P A M 
PAM 
307 
After having received the rudiments of-learning at his 
native city, he went to Alexandria in Egypt, where he 
completed his ftudies, and then fettled at Casfarea. Here 
he entered into an intimate friendfhip with Eufebius, 
bifhop of the place, who has given many teftimonies of 
his fincere refpedt for the memory of his friend. Ac¬ 
cording to Cave, Pamphilus flourifhed about the year 294. 
He was pofleffed of fuch zeal for the interefts of religion 
and facred literature, that he founded, at a great expenfe, 
a library at Ctefarea, which contained all the moll cele¬ 
brated writers of the church, colledled from all quarters 5 
and is compared by Jerome with the more ancient cele¬ 
brated libraries of Demetrius Phalereus and Pififtratus. 
He even wrote out with his own hand the greateft part of 
Origen’s works, which were in the library in Jerome’s 
time ; and that father obtained poffefiion of five and 
twenty volumes of Origen’s Commentary upon the Twelve 
Prophets, written by Pamphilus, which, he faid, he va¬ 
lued as much as if he had the treafures of Crcefus. There 
are ftill extant in the curious collections of Europe me¬ 
morials of this library of Pamphilus, and traces of his 
and Eufebius’s labour in tranfcribing or correcting co¬ 
pies of the fcriptures, or other books, to which the rea¬ 
der may find references in Lardner. Pamphilus was 
jointly concerned with Eufebius, in publifhing a corredl 
edition of the Greek verfion of the Seventy from Ori¬ 
gen’s Hexapla ; which Huet believes to have been the 
firft feparate edition of that verfion according to Origen’s 
emendations. He was alfo jointly concerned with Eufe¬ 
bius, in writing five books of “ An Apology for Origen,” 
to which Eufebius, after his death, added a fixth. Of 
this work the firft book is ftill remaining, in Ruffinus’s 
Latin tranflation; and there are forne fragments of the 
reft preferved in Photius’s Codex. 
In the year 307 when the perfecution raged againft the 
Chriftians, Pamphilus was apprehended, and carried be¬ 
fore Urbanus, the Roman prefident at Csefarea, who, af¬ 
ter trying his knowledge by different queftionsin rheto¬ 
ric, philofophy, and polite literature, required him to 
offer facrifice. When he found that Pamphilus refufed 
to obey him, and defpifed all his threatenings he com¬ 
manded that he fliould be tortured with the utmoft feve- 
rity, and then committed to prifon. In the year 309, 
after having feveral times refilled the cruel efforts of his 
perfecutors to overcome his conflancy, he was put to 
death by the orders of Firmilianus, who had fucceeded 
Urbanus in the prefidency of the city. Eufebius fays of 
him, that he was the great glory of the church of Casfa¬ 
rea, and, on account of his eminent virtue, the moft re¬ 
nowned martyr of that age : a man who, throughout his 
whole life, excelled in every virtue ; in contempt and re¬ 
nunciation of this world, in liberality to the indigent, 
in dilregard of all earthly honours and preferments to 
which he might have infpired, and in an abftemious phi- 
lofophical courfe of life; but he was efpecially eminent 
and remarkable above all men of our time for an un¬ 
feigned zeal for the holy fcriptures, and for unwearied 
application in whatever he undertook ; whether it were 
kind offices to his friends, or to others who fought his 
aid.” EuJ'ebii Hi ft. Ecc'l. lib. vii. viii. Cave's Hijl. Lit. 
vol. i. Lardner's Cred. vol. v. Gen. Bios;. 
PAM'PHLET, f. [par un filet, Fr. Dr.Johnfon. —Skin¬ 
ner derives it from the Belgic pampier, a little paper. Mr. 
Pegge confiders it to be from the Fr. palme-feuillet, a leaf 
to be held in the hand; a book being a thing of greater 
weight. Anonym, i. 26.—Caxton, as Dr. Johnfon has ob- 
ferved, writes it paunflet; but pamjlet was alfo an old way 
of writing it s “ Begynnynge with fmall ftoryes and pam- 
fetes, and fo to others.” Prol. to K. Apolyne of Thyre, 
1510. Todd.] A fmall book; properly a book fold un¬ 
bound, and only ftitched ; written or printed.—He could 
not, without fome tax upon himfelf and his minifters for 
the not executing the laws, look upon the bold licenfe of 
fome in printing pamphlets. Clarendon. 
Corn’d thou with deep premeditated lines. 
With written pamphlets ftudioufly devis’d ? Shahejpeart. 
As when fome writer in a public caufe, 
His pen, to fave a finking nation, draws, 
While all is calm his arguments prevail, 
Till pow’r, difcharging all her ftormy bags, 
Flutters the feeble pamphlet into rags. Swift. 
A little book, printed in the year 1715, which bears 
for title “ Icon Libellornm, or a Critical Hiftory of Pam¬ 
phlets,” affords fome curious information ; and, as this is 
rather a pamphlet than a book reading age, we fhall make 
a few extracts. 
The author is at once ferious and humorous in his pre¬ 
face. He there obferves, “ from pamphlets may be 
learned the genius of the age, the debates of the learned, 
the follies of the ignorant, the btvues of government, and 
the miftakes of courtiers. Pamphlets furnifh beaus with 
their airs, coquets with their charms. Pamphlets are 
as modifh ornaments to gentlewomen’s toilets as to gen¬ 
tlemen’s pockets ; they carry reputation of wit and learn¬ 
ing to all that make them their companions ; the poor 
find their account in ftall-keeping, and in hawking them; 
the rich find in them their fliorteft way to the fecrets of 
church and date. There is fcarcely any clafs of people 
but may think themfelves interefted enough to be con¬ 
cerned with what is publifhed in pamphlets, either as to 
their private inftru&ion, curiofity, and reputation, or to 
the public advantage and credit ; with all which, both 
ancient and modern pamphlets are too often over fami¬ 
liar and free. In lhort, with pamphlets the bookfellers 
and ftationers adorn the gaiety of fhop-gazing. Hence 
accrues to grocers, apothecaries, and chandlers, good 
furniture, and fupplies for neceffary retreats and natural 
occafions.” 
This author fketches, with no common learning, the 
origin and the rife of pamphlets. He deduces them from 
the fhort writings publifhed by the Jewifli rabbins, various 
little pieces at the time of the firft propagation of Chrif- 
tianity ; and notices a certain pamphlet, which was pre¬ 
tended to have been the compofition of Jefus Chrift, 
thrown from heaven, and picked up by the archangel 
Michael, at the entrance of Jerufalem. It was copied 
by the pried Leora, and fent about from priefl to prieft, 
till pope Zachary ventured to pronounce it a forgery ! 
He notices feveral fuch extraordinary publications, many 
of which produced as extraordinary effects. He then 
proceeds in noticing the firft Arian and Popifh pamphlets, 
or rather libels, i. e. little books, as he diftinguifhes them. 
He relates a curious anecdote refpeCting the forgeries of 
the monks. Archbifhop Uftier detected, in a manufeript 
of St. Patrick’s life, pretended to have been found at 
Louvain, as an original of a very remote date, feveral 
paflages taken, with little alteration, from his own wri¬ 
tings ! 
He obferves on Sermons ; “ ’Tis not much to be quef- 
tioned but of all modern pamphlets, what or wherefoever, 
the Englijh Jlitched fermons be the moft edifying, ufeful, 
and inftruCtive; yet they could not efcape the critical 
Mr. Bayle’s farcafm. He fays, Republique de Lettres, 
March, 1710, in his article London, ‘ We fee here ler- 
mons fwarm daily from the the prefs. Our eyes only be¬ 
hold manna ; are you defirous of knowing the reafon ? It 
is, that the minifters, being allowed to read their fermons 
in the pulpit, buy all they meet with, and take no other 
trouble than to read them, and thus pafs for very able 
fcholars at a very cheap rate.’ ” 
The ingenious writer now begins more direClly the hif¬ 
tory of pamphlets, which he branches out from four dif¬ 
ferent etymologies. He fays, “ However foreign the 
word pamphlet may appear, it is a genuine Englifh word, 
rarely known or adopted in any other language: its pe¬ 
digree cannot well be traced higher than the latter end 
of queen Elizabeth’s reign. In its firft ftate wretched 
1 muft 
