the epistles of Ignatius. In his youth P.
was a Royalist, and acted in 1645 as a chaplain in the Royal army. He was
one of the commissioners in the Savoy Conference.

PECOCK, REGINALD (1395?-1460?).--Theologian, _b._ in Wales, entered the
Church, and rose to be successively Bishop of St. Asaph 1444, and of
Chichester 1450. He was a strenuous controversialist, chiefly against the
Lollards; but his free style of argument, and especially his denial of
the infallibility of the Church, led him into trouble, and on being
offered the choice of abjuration or death at the stake, he chose the
former, but nevertheless was deprived of his bishopric, had his books
burned, and spent his latter days in the Abbey of Thorney,
Cambridgeshire. His chief work is _The Repressor of overmuch blaming of
the Clergy_ (1455), which, from its clear, pointed style, remains a
monument of 15th century English. _The Book of Faith_ (1456) is another
of his writings.

PEELE, GEORGE (1558?-1597?).--Dramatist and poet, _s._ of a salter in
London, _ed._ at Christ's Hospital and Oxf., where he had a reputation as
a poet. Coming back to London about 1581 he led a dissipated life. He
appears to have been a player as well as a playwright, and to have come
into possession of some land through his wife. His works are numerous and
consist of plays, pageants, and miscellaneous verse. His best plays are
_The Arraignment of Paris_ (1584), and _The Battle of Alcazar_ (1594),
and among his poems _Polyhymnia_ (1590), and _The Honour of the Garter_
(1593). Other works are _Old Wives' Tale_ (1595), and _David and Fair
Bethsabe_ (1599). P. wrote in melodious and flowing blank verse, with
abundance of fancy and brilliant imagery, but his dramas are weak in
construction, and he is often bombastic and extravagant.

PENN, WILLIAM (1644-1718).--Quaker apologist, _s._ of Sir William P., a
celebrated Admiral, was _b._ in London, and _ed._ at Oxf., where he
became a Quaker, and was in consequence expelled from the Univ. His
change of views and his practice of the extremest social peculiarities
imposed by his principles led to a quarrel with his _f._, who is said to
have turned him out of doors. Thereafter he began to write, and one of
his books, _The Sandy Foundation Shaken_ (_c._ 1668), in which he
attacked the doctrines of the Trinity, the atonement, and justification
by faith, led to his being, in 1668, imprisoned in the Tower, where he
wrote his most popular work, _N