especially was injurious both to church and state. They made penitence to consist principally in voluntary punishments; which a sinner should inflict on himself in proportion to his offences. For they maintained, that since man is by nature most corrupt, and most wretched, he ought to retire from the weakness did this manifest! This very holy man, forsooth, was persuaded, that the enemy of mankind had taken up his residence in these writings of the heretics: but it is difficult to tell where he supposed the arch fiend to lie concealed, whether in the paper or in the letters, or between the leaves, or lastly, in the sentiments themselves. Let us hear Claude Lancelot, in his Mémoires touchant la Vie de M. l'Abbé de S. Cyran, tom. 1. p. 226. He says: "Il lisoit ces livres avec tant de pieté, qu'en les prenant il les exorcisoit toujours en faisant le signe de la croix dessus, ne doutant point que la Demon n'y residoit actuellement." He was so charmed with Augustine, as to receive for divine all his sentiments, without discrimination; and even those which all good men, among the catholics themselves, regard as faults in that father. Among others, may be mentioned that dangerous doctrine, that the saints are the legitimate proprietors of the whole world, and that the wicked unjustly possess, according to the divine law, those things of which they are lawful proprietors, according to human laws. Thus, in Nicholas Fontaine's Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de Port-Royal, tom. i. p. 201, he says: "Jesus Christ n'est encore entré dans la possession de son Royaume temporel et des biens du monde, qui luy appartiennent, que per cette petite portion qu'en tient l'Eglise par les bénéfices de ses Clercs, qui ne sont que les fermiers et les dépositaires de Jésus Christ." So then, if we believe him, a golden age is coming, in which Jesus Christ will dethrone all kings and princes, and seizing upon the whole world, will transfer it entire to his church, of which the leaders are the priests and monks. Will the Jansenists now come forth and proclaim that they make it their greatest care to secure civil governments against the machinations of the Roman pontiffs? Respecting prayer, he philosophizes entirely in the spirit of those who are called mystics. For he denies that those who would pray, should consider beforehand what they would ask of God; because prayer does not consist in the thoughts and conceptions of the mind, but in a sort of blind impulse of divine love. Lancelot, Mémoires touchant la Vie de l'Abbé de S. Cyran, tom. ii. p. 44, says: "Il ne croyoit pas, que l'on dût faire quelque effort pour s'appliquer à quelque point ou à quelque pensée particulière parce que la véritable priere est plutôt un attrait de son amour qui emporte notre cœur vers lui et nous enlève comme hors de nous-mêmes, que non pas une occupation de notre Esprit qui se remplisse de l'idée de quelque objet quoique divin." He, therefore, prays best, who asks for nothing, and excludes all thoughts from his mind. Jesus Christ and his disciples knew nothing of this sublime philosophy: for he directs us to pray in a set form of words; and they, the apostles, frequently acquaint us with the subject matter of their prayers. But of all his errors, this undoubtedly was the worst, that he had no doubts but that he was an instrument of God, by which the Divine Being operates and works; and that he held, generally, that a pious man should follow the impulses of his mind, suspending all exercise of his judgment. And the opinion was most deeply fixed in the minds of all the Jansenists, that God himself acts and operates on the mind, and reveals to it his pleasure, when all movements of the understanding and the will are restrained and hushed. Hence, whatever thoughts, opinions, or purposes occur to them, in that state of quietude, they unhesitatingly regard as oracular manifestations and instructions from God. See Mémoires de Port-Royal, tom. iii. p. 246, &c. world and from business, and to expiate, as it were, his inherent corruption by continual hardships and tortures of the body, by fasting, by hard labour, by prayer, and by meditation; and the more depravity any one has, either by nature, or contracted by habit, the more distress and anguish of body he should impose on himself. And in this matter they were so extravagant, that they did not hesitate to call those the greatest saints, and the sacred victims of penitence, consumed by the fire of divine love, who intentionally pined away and died under these various kinds of sufferings and hardships; nay, they taught that this class of suicides were able to appease the wrath of God, and to merit much for the church and for their friends, with God, by means of their pains and sufferings. This appears from numerous examples, but especially from that of Francis de Paris, [or the Abbé de Paris,] the worker of so many miracles in the Jansenist school, who brought on himself a most cruel death, in order to appease the wrath of God'. § 46. A striking example of this gloomy and extravagant devotion was exhibited in the celebrated female convent, called Port Royal in the Fields [Port Royal des Champs], situated in a deep and narrow valley not far from Paris. Henry IV., in the very commencement of this century, gave the superintendence of it to Jaqueline, (one of the daughters of the celebrated jurist Anthony Arnauld,) who afterwards bore the name of Maria Angelica de S. Magdalena. She at first lived a very dissolute life, such as was common at that time in the French nunneries; but in the year 1609 the fear of God came upon her, and she entered upon a very different course of life and afterwards becoming intimate, first with Francis de Sales, and then, in 1623, with the abbot of St. Cyran, she conformed both herself and her convent to their views and prescriptions. The consequence was, that this religious house, for nearly a century, See John Morin's Comment. de Pænitentia, Præf. p. 3, &c. in which there is a tacit censure of the Jansenian notions of penitence. On the other hand, see the Abbé de S. Cyran, in the Mémoires de Port-Royal, tom. iii. p. 483. The Jansenists reckon the restoration of true penitence among the principal merits of St. Cyran: and they call him the second father of the doctrine of penitence. See Mémoires de Port-Royal, tom. iii. p. 445. 504, &c. Yet this very penitence of his was not the least of the causes, for which he was thrown into prison, by order of cardinal Richelieu. See ibid. tom. i. p. 233, &c. 452, &c. excited in the Jesuits the highest disgust, and in the Jansenists the highest admiration; and its fame spread over all Europe. The consecrated virgins inhabiting it, followed with the utmost strictness the ancient, severe, and almost every where abrogated, rule of the Cistercians; nay, they imposed on themselves more rigours and burdens than even that rule prescribed 3. A great proportion of the Jansenist penitents, of both sexes and all ranks, built for themselves cottages, without the precincts of this cloister; and there led a life, not unlike that which we 5 There are extant, a multitude of books of various kinds, in which the Jansenists describe and deplore the fortunes, the holiness, the regulations, and the destruction of this celebrated seat. We shall mention only those that are at hand, and more recent, as well as more full than the others. First, the Benedictines of St. Maur, present a correct but dry history of the convent, Gallia Christiana, tom. viii. p. 910, &c. A much neater, and more pleasing history, though imperfect, and somewhat chargeable with partiality, is that of the noted French poet, John Racine, Abrégé de l'Histoire de Port Royal; which is printed among the works of his son, Lewis Racine, Amsterd. 1750. 6 vols. 8vo. and is in vol. ii. p. 275-366. The external state and form of this convent, are formally by Moleon, Voyages Liturgiques, p. 234. To these add Nicholas Fontaine's Mémoires, pour servir à l'Histoire de PortRoyal, Cologne (that is Utrecht) 1738. 2 vols. 8vo. Peter Thomas du Fosse's Mémoires pour servir àl'Histoire de PortRoyal, Cologne, 1739. 8vo. Recueil de plusieurs Pièces pour servir à l'Histoire de Port-Royal, Utrecht, 1740. 8vo. The editor of these papers promises in his preface more collections of the same nature; and he affords no slight indication, that, from these and other documents, some one may compose a perfect history of Port-Royal, which so many Jansenists regarded as the gate of heaven. Claude Lancelot has also much that relates to this subject, in his History of the Abbot St. Cyran. These and other works describe only the external state, and the various fortunes of this celebrated convent. The in ternal state, the mode of life, and numberless events that occurred among the nuns themselves, and among their neighbours, are described in the Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de PortRoyal, et à la Vie de Marie Angélique d'Arnaud, Utrecht, 1742. 5 tom. 8vo. Vies interressantes et édifiantes des Religieuses de Port-Royal et de plusieurs Personnes qui leur étoient attachées. Of this work, 4 volumes have already been published: the first appeared, Utrecht, 1750. 8vo. They all contain various documents, of no inconsiderable value. The last fortunes and overthrow of the convent are described, especially in the Mémoires sur la Destruction de l'Abbaye de Port-Royal des Champs; without place, 1711. 8vo. If I do not wholly mistake, these writers add much less to the reputation and glory of this noted convent, than the Jansenists suppose. When I read their writings, Anthony Arnauld, Tillemont, Nicole, Isaac le Maître, and the many others, who are known by the name of the authors of Port-Royal, appear to me great and extraordinary men. But when I lay aside their books, and turn to those just mentioned, in which the private lives of these great men are described, they appear to me small men, fanatics, and unworthy of their high reputation. I readily give to Isaac le Maitre, commonly called Sacy, the praise of a most polished genius, while reading his orations, or his other lucubrations: but when I meet him at Port-Royal, with a sickle in his hand, in company with rustics cutting down the corn, he makes a comical figure, and seems not altogether in his right mind. read of in the fourth and fifth centuries, among those austere recluses called Fathers of the desert, who dwelt in the desert parts of Egypt and Syria. For it was the object of them all to efface the stains upon their souls, which were either innate, or acquired by habits of sinning, by means of voluntary pains and sufferings inflicted on themselves, by silence, by hunger and thirst, by praying, labouring, watching, and enduring pain. Yet they did not all pursue the same species of labour. The more learned applied themselves to writing books; and not a few of them did great service to the cause of both sacred and profane learning. Others instructed youth in the elements of languages and the arts. But most of them, amidst rustic and servile labours, exhausted the powers of both mind and body, and wore themselves out, as it were, by a slow and lingering death. And many of these were illustrious personages and noblemen, who had before obtained the highest honours, both in the cabinet and in the field; and who were not ashamed now to assume the place, and perform the duties of the lowest servants. This celebrated retreat of Jansenian penitence experienced vicissitudes throughout this century; at one time it flourished very highly, at another it was nearly broken up. At last, as the nuns pertinaciously refused to subscribe the oath proposed by Alexander VII., which has been mentioned, and as considerable injury to the commonwealth, and much disgrace to distinguished families, were supposed to arise from this convent and its regulations, Lewis XIV., in the year 1709, by the instigation of the Jesuits, ordered the edifice to be pulled down and entirely demolished, and the nuns to be transferred to Paris; and two years after, that nothing might remain to nourish superstition, he ordered the bodies that were buried there, to be disinterred, and removed to other places. § 47. The other commotions which disturbed the tranquillity of the Romish church were but light clouds compared with this The first that retired to PortRoyal, in 1637, in order to purge away his sins, was the very eloquent and highly celebrated Parisian advocate, Isaac le Maitre: whose retirement brought much odium upon the abbot St. Cyran. See Mémoires pour l'Ilis toire de Port-Royal, tom. i. p. 233, &c. He was followed by many others of various classes and ranks, among whom were men of the noblest birth. See Vies des Religieuses de Port-Royal, tom. i. p. 141, &c. tempest. The old quarrel between the Dominicans and the Franciscans, whether the mother of Jesus Christ was conceived without sin or depravity, (which the Dominicans denied, and the Franciscans affirmed,) gave considerable trouble to Paul V., Gregory XV., and Alexander VII. Not long after the commencement of the century, it began to disturb Spain very considerably, and to produce parties. Therefore the kings of Spain, Philip III. and IV., sent some envoys to Rome, urgently soliciting the pontiffs to decide the question by a public decree. But the pontiffs deemed it more important to follow prudence than to gratify requests from so high authority. For on the one hand, the splendour of the Spanish throne, which inclined to the opinion of the Franciscans, and on the other, the credit and influence of the Dominican family, were terrific objects. Nothing therefore could be obtained by repeated supplications, except that the pontiffs, by words and by ordinances, determined that the cause of the Franciscans was very plausible, and forbade the Dominicans to assail it in public; while at the same time, they would not allow the Franciscans and others to charge error upon the opinion of the Dominicans'. In a king or magistrate such reluctance to pass judgment would be commendable: but whether it was suitable in a man, who claims to be the divinely constituted judge of all religious causes, and to be placed beyond all danger of erring, by the immediate power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, those may answer, who support the reputation and honour of the pontiffs. § 48. Towards the close of this century, the mystics, whose 7 See Fred. Ulrich Calixtus, Historia Immaculate Conceptionis B. Virginis Maria, Helmst. 1696. 4to. Add Jo. Hornbeck's Comment. ad Bullam Urbani VIII. de Diebus Festis, p. 250. Jo. Launoi, Præscriptiones de Conceptu Virginis Maria, Opp. tom. i. pt. i. p. 9, &c. Clement XI., a long time after this, namely in the year 1708, proceeded some farther, and by a special bull, commanded all catholics to observe a festival in memory of the conception of St. Mary, a stranger to all sin. See Mémoires de Trevoux, for the year 1709. A. xxxviii. p. 514. But the Dominicans most firmly deny, that the obli gations of this law extend to them; and they persevere in defending their old opinion, though with more modesty than formerly. And when we consider, that this opinion is by no means condemned by the pontiff, and that the Dominicans are not molested, though they do not celebrate that festival; it is evident, that the language of the Romish edict is to be construed in the most liberal manner, and that the decree does not contradict the earlier decrees of the pontiffs. See Lamindus Pritanius, or Muratori, de Ingeniorum Moderatione in Religionis Negotio, p. 254, &c. |