and such figurative senses as coarse, vulgar or flagrant, the chief uses are whole, entire, without deduction, as opposed to “net,” or as applied to that which is sold in bulk as opposed to “retail” (cf. “grocer” and “engrossing”). As a unit of tale, “gross” equals 12 dozen, 144, sometimes known as “small gross,” in contrast with “great gross,” i.e. 12 gross, 144 dozen. As a technical expression in English common law, “in gross” is applied to an incorporeal hereditament attached to the person of an owner, in contradistinction to one which is appendant or appurtenant, that is, attached to the ownership of land (see Commons).
GROSSE, JULIUS WALDEMAR (1828–1902), German poet,
the son of a military chaplain, was born at Erfurt on the 25th of
April 1828. He received his early education at the gymnasium
in Magdeburg, and on leaving school and showing disinclination
for the ministry, entered an architect’s office. But his mind was
bent upon literature, and in 1849 he entered the university
of Halle, where, although inscribed as a student of law, he devoted
himself almost exclusively to letters. His first poetical essay
was with the tragedy Cola di Rienzi (1851), followed in the same
year by a comedy, Eine Nachtpartie Shakespeares, which was
at once produced on the stage. The success of these first two
pieces encouraged him to follow literature as a profession,
and proceeding in 1852 to Munich, he joined the circle of young
poets of whom Paul Heyse (q.v.) and Hermann Lingg (1820–1905)
were the chief. For six years (1855–1861) he was dramatic
critic of the Neue Münchener Zeitung, and was then for a while
on the staff of the Leipziger Illustrierte Zeitung, but in 1862 he
returned to Munich as editor of the Bayrische Zeitung, a post he
retained until the paper ceased to exist in 1867. In 1869 Grosse
was appointed secretary of the Schiller-Stiftung, and lived for
the next few years alternately in Weimar, Dresden and Munich,
until, in 1890, he took up his permanent residence in Weimar.
He was made grand-ducal Hofrat and had the title of “professor.”
He died at Torbole on the Lago di Garda on the 9th of May 1902.
Grosse was a most prolific writer of novels, dramas and poems. As a lyric poet, especially in Gedichte (1857) and Aus bewegten Tagen, a volume of poems (1869), he showed himself more to advantage than in his novels, of which latter, however, Untreu aus Mitleid (2 vols., 1868); Vox populi, vox dei (1869); Maria Mancini (1871); Neue Erzählungen (1875); Sophie Monnier (1876), and Ein Frauenlos (1888) are remarkable for a certain elegance of style. His tragedies, Die Ynglinger (1858); Tiberius (1876); Johann von Schwaben; and the comedy Die steinerne Braut, had considerable success on the stage.
Grosse’s Gesammelte dramatische Werke appeared in 7 vols. in Leipzig (1870), while his Erzählende Dichtungen were published at Berlin (6 vols., 1871–1873). An edition of his selected works by A. Bartels is in preparation. See also his autobiography, Literarische Ursachen und Wirkungen (1896); R. Prutz, Die Literatur der Gegenwart (1859); J. Ethé, J. Grosse als epischer Dichter (1872).
GROSSENHAIN, a town in the kingdom of Saxony, 20 m. N.
from Dresden, on the main line of railway (via Elsterwerda)
to Berlin and at the junction of lines to Priestewitz and Frankfort-on-Oder.
Pop. (1905) 12,015. It has an Evangelical church,
a modern and a commercial school, a library and an extensive
public park. The industries are very important, and embrace
manufactures of woollen and cotton stuffs, buckskin, leather,
glass and machinery. Grossenhain was originally a Sorb settlement.
It was for a time occupied by the Bohemians, by whom
it was strongly fortified. It afterwards came into the possession
of the margraves of Meissen, from whom it was taken in 1312
by the margraves of Brandenburg. It suffered considerably in
all the great German wars, and in 1744 was nearly destroyed
by fire. On the 16th of May 1813, a battle took place here
between the French and the Russians.
See G. W. Schuberth, Chronik der Stadt Grossenhain (Grossenhain, 1887–1892).
GROSSETESTE, ROBERT (c. 1175–1253), English statesman, theologian and bishop of Lincoln, was born of humble parents at Stradbrook in Suffolk. He received his education at Oxford where he became proficient in law, medicine and the natural
sciences. Giraldus Cambrensis, whose acquaintance he had
made, introduced him, before 1199, to William de Vere, bishop
of Hereford. Grosseteste aspired to a post in the bishop’s household,
but being deprived by death of this patron betook himself
to the study of theology. It is possible that he visited Paris
for this purpose, but he finally settled in Oxford as a teacher.
His first preferment of importance was the chancellorship of
the university. He gained considerable distinction as a lecturer,
and was the first rector of the school which the Franciscans
established in Oxford about 1224. Grosseteste’s learning is
highly praised by Roger Bacon, who was a severe critic. According
to Bacon, Grosseteste knew little Greek or Hebrew and paid
slight attention to the works of Aristotle, but was pre-eminent
among his contemporaries for his knowledge of the natural
sciences. Between 1214 and 1231 Grosseteste held in succession
the archdeaconries of Chester, Northampton and Leicester.
In 1232, after a severe illness, he resigned all his benefices and
preferments except one prebend which he held at Lincoln.
His intention was to spend the rest of his life in contemplative
piety. But he retained the office of chancellor, and in 1235
accepted the bishopric of Lincoln. He undertook without delay
the reformation of morals and clerical discipline throughout
his vast diocese. This scheme brought him into conflict with
more than one privileged corporation, but in particular with his
own chapter, who vigorously disputed his claim to exercise the
right of visitation over their community. The dispute raged
hotly from 1239 to 1245. It was conducted on both sides with
unseemly violence, and those who most approved of Grosseteste’s
main purpose thought it needful to warn him against the mistake
of over-zeal. But in 1245, by a personal visit to the papal court
at Lyons, he secured a favourable verdict. In ecclesiastical
politics the bishop belonged to the school of Becket. His zeal
for reform led him to advance, on behalf of the courts-Christian,
pretensions which it was impossible that the secular power should
admit. He twice incurred a well-merited rebuke from Henry III.
upon this subject; although it was left for Edward I. to settle
the question of principle in favour of the state. The devotion of
Grosseteste to the hierarchical theories of his age is attested by
his correspondence with his chapter and the king. Against the
former he upheld the prerogative of the bishops; against the
latter he asserted that it was impossible for a bishop to disregard
the commands of the Holy See. Where the liberties of the
national church came into conflict with the pretensions of Rome
he stood by his own countrymen. Thus in 1238 he demanded
that the king should release certain Oxford scholars who had
assaulted the legate Otho. But at least up to the year 1247 he
submitted patiently to papal encroachments, contenting himself
with the protection (by a special papal privilege) of his own
diocese from alien clerks. Of royal exactions he was more
impatient; and after the retirement of Archbishop Saint Edmund (q.v.) constituted himself the spokesman of the clerical
estate in the Great Council. In 1244 he sat on a committee
which was empanelled to consider a demand for a subsidy.
The committee rejected the demand, and Grosseteste foiled an
attempt on the king’s part to separate the clergy from the baronage. “It is written,” the bishop said, “that united we stand and divided we fall.”
It was, however, soon made clear that the king and pope were in alliance to crush the independence of the English clergy; and from 1250 onwards Grosseteste openly criticized the new financial expedients to which Innocent IV. had been driven by his desperate conflict with the Empire. In the course of a visit which he made to Innocent in this year, the bishop laid before the pope and cardinals a written memorial in which he ascribed all the evils of the Church to the malignant influence of the Curia. It produced no effect, although the cardinals felt that Grosseteste was too influential to be punished for his audacity. Much discouraged by his failure the bishop thought of resigning. In the end, however, he decided to continue the unequal struggle. In 1251 he protested against a papal mandate enjoining the English clergy to pay Henry III. one-tenth of their revenues for a crusade; and called attention to the fact that, under the system of provisions, a sum of 70,000 marks was annually drawn
