PIETA' (an Italian word signifying piety, in the sense in which that term indicates or includes affection for relatives), the name given in the of art to representations of the Virgin Mary embracing the dead body of her son. is a counterpart to the madonna with the infant Jesus in her arms, The one affords an opportunity for the r•presentation of the purest joy and highest motherly love; the other, of the utmost pain and grief. The pieta has long been a favorite subject, not only with painters. hut with sculptors. A famous one by Michael Angelo is in•the church of St. Peter at Rome.
PrETISTS, a designation given since the end of the 17th c. to a religions party in Ger many, NVIiich, without forming a sepal'ate sect, is distinguished not only by certain pecul iarities of religious opinion, hut also by the manner in which these are manifested. The peculiar character of their religion is very generally denoted by the term pietism, which is frequently employed with reference to the same tendencies of opinion, feeling and conduct, wheresoever and whensoever exhibited. Pietism may be regarded as consisting in an exaltation of the importance of religious feeling, and of the practical part of religion. with a corresponding depreciation of doctrinal differences, and a contempt for outward ecclesiastical arrangements: and has been more or less strongly developed from time to time in all sections of the church, a tendency towards it always existing in a large class of earnestly religious minds. In the church of the middle ages, tads tendency was dis played in an endeavor to attain to a superior spirituality and purity by means of religious contemplation and asceticism, and many, consequently. embraced a monastic life. The reformers, adopting the Augustinian doctrines, rejected this mckle of' seeking deliverance from indwelling sin, and proclaimed the efficacy of faith in the sacrifice of Christ. But the controversies which arose among them, and increased among their successors, graduallv gave a too exclusively doctrinal and polemical character to the sermons and writings both of the Lutheran and Calvinistic divines, particularly in Germany, and a reae tion ensued, not in favor of the church of Rome, but in favor of a religion of feeling and good works, or of the heart and life. Disgust at the sectarian bitterness and exclusive ness which prevailed led even to an undervaluing of disputed points; and thus the Pietism of Germany was generated and developed. The origin of it is referred to a work entitled Vona wahren Christenthume, by John Arnd, published in 1605; to the Invitatio Fmternitatis Christi of John Val. Andrew, published in 1617, both of them Lutherans; and to the writings of Coeceius, a Calvinist. But its fuller development is unquestionably to be ascribed. to Spener (q.v.), in the latter part of the 17th c., and to his frieuos and disciples. The name Pietists was first given in contempt to certain young docents in Leipsie, who began in 1689 to give prelections on the New Testament both to students and citizens. and to addict themselves much to a meditative mode of life. Spener had held meetings of a somewhat similar kind in his own house when preacher at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and in his writings had urged the necessity of a reform in the Protestant church and theology. He and his followers dwelt upon the importance of studying the Scriptures rather than the symbolical books, upon the unfitness of any unconverted or unregenerate person for the office of the ministry, upon the tight and duty of the laity to take part in the exercises of Christian assemblies, and upon the necessity of a practical rather than a systematic religion. But many of the more extreme Pietists carried their antipathy to the doctrinaltsm and the established tervices of the church to a degree that alarmed the theologians of the old school, the high and dry Lutherans, or German " moderates," who accused Spener and his disciples; not without reason, of a tendency to make all goodness and virtue consist in mere religious feeling, or pious sentimentalism; to represent the divine grace as operating in Ico sudden and abrupt a manner; to exaggerate the value of good works; to depreciate the value of learning and of clear intellectual perception in the study of Scripture; and to indulge in a strictness of judgment upon the religious character of the ordained tending to sectarianism, and indeed incompatible with ecclesiastical unity. The
1vcapons of argument, however, were not the only weapons employed against them. The docents were compelled to give up their prelections, and filially to the =iieetings for mutual edification were suppressed by the government as disorderly con venticles; and Fraicke (q.v.), the most distinguished of the Leipsic docents, having gone to Erfurt, was prevented from lecturing, and quickly compelled to retire. Spener's influence, however, procured a refuge for his friends in the newly founded university of Halle, and Francke obtained a professorship there. Halle became thenceforth the source of new religious influences, and, indeed, of a new religious life to Germany. The Pietists, alThough spiritually exclusive—disposed to 'regard themselves as the "chosen of God," and to look down on all others as "children of the world," or even of the devil—did net attempt to form a separate sect. To do them justice, they were as far ris possible from being ecclesiastically ambitious; all their desire was to excel in '' labors of and to cultivate feelings of intensest piety. The rise of the Wolfian or Rationalisfe theology, the spread of that sort of skeptical anti-clerical philosophy which flourished fty: a while under the name of avfklarung (enlightenment), exercised an injuri ous and depressing influence on Pietism; yet through all the long, obstinate warfare maintained against tile doctrines of the church by the rationalists during the last half of the 18th. and the most part of the 19th c., Pietism continued to number some adhe rents; and it can hardly be doubted that it is to the Pietists, and not to the Lutheran dogmatista, that Germany is in a great measure indebted for that revival of religious faith and feeling which, begun with the great Schleiermacher—himself trained up under pietistic Influences—has since widely diffused itself through her biblical scholars and theologians. The patriotic enthusiasm called forth by the insolent conquests of the French naturally allied itself to pietistic tendencies, for, in Germany, the triumphs of Napoleeu even as emperor were looked upon as the triumphs of revolutionary, republi c..an, and infidel principles; and after the general restoration of peace, the statesmen and upper classes, especially in Prussia, believing that political security could' only be obtained by a return of the populaceto the simple, oLedient, and unquestioning piety of ?arliet• times, countenanced this party in the church; and amiable tea-di inl:ing societies of devout men and women were formed to distribute tracts, and to inot ul ite.the radical and heathen masses with pietistic sentiments. But this attempt to use piety" for reactionary political purposes sullied its purity, and alienated from it the very parties whom it wished to influence. Still, however, Pietism exists as a distinct element'in the religious life of Germany, and now, as ever, its strongholds arc Prussia (Berlin, Silesia, Wiipperthal), Hesse, and Wurtemberg.
PIVTRA-DirRA, a name given to .the finest kinds of Florentine mosaic-work, in Which the inlaid materials arc hard stones, such as jasper, carnelian, amethyst, agate, etc. The real pietra-dura work dates as far back as the 16th c., about 1570: and from that time to the present has been almost confined to Florence, where a government atelier has existed ever since the beginning of the 17th c., which was originated in order to supply decorations for the Capella Medicea. It is sometimes called Pietre Commesse, and Lavoro di Commesso. In the inferior kinds, which are sold in Italy, and are manu factured now pretty extensively in Derbyshire and other parts of Britain, pieces of colored sea-shells are used instead of the harder and more valuable colored stones.