GERSON, JOHN CHARLIER DE. 



GESENIUS, FRIEDRICH-HEINRICH-WILHELM. 



execution on the ringleaders of the mutiny, without waiting for the 

 order of their commander. A similar scene took place in the camp 

 of two other legions, which were stationed in another part of the 

 country under the orders of Csecina. Availing himself of the present 

 state of excitement of the soldiers, Germanicus crossed the Rhine, 

 attacked the Marsi, the Bructeri, and other German tribes, and routed 

 them with great slaughter. In the following jear, taking advantage 

 of a quarrel between Arminius, the conqueror of Varus, and Segestes, 

 another German chief, he attacked Arminius, and penetrated to the 

 spot where the Ifgions of Varus had been cut to pieces. The bones 

 of the Roman soldiers, which still lay on the ground, were collected 

 and buried by their countrymen. Arminius however fought bravely, 

 and wag near defeating a division commanded by Caecina. In the 

 following campaign Germanicus embarked his troops on board a 

 flotilla which he had constructed or collected for the purpose, and 

 failing from the island of the Batavi, he landed at the mouth of the 

 Ems, from whence he marched towards the Visurgis, or Weser, where 

 he found Arminius encamped. Two obstinate battles were fought in 

 succession, in both of which Arminius was defeated. Germanicus raised 

 a trophy with this inscription : ' The army of Tiberius Ctesar, having 

 conquered the nations between the Rhine and the Elbe, consecrates this 

 monument to Mars, Jupiter, and Augustus." After this victory he sent 

 part of his legions by land to their winter-quarters on the Rhine, and 

 with the rest embarked on the Ems, to return by sea ; but being sur- 

 prised by a dreadful storm, hia vessels were dispersed, many were lost, 

 and lie himself was cast on the coast of the Chauci, whence he returned 

 to the Kbine and placed the legions in winter-quarters. Meantime, 

 Tiberius wrote repeatedly to his nephew, that he had earned enough 



Ci in of Germanicns. 

 British Museum. Actual size. Copper. Weight 171 grains. 



of glory in Germany, and that he ought to return to Rome to enjoy 

 the triumph which he had merited. Germanicus asked for another 

 year to complete the subjugation of Germany, but Tiberius, who felt 

 jealous of the glory of his nephew and of his popularity with the 

 troops, remained inflexible, and Germanicus was obliged to return to 

 Home, where he triumphed in the following year A.D. 1 7. The year 

 after, he waa consul for the second time with Tiberius himself, and 

 was sent to the Kaat, where rerious disturbances had broken out, with 

 most extensive powers. But Tiberius took care to have a watch over 

 him by placing in the government of Syria Cnaeus Piso, a violent and 

 ambitious man, who seems to have been well qualified for his mission, 

 aa I e annoyed Germanicus in every possible way, and hia wife 1'lancina 

 seconded him in his purpose. The frank and open nature of Ger- 

 manicus was not a match for the wily intrigues of hia enemies. After 

 making peace with Artabanus, king of the 1'arthians, and calming 

 other disturbance* in the East, Germanicus fell ill at Antioch, and 

 after lingering some time he died, plainly expressing to his wife and 

 friends around liim his conviction that he was the victim of the treason 

 of Pirn and Plancina ; whether he meant through poison, or through 

 their annoyances, hns been a subject of doubt. Hia wife Agrippina, 

 with her on Cains and her other children, returned to Rome with the 

 athes of her husband. [AumrriNA THE KI.DEU.] 



Germanicus waa generally and deeply regretted. Like hia father 

 Dmsus he ws while living an object of hope to the Romans. He 

 died A.U. 10, in the thirty-fourth year of his age. He is praised for 

 his sincerity, his kind nature, bis disinterestedness, and his love of 

 information, which he exhibited in hia travels in Greece and Egypt. 

 (Tacitus, Amalt, lib. i. ii. ; Dion Cassius, lib. Ivii.) 

 GERSON, JOHN CHARLIER DE, chancellor of the University 

 of Paris, surnamed the Host Christian Doctor, was born in 1363, at 

 the village of Ger?on, in the diocese of Kheims, whence he took his 

 name. He began hia atudi< s at Paris, where, having risen by degrees, he 

 attained the place of chancellor of the university, and became canon 

 of Notre Dame. France was daring that period disturbed by civil 

 wars, and all Europe waa agitated by the religious contest between 

 the popes and anti-popes. Gerson distinguished himself in his own 

 country by louilly inveighing against the aasaa-ination of the Duke 

 of Orleans, which exposed him to a severe persecution from the Duko 

 i gundy'e party. Hia house waa pillaged by an infuriated mob, 

 and he escaped with hia life only by concealing himself for some time 

 in the vaults of the church of Notre Dame. His courage was 

 not nubdued by this occurrence, and aa soon aa he resumed his 

 functions he vigorously attacked, before the university and the clergy, 

 the doctrines of Jean Petit, a doctor of the University of Paris, who 

 defended the murder of the Duke of Orleans as a legitimate act in a 



public oration delivered on the 8th of March 1403, where he main- 

 tained that it was permitted, and waa even praiseworthy, to kill a 

 tyrant ; and that it was allowable to employ for the attainment of that 

 object all possible means. Gerson zealously advocated the convoca- 

 tion of the council of Pisa by his memoir ' De Unitate Eeclesije." At 

 that council he distinguished himself by great firmness united with 

 much prudence, when the two contending popes, Gregorius XII. and 

 Benedict XIII., were deposed, and Alexander V. elected. It waa on 

 this occasion that he published his celebrated treatise, ' De Auferibili- 

 tate Papae.' He appeared at the council of Constance as the ambas- 

 sador of Charles IV. king of France, and the representative of the 

 French Church and of the University of Paris. In that assembly he 

 exercised an immense influence, particularly in the deposition of Pope 

 John XXIII., who had succeeded Alexander V. In all his speeches 

 and in all his writings he maintained that the church had the right to 

 make reforms, not only with relation to her members, but even to her 

 chief; that it had the right of convoking a council without the con- 

 sent of the pope, whenever he refused to give it. He also maintained 

 that it was necessary to convoke councils general as well as particular, 

 to abolish the annates, and to extirpate simony, which was then very 

 common, &c. By his influence he established as a basis of all the 

 decrees of council the doctrine of the supremacy of the church over 

 the pope in matters of faith and discipline. Gerson disputed at the 

 Council of Constance with Buss, against whom he declared himself 

 with violence. Though Gerson would have added to hia reputation 

 by preventing the martyrdom of the Bohemian reformers, it must be 

 admitted that he was in many respects superior to the superstitions 

 of his time. He strongly condemned in his treatise ' Contra Sectam 

 Flagellatorum ' the self-torments indicted by those fauatics, which 

 were zealously promoted by St. Vincent Fererius, to whom Gerson 

 addressed his friendly remonstrances on that subject. In his work 

 entitled ' De Probatione Spirituum,' he established the rules by which 

 a true may be distinguished from a false revelation ; and lie is far 

 from being favourable to the revelations of St. Bridget, which, made a 

 great noise in his time. 



The persecution of Gerson by the Duke of Burgundy's party waa 

 so violent, that he durst not return to Franco, but waa obliged to 

 take refuge in Germany. He went from Constance, in the disguise 

 of a pilgrim, to Bavaria, where he wrote hia work ' De Consolatioue 

 Theologitc,' on the model of the celebrated work of Boethiua, ' De 

 Consolatione Philosophise." It is written both in prose and verse, and 

 passed through many editions. The ' Imitation of Jesus Christ,' 

 generally ascribed to Thomas a. Kenipis, appeared for the first time 

 appended to a manuscript of Gerson's above-mentioned work, 'De 

 Consolatione Theologise,' dated 1421, wheuce arose a supposition 

 which has found many supporters, that he was the real author of that 

 celebrated work. Gersou remained several years in Gtrinany, after 

 which he returned to France, and fixed his residence in a convent of 

 the Celestine monks at Lyon, of which hia brother waa the superior, 

 and where he died iu 1429. 



OERVASE OF CANTERBURY, an bistorian of the 13th century, 

 was a monk of Christ Church in that city. His ' Chronicle of the 

 Kings of England,' from 1122 to 1200, an4 a ' History of the Arch- 

 bishops of Canterbury,' from St. Augustiue to Archbishop Hubert, 

 who died in 1205, are his principal works. Both are published by 

 Roger Twysdtu, iu the ' Dccem Scriptores.' Bishop Nicolson, iu his 

 ' English Historical Library,' 4to, London, 1776, p. 45, ascribes a 

 more extended history to him, of an entire copy of which he thinks 

 Leland had the perusal. Manuscripts of Gervaae of Canterbury are pre- 

 served in the Cottoniau Collection, Vespas., B. xix., and in the library 

 of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, cod. 438, both of good age. 



OERVASE OF TILIlURY, also an historian of the 13tU century, 

 received his name from Tilbury in Essex, where he was born. Several 

 modern writers state him to have been the nephew of King Henry II., 

 but it is more certain that through the interest of the Emperor 

 Otho IV. he was made marshal of the kingdom of Aries in France. 

 He appears to have written a Commentary upon Geoffrey of Mon- 

 mouth's 'History of Britain; 1 a 'History of the Holy Laud;' a 

 treatise, entitled ' Origiues Burgundiouum ; ' and a History of the 

 Kiugs of England and France, comprised in a work entitled ' Otia 

 Imperialia,' a fragment of which ia printed with his name iu 

 Duchesue's ' Hiatoruo Francorum Scriptorea,' torn, iii., p. 363. Manu- 

 scripts of the 'Otia Imperialia' are preserved in the Cottouiau 

 Collection, Vesp., E. i., and in the Library of Corpus Christi College, 

 Cambridge, cod. 414; they comprise tho treatises entitled 'Mundi 

 Descriptio,' and ' De Mirabilibus Mundi,' ascribed to him as separate 

 works. Nicolson, ' EngL Hist. Lib.' edit. 1776, pp. 50, 151, ascribes 

 to him the ' Black-Book of tho Exchequer ; ' but Madox, who pub- 

 lished a very correct edition of that work, gives it to Richard Nelson, 

 bi-liop of London. 



GfcSE'NlUS, FR1EDRICH-HEINRICH-WILHELM, one of the 

 most distinguished Orientalists of modern times, was born at Nord- 

 liausen, on the 3rd of February 1780. He was educated in the 

 gymnasium of his native place, and afterwards iu tho universities of 

 Heltnstedt and Gbttiugen. After the completion of his studies he was 

 for a short time employed as teacher at the Panlagogium of Helmstedt : 

 in 1806 he received the post of repetitor in the theological faculty of 

 tho University of Gottingen. In 1809 Geaenius, on the recommendation 



