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 imperial peck contains 554.548 cub. in., in the United States of America 537.6 cub. in. The word is in M.E. pek, and is found latinized as peccum or pekka. In Med. Lat. are found picotinus, “ mensura frumentaria,” and picotus, “mensura liquidorum” (Du Cange, Gloss. s.vv.) These words seem to be connected with the Fr. picoter, to peck, of a bird, and this would identify the word with “peck,” a variant of “pick,” a tap or stroke of the beak, especially used of the action of a bird in picking up grain or other food. The sense-development in this case is very obscure, and the name of the measure is found much earlier than “peck” as a variant form of “pick.”  PECKHAM, JOHN (d. 1292), archbishop of Canterbury, was probably a native of Sussex, and received his early education from the Cluniac monks of Lewes. About 1250 he joined the Franciscan order and studied in their Oxford convent. Shortly afterwards he proceeded to the university of Paris, where he took his degree under St Bonaventure and became regent in theology. For many years Peckham taught at Paris, coming into contact with the greatest scholars of the day, among others St Thomas Aquinas. About 1270 he returned to Oxford and taught there, being elected in 1275 provincial minister of the Franciscans in England, but he was soon afterwards called to Rome as lector sacri palatii, or theological lecturer in the schools of the papal palace. In 1279 he returned to England as archbishop of Canterbury, being appointed by the pope on the rejection of Robert Burnell, Edward I.'s candidate. Peckham was always a strenuous advocate of the papal power, especially as shown in the council of Lyons in 1274. His enthronement in October 1279 marks the beginning of an important epoch in the history of the English primacy. Its characteristic note was an insistence on discipline which offended contemporaries. Peckham's zeal was not tempered by discernment, and he had little gift of sympathy or imagination. His first act on arrival in England was to call a council at Reading, which met in July 1279. Its main object was ecclesiastical reform, but the provision that a copy of Magna Carta should be hung in all cathedral and collegiate churches seemed to the king a political action, and parliament declared void any action of this council touching on the royal power. Nevertheless Peckham's relations with the king were often cordial, and Edward called on him for help in bringing order into conquered Wales. The chief note of his activity was, however, certainly ecclesiastical. The crime of “plurality,” the holding by one cleric of two or more benefices, was especially attacked, as also clerical absenteeism and ignorance, and laxity in the monastic life. Peckham's main instrument was a minute system of “visitation,” which he used with a frequency hitherto unknown. Disputes resulted, and on some points Peckham gave way, but his powers as papal legate complicated matters, and he did much to strengthen the court of Canterbury at the expense of the lower courts. The famous quarrel with St Thomas of Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford, arose out of similar causes. A more attractive side of Peckham's career is his activity as a writer. The numerous manuscripts of his works to be found in the libraries of Italy, England and France, testify to his industry as a philosopher and commentator. In philosophy he represents the Franciscan school which attacked the teaching of St Thomas Aquinas on the “Unity of Form.” He wrote in a quaint and elaborate style on scientific, scriptural and moral subjects and engaged in much controversy in defence of the Franciscan rule and practice. He was “an excellent maker of songs,” and his hymns are characterized by a lyrical tenderness which seems typically Franciscan. Printed examples of his work as commentator and hymn writer respectively may be found in the Firamentum trium ordinum (Paris, 1512), and his office for Trinity Sunday in the “unreformed” breviary.

The chief authority on Peckham as archbishop of Canterbury, is the Registrum fratris Johannis Peckham, edited by C. Trice Martin for the Rolls Series (London, 1882-1885). A sympathetic account of his life as a Franciscan is to be found in L. Wadding, Annales minorum (Lyons, 1625, 1654). See also the article by C. L. Kingsford in ''Dict. Nat. Biog., and Wilkin's Concilia magnae'' Britanniae (London, 1737).

 PECOCK (or ), REGINALD (c. 1395–c. 1460), English prelate and writer, was probably born in Wales, and was educated at Oriel College, Oxford. Having been ordained priest in 1421, he secured a mastership in London in 1431, and soon became prominent by his attacks upon the religious position of the Lollards. In 1444 he became bishop of St Asaph, and six years later bishop of Chichester. He was an adherent of the house of Lancaster and in 1454 became a member of the privy council. In attacking the Lollards Pecock put forward religious views far in advance of his age. He asserted that the Scriptures were not the only standard of right and wrong; he questioned some of the articles of the creed and the infallibility of the Church; he wished “bi cleer witte drawe men into consente of trewe feith otherwise than bi fire and swerd or hangement” and in general he exalted the authority of reason. Owing to these views the archbishop of Ca.11terbury, Thomas Bourchier, ordered his writings to be examined. This was done and he was found guilty of heresy. He was removed from the privy council and he only saved himself from a painful death by privately, and then publicly (at St Paul's Cross, Dec. 4, 1457), renouncing his opinions. Pecock, who has been called “the only great English theologian of the 15th century,” was then forced to resign his bishopric, and was removed to Thorney Abbey in Cambridgeshire, where he doubtless remained until his death. The bishop's chief work is the famous Repressor of over-much weeting [blaming] of the Clergie, which was issued about 1455. In addition to its great importance in the history of the Lollard movement the Repressor has an exceptional interest as a model of the English of the time, Pecock being one of the first writers to use the vernacular. In thought and style alike it is the work of a man of learning and ability.

A biography of the author is added to the edition of the Repressor published by C. Babington for the Rolls Series in 1860. Pecock's other writings include the Book or Rule of Christian Religion; the Donet, “an introduction to the chief truths of the Christian faith in the form of a dialogue between father and son”; and the Folewer to the Donet. The two last works are extant in manuscript. His Book of Faith has been edited from the manuscript in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, by J. L. Morison (Glasgow, 1909). See also John Lewis, Life of Pecock (1744; new ed., 1820).  PECORA (plural of Lat. pecus, cattle), a term employed—in a more restricted sense—in place of the older title Ruminantia, to designate the group of ruminating artiodactyle ungulates represented by oxen, sheep, goats, antelopes, deer, giraffes, &c.

The leading characteristics of the Pecora are given in some detail in the article (q.v.); but it is necessary to allude to a few of these here. Pecora, or true ruminants as they may be conveniently called, have complex stomachs and chew the cud; they have no upper incisor teeth; and the lower canines are approximated to the outer incisors in such a manner that the three incisors and the one canine of the two sides collectively form a continuous semicircle of four pairs of nearly similar teeth. In the cheek-teeth the component columns are crescent-shaped, constituting the selenodont type. In the forelimbs the bones corresponding to the third and fourth metacarpals of the pig's foot are fused into a cannon-bone; and a similar condition obtains in the case of the corresponding metatarsals in the hind-limbs. There is generally no sagittal crest to the skull; and the condyle of the lower jaw is transversely elongated. Another general, although not universal, characteristic of the Pecora is the presence of simple or complex appendages on the forehead commonly known as horns. In a few existing species, such as the musk-deer and the water-deer, these appendages are absent, and they are likewise lacking in a large number of extinct members of the group, in fact in all the earlier ones. They are, therefore, a specialized feature, which has only recently attained its full development.

These horns present several distinct structural types, which may be classified as follows:—

I. The simplest type is that of the giraffe, in which three bony prominences—a singie one in front and a pair behind—quite separate from the underlying bones and covered during life with skin, occupy the front surface of the skull. The summits of the hind pair are surmounted by bristly hairs. In the extinct