Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/625

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
GEN
589
GEO

with great reputation. Several learned works attest his labours in that chair. Among these may be noticed—"De Legationibus libri tres," in which he investigated the functions, rights, and qualifications of ambassadors. These rights he based on the law of nations, maintaining their immunity from local or criminal tribunals, and their subjection to civil responsibilities. In Sir Philip Sydney, to whom the work is inscribed, he finds a model ambassador. "De Jure Belli libri tres;" in the first book of this work he defines his subject, "Bellum est contentio publica, armata, justa," a definition more correct than that of Grotius in his more celebrated treatise of subsequent date.—(See Grotius, H.) The second book is on the laws of war in its modes and operations; and the third on the end of war—peace, and inducements thereto. In these two treatises it appears that Gentilis went over the same field as Grotius; and a comparison of their works will show that Gentilis often maintained the same theses upon the same great argument (Consensus proborum), and cites the same examples as Grotius. On this account his works are remarkable, and they have farther interest as an early and considerable contribution from England to the comparatively modern science of public and universal jurisprudence. Another, and his earliest work, is "De Juris interpretibus Dialogi sex," London, 1582, 4to.—S. H. G.

GENTILIS, Giovanni Valentino, an Italian Socinian, born at Cosenza in 1520. Persecuted in his native country by the catholic church, he went to Geneva, endeavouring to spread there his Arian tenets and to form a Socinian church; but Calvin was not a man to tolerate the presence of a free-thinker within the pale of his jurisdiction, and Gentilis was compelled to find elsewhere a better field for nis doctrines. He wandered for a time in Savoy and Dauphiné, then went to Poland, and after the death of Calvin returned to Switzerland. He did not meet, however, with a better welcome than he had done before among the Swiss; he was imprisoned in 1566 by the magistrates of Berne, and after a long trial before the municipal tribunal, he was condemned to be beheaded as an unbeliever in the Trinity. He was executed in September of that year.—A. S., O.

GENTILIS, Scipione, brother of Albericus, born in 1563, a celebrated professor of jurisprudence at the university of Altdorf. He was distinguished both for his learning and for the elegance of his Latin writings, the greater part of which are comments on various points of Roman law. Niceron mentions twenty of his works. He wrote also some literary annotations in Italian on the Gerusalemme Liberata of Torquato Tasso. He died in Germany in 1616, adhering to the tenets of the Reformers.—A. S., O.

GENTILLET, Innocent, a French lawyer of the sixteenth century. He was born at Vienne in Dauphiné, and died at Geneva about 1595. An adherent of the Reformation, Gentillet proved himself a zealous and able defender of the protestant faith, particularly against the Romanists and Socinians. He was president of the chamber of the edict at Grenoble. His principal works are—"Apologia pro Gallis Christianis religionis reformatæ;" "Anti-Machiavel;" and "Examen Concilii Tridentini."—R. M., A.

GENTLEMAN, Francis, was born in Dublin on the 28th October, 1728; he was educated at Mr. Butler's school, which turned out several eminent men, and amongst them Mossop the tragedian. His father being a major in the army, procured for Francis, at the age of fifteen, a commission in his own regiment. His military career was short and uneventful, terminating at the peace in 1748. Thereupon he took to the stage, and made his first appearance at the Smock Alley theatre, before he was of full age, in the character of Aboan in Mrs. Behn's tragedy of Oroonoko. He got on tolerably well, though he had to contend against a bashful nature and an ungainly figure. A relative now left him a bequest, which, with his own slender means, enabled him to try a London life. The result was no gain of fame and much loss of means, so he betook himself to provincial theatres, visiting Bath, Manchester, Liverpool, and Chester. He then married and settled at Malton, but ere long he was induced to try London again, where he played for three seasons at the Haymarket. Returning to Ireland in 1777, he continued in poverty and ill health till his death, in Dublin, on the 21st December, 1784. Gentleman was a poet and dramatic author, as well as an actor. He wrote or patched about fifteen pieces, all forgotten, except "The Tobacconist," altered from Ben Jonson's Alchemyst. As a poet he has considerable merit, his productions in verse being "Royal Fables," and other pieces. "The Dramatic Censor" is his best work; and his worst—the worst on the subject—is his edition of Shakspeare.—J. F. W.

GENTZ, Friedrich von, a distinguished German political writer, was born at Breslau, September 8, 1764, and died at Vienna, July 9, 1832. He studied at Königsberg, and then entered the Prussian administrative service. But as his political views were adverse to those of the government, he resigned his office, and accepted an appointment in the Vienna Hof-und Staatskanzlei. Here he became a violent and active opponent of the French revolution and its offspring. Napoleon. Obliged to retire to Dresden in 1805, in the following year he was attached to the head-quarters of the king of Prussia. From his pen proceeded the celebrated Prussian and Austrian manifestoes against Napoleon; and afterwards in the congresses of Vienna, Aix-la-Chapelle, Laybach, and Verona, he acted as chief secretary. He was one of the most brilliant of the political writers, whose talents, unsupported by either moral or political principle, were wasted in the defence of Austrian absolutism. He is even said to have embraced the Roman catholic faith, in order to rise in the Austrian service. He commenced his literary career by a series of able translations, amongst which we note one of Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. His "Essai sur l'état actuel de l'administration des finances de la Grande Bretagne," translated from his Historical Journal; his "Life of Mary Queen of Scots;" and his "Fragmente aus der Geschichte des politischen Gleichgewichts von Europa," 1804, bear testimony to his thorough knowledge of political subjects, as well as to the vigour and elegance of his style. His "Mémoires et Lettres inédits" were published after his death by Schlesier.—K. E.

GEOFFREY IV., Duke of Anjou, commonly called Plantagenet, son of Foulques le Jeune, was born, 24th August, 1113, and died, 7th September, 1150. In 1129 he espoused Maud, daughter of Henry I. of England, and widow of Henry V., emperor of Germany. On the death of Henry in 1135, Normandy, which was claimed by Geoffrey in right of his wife, became the theatre of a protracted struggle between him and Stephen, earl of Blois. In 1147 he accompanied Louis VII. to the Holy Land, and shortly after his return had again to take the field in defence of his duchies. His son Henry was the first of the Plantagenet kings of England.—J. S., G.

GEOFFREY II., Duke of Bretagne, third son of Henry II. of England and Eleanor of Guienne, was born in 1158. In his infancy a marriage was arranged for him by his father with Constance, daughter of Conan IV., duke of Bretagne, of which Henry soon took advantage to extrude Conan altogether from the government of the duchy. Geoffrey, though crowned in 1169, had no independent authority till 1182. The remainder of his brief career was passed principally in warfare with his father, in which he had the secret support of the king of France. Geoffrey established in Bretagne in 1185 the law of primogeniture. He was killed at a tournay held in his honour at Paris, 19th August, 1186. Constance, after the death of her husband, gave birth to the unfortunate Prince Arthur, . the victim of the bloody ambition of King John.—J. S., G.

GEOFFREY D'AUXERRE, a French monk, born at Auxerre about 1120, pupil of Abelard, and for thirteen years principal secretary to St. Bernard, was elected abbot of Clairvaux in 1161 or 1162. He resigned the dignity a few years afterwards. In 1168 he was sent to Normandy to attempt the reconciliation of Henry II. and the archbishop of Canterbury. He died in the first decade of the thirteenth century. His works relate principally to St. Bernard.—J. S., G.

GEOFFREY DE VINSAUF, author of an Art of Poetry, entitled "Nova Poetria," which attained extraordinary popularity in the middle ages, flourished in the twelfth century. He was born in England; and as envoy of Richard I., or in some similar capacity, resided for some time at the court of Innocent III. Some other works besides the "Nova Poetria" have been attributed to Geoffrey, particularly a Latin account of Richard's journey to the Holy Land. A translation of the latter work is included in a series of chronicles published by Bohn.—J. S., G.

GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH (Galfridus Monumetensis), one of the most famous and fruitful of our early historians, is supposed to have been born at the opening of the twelfth century, in the town from which he takes his designation, and to have been bred in its benedictine monastery, among the rains of which tradition still indicates a little room as having been his study. He is said to have been afterwards archdeacon of Mon-