Petani, a sort of cakes used anciently in Athens in making libations to the gods. They were substituted for animal sacrifices by the command of Cecrops. — Gard- ner, Faiths of the World, ii, 642.
Petavel, Alfred F., a Swiss Protestant clergy- man of note, was born near the close of the last century. He studied at the university in Berlin, and was the first recipient from that high school of the doctorate in philosophy. He was greatly instrumental in the es- tablishment of the Swiss Missionary Society, and sub- sequently took no inconsiderable share in the doings of the Evangelical Alliance. The principal work, how- ever, to which he devoted his best time, his talents, his energies, and his whole heart, was to bring the Jewish people into a more intimate personal contact with the Christians, and it is especially in this respect that his influence has extended beyond his little country. He was a zealous member of the Universal Israelitish Al- liance and of the Evangelical Alliance. He did not, at first, impress one as a pastor, a missionary, an apostle, a father of the Church, but rather as one of those individ- uals described in the book of Genesis, who walked with God, who communed with him, like a patriarch or a seer. He died at the age of eighty. The addresses which he delivered were collected under the title of Discourses on Fducntion. His Daughter of Zion, his Letter to the Synagogues of France, and many other writings, will always remain as imperishable records of the zeal which animated him for the re-establish- ment of the Jews as a people.
Petavius, Dionysius (also called Dexis Petau),
one of the most celebrated of French scholars, and in- fluential in the councils of the Jesuits, to whose order he belonged, was born at Orleans Aug. 21, 1583. His father, who was a man of learning, seeing strong parts and a genius for letters in his son, took all possible means to improve them to the utmost. He used to tell his son that he ought to qualify himself so as to be able to attack and confound "the giant of the Allo- phylae;" meaning the redoubtable Joseph Scaliger, whose abilities and learning were supposed to have done such service to the Reformed. Young Petavius seems to have entered into his father's views ; for he studied very intensely, and afterwards levelled much of his erudition against Scaliger. He joined the study of mathematics with that of belles-lettres ; and then applied himself to a course in philosophy, which he began in the College of Orleans, and finished at Paris. After this he maintained theses in Greek and in Latin, which he is said to have understood as well as his native language, the French. In ma- turer years he had free access to the king's library, which he often visited in order to consult Latin and Greek manuscripts. Among other advantages which accompanied his literary pursuits was the friendship of Isaac Casaubon, whom Henry IV called to Paris in 1600. It was at his instigation that Petavius, young as he was, undertook an edition of The Works rfSyneshts ; that is, to correct the Greek from the man- uscripts, to translate that part which j*et remained to be translated into Latin, and to write notes upon the whole. He was but nineteen when he was made pro- fessor of philosophy in the University of Bourges ; and spent the two following ye#-s in studying the ancient philosophers and mathematK ians. In 1604, when Morel, professor of Greek at Paris, published The Works of Chrysostom, some part of Petavius's labors on Synesius was added to them. (From the title of this work we learn that he then Latinized his name Pwtus, which he afterwards changed into Petavius. His own edition of The Works of Synedus did not appear till 1612.) He entered the Society of the Jesuits in 1605, and did great honor to it afterwards by his vast and profound erudition. He became zealous for the Roman Catholic Church ; and there was no way of serving it more agreeable to his humor than by criticising and abus- ing its adversaries. Scaliger was the person he was most bitter against; but he did not spare his friend Casaubon whenever he came in his way. There is no occasion to enter into detail about a man whose whole life was spent in reading and writing books, and in performing the several offices of his order. The history of a learned man is the history of his works; and by far the greater part of Petavius's writings were to support popish doctrines and disci- pline. But it must be confessed that in order to per- form his task well he made himself a universal scholar. He died at Paris Dec. 11, 1652. In 1633 he published an excellent work entitled Rationale Temjwrum ; it is
PETEH
an abridgment of universal history, from the earliest
.1 order, and supported all the w • to proper au-
thorities. It went through several editions; many additions and improvements have been made to it. both in- himself, and by Perisoniua and others after bis death; and Le Clerc published an abridg- .1 as far down as to 800, under the title of • vins'a chef-d'oeuvre i- I
inc primum septem voluminibus comprchen- riiin. in meliorera ordinem redactum, auctoris ipsius % it i. a.- libris quibusdam numquam in hoc opera editis itum, Francisci Antonii Zacharia i