archbishop and grand inquisitor, and his book had been publicly burned before the cathedral of Notre Dame. Gerson wished a council to confirm this sentence. His literary labours were as untiring as ever. He maintained in a series of tracts that a general council could depose a pope; he drew up indictments against the reigning pontiffs, reiterated the charges against Jean Petit, and exposed the sin of schism—in short, he did all he could to direct the public mind towards the evils in the church and the way to heal them. His efforts were powerfully seconded by the emperor Sigismund, and the result was the council of Constance (see Constance, Council of). Gerson’s influence at the council was supreme up to the election of a new pope. It was he who dictated the form of submission and cession made by John XXIII., and directed the process against Huss. Many of Gerson’s biographers have found it difficult to reconcile his proceedings against Huss with his own opinions upon the supremacy of the pope; but the difficulty has arisen partly from misunderstanding Gerson’s position, partly from supposing him to be the author of a famous tract—De modis uniendi ac reformandi Ecclesiam in concilio universali. All Gerson’s high-sounding phrases about the supremacy of a council were meant to apply to some time of emergency. He was essentially a trimmer, and can scarcely be called a reformer, and he hated Huss with all the hatred the trimmer has of the reformer. The three bold treatises, De necessitate reformationis Ecclesiae, De modis uniendi ac reformandi Ecclesiam, and De difficultate reformationis in concilio universali, long ascribed to Gerson, were proved by Schwab in his Johannes Gerson not to be his work, and have since been ascribed to Abbot Andreas of Randuf, and with more reason to Dietrich of Nieheim (see Niem, Dietrich of).
The council of Constance, which revealed the eminence of Gerson, became in the end the cause of his downfall. He was the prosecutor in the case of Jean Petit, and the council, overawed by the duke of Burgundy, would not affirm the censure of the university and archbishop of Paris. Petit’s justification of murder was declared to be only a moral and philosophical opinion, not of faith. The utmost length the council would go was to condemn one proposition, and even this censure was annulled by the new pope, Martin V., on a formal pretext. Gerson dared not return to France, where, in the disturbed state of the kingdom, the duke of Burgundy was in power. He lay hid for a time at Constance and then at Rattenberg in Tirol, where he wrote his famous book De consolatione theologiae. On returning to France he went to Lyons, where his brother was prior of the Celestines. It is said that he taught a school of boys and girls in Lyons, and that the only fee he exacted was to make the children promise to repeat the prayer, “Lord, have mercy on thy poor servant Gerson.” His later years were spent in writing books of mystical devotion and hymns. He died at Lyons on the 12th of July 1429. Tradition declares that during his sojourn there he translated or adapted from the Latin a work upon eternal consolation, which afterwards became very famous under the title of The Imitation of Christ, and was attributed to Thomas à Kempis. It has, however, been proved beyond a doubt that the famous Imitatio Christi was really written by Thomas, and not by John Gerson or the abbot Gerson.
The literature on Gerson is very abundant. See Dupin, Gersoniana, including Vita Gersoni, prefixed to the edition of Gerson’s works in 5 vols. fol., from which quotations have here been made; Charles Schmidt, Essai sur Jean Gerson, chancelier de l’Université de Paris (Strassburg, 1839); J. B. Schwab, Johannes Gerson (Würzburg, 1859); H. Jadart, Jean Gerson, son origine, son village natal et sa familie (Reims, 1882). On the relations between Gerson and D’Ailly see Paul Tschackert, Peter von Ailli (Gotha, 1877). On Gerson’s public life see also histories of the councils of Pisa and Constance, especially Herm. v. der Hardt, Con. Constantiensis libri iv. (1695–1699). The best editions of his works are those of Paris (3 vols., 1606) and Antwerp (5 vols., 1706). See also Ulysse Chevalier, Répertoire des sources hist. Bio-bibliographie (Paris, 1905, &c.), s.v. “Gerson.” (T. M. L.; X.)
GERSONIDES, or Ben Gerson (Gershon), LEVI, known also
as Ralbag (1288–1344), Jewish philosopher and commentator,
was born at Bagnols in Languedoc, probably in 1288. As in the
case of the other medieval Jewish philosophers little is known
of his life. His family had been distinguished for piety and
exegetical skill, but though he was known in the Jewish community
by commentaries on certain books of the Bible, he never
seems to have accepted any rabbinical post. Possibly the
freedom of his opinions may have put obstacles in the way of his
preferment. He is known to have been at Avignon and Orange
during his life, and is believed to have died in 1344, though
Zacuto asserts that he died at Perpignan in 1370. Part of his
writings consist of commentaries on the portions of Aristotle
then known, or rather of commentaries on the commentaries of
Averroes. Some of these are printed in the early Latin editions
of Aristotle’s works. His most important treatise, that by which
he has a place in the history of philosophy, is entitled Milḥamoth
’Adonai (The Wars of God), and occupied twelve years in composition
(1317–1329). A portion of it, containing an elaborate
survey of astronomy as known to the Arabs, was translated into
Latin in 1342 at the request of Clement VI. The Milḥamoth
is throughout modelled after the plan of the great work of Jewish
philosophy, the Moreh Nebuhīm of Moses Maimonides, and
may be regarded as an elaborate criticism from the more philosophical
point of view (mainly Averroistic) of the syncretism
of Aristotelianism and Jewish orthodoxy as presented in that
work. The six books pass in review (1) the doctrine of the soul,
in which Gersonides defends the theory of impersonal reason as
mediating between God and man, and explains the formation of
the higher reason (or acquired intellect, as it was called) in
humanity,—his view being thoroughly realist and resembling
that of Avicebron; (2) prophecy; (3) and (4) God’s knowledge
of facts and providence, in which is advanced the curious theory
that God does not know individual facts, and that, while there is
general providence for all, special providence only extends to
those whose reason has been enlightened; (5) celestial substances, treating of the strange spiritual hierarchy which the Jewish philosophers of the middle ages accepted from the Neoplatonists and the pseudo-Dionysius, and also giving, along with astronomical details, much of astrological theory; (6) creation and miracles, in respect to which Gerson deviates widely from the position of Maimonides. Gersonides was also the author of a commentary on the Pentateuch and other exegetical and scientific works.
A careful analysis of the Milḥamoth is given in Rabbi Isidore Weil’s Philosophie religieuse de Lévi-Ben-Gerson (Paris, 1868). See also Munk, Mélanges de phil. juive et arabe; and Joel, Religionsphilosophie d. L. Ben-Gerson (1862). The Milḥamoth was published in 1560 at Riva di Trento, and has been published at Leipzig, 1866. (I. A.)
GERSOPPA, FALLS OF, a cataract on the Sharavati river in
the North Kanara district of Bombay. The falls are considered
the finest in India. The river descends in four separate cascades
called the Raja or Horseshoe, the Roarer, the Rocket and the
Dame Blanche. The cliff over which the river plunges is 830 ft.
high, and the pool at the base of the Raja Fall is 132 ft. deep.
The falls are reached by boat from Honavar, or by road from
Gersoppa village, 18 m. distant. Near the village are extensive
ruins (the finest of which is a cruciform temple) of Nagarbastikere,
the capital of the Jain chiefs of Gersoppa. Their family was
established in power in 1409 by the Vijayanagar kings, but
subsequently became practically independent. The chieftaincy
was several times held by women, and on the death of the last
queen (1608) it collapsed, having been attacked by the chief of
Bednur. Among the Portuguese the district was celebrated
for its pepper, and they called its queen “Regina da pimenta”
(queen of pepper).
GERSTÄCKER, FRIEDRICH (1816–1872), German novelist
and writer of travels, was born at Hamburg on the 10th of May
1816, the son of Friedrich Gerstäcker (1790–1825), a celebrated
opera singer. After being apprenticed to a commercial house
he learnt farming in Saxony. In 1837, however, having imbibed
from Robinson Crusoe a taste for adventure, he went to America
and wandered over a large part of the United States, supporting
himself by whatever work came to hand. In 1843 he returned
to Germany, to find himself, to his great surprise, famous as an
author. His mother had shown his diary, which he regularly
