own family, and those who sought her from interested motives. Fénelon concludes by saying, "Finally, be assured that the chief thing to do for the correction of your faults and the better fulfilment of your duties is to work from within, not from without. . . . All our faults spring from our being too much bent on, and bound to, self. Renounce that wretched 'moi' in the veriest trifles in which the Spirit of Grace tells you that you are still holding to it."

These were scarcely the counsels of a courtier, or of one seeking to ingratiate himself with the powers that be. That there was an inducement to do so Fénelon must have fully realised at this time, for in spite of the honourable appointment conferred upon him, Louis XIV. had never entirely forgotten the prejudice raised in his mind against the Abbé by de Harlay; and indeed there were not wanting detractors to keep up such prejudice. Whether through de Harlay or others, it was suggested to the King that the little Duke's education was imperfectly carried. out, that his secular acquirements were sacrificed to a mystic and exaggerated devotion, and that he required a larger and more liberal treatment. The first point was answered by Bossuet, who, having educated the father, was a fit and suitable man to examine the son; and after a long interview with the Prince, the Bishop of Meaux expressed himself as amazed at the extent

A RISING STORM.

and soundness of his acquirements.

85

The Duc de

Beauvilliers came to the front on the other head. "Sire," he said, "I know of but one Gospel, and I hold that I owe it to my God and my King to do the utmost possible to train up a virtuous monarch for France. You can examine the Duc de Bourgogne himself as to his religious practices, and I am willing to make any rightful alterations; but I defy any one to bring forward an instance of any prince whatever who at his age is as forward in all secular education."

It might have seemed to a bystander that Fénelon's worldly prosperity was assured now, and that, humanly speaking, he had nothing left to wish for. But the clouds were gathering round which were soon to break in a storm over his head, never to clear away as far as Court favour and this world's good things were concerned. The cry of Quietism was about to arise and estrange some of Fénelon's closest friends from him.

CHAPTER III.

A

SPANISH priest, Michael Molinos, was the chief promoter of this system of mysticism which was destined to create so wild a storm in France. He taught―

I. That "perfect contemplation" is a condition in which the soul neither reasons nor reflects, whether upon God or itself, but passively receives the Divine Light, without making any effort of love, adoration, or other wonted acts of devotion. This condition of passivity Molinos calls Quietude.

II. In this state of perfect contemplation the soul desires absolutely nothing, not even its own salvation; it fears nothing, not even hell; the one only feeling of which it is conscious is utter abandonment to God's Good Will and pleasure.

III. The soul which has attained this state of "perfect contemplation" is dispensed from any need of Sacraments or good works, all which become indifferent to it. The darkest, most criminal imaginations may touch the sensitive part of the soul without

MOLINOS AND QUIETISM.

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polluting it, because they do not reach its superior side, wherein the will and intelligence abide.

The writings and teaching of Molinos were formally condemned by Innocent XI. in 1687. The system called Quietism was already creeping into France, although in a less marked and offensive form than that in which it was taught by its Spanish promulgators. The history of its progress, and of the chief actors therein, has been already entered upon in the "Life of Bossuet:" nevertheless, at the risk of repetition, some of the threads must be taken up anew in writing that of Fénelon, whose future career was so largely influenced by it. The first appearance of this disturbing element was in the person of a woman, who, though doubtless fanatical, and carried away at times by the love of influence and applause, was certainly sincere in her religious purposes, and undeserving of all the calumny and injustice heaped upon her. Mme. Guyon must have been a very gifted and fascinating person; and had she lived in somewhat later times, she would probably have been worshipped in her own circle in Paris so long as she was the fashion, and then quietly forgotten, instead of being persecuted and imprisoned, and thereby made an historical personage.

Jeanne Marie Bouvières de la Mothe was born at Montargis, April 13, 1648. She married at sixteen, I p. 372.

and at twenty-eight was left a widow with three children. Her inclinations had always led her to a somewhat demonstrative devotion, and she had while very young fallen under the influence of a certain Barnabite Monk, Père la Combe, of whom (although cruelly calumniated, and worried from prison to a madhouse, where he died) the most carefully-weighed evidence seems to prove that he was only excitable and indiscreet, neither heretical nor immoral, as those who wished to damage Mme. Guyon (chiefly aiming at Fénelon through her) would have had it believed. In 1681 the Bishop of Geneva invited Mme. Guyon to join a Community he was establishing at Gex, and of which this monk, whom she had not seen for ten years, was the Superior. It was an unfortunate reunion, and the Bishop soon began to be uneasy at the excited and illusory tone which crept into the Community. The two who caused this left Gex, and Mme. Guyon followed Père la Combe, whom she is said rather to have directed than obeyed, to Thonon and Vercelli. Wherever this lady went there was a certain excitement raised, and Cardinal le Camus, Bishop of Grenoble, having courteously, but decidedly, dismissed her from that city, she returned to Paris in 1687, where, on the strength of her general reputation as a Quietist, and the contents of two little books she had published, one entitled Moyen Court et