frequentation of the confessional, their chief centre of influence. Failing to turn public opinion against Molinos in Rome, they brought pressure to bear on Louis XIV. through his confessor, Pere La Chaise. At the instance of the French ambassador Molinos was arrested (1685); his papers were seized, and his chief disciples examined by the Inquisition. Two years later he was convicted of heresy, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.
The later stages of the Quietist drama were played out in France. Here Quietist ideas had long been spreading under the leadership of enthusiasts like Francois Malaval (1627–1719), a blind layman of Marseilles. A more romantic figure was Ieanne Marie Guyon (1648–1717), a widow of good family and remarkable personal charm, who devoted her life to missionary journeys on behalf of “passivity.” In 1688 fate brought her to the French court, where she made a great impression on Mme. de Maintenon and other persons of quality. But her most illustrious captive was Fénelon, then tutor to the duke of Burgundy, eldest son off the Dauphin. “They met,” says Saint-Simon; “they pleased each other, and their sublime amalgamated.” In other words, they corresponded with a freedom that Fénelon afterwards had cause to regret. For Mme. Guyon’s paradoxical and extravagant language soon scandalized her friends. In 1693 she was examined by Bossuet, and dismissed with a severe caution. Further imprudence’s led to her arrest, and a long imprisonment in the Bastille. On her release in 1703 she settled down quietly at Blois, where she died in 1717. Meanwhile Fénelon had become involved in her fortunes. When Bossuet first took action, Fénelon defended her with a zeal that drew down suspicion on his own head; and he was only promoted to the archbishopric of Cambrai after signing what was really a disguised retractation (1695). Meanwhile Bossuet was at work on an Instruction sur les états d'oraison, which was intended to distinguish once for all what was true in Quietism from what was false. Fénelon, feeling sure that Bossuet would do the Quietists less than justice, determined to be beforehand with him. While Bossuet’s book was still in the press, he suddenly brought out an Explication des maxirnes des saints (1697). The little volume raised a violent storm. For two years Fénelon was at bitter feud with Bossuet; he was banished from Versailles; finally, he was censured by the pope (1699), although in very measured terms. For Fénelon by no means shared all the ideas of Mme. Guyon; in the language of the divinity schools he was, at most, a “semi-Quietist.” For the more ecstatic side of Quietism, so much in evidence with his friend, he had no taste whatsoever; but he thought that “passivity,” when interpreted with large modifications, led the way to a state of peaceful, other-world serenity highly grateful to the denizens of a crowded court, where was much splendid ennui and but little peace. Further, he, was the counsellor of many over-scrupulous souls; and Quietist disinterestedness, also much modified, enabled him to tell them that they were not necessarily castaways because they suffered much from “spiritual dryness,” and seldom enjoyed the sweets of piety. But in the heat of battle with Bossuet, Fénelon carried his principles beyond all reasonable bounds. The theme of his Maxims; is that, as men grow in holiness they become utterly indifferent to themselves. Not only do they cease to covet the consolations of religion; they lose all incidental pleasure in its exercise. Their whole soul is taken up in loving God; and they neither know nor care whether God loves them in return. But Bossuet had little trouble in persuading the world that Wenn ich Dich liebe, was geht es Dich an? is but a sorry foundation on which to build up a personal religion; and the condemnation of the Maxims proved the deathblow to official Quictism. But flickers of “passivity,” not always easily distinguishable from the teaching of Molinos, are still here and there produced by violent reaction from the prevailing legalism of the church of Rome.
Bibliography.—H. Heppe, Geschichte der quietistischen Mystik (Berlin. 1875), covers the whole subject. On the place of Quietism in the history of religious thought see W. R. Inge, Christian Mysticism (London, 1899); on its psychology see H. Delacroix, Etudes sur le mysticisme (Paris, 1908); J. Denis, Mémoires de l’Académie de Caen for 1894; W. James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (London, 1902); H. Joly, Psychologie des saints (Paris, 1898); J. H. Leuba, “Tendances fond amen tales des mystique’s chrétiens,” in the Revue philosophique for 1902; E. Murisier, Les Maladies du sentiment religieux (Paris, 1903); Rufus M. Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion (1909). See also the articles on Bossuat; Fénelon; Mme. Guyon; and Molinos. (St C.)
QUILIMANE, or Kilmane (the former being the Portuguese spelling), a town of Portuguese East Africa, in 18° 1′ S.,
36° 59′ E., 14 m. inland from the mouth of the river Quilimane
or Qua Qua. The river, an independent stream during the rest
of the year, during the rainy season becomes a deltaic branch of
the Zambezi, with which it is connected by a channel called
Mutu. The town (officially Sao Martinho de Quilimane) lies on
the north bank of the river at a point where it is about a mile
broad. There is ample and deep anchorage in the river, but
the entrance is obstructed by a bar, over which there is 9 ft. of
water at low tide, and from 16 to 22 ft. at high tide. Almost all
the European merchants live in one long, acacia-shaded street
or boulevard skirting the river, while the Indian merchants or
Banyans occupy another street running at right angles to the
first street. Behind lies the native town. The total population
in 1909 was 2200, including 400 Europeans and 320 Asiatics. The
trade of Quilimane, formerly the only port for the produce of
the Zambezi valley, steadily declined after the establishment
of Chinde (q.v.). Efforts made at the beginning of the 20th
century to develop local resources met with little success, owing
to high duties and freights. A railway 18 m. long runs to
Maquival, a large prazo for the cultivation of tropical produce.
The imports are largely cotton goods from England and India,
provisions from Portugal, and hardware from Germany. The
exports are chiefly copra, ground-nuts, sugar, sesamum, india-rubber,
wax, ivory, and beans. The average annual value of
the trade for the ten years 1897–1906 was:—imports £60,509,
exports £34,547. The natives are noted for their skill in the
manufacture of jewelry, chiefly gold and silver ornaments.
The town lies low and is unhealthy, despite efforts to improve
its condition.
The Quilimane river was entered by Vasco da Gama in 1498, who there discovered an Arab settlement. The present town was founded by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and became in the 18th and the early part of the 19th centuries one of the great slave marts on the east coast of Africa. It was the starting point of several notable expeditions—that of Francisco Barreto to the country of the Monomotapa in 1569, and that of David Livingstone up the Zambezi to Lake Nyasa in 1861 being the most famous. Until 1853 the trade of the port was forbidden to any save Portuguese. The European population, until the last quarter of the 19th century, consisted mainly of convicts from Portugal. (See Portuguese East Africa, History.)
QUILL, a term applied to the bare, hard, hollow tube of the feather of a bird, also to the large flight feathers or remiges, and
especially to the strong feathers of the goose, swan, or crow used in the making of quill pens (see Feather and Pen). The word is of obscure origin; a word with similar meaning, Kiel, is found in German, and French has quille, ninepin, apparently connected with Ger. Kegel. Certain ancient stringed instruments were played with a plectrum or plucker made of the quill of a bird’s feather, and the word has thus been used of a plectrum made of other material and differing in shape, and also of an analogous object for striking the strings in the harpsichord, spinet or virginal. The verb “to quill” is to fold lace, muslin or other light material into narrow flutes or pleats; when so pleated the material is called “quilling.” The French term “quillon,” apparently formed from quille, ninepin, is applied to the projecting arms or cross guards of the hilt of a sword.
QUILLER-COUCH, SIR ARTHUR THOMAS (1863–),
English writer, known under the pseudonym of “Q” was born
in Cornwall on the 21st of November 1863. He was educated
at Newton Abbot College, at Clifton College, and Trinity College,
Oxford. After taking his degree in 1886 he was for a short time
classical lecturer at Trinity. While he was at Oxford he
