The great doctor Gerson, former Chancellor of the University, was then ending his days at Lyon in the monastery of Les Celestins, of which his brother was prior. His life had been full of work and weariness.[1129] In 1408 he was priest of Saint-Jean-en-Greve in Paris. In that year he delivered in his parish church the funeral oration of the Duke of Orleans, assassinated by order of the Duke of Burgundy; and he roused the passions of the mob to such a fury that he ran great danger of losing his life. At the Council of Constance, possessed by a so-called "merciful cruelty"[1130] which goaded him to send a heretic to the stake, he urged the condemnation of John Huss, regardless of the safe-conduct which the latter had received from the Emperor; for in common with all the fathers there assembled he held that according to natural law both divine and human, no promise should be kept if it were prejudicial to the Catholic Faith. With a like ardour he prosecuted in the Council the condemnation of the thesis of Jean Petit concerning the lawfulness of tyrannicide. In things temporal as well as spiritual he advocated uniform obedience and the respect of established authority. In one of his sermons he likens the kingdom of France to the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, making the merchants and artisans the legs of the statue, "which are partly iron, partly clay, because of their labour and humility in serving and obeying...." Iron signifies labour, and clay humility. All the evil has arisen from the King and the great citizens being held in subjection by those of low estate.[1131] [Footnote 1129: Launoy, _Historia Navarrici Gymasii_, book iv, ch. v. J.B. Lecuy, _Essai sur la vie de Jean Gerson, chancelier de l'eglise et de l'universite de Paris, sur sa doctrine, sur ses ecrits...._ Paris, 1832, 2 vols. in 8vo. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 94. A.L. Masson, _Jean Gerson, sa vie, son temps, ses oeuvres_, Lyon, 1894, 8vo.] [Footnote 1130: _Par une cruaute misericordieuse._ Du Boulay, _Historia Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol. iv, p. 270.] [Footnote 1131: Gerson, _Opera_, vol. iv, pp. 668-678.] Now, crushed by suffering and sorrow, he was teaching little children. "It is with them that reforms must begin," he said.[1132] [Footnote 1132: Gerson, _Adversus corruptionem Juventutis_. A. Lafontaine, _De Johanne Gersonio puerorum adulescentiumque institutore...._ La Chapelle-Montligeon, 1902, in 8vo.] The deliverance of the city of Orleans must have gladdened the heart of the old Orleanist partisan. The Dauphin's Councillors, eager to set the Maid to work, had told him of the deliberations at Poitiers, and asked him, as a good servant of the house of France, for his opinion concerning them. In reply he wrote a compendious treatise on the Maid.