Christoph-Antoine Gerle

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Dom Gerle (engraving from the album du Centenaire )

Christoph-Antoine Gerle (born October 25, 1736 in Riom , Auvergne , † November 17, 1801 in Paris ) was a French revolutionary and mystic. He was also called Dom Gerle by contemporaries or referred to as Christophe Antoine Gerle Chalini .

Life

Excerpt from The Ballhaus Oath , Gerle swearing the oath to the left of Grégoire and Rabaut Saint-Étienne

As a young person he joined the Carthusian monastery . He became prior of Laval-Dieu in Le Perche and later in Pont-Sainte-Marie near Moulins . On March 21, 1789, he was elected deputy deputy of the second estate to the National Assembly. Although he was only a deputy member of parliament until the ball house oath and had no permanent seat, he was immortalized in the famous painting The Ball House Oath ( Serment du Jeu de Paume ) by Jacques-Louis David : Gerle is one of the three men in the foreground who speak the oath . On December 11, 1789, he replaced M. de Labastide and thus took its seat. On April 12, 1790, he proposed that the Catholic religion be anchored as the only everlasting national religion; an application, which he then withdrew.

In 1792 he became a member of parliament for the city of Paris . Under the reign of terror , Robespierre issued him a so-called certificat de civisme , which confirmed his civil rights.

During the turmoil of the French Revolution, Gerle developed a strong propensity for mysticism, which he mixed with the ideas of the revolution. Catherine Théot's ideas became attractive to Gerle. She was a mystic who claimed to be the Virgin Mary or the biblical Eve . Maximilien Robespierre was viewed by Gerle as the Messiah . Theot's activities were short-lived. The cult of the supreme being (theotists) practiced by Robespierre was a weapon in the hands of his opponents. Shortly after the feast of the Supreme Being, Marc Guillaume Alexis Vadier prepared a report for the convent in which he called for the prosecution of Théot, Gerle and others. They were arrested, thrown in prison and apparently forgotten after Robespierre's disempowerment ( 9th Thermidor ).

Catherine Théot died in prison, but Gerle was pardoned by the board of directors and was editor of the Messager du soir . He later worked in the office of the Interior Minister Pierre Bénézech (1775–1802). It is believed that he married Christine Raffet, the aunt of the artist Denis Raffet.

literature

  • Michel Eude: Points de vue sur l'affaire Catherine Théot . In: Annales historiques de la Révolution française 198, 1969, pp. 606-629.
  • G. Lenotre: Robespierre et la "Mère de Dieu": le mysticisme révolutionnaire . Perrin, Paris 1926 ( e-text on Wikisource )
  • Adolphe Robert, Gaston Cougny: Dictionnaire des parlementaires français comprenant tous les membres des assemblées françaises et tous les ministres français depuis le 1 er may 1789 jusqu'au 1 er may 1889, avec leurs noms, état civil, états de services, actes politiques parlementaires votes, etc . Edgar Bourloton, Paris 1889, Volume III, Column 161. ( digitized version ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dictionnaire biographique des L'institut d'histoire de la révolution française .
  2. ^ Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 463.
personal data
SURNAME Gerle, Christoph-Antoine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French revolutionary and mystic
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1736
PLACE OF BIRTH Riom , Auvergne
DATE OF DEATH November 17, 1801
Place of death Paris