Snares of the Devil

John Charlier Gerson, a celebrated French theologian, surnamed the Most Christian Doctor, was born on the 14th of December, 1363, at Gerson, a hamlet in the diocese in Rheims, near to Rethel. He died at Lyons, in a Monastery of Celestine Monks, on the 12th of July, 1429. He was the eldest of twelve children. His parents, Arnulph Charlier and Elizabeth Lachardeniere, brought up their family in a religious manner, Gerson himself tells us that three of his brothers and four sisters embraced the yoke of Christ in the conventual life. It was beneath the shadow of the Cloister that peace-loving souls, or those wounded in the struggle of life, sought for rest and shelter, away from the tumult of a corrupt and wicked age.