PATRON

From Agepedia

PATRON ; in general, a protector. The Latin patronus signified, in the Roman republic, a patrician, who had plebeians, called clients, under his immediate protection, and whose interests he supported by his authority and influence. (See Patricians.) Jus patronatus signifies, in the Roman law, the right which a master retains over a freed slave. When Rome had reduced many nations under her yoke, noble Romans were sometimes the patrons of whole cities and provinces, and such patronage even descended by inheritance in some families. Thus the patronage over the Lacedaemonians was vested in the family of the Claudii; that of the Sicilians in the family of the Marcellian arrangement which, in so crude a state of politics, was not without beneficial consequences, Patron was also the title of every advocate who represented the interest of another, his client (patronus causarum). Patron, in the canon or common law, denotes a person who founds or endows i church or benefice, and reserves to himself the right of patronage, i. e. the right of disposing of it. (See Mvowson.) The right of patronage was introduced among Christians towards the close of the fourth century, with the view of encouraging the opulent to erect churches, by giving them the privilege of appointing the ministers to officiate in them. Lay patronage is a right attached to a person either as founder or as heir of the founder, or as possessor of the, see to which the patronage is annexed. Ecvcesiastical patronage is that which a person is entitled to by virtue of some benefice which he holds. PATUCKET. (See Pawtucket.) PAUL, an apostle, was born of Jewish parents, at Tarsus, in Cilicia, and inherited the rights of a Roman citizen. He received a learned education, and early went to Jerusalem, to study under Gamaliel, one of the most celebrated Jewish Rabbins in the time of our Savior, who instructed him in the Jewish laws and traditions. He was also well acquainted with the Greek poets and philosophers, as his Epistles show, and learned a trade (probably that of a maker of tents and hangings), according to the custom of the Jewish teachers, by which he afterwards supported himself in his travels. Thus prepared for the office of teacher, he joined, a few years after the death of Jesus, the sect of the Pharisees, and became a persecutor of the Christians ; to crush whom the sanhedrim employed him, both in and out of Jerusalem. The Acts of the Apostles contains several instances of the heat of his zeal in this cruel work, upon which he entered from his attachment to the law of his fathers. He was even on his way to Damascus, with full power from the chief priests to arrest the Christians, when he was led, by a miracle (Acts ix and xxii), to view Christianity in a different light, and to seek a personal knowledge of the excellence of the religion from the instructions of Christian teachers. This sudden conversion, effected by the divine interposition, was indicated by the change of his name from Saul to Paul, and he engaged in the work of an apostle with an ardor that overcame every difficulty. Arabia, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and the islands of the Mediterranean, were the scenes of his unwearied activity in promulgating the doctrines of Christianity. In all his journeys he labored to establish new churches and to confirm the faith of those already existing. He made himself useful to the churches of Antioch, Ephesus and Jerusalem, by instructing them, by arranging their ceremonies, and collecting alms for the poorer members. The churches of Philippi, in Macedonia, of Corinth, Galatia and Thessalonica, honored him as their founder , and the Epistles in the New Testament, which he wrote to these churches, and to the churches in the chief cities of Greece and asia Minor, and to Rome, show the paternal relation in which he stood to them, and the paternal care which he exercised over them. By admitting the Gentiles to a participation in the blessings of Christianity, without requiring them to submit to the Jewish rites, he promoted the progress of Christianity far more than the other apostles, who at first baptized none but their own countrymen. But this conduct exposed him to the hatred of the Jews, who persecuted him as an apostate ; and every thing at Jerusalem was prepared for his destruction. In the 60th year of1 the Christian era, after laboring with unwearied zeal, for more than twenty years, to spread the doctrines of Jesus, he boldly went to Jerusalem with the money which he had collected for the support of the oppressed Christians in Palestine. He was there arrested and brought to Csesarea, where he was kept a prisoner for two years by the Roman governors, Festus and Felix. The fearless spirit with which he explained his whole conduct, excited the same admiration which had been produced in the Areopagus and among the wise men of Athens (where Dionysius, the Areopagite, became one of his adherents), by his enthusiastic eloquence. Having been illegally imprisoned, he appealed, as a Roman citizen, to the emperor, and was sent to Rome. He was shipwrecked at Malta (see Mclita), and in the spring of the year 62, arrived at the capital of the world. He was treated with respect, but as a prisoner of state, and gained over many distinguished Romans to the Christian faith. It is certain that he was set free in the year 64; but the account of his further travels in Spain, Britain, Macedonia, Greece, and the borders of Asia, is founded solely on conjecture. In the year 66, Paul returned to Rome, was again arrested, and died the death of a martyr. The history of no apostle is so rich in remarkable events, hardships and sufferings, as that of this great man. Even the enemies of the religion for which he lived and died, could not deny the gifts of his mind, his deep and extensive knowledge, profound understanding of the nature of religion, richness and acuteness of thought, and a talent for teaching, which combined elegance, perspicuity and fervor.