BOKX.
Another argument of the Antidicomarians was drawn from the mention made of the brethren of our Lord (Matt, xii, 46 ; John vii, 5), from which they inferred that these brethren were the children of our Lord's mother by her marriage with Joseph ; but (1) these brethren may have been the children of Joseph by a former wife. There is an old tradition preserved by Epipbanius and followed by Hilary, Ambrose, Chrj'sos- tom, Cyril, Euthymius, Theophj'lact, CEcumenius, and Nicephorus that Joseph had four sons and two daugh- ters l)y a former wife named Escha. (See Eusebius, Eccl. Hist, ii, 1 ; Pearson, On the Crenel, ii, 140). Jerome was the first to confute this opinion, alleging that it rested only on a statement contained in an apocryphal writing. ("2) It was held by Jerome, Augustine, and generally b)' the later commentators, that the brethren are not strictly the brethren but the cousins of our Lord, in wliich sense the term is frequenth' used in Hoh- Scripture (Gen. xiii, 8 ; xxix, 12; Lev. x, 4). Helvid- ius argued that there was proof from Scripture of James and John being not onl}' the brethren of our Lord, but the sons of tlie Blessed Virgin Mary. Among the wompu at the cross were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joses. The latter Mar}', lie thought, was none other than the mother of our Lord, because she was found early at the sepulchre with Mary Magdalene and Salome, and it was improbable that anyone should have greater care for the body other son than his mother. The answer to this is clearly shown by bishop Pearson: "We read in St. John xix, 25, that ' there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.' In the rest of the evangelists we find at the same place 'Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joses,' and again at the sep- ulchre, ' Mary Magdalene and the other Mary ;' where- fore that other Mary, by the conjunction of these tes- timonies, appeareth to be Mary the wife of Cleophas and the mother of James and Joses ; and consequentlj- James and Joses, the brethren of our Lord, were not the sons of Marj' his motiier, but of the other Mary, and tlierefore called his brethren, according to the language of the Jews, because that tlie other Mary was the sister of his mother" (Pearson, On the Creed, i, 217). A fragment of Papias, respecting the rela- tionship of Christ's brethren, has Ijcen printed b}' Dr. Routh {Rdiq. Sacr. i, IG), in wliich he distinguishes four Marys, as follows : (1.) IMary the mother of Jesus ; (2.) Mary the wife of Cleophas or Alplurus, who was the mother of James the bishop and apostle, and of
Simon and Thaddaeus, and a certain Joseph ; (.3.) Mary Salome, the wife of Zebedee, the mother of John the Evangelist and Jamas (Matt, xxvii, 50; Mark xv, 40; xvi, 1); (4.) Mary Magdalene. These four are found in tlie Gospels. James and Judas and Joseph were the sons of the maternal aunt of Jesus. Marj' the mother of James the Less and Joseph,' wife of Aljihajus, was sister of Mary the Lord's mother, whom John calls "of Cleophas" (»> tov KAojTTfT, xix, 25), either from her father or her famil}-, or from some other cause. Mary is called Salome either from her husband or her residence. Her, too, some call "of Cleophas," be- cause she had had two husbands. See Brethren of OUR Lord.
In the Greek Church the Blessed Virgin has alwaj's been called ail Trap^tvoc. This term was used by St. Athanasius. She was so called at the Council of Chal- [ cedon (.\.D. 451), and in the Confession of Faith pub- lished bj' Justin II in the Gth century. If the g,;te of the sanctuary in the prophet Ezekiel be understood of tlie Blessed Virgin — "This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in bj' it; 1 because the Lord God of Israel hath entered bj' it, therefore it shall be shut" (Ezek. xliv, 2) — the perpet- ual virginity of the Blessed Virgin will appear neces- sary to tiiat honor which belongs to her Divine Son, as well as to that which, for his sake, the Church has always accorded to her. See Blunt, Diet, of Hist. Theol. s. V. But the inconclusiveness of this ai-gument is obvious. See Mariolatry ; Mary.
Perpignan, Council of, was convened Nov. 1, 1408, by pope Benedict XIII in the city of Perpignan, in the Eastern Pyrenees, and then belonging to the kingdom of Navarre, whither this rival pope had been obhged to retire from Avignon after the withdrawal of French support. This council was intended to antici- pate the action of the council to meet shortly after at Pisa (in 1409). in order to terminate the long-continued schism of the Church. The Council of Perpignan was attended only by a few French and Spanish ecclesiastics, and they quitted the council when thej' found Benedict stubbornly refusing to resign the pontifical honors. No action was taken by the council worthy of notice. See Benedict XIII (a).
Perrache, Michel, a French sculptor, was born at Lyons in 1085. At the age of sixteen he visited Italy for improvement, and also went to Flanders, where he executed a number of sculptures for a church at Ma- lines, and was honored with the freedom of the city. In 1717 he returned to France and settled at Lyons, where he practiced the art for man}' years, and exe- cuted a variety of sculptures for the churches and gar- dens. He died in 1750. See Spooner, Biog. Hist, of the Fine A rts, ii, 076, 077.