MORIN (Simon), a celebrated fanatic of the 17th century, was born at Richemont, near Aumale, and had been clerk to Mr Charron, general paymaster of the army. He was very ignorant and illiterate; and therefore it is no wonder if, meddling in spiritual matters, he fell into great errors. He was not content with broaching his whimsies in conversation, but wrote them down in a book, which he caused to be privately printed in 1647, under the title of Pensées de Morin dédiées au Roi. This book is a medley of conceit and ignorance, and contains the most remarkable errors which were afterwards condemned in the Quietists: only that Morin carries them to a greater length than any one else had done; for he affirms, "that the most enormous sins do not remove a sinner from the state of grace, but serve on the contrary to humble the pride of man." He says, "that in all sects and nations God has a number of the elect, true members of the church; that there would soon be a general reformation, all nations being just about to be converted to the true faith; and that this great reformation was to be effected by the second coming of Jesus Christ, and Morin incorporated with him."—He was in prison at Paris, at the time when Gaffendi's friends were writing against the astrologer John Baptist Morin, whom they upbraided (but, as he replied, falsely) with being the brother of this fanatic. This was about 1650; after which Simon Morin was
set at liberty as a visionary; and suffered to continue so till 1661, when Des Marets de St Sorlin, who, though a fanatic and visionary himself, had conceived a violent aversion to him, discovered his whole scheme, and had him taken up. The means Des Marets made use of for this discovery was by pretending to be one of his disciples; and he carried his treachery and dissimulation so far, as to acknowledge him for "the Son of man risen again." This acknowledgement so pleased Morin, that he conferred upon him, as a particular grace, the office of being his harbinger, calling him a real John the Baptist revived. Then Des Marets impeached him, and became his accuser; upon which Morin was brought to a trial, and condemned to be burnt alive. This sentence was executed on him at Paris, March 14th, 1663, in the form and manner following: After having made the ouende honorable in his shirt, with a cord about his neck and a torch in his hand, before the principal gate of the church of Notre Dame, he was carried to the place of execution, and there tied to a stake to be burnt alive, together with his book intitled Pensées de Morin, as also all his papers and his trial. Afterwards his ashes were thrown into the air, as a punishment for his having assumed the title of the Son of God. His accomplices, too, were condemned to assist at his execution, and then to serve in the galleys for life, after having been whipped by the hangman, and marked with a burning iron with fleurs de lis upon the right and left shoulders. Morin gave out that he would rise again the third day; which made many of the mob gather together at the place where he was burnt.—It is said, that when the president de Lamoignon asked him, whether it was written in any part of Scripture, that the great prophet or new Messiah should pass through the fire? he cited this text by way of answer: Igne me examinasti, et non est inventa in me iniquitas; that is, "Thou hast tried me with fire, and no wickedness hath been found in me." Morin died with remarkable resolution; and it was then thought the judges had been too rigorous in their sentence, and that sending him to a mad-house would have been sufficient. They replied in defence of themselves, that Morin had owned many impious tenets; and that not in sudden flirts and fits of heat, but in cool blood, and with deliberate obliuancy. But then a question will arise, whether a fool, any more than a madman, ought to be capitally punished for any opinion or degree of stubbornness?