Flaceus. See Place, Josue de la.
Placidus, St., a Christian martyr of the 6th cen- tury, was of pious parentage, and was born probably in 515. When only seven years old he was intrusted by his father, the Roman patrician Tertullus, to the care of St. Benedict of Nursia. Placidus, thus religiously trained, grew up in the service of the Church, and in 541 became abbot, of a newly founded monastery at Messina. In 546 he was killed, with his companions, by pirates. He is commemorated in the Church of Rome July 11. See Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchcn-Lexikon, vol. xii, s. v. ; Alzog, Kirchengesch. ii, 22.
Plague is used in the A. V. as the rendering of five Hebrew words: 1. De'ber, "i3n, which properly means destruction, death (as Hos. xiii, 14), and is hence applied to pestilence (as Lev. xxvi, 25; Deut. xxviii. 21; 2 Sam.xxiv, 13; 1 Kings viii, 37), and to a murrain among beasts (as Exod. iii, 9). The Sept. mostly has Sava- rog. 2. Maggephah', FtSS^, from the root 5)35, to smite ; hence a plague as actively considered, a pestilence sent from God (Exod. ix, 14; comp. Numb, xiv, 37; xvii, 13 ; xxv, 18, etc.). It is also used of slaughter in bat- tle (1 Sam. iv, 17 ; 2 Sam. xvii, 9). 3. Makhah', iT3B, from the root l~C3, to smite, properly the act of smit- ing; hence a blow, a stroke; and so it should be ren- dered, rather than plague (Lev. xxvi, 21 ; Numb, xi, 33; Deut. xxviii, 59, 61 ; xxix, 22; 1 Sam. iv, 8; Jer. xix, 8; xlix, 17; 1, 13). 4. Xe'ga, SM, from 533, to smite ; hence the meaning is like that of the foregoing. But it is often used to mean a spot, mark, cut, upon the skin, from the common effects of a blow. This is its meaning throughout the 13th and 14th chapters of Leviticus, where it is rendered plague in the A. V. 5. Ne'geph, 333, from £33, to strike, as above; hence a plague, as a divine judgment (Exod. xii, 13, and often). See Plagues of Egypt. To these should be added the following Greek words, which are usually translated " plague" in the A. V. : paoriZ, properlv a scourge, or whip (Mark iii, 10; v, 29, 34 ; Luke vii, 21) ; and 'ttX//- yn, a stroke or w^ound, whether of natural or artificial infliction (Rev. ix, 20; xi, 0; xv, 1, 6, 8; xvi, 9, 21; xviii, 4, 8; xxi, 9; xxii, 18). It is evident that not one of these words can be considered as designating by its signification the plague. Whether the disease be mentioned must be judged from the sense of passages, not from the sense of words. The discrimination has already been pretty fully considered under the word Pestilence (q. v.). In the following treatment of the term we make use chiefly of the articles in Smith's and Kitto's Dictionaries.
In noticing the places in the Bible which might be supposed to refer to the plague, we must bear in mind that, unless some of its distinctive characteristics are mentioned, it is not safe to infer that this disease is in- tended. In the narrative of the Ten Plagues (here is none corresponding to the modern plague. The plague of boils has indeed some resemblance, and it might be urged that as in other cases known scourges were sent (their miraculous nature being shown by their oppor- tune occurrence and their intense character), so in this case a disease of the country, if indeed the plague an- ciently prevailed in Egypt, might have been employed. Yet the ordinary plague would rather exceed in severity this infliction than the contrary, which seems fatal to this supposition. Those pestilences which were sent as special judgments, and were either supematurally rapid
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in their effects, or in addition directed against particular culprits, are beyond the reach of human inquiry. Bui : ad of pestilences which, although sent as judg- ments, have the characteristics of modern epidemics, not being rapid beyond nature, nor directed against indi- viduals. Thus in the remarkable threatenin v ,!,. us and Deuteronomy, pestilence is spoken of as one of the enduring judgments thai were gradually to de- Btroy the disobedient. This passage in Leviticus evi- dently refers to pestilenci in besieged cities: "And I will bring a sword upon you. that shall avenge the tpiarr.l ol mj | covenant: ami when ye an- gathered
in your cities, I "ill send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy" (xxvi, 25). Famine in .a besieged city would occasion pestilence. A special disease may he indicated in the parallel portion of Deuteronomy (xxviii, "-'1): ••Tli.- Lord Bhall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he [or " it"] have consumed thee from oft* the land whither thou goesl to p.,s-e-s ii." The word rendered '•pestilence" may. however, have a genera] signification, and comprise calamities mentioned afterwards, for there follows an enumeration of several oilier diseases and similar scourges (xxviii, 21,22). The first disease here mentioned has been supposed to he the plague (Bunsen, Bibelwerk). It. is to he remembered that "the botch of Egypt" is afterwards spoken of (ver. 27), by which ii is probable that ordinary boils are intended, which arc especially severe in Egypl in the present day, and that later still "all the diseases of Egypt" are mentioned (ver. (in i. Ii therefore seems unlikely that so grave a dis- ease as the plague, if then known, should not be spoken of iii either of these two passages. In neither place