Proving Woman (62 page)

⁴⁶
Gerson, however, presents himself as a democratizing force for mysticism when he justifies writing the vernacular
Mountain of Contemplation
—a perspective taken at face value by many scholars (
Oeuvres
, 7,1:16; trans. McGuire, p. 75; Brown,
Pastor and Laity
, pp. 183–94; McGuire,
Jean Gerson
, introd., p. 24; Connolly,
Jean Gerson
, pp. 259–60). But, as Gerson was only too well aware, mysticism did not need democratizing and such works could instead be
construed as efforts at control.
The Mountain
, for instance, only briefly (and elliptically) treats rapture, unlike his Latin works. See, for example,
De theologia mystica lectiones sex
, in
Oeuvres
, 3:282–83; trans. McGuire, pp. 282–84. Gerson wrote
The Mountain
for his sisters, who were living a Beguine lifestyle. Cf. his letter of 1399–1400 outlining daily devotions, in
Oeuvres
, 2:14–17; trans. McGuire, pp. 156–60. See Brian McGuire, “Late Medieval Care and the Control of Women: Jean Gerson and His
Sisters,”
Revue d
’
histoire eccl
è
siastique
92 (1997): 5–36.

⁴⁷
Gerson,
De centilogium de impulsibus
no. 56, in
Oeuvres
, 8:142. See Ruth Karras,
From
Boys to Men: Formations of Masculinity in Late Medieval Europe
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), pp. 90–93. This tenor of violence persists today. See George Lakoff
and Mark Johnson’s discussion of argument as war in
Metaphors We Live By
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), pp. 4–5.

⁴⁸
See Colledge, “
Epistola solitarii
,” p. 45. Arne Joïnsson has edited Alphonse’s treatise in
Alfonso of Ja
è
n: His Life and Works
(Lund: Lund University Press, 1989), pp. 115–67. Rosalynn Voaden draws on Alan of Lille to describe Gerson’s appropriation
as having “ ‘a wax nose, which means it can be bent to take on new meanings’ ” (
God
’
s Words, Women
’
s Voices: The Discernment
of Spirits in the Writing of Late-Medieval Women Visionaries
[Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 1999], p. 42). On the collaborative work between Bridget and Alphonse, see Hans Gilkær,
The
Political Ideas of St. Birgitta and Her Spanish Confessor, Alfonso Pecha
, trans. Michael Cain, Odense University Studies in History and Social Sciences, vol. 163 (Odense: Odense University Press,
1993).

⁴⁹
Gerson,
De mystica theologia practica
c. 8, c. 2, in
Oeuvres
, 8:33, 22–23; trans. McGuire, pp. 312, 294. Gerson also designates Gregory the Great and Bernard of Clairvaux as concupiscible,
Jerome as irascible, and Augustine and Thomas Aquinas as rational. Elsewhere, he will associate the irascible with the majesty
of God, the rational with the Son, and the concupiscible with the goodness of the Spirit (see
De theologia mystica lectiones sex
, consideratio 42, in
Oeuvres
, 3:288; trans. Ozment,
Jean Gerson
, p. 61). Aquinas speaks of only two powers of the soul (the irascible and concupiscible—divisions of the sense of appetite),
which are controlled by reason (
ST
1a, q. 81, art. 2, 11:206–11). Gerson’s division is closer to Thomas of Cantimpré’s (see
Liber
de natura rerum
2.9, ed. H. Boese [Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1973], 1:89).

⁵⁰
Gerson is especially indebted toWilliam of Auvergne. See, for example, the list of delusions, including the man who thought
he was a rooster, in
De passionibus animae
c. 20, in
Oeuvres
, 9:19–20;
De distinctione
c. 51, in
Oeuvres
, 3:44, trans. McGuire, pp. 89–90;
Regulae mandatorum
, 9:119;
Traite
é
des diverses tentations de l
’
ennemi
, 7,2:346–48. Cf.
Contra superstitiosam dierum
observantium
, where he describes superstitious practices as arising from a melancholic imagination, inner lesions of the brain, or a debility
of the imaginative power. One of his proofs for this last point is that old women, children, and half-wits are more inclined
to believe these things (
Oeuvres
, 9:119–20);
De meditatione cordis
c. 7, c. 18, in
Oeuvres
, 8:79, 83–84).

⁵¹
On the relation between lay inferiority and illiteracy in this period, see Yves Congar, “Clerus et lai ö au point de vue
de la culture au Moyen Age: ‘laicus’ = sans lettres,” in
Studia mediaevalia
et mariologica P. Carolo Balic OFM septuagesimum explenti annum dictata
(Rome: Antonianum, 1971), 309–32. He makes the telling point that there is no word for a female cleric by referring to a female
biographer who styles herself a good
clericus
(p. 318).

⁵²
For notable attacks on and defenses of women, see Alcuin Blamires, ed.,
Woman Defamed
and Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1992). Cf. his analysis of the pro-woman texts in
The Case for Women in Medieval Culture
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1997).

⁵³
Judith Butler,
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
(New York: Routledge, 1990), p. 31. Although Butler’s idea of the bad copy is primarily mobilized to characterize the perception
of gay sexuality in relation to heterosexuality, it is clearly useful for understanding medieval notions of gender. For an
overview of the medical construction of woman’s secondary nature, see Thomas Laqueur,
Making Sex: The Body and Gender from the Greeks to
Freud
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), esp. pt. 1.

⁵⁴
See Gerson,
Oeuvres
, 2:93–96; trans. McGuire, pp. 244–49. Ermine’s life and visions, recorded by her confessor, the Franciscan John Le Graveur,
have recently been edited by Claude Arnaud-Gillet as
Entre Dieu et Satan: les visions d
’
Ermine de Reims (
]
1396)
(Florence: Sismel, Edizione del Galluzzo, 1997). Morel was acting on behalf of Ermine’s confessor (ibid., introd., pp. 16–17).
Glorieux had tentatively dated Gerson’s letter as 1408. Arnaud-Gillet more convincingly places Gerson’s initial assessment
of Ermine in 1401 or 1402 (ibid., introd., pp. 21–24). This makes sense in the context of Gerson’s own statement, cited below,
that his judgment on Ermine coincided with his treatise
On Distinguishing True from False
Revelations
, which was written in 1401.

⁵⁵
See Fran ç oise Bonney’s comparison of Gerson’s two interventions in “Jugement de Gerson sur deux expériences de la vie mystique
de son époque: les visions d’Ermine et de Jeanne d’Arc,” in
Actes du 95e congre`s national des Soci
è
t
è
s Savantes, Reims 1970
(Paris: Biblioth[egrave]que Nationale, 1974), 2:187–95. The treatment is somewhat flawed by the implicit assumption that Gerson
had the same familiarity with Joan’s visions as did the inquisitors at her trial (pp. 192–93). But see her characterization
of Ermine’s visions (pp. 190–92).

⁵⁶
Gerson,
Oeuvres
, 2:94; trans. McGuire, p. 245.

⁵⁷
Gerson,
Oeuvres
, 2:95; trans. McGuire, p. 247.

⁵⁸
Gerson,
Oeuvres
, 2:96; trans. McGuire, p. 248.

⁵⁹
Gerson,
Oeuvres
, 2:96; trans. McGuire, pp. 248–49.

⁶⁰
Gerson,
De examinatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:474. Arnaud-Gillet notes that by the time of Gerson’s reversal, all of Ermine’s supporters were safely dead (
Entre Dieu et Satan
, introd., pp. 26–27).

⁶¹
In addition to his allusion to Marguerite Porete’s confusion of carnal and spiritual love alluded to above, this treatise
also contains what was first identified by Huizinga as an autobiographical episode concerning a spiritual friendship with
a woman that slowly reverted to its carnal counterpart (
De distinctione
, in
Oeuvres
, 3:52; trans. McGuire, p. 357). See Brian McGuire, “Jean Gerson and the End of Spiritual Friendship: Dilemmas of Conscience,”
in
Friendship in Medieval
Europe
, ed. Julian Haseldine (Thrupp, UK: Sutton Publishing, 1999), pp. 236–38.

⁶²
Gerson,
De distinctione
, in
Oeuvres
, 3:39; trans. McGuire, p. 337.

⁶³
De distinctione
, in
Oeuvres
, 3:39; trans. McGuire, p. 339. Cf.
De probatione
, 9:182; trans. Boland, p. 33.

⁶⁴
Ambrose,
Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam
1.1, ed. M. Adriaen,
CCSL
, 14 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1957), pp. 6–7; John Cassian,
Conf
è
rences
1.20–22, ed. and trans. E. Pichery,
SC
, 42 (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1955), 1:101–5; trans. Boniface Ramsey,
Conferences
(New York: Paulist Press, 1997), pp. 59–63; Jerome,
Commentar. in Epist. ad Ephes.
3.4, v. 31 ad
Omnis amaritudo,
et furor, et ira
,
PL
26, col. 549; Jerome,
Comment. in Epist. ad Philemonem
v. 4 ff., ad
Gratias
ago Deo me semper
,
PL
26, col. 646. Cf. Gregory the Great’s detailed deployment of this theme with respect to the question of false prophets when
he comments on the qualities of Leviathan in Job 41.10 (
Moralia in Iob
33.35.60, ed. Mark Adriaen,
CCSL
143b [Turnhout: Brepols, 1985], pp. 1724–26). Jerome increases the authority of this image when he claims that Christ himself
ordered his followers to be good money changers (Ep. 119, To Minervius and Alexander,
Epistulae
, ed. I. Hilberg,
CSEL
55, rev. and supplemented ed. [Vienna: Verlag der oïsterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996], pp. 467–68). Alardus
Gazaeus identifies this passage as the Gospel according to the Hebrews—an apocryphal work that still would have been fair
game at the time of Origen and earlier commentators on this theme but Jerome knows better. See Gazaeus’s commentary on Cassian’s
Collationes
1.20,
PL
49, col. 511, note d. On God “proving” his saints, see chap. 3, pp. 106–9, above. On discernment generally, Joseph Lienhard,
“On ‘Discernment of Spirits’ in the Early Church,”
Theological Studies
41 (1980): 505–29; Gustave Bardy, “Discernement des esprits: II. Chez les pe`res,”
DS
, vol. 3, cols. 1251–52.

⁶⁵
See Jacques Derrida’s
Given Time: 1. Counterfeit Money
, trans. Peggy Kamuf (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), pp. 157–58. Derrida emphasizes that whatever interest accrues
still has a disturbing origin “from a simulacrum, from a copy of a copy (
phantasma
)” (p. 161). Thanks to Simon Gaunt for bringing this work to my attention. Note that Cassian’s spiritual counterfeit coin
is identical in every way to the legitimate species—save that it was unlawfully minted (
Conf
è
rences
1.20, 1.21, pp. 104, 105; trans. Ramsey, pp. 61, 62). Cf. the heretical Lollard counter-feiters described in Paul Strohm’s
England
’
s Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of
Legitimation
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), pp. 128–29.

⁶⁶
Gerson,
De distinctione
, in
Oeuvres
, 3:39; trans. McGuire, p. 338.

⁶⁷
Gerson,
De probatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:179; trans. Boland, pp. 28–29.

⁶⁸
Gerson,
De probatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:178; trans. Boland, p. 28.

⁶⁹
“Tu quis, quid, quare / cui, qualiter, unde require,” Gerson,
De probatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:180; trans. Boland, p. 30.

⁷⁰
See chap. 1, pp. 23–25, above. Also see Brian McGuire, “Education, Confession, and Pious Fraud: Jean Gerson and a Late Medieval
Change,”
American Benedictine Review
47 (1996): 330–33.

⁷¹
Gerson,
De probatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:181; trans. Boland, p. 32.

⁷²
Gerson,
De examinatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:469.

⁷³
Gerson,
De examinatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:471–72. Cf. Gerson’s similar recognition of just how controversial his suggestions for doctrinal monitoring are in his
earlier work
On the Curiosity
of Students
(chap. 6, p. 248, above). See Ozment, “The University and the Church,” p. 112, and Caiger, who observes that, despite Gerson’s
growing disillusionment about the church as an institution, this later treatise exemplifies his later tendency to make doctrine
“the handmaid of discipline” (“Doctrine and Discipline,” p. 406).

⁷⁴
Gerson,
De examinatione
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:469–70. On Bridget and Catherine’s involvement in the schism, see Bridget Morris,
St. Birgitta of Sweden
(Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 1999), pp. 113–17; Karen Scott, “ ‘Io Catharina’: Ecclesiastical Politics and Oral Culture
in the Letters of Catherine of Siena,” in
Dear Sister: Medieval Women and the Epistolatory Genre
, ed. Karen Cherewatuk and Ulrike Wiethaus (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), pp. 87–121; and n. 9, above.

⁷⁵
For the intial controversy surrounding Joan, see Deborah Fraioli’s
Joan of Arc: The Early
Debate
(Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 2000). Joan’s mission would, in fact, be helped by the contemporary climate of prophecy. See
Jacques Paul, “Le prophétisme autour de Jeanne d’Arc et de sa mission,” in
Il profetismo gioachimita tra Quattrocento e Cinquecento
, Atti del III Congresso Internazionale di Studi Gioachimiti, S. Giovanni in Fiore, 17–21 settembre 1989, ed. Gian Luca Potesta`
(Geneva: Marietti, 1991), pp. 157–81; Vauchez, “Jeanne d’Arc et le prophétisme,” pp. 163–66. In particular, Joan’s coming
was thought to have been predicted by the prophetess Marie Robine. See Noeïl Valois, “Jeanne d’Arc et la prophétie de Marie
Robine,” in
M
è
langes Paul
Fabre: Etudes d
’
histoire du Moyen Age
(Paris: Alphonse Picard, 1902), pp. 452–67. See Matthew Tobin, “Le ‘Livre de révélations’ de Marie Robine: étude et édition,”
MEFRM
98 (1986): 229–64. The question of Joan’s awareness of these prophecies is raised at her trial. See Pierre Tisset, ed.,
Proce`s de condamnation de Jeanne d
’
Arc
(Paris: C. Klincksieck, 1960), 1:67. Also note the important role played by the popular apocalyptic preacher Brother Richard,
whose impact is described in the journal of an anonymous Parisian. See
A Parisian Journal: 1405
–
1449
ann. 1429, trans. Janet Shirley (Oxford: Clarendon, 1968), pp. 230–35. Joan met with Brother Richard once; he performed an
ad hoc exorcism before approaching but would eventually validate her mission. Joan is also questioned about her dealings with
him at her trial (Tisset,
Proce`s
, 1:98; cf. 261, 100, 105, 206). See Jules de La Martini[egrave]re, “Fr[egrave]re Richard et Jeanne d’Arc a` Orléans: mars–juillet
1430,”
Le Moyen Age
, ser. 3, 5 (1934): 189–98.