Arnauld, Antoine

(1612-1694)

(the Grand Arnauld)

   theologian

   The most famous French exponent of jansenism, Arnauld was born in paris and studied theology at the sorbonne. There, he came under the influence of the leaders of the Jansenist movement. In 1641, he was ordained a priest and, in 1643, the same year that he was made a member of the Society of the Sorbonne, he published De la fréquente Communion— a basic exposition of Jansenist principles. The work would provoke the Jesuits with whom he would be engaged in controversy and debate for the rest of his life. For a time, Arnauld was a member of the Jansenist community of Port-Royal, near Paris. In 1665, the Jesuits had him expelled from the Sorbonne and, despite the protection of louis XIV, forced him into exile in Belgium in 1679. He did research for blaise pascal's Provinciales and continued to publish his polemics against his many other adversaries, including Calvinists and freethinkers. Arnauld's other major works are Apologie pour les Saints-Pères (1651, Lettre d'un docteur de Sorbonne à une personne de condition and Seconde Lettre à un duc et pair (1655). other works include Grammaire générale et raisonnée or Grammaire de Port-Royal (1660), Logique de Port-Royal (1662), and La Perpétuité de la foi (1669-79). Besides his eminent place in the history of Christianity, Antoine Arnauld is a major figure in logic and the philosophy of language.