Charity, Pride, and Patronage

Abstract

As the previous chapter argued, constructing an allegorical female persona for the university allowed Gerson to insert the results of academic consensus into conversations about royal policy without suffering forceful rebuke from princes who had previously proved hostile to the university’s advice. To this extent, it was a successful rhetorical strategy. Gerson’s repeated invitations to address the royal court and the University of Paris’s repeated reliance upon him as its official representative to the king testify to the ways in which Gerson was able to craft a space for himself to speak that resonated both with the goals of his colleagues and the expectations of the crown. His success in establishing his reputation as a preacher and a leader within the university led to his appointment as the chaplain to the king’s uncle, Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy, in 1393 and his appointment as chancellor of the University of Paris by Pope Benedict XIII in 1395.