[Galle] or Point de Galle (33), fortified seaport town, prettily situated on a rocky promontory in the SW. of Ceylon; there is a good harbour, but the shipping, which at one time was extensive, has declined since the rise of Colombo.
[Gallican Church], the Catholic Church in France which, while sincerely devoted to the Catholic faith and the Holy See, resolutely refused to concede certain rights and privileges which belonged to it from the earliest times; it steadfastly contended that infallibility was vested not in the Pope alone, but in the entire episcopal body under him as its head; maintained the supreme authority of general councils and that of the holy canons in the government of the Church, and insisted that there was a distinction between the temporal and the spiritual power; contentions summed up in a declaration of the French clergy in 1682, the body of whom opposed to which are known by the name of "Ultramontanists."
[Gallicanism], the name given to the contention of the [Gallican Church] (q. v.).
[Gallienus, Publius Licinius], Roman Emperor from 260 to 268, and for seven years (253-260) associated in the government with his father, the Emperor Valerian; under his lax rule the empire was subjected to hostile inroads on all sides, while in the provinces a succession of usurpers, known as the Thirty Tyrants, sprang up, disowning allegiance, and aspiring to the title of Cæsar; in his later years he roused himself to vigorous resistance, but in 268 was murdered by his own soldiers whilst pressing the rebel Aureolus at the siege of Milan.
[Galligantua], the wizard giant slain by Jack the Giant-killer.
[Gallio], the Roman proconsul of Achaia in the days of St. Paul, before whom the Jews of Corinth brought an appeal against the latter, but which he treated with careless indifference as no affair of his, in consequence of which his name has become the synonym of an easy-going ruler or prince.
[Gallipoli], 1, a fortified seaport town (8) in Southern Italy, 59 m. S. of Brindisi; stands on a rocky islet in the Gulf of Taranto, close to the mainland, with which it is connected by a bridge of 12 arches; a fine cathedral and huge tanks hewn out of the solid rock for the storage of olive-oil are objects of interest. 2, A seaport (15) of Turkey in Europe, stands on a peninsula of the same name at the western end of the Sea of Marmora, at the mouth of the Dardanelles, 90 m. S. of Adrianople; it was the first city captured by the Turks in Europe (1356), and is now the naval arsenal of Turkey and head-quarters of the Turkish navy.
[Galloway], a district in the SW. of Scotland, co-extensive with Wigtown and Kirkcudbright, though formerly of considerably greater extent; the lack of mineral wealth has retarded its development, and the industry of the population is limited chiefly to agriculture, the rearing of sheep and cattle, and fishing, and it is still noted for a small but hardy breed of horses called Galloways; the province derives its name from Gall-Gael, or foreign Gaels, as the early inhabitants were called, who up to the time of the Reformation maintained the characteristics, language, &c., of a distinct people; in 1455 Galloway ceased to exist as a separate lordship; in the extreme S. of Wigtown is the bold and rocky promontory, the Mull of Galloway, the extremity of the peninsula called the Rhinns of Galloway; the Mull, which is the most southerly point in Scotland, rises to a height of 210 ft., and is crowned by a powerful lighthouse.
[Galswinthe], the sister of Brunhilda and the second wife of Chilpéric I.; was strangled to death in 568.
[Galt, John], Scotch novelist, born at Irvine; educated at Greenock, where he held a post in the Custom-house for a time; essayed literature, wrote "The Ayrshire Legatees," "The Annals of the Parish," "Sir Andrew Wylie," "The Entail," and "The Provost"; died of paralysis at Greenock; Carlyle, who met him in London in 1832, says, "He had the air of a broad, gaucie, Greenock burgher; mouth indicating sly humour and self-satisfaction; eyes, old and without lashes, gave me a wae interest for him; says little, but that little peaceable, clear, and gutmüthig" (1779-1839).