[ad. It. quietismo (whence also F. quiétisme, mod.L. quiētismus, etc.): see QUIET a. and -ISM.]
1. A form of religious mysticism (originated prior to 1675 by Molinos, a Spanish priest), consisting in passive devotional contemplation, with extinction of the will and withdrawal from all things of the senses; hence, any form of mysticism in which such principles are enjoined.
The Guida spirituale in which Molinos expounded his views was published at Rome in 1675, and condemned by the Inquisition in 1685.
1687. in Burnet, Lett. (1688), Suppl. 46. I will here digress a little from the business of Quietism.
1698. trans. Fénelon’s Maxims of Saints, Introd. There are but a few people that have not heard of Molinos, and his Doctrine of Quietism.
1773. Wesley, Wks. (1872), XIII. 25. Her [Madame Guion’s] writings will lead any one who is fond of them, into unscriptural Quietism.
1838. Sir J. Stephen, Eccl. Biog. (1850), II. 70. Quietism, indigenous in the East, is an exotic in this cold and busy land of ours.
1873. C. M. Davies, Unorth. Lond., 200. To avoid the Charybdis of carnalism, there is no need to seek the Scylla of Quietism.
2. A state of calmness and passivity of mind or body; repose, quietness, tranquillity.
1772. Town & Country Mag., 86. This discovery deprived him of all his quietism.
1785. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), IV. 122. The quietism into which people naturally fall after first sensations are over.
1836. Fraser’s Mag., XIII. 526. They could … disturb his quietism by acrimonious attacks.
