PASCAL, BLAISE, illustrious French thinker and writer, born at Clermont, in Auvergne; was distinguished at once as a mathematician, a physicist, and a philosopher; at 16 wrote a treatise on conic sections, which astonished Descartes; at 18 invented a calculating machine; he afterwards made experiments in pneumatics and hydrostatics, by which his name became associated with those of Torricelli and Boyle; an accident which befell him turned his thoughts to religious subjects, and in 1654 he retired to the convent of PORT ROYAL (q. v.), where he spent as an ascetic the rest of his days, and wrote his celebrated “Provincial Letters” in defence of the Jansenists against the Jesuits, and his no less famous “Pensees,” which were published after his death; “his great weapon in polemics,” says Prof.  Saintsbury, “is polite irony, which he first brought to perfection, and in the use of which he has hardly been equalled, and has certainly not been surpassed since” (1623-1662).

PAS-DE-CALAIS, the French name for the Strait of Dover; also the name of the adjacent department of France.

PASHA, a Turkish title, originally bestowed on princes of the blood, but now extended to governors of provinces and prominent officers in the army and navy.

PASIPHAE, the wife of MINOS (q. v.) and mother of the
MINOTAUR (q. v.).

PASKIEVITCH, a Russian general, born at Poltava; took part in repelling the French in 1812, defeated the Persians in 1826-27 and the Turks in 1828-29; suppressed a Polish insurrection in 1831 and a Magyar revolution in 1849; was wounded at Silistria in 1854 and resigned (1782-1856).

PASQUINO, a cobbler or tailor who lived in Rome at the end of the 15th century, notable for his witty and sarcastic sayings, near whose shop after his death a fragment of a statue was dug up and named after him, on which, as representing him, the Roman populace claim to this day, it would seem, the privilege of placarding jibes against particularly the ecclesiastical authorities of the place, hence Pasquinade.

PASSAU (17), a Bavarian fortified town, situated at the confluence of the Inn and the Danube, 105 m.  E. of Muenich by rail; is a picturesque place, strategically important, with manufactures of leather, porcelain, and parquet, and trade in salt and corn.

PASSING-BELL, a bell tolled at the moment of the death of a person to invite his neighbours to pray for the safe passing of his soul.

PASSION PLAY, a dramatic representation of the several stages in the passion of Christ.

PASSION SUNDAY, the fifth Sunday in Lent, which is succeeded by what is called the Passion Week.

PASSION WEEK is properly the week preceding Holy Week, but in common English usage the name is given to Holy Week itself, i. e. to the week immediately preceding Easter, commemorating Christ’s passion.

PASSIONISTS, an order of priests, called of the Holy Cross, founded in 1694 by Paul Francisco, of the Cross in Sardinia, whose mission it is to preach the Passion of Christ and bear witness to its spirit and import, and who have recently established themselves in England and America; they are noted for their austerity.