doctrines could hardly fail to be regarded by the ordinary orthodoxy of that time as more or less hostile to the gene rally accepted views as to the nature and mode of sancti- fication, and as to the normal state of the graciously re newed heart ; at Thonon they soon gave deep offence, and ultimately it was intimated both to her and to La Combe, on the part of Bishop D Aranthon, that both must leave the diocese Her next resting place for a few weeks was Turin, whence, in the autumn of 1684, she removed to Grenoble, where she again became a centre of attraction and influence. Here, for the direction of the many who flocked to her for instruction and advice, she wrote and circulated her Moyen court et ires facile de faire oraison, a treatise in which she pointed out, doubtless in a manner highly susceptible of misconstruction, that prayer might often well be both silent and wordless.. The commencement of her commentaries on the Bible also dates from this stay in Grenoble. Her numerous and popular "conferences" or meetings for con versation and prayer or "self-recollection in God," and the effect produced by the Moyen court de faire oraison, how ever, speedily excited ecclesiastical opposition similar to that which she had already encountered at Gex, and although the bishop (Camus) was himself disposed to be tolerant, if not friendly, she was ultimately constrained, in the spring of 1636, to yield to strong representations, and seek an abode elsewhere. Nice, Genoa, and Yercelli (where she again met La Combe) were visited in turn; but it was finally resolved, with the advice arid concurrence of her friends, that Paris now offered itself as the field of labour most suited to her powers. Here accordingly she arrived on the 22d of July 1686, and soon she and her teaching began to meet with a very favourable reception in the higher circles of society. But meanwhile the doctrine of Molinos and the Guida Spirituale had been formally condemned by the Inquisition at Rome, and the sentence had been taken up as a signal, especially in France, for the persecution of all suspected quietists. In October 1687 La Combe was suddenly arrested by a royal " lettre de cachet " and committed to the Bastile ; and by the same authority Madame Guyon herself was, three months later (29th January 1688), ordered to be detained as a prisoner in the convent of St Marie in the Faubourg Sainte Antoine. The charges brought against her ware the maintenance of heretical opinions ; the holding of private religious assemblies, contrary to the practice and rules of the Catholic Church, for the spread of these opinions ; the publication of a dangerous book containing opinions similar to those of the Spiritual Guide of Molinos ; and correspondence with Molinos. These, however, were not destined to come to a definite issue, for through influence which friends succeeded in bringing to bear upon Madame de Maintenon a release was obtained in the following October. Madame Guyon now went to live for the most part with her daughter, who had become the Comtesse de Vaux, at the family seat in the neighbourhood of Paris ; but while on a visit with the duchess of Charost she became acquainted with Fenelon, and a considerable correspondence began. Her influence continuing to make itself felt at Paris, Dijon, Versailles, and other places, especially in the institution of St Cyr, founded by Madame de Maintenon in 1686, the attention of theologians was drawn afresh to the " new spirituality," as it was called ; and among others both the Port-Royalist Nicole and Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, sought personal interviews. The latter, to whom she had submitted not only all her printed works but also the manuscript of an autobiography which she had written when in confinement in 1688, after more than one long conference, is understood to have expressed himself as on the whole satisfied of her orthodoxy ; but the publication by Nicole of the Refutation des principals Erreurs des Quietistes appears to have had an exciting influence on the public mind; rumours prejudicial not only to the orthodoxy of Madam Guyon s faith, but also to the purity of her life, were industriously spread, and caused great scandal in the highest quarters, so that at last she was constrained to write to Madame de Maintenon requesting that a number of suitable persons might be selected for the purpose of judg ing both of her doctrine and her morals, and offering at the same time to submit to any degree of confinement and restraint until it should please the king to appoint such persons. A commission was duly nominated, consisting of Bossuet, Bishop (afterwards Cardinal) De Noailles, and Tronson, the superior of St Sulpice. To this tribunal she at their request submitted the Moyen Court, Les Torrens, and the manuscripts of her commentaries along with her autobio graphy, to which she added her Justification. The outcome of many deliberations, extending over some months, was the preparation of twenty-four articles, usually called the "Articles of Issy," relating to the doctrine of " pure love." Her refusal to sign a "condemnation of religious errors," as drawn up and presented to her by Bossuet in a pastoral ordinance and letter, now led to an open rupture which resulted in her reimprisonment, on this occasion at Vin- cennes, on the 27th of December 1695. Bossuet now set himself to prepare his Instruction sur les etats d oraison, which he submitted before publication to De Noailles, and, amongst others, to Fenelon for approval, The latter after reading the manuscript withheld his imprimatur, not on account of its doctrine (with which he did not disagree), but on account of its personalities, which he held to be uncalled for and unjust. Almost forced thus into the position of a champion of Madame Guyon, he published in 1697 his Maximes des Saintes, a statement of the leading principles laid down by approved writers on the subject of the higher inward experience and of holy living. In the course of the controversy which followed several important works appeared, which can only be alluded to here; the dispute, as is well known, issued in the formal condemnation of Fenelon (12th March 1699), in which achievement the hostility to Madame Guyon seems to have almost exhausted itself. She was not released, however, until 1702, in which year she was banished to Blois, where the remainder of her life was spent. Numbers of persons of all ranks, and many of them from foreign countries, visited her in this retirement : and both in correspondence and conversation she continued to manifest considerable activity, although feeling herself " called on to glorify God by submission and by private prayer, rather than by active labours." She heard mass daily, received the sacrament every alternate day, and died in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church, after
an illness of three months, on the 9th of June 1717.
La Vie de Madame de la Mothe Guyon, ecrite par clle-mSmc, first appeared at Cologne in 1720. It is based upon the autobiography which at the instance of La Combe she is known to have written during her imprisonment in 1688 ; it afterwards received addi tions and corrections from her own hands, and was finally entrusted to a confidential friend on the understanding that it should not be published until after her death. In addition to Lcs Torrens Spiritucls, and the Moyen court et tres facile de faire oraison, which were published in the Opuscules Spiritucls in 1704, there appeared in her lifetime the Poesies Spiritucllcs (1689); and La Bible, traduif.e en franqats, aves des Explications et des Reflexions qui rerjardcnt la Vic Intericure (1715). There are also several volumes of Lettrcs Chreticnncs ct Spiritudles, addressed by her to Metter- nich, Fenelon, and other correspondents, many of them distin guished. The edition of the collected (Euvres extends to 40 vols. (1767-1791 ). English and German translations of the various works are numerous. Apart from the Autobiography, the only memoir of Madame Guyon as yet in existence, is the diffuse but somewhat vague and meagre Life, by Thomas C. Upham(1854).
January 4, 1737, at Dijon, in the university of which
town his father was professor of civil law. As a boy
