QUIETISM (Neo-Lat. quietists, from Lat. quies, quiet, rest). A name applied to the tenets of a somewhat numerous class of mystical sects, who, in different ages and from the earliest Christian times, have held that the most perfect state of the soul is one of quiet iu which it ceases to reason. or to reflect either upon itself or upon God, and, in a word, to exercise any of its facul ties, its sole function being passively to receive the infused heavenly light which, according to the view of the Quietists, accompanies this state of inactive contemplation. The earliest sects of this kind in Christian history are the Euch ites or Messalines of the fourth century, the Hesychasts among the Greek monks of Mount Athos in the sixth century, and in the West the followers of Scotus Erigena, who in the ninth century taught a form of theosophy with Quiet istic tendencies. Besides these there are the Beghards in the twelfth century, the followers of Master Eckhart in the thirteenth and four teenth centuries, the Brethren of the Free Spirit, and later the Illuminati in Spain.
Not all those called by the common name of Quietists at various times have held the same doctrine. Indeed, there has been a decided dif ference of opinion between different sects; and some sects called by other names have held Quiet ist doctrines. The Quakers, for instance, with so curiously opposite a name, hold the doctrine of infusion of divine light in quiet. The common
tendency of the sects consists in making perfec tion here on earth depend on a state of uninter rupted contemplation during which the soul re mains quiet or passive under the influence of God's spirit without forming the ordinary acts of faith, hope, love, etc., without desiring heaven nor fearing hell. Most of these doctrines are of a purely speculative character and involve but little of practical consequence, whether for good or for evil. But from the belief of the lofty and perfect nature of the purely passive state of contemplation there is but a step to the fatal principle in morals that in this sublime state of contemplation all external things become indif ferent to the soul, which is thus absorbed in God; so complete is the self-absorption, so inde pendent is the soul of corporeal sense, that the most criminal representations and movements of the sensitive part of the soul and even the ex ternal actions of the body fail to affect the con templating soul or to impress it with their de basing influence. This led to gross immorality in writing at all times, and sometimes in actions. See FENELON; BIESYCHASTS; BROTHERS AND SIS TERS OF THE FREE SPIRIT; MOUNDS; MYSTICISM.