THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
PIARISTS, pai'a-rists: A Roman Catholic order of men having as its aim the giving of free juvenile instruction especially to poor boys. The members are variously known by other names, such as Piarians, Scolopians, and Paulinists. Their beginning was an independent brotherhood founded at Rome in 1597 by the Spanish nobleman Jose1 Calasanze; they received their constitution as a congregation for their present function in 1617, and were promoted to an order by Gregory XV in 1621, with the title, Congregatio Paulina clericorum regularium pauperum matris Dei scholarum piarum. The order ranks second in importance as a religious brotherhood for the instruction of boys.
Jose Calasanze ( Josephus a Matre Dei) was born in the Castle Calasanze near Petralta de la Sal in Aragon Sept. 11, 1556; and died at Rome Aug. 25, 1648. He studied law at Lerida and theology at Alcala and became a priest in 1583. In 1592 he went to Rome, where as a strict ascetic and a member of four religious brotherhoods he devoted himself to the care of the sick and the instruction of youth. In 1612, the number of scholars was 1,200. Soon a division into popular and higher schools was required; in 1630 Calasanze established the Nazarene College at Rome for noble youths; and in 1632 Pope Urban VIII. made him general for life. The order extended its work from Italy, so that after 1631 it had spread over Germany, Poland, Hungary, and other lands; but on account of its pedagogical results it aroused the jealousy of the Jesuits, which led to Calasanze's downfall. In 1646 the order was reduced to a secular brotherhood without vows. Alexander VII. restored it in 1660 to a congregation, yet without its fourth vow; Clement IX. granted this in 1669, and raised it to a formal order; and Innocent XII. in 1698 restored its mendicant privileges. Calasanze was canonized by Clement XIII. in 1767. The order, distributed in nine provinces, consists of 121 houses and 2,100 members and is strongest in Spain. (O. ZocKLERf.)
Bibliography: Among the sketches of the life of the founder may be named those by J. Timon-David, 2 vols., Marseilles, 1884 (best); A. della Concettione, Rome, 1693; F. J. Lipowsky, Munich, 1720; W. E. Hubert, Mainz, 1886; N. Tommaseo, Rome, 1898; D. M. Casasnovas y Sanz, Saragossa, 1904; and J. C. Heidenreich, Vienna, 1907. For the Constitutions consult L. Holsten, Codex regvlarum monasticarum el canonicarum, ed. M. Brockie, Augsburg, 1759. Consult: Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, iii. 287-296; L. Kellner, Erziehungsgeschichte in Skizzen und Bildern, i. 327 sqq., Essen, 1880; H. Zschokke, Die theologische studien der katholischen Kirche in Oesterreich, Vienna, 1894; A. Brendler, Das Wirken der . Piaristen, Vienna, 1896; F. Endl, in Mittheilungen der Geschichte fur deutsche Erziehungs- und Schulgeschichte, VIII., 147 sqq., Helyot, Ordres monastiques, iv. 281-282; KL, ix. 20-96 sqq.
PI-BESETH, pi-be'seth: An Egyptian city mentioned in Ezek. xxx. 17, together with Aven (On); called by the Greeks (and the Septuagint) Boubastos, or, more rarely, Boubastis. It was situated in the Delta on the right bank of the eastern arm of the Nile. The Hebrew name represents the Egyptian Per-Baste(t), " House of Bast," the local goddess who was represented as a cat or as a woman with a feline head. The real name of the city was Bast, from which the name of the goddess was derived. Pi-beseth was the residence of the Lybian
kings of the Twenty-second Dynasty, including Shishak; and in Christian times was an episcopal see-city. The extensive ruins of its temples are at Tell Basta, near the modern Zakazik.
(G. Steindohff.)
Bibliography: The Eighth Memoir (for 1889-90) of tho Egypt Exploration Fund (q.v.); the literature under Leontopolis, and part of that (on exploration and discovery) under Egypt.
PICARDS (PICKARDS) : A corruption of " Beghards " (see Beghahds, Beguines), applied as a term of reproach to the Bohemian Brethren (q.v., I., § 4).
PICK, BERNARD: Lutheran; b. at Kempen (27 m. s.s.w. of Essen), Prussia, Dec. 19, 1842. He was educated at the universities of Breslau and Berlin, and at Union Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1868. He was then pastor at New York City (1868-69), North Buffalo, N. Y. (1869-70), Syracuse, N. Y. (1870-74), Rochester, N. Y. (1874-81), Allegehany, Pa. (1881-95), Albany, N. Y. (1895-1901). Since 1905 he has occupied a pastorate in Newark, N. J. He has translated F. Delitzsch's Jewish Artisan Life in the Time of Christ (New York, 1883) and H. Cremer's Essence of Christianity (1903); has edited Luther's " Eine Feste Burg" in Nineteen Languages (New York, 1883); and has written Luther as a Hymnist (Philadelphia, 1875) ; Jiidisches Volksleben zur Zeit Jesu (Rochester, N. Y., 1880); Historical Sketch of the Jews since the Destruction of Jerusalem (New York, 1887); The Life of Jesus according to extra-canonical Sources (1887); The Talmud, what it is, and what it knows about Jesus and his Followers (1888); Historical Sketch of the Jews since their Return from Babylon (Chicago, 1892); Vade Mecum Homileticum, i. (Cleona, Pa., 1899); The Extra-canonical Life of Christ (New York, 1903); Extra-canonical New Testament Writings of the First Two Centuries (1905); Lyra Gerhardti: A Selection of Paul Gerhardt's Spiritual Songs (Burlington, la., 1906); Hymns and Poetry of the Eastern Church (1908); Paralipomena: Remains of Gospels and Sayings of Christ (1908); and The Apocryphal Acts (Chicago, 1909).
PICK, ISRAEL: Founder of the Amenian Congregation; b. about 1830. Baptized as a Christian at Breslau in 1854, he professed that by so doing he did not renounce his Judaism, but became a Jew in the truest sense. All the law and ordinances of the Old Testament were included with the Christian sacraments as the ordinances of the new congregation founded by him, which he styled Amenian because in Christ (Elohim-amen; Isa. lxv. 16) all the promises of God are yea and amen (II Cor. i. 20). He gathered about 800 adherents, mainly at Miinchen-Gladbach. In 1859 he went to the Holy Land in search of a place of settlement for his followers and was never heard of again. His principal literary work was Der Gott der Synagoge und der Gott der Judenchristen (Breslau, 1854).
(O. ZoCKLERf.) Bibliography: Consult Pick's Briefe an meine Stammesgenossen, Hamburg, 1854; Hollenberg, in Deutsche Zeitschrift filr christliche Wissenschaft und christliches Leben, 1857, nos. 6-8; J. E. Jorg, Geschichte des Protestantismus in seiner neuesten Entwickelung, ii. 294-300, Freiburg, 1857.