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« Arnaud, Henri Arnauld Arndt, Augustin »

Arnauld

ARNAULD: The name of a famous French family, known especially for their connection with Jansenism The well-known lawyer Antoine Arnauld (1560-1619) foreshadowed the position of his children by defending the University of Paris against the Jesuits in 1594. Of his twenty children, ten died young; and nine of the others devoted themselves to religion. The most noteworthy are: The eldest, Robert Arnauld (d’Andilly; b. in Paris 1588; d. there Sept. 27, 1674), who held various positions in the government and at the court, but retired in 1640 to Port Royal and devoted himself to church history. He is best known by his translations into French, especially of Josephus and St. Augustine’s “Confessions,” and the Vies des saints pères du désert (2 vols., Paris, 1647-53; Eng. transl., 2 vols., London, 1757)—Jacqueline Marie Arnauld (known in religion as Marie Angélique de Ste. Madeleine; b. in Paris Sept. 8, 1591; d. Aug. 6, 1661) entered the abbey of Port Royal when only seven, and became abbess at eleven. Aroused to fervent devotion in 1609, she began a strict reformation of her abbey according to the Cistercian rule. She resigned the position of abbess in 1630 and introduced the custom of triennial elections. From 1626 to 1648 she was in Paris, at the new house known as Port-Royal de Paris.—Henri Arnauld (b. in Paris 1597; d. at Angers June 8, 1692) was at first a lawyer, but entered the priesthood, was elected bishop of Toul but declined the election since it had occasioned disputes, and became bishop of Angers in 1649. He was an earnest and zealous diocesan, and a decided Jansenist; he was one of the four bishops who refused to subscribe the bull Unigenitus, which condemned the Augustinus of Jansen. His Négociations à la cour de Rome et en différentes cours d’Italie was published after his death (5 vols., Paris, 1748).—Antoine Arnauld (b. in Paris Feb. 6, 1612; d. in Brussels Aug. 8, 1694), known as “the great Arnauld,” like his brother Henri, studied law at first, but entered the Sorbonne in 1634, taking his doctor’s degree and being ordained priest in 1641. In 1643 he published his work De la fréquente communion, written under St. Cyran’s influence (see Du Vergier de Hauranne, Jean), with which he began a lifelong struggle against the Jesuits. Its cold and rigid severity was opposed to their system, and they attacked it bitterly. Arnauld carried the war into the enemy’s country with his Théologie morale des Jésuites (n.p., 1643), and, though for thirty years from 1648 he lived in retirement at Port Royal, his pen was never idle. He defended the cause of Jansen, maintaining in his two famous letters to the Duc de Liancourt (1655) that the five condemned propositions were not found in the Augustinus. The Sorbonne condemned these write, and in 1656 expelled him, with sixty other doctors who refused to submit to the decision, from its fellowship. He was obliged to go into hiding for a time, and, with Nicole, was sheltered by the Duchess de Longueville. But he was still, as he had been since the death of Saint Cyran (1643), the active head of the Jansenist party, working diligently to confirm the nuns of Port Royal in their opposition to the papal decrees, supplying Pascal with the material for his “Provincial Letters,” and publishing numerous pamphlets and treatises against the Jesuits. When the “Peace of Clement IX.” put a temporary end to the strife, Arnauld was able to turn his 299weapons against the Protestants, notably in the controversy with Claude on the Lord’s Supper, which produced his Perpétuité de la foi de l’église catholique touchant l’Eucharistie (Paris, 1664). He still, however, continued to attack the Jesuits, and his defense of the “Gallican liberties” against the king in the controversy over the Droit de régale (see Regale) brought him into such disfavor with the government that in 1679 he again went into hiding and soon after left France for Brussels, where the Spanish governor protected him. Here he wrote two works of special interest to English-speaking people, the Apologie pour les catholiques (2 vols., Liége, 1681-82), a defense of the English Roman Catholics against the charge of conspiracy, especially as brought by Titus Oates, and an attack on William of Orange (1689). Of more general interest is his controversy with Malebranche, which produced the Traité des vraies et des fausses idées (Cologne, 1683) and Réflexions philosophiques et théologiques sur Ie nouveau système de la nature et de la grâce du Père Malebranche (3 vols., 1685-86). During this period he collaborated with Quesnel in his translation of the New Testament, as he had previously with Nicole and other members of the Port Royal group in their educational works, especially the often-reprinted “Logic.” He was a man of wide learning, acute penetration, eloquent style, and untiring diligence, but unbendingly obstinate and set in his own ideas, so that at Port Royal it was a rule never to contradict him, lest he should be unduly excited. His works were published at Lausanne (48 vols., 1775-83).— Angélique (de Saint Jean) Arnauld, daughter of Robert (b. in Paris Nov. 24,1624; d. Jan. 29,1684), entered the abbey of Port Royal in her nineteenth year under her aunt’s training; became subprioress in 1653 and abbess in 1678. Her firmness of character, and undaunted courage made her the principal support of the nuns during the long and grievous persecution brought upon them by their adherence to Jansenist opinions. Of several works which she wrote, the most important is the Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Port Royal (3 vols., Utrecht, 1742).—For all the members of the Arnauld family see Jansen, Cornelius, Jansenism; Port Royal.

« Arnaud, Henri Arnauld Arndt, Augustin »
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