A new history of ecclesiastical writers containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament, of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers, an abridgement and catalogue of their works ... also a compendious history of the councils, with chronological tables of the whole / written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin.

SECTION IX.

The Editions of the Book of the Imitation of Jesus Christ, under the Name of Gerson.

I Doubt not but there are many other Manuscripts of the Imitation under the Name of Gerson, which might be discover'd; if the same Pains and Care were taken to search after them, which have been us'd to find out the Manuscripts of Gersen, and Thomas a Kempis. However this be, 'tis very certain that there are many of them, since the first Editions of Italy and France, under his Name.

The Edition of Brescia in the year 1485. is under the Name of St. Bernard; but it is Re∣mark'd, that before that time it was ascrib'd to Gerson: Incipit Opus D. Bernardi celeberrimum de Imitatione Christi, & contemptu omnium Vanitatum Mundi, quod Joanni Gersoni Cancellario Pari∣siensi attribuitur; from whence it follows, that before the year 1485. the more common Opi∣nion was, that this Work was Gerson's.

There is a very ancient Edition without the Date of the Year, or the Place, and one without the Date of the Year at Paris, by Marnef, which may have been written before the Death of Thomas a Kempis.

The Editions of Venice in 1486, 1488, and 1501. and that of Milan in 1488. that of Paris in 1489. by Higman, that of 1491, and 1492. by Pygonchet, that of 1500 by Petit, in Latin, and in French by Noir, go under the Name of Gerson.

In the French Edition of 1493. 'tis observ'd, as we have already said, that this Book was commonly ascrib'd to St. Bernard, or to Gerson. This latter continu'd in possession of this Title in the next Age, which produc'd also divers Editions under his Name, as those of Paris, in 1513. by Thomas Rede, in 1515, and 1517. by John Petit, and a Version in 1515. at Venice in 1518. by Aribaverius, at Vienna in 1561. at Lyons in 1567, and 1608. at Rome in 1583, &c.

Against these Editions it i•• Objected, 1. That there are other Editions as ancient under the Name of St. Bernard, and Thomas a Kempis. 2. There is a Catalogue of the Books of Gerson made by his Brother, in a Letter written in 1423. wherein the Imitation is not found;

as neither is it in the Catalogue of Caresius, made in 1429. 3. There are many Editions of the Works of Gerson, among which the Book of the Imitation is not reckon'd, which is judg'd to be Tho. a Kempis's, according to the Note of Peter Schot, in the Edition of the Works of Gerson, at Strasburg, in 1488. Neither is it to be found in the Edition of some Works of Gerson, Printed at Collen, in 1483. nor in the Editions at Strasburg, in the year 1494, and 1514. at Basil in 1489, and 1518. and at Paris, in 1521, and 1606.

These Reflections may very much weaken the Authority of the Editions which are alledg'd, but they do not absolutely prove that this Book is none of Gerson's, for the Catalogues alledg'd do not generally contain all the Works of Gerson, no more than the Edition, in 1483. As to the Edition of Schot, and those which follow'd, that were made by his Copy, these being publish'd in Germany, where the Common Opinion was, that the Book of the Imitation was Tho. a Kempis's, 'tis no wonder that they did not insert this Book among the Works of Gerson.