SOURCE: Caiger, B. J. “Doctrine and Discipline in the Church of Jean Gerson.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 41, No. 3 (July 1990): 389-407.

In the essay that follows, Caiger discusses how Gerson's views of teaching shifted over time, from an emphasis on “how one may be confident that what is taught is true” to “how one may know that the teacher has a right to teach and may therefore be trusted.”

The problem of ascertaining by what means and what authority true teachings may be distinguished from false is fundamental to any ecclesiology, since the ecclesiastical community is based, above all, on commonly accepted doctrine. It is a community whose limits are defined—and the parameters within which it operates set—by the body of teachings which is accepted within it as true. Thus, the fundamental practical question which any ecclesiology must address becomes, in effect, who has authority to determine...