Preface

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