Port-Royal Abbey was an abbey in Paris that was a stronghold of Jansenism. The monastery of Port-Royal was founded in 1204 by Mathilde de Garland beside the River Rhodon and remained of minor importance until the end of the fifteenth century having declined in repute. From the early sixteenth century until its decimation in 1709 it was a highly influential religious establishment.
The local Arnauld family had great influence and Antoine Arnauld, secured by deceit, his daughter Jacqueline, the post of Abbess in 1602, when she was eleven years old. After seven years of anguish, Jacqueline underwent a revelation becoming very pious. She changed her name to become known as La Mère Angélique and set about radically improving the standards of the abbey. Despite attempts to have her and her loyal nuns expelled, La Mère Angélique retained her position until her retirement in 1630. The fame of both the moral La Mère Angélique and the Port-Royal Abbey spread far in France and gained favours with supporters of Jansenism. The abbey was expanded twice over the years due to the influx of novices and nuns. The original abbey became known as Port-Royal-des-Champs. In 1661, the powerful Cardinal Mazarin died and Louis XIV seized control of the government under the influence of his Jesuit confessor, Father Annat. In the same year La Mère Angélique died as did Pascal in 1662, losing the abbey strong patrons. Port-Royal suffered persecution until it was dissolved and the buildings torn down on orders of the king. [1]
Famous people who stayed at the Port-Royal Abbey include Marie de Rohan, intriguer during the Fronde; Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, future mistress of a duke of Savoy; Marie Angélique de Fontanges, mistress of Louis XIV, died here giving birth to his child who also died.
From 1793 remains of the abbey were used as a prison under the name Prison de Port-libre or Prison de la Bourbe. Chrétien Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (lawyer for Louis XVI during his trial) and Madame de Tourzel, former governess of the "children of France", were held here.
Today its main cloister (illustration) forms part of the modern Hôpital Cochin.
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Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer.
Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that arose in an attempt to reconcile the theological concepts of free will and divine grace. Jansenists claimed to profess the true doctrine of grace as put forth by Augustine of Hippo. In 1653, Pope Innocent X promulgated the bull Cum occasione, which condemned five errors attributed to Jansenism, including the idea that Christ did not die or shed his blood for all men.
Cornelius Jansen was the Dutch Catholic bishop of Ypres in Flanders and the father of a theological movement known as Jansenism.
Port-Royal-des-Champs was an abbey of Cistercian nuns in Magny-les-Hameaux, in the Vallée de Chevreuse southwest of Paris that launched a number of culturally important institutions.
Antoine Arnauld was a French Catholic theologian, philosopher and mathematician. He was one of the leading intellectuals of the Jansenist group of Port-Royal and had a very thorough knowledge of patristics. Contemporaries called him le Grand to distinguish him from his father.
Pierre Nicole was one of the most distinguished of the French Jansenists.
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve was a French literary critic.
Anne-Geneviève de Bourbon was a French princess who is remembered for her beauty and amours, her influence during the civil wars of the Fronde, and her final conversion to Jansenism.
Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, the Abbé (Abbot) of Saint-Cyran, was a French Catholic priest who introduced Jansenism into France.
Jacqueline-Marie-Angélique Arnauld, S.O.Cist. or Arnault, called La Mère Angélique, was Abbess of the Abbey of Port-Royal, which under her abbacy became a center of Jansenism.
The Arnauld or Arnaud family Lord de la Mothe, de Bessac, de la Besse, de Villeneuve, de Ronzière et d'Artonne, then d'Andilly, de Corbeville and Marquess de Pomponne is a noble French family prominent in the 17th century, and closely associated with Jansenism, associating frequently with the Jansenist religious communities in Port-Royal de Paris and Port-Royal des Champs. While their base of operations was in Paris, the family's roots is in the Auvergne region of France.
The formulary controversy was a 17th- and 18th-century Jansenist refusal to confirm the Formula of Submission for the Jansenists on the part of a group of Catholic ecclesiastical personnel and teachers who did not accept the charge that their beliefs about the nature of man and grace were heretical as the Holy See declared. In the Kingdom of France, it pitted Jansenists against Jesuits. It gave rise to French theologian Blaise Pascal's Lettres provinciales, the condemnation of casuistry by the Holy See, and the dissolution of organised Jansenism.
Antoine Le Maistre was a French Jansenist lawyer, author and translator. His name has also been written as Lemaistre and Le Maître, and he sometimes used the pseudonym of Lamy.
Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy, a priest of Port-Royal, was a theologian and French humanist. He is best known for his translation of the Bible, the most widespread French Bible in the 18th century, also known as the Bible de Port-Royal.
Robert Arnauld d’Andilly was a French conseiller d’État, specialising in financial questions, in the court of Marie de' Medici. By the elegance of his language, he was among the major poets, writers and translators of 17th century French classicism. A fervent Catholic, he played an important role in the history of Jansenism and was one of the Solitaires of Port-Royal-des-Champs. He was also renowned for his part in the development of the pruning of fruit trees, to which he was devoted.
Mother Agnès Arnauld, S.O.Cist. (1593–1672), was the Abbess of the Abbey of Port-Royal, near Paris, and a major figure in French Jansenism.
Angélique de Saint-Jean Arnauld d'Andilly was a French Jansenist nun. Niece of Angélique Arnauld, daughter of Robert Arnauld d'Andilly, and sister of Antoine Arnauld and Simon Arnauld, Angélique de Saint-Jean Arnauld d'Andilly was from the Jansenist Arnauld family.
Maubuisson Abbey is a Cistercian nunnery at Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, in the Val-d'Oise department of France. It was founded in A.D. 1236 by Blanche of Castile, Queen of France, who may have been buried there in 1252. The site is now within the north-western suburbs of Paris. The surviving buildings are listed as a monument historique.
Marguerite Périer was a French nun and follower of Jansenism. She was the niece of Blaise Pascal, and wrote a biography of her uncle that has been preserved.
Angélique d'Estrées (1570–1634) was the abbess of Maubuisson Abbey. She was the fourth child of Antoine d'Estrées and Françoise Babou de La Bourdaisière.
