Proving Woman (61 page)

¹²
Gerson,
De distinctione
, in
Oeuvres
, 3:51; trans. McGuire, p. 356.

¹³
Gerson,
De distinctione
, in
Oeuvres
, 3:51; trans. McGuire, p. 356. On Gerson’s invectives against the Free Spirit movement, for which Marguerite was construed
by orthodoxy as a kind of spokesperson, see Robert Lerner’s
The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972), pp. 164–77.

¹⁴
Gerson,
De probatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:180, 184 (bis); trans. Boland, pp. 30, 36, 36–37; cf.idem,
De examinatione
c. 6, in
Oeuvres
, 9:473. For general condemnations of curiosity and religious decadence that do not identify women particularly, see the following,
all in
Oeuvres
:
De
meditatione cordis
, 8:78;
De directione cordis
c. 27, c. 43, 8:105, 111;
Traite
é
des diverses tentations
de l
’
ennemi
, 7,2:352;
De signis bonis et malis
, 9:164. Also see his own concern lest he be thought to be promoting the kind of singularity and curiosity he condemns, in
De theologia mystica
c. 4, 3:250, trans. McGuire, p. 263. In a passage discussed below, he refuses to pander to the curious, despite the excellent
material at his disposal; cf. his commendation of Joan of Arc, p. 288, below. Note Albert the Great’s characterization of
women’s desire for novelty, in chap. 5, p. 207, above.

¹⁵
Gerson,
De examinatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:463.

¹⁶
Gerson,
De examinatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:467–68.

¹⁷
Gerson,
De examinatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:467–68. Cf. Newman’s assessment of Gerson’s presentation of the Virgin as a model of discernment, in
God and the Goddesses
, pp. 288–90.

¹⁸
Gerson occasionally offers an ungendered discussion of discernment. See, for example,
De
passionibus animae
, written in either 1409 or 1408, in
Oeuvres
, 9:15;
De signis bonis et malis
, 9:162–66.

¹⁹
Henry was one of the twenty-one theologians who condemned Marguerite’s book,
The Mirror
of Simple Souls
, in 1309. Moreover, he would be one of the six responsible for condemning the so-called heresy of the Free Spirit, which
ostensibly drew its inspiration from Marguerite’s book. For the process, see chap. 4, n. 208, above. Also see Lerner,
Heresy of the Free Spirit
, pp. 68–84.

²⁰
If Oakley is correct in his assumption that Gerson’s writings on discernment anticipated d’Ailly’s
On False Prophets
and that it was Gerson who sparked his mentor’s interest in such subjects, this would then mean that d’Ailly deliberately
shied away from Gerson’s
ad feminam
approach, opting for the more neutral tradition. See n. 6, above. On Henry of Langenstein’s use of Hildegard’s prophecies,
see Sylvain Gouguenheim,
La Sybille du Rhin: Hildegarde de Bingen,
abbesse et proph
è
tesse rh
è
nane
(Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1996), chap. 7.

²¹
Gustav Sommerfeldt, ed., “Die Prophetien der hl. Hildegard von Bingen in einem Schreiben des Magisters Heinrich v. Langenstein
(1383), und Langensteins Trostbrief über den Tod eines Bruders des Wormser Bischofs Eckard von Ders (um 1384),”
Historisches Jahrbuch
30 (1909): 48. Henry does, however, utilize aspects of Hildegard’s periodization that have a distinctly anti-woman stamp.
From an eschatological standpoint, Hildegard is understood as saying that there were three periods from the time of Christ
until 1100 (p. 48). The period immediately following 1100 was a “womanish age” for its superficiality and decadence (p. 54;
cf. her similar influence in Peter d’Ailly’s writings in the following note). I am indebted to Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski
for bringing this letter to my attention. Henry was an early critic of Bridget’s canonization. But this criticism was prompted
by his objections to the several new canonizations being proposed (the other two were men). Basically he was concerned about
the multiplication of saints as expressed by authorities like Hostiensis. See n. 10, above; and chap. 4, pp. 128–29, above.

²²
Hildegard is particularly invoked for her prophetic anticipations of false prophets. See, for example, d’Ailly,
De falsis prophetis
, in
Joannis Gersonii opera omnia
, ed. L. Ellies du Pin (Ant-werp: Sumptibus societatis, 1706), tract 1, cols. 497, 500, 505; tract 2, col. 519. D’Ailly does,
however, note that false prophets make considerable headway in the home of silly women or effeminate men (“frequentant domos
muliercularum, aut virorum effeminatorum”), following the lead of 2 Tim. 3. He also cites a prophesy of Hildegard’s that further
predicts the appearance of certain false doctors who will lead women into error (cols. 496–97). For her prediction of the
schism, see d’Ailly,
Tractatus de materia concilii generalis
(between 1402 and 1403), in
The
Political Thought of Pierre d
’
Ailly: The Voluntarist Tradition
, ed. Francis Oakley (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), app. 3, pp. 315–16. Hildegard shares the distinction of this
particular prediction with her near contemporary Joachim of Fiore. See Laura Smoller,
History, Prophecy,
and the Stars: The Christian Astrology of Pierre d
’
Ailly, 1350
–
1420
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994), pp. 96–97. According to Oakley, this treatise outlines a program of reform
that would eventually be revised and presented at Constance as
Tractatus super reformatione
ecclesiae
. Thus when AndréVauchez says, in partial exculpation of Gerson, that he is much less severe on current prophecy than his
contemporaries Henry of Langenstein and Pierre d’Ailly, he is not taking gender into account (“Sainte Brigitte,” p. 246).
Vauchez plays the apologist for Gerson elsewhere as well, only this time John Nider is added to the mix—a comparison that
implicitly acknowledges the gender problem since Nider’s misogyny makes Gerson look tame (Vauchez, “Jeanne d’Arc et le prophétisme
féminin des XIVe et XVe sie`cles,” in
Jeanne d
’
Arc:
une
è
poque, un rayonnement
, Colloque d’histoire médiéval, Orléans—Octobre 1979 [Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1982],
p. 167).

²³
D’Ailly,
De falsis prophetis
tract 1, col. 501.

²⁴
See, for example, Gerson’s
Pro unione ecclesiae
, written in 1391, in
Oeuvres
, 6:11–12, 14–15. By the time Gerson became chancellor in 1395, the university had become more actively involved in ending
the schism. See John Morrall,
Gerson and the Great Schism
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1960), pp. 58–59; Connolly,
Jean Gerson
, pp. 58–59, 169 ff.

²⁵
Gerson,
De modo se habendi tempore schismatis
, in
Oeuvres
, 6:29–30. See Alain Boureau’s discussion of the anxiety surrounding the pseudo-pope in
The Myth of Pope Joan
, trans. Lydia Cochrane (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), pp. 147–49. The issue of perplexity was addressed in
confessors’ manuals as well. See, for example, Raymond of Peñafort,
Summa de
poenitentia et matrimonio
3.30.6–7 (Rome: Joannes Tallini, 1603), pp. 356–57.

²⁶
See Gerson’s
C
è
dule de la commission
—a report either redacted or transmitted by Gerson, tentatively dated to 1411, in
Oeuvres
, 10:399–405 (in the supplement).

²⁷
See particularly Barbara Newman’s “Divine Power Made Perfect in Weakness: St. Hildegard on the Frail Sex,” in
Medieval Religious Women
, vol. 2,
Peaceweavers
, ed. John Nichols and Lillian Shank (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1987), pp. 103–22. Cf. Raymond of Capua’s
vita of Catherine of Siena in
AA SS
, April, 3:884, as cited by Caroline Walker Bynum, “Women’s Stories, Women’s Symbols: A Critique of Victor Turner’s Theory
of Liminality,” in
Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion
(New York: Zone Books, 1991), p. 39.

²⁸
See chap. 2, p. 78, above.

²⁹
On the papal schism and proliferation of prophecy, see Vauchez, “Les pouvoirs informels,” p. 283.

³⁰
Noeïl Valois, ed., “Les révélations de Constance de Rabastens et le schisme d’occident (1384–86)” art. 26,
Annales du Midi
8 (1896): 258–59. On Constance, see chap. 5, n. 157, above.

³¹
See Colledge, “
Epistola solitarii
,” pp. 31–33.

³²
Cf. Aquinas,
ST
2a 2ae, q. 82, art. 3, resp. ad 3, 39:42–43; and Bonaventure,
Vitis mystica
sive Tractactus de passione Domini: Additamentum IV
24.81, in
S. Bonaventurae opera omnia
, ed. College of Saint Bonaventure (Florence: College of Saint Bonaventure, 1898), 8:201.

³³
Letter to Barthélemy Clantier, in
Oeuvres
, 2:61; trans. McGuire, pp. 208–9. (I have adapted McGuire’s translation.) He goes on to argue, however, that experience of
God is insufficient as a basis for assessment of the merits of mystical writings. In addition, one requires theological training.
Also see his acknowledgment of women’s special ability, in
De mystica theologia practica
, in
Oeuvres
, 8:22–23, trans. McGuire, p. 294; cf.
La Montaigne de contemplation
, in
Oeuvres
, 7,1:16, trans. McGuire, p. 75. Elsewhere, he relates reading about a woman whose veins were said to burst, expanding like
newly fermenting wine without an outlet, when she heard a preacher speak of the soul’s union with God (
De mystica theologia speculativa
, in
Oeuvres
, 3:286–87). Gerson was probably reading Thomas of Cantimpré’s
De apibus
2.49.2, pp. 442–43.

³⁴
Gerson’s second letter against Ruusbroec, in
Oeuvres
, 2:98–99; trans. McGuire, p. 251. Gerson does, however, grant that the clerics are also to blame for this situation. See
De mystica
theologia practica
, in
Oeuvres
, 8:41; trans. McGuire, p. 323.

³⁵
See Palémon Glorieux, “Le Chancelier Gerson et la réforme de l’enseignement,” in
M
è
langes
offerts a` Etienne Gilson
(Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1959), pp. 285–98; Steven Ozment, “The University and the Church: Patterns
of Reform in Jean Gerson,”
Mediaevalia
et Humanistica
, n.s., 1 (1970): 112–16; idem,
Homo Spiritualis: A Comparative Study of the
Anthropology of Johannes Tauler, Jean Gerson, and Martin Luther in the Context of Their Theological
Thought
(Leiden: Brill, 1969), pp. 49–54; and Connolly,
John Gerson
, pp. 207–10.

³⁶
See Gerson’s
De theologia mystica lectiones sex
, in
Oeuvres
, 3:250–92. Excerpts from this treatise are translated by McGuire in
Jean Gerson
, pp. 262–87, and in Ozment,
Jean Gerson:
Selections from
“
A Deo exivit,
” “
Contra curiositatem studentium,
”
and
“
De mystica theologia
speculativa
”
, Textus minores, 38 (Leiden: Brill, 1969), pp. 46–73.

³⁷
See particularly Gerson’s
De meditatione cordis
, in
Oeuvres
, 8:77–84, esp. p. 83, and
De
simplificatione cordis
, in
Oeuvres
, 8:85–99, esp. p. 94. Both of these treatises were written at Constance in July 1417. By discrediting image-dependent revelations,
Gerson was adhering to the traditional Augustinian hierarchy of vision. See chap. 5, n. 95, above.

³⁸
De meditatione cordis
c. 18, in
Oeuvres
, 8:83.

³⁹
Gerson appeals to Bonaventure for this solution in
De examinatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:464. (Bonaventure does, however, excuse the mistaking of a consecrated host for an unconsecrated one.) Gerson had made
the same point earlier in
Regulae mandatorum
(between 1400 and 1415), where he says explicitly that invincible ignorance was no excuse since the person should first have
proven the spirit (c. 47, in
Oeuvres
, 9:106).

⁴⁰
Gerson,
De centilogium de impulsibus
, in
Oeuvres
, 8:141–43.

⁴¹
On this pattern, see Maryanne Kowaleski and Judith Bennett, “Crafts, Gilds, and Women in the Middle Ages: Fifty Years after
Marian K. Dale,” in
Sisters and Workers in the Middle Ages
, ed. Judith Bennett et al. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), pp. 11–25.

⁴²
D. Catherine Brown thinks it unlikely that Gerson was himself a mystic (
Pastor and Laity
in the Theology of Jean Gerson
[Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987], p. 205; cf. McGuire’s introduction,
Jean Gerson
, p. 21).

⁴³
Gerson,
De theologia mystica lectiones sex
, in
Oeuvres
, 3:255; trans. McGuire, pp. 270–71.

⁴⁴
This point is made in the second letter against Ruusbroec, in
Oeuvres
, 2:102; trans. McGuire, p. 255. See Lerner,
Heresy of the Free Spirit
, p. 166.

⁴⁵
Michel Foucault, “Discourse on Language,” appendix in
The Archaeology of Knowledge
, trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (London: Routledge, 1972), pp. 225, 220.