[ad. It. quietista (F. quiétiste): cf. prec. and -IST.]
1. One who believes in or practises Quietism, or any form of mysticism resembling it.
1685. Burnet, Letter from Rome (1689), 205. A state of inward quietness, from which the name of Quietists was given to all his followers.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2269/3, They write from Rome that the Pope had assisted a third time at a Congregation held concerning the Quietists.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., III. § 14. The disinterested Stoics (therein not unlike our modern Quietists).
1840. Thirlwall, Greece, VII. liii. 14. He conceived a like admiration for the Indian quietists.
1893. C. G. Leland, Memoirs, I. 23. Reading works by Mystics, Quietists, and the like.
2. One whose attitude towards political or social movements is analogous to Quietism in religion.
1798. Charlotte Smith, Yng. Philos., IV. 392–3. I will not talk to you about politics, because you are among the moderates and quietists.
1834. Southey, Doctor, cii. (1862), 232. He was not like him a political quietist from indifference.
1871. R. H. Hutton, Ess., II. 442. He was, in political and social conviction, a democratic quietist; one might almost say a fatalist.
3. attrib. or as adj.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), II. XI. ii. 224. The Quietist doctrine of unconsciousness.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Elsie V., xxviii. (1891), 413. Hymns … of the Methodist and Quietist character.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, II. x. 29. Rousseau raised feeling, now passionate, now quietist.
