corruption by establishing thoroughly
moral schools and publishing works denouncing, in strong terms, the
glaring errors of the time, the source of which was considered, by
both the Abbe of Saint-Cyran and Jansenius, to lie in the Jesuit
Colleges and their theology. Thus was evolved a system of education in
every way antagonistic to that of the Jesuits.

At this time the convent at Paris became so crowded that Mere
Angelique withdrew to the abbey near Versailles, the occupants of
which retired to a neighboring farm, Les Granges; there was opened
a seminary for females, which soon attracted the daughters of the
nobility. An astounding literary and agricultural activity resulted,
both at the abode of the recluses and at the seminary: by the recluses
were written the famous Greek and Latin grammars, and by the nuns, the
famous _Memoirs of the History of Port-Royal_ and the _Image of the
Perfect and Imperfect Sister_; a model farm was cultivated, and here
the peasants were taught improved methods of tillage. During the
time of the civil wars the convent became a resort where charity and
hospitality were extended to the poor peasants.

"The mode of life at Port-Royal was distinguished for austerity. The
inmates rose at three o'clock in the morning, and, after the common
prayer, kissed the ground as a sign of their self-humiliation before
God. Then, kneeling, they read a chapter from the Gospels and one from
the Epistles, concluding with another prayer. Two hours in the morning
and a like number in the afternoon were devoted to manual labor in the
gardens adjoining the convent; they observed, with great strictness,
the season of Lent." Their theories and practices, and especially
their sympathy with Jansenius, whose work _Mars Gallicus_ attacked
the French government and people, aroused the suspicions of Richelieu.
When in 1640 the Port-Royalists openly and enthusiastically received
the famous work, _Augustinus_, of Jansenius, the government became the
declared opponent of the convent. Saint-Cyran had been imprisoned
in 1638, and not until after the death of Richelieu, in 1642, was
he liberated. After the appearance, in 1643, of Arnauld's _De la
Frequente Communion_, in which he attacked the Jesuits for admitting
the people to the Lord's Supper without due preparation, two parties
formed--the Jesuits, supported by the Sorbonne and the government, and
the Port-Royalists, supported by Parliament and illustrious persons,
such