Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/712

 GONET

634

GONNELIEU

Anfange des karolingischen Houses (Berlin, 1866), 185-191; DoERiNG, Beitrage zur ottesten Geschichte des Bislhums Metz (Innsbruck, 1887). St. Gondulphes of Tongres. — Vitce Gon- dulphiinActaSS.,3u\y,lV, 163 sqq.; Mm. Germ. Hist., Script.. XIII, 290; XXV, 2S; Ghesquiehe, Acta SS. Belgii. II, 250 sqq.: Biogra-phie Nationale de Bdgique, s. v.; Friedrich, Drei unedirte Concitien aus der Merovingerzeit, 1(5-51 j Idem, Kirchen- gesch. Deutschlands, 11, 320; Monchamp, Le distique de I'eglise Saint-Serrai-i a Maestricht: Excitus hac area Monulphus aquisque dicato II Gondulphus tempo se reddit uterque ierarchia in Bulletin de la cla.*ise des Lettres de VAcademie royale de Bel- gique, 1900. 771-96; Molanus, Natales sanctorum Belgii. 160: Van der Essen, Etude critique et litteraire sur les Vitce des

saints merovingiens de Vancienne Belgique (Louvain, 1907), 167- 8. St Gondulphus of Berry. — .4c(aSS.,June,III,379; His- toire litteraire de la France, VI, 520-1. (Consult also Migne, Diet, hagiographique (Paris, 1850), s. w. Gondotf, Gondolphe, Gondon,

L. Van der Essen.

Gonet, Jean Baptiste, theologian; b. about 1616 at Beziens, in the province of Languedoc; d. there 24 Jan., 1681. From hi.s early boyhood he was devout and fond of study. He received his prunary education in his native place, and there at the age of seventeen entered the Order of St. Dominic. After his religious profession he was sent to the University of Bordeaux, where with unusual ability he devoted himself to the study of philosophy and theology, winning all honours in the customary examinations before advancement. Having received the doctorate, he was appointed to the chair of scholastic theology in tlie imiversity, in which capacity he jiroved himself a brilliant theologian and an exceptionally gifted teacher. In 1671 he was elected provincial of his province; on the expiration of his term of office, he resumed the professorship of theology, holding it till 1678, when ill-health obliged him to return to his native place. As a theologian and academic disputant Gonet ranks among the most prominent figures of his time. An ardent defender and exponent of the teaching of St. Thomas and an illustrious representative of Neo-Thomism, he set forth the traditional teaching of his school with astonish- ing clearness and skill, if with some bitterness against the representatives of different views. He lived at a time when theological discussion was rife, when men, weary of treading beaten paths, had set themselves to constructing systems of their own. His zeal, how- ever, for the integrity of Thomistic teaching, and his bitter aversion from doctrinal novelty sometimes carried him beyond the teaching of his master, and led him to adopt opinions on certain questions of theology, especially those dealing with predestination and reprobation, which were rejected by many learned theologians of his own school. In 1669 he published a work on the morality of human acts, the purpose of which was to defend the Thomistic doctrine at once against what he calls the laxities of the modern casu- ists, and the rigorism of the Jansenists. In this treatise he defends the probabiliorism of his school, and in the heat of the controversy is unsparing in his denunciations of the doctrine of probabilism. His principal work is the "Clypeus theologiae thomistica? contra novos ejus impugnatores" (16 vols, Bordeaux, 1659-69). From 1669 to 1681 no less than nine edi- tions of this work appeared; the latest is that of Paris, 1875. Shortly before his death he published his " Manuale thomistarum", which is an abridgment of his larger work.

QuETiF AND EcHARD, Scriptores O. Pr., II, 693; Hurter, Nomenclator; Schwane, Dogmengesch. der neueren zeit (Frei- burg im Br.. 1890), 28, 199, 217, 240, 314, 377, 379.

Joseph Schroeder.

Gong. See Altar, sub-title Altar-Bell.

Gonnelieu, Jkrome de, theologian, ascetical writer, and preacher, b. at Soissons, 8 Sept., 1640; d. at Paris, 28 Feb., 1715. At the age of seventeen he entered the Society of Jesus (4 Oct., 1657). Till the year 1674, when he pronounced his final vows, his ser- vices were rc<|uisitioiicd in various capacities, his work as a teacher being particularly efficient and valuable. From this date his abilities were long and actively di-

rected towards the ministry of the pulpit, and many, attracted by the piety and learning of his discourse, looked to him as spiritual consoler and adviser. He attained to considerable repute as a sacred orator, the qualifications which he possessed in this way being altogether exceptional and peculiar; he had, particu- larly, in a marked degree, the faculty of conveying spiritual thoughts of the loftiest and noblest import in a form that was readily assimilable by the people. His duties, of whatever order, were discharged with thoroughness and a laudable spirit of self-sacrifice; the zeal and earnestness which he always displayed in the cause of religion entitle Gonnelieu to a very high place among the evangelical workers of that time who la- boured most to promote the spiritual advancement of men. Towards the latter end of his life he gave himself up almost exclusively to literary activity; and the re- nown which he acquired in this department was no less deserved than the celebrity with which his preach- ing was attended. The following is a list of his works: "Exercise de la vie spirituelle " (Paris, 1701); "De la Presence de Dieu qui renferme tons les principes de la vie int^rieure" (Paris, 170.3, 1709; Marseilles, 1827); "Methode de bien prier" (Paris, 1710, 1769); " Pra- tique de la vieinterieure",etc. (Paris, 1710); "Instruc- tion sur la Confession et la Communion" (Paris, 1710; printed with preceding work in Paris edition of 1713) ; "Sermon de Notre Seigneiu' a ses apotres apres la Cene, avee des reflexions" (Paris, 1712); "Nouvelle retraite de huit jours a I'usage des personnes du monde et du cloitre" (Paris, 1736).

To the above almost all the bibliographies add an- other work, of which the full title is " LTniitation de Jesus-Christ, Traduction nouvelle: Avec une Pratique, et une Priere a la fin de chaque Chapitre " (Par le R. P. de Gonnelieu, de la Compagnie de J^sus, Paris and Nancy, 1712) ; but the great majority of the bibliogra- phies, too, if apparently somewhat arbitrarily, deny that the Traduction (translation), as distinct from the secoiirs (helps) at the end of each chapter, is by de Gonnelieu. The opinion of the negative critics seems to be based mainly on the statement of Calmet (op. cit. below) that "the translation is by Jean-Baptiste Cusson [printer at Nancy], and the rest by P. Gonne- lieu". The most approved form of this theory is that which attributes the rendering, as made originally, to Jean Cusson, printer at Paris and clerk to the parha- ment, who, in his version published in 1673, had availed himself largely of the celebrated translation by Sacy. Jean-Baptiste Cusson, a man of culture and fine literary sense, after thoroughly revising and im- proving his father's work, had issued the amended version at Nancy in 1712. Gence, author of a notice on the principal French translations of the " Imitation " (Journal des cures, Sept., 1810), substantially main- tained this view ; so, also, Barbier and Brunet (op. cit. below). The "Journal des Sgavans" (Aug., 1713), on the other hand, in a review written within one year after the publication of the work, whilst praising the zeal and piety of the translator, says expressly that the version is by P. Gonnelieu; and adds that "Sieur Cusson (one time printer to the Journal) has enriched this first edition by many copper-plates". The testi- mony of the "M&noires de Trevoux" (see below) for August, 1713, is almost identical with the preceding; and in the same notice it is stated that "the name of P. de Gonnelieu was a ' pr^iug^ infaillible ' in favour of the excellence of the work . Finally, if it be argued, with those who deny the Gonnelieu authorship of the rendering, that the title of the "Traduction" is mis- leading, is it not more natural to assume that the Abbot of Senones, in his " Histoire des hommes illus- tres", written almost fifty years after the appearance of the version, was deceived by the ambiguity, than to assert such error on the part of those who were on termsof intimate relationship with Cusson, the printer, and Gonnelieu, the presumptive author?