Page:EB1911 - Volume 21.djvu/620

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PIETRO DELLA VIGNA—PIG
  

the work of the Church, against the assumptions and despotism of an arrogant clergy. “It was,” says Rudolf Sohm, “the last great surge of the waves of the ecclesiastical movement begun by the Reformation, it was the completion and the final form of the Protestantism created by the Reformation. Then came a time when another intellectual power took possession of the minds of men.”

Some writers on the history of Pietism—e.g. Heppe and Ritschl—have included under it nearly all religious tendencies amongst Protestants of the last three centuries in the direction of a more serious cultivation of personal piety than that prevalent in the various established churches. Ritschl, too, treats Pietism as a retrograde movement of Christian life towards Catholicism. Some historians also speak of a later or modern Pietism, characterizing thereby a party in the German Church ¢h1ch was probably at first influenced by some remains of Spener’s Pietism in Westphalia, on the Rhine, in Wurttemberg, and at Halle and Berlin. The party was chiefly distinguished by its opposition to an independent scientific study of theology, its principal theological leader being Hengstenberg, and its chief literary organ the Evangelische Kirchenzeitung. The party originated at the close of the wars with Napoleon I.

Amongst older works on Pietism are J. G. Walch, Historische und theologische Einleitung in die Religionsstreitigkeiten der evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche (1730); A. Tholuck, Geschichte des Pietismus und des ersten Stadiums der Aufklärung (1865); H. Schmid, Die Geschichte des Pietismus (1863); M. Goebel, Geschichte des christlichen Lebens in der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Kirche (3 vols., 1849–1860); and the subject is dealt with at length in J. A. Dorner’s and W. Gass’s Histories of Protestant theology. More recent are Hippe’s Geschichte des Pietismus und der Mystik in der reformirten Kirche (1879), which is sympathetic; A. Ritschl’s Geschichte des Pietisms (3 vols, 1880–1886), which is hostile; and C. Sachsse, Ursprung und Wesen des Pietismus (1884). See also Fr. Nippold’s article in Theol. Stud. und Kritiken (1882), pp. 347-392; von Schubert, Outlines of Church History, ch. xv. (Eng trans., 1907); and Carl Mirbt’s article, “ Pietismus," in Herzog-Hauck’s Realenzyklopädie für prot. Theologie u. Kirche, end of vol. xv.


PIETRO DELLA VIGNA, or Pier Delle Vigne [Petrus de Vineas or de Vineis] (c. 1190–1249), chancellor and secretary to the emperor Frederick II, was born at Capua in humble circumstances. He studied law at Padua, and through his classical education, his ability to speak Latin and his poetic gifts, he gained the favour of Frederick II., who made him his secretary, and afterwards judex magnae curiae, councillor, governor of Apulia, prothonotary and chancellor. The emperor, “of whose heart he held the keys,” as Dante says, sent him to Rome in 1232 and 1237 to negotiate with the pope, to Padua in 1239 to induce the citizens to accept imperial protection, to England in 1234–1235 to arrange a marriage between Frederick and Isabella, sister of King Henry III. He proved a skilful and trustworthy diplomat, and he persistently defended the emperor against his traducers and against the pope’s menaces. But at the Council of Lyons, which had been summoned by Pope Innocent IV., Pietro della Vigna entrusted the defence of his master to the celebrated jurist Taddeo of Suessa, who failed to prevent his condemnation. Frederick, whose suspicions had been awakened by the slanders of the envious, had him imprisoned and blinded without giving him a chance to rebut his accusers. Unable to bear his disgrace, he committed suicide in his prison at Pisa in 1249. The exact date, place and manner of his death are, however, subject to controversy, and Flaminio del Borgo states that it occurred in the church of S. Andrea, at Pisa, in 1256. The tragic fate of this man gave rise to many legends. The Guelphic tradition accuses Pietro della Vigna, as well as the emperor and the court, of heresy, it was even stated, probably without any foundation, that they were the authors of the famous work, De tribus impostoribus, wherein Moses, Christ and Mahomet are blasphemed.

Pietro della Vigna was a man of great culture; he encouraged science and the fine arts, and contributed much to the welfare of Italy by wise legislative reforms. He was the author of some delicate verse in the vernacular tongue, of which two Canzoni and a sonnet are still extant. His letters, mostly written in the name of the emperor and published by Iselin (Epistolarum libri vi., 2 vols., Basel, 1740), contain much valuable information on the history and culture of the 13th century. A collection of the laws of Sicily, a Tractatus de potestate imperiali, and another treatise, “On Consolation,” in the style of Boethius, are also attributed to him.

See Huillard-Bréholles, Vie et correspondance de Pierre de la Vigne (Paris, 1864); Presta, Pier delle Vigne (Milan, 1880); Capasso and Ianelli, Pier dette Vigne (Caserta, 1882); also Frederick II.


PIG (a word of obscure origin, connected with the Low Ger. and Dut. word of the same meaning, bigge), a common name given to the domesticated swine of agricultural use. (For the zoology, see Swine.)

British breeds of pigs are classified as black, white and red. In some places, notably Wales and Gloucester, a remnant of a spotted breed lingers; and a large proportion of common pigs, often parti-coloured, are mongrels. The white breeds are liable to sun-scald, and black pigs (like black men) are much better adapted than white to exposure in strong sunlight, conforming to the rule that animals in the tropics have black sk1ns.

The Large Whites may have in the skin a few blue spots which grow white hair. The head is long, light in the jowl, and wide between the eyes, with long thin ears inclined slightly forward and fringed with long fine hair. The neck is long, but not coarse, the ribs are deep, the loin wide and level, the tail set high, and the legs straight and set well outside the carcase. The whole body, including the back of the neck, is covered with straight silky hair, which denotes quality and lean meat. Pigs of this breed are very prolific, and they may be grown to enormous weights—over 11 cwt. alive.

The Middle Whites are built on a smaller scale than the Large Whites. They are shorter in the heads and legs, and fuller at the jowl, thicker and more compact in the body. The sows are quite as prolific as those of the Large White breed, and, as their produce matures earlier, they are much in demand for breeding porkers.

The Small White pigs are beautifully proportioned. The head and legs are very short, and the body short, thick and wide; the jowl is heavy, the ears pricked, and the thin skin laden with long silky, wavy, but not curly, hair, whilst the tail is very fine. A deficiency of lean meat is a common characteristic of the breed, which is almost extinct.

The above three breeds were designated Yorkshire Whites, and are still so named at times. The Middle White, formed by crossing the large and the small breeds, is not so symmetrical as the parent stocks, and the type is not uniform. The Lincolnshire Curly Coated or Boston pig is a local breed of great size and capacity for producing pork. It is very hardy and prolific, but somewhat coarse in the bone. It has an abundance of long curly hair, a short face and a straight nose, and the ears, not too long and heavy, fall over the face. It crosses well with the Large White, the Large Black and the Berkshire.

The Large Black breed, which vies with the Large White breed for size, and is probably its superior as a bacon pig, has only since 1900 received national show-yard recognition, but there is ample evidence that, with its characteristic whole black colour with a mealy hue, length, fine hair and lop ear, the Large Black existed in the south of England for generations. It has been continuously and carefully bred in Cornwall, Devon, Essex and Suffolk, and from these centres it has rapidly spread all over the country. Large Blacks are exceedingly docile, and the ears, hanging well forward over the eyes, contribute materially to a quietness of habit which renders them peculiarly adapted to field grazing. On account of their hardiness and disposition to early maturity they have proved valuable for crossing purposes. The Large Black Pig Society was incorporated in 1899.

The Berkshire is a black pig with a pinkish skin, and a little white on the nose, forehead, pasterns, and tip to the tail. It has a moderately short head with heavy jowl, a deep, compact carcase, and wide, low and well-developed hind-quarters, with heavy hams. The skin carries an abundance of fine hair. The Berkshire is an early-maturity breed which has been somewhat