Jeanne Guyon
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (commonly known as Madame Guyon) (April 18, 1648 - June 9, 1717) was a French mystic and one of the key advocates of Quietism. Quietism was considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church, and she was imprisoned from 1695 to 1703 after publishing a book on it A Short and Easy Method of Prayer.
Death and influence
In 1704, her works were published in The Netherlands, where they brought her more adherents. Many English and Germans visited her at Blois, among them Wettstein, and Lord Forbes. She died at the age of 68, in Bloise, believing that she had died submissive to the Catholic Church, from which she had never had any intention of separating herself.
Her published works (the Moyen Court and the Règles des assocées à l'Enfance de Jésu) were placed on the Index in 1688. Fénelon's "Maximes des saints" was branded with the condemnation of both the pope and the bishops of France.
Her disciples at the Court of Louis XIV were persons of piety and of exemplary life.
Madame Guyon's most devout disciples after her death were to be found among the Protestants and especially the Quakers. Evangelicals such as Spurgeon also were influenced. Her works were translated into English and German, and her ideas, forgotten in France, have been read in Germany, Switzerland, England, and America.