Peter {Piern iTi debode, a French chronicler, was bom at Civray (Poitou) near the beginning of the llth century. Like so many other priests who engaged in the first crusade, he departed in L096 with Hugues de Lusignan, lord of Civray; his two brothers, Herve* and Irnaud, chevaliers (pptimi milites), took the cross at the same time with himself, and wen- both killed in the East. Peter was present at the siege of Nice, and followed ond when the crusaders were divided into three different bodies, lie shared equally the fatigues that lie long Biege ofAntioch cost the Christians, and as- the taking of Jerusalem. After thai period no more mention i- made ,,i him. lie did at the close of tie- year 1099. "1110 history of the iir-i crusadi which he has left," says Dom Rivet, " carries with it all the characteristics of an authentic, true, and Bincere writing, lie had been proem at almost all that be re- lates, and seems t" have written il upon the spot. . . .
Raimond d'Agiles has ma le use of it. There is found so much conformity between these two historians that one can scarcely believe that they did not communi-
cate their productions to each other." This narrative is given in a Bimple but rude Btyle; it is divided into live 196 1"'.''.''. and is entitled Historia ,1. Hieroso- lymitano itinere; the most correct edition is that by Du- chesne, in voL iv ofthe Historiens •!• France. See Hist. Lin. ,i, /,, France, viii, 629 640.— Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. . \1. 187. Peter the Venerable, also called Mauritius, a mediaeval character of note, was born in 1092 or 1094. lie was educated at the (Mercian abbey at Souci- langes, .and soon after the completion of bis theologi- cal training was made prior of the convent at Vez< lay, then at Domeine, and in 1122 abbot of Clugny. Pe- trus Venerabilis was more or less mixed with all the important ecclesiastical transactions ofthe 12th century. He took in the schism of 1 130 the side of pope Inno- cent XI: and especially played a great part ill the dis- cussions between Bernard of Clairvaux and Abelard.
His works, written with re ease than talent, have not
yet been published in a collected form. He died, at i hristmas, in 1157 (see Bibl. Pair. Despont, vol. xxii). His publications are. Sermones (in Martene et Durand, Thesaur, Nov. 5, 1419) : — Nucleus </■ sacrificio missa (Hittorpius, 1091): — Libri ii adversus nefaria Saracenorum (in Martene et Durand. CoUectio, ix, 1 120). His life was writ leu by the monk Rudolph, his disciple: Vita Petri Venerabilis, abbatis Cluniacei vi, 1187). See Hook. Eccles. Biog. viii. 59; Schfbckb, Kirchengesch. vol xxvii; Wilkin*. l'<t<r ././■ Ehrwur- digt i Leipsic, 1857). (.1. II. W.)
Peterffi, Charles, a Hungarian Jesuit, towards the close of the 17th century. He was de- scended from a noble family. Admitted among the Jesuits in 1715, he taughl belles-lettres at Tyrnau and philosophy at Vienna, lie died Aug. 1". 1746. lb- made himself known by a valuable collection. Sacra concilia in regno Hungarice celebrata, ab a. 1016 usqui ad a. 171.} (Vienna, 17-12, fob), in which a good method ami the variety of research are to be admired. S e Feller, Diet. Hist. — Hoefer. Nouv. Biog. Generate, xxxix, 691.
Peter-Low, Christian, a convert from Judaism,
flourished in the first half of the 1Mb century tor sev- eral years as professor of < oriental languages at the Uni- versity of LJpsala. He wrote, in the Swedish language, Speculum religionis Judaica, which, in fifty-eight chap- ters, treats of the Jewish festivals, rites, circumcision, dogmas, resurrection, etc. Fllrst, Bibl. Jud. iii, 80; Wolf. Bibl. Hebr. iv, 966 ; Niedersachsisch Nachrichten (Hamburg, 1731), p. 666 Bq.; and Leipziger Gelehrte Zeitung I Leips. I7;;i i, p. 884, where a full index to all the chapters is given. (B. P.)
Peter-pence is the annual tribute of one penny from every Roman Catholic family, paid at Rome at a
festival of the apOStle Peter. It is oil', red to the b'oiiian
pontiff in reverence ofthe memory of St Peter, of whom that bishop is believed to be the successor. From an early period the Roman Bee bad been richly endowed: and although its first endowments were chiefly local, yet as early as the days ,,f <;,-, ,_.,,rN the Great large es- tates were held by the Roman bishops in Campania, in Calabria, and even in the island of Sicily. The first idea, however, of an annual tribute appears to have com.' from England, ami is by some ascribed to Ina (A.I). 721>. king of the West Saxons, who went as a pilgrim to Rome, and there founded a he-pice for Anglo- Saxon pilgrims, to in- maintained by an annual contribu- tion from England; by others, to < Ufa and Ethelwulf, at least in i he -ei i s.' ei' i heir having extended it to the whole ofthe Saxon territory. Put i hi- seems very un- certain : and although the usage was certainly long an- terior to the Norman conquest, Dr. Lingard i- disposed
not to place il earlier than the time of Allied. The
tribute consisted in tin payment of a silver penny by every family posses-in-; land or cattle of i he yearly value of thirty pence, and wa- collected in the live weeks be-