Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/94

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POR—POR

P I E P I U of the time made it to consist mainly in correctness of doctrine. At the same time, the greater importance which he attached to the religious life and to practical godliness than to correctness of belief, and his restoration of the Bible to its place of superiority over the creeds, involved numerous possible departures from and advances beyond the Luther- anism of the 17th century. Again, the earnestness with which he had insisted on the necessity of a new birth, and on a separation of Christians from the world, led to exaggera tion and fanaticism among followers less distinguished than himself for wisdom and moderation. Many Pietists soon maintained that the new birth must always be preceded by agonies of repentance, a-nd that only a regenerated theo logian could teach theology, while the whole school shunned all common worldly amusements, such as dancing, the theatre, and public games, and affected a severe austerity with re gard to dress, meals, and conversation. Through these extravagances a reactionary movement arose at the begin ning of the 18th century, one of the most distinguished leaders of which was Loescher, superintendent at Dresden. But it was only as the opponents of Pietism gradually ceased their attacks that the movement lost its strength and by degrees handed over its vital truths and truest work to various representatives of a new and better age of the church. As a distinct movement it had run its course before the middle of the 18th century. The spirit of the school of Spener long made itself felt amongst the Pro testants of north and south Germany, and particularly at Halle. Pietism could claim to have contributed largely to the revival of Biblical studies in Germany, and to have given a Biblical basis once more to theology. It also made religion once more an affair of the heart and the life, and not merely of the intellect, to which theologians had reduced it. It likewise vindicated afresh the rights of the Christian laity in regard to their own beliefs and the work of the church, against the assumptions and despotism of an arrogant clergy. It thus revived eternal elements of Christianity that had been long neglected, and was a distinct agent in preparing the way for modern advance in religion and theology. But it sprang from a temporary necessity, and, like similar phases of Christian life, lacked the philosophical and scholarly depth, the human and secular breadth, and the progressive impetus of a per manent and world-subduing religious movement. The two most recent German writers on the history of Pietism Heppe and Ritschl have given a much wider meaning to the term, including under it nearly all religious tendencies amongst Protestants of the last three centuries in the direction of a more serious cultiva tion of personal piety than that prevalent in the various established churches, and manifesting itself particularly in the ascetic shunning of " worldly " practices. The term then embraces the Anabaptist, Moravian, Metnodistic, and other kindred tendencies of the religious life, which are generally regarded rather as simply related than gen etically connected phenomena. Ritschl, too, treats Pietism as a retrograde movement of Christian life towards Catholicism. It is also customary with some German writers to speak of a later or modern Pietism, characterizing thereby a party in the German church which was probably at first influenced by some remains of Spener s Pietism in Westphalia, on the Rhine, in Wiirtemberg, and at Halle and Berlin, and which at the commencement worked to some extent on the lines of the earlier movement. The party was chiefly distinguished by its opposition to an independent scientific study of theology, its principal theological leader being Hengsten- berg, and its chief literary organ the Evangelische Kirchcnzeitung. The party originated at the close of the wars with Napoleon I. Amongst older works on Pietism are Walch s Hutorische und theologische Ein- Mtwig in die Religi<mstreitirjkeiten der Evanyelisch-Lutherischen Kirche, 1730; Tholuck a Getchichte desPietismut und des enten Stadiums der Aufklurung, 1865; II. Schmid, Die Geschicfite des Pietismus, 1863; Goebel s Geschicfite des christlichen Lebens in der Rheinisch- Westfitlischen Kirche, 3 vols., 1849-CO; and the subject is dealt with at length in Dorner s and Gass s Histories of Protestant theology. The two chief recent works which use the term in the wider sense just referred to are Heppe s Getchichte des Pietitmus und der Atystik in der reformirten Kirche, (1879) which is sympathetic, and lUtschl s Oeschichte des Pietismus (vol. i. only yet published, 1880), which is hostile. See also Nippold s article in Theol. Stud, uiul Kritiken, 1882, pp. 347-392-- and Riggenbach s article, "Pietismus," in Herzog s Zncyklopadie, 2d ed. (J. F. S.) PIETKO. See PIERO. PIG. See SWINE. PIGALLE, JEAN BAPTISTE (1714-1785), French sculp tor, was born at Paris on 26th January 1714. Although he failed to obtain the Great Prize, after a severe struggle he entered the Academy and became one of the mo.Nt popular sculptors of his day. His earlier work, such as Child with Cage (model at Sevres) and Mercury Fastening his Sandals (Berlin, and lead cast in Louvre), is less com monplace in character than that of his maturer years, but his statue of Voltaire (Institut) and his tombs of Comte d Harcourt (Notre Dame) and of Marshal Saxe (Lutheran church, Strasburg) are good specimens of French sculpture in the 18th century. He died on 21st August 1785. See Tarbe. Vie et ceuv. de Piyalle ; Suard, logc de PigalJe ; Melanges de litt&rature ; Dussieux, Les artistes fran^ais a I etrangcr; Barbet de Jouy, Sculptures mod. Louvre. PIGAULT-LEBRUN, CHARLES ANTOIXE GUILLAUMK, sometimes called PIGAULT DE L EPINOY (1753-1835), the chief fiction writer of the first empire, and the most popular light novelist of France before Paul de Kock, was born at Calais (he is said to have traced his pedigree on the mother s side to Eustache de St Pierre) on April 8, 1753. His youth was decidedly stormy. He twice carried off young ladies of some position, and was in con sequence twice imprisoned by lettre de cachet. His firs! love, a Miss Crawford, the daughter of an English merchant whose office Pigault had entered, died almost immediately after her elopement ; the second, Mademoiselle de Salens, In- married. Besides his commercial and criminal experiences, he was a soldier in the queen s guards, an actor, and a teacher of French. At the breaking out of the great war he re-enlisted and fought at Valmy. It should be said, however, that the romantic incidents of his life are differ ently related by different authorities, and are open to not a little suspicion. Although he had tried dramatic writing, he does not seem to have attempted prose fiction till he was forty, but from that time he was a fertile writer of novels for nearly thirty years. In his old age he took to graver work, and executed an abridgment of French history in eight volumes, besides some other work. His (Euvr<s Completes were published in twenty volumes between 1822 and 1824. He died on July 24, 1835. Pigault s numer ous novels, though still occasionally reprinted, are not much read ; and none of them is much better or worse than any other. Their style is insignificant, and their morality very far from severe. But Pigault deserves the credit, such as it is, of being almost the first writer of numerous light novels calculated to hit, and which suc ceeded in hitting, the taste of his day. Nor was he by any means without wit. As almost the father of a kind of literature which has since developed itself enormously, and which, whatever may be its intrinsic merits, has main tained and increased its popularity for a century, Pigault- Lebrun deserves a certain place in literary history. PIGEON, 1 French Pigeon, Italian Piccione and Pipione, Latin Pipio, literally a nestling-bird that pipes or cries out, a " Piper " the very name now in use among Pigeon-fanciers. The word Pigeon, doubtless of Norman introduction as a polite term, seems to bear much the same relation to Dove, the word of Anglo-Saxon origin, that mutton has to sheep, beef to ox, veal to calf, and pork to bacon ; but, as before stated (DovE, vol. vii. p. 379), no sharp distinction can be drawn between the two, and the collective members of the group Columbse are by ornitho logists ordinarily called Pigeons. Perhaps the best known species to which the latter name is exclusively given in common speech 2 is the Wild Pigeon or Passenger-Pigeon 1 See further under the heading POULTRY. 2 It may be observed that tlie " Rock-Pigeons " of Anglo-Indians are

SAND-GROUSK (q.v.), and the "Cape Pigeon" of sailors is a PETREL (q.v. ).