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Holy Land about 1093. Instigated by the difficulties and dangers he had undergone in his progress, and profoundly affected by the sad condition of the few Christians residing in that country, he went to Rome, obtained the sanction of Pope Urban II. for his project, and then travelled over the principal countries of Europe, and with earnest and resistless eloquence preached a crusade for the recovery of Palestine from the infidels. Peter himself led one part of the first irregular band of crusaders, amounting to about 100,000 men; another division being led by his lieutenant, Walter the Penniless, a man of some ability, who attempted to introduce order among the unmanageable host. After crossing Germany, and encountering severe resistance in Hungary, Peter reached Constantinople, where he was welcomed by the emperor Alexis. He stayed there while the host of crusaders passed on to fresh conflicts and sufferings. He was at the siege of Antioch in 1097, but, despairing of success, fled from the camp, and was brought back by force. He accompanied the crusaders to the Holy City, and made a discourse to them on the Mount of Olives. Subsequently, he returned to his native country, where he founded the abbey of Noir-moutier, and died in 1115.

Petition of Right, (1628 A. D.) In 1628, Charles I. summoned his third parliament. To check the violent exertions of prerogative by forced loans, arbitrary imprisonment, and the levy of taxes without the consent of the commons, the assent of the king was required to a bill which enacted, 1st, that no loan or tax might be levied but by the consent of parliament; 2d, that no man might be imprisoned but by legal process; 3d, that no commissions should be granted for executing martial law. To this bill, called "The Petition of Right," as implying that the privileges secured by it had been already enjoyed, Charles reluctantly assented. Petrarca, Francesco, (Petrarch,) (1304-1374,) one of the most illustrious poets and scholars of Italy. His father brought him up to the law, for which he had no relish. He studied at Montpellier and Bologna, and early made acquaintance with many eminent persons. His passion for the beautiful Laura, which gave shape and color to the rest of his life, was first kindled in 1327, as on the 6th of April, of that year, she worshipped beside him. She was then 19, and had been married two years to Hugues de Sade. Petrarch's love for her was true and

permanent, but was not returned by Laura, whose conduct throughout was marked by purity, kindness, and good sense. To escape or weaken the force of his hopeless passion, he travelled frequently, and lived for some time in the secluded valley of Vaucluse. He took part in the political affairs of his time, was the friend of popes and princes, and was employed in many important negotiations. He rendered very great services to literature and learning by his diligent researches for and collections of ancient manuscripts. By the gift of his books to the Church of St. Mark at Venice, he became the founder of its famous library. He was the friend of Boccaccio, who shared with him the honor of reviving classical literature, and the friend of Rienzi, with whose enterprise, as tribune of Rome, he warmly sympathized. In 1341, Petrarch received the highest testimony of the renown which he had acquired as poet and scholar, by being crowned as laureate in the Capitol at Rome. The death of Laura took place on the 6th of April, 1348, the anniversary of the day on which Petrarch first saw her. The tidings reached him in Italy, and he made a touching note of it in his Virgil. He died, sitting among his books, July 18th, 1374, at Aigua. Petrarch's works are partly in Italian and partly in Latin. The latter were those on which his reputation in his own day rested; but the former are those by which he is most known. His Italian sonnets, canzoni, and "Triumphs" are all sweet, exquisite, glowing variations on one theme, Laura; those written after her death have an added purity and loftiness of sentiment. His Latin poems consist of an epic on the second Punic war, entitled "Africa," epistles, and eclogues. The letters, addressed to a large number of the most eminent persons and potentates of the time, and treating of the exciting events amidst which he lived, are of high interest and great value. (See Campbell's Life of Petrarch.)

Petrus de Vinea. See VINEA.

Phaedrus, an elegant Latin poet, a native of Thrace, appears to have been the freedman of Augustus. Most of his fables are translated or imitated from those of Æsop. This Æsop lived about 600 B. C. The fables ascribed to him have in many respects an Eastern character, alluding to Asiatic customs, and introducing panthers, peacocks, and monkeys among their persons. This makes it likely that they are derived from an Indian source.

Phidias, (490-432 B. C.,) the great Greek sculptor. He began to distinguish himself about 461, and was one of the most intimate friends of Pericles, under whose rule he was appointed director of all the great temples and monuments which were to be erected in the city. Of these the most important were the Parthenon, or Temple of Athene, on the Acropolis, and the Propylæa. He executed a colossal statue of the goddess for the interior of the temple with his own hand. The "Elgin Marbles" of the British Museum were the sculptured decorations of that unrivalled temple. Phidias spent some years at Olympia, and there he executed the most magnificent of all his works the statue of the Olympian Zeus. Like the Athene, it was of ivory and gold, was nearly 60 feet in height, although a seated figure, and was deemed the greatest production of Greek art. It was destroyed by fire at Constantinople, whither it had been carried by the emperor Theodosius.

Philadelphia, (founded, 1682 A. D.) William Penn, the founder of Philadelphia, was the son of Admiral Penn, the conqueror of Jamaica. The son and grandson of naval officers, his thoughts had from boyhood been directed to the ocean; the conquest of Jamaica by his father early familiarized his imagination with the New World, and in Oxford, at the age of 17, he indulged in visions of happiness, of which America was the scene. Bred in the school of Independency, he had, while hardly 12 years old, learned to listen to the voice of God in his soul, and at Oxford, where his excellent genius received the benefits of learning, the words of a Quaker preacher so touched his heart that he joined the despised sect. His father, bent on subduing his enthusiasm, beat him and turned him into the streets, to choose between poverty with a pure conscience, or fortune with obedience. He chose the first; but his father, being finally convinced of his integrity, became reconciled to him, and left him, on his death in 1670, a plentiful estate. Penn now devoted himself to the propagation of his opinions; and from that time published a great variety of tracts, and travelled in Holland and Germany to support the cause of Quakerism. In 1681, Charles II., in consideration of the services of his father, and sundry debts due to him from the crown at the time of his decease, granted Penn and his heirs, by letters patent, the province lying on the west side of the river Delaware, in North America, and made them absolute proprietors and gov

ernors of that country. The name, too, was changed in honor of Penn, from the New Netherlands to Pennsylvania. Upon this he published “A Brief Account of the Province of Pennsylvania," proposing an easy purchase of lands and good terms of settlement to such as were inclined to remove thither. In 1682 he embarked for his new colony, and in the following year he founded Philadelphia. There is an interesting "Life of William Penn" by Hepworth Dixon.

Philip of Macedon, (359–336 B. C.) The multitude of those persons increased who, born in the field and formed only to arms, wandered about in quest of adventures, and, being strangers to the arts of peace, sought only for commanders who would furnish them a regular stipend, and give them a share of the plunder. Philip, son of Amyntas, having, after many disturbances in Macedonia, ascended his paternal throne, made use of these adventurers to carry out his ambitious designs. But the cause which chiefly contributed to give a new condition to all the countries between the Adriatic and the Indus was the military education which Philip had received, under the precepts of Epaminondas, while he resided as a hostage at Thebes. With the knowledge which Philip eagerly imbibed from Epaminondas, he combined what the latter wanted, namely, the power of a monarch, and the boldness of an enterprising conqueror. Philip had, besides, pleasing manners and apparent gentleness, by which he engaged the affections of the soldiers and deceived the people; he was addicted to conviviality and to pleasures of all kinds, and was therefore the less dreaded. After Philip had exercised his arms in subduing his immediate neighbors, he acquired, to the astonishment of all Greece, a seat in the Amphictyonic Council, and filled every place from Byzantium to the Peloponnesus with the terror of his arms, and at the same time with the reputation of his mildness and generosity, his good faith and patriotism. Athens at length took arms in the cause of expiring freedom. The decisive battle was fought in the field of Chærones, (338.) The Athenians and their allies, particularly the Theban body called "the sacred band," fought in a manner worthy of the last contest in defence of ancient liberty. They were defeated. "The sacred band," 400 in number, inseparable in death, fell together, loaded with glorious wounds, and the liberty of Greece expired with them. Philip soon after assembled a congress at Corinth, and was named general of the confederate Greeks in the war

to be undertaken against Persia. But in 336 he was assassinated at Ægæ, and that war was reserved for his greater son, Alexander.

Philip of Orleans, (1674-1723,) Regent of France. He had for his tutor the infamous Dubois. Louis XIV. showed great distrust and suspicion of the duke of Orleans, and very grave suspicions arose among the people when the dauphin, the duke and duchess of Burgundy, and their eldest son all died almost suddenly, and within a year. Philip's life was endangered, and the public excitement was unbounded. On the death of Louis XIV., in 1715, the duke of Orleans had himself proclaimed regent with absolute power, and at once adopted a policy in most respects the reverse of that of Louis. He protected the Jansenists, abandoned the cause of the Stuarts, maintained and reformed the finances, adopting the schemes of the peace, Scotchman Law. Plots were formed against the regent, in which Cardinal Alberoni took a leading part, but they were foiled; and in 1719 war was declared against Spain, which was soon closed by an advantageous peace. France, however, was distracted with domestic disquietudes and calamities, and the example of the regent hastened the decline of religion and the corruption of morals. The influence of Dubois as first minister was supreme, and the regent sacrificed everything to him. In 1723, Louis XV. came of age and assumed the government, making the duke of Orleans his prime minister. But the duke died suddenly the same year.

Philip the Bold. See CHARLES THE BOLD.

Pindar, (518-442.) He was a native of Boeotia, sprung from a family who for several generations had shown a special talent for music and poetry. His brilliant genius soon made him known wherever the language of Hellas was understood. He was invited to Syracuse by Hiero, where he remained about four years, the brightest ornament of this poetical society. Though his usual residence was at Thebes, yet he made frequent journeys to be present at those assemblies and festive celebrations which his verse commemorated and adorned. These were the epinician odes composed in honor of the victor at one of the four great games of Greece, the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian. These odes show throughout how deeply his character was tinctured with a reverential feeling toward the objects of religious worship. He made frequent pilgrimages to the temple of Apollo

at Delphi, where centuries afterward the iron chair was shown on which he sat while chanting the hymns he had composed in honor of the god. He died at the age of 80. The enthusiastic admiration of Greece for him increased as the glory of Thebes gradually vanished into the mists of the past. When Alexander took Thebes, and razed it to the ground, he gave strict orders to his soldiers that no damage should be done to the house where Pindar had lived and died.

Pisistratus, an Athenian citizen, who usurped the sovereignty of his country. He was ambitious, eloquent, and courageous; and, pursuing the policy which has so often succeeded in democracies, he gained over the lower classes of citizens by his affability and unbounded liberality. He made no attempt to abolish the wise laws of Solon, but confirmed and extended their authority; and, though he was twice expelled, he regained the sovereignty, and continued to exercise it, not as the oppressor, but as the father of his country. He died B. C. 527, leaving two sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, to inherit his power. He established a public library at Athens, and collected and arranged the Homeric poems. A disgraceful passion occasioned Hipparchus to commit an outrage against Harmodius and Aristogiton, in consequence of which he was assassinated by them in the tumult attending the celebration of a great festival. His brother Hippias, informed of this event, strengthened his own power with greater vigilance and became vigorous in his administration. The Athenians, discontented with this tyrannical suspicion, called in the aid of the Lacedæmonians, and Cleomenes, king of Sparta, drove out the usurper, who sought refuge in the court of Persia. This happened in 510 B. C., in the same year that the Tarquins were driven from Rome and the Pythagoræans from the towns of Southern Italy.

Pitt, William, (1759-1806,) Prime Minister of England. In 1780 he was returned to the House of Commons, and three years later, Pitt, although at that time only in his 24th year, assumed the station of prime minister. The French Revolution broke out, and produced agitation in every neighboring state. War against free principles was declared on the one side, while on the other the friends of reformation saw themselves confounded with ignorant visionaries. Under this state of things a vigilant eye and a steady hand were obviously necessary; and whatever opinions may be

formed by different parties, certain it is that he displayed talents, energy, and perseverance almost unparalleled in the world's history. At length he, in 1801, resigned office; but in 1804, once more resumed his post at the treasury. Returning to power as a war minister, he exerted all the energy of his character to render the contest successful, and found means to engage the two great military powers of Russia and Austria in a new coalition against Napoleon; which was, however, dissolved by the battle of Austerlitz. But his health was now in a precarious state; and hereditary gout, aggravated by public cares and a too liberal use of wine, had undermined his constitution, and he died January 23d, 1806. Pitt was a minister of commanding powers, both as a financier and an orator: his eloquence, though not so imaginative as that of Burke, or so captivating as that of his father, was more uniformly just and impressive than either; while the indignant severity and keenness of his sarcasm were unequalled. A Life of Pitt has been published by Earl Stanhope.

Pizarro, Francisco, (1475–1541,) the conqueror of Peru. He embarked, in 1510, with some other adventurers, for America; and, in 1524, after having distinguished himself under Nuñez de Balboa on many occasions, he associated at Panama with Diego de Almagro and Hernandez Lucque, a priest, in an enterprise to make fresh discoveries. In this voyage they reached the coast of Peru, but being too few to make any attempt at a settlement, Pizarro returned to Spain, where all that he gained was a power from the court to prosecute his object. However, having raised some money, he was enabled again, in 1531, to visit Peru, where a civil war was then raging between Huascar, the legitimate monarch, and his half-brother Atahualpa, the reigning inca. Pizarro, by pretending to take the part of the latter, was permitted to march into the interior, where he made the unsuspecting chief his prisoner; then, extorting from him, as it is said, a house full of precious metals by way of ransom, he had him tried for a pretended conspiracy, and condemned him to be burnt, allowing him first to be strangled, as a reward for becoming a Christian. In January, 1535, the conqueror laid the foundation of Lima, and called it the "City of the Kings." In 1537 a contest arose between him and Almagro, who was defeated and executed. The son and friends of Almagro, however, avenged his death, and, on June 26th, 1541, Pizarro met with the fate he so richly deserved, being assassinated in his palace at Lima.

Plato. Literature had attained the greatest splendor since the time of Socrates, who first knew and acknowledged that man has no insight into the nature of things, and that the sum of all wisdom is the knowledge of ourselves. Socrates himself left absolutely nothing in a written form. His philosophy is revealed to us in the works of his disciples, Plato and Xenophou. In the dialogues of Plato we find Socrates brought forward as leading the conversations, and his opinions and biography are so closely interwoven with them that we cannot tell whether the light that shines on us comes from this or that side of the twin-star Socrates and Plato. These dialogues, which have come down to us complete, are unrivalled in their union of the philosophic and poetic spirit; the depth of the philosopher and the rigorous exactitude of the logician are blended with the highest splendor of the imagination of the poet. In range of speculation they are unparalleled. Out of Plato, says Emerson, come all things that are still written and debated among men of thought.

Plautus, T. Maccius, (B. C. 225-184,) the most celebrated Roman comic poet. He spent the greater part of his life at Rome, where at one time he is said to have been reduced to the necessity of grinding corn with a hand-mill for a baker. He gained immense popularity with his countrymen by his numerous comedies, based, many of them, on Greek models, but made his own by a bold treatment and clever adaptation of them to Roman audiences. Twenty of his comedies are still extant out of the twenty-one pronounced genuine by Varro. One hundred and thirty were current under his name. His plays were still acted in the reign of Domitian, and some of them have been imitated by modern dramatists. There are several English translations of Plautus.

Pliny the Elder, (23–79 A. D.,) one of the most celebrated writers of ancient Rome. As an inquirer into the works of nature he was indefatigable, and he lost his life in a last attempt to gratify his thirst for knowledge. Being at Misenum with a fleet which he commanded, on August 24th, A. D. 79, his sister desired him to observe a remarkable cloud which had just appeared. Pliny discovering that it proceeded from Mount Vesuvius, ordered his galleys to sea, to assist the inhabitants on the coast, while he himself steered as near as possible to the foot of the mountain, which now sent forth vast quantities of burning rock and lava. Pliny and his companions landed at

Stabiæ, but were soon obliged to leave the town for the fields, where the danger, however, was equally great, from the shower of fire which fell upon them. In this state they made the best of their way to the shore; but Pliny, who was very corpulent, fell down dead, suffocated probably by the noxious vapors. The eruption which caused his death was that in which the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii were destroyed, in the first year of the emperor Titus. Pliny wrote several works which have perished, but his name and fame are preserved by his great work, entitled "Natural History," in 37 books, one of the most precious monuments of antiquity extant. Its contents do not answer to its title, but are immensely various in character. It is a laborious compilation, from almost innumerable sources, of facts, observations, and statements on almost all branches of natural science, on the fine arts, on inventions, and other subjects.

Plutarch, (46–120 A. D.,) the celebrated Greek biographer and moralist, was a native of Charonea, in Bœotia. He visited Italy, and spent some time at Rome, lecturing there on philosophy, as early as the reign of Domitian. His great work is entitled "Parallel Lives," and consists of biographies of forty-six eminent Greek and Romans, arranged in pairs, each pair accompanied by a comparison of characters. They are written with a moral purpose, and present, not orderly narratives of events, but portraitures of men, drawn with much graphic power, with great good sense, honesty, and kind-heartedness. "Plutarch's Lives," as tested by modern criticism, are not historical authorities; they were written with a practical, not a critical aim. They set before us the most famous types of Greek and Roman character as understood by a careful, learned, imaginative, and philosophical writer of Trajan's time. To Englishmen, beside their intrinsic value, they possess the special interest of having been Shakspeare's main authority in his great classical dramas. They were accessible to him in North's version; and the correspondence between the Plays and the Lives is traceable in incident upon incident, personage after personage, and in some places almost line after line, and word after word. Few books of ancient or modern times have been so widely read, so generally admired, as these "Lives."

Polish Election in 1734. Poland had first begun to emerge into importance in the reign of Wladislaus Loktek, in the early part of the 14th

century. Its boundaries were enlarged by his son and successor, Casimir III., surnamed the Great, who having ceded Silesia to the king of Bohemia, compensated himself by adding Red Russia, Podolia, Volhynia, and other provinces to his dominions. Casimir, having no children, resolved to leave his crown to his nephew Louis, son of his sister and of Charles Robert, king of Hungary, (see Genealogy, VIII.,) and with this view he summoned a national assembly at Cracow, which approved the choice he had made. This proceeding, however, enabled the Polish nobles to interfere in the succession of the crown, and to render it elective, like that of Hungary and Bohemia; so that the Polish constitution became a sort of aristocratic republic. The kingdom, or as the Poles themselves called it, republic of Poland, required from this peculiar constitution the greatest vigor and ability in the prince who governed it. The only class of Poles that enjoyed any political rights was the nobles, comprising some 100,000 families. The rest of the population was composed either of serfs, who were entirely at the disposal of their masters, or the inhabitants of towns, who, though free, could neither hold public office nor exercise any legislative power. The diet, chosen only by the nobles, possessed the whole power of the government; it elected the king, made the laws, and even took a part in the executive administration. Notwithstanding, however, that the diet possessed such extensive powers, it lay at the mercy of any single member, who, by virtue of what was called the "Liberum Veto," might annul its proceedings. Since the establishment of this elective government the internal affairs of Poland had been constantly subject to foreign interference. The throne of Poland was rendered vacant by the death of Augustus II., February 1st, 1733. Frederick Augustus, son and successor in the Saxon electorate, also became a candidate for the Polish This prince had married a daughter of the late emperor Joseph I. Her eventual claim to the Austrian succession, as child of the elder brother, might be considered preferable to that of the daughter of Charles VI., the present emperor, who therefore extorted from Frederick Augustus a renunciation of his pretensions, through his wife, to the Austrian succession, and, in return, engaged to assist him to the Polish throne. In the mean time, Stanislaus Leczinski, whom Charles XII. had invested with the sovereignty of Poland in 1704, (now become father-in-law to Louis XV.,) was a second time chosen king. But the emperor, assisted by the Russians,

crown.

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