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 PERAT^

664

PEREZ

PeratsB. See Gnosticism.

Percy, John {alias John Fisher), b. at Holmesido, Durham, 27 Sep., 15(59; il. at London, 3 Dec, 1G41. Converted when only fourteen years, he went first to Reims, in 1580, then to the English College, Rome, 15S9-94. Returning to Belgium, he entered the Jesuit novitiate, 2 May, 1594, and then set out for England in 1590. He was, however, arrested by the Dutch, tortured, and sent prisoner to London. He managed to escape, and became the companion of Father Cierard in several adventures. He was seized at Harrowden (Xoveinber, 1005) at the time of the Gunpowtler Plot, but was eventually banished at the requcjst of the Spanish amba,s.sador (1000). Retiring to Belgium he was for a time head of the English Jesu- its, then professor of Scripture at Louvain, after which he returned again to England, and was again impris- onc<l and condemned to death (1610). He had already begun to write on current controversies, and when James I desired a series of disputations in 1622, Percy, who wa.s then in a prison in London, was required to defend the Catholic side. In these disputations King James himself and Laud took a leading part. .\s a re- sult of these disputations, Mary Countess of Bucking- ham, and Chillingworth became converts to the Church. These controversies were afterwards printed and discussed by Percy and Floyd on the Catholic side, and by Laud, Francis White, John White, Feat- ley, and Wotton on the Protestant. Percy was event u- alh' relea-sed in 1625 and ordered to banishment in 1635, but he was suffered to remain in London till his death.

Foley, Records of the English Province S. J. (London. 1S77) ; SoMMERVoaEL, BiMiolhique de la C. de J. (Paris, 1892) ; Laud, Conference iHth Fisher Ihc Jesuit (London, 1901).

J. H. Pollen.

Peregrine Latiosi, S.\int. See Servite Order.

Peregrinus. — The canons of Priscillian, prefixed to the Epistles of St. Paul in many (chiefly Spanish) MSS., are preceded by an introduction headed " Proce- mium sancti Peregrini episcopi in epistolas Pauli .4pos- toli", in which it is explained that the canons were not written by St. Jerome but by Priscillian, and that they are given in an expurgated edition. The prologue of Priscillian himself to his canons follows; it shows none of the characteristics of style found in the tractates of Priscillian; it has presumably been rewritten by Pere- grinus, if the tractates are genuine.

The Codex Gothicus of the cathedral of Leon con- tains a prayer, and the words "et Peregrini f. o karis- simi memento". The preface of St. Jerome to his lost translation of the Books of Solomon from the Septua- eint occurs in some MSS. after his preface to his trans- lation of those books from the Hebrew; in most of these MSS. (Spanish, or under Spanish influence) a note is appended ex-plaining that both prefaces are given because, to the Vulgate text which follows, there have been added in the margin the additions found in the Septuagint; then come the words "et idcirco (\m legis semper Peregrini memento". The Stowe codex of St. John also has a subscription, in which the writer describes himself lis "Sonid Peregrinus". Sonid is said to be Celtic for a warrior; it reminds us of "Vin- centius", and .St. Vincent of Lerins in fact wrote his Commonitorium under the pseudonym of Peregrinus. But he cannnot be identified with the Spanish Pere- grinus, as he was not a bishop. The latter has been identified by Schepss, Berger, Fritsche, and Klinstle with Bachiarius, a Spaniard who left his country, and is fond of speaking of his percgrinnlio; he was accused of Priscillianism, and defended his own orthodoxy ; but he was a monk, and we do not know that he ever be- came a bishop. It is however most probable that the Spanish Peregrinus lived at the beginning of the fifth century, and he cannot be later than the eighth. Klin- stle is wTong in attributing to him the Pseudo-Jerome's prologue to the Catholic Epistles.

ScHEPBS, Priscilliani qua supersunl, C. S. E. L., XVIII (Vienna, I8S9), 179; Beroer, Hisloire de la Vulgate (Paris, 1893) ; Fritschb in Zcilschr. fur Kirchengesch., XVII (1897), 212; Ki'NSTLE, £)o« Comma Johanneum (Freiburg im Br., 1905) ; CHArM.\N, Early his- tory of the ruioafe Gospels (Oxford, 1908).

John Chapman.

Pereira (Pereyra, Pereha, Pererius), Bene- dict, philosopher, theologian, and exegete, b. about 1535, at Ruzafa, near Valencia, in Spain; d. 6 March, 1610, at Rome. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1552 and taught successively literature, philosophy, theology, and Sacred Scripture in Rome. He published eight works, and left a vast deal of manu- script. (Sommervogel, infra, mentions twelve sets.) The main diflSculties of Genesis are met in "Comnien- tariorum et disputationum in Genesim tomi quattuor" (Rome, 1591-99). This is a mine of information in regard to the Deluge, ark of Noe, tower of Babel, etc., and is highly esteemed by Biblical scholars, even by men of the critical bias of Richard Simon (Histoire critique du Vicux Testament, IH, xii). The "Com- mentariorum in Danielcm prophctam libri sexdecim" (Rome, 15S7) are much less diffuse, and evidence the critical acumen, untiring energy, and historical re- search of the author. Other writings of importance pubhshed by Pereira were five volumes of exegetical dissertations on: "E.xodus", 137 dissertations (Ingol- stadt, 1601); "The Epistle to the Romans", 188 dis- sertations (Ingolstadt, 1603); "The Apocalypse", 183 dissertations (Lyons, 1606); "The Gospel of St. John", 214 dissertations on the first nine chapters (Lyons, 1608) ; 144 dissertations on five following chapters (Lyons, 1610). To the fourth volume of the dissertations is appended a curious work of twenty- three dissertations to show that Mohammed was not the Antichrist of the .Apocalypse and of Daniel.

Sommervogel, Bibl. de lu Cnmpagnie de JHus, VI, 499-507; IX. 764; Hl-rter, Nomenclator, I (Innsbruck, 1S92), 182.

Walter Drum. Peretti, Felice. See Sixtus V, Pope.

Perez, Juan, d. before 1513. At one time he held the office of contador or accountant to the Queen of Spain, showing he was of noble family. Later he en- tered the Franciscan Order and distinguished himself for piety and learning. Queen Isabella chose him for her confessor. Finding court life distracting he asked permission to retire to his monastery. Soon after he was elected guardian of the convent, half a league from Palos in Andalusia, La Rdbida (Arabian for hermitage, because it had once served as a Mohamme- dan place of retreat). In 1200 it came into the hands of the Knights Templar, who in 1221 ceded it to the Friars Minor. Father Francisco Gonzaga, Superior General of the Order (1579-87), declares that La Rdbida became a Franciscan monastery in 1261; and that it belonged to the Franciscan Custody of Seville, which by Decree of Alexander VI, 21 Sept., 1.500, was raised to the rank of a province. The convent re- mained in charge of the Friars Minor without inter- ruption until the general confiscation of religious houses in 1835. It is now the property of the nation, and used as a museum.

Here Christopher Columbus in 1484 or 1485 made the acquaintance of Perez. Father Antonio de Mar- chena, a cosmographer of some note, lived here, and in him the navigator discovered a man bent on the pro- ject of discovering a new world. The historian Fran- cisco Lopez Gomara (q. v.) in 1.5.52 seems to have started the blunder, copied by almost every subse- quent writer on the subject, of making the two names Perez and Marchena serve to describe one and the same person by speaking of the Father Guardian of La Rdbida as Father Juan Perez de Marchena. Both fathers materially assisted Columbus, who acknowl- edges his obligation in one of his letters to the king and queen. He writes that everybody ridiculed him save