PORMORT
282
PORRECTA
Ponnort, Thomas, Venerable, English martyr,
b. at Hull about 1559; d. at St. Paul's Churchyard, 20
Feb., 1592. He was probably related to the family of
Pormort of Great Grimsby and Saltfletby, Lincoln-
shire. George Pormort, Mayor of Grimsby in 1565,
had a second son Thomas baptized, 7 February, 1566,
but this can hardly be the martyr. After receiving
some education at Cambridge, he went to Rheims, 15
January, 15S1, and thence, 20 March following, to
Rome, where he was ordained priest in 1587. He en-
tered the household of Owen Lewis, Bishop of Cassano,
6 March, 15S7. On 25 April, 1590, Pormort became
prefect of studies in the Swiss college at Milan. He
was reheved of this office, and started for England, 15
September, without waiting for his faculties. Cross-
ing the St. Gotthard Pass, he reached Brussels before
29 November. There he became man-servant to Mrs.
Geoffrey Pole, under the name of Whitgift, the Prot-
estant archbishop being his godfather. With her he
went to Antwerp, intending to proceed to Flushing,
and thence to England. He was arrested in London
on St. James's Day (25 July), 1591, but he managed to
escape. In August or September, 1591, he was again
taken, and committed to Bridewell, whence he was re-
moved to Topcliffe's house. He was repeatedly racked
and sustained a rupture in consequence. On 8 Febru-
ary following he was convicted of high treason for be-
ing a seminary priest, and for reconciling John Bar-
wys, or Burrows, haberdasher. He pleaded that he
had no faculties; but he was found guilty. At the bar
he accused Topcliffe of having boasted to him of inde-
cent familiarities with the queen. Hence Topcliffe ob-
tained a mandamus to the sheriff to proceed with the
execution, though Archbishop Whitgift endeavoured to
delay it and make his godson conform, and though (it
is said) Pormort would have admitted conference with
Protestant ministers. The gibbet was erected over
against the haberdasher's shop, and the martjT was
kept stanchng two hours in his shirt upon the ladder on
a very cold day, while Topcliffe vainly urged him to
withdraw his accusation.
Pollen, English Martyrs 1384-1603 (London, 1908), 187-190, 200-2, 208-10, 292: Acts of the English Martyrs (London, 1891), 118-20: Ch.\lloner, Missionary Priests, I, no. 95: Gillow, Bibl. Diet, Eng. Cath., s. v.: Harleian Society Publications, LII (London, 1904), 790; Knox, Douay Diaries (London, 1878),
I'i-T- John B. Wainewright.
Porphyreon, titular see, suffragan of Tyre in Phcenicia Prima. It is described in the "Notitia Episcopatuum" of Antioch as belonging to the sixth century (Echos d'Orient, X, 1907, 145), but does not appear in that of the tenth century (op. cit., 97). Lequien (Oriens christ., II, 829-32) mentions five of its bishops: Thomas, 451; Alexander, at the end of the fifth century; Theodore, 518; Christ ophorus, 536; and Paul (contemporary of Justinian II), 565-78. There were two Porphyreons in this province, one, described by Scylax (civ, ed. Miiller) north of Sidon and also by Palerin of Bordeaux (Itinera hierosoly- mitana, ed. Geyer, 18) eight miles from Sidon, is now the village of El-Djiyeh, in the midst of the beautiful gardens between Saida and Beirut, near the Khan en- Nebi Yunes; a second Porphyreon, according to the Pseudo-Antoninus (Itinera hierosolymitana, 161), may be located six or seven miles north of Carmel. Historians of the Crusades (William of Tyre and James of Vitry) confound this town with the modern Caipha. The latter corresponds to our .see. In fact Saint Simeon Stylite the Young, contemporary of Paul Bishop of Porphyreon, affirms (Mansi, "Con- ciliorum coUectio", XIII, p. 160) that the episcopal town may be found near Castra, a place inhabited by the Samaritans. Now, in the same epoch the Pseudo- Antoninus (op. cit., 160) locates the "Castra Samari- tanonim a Sucamina (Caipha) milliario subtus montc Carmelo" south of Porphyreon. The identification IB therefore incontestible. The church of Porphyreon,
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, was not built by
Justinian II but by Justinian I (Procopius, "De
jEdificiis", V, ix; "Historia arcana", xxx). The
ruins of Porphyreon should be found near Belus, the
Nahr Namein, in the sands of which may still be seen
the murcx hrandaris and the tnurcx trtinculus (thorny
shell fish), from which is extracted the famous purple
dye of Tyre, and which has given its name to Porphy-
reon.
S. VAILHfi.
Porphyrius. See Neo-Platonism.
Porphyrius, Saint, Bishop of Gaza in Palestine, b. at Thcssalonica about 347; d. at Gaza, 26 February, 420. After five years in the Egj'ptian desert of Scete he lived five years in a cave near the Jordan. In spite of his impaired health, he frequently visited the scene of the Resurrection. Here he met the Asiatic ^Iark, at a later date a deacon of his church and his biographer. To effect the sale of the property still owned by Porphyrius in his native city, Mark set out for Thessalonica and, upon his return, the proceeds were distributed among the monasteries of Egypt and among the necessitous in and around Jerusalem. In 392 Porphyrius was ordained to the priesthood, and the relic of the Holy Cross was intrusted to his care. In 395 he became Bishop of Gaza, a stronghold of paganism, with an insignificant Christian community. The attitude of the pagan population was hostile so that the bishop appealed to the emperor for protection and pleaded repeatedly for the destruction of pagan temples. He finally obtained an imperial rescript ordering the destruction of pagan sanctuaries at Gaza. A Christian church was erected on the site of the temple of Mamas. In 415 Porphyrins attended the Council of Diospohs. The "Vita S. Porphyrii" of Mark the Deacon, formerly known only in a Latin translation, was published in 1874 by M. Haupt in its original Greek text; a new edition was issued in 1895 by the Bonn Philological Society.
Ada SS., Feb.. Ill (Paris, 1865), 649-66; Nuth, De Marci diaconi vita Porphyrii episcopi Gazensis qu/^stiones historicce et grammalica: (Bonn, 1897) ; Butler, Lices of the Saints, 26 Feb.
N. A. Weber.
Porrecta, Serafino, family name Capponi, called a Porrecta from the place of birth, theologian, b. 1536; d. at Bologna, 2 Jan., 1614. He joined the Dominican Order at Bologna in 1552. His life was devoted entirely to study, teaching, writing, and preaching. He is best known as a commentator on the "Summa" of St. Thomas; he also wrote valuable commentaries on the books of the Old and New Testaments. His duties as a professor prepared him well for work of this kind, for he taught philosophy, theology (dogmatic and moral), and Sacred Scrip- ture. In 160f), Father Capponi was invited to teach theology and Sacred Scripture to the Carthusians in a monastery near Bologna. He accepted the invitation, but two years later he was recalled to Bologna, where he died. Fr. Michele Pio, who wrote his life, states that on the last day of his life Porrecta completed his explanation of the last verse of the Psalms. The people of Bologna venerated him as a saint; miracles, attested by the ordinary, are said to have been wrought through his intercession and his body was taken (1615) from the community burying-ground to be deposited in the Dominican church. It is al- most universally admitted that, until the Leonine edition of St. Thomas's works appeared, there were no editions more highly prized or more helpful to students of the "Summa" than those which con- tained the Porrecta-Cajetan commentaries. The distinguishing features of these commentaries are well set forth in the title of the Venice edition of 1612. His principal works are: "Elucidationes formales in summam theologicam S. Thomze de Aquino" (Venice, 1588, 1596); "Summa totius
