Molinos’s disappearance from our historical view was, of course, no mere accident of history, the normal attrition of collective memory. It was, as far as the Inquisition was concerned, exactly the point. In the minds of his enemies, he was an arch- heretic, a seducer of both mind and body, and his doctrines were thought to encourage scandal among the devout.
Though it seems clear that Molinos was innocent of the worst of the charges leveled against him, our intention here is not to relitigate his case on either moral or theological grounds. Rather, we hope that this new English edition of the Spiritual Guide will introduce readers to a moment of Catholic history whose aftereffects continued to be felt long after its memory had fallen into obscurity.
From the historical introduction:
In his own day, Molinos was anything but invisible. In fact he was a celebrity cleric, a kind of televangelist avant la télévision. Revered by his followers, feted by politicians and prelates, and admired by royalty and the pope, he was also a magnet for controversy and the subject of fierce suspicions and accusations (including those of the sexual variety). His religious reputation made him the talk of Rome, and the publication of his Spiritual Guide brought him international fame, but when his fall came, at the hands of the Inquisition, it was quick and complete....
Molinos’s importance to Catholic history owes not to his fame but to his central role in the Quietist controversy, which was, with Jansenism, one of the two major theological debates to trouble the Catholic Church in the wake of the Counter-Reformation.... The Quietist controversy probably mattered more—though it is certainly remembered less—than the controversy over Jansenism….