Folio 363

Innocent XI, 1676-1689

printed p. 331 · pdf p. 363

Error Concerning the Seal of Confession1

[Condemned in the decree of the Holy Office, Nov. 18, 1862]

1220. Concerning the proposition: "It is lawful to use knowledge obtained in confession, provided it is done without any direct or indirect revelation, and without burden upon the penitent, unless some much greater evil follows from its nonuse, in comparison with which the first would be rightly held of little account," an explanation or limitation then being added, that it is to be understood concerning the use of the knowledge obtained from confession with burden to the penitent, any revelation whatsoever being excluded, and in the case in which a much greater burden to the same penitent would follow from its nonuse,

it is decided: "that the stated proposition, as far as it admits the use of said knowledge with the burden upon the penitent, must be altogether prohibited, even with the aforesaid explanation or limitation."

Errors of Michael of Molinos2

[Condemned in the decree of the Sacred Office, August 28, and in the Constitutions "Coelestis Pastor," Nov. 20, 1687]

1221. 1. It is necessary that man reduce his own powers to nothingness, and this is the interior way.

1222. 2. To wish to operate actively is to offend God, who wishes to be Himself the sole agent; and therefore it is necessary to abandon oneself wholly in God and thereafter to continue in existence as an inanimate body.

1223. 3. Vows about doing something are impediments to perfection.

1224. 4. Natural activity is the enemy of grace, and impedes the operations of God and true perfection, because God wishes to operate in us with-out us.

1225. 5. By doing nothing the soul annihilates itself and returns to its be-ginning and to its origin, which is the essence of God, in which it remains transformed and divinized, and God then remains in Himself, because then the two things are no more united, but are one alone, and

[continued from previous page] of the Society of Jesus through the assessor, he replied that he would obey in every respect most promptly, although it had never been forbidden by himself or his predecessors to write in behalf of the more probable opinion and to teach it."

  1. DuPl III, II 354; Viva I 565 b. ↩

  2. DuPl III, II 357 ff.; coll. Viva I 557 a ff.; BR(T) 19, 775 b ff.; MBR 10, 212 b ff. —Michael de Molinos, born on June 29th, 1628, at Muniessa in Spain, in his works and letters spread the errors of quietism, so-called, finally was imprisoned, and in 1696, fortified by the sacraments of the Church, died. ↩