Genuflectentes, jovvK\ivovTfc, hieelers, a class of penitents in the ancient Church ; also Ciilled ^»o- strati, prostraters, because they were allowed to stay after the hearers were dismissed, and to join in cer- tain prayers particularly offered for them while the}' knelt. Forms of prayer, prepared for such occasions, are to be found in the Apostolical Constitutions (lib. viii, cap. viii); also in Chrj'sostom {Horn. 18 in 2 Cor.). The station of this class was within the nave or bod}' of the church, near the ambo or reading-desk, where they received the bishop's benediction, and imposition of hands. Some canons call these the penitents, bj' way of emphasis, without any other distinction, because they were most noted, and the greatest number of pen- itential acts were performed bj' them whilst the}' were in this station. — Ti'mgha.m, Oriff. Ecrl. bk. x, ch. ii, § 4, and xviii, ch. i, § 5.
Genuflection, the act of bending the knee, or kneeling in prayer. Baronius says that the early Christians carried the practice of genuflection so far, that some of them liad worn cavities in the floor where they prayed ; and Jerome relates of St. James, that he had, h\ this practice, contracted a hardness on his knees equal to that of camels. The Church of Eng- land gives many directions in her ruljrics as to the proper time of kneeling in prayer; l)ut warns all wor- .shippcrs, in the last rubric on the communion service, that 1)}' the posture prescribed for receiving tlie sym- bols, "no adoration is intended, or ought to be done, either unto the sacramental bread and wine there bod- ily received, or unto any corporal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood." — Farrar, Keel. Bielionary , s. V. ; Buck, Theol. Dictionary, s. v. See Knekling.
Genus Idiomaticum. See Ciiristology, vol. ii,p.281.
Geoffrey {Geoff rot) of Auxerre, a French theo- logian, was born at Auxerre aliout 1120, Ho studied under Abelard, and was at the I'uiversit}' of Paris when St. Bernard came there to preach on the conver- sion of the clergy {de conrerxione ad clencos). Deeply impressed by Bernard's preaching, ho entered the con-
vent of Clairvaux in 1140. For thirteen years he was principal secretary and travelling comjianion of St. Bernard. In llGl or 11G2 he was elected abbot of Clairvaux, but the monks, dissatisfied with the sever' it}' of his rule, petitioned Alexander III to depose him. Geoffrey voluntarily resigned, and withdrew to Ci- teaux. In 11G7 the abljot of Citeaux scut him to Italy to attempt a reconciliation between the pope and em- peror Frederick, but he did not succeed. The following year he endeavored to make peace between the f.rch- bishop of Canterbury and Henry II of England, who invited him to remain in his kingdom. Geoffrey be- came successively abbot of Fosse-Neuve in 3170, and of Haute-Combe in 117G. We have no information concerning him after 1188, though Oudin claims that he lived until 1215. He compiled the letters of St. Bernard, and his own writings have been inserted in the works of that saint. A number of his letters, to- gether with a life of St. Bernard, and a tract against Gilbert de la Porree, will be found in Bernardi Opera, vol. ii. He is considered as the author of the Compen- dium. Gaufredi de corpore Chrisii et sacramento Eueha- ristice, a manuscript tract against Abelard. See Ou- din, De Scriptor. eeeles. vol.ii ; Hist, litter, de la France, xiv, 430 ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gcmrale, xx, 27 sq.
Geoffrey of Monmouth {(Jualfridus, Calf idus, GavfrliJiis) was first archdeacon of jNlonmouth, after- wards (1152) bishop of St. Asaph. He died in 1154. He wrote a Chronieon sire Historia Britomim in xii books, supposed by some to be a translation from the Welsh. It is one of the sources for the legendary his- tory of Britain. The first edition is thr.t of Paris, 15G8, 4to'; the latest, that oiJ.A. Giks (London, 1844, 8vo). Translated, The British History, from the Latin by A. Thompson, Esq. (Lend. 1718, 8vo; new ed. revised by J. A. Giles, Lond. 1842, 8vo) ; also in Bohn's Antiqua- riaii Lilrary. See Wright, Biog. Britann. Lit., Anglo- Korman Period, p. 143-149.
Geogony. See Cosmogony. Geography, considered as a systematic descrip- tion of the earth, took its rise at a much later period than other sciences, probably because it is of less es- sential necessity to man ; yet the elements of the knowledge out of which scientific geogra];hy is con- structed must have existed as soon as men turned their attention to the earth on which they dwelt, and found it necessary to journey from one part of its sur- face to another. See CosMOi-OGy.
1. In the absence of positive statements, we have to gather the views of the Hebrews as to the form of the earth from scattered allusions, and these for the most part in the poetical books, where it is difficnlt to decide liow far the language is to be regarded as literal, and how far as metaphorical. There seem to be traces of the same ideas as prevailed among the Greeks, that the world was a disk (Isa. xl, 22; the word 5"n, cir- cle, is applied exclusively to the circle of the horizon, whether bounded by earth, sea, or sky), bordered liy the ocean (Dent, xxx, 13 ; Jolj xxvi, 10 ; Psa. cxxxix, 9 ; Prov. viii, 27), with Jerusalem as its centre (Ezek. V, 5), wJiich was thus regarded, like Delphi, as the navel {^'^"ZZi ; Judg. ix, 37 ; Ezek. xxxviii, 12), or, ac- cording to another view (Gesenius, Thesaur. s. v.), the highest point of the world. The passages quoted in support of this view admit of a diflerent interpreta- tion ; Jerusalem might be regarded as the centre of the world, not only as the seat of religious light end truth, but to a certain extent in a geographical sense; I for Palestine was situated between tlie important em- pires of Assyria and Egypt ; and not only between ] them, but above them, its elevation above the plains on either side .contributing to the appearance of its ! centrality. A different view has been gathered from j the expression "four corners" (ns;2, generally ap- I plied to the skirts of a garment), as though implying