452 



PELAGIANISM PELEUS. 



about 120 feet wide, a full league in length, and bor- 

 drivd witli shops. It is astonishing to see the immense 

 i-iu nurse of people that continually fills them, and 

 the confusion caused by the prodigious number of 

 horses, camels, mules, and carriages, which cross or 

 meet each other. It is very singular that, in all 

 this prodigious concourse, no women are ever seen. 

 The emperor's palace stands in the middle of the 

 Tartar city. It presents a large assemblage of vast 

 buildings, extensive courts, and magnificent gardens, 

 and is shut up on all sides by a double wall ; the in- 

 tervening space being occupied by horses belonging 

 to the officers of the court, eunuchs, and by different 

 tribunals. The exterior circumference of this im- 

 mense palace is reckoned a league and a half. 

 Although the Chinese architecture has no resem- 

 blance to that of Europe, the imperial palace of Pe- 

 king does not fail to strike beholders by its extent, 

 grandeur, and the regular disposition of its apart- 

 ments. The royal hall, called Tai-hotien, or the hall 

 of the grand union, is built upon a terrace, about eigh- 

 teen feet in height, incrusted with white marble, and 

 ornamented with balustrades of excellent workman- 

 ship. This hall is almost square, and about 130 feet 

 iii length. The ceiling is carved, varnished green, 

 and loaded with gilt dragons, covered with coarse 

 carpets, after the Turkish manner ; but the walls 

 have no kind of ornament, neither tapestry, lustres, 

 nor paintings. The throne, which is in the middle 

 of the hall, consists of a pretty high alcove, exceed- 

 ingly neat. It has no inscription but the character 

 Ching, which signifies holy, perfect, excellent. 



PELAGIANISM is that theological view which 

 denies the total corruption of men, attributed to the 

 fall of Adam (original sin), and declares man's natu- 

 ral capacity sufficient for the exercise of Christian 

 duties and virtues, provided he have but an earnest 

 purpose to do well. It does not exclude faith in divine 

 assistance towards man's improvement, but believes 

 this assistance will be granted to those only who 

 strive to improve themselves. This view was broach- 

 ed by the English monk Pelagius, who, in the fifth 

 century, resided in Rome, with the reputation of great 

 learning and an unspotted life, and fled from that city 

 when it was taken by the Goths, in 409, with his 

 friend Coelestus, to Sicily, and thence to Africa, where 

 Augustine declared him a heretic ; in which several 

 African synods concurred. Pelagius travelled to 

 Jerusalem, and there closed his life in tranquillity, in 

 the year 420, at the age of ninety years. The philo- 

 sophical soundness and noble frankness of his writ- 

 ings, together with his own great virtue in a time 

 of universal and deep-rooted corruption, procured 

 many adherents to his opinions, which at all times 

 have been considered, by some of the purest and most 

 reflecting men, as the only ones worthy of the Deity. 

 He never attempted to found a heretical or dissenting 

 sect, yet the Pelagians, whose views were formally 

 condemned at the council of Ephesus, in 431, and 

 the Semi-Pelagians, founded by John Cassianus at 

 Marseilles (died in 435), who somewhat modified the 

 orthodox dogma of the utter insufficiency of man's 

 nature for virtue, occupy a very important place in 

 ecclesiastical history. Respecting the various forms 

 and names, under which the contest of the rigid doc- 

 trines of Augustine with the milder views of Pelagius 

 has been renewed in the Christian church, see the 

 article Grace ; see also Wigger's Pragmatische Dar- 

 stellung des Augustimsmus und Pelagianismus (Ber- 

 lin, 1821), Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, &c. 



PELASGIANS ; the oldest inhabitants of Greece. 

 They dwelt first in the Peloponnessus, whither they 

 were probably driven from the coasts of Asia Minor, 

 by the islands, or through Thrace and Thessaly. 

 They lived in wandering hordes, without any politi- 



cal union, and worshipped a rude stone, or a head 

 with a pointed beard, which was set upon it, as the 

 image of the Deity. They were secured from the 

 invasion of other hordes, by the boggy and mountain- 

 ous nature of the peninsula ; and two tribes of them, 

 who established their residence on the borders of the 

 gulf of Corinth, abandoned their barbarous manners 

 earlier than the others. Here arose the kingdoms 

 of Argos and Sicyon, where Inachus and Phoroneus 

 reigned. Pelasgus, the grandson of the latter, found- 

 ed a nomadic state in Arcadia ; hence the tradition, 

 that those Arcadian hordes received the name of Pe- 

 lasgians from him, which was afterwards given to 

 all the original inhabitants of ancient Greece. From 

 this Arcadian state of Pelasgians proceeded several 

 colonies, particularly in Northern Thessaly, where 

 their leaders, Achaeus, Phthius, and Pelasgus found- 

 ed the cities Achaia, Phthiotis, and Pelasgiotis ; they 

 also established colonies in the countries afterwards 

 called Boeotia and Attica, and also in Epirus and Italy. 

 The celebrated Cyclopean walls, are their work , and 

 they are renowned for their skill in agriculture and 

 the building of cities. They gradually became ex- 

 tinct, by wandering from Greece, or mingling with 

 other clans. Notwithstanding the investigations of 

 learned antiquarians, much obscurity still hangs over 

 the history of this people, and the name Pelasgians 

 seems to require to be taken in more than one signi- 

 fication. 



PELEUS, in fabulous history ; son of ^Eacus king 

 of JEgina, and Endeis. Having unintentionally taken 

 part in the murder of his half brother Phocus, he 

 fled with Telamon to Phthia, to the court of Eury- 

 thion, the son of Actor, who purified him from the 

 murder, and gave him his daughter in marriage, with 

 a third part of his kingdom. Peleus now went with 

 Eurythion to Calydon, to aid in hunting the celebrat- 

 ed boar. On this expedition he accidentally killed 

 his father-in-law with a javelin which he aimed at 

 the boar. Upon this, he fled to lolchos, to Acastus, 

 who purified him from the deed. Astydamia, the 

 wife of Acastus, became enamoured of him, and be- 

 cause Peleus refused to gratify her desires, she ac- 

 cused him of a criminal passion for her, and thus 

 endeavoured to make him an object of hatred to her 

 husband and to his own wife. Antigone hung herself 

 in despair ; but Acastus, unwilling to violate the 

 laws of hospitality, selected a hunting party to go to 

 mount Pelion, with the intention of having Peleus 

 put to death. Overcome with fatigue, he fell asleep 

 on the mountain, and Acastus caused his sword to 

 be taken from him, and then bound him, that he 

 might become the prey of wild beasts. But Jupiter 

 sent Pluto to deliver him from his bonds, and when 

 he awoke, Chiron, his mother's father, brought him 

 back his sword. He then invaded lolchos with 

 Jason, the Dioscuri, and a band of brave warriors, 

 put Acastus to flight, and the queen to death. Thus 

 he became master of a part of Thessaly. The gods 

 rewarded his continence by giving him, at the sug- 

 gestion of Themis, the nymph Thetis for a wife, of 

 whom he obtained possession by the assistance of 

 Chiron. The nuptials were celebrated on mount 

 Pelion, and honoured with the presence of all the 

 gods, who brought rich bridal presents. Neptune 

 gave Peleus the immortal horses, and Chiron the 

 strong spear, which afterwards served Achilles before 

 the walls of Troy. Many ancient poets celebrated 

 these nuptials, of whose songs, only an echo remains 

 to us in the Epithalamium of Catullus. Some later 

 poet connected with this marriage the fate of Troy. 

 (See Eris ) Peleus, who, in his youth, had been pre- 

 sent on the Argonautic expedition, now ruled the 

 Myrmidons in Phthia. Homer calls him an eloquent, 

 and powerful, and wise man. Of all the children of 



