Jean Gerson

Print of the Opus tripartitum from around 1480

Monument to Jean Gerson in Lyon

Jean le Charlier de Gerson (actually Jean Charlier , also called Johannes Gerson , born  December 14, 1363 in Gerson-lès-Barby near Rethel ; † July 12, 1429 in Lyon ) was a French theologian , mystic and chancellor of the Paris Sorbonne .

Life

From 1377 he was a student of Pierre d'Ailly at the Collège de Navarre in Paris . In 1387 he was one of the members of the university who were sent to Pope Clement VII in Avignon because of disputes with the Dominicans . In 1392 he received his theological doctorate and was elected as successor to d'Ailly as Chancellor of the Paris University (Sorbonne) in 1395 .

One of the main themes of his time was the division of the Catholic Church ( schism ). Gerson initially advocated moderate reforms and opposed the convening of a council to remove the rival popes in Rome and Avignon. But then he worked through writings ( De potestate ecclesiae , De unitate ecclesiastica , De auferibilitate papae ) and active action towards overcoming the schism, namely at the Councils of Pisa (1409) and Constance (from 1414). On the latter it was primarily Gerson who upheld the assembly's energetic attitude towards the fugitive Pope and who fought against the immorality of the clergy (which earned him the nickname Doctor christianissimus ). On the other hand, in Constance he also carried out the condemnation and execution of Jan Hus and Hieronymus of Prague .

The Franciscan Jean Petit had tried to justify the murder of Louis, Duke of Orléans (1407), by supporters of Duke Jean of Burgundy ( John Fearless ) as tyrannical murder . Because he criticized Petit's sophistic argument, Gerson had to flee to Rattenberg am Inn after the conclusion of the Council of Constance (1418) before the pursuit of the Duke of Burgundy ; later he retired to Melk an der Donau . In 1419 - after Petit's death - he went to Lyon, where he worked in the Cölestin monastery for teaching youth and died on July 12, 1429. After his death he was venerated here as a blessed .

Act

In his defense of the idea of ​​the council , Gerson took the view that Christ installed the church as the community of believers, with the Pope merely representing them. As such, he could also be deposed against his will by an assembly of the faithful (i.e. a council).

Although Gerson has been called a nominalist ( problem of universals ), he saw Bonaventura's older theology as exemplary and emphasized the primacy of mystical over scholastic theology. Gerson's Considerationes de mystica theologia speculativa et practica strive for a higher unity of mystical and late scholastic theology. In contrast to scholastics, who propagated logic as the way to true faith, Gerson advocated a mystical love of God that went further than rational thinking. In prayer there is not only a union of the believer with God, but both become identical. In the letters De reformatione theologiae he also urged diligent Bible study.

Gerson is also one of the earliest musical writers; a musical treatise by him: De canticorum originali ratione , is in the 3rd volume of all of his works, Basel edition of 1518 in 3 volumes.

For a long time he was also ascribed the authorship of the Imitation of Christ , which, however, as Eusebius Amort demonstrated in the 18th century, comes from Thomas von Kempen .

see also: European humanism

Works

Opera omnia, 1706

• Opera omnia . Olms, Hildesheim 1987 - Reprint of an old edition.

1. Opera dogmatica de religione et fide . ISBN 3-487-07771-X
2. Quae ad ecclesiasticam et disciplinam pertinent . ISBN 3-487-07772-8
3. Opera moralia . ISBN 3-487-07773-6
4. Exegetica et miscellane . ISBN 3-487-07774-4
5. Monumenta omnia quae spectant ad condemnationem . ISBN 3-487-07775-2

• Opera. P. 1–3 together with inventory . Edited by Peter Schott and Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg. Georg Stuchs, Nuremberg 1489. ( digitized version )

1. 22. XI. 1489 ( digitized version )
2. 1. VIII. 1489 ( digitized version )
3. 21. X. 1489 ( digitized version )

• Jean Gerson, Oeuvres Complètes , ed. Palémon Glorieux (10 vols.), Paris 1960–1973.

literature

• Christoph Burger: Jean Gerson. Theology that should edify. In: Ulrich Köpf (Ed.): Theologians of the Middle Ages. An introduction. (Anselm of Canterbury, Abelard, Bernhard of Clairvaux, Hugo of St. Victor, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart, Duns Scotus, Ockham, Gerson, Wyclif, Hus). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2002, ISBN 3-534-14815-0 , pp. 212-227.
• Sigrid Müller : Theology and Philosophy in the Late Middle Ages. The beginnings of the “via moderna” and its significance for the development of moral theology (1380–1450) . Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 2018, ISBN 978-3-402-11928-0 , pp. 183-257.
• Cornelius Roth : Discretio spirituum. Criteria of spiritual distinction in Johannes Gerson (= studies on systematic and spiritual theology. Vol. 33) Echter, Würzburg 2001, ISBN 3-429-02287-8 (also: Freiburg (Breisgau), university, dissertation, 2000).
• Sven Grosse : Uncertainty of salvation and scrupulosity in the late Middle Ages. Studies on Johannes Gerson and genres of the piety theology of his time (= contributions to historical theology. Vol. 85). Mohr, Tübingen 1994, ISBN 3-16-146213-0 (Also: Erlangen, University, dissertation).
• Christoph Burger: Aedificatio, fructus, utilitas. Johannes Gerson as Professor of Theology and Chancellor of the University of Paris , Mohr, Tübingen 1986 (Contributions to Historical Theology, Volume 70), ISBN 3-16-145046-9 .

Web links

Wikisource: Jean Gerson  - Sources and full texts

Commons : Jean Gerson  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Jean Gerson in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Jean Gerson  in the German Digital Library
• Evidence of Latin works on the Internet