PAULUS, Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob (1761-1851), the distinguished representative of the rationalistic school of German theologians of the beginning of this century, was born at Leonberg, near Stuttgart, 1st September 1761. His father, the Lutheran clergyman at Leonberg, was convinced of the immortality of the soul by spiritualism, and was deprived of his living in consequence of his belief in the intercourse of departed spirits with men. He likewise required of his children unconditional obedience, and commanded them to believe the doctrines of religion without asking wherefore. The father’s spiritualism and dogmatism drove the son by natural reaction to the rationalism which prevailed at the time, and of which, in its application to Biblical history, Paulus became the most famous representative. He was educated at Tübingen, was three years headmaster of a German school, and then spent two years in travelling through England and the principal countries of the Continent. He subsequently published interesting passages from the journal of his tour. In 1789 he was chosen ordinary professor of Oriental languages at Jena. In addition to the studies of his own department he prosecuted especially mathematics, as the best preparation for clear thinking. At Jena he lived in close intercourse with Schiller, Goethe, Herder, and the most distinguished literary men of the time. In 1793 he succeeded Doederlein as professor of theology. His special work was the exposition of the Old and New Testaments in the light of his great Oriental learning and according to his characteristic principle of “natural explanation.” He held that miracles in the strict sense were impossible, that the events recorded in the Bible took place naturally, and that the narratives of the Gospels are the ...true reports of men who either were eyewitnesses or had obtained information from such as were. From a purely apologetic motive he sought to remove what other interpreters regarded as miracles from the Bible by distinguishing between the fact related and the author’s opinion of it, by seeking a naturalistic exegesis of a narrative, e.g., that επι της θαλάσσης (Matt. xiv. 25) means by the shore and not on the sea, by supplying circumstances omitted by the author, by remembering that the author produces as miracles occurrences which can now be explained otherwise, e.g. i exorcisms. The chief exegetical works of Paulus are his Philologisch-kritischer und. histor ischer Commentar uber das Neue Testament (4 vols., 1800- 1804), Clavis uber die Psalmen (1791), and Clavis über Jesaias (1793), and particularly his Exegetisches Handbuch über die drei ersten Evangelien (3 vols., 1830-33; 2d ed., 1841-42). His Life of Jesus (2 vols., 1828) is a synoptical translation of the Gospels, prefaced by an account of the preparation for the Christ and a brief summary of His history, and accompanied by very short explanations interwoven in the translation. The form of the work was fatal to its success, and the subsequent Exegetisches Handbuch rendered it quite superfluous. In the latter work Paulus really contributed much to a true interpretation of the Gospel narratives, notwithstanding his entire failure to explain the miracles away. The historical and geographical excursuses and dissertations interwoven in his commentaries are of considerable value. He was particularly well acquainted with the conditions of Oriental life. In the year 1803 Paulus left Jena on account of his health, and filled various posts in south Germany until 1811, when he became professor of exegesis and ecclesiastical history at Heidelberg. It was there that he found the freest scope for his great learning and tutorial abilities. He filled this chair until 1844, when he retired on account of his great age. He died, faithful to his first rationalistic position, a staunch friend of intellectual and political freedom and light, 10th August 1851, in his ninetieth year.
The literary labours of Paulus were not confined to exegesis. He edited a collected small edition of Spinoza’s works (1802-1803), a collection of the most noted Eastern travels (1792-1803), Schelling’s Vorlesungen über dis Offenbarung (1843), &c. He was also the author of Skizzen aus meiner Bildungs- und Lebensgeschichte (1839), and he left behind him the materials for a biography, which was published by Professor Reichlin-Meldegg, under the title II. E. G. Paulus und seine Zeit (1853).
PAULUS, Julius. See Roman Law.
PAULUS (or Paullus), Lucius Aemilius, a distinguished Roman general, of the patrician family of the Aemilii, was born about 229 b.c. He was the son of the consul of the same name who fell at Cannae. As curule aedile in 192 he gave a proof of his integrity by prosecuting the persons who made an illegal use of the public pastures. His first laurels were won in Further Spain, whither he was sent as praetor in 191. Though at first defeated with loss, he finally overthrew the enemy in a bloody battle (189) and tranquillized Spain. In 182 he was consul, and in the following year subdued the Ingauni, a piratical tribe of Liguria, dismantling their towns and carrying off their ships. For this service he was granted a triumph. After a period of retirement from public life he was elected consul a second time, for 168, and entrusted with the command in the Macedonian war, which the incapacity of previous Roman generals had allowed to drag on without success for three years. Paulus brought the war to a speedy termination by the battle of Pydna, fought on 22d June (Julian calendar) 168. The battle decided the fate of Macedonia, which was henceforward a Roman province. The Macedonian king Perseus surrendered shortly afterwards and met with a courteous reception from the Roman general. Paulus now availed himself of his position to make the tour of Greece, visiting with an intelligent interest the places immortalized in Greek history and legend. Afterwards, assisted by ten Roman commissioners, he arranged the affairs of Macedonia. In obedience to the orders of the senate, on his return through Epirus to Italy he gave up seventy towns to pillage and carried off 150,000 of the inhabitants as slaves. A magnificent triumph, graced by the presence of the captive king Perseus and his three children, rewarded the conqueror of Macedonia (167). But his public glory was closely attended by private misfortune; of the two sons borne him by his second wife one died a few days before, the other a few days after, his triumph. The veteran was thus left without a son to bear his name; for of his two sons by his first wife Papiria, the elder had been adopted by Quintus Fabius Maximus, Hannibal’s great opponent, and the younger by the son of Scipio Africanus. The latter, known as P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, was the conqueror of Carthage and Numantia. Paulus was censor in 164, and died in 160. At the funeral games exhibited in his honour the Hecyra of Terence was acted for the second and the Ádelphi for the first time.
Paulus was a fine specimen of a Roman noble. An aristocrat to the backbone, he was yet beloved by the people, whose favour he never deigned to court by unworthy means. His integrity was perfect; of the vast sums brought by him into the Roman treasury from Spain and Macedonia he kept not a penny to himself. At his death his property with difficulty sufficed to pay his wife’s dowry. As a general he was a strict disciplinarian; as an augur he discharged the religious duties of his office with conscientious care and exactness. His piety passed into superstition, as when before the battle of Pydua he* sacrificed to the moon, then under eclipse. His sympathy with Greek learning and art is attested by the Greek masters whom he procured for his sons, as well as by his travels in Greece, the works of art he brought home, and his friendship for the historian Polybius. His nobility of nature won him the affection and esteem of all who knew him, of his enemies no less than of his countrymen. An affecting proof is the fact recorded by Plutarch that his body was carried to the grave by volunteers from all the nations he had conquered, while old men from Spain, Liguria, and. Macedonia followed lamenting the man who (according to them} was at once their conqueror and their saviour.
There is a life of him by Plutarch, but his campaigns in Liguria and Macedonia are more fully described by Livy (xl. 25-28; xliv. 17 - xlv. 41).
PAULUS AeGINETA. See Aegineta, vol. i. p. 181, and Medicine, vol. xv. p. 804.
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