Nicole, Pierre

Nicole, Pierre

(pyĕr nēkôl`), 1625–95, French Jansenist writer. He studied and taught at Port-Royal abbey, the center of Jansenism (see under Jansen, CornelisJansen, Cornelis
, 1585–1638, Dutch Roman Catholic theologian. He studied at the Univ. of Louvain and became imbued with the idea of reforming Christian life along the lines of a return to St. Augustine.
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). One of his pupils there was Racine. He worked with Pascal on the Provinciales. His chief writings in his mission of popularizing Jansenism were two series of epistolary essays, Les Visionnaires and Lettres sur l'hérésie imaginaire. In 1679 he fled with Antoine ArnauldArnauld
, French family involved in Jansenism (see under Jansen, Cornelis). The name is also spelled Arnaut or Arnault. The leader was a nun, Marie Angélique de Sainte Madeleine, 1591–1661, abbess from early youth of Port-Royal, a Cistercian house near Paris.
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 to Belgium, but he became reconciled with the authorities and returned to Paris in 1683. Subsequently he led in the attack on quietism.