Gasquet, Francis Aidan

Gasquet, Francis Aidan (găs`kĭt), 1846–1929, English prelate and scholar, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, a Benedictine. In historical studies of English religious and social life in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, Gasquet emphasized the purity in medieval Catholicism and criticized the English Reformation as harsh and unnecessary. Although his conclusions have been greatly modified by later scholars, his work had considerable influence on prevailing views of the period. Notable among his works are Henry VIII and the English Monasteries (2 vol., 1888–1889) and The Eve of the Reformation (1899). He was made a cardinal in 1914 and appointed prefect of the Vatican archives in 1918.

Bibliography

See study by Sir Shane Leslie (1954).