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 DUVEROIER

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DUVERGIER

(Paris, 1755) was refuted by D. Cl^mencet in " La verity et I'innocence victorievises de la calomnie ou

huit lettres sur le projet de Bourg-Fontaine " (Paris, 175S). Although Clemcncet's book was burned by order of the Parliament of Paris, still it never was answered. Guizot's remark that "the adepts of Jan- senism passed insensibly from the tenets of Saint- Cyran and Montgeron to atheism and the worship of reason" (Civilisation en Europe, Lee. xii) may apply to some of the later Jansenists, but the charge of ra- tionalism is obviously untenable when brought against the Jansenists of the first generation. Stripped of un- supported details and deductions, Filleau's narrative and Sauvage's arguments show, what is borne out by the letters of Jansenius and other documents of the time, a covert yet definite purpose, as early as 1621, to deeply modify the dogmas, moral practices, and constitution of the Church, St. Augustine being made responsible for such changes.

As noticed above, Duvergier's share was to win high influence in favour of the religious revolution. While at Poitiers he had met Richelieu, de Condren, and Arnauld d'Andilly. At Paris he sought out such men as Vincent de Paul, founder of the Congregation of the Mission; Olier, foimder of Saint-Sulpice; B(5rulle, superior of the French Oratory; Tarisse, su- perior of the Benedictines of Saint-Mam-; Bourdoise, superior of Saint-Nicolas, and many more. It cannot be denied that these men were at first attracted by Saint-Cyran's affected asceticism, but when they understood his true aim they recoiled from him. The terse expression applied in the Roman Breviary to St. Vincent de Paul, Sensit simul et exhorruit (he shud- dered on hearing), could be said of them all, with the exception of B^rulle and Arnauld d'Andilly. B(5rulle never shared the errors of Duvergier and Jansen, but, being indebted to these two for the establishment of the French Oratory in the Netherlands, he failed to detect their real purpose and gave them a hold on his order which they never released. Owing to his Gal- licanism and strong prejudices against the Jesuits, Arnauld d'Andilly fell an easy prey to Saint-Cyran's wiles and declamations, and even brought with him the whole Arnauld family, along with the Bernardine nuns of Port^Royal (q. v.). Adroitly and persist- ently .Saint-Cyran pushed his w'ay into this celebrated monastery, till, in 1636, he became its sole director. Not only were his innovations and rigorism eagerly accepted by the nuns, but Port-Royal became the centre of Jansenism, drawing a host of ecclesiastics, lawyers, WTiters, etc., all vying with one another to [ilace them.selves under the "spiritual domination" of the Abb6 de Sainf^CjTan. His incredible success and nefarious work are well described by M. S<5pet (in Rev. des quest, hist., xlv, 5.34) : " Taking advan- tage of the moral enthusiasm aroused by the religious awakening, an ardent and sombre sectarian, Saint- Cyran undertook to win souls over for the proud doctrine of absolute predestination to either salvation or damnation, also to an excessive rigorism to which the initiated easily accommodated themselves, while simple-hearted folk like Pascal risked life and reason in its practice."

Saint-Cyran was at the summit of his influence when an order of Richelieu sent him (1638) to the donjon of Vinccnncs. His incarceration has been varioasly ex- [ilaincd both by friends and enemies. Richelieu gave the true reason when he said: "Saint-Cyran is more dangerous than si.x armies. ... If Luther and Cal- vin had been arrested when they began to dogmatize, much trouble would have been spared the nations." (See Marand^, " Inconv6nients d'(5tat proc^dant du Jans^nisme", Paris, 1653.) Jansenist writers unduly insi-st on the rigour of Saint-Cyran's captivity. As a matter of fact, he was given liberty enough to receive his friends, to read the first printed copy of "Augus- tinus", to collaborate with Antoiuo Arnauld on the

"Fr^quente Communion", published in 1643, to write his "Thdologie familiere" and the voluminous "Let- tres chretiennes et spirituelles", and even to make new recruits. In 1643, after Richelieu's death, Saint- Cyran recovered his liberty and returned in triumph to Port-Royal. The triumph, however, was clouded by the announcement that the "Augustinus" had been condemned at Rome. When the author heard of the condemnation he angrily protested that " Rome was going too far and ought to be taught a lesson"; a stroke of apoplexy, however, carried him off before he could execute his threat. Pierre de Pons, parish priest of Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas, in a note quoted by Rapin (Hist, du Jans., p. .305), testified that Saint- Cyran died whUe being anointed, but had asked for neither absolution nor Viaticum, notwithstanding a certificate to the contrary, delivered by Mulsey, when importuned and bribed by the Jansenists.

Saint-Cyran was a prolific writer. His manu- scripts, seized at the time of his arrest, formed no less than thirty-two thick folios. Amid the numerous WTitings ascribed to him by the " Dictionnaire des livres Jansfcistes" (Antwerp, 1755), it is difficult to distinguish his genuine works, for he generally wrote anonymously, or under a false name, or in collabora- tion with others. Apart from two frivolous pamph- lets written by Duvergier in his youth, " Question royale" (Paris, 1609), an apology for suicide under certain circumstances, and " Apologie pour . . . de la Rocheposay" (Poitiers, 1615), a thesis intended to show that bishops have a right to use arms, his princi- pal works are: (1) "Somme des fautes . . . du P. Garasse" (Paris, 1626), with several additional pampUets in support of it ; the book itself was a vile attack on the Jesuits on occasion of a somewhat in- cautious book written by one of them, the heroic Father Garasse; (2) "Petrus Aurelius de hierarchia ecclesiastica " (Paris, 1631), written in collaboration with Duvergier's nephew, Barcos, and others. This book purports to be a defence of Richard Smith, vicar Apostolic in England, against the alleged machina- tions of the English Jesuits; in fact it aims at winning over to the Jansenist error the Catholic hierarchy whose prerogatives it exaggerates to the detriment of the Roman See. The scientific portion of it is taken from the "De republica chrLstiana" (1617) of the apostate Marc' Antonio de Dominis; the rest consists mainly of abuse of the Jesuits. By a singular incon- sistency, Saint-Cyran bases the episcopal power not so much on the Sacrament of Orders as on the interior spirit. The Evique intcrieur, remarks Sainte-Beuve, is simply the Diredcur, a name and office much cov- eted by Saint-Cyran. The clergy of France, taken by surprise, paid the expenses of the book but later ordered Sainte-Marthe's eulogy of Duvergier expunged from the "Gallia Christiana". (3) "Chapelet secret du tres Saint^Sacrement" (Paris, 1632), a series of Quietist remarks on the attributes of Christ. This booklet, having become a kind of storm-centre, was prudently repudiated by Saint-Cyi-an who neverthe- less wrote several tracts in its defence. (4 ^ " Th^o- logie familiere" (Paris, 1642), a series of theologico- devotional tracts, the Jansenists' catechism, teeming with errors on nearly every subject, condemned by the Holy Office, 23 April, 1654. (5) "Lettres chreti- ennes et spirituelles" (Paris, 1645); another series (Paris, 1744). Bossuet calls them dry and over- wrought (spirituality s!che et alambiquce). With the "Th^ologie familiere" they exhibit a fair specimen of Saint-Cyran's galimatias and obscure asceticism. Saint-Cyran's writings were collected in his " ffiuvres" (Lyons, 1679).

Besides a mass of unreliable Jansenist memoir.., e. g. by Lancelot (Utrerht. 1738), Dti Fosse (Utrecht, 1739), Ak- NAULi) d'Andilly (Utrei-ht, 17.51 \ eto., see Lettres de C. Janse- nius I'l J. Du Vcrgrr dr Iliiumnnr, p.l. Okrberon (Cologne, 1701.'); Sninl-C'yran in Diction. d,s Jani^rnistcSj eil. Migne (Paris, X847); Rawn, Uisl. du JaiDicnisme (Paris, 1865); Idem,