Chapter VI: Front Matter (6)

GERARD, JOHN (1545-1612), English herbalist and surgeon, was born towards the end of 1545 at Nantwich in Cheshire. He was educated at Wisterson, or Willaston, 2 m. from Nantwich, and eventually, after spending some time in travelling, took up his abode in London, where he exercised his profession. For more than twenty years he also acted as superintendent of the gardens in London and at Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, of William Cecil, Lord Burghley. In 1596 he published a catalogue of plants cultivated in his own garden in Holborn, London, 1039 in number, inclusive of varieties of the same species. Their English as well as their Latin names are given in a revised edition of the catalogue issued in 1599. In 1597 appeared Gerard's well-known _Herball_, described by him in its preface as "the first fruits of these mine own labours," but more truly an adaptation of the _Stirpium historiae pemptades_ of Rembert Dodoens (1518-1585), published in 1583, or rather of a translation of the whole or part of the same by Dr Priest, with M. Lobel's arrangement. Of the numerous illustrations of the _Herball_ sixteen appear to be original, the remainder are mostly impressions from the wood blocks employed by Jacob Theodorus Tabernaemontanus in his _Icones stirpium_, published at Frankfort in 1590. A second edition of the _Herball_, with considerable improvements and additions, was brought out by Thomas Johnson in 1633, and reprinted in 1636. Gerard was elected a member of the court of assistants of the barber-surgeons in 1595, by which company he was appointed an examiner in 1598, junior warden in 1605, and master in 1608. He died in February 1612, and was buried at St Andrews, Holborn.

See Johnson's preface to his edition of the _Herball_; and _A
Catalogue of Plants cultivated in the Garden of John Gerard in the
years 1596-1599, edited with Notes, References to Gerard's Herball,
the Addition of modern Names, and a Life of the Author, by Benjamin
Daydon Jackson, F.L.S._, privately printed (London, 1876, 4to).

GERARDMER, a town of north-eastern France, in the department of Vosges, 33 m. E.S.E. of Epinal by rail. Pop. (1906) of the town, 3993; of the commune, 10,041. Gerardmer is beautifully situated at a height of 2200 ft. at the eastern end of the small Lake of Gerardmer (285 acres in extent) among forest-clad mountains. It is the chief summer-resort of the French Vosges and is a centre for excursions, among which may be mentioned those to the Hohneck (4481 ft.), the second highest summit in the Vosges, the Schlucht, the mountain pass from France to Germany, and, nearer the town, the picturesque defile of Granges, watered by the Vologne, which at one point forms the cascade known as the Saut des Cuves. The town itself, in which the chief object of interest is the huge lime-tree in the market-place, carries on cloth-weaving, bleaching, wood-sawing and the manufacture of wooden goods; there is trade in the cheeses (_geromes_) manufactured in the neighbourhood. Gerardmer is said to owe its name to Gerard of Alsace, 1st duke of Lorraine, who in the 11th century built a tower on the bank of the lake or _mer_, near which, in 1285, a new town was founded.

GERASA (mod. _Gerash_ or _Jerash_), a city of Palestine, and a member of the league known as the Decapolis (q.v.), situated amid the mountains of Gilead, about 1757 ft. above the sea, 20 m. from the Jordan and 21 m. N. of Philadelphia. Of its origin nothing is known; it has been suggested that it represents the biblical Ramoth Gilead. From Josephus we learn that it was captured by Alexander Jannaeus (c. 83 B.C.), rebuilt by the Romans (c. A.D. 65), burned by the Jews in revenge for the massacre at Caesarea, and again plundered and depopulated by Annius, the general of Vespasian; but, in spite of these disasters, it was still in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Christian era one of the wealthiest and most flourishing cities of Palestine. It was a centre of Greek civilization, devoted especially to the worship of Artemis, and producing famous teachers, of whom Stephen the Byzantine mentions Ariston, Kerykos and Plato. As late as 1121 the soldiers of Baldwin II. found it defended by a castle built by a king of Damascus; but at the beginning of the following century the Arabian geographer Yaqut speaks of it as deserted and overthrown. The ruins of Jerash, discovered about 1806, and since then frequently visited and described, still attest the splendour of the Roman city. They are distributed along both banks of the Kerwan, a brook which flows south through the Wadi-ed-Der to join the Zerka or Jabbok; but all the principal buildings are situated on the level ground to the right of the stream. The town walls, which can still be traced and indeed are partly standing, had a circuit of not more than 2 m., and the main street was less than half a mile in length; but remains of buildings on the road for fully a mile beyond the south gate, show that the town had outgrown the limit of its fortifications. The most striking feature of the ruins is the profusion of columns, no fewer than 230 being even now in position; the main street is a continuous colonnade, a large part of which is still entire, and it terminates to the south in a forum of similar formation. Among the public buildings still recognizable are a theatre capable of accommodating 6000 spectators, a naumachia (circus for naval combats) and several temples, of which the largest was probably the grandest structure in the city, possessing a portico of Corinthian pillars 38 ft. high. The desolation of the city is probably due to earthquake; and the absence of Moslem erections or restorations seems to show that the disaster took place before the Mahommedan period.

The town is now occupied by a colony of Circassians, whose houses have been built with materials from the earlier buildings, and there has been much destruction of the interesting ruins. "The country of the Gerasenes" (Matt. viii. 28 and parallels; other readings, Gadarenes, Gergesenes) must be looked for in another quarter--on the E. coast of the Sea of Galilee, probably in the neighbourhood of the modern Khersa (C.W. Wilson in _Recovery of Jerusalem_, p. 369). (R. A. S. M.)

GERAULT-RICHARD, ALFRED LEON (1860- ), French journalist and politician, was born at Bonnetable in the department of Sarthe, of a peasant family. He began life as a working upholsterer, first at Mans, then at Paris (1880), where his peasant and socialist songs soon won him fame in the Montmartre quarter. Lissagaray, the communist, offered him a position on _La Bataille_, and he became a regular contributor to the advanced journals, especially to _La Petite Republique_, of which he became editor-in-chief in 1897. In 1893 he founded _Le Chambard_, and was imprisoned for a year (1894) on account of a personal attack upon the president, Casimir-Perier. In January 1895 he was elected to the chamber as a Socialist for the thirteenth arrondissement of Paris. He was defeated at the elections of 1898 at Paris, but was re-elected in 1902 and in 1906 by the colony of Guadeloupe.

GERBER, ERNST LUDWIG (1746-1819), German musician, author of a famous dictionary of musicians, was born at Sondershausen in the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen on the 29th of September 1746. His father, Henry Nicolas Gerber (1702-1775), a pupil of J.S. Bach, was an organist and composer of some distinction, and under his direction Ernst Ludwig at an early age had made great progress in his musical studies. In 1765 he went to Leipzig to study law, but the claims of music, which had gained additional strength from his acquaintanceship with J.A. Hiller, soon came to occupy almost his sole attention. On his return to Sondershausen he was appointed music teacher to the children of the prince, and in 1775 he succeeded his father as court organist. Afterwards he devoted much of his time to the study of the literature and history of music, and with this view he made himself master of several modern languages. His _Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkunstler_ appeared in 1790 and 1792 in two volumes; and the first volume of what was virtually an improved and corrected edition of this work was published in 1810 under the title _Neues historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkunstler_, followed by other three volumes in 1812, 1813 and 1814. Gerber also contributed a number of papers to musical periodicals, and published several minor musical compositions. He died at Sondershausen on the 30th of June 1819.

GERBERON, GABRIEL (1628-1711), French Jansenist monk, was born on the 12th of August 1628 at St Calais, in the department of Sarthe. At the age of twenty he took the vows of the Benedictine order at the abbey of Ste Melaine, Rennes, and afterwards taught rhetoric and philosophy in several monasteries. His open advocacy of Jansenist opinions, however, caused his superiors to relegate him to the most obscure houses of the order, and finally to keep him under surveillance at the abbey of St Germain-des-Pres at Paris. Here he wrote a defence of the doctrine of the Real Presence against the Calvinists in the form of an apology for Rupert, abbot of Deutz (_Apologia pro Ruperto abbate Tuitensi_, Paris, 1669). In 1676 he published at Brussels, under the name of "Sieur Flore de Ste Foi" his _Miroir de la piete chretienne_, an enlarged edition of which appeared at Liege in the following year. This was condemned by certain archbishops and theologians as the repetition of the five condemned propositions of Jansen, and Gerberon defended it, under the name of "Abbe Valentin" in _Le Miroir sans tache_ (Paris, 1680). He had by this time aroused against him the full fury of the Jesuits, and at their instigation a royal provost was sent to Corbie to arrest him. He had, however, just time to escape, and fled to the Low Countries, where he lived in various towns. He was invited by the Jansenist clergy to Holland, where he wrote another controversial work against the Protestants: _Defense de l'Eglise Romain contre la calomnie des Protestants_ (Cologne, 1688-1691). This produced unpleasantness with the Reformed clergy, and feeling himself no longer safe he returned to Brussels. In 1700 he published his history of Jansenism (_Histoire generale du Jansenisme_), a dry work, by which, however, he is best remembered. He adhered firmly to the Augustinian doctrine of Predestination, and on the 30th of May 1703 he was arrested at Brussels at the instance of the archbishop of Malines, and ordered to subscribe the condemnation of the five sentences of Jansen. On his refusal, he was handed over to his superiors and imprisoned in the citadel of Amiens and afterwards at Vincennes. Every sort of pressure was brought to bear upon him to make his submission, and at last, broken in health and spirit, he consented to sign a formula which the cardinal de Noailles claimed as a recantation. Upon this he was released in 1710. The first use he made of his freedom was to write a work (which, however, his friends prudently prevented him from publishing), _Le Vaine Triomphe du cardinal de Noailles_, containing a virtual withdrawal of the compulsory recantation. He died at the abbey of St Denis on the 29th of March 1711.

GERBERT, MARTIN (1720-1793), German theologian, historian and writer on music, belonged to the noble family of Gerbert von Hornau, and was born at Horb on the Neckar, Wurttemberg, on the 12th (or 11th or 13th) of August 1720. He was educated at Freiburg in the Breisgau, at Klingenau in Switzerland and at the Benedictine abbey of St Blasien in the Black Forest, where in 1737 he took the vows. In 1744 he was ordained priest, and immediately afterwards appointed professor, first of philosophy and later of theology. Between 1754 and 1764 he published a series of theological treatises, their main tendency being to modify the rigid scholastic system by an appeal to the Fathers, notably Augustine; from 1759 to 1762 he travelled in Germany, Italy and France, mainly with a view to examining the collections of documents in the various monastic libraries. In 1764 he was elected prince-abbot of St Blasien, and proved himself a model ruler both as abbot and prince. His examination of archives during his travels had awakened in him a taste for historical research, and under his rule St Blasien became a notable centre of the methodical study of history; it was here that Marquard Herrgott wrote his _Monumenta domus Austriacae_, of which the first two volumes were edited, for the second edition, by Gerbert, who also published a _Codex epistolaris Rudolphi I., Romani regis_ (1772) and _De Rudolpho Suevico comite de Rhinfelden, duce et rege, deque ejus familia_ (1785). It was, however, in sacramental theology, liturgiology, and notably ecclesiastical music that Gerbert was mainly interested. In 1774 he published two volumes _De cantu et musica sacra_; in 1777, _Monumenta veteris liturgiae Alemannicae_; and in 1784, in three volumes, _Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra_, a collection of the principal writers on church music from the 3rd century till the invention of printing. The materials for this work he had gathered during his travels, and although it contains many textual errors, its publication has been of great importance for the history of music, by preserving writings which might either have perished or remained unknown. His interest in music led to his acquaintance with the composer Gluck, who became his intimate friend.

As a prince of the Empire Gerbert was devoted to the interests of the house of Austria; as a Benedictine abbot he was opposed to Joseph II.'s church policy. In the Febronian controversy (see FEBRONIANISM) he had early taken a mediating attitude, and it was largely due to his influence that Bishop Hontheim had been induced to retract his extreme views.

In 1768 the abbey of St Blasien, with the library and church, was burnt to the ground, and the splendid new church which rose on the ruins of the old (1783) remained until its destruction by fire in 1874, at once a monument of Gerbert's taste in architecture and of his Habsburg sympathies. It was at his request that it was made the mausoleum of all the Austrian princes buried outside Austria, whose remains were solemnly transferred to its vaults. In connexion with its consecration he published his _Historia Nigrae Silvae, ordinis S. Benedicti coloniae_ (3 vols., St Blasien, 1783).

Gerbert, who was beloved and respected by Catholics and Protestants alike, died on the 3rd of May 1793.

See Joseph Bader, _Das ehemalige Kloster St Blasien und seine
Gelehrtenakademie_ (Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1874), which contains a
chronological list of Gerbert's works.

GERBIL, or GERBILLE, the name of a group of small, elegant, large-eyed, jumping rodents typified by the North African _Gerbillus aegyptiacus_ (or _gerbillus_), and forming a special subfamily, _Gerbillinae_, of the rat tribe or _Muridae_. They are found over the desert districts of both Asia and Africa, and are classed in the genera _Gerbillus_ (or _Tatera_), _Pachyuromys_, _Meriones_, _Psammomys_ and _Rhombomys_, with further divisions into subgenera. They have elongated hind-limbs and long hairy tails; and progress by leaps, in the same manner as jerboas, from which they differ in having five hind-toes. The cheek-teeth have transverse plates of enamel on the crowns; the number of such plates diminishing from three in the first tooth to one or one and a half in the third. The upper incisor teeth are generally marked by grooves. Gerbils are inhabitants of open sandy plains, where they dwell in burrows furnished with numerous exits, and containing large grass-lined chambers. The Indian _G. indicus_ produces at least a dozen young at a birth. All are more or less completely nocturnal.

GERENUK, the Somali name of a long-necked aberrant gazelle, commonly known as Waller's gazelle (_Lithocranius walleri_), and ranging from Somaliland to Kilimanjaro. The long neck and limbs, coupled with peculiarities in the structure of the skull, entitle the gerenuk, which is a large species, to represent a genus. The horns of the bucks are heavy, and have a peculiar forward curvature at the tips; the colour of the coat is red-fawn, with a broad brown band down the back. Gerenuk are browsing ruminants, and, in Somaliland, are found in small family-parties, and feed more by browsing on the branches and leaves of trees and shrubs than by grazing. Frequently they raise themselves by standing on their hind-legs with the fore-feet resting against the trunk of the tree on which they are feeding. Their usual pace is an awkward trot, not unlike that of a camel; and they seldom break into a gallop. The Somali form has been separated as _L. sclateri_, but is not more than a local race. (See ANTELOPE.)

GERGOVIA (mod. _Gergovie_), in ancient geography, the chief town of the Arverni, situated on a hill in the Auvergne, about 8 m. from the Puy de Dome, France. Julius Caesar attacked it in 52 B.C., but was beaten off; some walls and earthworks seem still to survive from this period. Later, when Gaul had been subdued, the place was dismantled and its Gaulish inhabitants resettled 4 m. away in the plain at the new Roman city of Augustonemetum (mod. _Clermont-Ferrand_).

GERHARD, FRIEDRICH WILHELM EDUARD (1795-1867), German archaeologist, was born at Posen on the 29th of November 1795, and was educated at Breslau and Berlin. The reputation he acquired by his _Lectiones Apollonianae_ (1816) led soon afterwards to his being appointed professor at the gymnasium of Posen. On resigning that office in 1819, on account of weakness of the eyes, he went in 1822 to Rome, where he remained for fifteen years. He contributed to Platner's _Beschreibung der Stadt Rom_, then under the direction of Bunsen, and was one of the principal originators and during his residence in Italy director of the _Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica_, founded at Rome in 1828. Returning to Germany in 1837 he was appointed archaeologist at the Royal Museum of Berlin, and in 1844 was chosen a member of the Academy of Sciences, and a professor in the university. He died at Berlin on the 12th of May 1867.

Besides a large number of archaeological papers in periodicals, in the
_Annali_ of the Institute of Rome, and in the Transactions of the
Berlin Academy, and several illustrated catalogues of Greek, Roman and
other antiquities in the Berlin, Naples and Vatican Museums, Gerhard
was the author of the following works: _Antike Bildwerke_ (Stuttgart,
1827-1844); _Auserlesene griech. Vasenbilder_ (1839-1858);
_Etruskische Spiegel_ (1839-1865); _Hyperboreisch-rom. Studien_ (vol.
i., 1833; vol. ii., 1852); _Prodromus mytholog. Kunsterklarung_
(Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1828); and _Griech. Mythologie_ (1854-1855).
His _Gesammelte akademische Abhandlungen und kleine Schriften_ were
published posthumously in 2 vols., Berlin, 1867.

GERHARD, JOHANN (1582-1637), Lutheran divine, was born in Quedlinburg on the 17th of October 1582. In his fifteenth year, during a dangerous illness, he came under the personal influence of Johann Arndt, author of _Das wahre Christenthum_, and resolved to study for the church. He entered the university of Wittenberg in 1599, and first studied philosophy. He also attended lectures in theology, but, a relative having persuaded him to change his subject, he studied medicine for two years. In 1603, however, he resumed his theological reading at Jena, and in the following year received a new impulse from J.W. Winckelmann (1551-1626) and Balthasar Mentzer (1565-1627) at Marburg. Having graduated and begun to give lectures at Jena in 1605, he in 1606 accepted the invitation of John Casimir, duke of Coburg, to the superintendency of Heldburg and mastership of the gymnasium; soon afterwards he became general superintendent of the duchy, in which capacity he was engaged in the practical work of ecclesiastical organization until 1616, when he became theological professor at Jena, where the remainder of his life was spent. Here, with Johann Major and Johann Himmel, he formed the "Trias Johannea." Though still comparatively young, Gerhard had already come to be regarded as the greatest living theologian of Protestant Germany; in the numerous "disputations" of the period he was always protagonist, while on all public and domestic questions touching on religion or morals his advice was widely sought. It is recorded that during the course of his lifetime he had received repeated calls to almost every university in Germany (e.g. Giessen, Altdorf, Helmstadt, Jena, Wittenberg), as well as to Upsala in Sweden. He died in Jena on the 20th of August 1637.

His writings are numerous, alike in exegetical, polemical, dogmatic
and practical theology. To the first category belong the _Commentarius
in harmoniam historiae evangelicae de passione Christi_ (1617), the
_Comment, super priorem D. Petri epistolam_ (1641), and also his
commentaries on Genesis (1637) and on Deuteronomy (1658). Of a
controversial character are the _Confessio Catholica_ (1633-1637), an
extensive work which seeks to prove the evangelical and catholic
character of the doctrine of the Augsburg Confession from the writings
of approved Roman Catholic authors; and the _Loci communes theologici_
(1610-1622), his principal contribution to science, in which
Lutheranism is expounded "nervose, solide, et copiose," in fact with
a fulness of learning, a force of logic and a minuteness of detail
that had never before been approached. _The Meditationes sacrae_
(1606), a work expressly devoted to the uses of Christian edification,
has been frequently reprinted in Latin and has been translated into
most of the European languages, including Greek. The English
translation by R. Winterton (1631) has passed through at least
nineteen editions. There is also an edition by W. Papillon in English
blank verse (1801). His life, _Vita Joh. Gerhardi_, was published by
E.R. Fischer in 1723, and by C.J. Bottcher, _Das Leben Dr Johann
Gerhards_, in 1858. See also W. Gass, _Geschichte der protestantischen
Dogmatik_ (1854-1867), and the article in the _Allgemeine deutsche
Biographie_.

GERHARDT, CHARLES FREDERIC (1816-1856), French chemist, was born at Strassburg on the 21st of August 1816. After attending the gymnasium at Strassburg and the polytechnic at Karlsruhe, he was sent to the school of commerce at Leipzig, where he studied chemistry under Otto Erdmann. Returning home in 1834 he entered his father's white lead factory, but soon found that business was not to his liking, and after a sharp disagreement with his father enlisted in a cavalry regiment. In a few months military life became equally distasteful, and he purchased his discharge with the assistance of Liebig, with whom, after a short interval at Dresden, he went to study at Giessen in 1836. But his stay at Giessen was also short, and in 1837 he re-entered the factory. Again, however, he quarrelled with his father, and in 1838 went to Paris with introductions from Liebig. There he attended Jean Baptiste Dumas' lectures and worked with Auguste Cahours (1813-1891) on essential oils, especially cumin, in Michel Eugene Chevreul's laboratory, while he earned a precarious living by teaching and making translations of some of Liebig's writings. In 1841, by the influence of Dumas, he was charged with the duties of the chair of chemistry at the Montpellier faculty of sciences, becoming titular professor in 1844. In 1842 he annoyed his friends in Paris by the matter and manner of a paper on the classification of organic compounds, and in 1845 he and his opinions were the subject of an attack by Liebig, unjustifiable in its personalities but not altogether surprising in view of his wayward disregard of his patron's advice. The two were reconciled in 1850, but his faculty for disagreeing with his friends did not make it easier for him to get another appointment after resigning the chair at Montpellier in 1851, especially as he was unwilling to go into the provinces. He obtained leave of absence from Montpellier in 1848 and from that year till 1855 resided in Paris. During that period he established an "Ecole de chimie pratique" of which he had great hopes; but these were disappointed, and in 1855, after refusing the offer of a chair of chemistry at the new Zurich Polytechnic in 1854, he accepted the professorships of chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences and the Ecole Polytechnique at Strassburg, where he died on the 19th of August in the following year. Although Gerhardt did some noteworthy experimental work--for instance, his preparation of acid anhydrides in 1852--his contributions to chemistry consist not so much in the discovery of new facts as in the introduction of new ideas that vitalized and organized an inert accumulation of old facts. In particular, with his fellow-worker Auguste Laurent (1807-1853), he did much to reform the methods of chemical formulation by insisting on the distinction between atoms, molecules and equivalents; and in his unitary system, directly opposed to the dualistic doctrines of Berzelius, he combined Dumas' substitution theory with the old radicle theory and greatly extended the notion of types of structure. His chief works were _Precis de chimie organique_ (1844-1845), and _Traite de chimie organique_ (1853-1856).

See _Charles Gerhardt, sa vie, son oeuvre, sa correspondance_, by his
son, Charles Gerhardt, and E. Grimaux (Paris, 1900).

GERHARDT, PAUL (c. 1606-1676), German hymn-writer, was born of a good middle-class family at Grafenhainichen, a small town on the railway between Halle and Wittenberg, in 1606 or 1607--some authorities, indeed, give the date March 12, 1607, but neither the year nor the day is accurately known. His education appears to have been retarded by the troubles of the period, the Thirty Years' War having begun about the time he reached his twelfth year. After completing his studies for the church he is known to have lived for some years at Berlin as tutor in the family of an advocate named Berthold, whose daughter he subsequently married, on receiving his first ecclesiastical appointment at Mittelwald (a small town in the neighbourhood of Berlin) in 1651. In 1657 he accepted an invitation as "diaconus" to the Nicolaikirche of Berlin; but, in consequence of his uncompromising Lutheranism in refusing to accept the elector Frederick William's "syncretistic" edict of 1664, he was deprived in 1666. Though absolved from submission and restored to office early in the following year, on the petition of the citizens, his conscience did not allow him to retain a post which, as it appeared to him, could only be held on condition of at least a tacit repudiation of the Formula Concordiae, and for upwards of a year he lived in Berlin without fixed employment. In 1668 he was appointed archdeacon of Lubben in the duchy of Saxe-Merseburg, where, after a somewhat sombre ministry of eight years, he died on the 7th of June 1676. Gerhardt is the greatest hymn-writer of Germany, if not indeed of Europe. Many of his best-known hymns were originally published in various church hymn-books, as for example in that for Brandenburg, which appeared in 1658; others first saw the light in Johann Cruger's _Geistliche Kirchenmelodien_ (1649) and _Praxis pietatis melica_ (1656). The first complete set of them is the _Geistliche Andachten_, published in 1666-1667 by Ebeling, music director in Berlin. No hymn by Gerhardt of a later date than 1667 is known to exist.

The life of Gerhardt has been written by Roth (1829), by Langbecker
(1841), by Schultz (1842), by Wildenhahn (1845) and by Bachmann
(1863); also by Kraft in Ersch u. Gruber's _Allg. Encycl._ (1855). The
best modern edition of the hymns, published by Wackernagel in 1843,
has often been reprinted. There is an English translation by Kelly
(_Paul Gerhardt's Spiritual Songs_, 1867).

GERICAULT, JEAN LOUIS ANDRE THEODORE (1791-1824), French painter, the leader of the French realistic school, was born at Rouen in 1791. In 1808 he entered the studio of Charles Vernet, from which, in 1810, he passed to that of Guerin, whom he drove to despair by his passion for Rubens, and by the unorthodox manner in which he persisted in interpreting nature. At the Salon of 1812 Gericault attracted attention by his "Officier de Chasseurs a Cheval" (Louvre), a work in which he personified the cavalry in its hour of triumph, and turned to account the solid training received from Guerin in rendering a picturesque point of view which was in itself a protest against the cherished convictions of the pseudo-classical school. Two years later (1814) he re-exhibited this work accompanied with the reverse picture "Cuirassier blesse" (Louvre), and in both subjects called attention to the interest of contemporary aspects of life, treated neglected types of living form, and exhibited that mastery of and delight in the horse which was a feature of his character. Disconcerted by the tempest of contradictory opinion which arose over these two pictures, Gericault gave way to his enthusiasm for horses and soldiers, and enrolled himself in the _mousquetaires_. During the Hundred Days he followed the king to Bethune, but, on his regiment being disbanded, eagerly returned to his profession, left France for Italy in 1816, and at Rome nobly illustrated his favourite animal by his great painting "Course des Chevaux Libres." Returning to Paris, Gericault exhibited at the Salon of 1819 the "Radeau de la Meduse" (Louvre), a subject which not only enabled him to prove his zealous and scientific study of the human form, but contained those elements of the heroic and pathetic, as existing in situations of modern life, to which he had appealed in his earliest productions. Easily depressed or elated, Gericault took to heart the hostility which this work excited, and passed nearly two years in London, where the "Radeau" was exhibited with success, and where he executed many series of admirable lithographs now rare. At the close of 1822 he was again in Paris, and produced a great quantity of projects for vast compositions, models in wax, and a horse _ecorche_, as preliminary to the production of an equestrian statue. His health was now completely undermined by various kinds of excess, and on the 26th of January 1824 he died, at the age of thirty-three.

Gericault's biography, accompanied by a _catalogue raisonne_ of his
works, was published by M.C. Clement in 1868.

GERIZIM, a mountain in the hill-country of Samaria, 2849 ft. above the sea-level, and enclosing, with its companion Ebal, the valley in which lies the town of Nablus (Shechem). It is the holy place of the community of the Samaritans, who hold that it was the scene of the sacrifice of Isaac--a tradition accepted by Dean Stanley but no other western writers of importance. Here, on the formal entrance of the Israelites into the possession of the Promised Land, were pronounced the blessings connected with a faithful observance of the law (Josh. viii. 33, 34; cf. Deut. xi. 29, 30, xxvii. 12-26), the six tribes, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin, standing here for the purpose while the remaining tribes stood on Ebal to accept the curses attached to specific violations thereof. Gerizim was probably chosen as the mount of blessing as being on the right hand, the fortunate side, of a spectator facing east. The counter-suggestion of Eusebius and Jerome that the Ebal and Gerizim associated with this solemnity were not the Shechem mountains at all, but two small hills near Jericho, is no longer considered important. From this mountain Jotham spoke his parable to the elders of Shechem (Judg. ix. 7). Manasseh, the son of the Jewish high-priest in the days of Nehemiah, married the daughter of Sanballat and, about 432 B.C., erected on this mountain a temple for the Samaritans; it was destroyed by Hyrcanus about 300 years afterwards. Its site is a small level plateau a little under the summit of the mountain. Close to this is the place where the Passover is still annually celebrated in exact accordance with the rites prescribed in the Pentateuch. On the summit of the mountain, which commands a view embracing the greater part of Palestine, are a small Moslem shrine and the ruins of a castle probably dating from Justinian's time. There was an octagonal Byzantine church here, but the foundations alone remain. Josephus describes it as the highest of the mountains of Samaria, but Ebal and Tell Azur are both higher. (R. A. S. M.)

GERLACHE, ETIENNE CONSTANTIN, BARON DE (1785-1871), Belgian politician and historian, was born at Biourge, Luxemburg, on the 24th of December 1785. He studied law in Paris and practised there for some time, but settled at Liege after the establishment of the kingdom of the Netherlands. As member of the states-general he was an energetic member of the opposition, and, though he repudiated an ultramontane policy, he supported the alliance of the extreme Catholics with the Liberal party, which paved the way for the revolution of 1830. On the outbreak of disturbance in August 1830 he still, however, thought the Orange-Nassau dynasty and the union with the Dutch states essential; but his views changed, and, after holding various offices in the provisional government, he became president of congress, and brought forward the motion inviting Leopold of Saxe-Coburg to become king of the Belgians. In 1832 he was president of the chamber of representatives, and for thirty-five years he presided over the court of appeal. He presided over the Catholic congresses held at Malines between 1863 and 1867. That his early Liberal views underwent some modification is plain from the Conservative principles enunciated in his _Essai sur le mouvement des partis en Belgique_ (Brussels, 1852). As an historian his work was strongly coloured by his anti-Dutch prejudices and his Catholic predilections. His _Histoire des Pays-Bas depuis 1814 jusqu'en 1830_ (Brussels, 2 vols., 1839), which reached a fourth edition in 1875, was a piece of special pleading against the Dutch domination. The most important of his other works were his _Histoire de Liege_ (Brussels, 1843) and his _Etudes sur Salluste et sur quelques-uns des principaux historiens de l'antiquite_ (Brussels, 1847).

A complete edition of his works (6 vols., Brussels, 1874-1875)
contains a biography by M. Thonissen.

GERLE, CHRISTOPHE ANTOINE (1736-c. 1801), French revolutionist and mystic, was born at Riom in Auvergne. Entering the Carthusian order early in life, he became prior of Laval-Dieu in Perche, and afterwards of Pont-Sainte-Marie at Moulins. Elected deputy to the states-general in 1789, Gerle became very popular, and though he had no seat in the assembly until after the Tennis Court oath, being only deputy _suppleant_, he is represented in David's classic painting as taking part in it. In 1792 he was chosen elector of Paris. In the revolutionary turmoil Gerle developed a strong vein of mysticism, mingled with ideas of reform, and in June 1790 the prophetic powers of Suzanne Labrousse (1747-1821), a visionary who had predicted the Revolution ten years before, were brought by him to the notice of the Convention. In Paris, where he lived first with a spiritualistic doctor and afterwards, like Robespierre, at the house of a cabinetmaker, his mystical tendencies were strengthened. The insane fancies of Catherine Theot, a convent servant turned prophetess, who proclaimed herself the Virgin, the "Mother of God" and the "new Eve," were eminently attractive to Gerle; in the person of Robespierre he recognized the Messiah, and at the meetings of the Theotists he officiated with the aged prophetess as co-president. But the activities of Catherine and her adepts were short-lived. The Theotists' cult of Robespierre was a weapon in the hands of his opponents; and shortly after the festival of the Supreme Being, Vadier made a report to the Convention calling for the prosecution of Catherine, Gerle and others as fanatics and conspirators. They were arrested, thrown into prison and, in the confusion of Robespierre's fall, apparently forgotten. Catherine died in prison, but Gerle, released by the Directory, became one of the editors of the _Messager du soir_, and was afterwards in the office of Pierre Benezech (1775-1802), minister of the interior. Having renounced his monastic vows in Paris, he is thought to have married, towards the close of his life, Christine Raffet, aunt of the artist Denis Raffet. The date of his death is uncertain.

GERMAN BAPTIST BRETHREN, or GERMAN BRETHREN, a sect of American Baptists which originated in Germany, and whose members are popularly known in the United States as "Dunkers," "Dunkards" or "Tunkers," corruptions of the German verb _tunken_, "to dip," in recognition of the sect's continued adherence to the practice of trine immersion. The sect was the outcome of one of the many Pietistic movements of the 17th century, and was founded in 1708 by Andrew Mack of Swartzenau, Germany, and seven of his followers, upon the general issue that both the Lutheran and Reformed churches were taking liberties with the literal teachings of the Scriptures. The new sect was scarcely organized in Germany when its members were compelled by persecution to take refuge in Holland, whence they emigrated to Pennsylvania, in small companies, between 1719 and 1729. The first congregation in America was organized on Christmas Day 1723 by Peter Becker at Germantown, Pennsylvania, and here in 1743 Christopher Sauer, one of the sect's first pastors, and a printer by trade, printed the first Bible (a few copies of which are still in existence) published in a European language in America. From Pennsylvania the sect spread chiefly westward, and, after various vicissitudes, caused by defections and divisions due to doctrinal differences, in 1908 were most numerous in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and North Dakota.

There is much uncertainty about the early theological history of the sect, but it is probable that Mack and his followers were influenced by both the Greek Catholics and the Waldensians. P.H. Bashor in his historical sketch, read before the World's Fair Congress of the Brethren Church (1894), says: "From the history of extended labour by Greek missionaries, from the active propaganda of doctrine by scattered Waldensian refugees, through parts of Germany and Bavaria, from the credence that may generally be given to local tradition, and from the strong similarity between the three churches in general features of circumstantial service, the conclusion, without additional evidence, is both reasonable and natural that the founders of the new church received their teaching, their faith and much of their church idea from intimate acquaintance with the established usages of both societies, and from their amplification and enforcement by missionaries and pastors.... In doctrine the church has been from the first contentious for believers' baptism, holding that nowhere in the New Testament can be found any authority even by inference, precept or example for the baptism of infants. On questions of fundamental doctrine they held to the belief in one self-existing supreme ruler of the Universe--the Divine Godhead--the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit--the tri-personality." Hence their practice of triple immersion, which provides that the candidate shall kneel in the water and be immersed, face first, three times--in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. (From this practice the sect received the less commonly used nickname "Dompelaers," meaning "tumblers.") They accept implicitly and literally the New Testament as the infallible guide in spiritual matters, holding it to be the inspired word of God, revealed through Jesus Christ and, by inspiration, through the Apostles. They also believe in the inspiration of the Old Testament. In their celebration of the communion service they aim exactly to imitate the forms observed by Christ. It is celebrated in the evening, and is accompanied by the ancient love feast (partaken by all communicants seated at a common table), by the ceremony of the washing of feet and by the salutation of the holy kiss, the three last-named ceremonies being observed by the sexes separately. They pray over their sick and, when so requested, anoint them with oil. They are rigid non-resistants, and will not bear arms or study the art of war; they refuse to take oaths, and discountenance going to law over issues that can possibly be settled out of the courts. The taking of interest was at first forbidden, but that prohibition is not now insisted upon. They "testify" against the use of intoxicating liquor and tobacco, and advocate simplicity in dress. In its earlier history the sect opposed voting or taking any active part in political affairs, but these restrictions have quite generally disappeared. Similarly the earlier prejudice against higher education, and the maintenance of institutions for that purpose, has given place to greater liberality along those lines. In 1782 the sect forbade slave-holding by its members.

The church officers (generally unpaid) comprise bishops (or ministers), elders, teachers, deacons (or visiting brethren) and deaconesses--chiefly aged women who are permitted at times to take leading parts in church services. The bishops are chosen from the teachers; they are itinerant, conduct marriage and funeral services, and are present at communions, at ordinations, when deacons are chosen or elected, and at trials for the excommunication of members. The elders are the first or oldest teachers of congregations, for which there is no regular bishop. They have charge of the meetings of such congregations, and participate in excommunication proceedings, besides which they preach, exhort, baptize, and may, when needed, take the offices of the deacons. The teachers, who are chosen by vote, may also exhort or preach, when their services are needed for such purposes, and may, at the request of a bishop, perform marriage or baptismal ceremonies. The deacons have general oversight of the material affairs of the congregation, and are especially charged with the care of poor widows and their children. In the discharge of these duties they are expected to visit each family in the congregation at least once a year. The government of the church is chiefly according to the congregational principle, and the women have an equal voice with the men; but annual meetings, attended by the bishops, teachers and other delegates from the several congregations are held, and at these sessions the larger questions involving church polity are considered and decided by a committee of five bishops.

An early secession from the general body of Dunkers was that of the Seventh Day Dunkers, whose distinctive principle was that the seventh day was the true Sabbath. Their founder was Johann Conrad Beissel (1690-1768), a native of Eberbach and one of the first emigrants, who, after living as a hermit for several years on Mill Creek, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, founded the sect (1725), then again lived as a hermit in a cave (formerly occupied by another hermit, one Elimelech) on the Cocalico Creek in Pennsylvania, and in 1732-1735 established a semi-monastic community (the "Order of the Solitary") with a convent (the "Sister House") and a monastery (the "Brother House") at Ephrata, in what is now Lancaster county, about 55 m. W. by N. from Philadelphia. Among the industries of the men were printing (in both English and German), book-binding, tanning, quarrying, and the operation of a saw mill, a bark mill, and perhaps a pottery; the women did embroidery, quilting, and engrossing in a beautiful but peculiar hand, known as Fracturschrift.[1] The monastic feature was gradually abandoned, and in 1814 the Society was incorporated as the Seventh Day Baptists, its affairs being placed in the hands of a board of trustees. More important in the history of the modern church was the secession, in the decade between 1880 and 1890, of the Old Order Brethren, who opposed Sunday Schools and the missionary work of the Brethren, in Asia Minor and India, and in several European countries; and also in 1882 of the radicals, or Progressives, who objected to a distinctive dress and to the absolute supremacy of the yearly conferences. Higher education was long forbidden and is consistently opposed by the Old Order. The same element in the Brethren opposed a census, but according to Howard Miller's census of 1880 (_Record of the Faithful_) the number of Dunkers was 59,749 in that year; by the United States census of 1890 it was then 73,795; the figures for 1904 are given by Henry King Carroll in his "Statistics of the Churches" in the _Christian Advocate_ (Jan. 5, 1905): Conservatives, or German Baptist Brethren, 95,000; Old Order, 4000; Progressives or Brethren, 15,000; Seventh Day, 194; total, 114,194. In 1909 the German Baptist Brethren had an estimated membership of approximately 100,000, and the Brethren of 18,000. The main body, or Conservatives, support schools at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania; Mt. Morris, Illinois; Lordsburg, California; McPherson, Kansas; Bridgewater, Virginia; Canton, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; North Manchester, Indiana; Plattsburg, Missouri; Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania; Union Bridge, Maryland; and Fruitdale, Alabama. They have a publishing house at Elgin, Illinois, and maintain missions in Denmark, Sweden, France, Italy, India and China. The Progressives have a college, a theological seminary and a publishing house at Ashland, Ohio; and they carry on missionary work in Canada, South America and Persia.

AUTHORITIES.--Lamech and Agrippa, _Chronicon Ephratense_, in German
(Ephrata, Penn., 1786) and in English (Lancaster, 1889); G.N.
Falkenstein, "The German Baptist Brethren, or Dunkers," part 8 of
"Pennsylvania: The German Influence in its Settlement and
Development," in vol. x. of the _Pennsylvania German Society,
Proceedings and Addresses_ (Lancaster, Penn., 1900); Julius Friedrich
Sachse, _The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania, 1742-1800: A Critical
and Legendary History of the Ephrata Cloister and the Dunkers_
(Philadelphia, 1900); and John Lewis Gillin, _The Dunkers: A
Sociological Interpretation_ (New York, 1906), a doctor's
dissertation, with full bibliography.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Beissel (known in the community as "Friedsam") was their leader
until his death; he published several collections of hymns. The stone
over his grave bears the inscription: "Here rests an outgrowth of the
love of God, 'Friedsam,' a Solitary Brother, afterwards a leader of
the Solitary and the Congregation of Grace in and around Ephrata ...
Fell asleep July 6, 1768, in the 52nd year of his spiritual life, but
the 72nd year and fourth month of his natural life." The borough of
Ephrata was separated from the township in 1891. Pop. (1900) of the
borough, 2451; of the township, 2390. The "Brother House" and the
"Sister House" are still standing (though in a dilapidated
condition). In 1777, after the battle of Brandywine, many wounded
American soldiers were nursed here by the Sisters, and about 200 are
buried here.

GERMAN CATHOLICS (_Deutschkatholiken_), the name assumed in Germany towards the close of 1844 by certain dissentients from the Church of Rome. The most prominent leader of the German Catholic movement was Johann Ronge, a priest who in the _Sachsische Vaterlandsblatter_ for the 15th of October 1844 made a vigorous attack upon Wilhelm Arnoldi, bishop of Trier since 1842, for having ordered (for the first time since 1810) the exposition of the "holy coat of Trier," alleged to be the seamless robe of Christ, an event which drew countless pilgrims to the cathedral. Ronge, who had formerly been chaplain at Grottkau, was then a schoolmaster at Laurahutte near the Polish border. The article made a great sensation, and led to Ronge's excommunication by the chapter of Breslau in December 1844. The ex-priest received a large amount of public sympathy, and a dissenting congregation was almost immediately formed at Breslau with a very simple creed, in which the chief articles were belief in God the Father, creator and ruler of the universe; in Jesus Christ the Saviour, who delivers from the bondage of sin by his life, doctrine and death; in the operation of the Holy Ghost; in a holy, universal, Christian church; in forgiveness of sins and the life everlasting. The Bible was made the sole rule, and all external authority was barred. Within a few weeks similar communities were formed at Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Offenbach, Worms, Wiesbaden and elsewhere; and at a "council" convened at Leipzig at Easter 1845, twenty-seven congregations were represented by delegates, of whom only two or at most three were in clerical orders.

Even before the beginning of the agitation led by Ronge, another movement fundamentally distinct, though in some respects similar, had been originated at Schneidemuhl, Posen, under the guidance of Johann Czerski (1813-1893), also a priest, who had come into collision with the church authorities on the then much discussed question of mixed marriages, and also on that of the celibacy of the clergy. The result had been his suspension from office in March 1844; his public withdrawal, along with twenty-four adherents, from the Roman communion in August; his excommunication; and the formation, in October, of a "Christian Catholic" congregation which, while rejecting clerical celibacy, the use of Latin in public worship, and the doctrines of purgatory and transubstantiation, retained the Nicene theology and the doctrine of the seven sacraments. Czerski had been at some of the sittings of the "German Catholic" council of Leipzig; but when a formula somewhat similar to that of Breslau had been adopted, he refused his signature because the divinity of Christ had been ignored, and he and his congregation continued to retain by preference the name of "Christian Catholics," which they had originally assumed. Of the German Catholic congregations which had been represented at Leipzig some manifested a preference for the fuller and more positive creed of Schneidemuhl, but a great majority continued to accept the comparatively rationalistic position of the Breslau school. The number of these rapidly increased, and the congregations scattered over Germany numbered nearly 200. External and internal checks, however, soon limited this advance. In Austria, and ultimately also in Bavaria, the use of the name German Catholics was officially prohibited, that of "Dissidents" being substituted, while in Prussia, Baden and Saxony the adherents of the new creed were laid under various disabilities, being suspected both of undermining religion and of encouraging the revolutionary tendencies of the age. Ronge himself was a foremost figure in the troubles of 1848; after the dissolution of the Frankfort parliament he lived for some time in London, returning in 1861 to Germany. He died at Vienna on the 26th of October 1887. In 1859 some of the German Catholics entered into corporate union with the "Free Congregations," an association of free-thinking communities that had since 1844 been gradually withdrawing from the orthodox Protestant Church, when the united body took the title of "The Religious Society of Free Congregations." Before that time many of the congregations which were formed in 1844 and the years immediately following had been dissolved, including that of Schneidemuhl itself, which ceased to exist in 1857. There are now only about 2000 strict German Catholics, all in Saxony. The movement has been superseded by the Old Catholic (q.v.) organization.

See G.G. Gervinus, _Die Mission des Deutschkatholicismus_ (1846); F.
Kampe, _Das Wesen des Deutschkatholicismus_ (1860); Findel, _Der
Deutschkatholicismus in Sachsen_ (1895); Carl Mirbt, in Herzog-Hauck's
_Realencyk. fur prot. Theol._ iv. 583.

GERMAN EAST AFRICA, a country occupying the east-central portion of the African continent. The colony extends at its greatest length north to south from 1 deg. to 11 deg. S., and west to east from 30 deg. to 40 deg. E. It is bounded E. by the Indian Ocean (the coast-line extending from 4 deg. 20' to 10 deg. 40' S.), N.E. and N. by British East Africa and Uganda, W. by Belgian Congo, S.W. by British Central Africa and S. by Portuguese East Africa.

_Area and Boundaries._--On the north the boundary line runs N.W. from
the mouth of the Umba river to Lake Jipe and Mount Kilimanjaro
including both in the protectorate, and thence to Victoria Nyanza,
crossing it at 1 deg. S., which parallel it follows till it reaches 30
deg. E. In the west the frontier is as follows: From the point of
intersection of 1 deg. S. and 30 deg. E., a line running S. and S.W.
to the north-west end of Lake Kivu, thence across that lake near its
western shore, and along the river Rusizi, which issues from it, to
the spot where the Rusizi enters the north end of Lake Tanganyika;
along the middle line of Tanganyika to near its southern end, when it
is deflected eastward to the point where the river Kalambo enters the
lake (thus leaving the southern end of Tanganyika to Great Britain).
From this point the frontier runs S.E. across the plateau between
Lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa, in its southern section following the
course of the river Songwe. Thence it goes down the middle of Nyasa as
far as 11 deg. 30' S. The southern frontier goes direct from the
last-named point eastward to the Rovuma river, which separates German
and Portuguese territory. A little before the Indian Ocean is reached
the frontier is deflected south so as to leave the mouth of the Rovuma
in German East Africa. These boundaries include an area of about
364,000 sq. m. (nearly double the size of Germany), with a population
estimated in 1910 at 8,000,000. Of these above 10,000 were Arabs,
Indians, Syrians and Goanese, and 3000 Europeans (over 2000 being
Germans). The island of Mafia (see below) is included in the
protectorate.