ARNAULD, ANTOINE, known as "the great A.," the twentieth and youngest son of the preceding, was b. at Paris, Feb. 6, 1612. Although originally intended for the bar. lie could not conceal his dislike of the legal profession, and was in consequence dedicated by his mother to the service of the church. Entering the sorbonne, he became a pupil of Lescot, the confessor of cardinal Richelieu, and afterwards bishop of Chartres. Lescot initiated him into the scholastic theology; but his attention having been drawn to the writings of Augustine, he soon conceived an admiration for that profoundest of the early Christian thinkers which he ever after retained. It was Augustine, he himself admitted, who first showed him the great difference between the two states—that of a nature whole and sound, and that of nature corrupted by sin. In 1641, the sorbonne wished to receive him into their society, on account of his extraordinary piety and talents, but cardinal Richelieu opposed this. In the following year he was ordained a priest, and in 1643 he published a work entitled De la Frequente Communion, which was received in the most favorable manner by allexcept the Jesuits, who had taken alarm at. the virtues of A., and were already attempting to defame one whom they instinctively felt to be a reproach to their order. As a consequence of this publication, he was now admitted "of the society" of the sorbonne. A. not only replied to the aspersions of the Jesuits in his avertissement, but also sent forth a work which was the prelude to a long and fierce contest with his adversaries, Theologie Morale des Jesuites (Moral Theology of the Jesuits). But the hatred of the latter was not confined to literary libels; they advised the chancellor of the sorbonne to carry the dispute to Rome, whither A. would be obliged to follow and defend himself. In this scheme. however, they were defeated.
A. now buried himself in secluSion for 21 years, during which period, however, his pen was almost continuously active. In 1644 appeared his Tradition de l'Eglise sur in Penitence (Opinion of the Church on the Doctrine of Penitence). It was a reply to the attacks which the Jesuits had made against his Frequent Communion. A. was still entangled in the disputes which arose out of this treatise, when he became involved in another controversy that colored the whole of his subsequent career, and may be said to have won for him his position in history. This was the great Jansenist controversy. In 1640 had appeared a posthumous work of Jansenius, bishop of Ypres, entitled Augus tinus; seu Doctrina Sancti Augustini de Humana Nature Sanctitate, ./Egritudine Aledicind, adrersus Pelagianos et Massilienses. It laid down with a rigor equal to that of Calvin the doctrines of predestination, the corruption of human nature, and the depravity of the will. It was specially intended as a counteractive against the lax principles and morality
of the Jesuits, many of whom, and especially their great champion, Molina, entertained extreme Pelagian views of the freedom of the human will, which they had cunningly interwoven into their "scarlet-colored" web of ethics. The work, in the meantime, was condemned by pope Urban VIII., on the 1st of Aug. 1641. A., who quickly appre hended its vital importance in the state of things, boldly ventured to defend it -against the censures of the papal bull. He published several pamphlets, closing with a first and second Apologie de Jansenius. It is to the honor of the religion of A., however, that it was not always controversial. Whenever a moment of armistice was permitted him, he occupied it in writing- such works as Meurs de P.Eglise Catholique, La Correction, La Grace, La Verite de In Religion, De in Foi, de l'Esperance, et de in Charite, and the Manuel de Saint Augustine. Ile also varied these occupations by translating into Latin his Frequent Communion, and by the composition of his Norm Objections contra l?enat, DescartLs Meditationes, and several smaller traetates. In addition to his literary labors, he undertook the direction of the nuns of Port Royal des Champs, a convent of which his sister, Marie Jaqueline Angelique Arnauld, was abbess. In this retreat he was sur rounded by many friends, thirsting like himself for the quiet pleasures of study, some of :whom have left their mark is the world, such as Pascal, Nicole, etc. Here they wrote in common numerous excellent works. A. executed parts of the Grammaire Generale Raisonnee, Elements de Geometrie, and L' Art de Penser. In 1649, the Jansenist contro versy broke out more fiercely than ever. The Augustinus of the bishop of Ypres was again attacked and condemned by the sorbonne and the pope. A. replied in his Consid erations. In 1650 appeared what he conceived to be his best work, L'Apologk pour is Saints Peres. For the next half-dozen years he was engaged in constant and painful dis putes; yet, in spite of the polemical character of his life, the impression of his piety and earnestness was deepened in the mind of the nation; and on reading some of his compo sitions, even Alexander VII. is reported to have praised the author, and to have exhorted iiim for the future to despise the libels of his adversaries. During.the strife he published La Concorde des.Erangiles and L' Office du Saint-Sacrement. In 1655-56, for prudential reasons, he left his retreat.at Port-Royal; about the same time he was expelled from the sorbonne and the faculty of theology.