the Abbot
Gerson, to whom the authorship of the _De Imitatione_ has been attributed,
beyond what is contained in the preface to the edition which I before
quoted. The authority there cited is a dissertation, entitled _Memoire sur
le veritable auteur de l'Imitation de Jesus-Christ_, par G. de Gregory,
Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, etc., Paris, 1827. The contents of this
work are thus described in that preface:

"Eques de Gregory argumentis tum externis, tum internis demonstrat:--1.
Libellum--primitus tractatum fuisse ethicae scholasticum, a magistro
novitiorum elaboratum. 2. Eundem, tempore inter annum 1220 et 1240
interjecto, suppresso nomine conscriptum esse a Joanne Gerson, monacho
Benedictino, antea in Athenaeo Vercellensi professore, postea ibidem
monasterii S. Stephani abbate. Denique specialibus argumentis eos
refellit, qui vel Joanni Gersoni, cancellario academiae Parisiensi, vel
Thomae Kempensi hunc librum attribuendum esse contendunt."

I have been informed that an interesting article upon the question of the
authorship has recently appeared in a very recent number of a Roman
Catholic Review; I believe Brownson's _American Quarterly._

H. P.

Lincoln's Inn.

H. P. wishes for some other quotations from _De Imitatione Christi_, in
order to test the claims to originality of that extraordinary work; I
therefore now supply another--"Of two evils we ought always to choose the
least,"--because I strongly suspect that it is even some centuries older
than the time of the author, Thomas a Kempis. It will be found in b. III.
ch. xii. of the English translation.

A. B. C.

_Roman Catholic Patriarchs_ (Vol. viii., p. 317.).--The following, with the
signature W. FRASER, appeared in "N. & Q.":

"Has any bishop of the Western Church held the title of patriarch,
besides the Patriarch of Venice? And what peculiar authority or
privileges has he?"

The Archbishop of Lisbon has the title of Patriarch of the Indies; but it
does not appear that he has any defined jurisdiction, being only an
inferior patriarch, and with a title little more than honorary. His grand
vicars, however, are archbishops; and his seal has, like those of other
patriarchs, the tiara encircled with two crowns only. This patriarchate was
created by Pope Clement XI., by his constitution _In supremo Apostolatus_.
Afterwards, in the year 1720, the same Pope conferred upon the Patriarch of
Lisbon the exclusiv