Part 509

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1868-1870; 1873-1880 to 1885; 1885-1886; and 1892-1893.

GLATZ, Capture of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1760.

GLENCO, Massacre of.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1692.

GLENDALE, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JUNE-JULY: VIRGINIA).

GLENDOWER'S REBELLION.

See WALES: A. D. 1402-1413.

GLENMALURE, Battle of (1580).

See IRELAND: A. D. 1559-1603.

GLEVUM.

Glevum was a large colonial city of the Romans in Britain, represented by the modern city of Gloucester. It "was a town of great importance, as standing not only on the Severn, near the place where it opened out into the Bristol Channel, but also as being close to the great Roman iron district of the Forest of Dean."

_T. Wright, Celt, Roman and Saxon, chapter 5._

{1551}

GLOGAU, The storming of (1642).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1640-1645.

GLOSSATORS, The.

See BOLOGNA: 11TH CENTURY.—SCHOOL OF LAW.

GLOUCESTER, Origin of.

See GLEVUM.

GLOUCESTER: A. D. 1643. Siege of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).

GLYCERIUS, Roman Emperor (Western), A. D. 473-474.

GNOSTICS-GNOSTICISM.

"In a word … Gnosticism was a philosophy of religion; but in what sense was it this? The name of Gnosticism—Gnosis—does not belong exclusively to the group of phenomena with whose historical explanation we are here concerned. Gnosis is a general idea; it is only as defined in one particular manner that it signifies Christian Gnosticism in a special sense: Gnosis is higher Knowledge, Knowledge that has a clear perception of the foundations on which it rests, and the manner in which its structure has been built up; a Knowledge that is completely that which, as Knowledge, it is called to be. In this sense it forms the natural antithesis to Pistis, Faith [whence Pistics, believing Christians]: if it is desired to denote Knowledge in its specific difference from faith, no word will mark the distinction more significantly than Gnosis. But we find that, even in this general sense, the Knowledge termed Gnosis is a religious Knowledge rather than any other; for it is not speculative Knowledge in general, but only such as is concerned with religion. … In its form and contents Christian Gnosticism is the expansion and development of Alexandrian religious philosophy; which was itself an offshoot of Greek philosophy. … The fundamental character of Gnosticism in all its forms is dualistic. It is its sharply-defined, all-pervading dualism that, more than anything else, marks it directly for an offspring of paganism. … In Gnosticism the two principles, spirit and matter, form the great and general antithesis, within the bounds of which the systems move with all that they contain. … A further leading Gnostic conception is the Demiurgus. The two highest principles being spirit and matter, and the true conception of a creation of the world being thus excluded, it follows in the Gnostic systems, and is a characteristic feature of them, that they separate the creator of the world from the supreme God, and give him a position subordinate to the latter. He is therefore rather the artificer than the creator of the world. … The oldest Gnostic sects are without doubt those whose name is not derived from a special founder, but only stand for the general notion of Gnosticism. Such a name is that of the Ophites or Naassenes. The Gnostics are called Ophites, brethren of the Serpent, not after the serpent with which the fathers compared Gnosticism, meaning to indicate the dangerous poison of its doctrine, and to suggest that it was the hydra, which as soon as it lost one head at once put forth another; but because the serpent was the accepted symbol of their lofty Knowledge. … The first priests and supporters of the dogma were, according to the author of the Philosophoumena, the so-caned Naassenes—a name derived from the Hebrew name of the serpent. They afterwards called themselves Gnostics, because they asserted that they alone knew the things that are deepest. From this root the one heresy divided into various branches; for though these heretics all taught a like doctrine, their dogmas were various."

_F. C. Baur, The Church History of the First Three Centuries, volume 1, pages 187-202._

"Bigotry has destroyed their [the Gnostics'] writings so thoroughly, that we know little of them except from hostile sources. They called themselves Christians, but cared little for the authority of bishops or apostles, and borrowed freely from cabalists, Parsees, astrologers, and Greek philosophers, in building up their fantastic systems. … Much as we may fear that the Gnostic literature was more remarkable for boldness in speculation than for, clearness of reasoning or respect for facts, it is a great pity that it should have been almost entirely destroyed by ecclesiastical bigotry."

_F. M. Holland, The Rise of Intellectual Liberty, chapter 3, section 6._

ALSO IN: _J. L. von Mosheim, Historical Commentaries on the State of Christianity, century 1, sections 60-70, century 2, sections 41-65._

_C. W. King, The Gnostics and their Remains._

_A. Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, volume 2._

See, also, DOCETISM.

GOA, Acquisition by the Portuguese (1510).

See INDIA: A. D. 1498-1580.

GODERICH MINISTRY, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1827-1828.

GODFREY DE BOUILLON: His crusade and his kingdom of Jerusalem.

See CRUSADES: A. D. 1096-1099; and JERUSALEM: A. D. 1099, and 1099-1144.

GODOLO, Battle of (1849).

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1848-1849.

GODOLPHIN AND THE ENGLISH TREASURY.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1710-1712.

GODWINE, Earl: Ascendancy in England.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1042-1066.

GOIDEL, The.

See CELTS, THE.

GOITO, Battles of(1848).

See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.

GOLD DISCOVERY IN AUSTRALIA.

See AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1839-1855.

GOLD DISCOVERY IN CALIFORNIA.

See CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1848-1849.

GOLDEN BIBLE, The.

See MORMONISM: A. D. 1805-1830.

GOLDEN BOOK OF VENICE.

See VENICE: A. D. 1032-1319.

GOLDEN BOUGH, The.

See ARICIAN GROVE.

GOLDEN BULL, Byzantine.

A document to which the emperor attached his golden seal was called by the Byzantines, for that reason, a chrysobulum or golden bull. The term was adopted in the Western or Holy Roman Empire.

_G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, page 190._

GOLDEN BULL OF CHARLES IV., The.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1347-1493; and 13TH CENTURY.

GOLDEN BULL OF HUNGARY.

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1114-1301.

GOLDEN CHERSONESE.

See CHRYSE.

{1552}

GOLDEN CIRCLE, Knights of the.

David Christy published his 'Cotton is King' in the year [1856] in which Buchanan was elected [President of the United States], and the Knights of the Golden Circle appear to have organized about the same time. The Golden Circle had its centre at Havana, Cuba, and with a radius of sixteen degrees (about 1,200 miles) its circumference took in Baltimore, St. Louis, about half of Mexico, all of Central America, and the best portions of the coast along the Caribbean Sea. The project was, to establish an empire with this circle for its territory, and by controlling four great staples—rice, tobacco, sugar, and cotton—practically govern the commercial world. Just how great a part this secret organization played in the scheme of secession, nobody that was not in its counsels can say; but it is certain that it boasted, probably with truth, a membership of many thousands."

_Rossiter Johnson, Short History of the War of Secession, page 24._

During the American Civil War, the Order of the Knights of the Golden Circle was extended (1862-1864) through the Northern States, as a secret treasonable organization, in aid of the Southern Rebellion.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (OCTOBER).

GOLDEN FLEECE, Knights of the Order of the.

"It was on the occasion of his marriage [A. D. 1430] that Philip [Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders, etc.], desirous of instituting a national order of knighthood, chose for its insignia a 'golden fleece,' with the motto, 'Pretium non vile laborum,'—not to be condemned is the reward of labour. … For the first time labour was given heraldic honours. The pride of the country had become laden with industrial recollections, its hope full of industrial triumphs; if feudalism would keep its hold, it must adopt or affect the national feeling. No longer despised was the recompense of toil; upon the honour of knighthood it should so be sworn; nay knighthood would henceforth wear appended to its collar of gold no other emblem than its earliest and most valued object—a golden fleece."

_W. T. McCullagh, Industrial History of Free Nations, volume 2, chapter 10._

"This order of fraternity, of equality between nobles, in which the duke was admonished, 'chaptered,' just the same as any other, this council, to which he pretended to communicate his affairs, was at bottom a tribunal where the haughtiest found the duke their judge; he could honour or dishonour them by a sentence of the order. Their scutcheon answered for them; hung up in St. Jean's, Ghent, it could either be erased or blackened. … The great easily consoled themselves for degradation at Paris by lawyers, when they were glorified by the duke of Burgundy in a court of chivalry in which kings took their seat."

_J. Michelet, History of France, book 12, chapter 4._

"The number of the members was originally fixed at 31, including the sovereign, as the head and chief of the institution. They were to be: 'Gentilshommes de nom et d'armes sans reproche.' In 1516, Pope Leo X. consented to increase the number to 52, including the head. After the accession of Charles V., in 1556, the Austro-Spanish, or, rather, the Spanish-Dutch line of the house of Austria, remained in possession of the Order. In 1700, the Emperor Charles VI. and King Philip of Spain both laid claim to it. … It now passes by the respective names of the Spanish or Austrian. 'Order of the Golden Fleece,' according to the country where it is issued."

_Sir B. Burke, Book of Orders of Knighthood, page 6._

ALSO IN: _J. F. Kirk, History of Charles the Bold, book 1, chapter 2._

GOLDEN GATE, The.

"The Bay of San Francisco is separated by [from] the sea by low mountain ranges. Looking from the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, the coast mountains present an apparently continuous line, with only a single gap, resembling a mountain pass. This is the entrance to the great bay. … On the south, the bordering mountains come down in a narrow ridge of broken hills, terminating in a precipitous point, against which the sea breaks heavily. On the northern side, the mountain presents a bold promontory, rising in a few miles to a height of two or three thousand feet. Between these points is the strait—about one mile broad in the narrowest part, and five miles long from the sea to the bay. To this Gate I gave the name of Chrysopylæ, or Golden Gate; for the same reasons that the harbor of Byzantium (Constantinople afterwards), was called Chrysoceras, or Golden Horn. Passing through this gate, the bay opens to the right and left, extending in each direction about 35 miles, making a total length of more than 70, and a coast of about 275 miles."

_J. C. Fremont, Memoirs of my life, volume 1, page 512._

GOLDEN HORDE, The.

See MONGOLS: A. D. 1238-1391.

GOLDEN HORN, The.

See BYZANTIUM.

GOLDEN HORSESHOE, Knights of the.

See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1710-1716.

GOLDEN HOUSE, The.

The imperial palace at Rome, as restored by Nero after the great fire, was called the Golden House. It was destroyed by Vespasian.

_C. Merivale, History of the Romans under the Empire, chapters 53 and 90._

GOLDEN, OR BORROMEAN, LEAGUE, The.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1579-1630.

GOLDEN SPUR, Order of the.

An order of knighthood instituted in 1550 by Pope Paul III.

GOLDSBORO, General Sherman's march to.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (FEBRUARY-MARCH: THE CAROLINAS), and (FEBRUARY-MARCH: N. CAROLINA).

GOLIAD, Massacre at (1836).

See TEXAS: A. D. 1824-1836.

GOLOWSTSCHIN, Battle of (1708).

See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1707-1718.

GOLYMIN, Battle of (1806).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1806-1807.

GOMER, OR OMER, The.

See EPHAH.

GOMERISTS. See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1603-1619.

GOMPHI.

Gomphi, a city on the border of Thessaly, shut its gates against Cæsar, shortly before the battle of Pharsalia. He halted one day in his march, stormed the town and gave it up to his soldiers to be sacked.

_G. Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, volume 5, chapter 15._

GONDS, The.

See INDIA: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

GONFALONIERE.

See CARROCCIO.

GONZAGA, The House of.

"The house of Gonzaga held sovereign power at Mantua, first as captains, then as marquesses, then as dukes, for nearly 400 years" (1328-1708).

_E. A. Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe, volume 1, page 243._

GOOD ESTATE OF RIENZI, The.

See ROME: A. D. 1347-1354.

GOOD HOPE, Cape of: The Discovery and the Name.

See PORTUGAL: A. D.1463-1498.

GOOD HOPE, Cape of: The Colonization.

See SOUTH AFRICA.

{1553}

GOORKAS, OR GURKHAS, OR GHORKAS, The.

See INDIA: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS; and A. D. 1805-1816.

GOOROO, OR GURU.

See SIKHS.

GORDIAN I. and II., Roman Emperors, A. D. 238. Gordian III., Roman Emperor, A. D. 238-244.

GORDIAN KNOT, Cutting the.

"It was about February or March 333 B. C., when Alexander reached Gordium; where he appears to have halted for some time, giving to the troops which had been with him in Pisidia a repose doubtless needful. While at Gordium, he performed the memorable exploit familiarly known as the cutting of the Gordian knot. There was preserved in the citadel an ancient waggon of rude structure, said by the legend to have once belonged to the peasant Gordius and his son Midas—the primitive rustic kings of Phrygia, designated as such by the Gods and chosen by the people. The cord (composed of fibres from the bark of the cornel tree), attaching the yoke of this waggon to the pole, was so twisted and entangled as to form a knot of singular complexity, which no one had ever been able to untie. An oracle had pronounced, that to the person who should untie it the empire of Asia was destined. … Alexander, on inspecting the knot, was as much perplexed as others had been before him, until at length, in a fit of impatience, he drew his sword and severed the cord in two. By everyone this was accepted as a solution of the problem."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 93._

GORDON, General Charles George, In China.

See CHINA: A. D.1850-1864.

In the Soudan.

See EGYPT: A. D. 1870-1883, and 1884-1885.

GORDON RIOTS, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1778-1780.

GORDYENE, OR CORDYENE, OR CORDUENE.

The tribes of the Carduchi which anciently occupied the region of northern Mesopotamia, east of the Tigris, have given their name permanently to the country, but in variously modified forms. In the Greek and Roman period it was known as Gordyene, Cordyene, Corduene; at the present day it is Kurdistan. Under the Parthian domination in Asia, Gordyene was a tributary kingdom. In the early part of the last century B. C. it was conquered by Tigranes, king of Armenia, who chose a site within it for building his vast new capital, Tigranocerta, to populate which twelve Greek cities were stripped of inhabitants. It was included among the conquests of Trajan for the Romans, but relinquished by Hadrian.

_G. Rawlinson, Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 10, and after._

See, also, CARDUCHI, THE.

GORGES, Sir Ferdinando, and the colonization of Maine.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1621-1631, and 1635; also MAINE: A. D. 1639.

GORM, King of Denmark, A. D. 883-941.

GOROSZLO, Battle of (1601).

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: 14TH-18TH CENTURIES (ROUMANIA, &c.).

GORTYN.

See CRETE.

GOSHEN, Land of.

See JEWS: THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS.

GOSNOLD'S VOYAGE TO NEW ENGLAND.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1602-1605.

GOSPORT NAVY YARD, Abandonment and destruction of the.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL).

GOTHA, Origin of the Dukedom of.

See SAXONY: A. D. 1180-1553.

GOTHI MINORES, The.

See GOTHS: A. D. 341-381.

GOTHIA, in central Europe.

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 376.

GOTHIA, in Gaul.

Septimania, the strip of land along the Mediterranean between the Pyrenees and the Rhone, was the last possession of the Goths in Gaul, and the name Gothia became for a time attached to it.

_E. A. Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe, chapter 5, section 5._

See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 419-451.

GOTHINI, The.

The Gotini or Gothini were a people of ancient Germany who "are probably to be placed in Silesia, about Breslau." "The Gotini and Osi [who held a part of modern Gallicia, under the Carpathian mountains] are proved by their respective Gallic and Pannonian tongues, as well as by the fact of their enduring tribute, not to be Germans. … The Gotini, to complete their degradation, actually work iron mines."

_Tacitus, Minor Works, translated by Church and Brodribb: The Germany, with geographical notes._

GOTHLAND IN SWEDEN.

See GOTHS: ORIGIN OF THE.

GOTHONES, The.

A tribe in ancient Germany, mentioned by Tacitus. They "probably dwelt on either side of the Vistula, the Baltic being their northern boundary. Consequently, their settlements would coincide with portions of Pomerania and Prussia. Dr. Latham thinks they were identical with the Æstii."

_Church and Brodribb, Geographical Notes to the Germany of Tacitus._

See GOTHS, ORIGIN OF THE.

GOTHS, Origin of the.

"The Scandinavian origin of the Goths has given rise to much discussion, and has been denied by several eminent modern scholars. The only reasons in favor of their Scandinavian origin are the testimony of Jornandes and the existence of the name of Gothland in Sweden; but the testimony of Jornandes contains at the best only the tradition of the people respecting their origin, which is never of much value; and the mere fact of the existence of the name of Gothland in Sweden is not sufficient to prove that this country was the original abode of the people. When the Romans first saw the Goths, in the reign of Caracalla, they dwelt in the land of the Getæ [on the northern side of the lower Danube]. Hence Jornandes, Procopius, and many other writers, both ancient and modern, supposed the Goths to be the same as the Getæ of the earlier historians. But the latter writers always regarded the Getæ as Thracians; and if their opinion was correct, they could have had no connection with the Goths. Still, it is a startling fact that a nation called Gothi should have emigrated from Germany, and settled accidentally in the country of a people with a name so like their own as that of Getæ. This may have happened by accident, but certainly all the probabilities are against it. Two hypotheses have been brought forward in modern times to meet this difficulty. One is that of Grimm, in his History of the German Language, who supposes that there was no migration of the Goths at all, that they were on the Lower Danube from the beginning, and that they were known to the earlier Greek and Latin writers as Getæ: but the great objection to this opinion is the general belief of the earlier writers that the Getæ were Thracians, and the latter were certainly not Germans. {1554} The other is that of Latham, who supposes, with much ingenuity, that the name of Get, or Goth, was the general name given by the Slavonic nations to the Lithuanians. According to this theory, the Goth-ones, or Guth-ones, at the mouth of the Vistula, mentioned by Tacitus and Ptolemy, are Lithuanians, and the Get-æ, on the Danube, belong to the same nation. Latham also believes that the Goths of a later period were Germans who migrated to the Danube, but that they did not bear the name of Goths till they settled in the country of the Getæ.

See _Latham, The Germania of Tacitus, Epil., p. xxxviii., seq._"

_W. Smith, Note to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 10._

"The first clear utterance of tradition among the Goths points to Sweden as their home. It is true that this theory of the Swedish origin of the Goths has of late been strenuously combatted, but until it is actually disproved (if that be possible) it seems better to accept it as a 'working hypothesis,' and, at the very least, a legend which influenced the thoughts and feelings of the nation itself. Condensing the narrative of Jornandes … we get some such results as these: 'The island of Scanzia [peninsula of Norway and Sweden] lies in the Northern Ocean, opposite the mouths of the Vistula, in shape like a cedar-leaf. In this island, a warehouse of nations ("officina gentium"), dwelt the Goths, with many other tribes,' whose uncouth names are for the most part forgotten, though the Swedes, the Fins, the Heruli, are familiar to us. 'From this island the Goths, under their king Berig, set forth in search of new homes. They had but three ships, and as one of these during their passage always lagged behind, they called her "Gepanta," "the torpid one," and her crew, who ever after showed themselves more sluggish and clumsy than their companions when they became a nation, bore a name derived from this circumstance, Gepidae, the Loiterers'." Settling, first, near the mouth of the Vistula, these Gothic wanderers increased in numbers until they were forced once more to migrate southward and eastward, seeking a larger and more satisfactory home. In time, they reached the shores of the Euxine. "The date of this migration of the Goths is uncertain; but, as far as we can judge from the indications afforded by contemporary Roman events, it was somewhere between 100 and 200 A. D. At any rate, by the middle of the third century, we find them firmly planted in the South of Russia. They are now divided into three nations, the Ostrogoths on the East, the Visigoths on the West, the lazy Gepidae a little to the rear—that is, to the North of both. … It is important for us to remember that these men are Teutons of the Teutons. … Moreover, the evidence of language shows that among the Teutonic races they belonged to the Low German family of peoples: more nearly allied, that is to say, to the Dutch, the Frieslanders, and to our own Saxon forefathers, all of whom dwelt by the flat shores of the German Ocean or the Baltic Sea, than to the Suabians and other High German tribes who dwelt among the hills."

_T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, introduction, chapter 3 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN: _T. Mommsen, History of Rome, book 8, chapter 6._

_T. Smith, Arminius, part 2, chapter 2._

See, also, VANDALS.

GOTHS: Acquisition of Bosphorus.