MYSTICS, a Christian sect which arose in the 2nd century, and whose principles are probably to be traced to the philosophy of the Christian Platonists of Alexandria, Ammonius &ems and his followers. They first appear as a distinct sect in the 4th century, under the teaching of a Grecian fanatic, who gave himself out to be Dionysius the Areopagite, one of St. Paul's converts (Acts, xvii. 34), and who is generally regarded as the founder of the sect of the Mystics.
Adopting the Platonic doctrine, that the human soul is a portion of the divine nature, they held that every man has a divine light within him which is sufficient for his guidance to present and future happi ness, but that this light is obscured by the grossness of our material bodies and by the influence of external objects. To shake off these evil influences, and thus to keep the soul in as close connection as possible with its divine original, they considered to be the essence of religion ; and this they endeavoured to accomplish by constant medita tion on spiritual objects, secret communion with God, and an austere discipline of the body. As they considered everything external to the soul as only calculated to obscure the divine light within, they set no value upon accurate systems of doctrine nor upon religious observances as contributing to the advancement of religion. One of their leading doctrines was that real love to God must necessarily be disinterested, that is, uninfluenced by the expectation of reward or punishment.
The austere lives and apparent devotion of the Mystics caused their prinpiples to spread extensively in the Eastern church, and had a great influence in the spread of monachism. In the 9th century they were
introduced into the West by a present which the Grecian emperor Michael Balbus made to Louis le Debonnaire, of the works of Dionysius the Areopagite, which however are undoubtedly spurious. The book was translated into Latin by the order of Louis, and the principles contained in it soon found many followers. In the 13th century the Mystics were the most formidable opponents of the schoolmen, and gradually many eminent men who were disgusted with the puerile conceits and lifeless religion of the latter, attached themselves to the Mystics, or rather to the_purely spiritual principles held by them ; and just before the Reformation, nearly all the friends of spiritual religion were included in this sect. In the 17th century the doctrines of Mysticism were advocated by a Spanish priest, Michael de Molinos, from whose representations of religion, as consisting in the perfect tranquillity of a mind always engaged in communion with God, the sect obtained the new name of Quietists. At the end of the same century attention was called to Mysticism in France by the writings of Madame Guyon, whose sentiments were opposed by Bossuet and de fended by I'6n6lon ; and in the next century the Pietists of Germany may be reckoned among them. In all these instances,-however, it is more a general resemblance in first principles, than any .adoption of the tenets either of Ammonius or Dionysius.