PECOS 



PEDIGREE 



In the latter he gives up infallible authority in the 

 clinrch, makes faith a matter of probability rather 

 than of knowledge, lays a broau foundation for a 

 really rational piety, and makes a noble approxi- 

 mation to the doctrine of religious toleration. The 

 object of his Bepressor (c. 1455) was to promote the 

 peace of the church by plain arguments against 

 Lollardy, written in the mother-tongue. He main- 

 tained that bishops had higher duties than mere 

 preaching, and strove with great patience and clear 

 logic to demonstrate the reasonableness of those 

 doctrines and ordinances of the church which the 

 Lollards rejected as not founded on Scripture. Of 

 a literal and tolerant spirit far before his time, 

 Pecock pointed out with much point and original- 

 ity the teaching of natural religion about man's 

 moral duties, asserting that the judgment of reason 

 must not lie overruled and twisted into conformity 

 with Scripture, which rather confirms than serves 

 as the authority for the light of nature. In his 

 argument that Scripture pre-supposes a knowledge 

 of the moral virtues, and that its special object is 

 to make known those truths which reason could 

 not have discovered, he is distinctly the forerunner 

 of the great Hooker. His attack on the Donation 

 of Constantine is an admirable piece of reasoning, 

 and his argument that experience shows that there is 

 no subject on which men are more likely to err than 

 the interpretation of Scripture deals a "deadly blow 

 to the bibliolatry of Lollardy and Protestantism. 

 Pecock's philosophic breadth and independence of 

 judgment brought upon him the suspicions of the 

 church, and especially of the friars, whom he had 

 stigmatised as ' pulpit bawlers.' The storm of oppo- 

 sition that had long been gathering burst upon his 

 head at a council held at Westminster in 1457. 

 HI- was hotly denounced for having written in 

 English, and for making reason paramount even 

 to the authority of the old doctors, while many 

 slanderous and baseless charges besides were heaped 

 upon his head. He was summoned before Arch- 

 bishop Hourchier at Lamlietli, where his writings 

 were subjected to examination by twenty-four 

 doctors. In the end he was condemned by the 

 archbishop as a heretic whose doctrines were con- 

 trary to St Augustine, St Jerome, and St (Jrcgory, 

 and the cruel alternative was put before him, to 

 abjure his errors or be burned. He elected to 

 abjure, made confession of many errors and 

 heresies of which lie had never been guilty, and 

 with his own hands delivered to the executioner 

 his three folios anil eleven quartos for the flames. 

 Against the further sentence that he should be 

 d of his see he appealed to Rome, and the 

 pope indeed commanded him to be reinstated, but 

 prevailed upon to resign his bishopric into 

 the hands of the king. The rest of his days he 

 spent in the abbey of Thomey in Cambridgeshire. 

 1-orty pounds a year was allowed for his mainten- 

 ance ; he was to have the service of an attendant, 

 somewhat lilieral diet, and a private chamber with 

 a chimney and a passage leading from it which gave 

 a sight of an altar and allowed him to hear mass. 

 He \vos denied writing materials, and his books 

 vcie but five a breviary, a mass-book, a psalter, 

 a legendary, and a Bible. He died about 1460. 



See the article LOLLARDS; also James Gairdner's essays 

 on 'The Lollards,' in Stmliet in Eni/Huli Hutnrii (1881); 

 the Introduction to Churchill Babington's edition of the 

 Sepreuor in the Rolls series (2 vol. I860) ; and the Life 

 by John Lewis (1774 ; reprinted, Oxford, 1820). 



Pecos, a river of New Mexico and Texas, flows 

 some 800 miles SSK. to the Kio Grande. 



Pecten. See SCALLOP. 



Pectic Acid and Pectin. See FRUIT, Vol. 



V. p. -2\. 



Peculiar. See HKXKFICE. 



Peculiar People, a sect of Faith-healers 

 (q.v.), founded in London in 1838. They reject 

 medical aid in cases of disease, although not in surgi- 

 cal cases, and rely on anointing with oil by the elders, 

 and on unceasing prayer, with patient nursing. 

 They have their own collection of hymns, usually 

 select their preachers from among the elders, and 

 baptise their children when they are considered 

 old enough to understand the ceremony and to 

 express consent. Their communities are not num- 

 erous, and the members are nearly all very poor 

 working-folk ; but they bear a high character for 

 morality, honesty, and Christian charity. 



Pedestrianisni. See ATHLETIC SPORTS. 



Pedicellarise, very remarkable minute struc- 

 tures on the skin of sea-urchins and starfish, having 

 the form of a stalk with a three-bladed or two- 

 bladed snapping forceps at the summit. They take 

 hold of alga- preparatory to the application of the 

 suctorial feet, and probably help likewise to keep 

 the surface of the echinoderm clean. 



Pcdicillnris. a genus of herbs of the natural 

 order Scrophulariacese, some of which have rather 

 large and finely- 

 coloured flowers. 

 Two species, P. pal- 

 vstris and P. sylva- 

 tica, are natives of 

 Britain, common in 

 wet grounds. Both 

 have received the 

 name of Lousewort, 

 the English equiva- 

 lent of 'pedicuiaris,' 

 from their supposed 

 influence in produc- 

 ing the lousy disease 

 in sheep an influ- 

 ence purely imagin- 

 ary. Their acridity 

 renders them obnox- 

 ious to sheep; but 

 cattle, goats, and 

 swine eat them. 

 Continental Europe 

 and the northern 

 parts of Asia pro- 

 duce many other 

 species, and some 

 are found in North 

 America. P. seep- Lonsewort (Pedicularit palustrit). 

 triiin, or King 



Charles's Sceptre, is one of the principal ornaments 

 of marshy grounds in the most northern countries 

 of Europe. P. sijlvatica is said to be astringent 

 and serviceable in stopping haemorrhage ; and 

 applied externally it helps to cleanse ulcers. 



Pedigree (possibly from pied de qrue, 'crane's 

 foot,' from the slender lines used in drawing pedi- 

 grees ), a tabular view of the members of a particular 

 family, with the relations in which they stand to 

 each other, accompanied or unaccompanied by a 

 notice of the chief events in the life of each, with 

 their dates, and the evidence of the facts stated. 

 Pedigrees are indispensable aids to the student of 

 history. The materials to he used in the forma- 

 tion of a pedigree are notes of the facts to be set 

 forth, and a recognised series of signs and abbrevia- 

 tions. These notes comprise the name of every 

 person who is to appear in the pedigree, with such 

 dates and circumstances as it may be considered 

 desirable to record. Among the commonest abbre- 

 viations are dan., for daughter of; s. and h., son 

 and heir of ; coh., coheir of; w., wife of ; s. p. (sine 

 prole), without issue; v. p. (vitA patris), in his 

 lather's lifetime; 6., born ; d., died; dep., deposed : 

 K., king ; E., earl, &c. Thesign = placed hctwec:, 



