GELASIUS OF CYZICUS: Greek church historian of the fifth century. He was the son of a presbyter at Cyzicus, and is known through his history of the First Council of Nicwa, which lie composed in Bithynia about 475 for the purpose of combating Monophysite appeals to the Nic(enum. The work, in three books, is largely a compilation from Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. The data not derived from these sources came from an original documentary collection,

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a sort of protocol covering the transactions at Nicæa, which had formerly been in the possession of Bishop Dahmatius 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 ficotchman Robert. Balfour (Paris, 1599), and since then it has been reprinted in all the large collections of councils (e.g., Mansi, Con cilia, ii. 753-946; also MPG, Ixxxv. 1179-1360).

G. Krüger.

Bibliography: C. H. Turner, in JTS, 1900, pp. 125-126; G. Loeschoke, Da# Syntagma des Gelasius. CVzieenus, Bonn, 1908; DCB, ii. 621-623.

GELLERT, gel'lert, CHRISTIAN FUERCHTEGOTT: 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 Fürstenschule 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 début as an author by the publication of his earliest' fables and tales in the Belustigungen des Verstandes and 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 t0 this period. Of his comedies the Band appeared in the Belustigungen in 1744, and Sylvia in 1745; the Betschwester and Los in der Latterie in the Bremer Beiträge 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 ordinanus 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 Gott gemacht ("This is the day which God has made"), and the Easter hymn, Jesus lives, mit ihm such 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, Leip sic, 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 Sch6nfeld (issued as the first part of the Dahlener Antiquaritts, 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, Nekrodog . . . der Deutschen, ii. 481532, Berlin, 1785; C. H. Jbrdens, Leaikon deutschen Dichter and Prosaiaten, ii. 5488, vi. 140 sqq., Leipsic 1808-11; H. DSring, Christian Ftirchfegott Gellert'a Leben, Greiz, 1833; G. E. Leo, Dae fromme Leben Gellerte, Dresden, 1846; H. Gelzer, Die neuere deutsche National-Literatur, i. 37-61, Leipsic, 1847; K. R. Hagenbach, Die Kirchengeschichte des 18. and 19. Jahrhunderts, i. 339 sqq., Leipsic. 1848, Eng. transl., Hist. of the Church in the 18th and 18th Centuries, New York, 1869; Das Gellerh buck, ed. F. Naumann, Dresden, 1854; K. J. Nitzsch. Ueber Lavater and 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 and Werke. Leipsic, 1894; Julian, Hymnologv, pp. 406-408.