoken by a Quietist ? 5
A. It is not for us to correct or judge them, but to endure them for the love of God, who permits this: and when their authority extends to defaming us by their mere suspicions, we must then say with S. Francis de Sales: ‘God knows how much reputation I need for his service, and I wish for no more. Further, we should pray Our Lord to enlighten them. For it is certain that ill understood zeal has at all times caused many ills, especially when the almost imperceptible leaven of the weakest passion hidden in the secret recesses of the heart kindles this zeal unceasingly for the glory of God.
II
&. After the condemnation of the errors and the books which contain them, what precautions did the Bishops take in their Ordinances to preserve the good doctrines while condemning the bad ?
A. Let us begin with the Ordinance of the Count Bishop of Chalons: c Let us take good care in avoiding one trap not to fall into another; that is, in combatting the new doctrine of the Quietists, not to throw discredit on that of the saints, not to decry pure and holy spirituality in order to beat back these new refinements unknown to the saints: These are two equally dangerous extremes to which the devil wishes to expose the faithful; he not only wishes by these novelties to entangle souls in illusion but also by a too great fear of falling into it to estrange many other souls from true, pure prayer: he wishes to make all interior ways suspect, to make them seem dangerous to timid souls because there are some subject to illusion, and thus to destroy one of God’s chief means for their sanctification; this is one of the greatest advantages the devil would draw from these new opinions’
Q. Has not something of what this Bishop saw and so strongly feared already happened ?
A. In order to judge we have only to compare all his words with what we see around us. What is it we see almost everywhere ? Such scorn for all the kinds of prayer, which have been so abused, that not only the practice but the very idea has been almost entirely obliterated, for at the very names of repose, quiet, silence, the passive state and all that approaches it, people are alarmed, they cry out, they are scandalized, as if they saw those very proscribed innovations, or as if the Quietist abuse of the most holy and ancient kinds of prayer had resulted in their complete dis- appearance. This is notorious and only too frequent. Now is not this state of affairs the exact fulfilment of all the Bishop had so strongly feared ? Is it not the avoiding of one trap, only to fall into another ? Has not the doctrine of the saints been extinguished by combatting the new doctrines ? Has not pure and simple spirituality been decried in order to beat down more forcibly these new refinements ? These are the two extremes, equally dangerous, to which the devil would expose the faithful; entangling some in illusion by these innovations, and estranging others from true and pure prayer by too great fear of fallmg into it; he wished to make all the interior ways suspect {has he not well succeeded !); he wished thus to take away from souls one of their principal means of sanctification, and this was one of the greatest advantages he expected to draw from these new opinions. What would this prelate think to-day, if he saw all his fears turned into so many deplorable happenings ?
Q. I am so moved that I wish to learn some other point in his Ordinance which might as much instruct and edify me.
A. We must oppose, he says, the latter excess as strongly as the former.... In blaming the excesses of the new mystics, let us always praise and admire the holy excesses to which souls are led by the love of God: let us respect the operations of the spirit of God in them; let us take care not to set bounds to them, for who are we, said S. Peter, to resist God? He is always wonderful in his saints, and he performs in their hearts great things which unction alone teaches them and on which experience alone instructs them, said S. Bernard:2 Sola unctio docet, sola addiscit experientia. The communications of God are impossible to express or understand, but they differ; the spirit does not only blow when and where it wills, but also as it wills: his grace has many forms, and there is no less difference between interiors than between faces, as S. Teresa says; do not then expect to find the same operations in all the souls under your care, do not lead them in the same way, make them follow exactly that one which God opens to them; take good care not to stifle his spirit in them'
Q. This other fine passage of the Ordinance seems to me to give food for many reflections.
A. Yes, doubtless; but that would carry us too far, therefore be content if I indicate a few to you, merely resuming all I have just quoted: 4 What are we to think of those who, so far from opposing the second excess as strongly as the first, entertain and stimulate it, speaking always only of the abuses of the Quietists without adding a single word in favour of the excellent methods of prayer they have abused ? of those who, so far from respecting and admiring the operations of the spirit of God in souls, deny them, or condemn everything in them which appears surprising to them, as if God had ceased to be wonderful in his saints, or was unable to perform anything in them which they could not understand ? of those who allege that unction itself is obscure, and far from teaching great things, can teach nothing, and that the mystics are therefore in error when they say that it is easier to enter into the truths of faith by the single peaceable inclination which comes from interior unction than by all the reflections of the spirit? of those who, concerning the ineffable communications of God, treat as pure imagination all that cannot be expressed or made plain to them ? of those who think that the spirit bloweth when and where it wills but not as it wills, since according to them it ceases to breathe when we cease to act in a manner perceptible to the senses ? of those who, through their ignorance of the great difference between interior lives and the various forms grace takes, wish all to be mapped out by the common way, as if God had not particular, extraordinary and unknown ways, at least for the most part ? Lastly, of those who, instead of studying the attraction and way of each one in particular, so as to teach them nothing more specific than to become faithful, to think only of inspiring them with the attraction they themselves feel, in order to make them enter into their way, as if one could be properly led to God otherwise than as he wills, or by substituting the human spirit for the divine?
Footnotes
Chapter 19 of 31