Port-Royal-des-Champs was an

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The c ...

Cistercian nuns Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order belonging to the Roman Catholic branch of the Catholic Church. History The first Cistercian monastery for women, Le Tart Abbey, was established at Tart-l'Abbaye in th ...

in Magny-les-Hameaux, in the

Vallée de Chevreuse Vallée de Chevreuse (Chevreuse Valley) is the valley of the Yvette River in the Yvelines and Essonne departments. It encompasses the communes around Chevreuse ( Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, Choisel, Dampierre, etc.) within the Parc naturel r ...

southwest of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

that launched a number of culturally important institutions.

History

The abbey was established in 1204, but became famous when its discipline was reformed in 1609 by its

abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Copt ...

Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ...

Marie Angelique Arnauld (1591-1661). The

Arnauld family 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 ...

became its patrons and the abbey's subsequent history was directed by a number of the members of that family. In 1625 most of the nuns moved to a new Port-Royal in Paris, which subsequently became '' Port-Royal de Paris'' (or, more commonly, ''Port-Royal'') while the older one was known as ''Port-Royal des Champs'' ("Port-Royal of the fields"). At the original site, several schools were founded, which became known as the '' Petites écoles de Port-Royal'' ("Little Schools of Port-Royal"). These schools became famous for the high quality of the education they gave.

Playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...

was a product of Port-Royal education. In 1634

Jean du Vergier de Hauranne Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, the Abbé (Abbot) of Saint-Cyran, (1581 – 6 October 1643) was a French Catholic priest who introduced Jansenism into France. Life Born in the city of Bayonne to a noble family, Vergier studied theology at the Cath ...

, Abbé de Saint-Cyran, became

spiritual director Spiritual direction is the practice of being with people as they attempt to deepen their relationship with the divine, or to learn and grow in their personal spirituality. The person seeking direction shares stories of their encounters of the di ...

of the abbey; he was a companion of Jansenius and the implementer of Jansenism in France. From that point forward, the abbeys and schools of Port-Royal became intimately associated with that school of theology. ''La logique, ou l'art de penser'', the '' Logique de Port-Royal'', was an important textbook on logic first published anonymously in 1662 by

Antoine Arnauld Antoine Arnauld (6 February 16128 August 1694) 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. C ...

and

Pierre Nicole Pierre Nicole (19 October 1625 – 16 November 1695) was one of the most distinguished of the French Jansenists. Life Born in Chartres, he was the son of a provincial barrister, who took in charge his education. Sent to Paris in 1642 to study t ...

, two prominent members of the

Jansenist Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by th ...

movement;

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest ...

likely contributed considerable portions of the text.Jan Miel. "Pascal, Port-Royal, and Cartesian Linguistics," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 30 (April 1969): 261–271. As it was written in the vernacular, it became quite popular and was in use, as an exemplar of traditional

term logic In philosophy, term logic, also known as traditional logic, syllogistic logic or Aristotelian logic, is a loose name for an approach to formal logic that began with Aristotle and was developed further in ancient history mostly by his followers, ...

, into the twentieth century, introducing the reader to logic, and exhibiting strong Cartesian elements in its metaphysics and epistemology (Arnauld having been one of the main philosophers whose objections were published, with replies, in Descartes' '' Meditations on First Philosophy''). The atmosphere of serious study and Jansenist piety attracted a number of prominent cultural figures to the movement, including

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. Pascal defended the schools publicly against the

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

in the Jansenist controversies which agitated the French

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, in his '' Lettres provinciales'' in 1657. Perhaps even more striking, several important persons of the court were close to Jansenism, such as the

Duke of Luynes The Duke of Luynes (french: duc de Luynes ) is a territorial name belonging to the noble French house d'Albert. Luynes is, today, a commune of the Indre-et-Loire ''département'' in France. The family of Albert, which sprang from Thomas Alberti ( ...

or the Duke of Liancourt. Members of the

have managed to receive important jobs such as Simon Arnauld de Pomponne, Minister of

Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

. The Jesuits, on the other hand, enjoyed predominance in political and theological power in France and Europe, providing a personal

confessor Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways. Confessor of the Faith Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death. As a result of the Jesuit attacks on Jansenism, the schools of Port-Royal were regarded as tainted with

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important relig ...

. Louis XIV wanting peace in the church, the elementary schools were forcibly closed by papal bull in 1660, following the formulary controversy. In 1661, the monastery was forbidden to accept

novice A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience. Religion Buddhism ...

s, heralding its eventual dissolution. The abbey itself was abolished by a bull from

Pope Clement XI Pope Clement XI ( la, Clemens XI; it, Clemente XI; 23 July 1649 – 19 March 1721), born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 November 1700 to his death in March 1721. Clement XI w ...

in 1708, the remaining nuns forcibly removed in 1709, most of the buildings themselves razed in 1711. The chapel, containing Mère Angélique's tomb, as well as some buildings, still exist in the vast grounds of what eventually became Paris' leading maternity hospital, known as Port-Royal Hospital. A celebrated history of Port-Royal and its influence was written by

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic. Early life He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he s ...

in 1837-1859.

Museums

The remains of the monastery of Port-Royal-des-Champs may still be seen at Magny-les-Hameaux, in the Chevreuse valley. Operated as Musée de Port-Royal, the 30-hectare estate includes the ruins of the abbey and its outbuildings. A 17th-century building houses the Musée national de Port-Royal des Champs, which exhibits 17th- and 18th-century paintings and engravings.

Gallery

Louise-Magdeleine Horthemels Louise-Magdeleine Horthemels, or Louise-Madeleine Hortemels, also called Magdeleine Horthemels (1686 – 2 October 1767), was a French engraver, the mother of Charles-Nicolas Cochin. She is also sometimes credited under her married name of Louis ...

, c. 1709" widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="3"> Image:Abbey of Port-Royal, Caring for the Sick by Magdeleine Hortemels c. 1710.jpg, Image:Abbey of Port-Royal, Distributing Alms to the Poor by Louise-Magdeleine Hortemels c. 1710.jpg, Image:The Sisters of the Abbey of Port-Royal by Magdeleine Hortemels c. 1710.jpg, Image:Abbey of Port-Royal, General View by Louise-Magdeleine Horthemels c. 1710.jpg, Image:Abbey of Port-Royal, Nuns Meeting in Solitude by Magdeleine Hortemels c. 1710.jpg, Image:Abbey of Port-Royal, View of the Refectory by Louise-Magdeleine Hortemels c. 1710.jpg,

Notes

External links

Musée de Port-Royal

Port-Royalists
Published in ''Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition'' (1996) {{Authority control History of Catholicism in France Jansenism 1204 establishments in Europe 1200s establishments in France 1708 disestablishments in France Christian monasteries established in the 13th century Cistercian nunneries in France Museums in Yvelines Religious museums in France

History

Museums

Gallery

See also

Notes

External links