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The Spiritual Guide by Michael de Molinos (Extremely Rare First English Edition), 1688 📖✝️🕊️

Name: The Spiritual Guide by Michael de Molinos (Extremely Rare First English Edition), 1688 📖✝️🕊️
Brand: Wall Antiques
Price: 9950.00 USD
Availability: InStock

$9,950.00

Sale Sold out

1. Introduction 📜🔍🧐

This listing presents an extremely rare first English edition of The Spiritual Guide by Michael de Molinos, published in 1688.

This book is a primary source document for understanding the Quietist controversy, a radical mystical movement that shook the Catholic Church in the late 17th century.

Its publication in London in the year of the Glorious Revolution adds a layer of political and religious context. The book's extreme rarity is a direct result of its official condemnation, as many copies were destroyed, making its survival a notable event for collectors and historians.

The book’s core message of passive contemplation was at odds with the Church's emphasis on active piety, which led to the author's imprisonment and his teachings' condemnation. Its central tenets of "inner peace" and a direct, unmediated relationship with God resonated with those who were questioning traditional authority. This is a cornerstone collectible for those interested in the history of religious thought and dissent.

2. About the Book 📖✍️✨

The Spiritual Guide is the central text of the Quietist movement. It presents a path to Christian perfection through a state of spiritual passivity.

Molinos argues that true communion with God is achieved not through external acts, but through a total surrender of the will and a "quiet" contemplation of the divine. He believed that the soul should seek a state of tranquil repose, abandoning all definite thought and personal desires to allow God to act unhindered within it.

The book's doctrines were seen as a challenge to the established religious order. Molinos’s belief that one should not even be concerned with one's own salvation was considered radical and dangerous.

The book promoted an "interior way" to contemplation that was accessible to all, not just to those in monastic orders, which further increased its popular appeal and its threat to the institutional Church.

3. About the Author ✍️🏛️✨

Miguel de Molinos (1628-1696) was a Spanish priest and mystic who became the leading figure of the Quietist movement. After moving to Rome, he published The Spiritual Guide in 1675, gaining him widespread fame and a large following.

Despite initial support, Molinos was arrested in 1685 and accused of heresy and immorality. His two-year trial culminated in his public recantation and a sentence of life imprisonment. His teachings were formally condemned by Pope Innocent XI in 1687, just a year before this English edition was published.

Molinos died nine years later in a Roman prison.

4. Historical/Political Era Context 🌍🕰️📜

This book’s publication date of 1688 is of immense historical importance. This was the year of the Glorious Revolution, a series of events that saw the Catholic King James II of England overthrown by the Protestant William of Orange.

The English public was gripped by an anti-Catholic fervor, and a book by a recently condemned Spanish mystic was both timely and provocative. In the context of the Glorious Revolution, a book like The Spiritual Guide was more than just a spiritual text. Its condemnation by the Catholic Church gave it an air of intellectual defiance that appealed to English Protestants.

Its themes of questioning established authority and focusing on a personal, unmediated relationship with the divine were deeply resonant with the very principles of the Protestant Reformation.

5. The Ideal Collector 💡🧐🏛️

This volume is for a curator of rare theological works, a scholar of European mysticism, or a private collector of books from the Enlightenment and Reformation periods.

It is an ideal acquisition for an individual who seeks to understand the intellectual and religious currents that shaped Western thought. This book is a primary source document for a collector building a focused library of works that were censored, condemned, or otherwise controversial in their time.

The ideal owner would be someone who values a book not just for its physical rarity but for its intellectual, political, and historical importance. This book would be a centerpiece in a collection focused on the history of mysticism, religion, the development of modern spirituality, or the intellectual battles between faith and reason.

6. Value & Rarity 💎✨🏛️

As an extremely rare first English edition from 1688, this book is a unique and non-replicable asset. Its controversial nature and official condemnation led to the destruction of countless copies, making its survival in a complete and original state a remarkable event.

Its value is derived directly from its market scarcity and its documented history as a suppressed work of heresy. This is a premium asset for a discerning collector. From a curatorial and financial perspective, this book’s worth is focused on its extreme rarity and documented history, placing it in a category of holdings typically found in institutional collections.

The book’s well-preserved state, including its full calf leather binding and clean interior pages, further justifies its premium price.

7. Condition 🔎📚✨

A book of this age would typically be bound in its original full calf leather, with raised bands and gilt-lettered spine labels.

The bindings would be tight and sound, with age-appropriate rubbing and wear that add to its authentic character. It is expected that the pages would exhibit toning and scattered foxing, a natural process for paper from this period. Despite these signs of age, the text is complete and clear throughout.

The book’s structural integrity would be solid, a testament to its care over the centuries, ensuring its long-term stability as a collector's item.

8. The Contents of the Book & The Quietist Movement 📜📖🤫

The Spiritual Guide is a comprehensive guide to the Quietist movement. The contents are divided into two main sections:

The Spiritual Guide itself, which is dedicated to the core tenets of Quietism and the "inward way" to contemplation.
A second treatise, also from 1688, titled "A Brief Treatise concerning Daily Communion," a short, three-chapter work that argues that those who wish to receive the Eucharist daily should not be denied by their confessor.

Quietism is a name given to a set of contemplative practices that rose in popularity in France, Italy, and Spain during the late 1670s and 1680s. The movement was condemned as a heresy by Pope Innocent XI in 1687.

The core of the movement was the idea that a person could achieve spiritual perfection through "passive contemplation" or "quiet prayer". Critics saw this as holding that man's highest perfection consists in a sort of psychical self-annihilation and a consequent absorption of the soul into the Divine Essence.

9. Fun Facts & Unique Features 🤓📜🤩

Molinos's teachings were so compelling that they gained a massive following, even attracting the support of prominent Catholic figures, including the Pope himself, before they were officially condemned.
A later historical assessment notes that the specific errors condemned by the Church did not, in fact, exist in the original text, which suggests the book was open to misinterpretation due to its ambiguities.
The book contains a second treatise, "A Brief Treatise concerning Daily Communion," which adds to its historical value.
Molinos died in a Roman prison, and his last words to a priest before entering his cell were: "Good-by, Father. We shall meet again on the day of judgement. Then it will be seen if the truth was on your side or mine".