Ii is i'> lie regretted thai we ran learn nothing of his personal history beyond this period.
Porta, Guglielmo della, an Italian sculptor of the 16th century, was a noted follower of Michael An- gelo. His most important work was the monument to Paul III iii the tribune of St, Peter's. Two statues, of Peaa and Abundance, which formerly made a part of this work, are now in the Farnese Palace.
Porta, Simon, an Italian philosopher ofthe first half of the 16th century, was a pupil of Pomponatius, and is celt brated especially as the author of Magia Na- turalis i Naples, 1589, and since). In 1512 the Lateran Council condemned both those who taught that the hu- man soul w as not immortal and those who asserted that the soul is one ami identical in all men. It condemned also the philosophers who affirmed that these opinions, although contrary to faith, were philosophically true.
It enjoined professors of philosophy to refute all heret- ical doctrines to which they might allude, and prohib- ited the clergy from Btudying philosophy for a course longer than rive years. Indeed. Averroism as early as the l.'lth century hail become hostile to the doctrines of the Church, and in 1271, and again in 1 277. it was condemned by Stephen Tempicr. archbishop of Paris, who can-, d its principles to be embodied in distinct
propositions. At -these were the following: "Quod
sermones theologici sunt fundati infabulis. Quod nihil phi- scitur propter scire theologiam, Quod fabulse el falsa sunt in lege Christiana, sicut el in aliis. Quod lex Christiana impedil addiscere. Quod sapientes mundi sum philosophi tantum." Notwithstanding the con- demnation ofthe < burch, these ideas seemed to have taken hold of the philosophical mind of the age, anil long continued to find favor among teachers and stu- dent-. Like bis preceptor, Pomponatius, Porta wrote, in agreement with the Alexandrians on the question of immortality, a work entitled />< rerum naturalibus prin- dpiis,de anima et menti summa (Flor. 1551). Among other works of Porta, we mention l>< kumana mente disputatio (1551): — Z)e More: An homo bonus vel malus volensfat 1 1551 ). He died in 1555. See Ueber- . n/Pkilos. ii. 1 I. 167. Porta -Leone <n"-N ISISO), Abraham, also called lr/"i Abraham, & Jewish savant, was born in the year 1542. He belonged to a family which excelled in medical science to Buch a degree that one ofthe mem- bers ol the family was employed as physician in I lie
service of king Ferdinand I of Naples and duke Ga- leazzo Maria Sforza of Mailand. Abraham received
an excellenl education, and alien, led the lectures at the
Hniversit] ol I'a\ ia, where he especially betook himsell to the Btudy of Aristotle, Hi] pocrates, Galenua, and the Arabic writers. In the year 1563 he received the doc- torate and became a member of the medical college at
Mantua. lie died in the year L612. Torta-Leone takes a prominent place in Jewish literature, as he is the au- thor ofthe "-"."" "~~'~. an extensive work on Jew- ish antiquities, in which he minutely treats on the Tem- ple and it- structure— t he lioly of holies, the altar, candle- stick, table, music, etc. The whole is divided into ninety sections, to which is appended a list of ninety-eight work-, which he pern-, d for his work, and an I BSay Oil
the use of the Hebrew language, etc. This excellent
work, which is now very scarce, was firel published in the year 1612. A Latin translation, which Wagenseil
pr meed a "librum optimum." " antiquitates Juda-
icas solide explicantem," •■librum aureum," and Me- nasseh ben-Israel as an "ingeniosum opus," was pub- lished by (Tgolino in lii— Thesaurus antiqvitatum sa- crarum (voL ix, xi. xiii. xxxih. [ken used Leone's work in his antiquities to a great extent, and he promised a translation of the whole, which never appeared. See FUrer, Bibl. Judaica, iii. ill sq.; De Rossi, Dizionario storico degli Autori Ebrei (German transL), p. 268 sq.; Wolf, Bibl Hebr. i. iii. iv, 63; Jahrbvch fur Geschichte ill i- .huh a v, des Judenthums, ii. 345 sip; Wolf. Studien -.in- Jubelfeier der Wiener Universitdt (Wien, 1865), p. 172 : Delitzsch and Ziuiz, Addit. ad Cod. Bibl. Smut. (Lips.), xxvii. (B. P.)
Portable Altars (viatica, gestatoria, ilineraria). During the Crusades the bishops and ecclesiastics who took part in them carried an '-itinerant altar." The
portable altar- sl ■ or table was used on unconsecrated
altars in private chapels. Bede mentions a consecrated table in lieu of an altar. The monk- of St. Denis car- ried a table of wood, covered with a linen cloth, in Charlemagne's campaign against the Saxons. There were examples also of stone, metal, and terra-cotta. The reposoir is used in the street to rest the Sacrament
on in the pmcessi f the Pete Dieu in Prance. One
is preserved at Santa Maria, in the portico d' Campitelli ; and another, of carved porphyry, at Conques, cir. HOG. Si e Altai:.
Portable Bells. Hand-bells were of Celtic origin, and were used in Brittany, in St. Patrick's time in Ire- land, and in thai of St Selio in Wales. Unlike the small altar-bells, which were square, these were hexagonal or oval, without clappers, like the original cloc, u-ually of bronze, and sometimes jewelled, being regarded as spe- cially sacred, and possessed of miraculous power-, as St. Iltyd's, the bell of Armagh of the close ofthe lith century, the golden bell of Si. Senanus, St. Ewin's at Monastereven, which was tied with a chain to prevent its automatic flight, and used as an ordeal for swearing criminals by the justices of .Minister. The cloc was cylindrical, and in the 8th, 9th, and LOth cen- turies often gemmed. At < laerleon, in Wales, thebangq was used at a funeral recently. Hand-bills are p re- served at Perros, Cuirec, and St. Symphorieo du-Nord. See Bell.