Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/461

 GEDOYN

403

GEILER

captured and slew two of their princes, Oreb and Zeb, whose heads they sent to the Hebrew leader, rebuking him at t he same time for not havins; called earlier upon their a-ssistance. Gcdeon appeased them by an East- ern proverb, and pursued the enemy beyoml the Jor- dan river (vii, '24; viii. 3). Passing by Soccoth and Phanuel, he met with their refusal of provisions for his fainting soldiers, and threatened both places with ven- geance on his return (viii. 4-9). At length, he over- took and defeated the enemies of Israel, captured their kings, Zebee and Salmana, returned in triumph, pun- ishing the men of Soccoth and Phanuel on his wa.y, and finally put to death Zebee and .Salmana (viii, 10-21). Grateful for this glorious deliverance, Gedeon's coun- trymen offered him the dignity of an hereditary king, which he declined with these noble words: "I will not rule over you, neither shall my .son rule over you, but Vahweh .shall rule over you" (viii, 22-23). He never- theless asked and obtained from his soldiers the golden rings and other ornaments which the}- had taken from the enemy; and out of this spoil he made what seems to have soon become an object of idolatrous worship in Israel. Gedeon's peaceful judgeship lasted forty years. He had seventy sons, and " died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father in Ephra" (viii, 24-.32). His victory is alluded to in Isaias, x, 26, and in Ps., Lxxxii, 12 (Heb. Ixxxiii, 11), where the four kings mentioned in Judges, vii, viii, are distinctly named — a fact which shows that, at the time when this psalm was composed, the narrative of Gedeon's exploits was commonly known in its present form. The various literary features exhibited by the text of Judges, vi-viii, have been minutely examined and differently appreciated by recent scholars. Seve- ral commentators look upon these features — such for instance as the two names, Gedeon and Jerobaal; the two theophanies bearing on Gedeon's call; the appar- ently twofold narrative of Gedeon's pursuit of the routed enemies, etc. — as proving conclusively the composite origin of the sacred record of Gedeon's judgeship. Others, on the contrary, see their wa)' to reconcile all such features of the text w-ith the literary imity of Judges, vi-viii. However this mav- be, one thing remains perfectly sure, to wit, that whatever may be the documents which have been utilized in framing the narrative of Gedeon's exploits, they agree substantially in their description of the words and deeds of this Greater Judge of Israel.

Catholic commentaries on the book of Judges by Cl.\ir (Paris. 1880); VON HuMMEUUER (Paris, 1888); Lagrange (Paris. 1903); Non-Catholic, by Moore (New York. 18951; Budde (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1897); Nowack (Gottingen. 1900). Francis E. Gigot.

GSdoyn, Nicolas, a French translator and literary critic; b. at Orleans, 17 June, 16G7; d. 10 August, 1744, at Port-Pertuis, near Beaugency. After study- ing in the College of the Jesuits, he entered their novi- tiate in 1684, becoming later professor of rhetoric at Blois. Ill-health, afterwards, obliged him to resign this position, and leave the Society of Jesus, for which, however, he always retained his affection. A canoni- cate at the Saint e-Chapelle (Paris) and two abbeys gave him the means of devoting himself to educa- tional works. In 1711, he was elected to membership in the Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and in 1718 his free translation and adaptation of Quintilian. containing many allusions to contempora- ries, was the occasion of his election to the French Academy. He also translated Pausanias (1731), and wrote " Reflexions sur le goiit", published by d'Olivet in "Recueil d'opuscules litteraires" (Amsterdam, 1767). Several other memoirs and essays were col- lected by d'Olivet, and published under the title of "(Euvres diverses de M. I'abbe Gedoyn". They con- tain a life of Epaminondas, an apology for translations, essays on the education of children, Roman urbanity, the ancients and the moderns, etc. In education,

Gedoyn is an advocate of progress, and deplores the routine and the tradition which make parents and edu- cators conform blindly to received methods and usages without realizing that circum.-it;uiccs change and that methods of education shoidd be adapted and modified in consequence. Three things are necessary to a com- plete education: knowledge, virtue and good manners; the constant endeavour of the master should be to develop these in his pupils. Since money spent by parents for the education of their children is an in- vested capital of the greatest importance, great care siiould lie taken in the selection of tutors.

\,mi;llc llioaraphie Gmerale (Paris, 18.58), XIX, 802; d'<)i,i\et, Vie fie Gedoyn (1752); Maire in Buisson's Diction- naire de pedagogie (Paris, 1887), I, i, 1149.

C. A. DUBRAY.

Gegenbauer, Josef Anton von, an accomplished German historical and portrait painter, b. 6 March, 1800, at Wangen, Wtirtemberg; d. 31 January, 1876, at Rome. He studied first at the Royal Academy in Munich under Robert von Langer, remaining in that city from 1815 to 1823. Among his productions there were two idyllic works which were much admired, a "Samt Sebastian" and a "Madonna and Child", altar-piece for his native town. In 1823 the painter went to Rome, where he remained until 1826, studying especially the works of Raphael. He became notably successful as a fresco painter, and, on his return to Wiirtemberg. the king made him court painter and commissioned him to decorate the Roj-al Villa of Rosenstein. In 1829 Gegenbauer went again to Rome and worked on frescoes. During his later resi- dence at Stuttgart he was employetl from 1836 to 1854 in decorating the Royal Palace with sixteen scenes in fresco from the history of Wiirtemberg. These in- ckale incidents in the life of Count Eberhard II of '\^'^lrtemberg. In the same building are many of his oil paintings, among them being "Two Shepherds", "Adam and Eve after their Expulsion from Eden", and " Moses Striking the Rock ". In the Stuttgart Gal- lery is also his "Hercules and Omphale". His other paintings in oil, ranging in date from 1829 to 1860 in- clude many on mj-thological subjects: "Sleeping Venus and Two Satyrs", "Leda and the .Swan", "Apollo and the Muses", "Bacchus and Ariadne", "Venus and Cupid", "Ceres and Jason", "jEoIus .Eola", "Pluto and Proserpine", "Neptune and The- tis", several Genii and Amorettes, and some por- traits. Among Gegenbauer's frescoes, in addition to those already mentioned, are " Jupiter givmg Immor- tality to Psyche", "The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche", four scenes from the life of Psyche, "The Four Seasons", an "Aurora" — all at the Villa Rosen- stein. In addition to theseworks, we may mention, as well as various Madonnas, "The Ascension of the Virgin", "The Crucifixion", the "Hercules and Om- phale", the last in the Thorwaldsen Museum at Copenhagen.

Champlin and Perkins, Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings (New York, 1SS6) ; Bryan, Dictionary of Painters and Engravers.

Augustus van Cleef. Gehenna. See Hell.

Geiler von Kaysersberg, Johann, a celebrated

German pulpit orator, b. at Schaffhausen,. Switzerland, 16 March, 1445; d. at Strasburg, 10 March, 1510. Un- til a scientific presentation of the history of the de- velopment of the Catholic sermon appears, an appre- ciation of even the most distinguished pulpit orator, although based on careful investigation, can only be a preliminary labour, for the picture, however elaborate, will lack the proper background. This is true in the case of the celebrated medieval preacher to the common people, Berthold of Ratisbon, and it applies no less to the great pulpit orator of the early sixteenth century, Geiler von Kaysersberg. More fortunate is the treat- ment of the subject in its relations to purely literary history, for the importance of Geiler in literature can