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Translation in French of the 'heretic' works of the father of Quietism, published in Amsterdam

MOLINOS, Miguel (Jean Cornand LACROSE Jean Cornand (ed.).
Recueuil de diverses pièces concernant le Quietisme et les Quietistes, ou Molinos, ses sentimens et ses disciples. Miseris succurrere disco.






Amsterdam, A. Wolfgang & P. Savouret, 1688. 12mo. Contemporary calf, spine ribbed and gilt, red sprinkled edges. 44, (24), 332, (8) pp.

First edition of the French translation of two important works on Quietism by the founder of that spiritual movement, Miguel Molinos (1628-1696), translated and edited by Jean Cornand de Lacroze (or Lacrose; d. 1705), published anonymously in Amsterdam, shortly after they were banned by Pope Innocent XI.
Lacroze was a French refugee in Amsterdam and collaborator and co-author of Jean Le Clerc's famous Bibliothèque universelle et historique, a French-language periodical of book reviews, learning and scholarship, culture, theology, philosophy, science, and so on, published in Amsterdam in 28 vols. between 1686 and 1693 by the same publishers of the present book: Wolfgang and Savouret.
Our book starts with a defence of the mystical doctrines of Quietism on the first 44 pages, followed by Molinos' works with separate half titles:
(1) 'Guide Sprituelle pour dégager l'ame des objets sensibles, et pour conduire par le chemin intérieur à la contemplation parfaite, & à la paix intérieure' ('Traduite sur la dernière édition Italienne, imprimée à Venise'; (24), 206 pp.). The book had been first published as 'Guia Espiritual' in Rome in 1675.
(2) 'Traité de la communion quotidienne' ('Traduit de l'Espagnol'; pp. 207-50).
(3) 'Extraits de quelques lettres concernant Molinos et ses disciples'. The first two are by Molinos (pp. 255-9), the third by Jaques Archevèque de Palerme aux Religieuses & aux autres ..., dated 7 March 1687 (pp. 260-332), followed by the contents.

Miguel Molinos (Muniesa, Spain. 21 December, 1640 - Rome, 28 December, 1696), the founder of the religious revival known as Quietism, entered priesthood and settled in Roma at around 1670. He was befriended with cardinal Odalescalchi, who in 1676 became Pope Innocent XI, and he always pretended to be a disciple of the Jesuits, quoting them as his authority. After Molinos had published in 1675 his Guida spirituale, followed by a brief Trattato della cotidiana communione, the Jesuit preacher Paolo Segneri, however, attacked his views in 1681, without mentioning Molinos name, and without any consequences. The matter was handed over to the Inquisition. Molinos defended himself well and his writings were pronounced to be in line with the Orthodoxy. However, the Jesuits were not satisfied and Louis XIV, king of France and enemy of the Pope, was all too happy to find a heretic as a close friend of the Pope. Cardinal d'Estrées, French ambassador at Rome, acting on instructions from Paris, denounced him to the authorities and in May, 1685, the Holy Office formulated charges against him and ordered his arrest. The report of the process was read on 3 September, 1687, in the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, in the presence of an immense concourse of people. He was declared a dogmatic heretic, and sentenced to life imprisonment. In November 1687 the Pope signed a bull, condemning 68 propositions from the Guida. In 1696 Molinos died in his prison.
Molinos taught interior annihilation, asserting that this is the means of attaining purity of soul, perfect contemplation, and the rich treasure of interior peace: hence follows the licitness of impure carnal acts, inasmuch as only the lower, sensual man, instigated by the demon, is concerned in them.
Contemporary Protestants saw in the fate of Molinos nothing more than a persecution by the Jesuits of a wise and enlightened man, who had dared to withstand the petty ceremonialism of the Italian piety of the day. But Molinos was much more than the enlightened semi-Protestant that his English admirers took him to be. Molinos wished to find a royal road to God without any intermediaries at all. Molinos welcomed both, Church and Jesus, as helps to union with God, always provided that the believer treated both as means to an end beyond themselves. In other words, he held that there was a triple stage in piety. Beginners gave themselves wholly to the Church. At the second step came devotion to Jesus. At the third and highest stage both Church and Jesus were left behind as deiformes, sed non Deus, and God remained alone.
The Guida spirituale was published in Italian in 1675, and has been reprinted several times. An English translation appeared in the same year as our French translation; it has been re-edited by Mrs Arthur Lyttelton. Spanish and Latin translations have also appeared. For the history of its author see C.E. Scharling, Michael de Molinos (Ger. trans. from Danish; Gotha, 1855), and H. Heppe, Geschichte der quietistischen Mystik (Berlin, 1875). On the whole subject of Quietism see H. Delacroix, Etudes d'histoire et de psychologie du mysticisme (Paris, 1908). There is a brilliant, but very fanciful, account of Molinos and his doctrines in J.H. Shorthouse's romance, John Inglesant.

Good copy, with bookplate of the Neander Library pasted on inside frontcover and shelf label on spine.- (Binding rubbed; some browning throughout).
Barbier, Ouvrages anonymes IV, 63; Palau 175093; Nouv. biogr. gén. 28, col. 610; Encyclopediae Brittanica 18, 668.

Related Subjects: Mystics  Religion  Religious Orders 

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