PETER. 
time of the perfecution which commenced under the em¬ 
peror Dioclefian, it feems probable that during a confider- 
able part of that diftrefling period he refided in fome 
private place, unknown to the inftruments of the perfe¬ 
cution; where, however, the Chriftians had accefs to him, 
and received his advice and inftru&ions. Whether he 
was at length difcovered in this retreat, or was induced 
to quit it when the times were becoming more tolerant, 
we are not informed ; but Eufebius tells us that, “ without 
any crime of any kind laid to his charge, beyond all ex¬ 
pectation, on a fudden, for no other reafon but the will 
of Maximin, he was taken into cuftody, and beheaded.” 
His martyrdom took place in the year 311. Of his quar¬ 
rel with Meletius bifliop of Lycopolis, which produced a 
long fchifm in the Egyptian church, we have given an 
account in the life of that prelate. He is the reputed 
author of “ A Book on Penance,” thirteen canons of 
which are inferted, in Greek and Latin, in the firft vol. of 
the ColleCt. Concil. Some fragments alfo of another 
treatife attributed to him, “Concerning the Divinity,” 
may be met with in the third and fourth vols. of the fame 
colleftion. In Cave the reader will find farther particu¬ 
lars concerning his fuppofed productions. Enfebii Hift. 
Eccl. lib. vii. viii. Cave's Hi ft. Lit. vol. i. 
PE'TER, furnamed Chrysologus, a faint in the 
Roman calendar, and a celebrated Italian prelate in the 
fifth century, was of noble extraction, and born 
at Imola, anciently known by the name of Forum 
Cornelii. He was educated by Cornelius, bifliop 
of his native city, who admitted him into holy 
orders, and appointed him to the office of his deacon, 
which he retained for many years. Without noticing 
the legendary tales which are related concerning him, we 
have only to ftate, that he was elected bifhop of Ravenna 
in the year 433, and died before 451. His eloquence was 
greatly admired ; whence he had the furname of ChrijJb- 
logus, meaning Golden Speaker. What remain of liis 
productions con fill chiefly of Sermons or Homilies, con¬ 
taining ftiort explanations of portions of the Scriptures, 
accompanied with moral reflections. They are drawn 
up in a perfpicuous and pleating (tyle ; and are diftin- 
guiflied by a happy union of concifenefs and elegance. 
They were collefted together two hundred and fifty years 
after his death, by Felix, one of his fucceffors in the fee 
of Ravenna ; and were firft printed, to the number of 176, 
at Cologne, in the year 1541. Afterwards they under¬ 
went repeated imprefiions at the fame place, Antwerp, 
Paris, Lyons, Venice, and Bologna, and were inferted in 
the feventh vol. of the Bibl. Patr. Six others, on the 
Lord’s Prayer, are given by d’Achery in his Spicilegium. 
There is alfo ftill extant “ A Letter to Eutyches.the Ar¬ 
chimandrite,” from our prelate, in which he declares 
again ft the fientiments of that monk, and exprefles his 
approbation of the condudt of the patriarch Flavianus : 
it was firft publiftied in Greek and Latin, by Gerard Vof- 
fius, at the end of his edition of the Works of St. Gre¬ 
gory Thaumaturgus, printed at Mentz in 1603 ; and it 
may alfo be feen in the fourth vol. of the Collect. Con¬ 
cil. Cave's Hift . Lit. vol. i. 
PE'TER of Sicily, fo called from the ifland which 
gave him birth, was a man of noble defcent, and of fome 
learning, who flouri filed in the latter part of the ninth 
century. He was taken into the fervice of the emperor 
Bafil, who, in the year 870, lent him into Armenia for 
the purpofeof negotiating an exchange of prifoners. This 
bufinefs, which he performed to the fatisfaction of the 
emperor, having occafloned him to fpend nearly nine 
months at Tibrica, the capital of Armenia, he embraced 
feveral opportunities of holding conferences with the 
Paulicians, a branch of the Manichaeans, who were nu¬ 
merous in that country, and undertook the talk of draw¬ 
ing up, in Greek, “A Hiftory. of the Rife, Progrefs, and 
Decline,” of that left. The work to which he gave this 
title was dedicated by him to an archbilhop of Bulgaria. 
Part of it was tranflated into Latin by Father Sirmond, 
Vol. XIX. No. 1343. 
779 
and inferted by Baronius in his Annals. Afterwards the 
fame father tranfmitted to Ingoldftadt a copy taken by 
himfelf from a manufcript of the original in the library 
at the Vatican, where a Latin verfion of the whole was 
completed by Matthew Rader, a Jefuit, who publiftied it, 
together with the original, in 1604, in 4to. under the 
title of “ Hiftoria de Varia et Stolida Manichasorum 
Hserefi,” &c. The work is certainly fo far an objeft of 
curiofity, as it prefents us with a view of the fentiments 
of the Paulicians at the time when the author lived ; but, 
when it is appealed to as an authority for afcertaining 
what were the precife opinions of the ancient Mani¬ 
chaeans, the latenefs of its date may juftly be excepted 
again ft, and its teftimony refufed as of no weight, when 
contradifted by much older evidence. It is remarkable 
that Photius and Peter, who were both writers in the 
ninth century, have agreed fo exactly in what they have 
laid concerning the Manichaeans, that one is fuppofed to 
have been the copyift of the other; but which of them 
was the original writer on this fubjedt, cannot, perhaps, 
now be determined. Cave's Hift. Lit. vol. ii. 
PE'TER the Hermit, a celebrated perfon in the an¬ 
nals of fanaticilin, was born in the 1 ith century at Amiens 
in Picardy, of a good family. He entered into the army, 
and ferved under the counts of Boulogne; but, having- 
imbibed the holy zeal of the age, he quitted the world, 
and devoted himfelf to a life of religious folitude and 
aufterity. About the year 1095 he made a devout pilgri¬ 
mage to Jerufalem, then in the hands of the Turks, and 
was deeply imprefled with the oppreffions fuftained by the 
Chriftian inhabitants, and the vifitors of that memorable 
city. In the warmth of his emotions, he promifed the 
Greek patriarch to life his endeavours to roufe the welt- 
ern nations to arms in his behalf; and, upon his return, 
he waited on the pope Urban II. (not Martin II. as er- 
roneoufly printed in our account of the Croisades, vol. v. 
p. 374.) with letters from that prelate. The appear¬ 
ance of Peter was mean, his ftature fmall, his body 
meagre, his countenance fhriveiled; but he had a keen 
lively eye, and a ready eloquence. The pope received 
him as one who had a call from heaven, and encouraged 
him to proceed in his defign ; and Peter immediately fet 
out on his travels as a miffionary through the provinces 
of Italy and France. He rode on an afs, his head and 
feet naked, and bearing a weighty crucifix ; he prayed 
frequently, fed on bread and water, gave away in alms 
all that he received, and by his faintly demeanour and 
fervid addrefs drew innumerable crowds of all ranks to 
liften to his preaching. When he painted the indigni¬ 
ties offered to the true believers at the birth-place and 
fepulchre of their Saviour, every heart was melted to com¬ 
panion and animated to revenge. His fuccefs in railing 
recruits for the holy war was fuch as might be expended 
from the rude enthufiafm and martial fpirit of his age. 
Colle&ing above 60,000 perfons, in which number both 
Texes were included, from the borders of France and Lor¬ 
raine, he proceeded with them along the banks of the Rhine 
and Danube, whilft the crufaders of better rank and ap¬ 
pointment waited to be led by Godfrey of Bouillon. 
Peter marched at the head of his motley band in the 
coflume of a hermit, and covered with a long tunic of 
coarfe wool. He placed his vanguard under the command 
of Walter the pennylefs, a poor but valiant foldier of his 
acquaintance. Their progrefs was marked by pillage and 
diforders of all kinds, and by the in a fiacre of all the Jews 
who fell in their way. As they approached the confines 
of Hungary and Bulgaria, the fierce natives of thofe 
countries rofe upon them, and cut them off in fuch num¬ 
bers, that only a -third part, with Peter himfelf, having 
taken refuge in the Thracian mountains, at length 
efcaped to Conftantinople. Almoft all thefe were after¬ 
wards flain by the Turks in the plain of Nice, while 
Peter had prudently withdrawn from the camp, and re¬ 
mained in the Greek capital. He, however, accompanied 
the better-difciplined army of Godfrey, and was prefent 
9 N at 
