In 1709, the French monarch Louis XIV ordered the police to intervene in the abbey of Port-Royal des Champs in an attempt to control the Jansenists; followers of a spiritual movement founded by Cornelius Otto Jansen, known as Jansenius (1585-1638). Royalist fears of Jansenism persisted and two years later the abbey would be completely destroyed, the bodies of the Jansenists exhumed and the area turned into agricultural land. Although Louis XIV believed he had successfully destroyed the potential Jansenist threat to his authority, the movement would later re-emerge and by 1762 the Paris parliament was considered a Jansenist stronghold. Once seated in the Paris parliament, the Jansenists would disband the Jesuit Order, or Society of Jesus, labeling the organization perverse and destructive of religious principles. The Jansenist campaign to persecute the Jesuits was interpreted by many French intellectuals, including the famous philosopher Voltaire, as revenge for the Order-sanctioned destruction of the abbey of Port-Royal des Champs.1 Jansenism returned to France during the 'Enlightenment, a period of European development represented by strict adherence to philosophy influenced by the Enlightenment. Philosophies produced during this era often opposed belief in things unknown in favor of secular beliefs in human progress; and seemed to delegitimize the notion of divine grace, labeling it incompatible with natural law. Enlightenment philosophy has also been interpreted as a direct attack on the Catholic Church, a challenge to papal dogmatism, and has been credited with dissolving the authority of the Jesuits in France. However, due to the popular historiographical emphasis on philosophical discourse during the Enlightenment era, the Jansenist role in Jesuit movements pers...... middle of paper. However, it can be said that both “Jansenisms” actually straddle the border between political and religious theatre. From a religious perspective, Jansenism was initially condemned by the Catholic Church for its resistance to Molinist reform efforts. When examined in political context, the French monarchs appear to suppress the Jansenists in response to Cardinal Richelieu's foreign policy. The Enlightenment allowed for a glut of new religious and political philosophies, and it was in this environment that Jansenism returned to France. With the monarchy's authority threatened by the revolution, the government was no longer able to use the Gallican church as a repressive tool. Furthermore, thanks to the work of devout intellectuals, such as Arnauld and Pascal, the Jansenists were able to delegitimize the power of the Jesuits and the Pope in France..