Nicole, Pierre
Nicole, Pierre
Theologian and controversialist, b. 19 October, 1625, at Chartres, d. 16 November, 1695, at Paris. He studied at Paris, became Master of Arts, 1644, and followed courses in theology, 1645-46. Under Sainte-Beuve’s direction he applied himself earnestly to the study of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, devoting part of his time to teaching in the schools of Port-Royal. In 1649 he received the degree of Bachelor of Theology, and then withdrew to Port-Royal des Champs, where he fell in with the Jansenistic leaders, especially Antoine Arnauld, who found in him a willing ally. He returned to Paris in 1654 under the assumed name of M. de Rosny. Four years later, during a tour in Germany, he translated Pascal’s “Provinciales” into classic Latin, adding notes of his own and publishing the whole as the work of William Wendrock. In 1676 he sought admission to Holy orders, but was refused by the Bishop of Chartres and never got beyond tonsure. A letter which he wrote (1677) to Innocent XI in favor of the Bishops of Saint-Pons and Arras, involved him in difficulties that obliged him to quit the capital. In 1679 he went to Belgium and lived for a time with Arnauld in Brussels, Liège, and other cities. About 1683 de Harlay, Archbishop of Paris, to whom he had sent a sort of retractation, authorized Nicole to return to Chartres, then to Paris. Here he took part in two celebrated controversies, the one involving Quietism in which he upheld Bossuet’s views, the other relating to monastic studies in which he sided with Mabillon against the Abbé de Rancey. His last years were saddened by painful infirmities and his death came after a series of apoplectic attacks.
Pierre Nicole was a distinguished writer and a vigorous controversialist and, together with Pascal, contributed much to the formation of French prose. As a controversialist, he too frequently placed his talent at the service of a sect; however, many are of the opinion that he did not wholly share the errors of the majority of the Jansenists. At any rate, we generally find in him only a mitigated expression of these errors clothed in great reserve. On the other hand, he started the resistance fund known as “la boîte à Perrette”. (See JANSENIUS.) Niceron (Mèmoires, XXIX, Paris, 1783) enumerates no less than eighty-eight of his works, several of which were, however, very short. The principal works of Nicole relating either to Protestantism or Jansenism are: “Les imaginaires et les visionnaires” or “Lettres sur l’hérésie imaginaire”, namely, that of the Jansenists (Liège, 1667); “La perpétuité de la foi catholique touchant l’Eucharistie”, published under Arnauld’s name, but the first three volumes of which (Paris, 1669-76) are by Nicole, the fourth and fifth (Paris, 1711-13) by the Abbé Renaudot; “Préjugés légitimes contre les Calvinistes” (Paris, 1671); “La défense de l’Eglise” (Cologne, 1689), being a reply to the “Défense de la Réformation” written by the minister, Claude, against the “Préjugés légitimes”; “Essais de morale” (Paris, 1671-78); “Les prétendus Réformés convaincus de schisme” (Paris, 1684); “De l’unité de l’Eglise” or “Réfutation du nouveau système de M. Jurieu” (paris, 1687), a condensed and decisive criticism of the theory of the “fundamental articles”; “Réfutation des principales erreurs des Quiétistes” (Paris, 1695); “Instructions théologiques et morales sur les sacrements” (Paris, 1706), “sur le Symbole” (Paris, 1706), “sur l’Oraison dominicale, la Salutation angélique, la Sainte Messe et les autres prières de l’Eglise (Paris, 1706), “sur le premier commandement du Décalogue” (Paris, 1709); “Traité de la grâce générale” (Paris, 1715), containing all that Nicole had written at different times on grace; “Traité de l’usure” (Paris, 1720).
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GOUJET, Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de Nicole (Paris, 1733); BESOIGNE, Vie de Nicole in the Histoire de Port-Royal, V; (Both of these authors are Jansenists and write as such.) an anonymous Biography of Nicole in the Continuation des essais de morale (Luxemburg, 1732), CERVEAU, L’esprit d e Nicole (Paris, 1765); MERSAN, Pensees de Nicole (Paris, 1806); FLOSS in Kirchenlex., s. v.; HURTER, Nomenclator, II.
J. FORGET Transcribed by Joseph E. O’Connor
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Nicole, Pierre
a celebrated Jansenist, and distinguished inmate of Port-Royal (q.v.), was born at Chartres, France, Oct. 19, 1625. At the age of fourteen, when he is said to have had a complete command of:Greek and Latin, his father sent him to Paris to study philosophy and theology. Here he became acquainted with the recluses of Port-Royal, who, desirous of attaching to themselves a man of such promise, induced him to join their order. Nicole began then to devote part of his time to the instruction of the youth brought up in that institution. After studying theology for three years he applied for a license; but the principles he had imbibed were not approved, either by the theological faculty or Paris, or that of any other Roman Catholic university, and he had to remain content with the degree of B.A., which he took in 1649. The leisure now forced upon him by want of employment by the state he devoted to the interests of the community of Port Royal, where he resided a while, and helped Dr. Arnaud, SEE ARNAUD in writing several works in defense of Jansenius, and of his doctrine. In 1664 Nicole went with Arnaud to Chatillon, near Paris, where he wrote against the Calvinists and the relaxed Casuists, for the avowed purpose, according to Jervis, of giving public proof of his zeal for the true faith. In 1676 Nicole was induced to seek again for holy orders. He was refused the necessary consent by the bishop of Chartres, who disapproved of Nicole’s Jansenistic opinions. Nicole was, however, evidently rather rejoiced than annoyed at thus being afforded an excuse for remaining in a position where he was not too near the van in the battle of controversy.
Yet in his own province, as a clerical and polemical logician, he was bold and uncompromising; and it was not from the defense of his principles, but from their too conspicuous championship, that he shrunk. In consequence of a letter he had addressed to pope Innocent XI for the bishops of St. Pons and Arras, and of the death of the duchess of Longueville, the most zealous protector of the Jansenists, he was obliged to leave France in 1679, and retired to Belgium. He came back, however, in 1683, and took a great part in two celebrated quarrels of the time that of the studies suited to monastic institutions, where he joined Mabillon in defending devotion to science and learning in place of pure asceticism; and that concerning quietism, in which he opposed the devotees of that mental epidemic. He was a man of simple habits and candid mind, and some ludicrous incidents have been told arising out of his absence of mind. He died Nov. 11, 1695. His works are many and voluminous. He was the principal author of La Logique, ou Art de Penser (1668), known as the Port-Royal Logic. Of the first three volumes of La Perpetuite de la Foi de l’Eglise Cwaholipue touchani l’Eucharistie, which is generally associated with the name of Arnaud, Nicole is known to have been the principal writer (see Jervis, 2:14,15). Hume admired the logical clearness with which Nicole in this work showed the impossibility of one mind sufficiently examining all subjects connected with religion to form a creed for itself on the principle of private judgment; and stated that the difficulty so ingeniously set forth suggested to him the skeptical argument in his Dialogues on Natural Religion. Nicole’s principal works are, es imaginaires et les visionnaires, ou lettres sur hersie imaginaire [Anon.] (h Mons, 1693, 2 vols. 12mo): Pensees (Paris, 1806, 18mo): Traite de la grace genrale (1715, 2 vols. 12mo): Epigrammatum delectus (1659, 12mo): Essais de Morale, contenus en divers traites sur plusieurs devoirs importants (Paris, 1733, etc. 25 vols. in 26, 12mo), which is an able exposition of the subject from the Cartesian’ stand-point. See Goujet, Hist. de la vie et des ouvrages de Nicole (1733, 12mo); Besoigne, Vie de Nicole (Hist. du Port-Royal, vol. iv); Saverien, Vies des Philosophes Modernes (vol. i); Niceron,. Memoires, 29:285-333; Nouv. Dict. Hist. etc. s.v.; English Cyclop. s.v.; Jervis,: Hist. Ch. of France (Lond. 1872, 2 vols. 8vo), 2:14 sq.; Hagenbach, Hist. of Doctrines, vol. ii, 228, p. 324; and the literature appended to the article PORT-ROYAL SEE PORT-ROYAL . (J. N. P.)