Paul THE Simple {Pauhts Simplex), so called on account of the childlike simplicity of his character, was a disciple of St. Anthony, who flourished in the 4th century. His native country appears to have been Egypt, but the place of his residence is not described. He was a poor countiyman, who, till the age of sixty, had served God in the married state. His retirement into the desert was occasioned by his surprising his wife, who was exceedingly beautiful, and must have been much younger than himself, in the act of adul- tery with a paramour, with whom she appears to have long carried on a criminal intercourse. Abandoning to the care of the adulterer, not only his guilt}' wife, but also his innocent children, according to Palladius and Socrates, he took his departure, after having, " with a placid smile," said to the adulterer, " Well, well ; truly it matters not to me. By Jesus ! I will not take her again. Go ; you have her, and her children ; for I am going awaj', and shall become a monk." The incident affords a curious illustration of the apathy which was cherished as a prime monastic virtue, and offers an instance of what was probably in that day still rarer, monastic swearing. A journej- of eight daj's brought him to the cell of St. Anthony, then in the zenith of his reputation. ''What do you want?" said the saint. "To be made a monk," was Paul's answer. " Monks are not made of old men of sixty," was the caustic rejoinder. The fervor of the candidate induced him to remain three days without food at the door of the hermit; and Antiiony, won by his importu- nity and earnestness, at length admitted him as a disci- ple. After a' long and rigorous practice of obedience, he was placed in a cell at three miles' distance from Anthony's, who came to regard Paul as the holiest among iiis followers. Paul is reputed to have pos- sessed the gift of miracles in a far more eminent de- gree than his great master; and to him, it is said, St. Anthony was in the habit of sending such sick or pos- sessed persons as he himself was unable to cure. The date of Paul's retirement and the time of his death are not known ; but an anecdote recorded in the Eccles. GrcEC. Afonuinenia of Cotelerius (i, 351) shows that he was living at the accession of the emperor Constantius II, A.D. 337. See Palladius, Hi-t. Lausiac. c. 28, in the Bibliolh. Putrum (Paris, 1654, fol.), xiii, 941 ; Sozo- men, Hist. Eccles. i, 13; Tillemont, .)femoires, \i, 144; Neale, //ist. of the Ilo'y East. Church {Patiiarchate of .1 lexandri(i), i, 152. — Smitli, Diet. ofGr. and Rom. Biog. and Mythol. iii, 151.
PAUL
831
PAUL
Paul OF Thebes, a saint of the earh* Christian Church, whose personal history is enshrouded in mys- tery by legends and traditions, was born, according to Jerome, in the second half of tlie 3d century. He early lost his rich Christian parents, and during the Dacian persecutions fled into tlie Iheban wilderness, where he lived, for ninety-seven years in comnuinion with his God, to be seen onlj' by man in his dying honrs, wlien the anchorite Antonius found him.
Paul Veronese. See Taolo Veuonese.
Paul I, pope of Rome, was a native of tlie city of Rome, a brother of pope Stephen III (q. v.), whom he succeeded, and by whom he was employed in impor- tant political missions. Paul I began his pontificate May 29, 757, amid much opposition and disorder. There were at the time two parties at Rome, the Frankish and the Italian. He owed his elevation to the Frankish party. The Italians were led by The- ophj'lactus, who disputed for a while the right to the pontificate with Paul ; the latter, however, proved strongest in the contest, and finall\' secured submis- sion. Paul's pontificate is distinguished partly by ef- forts for the complete and secure papal possession of the territories which were claimed as granted by the Frank- ish king, and partly' by the remarkable growth of pa- pal power in Rome itself. Baxmann {O'esch. der Poli- tik der Piipste, ii, 251) says: "Very seldom have the politics of Rome seen so much deceit and fraud, or so borne the character of unconscientiousness and double- tonguedness, as under pope Paul I." In order to re- tain the newly acquired exarchate of Ravenna, and to strengthen himself against the attacks of the Lom- bards and the Byzantines, Paul sought the good graces of king Pepin, and prevented this ruler from alliance with the iconoclastic Greeks (see the Codex CaroHnus, in Muratori, vol. iii, pt. ii, p. IIG sq.). One of the most troublesome neigiibors of the papal territorj' was the Lombard king Desiderius, who devastated it sev- eral times. He was, however, conciliated in A.D. 7fi6, and we find Desiderius at F'ome that year engaged in his devotions, and putting the Church in possession of sonie portions of his property. Pope Paul I is vener- ated by the Romish Church as a saint (June 28). He was a friend of the monks, and erected a monastery in his p;ircntal home. He was kind towards the poor, and exhibited a compassionate spirit for all troubled hearts. He died June 28, 7G7, and was succeeded bj' his brother, who is known as Constantine II. Pope Paul's letters are preserved in the collections of the councils, and in Gretser's collection ; but as one of them bears a date after the decease of this pontiff, their genuineness is called in question. See Raj'- naldus, Annales ; Qh&aon, Vitcp Ponlificum Ronumonnn; Bower, Hist, of the Popes, vol. iii; Riddle, Hist, of the Papacy, i, 322-324; Reichel, Hist, of the Roman See in the Middle Ages, p. 113 sq. ; Neander, Church Hist. vol. iii ; Milman, Hist. nf'Lat. Christianity, ii, 428-432 ; Asch- bach (R. C), Kirchen-Lexikon, s. v. (J. H. Vs'.)