one of the mosl active centres of intellectual culture. Ilutten likens his influence to that of Erasmus and Reuchlin. His predilection for the classical, especially f..r i In i , ivck writers, some of which he translated into Latin and German, did not lessen his interest for the
history ol hi- own country. Some parts ol il he treated
with a judicious criticism remarkable for thai nun.
He al-o endeavored to et urage the study of mathe- matics and of astronomy, and finally took a most lively interest in all attempts made to reform the Church and
une. writing against the degenerated scholas- tics, and taking the part of Reuchlin against his perse- cutor- in an eloquent pamphlet. lie al lir-t enlisted among the partisans of Luther, hut soon changed his mind, being, like Erasmus, fearful lest the Buccess of reformation might prove ol. noxious to his favorite pur- suits. He died at Nuremberg Dec. 22, 1530. His works dedotatus (1520, 4to), under the pseudonym of '1'. I i. Cottalambergius : \pologia seu laus /.<»/./- gra (Nuremb. 1522, 4to; Strash. 1529, 1570; Am berg, 1601, 1011, 4 to) ; this humorous pamphlet was trans-
lated into German (Nuremb. 1831, 8vo): — Di vara Ckristi came, ad (Ecolampadium responsio (ibid. 1626, 8vo); followed by a second answer, and a pamphlet with the title 1 h corwitUs monachi illius qui CEcolampadius nuncupatur t 1527, 8vo i :—'.'< rmania > x variis Scriptori- bus perbrevis explicaiio (ibid. 1530, 1532, 8vo): -Prisco- i in,, ninn morumastimatio (Tubing. 1533; Nuremb. loll. •Ito): — Translations of several Opuscula of Plutarch, Lucian, St. Nilus, St. G\ etc. The
complete works of Pirkheimer have been collected by Goldasl (Frankf. 1610, fol.) ; among them we find print- ed f.r the lir-t time his Bellum Suitenst seu Helvetu cum anno 1490, translated into German by Munch, who added thereto a life of the author (Nuremb. 1826). Pirkheimer gave the first edition of Fulgentius (ibid.
1519, 8vo) ; he al-o w rote the text to the splendid W 1-
cuts of Albert Dllrer's Triumphal Chariot of th Emper- or Maximilian. Some of his letters are to he found in St rohtd's />'( Urage and Miscellanea, in W'aldau's //■ Urage, au.l ..I her collections.
His sister. Ckaritas Pirkheimer, horn 1464, after en- joyinga most liberal education, entered very young the monastery of Santa Clara ai Nuremberg, ofwhich she became abbess in 1504. She read Greek, and wrote in Latin with elegance. Some of her letters in that lan- guage to Erasmus and others have been preserved. She died in 1532.— Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, xl, 304.
Pirking, Ehrenreich, a German canonist, was born at Sigarten, in Bavaria, in 1606. After studying phi- losophy and jurisprudence at [ngolstadt, he entered the Jesuitic order in 1628, and was a professor of morals, canon law. and exegesis in several colleges of his order. Pirking dud after Hot;. We have of him. ( 'asaris,principum < 'atholicorum 1 1 ordinum r< li adversus Balduini c<tliiiiiiti<t.< (Ingolstadt, 1652, 8vo) :— 1 >< jurisdictione prcelatorum <t rectorum episcopis infer riorum (Dillingen, 1663, xvm: l>, juri^iin;,,,., ju,ihi< delegati t ibid. 1664, 8vo i : De constitulionibus • tudim ill. id. 1666, 8vo): -De renuniiatione beneficiorum ( ibid. 1667, 8vo): — Commentaria in />< en tales (ibid. 1674, 3 vols. fol. i .- Jus canonicumexplicatum (ibid. 1674-1678, 5 vol-, fol.; Venice, I7.'.'.i i.
Pirminius, St., a Frankish ecclesiastic and bishop of Melci i Met/, or Melo in St. Gallen, or Medelsheim, near ZweibrUcken, or Meaux-on-the-Mame), carried the to. -pel alone; the shores of the lake of ( '(instance : and. protected in his labors by Charles Martel, he founded the monastery ol Reichenau. Three years afterwards, however, he was expelled in consequence of a national rising of the Alemanni against the Frankish rule, and he now descended the Rhine and founded a number of monasteries I as Murbach, Schwarzenbach, Neuweiler, Schuttern, Gengenbach, etc.), anion-- them Hornbach, in the diocese of Met/., where he died. Nov. ;;. 7.".::. after having met shortly before with St,Boniface. A great
many legends surround I he life of this servant of Christ, which, however, have no historical hasis. Pirminius is -aid to he the author of J.ilnlhis abbatis Pirminii, de singulis li/>/i.< canonicis scarapsus (the latter in mediae- val Latin meaning "excerpt"), printed in Mabillon, Vetera Analecta t Paris. 1723, fol.). p. 65 7.;. See Rettberg, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands,u,5Q 58; He- fele, GeschichU <U r Einfiihrung des Christenthums im sudwestlichen Deutschland (Tubing. 1837); G.Th.Rud- hard. Alteste GeschichU Bayerns (Hamburg, 1841), p. 846, 371, 372; M. Gbrringer, Pirminius, etc. (Zweibr. 1841), p. 384 lo7: Fink, in Piper's Evangel. Kalender, 1861, xii. 129 184; Kurt/. Lehrbuch der Kirchengesch. vol. i. ^ 7s, p. | ; Herzog, Real-Enryklop. s.v.; Jocher, Gelehrten-Lexikon, a. \.: Theologisches Universal-Lexi- hon,s.v. ilk P. i
Pirna, John. See Pirnensians.
Piniensians, a mediaeval Beet, taking its name from John Pirna ..r Pirnensis, an ant i-.-a. -. rdotal schis- matic oi Silesia, A.D. 1341. His principles were those common to the medieval sects, and illustrated especial-
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ly in the Beghards and the Brethren of the Free Spirit. It is thought probable that they were in some way con- nected with the Strigolniks of Russia, although the lat- ter belong to a much more recent time. The Pimensi- ans regarded the pope as Antichrist, and were especially distinguished by great hatred of the clergy. They dis- appeared on the Continent by merging with the Huss- ites. See Krazinski, Hist, of the Reformation in Po- land, i, 55; Hardwick, Hist, of the Church in the Middle Ages, p. 374.