Part 25

GERRY, ELBRIDGE (1744-1814), American statesman, was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, on the 17th of July 1744, the son of Thomas Gerry (d. 1774), a native of Newton, England, who emigrated to America in 1730, and became a prosperous Marblehead merchant. The son graduated at Harvard in 1762 and entered his father's business. In 1772 and 1773 he was a member of the Massachusetts General Court, in which he identified himself with Samuel Adams and the patriot party, and in 1773 he served on the Committee of Correspondence, which became one of the great instruments of intercolonial resistance. In 1774-1775 he was a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. The passage of a bill proposed by him (November 1775) to arm and equip ships to prey upon British commerce, and for the establishment of a prize court, was, according to his biographer, Austin, "the first actual avowal of offensive hostility against the mother country, which is to be found in the annals of the Revolution." It is also noteworthy, says Austin, as "the first effort to establish an American naval armament." From 1776 to 1781 Gerry was a member of the Continental Congress, where he early advocated independence, and was one of those who signed the Declaration after its formal signing on the 2nd of August 1776, at which time he was absent. He was active in debates and committee work, and for some time held the chairmanship of the important standing committee for the superintendence of the treasury, in which capacity he exercised a predominating influence on congressional expenditures. In February 1780 he withdrew from Congress because of its refusal to respond to his call for the yeas and nays. Subsequently he laid his protest before the Massachusetts General Court which voted its approval of his action. On his return to Massachusetts, and while he was still a member of Congress, he was elected under the new state constitution (1780) to both branches of the state legislature, but accepted only his election to the House of Representatives. On the expiration of his congressional term, he was again chosen a delegate by the Massachusetts legislature, but it was not until 1783 that he resumed his seat. During the second period of his service in Congress, which lasted until 1785, he was a member of the committee to consider the treaty of peace with Great Britain, and chairman of two committees appointed to select a permanent seat of government. In 1784 he bitterly attacked the establishment of the order of the Cincinnati on the ground that it was a dangerous menace to democratic institutions. In 1786 he served in the state House of Representatives. Not favouring the creation of a strong national government he declined to attend the Annapolis Convention in 1786, but in the following year, when the assembling of the Constitutional Convention was an assured fact, although he opposed the purpose for which it was called, he accepted an appointment as one of the Massachusetts delegates, with the idea that he might personally help to check too strong a tendency toward centralization. His exertions in the convention were ceaseless in opposition to what he believed to be the wholly undemocratic character of the instrument, and eventually he refused to sign the completed constitution. Returning to Massachusetts, he spoke and wrote in opposition to its ratification, and although not a member of the convention called to pass upon it, he laid before this convention, by request, his reasons for opposing it, among them being that the constitution contained no bill of rights, that the executive would unduly influence the legislative branch of the government, and that the judiciary would be oppressive. Subsequently he served as an Anti-Federalist in the national House of Representatives in 1789-1793, taking, as always, a prominent part in debates and other legislative concerns. In 1797 he was sent by President John Adams, together with John Marshall and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, on a mission to France to obtain from the government of the Directory a treaty embodying a settlement of several long-standing disputes. The discourteous and underhanded treatment of this embassy by Talleyrand and his agents, who attempted to obtain their ends by bribery, threats and duplicity, resulted in the speedy retirement of Marshall and Pinckney. The episode is known in American history as the "X Y Z Affair." Gerry, although despairing of any good results, remained in Paris for some time in the vain hope that Talleyrand might offer to a known friend of France terms that had been refused to envoys whose anti-French views were more than suspected. This action of Gerry's brought down upon him from Federalist partisans a storm of abuse and censure, from which he never wholly cleared himself. In 1810-1812 he was governor of Massachusetts. His administration, which was marked by extreme partisanship, was especially notable for the enactment of a law by which the state was divided into new senatorial districts in such a manner as to consolidate the Federalist vote in a few districts, thus giving the Democratic-Republicans an undue advantage. The outline of one of these districts, which was thought to resemble a salamander, gave rise in 1812, through a popular application of the governor's name, to the term "Gerrymander" (q.v.). In 1812, Gerry, who was an ardent advocate of the war with Great Britain, was elected vice-president of the United States, on the ticket with James Madison. He died in office at Washington on the 23rd of November 1814.

See J. T. Austin, _Life of Elbridge Gerry, with Contemporary Letters_ (2 vols., Boston, 1828-1829).

GERRYMANDER (usually pronounced "jerrymander," but the _g_ was originally pronounced hard), an American expression which has taken root in the English language, meaning to arrange election districts so as to give an unfair advantage to the party in power by means of a redistribution act, and so to manipulate constituencies generally, or arrange any political measure, with a view to an unfair party advantage. The word is derived from the name of the American politician Elbridge Gerry (q.v.). John Fiske, in his _Civil Government in the United States_ (1890), says that in 1812, when Gerry was governor of Massachusetts, the Democratic state legislature (in order, according to Winsor, to secure an increased representation of the Democratic party in the state senate) "redistributed the districts in such wise that the shapes of the towns forming a single district in Essex county gave to the district a somewhat dragon-like contour. This was indicated upon a map of Massachusetts which Benjamin Russell, an ardent Federalist and editor of the _Centinel_, hung up over the desk in his office. The painter, Gilbert Stuart, coming into the office one day and observing the uncouth figure, added with his pencil a head, wings and claws, and exclaimed, 'That will do for a salamander!' 'Better say a Gerrymander,' growled the editor; and the outlandish name, thus duly coined, soon came into general currency." It was, however, only the name that was new. Fiske (who also refers to Winsor's _Memorial History of Boston_, iii. 212, and Bryce's _American Commonwealth_, i. 121) says that gerrymandering, as a political dodge, "seems to have been first devised in 1788, by the enemies of the Federal constitution in Virginia, in order to prevent the election of James Madison to the first Congress, and fortunately it was unsuccessful." But it was really earlier than that, and in the American colonial period political advantage was often obtained by changing county lines. In 1709 the Pennsylvania counties of Bucks, Chester and Philadelphia formed a combination for preventing the city of Philadelphia from securing its proportionate representation; and in 1732 George Burrington, royal governor of North Carolina, divided the voting precincts of the province for his own advantage. Gerry was not the originator of the Massachusetts law of 1812, which was probably drafted by Samuel Dana or by Judge Story. The law resulted in 29 seats being secured in Massachusetts by 50,164 Democratic votes, while 51,766 Federalist votes only returned 11 members; and Essex county, which, undivided, sent 5 Federalists to the Senate, returned 3 Democrats and 2 Federalists after being "gerrymandered," Stuart's drawing (reproduced in Fiske's book) was contrived so as to make the back line of the creature's body form a caricature of Gerry's profile. The law of 1812 was repealed in 1813, when the Federalists had again gained control of the Massachusetts legislature.

See also Elmer C. Griffith, _The Rise and Development of the Gerrymander_ (Chicago, 1907); John W. Dean, "History of the Gerrymander," in _New England Historical and Genealogical Register_, vol. xlvi. (Boston, 1892).

GERS, a department of south-western France, composed of the whole or parts of certain districts of Gascony, viz. Armagnac, Astarac, Fezensac, Pardiac, Pays de Gaure, Lomagne, Comminges, Condomois and of a small portion of Agenais. It is bounded N. by the department of Lot-et-Garonne, N.E. by Tarn-et-Garonne, E. and S.E. by Haute-Garonne, S. by Hautes-Pyrenees, S.W. by Basses-Pyrenees and W. by Landes. Pop. (1906) 231,088. Area, 2428 sq. m. The department consists of a plateau sloping from south to north and traversed by numerous rivers, most of them having their source close together in the Plateau de Lannemezan (Hautes-Pyrenees), from which point they diverge in the shape of a fan to the north-west, north and north-east. In the south several summits exceed 1100 ft. in height. Thence the descent towards the north is gradual till on the northern limit of the department the lowest point (less than 200 ft.) is reached. The greater part of the department belongs to the basin of the Garonne, while a small portion in the west is drained by the Adour. The chief affluents of the former are the Save, Gimone, Arrats, Gers and Baise, which derive their waters in great part from the Canal de la Neste in the department of Hautes-Pyrenees; and of the latter, the Arros, Midou and Douze, the last two uniting and taking the name of Midouze before joining the Adour. The climate is temperate; its drawbacks are the unwholesome south-east wind and the destructive hail-storms which sometimes occur in spring. There is seldom any snow or frost. Over the greater portion of the department the annual rainfall varies between 28 and 32 in. Gers is primarily agricultural. The south-western district is the most productive, but the valleys generally are fertile and the grain produced is more than sufficient for local consumption. Wheat, maize and oats are the principal cereals. About one-third of the wine produced is used for home consumption, and the remainder is chiefly manufactured into brandy, known by the name of Armagnac, second only to Cognac in reputation. The natural pastures are supplemented chiefly by crops of sainfoin and clover; horses, cattle, sheep and swine are reared in considerable numbers; turkeys, geese and other poultry are abundant. There are mineral springs at Aurenson, Barbotan and several other places in the department. The mineral production and manufactures are unimportant. Building stone and clay are obtained. Flour-mills, saw-mills, tanneries, brickworks and cask-works are the chief industrial establishments.

Gers is divided into the arrondissements of Auch, Lectoure, Mirande, Condom and Lombez, with 29 cantons and 466 communes. The chief town is Auch, the seat of an archbishopric. The department falls within the circumscription of the appeal-court of Agen, and the region of the XVII. army corps. It forms part of the academie (educational circumscription) of Toulouse. Auch, Condom, Lectoure and Mirande are the principal towns. The following are also of interest: Lombez, with its church of Sainte-Marie, once a cathedral, dating from the 14th century, when the bishopric was created; Flaran, with an abbey-church of the last half of the 12th century; La Romieu, with a church of the same period and a beautiful cloister; Simorre, with a fortified abbey-church of the 14th century; and Fleurance, with a handsome church, also of the 14th century, containing stained glass of the 16th century.

GERSON, JOHN (1363-1429), otherwise JEAN CHARLIER DE GERSON, French scholar and divine, chancellor of the university of Paris, and the ruling spirit in the oecumenical councils of Pisa and Constance, was born at the village of Gerson, in the bishopric of Reims and department of Ardennes, on the 14th of December 1363. His parents, Arnulph Charlier and Elizabeth de la Chardeniere, "a second Monica," were pious peasants, and seven of their twelve children, four daughters and three sons, devoted themselves to a religious life. Young Gerson was sent to Paris to the famous college of Navarre when fourteen years of age. After a five years' course he obtained the degree of licentiate of arts, and then began his theological studies under two very celebrated teachers, Gilles des Champs (Aegidius Campensis) and Pierre d'Ailly (Petrus de Alliaco), rector of the college of Navarre, chancellor of the university, and afterwards bishop of Puy, archbishop of Cambrai and cardinal. Pierre d'Ailly remained his life-long friend, and in later life the pupil seems to have become the teacher (see pref. to _Liber de vita Spir. Animae_).

Gerson very soon attracted the notice of the university. He was elected procurator for the French "nation" in 1383, and again in 1384, in which year he graduated bachelor of theology. Three years later a still higher honour was bestowed upon him; he was sent along with the chancellor and others to represent the university in a case of appeal taken to the pope. John of Montson (Monzon de Montesono), an Aragonese Dominican who had recently graduated as doctor of theology at Paris, had in 1387 been condemned by the faculty of theology because he had taught that the Virgin Mary, like other ordinary descendants of Adam, was born in original sin; and the Dominicans, who were fierce opponents of the doctrine of the immaculate conception, were expelled the university. John of Montson appealed to Pope Clement VII. at Avignon, and Pierre d'Ailly, Gerson and the other university delegates, while they personally supported the doctrine of the immaculate conception, were content to rest their case upon the legal rights of the university to test in its own way its theological teachers. Gerson's biographers have compared his journey to Avignon with Luther's visit to Rome. It is certain that from this time onwards he was zealous in his endeavours to spiritualize the universities, to reform the morals of the clergy, and to put an end to the schism which then divided the church. In 1392 Gerson became doctor of theology, and in 1395, when Pierre d'Ailly was made bishop of Puy, he was, at the early age of thirty-two, elected chancellor of the university of Paris, and made a canon of Notre Dame. The university was then at the height of its fame, and its chancellor was necessarily a man prominent not only in France but in Europe, sworn to maintain the rights of his university against both king and pope, and entrusted with the conduct and studies of a vast crowd of students attracted from almost every country in Europe. Gerson's writings bear witness to his deep sense of the responsibilities, anxieties and troubles of his position. He was all his days a man of letters, and an analysis of his writings is his best biography. His work has three periods, in which he was engaged in reforming the university studies, maturing plans for overcoming the schism (a task which after 1404 absorbed all his energies), and in the evening of his life writing books of devotion.

Gerson wished to banish scholastic subtleties from the studies of the university, and at the same time to put some evangelical warmth into them. He was called at this period of his life Doctor Christianissimus; later his devotional works brought him the title Doctor Consolatorius. His plan was to make theology plain and simple by founding it on the philosophical principles of nominalism. His method was a clear exposition of the principles of theology where clearness was possible, with a due recognition of the place of mystery in the Christian system of doctrine. Like the great nominalist William of Occam, he saved himself from rationalism by laying hold on mysticism--the Christian mysticism of the school of St Victor. He thought that in this way he would equally guard against the folly of the old scholasticism, and the seductions of such Averroistic pantheism as was preached by heretics like Amalric of Bena. His plans for the reformation of university studies may be learned from his _Tract. de examinatione doctrinarum_ (Opp. i. 7), _Epistolae de reform, theol._ (i. 121), _Epistolae ad studentes Collegii Navarrae, quid et qualiter studere debeat novus theologiae auditor, et contra curiositatem studentium_ (i. 106), and _Lectiones duae contra vanam curiositatem in negotio fidei_ (i. 86). The study of the Bible and of the fathers was to supersede the idle questions of the schools, and in his _Tract. contra romantiam de rosa_ (iii. 297) he warns young men against the evil consequences of romance-reading. He was oftentimes weary of the chancellorship,--it involved him in strife and in money difficulties; he grew tired of public life, and longed for learned leisure. To obtain it he accepted the deanery of Bruges from the duke of Burgundy, but after a short sojourn he returned to Paris and to the chancellorship.

Gerson's chief work was what he did to destroy the great schism. Gregory XI. had died in 1378, one year after Gerson went to the college of Navarre, and since his death the church had had two popes, which to the medieval mind meant two churches and a divided Christ. The schism had practically been brought about by France. The popes had been under French influence so long that it appeared to France a political necessity to have her own pope, and pious Frenchmen felt themselves somewhat responsible for the sins and scandals of the schism. Hence the melancholy piety of Gerson, Pierre d'Ailly and their companions, and the energy with which they strove to bring the schism to an end. During the lifetime of Clement VII. the university of Paris, led by Pierre d'Ailly, Gerson and Nicolas of Clamenges,[1] met in deliberation about the state of Christendom, and resolved that the schism could be ended in three ways,--by cession, if both popes renounced the tiara unconditionally, by arbitration or by a general council. Clement died. The king of France, urged by the university, sent orders that no new pope should be elected. The cardinals first elected, and then opened the letter. In the new elections, however, both at Rome and Avignon, the influence of Paris was so much felt that each of the new popes swore to "cede" if his rival would do so also.

Meanwhile in 1395 the national assembly of France and the French clergy adopted the programme of the university--cession or a general council. The movement gathered strength. In 1398 most of the cardinals and most of the crowned heads in Europe had given their adhesion to the plan. During this period Gerson's literary activity was untiring, and the throb of public expectancy, of hope and fear, is revealed in his multitude of pamphlets. At first there were hopes of a settlement by way of cession. These come out in _Protest, super statum ecclesiae_ (ii. 1), _Tract. de modo habendi se tempore schismatis_, _De schismate_, &c. But soon the conduct of the popes made Europe impatient, and the desire for a general council grew strong--see _De concilio generali unius obedientiae_ (ii. 24). The council was resolved upon. It was to meet at Pisa, and Gerson poured forth tract after tract for its guidance. The most important are--_Trilogus in materia schismatis_ (ii. 83), and _De unitate Ecclesiae_ (ii. 113), in which, following Pierre d'Ailly (see Tschackert's _Peter v. Ailli_, p. 153), Gerson demonstrates that the ideal unity of the church, based upon Christ, destroyed by the popes, can only be restored by a general council, supreme and legitimate, though unsummoned by a pope. The council met, deposed both antipopes, and elected Alexander V. Gerson was chosen to address the new pope on the duties of his office. He did so in his _Sermo coram Alexandro Papa in die ascensionis in concilio Pisano_ (ii. 131). All hopes of reformation, however, were quenched by the conduct of the new pope. He had been a Franciscan, and loved his order above measure. He issued a bull which laid the parish clergy and the universities at the mercy of the mendicants. The great university of Paris rose in revolt, headed by her chancellor, who wrote a fierce pamphlet--_Censura professorum in theologia circa bullam Alexandri V._ (ii. 442). The pope died soon after, and one of the most profligate men of that time, Pope John XXIII. (Baldassare Cossa), was elected his successor. The council of Pisa had not brought peace; it had only added a third pope. Pierre d'Ailly despaired of general councils (see his _De difficultate reformationis in concilio universali_), but Gerson struggled on. Another matter too had roused him. The feuds between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy had long distracted France. The duke of Orleans had been treacherously murdered by the followers of the duke of Burgundy, and a theologian, Jean Petit (c. 1360-1411), had publicly and unambiguously justified the murder. His eight verities, as he called them--his apologies for the murder--had been, mainly through the influence of Gerson, condemned by the university of Paris, and by the archbishop and grand inquisitor, and his book had been publicly burned before the cathedral of Notre Dame. Gerson wished a council to confirm this sentence. His literary labours were as untiring as ever. He maintained in a series of tracts that a general council could depose a pope; he drew up indictments against the reigning pontiffs, reiterated the charges against Jean Petit, and exposed the sin of schism--in short, he did all he could to direct the public mind towards the evils in the church and the way to heal them. His efforts were powerfully seconded by the emperor Sigismund, and the result was the council of Constance (see CONSTANCE, COUNCIL OF). Gerson's influence at the council was supreme up to the election of a new pope. It was he who dictated the form of submission and cession made by John XXIII., and directed the process against Huss. Many of Gerson's biographers have found it difficult to reconcile his proceedings against Huss with his own opinions upon the supremacy of the pope; but the difficulty has arisen partly from misunderstanding Gerson's position, partly from supposing him to be the author of a famous tract--_De modis uniendi ac reformandi Ecclesiam in concilio universali_. All Gerson's high-sounding phrases about the supremacy of a council were meant to apply to some time of emergency. He was essentially a trimmer, and can scarcely be called a reformer, and he hated Huss with all the hatred the trimmer has of the reformer. The three bold treatises, _De necessitate reformationis Ecclesiae_, _De modis uniendi ac reformandi Ecclesiam_, and _De difficultate reformationis in concilio universali_, long ascribed to Gerson, were proved by Schwab in his _Johannes Gerson_ not to be his work, and have since been ascribed to Abbot Andreas of Randuf, and with more reason to Dietrich of Nieheim (see NIEM, DIETRICH OF).