Antoine Le Maistre

Antoine le Maistre (engraving by Jacques Lubin , 1696)

Antoine Le Maistre (also Le Maître ; born May 2, 1608 in Paris , † November 4, 1658 in Magny-les-Hameaux ) was a French lawyer, author, Jansenist and hermit . He was the first hermit from Port-Royal .

life and work

The Arnauld family

Antoine Le Maistre (also: Le Maître ) belonged through his mother Catherine (1590-1651) to the extensive family of her father Antoine Arnauld (1560-1619), who had 20 children. From this family, three abbesses of the Cistercian reform monastery Port Royal des Champs ( Angélique , Agnès and Angélique de Sain-Jean Arnauld d'Andilly , 1624–1684), as well as several nuns, and also the men, were born in the course of the 17th century who were prominent figures (especially the Great Arnauld , but also his eldest brother Robert Arnauld d'Andilly ), were almost all close to the monastery. His mother also entered in 1640 where four of her sisters were already nuns.

Childhood and youth in the Arnauld family

The marriage of Antoine's parents was unhappy, which is why the mother and the children lived with her father from 1616 onwards. After his death in 1619 she moved to her older brother Robert Arnauld d'Andilly, who therefore became a second father for young Antoine. The uncle, who fell politically out of favor in 1628, used this period until 1634 for a certain seclusion and writing religious poetry, an example that Antoine had in mind as well as that of his Cistercian aunts.

Star and dropout

Antoine (together with his friend Olivier Patru ) was a star in the sky of the Parisian judiciary from a young age as a lawyer thanks to his rhetorical talent. A great future was predicted for him. But then came the break. In October 1637, when he was not even thirty, he gave up his bourgeois existence and retired to live a penitential life near the Port-Royal monastery (in Paris), where his mother had him built accommodation.

The conversion

The following is known about the process of his life reversal, which was a sensation and a shock for Parisian society and which contributed not insignificantly to Richelieu's own intervention. He gave up his intention to marry when his aunt Agnès Arnauld, whom he had asked for advice, advised him in a massive letter against it. The decisive factor, however, was obviously the meeting with the Jansenist Jean Duvergier de Hauranne , known as Saint-Cyran, who lived in his house as a friend of his uncle Robert Arnauld d'Andilly and the death of his sick wife Catherine Le Fèvre de la Boderie (* 1598) Spiritually accompanied until her death on August 24, 1637. Antoine experienced this phase up close. One could therefore say: En consolant la mourante, l'abbé convertit l'avocat , in other words: Saint-Cyran's words of consolation were for the dying, but they hit the young lawyer. Antoine felt, as he later wrote, touched by God (“Dieu m'ayant touché”) and called to lead a new life in solitude and penance, knowing full well that this step was considered by society as madness (“folie”) would be felt. He wanted to live as if he were in a monastery (“comme si j'étais dans un monastère”), but without wanting to join an order or become a priest.

The solitarians

Antoine's step was groundbreaking. Like-minded people followed suit, especially his younger brothers Simon Le Maistre de Séricourt (* 1612; † October 4, 1650), Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy , Jean Le Maistre de Saint-Elme (1609–1690) and Charles Le Maistre de Vallemont (1612–1652), but also others, including Claude Lancelot from January 20, 1638 . The community that opened a private educational institute became known as “Solitaires” (departed, hermits, hermits) from Port-Royal (first in Paris, then exiled to Port Royal des Champs). In addition to the names mentioned, these included: the doctor Jean Hamon (1618 to 1687), Pierre Nicole , Antoine Arnauld and others, from 1844 also Robert Arnauld d'Andilly.

Eviction and return

The arrest of Saint-Cyran by Richelieu, who apparently feared the loss of part of the intellectual elite for the state, also led to the dissolution and dispersion of the Solitaires by the state on July 15, 1638. Antoine, his brother Simon de Séricourt and Lancelot were exiled to La Ferté-Milon for a year , where they came into contact with the family of their most famous later pupil, Jean Racine , but were able to return to the abandoned monastery Port Royal des Champs in August 1639 ( in Magny-les-Hameaux). Since the nuns of Port Royal had already vacated this monastery in 1625 and moved to Paris, the solitarians were initially able to use the monastery rooms. From 1646, the nuns returned to Port Royal des Champs and the solitarians moved to the Grangien ("Les Granges").

Way of life of the solitarians

The solitarians lived poorly dressed in Port Royal des Champs, under strict fasting and without heating in winter. They prayed the office with the local clergy and sang it on feast days. For the morning prayer ("Mâtines") they got up at two o'clock in the morning. From 1637 to 1660 they organized an educational institute, the so-called Petites Ecoles, where a total of 120 pupils who paid high school fees were taught in small groups. The solitaires included some of the most important intellectuals of the time. In this climate, Antoine Le Maistre worked as an educator and was active in research, writing and translation, and at times physically in agriculture.

Saint-Cyran's death

Saint-Cyran was released in February 1643 and visited Port-Royal des Champs before his death in October. He suggested that Antoine deal with Bernhard von Clairvaux , whom he called a head of fire (“un esprit de feu”) and a true Christian nobleman (“un vrai gentilhomme chrétien”). Saint-Cyran's death sparked an anti-intellectual reaction in Antoine. He stopped reading and writing, a spiritual desert from which Saint-Cyran's spiritual successor, Antoine Singlin (1607–1664), freed him again.

Studies and publications

Antoine learned Greek and Hebrew and began a Bible translation that was completed by his brother Sacy. He also translated the Church Fathers. As a result of his many years of work as a translator, he left behind 9 rules for translation into French, which are of interest in the context of the development of classical French (Falconnet 1807, p. XLVI, note). When he published a collection of his best pleadings in 1657 (held two decades earlier), he received criticism for this alleged relapse into secular vanity. In reality it was a matter of encountering a plethora of fraudulent publications in which texts that did not come from him were adorned with his name for better sale. In his own publication (by the editor Jean Issali * 1630, six editions until 1671) he added Christian quotations afterwards.

Teacher of Racine and Death

From 1655 to 1658 he was one of the teachers of Jean Racine (who called him "Papa"). The following passage from Racine's play Esther (1st act, 1st scene) could be based on the life story of his teacher. Esther says: “Et c'est là que, fuyant l'orgueil du diadème, / Lasse de vains honneurs, et me cherchant moi-même, / Aux pieds de l'Eternel je viens m'humilier, / Et goûter le plaisir de me faire oublier. " (Fleeing the pride of my position, weary of vain honors and looking for myself, I humble myself at the feet of the Eternal and want to enjoy the pleasure of being forgotten.)

In 1658 Antoine Le Maistre died at the age of 50 from the privations he had constantly imposed on himself.

Fonts

• Apologie pour feu Monsieur l'Abbé de St Cyran . 1644.
  • Seconde Apologie pour Monsieur Jansenius . 1645.
  • Apologie pour feu messire Jean Du Vergier de Hauranne, Abbé de St Cyran. Divisee en IV. Parties dont les deux premieres contiennent la response à l'extrait d'une information pretendue͏̈ que l'on fit courir contre luy l'an 1638. & que les jesuites ont fait imprimer l'an 1644. à la teste d 'un libelle diffamatoire intitulé, Sommaire de la theologie de l'abbé de Saint Cyran, & du sieur Arnauld. Et les deux dernieres, qui ont esté adjoutées à cette 2nd edition contiennent la Response generale & particuliere à un Memoire de monsieur l'evesque de Langres. 1645
• La Vie de S. Bernard , premier abbé de Clairvaux et Père de l'Eglise, divisée en six livres, dont les trois premiers sont traduits du latin de trois célèbres abbez de son temps [Guillaume de St-Thierry, Arnaud (alias Bernard) de Bonneval, Geoffroy, religieux de Clairvaux] & contiennent l'histoire de sa vie; et les trois derniers sont tiréz de ses ouvrages & représentent son esprit & sa conduite. Antoine Vitré et la Vve Martin Durand, Paris 1648.
• (Jean Issali, ed.) Les Plaidoyez et harangues de Monsieur Le Maistre, cy-devant advocat au parlement . Pierre Le Petit, Paris 1657.
• Lettre d'un advocat au Parlement, à un de ses amis, touchant l'inquisition qu'on veut établir en France à l'occasion de la nouvelle bulle du pape Alexandre VII. A Paris, le 1er juin 1657 . Paris, 1657. ( indexed by decree of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 1657 )
• L'Aumosne chrestienne, ou la tradition de l'Eglise, touchant la charité envers les pauvres . Vve M. Durand, Paris 1658.
  • L'aumosne chrestienne, seconde partie . Contenant, l'aumosne ecclesiastique: ou la tradition de l'Eglise grecque et latine. Par laquelle on voit le sujet qu'ont eu les apostres, les papes, & les saints evesques, d'assister les pauvres, & d'y employer les biens des Eglises, & mesme quelquefois les vases sacrez dans les necessitez publiques & particulieres. Veuve Martin Durand. Et Jean Le Mire. Paris 1658.

literature

• Geneviève Delassault: Le Maistre de Sacy et son temps . Paris 1957, p. 10.
• Frédéric Delforge: Les Petites Ecoles de Port Royal 1637–1660 . 1985.
• Diane Dutton: Le plaidoyer de l'âge classique. Olivier Patru, Antoine Le Maistre and Claude Gaultier . l'Harmattan, Paris 2007.
• Ambroise Falconnet (1742–1817, ed.): Œuvres choisies de Le Maistre, célèbre avocat au parlement de Paris . F. Buisson, Paris 1807 (biography by the editor, pp. XXIII – LXXVI).
• André Le Gall: Racine . Flammarion, Paris 2004, pp. 52 and 72.
• Jean Lesaulnier and Antony McKenna: Dictionnaire de Port-Royal . Honoré Champion, Paris 2004.
• Alain Viala: Antoine Le Maistre. In: Laffont-Bompiani. Le nouveau dictionnaire des auteurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays . Paris 1994, pp. 1856-1857 (Bouquins series).

Web links

• Page Antoine Le Maistre on the website of the Friends of Port Royal, French
• Page with information on the Le Maistre family by Jean Lesaulnier, French
• Literature by and about Antoine Le Maistre in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• Information on Antoine Le Maistre in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Le Maistre, Antoine. In: Jesús Martínez de Bujanda , Marcella Richter: Index des livres interdits: Index librorum prohibitorum 1600–1966. Médiaspaul, Montréal 2002, ISBN 2-89420-522-8 , p. 527 (French, digitized ).