Jean Gerson’s Assessment of the Issue of Religious Zeal in the Context of the Tyrannicide Controversy

Abstract

This article explores the issue of religious zeal and politics in the works of the leading French theologian and chancellor of the University of Paris, Jean Gerson (1363–1429). The article examines it in the context of the tyrannicide controversy, which landed him in open conflict with the powerful Duke of Burgundy. It was for Gerson no ordinary political dispute, concerned with material well-being, but a matter of choice between the ruin and salvation of human nature. Focusing on theological treatisesDe Consolatione Theologiae and Dialogus Apologeticus,the study aims at exploring Gerson’s increasingly anxious and personal thoughts concerning his actions and his involvement in politics in general. Revealing the very core of tensions between, on one hand, moral conscience and the Christian doctrine, and, on the other, temporal power and political wisdom, Gerson raises the crucial questions of dangers, boundaries and applications of religious zeal while bringing to light the inherent conflict between collective good and personal salvation.