His other writings are: A True Idea of Jansenism (1669); Theophil, or a Discourse of the Saint’s Amitie with God in Christ (1671); Anatomie of Infidelitie (1672); Idea theologiae (1673); Philosophia generalis (1676).
GALE, THOMAS (?1636-1702), English classical scholar and antiquarian, was born at Scruton, Yorkshire. He was educated at Westminster school and Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow. In 1666 he was appointed regius professor of Greek at Cambridge, in 1672 high master of St Paul’s school, in 1676 prebendary of St Paul’s, in 1677 a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1697 dean of York. He died at York on the 7th (or 8th) of April 1702. He published a collection, Opuscula mythologica, ethica, et physica, and editions of several Greek and Latin authors, but his fame rests chiefly on his collection of old works bearing on Early English history, entitled Historiae Anglicanae scriptores and Historiae Britannicae, Saxonicae, Anglo-Danicae scriptores XV. He was the author of the inscription on the London Monument in which the Roman Catholics were accused of having originated the great fire.
See J.E.B. Mayor, Cambridge in the Time of Queen Anne, 448-450.
GALE. 1. (A word of obscure origin; possibly derived from Dan. gal, mad or furious, sometimes applied to wind, in the sense of boisterous) a wind of considerable power, considerably stronger than a breeze, but not severe enough to be called a storm. In nautical language it is usually combined with some qualifying word, as “half a gale,” a “stiff gale.” In poetical and figurative language “gale” is often used in a pleasant sense, as in “favouring gale”; in America, it is used in a slang sense for boisterous or excited behaviour.
2. The payment of rent, customs or duty at regular intervals; a “hanging gale” is an arrear of rent left over after each successive “gale” or rent day. The term survives in the Forest of Dean, for leases granted to the “free miners” of the forest, granted by the “gaveller” or agent of the crown, and the term is also applied to the royalty paid to the crown, and to the area mined. The word is a contracted form of the O. Eng. gafol, which survives in “gavel,” in gavelkind (q.v.), and in the name of the office mentioned above. The root from which these words derive is that of “give.” Through Latinized forms it appears in gabelle (q.v.).
3. The popular name of a plant, also known as the sweet gale or gaul, sweet willow, bog or Dutch myrtle. The Old English form of the word is gagel. It is a small, twiggy, resinous fragrant shrub found on bogs and moors in the British Islands, and widely distributed in the north temperate zone. It has narrow, short-stalked leaves and inconspicuous, apetalous, unisexual flowers borne in short spikes. The small drupe-like fruit is attached to the persistent bracts. The leaves are used as tea and as a country medicine. John Gerard (Herball, p. 1228) describes it as sweet willow or gaule, and refers to its use in beer or ale. The genus Myrica is the type of a small, but widely distributed order, Myricaceae, which is placed among the apetalous families of Dicotyledons, and is perhaps most nearly allied to the willow family. Myrica cerifera is the candleberry, wax-myrtle or wax-tree (q.v.).
GALEN, CHRISTOPH BERNHARD, Freiherr von (1606-1678), prince bishop of Münster, belonged to a noble Westphalian family, and was born on the 12th of October 1606. Reduced to poverty through the loss of his paternal inheritance, he took holy orders; but this did not prevent him from fighting on the side of the emperor Ferdinand III. during the concluding stages of the Thirty Years’ War. In 1650 he succeeded Ferdinand of Bavaria, archbishop of Cologne, as bishop of Münster. After restoring some degree of peace and prosperity in his principality, Galen had to contend with a formidable insurrection on the part of the citizens of Münster; but at length this was crushed, and the bellicose bishop, who maintained a strong army, became an important personage in Europe. In 1664 he was chosen one of the directors of the imperial army raised to fight the Turk; and after the peace which followed the Christian victory at St Gotthard in August 1664, he aided the English king Charles II. in his war with the Dutch, until the intervention of Louis XIV. and Frederick William I. of Brandenburg compelled him to make a disadvantageous peace in 1666. When Galen again attacked Holland six years later he was in alliance with Louis, but he soon deserted his new friend, and fought for the emperor Leopold I. against France. Afterwards in conjunction with Brandenburg and Denmark he attacked Charles XI. of Sweden, and conquered the duchy of Bremen. He died at Ahaus on the 19th of September 1678. Galen showed himself anxious to reform the church, but his chief energies were directed to increasing his power and prestige.