like of Catharine, would not acknowledge his legitimacy; but on the death of Ivan (q. v.), in 1763, he became the sole remaining heir to the crown, and was placed under the care of count Panin and Epinus. His mother treated him with great rigor, and kept him constantly estranged from public affairs during her life. In 1773, he married a princess of HesseDarmstadt, who died soon after, and, in 1776, he married a princess of Würtem berg, who became the mother of the late emperor Alexander (q. v.), the late prince Constantine, the emperor Nicholas, and the grand-prince Michael, and several daughters, among whom is Anna, wife of the present prince of Orange. In 1780, he travelled, with his wife, under the title of count of the North, in Poland, Germany, Italy, France and Holland, and after his return retired to his usual place of residence, the palace of Gatschina, and was permitted to take part neither in civil nor military affairs. On the death of Catharine in 1796, the prince was finally released from his long restraint; and the first acts of his government, after performing the obsequies of his mother, and paying the last honors to his father, were dictated by benevolent intentions. He put an end to the war with Persia, and liberated the Poles who were in confinement in Russia. But the severe treatment to which he had been subjected for forty years, had exercised a most injuriou influence upon his character, and, combined with the natural violence and impetuosity of his temper, led to those acts of despotism and folly which stain his reign. He joined the coalition of crowns against France, and sent 100,000 men, partly, under Suwaroff and Korsakoff, to Italy and Switzerland, and partly to Holland. The Russian arms were at first successful; but, after the defeat at Zürich (see Masséna), his increasing distrust of the English and Austrian courts, and the artful management of general Bonaparte, who dismissed the Russian prisoners, newly clothed and armed, and insinuated new suspicions into the mind of the czar, broke off his connexion with the coalition. Louis XVIII, who had been received into the Russian territory with every mark of attention, and the French emigrants, were ordered to quit the country. Paul had caused himself to be declared grand-master of the knights of Malta (1798), after the resignation of that dignity by the baron Hompesch; but England, having conquered the island in 1800, refused to surrender it to the Russian emperor. Paul therefore laid an em

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bargo on all English ships in the Russian ports, and prevailed upon the Swedish, Danish and Prussian courts to enter into a convention for the protection of their commerce against the encroachments of the English by sea. His internal administration was characterized by similar traits of impetuosity, and, in many cases, of tyranny. His innovations in the army (particularly the introduction of hairpowder and queues); his prohibition against the wearing of round hats, pantaloons, &c.; his order obliging all persons who met him in the streets to leave their carriage and prostrate themselves before him; and other acts of a similar nature, excited general discontent. Other measures, of a more serious character, finally produced a conspiracy among the nobles. They excited mutual suspicions between Paul and his sons, and Alexander finally consented to assume the government, until the mind and health of his father were restored. (See Alexander.) The conspirators entered the antechamber of the emperor in St. Michael's palace, at 11 o'clock at night (March 11, 1801), by a secret passage, and the door to the emperor's chamber was opened by the guard, who was deceived by an alarm of fire. An act was then read to him, by which he was to acknowledge himself incapable of conducting the government, and surrender it to Alexander. Paul cried out, "I am emperor, and will remain so;" and he was then despatched by the conspirators. Some accounts say that he was strangled in his bed, with his own sash. In the Russian manifesto on the subject, his death was ascribed to apoplexy. (See Châteaugiron's Nolice sur la Mort de Paul, and Carr's Northern Summer.)

PAUL OF VENICE, father, a celebrated ecclesiastic and historian of the sixteenth century, whose proper name was Pietro Sarpi, was born at Venice, August 14, 1552, and was the son of a merchant of that city. He entered young into the religious order of the Servites, in his twentieth year was appointed chaplain to the grand-duke of Mantua, and lecturer or the canon law. After two years, he re turned to Venice, and became provincial of his order. He was afterwards made procurator-general of the Servites. A treacherous correspondent having betrayed a letter of father Paul, in which he had observed, that, so far from coveting the dignities of the court of Rome, he held them in abomination, brought on him the imputation of being a heretic, while his liberal intercourse with eminent Protes

tants contributed to increase the prejudices thus excite. In a dispute between the pope and the Venetian government on the subject of ecclesiastical immunities, father Paul showed himself a strenuous advocate for the cause of liberty, and was summoned to Rome, on pain of excommunication, to answer for his conduct; but the affair was compromised. To the vengeance of his political enemies may be attributed an attempt to assassinate him in 1607; on which occasion he received many dangerous wounds from a band of ruffians. Father Paul employed the latter part of his life in writing the history of the council of Trent, in which he has developed the intrigues connected with the transactions of that famous assembly, with a degree of boldness and veracity, which renders the work one of the most interesting and important productions of the class to which it belongs. The labors of father Paul extended to various branches of knowledge; he was deeply skilled in the canon law, and distinguished for his acquaintance with anatomy. He appears to have discovered the valves of the veins which contribute to facilitate the circulation of the blood. He died January 14, 1622, and is said to have expired after uttering the words Esto perpetua, which have been construed as a prayer for the prosperity of Venice. The history of the council of Trent was first published in London in 1619, having been transmitted to this country through the medium of the English resident at Venice, sir Henry Wotton, a personal friend of the author. The works of father Paul were printed at Verona, 1761 (8 vols., 4to.), and at Naples, 1790 (24 vols., 8vo.).

PAUL THE DEACON, or PAULUS DIACONUS, also called WARNEFRIDUS, and PAULUS MONACHUS, was born at Friuli, in the eighth century, and was educated in the court of the Lombard kings at Pavia. On the capture of Desiderius, the last king of the Lombards, by Charlemagne, he retired to the monastery of Monte Casino, where he took the habit. He wrote a history of the Lombards; and, as he was an eye-witness of many of the events he mentions, his statements are held to be generally correct. It is contained in Muratori's Rerum Italic. Scriptores.

PAUL, ST., Vincent de, the founder of the priests of the mission, born in France, in 1576,studied at Toulouse, and, having been captured by the Turks, remained a considerable time in slavery, during which he converted nis master. On his return to France he became parish priest at

Clichy, and, by the aid of a rich and pious lady, founded a congregation of missions, the members of which were devoted to preaching to the poor, and performing other acts of benevolence and mercy. Their chief seat was the religious house of St. Lazarus, at Paris, whence they were called Lazarites. (q. v.) Vincent de Paul died in 1660, and was canonized in 1737.

PAUL, CHURCHES OF ST. The name of St. Paul belongs to two celebrated churches, one in Rome, the other in London. The former, which stood without the walls of the city, was burnt July 15, 1823; and the latter, Wren's celebrated work, occupies the place of the beautiful Gothic cathedral (consumed in the great conflagration of 1666, which Dugdale and Hollar have described). The church at Rome, in an unhealthy situation, upon the road to Ostia, a league from the city, was one of the four Basilica of Rome, and one of the most important remains of ancient Christian architecture. The first church on this spot is said to have been erected by Constantine, at the request of pope Silvester, upon the place where the apostle Paul was buried. The emperor Theodosius is said to have rebuilt it upon a much extended plan (the cause of the destruction of the first edifice is not meutioned), and following popes completed and adorned it. Even the mosaics upon the outside, the work of Grecian artists, betrayed their early origin: the interior ornaments were probably likewise the work of Greeks, who had fled from the iconoclasts, and taken refuge at Rome. The multitude of magnificent marble pillars, in the interior of the church; the numerous paintings upon the walls; the mosaics upon the principal arch of the central nave; the rafters left visible, made, as report says, of cedar of Lebanon; the floor, composed of various kinds of marble, important to the archeologist on account of the inscriptions found upr it; the great dimensions of the edifice, and a door of 1070 pounds weight, cast at Constantinople,-gave the church a very distinguished place among the public edifices at Rome. The series of likenesses of the popes, 253 in number, which surrounded the interior wall of the principal nave, was particularly valuable. All this was consumed in one night by a fire occasioned by the carelessness of a workman who was repairing the roof. The marble pillars were partially calcined and so far injured, that very few of them could be again used in building

The work of Nicola del Nicolai, Della Basilica di S. Paoli (Rome, 1815, fol.), gives the most accurate description of this building.

St. Paul's Cathedral, in London, upon an eminence to the north of the Thames. After several attempts to repair the old Gothic cathedral on the same spot (burnt in 1666), every trace of it was removed, and a new foundation laid for the present church. The first stone was laid June 21, 1675. In ten years, the walls of the choir and of the side aisles were completed, together with the circular porticoes on the north and south sides. The last and highest stone of the building was placed upon the summit of the lantern in 1710, and soon after the queen and the two houses of parliament attended service in the church. The whole building was completed in hirty-five successive years, under one architect, sir Christopher Wren, one master-mason, Thomas Strong, and one bishop of London, doctor Henry Compton. The building is of Portland stone, in the form of a cross. Two rows of massy pillars divide the interior into a nave and side aisles. The west front towards Ludgate street is very noble. The elevated portico forming the grand entrance consists of twelve Corinthian columns, with an upper portico of eight pillars of the Composite order, supporting a triangular pediment. The entablature represents, in relief, the conversion of St. Paul, a work of Francis Bird. Two turrets adorn the north-western and south-western angles of the cathedral. Upon the south front, which corresponds with the north, is a phoenix rising from the flames, with the motto Resurgam (I shall rise again). The dome is one of the most remarkable points of sight in the view of London. But the interior decoration of this building does not correspond with its exterior magnificence. The pavement is composed of slabs of black and white marble, joined in the manner of a large chess-board, increasing thereby the feeling of vacancy which these vast unornamented walls excite. Captured flags are hung in various parts of the dome and nave. The most favorable view of the interior is from the whispering gallery, in the lower part of the dome. Sir James Thornhill's paintings, illustrative of the most remarkable occurrences in the life of Paul, can be seen to most advantage from this situation. The great bell is tolled only on the death of some member of the royal family, of the lord-mayor, of the bishop of London, and of the dean of the cathedral.

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You reach the ball by 616 steps. To break the uniformity of the interior, it was suggested, in 1790, to erect in the interior, monuments and statues to the illustrious dead. The first was in memory of John Howard (1796). The monument of Nelson, who is buried in a tomb in the middle of the building, is the work of Flaxman. There are monuments also to si W. Jones, earl Howe, sir Joshua Reynolds and others. Over the entrance to the choir, is a marble slab, with this inscription in Latin: "Here reposes Christopher Wren, the builder of this church and city, who lived for more than 90 years, not for his own, but for the public good. Reader, dost thou seek his monument, look around thee." (See Wren.) The cost of this building was about £1,500,000. J. Gwilt has written a history of St. Paul's. In the Illustrations of the public Buildings of London (with historical notices and descriptions of each building), by the architects J. Britton and A. Pugin, we find, in No. I (London, 1823), St Paul's church represented and described.

PAUL VERONESE. (See Cagliari.) PAULETTE. The hereditary succession and venality of almost all the offices in the judicial and financial departments was an abuse deeply interwoven with the whole administration of ancient France, and a source of the most dreadful disorders. In the early period of the monarchy, offices were held only at the pleasure of the king; the consequence was, that on the death of the monarch, all the commissions on which the offices of state depended expired. Hence it was necessary for a confirmation from the new king to be obtained, and this rule was regularly observed, particularly from the time of Henry II; nevertheless, the maxim still remained in force, which Louis XI had pronounced in an ordinance of 1467, that no officer should be discharged but on his own voluntary resignation, or upon judgment had against him. It is uncertain whether Louis XI was the first who made offices in the judicial and financial departments venal; but it is well known that Louis XII adopted this method to defray the expenses of his campaign in Italy. Francis I gave a new character to the offices of the tax-gatherers by selling them, so that the purchase-money might be regarded as a kind of security; and, under Henry II, this venality was extended also to judicial stations. Instead of the former high fices, in which a single man, as grann bailli, sénéchal, &c., had administered all branches of public power, judicial

tribunals were erected with a collegial constitution (sièges présidiaux), in which the dignity of president and counsellor was to be bought with money. Under the succeeding reigns of Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III, this arrangement was continued, although both the estates of the kingdom and the parliaments were strongly opposed to it. The universal venality of office was legally confirmed by an ordinance of 1597, which permitted all officers to resign their places in favor of a third-a thing which had often been done, though never before authorized by law. To put an end to the urgent requests for reversions, the secretary, Charles Paulet, in 1604, devised the plan of granting liberty to all who should pay a yearly tax of one sixtieth, or one and two thirds per cent., of the income of their offices (properly called annuel, but from its inventor, Paulette), to transmit their offices to their heirs, who might either hold them or sell them again. Under the succeeding reign, the abuse of this venality of office became gross. If the government wanted money, a number of new offices were created, and a regular salary from the treasury affixed to them, which was to be viewed as the interest of the purchase money. To hold out further inducements to purchasers, other incomes, such as fees and the like, were added, which generally amounted to much more, and necessarily increased the oppressive taxes of the people. Hence the current price of such offices, partly on account of the fees in addition to the salary, and partly on account of the consequent influence and honor, was much higher than the sum paid for them to the public treasury. This system had, moreover, other disadvantages, besides the oppression of the people. It closed the entrance to offices of state against all who had no recommendation but merit. It augmented the number of state-servants beyond all proportion; it brought high stations into the hands of ignorant and faithless men, and drew away from agriculture and trade the capital necessary for their prosperity. It led, finally, to the unde.inining of the municipal constitutions, which happened near the end of the reign of Louis XIV; for when no more public offices could be established, those of the towns were arbitrarily seized, which had formerly been filled by the vote of all the freemen. In vain did the more worthy ministers strive to cure the daily increasing evil; necessity constantly dragged them back to the old system. In 1664, according to an es

timate made by Colbert, and communi cated to the government by ForbonnaisRecherches sur les Finances de France (An Inquiry into the State of the Finances of France)-it appeared that there were 45,780 venal offices in the judicial and financial departments, the duties of which might be as easily performed by 6000. The salaries attached to them, and paid out of the public treasury, were estimated at over 8 million livres, for which the king received an annuel of only 2,000,000. The whole amount of the drain which they occasioned on the people was estimated at 1874 millions, and the current price of the offices at near 420 millions. Colbert un dertook to diminish the number of offices, but the wars and extravagance of Louis XIV compelled his successor to resort to the same means for procuring money. From 1689 to 1695, 294 millions were thus collected, and from 1701 to 1709, 426 millions. Some attempts were afterwards made to diminish the evil, but, with all its deleterious effects, it continued till the revolution.

PAULICIANS. In the chains of the Caucasus and Taurus, which unite in Armenia, a few of the ancient Manichæans (q. v.) and Gnostics were remaining in the eighth century, who assumed the name of Paulicians, from Paul, their leader, to save themselves from the persecutions to which the Manichæans were always exposed. As iconoclasts, they were favored or persecuted by the Greek emperors, according as the latter were favorable or otherwise to the worship of images, which the Manichæans totally rejected. When their Manichæism was discovered, in the ninth century, they were subjected to violent persecution. Many of them were put to death; others fled to Mohammedan countries, and assisted them in their wars against the Greeks. In the tenth century, the attempts at the conversion of some Paulicians who returned and were fixed in Thrace by John Zimisces, the Greek emperor, were as unsuccessful as the persecutions had been. When the crusades had opened a way to the middle of Europe, different companies of this sect passed into Bulgaria by land, and others into Italy and Spain, by water. Their successors have since appeared in various parts of Europe, under different names. Of Paulician origin

was the doctrine of those devotees resembling the Messalians (q. v.), who were called Bogomiles, on account of their constant use of the expression Bogmilui (in Bulgarian, God have mercy on you) In the