Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/44

* GOMARA. 24 wards was secretary and chaplain to Ferdinand Cortes. In this capacity he may have gone with him to America, but it is not probable. He wrote one of the first histories of America, which, how- ever, is not reliable. The title of the work is Historia general de las litdias con la conquista lie Mexico II lie la Xiwca Espiii'ia (1552-53). The second part of this work described Mexico, and was reprinted as a separate volume, Crimea de la yiiera Espafiii, eon la conquista de Mexico. . . (1554). GO'MAKUS, Francis (15G3-1641). The most strenuous opponent of Anninius. He was born at Bruges, January 30, 1563, studied at Neustadt, Heidelberg, Oxford, and Cambridge, where he received the degree of B.D. in 1584. He was pastor of the Reformed Church at Frankfort from 1587 till 1594, when he became professor of theology at Lej'den. Here he signalized him- self by his vehement opposition to the views of Arminius, who became his colleague in 1603. In the disputation at The Hague in 1608 his zeal was very conspicuous ; and at the Synod of Dort (161819) he was mainly instrumental in secur- ing the expulsion of the Arminians from the Re- formed Church. Gomarus resigned his professor- ship after the death of Arminius (1609). He was i)rofessor at Saumur, 1614-18, and at Gro- ningen from 1618 till his death, January 11, 1641. Though prejudiced, even bigoted, and more Calvinistic than Calvin himself, nevertheless Gomarus was a man of learning, and not the contentious personage he is sometimes represent- ed. His works were published at Amsterdam after his death (1645). Those who sided with Gomarus in the Arminian controversy are often called, from his name, 'Gomarists.' See Ar- minius, Jacobus; Abminianism; Dort, Synod OF. GOMBERVrLLE, goN'bur'vel', I^Urin Le Roy, Seigneur de (160-74). A French novelist of considerable imaginative originality, one of the first to make the novel a vehicle of exotic and geographic description and of historic informa- tion. He was born in Paris and was a wealthy nobleman, a cherished member of the Precieux blue-stocking circle, to whose vocabulary he con- tributed some gems, as may be seen from So- maise's Dictionnaire des Prccieuses. While still a youth he wrote Carithde (1621), whose heroine furnished the type for Sorel's burlesque Dulcinea in the Rcrr/er exfravnfiant. Eleven years later Gomberville published the first draught of Polex- andre (1632), which he extended in 1634 by the injection of a story of Mexican adventure! and ' Binee this piqued curiosity, he again greatly ex- tended the story in 1637. Meantime Goniber- ville hud aided in foiniding the Academy. A few years later he fell under the influence of Port- Royal, and. in jwnitential regret for having amused a worldly generation, he published Young Alcidiane (1651). He was a facile polygraph, but Polexandre, which in its final shape contains 4409 closely printed pages, is his only signifi- cant work. It rejuvenated the interest in the romance of chivalry by transporting it to the New World in a generation whose imagination was intoxicated by strange voyages and un- dreamed-of eonqiiests. The story is almost wan- tonly inartistic, but Gomberville is the first im- portant pedagogue of fiction, bent on remolding the 'perfect lives' of the old romances into a GOMES. Diodel for the gentlemen of the seventeenth cen- tury. He died in Paris, June 14, 1674. Consult Korling, ilcsvhiehle des franzosischen Romans im XVll. Jahrhundert, vol. i., ch. 6 (2d ed., Oppeln, 1891). GOM'BO. See Hibiscus. GOMBROON'. See Benuek Abbas. GOMEL, gO'mely'. A district town of the Rus- sian Province of Mohilov, situated on a small aflluent of the Dnieper, about 113 miles south- east of Mohilev. It lies on two railway lines, and has a number of sugar-refineries. The popu- lation, to a large extent Jewish, was 36,846 in 1897. GO'MER. The form of powder-chamljer gen- erally used in smooth-bore guns. It was inthe form of the frustum of a cone with «i hemi- spherical end, the base of the cone joining the cylinder of the bore. The name is derived from that of its inventor. GOMER. According to Gen. x. 2-3, the eldest son of Japlieth (cf. Ezek. xxxviii. 6). Tiie name corresponds to the Gimirrai frequently mentioned in the inscriptions of Assyrian kings, and whose seat was in Cappadocia in the seventh century B.C. It is likely that at an earlier period they were settled north of the Euxine Sea. By the help of the Assyrian inscriptions, the identity of Gomer with the Cimnierii of classical writers be- comes certain. In company with the iledes and Minni the Gimirrai attacked the Assyrian fron- tier, but Esarhaddon defeated them at Khubush- na in Cilicia. and drove them oflT. They then attacked the EUipi, and were more successful. Lydia also was conquered by them, but they were finally driven out. Their hold on Cappado- cia ij still to be seen in the Armenian designa- tion of the district as Gamir, Consult Rogers, Hisfori/ of Bahiilonia and Assyria, vol. ii. (New York. 1901), GOMERA, go-ma'ra. One of the Canary Is- lands, situated 17 miles west of TenerifTe, in about latitude 28° 6' N., and longitude 17° 8' W. Its area is nearly 145 tquare miles. It is of volcanic origin, like the whole archi- pelago. The coasts are little indented and pre- sent no good harbors. It is elevated in the in- terior to the extent of nearly 4000 feet, and has extensive forests of bay trees and palms. The chief industry is cattle-raising, though some silk and potatoes are exported. Population, in 1S87. 14.140. The chief town, San Sebastian de Gomera, situated on the eastern coast, has a population of 2861, GOMES, gii'mesh, Antonio Carlos (1839-96). A Brazilian composer, born in Campinas. When still very young he went to Milan, and studied in the conservatory there under Lauro Rossi. His first opera, produced in Rio de .Janeiro (1861), was A noiie do castello, and was followed (1867) by .Sip sa minga, given in Milan with extraordi- nar' success. His other operas were of uneven merit, and include: Nella Luna (1868) : Giiarany (1870): f<alvator Rosa (1874); Maria Tudor (1877) ; Lo fSchiavo (1889). In 1876 he wrote a h^^nn, "II saluto del Bresile," for the Phila- delphia Exposition, and in 1892 the cantata "Colombo." for the Columbian Exposition. He was appointed director of the Parfl Conservatory in 1895, but died soon after accepting the posi- tion.