PILCOMAYO, a tributary of the Rio Paraguay, in South America, which it joins after a course of 1700 miles from its source in the Bolivian Andes.

PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE, a rising in the northern counties of England in 1536 against the policy of Cromwell, Henry VIII.’s Chancellor, in regard to the temporalities of the Church, which, though concessions were made to it that led to its dispersion, broke out afresh with renewed violence, and had to be ruthlessly suppressed.

PILGRIM FATHERS, the name given to the Puritans, some 100 in all, who sailed from Plymouth in the Mayflower in 1620 and settled in Massachusetts, carrying with them “the life-spark of the largest nation on our earth.”

PILLAR-SAINTS, a class of recluses, called Stylites, who, in early Christian times, retired from the world to the Syrian Desert, and, perched on pillars, used to spend days and nights in fasting and praying, in the frantic belief that by mortification of their bodies they would ensure the salvation of their souls; their founder was Simon, surnamed Stylites; the practice, which was never allowed in the West, continued down to the 12th century.

PILLARS OF HERCULES.  See HERCULES, PILLARS OF.

PILLORY, an obsolete instrument of punishment for centuries in use all over Europe, consisted of a platform, an upright pole, and at a convenient height cross-boards with holes, in which the culprit’s neck and wrists were placed and fastened; so fixed he was exposed in some public place to the insults and noxious missiles of the mob.  Formerly in England the penalty of forgery, perjury, &c., it became after the Commonwealth a favourite punishment for seditious libellers.  It was last inflicted in London in 1830, and was abolished by law in 1837.

PILOTY, KARL VON, a modern German painter of the new Muenich school, and professor of Painting at the Muenich Academy; did portraits, but his masterpieces are on historical subjects, such as “Nero on the ruins of Rome,” “Galileo in Prison,” “The Death of Caesar,” &c.; he was no less eminent as a teacher of art than as an artist (1826-1886).

PILSEN (50), a town in Bohemia, 67 m.  SW. of Prague; has numerous industries, and rich coal and iron mines, and produces an excellent beer, which it exports in large quantities.  It was an important place during the Thirty Years’ War.

PINDAR, the greatest lyric poet of Greece, and for virgin purity of imagination ranked by Ruskin along with Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Scott; born near Thebes, in Boeotia, of a musical family, and began his musical education by practice on the flute, while he was assisted in his art by the example of his countrywoman Corinna, who competed with and defeated him more than once at the public festivals; he was a welcome visitor at the courts of all the Greek princes of the period, and not the less honoured that he condescended to no flattery and attuned his lyre to no sentiment but