Port-Royal

▪ abbey, Versailles, France

in full  Port-royal Des Champs,  

      celebrated abbey of Cistercian nuns that was the centre of Jansenism and of literary activity in 17th-century France. It was founded about 1204 as a Benedictine house by Mathilde de Garlande on a low, marshy site in the valley of Chevreuse, south of Versailles. Its church was built in 1230.

      In 1609 the young abbess Jacqueline-Marie-Angélique Arnauld (Arnauld, Jacqueline-Marie-Angélique) began a much-needed reform. In 1625–26, because of the unhealthy atmosphere of the site, Mère Angélique established her community in Paris, where new buildings were erected, including a Baroque church. In 1638 the deserted building was occupied by the Solitaires (hermits), pious laymen and secular priests who lived without vows or a definite rule under the spiritual guidance of Jean Duvergier de Hauranne (Duvergier de Hauranne, Jean, Abbé de Saint-Cyran), abbot of Saint-Cyran and a friend of Cornelius Jansen. Among the Solitaires were several members of the Arnauld family. The Solitaires began to teach a few boys and established the Petites Écoles (“Little Schools”), which provided a type of education that differed in important ways from that of the Jesuits. In 1648 a group of nuns returned to occupy the buildings, and the Solitaires moved to Les Granges on a neighbouring hillside. The Petites Écoles survived until 1660.

      In 1665 most of the nuns of Port-Royal de Paris, having refused to sign the formulary condemning Jansen, were sent to Port-Royal des Champs, where they were confined and denied the sacraments. The Solitaires dispersed and went into exile or hiding. In 1669, however, a compromise was reached with Pope Clement IX, and a 10-year period of calm, called the Peace of the Church, prevailed. The houses of Paris and Les Champs were separated, the latter enjoying the protection of the Duchess de Longueville, a cousin of King Louis XIV. After her death in 1679, persecution was renewed, and the community was forbidden to receive novices. In 1705 the bull Vineam Domini of Pope Clement XI renewed measures against the Jansenists, and the remaining nuns refused to submit. The community was dispersed on Oct. 29, 1709, and the nuns were exiled to various other convents. Between 1710 and 1712 most of the buildings were destroyed, and corpses in the cemetery were exhumed and thrown into a common grave at nearby Saint-Lambert.

      Port-Royal de Paris became a prison during the Revolution, and in the 19th century it became the Hôpital de la Maternité. Both the original chapter house and the original choir have been restored.

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