Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/433

 GAMANS

375

GAMBLING

for the purpose of helping secretly his fellow-Christians (cf. Recognitions of Clement, I, Ixv, Ixvi). Accord- ing to Photius, he was baptized by St. Peter and St. Jonn, together with his son and with Nicoderaus. His body, miraculously discovered in the fifth century, is said to be preserved at Pisa, in Italy.

Talmud of Jerusalem; Photius, Bibliotheca, Cod. 171; Tay- lor, The Sayings of the Jeu<ish Fathers (Cambridge, 1877); FouAKD, .S(. Peter (tr., New York, 1893); Le Camcs, L'ceuvre des Apitres, I (Paris, 1905).

Francis E. Gigot.

Gamans, Je.vn, b. 8 July, 1606, at Alirweiler

(according to other sources at Neuenahr, about two miles from .\hrweiler; there does not appear to exist any documentary evitlence to show that he was born at "the little town of Eupen, as stated in the "Biblio- theque des ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jesus") ; d. at the College of Aschaffenburg near Frankfort, 25 Nov., 1684. He entered the Society of Jesus at Trier on 24 April, 1623, having studied the humanities for five years and philosophy for two years at Cologne, where he had received the degree of Master of Arts. After making his novitiate, he devoted several months to a revision of his philosophical studies, and subsequently, from 1626, spent five years teaching in the College of \\'urzburg, conductuag his pupils through the five classes which comprised the complete course in hu- manities. He then studied theology for a year at Mainz (1631), after which, the houses of his province of the Upper Rhine being suppressed during the war with .Sweden, he continued his theological studies for three years at Douai, where he %vas ordained priest on 26 March, 1633. These studies having come to an end in 1634, and being followed doubtless by the third year of probation, he discharged for several years the duties of chaplain to the land and naval troops in Belgium and Germany. We find him mentioned under this title (Castrensis) in the catalogue of the Flandro-Belgian province for 1641 as being attached to the professed house at Antwerp, where he made his profession of the four vows on 26 December of the same year. He lived here with the first two Bolland- ists, Jean Bolland and Godefroid Henschen, became inflamed with zeal for their work and was henceforth their assiduous collaborator, whithersoever his duty called him, but especially at Baden-Baden, where he resided for some time in order to direct the studies of the young princes of the House of Baden. He was undoubtedly there in 1641 and 1649. At the end of this latter year he resided in a missionary capacity at Ettlingen near Karlsruhe. Here we lose all sight of him until 16S1, when he was attached to the College of Aschaffenburg near Frankfort, where he died 25 November, 1684.

For more than thirty years, it is stated in the death notice inserted in the Annual letters of the College of Aschaffenburg for that year, he was so immersed in the hagiographical researches which he had under- taken in behalf of his associates at Antwerp that he devoted to them even the hours of the night, taking only a short rest on the floor or a strip of matting. Indeed, his name occurs very often in the "Acta SS." at the head of documents transcribed by his hand, and even of commentaries written entirely by him (cf. "Bibl. des ^criv. de la C. de J", s. v. "Gamans"). A large mnnber of papers of this description is to be foun^i in the vast manuscript collection of the early BoUandists preserved at the Royal Library of Brus- sels and in the modern Bollandist library-, although the largest part of his papers, dispatched to the BoUand- ists after his death, were engulfed in the Main, the vessel bearing the precious freight having unfortu- nately sunk, (iaraans had also collected a mass of material for a ' 'Metropolis Moguntina", which he wished to compose on the model of the "Metropolis Salisbur- gensis" published by Hund in 1582, and also for a history of the grand ducal House of Baden. As many

as eight manuscripts of the latter work are known to exist, but no portion of it or of the "Metropolis Moguntina" has been printed.

Leltres annuelles et Catalogues de la Province du Haut-Rhin, conserv^es dans les archives de la Compagnie de Jesus; F (ranz?) F(alk?), Der Geschicht^forscher J. Gamans in Kathohk, new series, vol. XL, 300 sqq. (Mainz, 1878) ; Bibl. des eerivains de la C. de J.

Ch. De Smedt.

Gambling, or Gaming, is the staking of money or other thing of value on the issue of a game of chance. It thus belongs to the class of aleatory contracts in which the gain or loss of the parties depends on an uncertain event. It is not gambling, m the strict sense, if a bet is laid on the issue of a game of skill like billiards or football. The issue must depend on chance, as in dice, or partly on chance, partly on skill, as in whist. Moreover, in ordinary parlance, a person who plays for small stakes to give zest to the game is not saitl to gamble; gambling connotes playing for high stakes. In its moral aspect, although gambling usually has a bad meaning, yet we may apply to it what was said about betting (see Betting). On certain conditions, and apart from excess or scandal, it is not sinful to stake money on the issue of a game of chance any more than it is smful to insure one's prop- erty against risk, or deal in futures on the produce market. As I may make a free gift of my own prop- erty to another if I choose, so I may agree with an- other to hand over to him a sum of money if the issue of a game of cards is other than I expect, while he agrees to do the same in my favour in the contrary event. Theologians commonly require four condi- tions so that gaming may not be illicit. What is staked must belong to the gambler and must be at his free disposal. It is wrong, therefore, for the la\\'yer to stake the money of his client, or for anyone to gamble with what is necessary for the maintenance of his wife and children. The gambler must act freely, without unjust compulsion. There must be no fraud in the transaction, although the usual ruses of the game may be allowed. It is unlawful, accordingly, to mark the cards, but it is permissible to conceal carefully from an opponent the mnnber of trump cards one holds. Fi- nally, there must be some sort of equality between the parties to make the contract equitable; it would be unfair for a combination of two expert whist players to take the money of a couple of mere novices at the game. If any of these conditions be wanting, gam- bling becomes more or less wrong; and, besides, there is generally an element of danger in it which is quite sufficient to account for the bad name which it has. In most people gamblmg arouses keen excitement, and quicklv develops into a passion which is difl&cult to control. If indulged in to excess it leads to loss of time, and usually of money; to an idle and useless life spent in the midst of bad company and unwholesome surroundings; and to scandal which is a source of sin and ruin to others. It panders to the craving for ex- citement and in many countries it has become so prevalent that it rivals drunkenness in its destructive effects on the lives of the people. It is obvious that the moral aspect of the question is not essentially dif- ferent if for a game of chance is substituted a horse- race, a football or cricket match, or the price of stock or produce at some future date. Although the issue in these cases seldom depends upon chance, still the moral aspect of betting upon it is the same in so far as the issue is unknown or vmcertain to the parties who make the contract. Time bargains, difference trans- actions, options, and other speculative dealings on the exchanges, which are so common nowadays, add to the malice of gambling special evils of their own. They lead to the disturbance of the natural prices of commodities and securities, do grave injury to pro- ducers and consimiers of those commodities, and are frequently attended by such unlawful methods of in-