Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/847

 PETERSSEN

775

PETER

penny from every household was made not un- willingly. Adrian IV, who before he was made pope had visited Scandinavia and regulated the payment of this tax, desired also, if we may accept the authenticity of the Bull, "Laudabiliter", to ex- tend it to Ireland. In any case there had no doubt existed in Rome, from the time of Gregory VII and probably earlier, some vague tradition that this pay- ment of a denarius per household had been sanctioned by Charlemagne. But in many parts of the world, as, for example, Portugal, the Two Sicilies, Poland, etc., it is not always easy to distinguish the Peterspence proper from the feudal tribute above referred to, which was the price of papal protection.

The payment of anything resembling Peterspence seems nowhere to have sur\'ived the Reformation. But at the time when Pius IX, driven from Rome by the Revolutionaries, took refuge at Gaeta, the Comte de Montalerabert is said to have taken the lead in organizing a Catholic Committee in France, which, working in harmony with the bishops, was even- tually successful in collecting a very substantial sub- sidy for the pope under the name of the "denier de Saint Pierre" (Daux, p. 46). Others assign the begin- nings of the work to a voluntaiy contribution organ- ized at Vienna in 1860 by the "Confraternity of St. Michael" which spread first to Ireland and then to the rest of the world. Certain it is that already in the sixties large amounts were being sent to Rome as Peterspence from France, Belgium, Germany, Ire- land, and many other countries. Since the occupation of Rome by the Italian Government and the rejection by Pius IX of the Law of Guarantees, the sums paid as Peterspence have become one of the principal sources of income of the Holy See. Accurate statistics are wanting, but it was stated in 1866 that the total receipts under this one head amounted to about £360,000 ($1,800,000) annually. At one time after ' the occupation of Rome something near £800,000 (.$4,000,000) is said to have been sent to Rome as Peterspence in one year; but these figures have very much fallen off of late owing to the persecution of the Church in France and the severe strain now made upon the resources of Catholics in that country. For the most part the contributions made under this head are sent to Rome through the bishops, but in the collection of funds the most important part of the work is done by various "Peterspence Associations", that of St. Michael and that of "Le Denier de Saint Pierre" being the best known. The members of these organizations pledge themselves to make some very small minimum contribution; they solicit the sub- scription of others; and they unite in certain exercises of piety, which are richly indulgenced.

Jensen in the Tranmclion.'! of the Royal Historical Society, New Series. XV (1901). 171-247; XIX (1905), 209-277; Jen.sen. Der englische Peterspfennig und die Lehnsteuer aus England and Irland (Heidelberg. 1903) ; Fabre, Le " Liber Censuum" de I'Eglise romaine (Paris, 1892), Fabre in Melanges G. B. de Rossi (Paris, 1892), 159 sq.; Fabre, Der Peterspfennig als Einnahmeguelle der eng. Krone in Zeitschrift f. Socialgesch. (1896), 459 sq.; Lieber- MANN in English Historical Review (1896); Daux, Le Denier de Saint Pierre (Paris, 1907); Hergenrotber in Kirchenlex., I, 77; LlNGARD, History of England; Idem, Ayitiguities of the Anglo- Saxon Church. Herbert Thurston.

Peterssen, Gerlac (Gerlacus Petri), b. at De- venter, 1377 or 1378; d. IS Nov., 1411. He entered the Institution of the Brethren of Common Life, and devoted his time to calligraphy, transcription of manuscripts, education, and prayer. He became con- nected with many illustrious contemplative men, e. g. John Ruysbroeck; Florent Radewyn; Henry Kalkar; Gerard of Zutphen; Thomas and John a Kempis, and John Vos of Huyden. When Radewyn founded a monastery of regular canons at Windejheim, in 1386, Gerlac followed him, and remained there till 1403 as a simple clerk; he had no other employment than that of a sexton. He has been called another Kempis, and several critics have ascribed to Kempis words or theo-

ries which belong to Gerlac. Gerlac left his brethren to come back to his cell, where, as he said, "somebody was waiting for him". It has been maintained that the "Imitation" reproduced several ideas and the gen- eral spirit of Gerlac's ascetic works. In fact, Thomas a Kempis inserted into the work, a copy of which he wrote in 1441, the passage of the "Soliloquies" where Gerlac says that he would feel no pain, if necessary for the greater glory of God, to be in hell for ever. This passage is an interpolation, which was soon de- leted from the "Imitation". The difference between the ascetic theories of Gerlac and those of the author of the "Imitation" are numerous and deep enough to make any similarities apparent.

Works: " Breviloquium de accidentiis exterioribus" (before 1403); "De libertate spiritus"; "Sohloquium cum Deo ignitum" (Cologne, 1616; Flemish tr., 1623; Fr., 1667; It., 1674; Sp., 1686).

Fabhicius, Bibl. m. ir., V (1736). 770; Foppen.s, BtW. Brisica, I (1739). 364; Graesse, Trlsor (1862), III, 58; Paquot, Hist. litt. Pam-Bas, XVIII (1770), 35-36. JoSEPH DedIEU.

Peter the Hermit, b. at Amiens about 10.50; d. at the monastery of Neufmoutier (Liege), in lll.'i. His life has been embellished by legend, and he has been wrongly credited with initiating the movement which resulted in the First Crusade. While the con- temporary historians mentioned him only as one of the numerous preachers of the crusade, the later chroniclers, Albert of Aix-la-Chapelle and above all William of Tyre, gave him an all-important role. Ac- cording to Albert of Aix Peter having led during some years the rigorous hfe of a hermit undertook a pil- grimage to Jerusalem and suffered much at the hands of the Turks. One day when he was asleep in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, Our Lord appeared to him and ordered him to ask for credentials from the Patriarch of Jerusalem and to go to Europe pro- claiming the miseries which had befallen the Chris- tians of the Orient. Peter obtained the patriarchal letters and sought Urban II, who, moved by his re- cital, came to preach the crusade at Clermont ("His- tor. Hierosol.", I, 2). According to William of Tyre (I, II), it wasof his own accord that Peter went to find the pope. The pilgrimage of Peter is mentioned by Anna Comnena (Alexiad, X, 8), who, born in 1083, could know nothing of this history except through tradition; she relates, however, that he could not get as far as Jerusalem, and that, resolved to undertake a second pilgrimage, he conceived the idea of preach- ing a crusade in order to be able to go to the Holy Sepulchre attended by a goodly company. It is evi- dently absurd to ascribe the Crusades to such an in- significant cause. Because of the silence of contem- poraries and the later contradictory accounts, even the fact of the pilgrimage of Peter is doubtful, while it is impossible to assign to him the role of promoter of the crusade. The merit of this belongs solely to Pope Urban II (see Crusades). Writers like Albert, of Aix wished to deprive the pope of this honour in order to attribute it to the ascetics so popular at that time in Europe. It is absolutely certain that it was only after the Council of Clermont that Peter commenced to preach the crusade.

In March, 1096, he led one of the numerous bands going to the East; his enthusiastic eloquence is de- scribed by the chroniclers. He arrived with his army at Constantinople 1 August, 1096. After a toilsome march as far as Nicomedia Peter pitched his camp at Civitot and seeing his army without resources re- turned to Constantinople to solicit help from the Emperor Alexius. During his absence, the crusaders, commanded bv Walter the Penniless, were massacred by the Turks' near Nicaea (Oct., 1096). Peter as- sembled the remnants of his band and in May, 1097, joined the array of Godfrey of Bouillon near Nicome- dia. After this he had but an unimportant part. In Jan., 1098, at the siege of Antioch, he even attempted