IEG, revolt of the peasantry in the S.
and W. of Germany against the oppression and cruelty of the nobles and
clergy which broke out at different times from 1500 to 1525, and which,
resulting in their defeat, rendered their lot harder than before. The
cause of the Reformation, held answerable for the movement, suffered
damage as well, but indeed the excesses of the insurgents were calculated
to provoke the retribution that was meted out to them.

PECHILI, GULF OF, a great land-locked bay opening in the NW. of the
Yellow Sea, receives the waters of the Hoang-ho, and on opposite tongues
of land at the mouth of it stand Port Arthur and Wei-hai-Wei.

PECKSNIFF, a pronounced hypocrite in Dickens's "Martin Chuzzlewit,"
and who lies and cants whether he is drunk or sober.

PECOCK, REGINALD, bishop in succession of St. Asaph and Chichester,
born in Wales; the author, among other works, of the "Repressor of Over
Much Blaming of the Clergy" and the "Book of Faith"; he wrote on behalf
of the Church against Lollards, but he offended Churchmen as well as the
latter--Churchmen because he agreed with the Lollards in regard to the
Bible as the rule of faith, and the Lollards because he appealed to
reason as the interpreter of the Bible; he displeased the clergy also by
his adoption in theological debate of the mother-tongue, but figures
since in literature as the first English theologian; he was accused of
treating authority with disrespect as well as setting up reason above
revelation, obliged to recant in a most humiliating manner, deprived of
his bishopric, and condemned to solitary confinement, away from his
books, all to a few, and denied the use of writing materials (1390-1460).

PEDRO I., emperor of Brazil, second son of John VI. of Portugal;
reigned from 1822 to 1831, when he abdicated in favour of his son
(1798-1834).

PEDRO II., emperor of Brazil, son of preceding, ascended the throne
in 1831; reigned peacefully till 1889, when a sudden revolution obliged
him to resign, and retire to Europe and take up his abode in France,
where he indulged his taste for science and learning (1825-1891).

PEEBLES, PETER, a character in Scott's "Redgauntlet."

PEEBLESSHIRE (19), a lowland Scottish county bordered by Lanark,
Midlothian, Selkirk, and Dumfries; comprises hilly pastoral land watered
by the upper Tweed; Windlestraw, Hartfell, and Broadlaw are the highest
of its grassy hills; among the lesser rivers are the Leith