Pseuula. See Planeta.
Peeonia, the healing goddess, a surname of A thene, under which she was worshipped at Athens. See Mi- nerva.
Paez, Gaspar, a Spanish missionary, was born at Covilha, Andalusia, in 1582. He early became a mem- ber of the Society of Jesus, and was sent as a missionary first to Goa, then to Abyssinia (in 1628). After the death of the king, Melek-Seghed, in 1632, his son Facili- das, annoyed by troubles caused by the alleged unrea- sonableness of the missionaries, ordered Paez to leave his states. Paez thought he could elude the decree, and concealed himself for some time, but was discovered and put to death, April 25, 1635. Some of his letters were published in the Littera Annum (1624-1626). See Sotwel, Bihl. Soc. Jesu.; Geddes, Church Hist, of Ethi- opia.— Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s. v.
Paez, Pedro, another Spanish missionarj', was born at Olmedo, a town in New Castile, in 1564. Having completed his studies at the college of the Jesuitical order, which he had joined while yet a youth, he was appointed to the mission at Goa. He sailed for that port in 1587. At that time the numerous Portuguese who had resided in Abyssinia since the invasion of Christoval de Gama, being without a patriarch or spir- itual director of any sort, sent to Goa for some priests, when Paez and another Jesuit, named Antonio Mont- serrat, were despatched by the governor. The two missionaries sailed from Goa in 1588; they touched at Diu, where they made some stay, disguised as Arme- nians. They then sailed for jMuscat on April 5, 1588. From thence they made for the port of Zeila in Abys- sinia; but on their passage thither they were boarded by an Arab pirate, in sight of Dofar (Feb. 14, 1589), and carried in irons to the capital of the king of Shael (Xaer in the Portuguese writers). Thej' were at first kindly treated by this sovereign ; but he himself being a trib- utary to the Turkish pasha of Yemen, and bound by treaty to send him all the Portuguese who might fall into his hands, Paez and his companion were sent to Sanaa, the capital of Yemen and the court of tlie pasha, where they passed seven years in the most dreadful cap- tivity. At last released by the intercession of the vice- roy of India, wlio obtained their liberty upon the paj'- ment of a thousand crowns ransom for each, the two missionaries returned to Goa in 1596. The ardor of Paez seems not to have been damped by his past suf- ferings; on the contrary, after spending s-overal years at Uiu and Camboya, lie embarked a second time for Abyssinia, and landed at I\Iasawa in April, 1603. His first object was to learn one of the most extensively used native dialects, tlie Gheez, in which he soon acquired such a proficiency as to be enabled to translate into it the compendium of the Christian doctrine written by
INIarcos George, and to instruct some native children in the dialogues which that work contains. In 1604 Za- Denghel, the reigning monarch of Abyssinia, hearing of the attainments of Paez and the proficiency of his pu- pils, ordered him to appear at his court with two of them, that he might judge for himself. Paez was kind- ly received by the king, who conferred upon him all sorts of honors and distinctions. On the following day a thesis was maintained in his royal presence, when Paez's pupils answered every point that was put to them by their opponents; the mass was next celebrated in conformity with the Romish ritual ; after which Paez preached a sermon in Gheez, which so pleased the king that he gave himself a convert to Christianity, and wrote to the pope and to king Philip HI, of Spain, praying them to send more missionaries, that all the people might speed- ily be brought to accept Christianity. No sooner was this royal wish made public than the Abyssinian priests, dreading the ascendency which Paez and his adherents had gained at court, excited a rebellion. The king was killed in battle October, 1604, but his successor So- cinos, otherwise called Melek-Seghed, was even more favorable to the Christian cause. Soon after his acces- sion to the throne he summoned to his presence Paez, who celebrated mass and preached before all his court, assembled for the purpose. The king was so much pleased with Paez that he gave him, besides a large piece of ground at Georgia, on a rocky peninsula on the south side of the lake Dembea, to build a monastery for his order, land and material to build a palace for him- self. Thereupon, without the assistance of any Euro- pean, but with the mere help of the natives working under his orders, Paez constructed a building which was the astonishment of those who beheld it. A spring-lock which he fixed upon one of the doors saved the king's life when an attempt \vas afterwards made to assassi- nate him. Paez lived in great intimacy with Socinos, whom he accompanied in all his military expeditions. It was on one of these occasions that he visited Nag- nina, a town tliree days' march from the sources of the Nile, and surveyed the neighboring country — a fact which Bruce endeavored to discredit, for the purpose of appropriating to himself the glory of being the first European who visited the source of the Abarvi. then reputed to be the main branch of the Nile. Pedro Paez died in the beginning of May, 1612, just as his missionary labors were crowned with success, having persuaded the king to receive the general confession and repudiate all his wives but one. The Roman Cath- olic faith, thus introduced into Abyssinia, did not long remain the religion of the state. After the death of Socinos (1632), his successor, Facilidas, persecuted the Jesuits and re-established the old creed, which was Christianity, though in a corrupt form. Besides the translation of the catechism written by iSIarcos George, and other tracts, into the native dialect of Abyssinia, Nicolas Antonio {Bib. Nor. ii, 225) attributes to Paez a treatise De Abyssinorum Erroribus, a general history of Ethiopia, which was supposed to exist in manuscript at Rome, and sevferal letters which have been publish- ed in the collection entitled Litterce Annua;. See Historia da Ethiopa a alta, by IManoel de Almeida, MS., in the British Museum, No. 9861, fol. 195 ; Ludolf, Historia jFAliiopica ; Bruce, Travels; Salt, Abyssinia. — English Cyclop, s. v.