Bibliography.—J. T. Scharf and T. Westcott, History of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1884), the standard history; J. F. Watson, Annals of Philadelphia, revised by W. P. Hazard (Philadelphia, 1898), often the record of tradition; E. P. Allinson and B. Penrose, Philadelphia 1681–1887; a History of Municipal Development (Philadelphia, 1887); J. H. Young (ed.), Memorial History of the City of Philadelphia (New York, 1895), Lillian I. Rhoades, The Story of Philadelphia (New York, 1900); T. Williams, “Philadelphia,” in L. P. Powell’s Historic Towns of the Middle States (New York, 1899); F. M. Etting, An Historical Account of the Old State House (Philadelphia, 1891); E. K. Price, History of the Consolidation of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1873); and Agnes Repplier, Philadelphia, the Place and People (New York, 1898).
PHILADELPHIANS, a sect of religious mystics, founded in London in the latter part of the 17th century. In 1652 Dr John Pordage (1607–1681), rector of Bradfield, Berkshire, gathered together a few followers of Jakob Boehme, the chief of whom was Jane Lead or Leade (née Ward; 1623–1704). Pordage was
ejected from his living by the Triers in 1655, but was restored
in 1660. Mrs Leade had been from girlhood of a mystical
temperament, and experienced phantasms which she recorded
in a diary entitled A Fountain of Gardens, beginning in 1670,
in which year the Philadelphian society was definitely organized.
She drew up for it “The Laws of Paradise,” which show that
the enterprise was designed “to advance the Kingdom of God
by improving the life, teaching the loftiest morality, and enforcing
the duty of universal brotherhood, peace and love.” Its
members had a strong faith in what they called the “Divine
Secrets,” the wonders of God and nature, the profound spiritual
experiences of regeneration and soul-resurrection, and the
second Advent. In 1693 some of Mrs Leade’s writings were
translated into Dutch, and by this means and her acquaintance
with Francis Lee (1661–1719), an Oxford scholar who studied
medicine at Leiden and became her son-in-law, a connexion
was opened up with Germany and Holland. In 1703 the Philadelphians
drew up their confession, but they made no further
progress and soon declined. The Holland branch withdrew,
and the English government forbade the society to meet. For many years, however, a considerable number of people regarded Mrs Leade’s visions, which were published in a long series of writings, as proofs of her divine calling. In her later years she had a severe struggle with poverty, which was relieved by a pension granted by Baron Kniphausen.
PHILAE, an islet in the Nile above the First Cataract, of great
beauty and interest, but since the completion of the Assuan dam
in 1902 submerged except for a few months yearly during
High Nile (July to October), when the water is allowed to run
freely through the sluices of the Assuan dam. Philae is the
nearest island to the point where the ancient desert road from
Assuan rejoins the river south of the cataract. It marks also
the end of the cataract region. Below it the channel is broad
and straight with rocky granite islands to the west. The name
in Egyptian was Pilak, “the angle (?) island”: the Arabs call it
Anas el Wagud, after the hero of a romantic tale in the Arabian
Nights. Ancient graffiti abound in all this district, and on
Bigeh, a larger island adjoining Philae, there was a temple as
early as the reign of Tethmosis III. The name of Amasis II.
(570–535 B.C.) is said to have been found at Philae, and it is
possible that there were still older buildings which have been
swallowed up in later constructions. About 350 B.C. Nekhtnebf,
the last of the native kings of Egypt, built a temple to Isis,
most of which was destroyed by floods. Ptolemy Philadelphus
reconstructed some of this work and began a large temple which
Ptolemy Euergetes I. completed, but the decoration, carried
on under later Ptolemies and Caesars, was never finished. The
temple of Isis was the chief sanctuary of the Dodecaschoenus,
the portion of Lower Nubia generally held by the Ptolemies
and Romans. The little island won great favour as a religious
resort. not only for the Egyptians and the Ethiopians and others
who frequented the border district and the marlfet of Assuan,
but also for Greek and Roman visitors. One temple or chapel
after another sprang up upon it dedicated to various gods,
including the Nubian Mandulis. Ergamenes (Arkamane), king
of Ethiopia, shared with the Ptolemies in the building. Besides
the temple of Isis with its birth-temple in the first court, there
were smaller temples or shrines of Arsenuphis, Mandulis, Imuthes,
Hathor, Harendotes (a form of Horus) and Augustus (in the
Roman style), besides unnamed ones. There were also monumental
gateways, and the island was protected by a stone quay
all round with the necessary staircases, &c., and a Nilometer.
The most beautiful of all the buildings is an unfinished kiosque
inscribed by Trajan, well known under the name of “Pharaoh’s
Bed.” Graffiti of pilgrims to the shrine of Isis are dated as late
as the end of the 5th century A.D. The decree of Theodosius
(A.D. 378) which suppressed pagan worship in the empire was
of little effect in the extreme south. In A.D. 453 Maximinus,
the general of the emperor Marcian, after inflicting a severe defeat
on the Nobatae and Blemmyes who were settled in Lower Nubia.,
and thence raided Upper Egypt, made peace on terms which
included permission for these heathen tribes to visit the temple
and even to borrow the image of Isis on certain occasions. It
was not till the reign of Justinian, A.D. 527–565, that the temple
of Philae was finally closed, and the idols taken to Constantinople.
Remains of Christian churches were disclosed by the thorough
exploration carried out in 1895–1896 in view of the Barrage
scheme, under the direction of Captain Lyons. The accumulations
of rubbish on the island were cleared away and the walls
and foundations of the stone buildings were all repaired and
strengthened before the dam was completed. The annual
flooding now appears to be actually beneficial to the stonework,
by removing the disintegrating salts and incrustations. The
tops of most of the buildings and the whole nucleus of the
temple of Isis to the floor remained all the year round above
the water level until the dam was raised another 26 ft.—a work
begun in 1907—when the temples were entirely submerged
except during July–October. But the beauty of the island and
its ruins and palm trees, the joy of travellers and artists, is
almost gone.
See H. G. Lyons, A Report on the Island and Temples of Philae (Cairo, 1896), with numerous plans and photographs; a second report, A Report on the Temples of Philae (1908), deals with the condition of the ruins as affected by the immersions occasioned by the filling of the Assuan dam; Baedeker’s Egypt, and on the effects of the submersion, &c., reports in Annales du service des antiquités, vols. iv. v. (F. Ll. G.)
PHILARET [Theodore Nikitich Romanov] (?1553–1633), patriarch of Moscow, was the second son of the boyar Nikita Romanovich. During the reign of his first cousin Theodore I. (1584–1598), Theodore Romanov distinguished himself both as a soldier and a diplomatist, fighting against the Swedes in 1590, and conducting negotiations with the ambassadors of the emperor Rudolph II. in 1593–1594. On the death of the childless tsar, he was the popular candidate for the vacant throne; but he acquiesced in the election of Boris Godunov, and shared the disgrace of his too-powerful family three years later, when Boris compelled both him and his wife, Xenia Chestovaya, to take monastic vows under the names of Philaret and Martha respectively. Philaret was kept in the strictest confinement in the Antoniev monastery, where he was exposed to every conceivable indignity; but when the pseudo-Demetrius overthrew the Godunovs he released Philaret and made him metropolitan of Rostov (1605). In 1609 Philaret fell into the hands of pseudo-Demetrius II., who named him patriarch of all Russia, though his jurisdiction only extended over the very limited area which acknowledged the impostor. From 1610–1618 he was a prisoner in the hands of the Polish king, Sigismund III., whom he refused to acknowledge as tsar of Muscovy on being sent on an embassy to the Polish camp in 1610. He was released on the conclusion of the truce of Deulino (Feb. 13, 1619), and on the 2nd of June was canonically enthroned patriarch of Moscow. Henceforth, till his death, the established government of Muscovy was a diarchy. From 1619 to 1633 there were two actual sovereigns, Tsar Michael and his father, the most holy Patriarch Philaret. Theoretically they were co-regents, but Philaret frequently transacted affairs of state without consulting the tsar. He replenished the treasury by a more equable and rational system of assessing and collecting the taxes. His most important
