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PEL only means available to him of acquiring learning. He studied at Tübingen under Paulus Scriptoris, a learned dignitary of the Franciscans. He had some assistance from John Reuchlin in his Hebrew studies, and was farther aided by a Spanish Jew, Matthæus Adriani. In 1500 he became possessed of his first copy of the Hebrew Bible, which he says he had long thirsted after, "as the hart for the water-brooks." In 1501 he was ordained to the priesthood, and in 1502 was made lecturer in theology to the Franciscan cloister of Basle, in which office he continued for many years. In 1517 he visited Rome—a visit which, like Luther's, predisposed him to become a reformer. In 1519 and subsequent years he occupied himself much with Luther's writings, and took charge of the publication of several of them in Basle. In 1523 he was associated with Œcolampadius in the university of Basle, and read exegetical lectures on the Hebrew Bible. His growing fame in this department procured him an invitation to Zurich, where he settled in 1527, and where he continued to labour till his death in 1556. He was much esteemed by Zwingle and his other colleagues in the theological school. His Hebrew Grammar, "De modo legendi et intelligendi Hebræa," was published as early as 1503, and appeared even earlier than the grammar of Reuchlin. He published also a Hebrew dictionary; a commentary upon the Old Testament, in which he made much use of the rabbinical commentators; and commentaries upon the Pauline and catholic epistles.—P. L.  PELLICO,, poet and political prisoner, born at Saluzzo in Piedmont in 1788; died in his own country, 31st January, 1854. One of six brothers and sisters, Silvio was reared through his sickly childhood with exceeding tenderness. His father, a royalist, suffered in the reverses of his party; and when this was once more in the ascendant, showed kindness to his adversaries. His mother fostered his early love of books, not only by precept, but by example. The marriage of his twin sister Rosina, from whom he could not bear to part, carried Silvio to Lyons, where during about four years he resided, subjected to influences dangerous alike to his religion and to his morals. At length Ugo Foscolo's Carme de' Sepolcri came into his hands to rouse the latent love of his country; and about 1810 he returned to his family now settled in Milan, and taught French in the college of Military Orphans. This institution fell with the French power, and Silvio became tutor first in the family of Count Briche, and afterwards to the sons of Count Porro, in whose house he met many persons of note, as Monti, Foscolo, Volta, Manzoni, Madame de Stael, Byron, and Brougham. Meanwhile his tragedy, "Francesca da Rimini," had rendered Pellico's own name conspicuous; and when in 1818 the Conciliatore was started, he both was appointed secretary to that periodical, and engaged to furnish articles for its pages. After thirteen months, however, Il Conciliatore was suppressed by Austrian authority; and in October of the following year Pellico, who through his friend Pietro Maroncelli, had become connected with the secret society of Carbonari, was arrested and consigned to the prison of Santa Margherita. At this point his famous work, "Le mie Prigioni," takes up the narrative, and with pathetic simplicity relates the sufferings he and his countrymen underwent in Santa Margherita, in the Venetian prison of I Piombi, with its extremities of heat and cold, and finally in the Spielberg. In captivity Silvio sought and found stable comfort in religion; though harassed by temptations to hatred, to infidelity, to suicide. His own words best tell of the unbought kindness of his jailer Schiller; the heroic endurance of his comrade Maroncelli; and the saintliness of his fellow-prisoner Oroboni. In August, 1830, the remainder of his fifteen years' sentence having been remitted, Pellico was set at liberty, and returned to dwell amongst his own people, unmolested, though under caution from the police. Thence forth his days passed peacefully in literary pursuits and the discharge of pious duties. He published numerous well-known tragedies and other works, of which the list is far too long to be given; declined overtures from foreign courts; neither shunned nor courted honours; lost favour with the people, but never ceased to love his country; and having sent a formal protest against the anti-jesuitical Prolegomena of Gioberti, in a private letter expressed his conviction at once of that authors mistaken judgment and sincerity; but for his own part stated—"I cannot approve of intolerance, fury, curses, employed against any class of persons."—C. G. R.  PELLISSON-FONTANIER,, a French author, was born at Béziers in 1624, and educated for the legal profession, in which his family had long been distinguished. In due time he commenced the practice of the law at Castres; but his career, which promised to be successful, was suddenly cut short by a severe attack of small-pox, which left behind it such distressing and permanent effects that he resolved to quit the public profession he had chosen, and to dedicate his life instead to the cultivation of general literature. In 1652 he went to reside in Paris. A history of the French Academy, which he there published, procured him the honour of election as a member of that institution. In 1657 he was appointed chief clerk to Fouquet, superintendent of the finances under Mazarin, and in 1660 he received for his services the rank of state counsellor. But in 1661 he became involved in the disgrace and fall of Fouquet, and was committed to the Bastile, where he remained four years. On his release, through the zealous exertions of his friends, from a rigorous captivity, Pellisson had the luck to obtain the favour of the king, who gave him a pension and made him royal historiographer. Not long afterwards he renounced protestantism, the creed in which he had been trained, and embraced the Roman catholic faith; and entering finally the priesthood, he received several rich benefices from Louis XIV. From this time the royal patronage was increasingly bestowed upon him; and although his fortunes suffered a momentary eclipse when, through the ill-will of Madame de Montespan, he was deprived in 1673 of his post of historiographer, he still, at the special request of Louis, continued to write the life of that monarch, and the better to accomplish the task attended him in some of his campaigns. Pellisson died at Versailles in 1693. His writings are pretty numerous, and neither unimportant nor devoid of merit, but they have been much overrated by his contemporaries. The "Histoire de l'Académie Française," which first gave him celebrity, and the "Histoire de Louis XIV.," are his principal works, the latter being rather a courtier's panegyric than an impartial history. His other productions, both in prose and verse (for he likewise professed to be a poet), have the French elegance of style, but possess few deeper and more enduring qualities.—J. J.  PELOPIDAS, an illustrious Theban statesman and general, was the son of Hippoclus, and belonged to one of the oldest and wealthiest families of Thebes. At an early age he formed a close intimacy with Epaminondas, and at the battle of Mantineia (385 .), in which the Thebans fought on the side of the Lacedæmonians, he was severely wounded, and owed his life to the protection of his friend, who covered him with his shield until relief came. Thebes, like the other cities of Greece at this period, was torn with the dissensions of two rival parties. The Lacedaemonians, who supported the aristocracy, having seized and garrisoned the citadel, Pelopidas, along with a number of other citizens who belonged to the popular party, took refuge in Athens. After the lapse of three or four years they returned secretly to Thebes, surprised and put to death their principal opponents, and with the help of the citizens expelled the Spartan garrison (379 .). In the subsequent war, which was carried on for some years between the Thebans and the Lacedæmonians, Pelopidas greatly distinguished himself. He defeated the enemy at Tanagra, and again near Tegyra, and at the head of the famous "sacred band" greatly contributed to the victory gained by the Thebans at Leuctra (371 .). Two years later he and Epaminondas were joint commanders of a successful expedition into Peloponnesus, in which Argos, Arcadia, and other states, were detached from the alliance with Sparta, and Messenia taken and repeopled by the descendants of its ancient inhabitants. Pelopidas was next sent against Alexander, the tyrant of Pheræ, whom he defeated. He was then employed as mediator to settle a quarrel between Alexander, king of Macedonia, and his natural brother Ptolemy. A second time he marched into Macedonia for the purpose of restoring the tranquillity of that country, an object in which he completely succeeded. On his return through Thessaly he was treacherously seized, along with his colleague Ismenias, by Alexander of Pheræ, but Epaminondas lost no time in marching against the tyrant, and compelled him to release his prisoners. Pelopidas was soon after sent to the Persian coast to counteract the intrigues of the Spartan and Theban ambassadors, and to maintain the ancient alliance between the Thebans and Persians, an object in which he was completely successful. Shortly after his return home he was sent once more to the assistance of the Thessalonians against their old oppressor Alexander of Pheræ. He encountered the tyrant near 