Molinism, the name given to the system of grace and election taught by Louis Jlolina (q. v.). The kind of prescience denominated in the Homish schools Scien- tia m^dia is that f(jreknowledgc of future contingencies which arises from an ar(niaintance with tlie nature and faculties of rational beings, of the circumstances in which they shall be placed, of the objects that shall be presented to them, and of the influence which their cir- cumstances and objects must have on their actions. This system has been commonly taught in the Jesuit schools; but a modification of it was introduced by the celebrated Spanish divine, Suarez ((i. v.\ in order to save the doctrine of special election. Suarez held that al- though God gives to all men grace absolutely sufficient for their salvation, yet he gives to the elect a grace which is not alime in itself sufficient, but which is so attem- pered to their disposition, their o|)portunities, aud other circumstances, that they infallil)ly. although yet (juite freely, yield to its influence. This niodilication of ^loli- na's system is called Conuki;i.s.m. Molinism must not
be confounded either with Pelagianism or semi-Pela- gianisra, inasmuch as Molinism distinctly supposes the inability of man to do any supernatural act without grace ((). v.). See Thomists; Wiix, Fkke.
Molinos, Miguel de, a Spanish theologian, found- er of the Quietists, was born of noble parentage near Sar- agossa, December 21, 1627. He studied at Pampeluna, aud, after finishing his studies at the University of Co- imbra, took holy orders, and in 1669 went to Home, where his pious conduct and the purity of his life caused many to choose him for their spiritual director. He acquired great reputation, but steadily refused all eccle- siastical preferment. In 1675 he published his Wag or Guide to what the Mystics call a spiritual or contem- plative life. This book, written in Spanish, was sup- ported by the recommendations of some of the greatest and most respectable men. In 1681 it was published at Rome in Italian, though it had appeared in that lan- guage some time before in other places. Afterwards it was translated into the Dutch, French, and Latin lan- guages; and was very often printed in Holland, France, and Italy. The Latin translation, under the title of Manuductio spirituulis, was published by A. H. Franke (Halle, 1687, 12mo). In Italian it bore the title of Guida Spirituale. But though the work added greatly to Mo- linos's celebrity, it also became the subject of bitter op- position. It was soon attacked. There were not want- ing many who in the specious but visionary principles of this work discovered the seeds of a dangerous and seductive error. Among these the celebrated preacher Segneri was the first who ventured publicly to call its or- thodoxy into (piestion ; but his strictures were by iloli- nos's friends ascribed to jealousy of the influence which Jlolinos had acquired with the people. By degrees, however, reports unfavorable to the practical results of this teaching, and even to the personal conduct and character of its author, or of his followers, began to find circulation; and eventually the Jesuits took decided ground against him, and he was accused of heresy. The substance of his system, which his friends interpret in one way and his opponents in another, amounted to this: Christian perfection consists in the peace of the soul, in renouncement of all external and temporal things, in the pure love of God, free from all considera- tions of interest or hope of reward. Thus a soul which desires the supreme good must renounce not only all sen- sual pleasures, but also all material and sensual things; silence every impulse of its mind and will, and concen- trate and absorb itself in God. Molinos's enemies ac- cused him and some of his disciples of reviving the abuses of the Gnostics, and of teaching, both by their precepts and their example, the most objectionable prin- ciples of Quietism, According to the propositions which were condemned by the Inquisition, he pushed to such an extreme the contemplative repose which is the com- mon characteristic of Quietism as to teach the utter indifference of the soul, in a state of perfect contempla- tion, to all external things, and its entire independence of the outer world, even of the actions of the very body which it animates; insomuch that this internal perfec- tion is compatible with the worst external excesses, since these are of no importance so long as the soul remains in communion with God. See (iiiKTissi. It is very probable that the opposition to him, especially that of the Jesuits and others who watched over the interests of the Romish cause, was provoked because they perceived tliat Molinos's system tacitly accused the Romish Church of a departure from true religion. Molinos, though he had a vast number of friends, and though the pontiff himself. Innocent XI. was partial to him, was in ItWJ cited before the Intpnsition, and sub- mitted to close im|irisonment and examination. In ad- dition to the opinions coiUaiued in his book, a prodig- ious mass of papers and letters, to the number, it is said, of 20,000, foimd in his house, were produced against him, and he was himself rigorously examined as to liis I oi)inions. The trial lasted two years; and in 1687 sixt^--
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eight propositions contained in his book were solemnly condemned. By a decree of Aug. 28, 1687, he was de- clared to have taught false and dangerous dogmas, con- trary to the doctrine of the Church and to Christian piety. On Sept. 3 following he was brought out in a yellow scapular, with a red cross before and behind, made to kneel on a scaffold in front of the church of the Dominicans, and there compelled to recant all he had taught in liis books; after which he was compelled to pass the remainder of his life in prison. A bull of In- nocent XII, of Nov. 19, confirmed the action of the In- quisition, and condemned, in fflobo, the sixty-eight prop- ositions. A refutation of JNIolinos's doctrine is to be found in Fenelon's works (Versailles, 1820), and in Bos- suet, JEtats d'Oraison. See Moreri, Diet, histor. ; Plu- quet. Diction, des heresies; Recueil de diverses pieces concernant le Quietisme et les Quietistes. ou Molinos, ses sentinieiis et ses disciples (Amsterd. 1688, 8vo) ; Letti-es ecrits de Rome touchanl le Quietisme; ou Molinos, ses sentiments, etc. (Amsterd, 1688) ; Herzog, Recd-Encyklo- pddie, ix, 698 ; Mosheim, Eccles. I/ist. iii, 339 sq. ; Ber- gier, Diet, de Theolor/ie, iv, 420; Wetzer u.Welte, Kir- chen-Lexikon, vii, 2113 sq. ; Scharling, in Niedner's Zeit- sclirift, 185-4, p. 325 sq., 489 sq. ; 1855, p. 3 sq. ; Baum- garten-Crusius, Compend. d. Dogmen Gesch. i, 407 sq.; Hodgson, Reformers and Martyrs; Heinroth, Gesch. u. Kritik d. Mysticismus, pt. iii, ch. iii; Walch, Religiose Streitigkeiten ausser der lather. Kirche, i, 293 sq. ; ii, 982 sq. ; Schrockh, Kirchengeschichte s. d. Ref. vii, 453 sq. See Mysticism.