Descartes’
spiritual director, Cardinal Pierre Be´rulle, the founder of the French school of spirituality,
which formed the basis for the training of Counter-Reformation Catholic priests, was an
enthusiast for Descartes’ philosophy, which he promulgated through the Paris Oratory that
he founded. The Jansenists Arnauld and Nicole, authors of the influential Port-Royal
Logic, were also enthusiasts for Descartes’ physics. Steven Nadler remarks that ‘Nicole
greatly appreciated the Cartesian absolute distinction between mind and body as providing
a solid foundation for proving the existence of God and the immortality of the soul’