PERCY, THOMAS, English prelate and antiquary, born at Bridgenorth, Shropshire, the son of a grocer; devoted himself to the collection of old ballads, and published in 1765 “Reliques of Ancient English Poetry”; he published also ballads of his own, among them “The Hermit of Warkworth,” and was the author of “O Nannie, wilt thou gang wi’ me?” he associated with Johnson, Burke, and other notables of the period, and was a member of Dr. Johnson’s Literary Club; became bishop of Dromore in 1782, where he was held in affectionate regard; was blind for some years before he died (1729-1811).

PERDICCAS, a favourite general of Alexander the Great, who, when on his deathbed, took his signet ring off his finger and gave it to him; he became an object of distrust after Alexander’s death, and was assassinated in Egypt.

PEREIRA, JONATHAN, pharmacologist, born in London; author of the “Elements of Materia Medica,” a standard work; was examiner on the subject in London University (1804-1853).

PEREKOP, ISTHMUS OF, connects the Crimea with the S. of Russia; is pierced by a ship-canal.

PEREZ, ANTONIO, Spanish statesman, and minister of Philippe II., born in Aragon; was the tool of the king in the murder of Escoveda, the confidant of John of Austria; was convicted of betraying State secrets and imprisoned, but escaped; being in possession of royal secrets, which he published, Philippe tried every means to arrest him, but Perez evaded capture, and found refuge in France, where he died in poverty (1539-1611).

PERFECTIONISM, the doctrine that moral perfection is by divine grace attainable in the present life.

PERFECTIONISTS, an American sect or society founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 at Oneida, New York State, on Communistic principles, but owning no law save that of the Spirit, and subject to no criticism but the judgment they freely passed on one another, a system which they were obliged to modify in 1880 so far as to recognise the rights of matrimony and the family, and to adopt the principle of a joint-stock limited liability company, on which lines the community is proving a prosperous one.

PERGAMOS, the citadel of Troy, a name frequently given by the poets to the city itself.

PERGAMOS, an ancient city of Mysia, in Asia Minor; founded by a colony of Greek emigrants in 3rd century B.C., and eventually the centre of a province of the name, which was subject for a time to Macedonia, but threw off the yoke and became independent, till it became a Roman province by bequest on the part of Attalus III. in 133 B.C.  The city possessed a library second only to that of Alexandria, contained one of the seven churches mentioned in the Revelation, and gave its name to parchment, alleged to have been invented there.

PERI, in the Eastern mythology a fairy being of surpassing beauty, begotten of fallen spirits, and excluded from Paradise, but represented as leading a life of pleasure and endowed with immortality; there were male Peris as well as female, and they were intermediate between angels and demons.