No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
A Rediscovered Work of Jean Gerson on a Spiritual Classic: Admonitio super librum qui dicitur Clymachus de xxx gradibus perfectionis (ca. 1396–1400)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2016
Extract
In 1425, Jean Gerson wrote a letter to his brother Jean the Celestine, in which he attacked the Arbor vitae crucifixae Jesu of Ubertino de Casale. A passage toward the end of the letter mentions a lost work of Gerson:
Finally, on this matter a short work was recently composed On the Examination of Doctrines. Another short work was also composed On the Doctrine of Raymund Lull. Moreover, certain things were written long ago On the Book that is Called Clymacus on the Thirty Steps of Perfection, whose root is the error of the Stoics [who] assert that the virtues are without feeling — that is, affected in no way through the passions. This is against the statement of the Apostle so widely experienced: “I see another law,” etc. Those who wish to make specific treatises about every single error with its origins will find no end.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Fordham University
References
1 My thanks to Emery, Kent Jr., Ouy, Gilbert, Van Engen, John, and the two anonymous reviewers for their help and suggestions, and to David Mengel for creating the map.Google Scholar
2 Rom. 7:23.Google Scholar
3 Gerson, Jean, Œuvre complètes , ed. Glorieux, Palémon, 10 vols. (Paris, 1960–74) (hereafter OC), 2:261: “Denique super hac re nuper compositum est opusculum De examinatione doctrinarum. Compositum est et aliud opusculum Super doctrina Raymundi Lullii. Scripta sunt insuper aliqua dudum super libro qui dicitur Clymacus, De triginta gradibus perfectionis, cujus radix est error stoicorum ponentium virtutes esse insensibilitates, scilicet ad nihil passionabiliter affici; contra illud Apostoli tam generaliter expertum: video aliam legem, etc.; ut qui de singulis erroribus cum originibus suis vellet particulares formare tractatus, nusquam finis.” Google Scholar
4 Vansteenberghe, E., “Un texte inconnu de Gerson sur ‘la doctrine de Raymond Lulle’ (Lyon 1423),” Revue des sciences religieuses 16 (1936): 441–73. The manuscript is Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Hs. th. 48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 Combes, André, Essai sur la critique de Ruysbroeck par Gerson , 4 vols. (Paris, 1945–72), 2:402–3.Google Scholar
6 For the known publications, see Monasticon Fratrum Vitae Communis, Teil 1, Belgien und Nordfrankreich , ed. Leesch, Wolfgang, Persoons, Ernest, and Weiler, Anton G. (Brussels, 1977), 26–29.Google Scholar
7 For references see below, 246–47.Google Scholar
8 Couilleau, Guerric, “Jean Climaque (saint),” in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité , ed. Viller, Marcel, Baumgartner, Charles, and Rayez, André, 16 vols. (1932–95), 8:371–72; Ware, Kallistos, “Introduction” in The Ladder of Divine Ascent , trans. Luibheid, Colm and Russell, Norman (New York, 1982), 2–3; Musto, Ronald G., “Angelo Clareno, O.F.M.: Fourteenth-Century Translator of the Greek Fathers; An Introduction and a Checklist of Manuscripts and Printings of His Scala Paradisi,” Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 76 (1983): 215–28, 589–645, here 227–28.Google Scholar
9 Ware, , “Introduction,” 1, 5–6; Coulleau, , “Jean Climaque (saint),” 371–72, 382–83 (on illustrated manuscripts), 383 (on scholia), 383–84 (on translations); von Auw, Lydia, Angelo Clareno et les spirituels franciscains (Lausanne, 1952), 31. The most important study of the illustrated manuscripts is John Rupert Martin, The Illustration of the Heavenly Ladder of John Climacus (Princeton, 1954).Google Scholar
10 For the metaphor of Jacob's ladder, see Ladder , trans. Luibheid, and Russell, , 152.Google Scholar
11 Ware, , “Introduction,” 11; Polo, Marie-Anne De Beaulieu, , “Spiritual Ladder,” in Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages , ed. Vauchez, André, trans. Walford, Adrian (Chicago, 2000), 2:1375–76. A rare fifteenth-century icon of Climacus himself, possibly produced for the monastery at Sinai, is reproduced in Evans, Helen C., ed., Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557) (New York, 2004), 383–84.Google Scholar
12 Ladder , trans. Luibheid, and Russell, , 86, 113, 154.Google Scholar
13 OC 2:247, 283; 3:44; 5:263; 9:183. The quotation is from Step 23. Cf. Ladder , trans. Luibheid, and Russell, , 210. For an overview of the work's content and structure, see Couilleau, , “Jean Climaque (saint),” and Ware, , “Introduction.” Google Scholar
14 OC 2:80–84.Google Scholar
15 Ware, , “Introduction,” 34.Google Scholar
16 Compare in the letter to the hermit of Mont-Valérien (near Paris), Gerson's advice to the hermit to submit to the judgment of his superiors, particularly his prelate, to whom he should be “as soft mud in the hands of a potter or hot iron under the hammer of a smith” ( OC 4:81–82).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17 Ladder , trans. Luibheid, and Russell, , 178.Google Scholar
18 Ibid., 112, 269, 282.Google Scholar
19 Ibid., 122, 125–26.Google Scholar
20 On Clareno in Greece, see Burr, David, The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century after Saint Francis (University Park, PA, 2001), 69–70, 95–96. On the florilegium, see Couileau, , “Jean Climaque (saint),” 384–85.Google Scholar
21 The key studies on Clareno's translation of Climacus are Gribomont, J., “La Scala paradisi, Jean de Raïthou et Ange Clareno,” Studia monastica 2 (1960): 345–58, and Musto, , “Angelo Clareno” (n. 8 above), 215–28, 589–645. On Angelo's translations and knowledge of Greek sources, see ibid., 219–20, 223–27, and Altaner, Berthold, “Die Kenntnis des Griechischen in den Missionsorden während des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts: Ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte des Humanismus,” Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 53 (1934): 483–86.Google Scholar
22 Altaner, , “Kenntnis,” 483.Google Scholar
23 Musto, , “Angelo Clareno,” 231–33.Google Scholar
24 Ibid., 613–31, 638–41.Google Scholar
25 Stinger, Charles L., Humanism and the Church Fathers: Ambrogio Traversari (1386–1439) and Christian Antiquity in the Italian Renaissance (Albany, 1977), 15–16, 110–12.Google Scholar
26 Subiaco, , MS 227. Musto, , “Angelo Clareno,” 220. The case for the priority of the two manuscripts of the Latin translation (MSS 112 and 213) has been assumed but, to my knowledge, not yet demonstrated. MS 112 originally belonged to the Benedictine congregation of Santa Giustina at Cassino.Google Scholar
27 For the complete list, see Musto, , “Angelo Clareno,” 230–31.Google Scholar
28 See further ibid., 234 n. 2, with further references.Google Scholar
29 Heck, Christian, L'échelle céleste dans l'art du Moyen Âge (Paris, 1997).Google Scholar
30 Gerrits, Gerrit H., “Johannes Brinckerinck: Life, Sermons and Thought,” in Spirituality Renewed: Studies in Significant Representatives of the Modern Devotion , ed. Blommestijn, Hein, Caspers, Charles, and Hofman, Rijcklof (Leuven, 2003), 93. For a general and brief overview of the spiritual teaching of Climacus and its impact on the New Devout, see Goossens, Leonardus A. M., De Meditatie in de eerste tijd van de Moderne Devotie (Haarlem, 1952), 42–46.Google Scholar
31 For Grote, see Debongnie, Pierre, “Dévotion Moderne,” in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité (n. 8 above), 3:741. Yet note that Grote did not mention John Climacus in his personal memoir of “sacred books to study.” See Van Engen, John, Devotio Moderna: Basic Writings (New York, 1988), 70–71. For Gerard, see idem, Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 2008), 77–79, 96–98, and van Dijk, Rudolf Th. M., “Toward Imageless Contemplation: Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen as Guide for Lectio Divina,” in Spirituality Renewed , ed. Blommestijn, et al., 12.Google Scholar
32 On Florens, see Van Engen, , Sisters and Brothers , 88–89 and passim; Mertens, Thorn and Legrand, Francis Joseph, Florent Radewijns, Petit manuel pour le dévot moderne Tractatulus devotus (Turnhout, 1999), 189. Cf. Breure, Leendert, Doodsbeleving en levenshouding: Een historisch-psychologische studie betreffende de Moderne Devotie in het I Jsselgebied in de 14e en 15e eeuw (Hilversum, 1987), 87. For Florens's use of Climacus in the libellus “Omnes, inquit, artes,” see van Workum, M. T., “Het libellus ‘Omnes, inquit, artes,’” Ons geestelijk erft 25 (1951): 258. On Brinkerinck, see Gerrits, , “Johannes Brinckerinck,” 68.Google Scholar
33 Post, R. R., The Modern Devotion: Confrontation with Reformation and Humanism (Leiden, 1968), 537–49.Google Scholar
34 Gerwing, Manfred, Malogranatum, oder der dreifache Weg zur Vollkommenheit: Ein Beitrag zur Spiritualität des Spätmittelalters (Munich, 1986), 142, 165–66.Google Scholar
35 For manuscripts of the Malogranatum see ibid., 122–36. The Dutch translation survives in five copies (ibid., 135), three of which are fifteenth-century copies from the house of Bethlehem near Leuven.Google Scholar
36 Girke-Schreiber, Johanna, “Die böhmische Devotio moderna,” in Bohemia Sacra: Das Christentum in Böhmen 973–1973 , ed. Seibt, Ferdinand (Düsseldorf, 1974), 81–91.Google Scholar
37 I follow here the summary of Winter's arguments in Gerwing, , Malogranatum , 26–27.Google Scholar
38 See the reference in Van Engen, , Sisters and Brothers , 89 n. 23.Google Scholar
39 Ibid., 89.Google Scholar
40 Mertens, and Legrand, , Florent Radewijns , 188–89. On the foundation at Deventer, see Post, , Modern Devotion, 201–3.Google Scholar
41 One manuscript, Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, MS 2043 (2282), has been dated to the fourteenth century, but its origin is unknown (Musto, , “Angelo Clareno” [n. 8 above], 592).Google Scholar
42 See Gruijs, A., “Fragment d'un catalogue ancien de Groenendael ayant servi à la composition du répertoire collectif de Rougecloître (Paris, Mazarine, MS 4095A, et Vienne, Ö.N.B., MS 9373),” in Essays Presented to G. I. Lieftinck , ed. Gumbert, J. P. and de Haan, M. J. M., vol. 1, Varia codicologica (Amsterdam, 1972), 75 n. 3. The fragment in question in this article belongs to the period 1496–1532/40 (ibid., 79).Google Scholar
43 Debongnie, , “Dévotion Moderne,” in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité (n. 8 above), 3:729, 741; van Woerkum, Martin, “Florent Radewijns,” ibid., 5:432. See the references in the Tractatulus devotus of Florens in Mertens and Legrand, Florent Radewijns, 128–32. For Florens's use of Climacus in the libellus “Omnes, inquit, artes,” see van Workum, , “Het libellus ‘Omnes, inquit, artes,”’ (n. 32 above), 258.Google Scholar
44 Ruusbroec's works circulate next to the Scala in one manuscript (Brussels, Bibl. Royale, MS 1319 [9320–24]) that belonged to the Benedictine house of St. Laurent at Liège. See Musto, , “Angelo Clareno,” 590–91.Google Scholar
45 Ibid., 602, 604, 608. One additional copy entered St. Victor in Paris, also a house of Canons Regular, in 1423, but the previous owner is unknown. See ibid., 603, and the more complete description of Ouy, Gilbert, Les manuscrits de l'Abbaye de Saint-Victor: Catalogue établi sur la base du répertoire de Claude de Grandrue (1514) , 2 vols. (Turnhout, 1999), 2:181–82.Google Scholar
46 For general orientation to Devout use of books, see Kock, Thomas, Die Buchkultur der Devotio moderna: Handschriftenproduktion, Literaturversorgung und Bibliotheksaufbau im Zeitalter des Medienwechsels (Frankfurt, 1999), and on acquisition of books, 54–78. On Carthusian libraries, see Hobbins, Daniel, Authorship and Publicity before Print: Jean Gerson and the Transformation of Late Medieval Learning (Philadelphia, 2009), 186.Google Scholar
47 Musto, , “Angelo Clareno,” 602. On this house, see de Grauwe, Jan, Histoire de la chartreuse du Val-Royal à Gand et de la chartreuse du Bois-Saint-Martin à Lierde-Saint-Martin (Flandre Orientale) (Salzburg, 1974).Google Scholar
48 Musto, , “Angelo Clareno,” 633–35 (checklist numbers 2, 7, and 9).Google Scholar
49 Ouy, Gilbert, “Gerson and the Celestines: How Jean Gerson and His Friend Pierre Poquet Replied to Various Questions of Discipline and Points of Conscience (ca. 1400),” in Reform and Renewal in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance , ed. Izbicki, Thomas M. and Bellitto, Christopher M. (Leiden, 2000), 113–40.Google Scholar
50 OC 2:157. Cf. Lieberman, M., “Pierre Pocquet: Dictamen de laudibus beati Joseph,” Cahiers de Joséphologie 12 (1964): 5–71; idem, “Saint Joseph, Jean Gerson et Pierre d'Ailly dans un manuscrit de 1464, Corrigenda et Addenda,” Cahiers de Joséphologie 20 (1972): 253–55.Google Scholar
51 Two other manuscripts owned by the Celestines of Metz have extracts of the Scala: Metz, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 486; Metz, and, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 498. Evidence for Celestine libraries today is much thinner than for Carthusian libraries. See Hobbins, , Authorship and Publicity , 202–3.Google Scholar
52 For the edition, see Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke 9 (Stuttgart, 1991), no. 10718, which unaccountably omits the Admonitio in its listing. For a description including the Admonitio, see Catalogue général des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Auteurs, vol. 59 (Paris, 1914), 776–77. I consulted copies held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (by microfilm) and at the Huntington Library (by photocopy). The works common to both the Stuttgart manuscript and the 1475 edition are the following (according to Glorieux numbers): nos. 282, 422, 49, 56, 103, 103b, 59, 55, Admonitio super librum qui dicitur clymachus de triginta gradibus perfectionis, 37–38, 454, 401.Google Scholar
53 Autenrieth, Johanne and Fiala, Virgil Ernst, Die Handschriften der ehemaligen Hofbibliothek Stuttgart, Bd. 1.1, Codices ascetici , (Wiesbaden, 1968), 18–22.Google Scholar
54 The authors did cite for comparison a poem by Gerson, , “De scala mystica.” The poem's correct title is “Schola mystica” (OC 4:105–6), and the theme has nothing at all to do with the Admonitio. .Google Scholar
55 Lieberman, M., “Chronologie gersonienne,” Romania 80 (1959): 330–31 n. 1.Google Scholar
56 The manuscript contains thirty authentic works of Gerson (including the Admonitio), the epitaph on Gerson by Jean the Celestine, and another work attributed to Gerson but whose authenticity is uncertain. This is De gravatis publicis debitis et intrantibus religionem (fols. 102v-104v), which immediately follows De gravato debitis (OC 3:313–19) in the manuscript. Further study is needed to determine the work's authenticity. The manuscript also includes a work on the celebration of masses (incorrectly attributed to Gerson), two works of Petrus Pistoris, an anonymous Meditatio de incarnatione Christi secundum testimonia sanctarum scripturarum, and finally a letter of Petrus de Rivo followed by his epitaph. These last two items are later additions to the manuscript.Google Scholar
57 It should also be noted that this section of the manuscript (fols. 183–304) includes a cluster of works with clear links to the Carthusian order: the Tractatus super Cantica Canticorum (fols. 184r–225v), which Gerson dedicated to the Carthusians, and a cluster of poems that sometimes circulated with the Tractatus in Carthusian manuscripts such as Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. lat. 1519. Cf. Hobbins, , Authorship and Publicity , 201.Google Scholar
58 No. 452, OC 9:385–421.Google Scholar
59 No. 422, OC 8:565–639.Google Scholar
60 Nos. 204, 167, 205, and 142, OC 4:176, 144–46, 176–77, and 104–5.Google Scholar
61 No. 400, OC 8:5–9.Google Scholar
62 OC 10:565–67.Google Scholar
63 No. 413, OC 8:116–33.Google Scholar
64 No. 409, OC 8:77–84.Google Scholar
65 No. 411, OC 8:85–97.Google Scholar
66 No. 412, OC 8:97–115.Google Scholar
67 Nos. 37–38, OC 2:169–91.Google Scholar
68 No. 55, OC 2:259–63.Google Scholar
69 No. 282, OC 6:210–50.Google Scholar
70 See further Hobbins, , Authorship and Publicity (n. 46 above), 205–11.Google Scholar
71 Glorieux dated the work without explanation to “around March 1408 or 1409” ( OC 9:viii), and then to “c. March 1409” (OC 10:589). The work is undated in the manuscripts. See further Lieberman, “Chronologie gersonienne” (n. 55 above), 328–29, who prefers a later date.Google Scholar
72 On scruples and intention, the central work is De directione cordis (OC 8:97–115), but the issues appear widely. See Grosse, Sven, Heilsungewissheit und Scrupulositas im späten Mittelalter: Studien zu Johannes Gerson und Gattungen der Frömmigkeitstheologie seiner Zeit (Tübingen, 1994); Catherine Brown, D., Pastor and Laity in the Theology of Jean Gerson (Cambridge, 1987), 68–72. The call for moderation is ubiquitous in Gerson (for example, OC 2:82; 9:116); see generally Hobbins, “Gerson on Lay Devotion,” in A Companion to Jean Gerson , ed. McGuire, Brian Patrick (Leiden, 2006), 41–78. Gerson's emphasis on precepts, in fact the Ten Commandments, likewise appears throughout his writings. See for example his letter to Pierre d'Ailly of 1 April 1400, where he calls for the publication of tracts to inform lay Christians about the “principal points of our religion, and especially about the commandments” (“et specialiter de praeceptis”) (OC 3:28). See also his letter of introduction to the Opus tripartitum, where he proposes that “the tenor of our law and a reminder of its commandments” be posted on tables (OC 3:72).Google Scholar
73 On the limitations of using such modifiers to date works, cf. Lieberman, , “Chronologie gersonienne,” 303–5, 326. In my view, Lieberman overstates the case when he says (326) that the only value of such adverbs is to indicate anteriority or posteriority in the relationship between different works.Google Scholar
74 OC 3:87. For Combes's dating, with reference to Glorieux, who relies on the date 1401 found in some of the manuscripts, see Essai (n. 5 above), 3:67–68, 4:299–301. Volume 3 of the Essai was published in 1959. In volume 4, published in 1972, Combes complained that Glorieux had totally ignored his arguments. See Essai 4:299 n. 133. Clearly, Glorieux was in a hurry to complete the edition. Brian Patrick McGuire does not address these issues in his recent biography, Jean Gerson and the Last Medieval Reformation (University Park, PA, 2005). (His bibliography lists only vols. 1–2 of Combes's Essai.) The dating of Gerson's works needs thorough and exhaustive reconsideration.Google Scholar
75 OC 2:62: “quemadmodum Johannes qui Climacus dicitur.” See also the reference to Climacus as “a certain skilled hermit” in a Latin sermon from 1403 (OC 5:263).Google Scholar
76 OC 2:62; 3:44, 87; 5:99, 102.Google Scholar
77 For Gerson's stay in Bruges, see Vansteenberghe, E., “Gerson à Bruges,” Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 31 (1935): 5–52, and the discussion in Combes, Essai, 1:352–55. Cf. Connolly, James L., John Gerson, Reformer and Mystic (Louvain, 1928), 242–43. Gerson's interest in Flanders appears further in his address De modo se habendi tempore schismatis to those living in Flanders. See Hobbins, , Authorship and Publicity, 190, 282 n. 48.Google Scholar
78 On book production at Herne, see Warnar, Geert, Ruusbroec: Literature and Mysticism in the Fourteenth Century , trans. Webb, Diane (Leiden, 2007), 281–82. On the evidence for Gerson's visit, see Combes, , Essai, 2:39–50. Cf. Glorieux's statement in his biographic essay, OC 1:114.Google Scholar
79 This suggestion needs more development than I can give it here, but cf. the references to the “ladder of contemplation” in the Montagne de contemplation itself ( OC 7.1:26).Google Scholar
80 Combes, , Essai , 2:390–422.Google Scholar
81 Ibid., 409.Google Scholar
82 Ibid., 412 n. 2. In fact the problem here appears to be the result of a scribal mistake. See below.Google Scholar
83 Ibid., 415.Google Scholar
84 Ibid., 422.Google Scholar
85 Dupin gives the following text: “ut ob tales forte dixerit Climacus, Theologiam non convenire nisi lugentibus“ (Dupin, L. E., ed., Joannis Gersonii Opera omnia , 4 vols. in 5 [Antwerp, 1706]). Glorieux (OC 5:102) gives instead: “ut ob tales dixerit forte Climacus theologiam non convenire lugentibus.” Cf. Combes, , Essai, 2:412 n. 2.Google Scholar
86 OC 3:44: “De gradibus pertingendi ad Deum”; 3:87: “in illo gradu scalae mysticae”; 3:293: “de xxx gradibus scalae”; 8:239: “in scala triginta graduum.” Google Scholar
87 OC 3:293; Combes, , Essai, 1:652–64.Google Scholar
88 Ethica Nicomachea , ed. Gauthier, Renatus Antonius, in Aristoteles Latinus 26, 4, Translatio Grosseteste (Leiden, 1973), 399, lines 19–21: “Ideoque determinant virtutes inpassibilitates quasdam et quietes. Non bene autem, quoniam simpliciter dicunt, sed ut non oportet, et quando non oportet, et quecumque alia apponuntur.” On Grosseteste's translation, see Georg Wieland, “The Reception and Interpretation of Aristotle's Ethics,” in The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Disintegration of Scholasticism 1100–1600 , ed. Kretzmann, Norman, Kenny, Anthony, and Pinborg, Jan (Cambridge, 1982), 659–60.Google Scholar
89 The phrase does not appear in the most widely diffused florilegium of Aristotle, the Auctoritates Aristotelis. A complete study would examine the many other florilegia, on which see Hamesse, Jacqueline, Les Auctoritates Aristotelis, un florilège médiéval: Étude historique et édition critique (Louvain, 1974), 11–12, and the basic study, Grabmann, M., Methoden und Hilfsmittel des Aristotelesstudiums im Mittelalter (Munich, 1939).Google Scholar
90 In octo libros physicorum Aristotelis expositio , ed. Maggiòlo, M. (Turin, 1954), no. 921 (7, 6): “Stoici enim dixerunt virtutes esse impassibilitates quaedam”; Quaestiones disputatae , ed. Bazzi, P. et al., 8th ed., 2 vols. (Turin, 1949), 2:74 (“De malo,” qu. 12, art. 1, ad. 13). Lambert of Cologne (d. 1499) drew on Aquinas for his own commentary on the Physics: “virtutes aut sunt quedam impassibilitates secundum Stoicos, id est remotiones omnium passionum ab anima, vel sunt quedam moderationes passionum anime” (cited in Lexicon Latinitatis Nederlandicae Medii Aevi 4 [Leiden, 1990], p. 2344, col. I 132).Google Scholar
91 Summa theologiae, Ia-IIae, q. 59, art. 2. See the Blackfriars edition, Summa theologiae, vol. 23 (New York, 1964), 86. For Aquinas's position on the passions, see White, Kevin, “The Passions of the Soul (Ia IIae, qq. 22–48),” in The Ethics of Aquinas , ed. Pope, Stephen J. (Washington, DC, 2002), 103–15 (with direct reference to the Stoics on 106). And on virtues, see in the same volume Bonnie Kent, “Habits and Virtues (Ia IIae, qq. 49–70),” 116–30.Google Scholar
92 Buridanus, Johannes, Quaestiones super X libros Ethicorum (Paris, 1513; repr., Frankfurt, 1968), bk. 2, qu. 10 (fol. 30r): “Decimo queritur Utrum virtutes morales sint impassibilitates, hoc est utrum excludunt passiones.” Google Scholar
93 See further Hobbins, , Authorship and Publicity (n. 46 above), 40–42.Google Scholar
94 On Gerson's notion of “safe teaching” at Paris, see ibid., 40–45.Google Scholar
95 Combes, , Essai , 1:404–15.Google Scholar
96 Doctoris ecstatici D. Dionysii Cartusiani Opera omnia , 42 vols. (Monstrolii, 1896–1913), 28:46.Google Scholar
97 Ibid., 48: “Si quis mundum odivit, iste tristitiam aufugit. Si quis vero ad aliquid visibilium possidet passibiliter affectionem, nondum a tristitia est redemptus. Quomodo enim non tristabitur saltern super privatione dilecti?” Google Scholar
98 Colish, Marcia L., The Stoic Tradition from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages, 2, Stoicism in Christian Latin Thought through the Sixth Century (Leiden, 1985), 70–72 (quotation on 70).Google Scholar
99 Ibid., 77.Google Scholar
100 Ibid., 79.Google Scholar
101 On what follows, see the excellent overview in Lapidge, Michael, “The Stoic Inheritance,” in A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy , ed. Dronke, Peter (Cambridge, 1988), 88–99.Google Scholar
102 Ibid., 91. Lapidge (92–95) discusses the works of Cicero and Seneca and their availability in the West during the twelfth century.Google Scholar
103 Ibid., 97–99.Google Scholar
104 On these matters, see further Bell, David N., “Apatheia: The Convergence of Byzantine and Cistercian Spirituality,” Cîteaux: commentarii cistercienses 38 (1987): 141–64, and Sheridan, Mark, “The Controversy over APATHEIA: Cassian's Sources and His Use of Them,” Studia Monastica 39 (1997): 287–310.Google Scholar
105 On the shift itself, see Fulton, Rachel, From Judgment to Passion: Devotion to Christ and the Virgin Mary, 800–1200 (New York, 2002).Google Scholar
106 OC 7.2:449–519.Google Scholar
107 For a fine overview of the literature, see Bestul, Thomas H., Texts of the Passion: Latin Devotional Literature and Medieval Society (Philadelphia, 1996).Google Scholar
108 OC 7.2:852.Google Scholar
109 See for example OC 5:350–51 (sermon from 1416); 7.1:68, 76 (work written in 1413); 7.2:952–53 (sermon from 1396 or 1402).Google Scholar
110 Cf. Erasmus, , who later styled Jerome theologus optimus (Hasse, Hans-Peter, “Ambrosius Blarer liest Hieronymus: Blarers handschriftliche Eintragungen in seinem Exemplar der Hieronymusausgabe des Erasmus von Rotterdam [Basel 1516],” in Auctoritas Patrum: Zur Rezeption der Kirchenväter im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert/Contributions on the Reception of the Church Fathers in the 15th and 16th Century , ed. Grane, Leif, Schindler, Alfred, and Wriedt, Markus [Mainz, 1993], 48–49).Google Scholar
111 McGinn, Bernard, The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism (1200–1350) (New York, 1998), 251.Google Scholar
112 Idem, The Harvest of Mysticism in Medieval Germany (1300–1500) (New York, 2005), 164–93; for Eckhart's vision as “democratic,” ibid., 425.Google Scholar
113 OC 2:55–62. See further Hobbins, , Authorship and Publicity (n. 46 above), 46.Google Scholar
114 OC 7.1:55: “La tierce maniere d'avoir grasce est par union, comme eust saint Pol, li excellens contemplatifs. Mais de ceste maniere ne suis je mie digne d'en ouvrir ma bouche; ie la laisse aux plus grans.” Google Scholar
115 Gerson's primary treatment in Latin is De theologia mystica, to which Combes gave major treatment. See his La théologie mystique de Gerson: Profil de son évolution , 2 vols. (Rome, 1963–64). On Gerson's revisions, see further Daniel Hobbins, “Editing and Circulating Letters in the Fifteenth Century: Jean Gerson, Uberius quam necesse, 10 November 1422,” Bulletin de philosophie médiévale 46 (2004): 179–84. Combes also produced a critical edition: Combes, André, ed., Ioannis Carlerii de Gerson De mystica theologia (Lugano, 1958). Or see OC 3:250–92, 8:18–47. Gerson's major treatment in French is La montagne de contemplation (OC 7.1:16–55), in which he consciously avoided treating the final stage of the mystical ascent.Google Scholar
116 For an example from late in Gerson's career involving a Carthusian who had adopted an unusually strict dietary regime, see OC 2:306–8, 311, and the discussion in Hobbins, “Beyond the Schools: New Writings and the Social Imagination of Jean Gerson” (PhD diss., University of Notre Dame, 2002), 333–39.Google Scholar
117 Doctoris ecstatici D. Dionysii Cartusiani Opera omnia (n. 96 above), 28:46–47; Ladder , trans. Luibheid, and Russell, (n. 8 above), 81.Google Scholar
118 For Gerson's feeling that “not everyone is suited to contemplation,” see his comments on masters and on monks: on masters, OC 2:21: “Consideretur in quanta copia sunt magistri ad contemplationem forte minus idonei qui omnibus agendis in officio vigilantius, libentius atque felicius deservirent”; on monks, OC 2:307: “Ceterum super illo monacho qui se debilitat in cibo et potu sub praesumptione contemplationis obtinendae, ad quam paucissimi sunt habiles et indigni.” Gerson's remarks on the Carthusians appear in his letter to Guillaume Minaud in 1422 (OC 2:236): “Religio Carthusiensis non attendit principaliter qualitatem unius personae singularis sed introeuntium dispositiones, complexiones, cognitiones et affectiones quemadmodum ut in pluribus eveniunt. Cujus ratio est quoniam reperiuntur aliqui penitus indispositi nedum ad finem contemplationis consequendum in hac vita sed etiam ad statuta ordinis capienda per intellectum et exsequenda per affectum. Sunt alii quibus jam non opus est praeambulis exercitiis contentis in hac religione ut ad contemplationem proveniant, quoniam aliunde, partim proprio studio et exercitio, et partim, immo maxime divino auxilio, provecti sunt ad arcem contemplationis faciliter ascendendum. Rara avis in terra fatemur; non tamen desperandum quod nulla. Sunt alii qui disciplinati per observationes ordinis mortificant vitia et naturam custodiunt, qui absque eis vivendo saeculariter dum fovere putarent naturam, vitia nutrirent; immo deinceps ut evenit, naturam per excessum corrumperent. Et quoniam inveniuntur ut communius homines hujus religionis professionem arripientes qui se tales reputant, propterea sunt datae regulae aliae quam quae solam contemplationem respiciunt; quoniam multo plures sunt apti regulis hujusmodi quam contemplationis altitudini, praesertim ab initio et in fervore concupiscentiarum quibus non edomitis contemplari quaereret homo nedum inutiliter, nedum arroganter, sed in magnam saepe perniciem.” Google Scholar
119 For an edition see Ouy, Gilbert, Gerson bilingue: Les deux rédactions, latine et française, de quelques oeuvres du chancelier parisien (Paris, 1998). On the work's impact, see Bast, Robert James, Honor Your Fathers: Catechisms and the Emergence of a Patriarchal Ideology in Germany, 1400–1600 (Leiden, 1997), 13–28.Google Scholar
120 On this notion in Gerson, see Hobbins, Daniel, “Jean Gerson's Authentic Tract on Joan of Arc: Super facto puellae et credulitate sibi praestanda (14 May 1429),” Mediaeval Studies 67 (2005): 111 n. 56. Gerson does use a similar phrase in De passionibus animae, immediately after the passage in which he cites the Stoic formula “virtutes sunt impassibilitates.” He refers next to the Epicureans, who go to the other extreme and say that “all passions are beautiful and best.” “But Aristotle,” Gerson concludes, “as if taking a middle course [medium iter], denied that all passions are good, because many come before and impede reason; he nonetheless denied that they should all be judged bad and shameful, those, that is, ruled by reason.” (OC 9:8: “Ceterum Aristoteles quasi medium iter peragens negavit passiones omnes bonas esse, quia multae praeveniunt et impediunt rationem; negavit nihilominus omnes judicandas esse malas et turpes, eas videlicet quae ratione regerentur.”) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
121 MS 2043 (2282). I have not examined this manuscript. For descriptions, see Musto, , “Angelo Clareno” (n. 8 above), 592; van den Gheyn, J. et al., Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, vol. 3, Théologie (Brussels, 1903), 264. The other two early manuscripts mentioned above, Charleville, BM, MS 132, and Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, MS 658, both contain the Liber ad pastorem. Google Scholar
122 On devotional excess, see Hobbins, , “Gerson on Lay Devotion” (n. 72 above), 62–75.Google Scholar
123 libri huius] huius libri B. Google Scholar
124 PL 22:1147, “Epistola CXXXIII ad Ctesiphontem.” Google Scholar
125 Ps. 75:3.Google Scholar
126 Ps. 48:13.Google Scholar
127 Ps. 62:4.Google Scholar
128 1 Cor. 15:10.Google Scholar
129 Ps. 75:3.Google Scholar
130 Ps. 48:13.Google Scholar
131 Ps. 62:4.Google Scholar
132 1 Cor. 15:10.Google Scholar
133 After this article went to press, I found a second MS of the Admonitio, ÖNB Cod. Ser. n. 12788, fols. 433v-434r. Collation showed that this copy is insignificant for the present edition.Google Scholar