RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Gelasius Gelzer
a sort of protocol covering the transactions at Niceea, which had formerly been in the possession of Bishop Dalmatius of Cyzicus (c. 410). These original documents seem to have possessed real historic value. The work was first edited, in Greek and Latin, by the Scotchman Robert Balfour (Paris, 1599), and since then it has been reprinted in all the large collections of councils (e.g., Mansi, Concilia, ii. 753-946; also MPG, lxxxv. 1179-1360).
G. Kruger. Bibliography: C. H. Turner, in JTS, 1900, pp. 125-126;
G Loeschcke, Das Syntagma des Gelasius Cyzicenus,
Bonn, 1906; DCB, ii. 621-623.
GELLERT, gel'lert, CHRISTIAN FUERCHTE- GOTT: German poet and writer; b. at Haynichen, in the Erzgebirge, Saxony, July 4, 1715; d. in Leipsic Dec. 13, 1769. He was the son of a clergyman. After obtaining his first instruction in the school of his native city and attending, from 1729, the Filrstenschule in Meissen, he went, in 1734, to Leipsic to study theology. Since a congenital timidity and bashfulness as well as pulmonary weakness did not permit him to become a preacher, after four years of study and two of private tutorship, he returned in 1741 to Leipsic. He gave lessons for his support and made his debut as an author by the publication of his earliest fables and tales in the Belustigungen des Verstandes und Witzes for 1741. In 1744 he joined the faculty of the university as privat-docent and lectured on poetry and oratory. Nearly all his secular works belong to this period. Of his comedies the Band appeared in the Belustigungen in 1744, and Sylvia in 1745; the Betschwester and Los in der Lotterie in the Bremer Beitrdge in 1745-46. In 1746 also appeared
his novel Leben der schwedischen Grafin von G .
In 1746 and 1748 appeared the first two books of his celebrated fables, which, with the addition of a third book, have been often reprinted and translated. In 1751, Gellert became professor extraordinary; the students flocked to hear his lectures on literature and morals, and his influence over them was great. Even a tendency to hypochondria, the result of physical suffering, did not in any way lessen his popularity. In spite of the recognition awarded him, he remained singularly modest; he declined the position of professor ordinarius as well as calls to Hamburg and Halle, preferring to remain in Leipsic.
Gellert's Geistliche Oden und Lieder met with general approval on their first appearance in 1757, and several were immediately introduced into new hymnals; they even found a warm reception with Roman Catholics. The secret of their influence lies decidedly in their strong religious tone in union with great ease and naturalness of expression. It is true that much may be said against them from an esthetic and dogmatic point of view; many are not suitable for hymns and some were called by Gellert himself " Biblical contemplations "; others, however, have a truly religious quality and a lyric strain, as, for example, the Christmas hymn, Dies ist der Tag den Gottgemacht (" This is the day which God has made " ), and the Easter hymn, Jesus lebt, mit ihm auch ich ( " Jesus lives and I live with him"). The pious subjectivity of the poet, which
comes out in all his hymns, has found an echo in a thousand hearts and in this way has become truly objective. Gellert's hymns have been often republished and translated into foreign languages. His prose writings also, especially his lectures on morals and his shorter essays of an apologetic and parenetic character exerted a happy influence upon the religious thought of his time. They lack, however, the sharply defined ethical and dogmatic conceptions which are required to-day.
Gellert's works first appeared in ten parts, Leipsic, 1769-74; they have often been reprinted, the last time in Leipsic and Berlin, 1867 In the later editions are found a collection of letters from and to Gellert, but this does not include his letters to Fraulein Erdmuth von Schonfeld (issued as the first part of the Dahlener Antiquarius, Leipsic, 1861) or his diary of the year 1761 (ed. T. O. Weigel, 2d ed., Leipsic, 1863). Carl Bertheau.
Bibliography: J. A. Cramer, Gellert's Leben, Leipsic, 1774; C. H. Schmid, Nekrolog . . der Deutschen, ii. 481- 532, Berlin, 1785; C. H. Jordens, Lexikon deutscher Dichter und Prosaisten, ii. 54-88, vi. 140 sqq., Leipsic 1806-11; H. Doring, Christian Furchtegott Gellert's Leben, Greiz, 1833; G. E. Leo, Das fromme Leben Gellerts, Dresden, 1846; H. Gelzer, Die neuere deutsche National- Literatur, i. 37-61, Leipsic, 1847; K. R. Hagenbach, Die Kirchengeschichte des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, i. 339 sqq., Leipsic, 1848, Eng. transl.. Hist, of the Church in the 18th and 19th Centuries, New York, 1869; Das Gellertbuch, ed. F. Naumann, Dresden, 1854; K. J. Nitzsch, Ueber Lavater und Gellert, Berlin, 1857; E. Koch, Geschichte des Kirchenliedes, vi. 263 sqq., Stuttgart, 1870 S. W. Duffield, English Hymns, p. 285, New York, 1886 A. Schullerus, Gellert's Leben und Werke, Leipsic, 1894 Julian, Hymnology, pp. 406-408.
GELPKE, ERNST FRIEDRICH: German theologian; b. at Breitenfeld (4 m. n. of Leipsic) Apr. 8, 1807; d. at Bern Sept. 1, 1871. He studied at Grimma, Leipsic, and Berlin, in the latter university coming under the influence of Schleiermacher and Neander. His Evangelische Dogmatik (Bonn, 1834), written while he was a privat-docent at Bonn, gained him a call, in the year of its publication, to the newly founded university of Bern. There he lectured at first on New Testament exegesis, and later on dogmatics and moral theology, in addition to teaching in the gymnasia of the city. His chief work was his Kirchengeschichte der Schweiz (2 vols., Bern, 1856-61), which, however, extends only to the eleventh century. In his theology Gelpke belonged to the mediating school, although his Jugendgeschichte des Herrn (1841) betrayed so strongly the influence of Strauss that it created a sensation at Bern. Humanistic idealism led him to join the freemasons, and he became grand master. Several of his poems were published, including his trilogy Napoleon (1854).