GEILER, or GEYLER, von Kaisersberg, Johann (1445-1510), one of the greatest of the popular preachers of the 15th century, was born at Schaffhausen, March 16, 1445, but from 1448 passed his childhood and youth at Kaisersberg in Upper Alsace, from which place his current designationis derived. In 1460 he entered the universityof Freiburg in Baden, where, after graduation, he lectured for some time on the Sentences of Petrus Lombardns, the Commentaries of Alexander Halensis, and several of the works of Aristotle. A living interest in theological subjects, which had been awakened within him by the study of Gerson, led in 1471 to his removal to the university of Basel, at that period a centre of attraction to some of the most earnest spirits of the time. Made a doctor of theology in 1475, he received a professorship at Freiburg in the following year; but his tastes began to incline him more strongly to the vocation of a preacher, while his fervour and eloquence soon led to his receiving numerous invitations to the larger towns. Ultimately he accepted in 1478 a call to the cathedral of Strasburg, where he continued to work with few interruptions until within a short time of his death, which occurred on the 10th of March 1510. The beautiful pulpit erected for him in 1481 in the nave of the cathedral, when the chapel of St Lawrence had proved too small, still bears witness to the popularity he enjoyed as a preacher in the immediate sphere of his labours, and the testimonies of Sebastian Brandt, Beatus Renanus, Reuchlin, Melanchthon, and others who survived him, abundantly show how powerful, how healthy, and how widespread had been the influence of his personal character. His sermons—bold, incisive, abounding in quaint illustrations, nor altogether wanting in instances of what ...