Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/485

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427

GEOFFREY


427


GEOFFREY


of comparatively recent introduction, though in some cases they replace a prostration that was usual, in ancient times, when the same sacred words were solemnly uttered (see, for instance, in regard to the " Et incarnatus", the curious passage in the work of Radulphus Tongrensis (De can. observ.). The Car- thusian custom of bending the knee, yet so as not to touch the ground, is curious; and has interest from the historical point of view as testifying to the reluc- tance formerly felt by many to the modern practice of genuflecting. See also the Decree of the S. Cong, of Rites (n. 3402) of 7 July, 1S7G, insisting that women as well as men must genuflect before the Blessed Sacra- ment. The simple bending of the knee, unlike pros- tration, cannot be traced to sources outside Christian worship. Thus, the pagan and classical gesture of adoration consisted in the standing before the being or thing to be worshipped, in putting the right hand to the mouth (ad ora), and in turning the body to the right. The act of falling down, or prostration, was introduced in Rome when the Ca?sars brought from the East the Oriental custom of worshipping the em- perors in this manner as gods. "Caium Ciesarem adorari ut deum constituit cum reversus ex Syria non aliter adire ausus esset quam capite velato circum- vertensque se, deinde procumbens" (Suet., Vit., ii). The liturgical rules for genuflecting are now very defi- nite. (1) All genuflect (bending both knees) when adoring the Blessed Sacrament unveiled, as at Ex- positions. (2) All genuflect (bending the right knee only) when doing reverence to the Blessed Sacrament, enclosed in the Tabernacle, or lying upon the corporal during the Mass. Mass-servers are not to genuflect, save when the Blessed Sacrament is at the altar where Mass is being said (cf. Wapelhorst, injra). The same honour is paid to a relic of the True Cross when exposed for public veneration. (3) The clergy in lit- urgical functions genuflect on one knee to the cross over the high altar, and like%vise in passing before the bishop of the diocese when he presides at a ceremony. From these genuflexions, however, an officiating priest, as also all prelates, canons, etc., are dispensed, bowing of the head and shoulders being substituted for the genuflexion. (4) On Good Friday, after the ceremony of the Adoration of the Cross, and until Holy Saturday, all, clergy and laity alike, genuflect in pass- ing before the unveiled cross upon the high altar.

Hefele, Hist, des Conciles, I (Paris, 1907), 618; Bona, lie- rum Lilurgicarum tibri duo; Martene, De Antiquis Ecclesite Ritibus (Rouen, 1700-02); Van der Stappen, Sacra Liluraia (Mechlin, 1904): Merati, Commentar. in Gavantum, I, bk. XV, etc.); Thurston in The Month (Oct., 1897); Ephemerides Litur- gical. II, 583; XVI, 82; XIX, 16; Bingham, Ecclesiastical Antiquities, XIII, viii, sect. 3 (London, 1875); Hook, Church Dictionary, 424 sqq. (ed. 1S59); Scudamors in Diet. Christ. Antiq., s. V. (London, 1893); Riddle, Christian Antiquities, IV, i, 4; Warren. Anie-Nicene Church, ch. ii, 17 (London, 1897);LECLERcq, Man. d'Archeol. Chrct. (Paris, 1907); Wapel- horst, Comp. sac. liturg. (New Yorlc, 1904) ; Baltimore Cere- monial. F. Thom.\s Bergh.

Geoffrey of Clairvaux, a disciple of St. Bernard, was b. between the years 1115 and 1120, at Auxerre; d. some time after the year 1 1S8, probably at the alibey of Haute Combe, Savoy. At an early age he entered the ranks of the clergy, and followed for some time the course of lectures given by Abclard. In 1 140 St. Ber- nard of Clairvaux came to Paris, and before the as- sembled scholars preached a sermon " Ue conversione ad clericos" (P. L., CLXXXII, 8-32 sqq.), in which he dwelt on the vanities of a life in the world, on the ne- cessity of a sincere conversion, and on the peace to be found in the monastic profession. Geoffrey was so struck by this forcible discourse that, with several others, he followed St. Bernard and joined the monas- tic commimity of Clairvau.x. Soon he won the special confidence of the saintly abbot, became his nolarius, or .secretary, and his permanent companion. In 1 14.5 he accompanied him to Toulouse and other cities of Southern France, where the saint preached against


the Manichtean or Albigensian heresy of a certain Henry and his partisans. During the years 1146-47 he travelled with St. Bernard through France and Germany, where the saint aroused the people for a crusade to the Holy Land. At the council held at Reims in 1148 he took an active part in the discussion concerning the errors of Gilbert de la Porree. In 1 159 he was made abbot of the monastery of Igny in the Diocese of Reims, and in 1162 he became the fourth Abbot of Clairvaux. Owing to difficulties with the monks, he was forced to resign in 1 165 ; but in 1 170 he was appointed to the abbey of Fossa Nuova in the dio- cese of Terracina, Italy, and in 1176 to that of Haute Combe, Savoy. In the political events of the time he had only a small share; thus, in 1167 and 1168, he took part in the negotiations tending towards the reconciliation of Alexander III (1159-81) with the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa (1152-90) and King Henry II of England (1154-89).

Most of the literary activity of Geoffrey has refer- ence to the life antl work of St. Bernard. Thus, while still nolarius of the saint, he collected the letters of his abbot, variously estimated at 243 or 310 (P. L., CLXXXII, 67 sqq.). He was the chief author of a life of St. Bernard in five books, furnishing materials for the first two books, revising them, and adding three of his own (P. L., CLXXXV, 225 sqq.). He also wrote fragments of a life of St. Bernard, probably used in the first books of the complete hfe (P. L., CLXXXV, 523 sqq.) ; an account of the saint's journey to Tou- loiLse, in a letter to his teacher Archenfredus (P. L., CLXXXV, 410 sqq.); an account of the saint's jour- ney through Germany, the third part of the sixth book of St. Bernard's life in P. L., CLXXXV, 395 sqq. (this description and the parts in the life of St. Ber- nard relating to Germany were edited also by Waitz, inMon.Germ. Hist.: Script., XXVI, 109-20, 133-37); a panegyric delivered in 1163 on the anniversary of St. Bernard's death (in P. L., CLXXXV, 573 sqq.); "Declamationes de colloquio Simonis cumjesu"(in P. L., CLXXXIV, 437 sqq), an ascetical work com- piled from the sermons of St. Bernard; "Libellus contra capitula Gilberti Pictaviensis Episcopi" (in P. L., CLXXXV, 595 sqq.), a refutation of the errors of Gilbert de la Porrge; a letter to Albinus, Cardinal Bishop of Albano, on the same subject (in P. L., CLXXXV, 587 sqq.) ; a life of St. Peter, Archbishop of Tarentaise (1175), published in Acta Sanctorum Boll., May, II, 330 sqq. ; a letter to the above-named Cardinal of Albano, as to whether the water added to the wine in the chalice is changed into the blood of Our Lord (Baronius, Ann. Eccl., ad an. 118S, n. 27); sermons and commentaries on books of Scripture, partly in print and partly manuscript.

HOffer. Der hi. Bernard van Clairvaux (Munster, 1886): Vacandard, Vie de St. Bernard, I (3rd ed., Paris, 1902); Streber in Kirchenlex.,s.v. Gottfried von Clairvaux; Deutsch in Realencyklopddie, s. v. Gottfried von Clairvaux.

Francis J. Schaefer.

Geoffrey of Dunstable, also known as Geof- frey OF GoRiiAM, Abbot of St. Alban's, d. at St. Al- ban's, 26 Feb., 1146. He was a scholar from the province of Maine, then annexed to the Dukedom of Normandy, who was invited by Richard, Abbot of St. Alban's, to become master of the abbey- school. On his arrival, he found that owing to his long delay another had been appointed, whereupon he opened a school at Dunstable. Having borrowed some copes from St. Alban's Abbey for a miracle play to be acted by his scholars, he had the misfortune to lose his house and all its contents by fire on the evening after the performance. To make up to God and the saint for the loss of the copes, he determined to become a monk of St. Alban's Abl)ey. Here he rose to be prior, and finally was elected abbot on the death of Richard, in 1119. He ruled firmly for twenty-six years, and the abbey prospered under his wise admin-