GERARDO (GERARDINO) DI BORGO SAN DONNINO

Image from page 75
Image from page 75

GERARD (GERARDINO) of BORGO SAN DONNINO. — He was teaching grammar when he took the Franciscan habit. Already a follower of the Joachimite theories, he was sent to Paris to study theology (1248).

In 1254 he published without permission the *Concordia Novi et Veteris Testamenti* of the Calabrian abbot, along with the *Liber introductorius ad Evangelium aeternum*. This latter work gives a false idea of the Eternal Gospel, which is no longer the spirit of the two Testaments, but is materialized in the triple work of Joachim: *Concordia*, *Expositio in Apocalypsin*, and *Psalterium decem chordarum*.

The work provided an opportunity for a most dangerous offensive against the Mendicants in the University, and was censured by Alexander IV (1255). G. returned to Sicily; continuing, and sent again to Paris, he was condemned by the Minister General, St. Bonaventure, to perpetual imprisonment, and died 18 years later unrepentant. Angelo of Chiarino asserts that he was one of the principal companions of the Blessed John of Parma.

BIBL.: Sources: *Cronica fratris Salimbene de Adam Ordinis Minorum*, ed. O. Holder-Egger, in *MGH, Scriptores*, XXXII, pp. 236-38, 460-62; Angelo da Chiarino, *Historia septem tribulationum*, ed. F. Ehrle, in *Archiv. f. Liter. u. Kirchengeschichte*, 2 (1886), pp. 283-84. — Studies: F. Ehrle, *Das Evangelium aeternum und die Commission zu Anagni*, ibid., 1 (1885), pp. 57-70; Gratien de Paris, *Histoire de la fondation... des Frères Mineurs*, Paris 1928, p. 210; G. Bondatti, *Gioacchinnino e francescanesimo nel Duogenito*, S. Maria degli Angeli 1924, pp. 67-85 and passim (v. indice).