Utilitas als anti-spekulatives Motiv. Zur Rezeption eines Gerson’schen Anliegens im ausgehenden Mittelalter

Jean Gerson, chancellor of the university of Paris and influential theologian at the council of Constance, was known for his constant fight against curiosity. Instead of getting lost in futile speculation, theologians were admonished by him to take the utility of their research and teaching into account, a utility which, according to Gerson, manifested itself in its fruitful and edifying effect. He promoted this program or stylus, as he called it, as chancellor of the Parisian university in his many attempts to reform the curriculum, and he gave a practical demonstration of it to an international audience when opposing Jerome of Prague at Constance. But to what extent was this style received in the academic culture of the 15 th century? This paper traces the impact of Gerson’s stylus in a few Sentences commentaries, starting with contemporaries of Gerson such as Lambertus de Monte and Nicholas of Dinkelsbuhl, and moving on to later examples at the turn of the 16 th century and John Mair in particular. It becomes apparent that Gerson’s stylus took some time to be received, but then ironically stimulated even more sophisticated approaches to theological problems.