G E R 



built a chiivch dedicated to St. Amand, bifliop of Tongr? s j 

 but the place afteru-ards becoming cekbrated by tlit death 

 Mid pretended miracles of St=. Gertrude, it has fince been 

 called «' Moritde St'. Gertrude,'' or Gertnidenberg. The 

 ealllc was built in ,1321. After palTing through nwny 

 vicifiitudes, it was fummoncd by the French in February 

 1793, and taken ; but foon after evacuated. The French 

 took it again in 1795. It is diftant 10 miles S.E. of Dort, 

 and 7 N.E. of Breda. N. lal. 51 ' 40'. E. long^. 4' 44' 



GERTZ, a town of Germany, in the principality of 

 WurzburT ; 5 miles W.S.W. of Munerftat. 



GERVAIS, Armaxd Francis, in Biograf-hy, was bom 

 at Paris about the year 1660: he was educated with the 

 Jefuits, and at fifteen years of age he entered among the 

 bare-footed Carmelites. At the age of twenty-two he was 

 appointed by his fuperiors to teach theology to the younger 

 members of the order ; and he was at the fame time diftin- 

 guilhcd as a pulpit orator. Some years after this he witli- 

 drcw into the monaftery of La Trappe, where he fuccef- 

 fively filled very important offices belonging to that order. 

 The changes which he introduced, and the reforms which 

 he m.edilatcd, created an alarm ; and in 1 698 he refigned his 

 offices, and quitted liis refidence in the monaftery. From 

 this period he wandered about, from folitude to folitude, 

 following the fame afcetic courfe of life which he had been 

 in the habit of praftiling in tiie college. Havuig, in 1745, 

 publiihed the firft volume of an interefting " General Hif- 

 tory of the Ciftercian Order in France," in which was a 

 fevere attack upon the Bernardins, he was arrefted and 

 imprifoned in the abbey of Notre Dame des Reclus, in the 

 diocefe of Troyes, where he died in 1751, at the age of 

 ninety-one. He pubhfiied, befides the work alluded to, 

 " The Life of St. Cyprian," with an abridgment of hi« 

 works, including notes and differtations : " The Lives of 

 Peter Abelard and of liis wife Heloife ;" " The Hillory 

 of Suger, Abbot of St. Denys," in three volumes, I2m<). 

 '♦ The Life of St. Irenaeus,'" in two vols. l2mo. Alfo lives 

 of St. Paul, Epiphanius, Ruffinus, aiid other eminent per- 

 fons. He was dilLinguifhed as a controvcrfialill, and was 

 the opponent of Father Courayer on the fubjeft of Englifn 

 ordinations. He is charafterized as a man of great learning 

 and fingular virtues, but his manners were aullerc, impetu- 

 ous, and forbidding. Moreri. 



GtRVAls, Si. in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Puy de Dome, and chief place of a can- 

 ton, in the diftrift of Riom; 15 miles N. W. of Riom. The 

 place contains 21 80, and the canton 9204 inhabitants, on a 

 territory of 282^ kUiometres, in 1 1 communes. 



GEK\AK-Je-Mnffy, St. a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the Orne, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 

 tricl of Domfront; 9 miles N. N. E. of Domfront. The 

 place contains 1068, and the canton 17,228 inhabitants, on 

 a territory of 132-!^ kiliometres, in 14 communes. 



GBR\-j\zs.Iti-Fil/e, S(. a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of Herault, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 

 trift of Beziers. The place contains 1263, and the canton 

 8641 inhabitants, on a territory of 1371 kiliometres, in lo- 

 communes. 



GERVASE of Tilbury, in Biography, an hiftorian of the 

 thirteenth century, a native of Tilbury, inEffex, and nephew 

 lo king Henry IL He was, through the intereft of Otho 

 IV. Blade marflial of the kingdom of Aries. He wrote 

 a commentary on Geoffrey of Kfonmouth's Britifh Hiftory, 

 and alfo a tripartite Hiftoiy of England. His otlier works 

 are " A Hiilory of the Holy Land ;'' " Origenes Bur- 

 gnndionum :" " Mirabilia Orbis," and a Chronicle ; entitled 

 «' Imperialium Otiorum.'' The compilation of the ex« 



GE R 



cUeqacT book, entitled " Liber Niger Scaccarii," tva* 

 afcribed to him ; but Mr. Madox, who publiflied a corretl 

 edition of it, gives it to Richaid Nelfon, bidiop of Lon- 

 don. Moreri. Gen. Biog. 



GERVASIO Gath, the nephew of Bernardo; was alfo 

 a painter of confiderable merit in the fame ftyle of colour- 

 ing, as is evident in a piclure of Si. Seballian, in the 

 church of St. Agatha at Cremona, where it is united to- 

 the deugn of the antique; and alfs in the Martyrdom of 

 St. Ceciha, at St.Pietro, in the fame city. 



GERVASO, St. in Geography, a town of Italyj in the 

 department of the Mela; 15 miles S. of Brefcia. 



GERUMA, in Botany, barbaroufly corrupted by Forf- 

 kall from an Arabic name Djerrum. Forlk. ^Egyptiaco. 

 Arab. 62. JulT. 264. Lamarck. Did. v. 2. 702.— 

 C\:\kzn&ovim-, Pentandrla Monogynia. Nat. Ord. " Jlle/'ae, 

 or ferhz^s Alalvaceie," JufiT. — "■ Rhamtii ?" Lamarck. 



Gen. Cli. Cal. Perianth inferior, of one liaf, flat, five- 

 toothed, fmall, green, permanent. Cor. Petals five, lan- 

 ceolate, abrupt, fpreading, thrice as long as the calyx, 

 white. Nectary, a thick ring furrounding the germen, 

 bearing the ftamens on its outer edge. Starr.. Filaments 

 five, ereft, half the length of the corolla ; anthers ered, 

 triangular. Pift. Germen globofe, deeply immerfed in the 

 neftary ; ftyle thread-fliaped, faall ; lligmas three, widely^ 

 fpreading, red, wedge-lliaped, emarginate at the extremity. - 

 Pak. Capfule fuperior, oval, of four, or perhaps IWe, cells, 

 and as many valves. Sieils, two in each cell, oval, iwferted 

 into a trianguUu- white pulp ; one of them oft«n abor- 

 tive. 



Eft". Ch. Calyx witk five teeth. Petals five, abrupt. 

 Neftarv, a ring round the germen. Stigm.as three, emar- 

 ginate. Capfule fuperior, ovate, of four or five cells. 

 Seeds two, affixed to a pulpv receptacle. 



I. G. alba. Leaves alternate, oval-oblong, fomewhat 

 lerratcd. 



This is all that can be gathered from Forfkall's account, 

 and it forms a botanical enigma. Some circumftanccs in-' 

 dicate au affinity to Juffieu's EiijAcrblie. The accounts of 

 the ftigma.-) and of the fruit are the molt remarkable. No- 

 thing is faid of the habit, duration, or fenfible qualities. 



GERUND, in Grammar, a fort of tenfe, or time, of 

 the infinitive mood : rery like to the participle, but inde- 

 clinable. 



The word is formed of the Latin gerundivus ; and that 

 from the verb gerere, to beer. 



The gerund exprelTes not only the time, but alfo the 

 manner of an aftion ; as, he fell in running poft. 



It differs from the participle, in that it e.xprefTes the time, 

 which the participle does not. And from the tenfe pro- 

 perly fo called, in that it exprefles the manner, which the 

 tenfe does not. 



Grammarians are much embarraffed to fettle the nature' 

 and charjfter of the gerunds : it is certain they are no verbs, 

 becaufe they do not mark any judgment or affirmation of 

 the mind, which is fuppofed to be the effence of a verb : 

 and befides, they have their feveral cafes, which verbs have 

 not. 



Some, therefore, will have them to be adjeftives paffive, 

 whofe fubilantive is the infinitive of the verb : on tliis 

 footing they denominate them verbal nouns, or names 

 formed of verbs, and retaining the ordinary regimen there- 

 of. 



Thus, fay they, tempus ejl legendi lilros, or Mrorum, is as 

 much as to fay, tempus ejl To legcre libros, vel librorum. But 

 others difpute this deciiion. 



The Greeks have neither gerunds nor fupines j but ioftead 



of 



