POLE 



POLENTA 



vailed in favour of his son Philip. The emperor's 

 fear of Pole's interference or precipitancy led to 

 the legate being prohibited from entering England 

 for more than a year. Philip was married July 

 25, 1554. Pole's attainder was removed by parlia- 

 ment, November 22, and two days later he arrived 

 in London. He was provided with ample powers to 

 allow the owners of the confiscated church property 

 to retain their possessions, a condition which was 

 understood to be absolutely necessary to secure 

 th submission of parliament On the 30tb Pole 

 solemnly ubsolved the House* of Parliament and 

 country' from their schism, and reconciled the 

 Choice of F.ngland to Home. As long as Cranmer 

 lived Pole would not accept the archbishopric of 

 Canterbury, although the see was vacant by t In- 

 former's degradation, but after Cranmer was burnt 

 Pole was ordained priest, 20th March 1556, and on 

 the 22d consecrated archbishop. In the meantime 

 Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, once a friend of Pole and 

 afterwards his bitter enemy, had Income (May 

 1555) Pope Paul IV. The pope was indignant at 

 the concessions mode by the authority of his pre- 

 decessor to the holders of church property ; and he 

 revived the accusations of heresy which had been 

 in former days brought against Pole, both on the 

 ground of his leniency towards Lutherans when 

 papal governor at Viterbo, and of his well-known 

 opinion.* on justification. Paul IV. was, more- 

 over, now at war with Spain, and could not 

 tolerate Pole as his ambassador at the court of 

 Philip and Mary in England. The cardinal's 

 legation was accordingly cancelled, and he was 

 summoned before the Inquisition, into the prisons 

 of which the pope had already thrown Pole's friend, I 

 the- Cardinal Morone. Mary angrily protested, 

 and the pope somewhat relented. He would not 

 p-instate Pole, but appointed William Peto, a 

 Franciscan friar, as cardinal and legate in his 

 place. The queen gave orders that the papal 

 mi->seiiger bearing the hat should l>e stopped at 

 Calais, and Peto died without receiving it. When 

 peace was made Iwtween the pope and Spain, Paul 

 still refused to reinstate Pole as his legate, and he 

 did not withdraw the. odious and unjust accusation 

 of heresy. When the queen died, 17th November 

 1558, Pole, whose health had been long feeble, was 

 lying dangerously ill. The impending failure of 

 all his hopes no doubt hastened his end. He died 

 on the following day, sixteen hours after the queen, 

 in his fifty-eighth year. 



It has been a disputed question how far Pole was 

 responsible for Mary's persecution of Protestants. 

 His leniency towards heretics in Italy had even 

 brought him into trouble. Nevertheless it is 

 remarkable that after Philip's departure from 

 England and Gardiner's death (November 1555), 

 when Pole became the queen's supreme adviser 

 and her inseparable companion, the persecution 

 increased in violence. If it was not instiguti -d 

 by Pole, it could not have continued without his 

 sanction and support. In his diocese of Canterbury 

 he issued in the last year of the reign a fresh com- 

 mission against heretics, and in July he delivered 

 over to the secular arm five persons, who were 

 burnt alive at Canterbury a week lie-fore his death. 

 Betides the above-mentioned Dr Unitate, Pole was the 

 author of DC Concilia ( Koine, 1662), De lummi Pont&cu 

 officio (Louvain, 1500), and De JtuHfaaHom <Iuvain, 

 1869). Hl letter*, with a life prefixed, were published 

 by Qnirini (Brescia, 1744). Beocatclli's life of Pole, 

 originally written in Italian, was published in a Ijatin 

 translation at London in 1690, and in an English transla- 

 tion by a Pye in 1766. The ftrrt edition of PhilUmM 

 life, which occasioned much controversy, appeared in 

 1764-67. The fullest red-lit life of Pole is that by Hook, 

 voL viii. of his Archbuhop* of Canterbury. Compare 

 Hanke's Livet of the Pope*, Fronde's Hittory, and Dixon s 

 Hutorg of the Church of Ervilnnd, vol. iv. 



Pole-axe (originally pollax, from poll, 'the 

 head,' and axe). See BATTLE AXK. 



Polecat, or FlTCHET (Mtutela putoritu, or 

 Putoriitt foctidm), a quadruped of the Weasel 



family (Mustelidit), and conn ily referred to the 



saiin-' genus with the weo-std, stoat or ermine. .V.-. 

 It is the largest of the six British 8|>ecies of that 

 genus, the length of the head and |MK!V lieiiig altout 

 H foot, the length of the tail more than :> inches, 

 the form stouter than thai of the weasel or of the 

 ermine. Ite colour i a deep blackish brown ; t lu- 

 lu-ail, tail, ami feet almost black, the under parts 

 yellowish, the ears edged with white, and a whitish 

 space round the muzzle. The hair is of two kinds 

 a short woolly fur, which is pale yellow, or some- 

 what tawny, and long shilling hairs of a rich black 

 or brownish-black colour, which are most numerous 

 on the darkest parts. The nose is sharp, the ears 

 short and round, the tail pretty equally covered 

 with limgish hair. There is a pouch or follicle 

 under the tail, which exudes a yellowish, creamy 

 substance of a very fetid odour; and this odour is 

 particularly strong when the animal is irritated or 

 alarmed. Hence, apparently, it name Foiitiuirt 

 (Foul Marten'), which, with various provincial 



modifications, as Fulimart, Thoumart, &c., is pre- 

 valent in most parts of Britain. The origin of the 

 names Polecat and Fitchet is much more uncertain. 

 The polecat was much more common in Britain 

 in former times than now, and is almost extirpated 

 from sonic districts, through the constant war 

 waged against it by gamekeepers and others ; and 

 yet it is very prolific, bearing live, six, or even SCM-II 

 young at one birth. It is extremely destructive in 

 the jHiultry yard, the abundance present there 

 inviting it" tci drink blood and eat brains, which 

 seem to lie its favourite luxuries. The rabbit is 

 followed by the polecat into its burrow, and its 

 ravages among poultry are partly compensated by 

 it destruction of rat*. The tuning of the polecat 

 does not seem to have been attempted. The smell 

 prevent* it. The skin is imported from the north 

 of Europe under the name of fitch, and is used as 

 a kind of fur, similar but inferior to that of the 

 Marten (q.v., and see FURS). To artists the hair 

 of tliejffteA nrjitcliet is well known as that of which 

 their best brushes are made ; the hairs used for this 



pin pose Ix-ing the long hairs already noti I, which 



grow through the lighter-coloured fur of the animal. 

 The Ferret (q.v.) is supposed by some to 1- a 

 mere variety of the polecat. A dark coloured kind 

 of ferret is commonly regarded as a cross between 

 the polecat and the ferret, and is sometimes called 



the /in/rent / 



PoleillOlliareir, a natural order of plant*, 

 mostly herbaceous, allied to Convolvulace.-e, and 

 containing more than 100 known species, natives of 

 temperate countries, and particularly abundant in 

 the north-western parts of America. Polemonivm 

 , ,/,>. is Jacob's Ladder (q.v.) ; Phlox is also of 

 the order. 



I'olciltn. an Italian dish, the chief ingredients 

 of which an- maize meal mid salt. Sometimes wheat 



