of Pamphilus himself. At the outbreak of the persecution under Maximin, Pamphilus was thrown into prison (A.D. 307) and there, along with his attached friend and pupil Eusebius (sometimes distinguished as Eusebius Pamphili), he composed an Apology for Origen, in five books, to which a sixth was afterwards added by Eusebius. He was put to death in 309 by Firmilian, prefect of Caesarea.
Only the first book of the Apology of Pamphilus is extant, and that but in an imperfect Latin translation by Rufinus. It is printed in Lommatzsch’s edition of Origen, vol. xxiv., and in Routh, Rel. sac. iv. 339 (cf. iii. 487,500, fragments). Photius (Codex 118) gives a short survey of the whole. Jerome mentions Letters to friends, and there may have been other works. Eusebius’ memoir of Pamphilus has not survived. See E. Preuschen in Herzog-Hauck’s Realencyklopädie, and A. Harnack, Altchristl. Litteraturgesch. I. 543.
PAMPHILUS, a Greek painter of the 4th century, of the school of Sicyon. He was an academic artist, noted for accurate drawing, and obtained such a reputation that not only could he charge his pupils great sums, but he was also successful in introducing drawing in Greece as a necessary part of liberal education.
PAMPHLETS. The earliest appearance of the word is in the Philobiblon (1344) of Richard de Bury, who speaks of “panfletos exiguos” (ch. viii.). In English we have “this leud pamflet" (Test. of Love, bk. iii.), Occleve’s “Though that this pamfilet” (Reg. of Pr. 2060), Lydgate’s “Whiche is a paunflet” (Minor Poems, 180) and Caxton’s “paunflettis and bookys” (Book of Eneydos, 1400, Prologue). In all these examples pamphlet is used to indicate the extent of the production, and in contradistinction to book. A short codicil in a will of 1495 is called “this pampelet” (Test. Ebor. iv. 26). In the 17th century the word was used for single plays, poems, newspapers and news letters (Murray’s New English Dict. vii. 410).
Not till the 18th century did pamphlet begin to assume its modern meaning of prose controversial tract. “Pamphlet” and “pamphlétaire” are of comparatively recent introduction into French from the English, and generally indicate fugitive criticism of a more severe, not to say libellous, character than with us. The derivation of the word is a subject of contention among etymologists. The supposed origin from the amatory poem of “Pamphilus,” and a certain Pamphila, an author of the 1st century, may be dismissed as fanciful. The experts are also undecided as to what is actually understood by a pamphlet. Some bibliographers apply the term to everything, except periodicals, of quarto size and under, if not more than fifty pages, while others would limit its application to two or three sheets of printed matter which have first appeared in an unbound condition. These are merely physical peculiarities, and include academical dissertations, chap-books and broadsides, which from their special subjects belong to a separate class from the pamphlet proper. As regards its literary characteristics, the chief notes of a pamphlet are brevity and spontaneity. It has a distinct aim, and relates to some matter of current interest, whether personal, religious, political or literary. Usually intended to support a particular line of argument, it may be descriptive, controversial, didactic or satirical. It is not so much a class, as a form of literature, and from its ephemeral character represents the changeful currents of public opinion more closely than the bulky volume published after the formation of that opinion. The history of pamphlets being the entire record of popular feeling, all that is necessary here is to briefly indicate the chief families of political and religious pamphlets which have exercised marked influence, and more particularly in those countries—England and France—where pamphlets have made so large a figure in influencing thoughts and events. It is difficult to point out much in ancient literature which precisely answers to our modern view of the pamphlet. The libelli famosi of the Romans were simply abusive pasquinades. Some of the small treatises of Lucian, the lost Anti-Cato of Caesar, Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis written against Claudius, Julian’s Καίσαρες ἤ συμπόσιον and Ἀντιοχικὸς ἤ μισοπώγον, from their general application, just escape the charge of being mere satires, and may therefore claim to rank as early specimens of the pamphlet.
At the end of the 14th century the Lollard doctrines were widely circulated by means of the tracts and leaflets of Wyclif and his followers. The Ploughman’s Prayer and Lanthorne of Light, which appeared about the time of Oldcastle’s martyrdom, were extremely popular, and similar brief vernacular pieces became so common that it was thought necessary in 1418 to enact that persons in authority should search out and apprehend all persons owning English books. The printers of the 15th century produced many controversial tractates, and Caxton and Wynkin de Worde printed in the lesser form. It was in France that the printing-press first began to supply reading for the common people. During the last twenty years of the 15th century there arose an extensive popular literature of farces, tales in verse and prose, satires, almanacs, &c., extending to a few leaves apiece, and circulated by the itinerant booksellers still known as colporteurs. These folk-books soon spread from France to Italy and Spain, and were introduced into England at the beginning of the 16th century, doubtless from the same quarter, as most of our early chap-books are translations or adaptations from the French. Another form of literature even more transient was the broadside, or single sheet printed on one side only, which appears to have flourished principally in England, but which had been in use from the first invention of printing for papal indulgences, royal proclamations and similar documents. Throughout western Europe, about the middle of the 16th century, the broadside made a considerable figure in times of political agitation. In England it was chiefly used for ballads, which soon became so extremely popular that during the first ten years of the reign of Elizabeth the names of no less than forty ballad printers appear in the Stationers’ registers.
The humanist movement at the beginning of the 16th century produced the famous Epistolae obscurorum virorum, and the leading spirits of the Reformation period—Erasmus, Hutten, Luther, Melanchthon, Francowitz, Vergerio, Curio and Calvin—found in tracts a ready method of widely circulating their opinions. The course of ecclesiastical events was precipitated in England by the Supplicacyon for the Beggars (1528) of Simon Fish, answered by Sir Thomas More’s Supplycacion of Poor Soulys. In the time of Edward VI. brief tracts were largely used as a propagandist instrument in favour of the Reformed religion. The licensing of the press by Mary greatly hindered the production of this kind of literature. From about 1570 there came an unceasing flow of Puritan pamphlets, of which more than forty were reprinted under the title of A parte of a register (London, Waldegrave, 4to). In 1584 was published a tract entitled A briefe and plaine Declaration concerning the desires of all those faithful ministers that have and do seeke for the discipline and reformation of the Church of Englande, believed to have been written by W. Fulke D.D. Against this John Bridges, dean of Sarum, preached at Paul’s Cross, and expanded his sermon into what he called A defence of the government established in the church of England (1587), which gave rise to Oh read over D. John Bridges . . . . Printed at the cost and charges of M. Marprelate gentleman (1588), which first gave the name to the famous Martin Marprelate tracts, whose titles sufficiently indicate their opposition to priestly orders and episcopacy. Bishop Cooper’s Admonition to the People of England (1589) came next, followed on the other side by Hay any worke for Cooper . . . by Martin the Metropolitane, and by others from both parties to the number of about thirty-two. The controversy lasted ten years, and ended in the discomfiture of the Puritans and the seizure of their secret press. The writers on the Marprelate side are generally supposed to have been Penry, Throgmorton, Udal and Fenner, and their opponents Bishop Cooper, John Lilly and Nash.
As early as the middle of the 16th century we find ballads of news; and in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. small pamphlets, translated from the German and French, and known as “newsbooks,” were circulated by the so-called “Mercury-women.” These were the immediate predecessors of weekly newspapers, and continued to the end of the 17th century. A proclamation
