Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/821

Rh ARNAULD

745

ARNAULD

M^re Ang(''liqiio became more than ever attached to her director, in whom she saw one persecuted for justice' sake. At his death (1G43) slie found herself without a guide, but her perversion wius complete. She retired into an atmospnere of complete and ob- durate impassibility, with no thought but t^) bring about the triumph of the principles held by him whom she had honoured as :i lioctor and venerated almo.st as a martyr. 1 )urinf; the following years, also, and at the time of the Hull i.ssued by Innocent X. she encouraged by word and by letters the upholders of Jansenism. She coniparcd herself to St. Paula [X?r- secuted by the IVlaf^iaiis. Far from confining her- self within the limits of her monastery, she threw herself boldly into the struggle. She [jropugated lier favourite ideas; she continually wrote letters encour- aging some and condemning others, among the latter including even St. Vincent de Paul. Stronger than all the rest in the loftiness of her intelligence and the firmness of her character. Mere Ang^lique was a leader of the party, and a leader who would die sooner than surrender. As a matter of fact, she did expire (G August, Ititil) filled with solicitude for her religious caused by the signing of the Formulary, and her own fear of a "terrible eternity". She left various writings and a collection of letters to be found in the "M<5moires pour servir k I'histoire de Port-Royal" (Utrecht, 174J-41). Her sister Ag- nds survived her ten years. We owe to her a work entitled "Image de la religieuse parfaito et impar- faite" (IGOS). She resisted and suffered nuich at the time of the Formulary. It was of M^re Agni^s and her religious that De P6r6fixe, Archbishop of Paris said: "The-se sisters are as pure as angels, but as proud as devils".

III. RoBEUT Arnaui.d d'Andilly, b. 15S9, d. 27 September, 1G74, was the eldest of Antoine Arnauld's twenty children. On the death of his father in IG19, he became, according to custom, head of his family. With him obstinacy and pride were hereditary faults; to these were added excessive \ehemence and ab- ruptness of temper. It is related that on the "day of the grating" lie flew into a passion with his sister Ang^liciue, even to the point of tlircatening her and calling her a "monster of ingratitude and a parri- cide", because she refused to allow her father to enter the cloister of the monastery. At an early period (1G21) he became a friend of Saint-Cyran.and participated in all his errors. It was not his fault that the Abbess of Port -Royal did not give her con- fidence sooner to the famous .\bb6. Like the rest of the family, he hated the Jesuits as personal enemies, because they were the champions of orthodoxy. He affected to combine with a regular attendance at court a very ardent piety. He was in great honour at court and his son Pomponne became Minister of State. He was looked on with fa\our by the (Jueen Regent, Anne of Austria, and had [wwerful friends. The Jansenist party took advantage of this to ob- tain the relea.se of Saint-Cyran from the pri.son of Vincennes, where he had been confitied l)y Kichclicu. D'Andilly tried to gain over the Duchesse d'AiguiUon, niece of the Cardinal. She went to Rueil to sec her uncle, but the minister cut short her prayers by showing her the real state of alTairs. It was D'An- dilly who persuaded Anno de Rohan, Princc.s.se do Ou6m6n^e, one of his worldly friends, to enter Port- Royal, for to her he played the role of lay director. On becoming a widower, he left the court and retired to Port-Koyal des Champs, having Ijeen preceded by one of his sons, Arnauld de Luzancy (164(')). He found three nephews already there: Antoine Le Maitre, Le Maitre de Sacv, and de S^ricourt. For thirty years he lived in tliis retreat, occupied with literary and manual labour. He cho.se to cultivate trees, and sent to the queen monstrous fruits which Mazarin laughingly called "blessed fruits". During

the same period he translated the Jewish historian Jo.sephus, the works of St. Theresa, and tlic lives of the Desert Fathers. He also applied himself to poe- try, and according to Sainte-Heuve his spiritual can- ticles are unsur[);i.ssed even by the works of tiodeau, or even of Corneille, certaiidy of the Corneille of the "Imitation". D'.Xndilly's letters and other prose works (ho published a collection of three hundred letters in 1G4,5) are considered in the same class as those of Voiture and even of Halzac. With regard to the Formulary, he use<l his influence to avert, or at least mitigate, tlie persecutions of the religious of Port-Royal. When, in 1G.5G, the order came for the dispersal of the Petites Kcoles, i. e. the twenty or thirty children whom the solitaries were rearing in the pure doctrines of their sect, and the loneliness of the solitaries themselves, Arnauld d'Andilly wrote innumerable letters to Anne of Austria and Mazarin, letters of submi.ssion, of commendation, of thanks. He gave his word that the orders would be obeyed; he temporized, and obtained respites, and although he was a factious spirit, he caused, on the whole, but little apprehension, and was allowed to write, to plot, and even to dogm:itize at his case. All these thmgs, dangerous in themselves, in his hands took on a sort of worldly grace, as being light and destitute of mal- ice. Moreover, who would have dared to disturb him whom the queen had asked "if he always loved her". He died at the age of eighty-five, preserving to the end his bodily and mental vigour. He reared three sons and four daughters. We have from his pen, in addition to the works mentioned, translations of the "Confessions of St. Augustine", the "Scala paradisi" of St. John Climacus, the " De contem|)tu mundi" of St. Kuchcrius, and the memoirs of his life. The hist work reveals in the author a family vanity which amounts to boast fulness.

IV. Henri AniV.\tn,n, brother of the preceding, b. in Paris, l,'j97; d. 1G91.'. He was first destined for the Bar, but was taken to Rome by Cardinal Hcntivoglio, and during this ab.sence, which lasted five years, the court granted him (IG'JI) the .\bbcy of Saint- Nicholas, in 10.'!7 the Chapter of Toul offereil him the bishopric of that city, and the king, at the recom- mendation of Father Joseph, confirmed the choice. He was obliged to wait three years for his Bulls, which were dehiyed by the difficulties between the court and the Holy See. .\t the time of the quarrel between Innocent \ and the Harberini, Henri Ar- nauld was sent to Rome as cliarg(^ d'affaires of France. He acquitted himself of this mission with much adroitne.-is. The pope could not deny him the re- turn of the cardinals, who were reinstated in their pos.se.ssions and tlignities. He returned from this mission with the reputation of being one of the most politic prelates in the kingdom. Being offered the Bishopric of Pt'jrigueux (1G.'>0), he refu.sed, but ac- cepted that of Angers in which was situated his .Vb- bcy of Saint-Nicholas. During his episcopate of forty- two years, he showed less Christian prudence than extraordinary ability in the service of the Jansen- ists and of his family. Having once entered on this path, he conccntrateil all his energies to keep from yielding, and thus to save his own honour and that of his brother Antoine. This involved him ai many difficulties, caused many di.s.sensions in his diocese, and resulted in the cloud which still clings to his name. His entrance into the quarrel amused by Jansenism was most exciting. When Louis XIV onlered the bishops to sign the Formularj' drawn up by the /\s.sembly of the Clergj' in 1G61. the Bishop of Angers wrote a letter to the king .sustaining the fa^ mous distinction of Nicole between "fact" and "law". The king having shown marked displeas- ure, the bishop wrote to the pope a letter of the same import, but Alexander VI 1 m.ade no repiv. The obstmate prelate then wrote to lYrr^fixe, Arch-