PILCHARD
84
PILGRIMAGE
pressure from those whose interest it is that he should
act otherwise. He would gladly have acquitted
Christ, and even made serious efforts in that direction,
but gave way at once when his own position was
threatened. The other events of his rule are not of
very great importance. Philo (Ad Gaium, 38) speaks
of him as inflexible, merciless, and obstinate. The
Jews hated him and his administration, for he was not
only very severe, but showed httle consideration for
their susceptibilities. Some standards bearing the
image of Tiberius, which had been set up by him in
Jerusalem, caused an outbreak which would have
ended in a massacre had not Pilate given way. At a
later date Tiberius ordered him to remove certain gilt
shields, which he had set up in Jerusalem in spite of
the remonstrances of the people. The incident men-
tioned in St. Luke, xiii, 1, of the Galila-ans whose
blood Pilate mingled with the sacrifices, is not else-
where referred to, but is quite in keeping with other
authentic events of his rule. He was, therefore, anx-
ious that no further hostile reports should be sent to the
emperor concerning him. The tendency, already dis-
cernible in the canonical Gospels, to lay stress on the
efforts of Pilate to acquit Christ, and thus pass as
lenient a judgment as possible upon his crime, goes
further in the apocryphal Gospels and led in later
years to the claim that he actually became a Christian.
The Abyssinian Church reckons him iis a saint, and
assigns 2.5 June to him and to Claudia Procula, his
wife. The belief that she became a Christian goes
back to the second century, and may be found in
Origen (Hom., in Mat., x.xxv). The Greek Church
assigns her a feast on 27 October. TertuUian and
Justin Martyr both speak of a report on the Cruci-
fi.xion (not extant) sent in by Pilate to Tiberius, from
which idea a large amount of apocryphal literature
originated. Some of these were Christian in origin
(Gospel of Nicodemus), others came from the heathen,
but these have all perished.
His rule was brought to an end through trouble which arose in Samaria. An impostor had given out that it was in his power to discover the sacred vessels which, as he alleged, had been hidden by Moses on Mount Gerizim, whither armed Samaritans came in large numbers. Pilate seems to have thought the whole affair was a blind, covering some other more important design, for he hurried forces to attack them, and many were slain. They appealed to ViteUius, who was at that time legate in Syria, saying that nothing political had been intended, and complaining of Pilate's whole administration. He was summoned to Rome to answer their charges, but before he could reach the city the Emperor Tiberius had died. That is the last that we know of Pilate from authentic sources, but legend has been busy with his name. He is said by Eusebius (H. E., ii, 7), on the authority of earlier writers, whom he does not name, to have fallen into great misfortunes under Caligula, and eventually to have committed suicide. Other details come from less respectable sources. His body, says the "Mors Pilati", was thrown into the Tiber, but the waters were so disturbed by evil spirits that the body was taken to Vienne and sunk in the Rhone, where a monu- ment, called Pilate's tomb, is still to be .seen. As the same thing occurred there, it was again removed and sunk in the lake at Lausanne. Its final disposition was in a deep and lonely mountain tarn, which, according to later tradition, was on a mountain, still called Pilatus, close to Lucerne. The real origin of this name is, however, to be sought in the cap of cloud which often covers the mountain, and serves as a barometer to the inhabitants of Lucerne. There are many other legends about Pilate in the folklore of Germany, but none of them have the slightest authority.
MiU,l.ER, Ponlius Pilalus der fuiifle Prok-uralur ran Jwhia (Stutlgart. 1888), kIvcs a list of earlier writing.i on Pilate; RosiiHES. Ponce Pilate (Paris, 1883) ; Waltjer. Punliux Pilalus, eene studie (Amatcrdam, 1888); Oluvier, Ponce Pilate el lea
Pontiiia Revue Biblique, V (1896). 247-54. 594-600; Innes, Trial oj
Jesus Christ (London, 1899), a legal monograph; for apocryphal
literature see LiPsius, Die Pilatus Aden (Leipzig, 1S71).
Arthur S. Barnes.
Pilchard (Pilcher), Thomas Venerable, mar- tyr, b. at Battle, Sussex, 1557; d. at Dorchester, 21 March, 1586-7. He became a Fellow of Balliol Col- lege, O.xford, in 1576, and took the degree of M.A., in 1579, resigning his fellowship the following year. He arrived at Reims 20 Nov., 1581, and was ordained priest at Laon, March, 1583, and was sent on the mission. He was arrested soon after, and banished; but returned almost immediately. He was again arrested early in March, 1586-7, and imprisoned in Dorchester Gaol, and in the fortnight between com- mittal to prison and condemnation converted thirty persons. He was so cruelly drawn upon the hurdle that he was fainting when he came to the place of execution. When the rope was cut, being still alive he stood erect under the scaffold. The executioner, a cook, carried out the sentence so clumsily that the victim, turning to the sheriff, exclaimed "Is this then your justice, Mr. Sheriff?" According to another account "the priest raised himself and putting out his hands cast forward his own bowels, crying ' Miserere mei ' " . Father ^\'arford says : ' ' There was not a priest in the whole West of England, who, to my knowledge, was his equal in virtue."
Pollen. Acts of the English Martyrs (London, 1891), 261-3, 320- 1; English Martyrs 1SS4-1603 in Cath. Rec. Soc. (London, 1908), 288-9, 395; Foster. Alumni Oxonienses (Oxford, 1891); Knox, Douay Diaries (London, 1878), passim: Challoner, Missionary Priests, I, no. 42. JoHN B. WaINEWRIGHT.
Pilg^riznage of Grace, the name given to the reli- gious rising in the north of England, 1536. The cause of this great popular nio\-ement, which extended over five counties and found sympathizers all over England, was attributed by Robert .\ske, the leader of the insurgents, to "spreading of heretics, suppres- sion of houses of religion and other matters touching the commonwealth". And in his "Narrative to the King", he declared: "In all parts of the realm men's hearts much grudged with the suppression of abbeys, and the first fruits, by reason the same would be the destruction of the whole religion in England. And their especial great grudge is against the lord Crum- well." The movement broke out on 13 Oct., 1536, immediately following the failure of the Lincoln- shire Rising; and Robert Aske, a London barrister of good Yorkshire family, who had been to some extent concerned in the Lincolnshire rising, putting himself at the head of nine thousand insurgents, marched on York, which he entered. There he arranged for the expelled monks and nuns to return to their houses; the king's tenants were driven out and religious ob- servance resumed. The subsequent success of the rising was so great that the royal leaders, the Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Shrewsbury, opened negotia- tions with the insurgents at Doncaster, where Aske had assembled between thirty and forty thousand men. As a result of this, Henry authorized Norfolk to promise a general pardon and a Parliament to be held at York within a year. .\ske then dismissed his followers, trusting in the king's promises. But these promises were not kept, and a new rising took place in Cumberland and Westmoreland, and was spreading to Yorkshire. Upon this, the king arrested Aske and several of the other leaders, who were all convicted of treason and executed. The loss of the leaders en- abled Norfolk to crush the rising. The king avenged himself on Cumberland and ^^"ostmoreland by a series of massacres under the form of martial law. Though Aske luui tried to jjrevent the rising he was put to death. Lord Darcy, Sir Henry Percy, and several other gentlemen, together with the four Abljots of Fountains, Jervaulx, Barlings, and Sawley, who were executed at Tyburn, have been reckoned by Catholic
