PETER'S DAY
■M
PETERS
tween St. Peter's and St. Paul's Day and Aug. 1. In the time of king John, the total annual payment was £199 8s., contributed by the several dioceses in propor- tion, an account of which will be found in Lingard's History of England, ii, 330. The tax called Romescot, with some variation, continued to be paid till the reign of Henry VIII, when it was abolished. Pope Gregory VII sought to establish the Peter-pence for France; and other partial or transient tributes are recorded from Den- mark, Sweden, Norway, and Poland. This tribute, how- ever, is quite different from the payments made annu- ally to Koine by the kingdoms which were held to be feudatory to the Roman see — as Naples, Aragon, Eng- land under the reign of John, and several other king- doms, at least for a time." — Chambers. The pope having suffered a considerable diminution of his own revenue since the revolution of 1848, an effort has been made in several parts of Europe to revive this practice. In some countries it has been very successfully carried out, and the proceeds have been among the chief of the resources of Pius IX, as he has steadfastly refused to accept any support from the new kingdom of Italy, since his tem- poralities were merged in it. See Thompson, Papal Power (N. Y. 1877, 12mo) ; Kiddle, Hist, of the Papacy; Hefele, Conciliengesch. vol. v; Kanke, Hist, of the Pa- pacy in the Wh and 17th Centuries, i, 21, 37, 230; Inett, Ch. Hist, of England (see Index).
Peter's (St.) Day (June 29) is a festival observed in the Roman Catholic Church. Its origin has been traced back to the 3d century. In 348 Prudentius men- tions that the pope celebrated the Holy Communion in both St. Peter's and St. Paul's churches at Rome on this festival, which in the 6th century was observed at Con- stantinople, and was kept, until the Reformation, asso- ciated with the name of St. Paul, whose conversion was not generally commemorated on Jan. 25 until the 12th century. Cathedra Sancti Petri is a commemoration virtually of SS. Peter and Paul, but its title is the Chair of St. Peter, wherein he first sat at Rome, Jan. 18. On Feb. 22 his chair at Antioch is commemorated.
Peters, Absalom, D.D., a Congregational minis- ter, was born at Wentworth, N. H., Sept. 19, 1793, and was educated at Dartmouth College, class of INK), and for the ministry at Princeton Seminary, class of 1819. He was the son of general Absalom Peters, a descendant of William, of Boston, brother of the noted Hugh Peters. In 1819 he was made a missionary in Northern New York, but in the following year became pastor of the First Church, Bennington, Vt., where he remained until Dec. 14, 1825. After this he was successively secretary of the Home Missionary Society until 1837, and editor of the Home Missionary and Pastor's Journal; and in 1838 began to edit the American Biblical Repository. He was professor of pastoral theology and homiletics in the Union Theological Seminary, New York, from 1842 to 1844, and pastor of the First Church, Williamstown, Mass., from 1844 to 1857. Here he originated and ed- ited the American Eclectic and the American Journal of Education, which was afterwards merged in that of Dr. Henry Barnard. When past seventy he published a volume of poems. He died at New York May 18, 18G9. During his long life he was never ill. He is the author of A Plea for Voluntary Societies: — Sprinkling the only Mode of Baptism, etc. : — Sermon against Horse- racing (1822):— Sacred Music (1823) -.—Colleges, Relig- ious Institutions (1851). — Drake, Diet, of Amer. Biog. s. v.
Peters, Charles, a learned English divine, was born in Cornwall near the close of the 17th century, and was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. On entering into orders he obtained the living of Boconoc. In 1727 he was made rector of St. Mabyn, Cornwall, where he died, at a very advanced age, in 1777. In his disserta- tion on the book of Job he displayed a deep knowledge of Hebrew, and great power of argument against War- burton. The work, which is valuable, is entitled A
critical Dissertation on the Bool- of Job, wherein the Ac- count given of that Book by the A uthor of the Divim I., - gation of Moses demonstrated [Warburton] is particu- larly considered, the Antiquity of the Book vindicated, tin gnat Text {six, lb) explained, and a future Stat, shown to have ban tin popular B< lief of the ancii ni d, ws (2d ed. corrected, Lond. 1757, 8vo) :— An Appendix /<> the critical Dissertation on the Book of Job, giving a further Account of the Book of Ecclesiastes ; to which is add, J n Reply to some Notes of the late D—n of B—l, in his new Edition of the Divine Legation, vol. ii, pt. ii, by the Author of the Critical Dissertation (Lond. 1760). There are also extant Sermons, published from hisMSS. by his nephew. Jon. Peters, M.A., vicar of St. Clement's, near Truro, Cornwall (Lond. 177G, 8vo). (J. H.W.)
Peters, Hugh, an English divine, who came to this country in the colonial days, and is noted both as a preacher and politician, was born at Fowey, Cornwall, Eng., in 1599. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, wdiere he graduated in 1022; then entered the ministry, and preached successfully at St. Sepul- chre's, London, until he was silenced for nonconformity, and imprisoned. As soon as liberated he went to Rot- terdam, and became pastor of the Independent Church in that place. In 1635 he resigned and sailed for New England, where he arrived Oct. 0, and was installed Dec. 21. 1030, pastor of the First Church, Salem, as suc- cessor to Roger Williams, whose doctrines he disclaimed and whose adherents he excommunicated. He was also active in civil and mercantile affairs, suggesting coasting and foreign voyages, and the plan of the fish- eries. In March, 1638, he was appointed by the Gen- eral Court to assist in collecting and revising the colo- nial laws, and having been chosen to "represent the sense of the colony upon the laws of excise and trade," he sailed for England Aug. 3, 1041. He became in 104.3 a preacher in the Parliamentary army, in which capacity he was present at the siege of Lynn and the capture of Bridgewater. For his services he was largely rewarded, and in 1653 was one of the committee of legal reform appointed by Parliament. In 1658 he was chaplain to the garrison at Dunkirk. After the Res- toration Peters, being suspected of some complicity with the death of the king, was committed to the Tow- er, and indicted for high -treason Oct. 13, 1600. He was convicted and executed Oct. 10, 1660. During his imprisonment he wrote several letters of advice to his daughter, subsequently (1717) published under the title of .1 dying Father's last Legacy to an only Child. His private character has been the subject of much discus- sion both in England and America. He was charged by his enemies witli gross immorality, and the most bitter epithets were applied to him by bishops Burnet, Kennet, and others; but of late years he has been es- timated more favorably. He published also God's Do- ings and Maris Duty, opened in a Sermon preached be- fore the House of Commons, the Lord Mayor, and the Assembly of Divines 1 1646) -.—Peters's last Report of the English Wars, occasioned by the Importunity of a Frit ml pressing an Answer to some Queries (1046): — A Word for the A rmy and Tiro Words for the Kingdom, to Clear the One and Cure the Other, forced in much Plainness and Brevity from their faithful Servant, Hugh Peters (1047): — .4 Good Work for a Good Magistrate, or a Short Cut to a tin at (tuiet (1051) :— Some Xotes of a Sermon preached on the 11th of October, 1660, in the Prison of Neicgate, after his Condemnation (1000). See Sprague, .4 nnals of the A mer. Pulpit, i, 70 ; Drake, Diet. of A mer. Biogr. s. v. (J. II . W.)