In a family diary kept by the Count Gustavus de Advocatis of Biella in the years 1345—1349, occurs the following passage (which is copied literally), under February 1349:—“15⁰ Die Dominica mensis Februarji post divisionem factam cum fratre meo Vincentio qui Ceridonji2 abitat in signum fraterni amoris quod hoc temporalibus tantum impulsus negotis feci dono ili preciosum Codicem de Imitatione Christi, quod hoc ab agnatis meis longa manu teneo nam nonnulli antenates mei hujus jam recordarunt.”
Here we have it stated that a copy of the Imitatio Christi has been for successive generations before 1349 in the possession of the family De Advocatis. If this work be identical with that before us, there is an end at once both of the Kempis and the Chancellor Gerson authorship. And we shall now show that there is a strong case in favour of the identity.
The family De Advocatis (Ital. Avogadro) owed their family name to having held the office of “Defenders of the Church” from the seventh century. Many members of it became illustrious in theology and science, and several became Bishops of Vercelli, the family being patrons of the church there.
In 1830, the Chevalier de Gregory, who had previously written a Mémoire sur le véritable Auteur de l’Imitation, made a remarkable confirmatory discovery. M. Techener, a bookseller in Paris, knowing his interest in the subject, showed him a MS. of the Imitatio of the thirteenth or fourteenth century which he had bought of an Italian. On the inside of the wooden binding M. de Gregory found the following autograph signatures:—
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1550. 3 Maii. Ad usum Dom-Hieronymi de Advocatis, civis Yporediae [Ivrea].
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Ad usum quoque Paracliti.3
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Ad usum Hieronymi, Federici Advocatis Ceridoni, scripsi, 1568 4 die Maii.
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Ad usum Hieronymi Advocatis.
This MS. was carefully examined by experts and its age attested, and the individuals mentioned were all traced and identified as members of the Avogadro family who had lived in or near Vercelli.
We may now, I cannot but think, take it as proved that this book was in existence in the thirteenth century. We have also the evidence above referred to that it was the work of John Gersen. Who was he? The edition of De Sessa, printed at Venice in 1501, has its heading like that of Köln, quoted above. But in St. Catherine’s Abbey at Genoa, the Benedictine Cajetan (1560—1650) found a copy with this MS. note appended:—“Hunc librum non compilavit Johannes Gersen, sed D. Johannes abbas Vercellensis, ut habetur usque hodie propria manu scriptus in eadem abbatia.” Here it seems to be implied that the author was not the Chancellor Gerson, but an “Abbot John,” whose surname is not given. But this Abbot John was also surnamed Gersen, as appears from the Codex Aronensis, a MS. of the fourteenth century, discovered by the Jesuit Father Rosignoli three hundred years ago at Arona. It begins thus:—“Incipiunt capitula primi libri Abbatis Joannis Gersen de Imitatione Christi et contemptu omnium vanitatum mundi,” and ends thus:—“Explicit liber quartus et ultimus Abbatis Joannis Gersen de Sacramento Altaris.” Three other MSS. of the same century, and many of the fifteenth, thirteen in all, have the same beginning. Another of the fifteenth calls the writer “Johannes de Canabaco,” (Ital. Cavaglià), and another has a picture of the writer as a Benedictine, which we need hardly say the Chancellor Gerson was not, and the Abbot of Vercelli was. Taking all these circumstances into account, there seems strong reason for accepting the belief that the writer of the Imitatio was John Gersen, who is called John of Cavaglià, and that he was an Abbot of Vercelli. But when we seek to investigate further, it must be confessed that our ground becomes somewhat uncertain. Cavaglià is a village near Vercelli, formerly subject to the temporal jurisdiction of the Abbot there, and it is said that a tradition lingers among the villagers that a certain John Gersen, a native of the place, was once Abbot of St. Stephen’s at Vercelli, and died in the odour of sanctity. A spot connected with his boyhood is pointed out. The Gersen family has survived in Cavaglià to this day.
The Benedictine Abbey of St. Stephen’s at Vercelli was founded at the beginning of the ninth century, and after some vicissitudes of fortune became very magnificent, and the feudal jurisdiction of its Abbot, who was among the three representatives of the republic of Vercelli, was greatly extended. In 1581 the monastery was suppressed by Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy, who was Lord of Vercelli.
In the great struggle between the Italians and the House of Hohenstaufen, the abbey, as was natural, played a conspicuous part. In the Second Lombard League, formed in 1225 against Frederic II, the republic of Vercelli was represented by the Bishop, the Abbot of St. Stephen’s, and a lay representative of the citizens; and the Abbot of St. Stephen’s who signed his name was an Abbot John. The time, and the absence of any other Johns among the Abbots, as far as the lists exist, led the advocates of the Gersen authorship to give this Abbot John the honour.
Whoever the author may be, he has produced the most popular religious work in Christendom. In England alone the Pilgrim’s Progress surpasses it, but even here the Imitatio stands second. For though the book in certain parts speaks for itself as being the work of a monk, it also speaks, not here and there, but throughout, the passionate eagerness of a soul to know God. The monkish habit is but the accident, the
