Writer of philosophical essays Gerbet was born at
Poligny, Jura. He studied at the Académie and the Grand-Séminaire of
Besançon, also at
St-Sulpice and the
Sorbonne. Ordained priest in 1822, he joined
Félicité de La Mennais at "La Chesnaie" in 1825 to launch the
Society of St Peter (Congrégation de Saint-Pierre), after a few years spent with
Antoine de Salinis at the
Lycée Henri IV. An admirer of Lamennais, he nevertheless accepted the papal
encyclicals
Mirari vos, of 15 August 1832, and
Singulari nos, of 13 July 1834, which condemned the views of Lamennais. After fruitless efforts to convert Lamennais, who he considered his spiritual master, he withdrew to the
Collège de Juilly (1836). The years 1839-49 he spent in Rome, gathering data for his
Esquisse de Rome Chrétienne. Recalled by
Monseigneur Sibour, he became professor of sacred eloquence at the Sorbonne.
Ecclesiastical functions In April 1854, under the
Second French Empire, he was elected
Bishop of
Perpignan and was consecrated on June 29 in
Amiens Cathedral, where he was previously vicar-General. His episcopate was marked by the holding of a
synod (1865), the reorganization of clerical studies, various religious foundations, and by the pastoral instruction of 1860
sur diverses erreurs du temps présent, which served as a model for the
Syllabus of
Pope Pius IX.
Death He died at
Perpignan,
Pyrénées Orientales, aged 66. ==Works==