Jean Charlier de, chancellor of the University of Paris, surnamed the Most Christian Doctor, was born in 1363 near Reims, in Champagne, in the village of Gerson, from which he took his name. He was educated at the college of Navarre in Paris, and there distinguished himself so highly that he was chosen to succeed the famous Pierre d'Ailly as chancellor of the university, and canon of Notre Dame. These appointments Gerson owed to the influence of his friend the Duke of Burgundy. When that nobleman, however, tarnished his good name by the murder of the Duke of Orléans, none denounced his conduct more severely than Gerson who owed him so much; and the duke's partizans, enraged at what they considered his ingratitude, broke into his house and pillaged it, and would have slain himself, had he not fled for refuge to the vaults of Notre Dame. Undaunted by these demonstrations, Gerson, as soon as he resumed his functions, attacked before the church and the university of Paris the doctrine of Jean Petit, a hireling apologist of the murder of Orléans as a legitimate act, on the ground that the murdered man was a tyrant; and that tyrannyicide was not only lawful but praiseworthy. In the schism which long divided the church, Gerson was often employed on missions to the popes at Rome and Avignon; and by his treatise De Unitate Ecclesiastica contributed to bring about the result afterwards attained by the Council of Pisa, when the rival popes Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII. were both deposed in favour of Alexander V. At this time, also, Gerson wrote his famous essay De Autoribilitate Papae, in which he advocated, not as has been sometimes thought the suppression of the papal office, but the right of the church to depose any particular pope, when the interests of peace and unity require it. At the Council of Constance he appeared as ambassador of Charles VI., and exercised immense influence, especially in effecting the deposition of Pope John XXIII., who had succeeded Alexander V. The object of all his writings and speeches at this time was to vindicate the power of the church over its temporal head as well as its members; to prove the necessity of councils, general as well as special, and their right to meet without the papal consent, if that be needlessly withheld; to extirpate simony, at this time very common, &c. He was also successful in establishing the supremacy of the church in matters of doctrine and discipline as the basis of the decrees of the council. On the same occasion he distinguished himself in the discussions with John Huss; and though the spirit of the age was still too strong upon him for him to use his influence in preventing the martyrdom of that theologian and his party, yet many acts of his life show his religious zeal to have been wonderfully free from bigotry or superstition.

In his essay *Contra Sectam Flagellantium*, he denounced the abuses of these fanatics and their leader, whom he endeavoured to reclaim by friendly remonstrance. Again, in his work *De Probatione Spirituum*, he laid down rules for distinguishing false revelations from true. He applied these rules in the case of St Bridget, whose revelations were then making a great noise in the world. Gerson proved these pretended prophecies to be false, but the influence of the famous Cardinal Torquemada saved their author from the consequences of her imposture. Instead of returning home from Constance, Gerson, well assured that the powerful faction of the Duke of Burgundy were plotting his destruction, fled for refuge into Germany. Disguised as a pilgrim, he sought the mountains of Bavaria, where, in imitation of Boethius, he wrote his *De Consolatione Theologiae*, partly in prose and partly in verse. From Bavaria he passed into Austria, where the duke offered him an asylum. At the abbey of Môlek where he resided were found after his death many copies of his works, especially that on the Consolation of Theology. Appended to one of these was found for the first time a MS. of the *Imitation of Jesus Christ*, which circumstance gave rise to the idea that Gerson was the author of that famous work. Many competent authorities still incline to support the claims advanced in favour of the learned Frenclhelm. After a residence of several years in Germany, Gerson returned to France, and fixed his residence at the convent of the Celestins at Lyons, of which his brother was prior. Here he employed the remainder of his days in teaching and catechising the little children whom he daily collected in the church of St Paul, and from whom he exacted no other fee than that they should repeat on his behalf the simple prayer, “Seigneur, ayez pitié de votre pauvre serviteur Gerson.” In the midst of these humble functions Gerson died, 12th July 1429, at the age of sixty-six. (*Biog. Unic.*; *L'Enfant's Hist. of the Council of Constance*, &c. &c.)