1. Jean Charlier de Gerson was a French scholar, educator, reformer, and poet, Chancellor of the University of Paris, a guiding light of the conciliar movement and one of the most prominent theologians at the Council of Constance.
32 Facts About Jean Gerson
1. 2.
Jean Gerson was one of the first thinkers to develop what would later come to be called natural rights theory, and was one of the first individuals to defend Joan of Arc and proclaim her supernatural vocation as authentic.
3.
The eldest, young Jean Gerson was sent to Paris to the famous college of Navarre when fourteen years of age.
4.
Jean Gerson was elected procurator for the French 'nation' in 1383, and again in 1384, in which year he graduated bachelor of theology.
5.
Jean Gerson first gained fame as a popular preacher in Paris in the early 1390s.
6.
In 1392 Jean Gerson was awarded licentiate, receiving his doctorate of theology in 1394; and in 1395, when Pierre d'Ailly was made bishop of Puy, he was, at the early age of thirty-two, elected Chancellor of the University of Paris, and made a canon of Notre-Dame.
7.
Jean Gerson's writings bear witness to his deep sense of the responsibilities, anxieties and troubles of his position.
8.
Jean Gerson was all his days a man of letters, and an analysis of his writings is his best biography.
9.
Jean Gerson's work has three periods, in which he was engaged in reforming the university studies, maturing plans for overcoming the schism, and in the evening of his life writing books of devotion.
10.
Jean Gerson wished to banish the more counter-productive scholastic ideas from the studies of the university, and at the same time to put some evangelical warmth into the studies, giving them a more spiritual and practical focus.
11.
Jean Gerson was called at this period of his life Doctor Christianissimus; later his devotional and pastoral writings brought him the title Doctor Consolatorius.
12.
Jean Gerson's method was a clear exposition of the principles of "scientific" theology where clearness was possible, with a due recognition of the place of mystery in the Christian system of doctrine.
13.
Jean Gerson thought that, by laying hold of mysticism, he would equally guard against speculative scholasticism, and the seductions of Averroistic pantheism such as was preached by heretics like Amalric of Bena.
14.
In Catholic circles, Jean Gerson's theology is usually held in high esteem, while his ecclesiastical doctrines are sometimes viewed as suspect due to his support for conciliarism.
15.
Jean Gerson thought that freedom could be exchanged in the same way as property.
16.
Gregory XI had died in 1378 in Rome, one year after Jean Gerson went to the college of Navarre, and since his death there were two claimants to the papacy, both elected by the cardinals, one in Rome and one in Avignon.
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Jean Gerson issued a bull which laid the parish clergy and the universities at the mercy of the mendicants.
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Jean Gerson fought against the murderous discords and cynicism of royal politics.
19.
Jean Gerson's efforts were powerfully seconded by Emperor Sigismund, and the result was the Council of Constance.
20.
Many of Jean Gerson's biographers have found it difficult to reconcile his proceedings against Hus with his own opinions upon the supremacy of the pope; but the difficulty has arisen partly from misunderstanding Jean Gerson's position, partly from supposing him to be the author of a famous tract De modis uniendi et reformandi Ecclesiam in concilio universali.
21.
This, and the treatises De modis uniendi et reformandi Ecclesiam, and De difficultate reformationis in concilio universali, long ascribed to Jean Gerson, were proved by Johann Baptist Schwab in his Johannes Jean Gerson not to be his work, and have since been ascribed to Abbot Andreas of Randuf, and with more reason to Dietrich of Nieheim.
22.
Jean Gerson was essentially a trimmer, not a reformer, and he hated Hus with all his heart.
23.
The justification of murder was declared a mere opinion, not a doctrine, and only one of Petit's "verities" was condemned; and even this censure was annulled by the new pope, Martin V Gerson dared not return to France for fear of Burgundy, who had taken power.
24.
Jean Gerson lived in unofficial exile in Constance, then at Rattenberg in Tirol, where he wrote his famous book De consolatione theologiae.
25.
Jean Gerson's defense counsel, Jean Petit, argued that it was a justifiable act of "tyrannicide".
26.
Jean Gerson denounced Petit's propositions openly and often, and attempted to have his theory of tyrannicide condemned.
27.
Jean Gerson believed he had escaped the mob through the protection of St Joseph.
28.
When Jean Gerson emerged from his cathedral refuge in 1413 he began to promote devotion to St Joseph.
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Jean Gerson wrote a lengthy treatise in French titled Consideration sur Saint Joseph, and his long poem in Latin, the Josephina, promoted the saint and his virtues across western Europe.
30.
Contrary to popular iconography which depicted the saint as an elderly man, Jean Gerson argued that Joseph must have been a young, strong man, well able to support and protect the Holy Family.
31.
Jean Gerson described Jesus on the Flight into Egypt as "fugitive and a foreigner".
32.
In 1416 at the Council of Constance, Jean Gerson urged the establishment of a feast day honoring the Betrothal of Mary and Joseph, for which he wrote an office.