Chapter 8 The So-Called Italian Quietism: Siena in the 1680s
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Abstract
With the condemnation of the Spanish mystic Miguel de Molinos by the Roman Inquisition, the Catholic church defined a new heresy: Quietism. From that point on, Molinos was considered as the master, heresiarch or spreader of the pestifera quiete. Moreover, many mystics, both old and new, were seen as his disciples, victims, or even—as paradoxical as this may seem—his ancestors.
In the late 1680s, Siena, like other Italian cities, was inundated by a tidal wave of trials for Quietism. The investigations focused in particular upon a group of men and women, both lay believers and ecclesiastics from various social classes, devoted to the Prayer of Quiet. The hub of Sienese Quietism was identified as the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, where Antonio Mattei, a hermit considered to be the leader of the local movement, worked as a nurse. Thanks to his charisma Mattei had become the spiritual guide of a large number of people. The primary sources edited here are excerpts from the inquisitorial trial against Mattei; letters of spiritual direction and the so-called Protest of the Offering of the Will. It was this key-text, which was widely circulated (especially in convents), that most aroused the suspicions of the inquisitors. By discovering where this document had ended up, the inquisitors were able to reconstruct the network of relations between members of the group.