Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/466

 OEMISTOS

408

GENEALOGY

issued an imperial diploma approving the foundation of Gemblours and granting it various privileges. Guibert appointed his friend Eriuin first Abbot of Gemblours, while he himself became a monk at the monastery of Gorze near Metz. Twice he returned to the Gemblours; once in 954, when the Hungarians threatened to pillage the monastery, on which occa- sion he not only preserved it from injury, but also con- verted some Hungarians to the true Faith; and a second time in 957, when his brother-in-law Heribrand of Mawolt had seized the revenues of the monastery. He persuaded Heribrand to leave the possessions of the monastery unmolested in the future. On 23 May, 962, St. Guibert died at Gorze and his remains were brought to Gemblours. When monastic discipline was well established at Gemblours, Eriuin attempted, at the suggestion of Count Regnier of Hainaut, to re- form the monastery of Lobbes in 955. But on the night of 20 October, 958, three of the monks of Lobbes, who hated reform, assaulted Eriuin in his cell, dragged him outside of the monaster}', and inflicted on him serious bodily injuries. Eriuin died at Gemblours on 10 August, 986, after Pope Benedict VII had granted his monastery exemption and papal protection.

During the short reign of his successor Heriward (987-990), the monks voluntarily relinquished their right of exemption in favour of Bishop Notger of Li^ge, who was friendly disposed towards the monastery. Heriward was succeeded by Eriuin II (990-1012), under whose weak administration monastic discipline greatly relaxed. His successor Olbert (1012-1048), a pious and learned abbot, restored discipline, built a new abbey church in 1022, organized a rich library, and by encouraging sacred and profane learning gave the first impulse to the subsequent flourishing con- dition of Gemblours. During the period of its greatest intellectual activity Gemblours was ruled over by Mysach (1048-1071); Thietmar (1071-1092); Lie- thard (1092-1115), and Anselm (1115-1136). Under Thietmar flourished the famous chronicler Sigebert (1030-1112), who in a neat Latin style wrote a chron- icle of the world from 381-1 1 1 1, a history of the Abbots of Gemblours, and other historical works of great value. His chronicle was continued by Abbot Anselm till 1 136, and his history of the Abbots of Gemblours by the monk Gottschalk, a disciple of Sigebert. The learned Prior Guerin, who was a famous teacher at the school of Gemblours, was a contemporary of Sigebert. In 1157 and again in 1185 the monastery was destroyed by fire, and, though rebuilt, it began from this period to decline in importance. In 1505, under Abbot Arnold II of Solbrecg (1501-1511), it became affiliated with the Bursfeld Union (see Bursfeld, Abbey of). It was pillaged by the Calvinists in 1598, and was partly destroyed by fire in 1678 and again in 1712. It was just beginning to recover from these heavy mis- fortunes when in 1793 the Government suppressed it. The buildings are now used for a state agricultural college.

TousSAlNT. Histoire de Vabhaye de Gembloux (Namur, 1884); Berliere, Monaslicon Beige (Bruges, 1890), I, 15-26; Idem in Revue Benedictine (Maredsous, 18S7), IV, 303-315; Gallia Chris- tiana, II, 554-569; Sigebert-Gottschalk, Gesta Abbalum Gemblacensium (till 1136), in P. L.. CLX. 591-658; Mabillon, Vita S. Guiberti in Acta SS. O.S.B., seec. V, 299-314; Idem, Vita Olberli in Acta SS. O.S.B., SffiO. VI, 596-606.

Michael Ott. Gemistos of Plethon. See Plethon.

Genealogy (in the Bible). — The word genealogy occurs only twice in the New Testament; I Tim.,i,4, and Tit., ill, 9. In these passages commentators ex- plain the word as referring to the Gentile theogonies, or to the Essene generation of angels, or to the emana- tion of spirits and seons as conceived by the Gnostics, or to the genealogies of Jesus Christ, or finally to the genealogies of the Old Testament construed into a source of an occult doctrine. Some even appeal to Philo in order to refer St. Paul's expression to the

various stories and fables told about Moses and the Patriarchs. In the Old Testament the term 7£>'faXo7to occurs only in a few manuscripts of the Septuagint, in I Par., iv, 33; v, 7, 17; ix, 22; I Esd., viii, 1, where the commonly received text reads KaTa\oyi.irij.6^ or xora- Xox'ffMiis. In the present article, therefore, we shall not dwell upon the term genealogy, but consider the parts, usually genealogical lists, introduced by the phrase "these are the generations" or "this is the book of the generation" ; we shall investigate the mean- ing of the introductory phrase, enumerate the princi- pal genealogical lists, indicate their sources, draw atteiition to their importance, and point out their deficiencies. Special genealogical lists, for instance those of Christ, found in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, must be studied separately.

I. Introductory Phra.se. — The introductory for- mula, "these are the generations" or "this is the book of the generation", is the heading to the ten parts of the Book of Genesis. It occurs also in Num., iii, 1 ; Ruth, iv, 18; I Par., i, 29. Similar expressions are found frequently, especial]}' in the Books of Parah- pomenon. ^\"hat is their meaning? They do not denote any genealogy or genealogical table in our sense of these words. There can be no question of poster- ity in Gen., ii, 4: "these are the generations of the heaven and the earth", as tdledhuth, the Hebrew equi- valent of " generations", seems to imply. In Gen., vi, 9, the introductory formula is followed by the history of the Flood ; hence it cannot point forward to a genea- logical table. If we keep in mind, on the other hand, that primitive history was onl}- genealogy adorned with various anecdotes and stories of incidents, we be- gin to realize that the genealogical portions of the Book of Genesis are abbreviated and rudimentary biographies. The proper meaning of our introductory formula is, therefore, simply, "this is the history".

II. Genealogical Lists. — The peculiar character of primitive history accounts for the numerous genea- logical lists found in the books of the Old Testament. AVe shall enumerate only the principal ones: Gen., v, 1-31, gives the Patriarchs from Adam to Noe; Gen.,x, 1-32, the ethnography of the sons of Noe; Gen., xi, 10-26, the Patriarchs from Sem to Abraham; Gen., xi, 27-32, the posterity of Thare; Gen., x.xii, 20-24, the posterity of Nachor; Gen., xxv, 1-4, the descend- ants of Abraham by Cetura; Gen., xxv, 12-18, the posterity of Ismael; Gen., xxv, 23-29, the sons of Jacob; Gen., xxxvi, 1-43, the posterity of Esau and the princes of Edom; Gen., xlvi, 8-27, the family of Jacob going into Egypt; Num., iii, 14-39, the list of the Levites; Num., xxvi, 1-51, the heads of the tribes; Ruth, iv, 18-22, the genealogy of David; I Esd., vii, 1-5, the genealogy of Esdras ; ll Esd., xi-xii, the geneal- ogy of a number of persons. I Par., i-ix, is replete with genealogical lists which either repeat, or abbre- viate, or again develop the foregoing genealogies, add- ing at times other documents of an unknown origin. For instance, there is a brief genealogy of Benjamin in I Par., vii, 6-12, a longer one in I Par., viii, 1-40; similarly a brief genealog}- of Juda in I Par., iv, 1-23, a more complete one in I Par., ii, 3; iii, 24. The in- spired historian makes no effort to harmonize these striking differences, but seems to be only careful to reproduce his sources.

In order to appreciate the foregoing lists properly, four of their peculiarities must be kept in mind: (1) In the primitive languages each word had a certain meaning. Foreign names had to be translated or replaced by other names. As the Semitic language developed out of the primitive, the proper names too underwent a similar change, so as to assume a Semitic, and at times even a Hebrew, colouring. This does not destroy the historical character of the men known under these changed appellations; the martyr St. Adauctus does not become a mere fiction simply be- cause his real name is unknown. Lenormant has left