Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/366

 A R N A U D. vinity found tvtfo proportions which they condemned, and, Mr. Arnaud was excluded from that fociety [D]. Upon this he retired ; and it was during this retreat, which Jailed near five-and-twenty years, that he compofed that variety of works which are extant of his, on grammar, geometry, logic, metaphyfics, and theology. He continued in this re- tired life till the controverfy of the Janfenifts was ended, in 1668. ^Arnaud," fays Mr. Voltaire, "now came forth " from his retreat, and was prefented to the king, kindly re- " ceived by the pope's nuncio, and by the public efteemed a " father of the church. From this time he refolved to enter " the lifts only againft: the Calvinifis ; for fuch was his " ttmper, that he muft neceiTarily carry on war againft fome " his book intituled *' La perpetuite de la foi," in which he Age of Le." controverfy, in which each party, according to cuftom, wisXiv. believed itfelf victorious." In 1679, Mr. Arnaud withdrew from France, being in- formed that his enemies did him ill offices at court, and had rendered him fufpedted to the king. From this time he lived in obfcurity in the Netherlands, ftill continuing to write againft the Jefuits with great acrimony. He wrote alfo fe- veral pieces againft the Proteftants, but he was checked in his attacks upon them by an anonymous piece, intituled *' L'tfpirit ' de M. Arnaud :" in this the author treats Arnaud with the utmoft fcurrility, and loads him with fuch fcandalous afper- fions, that Arnaud thought it more advifeable to be filenr, and to let this author and his party alone, than to enter the duke offered himfelf for confeflion to a fays Mr. Voltaire, < and chancellor prieft of St. Sulpke, wh" refufe > to give " Seguier having taken his place as the him abfolution, unl> Is he would take " k'ng's reprefentative, Arnaud was his daughter from Purt Royal, and " condemned, and expelled the college break oft" all commerce with that fociety, " of Sorbonne. The prefence of the and difcard the bbe. 1 his affair hav- " chancellor amongft the divines car- ing made a great noife, Mr. Arnaud " ried fuch an air of defpotic power, was pre^i!ed I'pun to write a letier in " that it greatl) difpleafed the public ; defence of Liancour. A great number " and the care taken to (ill the hall of pamphlets eit written againft this " with mcnkifli mendicant doctors, letter, whereupon Mr. Arnaud thought " who had never before appeared there himfeif obliged to confute the falfities " in fuch numbers, mide Paf.al fay, in and calumnies with which 'hey were " his Provincials, ' Qu'il etoit plus fluffed, by printing a lecc::d letier, <k aife de trouver des moines que de nhich contjins an anfwer to nine of " raifons :' That it was much eafier to jhr.fe piece?. Queft. c-jiioax, p. 58. " find monks tl'an argumenis." Age "The tacalty was iCembied," cf Lew's XiV. chap, xxxiii. lifts
 * party or other. In this time or tranquillity he published
 * was aflifted by M. Nicole: this gave rife to that grand
 * ' controverfy between them and Claude the minifter ; a