Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/674

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

PBLOTAS


610


PELUsnna


trom the charge and passed the remainder of his days combatting the Protestant heresy. He was obliged more than once to quit Montpellier, for Aigues- Mortes, and Maguclonne. In 1567 the Protestants destroyed his cathedral. His correspondence was publisiied at Paris (1900); his commentaries on Tac- itus are unpubhshed.

Vaissere and Demi, Hist, g^nh^e de Langufdoc.

T. Lataste.

Pelotas, Diocese of (Pelotasensis), in Brazil, suffragan to Porto .\legre. By a decree of Pius X, dated 15 .\ug., 1910, the See of Sao Pedro do Rio Grande was erected into an archbishopric under the title of Porto Alegre (q. v.) and given four suffragans, three of which were detached from the old diocese. One of these, Pelotas, was formed from twenty-four parishes in the south-eastern portion of Rio Grande do Sul. It includes most of the territorj- lying near the Lagoa Miri, and the lower half of the Lagoa dos Patos. The cathedral church of the new diocese, dedicated to St. Francis of Paula, is at Pelotas, a well-constructed, handsome city, situated on the Sao Goncalo. Pelotas, a centre of commercial activity, especially in the cattle trade, contains about 25,000 inhabitants, and has a Jesuit college. Rio Grande, its seaport, twenty-six miles to the south-east, has about 20,000 inhabitants. The other chief centres of population are at Bage, Sao Lourengo, Sao Jose do Norte, and Boqueirao. The population is almost entirely Catholic.

Gal-^nti, Compendia de historia do Brazil, III, IV (Sao Paulo,

1902-05). A. A. MacErlean.

Felouze, Thegphile-Jctles, scientist, b. at Va- lognes, La Manche, 26 Feb., 1807; d. in Paris, 31 May or 1 June, 1867. He began his career as a pharmacist, studying at La Fere. In 1827 he went to Paris and be- came an as.sistant toGay LussacandLes-saigne. Atthis period he also occupied a position in the hospital of La Salpetriere, but resigned to get back to his researches. In 1S30 he was a professor in the L'niversity of Lille; in 1833 assayer to the Mint, and on the staff of the Polytechnic School in Paris; and later was engaged in the College de France, holding the title of professor there until 1851. In 1836 he visited Germany and was associated in his work in organic chemistry with Lie- big. In 1837 he succeeded Deyeux as a member of the Academy of Sciences of France. In 1848 he was made president of the Mint Commission, and in 1849 became a member of the Municipal Commission at Paris. He resigned his public positions in 1852.

His work with Liebig included investigations on cenanthic ether, tannic acid, stearin, sugar, etc., and withFremy, Cahours, andGelis, on aseries of vegetable acids, including mallic and gaUic acids, and on petro- leum and butyric fermentation. He was the first to synthesize a fatty substance from glycerine and an acid; to isolate tannic acid; to identify beet-root and cane-sugar as being the same; and to make gun- cotton or nitrocellulose in France. Other work by him was devoted to analj-tical chemistrj- and the deter- mination of the atomic weights of several of the ele- ments. Discovering a new class of .salts (nitro-sul- phates) he based thereon a new analytical method for the determination of copper. In 1850 as consulting chemist of the St. Gobain glass works he introduced sodium sulphate as a constituent in gla,s.s-making, pro- ducing artificial aventurine with chromium as a basis, studj-ing the effect of sunlight on coloured glass, and working on enamels. Many of his papers have been published in the " Annales de Chimie et de Physique" and in the "Comptes Rendus". He published several works: "Traits de Chimie G^n^rale, analj-tique, In- dustricUe et agricole" (3 vols, Paris, 1847), in collab- oration with Fr^my; "Abrdg^ de Chimie" (Paris, 1848); "Notions gfe^rales de Chimie" (Paris, 1853). According to his friend, the Abb6 Moigno, he died an edifying Christian death.


PooGENDORFF, Bioffrapltiiich-Lilerarincht. Ilnndwdrtertuch zur Geschichte der aactrn Wissennchaflen (LeipziK, 1863); FlOUIER, L' Annie Scienlifiquc {XII A nnle), Complex Rendus H ebdomadairtt des Stances de iAcadtmil des Sciences, LXIV (Paris, 1867).

T. O'Co.NoR Sloane.

Peltrie, Madeleine de la, nee Chauvig.ny, a French noblewoman, and foundress, b. at Caen, 1603; d. at Quebec, 18 November, 1671. In spite of her monastic inclinations, she was forceil to wed, at seven- teen, Charles de la Peltrie, who died five years later. After ten years of widowhood spent in piety and alms- deeds, Lejeune's "Relation" awakened in her .soul an ardent desire for the Canadian mission, which she strove to accomplish notwithstanding fresh opposition from her father. To overcome this, while seem- ingly complying with her parent's wish to see her re- married, it was arranged that the saintly de Berniere- Louvigny would ask her hand, leaving her free to pursue her generous design. Her father's death inter- vening, the union was cancelled, though her friend espoused the realization of her plans, duly approved by de Condren and St. \'incent de Paul. She corre- sponded with the Venerable Marie de I'lncarnation, who recognized her as the soul providentially destined to second her zeal. Thej- reached Quebec, 1 August, 1639, and began together a life of privations and mer- its inseparable from the rude condition of the colony and the savage nature of their wards. Madame de la Peltrie's charity exerted itself at Sillery, where she stood sponsor for many a dark neophyte. Her inti- mac}- with Jeanne Mance, Maisonneuve, and the other prospective founders of Ville Marie, during the first winter spent near Quebec (1641—42), prompted her to follow them to Montre.il, where she was the first communicant at the first Ma.ss celebrated by Father Vimont, S.J. (1642). Deterred from her apparently eccentric plan of \'isiting the Huron missions, she finally ret urned to Quebec after an absence of eighteen months, and devoted herself and her fortune wholly and irrevocably to the work of Marie de I'lncarnation. In spite of her entreaties she was never formally ad- mitted to the novitiate, but led the humble and aus- tere life of a true religious, scrupulously following everj' detail of the observances, and reaching a high degree of contemplative prayer. Governor Cour- celles, Intendant Talon, the Indians, and the poor attended her funeral. Besides contributing to the foundation of the UrsuUne monastery, she had in- augurated in Quebec, the admirable mission of charity for women of society.

DloxN'E, Serrileurs et Serranles de Dieu au Canada (Quebec, 1904): La V&nirable Marie de V Incarnation (Paris, 1910); Mother Ste. Croix, Glimpses of the Monastery (Quebec, 1897).

Lionel Lindsay.

Pelusium, titular metropolitan see of Augustam- nica Prima in Egj-pt, mentioned in Ezech., xxx, 15 sq., (A. V. Sin), as the strength or rampart of Egj'pt against his enemies from Asia, which clearly outlines the eastern frontier of the Delta. Sin in Chaldaic, and Seydn in Aramaic, means mire, like the Greek UiiXovfflov, which is a translation of it and which, ac- cording to Strabo (XVH, i, 21), refers to the mire and the marshes which surrounded the town. The latter was very important, being on the route of the cara- vans from Africa to Asia, also because its harbour joined the sea to the branch of the Nile called Pelusiac. The Pharaohs put it in a good state of defence. Among its sieges or battles were: the expedition of Nabuchodonosor, 583 b. c; that of Cambvses who stormed it, 525 B. c. (Herod., Ill, 10-12)"; that of Xerxes, 490 B. c, and of Artaxerxes, 460 B. c; the battle of 373 B. c. between Nectanebus Iving of Egypt, Phamabazus, Satrap of Phrj-gia, and Iphicrates, gen- eral of the Athenians. In 333 B. c. the city opened its gates to Alexander; in 173 b. c. Antiochus Epiphanes triumphed under its walls over Ptolemey Philimetor; in 55 B. c. Anthony captured it; and in 31 B. c. Angus-