VOLUME XI SLICE VIII Germany to Gibson, William (continued 6)

The first of these tariffs, which in order to overcome Socialist obstruction was passed en bloc on December 13-14, 1902, led to an alarming alteration in the balance of parties in the new Reichstag of 1903, the Socialists—who Social Democracy. had previously numbered 58—winning 81 seats, a gain of 23. Of the other groups only one, and that hostile to the government—the Poles—had gained a seat. This startling victory of the Social Democracy, though to a certain extent discounted by the dissensions between the two wings of the party which were revealed at the congress at Dresden in the same year, was in the highest degree disconcerting to the government; but in the actual manipulation of the Reichstag it facilitated the work of the chancellor by enabling him to unite the other groups more readily against the common enemy. The most striking effect of the development of this antagonism was the gradual disappearance as a factor in politics of the Liberals, the chief builders of the Empire. Their part henceforth was to vote blindly with the Conservative groups, in a common fear of the Social Democracy, or to indulge in protests, futile because backed by no power inside or outside the parliament; their impotence was equally revealed when in December 1902 they voted with the Agrarians for the tariff, and in May 1909 when they withdrew in dudgeon from the new tariff committee, and allowed the reactionary elements a free hand. The political struggle of the future lay between the Conservative and Clerical elements in the state, alike powerful forces, and the organized power of the Social Democracy. In the elections of 1907, indeed, the Social Democratic party, owing to the unparalleled exertion of the government, had a set-back, its representation in parliament sinking to 43; but at the International Socialist Congress, which met at Stuttgart on the 18th of August, Herr Bebel was able to point out that, in spite of its defeat at the polls, the Socialist cause had actually gained strength in the country, their total poll having increased from 3,010,771 in 1903 to 3,250,000.

In addition to the political strife and anxiety due to this fundamental cleavage within the nation, Germany was troubled during the first decade of the 20th century by friction and jealousies arising out of the federal constitution Prussia and the Empire. of the Empire and the preponderant place in it of Prussia. In the work of pressing on the national and international expansion of Germany the interests and views of the lesser constituent states of the Empire were apt to be overlooked or overridden; and in the southern states there was considerable resentment at the unitarian tendency of the north, which seemed to aim at imposing the Prussian model on the whole nation. This resentment was especially conspicuous in Bavaria, which clings more tenaciously than the other states to its separate traditions. When, on the 1st of April 1902, a new stamp, with the superscription “Deutsches Reich,” was issued for the Empire, including Württemberg, Bavaria refused to accept it, retaining the stamp with the Bavarian lion, thus emphasizing her determination to retain her separate postal establishment. On the 23rd of October 1903 Baron Podevils, the new premier, addressing the Bavarian diet, declared that his government “would combat with all its strength” any tendency to assure the future of the Empire on any lines other than the federative basis laid down in the imperial constitution.

This protest was the direct outcome of an instance of the tendency of the emperor to interfere in the affairs of the various governments of the Empire. In 1902 the Clerical majority in the Bavarian diet had refused to vote Personal intervention of the emperor. £20,000 asked by the government for art purposes, whereupon the emperor had telegraphed expressing his indignation and offering to give the money himself, an offer that was politely declined. Another instance of the emperor’s interference, constitutionally of more importance as directly affecting the rights of the German sovereigns, was in the question of the succession to the principality of Lippe (see Lippe). The impulsive character of the emperor, which led him, with the best intentions and often with excellent effect, to interfere everywhere and in everything and to utter opinions often highly inconvenient to his ministers, was the subject of an interpellation in the Reichstag on the 20th of January 1903 by the Socialist Herr von Vollmar, himself a Bavarian. Count Bülow, in answer to his criticisms, declared that “the German people desired, not a shadow, but an emperor of flesh and blood.” None the less, the continued “indiscretions” of the emperor so incensed public opinion that, five years later, the chancellor himself was forced to side with it in obtaining from the emperor an undertaking to submit all his public utterances previously to his ministers for approval (see William II., German emperor).

Meanwhile, the attempt to complete the Germanization of the frontier provinces of the Empire by conciliation or repression continued. In this respect progress was made especially in Alsace-Lorraine. In May 1902, in return for the The non-German nationalities. money granted by the Reichsländer for the restoration of the imperial castle of Hohekönigsburg in the Vosges, the emperor promised to abolish the Diktaturparagraphen; the proposal was accepted by the Reichstag, and the exceptional laws relating to Alsace-Lorraine were repealed. Less happy were the efforts of the Prussian government at the Germanization of Prussian Poland and Schleswig. In the former, in spite of, or perhaps because of, the attempt to crush the Polish language and spirit, the Polish element continuously increased, reinforced by immigrants from across the frontier; in the latter the Danish language more than held its own, for similar reasons, but the treaty signed on the 11th of January 1907 between Prussia and Denmark, as to the status of the Danish “optants” in the duchies, removed the worst grievance from which the province was suffering (see Schleswig-Holstein Question).

Of more serious import were the yearly and increasing deficits in the imperial budget, and the consequent enormous growth of the debt. This was partly due to the commercial and industrial depression of the early years of the century, partly was another Resignation of Prince von Bülow. outcome of the federal constitution, which made it difficult to adjust the budget to the growing needs of the Empire without disarranging the finances of its constitutent states. The crisis became acute when the estimates for the year 1909 showed that some £25,000,000 would have to be raised by additional taxes, largely to meet the cost of the expanded naval programme. The budget presented to the Reichstag by Prince Bülow, which laid new burdens upon the landed and capitalist classes, was fiercely opposed by the Agrarians, and led to the break-up of the Liberal-Conservative bloc on whose support the chancellor had relied since the elections of 1906. The budget was torn to pieces in the committee selected to report on it; the Liberal members, after a vain protest, seceded; and the Conservative majority had a free hand to amend it in accordance with their views. In the long and acrimonious debates that followed in the Reichstag itself the strange spectacle was presented of the chancellor fighting a coalition of the Conservatives and the Catholic Centre with the aid of the Socialists and Liberals. The contest was from the first hopeless, and, but for the personal request of the emperor that he would pilot the Finance Bill through the House in some shape or other, Prince Bülow would have resigned early in the year. So soon as the budget was passed he once more tendered his resignation, and on the 14th of July a special edition of the Imperial Gazette announced that it had been accepted by the emperor. The post of imperial chancellor was at the same time conferred on Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, the imperial secretary of state for the interior.9

(W. A. P.)

Bibliography of German History.—Although the authorities for the history of Germany may be said to begin with Caesar, it is Tacitus who is especially useful, his Germania being an invaluable mine of information about the early inhabitants of the country. In the dark and disordered centuries which followed there are only a few scanty notices of the Germans, mainly in the works of foreign writers like Gregory of Tours and Jordanes; and then the 8th and 9th centuries, the time of the revival of learning which is associated with the name of Charlemagne, is reached. By the end of this period Christianity had been firmly established among most of the German tribes; the monks were the trustees of the new learning, and we must look mainly, although not exclusively, to the monasteries for our authorities. The work of the monks generally took the form of Annales or Chronica, and among the numerous German monasteries which are famous in this connexion may be mentioned Fulda, Reichenau, St Gall and Lorsch. For contemporary history and also for the century or so which preceded the lifetimes of their authors these writings are fairly trustworthy, but beyond this they are little more than collections of legends. There are also a large number of lives of saints and churchmen, in which the legendary element is still more conspicuous.

With regard to the Annales and Chronica three important considerations must be mentioned. They are local, they are monastic, and they are partisan. The writer in the Saxon abbey of Corvey, or in the Franconian abbey of Fulda, knows only about events which happened near his own doors; he records, it is true, occurrences which rumour has brought to his ears, but in general he is trustworthy only for the history of his own neighbourhood. The Saxon and the Franconian annalists know nothing of the distant Bavarians; there is even a gulf between the Bavarian and the Swabian. Then the Annals are monastic. To their writers the affairs of the great world are of less importance than those of the monastery itself. The Saxon Widukind, for instance, gives more space to the tale of the martyrdom of St Vitus than he does to several of the important campaigns of Henry the Fowler. Lastly, the annalist is a partisan. One is concerned to glorify at all costs the Carolingian house; another sacrifices almost everything to attack the emperor Henry IV. and to defend the Papacy; while a third holds a brief for some king or emperor, like Louis the Pious or Otto the Great.

Two difficulties are met with in giving an account of the sources of German history. In the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries it is hard, if not impossible, to disentangle the history of Germany from that of the rest of the Frankish empire of which it formed part; in fact it is not until the time of the dissensions between the sons of the emperor Louis I. that there are any signs of demarcation between the East and the West Franks, or, in other words, any separate history of Germany. The second difficulty arises later and is due to the connexion of Germany with the Empire. Germany was always the great pillar of the imperial power; for several centuries it was the Empire in everything but in name, and yet its political history is often overshadowed by the glamour of events in Italy. While the chroniclers were recording the deeds of Frederick I. and of Frederick II. in the peninsula, the domestic history of Germany remained to a large extent unwritten.

Among the early German chroniclers the Saxon Widukind, the author of the Res gestae Saxonicae, is worthy of mention. He was a monk of Corvey, and his work is the best authority for the early history of Saxony. Lambert, a monk of Hersfeld, and Widukind’s countryman, Bruno, in his De bello Saxonico, tell the story of the great contest between the emperor Henry IV. and Pope Gregory VII., with special reference to the Saxon part of the struggle. But perhaps the ablest and the most serviceable of these early writers is Otto of Freising, a member of the Babenberg family. Otto was also related to the great house of Hohenstaufen, a relationship which gave him access to sources of information usually withheld from the ordinary monastic annalist, and his work is very valuable for the earlier part of the career of Frederick I. Something is learned, too, from biographies written by the monks, of which Einhard’s Vita Karoli Magni is the greatest and the best, and Wipo’s life of the emperor Conrad II. is valuable, while another Carolingian courtier, Nithard, has a special interest as, almost alone among these early chroniclers, being a soldier and not a monk.

The monastic writers remain our chief authorities until the great change brought about by the invention of printing, although a certain amount of work was done by clerical writers attached to the courts of various rulers. Parallel with this event the revival of learning was producing a great number of men who could write, and, more important still, of men who were throwing off the monastic habits of thought and passing into a new intellectual atmosphere. The Renaissance was followed by the fierce controversies aroused by the Reformation, and the result was the output of an enormous mass of writings covering every phase of the mighty combat and possessing every literary virtue save that of impartiality. But apart from these polemical writings, many of which had only an ephemeral value, the Renaissance was the source of another stream of historical literature. Several princes and other leading personages, foremost among whom was the emperor Maximilian I., had spent a good deal of time and money in collecting the manuscripts of the medieval chroniclers, and these now began to be printed. The chronicle of Otto of Freising, which appeared in 1515, and the Vita of Einhard, which appeared six years later, are only two among the many printed at this time. The publication of collections of chronicles began in 1529, and the uncritical fashion in which these were reproduced made forgeries easy and frequent. There was, indeed, more than a zeal for pure learning behind this new movement; for both parties in the great religious controversy of the time used these records of the past as a storehouse of weapons of offence. The Protestants eagerly sought out the writings which exposed and denounced the arrogance of the popes, while the Romanists attempted to counter them with the numerous lives of the saints.

But before the raw material of history thus began to increase enormously in bulk, it had already begun to change its character and to assume its modern form. The Chronicle still survived as a medium of conveying information, though more often than not this was now written by a layman; but new stores of information were coming into existence, or rather the old stores were expanding and taking a different form. Very roughly these may be divided into six sections. (1) Official documents issued by the emperors and other German rulers. (2) Treaties concluded between Germany and other powers and also between one German state and another. (3) Despatches sent to England, Spain and other countries by their representatives in various parts of Germany. (4) Controversial writings or treatises written to attack or defend a given position, largely the product of the Reformation period. (5) The correspondence of eminent and observant persons. (6) An enormous mass of personal impressions taking the form of Commentaries, Memoirs and Diaries (Tagebücher). Moreover, important personages still find eulogistic biographers and defenders, e.g. the fanciful writings about the emperor Maximilian I. or Pufendorf’s De rebus gestis Friderici Wilhelmi Magni electoris Brandenburgici.

Through the dust aroused by the great Reformation controversy appear the dim beginnings of the scientific spirit in the writing of history, and in this connexion the name of Aventinus, “the Bavarian Herodotus,” may be mentioned. But for many years hardly any progress was made in this direction. Even if they possessed the requisite qualifications the historiographers attached to the courts of the emperor Charles V. and of lesser potentates could not afford to be impartial. Thus new histories were written and old ones unearthed, collected and printed, but no attempt was made to criticize and collate the manuscripts of the past, or to present two sides of a question in the writings of the present. Among the collections of authorities made during the 16th and 17th centuries those of J. Pistorius (Frankfort, 1583-1607), of E. Lindenbrog (Frankfort, 1609) and of M. Freher (Frankfort, 1600-1611), may be noticed, although these were only put together and printed in the most haphazard and unconnected fashion. Passing thus through these two centuries we reach the beginning of the 18th century and the work done for German historical scholarship by the philosopher Leibnitz, who sought to do for his own country what Muratori was doing for Italy. For some years it had been recognized that the collection and arrangement of the authorities for German history was too great an undertaking for any one man, and societies under very influential patronage were founded for this purpose. But very slight results attended these elaborate schemes, although their failure did not deter Leibnitz from pursuing the same end. The two chief collections which were issued by the philosopher are the Accessiones historicae (1698-1700) and the Scriptores rerum Brunsvicensium; the latter of these, containing documents centring round the history of the Welf family, was published in three volumes at Hanover (1707-1711). Leibnitz worked at another collection, the Origines Guelficae, which was completed and issued by his pupils (Hanover, 1750-1780), and also at Annales imperii occidentis Brunsvicenses, which, although the most valuable collection of the kind yet made, was not published until edited by G. H. Pertz (Hanover, 1843-1846). Other collections followed those of Leibnitz, among which may be mentioned the Corpus historicum medii aevi of J. G. Eccard (Leipzig, 1723) and the Scriptores rerum Germanicarum of J. B. Mencke (Leipzig, 1728). But these collections are merely heaps of historical material, good and bad; the documents therein were not examined and they are now quite superseded. They give, however, evidence of the great industry of their authors, and are the foundations upon which modern German scholarship has built.

In the 19th century the scientific spirit received a great impetus from the German system of education, one feature of which was that the universities began to require original work for some of their degrees. In this field of scientific research the Germans were the pioneers, and in it they are still pre-eminent, with Ranke as their most famous name and the Monumenta Germaniae historica as their greatest production. The Monumenta is a critical and ordered collection of documents relating to the history of Germany between 500 and 1500. It owes its origin mainly to the efforts of the statesman Stein, who was responsible for the foundation of the Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde, under the auspices of which the work was begun. The Gesellschaft was established in 1819, and, the editorial work having been entrusted to G. H. Pertz, the first volume of the Monumenta was published in 1826. The work was divided into five sections: Scriptores, Leges, Diplomata, Epistolae and Antiquitates, but it was many years before anything was done with regard to the two last-named sections. In the three remaining ones, however, folio volumes were published regularly, and by 1909 thirty folio volumes of Scriptores, five of Leges and one of Diplomata imperii had appeared. But meanwhile a change of organization had taken place. When Pertz resigned his editorial position in 1874 and the Gesellschaft was dissolved, twenty-four folio volumes had been published. The Prussian Academy of Sciences now made itself responsible for the continuance of the work, and a board of direction was appointed, the presidents of which were successively G. Waitz, W. Wattenbach, E. Dümmler and O. Holder-Egger. Soon afterwards as money became more plentiful the scope of work was extended; the production of the folio volumes continued, but the five sections were subdivided and in each of these a series of quarto volumes was issued. The titles of these new sections give a sufficient idea of their contents. The Scriptores are divided into Auctores antiquissimi, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum, Libelli de lite imperatorum et pontificum, Gesta pontificum Romanorum and Deutsche Chroniken, or Scriptores qui vernacula lingua usi sunt. The Leges are divided into Leges nationum Germanicarum, Capitularia regum Francorum, Concilia, Constitutiones imperatorum et regum and Formulae. Three quarto volumes of Diplomata regum et imperatorum Germaniae and one of Diplomata Karolingorum had been published by 1909. Work was also begun upon the Antiquitates and the Epistolae. The sections of the former are Poëtae Latini medii aevi, Libri confraternitatum and Necrologia Germaniae, and of the latter Epistolae saeculi XIII. and Epistolae Merovingici et Karolini aevi. Meanwhile the publication of the Scriptores proper continues, although the thirty-first and subsequent volumes are in quarto and not in folio, and the number of volumes in the whole undertaking is continually being increased. The archives of the Gesellschaft have been published in twelve volumes, and a large number of volumes of the Neues Archiv have appeared. Some of the MSS. have been printed in facsimile, and an index to the Monumenta, edited by O. Holder-Egger and K. Zeumer, appeared in 1890. The writings of the more important chroniclers have been published separately, and many of them have been translated into German.

It will thus be seen that the ground covered by the Monumenta is enormous. The volumes of the Scriptores contain not only the domestic chroniclers, but also selections from the work of foreign writers who give information about the history of Germany—for example, the Englishman Matthew Paris. In the main these writings are arranged in chronological order. Each has been edited by an expert, and the various introductions give evidence of the number of MSS. collated and the great pains taken to ensure textual accuracy on the part of the different editors, among whom may be mentioned Mommsen and Lappenberg. Other great names in German historical scholarship have also assisted in this work. In addition to Waitz the Leges section has enjoyed the services of F. Bluhme and of H. Brunner, and the Diplomata section of T. Sickel, H. Bresslau and E. Mühlbacher.

The progress of the Monumenta stimulated the production of other works of a like nature, and among the smaller collections of authorities which appeared during the 19th century two are worthy of mention. These are the Fontes rerum Germanicarum, edited by J. F. Böhmer (Stuttgart, 1843-1868), a collection of sources of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, and the Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum, edited by Ph. Jaffé (Berlin, 1864-1873). Another development followed the production of the Monumenta, this being the establishment in most of the German states of societies the object of which was to foster the study of local history. Reference may be made to a Verein for this purpose in Saxony and to others in Silesia and in Mecklenburg. Much has also been done in Prussia, in Brandenburg, in Bavaria, in Hanover, in Württemberg and in Baden, and collections of authorities have been made by competent scholars, of which the Geschichtsquellen der Provinz Sachsen und angrenzender Gebiete (Halle, 1870, fol.), which extends to forty volumes, the smaller Scriptores rerum Prussicarum (Leipzig, 1861-1874), and the seventy-seven volumes of the Publikationen aus den königlichen preussischen Staatsarchiven, veranlasst und unterstützt durch die königliche Archiverwaltung (Leipzig, 1878, fol.), may be cited as examples. The cities have followed the same path and their archives are being thoroughly examined. In 1836 an Urkundenbuch of Frankfort was published, and this example has been widely followed, the work done in Cologne, in Bremen and in Mainz being perhaps specially noticeable. Moreover an historical commission at Munich has published twenty-eight volumes in the series Die Chroniken der deutschen Städte vom 14. bis ins 16. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1862, fol.). Lastly, many documents relating to the great families of Germany, among them those of Hohenzollern and of Wittelsbach, have been carefully edited and given to the world.

With this great mass of material collected, sifted and edited by scholars of the highest standing it is not surprising that modern works on the history of Germany are stupendous in number and are generally of profound learning, and this in spite of the fact that some German historians—Gregorovius, Pauli and Lappenberg, for example—have devoted their time to researches into the history of foreign lands.

The earliest period is dealt with by K. Zeuss in Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme (Munich, 1837; new ed., Göttingen, 1904); and then by F. Dahn in his Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen Völker (Berlin, 1880-1889) and his Die Könige der Germanen, volumes of which have appeared at intervals between 1861 and 1909.

The Carolingian time is covered by E. Dümmler’s Geschichte des ostfränkischen Reichs (Leipzig, 1887-1888), and then follow Ranke’s Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter dem sächsischen Hause (Berlin, 1837-1840), W. von Giesebrecht’s Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit (1855-1888), and F. Raumer’s Geschichte der Hohenstaufen.

For the reigns of Lothair the Saxon and Conrad III. P. Jaffé’s books, Geschichte des deutschen Reiches unter Lothar dem Sachsen (Berlin, 1843) and Geschichte des deutschen Reiches unter Conrad III. (Hanover, 1845), may be consulted.

The chief histories on the period between the fall of the Hohenstaufen and the Renaissance are: T. Lindner, Deutsche Geschichte unter den Habsburgern und Luxemburgern (Stuttgart, 1888-1893); O. Lorenz, Deutsche Geschichte im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert (Vienna, 1863-1867); J. Aschbach, Geschichte Kaiser Sigmunds (Hamburg, 1838-1845); K. Fischer, Deutsches Leben und deutsche Zustände von der Hohenstaufenzeit bis ins Reformationszeitalter (Gotha, 1884); V. von Kraus, Deutsche Geschichte im Ausgange des Mittelalters (Stuttgart, 1888-1905), and A. Bachmann, Deutsche Reichsgeschichte im Zeitalter Friedrichs III. und Maximilians I. (Leipzig, 1884-1894).

The two greatest works on the Reformation period are L. von Ranke’s Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation (Leipzig, 1882) and J. Janssen’s Geschichte des deutschen Volkes seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters (1897-1903). Other works which may be mentioned are: F. B. von Bucholtz, Geschichte der Regierung Ferdinands I. (Vienna, 1831-1838); C. Egelhaaf, Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation (Berlin, 1893), and F. von Bezold, Geschichte der deutschen Reformation (Berlin, 1890).

For the years after the Reformation we have Ranke, Zur deutschen Geschichte—Vom Religionsfrieden bis zum 30-jährigen Kriege (Leipzig, 1888); M. Ritter, Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Gegenreformation und des dreissigjährigen Krieges (Stuttgart, 1887, fol.); G. Droysen, Geschichte der Gegenreformation (Berlin, 1893); A. Gindely, Rudolf II. und seine Zeit (Prague, 1862-1868) and Geschichte des dreissigjährigen Krieges (Prague, 1869-1880). Gindely’s book is, of course, only one among an enormous number of works on the Thirty Years’ War.

For the period leading up to the time of Frederick the Great we have B. Erdmannsdörffer, Deutsche Geschichte vom Westfälischen Frieden bis zum Regierungsantritt Friedrichs des Grossen (Berlin, 1892-1893); and then follow Ranke, Zur Geschichte von Österreich und Preussen zwischen den Friedensschlüssen von Aachen und Hubertusburg (Leipzig, 1875) and Die deutschen Mächte und der Fürstenbund (Leipzig, 1871-1872); K. Biedermann, Deutschland im 18. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1854-1880); W. Oncken, Das Zeitalter Friedrichs des Grossen (Berlin, 1880-1882); A. von Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresias (Vienna, 1863-1879); L. Häusser, Deutsche Geschichte vom Tode Friedrichs des Grossen bis zur Gründung des Deutschen Bundes (Berlin, 1861-1863), and K. T. von Heigel, Deutsche Geschichte vom Tode Friedrichs des Grossen bis zur Auflösung des alten Reichs (Stuttgart, 1899, fol.).

For the 19th century we may mention: H. von Treitschke, Deutsche Geschichte im 19. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1879-1894); H. von Sybel, Die Begründung des deutschen Reiches durch Wilhelm I. (Munich, 1889-1894); G. Kaufmann, Politische Geschichte Deutschlands im 19. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1900), and H. von Zwiedeneck-Südenhorst, Deutsche Geschichte von der Auflösung des alten bis zur Gründung des neuen Reiches (Stuttgart, 1897-1905). These are perhaps the most important, but there are many others of which the following is a selection: K. Fischer, Die Nation und der Bundestag (Leipzig, 1880); K. Klüpfel, Geschichte der deutschen Einheitsbestrebungen bis zu ihrer Erfüllung (Berlin, 1872-1873); H. Blum, Die deutsche Revolution 1848-1849 (Florence, 1897) and Das deutsche Reich zur Zeit Bismarcks (Leipzig, 1893); W. Maurenbrecher, Gründung des deutschen Reiches (Leipzig, 1892); H. Friedjung, Der Kampf um die Vorherrschaft in Deutschland 1859-1866 (Stuttgart, 1897); C. von Kaltenborn, Geschichte der deutschen Bundesverhältnisse und Einheitsbestrebungen von 1806-1856 (Berlin, 1857); J. Jastrow, Geschichte des deutschen Einheitstraumes und seiner Erfüllung (Berlin, 1885), and P. Klöppel, Dreissig Jahre deutscher Verfassungsgeschichte (Leipzig, 1900).

For the most recent developments of German politics see H. Schulthess, Europäischer Geschichtskalender (Nördlingen, 1861, fol., a work similar to the English Annual Register); W. Müller and K. Wippermann, Politische Geschichte der Gegenwart (Berlin, 1868, fol.); the Statistisches Jahrbuch des deutschen Reichs, and A. L. Lowell, Governments and Parties in Continental Europe (1896).

A good general history of Germany is the Bibliothek deutscher Geschichte, edited by H. von Zwiedeneck-Südenhorst (Stuttgart, 1876, fol.). Other general histories, although on a smaller scale, are K. Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte (Berlin, 1891-1896); O. Kämmel, Deutsche Geschichte (Dresden, 1889); K. Biedermann, Deutsche Volks- und Kulturgeschichte (Wiesbaden, 1885); T. Lindner, Geschichte des deutschen Volks (Stuttgart, 1894); the Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte, edited by B. Gebhardt (Stuttgart, 1901), and K. W. Nitzsch, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes bis zum Augsburger Religionsfrieden (Leipzig, 1883-1885).

Special reference is deservedly made to three works of the highest value. These are J. G. Droysen’s great Geschichte der preussischen Politik (Berlin, 1855-1886); the Deutsche Reichstagsakten, the first series of which was published at Munich (1867, fol.) and the second at Gotha (1893-1901); and the collection known as the Regesta imperii, which owes its existence to the labours of J. F. Böhmer. Nearly the whole of the period between 751 and 1347 is covered by these volumes; the charters and other documents of some of the German kings being edited by Böhmer himself, and new and enlarged editions of certain sections have been brought out by J. Ficker, E. Winkelmann and others. Much useful information on the history of different periods is contained in the lives of individual emperors and others. Among these are H. Prutz, Kaiser Friedrich I. (Danzig, 1871-1874); F. W. Schirrmacher, Kaiser Friedrich II. (Göttingen, 1859-1865); H. Ulmann, Kaiser Maximilian I. (Stuttgart, 1884-1891); F. von Hurter, Geschichte Kaiser Ferdinands II. (Schaffhausen, 1857-1864), and H. Blum, Fürst Bismarck und seine Zeit (Munich, 1895). There is also the great series of volumes, primary and supplementary, forming the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (Leipzig, 1875, fol.), in which the word deutsche is interpreted in the widest possible sense.

Apart from political histories there are useful collections of laws and other official documents of importance, and also a large number of valuable works on the laws and constitutions of the Germans and on German institutions generally. Among the collections are M. Goldast, Collectio constitutionum imperialium (1613; new and enlarged edition, 1673); the Capitulationes imperatorum et regum Romana-Germanorum (Strassburg, 1851) of Johann Limnäus, and the Corpus juris Germanici antiqui (Berlin, 1824) of F. Walter. Collections dealing with more recent history are J. C. Glaser’s Archiv des norddeutschen Bundes. Sammlung aller Gesetze, Verträge und Aktenstücke, die Verhältnisse des norddeutschen Bundes betreffend (Berlin, 1867); W. Jungermann’s Archiv des deutschen Reiches (Berlin, 1873, fol.), and the Acta Borussica. Denkmäler der preussischen Staatsverwaltung im 18. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1892, fol.). Mention may also be made of C. C. Homeyer’s edition of the Sachsenspiegel and L. A. von Lassberg’s edition of the Schwabenspiegel; the many volumes of Wallenstein’s letters and papers; the eighteen volumes of the Urkunden und Aktenstücke zur Geschichte des Kurfürsten Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg (Berlin, 1864, fol.); and the thirty volumes of the Politische Korrespondenz Friedrichs des Grossen (Berlin, 1879-1905). Modern writers on these subjects distinguished for their learning are G. Waitz (Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte, Kiel and Berlin, 1844, fol.) and G. L. von Maurer (Geschichte der Städteverfassung in Deutschland, Erlangen, 1869-1871, and other cognate writings), their works being valuable not only for the early institutions of the Germans, but also for those of other Teutonic peoples. Other works on the German constitution and German laws are K. F. Eichhorn, Deutsche Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte (Göttingen, 1843-1844); R. Schröder, Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (Leipzig, 1889 and again 1902); H. Brunner, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (Leipzig, 1887-1892), and Grundzüge der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (Leipzig, 1901-1903), and E. Mayer, Deutsche und französische Verfassungsgeschichte vom 9.-11. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1899).

Manners and customs are dealt with in J. Scherr’s Deutsche Kultur- und Sittengeschichte (Leipzig, 1852-1853); J. Lippert’s Deutsche Sittengeschichte (Vienna and Prague, 1889); O. Henne am Rhyn’s Kulturgeschichte des deutschen Volkes (Berlin, 1886); the Geschichte des deutschen Volkes und seiner Kultur im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1891-1898) of H. Gerdes, and F. von Löher’s Kulturgeschichte der Deutschen im Mittelalter (Munich, 1891-1894). Among the works on husbandry may be mentioned: K. Bücher, Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft (Tübingen, 1893); K. T. von Inama-Sternegg, Deutsche Wirtschaftsgeschichte (Leipzig, 1879-1901), and K. Lamprecht, Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1886). For antiquities see M. Heyne, Fünf Bücher deutscher Hausaltertümer von den ältesten geschichtlichen Zeiten bis zum 16. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1899-1903), and L. Lindenschmit, Handbuch der deutschen Altertumskunde (Brunswick, 1880-1889). For the history of the German church see A. Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (Leipzig, 1887-1903); F. W. Rettberg, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (Göttingen, 1846-1848), and J. Friedrich, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (Bamberg, 1867-1869). For finance see K. D. Hüllmann, Deutsche Finanzgeschichte des Mittelalters (1805); for the administration of justice, O. Franklin, Das Reichshofgericht im Mittelalter (Weimar, 1867-1869), and A. Stölzel, Die Entwicklung des gelehrten Richtertums in deutschen Territorien (Stuttgart, 1872); for the towns and their people see J. Jastrow, Die Volkszahl deutscher Städte zu Ende des Mittelalters und zu Beginn der Neuzeit (Berlin, 1886); F. W. Barthold, Geschichte der deutschen Städte und des deutschen Bürgertums (Leipzig, 1850-1854), and K. Hegel, Städte und Gilden der germanischen Völker im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1891); and for manufactures and commerce see J. Falke, Die Geschichte des deutschen Handels (Leipzig, 1859-1860); H. A. Mascher, Das deutsche Gewerbewesen von der frühesten Zeit bis auf die Gegenwart (Potsdam, 1866); F. W. Stahl, Das deutsche Handwerk (Giessen, 1874); the numerous writings on the history of the Hanseatic League and other works. The nobles and the other social classes have each their separate histories, among these being C. F. F. von Strantz, Geschichte des deutschen Adels (Breslau, 1845), and K. H. Roth von Schreckenstein, Die Ritterwürde und der Ritterstand (Freiburg, 1866).

The Germans have produced some excellent historical atlases, among them K. von Spruner’s Historisch-geographischer Handatlas (Gotha, 1853); a new edition of this by T. Menke called Handatlas für die Geschichte des Mittelalters und der neueren Zeit (Gotha, 1880), and G. Droysen’s Allgemeiner historischer Handatlas (Leipzig, 1886). The historical geography of Germany is dealt with in B. Knüll’s Historische Geographie Deutschlands im Mittelalter (Breslau, 1903); in F. H. Müller’s Die deutschen Stämme und ihre Fürsten (Hamburg, 1852), and in many other works referring to the different parts of the country.

English books on the history of Germany are not very numerous. There is a short History of Germany by James Sime (1874), another by E. F. Henderson (1902), and A History of Germany 1715-1815 by C. T. Atkinson (1909). H. A. L. Fisher’s Medieval Empire (1898) is very useful for the earlier period, and J. Bryce’s Holy Roman Empire is indispensable. There is a translation of Janssen’s Geschichte by M. A. Mitchell and A. M. Christie (1896, fol.), and there are useful chapters in the different volumes of the Cambridge Modern History. Two English historians have distinguished themselves by their work on special periods: Carlyle with his History of Friedrich II., called the Great (1872-1873), and W. Robertson with his History of the Reign of Charles V. (1820). There is also E. Armstrong’s Charles V. (London, 1902). Among German historical periodicals are the Historische Zeitschrift, long associated with the name of H. von Sybel, and the Historisches Jahrbuch.

In guides to the historical sources and to modern historical works Germany is well served. There is the Quellenkunde der deutschen Geschichte (Leipzig, 1906) of Dahlmann-Waitz, a most compendious volume, and the learned Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter (Berlin, 1893-1894) of W. Wattenbach; A. Potthast’s Bibliotheca historica medii aevi (Berlin, 1896), and the Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen seit der Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1886-1887) of O. Lorenz and A. Goldmann.

(A. W. H.*)

1 So called from the badge worn by the knights (Löwenritter) who composed it.

2 The best account, in English, of the development of the Zollverein is in Percy Ashley’s Modern Tariff History (London, 1904).

3 The only formal change is that the duchy of Lauenburg, which since 1865 had been governed by the king of Prussia as a separate principality (but without a vote in the Bundesrat), was in 1876 incorporated in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein.

4 See Annual Register (1908), pp. 289 et seq.

5 The whole question is exhaustively treated from the Danish point of view in La Question de Slesvig (Copenhagen, 1906), a collective work edited by F. de Jessens.

6 Reinhard Karl Friedrich von Dalwigk (1802-1880). Though a Lutheran, he had been accused in 1854 of an excessive subserviency to the Roman Catholic Church. He was responsible for the policy which threatened to involve the grand-duchy of Hesse in the fate of the Electorate in 1866. But it was due to his diplomatic skill that Upper Hesse was saved for the grand-duke.

7 In 1899, following the Spanish-American War, Germany purchased the Caroline, Pelew and Marianne Islands from Spain; in 1899-1900 by agreement with Great Britain and America she acquired the two largest of the Samoan islands, renouncing in favour of Britain her protectorate over certain of the Solomon islands.

8 The elevation of Count Bülow to the rank of prince immediately after the crisis was significantly compared with the same honour bestowed on Bismarck at Versailles in 1871.

9 He was born on November 29, 1856, the son of a wealthy Rhenish landowner, and grandson of Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg (1795-1877), professor of law at Bonn, ennobled in 1840, and from 1858 to 1862 minister of education and religion at Berlin. Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg studied law at Strassburg, Leipzig and Berlin, entered the Prussian civil service in 1882, and, passing successfully through the various stages of a German administrative career, became governor (Oberpräsident) of the province of Brandenburg in 1899. In 1905 he became Prussian minister of the interior. Two years later he succeeded Count Posadowsky as imperial secretary of state for the interior and representative of the imperial chancellor, and was at the same time made vice-president of the council of Prussian ministers, an office and title which had been in abeyance for some years and were now again suppressed.

GERMERSHEIM, a fortified town of Germany in Rhenish Bavaria, at the confluence of the Queich and the Rhine, 8 m. S.W. of Speyer. Pop. (1905) 5914. It possesses a Roman Catholic and an Evangelical church, a synagogue, a progymnasium and a hospital. The industries include fishing, shipbuilding and brewing. Germersheim existed as a Roman stronghold under the name of Vicus Julius. The citadel was rebuilt by the emperor Conrad II., but the town itself was founded in 1276 by the emperor Rudolph I., who granted it the rights of a free imperial city. From 1330 to 1622, when it was conquered by Austria, the town formed part of the Palatinate of the Rhine. From 1644 to 1650 it was in the possession of France; but on the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia it was again joined to the Palatinate. In 1674 it was captured and devastated by the French under Turenne, and after the death of the elector Charles (1685) it was claimed by the French as a dependency of Alsace. As a consequence there ensued the disastrous Germersheim war of succession, which lasted till the peace of Ryswick in 1697. Through the intervention of the pope in 1702, the French, on payment of a large sum, agreed to vacate the town, and in 1715 its fortifications were rebuilt. On the 3rd of July 1744 the French were defeated there by the imperial troops, and on the 19th and 22nd of July 1793 by the Austrians. In 1835 the new town was built, and the present fortifications begun.

See Probst, Geschichte der Stadt und Festung Germersheim (Speyer, 1898).

GERMISTON, a town of the Transvaal, 9 m. E. of Johannesburg. Pop. of the municipality (1904) 29,477, of whom 9123 were whites. It lies 5478 ft. above the sea, in the heart of the Witwatersrand gold-mining district, and is an important railway junction. The station, formerly called Elandsfontein Junction, is the meeting-point of lines from the ports of the Cape and Natal, and from Johannesburg, Pretoria and Delagoa Bay. Though possessing a separate municipality, Germiston is practically a suburb of Johannesburg (q.v.).

GERMONIUS, ANASTASIUS [Anastase Germon] (1551-1627), canon lawyer, diplomatist and archbishop of Tarantaise, belonged to the family of the marquises of Ceve, in Piedmont, where he was born. As archdeacon at Turin he was a member of the commission appointed by Pope Clement VIII. to edit the Liber septimus decretalium; and he also wrote Paratitla on the five books of the Decretals of Gregory IX. He represented the duke of Savoy at the court of Rome under Clement VIII. and Paul V., and was ambassador to Spain under Kings Philip III. and IV. He died on the 4th of August 1627. Germonius is best known for his treatise on ambassadors, De legatis principum et populorum libri tres (Rome, 1627). The book is diffuse, pedantic and somewhat heavy in style, but valuable historically as written by a theorist who was also an expert man of affairs. (See Diplomacy.)

GERO (c. 900-965), margrave of the Saxon east mark, was probably a member of an influential Saxon family. In 937 he was entrusted by the German king Otto, afterwards the emperor Otto the Great, with the defence of the eastern frontier of Saxony against the Wends and other Slavonic tribes; a duty which he discharged with such ability and success that in a few years he extended the Saxon frontier almost to the Oder, and gained the chief credit for the suppression of a rising of the conquered peoples in a great victory on the 16th of October 955. In 963 he defeated the Lusatians, compelled the king of the Poles to recognize the supremacy of the German king, and extended the area of his mark so considerably that after his death it was partitioned into three, and later into five marks. Gero, who is said to have made a journey to Rome, died on the 20th of May 965, and was buried in the convent of Gernrode which he had founded on his Saxon estates. He is referred to by the historian Widukind as a preses, and is sometimes called the “great margrave.” He has been accused of treachery and cruelty, is celebrated in song and story, and is mentioned as the “marcgrâve Gêre” in the Nibelungenlied.

See Widukind, “Res gestae Saxonicae,” in the Monumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores, Band iii.; O. von Heinemann, Markgraf Gero (Brunswick, 1860).

GEROLSTEIN, a village and climatic health resort of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine Province, attractively situated on the Kyll, in the Eifel range, 1100 ft. above the sea, 58 m. W. of Andernach by rail, and at the junction of lines to Trèves and St Vith. The castle of Gerolstein, built in 1115 and now in ruins, affords a fine view of the Kyllthal. Gerolstein is celebrated for its lithia waters, which are largely exported. Pop. (1900) 1308.

GÉRÔME, JEAN LÉON (1824-1904), French painter, was born on the 11th of May 1824 at Vesoul (Haute-Saône). He went to Paris in 1841 and worked under Paul Delaroche, whom he accompanied to Italy (1844-1845). On his return he exhibited “The Cock-fight,” which gained him a third-class medal in the Salon of 1847. “The Virgin with Christ and St John” and “Anacreon, Bacchus and Cupid” took a second-class medal in 1848. He exhibited “Bacchus and Love, Drunk,” a “Greek Interior” and “Souvenir d’Italie,” in 1851; “Paestum” (1852); and “An Idyll” (1853). In 1854 Gérôme made a journey to Turkey and the shores of the Danube, and in 1857 visited Egypt. To the exhibition of 1855 he contributed a “Pifferaro,” a “Shepherd,” “A Russian Concert” and a large historical canvas, “The Age of Augustus and the Birth of Christ.” The last was somewhat confused in effect, but in recognition of its consummate ability the State purchased it. Gérôme’s reputation was greatly enhanced at the Salon of 1857 by a collection of works of a more popular kind: the “Duel: after a Masquerade,” “Egyptian Recruits crossing the Desert,” “Memnon and Sesostris” and “Camels Watering,” the drawing of which was criticized by Edmond About. In “Caesar” (1859) Gérôme tried to return to a severer class of work, but the picture failed to interest the public. “Phryne before the Areopagus,” “Le Roi Candaule” and “Socrates finding Alcibiades in the House of Aspasia” (1861) gave rise to some scandal by reason of the subjects selected by the painter, and brought down on him the bitter attacks of Paul de Saint-Victor and Maxime Ducamp. At the same Salon he exhibited the “Egyptian chopping Straw,” and “Rembrandt biting an Etching,” two very minutely finished works. Gérôme’s best paintings are of Eastern subjects; among these may be named the “Turkish Prisoner” and “Turkish Butcher” (1863); “Prayer” (1865); “The Slave Market” (1867); and “The Harem out Driving” (1869). He often illustrated history, as in “Louis XIV. and Molière” (1863); “The Reception of the Siamese Ambassadors at Fontainebleau” (1865); and the “Death of Marshal Ney” (1868). Gérôme was also successful as a sculptor; he executed, among other works, “Omphale” (1887), and the statue of the duc d’Aumale which stands in front of the château of Chantilly (1899). His “Bellona” (1892), in ivory, metal, and precious stones, which was also exhibited in the Royal Academy of London, attracted great attention. The artist then began an interesting series of “Conquerors,” wrought in gold, silver and gems—“Bonaparte entering Cairo” (1897); “Tamerlane” (1898); and “Frederick the Great” (1899). Gérôme was elected member of the Institut in 1865. He died in 1904.

GERONA, a maritime frontier province in the extreme north-east of Spain, formed in 1833 of districts taken from Catalonia, and bounded on the N. by France, E. and S.E. by the Mediterranean Sea, S.W. and W. by Barcelona, and N.W. by Lérida. Pop. (1900) 299,287; area, 2264 sq. m. In the north-west a small section of the province, with the town of Llivía, is entirely isolated and surrounded by French territory; otherwise Gerona is separated from France by the great range of the Pyrenees. Its general aspect is mountainous, especially in the western districts. Most of the lower chains are covered with splendid forests of oak, pine and chestnut. There are comparatively level tracts of arable land along the lower course of the three main rivers—the Ter, Muga and Fluvia, which rise in the Pyrenees and flow in a south-easterly direction to the sea. The coast-line is not deeply indented, but includes one large bay, the Gulf of Rosas. Its two most conspicuous promontories, Capes Creus and Bagur, are the easternmost points of the Iberian Peninsula. The climate is generally temperate and rainy during several months in the valleys and near the coast, but cold in the Cerdaña district and other mountainous regions during eight months, while Gerona, La Bisbal and Santa Coloma are quite Mediterranean in their hot summers and mild winters. Agriculture is backward, but there are profitable fisheries and fish-curing establishments along the whole seaboard, notably at the ports of Llansá, Rosas, Palamós, San Felíu de Guixols and Blanes. Next in importance is the cork industry at San Felíu de Guixols, Palafrugell and Cassa. More than one hundred mineral springs are scattered over the province, and in 1903 twenty mines were at work, although their total output, which included antimony, coal, copper, lead, iron and other ores, was valued at less than £7000. There are also important hydraulic cement and ochre works, and no fewer than twenty-two of the towns are centres of manufactures of linen, cotton, woollen stuffs, paper, cloth, leather, steel and furniture. The commerce of the province is important, Port Bou (or Portbou) being, after Irun, the most active outlet for the trade by railway not only with France but with the rest of the continent. The main railway from Barcelona to France runs through the province, and several branch railways, besides steam and electric tramways, connect the principal towns. Gerona, the capital (pop. 1900, 15,787), and Figueras (10,714), long a most important frontier fortress, are described in separate articles; the only other towns with more than 7000 inhabitants are San Felíu de Guixols (11,333), Olot (7938) and Palafrugell (7087). The inhabitants of the province are, like most Catalans, distinguished for their enterprise, hardiness and keen local patriotism; but emigration, chiefly to Barcelona, kept their numbers almost stationary during the years 1875-1905. The percentage of illegitimate births (1.5) is lower than in any other part of Spain. (See also Catalonia.)

GERONA, the capital of the province of Gerona, in north-eastern Spain, on the railway from Barcelona to Perpignan in France, and on the right bank of the river Ter, at its confluence with the Oña, a small right-hand tributary. Pop. (1900) 15,787. The older part of the town occupies the steep slope of the Montjuich, or Hill of the Capuchins, and with its old-fashioned buildings presents a picturesque appearance against a background of loftier heights; the newer portion stretches down into the plain and beyond the Oña, which is here crossed by a bridge of three arches. The old city walls and their bastions still remain, though in a dilapidated state; and the hill is crowned by what were at one time very strong fortifications, now used as a prison. Gerona is the seat of a bishop, has a seminary, a public library and a theatre, and carries on the manufacture of paper and cotton and woollen goods. Its churches are of exceptional interest. The cathedral is one of the grandest specimens of Gothic architecture in Spain, the nave being the widest pointed vault in Christendom, as it measures no less than 73 ft. from side to side, while Albi, the next in size, is only 58 ft., and Westminster Abbey is only 38. The old cathedral on the same site was used as a mosque by the Moors, and on their expulsion in 1015 it appears to have been very greatly modified, if not entirely rebuilt. During the 14th century new works were again carried out on an extensive scale, but it was not till the beginning of the 15th that the proposal to erect the present magnificent nave was originated by the master of the works, Guillermo Boffiy. The general appearance of the exterior is rather ungainly, but there is a fine approach by a flight of 86 steps to the façade, which rises in tiers and terminates in an oval rose-window. Among the tombs may be mentioned those of Bishop Berenger or Berenguer (d. 1408), Count Ramon Berenger II. (d. 1082) and the countess Ermesinda (d. 1057). The collegiate church of San Felíu (St Felix) is mainly of the 14th century, but it was considerably modified in the 16th, and its façade dates from the 18th. It is one of the few Spanish churches that can boast of a genuine spire, and it thus forms a striking feature in the general view of the town. The Benedictine church of San Pedro de Galligans (or de los Gallos) is an interesting Romanesque building of early date. It is named from the small river Galligans, an affluent of the Oña, which flows through the city. In the same neighbourhood is a small church worthy of notice as a rare Spanish example of a transverse triapsal plan.

Gerona is the ancient Gerunda, a city of the Auscetani. It claims to be the place in which St Paul and St James first rested when they came to Spain; and it became the see of a bishop about 247. For a considerable period it was in the hands of the Moors, and their emir, Suleiman, was in alliance with Pippin the Short, king of the Franks, about 759. It was taken by Charlemagne in 785; but the Moors regained and sacked it in 795, and it was not till 1015 that they were finally expelled. At a later date it gave the title of count to the king of Aragon’s eldest son. It has been besieged no fewer than twenty-five times in all, and only four of the sieges have resulted in its capture. The investment by the French under Marshal Hocquincourt in 1653, that of 1684 by the French under Marshal Bellefonds, and the successful enterprise of Marshal Noailles in 1694 are the three great events of its history in the 17th century. Surrendered by the French at the peace of Ryswick, it was again captured by the younger Marshal Noailles in 1706, after a brilliant defence; and in 1717 it held out against the Austrians. But its noblest resistance was yet to be made. In May 1809 it was besieged by the French, with 35,000 troops, under J. A. Verdier, P. F. Augereau and Gouvion St Cyr; forty batteries were erected against it and a heavy bombardment maintained; but under the leadership of Mariano Alvarez de Castro it held out till famine and fever compelled a capitulation on the 12th of December. The French, it is said, had spent 20,000 bombs and 60,000 cannon balls, and their loss was estimated at 15,000 men.

See Juan Gaspar Roig y Jalpi, Resumen de las Grandezas, &c. (Barcelona, 1678); J. A. Nieto y Samaniego, Memorias (Tarragona, 1810); G. E. Street, Gothic Architecture in Spain (London, 1869).

GEROUSIA (γερουσία, Doric γερωΐα), the ancient council of elders at Sparta, corresponding in some of its functions to the Athenian Boulē. In historical times it numbered twenty-eight members, to whom were added ex officio the two kings and, later, the five ephors. Candidates must have passed their sixtieth year, i.e. they must no longer be liable to military service, and they were possibly restricted to the nobility. Vacancies were filled by the Apella, that candidate being declared elected whom the assembly acclaimed with the loudest shouts—a method which Aristotle censures as childish (Polit. ii. 9, p. 1271 a 9). Once elected, the gerontes held office for life and were irresponsible. The functions of the council were among the most important in the state. It prepared the business which was to be submitted to the Apella, and was empowered to set aside, in conjunction with the kings, any “crooked” decision of the people. Together with the kings and ephors it formed the supreme executive committee of the state, and it exercised also a considerable criminal and political jurisdiction, including the trial of kings; its competence extended to the infliction of a sentence of exile or even of death. These powers, or at least the greater part of them, were transferred by Cleomenes III. to a board of patronomi (Pausanias ii. 9. 1); the gerousia, however, continued to exist at least down to Hadrian’s reign, consisting of twenty-three members annually elected, but eligible for re-election (Sparta Museum Catalogue, Nos. 210, 612 and Introduction § 17).

Fuller discussions of the gerousia will be found in Aristotle, Politics, ii. 9, 17-19: Plutarch, Lycurgus, 5, 26; G. F. Schömann, Antiquities of Greece; The State (Eng. trans.), p. 230 ff.; G. Gilbert, Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens (Eng. trans.), p. 47 ff.; C. O. Müller, History and Antiquities of the Doric Race (Eng. trans.), iii. c. 6, §§ 1-3; G. Busolt, Die griechischen Staats- und Rechtsaltertümer (Iwan Müller’s Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, iv. 1), § 89; Griechische Geschichte, 2te Auflage i. 550 ff.; A. H. J. Greenidge, Handbook of Greek Constitutional History, 100 ff.; H. Gabriel, De magistratibus Lacedaemoniorum, 31 ff.

(M. N. T.)

GERRESHEIM, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine Province, 6 m. by rail E. of Düsseldorf. It contains a fine Romanesque church, dating from the 13th century, which forms a portion of an ancient nunnery (founded in the 10th century and secularized in 1806), and has extensive glass manufactures and wire factories. Pop. (1905) 14,434.

GERRHA (Arab. al-Jar‘a), an ancient city of Arabia, on the west side of the Persian Gulf, described by Strabo (Bk. xvi.) as inhabited by Chaldean exiles from Babylon, who built their houses of salt and repaired them by the application of salt water. Pliny (Hist. Nat. vi. 32) says it was 5 m. in circumference with towers built of square blocks of salt. Various identifications of the site have been attempted, J. P. B. D’Anville choosing El Katif, C. Niebuhr preferring Kuwet and C. Forster suggesting the ruins at the head of the bay behind the islands of Bahrein.

See A. Sprenger, Die alte Geographie Arabiens (Bern, 1875), pp. 135-137.

GERRÚS, a small province of Persia, situated between Khamseh and Azerbaījan in the N., Kurdistan in the W. and Hamadan in the S. Its population is estimated at 80,000, and its capital, Bíjár, 180 m. from Hamadan, has a population of about 4000 and post and telegraph offices. The province is fief of the chief of the Gerrús Kurds, pays a yearly revenue of about £3000, and supplies a battalion of infantry (the 34th) to the army.

GERRY, ELBRIDGE (1744-1814), American statesman, was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, on the 17th of July 1744, the son of Thomas Gerry (d. 1774), a native of Newton, England, who emigrated to America in 1730, and became a prosperous Marblehead merchant. The son graduated at Harvard in 1762 and entered his father’s business. In 1772 and 1773 he was a member of the Massachusetts General Court, in which he identified himself with Samuel Adams and the patriot party, and in 1773 he served on the Committee of Correspondence, which became one of the great instruments of intercolonial resistance. In 1774-1775 he was a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. The passage of a bill proposed by him (November 1775) to arm and equip ships to prey upon British commerce, and for the establishment of a prize court, was, according to his biographer, Austin, “the first actual avowal of offensive hostility against the mother country, which is to be found in the annals of the Revolution.” It is also noteworthy, says Austin, as “the first effort to establish an American naval armament.” From 1776 to 1781 Gerry was a member of the Continental Congress, where he early advocated independence, and was one of those who signed the Declaration after its formal signing on the 2nd of August 1776, at which time he was absent. He was active in debates and committee work, and for some time held the chairmanship of the important standing committee for the superintendence of the treasury, in which capacity he exercised a predominating influence on congressional expenditures. In February 1780 he withdrew from Congress because of its refusal to respond to his call for the yeas and nays. Subsequently he laid his protest before the Massachusetts General Court which voted its approval of his action. On his return to Massachusetts, and while he was still a member of Congress, he was elected under the new state constitution (1780) to both branches of the state legislature, but accepted only his election to the House of Representatives. On the expiration of his congressional term, he was again chosen a delegate by the Massachusetts legislature, but it was not until 1783 that he resumed his seat. During the second period of his service in Congress, which lasted until 1785, he was a member of the committee to consider the treaty of peace with Great Britain, and chairman of two committees appointed to select a permanent seat of government. In 1784 he bitterly attacked the establishment of the order of the Cincinnati on the ground that it was a dangerous menace to democratic institutions. In 1786 he served in the state House of Representatives. Not favouring the creation of a strong national government he declined to attend the Annapolis Convention in 1786, but in the following year, when the assembling of the Constitutional Convention was an assured fact, although he opposed the purpose for which it was called, he accepted an appointment as one of the Massachusetts delegates, with the idea that he might personally help to check too strong a tendency toward centralization. His exertions in the convention were ceaseless in opposition to what he believed to be the wholly undemocratic character of the instrument, and eventually he refused to sign the completed constitution. Returning to Massachusetts, he spoke and wrote in opposition to its ratification, and although not a member of the convention called to pass upon it, he laid before this convention, by request, his reasons for opposing it, among them being that the constitution contained no bill of rights, that the executive would unduly influence the legislative branch of the government, and that the judiciary would be oppressive. Subsequently he served as an Anti-Federalist in the national House of Representatives in 1789-1793, taking, as always, a prominent part in debates and other legislative concerns. In 1797 he was sent by President John Adams, together with John Marshall and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, on a mission to France to obtain from the government of the Directory a treaty embodying a settlement of several long-standing disputes. The discourteous and underhanded treatment of this embassy by Talleyrand and his agents, who attempted to obtain their ends by bribery, threats and duplicity, resulted in the speedy retirement of Marshall and Pinckney. The episode is known in American history as the “X Y Z Affair.” Gerry, although despairing of any good results, remained in Paris for some time in the vain hope that Talleyrand might offer to a known friend of France terms that had been refused to envoys whose anti-French views were more than suspected. This action of Gerry’s brought down upon him from Federalist partisans a storm of abuse and censure, from which he never wholly cleared himself. In 1810-1812 he was governor of Massachusetts. His administration, which was marked by extreme partisanship, was especially notable for the enactment of a law by which the state was divided into new senatorial districts in such a manner as to consolidate the Federalist vote in a few districts, thus giving the Democratic-Republicans an undue advantage. The outline of one of these districts, which was thought to resemble a salamander, gave rise in 1812, through a popular application of the governor’s name, to the term “Gerrymander” (q.v.). In 1812, Gerry, who was an ardent advocate of the war with Great Britain, was elected vice-president of the United States, on the ticket with James Madison. He died in office at Washington on the 23rd of November 1814.

See J. T. Austin, Life of Elbridge Gerry, with Contemporary Letters (2 vols., Boston, 1828-1829).

GERRYMANDER (usually pronounced “jerrymander,” but the g was originally pronounced hard), an American expression which has taken root in the English language, meaning to arrange election districts so as to give an unfair advantage to the party in power by means of a redistribution act, and so to manipulate constituencies generally, or arrange any political measure, with a view to an unfair party advantage. The word is derived from the name of the American politician Elbridge Gerry (q.v.). John Fiske, in his Civil Government in the United States (1890), says that in 1812, when Gerry was governor of Massachusetts, the Democratic state legislature (in order, according to Winsor, to secure an increased representation of the Democratic party in the state senate) “redistributed the districts in such wise that the shapes of the towns forming a single district in Essex county gave to the district a somewhat dragon-like contour. This was indicated upon a map of Massachusetts which Benjamin Russell, an ardent Federalist and editor of the Centinel, hung up over the desk in his office. The painter, Gilbert Stuart, coming into the office one day and observing the uncouth figure, added with his pencil a head, wings and claws, and exclaimed, ‘That will do for a salamander!’ ‘Better say a Gerrymander,’ growled the editor; and the outlandish name, thus duly coined, soon came into general currency.” It was, however, only the name that was new. Fiske (who also refers to Winsor’s Memorial History of Boston, iii. 212, and Bryce’s American Commonwealth, i. 121) says that gerrymandering, as a political dodge, “seems to have been first devised in 1788, by the enemies of the Federal constitution in Virginia, in order to prevent the election of James Madison to the first Congress, and fortunately it was unsuccessful.” But it was really earlier than that, and in the American colonial period political advantage was often obtained by changing county lines. In 1709 the Pennsylvania counties of Bucks, Chester and Philadelphia formed a combination for preventing the city of Philadelphia from securing its proportionate representation; and in 1732 George Burrington, royal governor of North Carolina, divided the voting precincts of the province for his own advantage. Gerry was not the originator of the Massachusetts law of 1812, which was probably drafted by Samuel Dana or by Judge Story. The law resulted in 29 seats being secured in Massachusetts by 50,164 Democratic votes, while 51,766 Federalist votes only returned 11 members; and Essex county, which, undivided, sent 5 Federalists to the Senate, returned 3 Democrats and 2 Federalists after being “gerrymandered,” Stuart’s drawing (reproduced in Fiske’s book) was contrived so as to make the back line of the creature’s body form a caricature of Gerry’s profile. The law of 1812 was repealed in 1813, when the Federalists had again gained control of the Massachusetts legislature.

See also Elmer C. Griffith, The Rise and Development of the Gerrymander (Chicago, 1907); John W. Dean, “History of the Gerrymander,” in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. xlvi. (Boston, 1892).

GERS, a department of south-western France, composed of the whole or parts of certain districts of Gascony, viz. Armagnac, Astarac, Fezensac, Pardiac, Pays de Gaure, Lomagne, Comminges, Condomois and of a small portion of Agenais. It is bounded N. by the department of Lot-et-Garonne, N.E. by Tarn-et-Garonne, E. and S.E. by Haute-Garonne, S. by Hautes-Pyrénées, S.W. by Basses-Pyrénées and W. by Landes. Pop. (1906) 231,088. Area, 2428 sq. m. The department consists of a plateau sloping from south to north and traversed by numerous rivers, most of them having their source close together in the Plateau de Lannemezan (Hautes-Pyrénées), from which point they diverge in the shape of a fan to the north-west, north and north-east. In the south several summits exceed 1100 ft. in height. Thence the descent towards the north is gradual till on the northern limit of the department the lowest point (less than 200 ft.) is reached. The greater part of the department belongs to the basin of the Garonne, while a small portion in the west is drained by the Adour. The chief affluents of the former are the Save, Gimone, Arrats, Gers and Baïse, which derive their waters in great part from the Canal de la Neste in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées; and of the latter, the Arros, Midou and Douze, the last two uniting and taking the name of Midouze before joining the Adour. The climate is temperate; its drawbacks are the unwholesome south-east wind and the destructive hail-storms which sometimes occur in spring. There is seldom any snow or frost. Over the greater portion of the department the annual rainfall varies between 28 and 32 in. Gers is primarily agricultural. The south-western district is the most productive, but the valleys generally are fertile and the grain produced is more than sufficient for local consumption. Wheat, maize and oats are the principal cereals. About one-third of the wine produced is used for home consumption, and the remainder is chiefly manufactured into brandy, known by the name of Armagnac, second only to Cognac in reputation. The natural pastures are supplemented chiefly by crops of sainfoin and clover; horses, cattle, sheep and swine are reared in considerable numbers; turkeys, geese and other poultry are abundant. There are mineral springs at Aurenson, Barbotan and several other places in the department. The mineral production and manufactures are unimportant. Building stone and clay are obtained. Flour-mills, saw-mills, tanneries, brickworks and cask-works are the chief industrial establishments.

Gers is divided into the arrondissements of Auch, Lectoure, Mirande, Condom and Lombez, with 29 cantons and 466 communes. The chief town is Auch, the seat of an archbishopric. The department falls within the circumscription of the appeal-court of Agen, and the region of the XVII. army corps. It forms part of the académie (educational circumscription) of Toulouse. Auch, Condom, Lectoure and Mirande are the principal towns. The following are also of interest: Lombez, with its church of Sainte-Marie, once a cathedral, dating from the 14th century, when the bishopric was created; Flaran, with an abbey-church of the last half of the 12th century; La Romieu, with a church of the same period and a beautiful cloister; Simorre, with a fortified abbey-church of the 14th century; and Fleurance, with a handsome church, also of the 14th century, containing stained glass of the 16th century.

GERSON, JOHN (1363-1429), otherwise Jean Charlier de Gerson, French scholar and divine, chancellor of the university of Paris, and the ruling spirit in the oecumenical councils of Pisa and Constance, was born at the village of Gerson, in the bishopric of Reims and department of Ardennes, on the 14th of December 1363. His parents, Arnulph Charlier and Elizabeth de la Chardenière, “a second Monica,” were pious peasants, and seven of their twelve children, four daughters and three sons, devoted themselves to a religious life. Young Gerson was sent to Paris to the famous college of Navarre when fourteen years of age. After a five years’ course he obtained the degree of licentiate of arts, and then began his theological studies under two very celebrated teachers, Gilles des Champs (Aegidius Campensis) and Pierre d’Ailly (Petrus de Alliaco), rector of the college of Navarre, chancellor of the university, and afterwards bishop of Puy, archbishop of Cambrai and cardinal. Pierre d’Ailly remained his life-long friend, and in later life the pupil seems to have become the teacher (see pref. to Liber de vita Spir. Animae).

Gerson very soon attracted the notice of the university. He was elected procurator for the French “nation” in 1383, and again in 1384, in which year he graduated bachelor of theology. Three years later a still higher honour was bestowed upon him; he was sent along with the chancellor and others to represent the university in a case of appeal taken to the pope. John of Montson (Monzon de Montesono), an Aragonese Dominican who had recently graduated as doctor of theology at Paris, had in 1387 been condemned by the faculty of theology because he had taught that the Virgin Mary, like other ordinary descendants of Adam, was born in original sin; and the Dominicans, who were fierce opponents of the doctrine of the immaculate conception, were expelled the university. John of Montson appealed to Pope Clement VII. at Avignon, and Pierre d’Ailly, Gerson and the other university delegates, while they personally supported the doctrine of the immaculate conception, were content to rest their case upon the legal rights of the university to test in its own way its theological teachers. Gerson’s biographers have compared his journey to Avignon with Luther’s visit to Rome. It is certain that from this time onwards he was zealous in his endeavours to spiritualize the universities, to reform the morals of the clergy, and to put an end to the schism which then divided the church. In 1392 Gerson became doctor of theology, and in 1395, when Pierre d’Ailly was made bishop of Puy, he was, at the early age of thirty-two, elected chancellor of the university of Paris, and made a canon of Notre Dame. The university was then at the height of its fame, and its chancellor was necessarily a man prominent not only in France but in Europe, sworn to maintain the rights of his university against both king and pope, and entrusted with the conduct and studies of a vast crowd of students attracted from almost every country in Europe. Gerson’s writings bear witness to his deep sense of the responsibilities, anxieties and troubles of his position. He was all his days a man of letters, and an analysis of his writings is his best biography. His work has three periods, in which he was engaged in reforming the university studies, maturing plans for overcoming the schism (a task which after 1404 absorbed all his energies), and in the evening of his life writing books of devotion.

Gerson wished to banish scholastic subtleties from the studies of the university, and at the same time to put some evangelical warmth into them. He was called at this period of his life Doctor Christianissimus; later his devotional works brought him the title Doctor Consolatorius. His plan was to make theology plain and simple by founding it on the philosophical principles of nominalism. His method was a clear exposition of the principles of theology where clearness was possible, with a due recognition of the place of mystery in the Christian system of doctrine. Like the great nominalist William of Occam, he saved himself from rationalism by laying hold on mysticism—the Christian mysticism of the school of St Victor. He thought that in this way he would equally guard against the folly of the old scholasticism, and the seductions of such Averroistic pantheism as was preached by heretics like Amalric of Bena. His plans for the reformation of university studies may be learned from his Tract. de examinatione doctrinarum (Opp. i. 7), Epistolae de reform, theol. (i. 121), Epistolae ad studentes Collegii Navarrae, quid et qualiter studere debeat novus theologiae auditor, et contra curiositatem studentium (i. 106), and Lectiones duae contra vanam curiositatem in negotio fidei (i. 86). The study of the Bible and of the fathers was to supersede the idle questions of the schools, and in his Tract. contra romantiam de rosa (iii. 297) he warns young men against the evil consequences of romance-reading. He was oftentimes weary of the chancellorship,—it involved him in strife and in money difficulties; he grew tired of public life, and longed for learned leisure. To obtain it he accepted the deanery of Bruges from the duke of Burgundy, but after a short sojourn he returned to Paris and to the chancellorship.

Gerson’s chief work was what he did to destroy the great schism. Gregory XI. had died in 1378, one year after Gerson went to the college of Navarre, and since his death the church had had two popes, which to the medieval mind meant two churches and a divided Christ. The schism had practically been brought about by France. The popes had been under French influence so long that it appeared to France a political necessity to have her own pope, and pious Frenchmen felt themselves somewhat responsible for the sins and scandals of the schism. Hence the melancholy piety of Gerson, Pierre d’Ailly and their companions, and the energy with which they strove to bring the schism to an end. During the lifetime of Clement VII. the university of Paris, led by Pierre d’Ailly, Gerson and Nicolas of Clamenges,1 met in deliberation about the state of Christendom, and resolved that the schism could be ended in three ways,—by cession, if both popes renounced the tiara unconditionally, by arbitration or by a general council. Clement died. The king of France, urged by the university, sent orders that no new pope should be elected. The cardinals first elected, and then opened the letter. In the new elections, however, both at Rome and Avignon, the influence of Paris was so much felt that each of the new popes swore to “cede” if his rival would do so also.

Meanwhile in 1395 the national assembly of France and the French clergy adopted the programme of the university—cession or a general council. The movement gathered strength. In 1398 most of the cardinals and most of the crowned heads in Europe had given their adhesion to the plan. During this period Gerson’s literary activity was untiring, and the throb of public expectancy, of hope and fear, is revealed in his multitude of pamphlets. At first there were hopes of a settlement by way of cession. These come out in Protest, super statum ecclesiae (ii. 1), Tract. de modo habendi se tempore schismatis, De schismate, &c. But soon the conduct of the popes made Europe impatient, and the desire for a general council grew strong—see De concilio generali unius obedientiae (ii. 24). The council was resolved upon. It was to meet at Pisa, and Gerson poured forth tract after tract for its guidance. The most important are—Trilogus in materia schismatis (ii. 83), and De unitate Ecclesiae (ii. 113), in which, following Pierre d’Ailly (see Tschackert’s Peter v. Ailli, p. 153), Gerson demonstrates that the ideal unity of the church, based upon Christ, destroyed by the popes, can only be restored by a general council, supreme and legitimate, though unsummoned by a pope. The council met, deposed both antipopes, and elected Alexander V. Gerson was chosen to address the new pope on the duties of his office. He did so in his Sermo coram Alexandro Papa in die ascensionis in concilio Pisano (ii. 131). All hopes of reformation, however, were quenched by the conduct of the new pope. He had been a Franciscan, and loved his order above measure. He issued a bull which laid the parish clergy and the universities at the mercy of the mendicants. The great university of Paris rose in revolt, headed by her chancellor, who wrote a fierce pamphlet—Censura professorum in theologia circa bullam Alexandri V. (ii. 442). The pope died soon after, and one of the most profligate men of that time, Pope John XXIII. (Baldassare Cossa), was elected his successor. The council of Pisa had not brought peace; it had only added a third pope. Pierre d’Ailly despaired of general councils (see his De difficultate reformationis in concilio universali), but Gerson struggled on. Another matter too had roused him. The feuds between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy had long distracted France. The duke of Orleans had been treacherously murdered by the followers of the duke of Burgundy, and a theologian, Jean Petit (c. 1360-1411), had publicly and unambiguously justified the murder. His eight verities, as he called them—his apologies for the murder—had been, mainly through the influence of Gerson, condemned by the university of Paris, and by the archbishop and grand inquisitor, and his book had been publicly burned before the cathedral of Notre Dame. Gerson wished a council to confirm this sentence. His literary labours were as untiring as ever. He maintained in a series of tracts that a general council could depose a pope; he drew up indictments against the reigning pontiffs, reiterated the charges against Jean Petit, and exposed the sin of schism—in short, he did all he could to direct the public mind towards the evils in the church and the way to heal them. His efforts were powerfully seconded by the emperor Sigismund, and the result was the council of Constance (see Constance, Council of). Gerson’s influence at the council was supreme up to the election of a new pope. It was he who dictated the form of submission and cession made by John XXIII., and directed the process against Huss. Many of Gerson’s biographers have found it difficult to reconcile his proceedings against Huss with his own opinions upon the supremacy of the pope; but the difficulty has arisen partly from misunderstanding Gerson’s position, partly from supposing him to be the author of a famous tract—De modis uniendi ac reformandi Ecclesiam in concilio universali. All Gerson’s high-sounding phrases about the supremacy of a council were meant to apply to some time of emergency. He was essentially a trimmer, and can scarcely be called a reformer, and he hated Huss with all the hatred the trimmer has of the reformer. The three bold treatises, De necessitate reformationis Ecclesiae, De modis uniendi ac reformandi Ecclesiam, and De difficultate reformationis in concilio universali, long ascribed to Gerson, were proved by Schwab in his Johannes Gerson not to be his work, and have since been ascribed to Abbot Andreas of Randuf, and with more reason to Dietrich of Nieheim (see Niem, Dietrich of).

The council of Constance, which revealed the eminence of Gerson, became in the end the cause of his downfall. He was the prosecutor in the case of Jean Petit, and the council, overawed by the duke of Burgundy, would not affirm the censure of the university and archbishop of Paris. Petit’s justification of murder was declared to be only a moral and philosophical opinion, not of faith. The utmost length the council would go was to condemn one proposition, and even this censure was annulled by the new pope, Martin V., on a formal pretext. Gerson dared not return to France, where, in the disturbed state of the kingdom, the duke of Burgundy was in power. He lay hid for a time at Constance and then at Rattenberg in Tirol, where he wrote his famous book De consolatione theologiae. On returning to France he went to Lyons, where his brother was prior of the Celestines. It is said that he taught a school of boys and girls in Lyons, and that the only fee he exacted was to make the children promise to repeat the prayer, “Lord, have mercy on thy poor servant Gerson.” His later years were spent in writing books of mystical devotion and hymns. He died at Lyons on the 12th of July 1429. Tradition declares that during his sojourn there he translated or adapted from the Latin a work upon eternal consolation, which afterwards became very famous under the title of The Imitation of Christ, and was attributed to Thomas à Kempis. It has, however, been proved beyond a doubt that the famous Imitatio Christi was really written by Thomas, and not by John Gerson or the abbot Gerson.

The literature on Gerson is very abundant. See Dupin, Gersoniana, including Vita Gersoni, prefixed to the edition of Gerson’s works in 5 vols, fol., from which quotations have here been made; Charles Schmidt, Essai sur Jean Gerson, chancelier de l’Université de Paris (Strassburg, 1839); J. B. Schwab, Johannes Gerson (Würzburg, 1859); H. Jadart, Jean Gerson, son origine, son village natal et sa familie (Reims, 1882). On the relations between Gerson and D’Ailly see Paul Tschackert, Peter von Ailli (Gotha, 1877). On Gerson’s public life see also histories of the councils of Pisa and Constance, especially Herm. v. der Hardt, Con. Constantiensis libri iv. (1695-1699). The best editions of his works are those of Paris (3 vols., 1606) and Antwerp (5 vols., 1706). See also Ulysse Chevalier, Répertoire des sources hist. Bio-bibliographie (Paris, 1905, &c.), s.v. “Gerson.”

(T. M. L.; X.)

1 Born c. 1360; rector of the university of Paris 1393; afterwards treasurer of Langres and archdeacon of Bayeux; died at Paris in 1437.

GERSONIDES, or Ben Gerson (Gershon), LEVI, known also as Ralbag (1288-1344), Jewish philosopher and commentator, was born at Bagnols in Languedoc, probably in 1288. As in the case of the other medieval Jewish philosophers little is known of his life. His family had been distinguished for piety and exegetical skill, but though he was known in the Jewish community by commentaries on certain books of the Bible, he never seems to have accepted any rabbinical post. Possibly the freedom of his opinions may have put obstacles in the way of his preferment. He is known to have been at Avignon and Orange during his life, and is believed to have died in 1344, though Zacuto asserts that he died at Perpignan in 1370. Part of his writings consist of commentaries on the portions of Aristotle then known, or rather of commentaries on the commentaries of Averroes. Some of these are printed in the early Latin editions of Aristotle’s works. His most important treatise, that by which he has a place in the history of philosophy, is entitled Milḥamoth ’Adonai (The Wars of God), and occupied twelve years in composition (1317-1329). A portion of it, containing an elaborate survey of astronomy as known to the Arabs, was translated into Latin in 1342 at the request of Clement VI. The Milḥamoth is throughout modelled after the plan of the great work of Jewish philosophy, the Moreh Nebuhīm of Moses Maimonides, and may be regarded as an elaborate criticism from the more philosophical point of view (mainly Averroistic) of the syncretism of Aristotelianism and Jewish orthodoxy as presented in that work. The six books pass in review (1) the doctrine of the soul, in which Gersonides defends the theory of impersonal reason as mediating between God and man, and explains the formation of the higher reason (or acquired intellect, as it was called) in humanity,—his view being thoroughly realist and resembling that of Avicebron; (2) prophecy; (3) and (4) God’s knowledge of facts and providence, in which is advanced the curious theory that God does not know individual facts, and that, while there is general providence for all, special providence only extends to those whose reason has been enlightened; (5) celestial substances, treating of the strange spiritual hierarchy which the Jewish philosophers of the middle ages accepted from the Neoplatonists and the pseudo-Dionysius, and also giving, along with astronomical details, much of astrological theory; (6) creation and miracles, in respect to which Gerson deviates widely from the position of Maimonides. Gersonides was also the author of a commentary on the Pentateuch and other exegetical and scientific works.

A careful analysis of the Milḥamoth is given in Rabbi Isidore Weil’s Philosophie religieuse de Lévi-Ben-Gerson (Paris, 1868). See also Munk, Mélanges de phil. juive et arabe; and Joel, Religionsphilosophie d. L. Ben-Gerson (1862). The Milḥamoth was published in 1560 at Riva di Trento, and has been published at Leipzig, 1866.

(I. A.)

GERSOPPA, FALLS OF, a cataract on the Sharavati river in the North Kanara district of Bombay. The falls are considered the finest in India. The river descends in four separate cascades called the Raja or Horseshoe, the Roarer, the Rocket and the Dame Blanche. The cliff over which the river plunges is 830 ft. high, and the pool at the base of the Raja Fall is 132 ft. deep. The falls are reached by boat from Honavar, or by road from Gersoppa village, 18 m. distant. Near the village are extensive ruins (the finest of which is a cruciform temple) of Nagarbastikere, the capital of the Jain chiefs of Gersoppa. Their family was established in power in 1409 by the Vijayanagar kings, but subsequently became practically independent. The chieftaincy was several times held by women, and on the death of the last queen (1608) it collapsed, having been attacked by the chief of Bednur. Among the Portuguese the district was celebrated for its pepper, and they called its queen “Regina da pimenta” (queen of pepper).

GERSTÄCKER, FRIEDRICH (1816-1872), German novelist and writer of travels, was born at Hamburg on the 10th of May 1816, the son of Friedrich Gerstäcker (1790-1825), a celebrated opera singer. After being apprenticed to a commercial house he learnt farming in Saxony. In 1837, however, having imbibed from Robinson Crusoe a taste for adventure, he went to America and wandered over a large part of the United States, supporting himself by whatever work came to hand. In 1843 he returned to Germany, to find himself, to his great surprise, famous as an author. His mother had shown his diary, which he regularly sent home, and which contained descriptions of his adventures in the New World, to the editor of the Rosen, who published them in that periodical. These sketches having found favour with the public, Gerstäcker issued them in 1844 under the title Streif-und Jagdzüge durch die Vereinigten Staaten Nordamerikas. In 1845 his first novel, Die Regulatoren in Arkansas, appeared, and henceforth the stream of his productiveness flowed on uninterruptedly. From 1849 to 1852 Gerstäcker travelled round the world, visiting North and South America, Polynesia and Australia, and on his return settled in Leipzig. In 1860 he again went to South America, chiefly with a view to inspecting the German colonies there and reporting on the possibility of diverting the stream of German emigration in this direction. The result of his observations and experiences he recorded in Achtzehn Monate in Südamerika (1862). In 1862 he accompanied Duke Ernest of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Egypt and Abyssinia, and on his return settled at Coburg, where he wrote a number of novels descriptive of the scenes he had visited. In 1867-1868 Gerstäcker again undertook a long journey, visiting North America, Venezuela and the West Indies, and on his return lived first at Dresden and then at Brunswick, where he died on the 31st of May 1872. His genial and straightforward character made him personally beloved; and his works, dealing as they did with the great world hitherto hidden from the narrow “parochialism” of German life, obtained an immense popularity. This was not due to any graces of style, in which they are singularly lacking; but the unstudied freshness of the author’s descriptions, and his sturdy humour, appealed to the wholesome instincts of the public. Many of his books were translated into foreign languages, notably into English, and became widely known on both sides of the Atlantic. His best works, from a literary point of view, are, besides the above-mentioned Regulatoren, his Flusspiraten des Mississippi (1848); the novel Tahiti (1854); his Australian romance Die beiden Sträflinge (1857); Aus dem Matrosenleben (1857); and Blau Wasser (1858). His Travels exist in an English translation.

Gerstäcker’s Gesammelte Schriften were published at Jena in 44 vols. (1872-1879); a selection, edited by D. Theden in 24 vols. (1889-1890). See A. Karl, Friedrich Gerstäcker, der Weitgereiste. Ein Lebensbild (1873).

GERSTENBERG, HEINRICH WILHELM VON (1737-1823), German poet and critic, was born at Tondern in Schleswig on the 3rd of January 1737. After studying law at Jena he entered the Danish military service and took part in the Russian campaign of 1762. He spent the next twelve years in Copenhagen, where he was intimate with Klopstock. From 1775 to 1783 he represented Denmark’s interests as “Danish Resident” at Lübeck, and in 1786 received a judicial appointment at Altona, where he died on the 1st of November 1823. In the course of his long life Gerstenberg passed through many phases of his nation’s literature. He began as an imitator of the Anacreontic school (Tändeleien, 1759); then wrote, in imitation of Gleim, Kriegslieder eines dänischen Grenadiers (1762); with his Gedicht eines Skalden (1766) he joined the group of “bards” led by Klopstock. His Ariadne auf Naxos (1767) is the best cantata of the 18th century; he translated Beaumont and Fletcher’s Maid’s Tragedy (1767), and helped to usher in the Sturm und Drang period with a gruesome but powerful tragedy, Ugolino (1768). But he did perhaps even better service to the new literary movement with his Briefe über Merkwürdigkeiten der Literatur (1766-1770), in which the critical principles of the Sturm und Drang—and especially its enthusiasm for Shakespeare,—were first definitely formulated. In later life Gerstenberg lost touch with literature, and occupied himself mainly with Kant’s philosophy.

His Vermischte Schriften appeared in 3 vols. (1815). The Briefe über Merkwürdigkeiten der Literatur were republished by A. von Weilen (1888), and a selection of his poetry, including Ugolino, by R. Hamel, will be found in Kürschner’s Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. 48 (1884).

GÉRUZEZ, NICOLAS EUGÈNE (1799-1865), French critic, was born on the 6th of January 1799 at Reims. He was assistant professor at the Sorbonne, and in 1852 he became secretary to the faculty of literature. He wrote a Histoire de l’éloquence politique et religieuse en France aux XIVe, XVe, et XVIe siècles (1837-1838); an admirable Histoire de la littérature française depuis les origines jusqu’à la Révolution (1852), which he supplemented in 1859 by a volume bringing down the history to the close of the revolutionary period; and some miscellaneous works. Géruzez died on the 29th of May 1865 in Paris. A posthumous volume of Mélanges et pensées appeared in 1877.

GERVAIS, PAUL (1816-1879), French palaeontologist, was born on the 26th of September 1816 at Paris, where he obtained the diplomas of doctor of science and of medicine, and in 1835 he began palaeontological research as assistant in the laboratory of comparative anatomy at the Museum of Natural History. In 1841 he obtained the chair of zoology and comparative anatomy at the Faculty of Sciences in Montpellier, of which he was in 1856 appointed dean. In 1848-1852 appeared his important work Zoologie et paléontologie françaises, supplementary to the palaeontological publications of G. Cuvier and H. M. D. de Blainville; of this a second and greatly improved edition was issued in 1859. In 1865 he accepted the professorship of zoology at the Sorbonne, vacant through the death of L. P. Gratiolet; this post he left in 1868 for the chair of comparative anatomy at the Paris museum of natural history, the anatomical collections of which were greatly enriched by his exertions. He died in Paris on the 10th of February 1879.

He also wrote Histoire naturelle des mammifères (1853, &c.); Zoologie médicale (1859, with P. J. van Beneden); Recherches sur l’ancienneté de l’homme et la période quaternaire, 19 pl. (1867); Zoologie et paléontologie générales (1867); Ostéographie des cétacés (1869, &., with van Beneden).

GERVASE OF CANTERBURY (d. c. 1210), English monk and chronicler, entered the house of Christchurch, Canterbury, at an early age. He made his profession and received holy orders in 1163; but we have no further clue to the date of his birth. We know nothing of his life beyond what may be gathered from his own writings. Their evidence suggests that he died in or shortly after 1210, and that he had resided almost continuously at Canterbury from the time of his admission. The only office which we know him to have held is that of sacrist, which he received after 1190 and laid down before 1197. He took a keen interest in the secular quarrels of the Canterbury monks with their archbishops, and his earliest literary efforts were controversial tracts upon this subject. But from 1188 he applied his mind to historical composition. About that year he began the compilation of his Chronica, a work intended for the private reading of his brethren. Beginning with the accession of Stephen he continued his narrative to the death of Richard I. Up to 1188 he relies almost entirely upon extant sources; but from that date onwards is usually an independent authority. A second history, the Gesta Regum, is planned on a smaller scale and traces the fortunes of Britain from the days of Brutus to the year 1209. The latter part of this work, covering the years 1199-1209, is perhaps an attempt to redeem the promise, which he had made in the epilogue to the Chronica, of a continuation dealing with the reign of John. This is the only part of the Gesta which deserves much attention. The work was continued by various hands to the year 1328. From the Gesta the indefatigable Gervase turned to a third project, the history of the see of Canterbury from the arrival of Augustine to the death of Hubert Walter (1205). A topographical work, with the somewhat misleading title Mappa mundi, completes the list of his more important writings. The Mappa mundi contains a useful description of England shire by shire, giving in particular a list of the castles and religious houses to be found in each. The industry of Gervase was greater than his insight. He took a narrow and monastic view of current politics; he was seldom in touch with the leading statesmen of his day. But he appears to be tolerably accurate when dealing with the years 1188-1209; and sometimes he supplements the information provided by the more important chronicles.