name: Jean-Joseph Gaume
birth_date: 1802-05-05 00:00:00
death_date: 1879-11-19 00:00:00
genres: History, Classics, Religion, Theology
avg_rating: 4.46
ratings_count: 24
about: Monsignor Jean-Joseph Gaume was a French Roman Catholic theologian and author. While attached to the Diocese of Nevers, he was successively professor of theology, director of the petit séminaire, canon, and vicar-general of the diocese, and had already published several works, when he left for Rome in 1841. Gregory XVI made him a knight of the Reformed Order of St. Sylvester. A doctor of theology of the University of Prague, a member of several societies of scholars, honorary vicar-general of several dioceses, he received from Pius IX in 1854 the title of prothonotary apostolic.Abbé Gaume is the author of numerous books treating of theology, history, education. Those of the first category are still esteemed, those of the second have fallen Monsignor Jean-Joseph Gaume was a French Roman Catholic theologian and author. While attached to the Diocese of Nevers, he was successively professor of theology, director of the petit séminaire, canon, and vicar-general of the diocese, and had already published several works, when he left for Rome in 1841. Gregory XVI made him a knight of the Reformed Order of St. Sylvester. A doctor of theology of the University of Prague, a member of several societies of scholars, honorary vicar-general of several dioceses, he received from Pius IX in 1854 the title of prothonotary apostolic.Abbé Gaume is the author of numerous books treating of theology, history, education. Those of the first category are still esteemed, those of the second have fallen into oblivion, and those of the third gave rise to the famous question of the classics. These last writings are all inspired by one and the same thought; vividly struck by the religious and moral deterioration of his age, the author seeks its remote cause, and believes he finds it in the Renaissance, which was for society a resurrection of the paganism of antiquity, prepared the way for the Revolution, and was, in fine, the primal source of all the evil. Such is the dominating idea of the works "La Révolution" (8 vols., 1856) and "Histoire de la societé domestique" (2 vols., 1854). It is again met with in "Les Trois Rome" (1857).Gaume did not go so far as to exclude the pagan texts; he allowed them some place in higher classes, but banished them from the first years.In support of a new method of moulding childhood and youth consisting in catechetical instruction and the exclusion of pagan authors, he composed his "Catéchisme de Persévérance, ou Exposé de la Religion depuis l'origine du monde jusqu'à nos jours" (8 vols., 1854); "La Religion et l'Eternité" (1859); "Traité de l'Esprit Saint (1864).  The Abbé Gaume published further: "Bibliothèque des classiques chrétiens, latins et grecs" (30 vols., 1852-55); "Poètes et Prosateurs profanes complètement expurgés" (1857). ...more