Petrucci, Pier Matteo

PETRUCCI, PIER MATTEO. - Cardinal, b. at Jesi on 20 May 1636, d. there on 5 July 1701. Having entered the Filippini on 2 Feb. 1661, in 1678 he was provost of the Congregation. On 20 May 1681 he took possession of the diocese of Jesi. On 2 Sept. 1686 he was created cardinal by Innocent XI.

P. is the major exponent of Italian Quietism, in which he represents, unlike Molinos (v.), a type of "moderate" Quietism. Not everything in P. is heretical (indeed at times his Quietism is only a "state of mind"); but heresy appears in him in the theological delineation of the mystical stage, inasmuch as he asserts not only the suspension of the discourse of the intellect, but the suspension of the intellect itself: and in this situation the theory of "nothingness" is outlined as the exemplar of the mystical life and the center of the soul (I mistici enigmi discelati, Venice 1683, p. 34). His anti-intellectualist position leads him to the definition of a God who on earth "must be believed, hoped in, adored, and loved, not known, nor gazed upon" (Lettere e trattati spirituali e mistici, part 2, ibid. 1679, p. 168). P. is a conscious upholder of the impeccability of man when he is placed in the contemplative stage. P.'s theories expressed in his writings (besides the works cited: La contemplazione mistica aquistata, ibid. 1682; Il nulla della creature e l' tutto di Dio, Bologna 1682; Lettere brievi spirituali e sacre, Jesi 1682) and the method of spiritual guidance that he practiced with his penitents at Jesi aroused great scandal: on 17 Dec. 1687 he had to retract the heretical propositions in the hands of Innocent XI, which aroused the "disgust" of the Congregation of the Holy Office, which wanted the retraction to be public. P.'s works were placed on the Index on 5 Feb. 1688.

Massimo Petrocchi