, a Spanish priest, and by some reckoned the founder of the sect
, a Spanish priest, and by some
reckoned the founder of the sect of Quietists, was born in
the diocese of Saragossa in 1627, and appears to have resided mostly at Rome, where his ardent piety and devotion
procured him a considerable number of disciples of both
sexes. In 1675 he published his “Spiritual Guide,
” -written in Spanish, which was honoured with the encomiums
of many eminent personages, and was republished in Italian in several places, and at last at Rome in 1681. It was
afterwards translated into French, Dutch, and Latin (the last by professor Franke at Halle in 1687), and passed
through several editions in France, Holland, and Italy.
It was at Rome, however, where its publication in 1681
alarmed the doctors of the church. The principles of Molinos, which, Mosheim remarks, have been very differently
interpreted by his friends and enemies, amount to this,
that the whole of religion consists in the perfect tranquillity of a mind removed from all external and finite things,
and centered in God, and in such a pure love of the
Supreme Being, as is independent of all prospect of interest
or reward; or, in other words, “the soul, in the pursuit
of the supreme good, must retire from the reports and
gratifications of sense, and, in general, from all corporeal
objects, and, imposing silence upon all the motions of the
understanding and will, must be absorbed in the Deity.
”
Hence the denomination of Quietists was given to the followers of Molinos; though that of Mystics, which was their
vulgar title, was more applicable, and expressed their
system with more propriety, the doctrine not being new,
but rather a digest of what the ancient mystics had advanced in a more confused manner. For this, however,
Molinos was first imprisoned in 1685, and notwithstanding
he read a recantation about two years afterwards, was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment, from which he was released by death in 1696. Madame Guyon was among the
most distinguished of his disciples, and herself no inconsiderable supporter of the sect of Quietists.