M.Arnauld was a great theologian, an indefatigable controversialist, the oracle and guide of his friends in their struggle against the Jesuits; M.de Sacy and M.Singlin were wise and able directors, as austere as M.de St.Cyran in their requirements, less domineering and less rough than he; but M.de St.Cyran alone was and could be the head of Jansenism; he alone could have inspired that idea of immolation of the whole being to the sovereign will of God, as to the truth which resides in Him alone.

Once assured of this point, M.de St.Cyran became immovable.

Mother Angelica pressed him to appear before the archbishop's council, which was to pronounce upon his book _Theologie familiere_.

"It is always good to humble one's self," she said.

"As for you," he replied, "who are in that disposition, and would not in any respect compromise the honor of the truth, you could do it; but as for me, I should break down before the eyes of God if I consented thereto; the weak are more to be feared sometimes than the wicked." Mother Angelica Arnauld, to whom these lines were addressed, was the most perfect image and the most accomplished disciple of M.de St.Cyran.
More gentle and more human than he, she was quite as strong and quite as zealous.