Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-12-10

censured propositions could be found in the Augasns
But Anne of Austria tool in the hands of1daza
rim was little disposed to heed such nice Determinations
and accordingly commissioned her ieuenants break
up the nursery Of heresy it represented at Port
j Royal des Champs
How this consummation was arrested on the eve of 1T
accomplishment by the miracle Of the Sacred Thorn,
we have not time fully to narrate Suffice it to say
miracle wrought the person Of Pascas niece by
which she was instantaneousy cured Of disorder in
the eyes-a fstula laehy1aalis, of more than tire,
years standing vertable splinter from the Saviour
crown Of thorns the instrument of the miraculous
cure having been applied to the by the Soeur Fay
Passar who had charge of the children in the nunnery
Whatever at this distant day. Professionals we may
think Of the of this miracle we cannot question
its authenticity without impugnng not only such men ri
Pascal and Arnauld but the medical faculty of Paris
well, and the angered Jesuits who thirstng to re-
yenge themselves by the destruction of the Abbey
of Austria awed by this supernatural attestaton
Heaven and the Jesuts themselves stood abashed before
the divine hand so ysby nteposed to the object
of their hatred The learned writer Of the Introduction
miracle in question may be perhaps most pausibly
planned by referring it to satanic agency in this view
conciding believe. with the opinion Of Sir James
Stephen theory which to us, however, seems to in
volye difficulties much greater and than
any it is competent to
The respite obtained by the miracle of the Holy Thorn
expired with the death of Mazarn and the authority of
the Queen Mother and the baed Jesuits returned
to the combat against Jansenism and its stronghold Port
Royal des Champs No sooner was Louis XIV. fairly
seated on the throne than synod If the French clergy
convened to draw up antiJansenist test to be
taken by all eccesiastics and communities But again
dad dos ia
true by the Intervention of miracle but by the address
and influence of Anne Genevieve the Duchess de Tongue
vile, and the heroine of the Fronde Disguised by life
of constant agatons if should not pierced by the
sngs of late but tender remorse she had come in her
declining years to find refuge aad solitude within the
convent walls of Port Royal And here though dead to
the world she still preserved enough of influence at the
royal court to stay the impending blow which threatened
the ruin of her last retreat the home of her religious
vows and the chosen into which she had fed from
the storms of certainly not uneventfu but still I'M
happy life
For ten years Port Royal again enjoyed repose but
DEATH which to surprise the penint Duchess de
Longueylle at her vgs and maceration deprived the
abbey in her person of its guardian and its stay The
Jesuts, often foed but dsheartened again plotted
the downfall of the stronghold of Jansensm. De Lacy
and Tllemont and Pontchateau banished. Nicole
and Arnauld fled to Holland Postulant md pupils
expelled from the monastery and the admission Of novces
was interdcted The election of abbess next for
hidden The contumacy of the conventua siserhood was
voted heresy The sacraments of the church
withheld The estates of the nunnery confscated
and finally by papal bull the monastery suppressed
in 1903. The Cardinal de Noaies the minister of
all this vengeance He rested until he drove the
poughshare the very foundations of the monastery
and had violated the graves in which the exed nuns had
laid their departed sisters The wicked did not
from troubling in the tomb. At length" says he
from whom we have already quoted eloquent passage,
trace remained of the fortress of Jansensm to offend
the of the Jesuits, to pepeuate the memory Of
the lustrious dead with whom they had long contend
ed. The solitary Gothic arch, the water mill, and the
dovecote rising the banks OF the pool the de-
cayed towers and the farmhouse the slopes of the
valley, oil that attest that it once the crowd
ed abode of the wse the learned and the good that
spot, however, may still be the winding brook the
verdant hills and the quiet meadows natures indestrsc
tble monuments to the devout and holy who
nurtured there affections which made them lovely
lives, and hopes which rendered them triumphant in
death Nor in her long roll of martyrs has history
record the Of any who suffered with greater
stancy in nobler cause; for their conflict with
the very church they most profoundly revered and their
was that of devotednes sincerity and the abhor-
renee of fasehood"+
We have thus rudey sketched the history and fortunes
Of the Port Royaists In the volume before we have
glimpse of convent life" in the experience of
Jaquene, sister Of the illustrous Pascal And envy
not the feelings Of that woman not whether
Protestant Catholic who rise from its perusal with
out profound respect for her genius for her
piey and admiration for her remarkable character
with its sweety blended traits Of masculine strength and
female tenderness
For further information respecting the life and sbors
Of the Port Royast worthless, whether male female
refer the reader to the splendid article Of Sir James
Stephen originally contributed to the Edinburgh Review
in the year lS4l and since republished in volume Of
Miscellanies by the same author. We must be par
doned however in saying that the article in question
contains few inaccuracies in its statement Of facts in
accuracies which, however, would be overlooked did they
not contrast oddly with the surprising excellence that
characterizes the essay a whole.
rwuUr-@sr<zum@
"a NEEDLESS ALARN."-Under this head the New Or
leans Crescent Of the 2Sth umo audes to the reports
Of the prevalence of cholera in that city and says