Nicole, Pierre

Nicole, Pierre (pyĕr nēkôl`), 1625–95, French Jansenist writer. He studied and taught at Port-Royal abbey, the center of Jansenism (see under Jansen, Cornelis). One of his pupils there was Racine. He worked with Pascal on the Provinciales. His chief writings in his mission of popularizing Jansenism were two series of epistolary essays, Les Visionnaires and Lettres sur l'hérésie imaginaire. In 1679 he fled with Antoine Arnauld to Belgium, but he became reconciled with the authorities and returned to Paris in 1683. Subsequently he led in the attack on quietism.