434 
P I L 
ficing; for this is the meaning of that expreflion of “ ming¬ 
ling their blood with their facrifices.” Some think they 
were difciples of Judas the Gaulonite, who taught that 
the Jews ought not to pay tribute to foreign princes ; 
and that Pilate had put fome of them to death even in 
theTemple; but there is no proof of this fa£t. 
At the time of our Saviour’s paflion, Pilate made fome 
endeavours to deliver him out of the hands of the Jews, 
He knew they had delivered him up, and purfued his life 
with fo much violence, only out of malice and envy; 
(Matth.xxvii. 18.) His wifealfo, who had been difturbed 
the night before with frightful dreams, fent to tell him 
fhe defired him not to meddle in the affair of that juft 
perfon; (ib. 19.) He attempted to appeafe the wrath of 
the Jews, and to give them fome fatisfadtion, by fcourging 
Jefus Chrift; (John xix. 1. Matth. xxvii. 26.) He tried 
to take him out of their hands, by propofing to deliver 
him or Barabbas, on the day of the feftival of the paffover. 
Laftly, he had a mind to difcharge himfelf from pronoun¬ 
cing judgment againft him, by fending him to Herod 
king of Galilee; (Luke xxiii. 7,8.) When he faw all 
this would not fatisfy the Jews, and that they even 
threatened him in fome degree, faying he could be no 
friend of the emperor if he let him go, (John xix. 12,15.) 
he caufed water to be brought, wafhed his hands before 
all the people, and publicly declared himfelf innocent of 
the blood of that juft perfon ; (Matth. xxvii. 23, 24.) yet 
at the fame time he delivered him up to his foldiers, 
that they might crucify him. This was enough to juftify 
Jefus Chrift, as Calmet obferves, and to fhow that he held 
him as innocent; but it was not enough to vindicate the 
confcience and integrity of a judge, whofe duty it was as 
well to all'ert the caufe of oppreffed innocence as to 
punifti the guilty and criminal. He ordered to be put 
over our Saviour’s crofs, as it were, an abftraft of his 
lentence, and the motive of his condemnation, (John 
xix. 9.) Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, 
which was written in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Some 
of the Jews found fault with it, and remonftrated to 
Pilate that he ought to have written “Jefus of Nazareth, 
who pretended to be the king of the Jews.” But Pilate 
could not be prevailed with to alter it, and gave them this 
peremptory anfwer, What I have written , I have written. 
Towards evening, he was applied to for leave to take 
dourn the bodies from the crofs, that they might not 
continue there the following day, which was the paffover 
and the fabbath day. (John xix. 31.) This he readily 
allowed; and granted the body of Jefus to Jofeph of 
Arimathea, that he might pay his laft duties to it; (ib. 33.) 
Laftly, when the prielts, who had folicited the death of 
our Saviour, came to delire him to fet a watch about 
the fepulchre, for fear his difciples fliould fteal him away 
by night, he anfwered them, that they had a guard, 
which they might place themfelves. (Matt, xxvii. 65.) 
This is the fubftance of what the Gofpel tells us concern¬ 
ing Pilate. 
Juftin Martyr, Tertullian, Eufebius, and after them 
leveral others both ancient and modern, allure us, that 
it was formerly the cullom for Roman magiftrates to 
prepare copies of all verbal proceffes and judicial afts 
which they paffed in their feveral provinces, and to fend 
them to the emperor. And Pilate, in .compliance to 
this cullom, having fent word to Tiberius of what had 
paffed relating to Jefus Chrift, the emperor wrote an 
account of it to the fenate, in a manner that gave reafon 
to judge that he thought favourably of the religion of 
Jefus Chrift, and fhowed that he fhould be willing they 
would decree divine honours to him. But the fenate 
was not of the fame opinion, and fo the matter was 
dropped. It appears by what Juftin fays of thefe Adis, 
that the miracles of Jefus Chrift were mentioned there, 
and even that the foldiers had divided his garments 
among them. Eufebius infinuates that they fpoke of 
his refurredlion and afcenfion. Tertullian and Juftin 
P I L 
refer to thefe Adis with fo much confidence as would 
make one believe they had them in their hands. How¬ 
ever, neither Eufebius nor St. Jerome, who were both 
inquifitive underftanding perfons, nor any other author 
that wrote afterwards, feem to have feen them, at leaft 
not the true and original Adis; for, as to what we have 
now in great number, they are not authentic, being nei¬ 
ther ancient nor uniform. There are alfo fome pretended 
letters of Pilate to Tiberius, giving a hiftory of our Sa¬ 
viour; but they are univerfally allowed to be fpurious. 
Pilate, being a man that, by his exceffive cruelties and 
rapine, had difturbed the peace of Judea during the whole 
time of his government, was at length depofed by Vitel- 
lius the proconful of Syria, in the 36th year of Jefus 
Chrift, and fent to Rome to give an account of his con- 
dudltothe emperor. But, though Tiberius died before 
Pilate arrived at Rome, yet his fucceffor Caligula banifhed 
him to Vienne in Gaul, wdiere he was reduced to luch 
extremity that he killed himfelf with his own hands. 
PILAT'LA PASS', a mountainous road in Hindooftan, 
leading from the Carnatic into the circar of Cuddapa: 
feventeen miles fouth of Udegherri. 
PILA'TRE du ROZIE'R (Francis), an ingenious 
French cheinift, and the firft aerial adventurer, was born 
at Metz, the 30th of March, 1756. He was firft appren¬ 
tice to an apothecary there, and afterwards went to Paris 
in queft of farther improvement. He applied himfelf to 
the ftudy of natural hiftory and of natural philofophy ; 
and had already acquired fome reputation, when the 
difcovery of M. de Montgolfier aftonifhed the learned 
world. Having performed feveral fuccefsful excurfions 
with air-balloons, in the prefence of the royal family of 
France, of the king of Sweden, and of prince Henry of 
Prufiia, (fee the article Aerostation, vol. i. p. 165-8.) 
he then refolved to pafs into England by means of his 
aerial vehicle, and for that purpofe he repaired to Bou¬ 
logne ; whence he rofe about (even o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing, of the 15th of June, 1785 ; but, in half an hour after 
he fet out, the balloon took fire, and the aeronaut, with 
his companion M. Romaine, were killed. Pilatre’s fa¬ 
cial virtues and courage, which were very diftinguilhed, 
heightened the regret of his friends for his lofs. His 
merit as a chemift, and his experiments as an aeronaut, 
had procured him fome pecuniary rewards and fome public 
appointments. He had a penlion from the king, was 
intendant of Monfieur’s cabinets of natural philofophy, 
cherniftry, and natural hiftory, profeffor of natural philo- 
faphy, a member of feveral academies, and principal direc¬ 
tor of Monfieur’s mufeum. 
PILA'YA, a town of Peru, in the jurifdiflion of Pilaya 
and Pafpaya : fifty miles fouth of La Plata. 
PILA'YA and PASPAY'A, a jurifdiflion of Peru, 
under the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres. 
PILCH, or Pil'cher, /. [pylca, pylece, Sax. from 
pellis, Lat.] A cloke or coat ot fkins; a furred gown. 
—'Ill beat five pounds out of his leather pitch. Decker s 
Satiromajlix , 160a.— A grey furred coat, or pilch. Blount’s 
Anc. Tenures. —Will you pluck your (word out of his 
pilcher by the ears ? ShaheJ'peare’s Rom. andJul. 
After grete hete comith colde; 
No man cafte his pilche away. Chaucer's Proverbs. 
PIL'CHARD, or Pilcher, f. A fifli approaching to 
the nature of the common herring, but fmaller, and dif¬ 
fering in feveral other particulars. See Clupea pilchar- 
dus.—Fools are as like hulbands, as pilchards are to her¬ 
rings. Shahefpeare’s Tw. Night. —Papers to make winding- 
(heets in Lent for pilchers. Milton's Apol.for Smeflymnuus. 
A fhort account of the importance of the pilchard- 
fifiiery on the coaft of Cornwall has been given from Bor- 
lafe and Pennant, under the article Clupea, vol. iv. p. 
693. The following particulars are added from Bond’s 
Sketches of Eaft and Weft Looe, publilhed in 1823. 
Pilchards were formerly caught (at Looe) in drift-nets; 
now 
