Chapter Perillos and the Brazen Bull to Peter of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Persecutions (The ten great). (1) Under Nero, A.D. 64; (2) Domitian, 95; (3) Trajan, 98; (4) Hadrian, 118; (5) Pertinax, 202, chiefly in Egypt; (6) Maximin, 236; (7) Decius, 249; (8) Valerian, 257; (9) Aurelian, 272; (10) Diocletian, 302.

“It would be well if these were the only religious persecutions; but, alas! those on the other side prove the truth of the Founder. “I came not to send peace [on earth], but a sword” (Matt. x. 34). Witness the long and relentless perscutions of the Waldenses and Albigenses, the six or seven crusades, the wars of Charlemagne against the Saxons, and the thirty years' war of Germany. Witness, again, the persecution of the Guises, the Bartholomew slaughter, the wars of Louis XIV, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the Dragonnades, and the wars against Holland. Witness the bitter rersecutions stirred up by Luther, which spread to England and Scotland. No wars so lasting, so relentless, so bloody as religious wars. It has been no thin red line.

Persepolis called by the Persians “The Throne of Jam- sheid,” by whom it was founded. Jam-sheid removed the seat of government from Balk to Istakhar.

Perseus (2 syl.). A bronze statue in the Loggia dei Lanzi, at Florence. The best work of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1562).
   Perseus' flying horse. A ship.

“Perseus conquered the head of Medusa, and did make Pegase, the most swift ship, which he always calls Perseus' flying horse.”- Destruction of Troy.

“The strong-ribbed bark through liquid mountains cut ...
Like Perseus' horse.”
Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida, i. 3.

Persevere (3 syl.). This word comes from an obsolete Latin verb, severo (to stick rigidly); hence severus (severe or rigid). Asseverate is to stick rigidly to what you say; persevere is to stick rigidly to what you undertake till you have accomplished it. (Per-severo.)

Persian Alexander (The). Sandjar (1117-1158). (See Alexander .)

Persian Bucephalos (The). Shebdiz, the charger of Chosroes Parviz. (See Bucephalos .)

Person (Latin, persona, a mask; personatus, one who wears a mask, an actor). A “person” is one who impersonates a character. Shakespeare says, “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players” or persons. When we speak of the “person of the Deity” we mean the same thing, the character represented, as that of the Father, or that of the Son, or that of the Holy Ghost. There is no more notion of corporeality connected with the word than there is any assumption of the body of Hamlet when an actor impersonates that character.

Persona Grata (Latin). An acceptable person; one liked.

“The Count [Münster] is not a persona grata at court, as the royal family did not relish the course he took in Hanoverian affairs in 1866.”- Truth, October 22nd, 1885.

Perth is Celtic for a bush. The county of Perth is the county of bushes.
   Fair Maid of Perth. Catherine Glover, daughter of Simon Glover, glover, of Perth. Her lover is Henry Gow, alias Henry Smith, alias Gow Chrom, alias Hal of the Wynd, the armourer, foster-son of Dame Shoolbred. (Sir Walter Scott: Fair Maid of Perth.
   The Five Articles of Perth were those passed in 1618 by order of James VI., enjoining the attitude of kneeling to receive the elements; the observance of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost; the right of confirmation, etc. They were ratified August 4, 1621, called Black Saturday, and condemned in the General Assembly of Glasgow in 1638.

Peru That's not Peru. Said of something utterly worthless. A French expression, founded on the notion that Peru is the El Dorado of the world.

Peruvian Bark called also Jesuit's Bark, because it was introduced into Spain by the Jesuits. “Quinine,” from the same tree, is called by the Indians quinquina. (See Cinchona.)