Paccori, Ambroise, a French theologian, was born at Ceaulce in 1649, of verj^ humble parentage. Am- bitious as a youth, he made his way to collegiate train- ing in the high school of his native place, and he tinal- ly became its director. In 1706 he removed to Paris, and gave himself to authorship. He died at Paris Feb. 12, 1730. He wrote a large number of works, princi- pally on practical religion and education. A list of his principal works is given in Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gene- rale, s. V.
Pace n"^, tsa'ad, a step, as elsewhere rendered), not a formal measure, but taken in a general sense (2 Sam. vi, 13).
Pace Haut is the name sometimes given to a broad step before an altar.
Pace, Richard, a very learned English prelate, was born about 1482, at or near Winchester. He was educated at the charge of Thomas Langton, bishop of that diocese, whom he served as amanuensis. The bishop, pleased with his proficiency, particularly in music, sent Pace to study at Padua, where he met with Cuthbert Tonstal, afterwards bishop of Durham, and William Latimer, by whose instructions Pace was much profiled. Upon his return home he settled at Queen's College in Oxford, of which his patron Langton had been provost ; soon after he was taken into the service of Dr. Christopher Bainbridge, who about this time be- came a cardinal, and later Pace was summoned to court. His accrmplishments rendered him very acceptable to Henry VIII, who seems to have made him secretary of state, or at least emploj-ed him in matters of high con- cern. Though much engaged in political affairs, he went into orders: in the beginning of 1514 he was ad- mitted a prebendary in the church of York, and the same year was promoted to the archdcaconrj- of Dor- set. These preferments were conferred upon him while he was em|)loyed by the king in a foreign embassy to Vienna. He then persuaded Jlaximilian to intervene in Italy, and procured for the emperor the alliance of the Swiss cantons. Upon the death of Colet, in 1519, he wa-s made dean of St. I'aul's, London. He was also made dean of Exeter about the same time; and in 1521 prebendary in the church of Sarum. At the death of Leo X, Wolsey, who aspired to the tiara, sent Pace to Rome to plead his cause before the sacred college ; but Adrian VI was elected before his arrival there. iJeing emjiloyed not long afterwanls as ambassador to Venice, he fell under the displeasure of Wolsey. The reasons for this arc that he had shown a willingness to as- sist Cliarles, duke of Bourbon, with money, and that he had not forwarded the cardinal's ilesigns for the
papal chair. Wolsey used every means to bring him into disfavor with the king. He accused him of treason, and deprived Pace for the space of two years of all royal advice as to the pleasure of his mission, and of all al- lowances for his maintenance. This severe treatment threw Pace into temporary insanity. After recovery Pace studied the Hebrew language with the assistance of Robert Wakefield. Being introduced to the king at Richmond, Henry expressed much satisfaction at his recovery, and admitted him to a private audience, in which Pace remonstrated against the cardinal's cruelty to him. Wolsey, urged by the king to clear himself from the charge, summoned Pace before him, and, with the duke of Norfolk and others, condemned the un- fortunate prelate, and sent him to the Tower of London. After two years' confinement he was discharged by the king's command. He resigned the deaneries of St. Paul and Exeter, and lived in retirement at Stepney, near London. He died there in 1532. Pace was a skilful diplomatist, and not less distinguished for his amiabil- ity and his great learning. Leland eulogizes Pace highly; and it appears that he was much esteemed by the learned men of his time, especially by Sir Thomas More and Erasmus. The latter admired Pace for his candor and sweetness of temper, addressed to him more letters than to any other of his friends, and could never forgive the man that caused his misfortunes. Stow gives him the character of a very worthy man, and one that gave in council faithful advice : '■ learned he was also," says that antiquary, "and endowed with many excellent parts and gifts of nature ; courteous, pleasant, and delighting in music; highly in the king's favor, and well heard in matters of weight." There is extant a remarkable letter of his to the king, written in 1527, wherein he very freely gives his opinion con- cerning the divorce; and Fiddes observes that he al- ways used a faithful liberty with the cardinal, which brought him at last to confinement and distraction. Pace published a number of works. The most impor- tant is, Defructu qui ex doctrina percipitur liber (Basle, 1517), dedicated to Dr. Colet. It was written at Con- stance, while Pace was ambassador in Helvetia ; but, inveighing much against drunkenness as a great obstacle to the attaining of knowledge, the people there, suppos- ing him to reflect upon them, wrote a sharp answer to it. Erasmus was also highly incensed at some passages in it, and calls it an indiscreet performance ; or a silly book, in which Pace had, between jest and earnest, rep- resented him as a beggar, hated alike bj' the laity and clergy. He bids Sir Thomas More exhort Pace, since he had so little judgment, rather to confine himself to the translation of (ireek writers than to venture upon works of his own, and publish such mean and con- temptible stuff (Erasm. Epist. 275, and Epist. 287) : — Epistoke ad Erasmum, etc. (1520). These epistles are in a book entitled Epiistolce aliquot eruditorum viro- riim. Pace also wrote a book against the unlawfulness of the king's marriage with Catharine in 1527, and made several translations : among others, one from English into Latin, Bishop Fisher^s Sermon, preached at London on the day n]ion which the writings of Martin Luther were publicly burned (Camb. 1521). He made a translation from Greek into Latin of Plutarch's ^v'ork, De commodo ex inimicis capiendo. See General Biog. Diet. s. v. ; Hook, Eccles. Biog. s. v. ; Hoefer, Xouv. Biog. Gene rale, s. v. (J. H. W.)