works include De vita spirituali animae, in which he locates ecclesiastical authority in
church councils rather than in the pope; De unitate ecclesiae, one of twenty-seven extant
treatises on the church; Mémoire sur la réforme de la faculté de théologie, which outlines
his pedagogy; and informal writings on the spiritual life, such as the Montagne de
contemplation. Although it is often attributed to him, Gerson did not write the Imitatio
Christi. Among his last writings is a defense of Jeanne d’Arc, Puella Aurelianensi
(1429).
E.Kay Harris
[See also: AVIGNON PAPACY; CONCILIAR MOVEMENT; D’AILLY, PIERRE;
ERIUGENA, JOHANNES SCOTTUS; MYSTICISM; NECROMANCY; QUARREL OF
THE ROMAN DE LA ROSE; SCHISM, GREAT]
Gerson, Jean. Œuvres completes de Jean Gerson, ed. Palémon Glorieux. 10 vols. Paris: Desclée,
1960–73.
Combes, André. La théologie mystique de Gerson. 2 vols. Rome: Editores Pontificii, 1965.
Delaruelle, Étienne, L.R.Labande, and Papul Ourliac. L’église au temps du Grand Schisme et de la
crise conciliaire (1378–1449). 2 vols. Paris: Blond et Gay, 1962.
Morrall, John B. Gerson and the Great Schism. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1960.
GESTA FRANCORUM ET ALIORUM
HIEROSOLIMI-TANORUM
(ca. 1101). The earliest account of the First Crusade. The unknown author was a knight in
the Italian contingent of Bohemund who wrote in simple, rough Latin. He begins with the
Council of Clermont (1095) and ends with the Battle of Ascalon (August 1099). The
Gesta was reworked by Robert le Moine, Baudri of Bourgueil, and Peter Tudebod and
was known by most other writers treating the crusade, including Foucher de Chartres and
Raymond d’Agiles, both eyewitnesses themselves. The Gesta was also read in its own
right; it is extant in seven manuscripts.
Leah Shopkow
[See also: FOUCHER DE CHARTRES; HISTORIOGRAPHY]
Hagenmeyer, Heinrich, ed. Anonymi gesta Francorum. Heidelberg: Winter, 1890.
Hill, Rosalind, ed. Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum. London: Nelson, 1962.
GHENT
. Before an abrupt decline after 1356, Ghent (Fr. Gand), a Flemish city at the junction of
the Scheldt and Lys rivers, was the second-largest city, after Paris, of me dieval northern
Europe, with a population of some 50,000. Ghent was important in commerce by the 8th
century and had a thriving textile industry by the 12th. By the 13th century, Ghent was
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