Palaesti'iia (Exod. xv, 14; Isa. xiv, 29, 31). See Palestine.
Palafox, Juan de, a Spanish prelate, noted as a theological writer, was born in the kingdom of Aragon in 1600, The descendant of an illustrious familj-, and a distinguished scholar of the University of Salaman- ca, he was caUed by Philip IV to a place in the "com- mission of war," and afterwards to a like position in the '• commission of the Indies." He embraced a little later the ecclesiastical profession. The king appointed him, in 1639, bishop of Puebla-de-los-Angelos, in Mex- ico, with extensive administrative powers. In the ex- ercise ctf his functions Palafox had some disputes with the Jesuits; he submitted these differences to pope In- nocent X, and went to Europe to sustain his cause. The king of Spain, satisfied with Palafox's conduct in America, gave him the bishopric of Osma. He died soon after (Sept. 13, 1659), leaving a high reputation for piety. Towards the end of the 17th century a pro- cedure was instituted for his beatification ; but the case was delayed for a long time, and, in spite of the efforts of the Si)anish government, the court of Rome decided not to confer the honor on a declared enemy of the Jesuits. Tlie works of Palafox were collected and pub- lished at JIadrid in 1762, in fifteen volumes. Among them are, Le Pasteur de la Xuit de Noel (Pastor de Noche-buena) (Brussels, 1655): — The Shepherd of Christmas -eve, translated into French (Par. 1676): — Le Conqnete de la Chine par les Tartarcs {The Conquest of China hy the Tartars), published in Spanish and in French (ibid. 1678) ; and several mystical treatises, some of which have been translated into French by the abbe Le Roy. See Dinonart, Vie du venerable l)on Jean de I'ulafox, Eceque d'A ngelopolls (Col. 1767) ; Ni-
colini. History of the Jesuits, p. 309 sq. — Hoefer, Xouv, Biog. Generale, s. v,
Palairet, Elias, was one of the latest of the clas- sical commentators who attempted to illustrate the lan- guage of the New Testament from the usage of tlie various authors of classic Greek, a line of interpretation which in the early part of the last century grew into especial favor with many eminent scholars, both on the Continent and in this country. Palairet, who was a French Protestant minister living at Tournay, in Bel- gium, published at Leyden, in 1752, in an octavo vol- ume, some short notes of classical illustrations of sun- dry passages of the New Testament. These he en- titled Observationes philologico-criticce. in sacros Novi Fccderis libros. These notes indicate much learning, but they partake of the fault of the school by exagger- ating the likeness of the sacred to the classic Greek authors. Palairet, who seems to have afterwards un- dertaken the pastorship of a French congregation at Greenwich, issued in the year 1755 a specimen, printed in London, of a much larger work, partaking of the character of a continuous commentary on all the books of the New Testament, on the principle of his Observa- tiones. The work, however, which was to have been published by subscription, never appeared. — Kitto, Cy- clop, s. V.
Pa'lal (Heb. PalaV, hh*:, judge; Sept. ^a\u^, v. r. $n\ri\', i>a\aK, and $aAdX), son of Uzar, and one who aided in repairing the wall of Jerusalem (Neb, iii, 25). B.C. 446.
Palamas, Gregorius (fpj/yoptoc o HaXa/iog), an eminent Greek ecclesiastic of the 14th centurj-, was born in the Asiatic portion of the then reduced Byzan- tine empire, and was educated at the court of Constan- tinople, apparently during the reign of Andronicus Pale- ologus the elder. He ignored the opportunity of world- ly greatness, of which his parentage and wealth and the imperial favor gave liim the prospect, and with his two brothers became, while yet very young, an inmate of one of the monasteries of ]\Iount Athos. Here the youngest of the three died ; and, upon the death of the superior of the monastery soon after, the two surviving brothers placed themselves under another superior. With him they remained eight years ; and on his death Gregory Palamas withdrew to Scete, near Berrhoea, where he built a cell, and gave himself up entirely, for ten years, to divine contemplation and spiritual exer- cises. The severity of his regimen and the coldness of his cell produced an illness which nearly occasioned his death. The urgent recommendation of the other monks of the place induced him then to leave Scete and to re- turn to Jlount Athos ; but this change did not suffice for his recovery, and he removed to Thessalonica (Can- tacuzenus, History, ii, 39). It was apparently while at Thessalonica that his controversy began with Barlaam, a Calabrian monk, who visited Constantinople soon af- ter the accession of the emperor Andronicus Paleolo- gus the younger, A.D. 1328, and, professing himself an adherent of the Greek Church and a convert from the liatin Church, against which he also wrote several works, obtained the favor and patronage of the emperor, Barlaam appears to have been a conceited man, and to have sought opportunities for decrying the usages of the Byzantine Greeks, For his supercilious humor the wild fanaticism of the monks of jMount Athos presented an admirable subject. Those of them who aimed at the highest spiritual attainments were accustomed to shut themselves up for days and nights together in a corner of a cell, and there abstract their thoughts from all worldly objects. Resting their beards on their chests, and fixing their eyes on their bellies, they imagined that the seat of the soul, previously unknown, was re- vealed to them by a mystical light, and at its discovery they were rapt into a state of ecstatic enjoyment. The existence of this light, described by Gibbon as '"the creature of an empty stomach and an empty brain,"