Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/693

PEP commission, and again in 1590, when, to escape what he foresaw was in store for him, he fled to Scotland. Here he remained till 1593, when he returned to England. Almost on his landing he was apprehended by the vicar of Stepney on a charge of sedition; and after a most unfair trial he was on the 21st of May of that year found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. This atrocious sentence was carried into execution eight days after. Penry seems to have been a pious man, zealous to do good according to his own convictions, and perfectly harmless as respects the government. No excuse can be furnished for the iniquity which doomed him to an ignominious death for works he had never written, and for expressions used in papers he had written, but never published.—W. L. A.  PEPAGOMENUS,, a Greek physician of the latter half of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, was one of the last Greek writers on medicine. He was the author of a treatise on gout, still extant, which he dedicated to Michael Palæologus. If the first emperor of that name be understood, the date of the treatise would be about 1260; if the second, 1310, or, according to Maclaine's Tables, 1355. In this book he recognizes the constitutional origin of gout, ascribing it to faulty digestion and excessive diet. Fabricius, without stating his reason, attributes to Pepagomenus a treatise on the cure of calculus, which had been wrongly ascribed to Galen. The work on gout has been published several times. It was translated into Latin by M. Musurus, Rome, 1517.—F. C. W.  PEPIN LE GROS or PEPIN D'HERISTAL (so called from Heristal in the kingdom of Metz or Ostrasia), was the grandson of Arnoul, duke of Ostrasia in the reign of Dagobert I. His mother was the daughter of a previous Pepin, who filled the all-important office of mayor of the palace under the same monarch. Under Dagobert II. Pepin le Gros became duke of Ostrasia, and when Dagobert died in 679 he still continued to rule Ostrasia, subject to the nominal superiority of Thierry III., king of Neustria. Discord soon arising between the two, Pepin revolted; and having attacked Neustria, he ended the war in 687 by the victory of Testry, which placed the chief portion of western France in his hands. He obliged Thierry to recognize him as mayor of the palace (major domûs), an official originally what the title signified, chief of the king's domestics, but who, under princes of immature years or feeble character, easily usurped all the powers of the state. Such were pre-eminently the "sluggard kings," the ten weak successors of Dagobert I., the last sovereigns of the Merovingian dynasty. Pepin le Gros was now master of the two kingdoms of Ostrasia and Neustria; in other words, virtually the uncontrolled governor of the whole Frankish dominions. As mayor of the palace he ruled under Thierry, Clovis III., Childebert III., and Dagobert III.; he strengthened his influence by the defeat of the tributaries who had assumed independence during the dissensions of the realm; and dying in 714 he bequeathed the mayoralty to his grandson, Theodobald, passing over his illegitimate son, Charles Martel, who, however, became his successor in 719.—J. J.  PEPIN, called "Le Bref," the son of the famous Charles Martel, and himself the father of a yet more famous son, was the first monarch of the Carlovingian dynasty of France. After his father's death in 741 he acted as mayor of the palace under Childeric III. (who, like so many of his royal predecessors, reigned only in name), for the kingdom of Neustria; whilst his brother Carloman held d similar dignity in the kingdom of Ostrasia. In 746, however, Carloman retired to a monastery at Cassino, leaving to Pepin his portion of the paternal heritage, so that in the person of the latter was thenceforth concentrated undivided authority. "This son of Charles Martel," says Michelet, "now left sole mayor, was the darling of the church. He indemnified her for the spoliations of his father, and was the only support of the pope against the Lombards. Hence he was emboldened to bring to a conclusion the long farce played by the mayors of the palace since Dagobert's death, and to assume the title of king." For a hundred years the Merovingians, strictly shut out, save at rare intervals, from public view, had preserved only the empty shadow of royalty. Even the shadow was at last to vanish. In 752 the dethronement of Childeric III. occurred; he was confined in the monastery of Sithin at St. Omer, and his son Thierry, the final descendant of Clovis, was sent to a convent in Normandy, where he was brought up in seclusion. Pepin thereupon assumed regal power by the suffrages of the nation, and Pope Zachary confirmed that power with the sanction of the church. Thus was completed a great revolution in early French history, by which the severed sections of the realm were welded together, and the conquering Frankish race was indissolubly allied with the previous Roman population. Eager to avail himself of every means of strengthening his new position, Pepin was anointed sovereign at Soissons in March, 752, by Boniface, bishop of Mentz. He next proceeded to consolidate his dominions by the conquest of entire Gaul. Septimania was reduced in 759, and Aquitania in 768. Such a union of the different provinces under a single vigorous sceptre restored tranquillity, and the utmost exertions were used to remedy the grievances of the preceding reigns. Deeply grateful to the see of Rome, and desirous of retaining the favour of the church, Pepin willingly assisted Pope Stephen III., the successor of Zachary, when that pontiff applied to him for aid against his Lombard adversaries. The Frankish monarch marched with an army into Italy, and not merely defeated Astolphus, but compelled him to cede the exarchate of Ravenna and the Pentapolis to the patrimony of St. Peter. This bold and successful founder of a dynasty died at St. Denis in 768, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and the seventeenth of his reign. He was succeeded on the Frankish throne by his son, the illustrious Charlemagne.—J. J.  PEPUSCH,, a theoretical musician of eminence, was born at Berlin about the year 1667. His father, a minister of a protestant congregation in that city, discovering in his son an early propensity to music, employed at the same time two different masters to instruct him, the one in the theory, and the other in the practice. At the age of fourteen he was sent to court, and by accompanying one of the ladies who sang before the queen so recommended himself that he was immediately appointed to teach the prince on the harpsichord, and on that day gave him a lesson. Pepusch quitted Berlin, and on coming to England about the year 1700, was retained as a performer at the theatre in Drury Lane. His abilities as a practical composer were not likely to become a source of wealth to him: his music was correct, but it wanted genius; besides which, Handel had got possession of the public ear, and all classes were forming their taste by the standard of his compositions. Pepusch, who soon became sensible of this, wisely betook himself to another course, and became a teacher of music. In the year 1713, at the same time with Croft, Pepusch was admitted to the degree of doctor in music in the university of Oxford, and continued to prosecute his studies with great assiduity. About the year 1722, Signora Margarita de L'Epine having quitted the stage with a large sum of money, Dr. Pepusch married her. The fortune which Margarita had acquired was estimated at £10,000, and the possession thereof enabled the doctor to live in a style of elegance, to which, till his marriage he had been a stranger. This change in his circumstances was no interruption to his studies; he loved music, and he pursued the knowledge of it with ardour. He, at the instance of Gay and Rich, undertook to adapt the music to the Beggar's Opera. Every one is aware that the music of this piece consists solely of old ballad and dance tunes; it was, nevertheless, necessary to select and arrange the airs for performance, and also to compose accompaniments for the orchestra. This Pepusch did, prefixing to the opera an overture which was printed in the first, and has been continued in every succeeding edition of the work. About the year 1740 Pepusch's wife died, and he, having before lost his son, an only child, had scarcely any source of delight left but the prosecution of his studies, and teaching a few favourite pupils, who attended him at his apartments. In his solitude he drew up an account of the musical genera of the ancients, which was read before the Royal Society, and is published in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1746; and soon after the publication he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He died in 1752, and his remains were interred in the Charter-house, of which he had been organist for some years.—E. F. R.  PEPYS,, who, though he filled the offices of secretary to the admiralty and president of the Royal Society, is known chiefly as the author of a gossiping diary, was born in 1633. He was of the ancient family of the Pepyses of Cottenham, which in our own age has contributed in the person of the late Lord-chancellor Cottenham, an occupant to the woolsack; but his father was a tailor in London. Samuel was educated at St. Paul's School, and at Trinity college, Cambridge. At twenty-three, and seemingly without profession or occupation, he married 