Meanwhile in 1395 the national assembly of France and the French clergy adopted the programme of the university--cession or a general council. The movement gathered strength. In 1398 most of the cardinals and most of the crowned heads in Europe had given their adhesion to the plan. During this period Gerson's literary activity was untiring, and the throb of public expectancy, of hope and fear, is revealed in his multitude of pamphlets. At first there were hopes of a settlement by way of cession. These come out in _Protest, super statum ecclesiae_ (ii. 1), _Tract. de modo habendi se tempore schismatis_, _De schismate_, &c. But soon the conduct of the popes made Europe impatient, and the desire for a general council grew strong--see _De concilio generali unius obedientiae_ (ii. 24). The council was resolved upon. It was to meet at Pisa, and Gerson poured forth tract after tract for its guidance. The most important are--_Trilogus in materia schismatis_ (ii. 83), and _De unitate Ecclesiae_ (ii. 113), in which, following Pierre d'Ailly (see Tschackert's _Peter v. Ailli_, p. 153), Gerson demonstrates that the ideal unity of the church, based upon Christ, destroyed by the popes, can only be restored by a general council, supreme and legitimate, though unsummoned by a pope. The council met, deposed both antipopes, and elected Alexander V. Gerson was chosen to address the new pope on the duties of his office. He did so in his _Sermo coram Alexandro Papa in die ascensionis in concilio Pisano_ (ii. 131). All hopes of reformation, however, were quenched by the conduct of the new pope. He had been a Franciscan, and loved his order above measure. He issued a bull which laid the parish clergy and the universities at the mercy of the mendicants. The great university of Paris rose in revolt, headed by her chancellor, who wrote a fierce pamphlet--_Censura professorum in theologia circa bullam Alexandri V._ (ii. 442). The pope died soon after, and one of the most profligate men of that time, Pope John XXIII. (Baldassare Cossa), was elected his successor. The council of Pisa had not brought peace; it had only added a third pope. Pierre d'Ailly despaired of general councils (see his _De difficultate reformationis in concilio universali_), but Gerson struggled on. Another matter too had roused him. The feuds between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy had long distracted France. The duke of Orleans had been treacherously murdered by the followers of the duke of Burgundy, and a theologian, Jean Petit (c. 1360-1411), had publicly and unambiguously justified the murder. His eight verities, as he called them--his apologies for the murder--had been, mainly through the influence of Gerson, condemned by the university of Paris, and by the archbishop and grand inquisitor, and his book had been publicly burned before the cathedral of Notre Dame. Gerson wished a council to confirm this sentence. His literary labours were as untiring as ever. He maintained in a series of tracts that a general council could depose a pope; he drew up indictments against the reigning pontiffs, reiterated the charges against Jean Petit, and exposed the sin of schism--in short, he did all he could to direct the public mind towards the evils in the church and the way to heal them. His efforts were powerfully seconded by the emperor Sigismund, and the result was the council of Constance (see CONSTANCE, COUNCIL OF). Gerson's influence at the council was supreme up to the election of a new pope. It was he who dictated the form of submission and cession made by John XXIII., and directed the process against Huss. Many of Gerson's biographers have found it difficult to reconcile his proceedings against Huss with his own opinions upon the supremacy of the pope; but the difficulty has arisen partly from misunderstanding Gerson's position, partly from supposing him to be the author of a famous tract--_De modis uniendi ac reformandi Ecclesiam in concilio universali_. All Gerson's high-sounding phrases about the supremacy of a council were meant to apply to some time of emergency. He was essentially a trimmer, and can scarcely be called a reformer, and he hated Huss with all the hatred the trimmer has of the reformer. The three bold treatises, _De necessitate reformationis Ecclesiae_, _De modis uniendi ac reformandi Ecclesiam_, and _De difficultate reformationis in concilio universali_, long ascribed to Gerson, were proved by Schwab in his _Johannes Gerson_ not to be his work, and have since been ascribed to Abbot Andreas of Randuf, and with more reason to Dietrich of Nieheim (see NIEM, DIETRICH OF).