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THE ENTHUSIASTS
OF PORT-ROYAL

JANSENIUS, BISHOP OF YPRES
FROM AN ENGRAVING BY W. „. DOES AFTER THE MINTING DY PHILIPPE DE CHAMMGKi

THE ENTHUSIASTS
OF PORT-ROYAL

BY
LILIAN REA

WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK
CHARLES SGRIBNER'S SONS
1912

TO
MY MOTHER

PREFACE
" Croyez-moi, il faut choisir entre Dieu et le monde, entre la beaute
6ternelle et la vaine apparence. . . . C'est quelque chose de vrai et de
serieux qu'il nous faut pour vivre et pour mourir." La Duchesse de Broglie
AFTER the lapse of centuries, when Pain, Sorrow, Struggle,
Disappointment, and Weariness have been swallowed
up in the Eternal Abyss, the picturesque side of a
religious movement stands out to the impartial student of
history in all the glory of prismatic colours. And, regarding
it from a sociological and literary point of view, that which
lends it interest and sympathy — is Enthusiasm. Nor is
Enthusiasm used lightly in connection with religion, for the
very etymology of the word justifies the application. Derived
from the Greek evdovs, or evffeos, that is, " full of the god,"
it may be interpreted to mean having a god within.
It was one of the phases of this creative emotion which
produced the society of solitaires or recluses who in the early
seventeenth century associated themselves with the Abbey
of Port -Royal, and formed with the original convent of nuns
an organization which assumed a vast significance in the
religious history of France.
In an age of the extreme of earthly pomp and grandeur,
the high ideals and unselfishness of these " Aristocrats of
Catholicism," as they were called, were doubly conspicuous ;
but, aside from any religious point of view, a chronicle of the
extraordinary ardour, both collective and individual, of men
who, searching after a higher spirituality, left brilliant positions
in the world to go into the Desert to meditate and pray, inspires

viii THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
human interest still. For, thinking to lose their social signifi
cance, they were in reality, both through their spiritual,
literary, and pedantic sway, drawn back into the active life
of their country. To them the profane history of the time
of Louis xiv is indissolubly linked.
Theologically, their religion was based on a dogma, called
in derision by the outside world, Jansenism. Joseph de
Maistre, in his book, Du Jansenisme ; portrait de cette secte,
wrote sarcastically :
" II n'y a point de Jansenisme — c'est une chim&re, une
phantome cree par les Jesuites " ;
and Mere Angelique for one always denied the term. In 1650
she spoke of the continued slanders against " those whom
they call Jansenists," and five years later wrote to the Queen
of Poland :
" If it please your Majesty, in writing to His Holiness you
might say that you have particular knowledge of the persons
whom they call Jansenists, that they are no other than very
Catholic and very much attached to the Holy See."
In reality, while the dogma was a lifeless thing locked up in
the Halls of the Sorbonne, the working out of the peculiar
system of religion which the name Jansenism stands for went
on regardless of theological disputes, alive and pulsating with
vital fire in the Monastery of Port-Royal. Here, even in the
midst of later trouble there was, says Sainte-Beuve,
" in spite of everything, almost without interruption, the
cloister, the sanctuary, the cell, and the grating for alms,
the Christian practice of morals and the inviolable home of
certain souls: the poor and silent study, the desert and the
Grotto of Conferences near the Fountain of Mere Angelique,
not far from the trees planted by the hand of d'Andilly."
The Necrologe of Port-Royal and its Supplement are
full of the most uncomplimentary allusions to the age itself,
to which they attribute all the ills that happen to mortal flesh
and blood, alluding constantly to the "press of the century";
the " unhappiness of the century " ; the " distractions and

PREFACE ix
corruption of the century " ; etc. Racine relates that
Jacqueline Pascal early renounced the "vain amusements of
the century"; while in one of her letters Mere Ang&ique
declares that
" In this miserable century, it seems that the Devil has
had the power to snatch away the Gospel, or at least its
practice, from almost all Christians."
Thus, it was not strange that in contrast with the unrest,
vice, and unreality which the time, age, and France itself
exhibited, the Port-Royal of the Solitaires, as distinct from
that of the nuns, with its simplicity, love of truth, lack of
excitement, and quiet seemed a harbour of peace. Its
Enthusiasts looked upon it, indeed, as an asylum or port —
a sort of quiet backwater, where, after having solved life's
enigmas, one could retire and spend the remaining years in
contemplation of weathered storms.
" M. de Bascle," says the Necrologe, " after having escaped
the shipwrecks of the century, retired to Port -Royal as to
a port, there to find his salvation in penitence."
On the one hand, therefore, it was, in common with
other religious movements, a spiritual balance - wheel ;
on the other, an economic and social lever. Here the
world ; there, the gifts of the spirit : Peace, Contentment,
Heavenly Aspiration. But the condition attached to the
acquirement of Peace, Contentment, and Heavenly Glory
was Solitude — long hours of absolute loneliness, relieved
by no earthly presence, no human touch, no conversation
where mind sets fuse to fellow -mind to produce living
thought, or to generate the electric current of sympathy.
" The pleasure of solitude," exclaimed Pascal, " is an
incomprehensible matter. I have discovered that all the
misfortune of man comes from one thing, which is not to
know how to remain in repose in one room."
And only those who loved solitude could find at Port-Royal its
heritage— Truth. It was love of Truth which in the beginning
inspired Jansenius to create his interpretation of the Word in

x THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
the quiet and isolation of the old town of Ypres in Belgium ;
love of Truth again induced the Abb6 de St. Cyran, on his
part, to go out into the world, to gather together and
practically direct the realization of the brain aspirations of
both himself and his friend.
Studying the history of Port-Royal, we marvel to-day in
the twentieth century, as did Pere Quesnel in the beginning
of the eighteenth, that after having sustained the monastery
for a hundred years, God should have permitted "this
sanctuary of Truth and Charity to have been destroyed like
a nest of error by the first ministers of the Church." Yet,
though the Enthusiasts of Port-Royal ostensibly failed in
their object of reforming the Roman Church from the inside,
their attempt went far toward advancing the progress of
humanity. A knowledge of their successes and failures
should, therefore, be both a lesson and an inspiration. For
Art and Religion are, after all, the things that eternally
endure. Ever far away from kings and politics, ministers and
functionaries, ideals and springs of character lie deep down
in the heart of creation where, undisturbed by change of
race or dynasty, the Earth Spirit weaves the garment of
human life and history.
L. R.

PAGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I
EMBRYONIC PORT-ROYAL
1610-1636
CHAP.
I. The Infancy of Jansenism — How a Friendship brought
forth a Religion . . . . ,3
II. The Letter of the Law— The A ugustinus of Cornelius
Janssen . . . . . . .12
III. Port-Royal and the Arnaulds— Port-Royal a Three
fold Force . . . . . .22
IV. Mere Angelique's Conversion and the Reform of
Port-Royal des Champs . . . -34
V. Meeting with St. Cyran— Foundation of Port-Royal
de Paris. . . . . . .41
VI. The Rule of St. Cyran begun . . . .48
PART II
PORT-ROYAL IN ITS GREATNESS
1636-165 3
I. The First Solitaires and their Enthusiasms . • S7
II. Return of the Solitaires to Port-Royal des Champs,
and Early Days there . . . • 71
III. Death of Jansenius and St. Cyran . .80
IV. A Trio of Devotes at Port-Royal de Paris— I. La
Princesse de Guemene . . . .90
V. A Trio of Devotes at Port-Royal de Paris— II. Marie
DE GONZAGUE . . . . . -99
VI. A Trio of Devotes at Port-Royal de Paris — III. La
Marquise de Sable ..... 106
VII. The Letter of the Law again. Beginning of Persecu
tion. The "Book of the Frequent Communion" . 117
VIII. Immediate Effect of the "Book of the Frequent
Communion" on Port-Royal . . . -125
IX. Les Petites Ecoles — I. History, Masters, and
Methods . ...... 133

I. The Peace of the Church — Death of Madame de
Longueville ...... 269
I. Racine's Quarrel and Reconciliation with Port-
Royal ....... 276
III. Persecution resumed ..... 288
IV. Port-Royal in Conflict with Philosophy . . 295
V. Arnauld's Death— His Successors : Quesnel, Du Guet,
and Boileau ••....' 303
VI. The Literary Glory of Port-Royal— Pascal and
Racine: The PensAes and Athalie . . .311
VII. Last Struggle against Persecution, and the Passing
of Port-Royal .

VIII. Port-Royal of To-Day

3i9
329

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres .... Frontispiece
From an Engraving by W. A. Does, after the Portrait by Philippe de
Champagne

pacing PAGE
Mere Angelique, Abbess and Reformer of Port-Royal . 34
From Van Schuppen's Engraving of the Portrait by Philippe de
Champagne

The Abbe de St. Cyran . . . , 50
After the Portrait by Philippe de Champagne
Antoine Le MaItre, Port-Royal's First Solitaire . .58
After the Portrait by Philippe de Champagne
Antoine Arnauld . . . . . .118
From a Bronze Bust in the Louvre
Arnauld d'Andilly . . . . . .130
From an Engraving by J accrues Lubin
Plan of Port-Royal des Champs . . . • 154
From an Engraving by Magdeleine Hortemels
Blaise Pascal . . . . . . .174
From Edelinck's Engraving of the Original Portrait by Quesnel

xiv THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
FACING PAGE
Mere Agnes and S(eur Catherine de Sainte-Suzanne . 212
From the Ex-Voto of Philippe de Champagne in the Louvre ; ,

Anne Genevieve de Bourbon, Duchesse de Longueville . 274
From an Engraving by Waltener
Pasquier Quesnel , , ,04
From an Engraving by N. Petau

Two Views of Port-Royal des Champs . . .332
I. The '-'¦ Solitude "
II. The Cloister
From Engravings by Magdeleine Hortemels

THE ENTHUSIASTS
OF PORT-ROYAL

PART I
EMBRYONIC PORT-ROYAL
1610-1636

CHAPTER I
THE INFANCY OF JANSENISM— HOW A FRIENDSHIP
BROUGHT FORTH A RELIGION
" II faut travailler a realiser en nous-mgmes notre id6al ; sans quoi la
vie est une degringolade continue ; et comme les orangs, aprds avoir com-
mencer par la gentillesse, nous finissons par la brutalite." Prudhon
IN the latter days of Henri iv two students, whose friend
ship was to mean much in the religious history of
France, were studying theology in the Belgian town of
Louvain. The elder, born in 1581 at Bayonne in Southern
France, of distinguished and wealthy parents, was no other
than Jean du Verger de Hauranne, afterward famous as
the Abbe de Saint-Cyran ; the younger, born in 1585 at
Arkoy in Holland,1 near Leerdam, the son of poor and
humble people, was Corneille Janssen, no less noted as
Jansenius. Most unlike both in fortune and character, these two
young men seemed framed each to complement the other. It
is not quite certain when their friendship began, or whether
they had more than a casual acquaintance in Louvain, but in
this little University centre each of them experienced the
influence which decided his later development ; here, by
different means, both were directed into similar paths of
thought. Even as a youth, Jansenius showed a marked desire for
study, and although very poor, managed to get to the
University of Utrecht, where he began his higher education
under both Catholics and Protestants, studying the Humanities
under the former, Rhetoric and Dialectic under the latter,
1 Or Acquoy. Clemencet in his Histoire' Gkntrale de Port-Royal (iii. 225)
says Jansenius was born at Leerdam itself. 3

4 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
thus early learning the principles and habits of thought of
each sect.
Unfortunately, after some time these studies were inter
rupted by lack of means. To augment his resources, Jan
senius was forced to leave Utrecht and work at the first thing
that offered — a carpenter's bench. As soon as he had earned
enough for his purpose, he went back to Utrecht, and eventu
ally to Louvain, where he continued his studies. At this
period he first took the name of Jansenius — i.e. son of Jean *
— and became acquainted with the Jesuits. Tremendously
interested in their methods and principles, he begged to be
taken into the Order. What was his surprise, however, when,
after having accepted his friend, Othon Zilly, whom he him
self had converted to Jesuitism, the Society refused his
membership, alleging that he was adapted by neither mind,
health, disposition, nor constitution to become one of them.2
While this seeming injustice enraged Jansenius, it was at the
same time the means of attracting to him the notice of a
learned doctor of Louvain called Jacques Jonsson, a bitter
enemy of the Jesuits, and a friend of Baius, the great cham
pion of Grace 3 in the Schools. Through Jonsson and Baius,
Jansenius was thenceforth turned from the Jesuits, and
interested in St. Augustine, whose tenets these two professors
1 Clemencet, iii. p. 225.
2 Rapin, Histoire de JansSnisme (Abb6 Domenech), p. 8.
3 " Grace " being the corner-stone, as it were, of Port-Royal, it may be
well at the outset to try to explain its meaning. The strict dictionary de
finition is : "A supernatural gift of God freely bestowed upon man for the
merits of Christ " (Blunt, Dictionary of Theology, p. 746).
According to St. Augustine, it is : " that which heals the soul from the
vice of sin " (De Spiritu et Lettera).
St. Francois de Sales said : " Inasmuch as Divine Love embellishes our
soul, it is called Grace, rendering us agreeable to His Divine Majesty"
(Introduction a la Vie divote).
In his Traiti sur la Pauvreti, St. Cyran thus expressed himself : " One
could not define Grace in abridgement better than to say it is an empire
and a sovereignty over all the things of the world."
Following out this idea, one of the Confessors of Port-Royal defined
Grace as " The sovereignty of God over men and the submission of men
to God " (Recueil de Plusieurs Pieces pour servir a V Histoire de Port-Royal,
P- 199)- Mere Angelique declared : " Grace is humble and the principle of humility.
And humility is inseparable from gentleness " (Mimoires et Relations p 101).
Lastly, according to Pascal, Grace was the second birth of the soul
(Pensies, p. 359). "

THE INFANCY OF JANSENISM 5
taught. Jacques Jonsson is said to have given Jansenius
three things which influenced his life :
1. A profound aversion for the Jesuits.
2. An enthusiastic admiration for the Doctor of Grace, St.
Augustine.
3. A sympathy for Baius, whom he looked upon as
a defender of St. Augustine, and a victim of the
Jesuits.1
It was after this disappointment with regard to the Jesuits
that, being advised on account of poor health to try the
milder air of France, in 1604 Jansenius left Louvain and
went to Paris.
De Hauranne's experience was quite other than that
of Jansenius, principally because his material circum
stances were more fortunate. At the age of twenty
or twenty-one, he had already had a varied course
of study, and was fully embarked on his theological
career, having become acquainted with the Humanities
in his home at Bayonne, before spending some time at
the Sorbonne in Paris. Under these conditions, it
was conceivable that his object in visiting Louvain was
uniquely because of its University, at that time conceded
to be the foremost in Europe. But instead of joining any
of the forty-three colleges, in which were assembled over
four thousand students from all over the world, or taking
advantage of its very noted Faculty of Theology, De
Hauranne entered the College of Jesuits. Here he soon
gained distinction by his attainments, and when in 1604
he delivered an Essay on Scholastic Philosophy, he at
tracted the notice of one of the Judges, the celebrated
Juste Lipse.
The salient quality of this " King of Humanism," who
represented at Louvain the element hostile to the traditional
philosophy, was a tremendous depth and breadth of thought,
which carried him out and away from orthodox beliefs
of his day into the realms of creative imagination. While
recognizing the value of Aristotle and the Peripatetics,
then considered the only guides in Ethics, or with
out combating Christianized Aristotelianism or Scholastic
1 Jansenius, ses Dernier 's Moments, p. 91.

6 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Theology,1 Lipse wished to introduce the comparative study
of all schools :
" If," he exclaimed, " it is necessary to belong to any
school, there is but one which I wish to enter, and that is the
Eclectic." A warm friendship gradually grew up between the famous
philosopher and the young theological student from Bayonne,
and although by some critics the teaching of Lipse is
thought to have seduced the latter, Pere Rapin tells us
that as Lipse himself was affable and civil, he endeavoured to
soften and refine his rather uncouth pupil, to sweeten his
character as it were by inculcating in him an affection for the
humanities " which polish manners."
Lipse's advice was cast on broad hnes. Above every
thing he counselled De Hauranne to curb the native fire of
his disposition by the study of the " Divine Science," and to
embellish his spiritual life by the wealth of belles lettres fur
nished by the Ancients. In other words, the Good, the True,
and the Beautiful were to be combined, and the Early Fathers
of the Church to be consulted for principles both of Reform
and Renaissance, as well as for a basis of Theology.2
In 1605, De Hauranne also left Louvain and went to
Paris in pursuit of further knowledge. On arriving there,
he and Jansenius met again, and through his influence
Jansenius became tutor to the son of a high official,
thus earning enough to keep himself while continuing his
studies at the Sorbonne. On his part, De Hauranne, not
exposed to the same necessities, had leisure for literary and
other experiences. The details of the life of neither student
at this period are well known, but an incident told of Port-
Royal's future director is interesting as marking a contrast in
his character and mental development.
The story brings us in familiar contact with Henri iv,
who, talking one day with some of the cavaliers of his court,
in reminiscence of past experiences in war, put the question
1 Hallam defines Scholastic Theology as an " endeavour to arrange the
orthodox system of the Church such as authority had made it, according to
the rules and methods of the Aristotelian dialectics, and sometimes upon
premises supplied by metaphysical reasoning" (Literature of Europe, vol. i.
P- 30). 2 Rapin, Histoire du Jans&nisme, p. 36.

THE INFANCY OF JANSENISM 7
as to what they would have done if, losing the battle of
Arques, and obliged to put to sea with their leader in a small
boat, they had been carried off by the tempest and left
to starve. One of the cavaliers replied that he would have
killed himself rather than let his liege lord die of hunger.
This statement raised a grand debate on the subject of suicide.
One of the courtiers, called the Comte de Cramail, brought
the matter to his friend De Hauranne for his opinion,
and was so charmed by the answers given that he begged
their author to write them down. In 1609, therefore, De
Hauranne published a pamphlet called :
" Question royale et sa decision,"
in which he not only said that under certain circumstances it
is permissible to take one's own life, but that sometimes it is
obligatory.1 This pamphlet was afterwards unearthed by enemies, and
cited against its author. In reality it was simply a youthful
indiscretion, such a doctrine as the justification of suicide
being entirely contrary to the teachings of St. Augustine.
In his Cite de Dieu, the latter says expressly that it is not
allowable to kill oneself, for thereby one opens the way to
the greatest of all evils, sin. It is not known what Jan
senius thought of this his friend's first publication, but as it
was written before their mutual exhaustive studies, he pro
bably paid no attention to its character.
In any case, each student continued in Paris the tendencies
begun in Louvain, and it was a similarity of ideals which
finally drew them closely together. In the University of the
metropolis they found the teaching less broad than at the
Belgian town, and were struck with the fact that the most
learned Doctors there did not go back to the Fathers, but
were still holding to and teaching the Scholastics. The un-
satisfactoriness of this method induced in both Jansenius and
De Hauranne a growing desire to revive the true doctrine.
Each, therefore, prepared himself to combat the old school,
and De Hauranne was about to hold a conference on the
"Summary of St. Thomas," when the assassination of
Henri iv, by exciting public opinion against the Jesuits,
turned thoughts in another direction.
1 Question Royale, p. 32. s Book i. p. 29.

8 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
This event also determined the future movements of the
two friends. De Hauranne decided to return to Bayonne,
where the death of his father made his presence necessary at
the moment ; and on arrival there, secluding himself in the
neighbouring family country house of Champire or Champirat,
on a height overlooking the sea, he devoted himself body and
mind to the study of Antique Christianity in general and St.
Augustine in particular. It was not long, however, before he
felt the need of a congenial companion to share his solitude,
and learning of the breakdown in health of Jansenius, he
wrote begging the Belgian to come and visit him. On this
invitation, Jansenius at once went to Bayonne (1611), and for
six years he and his host carried on there an exhaustive study
of the Fathers of the Church with the hope of discovering
the real sources of the old Christian spirit.1
Soon their attention was concentrated on St. Augustine,
in whom they felt they had discovered all they had sought;
and so great was their enthusiasm for this Saint that they
finally determined to devote their lives to the explanation
and dissemination of the Augustinian doctrines, which to them
seemed to incorporate the whole teaching needed for the
regeneration of mankind.
De Hauranne was of course the dominant spirit. His was
indeed a rough nature — a characteristic product of that Basque
country from which he sprang. In the Jesuit colleges where he
was educated, his schoolmates considered him a restless spirit,
vain and presumptuous, somewhat fierce and uncommuni
cative : at best, very eccentric in his manners and habits.2
Of fine health, great vigour, filled with an insatiable desire for
knowledge, regardless of the ill-health and impaired vitality
of his companion, he acted on Jansenius like a relentless
schoolmaster, prodding his pupil on to more and more labour.
But, in spite of peculiarities which seem the reverse of
genial, Jansenius was not, as he himself said, one of those
men who are made to be pedants all their lives. Although
a somewhat weaker character than De Hauranne, he was at
the same time infinitely more human, albeit also distinguished
by rugged perseverance and obstinacy. His talent, we are
told, lay not so much in Divine illumination as in a peculiar
1 Clemencet, Histoire Ginirale de Port-Royal, iii. p. 227.
2 Rapin, Histoire du Jansenisme, p. 30.

THE INFANCY OF JANSENISM 9
assiduity in making the most of the light which he had. At
times his temper and impetuosity were those of a raging lion :
" I am like inflamed saltpetre, which burns up for an instant,
and then dissipates without leaving either odour or smoke," 1
he said humorously.
The life of the two students was sedentary in the extreme,
their only exercise being the game of battledore and shuttle
cock, in which they grew very expert, and in which they
indulged between two Chapters of the Fathers ! Jansenius'
enthusiasm, in fact, became so great that he scarcely ever
went to bed at all, but spent his days mostly in an old chair
which De Hauranne had had fitted up with cushions and a
writing-desk for him.2 In this seat, he read, wrote, ate, and
slept — that is, between times, rarely more than four hours
out of the twenty-four. Madame de Hauranne used to say
to her son that he would " kill this good Fleming by dint of
making him study." 3
It was therefore fortunate when after a time both scholars
became engaged in the world about them, the former being
made Canon of the Bayonne Cathedral, the latter Principal
of a College founded by the bishop of the town. Even then,
they had little intercourse of any kind in the world outside
their work, and although neither was a monk, both apparently
shunned female society. At first in his own family, and
afterwards in his active life as a priest, De Hauranne was
necessarily brought into contact with women, all of whom
adored while they feared him, but at no epoch of his life
did the feminine element seem to have entered into the environ
ment of Jansenius. He indeed fled any personal relationship
with the sex, trying even when he was dying to refuse the
ministrations of sisters of charity, and confessing that since
the age of fifteen he had never been in need of any service
from a woman.4 His idea of the utility of women was evi-
1 Ellies Du Pin, Histoire EccUsiastique du XVII Siecle, ii. p. 12.
2 Clemencet, Histoire LitUraire de Port-Royal, p. 14.
3 Clemencet, Histoire G&nirale de Port-Royal, p. 228.
4 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vol. ii. p. 93.
C16mencet says in his Histoire Gbnbrale de Port-Royal (iii. p. 232) : " On
ne lui a jamais reproche sur ses mceurs," and this in spite of Pere Rapin's
scandalous stories of Jansenius' connection with a fascinating devote in
Brussels (Histoire du Jansinisme, p. 268).

10 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
dently akin to that embodied in plain words by the Jesuit
Pere Garasse :
" Of my fashion of writing I shall say but one word : I
try to write concisely, and without disguise of metaphor as
much as possible. I know that the thing is not easy, for I
believe that it is with metaphors as with women — they are
a necessary evil." x
In 1617, Jansenius left Bayonne, and went back to Louvain,
where he was made Principal of the new College of Holland
called " La Pulcherie," and where in 1619 he received his
doctor's degree. Leaving Bayonne at the same time, De
Hauranne went to Poitiers, where he became Canon of the
Cathedral, after which he was made Prior of Bonneville, and
finally in 1620 he obtained the Abbey of St. Cyran in Brenne
on the frontier of Touraine, Berry, and Poitou. From thence
forth, De Hauranne, Twentieth Abbot of the. Monastery,
was known as the Abbe de St. Cyran.
As a last remembrance of Jansenius' personality, a com
parison has been drawn by Sainte-Beuve between him and
St. Francois de Sales and St. Cyran.2 If asked, says the his
torian, what attribute of God struck him most, St. Francois
might characteristically have replied :
" Charity of the Son, Charity, Humility ! "
while St. Cyran's answer would have been :
" Power — that terrible power of the Father ! Abyss !.
Eternity ! "
Actually confronted with this question one day, it is chronicled
that Jansenius exclaimed :
" Truth ! "
1 Port-Royal, i. p. 303.
The feminine influence was generally shunned by the solitaires at Port-
Royal, even the Great Arnauld, who upheld Boileau in his Satire ou Women,
felt with the Satirist that virtuous women were rare, and that it was better
to avoid the sex altogether.
" Sans doute, et dans Paris, si je sais bien compter,
11 en est jusqu'a trois que je pourrais citer."
Satire X. CEuvres, Boileau.
2 Port-Royal, vol. i. p. 302.

THE INFANCY OF JANSENISM il
" Truth is what he meditated continually : he sought it
night and day in study ; and in rare moments of laxness,
when he walked in his garden, one could sometimes hear him
cry aloud, as with a deep sigh he raised his eyes to heaven :
' O truth ! O truth ! ' " i
1 Clemencet, Histoire Gtnlrale de Port-Royal, iii. p. 231.

CHAPTER II
THE LETTER OF THE LAW— THE AUGUSTINUS OF
CORNELIUS JANSSEN
"J' The Letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life," said St. Augustine. " . . . O
ye sages of the Academy, is there no certainty that men may grasp for the
guidance of life ? Nay, let us seek more earnestly and never despair."
" Le Jansenisme est l'heresie le plus subtile que le Diable ait jamais tissue."
TO understand the ideas of Jansenius and St. Cyran, we
must consider for a moment the circumstances which
caused their revolt, and the events of the troubled
sixteenth century which preceded them — of that epoch which
saw the birth of both Renaissance and Reform, and which has
been called the most dramatic in history :
' ' Two great events dominated and filled it . The Renaissance
which illumined and the Reform which soaked it in blood." 1
A modern French writer 2 analyses the pursuit of the Good,
the True, and the Beautiful as the three objects of civilization.
In France all would have been well could Renaissance,
as typifying the Beautiful, but have united with Reform,
anxious to become the incarnation of the Good and the True.
Curiously enough these two movements, though originally
interdependent, soon began to oppose one another. And
whereas at first Reform made use of Renaissance to give
it wings with which to fly,3 it soon combated everything
1 Comte Leo de Poney, Vie de Marguerite d' AngouUme.
2 Maulde de la Claviere, Louise de Savoie et Francois I"".
8 Through its incitement to a study of the classical tongues, Renaissance
also opened the way to an investigation of the Scriptures by laymen, making
comparisons between the Catholic faith and the religions and philosophies
of other lauds possible. Thus, unconsciously, Renaissance produced the
revolt called the Reformation.

THE LETTER OF THE LAW 13
that Renaissance taught. To its stern votaries, Art and the
Beautiful were snares of the Devil. Blinded, moreover, by
their hatred of the abuses which had crept into the Roman
Church, the first French Reformers could see no difference
between Pagan ideology and that of Rome. On the one
hand, all the old Pagan gods were huddled together with
the row of Saints and Martyrs of the Roman Church, while
on the other, majestic and awe-inspiring, Jesus Christ stood
alone.1 During the long wars of religion which followed the reign
of Francis the First, by a policy of sweet and tolerant methods
which distinguished acts from intentions,2 the Roman Church
regained the greater part of her former dominion in France.
Yet even the submission of Henri iv — his " saut perilleux,"
as he called it, — could not stifle the revolt, and the beginning
of 1600, although signalized by the apparent victory of
Catholicism, found the country in a state of religious unrest.
For though the practice of the Reform had often been bigoted
and narrow in the extreme, its principles were those of that
eternal freedom toward which the human mind has ever
aspired. Thus, whatever victories the Catholic Reaction,
or Counter Reformation, may have entailed to the Established
Church, the progress of human thought, once awakened, was
ever striving for liberty, and religious emancipation was
written on the book of the future in France as elsewhere in
the thinking world. In vain had fanatics — themselves also
animated, be it said, by true sentiments of loyalty and patriot
ism — lighted the fires which burned the works of Luther
before their beautiful Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. In
vain they had banished Lefevre, Farel, and Calvin from their
native land. The ideals of religious independence taught
by these men had survived through a century of war and
bloodshed, and were pointing to a freer and more spiritual
Catholicity — again to be purified by another Renaissance and
another Reform.
On his accession to the throne, three tasks had lain before
Henry iv : the re-establishment of authority in the govern
ment, of prosperity in the country, and of peace in men's
1 J. H. Merle d'Aubigne, V Histoire de la Reformation du XVI Siicle,
iii. p. 72.
2 The famous Casuistry afterward combated by Pascal,

14 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
minds.1 During a short twelve years (for if was not until
1598 that both he and France could stop to take breath) this
great king had nobly fulfilled the first two requirements.
France had nearly recovered from the devastating wars,
the throne was all-powerful. As to the third ."'condition— to
secure peace, Henri iv had renounced deep 'religious con
victions and vowed to live and die a Catholic At a time when
no other country in Europe knew how to practise tolerance,
he had brought back the Jesuit to France, and by the Edict
of Nantes assured safety to the Huguenots, even allowing
the latter to hold office under the government, thus apparently
giving religious liberty to France. And yet, although for this
heritage of humanity left him by his grandmother, Margu6rite
d' Angoul&ne, he paid the price of his life, he had not been able
to bring peace to men's minds. The victorious Cathohc Church
itself was in a state of great danger, all the more menacing
because the evil came from within.2 Its factions were already
quarrelling among themselves. The Royal Cathohcs — or
those who had sided with Henri iv against the League —
advocated the right of self-government by national churches.
The ancient Leaguers, on the other hand, looked upon the
Pope as the fountain of ecclesiastical power, and wanted no
other dominion. The one represented the Gallican, the other
the Ultramontane party.
Properly speaking, the Sorbonne, as acknowledged Judge
of the Church, should have settled all theological disputes.
But in 1600, like the country and the nobility, weakened by
the Wars of the League, the Sorbonne had lost its backbone.
The rise of this Faculty of Theology of the Paris University
had been very rapid. Founded in the time of Louis ix,
shortly afterward, through its introduction of the Scholastic
Theology, it had become so famous as to overshadow and
lend distinction to the whole University. But since then it
had made mistakes. It is true that in 1469 it had been the
means of bringing printing into France, yet it had stubbornly
opposed the Renaissance,8 fiercely combated the Reform as
well, and justified the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. By
this time theological discussions had so invaded the outside
1 Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire de France, vol. 6. ii. p. 22.
2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vol. i. p. 7.
8 Cabantous, Marguerite d'AngouUme et les Debuts de la Reforme, p. 37.

THE 'LETTER OF THE LAW 15
world that both belief and action seemed paralysed, and
scholars began to wonder what indeed the spiritual founda
tions of Catholicism were. Palpably the store of ancient
piety and wisdom underlying its great edifice must still be
there, but how revive and vivify it ?
To resolve the problem, three sincere Churchmen, destined
during the next fifty years to exercise a tremendous influence
in the religious world, met together the year after the murder
of Henri iv, when for the moment the star of the Jesuits had
paled. Each had his individual idea for the restoration of a
pure Catholicism ; each set about in his own way to put it into
execution. M. de Berulle, believing that learned priests could
by their example and teaching disseminate the leaven of
holiness, founded the Oratory ; M. Vincent de Paul, with the
idea of instructing people in the provinces and abroad, insti
tuted the association of missionaries ; M. Bourdoise, to whose
mind the remedy lay in reforming the clergy, assembled a new
spiritual body of priests in the monastery of St. Nicolas du
Chardonnet.1 It was eight years later, when Richelieu's star was just
appearing on the horizon of the Court, that Jansenius and St.
Cyran reached in Bayonne the solution of their inquiry into
the cause of the corruption in the Church. Their studies
had not by any means led them into a desire to leave the
Roman Faith. On the contrary, like that early reformer,
Marguerite D'Angouleme,2 sister of Francis the First, they
were alone possessed with a longing to bring about the
purification of an institution to which they clung with all
their instincts. The cause of the corruption lay, they felt,
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, Discours Pr61iminaire.
It was at this same epoch that Madame de Chantal, under the inspiration
of St. Francois de Sales, founded the Convent of the Visitation, which was
also to cope with the corruption of the day by attracting souls through the
tender lenient side of .Christianity.
2 If Francis the First brought Italy to France and gave his country that
taste and distinction in Letters and the Arts which has since never left it.
Marguerite combined in her personality the ideal of the Good, the True, and
the Beautiful. She had come to the New Religion through the inspiration
of Renaissance, and as her ideal was that of maintaining the unity of
Catholicism by infusing into it the tenets of the Reform, she was practically
a forerunner of the Jansenists, therefore to them the central figure of the
sixteenth century. (See the various lives of this princess by Cabantous,
Felix Frank, Sainte-Beuve, etc.)

16 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
in a strange forgetfulness of earlier stricter principles ; the
remedy, in a renaissance of the teachings of St. Augustine,
Bishop of Hippo, whose symbol in the ideography of the Roman
Church to-day is a flaming heart, his title " Doctor of Grace."
Born in Africa twelve centuries before the era of Jansenius
and St. Cyran, this father of the Early Church had fought and
won his battle of the soul in the little pagan country of Greece,
whence had afterward come the revivifying inspiration toward
literature and art . His spiritual development had been through
the religion of the Manichees — a material scheme which sym
bolized spiritual things in the earthly — and by way of Plato,
whobyappealing to the intellect taught man to look beneath the
materialistic. After Plato, examination of the deeper strata of
Ethics led him to that high ideal which Christianity stands for.
To use his own words :
" The light of peace was shed upon my heart and every
shadow of doubt melted away." *
Thus it was through mystic depths that his inner being
had blossomed out into the clear radiance- of a Christianity
ruled over by Divine Grace, and which " understood invisible
things by the visible." His dogma was based on the idea of
universal guilt as the result of Adam's sin — a guilt which
entails on the human race bodily infirmity and death.2
Pelagius, an English monk born on the same day as the
African Father, and educated in theology originating in Pales
tine, was the great contemporary opponent of the Augustinian
ideas. He denied that the Fall had annihilated Free Will,
and contended that Man was able without any assistance to
perform the commandments of God. Sin was, therefore, not
an infirmity of human nature, but of the will. In thus up
holding the greatness of human nature, the Pelagians not only
upset the whole scheme of redemption in Christ, but rendered
priesthood unnecessary.
To St. Augustine this heresy was most terrible, and it was
for combating it and the Pelagians in general that he received
the title of Doctor of Grace.3
1 Confessions, Book viii. p. 288.
2 Blunt's Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology, p. 558.
8 Strangely enough in St. Augustine's century, the fourth, the Christian
Church was fighting almost the same problems as those facing it again at

THE LETTER OF THE LAW i?
Although they were but partially understood, the writings
of St. Augustine exercised a great and lasting influence on
the early Church.1 St. Thomas d'Aquin, who lived nine
centuries afterward (1227-1274), was the first priest to sustain
the Augustinian ideas on Grace and Predestination. His
" Summary of Theology " followed the Scholastic method,
and his principles were adopted by the Church without any
real comprehension of the meaning of the word " Grace."
It is said that after leaving Bayonne, Jansenius became
more and more absorbed in the study of St. Augustine, until
he neglected his work at the College, and even feared being
called to a chair in the University lest it should disturb him
in his one preoccupation.2 He said he could have passed his
life agreeably on a desert island with his copy of St. Augustine
as his only companion. With characteristic impetuosity, he
forgot the necessity of a balance-wheel, and threw himself
exclusively into the works of the " Doctor of Grace." 3 Not
content with reading all of St. Augustine's writings through
once, he read them each ten times, the treatises against
the Pelagians thirty times. The outcome of this fascination,
almost become an obsession, can be seen in a letter written to
St. Cyran in March 1621, wherein he declares his astonishment
at the height and breadth of St. Augustine, and the fact that
his doctrine is so little known among learned men, not only of
his (Jansenius') century, but of past ages. In the same letter,
Jansenius confesses that until his ideas are quite formulated
he dare not tell any one what he thinks about many subjects
of the times, especially Grace and Predestination.4
the beginning of the seventeenth. To combat these evils, the Fourth
Century Church had fixed its mind on three things :
1. The Christology of revealed religion.
2. Church Authority and Discipline.
3. Human Nature in its relation to Divine Grace.
See Blunt's Dictionary of Doctrinal Theology.
1 A very recent Jansenist historian, Jules Paquier, says : " The writings
of St. Augustine and particularly those on Grace have had an influence
without parallel in the Latin Church ; after the Apostles, he was the great
luminary of the Church" (Le Jansinisme, p. 39).
2 It was not until 1630 that the King of Spain made him Professor of
Scriptural History in the University of Louvain (Ellies Du Pin, Histoire
EccUsiastique, ii. p. 5).
8 " Which," he said, he read with " un etrange desir et profit."
4 For Letters of Jansenius, see La Naissance du Jansinisme dicouverte,
by le Sieur de Preville,

18 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Not having met since 1617, both Jansenius and St. Cyran
had for some time been anxious for an interview in which they
could discuss these subjects so near the heart of each. In
1621, when this long-looked-forward-to meeting took place at
Louvain, they came to an understanding as to their great
project, and the means by which they might propagate the
Doctrine of Grace as they understood it. It was decided
that in secret Jansenius should prepare an exhaustive work
as the basis of principles which St. Cyran should work out in
practice. On his part, at this very meeting, St. Cyran dic
tated the forms and heads of the Chapters for the Letter of
their Law to be called the Augustinus, and it was agreed, as
their combined writings were intended to express a whole, that
St. Cyran's pen name should be " Aurelius." Together they
thus completed the Latin name of St. Augustine, Aurelius
Augustinus. Sainte-Beuve tells a delightfully poetic, if not absolutely
historic, story (confirmed by Clemencet) of the next meeting
of the friends, two years later, at Peronne, a town on the
frontier of Belgium. Here, he says,
" Jansenius arrived on horseback, the evening of 29th April,
in order to enter France with the month of May." x
Alas ! in spite of the love of nature displayed by Jansenius
on this occasion, there is little of the gaiety of Spring in the
work which the two enthusiasts again discussed in this second
interview : it is sombre with the earnestness of November and
the falling leaf, and has no hint of the joy of life, or of pure
beauty as such. The poetry of existence, indeed, would seem
to cling not to its admonitions, but to its mistakes.
After 1623, Jansenius and St. Cyran had other fleeting
glimpses of each other, St. Cyran re- visiting Louvain on one
occasion, but most of their subsequent intercourse was by
letter. For twenty years Jansenius worked on his book,
and in writing it he believed his doctrine to be not only sound
but orthodox. Twice he submitted it to the Pope, and in the
Prologue of the whole work he asserted that he had not taught
" what is true or false, or what one may hold or reject accord
ing to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, but what St.
Augustine has contended one must believe."
1 Port-Royal, i. p. 303.

THE LETTER OF THE LAW 19
In the Augustinus, therefore, employing neither the scholastic
nor the academic, but the historical method,1 he endeavoured
to recover and demonstrate the doctrine of St. Augustine.
One part of the thick in-folio volume is given over to a
history of Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism. The second
treats of the state of man before the Fall, and his actual present
state. The third goes into a long discussion of possible cure
and the Grace administered by Jesus Christ. In his Preface,
describing the idea of Pelagius, the author confessed that
without very special Divine Grace it would be difficult to
avoid being partly seduced at least by the " fatal sweetness "
of the doctrine. Later on he turned his criticism, not against
the modern Semi-Pelagians — under whom were understood
the Jesuits and especially the Molinists 2 — but against Theo
logians in general, who in their ideas had drifted absolutely
away from St. Augustine, and who even while keeping in their
hearts as Cathohcs the Christian faith, had lost sight of every
thing ennobling from Hope and Nature to Grace — whether of
angels or men, and under whatever name soever, sufficient,
efficacious, operative, co-operative, predisposing, subsequent
or exciting. Insensible to all these things, they followed
neither the Old nor the New Testament.3
Unhappily, the Latin form of the book and the heated
manner of the arguments did not make for clearness, although
the style of the work itself is, according to critics, at times
" most brilliant, arresting attention by a sort of theological
beauty, of a Miltonian if not a Dantesque depth of sutble
thought." *
The Augustinus was in reality so abstruse that soon Jan
senius' enemies contended that he had not understood St.
Augustine at all. Moreover, a great deal of this lack of lucidity
was attributed to indigestion of the subject-matter. In
common with most writers on theology, Montaigne's rather
1 Which, says Sainte-Beuve, " he accompanied and sought to explain by
the psychological and metaphysical Christian method " (Port-Royal, ii. p. 99).
2 Followers of Molina, a Spanish Jesuit, author of a book called Concord
between Grace and Free Will. In this book Molina sustained that grace
never lacked any one and that the Will was always free to receive or reject
all the graces.
8 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 127.
* Ibid. p. 97.

20 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Rabelaisian advice might with profit have been given to
Jansenius :
" Order a purgation for your brain ; it will be better
employed than for your stomach." x
The greatest crime of which Jansenius was accused was
that of putting into the words of his model St. Augustine
the principles of pure Calvinism. As Michel le Vassor ex
pressed it :
" Jansenius read St. Augustine with the spectacles of
Calvin." 2
What gave colour to this accusation was the fact that in his
L' Institution Chretienne, Calvin cites St. Augustine con
stantly as his authority on Predestination and other points.
Critics overlooked the fact, however, that on leaving the
Roman Church, the great Reformer threw off Penitence, the
Eucharist, etc., as vain forms, keeping to but " one universal
sacrament," that of the Scripture itself. Jansenius, on the
contrary, was very tenacious of all the sacraments of the
Church, being unorthodox, or rather Gallican, in the one
particular alone : his lack of faith in the infallibility of
the Pope. It is also very misleading to students of these
controversies that confidence in St. Augustine was not con
fined to Jansenius and Calvin ; the Jesuits also recognized
him as sound, and the Papal See never denied the orthodoxy
of the Augustinian doctrine. Gibbon saw the incongruity of
the dispute, and in his Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
said humorously :
" The Roman Church has canonised St. Augustine and
crushed Calvin. However, as the difference of their opinions
is imperceptible even with the aid of a theological micro
scope, the Molinists are overwhelmed by the authority of the
Saint, and the Jansenists are dishonoured by their resemblance
to a heretic. . . ." 3
In any case, whatever Jansenism appeared to the different
sects, its founders intended it to be a pure renaissance of
the spirit of the Early Fathers and the ancient dogma and
1 Causeries d'un Curieux, Feuillet de Conches, ii. p. 7.
* Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 106. 8 J6»<j. p. 105.

THE LETTER OF THE LAW 21
authority of Christian tradition. To-day the peculiar interest
which attaches to the Augustinus is not its literary or moral
value, but the fact that throughout the whole seventeenth
century, and far into the eighteenth, it created a long and
interminable conflict, acting as a sort of ethical leech, which,
placed byDoctors of Divinity on the diseased part of Catholicity,
drew out innumerable bad humours from its blood. It is safe
to say that, had the Augustinus never been published, the
dogma of Jansenius and St . Cyran might have for ever remained
hidden in the schools, and that these two sincere men would
have been judged by their acts alone. Its publication was a
challenge to the whole religious world of France, and, like the
defiance of Luther in the face of the Diet of Worms,1 such a
gauntlet once thrown down had to be taken up by those whose
very existence was at stake.
" Truly," as saith St. Augustine, " the Letter killeth, but
the Spirit giveth life."
1 Luther said : "I shall defend myself as did Jesus Christ. ' If I have
spoken evil, bear witness of the evil,' said he. How much more I, who am
but ashes and dust, and who can so easily err, should I desire that each
avow what he may have against my doctrine " (J. H. Merle d'Aubigne,
Reformation, ii. p. 249).

CHAPTER III
PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS— PORT-ROYAL
A THREEFOLD FORCE
" Qui ne connait pas Port-Royal, ne connait pas l'humanit6."
ROYER-COLLARD
TO the mind of the average person to-day, Port-Royal
has a far-away, dim suggestion of interest and import ;
but, if questioned concerning it, he would be puzzled
to put his vague remembrances into words. And yet in the
days of Louis xiii and xiv the name was synonymous on
the one hand for all that was heretical, blasphemous, and
revolutionary — on the other, everything saintly, erudite,
and inspiring.
Like the old religious paintings, Port-Royal was a triptych.
The central panel represented Port-Royal des Champs, the
two on either side, Port-Royal de Paris, and the Society of
Port-Royal respectively. Like a true trinity, these parts
are inseparable, and cannot be understood one without the
other, for although each depicted a picture of a different
scene and history, the same feeling and emotion held the
three together. In themselves, these separate organisations
possessed the requisites said to be essential to the rehgious
Hfe : emotion, conception, and sentiment ; 1 each has left
to-day some few but most tangible evidences of its former
existence. Our first concern is with the oldest panel, Port-Royal
des Champs, the parent monastery, said to have been founded
in 1204 by Mathilde de Garlande, wife of a Montmorency-
Marli, who, on going off to the Fourth Crusade, left fifteen
thousand! livres income to be applied to pious uses. Not
1C, P. Tiele, Elements of ihe Science of Religion, ii. p. 22.

PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 33
long after her husband's departure, Mathilde, in the hope of
propitiating the gods toward his safe return and salvation,
concerted with the Archbishop of Paris, Eudes de Sully, for
the building of a monastery accommodating twelve nuns.1
As the generic name of the country thereabouts was
Porrois, the monastery founded in 1204 came in course of
time to be known as Port-Roi, and finally Port-Royal.
A more picturesque legend of its foundation was, it was
said, discovered by Mere Angelique in the archives of the
monastery four hundred years later. This story, written on
a slip of paper, but cherished by faithful Port-Royalists,
attributes its endowment to the grateful munificence of King
Philippe Auguste, who, hunting one day in the great primeval
forest then surrounding Paris, becoming separated from his
followers just as night was falling, found welcome refuge
in a little chapel of St. Lawrence erected on the spot.2 Hence
the appropriate name of Royal Haven, or, in French parlance,
Port-Royal. One description of Port-Royal says it was situated in
a valley, surrounded by " prodigious mountains, the church
steeple being lost to view beneath them." 3 This choice of
a site was not peculiar, for each of the different monkish
orders had its own ideal in this respect. One chose the
forest, another the hill, another the valley. St. Bernard,
who became the patron saint of the new monastery of Porrois,
prescribed the depth of a profound valley, such as that of
the river Yvette, for his monks or nuns, as from thence they
could not look out on the world, but were necessarily obliged
to keep their eyes fixed on heaven.4
According to an eighteenth-century historian, Port-Royal
was built on the banks of a large pond nearly filling the valley
of the river Yvette, only six leagues from Paris, on the
road to Chevreuse, and near Versailles. A dyke served as
1 Clemencet, Histoire Genirale de Port-Royal, p. 2. And here at the
outset it is as well to explain that neither the historians of Port-Royal, nor
the Port-Royalists themselves, ever call their institution a convent, but
always either Abbey or Monastery. The reason for this is not known (Sainte-
Beuve, i. 37).
2 Lancelot, Mimoires touchant la Vie de M. de St. Cyran, ii. p. 451.
8 From the Relation of a Visit to Port-Royal in 1698, quoted by M. Andre
Hallays in his recent Pelerinage de Port-Royal, p. 102.
1 Tronchay, Abrege de I' Histoire de Port-Royal.

24 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
a cloister, while the waters of the pond, passing through the
garden, formed a canal. At all epochs, this swampy pool
seems to have been the evil genius of the monastery, for,
frequently overflowing into the canal, it filled the precincts
with malarial stenches and poisonous vapours.
In shape the early conventual buildings formed a square,
with a large court in the middle. This court was ornamented
by a dove-cot, a few trees here and there, a great elm in
the centre. The earliest church was a fine old thirteenth-
century edifice, dedicated to Notre-Dame, and built in the
form of a Latin cross by Robert de Luzarches, architect of
Amiens Cathedral. In one corner, an altar preserved the
name and memory of Philippe Auguste's sheltering chapel of
St. Lawrence.
Having in those days no protecting walls, the abbey was
quite open and exposed to the depredations of any chance
passer-by. From its foundation in 1204, until the Reform
in 1609, therefore, Port-Royal passed through many physical
as well as spiritual changes, its history being entirely lost
during the wars with the English in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. That reform was very much needed as early as
the beginning of the sixteenth century, is proved by an existing
carte-de-visite, or Cartulary — a report made by the Superior
of the Abbey on his regular visits there. By this card, it
is apparent that the monastery had no dormitory, and that
the law of seclusion was not practised, while its recommenda
tion of a better recitation of the Prayers to Notre-Dame, the
patron, also a clock for greater punctuality in the hours of
Divine service, is significant. The directions with regard to
dress, confession, etc., all pointed to laxness of moral dis
cipline.1 About this time, some slight economic reform in the
matter of the limits of the monastery was undertaken in turn
by two Abbesses, aunt and niece respectively, both named
Jehanne de la Fin. The first Jehanne added the farm on
the heights above the abbey called Les Granges, and after
her, Jehanne the second — evidently a lover of beauty— had
the church repaired, made over the bell tower, and presented
some very fine sculptured choir stalls. The epitaph of
•See Guilbert, Memoires Historiques et Chronologiques de Port-Royal,
i. 187-196.

PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 25
this Abbess, a play on her name, was short and to the
point :
" La fin couronne l'ceuvre."
A second carte-de-visite, dated some seventy years later,1
records a still graver moral laxness among the nuns of Port-
Royal, encouraged by the corruption of the Abbess, Catherine
de ¦ la Vallee. Fortunately, this lady, becoming frightened
of the dangers entailed during the wars of the League by
Port-Royal's close proximity to Paris, at last fled to another
Cistercian convent called Colinance.
It was under the rule of Catherine de la Valine's successor,
La Dame Boulehart, who maintained matters much as she
had found them, neither better nor worse, that in the last
year of the sixteenth century an event occurred which brings
us into touch with our immediate subject. This was the
nomination as coadjutrice, of a young girl only seven years
and a half old, destined to be Port-Royal's future Abbess
and Reformer.
In those days, the religious life was an easy manner of
settling the future fate of female members of rich and in
fluential families, for on buying an abbey, or installing his
daughter in a convent or monastery, the. father was there
after absolved from further care or thought in her regard.
Thus the monastical profession had become a matter of
material, not spiritual import, and such institutions showed
a deplorable moral degeneration.
La Dame Boulehart's young coadjutrice belonged to a
family claiming noble blood, and originating in Auvergne.
It has been said that the Arnaulds have the distinction of
characterizing Port-Royal :
" Port -Royal is the Arnaulds ; the Arnaulds are Port-
Royal." In Catherine de Medecis' time, the head of this important
clan was M. Antoine Arnauld, like his father before him,
Procureur-General to the Queen, and a gentleman renowned
for his fine mind and attainments. Later on, when so many
descendants of this patriarch became nuns and solitaires at
Port-Royal, the imputation of Calvinism was cast by enemies
1 17th September 1572. Ibid. pp. 198-202.

26 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
on M. Arnauld pere, but this was untrue, he in reality having
always been a good and most enthusiastic Catholic.
In a Study on the History of the Ancient French Magistracy}
he has been described as a
" man of the world and a Christian, uniting ambition and
piety, soliciting at the court offices for his eldest son, at Rome
abbeys for his daughters, still children. He walked in the
ways of salvation, without turning aside from those of fortune."
Selling his office on the death of Catherine de M6decis,
M. Arnauld devoted himself to the law, and toward the end
of the sixteenth century became famous by an act facetiously
termed the " original sin of the Arnaulds." This was a most
heated and eloquent brief delivered in the University of
Paris against the Jesuit, Pierre Barriere's attempted murder
of Henri iv in 1594. With inartistic vehemence, M. Arnauld
denounced the Jesuits as :
" Thieves, corruptors of youth, assassins of kings, sworn
enemies of the State, pests of Republics, and disturbers of
the public repose." 2
Not content with overwhelming the objects of his scorn with
these epithets, the impassioned orator further denounced
them as meriting not only to be chased out of Paris, the court,
and the kingdom, but to be entirely cleared away and exter
minated from the face of the earth.
So intense was the general indignation over this outrage
attributed to the Jesuits, that Parliament thereupon demanded
the expulsion of the whole Society from France, and the
lenient Henri iv was compelled to yield to the moment's
pressure. That the University believed the gaining of their
point due to their orator's eloquence, is proved by the fact
that they made a resolution vowing to him and his posterity
eternal gratitude.3
Such excess of enthusiasm as this celebrated brief dis
played, was but characteristic of the judicial oratory of the
day, when Renaissance learning had turned to pedantry,
and rhetoric suffered from the universal adoration of the
1 Sapey, C. A., p. 189.
2 Plaidoye de M. Antoine Arnauld, 12 et 13 Juillet, 1694.
8 In an Act of 18th March 1595. See Guilbert, Memoires, i. 234.

PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 27
antique. Antoine Arnauld was, in fact, much given to inter
larding his speeches with classical allusions, owing to a habit
with which Tallemant des Reaux credits him,1 of pasting
into copy books whole passages from other authors, and
classifying them for quotation and use. Indeed, he was often
apt in his pleadings to forget the subject in hand and let
his mind wander to something quite foreign. The story is
told that on one occasion, when carrying on a suit against
a Genovese Huguenot in a case of confiscation, going into
a long dissertation on the misdeeds of the citizens of Genoa
against France, flanked by a discussion of Andrea Doria,
he was finally recalled to the matter in hand by the Genovese
Huguenot himself. Turning to the other advocates, the
indignant Italian demanded :
" Gentlemen, what have the Republic of Genoa and
Andrea Doria to do with me and my money ? " 2
In spite of this inflated rhetoric, these maitresses voiles of
eloquence, as his son Robert called them, Antoine Arnauld
was conceded to have been a most perfect advocate, his
popularity among princesses and the nobility generally being
unbounded. Early in his career he had married the twelve-year-old
daughter of M. Simon Marion, also an eloquent orator and
advocate, afterward President des Enquetes.and finally Avocat-
General. Mile Marion not only brought her husband a
large dot, in which was included the fine estate of Andilly,
but she soon exhibited strong character and great influence.
Later on M. de St. Cyran described her as
" a soul truly solid and built upon the rock." 3
With such sterling qualities in both father and mother,
the children of this union could not fail to have been striking
characters. But of the twenty infants born to M. and Madame
Arnauld, only ten survived to reach mature age. When
these ten grew up, however, their maternal grandfather, no
less ambitious than their father, in the matter of family
advancement, was anxious to settle them all well in life.
1 Historiettes, vol. iv. p. 60.
'¦> Ibid.
8 Letter to Mere Angfelique, 15th March 1641.

28 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
The eldest, a son Robert, was from the first designed by
his father for the world. He was well launched in his career
by two influential uncles, and soon managed to gain such
considerable reputation for finance as at an early age to be
made assistant to M. Schomberg, Intendant of Finance.
Like his father, Robert Arnauld made a happy marriage,
and his wife, who was the daughter of a celebrated Ambassador
of Henri iv, brought him the well-known estate of Pomponne.
On this occasion, too, his father transferring to him the family
country seat, he was thereafter known as Robert Arnauld
d'Andilly. Although connected with Port-Royal from his
early manhood, M. d'Andilly did not definitely retire to the
monastery until he was fifty-eight years old. For twenty-
seven years he played the part of link between Port-Royal
and the outside — a role for which his vast experience of the
different aspects of life generally, his close alliance with the
Court, made him perfectly fitted.
The next eldest of M. Arnauld's four sons was the Abbe
de St. Nicolas, eight years younger than Robert, who eventu
ally became Bishop of Angers, and also noted in religious
circles, though not until the Peace of the Church in connection
with Port-Royal.
Six years younger still was the third son, Simon Arnauld,
the only one who, as Sainte-Beuve says, had not time to
disengage himself from the world. Simon Arnauld was
described by his nephew the Abbe Arnauld as
" born with many good qualities, without any considerable
vice ; well made in his person, of a very affable and sweet
humour, agreeable among women, proud when necessary
among men." x
Lieutenant des Carabins in a cousin's regiment, this dashing
soldier, in spite of his fine qualities, seems to have been born
under an unlucky star, for he could never secure advance
ment in his profession, and was killed at the age of thirty-six
in the siege of Verdun.
Last on the family list, and twenty-four years Robert
d'Andilly's junior, came the fourth son, Antoine, afterwards
famous as the Grand Arnauld. The testimony of contem
poraries does not show this future doctor of the Sorbonne as
1 Memoires, Ed. Petitot, vol. xxxiv. p. 186.

PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 29
physically attractive. Apparently he was small, dark, and
ugly. His nephews called him " le petit oncle," because
he was younger than the eldest among them, Antoine Le
Maitre. Mentally, however, he made up for all physical
imperfections. Sainte-Beuve says he was :
" One of the most active, original, and characteristic
persons of his time — a symbol of ardour and candour." x
And what a face his portrait shows ! The brightness of eyes
illuminate features which betray such sensibility that it is
hard to recognize in their possessor the rude fighting qualities
attributed to the " Defender of the Truth." Essentially the
scholar in his countenance and personality, Antoine Arnauld's
fate was continual struggle, his life-history during the so-
called second Port-Royal a tale of exile and hardship.
The eldest of Antoine Arnauld's six daughters, Catherine,
had early made what was supposed to be a brilliant marriage.
Unfortunately, she soon learned that her husband, Isaac
Le Maitre, King's Councillor and Maitre des Comptes, was
unworthy in every respect. For seven years she suffered
in proud silence both his immorality and his cruelty, but
finally, falling ill, she confessed all to her mother ; and, after
a great deal of trouble, M. Arnauld succeeded in procuring
a separation for his daughter. Her five sons, too, he was
able to save from the control of their father, who, to retain
his rights to his children, even declared himself to belong
to the Reformed Religion. Only twenty-six years of age
at the time of her trouble, Madame Le Maitre devoted herself
thenceforth solely to the education of her sons, leading a
most useful and saintly life. Eventually she, too, found a
refuge at Port-Royal.
The other five daughters were nuns. The youngest,
Madeleine-Christine, commonly called " Madelon," was in
early childhood a stubborn rebel, who, when her sister
Angelique begged her to become a nun, replied that she
wished to marry. Angelique prayed fervently for the salva
tion of the little one, and behold one night Madelon had a
vision, in which, appearing before her, her own Sainte-Madeleine
called her into the desert. Although the family laughed at
Madelon's instant decision to become a nun, the child per-
1 Port-Royal, ii. p. 172.

30 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
sisted, and finally went to Port-Royal. Always a great
invalid, Madelon astonished her sisters by her patience under
continual suffering, endured for forty-two years.
" Am I not very happy, and has not God shown me much
grace that I am not a moment without suffering either in
body or mind ? " she asked.1
The next youngest girl, Marie-Claire, became identified with
Port-Royal from her seventh year. The story is told that having
the small-pox at this early age a preservative was administered
which destroyed her beauty. Herself realizing the change,
and putting her hand up before the unfamiliar image looking
at her from the mirror, Marie-Claire would exclaim piteously :
" Ah ! ce n'est plus moi ! ce n'est plus moi ! " a
Timid, delicate, but passionate and affectionate, this sister
clung with steadfast pertinacity to Mere Angelique. Her
great forte from the beginning was prayer, and because she
was so zealous in this form of devotion as to be continually
in the church, Mere Angelique called her
" One of the pillars of our choir."
On the occasion of some celebration when the whole monastery
had spent the entire day in the chapel, Marie-Claire, who was
Mistress of the Novices, came to Mere Angelique and asked
naively what they must do, as the novices
" had not had time to pray to God, all the day having
been spent in church." 3
Marie-Claire's life was thus a simple history of devotion to
her God, devotion to her sister. Living to be forty-two, her
health was so impaired by the hardships encountered during
a long sojourn at Maubuisson with Mere Angelique, that for
twenty-two years she confessed to have had fever the whole
afternoon of every day. When at last this brave nun died,
she was buried according to an old religious custom the same
evening, in pious simplicity, without flowers, beautiful linen,
or illumination. Marie-Claire, it was said, had loved peni
tence too well in life not to preserve the marks of it after
death.4
1 Besoigne, Histoire de Port-Royal, i. 301.
'Ibid. p. 311. 'Ibid. *lbid. p. 217.

PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 31
Six years older, Anne-Eugenie Arnauld was the romantic
spirit among the sisters. Full of pride and haughtiness, she
used to spend her days in the park at Andilly, reading novels
so deeply absorbing in their tales of love and life that oft-
times, overtaken by a storm, she would let the thunder and
lightning play upon her unperceived. Taste for the world
was very strong in this girl of fourteen. Moreover, greatly
influenced by Calvinistic cousins, she found it difficult to
decide which faith to choose. Then, suddenly, at nineteen,
during the climax of an attack of smallpox, she vowed, if
God would save her, to serve Him thenceforth in the better
of the two religions. As she knelt one day with her mother
in the family chapel of St. Lawrence in the church of St.
Merry, her doubt was resolved, and a great and irrepressible
desire seized her to become a nun. Remaining a year longer
in the world as a test of this resolution, in 1616 she finally
entered Port-Royal, where she voluntarily served in the
kitchen, performing the most menial tasks, which she said
gave her
" more joy and pleasure than she had ever had at the Comedy
and in the greatest amusements." 1
When, two years later, the convent doors closed upon. this
daughter for ever, M. Arnauld, senior, declined to be present
at the ceremony, alleging that it moved him too greatly.
Anne-Eugenie, however, was in a state of such exaltation
that when the day after her profession the nuns were weeping
Mere Angdlique's departure for Maubuisson, she alone re
mained tearless :
" God gave me too many benefits yesterday," she said,
" for me to weep to-day."
Reminded on her death-bed thirty-seven years afterward of
the joys she had then experienced, Anne-Eugenie again
became radiant, repeating verbatim the vows of her pro
fession as readily as if made only the week before.2
Though all the Arnaulds were connected more or less
closely with the monastery, it is through the next two daughters
that we first approach it, they who were most intimately
associated with the reform and lifelong history of the whole
1 Memoires et Relations, p. 35. ' Ibid. p. 39.

32 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
movement ; they who represent the finest and most living
period of Port-Royal's growth and influence.
The elder, born in 1591 and called Jacqueline, became
the celebrated Mere Angelique : Jeanne, two years younger,
was scarcely less renowned as Mere Agnes de Saint-Paul.
Though not a thorough materialist, being, on the contrary,
a zealous churchman of the Gallican type,1 M. Antoine Arnauld
seemed particularly anxious to settle the future of these
two daughters. A story is told by the historian CMmencet
that when in their early childhood the sisters were both told
by their grandfather that they were to be nuns, the elder,
of whom M. Marion was particularly fond, replied :
" My grandfather, since you wish me to be a nun, I wish
it too, but on condition that I shall be an abbess."
One day, however, with serious face, she went in search of
M. Marion, who was in his study. On asking her what she
wanted, the child replied :
" My grandfather, I have come to tell you that I do not
want to be an abbess, for I have heard it said that abbesses
must render account to God for the souls of their nuns, and
I have enough to do to care for my own."
Her sister Jeanne (Agnes), who had followed her, on hearing
this, broke in, and announced brusquely :
" I want to be one, grandfather, and I shall take care to
make them do their duty." 2
Jacqueline was but seven years of age when, by
her father's and grandfather's efforts and credit, she was
made coadjutrice of the Abbey of Port-Royal, under an
abbess whose age and infirmities gave every reason to believe
that from coadjutrice the child might soon become Abbess.
For the younger sister, Jeanne, the Abbey of St. Cyr was
obtained. Both girls were so young, however, that before
taking up these important positions, it was necessary they
should be instructed in the religious life. After benediction
at the Abbey of St. Antoine des Champs in Paris, therefore,
Jacqueline, taking the novice's dress, spent eight months in
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 74.
2 Histoire Ginerale de Port-Royal, i. p. 13.

PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 33
her sister's Abbey of St. Cyr. Here, in 1600, Jeanne also
took the robe of the novice, it being understood that although
from that time virtually Abbess of St. Cyr, she should not
fulfil her abbatial duties until she was twenty years old. In
1600, the girls were separated, Jeanne remaining at St. Cyr,
Jacqueline being placed in the Cistercian Abbey of
Maubuisson under Madame Angelique d'Estrees, its Abbess.
On entering Maubuisson, Jacqueline changed her name
to Angelique, choosing this appellation not only out of com
pliment to Madame d'Estrees, but also in order to conceal
her true age from the papal authorities. In October, her
noviciate having expired, she made her profession, remaining
two years longer at Maubuisson until the Abbess of Port-
Royal died, when, under the impression that M. Arnauld's
daughter was seventeen, the Pope confirmed her appoint
ment, and Madame Angelique was at once installed at Port-
Royal des Champs. In reality, the new Abbess was not quite
eleven years of age.1
Thus began the life-history of that great character who
was to institute an epoch-making reform, and who even
now, after the lapse of three centuries, stands out as la grande
Angelique. During seventy years of charity and self-denial,
this heroine, mother and martyr of the first Port-Royal,
had full opportunity to test the truth of her own saying :
" Affliction, pain, and evil are more necessary to us than
bread." 2 1 Racine, Abrege de I'Histoire de Port-Royal, p. 2.
2 Memoires et Relations, p. 270.

CHAPTER IV
MERE ANGELIQUE'S CONVERSION AND THE
REFORM OF PORT-ROYAL DES CHAMPS
" No man in this corrupt state of nature can resist Divine Grace operating
upon the soul."
One of the Five Propositions said to be contained in the Augustinus
THERE exists a graphic description of the deplorable
moral condition of the Abbey when Mere Angelique
was put in possession. Its thirteen nuns comported
themselves in the same manner as those of other convents,
wearing gloves and masques like ladies of fashion, and leading
lives in which true religion had no part. Their confessor,
a Bernardine monk, was so ignorant that he did not under
stand the meaning of the Pater he mumbled out ; the Cate
chism was unintelligible to him, and the only book he ever
opened was his Breviary. Instead of taking his exercise in
solitary walks of religious meditation, he openly delighted
in the carnal pleasure of the hunt. Other Bernardine monks
who visited the Abbey from time to time entertained the
nuns by telling them of the amusements at other abbeys —
distractions which they called " les bonnes coutumes de
l'Ordre." *
Preaching, too, had gone out of fashion, and for thirty
years the only sermons delivered had been on the occasion
of seven or eight professions. Moreover, both nuns and
confessor had so little respect for the Sacrament of the Holy
1 " La rfigle de St. Benoit n'y etait presque plus connue, et l'esprit du
siScle en avait entierement banni la regularite. Onze religieuses dont trois
etaient imbeciles et deux novices composaient toute la maison, lorsque la
Mere Angelique Arnauld succfeda a Jeanne de Boulehart" (Clemencet,
i. p. n).

fflllllBillIll

MERE ANGELIQUE, ABBESS AND REFORMER OF PORT ROYAL
FROM VAN SCHUPPEN's ENGRAVING OF THE POKTRAIT BY PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAGNE

MERE ANGELIQUE'S CONVERSION 35
Eucharist that it had come to be administered but once a
month, or on the great festivals of the Church, and then
perfunctorily and hastily. The Feast of the Purification had
been struck off the list of celebrations altogether, owing to
the exigencies of carnival time, when confessors, servants,
and nuns alike were occupied in preparations for masquerades
and other merry-makings.1
Fearful for Mere Angelique's youth and inexperience, the
Arnauld family kept strict watch over her Abbey and its
inmates. But nothing occurred to disturb their peace of
mind. Although the young Abbess joined in the frivolous
habits of her nuns to a great extent, for five years time passed
uneventfully for her. Gradually, however, Madame de Port-
Royal grew to have a great distaste and even dislike for her
vocation. Unhappy, restless, and discontented, instead of
seeking consolation and help in prayer, she turned for
distraction to such' profane books as Plutarch's Lives,
and similar ungodly works. At fifteen, indeed, she con
ceived the serious idea of leaving Port-Royal. As she
expressed it :
" I deliberated in myself to leave Port -Royal and to
return to the world without warning my father and my mother,
in order to withdraw myself from the yoke which was un
endurable to me, and to marry." 2
She went so far as to think of throwing herself on the pro
tection of some Huguenot relations at La Rochelle. This
resolution was frustrated seemingly by the hand of God,
for on the eve of its execution the rebellious Angelique was
stricken down with a terrible fever. At once her father
carried her off to AndiUy to recover, and here during her
illness she was visited by different members of her family,
notably two magnificent aunts, who, approaching her bed in
their rustling^gowns of satin and velvet, awakened in their
sequestered niece a latent desire for finery.3
On convalescence, however, she returned to the monastery
in a more resigned frame of mind, and suddenly the miraculous
happened — that unexpected, unforeseen trifle which in reality
changed the whole current of existence, rendering the inex-
1 Poullain, Histoire Abrtgt de Port-Royal, p. 4.
i a Mimoires et Relations, p. 125. { _ . ' Ibid. p. 126.

36 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
perienced girl a matured spirit, rich in piety, firm in purpose,
strong to reform herself and those about her.
This miracle was nothing less than the descent upon her
head of what the Jansenists called " God's Sovereign, Infallible
Grace," the medium of its appearance only a poor monk
called Pere Basile, in reality a notoriously corrupt priest of
immoral influence. Knocking at the gate of Port-Royal one
night, this travelling Capuchin asked if he might preach
there. Although it was late, the young Abbess consented,
rather glad to welcome any change in the monotony of her life.
The Capuchin's subject dealt with the benefits of the
religious profession, the Rule of St. Benoit, and the different
abject humiliations suffered by the child Christ in the cradle.
It is doubtful if Mere Angelique heard or understood his
words, and yet during this sermon, preached x in the dim
torchlight of the chapel, she was suddenly transformed from
a nun ti d of her vocation into a religious enthusiast. The
Divine Fire had touched her, and albeit months of anguish and
struggle lay before her, her Renaissance and that of Port-Royal
were determined that night. And thus, in 1609, two years
before the meeting of those illustrious Churchmen anxious to
find a remedy for degeneration in the Church, the seventeen-
year-old Abbess of Port-Royal des Champs had begun in her
ancient Cistercian monastery the reform which was afterward
to respond to the ideas of the two students, Jansenius and
St. Cyran, at that time only just becoming acquainted in
Louvain. The sincere Reformer was too astute to at once attempt
the siege of that greatest citadel of the human heart — personal
vanity, a sin deep-rooted in the Port-Royal nuns. Herself
dressing in coarse serge, she refrained from demanding of these
ladies of high birth and position, as elegant and worldly as any
of the grandes dames of the Court, to give up their costly robes
cut in the extreme of the prevailing fashion, their long sleeves,
etc., but accomplished her desire gradually through general ex
hortation and the force of her own example. Within five years
the struggle was won, and the strictest vows of the Rule of
St. Benoit literally carried out : poverty, silence, fasting,
abstinence from meat, watching at night, and lastly seclusion.2
1 In Lent 1608.
2 Racine, Abregt de VHistoire de Port-Royal (Edition Gazier), p. 4.

MERE ANGELIQUE'S CONVERSION 37
It was in the fulfilment of this latter vow that the courageous
Superior had her greatest and most decisive battle. Through
it she came into collision with her family, notably her father,
the redoubtable Antoine Arnauld, who now held the high
position of Avocat-General of France, having succeeded his
father-in-law, M. Marion. Necessarily somewhat of an auto
crat at home, M. Arnauld was so feared by his daughters,
and even by his wife, that they either neglected or were
afraid to tell him of Mere Angelique's determination to
enforce her vow of seclusion to the point of refusing to
admit her mother, sisters, and — horrible to relate — him who
had not only given her her Abbey, but had been constant
in his favours to the whole community. It was therefore
quite without warning that he suddenly found himself pitted
against the firm piety of his daughter.
One day in September 1609, Mere Angelique awaited a visit
from her parents, and the nuns were all in the refectory at an
early dinner, when they heard a carriage drive into the exterior
courtyard. In this vehicle were five persons : M. and Madame
Arnauld, M. d'Andilly, Madame Le Maitre, and Anne-Eugenie.
Matters had been previously arranged inside the convent :
doors locked, keys removed, etc., and on the first warning
noise of the wheels, Mere Angelique, who had been praying
alone in the church, advanced to the cloister gate, upon
which M. Arnauld was already knocking.
Opening the wicket, she refused her father entrance into
the inner precincts, begging him to step into the ante-room
adjoining, where she could talk with him through the grating,
and explain her reasons for not admitting him. Having always
considered himself in the light of a benefactor to the whole
community, M. Arnauld grew mad with rage at this unheard-
of conduct on the part of his daughter, and a fearful scene
ensued, in which some of the religieuses took part against
their Abbess.
To give the result in epitome, the outcome of the famous
Joumee du Guichet (Wicket Day), as it was called, was
victory for firmness of conscience as represented by
Mere Angelique, and of capitulation on the side of tender
authority, incorporated in the persons of a family conquered
by the sight of their poor enthusiast suffering human exhaus
tion from the violence she herself put upon strong natural

38 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
emotions. A compromise was made, whereby the family,
with the sanction of the Abbe [des Citeaux, Director of the
monastery, were thenceforth allowed to enter any part of
the'Abbey, except the cloister.
It was not long after the reform of Port-Royal that the
force of Mere Ang61ique's life and example had attracted to
the Abbey many other Abbesses from all parts of the country,
some staying years at Port-Royal in order to learn the holy
maxims taught there. Gradually the General of the Order
grew into the habit of sending Mere Angelique and her nuns
to other Cistercian institutions which needed reform.1 The
worst of these Abbeys to which Mere Angelique went per
sonally, was that in which she herself had been trained —
Maubuisson. No other than the sister of the beautiful
Gabrielle d'Estrees, the Abbess of this monastery had long
been setting an example of riotous living to her nuns, and
when her patron Henri iv died, the General of the Order
at once had her removed and taken to the Convent of the
Filles Penitentes in Paris. The history of her various escapes
from prison, of the long years spent in fruitless attempts to
regain the Abbey, of money being squandered to that end ;
until at last she died in misery and loneliness — all would be
a novel in itself. Mere Angelique's experiences at Maubuisson,
too, were startling, and richly justified her fears on starting
out, when she had told her nuns that the going was a question
of sacrificing not only health but life itself. Still, she was
not affrighted, so, leaving Mere Agnes behind as Sous Prieure
and head of the monastery during her absence, she set out,
taking with her two or three of her own nuns — among them
her young sister, Marie-Claire. Unfortunately, she had
scarcely been there a year, when, making a most dramatic
escape from the Filles Penitentes, Madame d'Estrees, accom
panied by powerful cavaliers of the Court, returned to her
former Abbey and forced an entrance. Although in a few
days she was again seized and conducted back to the Filles
P6nitentes, the venom of Madame d'Estrees was not exhausted;
many times afterwards she managed to escape her gaolers,
and with her friends so menaced the peace of the Abbey,
that for months Mere Angelique was obliged to keep a guard
of a hundred archers to protect the Abbey from assault.
,  *¦ Racine, Abrige, p. 5.

MERE ANGELIQUE'S CONVERSION 39
One of the happy results of the Maubuisson sojourn was
a relationship formed with St. Francois de Sales, that most
famous example in all the annals of the Church for sweetness
and tenderness of heart. Happening to be in France for a
short time in 1619, and hearing of the courageous reformer
of Maubuisson, St. Francois visited the Abbey for the express
purpose of making her acquaintance. So impressed was
Mere Angelique with the gentle priest during the first inter
view that she begged him to act as Director to herself and
the nuns under her charge. Until meeting him, she admitted,
she had never found the unique mentor she was in search
of, but had been obliged to gather counsel here and
there. " Ah ! " said St. Francois, " why trouble about that ?
Surely there is no harm in seeking on several flowers the
honey one fails to find on one only."
" I admired his advice," confessed Mere Angelique, " although
I should have found it dangerous to follow it." 1
In her Memoires, Mere Angelique confesses that if St.
Francois had remained in France she would have gained a
great deal from his counsels, which were, she said, not so
soft and sweet as most people imagined. An insight into
human nature and a tremendous tact made St. Francois
appear lenient to the outside world, but to those, like Mere
Angelique, in whom he had confidence, he was sternness
itself, pardoning nothing in souls vowed to the truth.
" He returned to his diocese," wrote Mere Angelique, " and
I remained three years longer in that house (Maubuisson). . . .
As long as he lived, I continued to write him of my plans,
and he took the trouble to reply to me with great care and
extreme kindness." 2
Thus Sainte-Beuve calls the whole first epoch of Port-
Royal after its reform the " Period of St. Francois de Sales,"
describing the spirit of the author of L' Amour de Dieu and
L' Introduction a la Vie devote as
" affectionate, sweet, amorous, and expansive."
That all her life Mere Angelique revered St. Francois, is
1 Memoires et Relations, p. S3- 2 Ibid. p. 55.

40 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
proved by the letter she wrote on her death-bed to Anne
of Austria :
" It was this holy prelate, Madame," she said, " who knew
better than any other the depths of my heart, and from whom
I tried to learn the veritable spirit with which one should
inspire souls who leave the world to consecrate themselves to
God." On his part, St. Francois basked in the happiness of giving
out so much to these yearning souls, and to him Port-Royal
became, as he expressed it, his " cheres delices." 1
1 Du Fosse, Memoires, ii. p. 74.

CHAPTER V
MEETING WITH ST. CYRAN— FOUNDATION OF
PORT-ROYAL DE PARIS
" II brule d'arroser cet arbre precieux (la Croix)
' Ou pend pour nous le fruit le plus cheri des Cieux." CORNEILLE
MERE ANGELIQUE was still at Maubuisson when Fate
struck the fore-note of the event which was to be
of great moment to both her and Port-Royal.
In 1620, accompanying the Court on an official errand (he
was then Assistant to the Intendant of Finances, M. Schom-
berg) southward, Robert d'Andilly met at Poitiers the Abbe
de St. Cyran. Being of an extremely individualistic nature,
this eldest Arnauld had always seemed to experience a
necessity for continually giving out affection, and, like the
true enthusiast he was, it was generally his last fancy which
most engrossed him.1 And now, for some reason or other,
his inflammable sympathy at once rushed out toward the
learned Abbe, then thirty-seven years old, and seven years
older than himself, and in the first flush of his enthusiasm
he unknowingly performed a great service to Jansenism by
introducing St. Cyran to his sister, Mere Angelique. The
latter must have been immediately attracted by the per
sonality of her new acquaintance, for, in a letter written
shortly afterward, she thanked her brother for having given
her "the happiness of so holy a friendship." But when, in
1 The Abbe Arnauld, eldest son of Robert, wrote rather bitterly of this
peculiarity of his father's, saying that although he loved his friends extremely,
new friendships had preference over old. " It is easy to judge by this," he
continued, "that his children were not what he most loved" (Memoires,
Petitot, p. 123). 4'

42 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
1621, St. Cyran visited Port-Royal des Champs for the first
time, it was not to see the Abbess, but his old friend, her
mother, Madame Arnauld.
After Mere Angelique had been some four years at
Maubuisson, Louis xm appointed Madame de Soissons,
natural sister of the first Duchesse de Longueville, its new
Abbess. This appointment pleased Mere Angelique, who
was most anxious to return to her beloved Port-Royal. But
as the papers of Madame de Soissons were very long in arriving,
for thirteen months still departure was impossible.
Meanwhile, some slight misunderstanding had arisen be
tween Madame de Soissons and Mere Angelique with regard
to the latter's accepting so many poor girls without dowry
into Maubuisson, and this criticism was repeated in many
quarters. " I reply to this complaint," wrote Mere Angelique, " that
if a house with an income of thirty thousand livres is con
sidered to be burdened with thirty nuns, I would not esteem
ours, which has only six thousand livres, incommoded in
receiving them." 1
Full of divine charity and compassion, Mere Angelique then
appealed to Mere Agnes at Port-Royal, asking if she and the
nuns there would have the courage to share their poverty
with the thirty women for whom she felt herself responsible.
On receiving a characteristic reply to the effect that the good
sisters would embrace such a test with joy and gladness,
Mere Angelique at once applied to the General of the Order
for permission to return to Port-Royal with her protegees.
Upon receiving his consent, she then wrote to her mother,
Madame Arnauld, begging her to send carriages to transport
her charges from Maubuisson to Port-Royal des Champs.
Finding it imperative that she should spend a few days
in Paris before returning to Port-Royal, the good Angelique
determined to send the others on in advance. But, "she
thought, if these strangers go to the monastery without me,
their talk and chatter will create disturbance and undue
excitement. She therefore laid a vow of silence, from which
they were to be absolved only by her presence, upon the nuns,
1 Guilbert, Memoires Historiques et Chronologiques, ii. 155 ; also Memoires
et Relations, p. 36.

MEETING WITH ST. CYRAN 43
and, pinning a card on the sleeve of each telling its owner's
name, she let them go.
Thus " thirty mutes " arrived one day at Port-Royal,
and it was not until a week later that Mere Angelique, re
turning with joy after a five years' absence to her long-regretted
home, gave them back the gift of speech.1
St. Cyran's first real interest in Mere Angelique dates
from the episode of the return to Port-Royal des Champs, for he
happened to be calling for a second time on Madame Arnauld
the day she received the letter from Mere Angelique asking
her mother to send carriages to Maubuisson. Hearing Madame
Arnauld read the account of these nuns, and Mere Angelique's
goodness to them,
" From that time," says Mere Angelique, " God gave him
Charity for me." 2
His first letter to her, dated 4th July 1623, was written to
express his delight at her treatment of the Maubuisson nuns.
In this epistle he expressed his famous views on Charity,
which he considered should be practised in the same spirit in
which the martyrs of the Church had in olden times died for
their faith.3
But alas ! Mere Angelique's " mutes " had hardly grown
accustomed to their new home before it was found that the
capacities of the old Abbey were being greatly overstrained.
Intended as a foundation for only twelve nuns, eighty were
lodged there at this time. And, in addition to the discomfort
induced by this overcrowding, in the valley of the river
Yvette there raged continually a pestilential humidity, in
consequence of which many of the nuns fell ill of different
kinds of malarial fevers, until finally the whole monastery
seemed a huge infirmary.4 When in two years fifteen nuns
actually died, the danger of remaining in such a place became
so apparent, that, after appealing to both the head of the
Cistercian Order, the Archbishop, and the King, to transfer
the institution to Paris, Mere Angelique at last took matters
1 Their constant prayer during this week of silence was : " Mettez, Seigneur,
une sentinelle a ma bouche, et une garde a la porte de mes lfivres " (Guilbert,
Mtmoires, p. 163).
2 Mtmoires et Relations, p. 75. 3 Lettres Chrestiennes.
¦ Mtmoires et Relations, p. 58.

44 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
into her own hands, and prepared to flee with the remainder
of her flock. In this endeavour she was aided by her mother,
who, become a widow on the death of Antoine Arnauld in
1619, had joined the nuns at Port-Royal, and now offered to
furnish funds for the purchase of a new Paris home.
Accordingly, in 1625, Madame Arnauld expended 24,000
livres in the purchase in the St. Jacques Quarter of the
Hotel de Clagny, which Mere Angelique had selected for her
purpose, and the first year eighteen of the nuns were trans
ferred to Paris. The next year, the remainder of the com
munity followed, leaving only a chaplain at Port-Royal des
Champs to attend to the services in the church. In deference
to the mother institution, the new home was called Port-Royal
de Paris. The old Hotel de Clagny lent itself marvellously to the
uses of a convent, for by very small manoeuvring a large
gallery became a dormitory ; clever magic of partitioning
made of the attics cells for the nuns ; while a spacious salon
was easily converted into a chapel.1 The beautiful grounds
surrounding the mansion also came into use as promenades
for the nuns, those at the back being transformed into kitchen
gardens, whose product of fruit and vegetables the convent
was soon able to sell.
Like the parent monastery, Port-Royal de Paris formed a
square with a large meadow in the centre. The entrance
door opened on to the Rue de la Bourbe of those days, now
the Boulevard de Port-Royal. On the north and east were
large courts. Out of one of these a little exterior staircase
led to the parloirs, rooms of such size that the whole community
could assemble in them at one time. ' The entrance to the
cloister was in the tower at one end of the Rue de la Bourbe,
and from it the first story was reached by wooden staircases.
The kitchens and refectory led off from the south gallery.
Mere Angelique's reputation attracted the interest of
many influential persons toward the new monastery, and
gained for it the patronaage of no less a personage than Marie
de Medecis, who signified her gracious intention of becoming
its founder and benefactor.2
It was with the transference of her nuns to Paris that Mere
Angelique came under the influence of a new Director — a man
1 Racine, Abrtgt, p. 13. a Ioid_

MEETING WITH ST. CYRAN 45
of very different stamp from the famous apostle of Love and
Charity, St. Francois. This was a son of Sebastien Zamet, the
Italian banker and Henri iv's minister of pleasure. Former
almoner to Marie de Medecis, and now the Bishop of Langres,
M. Zamet was of much importance in the ecclesiastical world
of the moment. As his salient characteristics were, however,
vanity, caprice, and love of pomp, after the benign and ele
vating rule of St. Francois de Sales his artificial methods were a
descent in the moral scale, the period of his influence a distinct
decadence for Port-Royal.1 In any case, trouble was not slow
in attacking the monastery. In the first place, aside from the
cost of the house itself, the removal of the community to Paris
having been a very expensive affair, Port-Royal found itself in
debt. In the next, it was embarrassed byecclesiastical quarrels.
And thus it was not long before the old peaceful atmosphere
of the country was entirely gone. .
Sainte-Beuve attributes the degeneration of Port-Royal
de Paris to one of its outside devotees, Madame de Pontcarre\2
When this lady, under a cloud as separated from her husband,
was first introduced at Port-Royal, she was humility itself,
desirous only of obtaining a modest niche in some corner of
the holy place. Little by little, however, her demeanour
changed, and, assuming the dignity of a benefactress, out of
a large gallery above the parloirs allotted to her she con
structed a drawing-room, a tower, and an oratory painted in
cameo, as well as a roomy cabinet or study. She had also a
terrace made in front of her windows, and placed upon it a
quantity of orange trees in boxes. These trees the poor nuns
were obliged to keep watered, bringing up eighteen to twenty
pails of water each day.3
Then, not content with revolutionizing her own part of
the monastery, she insisted on the rebuilding of the entire
place. Herself donating a sum of 24,000 livres — which after
all hardly paid for more than the foundation — and laying
the corner-stone, she encouraged and even commanded the
subsequent ruinous expenditure.
1 Sainte-Beuve says that the only service rendered MSre Angelique by
M. Zamet was that of dissuading her from a plan she had of leaving Port-
Royal and entering the Visitation (Port-Royal, i. p. 323).
2 Ibid. 325.
5 Guilbert, Mtmoires Historiques et Chronologiques, ii. p. 341-

46 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
M. Zamet was particularly pleased with this devote of the
Orange Trees, who also played the lute very beautifully, and
soon he became accustomed to spend many hours listening
to her music. On her part, in charming the ears of Port-
Royal's susceptible Director, Madame de Pontcarre feigned
to be accomplishing a religious duty. It is a question
how far her self-sacrifices went in the final day of reckoning
toward balancing the weight laid to her door of Port-Royal's
degeneration. For although the seeds of evil then planted
remained hidden from view during the twenty years which
followed the foundation of Port-Royal de Paris, they were ever
there, waiting such time as, the strong souls having departed,
they could blossom out into dire destruction.
Feeling that ecclesiastical disputes at least would be
bettered by severing her Cistercian dependence, Mere Angelique
applied to Rome for a change of jurisdiction, and in 1627 the
Abbey passed under the rule of the " Ordinary " — that is
to say, under that of M. de Gondi, Archbishop of Paris, the
uncle and predecessor of Cardinal de Retz, who was later to
have so great a hand in the affairs of the Jansenists. It
happened that as just at this time Louis xiii and Richelieu
were busily engaged besieging the seat of the Huguenots, La
Rochelle, the Queen Mother was pleased to pay a visit to
her proteg6, Port-Royal de Paris. On leaving after a few days,
turning to Mere Angelique, Marie de M6decis said graciously :
" Have you nothing to ask of me ? When I enter a
convent for the first time, I accord whatever is demanded
of me." 1
With singular disregard of this carte-blanche, which most people
would have improved to beg for rich benefits, the only favour
Mere Angelique craved was that the King on his return might
make her Abbey elective. This request was granted, and
on the first triennial election which followed, both Mere
Angelique and her sister resigned their positions of Abbess
and Coadjutrice, others being elected in their stead.2 Mere
Agnes was at once sent by M. Zamet to the Abbey of Tard —
where shortly afterward she became Abbess — while in the
same year (1630), at the request of the Archbishop of Paris,
Mere Angelique was appointed Superior of a new and most
1 Guilbert, Mimoires, ii. p. 329. a Racine, Abrtgt, p. 1*4.

MEETING WITH ST. CYRAN 47
aristocratic institution called St. Sacrement, situated in the
Rue Coquilliere near the Louvre.
The spirit and meaning of St. Sacrement was adapted to
its aristocratic neighbourhood : .
" In the church, perfumes, starched linen, and bouquets
. . . with all this, extraordinary austerities : fasting on bread
and water, terrible discipline, the most humiliating penitence
in the world." 1
But it was unfortunate in having three rival Bishops as
Directors : the Archbishop of Paris, M. de Gondi ; the Arch
bishop of Sens, M. de Bellegarde ; and M. Zamet, Bishop of
Langres. As from the first these gentlemen found it impossible
to agree among themselves, disputes, jealousy, and ill-will
soon coloured luridly the mixture of worldliness, mysticism,
and austerity of discipline at St. Sacrement.
Mere Angelique could not help being much affected by this
atmosphere, and the time seemed to have come with her for
some radical change of a spiritual nature — for that third and
last operation of Divine Grace, which was to bring her under
the influence of the perfect Director she had sought so long.
Two such awakenings she had already had : the first during the
sermon of the Capuchin ; the second, a sermon she had heard
on All Saints' Day the same year, when a Bernardine monk
had preached on the Eighth Beatitude : " Blessed are those
who suffer persecution forthe sake of Justice " ; and now the
third and last operation of God's favour was seemingly
brought about by the innocent means of her younger sister,
Mere Agnes, far away in the Abbey of Tard.
1 Mtmoires et Relations, p. 70.

CHAPTER VI
THE RULE OF ST. CYRAN BEGUN
" Et vous, qui vous plaisez aux folles passions,
Fuyez de mes plaisirs la sainte austerite ;
Tout respire ici Dieu, la paix, la verite." Esther
SOME six years before Mere Agnes left Port-Royal de
Paris for Tard, she had, in the exaltation of her pious
soul, and imbued by Mere Angelique's ideas of devotion,
written and circulated among her sister nuns at Port-Royal
a booklet of only three or four pages, intended for the use of
the monastery alone. A copy of this mystical meditation, called
Le Chapelet Secret, coming under the notice of M. Zamet, he had
greatly approved and was loud in its praise. On hearing that
M. Zamet sanctioned the Chapelet, however, the Archbishop of
Sens, at whose instigation it had originally been written, and
who at first had found it attractive and harmless, changed
his mind, and secretly having a copy made, sent it to the Sor
bonne. Some of the learned doctors there censured it strongly,
whereupon it was forwarded still further afield — to Rome itself.
Here it was not considered heretical, but on grounds of policy
suppressed.1 FinaRythe Chapelet Secret became so noised abroad
that all Paris was aroused over the matter, even the Court
taking part in the discussion as to its merits or demerits, some
beingfor, others against, until, behold, a veritable tempest raged.2
In this crisis, Mere Angelique turned to St. Cyran, and
asked his opinion of the book. Although much occupied at
the moment, St. Cyran put everything aside and gave himself
up to a careful examination of the disputed pamphlet. A
transcendental meditation on the Holy Eucharist, written
1 Racine, Abrege, pp. 18-19. 2 Sainte-Beuve, i. p. 330.
4»

THE RULE OF ST. CYRAN BEGUN 49
under the spell of an enthusiasm of devotion, the purpose of
these three or four pages was that of fathoming one by one
the virtues of Jesus Christ.1 To this end, they were divided
into sixteen points in honour of the sixteen centuries which
had passed since the birth of the Saviour, and separately
analysed and glorified His different attributes, such as Saint-
liness, Truth, Sufficiency, Reign, Possession, Illumination,
etc. etc. In a moment of mystical separation, the author,
like Tennyson's St. Agnes, had seen the same vision as her
sainted prototype : there, distinct and clear before the eyes
of her soul, the spiritual wonders of the heavens had
unfolded ; the gates had rolled back, and, behold, the
Heavenly Bridegroom seemed to stand far within, waiting
to make her " pure of sin."
Surely there was nothing heretical in these imaginings of a
devout nun, far aloof from the world and its prosaic common
sense, and the controversy aroused was ludicrous, being
nothing more or less than the excuse for an inevitable
quarrel. Reading the Chapelet Secret again and again,
St. Cyran professed himself unable to see anything in
it " against Catholic Truth," 2 and publicly took up its
defence. The first result of this championship of the Chapelet was to
secure to St. Cyran the warm devotion of M. Zamet, who him
self introduced the Abb^ — now fifty-two years of age, and
living in the cloister of Notre-Dame — into the Convent of
Saint-Sacrement, at first as friend, then as Confessor, regulat
ing his own affairs as well after the advice of St. Cyran.3 All
went smoothly thereafter until M. Zamet's presence being
required in his diocese of Langres, he left Paris for a short
space. During his absence, the new Confessor's offices were
called more than ever into requisition, and when the Bishop
returned to Paris he was surprised to find what a hold the
Abb6 had obtained over both the nuns and Mother Superior
of Saint-Sacrement. At once his former liking for St. Cyran
was turned into fierce jealousy, and although at the first hint
of this feeling St. Cyran retired from Saint-Sacrement —
leaving M. Singlin, a man who was later to be one of the
great powers at Port-Royal, Confessor in his place — such a
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 330. 2 Mtmoires et Relations, p. jf.
3 Racine, Abrtge, p. 20.

50 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
measure only served to show how firmly rooted St. Cyran's
influence had become.
For Mere Angelique, a true Arnauld, whose three salient
family characteristics of solidity, tenacity, and holiness were
opposed in essence to the tender-lenient side of Christianity,
there was certain, sooner or later, to be a rebound from love
bordering on mysticism, pantheism, and exaltation, to austerity
and sacrifice. Moreover, by nature, she was sympathetic with
St. Cyran's idea of the Stern Judge as the predominant side
of the picture of religion, as also with his ideal of Love akin
to that of St. Augustine. Like his model, the sincere priest
believed that in the world were
" two forms of love : the love of God, which means self-
denial ; and the love of self, the denial of God."
Unconsciously, too, the thirteen years of her knowledge of
St. Cyran — his personality, strong views, and virile Christianity
— had been making their indelible impression upon Mere
Angelique. During this time, his renown had been growing
in ecclesiastical circles,1 and tales of his piety, erudition,
and force were current everywhere. It was also strongly
rumoured that a series of remarkable articles signed " Petrus
Aurelius," and dealing with Church practice and discipline,
which were creating a great excitement in the religious world,
were from his pen. Then, too, he was known to be the par
ticular friend of Pere Berulle, founder of the Oratory, as well
as of M. de Condren, having rendered friendly services to
each. Through M. de Berulle he had become acquainted with
Vincent de Paul, and was enabled to do the Head of the
Missionaries a good office with regard to a religious house
he was establishing. Furthermore, the Archbishop of Paris
treated the learned Abb6 with profound consideration, and
in the days when he himself was only Bishop of Lucon,
Richelieu had received such an impression of St. Cyran's
erudition and piety that he contemplated appointing him
almoner to the household of Queen Henrietta, then only
1 Racine quotes the opinion of M. de Laval, Bishop of La Rochelle, who
said of St. Cyran : " This learned man had no other sentiments than those
he had drawn from the Holy Bible and the tradition of the Church. He spoke
no other language than that of the Word of God ; and far from conducting
souls by particular and abstract ways, he knew not how to lead them to God
by any other road than that of penitence and charity" (Abrtgi, p. 21).

THE ABBE DE ST. CYRAN
FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PORTRAIT BY PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAGNE

THE RULE OF ST. CYRAN BEGUN 51
recently married to Charles 1 of England.1 One day, as
after an audience the great Cardinal was himself recon
ducting the Abb6 through the anterooms, touching his visitor
on the shoulder, Richelieu said to the courtiers standing
about : .
" Messieurs, vous voyez la le plus savant homme de
l'Europe." 2
Thus the matter of the Chapelet Secret was only the last
trifle which precipitated Mere Angelique into the new path.
Once having realized that St. Cyran's was the Rule needed
for her and for Port-Royal, her capitulation was complete.
In him at last she felt that she had recovered an ideal of the
spirit of true religion and piety vainly sought ever since the
first miracle had descended upon her soul twenty-seven years
before through the medium of the unworthy Capuchin monk.
In her own words, she confessed that once having van
quished her repugnance to confess to St. Cyran :
" I remained so satisfied and content that I seemed to be
another creature, and although God made me feel the pain
of my sins, I may say that I had never had such real and
sensible consolation in all my life, and that I had never had
so much pleasure in diverting myself, and in laughing when
formerly I would have wept . All our sisters, with the exception
of two, were in the same disposition." 3
Seeing that his efforts to dislodge the new Confessor were
useless, and that in spite of all he could do Mere Angelique stood
firm in her adherence to St. Cyran, M. Zamet now became so
venomous that it soon was necessary to debar him any in
fluence in, and finally even entrance to, the monastery.4 Upon
which, the jealous Bishop created such a disturbance that
Mere Angelique determined to give up Saint-Sacrement,
Accordingly, she quickly made arrangements, and in 1636 went
back to Port-Royal de Paris, whither many of the nuns followed.
But this move did not kfll the controversy — it pursued
Mere Angelique to Port-Royal de Paris, and there waxed
stronger than ever.
The convent was at first much divided in its feeling with
regard to the quarrel: some nuns were for, others against,
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 307. 2 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. 59.
8 Mtmoires et Relations, p. 121. * Ibid. p. 121.

52 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
the idea of changing from M. Zamet to St. Cyran. Even
Mere Agnes, just returned from Tard, found it difficult to
assign her fealty to one who was represented to her as a
usurper. Little by little, however, seeing for herself the
power of the man who had championed her Chapelet,1 she was
won over.
Of her sister nuns, none held more stubbornly to St. Cyran's
predecessor than Marie-Claire. From the first much im
pressed by M. Zamet, this young and enthusiastic Arnauld
had blindly obeyed the Bishop of Langres, even to the point
of refusing to speak for several years to her beloved sister
Mere Angelique, because, seeing her excess of devotion,
M. Zamet had carelessly remarked that it would be better,
perhaps, if she never spoke to her again.
Absent for five years at Tard, on returning to Port-Royal
during the conflict of Directors, Marie-Claire had thus taken
violent partisanship for M. Zamet. For fourteen months,
nothing could move her from this standpoint. At last,
becoming convinced of St. Cyran's saintliness and her own
unworthiness in having resisted his influence, she sent a very
penitent letter to the Abbe\ putting herself absolutely in
his hands :
" Ah," she wrote in deepest humility, " I know that God
can save me ; but what obligation has He to do this miracle ?
I adore the sentence which He shall pass upon me with
trembling and with tranquillity." 2
That for six months after this letter St. Cyran refused
to see Marie-Claire, seemed incomprehensible, until he himself
explained it as based on the principle of offering up a living
sacrifice to Repentance :
" That is why," he wrote Marie-Claire, " I have let you
wait so long. It was to allow you to live. For five months
you have lived the spiritual life." 3
And then, when one day he felt " obliged," as he confessed,
to see his young penitent, he began to rid her of everything
1 " I have seen M. de St. Cyran," she wrote, " and I beheve I may
say, without making any confession, that no man ever spoke as this man "
(Mtmoires et Relations, p. 98).
2 Clemencet, Port-Royal, ii. p. 19. » Ibid. p. 23.

THE RULE OF ST. CYRAN BEGUN 53
artificial, forbidding her even the consolation of tears, saying
that he wished no sorrow which overflowed into the senses.
" Beware of tears ! " he exclaimed. " I want no mommeries,
no sighs, no gestures, but a silence of the mind, which interdicts
all movement." 1
Sister Anne-Eugenie was also devoted to M. Zamet, but
St. Francois de Sales had been her greatest helper, having
comforted and strengthened her in her spiritual life, where
at every turn she had to combat dominant faults of pride
and haughtiness. When at last she too surrendered to M.
de St. Cyran, the latter, knowing that she most loved prayer
and solitude, began his discipline by appointing her to a task
repugnant to her — the instruction of children. For fifteen
or sixteen years she continued to fill this distasteful duty,
" at the point of the sword," as she described it.2
Thus we see that in directing Mere Angelique, her sisters,
and the other nuns of Port-Royal, St. Cyran's method was
a most severe and unbending one. He won them over to
a life of penitence, silence, and perpetual abnegation of self
in a holier, diviner existence to come, not by honeyed words
or enticing promises of future reward, but by tearing aside
the veil from their weaknesses, and the betrayal of each as
she really was. It is extraordinary how he managed to
impress them with his and Jansenius's sentiment of devo
tion to the Truth. For from the first these simple souls
seemed to thrive on Truth, shorn of exaggeration or tender
ness. Seeking neither to analyse or probe it, from the
beginning they accepted the conception given them by their
spiritual guide, and were willing to lay down their lives for
it, classing it under no ism or sect.
And now, just as through the medium of a friendship and
the imagination of a nun, apparently by the accident of
Chance, the principles of Jansenius and St. Cyran, their
realistic understanding of religion had at last definitely
found their way into Port-Royal de Paris, it was ordained that
St. Cyran's influence should dominate a new and more complex
element still in the monastic life : that represented by the
Recluses or Solitaires. *
Sainte-Beuve to the contrary, this third panel of our
1 Clemencet, Port-Royal, ii. p. 25. 2 Mtmoires et Relations, p. 38. ,

54 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
picture was not merely the outcome of a theological dogma,
but, like Luther's Protestantism, the result of a real revolt
and a very real enthusiasm. It is from this standpoint that
it is chiefly interesting to-day.
A description of the Society of Port-Royal takes us back
again to the valley of the river Yvette, where we must study
the chief Enthusiasts themselves : the worldly dhots et
dSvotes, or honorary members of the association, as well as
the issue of the teachings and writings of these Solitaires on
the world at large.

PART II
PORT-ROYAL IN ITS GREATNESS
1636-1653

CHAPTER I
THE FIRST SOLITAIRES AND THEIR ENTHUSIASMS
" On ne s'eleve point aux grandes verites sans enthousiasme." Vauvenargues
NOT long after the Arnauld family, with Mere Angelique at
its head, had submitted itself to the spiritual guidance
of St. Cyran, the wife of M. d'Andilly fell ill of a serious
malady. This lady, daughter of the distinguished ambassador
and statesman, M. de La Boderie, was much more worldly
minded than the Arnaulds, having been brought up at the
court of Marie de Medecis in the days when the royal favourite,
the Italian Concini, Marshal d'Ancre, had imported the
spirit of luxury and elegance into the circle surrounding
the young Louis xiii — a taste which was not killed with the
murder of Concini or the disgrace of the Queen Mother.
Only fourteen at the time of her marriage to M. d'Andilly,
her husband, ten years older, then patronizingly described
his bride as endowed with as many graces as could be expected
in one so young.
In 1636, Madame d'Andilly was scarcely thirty-seven,
and still young and gay, in spite of the fact that she had
borne fifteen children, ten of whom lived to mature age.
But, when stricken down with a fatal malady in the
midst of her pleasure and duties, she suddenly felt the
need of religion, and the Abbe de St. Cyran was hastily
called to her bedside to prepare her for that last long
journey. For some days, the eldest of the five sons of M.
d'Andilly's sister, Catherine Le Maitre, also sat by this
death-bed, and the words of St. Cyran as he apostrophized
the passing soul came as a revelation to the spirit of the
57

58 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
young man, hitherto absorbed in the race for worldly
distinction. " Partez, ame chretienne, partez de ce mondey^u nom de
Dieu, qui vous a cree ! " x
came the solemn voice of the priest. FoUowing that soul
in mental vision, fleeing from the world to appear before
the Judgment Seat, in a flash, a realization of his own
shortcomings, the futility of human ambition, overcame
this descendant of the Arnaulds. Tears welled into his eyes,
fear and anguish swelled his heart, until, unable to control
his emotion, he rushed from the room of Death, out into the
garden and the stillness of the August night.
Here for hours he fought the fight of the soul over the flesh,
and, ere the morning dawned, possessed by an enthusiasm of
renunciation and penitence, he resolved to give up his dreams
of worldly happiness and honour, and from that moment to
put his newly-awakened being under the spiritual guidance
of the man whom he had just heard admonishing his aunt's
departing spirit.2
Called to the Bar at twenty, and beginning a year later to
plead in the courts, Antoine Le Maitre, worthy successor to
Simon Marion and Antoine Arnauld, had soon earned the
reputation of being the greatest advocate of France, surpassing
the souvenirs left by both his ancestors. In fact, fearful of
talking to empty benches, on the days when M. Le Maitre was
to conduct a suit in the court, the other advocates of Paris
arranged never to occupy their places, but to go instead ta
listen to the famous orator in the Grand' Chambre, which was
too small to hold all those desirous of listening to him.8 Thus
the excitement in legal and other circles over the news of his
disappearance was intense. Some thought he was mad ;
others that he was over-influenced ; all blamed the action he
took in thus not only separating himself from worldly things,
but in embracing at the same time poverty, obscurity, isolation,
silence — a death in life. Some were malicious enough to say
he left the Bar hoping to succeed to greater honours in the
1 " Depart, Christian Soul, leave this world, in the name of God All-
Powerful, who has created thee" (Recueil de Plusieurs Pieces, p. 144).
2 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. 309.
8 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 372.

ANTOINE LE MAITRE, PORT ROYAL'S FIRST SOLITAIRE
FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PORTRAIT BY PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAGNE

THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 59
Church ; * Balzac, a more discriminating friend, wrote to
Chapelain as follows :
" Secondary causes — such as you would call a failure in
love, rebuff from superiors, or other misfortune of that nature —
have no part in this change of heart." 2
While Chapelain in reply vowed that Le Maitre's act,
instead of filling him with indignation, as it did many, aroused
his admiration.
Much excited, the Hotel Rambouillet was divided in its
opinion. Mademoiselle de Scudery, whom Ninon de l'Enclos
had called " the Jansenist of Love," was loud in her apprecia
tion, exclaiming :
" Tobe capable of thesegreat attachments, requires Virtue " ; 3
others found it quixotic and senseless.
Whatever actuated M. Le Maitre, it is certain that he ac
quired his distaste of the world and his pleasures not through
satiety, nor fear of future punishment, but a divine premoni
tion of the passing away of earthly things, and the eternal en
durance of the heavenly.4 In this respect, he marked a new
departure, not only in the religious life of his time, but in that
of the Arnauld family. His grandfather and great-grandfather
— even his uncle M. d'Andilly— had been pious, but in their
piety was a distinct spice of worldliness, for, while anxious to
secure their future fate, they were by no means indifferent to
providing for their advancement here below.
In his letter to M. Seguier, Lord High Chancellor of Paris,
Le Maitre himself explained his motive :
" I demand of God," he said, " no other grace than that
of living and dying in His service. I desire no commerce
either by spoken or written word with the world, which has
1 Tallemant des Reaux thus describes Antoine Le Maitre : " In the
world, he was a gentleman of a somewhat easy morality ; it was thought
that when he went into retreat, it was out of vexation at not having been
made Advocate-General. . . . Others thought that he designed to become
a preacher, but that Devotion caught him on the road" (Historiettes, vol. iv.
74). Sainte-Beuve, however, says Le Maitre refused the office of Advocate-
General (Port-Royal, i. 371).
2 Oscar de Vallee, De VEloquence Judiciare au Dix-septitme Sitcle, p. 419.
8 " II faut de la vertu pour Stre capable de ces grands attachements "
(ibid. p. 427).
4 The same historian says : " Lemaistre renounced, with other pleasures,
that which comes from the approbation of the world, because he had separated
the Immortal from the Perishable."

60 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
thought to ruin me. I wish to pass my life in as complete
a solitude as if I were in a monastery."
When told of Le Maitre's resolution, St. Cyran had fully
understood the responsibility entailed upon himself, and
although joyful over the conversion, did not fail to exhort
the young man to do nothing hastily. On the expiration of
a year, as Le Maitre continued in the same mind, St. Cyran
realizing that his convert was sincere, occupied himself with
the question of what to do with him. Convinced that a
life apart was best, but undecided where to place him, he
received the young man temporarily in his own lodgings in
the Luxembourg quarter, opposite the Chartreux, whither he
had removed a short time before in order to be nearer Port-
Royal de Paris.
It was not St. Cyran finally, but Madame Le Maitre, who
solved the difficulty as to a place of asylum. When the nuns
removed to Paris, she herself had entered Port-Royal as a
simple postulante, and although she did not take the veil
until some years later, at the death of her husband,
her talent for affairs, her practical genius, had long been
invaluable to her sister, Mere Angelique. And now, on the
receipt of the good news that her eldest son was to embrace the
life of a religious hermit, she remembered an old privilege
granted the Abbey of Port-Royal in 1223 by Pope Honors in.
At that time, this Pope issued a Bull by which — among other
rights — the then newly founded Cistercian Abbey might serve
as a retreat to those persons of secular profession, who, un
willing to take upon themselves monastical vows, were yet
desirous of retiring from the world, and leading lives of peni
tence and seclusion.1
For four hundred years, this privilege remained a seemingly
unappreciated, forgotten thing of documental record. Now,
remembering it, Madame Le Maitre was so filled with en
thusiasm that she determined to build for her son a little house
in the grounds of her beloved Port-Royal de Paris. As M. de
St. Cyran approved the plan, work was straightway begun on
the building. But what was the pious mother's further delight,
when her second and favourite son, Simon Le Maitre de Sen-
court, three years younger than Antoine, suddenly decided to
follow his brother' s example.
1 Racine, Abrtgt de I' Histoire de Port-Royal (Gazier), p. 2.

THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 61
By profession a soldier, at twenty-four years of age De
Sericourt, as he was called, had attained the rank of Major,
and shortly before Antoine's conversion was serving in the
fortress of PhiUipsbourg on the Rhine, where one of his cousins
was commander. On a winter's night, the citadel was surprised
by troops of the Emperor, and by means of ice-covered moats
made to surrender. De Sericourt and Arnauld were taken
prisoners to Esslingen, from whence, by the address and
strategy of the latter, they both escaped to Venice, thence to
France.1 This experience seems to have been the first thing to attract
M. de Sericourt's serious attention to the fact that a Divine
Providence was watching over him. Then he was told of his
brother De Saci's progress in piety under St. Cyran, and,
recalled to Paris by Madame d'Andilly's death, went in a
strange mood to see Antoine in St. Cyran's apartment. At
first he failed to recognize in the pale preoccupied student
before him the brilliant advocate and man of the world he had
parted with some years previously.
Noticing his brother's astonishment, and embracing him
warmly, Le Maitre asked gaily if he did not know him. " The
former Le Maitre," he said, " is dead to the world ; this one
seeks nothing more than to die here to himself. . . ."
" Do you too," he continued, " like many people of the
world, do me the honour to think me mad ? "
" Not I," replied De Sericourt earnestly ; " you and I were
educated in too Christian a manner not to be aware that
there are wise as well as mad follies. Yours I should call
a wise folly. Indeed, from the moment I heard the news, I
have wished many times to be able to imitate you. I came
here half conquered, but what I see has made it complete." a
Then, even as his brother had sacrificed his wig and gown,
De Sericourt offered up his sword to St. Cyran, writing :
" Sir,— If I might have the happiness to see you, I would
throw myself at your knees, and put my sword at your feet/
even as my brother has put his pen." 3
Awaiting the completion of the new home planned by their
mother, the brothers Le Maitre lived at Port-Royal de Paris in
a temporary apartment allotted to them by the nuns. Yet while
1 Mtmoires de I'Abbt Arnauld (Petitot), xxxiv. p. 1*J2.
2 Fontaine, Mtmoires, i. p. 80, etc. a Ibid. p. 82,

62 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
so near the human companionship which the nuns signified,
they were really severed from it by more than stone walls : by
that stern determination of the religious recluse to steadfastly
crucify every natural- impulse. For, calling themselves First
and Second Hermit, they at once began to literally carry out
St. Cyran's idea of separation from all human ties in order
the more closely to approach the Divine Presence. Their
solitude d deux was one of absolute silence : not a word passed
their lips, even to each other. Here they learned that first
lesson of the recluse, of which Montaigne wrote so under-
standingly :
" La plus grande chose du monde est de savoir 6tre a soi."
Soon, however, other penitents were added to their number.
The place in the community of the Third Recluse, Claude
Lancelot, was already written in the Book of the Future as
that of Humanist, Hellenist, and Mathematician. He too
owed the depth and sincerity of his enthusiasm to St. Cyran,
and his spiritual progress forms a charming background to
that of his two older friends. Unlike them, he was not a
sudden convert from the world, having since his twelfth year
been educated in the community of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet.
It was by meens of his own studies that he had come to admire
the Old Fathers of the Church, for, from the time of entering
the monastery, the boy had never heard the New Testament
read aloud.1 Through these studies, longings for a re
naissance of the ancient spirit of religion, as evidenced in
St. Augustine and St. Thomas, filled his heart.
When Lancelot was about twenty-one years of age, St.
Cyran, who was a friend of M. Bourdoise, Head of the Seminary,
began coming to St. Nicolas, and occasionally saying Mass
there. For a long time, the modest youth, unaccustomed to
the world, did not dare approach the Abbe\ around whom in
his own mind he had built up an ideal of a seventeenth-century
St. Augustine.
Finally, desire to talk with him grew so strong that, sum
moning up courage, two days after the death of Madame
d'Andilly he boldly knocked at the Abb6's door.
1 " And as for the New Testament, I had been at St. Nicolas up to the
age of twenty without having been made to read a single line, at least in private "
(Lancelot, Mtmoires, p. 29).

THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 63
St. Cyran was still under the spell of that exhausting ex
perience, but he received Lancelot kindly and sympathetically.
Lancelot had never heard of Port -Royal, nor had he ever seen
Antoine Le Maitre, although the name of the brilliant advocate
was known to him. Yet his own great desire was to put him
self under the guidance of St. Cyran and to lead a life apart,
and on being told of Le Maitre 's conversion and plan of retire
ment, this desire became persistent. With his usual caution,
it was not until time had proved the young penitent's sincerity
that St. Cyran consented to associate him with Le Maitre
and De Sericourt, and then as a last warning he said :
" Although I am credited with having some knowledge,
I may yet never impart it to you. St. Hilary was one of the
cleverest men of his time, but he did not make a scholar of
St. Martin." 1
Antoine Singlin, the Fourth Hermit, was destined to play a
great part at Port-Royal. Born at Paris in 1607, he was the
son of a wine merchant, and early apprenticed to a dealer in
cloth. In the latter business he remained until the age of
twenty-two, when, religious feeling fermenting for years in his
soul, became so strong that one day of his own accord he sought
out Vincent de Paul, Superior of the Peres de la Mission, to
ask his advice for the future.
" Become a priest," was the reply of his oracle ; so, after
studying the proper length of time, Singlin entered the Order
of Missionaries, and, taking priestly vows, was placed by
Vincent de Paul as Catechist and Confessor in the Hopital de
la Pitie. Here he met St. Cyran, who, recognizing his qualities,
introduced him to the nuns of Saint-Sacrement in the position
of Confessor. By the usual evolution, it was not long before
Singlin, becoming dissatisfied with the administration of the
Hopital de la Pitie, wished to put himself entirely in St. Cyran's
hands. The latter did not refuse him, but, to try the mettle
of his new disciple, sent him, the summer of 1637, with several
children under his charge down to the deserted Port-Royal
des Champs. Here, in the solitude, Singlin had an opportunity
of retiring within himself, and renewing his whole being under
the stimulus of the teaching of St. Cyran. Although he had
already served some years as a priest, during his retreat at
1 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. 34.

64 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Port-Royal des Champs, he abstained from saying Mass until
he felt himself more worthy. Returning to Paris at the
commencement of the winter, he joined the recluses at Port-
Royal de Paris, determined to devote himself to poverty and
penitence. This he did to such purpose that
" He had," Lancelot relates in his Memoires,1 " only a poor
dressing-gown of violet serge, and wore the shabbiest
clothes, no one being able to induce him to buy new ones.
Giving his own room to one of his pupils, little Bignon, he
himself lodged in a miserable cabinet in the corner of the
staircase, very cold, very dark, and exposed to all the noise
of the Faubourg. There he studied all night long, sleeping
on a board completely dressed, one or two hours only."
And yet it was in this man that St. Cyran saw the ideal priest,
that " Third Officer of God after Jesus Christ in the Church,"
him who had power to remit sins and offer the sacrifice.
Among the very first to join Le Maitre and Sericourt at
Port-Royal de Paris in the beginning was a certain M. de
Bascle, a gentleman from Quercy in Beam. The history of
this man is a sad one of treachery and deceit, where he had a
right to expect loyalty and truth. Discovering on the very
day of his marriage that his wife had grossly deceived him,
he so brooded over his sorrow as to completely ruin his health.
Fortunately, wreckage of the physical brought life and strength
to a soul which had been careless and unregenerate. The
strong personality of St. Cyran originally took hold of this
heartsick man during his illness, through the potency of
a vision, in which he saw St. John the Baptist standing in a
desert, pointing out to him a valley at the foot of a mountain
as the refuge of penitence.2 On leaving Quercy about two
years before Le Maitre's retreat, and coming to Paris to try
to get a position as tutor, De Bascle, meeting St. Cyran by
chance, was startled to see in the famous Abb6 the St. John
of his dreams. Afterward, going down to Port-Royal des
Champs — behold the very valley and mountain toward which
St. John was pointing !
This remarkable incident decided the already penitent
sinner to at once put himself under the care of St. Cyran, and
1 i- p- 35-
2 A. Le Maitre, *' Histoire de M. de Bascle," Receuil de Plusieurs Pieces pour
servir a I' Histoire de Port-Royal, p. 183.

THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 65
to retire to Port-Royal. Like Lancelot, his especial duty
at Port-Royal was in connection with children, whom from
the first the Solitaires had begun to teach. That he was
appreciated in this field of work, is proved by a letter from
M. de Bernieres'to M. d'Andilly a few years afterward, in
which he spoke of De Bascle as
" the joy of my heart, the love of my children, and the repose
of my poor and desolate house of Chesnai." x
Le Maitre's four brothers were all members of the com
munity. Of these only one resembled the first two in the
depth and sincerity of his devotion. This was Isaac Louis Le
Maitre, known as De Saci through an anagram framed from
his Christian name. He was peculiarly St. Cyran's religious
creation ; and, placed by bis mother early under the care of
the family saint, he steadily progressed in piety, until it was
recognized that in him, like Singlin, was the spirit of the true
priest. Not only St. Cyran, but Singlin realized this, and very
early the latter chose De Saci for his successor, saying :
" He must grow and I must efface myself." 2
De Saci once wrote to Le Maitre3 his opinion concerning
their younger brothers, Jean Le Maitre de St. Elme and
Charles Le Maitre de Valmont, both of whom were under
his charge during the early days at Port-Royal. He found
them peculiar natures and difficult to understand. De
Valmont, he said, was the more annoying because, although
more polite in his manners, he always had his own way ;
De St. Elme, on the contrary, yielded to caprice, but
afterwards again became amenable. Both finally left the
monastery and went back to secular life, leading existences
which, if not exactly godless, were not pious. De Valmont
died at Port- Royal in 1652 ; De St. Elme married, and sent
his three daughters to Port-Royal to be educated, living himself
until the year 1690.
The daily routine began for the Solitaires at an hour
after midnight, when all assembled in Singlin's room to say
Matins. It was the duty of the military De Sericourt to
waken his fellow-hermits, and this he did with the greatest
1 Lettre a M. d'Andilly, 12 Mai 1662.
2 Fontaine, Mtmoires, i. p. 341. s /3»'d. i. p. 121.
5

66 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
regularity. After Matins and Laudes, they kissed the ground,
as did the nuns, imitating in this Abraham, Moses, Joshua,
and others, continuing prostrate long enough to say a Miserere.1
The remainder of the day was then spent in meditation,
prayer, and reading of the Bible and the Fathers of the Church.
But, to leave the Solitaires for a moment, the ecclesiastical
world of Paris was much excited by the publication of those
anonymous writings signed " Petrus Aurelius " — writings which
combated the policy of Richelieu and the Church by powerfully
establishing the doctrine that the Church was not a monarchy
but a hierarchy of Bishops. The Jesuits called them rank
Calvinism, but to Richelieu, who was especially heated just
then on the subject, they were unbearable. The great minister
was intent upon persuading Louis xiii, who had not enough
emotion to feel real remorse for sin, that absolution did not
depend upon actual penitence, but could be granted by the priest
if the penitent were contrite for whatever cause, even though
torn only by fear of future punishment. " Petrus Aurelius "
had no compunction in asserting, on the contrary, that pardon
for sin was only possible in cases of real contrition of heart.
The placing of the authorship of the utterances of Petrus
Aurelius upon the man whom he had called " the First Scholar
in Europe," was by this time not disagreeable to Richelieu,
whose ear had first of all been poisoned by his henchman, Pere
Joseph, whom St. Cyran had supplanted in the confidence of
the nuns of Calvaire. Then for two years M. Zamet, in revenge
for St. Cyran's supposed bad offices to himself with the Port-
Royal nuns, had been carrying on a series of machinations
against the Abbe, accusing him of diverting souls from their
communion, etc. Moreover, St. Cyran had refused all the five
abbeys offered him, and little by little had been constituting
himself a stumbling-block in some of Richelieu's dearest plans.
As politician, Cardinal Richelieu desired nothing more ardently
than the annulment of Gaston d'Orleans' marriage with
Marguerite de Lorraine.
" No," St. Cyran declared quite openly to Richelieu, " the
wedding of Monsieur is indissoluble, and I cannot comprehend
your reasons for saying it is not."
In addition to this and similar contraventions, Richelieu had,
1 Ntcrologe de Notre-Dame de Port-Royal des Champs, Preface.

THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 67
as St. Cyran himself confessed, " seventeen other grievances,"
probably one of the most powerful being the fact that St. Cyran
knew some very secret details about his private life. Irre
trievably incensed at last by so much opposition, Richelieu
decided to incarcerate this rebel where he could do no more
mischief. So, at two o'clock in the morning on the 14th May
1638, the garden of St. Cyran's house near the Luxembourg
was invaded by a company of rude soldiers. At six, entering
the Abb6's chamber and finding him quietly reading with his
nephew, M. de Barcos, they notified him of the King's order
that he should follow them.
" Very well," said St. Cyran, betraying neither surprise
nor alarm, " let us go where the King commands " ;
and, asking permission to change his dressing-gown for his
priest's soutane, he declared himself ready to accompany
the royal messengers.
In passing through the park of Vincennes, it chanced
that the carriage containing St. Cyran encountered that of
M. d'Andilly, who was on his way to his estate of
Pomponne. Gaily the latter, not observing that his friend's escort
were soldiers, called out —
" Where are you taking all these good people ? "
" Oh, they are taking me," replied the Abb6, and, stopping
to explain the situation to M. d'Andilly, he asked if the latter
had not some book to lend him, as in his preoccupation on
leaving home he had forgotten to put one in his pocket.
Fortunately, M. d'Andilly had a copy of The Confessions of
St. Augustine, and he gladly gave it to the prisoner. • Then,
embracing one another sadly and tenderly, the two friends
parted, M. d'Andilly turning full of sorrow and misgiving
toward Pomponne, St. Cyran, with his precious copy of
St. Augustine in his hand, being driven toward the prison.1
This arrest was a blow not only to the nuns of Port-Royal
and all Jansenist sympathizers, but especially the Solitaires, for
from the beginning of their retreat St. Cyran had been accus
tomed to visit them at least every other day, and his spirit
was dominant everywhere. During the short period of his
actual presence among them, after overlooking the lessons
1 Besoigne, Histoire de I'Abbaie de Port-Royal, ii. pp. 385-386.

68 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
and occupations of the children, he would go to the room of
each recluse in turn for personal advice and encouragement.
At his suggestion, the little community grew into the habit
of reading in common St. Augustine's treatise on the True
Religion, and at other times St. Cyran ravished them all,
especially Singlin and Le Maitre, — both of whom required the
spur of theological and intellectual food, — by himself reading
aloud and explaining the Evangelists.
Almost simultaneously with this arrest, a new trouble
came to the Solitaires, for suddenly the Archbishop of Paris
bethought him that it was not proper for men to live in such
close proximity to the nuns. Forced to withdraw from
the Paris monastery, with the permission of the Prelate, the
recluses determined to take refuge in the abandoned Abbey
of Les Champs. Arriving there in the early days of June
1638, they found the place in a lamentable state of ruin and
desolation. During the twelve years which had elapsed
since the nuns left, the buildings had become dilapidated,
the grounds much overgrown with underbrush, and full of
vipers, the marshy pool stagnant and fetid. Yet all still had
the " sad and fearful beauty " remarked by Anne-Eugenie
Arnauld on her first arrival there twenty years before.1
For a time the recluses remained in the deserted historic
spot, trying to lead the life they had been accustomed to,
studying, praying, and each evening, in search of better air
than the poisoned atmosphere of the swamp afforded, mount
ing the hill at the back. Here in the farm called Les Granges,
added to the monastery by Jehanne the Second, they could
rest in the purer ether, and say their evensong of praise and
thanksgiving, "letting their voices witness," as Lancelot
said,
" to the joy of their souls, and to the fact that God might still
be praised publicly, even when men thought to hold Truth
captive." a
But alas ! only three months after St. Cyran's imprison
ment, the peace at Port-Royal des Champs was rudely broken
in upon by the visit of an infamous Commissioner sent by
Richelieu to discover further points of evidence against
St. Cyran. 1 Mtmoires et Relations, p. 35. * Mtmoires, i. p. 109-

THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 69
Arriving at an early hour of the morning with the intention
of surprising the Solitaires, this Commissioner, M. Laubarde-
mont, knocking at Le Maitre's door, found him completely
dressed in mourning garb at his prie-dieu, praying for the
release of St. Cyran. Asking the distinguished Penitent
whether it was true that he was in the habit of having visions,
" Yes," replied Le Maitre, " I do have visions. When I
open this window (opening one) I see the village of Vaumurier ;
when I open this, I see that of St. Lambert. These are all
my visions."
Furious at being thus answered, Laubardemont then
attacked each of the Solitaires, interrogating even the innocent
pupils of only eight or ten years of age.1 But he could discover
nothing, nor could he prove any undue influence of the prisoner
at Vincennes. Before leaving, however, he informed the
Solitaires that they must abandon their retreat within five
days. Thus, although when Laubardemont's interrogatory
was reported at Paris the laugh was at the expense of
Richelieu and his emissaries, the pain was that of the pious
recluses, for exile and change lay before them.
Where were they now to find refuge ? Fate decided. It
took Antoine Le Maitre, who had thought never again to
return to Paris, back to the Faubourg St. Jacques, where in a
little inn called the Barbe d'Or, not far from Port-Royal de
Paris, he deliberated on the next move to make.2 This was
decided for him through Lancelot, to whom an asylum was
offered by one of his pupils in the town of La Ferte Milon, fifty
miles from Paris. Here both he, Sericourt, and Singlin found
a home, and here they remained for thirteen months as the
guests of a certain Madame Vitart, a woman of vital interest
in our history as the great-aunt of Jean Racine, the literary
glory of Port- Royal's close.
In the few short months of his life at the Champs,
Le Maitre had grown so fond of the scene of his spiritual
struggles, his victories over the physical nature around him, that
in exile he characteristically turned to poetry to express his
1 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. in.
2 " M. Le Maitre," says Lancelot (Mtmoires, i. p. 118), " had the greatest
difficulty of them all in finding a retreat. His merit rendering him the most
considerable, each one feared to irritate the Powers in taking him away."

70 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
nostalgia. Time and time again during his stay at La Ferte
Milon he used to recite — never without tears in his eyes —
the following verse, which he himself composed :
' Lieux charmants, prisons volontaires.
On me bannit en vain de vos sacres deserts ;
Le supreme Dieu que je sers
Fait partout de vrais solitaires." x
1 Rough translation :
Lovely vistas, prisons free as air,
In vain am I from thy deserts banned,
The God supreme who doth my will command.
Makes true recluses everywhere. (Fontaine, i. p. 87.)

CHAPTER II
RETURN OF THE SOLITAIRES TO PORT-ROYAL
DES CHAMPS, AND EARLY DAYS THERE
" I am the Vine, ye are the branches. . . . Greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends "
DURING the summer of 1639, tne inhabitants of the
town of La Ferte Milon became used, on fine evenings,
as they sat before their cottage doors, to seeing the
four Messieurs, very simply attired, march past in single file,
devoutly saying their beads. Out of respect, and impressed
by the unaffected piety of these holy men, the villagers had
the habit of rising and keeping profound silence as they
passed. And each day the four recluses, in remembrance of
their daily walk up to Les Granges, religiously climbed at
nightfall the hill behind La Ferte, and in all other respects
endeavoured in their exile to faithfully reproduce the details
of their former existence in the desert.1
After thirteen months of banishment, things being a little
quieter in Paris, it was thought safe for Le Maitre and
Sericourt to return incognito to Port-Royal des Champs.
On learning of the proposed departure of the two hermits,
the Misses Racine, with whom the recluses had necessarily
come in contact in the house of Madame Vitart their aunt,
suddenly appeared before Le Maitre in a strange pitch of
excitement. Evidently of most impulsive disposition, and
hardly knowing what they said, the two sisters began re
proaching him, asking why he had ever come at all if he
had meant so soon to forsake them. Startled by such an
unexpected accusation, the Solitaire answered very gently
that he would never forget the goodness they had shown
1 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. 124.

72 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
him, and that he never forsook anything he had once shown
an interest in. Whereupon, to his surprise and consternation,
without any warning, the indiscreet sisters, throwing them
selves at his feet, begged him either to remain in La Ferte
or to take them with him wherever he went !
Determined now to put an end to this unseemly situation,
Le Maitre again plainly but decidedly told them that he must
go. Whereupon the young women boldly replied :
" Do as you please, but we declare to you that we will
never leave you ! "
Here was indeed a psychological problem for the earnest
Penitent to solve ! Womenkind in general were, he knew,
snares of the Devil, so as best he might he reiterated his
assertion that he was obliged to go, and that it was impossible
for them to follow him.
Resolved not to be outdone, the two enthusiasts then
applied to Mere Angelique, who, less severe than her nephew,
actually accorded them a dwelling situated within the pre
cincts of Port-Royal des Champs, but separated by several
large courtyards from the place where the Solitaires were to
dwell.1 When St. Cyran heard that the Solitaires had gone to live
in a town — that place where " the Devil walks in the streets " 2
— the wise Director of Souls had been much disturbed. Now,
learning what had happened, he at once wrote to Le Maitre as
follows :
" Whereas," he argued, " if an ordinary man wishes to be
virtuous and chaste, he must rarely allow himself conversation
with the other sex ; once having become a penitent and recluse,
he must never even speak to a woman."
On reading these words of his spiritual master and Director,
the First Solitaire characteristically decided on the spot not
only never again to leave his cell, but to have converse with no
one whomsoever. And he kept this latter resolution until
again St. Cyran had to interfere and remind him that true
1 Fontaine, Mtmoires, i. p. ioo.
2 " For," he said, " I myself know the Devil a Httle. . . . One must be
old in the trade to know its ruses. . . . The slightest clouds are to be feared "
(Ibid. i. p. 102).

RETURN OF THE SOLITAIRES 73
penitence lay, not in the extremes, but in the middle road
of Time and Place.1
In their exile at La Fert6 the influence of the Solitaires
was productive of some notable conversions, but was
especially perceptible in the Racine family itself. Marie
des Moulins, Jean Racine's grandmother, retired some
years afterward to Port-Royal, where her sister was already
cloistered, in the humble position, it was said, of cellarer.
The daughter of Madame Racine also became a nun at about
the same time. Madame Vitart did not actually enter Port-
Royal, but remained all her life the true and constant friend
of les Messieurs, hiding them in her house, and doing
them whatever service she could. Her husband went so
far as to forsake wife and children to follow Le Maitre and
Sericourt back to Port-Royal des Champs, where he straight
way undertook the administrative part of the monastery
(econome), leaving his more scholarly associates free to devote
themselves exclusively to study and prayer.
On the death of this good man some two years after their
return, there was no one to manage household affairs or work
on the farm. Moreover, owing to neglect and hard times,
the property now yielded almost nothing, yet the convent
in Paris depended upon revenue from the country estate
for the major part of its income. Thus, forced to think
of practical matters, the recluses began to put their enthusiasm
to the test by endeavouring to reclaim the ground of the Abbey
and the outlying farms, exalted in this effort by the thought
that in so dong they would be benefiting the nuns.
The task was no light one ; it meant toil of hands and
sweat of brow, the very prayers of the labourers having to
be said wherever they happened to be — whether in the middle
of a field sowing grain, in the swamps draining off the putrid
water, or in the meadows mowing the grass or preparing
the rows for the seed.
For Le Maitre, work in the fields had primarily been very
difficult. He confessed to Lancelot that he had only been
constrained by a dream to render this service to the nuns.
One night he saw in his sleep the Lord closely pursuing him
and menacing him with death and ruin did he not help Christ's
spouses; and awakening, as if beside himself, he was so frightened
1 Fontaine, Mtmoires, i. p. 101.

74 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
that there and then he jumped out of bed on to his knees,
promising God to obey all His commands.1 Thus, leaving
his books and meditation, the great advocate became a
worker in the fields. But while making hay in the heat of
midday, and compelling from the stubborn earth its beauty
and its increase, Antoine Le Maitre was fighting the rebellious
impulses and desires of his own impetuous spirit, his body being
constantly under the chastisement of a cilice, or hair shirt.
And, when the physical work was done, he further disciplined
his mind by the study of Hebrew, this being undertaken at
the suggestion of St. Cyran, who was anxious to have some
favourite Psalms and other religious treatises translated.2
His natural gifts were thus turned to the service of God,
and to the dissemination of knowledge. As may be
imagined, both by Port -Royal primogeniture and his
talents, Le Maitre was the King of Solitaires ; all were
proud to have this great man at their head, and whenever
he opened his lips, his words were listened to with avidity.
His voice was rich, full-toned, his wit caustic, " his mouth
full of words of gold."
Like that of his grandfather, the maUresse voile of Le
Maitre's eloquence is said to have been classical and Biblical
allusions. On one occasion, defending the cause of a servant-
girl betrayed by the son of a blacksmith, he called upon Mars
and Neptune to interfere in her behalf.
Voltaire, the cynical, said of Le Maitre apropos of the
wisdom of publishing the speeches of orators :
" He was an advocate and considered very eloquent, till
he so far yielded to vanity as to publish his speeches, when
men thought so no longer." 3
But at Port-Royal, instead of electrifying by his reasoning,
the beauty of his language and demeanour, a court-room full
of men of the law, his eloquence was turned either toward
astonishing a country judge, who had arraigned the nuns of
Port-Royal, a new Director to whom he bade welcome in
1 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. 126.
2 M. de St. Cyran wrote Le Maitre from prison : " It will give me pleasure
if you will send me some Psalms as you translate them. I hke to sing the
Psalms in my prison in the language of the Church, and I shall be glad to
sing them in our tongue " (Fontaine, i. p. 105).
8 Oscar de Vallee, L'Eloquence judiciare au dix-septiime Sif.cle, p. 437.

RETURN OF THE SOLITAIRES 75
the name of all, or only a parcel of schoolboys, among
whom one day there was to stand the future great poet,
Jean Racine.1
It is easy to picture the surprise and delight of the country
judge when this to him unknown recluse pleaded, in a manner
not heard before in the unlettered provinces, the cause of
the nuns against an ignorant butcher. Finally, unable longer
to contain his admiration, the judge, believing Le Maitre
to be a merchant by the name of Drance\ said to him :
" Believe me, leave your business, follow the law, and I
do not hesitate to guarantee that you will acquire quite as
much renown as the celebrated Le Maitre." 2
Antoine Le Maitre's unique compensation for the life of
excitement and romance he had renounced, was to interrogate
each new convert as he was added to the community on his
personal spiritual experiences, every such recital giving him
as much pleasure as though it were a novel.
For De Sericourt, the work out of doors was easier. His
disposition was softer and more yielding. Strangely enough,
the quality that remains to us from this first military enthusiast
of Port-Royal is the sweetness and delicacy of his spirit.
On becoming a convert, duty became his fetish ; to it, he
sacrificed every impulse of a naturally warm heart, his life
being spent in the practice of the most exhausting austerities.
Antoine he loved with the tender affection of a child, but
even this emotion he felt was alienating him from his heavenly
vision, so, in the hope that nothing might stand between him
and the Divine Love, he removed his cell farther and farther
away from the earthly tie this proximity represented.
Not having his brother's literary power, De Sericourt
lacked in this speechless solitude the consolation of putting
his thoughts on paper. But he was not long in finding his
particular metier — one which was to become of great value
at Port-Royal. This was the copying of his more gifted
brother's writings, later on those of his young uncle, Antoine
Arnauld. Through his initiative, this work became a favourite
one at Port-Royal, and, others joining, the important com
positions of such Port-Royalists as Lancelot, Fontaine, and
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 394.
2 Oscar de Vallee, L' Eloquence judiciare mi dix-septitme Sidcle, p. 437.

76 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Du Fosse, whose memoirs and translations for many years
existed in manuscript form only, were thus preserved,1 none
of them being printed before the middle of the eighteenth
century. Among the first recruits at Port-Royal des Champs at this
time was another Arnauld, a young son of M. d'Andilly, called
Arnauld de Luzanci. Through his father's influence, this boy
had served for some time as a page to Cardinal Richelieu,
after which he was made an officer in the garrison of Havre
de Grace. Undoubtedly inheriting the pious instincts of his
family, at eighteen, during a serious illness, Luzanci began
to think of his soul's welfare, and, seized with a desire to imitate
the example of his cousin De Sericourt, announced his intention
of leaving the army and becoming a recluse.
On joining the workers at Port-Royal des Champs shortly
afterwards, being neither learned nor lettered, Luzanci at
once took to outdoor employment, and it was not long before
he found his sphere of usefulness in a way most valuable to
the nuns. Instituting a regular method of husbandry, he
constituted himself the moving spirit in the direction of
the work of tilling the ground of the farms neglected by
insolvent tenants, and of superintending the labours of new
hermits who gradually chose his department as their field of
action. The first friend to join him was also a soldier of
high station and reputation, called M. d'Eragny de la
Riviere. Originally a Huguenot of Vexin, now become a zealous
Catholic, this gentleman, first cousin of the Due de St. Simon,
chose to leave a world which tried to hold him by many ties,2
to give up all his possessions, with the object of coming to
Port-Royal to care for its woods, a neglected source of former
income. Throughout all later persecution, he never ceased to
care for his beautiful trees, leaving them only during the
Fronde, when, a garrison being stationed at Les Granges, he
was unwilling to meet those who had known him in his
previous life.
Never was a man harder upon himself, more regardless of
the claims of his physical being, than M. de la Riviere. Eating
but one meal a day, and that usually a plate of soup, he spent
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 404.
2 Du Fossfe, Mtmoires, i. p. 122.

RETURN OF THE SOLITAIRES 77
his days in the forest, there in God's first temples shunning
human society, and worshipping after his own fashion. This
silent hermit was a great student, and although conversant
with Italian and Spanish, learned Greek and Hebrew at
Port-Royal without a master, so that he might be able to
read the Bible in both languages.1 For twenty-three years,
M. d'Eragny de la Riviere lived on at Port-Royal, finally
dying at the farm of Les Granges of a very acute and painful
illness, which M. Hamon tells us he supported
" like the most humble patient and the most submissive of
criminals under sentence of death." 2
It was shortly before the First Dispersion that Singlin
had a singular experience which led to the addition of one
of the most self-sacrificing and eminent adherents ever known
at the monastery. This was the visit to him in Paris of a
priest called M. Charles Duchemin, who begged to be allowed
to pass his days in the Desert in the exercise of penitence.
Having entered Holy Orders without any real contrition
of heart or particular vocation, Duchemin had acted for
some years as vicar of a parish in the diocese of Beauvais.
Some extraordinary ordeal he went through seems to have
aroused his conscience at last, but on applying for advice to
several people, each and every one told him it would be best
for him to return to his vicarage and continue the life he had
been leading. Finally, hearing of Port-Royal and its methods,
he felt that retirement there would suit his needs : hence his
appeal to M. Singlin.
^ After some hesitation, Singlin consented to accept the
penitent priest at the Champs, and, ridding himself of his
ecclesiastical preferments, in the profoundest secrecy as to his
former career, the new convert joined the Hermits of the
Desert. From that day until his death, thirty-seven years
later, the mystery of this singular man's identity was hidden
in that of M. Charles of Les Granges, by which name alone he
was known. Once only did he go forth from his retreat, and
1 Fontaine gives us a lively picture of this Solitaire as walking in the
mud all day long without food, and applying himself to the study of
languages in order to join work of the mind with that of the body"
(Mtmoires, i. p. 319).
2 Histoire Abrtgt de la Demitre Persecution de Port-Royal, p. 385.

78 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
that was to receive an inheritance from his father — a sum
which he immediately divided into two parts — one for the
poor, the other for reparations on the monastery.1
To this most zealous of workers on the farm, religion
took precedence of every preoccupation — even of care of his
farm, domestics, horses, animals. Absorbing as his work
might be, it never interfered with his prayers, and his life was
one long series of austerities. Always provided with a devo
tional book for leisure moments, he slept but three hours at
night, seldom talked to any one, and was a lesson to the com
munity in his profound humility. At last, one day, feeling a
great desire to be transported to that kingdom for which he
had so long yearned, he prayed to God to deliver him from
the miseries of the world. That very night, fever seized him,
and in exactly eight days, at the hour of his prayer, his wish
was fulfilled.2
Besides these hermits of high standing in the social and
intellectual field, Port-Royal was blessed in domestics who
were no less devoted to the cause. St. Cyran had begun
that long line of Port-Royal hermits from the humbler walks
of life by sending from his prison a convert he had made
there of the nephew of one of his guards — a simple shoe
maker's apprentice named Charles de la Croix, and Lancelot
chronicles that a number of youths from different provinces
felt moved to come and spend their lives in this solitude.3
Speaking of Charles de la Croix, " This youth," says Lance
lot,4 " was deformed and very poor in Nature's gifts, but very
rich in the endowments of grace, which God had poured with
abundance into his soul, converting him miraculously, and
giving him the spirit of penitence to practise almost incredible
austerities." Charles de la Croix was soon followed by a ploughboy
called Innocent Fai, than whom no high-born Solitaire was
more pious or sincere. It was his habit to speak rarely, and
then, says the memoirist, " only of edifying things." He was
1 Ntcrologe de VAbbaie de Port-Royal, pp. 140-141. 2 Ibid.
3 "The disinterestedness of some of these valets was such," says Lancelot,
" that when the nuns afterward wished to assure them a pension, they could
never be made to consent " (Mtmoires, i. p. 342).
• Ibid. p. 340.

RETURN OF THE SOLITAIRES 79
never idle, but even while ploughing he was engaged in reciting
prayers he had learned by heart. His charity was a matter for
wonder, for, not content with giving his wages to the poor,
and despoiling himself of whatever small means he had, he
used to go about barefooted because he had given away his
boots. He died in 1660, aged thirty-nine.1
These first two domestics were followed by a number of
others, all of whom were faithful in work and prayer and self-
denial : one may read the edifying history of their lives in the
Histoire Abrege de la Dernier e Persecution (1750). It is interest
ing to note that no difference was ever made at Port-Royal
in the treatment of these servants and the other Solitaires.
Port-Royal proved its spirit in this respect by the interring of
all together — duke and peer by the side of ploughboy, hostler,
farmer; poet-philosopher with the ignorant and unlearned.
All were considered " brothers " ; and Le Nain de Tillemont,
Port-Royal's most famous pupil and priest, expressed the
general sentiment when he wrote thus of the servants of the
Champs : *¦
" They are as noble as we, and a man owes nothing to
his fellow but fellowship." 2
1 " We have had him buried in our church," said Mere Ang61ique, " and
not in the cemetery where one puts the other domestics, and we esteem our
selves more honoured that his body should be there than that of a great
lord " (Clemencet, Histoire Gtntrale de Port-Royal, ii. p. 557).
2 See Tronchay's Life of Le Nain de Tillemont.

CHAPTER III
DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN
" On ne doit pas se troubler du passe, pourvu qu'a mettre ordre comme
il faut a l'avenir." Lettres Chrestiennes de St. Cyran
JANSENIUS'S later history shows him a man of action,
and also a clever negotiator. Twice (in 1624 and 1626)
sent by the University of Louvain to Spain to oppose
the Jesuits in their desire to obtain there University privileges
for their college, he acquitted himself with
" address, firmness, and great consideration for himself." x
Then again, being consulted by Flemish nobles, who, fearful of
a Dutch invasion, were indignant at receiving no succour from
Spain, his advice was to throw off the Spanish yoke, treat
directly with Holland, and convert the country into cantons
like the Swiss.2
He is also said to have suggested at this consultation the
union of the French Catholics with the Dutch Protestants, and
the creation of a religious body between the two beliefs,3 an
act which occasioned great excitement and roused public
opinion against him. To correct this impression, and to pro
pitiate Spain, also in a fine impulse of patriotism, in concert
with President Roze, he published a Latin pamphlet called
Mars Gallicus, against the prerogative of the most Christian
kings, and particularly the policy of Richelieu in allying him
self with Lutherans and Calvinists, painting very graphically
the disasters which would thereby accrue to Catholic Germany.
In this pamphlet, he also detailed the horrors of the siege of
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 299.
2 Rapin, Histoire du Jansenisme, p. 271.
3 Pere Daniel, Traitt Thiologique, Letter from the Abbe de St. Germain,
80

' DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN 81
Tirlemont by the combined French and Dutch armies, and
the atrocities committed toward the religious houses. The
book was translated into French, and created a sensation,
Richelieu being so incensed at the accusations it contained that
he never forgave its author, some authorities asserting Mars
Gallicus to have been the cause of all his later persecution of
the friends of its author.1
The King of Spain, however, rewarded Jansenius by" the
bishopric of Ypres. But, though still absorbed infthe
Augustinus, the new Bishop did not allow literary work to
interfere with the duties of his diocese. These he punctually
performed, whether at the expense of health or the more
personal interests of writing. His conscientiousness in this
respect has been compared with its lack in a very learned
French Bishop, M. Huet of Avranches. When any of the
members of the latter's district came to consult him, they
always found his door closed, and were told that Monseigneur
was studying :
" Why do they give us a Bishop who has not finished his
studies ? " they cried.2
The life of Cornelius Jansenius, patriotic, self-denying,
and sincere worker, ended prematurely on the 6th May 1638.
There are various stories as to the cause of his death. One
credits him with catching the plague when it broke out in
Flanders, and we are thrilled by the account of his heroism in
going to the infected place, visiting the sick, dressing the
most loathsome wounds, and taking food and medicine to
the patients.3 Another report asserts that although the dread
disease had previously raged in Ypres, at the time Jansenius
was stricken, there was no great epidemic of it in the country.
That he alone took it, gave his enemies the opportunity of
saying that he was overtaken by Divine anger and malediction.
Clemencet tells us that his death resulted from touching some
infected ancient manuscripts in the Archives.* Whatever the
immediate cause, his early death was also the result of a con
stitution weakened by too-continued study and thought, for
only fifty-three years of age, like Calvin, this great religionist
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 303. 2 Ibid. ii. p. 92.
8 Schimmelpenninck, Port-Royal, p. 53.
1 Clemencet, Port-Royal, iii. p. 230.
6

82 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
was worn out by the very intensity of his enthusiasm. It was
only a few days before he fell ill that he finished his great work,
and, making his will on his death-bed, his last act was to recom
mend the Augustinus to the Pope, saying that if the See of Rome
wished to make any changes in the book, he was
" a child of obedience and obedient child of the Roman
Church, in which I have always lived up to this bed of death." 1
The epitaph placed upon Jansenius' s tombstone in the old
Cathedral of Ypres, beside the great altar, gave in epitome
the estimate of him formed by sympathizers in his own day
and country. It read :
" Here lies Cornelius Jansensius — comment enough : his
virtue, his capacity, and his reputation say the rest. Long
the admiration of savants in Louvain, regard for him only
began there. He was raised to the episcopal dignity as a
model for all Flanders, but appeared like the lightning-flash,
extinguished at the moment of its illumination — such being
the destiny of all things human, whose longest span is soon
finished. . . . Yet he does not cease to live after death in
his St. Augustine, of whom there was never a more faithful
interpreter. He had something of the Divine in his spirit,
and showed an indefatigable constancy in his work, his life
ending with it." 2
As St. Cyran's arrest took place only eight days after the
death of Jansenius, there had not been time for him to learn
the sad news ; and during the first days at Vincennes friends
were fearful of adding to the prisoner's misery by this last
blow, especially as they were then not sure that the Augustinus
had been finished. When at last they heard that it had,
St. Cyran was told, and on its publication two years later
he was one of the first to read the work, which he had not
seen in its completed form. In many ways the contents were
a surprise to Jansenius's collaborator, but on the whole he
was so struck with admiration that he pronounced its place
as a treatise on Grace to be third only to the writings of
St. Paul andJSt. Augustine.3
1 Ellies du Pin, Histoire ecclisiastique du if Sitcle, ii. p. 51.
2 Rapin, Histoire du Jansenisme, p. 371. In 1655 this inscription was
destroyed and replaced by the simple words : " Hie jacet Cornelius Jansenius
Episcopus Yprensis" (Ellies du Pin, Histoire ecclisiastique du if Sitcle,
ii. p. Si)-
3 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii.

DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN 83
At St. Cyran's interrogatory, which took place a year after
his arrest, enemies failed to bring forward proofs of either
Calvinism or heresy. Nevertheless, friends of the prisoner
were unable to obtain his release from Vincennes. When the
Prince de Conde wrote to Richelieu on the subject, the im
placable minister's reply was :
" Savez-vous de quel homme vous me parlez ? II est plus
danger eux que six armees I " *¦
Replying to others who demanded St. Cyran's liberation,
Richelieu said :
" If people had only made sure of Luther and Calvin in
the same way, one would not have seen torrents of blood
inundating France and Germany during fifty years." 2
After a short period of despair, the good Abbe endeavoured
to make the most of his imprisonment. Characteristically,
his first thoughts were for his disciples and the various souls
under his spiritual care. He therefore sustained and com
forted them by long letters — beautiful words of consolation,
encouragement, and common sense, afterward published in
two octavo volumes, and famous under the title of Lettres
Chrestiennes. Like the flame of St. Augustine's fiery heart,
the warmth of his influence burned through the thick walls
of Vincennes, reaching out and permeating the worldly as
well as the most righteous of his correspondents. It was in
prison, too, that he wrote some important doctrinal treatises.
But after epistolary and literary duties were done, there still
remained time and enough and to spare for works of extra
ordinary goodness and charity to the poor unfortunates
about him. He converted the governor of his prison, and
although he himself needed clothes to protect him from the
cold, he sold his most valuable books in order to buy clothes
for his fellow-prisoners, who, not knowing whose hand had
relieved their needs, and seeing St. Cyran destitute, whispered
among themselves that his state was a judgment on his heresy.3
1 " Do you know of what man you speak to me ? He is more dangerous
than six armies I " (Besoigne, iii. p. 394).
8 Bausset, Histoire de Ftntlon, p. 16.
' Schimmelpenninck, Port-Royal, p. 31.

84 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
A distinguished Dutch prisoner of war, who had been incar
cerated near St. Cyran at Vincennes, was taken on his release
in 1641 to the Palais Cardinal to see a wonderful ballet given
by Richelieu. When asked if he did not admire the spectacle,
at which were assembled the greater number of the prelates
of Paris, Jean de Verth replied that he indeed found it very
beautiful, but that the thing which most surprised him in
the most Christian realm of France was to see " Bishops at
the comedy, and Saints in prison." x
When, in 1643, St. Cyran's prison doors were at last thrown
open, release was due not to Louis xm, Anne of Austria, or to
Cardinal Richelieu, but to the chances of Life and Death.
On Holy Relics Day in December 1642, they were chanting
in the churches the words of the Epistle :
"The fear of the Eternal prolongs one's days, but the
years of the wicked shall be curtailed,'
as the great Cardinal lay dying — a man of only fifty-seven.
And in February 1643, a decent time having elapsed after
Richelieu's demise, all Vincennes was en fete over the Abbe's
deliverance. With one accord, even the canons and prelates
of the Cathedral turned out to congratulate him. His guards
wept with happiness at his release, and with sadness at the
thought of losing him from their charge. But, after five years
confinement, privation, and hardship, the Prisoner of Vincennes
was an old man, broken and bent by infirmities, and with the
mark of Death plainly written on his features.
On his way home, St. Cyran, escorted by M. d'Andilly,
who had begged the privilege of fetching him in his carriage,
made various visits. At Port-Royal de Paris he was awaited
with feverish impatience. Not being able to keep the good
news of their chief's deliverance from the nuns, and yet not
wishing to break the silence of the cloister, Mere Agnes had
that very morning in the refectory invented an ingenious
way of telling the story. Standing mute before the whole
community, she slowly untied the girdle round her waist,
thus to signify that God had broken the bonds of his servant.
Every one understood, and the silent joy was intense.
Between the hours of five and six in the evening, having
been notified of St. Cyran's visit, the nuns were assembled
1 Racine, Abrigt, p. 28.

! DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN 85
in the Parloir St. Jean to receive him. But when he arrived,
the excitement was so great as to become hysterical — M. de
Rebours, the confessor of the monastery, being the innocent
cause of an outburst of merriment. This good priest was
very near-sighted, and when St. Cyran entered, one of the
nuns chancing to notice M. de Rebours peering in a very
comical way at the Abbe1 through his lorgnette, she laughed
light-heartedly. On hearing the sound, the rest of the
community, in the exuberance of their relief, broke out
simultaneously into irrepressible mirth.1
This hilarity did not please the Abb£, who was about to
address words of solemn import to the nuns, so, turning away,
he said gravely that he would wait a more fitting moment in
which to converse upon weighty subjects.
For some days weariness prevented St. Cyran from going
to his dear Solitaires at Port-Royal des Champs. Yet this
visit lay even nearer his heart than that to the Paris monastery.
And his reception in the country was of a different and much
more solemn character, the Recluses receiving him almost
as one risen from the dead. Through Fontaine we have a
graphic picture of Le Maitre's throwing himself at the feet
of the Abbe\ of the latter's raising up his disciple, and embrac
ing him tenderly, and of their subsequent exhaustive talk
on spiritual and temporal matters.2
As he was leaving, St. Cyran expressed his admiration
of the Desert, and remarked that he would reproach Mere
Angelique for ever having left it.
But alas ! it was not intended that the Master should
remain much longer with his followers, and even his last
months were not destined to be quiet or tranquil ones. A
storm aroused by the publication of one of his prison works
— a little catechism called " Familiar Theology," threat
ened again to engulf him and Port-Royal. Writing to Mere
Angelique on the subject, the Abb6 expressed his intention
of upholding what he had written, saying that the weak are
often more to be feared than the wicked, and that he would
1 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. 21 1.
2 In describing the joy of the Solitaires at seeing St. Cyran again, Fontaine
puts in a very human touch by confessing that " la joie sans doute qu'on
avait de revoir un tel homme, quoique incroyable en soi et presque infinie,
ne laissait pas d'Stre tempSree par une frayeur secrtte qui faisait rentrer
tout le monde dans le fond de son cceur" (Fontaine, Mtmoires, i. p. 161).

86 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
prefer seeing the whole monastery of Port-Royal destroyed
rather than its discipline.1
Although friends at Court averted from the writer of the
"Familiar Theology" for a time the consequences of his
treatise, not long afterward the saintly Abbe was stricken
down by apoplexy, and died in eleven hours.
To St. Cyran, Lancelot chronicled, death was a thing to
be taken standing, his maxim being that a Christian should die
at his labours. And this he literally did, for on the night
before he passed away he was working hard, dictating to
Lancelot a few so-called " Christian Thoughts," and also,
strangely enough, what he termed " Some Points on Death."
This same faithful chronicler has given us a beautiful
account of his master after death
" Gazing at the body," he says, " which was still in the
same position in which Death had left it, I found it so full
of majesty, and with so grave an expression, that I could
not weary of admiring it, and I imagined that in this state
he would have still been capable of inspiring fear in the most
passionate of his enemies, could they have seen him." 2
In his will St. Cyran had given M. d'Andilly his heart,
on condition that his old friend retire from the world.
M. Le Maitre begged to have as his portion those hands so
pure and holy — how many times they had been raised to
God, what truths written, and still they were fighting for
the Church when God called their owner to Himself ! 8
The rest of the remains were then taken to the Church of
St. Jacques du Haut Pas, where, amidst a tremendous gather
ing of bishops, archbishops, and nearly every prelate of Paris,
the burial took place, St. Cyran being at the moment revered
as a great saint and savant, and Port-Royal itself not yet
having come under the opprobrium which was later to weigh
it down. St. Jacques du Haut Pas was indeed a fitting resting-
place for the mortal remains of him to whom it embodied
an ideal of church architecture, the rule for which was simple
in the extreme : u
" It suffices," he said, " if there be naught that is shocking
in our style."
1 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. pp. 204-223. 2 Ibid. i. p. 252. 8 Ibid. i. p. 257.

DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN 87
Later on, M. Hamon expressed the general Port-
Royal belief that beauty of church architecture
distracted the penitent from the inner emotions, when
he described some people as being obliged to close
their eyes while praying in churches which were too
lovely.1 While St. Etienne du Mont, back of the Pantheon, in which
Racine, Pascal, Le Maitre, and De Saci now lie buried, is still
a wonder of Renaissance architecture, in which harmony
and beauty result from line and form, whose very stones
are impregnated with reverence and piety, and where there
reigns a mysterious loveliness emanating from stained glass
of wonderful lights and tints, St. Jacques is as sombre as
the doctrine which shuts out from salvation all but the Elect.
Naught but the principles of the Reform could have con
ceived this edifice, so bare of elegance of form, so devoid of
the intoxication of line. On its walls are few ornaments
of any kind ; its sculptures are poor ; its chapels reveal but
a few paintings of indifferent merit ; while the crudeness of
daylight has full licence to penetrate unabashed through
windows which lack the magic of stained glass. In it even
the most imaginative mind could find no suggestion either
of holiness or of pagan beauty, but would be forced to derive
its spiritual food out of the wells of its own righteousness.
Yet it displays artistic negation rather than distinct artistic
crime. And in those days it stood on the very " hearth
stone of the spiritual life of Paris," 2 in that quarter which
contained most of the religious houses of the city — the Visita
tion, the Ursulines, the Feuillantines, St. Magloire, the Carmel,
the Ben&hctins Anglais, Val de Grace, the Capuchins, Port-
Royal. Now, St. Jacques du Haut Pas stands in a
land of memories, in which almost forgotten names awaken
visions in the heart of but the stray passer-by. Even its
parishioners ignore its ancient history, although unconsciously
they still retain its aroma.
For a time, the public considered St. Jacques the depository
1 " Saint-Augustin a bien raison de dire que les lieux qui contentent les
sens nous remplissent de distraction . . . et cela est si vrai, qu'il y a plusieurs
personnes qui sont obligees de fermer les yeux lorsqu' elles prient dans les
eglises qui sont trop belles" (Jean Hamon, Traiti de la Solitude, p. 101).
2 Andre Hallays, Peltrinage de Port-Royal, p. 31.

88 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
of something very worthy of reverence. As one prelate
expressed it the day of the funeral :
" M. le Cure, you have here a great treasure and precious
charge." x
And, accordingly, from that day the tomb of the illustrious
Jansenist became the centre for prayers, masses, and
pilgrimages. Every|Saturday, priests from Port-Royal came
to say Mass near it, and many persons of quality journeyed
all the way out to the shrine in the Faubourg St. Jacques
to read his epitaph and to do him honour.2
Thus died the greatest man of Port-Royal's history, and
with him perished in a great measure the original meaning
of the message he and Jansenius had endeavoured to transmit
to the world about them — a message which had in it no enmity
to the Catholic Church, but a great exhortation to the reform
and purification of the spirit of religion.
In course of time the memory of St. Cyran was attainted
by those forces of hatred and envy which, begun before his
death, continued long after the annihilation of Port-Royal
was effected. Mistaken zealots cast upon him the slur of
heresy and accused him of wishing to bring schism into the
Church, ignoring the fact that his horror of any departure
from the dogma as he understood it was such that, whenever
he even took a heretical book into his hands, it was his
habit to exorcize the evil spirit within it by the sign of the
Cross, believing that the demon really resided therein.3
Moreover one of the very last acts of St. Cyran's life had
been work on an extensive volume against Calvinism. The
plan of this attack had been suggested to the writer by M.
Charpentier's account of the state of religion in certain parts
of France where Calvinism was rapidly gaining ground. Un
happily the execution of his scheme was first prevented by
Richelieu, then by the arresting finger of Death.4 If, as
1 Du Fosse, Mtmoires, i. p. 118. 2 Rapin, Histoire du Janstnisme, p. 507.
8 " One should never read the books of Calvin or other heretics," said
St. Cyran, "without previously having exorcized them, because these books
have a secret malignity, which might surprise the strongest, if they were not
careful to recommend themselves to God in reading them" (Lancelot,
Mtmoires, i. p. 226).
4 The book against the heretics was not finished. Singlin said to the
bishops who came to the funeral, that M. de St. Cyran was a David who had

DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN 89
Bossuet said, " A heretic is one who has an opinion," then
St. Cyran was a heretic, not otherwise.
Although the epitaph composed by the friends of the Abbe1
de St. Cyran disappeared in course of time from the tomb
stone in the Church of St. Jacques du Haut Pas, its place
there is still marked. The epitaph itself was strangely reserved
as compared with those written by other of the Port-Royal
epitaphists, but in a few words it summed up the Jansenist
idea of the man who was their_leader and their ideal to the
end. It reads :
" Here lies Jean du Verger de Hauranne, Abb6 de St.
Cyran. He united — which is very rare — knowledge with the
most profound humility. He had the most ardent love and
zeal for the unity of the Church, the tradition of the Fathers,
and the ancient truth. From the Catholic Church, unique
object of his entire devotion, he wrote against heretics of
our times. Profoundly regretted by all the French clergy
and honest men, he died the nth October 1643, aged sixty-
two." gathered together the materials for the building, but that a Solomon would
be found to finish it (Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. 227).

CHAPTER IV
A TRIO OF DEVOTES AT PORT-ROYAL DE PARIS
I. La Princesse de Guemene
" Quittons ces vanites, lassons-nous de les suivre;
C'est Dieu qui nous fait vivre,
C'est Dieu qu'il faut aimer."
< Francois de Malherbe
THAT keen observer of human nature, Saint-EVremond,
clearly recognized and analysed the motives of many
galantes femmes of the day in going into religion, and
there exists a curious letter x from him to a friend who is think
ing of taking such a step, in which he urges her to examine
her soul carefully lest she be one of those to whom
" God is a new lover who consoles for what one has lost " ;
or to whom
" Piety is a matter of calculation, and the mystery of a
new spiritual influence."
On the background of the Paris monastery in the earliest
days the portraits of three distinguished women are painted
ineffaceably. Each had her own history of gallantry, tragedy,
and sorrow ; each seemed to have embraced the penitential
life first through repentance for sins, secondly as a substitute
and indemnity for coquetry. With the entrance of penitence
into their hearts, the craving for excitement had not been
extinguished, and as penitence precluded gallantry in , the
1 This letter was found in MS. at the Bibliotheque Nationale in the same
package as that of Pascal's Discours de I' Amour, and is quoted by M. Victor
Giraud in the Revue des Deux Mondes, Nov. 1907. It is now pubhshed in
the CEuvres Mesltes de Saint-Evremond (London, Jacob Tonson), tome i.
p. 125. 90

THE PRINCESSE DE GUEMENE 91
usual sense, they were forced to derive from religion its
only agitation, a continual crucifying of the emotions and
desires. Mere Angelique had not much faith in the discretion of
either of the mondaines, who, on certain days of the week,
were in the habit of making retreats at Port-Royal de Paris.
She therefore dictated not only their prayers and penitential
exercises, but the persons of the monastery with whom they
might have converse. The story is told by one of the old
historians, that on one occasion these three grandes dames
elected to spend Christmas at Port-Royal. After dinner, Mere
Angelique suddenly bethought her that her penitents had been
talking together a very long time. Leaving the company she
was in, she hastened to separate them, explaining that they
would harm each other :
" A head-dress, a collar, or a fashion must inevitably crop
into the conversation ; one must try to banish these devilries,
which should not be allowed in Christian intercourse." x
The first devote to associate herself with Port-Royal de
Paris in the early days was, strangely enough, the most
worldly-minded of the three, Anne de Rohan, Princesse de
Guemen6. Anne de Rohan had been thrust very early upon
the world through a marriage at the age of twelve (by papal
dispensation) with her own cousin, Louis de Rohan, Prince de
Guemene, second son of the Due de Montbazon, and brother
of the notorious Duchesse de Chevreuse.
Tallemant des Reaux was impudent enough to say that
without the order on his breast the Prince de Guem&ie' might
have been taken for an " arracheur des dents." 2 At the time
of the marriage, his sister, not yet Madame de Chevreuse, but
wife of the reigning favourite of Louis xiii, the Conn£table de
Luynes, had already acquired a tremendous ascendancy over
Anne of Austria, who had come to France only the year before,
and who at this time was a timid, distrustful creature of un
certain and variable temper.3
The Montbazon trio : Madame de Montbazon, the young
and beautiful stepmother of the Prince and his sister, Madame
1 Besoigne, Histoire de Port-Royal, i. p. 205.
2 Historiettes, vol. vi. p. 141.
8 Saint-Simon, Mtmoires, vol. v. p. 244.

92 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
de Chevreuse, and the Princesse de Guemene\ were kindred
spirits— all three fascinating, all three intelligent, all three
galantes. And as they were always together, Anne of Austria's
Court was not devoid of excitement.
Of Madame de Guemene, Saint-Gabriel, a contemporary
writer, speaks in a curious book called Merite des Dames, as
" The Inimitable " :
" She, the Day, the Light, are the loveliest works of
Nature." 1
Her admirers were legion, and the Prince, popularly sup
posed to be a " mari complaisant," rather encouraged, as
Saint-Simon leads us to believe, the Montbazon trio in
their frivolous life. Being thus attractive, Madame de
Guem6ne was the object of the deep jealousy, not only of
the grandes dames of the Court, but of Madame de Chevreuse
and the Queen herself. Madame de Motteville tells the story
that on the days when there was a ball at the Palace, and
the fair sex was pluming itself to look as bewitching as pos
sible, the Queen and her ally, Madame de Chevreuse, to avoid
the shame of being judged less charming than the Princess,
resorted to artifices to prevent her from attending the assembly,
Thus, meeting Madame de Guemeri6 on her arrival, and finding
her glowing with loveliness, they would hasten to tell her
she was looking very ill. Whereupon, without consulting her
mirror, she would rush away and hide, leaving the field to
them.2 Perhaps the Princesse de Guemene' s natural disposition to
gallantry had been heightened by the very atmosphere of the
house in which she lived, the Hotel de Guemene" in the Place
Royale having formerly been owned and occupied by that
most unfortunate and short-lived courtesane of the period,
Marion Delorme.3 Yet history may be trusted to right itself.
To-day the memory of both the courtesane and the lady of high
condition has been eradicated by the refulgence of the poet,
and the Hotel de Guem6n£ is now pointed out in the modern
Place des Vosges as the home of Victor Hugo.
It was said that those who loved Madame de Guemene'
1 p. 298.
2 Madame de Motteville, Mtmoires, i. p. 39.
8 Saint-Simon, Mtmoires (Boislisle ed.), vol. v. p. 242.

THE PRINCESSE DE GUEMENE 93
were fated to some terrible end, and this would seem to be true
from the fact that of four men who loved her devotedly, three
— the Comte de Bouteville, the Due de Montmorency, and
Francois Auguste de Thou — died upon the scaffold, while
the fourth, the Comte de Soissons, was killed by his own
hand, though involuntarily. Added to this list, her second
son, the Chevalier de Rohan, afterward met with a similar
Nemesis. Lancelot chronicles that this great lady *
"gave herself to the Lord the summer following the year
1639, and that God used M. d'Andilly as the instrument to
touch her." 1
The attitude of St. Cyran's " Recruiter of Souls," as
M. d'Andilly called himself, toward women, both in general and
in particular, had always been that of admiration and respect.
In one of his letters he avows his belief that women may serve
the Church as well by their example as men by their doctrine.2
Yet he had a peculiarity which Madame de Sevigne\ writing
retrospectively of the old days at Pomponne, humorously
remarked :
" We chaffed Bonhomme d'Andilly because he would rather
save a soul which was in a beautiful body than another." 3
The fact was that with all the aesthete's love for beauty for
its own sake, M. d'Andilly was never quite able to disassociate
his delight in physical loveliness from his religious enthusiasm.
It was no wonder, therefore, that he was especially zealous in
his spiritual ministrations to one so young and marvellously
blessed with the dangerous gift of beauty as the Princesse de
Guemeng. Moreover, to win her to the Lord, would not
only redound to his own credit, but be of great moment to
the Society of Port-Royal.
The story goes that, paying the Princess a visit at her
country house of Compurai, M. d'Andilly found her just
coming home from Mass, where she acknowledged to have
1 Mtmoires, i. p. 324.
2 " Les femmes peuvent aussi bien ser vir a 1' eglise par leur exemple que'
les hommes par leur doctrine" (15 Mai 1640).
8 Lettre a Madame de Grignan, 19 Aout, 1676.

94 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
spent her time in imagining a new head-dress, radiating happi
ness, self-satisfaction, and carelessness so flamboyantly, that
he was alarmed at her paganism, her content in temporal
matters :
" Ah ! " he exclaimed, " I would you might be as rich
in your soul as in these outward things."
These words, following upon the disasters which had happened
to those she loved, struck so sudden a terror to the heart of
his listener, that her conscience was touched at last, and she
confided to M. d'Andilly her desire to seek solace for her
frightened soul in the consolation of religion.
News of this conversion made a tremendous stir in the
world. Knowing Madame de Guemene's galante history, her
old associates were very sceptical as to her sincerity.
The Necrologe of Port-Royal relates that hitherto
" the world had pleased her, and she had pleased the world," x
but that God sent sorrows, such as the death of her four
cavaliers, to induce her to retire within herself. At first
M. d'Andilly hardly believed this miracle could happen. Yet,
he reflected, all is possible to God, so, as St. Cyran was in
prison and removed from possibility of direct personal in
fluence, he appealed to Mere Angelique for advice with regard
to his new penitent. She on her part then wrote to the
Prisoner of Vincennes.
Like others, St. Cyran was not ignorant of Madame de
Guemene's moral record. Replying to Mere Angelique,
therefore, he confessed that it was difficult for him to prescribe
for the lady of whom she wrote.
The condition of this person, he said, seemed to him as the
spark of God's grace illumined on a frozen pavement, where
the winds blow from all sides :
" If God has lighted it," he wrote, " there is reason to
hope that the spark will not be extinguished by the ice and
the winds." 2
At length, however, he was persuaded to write to the
Princess herself to examine into the state of her soul. Thus,
1 ii. p. m.
2 Lettre a la Mere Angelique, 12 Oct. 1639.

ititl

THE PRINCESSE DE GUEMENE 95
as her conversion occurred in 1639, the very first of those
wonderful Lettres Chrestiennes written from prison was addressed
to her, or, as he expressed it,
" To a Person, or Lady of high Condition." 1
At Port-Royal, there was a tremulous joy over this black
sheep who had come into their fold. It was too great an
event to be talked of lightly. So they all joined in prayer
for the persistence of the worldly woman in the paths of
righteousness. Singlin afterward confessed to Lancelot that
if this grande dame persevered, her conversion would be the
greatest miracle of grace that had happened in the Church
for a very long time.2 In her anxiety, Mere Angelique
wrote letter after letter to M. d'Andilly, enjoining the
greatest caution and deliberation in his treatment of his
new convert.
" We must pray to God for her," she wrote finally. " I
think that, according to M. de St. Cyran's prediction, she will
suffer greatly. The Devil and the World will not tolerate
the affront she makes them, without avenging themselves ;
and the great force God is giving her, shows that He is pre
paring her for the combat." 3
Mere Angelique was right. Both the Devil and the World
were determined to have their revenge, and they had settled
on the Coadjutor of Paris, afterward Cardinal Retz, as their
, agent. They could not have chosen a more competent person
,. for the purpose than this strange prelate, who avowed quite
"/ frankly that he led a life of gallantry in order to free his mind
of the melancholy which his profession nourished in the
, bottom of his soul.
1 , In his Memoires, written long afterward, the Cardinal
1' describes the two forces ruling Madame de Guemene at her
conversion, and which were represented severally in his mind
jsoitt by himself and M. d'Andilly :
" Just fifteen days before this adventure [one of his own
gallant escapades] the Devil appeared to Madame de Guemene,
l0 fr and he came often evoked by the conjuries of M. d'Andilly,
fc who forced him, I think, to inspire fear in his fair penitent,
1 Lettre du 30 Oct. 1639. 2 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. 324.
8 Lettre du 16 Nov. 1639.

96 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
in whom he was more in love than I, but in God and quite
spiritually. " On my side," the gallant Churchman went on to explain,
" I evoked a demon which appeared to her under a more
benignant and agreeable form; he took her at the end of
six months away from Port-Royal, where she made from
time to time escapades rather than retreats." x
From the first, Madame de Guemene" never quite let go of
the world. Having taken a house in the precincts of Port-
Royal de Paris, she was in the habit of spending at least one
day a week in the silence and quiet of the monastery. Her
home was beside the church, above the sacristy, making one
side of the cloister. Here she educated her youngest son, the
Chevalier de Rohan.
But while retaining her apartment at Port-Royal de Paris,
she also indulged her mundane luxurious tastes to the full
at her home in the Place Royale. Visiting her here one day, the
Prince de Conde remarked its general atmosphere of material
comfort :
" Well, Madame," he exclaimed, " the Jansenists are not
then as disagreeable as it is said they are, since all this adjusts
itself with devotion ? Here is the most beautiful place in
the world ; I think there must be great pleasure in praying
to God here." a
Unfortunately St. Cyran was only too right in his pre
monition that the spark of God's grace vouchsafed to this
" lady of high condition " might soon be extinguished by the
ice and winds of a wicked world, for even the Nicrologe of
Port-Royal, writing the epitaph of the Princess, had to admit
that, although she lived more than forty-five years after her
conversion, the latter part of her life did not correspond with the
hopes engendered by her short period of repentance. For
after some time she seems to have given up all pretence of
piety, and thrown herself back again into secular and mundane
ways. Yet, strange to say, even while casting off the restraint of
Port-Royal teaching, the Princess never quite severed her con
nection with the community, and there are a number of letters
from Mere Angelique thanking the kind patron for gifts sent
1 Retz, Mtmoires, vol. i. p. 129.
2 Barthelemy, Les Amis de Madame de Sabli, p. 21 1.

THE PRINCESSE DE GUEMENE 97
the monastery, for asylum offered the nuns in the Guemene"
estate in Brittany, etc. After 1648, silence intervenes, and
it was not until six years later that Mere Angelique divulged
the secret of this taciturnity. Then to the Queen of Poland
she wrote that the "poor lady," as she calls her, had much
degenerated, and that she had returned to the world. La
pauvre dame is not, the good Abbess continues, as bad
as she is painted, although that she should be thus de
famed is but a just judgment of God for her infidelity.
After relating the fact that Madame de Guemene still always
attends sermon at Port-Royal de Paris, and that recently she
has seemed touched, Mere Angelique concludes with one of
her own maxims : \
" II est tres facile de descendre, and tres difficile de re-
monter. Mais Dieu peut tout, et sa misericorde est infinie." x
History does not relate that the Prince de Guemene's
death in 1667 affected his wife very greatly. That her eldest
son, who some years after her husband's death became Due de
Montbazon, had long been hopelessly insane, and was incar
cerated in a Belgian convent, touched her more nearly.
But all her heart was centred in her youngest-born, the
debonnair Chevalier de Rohan, called the best-made and
handsomest man of his time.
But alas ! the flaws in her idol were the very ones she
had caused by her indulgence. Although she had selected
Port-Royal's most pious ecclesiastic, M. Singlin, as preceptor
for her son, she had not allowed that good man sufficient
liberty as regarded discipline, and Louis de Rohan was conse
quently a mass of contradictions. Endowed with a brilliant
mind, it sometimes seemed as if he had none. Possessing
a fund of haughtiness and pride, and capable of acting courage
ously on occasion, he could nevertheless descend to the weakest
and falsest of behaviour.
A plot in which the Chevalier de Rohan was implicated to
excite an insurrection in Normandy, and to deliver over
Quillebceuf to the Dutch and Spaniards, being discovered
on the 26th November 1674, De Rohan and his confederates
1 "It is very easy to descend, and very difficult to rise again. But all is
possible to God, and His mercy is infinite" (Lettre 4 la Reine de Pologne,
21 Mai 1654). 7

98 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
were tried, convicted of treason, and on the 27th beheaded.
Up to the last, the Chevalier had not thought to die, for his
intention with regard to the Dutch and Spaniards was to
secure their money, and then not to keep his word about
delivering over the town. On going to trial, he was so con
fident this could be proved, that he appeared on the sellette
in a new suit of clothes, and with " the best face in the world." 1
Like those others who had loved Anne de Rohan, this
son's fate was so tragic as to draw forth from the insouciante
Madame de Sevigne the philosophical reflection :
" II faut faire reflection sur l'etat de ceux qui sont plus
malheureux que nous, pour souffrir patiemment nos disgraces." 2
Thus, in order that Madame de Guemene might finally
be brought back into the paths of righteousness, God had
to send His greatest scourging, attacking her in that most
vulnerable part, a mother's tenderness. And Sorrow, of
which there is none greater, was the lever which raised her
from the depths back into the light of Grace.
Strangely enough, in a last picture of Madame de Gue
mene, we are reminded of St. Evremond's devote, who really
wanted to be saved, but who, too weak to persist, failed
on the road to holiness. Even after definitely separating
herself from Port-Royal, and while walking in the ways of
iniquity, this beautiful sinner could not help every now and
then casting a longing eye backward to that pure and lovely
refuge of peace from which she had voluntarily exiled herself.
The World had conquered, but she was not content.
1 Le Fare, Mtmoires, tome lxv. p. 215.
2 " We must think of the state of those more unhappy than ourselves,
in order to patiently suffer our own afflictions " (Lettre k Madame de Grignan,
15 Octobre 1674).

CHAPTER V
A TRIO OF DEVOTES AT PORT-ROYAL DE PARIS
II. Marie de Gonzague
" Croirez-vous obliger tout le monde a se taire ?
Con tre la medisance il n'est point de rempart."
Moliere, Le Misanthrope
ALTHOUGH also a galante femme, Marie de Gonzague,
daughter of Charles, Due de Nevers, afterwards sovereign
Duke of Mantua, was quite a different type from the
Princesse de Guemene. Her life-history was remarkable
for its " ups and downs." Tallemant says :
" On a remarque que jamais personne n'a eu tant de
hausses qui baissent dans la vie que la Princesse Marie." x
Many historians testify to her beauty, and one memoirist in
particular — albeit prejudiced — Michel de Marolles, goes so
far as to say that she might be called The Glory of Her Age,
both by the comeliness of her person and the admirable
qualities of her mind.2 Reporting this eulogy, and comment
ing upon the Dante-like devotion of Marolles for the Princess,
to whom for twenty years he acted the part of " familiar
man of letters, Latinist in Ordinary, Secretary, and Librarian,"
Sainte-Beuve classifies the Princess herself as inferior in in
tellectual attainments both to Madame de Guemene, Madame
de Sable, and her own sister, Anne de Gonzague, Princesse
Palatine. He admits, however, that she was endowed with
those three wonderful characteristics, grace, liberality, and a
charm which operated insensibly on her admirers.
The tragedy of the early part of her existence was a sojourn
of fifteen days in the prison of Vincennes, where Marie de
1 Historiettes, iv. p. 181. 2 Michel de Marolles, Mtmoires, i. p. 101.
99

ioo THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
M6decis, on a suspicion that Gaston, her second son, seriously
wanted to marry the poor Princess of Mantua, had her incar
cerated. On the Queen Mother's disgrace shortly afterwards,
the liberated Princess returned to Paris and endeavoured
to forget her disappointement and chagrin in a life filled with
pleasure. This she found among her many friends, and in
the society of all the beaux-esprits and gallants of the Ram-
bouillet and other Paris gatherings of the kind. Her own
salon at Nevers, Marolles describes as especially dehghtful
in point of conversation, where innocent raillery alternated
with " the sweet and serious," malicious gossip and licence
of any kind being tabooed.
This life, though delightful, was also very expensive, and,
becoming involved in financial difficulties, to free herself
Marie de Gonzague was tempted to listen favourably to the
suit of the Marquis de Cinq Mars, who, though Grand Ecuyer
and reigning favourite of Louis xiii, was not her equal in
rank. Some memoirists assert that she accepted money
from Cinq Mars, but that is probably only malicious gossip.
Through her, Cinq Mars aspired to the office of Conn&able
de France, and as Richelieu was opposed to his ambition,
the Equerry was foolish enough to join in a plot with Gaston
d'Orldans against the Prime Minister. The plot discovered
by the ever-astute Richelieu, Cinq Mars, with his friend De
Thou, was tried and executed.
Through the mediation of the Duchesse d'Aiguillon,
Richelieu's niece, Marie de Gonzague succeeded in recover
ing her letters to her former lover, but the affair could not
fail to leak out in certain circles, and discredited her greatly
for a time, especially as one of the notes found in the cassette
of Cinq Mars ended with these words :
" Mon cher Ecuyer, travaillez a vous faire Connetable
pour etre digne de moi." 1
In the depressed state of mind in which this sad experience
left her, Marie de Gonzague turned to religion, and sought
the friendship of Mere Angelique. Her introduction to Port-
Royal was both momentous and tragic, for, intending to put
herself under the direction of St. Cyran, and going to the
Paris monastery for that purpose, the ioth October 1643,
1 Amelot de la Houssaye, Mtmoires, ii. p. 291.

MARIE DE GONZAGUE ioi
she found herself m the midst of his funeral obsequies, and
assisted, an uninvited guest at the agony and sorrow of his
devoted Solitaires and penitents, joining in that weeping
crowd of mourners of all ages, sexes, and conditions.1
This event did not chill her religious fervour, for, taking
a little lodging at Port-Royal de Paris, like Madame de Gue
mene" and Madame de Sable\ she spent whole days there every
week, often, as we have said, to the evident uneasiness of Mere
Angelique. Like them, too, she was glad to be under the
spiritual direction of St. Cyran's successor, M. Singlin. For
some time her piety was admirable. She spent many hours
in prayer and meditation, heard Mass regularly, and even
fasted so rigorously that her household trembled for her
health, until they remarked that fasting seemed to agree with
her marvellously.2
It was not intended by Fate, however, that a princess of
her rank and accomplishments should rest for ever under
the quiet shadow of convent walls, nor was she devout enough
to be able to resist that greatest of temptations — earthly
glory. In 1644, Vladislas iv, King of Poland, who before his
own marriage had much admired Marie de Gonzague, losing
his wife, Cecile Renee d'Autriche, applied to the King of
France for the hand of the Princess of Mantua.3
When asked if she would like to see a portrait of her
prospective husband, Marie de Gonzague replied that it
was not necessary, as she was not marrying the King but his
crown !
All Paris was excited over the royal alliance, and Talle-
mant exercised his humour by telling of the wedding in the
Chapel of the Palais Royal, when every consideration due
a princess of the blood was heaped upon the Queen elect,
Anne of Austria, as a delicate attention, even ceding to her,
for the one day, precedence of herself. But Marie de Gon-
zague's triumph was truly complete only when she found
herself taking precedence of the man who had once scorned
her : Gaston d'Orleans.
The Grande MademoiseUe, his daughter, inheriting a dis
like for the Princess of Mantua, and jealous as well, apropos
1 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. 259.
2 Besoigne, Histoire de Port-Royal.
" Jean Le Laboureur, Relation du Voyage de la Reyne de Pologne, 1647.

102 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
of the festivities and rejoicings, remarked in her Memoirs,
that " quite enough people were bored by this royalty." 1
A few days after the marriage ceremony, the new Queen
retired to Port-Royal de Paris to recover from the fatigue of
the fetes ; and, M. de Marolles tells us,
" In order to regain her usual piety." 2
The correspondence with Mere Angelique, which gives the
connection of Marie de Gonzague with Port-Royal a unique
character, begins from the moment of the Queen of Poland's
arrival in her new home, and continues for sixteen years.
Through the over two hundred letters still in existence, we are
enabled to follow the Queen's life in Poland almost day by day,
throughout every vicissitude ; and the whole story of Port-
RoyaTsfirst period of persecution is graphicallyunrolled in Mere
Angelique's letters, written with no suspicion of the fate which
awaited her utterances, and full of her characteristic force
and frankness. Indeed, it is principally through them that
an insight may be gleaned of the most intimate thoughts of
their unconscious writer — the most modest and retiring of
women. Mere Agnes was in the plot to preserve these im
portant epistles. In 1653 she wrote from Paris to a sister of
the Convent of the Incarnation :
" Not one of the letters to the Queen escaped us while
Notre Mere was at Port -Royal des Champs. I fear we cannot
do our project so easily at present, because she writes late.
There are several watchers established for the purpose." 3
After Mere Angelique's death, the Queen corresponded
regularly with Mere Agnes, who tried to take the place of her
sister as guide. Unfortunately, very few of these letters have
been preserved to us. The explanation is that Mere Agnes,
great and beloved as she certainly was in the monastery,
did not command the reverence awakened by the sterner
Angelique. No one took the trouble to spy upon her and
abstract copies of her letters for future publication. Doubtless
1 Mtmoires de Mile, de Montpensier, i. p. 133.
2 Michel de Marolles, Mtmoires, i. p. 310.
8 a la Sceur Dorothee de lTncarnation Le Conte. i°r Aout, 1653.

MARIE DE GONZAGUE 103
by this neglect the world has lost many interesting human
documents, a supposition which has become a conviction
through the edition of Mere Agnes' s letters published by M.
Faugere. The eyes of Port-Royal were concentrated on Mere
Angelique, and they therefore neglected to prepare her sister's
" dossier de sainte," or certificate of saintship, in her lifetime,
as they had done for the other.1
The strong advice on the religious life which the letters of
Mere Angelique to the Queen of Poland contain, must have
borne richfruit in the conduct of the recipient,2for, to emphasize
her piety, the Necrologe relates that the Queen of Poland
habitually wore a cilice, and that her charity " was truly
royal." As time went on, there was full need of Mere
Angelique's religious and spiritual solace, for in the royal
palace Marie de Gonzague continued the alternate ups and
downs of her former existence. Mere Angelique had foreseen
this, and in one of her first letters warned her friend that
in piety lay the greatest strength ; on it alone depended
happiness. All the rest, she wrote,
" is but nothingness ; this pomp and grandeur which surrounds
them, but like the smoke of perfumes agreeable to the sense,
which evaporate in a moment." 3
The first event that happened was the death in 1649 0I
Vladislas iv, followed by his widow's marriage to the new King,
Jean Casimir, her brother-in-law. Of this union, Mere
Angelique wrote :
" We see that the changes which happen to your Majesty
makes no alteration whatever in your disposition and extreme
goodness to us : which obliges us more and more to take part
in your interests, and to pity you much in this new engage
ment." 4
Yet in spite of Mere Angelique's fears, Marie de Gonzague
seems to have been very united with her second husband.
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 575.
2 "She received my letters with joy," chronicled Mere Angelique, "and
her Confessor wrote me that her household was ravished when she heard
from me, for they perceived afterwards that she acted more gently,
moderately, and charitably ; that she pardoned faults committed against
her, that she was more devout and restrained."
8 Lettre du 27 Juillet 1646. * Lettre du 12 Mai 1649.

104 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Directly afterwards, the felicity and prosperity of existence
at Varsovie so frightened her, used as she was to a balance of
good and evil, that she asked her confidante to pray to God
that this exceeding content be not followed by some great
misfortune.1 Calamity was not long in coming to the house of Poland.
First of all, the Queen lost her only children, two little girls ;
then the pest developed throughout the kingdom, and fierce
wars with the Cossacks and Swedes kept the whole realm in
a state of continual fear and distress.
Notwithstanding these terrible disturbances, the bene
volence and kindness of the Queen to her subjects was ever
active. In the freezing winter, she gave clothes and fuel to
the poor, and had immense fires lighted in the public squares
by which they might warm themselves. She also brought over
from France Fathers of the Mission to instruct her subjects,
and sisters of charity to nurse the sick and dying, and to
educate young girls, whose future she herself provided for. It
seemed as if, in that strange, cold, northern country, the French
Princess tried to inaugurate a Port-Royal of her own.
In return for Mere Angelique's advice and counsel, which
she craved unceasingly, Queen Marie displayed unparalleled
generosity toward the dear friends who had always given her
so fully of their spiritual goods. When persecution was
threatening against Port-Royal, Mere Angelique wrote to thank
the Queen for asylum offered in Poland, not only to the nuns
and their leader, but to the Hermits as well.2 At another time,
Marie de Gonzague wrote at Mere Angelique's request to the
Pope, with whom she was influential, to warn him not to
believe malicious tales against the nuns and Solitaires.3
When grain was dear in France, she first sent 8000 livres
of Polish wheat to alleviate the misery about her dear convent,
then, later on, she donated 2000 livres in money to the Soli
taires for a new building at Port-Royal des Champs, presented
them with a magnificent pyx, some cloth of gold, and vessels
of silver for their church.4
Indeed, this generous Queen would wulingly have given
away all she had in the world. When her friends remon-
1 Tallemant des Reaux, Historiettes, vol. iv. p. 189.
2 Lettre du 20 Mai 1655.
3 Besoigne, Histoire de Port-Royal, i. p. 207. * Ibid.

MARIE DE GONZAGUE 105
strated with her on her prodigality, Marie de Gonzague
replied :
" I do not wish to amass anything, for, no matter what
property I have, if I should become a widow, I should always
have enough to be received by Mere Angelique at Port-Royal
des Champs."
Hearing of this remark, Le Maitre commented on it admiringly
to his aunt. Characteristically the latter shook her head
over the wisdom of receiving a Queen among the nuns of Port-
Royal. For, while Mere Angelique always firmly believed in
the virtue of Port-Royal's benefactor and friend, and steadily
refused to credit any of the tales current as to her early indis
cretions,1 neither the Queen of Poland's generosity, nor her
laudable attempt to conform to Port-Royal's sternest ideas of
discipline in the matter of personal habits and luxuries, served
to change her deep-rooted conviction with regard to people
of condition. Such grand personages, she said, were apt to
cause slackness and weakness in a monastery. Fortunately,
therefore, the Abbess of Port-Royal was never confronted with
the necessity of a decision in the matter, she herself being
the first to pass away. Yet that the stern moralist had a
strong regard for the Queen is ever apparent in her letters.
In any case, the monastery had much for which to thank
Marie de Gonzague, and in its circles she was greatly beloved
and sincerely mourned, when seven years after Mere Angelique's
death she followed her friend to that kingdom in which both
had so long been laying up treasures for themselves. Though
one of the Great of the Earth, and born subject to God's anger,
Marie de Gonzague too was a " Friend of the Truth," and as
such belonged by spiritual affinity to Port-Royal.
1 Le Maitre repeats Mdre Angelique's assertion in this respect. He says
(Mtmoires et Relations, p. 212) : " She told me that she knew certainly that
God had always kept her chaste and pure up to the time of her marriage,
although this was discredited by the scandal of the Court. That she hoped
God would be merciful to her in that she had humility and goodness, and that
she loved the Truth."

CHAPTER VI
A TRIO OF DEVOTES AT PORT-ROYAL DE PARIS
III. La Marquise de Sable
"II faut une grace pour quitter le monde, mais il n'en faut point pour
le hair." Madame de SabliS
OF all the numerous examples of that class of rehgious
phenomena called devotes, none was more peculiar or
characteristic than the Marquise de Sable. Allied
to the literary and social life of the century, remarkable for
gifts of mind and genial fellowship, her name is yet unavoidably
linked with the internal and intimate history of Port-Royal
de Paris. And throughout the troubled annals of persecu
tion and controversy attaching to the so-called Jansenists
and their friends, her personality never fails to awaken amuse
ment and sympathy by its inconsistencies and vagaries, the very
weaknesses of her character lending charm and meaning to the
uncompromising austerity of her spiritual mentors and guides.
Born in 1599, on the very threshold of the seventeenth
century, the early life of Madeleine de Souvre, Marquise de
Sable, would be obscure in the extreme were it not for the
ingenious suppositions of her biographer, M. Victor Cousin,
who divined in her the original of the Princesse Parthenie in
Mile, de Scudery's novel, Le Grand Cyrus.1 It tells us she was
tall, of fine figure, lovely eyes ; that her throat was the most
beautiful in the world, her complexion admirable, her hair
blonde, her mouth agreeable :
" What a store of charms and beauty !
Force of mind and sweetest mien !
Savage would each liberty
Taken in her presence seem.
*V. Cousin, "Madame de Sable et Voiture " (La Socittt Francaise au
XVII Sitcle, ii. 3). I06

MADAME DE SABLE 107
Who so dull as not to see
The Graces now are more than three ? " '
sang, apropos of Madame de Sabl6, the brother of the author
of the Grand Cyrus, Georges de Scudery, in his Cabinet de
Curiosites. Brought up in Touraine, the father of Madeleine de Souvre"
was the distinguished Marquis de Courtenvaux, whom in
gratitude for services rendered him in the battle of Courtras,
Henri iv had made Governor of the young Louis xiii, with
baton of Marechal of France. Naturally, the daughter was
surrounded from her earliest years with flattery and adula
tion. Thus it is curious that politeness, whose essence is
surely kindness of heart and unselfishness, has been considered
her most marked characteristic. Yet the contrasts in her
nature were so vivid as to allow both of this encomium of
M. Cousin's, and M. de Sainte-Beuve's dictum that she was :
" Ing6nieuse, friande, et peureuse." 2
That the young Mile, de Souvre" was also extraordinarily
romantic and precieuse in matters of gallantry, belonging to
the early Rambouillet circle, and drawing her ideal of love
from Spanish and Moorish models, is testified by Madame de
Motteville. To the future Marquise, love meant smiles and
sighs, protestations of devotion couched in hyperbole and
poetical similes, by the lover too respectful and timid to ap
proach near enough to touch the garment of his lady-love.
Unfortunately the great gallantry of her life was concentrated
on the unhappy Due de Montmorenci.
On meeting Madeleine de Souvre before her marriage, this
ideal hero of romance and tragedy at once became violently
enamoured, and it was not difficult for the much-sought-after
gallant to awaken a like passion in the breast of the romantic
lady of the Court, who doubtless failed to realize that, although
elegant, gay, and brave, Due Henri de Montmorenci was not
particularly intellectual or spiritual.
1 " Que d'attraits et que de beaute I
Que d'esprit et de complaisance !
Quelle farouche libert6,
A pu tenir en sa presence ?
Et qui ne voit, a cette fois,
Que les Grices sont plus de trois ? " (p. 147).
2 " Ingenious, timid, and dainty" (Port-Royal, ii. p. 207).

108 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Gestures, it would seem, stood him in place of brains :
" How happy that man is to have arms ! " exclaimed a wit
of him on one occasion.
" He did not talk nonsense," says the same chronicler,
" but he had a short mind." x
Feted on all sides, the amorous soldier soon tired of this love
a la precieuse, and discovering that his eyes were looking higher,
even to the throne itself, Madame de Sable promptly shut him
out of her life, and from that moment banished gallantry
from her existence, finding thereafter her solace in the colder
emotion of friendship.2
At the age of fifteen, without her own volition, Mile, de
Souvre was married to Philippe Emmanuel de Laval Mont
morency, Marquis de Sable. At this period, she might have
easily been conquered by the love of an honest husband. But
unfortunately, although before his marriage a most ardent
lover, soon after the ceremony the Marquis became in his
turn indifferent, quickly developing into a faithless and
cruel master. Their union, which lasted twenty-six years,
was far from happy. It had but one fortunate effect : in the
early days of her marriage, under the influence of the Marquis's
indifference and dislike, Madame de Sable retired to her estate
of Sable in the country. Here, in the quiet and solitude, she
found consolation and relief in study, thus acquiring the
knowledge and intellectual poise for which she became so
noted.3 When, in 1640, the Marquis de Sable died suddenly, all
the four children had thrown off family ties. The only daughter
was a nun at Rouen ; the eldest son, afterward Bishop of La
Rochelle, was busy making his own very prosperous career in
the Church ; the second son was a volatile personage of little
comfort to his mother ; the third son, the pride of the family,
was a soldier in the service of the Great Conde. Thus widowed
and bereft of her children, leaving the neighbourhood of the
1 Tallemant des Reaux, Historiettes , iii. p. 95.
2 Madame de Sabli, p. 3 1 .
3 "The qualities of Madame de Sable consisted," says Sainte-Beuve, "in
a veritable distinction and a certain solidity of mind, which caused Arnauld
to send her the Preliminary Discourse of the Logic to divert her and have
her advice, and La Rochefoucauld to consult her on the matter and form of
his Maxims" (Port-Royal, v. p. 54).

MADAME DE SABLE 109
Louvre, Madame de Sable" removed to the Place Royale,
where her intimate friend, the Comtesse de Maure, joined
her. This friend and consoler of Madame de Sable's widowhood
and after life was also a famous precieuse and woman of
intellectual attainments. Their acquaintance had begun at
the Court of Marie de Medecis, where Mile. Anne d'Attichy,
like Madame de Sable, filled the position of Maid of Honour.
Even in her youth, Madame de Maure had been a most peculiar
person who reversed the actions of the rest of the world.1
Of delicate health, her mind was yet so keen that, although
when people were talking to her her spirit was in the habit
of wandering off on several voyages of its own, she always
returned from dreamland in time to answer most pertinently,
showing that throughout she had understood what was being
said.2 The great bond between the Comtesse de Maure and
Madame de Sable was their mutual terror of contagious illness.
Living together in the same house in the Place Royale, these
two dames sometimes did not see each other for three months
at a time, the least cold preventing all communication, their
intercourse being carried on by letter.
The Grande Mademoiselle, so quick to see the defects of
those about her, could not fail to perceive the humour in
the character of Madame de Sable, and in the Princesse de
Paphlagonie 3 she describes the life led by the two friends.
They were occupied in concerting means by which they
might avoid death and render themselves immortal. Their
conferences on this important subject were not held face to
face, but by writing from one room to another, each hypo
chondriac being afraid of draughts, dampness and dryness,
the weather, and a thousand unforeseen accidents.
" C'etaient des princesses," concludes Mademoiselle, " qui
n'avaient rien de mortel que la connaissance de l'etre." 4
1 " One may say with truth," said the Marquis de Sourdis, " that the
Comtesse de Maure would be a perfect person if she only could, like the rest
of the world, subject herself to clocks" (portrait of Madame de Maure in
la Gallerie de Portraits de Mile, de Montpensier, p. 140).
2 Mile, de Scudery, Le Grand Cyrus, tome ix. p. 548.
8 CEuvres de Segrais, tome i. p. 251.
1 " They were princesses," concludes Mademoiselle, " who had nothing
mortal about them, but the knowledge of being so " (ibid. p. 252),

no THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
As early as 1640, the year of her husband's death, Madame
de Sable had been in communication with Port-Royal through
Mere Angelique, and soon after this time she began making
retreats at Port-Royal de Paris, " without having been touched
in any marked way by Divine Grace." x In 1646 the great
sorrow of her life came to strengthen this slight tendency
toward religious retirement, for in that year she lost her third
and favourite son in battle. This son, Guy de Laval, belonged
to that class of soldiers known in the Grand Siecle under the
title of " Petits Maitres." These men were friends and
followers of the Great Conde. They accompanied him alike
into battle, intrigue, amusement, or danger of any kind
whatsoever — a band of gentlemanly dare-devils, always first
and foremost wherever they went.
Guy de Laval was one of the handsomest and bravest of
this corps. Every one loved him, and his mother, of course,
did more — she adored him. After distinguishing himself
at Rocroy and Thionville, he was killed at the age of twenty-
four at the siege of Dunkerque.
For a long time the Marquise de Sabl6 was overwhelmed
by this calamity, unable to again take up the threads of an
interrupted existence, which was made more difficult just
at this time by the loss of her fortune. Obliged to sell her
estate of Sable" and to retrench in various ways, she yet had
sufficient strength to react from sorrow and misfortune, and,
calling upon her intellectual resources to aid her, she resumed
her everyday round, again visiting the Rambouillet, and
frequenting the soirees of the Grande Mademoiselle at
the Luxembourg.
These pleasures were interrupted by the Fronde and its
excitements, during which troublous time, Madame de Sabl6,
with extraordinary talent, managed to maintain peaceful
relations with both Frondists and Royalists.2 The Fronde
over, her religious enthusiasm culminated in a firm decision,
1 In her great charity, nevertheless, M6re Angelique wrote of Madame
de Sable : " Elle se separe le plus qu'elle peut du monde, et sincdrement
elle veut 6tre toute a Dieu" (Lettre a la Reine de Pologne, 21 Mai 1654).
2 " Sans avoir le genie politique de la Palatine, et sans 6tre melee autant
qu'elle aux agitations des partis, Madame de Sable intervint toujours, comme
la Palatine, pour adoucir les divisions et concilier les interfits. . . . Aussi
la guerre civile n'ota pas un seul ami a Madame de Sable " (V. Cousin, La
Marquise de Sablt, p. 32),

MADAME DE SABLE in
in consequence of which, leaving the Place Royale and
Madame de Maure — who did not altogether approve her
new move, she joined herself definitely to the monastery of
Port-Royal de Paris, building there a small house fronting
on the Rue de la Bourbe — at the end of the choir, forming
part of the chapter-house. Here the salon, modelled after
the Rambouillet, was small but aristocratic, also not a little
galant, in spite of a flavour of the spirit of religion which
inevitably penetrated through the doors separating the domain
of Madame de Sable" from her sainted neighbours.
Notwithstanding this highly intellectual and ideal tend
ency which attached to the Port-Royal salon of the Marquise
de Sable, for a long time the atmosphere there was not the
less worldly. It seems to have been tinged with those material
pleasures with which people of godly inclinations are ofttimes
reproached, and which were especiallyimputed to the Jansenists.
M. de Gondren, Archbishop of Sens, is accredited with
extremes in this kind. He offered his Jansenist friends most
sumptuous feasts, and was himself the inventor of a costly
perfume with which he saturated the wax candles used at
his dinner-table. Under each plate, too, his guests found a
pair of perfumed gloves. This prelate was, nevertheless,
called the Successor of the Apostles, the imitator of their
virtues, and he branded the Jesuits and the Capuchins
together as corrupters of morality and seducers of souls.1
One of the Marquise's friends, the Abbe de la Victoire,
himself a great judge of such matters, is reported to have said
that the Devil having been banished from Madame de Sable's
bedchamber and cabinet, habitually took refuge in her kitchen.2
It is most piquant to read in the letters of the Due de la
Rochefoucauld of the combination of intellectual commerce
and gustatorial interest which reigned between him and
Madame de Sable. The Port-Royal influence is probably
accountable for the fact that in this drawing-room it became
the habit for Madame de Sable and her guests to discuss
the highest ethical subjects, and to make moral reflections
or maxims of their own.3 Going to her house there, the
1 Ricard, Les Premiers Janstnistes, p. m.
2 Ibid.
8 As Sainte-Beuve said : " Madame de Sable's salon was the grand
laboratory of the Maxims" (Port-Royal, v. p. 67),

ii2 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Pessimist of the Fronde found it delightful to solace his
wounded feelings by making moral reflections descriptive
of the hypocrisy, unfaithfulness, and general degeneracy
of mankind. Madame de Sable met him on this common
ground, believed~in him, herself wrote Maxims, criticized his,
and incited]fiim^to new ones, finally inducing him to make
a collection of his own for publication. In revenge for his
maxims, for, as he reminded the Marquise, one does not give
away things for nothing, the Duke demanded all sorts of
culinary dainties at her hands. On one occasion, sending her
eight maxims, he asked in return :
" A carrot soup, a ragout of mutton and one of beef,
some green sauce, and yet another dish, with a capon stuffed
with prunes, or anything else you may judge worthy." 1
Neither Madame de Sable's own maxims, clever as they
were, nor the other details of her life show her to have been
particularly spiritual or religious ; and, without a key to her
reasons for entering Port-Royal, it would be difficult to under
stand why she joined herself to the monastery at all. As
Sainte-Beuve puts it, she always had one foot in the world
and one eye^on the cloister, or, according to a still more
epigrammatic utterance,
" Madame de Sable" was only the most spirituelle of the
Incurables of Port -Royal." 2
With her usual wisdom, Mere Angelique, when discussing
Madame de Sable's proposed annexation to Port-Royal de
Paris, had feared this close juxtaposition of the worldly to
the conventual atmosphere, and had stipulated that neither
Madame de Sable's household nor her visitors should be
allowed to look into the adjoining buildings. This caution
was necessary, as only a short passage-way separated
Madame de Sable's house from the inner monastery. On
her part, on entering the precincts of Port-Royal, the latter
covenanted that neither the number of all persons in the
infirmary nor the nature of their illnesses be hidden from
her. The Marquise had now reached the age of fifty-four, and
the peculiarities of her youth had already become very pro-
t Lettres, p. 149. a port.R0yal, ii. p. tl.

MADAME DE SABLE 113
nounced. Although from the first, Mere Angelique en
deavoured to make a strong character of the Marquise, and
constantly had her on her mind, even when death came,
it was naturally with Mere Agnes.^the head of the Paris
monastery at this time, with whom Madame de Sabl6 had
most to do. jj Through the interminable letters which passed
between the^little house fronting on the street, by way of
the communicating door leading into the monastery into
the office of the Abbess, we realize that the Marquise
was certainly no very easy person to manage, that in fact
she was a veritable thorn in the flesh of the whole com
munity. Often the mystical Mere Agnes must have found
it well-nigh impossible to preserve her attitude of in
tellectual and spiritual aloofness when dealing with the
Marquise. Yet she was a marvel of patience and good
humour, and her motto in answering all her penitent's
complaints was :
" The more one takes away from the senses, the more one
gives to the mind." x
On one occasion we learn that Madame de Sable, in conse
quence of a severe cold, is unable to enjoy the scent of the
bouquet picked for her each day in the Abbey garden ; and
that as usual Mere Agnes has been called upon to calm her
devotee's agitation, this time over a feared loss of the sense
of smell. After commenting upon her own lack in this
regard, she having lost her perception of odours when
very young, Mere Agnes reminded the Marquise that flowers
were a joy to look at as well as to smell. Again, when
a too sensitive development of the same organ led the
Marquise to distinguish the odour of candles being made
in the convent, Mere Agnes calmly meets her threat of
leaving the monastery, by having the factory removed to
the far end of the garden.
Even Nature was expected to change for the sake of this
exacting dame, and another of Mere Agnes' letters answers
the complaint that the Marquise has no sun in her room.
" It is enough," she wrote, " that your tribune in
the Church should face the East, and that you should be
exposed to the Sun of Justice, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du Lundi, tome xiv. p. 157.

114 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
You will find without doubt on that side the health of your
soul and your body, as much as it pleases God to give you." x
¦ Yet when all is said and done with regard to the various
shortcomings, littlenesses, and inconsistencies of Madame de
Sable\ it is hard to believe that she was quite as " intriguing,
mischief-making, noisy and curious " as Sainte-Beuve would
have us think. M. Faugere, in his Introduction to the letters
of Mere Agnes, speaks of Madame de Sable as
" that distinguished woman who refined upon all the com
modities of life."
And many persons both within and without the monastery
testified to her insight into human hfe, its passions and pit
falls, giving her credit at the same time for kindness and
humanity. Mere Angelique celebrated her knowledge of the
passions, distastes and allurements of society, M. d'Andilly
considered some of her thoughts as showing ripe experience
of a world of exquisite refinement, while La Rochefoucauld
went so far as to credit her with a comprehension of the inmost
recesses of the human heart.2
Madame de Sable had none of the pious veneration
of the other penitents for Port-Royal des Champs. From
the first, indeed, she had declared herself to be a fixture in
Paris.3 She would not even visit the monastery in the country,
being afraid of the stagnant pond, and possible germs she
might find lurking there. During the persecutions in the
Paris house she did not once interrupt her worldly interests.
It was, in fact, in 1665, at the very climax of the troubles of
the monastery, that La Rochefoucauld's maxims were pub
lished, and, without compunction or thought of her friends
in trouble, Madame de Sable" interested herself heart and
soul in them. At another time she calmly removed herself
and her salon from the Faubourg St. Jacques to the house
of her brother, the Commander de Souvre, Rue des Petits
Champs. Moreover, when Port -Royal de Paris fell into
the hands of anti-sympathizers, Madame de Sable did not
1 Lettre du 23 Oct. 1663.
2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. pp. 5 1-80. In his Causeries du Lundi, book iv.
p. 103, the same writer tells us that " Madame de Sable, la spirituelle amie
de La Rochefoucauld, n'6crivait pas un mot d'ortographe."
8 " Elle avait des l'origine, fait voeu de stabilite pour Paris " (Sainte-
Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 74).

MADAME DE SABLE 115
discontinue her relations with it, but became quite as friendly
with the usurpers as she had been with the real Port-Royalists.
How, then, may we interpret her connection with the
monastery ? The raison d'etre seems best explained on the
basis of the analysis made by M. Faugere :
" Madame de Sable\" he said, " came under the roof of
Port-Royal much less to associate herself with its austere
practices than to seek a shelter against the terrors of death." x
This peculiar and particular fear of hers was well known
in her day, and Tallemant relates that, having his image
always before her thoughts, she did not wish to court
Death's brother Sleep. That she might never slumber
profoundly, either her doctor or her maids were detailed
to watch her from the moment she lay down. In their
hands they held a lighted candle, so that when she opened
her eyes she might at once see its reassuring gleam.2 It
was probably for her that La Rochefoucauld made the
following maxim :
" Few people understand death ; they suffer it not by
resolution, but by stupidity, and by custom, and most men
die only because they know not how to prevent dying." 3
In 1663, when the Comtesse de Maure was dying, Madame
de Sable sent Chalais to inquire for her.
" But," said she, " take care that you do not tell me she
has passed away."
Chalais arrived at the Comtesse de Maure's just as she was
expiring. On his return Madame de Sable said :
" Well ! Chalais, is she as ill as she can be ? Is she no
longer able to eat ? "
" No, Madame," responded Chalais.
" Does she no longer speak ? "
"Still less."
" Does she not hear ? "
" Not at all."
" Is she then dead ? "
" Madame," replied Chalais ; " at least it is you who
have said it, not I." *
1 FaugSre, Introduction aux Lettres de la Mere AgnSs Arnauld, p. xvi.
2 Historiettes, vol. iii. p. 85. 8 See Lettres La Rochefoucauld, p. 149.
* Historiettes, vol. iii. p. 84.

116 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
On one occasion, having lost her appetite, Madame de
Sable grew very sad, remembering that a distaste for food
was evidenced by Mere Ang61ique some time before her death.
" My dear Sister," wrote Mere Agnes, " you are very far
from the distaste of our late Mother ; hers was a distaste of
Death — yours is but passing." x
At this unguarded^mention of Death, Madame de Sable took
such a fright that Mere Agnes was obhged to write again
reprimanding her, and adjuring her to make war on all the
black thoughts which tormented her, and which, she said,
would grow darker the more she allowed them headway.
But it is delightful to learn that although no power could
ever suffice to entirely rid the " Maniacal Marquise," as she
was called, of habits acquired during many years — the brunt
of which it was the good fortune of Mere Agnes to bear — as
time went on the serene and beautiful influence of Port-Royal
so near her had its effect in lessening these littlenesses, these
vague terrors. For toward the end of her life, penetrated
inevitably by the spirit of Port-Royal, Madame de Sable
became ever more penitent, more resigned, and more tranquil.
Even her fear of the last Terror seemed to diminish, and in
1678, at the age of eighty, she finally passed on to that plane
where there is no death, gently and humbly, her dying wish
being to be buried, not in the great armorial vaults of the
Souvres or of the Montmorency-Lavals, nor even to be honoured
by sepulchre at Port-Royal itself, but to be interred like any
ordinary citizen of her quarter, in the parish burial-ground.2
Her remains stiU lie, therefore, in that curious old church,
St. Jacques du Haut Pas, where so many distinguished fellow-
penitents and Jansenists found rest for their ashes.
And the honest souls of Port-Royal, in writing the
Marquise's epitaph for their Necrologe, found only this to
praise in her — whom, nevertheless, they designated as " the
very particular friend and benefactor of Port-Royal de
Paris " — her humility ! 3
1 Lettre du 18 Oct. 1663.
2 Victor Cousin, La Marquise de Sablt, p. 303.
• " Les sottises d'autruy nous doivent estre plutost une instruction qu'un
sujet de nous moquer de ceux qui les font " (maxim de Madame de Sable).

CHAPTER VII
THE LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN. BEGINNING OF
PERSECUTION. THE *' BOOK OF THE FREQUENT
COMMUNION "
" The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me,
they will also persecute you "
FROM boyhood, Antoine Arnauld had developed unusual
traits'of intelligence and piety. Educated in the College
of Lisieux, he made the law his special study, and at first
seemed to incline to the legal profession. It was his mother
who finally persuaded him to forsake the calling of his for
bears for a study of theology. And, entering the Sorbonne at
her suggestion, he was just about to take the second step in his
Sorbonnical evolution when, being assailed by some doubts,
he applied to St. Cyran for their resolution. With his usual
perception the latter understood where the trouble lay, and,
gaining the confidence of the young student, endeavoured to
help him by attacking the most vulnerable point — worldly
vanity. " The doctrinal dignity," he wrote, " has deceived you,
even as Beauty deceived the two elders " (alluding to the
well-known story of Suzanne and the Elders).1
This letter was followed by other long epistles. At first
Arnauld was timid about resigning himself wholly to St.Cyran's
influence, being afraid the Abb6 would require him to give up
the finishing of his licentiate and the Sorbonne altogether.
He was relieved when St. Cyran advised him to remain where
he was, and to go on with his degree^:
" Prayer and fasting twice a week," said his mentor,
1 Lettre du 27 Decembre 1638.

118 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
" will serve as sparks to illuminate the desire you have to vow
yourself to God," x
adding that the brilliant student might build himself an
interior library wherein he could labour to transfer the science
from his head to his heart. There transformed, it could issue
forth and be spread abroad as God willed.
St. Cyran was directly responsible for the Book of the
Frequent Communion. At the time of the great storm induced
by the publication of the Augustinus, he himself was power
less to defend the principles which the book of Jansenius
embodied. He appealed therefore to Antoine Arnauld, the
disciple in whom of all others he had recognised great
intellectual possibilities, and in whom his prophetic vision
already foresaw the future head controversialist of Port-
Royal. Although his disputatious nature might in any case have
led Antoine Arnauld to defend the ideals of his friends, his
native inclination worked upon by St. Cyran's counsels was
solidified at this moment by a last message from his mother,
who in 1641 was on her death-bed at Port-Royal de Paris.
To have permitted a layman to go into the nuns' quarters
there, even to receive the blessing of a dying mother, would
have been to the stern disciples of St. Cyran " too great a
concession to nature." Lancelot relates that Antoine Arnauld,
going to stay all night at Port-Royal, asked Singlin to allow
him to serve as a clerk in surplice at the ceremony of the
Extreme Unction administered to his mother, but Singlin did
not think it right to have more than one officiating priest, and
De Saci had already been appointed. Antoine therefore begged
Singlin to at least bring him a message from his mother — some
word that all his life he might consider not only as her final
utterance, but as the expression of God's will concerning him.
Accordingly, through Singlin, the dying Madame Arnauld ex
horted her " last son," as she called him, to keep in humility
the vow of his priesthood, though it cost him a thousand lives ;
and never to relax in his defence of the Truth, the Truth be
longing not to him, but to God alone.2
In itself this solemn advice would have been sufficient for
so dutiful a son, but in February 1643, Arnauld received a long
1 Lettre du 4 Janvier 1639.
2 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. 322.

ANTOINE ARNAULD
FROM A BRONZE BUST IN THE LOUVRE

THE LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 119
letter from St. Cyran, containing still more inflammatory
words.
" If until now," he wrote, " silence has been best, the time
to speak, when to keep silent would be a crime, has at last
arrived. Lest sensible persons think us in fault, do not hesitate
longer, nor be deterred by fear of further harm accruing to me
in prison."
The letter then concluded thus :
" We must follow where God leads, and do nothing in a
cowardly way."
These exhortations from the two people he most revered
in the world had an extraordinary effect upon Arnauld, and
they are the keynote of his whole after-life. They explain the
fact that his defence of the Truth as he understood it continued
through exile, poverty, and ignominy, until the eighty years of
his earthly pilgrimage were over.
It was after his mother's death and St. Cyran's letter,
before taking the priest's robe and while buckling on his
armour for the fight, that the incident which determined the
nature of his attack occurred. This was a chance interview
between the Princesse de Guemene and Madame de Sabl£, two
ladies whom one day in laughing playfulness and apropos
of Arnauld's book the Due de La Rochefoucauld called The
Founders of fansenism.1
In early life Madame de Sable" had been under the influence
of the famous Jesuit, Pere Cotton ; after her marriage, her
director was another Jesuit named Sesmaisons.2 Like other
persons of quality in those days, she was in the habit of taking
the Holy Communion every month. Her friend, the Princesse
de Guemene, on the contrary, in the height of her then recently
acquired enthusiasm for the teachings of Port-Royal, followed
strictly the instructions of Ces Messieurs by communicating
much less frequently. It happened that directly after Madame
de Guemene" had made one of her rare communions, Madame
de Sable urged her to go to a ball. Madame de Guemene"
indignantly refused ; and, full of the spirit of Port-Royal
austerity, took upon herself to criticize the too frequent com
munion of her friend. This being a direct animadversion of
Jesuit principles, Madame de Sable" at once reported the words
* Rapin, Mtmoires, i. p. 29. 2 Ibid, p. 33,

120 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
of Madame de Guemene" to her confessor Sesmaisons, who to
justify himself gave Madame de Sable an extract from Molina's
book, in which the great authority scientifically estabhshed
his reasons for frequent communion.1
The next time they met, therefore, Madame de Sable
presented Madame de Guemene with Pere Sesmaisons'
pamphlet on the subject, in which, among other things, it
was authoritatively stated that the more one is devoid of
grace the more boldly one may approach the Eucharist.2
Although while showing this to Madame de Guemene,
Madame de Sable" begged the Princess to keep the matter
to herself, the Jansenist enthusiast felt it her duty to show
the pamphlet to St. Cyran.
In his Preface, Arnauld gives an account of how he
came to write the Frequent Communion. Acknowledging to
have been at first disinclined to answer the question brought
up by Pere Sesmaisons, he says he was finally induced to do
so by the " quality " of the person who had asked to be en
lightened. This remark, seeming a little fulsome, M. Arnauld
in the next sentence explained that the piety and laudable
desire to show gratitude to God evinced by the said person
merited still more deference than her rank.
Fortunately, he continued, although there had fallen into
the hands of his informant a writing designed to turn her from
the road in which the Almighty had placed her, she had already
received sufficient knowledge of religion to understand the evil
of the communication. Furthermore, it was love of the Truth
which then caused her to desire an elucidating response to the
Jesuit's statements.
Thus there was some basis for the remark of the Due de la
Rochefoucauld, these two ladies having been the fortuitous
means at least of inducing the Grand Arnauld to write the book
which had the effect of bringing the'movement into notoriety,
and, like the Translation of the New Testament sent Francis
First through Margu6rite d'Angouleme, of precipitating the
ensuing war upon the heads of its leaders.
1 P6re Rapin analyses Molina's rules to have been three :
i . Ancient usage of the Church.
2. Counsel of a wise director.
3. The state and condition of affairs of each person (Mtmoires, i. p. 29).
2 " Plus on est denu6 de Grace, plus on doit hardiment s'approcher de
J6sus Christ dans l'Eucharistie " (Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 167).

THE LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 121
M. Arnauld's argument was to the effect that, while he did
not think it wise to keep people away for any length of time
from the Communion Table, he still saw no reason why those
who felt the need of becoming spiritualized before approaching
so sacred a Sacrament should not be allowed to defer its cele
bration until their penitential discipline was complete. On the
other hand, he contended, the old method of fasting in sackcloth
and ashes was unnecessary, it being quite possible to carry out
one's penitence in the midst of the world. The power lay,
after all, not in the Sacraments themselves, which had no
efficacy to make better, but uniquely in the grace of God.
The body of the work goes into a detailed analysis and
refutation of Molina's theories and reasonings, the arguments
being based on decisive quotations from the Scriptures and the
writings of the Fathers of the Church.1
In the opinion of critics, the Book of the Frequent Com
munion was not inspired : it was simply a workmanlike piece
of logic, written with common sense and wisdom. Through
its method it may have revolutionized theological literature,
but it neither charmed by its phraseology, nor was it arresting
in its eloquence. Yet in making clear St. Cyran's hitherto
more or less hidden and obscure ideas on piety and penitence,
these doctrines came as an "illuminating flash " into the world,
especially as they were directed against the theology which
makes everything pleasant and comfortable for the sinner.
Speaking by the mouth of Arnauld, the Jansenists now strongly
criticized casuistry, and, forbidding all purely earthly delights,
condemned the easy adjustment of pleasure and penitence.
The Jesuits were, of course, tremendously incensed by so
pronounced a criticism of their methods, and one of their
number began to denounce the book before it was fairly in
circulation. In these sermons, preached in the religious house
of St. Louis, Pere Nouet descended to personal invective
against the Jansenists themselves, calling them
" fantastical, lunatical, melancholy scorpions, or serpents
with three-pointed tongues." 2
1 Although Arnauld laid down the same rules for communion as Molina,
he differed essentially in the matter of deferring the Sacrament until the
completion of penitence.
2 Pere Quesnel, in his Histoire Abrigee de la vie et des ouvrages de M. Arnauld,
p/ 88, declares that Pere Nouet declaimed in an " insolent " manneragainst

122 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
This was a singular demonstration, in view of the fact that some
months previously Pere Nouet had himself revised the Appro
bation of the Preface of Arnauld's work, which was written in
Latin and signed by the Archbishop of Tours as well as sixteen
Bishops and Archbishops, as well as by twenty doctors of the
Sorbonne. Naturally, these latter resented the criticism against
their Approbation, and at once appealed to Cardinal Mazarin
for redress. Whereupon, assisted by four fathers of his Order,
Pere Nouet was compelled to appear in the Sorbonne, bare
headed and on his knees, to sign an act of disavowal of what
he had said.1
But the temporary defeat of the Jesuits in the matter did
not cause the excitement to subside. Thus the Crown was
again called in to interfere, and when appealed to by the Jesuits
in the crisis caused by the Book of the Frequent Communion,
Mazarin and Anne of Austria, ruling the kingdom for the
young Louis xiv, were induced to give an order that the
author of the book appear at Rome to defend it before a
tribunal of the Inquisition. In this expedition Arnauld was to
have been accompanied by St. Cyran's nephew, M. de Barcos,
who was responsible for certain parts of the book ; but just as
they were on the point of starting, the latter decided it would
be dangerous to go. So without explanation he absented himself
— or, in other words, fled into hiding. Arnauld, who had talked
much about going to Rome to " defend the Truth," and of
returning " gloriously," 2 suddenly concluded that M. de Barcos
had chosen the wiser course. So, after writing a beautiful
letter of excuse to the Queen, he also fled, his refuge being the
house of a M. Hamelin, an officer of the Crown, Controlleur
des Ponts et Chaussees, who in order, as he said, " to more
surely guard his treasure," left the quarter in which he
was living at the time, and removed to the Faubourg
Saint Marceau. M. de St. Cyran's nephew was sheltered
by the Princesse de Guemen6, who no doubt thought,
in thus giving asylum to one so near the saint who had
just gone, that she had gained a greater prize than M.
Hamelin.
the Frequent Communion in his sermons at St. Louis, even saying that the
doctrine was worse than that of Luther or Calvin.
1 Histoire Abrtgte de la vie et des ouvrages de M. Arnauld, p. 88.
2 Lancelot, Mtmoires, p. 271,

THE LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 123
As a boy, Martin de Barcos had studied at Louvain under
Jansenius, who, while recognizing the solid qualities of his
pupil's mind, found him somewhat heavy and slow, also rather
quarrelsome. The allegation was later on brought forward
by enemies that St. Cyran had induced Jansenius to take
funds from his bishopric for the education of Martin de Barcos.
In his Provincial Letters, Pascal nobly defended the dead saint
from this charge, which doubtless had no foundation but that
of malice. On leaving Louvain, De Barcos devoted himself
uninterruptedly to St. Cyran, never quitting his side, but
living and working with him continuously, probably editing
the Aurelius, as well as other writings.1
Up to the time of the Frequent Communion, de Barcos had
been universally venerated at Port-Royal. But now division
crept in between him and Arnauld on points of doctrine and
conduct. As Sainte-Beuve said of this learned descendant
of St. Cyran :
" He had a somewhat annoying pen,"
and certainly by his writings De Barcos seemed to be con
tinually stirring up theological strife.2
Although the first act in the drama of Port-Royal persecu
tion and controversy may be called the publication of the
Augustinus in 1640, the Book of the Frequent Communion was
destined to create the excuse to the enemies of the Jansenists
for a more personal attack on Port-Royal itself, and it marks
the beginning of that era of persecution on the part of the
enemies of the Jansenists, of evasion on the part of the perse
cuted, signalled by Arnauld's flight in 1644, which was now
to continue almost unbrokenly to the end. It was this book,
however, which earned for Antoine Arnauld the title of
1 When St. Cyran died, his Abbey in Brenne was coveted on all sides,
enemies contesting that it ought not to be given to a Jansenist. Yet in spite
of opposition it was finally presented to De Barcos. On the new Abbe going
to thank Anne of Austria for the gift, she exclaimed :
" Eh, what would M. d'Andilly have said if I had given it to another ? "
(Pierre Thomas du Fosse, Memoires, i. p. 130).
2 Sainte-Beuve thus describes M. de Barcos : " He was of medium height,
we are told, with refined physiognomy, a gravity and seriousness adapted
to affright demons. ..." (Port-Royal, ii. p. 222). According to P&re Rapin,
De Barcos's own opinion of Arnauld was that he had mind, but too much
commerce with the world, even asserting that Arnauld was too dissipated
and -too much given to society (Mtmoires, i. p. 35).

124 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Champion of Jansenism. Accordingly, the modern unim-
passioned verdict calls the book itself
" a temperate and just exposition of the faith of Jansenius
and St. Cyran, unspoiled by quibbles of scholastic dispute." x
Its result — as first skirmish in the battle — may thus be
considered a victory for the Jansenists, for by this second
example of the Letter of their Law the disciples of Jansenius
and St. Cyran really convinced the world at large not only of
the sacredness of the Sacraments, but of the fact that a true
Christian should not approach them lightly.2
1 Strowski, Pascal et son Temps, i. p. 281.
2 In 1686 Arnauld himself wrote : " Ce qui est certain, c'est que le plus
celebres predicateurs, mgme Jesuites, se font honneur maintenant de louer
en chaire le delai de l'absolution pour les peches mortels d'habitude, . . . et
qu'il n'y en a plus qui osent parler contre " (see CEuvres).

CHAPTER VIII
IMMEDIATE EFFECT OF THE " BOOK OF THE
FREQUENT COMMUNION " ON PORT-ROYAL
" II y a une justice des oeuvres, il y a une justice de la grace; l'une vient
de l'homme, l'autre vient de Dieu ; l'une est terrestre et passagfire,
l'autre est divine et eternelle ; l'une est l'ombre et le signe, l'autre est
la lumidre et la verite. L'une fait connaitre le peche pour fuir la mort,
l'autre fait connaitre la grace pour acquerir la vie "
WHATEVER the literary merits or defects of the Fre
quent Communion, in itself it was epoch-making
in more than Jansenist circles. Read not only by
theologians, but by all classes of society, its immediate effect
was inspiring. For, in making clear the letter of their belief,
it threw into relief the beauty of the practice of the Spirit
by the men who had voluntarily exiled themselves from the
delights of the world. Others yearned to follow their pre
cedent,1 and among the many drawn to Port-Royal by the
Book of the Frequent Communion there were, strangely enough,
converts not only from the military and leisure classes, but
that most valuable profession of all, medicine. As Mere
Angelique wrote M. Hamon : 2
" After the great gift of a perfect confessor, there is nothing
more important than that of a truly Christian physician, who
expresses in all his actions and words the holy maxims of
Christianity." The first Doctor of Medicine to be attracted to the Desert
1 " Those who had offices, quitted them. Those who had benefices,
renounced them. They despoiled themselves of everything, without reserving
anything for the future ; and what is very remarkable, they despoiled them
selves thus to go into an asylum from which a blast of wind might chase
them, leaving them thereafter no retreat" (Fontaine, Mtmoires, i. p. 308).
2 In August 1658. 125

126 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
by the Letter|of the Jansenist Law was a certain M. Victor
Pallu, Seigneur of Breau in Touraine, and belonging to the
Faculty of Medicine in Paris. A witness to the death of
his distinguished patient, the Comte de Soissons, on the
field of battle in 1641, Dr. Pallu had already resolved
to reform his life, when his determination was strengthened
by the sight of St. Cyran on his death-bed. Called in in
his capacity of physician during the last seizure of the
Abbe, M. Pallu stood by while for an hour after the
Extreme Unction had been administered St. Cyran lay
there in complete repose of body, employing his mind,
which was as keen as ever, in thanking God for the graces
shown him. At the expiration of the hour apoplexy again
struck the patient, and soon afterward he expired. To the
doctor, looking on, that respite seemed nothing short of
miraculous,1 and with this vision in his mind he too read
the Book of Frequent Communion, and resolved to go down
to the solitude of Port-Royal des Champs.2
On arriving at the monastery, Dr. Pallu said to Le
Maitre that he wished to spend some five or six days there.
With a smile Le Maitre replied to the effect that if it
was not God who sent him, he would remain even less than
the time which now seemed so lengthy, but that if he had
been sent by the Lord he would stay longer.3
Le Maitre's words were prophetical, for Dr. Pallu never
again left Port - Royal des Champs. Building a little
dwelling within the garden of the Abbey, he ensconced
himself therein, and at once began his excellent offices to
the community by writing a treatise on the salutary
qualities of the laugh, the pleasure of which he did not
think it necessary on his conversion to deprive himself. It
seems that at thirty-seven years of age he had come to
dread what he called " the silence of God " — that is, the
sweetness of life undisturbed by the severe tests of dis
appointment and sorrow. It was his hatred of sin, he
1 " Dr. Pallu attributed this good interval he had had to a kind of
miracle, asserting that it was a thing almost without example" (Lancelot,
Mtmoires, i. p. 249).
2 " On n'a que soi-mSme a craindre dans la Solitude, au lieu que dans le
monde, tout est & craindre" (Hamon, Traiti de la Solitude, p. 59).
8 See Recueil de Plusieurs Pitces pour servir a I'Histoire de Port-Royal,
p. 189.

EFFECT OF " BOOK OF FREQUENT COMMUNION " 127
said, which compeUed him "to yield to the only privation
of penitence which was difficult for him — the relinquishment
of the companionship of dear friends.1
As assistant and aide-de-camp, Dr. Pallu had a certain
M. Moreau, also a Doctor of Medicine from the Faculty of
Paris, who, although by profession healer of bodily ills, was
unable to cure his own spiritual disease. M. Moreau's stay at
Port-Royal was but short, yet its remembrance must have
haunted him, for several years afterwards he returned for a
retreat of fifteen days, and while there, strange to say, Death
came and fetched him away.
Among the scholars and members of the Sorbonne who
were aroused to a keener sense of the science they were study
ing by their brother doctor's (Arnauld) book, was a gentle
man from Poitou called M. Baudri de Saint-Gilles d'Asson,
who on reading the Frequent Communion had already com
pleted three years of his education at the Sorbonne. Re
nouncing the completion of his degree, this gentleman retired
at once to Les Granges, where at the other end of the garden
from le Petit Pallu he built a little house covered with thatch,
which the Solitaires gaily called Le Palais Saint-Gilles. At
first M. de St. Gilles wished to take up the joiner's trade,
but he eventually drifted into that of farmer, and soon
became the Solitaires' Agent in business affairs outside
the monastery.2 On his visits to the world beyond the con
vent gates he found it more convenient to wear a sword like
other cavaliers,3 and it was a joy to him to be in the thick
of all kinds of plots and counter-plots, so much so that it was
not long before his clever analytical mind might have been
detected at the bottom of every pleasant contretemps that
happened between the so-called Jansenists and the agents
1 Suppltment au Ntcrologe de I'Abbaie de Port-Royal des Champs. Lettre
de M. Pallu a un de ses amis sur sa Retraite a Port-Royal des Champs, p. 243.
" Face le Mieux qui pourra," said M. Pallu, " pour moi je me contente de
faire le Bien."
2 Fontaine in his Mtmoires (ii. pp. 352—355) speaks with great admiration
of M. de Saint-Gilles : "He was a man fit for anything. ... He was the
consolation of M. Singlin through the journeys which he undertook ; that of
M. de Saci through his negotiations ; that of his friends through his kind
deeds ; and if I dare say so, that of the angels through the penitence which
he carried to extremes."
8 Memoire de M. de Pontchateau on M. St. Gilles d'Asson in the Suppltment
au Ntcrologe de Port-Royal, pp. 68-71.

128 THE ENTHUSIASTS QF PORT-ROYAL
of the King. When active work was over, and he was back
again in the monastery, his austerities were doubly severe. M.
de Sainte-Marthe, giving in the Necrologe a very fine account
of this singular Solitaire's history, analysed his faults to have
been on the outside — his heart being the purest part.
" His charity was like flaming gold, which rendered him
rich in the eyes of God,"
says the Eulogist. Then, being a Friend of the Truth, the
writer added :
" Walking in the dust, his feet at least were a bit covered
with it." 1
Du Fosse most graphically describes the arrival at Port-
Royal of another gentleman from Poitou, M. de la Petitiere,
reputed to be the best swordsman in France :
" He was a lion rather than a man," said he ; " fire issued
from his eyes, and his glance alone frightened those who
looked at him." 2 ^
God had aroused the soul of this man of war by a salutary
fear. It seems that, having fought a duel with a kinsman
of Richelieu, he killed his adversary, receiving at the same
time a sword-thrust in his back, the point of the sword remain
ing there, too firmly embedded to be extracted with anything
smaller than a smith's pincers. Fleeing to escape Richelieu's
wrath, De la Petitiere was seized with a horror of his crimes,
and, having heard of M. de St. Cyran and the Book of the
Frequent Communion, found a way to retire to Port-Royal
des Champs, not definitely, however, until he had learned the
trade of a shoemaker, living incognito for this purpose with
a cobbler near by. During his apprenticeship he was in
the habit of looking after the children of the vicinity, taking
them to hear the services, and reading aloud to them the
Scripture and the Lives of the Saints.
His apprenticeship over, his master was so pleased that
he wished to keep his assistant permanently, offering La
Petitiere a good salary to remain, but the best swordsman
in France preferred to retire to Port-Royal des Champs,
where he contented himself with the humble task of making
boots for the nuns. That he did so, is probably what
1 P« 77' * Mtmoires, p. 125.

EFFECT OF " BOOK OF FREQUENT COMMUNION " 129
induced the Jesuits, hearing of the labours of the Solitaires in
all directions, and being jealous of their spirituality, to mock
at them, calling them Sabotiers, asserting that to learn to
make sabots one should go to Port-Royal. As a matter
of fact, although the Solitaires were not too proud to
undertake any kind of work, they did not make wooden
shoes, the wood of the country not being adapted to
their manufacture. Not long after the publication of the
Book of the Frequent Communion, M. d'Andilly finally
fulfilled the last wish of St. Cyran, and retired definitely
from the "world of which he was such an ornament. On
going to take leave of the Queen-Mother, he begged her not
to believe the story of the Sabots.
" If," he said, " your Majesty should hear that the Soli
taires cultivate the growing of fruit on walls, it is true, and
I shall hope to induce you to eat some of the product of their
espaliers." 1
Some people were malicious enough to say that it was un
satisfied ambition which drove Mere Angelique's brother into
the arms of Port-Royal.2 And certainly, although he had
filled important positions at Court, being associated with the
Intendant of Finances, Intendant General in the household of
Gaston d'Orleans, and then called from his retirement at
Pomponne, like Cincinnatus of old, to become Intendant to
the Armies of the Rhine, Robert d'Andilly had greater
certainty of shining at Port-Royal, where he could act as the
chief of a powerful party. Unquestionably he had a touch
of worldliness in his character, which caused him to wish to
shine even in religious circles, yet he too believed most firmly
in the necessity of the action of Divine Grace.
Yet speaking of his friend, St. Cyran had said :
" It is true he has not the virtue of an anchorite or of a
saint, but I know no man of his condition so solidly virtuous." 8
And he too must have experienced conversion on
entering Port-Royal, for he acknowledged that it was
1 Du Fosse, Mtmoires, i. pp. 131- 134.
'Biographical Notice preceding the Michaud and Poujoulat edition of
Mtmoires d'Andilly.
8 Lettre du Fevrier, 1642.

130 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
grace and not human persuasion which touches the heart of
sinners.1 The story is told that one day in M. d'Andilly's presence
somebody, apropos of the Frequent Communion, expressed
surprise that a young man like Antoine Arnauld, then thirty-
two, who had hardly left the schools and with no knowledge
of the world, could have written so well and so gracefully.
M. d'Andilly replied that there was no occasion for astonish
ment, his brother having
" simply spoken the language of his house."
This remark was greatly a matter of family loyalty, for at the
bottom M. d'Andilly was at the antipodes from the youngest
Arnauld both in literature and the letter of his religion. In
literature he belonged to the style of the previous century,
which was essentially polite and polished, grandiloquent
and panegyrical, while Antoine went to the extreme of direct
ness and accuracy. The two differed also in a feeling of
delicacy. M. d'Andilly having made promises to the Court
for himself and others, was outraged that Antoine would not
keep them, and disliking publicity, Antoine on the contrary
wished all the world to hear his criticisms and declarations of
faith. Some rather hard words passed between the brothers
in this connection.
M. d'Andilly's " Peres des Deserts " — a translation of the
lives by different authors of the various hermits and solitaires
of the Thel>a'ide of Syria — written shortly after entering Port-
Royal, furnishes the writer's true criticism of his brother's
work, and while revising and correcting the formidable
qualities of the Book of the Frequent Communion, it also
aided its effect from the standpoint of gentleness and
edification. Instead of using dogma to enforce his ideas of
the utility of penitence and religion, M. d'Andilly tried to
convince by citation of example and persuasion. He was not
a profound theologian like Arnauld, but his style, by its charm
and simplicity, probably appealed to quite as many hearts
as did the sterner rigorism of his younger brother.
Fifty-seven years of age when he retired to Port-Royal,
for twenty-eight years M. d'Andilly's personality lent a
glamour of elegance and politeness to the aridity and barren-
1 Lettre a une Religieuse, 15 Mai 1640,

ROBERT ARNAULD D'ANDILLY
FROM AN ENGRAVING BY JACQUES LUBIN

EFFECT OF " BOOK OF FREQUENT COMMUNION " 131
ness of the Desert. With all his accustomed enthusiasm
he threw himself I into the life of the Solitaires, in which he
was even the means of interesting such men of letters as
Gomberville, Chapelain, etc. Yet he did not confine himself
to literary and devotional pursuits, he was also of practical
benefit, and it was mainly through his efforts that the " vallon
affreux " was eventually turned into a Thebaide, for with
an excess of enthusiasm which reacted to the financial detri
ment of his heir, the Abbe" Arnauld, he used his own fortune
toward the transforming of the pestilential marsh of the
valley Yvette into a well-drained land. On his retirement
this generous Solitaire had given his eldest son only enough
money to keep him for a twelvemonth. The son, realizing
his father's peculiarities, fortunately took his own loss of
patrimony philosophically, saying :
" His more than liberal humour did not quit him in the
Desert ; he had need of all that he had left to satisfy it, and
it was for me to retrench." x
In his later years, gardening being his special joy,
Jansenism as translated by M. d'Andilly, was but one long
pastoral idyll. Most of his time was spent out of doors,
and here again his hobby was turned to both practical and
ambitious uses. Soon becoming famed for the monster fruits
he grew — "fruits Units," Mazarin called them — we read of his
sending specimens of his art and labour to the Court, and
of distinguished members thereof paying him visits in return.
That the whole Court held him in consideration is shown
"jy the fact that when Cardinal Richelieu was thinking of
aaving St. Cyran arrested, and after the resolution to do so
had been made between him, Pere Joseph, and M. Desnoyers,
they could not help saying among themselves t

But what will M. d'Andilly say

? " 2

His credit with the Queen-Mother was well-known. In
addition to a naturally pious inclination proceeding from her
education under the Spanish Jesuits, Anne of Austria had been
forced into a more serious consideration of the things of the
other world, through Richelieu's animosity and the consequent
1 L'Abbe Arnauld, Mtmoires (Petitot), p. 221.
2 Lancelot, Mtmoires, i. p. 90,

T32 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
ill-will of Louis xm. Thus in the crisis of her own peril, when
suspected by Richelieu of treason to France in the matter of
Spain, she had retired to a convent, and herself transferred
the famous ninth century monastery of Val de Grace to the
Rue St. Jacques, not far from Port-Royal de Paris and the
Carmelites. In 1645 the first stone of the imposing church
of the new Val de Grace was just being laid. Therefore, in
the Jansenist quarrel just beginning, it was not strange that
Anne of Austria should have been heated against those
accused of infidelity to the power she had been taught all her
life to venerate, the Papacy. " Fie ! Fie ! the Grace ! " she
said in contemptuous tones. On his part Cardinal Mazarin
expressed it openly as his opinion that the very women who
were making such an ado about the whole matter understood
no more of it than he did ! 2
But whatever they thought of the other Messieurs and the
doctrines of Port-Royal in general, both Anne of Austria and
Mazarin always had the utmost respect and friendship for
M. d'Andilly. His memory restrained them in many things
they might have done.
" The Queen," said Mazarin, " is admirable in the affairs
of the Jansenists. When one speaks in general, she wishes
they might all be exterminated, but when it is proposed to
her to ruin several, and that one must begin with M. d'Andilly,
she at once exclaims that they are too fine people, and too good
subjects of the King." a
1 Madame de Motteville, Mtmoires.
2 Gerberon, Histoire du Jansinisme, tome ii. p. 377.

CHAPTER IX
I THE PETITES ECOLES OF PORT-ROYAL
I. History, Masters, and Methods
" Sans l'utile secours de 1'education,
C'est en vain que l'eclat d'une haute puissance
Est jointe a plus d'un million." Pannard
IN Savoy, on the borders of France and Italy, where
the Alps seem to reach up almost to the sky, lies the
old town of Annecy. Here, during the year 1603, on
fete days and Sundays, the Savoyards grew accustomed to
seeing a young man dressed in a cassock going about the streets
sounding a bell and crying :
" A la doctrine Chrestienne, a la doctrine Chrestienne !
On vous enseignera le chemin de Paradis I "
Round the herald's neck was a placard bearing the words
" Jesus " and " Marie " written in letters of gold, and the en
ticing invitation came from St. Francois de Sales, Bishop of
Geneva, resident at Annecy, who, with the idea of educating
the people of his diocese in the Church catechism, began by
teaching the children the principles of the faith.
An hour after the herald had thus poetically announced
the class the holy Bishop would mount into his pulpit, and
there, raised a few feet above them, expound to his little
audience the grave questions of Church doctrine "familiarly,"
as his biographer tells us, himself becoming a child again.1
The theology of Jansenius and St. Cyran gave them a
peculiar outlook on education. It was a stern and uncom
promising doctrine indeed that could, in an inexorable carrying
out of the strictest dogmas of the faith, condemn to eternal
J Louis de la Rividre, Vie de St. Francois de Sales, p. 442.
«33

134 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
damnation innocent infants dying without baptism. Other
parties in the Church ignored the letter of this law, but not so
Cornelius Janssen. He held to it, as to other ancient prin
ciples, with the tenacity of the unflinching moralist he was.
Yet neither of the two men had been oblivious of the fact that
if their theories of reform were to be permanent in influence
they must be imprinted on the pliant mind of the young.
Thus, one of the most characteristic developments of the
whole system of Jansenism was its training of youth, and the
Petites Ecoles were founded with the desire, not so much of
gaining Heaven, as of avoiding Hell. They were peculiarly
the creation of St. Cyran,1 whose aim was to keep these little
ones in the state of innocence and holiness in which Baptism
had placed them.
Before his imprisonment the Abbe" had himself begun the
work of teaching by the education of two nephews of his own,
with whom he associated Jerome and Thierry Bignon, sons
of the Advocate-General of France, afterward adding to these
pupils two other boys. With the recluses also, almost from
the moment of their retirement at Port-Royal de Paris, the
pedagogic element had always been present, and Lancelot tells
us that at that early time there had been a few pupils both
within and without the monastery. In the progress of these
young people, and especially the outside class, St Cyran
naturally took a great interest, but again, unlike St Francois,
there was no tenderness in his treatment of them. For him the
word " Charity " did not spell love, but stern, implacable duty.
Moreover, albeit sincerely fond of children, he could not, in
justice to the tenets of his faith, think otherwise than his friend.
" The Devil," he said, " goes the rounds without, attacking
children. They do not fight him, so one must combat him
for them." Thus he was ever intent on the terrible task of defeating
Nature in its effort to corrupt their innocence.
1 In a letter to M. de Rebours from Vincennes (Ntcrologe, ii. p. 46), St.
Cyran exclaimed : " I wish you could read in my heart the affection I bear,
children. ... I had made the design of building a house which would have
been like a seminary for the Church, in order to preserve there the innocence
of children, without which I realize better every day that it is difficult for
them to become good priests (clercs). . . . This design was ruined by my
imprisonment."

THE PETITES ECOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 135
As early as 1643 we read of three young Du Fosses, to
gether with an Arnauld d'Andilly called Villeneuve, and two
Bignons, being sent under the guidance of Singlin down to
Port-Royal des Champs. Pierre Thomas du Fosse, who
followed the vicissitudes of the schools throughout their
troubled and migratory history, describes the feelings of him
self and his comrades in seeing the Desert.1 The sight of the
old monastery, situated in a wild spot with mountains nearly
falling on its head, its pond stagnant, its gardens covered with
rubbish, full of weeds, the ruined buildings teeming with vipers,
filled the lads with loneliness and despair.
During the year of their stay at Port-Royal des Champs
this loneliness was much mitigated by the delight of frequent
walks with Le Maitre and Sericourt, whom they adored. But
the really bright side of the picture of the life of these boys
in the Desert brings us back to the fine old Abbey Church,
from which the white habits and quiet presence of the gentle
nuns had so long been absent. On Sundays and fete days
Mass was said here in all formality, and De Selles, a clever
preceptor in every way, but especially skilled in music, led
his pupils in the chanting of the Canticles. Their religious
instructor was M. de Bascle, the text-book of devotion,
St. Cyran's Theologie Familiere, written at the request of
M. Bignon for his two sons. At this time the precepts the
tutors wished most to instil into their pupils' minds were :
" The fear of God, the shunning of sin, and a very great
horror of lying."
But theological questions, such as free-will, predestination, etc.,
were never less discussed than in their midst.2
Still the boys were not sorry when the storm following the
appearance of the Book of the Frequent Communion caused them
to be sent to Chesnai, a little village only a quarter of a league
from Versailles, whence after six months they returned to
Port Royal des Champs. It had now become evident, however,
that no real education could be given under such desultory con
ditions. To promote genuine zeal and enthusiasm for study,
both consecutive regular work and emulation were essential,
so as the nuns were now thinking of returning to Port-Royal
des Champs, and the atmosphere of Paris for the time less
1 Mtmoires, i. pp. 60-61. 2 Du Fosse, Mtmoires, i. p. ioo.

136 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
inimical, in 1648 the pupils were transferred to Paris. On
removal there, the schools were inaugurated in a large and
commodious mansion situated in the Rue Cul de Sac St.
Dominique de l'Enfer in the St. Jacques quarter. Formerly
the property of M. Lambert, brother-in-law of M. Arnauld's
host during the storm of the Frequent Communion, this house
had a large court, as well as a spacious and delightful garden.
Four roomy chambers were made into class-rooms, and one
master with his six pupils installed in each. And with this
translation to the great city, three years after the death of
their originator, the history of the Petites Ecoles really begins.
Then they were first organized, and received a distinct character
of their own.
The first and most important matter was to find instructors
who combined capacity, discretion and disinterestedness with
godliness. In a letter to M. de Rebours from Vincennes,
St. Cyran had given definite expression to his belief that
as children needed constant supervision, no one preceptor
should have more than six pupils under his charge. Strange
to say, this same theory had previously been advocated by
no less a person than Erasmus in his Traitesur le Manage
Chretien :
" Thus," he said, " one procures a life in common at an
age when gaiety and pleasure are quite proper, and at the
same time the attention of the preceptor may rest on each
individual child. In short, one easily avoids the corruption
born of too large a number."
This fact was borne in mind in arranging class rooms, etc.,
and the four teachers who first took up the charge —
Lancelot, Nicole, Guyot, and Coustel, with M. Walon de
Beaupuis at their head, were striking examples of homely
piety and holiness. They were preceptors rather than pro
fessors ; and in their intercourse with these young spirits
there was no familiarity, for in the child they honoured
" innocence and the Holy Spirit which dwelt therein."
Indeed there might have been written over the door of this
house the motto :
" Vigilance, respect for childhood, parental tenderness."1
1 Du Fosse, Mtmoires, i. p. 165.

THE PETITES ECOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 137
No preceptor was ever more honoured and loved than the
Director of the schools, M. Walon de Beaupuis ; and if on
their part the pupils adored their master, he reciprocated their
affection by a lifelong devotion. On the destruction of the
Petites Ecoles, M. de Beaupuis was for some time associated
with Pascal in Paris, where he helped to educate the latter's
nephews, and was active in efforts to alleviate the persecutions
of the nuns. Being ordained priest six years afterward, he
went back to his native town of Beauvais, where, serving for
ten years in the Church, he become at last Superior of the
Seminary, where he in turn was followed by the hatred of
enemies of the Jansenists, losing his position, and being obliged
to retire quietly to his sister's house in Beauvais. Here he
lived twenty-nine years longer, carrying out as best he might
the austerities and habits of his early retreat at Port-Royal
des Champs.1 It was his custom to rise every day at four
o'clock, when he spent many hours in work on the Fathers
or the Apostles of the Church. When reading he always
stood at a high desk, sitting down only to write. His room
was never heated, even in the coldest winters, and the only
recreation he ever allowed himself was a short visit each
summer to Port-Royal des Champs, there to renew the good
influences he had originally imbibed. Until the latter part
of his life, he made this journey on foot and fasting. He
died at the age of eighty-seven, the very year of the destruction
of Port-Royal (1709).
The salient quality of Claude Lancelot, an ideal pedagogue,
was simplicity. He possessed, moreover, says M. Jules Le-
maitre,2 two gifts of the spirit: tears and laughter. Unfortun
ately, Lancelot lacked altogether the qualities of leadership.
His was naturally always the second, never the first place.
Posterity is grateful to him for the writing of memoirs which
depict especially the life and character of M. de St. Cyran,
his admiration and model in all things. To Lancelot, St.
Cyran divulged most fully his ideas on education, and it was
Lancelot's mind too which ably and surely worked out those
methods of study which have made the permanent fame
of the Petites Ecoles. Although assisted by Nicole, De
1 Supplement au Ntcrologe, pp. 365-388. Nicole said that the hfe of
M. de Beaupuis was in itself a kind of miracle.
2 Jean Racine, p. 15.

138 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Saci, Arnauld, and even Pascal, to him were due in reality
the series of text-books called Les Methodes de Port-
Royal, not printed for the most part until after the
destruction of the schools, but practically worked and
tested throughout the fifteen years of their existence.
These methods consisted in Latin, Greek, Italian, and Spanish
Grammars. Opinions differ much with regard to Pierre Nicole, who, called
in soon after the foundation of the schools to assist Lancelot, was
so much admired by Madame de Sevigne that to her daughter
she spoke of him as " tout divin," and declared that she wished
she could make a bouillon of one of his Moral Essays and
swallow it ! The historian Louis Veufllot calls him " the
coldest, greyest, heaviest, and most insupportable of all the
bores of a boring community." Yet, if his books were dull,
Nicole himself was one of the most peculiar and interesting
of the Port -Royalists. A prodigy in Greek and Latin, at the
age of fourteen Nicole had been able to explain the great
writers of both languages. Sent to Paris for a course in
philosophy, he made acquaintance with the Solitaires, who,
when the Petites Ecoles were started, gave him the class from
which issued Angran, Tillemont, and finally Racine himself.
That Nicole was the master of the great poet, constitutes,
said Mersan,1 his best claim to the remembrance of
posterity. Nicole's manner of teaching his pupils the Humanities
was first to familiarize them with Quintilian, Cicero, Virgil,
and the Art Poetique of Horace, pointing out passages parti
cularly capable of forming the mind and fixing the attention,
after which he would impress upon them the first rules for the
Art of Thinking. In all cases, Nicole's pupils were free to
ask questions and inaugurate discussion, and his simple
methods of teaching were perfectly in accord with the prin
ciples of the Petites Ecoles in general.
Of Guyot, little is known ; and, as he is not noticed in the
Necrologe, we conclude that this fourth master of the Petites
Ecoles was in reality one of those weak souls who did not
persevere — nay, even worse — that he went over to the stronger
side. For in 1666, in an inscription of one of his books,
Epitre dSdicatoire au Comte de Montaubon, he seems to have
1 Introduction to Penstes de Nicole, p. 16.

THE PETITES ECOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 139
eulogized the rival college of Claremont (now Lycee Louis le
Grand) as
" that celebrated school which piety dedicated to science and
virtue I"1
After leaving Port-Royal, Guyot was attached to the Uni
versity at Paris, and had relations with many distinguished
people. He died thirty-two years later.
Coustel, on the contrary, was of a faithful and truly pious
nature, his countryman M. de Beaupuis being his model.
His life was spent in the quiet paths of the scholar and Chris
tian, his Regies de V education des Enfants, written after the
destruction of the Ecoles, being his only step into publicity.
Otherwise, his hght was hidden in tbe silence of the un
obtrusive. Besides these masters, in the early days there was also a
M. le Feure, whom Du Fosse" extols as
" gentle, honest, of a noble nature, and much elevated above
the common." 2
This man, of rounded powers, was a good humanist, a clever
philosopher, a learned theologian, and accomplished as an
historian. Also conversant with astronomy, he knew some
thing of medicine from the botanical point of view.
A renowned associate of Ces Messieurs, and one of the best
teachers of the Petites Ecoles, was the memoirist, Nicolas
Fontaine. Losing his father, a writing-master of Paris, when
he was very young, the boy was brought up by the Cure" of
St. Merry, who finally took him, a youth of nineteen, to Port-
Royal des Champs, where, joining the Solitaires, he at once
showed himself their humble friend, always ready to do their
bidding in merging his own individuality. Becoming a tutor
at the schools, he in his turn was directed by De Saci, who
impregnated the younger man with his own peculiar theories
with regard to education, saying to his disciple that if he (De
Saci) were free to dispose of his time, he would gladly become
the principal director of
" these little souls, in whom it is sometimes more necessary
to combat the enemy than in the largest.'' 3
1 Magazin Encyclopidique, Aug. 1813, "Guyot et ses (Euvres," Barbier.
2 Mtmoires, i. p. 167.
3 Fontaine, Mtmoires, ii. p. 55.

140 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
According to his own account, Fontaine taught Cicero and
Virgil. The later history of this, De Saci's devoted friend and
fellow-prisoner of the Bastille, reminds one of the Solitaires'
universal custom, due both to modesty and prudence, of dis
guising their identity under fictitious names. On becoming
the secretary of De Saci, Fontaine not only loses his individual
ity in that of his greater master, but disappears entirely under
a variety of cognomens. Neither a very good theologian
nor a skilled Hellenist, his Memoires are a most valuable
contribution to the history of Port-Royal. In his day, they
were not so appreciated as they are now. They were then
considered to have " neither order, chronology, nor continued
narration." Sainte-Beuve's judgment, on the contrary, classes
them very high.
" Fontaine," he says, " tells us more in a few pages than
Racine in the whole of his elegant Abrege. . . . The senti
ment of these solitary lives breathes in them ; we hear Pascal
and de Saci talk, we see d'Andilly smilingly rise and come
toward us the length of his espaliers in bloom." x
The ideal of the system of training to be pursued at the
Petites Ecoles was threefold. The first design was expressed
by an article written by M. de Sainte-Marthe in the Necrologe
of Port-Royal, wherein the primary object in the estabhsbing
was expressly stated to be the raising of young people in the
fear of God. Pointing out the dangers to which in other
colleges and schools youth is subject, M. de Sainte-Marthe goes
on to lament the fact that, seeing this menace, no one was
striving to prevent it, there being nothing in the world in which
people seemed so little interested as man's perdition.2
The second ideal brings us to the purely literary side of the
movement. This had for its foundation a very great, if hidden,
ambition : that of polishing and humanizing men of letters.3
The third ideal was the production not merely of scientists
and grammarians, but men !
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. pp. 468-588.
2 Ntcrologe de I'Abbaie de Port-Royal des Champs, ii. p. 48.
8 Hallam says (Literature of Europe, ii. p. 273) : " Before the Jansenists,
the Jesuits had long been conspicuously the classical scholars of France.
In their colleges, the purest and most elegant Latinity was supposed to be
found. The Jansenists appeared ready at one time to wrest this palm from
their inveterate foes."

THE PETITES ECOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 141
In the Petites Ecoles, reform in teaching was logically
begun with primary education, and initiated in that first step
in the acquirement of knowledge, the alphabet. Seeing little
children knitting their brows and biting their lips in their
efforts to spell, Pascal set his great mind to thinking out a
way to help them in their difficulties. That he succeeded in
the opinion of Port-Royal, is shown by the fact that at a crisis
in his history Arnauld himself — on the very day, indeed, after
the Sorbonne had pronounced its last sentence against him,
and he had fled into hiding — wrote to his niece, Mere Angelique
de St. Jean :
" You will smile at what gives me occasion to write you.
There is a little boy here of about twelve years who cannot
read. I would like to try if he might not learn by M. Pascal's
method. This is why I beg you to finish what you have
already begun, and put it in writing, and send it to us." 1
Pascal's method was very similar to the phonetic system used
to-day, and consisted in a combination of consonants with
vowels and diphthongs, avoiding harsh and difficult sounds in
spelling. Once having settled this initial difficulty, the next advance
was made by teaching children to read, not as formerly in
Latin, which took two or three years, but in their own tongue.
They were then given good French translations of the best
classical authors, prepared by Ces Messieurs, who at the same
time took care to expurgate anything that might corrupt the
innocence of youth. Thus, the pupils not only learned to be
familiar with subjects of which they were later to read more
in their Latin books, but also to themselves speak correctly.
After this grounding in their own, the study of other
languages was the next step in their evolution, and here too
French was used for rules and explanations — an innovation
in the method of education of that day. The text-books
excelled in lucidity, good arrangement, and erudition, and for
the first time the so-called " natural " method of study was
introduced 2 on the lines of modern inductive method.
1 Letter of Jan. 31, 1656.
2 The following eulogy was paid the Methods of Port-Royal by Barbier,
an otherwise anti-Jansenist writer : " Up to to-day enough emphasis has
not been put on the services rendered to the French language and to public
instruction by the establishment of the Petites Ecoles of Port-Royal ... it
is to the mode of teaching followed in these schools that we owe methods in

142 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Although Lancelot's Latin Grammar was alleged to have
eclipsed every previous work of the kind, his Greek Grammar
was, according to competent critics, even finer, and by some
considered the best work of its author. Lancelot was also
in a measure responsible for a more important book than
either the Greek or Latin Grammar. This was the " General
Grammar," an outcome of talks with Arnauld on the subject
of the formation of the art of speaking. Struck with the
learned Doctor's reasoning, Lancelot induced him to dictate
the matter during his leisure hours.
The General Grammar leads naturally up to the Logic,
the most celebrated of the Port-Royal pedagogic attempts,
and that which has, perhaps, the greatest value to-day.1
When they came to write the Logic, or the Art of Thinking,
Ces Messieurs undoubtedly sought the advice of Pascal ; and
not only were his reflections on the geometrical method used,
but his Art de Persuader, founded on
" the knowledge of aU that passes in the innermost parts of
man, and which he scarcely ever knows "
was added.
The real foundation of the Logic was Descartes' Discours
de la Methode ; and, divided into four parts, it considers the
operations of the mind under the four aspects of conception,
judgment, reasoning, and ordination. FoUowing Descartes,
it tries to prove that all ideas do not come from the senses,
but that there are some absolutely independent of any images.
In this book the ambition of Ces Messieurs took a great
leap, and aimed at accomplishing no less a task than that of
forming men ! In later years, Jean Jacques Rousseau, the
most famous of educators, expressed the same object :
" Whether one destines my pupil for the sword, the Church,
or the Bar, it matters little. . . . Nature calls him to human
life ; to live is the trade that I wish to teach him. In leaving
my hands, he will not be, I acknowledge, either magistrate,
soldier or priest ; primarily, he will be a man." 2
the study of the languages of Greek and Latin which to-day hold the first
rank among productions of this kind" (Magazin Encyclopidique, Aug. 1813).
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 542. 2 Emile, i. p. n.

CHAPTER X
THE PETITES ECOLES OF PORT-ROYAL
II. End, Results, and Pupils
" Rien n'est plus difficile que de se proportionner a P esprit des enfants ; et
c'est avec raison que Montaigne a dit que c'est 1'effet d'une &me forte et
bien elevee de se pouvoir accommoder a ces allures pueriles." NicotE, Penstes
BY this time their innovations in the method of study
had become noised abroad, and their success — notably
the fact that Lancelot's Latin method, dedicated to the
King, was used in Louis xiv's education — made many enemies
for the pedants of Port-Royal. These enemies, who, as a
writer in the Necrologe naively said, always wished to be the
only ones to do good,1 now plotted their ruin and extinction,
and in 1648 a visit was made to the Rue St. Dominique de
l'Enfer by the Lieutenant Civil to spy out the ground. For
tunately, he found nothing suspicious, but, shortly after the
beginning of the Fronde, Paris being thought untenable,
Le Feure's class was taken to the town of Magny, near Port-
Royal des Champs, where the pious cure of the placed M.
Retard, aided in the teaching. Here they stayed six months,
until the death of Le Feure, when they removed to Les Granges.
The next occurrence to disturb work in the schools was
the Second War of the Fronde, which necessitated various
changes of domicile, and brought joy to the souls of the lads
who were young enough to enjoy the excitement surrounding
them. Du Fosse describes in a lively manner the quartering
of a regiment of cavalry at Les Granges, and the devastation
the soldiers wrought in that quiet place, which they left more
like a stable than a Christian retreat.2
1 Suppltment au Ntcrologe, p. 61. * Mtmoires, i. p. 224.
143

144 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Indeed, from the time of leaving their Paris home, the
schools were a divided institution, obliged to take root
wherever they could. Interrupted, hounded, persecuted on
all sides, their only flourishing and stationary period had been
the short four years at the Rue St. Dominique. Besides the
principal branches at Les Granges and Chesnai, there were
several allied institutions at Trous, near Chevreuse, and at
Sevrans, near Livry, the masters in each case being of the
same stamp as the early ones, education proceeding under the
Port-Royal ideals.
Finally, the King's mind having become completely bisased
by the false and garbled reports of the association of many
dangerous persons together in these schools, he was induced
to issue an order commanding their dispersion. Before this
could be put into execution, however, an untoward event
happened which delayed the ruin for two years. As this
accident — most mortifying for the enemies of the Jansenists
in causing the death, at the College of Clermont, of no other
than the nephew of Mazarin, Alphonse Mancini — was due
solely to carelessness, the Jesuits were obhged, until the
effect should have been somewhat forgotten, to cease their
active campaign against the Petites Ecoles. It was not until
two years later the blow fell, and that the Lieutenant Civil
appearing at Chesnai, dispersed the last of the pupils.
To determine the practical success of the Petites Ecoles,
we must examine the product of this education : the students
themselves, who, after all, together with the Solitaires, make
up the " real " Port-Royal. These may, in general, be divided
into three classes :
First, those desultory ones, who seem almost to have
drifted into the institution by chance, and whose real history
touched very slightly on the later destiny of Port -Royal.
Secondly, sons of the true friends and benefactors of the
monastery, and put into the schools out of a sincere emotion
and enthusiasm on the part of the parents.
Thirdly, pupils who in themselves allied by spirit
and independent impulse, best embody the results of the
teaching.1 Among the sensational stories current concerning the
illustrious men who at one time or another visited Port-Royal's
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. pp. 468-588.

THE PETITES ECOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 145
pepiniere (nursery), as the Petites Ecoles have been called,
two stand out. One is that the Duke of Monmouth, natural
son of Charles 11, stayed for some time at^Chesnai under M. de
Beaupuis. He is said to have been brought to France at the
age of nine^and to have remained there two years, either at the
Acadeinie de Juilly or at Chesnai. |
The other story concerns another titled Englishman,
M. Stuart^d'Aubigny, son of the Duke of Lennox and Rich
mond. This young aristocrat was early taken to France,
and placed in the Petites Ecoles. On leaving the schools, his
career was full of incident. He became Canon of Notre-Dame,
and on the restoration of Charles 11 was made Grand Almoner
to the Queen of England. In the hfe of the Court and the
thick of important political affairs, he must have forgotten to
a great extent his early schooldays. In 1665, this man, whom
Sainte-Beuve depicts as the type of the amiable gentleman
of the seventeenth century, died at the moment he was about
to realize his life's ambition. For even as the courier of the
Pope was ringing at his door to bring him a Cardinal's hat,
he breathed his last sigh.
In the same category with these aristocratic offshoots of
Port-Royal, were Lancelot's later pupils, the young Due de
Chevreuse and the two Princes de Conti.
The roll of pupils of the second class begins with the name
of Bignon, and this family was connected with Port-Royal by
ties of worldly alliance and relationship, as opposed to the
Arnaulds, its " core and stem." Both Bignon boys had dis
tinguished careers, Jerome succeeding his father as Advocate-
General of France, Thierry occupying a no less important
position in the State : that of First President of the Grand
Conseil. Neither ever betrayed the principles of his education,
remaining faithful to Port-Royal to the end.
In the train of these lads followed a number of pupils,
who also became known in the service of the Law and the
State. To this second class too belonged the Periers,
Pascal's relations, Etienne, his nephew, being among the
pupils sent to Chesnai, and a member of the so-called
" Fourth Chamber," composed of all the best pupils, Racine
among the number.
M. Gentien Thomas du Foss<§, head of the pious family
of Rouen, which eventually came in a body under the influence
10

146 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
of St. Cyran and the other messieurs, had primarily gone to
Paris to see St. Cyran to complain of the conversion of the
Cure of his parish, entailing the loss of his spiritual guide,
and thus disturbing and angering him. On meeting the
Abbe, then just out of prison, M. Thomas was completely
won over :
" I thought I had come, sir," he said, " for my Cur6, but
I find it is for myself and my own salvation." 1
Returning to his home, this Maitre des Comptes at once made
an inventory of the goods he considered not legitimately
acquired, and of which he determined to dispossess himself,
after which, devoting his own existence to charity and
goodness, he sent three daughters and three sons to Port-
Royal to be educated. Pierre Thomas du Fosse, youngest
of the sons, was too modest to think of becoming a
priest, so he remained in the schools until their dispersion,
after which, as layman and scholar, he followed in the
train of the Solitaires, aiding them with his friendship and
sympathy, and sharing with them their exile and evil
fortunes. The history of Villeneuve, the younger son of Robert
d'Andilly, called the " Petit Jules," and one of Du Fosse's
greatest comrades in the Rue Cul de Sac St. Dominique, from
whom for ten long years he was inseparable, is rather pathetic.
Le Petit Jules was very clever, especially in genealogy and
heraldry, being also perfect in geography and history. Un
fortunately, obstinate like the rest of his race, this Arnauld
took it into his head that he must go into the army. And so,
just before the destruction of the schools, without regard to
the wishes of his father, or to his very unsatisfactory quality
of short-sightedness, which incapacitated him for leading
soldiers, he put his idea into execution, and was killed in his
first campaign. Some writers accuse his father, in permitting
this step, of having been his executioner. In reality, finding
his son bent on the project, M. d'Andilly probably agreed,
solely with the idea of stifling the lad's military taste by its
very indulgence . Had he lived, Villeneuve would undoubtedly
have returned to the piety taught him in the Petites Ecoles,
and thus swelled the list of the faithful Arnaulds.
1 Du Foss6, Memoires, i. p. 45 . ,

THE PETITES ECOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 147
Another comrade of Du Fosse was called Des Champs.
In the memoirist's own words :
" As our class was composed of the most advanced students,
we sent our challenges of emulation to each other. It was
M. Des Champs, a gentleman of the country of Caux, who
particularly excelled in this kind of combat, having a lively
and piquant mind, and a very fine poetical sense." x
Coming now to the third class, we find foremost among all
the serious pupils, Sebastien Le Nain de Tillemont, called the
type of the perfect pupil. His father, a Maitre des Requetes,
was the intimate friend of M. de Bernieres, and at the time
of the Fronde it was these two officials who issued from the
Palais de Justice in their robes of office to protect the nuns
of Port-Royal de Paris as they passed from the St. Jacques
Quarter to the Rue St. Andre des Arcs.
Tillemont was born at Paris in 1637, and at nine years of
age entered the Petites Ecoles. From the first, history was
the study which most delighted him. Nicole, his master in
logic, was much embarrassed by the questions of this pupil.
At first he tried to answer in two words as he would any other,
but finding that that would not do, he confessed that he
never saw Tillemont approach without trembling to think
that he might not be able to satisfy the boy's desire for know
ledge. Later on, by a singular irony of fate, when Nicole
himself was engaged in a difficult controversy, it was Tillemont
who came to the assistance of his former master with data
and arguments.
From the beginning, Tillemont found his particular voca
tion, and never left it. As he said one day to Marguerite
Perier, Pascal's niece, from the age of fourteen he had neither
read not studied anything, except as recreation, but what had
relation to ecclesiastical history. His whole life was devotion
to study to study's sake, and to religion.2 He never left
the straight but narrow path, and becoming a priest at the age
of forty, obliged after two years to leave the little house he
1 Mtmoires, i. p. 56.
2 " In your country house you were hke a town situated on a mountain,
like a lamp elevated on a chandelier, like a voice which cried from thence
that each one remain in his place, and that no one goes from his place through
impatience," said Fontaine of him (Mtmoires, ii. p. 70). ^

148 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
had btult within the walls^of Port-Royal des Champs just in
front of the church, he retired to his estate of Tillemont,
where he remained till his death.
All his days were alike, the only bright gleam being his
love for church music, which he not only understood perfectly,
but himself composed. Loving children, their cries in the
church did not shock him. On the contrary, he believed
their presence sanctified the holy place. At Port-Royal, he
loved to walk about the country, baton in hand, and if on
the road between Chevreuse and Port-Royal he met children,
he never failed to stop and talk to them. Encountering
shepherds or cowherds with their cattle, he spoke to them of
their souls.
" The soul," he explained, " is more excellent than the
sun, in fact the most beautiful thing in the world. But,"
he continued, thinking to inspire in these ignorant men a
horror of evil, " sin so disfigures the soul as to render it more
deformed than the most terrible beasts." x
The last words of Tillemont were in eulogy of one of
his fellow-pupils at the Petites Ecoles, and of the education
there received. In his will, he expressed the lively desire
to be buried beside the son of M. de Bernieres,
" with whom," he said, " God had united me, taking me
from the house of my father to give me an education for
which I shall bless Him in all eternity. . . . having been
raised by persons without ambition, who loved to serve God in
spirit and in truth, in silence and in retreat." 2
The death-warrant of the Petites Ecoles had already been
signed when in 1655 their real glory came to them in the
person of a pupil of fifteen destined to be one of the greatest
ornaments of France. This was Jean Racine, the author of
Athalie. In him the schools of Port-Royal had their climax ;
he was their swan-song, their triumphal chant, and the pain
of annihilation was forgotten in having given birth to such a
poet. Other pupils like Tillemont, Angran, Du Foss6, Fon
taine, were men to be proud of, but none could equal the
1 Tronchay, Vie de Le Nain de Tiilemont, p. 69.
2 Tillemont was honoured by two epitaphs at Port-Royal. One was
placed on his tomb in the church ; the other before the grille in the nuns'
choir (see Ntcrologe, ii. p. 301).

THE PETITES ECOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 149
distinction of Racine, none so fully responds to the principles
of their influence and teaching.1
Coming to them at the moment when all seemed to be
over, he had yet belonged to Port-Royal even before his
birth, for his father and mother were still under the influence
which the holy Solitaires had cast over La Fert6 Milon when
Jean Racine was born. The youth of the great poet was
thus entirely surrounded and enveloped by the spirit of
Port-Royal.2 When the boy was fifteen, by special favour the rules
of the Petites Ecoles, which stipulated that no children
over ten years of age should be accepted, were broken in his
favour, and Les Granges became his home. Here another
turn of fortune awaited him, for at the time of his arrival
at the farm above the monastery, the King's order for the
dispersion of the pupils had been partially executed, and
Racine found himself the sole pupil of four of the greatest
masters of the Society, each of whom had a separate and
special influence on his character : Nicole, Lancelot, Le
Maitre, and Hamon. Presumably, no youth either before
or since ever had such an education. As M. Jules Lemaitre
says :
" As instruction, it was unique, it was magnificent, it was
more than princely. As religious teaching, it was intense." 3
The solitude of Port-Royal undoubtedly engendered in
Racine's brain a habit of reverie which led to poetry. No
wits themselves, these stern moralists yet by their education
fostered in their gifted pupil a love for literature. More
over, their so carefully expurgated Greek plays, which they
gave him to read purely in order to learn the Greek language
and style, unconsciously inspired in him a taste for the theatre.
Thus Port-Royal pushed him out into the world. It bred in
his passionate soul a desire for life and action. By stimu
lating the mystical side of his nature, it also awakened [his
curiosity and imagination.
1 And this is asserted in the face of Racine's latest biographer, M. Masson
Forestier (Autour d'Un Racine inconnu), a descendant of his sister Marie, who
has tried to prove Port-Royal to have had no part whatever in the formation
of JeanlRacine. 2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vi. p. 84. 8 Jean Racine, p. 9.

150 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
H" Leaving Port-Royal after three years, and throwing himself
into the world, the poet lived a life full of the joys and sorrows
brought by a passionate and enthusiastic nature. Yet under
neath all his extravagances, all his joys and sorrows, there per
sisted an undercurrent of his youthful training, for it is an
immutable law of nature that in later life the human being
goes back to the precepts of its childhood. If that childhood had
been carefully nourished and protected from evil, what happi
ness results from the command to become as a little child
again. A childhood without innocence and piety brings an
old age of unhappiness and despair. And, Port-Royal drew
Racine back to itself with the surest magnet in the world :
that of early influence imprinted on the white unwritten page
of childhood, thus justifying the whole ideal of St. Cyran
and his followers. In his darkest moments he unquestionably
saw in dreams that" Cloitre venerable,
Ces beaux lieux du Ciel bien aimes.
Qui de cent temples animes
Cachent la richesse adorable." 1
A modern writer has said very justly :
" Whoever has passed through the hands of these excellent
instructors, and been really touched, returns to them and to
their spirit, at least in old age." 2
In his Abrege Racine relates that those women of quality
who had been educated at Port-Royal were ever ready in
after life to testify to their gratitude and admiration for the
training they had received. In the midst of the world, its
gaieties, troubles, and distractions, these pupils never forgot
that Jerusalem of their souls, for the education inside the
monastery was in its way quite as excellent as that given in
the Petites Ecoles, its great fault being that it had the
1 From the Tenth Ode.
2 Strowski in his Vie de St. Francois de Sales says of Racine : " He did not
preserve the fear of God and the horror of the last end his education taught
him, but the habit of loving. See now how he returns to the sentiments
of his youth " (p. 392).
M. Leon S6ch6 confirmed this view of Racine in his article written in the
Gaulois, April 25, 1899. He says : " The illustrious poet of Athalie experi
enced the influence of the Jansenist education he had received at first in his
family, then at Port-Royal, and this influence threw into his soul such deep
roots that no matter what he did he could never tear them out,"

THE PETITES ECOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 151
tendency to push girls into the religious life. Even their
habits spoke of this tendency, for the white dress of the
pupils did not differ essentially from that of the novices.
On the whole, it is extraordinary that in their short exist
ence the Petites Ecoles fulfilled more or less all the high ideals
they had set themselves, and this without corporeal punish
ment, in a day when the Duke of Montausier felt privileged
to cane his royal pupil, the Dauphin of France, for the least
fault, and when Bossuet not only permitted the chastisement,
but assisted Montausier in its execution. At Port-Royal, the
greatest correction they could inflict was the threat of sending
pupils back to their parents. Their whole idea was tolerance,
together with " Patience and silence," the positive side of the
task being fulfilled by awakening the intelligence of each
boy, and gradually implanting in his mind a love of good and
a hatred of evil.
When Pascal said :
" Being denied the spur of envy and glory, the children
of Port -Royal fall into listlessness." x
he struck the criticism of the Petites Ecoles. They lacked the
modern spirit of emulation which can be translated by the
word ambition. Wherefore, although famous, they were never
brilliant, flourishing only in their own way and in the shadow.
And in pondering the history of the schools 2 we seem at
the end to have been brought back to St. Francois de Sales,
whose simple theology rested on the love of God for man, and
the duty of man toward his neighbour. For, leaving the
stern doctrines of Jansenius and St. Cyran in their dealings
with these young souls, the masters of the schools unconsciously
reverted to the Charity which is Love — Love of God — and
which is the only road to Paradise.
1 Penstes, chaps, xxv.-lxv., edition variorum.
2 For their continuation, see Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vol. iv. and Andre
Hallays, Le Ptlerinage de Port-Royal.

CHAPTER XI
THE RETURN OF THE NUNS TO PORT-ROYAL
; DES CHAMPS
"Le contentment ou la joie interieur enait 6galement des realites et des
chimdres. Lorsqu'elle vient des realites elle est plus raisonnable; elle l'est
moins lorsqu'elle est le produit des chimeres." Nicole, Penstes
BY this time, thanks especially to M. d'Andilly's generous
use of his own and his son's patrimony, the valley
of the Yvette, no longer an arid, putrid wilder
ness, was a smiling, flowering valley. In remodelling the
monastery on the banks of the treacherous pond, the Solitaires
reverted to the fifth Century of the Christian era; and, as
Robert d'Andilly tells us in his Peres du Desert, moulded the
whole fashion of their lives on the example of the ancient
Solitaires. In the early years of the Church, holy men had
gone out into the Desert, and founded a new country for
themselves — a land of simplicity, holiness, and peace. Owing
to the efforts of the fifth-century Solitaires there thus sprang
up miraculously in the country of Thebes a wonderful town
called Oxyrinque. Within its walls lived twenty thousand
Virgins and ten thousand Solitaires, and throughout the place
no other sound was heard than the praises of God. Wholly
Christian and wholly Catholic, this town was in reality one
great Church, or City of God, a new and spiritual Jerusalem.
" Is there," asked M. d'Andilly, " anything more glorious
to God than the victories and triumphs of this grace in these
perfect models of all the Christian and religious virtues, the
Christian Solitaires, who quitted the world inhabited by men
to seek a new one uninhabited until then, and to live there
like Jesus Christ with the beasts and with the angels' ? " 1
1 Vies des Saints et des Saintes, p. 7.
152

THE RETURN OF THE NUNS 153
How many pious souls have dreamed of the New Jerusalem !
How many have longed to build one on the earth with their
own hands ! And the ideal picture of the Eternal City varies
in the mind of each. As they worked in the heat of noonday
in the valley of the river Yvette, striving to turn their Desert
into a Thebaide, their little City of God into a New
Jerusalem, the vision of St. John was the picture ever before
the minds of the hermits of Port-Royal. It too was " four
square," surrounded by walls. Several great courts were
enclosed by the Church and conventual buildings and formed
the Cloister. On the north side of the outer court was the
entrance of the monastery, the corps of buildings occupied by
Ces Messieurs, the stables, and the forge. On the south side
was the Church, which faced the east, and the Guests' Hall.
The allurements of art were from the beginning fiercely
debarred entrance into the monastery. Pursued as she was
by the stern countenance of uncompromising Duty and Re
form, Beauty fled, ashamed to show her tempting face. There
was not an article of luxury, not a sculptured stone, not a
moulding. Only in the Church could be detected the slightest
taint of that companion of the Good and the True which had
worked such havoc in the Church of the early sixteenth
century. In the course of time the proportions of the
original fine Gothic edifice of the thirteenth century, built
by Robert de Luzarches, had become falsified by Nature.
And it was now felt that the sinking of the ,soil would
soon necessitate the raising of the foundations twelve feet.
But in spite of this disfigurement and its paucity of
adornment the Church of Port-Royal was said to shame all
other churches by its very simplicity, its lack of sumptuous
ornament, which in other temples of worship attract the
vulgar gaze of the world. Its altar-screen was of simple
carpentry, enshrining a painting representing the Last
Supper ; its single step leading to the High Altar was modest;
indeed, compared with the high approaches of other churches.
The wooden posts supporting the screen were at the same
time supposed to act as chandelier, while the Host was
suspended not in a costly tabernacle, but in a simple recep
tacle. As unique treasures it possessed but a few paintings by
the artist peculiarly fitted to it, Philippe de Champagne, and
the beautiful choir stalls presented by Jehanne the First.

154 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
On the side of the church terminated by Philippe Auguste's
Chapel of St. Lawrence, where were placed the numerous
epitaphs and the enclosure made by the Cloisters, was the
cemetery with its white crosses. Above the Cloisters were
distributed the various rooms called as in all convents the
Parloirs, those of St. Denis, St. Augustine, St. Peter, Paul and
Michael. Inscriptions were the order of the day at the old monastery.
Everywhere were pious words to remind the inmates of their
high calling. On the arcades and four walls of the Cloister
were such sentences as the following :
" Riches ruin religious houses, and true poverty edifies and
preserves them."
" He who perseveres to the end shall be saved."
" There are many called, but few chosen."
Then, on the passage leading to the Church :
" God is in his temple, let all the earth keep silence."
" Think of God in all your ways, and He will Himself
conduct your steps to Him."
" One must pray and never weary."
In the Refectory were still other words of encouragement to
good living :
" Whether you eat, whether you drink, do all for the glory
of God." " If any one would be great among you, let him be ready
to serve you, and who would be the first among you, let him
be the servant of all ; for the Son of Man did not come to be
served, but to serve others."
" The kingdom of God does not consist in drinking and
eating, but in justice, in peace, and in the joy which the Holy
Spirit gives." 1
On returning to Port-Royal de Paris in 1636, after the
1 See Tronchay, Description of Port-Royal des Champs, pp. 214-220.

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PLAN OF THE ABBEY OF PORT ROYAL DES CHAMPS
FROM AN ENGKAVING BY MAGDELEINE HORTEMELS

THE RETURN OF THE NUNS 155
trouble with M. Zamet and Saint-Sacrement, Mere Angelique
had been made Mistress of Novices, occupying herself in
addition with the duty of holding conferences of spiritual
encouragement for the nuns. But, at the expiration of Mere
Agnes's second term as Abbess she resumed her old position
at the head of the establishment. The quarrels at Saint-
Sacrement not ceasing with Mere Angelique's departure, M. de
Gondi, growing tired of disputes, shortly afterward disorgan
ized the elegant institution founded by the first Duchesse de
Longueville, and transferred its nuns to Port-Royal de Paris.
Not long afterwards it was finally decided at Rome that
Saint-Sacrement, together with its property and obligations,
should be regularly united with Port-Royal de Paris, the
founders and benefactors thereupon agreeing that all funds
should be used for the building of a new church.
Accordingly, in 1646, the first stone of a beautiful edifice,
designed by Lepautre, was laid by Mile, de Longueville, heiress
of the Founder of Saint-Sacrement, and solemnly blessed by
M. de Gondi, under the name of Saint-Sacrement. In the
style of the Renaissance, this church was a most impressive
structure, with a dome in the middle, and perfectly pro
portioned. In front of the altar on the ground floor were
gratings shutting off the Choir of the Nuns, while above
was a tribune from which another grating led into the
Infirmary. An interesting fact connected with the union of Saint-
Sacrement and Port-Royal was the change of habit it brought
about. When the question was first agitated, Mere Angelique,
always stern, was for retaining the ancient Bernardine scapulary
of black, but many nuns, prominent among whom was the
romantic Anne-Eugenie Arnauld, inclined toward the more
picturesque garb of Saint-Sacrement. The matter was de
cided when by chance a box belonging to the disbanded
monastery was opened, displaying the beautiful stuffs and
colours formerly worn by these aristocratic sisters.1 Accord
ingly, with great ceremony, laying aside their black robes for
ever, the nuns of Port-Royal adopted the white scapulary
with the scarlet cross on the breast, fulfilling a vision which
had come to Madame Le Maitre eighteen years before, when
she dreamed she saw the nuns thus apparelled.
1 Mtmoires et Relations, pp. 172-173.

156 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
It seems that before his death St. Cyran had urged Mere
Angelique to return to the Champs, and, having always re
gretted her old home, a visit made there in 1646, when she saw
the improvements that had been made by the Solitaires,
strengthened this desire in her.
Two subsequent journeys filled her with an irresistible
home-sickness. The silence, the reverence and devotion of
even the servants about the place, who treated the nuns as
if they were angels, struck deep into her heart. She felt
she must return, so, permission having been obtained of the
Archbishop, she and a number of the nuns made ready to
go. On the eve of the 13th May 1648, the Coadjuteur
of Paris, afterward Cardinal Retz, and destined to play
so important a part in their history, came to say good
bye ; and the next morning Mere Angelique, accompanied
by seven nuns and two working sisters, joyfully took the
route toward Chevreuse and the Desert, leaving Mere
Agnes with the nuns who did not wish to leave Paris
behind.1 The reception at Les Champs was a solemn and impressive
one. When at two o'clock in the afternoon the little band
arrived, the bells were ringing, and two parties drawn up in
welcome : one composed of the poor of the surrounding country,
some of whom remembered the good Mother of twenty-two
years before, and who now threw themselves at her feet, in
glad greeting and reverence. The other detachment, com
prised of Ces Messieurs, was ranged behind a priest holding
the cross. Without delay the nuns entered the Church, and
there, the bells still ringing out joyously, they chanted their
Te Deum of Thanksgiving.2
In the old monastery that summer there reigned universal
gladness and delight. The nuns were ecstatic over their
return to the home they had always regretted, and its regener
ated condition made their life a continual paean of thankful
ness. As Mere Angelique wrote to the Queen of Poland :
" One cannot imagine a more beautiful solitude. If our
sisters had but experienced the peace of this place, I think
they would have demanded of God wings of the dove that
they might fly hither. But as God loves both houses, and
1 Lancelot, Mtmoires, ii. p. 458.
2 Ibid., i. p. 457.

t.

THE RETURN OF THE NUNS 157

wishes to be equally honoured in the two, He has not given
the same inclination to all."
And now, owing to the labours of the Solitaires, the
monastery was truly a delicious spot. Near the Church was
an abundant and limpid spring called " Mere Angelique's
Fountain." Around it dwarf trees formed a charming
promenade, while a little farther on a spot enclosed by the
Cloisters had been given the name of the " Solitude." From
the Cloisters the " Red Door " led into this shady wood,
divided into a number of avenues, all called by different names,
such as " The Strawberries," " The Elms," the " Espalier,"
" the Gooseberry Lane," etc. A rustic bridge led over the
canal, and in the centre of the retreat stood a great cross. It
was in a circle round this cross in the " Solitude " that the nuns
used to love to gather with their needlework and even their
spinning-wheels ; here xtiey came for meditation, and here also
they were allowed infrequent intercourse with those grandes
dames from the outside world.
The near neighbourhood of the nuns, of whom Le Maitre
spoke in his oratorical style as " our ladies, our mistresses, and
our queens," 1 had a peculiar effect on the Solitaires. It
seemed to arouse in them a kind of old-time chivalry, this
knightly feeling being exercised, however, at a distance, for
on the arrival of the real inhabitants of the monastery the
Hermits had been obliged to remove to the farm of Les Granges
at the top of the hill, some of their number who could not
find accommodation there being compelled to retire tempor
arily to Paris until such time as larger buildings could be
erected for them at Les Granges.
Mere Angelique did not approve of any communication
between the two retreats. That Mere Agnes was as usual
much more indulgent is proved by the following letter ad
dressed to Le Maitre during one of her visits to Les Champs :
" My very dear Nephew, — I believe you think me
returned to Paris, or that I am here to live like an excom
municated person, not having deigned to ask for me for such
a long time. This is why, with authority of aunt and venerable
old lady, I give you an appointment for to-day at noon in
the Parloir Sainte Madeleine, where I shall make you re
proaches as to your retirement. Which does not prevent me
from being Yours ever." 2
1 In a letter to Madame de Saint Ange. * Letter of 15 October 1653.

158 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
One of the questions which preoccupied the nuns just before
their return to the country had been that of a Confessor.
Ever since St. Cyran's imprisonment, M. Singlin had taken
his place as Director for both the nuns and the Solitaires, and
was virtually Chief in the two establishments. In 1645,
however, feeling the work too wearing, Singlin had sent a new
Director to the Solitaires in the person of a very learned Canon
of Beauvais called Manguelen. The most striking character
istics of this priest were a lack of outward enthusiasm and
ill-health. His stay at Port-Royal des Champs was very
short, for scarcely more than a year afterward he was stricken
down with fever and died. In the meantime Singlin, pending
the time when De Saci should have taken orders, resumed his
former office. Before returning to the Champs, Mere Angelique
had written to her brother Antoine, still in hiding after the
Frequent Communion, begging him to leave his retreat and
come to act as Confessor to her and her nuns. This Arnauld
did in secret, feeling obliged to hide the fact of his presence at
the monastery as much as possible. In December of the next
year De Saci was ordained, and in January said his first Mass
at Port-Royal des Champs.
De Saci's is an interesting character to study as a contrast
with that of his uncle, Antoine Arnauld, only a year older,
whom he adored and defended, and whom, after the publi
cation of the Frequent Communion, he had accompanied
into exile. He was Arnauld's opposite in everything. Most
proper in every way, perfectly well ordered and poised, he
was seemingly without that colour and flame of which Arnauld
was full, undoubtedly heavy as he was at times. Sainte-Beuve
summed up Arnauld's nephew as the
" incarnation of morality, with a certain flavour of polite
literature, the languages ; the whole dominated and controlled
by faith." 1
De Saci's pupil, Du Fossil, attributed to his master, on the
contrary, a mind full of fire, charm, and sprightliness, as well
as of knowledge. On taking Holy Orders the conscientious
Solitaire wished to rid himself of his too worldly ardour, and,
although he soon managed to apparently do so, he was
always able to resume it whenever he thought necessary.
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 323.

THE RETURN OF THE NUNS 159
Possessed of a very St. Cyranesque idea^of the Majesty of
God, his religion was so sincere and deep that it was his
habit when talking with each person on his particular interest,
— with Champagne on painting, Dr. Hamon on medicine,
Pascal on philosophy, — always to bring round the conversation
to God, and to make others talk of Him.1
While Arnauld was dazzled by the £clat attaching to the
degree of Doctor of the Sorbonne, De Saci hated it. Arnauld
loved noise and power ; De Saci shrank from any publicity.
Arnauld delighted in forcible and hyperbolic language ; De
Saci had an instinctive feeling for the value of words, and
censured the foolhardiness of his brilliant uncle in giving pre
text to his enemies for criticism by couching his ideas and
principles in words which could be misconstrued.
" Not only the errors, but the imagination of men," said
he, " must be combated." 2
When De Saci became Confessor at Les Champs and Les
Granges, Le Maitre underwent one of the hardest tests of his
penitence. How, accustomed as he was to St. Cyran and
Singlin, could he reconcile himself to this new Confessor, a
brother five years younger ? It is conceivable that a nature
like that of Le Maitre, passionate, enthusiastic, and fiery, had
little in common with the coolness, phlegm, and poise of De
Saci. Thus, at first Antoine absolutely refused to confess to
the new priest. Singlin exhorted, Le Maitre prayed for
grace, and finally his repugnance vanished. Characteristically
the convinced penitent chose his own way to show his sub
mission, and, selecting a passage from St. Chrysostom, he
wrote on it a little treatise which he called " Traite de l'amitie
Chretienne et spirituelle."
''I cannot offer thee an imperfect present; I am giving
thee my heart where that flame burns : it is the original which
God joins to the portrait,"
wrote Le Maitre.
" My dear brother," answered De Saci, " at another time
I would have told you that I could not thank you enough
1 Fontaine, Mtmoires, i. p. 339.
2 Lettre k M. Le Maitre, Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 326.

160 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
for the present you have made me ; but now I think I am
thanking you enough when I say to you that I have received
it with an extreme joy, for I believe my own will be yours,
and that you will find your satisfaction in that which you
have given me." 1
1 Fontaine, Mtmoires, i. p. 377.

CHAPTER XII
THE FRONDE
" They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those
that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with
the other hand held a weapon." Nehemiah iv. 17
THE First War of the Fronde followed closely upon the
return of the nuns to Port-Royal des Champs. At
first, the recluses on the hill were so far away from
the plots, disputes, gallantry, noise, and humour of the wars
of Paris, that the news of victories, defeats, or brilliant sallies
hardly reached their ears, except as a vague menace against
their beloved retreat. When this threat really came near
enough to pierce the silence or interrupt the murmur of their
chanting, then indeed the spirit of M. de Sericourt and his
fellows in arms — among whom were now such celebrated
warriors as M. de Pontis, De la Petitiere, De la Riviere, De
Bessi, and De Beaumont — reawakened ; and, recalling their
never-forgotten science, they hurriedly made walls around
the monastery, opened in them towers of defence, and armed
themselves cap-a-pie to protect Port-Royal to the death.
One of the old soldiers obtained permission to wear a helmet
of the Guards of M. le Prince, thinking thus to impose on
marauders, while, mounting sentry at the gate, Le Maitre
himself stood ready to fire on Mazarinist or Frondist alike.
In the intervals, the Penitents went back to their studies,
their hoeing and threshing, their boot-making and their
gardening. As for the nuns, the noise and disturbance of the Fronde
served but to emphasize yet more strongly the quiet charity
and goodness of both the Paris and the country monastery.
In her charity, Mere Angelique had always pursued a regular
11

163 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
system. It was her custom to give many poor people in the
neighbourhood work to do, and to feed them at the Abbey,
when she herself would assist in the distribution, during
which she had some simple book of spiritual import read
aloud to her beneficiaries. In his Abrege, Racine testifies
as follows to the charity of Port-Royal, saying :
" It is not believable how many poor families of Paris and
in the country subsisted on the charities made them by one
or other of the monasteries." x
During the first Fronde, these charities were redoubled;
and if during the Fronde the farm on the heights might have
been a fortress, filled with soldier-workmen of the Lord, the
monastery in the valley could, have been likened to a Noah's
ark, for every timid soul in all the country round seemed
to fly to it for shelter. Nuns from other convents knocked
at its gates to ask hospitality ; peasants deposited their little
treasures within its walls for safe keeping, bringing even
their daily bread to a place from whence they could be sure
of extracting enough for their actual wants. The very courts
of the Abbey were full of cattle, the church so piled with
wheat, oats, peas, beans, cauldrons, and even the books
of Ces Messieurs, that in order to get into the choir for
the service, the nuns had to walk over the masses on the
floor. Added to other features of this terrible period, the
cold was intense, and, the supply of firewood becoming
exhausted, the nuns were afraid to send into the forest
to replenish it.
As usual, Mere Angelique made the best of the situation,
and writing to a friend remarked that without the cold there
might have been the pest. And, she added,
" With all these things God has so assisted us that in a sense
we are in no way sad." 2
In the interval between the first and second Fronde, Port-
Royal sustained several great losses, among others that of
both Madame Le Maitre and De Sericourt. De Saci's new
dignity as a priest of Jansenist austerity was severely tried
by having to stand at the death-bed of these, his beloved
1 Pp- 36, 37- ¦ Lettre d' Avril 1649.

THE FRONDE 163
mother and brother. To sustain his Stoicism, his mother
exhorted him thus :
" My son, help to make your mother die well, and to place
her in Heaven, she who has placed you only in this miserable
life." »
At about the same time, Port-Royal lost its faithful phy
sician, Doctor Pallu, his place being at once filled by a Penitent
of quite a different calibre, who, as lugubrious as the " little
Pallu " had been gay, found it difficult at first to win his way
into the hearts of either Solitaires or peasants.2 Yet Jean
Hamon, not more than thirty-one years of age, was after
ward to be known as one of the " grand spirituels " of the
seventeenth century. Although the most singular, he was
also one of the most picturesque and poetical of all the
Messieurs. There is indeed no more original figure in the
history of Port-Royal than the " Grand Epitaphist " of
Port-Royal. The quality of the Latin inscriptions composed by this
mystic of gentle imaginative mind and warm heart was super
latively an original one ; they were full of the flavour of his
own unique personality. But of all his efforts in this direction,
the one he made for himself is most characteristic :
" Here rests Sinner John. Do not judge me with too
much rigour, which would do you no good ; do not judge me
with too great indulgence, which would be harmful to me ; but
fear for me, for both you and me it is salutary to fear ; and at
least have pity for me ; pity always serves those who are its
object. Pray to God that He pardon me, because His
mercies are without number and the treasure of His goodness
is infinite." 3
Fontaine says very beautifully of M. Hamon that his memory
lives in all the beautiful, wise, just, and true eulogies he made
of other people, and that these mental works of art are as
flowers which crown him and consecrate his friends.4 As
1 " Mon fils, aidez votre mere a bien mourir, et a la mettre dans le Ciel,
elle qui ne vous a mis que dans cette miserable vie " (Fontaine, Mtmoires,
i. p. 400).
3 Ibid. ii. p. 42. 3 Suppltment au Ntcrologe, p. 420,
* Mtmoires, ii. p. 565.

164 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
physician too he was unique. A profound theologian as
well, his wit, science, and learning was turned to the service
of a most practical religion ; *¦ and on coming to Port-Royal,
this finest of the students of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris
began at once to exercise his gifts for the poor of the neigh
bourhood. When called into the nuns' quarters to see a sick person,
he entered the sacred precincts with reverence and humility.
Nevertheless, being a great talker, he himself told that Mere
Angelique was often obliged to come and warn him that
he had said enough, and that it was time for him to go. So
austere was he in his penitence, that although in coming
to Port-Royal he had given up everything he had to the
poor, in secret he still gave even his own food to the destitute,
nourishing himself on the bread of dogs made for him by
a confidential servant of Les Granges called Jean Rose. This
food, served on a board, he ate standing in a closed passage
way. In appearance the Doctor Solitaire was long and thin,
his invariable dress of black so sombre, that on one occasion
a woman, meeting him in the lonely country, took him for a
spectre. But when visiting the poor he always carried a
Bible, and it was his custom to say that God alone was the
Doctor who could save. In later life, being unable to go
great distances on foot, his long gaunt figure could be seen
proceeding to the sick of the district seated on an ass, and
even when riding about the country on this animal he had a
book either in his hand or on a little desk fixed to his saddle.
Being very fond of knitting, at times he also knitted as he
sat upon his humble steed, praying the while.
In the Second War of the Fronde, which was longer and
more dangerous than the first, the nuns in the country were
obliged to flee to the hospitality of the Paris institution. As
the latter had offered refuge to the nuns of any Order what
soever, in less than a month it had succoured within its walls
more than four hundred souls. The stranger nuns, received
by the Port-Royalists like sisters, had an opportunity while
living in the monastery of observing the mode of life of the
despised Jansenists, and through them many prejudices
1 In admiration, Fontaine exclaimed of Hamon : *' In a word, he was
our glory and our example" (Mtmoires, ii. p. 561).

THE FRONDE 165
against Port-Royal were removed, some of the nuns even
wishing to remain permanently in their refuge.
" We have won twelve Benedictines by the war," wrote
Mere Angelique, " all of whom have the great wish to serve
God."1 During the absence of the country nuns in Paris, the
Solitaires, aided by wealthy sympathizers, took the oppor
tunity of improving their quarters by making important
additions to the cloisters and other parts — owing principally
to the efforts of the Due de Luines, one of the numerous
recruits from the outside world, who at the time of the Fronde
flocked to Port-Royal to settle down under the shadow of
sanctity.2 Two large dormitories and twelve new cells were
added. Charles Louis Albert, Due de Luines, a son of the Duchesse
de Chevreuse by her first husband, the Connetable de Luines,
from now on becomes a most important friend of Port-Royal.
His wife, Louise Siguier, a god-daughter of the Queen of
Poland, was naturally pious, and soon after her great marriage
she had succeeded in inspiring a spirit of penitence in the
heart of her husband. Filled with a desire to retire from
society, these two young people began to build a chateau in
the grounds of Port-Royal, only a stone's-throw from the
monastery proper. While it was in process of construction,
returning to Paris, the Duchess endeavoured to live in the
world without being of it, continually longing to be able
to definitely throw off its yoke, yet pursued by strange appre
hensions of never accomplishing her desire. And in sooth,
on the eve of the completion of the Chateau of Vaumurier, at
twenty-seven years of age, she expired with the words of
St. Augustine on her lips :
"O to love eternally! O never to die! O to live for ever !" 3
Overwhelmed by the loss of his wife, for a moment the
Duke thought of becoming a Father of the Oratory. Finally,
deciding to retire as a Solitaire to Port-Royal des Champs,
and going to Vaumurier, he threw himself with ardour into
plans for the enlargement of the nuns' quarters. For many
1 Lettre du Juin 1652, a M. Le Maitre.
2 See M6re Angelique's letters of 1652 for full history.
' Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 313.

166 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
years] he was so actively engaged in all sorts of work
connected with the monastery, that Mere Angelique
remarked laughingly one day :
" Heretofore we have had gentlemen for shoemakers, at
present we have a Duke and Peer for foreman." x
In his enthusiasm, the Duke put his son under the care of
Lancelot ; his daughter, Mile, de Luines, in the charge of the
good nuns. Later on, however, he returned to the Court,
and scandalized his friends by marrying a very young girl,
his near relative. This second wife dying also, he essayed
matrimony yet a third time, himself living on to the age of
over seventy. On leaving Vaumurier he made a present of
the property to the Abbey, and it is interesting to hear the
fate of the chateau.
Hunting one day near Port-Royal, the Dauphin of France
noticed that Vaumurier was unoccupied. Accordingly, on
his return, he asked the King to give it to him, thinking to
place in so lovely a spot a person whom he loved. The then
Abbess of Port-Royal, Mere Ang61ique de St. Jean, being
warned of this design, promptly had Vaumurier razed to the
ground, and the King, on hearing of her prompt action, is said
to have praised it. To-day a tavern marks the site of the
lordly chateau.
Among other recruits of the Fronde, who like the Due de
Luines were so impressed by the teachings of Ces Messieurs
and the sainthness of the nuns as to build houses of retreat
at Port-Royal, were the Duke and Duchess of Liancourt. Jeanne
de Schomberg, daughter of M. d'Andilly's former chief, the
Surintendant des Finances, was responsible for the association
of herself and her husband with the monastery. Marrying
M. de Liancourt at the age of twenty, and sincerely in love with
him, the Duchess had much to bear on account of bis in
fidelities. But with pious patience she set herself to winning
her husband's heart, and was rewarded, during a long illness,
when she nursed him with devotion, by accomphshing her
object. An illness of her own, which followed his, finished
the Duke's conquest, and, his subjugation complete, the
Duchess easily succeeded in inducing him to embrace a life of
penitence, ruled over by the advice of the recluses of Port-
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 315.

THE FRONDE 167
Royal. For thirty years husband and wife led most pious
and exemplary existences, Madame de Liancourt being uni
versally considered the model of a Christian wife. In her
ideas of duty she was stern to the point of fanaticism, being
continually on the watch lest she fail in some way. Un
fortunately, this anxiety would often attack her several
times in one night, when, remembering something she had
left undone, she would each time rise and make a note of the
matter on her tablets.1 In his later years, the Duke was also
very peculiar, and at Port-Royal des Champs people were
edified by his extreme politeness, which went to the point
of saluting everybody he met. A little near-sighted, even
the cowherd appeared a venerable figure to him.2 Perhaps,
he said to himself, it may be one of Ces Messieurs — a very
reasonable supposition.
After an absence of ten months in Paris, the nuns under
Mere Angelique were at last able to return to the beloved
Champs. On arrival, they found the Desert very much
changed, not merely by new buildings, but by the various
mansions which penitents and admirers had erected within
the precincts. Added to these was an important increase
in pupils and novices. All was now life, movement, spiritual
hope, and aspiration. The troubles of the Fronde appeased,
the nuns and their leader, in a happy reaction and with no
premonition of future calamity to disturb their peace, resumed
the daily routine of work, prayer, and charity.
On their part, the Solitaires, subduing both the momentary
warlike mood and the restlessness induced by a wave of
discussion which had overtaken them while working at
Vaumurier, mounted the hill, and once more took up their
domicile at Les Granges, leaving the old Abbey below with
only, the battlemented towers of defence as tangible evidence
of the recent presence either of the Fronde or of themselves.
1 See Vies Interessantes et Edifiantes des Religieuses de Port-Royal, vol. i.
pp. 41 1-445-
2 Ibid. pp. 446-456.

PART III
THE SECOND PORT-ROYAL
1653-1669

169

CHAPTER I
THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL, AND
ITS EFFECT ON HER BROTHER BLAISE
" Prenez part aux douleurs dont mon ame est atteinte,
Ecoutez mes soupirs et voyez ma langueur.
Si vous me refusez le cceur,
Au moms prdtez l'oreille aux accents de ma plainte ;
Et puisque vos rigueurs me forcent de veiller,
Cessez de sommeiller." Jacqueline Pascal
LIKE the Arnaulds, the Pascal family came from Auvergne ;
like the Arnaulds again, they too belonged to the
upper gentry of France, most of them having held
important offices under the Crown, and one ancestor ennobled
by Louis xi. The Pascals in Auvergne were acquainted
with the Arnaulds in Paris, and when, as a young man Etienne
Pascal, son of Martin Pascal, Treasurer of France, came to
Paris to study law, he carried with him a letter of introduction
to M. Antoine Arnauld senior.1
His course of law finished, Etienne Pascal returned to
Auvergne, and purchased an office in the Government, soon
becoming Second President of the Court of Aids. Shortly
afterwards, he married a certain Mile. Antoinette Begon,
who was both pious and intellectual. Of six children born
of this marriage, three alone survived : Gilberte, who at the
age of twenty-one married M. Florin Perier, Counsellor of the
Court of Aids at Clermont ; Blaise ; and Jacqueline.
Jacqueline was but two years of age when her mother died.
Four years later, becoming concerned as to the education of
his children, the father sold his office in Auvergne, and removed
to Paris. 1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 455.
171

172 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
.^f Etienne Pascal's second daughter seems to have been born
with talents of an extraordinary order. Strowski, a modern
biographer of Pascal, goes so far as to say that she was the
brilliant and admired star of the family.1 In her early child
hood she seemed to have a great aversion for study, and
Gilberte was in despair of ever making her learn her letters,
until, happening to read aloud a verse of poetry, the music of
the measure at once struck a mystic chord in the sensitive
nature of the child :
" Ah ! " she exclaimed, " if you want to make me read, do
so in a book of verse, and I will say my lesson as much as you
like."2 Before she was fourteen, the embryo poetess had composed
a sonnet to Anne of Austria, who sent for her to come to
St. Germain. On arrival in the great Palace of Kings, Jacque
line was conducted to an ante-chamber filled with Court ladies,
also attending on the Queen's pleasure. These dames at once
surrounded Mile. Pascal, of whose genius all had heard, and
at their head, Anne of Austria's niece, the Grande Mademoiselle,
herself a very young girl at the time, said to the budding
poetess :
" Since you make such good verses, make one for me."
At this royal command, Jacqueline, very cold and dignified,
retired into a corner of the room, from whence, returning in a
moment or two, she handed to the Princesse d'Orleans the
following extemporaneous verse :
" Muse, notre grande princesse
Te commande aujourd'hui d'exercer ton adresse
A louer sa beaute ; mais il faut avouer
Qu'on ne saurait la satisfaire.
Et que le seul moyen qu'on a de la louer,
C'est de dire en un mot qu'on ne le saurait faire." 3
1 Pascal el son Temps, vol. ii. p. 17.
2 From Margu6rite Perier's life of Jacqueline Pascal in Vies Interessantes
et Adifiantes des Religieuses de Port-Royal, vol. ii. p. 339.
8 Rough translation :
Muse, our renowned Princess
Commands thee to-day to exert thine address
In praising her beauty ; but one must avow
'Tis in vain we would bow to do her this duty ;
For there is but one way in her praise aught to say,
In a word, 'tis to vow that we know not how.

THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL 173
In 1638, Etienne Pascal was among a parcel of malcontents
who complained of Richelieu's retrenchment in revenues accru
ing from money invested in the Hotel de Ville, and when an
order was sent out for the imprisonment of these men in the
Bastille, the name of Pascal was on the list. Jacqueline's
father escaped only by taking sudden flight, and was still in
hiding the next year when Cardinal Richelieu, who had a
passion for plays and acting, conceived the idea that he would
like to see a comedy performed by children. As Jacqueline's
powers in this direction were well known, her name was one
of the first on the list of the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, Richelieu's
niece. I -
Quickly learning her role, when the eventful day came,
Jacqueline acted with such grace and skill as to surprise and
enchant her audience, Richelieu among the number. After
wards, through her tears of fright managing to recite the verse
she had composed for the occasion, she poetically begged the
deliverance of her father. Richelieu was so gracious, we are
told, as not only to take the precocious child on his knee,
but to grant her request. In response to her further prayer
that her father might himself come and thank the Cardinal,
he replied : --i
" Let him come, and bring all his family."
Etienne Pascal therefore returned in great haste from
Auvergne, and soon appeared at Ruel, Richelieu's estate near
Paris, with his three children. Looking at Jacqueline and
her brother, the Cardinal, who had a rare talent for discovering
genius, turned to their father and said :
" Monsieur, I recommend these children to you ; some day
I shall make something great out of them." x
Shortly after this event, the father was made Intendant
of Normandy, and the whole family removed to Rouen, where
next we hear of Jacqueline's winning the prize at the famous
Palinods, under the protection of no other than the poet
Corneflle. It is interesting to note that at this early period
one of her poems was written against Love, " the Vanquisher
of Feeble Souls." 2
Nevertheless, the young girl preserved a very childish
1 Recueil de Plusieurs Piices, p. 241.
2 See Victor Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 104

174 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
spirit, for at fifteen, her sister tells us, she was still in the habit
of dressing and undressing her dolls. Young as she was, she
had a vogue in society. People loved to see the delicate face
and charming personality, and when she entered a drawing-
room a murmur of pleasure would arise on all sides. Yet she
herself was indifferent to this popularity, and quite unspoiled.
Gaily and sweetly she went on her way, making verses, keeping
house for her father (for by this time Gilberte had married and
gone away from Rouen), adoring her brother, paying no atten
tion to the various suitors for her hand, and also giving no
thought to entering the religious life, which at this period
she rather despised as being incapable of satisfying an inquir
ing mind.1
Etienne Pascal himself lived in the midst of continual
scientific curiosity and speculation, being the friend of men
like Pere Mersenne, Roberval, Carcavi, Le Pailleur — names with
which to conjure up visions of all the inquiry and agnosticism
which followed Montaigne. Blaise had always been delicate,
and his father, influenced by the prejudices of his time,
believed firmly that the child had been cursed by a sorceress
in his cradle. Determined to have the evil spirit exorcized,
M. Pascal therefore sought out the woman who was supposed
to have put the spell on the infant, made her avow her crime,
and transfer the charm to a black cat. The cat died, and
Blaise's cure was completed by a cataplasm of nine leaves
of three herbs brewed by a child before sunrise.2
Some one has asserted that the key to the peculiar char
acter and individuality of Blaise Pascal may be found in the
fact of his education. Brought up as he was between two
sisters, he could not avoid taking on some characteristics of
their sex, and to them he owed a nervousness commonly
called feminine, as well as the rare grace and charm which
endeared him to those who surrounded him.3 Madame
Perier, Pascal's sister and biographer, herself educated by
her father not only in history and philosophy, but also in
mathematics, tells the story simply of how M. Pascal trained
his son. Anticipating the method of the Petites Ecoles, this
wise father would not teach the boy Latin until he was twelve,
1 V. Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, ioth ed., 1894, P- 57-
2 Madame Perier, Vie de Pascal, in Louandre ed. Pensies, p. 25.
8 Strowski, Pascal et son Temps, p. 3.

BLAISE PASCAL
FROM EDELINCK'S ENGRAVING OF THE PORTRAIT BY QUESNEL

THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL 175
first wishing him to realize what a language was : how it was
formed, how its grammar had been built, etc. This method
of education, as Sainte-Beuve remarks,1 was exactly the
opposite of that used in the instruction of Montaigne, who
learned Latin when still in his nurse's arms, thereby acquir
ing no foundation of consecutive thought. From his earliest
years, on the contrary, Blaise Pascal was a thinker, eager to
know the meaning of things, Truth being the unique object
of his •nind's desire.
Up to the age of twelve, M. Pascal pere had steadily
refused to teach his son mathematics, knowing this science
to be " a thing which fills and satisfies the mind," 2 and wishing
him to first master the languages. He therefore kept all
books on the subject away from the boy, nor would he allow
his friends to discuss it in Blaise's presence. Finally, one day,
being pressed by the boy to tell him what the science was,
Pascal answered that it was the means of making figures
correctly, and of finding their true proportions to each other.
At the same time, he forbade his son to think or speak of
mathematics again.
From this moment, in his hours of recreation, Blaise began
to dream of the forbidden kingdom of lines and planes and solids.
Imagine the surprise of the father when, on coming one day un
expectedly into the big play-room, he found Blaise on his knees,
surrounded by charcoal and geometrical figures. On asking him
what he was doing, Blaise replied that he was seeking such and
such a thing, which M. Pascal recognized as the thirty-second
proposition of the First Book of Euclid. Other questions
and answers followed, until the whole sequence of ideas
developed. In making his calculations, it was pathetic that,
ignorant of the geometrical terms, the young mathematician
had invented his own expressions, and designated a circle
by the word round, a line by stroke. M. Pascal was so appalled
by the greatness and power of this genius in his son, that
without a word he hurried from the room and to his friend
Le Pailleur, who, surprised to see M. Pascal in tears,
anxiously asked the reason.
" I do not weep from affliction," replied the father, "but
1 Port-Royal, ii. p. 457.
2 Marguerite Perier, Mtmoire de la Vie de M. Pascal, ed. Penstes
(Louandre ed.), p. 77.

176 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
from joy ! " Whereupon he told Le Pailleur the whole story.
The latter, not less astonished than M. Pascal, advised his
friend to no longer hold his boy's genius captive, but to
give it the wings of knowledge. Accordingly, M. Pascal
went home and delivered over to Blaise the First Book of
Euclid, which the boy at once read and understood without
need of remark or explanation.
At~the age of eighteen, ill-health returned, to leave its
victim no more, for, attacked then by a nervous disorder
due to overwork, it is said Blaise Pascal never spent one
day without pain. When at twenty-four partial paralysis
attacked him, he had already invented his calculating-
machine, and published a sketch of his experiments on the
vacuum. The next year, forbidden by his doctor to do any
work himself, he made through his brother-in-law, M. Perier,
the test of comparing mercurial barometers at the summit
and the foot of Puy-le-D6me, which was later on verified by
tests of his own made on the top of the Church of St. Jacques
la Boucherie in Paris.
In January 1646, M. Pascal pere was unfortunate enough
to fall on the ice and dislocate his shoulder. Being confined
to the house for several months in consequence, he asked
some neighbours of his to come and stay with him. These
two Norman gentlemen, MM. de la Boutelleries and
Des Landes, were both friends of Port-Royal, and, during
their stay of three months in the Pascal household,
their patient, together with all his family, gradually became
interested in the works of Jansenius, St. Cyran, and Arnauld.
Soon afterward, Blaise being very seriously indisposed,
was ordered to give up work and go to Paris to consult some
physicians. Detailed to accompany her brother, together
Jacqueline and Blaise frequented the Church of Port-Royal
de Paris. Here both were touched by the eloquent sermons of
M. Singlin,1 and experienced the action of Divine Grace. On
going back to Rouen and telling their father of Jacqueline's
desire to enter the monastery of Port-Royal, M. Pascal senior
was very angry, not only with his daughter but also with
Blaise :
" Never during my lifetime will I consent to your leaving
1 Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 63. Madame Perier chronicles that Blaise
was first converted and that he converted his sister.

THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL 177
me," he declared to Jacqueline. " You may lead what life
you please in my house, but you may not leave me ! " 1
The dutiful daughter submitted to her father's wish, and
for four years longer remained under the paternal roof, having
a secret commerce with Mere Agnes and Singlin, but endeavour
ing wherever she was to isolate herself and lead a life of
absolute monastic seclusion.
When in 1651 Etienne Pascal died " in great piety and
holiness," his death sounded, Jacqueline thought, her own
liberty beU. She was free at last to follow her inclination
and retire to Port-Royal. But alas ! touched momentarily
by the eloquence of Singlin to a more personal enthusiasm,
which might be called " conversion," her brother had unfor
tunately relapsed soon afterwards into worldliness of spirit
and practice, and he now opposed where he had formerly
encouraged his sister, refusing to turn over her fortune.
Port-Royal was most indifferent in Jacqueline's case as to
the usual dowry, and had magnificently offered to take its
new penitent without a penny, but as this was galling to
Jacqueline's pride, she persisted in trying to make Blaise
surrender her patrimony. Finally, going to see her one day
at Port-Royal, whither she had gone in the meantime, as
her sister relates :
" In a tranquillity and equality of soul inconceivable," 2
Pascal, who really loved his sister tenderly, was so touched
by the sadness she could not conceal, that he decided to
arrange the matter as she desired. When he appeared at
Port-Royal de Paris with the papers transferring Jacqueline's
dower to Port-Royal, Mere Angelique at first refused to accept
the money unless Jacqueline's brother offered it because he
thought it was right, from a feeling of true piety, and not
out of pity. At last, persuaded of his good faith, with reluct
ance she signed the documents, saying as she did so :
" You see, Sir, we have learned from the late M. de St.
Cyran to receive nothing for the house of God but what comes
from God." 3
" It was precisely at this moment," says Strowski, " the
(world was drawing him ; into it he went."
1 Recueil de Plusieurs Pitces, p. 250.
' 2 Mtmoires pour servir a I'Histoite de Port-Royal, Utrecht, 1742, iii. pp.
54-105. 3Ibid.

178 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
The'1 only frivolous "period of Blaise Pascal's existence,
a'short year and a half — six months of which was spent, accord
ing to Sainte-Beuve, at Paris, six months at Clermont-Ferrand,
and again six months at Paris between 1652 and 1654 — is
shrouded in mystery. Ill health seems to have been uniquely
responsible for the change in the great philosopher from an
absorbed student to the man of the world. The illness which
had taken him to Paris in 1648 was of a very serious nature.
Although remedies and care soon brought partial recovery,
mental work was interdicted, and, as Marguerite Perier relates,
his keen and lively mind could not remain inactive. Thus,
Pascal turned to pleasure for distraction. Taking this at
first moderately, the taste gained upon him, until :
" He threw himself into the world, without vice of any
kind, but spending his time in inutility, pleasure, and amuse
ment."
The philosopher's principal companion in this phase of
his life was the Due de Roannes, Governor of Poitou, a
young man of about Pascal's age who had already sounded
the depths of dissipation, but who was attracted to Pascal
by a great passion for mathematics. On their first meeting,
the Duke had taken an instant fancy to Pascal, and had offered
him an apartment in his hotel. It was not long, indeed, before
this attachment grew until the Duke could not bear his new
friend out of his sight, and placed in him not only a fixed
belief as regarded scientific matters, but finally in religion.
As a result of this friendship with a nobleman to whom all
doors were open, Pascal was drawn into so-called " society,"
and it is recorded that he loved card-playing, the comedy,
and intercourse with the other sex, being devoted above
all things to the gentle art of conversation. M. Cousin thus
poetically describes Pascal's personal appearance at this
time :
"His portrait is there to tell us what his noble visage was *
his big eyes flashed flames, and in this time of great and romantic
gallantry, . . . Pascal, young, handsome, full of languor and
ardour, impetuous and thoughtful, proud and melancholy,
must have been an original and interesting personage." 2
1 Marguerite Perier, Mtmoire de la Vie de M. Pascal, p. 78.
8 Victor Cousin, Etudes sur Pascal (5th edition, 1857), p. 482.

THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL 179
Until in 1843 M. Victor Cousin discovered in the depth
of the Bibliotheque Nationale a little manuscript called
Discours sur les passions de I' Amour, Pascal was supposed
to have been practically free from any serious love affair
whatever. His men friends were more important and
necessary to him. Of these, none surpassed in attraction
the fascinating Chevalier de Mer6, on the one hand, while, on
the other, none who equalled the subtle power of Miton,
to whom Mere said :
" Vous savez dire les choses." 1
Miton loved the world and the card-table, these were his two
passions. Otherwise we have but little knowledge of him,
and it is also doubtful how much Pascal was influenced by
this friend. Probably only admiring him, and enjoying
his wit, to Pascal, the attraction of this man was the breadth
and flexibility of his soul — his easy morality, which had for
basis the habit of making life pleasant for others — the enhance
ment of social intercourse by geniality and courtesy. Miton
had no other moral code.
The Discours sur les passions de V amour," says M. Victor
Giraud,2 may be attributed to the influence of Mere\ and may
indeed even be his work, and not Pascal's, for the original
manuscript had no signature, and was found placed with a
writing of the Chevalier de Mer6's, as weU as among some
manuscripts of Nicole's and other Port-Royalists. M. Cousin
at once recognized Pascal's style, and in the language thought
he detected to his own satisfaction proof that the writer
had ^experienced the grande passion. Other authors of note
have contested not only this view, but the authorship of
the little treatise on love ; while again, admitting the possi
bility of the latter, some deny that it proves any particular
emotional experience.
In her short sketch of her uncle, Marguerite Perier is the
.•authority for the assertion that Pascal made the resolve at one
time to follow the common habit of the world — " C'est a dire
de prendre un charge et se marier." 3 In reality, Pascal is
said to have had only two strong attachments in his life :
1 Strowski, Pascal et son Temps, ii. p. 244.
' Pascal a-t-il ete amoureux ? Revue des Deux Mondes, Nov. 1907.
8 Mimoire de la Vie de M. Pascal (Ed. Louandre des Pensees), p. 79.

180 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
his father and Jacqueline. He loved the latter, says Madame
Perier, " d'une tendresse toute particuliere." The supposition
is that when Jacqueline refused to remain with him, and
preferred to separate herself from all she loved, Pascal was
tempted to find consolation in the devotion of a wife :
hence his project of marriage.
No one has ever believed this fascinating genius to have
been dissipated in the ordinary sense of the word.1 Neither
with him nor Le Maitre had there ever been any fundamental
irregularity of morals, any sensual or sentimental passion.
In the Discours he says :
" One asks if it is necessary to love. This should not be
asked — it should be felt. ... By talking of love, one falls in
love. Nothing is easier. It is the passion most natural to
man." To go back to the Discours, it is strange how soon Pascal
discarded its morality, palpably that of the exercise of the
passions as a perfectly legitimate means of calming man's
natural restlessness, and discovered the deeper, grander, and
more philosophical sedative given by the immortal things
of the spirit. To judge of these two conflicting phases of his
nature, the Discours de I' Amour must be compared with the
Pensees — the former written between 1652 and 1654, the latter
an unfinished set of fragments of a tremendous work on
Christianity which, planned even before the writing of the
Discours, was not set on paper until during the last four
years of his life (1658-1662), But, as another modern writer
on Pascal remarks :
" There are twenty Pascals, each one of whom would merit
our study." 2
It was in June 1653 that Mere Angelique signed the papers
which endowed Port-Royal with the dowry of Jacqueline
Pascal. In December of the same year the now famous
mathematician suddenly felt :
1 Madame P6rier testifies that her brother had always been preserved by
a particular protection of God from all the vices of youth (Vie de Pascal,
P- 32). 2 Henri Bremond, L'lnquitiude Religieuse, p. 8.

THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL 181
" A great disdain of the world, and an almost insupport
able disgust of the persons in it." 1
During the period of spiritual unrest which followed,
Pascal did not at once turn to religion, but devoted himself
more than ever to his mathematical work, which was full of
discovery. Everything he saw or heard was at once turned
over in his creative brain until practical service resulted.
While in this state of moral uneasiness and mental activity,
he also still pursued the habits of the man of fashion. On a
certain fete day in November 1654, as ne was driving over
the Bridge at Neuilly in his carriage, something frightened
the six horses drawing it, and, taking the bits in their teeth,
they rushed toward an unprotected part of the structure.
The foremost pair were precipitated into the water, and the
rest of the equipage was about to follow, when the reins con
necting the two first horses broke, leaving the carriage and
other four safe on the brink.2 This shock remained with
Pascal all his life. Afterwards, the Abbe Boileau relates, he
always saw a yawning chasm at his side, and when sitting in
his room this abyss was sometimes so realistic that he used
to put a chair over it.
The weariness of the world Blaise had been experiencing,
and which throughout all the months his sister Jacqueline
had also been trying to alleviate by her sympathy and
prayers,3 culminated at last, on the 23rd November 1654,
when his tortured soul found :
" Certitude, Peace, and Joy."
That night, kept awake by pain in all his being, both
physical and spiritual, turning over the leaves of the Bible
at random, he finally stopped at the 17th chapter of St. John :
" O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee :
but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast
sent me."
1 Letter of Jacqueline Pascal to Madame Perier (8th Dec. 1654), in which
she says : " Encore qu'il ait depuis plus d'un an un grand mepris du monde,
et un degofit presque insupportable de toutes les personnes qui en sont "
(Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 242).
2 Recueil de Plusieurs Pisces, p. 258.
"Letter of Jacqueline Pascal to Madame Perier, 25th Jan. 1655 (Cousin,
Jacqueline Pascal, p., 243).

182 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Suddenly, in reading these words, an illumination came to the
yearning soul that it was not the God of the philosophers
and learned men that he should seek, but the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. Rising from his bed of pain, he wrote
down the feelings which filled his newly-awakened spirit, and,
to commemorate the hour of his illumination, wore what
he had written as an amulet for ever afterward on his
person. After his death, this note, with another piece
describing the accident of the Bridge at Neuilly, was
found sewn into the lining of his coat. It had been
transferred from coat to coat throughout the last eight
years of his life.1
Pascal's conversion brought in its train that of his two
dearest friends, both of whom became from thenceforth
important figures in the history of Port-Royal. Having
followed him in his worldly experiences, the Duke now
refused to be left outside the door which Pascal was about
to close for ever. Thus he actually accompanied him into
the monastery itself. When the Roannes family and domestics
learned of this decision, they fell into such a rage that the
concierge of the Duke's hotel, where Pascal happened to
be staying at the moment, rushed up to the room of the man
he considered his master's seducer, knife in hand, prepared to
kill him on the spot. Fortunately, Pascal was not there at the
moment.2 As with the Due de Roannes, Pascal's acquaintance with
Domat, his compatriot, and of the same age, had begun
through mathematics, the two scientists making together
several experiments on the weight of air, etc. Like Pascal,
Domat was a man of great literary as well as scientific accom
plishments, and his book on Civil Laws in their Natural Order,
was so celebrated in its day, that Boileau called the author
" The Restorer of Reason in Jurisprudence." 3 Domat
always remained faithful to Port-Royal at a distance, dying
as he had lived in Auvergne, but being consulted by his friends
on every occasion. His great cry was :
1 Marguerite Perier, Mtmoire sur la Vie de M. Pascal (V. Cousin, Etudes
sur Pascal, p. 399).
2 Suppltment au Ntcrologe de Port-Royal, p. 461.
f- a Of his own book Domat said : "lam surprised that God should have
made use of an insignificant man like me to make so fine a work, when there
are at Paris persons of suchgreat merit " (ibid. p. 462).

THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL 183
" Shall I never have the consolation to see a Christian Pope
in the Chair of St. Peter ? "
Pascal's determination to become a religious recluse re
sulted from a sermon of M. Singlin's at Port-Royal de Paris. It
discussed the careless way in which people enter into life's
gravest contracts : their professions, vacations, marriages,
etc. Singlin's solemn words of warning on these points
seemed to work the vitalizing effect on the converted philoso
pher's mind. From that moment he resolved to retire definitely
from the world. On the Due de Roannes' return to Paris, too,
he found that his penitence was being somewhat interfered
with, as Jacqueline remarked, " The Due de Roannes occupied
him entirely " ; so, confiding his dissatisfaction to M. Singlin,
the latter at once saw the necessity of withdrawing his convert
from such a distracting influence to a place where he could
have complete solitude. Accordingly Port-Royal was selected
as his most fitting place of retreat, and the day following
Twelfth Night, 1655, this new Pascal went with the Due de
Luines down to Port-Royal des Champs. In so doing, he
himself hardly knew what was to be his fate : whether he
was to stay there definitely, leading like Le Maitre the life
of a devotee to penitence, or whether his spiritual directors
would find active work for him in the field he had chosen.
For the moment he resigned his will to God, and placed his
soul in the keeping of Singlin. Neither he nor any of his
companions dreamed of the task awaiting the converted
mathematician.1 1 " He wrote me from there, "writes Jacqueline in the letter above quoted,
" with an extreme joy to see himself lodged and treated like a prince — but a
prince in the judgment of St. Bernard — in a solitary place where one made
profession to practise poverty in everything as far as discretion permitted/'
(Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 248).

CHAPTER II
THE LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN— THE EFFECT
OF THE CONDEMNATION OF THE FIVE PRO
POSITIONS SAID TO BE CONTAINED IN THE
AUGUSTINUS
" La Justice et la Verite sont deux pointes si subfiles que nos instruments
sont trop emousses pour y toucher exactement. S'ils y arrivent, iis
s'ecachent la pointe et appuient tout autour plus sur le faux que sur
le vrai." Pascal
THE motto for the " Second Port-Royal," which according
to Sainte-Beuve dates from the year 1653, was given
by Anne of Austria. Turning one day to the Princesse
de Guemen£, who stood in the usual circle of courtiers about
her, the Queen Mother said petulantly :
" Your doctors talk too much." The doctor at whom this
criticism was especially directed was Antoine Arnauld, vowed
by his doctoral oath to the Sorbonne to defend the Truth
"to the shedding of his blood."
The " Champion of Jansenism " was present everywhere,
his spirit rushing underneath the sea of politics, of literary
activity, and of religious controversy, mastering him and his
friends, imposing its strength and dominance on his enemies,
while spurring them on to greater and greater opposition.
From this time, too, Arnauld ranged himself definitely, albeit
insensibly, against the spirit of both Jansenius and St. Cyran.1
The other principal Defenders of the Faith at this time
were not, as St. Cyran had asserted on his death-bed :
" Twelve better than himself,"
1 Nicole was at this period not yet identified with either Arnauld nor Port-
Royal. He had been for some time, however, associated with the Petites
Ecoles, and under the direction of Singlin, but his real connection dates from
1654. 184

LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 185
but only about half-a-dozen leaders. These as enumerated
by Sainte-Beuve were : x
M. de Saci, whose unique quality was direction of souls,
and who was not great in a crisis.
M. Singlin, of the same type : gentle and unquarrelsome.
M. de Barcos, absent in his Abbey of St. Cyran, but who in
any case would not have made a good soldier.
M. Le Maitre, essentially a penitent, too absorbed in
fighting his own rebellious nature to give aid to outside
struggles. M. d'Andilly : sad to ^relate, Sainte-Beuve is forced to
designate Anne of Austria's grower of monster fruits as a
" decoration of the Desert, rather than a column."
Thus the Grand Arnauld was the one real fighter, and on him
was now to fall the onus of battle.
In the year of Blaise Pascal's awakening to the powerless-
ness of the things of the world to satisfy the cravings of the
soul, the struggle of the Fronde was just over, and Port-Royal
had settled down to its everyday life again. The Paris nuns
recommenced their customary good work among the poor, the
instruction to postulantes, novices, and pupils ; while back at
Port-Royal des Champs, Mere Angelique and her subordinates
were happy in their enlarged quarters and seeming inde
pendence. The Solitaires, too, were contented in their own
way, being estabhshed at Les Granges, and leading lives of
usefulness, study, and goodness.
But during their fancied security, strife and trouble
were in the air, for calumny had been at work
undermining the peace which the recluses and nuns valued
so much. Reports as to the dangerous nature of their
organization, and the impossibility of allowing such a menace
against the State to remain undisturbed, were being circulated,
and at last the Port Royalists became uneasy. Mere Angelique
wrote thus to her confidante, the Queen of Poland :
' On fait des medisances horribles a la Reine, qui croit

And indeed it was said at the Court that Port-Royal was a
1 Port-Royal, iii. p. 23.

186 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
town filled with many inhabitants ; 1 that discussion of dogma,
dangerous assemblies, and continual lectures on theology were
going on there. Even the peasants round about believed
some of these stories, for one day a raw countryman appeared
at Les Granges and demanded to speak to one of the forty
priests living there. Hearing these rumours, Antoine Le
Maitre, who had previously written a Justification of St. Cyran
against M. Zamet, now published a Memoir,2 designed to dis
credit the false reports as to their numbers and occupations,
describing the mode of life and organization of the Solitaires.
The formation of the Society of Port-Royal was, he demon
strated, in truth the simplest and most natural one in the
world. There had never been the least attempt to attract
people, nor any effort to form an establishment. The organiza
tion had been a gradual evolution founded on the example of
the first recluse, and followed by first one friend or relative, then
by another. Every Solitaire on joining the community of
Port-Royal de Champs had at once taken his own particular
place in the domestic economy, and for five years before the
advent of Antoine Arnauld and De Saci, they had not had
a single priest or theologian among them. In the Abbey
itself at the time of Le Maitre's writing were only three or
four of the recluses, lodged there to fulfil special duties in the
household of the nuns.
The rest of the Solitaires, to the number of ten or twelve —
not counting the children and their masters — dwelt in the
farm above the hill in two little houses, removed at quite a
distance from each other. These were built originally for the
farmers. In addition, there was a hut covered with thatch ;
one separate chamber, and a new and much larger apartment,
the principal part of which was occupied by the eight pupils,
its first occupants. In all these quarters there were only
ordinary bedrooms, like those of any other house, and with no
resemblance to monkish cells. The residents of Les Granges
wore no habit,made neither profession nor vows, were hampered
by no particular discipline, nor pledged to any stability of
residence. Moreover, there was no form whatever of a com
munity, no church or chapel at the farm, the Solitaires being
1 "There were there," they said, " forty students and forty fine pens, all
pointed by the hand of one master " (Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 248).
2 Recueil des Piices pour servir a V Histoire de Pott-Royal, pp. 208-228.

LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 187
obliged, like the villagers, to descend to hear Mass in the Church
of the Monastery below. In fact, they were held by no rule
but that of the Bible, no tie but that of Catholic Charity.
As for dogmatizing, holding lectures, etc., but two of their
number were capable of such a thing, Antoine Arnauld and
M. de Saci, but these two penitents followed strictly St.
Augustine's principles, which were :
" To speak more to God for men, than of God before men.
To be ardent in prayer rather than in dispute, and to have
the heart full of Grace rather than the mind full of questions
concerning Grace."
But no Justification, no story of pure lives and high pur
poses, could now avail to avert the hostility of the Jesuits, the
smouldering flame of whose ever-present enmity had probably
been fanned by the success of the Petites Ecoles. They
resolved to effect the entire extermination of those who had
opposed their own special ideas of Christian life and doctrine.
Disappointed in the result of their machinations against the
Book of the Frequent Communion, these enemies now focused
their attention on the Augustinus.
Although in his preface Jansenius had not only hidden
himself behind the figure of St. Augustine, but had submitted
his book to Rome in the most humble manner, when in 1640,
directly after the death of its author and in anticipation of
opposition on the part of the Jesuits, the Augustinus was
hurriedly pubhshed from the Louvain Press, denunciations
against it began in Louvain, and soon reached the world
outside Belgium as well. Jansenius was called a Second
Calvin, and on the one side heaped with censure and scorn,
on the other he was hailed as a prophet and overwhelmed with
hyperboles of adoration and praise. Yet, strange to say, in
1641 the Augustinus was printed at Paris, and furnished with
the approbation of Five Doctors of the Sorbonne. Here, too,
it was received with extraordinary interest, not only among
non-theologians, but especially the Gallican faction, the
natural enemies of the Jesuits.
In 1643 the Paris edition was followed by one at Rouen.
Then Paris awakened to the fight in three sermons preached
by M. Habert of Notre-Dame. These had an immense renown

188 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
— offset, however, by Arnauld's defence, undertaken at St.
Cyran's suggestion and written in three Apologies, entitled :
" Apologies pour Jansenius, EvSque d' Ypres ; et pour la
doctrine de Saint Augustin expliquee dans son livre intitule
Augustinus contre trois sermons de M. Habert, theblogal."
These latter writings had an enormous success in their turn, but
their explanations of Grace alarmed some of the Doctors of the
Sorbonne, who thereupon met together to consult as to what
was to be done. One of their number — a certain M. Cornet J
— conceived the idea of the proper procedure to adopt, which
materialized in the drawing up of Five Propositions on Grace —
a never-failing source of controversy, and one which lent itself
to every sort of subtle distinction. These propositions —
which were not openly declared to be extracted from the
Augustinus — were " embarrassed," says Racine,2 by very
equivocal notes, which although to the very last degree heret
ical, were so cleverly expressed as to seem to embody the exact
ideas on Grace which the Defenders of St. Augustine had
stated. Taking his composition to the Sorbonne for examina
tion and discussion, M. Cornet found the Doctors divided.
Those who adhered to St. Augustine declined to examine
vague and anonymous propositions of the kind, and even
asserted these in question to be fabricated expressly to make
condemnation fall upon efficacious Grace. Sixty of the Doctors
thus opposing M. Cornet's paper bringing the matter before
Parlcment, that body receiving their appeal, imposed silence
upon both parties.3
The next step of the enemies of the Augustinus was to
send in secret a long letter composed by M. Habert and signed
by a great many prelates both of Paris and the provinces —
some of whom were quite ignorant of what they had signed —
to Pope Innocent x, begging him to pronounce his judgment
on the Five Propositions. On learning of this move, the
Defenders of St. Augustine sent to Rome four clever theologians
— Noel de La Lane, Jacques Brousse, Louis de St. Amour, and
Louis Angran — with a letter to the Pope, begging him to
carefully weigh accusation and defence.
^See Ellies Du Pin, Histoire Ecclisiastique du Dix Septiime Siiele, vol. ii.
p. Si- 2 Racine, Abrtgt ie I'Histoire de Port-Royal, p. 57. * Ibid. p. 54.

LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 189
To make a very long matter short, during the two years
the Jansenist Doctors remained in the Italian capital, they
hardly obtained a hearing. Unable to make oral defence,
they drew up one in writing called " L'Ecrit a Trois Colonnes,"
in which they denied that the disputed propositions were con
tained in the Augustinus. But alas ! this writing, instead of
elucidating for the outside world the subtilizations of the
quarrel, only deepened the feeling of mystification in the
minds of those desirous of understanding.
Finally, on 31st May 1653, the Pope condemned the Five
Propositions without distinction, saying publicly to the
Deputies that the Condemnation had no regard either to
efficacious grace in itself, or of the doctrine of St. Augustine,
which would always be the doctrine ofthe Church.1
Knowing Archbishop Retz to be in disgrace, a Jesuit
Bishop of Toulouse called De Marca, who had designs on the
Archbishopric of Paris, now offered his services to the Assembly
of the Clergy being held at Paris. This was a move most
fatal to the Jansenists, for with Pere Annat, M. de Marca at
once began to work them the direst mischief.
In the meantime, while Arnauld and his fellow-August-
inians ostensibly submitted to the condemnation in the sense
mentioned by the Pope, reiterating their statement that they
did not believe the disputed propositions to be contained
in the Augustinus at all, they offered to show that the book
embodied quite the contrary assertions. Although this sub
mission satisfied most of the adversaries, it did not content
those determined on the destruction of Arnauld and his friends,
and they at once published a declaration that the submission
was a forced one, and that the authors of it were still heretics
at heart.2 With malignant, malicious humour, they then
fabricated a sort of illustrated calendar triumphantly celebrat
ing Innocent x's condemnation of the Five Propositions, in
the form of an Almanac called :
" La Deroute et a Confusion des Jansenistes."
As frontispiece, this bombastic creation had an allegorical
print representing the Pope seated under the Dove of the
Holy Ghost, between the figures of Religion holding the
Cross, and the power of the Church, depicted with a casque
1 Racine, Abrtgt, p. 57. 2 Ibid. p. 58.

igo THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
and delivering sentence against the Jansenists. Jansenius,
dressed in his Bishop's robes, looked very frightened, and with
devil's wings on his shoulders was fleeing, his book in hand,
toward Calvin, who in his corner was receiving with open arms
an old lady wearing spectacles and marked " The Jansenists."
The verse placed under the figure of the old lady read as
follows :
" Ah ! que deviendrons-nous, malheureux Jansenistes !
II faut a nos erreurs renoncer a la fin.
Ou nous joindre au party des Docteurs Calvinistes,
Car le nostre aussi bien tient beaucoup de Calvin." 1
Sixteen thousand copies of this Almanac were spread abroad.
All Port-Royal was disturbed over this attack, and strange
to say the quiet De Saci was so infuriated that he stooped to
write a reply, which he called
" Enluminures de l'Almanach des Jesuites."
His object in doing this was, as he confessed to a friend, to
defend St. Augustine and his disciples, outrageously treated by
the Jesuits in their Almanac. His reply, couched in verse,
touched every point of the insults against his friends, and
ended with these words of defiance :
" Mais que vostre verve feconde
D'Almanachs remplisse le monde :
Dechirez, mordez, menacez :
Et conte sur conte entassez :
L'Augustinenne doctrine
Vivra malgre vostre Moline ;
Et tant que Rome fleurira
Sur sa pierre s'affermira
L'eglise n'est point variable.
Ce qu'elle a dit cent fois est stable :
On ne la pousse point a bout :
Le Ciel est maistre, et Dieu sur tout." 2
' Rough translation —
Ah, whatever shall become of us, unhappy Jansenists 1
Must we then renounce our errors as a sin ?
Or shall we join the party of the Doctor Calvinists,
Ah, yes, 'tis true that much we owe Calvin.
* Rough translation —
But let your fecund mirth
With Almanacs fill the earth :
Sunder, tear, revile.
Heap tale on tale the while.

LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 191
These " cold pleasantries " of M. de Saci, as in a moment of
anger Racine called them, were a strange digression indeed
of one usually so circumspect in the matter of Christian
morality. Arnauld tried to excuse the action of his nephew by
bringing forward many quotations from the Fathers to estab
lish the fact that the Early patriarchs of the Church had often
made war in a spirit of peace.
But naught could extinguish the malice of the enemies
of the friends of Jansenius. By the efforts of these theo
logians, the words efficacious grace and predestination became
phrases so tabooed as to convict any speaker or writer who
used them in book or sermon at once of heresy. And every
day the enemies of Port-Royal brought forward new accusa
tions against them. Fortunately, as long as Cardinal Retz
remained titular Archbishop of Paris, stronger measures lacked
the necessary authoritative support to become actually
destructive. When Coadjutor of Paris under his uncle M. de Gondi,
Retz had been friendly to the nuns of Port-Royal, but
it was not until after his imprisonment during the Fronde
that he entered into any kind of partisanship, and then his
attitude was explained by the fact that during his time of
need the Messieurs of Port-Royal had had no hesitancy in
championing the Prelate who had previously been friendly to
them. When M. de Gondi died, and the Archbishopric de
volved on the absent hero of the Fronde, the Port-Royalists
again defended Retz against those who tried to divert from him
his hereditary office. Thus, although there was no distinct
proof that the rebel Archbishop ever actually belonged to the
Jansenists, it is certain that they kept in touch with him during
his wanderings, and considered him their ally. Like Madame
de Sevigne\ the nuns always spoke of Cardinal Retz as " our
Archbishop." Pending Retz's dismissal from the Archbishopric, and
The doctrine of Augustine
Shall hve despite Moline,
As long as Rome shall prosper.
And on its stones grow stronger.
The church is not inconstant,
Her plighted word stands steadfast.
One ne'er can force her to a fall.
Heaven is above and God o'er all.

192 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
finding that the mere condemnation of the Five Propositions,
which by this time they had openly designated as contained
in the Augustinus, was ineffective, Pere Annat and De Marca
drew up a Formulary to the Condemnation.
This document read as follows :
" I submit myself sincerely to the Constitution of our
Holy Father Pope Innocent x . . . and I condemn from my
heart and by my mouth the doctrine of the Five Propositions
of Cornelius Jansenius contained in his Book entitled the
Augustinus, which the Pope and Bishops have condemned;
said doctrine is not at all that of St. Augustine, whom Jansenius
has badly explained against the real meaning of this holy
doctor." The two prelates then induced Innocent x to authorize
their addition to his Bull, but soon afterward the old, suave,
but undogmatic Pope died (the next year, in fact, 1656), and
the new Pope Alexander vii at once confirming the Formulary
in his turn, lo ! the battle had begun.
And now the astute Jesuits hoped to catch the Jansenists
in a trap from which there was no escape, for to sign this
document in the manner exacted, meant to both nuns and
solitaires of Port-Royal giving the lie to their entire system
of belief. How could they do it, and retain respect for
themselves as " Friends of the Truth " ?
Fortunately at this moment the enforcement of the signing
of the Formulary as planned by the authorities was arrested
by two remarkable events in the history of Port-Royal, both
of which were connected with the Pascal family, the one a
miracle of the human mind, the other a miraculous sign from
Heaven !

CHAPTER III
THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS
" Si cet ouvrage vous plait et vous semble fort, sachez qu'il est fait par un
homme qui s'est mis a genoux avant et aprds." Strowski, after Pascal
THE year 1656, no less momentous in its way than 1636,
when Mere Angelique submitted to the spiritual
guidance of St. Cyran, marked one of the milestones
in the history of Port-Royal. In it occurred both the events
which retarded the plans of the enemies of the Jansenists
— the writing of the Provincial Letters, and the Miracle of
the Sacred Thorn.
The so-called " Provincial Letters " were occasioned
indirectly by an experience which happened to one of the
influential friends of Port-Royal, the Due de Liancourt.
This gentleman's friendship for the Port-Royalists was well
known, and had given much umbrage in his Parish Church
of St. Sulpice. Finally, having made there one day, as was
his custom, a long and detailed confession to M. Picote the
cure, the latter refused the noble penitent absolution, and
even threatened to repudiate him at the Communion Table,
saying :
" I cannot grant you absolution, Monsieur, You neither
speak to me of the important matter that in your house you
have a Jansenist, a heretic ; nor of a granddaughter you are
having educated at Port -Royal, nor of the intercourse you are
carrying on with Ces Messieurs." 1
Then, as no consideration could induce the cure" to grant
absolution except on complete repudiation of Port-Royal,
the Duke quietly left the Church, averring that he was pre-
1 Racine, Abrtgt, p. 74.
*3

194 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
pared neither to deny his faith nor his friends. Apropos of
this incident, M. de la Rochefoucauld, nephew of the Duke,
remarked humorously :
" He spends all his fortune in doctors, and he is always ill ;
in the counsel of business men, and he has always law-suits
in hand which he loses ; in good works, and he is refused
absolution in his parish." 1
When the Liancourt affair was reported at Port-Royal,
there ensued a tremendous excitement which culminated in
the defence of the Duke being taken up by the great contro
versialist, Antoine Arnauld. In a letter addressed to " A
Person of Condition," after stating his desire to flee all con
testations and disputes, Arnauld proceeded to demonstrate
M. Picote's act to be contrary to tradition and to Christian
charity. Shortly after this first and very short letter of
Arnauld's, and which provoked ten others in reply from
Pere Annat, etc., a second letter addressed to a " Due et
Pair de France " (the Due de Luines) — a veritable volume
consisting of two hundred quarto pages — was brought by
the Jansenist doctor's enemies before the Sorbonne for its
censure. Revivified by Richelieu about twenty years before this
period, the Sorbonne had by this time become the standard
of authority on all religious matters — it constituted almost a
permanent Council or Assembly of Prelates, with the right
to sit upon and condemn or approve anything which concerned
religion or the Church. Its decisions on matters of theology
were irrefutable ; its censure pronounced against suspected
books, or those imputed to be bad, allowed of no appeal;
and so great was its renown, that not only the Clergy and
whole Catholic world deferred to it, but at times even the
Cura Romana made it its arbitrator in difficult questions.
In the building of the Sorbonne were lodged thirty-seven
doctors called " Of the House and Society of the Sorbonne,"
but all Doctors of the Faculty of Paris were Doctors of the
Sorbonne. This worthy body was now to distinguish and
extinguish itself in the famous quarrel of the Jansenists just
beginning — in fact, the Jansenist controversy was the last in
which the Sorbonne ever took so active a part.
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 46.

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 195
In Arnauld's second letter, the Sorbonne at once discovered
two points of attack :
First, the author's justification of the Book of Jansenius,
putting in doubt that the propositions were contained therein.
Second, his reproduction of the first of the condemned
propositions by his assertion that the Bible and the Fathers
show us in the person of St. Peter a Just Man to whom the
Grace necessary for action had lacked.
The first point was, they said, a question oifait, or dealing with
persons and facts ; the second, one of droit, or points of faith
and doctrine. Nicole asserted that it was Le Moine, a Doctor
of the Household of the Sorbonne, who, with several other
doctors like himself, had caused this commotion ; that his
action was occasioned by revenge for Arnauld's having
written his famous Apologies pour les Saints Peres against
the book Le Moine had published on the subject of a new
system of grace.1
During the six weeks that these two letters were discussed
in the Sorbonne, Arnauld, in retreat at Port-Royal des Champs,
was working at a refutation of the charge. As the accredited
chief of a powerful party, it was clear that it was he who
should compose a reply couched in such terms as to reach
not only theological circles, but the general public. Alas !
'if one may believe Racine's testimony, Antoine Arnauld
was far from being a diplomatist :
" Every one knows," says the Abrege,2 " that he was an
admirable genius for Letters, and that there was no limit to the
extent of his knowledge ; all the world does not know, how
ever, — which nevertheless is very true, — that this marvellous
man was also the simplest of mortals, quite incapable of
finesse and dissimulation : in a word, the least adapted
to form and conduct a party."
Another drawback in Arnauld was the fact that although,
when he spoke, fire, colour, life, were in his words, when he
wrote, fire, colour, and life had disappeared in a mass of other
mechanical qualities very admirable in their way : lucidity,
firmness, order, method.3 Added to these things, at the
moment Arnauld was tired. For over ten years he had been
1 Notes on First Provincial, p. 93.
2 P. 93-
2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 175.

196 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
writing continually, and his hand was heavy with fatigue.
Hence, in spite of good will, the style of his argument
showed this mental weariness.
There was ominous silence when the Messieurs heard
what Arnauld had composed. Understanding their taciturnity,
the Chief said sadly :
" I see well that you do not find this writing good for
the purpose, and I believe you are right."
Then, turning to Pascal, he continued :
" But you who are young, skilful, and a man of letters,
you should do something."
Pascal replied that all he could promise would be to draw up
the sketch of a project for others to put into the proper form.
Both by training and experience Pascal was aclmirably
fitted to sustain a close contest of a controversial nature — to
do so, in fact, was his trade as a mathematician.1 In him, too,
from conversion, the old spirit of St. Cyran seemed to be re
incarnated. And, as religion was thus stern and unbending,
the ideas of the Casuists inspired in him a feeling of horror
and antipathy. When, therefore, he set himself to the task
of composing something for the world to see, his purpose
was primarily to silence Arnauld's accusers ; secondly, to bring
to confusion that body of reasoners who from the time Reform
had first lifted up its head in France, had endeavoured by
their system of relaxed morality to bring back the erring
sheep into the fold of the Catholic Church.
The great contemporary expositor of Casuistry2 was a
Spanish Jesuit called Escobar. In his famous Theologie
Morale, by many citations from the learned fathers of the
Church, this writer sustained his doctrine that the ways of
virtue are wide.
1 His sister said of him : " He had a natural eloquence which gave him
a marvellous facility to say what he wished to say. To this power he added
rules as yet unknown to others, and which he used so advantageously as to
be master of style " (Mme. Perier, Vie de Pascal, p. 44).
2 The real definition of Casuistry is : the science of duty. But, like many
other things, the meaning of the word became perverted by the exaggeration
of the science itself. The science of duty was refined upon and refined upon
until discredit was brought upon it for its over-minuteness, which perverted
it into an "immoral tampering with the principles of right and wrong"
(Blunt's Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology, p. 746).

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 197
" Ah ! " he exclaimed, " how wrong are they who complain
that in matters of conduct the doctors produce for them so
many diverse decisions ! They should rather rejoice, finding
therein new motives for consolation and hope. For diversity
of opinions in morality render the yoke of the Lord, easier
and sweeter ! " a
To confute these men, one needed not only common sense
and religion, but theology as well, and Pascal's weak point
was his lack of theological knowledge, his education having
been that of a scientist, and not a theologian. Still, to one
of his fertile mind, this difficulty was easily surmounted, for
there were Arnauld's books, notably the two called L'Apologie
pour les Saints Peres and L'Apologie pour Jansenius, at
hand. Pascal did not scruple to avail himself of these, a
fact which caused Nicole afterward to speak slightingly of him
as a " CoUector of Shells." 2
Armed with Arnauld's two Apologies as his theological basis,
and inspired in his method of reasoning by the training of his
friend De Mere in Stoicism and worldhness,3 Pascal essayed his
tremendous task. His composition was in the form of a letter,
which his printers afterward entitled :
" Letter from a Provincial to one of his Friends."
Later on, the whole series of the " Petites Lettres," as they
were also called, came to be spoken of as " The Provincials."
Nicole, who under the name of Wendrock published a Latin
edition of the Provinciates in 1657, declares in his preface
Pascal's object in writing the first letters was simply to
show that in the disputes in the Sorbonne there was nothing
either serious or important, merely a question of words, and
pure chicane, revolving on ambiguities that they did not wish
to explain. For example, when challenged as to the meaning
of the qualifying adjective prochain used in connection with
pouvoir, Pascal found that each ecclesiastic he interviewed
put a different construction on it, even while declaring it to
embrace the distinct divergence between his party and that
of the Jansenists.
1 Priambule de la Thtologie Morale, Escobar.
2 Abb6 de St. Pierre, Ouvrages de Morale et de Polemique, vol. xii. p. 86.
3 Strowski (Pascal et son Temps, hi. p. 187) is the authority for the state
ment that the Chevalier de Mere cured Pascal's style of its geometrical stiffness,
and that he taught him the ease, charm, and worldhness of the Provincials.

198 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
In the First Letter, Pascal took up the question of
and droit, and tried, by a mixture of irony, vivacity, and
subtlety, to show that there was nothing heretical in Arnauld's
letter, and that those who brought forward theological
quibbles were stupid and ridiculous. The letter began as
follows :
" Monsieur, — We have been much abused. I did not
undeceive myself until yesterday. Up to then I thought
that the disputes of the Sorbonne were very important, and
of an extreme consequence for religion. You will be very
much surprised, therefore, when you learn in what so great
an uproar terminates."
When, on the completion of the First Letter, Pascal read
it to the assembled Messieurs, there was but one voice among
them :
"Ah, that is exceUent : that will be appreciated : it must
be printed ! " 1
On its appearance, it more than realized the expectations
of Pascal's auditors. Among other dramatic effects, it so
shocked Chancellor Seguier that he nearly had a stroke, and
had to be bled seven times. Singlin, it seems, was frightened
by its tone, which he doubted to be foreign to the spirit of St.
Cyran. Ten days after the appearance of the First Letter,
Savreux, the ordinary bookseller and printer for Port-Royal,
was arrested, and seals were put upon the presses in the work
shops of Petit and Desprez, two other printers known to do
work for Ces Messieurs. The amusing part of it was that the
Second Provincial was already set up at Petit's, and that the
printer's wife, cleverly managing to conceal the type in her
apron, passed through the guards in her husband's workshop,
and safely conveyed it to a neighbour, where that night three
hundred, the next day, twelve hundred, copies were printed off.
The following morning, an apprentice of Petit's took President
Bellievre the Second Letter fresh from the press, whereupon,
believing that with the seals upon his presses Petit could have
had nothing to do with the printing, the President removed
his embargo. The printing of the Letters, therefore, was
an easy matter, and the Third and Fourth of the Petites Lettres
quickly appeared.
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 44.

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 199
When writing the Third Provincial, Pascal, with a premoni
tion of what was to very shortly happen to Arnauld, wrote as
follows :
" I have understood from it (i.e. the controversy) that
there is here a new kind of heresy. It is not the sentiments
of M. Arnauld which are heretical ; it is only his person.
It is a personal heresy. He is not heretical for what he has
said or written, but only because he is M. Arnauld. This is
all that one can find amiss with him."
Not at first intending to indite more than one or two letters,
Pascal was drawn on and on by the interest of the discussion
until there were eighteen. Only five of these deal with
Arnauld's particular controversy discussed in the Sorbonne :
the first three, the seventeenth, and the eighteenth. The
others attack the morality of the Jesuits, and instead of being
on the defensive, give battle to the enemy in his own camp.
Pascal's style is said to have consisted in a keenness of
perception, a divination of the interesting points, and the
power of carrying the reader on by easy stages, step by step,
to a logical conclusion. In these long letters, it is marvellous
that this geometrical method never wearies, but that it inspires
the reader with buoyancy, life, and vital enthusiasm. One
enthusiastic critic describing these " marvellous " Provincials,
said that in them Pascal employed all kinds of eloquence. There
was a mixture of violent and sublime satire combined with a
logic only the more forceful for being hidden under an unstudied
style, while the form of the work was in itself dramatic.
But the question that has puzzled everybody in the analysis
of the Lettres Provinciates is to understand how a scientist
could have acquired this perfection of literary style. Could
it be explained by the fact that he was a genius ? But genius
unaided could never have written the Provinciates — education
and training must have given Pegasus his wings ; and indeed,
not content with the first expression of his thoughts, the
author was in the habit of rewriting portions of his works,
which would have satisfied most people on the first trial, ten
or twelve times.
The humorous side of the otherwise solemn controversy
lay in the manner in which Pascal made his serious personages
play so comical a role that in the midst of the discussion of

200 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
the gravest subjects it was impossible to control one's mirth.
At the outset the scathing letters were anonymous, but later
on they were signed " Louis de Montalte." Naturally the
general uncertainty as to the authorship created widespread
excitement, and supposition was rife as to their source,
even Gomberville being among those suspected. Pascal
enjoyed the mystery keenly, and showed a boyish delight
in adding to the universal mystification by signing the
momentous Third Letter :
"Your very obedient servant, E.A.A.B.P., F.D.E.P."
(et ancien ami, Blaise Pascal, Fils d'Etienne Pascal).
According to Sainte-Beuve,1 Pascal's idea in writing the
Provincials was to create a party of sympathizers for the
Jansenists among the worldly set. Strowski, on the contrary,
analyses his motive to have been the conquest of a
really satisfactory theory of Grace which might appeal to the
philosophical intelligence.2
By this time all the Solitaires had been obliged to leave
Port-Royal des Champs, and at first occupying the house of
his friend the poet Patrix (an officer of the Due d'Orleans) in
front of the Porte St. Michael not far from the Luxembourg,
Pascal, under the name of M. de Mons, was at the moment
living at the inn called " Le Roi David " in the Rue des Poirees,
back of the Sorbonne.3 It was in the rooms of the Abbe de
Pontchateau, brother of the Duchesse d'Epernon, that the Port-
Royalists assembled to laugh over the success of Louis de
Montalte' s ironical remarks against their enemies who had so
often mocked at them.4 M. Gilles d'Asson was at the bottom
of the whole matter, and many of the Provincials were printed
in his lodging. There was such a demand for the Letters that
1 Port-Royal, iii. p. 260. 2 Pascal et son Temps, hi. p. 169.
3 In the postscript to a letter dated 26th Oct. 1655, Jacqueline Pascal
asks her brother : " Let me know, if you please, if you are still M. de Mons "
(Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 266).
* Although the Jansenists in general were enchanted with Pascal's elo
quence, Mere Angelique held steadfastly to theold-fashioned spirit of St. Cyran.
In a letter to Le Maitre, written evidently to thank him for sending her one
of the Provincial Letters, she said : " I do not in the least doubt that what
you have sent me is very fine ; but it is yet to be known if silence in this time
would not be still more beautiful and agreeable to God, who is appeased
better by tears and penitence than by the eloquence which amuses more
persons than it converts " (Letters, vol. iii. p. 203, 2nd April 1656).

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 201
although thousands of copies of each were printed and circu
lated everywhere, the printers were not able to satisfy the
demand. Was Pascal really successful in fulfilling the different
objects of the Provincials ? First of all in championing
Arnauld and silencing his enemies ?
Even before the Third Letter could be published, Pascal's
prognostications were fulfilled, and the Sorbonne had taken
the firm measure of condemning Arnauld's letter and erasing
his name from the list of Doctors of their institution.
While awaiting news of his sentence, Arnauld was walking
alone, in a gallery quite at the top of the monastery of the
Champs, thinking of the words of St. Augustine :
"As in me they have only persecuted the Truth, succour
me, Lord, in order that I may fight for the Truth till the
end." On being told of the Sorbonne's decision, Arnauld fled, luckily.
Had he not done so, the Bastille would have swallowed up the
Defender of the Truth, even as, a few years later, it did his
nephew De Saci.
Mere Angelique had previously written Arnauld that even
if his name were effaced from among the list of Doctors, it
would only be the better inscribed in the Book of God.
Characteristically she added :
" Whatever happens to you, mon tres cher Pere, God will
be with you, and you will better serve His holy truth by
sufferings than by writings."
Although the Provincial Letters could not avert the
Sorbonne's condemnation of Arnauld and his Letter, they at
least explained the vexatious questions with
" such skill, lucidity, and grace," x
as to make them intelligible and agreeable to everybody,
completely exonerating Arnauld from his supposed errors.
Even the enemies of Port-Royal were obliged to confess that
no work had ever been composed with a greater spirit of wit
and justice.2
With regard to Pascal's attack on the Casuists, it was said
1 Racine, Abrtgt, p. 98. 2 Ibid.

202 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
that the clever pen of Montalte had made these moralists, who
up to this time had been only faintly combated in the Univer
sity, the horror and laughing-stock of all the world. Brune-
tiere, in his most delightful preface to one of the editions,
analyzes Pascal to have been successful beyond all belief by
the clearness of his own vision, the suppleness of his style, the
scientific precision of his method and language, in bringing
light into one of the most obscure and yet important questions
which had ever agitated Christianity. It was also said that
he drew
" moral theology from out the obscurity of the cloister and
the secret of the confessional into the light of day." 1
Racine, when enraged against his old masters of the
Petites Ecoles, exclaimed :
" And does it seem to you that the Lettres Provinciates are
anything but comedies ? "
Something greater than comedies they must have been to have
evoked praise from such men as Boileau and Voltaire, not to
mention a thousand other eulogies from contemporary and
later writers. To Boileau they were the most perfect examples
of prose in the French tongue, and he ranked their author as
the one exception to his own dictum that the Ancients were
superior to the Moderns. The comment of Voltaire, most
captious of critics, is from a literary point of view the greatest
of all encomiums :
" The first book of genius to be seen in prose," he said,
" was the collection of the Provincial Letters in 1654. In it
there is not a single word which after a hundred years shows
the change which often alters living languages. This work
must be placed at the period of the fixation of language." 2
The opinion of Bossuet is indicative from the spiritual stand
point. When asked what book he would most like to have
written, the tutor of the Dauphin of France replied without
hesitation : Les Provinciates. From still another point of
view, yet a fourth critic asserted that
1 Introduction to edition of Provinciates (Hachette, 1896) by Ferdinand
Brunetidre, p. ix.
2 Sitcle de Louis XIV, iii. p. 107.

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 203
" Moliere has nothing pleasanter than the first Provincial
nor Bossuet anything more sublime than the last."
After these testimonies, who would not have written " comedies "
such as these ?
Moliere and La Bruyere in their satires on hypocrisy
continued the work Pascal had begun. This resemblance was
noticed in Pascal's day, for an absurd tale was circulated that
Ces Messieurs of Port-Royal were in the habit of correcting
the proofs of Moliere's comedies. For the matter of that,
although Moliere was contemporary with and about the age of
Pascal, he at that time knew none of the Port-Royalists except
the Prince de Conti, his first patron and schoolfellow, who when
converted turned against all plays and play-actors, Moliere in
particular. The morality to be deduced from Pascal's arguments
differed, to be sure, but little from that which had been evolved
in other ages under the spur of indignation against corruption
and hypocrisy. In France it had notably held sway during
the reign of Louis xii — when Protestantism nearly crept into
power — then under the great example of tolerance, Henri iv.
But, having launched the spirit of a satire which Moliere and
La Bruyere were to carry on, Louis de Montalte, sitting in the
quiet and solitude of his room behind the Sorbonne, had begun
to wonder if he knew the Nature of Man. Even while the first
notes of his success and fame were sounding in the world about
him, his profound mind had progressed beyond the work in
hand, and was grasping yet another problem — one which turned
suddenly from the worldly and satiric vein the Provincials
embodied, and from the " morality of honest people," into the
paths of pure religion. The result was the highest expression
of his genius, the Pensees.

CHAPTER IV
MIRACLES AND SIGNS
" Je ne serais pas Chretien sans les miracles, dit Saint Augustin "
IT was while Blaise Pascal was absorbed in the composition
of his Twelfth Provincial that the second event occurred
to delay the execution of the vengeance of the enemies
of Port-Royal. This thing touched the great Philosopher
most nearly. Seeming to come directly from God, it belonged
to that singular class of religious phenomena which for want
of a better name people call miracles. From the beginning
the elucidation of preternatural manifestations have baffled
not only the credulous, but most particularly people of sound
mind and heart, whose judgment and experience teach them
the difficulty of probing the supernatural by means of the
material senses. If the Port-Royalists, with their downright
minds, had essayed to explain incidents of the kind, they
must, as lovers of la Verite, have branded them works of
the devil. Their creed, however, taught the acceptance of
God's decrees by faith, and they acknowledged that
" When Faith speaks, one knows well enough that Reason
must not say a word."
Up to this time Port-Royal had not often been called
upon to puzzle over the supernatural. The first really
remarkable thing to occur in their midst was connected
with the Fourth Solitaire, M. de Bascle,1 who, shortly after
joining the workers at Port-Royal des Champs, became so
ill with a disease called quartan ague as to have gone into
convulsions, and been given up by the doctors. In the hope
of betterment, he was sent from the marshy Champs to Port-
1 Recueil de Plusieurs Pieces, p. 173.
904

MIRACLES AND SIGNS 205
Royal de Paris. After three months there, he was no better,
and so weak that he could walk only with the aid of two
crutches. On hearing the news of the death of St. Cyran,
however, M. de Bascle managed somehow to drag himself
from Port-Royal de Paris to St. Cyran's lodging opposite
the Chartreux — quite a long distance. Ascending the stairs
to the room where the Saint had just drawn his last breath,
and kissing the feet of his dead master, the miracle happened.
The cripple, who only a few moments before had hardly been
able to move, now suddenly and miraculously threw away
his crutches, and walked easily without any assistance down
from the high room to the street. Some accounts say he
returned on foot to the Rue de la Bourbe, others that he
was persuaded to ride on St. Cyran's horse. Shortly after
ward he continued his way on foot to Notre Dame, where
he gave thanks for his recovery.1
The next remarkable event happened four years later at
Port-Royal de Paris. In January 1646 their first elective
Abbess, Mere Gen6vieve le Tardif, was dying, and the com
munity being assembled round her bedside, began, according
to custom, as the soul of this good Christian was passing,
to intone the Subvenite. Wonderful to chronicle, as their
own voices rose, they seemed to hear other and angelic tones
mingling with the chant —
" Making a supernatural harmony."
If this were imagination, Mere Angelique de St. Jean, the
narrator, continues, there was at least great cause for believing
the angels rejoiced at receiving the soul of the good Abbess,
and " If error was in our senses, truth was in our hearts." 2
The facts of the miracle of the Sainte Epine, as told simply
if at length by Racine, Madame Perier, and Jacqueline Pascal,
are these : At the very moment of the censure against
Arnauld in the Sorbonne, a certain ecclesiastic noted for his
piety, called M. de la Potherie, had been lending to several
1 In his Histoire, M. Le Maitre relates that De Bascle returned to Port-
Royal des Champs in perfect health, and remained so for several years without
any kind of an illness, working regularly with his companion hermits (Ibid.
p. 189). 8 Vies Interessantes, vol, ii. p. 13, "¦ >

206 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
convents of Paris a sacred thorn said to be from the crown
of Christ. The nuns of Port-Royal de Paris, although at the
moment full of anxiety and apprehension and under the
strain of what had happened to Arnauld, were curious
to see this famous relic, and asked the loan of it for their
convent. Accordingly, the Friday of the third week in Lent,
it was placed inside the choir on a kind of altar. The com
munity was then told to form in procession after Vespers,
and at the stated time, as first the nuns of profession, then
the novices, and finally the pupils passed, each kissed the
relic. Last of all came Margot Perier, Pascal's niece. For
three years and a half this child of ten years of age had been
afflicted with a lachrymal fistula in the corner of her left eye,
and a large mark much disfigured the outside of the face.
Within, the poison had worked great havoc, especially on
the left side, which could not be touched without giving
great pain, while the fester too had become so unpleasant
as to occasion her separation from the other children. Kept
in a room apart, she was attended out of pity by an older
companion. Everything the eminent oculists and surgeons
of France could do, had been done, but in vain. Finally
the three most skilful surgeons of Paris declared that there
was nothing left but the burning out of the whole infection.
Just before the advent of the Sacred Thorn in the monastery
the day had been fixed for the operation, and M. Perier, the
father, had already left his home in Clermont to be present.
Therefore, as the little one stood at the altar that morning,
Sister Flavie, mistress of the pupils, looking at her with
compassion, said kindly :
" Recommend yourself to God, my daughter, and touch
your sick eye with the Sacred Thorn."
So saying, she herself helped to press the relic against the
eye of the sufferer. Margot afterward confessed that at the
moment her heart was filled with ecstasy of faith, and a
deep conviction that she would be cured. As she and her
companion, passing out of the church with the others, regained
their room, Margot cried out joyously :
" Sister, I have no longer anything the matter with me,
the Sacred Thorn has cured me."
Looking at her, the other pupil saw in reality that the child's

MIRACLES AND SIGNS 207
left eye now seemed quite as normal as the other, there being
no sign of either cut or swelling.
Imagine the excitement of the two girls ! But it was the
hour of silence — and Lent. So, with marvellous self-control,
they went to bed without saying a word to anybody.
When told of the miraculous event, the Abbess, aware of
the feeling against Port-Royal, hesitated to spread it abroad,
and for six days afterward even several of the nuns inside
had not heard of it. Some time later, one of the three surgeons
who had previously attended Marguerite Perier1 came to
Port-Royal to visit another ill person, and asked to see the
little girl with the fistula. Brought before him, however,
he did not recognize his former patient. Being assured that
it was she, and filled with amaze, he made a variety of tests,
inquiring the details of its happening. On the simple recital
of facts, this doctor at once started off to fetch his two col
leagues. These gentlemen were equally amazed and be
wildered, confessing in their turn that God alone could have
effected such a cure.2 Belief in the miracle of the Sacred
Thorn was indeed universal, for even the famous enemies of
the Jansenists could not deny the wonderful facts, and con
tented themselves with saying that it was a demon who had
performed it.3
In November 1656, M. de Hodencq, Vicar-General of
Paris, in the name of Cardinal Retz, still absent, solemnly
approved the miracle, and the Te Deum was celebrated
in the church of Port-Royal de Paris by the prelates of
Paris.*
^j The pious Port-Royalists accepted the manifestation
simply, welcoming it as a sign from heaven of the equity of
their cause. Pascal's joy and amazement at the news, which
he looked upon under the circumstances almost as a personal
attention from God to himself,5 can be imagined. And it was
an inexplicable thing that in the midst of the triumph of mind
1 Since the wonderful event the familiar name of Margot had already
been changed into the more respectful " Marguerite."
2 Sainte-Beuve gives a simple and logical explanation of how the miracle
might have happened. See Port-Royal, vol. iii. p. 179.
8 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 179.
* This approbation of the Miracle was printed in 1656 at Paris. See Tracts
relating to the Jansenists.
5 " My brother was perceptibly touched by this grace," says Madame

208 ; THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
over matter as evidenced by the most brilliant period of the
Provincial Letters, there should have come to Port-Royal,
and to Pascal himself, the miracle of the Sacred Thorn. Too
much a product of his scientific training to accept the matter
without proof, after his first astonishment, Pascal lost no
time in probing the miracle to the bottom. He consulted
M. de Barcos, the greatest theological authority of his acquaint
ance, on the real definition of the term, etc., studied with
the utmost attention the meaning, extent, and result attri
buted by theology to such supernatural signs. Satisfied at
last, he then celebrated his conviction by changing his coat
of arms to the symbol of an eye in the centre of a crown of
thorns, with the motto :
" Scio cui credidi " x (I know in whom I have faith).
To Jacqueline Pascal, the miracle was but another evidence
of the power of the Almighty sent to make the heart of mortals
tremble and feel afraid.
" It is a double joy," she wrote toher sister, " to be favoured
by God when one is hated by men." " Pray to God for us,"
she added, " that He prevent us from raising ourselves in
the one and abasing ourselves in the other, and that He give
us grace to regard both equally as the effects of His mercy." 2
The wonder of it awakened her almost forgotten art of poetry,
of which she now made use in testifying her gratitude to God.
" Tes merveilles, Seigneur, penetrant jusqu'a moi
Ont agr6ablement trouble ma sohtude.
Ce miracle etonnant, dans un divin transport
Me presse de parler par un si saint effort.
Que je ne puis sans crime gtre encore en silence." 8
Perier, " which he regarded as if made to himself, it being done to a person
who, in addition to her near relationship, was his spiritual daughter by
baptism." 1 Strowski, Pascal et son Temps, iii. p. 135.
2 Letter of 20th March 1656 (Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 270).
8 Rough translation —
" Thy marvels, Lord, penetrating to my retreat,
Have agreeably troubled my sohtude.
This surprising miracle, in a divine transport,
Presses me to speak by so holy an effort
That I cannot in sooth without crime keep silence."
(Ibid. p. 283.)

MIRACLES AND SIGNS 209
Naturally the healing of Marguerite Perier 1 was followed
by other miraculous cures. The letters of Mere Angelique
to the Queen of Poland are full of them. The strange part
in the whole matter was that the Sacred Thorn — which in
awe and wonder M. de la Potherie at once after the miracle
presented to Port-Royal — made no cures outside of the
monastery. Ill unto death, and sending for the relic, although
the Duchesse de Lesdiguieres kept it nine days, she died
nevertheless. The Princesse Palatine, on the contrary,
content in her extremity to apply a piece of linen which
had touched it, recovered.
Somewhat later on, another seemingly supernatural and
miraculous sign, again in a moment of danger, was vouch
safed to the monastery.
This event brings us into touch with a man of great import
ance in the history of Port-Royal.
" If," said Victor Cousin,2 " one should lose the writings
of Port -Royal, in Champagne one would find Port -Royal
still intact."
Philippe de Champagne, a native of Belgium, had come over
to France as early as 1621, and, already a painter of note,
having studied under Rubens, he was fortunate enough to be
employed by Marie de Medecis in the decoration of her new
palace of the Luxembourg, becoming in a few years so cele
brated in Paris that no public function was held without his
pencil being called in to fix its souvenir on canvas. Every
where the walls of municipal and public buildings were
decorated with specimens of his art,3 the magnificence of
the Luxembourg, the Palais Cardinal, the Tuileries, and
even the dome of the Sorbonne being due in great part to
him. Strangely enough, it was M. de Perefixe, then Abbe, not
yet Archbishop, who first told the painter of Port-Royal. One
day the conversation between these two old friends happened
to turn on a religious book just then making a stir in the world —
the Book of the Frequent Communion. M. de Perefixe express-
1 Who hved, by the way, to the age of eighty-seven, and wrote a short
hfe of her uncle.
2 Du Vrai, du Beau et du Bien, p. 235.
8 Ch. Gailly de Taurines, Pire et Fille, p. 14.
14

2to THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
ing great admiration for the work, Champagne asked who was
the author.
" It is M. Arnauld, one of the persons who conduct the
house of Port -Royal. He is the brother of Mere Angelique,
the Reformer Abbess of the Monastery." x
At the moment, M. de Champagne was in search of some
such institution in which to place his two motherless girls,
so, without more ado or inquiry, shortly after this con
versation with M. de Perefixe, he took both the children
to Port-Royal de Paris, and left them there in the charge
of the good nuns. A few years afterward one daughter died
at Port-Royal, and shortly after the Miracle of the Sacred
Thorn the other became a nun under the name of Soeur
Catherine de Sainte-Suzanne. Unfortunately, she had hardly
taken the veil, when at the age of twenty her right side became
paralysed. Bled thirty times in fifteen months, and every
other known remedy tried, nothing availed to bring back move
ment into her poor rigid members. For four years, fever never
left her night and day. Throughout, the invalid was sustained
and encouraged by the stoical admonitions of Mere Agnes —
principles afterward incorporated in the little book called
L'image d'une Religieuse parfaite. A nun, said the author,
should have an aversion for her body, regarding it as a source
of corruption ; illness should be but a welcome discipline for
the soul ; Death but the opening of a door into Eternal Life.
These lessons were difficult for the young nun to practise,
when out of doors she saw smiling Spring succeeded by the
sadness of Autumn, as it in its turn ceded to the cold winds of
Winter. The only change in the monotony of her life, as she
lay extended in her chair, was when she was carried into the
church for communion, or they brought her to the grating in
the parloir to talk to her father.
One day it occurred to the sister who had charge of the
invalid, and who was touched by a sight of her sufferings, to
ask Mere Agnes to institute a neuvaine2 in the monastery
for the recovery of Soeur Catherine de Sainte-Suzanne. At
first Mere Agnes refused on the principle that if God had thus
afflicted Soeur Catherine, it was because He wished her to be ill.
* Ch. Gailly de Taurines, Ptre et Fille, p. 26.
2 A season of nine days' prayer.

MIRACLES AND SIGNS 211
However, the young girl's companion begged so hard that finally
Mere Agnes's objections were vanquished, and she consented.
The season of prayer began on the 29th December ; it
finished on Twelfth Night. That morning, Soeur Catherine
had been carried to the parloir to see her father. On coming
away, she had wanted to hear Vespers, so she was taken to the
tribune near her room in the infirmary, overlooking the choir
of the nuns. When Vespers was over, the poor child strove
to put down her foot to see if she could walk, but, alas ! her
muscles were as rigid and immovable as ever.
" Oh, ma mere," she said in desolation to Mere Agnes,
" if I am not cured to-morrow, I shall never be cured."
That night she was worse then ever, sleepless, restless, and
agitated by fever, and on the morrow, when asked how she felt,
she complained of having suffered intensely, and not slept all
night. During Grand Mass, they left her in her cell with the door
open, as from there she could hear the service. Just as the
priest intoned the words :
" It is truly worthy and just, equitable and salutary,
that always and everywhere we should praise Thee, O holy
Saviour, Father all-powerful, Eternal God,"
the idea came to Catherine to try to walk. Making the attempt,
she found that by holding on to the furniture and walls, she
was able to use her feet. Realizing this, but too excited to
try to walk, as the Host sounded she sank to her knees,
then rose easily and sat down again. A nun passed. Calling
her, Sceur Catherine begged that the sister who attended her
should be sent for. When the latter entered the room, the
former paralytic rose and walked toward her. Then, accom
panied by the sister, she went to the tribune overlooking the
choir; and, after adoring the Holy Sacrament, proceeded
to the cell of Mere Agnes, descending thence with the latter
down the forty steps to the church, there to kneel before the
Holy Sacrament and the Creche. When this was done, it
was she who helped the aged Mere Agnes to reascend the same
staircase leading back to their cells.

212 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
However, Sceur Catherine's miraculous cure brought forth
little fruit outside the monastery.
From Beauvais, M. Hermant wrote to M. d'Andilly :
" The voice of miracles makes itself heard farther than
that of men. . . . Let us have pity on those to whom these
prodigies are but a matter of hardening and prevarication." 1
But Racine does not even mention it in the AbregS. Yet it
created a very great work of art, now ornamenting the walls of
the Louvre — the " Ex Voto " of Philippe de Champagne, made
according to the inscription still to be seen on the painting :
" In testimony of so great a miracle, and of his joy."
The painting, evidently depicting the moment before the
miracle happened, represents Mere Agnes on her knees, and
Sceur Catherine de Sainte-Suzanne in a half-lying posture.
Both have their hands joined, and are praying.
For fourteen years Philippe de Champagne was associated
with Port-Royal, and during that time he had painted nearly
every one of the nuns and Solitaires, and won a way for
both himself and his art into their confidence.2 His were
indeed the only creations of beauty admitted at Port-Royal.
Like the softening influence of women, the Solitaires feared
the power of any aesthetic emotion which might disturb
them in their contemplation of the New Jerusalem, and they
therefore translated art solely by its use in religion. Music
belonged to the category of disturbing emotions, so there was no
organ to entrance the ear, no flowers to seduce the sight or
enrapture the sense. Moreover, on the altar no gleam of
candles distracted the nuns from their penitential prayers and
orisons. All was simple, sincere, and true.
" There was enough without that, they thought, to excite
piety, which has no need of things which attach the senses
too much to transport the heart in the wounds of Jesus
Christ." 3
Champagne, however, was an exception — he had become
1 Godefroi Hermant, Mtmoires, vol. v. p. 424.
2 The only treasures of the Churches of Port-Royal were the work of his
hands. At the Champs were his famous "Cene" (Last Supper), now in the
Louvre, with its panels of the Virgin and St. John the Baptist, while in the
cloisters was a beautiful " Christ at the Tomb," several other canvases being
scattered through the church.
8 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 149.

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MIRACLES AND SIGNS 213
an inseparable adjunct of their religion. And this was ex
plained by the nature of the man himself — austere and deeply
religious, he might have been a painter-copy of St. Cyran.
To live honestly and portray the Truth as he saw it, according
to his inner vision — this was his Rule of St. Bernard.
The bad odour under which Port-Royal suffered at Court
naturally reacted on Philippe de Champagne as on other
friends. For his last public work, the decoration of the
Castle of Vincennes prior to the advent of the new Queen
Marie-Therese, M. Colbert had delayed payment, treating
the great artist like a common workman.1 The illness
of his daughter next caused him exquisite pain, and she had
only just been cured when the troubles of the monastery
removed her farther than ever away from him. But to the end
this great painter quietly followed the principles he had ever
practised both in his life and in his art, enduring with Christian
piety and unconsciousness the attacks which the jealousy of
fellow-artists made upon him, seeing with indifference such
colleagues as Le Brun outstripping him in momentary renown.
The obloquy attaching to his name as friend of Port-Royal,
he accepted with the same resignation with which he had
suffered his daughter's decision to become a nun, led her to the
altar, and given his unique treasure to God. His last will and
testament breathes the same Christian spirit :
" Considering," it ran, " that there is nothing more certain
than death, but that the hour is not sure, I declare my firm
wish to live and die in the sentiments of the Apostolic Roman
Church ... all shall be done in simplicity, but I desire my
heir to have many prayers said for me, and the sacrifice of
the Mass performed by respectable priests. . . ." a
Among other bequests was a legacy to the Abbey of Port-
Royal des Champs, to which his daughter now belonged and
where she lingered on twelve years longer.
The mention of Philippe de Champagne's death in the
Necrologe of Port-Royal was as simple as his life and work.
It read :
"The 14th August 1674, decease of M. Philippe de
Champagne, good painter and good Christian." 3
1 Gazier, Philippe et Jean Baptiste de Champagne, p. 68.
2 Ch. Gailly de Taurines, Ptre et Fille, p. 250.
8 Ntcrologe de Notre-Dame de Port-Royal, p. 330.

CHAPTER V
EFFECT OF THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS ON PORT-
ROYAL— DEATH OF ANTOINE LE MAITRE
" La verite est bornee par les mers, les fleuves, les montagnes — un
meridien.'comme l'a dit Pascal, en decide. ... La religion est en elle-meme
et par elle-meme. Elle est la verite sur laquelle les lois ne decident
point." ROYER-COLLARD
IT has been said that one way to divide up the reign of
Louis xiv would be according to his Confessors, as his
conduct was regulated wholly by their advice.1 These
important personages belonged to the Society of Jesuits, and
it happened that at this period the priest in power was no
other than Pere Annat, one of the authors of the Formulary.
Recently been the subject of ridicule in connection with
his royal master, whose youthful indifference with regard
to religious matters was well known, the condemnation
of the so-called Apologie des Casuistes2 by both the Pope
and the Inquisition at about this time, covered Pere Annat
with confusion, and gave rise to the following song at the
expense of a Confessor who countenanced such relaxed morality.
Put in the mouth of Louis xiv, these words went the rounds
of Paris : " Le Pere Annat est rude,
Et me dit fort souvent
Qu'un pech6 d'habitude
Est un crime fort grand :
De peur de lui deplaire
Je change la Vallidre
Et prends la Montespan." 8
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 264.
2 A book written by a friend of Pere Annat's called Pere Pirot, pubhshed
in 1657, condemned in 1659.
8 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 265.
»?4

EFFECT OF THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 215
Nevertheless, this determined enemy of Port-Royal had
been steadily poisoning the King's mind against the nuns and
Solitaires, whose destruction he was bent on compassing at any
cost. It was said that every day for months the name of
Port-Royal was heard in the Council Chamber ofthe Louvre.
Accordingly, in March 1656 an order came to Port-Royal des
Champs for the dispersion of the Solitaires and pupils of the
schools, and in four days the so-called " Second Dispersion "
took place, M. d'Andilly leaving with the rest, and returning
to Pomponne. Mere Angelique wrote the details of the dis
persion to the Queen of Poland, ending her letter with the
remark :
" Our valley has been in truth a valley of tears." x
The Second Dispersion had hardly taken place before the
Queen Mother, who had been prime mover in the order regard
ing Port-Royal des Champs, repented of her deed, her repent
ance being partly occasioned by the Miracle of the Sacred
Thorn, partly by the Provincial Letters. Together these
two things had so worked on her piety as to cause her to
hesitate. As usual, her first expression of indulgence was
evidenced toward her friend M. d'Andilly. He had been but a
month at Pomponne when, by permission of the Queen, on the
first of May he returned to Port-Royal des Champs, there to
enjoy the opening of Spring. Mazarin too seemed indifferent.
So, much to the general surprise, a lull descended upon the
budding persecution of the Jansenists. Gradually, under the
surety of this happy respite, and although at heart the Port-
Royalists knew that trouble was still lurking in the background,
the Champs again became populous, and life at Port-Royal
de Paris also resumed its ordinary course.
It was during this season of calm that the Grande
Mademoiselle made her famous visit to Port-Royal des Champs
and M. d'Andilly. When she arrived, she found her father's
former secretary quietly translating Sainte-Therese, and on his
conducting her through the monastery she cried out in astonish
ment at the sight of images of the saints in the cells of the
nuns, everywhere quite as she was accustomed to see them
in other orthodox convents. Although her exclamation was
1 Letter of 24th March 1656. In speaking of the Solitaires, MSre Angelique
always called them " Nos Hermites."

216 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
heard, no one dared, as Mademoiselle proudly asserted, to
question her as to what it meant. M. d'Andilly was not so
timid as the nuns, and to him the Grande Mademoiselle con
fessed that she had not expected to see there those symbols of
simple devotion. M. d'Andilly's reply was :
" You are going back to the Court, you might render
testimony to the Queen of what you have seen."
This the Grande Mademoiselle promised to do, further remark
ing, at the end of her visit, the pleasure she had in all she had
seen and heard.1
During the respite, a great grief came to Port-Royal in
the death of its first Solitaire, Antoine Le Maitre, who on
Arnauld's flight after the censure had been chosen to
accompany his uncle into hiding, in order that he might
aid Port-Royal's controversialist with his pen. But on
beginning again to fill his days with literary labours, the
former man of letters found the old temptations assailing
him once more, and even after all the years of discipline
and self-denial he was still not strong enough to trust himself.
He therefore gave up his place to Nicole, who from thenceforth
became the inseparable friend and companion of the Grand
Arnauld.2 Alas ! for poor Le Maitre. He had never recovered from
that concupiscence of the mind, the love of knowledge for its
own sake with no useful object, analysed by Jansenius as the
greatest of three sinful passions.
" From this," said Jansenius, " have come the circus and
the amphitheatre, and all the vanity of tragedies and comedies ;
thence also comes the search into secrets of nature which do
not concern us, which it is useless to understand, and which
men wish to know only that they may know them." 3
Throughout the years of penitence and striving after the
annihilation of earthly pride and vainglory, how many times
during sleepless nights had not the Devil appeared to Le
Maitre and whispered in his ear some point of eloquence, some
argument to be used in one of those pleadings in which he had
1 Mile, de Montpensier, Mtmoires, vol. iii. p. 71.
8 See Suppltment au Ntcrologe, p. 258, for Le Maitre's letter on the subject
to Mere Agnes.
8 De la Reformation de V Homme Intirieur, translated by M. d'Andilly.

EFFECT OF THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 217
once taken unique delight. Going back again to his solitude
after the trial with Arnauld, he turned his face more resolutely
than ever toward Heaven, crucifying the last echoes of his
worldly ambition by a pilgrimage to Clairvaux and the shrine
of his patron, Saint Bernard, who also had fought the battle
of the soul in a wild solitude, and whose personality was no
less fiery and impulsive than his own. Fortunately, the un-
conquered Solitaire did not have to endure these struggles
much longer, for on the 4th November 1658 he passed away.1
In composing the epitaph of Port-Royal's first Solitaire,
M. Hamon emphasized especially his virtuous renunciation
of the greatest gift God had given him — that of eloquence,
which he replaced by the " humility of silence," and yet
which, never drying up in his breast, was generously used
whenever needed for the good of the community he loved.2
On hearing of his death, Gomberville exclaimed :
" The great orator of the French tongue is now speaking
the language of angels." 3
Anne of Austria's truce lasted four years, and at the end
of the time, Mazarin's so long apparent indifference to
religious controversy was explained by the successful issue
of negotiations he had been carrying on. The wedding of
the young Louis xiv to the Infanta of Spain, Marie-Therese,
marked the climax of the great minister's political career,
and for a time banished all other preoccupations from the
mind of France. On the 20th August 1660, amidst beating
of drums and rejoicings of every kind, the imposing entrance
of the new Queen into Paris took place. Amongst those
looking on at the ceremony from the balcony of the Hotel
de Beauvais at the Porte St. Antoine was the woman who
was later to have so fatal an effect on Port-Royal — Madame
Scarron, wife of the deformed and bitter poet of the Fronde,
and the future Madame de Maintenon.
Alone of all the world about them, the Solitaires and nuns
of Port-Royal were taking little account of the feastings
and rejoicings, the magnificence and gilded pomp. Their
pupil, Du Fosse, had in the enthusiasm of youth been curious
enough to view the pageant. When, after witnessing the
1 For Le Maitre's last days, see Du Fosse, Mtmoires, ii. pp. 16, 17.
2 Ibid. p. 25. 3 Ntcrologe, p. 419.

218 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
grand entrance of the Queen, and the twelve hours' progress
of the royal procession throughout Paris, he returned to the
solitude of Les Trous, the first person he met was De Saci.
In the midst of the quiet fields, this gentleman was pursuing
his daily reading of the Scriptures. With his recent en
thusiasm still fresh upon him, Du Fosse eagerly began to
relate the marvels he had seen, telling of the wonders of
decoration, the majesty of Louis xiv, the beauty of the
Spanish Infanta, covered with pearls and diamonds and
seated in a golden chariot. Closing his book, but keeping
his finger in it to mark his place, De Saci, with a touch of
very unsuspected humour, said :
" Is that all ? I had imagined diamonds larger than the
towers of Notre-Dame ! "
Then, opening his book again, he continued his reading of
the wonders of the New Jerusalem, where the gates were of
jasper, ornamented with precious stones, the streets of gold.
Before such a description, the wonders of the Porte St. Antoine,
with its gilded paper statues, paled indeed.1
It was in the very year of Louis xiv's marriage that
persecution boldly advanced again from its temporary
retirement. Hardly had the young King's wedding bells
ceased ringing, before the Lieutenant Civil d'Aubray was
on his way to Trous to work his devastating dispersion
of the last remnant of the Petites Ecoles. Accompanied
by the Procureur du Roi au Chdtelet, three commissaries,
and a police officer, he visited Chesnai also, and ordered
that strangers leave there within twenty-four hours. Among
these was M. de Bernieres, forbidden from henceforth ever to
put his house to a like purpose, and exiled to Issoudun.
One night soon after this, a nun at Port-Royal de Paris
had a strange dream. Feeling that a great peril was menacing
her, and looking toward heaven, she saw in the south a
thick cloud, and in this cloud a terrible beast, which seemed
to be covered with smoke and of an extraordinary blackness.
Its feet were bound, and it was making the most horrible
groans, moving and tormenting itself as if in impatience to
be liberated. It seemed to her, then, that some one, she
could not see whom, came to take off its bonds, whereupon
1 Du Fosse, Mtmoires, vol. ii. p. 54.

EFFECT OF THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 219
the roaring beast took its course directly for the monastery.
Assembled in the courtyard of the cloister, the nuns were
tremblingly waiting to see what the horrible monster would
do. With eyes lifted to heaven, they implored the succour
of God. Finally, after many roars around the walls, the
beast suddenly turned and advanced toward the Louvre,
then again retracing its steps, came furiously onward. All
at once, it stopped as if it had encountered some insurmount
able obstacle in its path; when, bending its head, full of
shame and confusion, it returned in silence to the place whence
it had issued.1
Shortly afterward, the King, calling to the Louvre the
heads of the Assembly still sitting in Paris, announced to
them his desire for the entire extermination of the Jansenists.
Three reasons, he said, caused this decision : "his honour,
his conscience, and the good of his State."
" Tell me," he continued, " what must I do to best compass
my determination ? "
The immediate cause of the King's enmity was the
receipt of a letter asking lenience toward the Port-Royalists,
evidently inspired by either Arnauld or his friends, but signed
by Cardinal Retz.2 Louis xiv had a most unpleasant recol
lection of the Fronde, and the very name of Retz angered
him. He particularly resented the loyalty of the Jansensists to
their Cardinal. A stranger visiting Paris at this epoch wrote
with a singularly keen view of the situation :
" The reason that the Jansenists are in disgrace is that
they are strong friends of Cardinal Retz, and that it is thought
they are a faction of his in the State." 3
Deliberating on the question, the Assembly, making a resolu
tion of their own to " exterminate and banish very far from
France the dogmas of Jansenius," decided that the best way
to ensure the purpose of the King was to have the Formulary
signed not only by the ecclesiastics of France, but by all
nuns and monks, regents and principals of colleges throughout
the land.4
Fifteen days after this decision, Mazarin died, and, to the
1 Histoire des Perstcutions des Religieuses de Port-Royal, pp. i and 2.
2 See Hermant, Mtmoires, vol. iii. p. 162.
8 Jbid. * ^id. iv. p. 509.

220 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
astonishment of the world, Louis xiv declared himself Master
of France ! At first, the defenders of Jansenius were hopeful
that this meant a favourable change in their affairs, but when
they saw the persons appointed by the King as his " Counsel
of Conscience," Pere de Marca and Pere Annat, they felt that,
with this increased power to their enemies, the enforcement of
the Formulary was but a pretext for inevitable persecution to
the death.1 1 Racine, Abrtgt, p. 117.

CHAPTER VI
PERSECUTION— DEATH OF MERE ANGELIQUE
" Votre heure est venue — voici la puissance des tenebres"
MERE ANGELIQUE had spent the winter of 1660-61 at
the Champs, where, unable to recover from a severe
Ulness, she continued to be in a state of great languor
and feebleness. She had long foreseen the coming troubles,
and exhorted the nuns to be ready for any emergency.
FinaUy, on rumour of imminent disaster, she herself, in
spite of her seventy years, her infirmities, and sufferings,
determined in April to set out for the post of danger. As
she got into the carriage which was to take her to Paris,
bidding M. d'Andilly adieu, she said :
" Good-bye, my brother ; be of good courage whatever
happens." " My sister, fear nothing, I am full of courage," replied
the Solitaire, somewhat pompously.
"Oh, my brother," exclaimed Mere Angelique, " let us
be humble. Let us remember that humility without firm
ness is cowardice, but that courage without humility is
presumption." 1
While on her journey, news was brought to Mere
Angelique that the Lieutenant Civil had himself visited
Port-Royal de Paris the day before, with the King's Order that
pupils, postulants, and novices must leave both monasteries,
and that the nuns were forbidden from thenceforth to receive
any prospective nuns or pupils. Stopping short on the road,
with the sisters who accompanied her, Mere Angelique at
once began to sing the Te Deum, saying that one must thank
God at all and every season. On her arrival in the Rue de la
1 Mtmoires et Relations, p. 263.

222 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Bourbe, finding some of the nuns weeping, she exclaimed in the
same spirit :
" What, my daughters ! Where is your faith ? "
Notwithstanding this courage, on seeing the next day the
poor girls turned out of the monastery, she was almost over
come, especially when two novices whom she had reared from
childhood came to ask her blessing.
And indeed the distress and sorrow of these girls touched
even the rude soldiers sent to tear them away from the nuns
they loved so devotedly.
" One would have had to possess the heart of a tiger," wrote
Arnauld, " not to be touched by the tears of the poor children,
who threw themselves at the feet of the nuns, begging them
not to let them be taken away." x
From the moment of the Lieutenant Civil's first visit to
Port-Royal de Paris, the work of persecution went relentlessly
on. Mere Agnes added to the King's displeasure by giving
the veil, after his order had arrived, to seven novices. On
hearing of her action, the King at once sent a command that
the habits of the novices be removed, and that they depart
within twenty-four hours.2
In May, Singlin, beloved Superior of Port-Royal de Paris,
to escape a lettre de cachet exiling him to Brittany, was obliged
to flee from the monastery into hiding. The new Superior,
M. Bail, appointed by the Grand Vicars of Paris, was not an
ill-intentioned man, but so prejudiced, says Racine, that
" At the mention of Port -Royal his very hair stood on
end." 3
One of his first acts was to send away all Jansenist confessors, and
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 118. In May of the same year, M.
Hermant, writing to the Marquise de Cr&vecceur at Port-Royal, spoke also
of the " tigers," as those must have been to so treat the nuns ; but he dwelt
on the consolation which was afforded by the constancy of the sisters under
all their misfortunes (Mtmoires, Hermant (Gazier), vol. iv. p. 665).
2 Racine relates that these seven novices, on returning to their homes,
could never be persuaded to give up their nun's garb. " They wore it for
three years, always awaiting the time when it would please God to reopen
the doors of a house to which they realized their salvation was attached"
(Abrtgt, p. 126).
8 Ibid. p. 127.

PERSECUTION— DEATH OF MERE ANGELIQUE 223
this measure was followed by another visit from the Lieutenant
Civil. At the early hour of half-past six in the morning,
the officials knocked at the door of Madame de Sable's apart
ments, their purpose being to discover a suspected exit at the
back of the establishment. The Marquise was still in bed,
but they had her rudely awakened, and after searching her
rooms, continued their visit to M. de Sevign£, Mile. Gadeau,
and Mile. d'Atre, also lodging in the court. As Madame de
Guemene" was absent, they returned in a day or two to search
her apartment, sealing up all the doors leading to the court —
especially that of Madame de Sable — and ordering the outside
walls heightened. Writing to Madame de Sable with regard
to this occurrence, Mile, de Vertus condoned with her friend
that there was not a man of quality among the " Council of
Conscience," as she called it.1
At last M. de Contes, Dean of Notre-Dame, and one of the
Grand Vicars of Paris, concerted with some of the Messieurs
in drawing up a sort of compromise, whereby the nuns might
sign the Formulary without actually discrediting themselves.
This compromise was called the First Mandement, and Pascal is
said to have had a hand in its composition. On the 23rd June
1661, all the Paris nuns signed this amended Formulary.
While these events were going on, for two or three months
the Champs was left in peace. But as soon as the signature
had been accomplished in Paris, attention was turned to the
country. It was said that just before the Lieutenant Civil
reached the monastery there, a large oak was struck by
lightning, and its branches broken into a thousand pieces,
leaving the naked trunk standing alone. The nuns regarded
this as a presage, and in reality it seems that, remaining
without branch or foliage for four years, when the Peace of
the Church came, the tree again put forth bud and blossom.
It was in July that the lightning broke upon Port-Royal
des Champs in the shape of a visit from M. Bail, attended
by M. de Contes. Remaining two months, before the
two Vicars left all at the Champs had signed the amended
Formulary. These scenes at Port-Royal de Paris and at the Champs,
long letters to her nuns in the country, interviews and con
sultations, processions in which she took part, various duties
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 134.

224 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
in the monastery — where she was the head and the comfort —
were at last too much for even Mere Angelique's iron will.
One day she joined in a procession made for the purpose of
asking God to grant the prayers of the seven dismissed novices
that they might remain at Port-Royal. Holding a relic of the
true Cross in her hands, and with bare feet, the heroic nun
trailed her unwilling body the length of the cloisters, but on
returning to the choir she fell down in weakness, and had to be
taken to her bed, from which she was never again to rise.
For two months she languished in great pain of body, and,
strange to say, suffering of mind, for the fear of the Supreme
Mystery had come to torture her soul with a last test.
The idea of Death had always been abhorrent to Mere
Angelique. According to her conception of the mystery, she
could not comprehend how a Christian with faith could think
of, or occupy himself with, anything .else all his life than the
remembrance that he had to die, and preparation for that
terrible hour. Like Le Maitre, she too feared her Judge, and
confessed that she felt as might a criminal awaiting sentence
at the foot of the scaffold.1
While she was lying in this state, news came that the King
was not contented with the Mandement, so the dying Mere
Angelique was persuaded to write a last appeal to the Queen
Mother on the ground that Her Majesty had always had such
a regard for M. d'Andilly. In this letter, recapitulating the
entire history of the monastery, its trials, its miracles, the
calumnies against it, the good mother begged Anne of Austria
to accord it her protection. Philip h of Spain, she reminded
the Queen, had given his to Sainte-Therese, who with the
Fathers of her Order had in like manner been calumniated
before the Pope by similar accusations of heresy.2
Finishing this letter in the midst of convulsions and agony,
she then refused to concern herself more with the affairs of this
world. Death had now lost its terror, and, as she said to those
around her, she was in a complete solitude and separation from
all things earthly, occupied solely with the Heavenly Vision.
Lying on her bed with her eyes raised to Heaven, she opened
her lips only to address short impassioned words to God, and to
recite passages from the Psalms and other parts of Scripture.
Finally, on the Day of the Transfiguration, 6th August 1661,
1 Mtmoires et Relations, p. 266. 2 Du Foss6, Mtmoires, ii. p. 72.

PERSECUTION— DEATH OF MERE ANGELIQUE 225
she passed away quietly, thanking God that she died in poverty
of terrestrial goods. Her last words were :
" O Jesus ! O Jesus, Thou art my God, Thou art my
justice, Thou art my force, Thou art my all ! " x
The next day, her body being exposed in the church accord
ing to custom, such crowds of people came to touch the body
of the revered " Mother of the Poor," as they called her, with
their rosaries and missals, that until her interment two sisters
did nothing else than receive and return these articles.
To Port-Royal de Paris was entrusted the remains of this
" fille veritablement illustre et digne, la plus belle, la plus
pure, la plus sainte, des figures de Port -Royal." 2
She was interred in the entrance to the Nuns' Choir, and
there her ashes still remain. Piles of linen hide her tomb, no
longer in a part of the church, but separated, and in an
enclosure used by the Maternity Hospital as a laundry. Her
name is seldom noticed by the humble workers who surround
her, and thus at last she has realized the lifelong endeavour
of her penitence to remain in the silence and in the shadow.3
Mere Angelique's death was followed three months later by
that of " the first victim of the Formulary "—Jacqueline
Pascal. This sensitively conscientious Mistress of Novices and
Sub-prioress of Port-Royal des Champs had been through the
humiliation of the Interrogatory of Messrs. Bail and Contes,
and had been staunch in her defence of truth. In a letter
to Mere Angelique de St. Jean on the signature of the Formu
lary, she had said :
" If it is not for us to defend the truth, it is for us to die for
the truth "—
a premonition of what was to happen to her. In her Memoires
on the affairs of her own family and Port-Royal, Marguerite
Perier sums up in a few words the cause of her aunt's death :
" My aunt was there (at Port-Royal des Champs) when
they were ordered to send away the novices and postulants,
1 Mtmoires et Relations, p. 293. 2 Ntcrologe de Port-Royal.
8 Among her last instructions was the following : " I beg that I be interred
in the courtyard, and that after my death little foolery be made."
" The best part of persecution," she wrote, " is humiliation, and humility
is preserved by silence. Guard it, then, at the feet of Jesus Christ, and expect
your support from His bounty."
*5

226 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
at the beginning of the persecution of the nuns for the signature
of the Formulary. This latter afflicted her so sensibly that
she said and wrote to several people that she knew she would
die because of it, — and this indeed happened, the 4th of
October 1661." x
The short but significant history of this woman of thirty-
six, a being whom Nature had endowed rarely, but who had
elected to allow the rich fountain of her enthusiasm to be pent
up within the walls of a convent, and had fallen a martyr to her
idea of a duty betrayed, brings up a question which, continually
recurring to the human mind, is never answered satisfactorily :
that is, the utility of self-immolation in the rehgious life.
There are two opposed courses through the world : the straight
and narrow path, and the broad road. The first is represented
in philosophy by Stoicism, the second by Epicureanism.
Port-Royal portrays, says M. Cousin, the stoical study of the
problem of human life, while Jacqueline Pascal was the extreme
of even the Port-Royal morality, her whole life, instead of
being a gloriously worked-out progression, the beginning of
a triumphant march through aU phases of being up to the
eternal existence in God, was in reality only a death in life —
refusal to accept the vital joy which would have been hers for
the taking. This is a broad criticism, and one which has its
exceptions, as in the case of Mere Angelique and Mere Agnes.
Their example and influence reached out into the mass and
body of their fellow-creatures,2 their interest in the world
about them being comparatively warm and human. Jacqueline
too lived " in humility and silence," and died from remorse at a
lapse of conscience.
1 Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 80.
2 We have a confirmation of this in the epitaph contained in the Ntcrologe,
i. p. 312, which speaks of Mere Angelique as a " Coeur fidele a son epoux,
et capable par son etendue de comprendre non seulement un monastere,
mais l'Eglise entiere . . . tout ce qu'elle a fait, est cependant moindre que
ce qu'elle a ete."

CHAPTER VII
THE CULMINATION OF PASCAL'S RELIGIOUS LIFE
" Toute notre dignit6 consiste done en la pensee. C'est de la qu'il faut
nous relever, non de l'espace et de la dur6e, que nous ne saurons remplir.
Travaillons done a bien penser : Voila le principe de la morale." — Pascal,
Penstes ON hearing the news of his sister's courageous and pious
death, Blaise Pascal gave an incontestable proof of
Gilberte's assertion that, although he had an extreme
tenderness for his family, his feeling did not go as far as
" attachment." His only comment was :
" May God give us grace to die as well ! "
And when Gilberte showed her sorrow at their loss, he rebuked
her, saying :
" Do not grieve over the death of the Just." x
Since his conversion and consequent rehgious austerities,
Pascal's health, if not improved, had at least been kept more
under his control : he seemed to be able to rise above it,
and to carry the burden of the flesh cheerfully and joyfully.
He never did or thought anything by halves. Thus, in
going into rehgion, the zealot in him established two rules
to which thereafter he rigidly adhered : the renouncing of
pleasure and the casting off of superfluities. Beyond the-
employment of a cook and some one to run errands and do
unavoidable things, he curtailed to a minimum the ministra
tions of those about him ; his room was shorn of hangings ;
his whole time consumed in prayer and the reading of the
Bible, in which he took extraordinary pleasure, and which he
said was not a science of the mind but of the heart, intellig-
1 Madame Perier, Vie de Pascal.
227

228 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
ible only to the upright.1 His sister Gilberte relates that he
wore an iron belt with sharp points round his waist, and when
any thought of vanity, pleasure or attachment came to him,
he would strike himself roughly with his elbow to make the
points dig still farther into his flesh. This practice he con
tinued throughout his life, even though at the last his maladies
grew so acute that he could no longer either read or write.
Being thus reduced to spending his days without occupation,
the iron belt was more than ever needed, he said, to keep him
strong in his views of salvation.
His new love for the science of religion had apparently
swallowed up the former devotion to the mathematical sciences,
but it is human to read that when tortured by pain he again
resorted to his old genius. During sleepless hours entailed
by a cruel toothache, there occurred to his mind, quite un
expectedly, some thoughts on the subject of the roulette or
cycloid, and in less than eight days, in the midst of the most
intense suffering, he found a method which solved problems
with regard to this geometrical curve which Roberval and
Torricelli had begun but had not finished. Complicated and
limited under the treatment of these men, in Pascal's hand
this method became general and uniform.2
This digression of the hours of suffering seems to have been
Pascal's only return to his former pursuits, and, writing to
Fermat two years before his death, he confessed that although he
found geometry the highest exercise of the mind, at the same
time he recognized it to be so useless in the nobler science of
the heart and soul, that he would not differentiate between a
skilled geometrician and a simple artisan.3
Unfortunately it was not long before Pascal's health began
to be so much worse that books and writing were interdicted,
and he was forbidden any work. Everybody about him
endeavoured to follow out this prohibition by entertaining
the sick man with things that required no application or con
centration. Although they could keep books from him, and
prevent him from doing actual labour, it was impossible to
hinder his active mind from producing. Sometimes he had the
1 Madame Perier, Vie de Pascal, p. 43.
2 Essay on Pascal's scientific works, by Bossut, Pensies, ed. Louandre,
p. 91. 8 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 318.

CULMINATION OF PASCAL'S RELIGIOUS LIFE 229
strength, when these ideas occurred to him, to sit down at once
and develop them ; at other times, both the energy and the
power to exert his brain were lacking. Being fully conscious —
saddest thought of all — that his memory in its present state
was no longer retentive, and not wishing to lose these con
ceptions, he adopted the method of noting his reflections as they
came to him on the first piece of paper at hand, indifferent
whether with pen or pencil, often during his walks even
writing on his nails.1 For four years this continued — the
moment never arrived when the suffering thinker could bring
himself to the task of marshalling his thought forms into order
and sequence, so that, when finally Death came, it found the
Pensees a voluminous bundle of notes, unarranged, unassorted,
and incomplete.
One of the last acts of his life shows most graphically
the change in him, and illustrates the sincerity of the Pensees,
After the revocation of the First Mandement, the learned
doctors and confessors of Port-Royal often met together to hold
counsel as to how to act in the event of a Second. One day,
after many things had been written for and against, a last
meeting was called in Pascal's rooms. On one side were Arnauld,
Nicole, Sainte-Marthe, and with them most of the party.
On the other, Domat, Roannes, Perier, and Pascal. Each
man expressed his opinion, but Blaise Pascal, who had
supported the effort at a settlement which had resulted in the
signing of the First Mandement with the amendment affixed
to it, was now found to differ absolutely. He had made his
last compromise. Earnestly he expressed his opinion that in
conscience they could not sign, for to do so, he said, would be
to tacitly condemn the Efficacious Grace of God, which was the
corner-stone of the faith of Jansenism.2 After a long dis
cussion, everybody there sided with Arnauld and Nicole, the
two authors of the proposed Second Compromise, against
Pascal and his three friends. At that moment a strange thing
happened to Pascal. He suddenly fainted away. This
broke up the assembly, and when the Periers, Domat, and
Roannes were left alone with Pascal, Madame Perier asked her
brother the cause of the accident.
" When I saw," said Pascal, " persons whom I had re-
1 Strowski, Pascal et son Temps, vol. iii. p. 220.
2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 355.

230 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
garded as those to whom God had made Truth known, and
who should have been its defenders, shaken and giving hands
to the fall, I confess that I was seized with such pain that I
could not endure it, but had to succumb." *•
IU before, from the hour of this meeting in his rooms
Pascal's malady grew worse and worse, and in six months
he followed his sister Jacqueline, his death, like hers, being
undoubtedly hastened by disappointment in Port-Royal.
Two months before the end, leaving his own house, he
went to live with Madame Perier. This move was occasioned
by the illness of the child of his housekeeper with the smallpox.
As Madame Perier had little children, she naturally could not
run the risk of visiting her brother under the circumstances.
Rather than disturb the sick child, Blaise inconvenienced
himself, saying :
" There is less danger for me in this change of habitation,
therefore it is for me to go."
The elder sister, who nursed him so faithfully in his last
illness, tells us how the great philosopher and Christian
received the final mystery. At the highest point of his
agony, a Stoic still, he exclaimed :
" Do not pity me, illness is the natural state of Christians." 2
How different this from the famous epigram on the Dis
cours de I' Amour :
" How happy is the life that begins with love and finishes
with ambition ! If I had to choose, I would choose that." 3
After many warnings, death finally came so suddenly that
the watchers by his bedside feared he would go without the
supreme consolation ; but at midnight, at the very moment
when they thought he was dying, the Cure" of St. Etienne
du Mont, who; with M. de Sainte-Marthe had been attending
him, entered the sick-room bearing the Sacrament. Half
rising in his bed, the dying man received the extreme unction
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 356.
2 Madame Perier, Vie de Pascal (Louandre edition of the Penstes), p. 69.
8Qu'une vie est heureuse quand elle commence par l'amour et qu'elle
finit par 1'ambition ! Si j'avais a en choisir une, je prendrais celle-la."

CULMINATION OF PASCAL'S RELIGIOUS LIFE 231
with so tender a joy that he shed tears, and, blessing the holy
pyx, whispered :
" May God never abandon me ! "
It has been said that this great man never belonged to
Port-Royal at all, and two years after his death the Arch
bishop of Paris tried to prove this by the testimony of the
Cure" of St. Etienne, from whom he extracted a kind of declara
tion that Pascal had blamed Arnauld and the other Messieurs
and retracted his Jansenist sentiments. The Jesuits gladly
took hold of this testimony for their own uses, but it was
afterwards proved that the Cure had misunderstood Pascal's
words. Convinced by the philosopher's family that Pascal
was more really akin to St. Cyran and Jansenius than even
Arnauld himself, the Cure then withdrew his statements.
Only the night before his death, Pascal had confessed to
M. de Sainte-Marthe, and during his last illness, not only
Arnauld, but Nicole and others of Ces Messieurs, had been
admitted to bis bedside.
Pascal had himself, it is true, denied connection with
Port-Royal in one of the Provincial Letters. In reply to
Pere Annat's challenge to " The Secretary of Port-Royal,"
he wrote in the 17th Provincial :
" You suppose primarily that he who is writing the Letters
is of Port -Royal. . . . Thus I have not great trouble in de
fending myself of the accusation because I do not belong to it,
and I will refer you to my letters, in which I say that / am
alone, and in proper terms, that I am not at all of Port -Royal."
The first two Provincial Letters were, however, actually
written from Port -Royal des Champs. Afterward, when
living behind the Sorbonne, the Secretary of Port-Royal dined
every day with the other exiles.
It is true that in his spirit Pascal differed from the later
apostles of Jansenism ; for, while they were essentially theo
logians, and reasoned from that standpoint, Pascal, on the
contrary, was a scientist, and pursued the simple decisive
system of geometry, deducing truths from no theoretical
point, but from his own experience. He himself had actually
undergone that efficacious and sufficient grace of God which
made Jansenism a living truth. The blood of Christ had

232 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
been shed for the being elected and singled out from among
his fellows, and that favoured person was he.
Once aroused, Blaise Pascal had gone to even greater ex
tremes in the rigour of his religious austerities than his sister.
And he has been called the " Exaggeration of Port-Royal," 1
as well as of the religious spirit of the seventeenth century.
Yet their individual conceptions of religion were very different.
Jacqueline was a person of little if any imagination : no
picture ever came before her mind to lighten stern reality ;
and her methods of reflection were, strange to say for a poet
— as Blaise himself said — " as brutal as a blow with a stick."
Blaise, on the contrary, had an imagination of fire. He
seems, therefore, a more human character than his sister,
for, while her greatest claim to remembrance was the influence
she exerted on her brother, he, even in the scourging of his
own flesh, used the tremendous powers of his mind and heart
in the defence and promulgation of the truth as he under
stood it.
And by spiritual fellowship he belonged indubitably to the
great souls of Port- Royal: to St. Cyran, Mere Angelique, Singlin.
With them he will ever be classed. Yet it was not through
the Provincials — however much they defended Port-Royal in
the moment of its need — that he approached the monastery.
His real connection, like that of Racine, came more surely
through the culmination and latest expression of his religious
maturity : his Pensees. In this work he denies the essence
of the Provincials — which is that of fighting the world with
its own weapons — and returns to the true spirit of St. Augustine
when he wrote :
" Assuredly the laws of language are not written so deeply
on our hearts as the rule of conscience : ' Do not to another
what thou wouldst not that he should do unto thee.' "
1 V. Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 339.

CHAPTER VIII
A FORTUNATE RESULT OF THE PERSECUTIONS-
INTEREST OF THE DUCHESSE DE LONGUEVILLE
" Vous serez comme des Dieux "
THE silver lining to the heavy cloud hanging over Port
Royal in 1662 was the interest which the sufferings
of the nuns occasioned in the breast of a distinguished
penitent associated with the neighbouring Convent of the
Carmelites. Sister to. the Grand Conde, a princess of the blood and
cousin to Louis xiv, Anne Genevieve de Bourbon, Duchesse
de Longueville, had had a history of unexampled brilliance
and sadness combined. Even now her name never evokes
the picture of a stern, serious, and repentant sinner, rather
that of a young, beautiful, aristocratic, and gracious but
indiscreet woman of the world, surrounded by lovers, lights,
gaiety, music, and voluptuousness. Yet nearly half of her
life was spent, as the epitaph written on her tomb in the
Church of St. Jacques du Haut Pas testifies :
" detached from all things of the earth, and from life
itself ; and completely occupied with thoughts of eternity."
What a history hers of love and war and heroic deeds !
Her father, Henri 11 de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, was
that same cousin of Henry iv, husband of Charlotte de Mont
morency, who had flown with his bride to Brussels out of
reach of the amorous King. On Henry iv's assassination,
the Prince, considered by some as the rightful heir to the
throne, was tempted to usurp the kingdom, but, sailing over
from Holland with his adherents, he found in France not a
crown, but arrest and imprisonment. On the 28th August

234 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
1619, Anne Genevieve was born within the austere walls
of her^father's prison at Vincennes. Two months afterward,
Louis xiii restored to the Prince de Conde not only his
sword and his liberty, but his princely rank and ancestral
estates. «The early life of Mile, de Bourbon was spent in the Hotel
de Conde at Paris, an immense palace which occupied the
site of the present Odeon. The Princesse de Conde, her mother,
while fond of admiration, was also very religious, and it was
her custom to make frequent visits to the Convent of the
Carmelites. From her earliest years the little Anne accom
panied her mother on these visits. Piety was therefore her
first passion. She loved the nuns, and for a time religion
became so real to her that it obscured comprehension of any
other emotion. At thirteen, absolutely ignorant of the
world and her own nature, she announced her desire to enter
the convent of the Carmelites as a nun.
But Madame la Princesse, however religiously disposed
herself, could not conscientiously allow her young daughter
to carry out such evident fanaticism. Instead of the convent,
therefore, Mile, de Bourbon was told that by decree of both
parents she was to enter society. Hitherto the slightest
social duties had bored her inexpressibly, yet when her mother
questioned her concerning her indifference she had been politic
enough to reply :
" You, Madame, have such touching graces, that as I only
go about with you, and appear after you, one finds none in
me." x
On learning that she must now make her formal entrance
into society, the young Princess went to consult her dear
Carmelites as to what to do. They counselled her to obey
her parents, so, making a compromise with her conscience by
putting a cilice underneath her lovely gown and sparkling
jewels, Anne Genevieve made ready for her debut at the
famous ball given by Louis xiii at the Louvre. From the
moment Mile, de Bourbon entered the ballroom that night
of the 18th February 1635 a wave of admiration passed
through the assembled multitude of courtiers, and instantly
she was surrounded by the handsomest and most distinguished
1 Villefore, Vie de Madame la Duchesse de Longueville, p. 13.

A FORTUNATE RESULT OF PERSECUTIONS 235
of the land. Heaped with adulation and flattery, the subtle
poison sank so quickly into the heart beating under the
cilice, that on leaving the scene of her triumph its owner sought
in vain in her soul for her former distaste of society. It
had vanished, as from that hour disappeared also her deep
religious desire to become a nun. Although she still con
tinued to visit the good Carmelites from time to time, and
corresponded with them all her life, she soon forgot the
language of piety, and was dumb in their presence. She
had descended from heaven to earth, drawing down with
her the ladder by which she had ascended.
Madame de Motteville describes her beauty with the pen
of an enthusiast.1 It consisted essentially in a certain in
comparable charm of complexion, that " tint of pearl " for
which she became renowned. Her eyes were blue, sweet
and brilliant ; her hair silver blonde and like an aureole
round her head. AU this, added to an air of perfect distinction,
gave her an irresistible aUurement felt by men and women
alike. It so happened that Mademoiselle de Bourbon's entrance
into society coincided with her eldest brother's return from
the Jesuit College at Bourges, where he had been finishing
his education. With admiration and affection the young
Due d'Enghien, afterward famous as the Great Conde\ made
firm friends with Anne, accompanying her and his mother
to the Hotel de RambouiUet, then at the very zenith of its
vogue and brUliancy. Here brother and sister both shone
by their attainments. Queen of all activities, discussions,
intrigues, around the blonde aureole of the Princess revolved
popularity, fortune, honour.
Popular in a less precieux manner than his sister, the
Due d'Enghien did not spend his time sighing and making
compliments, but in laughing with Voiture and the other
wits, and in admiring CorneUle. Early in his career he had
adopted " Noblesse oblige " as his device, and had learned
to subdue his own inclinations to the obligations imposed
upon him by his birth and rank. Thus, in 1641, he obeyed
the command of his father, and, breaking with the woman
he really loved, for ambition's sake, he married the young
and awkward MUe. de Breze, niece of the powerful Richelieu !
1 Mtmoires, ii. pp. 14-20.

236 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
The year after her brother's marriage, MUe. de Bourbon
was in her turn made the victim of an iU-assorted union.
At that date Conde, intent only on averting for his sister
the fate which he had endured — marriage into the house of
Richelieu — hurriedly united her to a gentleman twenty-four
years older, a widower with a grown-up daughter of seventeen,
but one who had the distinction to be, after the princes of
the blood, the greatest gentleman in France — the Due de
Longueville. The wedding was gay and brilliant in the
extreme. But from the beginning marriage brought the
young bride little happiness. During the first year her
beauty was threatened by an attack of smaUpox, and all
her friends, save only MUe. de RambouiUet, fled from her
side. Singularly enough, the dread disease spared her, and
left her more triumphantly beautiful than before. Then
scandal was wrongly fixed upon her shoulders by jealousy,
and the affair of a falsely attributed love-letter brought into
general notice by her relatives demanding public reparation.
Some people asserted that hidden behind the windows of
the house of the old Duchesse de Rohan in the Place Royale,
Madame de Longuevflle herself was so cold-blooded as to
witness the resultant duel. If, indeed, she was looking out
of those windows, she saw a sight that must have remained
in her memory throughout many sleepless nights, for the
Due de Guise, the champion of Madame de Montbazon, who
had started the scandal, killed her own perfectly blameless
" martyr," the Comte de Coligny. Nor could the foUowing
song which went the rounds of Paris diminish her self-
reproach : " Essuyez vos beaux yeux,
Madame de Longueville,
Essuyez vos beaux yeuxj
Coligny se porte mieux
S'il a demande la vie,
Ne l'en blamez nullement
Car c'est pour 6tre votre amant
Qu'il veut vivre eternellement." 1
Soon after wedding Mile, de Bourbon, the Due de Longue-
viUe was sent on a diplomatic mission to Munster, and it
was at this period, when left behind in Paris, that Madame
de LongueviUe met the fatal influence of her life, the Prince
1 Madame de Motteville, Mtmoires, i. p. 201.

A FORTUNATE RESULT OF PERSECUTIONS 237
de MarcUlac, afterward Due de la Rochfoucauld. Opinions
differ as to the nature of the relationship between the author
of the Maxims and Madame de Longueville. Yet upon a
conception of it depends any real understanding of the life
of either. M. Cousin, Madame de LongueviUe's admiring
biographer, almost her lover, two centuries after she had left
the flesh, anathematizes La Rochefoucauld as the basest of
men,1 and attributes his so-called love for Madame de Longue
ville uniquely to a desire to obtain the favour of her brother
the Great Conde. Other authors make Madame de Longue
ville out a cruel Circe, who, after playing on the affections
of men, coldly dismissed them from her side. La Roche
foucauld is the witness to his own perfidy, as in his Memoires
he confesses that in attaching himself originally to Madame
de Longueville he was actuated by desire for revenge against
Anne of Austria and Mazarin, whom he had once served, and
who were now refusing him advancement.
There seems little doubt that love for La Rochefoucauld
precipitated Madame de LongueviUe into the Fronde — that
humorous war of self-seekers, in which the feminine element
prevaUed, and wherein gaUantry ruled women and warriors
alike — and that it was for him that she committed all the
sins of which she repented during twenty-seven years.2
The rest of the story of the two lovers is sordid enough. By
1651, having personally experienced the misery of war in the
devastation of his family estates, La Rochefoucauld was tired of
the contest, and of his love. Madame de LongueviUe, on her
part, stiU devoted to him, wished to continue the struggle in
order to avoid rejoining her husband. The end was evident
and inevitable, — growing coolness on the part of the Duke ; the
succumbing to a new excitement on the part of this essentiaUy
subjective intrigeuse, to whom the pleasing of some one was an
ever-present necessity.
Thus when, in 1652, the signing of the Treaty of Ruel
brought peace to Paris, it awakened Madame de LongueviUe
to disiUusionment and despair. Little by little she had
1 Madame de Longueville, p. 350 (edition 1853).
2 Her stepdaughter, the Duchesse de Nemours, wrote (Mtmoires, p. 18) :
" It was La Rochefoucauld who insinuated to this Princess so many crude
and false statements, ... as he had a very great influence with her, and as
he thought only of himself, he made her engage in all the intrigue in which
he took part, only in order to accomplish his own interest thereby."

238 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
been tasting the dregs of life, her adventurous spirit graduaUy
extinguished, not by faUure of plans, not by misfortune,
but by the bitterness of love grown cold, of affection proved
false and worthless. Through these things she had come to
realize how unworthy any human creature is of either love
or esteem, and through sorrow learned that to God alone belongs
devotion and complete abandonment.1 In this state of mind
she bethought herself of her old friends the nuns. Writing
in 1653 from Bordeaux to these dear Carmelites, she wearUy
confessed her desire to end her days with them, adding that
what had brought her to this resolution was the fact that any
attachments to the world of any nature whatever she may
formerly have had were now aU broken and severed.
M Under the pressure of this feeling a great desire for penit
ence now possessed her. It would have been easy to take
refuge with the nuns, and to give herself up to the passive
virtues connected with conventual life. That she realized
another and greater ideal of penance in going back to her
husband, her chUdren, and those homely domestic duties
connected with the station of wife and mother, demonstrates
her intrinsic sincerity and worth. Her actual religious awaken
ing took place in 1654. At Moulins, in the Convent of the
Filles de la Visitation, where she had gone from her exUe after
the Fronde to visit her aunt, its Superior, the veil seemed to
fall from her eyes, and in her own words :
" I found myself like a person who suddenly awakens
from a long sleep in which she has dreamed she was great,
happy, honoured, and esteemed, and discovers that she is
loaded with chains," pierced with wounds, overcome with
languor, and shut up in an obscure prison." 2
Thus, when shortly afterward the Due de LongueviUe came to
fetch his wife into his government of Normandy, he found the
former imperious Princess become a humble penitent, deter
mined to atone for her sins against God and man.
While living in Normandy during the next few years, Madame
de LongueviUe occasionaUy came to Paris, and in the meantime
exchanged many and frequent letters with Madame de Sable\
It is to the preservation of these more than two hundred
1 Madame de Motteville, Mtmoires, iii. p. 472.
2 Lettre a Mere Agnes aux Carmelites, 1 1 Juin 1653.

A FORTUNATE RESULT OF PERSECUTIONS 239
documents, which should have been burned, according to
promise, but which were preserved by Madame de Sable's
secretary and confidant, Dr. Valant, that we owe many details
of her life.
In 1660, Madame de Sable wrote reproaching her friend for
not coming to see her at Port-Royal, and attributing this
omission to the trouble the Jansenists were then having.
Madame de LongueviUe replied :
" All the Jansenism in the world would not have prevented
me from going to see you had I been longer in Paris." x
In 1661 she wrote again in answer to a simUar reproach :
" The disturbance at your house would not keep me from
going there if I had had the design. I shaU immediately
decide upon it. Therefore I shall see you on Wednesday,
and we wiU speak of this affair, and of a thousand other things."
" This affair " meant the Jansenist cause. Although for many
years Madame de LongueviUe had had leanings toward Port-
Royal, having been one of those impressed with the Book
of the Frequent Communion, finding in it, as in all the
writings and manners of Ces Messieurs, a politeness which
charmed her,2 no doubt the talk with Madame de Sable with
regard to the persecution then going on, at the interview above
mentioned, was the means of bringing her eventually to Port-
Royal. And it was through Madame de Sable that shortly after
ward the Duchess asked for an interview with Mere Angelique.
On seeing the faith and courage of this great saint, her own
heroic spirit rose to meet that of the then dying religieuse.
It is said that her one visit with Mere Angelique accom
plished more than Madame de Sable had been able to effect in
months of exhortation : from that moment she was devoted
heart and soul to the cause of Port-Royal persecuted.3 On her
1 V. Cousin, Madame de Sablt, Lettre du 31 Dec. 1660.
2 Rapin, Mtmoires, vol. i. p. 35.
3 M. Cousin explains this devotion as follows : "It was because in Madame
de Longueville, side by side with the angelic sweetness which the unanimous
testimony of contemporaries attributes to her, there was a pride which rendered
odious to her all tryanny, and inclined her to the side of the oppressed. It
was because Port-Royal had for her the attraction of a persecuted cause. . . .
She became a Jansenist through generosity, admiration, friendship" (Madame
de Sablt, p. 223).

240 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
part, Mere Angelique was at once enthusiastically sympathetic
with Madame de LongueviUe, and wrote to Madame de Sable :
" Tout ce que j'ai vu en peu de temps de cette princesse
m'a semble tout d'or fin."
At once, too, Mere Angelique divined the new penitent's
need for spiritual direction, and desired for her the guidance of
Singlin, her own director. Although the latter was in hiding
at the time, through the means of Mere Angelique, who knew
his whereabouts, he was induced to consent to visit Madame
de LongueviUe in her house at the Carmelites, and by adopting
the disguise of a physician in an enormous wig and dark brown
mantle, managed to enter unsuspected.
It did not take the acute healer of souls long to discover
his new patient's weak points, but he also found her determined
to correct them. Under his direction she wrote a long
analysis of her own character, and the faults which had com
passed her divergence from the straight path, couched in terms
of the greatest candour and hunulity. She was clear-sighted
enough to trace aU her misfortunes back to the besetting sin of
pride which, she confessed, had made her firm in the belief
that her virtue could not be shaken, and induced her to rely on
her own character in the conquering of temptation.
" Vous serez comme des Dieux,"
the world had said to her. As she thus reviewed her life,
horror of what she had been led her to the very borders of
that greatest of all dangers, discouragement. It was Singlin
who saved her from this pitfaU, by inducing her to divert
her mind and heart by doing good to others. He suggested
the compensation of those whom during the Fronde she had
been instrumental in ruining. This wise counseUor also advised
her to devote herself to the education of her chUdren, and to
remain in the world with the new ideal of piety and unselfishness.
On M. Singlin's death, in 1664, Madame de LongueviUe was
again thrown into distress, for she was stiU very dependent on
spiritual advice. Her loss was lessened a short time later by
a determination to put herself under the direction of M.
de Saci.

CHAPTER IX
OTHER WORLDLY SYMPATHIZERS
" Ah ! pour etre devot, je ne suis pas moins homme."
Le Tartuffe, Moliere
THE Grand Conde was not Madame de LongueviUe's only
brother. Younger than either of them, and in every
^ way a contrast, was Armand de Bourbon, Prince de
Conti. This youngest son of the Prince de Conde was a great
contrast to his elder brother. WhUe Louis, Due d'Enghien,
afterward the Grand Conde, was tall, handsome, and manly, the
Prince de Conti was smaU, ugly, and effeminate. The one was
destined for war and battle, the other for the Church. Both
were educated in Jesuit CoUeges, both scholarly, the younger
surpassing in this respect the elder, for whUe Conde lost his
taste for learning amid the excitement of the bivouac and the
attack, Conti fostered his inherent love for letters in the
leisure moments which are the luxury of a Prince endowed from
an early age with rich ecclesiastical benefices. In addition to
the tastes of the scholar, the Prince de Conti possessed other and
less worthy inclinations, which led him into extremes of dissipa
tion. Meeting his beautiful sister on her return to Paris just
before the Fronde, when he was but nineteen, she ten years
older, he feU desperately in love with her,1 and during the early
years of the struggle he blindly followed her lead in aU things,
even to j oining the Frondist party. Afterward, recovering from
his infatuation, he abandoned his sister's cause, and made his
peace with Mazarin by a marriage with the finest of the great
Cardinal's nieces, Anne-Marie de Martinozzi, who, however, at
1 " II adorait sa soeur, et elle exercait sur lui un empire mele d'un peu
de ridicule, et qui dura plusieurs annees " (Cousin, Madame de Longueville,
P- 324)- 16

242 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
seventeen, when he married her, was frankly nothing but " an
honest pagan."
Made Governor of Languedoc, the Prince de Conti at length
falling iU at his chateau of Les Granges des Pres at Pezenas,
Fate ordained that he should be visited by the pious M.
Pavilion, Bishop of Aleth, who later on became one of Port-
Royal's most faithful aUies. Taking advantage of his oppor
tunity, M. Pavilion succeeded in putting the sins of his
penitent so graphicaUy before him that the facUe heart of
the Prince was converted to the truths of religion. Being
obliged to devote his time to other things, the Bishop turned
the daUy direction of his new convert over to M. de Ciron,
ChanceUor of the University of Toulouse. As Armand de
Bourbon's temperament led him to extremes in aU things, his
penitence foUowed the characteristics of his years of dissipation.
He wished to give up his worldly goods and enter a convent,
but this his wise guides would not aUow. They counseUed
him to remain in the world and there to practise charity and
justice. Under their guidance he made restitutions of over two
miUions to the people who had suffered in the CivU wars, and
restored the 40,000 livres of income which belonged to the
various abbeys with which he had been endowed.1 The
progress of his devotion can be foUowed in the letters of his
wife, the Princess, who also became converted, and who had a
real affection for her husband.
The Princess had much to work against in her religious
life, but gradually by sincere effort she subdued the inclina
tions of her passionate nature, and followed her husband's
lead in austerities and generous actions. After a second
retreat at Aleth, she was so touched by penitence that in the
desire to make restitution in the provinces of Berry and
Champagne ravaged by famine, she sent aU her jewels to Paris
to be sold. Fontaine relates2 that when giving up a very
beautiful coUar of pearls belonging to this collection, taking it
in her hands and gazing at it, she finally heaved a little sigh as
reluctantly she put it down again.
1 During this period of his Ufe the Prince de Conti also devoted himself
to literary work, writing on the text of Madame de Sable's Essay on the
Comedy a Traitt de la Comtdie et des Spectacles selon la tradition de VEglise,
a very moral pamphlet on the Duty of the Great, etc. etc.
2 Mtmoires, ii. p. 471.

OTHER WORLDLY SYMPATHIZERS 243
For a long time, owing to the later events of the Fronde,
Madame de Longueville, naturaUy resenting her brother's
desertion of the cause and his marriage with the niece of
Mazarin, had not been friends with the Contis, but three years
after her own conversion she and the Prince and his wife were
brought together again by their common religious enthusiasm,
and Madame de LongueviUe quickly acquired a great liking for
her young and beautiful sister-in-law. In her own sad know
ledge of the pitfalls of society, she protected the Princess from
accepting a high position at Court, lest a too-evident admiration
of the King might react to her disadvantage.1
Worn out at last by the excesses of his life and his
austerities, the Prince de Conti died in 1666 at the age of
thirty-seven. After his death, the two sisters-in-law became
more and more drawn to each other in their ardour for
Port-Royal, Madame de LongueviUe interesting the Princesse
de Conti in her negotiations for the Peace of the Church.
So indefatigable were both ladies in religious matters, that
they were ironicaUy called " Les Meres de l'Eglise." 2 And
the souvenir of Anne-Marie de Martinozzi, Princesse de Conti,
fills one with a feeling of tender interest and regret. Though
there were many worldly friends of Port-Royal more fervent
and serious than she, her devotion to the cause was strong and
unshakable, her piety so mixed with human weakness and
caprice that it loses for unregenerate souls the awe with
which devotes more strictly Port-Royal in their expression
inspire. It seems strange that Madame de Sevigne, who so raptur
ously admired the great souls of Port-Royal, and aspired after
their goodness, never actuaUy became a devote. Her life,
nevertheless, was human, kind, and generous ; she spoke iU of
no one, and if she led nobody toward Heaven, she certainly
made earth happier for many. Even Mere Agnes in her prison
longed to see the bright face and hear the cheering words of
this most human of contemporary great ladies. Going one
day to the Convent of the Visitation, where Mere Agnes was
kept a prisoner, and asking to see the saintly nun, Madame
1 V. Cousin, Madame de Sablt, p. 413.
2 " C'est ainsi que j'appelle les Princesses de Conti et de Longueville,"
confessed Madame de Sevigne in a letter dated 13th March 1671, and written
to her daughter.

244 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
de Sevigne was refused admission. Writing afterward to the
Chevalier de Sevigne, Mere Agnes said :
" I should have lost much of the fruit of my solitude if I
had had the honour to see Madame de S6vigne\ for one person
like her takes the place of a whole company." 1
Madame de Sevigne must, therefore, be classed as one of the
most iUustrious of Port -Royal's worldly sympathizers. She
confessed to her daughter that one of her greatest desires
was to become a devote, but that, neither God's nor the Devil's,
she belonged to the lukewarm, whom God hates.2
Yet M. Feuillet de Conches, in his Causeries d'un Curieux,
tells us that in the Marquise's varied library the corner of
honour was consecrated to books of devotion.
" All Port-Royal shone there," he said.
" II ne vient de la que de parfait,"3 was Madame de Sevigne's
own verdict respecting the literary side of Port -Royal, which
interested her more than the religious one.4
Her first visit to Port-Royal des Champs was made famous
by the much-quoted eulogy of the monastery and its inhabit
ants. After spending six hours in the Desert with M.
d'Andilly, she wrote on her return :
" This Port -Royal is a Thdbaide ; it is a paradise ; a
desert where aU the devotion of Christianity is concentrated ;
there is a saintliness spread about in all the country for a
league around . . . the nuns are angels on earth. . . .
" I assure you that I was ravished to see this divine solitude
of which I have heard so much. It is a fearful vaUey quite
adapted to inspire the taste to make one's salvation." 6
The person who brought Madame de Sevigne most nearly
into personal contact with Port-Royal was her husband's uncle,
the Chevalier de Sevigne\ After his wife's death, and just
before the persecutions began, this Knight of Malta, former
aide-de-camp to Retz, and leader in the battle caUed " The
First of Corinthians," joined the Monastery in Paris as
Solitaire. On first going there, he retained, his luxuries,
1 Lettre du 9 Septembre 1664. 2 See letter of 10th June 1671.
8 Vol. i. p. 87.
1 Lettre du 30 Sept. 1671. "Ah!" she exclaimed, " Je n'ai jamais
vu ecrire comme ces Messieurs Ik."
' Lettre du Janvier 1674.

OTHER WORLDLY SYMPATHIZERS 245
his silver plate, his carriage. Gradually, he gave these things
up, donating every superfluity to the service of the monastery.
We have a graphic picture of this gentleman of the old school
during his daily promenades in the Garden of the Capuchins
opposite Port-Royal. There, walking under a great parasol
to protect him from the sun, he presented so comical a figure
that the children of the quarter used to pursue him with
hues and cries. Annoyed at this, the former soldier asked his
Confessor if he might not have a domestic give them a few
blows with a stick.
At fifty-seven the Chevalier began to study Latin, learning
enough to understand the prayers and offices of the Church,
as well as some of the works of St. Augustine and St. Bernard,
and occupying himself with transcribing the translations of
De Saci. He loved the nuns of Port-Royal tenderly, and
made them continual donations and presents. When they
were sent away from Port-Royal de Paris, he too left, and on
the Peace of the Church he retired to Port-Royal des Champs,
where he helped to rebuild the cloister and enlarge the
refectory. Although perfectly aware that outsiders were
not allowed to go into the cloisters, he could not avoid letting
Mere Agnes see his very natural desire to have a glimpse of
the place he had been instrumental in erecting, so the latter
in her own peculiar fashion was obliged to remind him of
the strict rules of seclusion which prevented such a thing,
concluding, " At our door there is a Cherubim, who defends the entrance
with a sword of fire." x
The Chevalier had therefore to content himself on those rare
festivals when in procession behind the ecclesiastics he with
the other friends was allowed to foUow in the round, with
only an occasional glimpse of the forbidden land. StiU, the
nuns greatly appreciated the sincere devotion and generosity
of M. de Sevigne, and treasured this their true friend all the
more tenderly in consideration of the numerous enemies who
surrounded them. He was, in fact, the Chevalier d'Honneur of
the Monastery.
The most constant friend and associate of Madame de
Longueville in her religious life was a certain MUe. de Vertus,
1 Lettre du 15 Sept. 1669*

246 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
also a devote, and credited in concert with Madame de Sable"
with having accomplished the final link between Madame de
LonguevUle and Port-Royal. Claiming kinship with no less
a person than Anne of Brittany, her father being Claude de
Bretagne, Comte de Vertus, MUe. de Vertus proudly signed her
own name " Catherine de Bretagne."
Francoise Catherine de Vertus had the misfortune at the age
of twenty — being one of a family of six daughters, of whom, after
the famous Madame de Montbazon, she was the most beautiful —
on her father's death, to be neglected by a very galante mother,1
and forced to depend for her support on rich relatives. She
therefore lived first in one great house, then in another, in the
quaUty of poor relation. She was fortunate in securing the
friendship of Madame de LongueviUe, and after the latter's
conversion the Hotel de LongueviUe became her home, her
material support being due thenceforth mainly to this friend,
a pension granted her by Mazarin through the efforts of Madame
de Montausier 2 being usuaUy appropriated by unscrupulous
agents before it reached her hands. Under these gaUing
circumstances of poverty and dependence, calumny had not
spared MUe. de Vertus. It had even linked her name with
that of the Due de la Rochefoucauld as well as with the Prince
de Conti. But, as TaUemant des Reaux praises her un
reservedly,3 it is reasonable to believe that these reports were
all false. At the time of Madame de LonguevUle's conversion, MUe.
de Vertus had not yet entered Port-Royal, but as Singlin was
her Director, it was she who managed the first interview
between him and the new convert.4 With the exception of
Madame de LonguevUle, it was said that no one contributed
more toward the bringing the negotiations for the Peace of the
Church to a conclusion than MUe. de Vertus, after which she
was at last able to retire definitely to Port-Royal des Champs.
On doing so, however, the impaired state of her health would
not permit her to become a nun. She had to content herself,
1 Tallemant said : " Madame la Comtesse fut si ingrate que de ne lui
rien donner" (Historiettes, vi. p. 123).
2 V. Cousin, Madame de Sablt, p. 343.
8 " Elle a du merite, elle sait le Latin . . . elle ecrit fort raisonnablement
. . . mais l'affaire de M. de la Rochefoucauld l'a fort decriee " (Historiettes,
vol. vi. p. 123).
* Cousin, Madame de Sablt, p. 367.

OTHER WORLDLY SYMPATHIZERS 247
therefore, with taking the habit of a novice, and practising severe
austerities, coupled with the most complete humUity.
To the outside world, MUe. de Vertus seemed a model of
virtue and attractiveness, and it was whispered that Madame
de LongueviUe was sometimes jealous of her friend as more
equable in temper and latterly more seductive than herself.1
The character of the poorer noblewoman had reason to be more
poised than that of the proud Princess, having been longer
tried in the fire of adversity. She, however, vaguely alluded
to tremendous sins in her youth, although she did not reveal
their nature. On entering Port-Royal, she averred that she
dared not hope for other suffering than her sins merited.2
It was strange how this fragUe being held on to life, while
others of infinitely stronger physique passed out and left her
behind. In spite of constant illness and suffering, she lived
eighteen years at Port-Royal des Champs, outliving Madame
de LongueviUe by thirteen. As some one aptly analysed
it, she was one of those
" Who are suspended a long time by an imperceptible thread
between the danger of dying and that of living." 3
She feared both states, most of aU death, and her Director,
Du Guet, had to prepare her soul to meet this terror,4 even as
later on it was he who gave the last consolation to Madame de
la Fayette. His advice to MUe. de Vertus was not a strictly
Port-Royal one.
" It is better," he said, " to cede with a little confusion
to your infirmity, than to combat it with vexation and without
success." MUe. de Vertus has her own individual niche in the portrait
gaUery of the Monastery, and her distinction can be estimated
by the fact that Racine himself wrote her epitaph.6
One of the .crosses of Madame de LonguevUle's new life
was a certain Madame de Saint-Loup, said to be a miniature
1 Ntcrologe. 2 Racine, Abrtgt (Gazier), p. 201.
8 Sainte-Beuve, v. p. 119.
4 " Ah 1 " he said, " you can suffer neither life nor death ! How do you
wish me to treat you ? " (ibid.).
6 Ntcrologe, p. 438.

248 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Madame de Sabl6. This statement, however, seems a libel
on the latter, who, although peculiar in the extreme
was always aristocratic. Madame de Saint-Loup, on the
contrary, was inclined to be vulgar. That she was not quite
of Madame de LongueviUe's world, is proved by a letter
from the latter to Madame de Sable, in which, after explaining
that for a number of years she has been in the habit of
" measuring " everything with Madame de Saint-Loup, the
writer confesses that the lady is not among the number of
those friends in whom she has unquestioning confidence.
At Port-Royal, however, they could not afford to consider
Madame de Saint-Loup's idiosyncrasies. She was active in
inducing her friends of the other sex to make rich donations
to the monastery, and she was on terms of Christian feUow-
ship, not only with Du Guet, but with Arnauld, who livedat one
time in her house. Nicole, too, was her friend, and took the
liberty of admonishing her that the cause of our weakness is
more in ourselves than in exterior things.1
Her Cure, commenting on the death of this lady at the
advanced age of eighty, said :
" She preserved to the end a lively faith, a firm hope in
the mercy of God, a true spirit of penitence, a great love for
truth, a generous declaration of her respect for the defenders
she had had in our century." 2
One of St. Cyran's own first penitents among these " Ladies
of Grace," as Sainte-Beuve caUed them, was a Madame de
Saint-Ange, "one of themost beautiful soulsof Port-Royal," and
yet almost too tender and affectionate to be of the " pure
race," the beauty of her soul being certainly more according
to M. Hamon than St. Cyran. From the beginning, the latter
had realized her weakness and tried to discipline her to
stoicism, writing her from Vincennes :
" Let us think of dying, Madame, whue we are living in
repose and health."
Strange to say, Madame de Saint-Ange, who became a nun
1 " J'ai toujours sujet d'en conclure que la cause de notre faiblesse est
plus dans nous-memes que dans les choses, exterieures, et que nous nous en
grossissons lTdee" (Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 483).
8 Lettre de_M. VuillartJ, M. de Pr6fontaine le 4 Dec. 1698.

OTHER WORLDLY SYMPATHIZERS 249
at Port-Royal under the name of Sister Anne-Eugenie de
Boulogne, died just before the Peace of the Church in more
tranquUlity of soul and less terror of death than Mere Angelique
herself.1 The Grand Arnauld had many devoted friends among the
Ladies of Grace. Apropos of the son of one of these, Madame
de Fontpertuis, widow of M. Angran de Fontpertuis, Councillor
of the Parliament of Metz, Saint-Simon tells a piquant story
showing Louis xiv's dislike for any one tainted with a
suspicion of Jansenism, and the obloquy attaching to
Madame de Fontpertuis from being the friend of Arnauld.
It seems that when in 1708 the Due d'Orleans was starting
for the army of Spain, he named M. de Fontpertuis as one of
his foUowers. " What ! my nephew ! " exclaimed the King, knitting his
brows, " the son of that Jansenist, that silly woman who used
to run after M. Arnauld everywhere ! I don't want such a
man with you."
" Ma foi, Sire," replied the Duke, " I don't know what
the mother did, but as for the son, he is anything but a
Jansenist, and I vouch to you for it — for he does not believe
in God." "Then if that is so," said the King, "there is no harm
done ; you may take him." 2
In gratitude " to that suly woman," who during his exile had
run all dangers to go to him and minister to his needs, who had
sweetened his life by her unselfish friendship, Arnauld in his
will made Madame de Fontpertuis his universal legatee and the
executor of his last wishes.3
It was, of course, M. d' AndiUy who had the most friends in
the world outside the cloister, and of these none were more
intimate or closer than a famUy whose country seat of Fresnes
adjoined that of Pomponne — the Du Plessis Guenegauds. In
Paris at the Hotel de Nevers, which had passed from Marie de
Gonzague into the hands of the Du Plessis Guenegauds and
become their town residence, was usually assembled a briUiant
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 318.
2 Mtmoires (Hachette), vol. iv. p. 95.
3 See Arnauld's Testament Temporel (Vie de Messire A. Arnauld, ii. p. 446).
Among the things left to Madame de Fontpertuis were a painting of St. Charles
by Champagne, and a large crucifix.

250 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
company, not composed exclusively of Port-Royalists, but
where one could be sure of hearing all the latest news of Port-
Royal. The life of this gathering was the hostess, Madame
du Plessis, as Madame de Sevigne caUed her, a lady of majestic
mien and courtly manners, as weU as of polished and cultured
mind. It was Madame du Plessis Guenegaud who at the
request of Port-Royal first induced the beaux esprits of Paris to
value the Petites Lettres of Pascal.1 She had indeed so great
a reputation for inteUect, that on one occasion M.Jde Pomponne
naively asked Nicole if he thought his sister Mere Angelique
de St. Jean, also known to be of keen brain, had as much mind
as Madame du Plessis Guenegaud. Nicole merely shrugged
his shoulders, evidently in contempt of his interlocutor.2
AU Port-Royal's mundane friends were ever ready to give
material aid to the cause which caUed forth their enthusiasm.
In times of peace they contributed toward the adornment,
enlargement, or repair of the monasteries ; in seasons of need
drew generously upon their influence to advance the interests
of the nuns and Solitaires. And, when exile and ignominy
attacked Port-Royal, these same people threw open their homes
to shelter the persecuted, defending them at the expense of re
putation and fortune. Nor at Port-Royal was friendship a mere
word ; 3 it had there a meaning aU its own, and was ever on the
lips and in the heart of Mere Angelique, St. Cyran, and Singlin,
whose conception of the obligations it involved was handed
down from generation to generation. In life, the Port-Royalists
gave these faithful ones spiritual direction, and, when Death
came, set aside special prayers and|Masses to be said with fuU
responses for the repose of their gentle souls, remembering
and mourning them unceasingly.
1 " Elle leur dit qu'ils avoient trop d'esprit pour ne pas sentir eux-m6mes
les beautes de ces Lettres . . . que sans examiner si la doctrine de Port-
Royal avait 6te condamn6e a Rome ou non, il paraissait qu'elle etait pre
ferable a celle des Jesuites par la seule consideration de la morale" (Pere
Rapin, Mtmoires, ii. p. 375).
2 Racine, Abrtgt, p. 204.
8 Le Maitre gives the Port-Royal ideal in his Portrait de VAmitit Chrttienne
et Spirituelle as that of St. Chrysostom. Even Madame de Sable was infected
with the contagion, and wrote her idea of true friendship as being based on
reason and virtue.

CHAPTER X
THE VISITS OF THE ARCHBISHOP
" Grace a Dieu, je sais quant & moi
Distinguer le fait de la foi,
Le fait est une chose humaine,
Bien souvent trompeuse, incertaine
Mais la foi n'a rien de douteux
Et l'Eghse et Rome sont deux."

Loret

A

\ NEW aspect was put on the political affairs of Port-Royal
by the resignation of Cardinal Retz. The absent
Archbishop having at last1 been induced in consideration
of a pecuniary indemnity to surrender his claim to the Arch
bishopric of Paris, the King appointed that fierce enemy of the
Jansenists, De Marca, Bishop of Toulouse, to the vacant place.
Of this man great things were expected by the enemies of Port-
Royal, but, fortunately for the latter, M. de Marca died suddenly
the very day that his papers arrived from Rome. Soon
afterward the foUowing ironical epitaph appeared :
" Ci-git l'illustre De Marca,
Que les plus grand des rois marqua,
Comme prelat de son eglise :
Mais la mort qui le remarqua,
Et qui se plait cl la surprise,
Tout aussitot le demarqua." 8

1 In 1662.
2 Rough translation :
Here hes De Marca the renowned,
Whom the greatest of kings had crowned.
Of his Church the prelate wise :
But Death whose eye him too had found.
And who was fond of a surprise,
Without delay had him uncrowned.
25»

252 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
M. Hardouin de Beaumont de Pererixe, Bishop of Rhodez
and former Preceptor of the King, was at once nominated in
M. de Marca's place. Belonging to an ancient fanuly of
warriors, M. de Perefixe had, in spite of his profession, inherited
a certain mUitary character. He was very energetic, both in
action and manner, his language being at once frank and
brusque. In the fire of discussion, he even occasionally
allowed an oath to escape him. There was no ambiguity used
at Court over his nomination to the Archbishopric of Paris, for
on receiving his papers the Queen Mother said to him :
" Recollect on what condition you obtained the Arch
bishopric. Now you are instaUed, look to it how you bear
yourself." 1
The " condition " on which the appointment had been given
M. de Perefixe was no less than the enforcement on the nuns
of Port-Royal — the only ones of the religious orders who had
refused — of the signature of the Formulary. But, a dispute
arising between Louis xiv and the Pope, owing to an insult
given a French Ambassador at Rome, two years elapsed
before the nomination was officiaUy confirmed by the Papal
See. During these two years of respite, the nuns and Solitaires
had time to draw up papers and regulate their plans for the
future, weU recognizing the fact that the storm was only
averted, that sooner or later the sword of Damocles hanging
over their heads would faU. Arnauld, from wherever he
happened to be at the moment — and he found it necessary
to change his place of retreat from time to time — was deep
in negotiations for the termination of the troubles, aided by
aU the Jansenist circle : Madame de LongueviUe, Madame de
Sable, Madame de Guemene, the Liancourts, the Luines, the
Du Plessis Guenegauds.
When at last M. de Perefixe received his Bulle, and entered
legally into his new functions, his first step was to send a word
of warning to the nuns, advising them not to stand out against
the King's wish with regard to the Formulary. To Lancelot,
who in the name of Port-Royal went to congratulate the new
Archbishop on the arrival of his papers, he said in parting :
" It is not proper that a simple convent of women should
wish to make a law for others, and to seem either more just
1 Histoire des Persecutions, p. 253.

THE VISITS OF THE ARCHBISHOP 253
or more inteUigent than the Pope, the Bishops, the Priests, and
the Doctors." ..." Assure the nuns of Port -Royal," he
added, " that I esteem their virtue, and that I would give my
blood to draw them out of this bad situation." 1
Seven days after the Archbishop had been confirmed by
Rome, Port-Royal sustained an irreparable loss in the death
of Singlin. Living hidden in the Faubourg St. Marceau, this
last member of the First Port-Royal had finaUy been worn out
at the early age of fifty-seven by his austerities and by grief.
" The thing that pierced his heart was the kind of intestinal
war between great servitors of God." 2
At the last, Singlin had been unpopular with the Solitaires,
because of his wfllingness to sign the Formulary rather than
bring trouble and persecution upon the nuns. Even Pascal
had reproached him for this attitude, on the ground that not
being a theologian he would only mix matters if he attempted
to meddle. But the faithful Confessor had the welfare of the
nuns too much at heart to be able to refrain from considering
what they were to endure, and it broke his heart.
Though forbidden during his lifetime to return to the
monastery he loved so weU, after death the embargo was
removed, and at nine o'clock one night his body arrived at
Port-Royal de Paris. With tears and lamentations the nuns
buried him in the court, in the same tomb with that part of
St. Cyran's remains which had been left to the Paris Church.
His heart was sent to Port-Royal des Champs. And now it was
discovered that Singlin's influence with the nuns was so great
that the very remembrance of his belief with regard to the
obnoxious Formulary decided some of them to sign.3
Singlin's successor at Port-Royal de Paris, M. de Sainte-
Marthe, was of a very different stamp, but soon after M. de
Perefixe's accession he wrote the new Archbishop a letter of
1 Ch. Gailly de Taurines, Ptre et Fille, p. 157.
2 " Ce que lui percait le cceur, c'etait cette espece de guerre intestine
entre de grands serviteurs de Dieu " (Mtmoire de MUe. P trier, Recueil de
Plusieurs Pieces, p. 168).
3 For Singlin's influence on both nuns and Solitaires, see Racine, Abrtgt,
p. 88. M6re AgneVs tribute was expressed in a letter to Madame de Foix
(17th May 1664) : " His most precious relics are those of his spirit and the
practice of instructions given us during twenty-eight years, throughout
which he was our only Director, the hght, the support, and the consolation
Of our monastery, as we hope he will always be before God."

254 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
a very conciliatory nature, couched in a humble appeal for
the nuns :
"Have pity, Monseigneur," it read, "on the tenderness
of their consciences, and do not act with rigour." *¦
Without delay the new Prelate issued his Mandement, in
which, ordering his Deans and Priests to subscribe within a
month to the Formulary, ignoring the distinction of fait and
droit, which had occasioned so much trouble, he explained
his standpoint to be that of a humane and ecclesiastical faith,
zealous only to submit its judgment to that of its superiors.2
At first thought, the Mandement seemed a victory to the
Jansenists, who had before offered to sign the Formulary on
a like basis — that is, one of respect and obedience to discipline.
But alas ! the spirit of controversy was now too strong in the
minds of this Second Port-Royal for them to recognize when
it was wise to cede, so with stubborn recklessness they insisted
on precise terms, thus again bringing persecution on their own
heads, ignominy and captivity to their sisters the nuns.
M. de Perefixe soon discovered the mettle of these
" valets de pied de l'armee d'Achab,"
as Angelique de St. Jean d'AndUly called herself and her
sisters. On his visit to Port-Royal de Paris to urge the nuns
to sign the original Formulary, he had declared himself much
pleased with aU he saw and heard.3 This frame of mind
changed to that akin to horror when in his first interrogatory
he found the kind of adversaries he had to combat in these
quiet nuns.
" But," he exclaimed to one of them, " you are wiser than
the Pope, the Church, and your Archbishop ! In the name of
God, my sister, coUect yourself, this is an insupportable
pride. ... I find neither humUity nor obedience in this
house." In his next visit, the Archbishop was less gentle. Pere
Annat 4 had spurred him on to definite action. On the nuns
refusing to sign anything but the amended Formulary they
1 Lettre du Juin 1602.
8 Racine, Abrtgt, p. 168.
3 He found nothing to find fault with in them but their refusal to sign the
Formulary (ibid. p. 170).
'"Who," says Racine, "did not cease to reproach him with his too
great indulgence " (Abrtgt, p. 172).

THE VISITS OF THE ARCHBISHOP 255
had before signed, caUing the community together, he angrily
announced that he would return and bring them to reason.
In truth, he cried, you are
" pures comme des anges, mais orgeuflleuses comme des
demons." 1
Meeting Madame de Guemene as he stormed out of the court
yard, the heated Prelate repeated this remark, and mounting
into his carriage almost shook his finger at the defiant convent.
About two weeks after this occurrence, a man hurriedly
entering Madame de LonguevUle's drawing-room in the
Carmelites was surprised to find there a large company of
Jansenist friends and sympathizers assembled round the poet
Moliere, who was reading aloud his Tartuffe. At the
moment (1664) Moliere was at the height of his renown, and
his newly written play Tartuffe the rage in Paris. The
King believed it to be a satire on Port-Royal — indeed, one
modern writer asserts that the poet wrote it on commission
from Louis xiv to that effect. Many people pretended that
Arnauld d'AndiUy, the Duchesse de Longueville, and the
Prince de Conti were aU depicted in the various characters.
No one knew, however, just what was meant, so the Jesuits
laughed at it, believing it to be directed against the Jansenists ;
the Jansenists smfled quietly at each witticism it contained,
thinking they recognized some particular trait of their enemies.
On this occasion, Moliere's wit was suddenly interrupted,
for the heated and excited messenger who had entered, going
up to the hostess, said in a low tone :
" What, Madame, you are hearing a comedy on the day
when the mystery of iniquity is being accomplished and they
are taking away nos meres ? "
Horrified, Madame de LongueviUe at once dismissed her guests,
and herself hastened to consult with her friends as to what
steps could be taken to help these poor sisters.
And indeed a terrible scene was just then taking place at
Port-Royal de Paris. On hearing rumours of what was to
happen, M. d'AndiUy hurried to Port-Royal. M. de Perefixe,
after an unavoidable delay caused by his own illness, had
finaUy kept his promise, and that day appeared at Port-Royal
with the Lieutenant Civil, the Provost, and a guard of two
1 As pure as angels, but proud as demons " (Abrtgt, p. 172).

256 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
hundred archers, who invested the house and court. He also
brought several carriages with the intention of taking away aU
those nuns who had refused to sign the Formulary. When
M. de Per6fixe arrived at the gate of the monastery, the aged
brother of Mere Angelique, throwing himself on his knees before
him, begged mercy for the nuns. Very much moved, in spite
of himself, M. de Perefixe, raising M. d'Andilly to his feet,
and saying a few kind words, passed on to execute the work
he had planned.
Amid loud protestations — to which the irritated Archbishop
rudely replied :
" Je m'en moque " — x
the twelve rebeUious nuns were escorted to the outer door of
the monastery, put into the carriages, and driven off, completely
ignorant of the fate which awaited them. Faithful to the
last, " Bonhomme d'Andilly " stood at the door as they came
out. With firmness he conducted his sister Mere Agnes —
now aged seventy-one, overwhelmed with infirmities, and
having already had three strokes of apoplexy, hardly able to
move — to the carriage, then his three daughters. Before
bidding the latter good-bye, he took them into the church,
and there at the altar again formaUy dedicated each to the
Lord, whereupon, giving them his blessing, he aUowed them
to be driven away.2
It seemed a cruel turn of fate that in the crisis of their
humUiation and persecution, the monastery called in to aid
in the subjugation of Port-Royal should have been that of
the Visitation, which Madame de Chantal, inspired by St.
Francois de Sales, had founded in 1611, with the design of
revealing a religion based on tenderness and love.3 For Mere
Angelique's friendship with Madame de Chantal was one of
the greatest of her life, and, during the twenty years it lasted,
the Head of the Visitation made no visit to Paris that she did
not pass several days with Mere Angelique,
" pouring," says Racine, "her most secret thoughts into this
friend's bosom, and desiring with ardour that the nuns of
1 Fouillot, Mtmoires sur la Destruction de Port-Royal. 2 Ibid.
3 For reason for foundation of Visitation, see A. J. Hamon, Vie de St.
Francois de Sales, ii. p. 2. Madame de Chantal afterward put herself under
the direction of St. Cyran, whom she called " The Saint," and this fact
retarded her canonization by fifty years (Gazier, in Racine's Abrtgt).

THE VISITS OF THE ARCHBISHOP 257
the Visitation and those of Port-Royal should be always
united by the same tie of friendship which had so closely
bound their two mothers." x
And this was the end of such wishes. The door had
scarcely closed upon Mere Agnes and the other courageous
non-signers than it was opened to admit the gaolers of those
who remained : Mere Eugenie de Fontaine, Abbess of the
Visitation, and five of her nuns, commanded to appear there by
the Archbishop. La Mere Eugenie, who had received Madame
de Chantal's sanction and blessing before the latter's death,
was a much-revered person, considered a second Madame de
Chantal. But a convert from Calvinism, she had gone to an
extreme in her devotion to Church authority. Similarly,
although also pious and virtuous, the nuns of the Visitation
were of essentiaUy different stamp from those of Port-Royal,
being Ultramontane, and so obedient to papal supremacy as
to assert that even if the Pope had condemned their saint
and model, St. Francois de Sales, they would condemn him
also, and that
" one must believe of the Bible only what the Pope said." 2
Thus, all the time that M. de Perefixe was extolling her before
her new charges at Port-Royal de Paris, the Abbess of the
Visitation remained prostrate at his feet, her head against the
earth, her nuns following the example of their leader. Such
humility before man was not that of Port-Royal, and this
beginning of the new rule shocked the disciples of St. Cyran
immeasurably. With one voice they began to protest against
being ruled over by Mere Eugenie, but to no avafl.
A little later, Port-Royal was honoured by a visit from
Anne of Austria. As her Majesty mounted her carriage at the
Louvre, and said to her servants : "To Port-Royal ! " her
Chevalier d'Honneur exclaimed :
" The Queen at Port -Royal ! Has she then become
Jansenist ? "
SmUing, the Queen replied :
" It is not they whom I am going to see, but la Mere
Eugenie." As she was leaving, on the completion of her visit, one of the
1 Abrtgt, p. 8.
- 2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 231,
17

258 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
old Port-Royal nuns threw herself at the Queen's feet, through
her tears begging that the Sacraments of which they had been
deprived should be restored to them.
Anne of Austria replied haughtily :
" Obey ! What, nuns disobedient to their Archbishop !
That is horrible. Obey, and you wiU always find me disposed
to do you service. Yes, obey, and I wiU serve you — other
wise  " x
And, stopping abruptly, she went away.
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 213.

CHAPTER XI
CAPTIVITY
" Ma mere," demanda avec grande anxiete une des religieuses a la MSre
AgnSs, " ma mfire, lorsque les bourreaux viendront nous prendre, pour nous
mener au martyre, ne faudra-t-il pas mettre nos grands voiles ? "
ON being sent away from Port-Royal, the twelve rebel
nuns were distributed about in the various convents of
Paris, where, under close supervision, some were treated
weU, others badly. MereJ^gnes, attended by two of her nieces,
Sisters Angelique de Sainte-Therese and Marie de Sainte-
Claire, was taken to the Convent of the Visitation in the Rue
St. Jacques. From the first, the idea of Mere Angelique's
sister had been to sign the Formulary " en-tete " — that is,
to append to the signature a statement that the submission
was in the matter of faith alone, other points being reserved.1
In his introduction to a coUection of the Letters of Mere
Agnes, M. Faugere analyzed her as a person of great mind
rather than of lofty character, and he defined her piety as
" tender, affectionate, attractive, and of an extreme and
many-hued delicacy." By these peculiarities, Mere Agnes
showed herself true sister of Robert d'AndiUy. Both were
impassioned and quick ; but whUe Robert was romantic,
Agnes was mystical in the Spanish sense of the word. Mere
Angelique and her youngest brother, the Great Arnauld,
on the other hand, were calmer and better poised, turning more
toward the Roman spirit of dignified intellectuality.2 Those
1 By his invention of the subtle distinction of fact and doctrine, which
aUowed the nuns to sign the Formulary, it was Nicole who really brought
final ruin upon Port- Royal. The essence of his compromise was : " We
condemn the Five Propositions said to be extracted from Jansenius, but we
deny that they are there. Let them be shown us."
2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 88. 259

260 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
who felt oppressed by the grandeur of Angelique had no fear
of the softer spirit in Agnes.1 The Marquise d'Aumont, who
afterwards helped M. Le Maitre to coUect documents on the
life of Mere Angelique, said to the great Solitaire one day :
" I assure you, Monsieur, I get on better with Mere Agnes,
notre mire is too severe for me." 2
In response to a sirnUar remark made by Madame de
Saint-Ange, whom Mere Angelique had received very coldly
on her first visit to Port-Royal, Madame d'AndiUy replied :
" Mere Angelique resembles the good angels, who first
affright, and afterward console."
And now throughout her captivity the demeanour of Mere
Agnes was characterized by the individual sweetness peculiar
to her. She suffered, prayed, and was desirous of anything
that would lead to a reunion. She had no idea of signing
herself, but she made no opposition to the action of others,
leaving even her nieces free to do as they thought best. After
ward she blamed herself somewhat for this indifference, and
expressed her repentance before the community.3 FinaUy,
influenced by the great Bossuet, the eldest niece, Angelique
de Sainte-Therese, was induced to sign, and when a short time
afterward Marie de Sainte-Claire AndiUy also succumbed to
the pressure brought to bear on the captive nuns, Port-Royal
was agitated by a natural fear lest Mere Agnes herself be on the
point of surrender :
" If these things happen to the green faith, what wiU
become of the dry wood ? "
they said, forgetting for a moment that one who like
Mere Agnes had been brought up under the shadow of the
Great Angelique could not swerve from so plain an ideal.
Christine Briquet, herself one of the steadfast sisters, had no
such fear for Mere Agnes :
" I cannot easfly believe that the stars have faUen from the
sky," she said.4
1 In the early days, M6re Angelique herself noticed this lenient quality in
Agnes, and called it her " imperfection," recognizing it as the thing which
impelled her to work with an ardour beyond her force, and to practise fasting,
to be very regular at the offices (Mtmoires et Relations, p. 29).
2 Ibid., p. 229.
3 Lettre du 24 Juin 1665.
' Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 277.

CAPTIVITY 261
And it is on the whole a continuous history of courage and
steadfastness that we read in the Relations written by the
various nuns sent into captivity. Of all these marveUous
tales, the best is that of M. d'AndiUy's eldest daughter, Mere
Angelique de St. Jean, whose experience of imprisonment
in the Convent of the Annonciades, or Filles Bleues, was a
most interesting and singular one. Her account, which is fuU of
both real emotion and pathos, was not published untU after
its writer's death, in spite of the firm determination of Antoine
Arnauld to make it public, for Angelique de St. Jean herself
steadUy refused to consent to such a thing.1 From the age of
six, the eldest daughter of M. d'AndiUy had lived at Port-
Royal, and as a chUd was considered almost too clever for
her own good. Nevertheless a true Arnauld, in her the spirit
of the Great Angelique seemed to have been re-incarnated.
Through her uncle, Antoine Le Maitre, she was induced to
coUect material for a biography of Mere Angelique, and at the
time of her imprisonment she had been engaged for twelve
years in writing down the smaUest detafls she could find of
her aunt. Forty years of age at this period, her character
had become so formed and rounded that the encomium
passed upon her was that she had .
" a soul very sad, tender, capable of all the beautiful agonies."
The Superior of the Convent of the Filles Bleues, in which
Angelique de St. Jean was incarcerated, was the widow of the
Marechal Rantzau, a warrior so badly treated by the god of
war as to have had finaUy nothing left whole " save his heart."
Madame de Rantzau herself was a convert from Lutheranism,
supposed to be very learned, and to have made many con
versions among the Lutherans. In putting Angelique de St.
Jean with this strong German, M. de Perefixe said to the
other sisters :
" Esprit avec esprit, science avec science ; cela s'accom-
modera bien."
Madame de Rantzau tried to convert her prisoner, and in the
first long hours of her captivity Angelique de St. Jean, who
was endowed with a quick imagination, went through every
1 After her death, the work, in three volumes~of Memoirs, was pubhshed
at Utrecht.

262 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
stage of despair, being even assafled by the most terrible
enemy of all — doubt. Her encounters with Madame de
Rantzau furnish the sole comic side of the picture of this sad
time, for, notwithstanding the " science " with which M. de
Pererixe credited the Superior of the Filles Bleues, Angelique
was not long in discovering that her gaoler's knowledge was
not profound, and wickedly delighted in putting the pompous
lady in a corner, Madame de Rantzau's invariable assertion
when thus lured into a theological trap being :
" I know aU ecclesiastical history. I know everything, I
wUl answer everything."
Turning her back, and going to the window to pray, Angelique
would thereupon say humbly, but ironicaUy :
" And I, Madame, I know nothing." 1
MeanwhUe, the nuns left behind at Port-Royal de Paris
suffered in their own convent practicaUy as great a confinement
as their twelve exfled sisters. In the midst of these pure
angels of Port-Royal, la Mere Eugenie was rather to be pitied.
Hers was a difficult position. It was her duty to persuade
the prisoners to sign the Formulary, but their repugnance to
signing the declaration as to matters of which they were in
reality absolutely ignorant, and, their anguish at the quandary
in which they were placed, was extreme. Through their
simple religion, they had not only horror of a he, but of
any subterfuge whatever. They had never even read the
Augustinus, so how could they swear that the abominable
Five Propositions were contained therein?
In describing the captivity and persecution of the nuns
of Port-Royal, Racine remarked : , s
" God sustained and conducted these admirable virgins."
Where, then, were the Solitaires who should have given
1 Relation de la Captivity de la Mire Angdique de St. Jean, p. 38.
During the latter part of her imprisonment, this talented daughter of
Robert d'AndiUy was induced to fashion a quantity of figures in wax for the
sisters of the convent. Seeing the cleverness of her prisoner, Madame de
Rantzau exclaimed : " Your mind is made Uke your fingers, and as you
find aU sorts of inventions for accompUshing the work you do, your mind
furnishes you also with reasons for fortifying yourself in everything."

CAPTIVITY 263
material aid to their spiritual sisters ? Again it is Racine who
answers :
" The great men who might have been able to enlighten
and encourage them were themselves obliged to hide in order to
avoid the violence which one wished to exercise against them." 1
Lancelot attributes the firmness of the religieuses to a fear of
wounding sincerity — they could not bear to think of an
obscurity in signing. It was love of Truth which actuated
and upheld them. For in both the trusting nuns and in his
disciples, St. Cyran had implanted his own indomitable belief
that " the least truth of Faith should be defended with as
much fidelity as Jesus Christ." In her turn, Mere Angelique
raUied her nuns on the fact that God judged them worthy to
suffer for Truth and Justice !
All Paris finaUy became interested in the signers and non-
signers, for treachery had crept in among the captives, both
within and without, and at last about twelve sisters inside, and
five among the exUes, gave up the struggle and signed away
their faith. But in spite of these conquests, the supervision
over both the nuns outside and in Port-Royal de Paris began
to seem very purposeless and unsatisfactory, as weU as ex
pensive to the authorities.
In November of the same year in which he had visited
Port-Royal de Paris, M. de Perefixe made a sinular visit to
the Champs, and with a like result. Remaining two days,
he left it too in anger, presenting the monastery with formal
excommunication as a token. Twelve days afterward he sent
an order to expel Confessors and Sacristan. M. Hamon, who
was stiU on the premises, escaped arrest only by a clever
retreat through the gardens. After much consultation, it was
eventually decided to reunite the rebels at Port-Royal des
Champs, there to keep aU in regular guarded sequestration
untU they ceded to the Formulary.
The return of Mere Agnes and the twelve Paris rebel nuns
was a great but mournful pleasure. Gathered up one by one
from the various monasteries in which they had been kept
the long ten months, they hardly dared express their joy at
meeting, nor did the occupants of one carriage know definitely
which of their companions were in the swiftly roUing vehicles
1 Abrtgt, p. 192.

264 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
foUowing or preceding them. When they arrived at Port
Royal des Champs, it seemed like a desolate and deserted
place, and only two servants came out to the gates to bid
them welcome or help them to alight. There was no ringing
of beUs, no bonfires of joy, no Solitaires drawn up in solemn
array. What a contrast to the reception of Mere Angelique
seventeen years before ! But in a moment the church was
filled with nuns, the service intoned, and afterward, going to
the Porte des Sacrements, the Prioress, Madame du Fargis,
caUing aU the community together, in the absence of the
Abbess,1 formally welcomed the new arrivals. Embracing
their sisters in tenderness and gladness, the captives, a
moment afterwards recoUecting themselves, formaUy pro
tested — as they considered their duty — to the Grand Vicar,
who accompanied them, against the indignities they had
received. Thus, on the 2nd July 1665, Port-Royal des Champs again
became revivified, fiUed with seventy-three nuns, not counting
the working sisters. And now assembled in their old home,
deprived of the Sacraments, they were treated like prisoners
of war. Soldiers patroUed the place, and watched everything
within the house itself. Only the working sisters were allowed
to go to the Holy Eucharist, and it was rumoured that in
order to approach the Holy Communion, Mere Agnes did not
hesitate to disguise herself in the garb of a converse.
The consolation of the nuns at this time was, strangely
enough, the eccentric doctor-Solitaire, Jean Hamon. After
much solicitation, M. Hamon had been aUowed by the
authorities to return to the Champs on the condition that in
his ministrations to the nuns he would always be accompanied
by the warder. This was not the only indignity paid him :
the soldiers at the waUs scoffed at the shabby-looking man, who,
winter and summer, appeared before them clothed in an old
black cloak ; and in derision, refusing to dignify him by the title
of Monsieur, they addressed him as Monseigneur, mon maitre, or
mon ami. At night, too, by order of the authorities, he was
locked up in his room. Yet for the sake of his sisters in
captivity, this great man endured cheerfully every hardship
and slight, his reward being the knowledge that in these years
of captivity he was their consolation and help, in every dark
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 283.

CAPTIVITY 265
hour which came to the nuns rendering them uninterruptedly
the pious offices of priest, confessor, and doctor.
The romantic adventure during this period was accom
plished by M. de Sainte-Marthe, who during the winter nights
used often to leave Paris or Gif near by, and travel to Port-
Royal des Champs, where, as agreed upon secretly with the
nuns, he would at a specified place under the walls hold dis
courses to console and fortify the captives. Sometimes he
would bring the last Sacrament to a dying person, Racine
testifying that by his efforts not one person died without the
last unction.1
For nearly four years this captivity continued, but finaUy
the bravery of the outside Jansenist world accomplished the
result for which they had so long been working, and, chiefly
through the exertions and influence of the Duchesse de
LongueviUe, the Peace of the Church was at last realized.
1 According to Nicole, M. de Sainte-Marthe was the saintliest man whom
he had seen at Port-Royal (Racine, Abrtgt, p. 203). MSre Angelique, on the
contrary, never admired him. His greatest eulogy is the unspoken testimony
given by Pascal, who selected him from among all the Confessors at Port-
Royal, and, sending for him in his last hours, confided to him the most
secret thoughts of his soul. The Ntcrologe speaks of his impatience of any
thing false, his love of the truth, his laments, his sttence, his withdrawal into
obscurity, and there his gradual wasting away.

PART IV
PORT-ROYAL DECADENT
1669-1712

367

CHAPTER I
THE PEACE OF THE CHURCH— DEATH OF
MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE
" MerveiUeuse beaut6, race de tant de rois, Princesse, dont l'elat fait honte
aux immorteUes." Desmarets
FOR five long years 1 (1664 to 1669) Antoine Arnauld and
Nicole had lived hidden in the Hotel de LongueviUe.
Accustomed to the finegallants of the Hotel RambouiUet,
the five or six hours a day Madame de LongueviUe spent in the
company of these gentlemen, who for aU their saintliness
were not quite delicate in their manners, was often less a
pleasure than a trial of her piety — especiaUy when Doctor
Arnauld so far forgot the usages of good society as to take
off his braces in her drawing-room, or when the absent-minded
scholar Nicole quietly deposited his hat, gloves, cane, and muff
on her bed. Sincere indeed was the hunulity which sUently
endured such tests.
Being the most polished of the two, Nicole was Madame
de LongueviUe's favourite, and in disputes she usuaUy sided
with him, addressing him in her turn with old-fashioned
courtesy as " M. 1* Abbe." 2
During this season of enforced retreat and solitude, the
Messieurs were also busy with literary work. Thinking that
the publication of the result of one of their labours, the " New
Testament of Mons," as it was called,3 might aid their cause,
1 Racine, Abrtgt, p. 201.
8 When she died, therefore, Nicole lamented that with her he was deprived
of much consideration : " I have even lost my abbey," he said, " for now
no one caUs me M. l'Abbe Nicole, but just plain Nicole " (ibid.).
3 This translation of the New Testament was made, according to M£re
Angelique de St. Jean, by Le Maitre, who had " dug the foundations " ; De
Saci, who had " elevated the whole edifice " ; and by Arnauld, who had
269

270 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
conferences were held on the subject at the Hotel de Longueville.
It was on coming away from one of these, 12th May 1666, with
the preface of the new work under his arm, that M. de Saci,
with his friend and secretary Nicolas Fontaine, was seized and
thrust into the Bastille, there to remain for over three years.
Always in anticipation of arrest, M. de Saci's greatest regret
on this occasion seems to have been that for the first time
in two years he had not in his pocket a little volume of St.
Paul, which in provision for just such an accident he had had
bound speciaUy.
The greatest obstacle to any concUiation of factions inside
the Church was the saintly M. PaviUon, Bishop of Aleth,
who had converted the Prince de Conti — a priest of such
renown that even in his lifetime pUgrimages were undertaken
to Aleth solely to see him and hear his words. This great
reformer of a very degenerate diocese at the foot of the Pyrenees
had not come into the fold of Port-Royal until the beginning of
persecution, when after a long study he declared that his
conscience would not aUow him to sign the Formulary con
demning the Five Propositions.1 From this time, a corre
spondence had begun between Pavilion and Arnauld, he in
company with three other bishops — those of Angers, Beauvais,
and Pamiers — sustained the cause of Port-Royal, refusing to
sign the Formulary. FinaUy, after many negotiations, M.
PaviUon, the most obstinate of the four, was won over to
subscription of the Formulary w^th a " but " attached to it,
and once his consent was gained, the other three Bishops
were easUy induced to foUow his example on the same
grounds : i.e. with a^ declaration to the effect that they did
not comprehend the^Five Propositions in the sense in which
they were condemned.
This submission sealed the so-called " Peace of the Church."
Even Pere Annat had to succumb, aUowing himself only a
" put on the finishing touch " (Lettre a Arnauld, 1668). Appearing in 1667,
it is said to have materially contributed to the Peace of the Church.
1 In gratitude for his loyalty to them, in 1666 the nuns of Port-Royal
sent the Bishop of Aleth an embroidered girdle on which aU the community,
even Mere Agnes, had worked. On his part, M. Pavilion greatly admired
the courageous nuns, and of the Messieurs he said : " We knew nothing
before we knew the Messieurs of Port-Royal : and we cannot praise God
enough for having allowed us to know them" (Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal,
iv. p. 44).

; THE PEACE OF THE CHURCH 271
last criticism of the Papal Nuncio who had aided greatly in the
conclusion of the affair :
" You have ruined by the weakness of a quarter of an hour
the work of twenty years," he said.1
1 Receiving Antoine Arnauld in audience, the King remarked
that he was glad to see a man of his merit, and that he hoped
the learned Doctor would henceforth employ his talents in
the defence of the true religion.2 On the same day the
Champion of Jansenism went to St. Jacques du Haut Pas to
hear Mass. Here he found the beUs ringing, the candles
iUuminated on the altar, and the Cure" of the church waiting
to receive him quite as if he were an archbishop. De Saci, too,
released from the BastUle, after his imprisonment of over
two years, was presented in due course to his Sovereign. On
seeing the priest of whom he had heard so much, Louis xiv,
turning to M. de Pomponne, said :
" WeU, now you are satisfied ! " 3
In the midst of these honours, the emancipated Jansenists
did not forget to place the credit where it was due. To Madame
de LongueviUe belonged the true glory ; it was she who was
the leading spirit in the arrangement which led to another
and most important respite in the persecution of Port-Royal.
To Clement ix she cleverly represented the Jansenists to be :
" Le plus grand et le plus petit parti du monde, le plus fort
et le plus faible," 4
demonstrating that through their humUity they were at once
great and small, strong and weak, but at the same time remind
ing him that to the faith of the persecuted belonged some of the
most influential people in the land. Thus, as Sainte-Beuve says :
" She contributed as much as any prelate to the Peace of
the Church," 6
a truce which not only brought quiet to the persecuted
Jansenists, but secured tranquUlity to them throughout the
ten years which preceded the death of their benefactress.
1 Gerberon, Histoire du Janstnisme, vol. iii. p. 259.
2 Ibid, vol. i. p. 363.
8 Fuzet, Les Janstnistes du XVII Siicle, p. 398.
4 Lettre du 25 Juillet 1667.
5 Port-Royal, iv. p. 366,

272 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
And, after every event which concerned them in their
new prosperity, it was to the Hotel de LonguevUle that the
rejoicing circle repaired to talk over their good fortune and
to thank her who had occasioned it all.1 So happy were they
over this great event that they wished to consecrate the date
by a monument of some kind. They therefore had a large
medal struck off at the Mint. On one side was the face and
name of the King ; on the other, an altar on which lay an open
book ; on the book the keys of St. Peter, the royal sceptre
and Hand of Justice, above which was represented the radiant
image of the Holy Spirit, with these words :
" Gratia et Pax a Deo."
The whole was interpreted as foUows : The book lying on the
altar was the Augustinus of Jansenius closed by Alexander vii
and opened by Clement ix. The keys of St. Peter lying with
the royal insignia, meant the equality of the royal and papal
powers. The word " Gratia " recalled the doctrine of Grace,
and " Pax " signified that reconcUiation was the price of
victory, not of obedience and submission.
Although Louis xiv looked askance at the medal, it
remained. As, however, he sent word to Madame de Longue
viUe that it displeased him to have her entertain the Jansenists
in her house, she went to St. Germain and asked if she might
not be aUowed to hold assemblies of gens de Men like Bossuet
and Madame de Miramion. The King replied :
" No assemblies, Madame, if you please, I beg of you."
Notwithstanding this interdiction, the cousin of the King
courageously continued to lodge the Port-Royalists in her
house, making no concession but that of greater discretion.2
Three years after the Peace of the Church, Madame de
1 Fontaine paid the following tribute to Madame de LonguevUle, after the
Peace of the Church was consummated, in the form of a prayer to God :
" Reward, Oh God, Thy servant a hundredfold for what she has done for
Thy glory, for the interest of Thy church, and for Thy very humble servitois.
. . . Thou hast doubtless written the reward of this princess in heaven. . . .
She suffered peaceably the opprobrium of the proud : she knew what was
said of her in contempt, and that they did not blush to call her the shame
and ignominy of the royal family. Thou shalt make it to be seen. Lord,
that she was its ornament, and St. Louis has surely not blushed for her in the
Heavens " (Mtmoires).
2 Fuzet, Les Janstnistes du XVII Siich, p. 398.

THE PEACE OF THE CHURCH 273
LonguevUle adding a corps of buUdings to the Abbey of Port-
Royal des Champs, from which a covered gaUery led to a
tribune in the church, divided her time between Port-Royal
des Champs and the Carmelites. At Port-Royal she redoubled
her austerities, and it became her custom to isolate herself
for weeks at a time in the damp*and desolate " desert." Thus
it was at Port-Royal that the greatest sorrow^of her life came
to her, for she was there when news of the death of her
youngest son, the Comte de Saint-Paul, reached her. She had
but two boys, and of these the eldest, the Comte de Dunois,
had from his birth been a continual trial and tribulation.
The detaUs of his career are not known precisely, but history
relates that one day, leaving his titles and rights to his
younger brother, he fled from his mother's house to go to
Rome, there to take Holy Orders.1
The second son, born at the Hotel de ViUe, and caUed
Charles de Paris by the Aldermen of the City, who stood
sponsors at his baptism, on the contrary, was the pride of his
mother's heart, the joy of her life, very fruit of the^Fronde.
He, on his part, was not a particularly dutiful or thoughtful
son, though eulogized by Madame de Sevigne" as lacking only
" a little pride, vanity, and haughtiness." 2
When in 1672, owing to the wrong understanding of an order
given by his uncle and chief, the Grand Conde, the Comte
de Paris (then Due de Longueville) was killed during the
famous Passage of the Rhine,3 Madame de LongueviUe's
unique consolation must have been that, only a short time
before leaving for the army, he had become converted by Ces
1 The Due de Longueville had interested himself particularly in the educa
tion of his eldest son, who was almost an idiot, and given him a Jesuit tutor.
After his father's death, at the age of seventeen (his brother was three years
younger) he came to hve with his mother in Paris. He was nineteen when
he fled to Rome. There he took the name of the Abbe d'Orleans, and in 1669
was ordained priest.
2 Letter of the 3rd July 1672.
3 Madame de Sevigne had most touchingly described Madame de Longue
viUe's reception of the news of her son's death brought her by MUe. de Vertus :
" Ah I mon cher fils ! Est-il mort sur le champ ? N'a-t-il pas eu un seul
moment ? Ah I mon Dieu, quel sacrifice I Et la-dessys elle tombe sur son
ht, et tout ce que la plus vive douleur put faire, et par des convulsions, et
par des evanouissements, et par un silence mortel, et par des cris etouffes,
et par des larmes amfires, et par des elans vers le ciel, et par des plaintes
tendres et pitoyables, eUe a tout eprouvfe" (20th June 1672).
18

274 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Messieurs, and had begun a spiritual life, the Port-Royalists
thereafter considering him a saint.
The son's death sounded in reality his mother's death-kneU,
but for seven weary years existence dragged on for her, and
was made endurable by good works and pious exercises, the
interest of seeing a crowd of penitents — among whom was
Louise de la VaUiere — pass through these her two religious
retreats. At last,1 the end came, at the Carmelites, on the 15th
AprU 1679. The funeral eulogy was not delivered until a year
afterwards, then, strangely enough, only a few days after the
death of M. de la Rochefoucauld. Instead of the great Bossuet,
it was preached by the Abbe de la Roquette, formerly in the
Conde household, and become Bishop of Autun, an ecclesiastic
supposed to have been the original of Moliere's Tartuffe. This
sermon was not aUowed to be printed, so we learn its epitome
again through Madame de Sevigne, who comments thus on the
Bishop of Autun and his task :
" He was a prelate of consequence," she wrote, " preaching
with dignity, and going through the Princess's life with incred
ible address, passing the delicate points, saying or not saying
what should be said or not said." 2
Mourning Madame de LongueviUe, the Queen of Devotes,
and a benefactor who had secured them the boon of peace,
Port-Royal at least forgot the mistakes of Madame de
LongueviUe's youth. And if their benedictions, and those of
the multitude to whom she made restitution for the misery
she had caused during the Fronde, could have wiped out her
sins, she must now certainly occupy a high place in that
heaven of which Jansenius and St. Cyran dreamed, and in
which they awaited souls over whom they had watched in
their earthly days.
And though Madame de LonguevUle is remembered in
French history chiefly for that unsurpassable beauty and
charm which attracted to her such men as the Great Conde,
La Rochefoucauld, and the serious scholars of Port-Royal, her
value from an ethical and social point of view has been most
aptly summed up as the crown of humUity.3 An unknown
1 Her age was fifty-nine years and seven months.
2 Lettre du 12 Avril 1680.
8 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 133.

LA DUCHESSE DE LONGUEVILLE
FROM AN ENGRAVING BY WALTENER

THE PEACE OF THE CHURCH 375
Jansenist author — suspected to be Nicole — in a MS. discovered
by Sainte-Beuve at the Bibliotheque Nationale, giving a
summary of her character, attributed to her qualities equaUy
to be esteemed from a religious or from a worldly standpoint.
He dwells upon the fact that she herself never said Ul of a
person, and that to hear evil spoken gave her pain. Observ
ing her humUity, her lack of affectation, her power of listening
attentively, he concluded his eulogy by the statement that
everything about her — voice, face, gestures — made a perfect
music, whUe both her physical being and her mind served so
well in the expression of what she desired to say, that she was
" the most finished actress in the world." x
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 135. Tohissister, the Duchesse d'Epernon
M. de Pontchateau wrote apropos of Madame de Longueville : " II y avait
des faiblesses : qui n'en a point ? EUe les voyoit et en gemissoit ; c'est
presque tout ce que Dieu demande de nous" (Lettre du 22 Avril 1679).

CHjAPTER II
RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION WITH
PORT-ROYAL
" O repos I O tranquiUite I
O d'un parfait bonheur assurance eterneUe,
Quand la supreme autorite
Dans ses conseUs a toujours auprfis d'eUe
La justice et la verite." Athalie
THE newest and most sensational work on Racine, written
by his great-great-nephew, M. Masson Forestier,1 en
deavours to prove that^the foremost French tragic poet
never belonged to Port-Royal at aU. Having carefully perused
M. Masson Forestier's long pages, however, iHs^difficult to find
any convincing proof of what the author^has so minutely
tried to demonstrate, and in re-teUing the simple facts of his
history we gladly leave it to our readers to estimate for them
selves the effect of Port-Royal on the poet, as weU as Racine's
own sincerity in his conversion and subsequent life.
In the pages of one of the Necrologes of Port-Royal he is
classified :
" M. Racine, poete, Solitaire of Port -Royal, author of
Esther, Athalie, of the Cantiques Spirituels, and of the Abrege
de I' Histoire de Port-Royal." 2
That they ignored his profane plays, and a certain period of
his life, does not make him any less one of their number.
\ 1 Autour d'un Racine ignort, Paris, Mercure de France, 1910.
2 L. Bredif, Racine et Port-Royal (Melanges). The Ntcrologe and Supplt
ment each give Racine a notice, each speak of his profane dramatic works,
and also of his period of worldly dissipation. The above-quoted comes from
another Necrologe of the Friends of Port-Royal.276

RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 277
Forced to leave Port-Royal des Champs on the final destruc
tion of the Petites Ecoles, Racine had apparently quickly lost
its influence. We are told that at the College de Harcourt,
where he was sent to study philosophy, he soon fell into
irreligious ways. Hearing of this, his solicitous and pious
famUy conceived the plan of putting him with his uncle
Sconin, a Canon at Usez, who, possessor of many fat benefices,
had promised to endow his nephew with them. On his arrival
at Usez, his uncle accordingly at once dressed the nineteen-
year-old Racine in a complete suit of black, and was about to
have him tonsured, when the young aspirant himself, already
weary of the forced hypocrisy and sycophancy he met with
in the provinces, renounced the religious life, together with his
uncle's proposed ecclesiastical honours, and returned to Paris,
carrying with him the beginning of his first tragedy, The
Thebaide, ou les Freres ennemis.
When he returned, his grandmother, Marie des Moulins,
having died at Port-Royal, leaving as only remaining relative in
authority, his aunt Agnes de St. Thecle Racine, a nun at Port-
Royal, Racine found himself comparatively free and master
of his own destiny. He at once began his career by a trial
of the poetic gift, the possession of which had been denied him
by both Le Maitre and De Saci.1
His cousin Vitart took his first effort, an ode to Louis xiv
on his marriage, caUed " La Nymphe de la Seine," to Chapelain,
who found it very fine and very poetic, in spite of the detail of
the Seine being peopled with Tritons instead of nymphs —
a grave mistake in the eyes of the conservative old poet.
Perrault confirmed Chapelain's dictum, and soon Colbert,
Intendant of Finance, presented the author with a purse of one
hundred louis. According to pious ideas, this success was
Racine's ruin, for it settled his taste in literature, and caused
him to give rein to his ruling passion — that of writing for the
stage. Among his first friends at this period were Moliere and
La Fontaine. A second ode, called " La Renommee aux
1 M. de Saci, it would seem, was rather jealous of Racine, and finding his
verses unhke his own, represented to the young poet that poetry was not
his talent. M. Le Maitre, on his part, wishing to make an advocate of his
clever pupil, also discouraged the writing of verse (Sainte-Beuve, Port-
Royal, vi. p. 93).

278 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Muses," written soon after " La Nymphe de la Seine," brought
him not only the protection of the Comte de St. Agnan and
entrance to the Court, but — more valuable still — a third
friendship, that of Nicolas Bofleau, caUed Despreaux, con
sidered by some of the most eminent critics to have written
the finest verses in the French language.1 At first the four led
a frivolous existence. With four or five other associates of
more notoriety for their adherence to Bacchus than literary
reputation, they used to foregather either at one of the three
celebrated inns of the day, " Le Mouton Blanc," " Pomme de
Pin," and " Croix de Lorraine," or at Boileau's lodgings at
AuteuU. On these occasions, it was BoUeau's influence alone
which kept Racine from giving himself up entirely to the
wUdest dissipation. Indeed, BoUeau was destined to have a
tremendous and most salubrious effect on Racine's history.
Only three years older than his new friend, BoUeau was also
of a satiric, light-hearted vein, and indissolubly linked with
both Moliere and La Fontaine, especiaUy the former, whom
he particularly admired.2
Moliere was by this time weU settled in his career, a man
of forty, and eighteen years older than Racine. His influence
had the effect, says M. Jules Lemaitre in his Jean Racine,3
of dissipating any disposition the young HeUenist may have
had toward the precieux or sentimental side of literature. The
brusque realism of Moliere took him away from the flowers,
the dew, the shadows, and the fountains, and inspired in him
nothing less than a love of the true and the natural. From
Moliere, too, he gained an idea of the tragedy of life, for, though
an inimitable companion at times, the great actor-manager,
always unhappy and unfortunate in his domestic surround
ings, was more often than not melancholy rather than
gay- La Fontaine's personality, on the other hand, was not
1 " It was a tender, grave, and earnest friendship" (Sainte-Beuve, Port-
Royal, vi. p. 105), and that Racine appreciated it is proved by the fact that
when he was dying, embracing Boileau, he said : " I look upon it as good
fortune for me to die before you " (ibid.). (They met in 1664.)
2 "Asked in his old age whom he considered the geniuses of his century,
Boileau repUed : ' I know only three — Corneille, Molidre, . . . and myself.'
' And Racine ? ' demanded his astonished questioner. ' Racine,' replied
Boileau, ' was only a bel esprit whom I with difficulty taught to make easy
verses ' " (Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vi. note, p. 122).
3 P. 9.

RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 279
calculated to instU into the younger poet any force or stabUity
of character. Ever irresponsible and irregular, although
also older than Racine by nineteen years, the paganism of
the author of the Fables, says M. Lemaitre,
" acted like a dissolvant of Racine's rehgious education." x
In fact, by nature La Fontaine was the last man in the world
to appreciate Port-Royal and its grandeur. He had mocked
at Escobar ; called Jansenius " the author of vain debates,"
his foUowers, " authors full of mind and good disputes " —
but, and here is the crux of the whole matter, he had also
vowed that the lessons of his Port-Royal friends seemed to
him a little sad. Nevertheless, to compliment these friends, he
wrote a poem called " La Captivite de Saint-Male," on a
subject taken from M. d'AndiUy's " Peres des Deserts " ;
and in return for Arnauld's admiration of his Fables, deter
mined to dedicate to the grave doctor one of his very risque
Contes, as weU as to eulogize him in the Preface. It was
with the greatest difficulty that Racine and BoUeau dissuaded
the careless poet from this design. Arnauld never knew
the honour which had threatened him — one which would
have shocked his pious taste.
In the early years of their friendship, Racine took his
Thebatde to Moliere, now established as the head of the
Theatre of the Palais Royal,2 and busy producing his own
and other plays. Paying him a sum in advance, the famous
actor-manager at once accepted Racine's play, afterwards
revising the work to suit the requirements of the stage. As
a requital of this kindness, the poet, who owed it to Moliere 3
to first submit to him any subsequent work, is credited with
having committed the dastardly action of taking his Alexandre
to the Hotel de Bourgogne, and placing it secretly in rehearsal,
Moliere knowing nothing of the matter untU the production
of the play at the rival theatre.4 This and other breaches
1 Jean Racine, p. 9.
2 At this epoch Paris possessed three theatres, the Palais Royal, the
Marais, and the Hotel de Bourgogne, where during seven months of the year
performances were given on three days of the week.
8 The Thibaide was not very popular and only given a few times, whereas
Alexandre was a great success.
* Dec. 4, 1665.

280 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
of friendship x caused Moliere from that time forward to
sever aU connection with his former associate.
At Port-Royal, meantime, Racine's saintly aunt, Agnes
de Saint-Thecle, had been noting her nephew's career, and
continually pleading with him to give up his mode of life
which " dishonoured him before God and man." 2 Racine,
however, only grew angry, and exclaimed that he knew how
to take care of himself. It was in this state of mind he
was drawn into what he afterwards considered the greatest
folly of his life. It seems that in Paris at this time a play
wright caUed Desmaretz de Saint-Sorlin, particularly heated
against what he caUed " la fausse Eglise des Jansenistes,"
had actuaUy proposed to the King to raise an army of 144,000
men, and, putting himself at the head of it, to stamp out the
heresy by blood. This idea being expressed in a satirical
comedy entitled Les Visionnaires, Nicole took upon himself
to reply by ten letters, caUed :
" Lettres sur l'Heresie Imaginaire,"
foUowing these the next year by eight other letters, styled
" Les Visionnaires." Not content with ridiculing Desmaretz,
Nicole enveloped in his anathema aU writers of novels and
theatrical pieces, stating that
" a maker of novels and a poet of the theatre is a public
poisoner, not of bodies, but of souls of the faithful who
may consider themselves guUty of an infinity of spiritual
homicides." Stupidly imagining Nicole to have had the intention of
humiliating him in his character of poet, Racine indignantly
retaliated by a piquant letter 3 containing unkind remarks
against his old friends, insulting especiaUy the two saints of
1 One of which was making love to the actress Du Pare of MoUere's
company, and inducing her to leave the staff of the Palais Royal (1667).
A year later Mohere satirized Racine at his theatre in a play called La
folle Querelle ou la Critique d' Andromache.
2 " I conjure you, therefore, my dear nephew," she wrote, " to have pity
on your soul, and to return into your heart there to consider seriously into
what an abyss you have thrown yourself."
8 " And what can novels and comedies have in common with Jansenism ? "
he exclaimed (letter addressed to " L'Auteur des Her6sies imaginaires "
(Nicole), January 1666).

RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 281
Port-Royal, Le Maitre and Mere Angelique. Of the former
he said :
" You reproach M. Desmaretz with his boldness, after an
intemperate life, in writing on the subject of religion. But tell
me, Monsieur, what did M. le Maitre do in the world ? He
pleaded, he made verses ; all that is equaUy profane, according
to your maxims. He also avowed in a letter that he had led a
disorderly life, and that he had retired among you to weep his
crimes. How, then, did you suffer that he shouldmake so many
translations, so many books on the subject of Grace ? "
The satire on Mere Angelique was a story of two Capuchin
monks, who came to Port-Royal des Champs, and begged
the usual hospitality. According to custom, they were re
ceived courteously but coldly. After they were seated at table,
and had partaken of wine and white bread, however, somebody
suggested to Mere Angelique that one of these priests was a
certain Pere MaUlard, who had solicited at Rome the Butte
against Jansenius. Outraged, Mere Angelique at once ordered
that the white bread and wine be removed, and replaced by
black bread and common cider. Although surprised at the
change, the priests said nothing, and went to bed.
The next morning, as they were saying Mass, M. de Bagnols
came in, and in one of the suspected priests recognized a
relative of his own. Mere Angelique being^told of this, the
Capuchins were conducted from the church to the refectory,
and there regaled with the choicest viands the house afforded.
Racine advised the Messieurs of Port-Royal to make a special
chapter of this incident, entitled :
" On the spirit of discernment which God had given the
holy Mere Angelique."
No reply was made at first to this attack. But, in a
reprint made the next year of the Imaginaires, Nicole put in the
Preface a statement that everything that Racine had said was
foreign to common sense, and false from beginning to end.
Racine thereupon wrote another letter, more bitter and
sarcastic than the first, but, reading it to Boileau, the latter
prevented its publication.
In the thirteen years which intervened between Racine's
rupture and reconciliation with Port-Royal (1664-77), " the

282 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
most perfect of French poets " % produced his greatest profane
plays. It was through his tragedy of Phedre that he received
the first blow of malignant fortune.
A poet named Pradon had written a play on the same
subject, treated very differently. It was arranged that both
works should be given simultaneously, but when the night
came, owing to a plot of the Due de Nevers and the Duchesse
de BouUlon, the boxes at Racine's performance were empty,
those of Pradon fuU. Moreover, thanks to 15,000 livres
donated by the Duchess, Pradon's miserable Phedre was played
sixteen times, while Racine's was at the moment a faUure.
Yet, if we may believe eminent critics, Racine's tragedy was
a greater success than any one knew. Ever since writing
Iphigenie, three years before, the souvenir of Port-Royal had
been present with the poet.2 In Phedre he had endeavoured to
reconcUe paganism and Christianity, and had almost succeeded:
" The expression of antique fatalism in this piece
approaches, in short, very sensibly that which a vigorous
Christianity involves."
And, says his biographer :
" The inquietude which his first Christian tragedy inspired
in him, succeeded in making him a Christian." 3
The disappointment at the faUure of Phedre completed his
disillusion with regard to the glories of the world, and suddenly,
at thirty-seven years of age, at the acme of his genius, in the
height of his fame, he was seized with the desire to give up
everything and to devote himself to the life of the spirit.
Once becoming possessed with this idea, the ever-present
remembrance of Port-Royal and his early life in the Desert
weighed more and more heavUy upon him, untU he was filled
with the thought of becoming reconcUed to his former masters.
To obtain the forgiveness of Nicole was comparatively
1 " If," said Retz, " Turenne is the most perfect of French heroes,
Racine is the most perfect of French poets." Valincour, one of Racine's
best friends, and his successor at the Academy, thus described him: "Of
a medium height, agreeable physiognomy, frank face, pointed nose, the mark
of a mind incUned to raillery. ... At the end of his hfe, piety moderated
this trait. He was pitiless against deeds, pitiful toward sufferers " (Gaulois,
10 Avril 1899).
2 Jules Lemaitre, Jean Racine, p. 268. 3 Ibid. p. 317.

RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 283
easy. When a relative led the repentant poet to his lodgings,
this old master received his former pupU with open arms. But,
with Arnauld, it was more difficult. The brother of Mere
Angelique could not forget Racine's pleasantries with regard
to the two Capuchin monks. Several times BoUeau tried
to effect a reconcUiation, and faUed. Finally, this zealous
friend took Arnauld a copy of Phedre with the author's com
pliments. Arnauld read the masterpiece, was mollified, and
when, brought by BoUeau the poet came and in the presence
of a large company fell on his knees before Arnauld, the
latter also dropped down beside the penitent, both embracing
in this posture.1
Fortunately, Racine's wise confessor induced him to
renounce the project he had made in the first enthusiasm of
his repentance, of becoming a monk of Chartreux, and advised
him to lead the saner life for one of his disposition by settling
down into famUy relations. He married, therefore, and,
living henceforth " like a good bourgeois," had five cluldren
whom he raised in a Christian manner.
The very year of his reconciliation with Port-Royal (1677),
Racine and Boileau were appointed Royal Historians. Follow
ing Louis xiv in all his campaigns, it was their duty to
report the exploits of the Grand Monarque.2 Always devoted
to Louis xiv, from this time on, Racine was possessed by
but two passions : his religion and his King.
In his official capacity he revelled in flowery language
and extravagant compliments. Louis xiv himself, albeit fond
of flattery, felt this over-praise of Racine, for he remarked
with regard to one of his eulogies :
" I am very satisfied ; I would praise you more, if you had
praised me less." 3
But Racine's love for his Sovereign did not lead him to dis-
1 Gustave Larroumet, Racine, p. 30.
2 November 3, 1677, Madame de Sevigne wrote of Racine and Despreaux
as follows : " The King said to them four days ago : ' I am sorry you did
not come on this last campaign ; you would have seen the war, and your
journey would not have been long.' Racine rephed : ' Sire, we are two
bourgeois who have only city clothes ; we ordered some for the campaign ;
but the places which you attacked were taken sooner than our clothes were
finished.' This was agreeably received."
" Vie de Messire Antoine Arnauld, 17S1, vol. ii. p. 413.

284 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
guise his connection with the sect so hated by Louis xiv. He
adored the latter, but in the midst of his most pressing duties
at Versailles, where he was occupied chiefly in celebrating the
great deeds of his royal master, he never forgot his friends at
Port-Royal.1 Indeed, it was in order to make the Cardinal de
NoaUles favourable to the Port-Royalists that he wrote the
Abrege de V Histoire de Port-Royal, a work considered by the
critics as a marvel of clear statement of events as weU as
concise and elegant writing. StUl, he remained in such favour,
that when, during an Ulness of the monarch, the poet sent to
VersaUles four Cantiques Spirituelles written at the King's
request for St. Cyr, and set to music by Moreau, Ul as he was,
Louis xiv had them at once sung to him. He was also in the
habit of keeping Racine near him, and on one occasion even
desired him to sleep in his room.
After the representation of Racine's Andromache at St.
Cyr, Madame de Maintenon wrote to the poet and begged
him to compose for her in his moments of leisure
" A kind of poem, moral or historical, from which love
should be entirely banished, which the young ladies of
St. Cyr could act." 2
This request embarrassed Racine, who had renounced
play writing fully six years before, yet he was enough of a
courtier stiU to know that he must accede to any request of
this powerful lady. Therefore, after some deliberation and
advice from Boileau, he compounded with his conscience by
choosing the subject of Esther, which seemed to solve the
difficulty. On proposing it to the authorities of St. Cyr, they
conceded the story to be full of
" great lessons of the love of God and detachment from the
world in the midst of the world itself." 3
1 When on April 25, 1899, the two hundredth anniversary of Racine's
death was celebrated at La Ferte Milon and by a pilgrimage to Port-Royal
des Champs, articles appeared in the Gaulois, Temps, and Figaro, written by
some of the greatest litterateurs of France, in the first-named, M. Leon
Seche said : " From the time of his conversion, the Abbey had no protector
more vigilant than Racine — one might say that he covered it with his body
... for the Court and the Archbishopric found him before them each time
they wished to take rigorous measures with regard to the nuns. He thought
and lived but for Port-Royal, and if he continued to go to VersaUles, it was
less to pay his court to the King than with the design of humanizing him."
2 De Lescure, Souvenirs de la Marquise de Cay/us, p. 164.
3 Theophile Lavallee, L' Histoire de la Maison de St. Cyr, p. jj.

RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 285
In 1689, six performances of the new play were given at
St. Cyr. Here, in the great vestibule adjoining the dormitories,
two vast amphitheatres were arranged against the waUs, the
largest for the pupUs, dressed in different colours according
to their ages : pupUs up to eleven years being in red ; those
less than fourteen, in green ; less than seventeen, in yeUow ;
and lower down, the eldest, in blue. Between the two amphi
theatres were seated the spectators from the outside. The
room was magnificently lighted, the scenes painted by Born,
the Court decorator, the choruses accompanied by the
musicians of the King. The Persian costumes of the actresses
had cost more than forty thousand livres, and the precious
stones which ornamented them those formerly used by the
King in his ballets.
AU the grandees of the Court craved invitations to these
performances, not only out of curiosity, but in order to pay
court to the King and Madame de Maintenon. Bossuet was
at the premiere, when the King, stationing himself at the
door, remained there, holding his cane erect to serve as a
barrier, untU the guests had entered, when he gave the
signal to begin.
The success of Esther was tremendous. Everybody tried
to fit the great personages to the different characters, seeing
in Vashti, Madame de Montespan, the replaced favourite ;
in Madame de Maintenon, Esther herself ; in Mardochee,
perhaps the Grand Arnauld ; in Aman, Louvois ; while who
could the race so hated by Aman be but the Jansenists ? And
surely " ce lieu par la Grace habit e "
could only be the monastery in the Desert ?
AU Port-Royal was enthusiastic over this play. Quesnel
in a letter to Pere Du Breuil said :
" I have read it with much pleasure. The sentiments of
Christian piety and the maxims of a heart truly royal are
expressed therein so happily that one cannot help being
touched." But, added the true Jansenist, who did not approve of the
theatre, " If one had been satisfied to put it on paper, I should have
been still more content."

286 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
It is said that Esther, more than any other of Racine's plays,
was the reflection of his childhood's days in the woods and
plains of the Valley Yvette.
The cause of the poet's disgrace was a memoir on the
misery of the people, which he had drawn up at the request
of Madame de Maintenon, and which she promised to keep
secret from the King. In this writing, he rather criticized
the royal policy. Unfortunately, the pamphlet feU into the
King's hands, and Madame de Maintenon was obliged to
divulge the name of its author. From that day, by the
change in the King's manner, Racine felt that he was no
longer in favour. At last Madame de Maintenon, meeting
the poet one day in the Gardens of VersaUles, tried to console
him by saying that she would bring him back good weather
again, if only he would let this cloud pass.
" No, no, Madame, you wUl never bring it back to me."
" What ! " exclaimed the favourite, " do you doubt my
heart or my credit ? "
" I know, Madame," said the former favourite, " both
your credit and the goodness you have for me, but I have an
aunt who loves me in a very different fashion : this holy maid
asks God every day for new disgrace, new hurmliation, new
subject of penitence, and she wiU have more credit than you."
At that moment a carriage was heard approaching.
" Fly ! " cried Madame de Maintenon. " It is the King ! " 1
This was the last blow at Racine's love for his Sovereign.
On the 21st AprU 1699, the disgraced courtier and inspired
poet died, aged only fifty-nine, leaving, as last earthly wish,
the request that he be interred at Port-Royal des Champs.
" I desire," he wrote, " that after my death my body be
carried to Port -Royal des Champs, and inhumed in the
cemetery at the foot of the grave of M. Hamon. I supplicate
very humbly the Mother Abbess and the nuns to be good enough
to accord me this honour, although I recognize that I am
unworthy of it.
Boileau is one authority for the belief that Racine had
come to virtue through Religion, his temperament inclining
him to be satirical, restless, jealous, and voluptuous.2 Sainte-
1 Louis Racine, Memoires. 2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vi. p. 106.

RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 287
Beuve says he was born " docile," 1 but all biographers agree
in pronouncing him " difficult " at least. But whatever
his character, his will testifies that Port-Royal had finaUy
become to him, after all, the reality of his life, and this in
defiance of the malicious epigram which, apropos of his
desire to find an eternal home at Port-Royal in the
" Solitude," went the rounds of Paris :
" II n'aurait jamais fait cela de son vivant." 2
1 Port-Royal, vi. p. 121.
2 " Never would he have done such a thing in his lifetime."

CHAPTER III
PERSECUTION RESUMED
" Ne vautil pas mieux endurer une fois la mort que l'apprehender 4 tous
moments ? "
DURING the ten years which foUowed the Peace of the
Church, Port-Royal proper sustained the loss of many
of its courageous spirits, prominently that of Mere
Agnes de Saint-Paul, the 19th February 1671. Her funeral
was the occasion of pathetic incidents. Antoine Arnauld
officiated, and no less than thirteen ecclesiastics took part
in her interment. We are told that a few years later, when
De Saci's obsequies were being celebrated, the voices of the
Solitaires were choked with tears, while the nuns
" sang to the end with a gravity which became the subject
of astonishment and admiration." x
On theoccasion of the ceremony for Mere Agnes, whUe chanting
the In exitu, it was the turn of the nuns to be overcome,
and had not the Messieurs continued, the music would have
ended abruptly.
M. de Perefixe died the same year as Mere Agnes :
" In a transport of lively regret for all he had done against
the nuns, whom at the bottom of his heart he had always
recognized as innocent." 2
1 The singing at Port-Royal was celebrated for its peculiar rehgious
quahty, and this was explained by the fact that when novices or postulants
entered the monastery from the world without, they were not allowed to sing
with the others until their voices had lost the artificial or worldly sound, being
sometimes condemned for months to complete silence, while they " learned
to listen to themselves, to understand themselves, and to give to their voices
a tone of intelligence and expression so faithful to the pronunciation that
their chant was in reahty a prayer."
2 Racine, Abrtgt, p. 212.

PERSECUTION RESUMED 289
Robert Arnauld d'AndiUy, a patriarch of eighty-five, was the
next to pass away,
" like an olive branch among its shoots." 1
Most historians, Racine among the number, feel that the
history of Port-Royal really ended with the Peace of the
Church. And though this was practicaUy true, the period
before the final destruction has its own peculiar characteristics.
Distinguished more in individuals than as a whole, Port-Royal
oppressed was no longer the heroic figure of the lion brought
to bay, but rather that of the hunted stag, weary with the
long chase, and so dazed as almost to be glad of capture and
annihUation. Even before Madame de LongueviUe's death
the King had become restless, pursued by the ever-present
thought that while the Jansenists lived his State would be
menaced. As M. de Camus wrote, 5th July 1676, to the Abbe"
de Pontchateau :
" Nothing but a great sUence and forgetfulness by the
world can save them in this matter. Jansenism is finished —
no pretext must be given to bring it up again." 2
It was Nicole who broke the silence so recommended by
M. de Camus, Nicole who, assisted by Arnauld, was the author
of the new Letter of the Law, the Book called The Perpetuity
of Faith in the Eucharist 3 — a defence of the old Catholic
tradition as opposed to the new Calvinistic ideas. Although
only the Dedicatory Epistle to Pope Clement ix was the work
of Arnauld, the Perpetuity of the Faith brought him many
results, among others a letter from Leibniz, the great philo-
sopher, then a very young man, as weU as the first favourable
mention he had had for many years from the Sorbonne. It
was said that in one town of France alone fifteen persons of
different conditions had been converted to Catholicism by
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 15.
2 Ibid., p. 151. Madame de LongueviUe also wrote unceasingly to Madame
de Sable : " Au nom de Dieu, poussez bien M. Arnauld a se taire." In 1668
she reported the desire of M. de Comminges that there should be silence,
saying again : " Faites seulement de vostre cote que M. Arnauld ne dise
mot du monde " (V. Cousin, Madame de Sablt, Letters in Appendix).
3 The first volume appeared in 1669, and was accompanied by the appro
bation of 27 prelates and 20 Doctors, Bossuet among the number. The second
appeared in 1672 ; the third in 1676.
19

290 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
this book. In Paris, a great many grand personages were
induced by it to return to the Roman Catholic Church :
" Port -Royal at this moment," wrote Sainte-Beuve, " thus
served by the most direct action the policy of Louis xiv and
anticipated Bossuet." *•
Unfortunately, about the same time, Nicole had been
induced to write a letter to the Pope on the subject of the
relaxed morality of the Casuists. This act so greatly dis
pleased Louis xiv that, on the death of Madame de Longue
viUe and Cardinal Retz, Nicole thought it best to leave Paris.
He therefore crossed the frontier and fled to Brussels. In
June foUowing, Arnauld, compromised with Nicole and also
suspected by the King of having written against the Regale,2
left Paris in disguise ; and, accompanied by two friends, went
to Mons in Belgium, afterwards to Brussels, where he met
Nicole, now fifty-four, tired, infirm, and asthmatic. Though
fourteen years older, the champion of Jansenism was as in
domitable as ever, and to Nicole's plea of feebleness and
weariness, he only answered :
" We shaU have aU Eternity to rest in."
But even these courageous words did not suffice to give the
more yielding Jansenist enough strength to persevere. He
refused to foUow Arnauld to HoUand, and thus these two
friends d la mort et d la vie,9 after twenty-five years of constant
companionship, now separated to meet no more.4
1 Port-Royal, iv. p. 445.
2 The Rtgale was the right enjoyed by Princes of making use of the revenue
from vacant prelatures, and of nominating their own candidates to all benefices
in the gift of the defunct prelate. The Rtgale had been established in a
great many parts of the kingdom. Louis xiv in 1673 declared the practice
universal (Besoigne, Vies des Quatres Evtques, vol. i. p. 198).
3 An expression used by Arnauld in a letter of adieu to Nicole, dated
9th August 1679 : " et quelque parti que vous preniez, la petite peine que
j'aurois pourrois avoir ne m'empgchera jamais de vous regarder comme mon
ami d la mort et a la vie."
* For some time Nicole wandered about Belgium, and finaUy, after much
manoeuvring, he was allowed to return to his native town of Chartres, where
he lived under the name of De Bercy. During his exile he continued writing,
and at last in May 1683 he returned to Paris, and took up his abode next
the convent of La Creche. There he had a fine Ubrary, and some portraits by
Champagne of ancient nuns of Port-Royal ; and on certain days of the week
he held a kind of Academy in his rooms. At last he took up his pen against
Quietism, and while still occupied on the subject, in 1695, he died. Although

PERSECUTION RESUMED 291
In the meantime the destruction of Port-Royal was steadily
progressing, M. de Harlai, the new Archbishop, being anything
but favourable to the Jansenists. If gossip may be believed,
he had several reasons for this animosity. In the first place,
Madame de LongueviUe had always treated him very coldly,
and it was not pleasant to be ignored by a princess of her rank
and condition. Then, Antoine Arnauld, in a letter to Mere
Constance, Superior of the Convent of the Visitation at Angers,
believing M. de Harlai to have stirred up trouble in that
province, had called him a " monster of Antichrist." This
letter had been intercepted, it was said, and faUen into
the hands of the Archbishop himself. However, as M. de
Harlai was actuated principally by motives of a political bias,
his object in aU his dealings with Port-Royal may have simply
been with a view to pleasing the King, and extinguishing
opposition for himself in the Church. The methods of his
procedure differed essentiaUy from those M. de Pererixe had
used. WhUe the latter was rude and brusque, this prelate
was always most polite and amiable.
Some time after his appointment, M. de Harlai paid a visit
to Port-Royal des Champs. Very courteously he intimated
to Mere Angelique de St. Jean, who the previous year had
been elected Abbess, that it was the King's wish they should
receive no more prospective nuns untU the number under
her charge should have been reduced to fifty Professes de chceur,
ordering her therefore to dismiss the present postulantes,
also remarking casuaUy that the King desired she should send
away what pupUs there were, and that from that time forward
no more were to be received.
Although Mere Angelique was fully aware that words were
useless, " I threw myself on my knees," she related, "to beg for
those poor girls," etc.1
Finally, being driven to declare a reason for his action,
" The King," said M. de Harlai, " wishes to rid his ears of
generally liked and respected, Nicole's lack of popularity at Port-Royal is
shown by the fact that after his death they forgot to take his heart to the
Champs. 1 Relation de la Mire Angilique de St. Jean,

292 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
the continual cry, ' Ces Messieurs ! Ces Messieurs ! ' . . .
It is the Republic of Port -Royal which must be suppressed." 1
After having so agreeably and pleasantly dealt the death
blow to Mere Angelique and her nuns, the Archbishop, as
he entered his carriage to return to Paris, suavely told M. de
Saci that it was the King's intention that neither he nor
any of the other ecclesiastics should remain longer at the
Champs. Advising him, therefore, to retire at once, he
graciously accorded him and his companions fifteen days
in which to effect their retreat.
The day after the Archbishop's visit, the Gardener-Sohtaire
known as " Mercier " was the first to leave Port-Royal. The
duty of this humble hermit at Les Granges had been for eight
years to cultivate the gardens and the vines, the product of
which, together with fish from the pond, was sold for the
benefit of the monastery. Yet Mercier of Les Granges,
iUustrious by birth, fortune, and talents, had been one of
the most briUiant men of France, his life a series of sur
prising adventures and incidents. Since the age of seventeen,
when through M. de Rebours he had met Singlin, it had
taken this penitent — Sebastien Joseph de Coislin, Abbe"
de Ponchateau, who at seven years of age was possessed
of three abbeys and already tonsured — twenty-seven years
to sow his wild oats, and finally put himself under the rule
of true contrition of heart.
" The life of M. de Pontchateau was traversed by so many
different events that it is difficult to unravel them." 2
After meeting Singlin, he visited Port-Royal for a short
time, but the world tempting him again, he suddenly left, and
directed his steps towards Rome, without even saying good
bye to his friends in the Desert. Thus his life of adventure
began, one which was crossed and re-crossed by fleeting con
nections with the Jansenists. Since the period of the
Provincial Letters, when he had been active in connection
with Port-Royal, he had corresponded with M. Singlin,
who advised him to leave his present mode] of life and enter
a monastery. This he avowed he would^like to do, but
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 168.
2 This short account of the Ufe of M. de Pontchateau is taken from that
written by Beaubrun, and given by Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vol. vi. pp.
302-336. Also Recueil de Plusieurs Piices, p. 410,

PERSECUTION RESUMED 293
could not yet manage. " Do not say can-not," said Singlin,
" but will not." These words aroused M. de Pontchateau to
definite action. On the Peace of the Church he retired to
Port-Royal des Champs, where he lived in a little maisonette
with one large room on the ground-floor, from which a stair
case led to an attic above. As M. de Pontchateau had
relinquished all his possessions on adopting the life of a
Solitaire, even giving his magnificent library to Arnauld, the
treasures of the room below consisted in
" tapestry of matting, with the picture of St. Arsene on it, a
great wooden cross, several sentences taken from the Scrip
tures, some geographical charts, a few portraits, and a view
of the Grand Chartreuse."
The favourite duty of this original character was that of
digging graves for the nuns.
" I leave it to M. de Saci," he said, " to exhort them to
death ; but to inter them properly, no one understands it
better than I." 1
On leaving the Granges, the morning after M. de Harlai's
visit, M. de Pontchateau went abroad, and from that time on
took long journeys in the interest of the Jansenists, sometimes
living with Arnauld in Brussels, sometimes elsewhere, dis
guising his identity under all sorts of names. FinaUy, after
giving himself up to great austerity in a Belgian convent, this
brother of a Duchess of France died as plain M. Fleuri in the
house of a churchwarden of St. Gervais.
From M. de Harlai's dispersion of the Solitaires in 1679, the
history of Port-Royal des Champs is monotonous and grey ;
and until its final ruin, its story is one of gradual extinguishing
— of old age and death, with no influx of new blood. The only
light and shade in the picture was furnished by the devotion
of several Confessors — M. le Tourneux, M. Eustace, M.
BocquUlot — and of the poet SanteuU. To the latter, a Canon
of St. Victor in Paris, Port-Royal owed much. Taking a
great fancy to the monastery in the country on a chance
visit there, he returned again and again to cheer by his wit
and good-humour the few hermits clinging to the place.
He himself admitted that he was a little mad,2 and certainly
1 Vies Interessantes et £difiantes, vol. i. p. 378.
2 " Je suis tel que vous me voyez, mais le Christianisme ne defend d'etre
fou."

294 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
his nature was, in its frankness, rude joviality, and comical
devotion, one absolutely foreign to anything Port-Royal had
previously known. He had a sincere admiration for the nuns,
whose demeanour under insults and unkindness so aroused
his devotion that he took them as his models and spoke of them
as those " holy women," those " angels." The atmosphere of
the Monastery seemed to strike deep into bis soul, for, as he
wrote Arnauld in 1694 :
" I have just come back from Port -Royal, and in entering,
your letter was given me. I have walked on the tombs of
yours and my best friends, who teach me more from their
tombs than aU the troup of Jesuits from their pulpits." 1
1 Dinouart, Santoliana, p. 273. SanteuU was always among those eccle
siastics who on fete days went to Port-Royal des Champs and joined
in the processions and celebrations — the only joys of the last days of the
Abbey. See Ntcrologe.

CHAPTER IV
PORT-ROYAL IN CONFLICT WITH PHILOSOPHY
" Paganisme immortel, es-tu mort ? On le dit ;
Mais Pan tout bas s'en moque, et la Sirene en rit."
ARNAULD had not kept silent in his exile. His body
was necessarily quiet ; not so his brain and pen. He
wrote continuaUy, and, in spite of warnings, could
not resist discussing the very questions which were like red
rags to that royal buU, Louis xiv.1 Naturally, his indiscre
tions reacted on Port-Royal : he not only imperiUed the
Monastery by his writings, but he provoked many other
disasters to individuals by the imprudence of sending them
letters and books, thus directing upon them suspicion and
persecution. Fortunately the place of his retreat remained undiscover-
able by the royal agents. As Boileau said :
" The King is too lucky to find M. Arnauld." 2
At this moment Arnauld's active mind suddenly became
fixed on another matter, and with ardour he threw himself
into a controversy, destined to be famous, with Pere Male-
branche, the disciple of Descartes.
When Arnauld was studying at the Sorbonne, the mind
of the moment was fuU of Descartes, who was alarming
scientists by going further than his Ulustrious predecessors,
Bacon, Galileo, and Kepler. In Descartes' student days,
Galileo, who had also tried to reconcile Science and Religion,
and had held that Geometry should be the basis for all investi-
1 M6re Ang61ique had been almost contemptuous of Arnauld's uncontroll
able belief in discussion : Fontaine relates that she once said to him : "If
those people should give themselves up to the Truth, you would at once
beheve that it was your fine writings which had accompUshed it ; and it is
not this which the grace that you uphold teaches you " (Memoires, ii. p. 94).
2 Vie de Messire Antoine Arnauld, 1782, ii. p. 194.
29s

296 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
gation into Nature and Science,1 was stiU influencing thought,
while Harvey, foUowing in his footsteps, had just published
his great discoveries on the circulation of the blood, and
the whole world was pulsating with him and others in their
extension of the knowledge of the physical and scientific
laws which govern the universe. Descartes was among the
first to welcome Harvey's discovery of circulation as the initial
step towards the reduction of vital phenomena to physical
laws. The result of Descartes' own study in the Book of
Life was to teach him apparently the one truth : cogito,
ergo sum : I think, hence I am. From this he deduced the
existence of God.
NaturaUy aU this appealed to Arnauld, for it was a passion
with him to reason, and as long as the scientist and plulosopher
did not conflict with religion, he felt that to Descartes " the
world owed a method of reasoning and an enthusiasm which
sounded the knell of the old scholastic learning," against
which he and the Port-Royal scholars had long been striving.
During this period at the Sorbonne, Arnauld was fortunate
enough to see a manuscript copy of Descartes' Meditations,
and, after reading it carefully, whUe making four objections
to its reasoning, he at the same time declared that there was
an exact accord between Descartes' arguments and those of
St. Augustine, who, he asserted, also sustained the premise :
cogito, ergo sum.2 As theologian, Arnauld wished to reconcUe
Descartes' definition of Substance with the dogma of the
Real Presence.3 Descartes, on his part, did not combat
Arnauld because he felt they were striving for the same thing,
i.e. to refute the vulgar doctors of the schools, and above
aU the Jesuits.
It was during the Fronde that all Port-Royal became
imbued with the excitement of the new plulosophy. Specula
tion was in the air, and for a time subjects of scientific import
took precedence over even religious questions. WhUe the
repairs and rebuUding of the Monastery were going on, an
hundred men were lodged at Vaumurier under the hospitality
1 J. H. Bridges, New Calendar of Great Men. Frederic Harrison,
p. 601. 2 In his book, Des Vrayes et des Fausses Idtes, p. 8.
8 " For," he wrote to M. du Vaucel, 13th Nov. 1692, " it must be one of
two things : either to despair of proving it by reason, or to aUow that M.
Descartes has proved it better than any one else."

IN CONFLICT WITH PHILOSOPHY 297
and direction of the Due de Luines. Meeting together for
their meals, these men of brains and mental activity, albeit
engaged in physical labour, naturally were drawn into deep
discussions. Their leader was the host, author of a translation
of Descartes' Meditations, and naturaUy much preoccupied
with matters therein treated. That the Due de Luines'
version of the Meditations remains to this day a standard
one, was due to the careful education he had received in philo
sophy from one of the Masters of the Petites Ecoles, M. du
Chesne, a very learned man, who knew how to impart his
knowledge to his pupU. AU talk between the guests at
Vaumurier turned thus on scientific inquiry, and speculation
was warmed and excited by the wonder of the discoveries
then revolutionizing ideas and methods. Like the rest of
the educated world, the thoughts of these workers turned
eagerly to the question as to whether the sun was a mass
of particles, whether animals were machines, etc. etc. The
theory of Automatons was a part of Descartes' phUosophy.
Other phUosophers, Montaigne among the number, had
tried to prove that animals used Reason better than man.
Charron went even further than Montaigne, and claimed
that he saw more difference between man and man, than
between man and beast.1 Later on, to find arguments against
spirituality, Voltaire enjoyed comparing beasts with men
to the disadvantage of the latter.
It was from a religious standpoint that Port-Royal com
bated the idea of animals possessing reason. It seemed
impious to them to elevate the beast to a level with man.
When, therefore, Descartes brought forward his theory of
Automatons — i.e. that animals are simple machines, obeying
the general laws of mechanics — Port-Royal foUowed him
to the extent of considering animals as deprived of inteUigence,
sensibility, even of life itself. The whole action of the dumb
creatures, they believed, resulted from the moving of springs —
they were clocks, composed of wheels and more or less com
plicated mechanism, which only acted when wound up. Even
Pascal was at accord with Descartes on this point, and soon
Port-Royal had become so devoted to the Cartesian theory
that it was absolutely without pity for animals. It seemed
1 " II (le sage) est autant pardessus le commun des hommes que celui
du commun est pardessus les betes."

298 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
nothing to them to whip a dog, or to dissect him alive —
the poor thing had no feeling.1
A few Solitaires there were, however, who stoutly opposed
this idea. These were men of sense and experience, who
in the hunt and elsewhere had had varied proofs of the sagacity
and sensibUity of their dumb friends, To discredit the theory
of Automatons, the Due de Liancourt, himself a great hunter,
told the foUowing story — one which La Fontaine afterward
used for his fable of " The Two Rats, the Fox, and the Egg."
" I have two dogs over there," said the Duke, " each of
whom has his day of turning the spit. One of them, becoming
tired of this, hid one day when they were about to fetch him
to his work, and they had to take his comrade in his stead.
This dog, however, cried and beckoned with his taU for them
to foUow him. Going to the barn, he unearthed the other dog
and pulled him out of his hiding place."
" Are these automatons ? " triumphantly asked the Duke.2
Writing one day to her daughter apropos of Cardinal Retz,
who, like Madame de Grignan herself, was a strong Cartesian,
Madame de Sevigne said :
" Talk a little to the Cardinal of your machines ; of the
machines who love, who have predUections ; of machines that
are jealous, of machines that are afraid. Avaunt, avaunt,
you make fun of us, Descartes never pretended that he could
make us believe it." 3
But the theory of Automatons was, after all, a mere baga
telle, and not the real issue of the sympathy between Descartes
and Port-Royal. The point in his philosophy which un
doubtedly most interested the Messieurs of Port-Royal was a
statement contained in the last chapter of the Discours de la
Methode, wherein was a forecast of the Positive plnlosophy
of the future, as
" resting not on scholastic subtleties, but on a solid basis of
mathematical and biological knowledge, and directed to the
practical service of man." 4
Thus Descartes' spirit and method of thought, the geometric,
being also that of Pascal, was quite logically akin to that of
Port-Royal. 1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 316.
2 Du Fosse, Mtmoires, ii. p. 470.
8 Lettre du 23 Mars 1672.
* J. H. Bridges, New Calendar of Great Men, p. 485.

IN CONFLICT WITH PHILOSOPHY 299
Pascal was Port-Royal's first phUosopher. When De Saci
learned that the great mathematician was coming to the
Champs, he rather dreaded meeting the brUliant man of the
world of whose personal charm and scientific acquisitions he
had heard much. His only safeguard against the disturbing
attraction this man so endowed by nature, so deep-read in all
the secrets of the universe, would necessarUy exert upon him,
was, he knew,
" the holy knowledge to be found in the Scriptures and the
Fathers." 1
On arrival at Port-Royal, however, Pascal, like most great
people, seemed very simple and quite like ordinary mortals.
Yet, as was his custom, De Saci at once began talking on the
subject which, as he supposed, lay nearest his new penitent's
heart : phUosophy. He then further courted discussion by
begging Pascal to talk freely about Epictetus and Montaigne,
confessedly the former's favourite authors.
At the time of this memorable interview, which came to be
known as " the Interview on Montaigne and Epictetus," De
Saci was forty-one, Pascal ten years younger. De Saci based
his arguments on St. Augustine, while his opponent rested his
on Epictetus and Montaigne, and it was astonishing to see
how, by their different paths, each arrived at the same ultimate
conclusion. " And," continues the Relation, " as De Saci listened to
Pascal's exposition of Epictetus and Montaigne, he believed
himself to be living in a new country and hearing a new language,
and repeated to himself the words of St. Augustine :
" ' O God of Truth ! those who know these subtleties of
reasoning, are they therefore more agreeable ? ' "
Acknowledging his astonishment at Pascal's skiU in turning
things about, he further remarked that it was not every one
who knew, like Pascal, the secret of extracting such sage re
flections from what he had read. The outcome of the inter
view2 was therefore mutual surprise and admiration, for Pascal,
on his side, admired De Saci's clear mind, logical conclusions,
the solidity of his reasoning, his penetrating piety. Pascal,
1 Fontaine, Mtmoires, ii. p. 55.
2 For this interview, see Fontaine, Mtmoires, ii. pp. 56-73.

300 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
said the latter, resembled those clever doctors who, by their
adroit manner of preparing the most deadly poisons, knew how
to extract from them the most efficacious remedies.
De Saci is also credited with a famous remark concerning
the old school and the new :
" Having himself usurped authority in the church, it was
only just that Aristotle should in his turn have been super
seded by another tyrant. Descartes was like a thief who had
just kiUed another thief, and taken his spoUs from him."
" So much the better," he added humorously, " the more
deaths, the less enemies."
Pascal, however, saw further than Arnauld into the conse
quences of Descartes' reasoning. He followed it out to its
logical.conclusion, which he found to be not God, but negation.
It led,|he said, to rational truths alone, and, extracting from
Reason its inherent quality, did not teach Jesus Christ.
Refusing, therefore, to endorse Descartes' purely mathematical
and material arguments, he tried to prove the old idea that,
if for no other reason personal interest caUs upon one to adhere
to Christian doctrine.1
Of all the Port-Royalists, Arnauld and Nicole were the most
enthusiastic Cartesians. They employed his method in the
composition of their General Grammar and Logic, and in the
preface to these books candidly confessed that they had
borrowed some reflections
" from the books of a celebrated phUosopher of the century."
r Port-Royal had never actuaUy come into conflict with
phUosophy, however, untU during Antoine Arnauld's exUe in
Brussels, when the untiring controversialist was impeUed to
combat the principles of Pere Malebranche, the pupU and
disciple of Descartes, who, taking only the metaphysics of
Descartes, carried it further than his master into exagger
ated idealism. Realising the consequences of this, Arnauld,
as weU as his feUow-theologian of another camp, Bossuet,
cried halt.
1 Pascal thought with Descartes that beasts were only automatons, but,
says the Recueil (p. 472), " he could not suffer his manner of explaining the
formation of things, and he often said : ' I cannot pardon Descartes ; in all
his philosophy, he should certainly have wished to dispense with God, but he
could not prevent himself from running up against him in order to have the
world set in motion ; after that, he no longer has anything to do with God."

IN CONFLICT WITH PHILOSOPHY 301
The evolution of Pere Malebranche from the Oratory to
Philosophy was interesting.
One day in 1664, passing a book-shop in the Rue St.
Jacques, he had chanced to open Descartes' Treatise on Man.
" Reading it with transports which made his heart beat," x
from that hour he abandoned himself exclusively to the study
of Descartes. The result of his ten years' absorption was
six thick volumes, entitled La Recherche de la VSrite (The
Search after Truth).
On the publication of this work, Arnauld at first esteemed
it, and attached himself to the author, although they did not
meet personaUy untU four years later (1679). When finally
they did come together, at the house of the Marquis de Roucy,
De TrevUle, Pere Quesnel, and Le Vassor being present, a
lively conversation ensued. Soon, however, it was discovered
that personal intercourse between the two men was impossible.
Malebranche's peculiarity was that he could not be interrupted
when talking, whUe it was impossible for Arnauld not to
break in. They, therefore, agreed to carry on any discussion
by letter, and parted good friends.2
When in 1680 Malebranche sent Arnauld in exile his next
effort of the kind, a treatise on the Nature of Grace, all sym
pathy between him and the Jansenist was lost. In reply
Arnauld wrote his , .
Traite des Vraies et des Fausses Idees,
in which he was so cruelly hard on Malebranche as to draw
forth a protest from his friends.
In Malebranche Arnauld combated the very basis of his
system, which was that we see aU things in God. Like Faydit,
the Jansenist exclaimed :
" Lui qui voit tout en Dieu, n'y voit pas qu'U est fou ! "
Malebranche retorted by calling Arnauld un esprit chagrin — un
vieux doctor — accusing him of dogmatizing.
Speaking one day of the quarrel between himself and
Arnauld, Malebranche protested that the former had not
understood him. 1 Fontenelle, Vie de Nicolas Malebranche.
2 Blampignon, tlude sur Malebranche,

302 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
"And who then do you wish to understand you, mon
Pere," replied BoUeau, " if M. Arnauld does not ? "
To make a very long matter short, the end of the celebrated
dispute was that Arnauld remained victor in his party, Male
branche in his. Of the Recherche de la Verite FonteneUe said :
" There reigns in this work a great art of putting abstract
ideas in the light, of joining them together, and strengthening
them by their union." x
What really annoyed Arnauld with regard to Malebranche
was the latter's tendency to philosophize against experience.
According to Arnauld, God has a general design to save all men,
but this indeterminate design can only be realized by occasional
causes :
" Suppose," he said, " an organ in a church. The general
wUl of God is represented by the wind blown through the pipes,
the air which circulates around at wiU. But there is need
of an organist to determine this or that sound. The organist
in this case is Jesus Christ." 2
And thus, finding Philosophy to ignore the Divine Organist,
Port-Royal, as Pascal had predicted, was finaUy obhged to
break definitely with PhUosophy as being inimical to Religion.
1 Vie de Nicolas Malebranche.
2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 433.

CHAPTER V
ARNAULD'S DEATH. HIS SUCCESSORS: QUESNEL,
DU GUET, AND BOILEAU
" QueUe mesinteUigence entre 1' esprit et le coeur I Le plnlosophe vit mai
avec tous ses preceptes ; et le pohtique rempU de vues et de r6flexions
ne sait pas se gouverner." La Bruyere
THE controversy with Malebranche was Arnauld's last
great exploit, barring one other matter in which he
aUowed himself to be interested, and which contrary
to his usual custom had the effect of pleasing the King. This
was the quarrel between King James H of England, guest
of France, and WiUiam of Orange. Arnauld wrote a book
against the latter and in favour of fidelity to kings which
so gratified Louis xiv that he not only aUowed it to be printed
in France, but had copies of it circulated abroad.1 Arnauld's
action did not, however, secure the return of its author to
his native land. In 1685, he was rejoiced by the coming of
two friends to join him : Pere Quesnel and Pere Du Guet,
men who in the battle so nearly at its close were to be his
disciples and successors. Both were priests of the Oratory ;
both had been driven away from their institution by the
change in its policy with regard to education brought about
by the Chapter of 1684, which had ordered the adoption of
a curriculum of studies contrary to sane and recent methods
of thought — a curriculum in which Jansenius and Descartes
were branded together as equaUy pernicious in their respective
fields of theology and phUosophy.
For a long time Pere Quesnel had been in sympathy with
the Jansenists. Having originally signed the Formulary
1 Vie de Messire Antoine Arnauld, vol. ii. p. 283.
303

304 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
at the time of the Peace of the Church, he afterwards sent a
written Retraction to Port-Royal, and became more or less
identified with Arnauld and the other Port-Royalists.1 It
was he, in fact, who had sent Arnauld word a few years before
of the action of Malebranche. When, therefore, in 1678,
M. de Harlai took hold of the Oratory, avowedly to " purge it
of Jansenism," Quesnel's future fate was only a matter of
time, for six years later, at the definite division, he and Du
Guet at once fled to Brussels. Here they were received with
joy by the exile, but Ul-health soon forced Du Guet to leave
Brussels, and thus Quesnel, twenty years Arnauld's junior,
was left alone with his master.
During the foUowing nine years of their companionship,
Quesnel, a true disciple, was very active. In analyzing his
character, we find him in the opinion of contemporaries to
have been on the whole serious, sincere, dogmatic, but without
charm. Sainte-Beuve remarks that, whUe Quesnel participated
in Arnauld's moral virtues, he emphasized his faults.2
Like his chief, he was a prolific writer, and he especiaUy
exceUed in the epistolary art. Gay and amusing, there was
nothing morose or gloomy in his letters, and they showed
his quality of always trying to look on the bright side of
things for himself and his friends, counting his blessings, as
it were, and forgetting to add up his miseries.
Arnauld and Quesnel lived tranquiUy at Brussels untU
1690, when, a dispute on some question or other arising in
the Louvain University, the Governor of the Low Countries
was obliged to ask Arnauld to retire from the Belgian capital
for a whUe. Thus, accompanied by Pere Quesnel and one
or two other friends, he set out once more on his wanderings.
Shortly afterwards, France had one more gleam of hope
that at last Arnauld would be aUowed to return, for his nephew,
M. de Pomponne, himself exUed ostensibly because the King
1 Fenelon wrote to Pere Quesnel : " Yours is a terrible position, my Father,
and I tremble the more for your sake the less you tremble for your own.
Sooner than sign the Formulary you have fled to Holland, and the mass of
your party, having signed it, thereby declares you a rebel against the Church.
In return, you curse them for a crowd of cowardly perjured hypocrites, but
they do not cease to admire you, call you their oracle and the Athanasius of
our days, while you are forced to bless them as your chUdren, as the only
remnant faithful to your cause." (Viscount St. Cyres, Francois de Fenelon,
V- 233-) 2 Port-Royal, v. p. 483,

~^-^^^^:r£±n**L .

PASQUIER QUESNEL
FROM AN ENGRAVING BY N. PETAU

ARNAULD'S DEATH 305
had not found him clever enough, but in reality, on account
of his Jansenist connections, was now graciously recaUed
to the Court and his former duties as Secretary of State.
But the re-established nephew's diplomatic endeavours to
ensure his uncle's pardon were in vain.
" Let him come back, if he wUl promise not to write any
more," said the King, weU knowing that Arnauld would write
whUe life lasted."
Therefore, returning after a year's absence to Brussels
as the safest place, Arnauld concealed himself more closely
than ever in an obscure part of the city, never stepping out
of his little house except to take exercise in his garden sur
rounded by high waUs. His life was thus sad enough, and
Death, when it came, could not have been very unwelcome.
The second Sunday in August 1694, Antoine Arnauld, caUed
the Great, passed away tranquUly, surrounded by the friends
of his foreign home, and attended by the pious Cure" of
St. Catherine in Brussels.
Joseph de Maistre asserts that Arnauld died in the arms
of the friend who, since Nicole's desertion, had been his faithful
companion, Quesnel. One of the latter's finest letters is that
announcing the death of Arnauld :
" He is in the bosom of the Truth which he has loved
uniquely. He draws from the eternal fountain the Grace
which he has so faithfuUy defended."
The place of sepulchre was kept hidden for many years, but
Arnauld's heart was taken to Port-Royal des Champs by one
of his friends, M. Ruth d'Ans. SanteuU, asked to write his
epitaph, dilated on the pride of the foreign soU in possessing
the bones of this man, adding that the Divine Love had
transported his heart on wings of fire back to the place from
whence nothing had ever been able to separate it.1
1 Boileau's epitaph is the most celebrated. The following is a rough
translation :
At the foot of this altar of clumsiest structure,
In a vile bier pent up, minus pomp and splendour,
Lies the most learned mortal that ever writ a Une,
Arnauld, who by Christ Himself informed in grace divine,
Combating for the Church, has in the Church's bourne
Suffered more than one outrage, by many curses torn.
20

306 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
'And, now after the death of the head'of the Second Port'
Royal, dominating his period even as St. Cyran and Arnauld
did theirs, Pere Quesnel may be said to have been the centre
of the Third and last generation. The argument of his book,
called La Defense de l'£glise Romaine, satirized by Joseph de
Maistre as showing more than ever the extraordinary heresy of
the Jansenists, was on the lines which post- Arnauld- Jansenists
universaUy adopted : that of denying that in condemning the
Five Propositions the Popes intended to condemn the doctrine
of Grace. Clement xl had at first approved Quesnel's RSflexions
Morales sur le Nouveau Testament, dedicated to the Cardinal
de Noailles, but on its condemnation being demanded at
Rome by the Jesuits, he retracted his approbation and
censured it. It was on the strength of this action that
Louis xiv afterward demanded that last and most famous
sUencer of Jansenism, the celebrated Constitution called
Butte Unigenitus,1 whereby one hundred and one propositions
in Quesnel's work, most of which were absolutely inoffensive,
were declared heretical.2 No wonder, therefore, that Pere
Quesnel was accused of being the author of the "largest
theological apple of discord of the eighteenth century."
Quesnel's excuse for his own unenviable reputation was
a counter-accusation against his antagonists : he did as he
did because they were what they were. Whatever Quesnel's
excuse for his actions, his name has inevitably become linked
with the last quarrels of Jansenism. This controversialist
representative of Port-Royal was unfortunate in not having
been connected with either the romantic, literary, poetic,
or tender side of a movement which purposely ignored the
gentler side of life, and to have had disassociated from his
memory aU the human element. It was also his fate, as
that of his friend and master, Arnauld, to die in exUe. Never
returning to France, he died in Amsterdam in 1719.
If in the Third Port-Royal Quesnel stood for the active
and aggressive influence, Du Guet represented the moderating,
gentle power. His was an altogether more lovable and attract
ive personality, the last of those tender priests who attached
themselves to the stern practices and austerities of Port-
Royal, standing by during exile and persecution without
1 Reinach, Orpheus, p. 502. 2 Made in 1713.

ARNAULD'S DEATH 307
losing an atom of the grace and sweetness natural^to^them.
They were, in fact, Jansenist types, M. Hamon being the most
prominent example of St. Francois de Sales.
Du Guet came too late into the fold of Port-Royal to actuaUy
live at Les Champs, and his connection was originally brought
about solely through a correspondence with the distinguished
friend of Madame de LongueviUe, MUe. de Vertus. It was
before entering the Oratory, whUe making his noviciate in the
Visitation at the time of the Peace of the Church, that at
twenty years of age Du Guet became acquainted with Arnauld
and Nicole. Ordained priest in 1677, three years later he had
already become celebrated for his sermons, when ill-health inter
fered and caused a pause in his career, which in 1684 was
entirely changed by the decision of the Chapter regarding
education. It was not without much prayer and struggle
that he finaUy decided to give up the Oratory altogether,
and to leave Paris secretly with Quesnel. His whereabouts
were unknown even to his own family. Had Port-Royal
stiU been possible, he would have gone to the Desert — as
it was, he closed his doors to all the world, and led a life of
solitude.1 Through Du Guet's own letters we learn the details of this
period, for during these years, which he called " dead," the
voluntary recluse did not cease corresponding with some of the
great ladies who had been under his spiritual direction : MUe.
de Vertus, Madame de Fontpertuis, the Duchesse d'Epernon.
He spread abroad " in secret on a thousand sides " the benefit
of his letters and counsels, which also reached out to nuns of
religious houses. These letters seem very characteristic of Du
Guet, and yet it is impossible through them to divine much of
one whose human interests were lost in the contemplation of a
heavenly vision. What man indifferent to life, its joys, its Uls,
its contrasts, could write in so playful a vein on detaUs of the
health of his correspondents or his own, sending recipes and
advice, even aUowing his " dead " mind to rest on the best
method of making tea, which beverage he considered more
proper to the stomach of Madame des Rieux than coffee or
chocolate !
At last, after five years, M. de Harlai removed his inter
diction, and Du Guet was able to come out of hiding and live
1 He disappeared from Paris definitely in February 1685.

308 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
openly in Paris among his host of friends and admirers, pledging
himself, however, to Pere La Chaise not to write on religious
subjects. In his ordinary life a St. Francois de Sales, Du Guet never
theless showed his Jansenist leanings in counsel, his exhorta
tions being sweetened by no tenderness or subterfuge, and
strong with the strength of Truth. But with all his gifts, he
never seemed to quite realize the greatest that was in him, for
although Voltaire considered him one of the finest writers of
the Jansenist party, not one of his thirty volumes is a real
masterpiece. Perhaps his best claim to Port-Royal remem
brance was the influence he unconsciously exerted on penitents,
for though rather more sweet than stern, it was seemingly very
real and healthy. Du Guet has been called
" the most amiable and distinguished of Port -Royal's first
cousins, the last of a long line." x
Although the place of Nicolas BoUeau-Despreaux, another
friend and admirer of Arnauld, in the Port-Royal portrait
gaUery, is essentiaUy that of the friend and companion of
Racine, he stUl had a value there quite his own, and belonged
to it especiaUy through the latter part of his life, when Religion
became to him something more than a theory. In his verses
he practicaUy avowed himself a " Molino- Jansenist," though
never implicated in any of the quarrels on Grace.2
Fifteenth clnld of a Master of RoUs, Nicolas BoUeau had
actuaUy not only been early destined for the ecclesiastical
profession, but tonsured. Disliking his course of theology at
the Sorbonne, he became an advocate, and on losing his father
gave up the law to live on a smaU patrimony and devote himself
to letters. One day shortly after the Peace of the Church,
President Lamoignon invited several persons to dine with him
at AuteuU, and at this dinner-table BoUeau met Arnauld and
Nicole for the first time. He was greatly prepossessed in
favour of Arnauld as the adversary of the False in theology
and the author of the Frequent Communion, while on his part
Arnauld was attracted to Despreaux as the man who had pre-
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 514.
2 "A peine du limon ou le vice m'engage,
J'arrache un pied timide, et sors en m'agitant.
Que l'autre m'y reporte, et s'embourbe a Pinstant."
Epltre III. a M. Arnauld.

ARNAULD'S DEATH 309
vented Racine from publishing his second letter. Without
understanding very much of poetry, Arnauld yet found Boileau
not only to possess all the qualities that a poet should have,
but to be besides a man of fine mind and morals. The fruit
of this meeting was the famous Arret Burlesque,1 a satire on
the quarrel of Arnauld versus the University in its battle
against the teaching of anything except on the old traditional
lines. On the one side, Aristotle and the University ; on the
other, Arnauld and Descartes.
BoUeau's next attention to Arnauld was his Third Epistle
apropos of the Perpetuity of the Faith, and called Sur la
Mauvaise Honte. Mauvaise Honte, or shyness, the poet
considered as the source of all vice, aU crime. The story goes
that the author of the Third Epistle was non- Jansenist enough
to rise very late, and that he was in bed one morning when he
recited his poem to Arnauld, who had come to see him at
rather an early hour. As rapidly and with fine fervour BoUeau
was pouring forth his smoothly flowing lines, Arnauld became
more and more absorbed and excited : at last, as the poet
delivered these words with the proper expression :
" Avant qu'a nos erreurs le Ciel nous abandonne,
Profitons de l'instant que de grace il nous donne,
Hatons-nous, le temps fuit, et nous traine avec soi :
Le moment ou je parle est d6ja loin de moi ! "
rising abruptly from his seat, the Doctor rushed three or four
times round the room as if to catch the fleeting moment ! 2
BoUeau being too infirm in his later years to go to Court,
Racine used to read his feUow-Historian's satires to the King.
Among others, he bravely read aloud BoUeau's epitaph on the
Grand Arnauld, and the King must have winced to hear the
despised Jansenist caUed by his own officer, " The most learned
mortal who has ever written."
In his last writings, BoUeau became more and more
Jansenistic. He inveighed against the opera and novels, and
in his Satire des Femmes he showed the bias of the orphan who
1 Composed in August 1671.
2 Rough translation :
Ere Heaven for our errors us coldly forsake,
Come profit by the instant which in grace it lets us take.
Oh, hasten on ! Time flies, and drags us in its flight :
This moment as I speak already fades from sight.

310 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
has never known its mother, and who despises the sex because
he is ignorant of it. Arnauld, however, defended this satire,
and, in fact, held the same views.1
The Twelfth Epitre, called " Sur l'Amour de Dieu " (On the
Love of God), was said to be a direct outcome of Pascal's
Tenth Provincial, and the most thoroughly Jansenistic of
aU BoUeau's poems. It was a protest against the Casuistic
idea of one's duty to God, an author of the sect having
announced the fact that a Christian is not obliged to love God.
This poem brought BoUeau much attention, and occasioned
a great many good stories at his expense, which the poet
himself was only too ready to recount.
" Racine asked my gardener one day," he related, " if
there were always so many people coming to see me."
" Yes, sir," replied the gardener, "it is the Love of God
which brings them all." 2
It was said the destruction of Port-Royal struck a knife
into BoUeau's heart, for to the disulusioned satirist everything
seemed gone, even good taste and poetry,3 and! there was
nothing left to live for. At last, the 17th March 1711, he
gave up the struggle, and passed away in the house of his
Confessor in the cloister of Notre-Dame.
And thus, leaving a world for which he had lost his relish,
he might have exclaimed in the words of his First Satire,
published over fifty years before :
" Pour moi qu'en sante mfime, un autre monde e tonne
Qui crois l'ame immorteUe, et que c'est Dieu qui tonne,
II vaut mieux pour jamais me bannir de ce Ueu.
Je me retire done. Adieu, Paris, adieu ! "
1 See Arnauld's letter to Perrault. Boileau was most grateful to Arnauld,
and expressed his admiration for this "grand personage " everywhere and to
everybody. 2 BoUeau's Epitre XI. is addressed to this gardener.
3 In a letter to M. Maucroix written six years before his death, BoUeau
said : " Que j'aurais le plaisir de vous embrasser et a deposer entre vos mains
les chagrins que me donne tous les jours le mauvais gout de la plupart de
nos ecrivains modernes 1 "

CHAPTER VI
THE LITERARY GLORY OF PORT-ROYAL— PASCAL
AND RACINE : LES PENSEES AND ATHALIE
" Je blame egalement et ceux qui prennent parti de louer l'homme, et
ceux qui le blamer, et ceux qui prennent de se divertir : et je ne puis approuver
que ceux qui cherchent en gemissant." Pensees
" Ou sont les traits que tu lances.
Grand Dieu, dans ton juste courroux ?
N'est-tu plus le Dieu jaloux ?
N'est-tu plus le Dieu des vengeances ? " Athalie
BEFORE telling the sad story of Port-Royal's downfall
and destruction, it would seem weU to fortify our
hearts by a thought of her glory. But this is a subject
which has caused much discussion, and on which there are
as many different opinions as writers on the subject : from
Gerbier, who called Port-Royal " the nursery of great men " ; 1
Victor Cousin, who asserted it to be
" perhaps the place of aU the world which has enclosed in the
smaUest space the greatest amount of virtue and genius, in the
persons of admirable men and women worthy of them " ; 2
to the modern M. Reinach, who asserts that the great figures
we have tried to describe
" stiU command respect by the intensity of their moral life,
the gravity of their thought, their tranquU courage. . . .
These Messieurs of Port -Royal dominated the baseness and
corruption of their time." 3
1 L'Abbe Gregoire. Les Ruines de PortrRoyal des Champs, p. no.
2 Du Vrai du Beau et du Bien, p. 234.
8 Orpheus, Histoire generate des Religions, p. 500.

312 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Bringing the matter down to a more personal and yet more
impersonal point of view, it has been disputed as to whether
the real glory of Port-Royal lay in Pascal or Racine — the
Pensees or Athalie. MoraUy and literarUy, it would seem
to he in both these men as represented in their works.
Pascal and Racine — these are the names that stand out
life-size in the picture of Port-Royal, with Mere Angelique,
St. Cyran, and Jansenius.
It was said to be the tremendous impression made upon
Pascal by the Miracle of the Sacred Thorn which changed
his rallying mood of the Provincials into a deeper and more
highly religious strata, resulting in those remarkable fragments
called the Pensees. As any rate, in the middle of the Nine
teenth Letter, it appears that the attention of the writer
was suddenly diverted from the subject of the Casuists and
their subtleties to a broader field. His own arguments
had shown him that the world needed an Apology for Religion
itself — a conclusive demonstration of the true meaning of
the word.1 Therefore, with his usual promptitude, Pascal
immediately put down the half-finished argument, and began
to think out a work which should be a thousand times greater
and nobler than the writing still fresh from his pen. Like
aU genius, he had progressed through himself, and throwing
off the ladders by which he had climbed from one plane to
another, he now stood on the one which was to prove his
last earthly progression.
For several months he wrote nothing, but spent his time
in meditation, trusting to his wonderful memory to guard
the thoughts which occurred to his brooding mind. In the
meantime, his friends of Port-Royal were quite aware that
something was stirring in his brain, and with impatience
they awaited the result. FinaUy, unable longer to control
their eager curiosity, they implored Pascal to divulge the
scheme of his proposed treatise.2 To accede to their desire,
Pascal accordingly began with the greatest care to draw up
the heads of a discourse which he planned to deliver on a
certain day. The lecture took place, Sainte-Beuve estimates,
any time between 1657 and 1659, probably in 1658. It
lasted over two hours, and at its close, Etienne Perier teUs us,3
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, hi. p. 312.
2 Preface to the Pensees. 3 Ibid.

THE LITERARY GLORY OF PORT-ROYAL 313
those persons who listened to Pascal's words — and his
hearers were all learned in the matter discussed — avowed
they had never heard anything more beautiful, stronger,
more touching, or more convincing. There is no record as
to who these friends were, but Sainte-Beuve is the authority
for a strong conjecture that the audience consisted of the
.choicest souls of Port-Royal, and also that it took place at
Port-Royal de Paris itself. In his Preface to the Pensies,
Etienne Perier says that Pascal's explanation of the plan of
his great work was made
" in the presence and at the prayer of a considerable number
of his friends."
Here the poet-philosopher revealed his ideal to be
demonstration of the possibility of proving the reality of the
Christian religion. This plan was tremendously ambitious,
embracing as it did the whole gamut of human knowledge.
In exposing it to his friends, Pascal began by portraying a
man who had always lived in a general ignorance and in
difference, especiaUy with regard to his own nature. Then,
as the man suddenly awakened to an observation of himself
in the frame of his surroundings, taking him by the hand,
as it were, like Mephistopheles Faust, he showed him the
world as it reaUy is, with aU its grandeur and its baseness.
By this process the man's mind was graduaUy able to
weigh the contrary evidences of good and evU, untU at
last he came to complete realization of the great truths of
religion. Etienne Perier, who was the first to make a summary
of this plan from Pascal's conversation with his friends,
explains that his uncle did not endeavour to prove the existence
of God by geometrical demonstrations founded on evident
principles, nor by metaphysical reasonings, nor by coincidences
of Nature, but simply by moral proofs which appeal more
nearly to the heart th^n to the mind. His reason for this
method was a conviction that the vicious passions and attach
ments which corrupt the heart and the wiU are the greatest
obstacles to faith.
It is only of comparatively recent years x that the Pensees
have been given to us in their true and unmutilated form.
1 In the editions made by MM. Faugere and Havet in 1844.

314 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
The reason for this lies first of aU in the very fragmentary
and unclassified state in which Pascal left these precious
notes. After his death, the persecution of the Solitaires
and nuns made the publication of any of the works of the
Jansenists impossible. Six years later, when the Peace of
the Church was being arranged, Pascal's friends began to
collaborate with his famUy, the Periers, for the arrangement
of his scattered Thoughts, the Due de Roannes, his steadfast
friend, being prime mover in the enterprise. A committee,
consisting of Arnauld, Nicole, De TrevUle, Du Bois, and De
la Chaise, met to perform the revision and coUocation of this .
great work — Pascal's nephew, now a young man of twenty-
six, very weU informed and of firm character, representing
the interests of his famUy.
PrimarUy, it was difficult to decide what course to pursue
in the grouping of the notes. The easiest manner would
have been to print them off just as they were, but this might
have destroyed the effect it was hoped they would produce —
some of them being very imperfect and only sketches of an
idea. Another method discussed was to explain the more
obscure thoughts, and to supply the necessary thread to the
fragments in hand. This method, whUe apparently the most
satisfactory, proved difficult of execution.
To avoid the disadvantage of both methods of arrange
ment proposed, therefore, Pascal's friends decided to cuU
out from among the scattered notes only those which seemed
the clearest and most finished, and, putting them only in
sequence, to give them as they were without change or addition.
The difficulties of revision were very great, so it was decided
that the Due de Roannes, who, as Pascal's most intimate
friend, seemed best suited to divine the sense and intention
of each fragment, should, together with Etienne Perier, first
classify the material, after which the rest of the committee
might pass judgment on the result. Although the Duke
added nothing to Pascal's thoughts, he curtaUed a great
deal, and when this first edition appeared it was a mutila
tion, as were aU foUowing attempts untU 1842, when M.
Victor Cousin issued a new and faithful transcript. Sainte-
Beuve rather contests M. Cousin's condemnation of the Port-
Royal edition, himself excusing its defects on the ground
that Arnauld, Nicole, and De Saci had sufficient temptation,

THE LITERARY GLORY OF PORT-ROYAL 315
being just issued from prison and exUe, to make as good a
case for Jansenism as possible out of Pascal's ideas on religion.
This they did too in all reverence, and with as much exactitude
as was possible at the time.
Following in M. Cousin's footsteps, M. Faugere, and lastly
M. Havet, brought out stUl more perfect editions, their ideal
being to give back to the original fragments their first signifi
cance, by separating them from a mass of other matter which
had been mixed with them, and which, though by Pascal, did
not belong to the original plan of the Pensees. The basis of
their work was to consider the original MS. as the only
authentic text. But even in the Port-Royal edition, mutUated
as later critics may have thought it, the world felt the power,
force, and sincerity and insight of the writer. As Madame de
la Fayette remarked :
" It is a bad sign for those who do not enjoy this book."
And in the heart of Pascal's Pensees, Port-Royal was deeply
rooted. That in the Preface written by Etienne Perier for
the famUy, there was no mention of Port-Royal, and that it
was merely stated that Pascal had retired to the country, was
due the ever-recurring fear of ecclesiastical and papal con
demnation. Pascal's writings prove incontestably his true
connection with Port-Royal.
Though apparently so unlike, both in mind and genius,
Pascal and Racine had several points of resemblance. Both
had a human idea of religion ; for both it meant Jesus Christ ;
and to both it was also Grace. To Pascal, Grace was an
immense ocean out of which each man was given to drink as
much or as httle as Providence designed.
To Racine, Grace meant
" The Justice of God, which must be enormous like His
mercy, for justice toward the reproved is less immense and
would shock less than mercy toward the elect."
FoUowing up this idea, in his Athalie Racine shows that the
world is submissive to the incessant action of a Just God,
whose wisdom, regulating everything from the beginning,
governs aU created beings. In Pascal, we have the perfection
of prose ; in Racine, the perfection of poetry. They were
also alike in their manner of arriving at this perfection of style,
but while this method was original with Pascal, Racine had

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318 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Buried as he had desired, at the feet of M. Hamon at Port-
Royal des Champs, on the destruction of the monastery Racine's
body was exhumed and taken to St. Etienne du Mont, as the
parish of Madame Racine, his wife. His last poetic words
were on Charity :
" En vain, je parlerais le langage des Anges
En vain, mon Dieu, de tes louanges,
Je remplirois tout l'univers :
Sans amour, ma gloire n'egale
Que la gloire de la cymbale
Qui d'un vain bruit frappe les airs." '
Let him who wiU take away from Port-Royal these two
great men — for those who try to look reverently and plulo-
sophicaUy at human life and its mysteries, Racine and Pascal
wUl ever represent an intrinsic and precious part of its influence.
Church of Magny. Here it was found in 1808, broken in six pieces, and the
name of Racine effaced by the boots of the peasants. It was at that time
repaired and placed in the chapel at St. Etienne.
1 Rough translation —
In vain I would speak with the tongue of angels,
In vain, my God, Thy praises tell
Throughout the Universe so vast.
Without love, my pride would fall
Like the pomp of the cymbal,
As with empty din it strikes the blast.

CHAPTER VII
LAST STRUGGLE AGAINST PERSECUTION, AND
THE PASSING OF PORT-ROYAL
" Mourir a tout et attendre tout ; voila ce que nous avons a faire "
Motto of Mdre Angelique
ONE of the most impressive scenes of the dying Port-
Royal was the funeral of M. de Saci, whom we
left at the moment of his release from the Bastille
being graciously received by Louis xiv. From that time,
he had tried to forget his prison experience, saying to his
friend Fontaine :
" Let us not imitate those who, returning from a long
journey, can afterwards speak to the whole world of nothing
but what they have seen." 1
The fifteen years foUowing the Peace of the Church which pre
ceded his death, were passed by De Saci either at Pomponne,
Port-Royal des Champs, or at Paris in directing souls under
his care, or in preparing the translation of the Bible, of which
the New Testament of Mons was but the first part, and the
bulk of which he had made in prison. During these years, the
whole spiritual life of Port-Royal — not the political — revolved
around this brother of Antoine Le Maitre. As Sainte-Beuve
said :
" He was the entrance gate for those outside, the lobby and
the lamp inside." 2
FinaUy, on the resumption of the persecution, he was
obliged definitely to retire to Pomponne, and there in
January 1684, in the midst of uninterrupted spiritual
1 Memoires, ii. pp. 520-540. 2 Port-Royal, u. p. 356.

320 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
ministrations, he died, aged seventy-one, murmuring only
the words :
" O blessed Purgatory ! "
In his will, he had asked to be buried at Port-Royal des
Champs, but at the moment this was a difficult request to
fulfil, the winter being very extreme, and secrecy a con
dition. However, his friends gladly accepted the task. And
it is said that the Duchesse de Lesdiguieres had prepared
a suite of two hundred persons carrying torches to receive
the remains of the revered priest as they passed through
Paris, but as it was thought dangerous to allow such a cortege,
his body was taken secretly to St. Jacques du Haut Pas
between six and seven in the evening. On arriving at St.
Jacques, however, terror so seized the friends lest some obstacle
or order should interfere with the journey to Port-Royal
the next day, they decided to start that very night. So,
mounting into carriages, the faithful mourners departed with
their burden at eleven o'clock, in the deep snow, and escorted
by boys holding torches. To the great astonishment of the
nuns, who did not expect the funeral cortege tiU the next
evening, the bearers of the last remains of De Saci arrived
at the monastery at five o'clock in the early morning. At
once, a hundred nuns made ready to do him honour,
" shining more with charity than the candles they carried in
their hands."
The story of the ceremony of interment is touchingly told
by Fontaine, De Saci's devoted friend : of how they robed
him in his ecclesiastical vestments, of the chanting of the
Psalms, the sprinkling with holy water, the incense — aU the
detaUs of the ways in which piety and love could honour its
dead. And when they had carried him to his last resting-
place in the cemetery, each nun, after a fareweU glance,
imprinted a holy kiss on the dead face of the priest whom
for so many years she had loved and revered.
Mere Angelique de St. Jean1 and Arnauld de Luzanci
1 It seems that the death of this her beloved uncle and Confessor was a
blow from which Mere Angelique de St. Jean never ralUed. She died three
weeks later, repeating the words of the Song of Solomon : " I charge you,
O ye daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up nor awake my love, till he
please." See Fontaine, Memoires, ii. p. 536.

LAST STRUGGLE AGAINST PERSECUTION 321
both quickly followed their beloved uncle, and the poor
Fontaine was left behind, lamenting :
" I avow," he cried, " that in seeing this brother and sister
stricken to death by that of M. de Saci, I should blush — I who
believed myself to have always loved him — not to follow him
like them, and I return to despair in comparing these two
persons, whose love has been stronger than death, to myself
who have loved so little." 1
Meantime at Port-Royal many changes were taking place.
In 1694, M. de Harlai the Archbishop passed away, and
shortly afterward M. de NoaiUes, Bishop of Chalons and
Marne, was appointed his successor. A very different char
acter from his predecessor, the new Archbishop was pious,
sincere, and simple, of pure morals and many virtues, but
gifted with neither policy nor address. Although his desire
was to be just and impartial, it was unfortunate that in follow
ing out this wish he pleased no one. Fenelon said he had
a short and confused mind, and Sainte-Beuve remarks that
" he passed his life in giving the Jansenists vain hopes which
ruined them, and the Jesuits forced satisfactions which did
not satisfy them." 2
On his first visit to Port-Royal two years after his accession,
M. de NoaiUes seemed very satisfied with the state of things
there. " He entered the monastery," said Du Foss6, " with a
burning lamp in one hand and the balances of Justice in the
other, in order to see everything and to weigh everything
according to the measures of the Sanctuary." 3
Justice and Charity both satisfied, the Archbishop left with
his tongue fuU of praises for the holy place. The King was,
however, implacable, and in 1699, hearing that the Countess of
Grammont had made a retreat at Port-Royal des Champs,
he had her name crossed off the list of ladies who were to
accompany him to Marly.
" If one goes to Port-Royal," he said, " one should not
go to Marly." 4
Peace was eventually made for Madame de Grammont, but
not for Port-Royal. ,.
1 Memoires, ii. p. 540. 2 Port-Royal, vi. p. 163.
3 Mtmoires, n. p. 200. * St. Simon Mtmoires (Ed. Boislisle), ii. p. 14.
21

322 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
I Indeed, the last "scene of the drama was now preparing,
again the matter of the Letter of the Law. It began (in 1701)
with a singular affair called " the Case of Conscience," or a
consultation held among ecclesiastics as to the submission
one should yield with regard to the Constitutions of the Popes
against Jansenism. This famous discussion was, alas ! nothing
more nor less than a renaissance of the old question of fait
and droit, the author of the revival being, strange to say,
a Jansenist, M. Eustace, Confessor at Port-Royal des Champs.
This well-meaning, but badly advised priest busied himself
in trying to get Doctors of the Sorbonne to sign the Consulta
tion, and forty did so, only one refusing. A year afterward,
the Consultation was printed, and the battle began by the
matter being taken to Rome, where it was condemned by
Clement xi. On this, the Cardinal de NaoiUes issued a Mande
ment censuring the Consultation as reviving quarrels and
favouring equivocal quibbles. Soon aU the Doctors of the
Sorbonne revoked their signature, and the one man who had
not signed, exiled by the King, prudently took flight and
joined Pere Quesnel in Brussels. The next year, in pursuance
of a rigorous policy adopted in foreign countries, Pere Quesnel
was discovered by the higher ecclesiastical authority, and
arrested at Brussels by the order of the King of Spain, and
thrown into the prison of that town. Here his papers and
correspondence were seized. Sent to Paris, and delivered
over to the Jesuits, these documents made a tremendous stir.
Showing a great box of them, Pere La Chaise exclaimed in
triumph :
" Here we have aU the mysteries of the iniquity of Pere
Quesnel ! All the papers, memoirs, letters, rough drafts,
even to their cipher and jargon, for more than forty years.
And it is astonishing how much there is in it of things against
the King and the State." 1
And truly these papers revealed a good deal of secret activity
among the Jansenists — enough, it was said, to keep Madame
de Maintenon busy all her evenings for ten years getting
them in condition for the King to read. Many people were
compromised, many imprisoned, on this evidence.
At Port-Royal des Champs the theological struggle had
_ _ 1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 178.

LAST STRUGGLE AGAINST PERSECUTION 323
recommenced in 1706 by the sending to the nuns of a Mande
ment accompanied by a Butte from Rome, which they were
requested to sign. Again the heroic sisters refused, and when
the Grand Vicar, M. Gilberte, came to remonstrate with
these late seventeenth century nuns, he received the same
answer as that formerly given by the courageous Mere Angel
ique : " But must we give up our consciences ? "
They were sustained in their stand by Pere Quesnel, who by
this time had escaped from his prison, and was in hiding in
Holland. The word of their oracle was enough : Pere
Quesnel bade them hold firm, so in spite of other and better
counsel, the misguided women persisted in their refusal.
hH From the beginning of persecution, all material connection
between the sister monasteries at the Champs and Paris
had been prohibited. In 1661, when the twelve nuns
had been carried away into captivity and the Sisters of the
Visitation had replaced them, the nucleus of quite a new
institution had been formed of the ten sisters who by un
conditional signature of the Formulary had escaped captivity,
and under the protection of the Archbishop these nuns were
then allowed to choose a new Abbess from among their own
number — such Abbess having sole right over all property
at Port-Royal de Paris.
Even though at the Peace of the Church the nuns at the
Champs were declared innocent, and solemnly re-established
in their rights, these rights only applied to Les Champs,
and no re-union was effected. On the contrary, a Decree
of CouncU, dated 1669, formaUy separated the two houses for
ever, the property being divided. Paris had a perpetual
Abbess nominated by the King, while at the Champs the
office was stUl elective every three years. A third of the
property in the country was given to the Paris house. As, in
addition to this third, Port-Royal de Paris also kept its exterior
sources of revenue, it should have been well satisfied with
the division. But greedy of the property amassed by the
provident country house, the Paris sisters werewicked enough
to try to possess themselves of the estate in the country.
At their instigation, agents were driven away and imprisoned,
and the revenue of farms diverted to their use. The nuns

324 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
of the Champs had to subsist as best they could, on the gifts
of friends and the product of the books of Ces Messieurs.
One day the Abbess of Port-Royal de Paris gave a baU in
the Parloir of the monastery. Happening to come in, even
the patron Archbishop, the Cardinal de NoaiUes, saw the
incongruity, and remarked :
"It is not just that Port -Royal de Paris should dance
whUe Port -Royal des Champs pays the fiddles." x
Thus, whUe at Port-Royal des Champs the ancient piety
and spirit stiU reigned even in the midst of persecution and
ignominy, at Port-Royal de Paris scandalous corruption
quickly but surely crept in to undermine the old associations
and traditions. Soon, through intrigue, an irreparable chasm
yawned between the two formerly so closely-allied institutions,
and now the Paris sisters were to compass the final destruction
of those whom they should have cherished, but whom they
hated and envied.
On the refusal of the nuns at Les Champs to sign the
Mandement of Rome, those of Paris at once petitioned the
King to revoke the ancient division of goods, to suppress Port-
Royal des Champs altogether, and to unite its property to
theirs. Influence being brought to bear to this end, on the
22nd November 1707, an Ordinance of the King consummated
the unholy desire of Port-Royal de Paris. The goods of the
Champs were seized, and from the poor nuns even their daUy
bread was taken away — not only that for their bodUy wants,
but the spiritual food of the Holy Eucharist denied them as
well. In vain the nuns protested by aU sorts of requests and
letters. On the 19th December 1708, the Butte from Rome
for the destruction of Port-Royal des Champs was registered
in Parliament, and in July 1709 M. de NoaiUes gave his decree
for its extinction, the union of its goods with that of Port-
Royal de Paris. On the 7th August this decree was read to
the nuns of Port-Royal.
Without the gates of Port-Royal des Champs, as without the
gates of the Jerusalem of the vision-seeing prophet of old,
the autumn of 1709, there thus lay in wait,
" Dogs and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers,
and idolaters." 1 Racine, Abrtgt, p. 217.

LAST STRUGGLE AGAINST PERSECUTION 325
The " grapes of iniquity " were at last fuUy ripe — it was
time for the sharp sickle of God to be thurst in, time for the
harvest to be gathered.
When on the first day of October 1709, foUowing upon the
Decree of the Archbishop that Port-Royal des Champs should
be sacrificed and its goods given over to the Paris institution,
Madame de Chateau Renaud, Abbess of Port-Royal de Paris,
appeared before the Grating of the Parloir of the Abbey des
Champs and demanded admittance in the name of the Arch
bishop, the face of a* simple Prioress confronted her at the
wicket. Three years before, on being apprised of the death of
Mere Elizabeth de Sainte Anne Boulard,1 and asked to allow
the usual election, M. de NoaiUes had replied that there would
be no need for another. Thus the few remaining adherents of
the Champs — a parcel of timid religieuses only twenty-two in
number — had since the last Abbess's death been under the
guidance of Mere Anastasie du Mesnil, the Prioress appointed
by Mere Boulard on her deathbed. Imbued with the historic
spirit of Port-Royal, this courageous nun replied to the
demand of the haughty Paris dame, accompanied by two
nuns and two notaries, that in the name of the community
she protested against the claim of Port-Royal de Paris, and
that the doors of the Cloister would not be opened to enemies
of the Abbey.2
At this, without protest, Madame de Chateau Renaud
quietly entered the Church, ordered the great bell of the
Monastery rung, and then proceeded, whUe her notaries took
documentary note of her actions, to touch the altar and various
parts of the sanctuary in legal token of her seizure of the Abbey.
Imagine the desolation of the poor frightened nuns as their
great beU toUed out, and, impeUed by the spitefulness of the
rival Abbess's attendants, continued to sound its lament
with insistent force even after Madame de Chateau Renaud had
finished her investiture of the Church. The minutes passed,
the tones of the bell grew ever louder, until, goaded to action,
1 It is curious to note that the name of the last Abbess of Port-Royal
before the reform of Mere Angelique was the same (Boulehart), though speUed
differently. 2 The following description is taken from Mtmoires sur la Destruction de
Port-Royal, by Fouillot, containing the Relation of Madame de Chateau Renaud,
and other Mtmoires of the time.

326 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
one of the servants of the monastery climbed into the bell
tower, and cut the rope of the ancient signal-giver !
On finishing her investiture, Madame de Chateau Renaud
mounted the hill behind to Les Granges, where she went
through a similar form. Eating there a good dinner, she then
proceeded to the neighbouring St. Cyr, where next morning
she reported to Madame de Maintenon all that had happened.
After listening with great attention and patience for over
an hour, " TeU me," said Madame de Maintenon, " did you notice
in the Church of Port-Royal des Champs the unction it is said
to possess ? "
" I replied," said Madame de Chateau Renaud afterward,
" that I was not good enough to have these sentiments, and
I assured her that I had felt none in particular, . . . that I
might have the honour to say without flattery that I had
found in St. Cyr veritably that unction, etc. etc."
As the Gate of Port-Royal des Champs finaUy closed upon
Madame de Chateau Renaud, the poor nuns left behind in
quivering fear of further events, were as usual overwhelmed
with presages of disaster, and these were crowned one day
when the lamps of the dormitory were found extinguished —
a thing which had never before occurred. That very night
(the 28th October) a regiment of soldiers quietly surrounded
the Abbey in the pouring rain, investing the woods and heights
of the VaUey of the Yvette as if making ready for the siege of a
garrisoned town. In the early morning the unconscious nuns
were going through their usual orisons when at seven o'clock
the Prioress was notified that a file of carriages was approaching
the monastery, and that M. d'Argenson, Prefect of Police,
demanded to speak with her.
On being received in the Parloir, the King's Officer ex
plained that he had an order to search the interior of the
monastery, and requested the opening of the doors. Without
demur, the Prioress delivered over to him her keys, and while
the house was being searched for incriminating books and
papers, she led her nuns to service in the Church, saying :
" This is stUl another visit to our house ; I do not know
the consequences of it, but we must always rest in the arms
of the mercy of God, who knows our needs better than we do
ourselves."

LAST STRUGGLE AGAINST PERSECUTION 327
After service, the community being assembled, M. d'Argenson
announced that in three hours their dispersion into various
convents was to take place, the carriages being there for that
purpose. " Monseigneur," said the Prioress, " we are quite ready to
obey ; half an hour is more than sufficient for us to say a
last adieu, and to take with us a breviary, a Bible, and our
Constitutions." Upon this, embracing, the nuns consoled each other for their
separation by the thought that if united to God, Port-Royal
might be found everywhere.1 By five o'clock that night
the monastery was deserted by the' nuns, the Prioress being
the last to leave. Afterward they confessed that they had
found in the agents of the law more true commiseration and
sympathy than had been shown them by ecclesiastics sent to
torture and vex them. For, touched with pity for these gentle
and pious women, the youngest of whom was fifty, M. d'Argenson
and his agents conducted them to the carriages, seeing that they
were well treated by their escorts, and allowing them as much
liberty as was compatible with the circumstances.
When in rendering an account of the affair, M. d'Argenson
reported to the King that he was surprised at the constancy
of these nuns, and especiaUy at their perfect obedience, the
King's only reply was that he was content with their obedience,
but sorry that they were not of his religion.
With the gentle nuns it was said that sobriety, modesty, and
the other virtues departed also from Port-Royal. The rude
soldiers left behind to guard the deserted house did not respect
the retreat of God, the New Jerusalem, but aUowed themselves
licence usual to a town under piUage. And the VaUey of Yvette
itself resounded with the laments of the poor, who, coming to
receive their customary alms, realized that they would never
more be solaced by the charity of the tender nuns :
' ' Mercy upon us !" they cried ; ' ' now we must die of hunger !" 2
The news of the military seizure of a handful of innocent
women outraged even Fenelon, who had fought against the
Letter of the Law of Ces Messieurs :
" A stroke of authority such as that which has just been
made at Port -Royal," he wrote, " can only excite public
1 " Quand on est bien unie avec Dieu, on trouve Port-Royal partout."
2 Racine, Abrtgt (Ed. Gazier), p. 225.

328 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
compassion for these women, and indignation against their
persecutors." x
Thus, exactly one hundred years after Mere Angelique ex
perienced that first " Action of Grace," Port-Royal was no
more. Since the Massacre of St. Bartholomew so cruel a deed
had never been perpetrated in the name of Religion. Now,
as then, both Reform and Renaissance were swaUowed up in a
moment of fanaticism, and again not only the remaining brave
nuns and pious Solitaires stood still to ask the question of
Francois Pr in his captivity :
" Ou estes-vous aUez, mes beUes amourettes ? " 2
but all thinking France seemed to reiterate the despairing
line of the captive king :
" Les Arbes sont muets et sourds." 3
1 Lettre du 24 Novembre 1709, au Due de Chevreuse.
2 See St. Simon, Memoires (Cheruel ed. Hachette, 1905), v. p. 76.
3 " Ou estes-vous aUez, mes belles amourettes,
Changerez-vous de Ueu tous. les jours ?
A qui dirai-je mon tourment,
Mon tourment et ma peine ?
Rien ne repond a ma voix
Les Arbres sont meuts et sourds.
Oil estes-vous aUez, mes beUes amourettes ? "
Chanson de Francois Ier.

CHAPTER VIII
PORT-ROYAL OF TO-DAY
" Du plus saint temple, helas I quel deplorable reste I
Un vieux mur est le seul qui rappelle a nos cceurs
Cette enceinte benie, ou le P6re celeste
Aimait a se former de vrais adorateurs.
Ah ! qu'au pied de ce mur une ardente priere
Vienne expier cent ans de profanation !
Et que du Dieu de paix la benediction
De Port-Royal encor passe un port salutaire I"
Louis Silvy
ALMOST immediately after the desertion of Port-Royal
des Champs by the nuns, the question arose : What
was to become of the old monastery itself, the shell
from which the spirit had departed ? With a glorified per
spective of the grandeur of the buildings, there was at first
some idea of making the place a sort of adjunct for the ladies
of St. Cyr. On his part, the Cardinal de NoaUles continued
to insist on the transference of the Paris nuns to the country,
but neither the Abbess nor the nuns were anxious to go to
the Desert. After a second visit there of two or three days
in November, Madame de Chateau-Renaud came back with
a sweUing in her limbs, incident, she said, to the dampness.
This settled the matter of emigration, and decision against it
was aided by the co-operation of the Messieurs of St. Sulpice,
who feared that if the Paris nuns went to the country the
Jesuits would somehow acquire Port-Royal de Paris, and
found there a rival monastery too near their own. Both
parties, therefore, endeavoured to influence Madame de
Maintenon to secure an order from the King for the complete
destruction of Port-Royal des Champs. Thus, an Arret du
Conseil, dated January 1710, in which it was represented
that the buildings had not only become useless, but a needless
329

330 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
expense to maintain, ordered the demolition of them aU,
the church alone excepted. In the early part of June of
that same year the first stroke of the hammer was heard on
the sacred buddings, and soon only the church remained
standing. Strangely enough, it was an Arnauld who was responsible for
the last great desecration of the Thebaide of his fathers.
A year after the destruction of the buddings, it occurred to
the Marquis de Pomponne that he ought to have the bodies
of his own famUy exhumed, and removed for burial in another
place. In asking permission of the King, the grandson of
Arnauld d'AndiUy said he wished this
" in order that his posterity should lose the memory that
these bodies were interred in a place which had had the mis
fortune to displease His Majesty." 1
Others who had relatives buried at Port-Royal foUowing the
example of M. de Pomponne, soon the church which had
so long guarded the treasure of the Jansenist dead was aUowed
to be profaned by any person who chose to go there and take
away the stones of the cloister or the tUes from the floor
itself, even the graves being left open and gaping, at the
mercy of thieves and treasure-hunters. And in 1712 the
church itself was razed to the ground.
But we must turn from this sad picture of desolation,
to fitly describe which the words of Racine's Athalie have
so often been quoted :
" Mais je n'ai plus trouve qu'un horrible melange
D'os et de chair meurtris et train6s dans la fange,
Des lambeaux pleins de sang et des membres affreux,
Que des chiens devorants se disputaient entre eux ! "
to the brighter and more philosophical contrast given by
the later history of the domain of Port-Royal des Champs.
A pUgrimage made to the spot in 1767 2 enumerates the dove
cot, the mill-house, the canal, a bit of the terrace of Madame
de Longueville, and a few stones of the spot caUed the Solitude,
sole witnesses to the former glory of the active, populous,
and absolutely self-sufficient Monastery.
The Revolution must have passed this desolation by as
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vi. p. 237.
2 Andr6 Hallays, Ptlerinage de Port-Royal, p. 96.

PORT-ROYAL OF TO-DAY 331
unworthy its devastation, and soon afterward the property
was sold to surviving faithful Jansenists, pilgrimages to the
spot then beginning. In 1809 a number of people assembled
at the ruins to recaU the life and actions of the nuns and
Solitaires, and in 1824 the place was purchased by a M. Louis
SUvy, son of a King's CouncUlor, and an ardent Jansenist,
who had inherited the spirit of the first Port-Royal. During
his twenty-three years' possession of the domain, he tried to
reconstruct many of the old landmarks, replanting the Solitude,
setting up a wooden cross in the midst, drying up the historic
pond, and delighting his soul by composing inscriptions to
be placed under the portraits of the Port-Royalists. What
matter that, as M. Hallays says,1 his verses were poor ? His
enthusiasm at least was great and preservative of many a
pious souvenir.
In 1847, M. SUvy died at Port-Royal, in the house now
occupied by the caretaker. Since that time the property
has been owned by a Society of which M. Augustin Gazier
is president, and the work of restoration has been continued
with reverent faithfulness to the memory of other days.
The pUgrim who to-day visits the ruins of Port-Royal
des Champs, may travel by raU to the little station of Trappes,
just beyond St. Cyr on the road to Chartres, and, alighting
there, go on foot the remaining six kilometres. The road
leads past seigneurial estates and fruitful farms, across a
thick wood, its deep dried-up ruts reminding one of the experi
ences of the six ladies who journeyed thither from VersaUles
in a carriage in the year 1697, and who only after " continued
and great fatigue " reached the lovely spot. Like them, in
spite of the heat and dust of a summer's day, a Port-Royal
latter-day enthusiast would be amply repaid for the diffi
culties of the path by the " charms and sweet peacefulness "
of the Valley of the river Yvette.
Descending from the wooded heights where the farm of
Les Granges stiU yields its increase, one reaches at last the
remains of the ancient Cistercian Monastery once so famous
in the religious and social circles of France. Remote and
deserted enough still to warrant the epithet of " The Desert,"
they lie hidden from the gaze of all but the most scrutinizing
passer-by, in what may be termed the " peace of God."
1 Andre Hallays, Ptlerinage de Port-Royal, p. 138.

332 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
The former principal entrance to the Monastery, also
that used by Madame de LongueviUe and her friends, is now
closed, but, entering the grounds about a Irilometre farther on,
by the St. Lambert Gate, the first recognizable landmark
is the reconstructed Solitude, easUy repopulated in imagina
tion with the white figures of the shadowy nuns who passed
in its cool shade, with knitting and other handiwork, the few
leisure hours of the hot summer days. Surrounded by trees
on the borders of the wooded heights, the Solitude, too,
is hidden and remote, but a turn in the drive brings to view
the site of the city which " lieth four-square." Glancing
round, who could now believe that this deserted place was
once bustling with industries of all kinds ! That two hundred
years ago, thirty buddings stood here, aU doing their part
in the general activity — a bakery, a surgery, a pharmacy,
a washhouse, a joinery, a forge ; a tannery producing leather,
a mUl grinding out flour, beehives giving honey, kitchen
gardens abounding in delicious fruit and vegetables, a barn
yard teeming with poultry, and at times the sound of music
and the subdued tones of children's voices. And yet the
" unction " which so disturbed Madame de Maintenon seems
still there, and as one stands in the midst of the encircling
hills, alone with Nature and the memories of the past, Peace
falls like a benediction into the spirit.
At first glimpse, the place looks like a great farm, but
presently a few famUiar objects begin to emerge. The dovecot
of the original Monastery (colombier) is the most picturesque
figure in the scene, but to-day one looks in vain for the useful
miU of olden days. In its place rise two modern farm buddings,
one of which is occupied by the gardener-caretaker. To the
right the next thing to meet the eye is a single ancient-looking
tower covered with ivy, of seemingly inferior proportions. This
is, however, the last relic of those towers of defence buUt by the
Solitaires during the Fronde, from behind whose protecting
height and strength the great warriors De Pontis and De
Beaumont are said to have shouted defiance to the Frondists.
The hand of the destroyer seems to have been speciaUy
lifted against the eastern portion of the Monastery, originaUy
devoted to such outside friends as the Queen of Poland,
Madame de Guemene, the Duchesse de Liancourt, and many
others. For of it hardly a trace remains. Only the ruins of

PORT-ROYAL OF TO-DAY 333
a porter's lodge, and a recently discovered well, betray the
site of either the Z-shaped dweUing of Madame de Longue
viUe, or of the little house nestling up against it belonging to
the Duchesse's " visible angel," as Racine called MUe de Vertus.
But at the foot of the excavation left of the De LonguevUle
cellars, Mere Angelique's cool and refreshing fountain is proudly
pointed out, and not far away a spreading walnut-tree, said to
have been planted by Pascal, casts a grateful shadow. On
the spot of the apartments once occupied by Pascal, Racine,
BoUeau, Cardinal Retz, called Logement des Messieurs, there
now extends an immense grazing field for cattle.
Fortunately for the visitor of to-day, the site of the church
is distinctly marked. In 1844, with M. Silvy's permission,
the Due de Luines caused extensive excavations to be made
there with the hope of finding the bones of his ancestress,
the beautiful Duchesse, who with her two twins was buried
in the choir. Unfortunately, he did not succeed in his object,1
but the work laid bare the foundations of the thirteenth-
century church, which since 1652 had been covered with
twelve metres of sand. This fiUing-in, which had the effect
of falsifying the architectural proportions of the church, had
been done by Mere Angelique, bent upon the preservation
of the health of her nuns, and anxious to prevent the malarial
fumes from the historic pond underneath from continuing
their ravaging work.
The site of the excavations is sacred ground indeed, and
fragments of columns, tombstones, etc., which lie around
must produce a feeling of reverence. For here once knelt in
prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving all the noble souls of
Port-Royal, here ascended to heaven the aspirations and
enthusiasm of which the history of the Monastery is full.
Here, too, occurred the ceremonies, festivals of saints, and
funeral services for the dead whose bones rested, and stUl
remain in many cases unmolested, beneath the very feet of
the visitor. For the cemetery du dehors was, according to
custom, always near the church, pious persons loving to sleep
their eternal sleep within the sound of the bell.
1 But, as he wrote M. Silvy : " I have personally great pleasure in having
restored to the hght of day the ruins of an establishment whose venerable
inhabitants were dear to my ancestors " (Gazier, Notice sur Port-Royal des
Champs, p. 25).

334 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
From the church the Porte des Sacrements led into the
cloister, which enclosed the nuns' cemetery (cimitiere du
dedans), and was used by the nuns, according to the rule of
St. Benoit, as a promenade, they thus having ever before
their eyes in life the image of Death.
On the seventeenth-century level, just above the excavated
site, stands a little Gothic chapel buUt in 1891 by the architect
H. MabUle x to replace M. SUvy's Oratory Museum, which in
seventy years had fallen into disrepair. In front of it two
fine portrait busts of Racine and Pascal, the glory of Port-
Royal, invite one to enter the place where are treasured the
last souvenirs of the former inhabitants of the Monastery :
fragments of buddings, pieces of the windows of the thirteenth-
century church, a plan in relief of the Monastery as it once
stood. The stained-glass windows represent scenes of the past,
and in gazing at these and the six engravings of Magdeleine
Hortemels, which hang on the waU, the life of the old Port-
Royal once more seems graphic and real. These prints are
priceless, as they remain to this day the only authentic repre
sentation of the original Abbey. They also have had their
history. In 1709, at the destruction of the Monastery, the
workmen wished to make away with the work of the former
nun-artist, then living with her famUy in Paris. With this
idea in view, on some pretext or other they entered her father's
book-shop in Paris, and carried off both plates and engravings
found there to M. d'Argenson, who, after keeping them for
some time, finally had the grace to restore them to their
owner. The chapel is also the custodian of a Jansenist library of
more than two hundred volumes, some precious coUections of
autographs, money and medals, as wed as a succession of
portraits of the most Ulustrious of the nuns and Solitaires.2 As
late as three or four years ago, the foUowing inscription was
affixed to the waU :
" Ici repose Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti-Pezenas,
Villeneuve — Avignon — Port -Royal . ' '
It is the garden, however, which seems best to have survived
1 The best description of the Port-Royal Church was written by M. Mabille
under the title L'Eglise de Port-Royal des Champs (1204-1710).
2 For these latter, see M. Gazier's fine coUection of reproductions printed
as Port-Royal au XVII" Siicle.

PORT-ROYAL OF TO-DAY 335
the ravages of the centuries. Beautiful trees, flowers, and
fruits still speak of the presence of the recluses who tried
literaUy to carry out the commands of their great Master.
On regretftdly leaving this quiet spot, the visitor is forcibly
reminded of the neighbouring royal palace where lived the
Court which planned such destruction. And with M. Gazier,1
one feels that to ready understand the age of Louis xiv it does
not suffice to see VersaUles — Port-Royal is also necessary to the
picture. Long before the destruction of the Champs, Port-Royal
de Paris, as we have seen, had lost nearly all traces of its early
character, and later in the eighteenth century it even became
Molinistic in its views. In 1790, the nuns were expelled
altogether. During the Revolution it was made a prison under
the name of Port Libre, stUl retaining, says M. Hallays,2
a last spark of the Spirit of Port-Royal, its prisoners
being " people of merit, and decency respected there."
The next evolution of the ancient Abbey was into a Foundlings'
Home, from which by natural transition it became the present
Maternity Hospital. Thus, a much more tangible sheU
remains of Port-Royal de Paris than of the Mother Institution.
To-day, by walking across the bustling Avenue of the
Observatoire (once known as the Rue d'Enfer), full of steam
and electric trams, of automobUes, and the noise of twentieth-
century Paris, taking a few paces along the Boulevard of Port-
Royal (Rue de la Bourbe), and entering the courtyard of the
Hospital, we may literaUy step again into the material outside
world of the home of Truth and Charity in the days of Mere
Angelique. Before us, almost in its ancient form, is the nucleus of
the buddings which as Port-Royal de Paris were originally
filled with the cloistered nuns and their pious friends.
Here are stUl standing two of the houses built by
those worldly but repentant souls, who chose the immediate
neighbourhood of saintliness to fortify and strengthen their
remorse and heavenly aspirations. One of these now serves
as office to the Hospital, the other, supposed to have been that
of Madame de Sable, is situated in the angle of the Rue de la
Bourbe and the Rue d'Enfer. Here is still the church built
1 Port-Royal des Champs : Notice historique d I' Usage des Visiteurs, p. I.
2 Ptlerinage de Port-Royal, p. 76.

336 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
in 1644, and christened Saint-Sacrement, but how changed its
state ! Once an imposing edifice adorned with the work of
PhUippe de Champagne, and beautified by all the evidences of
a living love and devotion, it is now a mere lifeless, unlovely
chapel. In it remain few Jansenist souvenirs. It contains
one or two poor modern paintings, a disorderly array of benches,
an altar devoid of anything to command reverence or caU forth
admiration. In a corner, to be sure, is some fine old wood
work, singularly enough inscribed with the letter D, but the
uneven wooden flooring and stained walls are the most tangible
reminders of the ancient outward glory.
Its " unction " is no more to be felt, except, perhaps,
in the little corner where the tombstone of Antoine le Maitre
stands in its old majesty, the words of M. Hamon's eulogy
stiU proudly distinct, and teUing of the virtues of the first
Anchorite, or, in the greater part of the church now waUed
off and used as a. laundry, where linen for the hospital hes
stacked in white pdes to the very roof, and where, underneath,
in the choir of the nuns, hidden from the prying gaze, rest the
ashes and tombstone of Mere Angelique.
With regard to the significance of Port-Royal to-day, we
feel that albeit the saintly nuns and Solitaires could not realize
on this earth their particular vision of the New Jerusalem,
" where God shall wipe away aU tears from their eyes,"
their influence cannot die, and history shows that even now
it is moving and inspiring serious people in Belgium, France,
and even England.
In 1885 a French Bishop said publicly :
" Had God wUled that we should still have the spirit of
Port -Royal, we would not now be where we are."
But what was the spirit of Port-Royal ? Alas ! even as
we seek to define its essence, it seems to soar in butterfly flight
far above us. Turning to the Constitutions, said to have been
drawn up by Mere Agnes, we find first the ideal of the mystic
and recluse :
" My secret is for me, because the diffusion of good thoughts
dissipates them, and the facUity of speaking of those which
are not good, imprints them more firmly on the mind,"
An ideal maintained, as they thought, only by aloofness from the
1 The Constitutions of Port-Royal, p. 397.

PORT-ROYAL OF TO-DAY 337
world, from human intercourse and companionship. Reading
a little further, we come upon the general aim of all religious
aspiration : roughly speaking, the seeking for God, and the
following of Him in aU things : piety, mutual charity, and
prayer being the means used. This is, however, but an
epitome of the universal spirit of Religion, an instinct which
never dies, but persists through all the different names given
to it. And if one of these man-made titles, Jansenism, has
dropped away from the feeling it covered, the initial en
thusiasm remains to work its leavening influence throughout
the ages. For enthusiasm seeks out and illuminates the
heights and the depths, makes flowery the by-paths of the
imagination, untangles the jungles of reasoning, and fathoms
the deep ravines of thought. Without it, History would die :
it is Life itself, and with Pascal, we of this later age stiU believe
that: " The whole series of human generations, during the course
of ages, should be regarded as one man, ever living and ever
learning." For us Port-Royal lives on, and draws irresistibly in its universal
significance.

22

LIST OF AUTHORITIES
Note. — The works to be consulted for the fuU history of Port-
Royal are so numerous that a detailed Bibliography would be im
possible here. Those persons wishing to go into the subject more
particularly, may be referred therefore to such more or less complete
Bibliographies as are contained in the following works : —
Bibliothtque Jansiniste, ou Catalogue alphabttique des principaux livres
Janstnistes, par D. de Colonna. (1744) ; or
Dictionnaire des livres Janstnistes. A new edition of the above, re
viewed and completed by P. Patouillet. Anvers, 1752.
Repertoire alphabttique des personnes et des choses de Port-Royal, by
M. A. Maulvault. Paris, 1902.
The Bibliographical Essay contained in M. Augustin Gazier's edition
of Racine's Abrtgt de I' Histoire de Port-Royal, pp. 299-321.
Here it is possible to give only the chief authorities consulted in the
compilation of this history.
ANCIENT SOURCES
MEMOIRS
Mtmoires touchant la vie de M. de St. Cyran, par M. Lancelot, pour
servir d'eclaircissement a l'histoire de Port-Royal. Cologne,
1738. 2 vols.
Mtmoires de Pierre Thomas, Sieur du Fosse. Publies en entier pour
la premiere fois d'apres le manuscrit original, par F. Bouquet.
Rouen, 1876-79. 4 vols.
Mtmoires pour servir d l'histoire de Port-Royal, par M. Fontaine.
Utrecht, 1736. 2 vols.
Mtmoires et Relations sur ce qui s'est passi A Port-Royal des Champs
depuis le commencement de la Rt forme de cette Abbaye. 17 16.
1 vol.
Mtmoires pour servir a l'histoire de Port-Royal et a la vie de la rtverende
Mere Angtlique de Sainte Madeleine Arnauld. Utrecht, 1742.
3 vols.
Mtmoires historiques et Chronologiques sur I' Abbaye de Port-Royal des
Champs, par Guilbert. Utrecht.
In 2 parts, ist, I755-I7S6- 7 vols.
2nd, 1758-1759- 2 vols.
339

340 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Mtmoires sur la Destruction de Port- Royal des Champs. 171 1. 1 vol. j
and,
Mtmoires pour servir a l'histoire de Port-Royal. 1734-1737. Attri
buted to Jacques Fouillou.
Recueil de plusieurs piices pour servir A l'histoire de Port-Royal ou
Suppltment aux Memoires de MM. Fontaine, Lancelot et Du Fosst.
Utrecht, 1740. 1 vol.
Mtmoires de I'Abbt Arnauld. Included in the Petitot Collection.
1834.
Mtmoires du Pire Rent Rapin de la Compagnie de Jtsus, sur V Eglise
et la Societt, la cour, la ville et la Janstnisme. Publi6s pour la
premiere fois d'apres le manuscrit autographe, par L6on Aubineau.
Paris, 1865. 3 vols.
Mtmoires de Madame de Motteville. Nouvelle edition. 1855.
Mtmoires de Godefroi Hermant, docteur de Sorbonne sur l'histoire
eccltsiastique du XVII' Siicle. Publies pour la premiere fois sur
le manuscrit autographe, par A. Gazier. 1905-1908. 5 vols.
Mtmoires de Messire Robert d'Andilly, ecrits par lui-m€me. Hambourg,
1734. 2 vols.
Mtmoires, historiques, publiques, critiques et litttraires, Amelot de la
Houssaye, 1722. 2 vols.
Mtmoires du Sieur de Pontis. 3rd edition rediges, par Du Fosse
(Petitot Collection), 2nd Series. Vols xxxi.-xxxii.
Mtmoires sur la vie de Jean Racine, par Louis Racine. 1747.
Les Historiettes de Tallemant des Rtaux. Mtmoires pour servir A
l'histoire du XVII' siicle, par M. Monmerqu6. Paris, Garnier
' Freres. HISTORIES
Histoire du Janstnisme depuis son origine jusqu'en 1644, par le Pere
Rapin. Revue et publiee, par l'Abbe Domenech. 1 vol.
Histoire gtntrale du Janstnisme, par M. l'Abb6 (Dom Cerberon).
Amsterdam, 1700. 3 vols.
Histoire de V Abbaye de Port-Royal, par Jerome Besoigne. Cologne,
1752. 6 vols.
Histoire gtntrale de Port-Royal depuis la rtforme de I 'Abbaye jusqu' a son
entiire destruction. Amsterdam, Dom Clemencet. 1755-1757.
10 vols.
Histoire Abrtgte de I' Abbaye de Port-Royal depuis sa fondation en 1204
jusqu' a I' enlevement des religieuses en 1709- 17 10. 1 vol. Jacques
Fouillou.
Histoire A brtgte de I'A bbaye de Port-Royal, par Michel Tronchay . 1 7 1 o.
Abrtgt de V Histoire de Port-Royal, par feu M. Racine. Avec un Avant
propos, un Appendice, des Notes, et un Essai bibliographique, par
A. Grazier. Paris.
Nouvelle Histoire Abrtgte de I' Abbaye de Port-Royal depuis sa fondation
jusqu' d sa destruction, etc., par MUe. Poulain. Paris, 1786.
Histoires des Perstcutions des religieuses de Port-Royal tcrites -bar elles-
mtmes. Ville Franche, 1753. 1 vol.

LIST OF AUTHORITIES 34i
Histoire abrtgte de la derniire perstcution de Port-Royal, suivie de la vie
tdifiante des domestiques de cette sainte maison, par l'Abb6 Pinault.
1750. 3 vols.
Histoire gtntrale du Janstnisme. 3 vols. 1700.
Histoire Littiraire de Port-Royal, par Dom Clemencet, avec une intro
duction et biograpbie de l'auteur, par M. l'Abbe Guett6e. 1 vol.
L'Histoiredu Janstnisme, par M. Du Bourg. 1658. 3 vols.
Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de M. Arnauld, par P. Quesnel. 1 vol.
1697.
Histoire Ecclisiastique du XVII. siicle. Tome ii., par Louis Ellies
du Pin. 1727. MISCELLANEOUS

Apologia des Religieuses de Port-Royal. Ouvrage compose en 1664-1665,
par Arnauld, Nicole et Claude de Sainte-Marthe.
Arnauld, Antoine, Lettres de. 1727-43. 9 vols.
Arnauld, Antoine, CEuvres de. Paris, 1775-1783. 43 vols.
Arnauld, La Vie de Mes sire A. 1783. 2 vols.
Arnauld d'Andilly, Robert, Lettres de. 1680. 1 vol.
Arnauld d'Andilly, Robert, Les Vies des Saints Peres des Dtserts.
Arnauld, Journal, Inedit. 1857.
Arnauld, Mire Angilique, Lettres de. Utrecht, 1742-44. 3 vols.
Arnauld, Mire Agnes, Lettres de. Publi6es sur les textes authentiques
par M. Faugere. Paris, 1858. 2 vols.
Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, Histoire de la Princesse de PapMagonie.
1723. B
Besoigne, Vies des Quatre Eviques engages dans la cause de Port-Royal.
1756. 2 vols.
Bayle, Pierre, CEuvres Diverses. Bibliotheque Jans6niste. 1727-31.
4 vols. C
Calvin, John, L' Institution de la Religion Chrestienne. 17 13.
Conti, Armand de Bourbon, Prince de, Les Devoirs des Grands. 1606.
D
Divers Actes, lettres et Relations des Religieuses du Saint Sacrement
touchant la perstcution et les violences que leur ont ttt faites. 1725.
1 vol.
Dinouart, Santoliana. ,1764. F
Faugere, P., Lettres, opuscles et mtmoires de Madame Ptrier et de Jacque
line, sceurs de Pascal, et Marguirite sa niice. Publi6es sur
les manuscrits originaux. 1845. x vo1-

342 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
G
Goujet, l'Abbe, Vie de M. Nicole et l'histoire de ses ouvrages. Luxem
bourg, 1732. H
Hamon, Recueil de lettres et opuscles de. Amsterdam, 1734. 2 vols.
J
Jansenius, Cornelius, L' Augustinus. 1640.

La Rochefoucauld, Lettres de. (In Regnier's edition of works.)
Lettres des Religieuses de Port-Royal des Champs. 1709-10.
Le Laboureur, Une Fondation religieuse et quelques lettres de Marie de
Gonzague en Pologne. 1889.
Le Laboureur, Relation du Voyage de la Reyne de Pologne. 1647.
M
Malebranche, Nicolas, De la Recherche de la Veritt. 1674. 2 vols.
Manuel des pilerins de Port-Royal des Champs. Au Disert. 1767,
par l'Abbe Gazaignes. 1 vol.
Mere, Chevalier de (Antoine Gombaud), CEuvres. 1692.
N
Nicole, Pierre, Nouvelle Mtthode pour apprendre la Langue Latine.
1681.
Nicole, Pierre, Les Imaginaires et les Visionnaires. 1685.
Ntcrologe de I'abbaye de Notre Dame de Port-Royal des Champs, par
Dom Rivet de la Grange. Amsterdam, 1723. 1 vol.
Ntcrologe de V Abbaye de Port-Royal des Champs, Suppltment au, par
Le Febvre de Saint-Marc et l'Abbe Goujet. 1735. 1 vol.
P
Preville, Sieur de, La Naissance de Janstnisme dtcouverte. 1654.
0
Quesnel, Pasquier, Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de M. Arnauld.
1697. 1 vol.
Quesnel, Pasquier, Correspondance de. Publiees avec Notes, par
Madame Albert Le Roy. Paris, 1900. 2 vols.
R
Rabutin, Louise de, A brtgi de la vie de Saint Francois de Sales. 1699.
Relation of Sundry miracles wrought at the Monastery of Port-RoyaU al
Paris. 1659.

LIST OF AUTHORITIES 343
Responses A un Scrit publiS sur le sujet des Miracles, etc. 1656.
Relation d'un voyage A Aleth contenant des Mtmoires pour servir A
I' Histoire de la vie de Messire Nicolas Pavilion Evique d' Aleth, par
Monsieur Lancelot. 1 vol.
Relation de la Captiviti de la Mire Angilique de Saint Jean. 171 1.
Retz, Mtmoires de. (In works published by Regnier.)

Saci, Louis Isaac Lemaistre de, Le Jardin des Racines grecques en vers.
1904.
Saint Augustin, Confessions, traduit, par M. Arnauld d'Andilly.
Bruxelles, 1770.
Saint Augustin victorieux de Calvin et de Molina. 1652.
St. Cyran, l'Abbe de, CEuvres Chritiennes et spirituelles de Lyon. 1679.
4 vols.
St. Cyran, Les nouvelles et anciennes reliques de. 1648.
T
Tronchai, Michel, La Vie et V esprit de M. le Nain de Tillemont. 17 13.
V
Villefore, La vie de Madame la Duchessede Longueville. 1738. 2 vols.
MODERN SOURCES

Barbier, Alfred, Rent Descartes. 1901.
Barthelemy, Madame la Comtesse de Maure. 1863.
Barthelemy, Les Amis de la Marquise de Sablt.
Batifiol, Louis, Le Siicle de la Renaissance. Paris, 1909.
Bausset, Louis F. de, Histoire de Ftntlon. 1861.
Blampignon, E. A., Etude sur Malebranche. 1862.
Bougaud, Bishop Louis Emile, Histoire de Sainte Chantal et des Origines
de la Visitation. 1861.
Bouillier, F., Histoire de la Philosophic Cartisienne. 1854.

Cadet, Les Pidagogues de Port-Royal. 1887. 1 vol.
Camus, Jean Pierre, L' Esprit du Bienheureux Francois de Sales. 1842.
Paris.
Collet, Francois, Fait intdit de la vie de Pascal. 1848.
Combes, Francois, Madame de Sivigni, Historien. 1885.
Cousin, Victor, Etude sur Pascal. 1857.
Cousin, Victor, Jacqueline Pascal. Paris, 1842.
Cousin, Victor, Madame de Longueville. 1853.
Cousin, Victor, Madame de Sablt. 1854.

344 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL
Cousin, Victor, La Jeunesse de Madame de Longueville. 1864.
Cousin, Victor, Lettres inidites de Madame de Longueville. 1839.
Cousin, Victor, Du Vrai, Du Beau, du Bien. 1858.
D
DaU, GuUlaume, La Mire Angilique, d'apris sa correspondance. Paris,
1893.
D'Aubigne, Jean Henri Merle, Histoire de la Rtformation du 16'"* Siicle.
1835-53.
De Dion, Cartulaire de V Abbaye de Porrois. 1903.
Delmont, T., La magnifique Epopie d' Athalie de Racine. 1895.
Du Bled, Victor, La Sociiti Frangaise du XVI' au XX' Siicle. 1903.

Faguet, Emile, Amours d'hommes de lettres. 1907.
Faugere, A. Prosper, Les Pensies de Blaise Pascal. 1844.
FeuUlet de Conches, Causeries d'un Curieux. Book II.
Finot, Edouard, Port-Royal et Magny. Paris, 1888. 1 vol.
Flechier, Valentin Esprit, Mtmoires sur les Grands Jours d' Auvergne.
1856.
Fuzet, Jean Frederic, Les Jansinistes du XVII. siicle, etc. 1876.

Gamble, John, A Study on Pascal. 1907.
Gazier, Augustin, Pensies de Pascal. Edition de Port-Royal. 1907.
Gazier, Augustin, Philippe et Jean-Baptiste de Champagne. 1885.
Gazier, Augustin, Port-Royal au XVII. siicle. 1909.
Gregoire, Count Henri, Les Ruines de Port-Royal des Champs. 1809.
Giraud, Victor, La Philosophic religieuse de Pascal. 1904.
Giraud, Victor, Pascal, I'Homme, I'CEuvre, Vlnfluence. 1900.
H
Hamon, A. J. M., Vie de St. Francois de Sales. 1909.
Havet, Ernest, Les Provinciates. 1887.
Havet, Ernest, Pascal. 1881.
Havet, Ernest, Jansinius, Evique d' Ypres, Ses derniers Moments,
1893. L
Louandre, Ch. L. de, Les Provinciates, containing a notice on Jansenism.
1850.
Laborde, E. S. J. de, La Renaissance des arts A la Cour de France. 1850.
La Ferriere-Percy, Comte Hector de, Les la Boderie. 1857.
Larroumet, Gustave, Racine. 1887.
La VaU6e, Th6ophile, Histoire de la Maison Royale de St. Cyr. 1853.
Lemaistre, Felix, Thi&tre complet de Racine, avec des remarques litttraires.
1869.
Lemaitre, Jules, Jean Racine. 1901.

LIST OF AUTHORITIES 345

M
Mersan, H., Pensies de Nicole. 1806.
Maude de la Claviere, Les Femmes de la Renaissance. 1898.
Maude de la Claviere, Frangois V et Louise de Savoie.
Mesnard, Paul, CEuvres de Racine. (Regnier.)
Migne, J. P., L' Esprit de Nicole sur les Viritis de la Religion. 1843.
Monlaur, R., Angilique Arnauld. Paris, 1901.

Paquier, Jules, Le Janstnisme. 1909.
Paquier, Jules, L'Humanisme et la Riforme. 1900.
Paquier, Jules, Port-Royal und Clairvaux. 1865.
Prudhomme, Sully, La vrai religion selon Pascal. 1905.
R
Rapetti, P. N., A Lemaistre et son nouvel Historian. 1857
Reinach, Salomon, Orpheus, Histoire Gtntrale des Religions. 1909.
Reuchlin, Dr. Hermann, Geschichte von Port-Royal. 1839. 1 vol.
Reuchlin, Dr. Hermann, Pascal's Leben und der Geist seiner Schriften.
1840.
Ricard, Antoine, Les Premiers Jansinistes et Port-Royal. 1883.
Royer, Collard, CEuvres computes. 1836.

Sainte Beuve, C. A., Port-Royal. 5th edition. 7 vols. 1888.
Sainte Beuve, C.A., Causeries du Lundi, tome iv. 1852-62.
Sapey, C. A., Etudes Biographiques pour servir a V Histoire de I'Ancienne
Magistrature Frangaise, A. Le Maistre. 1858.
Schimmelpenninck, M. A., Select Memoirs of Port-Royal. 3rd edition.
London, 1829. 3 vols.
Silvy, Louis, Avis important, etc. 1818.
Strowski, Fortunat, Pascal et son temps. Paris, 1907.
Strowski, Fortunat, Saint Frangois de Sales. 1898.

Vallee, Oscar de, De V Eloquence Judiciare au dix-Septiime Siicle. A. Le
Maistre et ses Contemporains. 1856.
Varin, Pierre, La Viritt sur les Arnauld. Paris, 1847.
Vinet, Rodelphe, Etudes sur Blaise Pascal. 1848.
Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet de, Notes sur les Pensies de Pascal.
1785. W
Wolters, J. F. H., Etudes Litteraires sur Athalie. 1869.

INDEX

Alexander vn (Pope), (1655-1667),
192
Almanach des Jesuites (1653), 189,
190
Annat, le Pere (Jesuite), 189, 192,
194, 214, 220, 231, 254, 270
Anne of Austria, 84, 92, 101, 122,
131, 132, 171, 184, 217, 224, 237,
252
Argenson (Marc- Rene d'), 326, 327,
334 *
Arnauld family, 22-23, 57-59 ; " Core
and Stem," 145, 171
Arnauld, Antoine (1560-1619), 25, 26,
27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 37, 58, 171
Arnauld, Madame Antoine (Catherine
Marion, died 1641), 27, 42, 43, 44,
118
Arnauld, Antoine (le Grand Arnauld,
1612-1694), 10, 28, 29, 75 ; Fre
quent Communion, 11 7-1 2 4 ;
Champion of Jansenism, 124, 130,
142, 158, 159, 184-188, 191, 194,
195, 196, 197, 199, 201, 206, 210,
229, 231, 247, 248, 249, 252, 259,
261, 269, 270, 271, 282, 285, 288,
289, 290, 291, 293, 294, 295, 296,
300, 301, 302 ; death of, 303-
305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310, 313,
314. 316
Arnauld, Anne Eugenie, 31, 53, 155
Arnauld, Henri (Eveque d' Angers),
28
Arnauld, Marie-Claire, 30, 38, 52
Arnauld, Madeleine, 29, 30
Arnauld, Simon, 28
Arnauld, Angelique de Sainte Made
leine (Jacqueline Marie, known as
Mere Angelique, 1591-1661), 4,
23. 29, 3°. 3i, 32, 33 J conversion,
34-40, 40-47, 48-51, 72, 79 note,
85, 91, 95, 96, 97, 100, 102, 103,
104, 105, 112, 116, 125, 155, 156,
157 ; charity of, 161, 162, 164,
165, 167, 177, 180, 185, 193 ;
Idea of Provincials, 200 note, 209,
210, 215 ; death of, 221-226, 232,
239, 240, 250, 256, 260, 261,
263, 264, 265 note, 281, 295 note,
312, 323 328, 333. 335. 336

Arnauld (Mere Agnes de Saint Paul,
1593-1671), 32, 33. 38, 46, 47. 48.
51, 52, 84, 102, 103, 113, 116, 155,
156, 157. r77. 210, 211, 212, 222,
226, 243, 244, 245, 253 note, 256,
257, 259, 260, 263, 264 ; death of,
288, 336
Arnauld d'Andilly (Robert, 1588-
1674), 27, 28, 41, 59, 67, 84, 86,
93. 94. 95. "4. 129, 130. 131. 132,
146, 15 , 185, 212, 215, 216, 221,
224, 244, 249, 255, 256, 259, 261,
279 ; death of, 289
Arnauld d'Andilly (Madame, nie
MUe de la Boderie), 57, 260
Arnauld d'Andilly (Mire Angelique
de Saint Jean, 1624-1684), 141,
205, 225, 250, 254, 261, 263,
269 note, 291 ; death of, 320-
321
Arnauld d'Andilly (Marie Charlotte
de Sainte-Claire, 1627-1678), 259,
260
Arnauld d'Andilly (Marie-Angelique
de Saint-Therese, 1630- 1700), 259,
260
Arnauld d'Andilly (Charles Henri,
known as Luzancy, 1623-1684),
76, 320, 321
Arnauld d'Andilly (Jules, known as
Villeneuve, died in 1657), 135, 146
Aiguillon, Duchesse de (Madame
de Combalet, Richelieu's niece),
100, 173
Angran (pupil in Petites Ecoles), 138
Athalie (Play by Racine, 1690), 311,
312, 315-317, 330
Augustinus (controversial work writ
ten by Jansenius, and upholding
the doctrine of Saint Augustine
on Grace against the Pelagians
and Semi-Pelagians), 12-21, 82,
118, 123, 187, 188, 189, 262
Bail (Louis, Priest, Doctor of Sor
bonne and Cure of Montmartre,
in 1661 made Superior of both
Port-Royals, died 1669), 222, 223
Balzac (Jean Louis Guez, Seigneur
de), 59

34§

THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL

Barcos (Martin de, nephew Jof St.
Cyran, 1600-1678), 67, 122, 123,
184
Bascle (Etienne de, Solitaire at
Port-Royal), 64, 65, 135, 204,
205
Basile (Le Pere), the Capuchin
monk whose sermon touched Mere
Angelique, 36
Baius (champion of Grace and
predecessor of Jansenius), 4, 5
Beaupuis (M. Walon de, master in
Petites Ecoles), 136, 137, 145
Bernieres (M. Maignart de), 65, 147,
148, 218
Berulle (Cardinal de), 15, 50
Bignon (Jerome 1, 1 589-1 656), 134,
135. 145
Bignon (Thierry, pupil in Petites
Ecoles), 134, 145
Bignon (Jerome 11, pupil in Petites
Ecoles), 134, 145
Bishops (the Four who championed
Port- Royal : Angers, Pamiers,
Beauvais and Aleth), 270
Boileau (Nicolas, called Despreaux),
10 ; opinion of Provincial Letters,
202, 278, 281, 283, 284-286, 295,
302 ; epitaph on Arnauld, 305
note, 308-310, 316, 333
Bossuet (Jacques Benigne, Bishop of
Condom and Meaux), 1627-1706),
89, 151 ; opinion of Provincial
Letters, 202, 272, 274, 289, 290,
300
Boulard (Mere Elisabeth de Sainte
Anne, 1627-1706, Abbess of Port-
Royal from 1699 to 1702), 325
Boulehart (Dame, Abbess of Port-
Royal before Mere Angelique),
25, 325 note
Bourdoise (M. Adrien, founder of
S. Nicolas du Chardonnet), 15, 62
Calvin (John), 20
Camus (Jean-Pierre, Bishop of
Belley), 289
Carmelites, Les (Nuns of the Order
of Carmel, reformed by Sainte
Therese in 1562. Estabhshed in
France by Cardinal de B6rulle),
234. 235, 238, 240, 273, 274
Cas de Conscience (1702 ; difficulty
of Formulary renewed), 322
Casuistry, 121, 196
Casuists, The, 196-202
Casuistes, Apologie des (work of the
Jesuit Pfire Pirot), 214, 290
Chalais, 115
Champagne (Philippe de), 153, 209-
210, 212, 213
Champagne (Sceur Catherine de
Sainte-Suzanne), 210-213

Chantal (Jeanne-Francoise Fremiot
de Rabutin, called the Saint), 15,
256, 257
Chapelain (Jean), 59, 277
Chapelet Secret, 48, 49, 51, 52
Chateau-Renaud (Marie, Louise
Francoise de Rousselet de. Abbess
of Port-Royal de Paris in 1709),
325. 326, 329
Chesnai (residence of M. de Bernieres,
near Versailles, and home of Petites
Ecoles), 135, 144, 145, 218
Chevreuse (Marie de Rohan-Mont-
bazon, 160c— 1679), 91, 92
Chevreuse (Due de, son of Due de
Luynes and pupil of Petites Ecoles) ,
145
Cinq-Mars (Marquis de), 100
Clagny, Hotel de, 44
Clementix (Rospigliosi, Pope in 1667),
271, 289
C16ment xi (Pope, 1700— 1721), 306
Conde (Le Prince de), 83, 96, 233
Conde (Charlotte de Montmorency,
Princesse de), 234
Conde (Prince de, called the Grand
CondS), 108, no, 233, 235, 236,
237, 241, 271
Condren (Chafes de, General of the
Oratory, 158&-1641), 50
Constitutions de Port-Royal (a col
lection of the rules, prescriptions,
exhortations, etc., used by the
nuns of Port-Royal; printed in
1665), 336
Contes (Jean-Baptiste de, 1601-
1679), 223
Conti (Armand de Bourbon, Prince
de, 1629-1666), 203, 241, 243,
246, 255, 270, 334
Conti (Anne-Marie de Martinozzi,
Princesse de), 241-243
Conti (Les Princes de, pupils of
Lancelot), 145
Corneille (Thomas), 173
Cornet (Nicolas, 1 592-1 663), famous
for having denounced the Five
Propositions to the Faculty of the
Sorbonne), 188
Coustel (one of the Masters of the
Petites Ecoles), 136, 139
D'Asson (Baudri de Saint Gilles,
Solitaire at Port-Royal), 127, 200
D'Aubigny (Stuart, son of Duke of
Lenox, pupil at Petites Ecoles),
145
D Aubray (Lieutenant Civil, father
j. of the famous Marquise de Brin-
*? villiers and poisoned by her), 218,
'•'221, 222, 223, 255
De la Croix (Charles, servant at
Port-Royal), 78

INDEX

349

Delorme (Marion, celebrated courte
san), 92
Descartes (Rene), 142, 295, 296, 297,
298, 300, 303, 309
Des Champs des Landes (pupil of
Petites Ecoles), 147
Des Maretz de Saint-Sorlin, 280, 281
D'Estrees (Mme Angelique), 33, 38
Domat (Jean), 182, 229
Du Chemin (Charles), 77
Du Fargis (Marie de Sainte-Madeleine
D'Angennes, Prioress of Port-
Royal in 1660, elected Abbess in
1669, filling three terms success
ively and twice re-elected later on,
being released from her office only
because she had grown blind), 264
Du Fosse (M. Gentien Thomas), 145,
146
Du Fosse (Pierre Thomas, 1634-
1698), 76, 128, 135, 143, 146, 158,
217, 218
Du Gu6 Bagnols (Guillaume, one
of the devoted friends of Port-
Royal), 281
Du Guet (Jacques- Joseph, 1649-
1733), 247, 248, 303, 306-308
Du Mesnil (Mere Anastasie, 1649-
1716, last Prioress of Port-
Royal), 325, 326, 327
Du Plessis - Guenegauds (outside
friends of Port-Royal), 249, 250
Du Vergier de Hauranne. See St.
Cyran
Erasmus, Traitt sur le Manage
Chretien, 136
Escobar, Theologie Morale, 196
Esther (Play by Racine, 1689), 284,
285, 286, 316
Eugenie (La Mere), 257, 262
Eustace (M., Cure de Fresnes and
Confessor at Port- Royal), 293, 322
Fai (Innocent, servant at Port- Royal),
78
Fait et Droit, 198
Fenelon, 327
Filles Bleues (Order of Annonciades,
founded in 1604 by a Genevan lady.
Their rule was very severe ; they
wore a white robe and blue mantle,
whence their name of Blue Sisters) ,
261, 262
Five Propositions (detached phrases
presented to the Sorbonne for con
siderations 1649 by Doctor Cornet,
who did not say from what they
were taken), 184-192, 262, 270,
306
Fontaine (Nicolas, 1625-1709), 75,
85, 139, 140, 163, 242, 270, 295
note, 320

Fontpertuis (Angelique Crespin, died
in 1714), 249, 270, 307
Formulary, 192, 219, 220, 223, 225,
252, 253, 254, 256, 259, 262, 263,
3°3, 323
Francois 1 13, 15, 328
Fran9oisede, Sales (Saint,i567-i622),
4, 10, 39, 4°. 133. 134. 151. 257.
3°7. 308
Frequent Communion (The Book ofthe,
by Antoine Arnauld, 1643), 117-
124 ; effect on Port-Royal, 125-
132, 135, 136, 158, 187, 209, 239,
241, 308
Friends (outside Port- Royal), 241-
250
Fronde, the, no, 143, 161-167 ;
hero of, 191, 237, 238, 274, 332
Garasse (Francois, Jesuit priest,
1585-1631. His Somme Thto-
logique was refuted by the Abbe
de St. Cyran and condemned by
the Sorbonne), 10
Garlande (Mathilde de, founder of
Port-Royal), 22, 23
Gibbon, 20
Gomberville (Marin, le Roi de), 217
Gondrin (Henri de Pardailhan de,
Archbishop of Sens in 1646,
adversary of the Jesuits and pro
moter of the Peace of the Church,
1620-1674), in
Gondy (Jean Francois de, Archbishop
of Paris and uncle of Cardinal
Retz, 1584-1654), 46, 47, 155, 191
Gondy (Paul de) . SeeRetz, Cardinal de
Gonzague (Anne Marie de, Princess of
Mantua and Queen of Poland),
97-105, 156, 185, 209, 249, 332
Grace, Definitions of, 4, 17, 18, 19,
188, 229, 301, 306, 328
Grammont (Comtesse de, nte
Hamilton, educated at Port-Royal) ,
321
Guemen6 (Louis de Rohan, Prince
de), 91, 92, 97
Guemene (Anne de Rohan, Princesse
de, 1608-1685), 91-98, 99. H9.
120, 122, 184, 223, 252, 255, 332
Guyot (M. Thomas, one of the
masters of the Petites licoles), 136,
138, 139
Habert (Isaac, a bishop commis
sioned by Richelieu to refute
Jansenius), 187, 188
Hamon (Jean, Doctor Solitaire at
Port-Royal, 1618-1687), 87, 125,
149, 163, 164, 217, 248, 263, 264,
286, 307, 318, 336
Harlay de Chanvalon (Francois de,
Archbishop of Paris in 1670,

350

THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL

1625-1695), 291, 292. 293. 304.
307 ; death, 321
Henri iv, 3, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 26,
233
Hermant (M. Godefroy, Canon of
Beauvais), 212
Honor6 in, Bulle of Pope, 60
Hortemels, Magdeleine, 334
Huet (Bishop of Avranches), 81
Hugo (Victor), 92
Innocent x (Panfilio, Pope from
1644 to 1655. Condemned the Five
Propositions in 1653), I88, 189, 192
Jansenius (Corneille Jansen, 1585-
1638. M. Gazier asserts that he
was ultramontane and believed
in the infallibility of the Pope.
His Discours sur la Reformation
de I'homme inttrieur revealed a
doctrine quite the contrary to
that imputed to Jansenism, so-
called), 3-1 1 ; death, 80-82, 124,
*33. I34. I5I. 1%4- I87, 190, 216,
219, 220, 274, 281, 303, 312
Jehanne de la Fin (two early Abbesses
of Port-Royal), 24
Jesuits (Order founded in Rome by
Ignatius Loyola in 1538. Besides
their three vows of Obedience,
Poverty, and Chastity, they had a
fourth, that of particular obedience
to the Pope. They were intro
duced into France by Catherine de
Medecis in 1550 to combat the
Reform), 4, 5, 7, 26, 65, in, 119,
121, 122, 129, 187, 189, 192, 199,
255. 296, 329
Jonsson (Jacques), 4, 5
Joseph (Pere, 1 577-1 638. He became
a Capuchin in 1600 and the coun
sellor, friend, and devoted hench
man of Richelieu, so much so that
he was called The Grey Eminence.
He was about to be made Cardinal
when he died), 66
Journee du Guichet, 37
Juste-Lipse, 5, 6
La Bruyere (Jean de), 203
La Chaise (Pere, Confessor to
Louis xiv), 308, 322
Ladies of Grace, 248
La Fayette (Madame de), 247, 315
La Ferte Milon (birthplace of Racine),
69, 70, 71, 73, 149, 284 note
La Fontaine (Jean de), 277,278, 279,
298, 316
Lancelot (Claude, 1615-1695. One
of the masters of the Petites Ecoles ;
exiled to Quimperle and died
there), 62, 63, 64, 65, 69, 75, 78,

86, 93, 118, 134, 136, 137, 142, 143,
149, 252, 263
Laubardemont (Commissioner), 69
La Vallee (Catherine de, early
Abbess of Port-Royal), 25
Le Feure, (Master at Petites Ecoles),
139, 143
Le Maitre (Antoine, 1 608-1 658,
first Solitaire of Port-Royal), 29,
58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69,
71. 72, 73. 74. 75. 85, 87, 105, 126,
135, 149, 157, 159, 180, 185, 186,
205, 216, 217, 250 note, 260, 269
note, 277, 281, 319, 336
Le Maitre (Jean de Saint-Elme), 65
Le Maitre (Simon de Sericourt, 161 1-
1650), 60, 61, 63, 64, 69, 71, 73,
75. !35. I62
Le Maitre (Isaac de Sacy, 1613-1684),
65, 87, 118, 138, 139, 158, 159, 162,
185, 187, 190, 191, 201, 218, 240,
269 note, 270, 271, 277, 288, 292,
293, 299, 300, 314; death, 319-321
Le Maitre (Charles de Vallemont), 65
Le Maitre (Madame Isaac, nte
Catherine Arnauld), 29, 57, 60,
155. 162
Le Maitre (Isaac), 29
Le Moine (Pere Pierre), 195
Le Nain de Tillemont (historian
and pupil of Petites Ecoles, 1637-
1698), 79, 138 147, 148
Le Pailleur, 175, 176
Les Granges (farm above the
Monastery of the Champs, added
by Jehanne de la Fin), 24, 68,
71, 76, 77, 127, 143, 144, 149,
157. 159, 167, 185, 186, 292, 293,
326, 331
Le Tardif (La Mere Genevieve de
Saint Augustin, Abbess of Port-
Royal de Paris), 205
Le Tourneux (Nicolas, 1 646-1 686,
celebrated Preacher and Confessor
at Port- Royal), 293
Lettres Chrestiennes de St. Cyran,
83, 95
Liancourt (Roger du Plessis, Due de,
1598-1674), 166, 167, 193, 194.
252, 298
Liancourt (Jeanne de Schomberg,
Duchesse de), 166, 167, 252, 332
Logique de Port-Royal, 142
Longueville (Henri, Due de, 1595-
1663. His first wife was Louise de
Bourbon Soissons, his second,
Anne Genevieve de Bourbon),
236, 238
Longueville (Anne de Bourbon,
Duchesse de, 1619-1679), 233-240,
245, 247, 248, 252, 255, 269, 271,
272, 273, 274, 289, 291, 307, 330,
332, 333

INDEX

351

Louis xiii, 84, 234
Louis xiv, 122, 143, 217, 218, 219,
220, 222, 224, 248, 251, 252, 270,
283, 284, 285, 289, 290, 291, 295,
3°5. 3°6, 316, 319, 321, 322, 324,
327. 33°
Louvain (town of), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 187
Louvre (palace of), 219, 235
Luynes (Louis-Charles d'Albert, Due
de, 1620—1690, son of the Favour
ite of Louis xm, the Connetable de
Luynes. Under the name of
Laval he composed several works),
165, 166, 183, 194, 252, 297
Luynes (Louise Seguier, Duchess de),
165, 333
Luther (Martin), 21
Luzarches (Robert de, thirteenth-
century architect of Church of
Port-Royal des Champs), 24
Mabille (H., architect of Museum
at Port- Royal des Champs), 335
Maintenon (Madame de), 217, 284,
285, 286, 316, 317, 322, 326, 329,,332
Malebranche (Pere Nicolas of the
Oratory, 1636-1715), 295, 300,
301, 302, 303
Manguelen (M., Canon of Beauvais
and Doctor of the Sorbonne, at
one time Confessor at Port-Royal),
158
Mandement, First, 223, 224, 229
Mandement, Second, 229
Mandement, Third, 254
Mandement of Cardinal de Noailles,
322
Mandement from Rome, 323, 324
Marca (Pierre de, made Bishop of
Conserans_, for some time he was
refused his papers on account of
Gallicanism betrayed by one of
his books, but as he disavowed
the book he had written, he
became Archbishop of Toulouse in
1652, and was called to affairs
by Mazarin. As recompense for
his zeal in pursuing the Jansenists,
he was appointed Archbishop
of Paris, but died the day his
papers arrived, 1599-1662), 189,
192, 220, 251, 252
Marguerite d'Angouleme (sister of
Francois ier and grandmother of
Henri iv), 14, 15
Marie de Med6cis, 45, 46, 57, 100,
109, 209
Marie Therese(Queen of Louis xiv) ,2 1 7
Marion, Simon, 27, 32, 58
Marolles, Michel de, 99. 10°. to2
Mars Gallicus (Jansenius' book which
excited Richelieu against him),
80,81

Maubuisson (monastery of women,
founded by Blanche de Castille in
I24I). 3°. 31. 38, 39. 4*. 42
Maure (Anne d'Attichy, Comtesse
de), 109, 115
Mazarin (Cardinal Jules, 1602-1661.
Richelieu's successor at the court
of France, and secretly married
to Anne of Austria), 122, 131, 132,
215, 217, 219, 237, 241, 243, 246
M6re (Chevalier de, friend of Pascal),
179, 197
Mithodes de Port-Royal (these were
composed by Lancelot, and con
sisted in Greek, Latin, Spanish,
and Italian Grammars), 138
Miracles and Signs, 204-213
Miton (friend of Pascal), 179
Moliere, 203, 255, 277, 278, 279, 280,
316
Molina (a Spanish Jesuit who was
the author of a book called
Concord of Grace with Free Will),
19, 120, 121
Monmouth (Duke of, natural son
of Charles 11 of England, pupil at
Petites Ecoles), 145
Mons, The New Testament of, 269,
319
Montaigne, 62, 175, 297, 299
Montalte, (Louis de, pseudonym of
Pascal in Provincial Letters), 200,
202, 203
Montausier (the Due de, tutor of the
Dauphin), 151
Montbazon, Madame de, 91, 92,
246
Montmorenci (Due Henri de), 107,
108
Montpensier (Mile de, called the
" Grande Mademoiselle," daughter
of Gaston d'Orleans), 101, 109,
172, 215, 216
Moreau, M, 127
Motteville, Madame de, 92, 107, 235
Mutes, the Thirty, 43
Necrologe, 94, 103, 116, 143, 213,
226 note, 265 note
Nicole (Pierre, born at Chartres in
1625, died at Paris in 1695.
Bachelor of the Sorbonne, he did
not seek to become a doctor. He
composed a great many books
on controversial and moral sub
jects), 136, 137, 138, 147, 149,
184, 195, 197, 216, 229, 247, 250,
259 note, 265 note, 269, 274, 280,
281, 282, 289, 290, 300, 305, 307,
308, 313, 314
Noailles (Louis Antoine, Cardinal
de, 1651-1729. Became Arch
bishop of Paris in 1695, Cardinal

352

THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL

in 1700. Although an enemy of
the Jesuits, he nevertheless had a
great part in the destruction of
Port-Royal), 284, 306, 321, 322,
324. 325. 329
Nouet (Jacques, Jesuit, 1605-1680),
121, 122
Nuns of Port-Royal (of the Cister
cian Order to which St. Bernard
belonged, founded 1091-1153. As
even in his day, St. Bernard be
lieved in seeking the truth out
side of tradition, his motto was,
" Thou canst dispute, provided
thy faith is unshakeable." As
Daughters of St. Bernard, these
nuns were vowed to the Truth.
In his eyes, Philosophy was the
servant of Faith). Return to
Port- Royal des Champs, 152-160 ;
change of habit, 155 ; " our
ladies, our mistresses, our queens,"
156 ; dream, 218 ; and Chevalier
de Sevign6, 245, 253 ; " Pures
comme des anges, orgueilleuses
comme des demons," 255 ; com
parison with Nuns of Visitation,
257 ; Captivity, 259-265 ; " Re
lations," 261, 262, 263 ; singing,
288 note, 294, 320, 323, 324, 327,
328, 329, 334
Oratory (congregation of Priests
established in France in 161 2),
15. 303. 3°4. 3°7
Orleans (Gaston Due d', brother
of Louis xiii, 1 608-1 660), 100,
101, 129
Oxyrinque (town of Ancient Thebes
founded by the Early Christian
Solitaires), 152
Pallu (Dr. Victor, Solitaire of Port-
Royal), 126, 163
Paphlagonie, Princess de (novel by
the Grande Mademoiselle), 109
Pascal (Blaise, 1623-1662), 4, 87,
123, 137, 138, 141, 151, 171, 173,
174, 175 ; conversion, 176, 177,
178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 185,
192 ; and Provincial Letters,
196-203, 204, 207, 208 ; culmina
tion of religious life, 227-232,
231, 250, 265 note, 253, 297,
298, 299, 300, 302, 310, 312 ;
Pensees 312-315, 318, 333, 337
Pascal (Etienne, father of Blaise
and Jacqueline), 171-177
Pascal (Jacqueline, 1627-1661, called
Soeur de Sainte-Euphemie), en
thusiasm of, 171-183, 208, 225, 226,
229, 232
Passing of Port-Royal, 319-328

Pavilion (Nicolas, Bishop of Aleth,
1597-1677), 242, 270
Peace of the Church (1669, a truce
lasting ten years), 243, 246, 265,
269, 270, 271 ; medal, 272, 288,
289, 304, 313, 319, 323
Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism,
19
Pelagians, The, 16
Pelagius (a heretic of the fourth
century who denied Original Sin
and the necessity of Grace), 16
Pensees de Pascal (pubhshed 1670),
229, 232, 311, 312, 313-315, 317
Perefixe de Beaumont (Hardouin de,
1 605-1 670, Archbishop of Paris,
Member of Academy), 209 ; visits
to Port-Royal, 252-256, 257, 261,
262, 263 ; death of, 288, 291
Perpetuitt de la Foi (written by
Arnauld and Nicole. Published
in 3 parts, 1669, 1671, and 1674),
289, 309
Perier (Etienne, pupil of the Petites
Ecoles), 145, 229, 312, 313, 314
Perier (Florin), 171, 176, 206
P6rier (Madame Florin, nee Gilberte
Pascal, 1620- 1687), 171, 172, 174,
180, 227, 228, 229, 230
Perier (Marguerite, 1646-1733), 147,
T77. I79. 206, 207, 209, 225
Persecutions of Port-Royal, 221-223 ;
fortunate result of, 233, 288-294 >
last struggle against, 319-328
Petites ficoles (from 1636-1661 there
were schools at Paris, Les Granges,
Chesnai near Versailles, Saint-
Jean-des-Trous, etc.), 133-142 ;
history, masters, methods, 143-
151 ; end, results, pupils, 187,
218, 277
Petitiere, M. de la (Solitaire), 128,
161
Petrus Aurelius (nom de plume of
St. Cyran), 18, 50, 66, 123
Philosophy, Port-Royal in conflict
with, 295-302
Picote (Charles, curate of M. Olier
at St. Sulpice), 193, 194
Pirot (Georges, a Jesuit friend of
Pere Annat, and the author of
Apologie des Casuites), 214
Pomponne (Simon Arnauld, Marquis
de, eldest son of Robert d'Andilly,
twice Secretary of State), 271,
304
Pomponne (son of above), 330
Pontcarre (Madame de), 45, 46
Pontchateau (Sebastien- Joseph du
Cambout, Marquis de, nephew
of Richelieu, Solitaire and friend
of Port- Royal, 163 4-1 690), 200,
275 note, 289, 292, 293, 333-

INDEX

353

Pontis (M. de, a warrior who in his
old age came to Port- Royal through
M. d'Andilly), 161
Port-Royal des Champs, 22-25, 63,
64, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 76, 85, 96,
100, 104, 114, 126, 128, 135, 137,
139. 143. *48, 152-160 ; description
of, 153. 156. 159. 161, 162, 167,
183, 185, 195, 200, 201, 213, 215,
221, 223, 225, 231, 244, 246, 247,
253, 263, 264, 265, 273, 277, 281,
286, 291, 293, 294 note, 299,
307. 3i8, 320, 322, 323, 324, 325,
326, 329, 330, 331
Port-Royal de Paris, 44, 45, 60, 61,
64, 84, 91, 97, 100, 101, 102, 106,
no, in, 112, 114, 116, 118, 154,
164, 176, 177, 183, 185, 205, 206,
218, 221, 222, 223, 225, 245, 253,
254. 255. 257. 263, 323, 324, 325,
326, 329, 335
Port-Royal of to-day, 329-337
Potherie, Le Roi de la, 205
Pradon, 282
Predestination, 17, 20
Printers of Port-Royal (Savreux,
Petit, Desprez), 198
Propositions, The Five. See Five
Propositions
Provincial Letters (also called Les
Petites Lettres. Eighteen letters
written by Pascal in defence of
Arnauld against the Sorbonne and
the Jesuits), 123, 193-203, 206 ;
effect on Port-Royal, 214-215,
231, 250, 292, 312
Pupils of Petites ficoles divided
into three classes, 144, 222; girls,
15°
Quesnel, Pasquier (1634-1719), 121,
301, 303-306, 322, 323
Racine (Agnes de Saint Thecle,
1627-1700. Becoming a nun in
1648, she was elected Abbess of
Port- Royal in 1690 and twice
re-elected. She was Abbess at
the death of Jean Racine), 277,
280
Racine (Jean, 1639-1699. He left
two sons, J ean-Baptiste and Louis) ,
69> 75. 87. 138, 140 ; Petites Ecoles,
148-151, 162, 202, 212, 247, 256,
263, 265 ; quarrel and recon
ciliation with Port-Royal, 276-
287, 289, 308, 309, 312, 315-318,
333
Rambouillet, Hotel de, 59, 107, no,
235, 269
Rantzau (Madame de, wife of the
Marechal de. In religion known as
la Mere Marie-Elisabeth, 261, 262
23

Rebours (M. Antoine de),85, 134, 136
Rtgale, La, 290 note
Reform, 12, 13, 328
Reform of Port-Royal des Champs, 36
Relations de Port-Royal (These con
sisted of a number of recitals
of the Captivity, of journals,
letters, etc., written by the nuns
gf Port-Royal during Persecution.
They were kept in the archives
of the monastery and not pub
lished for the most part until
toward the middle of the eight
eenth century), 261
Renaissance, 12, 13, 87, 328
Retard (Cure of Magny), 143
Retz (Paul de Gondy, Cardinal de,
1613-1679. After a very dissi
pated youth, he became Arch
bishop of Corinth and Coadjutor
of his uncle the Archbishop.
During the Fronde, he tried to
supplant Mazarin. Made Cardinal
in 165 1, but imprisoned by
Mazarin at Vincennes, whence
he escaped in 1652. In 1654, by
the death of M. de Gondy, he
became Archbishop of Paris, al
though never permitted to exercise
his functions. In 1662 he ex
changed the Archbishopric of
Paris for the Abbey of St. Denis,
where, before his death, he led a
most exemplary life, and paid his
debts amounting to five million
francs), 46, 95, 155, 191, 219, 244,
251, 282 note, 298, 333
Richelieu (Armand du Plessis,
Cardinal and Due de, 1585-1642),
15, 51, 66, 67, 68, 83, 84, 88, 100,
128, 131, 132, 173, 194, 235, 236,
Riviere, M. Eragny de la (Solitaire),
76, 77, 161
Sable (Madeleine de Souvre, Mar
quise de, 1 599-1 678), 99, 1 06-1 1 6,
223, 238, 239, 240, 242 note, 243
note, 246, 247, 248, 250 note, 252,
289 note, 335
Sacred Thorn, Miracle of, 193, 205-
208, 210, 312
Saint-Ange, Madame de, 248, 249, 260
Saint Augustine (Doctor of the
Latin Church, born at Tagaste
in Africa, 354 ; died at Hippo,
Africa, in 430. He was a Manichee
in his youth, and, converted at
thirty-two.became Bishop of Hippo
m 395). 4. 5. 7. 8, 16, 17, 19, 188,
189, 190, 201, 296, 299
Saint Cyr(Benedictine Abbey founded
in seventh century), 32, 185, 284,
285, 316, 326, 329

354

THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL

Saint Cyran (Jean du Vergier de
Hauranne, 1581-1643. His works
were never condemned either at
Rome or the Sorbonne), 3-11,
41, 42, 43, 48-53, 57, 60, 61, 62,
63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 72, 74 ; death
and last days, 82-89, 94, 95, 96,
117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123,
124, 126, 128, 129, 133, 134, 135,
137, 146, 151, 156, 157, 177, 184,
193. 195. 205, 232, 248, 250, 253,
256 note, 257, 274, 306, 312
St. Etienne du Mont (church in
Paris, back of the Pantheon), 87,
317, 318
Saint-Evremond, M. de, 90, 98
Saint Jacques, Faubourg of, 69, 88,
114
Saint Jacques du Haut Pas, 86, 89,
116, 233, 270, 320
Saint-Loup, Madame de, 247
Sainte-Marthe (Claude de, 1 620-1 690,
Confessor at Port- Royal), 128, 140,
229, 230, 231, 253, 265
Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet, 15, 62
St. Sacrement, 47, 49, 63, 155, 336
St. Sulpice, 193, 329
Saint-Simon (Due de), 249
Sales, St. Francois de. See Francois
de Sales
Santeuil, 293, 294, 305
Scholastic Philosophy, 5
Scudery, Mile, de, 59, 106
Seguier (Chancellor Pierre de, called
the Protector of the French Aca
demy), 59
Sesmaisons (Pere), 119, 120
Sevigne (Renaud de, 1610-1676),
223, 244, 245
Sevign6 (Marie de Rabutin Chantal,
la Marquise de, granddaughter of
Madame de Chantal), 93, 98, 138,
243, 244, 273 note, 274, 298
Sevrans (Petites ficoles), 144
Singlin (Antoine, 1607-1644), 49, 63,
64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 77, 95, 97,
101, 118, 157, 176, 177, 183, 185,
198, 222, 232, 240, 246, 250, 253,
292
Silvy, Louis, 329, 331
Sorbonne, La, 5, 14, 117, 122, 141,
T94> !95. !98, 199, 201, 296, 322
Soissons (Charlotte de Bourbon-
Soissons, natural daughter of the
Prince of Bourbon-Soissons, and
Abbess of Maubuisson), 42

Tartuffe (Play by Moliere), 255,
274
Tillemont. See Le Nain de Tillemont
Theologie Familigre, 135
Thomas D'Aquin (Saint, 1227-1274),
17
Thomas Du Fosse. See Du Fosse
Trous (Petites Ecoles), 144, 218
Truth (the open sesame at Port-
Royal), Nuns' idea of, 118, 119,
201 ; Arnauld's idea of, 120 ;
Arnauld going to Rome to defend
it, 122 ; friends of the Truth,
192, 204, 225, 230 ; Pascal's idea,
263, 308
Unigenitus, Bull of, 306
Vaumurier (Chateau of), 165, 166,
167, 296
Vert or Vsrth (Jean de), a general
in the service of Austria and
Bavaria, he was made prisoner
by the Swedes and sent to Paris,
where Richelieu kept him four
years), 84
Vertus (Catherine de Bretagne,
1617-1692), 223, 245-247, 307, 333
Versailles, 284, 285, 331, 335
Vitart (M.), 73
Vitart (Madame), 69, 71, 73
Vitart (le Petit, Racine's cousin),
277
Vincennes, 67, 82, 83, 84, 99, 213, 234,
248
Vincent de Paul (Saint, real name
Depaul, 1574-1660), 15, 50, 63
Visitation (Religious order founded
in 1610 by St. Francis de Sales
and Madame de Chantal. Directed
by the Jesuits, this order became
the instrument of the persecutors
of Port-Royal), 238, 243, 256, 257,
259. 323
Yvette, River, 23, 43, 54, 131, 152,
286, 326, 327
Zamet (Sfebastien, 1 583-1655. Being
ashamed of the role he had played
in the imprisonment of the Abb6
de St. Cyran, it is said that he never
appeared again at the court after
Richelieu's death), 45, 46, 47, 48,
49, 51. 52. 66, 155, 186
Zilly (Othon), 4

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