B20
PUCII
PULCHEKIA
double coenobite establishment remained toTheodoret’s time, and he gives a record of itssuccessive provosts. (Theod. ltd. Hist. c. v.)
[E. V.]
PUCH, a “comes,” residing at a township(“ villa ”) about two miles from the monasteryof Inderauuda (i.e. Inderwood, perh.=In DeiraWood), afterwards named Beverley, while Johnbishop of York, Joannes (201) Beverlacensis,Avas living there in retirement (i.e. 718-721),and Berchthun was abbat. Puch becomes knownto us from the following incident related by Bede(H. E. v. 4) in the words of Berchthun, who wasBede’s personal friend. Puch’s wife, sufferingunder an acute disorder, had been three weeks con-fined to her room when the bishop, upon Puch’sinvitation, came from Inderauuda accompanied bythe abbat, to consecrate a church close by, erected,as we should infer, by Puch himself. After theconsecration the bishop was bent on returning tohis monastery, but overcome by the entreatiesof Puch and Berchthun remained at the villa todine. One of his attendants carrying from himsome of the holy water which had been employedat the consecration to the sick lady for her touse both as a medicine and a lotion, she forth-with arose cured, and ministered to the guestsduring their repast. Folchard’s Life of St. Johnof Beverley places Puch’s villa at South Burton(Boll. Acta SS. Mai. ii. 170 b). An anonymouslife of the same bishop seen and described byLeland ( Collect. iii. 155, Hearne’s vol. iv. 100)also makes Puch possessed of a manor at SouthBurton, not far from Beverley, and furtheradds that his daughter Yolfrida became a nun•# at Beverley, where she died March 13, 742, andwas buried, and that her father bestowed withher the manor of Walkington upon the monas-tery. The same statement occurs without re-ference to the source in Dugdale (vol. i. p. 170,ed. 1682), and in the modern edition of theMonasticon (ii. 127). South Burton (also calledBishop Burton) is a likely spot for Puch’s town-ship; it is two miles west of Beverley, and itsantiquity is attested by three circumstances.Sepulchral tumuli abound in the neighbourhood,an ancient road of Roman date has been found tohave run between the spot and Beverley(Oliver’s Beverley , pp. 5, 13); and two Romantesselated pavements in two separate fields werediscovered there about 1721, as narrated inGent’s Beverley , 1733, p, 77. Kemble in hisessay on The Names of Anglosaxons, p. 85 (inthe volume Proceedings at Winchester , Sept.1845, of the Archaeological Institute of G. B.and I.), reckons Puch among the names of theAnglo-Saxon period allied to Cymric or Pictishroots, suggesting a not inconsiderable admixtureof blood between the conquerors and the natives,instancing also the names of Pecthelm (Bed.v. 23), Padda (iv. 13), Oiddi (*&.), Pehtat {Cod.Dipl. 34) occurring in this dictionary. Wemay further remark that Puch survives nearlyunaltered, both in the common Welsh namePugh, and in that of Pook which occurs inDevonshire. [C. H.]
PUDENS (1), a pro-consul of Africa, whofavoured the Christians and discouraged perse-cution at the end of the 2nd century (Tertull.Ad. Soap. 4; Tillem. iii. 127). [G. T. S.]
PUDENS (2), a soldier, who guarded th«martyr Perpetua and her companions. He wasconverted by them, and received a ring fromSaturus bathed in his blood. A Pudens was com-memoi ated in the ancient Carthaginian calendaron April 29, with whom our martyr may havebeen identical (Passio S3. Perpetme et Felicit.e - vi -)* [G.T.S.]
PUDENS (3), a friend of Sidonius Apolli-naris, who addressed him (lib. v. ep. 19) inreference to a crime committed by one of hisserfs (Tillem. xvi. 206). [C. H.]
PUDENTIANA. [Praxedis,]
PUDENTIANUS, bishop of Cuicul (if thatis its name, for none but oblique cases occur) inNumidia, between Sitifis and Milevum; recentlymade a bishop, and on that ground voting withthe majority in Syn. Carth. sub Cyp. vii. deBap. iii. suftr. 71. The city was a very fine one,as notices of it and its remains and numerousinscriptions indicate. It is called a “respublica”and a “colonia.” It had bishops till after themiddle of the sixth century. Now Djemila.
[E. W. B.]
PULCHERIA (X), daughter of TheodosiusI. She died in 385, aged six years. Gregory ofNyssa delivered an eloquent funeral oration overher [Gregorius (15)] (Greg. Nyss. Opp t. ii.p. 946 ; Ceill. vi. 210). [G. T. S.]
PULCHEKIA (2), Sep. 10, daughter ofthe emperor Arcadius and sister of Theo-dosius II. She acted as guardian of the latter,and practically ruled the eastern empire formany years. Her secular history will be foundin the Dictionary of Greek and Poman Biography ,her religious history alone will therefore herebe told. She must have been a precocious youngperson, as she was only two years older than herbrother, whose education she superintended,having been born Jan. 19, 399. She wasdeclared Augusta and Empress July 4, 414, andat once entrusted with the management ofaffairs. She was learned and vigorous, couldspeak and write Latin and Greek, personallyinvestigated the affairs of state, directed muchattention to religion, and brought up her brotherin the strictest orthodoxy (Soz. H. E. ix. 1).She was a correspondent of St. Cyril during theNestorian controversy, two letters are stillextant addressed by him to her in the year430, requesting her assistance (see Mansi, iv.618-883). [Cyril.] Twenty years later againshe had a long correspondence with pope Leoand his archdeacon Hilarius on the subject ofEutyches and the Monophysite heresy (seeMansi, tt. v. vi. vii.) [Leo (5) in t. iii. p. 657-659; Hilaries (18)]. We possess also an epistleof hers addressed to the Palestinian monks indefence of the council of Chalcedon, and anotherto one Bessa, abbess of a convent at Jerusalem,on the same topic. Bishops and clergy fromevery part of the empire appealed to her and onevery subject. Theodoret (Ep. 43) wrote to herin 445 about the taxation of his episcopal cityof Cyrrhus ; the clergy of Ephesus, in 448, con-cerning the episcopate of Bassianus. Pulchenahad in early life taken a vow of virginity inconjunction with her sisters, Arcadia andMarina. In 450 she was obliged to assume thegovernment of the empire, and feeling herself