GASQUET, FRANCIS AIDAN: English Benedictine; b. in London Oct. 5, 1846. He was graduated at St. Gregory's College, Downside, Bath, in 1864, and entered the Benedictine order in 1865, being a postulant at Belmont Priory, near Hereford, 1865-70 and at Downside Priory 1870-74. , In 1874 he was ordained priest, and from 1878 to 1885 was prior of the community, but was compelled to resign on account of ill health. On his recovery he was appointed by Pope Leo XIII. to engage in historical research, and accordingly, removed to London. In 1896 he was appointed a member of the commission of Anglican orders, and during a visit in Rome discovered important documents bearing on the controversy. Four years later he was appointed abbot president of the English Benedictines, and in this capacity controls .four wonasteries and over 300 monks. He has written Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries (2 vols., London, 1888); Edward VI. and the Book of Common Prayer (in collaboration with Edmund Bishop; 1890); The Great Pestilence (1893); . The Last Abbot of Glastonbury (1895); A Sketch of Monastic Constitutional History (1896); The Old English Bible, and Other Essays (1897); The Eros of the Reformation (1900); A Short History of the Catholic Church in England (1903); English Monastic Life (19030; Henry the Third and the Church (1905);, Lord Acton and his Circle (1906); Pariah Life in Madia-

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val England (1906); and The Black Death of 131,8 and 131,,9 (1908). He has also edited Montalembert's Monks of the West (6 vols., London, 1895); William Cobbett's History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland (1896); Vita Antiquissima Beati Gregorii Magni (1903); and Analeeta Anglo Premonstratensia (1904).

GASS, (FRIEDRICH) WILHELM (JOACHIM HEINRICH): German Protestant; b. at Breslau Nov. 28, 1813; d. at Heidelberg Feb. 21, 1889. As a mere child he learned Greek, before undertaking the study of Latin, from Franz Passow, professor at Breslau, and thus laid the foundation for his later researches in Greek Christianity. After at tending the gymnasia at Breslau and Schweidnitz he entered the University of Breslau in 1832 to study theology, but was at first interested chiefly in philosophy, philology, and belles-lettres. In 1834 1835 he studied at Halle, being influenced especially by Gesenius, Wegacheider, and Thilo, later at Ber lin, where Neander exerted a deep influence upon him. In 1836 he returned to Breslau (Ph.D., 1836; Th.Lic., 1839) and established himself as privat-do cent of theology there in 1839. In 1846 he became professor extraordinary at Breslau, and in 1847 at Greifswald, where he was made full professor in 1855. In 1862 he became professor of systematic theology at Giessen, whence he went to Heidelberg in 1868 as the successor of R. Rothe. Here he taught, besides systematic theology, New Testament exegesis and hymnology. As represent ative of the faculty of Heidelberg, he took part in the general synods of 1871, 1876, and 1881, ad vocating a moderate liberalism. In 1885 he was ap pointed church councilor. Gass was a strong advocate of the Evangelical union, and was one of the most learned among the masters of German Evangelical theology. His works are distinguished by diligent research and rest upon a conscientious and intelligent use of the sources. He first directed his attention to the history of the Greek Church in the Middle Ages, a field almost entirely neglected until his time. His first work, Gennadius and Pletho (Breslau, 1844), treats of the struggle of Aristotelianism and Platonism during this period. In Die Mystik des Nikolaus Kabasilas, vom Leben in Christo (Greifs wald, 1849) he edited for the first time the "Life in Christ" of Kabasilas, metropolitan of Thesea lonica about 1350, and gave an interesting sketch of the history of Greek mysticism. He wrote also Geschichte der Athoskloster (Giessen, 1865) and collected his smaller contributions to the history of dogma in the Greek Church in Slik der grie chischen Kirche (Berlin, 1872), the first compre hensive work on this theme since Heineccius' Abbildung der alten and neuen griechischen Kirche (Leipsic, 1711). Gass tried to present a critical description of the character of the Greek Church, by considering not only its dogmatic tradition, but also its rites, liturgy, and worship, and the spiritual, national, and moral conditions in gen eral. He also rendered valuable service to the history of Protestant dogmatics by his Geschichte der protestantischen Dogmatik (4 vols., Berlin, 1854 1867), which presents the dogmatic development from Melanohthon to Schleiermacher. In his later years Gass devoted himself to the study of Christian ethics. His most important works in this field are: Die Lehre vom Gewissen (Berlin, 1869), Optimismus and Pessimismus (1876), and Geschichte der Ethik (2 vols. in 3, 1881-87). Of other works may be mentioned: Georg Calixt und der Synkretismus (Breslau, 1846) and Das Recht der Union, eine Schutzrede (Giessen, 1867). He also edited Schleiermaeher's Briefwechsel mit J. C. Gass (his father, Berlin, 1852), and with A. Vial, E. L. T. Henke's posthumous Neuere Kirchengeschichte (3 vols., Halle, 1874-80). With H. Reuter and T. Brieger he edited, after 1876, the Zeitschrift Pr Kirchengeschichte (Gotha, 1876 sqq.).

G. Grützmacher.

Bibliography: Badische Biographieen, ed. F. von Weeeh, iv. 527-536, Carlsmhe, 1891. The funeral oration, by H. Basserman, is in Protestantische Kirchenwitung, 1889, pp. 251 sqq.