Henri Arnauld
Encyclopedia
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 (1624) the Abbey of Saint-Nicholas. In 1637 the Chapter of Toul offered him the bishopric of Toul, and the king, at the recommendation of Father Joseph, confirmed the choice. He was obliged to wait three years for his Bulls, which were delayed by the difficulties between the court and the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
. He is close to some of the most famous writer of the time (Sébastien Guez de Balzac, François Maynard
François Maynard
François Maynard, sometimes seen as "de Maynard" was a French poet who spent much of his life in Toulouse.-Life and works:...
, etc.) and write poems
At the time of the quarrel between Pope Innocent X
Pope Innocent X
Pope Innocent X , born Giovanni Battista Pamphilj , was Pope from 1644 to 1655. Born in Rome of a family from Gubbio in Umbria who had come to Rome during the pontificate of Pope Innocent IX, he graduated from the Collegio Romano and followed a conventional cursus honorum, following his uncle...
and the Barberini
Barberini
The Barberini are a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII...
, Arnauld was sent to Rome as chargé d'affaires
Chargé d'affaires
In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...
of France. He acquitted himself of this mission with adroitness. The pope could not deny him the return of the cardinals, who were reinstated in their possessions and dignities. He returned with the reputation of being one of the most politic prelates in the kingdom.
Being offered the Bishopric of Périgueux (1650), he refused, but accepted the see of Angers in which was situated his Abbey of Saint-Nicholas. During his episcopate of forty-two years, he showed less Christian prudence than extraordinary ability in the service of the Jansenists and of his family. Having once entered on this path, he concentrated all his energies to keep from yielding, and thus to save his own honour and that of his brother 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...
. This involved him in many difficulties, and caused many dissensions in his diocese.
His entrance into the quarrel aroused by Jansenism was most exciting. When Louis XIV ordered the bishops to sign the Formulary drawn up by the Assembly of the Clergy in 1661, Arnauld as the Bishop of Angers wrote a letter to the king sustaining the famous distinction of Pierre Nicole
Pierre Nicole
Pierre Nicole was one of the most distinguished of the French Jansenists.Born in Chartres, he was the son of a provincial barrister, who took in charge his education...
between "fact" and "law". The king having shown marked displeasure, the bishop wrote to the pope a letter of the same import, but Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII , born Fabio Chigi, was Pope from 7 April 1655, until his death.- Early life :Born in Siena, a member of the illustrious banking family of Chigi and a great-nephew of Pope Paul V , he was privately tutored and eventually received doctorates of philosophy, law, and theology from...
made no reply. The obstinate Arnauld then wrote to Péréfixe, Archbishop of Paris
Archbishop of Paris
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris is one of twenty-three archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The original diocese is traditionally thought to have been created in the 3rd century by St. Denis and corresponded with the Civitas Parisiorum; it was elevated to an archdiocese on...
, to forestall the tempest which the obligation of signing the Formulary would arouse at Port-Royal
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....
. At the same time he encouraged the religious to resist or take refuge in subtleties.
Arnauld was one of the four prelates who in 1665 loftily refused to sign the Formulary of Alexander VII, and issued a mandate against it. He was about to be cited before an ecclesiastical tribunal when the pope died. Pope Clement IX
Pope Clement IX
Pope Clement IX , born Giulio Rospigliosi, was Pope from 1667 to 1669.-Early life:Born Giulio Rospigliosi to a noble family of Pistoia, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, he was a pupil of the Jesuits. After receiving his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Pisa, he taught theology there...
, successor to Alexander VII, judged it preferable in the interests of religion to silence the whole affair. He accorded the Clementine peace to this party, and they took advantage of it.
The bishop preserved his Jansenism to the end. He pursued with disfavour the partisans of orthodoxy. One should read the "Mémoires" of Joseph Grandet, third superior of the Seminary of Angers, to know to what a degree Jansenism had imbued the bishop. He was energetic, austere, devoted to his duty, and filled with zeal.
In 1652, when the queen mother was approaching to inflict punishment on the city of Angers
Angers
Angers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....
, which was in revolt, the bishop appeased her with a word. On giving her Holy Communion, he said: "Receive, Madame, your God, Who pardoned His enemies when dying on the Cross." There is still quoted a saying of his illustrating his love of work. One day, on being requested to take a day each week for relaxation, he replied: "I shall willingly do so, if you give me a day on which I am not bishop." He remains one of the most enigmatical figures of the seventeenth-century episcopate.
The negotiations carried on by him at the Court of Rome and various Italian courts have been published in five volumes (Paris, 1745).