GERSON
837
GERSON
Mictions ; the Church was divided by the great papal schism which began in 1378, when Urban VI was elect- ed pope at Rome, and Clement VII at Avignon. Ger- son found so much opposition in his efforts to reform tlieology, and to bring peace to the Church, that he decided to retire from Paris to the quiet charge of the cathedral at Bruges, a preferment given to him by Philip of Burgundy. At last he gave up tliis purpose, and gave up, with it, the tranquillity of Iiis whole life. Gerson was more than once deputed to the popes dur- ing the schism. In a memoir, De unitate ecclesiasii- ca, he defended the Council of Pisa (q. v.), and con- ducted liimself in a firm though prudent manner when the council proceeded to depose Gregory XII and Ben- edict XIII, and to elect Alexander V. It was during the sitting of this council that he published his famous treatise De avferibilitate Papce, to prove tliat there are cases in which the assembled Church may command two rivals to desist from their strife, and has a right to depose them if the}' refuse, for the sake of peace and unity. The Council of Constance (q. v.) opened a new field for his talent; he took a place there as ambassa- dor from king Charles VI, from the Church of France, and from tlie University of Paris, and he directed all the measures which were adopted respecting John XXIII, who had succeeded Alexander V. and whose licentious conduct had tended rather to increase than to allay the schism. In this council Gerson and D'Ail- ly were the chief leaders in the so-called reforming party. Tlie discourses whicli Gerson on various occa- sions pronounced during the council, and the treatises whicli he published, were intended principally to show that the Church may reform ilself, as well in its gov- ernors as in its members ; and that it has the power of assembling, without the consent ofthejiope, when he re- fuses to convoke it ; to prove the necessity of holding councils, as well general as special ; to prescribe the payment of first-fruits, and to extirpate simony, which had become very common. He had established, as the basis of the decrees of the council, the doctrine of the supremacy of the Church in all whicli concerns faith and morals, and on this subject a discourse on the Im- maculate Conception has been ascribed to him, but which was, in fact, pronounced at the Council of Basle after his death. It was principally tliroiigh his efforts that the council '■ declared itself independent of all popes, and superior to them." The piety of Gerson, though strong and zealous, was neither superstitious nor credulous ; he denounced, in his treatise Contra sec- tam Flagellanihim, the abuse made of flagellation, of which Vincent Ferrier was the advocate. He also composed a book, De prohatione spirifnum, in wliich he gave rules for distinguishing false revelations from true ones. The pretended visions of St. Bridget would have been condemned at his instigation had they not found an apologist in the cardinal Torquemada ; and though his theolog3' was professedly mystical as opposed to scholasticism, he opposed the theories of John Rus- broeck, of the passive union of tlie soul in the Deitv, whicli is similar to the pure love of the Quietists. He also wrote against D'Aillv on judicial astrology, which was then in high repute among the princes of Europe, and which he combated with great success, even in his old age, against the physicians of Lyons and Mont- pellier. Before that time, his treatise on this subject, De astrolorjia reformata, had ]irocured for him the praise of the learned bishop of Cambray. In another treatise, De erroribvs circa artem mrifficam, he attacks the superstitious errors of magic and the prejudices of the empirics. With regard to toleration, Gerson was involved in all the errors of his times. At the trial of John Huss (q. v.), his writings and speeches con- tributed greatly to the condemnation of that eminent reformer, who was burnt bj' order of the Council of Constance, July G, 141.'). He took a similar share in the prosecution of Jerome of Prague (martyred Maj' 30. 1416). " Cut off," said he, in a letter to" the arch-
bishop of Prague, "the heresies, with their authors, and burti them." He called this terrible punislinient a "merciful cruelt}'." Gerson's hopes for a reform of the Cliurch at the Council of Constance were bitterlj' disappointed. The election of Martin V (Xov. 11, 1417) put an end to all hope of reform, and Gerson re- tired, fatigued and discouraged, from the scene of ster- ile disputes. He had contributed by his writings to the revocation of a bull of Alexander V in favor of the preaching friars, against tlie privileges of the clergj' and of the universities. Gerson's zeal raised against him many enemies, and the fear of the dangers to which he would be exposed from the Burgundian fac- tion induced him to take refuge in Germany, disguised as a pilgrim, about the time of the last sittings of the Council of Constance. In Bavaria he composed his De Consolaiione Theologi(v,a. mixture of prose and verse, containing an apology for his conduct at the Council of Constance. Soon after he retired into Austria, where the duke offered him an asjdum at Vienna. In 1419 he returned to France, and took up his aliode at the monasteiy of the Celestines at Lyons, of which his brother was prior. Here he spent liis remaining years in catechising poor children, of whom he required no other reward than their simple prayer, " Lord, have merc}^ on thy poor servant Gerson." He died July 12, 1429.