481 
P E I 
and there can be no doubt that, had his opponents pof- 
feffied the power, they would mod cheerfully have burnt 
him at the ftake. They required him to fubfcribe a ted : 
he refufed, becaufe he believed that the word mifchief 
liad been done to the church of God by impoling unfcrip- 
tural creeds and teds upon men ; and he faid he would 
never tamely furrender the liberty with which he had 
been made free. They turned him out of his meeting, 
and excited the clamour of the mob againd him, by ftig- 
matizing him and his colleague Mr. Hallet with the then 
opprobious epithet of Arians. Under thefe circumdances, 
Mr. Peirce found it neceffary, for the vindication of his 
own character, and that of his friends, to lay a true 
date of the affair before the public ; and accordingly pub¬ 
lilhed “ The Cafe of the Miniders ejected at Exon.” In 
1720 he gave the world a much larger work, entitled 
“The Wedern Inquifition, or a Relation of the Contro- 
verfv which has been lately among the Did'enters in the 
Wed of England,” which contains a full account of the 
origin, progrefs, and ittue, of the perfecution with which 
our author was harafied. To this a reply was publilhed, 
entitled “An Anfwer to Mr. Peirce’s Weltern Inquifi¬ 
tion, &c.” Mr. Peirce now took leave of the contro- 
verfy by a very able and fatisfaclory piece, entitled “ In¬ 
quifition Honedy difplayed, or the Wedern Inquifition 
defended againd the pretended Anfwer, &c.” 
From this period Mr. Peirce applied himfelf to the di¬ 
ligent difcharge of his padoral duties among a refpec- 
table flock, by whom he was highly honoured and be¬ 
loved, and to the completion of fome explanations of the 
facred writings, in which he had made confiderabie pro¬ 
grefs. The firfl fruits of his learned dudies were given 
to the world in 1725, but without his name, in “ A Pa- 
raphrafe and Notes on the Epiflle of St. Paul to the Co- 
loilians,” 4to. in which he endeavoured to follow the 
admirable rules and example of Mr. Locke, whom hecon- 
fidered as having done more than any other writer to¬ 
wards rendering St. Paul’s Epiflles eafy and intelligible. 
This publication was well received; and in the fame year 
he gave the world “ A Paraphrafe and Notes on the 
Epiltle of St. Paul to the Philippians.” He intended to 
proceed with fimilar commentaries on all the other 
Epidles attributed to this apodle, excepting thofe that 
had been before paraphrafed by Mr. Locke. His next 
attempt was on “ The Epidle to the Hebrews,” which he 
did not live to finilh ; for, while he w'as engaged in it, he 
was attacked by a diforder which put an end to his life, 
on the 30th of March, 1726, in the 53d year of his age. 
The perfecution which he had met with during his 
life purfued him even to the grave: for, his relations 
having directed that a Latin infcription, containing an 
encomium on his learning and virtues, (hould be cut on 
a tomb-ftone, the re£lor of the church in which his re¬ 
mains were depofited would not permit it be placed in his 
church-yard; Hating that he could not, in confcience, 
fuffer a perfon fo notorious for lierefy to be warmly re¬ 
commended to pofterity in any place under his care and 
infpeftion. When it was afterwards requefted that thefe 
words might be infcribed on his tomb, “ Here lies the 
reverend, learned, and pious, Mr. James Peirce,” ftill 
it was refufed ; the reclor affuming that Mr. Peirce could 
not be reverend, becaufe he was not lawfully ordained; 
and that.he was not pious, becaufe he taught errors ; fo 
that the only infcription allowed, was “ Mr. James 
Peirce’s Tomb, 1726.” On a monument erecled to his 
memory in the meethig-lioufe in which he latterly officia¬ 
ted, he is held out to the veneration of pofterity, as “ a 
rational,judicious, and affeftionate, preacher; a very la¬ 
borious and fagacious interpreter of the Holy Scriptures; 
a fincere lover and ftrenuous defender of the truth ; and a 
courageous fufferer for maintaining the doftrines of the 
gofpel of Chrift, and for aflerting the liberties of Chrif- 
tians.”_ After his death, his “ Paraphrafe and Notes on 
the Epiftle of St. Paul to the Hebrews, with Dittertations 
on feveral Texts of Scripture,” were publilhed in 1727, 
P E I 
though evidently left in an unfiniflied ftate. The work 
was afterwards completed by Mr. Jofeph Hallet. From 
Mr. Peirce’s MSS. were alfo publilhed “ An Ettay in fa¬ 
vour of the ancient Pradtice of giving the Eucharift to 
Children and other tracts. Gen. Biog. 
PEIRES'C (Nicolas Claude Fabri), a man of multi¬ 
farious erudition, born in 1580, was defcended from an 
ancient and noble family, feated originally at Pifa in 
Italy. At ten years of age, he was fent to Avignon, 
where he fpent five years in the Jefuits college, in the 
ftudy of what in Scotland and on the continent is called 
humanity. From Avignon he was, in 1595, removed to 
Aix, and entered into the ftudy of philofophy. In the 
interim he attended the proper matters for dancing, ri¬ 
ding, and handling arms; in all which, though he per¬ 
formed the leflons regularly, it was with reluctance ; lor, 
this being done only to pleafe an uncle, whofe heir he 
was to be, he efteemed all the time loft that was not 
fpent in the purfuits of literature. During this period, 
his father being prefented with a medal of the emperor 
Arcadius, which was found at Belgenfer, Peirefc begged 
the favour of it; and, charmed with deciphering the 
charadlers in the exergue, and reading the emperorjs 
name, he carried the medal with a tranfport of joy to his 
uncle ; who for his encouragement gave him two more, 
together with fome books upon the fubjedt. This is the 
epoch of his application to antiquities, for which he 
became afterwards fo famous. In 1596 he was fent 
to finilh his courfe of philofophy under the Jefuits 
at Tournon, where he turned his attention particu¬ 
larly to cofmography, as being neceffary to the under- 
ftanding of hiltory, abating, however, nothing of his ap¬ 
plication to antiquity, in which he was attifted by Petrus 
Rogerus, one of the profeflors, and a flcilful medalift: 
nor did he omit the ftudy of humanity in general, where= 
in he was the matter and inftrudlor of a brother who was 
with him. But to do all this he was Obliged to fit up 
late at nights ; and fo much labour and attention, as he 
was naturally of a tender conftitution, increafed the 
weaknefs of his ftomach formerly contradled, and for 
which he had ufed a kind of digeftive powder. 
Being recalled by his uncle in 1597, he returned to 
Aix, and entered there upon the ftudy of the law ; which 
he profecuted, however, fo as to find leifure to vifit and 
converfe frequently with Peter A. R. Bagarr, a molt Ikil- 
ful antiquary, who was afterwards made matter of the 
jewels to Henry IV. The following year he went again 
to Avignon, to carry on his courfe of law under one 
Peter David ; who, being well lkilled likewife in antiqui¬ 
ties, w'as pleafed to fee Peirefc join this ftudy to that of 
the law. But Ghibertus of Naples, auditor to cardinal 
Aquaviva, fed his curiofity the molt, in Ihowing him 
fome rarities, fuch as he had never feen before. Ghiber¬ 
tus alfo lent him Goltzius’s Treatife upon Coins, and 
advifed him to go into Italy, efpecially to Rome, where 
he would meet with curiofities to fatisfy his molt ardent 
willies. Accordingly, his uncle having procured a pro¬ 
per governor, he and his brother fet out upon that tour 
in September 1599; and, patting through Florence, Bono- 
nia, and Ferrara, when he had ftaid a few days at Venice, 
he fixed his refidence at Padua, in order to complete his 
courfe of law. But once a quarter, going to Venice to 
get calh for bills of exchange, he took thefe opportuni¬ 
ties of introducing himfelf to the moll diftinguilhed lite¬ 
rati there; and was particularly careffed by F. Contarini 
procurator of St. Mark, who was poffeffed of a curious 
cabinet of medals, and other antiquities, without know¬ 
ing the value of them : this was fully Ihown to him by 
Peirefc, who likewife explained the Greek infcriptions 
upon his medals, and the monumental llones. After a 
year’s Hay at Padua, he fet out for Rome, and arrived 
there Odlober 1600, in order to be in time for feeing the 
jubilee; to celebrate which, the Porta Sandla would be 
opened in the beginning of the next year. He patted fix 
months in this city, viewing the numberlefs curiofities 
there, 
