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Jacqueline Pascal (1625-1661) was the sister of Blaise Pascal and a nun at the Jansenist Port-Royal convent in France. She was also a prolific writer who argued for the spiritual rights of women and the right of conscientious objection to royal, ecclesiastic, and family authority.This book presents selections from the whole of Pascal's career as a writer, including her witty adolescent poetry and her pioneering treatise on the education of women, A Rule for Children, which drew on her experiences as schoolmistress at Port-Royal. Readers will also find Pascal's devotional treatise, which matched each moment in Christ's Passion with a corresponding virtue that his female disciples should cultivate; a transcript of her interrogation by church authorities, in which she defended the controversial theological doctrines taught at Port-Royal; a biographical sketch of her abbess, which presented Pascal's conception of the ideal nun; and a selection of letters offering spirited defenses of Pascal's right to practice her vocation, regardless of patriarchal objections.
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A RULE FOR CHILDREN AND OTHER WRITINGS THE OTHER VOICE IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE A Series Edited by Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil Jr. RECENT BOOKS IN THE SERIES TULLIA D’ARAGONA FRANÇOIS POULLAIN DE LA BARRE Dialogue on the Infinity of Love Three Cartesian Feminist Treatises Edited and translated by Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry Introductions and Annotations by Marcelle Maistre Welch Translation by Vivien Bosley CASSANDRA FEDELE Letters and Orations Edited and translated by Diana Robin VERONICA FRANCO Poems and Selected Letters Edited and translated by Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal MARIE LE JARS DE GOURNAY “Apology for the Woman Writing” and Other Works Edited and translated by Richard Hillman and Colette Quesnel LUCREZIA MARINELLA The Nobility and Excellence of Women, and the Defects and Vices of Men Edited and translated by Anne Dunhill with Letizia Panizza ANNE-MARIE-LOUISE D’ORLÉANS, DUCHESSE DE MONTPENSIER Against Marriage: The Correspondence of La Grande Mademoiselle Edited and translated by Joan DeJean SISTER BARTOLOMEA RICCOBONI Life and Death in a Venetian Convent: The Chronicle and Necrology of Corpus Domini, 1395–1436 Edited and translated by Daniel Bornstein MARÍA DE SAN JOSÉ SALAZAR Book for the Hour of Recreation Introduction and Notes by Alison Weber Translation by Amanda Powell ANNA MARIA VAN SCHURMAN “Whether a Christian Woman Should Be Educated” and Other Writings from Her Intellectual Circle Edited and translated by Joyce L. Irwin LUCREZIA TORNABUONI DE’MEDICI Sacred Narratives Edited and translated by Jane Tylus JUAN LUIS VIVES “The Education of a Christian Woman”: A Sixteenth-Century Manual Edited and translated by Charles Fantazzi Jacqueline Pascal A RULE FOR CHILDREN AND OTHER WRITINGS Edited and translated by John J. Conley, S.J. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS Chicago & London Jacqueline Pascal, 1625 – 61 John J. Conley, S.J., is associate professor of philosophy at Fordham University. He is the author of The Suspicion of Virtue: Women Philosophers in Neoclassical France and coeditor of Prophecy and Diplomacy: The Moral Doctrine of John Paul II. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2003 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2003 Printed in the United States of America 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN: 0-226-64831-1 (cloth) ISBN: 0-226-64833-8 (paper) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pascal, Jacqueline, 1625–1661. [Selections. English. 2003] A rule for children and other writings / Jacquel