PERSONA

A term applied in ancient cathedral and collegiate churches to those who held particular offices, not nece arily of dignity, or of jurisdiction, but involving personal responsibility, and strict residence. In England, at Salisbury and other cathedrals of the old foundation, the dignitaries, as the dean, precentor, chancellor, and treasurer, ., were called Personæ Principales , or Privilegiatæ , as having each a peculiar office, connected with the service of the church. At St. Paul’s the four archdeacons were included in this title, though somewhat incorrectly.— Dugdale’s St. Paul’s , p. 235. In other places, as at York, and Beverley, the inferior priests were called Personæ. Abroad the Personnate were chiefly offices of the inferior collegiate clergy, generally implying some individual office, as subchanter, sacristan, . .— Jebb. PETER-PENCE was an annual tribute of one penny, paid at Rome out of every family, at the feast of St. Peter. This, Ina, the Saxon king, when he went in pilgrimage to Rome, about the year 740, gave to the pope, partly as alms, and partly by way of recompense for a house erected in Rome for English pilgrims. It continued to be generally paid until the time of King Henry VIII., when it was enacted, that henceforth no person shall pay any pensions, Peter-pence, or other impositions, to the use of the bishop and see of Rome. PETER’S, ST., DAY. A festival of the Christian Church, observed on the twenty-ninth of June. St. Peter was born at Beth said a, a town situated upon the banks of the sea of Galilee. He was originally called Simon, or Simeon, to which our Saviour , after his conversion, added the name of Cephas, which, in the vulgar language of the Jews, signified a stone, or rock: from thence it was derived into the Greek Πέτρος , (Petrus,) which is of the same import. Our Lord probably intended to denote thereby the constancy and firmne of his faith, and his activity in building up the Church. St. Peter was a fisherman by trade, and brother of St. Andrew, who first brought him to our Saviour . He became a disciple and follower of Christ , upon seeing the miracle of the great draught of fishes, and was one of his most immediate companions. He is by the ancients styled the mouth of the apostles, because he was the first and forwardest, on all occasions, to profe his zeal and attachment to our Saviour ; for which reason our Lord pronounced him ble ed. But it does not appear that our Saviour gave any personal prerogative to St. Peter, as universal pastor and head of the Church. He is first placed among the apostles, because, as most think, he was first called. If he is styled “a rock,” all the apostles are equally styled “foundations;” and the power of the keys is promised to the rest of the apostles as well as to St. Peter. This apostle became a great example of human frailty, in his behaviour upon the approach of our Saviour’s sufferings. It is well known, that, for fear of being involved in the punishment with which his Master was threatened, he disclaimed all knowledge of him, and denied him thrice. But he soon recovered from his fall, and endeavoured by penitential tears to wash away his guilt. St. Peter’s first mi ion, after our Saviour’s ascension, was to those Christians whom Philip the deacon had converted in Samaria; where he conferred on them the gift of the Holy Ghost , and severely rebuked Simon Magus, for imagining the gift of God could be purchased with money. Some time after, he had a special vision from heaven, by which the Divine goodne removed those prejudices of his education, which the Jews had entertained against the Gentiles. In the dispute between the Jewish and Gentile converts, he declared God’s acceptance of the Gentiles, and that the yoke of the Jewish rites ought not to be laid upon them. Yet afterwards he di embled his Christian liberty, and thereby confirmed the judaizing Christians in their errors; for which he stands justly rebuked by St. Paul. Being imprisoned by Herod, he was miraculously delivered by an angel, who knocked off his chains, and conducted him to a place of safety. St. Peter, afterwards, preached at Antioch, and was the first bishop of that place. He likewise preached the gospel to the Jews dispersed in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Asia. Towards the latter end of his life, he went to Rome, about the second year of the emperor Claudius, where he laboured in establishing Christianity, chiefly among the Jews, being the apostle of the circumcision. Here he set himself to expose the impostures of Simon Magus, which he did succe fully, by working himself those wonders that Simon falsely boasted of. Particularly, he raised to life a kinsman of the emperor, which the magician had attempted in vain. And, when Simon Magus, to recover his reputation, pretended to fly up to heaven from the hill of the Capitol, by the prayers of St. Peter his artificial wings failed him, and falling he was so bruised, that in a short time he died. St. Peter suffered martyrdom about the year of Christ 69, under the emperor Nero, whom he had provoked by his succe against Simon Magus, and by his reducing many di olute women to a sober and virtuous life; and it was probably in that persecution when the emperor burnt Rome, and charged the Christians with the guilt and punishment of it. He was crucified with his head downwards. It is said, his body was embalmed by Mar cell in us the presbyter, and buried in the Vatican, near the Triumphal Way, where there was a church erected to his memory, now the famous cathedral of St. Peter’s at Rome.