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ARNAULD

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 627 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARNAULD , the surname of a See also:

family of prominent See also:French lawyers, chiefly remembered in connexion with the Jansenist troubles of the 17th See also:century. At their See also:head was See also:ANTOINE ARNAULD (1560—1619), a See also:leader of the See also:Paris See also:bar; in this capacity he delivered a famous philippic against the See also:Jesuits in 1594, accusing them of See also:gross disloyalty to the newly converted See also:Henry IV. This speech was afterwards known as the See also:original See also:sin of the Arnaulds. Of his twenty See also:children several See also:grew up to fight the Jesuits on more important matters. Five gave themselves up wholly to the See also:church. See also:HENRI ARNAULD (1597-1692), the second son, became See also:bishop of See also:Angers in 1649, and represented See also:Jansenism on the episcopal See also:Bench for as See also:long as See also:forty-three years. The youngest son, ANTOINE (1612-1694), was the most famous of Jansenist theologians (see below). The second daughter, ANGELIQUE (1591—1661), was See also:abbess and reformer of See also:Port Royal; here she was presently joined by her See also:sister See also:AGNES (1593-1671) and two younger sisters, both of whom died See also:early. Only two of Antoine's children married—ROBERT ARNAULD D'ANDILLY (1588-1674), the eldest son,, and See also:CATHERINE LEMAISTRE (1590—1651), the eldest daughter. But both of these ended their lives under the See also:shadow of the See also:abbey. Andilly's five daughters all took the See also:veil there; the second, ANGELIQUE DE ST See also:JEAN ARNAULD D'ANDILLY (1624—1684) See also:rOSe tO be abbess, was a writer of no mean repute, and one of the most remarkable figures of the second See also:generation of Jansenism. One of Andilly's sons became a See also:hermit at Port Royal; the eldest, ANTOINE (161 1699), was first a soldier, afterwards a See also:priest.

As the See also:

Abbe Arnauld, he survives as author of some interesting See also:Memoirs of his See also:time. The second son, See also:SIMON ARNAULD DE POMPONNE(1616-1699), early entered public See also:life. After holding various embassies, he rose to be See also:foreign secretary to See also:Louis' XIV., and was created See also:marquis de Pomponne. Lastly Madame Lemaistre and two of her sons became identified with Port Royal. On her See also:husband's See also:death she took the veil there. Her eldest son, ANTOINE LEMAISTRE (1608-1658), became the first of the solitaires, or hermits of Port Royal. There he was joined by his younger See also:brother, See also:ISAAC LEMAISTRE DE SACI (1613-1684), who presently took See also:holy orders, and became See also:confessor to the hermits. The Arnaulds' connexion with Port Royal (q.v.)—a See also:convent of Cistercian nuns in the neighbourhood of Versailles—dated back to 1599, when the original Antoine secured the abbess's See also:chair for his daughter Angelique, then a See also:child of eight. About 1608 she started to reform her convent in the direction of its original See also:Rule; but about 1623 she made the acquaintance of du Vergier (q.v.) and thenceforward began to move in a Jansenist direction. Her later See also:history is entirely See also:bound up with the fortunes of that revival. Angelique's strength See also:lay chiefly in her See also:character. Her sister and collaborator, Agnes, was also a graceful writer; and her Letters, edited by Prosper Feugere (2, vols., Paris, 1858), throw most valuable See also:light on the inner aims and aspirations of the Jansenist See also:movement.

The first relative to join their projects of reform was their See also:

nephew, Antoine Lemaistre, who threw up brilliant prospects at the bar to See also:settle down at the Abbey See also:gates (1638). Here he was presently joined by his brother, de Saci, and other hermits, who led an austere semi-monastic existence, though without taking any formal See also:vow. In 1646 they were joined by their See also:uncle, Arnauld d'Andilly, 'hitherto a personage of some importance at See also:court and in the See also:world; he was a See also:special favourite of the See also:queen See also:regent, See also:Anne of See also:Austria, and had held various offices of dignity in the See also:government. Uncle and nephews passed their time partly in ascetic exercises—though Andilly never pretended to See also:vie in austerity with the younger men—partly in managing the convent estates, and partly in translating religious See also:classics. Andilly put See also:Josephus, St See also:Augustine's Confessions, and many other See also:works, into singularly delicate French. Lemaistre attacked the lives of the See also:saints; in 1654 Saci set to See also:work on a See also:translation of the See also:Bible. ' His labours were interrupted by the outbreak of persecution. In 1661 he was forced to go into hiding; in 1666 he was arrested, thrown into the See also:Bastille, and kept there more than two years. Meanwhile his See also:friends printed his translation of the New Testament—really in See also:Holland, nominally at See also:Mons in the See also:Spanish See also:Netherlands (1667). Hence it is usually known as, the Nouveau Testament de Mons. It found enthusiastic friends and violent detractors. Bossue.t approved its orthodoxy, but not its over-elaborate See also:style; and it was destructively criticized by See also:Richard Simon, the founder of Biblical See also:criticism in See also:France.

On the other See also:

hand it undoubtedly did much to' popularize the Bible, and was bitterly attacked by the Jesuits on that ground. By far the most distinguished of the family, however, was Antoine—le See also:grand Arnauld, as contemporaries called him—the twentieth and youngest child of the original Le and Antoine. See also:Born in 1612, he was originally intended An rind. for the bar; but decided instead to study See also:theology at the See also:Sorbonne. Here he was brilliantly successful, and was on the high-road to preferment, when he came under the See also:influence of du Vergier, and was See also:drawn in the direction of Jansenism. His See also:book, De to frequente Communion (1643), did more than anything else to make the aims and ideals of this movement intelligible to the See also:general public. Its See also:appearance raised a violent See also:storm, and Arnauld eventually withdrew into hiding; for more than twenty years he dared not make a public appearance in Paris. During all this time his See also:pen was busy with innumerable Jansenist See also:pamphlets. In 1655 two very outspoken Lettres d un duc et ' pair on Jesuit methods in the See also:confessional brought on a See also:motion to expel him from the Sorbonne. This motion was the immediate cause of See also:Pascal's Provincial Letters. Pascal, however, failed to See also:save his friend; in See also:February 1656 Arnauld was solemnly degraded. Twelve years later the See also:tide of See also:fortune turned. The so-called See also:peace of See also:Clement IX. put an end to persecution.

Arnauld emerged from his retirement, was most graciously received by Louis XIV., and treated almost as a popular See also:

hero. He now set to work with See also:Nicole (q.v.) on a See also:great work against the Calvinists: La Per petuite de la foi calholiquc touchant l'eucharislie. Ten years later, however, another storm of persecution burst. Arnauld was compelled to See also:fly from France, and take See also:refuge in the Netherlands, finally settling down at See also:Brussels. Here the last sixteen years of his life were spent in incessant controversy with Jesuits, Calvinists and misbelievers of all kinds; here he died on the 8th of See also:August 1694. His in-exhaustible See also:energy is best expressed by his famous reply to Nicole, who complained of feeling tired. " Tired!" echoed Arnauld, " when you have all eternity to See also:rest in?" Nor was this energy by any means absorbed by purely theological questions. He was one of the first to adopt the See also:philosophy of See also:Descartes, though with certain orthodox reservations; and between 1683 and 1685 he had a long See also:battle with See also:Malebranche on the relation of theology to See also:metaphysics. On the whole, public See also:opinion leant to Arnauld's See also:side. When Malebranche complained that his adversary had misunderstood him, Boileau silenced him with the question: " My dear See also:sir, whom do you expect to understand you, if M. Arnauld does not?" And popular regard for Arnauld's penetration was much increased by his See also:Art de pe;aser, commonly known as the Port-Royal See also:Logic, which has kept its See also:place as an elementary See also:text-book until quite See also:modern times. Lastly a considerable place has quite lately been claimed for Arnauld among the mathematicians of his See also:age; a See also:recent critic even describes him as the See also:Euclid of the 17th century.

In general, however, since his death his reputation has been steadily on the wane. Contemporaries admired him chiefly as a See also:

master of See also:close and serried reasoning; herein See also:Bossuet, the greatest theologian of the age, was quite at one with d'See also:Aguesseau, the greatest lawyer. But a purely controversial writer is seldom attractive to posterity. Anxiety to drive See also:home every possible point, and cut his adversary off from every possible See also:line of See also:retreat, makes him seem intolerably prolix. " In spite of myself," Arnauld once said regretfully, " my books are seldom very See also:short." And even lucidity may prove a snare to those who See also:trust to it alone, and scornfully refuse to See also:appeal to the See also:imagination or the feelings. It is to be feared that, but for his connexion with Pascal, Arnauld's name would he almost forgotten—or, at most, live only in the famous See also:epitaph Boileau consecrated to his memory " Au pied de See also:ret autel de structure grossiere Git sans pompe, enfcrme dans une vile biere Le plus savant mortel qui jamais ait eerie." Full details as to the lives and writings of the Arnaulds will be found in the various books mentioned at the close of the See also:article on Port Royal. The most interesting See also:account of Angelique will be found in Memoires pour servir 3 t'histoire de Port-Royal (3 vols., See also:Utrecht. 1742). Three volumes of her See also:correspondence were also published at the same time and place. There are excellent modern lives of her in See also:English by See also:Miss Frances See also:Martin (Angelique Arnauld, 1873) and by A. K. H.

(A ngelique of Port Royal, 1905). Antoine Arnauld's See also:

complete works—thirty-seven volumes in forty-two parts—were published in Paris, 1775-1781. No modern See also:biography of him exists; but there is a study of his philosophy in Bouillier, Histoire de la 4hilosophie cartesienne (Paris, 1868) ; and his mathematical achievements are discussed by Dr See also:Bopp in the 14th See also:volume of the Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften (See also:Leipzig, 1902). The memoirs of Arnauld d'Andilly and of his son, the abbe Arnauld, are reprinted both in See also:Petitot's and Poujoulat's collections of memoirs illustrative of the 17th century. (ST.

End of Article: ARNAULD

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