Putting Pascal to Practical Use: Jansenist Women at the Peace of Clement IX

Abstract

In 1667, a group of French bishops began the process of brokering a truce between Louis XIV, his Jesuit advisors, and the Jansenists. The aim of this truce was to end the conflict surrounding Louis XIV's 1661 decree ordering all members of the Church to sign a formula swearing adherence to two papal bulls condemning the Augustinus, a theological study by the late bishop, Cornelius Jansen. When Jansen's supporters (known as "Jansenists") resisted the formula, the king persecuted them to the point that nineteen French bishops demanded this truce on the grounds that the king had encroached upon ecclesiastical jurisdiction in his zeal to combat Jansenism. The Jansenists, who had suffered fines, imprisonment, and exile, were eager, for the most part, to see this truce succeed. An exception among them, however, was the Port Royal nuns. These women had suffered their own share of deprivation, imprisonment, and even physical violence at the hands of their archbishop for refusing the formula. Yet when presented with the peace agreement, they refused to compromise. This refusal meant that the king was no longer the only person angry with them. Now, even the nuns' staunchest male Jansenist allies had become critical of their position.