Introduction

Abstract

It is something of a paradox that so retiring a man as Pierre Nicole should have had so important a role in the Jansenist controversy of the mid-seventeenth century. In fact in his middle and later years, the most productive of his life, his preferred occupation was the composition of works of piety and morality and he withdrew from the Jansenist battle, though not from all controversy. Essentially an homme de cabinet, he sought to clarify disputed questions in the interests of truth and moral good. His constant concern was with the capacities, needs and duties of man - fallen yet living in hope of things to come, a transient inhabitant of an imperfect world yet contriving to make of it his home.