Antoine Le Maistre
Encyclopedia
Antoine Le Maistre was a French Jansenist
lawyer
, author
and translator
. His name has also been written Lemaistre and Le Maître, and he sometimes used the pseudonym of Lamy.
, who was the eldest daughter of the lawyer Antoine Arnauld
(1560–1619) and the granddaughter of another Antoine Arnauld, seigneur de la Mothe. The Arnaulds were a family of the lesser nobility which had come to Paris from the Auvergne
during the 16th century.
Le Maistre’s grandfather Arnauld, a well known lawyer, defended the University of Paris
against charges laid by the Jesuits in 1594 and presented his case so forcefully that his defense has been called the original sin of the Arnaulds. He married Catherine Marion de Druy, and they had twenty children, of whom ten died young. All but one of their ten surviving children were connected with the Jansenist abbey of Port-Royal des Champs. In 1629, Arnauld's widow, Le Maistre’s grandmother, became a nun
at Port-Royal de Paris
, where she died in 1641. Among her children were Antoine Arnauld
(1612–1694), called the Great Arnauld, the leading Jansenist theologian
of the 17th century in France; Jacqueline-Marie-Angélique Arnauld
, known as Mère Angélique, who vecame abbess of Port-Royal des Champs, transferred the religious community to Paris and made it into a great centre of Jansenism; Jeanne-Catherine-Agnès Arnauld, known as Mère Agnès, also an abbess of Port-Royal; Henri Arnauld
(1597–1692), who after a diplomatic career was ordained as a priest and went on to become bishop of Angers; and three other daughters who became nuns of Port-Royal des Champs.
At the age of seven, the young Le Maistre moved with his mother and brothers into the household of his grandfather Antoine Arnauld and was brought up there. Influenced towards a career in the law, after his grandfather's death Le Maistre also considered going into the church, but he trained as a lawyer.
Le Maistre quickly became a famous young advocate, with Guez de Balzac
writing of him that his "powerful, rich and magnificent harangues would have aroused jealousy in Cicero
and Demosthenes
". But at the time of the civil war
called the Fronde
, Le Maistre spectacularly gave up the bar and retired to Port-Royal at the instigation of Jean du Vergier de Hauranne
, abbot of Saint-Cyran, placing himself under Saint-Cyran’s spiritual direction. Le Maistre was then a little less than thirty. He announced his decision in a letter to his father written after three months of reflection.
Le Maistre's withdrawal from public affairs displeased Cardinal Richelieu, who was unhappy at the loss of a talented jurist.
On January 10, 1638, Antoine and his brother Simon Le Maistre settled at Port Royal de Paris, where they were soon joined by their brothers Louis-Isaac, Jean and Charles. Later the same year, Le Maistre and others, including two of his brothers, established a Jansenist ascetic
group known as les solitaires (the hermits) at Port-Royal des Champs, under the spiritual direction of the abbot of Saint Cyran. At the request of Saint Cyran, the brothers Le Maistre took children into their homes to teach them according to Cyranian principles.
The arrest of Saint-Cyran on May 14, 1638 put an end to this life of the solitaires as teachers. First of the Solitaires, Antoine Le Maistre settled permanently at Port Royal des Champs in August 1639, where he led a quiet and austere life. In about 1644, he was joined in his ascetic religious community by his uncle Robert Arnauld d'Andilly (1588–1674), a poet and translator whose career had been in the government's service and who became the editor of Saint-Cyran's Lettres chrétiennes et spirituelles (1645).
Le Maistre became a friend of Jean Racine
and dedicated himself to translation work and to writing the lives of saints.
He claimed that France's long-standing affiliation with freedom was to do with its being a Christian nation. He wrote:
With his cousin Angélique de Saint-Jean, Le Maistre persuaded their aunt Angélique Arnault, abbess of Port-Royal, to write an autobiography, which was mostly the story of her community's heroic resistance in the face of its religious tribulations.
In 1656, an anti-Jansenist campaign was mounting in France, and Le Maistre went into hiding in Paris with his uncle Antoine Arnauld
, then on trial for Jansenist views before the Faculty of Theology in Paris, and with the philosopher Pascal
, who before that had been living at Port-Royal. Le Maistre helped Pascal to write Lettres provinciales
(1656–1657), a series of letters in defence of Arnauld.
Le Maistre died on November 4, 1658, after a short illness, leaving a considerable body of work.
His youngest brother was Louis-Isaac Le Maistre de Sacy
(1613–84), also a follower of Saint-Cyran. He was ordained a priest
in 1649, became confessor to the nuns of Port-Royal and the solitaires, and was much respected by the Jansenists.
At the time of his death, Antoine Le Maistre had begun a new translation of the New Testament. This was continued by his brother Isaac, who became its principal translator. The new work was published in 1667 as Le Nouveau Testament de Nostre Seigneur Jesus Christ: traduit en François selon l'edition Vulgate, avec les differences du Grec, and printed in Amsterdam
for Gaspard Migeot, a bookseller of Mons
. It thus became known as the Nouveau Testament de Mons, or the Testament of Mons.
(1602–1674), a painter who was closely connected with Port-Royal des Champs. A copy exists, but the original is lost. The portrait was later engraved by Charles Simonneau. Champaigne also painted Le Maistre's aunts Angélique Arnauld and Catherine Agnès Arnauld and his uncle Robert Arnauld d'Andilly.
Jansenism
Jansenism was a Christian theological movement, primarily in France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. The movement originated from the posthumously published work of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Otto Jansen, who died in 1638...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
. His name has also been written Lemaistre and Le Maître, and he sometimes used the pseudonym of Lamy.
Background and early life
Le Maistre was the son of Isaac Le Maistre, a king's counsellor, and of Catherine ArnauldCatherine Arnauld
Catherine Arnauld was a French religious figure of the 18th century, belonging to the Arnauld family of Jansenists. She was the eldest daughter of Antoine Arnauld ....
, who was the eldest daughter of the lawyer Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld (lawyer)
220px|thumb|right|1594 pamphet by Antoine ArnauldAntoine Arnauld was a famous lawyer in the Parlement de Paris, and a Counsellor of State under Henry IV...
(1560–1619) and the granddaughter of another Antoine Arnauld, seigneur de la Mothe. The Arnaulds were a family of the lesser nobility which had come to Paris from the Auvergne
Auvergne (province)
Auvergne was a historic province in south central France. It was originally the feudal domain of the Counts of Auvergne. It is now the geographical and cultural area that corresponds to the former province....
during the 16th century.
Le Maistre’s grandfather Arnauld, a well known lawyer, defended the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
against charges laid by the Jesuits in 1594 and presented his case so forcefully that his defense has been called the original sin of the Arnaulds. He married Catherine Marion de Druy, and they had twenty children, of whom ten died young. All but one of their ten surviving children were connected with the Jansenist abbey of Port-Royal des Champs. In 1629, Arnauld's widow, Le Maistre’s grandmother, became a nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
at Port-Royal de Paris
Port-Royal Abbey, Paris
Port-Royal Abbey was an abbey in Paris that was a stronghold of Jansenism. It was first built in 1626 to relieve pressure of numbers on the mother house at Port-Royal-des-Champs....
, where she died in 1641. Among her children were Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld — le Grand as contemporaries called him, to distinguish him from his father — was a French Roman Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mathematician...
(1612–1694), called the Great Arnauld, the leading Jansenist theologian
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
of the 17th century in France; Jacqueline-Marie-Angélique Arnauld
Marie Angelique Arnauld
Jacqueline-Marie-Angélique Arnauld or Arnault, called La Mère Angélique was abbess of Port Royal, a center of Jansenism....
, known as Mère Angélique, who vecame abbess of Port-Royal des Champs, transferred the religious community to Paris and made it into a great centre of Jansenism; Jeanne-Catherine-Agnès Arnauld, known as Mère Agnès, also an abbess of Port-Royal; Henri Arnauld
Henri Arnauld
Henri Arnauld was a French Catholic bishop.He was first destined for the Bar, but was taken to Rome by Cardinal Bentivoglio and during this absence, which lasted five years, the court granted him the Abbey of Saint-Nicholas...
(1597–1692), who after a diplomatic career was ordained as a priest and went on to become bishop of Angers; and three other daughters who became nuns of Port-Royal des Champs.
At the age of seven, the young Le Maistre moved with his mother and brothers into the household of his grandfather Antoine Arnauld and was brought up there. Influenced towards a career in the law, after his grandfather's death Le Maistre also considered going into the church, but he trained as a lawyer.
Career
Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac
Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac was a French author, best known for his epistolary essays, which were widely circulated and read in his day. He was one of the founding members of Académie française.-Biography:...
writing of him that his "powerful, rich and magnificent harangues would have aroused jealousy in Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
and Demosthenes
Demosthenes
Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
". But at the time of the civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
called the Fronde
Fronde
The Fronde was a civil war in France, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The word fronde means sling, which Parisian mobs used to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin....
, Le Maistre spectacularly gave up the bar and retired to Port-Royal at the instigation of Jean du Vergier de Hauranne
Jean du Vergier de Hauranne
Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, Abbé of Saint-Cyran was a French monk who introduced Jansenism into France.In the early 17th century, Jean du Vergier de Hauranne studied theology at the Catholic University of Leuven...
, abbot of Saint-Cyran, placing himself under Saint-Cyran’s spiritual direction. Le Maistre was then a little less than thirty. He announced his decision in a letter to his father written after three months of reflection.
Le Maistre's withdrawal from public affairs displeased Cardinal Richelieu, who was unhappy at the loss of a talented jurist.
On January 10, 1638, Antoine and his brother Simon Le Maistre settled at Port Royal de Paris, where they were soon joined by their brothers Louis-Isaac, Jean and Charles. Later the same year, Le Maistre and others, including two of his brothers, established a Jansenist ascetic
Asceticism
Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...
group known as les solitaires (the hermits) at Port-Royal des Champs, under the spiritual direction of the abbot of Saint Cyran. At the request of Saint Cyran, the brothers Le Maistre took children into their homes to teach them according to Cyranian principles.
The arrest of Saint-Cyran on May 14, 1638 put an end to this life of the solitaires as teachers. First of the Solitaires, Antoine Le Maistre settled permanently at Port Royal des Champs in August 1639, where he led a quiet and austere life. In about 1644, he was joined in his ascetic religious community by his uncle Robert Arnauld d'Andilly (1588–1674), a poet and translator whose career had been in the government's service and who became the editor of Saint-Cyran's Lettres chrétiennes et spirituelles (1645).
Jean Racine
Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...
and dedicated himself to translation work and to writing the lives of saints.
He claimed that France's long-standing affiliation with freedom was to do with its being a Christian nation. He wrote:
With his cousin Angélique de Saint-Jean, Le Maistre persuaded their aunt Angélique Arnault, abbess of Port-Royal, to write an autobiography, which was mostly the story of her community's heroic resistance in the face of its religious tribulations.
In 1656, an anti-Jansenist campaign was mounting in France, and Le Maistre went into hiding in Paris with his uncle Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld — le Grand as contemporaries called him, to distinguish him from his father — was a French Roman Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mathematician...
, then on trial for Jansenist views before the Faculty of Theology in Paris, and with the philosopher Pascal
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...
, who before that had been living at Port-Royal. Le Maistre helped Pascal to write Lettres provinciales
Lettres provinciales
The Lettres provinciales are a series of eighteen letters written by French philosopher and theologian Blaise Pascal under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte...
(1656–1657), a series of letters in defence of Arnauld.
Le Maistre died on November 4, 1658, after a short illness, leaving a considerable body of work.
His youngest brother was Louis-Isaac Le Maistre de Sacy
Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy
Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy , a priest of Port-Royal, was a theologian and French humanist. He is best known for his translation of the Bible the most widespread French Bible in the 18th century, also known as the Bible de Port-Royal.-Biography:Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy was born in Paris, one...
(1613–84), also a follower of Saint-Cyran. He was ordained a priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
in 1649, became confessor to the nuns of Port-Royal and the solitaires, and was much respected by the Jansenists.
At the time of his death, Antoine Le Maistre had begun a new translation of the New Testament. This was continued by his brother Isaac, who became its principal translator. The new work was published in 1667 as Le Nouveau Testament de Nostre Seigneur Jesus Christ: traduit en François selon l'edition Vulgate, avec les differences du Grec, and printed in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
for Gaspard Migeot, a bookseller of Mons
Mons
Mons is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, of which it is the capital. The Mons municipality includes the old communes of Cuesmes, Flénu, Ghlin, Hyon, Nimy, Obourg, Baudour , Jemappes, Ciply, Harmignies, Harveng, Havré, Maisières, Mesvin, Nouvelles,...
. It thus became known as the Nouveau Testament de Mons, or the Testament of Mons.
Likenesses
Le Maistre’s portrait was painted by Philippe de ChampaignePhilippe de Champaigne
Philippe de Champaigne was a Flemish-born French Baroque era painter, a major exponent of the French school.-Early life:Born in Brussels of a poor family, Champaigne was a pupil of the landscape painter Jacques Fouquières...
(1602–1674), a painter who was closely connected with Port-Royal des Champs. A copy exists, but the original is lost. The portrait was later engraved by Charles Simonneau. Champaigne also painted Le Maistre's aunts Angélique Arnauld and Catherine Agnès Arnauld and his uncle Robert Arnauld d'Andilly.