HENRI ARNAULD (1597-1692), the second son, became bishop of Angers in 1649 and represented Jansenism on the episcopal Bench for as long as 43 years. The youngest son, ANTOINE, (1612 1694), was the most famous of Jansenist theologians (see below). The second daughter, ANGELIQUE (1591-1661), was abbess and reformer of Port Royal; here she was presently joined by her sister AGNES (1593-1671) and two younger sisters, both of whom died early.
Only two of Antoine's children married—ROBERT ARNAULD D'ANDILLY (1588-1674), the eldest son, and CATHERINE LEMAISTRE the eldest daughter. But both of these ended their lives under the shadow of the abbey. Andilly's five daughters all took the veil there ; the second, ANGELIQUE DE ST. JEAN ARNAULD D'ANDILLY (1624-1684) rose to be abbess, was a writer of no mean repute, and one of the most remarkable figures of the second generation of Jansenist. One of Andilly's sons became a hermit at Port Royal; the eldest, ANTOINE (1615-1699), was first a soldier, afterwards a priest. As the Abbe Arnauld, he survives as author of some interesting Memoirs of his time. The second Son, SIMON ARNAULD DE POMPONNE (1616-1699), early entered public life. After holding various embassies, he rose to be foreign secretary to Louis XIV. and was created Marquis de Pomponne. Lastly Madame Lemaistre and two of her sons became identified with Port Royal. On her husband's death she took the veil there. Her eldest son, ANTOINE LEMAISTRE (1608 1658), became the first of the solitaires, or hermits, of Port Royal. There he was joined by his younger brother, ISAAC LEMAISTRE DE SACI (1613-1684), who took holy orders and became confessor to the hermits.
The Arnaulds' connection with Port Royal (q.v.)—a convent of Cistercian nuns in the neighbourhood of Versailles—dated back to 1599, when the original Antoine secured the abbess's chair for his daughter Angelique, then a child of eight. About 1608 she started to reform her convent in the direction of its original Rule; but about 1623 she made the acquaintance of du Vergier (q.v.) and thenceforward began to move in a Jansenist direction. Her later history is entirely bound up with the fortunes of that revival. Angelique's strength lay chiefly in her character. Her sister and collaborator, Agnes, was also a graceful writer; and her Letters, edited by Prosper Feugere (1858), throw most valuable light on the inner aims and aspirations of the Jansenist movement. The first relation to join their projects of reform was their nephew, Antoine Lemaistre, who threw up brilliant prospects at the bar to settle down at the Abbey gates (1638). Here he was joined by his brother, de Saci and other hermits, who led an austere semi-monastic existence, though without taking any formal vow. In 1646 they were joined by their uncle, Arnauld d'Andilly, hitherto a personage of some importance at court and in the world ; he was a special favourite of the queen regent, Anne of Austria, and had held various offices of dignity in the government. Uncle and nephews passed their time partly in ascetic exercises—though Andilly never pretended to vie in austerity with the younger men—partly in managing the convent estates, and partly in translating religious classics. Andilly put Josephus, St. Augustine's Confessions, and many other works into singularly delicate French. Lemaistre attacked the lives of the saints; in 16J4 Saci set to work on a translation of the Bible. His labours were interrupted by the outbreak of persecution. In 1661 he was forced to go into hiding; in 1666 he was arrested, thrown into the Bastille, and kept there more than two years. Meanwhile his friends printed his translation of the New Testa ment—really in Holland, nominally at Mons in the Spanish Netherlands (1667) . Hence it is usually known as the Nouveau Testament de Mons. It found enthusiastic friends and violent detractors. Bossuet approved its orthodoxy, but not its over elaborate style; and it was destructively criticized by Richard Simon, the founder of Biblical criticism in France. On the other hand it undoubtedly did much to popularize the Bible, and was bitterly attacked by the Jesuits on that ground.
By far the most distinguished of the family, however, was Antoine—le grand Arnauld, as contemporaries called him—the 2oth and youngest child of the original Antoine. Born in 1612, he was originally intended for the bar ; but decided instead to study theology at the Sorbonne. Here he was brilliantly suc cessful and was on the high-road to preferment, when he came under the influence of du Vergier and was drawn in the direction of Jansenism. His book, De la f requente Communion (1643), did more than anything else to make the aims and ideals of this movement intelligible to the general public. Its appearance raised a violent storm, and Arnauld eventually withdrew into hiding; for more than 20 years he dared not make a public appearance in Paris. During all that time his pen was busy with innumerable Jansenist pamphlets. In 1655 two very outspoken Lettres a un duc et pair on Jesuit methods in the confessional brought on a motion to expel him from the Sorbonne. This motion was the immediate cause of Pascal's Provincial Letters. Pascal, however, failed to save his friend; in Feb. 1656 Arnauld was solemnly degraded. Twelve years later the tide of fortune turned. The so-called peace of Clement IX. put an end to perse cution. Arnauld emerged from his retirement, was most graciously received by Louis XIV., and treated almost as a popular hero. He then set to work with Nicole (q.v.) on a great work against the Calvinists : La Perpetuite de la foi catholique touchant l'eucharistie. Ten years later, however, another storm of perse cution burst. Arnauld was compelled to fly from France and take refuge in the Netherlands, finally settling down at Brussels. There the last 16 years of his life were spent in incessant con troversy with Jesuits, Calvinists, and opponents of all kinds; there he died on Aug. 8, 1694. His inexhaustible energy is best expressed by his famous reply to Nicole, who complained of feeling tired. "Tired!" echoed Arnauld, "when you have all eternity to rest in?" Nor was this energy by any means absorbed by purely theo logical questions. He was one of the first to adopt the philosophy of Descartes, though with certain orthodox reservations; and between 1683 and 1685 he had a long battle with Malebranche on the relation of theology to metaphysics. On the whole, public opinion leant to Arnauld's side. When Malebranche complained that his adversary had misunderstood him, Boileau silenced him with the question: "My dear sir, whom do you expect to under stand you, if M. Arnauld does not?" And popular regard for Arnauld's penetration was much increased by his Art de penser, commonly known as the Port-Royal Logic, which has kept its place as an elementary text-book until quite modern times.
But a purely controversial writer is seldom attractive to posterity. It is to be feared that, but for his connection with Pascal, Arnauld's name would be almost forgotten—or, at most, live only in the famous epitaph Boileau consecrated to his memory— Au pied de cet autel de structure grossiere Git sans pompe, enferme dans une vile biere Le plus savant mortel qui jamais ait ecrit.
Full details as to the lives and writings of the Arnaulds will be found in various books mentioned at the close of the article on Port Royal. The most interesting account of Angelique will be found in Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de Port Royal (Utrecht, 1742) . Three volumes of her correspondence were also published at the same time and place. There are excellent modern lives of her in English by Miss Frances Martin (Angelique Arnauld, 1873) and by A. K. H. (Angelique of Port Royal, 5905). Antoine Arnauld's complete works were published in 1775-81. No modern biography of him exists; but there is a study of his philosophy in Bouillier, Histoire de la philosophie cartesienne (1 868) ; and his mathematical achievements are discussed by Dr. Bopp in the 14th volume of Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der mathemati Wissenschaften (Leipzig, 1902.) The memoirs of Arnauld d'Andilly and of his son, the abbe Arnauld, are reprinted both in Petitot's and Poujoulat's collections of memoirs illustrative of the 17th century.