GERBERON, GABRIEL. - Benedictine theologian, b. at St-Calais (diocese of Le Mans), 12 Aug. 1628, d. at St-Denis, 29 March 1711. He taught rhetoric, philosophy and theology in several monasteries, but encountered opposition and complaints on account of his scarcely orthodox doctrine. He was then directed to philological studies on 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 St. Anselm of Aosta.
Perhaps this was the calmest period of his life. A follower of Jansenist theories, he placed all his polemical bitterness and his patristic and theological learning at their service, drawing upon himself accusations that drove his superiors to relegate him to Corbie, where he was also subprior. But a warrant for his arrest, on the charge of having taken sides against the court in the question of the régale in 1682, forced him to flee and to abandon France. Having taken refuge in the Netherlands, he also laid aside the religious habit and, under the false name of Augustin Kergrè, devoted himself to a violent defense of his ideas and of his conduct. Because of the war between Holland and France he withdrew to Rotterdam and then to Brussels. New accusations led in 1689 to his arrest, ordered by the Archbishop of Malines, and to a trial against him, in which he was condemned as a Jansenist and as a rebel against the Holy See, and expelled also from the diocese and the country. He remained in prison at Amiens and then at Vincennes until 1710; and only after having signed a profession of faith was he sent by his superiors to the abbey of St-Denis. Here G. wrote yet another letter to the Pope to explain the meaning of his signature appended to the said profession of faith.
G. wrote more than a hundred works. In his output as a writer, works of a theological and moral character predominate: Apologia pro Ruperto abbate Tuitensi (Paris 1669); S. Anselmi... Opera (ibid. 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.
Bibliography5 works
Ambrogio Mancone