A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages and Nations Part 24

Peac.o.c.k (John Macleay), Scotch poet, b. 21 March, 1817. He wrote many poems in the National Reformer, and in '67 published Hours of Reverie. Died 4 May, 1877.

Peac.o.c.k or Pec.o.c.k (Reginald), the father of English rationalism, b. about 1390, and educated at Oriel College Oxford, of which he was chosen fellow in 1417. Was successively Bishop of St Asaph, 1444, and Chichester, 1450, by the favor of Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloster. He declared that Scripture must in all cases be accommodated to "the doom of reason." He questioned the genuineness of the Apostles' Creed. In 1457 he was accused of heresy, recanted from fear of martyrdom, was deprived of his bishopric, and imprisoned in a monastery at Canterbury, where he used to repeat to those who visited him,

"Wit hath wonder, that reason cannot skan, How a Moder is Mayd, and G.o.d is Man."

His books were publicly burnt at Oxford. He died in 1460. His influence doubtless contributed to the Reformation.

Pearson (Karl), author of a volume of essays ent.i.tled The Ethic of Freethought, 1888. Educated at Cambridge; B.A. '79, M.A. '82.

Pechmeja (Jean de), French writer. A friend of Raynal, he wrote a socialistic romance in 12 books in the style of Telemachus, called Telephe, 1784. Died 1785.

Peck (John), American writer in the Truthseeker. Has published Miracles and Miracle Workers, etc.

Pecqueur (A.), contributor to the Rationaliste of Geneva, 1864.

Pelin (Gabriel), French author of works on Spiritism Explained and Destroyed, 1864, and G.o.d or Science, '67.

Pelletan (Charles Camille), French journalist and deputy, son of the following; b. Paris, 23 June, 1846. Studied at the Lycee Louis le Grand. He wrote in La Tribune Francaise, and Le Rappel, and since '80 has conducted La Justice with his friend Clemenceau, of whom he has written a sketch.

Pelletan (Pierre Clement Eugene), French writer, b. Saint-Palais-sur-Meir, 20 Oct. 1813. As a journalist he wrote in La Presse, under the name of "Un Inconnu," articles distinguished by their love of liberty and progress. He also contributed to the Revue des Deux Mondes. In '52 he published his Profession of Faith of the Nineteenth Century, and in '57 The Law of Progress and The Philosophical Kings. From '53-'55 he opposed Napoleon in the Siecle, and afterwards established La Tribune Francaise. In '63 he was elected deputy, but his election being annulled, he was re-elected in '64. He took distinguished rank among the democratic opposition. After the battle of Sedan he was made member of the Committee of National Defence, and in '76 of the Senate, of which he became vice-president in '79. In '78 he wrote a study on Frederick the Great ent.i.tled Un Roi Philosophe, and in '83 Is G.o.d Dead? Died at Paris, 14 Dec. 1884.

Pemberton (Charles Reece). English actor and author, b. Pontypool, S. Wales, 23 Jan. 1790. He travelled over most of the world and wrote The Autobiography of Pel Verjuice, which with other remains was published in 1843. Died 3 March, 1840.

Pennetier (Georges), Dr., b. Rouen, 1836, Director of the Museum of Natural History at Rouen. Author of a work on the Origin of Life, '68, in which he contends for spontaneous generation. To this work F. A. Pouchet contributed a preface.

Perfitt (Philip William), Theist, b. 1820, edited the Pathfinder, '59-61. Preached at South Place Chapel. Wrote Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, '61.

Periers (Bonaventure des). See Desperiers.

Perot (Jean Marie Albert), French banker, author of a work on Man and G.o.d, which has been translated into English, 1881, and Moral and Philosophical Allegories (Paris, 1883).

Perrier (Edmond), French zoologist, Curator at Museum of Natural History, Paris, b. Tulle, 1844. Author of numerous works on Natural History, and one on Transformisme, '88.

Perrin (Raymond S.), American author of a bulky work on The Religion of Philosophy, or the Unification of Knowledge: a comparison of the chief philosophical and religious systems of the world, 1885.

Perry (Thomas Ryley), one of Carlile's shopmen, sentenced 1824 to three years' imprisonment in Newgate for selling Palmer's Principles of Nature. He became a chemist at Leicester and in 1844 pet.i.tioned Parliament for the prisoners for blasphemy, Paterson and Roalfe, stating that his own imprisonment had not fulfilled the judge's hope of his recantation.

Pet.i.t (Claude), French poet, burnt on the Place de Greve in 1665 as the author of some impious pieces.

Petronius, called Arbiter (t.i.tus), Roman Epicurean poet at the Court of Nero, in order to avoid whose resentment he opened his veins and bled to death in A.D. 66, conversing meanwhile with his friends on the gossip of the day. To him we owe the lines on superst.i.tion, beginning "Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor." Petronius is famous for his "pure Latinity." He is as plain-spoken as Juvenal, and with the same excuse, his romance being a satire on Nero and his court.

Petruccelli della Gattina (Ferdinando) Italian writer, b. Naples, 1816, has travelled much and written many works. He was deputy to the Naples Parliament in '48, and exiled after the reaction.

Petrus de Abano. A learned Italian physician, b. Abano 1250. He studied at Paris and became professor of medicine at Padua. He wrote many works and had a great reputation. He is said to have denied the existence of spirits, and to have ascribed all miracles to natural causes. Cited before the Inquisition in 1306 as a heretic, a magician and an Atheist, he ably defended himself and was acquitted. He was accused a second time but dying (1320) while the trial was preparing, he was condemned after death, his body disinterred and burnt, and he was also burnt in effigy in the public square of Padua.

Peypers (H. F. A.), Dutch writer, b. De Rijp, 2 Jan. 1856, studied medicine, and is now M.D. at Amsterdam. He is a man of erudition and good natured though satirical turn of mind. He has contributed much to De Dageraad, and is at present one of the five editors of that Freethought monthly.

Peyrard (Francois), French mathematician, b. Vial (Haute Loire) 1760. A warm partisan of the revolution, he was one of those who (7 Nov. 1793) incited Bishop Gobel to abjure his religion. An intimate friend of Sylvian Marechal, Peyrard furnished him with notes for his Dictionnaire des Athees. He wrote a work on Nature and its Laws, 1793-4, and proposed the piercing of the Isthmus of Suez. He translated the works of Euclid and Archimedes. Died at Paris 3 Oct. 1822.

Peyrat (Alphonse), French writer, b. Toulouse, 21 June, 1812. He wrote in the National and la Presse, and combated against the Second Empire. In '65 he founded l'Avenir National, which was several times condemned. In Feb. '71, he was elected deputy of the Seine, and proposed the proclamation of the Republic. In '76 he was chosen senator. He wrote a History of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, '55; History and Religion, '58; Historical and Religious Studies, '58; and an able and scholarly Elementary and Critical History of Jesus, '64.

Peyrere (Isaac de la), French writer, b. Bordeaux, 1594, and brought up as a Protestant. He entered into the service of the house of Conde, and became intimate with La Mothe de Vayer and Ga.s.sendi. His work ent.i.tled Praeadamitae, 1653, in which he maintained that men lived before Adam, made a great sensation, and was burnt by the hangman at Paris. The bishop of Namur censured it, and la Peyrere was arrested at Brussels, 1656, by order of the Archbishop of Malines, but escaped by favor of the Prince of Conde on condition of retracting his book at Rome. The following epitaph was nevertheless made on him:

La Peyrere ici git, ce bon Israelite, Hugenot, Catholique, enfin Pre-adamite: Quatre religions lui plurent a la fois: Et son indifference etait si peu commune Qu'apres 80 ans qu'il eut a faire un choix Le bon homme part.i.t, et n'en choisit pas une.

Died near Paris, 30 Jan. 1676.

Pfeiff (Johan Gustaf Viktor), Swedish baron, b. Upland, 1829. Editor of the free religious periodical, The Truthseeker, since 1882. He has also translated into Swedish some of the writings of Herbert Spencer.

Pharmacopulo (A.P.) Greek translator of Buchner's Force and Matter, and corresponding member of the International Federation of Freethinkers.

Phillips (Sir Richard), industrious English writer, b. London, 1767. He was hosier, bookseller, printer, publisher, republican, Sheriff of London (1807-8), and Knight. He compiled many schoolbooks, chiefly under pseudonyms, of which the most popular were the Rev. J. Goldsmith and Rev. D. Blair. His own opinions are seen most in his Million of Facts. Died at Brighton 2 April, 1840.

Phillippo (William Skinner), farmer, of Wood Norton, near Thetford, Norfolk. A deist who wrote an Essay on Political and Religious Meditations, 1868.

Pi-y Margall (Francisco), Spanish philosopher and Republican statesman, b. Barcelona, 1820. The first book he learnt to read was the Ruins of Volney. Studied law and became an advocate. He has written many political works, and translated Proudhon, for whom he has much admiration, into Spanish. He has also introduced the writings and philosophy of Comte into his own country. He was a.s.sociated with Castelar and Figueras in the attempt to establish a Spanish Republic, being Minister of the Interior, and afterwards President in 1873.

Pichard (Prosper). French Positivist, author of Doctrine of Reality, "a catechism for the use of people who do not pay themselves with words," to which Littre wrote a preface, 1873.

Pierson (Allard). Dutch rationalist critic, b. Amsterdam 8 April, 1831. Educated in theology, he was minister to the Evangelical congregation at Leuven, afterwards at Rotterdam and finally professor at Heidelberg. He resigned his connection with the Church in '64. He has written many works of theological and literary value of which we mention his Poems '82, New Studies on Calvin, '83, and Verisimilia, written in conjunction with S. A. Naber, '86.

Pigault-Lebrun (Guillaume Charles Antoine), witty French author, b. Calais, 8 April, 1753. He studied under the Oratorians of Boulogne. He wrote numerous comedies and romances, and Le Citateur, 1803, a collection of objections to Christianity, borrowed in part from Voltaire, whose spirit he largely shared. In 1811 Napoleon threatened the priests he would issue this work wholesale. It was suppressed under the Restoration, but has been frequently reprinted. Pigault-Lebrun became secretary to King Jerome Napoleon, and died at La Celle-Saint-Cloud, 24 July, 1835.

Pike (J. W.) American lecturer, b. Concord (Ohio), 27 June, 1826, wrote My Religious Experience and What I found in the Bible, 1867.

Pillsbury (Parker), American reformer, b. Hamilton, Ma.s.s., 22 Sep. 1809. Was employed in farm work till '35, when he entered Gilmerton theological seminary. He graduated in '38, studied a year at Andover, was congregational minister for one year, and then, perceiving the churches were the bulwark of slavery, abandoned the ministry. He became an abolitionist lecturer, edited the Herald of Freedom, National Anti-Slavery Standard, and the Revolution. He also preached for free religious societies, wrote Pious Frauds, and contributed to the Boston Investigator and Freethinkers' Magazine. His princ.i.p.al work is Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles, 1883.

Piron (Alexis), French comic poet, b. Dijon, 9 July, 1689. His pieces were full of wit and gaiety, and many anecdotes are told of his profanity. Among his sallies was his reply to a reproof for being drunk on Good Friday, that failing must be excused on a day when even deity succ.u.mbed. Being blind in his old age he affected piety. Worried by his confessor about a Bible in the margin of which he had written parodies and epigrams as the best commentary, he threw the whole book in the fire. Asked on his death-bed if he believed in G.o.d he answered "Parbleu, I believe even in the Virgin." Died at Paris, 21 Jan. 1773.

Pisarev (Dmitri Ivanovich) Russian critic, journalist, and materialist, b. 1840. He first became known by his criticism on the Scholastics of the nineteenth century. Died Baden, near Riga, July 1868. His works are published in ten vols. Petersburg, 1870.

Pitt (William). Earl of Chatham, an ill.u.s.trious English statesman and orator, b. Boconnoc, Cornwall, 15 Nov. 1708. The services to his country of "the Great Commoner," as he was called, are well known, but it is not so generally recognised that his Letter on Superst.i.tion, first printed in the London Journal in 1733, ent.i.tles him to be ranked with the Deists. He says that "the more superst.i.tious people are, always the more vicious; and the more they believe, the less they practice." Atheism furnishes no man with arguments to be vicious; but superst.i.tion, or what the world made by religion, is the greatest possible encouragement to vice, by setting up something as religion, which shall atone and commute for the want of virtue. This remarkable letter ends with the words "Remember that the only true divinity is humanity."

Place (Francis), English Radical reformer and tailor; b. 1779 at Charing Cross. He early became a member of the London, Corresponding Society. He wrote to Carlile's Republican and Lion. A friend of T. Hardy, H. Tooke, James Mill, Bentham, Roebuck, Hetherington, and Hibbert (who puts him in his list of English Freethinkers). He was connected with all the advanced movements of his time and has left many ma.n.u.scripts ill.u.s.trating the politics of that period, which are now in the British Museum. He always professed to be an Atheist--see Reasoner, 26 March, '54. Died at Kensington, 1 Jan. 1854.

Platt (James), F.S.S., a woolen merchant and Deistic author of popular works on Business, '75; Morality, '78; Progress, '80; Life, '81; G.o.d and Mammon, etc.

Pliny (Caius Plinius Secundus), the elder, Roman naturalist, b. Verona, A.D. 22. He distinguished himself in the army, was admitted into the college of Augurs, appointed procurator in Spain, and honored with the esteem of Vespasian and t.i.tus. He wrote the history of his own time in 31 books, now lost, and a Natural History in 37 books, one of the most precious monuments of antiquity, in which his Epicurean Atheism appears. Being with the fleet at Misenum, 24 Aug. A.D. 79, he observed the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and landing to a.s.sist the inhabitants was himself suffocated by the noxious vapors.

Plumacher (Olga), German pessimist, follower of Hartmann, and auth.o.r.ess of a work on Pessimism in the Past and Future, Heidelberg, 1884. She has also defended her views in Mind.

Plumer (William) American senator, b. Newburyport, Ma.s.s. 25 June, 1759. In 1780 he became a Baptist preacher, but resigned on account of scepticism. He remained a deist. He served in the Legislature eight terms, during two of which he was Speaker. He was governor of New Hamps.h.i.+re, 1812-18, wrote to the press over the signature "Cincinnatus," and published an Address to the Clergy, '14. He lived till 22 June, 1850.

Plutarch. Greek philosopher and historian, b. Cheronaea in Boetia, about A.D. 50. He visited Delphi and Rome, where he lived in the reign of Trajan. His Parallel Lives of forty-six Greeks and Romans have made him immortal. He wrote numerous other anecdotal and ethical works, including a treatise on Superst.i.tion. He condemned the vulgar notions of Deity, and remarked, in connection with the deeds popularly ascribed to the G.o.ds, that he would rather men said there was no Plutarch than traduce his character. In other words, superst.i.tion is more impious than Atheism. Died about A.D. 120.