[Pole, Reginald], cardinal, archbishop of Canterbury, born at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, of royal blood; studied at Oxford; took holy orders, and was appointed to various benefices by Henry VIII., who held him in high favour; but he opposed the project of divorcing Catherine, and was driven from the royal presence and deprived of his power; but elected to the cardinalate by the Pope, he tried to return after Henry's death, but was not received back till Mary's accession, when he came as Papal legate, and was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury after the death of Cranmer, whom he refused to supersede as long as he lived; he was not obsequious enough to the Pope, and his legation was cancelled; the Queen's illness accelerated his own end, and he died the day after her; he has been charged with abetting the Marian persecution, but it is highly questionable how far he was answerable for it (1506-1558).
[Pole-star] or Polaris, a star in the northern hemisphere, in Ursa Minor, the nearest conspicuous one to the N. pole of the heavens, from which it is at present 1½° distant; a straight line joining the two "pointers" in Ursa Major passes nearly through it.
[Polignac, Duc de] and Duchess de, husband and wife; were chargeable with the extravagances of the court of Louis XVI., and were the first to emigrate at the outbreak of the Revolution, the former dying in 1817 and the latter in 1793.
[Polignac, Prince de], French statesman, born at Versailles, of an old noble family, prime minister of Charles X., to whose fall he contributed by his arbitrary measures; in attempting flight at the Revolution was captured and sentenced to death, which was converted into banishment; he was allowed to return at length (1780-1847).
[Politian, Angelo], eminent Italian scholar, born in Tuscany; was patronised by Lorenzo de' Medici, was made professor of Greek and Latin at the university of Florence, his fame in which capacity drew to his class students from all parts of Europe; he did much to forward the Renaissance movement, and was distinguished as a poet no less than as a scholar; he became a priest towards the close of his life (1454-1494).
[Political Economy], the name given to the modern soi-disant science concerned with the production, distribution, and exchange of wealth, against the relevancy of which to the economics of the world Ruskin has, for most part in vain, during the last forty years emitted a scornful protest, affirming that this is "mercantile" and not "political economy at all," which he insists is the "economy of a state or of citizens," consisting "simply in the production and distribution at fittest time and place of useful or pleasurable things ... a science which teaches nations to desire and labour for the things that lead to life, and to scorn and destroy those that lead to destruction ... though, properly speaking, it is neither an art nor a science, but a system of conduct and legislature, founded on the sciences, directing the arts, and impossible, except under certain conditions of moral culture," with which last, however, the modern political economists maintain their science has nothing whatever to do.
[Poliziano]. See [Politian].
[Polk, James Knox], eleventh President of the United States, of Irish descent; admitted to the bar in 1820, entered Congress in 1825, became President in 1844, his term of office having been signalised by the annexation of Texas and California (1795-1849).
[Pollio, Caius Asinius], orator, historian, and poet, born at Rome; sided with Cæsar against Pompey, and after the death of the former with Antony; was a patron of letters and the friend of Virgil and Horace, both of whom dedicated poems to him; he was the first to establish a public library in Rome (76 B.C. to A.D. 4).
[Pollock, Sir Edward], an eminent English judge, born in London, contemporary of Brougham, a Tory in politics, represented Huntingdon, was twice over Attorney-General, became Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1844, and made a baronet on his retirement from the bench (1783-1870).