440 



PAUL THE DEACON PAULETTE. 



in 1619, having been transmitted to this country 

 through the medium of the British resident at Venice, 

 Sir Henry Wotton , a personal friend of the author. 

 Tlie works of father Paul were printed at Verona, 

 1761 (8 vols. 4to), and at Naples, 1790 (24 vols. 

 8vo). 



PAUL THE DEACON, OR PAULUS DIACONUS, 

 also called WARNIFRIDUS, and PAULUS MONACHUS, 

 was born at Friuli, in the eighth century, and was 

 educated in the court of the Lombard kings at 

 Pavia. On the capture of Desiderius, the last king 

 of the Lombards, by Charlemagne, he retired to the 

 monastery of Monte-Casino, where he took the habit, 

 lie wrote a history of the Lombards ; and as he was 

 an eye-witness of many of the events he mentions, 

 his statements are held to be generally correct. It 

 is contained in Muratori's Rerum Italic. Scriptores. 



PAUL, ST, VINCENT DE, the founder of the priests of 

 the mission, was born in France, in 1576, studied at 

 Toulouse, and having been captured by the Turks, 

 remained a considerable time in slavery, during which 

 he converted his master. On his return to France, 

 lie became parish priest at Clichy, and, by the aid of 

 a rich and pious lady, founded a congregation of 

 missions, the members of which were devoted to 

 preaching to the poor, and performing other acts of 

 benevolence and mercy. Their chief seat was the 

 religious house of St Lazarus, at Paris, whence they 

 were called Lazarites. Vincent de Paul died in 1660, 

 and was canonized in 1737. 



PAUL, CHURCHES OF ST. The name of St Paul 

 belongs to two celebrated churches, one in Rome, 

 the other in London. The former, which stood 

 without the walls of the city, was burnt July 15, 

 1823; 'and the latter, Wren's celebrated work, oc- 

 cupies the place of the beautiful Gothic cathedral 

 (consumed in the great conflagration of 1666, which 

 Dugdale and Hollar have described). The church 

 at Rome, in an unhealthy situation, upon the road 

 to Ostia, a league from the city, was one of the four 

 Basilicas of Rome, and one of the most important 

 remains of ancient Christian architecture. The first 

 church on this spot to said to have been erected by 

 Constantine, at the request of pope Silvester, upon 

 the place where the apostle Paul was buried. The 

 emperor Theodosius is said to have rebuilt it upon 

 a much extended plan (the cause of the destruction 

 of the first edifice is not mentioned), and following 

 popes completed and adorned it. Even the mosaics 

 upon the outside, the ..work of Grecian artists, be- 

 trayed their early origin : the interior ornaments 

 were probably likewise the work of Greeks, who 

 had fled from the iconoclasts, and taken refuge at 

 Rome. The multitude of magnificent marble pillars, 

 in the interior of the church ; the numerous paintings 

 upon the walls ; the mosaics upon the principal arch 

 of the central nave ; the rafters left visible, made, as 

 report says, of cedar of Lebanon ; the floor, compos- 

 ed of various kinds of marble, important to the 

 archaeologist on account of the inscriptions found 

 upon it ; the great dimensions of the edifice, and a 

 door of 1070 pounds weight, cast at Constantinople, 

 gave the church a very distinguished place among 

 the public edifices at Rome. The series of likenesses 

 of the popes, 253 in number, which surrounded the 

 interior wall of the principal nave, was particularly 

 valuable. All this was consumed in one night by a 

 fire occasioned by the carelessness of a workman who 

 was repairing the roof. The marble pillars were 

 partially calcined and so far injured, that very few 

 of them could be again used in building. The work 

 of Nicola del Nicolai, Delia Basilica di S. Paoli 

 (Rome, 1815, fol.), gives the most accurate descrip- 

 tion of this building. 



St Paul's Cathedral, in London, upon an eminence 



to the north of the Thames. After several attempts 

 to repair the old Gothic cathedral on the same spot 

 (burnt in 1666), every trace of it was removed, and 

 a new foundation laid for the present church. The 

 first stone was laid June 21, 1675. In ten years, the 

 walls of the choir and of the side aisles were com- 

 pleted, together with the circular porticoes on the 

 north and south sides. The last and highest stone 

 of the building was placed upon the summit of the 

 lantern in 1710, and soon after the queen and the 

 two houses of parliament attended service in the 

 church. The whole building was completed in 

 thirty-five successive years, under one architect, Sir 

 Christopher Wren, one master-mason, Thomas 

 Strong, and one bishop of London, doctor Henry 

 Compton. The building is of Portland stone, in the 

 form of a cross. Two rows of massy pillars divide 

 the interior into a nave and side aisles. The west 

 front towards Ludgate street is very noble. The 

 elevated portico forming the grand entrance consists 

 of twelve Corinthian columns, with an upper portico 

 of eight pillars of the Composite order, supporting a 

 triangular pediment. The entablature represents, in 

 relief, the conversion of St Paul, a work of Francis 

 Bird. Two turrets adorn the north-western and 

 south-western angles of the cathedral. Upon the 

 south front, which corresponds with the north, is a 

 phoenix rising from the flames, with the motto Re- 

 surgam (I shall rise again). The dome is one of the 

 most remarkable points of sight in the view of Lon- 

 don. But the interior decoration of this building 

 does not correspond with its exterior magnificence. 

 The pavement is composed of slabs of black and 

 white marble, joined in the manner of a large chess- 

 board, increasing thereby the feeling of vacancy 

 which these vast unornamented walls excite. Cap- 

 tured flags are hung in various parts of the dome and 

 nave. The most favourable view of the interior is 

 from the whispering gallery, in the lower part of the 

 dome. Sir James Thornhill's paintings, illustrative 

 of the most remarkable occurrences in the life of 

 Paul, can be seen to most advantage from this situa- 

 tian. The great bell is tolled only on the death of 

 some member of the royal family, of the lord-mayor, 

 of the bishop of London, and of the dean of the 

 cathedral. You reach the ball by 616 steps. To 

 break the uniformity of the interior, it was suggested, 

 in 1790, to erect in the interior, monuments and 

 statues to the illustrious dead. The first was in 

 memory of John Howard (1796). The monument 

 of Nelson, who is buried in a tomb in the middle of 

 the building, is the work of Flaxman. There are 

 monuments also to Sir W. Jones, Earl Howe, Sir 

 Joshua Reynolds and others. Over the entrance to 

 the choir, is a marble slab, with this inscription in 

 Latin : " Here reposes Christopher Wren, the builder 

 of this church and city, who lived for more than 90 

 years, not for his own, but for the public good. 

 Reader, dost thou seek his monument, look around 

 thee." (See JVren.~) The cost of this building was 

 about 1,500,000. J. Gwilt has written a history 

 of St Paul's. In the Illustrations of the public Build- 

 ings of London (with historical notices and descrip- 

 tions of each building), by the architects J. Britton 

 and A. Pugin, we find, in No. I. (London, 1823), St 

 Paul's church represented and described. 



PAUL VERONESE. See Cagliari. 



PAULETTE. The hereditary succession and 

 venality of almost all the offices in the judicial and 

 financial departments was an abuse deeply inter- 

 woven with the whole administration of ancient 

 France, and a source of the must dreadful disorders. 

 In the early period of the monarchy offices were 

 held only at the pleasure of the king ; the conse- 

 quence was, that on the death of the monarch, all 



