Two brothers of the same name, natives of Salins, and also Jesuits, have distinguished themselves in the pulpit. The older, Nicolas Patouillet, born in 1622, was for a long time superior of the French mission to London, and died at Besanoon Nov. 1, 1710. He has left Senfimenis d'une ame pour se y-ecueillir ii Dim (1700, 12mo). The younger, Etienne Patouillet, was born in 1634, and became abbe of Acey (diocese of
by this name in the canons of the second Council of Nice; and others say that Theodosius, the emperor, gave Chrysostom the same title after death. See Pa- tres.
Patres Sacrorum (i. e. Fathers of the Sacred Rites), a title given to the priests of Mithras (q. v.) among the ancient Romans under the emperors.
Patriarch (77 arpiapxVQi head ofafamihj or tribe). Paul (Eph. iii, 15) calls attention to the fact that the term of narpid comes from IIo-»'/|0, "the great Father of all the TTarpiai, both of angels and men" (Ellicott) ; and thus, constructively, "Patriarch," in its highest sense, is a title of him whose offspring all men are. In common use it is applied in the N. T. to Abraham (Heb. vii, 4), to the sons of Jacob (Acts vii, 8, 9), and to David (ii, 29) ; and is apparently intended to be equivalent to the phrase PT-X ""3 — X~, the " head" or "prince of a tribe," so often found in the O. T. It is used in this sense by the Sept. in 1 Chron. xxiv, 31 ; xxvii, 22; 2 Chron. xxiii, 20 ; xxvi, 12. In common usage the title of patriarch is assigned especially to those whose lives are recorded in Scripture previous to the time of Closes.
In the early history of the Hebrews we find the an- cestor or father of a family retaining authority over his children, and his children's children, so long as he lived, wjiatevcr new connections thev might form. When the fatlier died the branch-fan:ilies did not break off and form new communities, but usually united under another common head. The eldest son was generally invested with this dignity. His au- thority was paternal. He was honored as the central point of connection, and as the representative of the
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whole kindred. Thus each great family had its patri- arch or head, and each tribe its prince, selected from the several heads of the families which it embraced.
By the " patriarchal system" is accordingly meant that state of society which developed itself naturally out of family relations, before the formation of nations properly so called, and the establishment of regular government; and by the "patriarchal dispensation" the communion into which God was pleased to enter with the families of Seth, Noah, and Abraham, before the call of the chosen people. In the following account we chief!}' follow the articles in Smith's and Kitto's Dic- tionaries.
I. In the histor}' of the aniediltivian patriarchs, the Scripture record contains, after the first family, little except the list of the line from Seth, through Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamecti, to Noah ; with the ages of each at their pe- riods of generation and at their deaths. See Chro- nology. To some extent parallel to this is given the line of Cain : Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methusael, La- mech, and the sons of Laniech, Jabal. Jubal, and Tu- bal-Cain. To the latter line are attributed the first signs of material civilization, the building of cities, the division of classes, and the knowledge 'of mechanical arts ; while the only moral record of their history ob- scurely speaks of violence and bloodshed. See La- MECH. In the former line the one distinction is their knowledge of the true God (with the constant recollec- tion of the promised "seed of the woman"), which is seen in its fullest perfection in Enoch and Noah ; and the only allusion to their occupation (Gen. v, 29) seems to show that they continued a pastoral and agricultu- ral race. The entire corruption, even of the chosen family of Seth, is traced (in Gen. vi, 1-4) to the union between "the sons of God" and "the daughters of men" (Heb. "of Adam"). This union is generally explained by the ancient commentators of a contact with supernatural powers of evil in the persons of fallen angels ; most modern interpretation refers it to intermarriage between the lines of Seth and Cain. The latter is intended to avoid the difficulties attach- ing to the comprehension of the former view, which, nevertheless, is undoubtedly far more accordant with the usage of the phrase "sons of God" in the O. T. (comp. Job i, G ; xxxviii, 7), and with the language of the passage in Genesis itself (see Maitland's Eruvin, essay vi). See Antediluvians.
Descending from this general view to particulars, we find Adam and Eve driven out of Paradise, and having their first child, Cain, born to them, without any more exact indication of their whereabouts in the world than may be derived from what had alreadj' been said of Paradise itself. Nor, up to the deluge, is there any landmark supplied, except that mention is made of Nod, the country of Cain's wandering, to the east of Eden (Gen. iv, IG). The ark itself, which had probably, from its construction, not floated veiy far from the countiy in which it was built, rested on the mountains of tlie region of Ararat ; and when, after the flood, men arrived in the land of Shinar or Babylonia, ihoy had journeyed from the east (xi, 2). If at the flood the waters of " the great deep" were those of the Persian Gulf, we miglit suppose the countrj' inhabited by the patriarchs at that time to have possibly been bounded eastward bj' the nearest range of mountains, and to have extended to the west but little beyond the valley of the Euphrates. See Flood.