Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon

Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (April 13, 1648 - June 9, 1717) was a French mystic and one of the key advocates of Quietism. This doctrine was considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church, and as a result, Madame Guyon was imprisoned from 1695 to 1703. Download high resolution version (774x1200, 82 KB)Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon - Project Gutenberg eText 13778 - http://www. ... Download high resolution version (774x1200, 82 KB)Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon - Project Gutenberg eText 13778 - http://www. ... April 13 is the 103rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (104th in leap years). ... // Events January 17 - Englands Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Address, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War. ... June 9 is the 160th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (161st in leap years), with 205 days remaining. ... // Events January 4 — The Netherlands, Britain & France sign Triple Alliance February 26-March 6 What is now the northeastern United States was paralyzed by a series of blizzards that buried the region. ... Mysticism from the Greek μυστικός (mystikos) an initiate (of the Eleusinian Mysteries, μυστήρια (mysteria) meaning initiation[1]) is the pursuit of achieving communion or identity with, or conscious awareness of, ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight; and the belief that such experience is an... Quietism is a Christian philosophy that swept through France, Italy and Spain during the 17th century, but it had much earlier origins. ... Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the Catholic or Orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ... Catholic Church redirects here. ...

Life

She was born at Montargis, where her family were persons of consequence. If her autobiography may be trusted she was much neglected in her youth; most of her time was spent as a boarder in various convent schools. Here she went through all the religious experiences common to neurotic youngsters; these were turned in a definitely mystical direction by the duchesse de Béthune, daughter of the disgraced minister, Nicolas Fouquet, who spent some years at Montargis after her father's fall. Montargis is a commune of the Loiret département in France. ... Nicolas Fouquet (January 27, 1615 — March 23, 1680) was viscount of Melun and of Vaux, marquis de Belle-Isle, superintendent of finance in France under Louis XIV. Born in Paris, he belonged to an influential family of the noblesse de robe, and after some preliminary schooling with the Jesuits, at...

In 1664 Jeanne Marie was married to a rich invalid of the name of Guyon, many years her senior. Twelve years later he died, leaving his widow with three small children and a considerable fortune. All through her unhappy married life the mystical attraction had grown steadily in violence; it now attached itself to a certain Father Lacombe, a Barnabite monk of weak character and unstable intellect. Events March 12 - New Jersey becomes a colony of England. ... The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (Latin: Clericorum Regularium S. Pauli, abbr. ... A monk is a person who practices asceticism, the conditioning of mind and body in favor of the spirit. ...

In 1681 she left her family and joined him; for five years the two rambled about together in Savoy and the south-east of France, spreading their mystical ideas. At last they excited the suspicion of the authorities; in 1686 Lacombe was recalled to Paris, put under surveillance, and finally sent to the Bastille in the autumn of 1687. He was soon transferred to the castle of Lourdes, where he developed softening of the brain and died in 1715. Events March 4 - Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania. ... This article is about the historical region of Savoy. ... Events The League of Augsburg is founded. ... The Bastille The Bastille was a prison in Paris, known formally as Bastille Saint-Antoine—Number 232, Rue Saint-Antoine which became well-known for the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. ... Events March 19 - The men under explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle murder him while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River. ... Our Lady of Lourdes Basilica Lourdes (Lorda in Occitan) is a town in the Hautes-Pyrénées département in France. ... // Events July 24 - Spanish treasure fleet of ten ships under admiral Ubilla leave Havana, Cuba for Spain. ...

Meanwhile Madame Guyon had been arrested in January 1688, and been shut up in a convent as a suspected heretic. Thence she was delivered in the following year by her old friend, the duchesse de Béthune, who had returned from exile to become a power in the devout court-circle presided over by Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon. Françoise dAubigné, marquise de Maintenon Françoise dAubigné, marquise de Maintenon (November 27, 1635 - April 15, 1719), the second wife of Louis XIV, was born in a prison at Niort. ...

Before long Madame Guyon herself was introduced into this pious assemblage. Its members were far from critical; they were intensely interested in religion; and even Madame Guyon's bitterest critics bear witness to her charm of manner, her imposing appearance, and the force and eloquence with which she explained her mystical ideas. So much was Madame de Maintenon impressed, that she often invited Madame Guyon to give lectures at her girls' school of St Cyr. Saint-Cyr can refer to: École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, a French military academy. ...

But by far the greatest of her conquests was François Fénelon, now a rising young director of consciences, much in favour with aristocratic ladies. Dissatisfied with the formalism of average Catholic piety, he was already thinking out a mystical theory of his own; and between 1689 and 1693 they corresponded regularly. But as soon as ugly reports about Lacombe began to spread, he broke off all connections with her. François de Salignac de la Mothe, more commonly known as François Fénelon (1651 - 1715), was a French Roman Catholic theologian, poet and writer. ...

Meanwhile the reports had reached the prudent ears of Madame de Maintenon. In May 1693 she asked Madame Guyon to go no more to St Cyr. In the hope of clearing her orthodoxy, Madame Guyon appealed to Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, who decided that her books contained "much that was intolerable, alike in form and matter." To this judgment Madame Guyon submitted, promised to "dogmatize no more," and disappeared into the country (1693). Events January 11 - Eruption of Mt. ... Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (September 27, 1627 - April 12, 1704) was a French bishop, theologian, and renowned pulpit orator and court preacher. ...

In the next year she again petitioned for an inquiry, and was eventually sent, half as a prisoner, half as a penitent, to Bossuet's cathedral town of Meaux. Here she spent the first half of 1695; but in the summer she escaped without his leave, bearing with her a certificate of orthodoxy signed by him. Bossuet regarded this flight as a gross act of disobedience; in the winter Madame Guyon was arrested and shut up in the Bastille. There she remained till 1703. In that year she was liberated, on condition she went to live on her son's estate near Blois, under the eye of a stern bishop. Here the rest of her life was spent in charitable and pious exercises.(see also: Andrew Michael Ramsay) Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (September 27, 1627 - April 12, 1704) was a French bishop, theologian, and court preacher. ... Meaux is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. ... The word orthodoxy, from the Greek ortho (right, correct) and doxa (thought, teaching, glorification), is typically used to refer to the correct theological or doctrinal observance of religion, as determined by some overseeing body. ... The Bastille The Bastille was a prison in Paris, known formally as Bastille Saint-Antoine—Number 232, Rue Saint-Antoine which became well-known for the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. ... Events February 2 - Earthquake in Aquila, Italy February 4 - In Japan, the 47 samurai commit seppuku (ritual suicide) February 14 - Earthquake in Norcia, Italy April 21 - Company of Quenching of Fire (ie. ... Blois is a city in France, the préfecture (capital) city of the Loir-et-Cher département, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours. ... Andrew Michael Ramsay (January 9, 1686 - May 6, 1743), commonly called the Chevalier Ramsay, was a Scottish-born writer who lived most of his adult-life in France. ...

During these latter years her retreat at Blois became a regular place of pilgrimage for admirers, foreign quite as often as French. Indeed, she is one of the many prophetesses whose fame has stood highest out of their own country. French critics of all schools of thought have generally reckoned her an hysterical degenerate; in England and Germany she has as often roused enthusiastic admiration. Arthur Schopenhauer wrote of her: "To become acquainted with that great and beautiful soul, whose remembrance always fills me with reverence, and to do justice to the excellence of her disposition while making allowances for the superstition of her faculty of reason, must be gratifying to every person of the better sort, just as with common thinkers, in other words the majority, that book [Autobiography] will always stand in bad repute." Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860) was a German philosopher. ...

Works

French

• Vie de Madame Guyon, ecrite par elle-même [Life of Madame Guyon, Written by Herself] (3 vols, Paris, 1791) a compilation made from various fragments
• Complete edition of Madame Guyon's works, including the autobiography and five volumes of letters, in twenty volumes (1767-1791)
• The most important works are published separately, Opuscules spirituels [Spiritual Opuscules] (2 vols, Paris, 1790)

English

• Jeanne Guyon: An Autobiography, Whitaker House, 1997 edition: ISBN 0883684020, online versions
• Experiencing God Through Prayer, Whitaker House, 2005, ISBN 088368179X, online versions
• Song of the Bride, Whitaker House, 2002, ISBN 0883686821 allegory of Christian relation to Christ in Song of Solomon, online versions
• Experiencing Union with God Through Inner Prayer & the Way and Rescues of Union with God, Bridge-Logos Publishers, 2002, ISBN 0882708732
• Intimacy With Christ, Seedsowers, 1989, ISBN 0940232367
• Final Steps in Christian Maturity, Seedsowers, 1985, ISBN 0940232227
• Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ, Seedsowers, 1981, ISBN 0940232006

The Song of Solomon or Song of Songs (Hebrew title שיר השירים, Shir ha-Shirim) is a book of the Hebrew Bible—Tanakh or Old Testament—one of the five megillot. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
  • Thomas Cogswell Upham, Life, religious opinions and experience of Madame Guyon (New York, 1854)
  • Louis Guerrier, Madame Guyon, sa vie, sa doctrine, et son influence, (Paris dissertation, 1881), reviewed by Brunetière, Nouvelles Études critiques [New Critical Studies], vol. ii.
  • Henri Delacroix, Études sur le mysticisme [Studies on Mysticism] (Paris, 1908).
• Catholic Encyclopedia article

Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... Ferdinand Brunetière Ferdinand Brunetière (July 19, 1849 – December 9, 1906) was a French writer and critic. ...

External links

• Biography from New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1914)
• Biography with links to works online
• Guyon's continuing influence
• Guyon's poetry in English translation by William Cowper
• Spiritual Progress including works of Francois Fenelon and Guyon's "Method of Prayer" and "On The Way to God" in English translation (1853) from "Opuscules spirituels"