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.