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GERSON, JOHN (1363—1429)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 906 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GERSON, See also:JOHN (1363—1429) , otherwise See also:JEAN CHARLIER DE GERSON, See also:French See also:scholar and divine, See also:chancellor of the university of See also:Paris, and the ruling spirit in the See also:oecumenical See also:councils of See also:Pisa and See also:Constance, was See also:born at the See also:village of Gerson, in the bishopric of See also:Reims and See also:department of See also:Ardennes, on the 4th of See also:December 1363. His parents, Arnulph Charlier and See also:Elizabeth de la Chardeniere, " a second Monica," were pious peasants, and seven of their twelve See also:children, four daughters and three sons, devoted themselves to a religious See also:life. See also:Young Gerson was sent to Paris to the famous See also:college of See also:Navarre when fourteen years of See also:age. After a five years' course he obtained the degree of licentiate of arts, and then began his theological studies under two very celebrated teachers, Gilles See also:des Champs (Aegidius Campensis) and See also:Pierre d' See also:Ailly (Petrus de Alliaco), See also:rector of the college of Navarre, chancellor of the university, and afterwards See also:bishop of See also:Puy, See also:archbishop of See also:Cambrai and See also:cardinal. Pierre d'Ailly remained his life-See also:long friend, and in later life the- See also:pupil seems to have become the teacher (see pref. to See also:Liber de vita Spir. Animae). Gerson very soon attracted the See also:notice of the university. He was elected See also:procurator for the French " nation " in 1383, and again in 1384, in which See also:year he graduated See also:bachelor of See also:theology. Three years later a still higher See also:honour was bestowed upon him; he was sent along with the chancellor and others to represent the university in a See also:case of See also:appeal taken to the See also:pope. John of Montson (Monzon de Montesono), an Aragonese Dominican who had recently graduated as See also:doctor of theology at Paris, had in 1387 been condemned by the See also:faculty of theology because he had taught that the Virgin See also:Mary, like other See also:ordinary descendants of See also:Adam, was born in See also:original See also:sin; and the See also:Dominicans, who were fierce opponents of the See also:doctrine of the immaculate conception, were expelled the university. John of Montson appealed to Pope See also:Clement VII. at See also:Avignon, and Pierre d'Ailly, Gerson and the other university delegates, while they personally supported the doctrine of the immaculate conception, were content to See also:rest their case upon the legal rights of the university to test in its own way its theological teachers. Gerson's biographers have compared his See also:journey to Avignon with See also:Luther's visit to See also:Rome.

It is certain that from this See also:

time onwards he was zealous in his endeavours to spiritualize the See also:universities, to reform the morals of the See also:clergy, and to put an end to the See also:schism which then divided the See also:church. In 1392 Gerson became doctor of theology; and in 1395, when Pierre d'Ailly was made bishop of Puy, he was, at the See also:early age of See also:thirty-two, elected chancellor of the university of Paris, and made a See also:canon of Notre See also:Dame. The university was then at the height of its fame, and its chancellor was necessarily a See also:man prominent not only in See also:France but in See also:Europe, sworn to maintain the rights of his university against both See also:king and pope, and entrusted with the conduct and studies of a vast See also:crowd of students attracted from almost every See also:country in Europe. Gerson's writings See also:bear See also:witness to his deep sense of the responsibilities, anxieties and troubles of his position. He was all his days a man of letters, and an See also:analysis of his writings is his best See also:biography. His See also:work has three periods, in which he was engaged in reforming the university studies, maturing plans for overcoming the schism (a task which after 1404 absorbed all his energies), and in the evening of his life See also:writing books of devotion. Gerson wished to banish scholastic subtleties from the studies of the university, and at the same time to put some evangelical warmth into them. He was called at this See also:period of his life Doctor Christianissimus; later his devotional See also:works brought him the See also:title Doctor Consolatorius. His See also:plan was to make theology See also:plain and See also:simple by See also:founding it on the philosophical principles of See also:nominalism. His method was a clear exposition of the principles of theology where clearness was possible, with a due recognition of the See also:place of See also:mystery in the See also:Christian See also:system of doctrine. Like the See also:great nominalist See also:William of See also:Occam, he saved himself from See also:rationalism by laying hold on mysticism—the Christian See also:mysticism of the school of St See also:Victor. He thought that in this way he would equally guard against the folly of the old See also:scholasticism, and the seductions of such Averroistic See also:pantheism as was preached by heretics like See also:Amalric of Bena.

His plans for the See also:

reformation of university studies may be learned from his See also:Tract. de examinatione doctrinarism (Opp. is 7), Epistolae de reform. theol. (i. 121), Epistolae ad studentes Collegii Navarrae, quid et qualiter studere debeat nevus theologiae auditor, et contra' curiositatem studentium (i. 1o6), and Lectiones duae contra vanam curiositatem in negotio fidei (i. 86). The study of the See also:Bible and of the fathers was to supersede the idle questions of the See also:schools, and in his Tract. contra romantiam de See also:rosa (iii. 291) he warns young men against the evil consequences of See also:romance-See also:reading. He was oftentimes weary of the chancellorship,—it involved him in strife and in See also:money difficulties; he See also:grew tired of public life, andlonged for learned leisure. To obtain it he accepted the deanery of See also:Bruges from the See also:duke of See also:Burgundy, but after a See also:short sojourn he returned to Paris and to the chancellorship. Gerson's See also:chief work was what he did to destroy the great schism. See also:Gregory XI. had died in 1378, one year after Gerson went to the college of Navarre, and since his See also:death the church had had two popes, which to the See also:medieval mind meant two churches and a divided See also:Christ. The schism had practically been brought about by France.

The popes had been under French See also:

influence so long that it appeared to France a See also:political See also:necessity to have her own pope, and pious Frenchmen See also:felt themselves somewhat responsible for the sins and scandals of the schism. Hence the See also:melancholy piety of Gerson, Pierre d'Ailly and their. companions, and the See also:energy with which they strove to bring the schism to an end. During the lifetime of Clement VII. the university of Paris, led by Pierre d' Ailly, Gerson and See also:Nicolas of Clamenges,' met in deliberation about the See also:state of Christendom, and resolved that the schism could be ended in three ways,—by cession, if both popes renounced the See also:tiara unconditionally, by See also:arbitration or by a See also:general See also:council. Clement died. The king of • France, urged by the university, sent orders that no new pope should be elected. The cardinals first elected, and then opened the See also:letter. In the new elections, however, both at Rome and Avignon, the influence of Paris was so much felt that each of the new popes swore to " cede " if his See also:rival would do so also. Meanwhile in 1395 the See also:national See also:assembly of France and the French clergy adopted the See also:programme of the university—cession or a general council. The See also:movement gathered strength. In 1398 most of the cardinals and most of the crowned heads in Europe had given their See also:adhesion to the plan. During this period Gerson's See also:literary activity was untiring, and the throb of public expectancy, of See also:hope and fear, is revealed in his multitude of See also:pamphlets. At first there were hopes of a See also:settlement by way of cession.

These come out in Protest. super statism ecclesiae (ii. 1), Tract. de mode habendi se See also:

tern See also:pore schismatis, De schismate, &c. But soon the conduct of the popes made Europe impatient, and the See also:desire for a general council grew strong—see De concilio generali unius obedientiae (ii. 24). The council was resolved upon. It was to meet at Pisa, and Gerson poured forth tract after tract for its guidance. The most important are—Trilogus in materia schismatis (ii. 83), and De unitate Ecclesiae (ii. 113), in which, following Pierre d' Ailly (see Tschackert's See also:Peter v. Ailli, p. 153), Gerson demonstrates that the ideal unity of the church, based upon Christ, destroyed by the popes, can only be restored by a general council, supreme and legitimate, though unsummoned by a pope. The council met, deposed both See also:anti-popes, and elected See also:Alexander V.

Gerson was chosen to address the new pope on the duties of his See also:

office. He did so in his Sermo See also:coram Alexandro Papa in See also:die ascensionis in concilio See also:Pisano (ii. 131). All hopes of reformation, however, were quenched by the conduct of the new pope. He had been a Franciscan, and loved his See also:order above measure. He issued a See also:bull which laid the See also:parish clergy and the universities at the See also:mercy of the mendicants. The great university of Paris See also:rose in revolt, headed by her chancellor, who wrote a fierce pamphlet—Censura professorum in theologia circa Isullam Alexandri V. (ii. 442). The pope died soon after, and one of the most profligate men of that time, Pope John See also:XXIII. (Baldassare See also:Cossa), was elected his successor. The council of Pisa had not brought See also:peace; it had only added a third pope.

Pierre d'Ailly despaired of g-neral councils (see h(s De difficultate reformationis in concilio universali), but Gerson struggled on. Another See also:

matter too had roused him. The feuds between the houses of See also:Orleans and Burgundy had long distracted France. The duke of Orleans had been treacherously murdered by the followers of the duke of Burgundy, and a theologian. Jean See also:Petit (c. 1360-1411), had publicly and unambiguously justified the See also:murder. His eight verities, as he called them—his apologies for the murder—had been, mainly through the influence of Gerson, condemned by the university of Paris, and by the ' Born c. 136o; rector of the university of Paris 1393; afterwards treasurer of See also:Langres and See also:archdeacon of See also:Bayeux; died at Paris in 1437• 906 See also:GERSONIDES- archbishop and See also:grand inquisitor, and his See also:book had been publicly burned before the See also:cathedral of Notre Dame. Gerson wished a council to confirm this See also:sentence. His literary labours were as untiring as ever. He maintained in a See also:series of tracts that a general council could depose a pope; he See also:drew up indictments against the reigning pontiffs, reiterated the charges against Jean Petit, and exposed the sin of schism—in short, he did all he could to See also:direct the public mind towards the evils in the church and the way to heal them. His efforts were powerfully seconded by the See also:emperor See also:Sigismund, and the result was the council of Constance (see CONSTANCE, COUNCIL OF).

Gerson's influence at the council was supreme up to the See also:

election of a new pope. It was he who dictated the See also:form of submission and cession made by John XXIII., and directed the See also:process against See also:Huss. Many of Gerson's biographers have found it difficult to reconcile his proceedings against Huss with his own opinions upon the supremacy of the pope; but the difficulty has arisen partly from misunderstanding Gerson's position, partly from supposing him to be the author of a famous tract—De modis uniendi ac reformandi Ecclesiam in concilio universali. All Gerson's high-See also:sounding phrases about the supremacy of a council were meant to apply to some time of emergency. He was essentially a See also:trimmer, and can scarcely be called a reformer, and he hated Huss with all the hatred the trimmer has of the reformer. The three bold See also:treatises, De necessitate reformations Ecclesiae, De modis uniendi ac reformandi Ecclesiam, and De difficultate reformationis in concilio universali, long ascribed to Gerson, were proved by Schwab in his Johannes Gerson not to be his work, and have since been ascribed to See also:Abbot Andreas of Randuf, and with more See also:reason to See also:Dietrich of Nieheim (see See also:NIEM, DIETRICH OF). The council of Constance, which revealed the See also:eminence of Gerson, became in the end the cause of his downfall. He was the prosecutor in the case of Jean Petit, and the council, overawed by the duke of Burgundy, would not affirm the censure of the university and archbishop of Paris. Petit's See also:justification of murder was declared to be only a moral and philosophical See also:opinion, not of faith. The utmost length the council would go was to condemn one proposition, and even this censure was annulled by the new pope, See also:Martin V., on a formal pretext. Gerson dared not return to France, where, in the disturbed state of the See also:kingdom, the duke of Burgundy was in See also:power. He See also:lay hid for a time at Constance and then at Rattenberg in See also:Tirol, where he wrote his famous book De consolatione theologiae.

On returning to France he went to See also:

Lyons, where his See also:brother was See also:prior of the See also:Celestines. It is said that he taught a school of boys and girls in Lyons, and that the only See also:fee he exacted was to make the children promise to repeat the See also:prayer, " See also:Lord, have mercy on thy poor servant Gerson." His later years were spent in writing books of mystical devotion and See also:hymns. He died at Lyons on the 12th of See also:July 1429. Tradition declares that during his sojourn there he translated or adapted from the Latin a work upon eternal See also:consolation, which afterwards became very famous under the title of The See also:Imitation of Christ, and was attributed to See also:Thomas a Kempis. It has, however, been proved beyond a doubt that the famous Imitatio Christi was really written by Thomas, and not by John Gerson or the abbot Gerson. The literature on Gerson is veryabundant. See See also:Dupin,Gersoniana, including Vita Gersoni, prefixed to the edition of Gerson's works in 5 vols. fol., from which quotations have here been made; See also:Charles See also:Schmidt, Essai sur Jean Gerson, chancelier de l' Universite de Paris (See also:Strassburg, 1839) ; J. B. Schwab, Johannes Gerson (See also:Wurzburg, 1859) ; H. Jadart, Jean Gerson, son origine, son village See also:natal et sa familie (Reims, 1882). On the relations between Gerson and D'Ailly see See also:Paul Tschackert, Peter von Ailli (See also:Gotha, 1897). On Gerson's public life see also histories of the councils of Pisa and Constance, especially Herm. v. der See also:Hardt, See also:Con.

Constantiensis libri• iv. (1695-1699). The best See also:

editions of his works are those of Paris (3 vols., 1606) and See also:Antwerp (5 vols., 1706). See also Ulysse See also:Chevalier, Repertoire des See also:sources hist. Bio-bibliographie (Paris, 1905, &c.), s.v. " Gerson." (T..M.

End of Article: GERSON, JOHN (1363—1429)

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