ABSTRACT
The convent of Port-Royal was the center of the famous seventeenth-century Catholic theological movement inspired by the Flemish bishop Cornelius Jansen. This chapter examines the role of Port-Royalists in interconfessional relations by focusing on the social connections. It discusses typical features of Port-Royalists' salons from the 1640s to the 1660s by analyzing their clientele. The chapter also examines the political and diplomatic context of interconfessional contact outside France, in which crucial roles were played by Simon Arnauld, one of the major actors in the Port-Royalists' social scene, and some consuls in the Levant. It discusses the effects of intellectual exchange in interconfessional environments by looking at two conversions of Calvinist noblemen to Catholicism. Although different factors may have driven initial connections between such women and the Port-Royalists, they showed a general tendency to build houses inside the enclosure of the convent or around these institutions.
