Although the fifteenth century has been called “the century of Gerson,” it is not because of his theory of emotions. Indeed, Gerson (1363–1429) is hardly mentioned as an emotion theorist. In part that is because, with the exception of three short texts, his theory of emotions masqueraded under other guises, particularly as a form of music. But Gerson was a scholastic with a humanist bent, and thus he knew and valued the passions; in his view, writing that did not rouse them was sterile. However, Gerson did not mean to appeal to all the passions. Unlike Thomas Aquinas, he was wary of most: many of them were bad, and others were at best morally neutral. Gerson was most interested in the emotions of the heart, which he saw as expressing the free will of reason. These emotions, the Canticordum, were “sung” silently.

Gerson was born in relatively modest circumstances in the hamlet of Gerson-lès-Barby, a bit northeast of Reims. A scholarship student at the College of Navarre in Paris, Gerson learned the liberal arts in a milieu saturated by the works of both Italian and French humanists. Soon he began to study theology. From the first, he was the protégé of Pierre d'Ailly (1350–1420), a “rising star” (Brian McGuire's epithet) of both university politics and intellectual life. In 1395, Gerson followed d'Ailly to become chancellor of Notre Dame cathedral and thus of the University of Paris. Meanwhile he gained fame as a preacher at courts and to princes. Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy appointed him chaplain in 1393 and gave him a deanship at the collegial church of Saint Donatian at Bruges. However, the assassination of the duke of Orléans by the Burgundian duke's henchmen in 1407 effectively ended Gerson's association with the Burgundians. In any event, throughout this period his primary home was Paris until February, 1415.

At that point, Gerson went to the Council of Constance (1414–18) as a member of the French delegation. The council's main goal was to end the Great Schism (1378–1417), which by this time had split the church among three papal claimants.