Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/460

 GEBHARD

402

OEDEON

Oebhard (III) o£ Constance, bishop of that city, and strenuous defender of papal rights against impe- rial encroachments during the Investitures conflict; b. about 1010; d. 12 November, 1110. He was a son of Duke Bertold I and a brother of Bcrtold II, of Ziihrin- gen. For some time he was provost at Xanten, then entered the Benedictine monastery at Hirschau and on 22 December, 10S4, was consecrated Bisliop of Constance by the cardinal-legate. Otto of Ostia, the future Urban II. The see of Constance was then oc- cupied by the imperial anti-Bishop Otto I, who, though excommunicated and deposed by Gregory VII in lOSO, retained his see by force of arms. At an imperial synod held at Mainz, in April, 10S5, Oebhard and four- teen other German bishops who remained faitliful to Gregory VII were deposed, and Otto I was declared the lawful Bishop of Constance. Luckily, Otto I died in the beginning of 1086, and Gebhard was able to take possession of his see. One of his first acts as bishop was the reform of the Benedictine monastery of I'eters- hausen near ( 'onstance. which he recruited with monks from Hirschau. In 108",! he consecrated the new catli- edral of Constance, to replace the old one which had fallen into ruins in 1052.

On IS April, 1089, Pope Urban II appointed him and Bishop Altmann of Passau, Apostolic-vicars for Germany. Arnold, a monk of St. Gall, whom Henry IV appointed anti-Bishop of Constance on 28 March, 1092, tried in vain to eject Gebhard from the See of Constance. The latter had powerful friends in his brother Bertold II, Duke Welf IV, the monks of Hirschau and Petershausen, and the citizens of t'on- stance. In 1094 Gebhard held a synod of reform at Constance, and in 1095 he attended the Synod of Piacenza. Soon, however, the influence of Henry IV began to increase in Germany. In 1103 Gebhard was driven from his see, and the imperial anti-liishop, Arnold, usurped the bishopric. With the assistance of Henry V, Gel:)hard regained his see in 1105, freed the king from the ban by order of Paschal II, and ac- companied him on his journey to Saxony. Gebhard attended the Synod of Nordhausen on 27 May, 1105, the diet at Mainz on Cliristmas, 1105, was sent as im- perial legate to Rome in the spring of 1106, and was present at the Council of Guastalla in October of the same year. In the fresh dispute that arose between Paschal II and Henry V, Gebhard seemed to side with the emperor, but, after being severely reprimanded by the pope, withdrew from public life and devoted his whole attention to the welfare of his diocese.

Henking, Gebhard 111, Bischof van Constanz (Stuttgart, 1880); Zell. Gebhard von Zahringen in Freiburger Dincesan- Archiv (Freiburg im Br., 1865), I, 303-404; Meyer von Knonau in Schriflendes Vereins fiir dieGcschichte dea Bodensccs (Lindau, 1896), XXV, 18 sqq.; Idem in Alia. Deutsche Biogr.: Neugart, Episcopatus Constantiensis (St. Blasien, 1803), I, 467-502.

Michael, Ott.

Gebhart, Emile, a French professor and writer, b. 19 July, 1839, at Nancy; d. 22 April, 1908, in Paris. He was the grand-nephew of General Drouot, one of the most distinguished soldiers of the First Empire. Having linishod liis studies in the Lycee of Nancy, he was adniiltcil to the I'>cilo Fnmc.-aise of Athens, where he imbibi-d the Hellenic s|iirit and gathered a rich harvest of facts and anecdotes for his future works. When he returned to France he was sent to the Lycee of Nice and soon after appointed professor of foreign literatures in the University of Nancy. He was so successful that a chair of Southern European litera- tures was instituted specially for him at the Sorbonne, in 1880. For the twenty-six years during which he retained that position, he was "the most popular pro- fessor in the Sorbonne, his course of lectures being at- tended by enthusiastic audiences both of students and of men and women of the world. In 1895 he was elected to the Academy of Moral and Political Sci- ences, an(^ in 1905 to the French Academy. He waa

fond of travelling, and every summer, for twenty-five years, he spent three months in Italy, visiting Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice, seeking rare and antique books in libraries, staying in monasteries and talking with the monks, and gathering information concern- ing popular legends from the common people on the streets and in the cottages of the poor. All the mate- rials so collected were afterwards used in his books. His favourite subjects were Greek antiquity and the Italian Renaissance. He treated them in a masterly manner, showing a thorough but unpretentious knowledge. His style is clear, slightly sarcastic at times, but extremely agreeable. His principal works are: "Praxitele" (1864), "La Renaissance et la R6- forme" (1877), "Les Origines de la Renaissance en Italic" (1879), "L'ltalie mystique" (1890), " Le son des Cloches, contes et legendes" (1898), "Moines et Papes" (1896), "Autour d'une tiare" (1894), "Cloches de Noel et de Paques" (1900), "Conteurs florentins au nioyen-age" (1901), "Jules II" (1904), "Florence" (1906). The last days of his life were dimmed by sadness. As he had always been fond of mysticism, which he had so well described in his lives of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena, and as he disliked the rationalistic doctrines of the time, the attacks of the Radicals on his religious and patri- otic ideals wounded him deeply.

Hervieu, Rcponse au diseours de reception h I'Academie Fra7icaise {Paris, 1905): Annales politiques et lUterairen, 1904 and 1908; Le Correspondanl, 1905, Vol. CCXVIII; Les Questions Actuelles (30 May, 1908).

Louis N. Delamarre.

Gedeon (Gideon (Heb. pjnJ. "hewer")], also called Jerobaal (Judges, vi, 32; vii, 1; etc.), and Jerube- SHETH (II Kings, xi, 21, in the Hebrew text), was one of the Greater Judges of Israel. He belonged to the tribe of Manasses, and to the family of Abiezer (Judges, vi, 34). Gedeon's father was Joas, and lived in Eph- ra (Judges, vi, 11). The following is in substance the account of Gedeon's judgeship as related in Judges vi- viii: Israel, having forsaken Yahweh's worship, had been for seven years exceedingly himibled by the in- cursions of the IVIadianites and of other Eastern tribes. At length, they turned to God who sent them a de- liverer in the person of Gedeon. In a first theophany, granted him by day while he was threshing wheat, Gedeon received the difficult mission of freeing his people; whereupon he built an altar to the Lord (Judges, vi, 24). In a second theophany during the following night, he was directed to destroy the village- altar to Baal, and to erect one to Yahweh. This he did with the result that the people clamoured for his death to avenge his insult to their false god. Joas, however, saved his son's life by the witty taunt, which secured for the latter the name of Jerobaal: " Let Baal revenge himself!" (vi, 25-32). Thus divinely com- missioned, Gedeon naturally took the lead against Madian, and Anialec, and other Eastern tribes who had crossed the Jordan, and encamped in the valley of Jezrael. Comforted by the famous signs of the fleece (vi, 36-40), and accompanied by warriors from Manas- ses, Aser.Zabulon, and Nephthali.he took up his posi- tion not far from the enemy. But it was God's inten- tion to show that it was His power which delivered Israel, and hence He reduced Gedeon's army from 32,000 to ,300 (vii, 1-8). According to a divine direc- tion, the Hebrew commander paid a night visit to the enemy's camp and overheartl the telling of a dream which prompted him to act at once, certain of victory (vii, 9-15). He then supplied his men with trumpets and with torches enclosed in jars, which, after his exam- ple, they broke, crying out: "The sword of Yahweh and Gedeon." Panic-stricken at the sudden attack, Israel's enemies turned their arms against one an- other, and broke up in flight towards the fords of the Jordan (vii, 16-23). But, sununoncd by Gedeon, the Ephraimites cut off the Madianites at the fords, and