RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Placetum Regium Platon
Jonathan Ashley's Briefe (Bern, 1782); and the fragmentary Das erste Amtsjahr des Pfarrers von S. in Ausziigen aus seinem Tagebuch, eine Pastoraltheologie in Form einer Geschichte (Gottingen, 1823).
(Paul Tschackert.)
Bibliography: J. S. Putter, Gelehrtengeschichte von der . Universitdt zu Gottingen, continued by Saalfeld and Oesterley, ii. 121, iii. 283 sqq., iv. 270, 4 parts, Gottingen, 1765-1838 (for list of works by and on Planck) ; G. C. F. Lucke, Dr. G. J. Planck. Ein biographischer Versuch, ib. 1835; Nekrolog der Deutschen, for 1833, ii. 581 sqq.; ZHT, 1836, i. 313 sqq. (by Mohnicke), 1843, iv. 75 sqq. (by E. Henke); G. Franck, Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie, iii. 359 sqq., Leipsic, 1875.
PLANCK, plank, HEINRICH LUDWIG: German Lutheran; son of the preceding; b. at Gottingen July 19, 1785; d. there Sept. 23, 1831. He was educated at the university of his native city (1803-06), where he became lecturer in 1806. Four years later he was appointed associate professor of theology in the same institution, and in 1823 was promoted to a full professorship. He devoted himself particularly to New-Testament exegesis, and long labored on a lexicon of the Greek Testament, which he did not live to complete. Among his writings special mention should be made of the following: Bemerkungen iiber I Timotheus (Gottingen, 1808; in answer to Schleiermacher's attack on the authenticity of the epistle); Entwurf einer neuen synoptischen Zusammenstellung der drei ersten Evangelien nach Grundsdtzen der hoherer Kritik (1809) ; De vera natura atque indole orationis Grcecce Novi Testamenti (1810; Eng. transl. by A. S. Paterson, Edinburgh, 1833); and Abriss der philosophischen Religionslehre (Gottingen, 1821).
(Paul Tschackeht.) Bibliography: Consult the literature under the preceding, especially G. C. F. Lucke, Dr. G. J. Planck, pp. 153 sqq., Gottingen, 1835; and the Nekrolog for 1831, ii. 303; also J. K. F. Schlegel, Kirchen- und Reformationsgeschichte, vol. iii., Hanover, 1832; G. TJhlhorn, Hannoversche Kirchengeschichte, Stuttgart, 1902; ADB, xxvi. 227; Vigouroux, Dictionnaire, fasc. xxxii., col. 457.
PLATH, plat, KARL HEINRICH CHRISTIAN:
Lutheran promoter of foreign missions; b. at Bamberg (69 m. n.e. of Posen) Sept. 8, 1829; d. at Berlin July 10, 1901. He was educated at Halle and Bonn (1849-53), and at Wittenberg Theological Seminary (1854-56); was preacher and religious instructor at Halle (1856-63) ; third secretary of the Society for Foreign Missions, Berlin (1863-71) and also instructor at the mission seminary, field-lecturer and author of missionary literature; first secretary of Gossner's Mission, after 1871; lecturer at the University of Berlin on missionary and religious history after 1867; and full professor after 1882. He visited India in 1877-78 on behalf of Gossner's Mission and twice afterward. He was author of Leben des Freiherrn von Canstein (Halle, 1861); Sieben Zeugen des Herrn aus allerlei Volk (Berlin, 1867); Die Erwahlung der Volker im Lichte der Missionsgeschichte (1867) ; Drei neue Missionsfragen (1868; Eng. transl., The Subject of Missions Considered under Three New Aspects, Edinburgh, 1873) ; Die Missionsgedanken des Freiherrn von Leibnitz (1869); Missions-Studien (1870); and Funfzig Jahre Gossnerscher Mission (1886). Bibliography. G. Plath, Karl Plath, Inspektor der Gossnerschen Mission, Sehwerin, 1904.
PLATINA, BARTOLOMEO (BARTOLOMEO SACCHI): Italian humanist, theologian, and historian of the popes; b. at Piadena (17 m. e. of Cremona) 1421; d. at Rome 1481. After studying at Mantua, he went to Florence in 1457 to learn Greek of Argyropulos, and in 1462 migrated to Rome, where he obtained a position at the Curia in the College of Abbreviators. When Paul II. ascended the throne in 1464, Platina, like many others, lost his position, and then headed a sharp reaction against the pope. He was arrested and imprisoned for four months in the Castle of St. Angelo, and did not obtain a new office until Sixtus IV. appointed him director of the Vatican library, a position which he held until his death. The same pope gave him the incentive for the preparation of his most important work, his Opus in vitas summorum pontificum ad Sixtum IV (Venice, 1479; translated into the principal languages of Europe; Eng. transls., 2 vols., Lives of the Popes, London, 1685, 1888). In the main, Platina repeated the statements of his predecessors Damasus, Anastasius, Pandulphus, Ptolemaeus of Lucca, and others, though he frequently made independent investigations. At the same time, like his precursors, he utilized forged decretals without suspecting their real nature.
In addition to Platina's Opus, mention should also be made of his Historia inclytce urbis Mantuce et serenissimce familiar Gonzagcelibri sex (Vienna, 1675).
K. Beneath. Bibliography: On the editions, etc., of Platina's work on the popes consult Moller, Dissertatio de B. Platina, Altdorf, 1694, with which may be compared Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vol. vi., 11 vols., Modena, 1772-95; and Historia inclytce urbis Mantuce, ed. Lambecius, Vienna, 1675. Consult: Pastor, Popes, vols, ii.iv. (use the Index); Creighton, Papacy (use the Index); S. Bissolati, Le Vite di due illustri Cremonesi, Milan, 1856; G. Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des klassischen Alterthums, ii. 237 sqq., Berlin, 1881; J. Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance, ii. 277-278, Leipsic, 1898, Eng. transl., The Civilization of the Renascence of Italy, London, 1898.
PLATNER, plat'ner, JOHN WINTHROP: Congregationalist; b. at Lee, Mass., May 15, 1865. He was educated at Yale College (A.B., 1885), and after being a private tutor for five years entered Union Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1893. He then studied at the University of Berlin for two years, after which he was an instructor at Union Theological Seminary for a year; he was assistant professor of ecclesiastical history at Harvard (1896-1901), and since 1901 has been professor of the same in Andover Theological Seminary.
PLATO. See Platonism and Christianity.
PLATO, ple'to, PORPHORY RO JDESTVENSKI :
Archbishop of the Orthodox Russian Church in the United States; b. at Kursk (275 m. s. of Moscow), Russia, 1866. He became a priest in 1887 and a monk in 1894, and in 1902 was consecrated bishop of Chigizin, first auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Kief, and superior of the monastery of the Epiphany in Kief. He was a reactionary member of the second Duma, and in 1907 was elevated to the archbishopric of Aleutia and North America, with residence in New York City.
PLATON, pla'ton (PETER LEVCHIN): Metropolitan of Moscow; b. near Moscow June 29, 1737;
Platon
Platonism and Christianity