Voix des abbesses du Grand Siècle: La Prédication au féminin à Port-Royal: Context rhétorique et Dossier (review)

The voices of three abbesses of the Arnauld family — sisters Angélique (1591–1661) and Agnès (1593–1671) and their niece Angélique de Saint-Jean (1624–84) — at the celebrated convent of Port-Royal are the focus of this new book by Thomas M. Carr, Jr. These women led Port-Royal through its most turbulent years, as the monarchy and the Church, both strongly influenced by the Jesuits, attempted to suppress it. Carr has gathered for modern readers some of the most elusive of texts, namely, the written record of these eloquent abbesses’ spoken words.

Contrary to modern assumptions, Carr notes, silence did not reign in seventeenth-century women’s monasteries. Abbesses at Port-Royal addressed the nuns daily in the church, the refectory, and the chapter room, offering instruction to novices, explanations of the Rule of Saint Benedict and the Constitutions of Port-Royal, exhortations to prayer, guided discussions at conference, even commentaries of the Bible and of liturgical texts. According to Carr, the abbesses’ main goals in these addresses were to maintain the nuns’ cognitive engagement in religious life, to make explicit what justified their separation from the world and how Port-Royal was different from other convents, and to promote the internalization of practices prescribed by the Rule and the Constitutions. Although few addresses have been preserved — the spoken word being, by its very nature, ephemeral — a limited number of them have come down to us by means of transcriptions and summaries; some were published in the eighteenth century and others remain extant as unpublished manuscripts.

The first part of this book is a general discussion of women’s preaching in this period followed by an examination of Port-Royal and its abbesses. The second part is a collection of texts recording the abbesses’ words, organized by theme. The Pauline injunctions facing women who speak openly in a Christian context are, of course, central to this study. According to these proscriptions, women’s voices do not belong in the public space of the Church, theological understanding is not suitable for women, and women are not allowed to teach men. Women are, however, permitted to teach their daughters in the home, a loophole exploited productively by the abbesses of Port-Royal like so many others.

Carr has chosen texts in which abbesses address the whole convent. He underlines the collective character of monastic life, the importance of which permeates the abbesses’ own words as well. These women build community by highlighting the exceptional nature of Port-Royal and portraying the convent as the site of an ongoing battle. As we read their words, we find the defining elements of Port-Royal — eucharistic devotion, penitential spirituality, austerity, and strict observance of the Rule — and we hear, over and over, the need for humility, obedience, and continued renewal. Above all, we encounter the theology of grace, which came to Port-Royal from Augustine by way of Cornelius Jansen (1585–1638) and the Abbot of Saint-Cyran (1581–1643) and which was the root of much of the conflict involving convent, king, and pope.

Among the most fascinating portions of this study are discussions of the abbesses’ preaching during this conflict, which began in earnest in 1653 when Innocent X signed the bull Cum occasione condemning five propositions said to have come from Jansen. This bull was followed by a series of formularies that all clergy in France were required to sign. The nuns’ refusal to sign the formulary against Jansen (at least, without a postscript stating that the condemned propositions were not attributable to Jansen) brought about waves of hostility toward Port-Royal in the 1660s and again in the 1680s after the death of the Duchess of Longueville (1619–79), the convent’s most...