PACCANARI, NICOLO: Roman Catholic, founder of the Society of the Faith of Jesus (Baccanarists, Paccanarists); b. at Val Sugana (near Trent, 80 m. s.w. of Innsbruck) about the middle of the eighteenth century; d. after 1809. Originally a merchant, he came under the influence of the Jesuit Gravita at Rome and was inspired, though a layman, to attempt the restoration of the Society of Jesus (see JESUITS), which had been dissolved by Clement XIV. With a few companions Paccanari accordingly founded his society in 1797, imitating the Jesuit organization in detail, and himself being chosen superior. The society was confirmed by Pius VI. in 1798, and the fathers, originally twelve in number, at first resided near Spoleta. By letters. to various ecclesiastical princes of Italy, and by entrusting to the society the education of the students of the propaganda driven from Rome by the French republicans, Pius VI. aided in the rapid growth of the organization. In 1799 the organization was united with the French society of the Holy Heart of Jesus which had taken refuge in Austria, and Paccanari became general superior of the united body, and in 1800 was ordained priest. Though the order spread rapidly from Austria and Italy to France, Belgium, Holland, and England, it soon began to decline. Paccanari lacked administrative ability, and his imperious temper opposed union with the Russian branch of the Jesuits. In 1804, therefore, a number of Italian members went over to the Jesuits who had been restored in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. At the same time the fathers of the society in Holland and England began to migrate to Russia to become Jesuit novices; while the French members of the order fell away from their incapable founder and chose Varin, the second superior of the old Society of the Holy Heart of Jesus, as their head. In 1808 Paccanari was deposed by the holy office from the general superiorship and condemned to ten years in prison. He gained his liberty in the following year, when the French again invaded Rome, but he had lost his importance and henceforth remained unknown.
(O. ZOCKLER.)BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Speil, Leonor Framz von Tournely und die Gesellschaft des heiligen Herzens Jesu, pp. 269 sqq., 313 sqq., Breslau, 1874; A. Guidee, Vie du . . . Joseph Varin, pp. 72 sqq., 169 sqq., Paris, 1860; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, iii. 88 sqq.
PACE, RICHARD: English ecclesiastic, diplomatist, and man of letters; b. at or near Winchester, about 1482; d. at Stepney, in the east of London, 1536. His studies were principally conducted at Padua; and although, on his return, he entered Queen's College, Oxford, he very soon left it for the service of Cardinal Bainbridge, whom he accompanied to Rome at the end of 1509. In May, 1510, he became prebendary of South Muskham, Southwell. In 1514 he became archdeacon of Dorset, in 1519 dean of St. Paul's, and in 1522 dean of
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from the guillotine, which was solely due to the fact that his door in the prison opened outward. It had been marked in token that the occupant of the room was to be executed, but his door being closed for the night the mark was of course not seen by those going through the prison in the early morning to drag out their victims.
On Oct. 30, 1802, he landed once more in America. He found that his friends had so managed his property that it would yield him an income of 400 pounds sterling. So he felt quite rich. But what cut him deeply was to find that the reputation he had made as a patriot had been almost forgotten and at was as the author of The Age of Reason he was known. So great was the popular execration of that book that many who would gladly have shown their appreciation of his great services to the country refused to countenance him on account of it. Hooted upon the streets, lampooned in the newspapers, deserted by his political associates, he lived a wretched existence. He was buried on his farm in New Rochelle, but his remains were removed to England in 1819 by William Cobbett. What became of them is unknown.
If Paine's writings had been only political, he would have been held in honor as a bold and vigorous friend of human liberty. He was extraordinarily fertile in ideas, and broad-minded and progressive. He was in fact a. great genius. His power of speech has always been admired. To him is to be traced the common saying, " These are the times that try men's souls," which is the opening sentence of the first number of The Crisis (which was printed in the Pennsylvania Journal, Dec. 19, 1776). His pamphlet, Common Sense (Jan., 1776), was one of the memorable writings of the day, and helped the cause of Independence. His Rights of Man; being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution is a complete statement of republican principles. But it is as the author of The Age of Reason, an uncompromising, keen, and audar cious attack on the Bible; that be is most widely known, indeed notorious. The first part of this work was handed by him, while on his way to prison in the Luxembourg, to his friend Joel Barlow, and appeared, London and Paris, Mar., 1794; the second part, composed while in prison, Dm, 1795; the third was left in manuscript.' "His ignorance," says Leslie Stephen, " was vast, and his language brutal; but he had the gift of a true demagogue,the power of wielding a fine vigorous English, a fit vehicle for fanatical passion." Pains was not an atheist, but a deist. In his will he speaks of his " reposing confidence in my Creator-God and in no other being; for I know no other, nor believe in any other." He voiced current doubt, and is still formidable; because, although he attacks a gross misconception of Christianity, he does it in such a manner as to turn his reader, in many cases, away from any serious consideration of the claim of Christianity. His Age of Reason is still circulated and read. The replies written at the time are not. Of
I It was never published in.its entirety, but out of it was made two separate publications, Answer to the Bishop of Lfauda9,, and ,Examination of Prophecies (in Conway's ed., iv. 258-289, 368-420),.
these replies the most famous is Bishop Watson's (1796).
The personal character of Paine has been very severely judged. Nothing too bad about him could be said by those who hated him for his opinions, and even his friends are compelled to admit that there was foundation for the damaging charges. Comparison of the contemporary biographies, both of friends and foes, seems to show these facts: Paine was through life a harsh, unfeeling, vain, conceited, and disagreeable man. He was wanting in a sense of honor, and therefore could not be trusted. But it was not until after his return from France, when he was sixty-five years old, very much broken by his long sufferings and the strain of the great excitement in which he had lived for years, and for the first time in his life above want, that he developed those traits which rendered him in his last days such a miserable object. The charges of matrimonial infidelity and of seduction are doubtless unfounded; but that he was in his old age penurious, uncleanly, and drunken, may be accepted as true. He did a great service for the United States in her hour of peril; but he lived to forfeit the respect of the Christian world.
His complete Works have been several times published, e.g., 3 vols., Boston, 1856; New York, 1860; London, 1861. But the edition which supersedes all others and is really exhaustive and satisfactorily edited is The Writings of Thomas Paine, collected and edited by Moncure Daniel Conway (4 vols., New York and London, 1894-96). His Age of Reason has been repeatedly published, e.g., New York, 1876; and his Theological Works (complete), New York, 1860.
BIBLroaRAPH7: His Life has been written by F. Oldye (pseudonym for George Chalmers), London, 1791, continued by W. Cobbett, 1796 (abusive); J. Cheetham, New York, 1809 (written by one who knew him in his last days; this is the source of all the damaging stories about Paine; Cheetham meant to be fair, yet was prejudiced); T. C. Rickman, London, 1814 (apologetic, but honest, a good corrective of Chedtham's exaggerations. Rickman speaks with propriety and moderation, was friendly to Paine, but is compelled to give him, on the whole, a bad character); W. T. Sherwin, London, 1819 (apologetic); J. S. Harford, Bristol, 1820; G. Vale, New York, 1841 (apologetic); Chary Blanchard, New York, 1860 (a thoroughgoing defense of Paine, written in a careless style, and interlarded with irrelevant and questionable matter; it is prefixed to the edition of Paine's Theological Works mentioned above). But the definitive life is by Moncure Daniel Conway, 2 vols., New York and London, 1892, Fr. trawl., which supplies some additional information, Paris, 1900. It is the work of a historian, who greatly admired Paine, but is not blind to his faults in later years. In it is printed the sketch of Paine found among the papers of William Cobbett which corrects that noticed above and is laudatory. Consult also: G. J. Holyoake: Essay on the Chaff and Services of Paine, New York, 1878; L. Stephen, History of English Thought, i . 458-464, ii. 260264, 2 vols., London, 1881; J. B. Daly, Radical Pioneers of the 18th Century, ib. 1886; Life and Writings of Thomas Paine, Containing a Biography by T. C. Rickman, and Appredatiom by Leslie Stephen, Lord Erskine, Paul Des jardins, R . (t. Ingersoll, MM Hubbard, and Manila M. Riaker. Ed. D. E. Wheeler, New York, 1909.
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