VOLUME

ORGANIZED KNOWLEDGE

PETER'S PENCE, the name applied in the Roman Catholic Church to voluntary offerings for the support of the Pope. It is of medieval origin, said to have originated in England, from which it spread to the Continent. The Seventh Provincial Council (Baltimore, 1849) approved the collection of Peter's pence in the United States.

PETER THE HERMIT (about 1050-1115), a monk of Amiens, the famous preacher of the first of the Crusades, primarily responsible for one of the most gigantic religious movements the world ever saw (see illustration, page 1651). He was born in the diocese of Amiens, but little is known of his life from that time until 1095, when he began in his preaching to declare the necessity of a crusade to wrest the Holy Land from the infidel.

Convinced that it was his mission to inspire men to regain possession of Palestine, he rode about France on mule back, dressed in a monk's cloak of rough cloth and bearing in his hand a crucifix. In 1096 he set out toward Palestine with about 30,000 undisciplined followers, mostly from the poorer classes. They straggled on through Europe, but after crossing the Bosporus into Asia Minor proved so unruly that Peter left them and joined the army of Godfrey de Bouillon. He had a part in the capture of Jerusalem, and in July, 1099, preached on the Mount of Olives.

Consult Goodsell's Peter the Hermit.

PETITION, pe tish'un, a formal written request soliciting some right, grant or favor, made to a legislative body or to an official who has power to grant such request. Petitions were first presented to secure purely private ends, but such requests are now frequently presented to the courts to bring attention to special matters. In such cases it is a rule that an affidavit must also be made that the facts presented are true as far as known to the petitioner. The right of petition is one of the fundamental privileges of a free people, and is regarded by them as a national right. It lies within the discretion of the executive or legislative body to

decide how such petitions shall be received, as no formal method has ever been provided for their reception.

PETITION OF RIGHT, a petition presented by the English Parliament in 1628 to Charles I, demanding that the king cease the practices of taxing the people without consent of Parliament, quartering soldiers in private houses, establishing martial law and imprisoning citizens without legal proceedings. Accustomed as all citizens of the United States and Canada are to-day to constitutional government, the great importance of this petition is not realized unless one calls to mind the long conflict between Charles I and Parliament, which ended with the execution of the king in 1649. Imbued with ideas of absolutism and the divine right of kings, Charles endeavored to make Parliament an instrument to accomplish his autocratic purposes. Had he succeeded, constitutional government, as now known, might not exist to-day. He dissolved one Parliament and adjourned another because of their refusal to vote supplies unless he would promise to consider their grievances and grant redress.

In the meantime, he attempted to impose his own will in government matters, commanded Parliament not to meddle in affairs of state, and asserted that parliaments existed only at the pleasure of the king. But the king needed money to conduct affairs, and the only way he could raise the necessary funds was to get the Commons to vote appropriations. Accordingly, Parliament met in adjourned session early in 1628. Again there was refusal to vote supplies until the king would promise redress of grievances. To make its position clear the Parliament drew up a petition to the king. It was a restatement of official and public rights, the same principles that had been set forth in Magna Charta, that had received the sanction of centuries of use and found expression in numerous acts of Parliament. The necessities of the king were so great that he ultimately accepted and signed the petition, but he had no intention of adhering to its provisions. This petition served to solidify sentiment in Eng