Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/754

 734: PORT ROYAL PORTSMOUTH came its declared opponent. The war between Port Royal and the society of Jesus raged with- out intermission from that time. After the death of Richelieu (1642) Duvergier regained his liberty, but soon died (1643), prophesying that for the contest against the Jesuits he would leave 20 disciples stronger than himself. In the same year Dr. Antoine Arnauld, by his treatise De la frequente communion, charging the Jes- uits with admitting people of the world with- out due preparation to the Lord's supper, first formally impeached the moral teaching of the society. Its members in France were sup- ported by the government, as well as by the majority in the Sorbonne, while Port Royal was supported by the parliament and not a few illustrious personages, among whom was the duchess de Longueville, who established her- self in the vicinity of the convent. The re- cluses remained the leaders and the centre of the opposition to the papal efforts for the sup- pression of Jansenism, and the nuns persistent- ly refused to subscribe to the condemnatory decrees, except once, in 1668, when their friends had secured a kind of compromise. Singu- larly enough, it was the bold defence of the rights of the popes on the part of two Jan- senist bishops against the despotic caprices of Louis XIV. which led to the scattering of the community, the heads of whom, Arnauld and Nicole, had to flee from France. In 1664 the nuns of Port Royal de Paris were dispersed by the military, some of them being confined in various convents of the capital, and the others taken under escort to Port Royal des Champs, and kept prisoners there till 1669. Through- out all this period of trial the inhabitants of the surrounding country remained devotedly attached to their benefactors. In 1669 the two convents were made independent of each other, the king reserving to himself the right of nominating the abbess of the Parisian house, which numbered only ten nuns and received one third of the common property. Port Royal des Champs, with 80 nuns, retained the other two thirds with the faculty of elect- ing its superior. The former community, com- posed only of such as had subscribed the for- mulas condemnatory of Jansenism, were al- lowed to recruit their numbers as before, and became the decided opponents of their sisters at Chevreuse. These were forbidden to re- ceive novices, and Port Royal des Champs was suppressed by a bull of Pope Clement XI. in 1708, its property was transferred to the sister- hood of Paris, the inmates were dispersed in various convents, and the buildings were lev- elled to the ground (1709). But the teaching of Port Royal had obtained too many adher- ents among the governing classes in church and state to be extinguished by decrees or over- thrown by the hand of the leveller. It lived on in France, Holland, Germany, in the north of Italy and the kingdom of Naples, in Spain, and particularly in Portugal, till, in connection with the Old Catholic movement, the disciples of Jansenius and Duvergier de Hauranne have again become conspicuous since 1870. In 1711 the bodies of Le Maistre, Arnauld, Pascal, and Racine, which reposed in the monastery church, were exhumed and transported to Paris. The Parisian community was suppressed in 1790 ; the establishment received then the name of Port Libre, was converted into a hospital in 1795, and in 1814 became the lying-in asylum of La Maternite. Among the illustrious pupils of the school of Port Royal were the poet Racine, the brothers Bignon, and Achille de Harlay. Boileau, though not a pupil, was one of its firmest supporters. The best histories of this establishment are : Fontaine, Memoires pour servir d Vhistoire de Port-Royal (2 vols., Cologne, 1736) ; Racine, Histoire abregee de Port-Royal (Paris, 1742) ; Besoigne, Histoire de Port- Royal (6 vols., 1752) ; Dom Clement, Histoire de Port-Royal (10 vols., 1755-'7); Gregoire, Les mines de Port-Royal (1801) ; Reuchlin, Geschichte von Port-Royal (2 vols., Hamburg, 1839-'44) ; Sainte-Beuve, Port-Roy- al (5 vols., Paris, 1840-'60; 3d ed., 6 vols., 1867); and Beard, "Port Royal, a Contribu- tion to the History of Religion and Literature in France" (2 vols., London, 1861). PORT SAID, a town of Egypt, at the junc- tion of the Suez canal with the Mediterranean ; pop. in 1871, 8,859, about half Europeans. The principal street is called La Cannebiere, and the main square the place Lesseps. It contains a Catholic and a Greek church, sev- eral schools, and a hospital. Originally an insignificant village, it has grown up since the beginning of the Suez canal in 1859. The population was at one time 14,000, but has declined since its completion in 1869. Two large jetties protect the outer harbor, which is connected by a canal with the inner harbor on Lake Menzaleh; the latter contains vast dockyards. About 1,000 ships, chiefly steam- ers, enter the port annually. PORTSMOUTH, a city, port of entry, and one of the capitals of Rockingham co., New- Hampshire, the only seaport in the state, situ- ated on the S. side of the Piscataqua river, 3 m. from the sea and 54 m. N. by E. of Bos- ton ; lat. 43 5' N., Ion. 70 46' W. ; pop. in 1850, 9,738; in I860, 9,335; in 1870, 9,211. It stands on a beautiful peninsula, formed by the Piscataqua. Its quietness and quaintness, and the pleasant drives and fine beaches in the vicinity, render it a favorite summer resort. It is supplied with water from a distance of 3 m. by works constructed by a company formed in 1799, and has a good fire dep* ment. It has railroad communication wit Boston, Portland, and the principal points the state, by means of the Eastern, the Poi mouth, Great Falls, and Conway, the Poi mouth and Dover, and the Concord and Por mouth lines. The harbor can accommodi 2,000 vessels, is particularly safe, and has suffi- cient depth at low water for the largest class ships. It is much frequented as a port of ref-