"_Man proposes, but God disposes_" (Vol. ix., pp. 87. 202.).--I regret that
I am unable to afford MR. THOMAS any information respecting the Abbot
Gerson, to whom the authorship of the _De Imitatione_ has been attributed,
beyond what is contained in the preface to the edition which I before
quoted. The authority there cited is a dissertation, entitled _Memoire sur
le veritable auteur de l'Imitation de Jesus-Christ_, par G. de Gregory,
Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, etc., Paris, 1827. The contents of this
work are thus described in that preface:
"Eques de Gregory argumentis tum externis, tum internis demonstrat:--1.
Libellum--primitus tractatum fuisse ethicae scholasticum, a magistro
novitiorum elaboratum. 2. Eundem, tempore inter annum 1220 et 1240
interjecto, suppresso nomine conscriptum esse a Joanne Gerson, monacho
Benedictino, antea in Athenaeo Vercellensi professore, postea ibidem
monasterii S. Stephani abbate. Denique specialibus argumentis eos
refellit, qui vel Joanni Gersoni, cancellario academiae Parisiensi, vel
Thomae Kempensi hunc librum attribuendum esse contendunt."
I have been informed that an interesting article upon the question of the
authorship has recently appeared in a very recent number of a Roman
Catholic Review; I believe Brownson's _American Quarterly._