SG Heritage Dictionary

Gers Encyclopedia Britannica

GERS, a department of France, composed of the whole or parts of the five old districts of Gascony, viz., Armagnac, Astarac, Lomagne, Comminges, and Condomois. It is bounded N. by the department of Lot-et-Garonne, E. by Tarn-et-Garonne and Haute-Garonne, S. by Hautes-Pyrénées and Basses-Pyrénées, and W. by Landes. It lies between 43 c 17'and 44° 5' N. lat.,and between 1° 10' E., and 0 e 18' W. long., being about 72 miles in length from E. to W., and 53 in breadth from N. to S. This department is hilly, particularly in the south, where it is mostly covered with ramifications of the Pyrenees. Some of these in the south rise nearly 1200 feet above the level of the sea, but they rapidly decrease in height towards the north. The principal of them run from N.E., N., and N.∖Y., and are separated by longitudinal valleys of great beauty and fertility, narrow in the south, but opening in the north to a width of 3 or 4 miles. . The greater part of the department belongs to the basin of the Garonne, while a small portion in the west is drained by the Adour. The chief affluents of the former are the Save, G imone, A rratz, G ers, an d Baise; and those of the latter, the Arros, Midou, and Douse, the last two uniting and taking the name of Midouse, before joining the Adour. The climate is temperate and salubrious, but very changeable. There is seldom any snow, and there Î3 scarcely any frost. More than half of the department is arable; about one-seventh is occupied by vines, and the rest is meadows, wood, or heath. The soil is not of great fertility, but is tolerably well cultivated, and the grain produced is more than sufficient for home consumption. Wheat, maize, oats, and rye are the principal grain crops. About one-third of the wine produced is used for home consumption, ...

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 10, p. 548
[451 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]

Gerson Encyclopedia Britannica

GERSON, John (1363-1429), otherwise John Charlier of Gerson, Johannes Gersonus, John de Gersone, J. Jarson, De Jarsone, or Gersen, the famous chancellor of the university of Paris, and the ruling spirit in the oecumenical councils of Pisa and Constance, was born at the village of Gerson, in the bishopric of Rheims and department of Ardennes, on December 14, 1363. We learn a good many details about his family and early upbringing from allusions in some of his devotional tracts. His parents, Arnulph Charlier and Elizabeth de la Chardenière, “a second Monica,” belonged to the peasant class, were of eminent piety, and rejoiced to see seven of their twelve children, four daughters and three sons, devoting themselves to a religious life. Young Gerson was sent to Paris to the famous college of Navarre when fourteen years of age. After a five years’ course he obtained the degree of licentiate of arts, and then began his theological studies under two very celebrated teachers, Giles Des Champs (Aegidius Campensis) and Peter D’Ailly (Petrus de Alliaco), rector of the college of Navarre, chancellor of the university, and afterwards bishop of Puy, archbishop of Cambray, and cardinal. D’Ailly remained his life-long friend, and in later life the pupil seems to have become the teacher (see pref, to Liber de Vita Spir. Animce). Gerson very soon attracted the notice of the university. He was elected procurator for the French nation in 1383, when barely twenty years of age, and re-elected the year afterwards. In 1384 he took the degree of bachelor of theology. Three years later a still higher honour was bestowed upon him; he was sent along with the chancellor and others to represent the university in a case of appeal taken to the pope. Dr John Montson had been condemned by the ...

Gerson wished to banish scholastic subtleties from the studies of the university, and at the same time to put some evangelical warmth into them. He was called at this period of his life Doctor Christianissimus; later his devotional works brought him the title Doctor Consolatorius. His plan was to make theology plain and simple by founding it on the philosophical principles of nominalism. His method was a clear exposition of the principles of theology where clearness was possible, with a due recognition of the place of mystery in the Christian system of doctrine. Like the great nominalist William of Occam, he saved himself from rationalism by laying hold on mysticism—the Christian mysticism of the school of St Victor. He thought that in this way he would equally guard against the folly of the old scholastic and the seductions of such Averroistic pantheism as was preached by heretics like Amalric of Bena. His plans for the reformation of university studies may be learned from his Tract, de Examinatione Doctrinarum (f)pp. i. 7), Epistoloe de reform. Theol. (i. 121), Epistoloe ad Studentes Collegii Havarroe, quid et qualiter studere debeat novus theologice auditor, et contra curiositatem studentium (i. 106), and Lectiones duce contra vanam curiositatem in negotio fidei (i. 86). The study of the Bible and of the fathers was to supersede the idle questions of the schools, and in his Tract, contra romantiam de rosa (iii. 297) he warns young men against the evil consequences of mediaeval romance-reading. He was oftentimes weary of the chancellorship,—it involved him in strife, and in money difficulties; he grew tired of public life, and longed for learned leisure. To obtain it he accepted the deanery of Bruges from the duke of Burgundy, but after a short sojourn he returned to Paris and to the chancellorship.

Gerson’s chief work was what he did to destroy the great schism. Gregory XL had died in 1378, one year after Gerson went to the college of Navarre, and since his death the church had had two popes. To the mediaeval mind, imaginatively apprehending great thoughts in picture-representations, two popes meant two churches and a divided Christ. The spiritual unity of the church, which is founded on the spiritual union of all believers to Christ, was unintelligible to it. Gerson and his contemporaries could not disentangle the invisible from the visible, and if daring spirits like Wickliffe and Huss declared that the elect were the tnιe church, the practical consequences which they drew from this showed that they also were unable to escape from the confusion. The schism had practically been brought about by France. The popes had been under French influence so long that it appeared to France a political necessity to have her own pope, and pious Frenchmen felt themselves somewhat responsible for the sins and scandals of the schism. Hence the melancholy piety of Gerson, D’Ailly, and their companions, and the energy with which they strove to bring the schism to an end. During the lifetime of Clement the university of Paris, led by D’Ailly, Gerson, and Nicholas Clamenges, met in deliberation about the state of Christendom, and resolved that the schism could be ended in three ways,—by cession, if both popes renounced the tiara unconditionally, by arbitration, or by a general council. Clement died. The king of France, urged by the university, sent orders that no new pope should be elected. The cardinals first elected, and then opened the letter. In the new elections, however, both at Rome and Avignon, the influence of Paris was so much felt that each of the neλv popes swore to “cede” if his rival would do so also.

Meanwhile in 1395 the national assembly of France and the French clergy adopted the programme of the university—cession or a general council. The movement gathered strength. In 1398 most of the cardinals and most of the crowned heads in Europe had given their adhesion to the plan. During this period Gerson s literary activity was untiring, and the throb of public expectancy, of hope and fear, is revealed in his mιdtitude of pamphlets. At first there were hopes of a settlement by way of cession. These come out in Protest, super statum ccclesüc (ii. 1), Tract, de mοdο habendi se tempore schismatis, De Schismate, &c. But soou the conduct of the popes made Europe impatient, and the desire for a general council grew strong—see De Concilio generali unius obedi-entiae (ii. 24). The council was resolved upon. It was to meet at Pisa, and Gerson poured forth tract after tract for its guidance. The most important are—Trilogies in materia Schismatis (ii. 83), and Dc unitate Ecclesiae (ii. 113), in which, following D’Ailly (see Tsehaekert’s Peter v. Ailli, p. 153), Gerson demonstrates that the ideal unity of the church, based upon Christ, destroyed by the popes, can only be restored by a general council, supreme and legitimate, though unsummoned by a pope. The council met, deposed both anti-popes, and elected Alexander V. Gerson was chosen to address the new pope on the duties of his office. He did so in his Sermo coram Alexandro Papa in die ascensionis in concilio Pisano (ii. 131). All hopes of reformation, however, were quenched by the conduct of the new pope. He had been a Franciscan, and loved his order above measure. He issued a bull which laid the parish clergy and the universities at the mercy of the mendicants. The great university of Paris rose in revolt, headed by her chancellor, who wrote a fierce pamphlet—Censura professorum in theologia circa bullam Alexandri V. (ii. 442). The pope died soon after, and one of the most profligate men of that time, Pope John XXIII. (Balthasar Cossa) λvas elected his successor. The council of Pisa had not brought peace; it had only added a third pope. D’Ailly despaired of general councils (see his De difficultate reformationis in concilio universali), but Gerson struggled on. Another matter too had roused him. The feuds between the houses of orleans and Burgundy had long distracted France. The duke of Orleans had been foully and treacherously murdered by the followers of the duke of Burgundy, and a theologian, John Petit, had publicly and unambiguously justified the murder. His eight verities, as he called them—his apologies for the murder—had been, mainly through the influence of Gerson, condemned by the university of Paris, and by the 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 John 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 λvere powerfully seconded by the emperor Sigismund, and the result was the council of Constance. This council, unlike its predecessor at Pisa, was summoned by a pope—Pope John XXIII. Sigismund was present, resolutely determined to unite and reform the church, and guided by Cardinals D’Ailly and Zarabella, and above all by Gerson. Gerson indeed practically ruled the council up to the election of a new pope. It was he that 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—Dc 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. He never wrote the bold tract of Abbot Andrew of Randolf (c∕. Schwabe, Johannes Gerson, p. 483-491), and he hated Huss with all the hatred the trimmer has of the reformer. 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 John 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. Theutmost 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 in Germany, and then returned to France, 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 July 12, 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. Recent researches, however, have proved beyond a doubt that the famous Imitatio Christi was really written by Thomas, and not by John Gerson or the Abbot Gersen.

The literature on Gerson is very abundant. See Dupin, Gcrsoni-ana, including P¾α 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 I Université dc Paris, Strasburg, 1839; Schwabe, Johannes Gerson, Würzburg, 1859. On the relations between Gerson and D’Ailly, see Paul Tschackert, Peter von Ailli i Gotha, 1877. On the authorship of the Imitatio Christi, see the editions of Dibden, Genie, and Kettlewell. On Gerson’s public life, see also histories of the councils of Pisa and Constance, especially Herrn, v. der Hardt, Con. Con-stanliensis libri IV., 1695-9. (T. Μ. L.)

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 10, p. 549
[2,391 words — estimated reading time: 14 minutes]

Gersonides Encyclopedia Britannica

GERSONIDES, or Ben Gerson, Levi, a distinguished Jewish philosopher and commentator, was born at Bagnolo in Languedoc, towards the close of the 13th century, probably in 1288. As in the case of the other Jewish writers on philosophy during the Middle Ages, extremely 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, which drew on him the suspicion of infidelity, 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 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 Milhamoth Adonai (The Wars of God), and is said to have occupied twelve years in composition. 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 Milhamoth is throughout modelled after the plan of the great work of Jewish philosophy, the More Nebuchîm of Moses Maimonides, and may be regarded as an elaborate criticism from the more philosophical point of view (mainly Averroistic) of 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 ...

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 10, p. 550
[490 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]

GerstÄcker Encyclopedia Britannica

GERSTÄCKER, Friedrich (1816-1872), who enjoyed a most extensive popularity as a novelist and a writer of travels both at home and abroad, was born at Hamburg ou 10th May 1816. Having lost his father at the age of nine, he was placed under the guardianship of an uncle at Brunswick, who sent him to a house of business at Cassel as clerk. He soon got tired, however, of the monotonous commercial routine, and selected the more active life of a farmer, in which capacity he spent the years from 1835 to 1837 in Saxony. But the uneventful agricultural life was unable to repress in him the innate roving instinct which, according to his own statement, had received a strong impulse in his eighth year by the perusal of Robinson Crusoe. The word “America” had from that time exercised on him an irresistible charm, and so he went in 1837 from Bremen to New York. He travelled on foot over all parts of the United States, working as he went for his bare subsistence, and then settled for some time in Arkansas, where he led the life of a roving sportsman, Only now and then he visited inhabited places to see civilized society, and to earn some means by whatever work he could obtain. Thus he went in 1842 to Point Coupée in Louisiana, where he undertook the management of a hotel. This time, however, he did not return with the acquired means to the backwoods, but repaired to his German home to see his mother and other relatives, after having led an adventurous life for six years and a half. On his return to Germany he found himself, to his great surprise, known as an author, on a limited scale at least. His mother had shown his diary, which he regularly sent home, and which contained descriptions of his adventures in the New World, to the editor of the Posen, who readily published them in ...

Gerstäcker was greatly esteemed and liked as a man, on account of his genial temper and straightforward character, and as an author he enjoyed an almost unprecedented popularity at home and was very favourably known abroad. The charm of his productions consists in the natural freshness of his descriptions, nearly all of which have an exotic background, and in the originality of his characters, the most prominent of which are drawn from real life. He did not possess any high literary power, and probably never touched up what he had once written; his writings lack therefore on the whole that artistic finish which forms one of the principal elements of a good writer. This defect, however, impresses even on his works of fiction the stamp of probability, nay of truthfulness. His writings nowhere betray that intention of producing an effect which so often destroys the illusion of the reader in elaborately worked out productions. He generally writes in a homely, ungarnished manner, just as a traveller would relate his adventures amidst a circle of friends. His writings, therefore, nearly always rivet the attention of the reader from beginning to end. The works of Gerstäcker have, besides, the merit that they formed a wholesome counterpoise against the too idealistic tendency of the literature of Germany, against the lax and realistic school of France, and against the morbid sensationalism which prevailed in England. A number of his works have been translated into several modern languages, but mostly into English; their descriptions of exciting adventures on land and sea affording, with their sturdy humour, congenial reading to the English-speaking community in the Old and New World. His best works, from a literary point of view, are, besides the above-mentioned Regulatoren, his Fluszpiraten des Mississippi, his South Sea novel Tahiti, his Australian romance Die beiden Sträflinge, his Matrosenleben and Blau Wasser. His collected works have been issued in a cheap and handy edition published at Jena.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 10, p. 550
[909 words — estimated reading time: 6 minutes]

King James Bible KJV Bible

Berean Standard Bible BSB Bible

42 KJV and 42 BSB verses contain “gers” — showing the first 20. Show all 43 verses (searchable)

Genesis 46:11

And the sons of Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Exodus 2:22

And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”

Exodus 6:16

And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an hundred thirty and seven years.

These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their records: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Levi lived 137 years.

Exodus 6:17

The sons of Gershon; Libni, and Shimi, according to their families.

The sons of Gershon were Libni and Shimei, by their clans.

Exodus 18:3

And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land:

along with her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses had said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”

Numbers 3:17

And these were the sons of Levi by their names; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari.

These were the sons of Levi by name: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Numbers 3:18

And these are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families; Libni, and Shimei.

These were the names of the sons of Gershon by their clans: Libni and Shimei.

Numbers 3:21

Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites, and the family of the Shimites: these are the families of the Gershonites.

From Gershon came the Libnite clan and the Shimeite clan; these were the Gershonite clans.

Numbers 3:23

The families of the Gershonites shall pitch behind the tabernacle westward.

The Gershonite clans were to camp on the west, behind the tabernacle,

Numbers 3:24

And the chief of the house of the father of the Gershonites shall be Eliasaph the son of Lael.

and the leader of the families of the Gershonites was Eliasaph son of Lael.

Numbers 3:25

And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation shall be the tabernacle, and the tent, the covering thereof, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,

The duties of the Gershonites at the Tent of Meeting were the tabernacle and tent, its covering, the curtain for the entrance to the Tent of Meeting,

Numbers 4:22

Take also the sum of the sons of Gershon, throughout the houses of their fathers, by their families;

“Take a census of the Gershonites as well, by their families and clans,

Numbers 4:24

This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, to serve, and for burdens:

This is the service of the Gershonite clans regarding work and transport:

Numbers 4:26

And the hangings of the court, and the hanging for the door of the gate of the court, which is by the tabernacle and by the altar round about, and their cords, and all the instruments of their service, and all that is made for them: so shall they serve.

the curtains of the courtyard, and the curtains for the entrance at the gate of the courtyard that surrounds the tabernacle and altar, along with their ropes and all the equipment for their service. The Gershonites will do all that needs to be done with these items.

Numbers 4:27

At the appointment of Aaron and his sons shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their burdens, and in all their service: and ye shall appoint unto them in charge all their burdens.

All the service of the Gershonites—all their transport duties and other work—is to be done at the direction of Aaron and his sons; you are to assign to them all that they are responsible to carry.

Numbers 4:28

This is the service of the families of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation: and their charge shall be under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.

This is the service of the Gershonite clans at the Tent of Meeting, and their duties shall be under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.

Numbers 4:38

And those that were numbered of the sons of Gershon, throughout their families, and by the house of their fathers,

Then the Gershonites were numbered by their clans and families,

Numbers 4:41

These are they that were numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon, of all that might do service in the tabernacle of the congregation, whom Moses and Aaron did number according to the commandment of the LORD.

These were counted from the Gershonite clans who served at the Tent of Meeting, whom Moses and Aaron counted at the LORD’s command.

Numbers 7:7

Two wagons and four oxen he gave unto the sons of Gershon, according to their service:

He gave the Gershonites two carts and four oxen, as their service required,

Numbers 10:17

And the tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set forward, bearing the tabernacle.

Then the tabernacle was taken down, and the Gershonites and the Merarites set out, transporting it.