PETZELIAXS
50
PEW
nts were consumed by lire. The people were nil saved, however, excepting an old stranger, who had found his lodgings there for the ruin. I'hough Hall- grimur heretofore had suffered much abuse and ridicule, he now found thai he also had some friends, who assisted him in rebuilding the parsonage and furnishing him with the necessaries of life A few years later i 1665) Hallgrimur firsl noticed the symptoms oi the disease i leprosy i which finally laid him on bis death-bed. He performed his ministerial duties alone until 1667, when his illness made it necessary to gel an assistant. He was compelled to resign his position in 1669, moved to a neighboring farm, Kalastad, where he remained two years, and then moved to another farm close by, Fer- Btikla, where, amid constantly increasing sufferings, he at last found a welcome death. ( >ct. '-'7, 1071. not having left his bed the last year of his life. He was buried
near the entrance of the church at Saurbser. In 182] a small monument was raised on the spot beneath which his bones rest By his wife, who died in L679, be had several children, bul t he most of them died very young. We have given this detailed account of this man's life because of the prominent position he holds in the relig- ion, history of Iceland, lie was an eloquent preacher, a thoroughly classical writer, and one of the most gifted psalmists that ever lived. His religious poems give evidence of a Christian courage that reminds one of the martyrs during the first century after Christ. Hallgri- lnnr Petursson'a works are the following : (a) in prose — I. Diarium Chrislianum, consisting of religious me. Illa- tions for every day in the week: -2. .1 Christian's So- liloquy every Morning and Evening: 3. .1 Collection of Prayers: 1. Commentaries on sonu of tin Songs in tin Sagas, especially in Olaf Tryggvesm's Saga, (b) In po- etry 1. Psalterium Passionate, fifty psalms on the suf- ferings of Christ for singing at family devotions during Lent, an unsurpassed masterpiece, whether we regard it from a poetical or Christian standpoint. This work has passed through twenty-seven large editions in Iceland, and is found in every Icelander's house. The funeral psalm found in this collection, and beginning " Alh ein- sog blomstrid eina," has found its way into many of the Continental languages, .and the whole collection has twice been translated into Latin: 2. A poetical treat- ment of the first and second books of Samuel, which he left unfinished, bul which was completed by the minis- ters Sigurd Gislesson and Jon Eyulfsson : — 3. Some epic- romantic i ms (the so-called rimur), of which all ages
ol tci I indie literature have furnished a large number: — -1. Finally, we have from Hallgrimur Petursson a col- lection of all his psalms and poems that are not found in the above-named works, and of which the majority wen- not published until long after his death. This last collection is almost as great a favorite with the Ice- landic people as the I \«i//, ri u m Passionate. In it is found a cycle of Bible poems, morning and evening li\ inn . and other songs. but the best portion of it is a number of psalms, in which the poet has expressed his thoughts upon death and eternity. Some of them were composed on his death-bed. They hear testimony to the fervent love of the Saviour wherein he lived and died. His beautiful funeral hymn, which he closes hv
greeting the angel ol death welcome, cheerful in the consciousness that his Saviour lives, has i t -, heathen prototype in Ragnar Lodbrok'a dying words: "The hours of life have glided hv : I fall, bul smiling shall 1 die." In Petursson'a religious poetry the old heathen i- regenerated into Christian life, and the pa- gan coldness has yielded to the genial warmth ol a ce- lt si i ii fail h. No man has exercisi rl a greater influence upon the Christian character of the Icelandic people than Hallgrimur Petursson.— Jon Bjarnason, Ilusbiblio- link, ii. 98 103. 1 1:. Ik A.i
Petzelians or Posschelians, a modern Beet ol a politico-religious character, who derived their name from a priest of Brennan, called Petzel or Pceschel. They held the natural and legal equality of all human
beings, and maintained that they had a continual and inalienable property in the earth and its natural produc- tions. Their enemies charged them with offering hu- man sacrifices, particularly on Good Friday. They ap- pear to have adopted the political principles of the Spenceans, and probably their infidelity. Congrega- tions belonging to this sect are said to have existed in Upper Austria, bul by the interference ol the public au- thorities they have been dispersed. A similar sect
seems to have taken start and spread Somewhat ill
Switzerland, who are charged with the like enormities. See Gardner, Faiths ofth World, ii. 651, 652.
Peucer, Haspar, a German theologian of the Ref- ormation period, was born Jan. 6, 1525, at Bautzen, and studied at the school in Goldberg and the University of Wittenberg, where he was the table and house com- panion of the Reformer Melancthon, who afterwards be- came his father-in-law. Well ed icatedand remarkably talented, he became in 1545 a magister, in i">"'i ordinary professor of mathematics, in 1560 professor of medicine. Some time after this he was introduced to the personal attention of the elector Augustus of Saxony, who was bo pleased with Peucer that he put him in charge of the Sa\on high school Peucer, greatly interested in the theological control ersies of his day, avowed Philippism (q. v.), and used his influence for its propagation in Saxony, and thus arrayed the strongly Lutheran elector against him. Peucer was imprisoned from 1575 until 1586. lie died Sept25, 1602. He left a large number of medical, mathematical, historical, theological, and philological writings. See Heriks,Kaspar Peucer u.Nie. Krell (Marb. 1865); Calinich, Kampfu. Untergang des Melanchthonismus in Kursachsen i Leips. 1866) ; also the art. CRYPTO-< 'ai.vinisti< Com i:i>\ erSI .