THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the papacy, and in his comprehensive principal work, Hierarchice ecclesiastic ce assertio (Cologne, 1538), he unfolded most conclusively the papal system from a substructure involving a critical survey of the sources of Christian truth. He was the first to make tradition a basis of knowledge alongside of Scripture, in order to cut off Protestant argument in advance. On the other hand, his zeal of argument almost betrayed him as an unconscious disciple of Protestantism. The freedom of the will he asserted to such an extent, in De libero hominis arbitrio (1.542), that original sin seemed to him scarcely as actual corruption but rather the imputation of the sin of Adam. This view carried with it the consequence of regarding justification as the imputation of the righteousness of Christ.
(E. F. Karl Muller.)
Bibliography: Bayle, Dictionary, iv. 637-641; A. Schweizer, Die protestantise hen C entraldogmen, i. 180 sqq., Zurich, 1854; Linsenmann, in TQ, 1866, pp. 571 sqq.; K. Werner, Gesckichte der apologetischen und polemischen Litteratur, iv. 241 sqq., 275 sqq., Schaffhausen, 1865; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ix. 936 sqq.
PIGOU, pi-gu', FRANCIS: Church of England; b. at Baden-Baden, Germany, of English parentage, Jan. S, 1832. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (B.A., 1853), and was ordered deacon in 1855 and priested in the following year. He was curate of Stoke Talmage, Oxfordshire (1855-56), chaplain of Marboeuf Chapel, Paris (1856-58), curate of Vere Street Chapel, London (1858), and of St. Philip's, Regent Street, and St. Mary's, Kensington (1858-60), incumbent of St. Philip's (1860- 1869), and served as vicar of Doncaster (1869- 1875), being also rural dean of Doncaster after 1870; he was vicar of Halifax (1875-88), where he was likewise rural dean, and became dean of Chicester, a dignity which he held three years. Since 1891 he has been dean of Bristol, and was appointed a chaplain-in-ordinary to the queen in 1890. He is widely and favorably known as a missioner, and has held missions not only throughout England, but also in the United States, which he visited in 1885. His writings include Faith and Practice (sermons; London, 1865); Early Communion Addresses (1877); Addresses to District Visitors and Sunday School Teachers (1880); Addresses delivered on various Occasions (1883); Manual of Confirmation (1888); Ptoses of my Life (1898); Odds and Ends (1903); and The Acts of the Holy Ghost. Thirty-two Years of Experience of Conducting Parochial Missions (1908).
PILATE, ACTS OF. See Apocrypha, B, I., 7.
PILATE, PONTIUS: Known only as the fifth Roman procurator of Judea, under whose administration Jesus was executed. He probably succeeded Gratus 27 a.d. and ended his procuratorship early in 37 ; it is not likely that Pilate required more than a year for his return journey to Rome, whither he was summoned by Tiberius to give an account of his administration, and he arrived there after Tiberius' death, which took place Mar. 16, 37, and it appears that Vitellius, the legate of Syria, his accuser, was in Jerusalem in 36 as well as in 37, at the time of the Passover. Regarding the position of the procurator, see Governor. A copper coin struck in Caesarea under Pontius Pilate is represented in DB, iii. 424-
428. The judgment regarding Pilate's administration is chiefly based on the statements of Philo (Legatio at Caium, xxxviii.), who calls him inflexible and ruthless and reproaches him with venality, violence, peculation, ill-treatment, insult, the repeated infliction of punishment without trial, and with endless acts of cruelty — the well-known accusations brought by the Jews against every energetic Roman functionary. The only fact adduced by Philo, the setting up in the palace at Jerusalem of the golden shields dedicated to Tiberius, testifies only to the extreme sensitiveness of the Jews. Josephus (War, II., ix.; Ant., XVIII., iii.-iv.) judges more indulgently, although he charges the procurator with introducing into Jerusalem banners bearing the emperor's image, and with using the funds of the temple for the construction of an aqueduct. The fact that Pilate energetically repressed every revolt is also proved by the massacre of the Galileans (Luke xiii. 1) and of the Samaritans (Josephus, Ant., XVIII. , iii. 1, iv. 1). It was on account of this latter act that Pilate was removed by Vitellius, who was very friendly toward the Samaritans as well as the Jews. It is quite natural that there were frequent disputes between the imperial procurator and the Jewish princes as to their respective fields of authority. Of the cause of the enmity between Pilate and Herod alluded to in Luke xxiii. 12, nothing is known. That Pilate was not an incompetent functionary is proved by the long duration of his rule under Tiberius.
In the trial of Jesus, Pilate acted from the standpoint of a functionary for whom public order was more important than the life even of an innocent man. According to Mark, the only question at issue was the confirmation of a sentence passed by the Sanhedrin. The fact that death occurred so quickly is the cause of his curiosity for the moment.
In Matthew and in Luke various points are added which bear an apologetic stamp; Pilate's wife and he himself acknowledge the innocence of Jesus. In John, where the main action of the trial is transferred from the Sanhedrin to the proceedings before Pilate, he becomes almost a mediator between Jesus and the Jews. Subsequently, along this apologetic tendency, the responsibility for the death of Jesus is more and more laid upon the Jews, and Pilate is made a witness to his innocence. Later Pilate is even represented as a Christian ; the Copts and the Abyssinians rank him among the saints; and the Greeks do the same for his wife Prokla. In the third century arose the legend of Pilate's suicide under Caligula, of which Origen knows nothing. After the fourth century the estimation of Pilate, especially in the west, became more and more unfavorable; but recent historians have been more just in their treatment.