Guyon, Jeanne-Marie-Bouvier de la Motte, Mme

(1648-1717)

   mystic

   Known as Mme Guyon, Jeanne-Marie-Bouvier de la Motte was born in Montargis and married Jacques Guyon du Chesnoy in 1676. Widowed in 1676, she embraced quietism and helped to bring that philosophy to Savoy and Piedmont (Gex, Thonon, Turin, Grenoble, Vercelli), to other regions of southern France, and to Paris. After an initial confinement in a visitadine convent (1688), which was due to the intrigue and bribery of the archbishop of Paris, who was critical of her ideas, she was freed through the influence of the wife of King LOUIS XIV, FRANÇOISE D'AUBIGNE, MARQUISE DE MAIN-TENON. Mme Guyon then met the theologian François fénelon, whom she introduced to the quietist views, and with whom she had an influence over the women enrolled at the school of saint-cyr. In 1694, however, after losing the favor of Mme de Maintenon and gaining the hostility of the prelate jacques-bénigne bossuet, she saw her writings condemned. She was also arrested (1695) and confined to the bastille (1698-03). Retiring to Blois, she became the center of a Quietist circle (both Catholic and Protestant). Mme Guyon's numerous writings, many in manuscript form, include Les Torrents spirituels (1682) and her autobiography, Vie (1688).