EDWARD HEALY THOMPSON
of France, to the Council of Constance, where he used all his endeavours to bring about the extinction of the schism; for there were at that time no less than three claimants to the chair of Peter. Gerson, for this end, had a weapon in his quiver of the potency of which he had no doubt. This eminent man had imbibed sentiments of the deepest devotion for St. Joseph from his master, Pierre d'Ailly, Cardinal of Cambrai, who, writing on the prerogatives of the Saint, had said that he esteemed him worthy of the greatest veneration among men and as deserving to have his festivals celebrated with the utmost solemnity, seeing that the King of kings Himself had been pleased to honour him so highly.686 His disciple, the famous Chancellor, had taken up the same cause with all the fervour of his heart and all the vigour of his powerful intellect. He employed the great influence which his learning and high position gave him in many quarters for its promotion; he appealed to doctors, to ecclesiastics, and even kings and princes, to engage them to join with him in procuring the establishment of this devotion; he even wrote a poem in honour of the Saint. But all this was surpassed by what he was moved to do, as we may well believe, by a special impulse of the Spirit of God, when preaching before the Council. To proffer advice on so high a matter to all the Bishops of Holy Church assembled in council required, indeed, no ordinary boldness. The sermon, moreover, which he was appointed to preach and to which such frequent allusion has been made, did not directly embrace the subject on which he was led to enlarge. His sermon was on the Nativity of our Blessed Lady. Yet, leaving his immediate topic, be devoted three parts of his discourse to a splendid laudation of St. Joseph and an exposition of his supereminent prerogatives. Of the Saint's power of intercession Gerson uses these striking words: "He does not entreat, he commands—Non impetrat, sed imperat". And these very words were addressed to the assembled Princes of the Church, who heard and approved. Such, then, being the position and power of Joseph, Gerson believed that, in order to put an end to the schism and restore peace to the Church, solemn honours ought to be decreed to him. "If for such an end," he said, "that is, to obtain peace for the Catholic Church, it may seem good to this most holy Synod to institute something to the praise and honour of the virgin spouse of Mary, which honour shall redound to her and to Him who was born of her, Christ Jesus, let your enlightened devotion, blessed Fathers, consider."687 entertainment may be taken as an evidence of his reputed sanctity and spiritual discernment. 686
Tractat. de S. Joseph.
687
It is gratifying to learn, from the preacher's own testimony in one of his letters of exhortation on this subject, that our country was not behind in devotion to 342