Parvati, one of the names given in Hindu my- thology to the consort of Siva. She was worshipped as the universal mother and the principle of fertility. She is also considered as the goddess of the moon. In consequence of her remarkable victory over the giant Durgil she was honored as a heroine with the name of Darya, and in this form her annual festival is most ex- tensively celebrated in Eastern India. By the worship- pers of Siva the personified energy of the divine nat- ure is termed Parvati, Bhavdni, or Diiryd ; and the Taitiras assume the form of a dialogue between Siva and his bride in one of her many forms, but mostly as Una and Parvati, in which the goddess questions the god as to the mode of performing various ceremonies, and the prayers and incantations to be used in them. These the god explains at length, and, under solemn cautions that they involve a great mystery, on no ac- count to be divulged to the profane. See Gardner, Faiths of the World, ii, 622; Moor, Hindu Pantheon (see Index).
Parvin, Robert J., an Episcopal clergyman, was born at Deerfield, N. .J., in 1823, and was educated for holy orders at the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary of Virginia, where he graduated in 1847. Af- ter ordination he was successively stationed at Christ Church, Towanda; Trinity Church, Rochester; Pitts- field, IVIass. ; Le Roy, N. Y. ; and in 18G0 went to Chel- tenham, Pa. In 1866 he became general secretary of the Evangelical Education Society of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, and held this position until his death on the wreck of the steamer " United States" on the Ohio river, Dec. 4, 1868. He published Sunday-school Illustrations (Phila. 1851, 18mo; very popular): — The Shepherd's Voice (1853) : — Union Notes on the Gospels (1855-58, 2 vols. 18mo); this is based on an English work, and, like all publications of Parvin, is very largely circulated. He also contributed to miuiy periodicals, and wrote a number of children's stories. Sec Newton, God's Interest in the Death of his People (Phila. 1869).
Parvis(e) is the name given to an enclosed space, paradise (q.v.), or atrium, or to the court in front of a church, which is usually surrounded with cloisters. The name is also given sometimes to a churchyard. The cloister-garth at Chichester is still called paradise ; and the space around a church is usually termed par- vise in France. The latter term is often, however, em- ployed to denote a room over the porch of a church, which is often used for a library, as the residence of a chantry-priest, or as a record-room or school.
The parvise is a relic of the primitive arrangement; the ancient basilicas had a fore-court, surrounded with porticos, and containing in the centre tombs, wells, fountains, and statues. At the close of the 12th cen- tury the parvise became open, and only slightly mark- ed out, to show the episcopal jurisdiction. On it scaf- folds were erected, on which delinquent clerks were ex- posed, and criminals did open penance; the relics were exhibited, and the inferior clergy were ranged, while their superiors occupied the open galleries above to sing the Gloria. At Rheims, and Notre Dame, Paris, the parvise was enclosed with a low wall; at Amiens and Lisieux the raised platform exists; and at lihade- gund's, Poictiers, the coped wall, with kneeling angels, dogs, and lions, and its five entrances remain perfect. A trace of the same plan may be seen in front of Lich- field. At Laach, and St. Ambrose's, Milan, the parvise and cloister remain ; and the fore-court at Parenzo, Sa- lerno, Aschaffenburg, St. Clement's, and other churches at Rome, See Walcott, Sacred A rchwoloyy, s, v.
Pa'sacii (Heb, Pasak', TjOQ, cut oJJ'; Sept, ^atrex V, r. <i>t<nix')> the first named of three sons of Japhlet, of the tribe of Asher (1 Chron. vii, 33). B.C. cir. 1618.
Pasagii or Pas(s)agini, a Christian heretical sect which arose in Lombardy towards the close of the 12th century, sprang out of a mixture of Judaism and Chris- tianity, occasioned perhaps by the conquest of Jerusa- lem. This sect held the absolute obligation of the Old Testament upon Christians in opposition to the jl/n- nichaans, who maintained only the authority of the New Testament. Hence they literally practiced the rites of the Jewish law, with the exception of sacrifices, which ceased to be offered at the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem ; consequently they circumcised their foUowers, abstained from those meats of which the use is prohibited under the Mosaic economy, and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath. They also revived the Ebionitish and Arian doctrines on the subject of the person of Christ, maintaining that he was not equal, but subordinate to the Father, and indeed merely the highest or purest of the creatures of God. The Pasagii were condemned as heretics by the Council of Verona in A.D. 1184, and, under the name of Circumcisi, they are mentioned also in the laws against heresies issued by Frederick II in 1224. "The name of this sect," says Neander, " reminds one of the word pasyium (passage), which signifies a tour, and was very commonly em- ployed to denote pilgrimages to the East, to the Holy Sepulchre crusades. May not this word, then, be re- garded as an index, pointing to the origin of the sect as one that came from the East, intimating that it grew out of an intercourse with Palestine? Jlay we not suppose that from very ancient times a party of Judaizing Christians had survived, of which this sect must be an offshoot? The way in which the)' ex- pressed themselves concerning Christ, as being the