Issy, Articles of (1695)
Thirty-four
articles composed by a commission of the Catholic Church in 1695 at Issy, near
Paris. The commission, made up of J. B. Bossuet, L. de Noailles, and M.
Tronson, was formed to condemn erroneous teachings of the writings of Madame
Guyon, who was under the influence of Bishop Fenelon. At issue were the
theories of quietism (not unlike the nineteenth century Protestant holiness and
deeper life movement), which called for an abandonment of human effort and
complete passivity of will in order to reach a state of spirituality pleasing
to God. The need for petitionary prayer was set aside for a passive,
contemplative state of soul. The active life of faith and repentance was
inferior, if not a positive hindrance, to the quiet losing of the soul in God.
It is doubtful that Madame Guyon or Bishop Fenelon actually held to the extreme
doctrines of quietism such as indifference to the truth of the Trinity and the
incarnation, or to the impossibility of sin in the yielded soul. Though Madame
Guyon, F. Fenelon, and J. B. Bossuet all signed the Articles of Issy, Bossuet
and Fenelon continued to wage literary battle until the church condemned
Fenelon with twenty-three propositions in 1699.
See also MADAME GUYON;
QUIETISM.