ANTOINE, one of the greatest of French theologians and philosophers, was the twentieth child of Antoine Arnauld, the most famous advocate of his time, who in 1594 distinguished himself in the Parliament of Paris by pleading the cause of the University against the Jesuits. In the son that formidable society found during his active and polemical life a still more powerful and unwearied adversary. The whole family of the Arnoulds was devoted to the cause of Jansenism, and its female members, especially the celebrated "mere Angelique" are so identified with the history of the

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1 History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France, vol. iii., p. 271, 272. London, 1831. Arnald, abbey of Port Royal, that some notice of them will necessarily fall under the account of that remarkable institution. The elder Arnauld was himself a liberal supporter of Port Royal, and his wife, his six daughters, and five of his granddaughters, became nuns there. Three out of four sons who survived him became distinguished men.

Of these the youngest, Antoine, justly called by the Port Royalists, le Grand, was born at Paris, Feb. 6, 1612. After studying at the colleges of Calvi and Lisieux, he turned his attention to the study of law; but the influence of the Abbé St Cyran, director of Port Royal, and the advice of his mother, led him to choose the ecclesiastical profession. The same influence directed him to study the works of St Augustine, and he soon gave evidence of having entered into the spirit of that Father's theology. In 1641 he took his degree as Doctor of the Sorbonne, and after being twice rejected on formal grounds, he was in 1643 admitted a member of the Society of the Sorbonne.

Before this time his mind had undergone a deep change. The instructions of St Cyran, and the dying words of his mother, had impressed him with religious convictions of a more penetrative and influential kind than he had experienced hitherto, and from this time he devoted himself with all the ardour of his soul to the defence and propagation of what he believed to be the truth. In August 1643 he published his famous treatise de la Frequent Communion, expressly directed against the loose and scandalous doctrines of the Jesuits, who held on this subject that the beneficial reception of the sacraments required no preparation, and that open sin in the communicant is no bar to the benefits of the Eucharist. The severer doctrine of Arnauld soon drew down upon him the vengeance of the Jesuits; and the support of the parliament, and the approbation of a large body of prelates and doctors of the Sorbonne, were not sufficient to save him from their implacable hostility. He was obliged to seek safety in flight, and though his subsequent life had intervals of comparative security and repose, it may be said that from this time till his death he lived a harassed and persecuted fugitive.

His work on Frequent Communion is remarkable not merely on account of its important consequences to the author, but as the first theological work in France written in a pure and grammatical style, and entirely free from the barbarous subtleties of the preceding centuries.

In the year 1656 the college of the Sorbonne showed its complete subjection to the influence of the Jesuits, by effacing the name of Arnauld from the list of its doctors, and passing an act that no one should in future be admitted to the degree who did not sign the censure passed upon his heresies. The accusation against him was founded on two propositions in his Letter on Absolution—1st, that the five heretical propositions attributed to Jansenius were not contained in the Augustinus, and 2d, that the Fathers of the Church exhibit to us in the person of St Peter a saint who was deficient in saving grace.

From this time till 1668 Arnauld lived in concealment, incessantly occupied in writing against the Jesuits, and animating by his counsel and example the oppressed but powerful party who recognized in him their head and oracle. About the end of this period he composed the most enduringly valuable of his numerous works, the Port Royal Grammar; New Elements of Geometry; and the Port Royal Logic, or Art of Thinking; of all which it is sufficient to say that their value as important contributions to their several departments of science has not yet been superseded by the labours of subsequent writers.

In 1668 the so-called Peace of the Church, by Clement IX., recalled Arnauld from his exile; and on this occasion he was presented to the king and the papal nuncio, who received him with the outward forms of flattering distinction.

To convince the world of the falsehood of the Jesitical accusation that the Jansenists were the abettors of Calvinism, Arnauld now devoted his controversial powers to the defence of the Roman Catholic faith against the Protestants. The great work composed chiefly by Nicole, but published under the name of Arnauld, Perpétuité de la Foi de l'Eglise sur l'Eucharistie, a voluminous and elaborate defence of transubstantiation, is the most important of these proofs of Jansenist orthodoxy.

His inextinguishable controversial ardour, and the persevering hostility of his enemies, once more drove Arnauld into exile. In 1679 he received a formal order from Louis XIV. to provide for his safety, and in the course of a few days he was again an exile in the Flemish city of Mons. From this time onward he had little rest till his death. Wandering from one city to another he kept up unweariedly the warfare in which he found his congenial element. Of the unquenchable activity of his spirit, a characteristic illustration is his well-known reply to Nicole, who urged him at one time to think now of desisting from his harassing labours and indulging in some repose. "Rest?" said the untired warrior; "shall we not rest in Eternity?" At Brussels in 1694 his manifold labours came to an end, in the 82d year of his age. His body was buried where he died; his heart, at his own request, was carried to Port Royal, of which he had been in life the most redoubtable defender.

The life-long warfare of Arnauld was not confined alone to the defence of Jansenism. His love of truth and of discussion found subjects for his polemical activity in the works of his most valued and intimate friends. Descartes and Malebranche, Pascal and Domat, Nicole and Gilbert of Choiseul, and his protector Pope Innocent XI., all in various ways gave scope to his unconquerable controversial zeal.

"In Arnauld," says Mr Baynes, the able translator of the Port Royal Logic, "are found singularly united many of the best virtues of his time. Love of truth and freedom, fearless intrepidity, stainless honour, and inflexible justice, are ever found in his writings. Bowing to the authority of the church, yet confronting the thunders of the Vatican—rejecting the old philosophy, yet reproducing the truth which it contained—accepting the new, yet fearlessly discussing its dogmas with Descartes—he vindicated incessantly the claims of reason and faith, with an earnestness and impartiality which the love of truth alone could inspire. There is, indeed, scarcely any sight, even in that age of great men and great controversies, more inspiring than that of Arnauld doing battle, single-handed, with all that was mightiest, both in church and state—replying to every attack with an energy which was never wearied, a fertility of resource which was never exhausted, and a freshness of thought and power of argument rarely equalled, and perhaps never excelled."—Introduction to Port Royal Logic. (Edin. 1850.)

The works of Arnauld compose, in the edition of 1783, 48 vols. in 4to. This immense collection comprehends treatises on theology, philosophy, literature, science, and politics, all giving proof of that wonderful power which, in the midst of labours so constant and multifarious, never showed any symptom of decline. Arnauld also had a considerable share in the famous translation of the Bible by his nephew De Saci.