Petrobrusians. The sect of the Petrobrusians, or, as they are commonly but less correctly called, Pe- trobussians, was the earliest of the anti-sacerdotal com- munities which the profound discontent inspired by the tyranny of Rome called into existence at the beginning of the 12th century. They were the followers of the eloquent Peter of Bruys, who about the year 1100 be- gan to declaim against the corruptions of the Church and the vices of the clergy. He continued the battlti for twenty years most successfully, especially in Lan- guedoc and Provence, and made many converts to his own opinions. What these really were it is difficult to state here, as there is no record among his friends. From Peter of Clugny, who replied to Peter of Bruys, we gather that his principal doctrines— which, with one exception (his repugnance to the cross), were more ably extended by his more powerful successor, Henry the Deacon— were, though somewhat rationalistic, yet upon the whole rather evangelical. At first the preach- ing of Peter seems to have been confined to the inculca- tion of a system of general morality; but time and im- punity so favored him that he attacked the seeds of dog- matic errors "per xx fere annos sata et aucta quinque pracipue et venenata virgulta." The capital charges upon which he is arraigned are: (1) He rejected infant baptism, alleging that no miraculous gifts were possible in that ceremony, which he declared to be wholly void when performed on the person of an irresponsible infant. (2) He .denied that any special sanctity resided in con- secrated buildings; forbidding the erection of churches, and directing that such churches as did exist should be pulled down. (3) In particular he objected to the worship of the cross, alleging that the accursed tree should be held in horror by all Christians as the instru- ment of the torture and death of the Redeemer. (4) He denied all sort of real presence in the Eucharist. Wheth- er or not he retained the office of the communion as a memorial rite is not known. (5) He was bitterly op- posed to prayers, oblations, alms, and other good deeds done on behalf of the dead. To these five capital tenets, which form the subject of the Clugniac abbot's refutation, must be added a total prohibition of chant- ing and all use of sacred music. Puritanical as some of these tenets seem, Peter of Bruys was no lover of asceticism. He inculcated marriage, even of priests, as a high religious usage. The deleterious effects which the Romanists claim to have come from his teachings are thus summed up by Peter of Clugny: "The people are rebaptized, churches profaned, altars overturned, crosses are burned, meat eaten openly on the day of the Lord's passion, priests scourged, monks cast into dungeons, and by terror or torture constrained to marry.'' His followers continued until the end of the 13th cen- tury.— Blunt, Diet, of Sects, s. v. See Milman, Hist, "f Lot. Christianity, v. 412 ; Hardwick, Ch. Hist, of the Si. A.; ISaur, Dogmt nyesch. vol. ii ; Piper, Monumental Thi- ol. % 140: Jortin, Eccles. Rev. iii, 823 ; Alzog, Kirchen- gesch. ii, 72; Hagenbach, Hist, of Doctr. (see Index). See Peter of Bkuys.
Petrccorius, Paulinus, sometimes confounded with Paulinos of Xola (q.v.), was an Eastern < '.1< el- astic, and, according to his own reports, flourished in the Western empire in the 5th century. IK' was intimate
PETRO-JOHANNITES
48
PETTENGILL
with Perpetuus, who was bishop of Tours from A.I). 161 to 191, and whom he calls his patron. Ii was at the desire of Perpetuus that he put into verse the life of St. ."Mart in of Tours; and in an epistle addressed to thai pr< late he humbly tells him, with an amusing reference to the history of Balaam, that, in giving him confidence to speak, he had repeated the miracle of opening the mi nail of the ass. He aftt rwards supplied, al the desire of the bishop, some verses to be inscribed on t lie walls of the new church which Perpetuus finished about A. I).
17.". (or,a irding toOudin, A.D. 182), and to which the
St. Martin was transferred. He sent with them some verses, De Visitatione Nepotuli sui, on occasion of the cure, supposed to be miraculous, which his grand- son, and the young lady to whom he was married or be- trothed, had experienced through the efficacy of a doc- ument, apparently the account of the miracles of St. Martin, written by the hand of the bishop. We gather that this poem was written when the author was old, from the circumstance of his having a grandson ofmar- riageable age. Of the death of Paulinus we have no account. The works of Paulinus Petrocorius arc In Vita S. Martini, a poem in hexameter verse, divided
into six 1 ks. It has not much poetical or other merit.
The firsl three books are little else than a versified abridgment of the D< Beati Martini Vita Liber of Sul- picius Severus; and the fourth and tilth comprehend the incidents mentioned in the Dialogi II et III dt Vir- tutibus Beati Martini of the same author. The sixth book comprises a description of the miracles which had been wrought at the tomb of St. Martin under the eyes of Perpetuus, who had sent an account of them to Pau- linus:— 2)< Visitation Nepotuli sui, a description of the miraculous cure of his grandson already mentioned, also written in hexameter verse: /'• Orantibus (an inap- propriate title, which should rather he Orantibus simply, or Ad Orantes), apparently a portion of the hexameter verses designed to be inscribed on the walls of the new church built by Perpetuus: Perpetuo Episcopo Epistola. This letter was sent to Perpetuus with the verses D< Visitation* and h< Orantibus. The works of Paulinus Petrocorius .were lirst printed by Franciseus Juretus (Par. 1585). After the firsl publication of the works they were inserted in several collections of the Chris- tian poets, and in some, editions of the Bibliotheca Pa- triun, generally, however, under the name of Paulinus of Nola. In the Lyons edition of the Bibliotheca Pa- trum (1677, fol.), \i. 297, etc., they are ascribed to their righl author. They were again published by Cbristi- anus Dauraius I Leips. 1686, 8vo), with ample notes of Juretus, Barthius, Gronovius, and Daumius. To the works of our Paulinus were subjoined in this edition the Eucharisticon of Paulinus the Penitent, or Paulinus of Pella, and the poem on donah and the Ninevites, as- cribed to Tertullian. See Hist. Litterain </< la France, ii. 169, etc.; Cave, Uist. Lift, ad ann. 161 (Oxon. 17 In 1743, fol.), i. 149; Fabricius, Biblioth. .I/.-/, et Tnf. La- Unit at. v. 206, ed. Mansi ; Tillemont, Memoir es, x\ i, I11 1 : Oudin, hi Scriptoribus et Scriptis Eccles.Yoi i, col. I-**. 1289. Smith, Diet. o/Gr. and Rom, Biog. and Mythol. iii, 214.