Summary: | After During the late Middle Ages, the discernment of spirits
went through a revolutionary transformation: from a wonderful charism invested
by the Holy Ghost, it became a human science, based upon probabilities and
conjectures, and under the tight control of the theological corporation. This new
discretio spirituum paradigm is known as «gersonian revolution» (because of Jean
Gerson’s role in its propagation). Were the great Sixteenth Century charismatic
saints enemies or supporters of this process of clericalization of religious
enthusiasm? The aim of this paper is to offer some clues to the resolution of this
dilemma, using as a test-case the figures of Ignatius Loyola and Teresa of Avila, two
of the major references of early Counter-Reformation
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