Author: Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Mothe
Biography:
GUYON, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Mothe (1648-1717: WBIS)
Towards the end of his life, William Cowper (q.v.) occupied himself with translations of Homer and of poems by Mme Guyon, a controversial French Catholic mystic of a century earlier. His translations of the poems were not published until after his death. Born into a wealthy and pious family, Mlle Bouvier de la Mothe might have chosen the convent for herself, but instead she was married at the age of fifteen--unhappily, as it turned out--to Jacques Guyon du Chesnoy, an invalid of 38. Widowed in 1676 with three surviving children, she developed her own form of quietist mysticism, for which she was twice imprisoned and forced to recant. Her most celebrated disciple was Fénelon, who became the Archbishop of Cambrai. She spent her last years, after her release from the Bastille in 1703, living a retired life with her son-in-law in Blois. Her spiritual writings include Les Torrents spirituels (1682) and Le Moyen court (1685); significantly for Cowper, her collected Opuscules spirituels appeared in 1790 and her autobiography in 1791. (New Catholic Encyclopedia [2003]; Wikipedia 29 Jan. 2019)
Other Names:
- GUION, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Mothe
- Lady Guion
- Madame de la Mothe Guion
- Mme. de la Mothe Guion