FRENCH JAMSEN/STS 
 
 FI DELIS USQJJE AD MORTEM 
 
 1893 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE PASCAL COLLECTION 
 
 OF 
 
 GEORGE L. HAMILTON 
 
W% Cornell University 
 WB Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029432907 
 
TG5 
 
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FRENCH JANSENISTS. 
 
French Jansenists. 
 
 BV THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 ■MANY VOICES" AND ''SPANISH MYSTICS/' 
 
 ' En un cadre r^duit, Port-Royal a vu se dSployer des caract^res 
 dont la trempe nk pas 6t6 surpass^e. . . L'arfene du combat peut 
 sembler ^troite ; mais les ^mes sont grandes, ' 
 
 ' L' effort vaut mieux que le r^sultat. ' 
 
 LONDON: 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRtJBNER, & CO. L™ 
 
 PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD. 
 1893. 
 
ex 
 
 ^. SdS^69 
 
 "^ 
 
 
 The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved. 
 
TO 
 THE FAITHFUL FRIEND OF MV YOUTH AND AGE, 
 
 GEORGIAN A MAURICE, 
 
 WIDOW OF 
 
 FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE, 
 
 Zbis Volume 
 
 IS 
 GRATEFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY 
 INSCRIBED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the seventeenth century the name of ' Jansenist ' was 
 a term of reproach given to the Port-Royalists by their 
 adversaries, because they defended the religious opinions 
 held by Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres. 
 
 But the noble characters of these 'so-called' Jansenists, 
 their high standard of morality, and the unjust persecution 
 which they endured, have cast a halo round the name, and 
 French Jansenists have gained that sympathy and respect 
 which genius, learning, and purity of life must, sooner or 
 later, command. 
 
 I have sought in these pages to gather together some of 
 the thoughts and sayings of the leading Jansenists, and to 
 give in each case a sketch of their lives. 
 
 MARGUERITE TOLLEMACHE. 
 Easier, 1893. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CORNELIUS JANSEN . I 
 
 JEAN DU VERGIER DE HAURANNE, ABfii DE SAINT- 
 
 CYRAN. ' . . lO 
 
 JACQUELINE-MARIE-ANG^LIQUE ARNAULD (M^RE A^ci- 
 
 LIQUE), ABBESS OF PORT- ROYAL . 50 
 
 ANTOINE ARNAULD lOI 
 
 LOUIS-ISAAC LE MAtXRE DE SACI . 1 52 
 
 PIERRE NICOLE . ... .162 
 
 BLAISE PASCAL . . 172 
 
 LOUIS-SEBASTIEN LE NAIN DE TILLEMONT' . . . 220 
 
 PASQUIER QUESNEL 229 
 
FRENCH JANSENISTS. 
 
 -C^J^iJiMSLXJIXLS ^^4JJSIilSL 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 47, line 6 from bottom, for "wrapt" read "rapt." 
 Page 75, line 17, for "she" read "he." 
 Page 99, line 10 from bottom, delete comma after "full.' 
 Page 148, line 11 from bottom, for "wild" read "wide.' 
 
 for his scholarship that at seventeen years of age he was 
 pubHcly declared ' the first student of his year.' ^ 
 
 For some years before Jansen's appearance at Louvain 
 religious controversy had been rife in the University. The 
 Chancellor Baius, who had died when Jansen was four years 
 old, had been an ardent admirer of the writings of St. 
 Augustine, and some of the opinions he had expressed on 
 the doctrine of free grace had drawn upon him the suspicion 
 
 1 See Beard's ' Port-Royal.' 
 
 A 
 
FRENCH JANSENISTS. 
 
 CORNELIUS HANSEN. 
 
 B. 1585. D. 1638. 
 
 ' By grace ye are saved. When thou hearest by grace, understand 
 gratis. If then gratis, thou hast brought nothing of thine own — hast 
 merited nothing. For if anything is repaid to merit, it is reward, not 
 grace. By grace ye are saved, through faith.' — St. Augustine. 
 
 Jansen, or Jansenius, was born at Accoy, a village near 
 Leerdam in Holland. He was the child of humble parents 
 — so humble indeed that he possessed no surname — his 
 father being known only as Jan Ottosen, or Jan the son of 
 Otto, and Jansenius himself simply as Cornelius Jansen, or 
 the son of Jan. Little is recorded of his early life beyond 
 that this son of a peasant studied both at Utrecht and 
 at Louvain, and at this last University was so distinguished 
 for his scholarship that at seventeen years of age he was 
 publicly declared ' the first student of his year.' ^ 
 
 For some years before Jansen's appearance at Louvain 
 religious controversy had been rife in the University. The 
 Chancellor Baius, who had died when Jansen was four years 
 old, had been an ardent admirer of the writings of St. 
 Augustine, and some of the opinions he had expressed on 
 the doctrine of free grace had drawn upon him the suspicion 
 
 1 See Beard's ' Port-Royal.' 
 
 A 
 
2 FRENCH JANSENISTS. L1S85-1638. 
 
 of heresy, his chief opponent being Lessius, a Jesuit, who 
 was regarded by Baius in the light of a Semi-Pelagian. The 
 writings of both had been censured, but the scattered seed 
 sown by Baius yielded fruit an hundredfold in the succeed- 
 ing generation. 
 
 Jansen was naturally weak in constitution. His health 
 soon gave way from over-study, and in his twenty-first year 
 he was recommended to leave the Netherlands and travel 
 to recruit his strength. He found his way to Paris, where 
 he met an old acquaintance and fellow-student of the 
 University of Louvain ; this was Jean du Vergier de 
 Hauranne, afterwards Ahh6 de Saint-Cyran, and the first 
 apostle of Jansenism in France. 
 
 The young men had kindred tastes, and a close intimacy 
 sprang up between them in spite of the difference which 
 existed in their worldly position. Jansen's means being 
 scanty, his friend procured for him a tutorship in a French 
 family, which enabled him to prolong his stay in Paris. 
 The two friends spent much of their spare time together, 
 studying Greek and Hebrew, Philosophy and Theology. 
 
 But after five years the health of Jansen obliging him to 
 quit Paris, his friend proposed that they should adjourn 
 together to the south of France, where they established 
 themselves in a small house by the seaside, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Bayonne. 
 
 They resolved to hve a Ufe of strict seclusion, and to have 
 but one object in their studies and meditations — the pur- 
 suit of religious truth. This renunciation of the world at 
 an age when its honours and preferments have so much 
 attraction, carries back the mind to St. Basil and St. Gregory 
 Nazianzen, likewise close friends and fellow-students, who 
 retired in the fulness of their fame from Csesarea, and took 
 refuge together in the mountains of Pontus, that they might 
 
1585-1638.1 CORNELIUS jfANSEN. 3 
 
 without interruption draw near to God, and.meditate on His 
 truth. But, as has been playfully remarked, 'Whereas 
 Gregory wrote poetry in his hours of recreation, Jansen and 
 du Vergier played battledore, the one diversion they per- 
 mitted themselves ! ' 
 
 Theology had become both to Jansen and du Vergier the 
 absorbing interest of their life ; their leisure hours in Paris 
 had been spent in attempts to master the writings of St. 
 Thomas Aquinas and others of the Schoolmen ; they now 
 determined to put aside these works and devote themselves 
 to the study of St. Augustine, the great authority to whom 
 the Schoolmen professed to bow down. 
 
 They sought iruiA for its own sake, and reverently prayed 
 for Divine light and guidance. ^ For six years they to- 
 gether pored over the pages of the great Latin father ; they 
 studied and re-studied them ten times over. It is even 
 asserted that the passages relating to the Pelagian contro- 
 versy were carefully examined by Jansen as many as thirty 
 times ; and so eager was he to acquaint himself with the 
 teaching of St. Augustine respecting original sin and free 
 grace, that he is said to have wished ' that he could follow 
 like the cranes in the sun's track, and pursue his reading 
 where the days were longest.' 
 
 To both the friends justification by faith became the 
 cardinal point of religion — the corner-stone of the system 
 afterwards styled ' Jansenism.' The doctrines of Pelagianism, 
 and especially of Semi-Pelagianism, filled the Church, and 
 had become the Christianity of the day. The fall of man 
 and redemption through Christ were no longer primary 
 doctrines in the schools, and Jansen and du Vergier felt that 
 
 1 When Jansen was asked which attribute of God impressed him the 
 most, he replied, ' Truth ; ' and he was often overheard saying to himself 
 with a deep sigh, ' O Truth, Truth ! '" 
 
4 FRENCH. JANSENISTS. [.585-1638. 
 
 what was needed was a return to primitive truth and a 
 clearer faith in the Divinity of Christ.i The controversy 
 which their teaching awofce in the Church was, in fact, but 
 a revival of the old dispute of the fifth century between St. 
 Augustine and Pelagius. 
 
 It was whilst dwelling together in this house by the sea- 
 side that the great work of Jansen was planned and com- 
 menced with the assistance of du Vergier — the book which 
 was to bring down such a storm of invectives, and to which, 
 as clearly setting forth the doctrines of St. Augustine, he gave 
 the name of the ' Augustinus.' Both were conscious of the 
 fierce opposition which it was likely to excite, 'especially 
 with regard to grace, sin, and forgiveness ; doctrines which 
 hdd degenerated into mere traditional formulae, but which 
 Jansen in his book had restored to their rightful position 
 and efficacy.' ^ The two friends 'foresaw the personal danger 
 they must incur by the publication of the 'Augustinus,' but 
 the conscience of Jansen would not permit him to falter in 
 proclaiming what he held to be truth. Neither could foresee 
 that a book designed to be a compendium of Christian 
 truth would lead to a century of battle in the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 The seclusion of the two young men was at last broken 
 up by the Bishop of Bayonne,^ who, knowing their worth, 
 
 ^ See Ranke's ' History of the Popes ' (Jansenists). See also Dr.Neale's 
 'History. of the So-called Jansenist Churdi.' 'In the "Augustinus,"' 
 Dr. Neale says, 'Jansen endeavoured to restore the theology of the seven- 
 teenth century to the doctrine of that Saint who has always been regarded 
 as iAe Doctor wf Grace — Augjustine. ' 
 
 2 See Ranke's ' History of the Popes ' (Jansenists). 
 
 3 This Bishop of Bayonne (Bertrahd Descheaux) became in 1616 Arch- 
 bishop of Tours in succession to Etienne Galigai, who resigned the dignity 
 and fled from France with other Italians after the assassination of Concini, 
 Marechal d'Ancre, and the execution of his innocent wife, Leonora, the 
 sister of Archbishop Galigai. She was looked upon -by the ignorant multi- 
 tude as a sorceress, the belief in magic being at that time so intense that 
 all disasters were attributed to it. Leonora's increasing influence over the 
 
1585-1638.] CORNELIUS JANSEN. 5 
 
 desired that their talents should no longer be hidden, but 
 should he actively employed for the benefit of the Church. 
 In obedience to his orders, the two friends parted in 161 7 ; 
 du Vergier went to Poitiers and Jansen returned to Louvain, 
 where' he became Principal of the College of Pulcheria and 
 Professor of Theology. 
 
 There he continued his great task of ' extracting the 
 essence of pure doctrine' from the pages of St. Augustine. 
 
 But absorbed as he was in theological study, he must 
 have been credited with some capacity for diplomacy, for 
 he was twice sent to Madrid (Louvain being under Spanish 
 rule) to uphold the claims of the University against the 
 encroachments of the Jesuits, who had opened schools of 
 philosophy and had proceeded to confer degrees — a power 
 to which they had no right. Jansen was so far successful 
 in his mission, that though the Jesuits were permitted to 
 retain their sch6ols, they were required to submit to the 
 University and observe its statutes and rules.i 
 
 In 1633 France entered into the great struggle known as 
 the Thirty Years' War, taking part with the Protestant 
 princes against the House of Austria. This led to the 
 publication of a book by Jansen, in which, as a sound 
 Catholic, he animadverted on the incongruous policy of 
 Cardinal Richelieu, the French Prime Minister, in perse- 
 cuting heresy at home and supporting it abroad, , and. con- 
 trasted the orthodoxy of Spain with- the inconsistency of 
 Catholic France. 
 
 Richelieu, however, cared but little for religious con- 
 sistency, provided the House of Hapsburg was humbled and 
 
 queen-mother, Marie de Medici, the ascendancy of a strong mind over a 
 weak one (as Leonora herself is said to have termed it), was thought to 
 proceed from her use of witchcraft, and her body was burnt as a witch 
 after her execution on the scaffold. 
 
 1 See ' Cardinal de B^rulle and Richelieu,' p. 220. 
 
6 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1585-1638- 
 
 France exalted. Jansen's work, entitled. 'Mars Gallicus,' 
 was much read, and led to his appointment to the Bishopric 
 of Ypres, on the recommendation of Philip IV. of Spain, 
 but it brought upon him and his friends the determined 
 illAvill of the all-powerful Cardinal. 
 
 As Bishop of Ypres, Jansen's days were devoted to 
 religious instruction and visitations in his diocese ; his 
 nights were divided between prayer and intense study — 
 four hours of sleep being all the repose he permitted him- 
 self in the twenty-four. 
 
 His friendship with du Vergier de Hauranne (unlike that 
 of St. Basil and St. Gregory) knew no change, though they 
 were separated for long intervals. The hidden life of both 
 with its hopes and aspirations was one and indivisible. St. 
 Augustine was ever to them the true exponent of religious 
 faith, which was, in their eyes, obscured and debased by 
 the casuistical teaching of modern theologians. They cor- 
 responded regularly on the subject of the ' Augustinus,' 
 which for twenty years was a work of engrossing interest to 
 them both. 
 
 The first effort of Jansen on becoming Bishop in 1636 
 was directed to the reform of his diocese. The plague, 
 which broke out in Flanders, soon appeared amongst the 
 inhabitants of Ypres ; many fled from their homes, but 
 Jansen remained undismayed at his post.^ He was at the 
 call of all who needed him, and his labours among his 
 people were unremitting. At length he himself fell a 
 victim to the plague,^ but not before the great work of his 
 life was completed. His last act was one of submission to 
 
 1 See Dom Claude Lancelot's ' Narrative ' and ' Angelique Arnauld ' 
 (Martin). 
 
 2 It has, however, been denied that the plague was prevalent at that 
 time, and his enemies professed to believe that his death "was owing to 
 the Divine malediction. 
 
15.85-1638.] CORNELIUS JANSEN. 7 
 
 the Pope ; he wrote with his dying hand to Urban VIII. , 
 surrendering the 'Augustinus' to his judgment, and praying 
 the Holy Father to revise or rescind any part of the book 
 as he deemed best. In his will Jansen says : ' If the See 
 of Rome should wish anything to be altered, I am her 
 obedient son ; I will prove obedient, even on the bed of 
 death, to that Church in which I have always lived.' 
 
 Jansen died on the 6th of May 1638 at the age of fifty- 
 three. He was buried in the Cathedral Church of St. 
 Martin at Ypres ; but the animosity of his theological oppo- 
 nents pursued the author of the ' Augustinus ' even to 
 the grave. His tomb was desecrated. At the present time 
 a flat stone marks the spot where his body lay. The stone 
 is placed in the choir, near the high altar ; it bears neither 
 name nor initials. The date of his death, 1638, under a 
 Greek cross, and his shield in the sacristy as seventh 
 Bishop, are the only records of Jansenius now to be seen in 
 his own Cathedral.^ 
 
 The 'Augustinus' — that stupendous work to which he 
 dedicated so many years of toil — fills three bulky volumes. 
 In the first part Jansen describes the heresy of the Pelagians 
 and Semi-Pelagians. In the second he puts forth an exposi- 
 tion of St. Augustine's views on the fall of man and original 
 sin. The third part is devoted to the doctrine of Divine 
 grace. 
 
 The malevolence of the Jesuits was especially excited by 
 an appendix to this work, in which Jansen drew a parallel 
 between the heretical views he had described as prevailing 
 in the fifth century and those held by certain modern 
 theologians, such as Lessius and Molina, both being noted 
 members of the Jesuit Society.^ Strenuous efforts were 
 
 1 Since 1809 the Bishopric of Ypres has been merged in that of Bruges. 
 
 2 Lessius has already been named as the opponent of Chancellor 
 Baius at Louvain. Luis Molina was a Spanish Jesuit, born in 1535, died 
 
8 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1585-1638. 
 
 made by the Jesuits to suppress the ' Augustinus ' and pre- 
 vent its pubHcation, but the heads of the University of 
 Louvain would not suffer it to be set aside. They were 
 justly proud of Jansen, and determined to do honour to his 
 work. The first edition was published at Louvain in 1640. 
 It appeared with the sanction of his Catholic Majesty 
 Philip IV. and the Emperor Ferdinand, and its pages were 
 dedicated by permission to the Cardinal Infant,. Governor 
 of the Netherlands. Never did any work, we are told, meet 
 with so stormy a reception, and it was the signal for a pro- 
 longed contest which agitated the Sorbonne, the Court of 
 Versailles, and the See of Rome. 
 
 A second edition was published in Paris the following 
 year and was received with acclamation. Six doctors of 
 the Sorbonne gave it their full approval as a clear definition 
 of the pure doctrine of St. Augustine, but the Papal Nuncio 
 and the Jesuits persisted in their resolve to obtain the 
 condemnation of the book. 
 
 The Cardinal Infant was solicited to withdraw his name 
 from the dedication ; the power of the Inquisition was in- 
 voked; the 'Augustinus' was declared to be full of the 
 errors of Calvin and Luther ; whilst on the other hand the' 
 supporters of Jansen asserted that ' to condemn the Bishop 
 of Ypres was to condemn the Bishop of Hippo.' 
 
 Richelieu decried the book as being by the author of 
 ' Mars Gallicus,' and finally, in 1643, Urban VIII. published 
 a bull condemning certain propositions which the work was 
 supposed to contain. 
 
 1600. His work on ' The Compatibility of Free-Will with the Gifts of 
 Grace,' &c., excited grave discussion in the Church. His doctrine was 
 called Molinism, and obtained great ascendancy in France. He. was 
 strongly supported by his Order, but his views were combated as Pelagian, 
 not only by Jansen, but also by the Dominicans^ 
 
 Luis Molina must not be confounded with Michael Molinos, also a 
 Spaniard, whose followers were called ' Quietists. ' 
 
isSs-1638.] CORNELIUS JANSBN. 9 
 
 It has been said that the 'Augustinus' has this pecu- 
 liarity : it was the last Latin theological work which excited 
 a contest in France — a contest which left men unconvinced 
 in judgment, and even uncertain to this day whether or not 
 the condemned propositions are to be found in the book — 
 proving the strange fact that 'no book of its caUbre was 
 ever so famous or so little read.' 
 
FRENCH JANSENISTS. [is8.-i643. 
 
 ySAN DU VERGIER DE HAURANNE, 
 
 Abb^ de Saint-Cyran. 
 
 B. 1581. D. 1643. 
 
 ' The first streak of light we call day, although the shades 
 of night are not all dispersed; so the first spark of light 
 wherewith God illumines the soul is called grace, although 
 it be still encompassed by the shadows of sin.' 
 
 ' The deepest rivers make the least noise, and the deepest 
 piety makes the least show.' 
 
 ' When you have done a kindness, forget it in God.' 
 
 'There is no truer humility than to accept the limits 
 which God has prescribed for us, and to make our works, 
 within those limits, great works.^ 
 
 'There is nothing more to be dreaded than to speak of 
 God to others from the memory instead of from the heart.' 
 
 ' He who has told us not to look back when we have put 
 our hand to the plough, will not look back upon the past 
 sins of one who is seeking His kingdom and righteousness.' 
 
 'We may violate the law of temperance in speaking, 
 quite as much as in eating or drinking.' 
 
 'Sin came into the world by the tongue. Adam was 
 
1581-.643.] SAINT-CYRAN. 11 
 
 innocent before he had talked with his wife, and his wife 
 was innocent before she had talked with the serpent.' 
 
 ' Each one must serve God in his own condition, and 
 according to the gift and power that he possesses of doing 
 good, without disowning the gift of another which is not his, 
 and which, if he could borrow it, he would probably find as 
 useless as David found the armour of Saul, not being the 
 means by which God willed he should gain the victory.' 
 
 ' To spend tiine in counting and lamenting little faults 
 is like a child who has fallen down in running, and who, 
 instead of getting up and running again, stops to cry over 
 his dirty hands, which delays him far more than the fall.' 
 
 ' Thou mayest kneel before God without words, without 
 anxious self-scrutiny. He will understand thee.' 
 
 'We fall first of all within, and then without.' 
 
 'A Christian soul needs flexibility. It ought to know 
 how to pass from rest to labour, from labour to rest, from 
 prayer to action, from action to prayer ... to be ready to 
 do everything, and to be content to do nothing when (as in 
 time of sickness) the will of God requires it. . . There 
 is at' times great advantage in a pause, for when we are 
 hard at work, we may be really in the sight of God doing 
 nothing.' 
 
 'Never let prayer interfere with your duty. For God 
 loves mercy rather than sacrifice, and obedience and the 
 performance of our task more than supplication. In the 
 intervals of time, where you can and when you can, pray 
 always to God; and instead of troubling yourself about 
 especial times of prayer, be content to offer yourself to God 
 again and again through the day.' 
 
 'The soul of a Christian cannot remain stationary. It 
 
12 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1581-1643. 
 
 must at all moments be rising, towards heaven or falling 
 towards the earth.' 
 
 ' A writer should look upon himself as an instrument in 
 God's hands — as His pen — and not be puffed up by success, 
 nor discouraged by failure; for there is as much grace, 
 required to avoid dejection as elation — our pride is the 
 cause of both.' 
 
 'Nothing is so dangerous, when a man retires from the 
 world, as to make for himself a little world.' 
 
 ' It is often as necessary to shut out the thought of our 
 past sins as of our good deeds, because the remembrance of 
 either may be alike dangerous, and give occasion to the 
 devil to tempt us.' 
 
 ' Christian virtue may be summed up in patient endurance 
 of wrongs to oneself and forbearance towards the wrong- 
 doer.' 
 
 ' It is not said in Holy Scripture, that he is happy who 
 has never sinned, but he to whom God does not impute 
 iniquity.' 
 
 ' To be humble is to serve God faithfully in our present 
 imperfect condition, waiting patiently for Him to perfect us.' 
 
 ' A mote may soon become a beam, if the evil agencies 
 within us are not at once checked and thwarted by care and 
 vigilance.' 
 
 ' To trace the hand of God in every grievance is the way 
 to rise above the grievance.' 
 
 ' Self-love is the great pest of devotion.' 
 
 ' Consider sufferings, whether from accidents or illness, as 
 
1581-1643.1 SAINT-CYRAN. 13 
 
 the midnight cry raised by tlie virgins to announce the 
 coming of the Bridegroom.' 
 
 ' Those who are ill and laid aside should regard their bed 
 as an altar, on which they can daily offer up to God the 
 sacrifice of their life.' 
 
 ' Christ enters not the heart of man by grace, unless John Baptist 
 prepare the way by repentance.' — St. Bernard. 
 
 Among the great names of Port-Royal, none is more 
 memorable than that of Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, 
 born at Bayonne in 158 1. He was of an old and wealthy 
 family, and was educated in his native city until the age 
 of sixteen, when he was sent to Paris to study Theology 
 at the Sorbonne. 
 
 From thence he was removed to Louvain, where he first 
 met Cornelius Jansen, the friend whose influence dominated 
 his whole future life. After studying for four years in the 
 Jesuit College at Louvain, du Vergier returned to Paris, 
 where he was joined by Jansen in 1605. The two young 
 men could not fail to be struck with the difference in the 
 theological teaching of the two Universities. 
 
 The writings of the Fathers of the Church formed no 
 part of the instruction given to students at the Paris 
 University. Unlike that of Louvain, the instruction was 
 entirely confined to the writings of the Schoolmen. Vital 
 Christian doctrines were neglected for arid subtilties, and 
 the two friends, thirsting for the deep truths- of the Christian 
 faith, turned from such teaching with disappointment and 
 dismay. Filled with youthful enthusiasm, their dream was 
 to be permitted to impart vitality to the lifeless theology 
 of the day, and to restore the Galilean Church to the sim- 
 
14 FRENCH JANSENISrS. [1581-1643. 
 
 plicity and purity of primitive times. With this aim in view, 
 they withdrew to Champrd, a small property belonging to 
 du Vergier, close to the sea in the neighbourhood of 
 Bayonne. Here they studied together the writings of the 
 Fathers of the Church, and more especially those of St. 
 Augustine. The history of du Vergier for the next five years 
 is closely interwoven with that of Jansen; but in 16 17 the 
 friends reluctantly parted ; du Vergier proceeded to Poitiers, 
 where he was made a Canon of the Cathedral ; he subse- 
 quently became Prior of Bonneville, and finally, in 1620, 
 Abbe de Saint-Cyran. It was a small abbey on the borders 
 of Touraine and Berri, and was the last preferment which 
 du Vergier accepted. Jansen returned to his old University 
 at Louvain as Principal of the new College of St. Pulcheria. 
 Although separated, the two friends continued closely united 
 in religious opinion, and their friendship knew no change 
 through life. 
 
 By deep study of the works of St. Augustine they had 
 escaped out of the bewildering mazes constructed by the 
 Schoolmen, and maintained with undeviating faith the 
 teaching of the great Latin Father, viz., that it is by 
 God's free grace alone that fallen man is restored and 
 renewed in spirit. The Jesuits at once detected in this 
 doctrine of free grace a close affinity to that of Luther. 
 It was a clear repudiation of the doctrine of justification 
 by works. 
 
 Nevertheless the history of Jansen and Saint-Cyran affords 
 convincing proof that they were utterly unconscious of any 
 Lutheran tendency in their teaching, and were in very truth 
 the devoted servants of the Church to which they belonged. 
 
 Whilst at Poitiers in 1620, when M. de Saint-Cyran 
 was thirty-nine, he became acquainted with M. Arnauld 
 d'Andilly, who was his junior by about eight years. M. 
 
158I-I643- SAINT-CYRAN. 15 
 
 d'Andilly was the eldest son of Antoine Arnauld, formerly 
 Procureur-G^n^ral,^ and he stood high in favour with the 
 Court and with Cardinal Richelieu. It seemed unlikely 
 that between these two men, so dissimilar in character and 
 tastes, a friendship should be formed as complete as is pos- 
 sible in this world.^ Yet such was the case. M. d'Andilly 
 became the devoted disciple of M. de Saint-Cyran, and 
 this meeting at Poitiers marks the commencement of his 
 close intimacy with all the Arnauld family. 
 
 In 162 1 M. de Saint-Cyran quitted Poitiers, and hence- 
 forth resided chiefly in Paris. He was already known to 
 Cardinal Richelieu. They had met at Poitiers when the 
 latter was Bishop of the neighbouring See of Lugon. 
 
 Richelieu had not failed to mark the extensive learning 
 and intellectual vigour of du Vergier, whose quiet dignity 
 greatly impressed and attracted him. He discerned beneath 
 the gravity and reserve of the young ecclesiastic certain 
 qualities which might make him a valuable instrument in 
 the furtherance of his own schemes. But what raised the 
 curiosity and baffled the penetration of the Bishop was that 
 a man with a mind so original and acute, and who had 
 obviously within him the seeds of future eminence, should 
 have chosen to live in close seclusion and tie himself down 
 to the exclusive study of the Fathers of the Church. The 
 "total absence of all worldly ambition in so gifted a man 
 was beyond his comprehension. 
 
 On the arrival of the Abbe in Paris, the Cardinal would 
 have taken him by the hand. He was desirous of bringing 
 him within the sphere of his influence and dominion, and 
 without consulting M. de Saint-Cyran, he appointed him 
 almoner to the Princess Henrietta Maria, on her approach- 
 ing marriage with Charles I. ; but the post was declined by 
 
 1 He died in 1619. " ' M^moires d'Andilly." 
 
1 6 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1581-1643. 
 
 Saint-Cyran. Not discouraged by this first refusal, Richelieu 
 some time after offered him the Bishopric of Clermont, 
 then later that of Bayonne — in all, five different Sees — 
 but always with the same result : all were declined, though 
 on each occasion M. de Saint-Cyran presented himself before 
 the Cardinal to express his acknowledgments. It was at 
 one of these interviews that, havir^. received his visitor with 
 marked distinction and re-conducted him through the rooms, 
 the Cardinal turned to the throng. of courtiers, touched Saint- 
 C3rran on the shoulder, and said aloud, ' Messieurs, you see 
 here the most learned man in Europe ! ' But Saint-Cyran 
 was proof against all flattery, so that Richelieu began to 
 suspect and fear a man who held himself aloof from his 
 proffered patronage. 
 
 It is said that there were passages in the early career of 
 Richelieu, when Bishop of Lu9on, which were known to 
 M. de Saint-C)rran, and which the Cardinal feared might be 
 divulged. Be this as it may, it is certain that henceforth 
 he regarded the Abb^ with no partial eye. 
 
 During these first years in Paris, M. de Saint-Cyran was 
 on terms of close intimacy with some of the most eminent 
 French ecclesiastics. Amongst those who regarded him with 
 deep respect and affection were M. de Berulle, the founder 
 of the Congregation of the Oratorians in France, and their 
 first general, Pfere de Condren, the general of the Oratorians 
 after de B^ruUe's death,i and Vincent de Paul, the founder 
 of the Sisterhood called Soeurs de la Charity, and of the 
 Confraternity of Pretres de la Mission. 
 
 These three men were seeking by different means to brirtg 
 about a revival of discipline and spirituality among the 
 clergy of France. Their aim was not a reform of the doc- 
 
 1 M. de Berulle was made a Cardinal in 1627. He died suddenly in 
 1629,' whilst celebrating Mass. 
 
1581-1643.] SAINT-CYRAN. 17 
 
 trines of the Church, but a renewal of fervour and devotion 
 in the priesthood. 
 
 But the aim of M. de Saint-Cyran was far wider. In his 
 opinion, ' the first scholastics, even St. Thomas Aquinas 
 himself, had injured true theology,' ^ and it was a return to 
 the primitive teaching of the Church before the advent of 
 Scholasticism which he eagerly desired. To Vincent de 
 Paul he lamented in earnest language the falling off from 
 the purity of doctrine of the past, and said that ' in the time 
 of St. Bernard the Church was like a vast river flowing with 
 clear water, but now, although the bed of the river was still 
 the same, the waters were no longer pure.' Words like 
 these were not acceptable to the ecclesiastics of his day; 
 and though Saint-Cyran had devoted friends, he had also 
 powerful enemies. 
 
 In 1626 an anonymous work appeared, refuting the 
 errors contained in a book by Fhre Garasse, a Jesuit priest. 
 The refutation was known to proceed from the pen of 
 M. de Saint-Cyran, and the success it obtained marks 
 the beginning of the contentions between him and the 
 Jesuits. 
 
 It was not long before another and a graver controversy 
 sprang up. Its history has a special interest for us. Towards 
 the close of the reign of James I., Pope Urban VIII. had made 
 an attempt to re-establish Papal dominion in England. The 
 king's mother, Mary Queen of Scots, had been looked upon 
 by all his Catholic subjects as a martyr to the Catholic faith. 
 He himself had certainly no strong bias against the Roman 
 religion, for he had eagerly sought the hand of a Spanish 
 princess for his son and heir, and had now concluded a 
 treaty of marriage for him with another Roman Catholic 
 princess. 
 
 1 See Saint-Beuve, 'Port Royal,' vol, i. p. 315. 
 
1 8 FRENCH jfANSENISTS. [1581-1643. 
 
 The time therefore seemed propitious for re-asserting the 
 -claims of Rome to English allegiance, and Urban had 
 judged it expedient to consecrate an Englishman, Richard 
 Smith, Bishop of Chalcedon in partibus, and had sent him 
 to England as Vicar-Apostolic. So far all had prospered. 
 The English Roman Catholics had received him with all 
 due respect and deference. But the newly-appointed Vicar- 
 ApostoHc allowed his zeal to outstep his prudence, and had 
 entered into a controversy with the monks, and more espe- 
 cially with the Jesuits, on the vexed subject of episcopal 
 rights. They refused to acknowledge his supremacy, and 
 he in return sought to debar them from administering the 
 sacraments. Nothing could have been more impolitic from 
 the Roman point of view than any strife at this juncture, 
 and the effect of his indiscretion was to split up the Enghsh 
 Roman Catholics into two parties, the one siding with the 
 Bishop, the other with the Jesuits. The Bishop appealed 
 to the Assembly of the Clergy in France, and Richelieu, 
 who in early youth had been his pupil, warmly supported 
 him. Through the Cardinal's influence, the Archbishop of 
 Paris and most of the French clergy upheld Smith's preten- 
 sions and censured the Jesuits ; but the English Government 
 took the matter in hand, and issued a proclamation offering 
 a reward for his apprehension. He had therefore to make 
 a hasty flight from England, and took refuge in France. 
 
 It was at this time, when the theological world was in a 
 ferment over this dispute, that a writer entered the contro- 
 versy, and in four or five powerfully-written Latin treatises, 
 full of fire and vehemence, defended the claims of the 
 Bishop of Chalcedon and all episcopal rights, with strong 
 animadversions on the recusant Jesuits. The treatises bore 
 the signature of Petrus Aurelius. 
 
 The victory over the Jesuits was complete, and they never 
 
i58i-i643) SAINT-CYRAN. 19 
 
 forgave M. de Saint-Cyran, who was universally regarded as 
 the author, although he never admitted it. 
 
 To the Gallican Church the subject of episcopal rights 
 afforded peculiar interest. French Bishops laid claim to 
 certain liberties and a limited independence of Rome — a 
 claim warmly contested by the Papal See. When, therefore, 
 M. de Saint-Cyran stood forth as the champion of ecclesi- 
 astical discipline and the rights of the episcopacy against 
 the monks and the Jesuits, the Bishops were all on his side 
 Their approval was of importance to him, for, in his desire 
 to renovate the Church and restore purity of doctrine, he 
 had as yet met with little support. His ecclesiastical friends 
 listened to his words with attention, and up to a certain point 
 with approval, but when he spoke in strong censure of the 
 existing order of things, they hesitated and held back, afraid 
 of bringing to the light of day the scandals of which they 
 were conscious, lest they should seem to cast a slur upon 
 the Church and weaken her authority. St. Frangois de 
 Sales in one of his letters 1 speaks of the state of the Church 
 as ' a subject for tears,' but he goes on to say, ' Open rebuke 
 would but cause needless scandal.' The bold denunciations 
 of Saint-Cyran were calculated to give offence, but in de- 
 fending the rights of the episcopacy he had the greater part 
 of the French clergy in cordial agreement with him. 
 
 To Saint-Cyran himself the question of episcopal rights 
 was the thin end of the wedge, and he waited patiently till 
 he could drive it home, and speak openly of those reforms 
 in doctrine and in practice which were ever uppermost in 
 his thoughts. He had a wonderful power of impressing 
 those with whom he came in contact ; there was a quiet 
 force about him which did not pass unobserved even at the 
 French court, where his very look, we are told, inspired 
 
 ' To the Mfere Ang^lique. 
 
20 FRENCH jfANSBNISTS. [1581-1643. 
 
 reverence. But he withdrew from the world, and lived in 
 a modest lodging hard by the cloisters of Notre Dame. In 
 this quiet abode he was sought out by many whom he had 
 met in the world. One by one they came asking his spiritual 
 guidance, and through that guidance were led to renounce 
 a life of frivolity and self-indulgence and devote themselves 
 to the service of their Divine Lord and Master. 'He 
 stirred, quickened, kindled those who approached him.' 
 Men recognised in Saint-Cyran a physician of souls. To 
 each penitent he would say, ' Show me your wounds.' He 
 made no distinction of persons, and flattered no one; he 
 believed with such depths of belief in man's sinfulness and 
 guilt before God, that, like another Baptist, he was ever 
 crying, 'Repent ye;' ever pointing to 'the Lamb of God 
 which taketh away the sin of the world.' Any teaching 
 short of this he regarded as dangerous and false. He spoke 
 to each one individually ; his work was to bring that parti- 
 cular soul to Christ ; this was his one aim, and he looked 
 upon the Sacrament of the Eucharist as the centre of all 
 true devotion to the contrite heart. 
 
 The world could not fail to take note of the change 
 wrought in those who came under the spell of Saint-Cyran ; 
 but the most remarkable conversion was that of Antoine le 
 Maitre, the nephew of M. d'Andilly, and the most brilliant 
 advocate and orator of the day. 
 
 He was the eldest son of M. Isaac Le Maitre and 
 Catherine, the eldest daughter of M. Arnauld. The mar- 
 riage had been an unhappy one, and in 16 16 Madame Le 
 Maitre was obliged to separate from her husband. She 
 returned to her father's house, leading a saintly life, and 
 devoting herself to the education of her five sons.i 
 
 1 To Madame Le Maitre were addressed many of the spiritual letters of 
 S. Franfois de Sales. 
 
1581-1643.] SAINT-CYRAN. 21 
 
 Her eldest son, Antoine, was educated for the bar, and at 
 the age of twenty-eight he was already Conseiller d'!^tat. 
 His eloquence was so fervid that the courts were crowded 
 when it was known that he was to plead; even the great 
 preachers, were forsaken to listen to the great pleader. 
 
 To one of his ardent nature the applause of the world 
 was especially grateful, and it drew forth his most im- 
 passioned eloquence. 
 
 In the words of M. de Saint-Cyran, ' His vanity was 
 nourished by the very air he breathed in public' It was in 
 the full flush of his career and at the height of his renown, 
 that, at the age of twenty-nine, this distinguished orator and 
 advocate forsook all that he might follow Christ. 
 
 The sudden change took place at the death of his aunt, 
 Madame Arnauld d'Andilly. 
 
 In his daily visits to her sick-room he had met M. de 
 Saint-Cyran. He had heard his words of hope and con- 
 solation to the dying woman, and his exhortations to the 
 living who stood around. Le Maitre was struck by the 
 force and earnestness with which he spoke, his deep con- 
 viction of man's sinfulness, and need of Divine grace ; and 
 his solemn words coming direct from the heart — so unlike 
 his own studied declamations — touched and awakened his 
 conscience. When at the last supreme moment Saint- 
 Cyran with deep reverence recited the words in the service 
 for the dying, ' Depart, Christian soul, depart from this world 
 in the name of the Almighty God who created thee, in the 
 name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, who 
 suffered for thee, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, who 
 gave Himself to thee,' Le Maitre wept outright, and as the 
 dying woman breathed her last sigh, unable any longer to 
 restrain himself, he hurried from the room to the quiet 
 moonlit garden. There alone, in the presence of his God, 
 
22 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1581-1643. 
 
 he wept over the past, and resolved to make the sacrifice 
 of all his earthly hopes, and surrender himself wholly to the 
 service of his Lord. It was on the 24th of August, St. 
 Bartholomew's Day. 
 
 The sudden conversion of his young friend filled Saint- 
 Cyran with joy, and his whole thoughts were now given 
 to his new penitent ; but he foresaw clearly all the con- 
 sequences to himself in this great and sudden conversion. 
 He knew the outcry which would be raised when it was 
 known that the young advocate would no longer plead ; he 
 knew also that it would be attributed to his influence, and 
 that the jealousy of the Cardinal, already aroused, would be 
 increased tenfold. ' But what matters it,' he said ; ' I must 
 follow my Master to prison or even to death.' 
 
 He advised Le Maitre not to quit his profession till the 
 end of the term, and thus test the strength of his new 
 resolve. For some little time, therefore, he continued to 
 plead the cause of his clients, but the fire of ambition was 
 quenched and his speeches had lost their force. 
 
 In the court where he pleaded was a large crucifix which 
 he had never even remarked before, but on which he 
 now fixed his earnest gaze, feeling, he said, as he regarded 
 it, more ready to weep than to plead. An envious rival 
 remarked that there was a great falling off in Le Maitre's 
 power. ' He no longer aroused his audience, but sent the^l 
 to sleep.' The saying was repeated to Le Maitre. A week 
 later, as his sole reply, he made a brilliant oration, and 
 having once again electrified his hearers, he left the court 
 never to return. 
 
 The mother of Le Maitre thanked God for his conversion. 
 The Cardinal looked upon him as mad. Many of his rela- 
 tions, dismayed by his retirement, urged him to pause before 
 taking so rash a step. His uncle, Henri Arnauld, afterw^ards 
 
1581-1643.1 SAINT-CYRAN. 23 
 
 Bishop of Angers, proposed that, instead of withdrawing alto- 
 gether from active Hfe, he should enter Holy Orders. But 
 Le Maitre would embark in no new career. He was re- 
 solved to lead the life of a penitent. ' For ten years he had 
 devoted himself to the service of men ; for the rest of his days 
 he would devote himself exclusively to the service of God.' 
 
 He thanked the Cardinal for the favour he had shown 
 him, but begged his kind feeling would not lead him to 
 further his fortunes in this life, as he now sought no other 
 possessions than those which are eternal in the heavens. 
 
 Le Maitre at first repaired to the lodging of his friend, 
 Saint-Cyran, who had moved to the neighbourhood of the 
 Luxembourg to be nearer Port-Royal-de-Paris. Le Maitre 
 had been with him hardly a month, when his younger 
 brother, M. de Sdricourt, an officer in the army, also came 
 to Saint-Cyran, inspired by the same motive, and was 
 received under the same roof 
 
 Port-Royal-des-Champs, a monastery of nuns situated 
 between Versailles and Chevreuse, and renowned from the 
 reform instituted some few years previously by its young 
 Abbess, Angflique Arnauld, had been transferred to Paris, 
 and for the last three years had been under the spiritual 
 direction of Saint-Cyran. He had succeeded Sebastien 
 Zamet, Bishop of Langres, in this post, and the lustre of his 
 name had greatly added to the celebrity of the monastery. 
 Antoine Le Maitre and De S^ricourt were nephews of the 
 Abbess, and when the question arose where to find them 
 a permanent domicile, their mother, Madame Le Maitre 
 (sister of the Abbess), quickly solved the difficulty by build- 
 ing a small hermitage adjacent to the monastery of Port- 
 Royal-de-Paris, where the brothers could live in seclusion. 
 In three months the building was finished, and there in 
 1638, on the day of Paul the first hermit, appropriately 
 
24 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1581-1643- 
 
 enough, they took up their abode, being the first recluses 
 of Port-Royal. 
 
 The two brothers pressed eagerly forward in the Christian 
 race ; each urged the other on ' with his advancing tread,' 
 and the early devotion of their young brother, de Saci, who 
 was now being prepared for the priesthood by M. de Saint- 
 Cyran, could not fail to excite and animate their zeal. 
 
 Two other disciples, Antoine Singlin and Claude Lancelot, 
 shortly afterwards joined them. 
 
 One of the great gifts of M. de Saint-Cyran was that of 
 discernment ; he seemed instinctively to know what was in 
 men, and perceived with unerring penetration their capacity 
 or their unfitness for certain offices. A remarkable instance 
 of this is shown in his choice of a preacher for Port-Royal- 
 de-Paris. 
 
 One of the new recluses, as we have said, was Antoine 
 Singlin. He was neither a great scholar nor a great theo- 
 logian — he even seemed to lack the gift of utterance ; but 
 nevertheless he was appointed by Saint-Cyran preacher 
 to the community, whilst Antoine Le Maitre, who at the 
 bar, had captivated his hearers by his brilliant eloquence, 
 remained in retirement, always a simple recluse. Saint- 
 Cyran felt that Singlin's plain unvarnished speech possessed 
 a power often wanting in more powerful orators — a power of 
 touching the heart by the force and earnestness of his appeals.^ 
 
 Antoine Singlin was at this time thirty years of age. His 
 father had apprenticed him in early life to a linen-draper in 
 Paris ; but when about twenty-two years old, he was moved by 
 some sudden spiritual impulse to seek out Vincent de Paul, 
 the Superior of the Pretres de la Mission. The young man 
 
 1 It was a peculiarity in M. Singlin that in ordinary conversation he 
 expressed himself with hesitation and difficulty ; but when he mounted the 
 pulpit, his words flowed with ease and fervour. 
 
1581-1643.I SAINT-CYRAN. 35 
 
 was kindly received. He opened his heart to Vincent, who 
 at once advised him to enter the priesthood. Up to this 
 time Singlin had received but a meagre education, and knew 
 not a word of Latin. He was placed by Vincent in a 
 college, where he pursued with ardour the necessary studies, 
 and having acquired sufficient knowledge to become a priest, 
 Vincent de Paul appointed him Confessor and Catechist of 
 the Hopital de Piti^. 
 
 It was there he became acquainted with Saint-Cyran, and 
 before long determined to place himself under the guidance 
 of one who had 'kindled him,' as he said, 'like a match 
 held to the fire.' M. Saint-Cyran was reluctant at first to 
 receive him, but having satisfied himself that Singhn was 
 allowed no scope for usefulness in the Hospital, he permitted 
 him to leave it, and sent him in charge of his own two 
 nephews and two other children to Port-Royal-des-Champs, 
 now deserted by the nuns. Here Singlin spent the summer 
 of 1637. On his return he was appointed by Saint-Cyran 
 Confessor and Preacher to the nuns pf Port-Royal-de- 
 Paris. Had not his director insisted on the duty of his 
 becoming a preacher, Singlin would have shrunk from it, 
 so deeply imbued was he with the sense of his unfitness 
 for the office. 
 
 To combat his doubts and hesitation Saint-Cyran said, 
 ' If / were called to preach, I should humbly present myself 
 before God, and ask Him to give me light on my subject. 
 I should then simply write down the heads of my sermon, 
 and having strengthened my spirit hour by hour by medita- 
 tion and prayer, I should go and preach without any thought 
 of self or of others. After my sermon I should retire to my 
 room to kneel again before God. 1 should avoid if possible 
 all reference to my sermon from those who had heard it ; 
 and if any one spoke to me of it, I should show that it was 
 
26 FRENCH jfANSENISTS. [is8i-i6«- 
 
 distasteful to me by not repljdng. I should do this whether 
 it had seemed to me successful or not ; for often when we 
 think it has been good, it has been bad in the sight of God, 
 and when we think we have failed, our effort has been 
 accepted by Him. Accustom yourself to do this, and give 
 yourself unreservedly to God, letting others think what 
 they will.' 
 
 Singlin's reluctance was thus overcome. He possessed, 
 it is true, no oratorical powers, but, as M. de Saint-Cyran 
 had discerned, he had the gift of touching the hearts of his 
 hearers ; his words, like those of the blind preacher of the 
 Oratory, were learnt ' not in the schools of rhetoric, but at 
 the foot of the Cross.' ^ 
 
 At first he preached only in the little chapel of the 
 monastery of Port-Royal, afterwards he occupied the pulpit 
 of the new church, which at once became crowded; the 
 most illustrious in Paris were among his auditors. It was 
 said that almost every sermon he preached brought a new 
 convert or recluse to Port-Royal-des-Champs. On one 
 occasion the new recluse was Pascal. 
 
 Singlin, however, had enemies on the watch. On the 
 28th August 1649, St. Augustine's Day, some words in his 
 sermon on free grace were denounced as heretical, and he 
 was interdicted from preaching by Gondi, Archbishop of 
 Paris. Fortunately for him five French bishops had been 
 present, and on their assertion that nothing controversial 
 had been said, he was, after an interval of four months, 
 re-established as a preacher, the Archbishop honouring him 
 by coming to the first sermon preached after his suspension. 
 
 1 P4re de Jeune, the blind preacher alluded to, was struck with sudden 
 blindness whilst preaching in Rouen Cathedral ; he paused for a naoment 
 and put his hand over his eyes, and then continued his sermon. When it 
 was finished, he had to be guided down the steps of the pulpit. His sight 
 was gone for ever, but he continued to preach for many years. 
 
is8i-i643.1 SAINT-CYRAN. 27 
 
 Singlin died on the 17th April 1664, after much trial and 
 persecution as a Port-Royalist. 
 
 Another of the early recluses was Claude Lancelot. He 
 was born in 161 5, and when twelve years old had been 
 placed in the seminary of St. Nicholas de Chardonnet, 
 attached to which was a priestly community founded by 
 Adrien Bourdoise. 
 
 From early youth Bourdoise had seen and lamented over 
 the existing laxity of the clergy. In 161 1, when only an 
 acolyte, he had come from Chartres to Paris to seek counsel 
 of M. de B^rulle as to the best means of restoring order 
 and discipline in the Church. Here he met Vincent de 
 Paul, and the three joined in prayer and meditation on this 
 subject, of absorbing interest to each. 
 
 The condition of the Church in France at this time was 
 such as to fill the heart of any devout man like de Bdrulle 
 with consternation. The very name of priest had become, 
 we are told, a by-word for ignorance and profligacy. Vincent 
 de Paul, speaking of the want of education and utter unfit- 
 ness of the priests for their vocation, says that he had found 
 numerous instances of men who could not even say mass 
 correctly.! M. de Berulle's hope lay in the foundation of 
 an institution similar to that of St. Philip Neri's Priests of 
 the Oratory in Rome. He thought that by selecting and 
 bringing together a certain number of young priests, who 
 should live in community, bound only by their ordination 
 vows, and who should form a priestly, not a monastic con- 
 fraternity, much good might result. They were to be care- 
 fully instructed in the special duties and obligations of their 
 high calling, and by the purity of their lives to edify men, 
 preaching and teaching with earnestness and humility, and 
 
 1 See ' Revival of Priestly Life in the Seventeenth Century in France," 
 P- 43- 
 
28 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1581-1643- 
 
 undertaking with dutiful submission whatever ecclesiastical 
 functions their Bishop should assign them. 
 
 The thought which weighed heavily on Vincent de Paul 
 was the neglected spiritual condition of the French pea- 
 santry, and the special remedy for this, in his eyes, was to 
 found a confraternity of Mission Fathers, who should go 
 forth throughout France and evangelise the poor and igno- 
 rant. The strong .point of M. de Bourdoise was how to 
 enforce order and discipline among the clergy, and the 
 best way to achieve this seemed to him to be to bring 
 parish priests to live a life in common. 
 
 This meeting was followed up by the foundation of the 
 Oratory in Paris by de Bdrulle, of the Mission Fathers by 
 Vincent de Paul, and of the community of the priests of 
 St. Nicholas de Chardonnet by Bourdoise. 
 
 On being received into the seminary of St. Nicholas, the 
 young Lancelot had been immediately tonsured and dressed 
 in a cassock ; these were forms rigidly enforced by Bourdoise. 
 
 As Lancelot advanced in years, he was conscious of grave 
 defects in the system ; there was but little spiritual training, 
 the works of the Fathers were not studied, and until the 
 age of twenty, he had never been permitted to read a line 
 of the New Testament beyond what is found in the Breviary. 
 He acquired a certain amount of Greek and Latin and 
 Theology, sufficient to enable him to take the lowest orders, 
 and he was made subdeacon and catechist of the children 
 and catechumens. 
 
 It was whilst engaged in this office at St. Nicholas that 
 Lancelot heard of Saint-Cyran, and became filled with an 
 intense desire to know a man of whose deep spirituality 
 none could doubt. How this wa3 to be brought about he 
 knew not, but he describes himself at this time as ' like a 
 man whom the sea has cast on the shore of some island. 
 
J58I-I643-] SAINT-CYRAN. 29 
 
 where he waits till the vessel which is to take him away 
 appears in sight.' 
 
 After patient waiting rescue came. He met Saint-Cyran, 
 and was permitted to leave St. Nicholas and place himself 
 under his direction. He joined the company of recluses, 
 and his name will ever be associated with theirs in the 
 famous schools of Port-Royal. It is also to Lancelot that 
 we are chiefly indebted for the portraiture of Saint-Cyran, 
 whose character he describes with the deepest filial love 
 and reverence. 
 
 The thought now presented itself to the mind of M. da 
 Saint-Cyran of forming these converts into a brotherhood, 
 belonging to no especial order, held together by no monastic 
 vows, but living a secluded life of quiet communion with 
 God. 
 
 Saint-Cyran had great tenderness and reverence for chil- 
 dren, remembering that in heaven their angels always behold 
 the face of the Father. His desire was that the education 
 of children should form a prominent part of the work at 
 Port-Royal. It was an employment which he deemed 
 'worthy of angels.' Contrary to the usual system, he made 
 a point that all school-books should be written in French, 
 and in clear attractive style such as children could under- 
 stand. To those he selected as teachers he would say, 
 ' Remember it is not so much by precept as by the power 
 of love and a holy example that these children are to be 
 won. Speak more of them to God than of God to them.' 
 
 Patience, not punishment, was the rule, and his plan 
 was carefully to adapt the teaching to the capacity of the 
 scholar, never attempting to force or overstrain the mind. 
 It was thus that the schools of Port-Royal took their rise ; 
 Singlin, Lancelot, Le Maltre, and de Barcos being the first 
 teachers, and before long they attained such great pre- 
 
30 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1581-1643- 
 
 eminence as to excite the jealousy of the Jesuits, who had 
 hitherto monopohsed the education of the young, and thus 
 increased their bitter enmity towards Saint-Cyran and his 
 associates. He himself constantly visited the recluses, 
 praying with each separately, reading with them the writings 
 of St. Augustin and St. Chrysostom, and expounding to them 
 the Scriptures. This he did with a fervour and earnestness 
 which deeply moved his hearers. He spoke not by rote, 
 but out of the abundance of a heart sanctified by prayer, 
 and new and sublime thoughts seemed given to him day 
 by day. To those who were learned and not teachers in 
 the schools, he recommended the translation of the Scrip- 
 tures into French, also portions of the works of the Fathers, 
 and the rendering of Latin prayer-books into the vernacular. 
 He introduced the use of hymns as aids to devotion. 
 
 It was not long before the peaceful Ufe and successful 
 work of Port-Royal were rudely disturbed. Richeheu's sus- 
 picion and dishke towards Saint-Cyran had increased with 
 his renown, and there were special circumstances which 
 had recently influenced the Cardinal's mind against him. 
 Enemies were not wanting, eager to stir up wrath. Promi- 
 nent among these was the Bishop of Langres (Sebastien 
 Zamet), an old favourite at Court. 
 
 He had preceded the Abbe as director of Port-Royal-de- 
 Paris, and he now secretly denounced him to the Cardinal 
 as both unorthodox in his teaching and pernicious in 
 practice. 
 
 Richelieu had also his own hidden grievances to embitter 
 him against Saint-Cyran. He felt convinced that the Abb6 
 would oppose his cherished scheme of forming the Galilean 
 Church into a Patriarchate with himself as Patriarch. He 
 had also a political grievance in the significant silence main- 
 tained by the Abb6 with regard to the proposed dissolution 
 
1581-1643.1 SAINT-CYRAN. 31 
 
 of the marriage of Gaston, Due d'Ori^ans, the brother of the 
 king. 
 
 Gaston had married a Princess of Lorraine contrary to 
 the wishes of Louis XIV. The Cardinal, who had intended 
 him for his niece, moved the Parhament of Paris to annul 
 this marriage on the plea of having been contracted without 
 the king's consent, and by this means to pave the way for 
 the prince's union with the Duchess d'Aiguillon. 
 
 A still further cause of exasperation was a severe criticism, 
 ascribed to the Ahh6, of a catechism written by Richelieu 
 when Bishop of Lugon, which had passed through twenty- 
 two editions. In this catechism Richelieu taught that 
 attrition^ or the fear of future punishment, together with 
 confession, were sufficient to justify absolution by the priest 
 and admission to the Eucharist. 
 
 The criticism refuted this doctrine, and maintained that 
 the mere dread of future punishment was not sufficient, and 
 that before absolution there must be a genuine feeling of 
 love to God and contrition for sin as an offence against 
 Him. The refutation was really the work of Seguenot, one 
 of the fathers of the Oratory, but it was generally, and 
 perhaps justly, believed to have been inspired by Saint- 
 Cyran, who was thus held to have not only thwarted the 
 ambition of the Cardinal, but also questioned his theology 
 — an offence which could not be pardoned. The un- 
 fortunate Seguenot was sent at once to the Bastille, and 
 Saint-Cyran's supposed approval of his views marked him 
 out also for vengeance. 
 
 His next step was to imprison Saint-Cyran. This was not 
 altogether unexpected by his victim ; lie knew that by his 
 constant refusal of Richelieu's favours he was incurring his 
 
 1 Attrition is a scholastic term for the lowest degree of repentance, 
 arising solely from fear. 
 
32 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1581-1643 
 
 hatred ; ' he had to choose,' he said, ' between a bishopric 
 and a prison.' 
 
 But the Cardinal's severity did not proceed from mere 
 offended vanity. It had another and a graver motive. 
 From his. point of view, the imprisonment of Saint-Cyran 
 became a political necessity. 
 
 The reUgion of Louis XIII. was a compound of selfish 
 fear and superstition. He candidly avowed that he had no 
 real love to God, and that it was only the dread of future 
 punishment which drove him to the confessional. It be- 
 hoved the Cardinal to keep the king's conscience quiet, 
 and if the views held by Sdguenot and Saint-Cjrran on the 
 necessity of love to God were to prevail, the king might 
 withdraw from confession, and the Cardinal's hold over him 
 would be gone. 
 
 Saint-C)n-an had been warned that some danger awaited 
 him, and he himself had a strong presentiment of coming 
 evil. Ascension-tide 1638 had passed, and without any 
 incident, but he felt that his hour was at hand. He was 
 like the condemned man, who, certain of his fate, knows 
 not the day of his execution. On the morning of the 
 festival he said to M. Le Maitre,- "It will not be to-day, 
 the day is too sacred, but I will not answer for to-morrow." 
 After the evening service he desired that some portion of 
 the Bible should be read to him before going to rest. The 
 26th of Jeremiah was the chapter. After reading the 14th 
 verse, ' As for me, behold I am in your hand, do with me 
 as seemeth good unto you,' Saint-Cyran stopped the reader, 
 saying, ' TTiat is for me.^ 
 
 At daybreak the "following morning, 14th May, his house 
 was surrounded by gens-d'armes. A few hours after, whilst 
 Saint-Cyran was engaged in reading with his nephew, M. de 
 Barcos, their early study was suddenly interrupted by the 
 
158.-1643.I SAINT-CYRAN. 33 
 
 entrance of the officer in command of the troop. He 
 arrested Saint-Cyran in the king's name, and carried him 
 off to the fortress of Vincennes. 
 
 On his way thither he was met by his old friend Arnauld 
 d'Andilly, who, astonished at his arrest, obtained permission 
 to say a few words of farewell, and thrust into his hands a 
 copy of St. Augustine's Confessions. 
 
 It was the only book which Saint-Cyran had to solace 
 the first weary hours of imprisonment. 
 
 The prisoner's chief anxiety on being arrested was for the 
 safety of the recluses of Port-Royal. He feared lest among 
 his private papers anything should be found which by 
 hostile interpretation could be regarded as heretical, and 
 lead to the persecution of his converts. 
 
 Thirty folios of MSS. in his handwriting had indeed been 
 seized by the emissaries of the Cardinal, but they consisted 
 chiefly of extracts from the writings of the Fathers, with 
 reflections by Saint-Cyran himself. Nothing was found that 
 even Richelieu's ingenuity could turn to the prejudice of 
 his friends. Part of a work against Calvinism was after- 
 wards discovered by M. de Barcos, and from extreme 
 caution burnt, much to the subsequent regret of the writer. 
 
 No cause was assigned for the arrest of Saint-Cyran, 
 but some hours after it had taken place the Cardinal 
 privately informed M. de P^rdfixe (afterwards Archbishop of 
 Paris) that he had done a thing that day which would excite 
 a great outcry against him. He had arrested, by order of 
 the king, the Abbe de Saint-Cyran. 
 
 He foresaw, he said, that all learned and good men would 
 be outraged by this act, for doubtless Saint-Cyran possessed 
 these two qualities — he was learned and he was good. But, 
 added the Cardinal, ' Whatever they may say against me, I 
 am persuaded that by this act I have done good service to 
 
34 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [i58i-i643. 
 
 both Church and State. Many evils would have been 
 averted if Luther and Calvin had been imprisoned when 
 first they began to dogmatise.' 
 
 The first tidings that reached Saint-Cyran from without 
 announced to him the death of Jansen. It had occurred 
 one week before his own imprisonment. The loss of his 
 friend, cut ofiF on the very day that he had completed the 
 ' Augustinus,' weighed heavily on Saint-Cyran's heart. In 
 this work Jansen had shown clearly from the writings of 
 St. Augustine that no outward observances, no formal acts 
 of penance, could restore the soul, and that Divine grace 
 alone could recover men from the dominion of sin. The 
 two friends had looked forward to the publication of this 
 book as the means of enlightening men's minds and infus- 
 ing new life into the enfeebled Christianity of the day. 
 But now that Jansen was dead and he himself a prisoner, 
 all hope seemed gone, and the labour of long years lost. 
 
 Saint-Cyran remained for some days in a state of profound 
 discouragement. ' It was,' he said, ' as though God had for 
 a season forsaken him, and Satan was permitted to sift him 
 as wheat.' 
 
 In the bitterness of his soul he turned to the Bible, which 
 had been secretly conveyed to him ; but doubts now arose 
 to torture him, and harassed by these, the Sacred Volume 
 afforded him no consolation. All that he read seemed to 
 point to woe and condemnation. Was ke not a tree to be 
 plucked up by the roots, without fruit ? Had he not been 
 a blind leader of the blind, and this imprisonment, was it 
 not God's appointed punishment ? 
 
 In his anguish he cast himself on the floor of his cell with 
 his face to the earth in deep self-abasement. He sought 
 refuge in prayer, and, after earnest supplication, turning 
 again to his Bible, he opened at the ninth Psalm and read, 
 
1581-1643.1 SAINT-CYRAN. 35 
 
 ' It is Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death. . 
 I will rejoice in Thy salvation.' The cloud of doubt and 
 despair passed away. Calm returned after the storm, and 
 his troubled soul was restored to its wonted peace. ^ 
 
 Saint-Cyran's friends no sooner knew of his arrest than 
 they sought means to liberate him. They interceded with 
 the queen-mother, but she was powerless ; bishops, judges, 
 princes of the blood implored the Cardinal to release his 
 captive, but he was inflexible. 
 
 One bishop alone had the baseness to draw up a counter- 
 memorial ; this was Sebastian Zamet, Bishop of Langres. 
 To the representations of the Prince de Condd, Richelieu 
 replied, ' You know not what you ask. That man is more 
 dangerous than six armies. Both in theology and state 
 policy he withstands me. Look at my catechism ; I say 
 that attrition with confession is alone necessary, he main- 
 tains that contrition is indispensable. Again, in the affairs 
 of Monsieur's marriage all France yielded to my will ; he 
 alone had the hardihood to oppose me.' 
 
 After six months' constant importunity, all that Saint- 
 Cyran's friends could obtain for him was an order for his 
 removal to a more healthy cell, with a servant to attend 
 upon him. After this the rigour with which he had been 
 treated was gradually abated. Arnauld d'Andilly was per- 
 mitted to visit him. Materials for writing found their way 
 into his cell, whence words of devout instruction reached 
 the outer world, and were received with intense reverence 
 as the utterances of a persecuted saint, and from his prison 
 Saint-Cyran directed more penitents than ever. 
 
 His fears for the recluses were speedily verified. They 
 were dismissed by the Archbishop of Paris from their sanc- 
 tuary adjoining Port-Roy al-de-Paris, on the pretext of their 
 too close proximity to the nuns, and though M Singlin 
 
36 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1581-1643. 
 
 represented that no communication could take place, the 
 Archbishop insisted upon his order being immediately 
 carried out. The deserted monastery of Port-Royal-des- 
 Champs afforded them a temporary shelter. Owing to its 
 unhealthiness from overcrowding, the whole community of 
 of nuns had been withdrawn to Port-Royal-de-Paris. The 
 recluses, however, were not permitted to remain there, and 
 after wandering from place to place, took up their abode at 
 Fert^ Milon, a small town fifty miles from Paris. Here they 
 were received under the roof of Madame Vitart, the aunt of 
 Jean Racine, the great French poet, who was himself to 
 become a pupil in the schools of Port-Royal. Finally, in 
 1639, when the minds of men were less excited, the recluses 
 quietly made their way back to the monastery of Port- 
 Royal-des-Champs, and gradually founded there a com- 
 munity composed of men who were among the most dis- 
 tinguished in France for genius, for learning, and for holiness. 
 From his prison at Vincennes Saint-Cyran ceased not to 
 direct the recluses and many others, among whom stands 
 the name of M. Guillebert, who appears in the annals of the 
 Pascal family. He became a disciple of the imprisoned 
 Saint-Cyran, and was, as priest of Rouville in Normandy, 
 the means of a religious revival in that parish, when the whole 
 Pascal family placed themselves under his guidance. 
 
 Saint-Cyran's letters to his young converts are full of 
 warmth and affection. In one of these he writes, 'What 
 great joy I have when I hear of any young man who has 
 devotion towards God ; but I have also fear, because ex- 
 perience has taught me that not only in the case of the 
 young, but even with grown men, this devotion oft-times 
 resembles the blossom one sees on the trees, which after- 
 wards disappears without leaving any fruit.' The children 
 whom he recommended to the care of Lancelot were also 
 
1581.1643.I SAINT-CYRAN. 37 
 
 constantly in his thoughts. From his prison he wrote 
 requesting that, though at a distance, he might be allowed 
 to assist as 'submaster in their education.' 
 
 Among his fellow-prisoners many were brought to a 
 higher life through his influence. Johann von Werth, a 
 famous general in the Thirty Years' War, was among these. 
 In 1641 his exchange was effected with another French 
 prisoner, and before leaving France he was invited by the 
 Cardinal to a grand representation given in his palace. 
 The king and queen were present at this play with all their 
 court. The dignitaries of the Church were invited, and 
 bishops and abbots, confessors and almoners, had special 
 seats reserved for them. Nothing could be more dazzling 
 than the spectacle. When it was over, Johann von Werth 
 was asked what had struck him most in this magnificent 
 scene ; he replied that it was a wonderfully fine pageant ; 
 but what had struck him as a thing still more wonderful, 
 was that in the most Christian kingdom of France, bishops 
 should be at a comedy and saints in prison. 
 
 Another prisoner at this time at Vincennes was an Im- 
 perialist general named Ekenfort. A strange and touching 
 incident is related concerning him. Made prisoner of 
 war in 1638, it was agreed after two years' captivity to 
 ■exchange him for a French prisoner of distinction, M. 
 de Feuquifere, taken by the Germans at the battle of 
 Thionville. To carry out the exchange, M. d'Ekenfort had 
 been released by the king's order from Vincennes, and went 
 to pass his last night on French soil at the house of his 
 friend M. Arnauld d'Andilly, rejoicing as only a released 
 prisoner can rejoice in the sense of recovered liberty. At 
 an early hour the following morning all was ready for his 
 •conveyance across the frontier. The horses were saddled 
 in the courtyard, and having bade farewell to his friends. 
 
38 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1581-1643- 
 
 the happy general was in the act of mounting, when the 
 startling news was brought in all haste that the French 
 officer for whom he was to be exchanged was dead. It 
 was a thunderbolt to the assembled party, but there was 
 nothing left for him but to return at once to Vincennes. 
 
 It was under this terrible disappointment that M. d'Eken- 
 fort found relief and spiritual consolation in the companion- 
 ship of Saint-Cyran, who looked upon this return to captivity 
 as divinely ordered for his eternal good. ' The Emperor,' 
 he said, ' wished .to liberate you ; the king of France also 
 desired it ; who then prevented it ? The King who over^ 
 rules all things both in heaven and on earth.' 
 
 In the chapel at Vincennes, Saint-Cyran's attention had 
 been drawn to two women prisoners like himself, poorly and 
 scantily clad. These were the Baronne de Beausoleil and 
 her daughter ; the husband was incarcerated in the Bastille, 
 and they were left utterly destitute. Saint-Cyran had but a 
 few books in his possession, but the greater part of these 
 were at once disposed of, that ' comfortable clothing befitting 
 the condition of these ladies ' might be purchased for them 
 by Madame Le Maitre, to whom he gave the commission. 
 
 But the most remarkable of the conversions effected 
 through the instrumentality of the imprisoned Abbe was 
 that of Antoine Arnauld, better known to the world as 
 'le grand Arnauld.' He was the youngest brother of'M. 
 Arnauld d'Andilly and of Angelique Arnauld (Abbess of 
 Port-Royal), and the greatest genius of that illustrious family. 
 He had wonderful facility in learning, and as a boy at 
 school gave evidence of his mental powers. He studied 
 philosophy at Lisieux, and applied himself to the study of 
 the law, for which he showed an especial aptitude ; but his 
 mother being strongly averse to his making the law his 
 profession, he yielded to her wishes, and commenced the 
 
i58i-i643.1 SAINT-CYRAN. 39 
 
 study of theology at the Sorbonne under M. Lescot. 
 Although not his spiritual director, Saint-Cyran took a keen 
 interest in the young Antoine, and dreading the tendency 
 of Lescot's instructions, furnished him, as a corrective, with 
 some of St. Augustine's writings on divine grace. The 
 consequence was that in 1635, six years before the appear- 
 ance of Jansen's famous ' Augustinus,' the Augustinian 
 doctrine of grace was clearly perceptible in a thesis written 
 by the young Arnauld when studying for his bachelor's 
 degree — the doctrine ' for which he was to encounter fifty 
 years of toil and combat and suffering.' 1 
 
 His success was brilliant at the University. His genius, 
 his learning, and his remarkable debating powers rendered 
 him the object of universal notice and expectation. Riche- 
 lieu regarded him with especial favour, and a great career 
 opened before him. Antoine himself was ambitious of dis- 
 tinction. He had taken his bachelor's degree, but he was 
 determined to attain the highest honours. His life at this 
 time was that of a man of the world living in pleasure. 
 He possessed considerable wealth from the benefices pro- 
 cured for him through his father's interest at court. 
 
 His family, although proud of his talents, lamented his 
 worldly mode of life, destined as he was for the ecclesiastical 
 state. He was received into the Church as a subdeacon ; 
 but with him this was but a stepping-stone to a further 
 object. His great ambition was to become a doctor of the 
 Sorbonne. To attain this dignity he must be in priest's 
 orders. But a sudden doubt rose within him as to his 
 fitness for this higher office. Had he not been contenting 
 himself with intellectual knowledge without seeking that 
 holiness which God required? Dissatisfied with himself, 
 and with the specious advice proffered to him by his con- 
 1 See ' Port-Royal ' (Beard). 
 
40 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1581-1643. 
 
 fessor, Arnauld resolved to write to M. de Saint-Cyran (for 
 the last six months a prisoner at Vincennes), and cast him- 
 self upon him for direction. In his letter he tells how ' for 
 many years he had been living in a perpetual lethargy, seeing 
 what is good and right, but doing it not, contenting himself 
 with having thoughts like those of the children of God, whilst 
 living the life of the children of the world ; but now God had 
 spoken to his heart, and hearing ears had been given him.' 
 
 On receiving this letter, M. de Saint-Cyran immediately 
 wrote back, 'I am yours, when once you are the servant 
 of God.' 
 
 Arnauld was at first dismayed by the sternness with 
 which M. de Saint-Cyran viewed the course which had been 
 pursued. 'To become a priest for the sake of a doctor's 
 cap was to degrade the priesthood,' and 'no man could 
 acceptably labour in God's vineyard who had not been 
 called to the work by the Holy Spirit.' 
 
 Saint-Cyran consented to become his director (though this 
 was not without peril to himself) on condition of perfect sub- 
 mission on the part of the penitent, whom he recommended 
 to continue his theological studies, and prepare himself by 
 prayer and fasting for the place he sought in the Church. 
 
 He enjoined prayerful study of the Scriptures, committing 
 certain portions to memory, and bidding him 'weigh every 
 word, even as if he were weighing a coin of gold.' 'You must 
 have a library within,' he wrote, ' and transmit to your heart 
 all the knowledge which you have in your head, so as to be 
 able to put it forth as God may require.' He also wished 
 him to take charge of three poor persons, whom he was to 
 visit, and to whom he was to give alms for a whole year. 
 
 Port-Royal-des-Champs willingly opened its gates to re- 
 ceive the new penitent. 
 
 Arnauld pursued his theological studies with redoubled 
 
I58.-I643-] SAINT-CYRAN. 41 
 
 assiduity ; but all things had become changed to him. The 
 world was renounced, his benefices were resigned, and his 
 wealth was consecrated to the Church. He became priest 
 in 1 64 1. His admission to the Sorbonne was delayed 
 through the opposition of Richelieu, who had discovered 
 that he was a disciple of M. de Saint-Cyran ; but on the 
 death of the Cardinal in December 1642, Arnauld was at 
 once admitted to this crowning honour. Some months 
 before receiving his doctor's degree he lost his mother. 
 She had been for fifteen years a sister in the monastery of 
 Port-Royal-de-Paris, and the conversion of her son had 
 afforded her the deepest consolation. On her death-bed 
 she was attended by M. Singlin and her nephew, M. de 
 Saci. Antoine Arnauld was not admitted, and in his grief 
 he implored M. Singlin to ask his mother if she had not a 
 parting word for him — a word which he should hold sacred 
 all his life, as conveying her last wish, and as a token of 
 God's purpose concerning him. M. Singlin brought him 
 . . this message from the dying woman. 'Tell my youngest 
 son, that as God has called him to defend the truth, I 
 exhort and conjure him never to relax in its defence, but to 
 sustain it fearlessly, even at the peril of a thousand lives ; 
 and tell him I pray God to keep him humble, and not to 
 suffer him to become puffed up by his knowledge, for truth 
 belongs not to him, but to God only.' 
 
 The dying words of his mother found an echo in the 
 heart of the young man when the solemn oath was admi- 
 nistered to him by the Sorbonne, and he swore to defend 
 God's truth even to the shedding of his blood. ' This is 
 not a mere formal ceremony,' he exclaimed to those around 
 who took the oath with him ; ' it is a solemn contract, and 
 it behoves us to consider well whither under God's pro- 
 vidence it may lead us.' 
 
42 FRENCH yANSBNISTS. [.581-1643- 
 
 To return to M. de Saint-Cyran. No definite charge was 
 brought against him until a whole year after his arrest, when 
 a commissioner was sent to interrogate him; but he had 
 too strong a sense of the dignity of the priesthood to submit 
 to be catechised by a layman. Lescot, a doctor of the 
 Sorbonne, was therefore substituted by the Cardinal, and 
 for three weeks the examination lasted, but only to prove 
 the superiority of the prisoner's knowledge to that of his 
 examiner. Lescot attempted to convict Saint-Cyran of 
 Calvinism, on account of his views on the doctrines of 
 grace and works. 
 
 The subject of attrition was also discussed, as the great 
 object of Lescot was to induce the prisoner formally to 
 renounce his view on this point, and declare in writing 
 that he approved of the doctrine as held by the Cardinal. 
 He hinted that if he did so, he would at once be liberated. 
 Saint-Cyran remained immovable; he said that he had 
 no private views on the subject ; the views he held were 
 sanctioned by the Catholic Church, and that he would 
 rather remain a prisoner than retract what he held to be 
 truth. To the entreaties of his friends he replied, ' I am 
 content to remain here — it matters not how long — to die 
 here, if it be God's will. I desire to complain of nothing, 
 knowing that God does all. I am ready for whatever He 
 designs for me — for action or for suffering, as He sees best.' 
 Another year passed, and again Lescot came, but the result 
 of their conference was the same ; the Inquisitor was again 
 baffled. 
 
 From time to time Richelieu sent complimentary messages 
 and protestations to his prisoner, his emissaries pressed him 
 for some response, but Saint-Cyran maintained towards the 
 Cardinal a respectful but absolute silence. 
 
 At length, however, after a third visit from I^escot, Saint- 
 
1581-1643.1 SAINT-CYRAN. 43 
 
 Cyran, wearied by the solicitations of his friends and 
 weakened in health, was induced to write a letter to M. de 
 Chavigni, the governor of Vincennes, and a man deep in 
 the confidence of Richelieu, explaining his views on contrition 
 and attrition, and admitting that, as a confessor, it was 
 possible that occasions might arise when he should feel 
 justified in administering absolution where the deeper sense 
 of contrition had not been attained. 
 
 The letter had hardly been despatched when he repented 
 of his weakness, and felt grieved and humiliated by his 
 concession. 
 
 The letter produced no effect. Richeheu was not appeased 
 by the slight concession. 
 
 Le Maitre, in despair, now urged Saint-Cyran to send 
 some deferential message to the Cardinal in return for his 
 empty phrases and civilities. But he refused. ' What then 
 is to be done ? ' exclaimed Le Maitre. ' Bow the head and 
 adore God,' was the reply. 
 
 Saint-Cyran's prison life served to develop the beauty of 
 his character. His very guards, it is said, revered him as a 
 saint ; the children of his jailers were his pupils. 
 
 Often would his voice be heard in the silence of the 
 night, like Paul and Silas of old, praying and singing hymns 
 unto God, and the other prisoners would listen and wonder 
 as they caught the sound. 
 
 It was not till two years after the death of Jansen that his 
 book the ' Augustinus ' was published. It issued forth from 
 the press at Louvain in 1640, and, in spite of all the 
 intrigues of the Jesuits, a second edition appeared in Paris 
 the following year. This work had long been of intense 
 interest to Saint-Cyran. It was in truth in great part his 
 own ; and he had watched its progress with varying hopes 
 and fears for twenty years ; but when his friend Jansen died. 
 
44 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1581-1643- 
 
 he had despaired of the book ever seeing the Hght. The 
 news of its publication therefore afforded him the deepest 
 satisfaction, and the book itself was at once sent by his 
 friends to solace the prisoner at Vincennes. 
 
 He received it with exultation as ' the book of devotion 
 of these latter days.' After St. Paul and St. Augustine, no 
 one, he said, had written concerning divine grace like Jansen. 
 
 In Paris the 'Augustinus' obtained the approval of six 
 ■doctors of the Sorbonne, and was regarded with extra- 
 ordinary interest, not only by the theological world, but by 
 the public generally. The Pope's Nuncio and the Jesuits 
 viewed it with an evil eye, and the latter anxiously awaited 
 their opportunity for striking a blow. The occasion soon 
 presented itself 
 
 The pulpit in the seventeenth century, as in the Middle 
 Ages, gave the lead to public opinion, very much as the press 
 does in our own time, and the Jesuits availed themselves of 
 this prerogative. 
 
 In the Advent sermons preached in the Cathedral of Notre- 
 Dame in 1642, the 'Augustinus' was publicly proclaimed 
 by a Jesuit father to be heretical,, and Jansen was held up 
 to scorn as a Calvinist in disguise. Immediately a crowd 
 of preachers followed suit, and denounced the work and its 
 author in the same insulting strain. 
 
 Saint-Cyran's indignation was aroused by these unworthy 
 attacks on one who could no longer defend himself, and 
 from his prison at Vincennes he confided the defence of the 
 book to the genius and eloquence of the great Arnauld, 
 calling upon him to refute the calumnies of the Jesuits. 
 ^ There is a time,' he said, ' to be silent, and a time to speak, 
 and the time is come when silence would be a crime.' 
 
 Accordingly a work shortly appeared from the pen of 
 Arnauld, which caused almost as much sensation as the 
 
1581-1643.I SAINT-CYRAN. 45 
 
 book he was pledged to support. The incident which 
 directly led to its publication is sufficiently curious. 
 
 Two great ladies of the court, the Princesse de Guemen^ 
 and the Marquise de Sable, were much embarrassed by 
 finding that their respective directors were in direct opposi- 
 tion in so important a matter as the rule to be observed 
 after reception of the Holy Sacrament. 
 
 The director of Madame de Sabl^, Pfere Sesmaisons, a 
 Jesuit, gave her full permission to attend a ball the same 
 evening, whilst Saint-Cyran, who (through M. Singlin) ruled 
 the conscience of Madame de Guemene, steadily denied 
 the same indulgence to her friend. In this difficulty the 
 two ladies agreed that each should write to her director, 
 and should place the answer of the Jesuit Sesmaisons in 
 the hands of the Jansenist director, and that of the Jansenist 
 in the hands of the Jesuit. 
 
 In this way the reply of the Jesuit, which took the form 
 of a small treatise '^ became known to Arnauld. Shocked 
 by the lax and accommodating teaching of this treatise, 
 which declared, among other things, that ' the more we 
 are devoid of divine grace, the more boldly ought we 
 to approach Jesus Christ in the Eucharist,' Arnauld 
 launched forth his famous work entitled ' De la Fr^quente 
 Communion.' This book, now forgotten, and bearing a 
 title seemingly opposed to its teaching, was at one period 
 as much read and valued as the 'Vie Devote' of St. 
 Fran5ois de Sales, or even the ' Imitation.' 
 
 In the ' Frdquente Communion ' Arnauld states in clear 
 strong words the true doctrine held by the Jansenists. He 
 maintains the necessity of hearty repentance, which was in 
 danger of being set aside by the teaching of the Jesuits, 
 and deplores the carelessness and irreverence with which 
 
 1 Entitled 'Question, S'il est meilleur de communier souvent ou rarement ? ' 
 
46 FRENCH JANSENISTS. (.58i-i643- 
 
 many now intruded, without due preparation, upon sacred 
 mysteries ; and he declares that before absolution could be 
 efficacious, there must be some sense of love to God, and 
 heartfelt contrition for sin as an offence against Him. In 
 support of this, he cites from the Fathers and Councils of 
 the Church. 
 
 Before publication the book was submitted to the prisoner 
 at Vincennes. It received his warm commendation, and he 
 declared that ' Arnauld had proved himself a true defender 
 of the faith.' 
 
 The work was not published for some months. It issued 
 forth with the approving signatures of sixteen bishops and 
 twenty doctors of the Sorbonne. It was hailed with en- 
 thusiasm, and passed rapidly through several editions. Its 
 wonderful success cheered the last days of Saint-Cyran, and 
 seemed to be given him as a blessed consolation for the 
 long persecution he had endured on account of the very 
 doctrine now so ably and boldly put forth by Arnauld. 
 
 In December 1642 the great Cardinal died, and Saint- 
 Cyran's release from prison was not long delayed. On the 
 6th of February 1643 ^^ '^^s set free; but five years of 
 captivity had told heavily upon his frame, and he left his^ 
 prison with the seal of death upon him. His fellow-prisoners 
 shed tears of mingled joy and sorrow when he parted from 
 them ; the jailers, we are told, formed a line on each side 
 as he passed, and the soldie'rs of the garrison saluted him 
 as he drove away in the carriage of M. Arnauld d'Andilly. 
 He returned to his old lodging near the Chartreux, in the 
 neighbourhood of the present Rue d'Enfer. 
 
 On the evening of his release he once more knelt in the 
 little chapel of Port-Royal-de-Paris, and joined in the psalm 
 of praise and thanksgiving. A few days afterwards he visited 
 the recluses at Port-Royal-des-Champs. It was not without 
 
1581-1643.] SAINT-CYRAN. 47 
 
 deep emotion that they again gathered round the master 
 whom they loved and venerated, and from whom they had 
 been so long parted. 
 
 A week later there was a solemn thanksgiving for his 
 release at Port-Royal-de-Paris. The service was conducted 
 by M. Singlin. Antoine Arnauld, De Saci, and Lancelot 
 took part in it. Saint-Cyran himself was present, but too 
 weak to ofificiate. After the service, by his request, they 
 knelt in silent prayer, and asked to be guided in the choice 
 of a psalm to commemorate the event. By the means 
 common in those days of thrusting a long pin into the 
 Psalter, the book was opened at the 34th Psalm. M. Singlin 
 then read aloud — 
 
 ' I will bless the Lord at all times ; 
 His praise shall be continually in my mouth. 
 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all 
 
 my fears ; 
 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, 
 And saved him out of all his trouble. 
 
 The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, 
 And none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.' 
 
 The words were received as a direct message from God. 
 Saint-Cyran was deeply moved. He asked to be left 
 alone.' But when, in obedience to his wishes, the others 
 were gone, two of the recluses stood unperceived in the 
 church, and relate that, with tearful eyes and a voice stifled 
 by sobs, he again slowly repeated the Psalm, and casting 
 himself down before the altar, he remained for some time 
 wrapt in prayer. 
 
 Though released from prison, Saint-Cyran was still under 
 suspicion, and the interval of peace and quiet study on 
 which he had counted after leaving Vincennes was but of 
 brief duration. An attempt was made almost immediately 
 by the Jesuits to suppress and censure a short familiar 
 
48 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1581-1643. 
 
 catechism for children, written by Saint-Cyran at the request 
 of a friend whilst in prison. The attempt proved abor- 
 tive, but a feeling of insecurity remained, and a report was 
 prevalent that M. de Saint-Cyran was once more to be 
 consigned to prison. He himself continued calm and 
 undisturbed. His liberty was not again interfered with, 
 and the fears of the Port-Royalists gradually subsided. In 
 Paris his old life was resumed. He directed the recluses 
 and recommenced a work he had begun before his im- 
 prisonment. Its aim was to expose the errors of the 
 Calvinists, wishing, perhaps, to show that, though opposed 
 to the teaching of the Jesuits, Port-Royal was loyal to the 
 Church of Rome. It almost seemed that the nearer the 
 Jansenists approached Protestant doctrine, the more eager 
 were they to disclaim sympathy with Protestants. But for 
 Saint-Cyran the end of all controversy was at hand. Doubts 
 and disputations were to be exchanged for blessed certainties. 
 
 The last evening of his troubled life (October 10) was 
 passed in dictating to a friend his thoughts on another 
 world and the glory which should be revealed. 
 
 The next morning he had an attack of apoplexy, but he 
 recovered consciousness, and at his own request the last 
 sacraments were administered by the cur^ of his parish 
 church, St.-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas. At eleven o'clock on 
 that Sunday morning, October 11, Saint-Cyran ceased to 
 breathe. 
 
 He was buried in his parish church, and followed to the 
 grave by a concourse of bishops and archbishops desirous 
 of showing respect to his memory. Vincent de Paul, we 
 are told, was the first to sprinkle holy water on the body 
 of the man who had been imprisoned for ' heresy.' 1 
 
 His tomb was visited by persons of all ranks. Every 
 1 See ' Saint Vincent de Paul' (Abbg Maynard), torn. ii. p. 28. 
 
1581.1643.I SAINT-CYRAN, 49 
 
 Saturday mass was said by priests of Port-Royal at an altar 
 near where he lay, and not the ordinary mass for the dead, 
 but the higher ceremony with white vestments, ordered for a 
 confessor. 
 
 Thus died at the age of sixty-two the founder of so called 
 Jansenism in France, the greatest among the great characters 
 of Port-Royal, and the father of the great intellectual and 
 spiritual movement which was in after times to offer the one 
 single barrier within the kingdom to the despotism of Louis 
 XIV., who at the close of his reign added yet another stain 
 to his memory, by breaking up the holy and virtuous com- 
 munity which refused to bow down to his will in spiritual 
 matters, and chose to serve God rather than man. 
 
 JVbie. — In the spring of 1892 the writer visited the Church of St. 
 Jacques du Haut Pas. At the east end of the church, in an obscure 
 corner of the raised platform reserved for the organist, is a square white 
 slab, no larger than a somewhat large tile, on which is inscribed in 
 rude letters — 
 
 ' Ici repose Jean du Verger de Hauranne, 
 Abb^ de Saint-Cyran, decede le n Octobre 1643, 
 Celebre par sa science et par ses vertus.' 
 
50 FRENCH J4NSENISTi>. Iisgr-i66j, 
 
 JACQUELINE-MARIE-ANGELIQUE ARl^AULD 
 
 {M'kre Angiltque), 
 
 Abbess of Port-Royal. 
 
 B. 1591. D. 1661. 
 
 ' We soon come to the end of our human strength and 
 resolutions, but if our souls be in union with Christ, they 
 receive of His strength and of His truth.' 
 
 'If we are inflated with the wind of vanity, it will ex- 
 tinguish our lamps as surely as the lack of oil' 
 
 ' The most trivial action may be performed to ourselves 
 or to God.' 
 
 ' Humility does not remove our worries, but it calms the 
 mind under them.' 
 
 'In seeking human sympathy, we but too often lose 
 Divine consolation.' 
 
 'Let our chief thought be to die to self, that we may 
 live to God. Let us strive each day to offer Him some- 
 thing that may mortify a little of our vanity and self-will.' 
 
 'Without faith, all troubles seem unendurable. With 
 f9.ith, even bitter things become sweet.' 
 
i59i-i66i.] MkRB ANGiLIQUE. 51 
 
 ' The greatest and most acceptable kind of alms which 
 we can give to God is to offer some retrenchment of 
 our inclinations and to mortify our. inward and outward 
 senses.' 
 
 ' It will serve nothing to put on the habit of a nun, if you 
 have not put on the new man, which is created in right- 
 eousness and holiness ; and this righteousness consists in a 
 perfect union with the will of God.' — Lettre d, Madame de 
 Saint-Ange. 
 
 ' AVhen you feel discouraged or tempted, have recourse at 
 once to God and His goodness to sustain you ; and when 
 you have committed faults, acknowledge them faithfully, 
 and then, instead of losing by your fall, you will gain the 
 knowledge of your weakness and will feel more deeply your 
 need of Divine help.' 
 
 'It is a deceit of the world which destroys many, to 
 imagine that those living in the world are not bound to a 
 virtuous life, as those are who are bound to a religious 
 vocation,' — Lettre d, la Princesse de Lorraine. 
 
 ' We are not called in these days to die for our faith on 
 the rack, or by the sword or by fire, but we are all called to 
 die to ourselves by a thousand little self-renunciations^ — 
 renunciation of our own judgment, of our own desire, of 
 our own temper — occasions for which are given us every 
 day, so that instead of dying by the hand of man, we give 
 ourselves to death ; and thus losing our Hves for Jesus 
 Christ's sake, we by so doing live His life. 'I came not 
 into the world to do Mine own will.' — Letter to Madame 
 Arnauld after she had taken the veil. 
 
52 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1591-1661. 
 
 ' Oil vous ne pourrez marcher, Dieu vous portera." 
 
 — St. Francois de Sales. 
 
 In a wooded valley seven miles from Versailles, on the 
 road to Ch^vreuse, there rose the once stately Abbey of 
 Port-Royal-des-Champs. 
 
 It was founded in the thirteenth century, in the reign of 
 Philippe II. Augusta, who, according to tradition, lost his 
 way whilst hunting in the forest, and took shelter in an 
 ancient chapel dedicated to St. Lawrence, to which he 
 afterwards gave the name of Port-Royal. 
 
 The monastery was founded by Matthieu de Marli, of 
 the house of Montmorenci, who, on his departure for the 
 Crusade proclaimed in 1202 by Innocent III., intrusted a 
 sum of money to his wife Mathilde, wherewith to purchase 
 land and found a monastery, where prayers might be con- 
 stantly offered up for his safety. ^ 
 
 In a district named Porrois, from an old Latin word 
 signifying a ' marsh,' land was accordingly purchased. 
 But whatever may have been the character of the soil, 
 and whether or not it deserved its name, the ground 
 purchased in fulfilment of Matthieu's desire had one ad- 
 vantage. In its centre stood the little chapel which had 
 once given shelter to a king, and was now destined again 
 to become famous as the germ of the Monastic Church of 
 Port-Royal-des-Champs, of which it formed a part 
 
 Robert de Luzarches, already renowned as the architect 
 of Amiens Cathedral, is said to have been employed in 
 
 1 The Crusade had been proclaimed for the recovery of the Holy- 
 Sepulchre, but the Crusaders made no attempt to do so ; they leagued 
 themselves with the Venetians and attacked Constantinople, viresting it 
 from the Greeks in 1204, and established a Latin Empire vifhich lasted fifty- 
 seven years. Baldwin, Count of Flanders, vfas the first Latin Emperor. 
 
is9i-i66i.] MERE ANG^LIQUE. 53 
 
 building the church of Port-Royal, which was completed 
 and consecrated in 1229. 
 
 The monastery had already been erected by Mathilde in 
 1208 when twelve Cistercian nuns of the Reformed Order 
 of St. Benedict took up their abode within its walls. This 
 number soon increased to sixty, and for a long period the 
 rule of St. Benedict was enjoined and faithfully observed. 
 
 Substantial privileges were conceded to the Abbey by 
 successive Popes. In 1223 Honorius III. issued a decree 
 that no Bishop should interfere with the election of an 
 Abbess of Port-Royal ; any attempt to excommunicate or to 
 trouble the community in any way would be visited by 
 Papal displeasure. "iThe nuns were likewise authorised to 
 receive into their monastery those who wished to retreat 
 from the world without being bound by vows, a privilege 
 retained until the seventeenth century ; but long before 
 that time conventual discipline had fallen everywhere into 
 decay, and at the accession of Henri IV. to the throne 
 of France, Port-Royal had sadly degenerated from its 
 ancient character. We are told that at the close of his 
 reign, the ladies of this monastery were accustomed to 
 relieve the tedium of monastic life by promenades on the 
 margin of the lake, where strains of more lively music 
 than those of the choir met the ear, and gay cavaliers 
 were not unfrequently permitted interviews with white- 
 robed nuns, whose dress in shape ^ and material imitated, 
 as far as might be, the prevailing fashions of the day.^ 
 
 1 In ' Pepin's Sermons,' quoted by M. de Sainte-Beuve, it is said ' that 
 the taste for dress and luxury had grown to such a pitch in religious houses, 
 that the nuns dressed themselves like noble ladies, forgetting that they 
 were to count themselves dead to the world and its vanities.' The nuns 
 wore masks to save their complexions, and gloves according to the fashion 
 of the time. 
 
 2 See ' Essays on Ecclesiastical Biography ' (Port-Royalists), Sir James 
 Stephen. 
 
54 F.RENCH JANSENISTS. [1591-166.. 
 
 The pomps and vanities of the world had, in truth, made 
 their inroad into the cloister, and the appointment of 
 Abbess came to be coveted simply as an honourable and 
 pleasant position for a younger daughter. 
 
 But a change was at hand. In 1575 Jeanne de Boule- 
 hart became Abbess of Port-Royal, and in 1599 accepted 
 as her coadjutrix Jacqueline-Marie Arnauld, aged seven 
 years and a half, with the understanding that the little girl 
 was to succeed her as Abbess. The appointment of this 
 child led to extraordinary results, and the circumstances 
 under which it was made are as curious as they are 
 irlteresting. 
 
 The Arnaulds were of an old family of Auvergne. The 
 grandfather of Jacqueline-Marie, M. de la Mothe-Arnauld, 
 had himself been a Huguenot, a fact not forgotten by the 
 enemies of his race in after years. He narrowly escaped 
 death on the day of St. Bartholomew (1572). His house 
 was attacked, and but for the timely arrival of a force sent 
 by the Queen-Mother, Catherine de Medicis, to protect her 
 Procureur-Gdneral, he would doubtless have perished. The 
 humane intervention of the Queen-Mother had one effect : 
 from that day forth the grandfather of Jacqueline-Marie 
 renounced the Protestant faith. 
 
 M. de la Mothe-Arnauld had been in the army before 
 entering the law-courts. In both professions he had been 
 distinguished, and had made himself a name. His favour 
 with Catherine de Medicis was extended to his son, Antoine 
 Arnauld, who inherited his father's forensic talents, and in 
 due time succeeded him in the post of Procureur-G^ndral, 
 which he held till the death of the Queen-Mother at Blois 
 in 1589. Antoine then gave up the office of Auditeur des 
 Comptes, which he had likewise held, and devoted himself 
 exclusively to the bar. His eloquence became noted, and 
 
iS9i-i66i.] MERE ANGBLIQUE. 55 
 
 many were the causes c'elibres in which he was engaged. 
 In 1593 an attempt was made on the life of Henri IV. 
 by Pierre Barrifere, a tool of the Jesuits, and their expulsion 
 was loudly and generally demanded. 
 
 For thirty years the University of Paris had striven to 
 resist the encroachments of the Order, which openly sought 
 to monopolise the education of the young, and this attack 
 on the king's person afforded a fresh and powerful pretext 
 for their removal. Parliament was petitioned, and in the 
 suit which followed Antoine Arnauld was appointed coun- 
 sel for the University against the Jesuits. This has been 
 wittily termed 'the original sin of the Arnaulds.' 
 
 His earnest pleading produced great effect at the time 
 on the judges, but the trial was adjourned, and it was not 
 till after another attempt to assassinate the king in 1594 
 by Jean Chatel, that the Jesuits were banished from the 
 soil of France. Arnauld was thenceforth regarded by the 
 whole Order as their avowed enemy, and their bitter, 
 implacable animosity finally occasioned the destruction of 
 Port-Royal. 
 
 Antoine Arnauld had married in 1585 the daughter of 
 a distinguished old lawyer, M. Marion, afterwards Avocat- 
 General. She became the mother of twenty children, de- 
 scribed as ' I'iloquente famille,' and brought as her dowry 
 the estate of Andilly. 
 
 Among the most remarkable of these children were 
 Jacqueline-Marie Arnauld, afterwards Mfere Angdlique, the 
 subject of this sketch ; Arnauld d' Andilly, the eldest son ; 
 Catherine, the eldest daughter, married to M. le Maitre, 
 and the mother of Antoine le Maitre and Isaac le Maitre 
 (the latter being known as De Saci) ; Jeanne Arnauld, the 
 next sister to Angdique, afterwards Mfere Agnes ; Henri 
 Arnauld, Bishop of Angers ; and lastly, Antoine, known as 
 
56 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1591-1661. 
 
 'le grand Arnauld,' the youngest of the Arnauld family, 
 and as celebrated in the annals of Port-Royal as his sister 
 AngdUque. 
 
 As M. Marion advanced in years, his anxiety increased 
 how to provide for so many grandchildren. The Arnauld 
 family consisted for the most part of daughters, and it was 
 decided that the eldest should t^e her place in society and 
 marry, but that the two next in age should be provided for 
 in the cloister. 
 
 M. Marion had many powerful friends, and stood high 
 in the favour of Henri IV. ; he consequently, without 
 difficulty or inquiry as to the age of the two grandchildren, 
 obtained from the good-natured king the appointment of 
 coadjutrix to the Abbess of Port-Royal for Jacqueline, and 
 the vacant dignity of Abbess of Saint-Cyr for Jeanne — the 
 two being respectively seven and five years old. The 
 nomination of children of such tender years to so solemn a 
 charge was doubtless a shameless proceeding, but in France 
 such things were winked at in those unscrupulous days. 
 The difficulty lay with Rome. In order to procure the 
 requisite Bulls, it was necessary to deceive — ^in fact, to alter 
 the ages and names of the candidates. 
 
 When Jacqueline's grandfather, M. Marion, proposed that 
 she should become an Abbess, the child for a moment 
 hesitated, and then with quick decision accepted the idea, 
 saying that 'under her rule she would see that the nuns 
 did their duty.' Her younger sister, Jeanne, on the contrary, 
 shrank from the responsibilities which she had heard would 
 fall upon her as Abbess, saying 'it would be enough to 
 have to look after her own soul, without having the souls 
 of others to think of.' 
 
 No time was lost in investing Jacqueline with the 
 monastic habit. ' On the ist September 1599 she was taken 
 
1591-iMi-] MERE ANGELIQUE. 57 
 
 to the convent of St. Antoine des Champs in Paris, and 
 on the following day she took the habit of novice, and 
 the Abbot of Citeaux (Port-Royal being under his rule) 
 gave her his solemn benediction. The year following her 
 younger sister Jeanne went through the same ceremony at 
 Saint-Cyr. 
 
 During the eight months which intervened between the 
 ceremony at Saint-Antoine and that at Saint-Cyr, the two 
 children were left together at the latter Abbey. As the 
 sisters grew in years, a more marked dissimilarity became 
 observable in their characters and tastes. To the lively, 
 high-spirited nature of Jacqueline, conventual life became 
 utterly distasteful, its monotony was almost insupportable 
 to her, whilst to Jeanne, who was more docile and pas- 
 sive, the life at the Benedictine convent of Saint-Cyr was 
 altogether congenial. 
 
 After the eight months had expired, Jacqueline was sent 
 for her conventual training to the Cistercian convent of 
 Maubuisson, of which Madame d'Estrdes, sister of the too 
 famous Gabrielle, was the unworthy Abbess. 
 
 Whilst under the care of Madame d'Estr^es, Jacqueline's 
 confirmation took place, when she assumed the name of 
 Angflique. The change was made with the view of mis- 
 leading the authorities in Rome, who had refused the Bulls 
 necessary for Jacqueline s elevation, but by the change of 
 name they were led to believe that the Bulls now required 
 were for another member of the Arnauld family ; and to 
 complete the fraud, the age of Angtlique was stated to be 
 seventeen. 
 
 Through the influence of Cardinal d'Ossat, the French 
 ambassador in Rome, the necessary formularies were carried 
 out, and the Papal Bull obtained early in 1602. The 
 death of Madame Boulehart (to whom Angflique had been 
 
58 FRENCH JANSENISTS. 11591-166*. 
 
 coadjutrix) quickly followed, and on the 5th of July irt 
 that same year Angdlique Arnauld, the child Abbess, was 
 solemnly installed and put in possession of her Abbey. 
 She was not yet eleven years old, and up to this time 
 there had been nothing to denote her fitness for a con- 
 ventual life. The community had dwindled down to thirteen 
 in number. Luxurious habits had taken the place of 
 poverty and self-denial, and female Vanity and negligence 
 in religious duties had become the rule at Port-Royal, as 
 in most other religious houses in France. It is related 
 that when Angdlique became Abbess, 'the nuns had as 
 confessor a Bernardine monk so ignorant as not to be 
 able to repeat the Paternoster in French, and he knew 
 not a word of the catechism.' For thirty years there had 
 been no sermons preached at Port-Royal, except when a 
 nun made her profession. The Bernardine monks who 
 came to the Abbey were wont to entertain the nuns with 
 accounts of the diversions which took place at Citeaux 
 and Clairvaux, which they called ' the good customs of 
 the Order.' The Holy Sacrament was only administered 
 monthly and on great festivals. The 'Purification' was 
 excepted, as it was in Carnival time, and instead of the 
 mass, masquerades took place in the Abbey, the confessor 
 and the servants assisting.' ^ To this lax state of things, 
 and by the immoral means already inehtioned, Ang^lique 
 Arnauld was introduced at eleven years old — a child des-. 
 tined to become the most revered of Abbesses and" the 
 great reformer of monastic abuses. 
 
 By her father's desire, Angdlique, on attaining the age 
 of fifteen, signed a paper which revealed to her too late 
 the illegality of her earlier appointment to the Abbey. 
 She wpuld gladly have renounced her monastic obligations 
 
 1 See Guilbert, ' M^moires Historiques de Port-Royal,' vol. viii. p. 208, 
 
iS9i-i66i.] MERE ANGELIQUE. 59 
 
 and had actually formed a plan of escape, when she was 
 seized with a dangerous illness, which necessitated her 
 return to her father's house in Paris. Here she was nursed 
 with the tenderest care, and when convalescent, found ample 
 time for serious reflection, but no religious aspirations yet 
 moved within her. She would still joyfully have relinquished 
 the distinction thrust upon her. Her heart yearned for 
 liberty, but her conscience told her, that though yet a 
 child when she had made the vows which bound her to 
 a conventual life, she had made them with a full under- 
 standing of their import, and her pride could not face the 
 shame of forsaking her profession. 
 
 Her strong sense of duty made her resolve not to cast 
 off the unwelcome yoke imposed by her vocation, but to 
 act rightly, and loyally fulfil the part allotted to her. With 
 no higher aim, and utterly without religious enthusiasm, 
 she returned to Port-Royal. But this resolution 'to act 
 rightly ' was the first step towards that life of self-conse- 
 cration to which she afterwards attained. 
 
 The days at Port-Royal were passed by the young Abbess 
 and her nuns in harmless amusement; but there was no 
 religious instruction, and the only preparation she had for 
 her first communion was derived from a book of prayers, 
 lent her by a poor cobbler employed in mending the shoes 
 of the nuns. 
 
 But there fell into her hands in the season of Lent 
 1608 a volume of Meditations left by a Capuchin friar, 
 who had preached at Port-Royal during her absence in 
 Paris. Her mind was impressed by what she read, and 
 when shortly afterwards another Capuchin arrived — le 
 Pere Basil — and asked permission to preach in the 
 convent church, she gave her consent. The whole com- 
 munity assembled to hear Father Basil's sermon. Night 
 
6o FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [.59i-"66«- 
 
 had nearly set in when the preacher commenced his address 
 in the dimly-Ughted church where Ang^lique and her nuns 
 sat listening. He chose for his subject the love and 
 humiliation of the Divine Son in taking upon Him our 
 nature for the salvation of mankind. 
 
 Angdlique was strangely moved. She herself tells us that 
 this was the first drawing of her soul to God, and as in 
 stillness and darkness she listened to the sermon, 'God 
 touched her,' all her distaste for a religious life seemed at 
 once removed, and she now rejoiced in the thought of her 
 vocation. She, who had hitherto been dead to spiritual 
 truths, was awakened into new being, ' not by the eloquence 
 of man,' as she herself declared, ' but by Divine grace,' and 
 that hour of dusk in the convent church was to her 'the 
 dawn of a new life, which was to shine more and more 
 unto the perfect day.' 
 
 Thus has it been in all ages; men and women have 
 obeyed God's call, and have entered into that blessed 
 communion with the unseen which has made them deaf 
 to the world's voice and saints of the Most High God. 
 
 The need of reform in her convent soon presented itself 
 to Angdlique's mind, but it was self-reform, personal r^x^on, 
 which she sought in the first instance. The beam of an 
 unconsecrated life which had obscured her own spiritual 
 vision must be cast out ere she could hope to remove the 
 mote from the eyes of others. 
 
 In describing Ang^lique's early religious fervour, we must 
 not omit the fact that it was marked by some little extrava- 
 gances and self-inflicted mortifications, which have appeared 
 to many persons puerile, and even absurd. But who that 
 has heard the Divine Voice calling him to repentance and 
 newness of life is not Conscious, as he looks back, that his 
 early zeal was not always according to knowledge, nor was 
 
i59>-i66..] MERE ANGELIQUE. 6i 
 
 it always tempered with wisdom and discretion, but that 
 nevertheless the fervour and enthusiasm of those early days- 
 carried him over many an obstacle, and did him in the 
 main good service ? 
 
 Although opposed at first to Ang^lique's reforms, the 
 hearts of the nuns were touched by her increased gentle- 
 ness and humiUty, and by her eagerness to serve them and 
 nurse them in sickness. Gradually they were brought to 
 consent to a stricter discipline. Angdlique's great object 
 was to return to the primitive rule of the Cistercians, 
 and through her patience and example this was finally 
 accomplished ; the fasts and vigils directed by the Church, 
 the rule of silence and the vows of poverty, were again 
 observed. 
 
 Community of goods was not carried into effect without 
 resistance. One old nun, Sceur Morel, persisted in assert- 
 ing her rights. She was the oldest nun in the house, and 
 her repugnance was strong to community of goods. She 
 resigned herself, however, up to a certain point; but there 
 was one thing which she would not give up — this was her 
 little garden. It was her idol, and this must continue hers, 
 and kers only. Perhaps 'we have each,' as has been well 
 remarked, ' our little garden to which we cling, and which 
 we refuse to give up.' 
 
 In vain Ang^lique tried to persuade her — in vain she 
 urged the evil example to others in this act of reservation ; 
 the old nun remained obstinate. 
 
 At length, as by a miracle, Sceur Morel suddenly yielded, 
 and in a touching letter to Angelique enclosed the key of 
 her garden, or, we may add, in the words of M. de Sainte- 
 Beuve, ' the key of her heart.' 
 
 To enforce strict 'closure' according to primitive rule was 
 even a harder task than the re-establishment of community 
 
62 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1591-1661. 
 
 of goods. Ang^lique had become fully aware of the evil 
 of permitting visitors to enter the monastery, and after 
 many inward struggles she resolved to admit no one from 
 the outer world. Even relations were henceforth only to 
 be received in the parlour, and her own family could be 
 no exception to the rule. 
 
 To write and acquaint her mother with this resolution 
 was her next act, and one which cost her infinite pain. 
 M. and Madame Arnauld had always been accustomed to 
 exercise a certain supervision at Port-Royal, and Ang^ique, 
 who had ever shown them implicit obedience, dreaded the 
 effect of this sudden assertion of her authority as Abbess. 
 Her strong natural affection made her shrink from ap 
 pearing undutiful, but the die was cast and the letter 
 despatched. 
 
 She entreated her father and mother to consider the 
 position in which she was placed, and to consent to be 
 received, like all other guests, in the parlour, instead of being 
 admitted, as before, within the monastery. This letter was 
 not disclosed to M. Arnauld by his wife, who regarded 
 Angdlique's- assumption of authority at eighteen as alto- 
 gether inadmissible. The time had arrived for the usual 
 family visit, and on the 25th September 1609 M. Arnauld, 
 accompanied by his wife and their eldest son and daughter, 
 set forth for Port-Royal. 
 
 Ang^lique sought help in prayer for the trial before her. 
 She was still on her knees in the church when -the sound 
 of carriage wheels fell on her ear. The dreaded moment 
 had come, and she trembled as she listened to the violent 
 knocking at the closed gates. She rose and went herself 
 to a small wicket-door, which she opened, and by which 
 she implored her parents to enter. 
 
 M. Arnauld's astonishment was as great as his anger. 
 
iS9i-i6«i.l MERE ANGELIQUE. 63 
 
 He sternly commanded that the usual entrance to the 
 monastery should be opened to him, whilst she with be^ 
 seeching voice entreated him to comply with her request, 
 and pass through the wicket to the little parlour where she 
 might speak to him. Louder and more vehement grew his 
 tone ; he reproached her with bitterness for her disobe- 
 dience and ingratitude. Though deeply moved, Ang^lique 
 remained firm in her determination, and her father now 
 demanded that her two younger sisters, Agnes and Marie- 
 Claire, who were inmates of the monastery, should be 
 delivered up to him. This was done, and he impatiently 
 turned to depart, loudly complaining of her conduct, when 
 Agnes, who was about sixteen, interrupted him, saying that 
 ' after all, Angdlique was only following out that which was 
 ordered by the Council of Trent.' ^ 
 
 Her brother, M. d'Andilly, whose indignation was as 
 great as his father's, upon this burst out, 'Here we have 
 another who takes upon herself to quote to us from councils 
 and canons ! ' 
 
 Madame Arnauld and her son and daughters had already 
 entered the carriage, but M. Arnauld could not find it in 
 his heart to leave his daughter thus, and slowly retracing 
 his steps, he entered the parlour where Angdlique stood 
 behind the grating ready to meet him. She had withstood 
 her father's anger, but the look of grief on his face was 
 almost more than she could bear. He took leave of her, 
 telling her with deep emotion that he should never see her 
 again, and then with inexpressible tenderness implored her, 
 'if she had any affection for him left, not to injure her 
 health by indiscreet austerities.' He turned to go, when 
 Angdlique, overcome with grief, fell fainting behind the 
 
 1 Tom. i. p. 350 (Utrecht), ' M^moires Historiques et Chronologiques de 
 Poit-RDyal-des-Champs,' 
 
64 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [i59'-ifi6i. 
 
 grating. M. Arnauld called loudly for help, and at leiigth 
 the nuns, who had withdrawn by command of Ang^lique, 
 came to her assistance. When restored to consciousness, 
 she implored her father to delay his departure. All resent- 
 ment was cast aside and he promised to remain. 
 
 She was carried by the sisters to her room to recover 
 from the effects of this trying scene, whilst they pre- 
 pared a couch for her in the parlour close to the grating, 
 where she could lie and see her family. When sufiSciently 
 calm to speak, she explained the whole circumstances to her 
 father and mother. 
 
 M. Arnauld's heart smote him for harshness to his child, 
 and from that day, known in the annals of Port-Royal as 
 'la joumde du Guichet,' he and all her family gave her full 
 support.'^ 
 
 The reform accomplished at Port-Royal by a girl of 
 eighteen became the topic of the day, and led to similar 
 reforms at other convents. 
 
 The Abbey of Maubuisson, where Angflique had spent 
 two years of her childhood, was perhaps more demoralised 
 under the rule of Madame d'Estrdes than any other 
 Cistercian convent. The profligacy and disorder which 
 reigned there could hardly be credited. Charges of gross 
 misconduct had been brought against the Abbess and her 
 nuns. During the life of Henri IV. she had been shielded 
 by his protection, but his son and successor, Louis XIII., 
 was not disposed to tolerate the depravity which had been 
 overlooked by his father. A royal order was issued com- 
 manding the Abbot of Citeaux to put an end to these 
 scandals. 
 
 Monk after monk was accordingly despatched to remon- 
 1 See 'M^moires of Port-Royal,' by M. A. Schiramelpenninck. 
 
iS9i-i6Si.] MERE ANGELIQUE. ' 65 
 
 strata with the Abbess, but she invariably dedined to 
 receive them. At length an ecclesiastic of higher dignity- 
 was sent, but some pretext was alleged for delaying the 
 audience, and in the meanwhile the unfortunate envoy 
 and his suite were conducted to a tower, where they were 
 locked in, and only fed with bread and water. After four 
 days they managed to effect their escape, and returned to 
 Citeaux to tell their tale to the outraged Abbot. 
 
 Such insults to his emissaries could not pass without 
 rebuke, and having secured the concurrence of Madame 
 d'Estrdes' family, the Abbot of Citeaux himself set forth on 
 an ofiScial visit to Maubuisson. 
 
 But all was in vain. The Abbess refused to see or 
 communicate with him. She disregarded his entreaties 
 and defied his mandates, and he was forced to leave with- 
 out having obtained an interview. There was but one 
 course left ; this was to seize the Abbess and put her in 
 confinement. 
 
 The order was given by Parliament, and the Abbot, with 
 a body of archers, made his appearance again at Maubuisson. 
 They found all the gates locked, and it was only by scaling 
 the walls that they could make an entrance through the 
 windows. As for Madame d'Estrdes, she was nowhere to 
 be found. 
 
 After a fruitless search of some hours, she was at last 
 discovered, but made such determined opposition to 
 leaving her hiding-place, that the archers had to carry 
 her off in her mattress to the coach which was to convey 
 her to the ' Filles P^nitentes,' where she was shut up.^ 
 
 Having thus disposed of the principal delinquent, the 
 Abbot of Citeaux convened the nuns, and informed them 
 that he was about to appoint a Superior in the place of 
 
 1 'M^moires Historiques,' torn. ii. p. 69. 
 
66 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1591-1661. 
 
 Madame d'Estrdes. He gave them their choice between 
 three Abbesses of the Cistercian Order — one of these 
 being the Mfere Ang^Uque. Though well known and liked 
 ■ by those nuns, with whom she had lived as a child, they 
 yet hesitated at her name, fearing lest they should be sub- 
 jected to the same rigorous reform as she had instituted 
 at Port-Royal. 
 
 They therefore begged M. de Citeaux to appoint a 
 professed nun of their convent, leaving him the choice. 
 To this he assented ; and starting immediately for Paris, 
 the wily Abbot cunningly obtained M. Arnauld's consent 
 to the appointment of Ang^lique as the substitute for 
 Madame d'Estr^es. He then wrote and acquainted the 
 nuns of Maubuisson that, in accordance with their wishes, 
 he had appointed as Superior a professed nun of their house 
 in the person of Madame de Port-Royal. Their dismay 
 was great at being thus outwitted. 
 
 Ang^lique submissively obeyed the summons. Sfie set 
 forth at once, taking with her three or four of her own 
 nuns on whom she could rely. One of these was her sister 
 Marie-Claire.i 
 
 All the community of Port -Royal were in tears at 
 Angelique's departure. Agnes Arnauld, who had retired 
 from Saint-Cyr, now became Superior of Port-Royal during 
 Angelique's absence. 
 
 There were twenty-two nuns at Maubuisson, and Ang6- 
 lique did not disguise from herself or her companions the 
 difficulties, and even dangers, which they might have to 
 
 1 Marie-Claire from the age of seven had been with her sister Ang^lique. 
 As a Httle child she had been lovely, and had been the delight and play- 
 thing of the community. She was attacked by small-pox, and dreadfully 
 scarred and disfigured, so much so that when she saw herself reflected in 
 a looking-glass, she would put her little hands before her face and say, 
 ' Ce n'est plus moi.' 
 
IS9I-I66I.]. MERE ANGELIQUE. 67 
 
 encounter. The life hitherto led at the convent was con- 
 trary to all conventual usages. The nuns lived entirely for 
 diversion. 
 
 The services of the Church were hustled over without 
 reverence, and apparently without thought. In the chanting 
 no regard was paid either to time or tune. At confession 
 the sisters would only say Yes or No to the inquiries of the 
 confessor, and, to avoid even this direct admission, they 
 composed written forms of confession, which they borrowed 
 one from the other when they had to appear at the con- 
 fessional. Their diversions received more consideration 
 than their religious duties. Many of the nuns had gardens, 
 where they received and gave dinners to their friends. 
 Private theatricals, which attracted a great many guests, 
 sometimes followed, and on fine summer evenings, after 
 hurried vespers, the nuns were accustomed to walk with 
 their Prioress on the banks of the reservoirs near the high- 
 road to Paris, where they were joined by the monks of the 
 neighbouring Abbey of St. Martin at Pontoise, for pleasant 
 intercourse and an occasional dance. 
 
 No wonder that on her arrival Angelique met with a 
 cold reception. What she had done at Port-Royal was 
 well known at Maubuisson, and every Sister must have felt 
 that their gay and self-indulgent life would cease under the 
 rule of the new Abbess. 
 
 Angelique began her work by making friendly advances 
 to the old nuns, who had known her as a child ; but she 
 met no encouragement from them, and finding herself 
 repulsed on all sides, she resolved to introduce fresh blood, 
 and bring thirty new Sisters into the convent, hoping that 
 this leaven would leaven the whole community, and that, 
 with God's blessing, all might gradually be gained over to 
 hohness of life. 
 
68 FRENCH JANSENISTS. .11591-1661. 
 
 Whilst in the midst of her labours at Maubiiisson, Angd- 
 lique was visited by Francois de Sales, Bishop of Geneva. 
 She received him as a heaven-sent messenger to help her 
 in her great difificulties. 
 
 In one of her letters she says, 'When God brought M. 
 de Genfeve to me in 1619, I found in him so much grace 
 and light, and such discernment as to my particular needs, 
 that I placed without restraint my very heart in his hands.' 
 To him, accordingly, she confided all her misgivings as to 
 her appointment as Abbess of Port-Royal, and her desire 
 to relinquish that dignity and to enter the Order of the 
 Visitation, of which Madame de Chantal was the Superior. 
 St. Francois counselled her to persevere in the work of 
 reform on which she had entered. He enjoined patience 
 and gentleness and a firm trust in God, and by his words 
 of sympathy confirmed her faith qnd courage. His motto, 
 'Ask for nothing, desire nothing, refuse nothing,' strengthened 
 in her the power of endurance, whilst his meekness and 
 humility taught her a lesson of forbearance which at this 
 time she greatly needed. He tried to moderate her aus- 
 terities, and in one of his letters he says, ' Sleep well ; httle 
 by little you will be able to accomplish your desire of 
 taking but six hours' repose ; but to eat little, work much, 
 and with a great deal of mental annoyance, to refuse sleep 
 to the body is like trying to get work out of a tired horse 
 without giving him a feed of corn.' 
 
 St. Frangois de Sales is chiefly known to us by his 
 ' Introduction k la Vie Devote,' a book said to have been 
 composed at the suggestion of Henri IV., who, in spite 
 of his own frailties, desired that a work should be written 
 on the Christian life fitted for the use of courtiers and 
 others living in the midst of the world. St. Francois was 
 well fitted for the task. He had great experience of court 
 
iS9i-i66i.] MERE ANGELIQUE. 69 
 
 life ; he was known to be averse to excessive austerity, and 
 was wont to say, ' More flies are caught with one spoonful 
 of honey than with ten barrels of vinegar.' 
 
 After St. Frangois had parted from Angdlique, she re- 
 ceived further consolation and support from his letters.'^ 
 She greatly needed encouragement, for a fresh trial of her 
 patience was yet to come. 
 
 In September 1619 Madame d'Estr^es suddenly re- 
 appeared at the convent. She had escaped from 'Les 
 Filles P&itentes,' and came to assert her rights as Abbess 
 of Maubuisson. She had gained admittance through one 
 of the old nuns, with whom she had been in secret corre- 
 spondence. A thunderbolt from the sky could hardly have 
 produced greater consternation. Madame d'Estrees went 
 at once to the convent chapel ; it was the hour of Tierce ; 
 the nuns were assembled in the choir, Angflique in her 
 accustomed seat ; the office was about to commence when 
 the intruder presented herself. She walked boldly up to 
 Angdlique, and with haughty politeness thanked her for 
 the care she had taken of her Abbey in her absence, but 
 she had now come to resume the management herself, and 
 requested Angflique to withdraw at once to her own Abbey 
 of Port-Royal. Calm and unmoved, Angflique replied with 
 great dignity that she had come there in obedience to M. 
 de Citeaux and by the authority of the king, and that it 
 was her duty to remain till she was ordered by royal com- 
 mand to give up her charge. 
 
 But Madame d'Estr&s had not come alone to Mau- 
 buisson. She had brought with her an escort of armed 
 gentlemen, and finding that she could not prevail with 
 Angflique, she summoned her friends, who advanced with 
 
 1 In the published letters of St. Franpois de Sales many of those entitled 
 ' k une Abbesse ' were addressed to Ang^lique. 
 
70 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1591-1661. 
 
 drawn swords, and seizing Angdlique by the arm, forcibly 
 expelled her from the chapel. 
 
 Resistance was useless, and, followed by her faithful nuns, 
 she was led forth from the Abbey, the gates of which were 
 closed against them. Walking in procession, they made 
 their way to Pontoise, their nearest shelter, where they 
 were received with acclamations by the people as ' the good 
 Abbess of Port-Royal and her daughters.' 
 
 Angdlique, however, had at once despatched a messenger 
 to Paris to inform her family of what had occurred. A 
 warrant was immediately procured by her brother, Henri 
 Arnauld (afterwards Bishop of Angers) for the apprehension 
 of Madame d'Estr^es and the re-establishment of Angdlique. 
 A troop of archers was sent to effect this, but before they 
 reached Maubuisson, Madame d'Estrdes and her cavaliers 
 had taken alarm and fled. A guard was left at the Abbey 
 and an escort sent to Pontoise to bring back Angdlique and 
 her nuns. 
 
 They set forth at once on foot, as they had come, the 
 archers on horseback on each side of them. The night 
 having closed in, a torchlight procession was formed, and 
 crowds of people from Pontoise followed them to the gates 
 of the Abbey. Madame d'Estr^es being still at large, the 
 convent had for some time to be guarded till she was recap- 
 tured and consigned once again to the ' Filles Pdnitentes.' 
 
 In 1622 Madame d'Estr^es was formally deposed as 
 Abbess of Maubuisson. The king desired to appoint 
 Angdlique as her successor, but she would not accept this 
 higher dignity, consequently Madame de Soissons was 
 made Abbess. 
 
 For five years Angdlique had patiently striven to work out 
 a reform at Maubuisson. She had had many discourage- 
 ments and trials, but she was rewarded by the love and 
 
I59I-I66I.] MERE ANGELIQUE. 71 
 
 devotion of the thirty dowerless nuns whom she had intro- 
 duced into the convent. Now that she was returning to 
 Port-Royal, they implored not to be left behind. Madame 
 de Soissons had made a grievance of these portionless 
 Sisters having been brought into her Abbey ; Ang^lique's 
 reply was noble : ' If you, madame, think your house with 
 a revenue of 30,000 livres overburdened with the charge of 
 these thirty nuns, I shall not think mine, which possesses 
 but 6000 livres, incommoded by their reception.' 'To be 
 rich towards God ' was all-sufficient with Ang^lique. She 
 only sought heavenly treasure in those whom she admitted 
 to her community. She accordingly returned to Port- 
 Royal with this large addition to her house. 
 
 It was at this time (1623), on her return from Maubuisson," 
 that we find mention for the first time of M. de Saint-Cyran 
 in her history. She had already become acquainted with 
 him through his intimacy with her brother, M. d'Andill)', 
 and on hearing of her reception of these dowerless nuns, 
 which he called 'an act of holy hardihood,' the Abb^ 
 wrote to congratulate her and express his entire approval 
 of her conduct. 
 
 Several changes had taken place at Port-Royal during 
 her absence. Her father had died in 1619, and her sister 
 Agnes, who had relinquished the post of Abbess of Saint- 
 Cyr, had been appointed by a Papal Bull coadjutrix to 
 Ang^lique. There were now five sisters ^ of the Arnauld 
 family in the monastery, and before long they were joined 
 by their widowed mother. It was a happy, peaceful time 
 to Angelique ; surrounded by her family, beloved and reve- 
 renced by all, and as yet unassailed by calumny, she 
 pursued in quietness and peace her life of devotion and 
 active benevolence. 
 1 M4re Agnes, Madame le Maitre, Anne, Marie-Clare, and Madeleine. 
 
72 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1591-1661. 
 
 But these tranquil days were not to last. Under Angd- 
 lique's rule the Abbey attained such a height of renown as 
 a place of sanctity, that it filled to overflowing. It became 
 unhealthy, and whether from the exhalations of the marshy 
 ground below, the Porrois, as it was originally called, or 
 from its crowded state, the monastery became little else 
 than a fever hospital. Angdlique ministered night and day 
 to the sick and the dying, but the mortality increased so 
 rapidly that it was resolved in 1625 to remove the com- 
 munity to Paris. For this move the necessary permission 
 of the Archbishop of Paris, as well as that of the Abbot 
 of Citeaux, had to be obtained ; the consent of the latter 
 was required as the head of the Cistercian Order. 
 
 A large house known as the Hotel de ' Clagny, in the 
 Faubourg Saint-Jacques was purchased by Madame Arnauld, 
 and presented by her to her daughter Angdlique. To 
 distinguish it from the now deserted monastery of Port- 
 Royal-des-Champs, the new house was named Port-Royal- 
 de-Paris,i and was for ever to be under the direction of 
 the Abbess of Port-Royal-des-Champs. 
 
 Soon after the removal of the community to Paris, 
 Angelique somewhat unwisely solicited from Pope Urban 
 VIII. a brief (1627) which removed Port-Royal from the 
 control of the Abbot of Citeaux and placed it under the 
 authority of the Archbishop of Paris (M. de Gondi). It 
 was a false move in some ways, as though it liberated the 
 nuns ■ from the evils attending the appointment of monks 
 as confessors, it placed them under the dominion of Arch- 
 bishops subservient to the Court. 
 
 The Queen-Mother, Marie de Medicis, gave the new 
 Abbey her royal protection, and Sebastien Zamet, Bishop 
 
 ^ Port-Royal-de-Paris still exists. It was visited by the writer this year 
 (1892). It is now the Hospice de la Maternity, Boulevard de Port-Royal. 
 
159I-I66I.] MERE ANGELIQUE. 73 
 
 of Langres, who had formerly been her almoner, was ap- 
 pointed spiritual adviser of the nuns. This was, as it 
 turned out, a most disastrous selection. 
 
 M. de Langres had at no distant period been one of the 
 most obsequious of courtiers, and when rewarded by a 
 bishopric, became remarkable for the episcopal pomp and 
 splendour in which he lived. But a dangerous illness pro- 
 duced a change. The Bishop absented himself from court, 
 and when, after two years, he reappeared, the worldly and 
 dissipated prelate was apparently an altered man. 
 
 Ang^lique, who in 1622 had lost the friend and director 
 who had guided her through the stormy days at Maubuisson, 
 now willingly accepted as the successor of St. Francois de 
 Sales, a man whose sudden conversion seemed to bear 
 some affinity with her own, and whose religious zeal and 
 ardour had become so noted. 
 
 There appeared to be also another chord of sympathy. 
 M. de Langres professed to be a reformer like herself; he 
 too had instituted a complete change in the Cistercian 
 Abbey of Tard at Dijon. This had brought him into 
 communication with Madame de Chantal, between whom 
 and Angelique a warm friendship existed. The Bishop had 
 learnt from Madame de Chantal all the details of the 
 reform at Port-Royal and Maubuisson, and on his arrival 
 in Paris he had eagerly sought to make Angdlique's 
 acquaintance. The knowledge which he had acquired 
 of her past life, and the warm interest he expressed and 
 professed to take in her career, seemed to give him a 
 claim to her friendship, and before long he had completely 
 won her confidence. 
 
 This was the beginning of a period'of sorrow and de- 
 clension at Port-Royal. From henceforth Angelique had 
 little respite from trouble and trial. In her extreme humility 
 
74 FRENCH jfANSENISTS. Usgi-Mi.. 
 
 she had besought and obtained royal permission to make 
 
 the office of Abbess elective and triennial, and voluntarily 
 
 resigning her dignity, she assumed the place of a simple 
 
 nun, saying 'she had begun too early to command, and 
 
 that her later years should be spent in learning to obey.' 
 
 A new Abbess was appointed in her place, Mere Genevieve, 
 
 one of the thirty dowerles^ novices who had followed 
 
 Ang^lique from Maubuisson to Port-Royal. 
 
 Mfere Genevieve had been removed from the house in 
 
 Paris to the Abbey of Tard,i where she had been instructed 
 
 in all the changes made by M. de Langres. Recalled to 
 
 Port-Royal as Abbess, and elated at her new dignity, Mhre 
 
 Genevieve returned sadly deteriorated in mind, and, as* it 
 
 appeared, utterly incapable of appreciating the pure and 
 
 holy motives which had prompted Ang^hque to retire. 
 
 Without any respect for her benefactress, she immediately 
 
 introduced changes at Port-Royal which struck at the root 
 
 of the reform Angelique had established. 
 
 Simplicity of life was altogether set aside, the plain 
 It 
 modest dress was discarded, the homely diet prescribed by 
 
 the rules of the Order was exchanged for more luxurious 
 
 fare. China took the place of earthenware, flowers were 
 
 bought in profusion to decorate the church, and the most 
 
 popular preachers of the day were invited to occupy the 
 
 pulpit, so as to attract the outer world to the services. To 
 
 balance these indulgences, the confessors appointed by M. 
 
 de Langres imposed scourgings and the most humiliating 
 
 penances. They also encouraged details of visions and 
 
 revelations on the part of the nuns, and changed the whole 
 
 management of the house. 
 
 Angelique mourned in secret over these changes, but 
 
 1 Tard, like Port-Royal, had been removed from the control of the 
 Abbot of Citeaux, and was under M. de Langres. 
 
i59i-i66i.l MERE ANGELIQUE. 75 
 
 she was alone and powerless. She was not even allowed 
 to write to her sisters, Agnes and Marie-Claire, who had 
 been sent to Tard. She had now to learn that hardest of 
 all lessons — Patience — so diifficult to be acquired by a quick 
 impulsive nature. She was openly rebuked and set at 
 naught, but she bore all in meekness and silence, saying to 
 herself, 'That which Thou puttest on me, I will bear.' The 
 Bishop, whose professions had deceived her, had cast off 
 the mask, and was now seen in his true character. His 
 vain and worldly nature stood abashed before the saintly 
 spirit of Ang^lique. She had become an obstacle in his 
 path, and he determined to get rid of her. Some of the 
 nuns were touched by her steadfast endurance, her gentle- 
 ness and humility, but this only increased the dislike of the 
 Bishop, to whom the very sight of her sad face became 
 an offence. The occasion for her dismissal soon presented 
 itself, although not in the manner which she had proposed. 
 A new Order had for some time been contemplated, con- 
 secrated to ' the perpetual adoration of the mystery of the 
 Holy Sacrament.' It was a favourite project of the Bishop. 
 The consent of Pope Urban VIII. had been obtained, but 
 it found no favour with Louis XIII. nor with the Arch- 
 bishop of Paris. Suddenly, in 1630, the king being at 
 Lyons, he was attacked by illness, and' his life being given 
 over by the physicians, the viaticum was administered. The 
 king suddenly recovered, and after this event the royal 
 sanction was given to the new Order, but the Archbishop 
 still delayed its foundation. He did not view M. de 
 Langres with a favourable eye, and did not wish to be 
 associated with him, or indeed with any one else, in the 
 direction of the new Order. If the Order was to be founded, 
 he determined to be its supreme head, and that Ang^lique 
 should be the first Superior. To this M. de Langres was 
 
76 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1591-1661. 
 
 strongly opposed, but after three years he was forced to 
 give way. His desire to get rid of Angflique made him 
 consent, and her nomination was decided upon. 
 
 Ang61ique well knew that M. de Langres was anxious to 
 be relieved of her presence at Port-Royal. He had even 
 told her that she was a stumbling-block in his path, and 
 that her very shadow annoyed him.i Still, in spite of all 
 she had suffered, she clung to the monastery which she 
 had striven so hard to reform and purify ; and now, when 
 informed that she was to leave it, she accepted her removal 
 as the crowning sacrifice of her own will, and said meekly, 
 * Send me wherever you please ; I will go.' 
 
 The new Order was but a further development of a 
 practice of devotion already in use at Port-Royal. The 
 Carmelite nuns also called themselves ' Sisters of the Holy 
 Eucharist,' and the new institution was from the first regarded 
 with jealousy. 
 
 The Convent of the 'Saint Sacrement' was near the 
 Louvre, and was therefore easy of access to the ladies of 
 the Court. The church was to be richly decorated. Every 
 nun was to be of good birth, of a wealthy family, and 
 of refined manners, so as to be fit company for royalty. 
 The dress was to be white and scarlet, becoming in make, 
 and of costly material. The rule of silence was no^ to be 
 observed. On the contrary, the nuns were expected to 
 talk well and fluently on sacred matters. The spirit of 
 the worldly-minded founder was visible throughout. This 
 was the convent to which Ang^lique was sent as Mother 
 Superior. Nothing could be more distasteful to her quiet 
 unworldly spirit than the imposed conditions, but she had 
 learned to surrender her own will and simply to obey. 
 Her powers of organisation were once more called forth, 
 1 ' Mdmoires Historiques,' torn. ii. p. 374. 
 
i59i-i66i.] MERE ANGELIQUE. 77 
 
 but she was hampered in her administration by the all- 
 pervading influence of the Bishop and a Sister whom he had 
 associated with Angdlique, nominally to help her, but really 
 to be a spy on all she said or did. It was not long before 
 the Archbishop objected to some of the proceedings insti- 
 tuted by M. de Langres ; the new Order, founded under 
 such brilliant auspices and with so much display, was now 
 generally looked upon as a failure, and finally the orthodoxy 
 of the community was called in question. 
 
 A book of unpublished meditations known as ' Le Chapelet 
 Secret,' written several years before by Agnes Arnauld for 
 her own private use, was put into the hands of the doctors 
 of the Sorbonne that its orthodoxy might be tested. Al- 
 though unknown to most of the nuns, the book had been seen 
 and approved by M. de Langres. He w^s indeed suspected 
 of being himself the author. It was, however, condemned 
 by the Sorbonne, and when sent to Rome, the Pope, though 
 he refused to give it his censure, recommended its with- 
 drawal as a possible cause of offence to the weaker Sisters. 
 This decision was considered by M. de Langres as a reflec- 
 tion upon himself, and in his anxiety to clear himself from 
 the charge of approving of false doctrine, he determined to 
 apply for advice to the man at that time the most highly 
 esteemed in France for learning and piety. This was the 
 Ahh6 de Saint-Cyran. 
 
 The ' Chapelet ' was placed in his hands. The book 
 met with his approval ; but by his desire it was laid before 
 the University of Louvain and Jansen, Bishop of Ypres, 
 who gave as their opinion that the book merely contained 
 the devout utterances of a nun for her own use, and was 
 not an attempt to lay down rules of faith. 
 
 The discussion made great noise in Paris. The Jesuits 
 took the matter up, and brought a charge of heresy against 
 
78 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1591-1661. 
 
 the nuns of the 'Saint Sacrament.' M. de Saint-Cyran 
 defended them, and so successfully that M. de Langres, 
 feeling deeply indebted to him for his support, entreated 
 him to undertake the direction of his new institution. It 
 was not till after urgent entreaties that M. de Saint-Cyran 
 consented, and thus commenced his connection with Angd- 
 lique and her community. This was the one act for which 
 she had cause to be ever grateful to the Bishop. 
 
 The following year, 1636, on the return of M. de Langres 
 to Paris, Ang^lique, with the approval of the Archbishop, 
 retired from the post of Mother Superior of the Convent 
 of the Saint Sacrement. Her place was filled by the 
 Mfere Genevieve, and Angdlique returned to Port-Royal- 
 de-Paris, where, as Prioress, she began afresh the work of 
 reform, aided by her sister Agnes, who was now Abbess. 1 
 
 The anger of M. de Langres knew no bounds at the 
 changes which Angdlique had effected at his new institu- 
 tion since his departure. Extravagance had given place 
 to simplicity, and laxity to order. He no longer looked 
 with a friendly eye on M. de Saint-Cyran, who gave up his 
 connection with the convent of the Saint-Sacrement. 
 
 It was about this time (1636) that M. Singlin became con- 
 fessor to the community at Port-Royal, a man destined to 
 play a conspicuous part in the history of the monastery. 
 
 During the Bishop's rule several of the Port-Royal nuns 
 had been despatched to Tard. These by the order of the 
 Archbishop were now recalled to Port-Royal, and the nuns 
 of Tard sent back from Port-Royal to their own Abbey. 
 The power of M. de Langres was at an end, and the very 
 gates of the monastery of Port-Royal closed against him. 
 He attributed this, not without reason, to the counter-influ- 
 
 1 Agnes had been Abbess of Tard for six years before returning to Port- 
 Royal. 
 
I59I-I66I.] MERE ANGELIQUE. 79 
 
 ence of M. de Saint-Cyran, and thenceforth he became his 
 enemy and traducer.^ 
 
 A heavy debt had been incurred at Port-Royal under 
 the direction of M. de Langres. This weighed heavily on 
 Ang^lique, who was often at her wit's end for money. On 
 one occasion, when she had not a single sou in the house, 
 immediate payment was required for a bill amounting to 
 1200 francs. She knelt down and humbly told all her 
 difficulties to Him in whom alone she put her trust, and 
 later on in the same day a widow lady came, bringing with 
 her the sum of 3300 francs, which she placed at Angd- 
 lique's disposal.^ By the practice of strict retrenchment, 
 by cutting off all unnecessary and costly decorations in the 
 services of the Church, and by the sale of the gold and 
 silver ornaments and gorgeous embroidery which decked 
 the holy altar, the wants of the poor were no longer^neg- 
 lected, and she was again enabled to give freely to those 
 who needed help. Angelique felt that the praises of God 
 could be as well sung by the nuns without musical accom- 
 paniment, and that things which merely attract the senses 
 could not be really requisite to excite true devotion. 
 
 When the nuns sent to Tard returned to Port-Royal, 
 some grave difficulties arose. Many of the Sisters were 
 devoted adherents of M. de Langres and his system, and 
 consequently were prejudiced against M. de Saint-Cyran. 
 The Mfere Agnes was not free from this feeling, but the 
 most prominent in her resistance to his rule was Marie- 
 Claire, her younger sister. She had taken the veil at Port- 
 Royal-des-Champs, and had aided her sister Angelique in 
 her work of reform at Maubuisson. Accustomed whilst at 
 
 1 The Convent of the Saint-Sacrement before long ceased to e.xist, and 
 the nuns were transferred by the Archbishop to Port-Royal. 
 
 2 See 'Angelique Arnauld.' F. Martin. 
 
8o . FRENCH JANSENISTS. (1591-.661. 
 
 Tard to the rule of M. de Langres, it was not till after a 
 considerable time that she consented to place herself under 
 the stricter direction of M. de Saint-Cyran. 
 
 At length She wrote him a penitent letter, requesting him 
 to come and give her his advice and guidance. He came, 
 but not till after some months, with the view of testing her 
 sincerity. In the commencement of 1637 he saw her for 
 the first time. He told her that he had not come with 
 the intention of seeing her, but whilst in the church he had 
 felt constrained to gratify her wish for an interview. What 
 had she to say to him ? 
 
 She then gave a full and detailed account of the past 
 and present state of her mind. 
 
 When she had ended he said, ' You must examine your 
 own heart before God, and see whether you have really 
 been that which you have now made yourself to appear. 
 Sometimes exaggeration of feeling hurries a person into 
 saying what she does not believe, and into following a 
 course which in her heart she does not approve. We 
 must discriminate. Outward acts of penitence must pro- 
 ceed from an inward sense of contrition ; these must corre- 
 spond the one with the other. Ivr we must carefully guard 
 against expressing outwardly more than ■ we feel inwardly. 
 . . . Beware of exaggeration ; there is more humility in a 
 plain unvarnished confession. . . I do not want emotional 
 grief. Distrust your tears ; I desire neither sighs nor 
 mournful gestures, but a silent abasement of spirit. . . 
 Pray to God, and be His in all simplicity, and without 
 affectation.' 
 
 Marie-Claire begged to be allowed to prove her humility 
 by assuming the habit and labours of a lay Sister. 'We 
 will make you a lay Sister this Lent. You will have work 
 to do, but not too much, that you may be able to persevere, 
 
I59I-I66I.] MERE ANGELIQUE. 8r 
 
 It is contrary to humility to wish to do extraordinary 
 things. We are not saints merely for doing what saints 
 do ; we must be content to serve God in humble medio- 
 crity, and not strive to appear above the common. Put 
 yourself on an equality with the other lay Sisters in 
 everything, and only try to be the humblest of them all.' 
 
 Later, when she wished him to give her an assur- 
 ance of her spiritual safely, he said, ' I do not like this 
 request. The soul which is truly given to God needs, 
 neither assurance nor foreknowledge. We are to live by 
 faith.' 
 
 Marie-Claire under his guidance made rapid progress 
 in the higher life. When she died in 1642, M. de Saint- 
 Cyran was a prisoner at Vincennes, so that in her last 
 hours she was without the comfort of his presence, but 
 she had M. Singlin to minister to her. When told that 
 death was near, there was a momentary apprehension, but 
 perfect calm ensued, and she exclaimed, 'What a blessed 
 thing it is to die in the full hope of eternal life ! ' Then 
 lifting up the cross in her feeble hands, she cried in a 
 voice of rapture, ' Victory ! victory ! ' and her glad spirit 
 entered within the veil. 
 
 As a director M. de Saint-Cyran was the same to all. 
 He never flattered, never praised at the expense of truth — 
 a sincerity rare even among good men. Great spiritual 
 teachers, such as St. Frangois de Sales, Bossuet, F^nelon, 
 Massillon, all had recourse occasionally to flattery when 
 they approached kings and princes ; but M. de Saint-Cyran 
 was proof against this weakness.^ He had no fear of 
 man ; he had no other fear than the fear of God. 
 
 Among the great ladies who occasionally withdrew from 
 the Court to Port-Royal for the quiet and refreshment 
 1 See ' Port-Royal ' (Sainte-Beuve), torn. i. p. 364. 
 
82 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1591-1661. 
 
 of a Retreat, were the Princesse de Guemend and the 
 Marquise de Sabl^. These ladies gave the Mfere An- 
 gflique considerable trouble. She always maintained her 
 authority over these high-born penitents, but the fluctua- 
 tions between devotion and dissipation which characterised 
 Madame de Guemene's conduct created grave doubts in 
 the mind of M. de Saint-Cyran as to the reality of her 
 supposed conversion. Nevertheless her interest in the 
 affairs of Port-Royal remained unabated; for ts^nty years 
 after the death of M. de Saint-Cyran we find Madame de 
 Guemen^ seeking to obtain the good offices of one of 
 the king's ministers for the persecuted nuns. 
 
 The minister was the Chancellor M. le Tellier (the 
 father of the Marquis de Louvois, the greatest of the 
 ministers of Louis XIV.). His replies as to his royal 
 master's intentions were curt and decisive, and finding 
 that her words had no effect, Madame de Guemend 
 boldly said, ' It is true, monsieur, that all that the king 
 wills he is able to do. He has made princes of the 
 blood,^ he has made archbishops and bishops, and he 
 wUl no doubt make martyrs.' 
 
 The Marquise de Sabld had in her youth been one 
 of the idols of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and has been 
 described by M. Victor Cousin as the type of the perfect 
 Frecieuse?' In spirit both she and Madame de Guemene 
 
 ^ In allusion to the king's illegitimate children. 
 
 2 The society at the H6tel de Rambouillet was formed at the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century (1618). This Hotel became the centre of a 
 literary circle, where, under the presidency of the Marquise de Rambouillet, 
 and her daughter, ' the divine Julie," were collected persons of the most 
 «xalted position and the most varied talents. Among the names we find 
 those of Cardinal Richelieu, the Prince de Condi, Malherbe, Vaugelas, 
 Balzac, Voiture, Chapelain, Godeau, Comeille, Scarron, Scuderi, and to 
 these we may add later on those of Bossuet and Fl&hier. The distin- 
 guished women of the century met here ; the Duchesse de Longueville, 
 Madame de SabW, and Madame de Sivigni were among thbse who thought 
 
J59II66I.] mMe ANGELIQUB. _ 83 
 
 clung with tenacity to the old life, whilst professing them- 
 selves eager to begin the new. Of Madame de Sable it 
 has been said, that while living in the world she had 
 always an eye to the cloister, and when walking in the 
 paths of righteousness she had always one foot in the 
 world. 
 
 Clever and agreeable, she was one of the great friends 
 of M. de la Rochefoucauld, and to her he submitted his 
 ' Maxims ' for criticism. 
 
 In her later years, Madame de Sabld aided Madame 
 de Longueville in her endeavours to bring peace to the 
 Church. Possessed of great influence, she used it for the 
 benefit of Port- Royal; but though no doubt to some 
 extent a support, she was at the same time a trouble 
 and perhaps a scandal to the good Sisters, from her whims 
 and inconsistencies. Her dread of illness and fear of 
 contagion were so exaggerated as to be almost a malady. 
 She held exhaustive conferences with her spiritual adviser, 
 anxious consultations as to her bodily health with her 
 medical attendant^ and had much careful discussion with 
 her cAef on culinary matters. Madame de Sabld was so 
 strange a compound that she could scarcely have been a 
 congenial guest at Port-Royal or a satisfactory penitent. ^ 
 
 The members of the Arnauld family had become very 
 numerous at the monastery. Madame Arnauld (the mother 
 of Angelique) had taken the veil there, and besides 
 Angflique's sisters, many of her nieces (the daughters of 
 her brother M. Arnauld d'Andilly) were among the com- 
 munity. Her nephews had become recluses under the 
 
 it an honour to belong to this society, and who took as a diploma of ttvlent 
 the name" of ' Les Pricieuses,' a title afterwards brought into ridicule by 
 Moliire. The men who were admitted to the Hatel Rambouillet were 
 called 'les esfrits doux.' See 'Les Premiers Jansenistes,' Monseigneur 
 Ricard. 
 1 See Sainte-Beuve (Port-Royal), torn. v. 55. 
 
84 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1591-1661. 
 
 guidance of M. de Saint -Cyran, and rooms had been 
 built by Madame le Maitre in the large courtyard of 
 Port-Royal-de-Paris to receive them ; her sons having been 
 the first to belong to the little band of recluses. 
 
 They had no communication with the nuns; each in 
 his hermit cell leading a life of prayer and obedience. 
 
 But in 1638 M. de Saint-Cyran was suddenly arrested 
 and imprisoned at Vincennes, and a little later the recluses, 
 by a decree of the Archbishop of Paris (Gondi), were dis- 
 missed from their tenement in the courtyard of the monas- 
 tery in Paris. 
 
 At the close, however, of the year 1639, the recluses 
 quietly took up their abode in the deserted monastery of 
 Port-Royal-des-Champs without molestation. After the 
 death of Cardinal Richelieu in December 1642, M. de 
 Saint-Cyran was released from prison, but a greater release 
 soon followed. 
 
 To the inexpressible grief of Ang^lique, he died in the 
 following year (1643). When the news of his death 
 reached her, she could only repeat with profound emotion, 
 'God is in heaven,' 'The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.' 
 This was the one sustaining thought, and to His will she 
 bowed herself down. 
 
 Among those who were present at the funeral of M. de 
 Saint-Cyran was Marie de Gonzague, Princess of Mantua. 
 She had been drawn to Port-Royal in 1643 to seek con- 
 solation after the tragic death of M. de Cinq Mars, to 
 whom she had been aflSanced.'^ She came with the inten- 
 
 1 Cinq Mars was the son of a French noble, the Marquis d'EfRat. Full 
 of life and gaiety, he had been placed by Richelieu about the person of 
 Louis XIII. as a lively companion. The king, always in need of a 
 favourite, soon became greatly attached to his new friend, who seemed 
 likely to attain the same degree of favour as the former favourite, the Due 
 de Luynes. But Cinq Mars was far from being the frivolous youth Richelieu 
 had supposed. He was ambitious and capable of deep thoughts and 
 
I59I-I66I.] M^E ANGi.LIQUE. 85 
 
 tion of ■ placing herself in her great sorrow under the 
 spiritual direction of M. de Saint-Cyran ; but she came 
 only to be present at his interment. 
 
 The sympathy and kindness of the Mfere Angdlique 
 gained her heart, and for a time she seemed to lean to 
 a conventual life ; but she soon changed her mind. By 
 nature vain and romantic, Marie de Gonzague was dazzled 
 by the thought of a throne, though her affections had 
 perished on a scaffold. She accepted the offer of marriage 
 made by Sigismond, king of Poland. She made no dis- 
 guise of her motive in this decision. When asked if she 
 would not wish to see the portrait of her future husband, 
 she had the frankness to reply that she had no need of 
 the king's picture, she was only marrying his crown. 
 
 Her marriage was not a happy one, and she must often 
 have regretted the calm and quiet life at Port-Royal. 
 Her affection for ■ Mfere Angdlique never slackened, and 
 she kept up a continual correspondence with her till 
 Ang^lique's death. As Queen of Poland she gave largely 
 in charities, and when her friends remonstrated, she re- 
 plied, 'I do not care to amass wealth, fot however poor 
 I may be as a widow, I know that I shall always be taken 
 in by M^re Ang^lique at Port-Royal.' She, however, out- 
 lived her revered friend six years. 
 
 Arnauld's book, ' De la Frdquente Communion,' appeared 
 
 schemes. The complete subjugation in which the king was held by the 
 Prime Minister aroused his youthful indignation, and, with the secret 
 approval of the Queen, Anne of Austria, and the connivance of the king 
 himself. Cinq Mars joined in a plot to overthrow the all-powerful Cardinal. 
 But Richelieu, though broken in health, was on the watch. He discovered 
 that the conspirators had made a secret treaty with Spain, the avowed 
 enemy of France, and he succeeded in obtaining a copy of this treaty with 
 the signature of Cinq Mars. Possessed of this flagrant proof of his treason, 
 Richalieil forced the reluctant king to order the immediate arrest of his 
 favourite. Cinq Mars perished on the scaffold in September 1642. He 
 was but twenty-one. The Cardinal was already a dying man, and three 
 months later he followed his victim to the grave. 
 
86 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. 11591-1661. 
 
 in 1643, and though received with enthusiasm at first, it was 
 soon followed by a storm of censure and ill-feeling, which 
 extended to Port-Royal. The orthodoxy of the nuns was 
 called in question, and a formal visitation of the monastery 
 was ordered by the Archbishop. But the close investiga- 
 tion which ensued only led to a favourable judgment, 
 both as to the mode of direction which had been pursued 
 by M. de Saint-Cyran and its practical eifect on the com- 
 munity. The visitors were sent to condemn, but they were 
 forced to approve. ' We find here,' they said, ' only virtue, 
 piety, and sanctity.' ^ 
 
 Ang^lique was again elected Abbess. Her thoughts 
 now turned to her old home, and in May 1648, five years 
 after the death of M, de Saint-Cyran, she led back a 
 small band of devoted women to Port-Royal-des-Champs, 
 and the recluses who had been inhabiting the monastery 
 withdrew to a farm on the height called ' Les Granges.' 
 Her sister Agnes was left at the head of the Paris sister- 
 hood. 
 
 The day before Angdlique's departure she was visited 
 by the coadjutor of the Archbishop, M. de B.etz, who 
 gave her his benediction, and assured her of his high 
 esteem and respect. 
 
 A few months after Angdlique's return, the civil war of 
 
 the Pronde broke out in which De Retz played such a 
 
 conspicuous part, and all the boundless charity of Angdlique 
 
 was called forth to mitigate the distress around Port-Royal. 
 
 This struggle for power between the Parliament of Paris 
 
 and Anne of Austria, now Queen Regent of France, and 
 
 1 In one of Madame de S^vign^'s letters she speaks of a visit to the 
 monastery in these words : ' Ce Port-Royal est mie Th^baiide ; c'est un 
 paradis ; c'est un desert oil toute la devotion du Christianisme s'est rang^e ; 
 c'est une saintet^ r^pandue dans tout le pays a une lieue de ronde ; il y a 
 cinq ou six solitaires qu'on ne connait point, qui vivent comme les p&itents 
 de Saint Jean-Climaque ; les religieuses sont des anges sur terre,' 
 
I59I-I66I.1 MERE ANGELIQUE. 87 
 
 her minister Mazarin occurred just as the civil war in 
 England was drawing to its tragic close. 
 
 The primary cause was Mazarin's unwise appointment 
 of an Italian to the administration of finance. This was 
 followed by the imprisonment . of two worthy magistrates, 
 unsullied in character, whose only offence had been oppo- 
 sition to Mazarin from patriotic motives. The people of 
 Paris took up arms, barricades were raised in the streets, 
 and Parliament sided with the populace. Louis XIV. 
 and the Queen-Mother fled from the capital, which was 
 soon after held by the Parliamentary forces under the 
 Prince de Conti against his brother, the great Cond^, and 
 the royal army. This unhappy war violently agitated 
 France for some years. 
 
 The wretchedness and destitution in the city and neigh- 
 bourhood of Paris are vividly described in Ang^lique's 
 letters. All agricultural labour was at an end, and a 
 lawless soldiery ravaged the country and levied contri- 
 butions on the peaceable inhabitants. 
 
 Port-Royal-des-Champs during this period of suffering 
 became a refuge for all the distressed within reach, the 
 sick and wounded of both sides were alike received and 
 carefully tended by Angdlique and her nuns, and even the 
 Sisters from other houses found shelter within the walls of 
 her monastery. 
 
 But the progress of the war at last forced her to retreat, 
 and in 1652 Ang^lique withdrew with her community to 
 Paris, leaving the recluses to defend her sanctuary as 
 best they might. They seem to have performed their 
 part well. For a time Port-Royal-des-Champs must have 
 partaken more of the camp than the convent. In place 
 of hymns was heard the sound of arms. Recruits were 
 drawn from the neighbouring peasantry. The walls were 
 
88 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1591-1B61. 
 
 manned and intrenchments formed to resist the expected 
 assault. But the restoration of peace in 1653 put an end 
 to this unwonted state of things. Angehque and her 
 sisterhood returned to Port-Royal-des-Champs, and the 
 recluses to their former life at ' Les Granges.' 
 
 During the wars of the Fronde Angdlique found devoted 
 friends in the Due and Duchesse de Luynes. The Due 
 de Luynes was the son of the well-known favourite of 
 Louis XIII. His wife had wished before her marriage 
 to enter the cloister, but her wishes were overruled, and 
 she became the wife of the Due de Luynes. Though 
 happy in her marriage, the life of a grande dame at the 
 Court of Louis XIV. had no attraction for her. Gradually 
 she persuaded her husband to retire from Court life, and 
 to build a small chateau near Port-Royal-des-Champs, 
 where they might live in holy seclusion and assist the 
 Mfere Angdlique in works of charity. Two of her little 
 girls were placed under the care of Angdlique. But before 
 the Chateau de Vaumurier was completed, the young 
 puchesse died. She was the first of those celebrated 
 women, such as Madame de Liancourt,'' Madame de 
 
 1 The Duchesse de Liancourt was the daughter of the Mar&hal de 
 Schoinberg. At the age of twenty she married the Due de Liancourt, a. 
 young, gay, brilliant man of the world, who gave her great Cause for 
 jealousy. The Duchesse suffered much from his lightness of conduct, but 
 never wavered in her affection. She sought in every way to please and 
 interest her husband, and waited patiently in the hope of drawing him 
 back to herself. It was for him that she planned and planted the beautiful 
 gardens at Liancourt, for him she filled the house with guests well known 
 for their social and intellectual attraction. She considered his tastes and 
 overlooked his failings. One day a bill for some jewels given to an un- 
 worthy rival Was brought to her by mischance. She paid the bill and 
 ignored the offence. When the Due was stricken with small-pox, she shut 
 herself up with him as his nurse. Such unselfish devotion could hardly 
 fail of a fitting reward. His heart opened to her uncomplaining tenderness, 
 and when she herself was in ttu-n smitten with a dangerous illness, the full 
 force of his love returned in his fear of losing her. For eighteen years she 
 had prayed and striven to lead him towards a religious life, and now the 
 
.59"66il MtRB ANGELIQUE. 89 
 
 Longueville, Mademoiselle de Vertus, whose virtues gave 
 an additional halo to Port-Royal-des-Champs. 
 
 After his wife's death, the Due de Luynes continued to 
 reside at Vaumurier, leading the life of a hermit. When 
 however, the second war of the Fronde broke out, he 
 received the recluses into his house for greater safety, 
 and took the lead in all the defensive operations at Port- 
 Royal. 
 
 It was he also who undertook the renovation of the old 
 convent buildings, which had fallen into decay. New 
 dormitories were built at his expense, and by this means 
 he gave work to the miserable peasantry in a time of sore 
 distress. 
 
 But the storm which had long been threatening was now 
 about to burst on the heads of the Port-Royalists. 
 
 M. de Retz, the coadjutor and nephew of M. de Gondi, 
 the Archbishop of Pairis, had given Port-Royal his protection 
 as far as was possible during the wars of the Fronde. The 
 great Frondeur was now in prison at Vincennes, but the 
 enmity of Mazarin was still active, and he eyed with sus- 
 picion all those who were supposed to be friendly to his 
 
 desire of her heart was granted. They had but one son, who died young, 
 leaving an only daughter. Mademoiselle de la Roche-Guyon, who was 
 placed, when nine years old, at Port-Royal. M^re Angflique received 
 frequent visits from Madame de Liancourt, which she names in her letters. 
 The Due, who had adopted something of the life of a penitent, saw much 
 of the recluses, and accompanied M. Arnauld d'Andilly to Vincennes to 
 see the AbM de Saint-Cyran, but these visits to Vincennes were speedily 
 put an end to by Richelieu. The Duchesse died in 1674, and the Due only 
 outlived her a few weeks. 
 
 It is touching to read of the profound veneration in which this virtuous 
 and remarkable couple were held by the greatest courtier of the day. 
 The young Prince de Marsillac, son of the famous Due de la Rochefoucauld, 
 inherited their estates, having married their granddaughter, and he would 
 not permit a single alteration to be made at Liancourt ; all was to be left 
 as they had left it, and he sheltered in his house for their sakes some of the 
 persecuted recluses, one of whom died there, who had ministered to the 
 Due and Duchesse in their last hours. See ' Port-Royal ' (Sainte-Beuve), 
 torn. V. p. 4q. 
 
96 FRENCH JANSENISTS. (1591-1661. 
 
 adversary. The Jesuits, whose enmity had never flagged, 
 were not slow to take advantage of this suspicion, and to 
 instil into his mind grave doubts both as to the orthodoxy 
 and the loyalty of the Port-Royalists. They had recourse 
 to every species of calumny against both the nuns and 
 recluses. These open and slanderous attacks had been for 
 a time silenced by the authority of the Archbishop, but the 
 Jesuits continued their hostile work in secret. Their anger 
 was increased and their jealousy aroused by the crowds 
 which thronged to hear the preaching of M. "Singlin at 
 Port-Royal-de-Paris, and they waited eagerly for the moment 
 when the whole community, directors, nuns, and recluses, 
 could be openly branded with heresy as followers of 
 Jansenius. That moment came. A formulary had been 
 drawn up in 1649 by an enemy of the Port-Royalists, con- 
 taining five ambiguous propositions said to be extracted 
 from Jansen's book the ' Augustinus.' These propositions 
 were dispatched to Rome, and condemned by a Bull of 
 Pope Innocent X. after four years' consideration. The 
 recluses bowed to the decision of the Holy See, but denied 
 that these propositions were to be found in Jansen's book. 
 Angflique and her sisterhood took no part in the con- 
 tention. ' It was not the province of nuns,' she said, ' to 
 argue and dispute. To serve God in silence was the rule 
 of their Order. As daughters of the Church, they submitted 
 to the Papal decree, but did not profess to understand the 
 propositions.' 
 
 About the same time as the appearance of these five 
 disputed points, some words which M. Singlin had uttered 
 in the course of a sermon on ' Divine Grace ' had been 
 laid hold of by the Jesuits, and reported to the Archbishop 
 of Paris as heretical. M. Singlin was consequently for a 
 while prohibited from preaching, and though his orthodoxy 
 
I591-.66I.] M^RE ANGELIQUE. 91 
 
 was speedily re-established under the highest authority (the 
 Archbishop himself coming to Port-Royal-de-Paris to hear 
 him preach), yet a shadow had been cast on the teaching 
 at this church, which the Jesuits did their best to deepen. 
 
 In 1654, the year after the issue of this Eull by Pope 
 Innocent, M. de Gondi died, and in him Angdlique lost 
 a friend and protector. De E.etz was now Cardinal-Arch- 
 bishop of Paris, but the dignity did not give him liberty ; 
 he was still a prisoner at Vincennes. 
 
 Fresh troubles arose. Arnauld was expelled from the 
 Sorbonne in 1656, and the Queen-Mother, under the in- 
 fluence of Mazarin, gave orders for the immediate dispersion 
 of the recluses and their schools. The monastery of Port- 
 Royal-des-Champs was inspected by the ' Lieutenant Civil,' 
 and Angelique underwent a close interrogatory. 
 
 But just at this moment an incident occurred which 
 changed the whole course of events and procured a respite 
 from further persecution. A strange thing took place at 
 Port-Royal-de-Paris. Among the boarders was a niece of 
 Blaise Pascal, Marguerite P^rier, a girl of ten years old. 
 She had for three years past suffered from an affection of 
 the left eye, painful and disfiguring. Every known remedy 
 had failed, and the case being thought incurable, she was 
 now, as a last resource, to have her eye cauterised. But the 
 operation was destined not to take place. The girl was to 
 be the subject of a cure of so marvellous a nature as to 
 be justly considered miraculous, if proved to be true. 
 
 The community had lately been sent a relic of peculiar 
 sanctity. It was nothing less, it was said, than a thorn from 
 the Saviour's crown. So precious an object was received 
 with the utmost xeverence at Port-Royal-de-Paris. It was 
 placed carefully within a small reliquary on an altar in the 
 centre of the choir. After mass, a procession was formed, 
 
92 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1591-1661. 
 
 and the Sisters, one by one, reverently kissed the relic as 
 they knelt in adoration before it. After this the boarders 
 were admitted, led by their mistress. Sister Flavie Passart, 
 and when the turn of Marguerite Pdrier came. Sister Flavie 
 whispered, ' Pray, my child, pray that you may be healed,' 
 at the same time touching the girl's eye with the reliquary. 
 
 That evening Marguerite ran to one of the Sisters, and 
 said in joyful excitement, ' I beUeve I am cured.' It proved 
 to be the case. The Mfere Agnes and the relations of the 
 child kept silence, but the news spread far and wide. Five 
 physicians and two surgeons signed a certificate of the 
 cure, and their opinion was confirmed by the Court-surgeon, 
 who investigated the case by command of the Queen- 
 Mother. It was in Ixnt 1656 that this wonderful incident 
 occurred, which was known as 'The Miracle of the Holy 
 Thorn.' 
 
 That it was very generally credited is certain, and it had 
 the effect of dela)dng the fall of Port-Royal. 
 
 Calumnious tongues were silenced. Persecution for a 
 time was stayed. How was it possible that heresy could 
 exist in a community favoured by so signal a miracle? 
 The Mfere Angdlique in a letter to Marie de Gonzague, 
 queen of Poland, wrote thus : ' At the very moment when 
 all seemed lost and without resource, God has protected 
 us;' but true to her character, she refrained from much 
 notice of what had occurred. In a letter to her sister, the 
 Mhre Agnes, she says, ' Desire not that God should deliver 
 His truth by visible miracles, but by that invisible marvel, 
 the conversion of hearts, which takes place without rumour 
 and noise.' ^ 
 
 The effect produced on the outer world was immense. 
 Crowds assembled to behold the relic which had displayed 
 
 ' Lettres de la M4re Ang^lique. 
 
iS9i-i66il MERE ANGELIQUB. 93 
 
 such wonderful power. Henrietta-Maria, the exiled queen 
 of England, made a pilgrimage thither. The Queen-Mother's 
 favour was restored to the Port-Royalists ; the order for the 
 dispersion of the recluses and their scholars was rescinded ; 
 the former returned to their hermitage at Les Granges, and 
 the voices of children were again heard in the schools of 
 Port-Royal-des-Champs. 
 
 The Jesuits did not_ attempt to deny the miracle, but 
 regarded it they said as a merciful intervention from on high 
 to turn the Port-Royalists from their errors,^ whilst to the 
 friends of Port-Royal it as clearly manifested that ' the hand 
 of God was with them, visibly rebuking calumny and 
 persecution.' To Ang^lique and the community the great 
 gain by this change of feeling was the formal appointment 
 of M. SingHn to the office of director. Once more they 
 had peace and rest at Port-Royal, but the Jansenist con- 
 troversy was not relinquished. In 1657 a new and more 
 stringent test was prepared. A Bull was procured from the 
 new Pope, Alexander VII. (Cardinal Chigi), declaring that 
 the five controverted propositions were unquestionably in 
 Jansen's book (the ' Augustinus '), and the Jesuits were re- 
 solved that this new formulary should be accepted and 
 signed by aU Port-Royalists. 
 
 About this time Pbre Annat was appointed confessor to 
 the king, and from that moment the fate of Port-Royal was 
 sealed. 
 
 1 In the gallery of the Louvre there is a striking picture by Philippe de 
 Champagne, which once adorned the walls of Port-Royal-de-Paris. It 
 records another miracle of healing which took place early in 1662, but 
 which, unlike that of 'the Holy Thorn,' was little known by the outer 
 world. It represents a nun half raised on a couch, with her hands clasped 
 in prayer, whilst by her side is the Mfere Agnes rapt in devotion. The nun 
 who was thus healed by prayer was the daughter of the painter, who 
 painted this picture in gratefiU memory of the event, and presented it to 
 Port-Royal. It was a commemorative offering, and the only work of art 
 which was allowed to decorate the walls of this monastery. 
 
94 FRENCH JANSENISTS. 11591-1661- 
 
 In 1660 the first blow was struck. An order was issued 
 for the immediate dispersion of the schools. The death of 
 Mazarin early in the following year gave the young king 
 unlimited power — ^the influence of the Queen-Mother was 
 at an end, and he assumed the reins of government. 
 Persecution of the sisterhoods of Port-Royal quickly fol- 
 lowed. On the 23rd of April 1661 a royal command 
 was issued for the expulsion within three days of all the 
 boarders and novices from both houses. No new Sisters 
 were to be received. M. Singlin was deprived of his post 
 as Superior. M. de Saci was no longer to be confessor to 
 the nuns. 
 
 The dreaded formulary was to be put in force. All 
 ecclesiastics, all religious communities, male and female, 
 were required to subscribe their names declaring that the 
 ' five propositions ' in their heretical sense were to be found 
 in the ' Augustinus.' No exception was permitted in favour 
 of those who had not read or even seen the book, which, 
 being in Latin, was not within the compass of most nuns. 
 
 Angflique and her sisterhood refused to affix their signa- 
 tures to what they believed to be a false statement. The 
 suppression of the time-honoured monastery as 'con- 
 tumacious and heretical ' was threatened ; but Angdlique 
 remained firm and undismayed. No power could induce 
 her to attest a lie. She foresaw that cloudy and dark days 
 were before them, but she preserved an invincible courage 
 to the last — a courage tempered by unfeigned humility; 
 whilst all around her were bewailing their fate, her voice 
 was heard cheering and encouraging them. To her brother, 
 M. d'Andilly, who was the last of the recluses to leave Les 
 Granges, she said, 'We shall know in another world, and 
 perhaps even in this, for what cause God permits His 
 servants and even His truth to be thus oppressed. 
 
iS9i-i66i.] MERE ANGELIQUB. 95 
 
 When told that the nuns at Port-Royal-de-Paris were to 
 be thus deprived of their spiritual directors, she at once 
 determined, weak and ill as she was, to return to Paris, 
 where persecution was most severe. 
 
 In April 1661 she left Port-Royal-des-Champs, the home 
 so dear to her, never again to look upon its woods and 
 meadows. 
 
 She arrived at Port-Royal-de-Paris the very day of the 
 visit of the ' Lieutenant Civil ' to enforce the expulsion 
 within three days of all the boarders, and to forbid the 
 reception of any novices. She found the gates guarded 
 and the courtyard lined with archers. Passing through 
 the midst of them, Angelique met the weeping nuns 
 with a brave heart and cheerful countenance. ' What ! ' 
 she said, ' do I see tears here ? . Have you no 
 faith ? You hope in God and yet you are afraid ! Is 
 it that men bestir themselves against us ? As for me, 
 I fear them no more than this fly,' brushing one off 
 as she spoke. 'Believe me, fear God and all will go 
 well' 1 Then raising her eyes to heaven, she prayed, 
 'My God, have pity on Thy children. Thy holy will 
 be done.' 
 
 But though she maintained her firmness, the heart of 
 Angflique was wrung by the lamentations of the children 
 and the young girls about to become novices, who were 
 now to be withdrawn from Port-Royal. Mademoiselle 
 de Luynes was one of the postulants. She had been 
 brought up by the Mfere Angelique from early childhood. 
 She now begged earnestly to be allowed to take the 
 veil, but Angflique would not consent to this irrevo- 
 cable step without the sanction of her family. An appeal 
 was made to the Queen-Mother, but her reply was that 
 ^ ' Histoire de Port-Royal' (Amsterdam), part i. 
 
96 FRENCH JANSENTSTS.. [1591-1661- 
 
 all the novices as well as postulants must without exception 
 be dismissed. 
 
 When the day came for the departure of Mademoiselle 
 de Luynes, Ang^lique herself led her to the gate of the 
 monastery. The girl's grandmother, the Duchesse de 
 Ch^vreuse, was there to receive her. The Duchesse could 
 not refrain from expressing her admiration at the courage 
 and self-control of the Mfere Ang61ique. ' Madame,' she 
 replied, 'if there were no God in heaven, I should lose 
 heart, but while God is God I will hope in Him.' 
 
 Then tenderly embracing Mademoiselle de Luynes, 
 whose tears flowed fast, she said, 'Go, my daughter; con- 
 fide with .your whole heart in God and in His infinite 
 goodness. We shall see one another again where man 
 will have no power to part us.' ^ 
 
 In conversation with the nuns, Angdlique dwelt much 
 on the dignity- of these afflictions, saying it made her 
 tremble that poor sinful women should have been counted 
 worthy to suffer for the truth, and she urged them to pray 
 that these chastisements might deepen their humility and 
 strengthen their faith. She saw there was a danger lest 
 the nuns should regard themselves as martyrs for their 
 religion, and that self-exaltation instead of penitence should 
 be the result of their persecutions. God does all things, 
 she said, in His infinite love and infinite wisdom. We 
 must have needed the afflictions which have befallen us 
 for our humiliation. It might have been dangerous for 
 our souls if our prosperity had continued. Suffering is 
 sometimes more necessary for us than bread. 
 
 Amg^lique would have no comparisons drawn in favour 
 of her Order over others. 'As for me,' she said, 'I am 
 of the Order of all saints, and all saints are of my Order.' 
 1 ' Histoire de Port-RoyaVde-Paris' (Amsterdam), part i. 
 
i59i-i66i.] MkRE ANGBLIQUE. 97 
 
 The aspect of affairs became more menacing, and the 
 loth May 1662 was appointed as a day of intercession to 
 be held in the church of Port-Royal. A solemn proces- 
 sion took place, and the Mfere Ang^lique, in spite of her 
 extreme weakness, was present. She walked with tottering 
 steps, carrying in her hand the most precious relic of their 
 treasure-house — a piece of the true Cross. It was her last 
 effort. When she reached the choir, her strength failed, 
 and she fell fainting to the ground. She was carried 
 from the sacred building to her bed, from which she never 
 rose. 
 
 She was conscious that for her the race was well-nigh 
 run ; her physical strength was fast declining, but whilst 
 life and power remained she would leave no duty unful- 
 filled. With many intervals from extreme exhaustion, she 
 dictated a letter from her death-bed to the Queen-Mother, 
 Anne of Austria. She asked neither sympathy nor favour 
 for herself, thus persecuted in her old age, but gave her 
 dying testimony that ' the sisterhood had been treated with 
 cruel injustice. Their faith had been impugned, their 
 morality suspected. Whilst she could declare in the sight 
 of the living God that they were virtuous, serving God 
 in faith and humility; submissive to the Pope, firmly 
 attached to the Catholic Church in which they were born, 
 and in which by God's grace they were resolved to live 
 and die.' This was her last act. 'My earthly labours 
 are done,' she exclaimed when she had afifixed her signa- 
 ture. The letter was of no avail. 
 
 It was whilst thus lingering between life and death that 
 Angflique received a visit from the heroine of the Fronde, 
 Madame de Longueville. The sight of Angflique, old and 
 dying, but retaining all her faith and intrepidity, touched 
 the heart of her visitor. Madame de Longueville had at 
 
98 FRENCH JANSENISTS. ti59"-«66,. 
 
 that time no predilections for the Jansenists, but Angflique's 
 saintly look and words recalled to her mind other and 
 holier days, when, in the Convent of the Carmelites, her 
 first religious feelings were stirred, and the gentle Prioress 
 was the object of her youthful veneration.^ The fervour 
 and undaunted courage of Angdlique also touched a chord 
 in the' heart of the heroine of the Fronde, and she left 
 Port-Royal deeply impressed by her visit. 
 
 Angdlique lingered on till the month of August; words 
 not of murmur, but of humility and thanksgiving were ever 
 heard from her lips. Deprived of M. Singlin, her spiritual 
 director, who had been forced to conceal himself, and seeing 
 at rare intervals her nephew, M. de Saci, who was also in 
 danger of being arrested, she invariably stopped those who 
 would have condoled with her, saying, 'It is God's will, 
 that is enough for me.' 'I believe M. Singlin to be as 
 present with me by his love as though I saw him here 
 with my eyes. Let us go direct to the source, which is 
 God. I put no man in the place of God.^ When it was 
 broken to her that M. de Saci, who was her confessor, 
 could no longer come to her, d^e said, 'God so wills it. 
 Say farewell to my poor nephew. I shall perhaps never 
 «ee him again, but I do not trouble. My nephew without 
 God could not help me, and God without my nephew will 
 do all things for me.' ^ 
 
 M. Singlin wrote to her from his place of concealment. 
 She sent him a message in reply in which she says, ' When 
 we have humbly eaten the bread of affliction, I trust that 
 God will raise us up and console us.' 
 
 She encouraged the Sisters by her faith, and spoke with 
 
 1 See 'Madame de Sabl6' (Victor Cousin), p. 228. It was shortly after 
 this visit that Madame de Longueville sought to have an interview with 
 M. Singlin. 
 
 2 ' Histoire de Port-Royal' (Amsterdam), part i, p. 55. 
 
1591-1661.] MERE ANGELIQUE. 99 
 
 all the courage and animation of former years, bidding them 
 not disquiet themselves as to what might happen. ' Even 
 if you were like Jonah in the whale's belly, God in His 
 own time will deliver you.' 
 
 A few days . before her death she begged the nuns' to 
 forgive any hasty word that had fallen from her. She knew 
 that she was quick and impulsive by nature ; and so tender 
 was her conscience, that in earlier days the Abbess had 
 often knelt and asked pardon of a Sister for some word 
 which had escaped her, for which her spirit was grieved, 
 whilst all but herself felt that she had set them an example 
 of wondrous patience and charity. As she entered the 
 valley of the shadow of death, great fear fell upon the soul 
 till now so brave. She was overwhelmed for a time by its 
 terrors ; ' the snares of death compassed her round about,' 
 and she ' found trouble and heaviness.' Like the Psalmist 
 of old, doubts and ,questionings arose, ' Hath God forgotten 
 to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender 
 mercies and cut me off from before His eyes?' In her 
 anguish she described herself 'as a criminal at the place 
 of execution ; ' but the Lord in whom she trusted delivered 
 her from her distress, and her parting words to M. Singlin, 
 who with M. de Saci had ventured forth in disguise to 
 administer to her the Sacraments, were full, of child-like 
 trust : ' I promise you I will no longer fear. Truly when 
 He giveth peace, who then can give trouble ? ' 
 
 Her brother, M. Arnauld, wrote to the Mfere Agnes, 
 'There is nothing more afflicting than this sense of fear. 
 God is proving her to the last, and she is passing through 
 the most terrible purgatory, that of mental anguish ; but it 
 is this which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself willed to suffer, 
 and it seems to be the trial allotted to those souls who are 
 the strongest and most firmly established in holiness.' 
 
loo FRENCH JANSENISTS. [isji-iMi. 
 
 The last few days she begged to be left alone with God ; 
 and when any one drew near to speak to her, she would 
 say, ' It is time, Sister, to sabbathise.' ^ 
 
 She passed away on Saturday, the 6th of August 1661 ; 
 her last words were, ' Miserere mei Domine. Te Domine 
 expectavi. In Te Domine speravi ; non confundar in 
 setemum.' 
 
 Before she was laid in the grave the poor were admitted 
 to see for the last time one whom they had loved as a 
 mother. To them she was a saint, and as they reverently 
 kissed the hands which had so often ministered to their 
 wants, tijey touched them with rosaries and medals, believ- 
 ing that virtue would still go forth from her to help them.^ 
 
 She was buried without pomp, according to her wish, in 
 the Convent Church of Port-Royal-de-Paris. 
 
 1 See ' Port-Royal ' (Sainte-Beuve), vol. iv. p. 160. 
 
 2 ' Histoire de Port-Royal ' (Amsterdam), part i, p. 96. 
 
i6ii!.i694-] ANTOINE ARNAULD. loi 
 
 ANTOINE ARNAULD. 
 
 B. I6l2. D. 1694. 
 
 ' The " new man " is not formed all at once, any more 
 than the old ; he begins by imperfect conception ; he is 
 only fashioned little by little, and it needs often a great deal 
 of time for his full development.' 
 
 ' Contrition and love of God are acts of the will, and 
 acts of the will are not thoughts, but motions, inclinations, 
 and, so to speak, leanings of the heart towards its object. 
 
 ' Now to say to God, either audibly or inwardly, that we 
 love Him, and to turn our mind towards Him, is merely a 
 thought, a mental reflection, and consequently not an act of 
 love to God, but at best a testimony of that love which we 
 bear Him, if in truth we bear it, just as those protestations 
 of friendship which a man makes us are only demonstrations 
 of affection, and not affection itself ; and experience proves 
 to us but too clearly that all these demonstrations may exist 
 without any real affection in the heart. 
 
 ' What is it then to love God, or to have a true contrition 
 for one's sin ? 
 
 ' Let each one consult his heart, and if he finds therein 
 some strong affection, either of a husband towards his wife, 
 or of a father towards his children, or of a friend towards 
 his friend, let him examine its movements, and it will be 
 easy for him to learn what it is to love God, and to feel 
 that there are many who persuade themselves that they are 
 often making acts of love to God when they possess not 
 even the shadow of that love. . . . 
 
 'For a woman to love her husband, she must have a 
 
102 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1612-16941 
 
 certain force, a certain bent of the will, by which she is 
 drawn with a sweet and secret constraint to serve him, to 
 obey him, to conform to his wishes, to strive to please him 
 in all things, to have his interests alone at heart, and his 
 happiness her sole joy, to feel his sorrows more keenly than 
 her own, to find a charm in his presence, to languish in 
 his absence, to fear nothing so much as to wound in the 
 smallest degree the purity of her love, and even to be ready 
 to give her life, if the occasion presented itself, to save that 
 of her husband. 
 
 'This is what men call love — not words and thoughts, 
 which . are only products of the mind, and not effusions of 
 the heart. 
 
 'It is by this imperfect image that we ought to judge 
 whether the love of God reigns within our souls, whether 
 in the depths of our heart there is a separation from the 
 things of this world, an attachment to the things of God, 
 contempt for the pomps and vanities of this life,' and joy 
 in the expectation of the eternal blessedness j whether there 
 is a mortal fear of offending God, a fervent desire to please 
 Him in all things, a firm determination to fly from all 
 occasions which may lead us into sin, and finally a full 
 resolve to forsake all rather than forsake the service of Jesus" 
 Christ and the narrow way of the Gospel. 
 
 'If, without any flattery or self-deception, we find our 
 hearts thus disposed, at least in some degre^ (which is 
 better known by our actions and rule of life than by 
 aspirations which may easily deceive us), we have then 
 some reason to believe that we love God, and to give 
 Him thanks for His infinite mercy in having enkindled 
 our souls with a flame of that celestial fire which Jesus 
 Christ brought from heaven to earth. 
 
 'But if there is nothing of all this, it is in vain we 
 persuade ourselves that, by having pronounced certain 
 words or formed certain thoughts, we have brought forth 
 acts of love to God.' 
 
 'No prison is to be feared, except that of a soul held 
 
1612.1694.] ANTOINB ARNAULD. 103 
 
 in chains by its own vices and passions, and thus hindered 
 from enjoying the liberty of the sons of God.' 
 
 ' The evils of this world are terrible from a distance ; 
 but we accustom ourselves to them when we see them face 
 to face; God's grace makes all things endurable, besides 
 the fact that our sorrows are always less than our sins 
 deserve.' 
 
 ' Happy he who, at the cost of surrendering all, becomes possessed 
 of Christ, and carries high the Cross as his only inheritance. '^St, 
 Gregory Nazianzen. 
 
 Antoine Arnauld, better known as the Great Arnauld, 
 was the twentieth and last child born to Antoine Arnauld 
 and his wife Catherine Marion. 
 
 He was the brother of Arnauld d'Andilly, and also 
 of the Mfere Angdlique and the Mfere Agnes, both Abbesses 
 of Port-Royal. He numbered amongst his nephews Antoine 
 le Maitre and De Saci, names famous in the annals of 
 Port-Royal. 
 
 Antoine Arnauld was three years younger than his 
 elder nephew, Le Maitre, and about the same age as De 
 Saci, and he pursued his studies with these two nephews, 
 who always addressed him as 'Petit Oncle.' At school he 
 gave evidence of his mental powers by his extraordinary 
 facility in learning; he was able to recite his lessons, 
 according to M. le Maitre, without any further prepara- 
 tion than being the last of the three to repeat them. 
 After finishing his course at college, he applied himself 
 for some time to the study of the law, but ' his mother 
 disapproved of his making this his profession, and he 
 accordingly, renounced -his own intention, and commenced 
 the study of theology at the Sorbonne under M. Lescot. 
 
104 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1612-1694. 
 
 In our notice of the Ahh6 de Saint-Cyran we have men- 
 tioned Arnauld's great success at the University, his 
 brilliant talents, and extensive learning, and also the great 
 religious change which afterwards took place in him — a 
 change in which the Abb^ took the deepest interest. 
 We have seen that, from his prison at Vincennes, he 
 gave that spiritual help and counsel which led Antoine 
 Arnauld to renounce all worldly distinction and withdraw 
 to the seclusion of Port-Royal-des-Champs. 
 
 In 1640 the 'Augustinus' of Jansen had appeared, and 
 had excited universal notice and discussion. Arnauld, 
 in the midst of a life of devotion, could not refrain from 
 taking part in the defence of the far-famed book, so pre- 
 cious to the heart of M. de Saint-Cyran, and destined 
 to sustain so many assaults. With this object he put 
 forth a little work on the love of God, in answer to a 
 Jesuit father ; but it was the appearance of his book, ' De 
 la Frdquente Communion,' which especially aroused the 
 attention of the theological world. In this work, pub- 
 lished in 1643 (the year Saint-Cyran died), Arnauld boldly 
 supported the teaching of Jansenius, and especially in- 
 sisted on the necessity of sincere repentance before pre- 
 suming to come to Holy Communion. He denounced 
 the prevailing practice of admitting persons to that sacred 
 rite indiscriminately without special preparation, so that 
 the Eucharist had become to many little more than a 
 ceremony, a superstitious remedy for sin,i and not a 
 means of spiritual renovation. A system had, in fact, 
 sprung up among some Jesuit confessors of making things 
 easy for the high-born penitent, and it was directly 
 against this 'Chemin de Velours' that Arnauld levelled 
 his censure in 'La Frdquente Communion.' In the 
 1 See 'Port-Royal' (Sainte-Beuve), torn. ii. p. 176.. 
 
1612-1694.I ANTOINB ARNAULD. 105 
 
 sketch of M. de Saint-Cyran we have given the incident 
 which led to the publication of this once famous book, now 
 forgotten. 
 
 Long and bitter controversy ensued, and though for a 
 time Arnauld triumphed over his adversaries, his triumph 
 was of short duration. Cardinal Mazarin was now in 
 Richelieu's place,i and when the controversy excited by 
 ' La Frdquente Communion ' was at its height (March 
 1644), the intrigues of the Jesuits induced him to issue 
 an order commanding Arnauld to appear before the Pope 
 and the tribunal of the Inquisition and defend his doc- 
 trines. But the act of Mazarin roused the indignation 
 of the Sorbonne; the French bishops regarded it as an 
 infringement of the liberties of the Galilean Church, and 
 Mazarin was forced to revoke the order. The book, and 
 not the writer, was to be submitted to Papal examina- 
 tion, and, in spite of all the efforts of the Jesuits to get 
 it condemned, ' La Frdquente Communion ' was not placed 
 on the ' Index Expurgatorius.' 
 
 Arnauld, ever ready for battle in defence of truth, had 
 been eager to obey the summons to Rome. But M. de 
 Barcos, who had also been cited to appear, received a 
 friendly caution that the prisons of the Inquisition awaited 
 them. He prudently withdrew into the country, and, by 
 the urgent advice of his friends, Arnauld likewise con- 
 cealed himself, to avoid the threatened danger. From 
 this time forth, whilst his name was on every one's lips, 
 Arnauld was hidden, and for years a mystery enveloped 
 his hiding-place. 
 
 Through the influence of the Jesuits, the ' Augustinus ' 
 had been censured by Pope Urban VIII.,^ and in a Bull 
 two years after the publication of Jansen's book. Urban 
 
 ' Richelieu died in 1642. 2 Barberini. 
 
io6 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [16.2-1694. 
 
 interdicted all further controversy on the subject of 
 'Grace.' But this Bull of 1642 was not considered de- 
 cisive by the Jansenists. It was, in fact, but a reproduc- 
 tion of the censures pronounced by Popes Pius V. and 
 Gregory XIII. a hundred years before against the 
 Augustinian doctrines proclaimed by Baius, who, like 
 Jansen, had sought to restore purity of doctrine to the 
 Church. 'The University of Louvain refused to believe 
 that the Holy Father could mean to condemn what was 
 the acknowledged. doctrine of St. Augustine ; ' the Sorbonne 
 followed in the same track, and, in spite of a decree 
 from the king commanding the Theological Faculty to 
 receive it, the Sorbonne, as well as the University of 
 Louvain, refused to accept or publish the Bull. They 
 however forbade all the doctors of the two colleges to 
 maintain any of the condemned propositions.^ 
 
 For nearly five] "years the controversy was kept under 
 in France, but in the Netherlands it raged with unabated 
 fury. 
 
 In 1649, a Jesuit, Nicholas Cornet, Syndic of the 
 Faculty of Theology in Paris, artfully compiled seven 
 subtle propositions, all of which referred to the doctrine 
 of grace, and were said to be extracted from the ' Augus- 
 tinus.' These he laid before the Theological body, to 
 determine whether they were heretical or orthodox, he 
 being unable to decide the question himself. Cornet's 
 proceeding was violently opposed ; not only Arnauld, 
 but no less than seventy doctors asserted that it was a 
 manifest attempt to cast opprobrium on Jansen, by falsely 
 assuming that thesej were][doctrines maintained by him, 
 and that to initiate such a discussion was in defiance 
 of the Papal decree. 
 
 1 See Beard's ' Port-Royal,' vol. i. p. 245. 
 
i6i2-,694.1 ANTOINB ARNAULD. 107 
 
 Nevertheless, deputies were appointed to examine the 
 propositions, which were then restricted to _five, and sent 
 to Rome for the Pope's consideration.^ 
 
 Urban VIII. had died in 1644, and Innocent X.,^ an 
 old man of seventy-two, wily and irresolute in character, 
 had succeeded him on the Papal throne. After much 
 pressure on the part of the Jesuits, supported by a letter 
 to the Pope from the young king, Louis XIV., Innocent 
 gave way. He did so with great reluctance ; he said he 
 was an old man ; canon law had been his profession, 
 and he had not studied theology. Moreover, there were 
 three senses in which the five propositions might be 
 understood, which added considerably to the difficulty 
 of a decision. Finally, after four years of disputation; 
 he gave them his formal condemnation. All were pro- 
 nounced, heretical, and the first and last impious, and even 
 blasphemous. 
 
 In this Bull, however, it was nof asserted that these five 
 propositions, as drawn up by Cornet, were in the ' Augus- 
 
 1 These are the five propositions, ' bristling with controversy,' vjfhich 
 were put forth by Cornet, and which he professed to have extracted from 
 the ' Augustinus ' : — ■ 
 
 1. There are divine commandments which good men, although willing, 
 are unable to obey ; and the grace by which those commandments are 
 possible is also wanting to them. 
 
 ■^. No person in the state of fallen nature is able to resist internal 
 grace. 
 
 3. In order to render human actions meritorious or otherwise, Uberty 
 from necessity is not required, but only liberty from restraint. 
 
 4. The Semi-Pelagians, while admitting the necessity of prevenient 
 grace, or grace preceding all actions, were heretics, inasmuch as they 
 said that this grace was such as man could, according to his will, either 
 resist or obey. 
 
 5. The Semi-Pelagians also erred in saying that Christ died or shed His 
 blood for all men universally.* 
 
 2 Cardinal Pamphili. 
 
 * Pascal {Principal TuUoch). 
 
lo8 FRENCH jfANSENISTS. 16.2-1694. 
 
 tinus,' but that the dispute had arisen in consequence of 
 the pubhcation of Jansen's book. After the judgment 
 had been given, the Jansenist deputies had an audience 
 of the Pope to receive his benediction. He treated them 
 with great urbanity and kindness, and professed to have 
 been much edified both by their words and conduct ; 
 and when, emboldened by his ^acious manner, they took 
 courage to say that they felt assured that His Holiness 
 did not intend by his decree to cast a doubt on the 
 doctrine of efificacious grace or on the teaching of St. 
 Augustine, the Pope with an air of astonishment replied, 
 ' Oh, that is certain ' (O questo e certo). 
 
 From these few complaisant words of the Pope, after- 
 wards arose all the perplexing doubts and hesitation of 
 the Port-Royalists when called upon to sign the docu 
 ment accepting the Bull against the propositions. Those 
 among them who thought that they might subscribe their 
 names with a clear conscience, repeated to themselves 
 the words of the Pope, ' O questo 6 certo,' as an assurance 
 that the doctrines held by St. Augustine and Jansenius 
 were not condemned by the Papal Bull.^ 
 
 The Port-Royalists steadily maintained that the Pope's 
 condemnation was not directed against doctrines held by 
 Jansen, but against doctrines which neither Jansen nor 
 St. Augustine had ever held in the sense indicated; and 
 as to the last proposition, that 'Christ had not died for 
 all men,' it was utterly false to assert that such a doctrine 
 had ever been taught by the great Latin Father or by 
 the author of the ' Augustinus.* 
 
 The pen of Arnauld during this time had not been 
 laid aside. He had put forth pamphlet after pamphlet 
 against Cornet and the Jesuits ; but the Jesuits had pre- 
 
 } See ' Saint Beuve,' torn. iii. 
 
j6i2.i694.] ANTOINE ARNAULD. log. 
 
 vailed against truth and eloquence, and Cardinal Mazarin 
 determined to make their triumph complete. 
 
 To the Cardinal personally the antagonism between 
 Jesuits and Jansenists was a matter of indifference. He 
 cared for none of their religious disputes ; but to him, 
 as minister, they were politically important. 
 
 There was one man who was a thorn in his side. 
 This was Paul da Gondi (afterwards Cardinal de Retz), 
 the nephew and coadjutor of the Archbishop of Paris. 
 Ardent, impetuous, pleasure-loving, and eager for adven- 
 ture, he was in heart and mind the very opposite of an 
 ecclesiastic, and it was against his own will that he had 
 been forced into holy orders. 
 
 In childhood he had had Vincent de Paul as his in- 
 structor, but neither the teaching nor the example of the 
 holy man had any good effect on the pupil. 
 
 As he grew up, his conduct gave grave cause for scandal, 
 but his abilities were great, and his success at the Sorbonne 
 was brilliant. He soon won for himself the coveted dis- 
 tinction of the doctor's cap in that centre of theological 
 learning; but his own theology was that of 'the letter 
 which killeth rather than of the spirit which giveth life.' 
 His religion was indeed only 'a cloak to hide his im- 
 moralities, and a lever to raise insurrection in the 
 state.' 
 
 The oratorical powers of de Retz were great, and he did 
 not hesitate to make the pulpit a political tribune. By his 
 inflammatory sermons and addresses he had stirred up the 
 minds of mefl against Mazarin, already unpopular, and 
 incited them to insurrection. He was the prime mover 
 in the wars of the Fronde (1649), which sent Mazarin 
 into exile. 
 
 The aim of De Retz was to supplant the Prime Minister,, 
 
no FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1612-1694. 
 
 and place himself at the' head of affairs. He sought to 
 be made a cardinal, and he hoped to be a second Riche- 
 lieu. In 1651 he obtained the coveted honour from 
 Innocent X. ; but Mazarin was still powerful, though in 
 exile. He secretly governed the Queen-Mother, Anne of 
 Austria, and through her he ruled France. By his instruc- 
 tions, the arch-conspirator, a few months after he had been 
 given the cardinal's hat, was arrested and imprisoned at 
 yincennes. 
 
 There was another source of discord between the two 
 cardinals. Although both were alike personally indifferent 
 to the religious side of the dispute, Mazarin had to some 
 extent identified himself with the Jesuits, whilst de Retz, 
 as coadjutor to his uncle and the rightful successor to 
 the Archbishopric of Paris, had shown favour to the 
 Jansenists. Solely^ from motives of self-interest he had 
 encouraged them to look upon him as their friend; this 
 alliance with Port-Royal giving colour to his assumed 
 religious character. 
 
 ' From his prison at Vincennes de Retz sent a Latin 
 appeal to the Sacred College for his release. This appeal 
 was said to have been drawn up by a Port-Royalist, and 
 certain it is that prayers were offered up in all the Jan- 
 senist churches in Paris for his liberation. All this helped 
 to intensify Mazarin's dislike to the Jansenists, and 
 although indifferent as to their orthodoxy, he had or pre- 
 tended to have a doubt of their loyalty. The Fronde 
 was now at an end. Mazarin's watchword had been " Moi 
 et le, Temps;" and in 1653 time brought him back to 
 France as Prime Minister more powerful than ever. But 
 he had difificulties to overcome. The Pope had been 
 highly incensed by the arrest of the Cardinal de Retz, 
 and had written a strong remonstrance to the French Court 
 
.618-1694.] . ANTOINE ARNAULD. in 
 
 on the subject. The imprisonment of a cardinal by a 
 cardinal was a strong measure, and one which might well 
 give umbrage to the Court of Rome, where Mazarin was no 
 favourite. 
 
 It' was necessary to conciliate the Holy Father; but 
 it so happened about this time that the Pope also found 
 it necessary to conciliate the French Prime Minister. 
 The Bull condemning the five propositions had just been 
 fulminated, and it rested with Mazarin whether it would 
 be received favourably or not in France. The Pope, 
 therefore, thought it prudent not to press for the libera- 
 tion of de Retz, and allowed himself to be persuaded 
 by the Jesuits and Cardinal Chigi that the imprisoned 
 cardinal was a Jansenist. Mazarin, on his side, to gain 
 the Pope's favour, obtained a letter from the young king, 
 Louis XIV., requiring all French bishops to publish the 
 Papal Bull in their several dioceses. 
 
 The royal injunction gave rise to grave discussion. 
 Again the rights of the Gallican Church seemed to be 
 invaded, and many of the bishops deemed it necessary 
 to guard themselves by a protest against any violation of 
 these rights. Fortunately for de Retz, he was only co- 
 adjutor to his uncle at the time of the condemnation 
 of the five propositions (August 1653), and a prisoner, 
 which relieved him from the necessity , of pronouncing 
 publicly his opinion. For three years the discussion 
 lasted. At length the bishops gave way, and accepted 
 the Bull without protest. 
 
 It was a great defeat for the Port-Royalists, but now, 
 having gained his point, Mazarin grew unwilling to in- 
 stitute more vigorous measures against them. 
 
 Innocent X., who had never forgiven Mazarin , for his 
 alliance with Cromwell, and his hostile policy towards 
 
112 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [j6i2-i694. 
 
 Spain, died at the commencement of 1655, and Mazarin, 
 tired of theological disputes, now deputed M. Arnauld 
 d'Andilly, the elder brother of Antoine Arnauld, and a 
 man high in favour with the Queen-Mother, to negotiate 
 a truce between the contending parties in the Church. 
 Silence was imposed on both sides, and for a time even 
 the voice of Arnauld was hushed. 
 
 But the Jesuits, aware of their power and implacable 
 in their animosity, were not to be restrained. They 
 scoffed and jeered openly at their opponents, and even 
 went so far as to print an almanac with a frontispiece 
 representing Jansen as a winged devil in episcopal robes, 
 flying from the presence of the Pope and the French 
 king into the arms of the Huguenots. Thousands of 
 copies were sold and distributed. This audacious insult 
 to the Bishop of Ypres was not to be tolerated by the 
 impetuous Arnauld. He was all the more exasperated 
 because about this time (1655) the Due de Lianeourt 
 had been refused absolution by the priest of his parish, 
 on the ground that he was on intimate terms with the 
 Port-Royalists, and that he had placed his grand-daughter 
 at the monastery to be educated. ^ The question was 
 now not merely whether Jansen's book contained here- 
 tical propositions, but whether Port-Royal should not be 
 excluded from the pale of the Church. 
 
 Arnauld rushed into the fight. Two letters appeared, 
 the first a pamphlet, the second a quarto volume. The 
 first was addressed by 'a doctor of the Sorbonne to a 
 person of condition ; ' the second was ' to a Duke and 
 
 1 Rochefoucauld wittily said of the Due de Lianeourt, that ' he spent 
 all his money in three ways : first, on physicians, and he was always ill ; 
 secondly, on lawyers, and he lost all his actions; thirdly, in charitable 
 works, and he was refuaed absolution by his own parish priest,' 
 
1612-1694.] ANTOINE ARNAULD. 113 
 
 Peer of France.' ^ The replies were numerous. All felt 
 that a crisis was at hand, and that the fate of Arnauld 
 hung in the balance. He appealed to the new Pope, 
 Alexander "VII., ^ for justice and protection ; but the Jesuits 
 were too strong for him ; they had secured a majority 
 in the Sorbonne by the illegal introduction of forty monks 
 into the assembly, and were resolved to expel him from 
 their midst. 
 
 Two statements were extracted from his second letter 
 as deserving censure : first, that he had asserted that ' Cornet's 
 five propositions had not been taught by Jansen, but 
 were the fabrication of his enemies ; ' and secondly, that 
 ' according to both the Scriptures and the Fathers, St. Peter, 
 a just man, was wanting in grace when he fell.' 
 
 This last was declared by the Jesuits closely to resemble 
 the doctrine set forth in the first condemned proposition, 
 and must be denounced by the Sorbonne. 
 
 On the ist December 1655 the sittings of the Sorbonne 
 commenced. Arnauld had emerged from his conceal- 
 ment and returned to Port-Royal-des-Champs, where he 
 was busily engaged in preparing a refutation of the charges 
 against him. He was at this time forty-three years old, 
 and since the death of Saint-Cyran had been regarded as 
 the head of a powerful party in the Church. His renown 
 was great, and his adversaries began to dread the effect 
 of his fiery eloquence. They therefore determined, if 
 possible, to close the lists against him. They accordingly 
 made two conditions before permitting him to conduct 
 his own defence : first, he was to swear submission to 
 the censure if pronounced; and secondly, he was strictly 
 to confine himself to a simple statement of belief, with- 
 out argument or rejoinder. Rather than submit to these 
 
 1 To the Due de Luynes. '■= Cardinal Chigi. 
 
 H 
 
114 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1612-1694- 
 
 conditions, he relinquished the advantage of defending 
 himself by word of mouth, and contented himself with a 
 written statement, in which he declared that the censured 
 proposition was expressed almost in the words of St. 
 Chrysostom and St. Augustine; therefore, in condemning 
 it, the Sorbonne would condemn two Fathers of the 
 Church. 
 
 He was induced to make some humiliating concessions, 
 but in vain. His condemnation was determined upon 
 beforehand. Nothing short of degrading him by expulsion 
 from the Sorbonne would satisfy his enemies. The 29th 
 of January 1656 the assembly sat in judgment for the last 
 time. Only a short half hour was nominally permitted 
 to each speaker, but loud cries of ' Cloture ! cloture ! ' 
 resounded through the hall ; the noise and confusion were 
 so great that no one could be heard, and sixty doctors 
 of the minority left the assembly, protesting against the 
 restrictions made on liberty of speech. Arnauld was con- 
 demned and expelled. It was whilst the votes were being 
 taken that he withdrew to one of the quiet galleries of 
 Port-Royal-de-Paris, and there paced up and down praying 
 for submission to God's will. 
 
 To be a doctor of the Sorbonne had been the ambition 
 of his youth. He had attained that crowning honour, 
 and now he was to suffer the indignity of censure and 
 dismissal from the learned society of which, for fifteen 
 years, he had been the most distinguished member. 
 
 Suddenly St. Augustine's words on the 11 8th Psalm 
 recurred with vivid force to his mind, '^mce they have 
 persecuted only Thy truth in me, help me, O Lord, that 
 I may strive for Thy truth, even unto death.' Nor can 
 he have failed at that moment to remember the words 
 of his sister the Mfere Angdlique, ' If your name is struck 
 
1612.1694.I ANTOINE ARNAULD. 115 
 
 out from among the doctors of the Sorbonne, it will only 
 be written more plainly in God's book.' 
 
 When the blow fell, and he was told that he had been 
 expelled, he replied calmly, 'There is something left to 
 me which persecution cannot reach — that is, the love of 
 my God. They cannot tear this from my heart.' 
 
 All his writings in this controversy were declared heretical 
 and afterwards placed on the Index. 
 
 To avoid imprisonment he had again to hide himself, 
 and for twelve years (1656-1668) remained in conceal- 
 ment. 
 
 A strict search was instituted, and he had many narrow 
 escapes. 'Would you like me to tell you where M. 
 Arnauld is ? ' asked a lady when the gens-d'armes were 
 searching for him in every corner of her house. ' He is 
 safely hidden here,' pointing to her heart. ' Arrest him if 
 you can.' 
 
 Though laden with anxiety and oppressed by a crowd 
 •of painful thoughts which would have overwhelmed most 
 men, Arnauld no sooner found himself under a friendly 
 roof than he sought to sanctify, and even enliven, his 
 retreat by an act of kindness. He at once set himself to 
 the task of teaching an ignorant boy of twelve years old 
 to read on the new system of Pascal. 
 
 His place of concealment always remained undiscovered. 
 This greatly excited the surprise of the king, who remarked 
 that it was strange his emissaries could never succeed in 
 arresting M. Arnauld. When Boileau was told this he 
 observed, ' His Majesty is always fortunate. He will never 
 find him.' 
 
 Even Louis XIV. was not without misgivings as to 
 the five propositions being really in Jansen's book. He 
 directed the Comte de Grammont, the husband of 'La 
 
ii6 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1612-169^. 
 
 Belle Hamilton' (who had been brought up at Port- 
 Royal), to read through the bulky volumes and ascertain 
 the truth on this cardinal point. 
 
 When the Comte de Grammont professed to have con- 
 cluded his labours, he informed his Majesty ' that if the five 
 propositions were in the book, they were there incognito.' ^ 
 
 It was at this period that Pascal's 'Lettres Provinciales ' 
 appeared in Arnauld's defence, which made all Paris ring 
 with their fame. The Jesuits succeeded in disposing 
 of Arnauld and his alleged heretical writings, but the 
 question still remained whether the five propositions were 
 in Jansen's book or not. Chapter and verse had never 
 been quoted ; this convincing method the Jesuits rejected. 
 The Jansenists admitted that the Pope was infallible in 
 determining what is truth and what is heresy ; but whether 
 the heretical doctrines were or were not in the 'Augus- 
 tinus ' could be judged equally well by any one who had 
 carefully read the book. Thus the distinction between 
 the ^ droit' and the '■fait' was a very simple one, the 
 '■droit' being the right of the Pope to condemn certain 
 propositions as heretical, which all Catholics admitted, 
 and the '■fait ' being the fact that the condemned proposi- 
 tions were in the ' Augustinus,' which all Port-Royalists 
 denied. 
 
 But though in truth a simple question, the solution 
 seemed as far off as ever. Popes died and were replaced 
 by their successors, but the wearisome controversy still 
 continued. Alexknder VII. (Cardinal Chigi) had followed 
 Innocent X. on the Papal throne, and the new Pope, on 
 being appealed to, decided in favour of the Jesuits, that 
 the five propositions were to be found in the ' Augustinus.' 
 
 There remained apparently no escape for the Jansenists. 
 
 '1 The word ' incognito ' had been iirst brought into use about this time. 
 
1612-.694.] ANTOINB ARNAULD. 117 
 
 The French king and the Queen-Mother were convinced 
 that the views of Jansenius were heretical, and deter- 
 mined that Port -Royal should be purged of its heresy. 
 A new formulary was drawn up by command of the 
 king, to which all ecclesiastics, school teachers, and nuns 
 were required to affix their names. The formulary con- 
 tained these words : — 
 
 ' I condemn with heart and mouth the doctrines of 
 the five propositions contained in the book of Cornelius 
 Jansen, entitled ' Augustinus,' which two Popes and the 
 Bishops have already condemned as contrary to the true 
 sense of the doctrine of St. Augustine, which Jansen has 
 falsely expounded.' 
 
 For a time there was delay in carrying out the king's 
 decree; the Parliament of Paris objected to register it, 
 and in the absence of the king at the seat of war, it 
 was thought advisable not to press matters till his return. 
 
 It was this same year (1656) that the' incident of 'The 
 Holy Thorn' took place, which produced a reaction in 
 favour of the Jansenists. The old friendship of the 
 Queen-Mother for M. Arnauld d'Andilly revived and made 
 her unwilling to proceed to extremities. But the follow- 
 ing year the king on his return to Paris came in state 
 to Parliament; the Bull of Alexander VII. was read and 
 the formulary accepted ; the triumph of the Jesuits seemed 
 complete. 
 
 Mazarin, however, made difficulties ; he refused to give 
 lettres de cachet ordering every bishop to take steps for 
 the immediate signature of the formulary. He told Pfere 
 Annat (the Jesuit who afterwards became confessor to 
 the king) that the Society gave him more trouble than 
 all the rest of the kingdom; that the king had already 
 done too much for them, and no more should now be 
 
ii8 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1612-1694. 
 
 done. So the matter was allowed to rest, and for three 
 years Port-Royal was left undisturbed, . though the fatal 
 formulary still hung over them. 
 
 After a while the recluses, who had been dismissed 
 from Les Granges after Arnauld's expulsion from the 
 Sorbonne, quietly returned there, and re-opened their 
 schools, which they had been obliged to close. 
 
 These schools had originated with M. de Saint-Cyran, 
 and for twenty years, with a few short intervals, had 
 been in full activity. The number of the pupils had 
 been limited ; in no year exceeding fifty boys, and some- 
 times less ; but illustrious names had made the schools, 
 renowned. Arnauld, Nicole, Fontaine, Lancelot, Le Maitre, 
 had all been engaged in the work of tuition. Their 
 educational books had been disseminated throughout 
 France, introducing new and improved methods of in- 
 struction. Among other things, the little children of the 
 Port-Royal schools had their first reading-lessons, not in 
 Latin, as was customary in other schools, but in French, 
 thus greatly diminishing the irksomeness of their lesson, 
 by being spared the additional difficulty of learning through 
 a dead language. Corporal punishments, which were the 
 rule in other schools, were rare at Port-Royal. The great 
 object set before the teachers, was that authority should 
 ever be tempered with love, and that to make brilliant 
 scholars was less important than to train up good Chris- 
 tians. 1 
 
 The popularity and success of the system pursued at 
 Port-Royal had only increased the jealousy of the Jesuits, 
 
 1 The Port-Royal schools were divided into three sections, so that there 
 were three different establishments ; one at Les Granges, one at Les 
 Troux, and a third at Le Ch^naix. The first school formed by the re- 
 cluses was in the Rue St. Dominique de I'Enfer, near the monastery of 
 Port-Royal-de- Paris. 
 
i6i2-i694-l ANTOINE ARNAULD. 119 
 
 whose great object was to retain the education of the 
 young altogether in their own hands. 
 
 Though a royal edict had been issued for closing the 
 schools of Port-Royal, the order had not been effectually 
 carried out, for they had been re-opened and were now 
 in full vigour. The Jesuits therefore returned to the 
 charge, and pressed the Cardinal to break up the schools 
 and disperse the scholars. The blow seemed imminent, 
 but again the good star of Port-Royal prevailed, and 
 the danger for a time was averted. For just at this junc- 
 ture (1658) an unhappy accident occurred to a nephew 
 of Mazarin, the young Mancini, a pupil at the Jesuit 
 College of Clermont. 
 
 Whilst playing at a rough game called ' Berne ' — a game 
 known to us as tossing in a blanket, and not permissible 
 at any well-managed school — the boy was tossed violently 
 out of the blanket, and died from the injuries inflicted. 
 He was the object of all the Cardinal's hopes, the des- 
 tined heir to his vast wealth. The boy's death was not 
 only a keen sorrow and disappointment to Mazarin, but 
 ascribing his irreparable loss to negligence, it excited 
 his extreme anger against the heads of the College, so 
 that his resentment was turned away from the schools 
 of Port-Royal to those of the Jesuits themselves, who did 
 not venture to press their assault on the schools of their 
 rivals till time had in some degree assuaged both the 
 grief and the anger of the Cardinal. Two years later 
 (March 1660), when the Jesuits had the ear of Louis XIV., 
 they again urged their petition through Pfere Annat. 
 ' Surely,' they said, ' the Most Christian king will no longer 
 permit young children to assemble for instruction under 
 the influence of a man who has been convicted of heresy 
 on the subject of efficacious grace ? ' 
 
120 FRENCH jfANSBNISTS. [.612-1694. 
 
 The king, thus urged by his confessor, and hating the 
 very name of Port-Royal, at once issued a mandate for 
 the suppression of their schools. The scholars of Port- 
 Royal were dispersed never to reassemble. 
 
 On the death of Cardinal Mazarin (March 1661), Louis 
 XIV. became, as he said, 'his own Prime Minister.' He 
 was really the slave of the Jesuits. The Galilean Church 
 was henceforth ruled by his Jesuit confessors — Pfere Annat, 
 Pfere la Chaise, and Pfere le Tellier — who held sway suc- 
 cessively over the king and Church. The natural conse- 
 quence was the fixed resolve of Louis XIV. to rid his 
 kingdom of the Jansenists. To him and his confessors 
 they were ' a pestilent sect ' which must be rooted out. 
 
 The sisterhoods of Port-Royal were also looked upon 
 by the king with grave suspicion, and the first step towards 
 their final suppression was quickly decided upon. 
 
 A ready means was at hand in the formulary of 1656; 
 but before this authoritative document could be put in 
 force, the king resolved that the boarders and postulants 
 should be dismissed from Port-Royal, and that no fresh 
 novices should be admitted. Then was enforced the 
 dreaded formulary which required the signatures of the 
 nuns of both monasteries. The nuns refused to sign. 
 They well knew that their revered Abbess, the Mfere 
 Angflique Arnauld, would have indignantly refused to 
 affix her name to a document which clearly condemned 
 the teaching of Jansenius, the chosen friend of Saint-Cyran. 
 
 The great Abbess was gone, but the nuns were animated 
 with her courage; they wished to do as she would have 
 done, and they persisted in their resistance. 
 
 A device was resorted to by which it was thought that 
 the scruples of the sisterhoods might be overcome. 
 Without the previous knowledge of the king, the Grand 
 
1612-1694.I ANTOINE ARNAULD. 121 
 
 Vicars of the diocese 1 modified the document so adroitly 
 by a ' mandate ' which accompanied it, that both Arnauld 
 and Nicole judged that the nuns might consistently sign. 
 Finally, the nuns of both communities obeyed their directors 
 and put their names to the modified document. But the 
 attempt at evasion was utterly futile; the king insisted 
 upon the signature of the formulary without niqdification. 
 The nuns were required to assert with heart and mouth 
 that the condemned propositions were in the ' Augustinus,' 
 the Pope in his infallible judgment having declared such 
 to be the fact. They were, moreover, to call upon God 
 Himself to attest their sincerity. ^ Again a solemn protest 
 was made by the Abbess (Agnes Arnauld) and the nuns 
 of Port-Royal-de-Paris, and again the protest was rejected. 
 
 Nothing but a pure and simple subscription would 
 satisfy the king and his spiritual advisers. The brave 
 Abbess and her nuns absolutely refused compliance. ' No 
 tyranny could induce them to attest what was false.' Some 
 months passed of lingering suspense, and the appoint- 
 ment of a new Archbishop in the room of the Cardinal 
 de Retz, who had now resigned the See (1662), made 
 their case all the more perilous.^ M. de Marca was 
 
 1 Appointed by the imprisoned Cardinal-Archbishop (De Retz). 
 
 2 See ' Ecclesiastical Biography' (Port-Royal), Sir James Stephen. 
 
 3 In 1654 the Archbishop of Paris (Gondi) had died. The coadjutor, 
 his nephew, Cardinal de Retz, though still a prisoner, retained his right 
 of succession to the Archbishopric. The supposed countenance of the 
 Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris was a great support to the Jansenists ; but to 
 the Court and Mazarin it was a sore displeasure that De Retz, the life and 
 soul of the late revolt against the royal authority, should occupy so high 
 and powerful a position. The Queen and Mazarin tried in vain to bring 
 about his resignation of the See in exchange for another. But the Pope's 
 sanction was not obtained to this arrangement, and De Retz was destined 
 to remain for some time longer an imprisoned Archbishop. From Vin- 
 cennes he was transferred to Nantes, from whence he was able to make 
 his escape to Spain, and thence to Rome. Well received by the Pope, the 
 restless, intriguing prelate went afterwards to Brussels, until at length, in 
 
122 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1612-1694. 
 
 nominated to the Archbishopric of Paris ; he was the 
 author of the formulary and a determined enemy of the 
 Jansenists ; but three days after he had received his 
 credentials from Rome (June 1662) the new Archbishop 
 died. 
 
 The king appointed his old preceptor, M. de P&^fixe, 
 who was a mere tool of the Court, to the vacant See, with 
 the understanding that, by fair means or force, the sister- 
 hoods should be made to sign. But again a compUcation 
 arose. In August 1662 a quarrel between the followers 
 of the French ambassador to the Papal Court and the 
 Roman Guard was followed by a personal insult to the 
 ambassador, the Marquis de Crequi. The king demanded 
 redress, which the Pope was reluctant to give ; and the 
 result was that M. de P^rdfixe did not receive the fresh 
 Bulls from Rome recognising him as Archbishop for 
 eighteen months after his nomination by the king. A 
 respite was thus afforded to the nuns. But though free 
 for a while from persecution from without, Port-Royal 
 received at this time a blow which struck at the ver)- 
 heart of the commimity. This was the death of M. 
 Singlin after only a few days' illness. He had been for 
 twenty-eight years director of Port-Royal-de-Paris, and 
 had been trained and appointed to the post by jSI. de 
 Saint-Cyran. He had been the companion of Le Maltre, 
 De Sdricourt, and De Saci when the httle band of 
 hermits was first formed ; the depth and vitality of his 
 faith had carried conviction to the heart of Pascal; and 
 when the spirit of the Mbre Angflique shrank at the 
 approach of death, he had sustained her by his words. 
 
 1662, laying aside the Archbishopric, which he had only ruled through his 
 Vicars-General, he was allowed to return to France, and lived in retirement 
 till his death in 1679. 
 
1612-1694.] ANTOINE ARNAULD. 123 
 
 To avoid imprisonment he had for the last three years 
 of his life adopted the garb of a physician when he went 
 forth on his priestly ministrations, and he consoled him- 
 self for having recourse to this artifice by the thought 
 that he was in truth a physician in the highest sense of 
 the term. He died 17th April 1664, and was buried at 
 Port-Royal-de-Paris, loved and lamented by all the com- 
 munity. 
 
 The respite from persecution was of short duration. 
 The nuns, still mourning for their loss, were again assailed. 
 M. de P^refixe, the new Archbishop, having now received 
 Papal authority, at once proceeded to enforce the signature 
 of the formulary, to which he affixed a new declaration, 
 viz., the infallibility of the Pope as to matters of 'fact' 
 as well as of ^ right;' but he failed to shake the deter- 
 mination of the Abbess. At length, enraged at his want 
 of success, M. Pdrdfixe lost all self-command. One by 
 one the nuns were required to appear before him, and 
 as each refused to sign, threats and insults were heaped 
 upon the recusant. ' Pure as angels and proud as Lucifer,' 
 he thundered forth as he hurried away from the monastery. 
 The nuns were deprived of participation in the sacraments 
 and threatened with exile or imprisonment. 
 
 Finally the decree went forth. The Mfere Agnes 
 (Arnauld) and twelve of her nuns, including three of her 
 nieces, were dismissed from Port-Royal. 
 
 They were given but short notice, and were not told 
 what was to be their destination. Mbre Agnes was 
 seventy-three. She had been sixty years a member of 
 the community, which, as Abbess, she had ruled and 
 reformed, and which she was now forced to leave with 
 every mark of indignity. She received the order for her 
 dismissal with meek submission. She called together 
 
124 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [16.2-1694. 
 
 her weeping Sisters, asked forgiveness of all her faults and 
 shortcomings towards them, and begged them, whatever 
 rumours they might hear, to believe in her constancy to 
 the end in refusing to become a false witness. The 
 26th August 1664 was the day fixed for the expulsion of 
 the nuns. 
 
 Archbishop Pdrefixe came himself with great pomp and 
 an armed force to carry out the sentence against them. 
 At heart he felt some tenderness towards the nuns, 
 beheving in their goodness and devotion; but he had 
 been incensed by their resistance to the royal will, and 
 had already proclaimed them to be 'pure as angels and 
 proud as devils,' his respect mingling with his resentment. 
 But on this fatal morning the Archbishop lost all self- 
 control, and losing sight of their ' angeUc purity,' and seeing 
 only their ' devilish pride,' he treated the unhappy women 
 with a roughness which amounted to brutality. 
 
 He tore the twelve victims from the embraces of their 
 Sisters, and threatened to remove them by force, though 
 no resistance was thought of. Against his violent and 
 insulting proceedings Mere Agnes merely offered a quiet 
 and respectful protest, and bidding the nuns she was about 
 to leave a sad farewell, she quitted the home and sanctuary 
 of her long life, followed by her twelve companions. 
 At the door of the monastery one more trial awaited 
 her. She there found her brother, M. Amauld d'Andilly. 
 He had had notice of the expulsion, and had in vain 
 implored the Archbishop, as a last favour, that he might 
 be permitted to convey his sister and his children to 
 his own home at Pomponne. But M. P^r^fixe was immov- 
 able. 'They must suffer for their contumacy' was his 
 only answer to M. d'Andilly, who now came to witness 
 the departure and give his daughters his blessing. They 
 
1612.1694.] ANTOINB ARNAULD. 125 
 
 received it kneeling, and then these hardly-used women, 
 conscientious if obstinate, entered the carriages provided 
 for them. They were conveyed to different convents. 
 Mere Agnes being infirm, one of her nieces was per- 
 mitted to be with her to assist her, but on reaching the 
 Convent of the Visitation in the Faubourg St. Jacques, 
 she met with harsh treatment and found herself regarded 
 as a heretic. The others, domiciled in separate houses, 
 were exposed to every petty persecution which intolerance 
 could devise. Amongst these Ang^lique de Saint-Jean 
 was the most noteworthy. She was the daughter of M. 
 Arnauld d'Andilly, and the cleverest of his family. She 
 was now sent to the Convent of the Annunciation in 
 Paris, and kept in the strictest seclusion. It was 
 indeed a close imprisonment. She could hear the noise 
 and stir of the great city from her cell, but no tidings 
 from without were allowed to reach her. With no out- 
 ward help or consolation, and deprived of participation 
 in the Blessed Sacrament, there were times when her 
 heart sank within her, and the question would arise, ' Is 
 there a Providence ? ' But the grace of God triumphed. 
 She became resigned and peaceful, and after a while 
 her prison was to her a little sanctuary, where each day 
 she recited the offices of the Church, and followed in 
 spirit the priest at the altar. 
 
 In the darkness of the night she would often rise and 
 sing a psalm of praise, unheard by all but by Him whose 
 ear is ever open to the cry of the sorrowful. 
 
 Her solitude was only broken by an occasional visit 
 from the Prioress or from the Mar^chale de Rantzau, a 
 clever woman residing in the convent, whose influence 
 it was hoped would induce Angdlique de Saint- Jean to 
 yield obedience to the Archbishop. With this object 
 
126 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1612-1694. 
 
 the Mardchale always endeavoured to lead her into a 
 religious discussion ; but the readiness of Angdique never 
 failed her. One day her visitor declaimed on the terrors 
 of anathema, saying, ' What a horrible thing to be ex- 
 communicated by the Pope ! ' 
 
 'And yet,' replied Angflique, 'there is one consolation; 
 for it does happen sometimes that the successors of St. 
 Peter imitate St. Peter's haste in drawing the sword, 
 and, like him, strike too quickly without waiting for his 
 Lord's permission. But then Jesus comes and heals the 
 wounded ear.' 
 
 Angdlique dreaded letting her thoughts dwell on her own 
 trials j the utmost she could do was to bear them by seeing 
 God's hand in all that happened. In her own words, ' she 
 carried her soul in her arms as a woman carries a weaned 
 child, which she moves about and tries to divert so as 
 to prevent its crying for its nurse.' Port-Royal had been 
 her nurse, and now that she was being weaned from all she 
 loved, she could not have endured the separation had 
 not her faith enabled her to turn her thoughts from earthly 
 things to God Himself. 
 
 Strong faith was indeed needed as time wore on, for still 
 greater trials were in store for the persecuted nuns of 
 Port-Royal; but at least they were to have an interval 
 of quiet and the solace of being brought together again. 
 
 Louis XIV. began to complain of the expense incurred 
 in keeping the recusant nuns in separate convents ; the 
 sum of 500 francs a head was an annual drain upon the 
 privy purse which cooled his religious ardour. It was 
 resolved,- therefore, the following year (1665), to send 
 them back to Port-Royal-des-Champs. The story of their 
 re-union is curious, as related by Angelique de Saint-Jean 
 herself. 
 
i6i2-i694.] ANTOINE ARNAULD. 127 
 
 On the 3rd July 1665, as early as five in the morning, 
 a carriage sent by the Archbishop came to the door of 
 Les Filles St. Marie. It was to convey Mhre Agnes, 
 her three nieces, and the Sister Christine away from the 
 convent. An almoner of the Archbishop accompanied 
 them on horseback. Inside the carriage all was wonder 
 and speculation. The poor women knew not where they 
 were going ; they had recourse to prayer for strength to 
 bear whatever was before them. Their journey was 
 delayed through a horse casting a shoe, and it was so 
 long before a blacksmith could be found, that another 
 batch of travellers, sent later in the day from Paris, caught 
 them up. Great was the surprise and joy to the detained 
 nuns as carriage after carriage — five in all — came in view, 
 filled with their Sisters from Paris in their white habits 
 and red crosses. 
 
 They passed rapidly, but the nuns were able to recognise 
 with delight some of their friends as the procession moved 
 on. Their destination was Port-Royal-des-Champs. On 
 arrival at their well-known home, the nuns all repaired 
 to the old church. They had never thought to meet 
 under that sacred roof again. It seemed to them a resur- 
 rection rather than a re-union, and never was^a more 
 heartfelt ' Sursum Corda ' raised than was there lifted up 
 by the joyful and thankful nuns thus restored to each 
 other and to their church. 
 
 They were still close prisoners, but^^they had the com- 
 fort of being together, and undaunted by all they had 
 suffered, they pledged themselves anew to be faithful to 
 the truth, and again to refuse their signatures when the 
 Archbishop came. 
 
 Fresh punishment was the result. The unhappy nuns 
 were now interdicted from chanting the offices ; the sick 
 
128 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1612-1694. 
 
 were unvisited by the new confessor, and the dying 
 departed without religious consolation. The persecution 
 was even extended beyond the grave. No mass was 
 permitted for the soul of the departed, and when a Sister 
 died, the nuns could only gather around the grave and 
 pray in silence for the dead. 
 
 To prevent any communication with Arnauld or any 
 other of their friends, the nuns were absolutely isolated. 
 
 In their simple faith they solemnly laid a paper on 
 the body of her who had passed from the sorrows of 
 this world to the presence of the Lord, binding her by 
 every tie of affection to remember those whom she had 
 left to struggle on through trial and temptation, and to 
 plead their cause on high. 
 
 A strict watch was held over the convent, where an 
 officer and some men of the Gardes-du-Corps were 
 stationed to intercept all communication from without. 
 At first the soldiers even took possession of the garden, 
 where was the well, still existing, from which the nuns drew 
 water, thus disregarding all the rules of conventual privacy. 
 The unhealthiness of the place and the close confine- 
 ment told but too quickly on the unhappy inmates 
 of the monastery. One after another they sickened, so 
 that it was found necessary to have a resident doctor. 
 Providentially at this moment M. Hamon presented him- 
 self He was a physician by profession, and obtained 
 permission from the Archbishop to attend the nuns in 
 illness. He had lived for four years at Les Granges 
 with the recluses, but had not been included in the 
 sentence passed against them, and now, in the depriva- 
 tions and spiritual destitution of the nuns, he acted the 
 part of physician both to sOul and body. When the 
 Sisters lamented that they were deprived of the sacranient 
 
i6i2-i694.] ANTOINE ARNAULD. 129 
 
 of confession, he would say, 'Confess to Jesus Christ. 
 His power to absolve is far beyond that of any priest.' 
 When they grieved over their deprivation of the Holy 
 Eucharist, he said, ' Who can separate us from the 
 Invisible Altar ? ' The viaticum was denied to the dying ; 
 but the good physician would whisper in the ear of the 
 departing Sister, 'Have a little patience; the curtain is 
 about to be undrawn, and you will see the Lord Him- 
 self.' 
 
 Another name comes before us in the Annals of 
 Port-Royal as a minister of consolation to the poor 
 nuns. This is M. de Saint-Marthe.^ He also had joined 
 the band of recluses at Les Granges, and had been 
 appointed by M. Singlin one of the preachers and con 
 fessors at Port-Royal-des-Champs. When forced with the 
 other recluses to retire from Les Granges, he wrote a 
 noble defence of the Sisters who had been confided to 
 his care. 
 
 A curious instance of his benevolent thought for the 
 nuns is mentioned as having occurred when the vigilance 
 of their guards became somewhat relaxed and their move 
 ments were less closely watched. 
 
 By climbing a tall tree which grew on the other side 
 of the boundar;^-wall and overlooked the garden of the 
 convent, he was able on several occasions after dark to 
 speak words of comfort and hope to the assembled nuns 
 and to give them his priestly benediction. 
 
 Among the bishops of the Gallican Church, four only 
 had maintained their steadfastness in the cause of Port 
 Royal, and insisted on the clear distinction between the 
 
 1 It was from M. de Saint-Marthe that Pascal in his last illness sought 
 spiritual help. He was the confessor to whom he revealed the secrets of 
 his conscience. 
 
 I 
 
I30 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1612-.694. 
 
 '■droit' and the ^fait' These courageous prelates were 
 Pavilion, Bishop of Aleth, Henri Arnauld,i Bishop of 
 Angers, Buzenval, Bishop of Beauvais, and Caulet, Bishop 
 of Pamiers. 
 
 Like the seven Bishops of England t^frenty-five years 
 later, they placed themselves in direct opposition to a 
 despotic and unscrupulous king. They rejected the dogma 
 of Papal infallibility on matters of fact as a new preten- 
 sion set up by Archbishop Pdrefixe, and strong in the 
 justice of their cause, they firmly withstood the pressure 
 of the Court and the censure of their brother Bishops, 
 who had the weakness to give in to that which in their 
 hearts they disapproved. 
 
 Conspicuous among the four was the Bishop of Aleth, 
 a prelate reverenced by all men for his holy life and self- 
 devotion. He addressed a firm but respectful letter to 
 the king on the illegality of the enforced signature, and 
 represented to his Majesty that he had overstepped the 
 bounds of his legitimate authority in requiring the sig- 
 nature to be affixed in the presence of secular judges 
 and magistrates. 'Christian princes,' he said, 'had never 
 assumed to themselves the power to make laws and 
 canons for the Church, but had felt it an honour to be 
 the executors of the Church's decrees.' "The Bishop him- 
 self boldly refused to sign the formulary, and interdicted 
 the clergy of his diocese from doing so. He even went 
 so far as to excommunicate two of his canons for dis- 
 regarding his prohibition.^ 
 
 1 Brother of Antoine and of Angflique and Agnes Arnauld. 
 
 2 The name of Marie-Martinozzi comes before us in connection with 
 that of the Bishop of Aleth. She was a niece of Cardinal Mazarin, and at 
 seventeen married the Prince de Conti, brother of the Duchesse de Longue- 
 ville and the great Cond^. Beyond being a prince of the blood, Conti 
 had but little to attract a young girl ; but she played her part in life well ; 
 
t6i2-i694-] ANTOINE ARNAULD. 131 
 
 In the eyes of the Court this was the climax of 
 rebellion. Enraged at the contumacy of the four Bishops, 
 Louis XIV. himself denounced them to the Pope, and 
 . the Bull of Alexander VII. in 1665 was the result. 
 
 The Bull was a severe blow to the Port-Royalists, for 
 it admitted of no distinction between the 'fazf' and the 
 
 The excommunication of the four Bishops now appeared 
 inevitable, but a means was devised by the ingenuity of 
 Nicole which it was hoped would bridge over the diffi- 
 culty. It was proposed that the Bishops should bow to 
 Papal authority and sign the formulary, but they were to 
 add a salve to their conscience, clearly defining the sense 
 in which they signed, viz., for the droit, their signature 
 was a submission to his infallibility ; for the fait, it was 
 merely a submission of respect and discipline. This 
 definition was received with acclamation by many of the 
 Bishops, and published by them in their several dioceses ; 
 but by order of the king in- council the definition was 
 immediately annulled.^ Louis XIV., determined to carry 
 his point, now solicited two new briefs from Rome, one 
 of these ordering the four Bishops to sign unconditionally, 
 and the other brief, to be used in case of necessity, 
 appointing a commission of French Bishops with power 
 to suspend or excommunicate the four refractory prelates. 
 This was a manifest infringement of the liberties of the 
 Galilean Church, and both the king and his ministers 
 became aware that a grave mistake had been made in 
 appealing for Papal intervention where the French Bishops 
 
 and in after years her name ranks among the great ladies who favoured the 
 cause of the Jansenists. Whilst residing in Languedoc she and her 
 husband placed themselves under the direction of the Bishop of Aleth, 
 and thenceforth followed the strict disciphne enjoined at Port-Royal. 
 1 See ' Port-Royal' (Beard), vol. i. p. 432. 
 
132 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [i6,2-i694. 
 
 claimed independence. Every day the situation became 
 more embarrassed and the contest hotter. 
 
 To the Port-Royalists it was a time of bitter suffering. 
 The nuns, as we have seen, were treated with redoubled 
 severity. MM. de Saci and Fontaine were imprisoned in 
 the Bastille; Antoine Arnauld and Nicole and other 
 leaders of the party were hidden in various places of 
 concealment, whence they carried on a warfare of letters 
 and pamphlets.^ 
 
 But a crisis was at hand. The French king had 
 appealed to Rome, and a commission of nine prelates 
 had just been named to pass judgment on the four 
 recusant Bishops, when the Pope (Alexander VII.) sud- 
 denly died (May 1667). He was succeeded by Clement 
 IX. (Rospigliosi). 
 
 Clement was of a diSerent spirit to his predecessor. 
 He lamented the strife and disunion existing in the 
 Catholic Church; he knew the sanctity of the men who 
 were the leaders of the Jansenist party; therefore, when 
 an opening for a compromise appeared, he gave a not 
 unwilling ear to it. 
 
 Nineteen French bishops, with Gondrin, Archbishop of 
 Sens, at their head, enrolled themselves in the cause of 
 peace, and sent an address to Clement in defence of their 
 four brethren, ' declaring their orthodoxy to be above 
 suspicion.' 
 
 The chief mover in the whole negotiation was Anne- 
 Genevifeve de Bourbon, Duchesse de Longueville. She 
 was the daughter of the Prince de Cond^ and of that 
 Charlotte - Marguerite de Montmorency whose wondrous 
 beamty turned the head of Henri IV. 
 
 1 In Madame de S^vign^'s letters she speaks of Arnauld as hidden 
 ' sons terre coname une taupe. ' 
 
i6i2-i694.] ANTOINE ARNAULD. 133 
 
 Her history from her birth was one of strange romance. 
 She first saw the light in the prison of Vincennes, where 
 her father was a captive, and his wife a voluntary sharer 
 in his captivity. 1 His release took place in 1619, when 
 his daughter was still in her infancy. From Vincennes 
 she was removed to the Hotel de Conde. Great pains 
 were bestowed upon her education, and her religious 
 training was not neglected. 
 
 Her mother was a frequent visitor at the Carmelite 
 convent in the Rue Saint-Jacques, a convent not long 
 founded, but which vied with Port-Royal in the strict 
 discipline it enforced. The Princesse de Conde had 
 been a great benefactress to the Carmelites, and she had 
 rooms reserved for her use in the convent whenever 
 she chose to make a prolonged stay within its precincts. 
 Her little daughter often accompanied her mother, and 
 was at times left there, in charge of the nuns. 
 
 As Anne-Genevifeve grew up, her thoughts turned to- 
 wards a cloister life, and at fifteen her desire was to 
 renounce the world and become a nun. In this she 
 was naturally encouraged by the sisterhood ; but the 
 close friendship which existed between the Prioress of the 
 Carmelites and the Princesse de Cond^ did not go so 
 far as to induce the latter to allow her only daughter 
 to take the veil as a Carmelite nun. Accordingly, when 
 Mademoiselle de Bourbon was sixteen, she was suddenly 
 called away from her peaceful seclusion to be introduced 
 into the world at a Court ball given by Louis XHI. 
 at the Louvre. 
 
 She entered the palace with a reluctant heart, wearing 
 
 ' The Prince de Cond^ was imprisoned in 1616 by order of the Queen, 
 Marie de Medici, for his opposition to the tyranny exercised by the 
 Mar^chal d'Ancre. 
 
134 FRENCH ^ANSENISTS. [i6i=-i694. 
 
 beneath her ball -dress the horse -hair belt of the Car- 
 melites ; but, in spite of the protecting ' a'h'ce,' the world 
 with its fascinations at once cast its spell over her. The 
 intense admiration which her beauty excited produced a 
 thrill of pleasure and excitement hitherto unknown. When 
 Anne-Genevifeve left the ball-room she was no longer 
 the same being; the intoxicating draught had been held 
 to her lips, and she thirsted for more. All thought of 
 a conventual life was thrown aside until long years had 
 passed, and, in disappointment and remorse, her mind 
 once more turned to the peaceful shelter of the cloister 
 she had abandoned. 
 
 For the next few years the life of Mademoiselle de 
 Bourbon was one continuous round of pleasure and 
 amusement. She was the idol of society. Madame de 
 Motteville writes that 'to see her was to love her,' and 
 ' her angel face ' is repeatedly mentioned in her letters. 
 
 In 1642 a marriage was arranged for her with the 
 Due de Longueville; a man of distinguished rank, much 
 older than herself, holding a high place at Court, who 
 did not attempt to disguise his indifference towards her 
 and his love for another. Thus from the very com- 
 mencement of her married life her position was one of 
 great peril. She possessed not only the extreme beauty 
 of her mother, but also great intellectual power, and a 
 fascination of manner which made her in her new home 
 at the Hotel de Longueville the centre of a crowd of 
 admirers ; but her heart remained untouched, save by her 
 devotion to her brother, the young Due d'Enghien (after- 
 wards the great Condd). 
 
 The deep affection which subsisted between them had 
 a strong hold upon both through life, and was not without 
 considerable influence at critical periods of their career. 
 
i6i2.i694.] ANTOINE ARNAULD. 135 
 
 But we approach the sad crisis of her fate. The dor- 
 mant power of loving was at length awakened within her. 
 
 Frangois, Prince de Marsillac (afterwards Due de la 
 Rochefoucauld 1), was the most heartless and selfish of 
 men. Without a particle of love for her, he deliberately 
 set himself to gain her love, that through her influence 
 he might obtain his own selfish ends. 
 
 Clever, handsome, plausible, he knew that to win her 
 heart there must be something to excite her admiration ; 
 he therefore ,played the part of the most chivalrous and 
 disinterested of men. He flattered, amused, animated, and 
 governed her.^ She became completely under his sway. 
 
 In 1649 the dissensions of the Fronde broke out. Hos- 
 tility to Mazarin was the ostensible cause. The nobles 
 were jealous of his power and discontented, and the 
 people had their own grievances. Among the discon- 
 tented was La Rochefoucauld. His vanity and ambi- 
 tion had been wounded. The Queen had slighted him; 
 Mazarin had refused him the title he coveted, and the 
 tabouret at Court had been denied to his wife. To 
 averige himself for these trivial affronts, La Rochefoucauld 
 joined the Fronde, and led Madame de Longueville into 
 rebellion. 
 
 Infatuated by this false-hearted man, she sacrificed for 
 him her position, her reputation, even her loyalty, and she 
 became the leading spirit of the insurrection. The life 
 of the Duchesse de Longueville was henceforth one of 
 wild adventure and peril, which she faced with a courage 
 worthy of the sister of the great Condd. 
 
 Having been the idol of the Court, she was now the idol 
 of the mob, the heroine of the Fronde. Her younger 
 
 ' 1 Author of the 'Maxims.' 
 2 < Etudes sur les Femraes lUustres du I7ieme Si6cle ' (Victor-Cousin). 
 
136 FRENCH ^ANSENISTS. [i6i=-i694. 
 
 brother, the Prince de Conti, had cast in his lot with the 
 insurgents, and through her influence her eldest brother, 
 the hero of Rocroy, was also withdrawn from his alle- 
 giance and induced to join the rebellion. She exercised a 
 vast power in public affairs during this period of intense 
 political strife and agitation. At one time flushed by 
 success, she even held in check the power of the king; 
 at another, she was a fugitive escaping from the royal 
 forces and perilling her life in the attempt. Cruel sorrow 
 and disappointment followed. The man for whom she had 
 sacrificed all had the baseness to make his own peace with 
 the Court ; he obtained what he desired, and he deserted 
 and then maligned the woman he had led astray. 
 
 Wounded to the quick, Madame de I.ongueville longed 
 to retire from the world in which she had played so 
 great a part and suffered so cruel a wrong, hoping to 
 quiet her troubled conscience by a life of penance and 
 devotion. 
 
 She recalled with vain regret her peaceful haippy life 
 at the Carmelite convent. Six-and-twenty years had 
 passed since then, but the gentle voice of the Prioress still 
 sounded in her ear, and she remembered sadly her own 
 haughty reply to her kind words of warning, ' My virtue is 
 safe ; it is self-sustained. ' ^ Her virtue had not then been 
 tried. She little knew her frailty. 
 
 The faithful friend of Madame de Longueville in these 
 days of sorrow and penitence was Mademoiselle de Vertus. 
 She has been described by Racine as "^the visible angel 
 of whom God made use to aid this princess to find the 
 narrow way of salvation.' It was she who urged Madame 
 de Longueville, penitent but lacking peace, to consult 
 M. Singlin, the director at Port-Royal-de-Paris. She had 
 
 1 See ' M^moires Historiques,' torn. ii. p. 172. 
 
1612-1694.I ANTOINE ARNAULD. 137 
 
 no leaning towards the Jansenists, but she needed spiritual 
 advice, and she consented to see him. 
 
 Like other Port-Royalists, M. Singlin was then in hiding, 
 and was introduced in disguise to her hotel. To him she 
 made a full confession of her past life. Unlike other 
 spiritual directors, he did not urge upon her the neces- 
 sity of strict austerity ; he imposed no extraordinary 
 acts of penance. It was not in the seclusion of a con- 
 vent, he said, that she was to give proof of her repent- 
 ance, but in the strict and hearty fulfilment of the plain 
 duties of her station — the duties of a wife and mother, 
 hitherto neglected. He did not attempt to palliate her 
 conduct in the wars of the Fronde. He showed her 
 the misery which civil war had brought on the French 
 peasantry, and said that it was especially incumbent 
 upon her to relieve to the utmost of her ability their 
 miserable condition. She obeyed in all points. Through 
 the medium of Mademoiselle de Vertus a reconciliation 
 took place with her husband. The Due de Longueville 
 received her back without reproach ; by her kindness and 
 attention she soothed the remainder of his life, and by freely 
 giving of her wealth she endeavoured to repair to the utter- 
 most the distress which she had brought upon her people. 
 
 On the death of M. Singlin, M. de Saci became her 
 spiritual director, and all the influence and energy which 
 Madame de Longueville had once devoted to the Fronde 
 was given to the support and protection of Port-Royal. 
 
 ' She had at length found peace herself, and the one 
 great object of her life from henceforth was to restore 
 peace to the Galilean Church. For five years her hotel 
 in Paris was a secret refuge for the leaders of the Jan- 
 senist party. The police were prohibited from searching 
 the hotel of a princess of the royal house, and Arnauld 
 
138 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1612-.694- 
 
 and Nicole were often secreted within its walls. To Pope 
 Clement IX. she addressed a letter full of the most 
 persuasive eloquence in behalf of the persecuted Port- 
 Royalists. The Papal Nuncio was won over by her 
 appeals, and all who were willing to aid in the arduous 
 task of reconciliation were invited to the conferences 
 held at the Hotel de Longueville. For eighteen months 
 she laboured incessantly with Arnauld and Nicole and 
 the four brave Gallican Bishops to arrive at some point of 
 agreement. All the inimitable skill and address, all the 
 powers of fascination of which she was the mistress, were 
 brought into requisition to overcome the difificulties which 
 arose. The pride of Louis, the secrecy to be maintained 
 owing to the ill-will of the king's Jesuit confessor, the 
 combativeness of Arnauld, presented obstacles which only 
 her marvellous tact and patience could have surmounted. 
 
 At length an agreement was drawn up. By this no 
 formal retractation was exacted from the four prelates, but 
 simply a promise of respect and obedience to the Pope, 
 and a pledge that they would desist from further contest. 
 They might make the distinction between the 'droit' 
 and the 'faii' by word of mouth on signing the formu- 
 lary, and record it in the archives of their respective 
 dioceses ; thus their fidelity to the rights of the Gallican 
 Church would be attested, whilst the dignity of the Holy 
 See would be maintained. 
 
 With these concessions the Sovereign Pontiif professed 
 himself satisfied, and in 1668-69 peace was restored to the 
 Church. 
 
 The Jesuits, or ' Molinists,' 1 as they were called, who 
 
 1 From Luis Molina, a Spanish Jesuit, died 1600. His work on ' Agree- 
 ment of Grace and Free- Will ' occasioned fierce disputes between the Jesuits 
 and other Orders. 
 
1612.1694] ANTOINB ARNAULD. 139 
 
 had not been consulted, bitterly resented the proceedings, 
 and declared to the Papal Nuncio that 'in the weakness 
 of one quarter of an hour he had ruined the work of 
 twenty years.' The angry murmurs of Pfere Annat were 
 unheeded by the king, who was now more occupied with 
 his pleasures than with controversies. 'If the Pope is 
 satisfied, every one else ought to be,' was his cold reply 
 to the remonstrances of his confessor. As a consequence 
 of the peace of the Church, MM. de Saci and Fontaine 
 were liberated from the Bastille. Arnauld was presented 
 by M. Gondrin, Archbishop of Sens, to the Nuncio, who 
 received him with marked distinction, saying 'that the 
 golden pen of M. Arnauld could not be better employed 
 than in defence of the Church.' The Bishop of Meaux 
 (M. de Ligny) conducted him a few days afterwards to 
 the Archbishop of Paris, and M. de P^rdfixe did not hesitate 
 to bestow on him his benediction. The news of Arnauld's 
 introduction to the Papal Nuncio having reached the ear 
 of the king, who was at Chambord, he expressed a desire 
 also to see the man of whom he had heard so much ; 
 and on his return to Paris, Arnauld was accordingly 
 admitted to his presence. He met with a gracious recep- 
 tion, and the whole Court sought to do honour to the 
 distinguished man who had been 'invisible so many years.' 
 Monsieur, the king's brother, even advanced towards him, 
 contrary to the stiff rules of etiquette, saying, ' One may 
 well take some steps to meet so rare a man.' 
 
 The nuns of Port-Royal-des-Champs were expressly in- 
 cluded in the terms of pacification (October 1668), and 
 after the interview with Arnauld the king had a conversa- 
 tion with the Papal Nuncio, and told Archbishop Pdrdfixe 
 that it would not do for him to make greater difficulties 
 than the Pope, and he must therefore arrange matters at 
 
I40 FRENCH jfANSENISTS. [1612-1694. 
 
 once with the community at Port- Royal. This was enough 
 for M. Per^fixe, who was a mere tool in the hands of the 
 king, and he immediately modified his terms in order to 
 satisfy the scruples of the nuns. But it required all the 
 arguments and persuasions of Arnauld and Nicole to 
 induce these steadfast women to sign a declaration similar 
 to that already made by the four Bishops. It has been 
 truly said that 'these poor nuns, whose theology was of 
 the heart, were more clear-sighted on this occasion than 
 all the doctors of theology.' They still doubted and 
 protested. It was not till February 1669 that the nuns 
 of Port-Royal-des-Champs finally signed the document in 
 the presence of the Bishop of Meaux. 
 
 The effect was immediate and ^startling. On the i8th 
 of the month the interdict was removed; the doors of 
 the church were thrown open ; lights gleamed again 
 from the altar. The bells, long hushed, rang out a 
 welcome call, and the peasants, hearing the glad sound, 
 crowded into the re-opened church, where the nuns were 
 singing joyfully 'Te Deum Laudamus.' Ten days later, 
 on the first Sunday in March, a solemn mass was cele- 
 brated ; the nuns filled the stalls ; Arnauld was at the 
 altar, and was about to recite the prayer of consecration, 
 when a little procession entered the church chanting the 
 solemn words ' Omnes qui de uno pane et de uno calice 
 participamus.' 
 
 It was' the good priest of Magny (a neighbouring 
 village) who headed the procession. Throughout the per- 
 secution he had offered up daily prayers in his church 
 for the imprisoned Sisters, and he had now brought his 
 flock to rejoice with those who were rejoicing, and to 
 unite with them in praise and thanksgiving. 
 
 Once more the monastery was permitted to receive 
 
1612-1694.] ANTOINB ARNAULD. 141 
 
 boarders, and the number of novices increased daily. 
 The recluses came back to Les Granges, and new peni- 
 tents were added to their number. Port-Royal-de-Paris 
 had been severed from Port-Royal-des-Champs by a royal 
 decree shortly after M^re Agnes and her nuns were thrust 
 forth and imprisoned, and the two Abbeys remained hence- 
 forth distinct and separate. 
 
 The Duchesse de Longueville, whose influence had 
 become great with Louis XIV., obtained permission to 
 build a house close to the monastery of Port-Royal- 
 des-Champs, where she often resided, and her presence 
 afforded additional protection to the community. 
 
 Here she was joined by her friend Mademoiselle de 
 Vertus, who lived in an adjoining house. It was she 
 who had to break to Madame de Longueville the sad 
 death of her son in 1672, mortally wounded at the 
 passage of the Rhine.^ All the poor mother's affections 
 were centred in him, and after his death she retired 
 altogether from the world, and lived either at Port-Royal- 
 
 ' The death of this son was the keenest sorrow of her sorrowful life. 
 Her eldest son, deformed and weak in intellect, had withdrawn from the 
 world and entered the Church, and all Madame de Longueville's hopes 
 and affections were now centred in her second son, the young Due de 
 Longueville. He had been wild and dissipated and spoilt by the world ; 
 ^but he was brave, and handsome, and accomplished, and, in spite of all 
 the anxiety he had caused her, he was the pride of her life. In 1672 he 
 had been chosen King of Poland, and was fighting on the Rhine under 
 his uncle, the Prince de Cond^, at the time of his election. 
 
 The Polish envoys arrived at the head - quarters of the French army 
 with the formal tender of the crown. Admitted to the Prince's tent, they 
 found the wounded Cond^ weeping beside the dead body of their king. 
 He had met a soldier's death at the glorious but fatal passage of the Rhine. 
 
 The unhappy Duchesse, alarmed at the unexpected visit of Mademoiselle 
 de Vertus, who had been summoned from Port-Royal to break the news, 
 asked at once for intelligence from the war. ' How is my brother ? ' she 
 said, ' Madame, there has been a battle ; the Prince de Cond^ has been 
 wounded.' 'And my son?' There was no answer. ' Has he died on the 
 field of battle ? ' ' Madame, I have no words to answer you ! ' { ' Lettres 
 de Madame de Sdvign^,' io5.) 
 
142 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [,612-1694. 
 
 des-Champs or at the Carmelite convent in the Rue Saint- 
 Jacques, where she died in 1679. 
 
 The peace of the Church for which she had laboured 
 lasted till her death. During these ten years the Port- 
 Royalists were unmolested, but harmony was not altogether 
 unbroken, the dispute of the rtgale having commenced 
 in 1673.1 This was the right claimed by the king to 
 receive the revenues of all vacant bishoprics in his king- 
 dom, and appoint whom he pleased to the dependent pre- 
 ferments in these bishoprics. Pavilion, Bishop of Aleth, 
 and Caulet, Bishop of Pamiers, both of the Jansenist 
 party, opposed the regale. The two Bishops appealed 
 to the new Pope, Innocent XI. (Odescalchi), who took 
 up warmly the cause of the prelates, admonishing the 
 king to refrain from touching the property of the Church. 
 The contest lasted throughout the reign of Innocent XI.^ 
 
 Mfere Agnes (Arnauld) did not long survive the pro- 
 clamation of peace. On its second anniversary she lay 
 on her death-bed, and received the last sacraments whilst 
 a solemn commemorative thanksgiving was being held in 
 the church. She died at the age of seventy-seven. 
 
 Of the numerous children born to the Procureur 
 Gdndral, there were now but three left — Arnauld d'Andilly,^ 
 Henri Arnauld (Bishop of Angers), and Antoine, the 
 subject of this sketch, who continued during the life of 
 Madame de Longueville to be the centre of the circle 
 which met at her hotel in Paris. Arnauld and Nicole 
 pursued with vigour their polemical writings, but it was 
 
 1 The right known as the rigale did not extend to all the provinces of 
 France. Languedoc, Guienne, Provence, and Dauphin^ were excluded. 
 The bishoprics of Aleth and Pamiers were both in Languedoc, and the 
 two Bishops resolved to defend their rights. 
 
 2 Innocent XI. began his reign 1676, died 1689. 
 
 3 Arnauld d'Andilly died in 1674. 
 
i6i2-i694.] ANTOINE ARNAULD. 143 
 
 against Calvinism that their attacks were now chiefly 
 directed. The death of Madame de Longueville (1679) 
 was the signal for the renewed persecution of the Port- 
 Royalists. 
 
 Notwithstanding the gracious reception accorded to 
 Arnauld by the king, the old prejudice against Port- 
 Royal and all connected with it remained unabated. 
 At this time he suspected Arnauld of having used his 
 pen in the service of the two Bishops when they appealed 
 to Rome on the subject of the regale.^ It was an un- 
 founded suspicion, but it rankled in the mind of Louis; 
 and M. de Pomponne and his sister, Angdlique de Saint- 
 Jean, vainly urged their uncle publicly to clear himself 
 from this imputation. 
 
 The Jesuits, who had been shut out from all part in 
 the negotiations for peace, only waited their opportunity 
 for annulling the hated compact made through the 
 influence of Madame de Longueville. The king dis- 
 approved of the great number of visits paid to Arnauld 
 at his hotel in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. These were 
 represented as dangerous, and three weeks after the death 
 of their protectress, Arnauld was informed by M. de 
 Pomponne that no more gatherings would be permitted 
 at his hotel, which was regarded by the king as a harbour 
 for all malcontents. 
 
 Advised to quit Paris, Arnauld withdrew at first to 
 a friend's house at Fontenay-aux-Roses. Whilst there 
 he was secretly warned that there were plots against 
 his liberty, and he determined to leave France (1681). 
 For a moment he thought of going to Rome, where, 
 under Innocent XL, he was sure of a safe and honour- 
 able retreat, and where it was even said a cardinal's hat 
 
 1 Nicole, not Arnauld, had been employed in drawing up this appeal. 
 
144 FRENCH JANSENISTS. (1612-1694. 
 
 awaited him. But the conflict between France and Rome 
 on the subject of the regale, deterred him from this 
 course, and he decided to retire to Mons in the Spanish 
 Netherlands. The only person to whom he confided 
 his intention was his niece, Angdlique de Saint-Jean, 
 who was now Abbess of Port-Royal-des-Champs. 
 
 Arnauld was in his sixty-eighth year when he with- 
 drew from France. Nicole, always timorous, had already 
 taken flight, and made his way to Brussels, where he 
 was afterwards joined by Arnauld. But Nicole soon 
 deserted his old friend, and entered into correspondence 
 with the Archbishop of Paris, promising him complete 
 subservience if only he might, be permitted to return to 
 France. 
 
 Arnauld in his letters never upbraids Nicole for his 
 desertion, but when Nicole tried to dissuade him from a 
 life of voluntary exile, as too great a sacrifice for one of 
 his years, Arnauld repUed, 'You say that it is a hard 
 thing for a man of my age to be reduced to the life of a 
 fugitive. On the contrary, the near approach of liberty 
 makes the old man strong.' Arnauld kept to his pur- 
 pose, and remained till his death — fifteen years afterwards 
 — an exile from his friends and his country. 
 
 M. de Perdfixe had died in January 1671, when M. de 
 Harlay became Archbishop of Paris. Unlike his pre- 
 decessor, he was a man of talent, dignified in appearance 
 and courtly in manner, but utterly devoid of all prin- 
 ciple; his sole object was to ingratiate himself with the 
 king. It was not until 1679, after the death of Madame 
 de Longueville, that Port-Royal was again assailed. On 
 17 th May of that year Archbishop Harlay paid his first 
 visit to the monastery. 
 
 High mass had commenced when he arrived. M. 
 
i6i2-i694] ANTOINE ARNAULD. 145 
 
 de Saci received him, and the wily Archbishop took this 
 opportunity to break to him the object of his coming, 
 and begged him to prepare the Abbess for the reception 
 of the king's commands, being persuaded, he said, that 
 ' disagreeable things were softened if learnt from the lips 
 of a friend.' ^ 
 
 The bland manner of the Archbishop, and the profuse 
 compliments with which he larded his speech, overwhelmed 
 M. de Saci, whose simple truthfulness of character made 
 him shrink from all flattery. 
 
 His urbanity and courtly politeness were thrown away 
 upon the Abbess. Angdique de Saint-Jean felt instinc- 
 tively that his visit boded no good to her community. 
 She saw through his artifices. She distrusted his expres- 
 sions of sympathy; and it was scarcely a surprise to her 
 when, after lavish praise of all he saw, he proceeded to 
 inform her in honeyed accents that it was the king's 
 pleasure, alas ! to reduce the number of the nuns to fifty, 
 and to interdict the admission of any fresh novices ; the 
 boarders also nmst be withdrawn forthwith. Angdlique 
 remonstrated in vain. She pointed out the extreme incon- 
 sistency of administering praise and penalty at the same 
 time, but all she could get in reply was, ' Alas ! such was 
 his Majesty's good pleasure.' When further pressed by 
 the Abbess as to the cause of the penalties inflicted on the 
 Port-Royalists, M. de Harlay at last admitted the truth. 
 ' Do you not see it all clearly ? ' he exclaimed. ' All the world 
 speaks of Port-Royal, of "ces Messieurs de Port-Royal.'' 
 The king does not like so much noise to be made. He 
 has told M. Arnauld that he disapproved of the meetings 
 
 1 Racine was at Poit-Royal-des-Champs when M. de Harlay arrrived ; 
 he had come to visit his aunt, who was one of the nuns, and the Arch- 
 bishop perceiving him, entered into conversation with the poet, as his 
 brother Academician, whilst M. de Saci went to inform the Mfere Ang^lique. 
 
 K 
 
146 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [16.2-1694. 
 
 at his house ; he might see as many indifferent persons as 
 he pleased, but why is there always a certain set to be 
 found there, and what is the close bond which exists 
 between them ? If M. Arnauld writes any work, why must 
 he always consult with these gentlemen? The king will 
 not allow any cabals ; a body without a head is always 
 dangerous in a state. The king will put an end to all 
 this, and will not suffer the names of " ces Messieurs de 
 Port-Royal" to be always brought forward.' 
 
 And then, with more courtly complimentary phrases 
 and profound expressions of respect, the Archbishop took 
 his leave. He was accompanied to his carriage by M. de 
 Saci, and as he placed his foot on the step, he suddenly 
 turned round and announced to his conductor with a 
 pleasant voice, but in plain terms, that he and all the 
 other priests connected with Port-Royal were to retire 
 within a fortnight by the king's order. The crime of Port- 
 Royal in the eyes of His Most Christian Majesty was its 
 too great importance. For this it was doomed to decay 
 and extinction ; but not till another quarter of a century 
 did the end come. 
 
 As to Arnauld, he was driven from one place of refuge 
 to another by the unrelenting hostility of the Jesuits. He 
 refused to go to Rome, where he would have had the 
 protection of Innocent XI. He preferred to suffer the 
 penalty of banishment rather than appear disloyal to his 
 sovereign. From Mons he wrote to the Chancellor Le 
 Tellier giving the reasons for his flight. 'As he had not 
 the means,' he said, 'of pleading his cause before the king, 
 he felt that in quitting France he had done all in his power 
 to remove the grounds of offence and put an end to the 
 calumnies against him. 
 
 'The trials which awaited him were no doubt great. 
 
i6i2-i694.] ANTOINB ARNAULD. 147 
 
 The loss of the society of friends was hard to bear; 
 dui God takes the place of all, to those who sacrifice all 
 for Him. . . . The ills of this world alarm when viewed 
 from a distance, but one accommodates oneself to them 
 when they arrive ; God's grace making all supportable. . . . 
 He was ready to follow whithersoever it pleased God to 
 lead him, and though he walked through the valley of 
 the shadow of death, he would not fear whilst God held 
 him by the hand, and in this hope he rested.' 
 
 These were not mere words with Arnauld ; they were the 
 rule of his life. 
 
 After six months' sojourn at Mons, Arnauld was forced 
 to seek shelter elsewhere. He retired successively to 
 Tournay, Courtrai, and Ghent. 
 
 At whatever house he rested he led a monastic life ; 
 prayer and study divided his time. He visited likewise 
 the quaint old town of Delft, and here we find him in 
 fellowship with Bishop Neercassel and the Flemish fol- 
 lowers of Jansenius.i 
 
 The first work of Arnauld during his exile was in 
 defence of M. de Saci's translation of the New Testa- 
 ment from the Vulgate into French. The right of the 
 laity to read the Scriptures in the vernacular had always 
 been maintained by the Jansenists. Arnauld, Nicole, and 
 Pascal had assisted M. de Saci in this translation, 'that 
 the poor and ignorant might draw nourishment and instruc- 
 tion for themselves in its pages.' 
 
 After many wanderings in Holland and elsewhere, 
 Arnauld finally made Brussels his place of refuge. 
 
 Even in exile he was still a living power in the Church, 
 bravely defending to the end the faith he had held in his 
 youth. On all the great questions of the day Arnauld wrote 
 1 See Dr. Neale's ' Jansenist Church in Holland.' 
 
148 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1612.1694. 
 
 freely, and with his accustomed vigour and intrepidity, 
 reckless of consequences to himself 
 
 His natural independence of character led him to follow 
 out his own opinions, and often these were not in unison 
 with the opinions of his friends. 
 
 There seems, in truth, a want of consistency, and even 
 of right feeling, in the conduct of Arnauld on some 
 points. On the question of the rega/e he sided with 
 Rome, and against Rome on the rights of the Gallican 
 Church. He was living in Holland under the protection 
 of a Protestant state, and yet he wrote vehement attacks 
 on the religion of the people whose hospitality he was 
 enjoying. He was himself an exile, and felt keenly the 
 pang of separation from his country and his friends, and 
 yet he defended the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 
 (1685), a measure which consigned many thousands of 
 his fellow-countrymen to banishment and to penury. One 
 can but imagine that the constant irritation caused by 
 the sneers of the Jesuits, who spoke of the confessors 
 of Port- Royal as 'des Calvinistes qui disent la messe,' 
 had produced in Arnauld a bitter feeling towards the 
 Protestant party, and a desire to place a wild gulph 
 between that party %nd himself It has been well said 
 that in his controversy with the Protestants 'he was 
 more Catholic and Royalist than Christian.^ 
 
 His recklessness as to consequences amounted to auda- 
 city. He defended the cause of James II., dethroned 
 by William of Orange, and wrote in the most violent 
 and opprobrious terms about the Prince, although Holland 
 had so often afforded him refuge, and at any moment 
 he might again be forced to fly there for safety. 
 
 Arnauld was a most voluminous writer; his writings 
 ^ Sainte-Beuve. 
 
1612-1694.] ANTOINB ARNAULD. 149 
 
 fill more than forty-two volumes, and by the side of 
 polemical works which once created an uproar in the 
 theological world, are elementary grammars and other 
 educational books for the use of children in the Port- 
 Royal schools. 
 
 Arnauld was not wholly without companions in his exile. 
 When the Archbishop of Paris undertook to purge the 
 Congregation of the Oratory from Jansenism, two of the 
 Fathers, Quesnel and Du Guet, joined him at Brussels. 
 In 1682 the seizure of his writings sorely distressed 
 Arnauld, accompanied as it was by the arrest of those 
 to whom they had been consigned for transmission. Some 
 of these persons were imprisoned in the Bastille; others 
 sent to the galleys. Among the number was M. du 
 Breuil, who had been one of the most distinguished men 
 in the Congregation of the Oratory, and who, but for 
 the intrigues of the Archbishop, would have been general 
 of the Oratorians. He was in his seventieth year when 
 he was imprisoned, and died in captivity at the age of 
 eighty-four. M. de St. Marthe, Tillemont, and others of 
 the Jansenist leaders occasionally visited Arnauld both at 
 Delft and Brussels. 
 
 He had returned to this latter place in 1682, feeling 
 that he was no longer safe in Delft. But his enemies 
 were always on the alert, and M. de Harlay had offered 
 a reward for his apprehension, so that he had again 
 to take refuge for a time in Holland, accompanied by 
 Quesnel. On his return to Brussels for the last time in 
 1690, he lived hidden in an obscure lodging; the room 
 which he occupied was small, and reached by a steep 
 narrow staircase. Here 'the illustrious old man' spent 
 the last years of his life. When as a fugitive, ' persecuted 
 but not forsaken, ' he first entered this dreary lodging, he 
 
I50 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1612-1694. 
 
 found in it one single ornament, a print of the flight into 
 Egypt of the Infant Saviour. It was a consolation to him, 
 and the thought of fh's fellowship in exile strengthened 
 him. Every night after prayers he sprinkled holy water 
 on those two or three friends who had secretly met together, 
 and then gave the benediction.^ 
 
 He never moved out, except for a turn in his little 
 walled garden, over which an awning was spread to hide 
 the old man from the gaze of curious neighbours. So 
 his few remaining years were spent, as he had passed 
 the greater part of his life, ' without sunshine.' But the 
 sort of half-mystery in which his days were enveloped 
 was not without its secret charm for him. Had not 
 the first confessors of the faith been wanderers like him- 
 self, hiding in dens and caves of the earth? Every 
 day he rose at five, and said mass in his little chapel. 
 Gradually his sight became dim, and fearing he should 
 not long be able to read the daily psalms, he learnt 
 the psalter by heart as a precaution. 
 
 To the end he was every hour in jeopardy — ever 
 in danger of arrest; but 'the complete liberty,' the near 
 approach of which, he said, ' made the old man strong,' 
 came at last, and he died after a few days' illness in 
 1694, at the age of eighty-two. A few days before his 
 death, he spoke with tender regret of being an exile 
 from his country, and said sorrowfully to those around 
 him, 'I must die in this land.' Quesnel was with him, 
 and relates that before daybreak on the 8th of August 
 a sigh told that the old man slept in the Lord. ' Home- 
 less, poor, proscribed, persecuted,' his death nevertheless 
 resounded throughout Catholic Europe. 'He was the 
 champion of the faith, the Christian hero of the age, 
 
 1 ' Les Premiers Jansenistes ' (Monseigneur Ricard). 
 
1612-1694.I ANTOINE ARNAULD. 151 
 
 and men felt that they had lost in Arnauld a defender 
 and a teacher revered and beloved as few men are.' 
 
 ' /"(W/- mot, mon Men est de rester attacM d Dieu.' This 
 was written on the first page of his breviary. It was the 
 keynote of his life. 
 
 Thus in perfect peace, after fifty years of continual 
 strife and persecution, Antoine Arnauld passed away, 
 and the man who might, had he so willed, have been 
 buried as a cardinal, with all the pomp of a princely 
 funeral, was secretly interred before the altar steps of 
 the Church of St. Catherine at Brussels, and for years 
 the burial-place of Antoine Arnauld was concealed for 
 fear of desecration by the hand of his enemies. The 
 building is now disused and dishonoured. A new church 
 has been built near at hand. The old one in which 
 the great Arnauld was laid to rest is filled with stage 
 lumber, and it was among the side scenes of a theatre 
 that the writer made her way to a spot whence the slab 
 bearing his name could be seen. 
 
152 FRENCH 3^ANSENISTS. [1613-1684. 
 
 LOUIS-ISAAC LB MAITRE DE SACI. 
 
 i 
 
 B. 1613. D. 1684. 
 
 'The soul that is really humble shrinks within itself 
 when it hears its own praise, remembering the words of 
 the Apostle, "Let him that glorifieth glory only in the 
 Lord," It says at once, " Not unto us, but unto Thy name 
 be the glory, O Lord." ' 
 
 'All is barren in us without Him who was raised on 
 the tree of the cross. It is through Him alone that we 
 bear fruit.' 
 
 'As nourishment without exercise is prejudicial to the 
 health of the body, so spiritual food without good works 
 is perilous to the soul's health.' 
 
 'Spiritual sobriety is not of less importance than that 
 which is corporeal.' 
 
 ' One is apt to think that things are true when they are 
 eloquently expressed.' 
 
 ' It is always well to be very reserved in our judgments 
 both of the living and the dead; for if we shall have to 
 render an account of our idle words, we shall assuredly 
 have a still stricter account to render of our idle judg- 
 ments.' 
 
 ' The sacred writers have this peculiarity, that they pro- 
 
1613-1684.] LE MAtTRB DE SACI. i53 
 
 portion and accommodate themselves to the wants of 
 every one. A lamb may ford them without fear to qiiench 
 his thirst, and an elephant may swim there, and find no 
 bottom to their depth.' 
 
 ' The greatest action, and the most acceptable to God, is to entertain 
 low thoughts of ourselves.' — St. Chrysostom. 
 
 ' Give to every soul its proportionate food.' — St. Anselm. 
 
 De Saci was the son of Isaac Le Maitre and Catherine 
 Arnauld, the eldest sister of the great Arnauld and the 
 Mfere Ang^lique. The mind of the young Louis-Isaac 
 unfolded at an early age; even in childhood his piety 
 was remarkable. He was educated at the College of 
 Beauvais with Arnauld (his ' petit oncle '), who was about 
 the same age as his nephew. He was placed when very 
 young under the direction of the Abbd de Saint-Cyran 
 to be educated for the priesthood, and when the Abb6 
 was imprisoned at Vincennes, de Saci pursued his studies 
 under the eye of M. de Saint-Cyran's nephew, M. de 
 Barcos, and M. Guillebert, a devoted disciple of the 
 Abbd 
 
 The name of Sad, by which he is known, was adopted 
 to distinguish him from his eldest brother, Le Maitre, 
 Sad being simply a transposition of the letters of his 
 name Isac. He was living with the recluses at Les 
 Granges when their first dispersion took place, after which 
 he returned for a time to Paris. In 1643, when Arnauld 
 was forced to conceal himself owing to the outcry made 
 by the Jesuits against his book, ' La Frdquente Com- 
 munion,' his nephew de Saci became his companion and 
 assistant in his literary labours. He had thus become 
 well acquainted with the opinions of M. de Saint-Cyran, 
 
154 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1613-1684. 
 
 and thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Port-Royal. 
 The prudence and moderation of de Saci were in strik- 
 ing contrast to his uncle's impetuosity and combativeness, 
 as was shown in his revisal of Arnauld's controversial 
 works. For instance, on one occasion in writing against 
 some abuse, Arnauld had stigmatised it as ' intolerable.' 
 'Why not say deplorable V suggested de Saci. 'But is 
 it not an intolerable abuse ? ' persisted Arnauld. ' Still 
 why not rather put deplorable, and deal gently with the 
 erring, seeing we ourselves are compassed with infirmity ? ' 
 He was thought cold and shallow by some who knew 
 him but little, and could not fathom the depth of his 
 nature. 
 
 He believed with a faith which was immutable that 
 there was but one thing needful — the hidden life of the 
 soul with Christ; to be filled with the thought of God, 
 this was his ruling idea, the one aim of his being, and 
 this was the secret of his calm, grave, patient bearing 
 at all times. 
 
 His humility was so great that he hesitated taking upon 
 himself the dignity of the priesthood till he was thirty-five 
 years old, when, by the advice of M. Singlin, he was con- 
 secrated to this holy office, and became confessor at Port- 
 Royal-des-Champs. 
 
 The religious society established there (at Les Granges) 
 had now become, in the words of Professor Ranke, 'a 
 sort of literary academy,' as well as a retreat for the 
 exercise of a devout life. Here were collected young 
 ecclesiastics and men of great learning, members of various 
 religious orders and men of noble family, merchants and 
 physicians ; all these were gathered here, under the influ- 
 ence of some divine impulse, which prompted them to 
 renounce the world and lead a higher life. Bound together 
 
1613-1684.] LB MAITRE DE SACI. 155 
 
 by no vows, they met for religious exercises, they attended 
 regularly all the services of the Church, they prayed one 
 with another and in private. The education of children 
 and the pursuit of letters, joined to some kind of manual 
 labour, this was the daily life of the hermits of Port- 
 Royal. 
 
 They produced polemical and religious works, such as 
 ' Les Heures de Port-Royal,' a work which, after the lapse 
 of a century, was as much in request as on the first day 
 of its appearance. They gave to the world a translation of 
 the Scriptures into the vernacular. This was the society 
 to which De Saci was now appointed confessor. His 
 post was not without its difficulties, and one of those who 
 shrank from placing himself under his guidance was his 
 elder brother, M. Le Maitre. M. de Saci was much his 
 junior, and of a totally opposite character. The contrast 
 between the two in temperament was most striking. 
 Unlike his brother, Antoine Le Maitre was passionate 
 and impulsive; but Christian obedience triumphed, and 
 ere long the two were closely bound together in mutual 
 trust and appreciation. In his priestly office, M. de Saci 
 ministered in 1650 to his brother M. de Se'ricourt on his 
 death-bed, and soon after was called to perform the same 
 office for his mother. Madame Le Maitre had become a 
 nun at Port-Royal-des-Champs, so that her own son was 
 now her confessor. In the hour of death her one desire 
 was to have him with her. 'It was I,' she said, 'who 
 brought him into this world of trial, and I would be helped 
 by him to leave it and to enter into heaven.' Almost 
 with her last breath she thanked God for having given 
 her such a son. Seven years later he stood by the death- 
 bed of his brother Le Maitre, and administered to him 
 also the last sacraments. 
 
iS6 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1613-1684 
 
 The study of the Scriptures was made of the first import- 
 ance by M. de Saci in his direction of souls, to be followed 
 by meditation and earnest prayer. 
 
 In the midst of the controversies which were perpetually 
 springing up around him, he laboured for peace. One 
 instance of the contrary alone exists. This was on the 
 occasion of the publication of a scurrilous almanac against 
 Jansen.i Even de Saci's indignation was roused, and he 
 replied with a warmth hardly worthy of one usually so 
 meek and patient. 
 
 In the war of the Fronde, M. de Saci disapproved of 
 the warlike preparations made by the recluses for the 
 defence, of the monastery, and at last, in obedience to him, 
 when muskets were fired, they were without ball, so as 
 merely to intimidate any advancing foe. This was the 
 extent of self-defence which he deemed lawful for those 
 who should live not only to the glory of God, but in peace 
 and goodwill towards men. 
 
 He had a wonderful power of adapting himself to the 
 peculiar turn of mind of those who sought his counsel. 
 He always directed the conversation to the subjects most 
 likely to interest them. With M. de Champagne, the great 
 painter of the day, he would discourse on art; to M. 
 Hamon, the physician of Port-Royal, he would speak on 
 the gift of healing ; to Pascal on the study of philosophy. 
 All things were to him as a channel through which he 
 drew men insensibly onwards towards God. 
 
 In 1 66 1 M. de Saci with the other Port-Royalists pro- 
 scribed by the Court was forced to fly and hide himself. 
 He took refuge in Paris, going from one hiding-place to 
 another; he knew that he was surrounded by spies, that 
 at any moment he might be discovered and arrested; yet 
 
 ^ See Sketch of Arnauld, p. 112. 
 
1613-1684.] LE MAITRE DB SACI. 157 
 
 he never hesitated to obey the call where his ministrations 
 were required. 
 
 After the death of M. Singlin in 1664, the whole 
 weight of direction fell upon him ; but it was not till 
 two years later (1666), when on his way to Madame de 
 Longueville, that his arrest took place. He was sent 
 with M. Fontaine to the Bastille. 
 
 His great consolation and chief interest during his 
 imprisonment was the translation of the Old Testament 
 into French, which was completed the very day before 
 his release from the Bastille in 1668. The publication 
 of this great work with copious notes was henceforth 
 the absorbing occupation of his life, and is justly con- 
 sidered the special and perpetual monument of de Saci's 
 patience and erudition. The translation of the New 
 Testament was well-nigh completed before his imprison- 
 ment, and the preface was in his pocket when arrested. 
 
 It had been begun by his brother, M. le Maitre, who 
 at his death bequeathed to M. de Saci the completion 
 of his task. It is known as the Testament of Mons, 
 having been published there by the permission of the 
 king of Spain in 1667. 
 
 When M. de Saci undertook the rendering of the 
 Scriptures into the vernacular, there were several old and 
 imperfect French translations still extant, some of which 
 dated as far back as the end of the thirteenth century. 
 But all were considered as more or less untrustworthy. 
 Some had been censured by the Church as heterodox ; 
 among these were the Vaudois and the different Huguenot 
 versions, whilst the Roman CathoUc versions were so 
 antiquated in phraseology that they were difficult to 
 understand. These last translations had not been for- 
 mally interdicted by the Church, but they were in little 
 
158 FRENCH yANSENISTS. [.613-1684. 
 
 use, and the Port-Royalists, aware of their existence; 
 asserted that it was the duty and the right of all Christians 
 to have access to the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue. 
 A polemical battle was the result, and they had to fight 
 evefy inch of the way before permission was granted for 
 the publication of de Saci's Bible. The Jesuits denounced 
 it from their pulpits, and even the translation of the 
 Breviary and the Missal was opposed. 
 
 The right of the people to comprehend what was written 
 therein was not admitted by the adversaries of Port- 
 Royal.i The discretion and prudence of M. de Saci, 
 however, overcame the perils which menaced him, and 
 his beautiful translation was at length brought out, in 
 spite of much jealous and inimical criticism. During the 
 brief peace of the Church, Arnauld, having obtained the 
 consent of M. de Pdrdfixe, presented this Bible to Bossuet, 
 the great defender of the faith of the Gallican Church,^ 
 who was known to approve of the Scriptures being trans- 
 lated into the vernacular. With the consent of the 
 Archbishop, Bossuet met Arnauld, Nicole, and de Saci 
 in biblical conference at the Hotel de Longueville. The 
 ' Mons ' New Testament was there revised under the 
 auspices of Bossuet, who belonged to no especial party, 
 and although differing from the Port-RoyaUsts on the 
 dogmatic side, entirely agreed with them on the side of 
 Christian morality, which they had raised from the de- 
 gradation into which it had fallen through the lax teaching 
 of the Casuists of that day. He was therefore at this time 
 not unwilling to befriend them, and to acknowledge that 
 they had instituted a reform needed in the Church. Bossuet 
 
 1 M. de Saci likewise translated the ' Imitation.' 
 
 2 Bossuet was made Bishop of Condom in 1669, and Bishop of Meaux 
 in 1681. 
 
1613-1684.] LE MAITRE DE SACI. 159 
 
 admitted that he approved for the most part of de 
 Saci's translation; the notes he considered valuable and 
 'containing much pious nourishment;' he dwelt on the 
 over-refinement of the language, — 'Trop recherchd,' was 
 his verdict. 
 
 M. de Saci gratefully received any light which Bossuet 
 threw upon the text, but the death of M. de Pdrdfixe, 
 who had authorised the revision, and the appointment 
 of M. de Harlay to the archiepiscopate, put an end 
 to these conferences. M. de Saci [was therefore left to 
 his own resources. In 1672 the first portions of the 
 whole Bible appeared, and it has become the base of 
 many ^French translations, explanations, and paraphrases 
 up to the present time. 
 
 With the exception of Bossuet and Pascal, there was 
 no one so fitted as de Saci for the task. He did not, 
 however, know Hebrew, so that the Old Testament was 
 translated solely from the Vulgate, and in the words of 
 M. de Sainte-Beuve, ' How many souls have been brought 
 to God and nourished by this version of de Saci's, none 
 can tell ! ' 
 
 In 1679 de Saci was ordered to quit Port-Royal-des- 
 Champs by the Archbishop, M. de Harlay. He retired 
 to Pomponne for the rest of his life. The nuns of Port- 
 Royal-des-Champs, deprived of his ministrations, hailed 
 with joy his French Bible, as it |appeared volume by 
 volume, with the explanatory notes of their director, thus 
 giving them the instruction which |he was debarred from 
 delivering by word of mouth. 
 
 Ang^lique de Saint-Jean was then Abbess. In the 
 cloudy and dark days of Port-Royal she had ever been 
 calm, and in the midst of tumult and passion she would 
 say, 'There is a divine order in all that seems to us 
 
i6o FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1613-1684. 
 
 confusion and disorder, but one must wait till the whole 
 work is finished to see it in its full proportion and 
 beauty.' This life in all its length was to her but the 
 vigil of a great festival, and she always spoke of the 
 next world as though already on its threshold. 
 
 She was now fifty-nine years old, and on the eve of a 
 great sorrow, the deepest she had ever known. This was 
 the loss of her cousin M. de Saci, who had been the 
 beloved friend of her youth and age. In the autumn of 
 T683 he was removed from Pomponne to Paris for better 
 advice, and seemed to recover under the treatment of his 
 doctors. He returned to Pomponne and was received 
 as ' one given back to them from the dead ; ' but the 
 rejoicings quickly came to an end. On the 3rd January 
 1684, after saying mass in the private chapel, de Saci 
 sat with two or three friends discoursing on the life of 
 Ste. Genevifeve, this being the day dedicated to her re- 
 membrance, when suddenly he uttered a cry, and praying 
 them not to alarm his cousin Luzanci, had to be carried 
 from the room to his bed, and on the following day 
 breathed his last in his seventy-first year. To one who 
 had been with him in his previous illness he had said, 
 ' When I am ill I do' not ask God for patience to carry 
 me through the whole day, but in the morning I am 
 content to ask it for _the forenoon, at noon for the 
 afternoon, and at evening for the night.' He died as he 
 had lived, ' in patience possessing his soul.' 
 
 In his will he desired to be buried at Port-Royal-des- 
 Champs. No opposition was made to this, and his body 
 was removed from Pomponne. The funeral cortege 
 having to pass through Paris, the coffin remained for the 
 night in the Church of Saint-Jacques du Haut Pas, where 
 the body of M. de Saint-Cyran was buried. It had been 
 
1^13-684.] LE MAtTRE DE SACI. i6i 
 
 proposed to have a procession by torchlight to meet the 
 funeral and follow it to the church. The Duchesse de 
 Longueville and all the Jansenist ladies were to form part 
 of the procession, but prudence forbade this demonstration, 
 and in the early winter's morning, with the snow deep on 
 the ground, the coffin was carried without pomp to Port- 
 Royal-des-Champs, where it was met by the Abbess and all 
 her nuns. Angdlique's anguish of heart was extreme, but 
 she bore up bravely, and, with her usual calm-, saying that 
 ' tears and lamentations were unworthy of him who was 
 gone, and of the God in whom they put their trust.' But 
 the restraint was too much, and the grief which lay pent 
 up in her heart brought death. 
 
 She had prayed to be taken from this life, and after 
 three weeks she was borne to her grave, to be followed in 
 a few more days by her brother, M. de Luzanci.i He had 
 been for forty years the constant companion of De Saci, 
 and could not outlive 'the friend of a lifetime.' 
 
 They had together walked with God here, and in death 
 they were not divided. Tiie two friends were laid side by 
 side at Port-Royal-des-Champs. 
 
 Surely of these Port-RoyaUsts, as of the early Chris- 
 tians, it may be said, ' See how these Christians love one 
 another ? ' 
 
 1 The third son of M. Arnauld d'Andilly. 
 
1 62 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [16=5-1695. 
 
 PIERRE NICOLE. 
 
 B. 1625. D. 1695. 
 
 ' There are some who are sore everywhere.' 
 
 'The mind is formed more by intercourse with others 
 than by anything else. What one reads one forgets ; it 
 is only when one has said a thing that one really knows it.' 
 
 ' Is not the charity of this world so covered with ashes 
 that if it still lives within, it gives out no sort of heat ? ' 
 
 ' Visits, for the most part, are nothing more than devices 
 for casting upon others the burden of oneself, which one 
 cannot endure.' 
 
 ' That is a bad discourse of which we retain nothing.' 
 
 ' The love of God is the principle of true conversion.' 
 
 'Prayer consists not in words, but in the desire; and 
 indeed, according to St. Augustine, prayer is nothing else 
 than an holy desire. He who desires ever prays, and he 
 who never desires never prays.' 
 
 'Men resemble birds, which are in the air, but which 
 cannot balance themselves without movement, and scarcely 
 then in the same spot, because they have no solid sup- 
 port, and have not sufficient force and vigour in themselves 
 
1625-1695.] PIERRE NICOLE. 163 
 
 to resist the force which draws them downwards. ... It 
 must be by continually bestirring ourselves, and by fre- 
 quently renewed efforts and beatings of the air that we can 
 find for ourselves the support we need.' 
 
 'We sometimes fail to profit by a truth because it is 
 badly expressed.' 
 
 'There are people who only graze the surface and go 
 no deeper than flies in their walk. Others, on the contrary, 
 leave traces where they have been, and store what they 
 have touched.' 
 
 'The ground that produces the most wine does not 
 always produce the best ; so there are far-reaching minds 
 which take in all within range of their object, but want 
 the penetration to discern what is within the object 
 itself.' 
 
 ' In default of great thoughts the human mind may 
 waste itself in the most trivial matters. We may drown 
 in a shallow rivulet, if we lack the strength to raise 
 ourselves.' 
 
 ' He who is over-timid of criticism is like a man who fears to travel 
 in the summer because of the flies.' — St. Francois de Sales. 
 
 Pierre Nicole, who is entitled the Christian moralist 
 and controversialist of Port-Royal, was born at Chartres. 
 He was the son of Jean Nicole, a clever parliamentary 
 lawyer, a man of great learning, and a classical scholar, 
 who rose to be a judge. His son Pierre was by nature 
 studious ; he was also gifted with an excellent memory 
 and great perseverance, and being a voracious reader, he 
 had at the age of fourteen read all the Greek and Latin 
 
1 64 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1625-1695- 
 
 authors in his father's library. He made such rapid pro- 
 gress in his studies, that in 1642, when seventeen years 
 old, he was sent by his father to learn philosophy and 
 theology at the University of Paris, where, after three 
 years, he took his degree of Master of Arts. During 
 this period he became known to the recluses of Port- 
 Royal, through his aunt, Marie Suireau, who was one 
 of AngdHque Arnauld's first novices, and who became 
 her successor as Abbess of Port-Royal-des-Champs. The 
 recluses were at once attracted by the gentleness of 
 Nicole's disposition and his great intelligence. In 1644 
 an arrangement was made that he should give a portion 
 of his time to teaching in the Tort-Royal school in the 
 Rue St. Dominique. This was of incalculable advantage 
 to Nicole, who in teaching others taught himself, and 
 acquired, among other benefits, an extraordinary facility 
 in Latin composition. In 1649 he became Bachelor 
 of Theology, but the contentions which arose soon after 
 in the Church on the subject of the five propositions 
 slackened his desire for Church preferment, and, more 
 prudent than ambitious, he determined to give up all 
 thought of the priesthood, all visions of doctorial dignity, 
 and content himself with the simple tonsure. 
 
 He was thus left free -to devote himself and his talent 
 to the service of his friends at Port-Royal, and retired 
 to Les Granges to share with Lancelot in the direction of 
 the Port-Royal schools. 
 
 In 1654 a close companionship with Arnauld com- 
 menced — a companionship of twenty-five years. Nicole 
 became his literary assistant in the defence of Jansenism. 
 During the trial of Arnauld, he aided him by furnishing 
 extracts from the mass of theological works which Arnauld 
 had to consult for his vindication before the Sorbonne. He 
 
1625-1695.1 PIERRE NICOLE. 165 
 
 also took an unacknowledged part in all the controversial 
 works of the Port-Royalists, and his researches assisted 
 Pascal in his ' Lettres Provinciales.' He translated these 
 celebrated letters into Latin, under the assumed name of 
 Wendrock, and thus made them widely known in Holland 
 and Germany. 
 
 It was Nicole's misfortune that he had never been 
 acquainted with M. de Saint-Cyran. He was but eighteen 
 years old when the great founder of French Jansenism died, 
 and he had therefore no personal experience of his char- 
 acter, nor of the spirit and power of his teaching. Nothing 
 could be more opposed to the time-serving, policy of 
 Nicole than the bold, uncompromising teaching of Saint- 
 Cyran, who was as fearless as Nicole was timid. 
 
 It was the latter, we are told, from whom emanated 
 the subtle distinction between the ^ droit' and the 'fait,' 
 in the first of the Provincial Letters — an unworthy evasion, 
 which Saint-Cyran would never have countenanced, which 
 tended to lower the prestige of Port-Royal, and was re- 
 nounced in his latter days by Pascal himself and many of 
 the older Port-Royalists, who regarded Nicole as the evil 
 genius of Arnauld. 
 
 After Arnauld's condemnation, Nicole was his faithful 
 companion in concealment for nearly twelve years, and 
 when the 'Peace of the Church' was proclaimed in 1668, 
 to no one was it more profoundly welcome than to the 
 weary Nicole, essentially a man of peace, and a Jansenist 
 controversiahst somewhat against his will. During these 
 years of concealment Nicole brought out a short sketch 
 of the great work which afterwards appeared, entitled, 
 ' La Perpdtuite de la Foi Catholique touchant I'Eucharistie' 
 {1664). The Jesuits had always stigmatised the Jansenists 
 as Calvinists in disguise, and one cannot but observe 
 
1 66 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1625-1695. 
 
 how the Jansenists, on their part, lost no opportunity of 
 declaiming against Calvinism, as if to raise up a rampart 
 in their own defence from the charges brought against 
 them. MM. de Saint-Cyran, Le Maltre, Arnauld, had each 
 of them written vehemently against the errors of the 
 Calvinists, and Nicole now followed in the same track. 
 
 Nicole's sketch had fallen into the hands of Claude, 
 the great Huguenot preacher of the day,i who answered 
 it, showing that 'in uncorrupt antiquity' the Church had 
 not held the doctrine as now professed by the Church 
 of Rome. The larger work of Nicole was not completed 
 till some years later (1669), when it was published with 
 a dedication to Pope Clement IX. from the pen of 
 Arnauld, and with the approbation of twenty-seven arch- 
 bishops and bishops, and twenty doctors of the Sorbonne, 
 among whom was Bossuet. It appeared as 'a solemn 
 inauguration of peace ' between the two contending parties 
 — Jansenists and Jesuits ^ — the Calvinists alone being 
 attacked. 
 
 In this work Nicole starts from the eleventh century; 
 the preceding ages of the Church's history being -passed 
 over, and Claude brought this against Nicole as an evasion, 
 quoting texts from Scripture and passages from the Fathers 
 proving that Transubstantiation, as now taught by the 
 Romish Church, had not been from the first a dogma 
 of the Church, and defining the views held by the 
 Huguenots regarding the Eucharist. 
 
 Nicole's work, ' La Perp^tuite de la Foi touchant 
 
 1 Jean Claude was the head of the Reformed Church at Charenton. 
 He rendered great service to the Protestant cause until the revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes sent him into exile — the first Protestant who suffered 
 under the new decree. The Edict of Nantes giving full liberty to the 
 Protestant faith had been proclaimed by Henri IV. in 1598, and was revoked 
 by Louis XIV. in 1685. 
 
I62S-I69S.] PIERRE NICOLE. 167 
 
 I'Euchanstie,' was based upon the famous canon of the 
 Catholic faith, ^Believe what has been believed always, 
 everywhere, and by all.'^ ('Quod semper, quod ubique, 
 quod ab omnibus, creditum est.') Claude, however, proved 
 that the doctrine of Transubstantiation only became a 
 dogma in the eleventh century.^ 
 
 ' Show me,' said a contemporary of Nicole, ' that Tran- 
 substantiation was the belief of the first four centuries, 
 and I yield.' But this Nicole could not do, and he 
 contented himself with asserting that the condemnation of 
 Berengarius was a sufficient proof that the Church had 
 never varied in her belief in so important a doctrine.^ 
 
 It was whilst engaged in this war against the Calvinists 
 that Nicole wrote and published another work, looked 
 upon by Voltaire as a master-piec^, This was entitled 
 ' Moral Essays.' The chapter on preserving peace in society 
 was especially praised. Madame de Sdvigne speaks in 
 rapture of this work, once so famous ; but perhaps, as it 
 comprises fourteen volumes, it was always more praised 
 than read. 
 
 In 1667 Nicole unfortunately renewed the conflict 
 with the Jesuits and imperilled the peace of the Church 
 by secretly composing, at the suggestion of Madame de 
 Longueville a Latin letter for transmission to the new 
 
 1 St. Vincent Lerins. 
 
 2 See ' Mediaeval Church History ' (Trench). 
 
 ^ In the eleventh century Berengarius of Tours, Archdeacon of Angers, 
 made a protest against ' the carnal error ' of Transubstantiation, which was 
 said to be gaining ground in the Church. It was a revival of the old 
 controversy in the ninth century, when the doctrine of the real presence 
 was first propounded by Paschasius Radbert, Abbot of Corby, and de- 
 nounced by Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mentz, as ' novel and erro- 
 neous.' Berengarius was opposed by Lanfranc, Prior of Bee (afterwards 
 Archbishop of Canterbury), and condemned by Leo IX. in a council at 
 Rome. Later on he was again condemned by Hildebrand (1078). Through 
 fear of death he recanted, but he had no sooner crossed the Alps than 
 he abjured his recantation and re-afRrmed all that he had recanted. 
 
1 68 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1625-1695. 
 
 Pope, Innocent XI./ from two Jansenist Bishops. This 
 letter contained certain charges against the Casuists well 
 calculated to stir up the old strife. One of the condi- 
 tions of the peace compact had been that all recrimination 
 should cease, and on the publication of this letter (in 
 which was at once detected the hand of Nicole, and 
 possibly that of Arnauld), they were informed that the 
 King was highly incensed at their conduct. 
 
 Fearing the consequences, Nicole judged it prudent 
 to quit Paris. He took up his abode at Beauvais, where 
 he had a benefactor in the Bishop, M. de Buzenval, who 
 had some time before presented him to a small beneiice in 
 his diocese.^ 
 
 • Two years later, in 1679, Nicole lost his chief friend 
 and protectress, the Quchesse de Longueville, whose house 
 had always afforded him shelter in troublous times. At 
 her death the peace of the Church came to an end. 
 Louis XIV. immediately gave proof of his hostility to 
 Port-Royal, and Nicole fled from France to avoid the 
 threatened storm. He took refuge in Brussels, where he 
 was joined soon after by Arnauld. But when his old 
 friend determined to proceed to Holland and visit the 
 Jansenist Church established there, he hesitated, and finally 
 refused to accompany Arnauld. 
 
 The fact was that the idea of a life of exile was un- 
 bearable to Nicole. He had had twelve years' experience 
 of its trials and discomforts. His health was indifferent, 
 and the climate of Holland disagreed with him and in- 
 creased his tendency to asthma. In spite of all he owed 
 to Arnauld, Nicole therefore, to the scandal of his friends7 
 decided to leave him, and to take a course apart from 
 
 J Odescalchi. 
 
 - What was called a bindfice d simple tonsure (Sainte-Beuve). 
 
1625-1695.] . PIERRE NICOLE. 169 
 
 him by negotiating a separate peace for himself with 
 the ecclesiastical authorities. This idea had often pre- 
 sented itself to his mind; for, notwithstanding all his 
 controversial writings, which are innumerable, Nicole in 
 secret was always meditating a retreat. He accordingly 
 wrote to Archbishop Harlay explaining his conduct with 
 regard to the letter written for the two Bishops, and 
 praying to be allowed to return to Paris, where he would 
 spend the rest of his days in study and prayer, forsaking, 
 controversy and devoting himself to] the welfare of his 
 soul. 
 
 His intimacy with Arnauld had undoubtedly drawn him 
 unwillingly into the midst of the Jansenist controversy, 
 and in one of his letters to a friend he compares him- 
 self to a man in a little boat listlessly skirting the sea- 
 shore, when a tempest arose carrying the boat far out 
 to sea, and he found himself encompassed by a thousand 
 unlooked-for perils. 
 
 Four years elapsed before Nicole's petition to M. de 
 Harlay was granted, years of hardship and anxiety to 
 one of his timorous nature. He was in constant terror 
 of being arrested, and therefore perpetually changing his 
 hiding-place. 
 
 In one of the houses in which he lived he had a 
 large trap-door made, by which, with a slight movement 
 of his foot, his writing-table with all hisjpapers disappeared 
 from view in case of an inopportune visitor. ^ 
 
 His physical cowardice had grown to such a pitch that 
 he would never go on the river unless protected by a 
 life-belt, so afraid was he of the boat capsizing. In a 
 high wind he would not venture out of the house lest 
 the tiles on the roof should fall on his head. 
 
 1 ' Les Derniers Jansenistes' (L^on S^chd). 
 
I70 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1625-1695- 
 
 The reproaches of his friends for his desertion of Arnauld 
 weighed heavily on his mind. Arnauld alone, with his 
 usual generosity, defended him from the attacks made 
 upon him by his party, and asserted that Nicole had a 
 perfect right to independence of action. 
 
 In 1683 Nicole was permitted to return to Paris. He 
 had obtained the rest he coveted; he had purchased it 
 by confessions to which the more tender conscience of 
 Arnauld could not consent. But his compliance procured 
 him, instead of exile, twelve years of comfortable security. 
 He lived in a quiet lodging adjoining the convent of La 
 Crfeche, with access to the convent chapel. Free from 
 anxiety, surrounded by literary friends, favoured by the 
 highest dignitaries of the Church, he was able to follow 
 the bent of his own inclination, and indulge his taste for 
 study and literary work without fear or hindrance. In 
 the sultry summer months his custom was to retire from 
 Paris to the cool shade of a small hermitage he had 
 purchased at Corbeil, where he enjoyed the society of his 
 friends, among whom were Racine and Boileau. 
 
 To one of Nicole's temperament, the sense of absolute 
 security must have been especially grateful. But surely 
 the thought of the generous faithful friend who had first 
 brought him into notice, and whom in old age he had 
 forsaken, must have cast a shadow over his enjoyment, 
 and he may well have felt something akin to remorse as he 
 compared his own prosperous lot with that of Arnauld, in 
 poverty and exile,i hunted from place to place, and only 
 Quesnel with him as the end drew nigh, to catch his dying 
 words and receive his last sigh. 
 
 Nicole outlived Arnauld fifteen months, but whilst the 
 death of Arnauld was commemorated in prose and verse, that 
 
 1 See Boileau's Epitaph. 
 
1625-1695.] PIERRE NICOLE. 171 
 
 of Nicole was comparatively unnoticed, although Madame 
 de Sdvign^ wrote of him as ' le dernier des Romains ! ' 
 
 The portraits of both were engraved and exhibited side 
 by side, but the number sold of Nicole was but half the 
 number sold of Arnauld — •" justly marking the proportions 
 of the two men and of the two reputations.' 1 
 
 Nicole was powerful with his pen, but did not shine in 
 conversation from his shyness and timidity. In the famous 
 disputation between Rancd, Abbot of La Trappe, and 
 the Benedictine, Mabillon, on the subject of monastic 
 studies, Ranee strenuously opposed the pursuit of know- 
 ledge as baneful and distracting to the monks, whilst 
 Mabillon wisely upheld it as both right and beneficial. 
 Nicole warmly defended the views of Mabillon and the 
 Benedictines. 
 
 During the last years of Nicole's life he was engaged 
 in writing against ' Quietism.' 
 
 Fenelon's name had not yet appeared in the dispute, 
 only that of Pere la Combe, and that of the more famous 
 Madame Guyon. 
 
 It was at the instigation of Bossuet, who thought highly 
 of Nicole's controversial talent, that he wrote in refutation 
 of Madame Guyon's ' mystical doctrines,' and it was whilst 
 occupied in controverting her opinions that he was seized 
 with paralysis, and died in 1695 at the age of seventy. 
 
 1 Sainte-Beuve. 
 
172 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1623,1662. 
 
 BLAISE PASCAL. 
 
 B. 1623. D. 1662. 
 
 Doctor August Neander observes that for a 'right com- 
 prehension of the " Pensees " of Pascal, we must not 
 forget that they are but fragments of a great work which 
 he proposed to write, often paradoxical, jotted down by 
 him at intervals as the thoughts came to him, and which 
 must be compared one with another to be understood 
 in their true sense.' 
 
 ' The central thought with Pascal is contained in these 
 words of Holy Scripture, "With the heart man believeth 
 unto righteousness." ' — ^ Pascal^ Edinburgh Review, January 
 1847. 
 
 The following extracts are translated from M. Faugfere's 
 edition of the 'Pensees, Fragments et Lettres de Blaise 
 Pascal:'—! 
 
 Pensees Diverses. 
 
 'When some strong inclination prompts us to do a 
 thing, we forget present duty. We wish to read some 
 book; we read it when we ought to be doing something 
 else. To recall us to our duty, let us propose to ourselves 
 to do something which we cordially dislike, then we 
 excuse ourselves on the ground that there is something 
 else which we ought to do, and by this means we are 
 reminded of our duty.' — Fauglre, vol. i. p. 177. 
 
 1 M. Prosper Faugfere was the first editor of a complete and authentic 
 text of the ' Pensfes.' 
 
i623-i662.i BLAISE PASCAL. 173 
 
 'The strength of a man's virtue must not be measured 
 by his occasional efforts, but by his ordinary life.' — Faugtre, 
 vol. i. p. 191. 
 
 'I hold it as a fact that if all men knew what each 
 said of the other, there would not be four friends in 
 the world. This is evident from the quarrels which 
 arise from time to time through indiscreet revelations.' — 
 Faugere, vol. i. p. 210. 
 
 'A small matter consoles us, because a small matter 
 afflicts us.' — Fuugire, vol. i. p. 215. 
 
 'He who would know fully the vanity of man, has 
 only to consider the causes and effects of human love. 
 The cause may be a mere nothing, but the effect is 
 terrible. It may be so trifling as to be almost imper- 
 ceptible, but yet it affects the whole earth, influencing 
 princes, armies, all the world. Had the nose of Cleo- 
 patra been a little shorter, the whole course of the 
 world might have been changed.' — Faugere, vol. i. p. 
 207. 
 
 'Contradiction is no proof of falsehood. How many 
 true things are contradicted. Neither is the absence of 
 contradiction any proof of truth. How much that is 
 false passes without contradiction ! ' — Fcmglre, vol. i. p. 215. 
 
 'Man is so constituted that by dint of telling him 
 that he is a fool, he believes it, and by dint of saying 
 so to oneself, one makes oneself believe it. For a man 
 when he is alone has an inner communing with himself, 
 which it is important to regulate. "Corrumpunt mores 
 bonos colloquia prava."' — Faugtre, vol. i. p. 218. 
 
 'However far above us great men may be, they are 
 
174 FRENCH JANSEMSTS. [1623-166=!. 
 
 one with us (and with the least of us) at some point. 
 They are not suspended in mid-air above us. No ■■, if 
 they are greater than we are, it is that they have the 
 head higher, but their feet are as low as our own. 
 There we are on the same level, and rest on the same 
 earth, so that at one point the highest are in touch with 
 the lowest.' — Fauglre, vol. i. p. 211. 
 
 'Justice without strength is powerless; strength without 
 justice is tyrannical.' — -Fauglre, vol. ii. p. 134. 
 
 ' Nature imitates herself. A seed cast into a good soil 
 produces. A principle cast into a receptive mind brings 
 forth.' — Fauglre, vol. i. p. 202. 
 
 ' Self-will would never be satisfied, even if we could 
 possess all that we desire; but we are satisfied as soon 
 as we renounce it; for without self-will we cannot be 
 discontented, and with self-will we can never be content.' 
 — Fauglre, vol. i. p. 227. 
 
 'My humour does not depend on the weather. I 
 have my fogs and fine days within me.' — Fauglre, vol. i. 
 p. 200. 
 
 'When one reads either too fast or too slowly, one 
 understands nothing.' — Fauglre, vol. ii. p. 75. 
 
 ' Thine — Mine. " This is my dog," say these poor chil- 
 dren. " That sunny seat is mine." There is the beginning 
 and type of the usurpation of the whole earth.' — Fauglre, 
 vol. i. p. 186. 
 
 'This /is hateful. . . . In one word it has two qualities : 
 it is essentially unjust, in that it makes self the centre of 
 everything, and it is troublesome to others, in that it 
 
i623-i6fa.] BLAISE PASCAL. 175 
 
 seeks to make them subservient ; for each / is the enemy, 
 and would be the tyrant over all others.' — Fauglre, vol. i. 
 p. 197-198. 
 
 ' The incredulous are the most credulous. They believe 
 in the miracles of Vespasian,^ to escape from believing in 
 those of Moses.' — Faugtre, vol. i. p. 221. 
 
 ' The more intellect a man himself has, the more readily 
 does he discern originality of mind in other men. Common- 
 place people perceive no difference between one man and 
 another.' — Fauglre, vol. i. p. 186. 
 
 ' Do you wish men to think well of you ? Then never 
 speak well of yourself.' — Faugere, vol. i. p. 204. 
 
 ' Men are very prone to mistake their imagination for 
 their heart, and so they fancy themselves converted as soon 
 as they begin to think about conversion.' — Faugire, vol. i. 
 p. 229. 
 
 'There is a vast distance between the knowledge of 
 God and the love of God.' — Faugere, vol. i. p. 230. 
 
 'To make a saint out of a man, there needs the grace 
 of God ; whoever doubts this cannot know what a saint is, 
 or what a man is.' — Faugere, vol. i. p. 222. 
 
 ' Our imagination so magnifies the time present by dint 
 of continually dwelling on it, and so contracts eternity by 
 never thinking about it, that we make a nothing of eternity, 
 and an eternity of nothing.' — Faugere, vol. ii. p. 23. 
 
 ' Plutarch's ' Lives,' vol. vi. p. 262. 
 
176 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 Fragments. 
 
 ' It is dangerous to prove to man too plainly how nearly 
 he is on a level with the brute creation, without also 
 showing him his greatness. It is also dangerous to show 
 him his greatness apart from his vileness. Still more 
 dangerous is it to leave him in ignorance of both. But 
 it is of great benefit to show him both.' — Faugere, vol. ii. 
 P-85. 
 
 ' Moses for a people ; Jesus Christ for all men.'^ — -Faugere, 
 vol. ii. p. 313. 
 
 'Who is it that bears witness of Mahomet? Himself. 
 (Jesus says, " If I bear witness of myself, my witness is 
 not true.") ' — Fauglre, vol. ii. p. .334. 
 
 ' The highest achievement of reason is to recognise that 
 an infinity of things exist which are beyond reason; and 
 reason is but feeble if it reaches not thus far.' — Fauglre, 
 vol. ii. p. 347. 
 
 ' There are two extremes : to exclude reason and to 
 admit only reason. 
 
 ' If we submit everything to reason, there will be nothing 
 mysterious or supernatural retained in oUr religion. If 
 we violate the principles of reason, our religion will appear 
 absurd and ridiculous.' — Faugire, vol. ii. p. 348. 
 
 'It is well to feel wearied and worn out in a vain 
 pursuit after the true good, so that we may stretch out our 
 weary arms to the One Deliverer.' — Faugere, vol. ii. p. 96. 
 
 ' The Incarnation shows man the greatness of his misery 
 by the greatness of the remedy needed.' — Fauglre, vol. 
 ii. p. 145- 
 
i6»3-i663.] BLAISE PASCAL. 177 
 
 ' Jesus Christ is a God whom we must approach without 
 pride, and before whom we may yet bow ourselves down 
 without despair.'-^Faug^re, vol. ii. p. 314. 
 
 ' Jesus Christ came to tell men that they had no other 
 enemies but themselves ; that it is their own evil passions 
 which separate them from God; and that He came to 
 destroy these evil passions, and give them His grace.' — 
 Faugire, vol. ii. p. 318. 
 
 ' It is a monstrous thing to see in the same man and at 
 the same time such deep interest in the smallest things 
 and such strange indifference to the greatest' — Faugere, 
 vol. ii. p. II. 
 
 ' The Stoics say, " Enter within yourselves, there you 
 will find your rest," which is not true. Others say, " Go 
 forth, seek for happiness in diversion ; " neither is that true. 
 Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is 
 found in God, both without and within us.' — Faugire, 
 vol. ii. p. 93. 
 
 ' The rivers of Babylon (the transient pleasures of life) 
 flow and fall and carry us away. O holy Sion ! where all 
 is stable and where nothing passes away. Let us mark 
 well whether our joys are stable or transient— stable 
 like Sion, or passing away like the rivers of Babylon.'^— 
 Faugire, vol. i. p. 252 (taken from St. Augustine on Ps. 
 cxxxvi.). 
 
 (In true religion) ' there is enough light for those whc 
 desire to see, and enough obscurity for those of a contrary 
 disposition.' — Faugire, vol. ii. p. 151. 
 
 'It is the heart which apprehends God, and not the 
 reason. This is what faith is : God apprehended (felt) 
 by the heart, not by the reason.' — Faugire, vol. ii. p. 172. 
 
 M 
 
178 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 'Certainly there is no real good without the knowledge 
 of God. ... A man is happy or unhappy in proportion as 
 he is near or far from God.' — Faugtre, vol. ii. p. 20. 
 
 ' ' To doubt is a misfortune ; but when in doubt, it is an 
 indispensable duty to seek to be free from it.' — Fauglre, 
 vol. ii. p. 20. 
 
 'Would the heir to an estate on finding the title-deeds 
 say, "Perhaps they are false?" and would he neglect to 
 examine them?' — Fauglre, vol. ii. p. 18. 
 
 ' In spite of all the miseries which cleave to us, and hold 
 us, as it were, by the throat, there is within us an irrepressible 
 instinct which raises us. 
 
 'The greatness of man is so evident that it may be 
 deduced from his very weakness. For what is nature in 
 animals we call weakness (misery) in man, whereby we 
 recognise that his present nature being similar to that of 
 animals, he is fallen from that better nature which was 
 once his. 
 
 'Thus, who counts himself miserable in that he is not 
 a king, unless it be a king who has lost his crown? 
 Did men pity Paulus ^milius ' because he was no longer 
 consul? On the contrary, all the world thought him for- 
 tunate in that he had once been consul, for it was not 
 his natural position to be so always. But when Perseus 
 of Macedon lost the crown to which he was born, men 
 thought his condition so wretched that they marvelled that 
 he could survive his fall. 
 
 ' Who thinks himself to be pitied because he has but one 
 mouth? but who does not pity himself who has but one 
 eye ? No one perhaps has ever counted himself wretched 
 
 1 Paulus ^tnilius was born 228 B.C. ; became Roman consul ; conquered 
 Perseus, king of Macedonia, whom he brought in triumph to Rome. 
 Paulus jEmihus reproached Perseus for not killing himself. 
 
1623-1662.1 BLAISE PASCAL. 179 
 
 for not having three eyes, but who would not be inconsolable 
 
 to have none ? ^ 
 
 ' If man had no feeling, he could not be miserable. A 
 
 ruined house is not conscious of its desolation ; . ■ . nor 
 
 is a tree conscious of its decay ; therefore they cannot be 
 
 miserable.' 
 
 ' Man is great in that he knows his own wretchedness.' 
 'His very miseries prove his greatness; they are the 
 
 miseries of a great "Seigneur," of a dethroned king.' — 
 
 Faugire, vol. ii. pp. 81, 82. 
 
 'Acknowledge, proud man, what a paradox thou art 
 to thyself. Humble thyself, impotent Reason. Be silent, 
 weak Nature; and know from Him who is your Master 
 your true condition. Hearken to the Voice of God.' — 
 Faugire, vol. ii. p. 104. 
 
 'The essence of the Christian religion consists in the 
 mystery of a Redeemer, who, uniting in Himself the two 
 natures, human and divine, has withdrawn men from the 
 corruption of sin to reconcile them to God in His own 
 Divine Person. 
 
 ' This teaches us two great truths together — that there is 
 in man a capacity of being like God, and at the same time 
 a corruption in his nature which renders him unworthy 
 of God. 
 
 ' It is equally important to know both these truths. It is 
 alike dangerous for a man to know God, without knowing 
 his own misery, and to know his own misery without know- 
 ing the Redeemer who can rescue him. 
 
 ' One knowledge produces the pride of the philosopher, 
 who knows God but does not know his own misery ; the 
 other produces the despair of the atheist, who feels his 
 own misery but knows no Redeemer.' — Fauglre, vol, ii. 
 P- 356- 
 
 ' We can only know God through Jesus Christ. Without 
 
i8o FRENCH JANSENISTS. [tfa3-i«&!- 
 
 this Mediator there is no communication with God. Those 
 who have professed to know God without Jesus Christ could 
 give no valid proofs of their knowledge. 
 
 'But to certify our faith in Jesus we have the pro- 
 phecies, which are solid and palpable proofs ; for these 
 prophecies being accomplished and proved true by the 
 event, attest the certainty of our religion and prove the 
 divinity of Jesus Christ, in whom and by whom alone we 
 can know God. . . . 
 
 ' Jesus is Himself the true God of mankind, and we can- 
 not know Him fully without also knowing our own original 
 sin and wretchedness, for He is the promised Mediator 
 and the Restorer of our fallen state.' — Faughre, vol. ii. pp. 
 316, 317- 
 
 Prophecies. 
 
 Mai. iii. i. — He shall have a Precursor. 
 
 Isa. ix. 6. — He shall be a Child born into the world. 
 
 Mic. V. 2. — He shall be born in the City of Bethlehem, 
 and He shall be of the family of Judah and David. 
 
 Isa. Ixi. I. — He shaU preach the Gospel to the poor and 
 meek. 
 
 Isa. xlii. 7, 16. — The eyes of the blind shall be opened, 
 and He shall lead them that sit in darkness to the light. 
 
 Isa. Iv. 3, 4; xlii. 1-6. — He shall teach them the right 
 way, and shall be a Witness and Leader to the Gentiles. 
 
 Isa. liii. 5-8. — He is to be the Sacrifice for the sins of 
 the world. 
 
 Isa. xxviii. 16. — He is to be the sure and precious 
 Foundation-stone. 
 
 Isa. viii. 14-15.— He is to be a Stone of stumbling and 
 Rock of offence. Jerusalem will stumble and fall against 
 this Stone. . 
 
i623-i662.] BLAISE PASCAL. l8i 
 
 Ps. cxviii. 22. — The builders will reject this Stone. God 
 will make this Stone the Head Stone of the corner. 
 
 Isa. hii. 3. — He is to be despised and rejected of men. 
 
 Zech. xi. 12, 13. — He is to be betrayed and sold. 
 
 Ps. xxii. 7-16. — He is to be afflicted and mocked, His 
 hands and feet pierced. 
 
 Ps. Ixix. 21. — Gall is to be given unto Him. 
 
 Ps. Ixix. 7. — Shame and spitting shall cover His face. 
 
 Ps. xxii. 15. — He shall be put to death. 
 
 Ps. xxii. 18. — They will cast lots upon His vesture. 
 
 Ps. xvi. 10, II ; Ps. ex. I.— He shall not see corruption, 
 but shall rise to life and sit at the right hand of God. 
 
 Hosea iii. 4. — The Jews shall still exist as a race, but 
 without a king. 
 
 Dan. ix. 26, 27. — Jerusalem and the Temple shall be 
 destroyed. The sacrifices and oblations shall cease. 
 
 Dan. ix. 24. — Vision and prophecy shall be sealed. 
 
i82 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 Fragments. 
 
 ' The God of the Christian is not a God who is merely 
 the Author of geometrical truths and the order of the 
 elements. This is the view of the Pagans and Epicureans. 
 
 ' He is not merely a God who is the supreme Disposer 
 of the lives and goods of men, that He may give a succes- 
 sion of happy years to those who worship Him. This was 
 the view of the Jews. 
 
 But the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the 
 God of the Christian, is a God of love and of consolation. 
 He is a God who fills the heart and the soul which He 
 possesses, who makes His people conscious at once of their 
 misery and of His infinite compassion ; who unites Him- 
 self with their innermost being, filling the soul with humi- 
 lity, joy, confidence, and love, rendering them incapable of 
 desiring any other end but Himself.' — Faugere, vol. ii. pp. 
 116, 117. 
 
 ' The God of the Christian is a God who makes the soul 
 feel that He is its only good, that all its peace is in Him, 
 that its only blessedness can be in loving Him, and who 
 makes the soul at the same time abhor the obstacles which 
 hinder it from loving Him with all its strength. Self-love 
 and all lust which thus hinder the soul, become insupport- 
 able to it. This gracious God makes the soul conscious 
 that self-love is rooted in it, and that He alone can cure 
 \t:— Faugere, vol. ii. pp. 354, 355. 
 
 ' Christ is the End and Centre of all. Whoever knows 
 Him knows the reason of all things. Those who err fall 
 into error by not seeing one of two things. We can know 
 God without knowing our misery, and our misery without 
 knowing God, but we cannot know Christ without knowing 
 at once God and our misery.' — Fauglre, vol. ii. p. 115. 
 
I623-I622.] BLAISE PASCAL. 183 
 
 Extracts from Letters. 
 
 ' In our troubles we should seek consolation not in our- 
 selves, not in men, nor in any created thing, but in God. 
 And the reason for this is that things created are not the 
 primary cause of those events in life which we wrongly call 
 evils, God's providence being the true and real cause. . . . 
 We must consider this event not by itself and apart from 
 God, but apart from itself as the will of God, and in the 
 order of His providence, which is the true cause of the 
 event. . . . Thus we shall adore in humble silence and 
 submission the Majesty of His impenetrable secrets, the 
 justice of His decrees, and we shall unite our will to the 
 will of God, and accept in Him, with Him, and for Him 
 that which He has ordained in us and for us from all 
 eternity.' — Letter to his Brother-in-law, M. Ferier, on the 
 death of his Father, M. Etienne Fascal, 1654. 
 
 ' I have learnt from a holy man that in our bereavements 
 the most solid and useful service we can render to the 
 dead is to do those things they would wish if they were 
 still in this world, to follow those holy precepts which 
 they gave us, and to place ourselves for their sakes in that 
 state which they now desire for us.' — Ibid., Faugere, vol. L 
 pp. 18, 19, 32. 
 
 ' Let us not consider him as having ceased to live, 
 though nature suggests it, but as beginning to live, as Truth 
 assures us. Let us not think of his soul as perished and 
 reduced to nothingness, but as vivified and united to the 
 Lord of Life, and, by dwelling on these truths, correct the 
 erroneous ideas and feelings of horror which are so natural 
 to man.' — Ibid., Faugire, vol. i. p. 26. 
 
 ' The present moment is the only time which is really our 
 own, and which we ought to spend as God would have us. 
 
184 FRENCH J.INSBMSTS. i.6.s-.«fa. 
 
 Nevextheloss, the world is so restless that wo hardly over 
 think of tlie actual present and of the living moment, but 
 of that which is before us. So that men are alwaj-s living 
 in the uncertain future, and never in the actual i\7W.'— 
 Letter to lifaJetnoiselle de /!i>,inn^s, 1656. 
 
 ' Our faults are corrected sometimes more effectually by 
 the sight of that which is evil in others tkui by good 
 example, and it is well to accustom oneself thus to profit 
 by the e\il example, which is so common, whereas the good 
 example is so rare.' — /did., Fiins^hr, vol. i. pp. s^i 51- 
 
 'If God amtinualfy revealed Himself to men, there 
 would be no merit in believing in Him ; and if He «rTW 
 reve.iled Himself, tliere would be but little faith in the 
 vfOrld. . . . 
 
 'AH things cover some mj*stery; all things are veils 
 which conceal God's presence. 
 
 'Christians should recognise God in all.' — IHd., J',)it>;hr, 
 vol, i. pp. 58, 59. 
 
 'The essence of sin consists in having a will opposed 
 to that which we know to be (.1 oil's will ; it is evident tliat 
 when by events He reveals to us His will, it would be a sin 
 not to conform oVirselTCS to it.' — Jiid., Jumgirt, \o\. i. 
 p. 44- 
 
 •The desire to conquer is so inherent in our nature, 
 that when it hides itself under the cloak of making trutli 
 triumph, we often mistake one for the other, and fancy we 
 are seeking the glory of God, when in reality we are seeking 
 our own.' — Letter to .1/. ferier, /ii//^i,'<V(', vol. i. p. 60. 
 
 ' All things spe.ik of God to those who know Him, and 
 reveal Him to those who love Him." — r.efter to Afadame 
 Ph-ier, Faiighe, vol. i. p. 9. 
 
iS.3->6«».] BLAISE PASCAL. 185 
 
 ' Thou didst touch me, and I burned for Thy peace.' — St. Augustine's 
 Cott/cssions. 
 
 The birthplace of the illustrious Pascal was Clermont- 
 Ferrand, in the picturesque province of Auvergne, now 
 the principal town in the department of the Puy-de- 
 Dome. 
 
 Pascal's family, like that of the great Arnauld, be- 
 longed to this province, and among the ancestors of 
 both there had been distinguished members of the legal 
 profession. 
 
 Etienne Pascal, the father of Blaise, followed the family 
 vocation, and when he came to Paris as a young man, 
 'pour faire son droit,' he was furnished with a letter of 
 introduction to Antoine Arnauld, the Procureur-G^n^ral, 
 the father of Arnauld d'Andilly and the great Arnauld. 
 
 In the course of time Etienne Pascal became second 
 president of the Cour des Aides at Clermont. He married 
 in 16 1 8 Antoinette Bcgon, a woman of great piety and 
 talent, by whom he had three children, who survived him. 
 These were Gilberte, married in 1641 to her cousin, 
 M. Purler, a counsellor of the Cour des Aides at Cler- 
 mont ; Blaise, the subject of this notice, born June 19, 
 1623, and Jacqueline, born two years later, who became 
 a nun of Port-Royal. 
 
 In 1628 Madame Pascal died, and her husband not 
 long afterwards retired from his legal duties; having 
 sold his property at Clermont, he invested the amount 
 in bonds upon the Hotel - de - Ville, and took up his 
 abode in Paris, where he devoted himself to the educa- 
 tion of his three children ; Blaise being then seven years 
 old. 
 
1 86 FRENCH yANSENISTS. [t6n-j6&t. 
 
 M. Pascal was himself a man of intellect and especially 
 interested in scientific pursuits. His house soon became 
 a centre where men of note gathered together. Amongst 
 these were Descartes, Gassendi. the Pfere Mersenne, 
 Roberval, Carcav^, and Le Pailleur ; and from the reunions 
 which took place at this time at the houses of these 
 eminent men, the ' Acadhnie des Sciences ' had its rise. 
 ' This little band of savants, we are told, maintained a 
 correspondence with the sages of other lands, and in this 
 interchange of discovery the achievements of the domain 
 of science were simultaneously extended.' ^ The young 
 Blaise had from early childhood given proof of extra- 
 ordinary precocity. No smart sayings are recorded of 
 him, as of many clever children, but he possessed singular 
 powers of observation. The why was ever present to his 
 mind in all that he saw and heard, and the inquiries he 
 made as to the nature of things made a deep impression 
 on his father, who would not permit him to have any 
 other instructor than himself 
 
 M. Pascal's great object was always to keep the boy 
 above his work. He did not, therefore, allow him to 
 spend his time in acquiring dead languages till he was 
 of an age to appreciate them. . He gave Blaise a general 
 idea of grammar, of its rules and exceptions, thus fitting 
 him for the future study of Greek and Latin with facility ; 
 he instructed him in literature, and directed the boy's 
 attention to the phenomena of Nature; but Blaise was 
 not always satisfied with his . father's . explanations, and 
 would try and find better reasons for himself.^ With 
 these secular lessons of M. Pascal was blended religious 
 
 1 See, North British Review (August . 1844), Sir David . Brewster on 
 Pascal. 
 - See ' Pascal' (Principal TuUoch). 
 
i623-i66=.l BLAISE PASCAL. 187 
 
 instruction, which was the groundwork of that. piety after- 
 wards so conspicuous in his family. ^ As an instance of 
 the boy's observation, he remarked that when some one 
 at table struck a plate with a knife, it gave out a loud 
 sound, which ceased the instant the hand was placed 
 upon it. Blaise could not rest till he had discovered 
 for himself the cause ; this led him to study the properties 
 of sound, and at twelve years old he wrote a remark- 
 able treatise, well reasoned out, on this subject. His 
 memory was prodigious ; what he had once grasped he 
 never lost. 
 
 Though deeply interesting to himself, M. Pascal never 
 permitted mathematics to be discussed in the presence 
 of his son, as he desired to confine the eager mind of 
 the boy as far as possible to the course of study which 
 he had laid down for him. The bent of the boy's mind, 
 however, overstepped his father's precautions. His curi- 
 osity could not be restrained, and at twelve years old 
 he had intuitively acquired a knowledge of geometry. 
 His sister tells us that Blaise had repeatedly, but in 
 vain, asked for lessons in this science ; ' his father had 
 always put him off, telling him in general terms that 
 it was the way to make correct figures, and to find the 
 proportions which they bear to each other, at the same 
 time forbidding him to speak of it again;' or to think 
 of it till he was older. The result was that, left to' his 
 own meditations, Blaise took a piece of charcoal, and 
 with this drew figures upon the boards of the floor of 
 his play-room, trying to make a circle which, should, be 
 perfectly round, a, triangle whose sides and angles should 
 be equal, and other such things. Having discovered all 
 this by himself, he next investigated the relative pror 
 
 ^ See North British Review. 
 
i88 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1623-16S2. 
 
 perties of figures; but geometrical terms being unknown 
 to him, he always called a circle a round, a line a bar, 
 and so on.' 1 
 
 In this way, however, he pushed on by himself till he 
 succeeded in obtaining a demonstration of the thirty-second 
 proposition of the first book of Euclid. As he was engaged 
 upon this, M. Pascal entered the room unperceived by 
 Blaise, who was absorbed by his mental researches. 
 Nothing could exceed the astonishment of his father; 
 he asked him by what process he had come to these axioms 
 unaided by books, and when told by the boy how he had 
 been gradually led on from one demonstration to another, 
 he was so amazed at his son's genius that he flew to his 
 friend M. Le Pailleur to announce the extraordinary fact 
 which he had discovered. M. Le Pailleur was equally sur- 
 prised, and strongly advised that the boy should at once 
 be given Euclid's ' Elements,' but as a book of diversion 
 for his leisure hours. M. Pascal acted on this advice; 
 he felt that he could no longer restrain the marvellous 
 capacity for scientific problems evinced by his son, and 
 from this time forth Blaise pursued his mathematical re- 
 searches without hindrance, and with absorbing interest. 
 
 At sixteen he composed a treatise on conic sections 
 which excited the astonishment and admiration of the 
 scientific men of the day. It was shown to Descartes, 
 whose astonishment was somewhat modified by incredulity, 
 believing it impossible to be the product of so young a 
 mind. 
 
 The distinction of his son, thus early acquired, filled 
 the heart of M. Pascal with pride and exultation, whilst 
 the talent and beauty of his two daughters made them 
 almost as remarkable as their brother. 
 
 1 Madame P^rier's ' Life of Pascal.' 
 
i6=3-i66z.] BLAISE PASCAL. 189 
 
 They studied Latin, mathematics, philosophy, and his- 
 tory with their father, and the name of Jacqueline Pascal 
 has found a place amongst the illustrious women of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 The eagle eye of Richelieu, ever quick to discern talent, 
 had not failed to observe this gifted family, and he was 
 heard to say, 'I will make something great of them." 
 
 Jacqueline early displayed a remarkable talent for versi- 
 fication. Learning to read had been to her, however, 
 a great difificulty, till one day, when her elder sister was 
 by chance reading aloud some verses, the ear of the 
 child caught the cadence, and she joyfully exclaimed, 
 ' If you wish me to read, teach me out of a book of 
 poetry, and then I will say my lesson readily.' 
 
 Her request was gratified, and she quickly learned to 
 read, and commenced almost immediately to make verses 
 for her own amusement. 
 
 In 1638, being then twelve years old, she wrote a 
 sonnet on the expected birth of an heir to the crown, 
 which was thought worthy of being made known to the 
 Queen. Jacqueline was consequently taken to St. Germain 
 to present her verses to Anne of Austria, and whilst 
 waiting for admittance in the royal anteroom, the ladies of 
 the Court crowded around the young poetess, asking her 
 to let them see her sonnet. Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 
 'la grande Mademoiselle,' who was then very young, begged 
 her to compose an impromptu on herself. Without any 
 shyness or hesitation, Jacqueline retired into a corner, and 
 in a few minutes returned with her epigram. The child's 
 facility was recognised, and after her presentation at Court 
 she was often sent for, and was much made of,- by Louis 
 XIII. and the Queen. 
 
 1 See ' Jacqueline Pascal ' (Victor Cousin). 
 
igo FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 This same year (1638) Richelieu, by an arbitrary act, 
 curtailed the interest of the bonds upon the Hotel-de- 
 Ville, in which M. Pascal had invested all his savings. 
 Meeting with some of his fellow-sufferers at the house 
 of the Chancellor Seguier, words were uttered of a 
 seditious character, which were reported to the Cardinal, 
 and orders were immediately given for the offenders 
 to be committed to the Bastille. M. Pascal, though 
 himself innocent, was forced to hide, but the others were 
 seized and imprisoned. 
 
 During her father's concealment Jacqueline, who was 
 his favourite child, was attacked with small-pox, which 
 left her greatly . impaired in beauty, but during the con- 
 tinuance of the disease her father, unmindful of the risk 
 of discovery, never quitted her bedside till all danger was 
 past, ,when he repaired to Auvergne for safety. 
 
 Jacqueline was now thirteen, and of an age to feel 
 keenly the loss of beauty; yet she seems to have accepted 
 it rather as a favour than a sorrow, and in some verses 
 written at this time she pours forth her thanks to God 
 for thus guarding her from personal vanity. 
 
 The following year a play was got up by the Duchesse 
 d'Aiguillon 1 for the Cardinal's amusement, in which all the 
 characters were to be sustained by children. Jacqueline's 
 services were required. After some demur on the part of 
 her elder sister, Gilberte, who felt that they owed no 
 favour to the Cardinal who had robbed them of parental 
 care, the young girl was permitted to take part in the 
 performance, in the hope that some good might accrue 
 to their father. 
 
 Success attended her efforts. She was the prima donna 
 on the occasion, and played her part to perfection. The 
 
 1 The niece of Richelieu. 
 
i623-i662.] BLAISE PASCAL. 191 
 
 grace of her movements and charm of her acting deHghted 
 the Cardinal and his guests. 
 
 When the play was over she timidly approached him, 
 and with fluttering voice recited some verses she had 
 composed, asking pardon for her father. Richelieu re- 
 ceived her graciously, exclaiming, as she drew near, ' Voilk la 
 petite Pascal,' and afterwards kissing her, he bade her write 
 to her father, and tell him that he might return with 
 safety, and that he should be happy to restore him to 
 his family. 1 
 
 M. Pascal was recalled to Paris by his child, and was 
 at once reinstated in the good graces of the Cardinal, 
 who shortly afterwards appointed him to the post of 
 ' Intendant ' at Rouen, to which place M. Pascal withdrew 
 with his three children. 
 
 Whilst at Rouen, Jacqueline, attracted the notice of 
 Corneille, the great French poet, who had retired to his 
 native place to escape the ill-will of Richelieu. Corneille 
 encouraged her in her poetical tastes, and suggested that 
 she should contend for the annual prize awarded to the 
 best composition in verse on the ' Conception of the 
 Virgin.' 
 
 The prize of 1640 was allotted to Jacqueline, and was 
 brought to her with the sound of trumpets and drums ; but 
 she was not in the least elated, her sister says, by her 
 success, for she was naturally of a retiring disposition, 
 and had even at fifteen all the simplicity of a young 
 child.2 
 
 During this time Blaise continued to learn Greek and 
 Latin, and to pursue his scientific studies with unremitting 
 interest. 
 
 1 ' Port- Royal' (Sainte-Beuve). 
 
 - ' Jacqueline Pascal ' (Victor Cousin). 
 
192 FRENCH JANSENISTS. U6zyi(Ai:. 
 
 His father, who during the greater part of the day 
 was occupied with his official business, would eagerly 
 converse with his boy, whilst at meals, on logic, physical 
 science, and mechanics, and these subjects so absorbed 
 the youthful mind of Blaise, that his health was utterly 
 undermined by the tax upon his mental powers, and 
 from the age of eighteen he was hardly ever a day free 
 from suffering. 
 
 At nineteen he invented his arithmetical machine, 
 destined to simplify the work of calculation for his father. 
 Blaise had the wonderful patience and perseverance to 
 construct fifty different models of his machine before 
 completing it to his satisfaction. This work occupied 
 him two whole years, and the thought and labour be- 
 stowed upon its execution were no doubt in a great 
 measure the cause of the breakdown of his nervous 
 system. 
 
 He presented a model of his machine to Queen 
 Christina of Sweden, who had not as yet relinquished 
 her throne, and who was regarded as the great patroness 
 of science. 
 
 At the commencement of the year 1646, when Blaise 
 was in his twenty-third year, his father met with a serious 
 accident, having fallen on the ice and dislocated his 
 thigh, an event which led to important results in the 
 Pascal family. 
 
 He was attended by two neighbouring gentlemen, 
 MM. De la Bouteillerie and Des Landes, who from 
 motives of pure Christian charity had studied the art 
 of healing, and having built a hospital for the poor, 
 devoted their lives to the care of the sick and suffering. 
 Their character and conversation greatly impressed the 
 whole family, and led M. Pascal to inquire through 
 
1623-1662.] BLAISE PASCAL. 193 
 
 what instrumentality they had been brought to adopt 
 this life of self-abnegation. M. Des Landes then de- 
 scribed to him the remarkable revival of religion which 
 had taken place at Rouville under the preaching of the 
 cur^ M. Guillebert, a fervent disciple of the Ahh6 de 
 Saint-Cyran, giving him interesting details of the con- 
 versions which had followed, showing how M. de la Bouteil- 
 lerie and himself, through M. Guillebert's teaching, had been 
 led to devote all that they possessed to the service of God 
 and His Church. At M. Pascal's request some of the 
 works of the Ahh6 de Saint-Cyran were lent to him, 
 and also one by Jansen, Bishop of Ypres, which had 
 been translated into French by M. Arnauld d'Andilly. 
 It was entitled 'The Reformation of the Inner Man,' 
 and produced a profound impression on M. Pascal and 
 his children. 
 
 As a family, they had ever been exact in the performance 
 of all religious duties ; but though exemplary in the observ- 
 ance of outward forms, no deeper feeling than a sense of 
 duty had as yet manifested itself in their religious life. 
 
 Blaise was the first to be aroused by the words of 
 M. Des Landes. Although full of respect for religion, and 
 submissive as a child to the things which he had been 
 taught, he had never pondered in his heart the deepest 
 truths of Christianity. 
 
 Arnauld's book on ' La Frdquente Communion ' now 
 fell into his hands, and as he read, it seemed as though 
 a iilm was removed from his eyes. ' Whereas he was 
 blind, now he saw.' 
 
 The pursuit of geometry and all other science appeared 
 to him utterly vain in comparison with that highest know- 
 ledge to which he was called. The words of Christ 
 resounded in his heart — 'But one thing is needful.' To 
 
194 FRENCH yANSENISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 live for God only, to have no other object besides Him, 
 appeared to Blaise a duty so clear, so imperative, that 
 for a while he gave up all his scientific researches. He 
 had had a glimpse of things Eternal, and all things else 
 seemed as dust in the balance. 
 
 This has been called his first conversion. 
 
 His sister Jacqueline's confirmation took place this 
 same year (1646), and she prepared for it by studying 
 the writings of Saint-Cyran. 
 
 From the hour of her first communion she became a new 
 creature, so manifest was the work of the Spirit of God 
 within her.i Finally, Gilberte and their father and M. 
 P^rier (the husband of Gilberte) also gave themselves 
 up to a life of devotion, the whole family placing them- 
 selves under the direction of M. Guillebert. 
 
 To Blaise there shortly came a time of struggle and 
 spiritual combat ; the passion which had absorbed him 
 from his early youth could not be kept under ; he was 
 torn between his love of science and his desire to be 
 free from all earthly pursuits and ties — ' d'horribles 
 attaches,' as he afterwards styled them. Science proved 
 the strongest, for his attention was irresistibly drawn the 
 same year (1646) to the subject of atmospheric pressure.^ 
 It had already occupied the minds of Galileo and Torri- 
 celli, and in spite of his extreme physical debility, Blaise 
 threw himself with ardour into the work of investigation, 
 and was able successfully to test, by experiments of divers 
 kinds, the discovery which Torricelli had made. 
 
 These were witnessed by a vast number of persons. 
 When, however, his experiments became known in Paris, 
 some persons were disposed to confound them with those 
 
 1 ' Jacqueline Pascal ' (Victor Cousin). 
 
 2 See ' Pascal' (Principal TuUoch). 
 
1623-1662.] BLAISE PASCAL. 195 
 
 made in Italy, thus depriving Blaise Pascal of the credit 
 due to him, attributing to others what he had done. 
 Blaise Pascal did not put forth any claim to be the first 
 to make these experiments ; on the contrary, he expressly 
 stated that they had originally been made in Italy four years 
 previously ; but to defend his own share in the results 
 of these discoveries, Blaise, early in 1647, wrote a treatise 
 entitled 'Nouvelles Experiences touchant le Vide,' in 
 the which he showed that the old received notion that 
 'Nature abhors a vacuum' was false in principle. This 
 led to a fierce attack upon Blaise Pascal by Pere Noel, 
 who was at the head of the Jesuit College in Paris ; 
 and the obstinacy and gross ignorance displayed by Noel 
 on this occasion was doubtless the primary cause of the 
 disdain with which Blaise Pascal regarded the opinions 
 of the Jesuits, not only on scientific matters, but also in 
 later times on theological questions. 
 
 New experiments were organised by Blaise in 1648 
 to verify the conjecture of Torricelli, as yet unverified, 
 respecting the weight of the air.. These were made in. 
 Auvergne on the Puy-de-D6me, which rises to a height 
 of 3000 feet, in the neighbourhood of Clermont, from 
 which place M. P^rier and his scientific friends started 
 to make the ascent ; Blaise himself, from the state of 
 his health, being unable to conduct the experiments. 
 The result was reported to Blaise, and clearly demon- 
 strated that what had hitherto been attributed to the 
 horror of a vacuum was really caused by atmospheric 
 pressure.^ Descartes, always somewhat acrimonious 
 when he had to deal with a competitor, afterwards pre- 
 tended that he had suggested to Blaise Pascal the experi- 
 
 1 See Sir David Brewster's account of this in North British Review, 
 August 1844, quoted by Principal TuUoch (' Pascal,' p. 33). 
 
196 FRENCH JANSENISTS. 1623-1662. 
 
 ments made on the Puy-de-D6me ; but Blaise knew that 
 such was not the case, and he decHned noticing the claims 
 put forth by Descartes. 
 
 The condition of Blaise's health at this time caused 
 grave anxiety to his family. He had been unable to 
 tear himself away from scientific researches, but he was 
 tortured with the thought that in returning to his old 
 pursuits he had resisted higher influences, and proved 
 himself unworthy of the grace bestowed upon him. This 
 inward struggle and morbid retrospection, acting upon 
 a highly wrought over-worked organisation, produced a 
 complication of disorders. 
 
 The disturbed state of his nervous system brought on 
 a species of paralysis of the lower members. He could 
 not walk without crutches. The pain in his head made 
 all study impossible, and so severe were the spasms in 
 his throat if he attempted to drink, that he could only 
 swallow hot fluids, and these drop by drop. 
 
 In the autumn of 1667 Blaise Pascal was removed 
 to Paris to consult some new doctor. His younger sister, 
 Jacqueline, accompanied him. Whilst there, the brother 
 and sister often attended the services at Port-Royal-de- 
 Paris, and heard the sermons of M. Singhn. Both were 
 touched by his earnestness, but to Jacqueline it was a 
 crisis in her life, for she resolved from that time to become 
 a nun at Port-Royal. 
 
 She became acquainted, through M. Guillebert, with 
 the Abbess, Mfere Angflique, who, seeing in her the 
 signs of a true penitent, consented to receive her, pro- 
 vided she obtained the approval of her father. M. Pascal 
 however, would not permit Jacqueline to enter the mona- 
 stery. After his death, he said, she would be at liberty 
 to do as she pleased ; but to part from her whilst he lived 
 
1623-1662,] BLAISE PASCAL. 197 
 
 was a sacrifice to which he would not consent She there- 
 fore remained with her father, leading as far as possible a 
 conventual life of fasts and vigils and self-mortification.^ 
 
 In 1651 M. Pascal died, and the obstacle to Jacque- 
 line's wishes seemed to be removed. But a new difficulty 
 arose. It was now her brother Blaise who refused to 
 be parted from her. His father's death had greatly 
 afflicted him, and he could not bear that she should 
 leave him in his sorrow. For three months, therefore, 
 she continued to be his companion ; but at the end of 
 that time, finding she could not prevail upon him to 
 agree to her withdrawal, she quietly left his house, not 
 without his knowledge, but without farewell, never to 
 return. She was then twenty-six years old, and found 
 in Port-Royal-de-Paris the refuge and seclusion which she 
 had longed for. 
 
 Blaise Pascal had been the first to win her to a higher 
 life ; he had by his sympathy confirmed her in her desire to 
 enter Port-Royal, and this change of feeling on his part 
 surprised and pained her. 
 
 But circumstances had altered. For the last two years, 
 from 1652 to 1654, her brother, by the advice of his 
 physicians, had given up his former life of study and 
 seclusion, and had sought amusement in society. Gradu- 
 ally his life had become that of a man of the world, 
 without falling into any vice, but following the usual 
 round of pleasure and dissipation ; and though he still 
 retained religious convictions, he was not prepared at 
 this time to make any personal sacrifice in furtherance 
 of her wishes. 
 
 After two months at Port-Royal, Jacqueline wrote to 
 Blaise. It was a letter full of tenderness, asking him to 
 
 1 ' Jacqueline Pascal ' (Victor Cousin). 
 
198 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 give her his approval of the step she had taken, and thus 
 enable her to accomplish with joy and peace that which 
 had so long, as he well knew, been the desire of her heart. 
 She waited, she said, for this proof of his brotherly love, 
 and prayed him to come to her divine betrothal; for 
 without the assurance of his consent a shadow would 
 be cast upon the greatest and most glorious act of her 
 life. This touching appeal moved him, and he came to 
 see her. The consent was given, but with evident reluc- 
 tance; and when, in 1653 — ^the year of her noviciate 
 having expired — she wrote to tell him that she desired to 
 bestow on Port- Royal and the poor the portion to which 
 she was entitled of their father's property, Blaise Pascal 
 was seriously offended, and reproached her for preferring 
 to give to strangers rather ['than to her sister (Madame 
 Pdrier) and himself He told her, moreover, that she 
 had no power to dispose of her fortune ; it could not 
 be withdrawn from her family. Jacqueline was greatly 
 distressed. She considered that the monastery which 
 had received her within its sacred walls had a right to 
 the small portion she possessed. It was only rendering 
 unto God that which was God's, and she felt indignant 
 that her brother should seek to withhold it and allow 
 her to be a burden to so poor a community. 
 
 No sooner was the Mfere Ang^lique made acquainted 
 with what had passed, than she at once advised a total 
 renunciation of Jacqueline's claim, treating it as absolutely 
 unimportant, and at the same time recalling the rule of 
 their Order, 'fo take nothing which was not freely given.' 
 A letter was despatched to her brother by Jacqueline in 
 the terms prescribed by the Mfere Ang^lique, yielding up 
 her heritage to her sister and himself. 
 
 A few days' afterwards, having received Jacqueline's 
 
1623-1662.] BLAISE PASCAL. 199 
 
 letter, Pascal presented himself at Port-Royal-de-Paris, 
 and though she attempted to appear gay and unconcerned, 
 he quickly perceived how grieved his sister was at heart, 
 and, filled with concern, immediately resolved to set her 
 mind at ease, by taking upon himself the payment of her 
 portion, which he felt could not be withheld with justice 
 from the monastery. 
 
 The whole affair was speedily settled, and on the 5th of 
 June 1653 Jacqueline made her profession as a nun of 
 Port-Royal. 
 
 Pascal continued to pursue his life of pleasure in Paris, 
 but it had begun to pall upon him, and his conscience 
 reproached him for having turned aside from the higher 
 life which once he sought. 
 
 For the last three or four years an intimacy had sprung 
 up with the Due de Roannes. The Due gave his friend 
 an apartment in his own house, and took him more 
 than once to Poitou, of which province he was governor, 
 not liking to lose sight of a man whose genius he admired, 
 and whose companionship he enjoyed. Pascal was thus 
 brought into the midst of the pleasures and dangers of 
 a luxurious life ; the standard of morality was far from 
 high in the society he habitually met at the Hotel 
 Roannfes. It was, moreover, impregnated with the scepti- 
 cism of the day, and though he was not contaminated 
 by the moral disorders any more than by the atheistical 
 opinions which surrounded him, he was not insensible 
 to the charms of a brilliant and refined society, and the 
 result was an attachment which sprung up towards the 
 young sister of his host' — an attachment which, owing to 
 the difference in their position, could only lead in the 
 end to disappointment on his part, and disapproval on that 
 of her family. 
 
200 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 Charlotte Gouffier de Roannfes was but sixteen when 
 Pascal's intimacy with her brother commenced. High 
 born and beautiful, she was gifted with those moral 
 qualities which far outweighed all others in the estima- 
 tion of Pascal. The purity of his thoughts can be seen 
 in his ' Discours sur I'Amour,' in which he says — 
 
 ' The first effect of love is to inspire great respect ; 
 We venerate the being whom we love. ' 
 
 Such was the feeling which filled the heart of Pascal 
 for the sister of the Due de Roannfes. It may be that 
 this earthly affection which he deemed hopeless, was 
 partly the means of bringing him to a full sense of the 
 insufficiency of the world to satisfy the aspirations of a 
 soul which had known God.^ 
 
 In the early autumn of 1654, Jacqueline Pascal tells 
 us, she received frequent visits from her brother at Port- 
 Royal. She had regained to a certain extent her influence 
 over him, but she was conscious that he was under 
 some yoke of bondage of which she did not know the 
 nature, and that the religious fervour of earlier days had 
 passed away. He so far opened his heart to her as to 
 confess that he sometimes felt forcibly moved to with- 
 draw from his present manner of life, and that he 
 had a growing distaste for the excitement and the folly 
 which surrounded him ; but though in spirit detached 
 in some degree from worldly things, a:nd tormented by 
 the prickings of conscience, he felt no upward movement 
 towards a higher life. He was slipping away from the 
 world without drawing nearer to God. 
 
 Whilst in this state of spiritual hesitation, halting between 
 
 1 See Prosper Faugere, ' Pens&s, Fragments et Lettres de Blaise 
 Pascal.' 
 
1623-1662.] BLAISE PASCAL. 201 
 
 two opinions, the incident occurred which determined the 
 bent of his mind and decided him to lead a rehgious life. 
 
 On a fete-day in the month of November 1654 he was 
 driving in a carriage drawn by four horses, probably 
 lent to him by the Due de Roannes. Taking the same 
 route out of Paris which is still so much frequented, he 
 had arrived at the Bridge of Neuilly, which crosses the 
 Seine, when the leading horses took fright and became 
 unmanageable. 
 
 It happened that at this place there was no protecting 
 parapet, and the frightened horses plunging, swerved and 
 fell over into the river below. In another second the 
 wheelers must have followed, dragging with them the , 
 carriage and its terrified occupant ; but happily the strain 
 on the harness was too great ; the traces broke, the wheel 
 horses and carriage stopped short on the brink, and Pascal 
 was saved. 
 
 Always feeble in health, the shock to his nerves was 
 so severe that he swooned away and remained for some 
 time unconscious. 
 
 But to his returning sense a new horizon was to open. 
 St. Paul's conversion as he journeyed was hardly more 
 sudden than the change produced in Pascal by that event- 
 ful drive. 
 
 He had for some time past found it hard to kick 
 against the pricks of conscience, but he was now ready 
 to ask, ' What wilt Thou have me to do ? ' Coldness and 
 indifference to spiritual things were superseded by the 
 ' fire of love,' and his one desire was to know the will of 
 God and do it. 
 
 As a symbol of his new-born faith, he carried about 
 with him, hidden within the lining of his coat and 
 pressed closely to his heart, a bit of parchment on which 
 
202 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 he had inscribed mysterious words, referring to his miracu- 
 lous escape and to some spiritual revelation vouchsafed to 
 him at the moment when death appeared inevitable. 
 
 Pascal himself never alluded to this occurrence, except 
 it may be to his confessor ; and it was not till after his 
 death that the mysterious parchment was discovered 
 stitched by himself within his doublet. 
 
 His visits to his sister Jacqueline became more and 
 more frequent, and this intercourse was of immense help 
 to him at this time. She perceived that a great change 
 had been wrought in him ; his heart seemed now pro- 
 foundly touched, and a holy sense of humiliation and 
 sorrow for past neglect of rehgion was visible in all his 
 words and acts. 
 
 Jacqueline wrote to her sister, Madame P^rier, that 
 she scarcely recognised him. The change was indeed so 
 wonderful that it has been called his second conversion. 
 
 The choice of a spiritual director, so important to all 
 devout Catholics, was felt by Pascal to be a difficulty, and 
 it was a point which he and his sister often considered. 
 
 It chanced on the afternoon of the 8th December 
 1654 that Pascal was visiting Jacqueline at the monastery 
 when the bell sounded summoning the community to 
 prayer. He had had no thought of attending the service, 
 but responding to the call, they went together to the 
 church. 
 
 The preacher was M. Singlin; and to the sensitive 
 mind of Pascal it seemed as though the sermon had 
 been composed and preached expressly for him, so exactly 
 was it suited to his case. Pascal regarded it as a divine 
 message to himself, and the question of a director was 
 settled; he at once resolved to place himself under the 
 direction of the preacher. 
 
1623-1662.] BLAISE PASCAL. 203 
 
 M. Singlin's health made him hesitate to undertake 
 the office ; he also thought it advisable that Pascal should 
 quit Paris for a season, and de/ore the return of the 
 Due de Roannfes, who would urge every plea of affection 
 that he could devise to prevent Pascal's retirement from 
 the world. 
 
 It was therefore decided that he should withdraw to 
 Port-Royal-des-Champs, of which M. de Saci was the 
 director, and join for a while the recluses at Les Granges. 
 
 Pascal was at this time thirty-one years of age, and 
 from henceforth he adopted that austere mode of life 
 which he maintained until his death. The change from 
 the luxury he had lived in was great, and to most men 
 would have been hard to bear, but to him it brought no 
 sense of hardship. He was filled with joy from the con- 
 sciousness of perfect reconciliation and union with God 
 — a joy which none could take from him. 
 
 He loved poverty, he said, because Christ had loved it. 
 He could rejoice even in pain and suffering because his 
 Lord had suffered. The love of Christ was henceforth 
 the passion of his life,i and ever bearing in mind that 
 the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but 
 to minister, he would suffer no one to wait on him, but 
 was himself ever ready to minister to those who needed 
 comfort or succour. 
 
 M. de Saci somewhat dreaded the arrival of ' the 
 brilliant genius who charmed and fascinated every one 
 Jie met ; ' but he could not refuse M. Singlin, who had 
 placed Pascal under his spiritual direction. It was M. 
 de Saci's habit, in conversation, to begin with the topic 
 of most interest to his companion, or with which he was 
 most familiar, and passing on from this, he would gradu- 
 
 1 Sainte-Beuve, ' Port-Royal.' 
 
204 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. I1623-1662. 
 
 ally introduce the subject of religion. He pursued this 
 same course with Pascal, his new penitent, discoursing 
 at first on philosophy and ending with citations from 
 St. Augustine. He thus drew forth Pascal's famous 
 description of the two systems of philosophy — the Stoical, 
 exemplified by Epictetus,i and the Sceptical or Epicurean 
 of Montaigne.^ 
 
 Pascal regarded these as the two great defenders of 
 the most celebrated philosophies of the world — men who 
 professed to follow reason rather than revelation. 
 
 ' The error in both,' he said, ' consisted in not seeing 
 that the present state of man differs from that in which 
 he was created. The one, discerning only the traces of 
 his primitive grandeur and ignoring his corruption, has 
 treated human nature as if it were unimpaired and com- 
 plete, without any need of a repairer — this leads to the 
 height of pride ; the other, sensible of man's present 
 misery and ignorant of his original dignity, treats human 
 nature as hopelessly weak and corrupt, and thus, in 
 despair of attaining any true good, plunges it into a 
 depth of inertness and depravity.' ^ 
 
 The conversion of Pascal led later on to that of his 
 friend, the Due de Roannbs, and so great was his influence 
 over Mademoiselle de Roannfes, that in 1657 she left her 
 home and entered her noviciate at Port-Royal with the 
 view of becoming a nun.* 
 
 The Due de Roannfes, by Pascal's advice, placed him- 
 self under the direction of M. Singlin. To the great 
 disappointment of his family, the Due declared his inten- 
 tion never to marry, in consequence of which Mademoiselle 
 
 1 Epictetus, a half-Christian Stoic of the first century. 
 
 2 Montaigne, a sceptic of the seventeenth century. His Essays are 
 defined by Lamartine as ' the encyclopedia of scepticism.' 
 
 3 Faug^re. ^ Faug^re. 
 
i623-i66=-] BLAISE PASCAL. 205 
 
 de Roannes was forced by a lettre- de-cachet, procured 
 from Anne of Austria, the Queen-mother, to quit Port- 
 Royal. But in her own home she persisted in leading 
 the life of a nun until 1665, when, Pascal being dead, 
 she began again to mix in the world, and finally yielding 
 to the wishes of her family, married M. de la Feuillade 
 — a marriage which filled her with remorse ever afterwards, 
 as contrary to the vows she had made at Port-Royal. 
 
 It was at the end of December 1654 that Pascal with- 
 drew to the solitude of Port-Royal-des-Champs; he 
 remained there during the greater part of the following 
 year, but he never actually became enrolled as one of 
 the recluses. It was an eventful year for Port-Royal. 
 Scurrilous attacks were launched by the Jesuits against 
 the Jansenists. The Due de IJancourt was refused abso- 
 lution by the priest at Saint-Sulpice owing [to his con- 
 nection with Port-Royal. Incensed by these repeated 
 insults, Arnauld wrote a fiery pamphlet, 1 followed up by a 
 letter, in which were assertions which his enemies seized 
 upon as heretical. 
 
 The Sorbonne met in conclave to consider what he 
 had written. 
 
 Numerous sittings had taken place, at which the Chan- 
 cellor Siguier attended with great pomp and ceremonial, 
 so that public curiosity became excited as to what was 
 going on. 
 
 In all the salons these sittings of the Sorbonne formed 
 the topic of conversation, and, to the consternation of 
 the religious world of Paris, it was generally asserted that 
 Arnauld, ' the great Arnauld ' — the star of the Sorbonne — 
 was accused of heresy on some fundamental article of faith. 
 
 The feeling of amazement increased, and loud murmurs 
 
 1 See 'Arnauld,' p. 153. 
 
2o6 FRENCH jfANSENISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 were heard, as no attempt at refutation of this assertion 
 appeared on the part of Arnauld. 
 
 The Jansenists were rapidly losing ground in public 
 estimation. Many began to regard them as dangerous 
 and incorrigible heretics. Arnauld was urged by all his 
 friends to clear himself from these false imputations. 
 'Why,' they asked, 'should he allow himself to be con- 
 demned without making an effort to enlighten the public 
 as to the real points in dispute ?' He accordingly undertook 
 to draw up a short treatise on the case, and after a few 
 days he read it to his assembled friends. The treatise 
 fell flat, and was coldly received ; perceiving which, 
 Arnauld quickly said, ' I see you do not approve of what 
 I have written, and you are right.' Then turning to 
 Pascal he exclaimed, 'But you who are young, who are 
 clever, you ought to do something.' Pascal replied, 
 ' In truth, I think I see how something might be done. 
 But all that I can promise is to try and sketch out for 
 you a plan. To others I must leave it to polish the 
 materials and arrange them for the press.' 
 
 Modest to excess, Pascal, who had scarcely ever written 
 except on scientific subjects, under-rated his own powers, 
 and when he thought only to make a sketch, he produced 
 a chef-cV muvre. The next day he read to the recluses his 
 first pamphlet, which he styled 'A Letter Written to a 
 Provincial by one of his Friends.' It was received with 
 acclamation, as certain to produce the desired effect. It 
 was printed immediately, and appeared on the 23rd 
 January 1656. 
 
 In another week a second letter was published. But 
 the condemnation of Arnauld by the Sorbonne was already 
 accomplished, in spite of the vehement opposition of 
 his numerous friends. To bring this about, a number 
 
1623-1662.] BLAISE PASCAL. 207 
 
 of monks were introduced in order to swell the majority 
 against him. It was scarcely a legal expedient, but, as 
 Pascal said, ' It was easier to find monks than arguments 
 in favour of his exclusion.' 
 
 The wit and pungency of these two letters produced a 
 marvellous sensation. No one knew by whom they were 
 written, and the curiosity of all parties became intense. 
 Cardinal Mazarin laughed, we are told, till he cried 
 over them. 
 
 The day before the censure was pronounced on Arnauld 
 the first of the ' Lettres Provinciales ' (as they were called 
 by a misnomer) was read aloud to the learned doctors 
 in the Hall of the Sorbonne, to the infinite amusement 
 of some and indignation of others. The excitement and 
 anger of the Jesuits may be imagined. 
 
 Now for the first time the secret was divulged to the 
 world as to the trivial charges against Arnauld and the 
 unscrupulous proceedings of the Sorbonne. But though 
 the public were enlightened, the Court supported the 
 Jesuits. The printer of the first letter was arrested. All 
 the booksellers were forbidden to sell it, but the com- 
 positors fled from one hiding-place to another, and, in 
 spite of ecclesiastical prohibition and royal displeasure, 
 successive letters appeared and were distributed through- 
 out Paris and sent in bales into the provinces.^ 
 
 At first the letters were anonymous, but afterwards 
 Pascal adopted the nom de guerre of Louis de Montalte. 
 
 During their publication it was necessary to quit Port- 
 Royal, and he retired first to a small house at the Porte 
 Saint-Michel, but for greater security he soon withdrew 
 under an assumed name to an inn behind the Sorbonne 
 and opposite the Jesuit College, thinking it most unlikely 
 
 ^ ' Les Premiers Jansenists ' (Monseigneur Ricard). 
 
2o8 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 that the author of the prohibited letters would be sought 
 for so close to the stronghold of his adversaries. 
 
 Here he was joined by his brother-in-law, M. Pdrier, 
 when an incident occurred which might have led to serious 
 consequences. A relation of M. Pdrier — a Jesuit — came 
 one morning to the inn, to warn him that the Society 
 had good grounds for believing that his brother-in-law, 
 M. Pascal, was the author of the malignant ' Lettres 
 Provinciales.' Pdrier made some evasive reply and trem- 
 bled with agitation, for at that very moment there lay 
 on the bed, only partially concealed by a curtain, some 
 twenty copies of the inculpated letters spread out to dry. 
 No sooner had the Jesuit cousin taken his leave, than 
 M. Pdrier rushed to Pascal's room overhead, and they 
 were now able to laugh together over a past danger. 
 
 The resentment of the Jesuits was quite natural. 
 Nothing could have been better conceived than these 
 letters for the purpose in view, and that purpose was 
 to cast ridicule on the Society whilst defending Arnauld. 
 Where Arnauld himself had utterly failed, Pascal com- 
 pletely succeeded. The brilliant orator was unsuited 
 to the task he had undertaken ; his style of writing 
 was cold and ponderous; whereas Pascal, while strictly 
 logical and serious in his argument, had the skill to treat 
 the subject in a light, sarcastic, and humorous manner. 1 
 
 The first two letters were concerning Arnauld and the 
 Sorbonne. 'We have been imposed upon,' he writes. 
 ' It was only yesterday that I was undeceived. Until 
 then I had thought that the disputes of- the Sorbonne 
 were really important, and deeply affected the interests 
 of religion. The frequent convocation of an assembly 
 
 1 Voltaire says, ' Les meilleures comedies de Moliire n'ont pas plus de 
 sel que les premieres Provinciales. Bossuet n'a rien de plus sublime que les 
 derniferes.' 
 
ifi.3-i«62.] BLAISE PASCAL. 209 
 
 so illustrious as that of the Theological Faculty of Paris, 
 attended by such unprecedented circumstances, induced 
 the highest expectations, and one could not help believing 
 that the business must be of unusual importance. You 
 will be much surprised, however, when you learn from 
 this letter the upshot of the grand demonstration.' 
 
 He then goes on to say that two questions alone were 
 under examination — the one a question of ' faQt,' the other 
 of ' right.' In the three first letters, and still more in the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth, Pascal points out with con- 
 vincing clearness the distinction between these two ques- 
 tions, termed '/e droit' and '/« fait^ which the Jesuits 
 persistently and consciously overlooked. The ^ droit,' i.e., 
 the right of the Pope to condemn the five propositions, 
 was never for a moment doubted or disputed by the 
 Jansenists, who at once accepted the Papal condemna- 
 tion as binding upon the Catholic Church. The '■fait' 
 was a totally different matter, being a question of fact 
 as to whether the five condemned propositions were or 
 were not in Jansen's book, the ' Augustinus.' Pascal 
 justly contends that one is a matter of faith and doctrine, 
 in which the decision of the Pope is absolute and final, 
 the other (utterly trivial in comparison) is a mere matter 
 of fact, in which the Pope himself may be mistaken, and 
 which could only be determined by a careful perusal of 
 the suspected book. He crowns this line of argument 
 by giving examples where Popes have been deceived on 
 matters of 'fact,' and sums up with the recent decree of 
 Rome proscribing the opinion of Galileo on the movement 
 of the earth round the sun.i Interspersed with the letters 
 are fictitious replies from the friend in the country, 
 written in the most naive manner, and enlarging on the 
 
 1 Galileo condemned by the Inquisition, June 1633. Urban VIII. 
 
 O 
 
210 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [i623-i6fi=- 
 
 interest the letters excited, and how they had been read 
 and admired by all; not merely by theologians, but by 
 statesmen, by men of the world, and even by ladies, 
 who found them delightful reading. Pascal showed his 
 knowledge of men when he introduced these flattering 
 replies, describing the prodigious success of what he had 
 himself written. The letters were taken at his own valua- 
 tion, and re^-d with eagerness in all the French, salons. ^ 
 
 The style of writing of the ' Provinciales ' was so original, 
 so fresh and natural, and the wit so keen, that a master- 
 mind was perceptible in every line, and men sought in 
 vain amongst the authors of the day for the writer. None 
 at first suspected Pascal, who up to this time had never 
 turned his mind to the study ■ of theology (so called) ; 
 therefore when he commenced these eighteen letters, he 
 had not only style and form to create, but he had likewise 
 to unravel the involved and intricate casuistry of his 
 opponents. His ardour in defence of Arnauld and his 
 genius carried him through all difficulties, and he made 
 points of everything which came in his way. The false 
 teaching of the casuists was exposed ; ' they were arraigned 
 on the charge of having systematically debased the 
 standard of evangelical morality for the purpose of in- 
 creasing their own influence.'^ All the satire of Pascal 
 was brought to bear upon this point whilst in eloquent 
 and exalted terms he vindicated Christian morality. 
 
 Voltaire considered the letters as ' models of eloquence 
 and pleasantry ; ' and compared them with ' the best 
 comedies of Moliere.' 
 
 1 'The " Lettres Provinciales" were welcomed for their wit by the 
 salons of Paris, and as witnesses for truth by all the morality of Europe.' 
 — ' Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy,' F. D. Maurice. 
 
 -' ' All Europe read and admired, laughed and wept,' over these letters. 
 — ' History of England,' vol. ii. p. 60, Lord Macaulay. 
 
i623-i662j BLAISE PASCAL. 211 
 
 When Bossuet was asked what work he would most 
 like to have written, he replied, ' Les Lettres Provinciales.' 
 Boileau pronounced them 'unsurpassed' in ancient or 
 modern prose.^ Madame de S^vigne asks, ' Is it possible 
 to have a more perfect style, an irony finer, more delicate, 
 more natural, more worthy of the Dialogues of Plato?' 
 And Gibbon attributes his own mastery of grave and tem- 
 perate irony to their frequent perusal. 
 
 In these days, it may be difficult fully to estimate the 
 force of these celebrated letters. Their point is lost through 
 the distance of time or our own want of interest in the 
 controversy ; so that, like the famous political letters of 
 Junius, the 'Provincial Letters,' which stirred so powerfully 
 Pascal's cotemporaries, may be to most of us somewhat 
 tedious reading. Time has no doubt dimmed their^ brilli- 
 ancy. But if in. the case of the 'Lettres Provinciales' we 
 are disposed to wonder at the enthusiasm with which 
 such masters of style and eloquence regarded them, 
 the same wonder cannot be felt with regard to the in- 
 complete fragments known as his 'Pensees,' which must 
 ever have an attraction for thoughtful seekers after spiritual 
 truth. When first published, the beauty of the work seems 
 to have been greatly impaired by omissions and additions 
 made by his friends, and it was only after: a lapse of nearly 
 
 1 In a letter of Madame de S^vign^, she speaks of a dinner at which, 
 among other guests, Boileau and a certain Jesuit Father were present. 
 The conversation turned on ancient and modern literature. Boileau took 
 the side of the ancients warmly. In his opinion they were far above 
 the moderns. . 'But,' said he, 'I must make one exception. There is a 
 writer, and a single one, of our own time who surpasses all others, ancient 
 or modern.' The Jesuit, who was listening attentively, eagerly asked the 
 name of the author on whom he set so high o, store. Boileau declined to 
 say. When pressed by all present, and especially by the Jesuit, who 
 wished to sit up all night to read the work, he replied, ' Morbleu, mon P4re, 
 you should not ask me ; but as you insist on knowing the author's name, — 
 it is Pascal ! ' ' Pascal ! ' echoed the Jesuit, red with anger and astonishment. 
 ' His work is subtle falsehood ! ' ' Falsehood ! ' retorted- Boileau ; ' it is as 
 true as it is inimitable.' See ' Lettres de Madame S^vignS,' p. 299. 
 
212 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [i6»3-i«fc- 
 
 two centuries that a complete and authentic text of the 
 * Pens^es ' appeared. 
 
 After Arnauld's condemnation, Port-Royal also became 
 endangered, and the success of the 'Provincial Letters' 
 tended to increase the exasperation of the Jesuits. In 
 the Sorbonne all those doctors who had refused to 
 sign the censure were expelled, and a few weeks later 
 orders were issued for the dispersion of the recluses 
 and the removal of the children under their care and 
 tuition.! This is called the second dispersion, the first 
 having taken place in 1638. But at this juncture the 
 notable incident called the ' Miracle of the Holy Thorn ' 
 took place, and changed the whole aspect of affairs for 
 Port-Royal. 
 
 The child on whom the miraculous cure was effected 
 was Marguerite Pdrier, the niece of Pascal.^ 
 
 It so happened that just at this time Pascal was much 
 occupied with a work which he had in view on the 
 evidences of the Christian religion, in refutation of the 
 atheistic reasoning which made miracles impossible, and 
 this ' Miracle of the Holy Thorn,' which he fully accepted, 
 seemed to him to bring a ray of light from above to 
 his spiritual vision, and to give him a fresh link in the 
 chain of Christian evidences.^ 
 
 In the following year (1657) the 'Lettres Provinciales ' 
 were placed on the Roman Index, formally censured, 
 and publicly burnt in Paris by order of the King. 
 
 But although the ' Lettres Provinciales ' met with these 
 indignities, they had done their work, and had opened 
 
 1 Racine, then n boy pf sixteen, was one pf those who were removed at 
 this time. 
 
 2 See ' M^re Apgaique,' p. 124, 
 
 2 See 'Ppjt- Royal' (Saint-Beuve), torn. iii. chap, xviii. 
 
i6e3-i662.] BLAISE PASCAL. 213 
 
 the eyes of the pubhc to the falseness of the casuists 
 afid the pernicious tendency of their maxims. 
 
 The letters had indeed been condemned and degraded, 
 but the laxity of morals which the letters denounced was 
 afterwards censured and condemned by the Pope,^ the 
 Sorbonne, and the whole assembly of the clergy of France, 
 with Bossuet, the oracle of the Gallican Church, at their 
 head. 
 
 Pascal himself never regretted having written them. 
 On the contrary, he always maintained that what he had 
 therein condemned would be condemned in heaven : ' Ad 
 tuum Domine Jesu tribunal appello.' And to Pascal 
 belongs the glory of having effected a great moral triumph 
 and purged the Church from a grave and latent scandal. 
 
 During the year 1657 to 1658 Pascal devoted himself 
 to the ' Pensdes,' but in the spring of the latter year 
 he was again seized with the same nervous malady from 
 which he had suffered in earlier days. His health visibly 
 declined, and his physical suffering was so great as to 
 prevent all continuous study. He pursued his task at 
 intervals, jotting down the thoughts as they came to him, 
 on slips of paper without any attempt at arrangement. 
 
 The self-imposed privations and ascetic practices in 
 which he found a morbid satisfaction increased his nervous 
 disorder. He suffered intensely at times, but he had 
 recourse to a singular means of alleviation, which showed 
 that his early love of geometry, in spite of his efforts to 
 crush it, was still instinct with life. 
 
 When his pain was extreme, he recalled to mind certain 
 geometrical problems, and worked them out with such 
 resolution that his absorbing mental occupation completely 
 dispelled for the time the pain. 
 
 ' Pope Innocent XI. iil 1675. 
 
214 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 This is perhaps the first instance on record of a man 
 being able by a powerful exercise of the intellect to hold 
 his bodily pain in check. 
 
 The few remaining years of Pascal's life were marked 
 by increased suffering. 
 
 We must turn for a brief space to his favourite sister, 
 Jacqueline, who was Sub-Prioress of Port-Royal-des-Champs. 
 On the departure of the Mfere Angdlique in April 1661 
 for the sister monastery in Paris, the charge of Port- 
 Royal-des-Champs had devolved upon Jacqueline. 
 
 In the month of June following, the house was un- 
 expectedly visited by Commissioners from Paris, who inter- 
 rogated her and every nun separately as to the doctrines they 
 held. The result was that the Commissioners departed, con- 
 fessing that they had found no trace of heresy among them. 
 
 Through some inadvertence the nuns of Port-Royal- 
 de-Paris failed to inform the sisterhood in the country of 
 what was taking place in their monastery; so that when 
 the dreaded formulary appeared, it was as a thunderbolt 
 to the nuns of Port-Royal-des-Champs. 
 
 With it was sent an explanatory document or ' mandate,' 
 which also required the .signature of the nuns, and which 
 had been drawn up by the Grand Vicars of the diocese, 
 with, the sectet concurrence of Arnauld and Nicole. The 
 document defined sufficiently clearly the distinction drawn 
 by the Jansenists between the 'drot'i' and the 'fatf,' but 
 this was rendered null and void by the wording of the 
 formulary, which demanded entire submission to the doc- 
 trinal decisions of the Pope, and passed over altogether 
 the controverted questiori as to the existence of the five 
 condemned propositions in the ' Augustinus.' The mandate 
 was but a bait to allure the unwary, but it failed in its 
 object. It deceived no one. Jacqueline saw through 
 
1623-166=.] BLAISE PASCAL. 21s 
 
 its insincerity, and, startled by its wording, hesitated to 
 comply with the order. In her eyes the mandate was 
 too ambiguous, the formulary only too clear. She ab- 
 horred all equivocation, and to sign a paper which omitted 
 the important question whether the condemned proposi- 
 tions were or zvere not in Jansen's book, was to her mind 
 like 'consenting to a lie, without denying the truth,' or 
 like 'offering incense to an idol, with the excuse that 
 you held a cross hidden within your sleeve.' She sent 
 a letter to the Sub-Prioress of the Paris community, to 
 be shown to Arnauld, written in spirited and pathetic 
 terms, protesting against 'the crooked ways' by which it 
 was now sought to obtain their signatures. In this letter 
 she blamed the bishops and doctors of the Church for 
 their dissimulation and cowardice in not boldly avowing 
 what they believed — /.«., that the five heretical proposi- 
 tions were not to be found in the ' Augustinus.' 
 
 'It might not be the province of a woman,' she wrote, 
 ' to speak in defence 'of the truth, yet when bishops 
 have only the courage of women, women should have 
 the courage of bishops, and if they might not defend the 
 truth, they could at least die for it.' Believing, however, 
 that she was bound by her vows of obedience, she at length 
 gave way, and in bitterness of heart she signed. It was 
 her death-blow. She never recovered from the wound 
 to her conscience. Troubled by remorse and thinking 
 that she had betrayed the cause of truth, Jacqueline 
 Pascal died four months afterwards, 'the first victim of 
 the enforced signature.' 
 
 When the news of his sister's death was brought to 
 Pascal, ' God give us grace to die as good a death,' 
 was all that he said ; but he determined from that moment 
 to act as she would have wished. 
 
2l6 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1623-166=. 
 
 He reversed the line he had before taken with regard 
 to the signature of the Port-Royalists. He had himself 
 signed the first ' mandate * with the explanatory clause 
 respecting the ' droW and the ''fait' Jacqueline, perhaps 
 swayed by his example, had also signed and died. She 
 had signed reluctantly ; reluctance was followed by remorse, 
 and Pascal would no longer hear of compromise or con- 
 cession. 
 
 He only outlived her ten months. 
 
 When in October the second mandate appeared, requir- 
 ing all the members of Port-Royal to sign the formulary 
 without reservation, he firmly and vehemently opposed 
 the signature, as a base surrender of truth to expediency. 
 To Arnauld and the other confessors and doctors of Port- 
 Ro)fal, who had met to discuss the question, and who 
 firmly advised the signature of the document, Pascal 
 said, 'You seek to save Port-Royal. You can never 
 save it, but you may hasten its ruin, and give your 
 own consciences a lasting wound by being traitors to 
 truth.' 
 
 He prevailed nothing with the others by his earnest- 
 ness, but on himself his impassioned appeal in the cause 
 of truth told seriously. Exhausted by excitement and 
 disappointment, he fell to the ground and was for some 
 time unconscious. On being afterwards asked by his 
 sister, Madame P^rier, what was the cause of his attack, 
 he said, 'When I saw those to whom I believed God 
 had committed the truth, and who were bound to be 
 its defenders, yield to expediency, I was so overcome 
 with grief and pain that I fainted away.' 
 
 After-times proved but too clearly that Pascal was right, 
 and that no concession could avail where a cause was 
 fore-doomed. 
 
1623-1662.] BLAISE PASCAL. 217 
 
 The Port-Royalists deeply lamented the estrangement 
 which followed upon this conflict of opinion between 
 Arnauld and Pascal, but after a while a complete re- 
 conciliation took place, and Arnauld, Nicole, and Sainte- 
 Marthe came often to visit him during his last illness. 
 They came in disguise, being in hiding from their enemies, 
 and fearing that if recognised they would be cast into prison. 
 
 Two months before his death Pascal quitted his own 
 house near the Porte-Saint-Michel for that of his sister, 
 Madame P^rier, in the Rue Neuve Saint-Etienne. It 
 was through a touching incident. 
 
 In his exceeding charity he had received into his house 
 a poor family — husband, wife, and children. One of the 
 sons caught the small-pox, and Pascal became afraid lest 
 Madame P^rier, who visited him daily, should carry the 
 infection back to her own children. Instead of removing 
 the sick youth from his house, Pascal, already ill, thought 
 the more simple plan was to remove himself 
 
 During the last weeks of his life Pascal's mind dwelt 
 with intense fervour and devotion on the passion of the 
 Lord, His desertion. His agony, and death on the Cross; 
 and in his extreme sensitiveness he shrank from being 
 tended with so much care — he, a sinful man — when his 
 Lord and Master had no friendly hand to soothe Him 
 in His death. He therefore implored his sister to allow 
 some poor suffering outcast to be moved to his room, and 
 at least share the comforts and tender care bestowed on 
 himself, and thus enable him to minister unto the Lord, 
 through one of His poor members. ' Quamdiu fecistis 
 uni ex his fratribus meis minimis, Mihi fecistis.' 
 
 When this was proved to be impossible, he then asked 
 that he himself might be moved to the Hospital of the 
 Incurables, and die in company with God's poor. 
 
2i8 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1623-1662. 
 
 Pascal's constant petition was to be allowed to receive 
 the sacraments of the Church, but his weakness was so 
 great that the doctors feared any excitement and delayed 
 giving permission. He confessed not only to the cure 
 of his parish, but also to M. de Sainte-Marthe, one of 
 the confessors of Port-Royal. 
 
 At midnight on the 19th August 1662 his end drew 
 near, and the priest entered the room of the dying 
 man with the last sacraments and exclaimed, 'Behold, 
 here is He for whom you have so long waited.' 
 
 Aroused to consciousness by these solemn words, Pascal 
 recovered sufficient strength to raise himself in his bed 
 without help. 'The joy of the Lord was his strength' in that 
 supreme effort ; he would have knelt, had it been possible, 
 so as to receive with the deepest reverence the Divine 
 mysteries. After the last Sacraments had been administered, 
 he thanked the priest, as he was leaving him, and in a voice 
 full of emotion exclaimed, ' May God never leave me.' 
 
 Pascal's love for the poor, his wish to die among them, 
 his great humility, his sensitive tenderness for God's truth, 
 and his courage in upholding it, must endear him to the 
 hearts of all true followers of Christ. 
 
 There was a vein of deep melancholy in his nature, 
 intensified by ill-health; his thoughts ever dwelt on the 
 sombre side of life. The misery of man, the brevity of 
 existence, were ever present to his mind, making him 
 turn away with stem rebuke from the frivolities, and even 
 we must add from the amenities, of Ufe. Still, as has 
 been said, 'It must be a cold heart that is not moved 
 by the picture of a great soul striving to renounce all 
 pleasure and all superfluities,' that he might in all things 
 be conformed to the image of his Divine Master. 'He 
 in truth looked forth on this common life of ours with 
 
i6»3-i662.] BLAISE PASCAL. 219 
 
 eyes filled with tears — tears not only of sorrow, but almost 
 
 of displeasure.' ^ 
 
 He was buried in the Church of St. Etienne du Mont, 
 
 where the inscription is still legible on his tomb. 
 
 Thus died Pascal in the plenitude of love and faith. ^ 
 He had himself written mournfully ' I must die alone,' ^ 
 
 but in the hour of death he was not alone. God was 
 
 with him, and in his last moments he of whom we think 
 
 as full of sadness, found the fulness of joy in the conscious 
 
 presence of his God. 
 
 1 Principal TuUoch. 
 
 2 See Sainte-Beuve {' Port-Royal'), torn. iii. p. 368. 
 
 3 ' On mourra seul.' 
 
FRENCH JANSENISTS. l^637-^6gS. 
 
 LOUIS-SEBASTIEN LE MAIN DE TILLEMONT. 
 
 B. 1637. D. 1698. 
 
 ' The scandal we have most to fear is the scandal we gi're 
 our neighbour by our bad example.' 
 
 'The separation from the world which piety requires, 
 should not lessen in any way the love we bear to our 
 fe'Jow-men. It should rather purify and increase that 
 love.' 
 
 'For a single fault some persons with indiscreet zeal 
 withdraw from a friend. . . . This conduct is entirely 
 opposed to charity, which requires that we should bear 
 one another's burden, and help each other to rise after a 
 fall. This can only be done by a loving tolerance towards 
 others.' 
 
 ' Courtesy makes us say that we are less than others, and 
 humility makes us think so. Courtesy puts humble words 
 into the mouth. HumiUty humble thoughts into the 
 heart' 
 
 ' No sooner has a person committed a fault than we are 
 apt to think all his piety is at an end. But in this we 
 judge very rashly and very unjustly. If to be a saint every 
 action must have been saintly, our calendar would be very 
 scant Those who take upon themselves to be such rigid 
 censors ought to consider how much they need the charity 
 of others to cover and bear with the faults in themselves. 
 
1637-1S98.] LOUIS-SEBASTIEN DB TILLEMONT. 221 
 
 Let them then deal with others as they would themselves 
 be dealt with.' 
 
 ' Let us have faith and we have all. If we love God and 
 are under His rule, we are in safety. In Him alone we 
 must put all our trust, making use with thankfulness of 
 the help we may get from men, but only regarding them as 
 under His direction.' 
 
 'A true Christian has this advantage— he may be free 
 from all disquietude. Loving only God, who dwells not 
 in the restless, but in the peaceful soul, he has the comfort 
 of feeling sure that nothing happens to himself or to others 
 but by permission of Him whom he loves, and that there- 
 fore nothing can really harm him or them.' 
 
 'Though the whole earth have nothing for you but 
 contempt and even aversion, what harm can all this do 
 you if you really love God, and, following in the way 
 which Jesus Christ has taught you, love the Cross and its 
 humiliations ? ' 
 
 ' True piety does not dry up our tears, but it makes them 
 flow in the right channel.' 
 
 'If this inner piety, which is peculiar to the Christian 
 religion, could be perfected in this life, it might perhaps 
 produce a worship and an adoration wholly inward and 
 spiritual, like that of the angels. But that which it cannot 
 do now it will accomplish in heaven, where the saints will 
 ceaselessly adore and praise God in divine songs which 
 love will form in their hearts, with no jarring sounds of 
 earth to interrupt or mar the harmony, for there will be 
 nothing there but what is accordant, immutable, and 
 eternal.' 
 
222 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1637-1698.- 
 
 '/A qui Dieu est tout, le monde n'est rien.' — St. Francois de Sales. 
 
 Louis-Sebastien le Nain de Tillemont was born in Paris 
 in 1637. His father, Jean le Nain, held the office of 
 Maitre des Requetes. He was a zealous supporter of 
 Port-Royal, and sent his son Louis, at the age of ten, 
 to be educated in the schools lately established by the 
 recluses in the Rue Saint-Dominique. From thence the 
 young Tillemont was removed to Les Granges, and from 
 first to last, according to M. de Sainte-Beuve, he was ' the 
 ideal pupil of Port-Royal.' 
 
 The boy was naturally of a meek and gentle disposition, 
 grave beyond his years, and so fond of study, that when 
 other children were at their games, he would shut himself 
 upj in his room with his books. : Livy's History was his 
 favourite reading. 
 
 He made rapid progress in learning, and his preference 
 for history, especially ecclesiastical history, was speedily 
 developed. He early commenced studying the ' Annales 
 Ecclesiastici ' of Baronius, under the guidance of Nicole, 
 and so intelligent and persistent were his questions, that 
 Nicole tells us he sometimes found himself embarrassed 
 how to reply to his pupil's astute queries. In after years, 
 when Nicole was engaged in controversy with the Calvinist 
 ministers, it was] he who had to apply to his former 
 pupil to solve some difficult point in early Church history. 
 
 At the age of fourteen Tillemont commenced gathering 
 materials for the great work which was to make his name 
 known as an ecclesiastical historian. His thoughts - ranged 
 themselves around the first six centuries of the Church, 
 and he diligently applied himself to the study of the 
 
1637-1698.] LOUIS-SEBASTIEN DE TILLEMONT. 223 
 
 Scriptures as the fountain-head, and to the writings of 
 the Fathers. Having drawn up a short plan of his pro- 
 posed work, beginning from apostoHc times, he showed it 
 to his masters who saw in this sketch so much genius 
 that they advised him to devote himself to early Church 
 history. He loved knowledge for itself; his studies were 
 not for fame ; they were purely disinterested, and without 
 any view of publication or future renown. He strove to 
 consecrate them by earnest prayer and the thought of 
 God's presence. 
 
 Although Nicole was Tillemont's chief instructor at Port- 
 Royal, M. de Saci was his spiritual director, and the 
 friend to whom he turned for counsel. He had full 
 sympathy with the lad, and bade him pray more, and 
 wait upon God to keep him from all touch of display. 
 
 When in 1656 the schools of Port-Royal were closed 
 and the scholars dispersed, Tillemont took up his abode 
 in Paris with his fellow-pupil and friend, M. du Fosse. 
 Here the young men were joined by a good priest 
 appointed by M. Singlin to look after them, and spent 
 four years of close study. 
 
 In 1660 the two friends moved to Saint-Jean-des-Trous, 
 where they continued their ecclesiastical researches under 
 the guidance of the parish priest, a learned doctor of the 
 College of Navarre. 
 
 Tillemont allowed nothing to interfere with his work 
 or divert him from his studies, but Du Foss^ was not 
 equally abstracted from the outer world. To him the 
 state entry of Louis XIV. and his queen, Marie Thdrbse, 
 into Paris was an irresistible sight, whilst for his friend 
 it had no attraction whatever. 
 
 When the persecution of the Jansenists recommenced, 
 Tillemont sought refuge in the diocese of Beauvais, 
 
224 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. 11637-169^. 
 
 where the good Bishop (Buzenval) received him with 
 open arms. He was but twenty-four years old, but his 
 reputation for learning had preceded him, and he was 
 shown every mark of respect and esteem. 
 
 The masters of the seminary at Beauvais where he 
 lodged, pointed him out to their scholars as a model 
 of learning and application, and they themselves often 
 consulted him on some obscure point in early Church 
 history. Tillemont's natural diffidence made all this 
 distasteful to him. Praise was what he most dreaded 
 and shunned. To his modest and sensitive nature 'a 
 compliment was like receiving a blow,' and disturbed by 
 the consideration in which he was held, he wrote to M. 
 de Saci, saying that he dreaded above all things this atmos- 
 phere of flattery, and would willingly leave Beauvais for 
 a more retired place if M. de Saci approved. His director 
 quieted his scruples for the time, and he remained on 
 at Beauvais under the protection of the Bishop. 
 
 Eight or nine years passed away in quiet study over 
 the work which Tillemont regarded as the task divinely 
 appointed to him. He had not made choice of any 
 profession, and sought no kind of advancement; he 
 was content to remain a student till his life's end. The 
 Bishop, after some difficulty, succeeded in persuading him 
 to receive the tonsure. When, however, M. de Beauvais 
 followed this up by urging him to enter the priesthood, 
 saying that it would be the greatest consolation to him- 
 self to think that Tillemont might be his successor in 
 the diocese, the modest scruples of the young deacon 
 revived, and to avoid the pressure put upon him by 
 the Bishop, he quitted the seminary and retired to the 
 house of his friend, M. Herment, whom he materially 
 assisted in his work on the four Greek Fathers. 
 
1S37-1698.] LOUIS-SEBASTIBN DE TILLEMONT. 225 
 
 Finally, having obtained his father's permission, he deter- 
 mined to leave Beauvais and return to Paris, where he 
 again established himself with his old friend and fellow- 
 student Du Fossd. For two years the friends remained 
 together in a small house they had rented in the Rue 
 Saint- Victor, Faubourg Saint-Marceau. It was whilst here 
 that Du Foss^ published the lives of Tertullian and Origen, 
 to which Tillemont had largely contributed. 
 
 It was his great pleasure thus to efface himself and 
 serve the Church through others, giving them freely and 
 secretly of his abundant knowledge. 
 
 The 'Peace of the Church' opened the way for M. de 
 Tillemont's return to Port-Royal. He sighed for the quiet 
 of the country, for the woods where of old he had been 
 accustomed to meditate, and in 1672 he left Paris for 
 Saint - Lambert, a village between Chdvreuse and Port- 
 Royal. 
 
 He was now once more with M. de Saci, who in the 
 exercise of his authority overcame Tillemont's scruples on 
 the score of pergonal unworthiness, and led him to receive 
 successively the ecclesiastical orders, and finally, at the 
 age of forty, that of priesthood (1676). 
 
 M. de Saci wished that Tillemont should be his suc- 
 cessor in the direction of souls ; and with this view a 
 small lodging was built for him in the courtyard of Port- 
 Royal-des-Champs. But it was of little use. In 1679 ^^^ 
 'Peace of the Church' came to a sudden end, and he 
 was ordered to leave the monastery. He then retired to 
 Tillemont, a small estate near Vincennes, from which he 
 derived his name. Here he lived until his death, with the 
 exception of a short visit to Holland to see Arnauld 
 and the Dutch Jansenists. It was a tranquil monotonous 
 life, passed in devotion and the exact observance of the 
 
226 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1637-1698- 
 
 offices of the Church. A daily walk was his chief re- 
 laxation, when he would wend his way, staff in hand, 
 among the woods he knew so well, singing the chants 
 he loved. Tillemont had always a good word for those 
 he met in his daily walk. To the children tending cows 
 in the field he had something to say. He was heard to 
 ask them 'how it was that such great animals allowed 
 themselves to be led by a little child,' thus trying to 
 awaken in them the sense that, young and small as they 
 were, there was something higher and nobler in them than 
 in the poor animals, even their souls. ' The soul of a 
 little child was more beautiful,' he said, 'than the sun in 
 its splendour, but that sin had deformed and made it 
 ugly,' and then he tried to make them understand what 
 sin was. ' It is that, ' he said, ' which you dare not do 
 before others whom you love or fear.' 
 
 Tillemont's tenderness of conscience was not weakened 
 as he laboured in the course of his History through the 
 arid paths of religious controversy. On the contrary, he 
 was frequently disquieted with the fear ' lest his love of 
 study should become a snare to him, and so engross his 
 thoughts as to lower his spiritual life. He was conscious 
 that at times he felt an inward reluctance to put aside 
 his literary work even for the sacred duties he had to 
 fulfil. He dreaded lest spiritual lukewarmness should 
 take the place of that divine fervour which needs to be 
 nourished by prayer and meditation at the feet of Christ. 
 He resolved, therefore, that however absorbed in his studies, 
 he would close them the very minute the appointed hour 
 for prayer had struck. If he could not divert his thoughts, ^ 
 he could at least shut up his books, and he felt that this 
 exactitude was a solemn duty he owed to God and to the 
 Church. 
 
1637-1698.] LOUIS-SEBASTIEN DB TILLEMONT. 227 
 
 Tillemont's great work appeared only a few years before 
 his death. It consists of two parts. - The first is entitled 
 'Histoire des Empereurs at des Princes qui ont rdgnd 
 durant les Six Premiers SiScles.' The second part is 
 called 'M^moires pour Servir k I'Histoire Eccl^siastique 
 des Six Premiers Siecles.' Twenty-two quarto volumes 
 in all — eight only of which appeared in the lifetime of 
 Tillemont. The first volume, published in 1690, was 
 well received. In the Journal des Savants there was a 
 notice of it strongly eulogistic. His father, proud of 
 his son's success, was urgent that he should read it. But 
 Tillemont, strong in " the strength of a profound humility," 
 excused himself He was glad, he said, to think he had 
 not laboured in vain, and that his work might be useful to 
 others ; but he needed no incitement to his vanity, which 
 was only too strong already by nature. 
 
 Tillemont's volume did not pass unchallenged. The 
 Oratorian Pfere Lami put forward a protest against his 
 view of the Paschal Feast. Lami held that our Lord 
 did not partake of it the night before He suffered; 
 whereas Tillemont, holding fast to the Scripture narra- 
 tive and early tradition of the Church, maintained that 
 our Lord partook of the Paschal Feast before instituting 
 the Holy Eucharist. Even in controversy Tillemont was 
 always deferential. On this occasion he consulted Bossuet, 
 and showed him the letter he had written in reply to Pere 
 Lami. Bossuet thought it too humble in tone, and said 
 with a smile, as he returned the letter to Tillemont, 'Do 
 not be always on your knees before your adversary — at 
 least sometimes stand upright and face him.' On the 
 other hand, Nicole regarded this letter as a model for 
 all Christians engaged in controversy. 
 
 Gibbon the historian, in writing his work on the Roman 
 
228 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1637-1698- 
 
 Empire, made great use of Tillemont's ' Histoire des 
 Empereurs,' which he praised for its wonderful fulness 
 and accuracy. He said that 'Tillemont's compilations 
 might be considered as an immense repertory of almost 
 all that the Fathers have preserved, invented, or believed,' ^ 
 and had made it unnecessary for him to wade through the 
 ocean of theological controversy. 
 
 Like another Bede, Tillemont laboured on devoutly, 
 indefatigably, to the end of his life. He lived to complete 
 the task he had set himself. In his last illness he said 
 he could have wished for a few more years to put the 
 finishing touches to it ; but when told that his hours were 
 numbered, he at once yielded himself up to Him 'who 
 knew,' he said, 'what was best,' and shortly afterwards 
 exclaimed, ' How happy it now is to have only to occupy 
 oneself with God and the things of God ! ' 
 
 Tillemont's submission to his earthly father had always 
 been that of a child. It is said he would never, even at 
 sixty, take any important step without previously asking 
 his consent, and now at the close of life he intrusted 
 himself in perfect peace into the hands of his Heavenly 
 Father. 
 
 Tillemont was buried at Port-Royal-des-Champs. On 
 his tomb these words were engraved, ' Sancte educatus, 
 sancte vixiV 
 
 M. le Nain was present at his son's death, and followed 
 him in a few days, being nearly ninety years old. 
 
 1 See ' Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon,' vol. ii. 
 
•634-17J9-1 PASQUIER QUESNEL. 229 
 
 PASQUIER QUESNEL. 
 
 B. 1634. D. I719. 
 
 ' God is our life ; we only die when we lose Him.' 
 
 ' Perhaps in all of us the Pharisee lurks in some corner.' 
 
 'Let us love God. This is all that is needful in this 
 world and the other.' 
 
 ' All should be Christian in a Christian.' 
 
 ' There are many mansions in the house of the enemy 
 of souls, as well as in the house of our Father.' 
 
 'To insist upon seeing is a very bad condition to be in 
 for believing.' 
 
 ' There is not a moment to lose where another moment 
 is uncertain.' 
 
 'Whatever our condition, we must be of the order of 
 true penitents to be saved.' 
 
 ' God's work sustains the worker.' 
 
 ' All is as nothing to whom God is everything.' 
 
 ' Almsgiving does not impoverish. It empties the hand, 
 but it fills the heart.' 
 
250 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [.634->7i9- 
 
 ' You open the heart of others when you open yours 
 to them.' 
 
 ' Humility is at the same time the mother and the 
 daughter of faith.' 
 
 ' He who is humble in heart only casts his eye upon his 
 neighbour's life, that he may imitate the good which he sees 
 therein.' 
 
 ' Where charity is, there is Jesus Christ ; where division is, 
 there is the devil.' 
 
 ' Charity is an eternal debt. It has no limit.' 
 
 ' Every Christian is a Barabbas delivered from death by 
 the death of Jesus.' 
 
 ' The heart should give alms when the hand cannot' 
 
 ' One is saved many a fall if humility keeps one near the 
 ground.' 
 
 St. Matt. ii. II. — 'To open one's heart is to open one's 
 treasure.' 
 
 ' Send not back to Providence the poor whom Providence 
 sends to you.' 
 
 'It often happens that the more one reasons, the more 
 one gets perplexed. The secret of peace of heart is to 
 allow oneself to be led. It is enough for him who loves 
 God to know God's will, that he may simply through 
 His grace do if, without seeking to know the reason.' 
 
 St. Matt. i. 23. — ' Immanuel, which is, being interpreted, 
 God with us.' 
 
 'In Jesus Christ dwells all the fulness of the God- 
 
1634-1719] PASQUIER QUESNBL. 231 
 
 head substantially and bodily. Of this fulness we receive, 
 for it dwells witk us and in us by Jesus Christ, who, 
 through the wondrous means of faith, deigns to dwell in 
 our hearts. 
 
 'What consolation is ours in this gift of faith, which 
 enables us to say at all times and on all occasions, 
 Nobiscum Deus — God with us! Thou art with us, Lord, 
 by Thine incarnation ; deign also to be with us by the 
 living impress and sense of Thy divine presence, through 
 the blessed influence of Thy spirit, Thy grace. Thy 
 love.' 
 
 St. Matt. ii. 2-7. — ' We have seen His star.' 
 'Jesus Christ is our Star; but too often we search His 
 Word with perverse mind, through conceit or for vain 
 speculation . . . not seeking the spirit of the Word. We 
 ask at what time the star appeared, but we follow it not.' 
 
 ' We shall never return heavenwards except by a path 
 directly opposite to that which led us away. It is the 
 greatest of all illusions to imagine that one can be con- 
 verted without changing our way of life, and to fancy 
 that one can get to heaven by the same road which was 
 leading us to perdition.' 
 
 St. Matt, xxvii. 50. — 'Jesus cried again with a loud voice 
 and yielded up His spirit.' 
 
 'Oh, cry of Jesus, penetrate to the very depth of my 
 heart. Heal its dulness ; draw it forth from its torpor, 
 that it may be wholly absorbed in adoring, loving, and 
 praising a God dying for my soul's salvation, so that all 
 selfraa.y be annihilated before the cross. 
 
 'This last moment of the life of Jesus is the source 
 of confidence to the dying. In my last hour may my 
 spirit be with Thine, O Jesus, and by Thy death may 
 mine be sanctified.' 
 
232 FRENCH jfANSENISTS. [i634-i7i9- 
 
 ' No man can light the sacred fire in the heart of another, unless his 
 own soul is thereby inflamed.' — St. Gregory. 
 
 Pasquier Quesnel was born in Paris (1634). He is said 
 to have been of Scottish descent. He studied theology 
 and philosophy with great distinction at the Sorbonne, 
 and in 1657 he entered the Congregation of the Oratory, 
 established by Cardinal de BeruUe. 
 
 Here he gave much time to the study of the Scriptures 
 and the works of the Fathers of the Church. He com- 
 posed books of devotion for the young, and his work 
 entitled 'Pensdes Chrdtiennes sur les Quatre Evangiles,' 
 written for the youths under his charge, was received 
 with so much approbation, that at the age of twenty- 
 eight he was raised to the post of director of the Oratorian 
 school. 
 
 He also brought out a new edition of the works of 
 St. Leo the Great, with marginal notes, in which he 
 strongly defended the attitude of the Church of France 
 in the Afth century, in opposition' to the pretensions of 
 the Roman See.^ This brought upon Quesnel the dis- 
 pleasure of the Pope, and his book was put upon the 
 Index. By this time Jansenist doctrines had spread rapidly 
 both in France and in the Netherlands. The Oratorians, 
 as a body, secretly favoured the new opinions. Quesnel 
 himself was a warm disciple of Jansen, and M. Abel 
 Louis de Sainte-Marthe, the general of the Oratorians, 
 was at heart a Jansenist. 
 
 Quesnel's intimacy with M. de Sainte-Marthe drew upon 
 
 1 Quesnel defended St. Hilary of Aries, the Gallican Metropolitan, who 
 was put under arrest by St. Leo for maintaining the independence of the 
 Gallican Church. St. Hilary escaped from prison, and though deposed 
 by Leo, retained his dignity as Metropolitan till his death. 
 
1634-1719.I PASQUIER QUBSNEL. 233 
 
 him the disfavour of M. de Harlay, Archbishop of Paris, 
 who looked with suspicion on any one whose views 
 savoured of Jansenism, and who was determined to purge 
 out this leaven from the Congregation of the Oratory. By 
 his intrigues M. de Harlay had excluded M. de Breuil 
 from the generalship, on account of his Jansenistic ten- 
 dencies, but he had not succeeded in placing the candidate 
 of his own choice as general, and, to his great vexation, 
 M. de Sainte-Marthe had been elected to the office. 
 
 Before long, however, M. de Harlay had his way. M. 
 de Sainte-Marthe was exiled, M. de Breuil was dismissed 
 to Rouen, and in 1681 Quesnel himself was ordered to 
 quit Paris. He repaired to Orleans, and whilst there he 
 continued his work on the New Testament. His ' Reflec- 
 tions on the Four Gospels' had already been published, 
 and had met with a most favourable reception; he now 
 added 'Reflections' on the Acts and Epistles, which he 
 had begun in Paris by the advice of Nicole. 
 
 But in 1684 an incident occurred which forced him 
 to quit France. This was the appearance of an Anti- 
 Jansenist formula, drawn up some six years before, but 
 not put into force till now. All the members of the 
 Congregation of the Oratory were required to affix their 
 signatures to this formula, which -interdicted all teaching 
 savouring of the doctrines of Jansenius in theology or 
 of Descartes in philosophy. Quesnel and his friends re- 
 solved to quit France rather than affix their signatures 
 to 'a senseless and despotic document.' Quesnel joined 
 Arnauld at Brussels, and remained there till his friend's 
 death in 1694. During his stay in the Netherlands, 
 Quesnel finished his 'Rtfflexions Morales,' and in 1692 he 
 brought out the whole work on the New Testament. In 
 spite of its Jansenism, several bishops gave it their approval, 
 
234 FRENCH jfANSENISTS. [i634-i7'9- 
 
 and it even attracted many Ultramontane admirers. M. 
 de Noailles, Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne, not only gave 
 the work his sanction, but recommended it to his clergy 
 as ' bread for the strong and milk for the feeble.' 
 
 It went through three editions in spite of the Jesuits, 
 who tried to set the minds of people against it by de- 
 faming the author as 'a seditious and dangerous man.' 
 
 On the sudden death of M. de Harlay in 1695, M. 
 de Noailles was raised to the vacant archbishopric. 
 
 In 1696 (the year following the elevation of M. de 
 Noailles), M. de Saint-Cyran's nephew, M. de Barcos, 
 published a treatise called, ' Exposition de la Foi de I'Eglise 
 touchant la Grace et la Prtfdestination.' It was immediately 
 condemned by the new Archbishop as ' false, impious, 
 blasphemous, and heretical, and worthy of anathema for 
 renewing the doctrines of the five propositions of Jansen.' 
 The Archbishop's strong language did not pass un- 
 answered. 
 
 It was quickly followed by the famous ' Ecclesiastical 
 Problem,' almost as smartly written as the ' Lettres 
 Provinciales,' in which the writer asks ' whether one ought 
 to believe M. Louis Antoine de Noailles, Bishop of 
 Chalons in 1695, or M. Louis Antoine de Noailles, Arch- 
 bishop of Paris in 1696.' 
 
 ' A parallel is drawn between the " Reflections " by 
 Quesnel, which the Bishop approved, and the " Exposi- 
 tion " by Barcos, which the Archbishop condemned, proving 
 the absolute identity of the doctrine set forth. The 
 "Problem" was ordered to be burnt, but M. de Noailles' 
 character as an honest man and a theologian was seriously 
 damaged.' ^ 
 
 1 See Dr. Neale's ' History of the so-called Jansenist Church,' also 
 Christian Remembrancer (' Jansen ists'), January 1852. 
 
I634-I7I9.1 PASQUIBR QUBSNEL. 235 
 
 In 1 701 the famous 'Case of Conscience' appeared; 
 the old dispute about the 'droit' and the '/««V' had 
 seemingly worn itself out. Peace had been restored on 
 this point rather through exhaustion than through any 
 formal agreement ; but, unfortunately, in this year the 
 question was revived by the misplaced zeal of a friend 
 of Port-Royal-des-Champs. A priest named Eustace, a 
 confessor, wishing to satisfy his own scruples and those 
 of others, drew up an imaginary case of conscience, 
 which he. submitted to the Sorbonne. It related to the 
 precise nature of the submission which was required to 
 the Papal Bulls against Jansenism. ' Not believing in the 
 "fait" that Jansen's book contained heretical proposi- 
 tions, could a faithful servant of the Church conscientiously 
 sign the formula with certain mental reservations, under- 
 stood but not expressed ? ' 
 
 In other words, could he, by maintaining a respectful 
 silence, be considered as obedient to the Papal decision 
 and be entitled to priestly absolution ? 
 
 Forty doctors of the Sorbonne signed their assent, but 
 for a year the case remained unsettled. Suddenly it 
 appeared in a pamphlet with a preface, which created 
 an uproar in the theological world. The pamphlet was 
 sent to Rome and condemned. Pope Clement XI. 
 (Albani) wrote briefs to the King and the Archbishop, 
 notifying his condemnation and urging stringent measures 
 on the part of the Archbishop. 
 
 The King solicited a new Bull from the Pope, and 
 in this Bull (known as ' Vineam Domini Sabaoth ') it was 
 required that all who signed should acknowledge that 
 Jansen's book (the ' Augustinus ') was infected with heresy. 
 In 1705 M. de Noailles was elevated to the dignity of 
 Cardinal. He had up to this time protected Port-Royal, 
 
236 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1634-1719. 
 
 and borne testimony to the purity of the faith of the 
 nuns; but he was weak, and, in the words of M. de 
 Saint-Cyran, 'the weak are more to be feared than the 
 -wicked, and so it proved. He reluctantly gave way to 
 the King on every point; he was forced into executing 
 a mandament censuring the ' case of conscience ' as 
 ' calculated to renew quarrels and favour equivocations 
 and mental reservations.' The Bull was accepted by 
 the whole assembly of the clergy; the forty doctors 
 (with one exception) retracted their previous assent, and 
 , the one who stood out was expelled from the Sorbonne. 
 The foolish author of the ' Case of Conscience ' dis- 
 appeared from the scene, broken-hearted at the mischief 
 he had unwittingly caused. 
 
 Further troubles awaited the Jansenists. In May 1703 
 Quesnel's place of concealment in Brussels was dis- 
 covered, and he was suddenly arrested. Since the death 
 of Arnauld in 1694 he had been the 'oracle' of the Port- 
 Royalists ; the mantle of that great leader had fallen upon 
 him, and his capture, with that of all his papers, struck 
 consternation into the whole party. 
 
 The Archbishop of Malines had obtained an order from 
 Philip V. of Spain for his arrest, and he was thrown into 
 the Archbishop's prison at Brussels. 
 
 Many of Quesnel's friends were compromised by his 
 papers, and were sent to the Bastile. The Jesuits were 
 triumphant ; they alleged that plots and counterplots against 
 the King and the Government had been brought to light. 
 
 Fresh severities awaited the nuns of Port-Royal-des- 
 Champs. A theological warfare was going on outside the 
 monastery, and their opponents were stronger than ever 
 in their influence over the King. AVhat could a few poor 
 Sisters do to withstand the storm ?, 
 
I634-I7I9-1 PASQUIER QUESNEL. 237 
 
 In March 1706, the Pope's Bull, ' Vineam Domini 
 Sabaoth,' as well as the Cardinal's mandament, headed 
 ' Against Jansenists,' were ordered to be read to the Abbess 
 •(Mere Boulard) and the nuns of Port-Royal-des-Champs 
 by their confessor. The separate signature of each nun was 
 not required, but the confessor and the Abbess were to sign a 
 certificate for the whole community, stating that the Bull and 
 the Cardinal's mandament had been duly read and accepted. 
 
 The heading of the latter alarmed them ; they saw 
 that the face of the Cardinal-Archbishop was turned from 
 them, but, come what might, they resolved not to give 
 their assent unconditionally. 
 
 They declared that 'they received both the Bull and 
 the mandament with all the respect due to His Holiness 
 and the Cardinal-Archbishop, but without derogating from 
 what was settled for them at the Peace of the Church under 
 Clement JX.' This saving clause referred to the distinc- 
 tion between '/« droit' and ' le fait,' admitted by Clement 
 IX., and contained the pith of the matter. 
 
 Neither the King nor the Cardinal were satisfied ; their 
 acceptance must be unconditional. 
 
 Another ecclesiastic was sent to induce them to withdraw 
 the conditional clause they had inserted. One by one the 
 nuns refused ; ' they could not do what was contrary to 
 their conscience.' Threats and entreaties were alike vain. 
 They felt that ' the certificate without the additional clause 
 would be interpreted as a condemnation of the course 
 pursued by the holy abbesses, the learned and pious 
 doctors, whose lives were the glory of their house.' 
 
 They preferred to run the risk of extinction rather than 
 abandon the ground they had gained at the Peace of the 
 Church.i 
 
 1 ' Histoire Abr^gfe ' (AbW Guilbert) ; Beard's ' Port-Royal. ' 
 
238 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [i634-i7'9. 
 
 This was their last word. 
 
 To their joy, they learnt that Quesnel had escaped from 
 his prison, through the friendly help of a Spaniard, who 
 had contrived to make a hole in the prison wall suffi-- 
 ciently large to admit of his egress. He escaped to Am- 
 sterdam. This marvellous deliverance, which was looked 
 upon as a miracle, had invested him with fresh spiritual 
 authority. ■ 
 
 The nuns applied to him for counsel. He replied ' that 
 the form prescribed was most specious. It had the 
 appearance of asking almost nothing to preserve every- 
 thing ; whereas, in truth, it asked the sacrifice of everything 
 and promised nothing.' 
 
 He commended their resistance, and said the resolution 
 of these faithful servants of God to risk all rather than 
 betray their conscience by accepting this insidious docu- 
 ment, was a duty they owed to truth and justice.' ' They 
 might,' he said, 'be bereft of all, they might be torn 
 from their monastery and dispersed, deprived of the 
 Sacraments, their monastery delivered up to others or 
 destroyed, but in a few short years they would carry to 
 the tribunal on high the sacred deposit committed to 
 them of fidelity to the truth, and though ruined by the 
 injustice of men, such an end would resemble that of 
 the holy martyrs, who made a sacrifice of all and died 
 for the cause of truth.' 
 
 ' It brought them into closer communion with their Lord 
 and Master, whose witness for truth brought death.' In 
 the words of the Saviour he added, ' He who would save 
 his life shall lose it, and he who would lose his life for 
 My sake shall save it' 
 
 Quesnel's letter reanimated their courage, and they re- 
 solved to sacrifice all rather than make a concession 
 
1634-1719I PASQUIBR QUESNBL. 239 
 
 which they felt the Mfere Angdlique would have deemed 
 disloyal, and even disgraceful. 
 
 'They would not for the sake of present safety sully 
 the fair fame of a century of devotion to truth.' 1 
 
 So this little band of faithful women held their fidelity 
 to the last, and were willing to suffer unto death, if need 
 be, rather than attest what they firmly believed to be false. 
 Death was not far distant to some of them. 
 
 The Sub-Prioress, the Abbess (Mfere Boulard), and the 
 Prioress herself, quickly followed one another to the grave. 
 The Abbess in her last hours nominated Soeur Louise du 
 Mesnil to the office of Prioress, knowing her to be one 
 who would follow in the steps of Angdlique and Agnes 
 Arnauld. Cardinal de Noailles refused to allow the 
 appointment of Abbess to be filled up, so that from this 
 time Port-Royal-des-Champs was governed by Louise du 
 Mesnil, the new Prioress. A stringent decree was issued 
 by the Cardinal prohibiting the reception of novices. It 
 was the death-knell of the community. 
 
 At this time a fresh claim was put forth by the sister- 
 hood of Port-Royal-de-Paris on the revenue of the mother 
 monastery. Cardinal de Noailles had hitherto refused to 
 listen to this demand ; but things had altered, and the 
 Abbess of Port-Royal-de-Paris thought that a favourable 
 moment had arrived to renew her suit. 
 
 A petition was accordingly presented to the King, who 
 ordered an inspection to be made of ,the property of 
 the two monasteries. This took place in 1707, and the 
 result was that the scanty income of Port-Royal-des- 
 Champs was reduced • for the benefit of Port-Royal-de- 
 Paris. 
 
 Not content with this success, a further petition was 
 
 ' See Beard's ' Port-Royal.' 
 
240 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [1634-719- 
 
 presented to the King, praying for the total suppression of 
 the old monastery. 
 
 Louis XIV. put the whole matter in the hands of 
 Cardinal de Noailles, who appointed ' a commission of 
 inquiry.' The nuns of Port-Royal-des-Champs drew up a 
 remonstrance, and finding their words were of no avail, 
 they made an appeal to the higher court of Lyons, and 
 thus for a while stayed the hand of M. de Noailles. 
 
 Further fruitless efforts were made to induce them to 
 accept the Bull unconditionally ; and on their refusal, the 
 nuns wer-^ again deprived of the Sacraments, as they had 
 been before the ' Peace of the Church.' 
 
 The King became impatient at the dilatory proceedings 
 of the Cardinal, and rebuked him sharply, saying, ' If the 
 Bishop of Chartres had had the affair of Port-Royal in 
 his hands, he would have finished it in a fortnight.' But 
 the Cardinal was hampered by the nuns' appeal to the 
 court of Lyons, and it required a Bull from Rome to set it 
 aside and give him plenary power. 
 
 On the 27th of March 1708, Clement XI. issued a Bull 
 commanding the union of the two monasteries, but pro- 
 viding that 'the sisters of Port-Royal-des-Champs should 
 remain in peaceable possession of their house and have 
 the entire use of their church till their death.' This did 
 not at all satisfy the King. ' If he were to wait,' he said 
 ' till the last lay sister died, he might not have the pleasure 
 of seeing in his lifetime the final extinction of Port-Royal- 
 des-Champs. 
 
 A new Bull was therefore issued at his solicitation, which 
 gave full powers to M. de Noailles to suppress the Abbey 
 of Port-Royal-des-Champs, and transmit its property to 
 Port-Royal-de-Paris. It went on to say that this 'nest 
 of error ' must be utterly uprooted, and the nuns and lay 
 
1634-1719.] PASQUIBR QUESNEL. 241 
 
 sisters transferred together or separately to other religious 
 houses, as was judged best by the Archbishop. 
 
 Cardinal de Noailles, however, was cautious, and he 
 determined not to proceed without some show of justice. 
 He therefore ordered a preliminary visit to be paid to both 
 monasteries, and witnesses to be interrogated as to the 
 advantages or disadvantages {de commotio vel incommodo) of 
 a re-union of the two houses. Port-Royal-de-Paris was 
 first visited, and on the 13th April 1709 Port-Royal-des- 
 Champs underwent examination. 
 
 Witnesses were heard, and even the priests and farmers 
 of the neighbouring villages were called to give their 
 testimony. One of these last replied that 'he did not 
 know what was meant by " commodo " or " incommodo," 
 but that the charity of the nuns was unbounded, and that 
 he had himself experienced it in an hour of need.' ' They 
 do alike to every one,' he said, ' and nothing but good is 
 spoken of them.' Even the Cardinal was forced to admit 
 that the monastery he was about to suppress was guilty of 
 no other crime than disobedience. 
 
 But the nuns were not to be suppressed without a gallant 
 struggle against injustice. ' After exhausting all the re- 
 sources of legal defence, these helpless and apparently 
 feeble women disputed every inch of ground by protests, 
 remonstrances, and petitions, which for the moment at 
 least held their assailants in check, and which yet remain a 
 wondrous monument of their perseverance and capacity, 
 and of the absolute self-control which, amidst the out- 
 pourings of their grief and the exposure of their wrongs, 
 restrained every expression of asperity or resentment.' ^ 
 
 But all was in vain ; their protests and petitions were 
 rejected, and seeing that all their efforts were fruitless, 
 
 1 See Sir James Stephen's ' Ecclesiastical Biography ' (' Port-Royalists '). 
 
 Q 
 
242 ■ FRENCH yANSBNISTS. liii^-xjig. 
 
 the nuns remained calm and immovable, waiting for the 
 bitter end. 
 
 On the nth July 1709 the Cardinal gave forth his 
 decree, which suppressed for ever the title of 'Abbey of 
 Port-Royal-des-Champs,' and consigned it with all its rights 
 and revenues to the Paris monastery. But this decree 
 required the confirmation of Parliament, which caused 
 some weeks' delay. 
 
 On the I St of October the Prioress of Port-Royal-de- 
 Paris, with the concurrence of the weak and vacillating 
 De Noailles, made her appearance unexpectedly at Port- 
 Royal-des-Champs. She came accompanied by two of 
 her nuns and two notaries, to take possession of the 
 monastery. The Mere du Mesnil, the Prioress, received 
 her with civility in the parlour, but refused to acknow- 
 ledge her authority, as the decision of the court of Lyons 
 to their appeal had not yet been given. The discomfited 
 Abbess took her departure. A prods verbal was made, 
 and she proceeded to Saint-Cyr to narrate to Madame 
 de Maintenon all that had occurred. The next act was 
 an Order in Council requiring the nuns of Port-Royal-des- 
 Champs to acknowledge the Abbess of Port-Royal-de-Paris 
 ' as their lawful head.' 
 
 The King's confessor at this time was the Jesuit Pere 
 le Tellier, Pfere la Chaise having died at the commence- 
 ment of the year. 
 
 Le Tellier vehemently urged the King to have recourse 
 to force, and to disperse the recusant nuns at once by 
 an armed band. His advice was followed, and His Most 
 Christian Majesty, who, it has been said, 'did penance 
 for his own sins on the backs of the Jansenists and 
 Huguenots,' gave the order for their immediate dispersion. 
 Lettres de cachet were issued, and great secrecy was to be 
 
T634-I7I9-] PASQUIER QUBSNEL. 243 
 
 observed. M. d'Argenson, the lieutenant of police, was 
 charged by the King with the commission. Every precau- 
 tion was taken, as though it concerned the capture of a 
 troop of brigands. 
 
 On October 28, 1709, three hundred archers and gens- 
 d'armes were sent to Port-Royal-des-Champs, and passed 
 the night in the woods and surrounding villages. 
 
 At an early hour the next morning M. d'Argenson 
 arrived at the monastery. A guard was placed at the 
 entrance, that none might escape. The twenty-two nuns 
 against whom this force was sent knew nothing of what 
 was going on. 
 
 They were leaving the choir after mass, when M. 
 d'Argenson was announced, and requested to see the 
 Prioress. 
 
 She immediately received him in the parlour. He re- 
 quired that all the keys of the monastery should be given 
 to him, and informed her that he had received an order 
 from his Majesty to take possession of all the title-deeds 
 and papers lodged in the archives. The Prioress then 
 accompanied M. d'Argenson over the house. Whilst the 
 examination of the papers was going on, the bell rang 
 for Tierce, and she asked permission to attend the service 
 with her nuns, to which M. d'Argenson consented, 'If 
 not too long.' 
 
 Some of the Sisters inquired anxiously of the Mhre 
 du Mesnil 'what all this meant?' She replied calmly, 
 ' It is another visit of inspection of our house. I know 
 not what may be the result. God only knows ! Let us 
 cast ourselves into the arms of His mercy. He knows 
 our needs better than we do ourselves. Let us go to 
 Tierce.' 
 
 God indeed was their only refuge, and to Him they now 
 
244 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [.634-1719- 
 
 poured out their souls in prayer. They chanted the verses^ 
 of the twenty-fifth Psalm, ' Ad te, Domine, levavi animam 
 meam. Deus meus, in te confido non erubescam.' This 
 was followed by the 'Veni Creator,' sung with trembling, 
 voice, imploring grace and strength to bear what might be 
 before them. 
 
 Mere du Mesnil then rejoined M. d'Argenson, who- 
 ordered all the chapter to assemble. The bell rang, and 
 the nuns appeared. M. d'Argenson inquired if all were 
 there. 'All,' the Prioress replied, 'but one aged para- 
 lytic' ' If she cannot walk,' was the rejoinder, ' carry her ; 
 all must be present.' Six lay sisters soon appeared carry- 
 ing the paralysed woman on a mattress placed on a 
 stretcher, chanting the burial psalm 'In Exitu' ('When 
 Israel went out of Egypt '), and at the last verse deposited 
 the aged nun on the floor of the chapter-house. She 
 was eighty-six years old and quite helpless. The door 
 of the chapter-house was then closed and guarded. M. 
 d'Argenson seated himself in the vacant place usually 
 reserved for the Abbess. He said that he was charged 
 with a /etire de cachet for each of them, that a great 
 sacrifice was demanded, and, much as he regretted it, 
 the commands of the King must be faithfully and punc- 
 tually carried out. 
 
 This was to be their last meeting. On leaving the 
 chapter-house, they were to be dispersed and sent each 
 to a separate religious house, without the diocese of 
 Paris. Within three hours they must depart. The 
 Mfere du Mesnil quietly said ' It was enough. One half- 
 hour would be sufficient to make up their small packets, 
 taking with them their breviaries, their Bibles, and their 
 rules.' 
 
 The nuns gathered together, and encouraged each 
 
,634-.7-9.] PASQUIBR QUESNEL. 245 
 
 •other by their faith and love, being 'fully persuaded,' 
 they said, ' of their union in God ; ' and then kneeling 
 down, asked pardon one of another as they bade each 
 other farewell. 
 
 The Prioress, Louise du Mesnil, was the last to go. 
 She saw her aged Sisters one by one depart from the 
 home which had sheltered them from youth to age. As 
 each knelt before her, asking her parting benediction, 
 she never lost her self-command; she shed no tear, no 
 murmur escaped her lips ; she tenderly embraced each one 
 in turn, and commended them all to God. ' Be faithful to 
 the end.' These were her last words, and nobly did she 
 fulfil her own counsels.^ Her courage touched the officers 
 in command of the force sent to arrest them, and even 
 M. d'Argenson could not conceal his sympathy. 
 
 Twelve carriages and a litter were waiting to con- 
 vey them to their separate destinations ; but the poor 
 paralytic was by some oversight left on her stretcher 
 forgotten. Each carriage was sent by a different route, 
 so that no demonstration or excitement should take place 
 among the poor in the neighbourhood, whose chief support 
 was from the charity of the nuns. Cries were, how- 
 ever, heard on all sides : ' Must we die of hunger ? ' as 
 they caught sight of their benefactresses being carried 
 away.^ 
 
 When the nuns were gone, M. d'Argenson dismissed 
 the servants. One of them, passing by the chapter-house. 
 
 1 Mfere du Mesnil was conveyed to a convent at Blois belonging to the 
 Ursulines, and though treated with extreme rigour and deprived of all 
 religious consolations, she never wavered during her six years of captivity, 
 -but maintained her faith untarnished to the last, dying in perfect peace, 
 though denied priestly absolution. She was buried in a place apart, 
 "without the usual funeral rites. 
 
 2 ' Histoire Abr^g^e' (Racine), p. 317. 
 
246 FRENCH JANSBNISTS. [i63+-i7i9- 
 
 saw the poor, forlorn paralytic lying there on her 
 stretcher. 
 
 Touched" with compassion, the servant approached her 
 with expressions of sorrow that she should have been 
 left alone and without food all day. The poor help- 
 less creature, who was looked upon as half-witted and 
 rarely spoke, answered, 'My Sister, this is man's day, 
 but that of the Lord will come.' M. d'Argenson had 
 her conveyed in a litter the following morning to a convent 
 at Nantes. 
 
 On the same day (30th October) a Jesuit priest arrived 
 at the monastery. He was sent to inspect the books, 
 MSS., images, and pictures, and to give a report of 
 them to Pfere le Tellier. He performed his task with 
 great zeal, making a minute examination of everything, 
 and seizing the MSS., even to the texts from Scrip- 
 ture which were found in the nuns' books. The like- 
 nesses of Arnauld, Saint-Cyran, and the Mfere Agnes 
 he looked upon with horror, tearing some of them in 
 pieces. He expressed great disapprobation of M. de 
 Saci's New Testament, and also of his translation of the 
 ' Imitation.' 
 
 After the priest had left the monastery, M. d'Argenson 
 collected all the papers and documents, and had them 
 placed in a large room, which he locked, and to the 
 door of which he affixed his seal. The library was likewise 
 closed. M. d'Argenson took his leave, and the monastery 
 was left in charge of twelve archers and two officers of 
 police. A scene of noisy riot then commenced ; the 
 soldiers laid their hands on all the provisions in the 
 building, smoking and drinking everywhere, and pillaging 
 whatever they found. ^ Cardinal de Noailles, shocked at 
 
 1 ' M^moires Historiques ' (Abb^ Guilbert), torn. vi. p. 125. 
 
1634-1719-] PASQUIER QUESNBL. 247 
 
 the report of their intemperance and profanity, sent an 
 order to the chaplain to remove secretly the Holy Sacra- 
 ment from the church, for fear of profanation. 
 
 On the 19th November carts were sent to Port-Royal 
 to remove all the books and pictures (some by Philippe 
 de Champagne), and the soldiers also departed ; the keys 
 of the building being-left in charge of a notary. 
 
 When M. d'Argenson returned to Paris, he informed 
 the King of the constancy and perfect obedience of the 
 nuns. The King coldly replied that he was ' glad of their 
 obedience, but sorry that they were not of his religion.' 
 
 The news of these proceedings against Port-Royal spread 
 rapidly. All Paris was stirred by a feeling of shame and 
 indignation that a body of three hundred archers should 
 have been despatched against twenty-two poor nuns, to 
 drive them from their monastery and place them each in 
 separate establishments. So cruel and arbitrary a mea- 
 sure against aged women might well call forth universal 
 sympathy. 
 
 F^nelon was no friend to Port -Royal, yet even he 
 admits, in a letter written at this time, that such a display 
 of authority as had recently taken place there, could but 
 excite compassion for the Sisters and indignation against 
 their oppressors. 
 
 Port-Royal-des-Champs thus deserted, what was to become 
 of it ? Cardinal de Noailles insisted on the nuns of Port- 
 Royal-de-Paris being transferred there ; but this did not suit 
 the tastes of the community and their worldly Abbess. She 
 went to Port-Royal-des-Champs for a few days in November, 
 but returned, saying that her health had suffered from her 
 stay in the monastery. Other reasons led to the abandon- 
 ment of this idea. The monastery in Paris would thus have 
 become empty; the Jesuits were eager to establish them- 
 
248 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [1634-1719- 
 
 selves there, and this would have made an outcry, not 
 only on the part of the friends of Port-Royal, but also 
 on the part of other religious communities, already jealous 
 of their power and influence. 
 
 The question of what was to become of Port-Royal-des- 
 Champs was solved by an order from the > King on the 
 22 nd January 1710 for its demolition. At first it was 
 resolved to save the church and leave a small building 
 for the use of the chaplain, and the factor who would 
 sell the materials after the destruction of the monastery 
 for the benefit of Port-Royal-de-Paris, that house being 
 largely in debt. 
 
 The destruction of the church, built in the thirteenth 
 century by the architect of the Cathedral of Amiens, was, 
 however, destined to follow. 
 
 The cemetery was to be abolished, and the bodies 
 exhumed, so that it might no longer be regarded as holy 
 ground. 
 
 For five hundred years it had been a place of burial, 
 and in the last century it had become especially sacred; 
 holy men dying in distant lands or away from the spot 
 had desired that they might be interred at Port-Royal- 
 des- Champs, where the bodies of so many of God's 
 servants and saints were laid to rest. Agnes Arnauld, 
 who had been the fellow - worker of Ang^lique in the 
 reform of the monastery, Jacqueline Pascal, Angdlique de 
 Saint-Jean, were among the holy women who lay there. 
 
 Le Maltre, De Saci, De S^ricourt, Hamon, Racine, 
 Tillemont — names dear to Port-Royal and her schools — 
 all were buried here, and now the royal decree was issued 
 that the bodies were to be dug up and transported else- 
 where. 
 
 Those of the Arnauld family were claimed by the 
 
[1634-1719. PASQUIER QUESNEL. 249 
 
 Marquis de Pomponne (the son of Arnauld d'Andilly), 
 who presented a petition to the King begging permission 
 that they might be removed to Pomponne, that 'posterity 
 might forget that they had been interred in a place which 
 had had the misfortune to displease His Majesty.' 
 
 Permission was granted, provided that the exhumation 
 should take place at night. 
 
 The bodies of Le Mattre, De Saci, and Racine were 
 taken to the Church of Saint-Etienne du Mont in Paris, 
 where Pascal already lay. Some of those not named 
 here were reinterred, through the intervention of a good 
 priest, in the parish church of Magny. 
 
 The well-known horrors that were enacted in 171 1, 
 when the church and cemeteries were left in the posses- 
 sion of rude workmen charged with the inhuman task 
 of breaking open the graves of the nuns and carting the 
 bodies in tumbrils to the Cemetery of Saint-Lambert, 
 where they were thrown in one huge mass into a common 
 pit, need not be detailed in these pages ; but M. Sainte- 
 Beuve reminds us how in 1793 (some eighty years after- 
 wards) this violation of the tombs of Port-Royal was 
 re-enacted with all its horrors in the royal vaults of 
 Saint-Denis.i' 
 
 The destruction of the church was finally accomplished 
 in 1 7 13, when it was razed to the ground. 
 
 The ruin and devastation of Port-Royal was a tragic 
 episode in the long theological strife between Jesuits and 
 
 ^ It is said tiiat one day when the destroyers were at work with their 
 pickaxes, Cardinal de Noailles went secretly to visit the spot. God's 
 acre had become an immense charnel-house, and when the loose jests of 
 the men who trenched up the ground met his ear where once solemn 
 requiems were pronounced over the holy dead, a pang of remorse seized 
 him and he burst into tears. The curiosity which had led him to Port- 
 Royal-des-Champs was ' like that of the criminal who revisits the spot which 
 has witnessed his crime." See ' Les Derniers Jans^nistes' (L6on S6ch6). 
 
2SO FRENCH yANSENISTS. [1634-1719- 
 
 Jansenists. Its overthrow had been the work of the 
 Jesuit Le Tellier, with the consent of Louis XIV., who 
 thought thereby to put an end to Jansenism ; but he failed 
 in this object. 'The spirit of Port-Royal lived on, and 
 still lives.' 1 
 
 Quesnel was still living, and, though sorely smitten by 
 this last event, was yet a power in the Church, and a 
 formidable adversary to encounter. 
 
 In the course of this fierce theological warfare between 
 Jesuits and Jansenists two books may be taken as land- 
 marks. The 'Augustinus' of Jansen marks the rise, and 
 the ' Reflexions Morales ' of Quesnel the decline, of this 
 long controversy. About this time a fourth edition of 
 the latter work appeared, and raised a storm which lasted 
 through the greater part of the eighteenth century. 
 
 The 'Augustinus' had been condemned by a Bull of 
 Pope Innocent X. in 1653, when Jive propositions {said, 
 but never proved to be in it) were pronounced heretical, 
 but the Bull of Clement XI., published in 17 13, against 
 the 'Reflexions Morales,' condemned one hundred and one 
 propositions, which, whether heretical or not, were un- 
 doubtedly found in Quesnel's book. 
 
 The acceptance of this Bull of Clement XI. (known as 
 the Unigenitus) raised grave discussions in the Church of 
 France. The Oratorians refused to sign the Bull, and it 
 was not till after lengthy debates, which lasted till 1720 
 (five years after the death of Louis XIV.), that the nego- 
 tiations in favour of a peaceful arrangement were terminated 
 by what is known as the ' Corps de Doctrine^ being a sort 
 of commentary on the Bull.^ 
 
 1 See Dr. Neale on the ' So-called Jansenist Church.' The Dutch 
 Jansenist Chiu'ch has for a century and a half struggled against the 
 constitution Unigenitus. 
 
 - The Papal Bull Unigenitus was so called from its opening words, 
 
I634-I7I9-1 PASQUIBR QUESNEL. 251 
 
 Its final acceptance was due to the influence of the 
 infamous Abbe Dubois during the regency of the Due 
 d'Orleans, who, by hi,s intrigues with the Cardinals, ob- 
 tained from Pope Innocent XIII. the Cardinal's hat, so 
 often refused to him by Clement XL The disputes, 
 nevertheless, between Jesuits and Jansenists continued, 
 diminishing by slow degrees in importance. 
 
 Quesnel himself did not live to see the termination of 
 the discussions caused by his work. He died in 17 19 at 
 Amsterdam. 
 
 His life for many years had been devoted to the building 
 up of Jansenism in Holland, where it still flourishes, and, 
 in the words of Dr. Neale, ' though cut off from the com- 
 munion of Rome, it has clung to the Catholic faith, and 
 suffered for the maintenance of primitive doctrine.' ^ 
 
 Quesnel's personal qualities endeared him to his friends. 
 His extreme simplicity, gentleness, and tranquillity of mind 
 were especially remarkable under the circumstances of his 
 life. He was a man of the purest morality, and a scholar 
 of no mean ability. His letters are full of cheerfulness as 
 well as deep spirituality. In one of these he mentions that 
 ' he always carried on the sword side the New Testament, 
 "Gladium Spiritus, quod est verbum Dei."' When he 
 knew that death was near, he asked for the last sacraments. 
 Feeble as he was, he knelt to receive the viaticum, and 
 was given strength to remain kneeling even to the end. 
 He then made his profession of faith and signed it, declar-. 
 ing that he died, as he had lived, in the communion and 
 unity of the Catholic faith. 
 
 With Pasquier Quesnel we bring|this volume to a close, 
 
 ' Unigenitus Dei Filius.' It supported the Jesuits against the Jansenists 
 in their opinions regarding Divine Grace. 
 ■1 See Preface to Dr. Neale's ' So-called Jansenist Church in Holland. ' 
 
252 FRENCH JANSENISTS. [x634->7i9. 
 
 he being the last of the Jansenists connected with Port- 
 Royal. 
 
 A great French writer has said that ' in the battle of 
 life the fight is worth more than the prize, the eifort more 
 than the result — the result having only value for a time, 
 the effort being good for eternity. 
 
 'Port-Royal has perished in an abortive attempt to 
 reform French Catholicism,' but, 'it has left imperishable 
 marks of its existence in the grandeur of the characters it 
 formed.' 
 
FRENCH JANSBNISTS. 253, 
 
 On a summer's day in May 1887, the writer made a 
 long-wished-for pilgrimage to Port-Royal-des-Champs with 
 her husband. They had with them a sympathetic com- 
 panion and guide in their friend, Pfere Hyacinthe Loyson,i 
 to whom a modern French writer has accorded a place in 
 his history of ' les derniers Jansdnistes.' 
 
 Port-Royal is distant about eight miles from Versailles 
 on the road to Dampierre. Rows of poplar-trees, so 
 common on French high-roads, lined the wayside. After 
 passing the dreary plain of Satory, the country assumed 
 a less monotonous aspect. 
 
 Apple-trees took the place of poplars, and picturesque 
 villages enlivened the route. Guyancourt, with its primi- 
 tive little church, Voisins-le-Bretonneux, amid fruit-trees 
 in full blossom ; then having skirted the boundaries of 
 Magny-les-Hameaux, after a drive of about an hour and 
 a quarter, we reached the brow of a steep hill, which 
 overlooks the valley of Port-Royal. 
 
 After descending the hill, a sharp turn brought us to 
 a wooden gateway, and we entered within the precincts 
 of the famous monastery. Vestiges of ruined walls, 
 moss-grown and mouldering, were seen as we drove to the 
 modern dwelling, inhabited by the Regisseur (M. Olivier). 
 
 ' When, to the infinite sorrow and disappointment of his friends, Pfere 
 Hyacinthe retired from the pulpit of Notre Dame, and renounced the 
 brilliant career before him, that he might devote himself, unfettered, to 
 his proposed reform in the Roman Catholic Church, he was undoubtedly 
 at heart a Jansenist, and though afterwards his marriage cut him off from 
 all chance of union with the Jansenist party, nevertheless we find him still 
 cleaving to Jansenism and invoking the ■ protection of a Jansenist Arch- 
 bishop for his little Galilean Church in the Rue d' Arras in Paris. (See 
 L^onS&h^.) 
 
254 FRENCH JANSENISTS. 
 
 Immediately before us rose the massive dovecot — the 
 most prominent object on which the eye rests, and the 
 only portion standing of the original buildings. 
 
 On either side of the road, cows and goats were 
 together grazing. We left the carriage, and passing to the 
 right, we soon arrived at the desecrated cemetery, the 
 burial-ground of the nuns, from which last resting-place 
 their bones were cast out, through the implacable enmity 
 of Louis XIV. 
 
 An iron cross of simplest form, raised upon a few large 
 stones, marks the once sacred enclosure. 
 
 It is overshadowed by the high-pitched roof of the 
 dove-cot, a few yards off. As we looked towards it, a 
 solitary dove flew across the burial-ground, recalling to 
 us the words of the Psalmist, ' Oh, that I had wings as 
 a dove, then would I flee away and be at rest' — words 
 which must often have been uttered by the persecuted 
 inmates of Port-Royal. 
 
 There is something pathetic in the solitude and pro- 
 found stillness of the spot. Low crumbling walls and 
 fragments of columns show the site of the church, which 
 adjoined the cemetery. This sacred building is said to 
 have been erected in the thirteenth century. 
 
 On a tablet let into the ruined wall are these lines, 
 which, with the assistance of Pfere Hyacinthe, we de- 
 cyphered : — 
 
 ' Du plus saint temple, helas ! quel deplorable reste, 
 Un vieux mur est le seul qui rappelle a nos coeurs, 
 Cette enceinte benie, oi le P^re Celeste, 
 Se forma tant de vraies et pures adorateurs.' 
 
 The remaining verses were illegible. 
 
 On the site of the high altar, the steps to which still 
 
FRENCH JANSENISTS. 255 
 
 remain, a small building has been erected by the pious 
 owner, the walls within are covered with portraits of the 
 Port-Royal saints : Angdlique Arnauld, and her sister Agnes, 
 Saint-Cyran, the great Arnauld, Le Maitre, De Saci, Blaise 
 Pascal and his sister Jacqueline, Ang^lique de Saint-Jean, 
 Tillemont, Nicole, and many others. There are also letters 
 of the Port-Royalists in frames ; amongst these is a note 
 in pencil to one of the nuns from M. de Saint-Cyran. 
 Close to the steps of the high altar is a curious old 
 tombstone of early date, on which is chiselled the mitred 
 head of a bishop, the name unknown. From this our 
 way lay through a small meadow, where stands an old 
 walnut-tree, still showing some signs of life, and known 
 as 'le noyer de Pascal,' by whom it is said to have 
 been planted. 
 
 Farther on, we were invited by the R6gisseur to drink 
 from a well called after the Mere Angdlique, and roofed 
 in and protected by lock and key. It was from this well 
 that the nuns were debarred at a time of fierce persecu- 
 tion, when a guard of soldiers occupied the enclosure. 
 We asked our guide whether many pilgrimages were now 
 made to Port-Royal. He said the Soeurs de Sainte-Marthe ^ 
 
 1 The Sceurs de Sainte-Marthe belong to an institution founded in 1713. 
 They held Jansenist views, and, strange to say, were under the protection 
 of the Cardinal de Noailles, the persecutor of the Port-Royal Sisterhood. 
 The work of the Soevu-s de Sainte-Marthe was amongst the sick poor. 
 They were without vows, but they elected a Superior, and had novices. 
 The Revolution dispersed all religious communities, and amongst them 
 that of the Sceurs de Sainte-Marthe. In 1801 the Sisters were re-united, 
 and by an Imperial decree in 1810 they were restored, and allowed to serve 
 the principal Paris hospitals. But at the end of the second Empire the 
 hospitals were taken from them and given to lay nurses. They were no 
 longer allowed to recruit their number by novices, and they have now 
 dwindled down to a very few, who live in a small house in the village of 
 Magny-les-Hameaux, where they hold a. school for the poor children 
 around. The first white house in the village is that of the Sceurs de Sainte- 
 Marthe. See ' Les Derniers Jansfeistes ' (L^on S(^ch6). 
 
256 FRENCH JANSENISTS. 
 
 made a yearly pilgrimage; the only other visitors being 
 the members of the 'Soci^td de Saint- An toine,' to whom 
 the property belongs. They are strict Jansenists, and live 
 in Paris in absolute retirement. 
 
 On the crest of the hill, through an opening in the 
 wooded heights, we caught a gUmpse of the farm of ' Les 
 Granges,' where the recluses retired on the return of the 
 nuns to the monastery. We ascended the hill to the 
 farm, but all in vain; no one is allowed to enter 'Les 
 Granges ' without a special permission. 
 
 Ruined, desolate, and forlorn, the aspect of Port-Royal 
 is very melancholy. It seems haunted by the remem- 
 brance of a great crime, but, on the other hand, it teems 
 with holy associations and hallowed memories. We left 
 the place with regret, touched and subdued by the thought 
 of the saints of God, whose lives have made Port-Royal 
 famous, and who being found 'faithful unto death,' have 
 received the promised 'Crown of Life.' 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BX4735.A1 T65 
 
 French Jansenlsts. By the author of "Man 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 432 907 
 
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