Presectarian

He makes the important observation that Tillemont embodied the presectarian and pre-Jansenist traditions of Port-Royal (pp. 278-279).

In Ireland, just at this time undergoing its literary revival, the Edenic moment was displaced back into the pre-Christian (and therefore presectarian) past and the model figures that emerged as types of Irish identity were, of necessity, legendary—like Cuchalain—and, by nature, susceptible to almost any reformulation.

Nevertheless, the suggestion of a presectarian origin for some of the prayers dealt with in this essay, either close to the ideology and reality of the Qumran community or reflecting a slightly dualistic atmosphere, is a vague solution.