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439 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Ga=a Oebhard II Dead Sea, therefore to be located in that region. It is doubtless the modern Jibal of the Arabs, the district located by Josephus (Ant. II., i. 2, IX., ix. 1) as near Petra, and by Arabian geographers as the northern part of the region east of the Wadi al Arabah (the depression south of the Dead Sea). (H. GUTHE.) BIBLIoaSAPHT: DB, ii. 117; EB, ii. 1863-56. On 1, con sult: W. M. Miiller, Asien and Europa, pp. 185 sqq., Leipsie, 1893; . E. Benin, Mission de PUnieie, pp. 174 eqq., Paris, 1864; H. Winekler, in Keilwhrifaiche Bib liothekc, vol. v., Berlin, 1898. On 2, consult: Robinson, Researches, ii. 154; Guy Is Strange, Palestine under as Moatenw, London, 1890; F. Buhl, Gesdhichte der Edomi ter, Leipsic, 1893. GEBHARD II. AND THE COUNTERREFORMA TION IN THE LOWER RHINE LANDS. Protestants in the Lower Rhine Lands (§ 1). Bavarian Intrigues in Lower Germany (§ 2). Gebhard II (§ 3). Gebhard's Downfall (§ 4). Progress of the Counterreformation (§ 5). The Reformation nowhere completely permeated the Lower Rhenish districts. Small congregations, it is true, struggled here and there for a modest existence, and a part of the nobility appeared to incline toward the new doctrines; but the new movement was not supported by the towns. In both of the most powerful imperial i. Protes- cities of these regions, Cologne and tants in Aachen, the Roman preponderance the Lower in councils and civic life remained un Rhine impaired. But from 1570 onward, the Lands. disturbances in the Netherlands hav ing driven countless refugees into the neighboring districts of the Lower Rhine, quite a number of Reformed congregations became estab lished in the duchy of Juliers and Cleves, and in the electorate and city of Cologne. Wesel came to be a center for the new propaganda. At Aachen the Protestants began to contend, after 1574, for the rule of the city. Indeed as early as 1571 there came into effect a firm organization of all these "Netherland ish "congregations, which drew to themselves many of the native Protestants. In spite of sporadic action on the part of the authorities, the congregations were tacitly tolerated, in the main, a contributory factor to this end in the city of Cologne being re gard for mercantile relations with the Netherlands; while at the court of Juliers a Protestant party even endeavored to gain a legislative influence over the infirm and vacillating Duke William IV. If therefore the Reformation had nowhere gained the supremacy in these districts, and had not even attained to a position of security, nevertheless, toward the dose of the decade 1570-80, Protestants were everywhere to be found, and no Counterref ormation tendency was then active. The Jesuits had begun their activity in Cologne soon after their society was founded, and made that point a center of their missionary and literary enterprises in the rest of Germany; but their efforts in Cologne it self never accomplished anything assured and fruitful. They were thwarted by lack of support from the political authorities; the electors showed no inter in the society, and the city council, the

clergy, and the university put obstacles in its course. The victory that was eventually achieved at this place by the Counterreformation was owing to the pressure of alien dynastic interests, and the chief part in this result for the Roman cause was played by Bavarian statecraft.

Duke Albert V. of Bavaria had destined his third son, Ernest (b. 1554), for the clerical vocation; in 1565 he became a canon at Salzburg, and soon afterward at Cologne, Treves, and Wurzburg as well; in the autumn of 1565 he likewise became bishop of Freising. Albert's wishes no doubt centered upon the neighboring archdiocese of Salzz. Bavarian burg; but in 1569, when Elector

Intrigues Salentin of Cologne incurred difficul- in Lower ties with the curia for non-recognition Germany. of the Council of Trent and was con templating resignation, Ernest was pro posed by his father, who had the support of the Spanish government at Brussels, as Salentin's suc cessor. At the imperial diet at Speyer, in 1570, the negotiations with Salentin were so far advanced that Ernest went to Cologne in November, and served his first residence there as canon till May, 1571, such being the preliminary condition in the line of election. Salentin's resignation, however, was deferred, and in 1573 he actually submitted to the Council of Trent, and was thereupon confirmed by the curia as archbishop, foregoing the priestly con secration. In 1577, after the Bavarian court had failed in an attempt to secure Munster for Ernest, efforts looking to Cologne were resumed and prosecuted more zealously than before. Moreover, the support of the curia now heightened the hope of some practical result. Duke Ernest, who for a time, in 1572, had well-nigh thwarted all his father's plans by a suddenly outcropping disinclination to ward the spiritual vocation, was sent to Rome in the spring of 1574, for a sojourn of nearly two years, by way of reward for submitting to his father's will. At Rome he won the particular good-will of the pope, so that Gregory XIII. resolved to support, with all his might, Ernest's installation as coadjutor to Salentin; in fact, the advancement of Bavarian family interests appeared to be the only possible way of recovering a more secure standing for the Roman Catholic Church in Lower Germany. The status which had been gained in 1573 by the elec tion of Ernest as bishop of the small see of Hildes heim could not as yet, by itself alone, afford a very trustworthy base of support.

But against the common plans of Salentin, the curia, and the Bavarian court, opposition manifested itself on the side of the chapter at Cologne; when, in 1577, Salentin resigned, Ernest was defeated, at the new election, by Gebhard Truchsess, who was elected by the Protestants and the lukewarm Catholics of the chapter. Duke Albert, as well as the papal nuncio Portia, protested against the election; but as both the emperor and the electors espoused Gehbard's cause, and as he passed for a good Catholic, receiving priestly consecration in Mar., 1578, and swearing to the Council of Trent, the curia disregarded the Bavarian protest and in Mar., 1580, confirmed the election. By that time Duke Albert had died, and his successor, William