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Madame Guyon, Heterodox…
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
For the past century and a half most scholars engaged in the study of French Quietism have hesitated to focus primarily on its founder, Madame Jeanne-Marie Bouvières de la Mothe Guyon. Instead, their investigations have gravitated toward her champion, François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon, who emerged as a far more significant figure in the Quietist controversy once it began to take definitive form in 1693.
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References
1. Among the major studies dealing with Fénelon's involvement in French Quietism are: Bremond, Henri, Apologie pour Fénelon (Paris, 1910)Google Scholar; Cherel, Albert, Fénelon ou la Religion du pur Amour (Paris, 1934)Google Scholar; Delplanque, A., La pensée de Fénelon, d' aprèsses oeuvres morales et spirituelles (Paris, 1930)Google Scholar; Dudon, Paul, ed., Fénelon, Gnostique (Paris, 1930)Google Scholar; Goré, Jeanne-Lydie, L'Itinéraire de Fénelon (Paris, 1957Google Scholar) and La Notion d' Indifférence ches Fénelon et ses Sources. (Paris, 1956)Google Scholar; Gosselin, J. E., Historie littéraire de Fénelon (Paris, 1843)Google Scholar; Griselle, E., Fénelon, Études historiques (Paris, 1911)Google Scholar; Griveau, A., Etude sur la condamnation du livre des Maximes des Saints (Paris, 1878)Google Scholar; Janet, P., Fénelon (Paris, 1924)Google Scholar; Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine, , Fénelon (Paris, 1853)Google Scholar; Lemaître, Jules, Fénelon (Paris, 1910)Google Scholar; Masson, M., ed., Fénelon et Madame Guyon: Documents nouveaux et inédits (Paris, 1907)Google Scholar; Matter, Jacques, Le Mysticisme en France au temps de Fénelon, (Paris, 1866)Google Scholar; Ribadeau-Dumas, François, Fénelon et les Saintes Folies de Madame Guyon (Geneva, 1968)Google Scholar; Schmittlein, Raymond. L'Aspect politique du différend: Bossuet-Fénelon (Baden, 1954)Google Scholar; le Baron, M. Ernest Seilhière Madame Guyon, et Fénelon, précurseurs de Rousseau (Paris, 1918).Google Scholar
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27. It is also little wonder that the Holy See all but ignored the findings of the Issy Commission. Authorized by the king of France alone, it had no official status in the Catholic church. Were the pope, moreover, to take its deliberations seriously, he would be encouraging the pretensions of the Gallican establishment. About a decade before the Issy Commission came into existence, Pope Innocent XI (1676–1689) had become so incensed at militant Gallicanism, as especially defined by the Declaration of Gallican Liberties (1682), that he secretly excommunicated Louis XIV!
28. This view was consistently maintained in Underhill's three major works: Mysticism (London, 1911)Google Scholar, The Mystics of the Church (New York, 1926)Google Scholar and The Mystic Way (London, 1913).Google Scholar
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37. Ibid., p. 340.
38. Ibid., p. 348.
39. Ibid., p. 259.
40. Knox only mentions the condemnation of the Beghards and Beguines by Clement V in 1312, and that of Meister Eekhart's spirituality by John XXII in 1329. Ibid., p. 240.
41. Ibid., p. 328.
42. de la Mothe Guyon, J. M. B., Spiritual Torrents, ed. and trans. Marston, A. W. (London, 1875), pp. 112–113.Google Scholar
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44. Ibid., condemned proposition #1233: Resignato Deo libero arbitrio, eidem Deo relinquenda est cogitatio et cura de omni re nostra, et relinquere, ut faciat in nobis sine nobis suam divinam voluntatem.
45. Guyon, p. 28.
46. Cherel, pp. 44–45.
47. Teresa, of Avila, The Life of St. Teresa of Avila by Herself, trans. Lewis, David, intro. David Knowles (Westminister, Md., 1962), p. 17.Google Scholar
48. Ibid., p. 17.
49. See Denzinger, condemned proposition #1238: Qui in oratione utitur imaginibus, figuris, speciebus et proprils conceptibus non adorat Deum in spiritu et veritate (Io. 4, 23).
50. Ibid., condemned proposition #1240: Asserere, quod in oratione opus est sibi per discursum auxilium ferre et per cogiationes, quando Deus animan non alloquitur, ignorantia est. Deus nunquam loguitur, eius locutio est operatio, et semper in anima operatur, quando hace suis discursibus cogitationibus et operationibus cum non impedit.
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53. Ibid.
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56. She is quoted in Bossuet, , Oeuvres complètes, 48:68–70Google Scholar, letter no. 12. In this letter the Bishop of Meaux described an interview which he had with Madame Guyon.
57. See Denzinger, proposition #914. Si quis negaverit, ad integram et perfectam peccatorum remissionem requiri tres actus in poenitente quasi materiam sacramenti poenitentiae, videlicet contritionem, confessionem et satisfactionem, quae tres poenitentiae partes, terrores scilicet incussos conscientiae agnito peccato, et fidem conceptam ex Evangelio vel absolutione, qua credit quis sibi per Christum remissa peccata: A.S. (see n. 896).
58. Ibid., proposition #897: Contritio, quae primum locum inter dictos poenitentis actus habet, animi dolor ac destestatio est de peccato commisso, cum proposite non peccandi de cetero. Fuit autem quovis tempore ad impedtrandam veniam peccatorum hic contritionis motus necessarius, et in homine post baptisum lapso its demum praeparat ad remissionem peccatorum, sieum fiducia divinae misericordiae et voto praestandi reliqua coniunctns sit, quae ad rite suscipiendum hoc sacramentum requiruantur.
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60. I Cor. 13.8.
61. I Cor. 13:7.
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65. Ibid., pp.178–179.
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68. Quoted in Bossuet, , Oeuvres complètes, 48:100.Google Scholar
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70. Ibid., condemned proposition #1234: Qui divinae voluntati resignatus est, non convenit, ut a Deo rem aliquam petat; quia petere est imperfectia, cum sit actus propriae voluntatis et electionis, et est velle, quod vinae: et illud Evangelii: “Petite et accipietis” (Io 16, 24), non est dictum a Christo pro animabus internis, quae nolunt habere voluntatem; immo huiusmodi animae eo perveniunt, ut non possint a Deo rem aliquam petere.
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74. von Hügel, pp. 138–439.
75. Ribadeau-Dumas, p.43.
76. See Denzinger, proposition #318: Deus omnipotens omnes homines sine exceptione vult salves fieri (I Tim. 2, 4), licet non omnes salventur. Quod autem quidam salvantur, salvantis est donum: quod autem quidam pereunt, pereuntium est meritum.
77. Ibid., proposition #200: Hoc etiam secundum fidem catholicam credimus, quod post acceptam per baptismum gratiam omnes baptizati, Christo auxiliante et cooperante, quae ad salutem animae pertinent, possint et debeant, si fideliter laborare voluerint, adimplere…
78. Ibid., proposition #322: … fidenter fatemur praedestinationem electorum advitam, et praedestinationem impiorum ad mortem: in electine tamen salvandorum misericordiam Dei praecedere meritum bonum: in damnatione autem periturorum meritum malum praecedere instum Dei iudicium…
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80. Ibid., p. 107.
81. von Hügel, p. 139.
82. See Denzinger, proposition #669: Item, utrum credat, quod christianus contemnens susceptionem sacramentorum confirmationis, vel extremae unctionis, aut solemnizationis matrimonii, peccet mortaliter.
83. Ibid., proposition #928: Si quis dixerit, extremae unctionis ritum et usum, quem observat sancta Romana Ecclesia, repuguare sententiae beati Iacobi Apostoli, ideoque eum mutandum, posseque a Christianis absque peccato contemni: A. S. (see n. 910).
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85. See Denzinger, proposition #1252: Nec ante nec post communionem alia requiritur praeparatio aut gratiarum actio (pro istis animabus internis), quam permanentia in solita resignatione passiva, quia modo perfectiore supplet omnes actus virtutum, qui fieri possunt et fiunt in via ordinaria. Et si hac occasione communionis insurgunt motus humiliationis, petitionis aut gratiarum actionis, reprimendi sunt, quoties non dignoscatur, eos esse ex impulsu speciali Dei: alias sunt impulsus naturae nondum mortuae.
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88. Cherel, p. 45.
89. Ribadeau-Dumas, p. 104.
90. Ibid., p. 104.
91. Ibid., pp. 104–105.
92. Ibid., p. 97.
93. Guyon, , Vie, 1: 170.Google Scholar
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97. Ibid., condemned proposition #511: Quidquid Deus Pater dedit Filio suo unigenito in humana natura, hoc totum dedit mihi: hic nihil excipio, nec unionem nec sanctitatiem, sed totum dedit mihi sicut sibi.
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110. Guyon, , Vie, 1:264.Google Scholar
111. Ibid.
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