PORT ROYAL, a celebrated Cistercian abbey, occupied a low and marshy site in the thickly wooded valley of the Yvette, at what is now known as Les Hameaux near Marly, a few miles south-west of Paris. It was founded in 1204 by Mahaut de Garlande, wife of Mathieu de Montmorenci-Marli in 5204; the church was built in 1229. During the three succeeding cen turies its discipline became relaxed; reform was only attempted when Angelique Arnauld (q.v.) was appointed coadjutor to the abbess in 1598. Angelique's reforming energy soon brought her into contact with Jean Duvergier (q.v.) abbot of Saint Cyran, and chief apostle in France of the Jansenist revival.
In 1626 ague drove the nuns to Paris; they settled at Port Royal de Paris, at the end of the Faubourg Saint Jacques. The deserted buildings of Port Royal des Champs were presently occu pied by "hermits," laymen, mostly relatives of the abbess, who wished for a semi-monastic existence, though without taking formal vows. In 1648, however, some of the nuns returned, and the hermits retreated a short distance from the abbey. Here they set up a "little school" for the sons of Jansenist parents; and here Racine, received his education. But in 1653 Innocent X. condemned Jansenism and in 1656 "the hermitage" and school were broken up, and the nuns forbidden to receive new members.
In 1660 Louis XIV. condemned the order and, between 1664 and 1669, the archbishop of Paris laid under an interdict those nuns who refused to subscribe to the papal censure on Jansen. In 1669, however, came the so-called "Peace of Clement IX.," when the Jansenists generally were admitted to grace, and the in terdict was removed from Port Royal, though the authorities broke up the convent into two distinct communities. The con
formist nuns were gathered together at Port Royal de Paris, under an independent abbess, their Jansenist sisters at the orig inal building in the country. Thereupon followed ten years of peace, through the protection of the king's cousin, Mme. de Longueville. But in 5679 she died, and Louis at once ordered the nuns to send away their novices and boarders and to receive no others. Finally, in 1705, he got from Clement XI. a new condemnation of the Jansenists, which the few remaining nuns, all of whom were over sixty, refused to sign; and on the 29th of October 1709 they were forcibly removed from Port Royal by the police, and distributed among various conformist convents. In the next year the buildings were pulled down. The land on which the convent had stood was made over to Mme. de Maintenon's college of St. Cyr; in 1825 it was bought by some descendants of Jansenist families, who have done their best to restore the grounds to their original appearance, and have built a museum rich in Jansenist relics. Port Royal de Paris was secularized at the French Revolution, and is now a maternity hospital.
For a classified list of the chief books, ancient and modern, dealing with Port Royal, see the Abrige de l'histoire de Port Royal, by Jean Racine, ed. E. Gazier (Paris, 1908). See also C. A. Sainte-Beuve, Port Royal (6 vols. and index, Paris, 1882) ; Charles Beard, Port Royal (2 vols., London, 1861) ; H. Reuchlin, Geschichte von Port Royal (2 vols., Hamburg, and the books recommended under the articles ARNAULD, JANSENISM and PASCAL.