Arnauld

Arnauld. 1. Antoine, a member of a family in Auvergne, France, distinguished for piety and intellectual ability, was born in 1612. He was attracted to Jansenism, and wrote an enormous number of volumes in defence of his views and in opposition to Calvinism. He was forced to leave Paris and spent his last years at Brussels, dying in 1694.

2. Jacqueline Marie Angelique, sister of the above, was abbess-coadjutrix of the Port Royal at the early age of eleven. She found the Cistercian rules set at naught daily by the nuns under her charge. She soon showed herself to be an ardent and capable reformer, and after a long struggle reduced the various houses under her charge to perfect order. "The Mere Angelique," as she was named, combined with her great force of character a temper of perfect sweetness. Like her brother she was a Jansenist, and suffered for her opinions in her old age, when the Jesuits broke up the Port Royal convents and left her in want and desolation. She died in 1661. Her sister and her niece were also distinguished members of the same Order.