JEANNE

MARIE

See also:

• BOUVIER, JOHN (1787—1851)

BOUVIER DE LA MOTHE

See also:

• JEANNE MARIE BOUVIER DE LA MOTHE GUYON (1648—1717)
• GUYON, RICHARD DEBAUFRE (1803-1856)

GUYON (1648—1717)  , French quietist wiiter, was born at Montargis, where her family were persons of consequence, on the 13th of April 1648 . If her somewhat hysterical autobiography may be trusted she was much neglected in her youth; most of her timewas spent as a boarder in various convent schools . Here she went through all the religious experiences common to neurotic young women; these were turned in a definitely mystical direction by the duchesse de Bethune, daughter of the disgraced minister, Fouquet, who spent some years at Montargis after her father's fall . In 1664 Jeanne Marie was married to a rich invalid of the name of Guyon, many years her senior . Twelve years later he died, leaving his widow with three small children and a considerable fortune . All through her unhappy married life the mystical attraction had grown steadily in violence; it now attached itself to a certain Father Lacombe, a Barnabite monk of weak character and unstable intellect . In 1681 she left her family and joined him; for five years the two rambled about together in Savoy and the south-east of France, spreading their mystical ideas . At last they excited the suspicion of the authorities; in 1686 Lacombe was recalled to Paris, put under surveillance, and finally sent to the Bastille in the autumn of 1687 . He was presently transferred to the castle of Lourdes, where he developed softening of the brain and died in 1715 . Meanwhile Madame Guyon had been arrested in January 1688, and been shut up in a convent as a suspected heretic . Thence she was delivered in the following year by her old friend, the duchesse de Bethune, who had returned from exile to become a power in the devout court-circle presided over by Madame de Maintenon . Before long Madame Guyon herself was introduced into this pious assemblage .

Its members were far from

critical; they were intensely interested in religion; and even Madame Guyon's bitterest critics bear witness to her charm of manner, her imposing appearance, and the force and eloquence with which she explained her mystical ideas . So much was Madame de Maintenon impressed, that she often invited Madame Guyon to give lectures at her girls' school of St Cyr . But by far the greatest of her conquests was Fenelon, now a rising young director of consciences, much in favour with aristocratic ladies . Dissatisfied with the formalism of average Catholic piety, he was already thinking out a mystical theory of his own; and between 1689 and 1693 they corresponded regularly . But as soon as ugly reports about Lacombe began to spread, he broke off all connexion with her . Meanwhile the reports had reached the prudent ears of Madame de Maintenon . In May 1693 she asked Madame Guyon to go no more to St Cyr . In the hope of clearing her orthodoxy, Madame Guyon appealed to Bossuet, who decided that her books contained " much that was intolerable, alike in form and matter." To this judgment Madame Guyon submitted, promised to " dogmatize no more," and disappeared into the country (1693) . In the next year she again petitioned for an inquiry, and was eventually sent, half as a prisoner, half as a penitent, to Bossuet's cathedral town of Meaux . Here she spent the first half of 1695; but in the summer she escaped without his leave, bearing with her a certificate of orthodoxy signed by him . Bossuet regarded this flight as a gross act of disobedience; in the winter Madame Guyon was arrested and shut up in the Bastille . There she remained till 1703 .

In that year she was liberated, on

condition she went to live on her son's estate near Blois, under the eye of a stern bishop . Here the rest of her life was spent in charitable and pious exercises; she died on the 9th of June 1717 . During these latter years her retreat at Blois became a regular place of pilgrimage for admirers, foreign quite as often as French . Indeed, she is one of the many prophetesses whose fame has stood highest out of their own country . French critics of all schools of thought have generally reckoned her an hysterical degenerate; in England and Germany she has as often roused enthusiastic admiration . AUTnoRITIEs.--Vie de Madame Guyon, ecrite par elle-meme (really a compilation made from various fragments) (3 vols., Paris, 1791) . There is a life in English by T . C . Upham (New York, 1854) and an elaborate study by L . Guerrier (Paris, 1881) . For a remark-able review of this latter work see Brunetiere, Nouvelles Etudes critiques, vol. ii . The complete edition of Madame Guyon's works, including the autobiography and five volumes of letters, runs to ,~.erty volumes (1767–1791); the most important works are published separately, Opuscules spirituels (2 vols., Paris, 1790) .

They have been several times translated into English . See also the literature of the

article on QUIETISM; and H . Delacroix, Etudes sur le mysticisme (Paris, 1908) .