C81 



PASCHAL I. 



PASKEVICH, IVAN FEDOROVICH. 



From his childhood, Blaise displayed abilities far above the common 

 order, and evinced so inquiring a spirit that, as his sister has recorded, 

 he would not rest without knowing the reason of everything. The 

 bent of hia infantine genius was decidedly mathematical ; but his 

 father, who was his only preceptor, and who was anxious that his 

 attention should not be distracted from the study of the dead lan- 

 guages, resolved to exclude every notion of geometry from his mind, 

 removed all books which treated of that science, and even abstained 

 in the child's presence from any conversation on mathematical subjects 

 with his friends. Notwithstanding these precautions however, young 

 Blaise, when only in hia twelfth year, without the aid of books or oral 

 instruction, began to draw figures with charcoal on the floor of his 

 room, and had, without any assistance, made some progress in 

 geometry before his father surprised him in these researches. 



After this discovery, he was thwarted no more in the pursuit of 

 mathematical investigations ; and at sixteen years of age he produced 

 a treatise on the conic sections, of such excellence as to provoke the 

 incredulity and wonderj of Descartes, who would not believe that 

 so extraordinary a performance was the work of a mere youth. In 

 his nineteenth year he invented an ingenious machine for making 

 arithmetical calculations, which excited the admiration of his times ; 

 and, afterwards, at the age of twenty-four years, the conjecture of 

 Torricelli that the atmosphere had weight, and that this quality might 

 account for effects before ascribed to the horror of a vacuum, led him 

 to institute many able and successful experiments on this subject, 

 which confirmed the truth of Torricelli's idea, and established his own 

 scientific reputation. The results of these labours were collected into 

 two essays, which appeared after his death, ' On the Equilibrium of 

 Liquids,' and ' On the Weight of the Atmosphere.' 



From these researches, made before he had completed his twenty- 

 fifth year, the great mind of Pascal was diverted entirely to objects of 

 religious contemplation ; and thenceforward he abandoned almost 

 entirely the pursuits of science. He had been all his life as remark- 

 able for piety aa for genius ; and it is the testimony of a learned 

 biographer, whose opinions were far from resembling his own, that he 

 knew exactly how to distinguish between the rights of faith and of 

 reason. The conviction of Pascal may therefore with propriety be 

 cited among the most striking and satisfactory examples of the deep 

 submission of the most powerful intellects to the truths of revelation; 

 while it also may be numbered with other illustrious exceptions to the 

 reproach that the high cultivation of mathematical science is little 

 favourable to piety. It is no fair objection to the value of Ids 

 example, that Puscal, under the nervous excitation of bodily disease, 

 fell into many absurd excesses of fanaticism ; that he practised the 

 most rigid abstinence from all worldly enjoyments, and wore next his 

 skin a cincture of iron studded with points, which he struck with his 

 elbow into his flesh, aa a punishment to himself whenever any sinful 

 thought obtruded itself into his mind. Such things may be ascribed 

 to the inherent weakness of our corporeal nature, to some of the 

 ordinary caprices of human disposition, or to the imaginative delusions 

 attendant upon a particular state of bodily health ; but they detract 

 nothing from the soundness of the anterior investigation which had 

 led a pure and unclouded reason like that of Pascal to embrace the 

 doctrines of revelation, by a process analogous to that which had con- 

 ducted him to the discovery of abstract truth. 



It is a curious exemplification of the anomalous conditions of the 

 human mind, that, while Pascal was immersed in these superstitious 

 observances, he published his famous ' Provincial Letters," in which, 

 under the name of Louis de Montalto, he assailed the morality of the 

 Jesuits with equal wit and argumentative acumen. He was induced 

 to write this work by his adoption of the opinions of the Janaenists, 

 which he warmly espoused, and which involved him in the religious 

 dispute* of his age and country. Among the fruits of hia devotional 

 exercises may also be named hia ' Pensees,' which were collected and 

 published after hia death ; and in which he has beautifully availed 

 himtelf of an idea of one of the ancient fathers, that he who believes 

 in the existence of a God gains eternally if he be right, and loses 

 nothing if wrong; whilo the atheist gains nothing if right, and 

 renders himself miserable eternally if he bo wrong. The weakly 

 frame of Pascal was reduced to premature old age by infirmities, 

 which were aggravated by his ascetic habita, but which he bore with 

 exemplary patience; and he died in Paris, in 1662, at the age of 

 thirty-nine years. Hia life was written elaborately by hia sister 

 Madame Perier ; and afforded the materials for an able and interesting 

 article in the Dictionary of Eayle. The first complete edition of 

 hia writinge is that of Fougere, Paris, 1844. 



PASCHAL I. waa elected bishop of Rome after the death of 

 Stephen V., A.D. 817. To him the pretended donation by the 

 emperor Louis the 1'ioua is aaid to have been made. He crowned aa 

 emperor Lotharius, son of Louis the Pious, in the year 823, and difd 

 the following year. He was succeeded by Eugenius II. 



PASCHAL II., RANLEKI OF BLKDA in Tuscany, was a monk of the 

 order of Cluni. Having been sent to Rome about the affairs of hia 

 monastery, be waa noticed by Pope Gregory VII., who made him a 

 cardinal. After Gregory's death and the short pontificate of Urban II., 

 Paschal wa elected pope. He refused the dignity, and even con- 

 cealed himself, but was at last prevailed upon to accept the papal 

 chair in 1099. He prosecuted the great contest about the investitures, 



begun by Gregory VII. with the Emperor Henry IV., against whom 

 he launched a fresh bull of excommunication. Henry's sou and 

 namesake, availing himself of this, revolted against his father, and 

 having deposed him, was acknowledged as king of the Germans by the 

 title of Henry V. He then proceeded to Italy with an army, in order 

 to get himself crowned emperor. On the question of the investitures 

 he was as stubborn as his father. After some conferences between 

 him and the pope's ambassadors, Paschal proposed what appeared to 

 be a reasonable compromise of the matter in dispute. " If the 

 emperor," said he, " contends for his regal rights, let him resume the 

 donations on which those rights are founded, the duchies, margra- 

 viates, countships, towns, and manors, which his predecessors have 

 bestowed on the Church. Let the Church retain ouly its tithes and 

 the donations which it has received from private bounty. If Henry 

 renounces the right of investiture, the Church shall restore all it has 

 received from secular princes since the time of Charlemagne." (Pagi, 

 ' Vita Paschalis II. ; ' Fleury, ' Hist. Eccles.,' 66.) This proposal went 

 to the-root of the evil, and Paschal was probably sincere in making 

 it ; but the bishops, and especially the German bishops, who were 

 possessed of large fiefs, strongly protested against it. 



In the meantime Henry arrived at Rome to be crowned in 1110. 

 He kissed the pope's feet according to custom, and entered hand in 

 hand with him into the church of the Vatican ; but here an explanation 

 took place concerning the compromise, the result of which was that 

 the treaty was broken off, and Paschal refused to consecrate the 

 emperor. The particulars have been differently related by the various 

 writers. Some say that Paschal could not fulfil his proposed renun- 

 ciation of the temporalities of the Church, owing to the opposition of 

 the bishops; others say that Henry would not give up the right of 

 investiture, because his councillors, and among the rest several German 

 bishops who were about his person, unwilling to risk their domains 

 and revenues, persuaded him not to renounce what they represented 

 as an essential part of tho imperial prerogatives and of the splendour 

 of the imperial dignity. After repeated messages between the pops 

 and the emperor, the latter, who wished to be crowned at all events, 

 determined to frighten the pope into compliance. At the suggestion, 

 it it said, of two German prelates, one of whom was the Archbishop 

 of iletz, he ordered his German soldiers to lay hands on the pope. 

 A scuffle ensued; and the people of Rome, irritated at seeing their 

 pontiff prisoner, fell on the German soldiers, and drove them back 

 with considerable slaughter to their camp outside of the town. Henry 

 however kept possession of the person of the pope, whom he dragged 

 after him, stripped of his pontifical ornaments and bound with cords. 

 Paschal remained for nearly two months in a state of confinement, 

 during which he was assailed by the remonstrances of his clergy, many 

 of whom were prisoners with him in the German camp, until at last 

 he yielded to their entreaties, and consented to consecrate Henry 

 unconditionally, giving up by a bull the right of investiture to the 

 emperor. After the ceremony, Henry returned to Germany, and 

 Paschal thought it necessary to assemble a council in the Laterau to 

 submit his conduct to the judgment of the Church. He declared to 

 them at the same time that he would rather abdicate than break his 

 word to the emperor, either by excommunicating or molesting him. 

 After much deliberation, Paschal's cession of the right of investiture 

 was solemnly condemned ; and it was declared that the investiture of 

 churchmen by lay hands was a heresy. The prelates of France and 

 Italy, and even some of those of Germany, approved of the proceedings 

 of the Lateran Council, and several of the turbulent German feudatories 

 revolted against Henry. The emperor however kept the field, and, 

 having defeated liis revolted subjects, marched again to Italy to termi- 

 nate the question with the see of Rome. Paschal, blamed and even 

 personally insulted by the Romans because of his indulgence towards 

 Henry, and threatened at the same time by the latter, escaped to 

 Bencvento ; and Henry, having come to Rome, caused himself to be 

 crowned again by the Bishop of Benevento. After his departure 

 Paschal returned to Rome, but soon fell ill of fatigue and anxiety, and 

 died in January 1118, after a most stormy pontificate of eighteen years. 

 He was succeeded by Qelasius II. The question of the investiture 

 was settled by a compromise in 1122, under Calixtus II., the successor 

 of Gelasius. It was agreed that the bishops, being elected according 

 to the canonical forma, should receive their regalia at the hand of tho 

 emperor, and do homage for ttrern; but that in this ceremony tho 

 emperor should no longer use the ring and crozier, tho insignia of 

 spiritual authority, but the sceptre only. Thus terminated a quarrel 

 which had occasioned so much violence and bloodshed for half a 

 century. 



PASCHAL III., Antipope, was elected by the influence of the 

 Emperor Frederic I., in opposition to Alexander III., in 1165. Ho 

 took possession of Rome for a short time, Alexander being obliged 

 to escape to Benevento, but he died shortly after, in 1168. 

 [ALEXANDER III.J 



PASKEVICH, IVAN FEDOROVICH, a Russian field-marshal, 

 Prince of Warsaw, and Viceroy of Poland, was descended from a family 

 of the Greek religion, bearing the name of Paskiewicz, which was 

 driven from Poland in the 17th century by the persecution of the 

 Jesuits. He was born on the 19th of May (new style) 1782, at Pultowa 

 or Pultava, famous for the battle which decided the ascendancy of 

 Russia over Sweden. After receiving his education at St. Peteisburg, 



