PIKE
83
PILATE
and Giuseppe Pignatelli, providing they abandon their
order, but in spite of Giuseppe's ill-health they stood
firm. Not permitted by Clement III to land at Civita
Vecchia, with the other Jesuits of Aragon, he repaired
to St. Boniface in Corsica where he displayed singular
ability for organization in providing for five hundred
fathers and students. His sister, the Duchess of
Acerra, aided him with money and provisions. He
organized studies and maintained regular observance.
When France assumed control of Corsica, he was
obliged to return to Genoa. He was again detailed to
secure a location in the legation of Ferrara, not only
for the fathers of his own province of Aragon, but also
for those of Peru and Mexico, but the community was
dissolved in August, 1773. The two Pignatelli brothers
were then obliged to betake themselves to Bologna,
where they lived in retirement (being forbidden to
exercise the sacred ministry). They devoted them-
selves to study and Pignatelli himself collected books
and manuscripts bearing on the history of the Society.
On ascertaining from Pius IV that the Society of
Jesus still survived in WTiite Russia, he desired to
be received there. For various reasons he was obliged
to defer his departure. During this delay he was
invited, on the instance of Ferdinand, Duke of Parma,
to re-establish the Society in his States; and in 1793,
having obtained through Catharine II a few fathers
from Russia, with other Jesuits, an establishment was
made. On 6 July, 1797, Pignatelli there renewed
his vows. In 1799 he was appointed master of
novices in Colerno. On the decease of the Duke of
Parma, the States of Parma were placed under alle-
giance to France. Notwithstanding this fact, the
Jesuits remained undisturbed for eighteen months,
during which period PignatelU was appointed Pro-
vincial of Italy. After considerable discussion he ob-
tained the restoration of the Jesuits in Naples. The
papal Brief (30 July, 1804) was much more favourable
than that granted for Parma. The older Jesuits soon
asked to be received back; many, however, engaged
in various ecclesiastical callings, remained at their
posts. Schools and a college were opened in Sicily,
but when this part of the kingdom fell into Napoleon's
power, the dispersion of the Jesuits was ordered;
but the decree was not rigorously executed. Pigna-
telli founded colleges in Rome, Tivoli, and Orvieto,
and the fathers were invited to other cities. During
the exile of Pius VII and the French occupation the
Society continued unmolested, owing largely to the
prudence and the merits of Pignatelli; he even
managed to avoid the oaths of allegiance to Napo-
leon. He also secured the restoration of the Society
in Sardinia (1807). Under Gregory XVI the cause of
his beatification was introduced.
NoNELL, El V. P. Josi M. Pignatelli ylaC.de J. en eu estinction y Testablecimiento (.3 vols., Maoresa. 1893-4) ; Boebo, Istoria del V. Padre Gius. M. Pignatelli (Rome, 1856).
U. Benigni.
Pike, William, Venerable, martyr, born in Dor- setshire; died at Dorchester, Dec, 1591. He was a joiner, and lived at West Aloors, West Parley. On his way from Dorchester to his home, he fell in with the venerable martyr Thomas Pilchard, who con- verted him, probably in 1.586. At his trial for being reconciled with the See of Rome "the bloody question about the Pope's supremacy was put to him, and he frankly confessed that he maintained the authority of the Roman See, for which he was condemned to die a traitor's death". When they asked him to re- cant in order to save his life and his family, "he boldly replied that it did not become a son of Mr. Pilchard to do so". "Until he died, Mr. Pilchard's name was constantly on his Ups." Being asked at death what had moved him to that resolution etc., he said "Nothing but the smell of a pilchard". The date of his death is not recorded, but in the Menology his name is under 22 Dec.
Pollen, Acts of the English Martyrs (London. 1891), 267;
English Martyrs 16S4-160S (London. 1908). 289; Challoner.
Missionary Priests, I, no. 89: Stanton, Menology of England and
Wales (London, 1887), 606, 689.
John B. Wainewrigut.
Pilar, NuESTRA Senora del (Our Lady of the Pillar), a celebrated church and shrine, at Saragossa, Spain, containing a miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin, which is the object of very special devotion throughout the kingdom. The image, which is placed on a marble pillar, whence the name of the church, was crowned in 1905 with a crown designed by the Marquis of Grini, and valued at 450,000 pesetas (£18,750). The present spacious church in Barocjue style was begun in 1681. According to an ancient Spanish tradition, given in the Roman Breviary (for 12 October, Ad. mat., lect. vi), the original shrine was built by St. James the Apostle at the wish of the Blessed Virgin, who appeared to him as he was praying by the banks of the Ebro at Saragossa. There has been much discussion as to the truth of the tradition. Mgr L. Duchesne denies, as did Baronius, the coming of St. James to Spain, and reproduces arguments founded on writings of the Twelfth (Ecumenical Coun- cil, discovered by Loaisa, but rejected as spurious by the Jesuit academician Fita and many others. Those who defend the tradition adduce the testimony of St. Jerome (P. L., XXIV, 373) and that of the Moz- arabic Office. The oldest written testimony of devo- tion to the Blessed Virgin in Saragossa usually quoted is that of Pedro Librana (1155). Fita has published data of two Christian tombs at Saragossa, dating from Roman days, on which the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is represented.
Acta SS., VI July; Florej t Risco, Espana sagrada. Ill, IV, XXX; ToLR-A, Vcnida de Santiago a Espaha (Madrid, 1797); Natalis Alexanher, Hist, eccl., Ill; Duchesne, Annales du Midi (19(10): RoDRicuEz in Appendix to Los seis primeros siglos de la iglesia (Span. tr. of Duchesne's work, Barcelona, 1910) ; Fita in Razdn y Fe (Madrid, 1901, 1902, 1904); tioavia. Hist. crit. apol. de la Virgen del Pilar (Madrid, 1862) ; Quadrado, Espafia, sus monumenios . . . Aragon (Barcelona, 1886) ; Mensajero del Corazdn de Jesils (Madrid, 1905) ; Messenger of the Sacred Heart (New York, 1894).
J. M. March. Pilate, Acts of. See Apocrypha, sub-title III.
Pilate, Pontius. — After the deposition of the eld- est son of Herod, Archelaus (who had succeeded his father as ethnarch), Judea was placed under the rule of a Roman procurator. Pilate, who was the fifth, succeeding Valerius Gratus in a. d. 26, had greater authority than most procurators under the empire, for in addition to the ordinary duty of financial ad- ministration, he had supreme power judicially. His unusually long period of office (a. d. 26-36) covers the wholeof the active ministry both of St. John the Baptist and of Jesus Christ. As procurator Pilate was neces- sarily of equestrian rank, but beyond that we know little of his family or origin. Some have thought that he was only a freedman, deriving his name from pileus (the cap of freed slaves) but for this there seems to be no adequate evidence, and it is unlikely that a freedman would attain to a post of such importance. The Pontii were a Samnite gens. Pilate owed his appointment to the influence of Sejanus. The official residence of the procurators was the palace of Herod at Caesarea; where there was a military force of about 3,000 soldiers. These soldiers came up to Jerusalem • at the time of the feasts, when the city was full of strangers, and there was greater dangerof disturbances, hence it was that Pilate had come to Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion. His name will be forever covered with infamy because of the part which he took in this matter, though at the time it appeared to him of small importance.
Pilate is a type of the worldly man, knowing the right and anxious to do it so far as it can be done without personal sacrifice of any kind, but yielding easily to
