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 PLOTINUS

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PLOWDEN

the publication by Pius VII of the Bull "De salute animarum " of 1821, the Prussian section of the diocese has been incorporated in the Diocese of Kulm. In the readjustment of ecclesiastical conditions in Poland, Warsaw was raised to an archdiocese, by the Bull "Militantisecelesiae"of 12 March, 1817, and the other Russo-Polish dioceses were made suffragan to it by the Bull "Ex impensa nobis" of 30 June, 1818. Conse- quentlj' Block also was transferred from its metropoli- tan of Gnesen to Warsaw; at the same time five dean- eries were taken from it, thereby reducing the diocese to its present size. Those est ates of the bishopric that had not been secularized before this date were taken one after the other by the Russian Government. The Diocese of Ploek shared in the sufferings of the Cath- olic Church of Russia. The episcopal see remained vacant during the years 1853-63 and 188.^90; of late years the sect of the Mariavites, with the aid of the Government, has spread in the diocese. Among the bishops of the present era, George Szembek (1901-03) and ApoUinaris Wnukowski (1904-08) were elevated to the Archdiocese of Mohileff; the present bishop is Anthony Julian Nowowiejski, con- secrated 6 December, 1908. The cathedral of Plock was rebuilt after a fire in the years 1136-44, and thor- oughly restored in 1903.

The diocese is divided into 12 deaneries and at the end of 1909 included, besides the cathedral, 249 parish churches, 31 dependent churches, 275 secular priests, 5 regular priests, 794,100 Cathohcs. As early as 1207 the chapter consisted of 5 dignitaries and 10 canons; since the publication of the imperial decree of 1865 it has consisted of 4 prelates (provost, dean, archdeacon, and a "scholasticus") and 8 canons. There is also a collegiate chapter at Pultusk consisting of 3 prelates and 4 canons. The diocesan seminary for priests has been in existence since 1708; it has 10 professors and 72 clerics, and there are also 4 clerics in the Roman Catholic Academy at St. Petersburg. The only houses of the orders in the diocese are: a Carmelite monastery at Oborj', with 5 fathers and 1 lay brother; a convent of the Clarisses at Przasnysz, with 9 sisters; 5 houses of the Sisters of Mercy with 25 sisters, who have charge of 4 hospitals and 1 orphanage.

RzEpiNsKi, Vitir prasulum Polonin, II (Warsaw, 1762), 203-72; Theiner, Vetera monumenla Polonice, I (Rome, 1860); Le8C(EUR, Viglise oath, en Poloffne sous ta domination msse (2 vols., Paris, 1S76); Encyktopedia Koscielna, XIX (Warsaw, 1893), 569-622; Catalogus ecclesiarum et utriusque cleri etc. (Plock, 1909).

Joseph Lins.

Plotinus. See Neo-Platonism.

Plowden, Charles, b. at Plowden Hall, Shrop- shire, 1743; d. at Jougne, Doubs, France, l3 June, 1821. He was lineally descended from Edmund Plow- den, the celebrated lawyer. The family adhered steadily to the Catholic faith, contributed ten members to the Society of Jesus, and numerous subjects to vari- ous female orders (see Foley, "Records of the EngHsh Province". Plowden Pedigree, IV, 537). Educated at St. Omer's, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1759, and was ordained priest, at Rome, in 1770. At the sup- pression of the Society, in 1773, he was minister of the English College at Bruges: the Austro-Belgic govern- ment, in its execution of the decree of suppression, kept him imprisoned for some months after the closing of the college. He wrote an account of its destruction. After his release from confinement, he was for a time at the Academy of Liege, which the prince-bishop had offered to the English ex-Jesuits. Returning to Eng- land, he became a tutor in the family of Mr. Weld, and chaplain at Lulworth Castle, where he assisted at the consecration of Bishop Carroll, in 1790. He preached the .sermon on the occasion, and published an acccount of the establishment of the new See of Baltimore. Father Plowden had a large share in the direction of Stony hurst College, founded in 1794, and by his abil-

ity and virtue, "he promoted the credit and welfare of that institution" (Oliver). Richard Lalor Shiel, who had been his pupil, speaks of him as "a perfect Jesuit of the old school". After the restoration of the Soci- ety in England, he was the first master of novices, at Hodder. In 1817, he was declared Provincial, and, at the same time, Rector of Stonyhurst, holding the lat- ter office till 1819. Summoned to Rome for the elec- tion of the general of the Society, he died suddenly on his journey homeward, and, through mistaken infor- mation as to his mission and identity, he was buried with full military honours. His attendant had gath- ered the information that he had been at Rome in con- nexion with business concerning a "general", and the town authorities, mixing things, concluded that he was a general of the British army, — hence the miUtary funeral.

In addition to his many administrative activities and occupations. Father Plowden was a prolific writer. Sommervogel gives a list of twenty-two publications of which he was the author, besides several works in manuscript which have been preserved. He was a lifelong correspondent of Bishop Carroll and wrote a beautiful eulogj' on the death of his friend in 1815. A large collection of the letters which they interchanged, originals or copies, exists at Stonyhurst and George- town Colleges, as also in the Baltimore diocesan archives. He was a protagonist in the polemics that distracted the Catholic body in England, in relation to the Oath proposed as a preliminarj- to the Catholic Relief Bill. It was "a desperate life and death strug- gle of Catholicism in England, during one of the most insidious and dangerous assaults upon its liberties to which it had ever been exposed". Writers on both sides, in the heat of controversy, employed language which subsequently necessitated explanation, apolo- gies, and retractions. Plowden was too outspoken and perfervid in some of his utterances, but his spirit was that of loyalty to the vicars-ApostoUc and to CathoUc traditions.

FoLET, Records of the English Province S. J.. IV (London, 1878), 555; Oliver, Biography of the Society of Jesus (London), 184; Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus^ VI (Paris. 1895). 903; Gillow, Biog. Diet, of the English Catholics, V (London) ; Ward, The Dawn of the Catholic Revival in England (London, 1909); Hughes, History S. J. in North America (Lon- don, 1910), doc. I, ii.

E. I. Devitt.

Plowden, Edmund, b. 1517-8; d. in London, 6 Feb., 1584—5. Son of Humphrey Plowden of Plowden Hall, Shropshire, and Elizabeth his wife; educated at Cambridge, he took no degree. In 1538 he was called to the Middle Temple where he studied law so closely that he became the greatest lawyer of his age, as ia testified by Camden, who says that "as he was sin- gularly well learned in the common laws of England, whereof he deserved well by writing, so for integrity of life he was second to no man of his profession" (Annals, 1635, p. 270). He also studied at Oxford for a time, and besides his legal studies, qualified as a surgeon and physician in 1552. On Mary's accession he became one of the council of the Marches of Wales. In 1553 he was elected member of Parliament for ^^'allingford and in the following year was returned for two constituencies, Reading and Wootten-Bassett; but on 12 Jan., 1554-5, he withdrew from the House, dissatisfied with the proceedings there. Succeeding to the Plowden estates in 1557, he lectured on law at Middle Temple and Xew Inn; in 1.561 he became treasurer of Aliddle Temple and during his treasurer- ship the fine hall of that inn was begun. His fidelity to the Catholic faith prevented any further promotion under Elizabeth, but it is a family tradition that the queen offered him the Lord Chancellorship on condi- tion of his joining the .Anglican Church. He success- fully defended Bishop Bonner against the Anglican Bishop Home, and helped Catholics by his legal knowledge. On one occasion he was defending a gen-