Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gervase of Chichester
GERVASE of Chichester (fl. 1170), commentator, was one of the band of learned young men who gathered round Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury. Although one of his party, he did not follow him into exile (Bosham). Leland and Bale say that he was brought up at Paris and was a fine preacher, statements which, though highly probable, have not perhaps any authoritative basis. He is said to have written a commentary on the Psalms, and a life of Archbishop Thomas. For this life there is some authority. One of his works, a commentary on Malachi, is extant, MS. Reg. 3 B. x. It is followed by two homilies, and is prefaced by some hexameters in which the author speaks of Thomas as affording a model of sacerdotal life, and says that he is preparing to write a life of him. On the strength of this he has been credited with the life ascribed by Giles to Roger of Pontigny, and printed by Canon Robertson in the ‘Materials for the Life of Becket,’ iv., as by an anonymous author. It is certainly not by Gervase, for the author was one of those who accompanied the archbishop. Leland says that Gervase's work is cited in a life by Helias of Evesham, but if it ever existed it is now lost.
[Herbert of Bosham, vii. c. i., Materials for Life of Becket, iii. 527, ed. Robertson; Stubbs's Gervase of Canterbury, introd. xxxiii. (Rolls Ser.); Leland's Scriptt. p. 216; Bale's Scriptt. p. 206, ed. 1559; Pits, De Angliæ Scriptt. p. 224; Wright's Biog. Lit. ii. 217; Hardy's Catalogue, ii. 351, 394.]