To turn to their geographical position, one passage of Scripture seems expressl}' to assert that the vale of Siddim had become the "salt," or dead, " sea" (Gen. xiv, 3), called elsewhere too the "sea of the jilain" (Josh, xii, 3) ; the expression, however, occurs aute- cedentlj' to their overthrow. Josephus (Anf.], 9) says that the late Asphaltites, or Dead Sea, was form- ed out of what used to be the valley where Sodom stood ; but elsewhere he declares that the territory of Sodom was not submerged in the lake {War, iv, 8, 4), but still existed parched and Innnt up, as is tlie ap- pearance of that region still; and certainly nothing in Scripture would lead to the idea that they were de- stroj'cd hy submersion (though they may have been submerged afterwards when destroj-ed), for their de- struction is expressly' attributed to the brimstone and fire rained upon them from heaven (Gen. xix, 24 ; see also Deut. xxix, 22, and Zeph. ii, 9 ; also Peter and Jude before cited). St. Jerome, in the Onomasticon, merel}' says of Sodom, "civitas inipioruni divine igne cousumpta juxta mare mortuum" (s. v. S(;co/(«, Scdo- ma ; comp. s. v. Fo/f/jopo, Gommora). The whole sub- ject is ably handled by Cellarius (ap. LTgol. Tkesaur. vii, dccxxxix-lxxviii), though it is not always neces- sary to agree with his conclusions. Among modern travellers. Dr. Robinson shows that the Jordan could not have ever flowed into the gulf of 'AkaVali ; on the contrary, that the rivers of the desert themselves flow northwards into the Dead Sea. See Akabah. This, added to the configuration and deep depression of the valley, serves in his opinion to prove that there must have always been a lake there, into which the Jordan flowed ; though he admits it to have been of far less extent than it now is, and even the whole southern part of it to have been added subsequently to the over- throw of the four cities, which stood, according to him, at the original south end of it, Zoar probabh- being sit- uated in the mouth of wad}' Kerah, as it opens upon the isthmus of the peninsula. In the same plain, he remarks, were slime-pits, or wells of bitumen (Gen. xiv, 10) ; "salt-pits" also (Zeph ii, 9); while the en- largement of the lake he considers to have been caused by some convulsion or catastrophe of nature connected with the miraculous destruction of the cities — volcanic agency, that of earth(iuakcs, and the like (^Bihl. Res. ii, . 187-192, 2d ed.). He might have adduced the great earthquake at Lisbon as a case in point. The great difference of level between the bottoms of the north- ern and southern ends of the lake, the former 1300, the latter only 13 feet below the surface, singularly con- firms the above view (Stanley, S. (f P. p. 287, 2d ed.). Pilgrims of Palestine formerly saw, or fancied that they saw, ruins of towns at the bottom of the sea, not
GOMORRHA
922
GOOD
far from the shore (see Maundrell, Early Ti-aveUers, p. 4.54). — Smith, s. v. ; Kitto, s. v. M. ile Saiilcy is con- fident lie lias discovered the remains of Gomorrah in certain ruins which he reports in a valley by the name of (iumrar, on the N. W. shore of the Dead Sea, just north of Ain el-Feshkah {Dead Sea, ii, 49) ; but Van de Velde makes light of this account (^Narrative, ii, 115 sq.), which, indeed, lacks confirmation, especially as it is generally believed that the sites of these cities are all buried under the southern shallows of the lake. See Dk.vi) Sea.
Goino'rrha, the manner in which the name Go- MORu.vu (q. V.) is written in the A. V. of the apocry- phal books and the N. T., following the Greek form of tlie word ro/toppa (2 Esd. ii, 8 ; Matt, x, 15 ; Mark vi, 11 ; I!om. ix, 29 ; Jude 7 ; 2 Pet. ii, G).— Smith, s. v.
Gondulf, or Gundulf, a Norman priest, was born in the neighborhood of Rouen in 1023. After entering the Church, he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in com- pany with the archdeacon William , afterwards archbish- op of Eouen. On his return, being in danger of ship- wreck, he vowed to become a monk, and in 1059 he en- tered the convent of Bee, where he became intimate with Anselm. Lanfranc, prior of Bee, being in 1063 appoint- ed abbot of St. Stephen of Caen, chose Gondulf for his coadjutor, and still retained him when called in 1070 to the archbishopric of Canterbury. Through his influ- ence Gondulf was created ai'chbishop of Eochester March 19, 1077, and restored that see to its former im- portance. After the death of Lanfranc he administer- ed for four years the archbishopric of Canterbury, to ■which Anselm was then appointed. The pleasure of tlieir meeting was soon disturbed by difficulties occur- ing between the new archbishop, William Rufus, and Henry I. Gondulf, while faithful to his Church and to his friend, managed, however, to remain on good terms with both parties, and after king William's death exerted himself to prevent civil war, and to se- cure the crown for Henry. Tbe-e services gave him .great influence, which he used for tlie benefit of his diocese. He died at Rochester in 1108. Gondulf en- j joyed great reputation for learning : he devoted his time largely to the correction of the text of the Vul- gate version. He was also renowned for his elo- quence, but none of his sermons are extant ^o■v^■. Of his correspondence with Anselm there remains but one letter, which, with an epistle to the monks of Bee, is all we have of his writings. See Vita GotuMjM (in 'Wharton, Atifflia sacra); Hist. Utteraire de la France (vol. ix) ; Remusat, Hist, de St.Ansehne ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gmerale, xxi, 19(5.