Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/460

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GER—GER

 


The life of Gerhardt has been written by Roth (18:29), by Langbecker I18“). by Schultz (1542), by Wildenhahn (1815), and by Bachmann (1863); also by Kraft in Erseh n. (lruber’s A llg. lz'neg/cl. (1855M The best modern edition of the hymns, published by \l'ar-kt-rnagel in 1843, has often been reprinted. There is an Eng- lish translation by Kelly (Paul Gtrlmnlt's ,yn'ritual Songs, 1867).

GÉRICAULT, Jean Louis André Théodore (1791–1824). French painter, led the inevitable reaction which set in under the empire against the fixed and strictly limited aims of the school of David. He was born at Rouen in I 1791. In 1808 he entered the studio of Charles Yernet, ' from which, in 1810, he passed to that of Gueriu, whom he I drove to despair by his passion for Rubens, and by the I unorthodox manner in which he persisted in interpreting nature. At the Salon of 1812 Gericault attracted attention by his “ Officier de Chasseurs a Cheval ” (Louvre), a work in which he personified the cavalry in its hour of triumph, and turned to account the solid training received from Guérin in rendering a picturesque point of view which was in itself a prJtest against the cherished convictions of the pseudo-classical school. Two years later (1814) he re- exhibited this work accompanied with the reverse picture “Cuirassier blesse ” (Louvre), and in both subjects called attention to the interest of contemporary aspects of life, treated neglected types of living f arm, and exhibited that mastery of and delight in the horse which was a feature of his character. Disconcerted by the tempest of contradictory opinion which arose over these two pic- tures, Ge'ricault gave way to his enthusiasm for horses and soldiers, and enrolled himself in the mousquetaires. During the Hundred Days he followed the king to Bethune, but, on his regiment being disbanded, eagerly returned to his profession, left France for Italy in 1816, and at Rome nobly illustrated his favourite animal by his great painting “ Course des Chevaux Libres.” Return- ing to Paris, Géricault exhibited at the Salon of 1819 the “ltadeau de la Meduse” (Louvre), a subject which not only enabled him to prove his zealous and scientific study of the human form, but contained those elements of the heroic and pathetic, as existing in situations of modern life, to which he had appealed in his earliest productions. Easily depressed or elated, Géricault took to heart the hostility which this work excited, and passed nearly two years in London, where the “ Radeau ” was exhibited with success, and where he executed many series of admirable lithographs now rare. At the close of 1822 he was again in Paris, and produced a great quantity of projects for vast compositions, models in wax, and a horse écorclzé, as preliminary to the production of an equestrian statue. His health was now completely undermined by various kinds of excess, and on 26th January 1824 he died at the age of thirty- three. That which he left us is effective only as a protest; his work, like his life, lacked the fixity of conscious purpose necessary to the task of reconstruction. Had he steadied ' himself and survived the abuse of his powers, he might have played an important part in determining the course of the modern school, for, though no colourist, lie was in other respects richly endowed, and was possessed by a rare energy which redeemed even that tendency to undue emphasis which gives a theatrical character to much of the best French work. Géricault’s biography, accompanied by a catalogue raisonné of his works, was published by M. C. Clément in 1868.

GERIZIM (D‘idfif‘fl, “ the desert hill,” or, according to others, “the hill of the Gerizzites[1]”), the third highest mountain of Samaria,[2] is situated at the western extremity of the fertile plain of Mochna, and with Mount Ebal, which lies immediately to the north, forms a narrow valley in which lies the ancient town of Sichem or Shechem. As seen from this point Gerizim is distinguished from its tamer neighbour by the boldness of its crags, the richness of its verdure, and the number of its springs. Its southern slope however is much gentler than its northern, and both are almost bare of trees. On the summit stands at present a small Mahometan chapel, and there are besides numerous traces of a fortress and church possibly dating from the time of Justinian. But the spot regarded by the Samaritans as the holiest upon earth is a small level plateau situated somewhat to the south of this. More it is believed stood the temple built by Manasseh, the son of the Jewish high priest in the days of Nehemiah,[3] and destroyed by John Hyrcanus 300 years afterwards (Jos., Ant, xiii. 9. 1). According to the Samaritans and some modern writers, Gerizim was the scene of the incidents recorded in Genesi: xxii. 9–13. Probably as being the hill on the right hand of the spectator who, standing in the valley of Shechem, leoks to the sun rising, it was also the hill on which, aCCording to Josh. viii. 33, 34 (comp. Deut. xi. 29, 30, and xxvii. 12—26), after the conquest of Ai, the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin stood to pronounce the blessings connected with a faithful observance of the law, while the remaining tribes from mount Ebal Confirmed the curses attached to specified violations of the divine commands. According to Eusebius and Jerome indeed, the El »al and Gerizim described in Deut. xi. 30 were not the mountains now known by that name, but two smaller hills in the neighbourhood of Jericho. This view, however, may now be regarded as universally abandoned (see Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 236, note).

GERMAN CATHOLICS (Deutschkatholiken), the

name assumed in Germany towards the close of the year 1844 by certain dissentients from the church of ltome. The most prominent leader of the German Catholic movement was Johann Rouge, a Roman Catholic priest, who in October 1844 made a vigorous attack upon Arnoldi, bishop of T reves, for having made a relic, which he alleged to be the holy seamless coat of Christ, an object of pilgrimage and adoration. On Itonge’s excommunication on this account, by the chapter of Breslau in December 1844-, he received a large amount of public sympathy, and a dissenting con- gregation was almost immediately formed at Breslau with a very simple creed, in which the chief articles were belief in God the Father, creator and ruler of the universe; in Jesus Christ the Saviour, who delivers from the bondage of sin by his life, doctrine, and death ; in the operation of the Holy Ghost; in a holy, universal, Christian church; in forgiveness of sins and the life everlasting. “'ithin a very few weeks similar communities had been formed at Leipsic, Dresden, Berlin, Offenbach, Worms, Wiesbadcn, and elsewhere ,: and at a “council” convened at Leipsic in March 1845, twenty-seven congregations were represented by delegates, of whom however only two or at most three were in clerical orders. Almost contemporaneously with the commencement of the agitation led by llonge, another movement fundamentally distinct, though in some respects similar, had been originated at Schneidemiihl, Posen, under the guidance of Johann Czerski, also a priest, who had come into collision with the church authorities on the then much discussed question of mixed marriages, and also on that of the celibacy of the clergy. The result had been his suspension from oflice in March 184-1 ; his public withdrawal, along with twenty-four adherents, from the

toman communion in August; his exconnnnnication im-




  1. See 1 Sam. xxvii. 8 (Keri.)
  2. Josephus (An—9., xi. 8, 2) calls it the highest, but his assertion has been disproved by recent accurate measurement. According to I'urrer, Tell ’Azur, Him], and Gerizim are 3566, 3375, and 3179 feet respectively above the. level of the Mediterranean.
  3. In the days of Alexander the Great, according to Josephus (A 71[., xi. 8, 2); but there are gnml reasons for believing this to be inexact. See Nch. xiii. 28, and compare Bertheau on the passage.