Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum

The Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum, or shortly Deliberatio, is the only extant work of Bishop Gerard of Csanád. It is an important source of the history of the Christianization of Hungary in the early 11th century.

Manuscript

The entire work has been preserved in a late-11th-century manuscript written in Carolingian minuscule. A note at the top of one of its leaves indicates that it was held at the library of the Catholic Diocese of Freising in the 12th century.

Bishop Gerard

The work's author, Gerard, was the first bishop of Csanád in Hungary from 1030 to 1046.

Subject

The work is a treatise on the story of Prophet Daniel's three friends whom King Nebuchadnezzar II sentenced to death for refusing to worship a golden statue. They were thrown into a fiery furnace, but they survived unharmed. In his work, Gerard contrasts "inane philosophy" with "heavenly wisdom".