G I B 



We liave but a very obfciire account of tlicir origfn, and 

 the reafon of their names : the generality of authors affirm, 

 that they arofe about the year 12^0, upon the emperor 

 Frederic the lid's being excommunicated by pope Gregory 

 IX. 



That prince, fay they, making a tour- among the cities 

 of Italy, gave the name Gibchns to fuch as he found well 

 affefted to lum; and that of Guelphs to tliofe who adhered 

 to the pope. But as to the reafon and ilgiiiiication of thefe 

 words, there is a deep I'llence ; Gibelin might be polTibly 

 formed of gebieler, inipirator ; whence ^eh'iclerifch, mpcr'wfe. 

 Oi geiieter, the Italians might make, by corruption, Gibe- 

 lin ; fo that Gibelins, in this light, thould be the fame with 

 Imperiales, or fuch as followed the emperor's party. 



By the way, fome vn-jters maintain, that the two faftioiw 

 arofe ten years before ; though ftill under the fame pope and 

 emperor. 



Other hiftorians relate, that Conrad III. marching into 

 Italy, in the year 1 139. againll the Neapolitans, Roger, 

 count of Naples and Sicily, in order to defend his Hates, 

 called to his affiftance Guelph duke of Bavaria ; and that 

 one day, when the two armies were ready to join in battle, 

 the Bavarians cried out in High Dutch, /«, Giiell>h ! or, as 

 others fay, in Fleniilh, hier, Guelph ! that is, here, Giwtph ! 

 2nd that the Imperialiils anfwered on their fide, witli the 

 words i/V, or hier, Gibelin! here, Gibslin ! calling the em- 

 peror by the name of the place where he had been bred. 



Hornius refers the names to the war in 1 140, between 

 Henry the Proud, duke of Bavaria and Saxony, and Con- 

 rad III. duke of Suabia ; the two princes preparing to 

 engage near the town of Winlberg, the Bavarians began to 

 cry out Guelph, which was the name of duke Henry's 

 brother ; and the partifans of the emperor Weibelingen, 

 which was the name of the place where that prince was 

 born and bred, in the duchy of Wirtemberg, whofe fur- 

 name he bore : from which Weibelingen the Italians at 

 length formed Gibelin. 



Tliis account is confirmed by Martin Crufius : " Initium 

 Gibehnx (Wibelinas a patria Coiiradi regis) et Welficx 

 concertationis.'' Conrad being of Weibelingen, that word, 

 fays Crufius, gave rife to gibellingue, and that to jibe/ling, 

 Gibelins, GibeUim. 



Platina, on the other hand, affures us, that the name 

 Gibelins arofe from that of a Gorman at Pilloya ; whofe 

 brother, named Guelph, gave likewife his name to the 

 oppofite faftion : the two brethren, it feems, bearing an ir- 

 reconcileable hatred. Others maintain, that the emperor 

 gave the appellation Gibelins to thofe of his party, from 

 the German worCi gipffe', fignifying n'o^i', or top ; becaufe 

 the empire refted on tliem, as tlie rafters of a houfe leans 

 on the ridge, which joins them a-top. 



Karus, a learned canon of Stralbourg, in the lives ot the 

 emperors of the houfe of Brunfwick, is of tiie fecond 

 opinion above related : in a battle, lays he, between 

 WelfF, or Gueltr, and Frederic, the army of the liift 

 cr)-ii)g out, hie, IVclJ, hie, IVrlf! the fecond commanded 

 his to cry out hie^ Cibeli.-ig ! hie, GibeUng ! the name of 

 his birth-place : and the French and Lomhards alking the 

 fignification of thofe words, they were anfwered, that by 

 tVelff was meant the pope's party ; and, by Gibelin, the 

 emperor's. 



'Y'et others contend, that the word Gibelin is only a foft- 

 ening of the word gibertin, or guibrrlin ; and that it arofe 

 from Guipert, an antipope, fet up by the emperor Plenry 

 III. in the year loRo. 



Among many other conjectures, Mainibourg, in Iiis 

 liift- de la Decad. de I'Emp. advantxTS Jinothei- opinion, 

 V9i. XVL 



G I B 



that the two faftions, and their names, arofe from a. 

 quarrel between two very ancient and illuflrious houfes 

 on the confines of Germany, that of the Henrys of Gi- 

 beling, and that of the Guelphs of Adorf. Sec Ma. 

 chiavcl. 



ft is faid by fome, (hat the Gibelins, when driven cat 

 of Italy long after the year 1 229, at which period the 

 contell between them and the Guelphs ran very high, and 

 fettled at Amllerdam, were the inventors of tlie mercan- 

 tile praftice of re-change, or re-exchange, on bills of ex- 

 cliange, on account of the damages and charges they were 

 put to, and the interelt of the money of their bills proteft- 

 ed, whicli liad been given to them for the effecls they had 

 been obliged to leave behind them. Andcrfon's Hilt. Com- 

 merce, vol. i. p. 110. See Gtixrus. 



GIDELLO, in Geography, a town of the ducliy of 

 Parma, on the right bank of the Po ; 16 miles N.W. of 

 Parma. N. lat. 45 1'. E. long. 10° 7'. 



GIBEON, in Scripture Geogniphy, the capital city o^ 

 tlie (libeonites, who availed themlelvcs of the oaths of 

 Jolluia, and of the elders of Ifrael, on an artful rcprefenta- 

 tion which they made of their belonging to a remote coun- 

 try. (Jofli. ix.) Jolhua and the elders made an unadviftd 

 league with them ; but upon a difcoverv of their midake, 

 they fpared their lives, and condemned them to the fcrvile 

 office of carrying wood and water to the tabernacle, and 

 other work of a iimilar kind, in token of their pufillanimily 

 and duphcity, as ilaves and captives. In this Hate of fervi- 

 tude they remained till the entire difperfion of the Jewifh 

 nation, AM. 2553. The Gibeonites were defccnded from 

 the Hivites, the old inhabitants of the country, and pofTcn"- 

 ed four cities, I'iz. Cephira, Beeroth, Kirjath-jearim, and 

 Gibeon, the capital, afterv.'ards given to Benjamin, except- 

 ing Kirjath-jearim, which was afiigncd to Judah. The Gi- 

 beonites fubmitted to the burthens impofed upon them by 

 Jofhua, and continued faithful to the HVaehtes. Neverthc- 

 lefs Saul dellroyed a very great number of them (2 Sam. 

 xxi. I, 2, 3, &c.) ; but God, as a puniflimcnt of his cruel- 

 ty, in the reign of David, caufed a great famine, which 

 lalled three years (A.M. 2^83. B.C. 1017); and David 

 was informed by the prophets, that this calamity would con- 

 tinue as long as that cruelty, whieh Saul had excrcifcd 

 againft the Gibeonitee, remained unretaliated. The Gi- 

 beonites, being afked what fatisfaftiou tliey require', an- 

 fwered, " Seven of Saul's fons will we put to death, to 

 avenge the blood of our brethren." Accordingly the Gi- 

 beonites crucified them in the beginning of fpriug, when, 

 in Paleflinc, the barley-harvell conunenced. From this time 

 v.e find no mention of tlie Gibeonites, as forming a feparat* 

 people. But tlicv w ere probably included among the " Ne- 

 thinim," wiio were public llaves appointed for the ferviceof 

 tlie temple, (j Cliron. ix. 2.) 



Gibeon was feated on an eniinence, as appears by its name, 

 denoting a hill; it was 40 furlongs N. from Jerufalem, ac- 

 cording'to Jofephus. It is called " Gabia" (fee 2 Sam. t. 

 2 J, compared with 1 Cliron. xiv. 16.) We find mention of 

 tlie foiinlain and pool of Gibeon. (2 Sam. ii. 13.) The taber- 

 nacle and alf.u- of burnt offerings, made by Mofes in the 

 wildernefs, were riinovcd to Gibeon. (I Cliron. xxi. 

 29, 30.) When Solomon was feated on the throne, he 

 went to facrifice at Gibeon, becaufe this was the moil con. 

 fidcrable of all the higli places wheiv facritkes were then 

 tolerated, the temple not being yet built. (I Kings, iii 4.) 



GIBERT, Baltiivsak, m Biography, was born at Aix 



in 1662. He was educated paitly at Paris and partly at 



Soiflbns. At the age of twenty-two he was appointed to 



teach philofophy at the college o{ B«fau>-ai8, and in 16S8 he 



li h obtaijicd 



