The Other Pascals

John J. Conley

Description

There have been many studies analyzing the philosophy of Blaise Pascal, but this book is the first full-length study of the philosophies of his sisters, Jacqueline Pascal and Gilberte Pascal Périer, and his niece, Marguerite Périer. While these women have long been presented as the disciples, secretaries, correspondents, and nurses of their brother and uncle, each woman developed a distinctive philosophy that is more than auxiliary to the thought of Blaise Pascal. The unique philosophical voice of each Pascal woman is studied in The Other Pascals.

As the headmistress of the Port-Royal convent school, Jacqueline Pascal made important contributions to the philosophy of education. Gilberte Pascal Périer wrote the first philosophical biographies of Blaise and Jacqueline. Marguerite Périer defended freedom of conscience against coercion by political and religious superiors.

Each of these women authors speaks in a gendered voice, emphasizing the right of women to develop a philosophical and theological culture and to resist commands to blind obedience by paternal, political, or ecclesiastical authorities. The Other Pascals will be of keen interest to readers interested in early modern philosophy, history, literature, and religion. The book will also appeal to those with an interest in women’s studies and French studies.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie de la religion
• Religion
• Christianisme
• 17th Century
• Modern
• Religious
• HISTORY
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Women
• Modern history
• Woman
• Christianity
• The Women
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf
• Blaise Pascal

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 30 avril 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268105167
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Other Pascals
JOHN J. CONLEY, S.J.
The Other Pascals
The Philosophy of Jacqueline Pascal, Gilberte Pascal Périer, and Marguerite Périer
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS NOTRE DAME, INDIANA
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
Copyright © 2019 by the University of Notre Dame
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Conley, John J., author.
Title: The other Pascals : the philosophy of Jacqueline Pascal, Gilberte Pascal Pâerier, and Marguerite Pâerier / John J. Conley, S.J.
Description: Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019002211 (print) | LCCN 2019008438 (ebook) | ISBN 9780268105150 (pdf) | ISBN 9780268105167 (epub) | ISBN 9780268105136 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 0268105138 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Pascal, Jacqueline, 1625–1661. | Perier, Madame (Gilberte), 1620–1685 or 1687. | Pâerier, Marguerite, 1646–1733. | Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354–430—Influence. | Philosophy, French—17th century. | Philosophy, French—18th century.
Classification: LCC BX4735.P3 (ebook) | LCC BX4735.P3 C66 2019 (print) | DDC 230/.20922—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019002211
∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper.
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail]
Dedicated to Stephen J. Smith, Pascalian friend
CONTENTS
Preface
Abbreviations
ONE Introduction: A Familial Philosophy
TWO Jacqueline Pascal: Virtue and Conscience
THREE Gilberte Pascal Périer: Philosophical Portraiture
FOUR Marguerite Périer: Creed and Resistance
FIVE Conclusion: Canon and Gender
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Letters by Jacqueline Pascal
Appendix B: Life of Jacqueline Pascal by Gilberte Pascal Périer
Appendix C: Profession of Faith by Marguerite Périer
Notes
Bibliography
Index
PREFACE
Whenever I return to Paris for a period of research, I make a pilgrimage to the city’s “necklace” of Jansenist churches. These are Left-Bank parishes that sympathized with the Jansenist movement at its birth in the seventeenth century. Still active, the parishes retain traces of Jansenism and of one of the movement’s most prominent families, the Pascals. Austere in its simplicity, the neoclassical Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas nestles on the commercial Rue Saint-Jacques between the old convent of Port-Royal (now Hôpital Cochin) to the south and the Bibliothèque de la Société de Port-Royal, the world’s preeminent collection of Jansenist books and manuscripts, to its north. The prominence of the pulpit, the transparency of the sanctuary, and the sobriety of the decoration sum up the Jansenist ideal of public worship. Abutting a bustling market street, Saint-Médard contains one of the world’s most infamous cemeteries. It was here in the early eighteenth century that riots broke out as Jansenist convulsionnaires claimed miraculous healings as they leapt into ecstatic dances. Marguerite Périer, the niece of Blaise Pascal, became an ardent advocate of the graveyard’s controversial enthusiasts. The Gothic parish church of the Latin Quarter Saint-Séverin has long served as the center for liturgical experimentation for French Catholicism. With their plea for greater use of the vernacular and greater lay participation in the liturgy, the ancient Jansenist members of the parish would feel at home. Adjacent to the Sorbonne, the flamboyant Gothic church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont stands as a shrine for disciples of Pascal. Blaise Pascal died in the territory of the parish; his sister Gilberte and her children worshiped here. I occasionally celebrate Mass at the Lady Chapel in the back of the church. Blaise Pascal, his sister Gilberte, and his nephew Blaise are buried here, next to the pillars of the chapel.

In writing this monograph, I have incurred many debts. I thank the staffs of the libraries where I conducted much of this research: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Bibliothèque de la Société de Port-Royal, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, and the Eisenhower Library of the Johns Hopkins University. I thank Loyola University Maryland for the research support offered through the Henry J. Knott Chair of Philosophy and Theology, which I currently occupy, and for the sabbatical in Paris I enjoyed in 2015–16. I also thank the Center for the Humanities at Loyola University Maryland. Several professional societies have permitted me to present papers on this topic and receive valuable criticism: Society for the Study of Women Philosophers, Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference, the Renaissance Society of America, and the American Catholic Historical Association. I am indebted to the criticism offered by fellow scholars on earlier drafts of the book’s chapters: Catharine Randall of Dartmouth College; Rev. Joseph W. Koterski, S.J., of Fordham University; and Sharon Nell of Saint Edward’s University.
I also owe a special debt to scholars who have preceded me in editing and promoting the works of the women in the Pascal family. Victor Cousin’s Jacqueline Pascal (1845) introduced nineteenth-century readers to the remarkable life and texts of Blaise’s sister in the convent of Port-Royal. This work on Jacqueline was only one of many volumes where the president of the Sorbonne, a prominent philosopher himself, celebrated the writings of philosophical seventeenth-century women authors. M. P. Faugère provided us with the first edition (1845) of the works of three women in the Pascal family: Jacqueline, her sister Gilberte, and her niece Marguerite. The Faugère archives at the Bibliothèque Mazarine helped to clarify some of his editorial choices. His edition, Letters, Opuscula, and Memoirs of Madame Périer and of Jacqueline Pascal, Sisters of Pascal, and of Marguerite Périer, His Niece , is now happily available online at the Gallica section of the Bibliothèque nationale de France website. Jean Mesnard’s multivolume edition of the writings of the Pascal family (1964–92) provides us with definitive critical editions of the major writings of the three Pascal/Périer women.
The years of research on this book have involved more than translation, historical research, and critical analysis. They have constituted a spiritual odyssey. They have permitted me to glimpse a Catholicism where questions of grace, salvation, damnation, predestination, and election are taken with the utmost seriousness—quite different from the bland moralism that has become the lot of much of Catholicism in the contemporary United States. The struggle of these women against abuses of authority by church and state has underscored the heart of intellectual freedom—the power to assent or dissent from claims of truth being forced upon us. Their writings have also manifested a properly theological side to the struggle to respect the dignity of women. This involves the right to elect one’s superiors, to construct one’s rule of life, to study the scriptures and patristic texts, and to say yea or nay in the religious controversies of the day.
ABBREVIATIONS ANPR Additions au Nécrologie de Port-Royal CDP Chroniques des Pascal: “Les affaires du monde” d’Étienne Pascal à Marguerite Périer (1588–1733) DPR Dictionnaire de Port-Royal LOM Lettres, opuscules et mémoires de Madame Périer et de Jacqueline, soeurs de Pascal, et de Marguerite Périer, sa nièce MF Mémoire sur sa famille MM Sur le mystère de la mort de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ MPF Mémoire sur Pascal et sa famille OC Oeuvres complètes de Blaise Pascal , 4 vols., ed. Jean Mesnard PF Profession de Foi RCQ Récit de ce que j’ai ouïe dire au sujet des Provinciales RE Règlement pour les enfants RMP Relation à la mère prièure de Port-Royal SMP Sur Monsieur Pascal SN Sur Nicole VJ Vie de Jacqueline Pascal VP Vie de Monsieur Pascal
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
A Familial Philosophy
A recent Internet search indicates the problem. The OCLC World Catalogue cites 8,470 entries for Blaise Pascal, but only 148 for his sister Jacqueline Pascal, 35 for his sister Gilberte Pascal Périer, and 5 for his niece Marguerite Périer. A similar imbalance appears in the MLA Bibliography : 1,445 entries for Blaise, 9 for Jacqueline, 6 for Gilberte, and none for Marguerite. The gap in philosophical commentaries is even more striking. In the Philosopher’s Index , Blaise receives 179 citations; Jacqueline, 4; Gilberte and Marguerite, none. Although there is renewed scholarly interest in the lives of Gilberte and Jacqueline Pascal, a truly philosophical study of their works has yet to be written.
Many studies of Blaise Pascal have noted the complex influence of Jacqueline and Gilberte Pascal on their mercurial brother, Blaise. 1 But this influence is usually seen as more emotive and religious than intellectual in nature. In this close-knit familial trio, Jacqueline and Gilberte often emerge as the caregivers, nurses, secretaries, disciples, memorialists, and sparring partners of Blaise. Inevitably, Gilberte’s biography of Blaise is included in any edition of Blaise’s collected works. Jacqueline is repeatedly cited as a witness to Blaise’s transformative “night of fire” on November 23, 1654, and to his oscillations in religious fervor. The distinctive thought of each woman, however, is usually neglected. The sisters and niece of Blaise have survived in the history of philosophy as adjuncts to a philosophical genius, but they are rarely accorded the status of philosophers themselves.
The thesis of this book is a simple one: Jacqueline Pascal, Gilberte Pascal Périer, and Marguerite Périer each developed a distinctive variant of the neo-Augustinian philosophy that functioned as their family’s intellectual creed. This familial Augustinian culture already existed in the