Solitaires (Port-Royal)

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La Maison des Solitaires, Granges de Port-Royal des Champs .

The Solitaires (also: Messieurs de Port-Royal ) were men who chose a life of seclusion and simple conditions in Port-Royal des Champs during the 17th century . Mostly it was the offspring of bourgeois or noble families who felt drawn to a life of asceticism and therefore withdrew from the world, but without joining a religious community .

At first they settled in the former women's convent Port-Royal des Champs when the nuns founded the convent Port-Royal de Paris . When the nuns returned to Port-Royal, they settled in the Granges farm (ferme de Granges).

The well-known Solitaires led a life that was divided into manual labor (agriculture, gardening, hydraulic engineering, etc., travaux manuels "manual occupations") and intellectual work (travaux intellectuels). Among other things, they founded the Petites écoles (Small Schools) in Port-Royal, which were very innovative in terms of their educational concept.

We owe the Solitaires numerous theological , patristic , literary , educational works and other works, which made the movement one of the most important intellectual movements of the 17th century, the “Grand Siècle”, in connection with Jansenism .

Saint-Cyran and the Hermits

Petites Écoles

When an edifying pamphlet by Agnès was condemned by the Sorbonne for making theologically problematic statements , an anonymous defensive pamphlet appeared, the author of which turned out to be Jean Duvergier de Hauranne , the Abbot of Saint-Cyran - he is also known by the latter name. Saint-Cyran, a friend and student of the founder of the French oratorians , Pierre de Bérulle , was considered the head of the dévots , the devout Catholics, after his death , and Angélique Arnauld and her nuns made him their spiritual leader. Under the impression of his personality, Antoine Le Maître , a nephew of Angélique, and several of his brothers and friends, including Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy (1613–1684), Pascal's later interlocutor , settled in Port Royal des Champs from 1638 : You moved into a few barns near the monastery (Les Granges) and founded the Petites Écoles , schools with a demanding training program that became a magnet for the French upper class. I.a. Racine grew up here later as an orphan. From the teaching and research activities of the "Hermits of Port-Royal", among other important works, the Grammaire générale et raisonnée ( Grammar of Port-Royal ) by Antoine Arnauld , Angélique's famous younger brother, the Logique ou l'Art de penser ( Logic von Port-Royal ) by Arnauld and Pierre Nicole , and the only French translation of the Bible from the 17th century.

After France, under Richelieu, entered the Thirty Years' War on the side of the Protestant princes in 1635 , the latter saw a considerable threat in the devout Catholics, especially in the circle that was forming in Port-Royal, and therefore set up Saint-Cyran in 1638 without further ado captured. Although the examination of his writings did not reveal any heretical content, he was imprisoned for five years. Saint-Cyran died shortly after his release in 1643 and was quickly seen as a martyr . The messieurs of Port-Royal sided with the opponents of the king and his cardinal in the uprising of the Fronde from 1648 onwards and thus attracted a long-lasting hostility from the court.

Well-known solitaires