### Gems
The use of gems, especially in rings, was very common in the Roman world, and fashion ensured that it continued among Christians as well; Tertullian, in fact, ridiculed women who wore bags of gold on each of their fingers (De cultu feminarum, 9: PL 1, 1314).
Gems could bear mythological scenes, either engraved or in relief. Clement of Alexandria admonished Christians that they might have one ring to seal objects of value more securely; all other rings were not permitted to them. The images to be engraved on them for use as seals should preferably be a dove, a fish, a swift ship with full sails; one might also represent a lyre, as did Polycrates, or an anchor, as did Seleucus, or finally a fisherman on the seashore, whose sight would remind us of St. Peter and Moses. But one must be on guard against placing on one’s finger images of idols, the very thought of which is a crime. Nor a sword, nor a bow, nor an arrow for those who desire peace, nor vessels that recall the orgies of the followers of intemperance. And he adds: “If the faithful adopted the sign of the cross or scenes of other mysteries of the Christian faith, they risked betraying themselves before the pagans; if instead they placed profane subjects on their rings, they ran the risk of offending God” (Paedagog. PG 8, 629 and 633).
In Christian cemeteries, especially during the spoliations carried out there during the 17th and 18th centuries, many gems were removed that had been found inserted in the plaster sealing the tombs. Boldetti speaks of “diamonds, topazes, plasma,” particularly agate intaglios in sardonyx, “cameos of various kinds” discovered in his time (Osservazioni sopra i cimiteri dei SS. Martiri, Rome 1790, pp. 495-96); many of these passed into the collection of Cardinal Carpegna.
GEMMA GALGANI, Saint – Pages from the Autobiography of St. G. The stigmata are attributed to the devil.
The very pious (Aurelia Landi), from childhood had a lively desire for heaven.
In 1661, a cameo was extracted from the Catacomb of Callistus, at the third mile of the Via Aurelia, later called that of Calepodius, on which was represented the triumph of Bacchus; Boldetti gives as coming from the Cemetery of Priscilla a cameo with the head of Augustus; a cameo with Ganymede is said to have been found in the cemetery “in catacumbas.” Boldetti reproduces ten rings found in the underground cemeteries of Rome with symbols of the anchor and the ship, with the monogram “I” alone with the A and the Ω between two palms (loc. cit., pp. 562 and 565); Carrucci reproduces others with the symbols of the Good Shepherd, the fish, the fisherman, the dolphin entwined around the anchor, with Jonah, Daniel, etc. (Storia dell’arte cristiana, VI, Prato 1880, tavv. 477-78).
In 1851, G. B. De Rossi found in the Major Cemetery on the Via Monumenta a fragment of an oriental sardonyx with the head of Augustus, now in the Christian Museum of the Vatican Library, and in the same cemetery he saw embedded in the plaster of a loculus a phalera of chalcedony, of the type already seen by Buonarroti and which Borghesi demonstrated had been worn sewn on the chest and belts, especially by soldiers.
### GENAZZANO, ELIAHU BEN BINYAMIN DA
Rabbi of the second half of the 15th century, author of a cabbalistic work (Jagerleth hämädthöth), a poem on the goodness of women, and two anti-Christian parodies. He also summarized an anti-Christian polemic conducted against the Franciscan Francesco da Acquapendente.
### PONTIFICAL GENDARMERIE
One of the corps of the papal armed forces. The institution of the Pontifical Gendarmerie, through the corps of the Pontifical Carabinieri, dates back to 1816. In fact, by article 243 of the motu proprio of 14 July 1816, the corps of the Pontifical Carabinieri was established. The Pontifical Carabinieri were then divided into two regiments with 2,774 men and 411 horses. This corps, under the jurisdiction of the Cardinal Secretary of State, represented by the Monsignor Governor of Rome, assumed and carried out police duties. On 17 September 1849, with a governmental notification approved by Pius IX, the Pontifical Carabinieri were replaced by the regiment of the Pontifical Velites, a new political force, which shortly thereafter (13 July 1850) took the name of Gendarmerie and soon after (16 October 1851) passed under the direct jurisdiction of the Cardinal Secretary of State. The gendarmes were quartered in the Palazzo della Consulta. They also took part in clashes between papal forces and Italian volunteers.
After the occupation of Rome by the Italian government, the Pontifical Gendarmerie, reduced to a minimum of its ranks, was quartered in the Apostolic Palaces, where it still has its headquarters. During this period, the centenary of the corps was marked by Benedict XV with a commemorative medal (brief, 22 October 1916).
After the Lateran Treaty, article 7 of the Fundamental Law of the State of the Vatican City (7 June 1929, no. 1) established that the Pontifical Gendarmerie was under the jurisdiction of the Governor of the State. At present, the Pontifical Gendarmerie is governed by the organic and disciplinary regulations for the corps of the Pontifical Gendarmerie (1933), issued by a decree of the Pontifical Commission for the State of the Vatican City. This regulation (art. 3) places the Pontifical Gendarmerie under the jurisdiction of the Cardinal President of the Pontifical Commission.
The organization of the Pontifical Gendarmerie comprises: a) a command: with a colonel commanding officer, appointed by the Pope; a chaplain, equivalent to a lieutenant colonel; a lieutenant colonel, vice-commander; a major rapporteur; a lieutenant, a sub-lieutenant; a medical officer, equivalent to a captain, all appointed by provisions of the Pontifical Commission for the State of the Vatican City; the command is part of the Papal Household (v.); b) 37 non-commissioned officers (including marshals, brigadiers, and vice-brigadiers); c) 113 enlisted men.
The corps of the Pontifical Gendarmerie safeguards the safety of the Supreme Pontiff, provides ordinary service to defend the territory of the State of the Vatican City and to exercise police functions, internal order, and security with the task of ensuring compliance with the laws, regulations, and ordinances of the public authorities. It is also entrusted with honorary service (art. 1 of the Regulation).
During the period of sede vacante, the Pontifical Gendarmerie is at the disposal of the Marshal of the Conclave for services related to the Conclave itself.
Other security and surveillance functions are entrusted to it with regard to the Papal Villas of Castel Gandolfo and certain papal properties in Rome.
### GENE
The structural and functional unit of the hereditary patrimony contained in the nucleus, i.e., the smallest portion of living substance capable of determining a character. It was given this name by Johannsen (1911). Synonyms are “determinant” or “Mendelian factor.” The gene is a particle invisible under an ordinary microscope, conceived as a macromolecule 20-50 μm in diameter. It is aligned with others of similar dimensions within a chromosome; this therefore contains a row of genes.
The position (locus) that the gene occupies in the chromosome is constant, unless there is chromosomal action (v. AN-TAZIONI). The gene controls the manifestation of multiple traits (pleiotropic action of the gene), but in a more apparent form of a single trait; hence the practice of indicating each gene by the trait most easily recognizable (e.g., when one speaks of the gene for yellow seed or the gene for green seed, one intends to recall the most apparent manifestation, disregarding others that are more difficult to recognize and appear in different organs). The gene has the ability to reproduce by doubling before each cell division. Indeed, when a cell multiplies by indirect division, or karyokinetic mitosis, the chromatin of the nucleus in which the genes reside divides into two parts that go to each of the two daughter cells, and yet the gene content is identical in both parts. Moreover, the gene changes, altering its own manifestations and structure, but not its position in the chromosome, which is called the locus. The different ways in which a gene can present itself following mutation are called alleles or allelomorphs.
Alleles behave in crosses according to Mendel’s laws. For example, in Drosophila melanogaster the gene for white eye is nothing other than an allele of a gene that controls eye pigmentation and, through mutation, gives rise to an allele of the former.
Genes are present in all cells. From them chains of reactions proceed that result in the production of the manifest or phenotypic trait: part of these reactions have been identified in the production of diffusible oligodynamic substances; these are known in insects.
In the cytoplasm of infusorians, particles vaguely comparable to genes have recently been identified and called plasmen. They are not aligned, and very little is known about them.