THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
The principal works of Pordage were as follows: Truth appearing through the Clouds of undeserved Scandal (London, 1655); Innocency appearing through the dark Mists of pretended Guilt (1655) ; A just Narrative of the Proceedings of the Commissioners of Berks against John Pordage (1655); and the posthumous Theologia Mystica, or the Mystic Divinitie of the ^Eternal Indivisible (anonymous; 1683). From his manuscripts was translated Vier Tractdtlein Von der Aeusseren Gebuhrt und Fleischicerdung Jesu Christi Von der Mystischen und innern Gebuhrt Vom Geiste des Glaubens Experimentale Entdeckungen von Vereinigung der Naturen, Essenzen, Tincturen, Leiber (Amsterdam, 1704). A number of other works never published in English are mentioned in an advertisement appended to Jane Lead's Fountain of Gardens (London, 1697; cf. DNB, xlvi. 151).
A. Ruegg.
Bibliography: The primal sources for a biography are Pordage's own writings, ut sup., cf. C. Fowler, Dcernonium meridianum. Being a Relation of the Proceedings
of the Commissioners against J. Pordage. With
some Animadversions . upon a Book of . J. Por-
dage, London, 1655. Consult further: G. Arnold, Unparteyische Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie, iv. 915, Frankfort, 1715; P Poiret, Bibliotheca mysticorum selecta, p. 174, Amsterdam, 1708; A. a Wood, Athena. Oxonienses, ed. P. Bliss, iii. 1098, iv. 405, 715, 4 vols., London, 1817-20; DNB, xlvi. 150-151.
See Free Spirit,
PORETE, MARGARETA.
Brethren of the, § 3.
PORPHYRY: Bishop of Gaza; b. at Thessalonica c. 347; d. at Gaza Feb. 26, 420. After spending five years in the Scetic desert in Egypt, he passed an equal period in Palestine under privations which impaired his health, visiting the sacred sites and living in Jerusalem, where Bishop Praylius ordained him presbyter and made him custodian of the wood of the cross. Early in 395 he was consecrated bishop of Gaza, where he increased the scanty number of Christians, but at the same time met with bitter pagan opposition, so that he twice appealed to the court to close and destroy the heathen temples; first (398) through his deacon Marcus, and second (401-402) in person together with the archbishop of Csesarea. The temple of the god Mamas was especially offensive to the Christians, and on his second appeal the intervention of the Empress Eudoxia secured the destruction of the shrine. On the site was erected a magnificent church, the Eudoxiana.
(E. Henneckk.)
Bibliography: The Vita, by the deacon Marcus, was edited with commentary by M. Haupt for the Berlin Academy, in the Abhandlungen, 1874, pp. 171-215, and published separately, 1875; it is also in ASB, Feb., iii. 643-661; in MPG, xxxv. 649-694; and ed. by the Bonn society for philology, Leipsic, 1895; the dissertation of A. Nuth, De Marci diaconi vita Porphyrii, Bonn, 1897, is important; cf. Draseke, in ZWT, xxxi (1888), 352-374. Consult further: Tillemont, Memoires, x. 703-716; Ceillier, Auteurs sacres, vi. 329-330; DNB, iv. 444-445.
PORPHYRY THE NEOPLATONIST. See Neo-
PLATON'ISM, HI., § 1.
PORST, JOHANN: German Pietist and hymnologist; b. at Oberkotzau (28 m. n.e. of Bayreuth), Dec. 11, 1668; d. at Berlin Jan. 10, 1728. After completing his education at the University of Leip-
sic, he became private tutor at Neustadt-on-the- Aisch in 1692. Becoming deeply interested in the writings of Spener (q.v.), three years later he removed to Berlin, where he attended the lectures of the distinguished Pietist. In 1698 he was called to be pastor of Malchow and Hohen-Schonhausen near Berlin, and six years later he became second preacher at the Friederich-Werdersche und Dorctheenstadtische Kirche, in both positions remaining true to the principles of Spener, and being a forerunner of certain later tendencies of the Innere Mission. In 1709 he became the chaplain of Sophie Louise, the second wife of Frederick I., and the king invited him in 1713 to become provost of Berlin. After some hesitation, Porst accepted, and became at the same time senior of the Berlin clergy and inspector of the Gray Friars Gymnasium.
Porst's independent literary work was inferior in value to his practical activity as preacher and pastor. Although twenty-four books of his have been enumerated, many of these were only sermons, and others excerpts from larger works written by himself. He devoted much energy to the collecting and editing of edicts and enactments in the interests of church government. At the same time, he wrote several larger works, especially the Theologia practica regenitorum (Halle, 1743), and Theologia viatorum practica (1755), both ascetic treatises conspicuously Pietistic in tendency. Porst is best known, however, for the hymnal, prepared originally for Berlin but later used throughout Brandenburg, which is one of the chief repositories of hymns breathing the Pietism of Spener and the earlier Halle school. The hymnal first appeared anonymously with the title Geistliche liebliche Lieder (Berlin, 1708), containing 420 hymns. A second edition, with 840 hymns, including a special rubric " on the hope of Zion," pertaining to hymns of Chiliastic import, was issued as the Nun vermehrtes geistreiches Gesangbuch (1711). The third edition, Geistliche und liebliche Lieder (1713), Porst issued in his own name. It contained 906 hymns. The latest revision was that of J. F. Bachmann, of the edition of 1728 (1855; last edition, 1901) from which sixty-two hymns of a false subjectivity were dropped, and an appendix containing 210 earlier or later good hymns was affixed.
(E. Ideler.)
Bibliography: A sketch of the life of Porst was furnished by Staudt to his ed. of one of Porst's smaller works, Gt>ttliche Fllhrung der Seelen, Stuttgart, 1850. Consult further: J. F. Bachmann, Zur Geschichte der Berliner Gesangbilcher, Berlin, 1856; idem, Die Gesangbiicher Berlins, ib. 1S57; E. E. Koch, Geschichte des Kirchenlieds, vol. iv., Stuttgart, 1868.
PORT-ROYAL: One of the most famous of French nunneries, noted for the influence which it exercised in the seventeenth century on the Roman Catholic Church and society of France during the struggle against the Jesuits. It Founda- was founded for the Cistercian order tion: in 1204 by Mathilde de Garlande in a Ange"lique. swampy unhealthy valley of the Yvette about eight miles southwest of Versailles. Through the favor of the popes it was made exempt from the jurisdiction of the arch-