Jansenist penitents, or self-tormentors, of both sexes, built huts without its precincts, where they imitated the manners of those austere and gloomy fanatics, who, in the fourth and fifth centuries, retired into the wild and uncultivated places of Syria and Egypt, and were commonly called the fathers of the desert. The end which these penitents had in view, was, by silence, hunger, thirst, prayer, bodily labour, watchings, sorrow, and other voluntary acts of selfdenial, to efface the guilt, and remove the pollution the soul had derived from natural corruptions or evil habits.' They did not however all observe the same discipline, or follow the same kind of application and labour. The more learned consumed their strength in composing laborious productions filled with sacred and profane erudition, and some of these have no doubt deserved well of the republic of letters; others were employed in teaching youth the rudiments of language and the principles of science; but the far greatest part exhausted both the health of their bodies and the vigour of their minds in servile industry and rural labour; and thus pined away by a slow kind of death. What is singularly surprising is, that many of these voluntary victims of an inhuman piety, were persons illustrious both by their birth and stations, who after having distinguished themselves in civil or military employments, debased themselves so far in this penitential retreat, as to assume the character, offices, and labour of the lowest servants.

This celebrated retreat of the devout and austere Jansenists was subjected to many vicissitudes during the whole course of this century; at one time it flourished in unrivalled glory; at another, it seemed eclipsed, and on the brink of ruin. At length however the period of its total extinction approached. The nuns obstinately refused to subscribe the declaration of pope Alexander VII. that has been so often mentioned; on the other hand their convent and rule of discipline was considered as detrimental to the interests of the kingdom, and a dishonour to some of the first families

f Among the first and most eminent of these penitents was Isaac le Maitre, a celebrated lawyer at Faris, whose eloquence had procured him a shining reputation, and who, in the year 1637, retired to Port Royal, to make expiation for his sins. The retreat of this eminent man raised new enemies to the abbot of St. Cyran. See the Memoires pour l'Histoire de Port Royal,' tom. i. p. 233. The example of Le Maitre was followed by a vast number of persons of all ranks, and among these by some persons of the highest distinction. Sec Vies des Religieuses de Port Royal,' tom. i. p. 141.

in France; hence Louis XIV. in the year 1709, set on by the violent counsels of the Jesuits, ordered the convent of Port Royal to be demolished, the whole building to be levelled with the ground, and the nuns to be removed to Paris. And lest there should still remain some secret fuel to nourish the flame of superstition in that place, he ordered the very carcasses of the nuns and devout Jansenists to be dug up and buried elsewhere.

The contro

ing the imma

tion of the Vir

XLVIII. The other controversies that disturbed the tranquillity of the church of Rome, were but light very concern blasts when compared with this violent hurricane. culate concep. The old debate between the Franciscans and Dogin Mary. minicans, concerning the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, which was maintained by the former, and denied by the latter, gave much trouble and perplexity to the Roman pontiffs, and more especially to Paul V. Gregory XV. and Alexander VII. The kingdom of Spain was thrown into such combustion, and so miserably divided into factions by this controversy, about the beginning of this century, that solemn embassies were sent to Rome, both by Philip III. and his successor, with a view to engage the Roman pontiff to determine the question, or at any rate, to put an end to the contest by a public bull. But notwithstanding the weighty solicitations of these monarchs, the oracle of Rome pronounced nothing but ambiguous words, and its high priests prudently avoided coming to a plain and positive decision of the matter in question. For if they were awed, on the one hand, by the warm remonstrances of the Spanish court, which favoured the sentiment of the Franciscans, they were restrained on the other, by the credit and influence of the Dominicans. So that, after the most earnest entreaties and importunities, all that could be obtained from the pontiff, by the court of Spain, was a declaration intimating, that the opinion of the Franciscans had a high degree of probability on its side, and forbidding the Dominicans to oppose it in'a public manner; but this declaration was accompanied with another," by which the Francis

g See Frid. Ulr. Calixti Historia Immaculata Conceptionis B. Virginis Mariæ, published at Helmstadt in 4to. in the year 1696. Hornbeckii Comm, ad Bullam, Urbani VIII. de diebus Festis, p. 250. Launoii Præscriptiones de Conceptu Virginis Mariæ, tom. i. p. i. oper. p. 9. Long after this period, Clement XI. went a step further, and appointed, in the year 1708, a festival to be celebrated, in honour of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, throughout the Romish church. See the Memoires de Trevour, for the year 1709, art. xxxvii. p. 514. But the Dominicans obstinately deny that the

cans were prohibited, in their turn, from treating as erroneous the doctrine of the Dominicans. This pacific accommodation of matters would have been highly laudable in a prince or civil magistrate, who, unacquainted with theological questions of such an abstruse nature, preferred the tranquillity of his people to the discussion of such an intricate and unimportant point; but whether it was honourable to the Roman pontiff, who boasts of a divine right to decide all religious controversies, and pretends to a degree of inspiration that places him beyond the possibility of erring, we leave to the consideration of those who have his glory at heart.

the controver

trine of Moli

XLIX. The controversies with the mystics were now renewed, and that sect, which in former times en- Quietism, or joyed such a high degree of reputation and au- sies occasioned thority, was treated with the greatest severity, by and involved in the deepest distress toward the OS. conclusion of this century. This unhappy change in their affairs was principally occasioned by the fanaticism and imprudence of Michael de Molinos, a Spanish priest, who resided at Rome, and the fame of whose ardent piety and devotion procured him a considerable number of disciples of both sexes. A book published at Rome, in the year 1681, by this ecclesiastic, under the title of the Spiritual Guide, alarmed the doctors of the church." This book contained, beside the usual precepts and institutions of mystic theology, several notions relating to a spiritual and contemplative life, that seemed to revive the pernicious and in

obligation of this law extends to them, and persist in maintaining their ancient doctrine, though with more modesty and circumspection than they formerly discovered in this debate. And when we consider that this doctrine of theirs has never been expressly condemned by any pope, and that they are not in the least molested, nor even censured, for refusing to celebrate the festival above mentioned, it appears evidently, from all this, that the terms of the papal edict are to be understood with certain restrictions, and interpreted in a mild and indulgent manner; and that the spirit of this edict is not contrary to the tenor of the former declarations of the pontiffs on this head. See Lamindus Pritanius, a fictitious name assumed by the author Muratori, De ingeniorum moderatione in religionis negolio, p. 254.

h This book, which was composed in Spanish, and published for the first time, in the year 1675, was honoured with the approbation and encomiums of many eminent and respectable personages. It was published in Italian in several places, and at length at Rome, in 1681. It was afterward translated into French, Dutch, and Latin, and passed through several editions in France, Italy, and Holland. The Latin translation, which bears the title of Manductio Spiritualis, was published at Halle, in the year 1687, in 8vo. by Frank. There is another work of Molinos, composed in the same spirit, concerning the daily celebration of the communion, which was also condemned. See the 'Recueil de diverses pieces concernant le Quietisme et les Quietistes ou Molinos ses sentimens et ses disciples,' published in 8vo. at Amsterdam, in the year 1688, in which the reader will find a French translation of the Spiritual Guide, together with a collection of letters on various subjects, written by Molinos.

fernal errors of the beghards, and open a door to all sorts of dissolution and licentiousness. The principles of Molinos, which have been very differently interpreted by his friends and enemies, amount to this; "That the whole of religion consists in the perfect calm and tranquillity of a mind removed from all external and finite things, and centred in God, and in such a pure love of the Supreme Being, as is independent on all prospect of interest or reward;" or, to express the doctrine of this mystic 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 with more propriety their fanatical system. For the doctrine of Molinos had no other circumstance of novelty attending it, than the singular and unusual terms he employed in unfolding his notions, and the ingenuity he discovered in digesting what the ancient mystics had thrown out in the most confused and incoherent jargon, into something that looked like a system. The Jesuits, and other zealous votaries of Rome, soon perceived that the system of Molinos was a tacit censure of the Romish church, as having departed from the spirit of true religion, by placing the essence of piety in external works, and in the performance of a certain round of rites and ceremories. But the warmest opponents Molinos met with was from the French ambassador at Rome, who raised a most violent persecution against him. This made many imagine, that it was not the theological system of Molinos alone that had inflamed the resentment of that minister, but that some considerations of a political nature had been blended with this famous controversy, and that the Spanish mystic had opposed the designs and negotiations of the French monarch at the court of Rome. However that may have been, Molinos, unable to resist the storm, and abandoned by those from whom he chiefly expected succour, yielded to it, in the year 1685, when, notwithstanding the number, rank, and credit of his friends at Rome, and the particular marks of favour he had received from the Roman pontiff, he was cast into

i Cardinal D'Etrees.

k

k Innocent XI.

prison. Two years after this, he was obliged to renounce in a public manner, the errors of which he was accused, and this solemn recantation was followed by a sentence of perpetual imprisonment, from which he was, in an advanced age, delivered by death, in the year 1696. The candid and impartial will be obliged to acknowledge, that the opinions and expressions of this enthusiast were perfidiously misrepresented and perverted by the Jesuits and others, whose interest it was that he should be put out of the way, and excluded from every thing but contemplation and repose; and it is most certain, that this doctrine was charged with consequences which he neither approved nor even apprehended. But on the other hand, it must also be confessed, that the system of Molinos was chargeable with the greatest part of the reproaches that are justly thrown upon the mystics, and favoured much the illusions and follies of those fanatics, who would make the crude visions of their disordered fancies pass for Divine revelations." L. It would have been truly surprising had a system of piety, that was so adapted to seduce the indolent Followers of mind, to captivate the warm imagination, and to melt the tender heart, been destitute of votaries and followers. But this was by no means the case. In Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands, Molinos had a considerable number of disciples, and beside the reasons we have now hinted, another circumstance must have contributed much to multiply his votaries; for, in all parts of the Romish dominion, there were numbers of persons who had sense and knowledge enough to perceive, that the whole of religion could not consist in external rites and bodily mortifications, but too little to direct themselves in religious matters, or to substitute what was right in the place of what they knew to be wrong; and hence it was natural enough for them to follow the first plausible guide that was offered to them. But the church of Rome, apprehensive of the consequences of this mystic theology, left

Molinos.

1 He was born in the diocess of Saragossa, in the year 1627; see Biblioth. Janseniste, p. 469. For an account of this controversy, see the Narrative of the Proceedings of the Controversy concerning Quietism, which is subjoined to the German translation of Burnet's Travels. As also Arnoldi Historia Eccles. et Hæretic. tom. iii. c. xvii. p. 176. Jaegeri Histor. Eccles. et Polit. Sæculi xvii. Decenn. ix. p. 26. Plessis D'Argentre, Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus, tom. iii. p. ii. p. 357, where may be seen edicts relating to this controversy.

m All that can be alleged in defence of Molinos has been gathered together by Weismannus, in his Histor. Ecclesiast. Sæc. xvii, p. 555.