Chapter Pickwickian to Pig of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

of society, the dissoluteness of the clergy, and the allurements to sin, with considerable bitterness. The author is supposed to be Robert or William Langland.

Pieta' A representation of the Virgin Mary embracing the dead body of her Son. Filial or parental love was called piety by the Romans. (See Pious .)

Pietists A sect of Lutherans in the seventeenth century, who sought to introduce a more moral life and a more “evangelical” spirit of doctrine into the reformed church. In Germany the word Pietist is about equal to our vulgar use of Methodist.

Pietro (2 syl.). The putative father of Pompilia, criminally assumed as his child to prevent certain property from passing to an heir not his own. (Robert Browning: The Ring and the Book, ii. 580.) (See Ring .)

Pig (The) was held sacred by the ancient Cretans, because Jupiter was suckled by a sow; it was immolated in the mysteries of Eleusis; was sacrificed to Hercules, to Venus, the Lares (2 syl.), and all those who sought relief from bodily ailments. The sow was sacrificed to Ceres (2 syl.), “because it taught men to turn up the earth;” and in Egypt it was slain on grand weddings on account of its fecundity.