GERBERON, GABRIEL

French Benedictine, Jansenist theologian and historian; b. Saint-Chalais, Vendôme, Aug. 12, 1628; d. Paris, March 29, 1711. He studied philosophy under the Oratorians at Vendôme, joined the Benedictines at Rennes, and taught in several monasteries. While stationed at Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, the center of Maurist erudition, he prepared the works of St. Anselm for publication (Paris 1675; Patrologia latina 158–159). This excellent work caused no difficulties. However through this contact with the Church Fathers, the author had acquired a taste for sources and a taste for scholastic thinkers. He was coming closer to the view of the Jansenists, among whom he had friends, and was arousing the mistrust of his superiors. His antiroyalist position made his situation worse. In 1682, he fled to Amiens, settled in the Low Countries, and by 1689 was in Holland. In 1690, he returned to Brussels, where he was in close contact with Arnauld and Quesnel. He published many theological, ascetical, and historical works and later prepared a list of them himself. The following are worth mention: Michaelis Baii … opera, (Cologne 1694); Lettres de M. Cornelius Jansenius (Cologne 1702); and especially the work published anonymously, Histoire générale du jansénisme (3 v. in 12, Amsterdam 1700). This history, obviously not complete but based on a rich documentation, still deserves to be juxtaposed with Rapin's.

By their active intervention in the polemical disputes of the Low Countries, Gerberon and his friends aroused the hostility of the bishops. On May 30, 1704, Gerberon was arrested in Brussels, incarcerated, and then condemned on the evidence of his confiscated documents. He was extradited into the hands of French authorities and remained in prison until 1710.

Bibliography: c. filliatre, Gerberon (Paris 1921); "Gerberon: Bénédictin Janséniste du XVII^e Siècle," Revue historique 146 (1924) 1–54. b. heurtebize, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 6.1:1290–94.

[l. ceyssens]