PETER THE HERMIT 



PETITION 



93 



payment of Peter's-pence, nob as a tribute but 

 by' the collection of free-will offerings. In some 

 countries it lias l>een very successful ; and since 

 the total annexation of the Papal States to the 

 kingdom of Italy the tribute lias been largely 

 increased in France, Belgium, England, and Ire- 

 land. In 1877, on occasion of the jubilee of Pius 

 IX, the payment amounted to 660,000. 



Peter the Hermit, the apostle of the first 

 crusade, was of gentle birth, and a native of 

 Amiens, where he was born about the middle of 

 the 1 1th century. He nerved some time as a soldier, 

 liecame a monk, and is usually said to have made a 

 pilgrimage to the Holy Land before 1094, when he 

 began the preaching campaign which was to render 

 him famous, and leave such a mark on history. 

 But it should be noted that Hagenmeyer in his 

 monograph Peter der Eremita ( 1880 ) denies that 

 Peter was ever in Palestine till he went with the 

 crusaders, and asserts that the scheme of a crusade 

 originated with the pope, not with the hermit. 

 The article CRUSADES gives an account of his 

 preaching, its results, and of poor Peter's faint- 

 hearted attempt at desertion during the siege of 

 Antioch. After the end of the crusade he returned 

 to Europe, and founded a monastery at Hny in the 

 Low Countries, where he died, 7th July 1115. His 

 remains were translated to Home in 1634. 



Peter the Wild Boy was found in July 1724 

 in a wood near Hameln in Hanover ; ' he was walk- 

 ing on his hands and feet, climbing up trees like a 

 squirrel, and feeding upon grass and moss of trees.' 

 He was taken to George I., brought over by him 

 to England in 1726, and placed under the care of 

 the celebrated Dr Arbutlmot, who had him bap- 

 tised ' Peter.' He was fond of music, but could 

 never be taught to articulate more than ' Ki Sim.' 

 'Qui Ca,' and ' Horn Hen,' for 'King George,' 

 'Queen Caroline,' and 'Tom Fen 'the last a 

 Hertfordshire farmer with whom he lived after 

 1737. He would sometimes ramble away, on one 

 occasion as far as Norwich, so was provided with a 

 brass collar inscrilied ' Peter the Wild Boy, Broad- 

 way Farm, Berkhampstead.' Lord Monboddo 

 vMted Mm in ITSvJ, and in his Origin of Language 

 describes him as only 5 feet 3 inches high, now 

 about seventy years of age, quite tame, bearded, 

 and fresh mid healthy. But on the farmer's death 

 Peter took to his l>ed, refused food, and in a few 

 days died, in August 17N5. See Notes and Qzieries 

 for llth October 1884, and works there cited. 



Peterwardein, one of the strongest fortresses 

 in the Austrian dominions, is situated in a marshy, 

 unhealthy locality on the right bank of the Danube, 

 44 miles by rail NW. of Belgrade, and is connected 

 with Neusatz opposite by a bridge of boats. Pop. 

 of town, 3603. The most ancient part of the 

 defences, the Upper Fortress, is situated on a rock 

 of serpentine, which on three sides rises abruptly 

 from the plain. The fortress was held by the 

 Turks from 1526 to 1687. In 1688 the fortifications 

 were blown up by the imperialists, and the town 

 was soon after burned to the ground by the Turks ; 

 but at the peace of Passarowitz (1718) it remained 

 in the posx-siion of the emperor. Here, on 10th 

 August 1716, Prince Eugene obtained a great 

 victory over the Grand Vizier Ali. The Hun- 

 garians were compelled to yield the fortress to the 

 Austrians in Septeml>er 1849. 



Petiole. See LEAF. 



Peilon de VHleneuve, JER&ME, a prominent 

 figure in the French Revolution, was the son of a 

 /iniriirnir t& Chartres, and was born there in 1753. 

 He was practising as an advocate in his native city 

 when he was elected in 1789 its deputy to the Tiers 

 Et'it, An ardent republican anil fluent speaker, 

 he quickly became popular, although essentially 



windy, verbose, and of mediocre understanding. 

 He was a prominent member of the Jacobin Club, 

 and as ' Petion the Virtuous ' became a great ally 

 of 'Robespierre the Incorruptible.' He was sent 

 along with Barnave and Latour-Maubourg to bring 

 back the fugitive royal family from Varennes, and 

 in the execution of this commission he acted in a 

 brutal and unfeeling manner. He afterwards advo- 

 cated the deposition of the king, and the appoint- 

 ment of a popularly elected regency, and along with 

 Robespierre received, 30th September 1791, the 

 honours of a civic crown. On the 14th of Novem- 

 ber he was elected mayor of Paris in Bailly's stead, 

 the court favouring his election to prevent that of 

 Lafayette. The invasion of the Tuileries by the 

 mob and the atrocious September massacres both 

 fell within his year of office. He became the first 

 president of the Convention, and was made ridicu- 

 lous as ' roi Petion ' through Manuel's proposal to 

 give the president the same authority as the presi- 

 dent of the United States. On the triumph of the 

 Terrorists Petion's popularity declined, and he 

 cast in his lot more and more with the Girondists, 

 having become a habittie of Madame Roland's salon. 

 Like them he voted at the king's trial for death, but 

 with delay of execution and appeal to the people. 

 He was elected to the first committee of general 

 defence in March 1793, and on 12th April he headed 

 the fatal because unsuccessful attack on Robes- 

 pierre. Proscril>ed among the twenty-two, on the 

 2d of June, he escaped to Caen, and on the failure 

 of the attempt to make armed opposition against 

 the Convention fled to the Gironde with Guadet, 

 lln/ot . Barbaroux, Salle, and Louvet, and hid in a 

 grotto at St imilion. At length they were tracked 

 and obliged to flee. The bodies of Petion and 

 Buzot were found in a cornfield, partly devoured 

 by wolves. They were supposed to have died by 

 their own hands. 



His (Euvrei fill 3 vols. (1792). See J. J. Kegnault- 

 Warin's hyper-eulogistic life (1792); C. A. Dauban's 

 Me moires inttlits (1866); and C. Vatel's Charlotte 

 Corday et les Oirondins (3 vols. 1872). 



Petition, a supplication preferred to one 

 capable of granting it. The right of the British 

 subject to petition the sovereign or either House 

 of Parliament for the redress of grievances is a 

 fundamental principle of the British constitution, 

 and has been exercised from very early times. The 

 earliest petitions were generally for the redress of 

 private wrongs, and the mode of trying them was 

 judicial rather than legislative. The earlier peti- 

 tions were generally addressed to the House of 

 Lords ; the practice of petitioning the House of 

 Commons first liecame frequent in the reign of 

 Henry IV. Since the Revolution of 1688 the 

 practice has been gradually introduced of petition- 

 ing parliament, not so much for the redress of 

 specific grievances, as regarding general questions 

 of public policy. Petitions must oe in proper form 

 and respectful in language ; and there are cases 

 where petitions to the House of Commons will only 

 l>e received if recommended by the crown, as where 

 an advance of public money, the relinquishment of 

 debts due to the crown, or compensation for losses 

 out of the public funds is prayed for. A petition 

 must, in ordinary cases, be presented by a member 

 of the House to which it is addressed. The system 

 is, however, not without its disadvantages, as when 

 the attempt is made to over-ride the courts of law 

 by popular agitation vast numbers of petitions 

 being presented on behalf of murderers convicted 

 after fair trial. For election petitions, see PARLIA- 

 MENT, Vol. VII. p. 775. The monster Chartist 

 petition of 1848 claimed to bear six million signa- 

 tures. In the five years ending 1842 the number 

 of petitions presented to the House of Commons 

 was 70,072; in the five years ending 1872, 101,573; 



