Canterbury, born at Stourton
Castle, Staffordshire, of royal blood; studied at Oxford; took holy
orders, and was appointed to various benefices by Henry VIII., who held
him in high favour; but he opposed the project of divorcing Catherine,
and was driven from the royal presence and deprived of his power; but
elected to the cardinalate by the Pope, he tried to return after Henry's
death, but was not received back till Mary's accession, when he came as
Papal legate, and was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury after the death
of Cranmer, whom he refused to supersede as long as he lived; he was not
obsequious enough to the Pope, and his legation was cancelled; the
Queen's illness accelerated his own end, and he died the day after her;
he has been charged with abetting the Marian persecution, but it is
highly questionable how far he was answerable for it (1506-1558).

POLE-STAR or POLARIS, a star in the northern hemisphere, in
Ursa Minor, the nearest conspicuous one to the N. pole of the heavens,
from which it is at present 11/2 deg. distant; a straight line joining the two
"pointers" in Ursa Major passes nearly through it.

POLIGNAC, DUC DE and DUCHESS DE, husband and wife; were
chargeable with the extravagances of the court of Louis XVI., and were
the first to emigrate at the outbreak of the Revolution, the former dying
in 1817 and the latter in 1793.

POLIGNAC, PRINCE DE, French statesman, born at Versailles, of an old
noble family, prime minister of Charles X., to whose fall he contributed
by his arbitrary measures; in attempting flight at the Revolution was
captured and sentenced to death, which was converted into banishment; he
was allowed to return at length (1780-1847).

POLITIAN, ANGELO, eminent Italian scholar, born in Tuscany; was
patronised by Lorenzo de' Medici, was made professor of Greek and Latin
at the university of Florence, his fame in which capacity drew to his
class students from all parts of Europe; he did much to forward the
Renaissance movement, and was distinguished as a poet no less than as a
scholar; he became a priest towards the close of his life (1454-1494).

POLITICAL ECONOMY, the name given to the modern _soi-disant_ science
concerned with the production, distribution, and exchange of wealth,
against the relevancy of which to the economics of the world Ruskin has,
for most part in vain, during the last forty years emitted a scornful
protest, affirming that this is "mercantile" and