of Method is 1637.  The Augustinus of Jansenius was published in 1640, and in 1643 Arnauld’s Frequent Communion made Jansenism a popular power.  The Jansenist movement was in France in some measure what the Puritan movement was in England, and it caught hold of serious minds in much the same way.  The Jesuits had undertaken the task of making Christianity easy, of finding a compromise between worldliness and religion, and they flooded the world with a casuistic literature designed for this purpose.  Ex opinionum varietate jugum Christi suavius deportatur.  The doctrine of Jansenius was directed against this corruption of faith and morals.  He maintained that there can be no compromise with the world; that casuistry is incompatible with morality; that man is naturally corrupt; and that in his most virtuous acts some corruption is present.

Now the significance of these two forces—­the stern ideal of the Jansenists and the casuistry of the Jesuit teachers—­is that they both attempted to meet, by opposed methods, the wave of libertine thought and conduct which is a noticeable feature in the history of French society from the reign of Henry iv. to that of Louis xv. [Footnote:  For the prevalence of “libertine” thought in France at the beginning of the seventeenth century see the work of the Pere Garasse, La Doctrine curieuse des beaux esprits de ce temps ou pretendus tels, etc. (1623).  Cp. also Brunetiere’s illuminating study, “Jansenistes et Cartesiens” in Etudes critiques, 4me serie.] This libertinism had its philosophy, a sort of philosophy of nature, of which the most brilliant exponents were Rabelais and Moliere.  The maxim, “Be true to nature,” was evidently opposed sharply to the principles of the Christian religion, and it was associated with sceptical views which prevailed widely in France from the early years of the seventeenth century.  The Jesuits sought to make terms by saying virtually:  “Our religious principles and your philosophy of nature are not after all so incompatible in practice.  When it comes to the application of principles, opinions differ.  Theology is as elastic as you like.  Do not abandon your religion on the ground that her yoke is hard.”  Jansenius and his followers, on the other hand, fought uncompromisingly with the licentious spirit of the time, maintaining the austerest dogmas and denouncing any compromise or condescension.  And their doctrine had a wonderful success, and penetrated everywhere.  Few of the great literary men of the reign of Louis XIV. escaped it.  Its influence can be traced in the Maximes of La Rochefoucauld and the Caracteres of La Bruyere.  It was through its influence that Moliere found it difficult to get some of his plays staged.  It explains the fact that the court of Louis XIV., however corrupt, was decorous compared with the courts of Henry iv. and Louis xv.; a severe standard was set up, if it was not observed.