GERBERON, GABRIEL. – Benedictine theologian, born at St-Calais (diocese of Mans) on 12 August 1628, died at St-Denis on 29 March 1711. He taught rhetoric, philosophy, and theology in several monasteries, but encountered opposition and complaints on account of his unorthodox doctrine. He was then directed toward philological studies of the Fathers of the Church and sent to St-Germain-des-Prés in Paris; the fruit of his work was the edition of the works of s. Anselmo d’Aosta.
This was perhaps the most tranquil period of his life. A follower of Jansenist theories, he placed all his polemical acerbity and his patristic and theological learning at their service, thereby attracting accusations that led his superiors to relegate him to Corbie, where he also served as subprior. But a warrant for his arrest, on the charge of having sided against the court in the question of the regalia in 1682, forced him to flee and abandon France. Having taken refuge in the Netherlands, he also abandoned the religious habit and, under the false name of Augustin Kergrè, devoted himself to a vigorous defence of his ideas and conduct. Because of the war between Holland and France, he withdrew to Rotterdam and then to Brussels. Further accusations led to his arrest in 1689, ordered by the archbishop of Mechelen, and to the trial brought against him, in which he was condemned as a Jansenist and as a rebel against the Holy See, and expelled from both the diocese and the country. He remained imprisoned at Amiens and then at Vincennes until 1710; and only after signing a profession of faith was he sent by his superiors to the abbey of St-Denis. There G. wrote another letter to the Pope to explain the meaning of his signature affixed to the aforementioned profession of faith.
G. wrote more than a hundred works. Theological and moral works predominate in his literary production: Apologia pro Ruperto abbate Tuitensi (Paris 1669); S. Anselmi... Opera (there 1675: PL 158-59); Le miroir de la piété chrétienne (Brussels 1676); Mémorial historique de ce qui s'est passé depuis l'année 1647 jusqu'en 1653 touchant les cinq propositions tant à Paris qu'à Rome (Cologne 1676); Traité historique sur la grâce et la prédestination par l'abbé de St-Julien (Paris 1699); Historie générale du jansénisme (Amsterdam 1711), etc.