Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1672, he taught the humanities, rhetoric, and philosophy, after which he devoted himself for a long time to preaching.
He spent ten years in retouching this essay, and augmented it considerably by adding to the rules examples drawn from Holy Scripture and the Church Fathers, especially St. John Chrysostom.
The work, which comprises twenty-three chapters, does not follow the rigorous order of a didactical treatise and is without the dryness of a scholastic manual.
Gisbert's book sufficed to make its author famous, not only among Catholic clergy, but even among Protestant pastors.
The manuscript of this Historie critique de la chaire française depuis François Ier was lost but was finally recovered by Mgr Puyol and published by Fathers Chérot and Griselle, S.J., in the Revue Bourdaloue, 1902–04.