PORT-Royal, the name of two monasteries of Cister-
Port-Royal, in the diocese of Paris; the one near Chevreuse, at the distance of five leagues from Paris, called Port Royal of the Fields; and the other in Paris, in the suburbs of St James.
The nuns of the former of these monasteries proving refractory were dispersed; when many ecclesiastics, and others, who were of the same sentiments as these religious, retired to Port-Royal, took apartments there, and printed many books. Hence the name of Port-Royalists was given to all their party, and their books were called books of Port-Royal: from hence we say the writers of Port-Royal, Messieurs de Port-Royal, and the translations and grammars of Port-Royal.