Pol. See Bean.
Polak, Jacob, a Jewish savant, one of the great- est Talmudic authorities in his time, was born about 1460, and died about 1530 at Prague, where under his lead a great Talmudic school had flourished. Polak was a pupil of Jacob Margoles of Nuremberg, from whom he learned a new method of Talmudic casuistry, known as the " Pilpul." In the times which were dis- astrous and troublesome to the Jews the study of the Talmud was left to itself, and, guided by no general scientific knowledge, it unavoidably degenerated into a method repulsive to the few who were really profound scholars, or whose minds were less distorted. The tran- sition from the short explanation of words and things of the older commentators of the Talmud — through the discussions and disputations of the Tosaphoth (in the narrower sense) — to the exercises of wit of the Nu- rembergers (Blauser, from the German " bloss," by which the query was introduced) and Regensbcrgers (so called from the principal schools), and the petti- foggings of modern times, has not yet been specially investigated. There are many analogies in Christian jurisprudence and Mohammedan theology to this kind of casuistry and discussion ("Pilpul"), which devotes more attention to the mode of treatment than to the subject itself. For it is the nature of a practical sci- ence— and the Halacha must be regarded throughout as a theory of law — that over-theorizing causes it to degenerate from a practical aim to a mere play of in- tellect. During this unhappy time rules derived from idle speculation were enforced as rules of life belonging to the religious law, more strictly than at any former period ; and subsequently the authors of the Tosaphoth and their successors, together with the great Spanish and Provencal legal authorities (particularly the au- thors of compendiums, judgments, etc.), were comprised under the expression " decernents" (Pesukim, E^piOS). But it must be said in honor of Jacob Polak, though he introduced this " Pilpul method," he was very care- ful not to write down nor publish the decisions achieved by this method of hair-splitting, for fear that his suc- cessors might follow him implicitly. The only work of his we have is a decision entitled H11S Ep"1! 3p""'2, published with the approbation of Simon ben- Bezalel (Prague, 1594), and republished together with Lowe ben-Bezalel's Mil nrpBB bv "IEpn (Frank- fort-on-the-Main, 1719). See Fiirst, Bibl. Jud. iii, 109 sq. ; Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii, 1095; Gratz, Geschichte der Juden, ix, 63 sq. ; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Sekten, iii, 240 sq. ; Gudemann, in Frankel's Monatsschrift (Bres- lau, 1854), xiii, 423 sq. (B. P.)
Polallion, Makie de Ltjmague, Dame de. a French lady renowned for her piety, and the founder of a relig- ious order, was born Nov. 29, 1599, at Paris. Belonging to a noble and rich family, and having enjoyed a brill- iant education, she was wooed by several gentlemen of high standing, but, resisting all the seductions of the world, gave the preference to a life of monastic quiet. At the instigation of Lebrun, a Dominican who directed
POL AN en
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POLAND
> theCapuchins. Urn as the weakness of her health did nol Buffer her to siilmiii to the ascetic rules of the order, Bhe was free i" leave t li<- monaster}', and in 1617 Bhe was married to Francois de Polallion. Her husband died aboul a year after, and from this time Bhe lived in retiremenl a- tutor of i the daughters oftbe duchess of < (rleans. Ma- dame de Polallion, in tbemidsl of the b( brilliant conrl
of Europe, remained true to her early monastic hab- its, and when relieved ol her duties soughl again her
for r retreat According to St Vincent de Paul, she
founded the "Institul des Filles de la Providence" in 1630: the membi rs of tbis sisterhood undertook to ed- ucate Mi" children of the i r in the country. She
directed thai they Bhould be thirty-three in number, and distributed them in the villages of the environs of Paris. Her own mean- were Boon exhausted by the enterprise, but private charity came to the rescue, and Anne of Austria, taking the institution under her pro- tection, presented it in 1651 with a mansion in the Bub- urli of Saint-Harceau. She also helped in 1 1 * » - founding
of the •■ Mais les Nouvellea Catholiques," which was
liberally endowed by marshal ftirenne. The life of Madame de Polallion ban frequently been written. She died at Pari- Sept l. 1657. Hoefer, l\ rale, \
Polanco is the name of three brothers, Spanish painters ol the I6tb century, natives of Seville. Francisco Zurbaran was i h * i r master, and they wire v.i proficient in art thai even in their nun times their works were confounded « itli those of their master. This mistake, says Quillet, has been quite frequent with those who beheld the paintings oi San-Esteban at Seville, where Zurbaran painted -s''. Peter and St. Stephen, but where the Martyrdom oftbe patron, the Nativity, which i- below, St, Hermenegiide, and St. Hernan, are works of Polanco. They always worked and lived together.
'Ih'ir _r. it paintings adorn the numents of Seville.
Paolo we find the Apparition of the Angels to guided by a Jacob Wrestling; Joseph's Dream; and in the church ardian Angels, <,* 1 1649).