GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. See Reformed (German) Church in the Unitest States.
GERMAN SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS. See Communism, II., 5.
GERMANUS, jer-m6rnvs, SAINT, OF AUXERRE (St. Germain d'Auxerre): Bishop of Auxerre; b., according to a life claiming to be by his scholar, Conatantius of Lyons, but thought by some to be later, at Auxerre c. 380; d. at Ravenna July 31, 448. He was of good family, received an excellent education in Gaul and Rome, married, and entered upon a prosperous and honorable career as lawyer and public official. Amator, bishop of Auxerre, chose him as his successor, forced ordination upon him, and when the former died (c. 418) Germanus accepted the position. He put away his wife and adopted a life of rigorous asceticism. In 429 he visited Britain and successfully opposed Pelagianism there. Prosper of Aquitaine says (Chronicon, annus 429) he was sent by Pope Celestine I. The life by Constantius says he was sent by a Gallican synod with Lupus, bishop of Troyes, and that seventeen or eighteen years later he went again with Severus, bishop of Treves. The later accounts
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Bibliography: The Vita attributed to Constantine (used by Bede, Hist. eccl., i. 17-21), and done into meter with other material by the monk Heiricus or Herieus of Auxerre (d. 876), is with legends, miracula, and comment in ASB, July, vii. 184-287, and the metrical version is in MPL, exxiv. 1131-1272. On the Vita consult L. M. Duru, Bibliothaque historiqus de l'Yonne, i. 48-89, Auxerre, 1850; C. Narbey, 2tude critique sur la vie de S. Germain d'Auxerre, Paris, 1884. Duru, ut sup., i. 90-99, ii. 110-114, 183-189, 247-248, contains bibliographical material. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, i. 16-21 give excerpts from early sources. Consult: Tillemont, Mémoires, xv. 1-30; Histoire littéraire de la France, ii . 256-261, Paris, 1735; W. Bright, Early English Church History, pp. 17-23, Oxford, 1897; DNB, xxi. 236-238; DCB, ii. 657-658.
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