(JKKSON 



OERVINU8 



191 



, JoHN, one of tin- most niiim-nt scholars 

 di\ iiii-s of his time, wan lx>ni at the village of 

 in tlie diovfsi" of Khfims, Deceml>er 14, 

 l.'di.'i, his IIIHIIIT inline being Jean Charlier. He was 

 .duratrd in run*, at the College of Navarre, under 

 tin- celebrated Peter d'Ailly. Here he rose to the 

 liiuhe-t honours of the university, and ultimately to 

 its chancellorship, having acouired by hit* extra- 

 ordinary learning the title of Doctor Christianissi- 

 inns, tie was a clear and rational theologian, an 

 enemy to scholastic subtleties, while his ivason 

 found rest from all it- dilticulties in a devout 

 ( 'hrist i.m mysticism. During the unhappy contests 

 which arose out of the rival claims of the two lines 

 of punt ill's in the time of the Western Schism, the 

 university of Paris took a leading part in the 

 negotiations for union ; and (Person was one of the 

 most active supporters of the proposal of that 

 university for putting an end to tne schism by the 

 it-situation of l>oth tne contending parties. With 

 this view he visited the other universities, in order 

 to olitain tln-ir assent to the plan proposed by that 

 of Paris. Hut, although he had the satisfaction of 

 seeing this plan carried out in the Council of Pisa, it 

 failed, as is well known, to secure the desired union. 

 In a treatise inscribed .to his friend D'Ailly he 

 renewed the proposal that the rival pontiffs (now 

 not two, but tnree since the election of John XXIII. 

 at Pisa) should be required to resign; and in the 

 new council held at Constance in 1414 he was 

 again the most xealous advocate of the same ex- 

 pedient of resignation. But his own fortunes were 

 marred by the animosity of the Duke of Burgundy 

 and his adherents, to whom (Person had become 

 obnoxious, and from whom he had already suffered 

 much persecution, on account of the boldness with 

 which ne had denounced the murder of the Duke of 

 Orleans. To escape their vengeance he was forced 

 to remain in exile ; and he retired from Constance, 

 in the disguise of a pilgrim, to Rattenberg in the 

 Tyrol, where he composed his celebrated work, De 

 Consolation*, Theoloyice, in imitation of that of 

 Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophise. It was 

 only after the lapse of several years that he was 

 enabled to return to France, and take up his resi- 

 dence in a monastery at Lyons, of which his brother 

 was the superior. He devoted himself in this retire- 

 ment to works of piety, to study, and to the educa- 

 tion of youth. The only fee he took from his 

 pupils was a promise to repeat the prayer, ' Lord, 

 nave mercy on thy poor servant Gerson.' He died 

 12th July 1429, in his sixty-sixth year. His works 

 till five volumes in folio (Antwerp, 1706). The 

 famous treatise on the Imitation of Christ (q.v. ) 

 has been ascribed to him by some writers, but it 

 is now hardly doubtful that the true author was 

 Thomas a Kempis. The authority of Gerson is 

 much relied on by the advocates of Gallican prin- 

 ciples ; but the Ultramontanes allege that the prin- 

 ciples laid down by him as to the authority of the 

 pope are only applicable to the exceptional case in 

 which he wrote. See German studies by Schmidt 

 (1839) and Schwab (1858). 



Gersoppa Falls, on the Sharawati river in 

 the west of India, 30 miles SE. of Honawar, are 

 960 feet high, one sheer leap being 890 feet. 



Gerstiicker, FRIEDRICH, a German novelist 

 and writer of travels, was born at Hamburg, 10th 

 May 1816. Animated with an irrepressible impulse 

 for travel, he in 1837 went to New York, and legan 

 a six years' tramp through the United States, part 

 of the time working at various trades, part of the 

 time leading an adventurous life as a hunter in the 

 forests. In 1843 he returned to Germany, and 

 published Streif- und Jagrfziige durch die Vereinig- 

 ten Staaten (1844), Die ' Regulotoren in Arkansas 

 (1845), Die Flusspiraten des Mississippi (1848), &c. 

 Leaving home again in 1 849, he travelled round the 



world by way of America, Polyneia, and Au*tralia, 

 reaching < MM many in 1852. Moat of the yean 1860- 

 61 were Hjwnt in South America ; in 1802 he 

 accompanied Duke Ernext of Cotha to Egypt and 

 Abyssinia ; and in 1867-68 he undertook 'another 

 long journey, visiting North America, Mexico, 

 Ecuador, Vene/m-la, and tin- West Indian. Of thin 

 last he gave a description in Neue lieiten (1868). 

 His best books include Tahiti, Die Beiden Strafing*, 

 I'/ilrr ilf in . /v//m/f//-, <ii>ld, Inselwelt, and Um tlie 

 Welt ( 1 847-48 ). H is Gesammelte Sch rift en appeared 

 in 44 vols. in 1872-79. Gerstacker died at r.run- 

 wick, 31st May 1872. His works, of which several 

 have been translated into English since 1847, owe 

 their popularity to their simple, homely style, and 

 to the vigour and truth of the descriptions and 

 characters. 



Gervas (Stackytarpheta Jamttteentu/). a small 

 verbenaceous shrub of the West Indies and tropical 

 America. It is regarded as of high medicinal value, 

 and was used by the Indian sorcerers as it- allv the 

 vervain was in Europe. It has also been introduced 

 into Europe as Brazilian tea, and also frequently 

 employed as an adulterant of tea proper. 



Gervase OF CANTERBURY, a monk who wrote 

 a painstaking and fairlv trustworthy chronicle of 

 the reigns of Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I., 

 and also a history of the archbishops of Canterbury 

 down to Hubert Walter. These works are valuable 

 especially as elucidating the contemporary relations 

 between church and state, though Gervase seems 

 to have been animated throughout by a persistent 

 dislike to the House of Anjou. The former was 

 edited by Bishop Stubbs for the Rolls series (2 

 vols. 1879-80). 



Gervase OF TILBURY, a historical writer, Horn 

 probably at Tilbury in Essex about the middle of the 

 12th century, and' often said, without any founda- 

 tion, to have been a nephew of King Henry II. of 

 England. He lectured on canon law at liologna, 

 and was, under the Emperor Utho IV., marshal of 

 the kingdom of Aries, and lastly provost of the 

 nunnery at Ebsdorf. He died about 1235. His 

 chief work is his Otia Imperialia, composed alxmt 

 1212 for the entertainment of his imperial patron ; 

 the first two books consisting of an attract of 

 geography and history, the third containing a 

 collection of curious beliefs about the ' Veronica,' 

 British sirens, the magnet, and the like. The non- 

 historical portions of the work were edited by Felix 

 Liebrecht ( Hanover, 1856 ). The whole was printed 

 admirably by Leibnitz in vol. i. of Scriptores Rerttm 

 Erunsviceiifittm. Many other works have been 

 attributed erroneously to Gervase of Tilbury. A 

 Liber Facetiarum, or oook of anecdotes, he tells us 

 he prepared for Henry II. of England. 



Gervinus, GEORG GOTTFRIED, German his- 

 torian, was born at Darmstadt, 20th May 1805. 

 Though at first engaged in commerce, he contrived 

 to pursue his studies privately, then at the univer- 

 sities of Giessen and Heidelberg. In 1836 he 

 was appointed professor of History at Gottingen. 

 Already he bad begun to publish his Geschichte 

 der poetischen Nationallitenttnr tier Deutschen (5 

 vols. Leip. 1835-42), which, under the new title of 

 Geschichte der Deutschen Dtchtung, reached a fifth 

 edition under the care of K. Bartsch, 1871-74. In 

 1837 he was one of the seven Gottingen professors 

 who signed the famous protest against the abolition 

 of the Hanoverian constitution, in consequence of 

 which he lost his chair, and was ordered to leave 

 the country within three days. He went first to 

 Darmstadt, then to Heidelberg, thence to Rome, 

 and was in 1844 appointed honorary professor in 

 Heidelberg. From this period his career was that 

 of an active political writer in lehalf of constitu- 

 tional liberty. In July 1847 he helped to establish 



