hands of Charles V., and in the great wars of the 16th century suffered all the miseries of siege and military occupation. From 1581 onwards, Groningen still held by the Spaniards, was constantly at war with the “Ommelanden” which had declared against the king of Spain. This feud continued, in spite of the capture of the city in 1594 by Maurice of Nassau, and of a decree of the States in 1597 which was intended to set them at rest. In 1672 the town was besieged by the bishop of Münster, but it was successfully defended, and in 1698 its fortifications were improved under Coehoorn’s direction. The French Republicans planted their tree of liberty in the Great Market on the 14th of February 1795, and they continued in authority till the 16th of November 1814. The fortifications of the city were doomed to destruction by the law of the 18th of April 1874.
See C. Hegel, Städte und Gilden (Leipzig, 1891); Stokvis, Manuel d’histoire, iii. 496 (Leiden, 1890–1893); also s.v. in Chevalier, Répertoire des sources hist. du moyen âge (Topo-bibliographie).
GRONLUND, LAURENCE (1846–1899), American socialist, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the 13th of July 1846. He graduated from the university of Copenhagen in 1865, began the study of law, removed to the United States in 1867, taught German in Milwaukee, was admitted to the bar in 1869, and practised in Chicago. He became a writer and lecturer on socialism and was closely connected with the work of the Socialist Labor party from 1874 to 1884, then devoted himself almost exclusively to lecturing until his appointment to a post in the bureau of labour statistics. He again returned to the lecture field, and was an editorial writer for the New York and Chicago American from 1898 until his death in New York City on the 15th of October 1899. His principal works are: The Coming Revolution (1880); The Co-operative Commonwealth in its Outlines, An Exposition of Modern Socialism (1884); Ça Ira, or Danton in the French Revolution (1888), a rehabilitation of Danton; Our Destiny, The Influence of Socialism on Morals and Religion (1890); and The New Economy (1898).
GRONOVIUS (the latinized form of Gronov), JOHANN FRIEDRICH (1611–1671), German classical scholar and critic, was born at Hamburg on the 8th of September 1611. Having studied at several universities, he travelled in England, France and Italy. In 1643 he was appointed professor of rhetoric and history at Deventer, and in 1658 to the Greek chair at Leiden, where he died on the 28th of December 1671. (See also Fabretti, Raphael.) Besides editing, with notes, Statius, Plautus, Livy, Tacitus, Aulus Gellius and Seneca’s tragedies, Gronovius was the author, amongst numerous other works, of Commentarius de sestertiis (1643) and of an edition of Hugo Grotius’ De jure belli et pacis (1660). His Observationes contain a number of brilliant emendations. His son, Jakob Gronovius (1645–1716), is chiefly known as the editor of the Thesaurus antiquitatum Graecarum (1697–1702, in 13 volumes).
See J. E. Sandys, Hist. of Class. Schol. ii. (1908); F. A. Eckstein in Ersch and Gruber’s Allgemeine Encyklopädie.
GROOM, in modern usage a male servant attached to the stables, whose duties are to attend to the cleaning, feeding, currying and care generally of horses. The earliest meaning of the word appears to be that of a boy, and in 16th and 17th century literature it frequently occurs, in pastorals, for a shepherd lover. Later it is used for any male attendant, and thus survives in the name for several officials in the royal household, such as the grooms-in-waiting, and the grooms of the great chamber. The groom-porter, whose office was abolished by George III., saw to the preparation of the sovereign’s apartment, and, during the 16th and 17th centuries, provided cards and dice for playing, and was the authority to whom were submitted all questions of gaming within the court. The origin of the word is obscure. The O. Fr. gromet, shop boy, is taken by French etymologists to be derived from the English. From the application of this word to a wine-taster in a wine merchant’s shop, is derived gourmet, an epicure. According to the New English Dictionary, though there are no instances of groom in other Teutonic languages, the word may be ultimately connected with the root of “to grow.” In “bridegroom,” a newly married man, “grom” in the 16th century took the place of an older gome, a common old Teutonic word meaning “man,” and connected with the Latin homo. The Old English word was brydguma, later bridegome. The word survives in the German Bräutigam.
GROOT, GERHARD (1340–1384), otherwise Gerrit or Geert Groet, in Latin Gerardus Magnus, a preacher and founder of the society of Brothers of Common Life (q.v.), was born in 1340 at Deventer in the diocese of Utrecht, where his father held a good civic position. He went to the university of Paris when only fifteen. Here he studied scholastic philosophy and theology under a pupil of Occam’s, from whom he imbibed the nominalist conception of philosophy; in addition he studied canon law, medicine, astronomy and even magic, and apparently some Hebrew. After a brilliant course he graduated in 1358, and possibly became master in 1363. He pursued his studies still further in Cologne, and perhaps in Prague. In 1366 he visited the papal court at Avignon. About this time he was appointed to a canonry in Utrecht and to another in Aix-la-Chapelle, and the life of the brilliant young scholar was rapidly becoming luxurious, secular and selfish, when a great spiritual change passed over him which resulted in a final renunciation of every worldly enjoyment. This conversion, which took place In 1374, appears to have been due partly to the effects of a dangerous illness and partly to the influence of Henry de Calcar, the learned and pious prior of the Carthusian monastery at Munnikhuizen near Arnhem, who had remonstrated with him on the vanity of his life. About 1376 Gerhard retired to this monastery and there spent three years in meditation, prayer and study, without, however, becoming a Carthusian. In 1379, having received ordination as a deacon, he became missionary preacher throughout the diocese of Utrecht. The success which followed his labours not only in the town of Utrecht, but also in Zwolle, Deventer, Kampen, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Gouda, Leiden, Delft, Zütphen and elsewhere, was immense; according to Thomas à Kempis the people left their business and their meals to hear his sermons, so that the churches could not hold the crowds that flocked together wherever he came. The bishop of Utrecht supported him warmly, and got him to preach against concubinage in the presence of the clergy assembled in synod. The impartiality of his censures, which he directed not only against the prevailing sins of the laity, but also against heresy, simony, avarice, and impurity among the secular and regular clergy, provoked the hostility of the clergy, and accusations of heterodoxy were brought against him. It was in vain that Groot emitted a Publica Protestatio, in which he declared that Jesus Christ was the great subject of his discourses, that in all of them he believed himself to be in harmony with Catholic doctrine, and that he willingly subjected them to the candid judgment of the Roman Church. The bishop was induced to issue an edict which prohibited from preaching all who were not in priest’s orders, and an appeal to Urban VI. was without effect. There is a difficulty as to the date of this prohibition; either it was only a few months before Groot’s death, or else it must have been removed by the bishop, for Groot seems to have preached in public in the last year of his life. At some period (perhaps 1381, perhaps earlier) he paid a visit of some days’ duration to the famous mystic Johann Ruysbroeck, prior of the Augustinian canons at Groenendael near Brussels; at this visit was formed Groot’s attraction for the rule and life of the Augustinian canons which was destined to bear such notable fruit. At the close of his life he was asked by some of the clerics who attached themselves to him to form them into a religious order, and Groot resolved that they should be canons regular of St Augustine. No time was lost in the effort to carry out the project, but Groot died before a foundation could be made. In 1387, however, a site was secured at Windesheim, some 20 m. north of Deventer, and here was established the monastery that became the cradle of the Windesheim congregation of canons regular, embracing in course of time nearly one hundred houses, and leading the way in the series of reforms undertaken during the 15th century by all the religious orders in Germany. The initiation of this movement was the great achievement of Groot’s
