RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
G-uthrie Guyon.
an institution at Gex, and offered her the headship of this community. She set off without telling any one of her intention, reached Geneva on July 21, 1681, and proceeded to Gex, where she was joined by Pere la Combe, whom she now (Bertot having died just before) adopted as her spiritual father. She was not at all comfortable in the house, however, so that it was not long before she gave up the project and took refuge with the Ursulines of Thonon. Here her life began to be a continuous series of visions and revelations; and here, at la Combe's instance, she entered on her career as an author. When la Combe left Thonon to take up a position in the household of the Bishop of Vercelli, she accepted the invitation of the Marquise de Prunai to Turin so as to be near him. She intended to reside there permanently; but he announced to her that it was her duty to go at once to Paris. She yielded, and went as far as Grenoble, where she began her commentary on the Scriptures and became an object of general attention as her fame had already been spread abroad. She was soon, however, denounced as a dangerous person, in fact a sorceress in league with the Evil One, and was obliged to take flight. She went first to Marseilles, and finally, on Good Friday, 1685, made her appearance at Vercelli.
Here there seemed a prospect of her finding at
last a peaceful retreat, as the bishop planned to use
her for the foundation of a congregation
Returns of women; but a dangerous illness
to Paris, sent her back to Paris, whither la Her Ideas Combe got permission to accompany Condemned, her. She had hardly reached there before she found that her own brother, a priest, and others were working against la Combe; suspicion of his relations with Madame Guyon and the charge of being a follower of Molinos led to his being imprisoned in the Bastille on the order of the archbishop (Oct., 1687). But the attack was directed not merely against him. It was reported to the king that Madam Guyon was a supporter of the Quietistic mysticism, and that she held meetings of a prohibited sort. By royal order she was arrested and confined in a convent of the Visitation (Jan. 29, 1688); but she was fortunate enough to enlist the sympathy of Madame de Main tenon, who procured her release. From 1688 to 1694 she lived partly in Paris and partly with her married daughter. At St. Cyr she came into contact with Fenelon, and began a lively interchange of religious ideas with him. Her friends brought about a meeting also with Bossuet, who came to see her and looked at her manuscripts early in 1694.
New trials were, however, preparing. Her ideas had found entrance into Madame de Maintenon's school at St. Cyr, and the confessor of Madame de Maintenon denounced them as dangerous and heretical, which led to her visits there being interdicted. Soon it was reported that Bossuet had found a number of grave errors in her writings, and accusations were even whispered against her manner of life. She besought Madame de Maintenon for an investigation, and a commission was named, consisting of Bossuet; de Noailles, Bishop of Chalons; and Tronson, superior of St. Sulpice, a friend
of Fenelon's. The final result of their meetings, at the latter of which Fenelon, now archbishop of Cambrai, assisted, was made known on Mar. 10, 1695. Thirty propositions collected from her writings were condemned. On Apr. 15 she signed a revocation of these propositions, after which Bossuet gave her a certificate of orthodoxy. Returning to Paris from Meaux, where she had spent some time for convenience of examination, she felt fortified by her rehabilitation and began to hold meetings for promoting the spiritual life. On Dec. 28 she was again arrested and imprisoned, first at Vincennes and afterward in the Bastille. She remained in confinement until the king and Bossuet had obtained from the pope (Mar., 1699) a condemnation of her Maximes des saints, and Bossuet had emerged victorious from his conflict with Fenelon. He now began to take a milder tone with her, and she was released either in 1700 or 1702. She lived fifteen years longer in retirement at Diziers near Blois, where her son was, maintaining a voluminous correspondence with admirers in France, Germany, Holland, and England.
Madame Guyon's influence did not perish with
her, but spread wider throughout France and the
surrounding countries, where her fol-
Her lowers regarded as Gospel truths her
Influence maxims — that the true Christian must and strive for a pure, wholly disinterested
Writings, love; that he must pray, not in order to gain anything, even salvation, from God, but as an act of submission and resignation without any will of his own; that perfect prayer is mental power, the resting in God without words and without will; that he who has attained this state is thenceforth without sin. Since this kind of "internal" religion, without dependence on the institutions and sacraments of the Church, was acceptable to Protestants, it had numerous followers among the members of different religious bodies in both England and Germany. Among Madame Guyon's works the following are noteworthy: her autobiography in three volumes (Cologne, 1720); Moyen court et tres facile pour Voraison (Lyons, 1688); Le Cantique des cantigues, interprets selon le sens mystique (Grenoble, 1685); and her version of the Bible with notes and reflections (Les Torrens spirituels, 30 vols., Cologne, 1713-15). (C. Pfendeb.)
Bibliography: A number of Madame Guyon's works are accessible in English, e.g., her Autobiography, Bristol, 1772, Dublin, 1775, Bristol, 1806, and a full transl. by T. T. Allen, 2 vols., London, 1897; many of her Poems were translated by W Cowper, London, 1811, and they appeared, edited and arranged, with a short life, by A. Saunders Dyer, Glasgow, 1887; A Method of Prayer, An Analysis . . . by T. C. Upham, London, 1859; A Short and Easy Method of Prayer, ib. 1867; and A Method of Prayer, by D. MacFadyen, ib. 1902.
On her life consult: J. B. Bossuet, Quakerism a la mode, or a History of Quietism, particularly that of Madame Guyone, Containing her Life, Prophecies and Visions, London, 1698; L. M. Francis, The Biographies of Lady Russell and Madame Guyon, Boston, 1832; C. Hermes, Ziige aus dem Leben der Frau von Guion, Magdeburg, 1845; T. C. Upham, Life and Religious Opinions and Experience of Madame de la Mothe Guyon, 2 vols., New York, 1847; H. Heppe, Geschichte der quietistischen Mystik, pp. 145 sqq., Berlin, 1875; A. Griveau, Etude
Gwatkin Habakkuk