[Footnote 300:  The reference is to Ruth iii. 7.]

[Footnote 301:  The somewhat feminine temper of Francis leads him to attach more value to fanciful symbolism than would have been approved by St. Juan, or even by St. Teresa.  And we miss in him that steady devotion to the Person of Christ, and to Him alone, which gives the Spaniards, in spite of themselves, a sort of kinship with evangelical Christianity.  St. Juan could never have written, “Honorez, reverez, et respectez d’un amour special la sacree et glorieuse Vierge Marie.  Elle est mere de nostre souverain pere et par consequent nostre grand’mere” (!).]

[Footnote 302:  The three parts into which the book is divided deal respectively with the “darkness and dryness” by which God purifies the heart; the second stage, in which he insists, complete obedience to a spiritual director is essential; and the stage of higher illumination.]

[Footnote 303:  “Cola c’ ingolfiano e ci perdiamo nel mare immenso dell’ infinita sua bonta in cui restiamo stabili ed immobili.”]

[Footnote 304:  It is interesting to find the “prayer of quiet” even in Plotinus.  Cf. Enn. v. 1. 6:  “Let us call upon God Himself before we thus answer—­not with uttered words, but reaching forth our souls in prayer to Him; for thus alone can we pray, alone to Him who is alone.”]

[Footnote 305:  He speaks, too, of “inner recollection” (il raccoglimento interiore), “mirandolo dentro te medesima nel piu intimo del’ anima tua, senza forma, specie, modo o figura, in vista e generate notitia di fede amorosa ed oscura, senza veruna distinzione di perfezione o attributo.”]

[Footnote 306:  Cf.  Bp.  Burnet:  “In short, everybody that was thought either sincerely devout, or that at least affected the reputation of it, came to be reckoned among the Quietists; and if these persons were observed to become more strict in their lives, more retired and serious in their mental devotions, yet there appeared less zeal in their whole deportment as to the exterior parts of the religion of that Church.  They were not so assiduous at Mass, nor so earnest to procure Masses to be said for their friends; nor were they so frequently either at confession or in processions, so that the trade of those that live by these things was terribly sunk.”]

[Footnote 307:  The Spiritual Guide was well received at first in high quarters; but in 1681 a Jesuit preacher published a book on “the prayer of quiet,” which raised a storm.  The first commission of inquiry exonerated Molinos; but in 1685 the Jesuits and Louis XIV. brought strong pressure to bear on the Pope, and Molinos was accused of heresy.  Sixty-eight false propositions were extracted from his writings, and formally condemned.  They include a justification of disgraceful vices, which Molinos, who was a man of saintly character, could never have taught.  But though the whole process against the author of the Spiritual Guide was shamefully unfair, the book contains some highly dangerous teaching, which might easily be pressed into the service of immorality.  Molinos saved his life by recanting all his errors, but was imprisoned till his death, about 1696.  In 1687 the Inquisition arrested 200 persons for “quietist” opinions.]