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 GERSON BEN JUDAH of the university of Paris. Charles VI. had just fallen into insanity, and while divisions menaced the state, the church was rent by a schism which produced two and afterward three pre- tenders to the pontificate. Gerson exerted himself for the reform of morals and the ban- ishment of scholasticism from the university, combated astrology, and resisted the invasion of the pantheistic doctrines which then had their seat in Brabant. When the duke of Or- leans was assassinated by the duke of Burgundy in 1407, Gerson denounced the murderer and delivered the funeral oration of his victim. Pursued by John the Fearless, he saw his house pillaged, and was obliged to conceal himself in the vaults of Notre Dame. He was present in the council of Constance as theologian of the bishop of Paris ; and, as the council had been convened for the purpose of electing a pope whom all Christendom would acknowledge, he urged the deposition of the two pretenders to the papacy, John XXIII. and Benedict XIII., in a treatise De Auferibilitate Papce. He wished to prove that there are circumstances in which the assembled bishops of the whole church can compel pretenders to the papal dig- nity to renounce their claim, and depose them if they refuse to abdicate. The schism was at length ended, but Gerson's efforts to check the abuses which reigned in the church were inef- fectual ; and as civil dissensions did not permit his return to France, he retired to the moun- tains of Bavaria, where he wrote De Consola- tione Theologies, and the Monotessaron, a har- mony of the four Gospels. He returned to his country after a voluntary exile of two years, and found an asylum in a convent. Though one of the most active men of his age, he was also the most mystical of its thinkers. He was the first who sought to give to mysticism the character of a science. He recognized in the soul two classes of faculties : the cognitive or intellectual, whose highest act is simple intui- tion of divine things ; and the affective facul- ties, whose highest act is ecstatic delight in God. To substitute this mystical philosophy for scholasticism was the aim of his writings. As many manuscripts of the "Imitation of Jesus Christ" bear the name of Gersen, that work is often ascribed to Gerson. (See KEMPIS, THOMAS A.) See Vie de Gerson (Paris, 1832) ; C. Schmidt ; Essai sur Jean Gerson (Strasburg, 1839) ; and R. Thomassy, Jean Gerson (Paris, 1843). The best edition of Gerson^s works is that of Dupin (5 vols. fol., Antwerp, 1706). GERSON BEN JUDAH, a rabbi of France, dis- tinguished by the appellations Rabbenu (our master), Hazzaken (the old man), and Meor naggolah (light of the exiled), born in Germany about 960, died about 1030. He wrote a com- mentary on the Talmud, of which only slight fragments remain, and is celebrated for the in- troduction of various reforms among the Euro- pean Jews, including the abolition of polygamy and repudiation, known under the name of " institutions (gezeroth) of Rabbenu Gerson. 1 ' GERVINUS 777 GERSTACKER, Friedrich, a German traveller and novelist, born in Hamburg in May, 1816, died in Vienna, May 31, 1872. After a brief term in a commercial school he was appren- ticed^to a grocer in Cassel ; but becoming dis- satisfied, he ran away on foot to Bremen, and in the spring of 1837 engaged as cabin boy on board a vessel bound for New York. He led a wandering and adventurous life in the Uni- ted States for several years, a part of which was spent as a hunter and trapper among the savages of the Indian territory. In 1842 he bought a hotel at Point Coupee, Louisiana; but this having proved a bad speculation, he returned in 1843 to Germany and engaged in literary pursuits, publishing Streifund Jagd- zuge durch die Vereinigten Staaten Norda- merikas (1844) ; Die Regulator en in Arkansas (1846); MississippiUlder (1847); Die Flusspi- raten des Mississippi (1848); Amerikanische Wald- und Strombilder (1849); and several minor works and translations. In March, 1849, he set out on a journey around the world, du- ring which he visited South America, Califor- nia, the Hawaiian islands, Australia, and Java, and returned to Germany in 1852, making his residence at Leipsic. An account of this trip was published under the title of Rei- sen (5 vols., 1853-'4). During the succeeding four years he published a number of novels. In 1860 he made an extensive tour through South America, visiting Ecuador, Peru, Chili, Uruguay, and Brazil, and returned home the following year. In 1862 he accompanied Duke Ernest of Gotha to Upper Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia, and in 1863 he visited the Central American states. He set out in 1867 on an- other journey around the world, visiting first the United States, Mexico, and South America. He went thence to the Pacific isles, and after an extended tour returned to Europe, and pub- lished a number of novels illustrative of the countries through which he had passed. Some of his later works are : Neue Reisen durch die Vereinigten Staaten, Mexico, Ecuador, West- indien und Venezuela (1868) ; Die Missionare (1868); Die Blauen und die Gelben (1870); Buntes Treiben (1870); In Mexico (1871); Hamburger NachricJiten (1871) ; Herrn Mahl- Jiuber's Reisealenteuer (1871). Several of his works have been translated into English. GERVINUS, Georg Gottfried, a German histo- rian and statesman, born in Darmstadt, May 20, 1805, died in Heidelberg, March 18, 1871. He was educated at the university of Heidelberg, afterward spent several years in Italy, and on his return to Heidelberg in 1835 was appointed extraordinary professor. He had already pub- lished Geschichte der Angelsachsen im Ueber- Uick (1830), and HistoriscJie Schriften (1833), and in 1836 he was appointed professor of history and literature at Gottingen. He had now begun Die Geschichte der poetiscJien Na- tionalliteratur der Deutschen (1835-'8), which was supplemented by the Neuere Geschichte, &c. (1840-'42). In the latest edition (5 vols.,