ArticleXXIII. “It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the congregation, to call and send ministers into theLord’svineyard.”
In the same convocation in which subscription in the Thirty-nine Articles was imposed upon the clergy, it was enjoined, with respect to preachers: “In the first place, letpreacherstake care that they never teach anything in the way of preaching, which they wish to be retained religiously and believed by the people, except what is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament, and what the catholic fathers and ancient bishops have collected from that same doctrine.”—Canon. Eccles. Angl.xix.A. D.1571.
Canon 36.“No person shall be received into the ministry, nor admitted to any ecclesiastical living, nor suffered to preach, to catechise, or to be a lecturer or reader of divinity in either university, or in any cathedral, or collegiate church, city, or market town, parish church, chapel, or any other place within this realm, except he be licensed either by the archbishop or by the bishop of the diocese where he is to be placed, under their hands and seals, or byone of the two universities under their seal likewise; and except he shall first subscribe to the three articles concerning the king’s supremacy, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Thirty-nine Articles (seeOrders): and if any bishop shall license any person without such subscription, he shall be suspended from giving licences to preach for the space of twelve months.”
And by the 31 Elizabeth, c. 6. “If any person shall receive or take any money, fee, reward, or any other profit, directly or indirectly, or any promise thereof, either to himself or to any of his friends, (all ordinary and lawfully fees only excepted,) to procure any licence to preach, he shall forfeit £40.”
After the preacher shall be licensed, then it is ordained as follows:
Canon 45.“Every beneficed man, allowed to be a preacher, and residing on his benefice, having no lawful impediment, shall, in his own cure, or in some other church or chapel (where he may conveniently) near adjoining, where no preacher is, preach one sermon every Sunday of the year; wherein he shall soberly and sincerely divide the word of truth, to the glory ofGod, and to the best edification of the people.”
Canon 47.“Every beneficed man, licensed by the laws of this realm (upon urgent occasions of other service) not to reside upon his benefice, shall cause his cure to be supplied by a curate that is a sufficient and licensed preacher, if the worth of the benefice will bear it. But whosoever hath two benefices shall maintain a preacher licensed, in the benefice where he doth not reside, except he preach himself at both of them usually.”
ByCanon 50. “Neither the minister, churchwardens, nor any other officers of the Church, shall suffer any man to preach within their churches or chapels, but such as by showing their licence to preach shall appear unto them to be sufficiently authorized thereunto, as is aforesaid.”
Canon 51.“The deans, presidents, and residentiaries of any cathedral or collegiate church shall suffer no stranger to preach unto the people in their churches, except they be allowed by the archbishop of the province, or by the bishop of the same diocese, or by either of the universities; and if any in his sermon shall publish any doctrine either strange or disagreeing from the word ofGod, or from any of the Thirty-nine Articles, or from the Book of Common Prayer, the dean or residents shall by their letters, subscribed with some of their hands that heard him, so soon as may be, give notice of the same to the bishop of the diocese, that he may determine the matter, and take such order therein as he shall think convenient.”
Canon 52.“That the bishop may understand (if occasion so require) what sermons are made in every church of his diocese, and who presume to preach without licence, the churchwardens and sidesmen shall see that the names of all preachers which come to their church from any other place be noted in a book, which they shall have ready for that purpose, wherein every preacher shall subscribe his name, the day when he preached, and the name of the bishop of whom he had licence to preach.”
Canon 53.“If any preacher shall in the pulpit particularly, or namely of purpose, impugn or confute any doctrine delivered by any other preacher in the same church, or in any church near adjoining, before he hath acquainted the bishop of the diocese therewith, and received order from him what to do in that case, because upon such public dissenting and contradicting there may grow much offence and disquietness unto the people, the churchwardens or party aggrieved shall forthwith signify the same to the said bishop, and not suffer the said preacher any more to occupy that place which he hath once abused, except he faithfully promise to forbear all such matter of contention in the church, until the bishop hath taken further order therein; who shall with all convenient speed so proceed therein, that public satisfaction may be made in the congregation where the offence was given. Provided, that if either of the parties offending do appeal, he shall not be suffered to preachpendente lite.”
Canon 55.“Before all sermons, lectures, and homilies, the preachers and ministers shall move the people to join with them in prayer, in this form, or to this effect, as briefly as conveniently they may: Ye shall pray forChrist’sHoly Catholic Church,” &c. (SeeBidding Prayer.)
PREBEND. (Lat.Præbenda.) The stipend which is received by a prebendary, from the revenues of the cathedral or collegiate church with which he is connected. It denoted originally any stipend or reward, given out of the ecclesiastical revenues, to a person who had by his labours procured benefit to the Church; and the gratuity which was given either to a proctor or advocate, or any other person of the like kind. When the cathedral churches became well endowed, they leftoff receiving the income of their lands into one common bank, and dividing it among the members, but parcelled out the lands into several shares, appropriating them for the maintenance of each single clergyman who resided about the cathedral, calling itPræbenda, orCorpus Præbendæ, theCorps of the Prebend. Hence arose the difference between aprebendand acanonry. Acanonrywas a right which a person had in a church, to be deemed a member thereof, to have the right of a stall therein, and of giving a vote in the chapter; but aprebendwas a right to receive certain revenues appropriated to his place. The number of prebends in the several cathedral churches was increased by the benefactions of respective founders; oftentimes out of the revenues of the rural clergy, and oftentimes by exonerating the lands of prebends from paying tithes to the ministers of the parishes where they lay.—Nicholls.
PREBENDARY. A clergyman attached to a cathedral or collegiate church, who enjoys aprebendin consideration of his officiating at stated times in the church. (SeeDean and Chapter.)
In Scotland, there were established by the respective founders in the colleges of St. Salvador, at St. Andrew’s, and King’s College, Aberdeen, certain “Prebendaries, or perpetual chaplains, to sing and serve in the choir” of the chapel. These were, in fact, the same as chaplains in the choral colleges of England.
PRECENTOR. The leader of a choir. The precentor in almost all cathedrals of old foundation in England, and very generally on the continent, was the first dignitary in the chapter, ranking next to the dean. In some few instances the archdeacons preceded him. He superintended the choral service, and the choristers; and in Paris the precentor of Notre Dame had the supervision of the lesser schools in the city, as the chancellor had of the greater. In all the new foundations, except Christ Church in Dublin, where he is a dignitary, the precentor is a minor canon: an anomalous and modern provision. In most ancient cathedrals the precentor had for his badge of office a silver staff orbaculus. In choral colleges the precentor is a chaplain. At Llandaff and St. David’s, till very lately, the precentor was presbyteral head of the chapter.
PRECEPTORIES were manors or estates of the Knights Templars, on which they erected churches for religious service, and convenient houses for habitation, and placed some of their fraternity under the government of one of those more eminent Templars, who had been by the grand master created “præceptores templi,” to take care of the lands and rents in that place and neighbourhood: these preceptories were only cells to the Temple, or principal house of the knights, in London. Preceptor was the title of the head of some old hospitals.
PRECES. A general word for prayers; but it is often applied in a technical sense to the shorter sentences, as versicles and suffrages which are said in the way of verse and response. In the English choral service the term is limited to those versicles (with the Gloria Patri) immediately preceding the Psalms, beginning “OLord, open thou our lips.” These anciently formed a regular part of the harmonizedservicesfor cathedral choirs, which were set to music by an earlier musician.—Jebb.(SeeResponses,Versicles, andService.)
PREDESTINATION. (SeeElection; see alsoCalvinismandArminianism.) Of predestination and election our 17th Article thus speaks: “Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose ofGod, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen inChristout of mankind, and to bring them byChristto everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit ofGod, be called according toGod’spurpose, by hisSpiritworking in due season; they through grace obey the calling; they be justified freely; they be made sons ofGodby adoption; they be made like the image of his only-begottenSon Jesus Christ; they walk religiously in good works; and at length, byGod’smercy, they attain to everlasting felicity. As the godly consideration of predestination and our election inChristis full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit ofChrist, mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation to be enjoyed throughChrist, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towardsGod: so, for curious and carnal persons lacking the Spirit ofChrist, to have continually before their eyes the sentence ofGod’spredestination, is a most dangerous downfal, whereby the devil doth thrust them either into desperation, or intowretchlessness of most unclean living, no less perilous than desperation. Furthermore, we must receiveGod’spromises in such wise, as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture: and, in our doings, that will ofGodis to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word ofGod.”
Such is the barrier which the Church places between this solemn subject and irreverent inquiries; but the Scripture doctrine of predestination may be further stated without any forgetfulness of the spirit here inculcated. We are told indeed by the Church, that “the godly consideration of predestination and our election inChristis full of sweet and unspeakable comfort to godly persons” (Art. xvii.); and it is certain that it can be full neither of profit nor of comfort, unless we meditate upon it. And if it be among the things “hard to be understood,” (2 Pet. iii. 16,) this is no reason why we should not try to understand it, and, by understanding, cease to be “unlearned and unstable,” and so take care that it shallnotbe wrested to our destruction.
In the first chapter to the Ephesians, we find that there are certain persons whomGodhath chosen inChrist, before the foundation of the world; having predestinated them unto the adoption of children ofJesus Christto himself, not on account of their good works, but according to the good pleasure of his will. (Eph. i. 4, 5.) Again, in another Epistle, we are told thatGodhath “called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us inChrist Jesusbefore the world began.” (2 Tim. i. 9.) These are persons whose names are said to have been written in heaven, in the book of life, called theLamb’sbook of life, (Rev. xx. 15; xxi. 27,) because the first amongGod’select is he who, beingGodas well as man, is the Lamb ofGod, slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. xiii. 8) as a propitiation for sins. (1 John ii. 2; iv. 10.) Thus, then, we see that there are persons who, in the words of St. Paul, are “vessels whichGodhath afore prepared unto glory.” (Rom. ix. 22–24.)
And now comes the question,Whoare those who are thus predestinated to the glories of the new heaven, the new earth, the new Jerusalem, which is to come down from above? (Rev. xxi. 2.) Let St. Paul give the answer: “Whom he did predestinate, them he also called” (Rom. viii. 30): called by the circumstances under which he providentially placed them, either by the appearance, in the first ages, of an apostle or an evangelist; or, as is the case with us, by the fact of our being born in a Christian land: “and whom he called, them he also justified;” receiving them, forChrist’ssake, as his own children in holy baptism, he justified, or, for the sameSaviour’ssake, counted as holy, those who as yet were not actually so: “and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” He glorified them by regenerating them, and making them temples of theHoly Ghost(1 Cor. vi. 11, 19); than which what greater glory can pertain to the sons of men?
The foregoing passage furnishes us with a description of Christians, of baptized persons; and consequently to Christians we are to refer those other passages which relate toGod’spredestination:themGodhath predestinated to glory. And as such, asGod’select people, predestinated not merely to means of grace, for this were clearly inadequate, but to glory in the kingdom of glory, the inspired writers were wont to address the multitude of the baptized. Thus the apostle addresses the Church of the Thessalonians, good and bad commingled, as “knowing” their “election ofGod.” (1 Thess. i. 4.) Thus St. Peter speaks of “the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,” as “elect according to the foreknowledge ofGodtheFather” (1 Pet. i. 2); and he speaks of them afterwards as “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people;” and St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, addresses the Hebrews, meaning those who had made profession of the Christian faith, as “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” Such, then, is our blessing, our privilege, our high hope as Christians. In the temple of the first Jerusalem there was a variety of chambers or mansions, employed for different purposes, though all relating directly or indirectly to the services of the sanctuary. In the new Jerusalem, which will itself be the temple of the universe, there will in like manner be “many mansions” or chambers: but if so, those mansions or chambers in the earthly Jerusalem having been intended for a variety of different offices, we may conclude that offices of different characters will exist in the new Jerusalem. It is very possible that we are not only each of us predestined to heaven, but predestined also each to our own particular place in heaven, that our very mansion is fixed. We know thatGodhas predestinated particular persons to particularoffices here on earth, long before their birth: as, for example, in the case of Jeremiah,Godsaith, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth of the womb, I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nation.” And so with respect also to St. Paul, we are told that it “pleasedGodto separate him from his mother’s womb, that he might preachChristamong the heathen.” (Gal. i. 15, 16.) Nay, we find that this is really to be the case with respect to the next world, in some cases at least; for example, when theSonof man shall sit on the throne of his glory, the apostles shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. xix. 28): a particular office is allotted to them; to a particular office they are predestinated. When the mother of Zebedee’s children prayed that her children might sit, the one on the right hand, and the other on the left, in ourLord’skingdom of glory, ourLordsaid, “to sit on my right hand and on my left, is not mine to give.” (Matt. xx. 23.) No. These places are designed for certain persons who are preparing, or shall be prepared, to fill the same. This is already fixed in the counsels ofGod. These places, therefore, are not mine to give. They are already given. Your place is also designated: prepare for it by doing your duty. We know that some of the saints are predestinated to a mysterious office, the nature of which we cannot understand, but they will judge angels. (1 Cor. vi. 2, 3.) And at the last day shall the King say unto them that are on his right hand, “Come, ye blessed of myFather, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matt. xxv. 34.)
But this predestination to glory is, like our election, conditional. We shall not only be saved, but we shall occupy a predestined post of glory,ifwe escape condemnation at the day of judgment; not otherwise. The omission of all reference to the day of judgment is the vice of the Calvinistic system. The man, condemned at the day of judgment, will find an addition to his pangs, by knowing the glory to which he had been predestined, had he not perverted his ways. But if our sins are then found blotted out by the blood of theLamb, we know that a certain place in heaven is designed for us, for which we are shaped and prepared by the circumstances under which we are placed while on earth. (SeeBishop Pearson’s23 and 24Lectiones “de Prædestinatione” in Archdeacon Churton’s edition of his minor Works.)
PRE-EXISTENCE OF CHRIST, OUR LORD. (SeeGeneration.) His existence before he was born of the Virgin Mary, and even before the creation of the world by him. The fact is stated thus by Bishop Bull in his “Defence of the Nicene Creed:”—All the catholic doctors of the first three centuries taught, thatJesus Christ, he who was afterwards so called, existed before he became man, or before he was born, according to the flesh, of the Blessed Virgin, in another nature, far more excellent than the human nature; that he appeared to holy men, giving them an earnest, as it were, of his incarnation; that he always presided over, and provided for, the Church, which in time to come he would redeem with his own blood; and of consequence that, from the beginning, the whole order or thread of the Divine dispensation, as Tertullian speaks, ran through him: further yet, that he was with theFatherbefore the foundations of the world, and that by him all things were made.
PREFACES. Certain short occasional forms in the Communion Service, which are introduced by the priest, on particular festivals, immediately before the anthem, beginning, “Therefore with angels and archangels,” &c. This anthem is a song of praise, or an act of profound adoration, equally proper at all times; but the Church calls upon us more especially to use it on her chief festivals, in remembrance of those events which are then celebrated. Thus, on Christmas Day, the priest having said—“It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, OLord, HolyFather, Almighty, everlastingGod,”—adds the proper preface which assigns the reason for peculiar thankfulness on that particular day, viz. “Becausethou didst giveJesus Christ, thine onlySon, to be born as at this time for us; who, by the operation of theHoly Ghost, was made very man, of the Virgin Mary his mother, and that without spot of sin, to make us clean from all sin:therefore, with angels, &c.” The days for which these prefaces are provided are, Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and seven days after each of these festivals; also Whitsunday, and six days after; together with Trinity Sunday. The antiquity of such prefaces may be estimated from the fact that they are mentioned and enjoined by the 103rd canon of the African code, which code was formed of the decisions of many councils prior to the date of 418.
The decay of devotion let fall the apostolical and primitive use of daily andweekly communions, and the people in the later ages did not receive but at the greater festivals: upon which custom there were added to the general preface mentioned, before some special prefaces relating to the peculiar mercy of that feast on which they did communicate, the Church thinking it fit, that, since every festival was instituted to remember some great mercy, therefore they who received on such a day, besides the general praises offered for allGod’smercies, should at theLord’stable make a special memorial of the mercy proper to that festival; and this seemed so rational to our reformers, that they have retained those proper prefaces which relate to Christmas, Easter, Ascension Day, Whitsunday, and Trinity Sunday, so as to praiseGodfor the mercies ofChrist’sbirth, resurrection, and ascension, for the sending theHoly Ghost, and for the true faith of the holyTrinity.—Dean Comber.
OurLordhimself, before he brake the bread and distributed it, gave thanks; and the Church has thought fit to do the same thing. But, because ourLordhas not prescribed any set form for this, but used one agreeable to the thing and the time, the Church therefore, as matters and occasion required, has accordingly adapted peculiar forms of prayer and thanksgiving, suited, as St. Augustine says, to the diversity of festival days, in which different benefits are commemorated.—Bp. Cosin.
On the greater festivals there are proper prefaces appointed, which are also to be repeated, in case there be a communion, for seven days after the festivals themselves (excepting that of Whitsunday, which is to be repeated only six days after, because Trinity Sunday, which is the seventh, hath a preface peculiar to itself); to the end that the mercies may be the better remembered by often repetition, and also that all the people (who in most places cannot communicate all in one day) may have other opportunities, within those eight days, to join in praisingGodfor such great blessings.
2. The reason of the Church’s lengthening out these high feasts for several days is plain: the subject-matter of them is of so high a nature, and so nearly concerns our salvation, that one day would be too little to meditate upon them, and praiseGodfor them as we ought. A bodily deliverance may justly require one day of thanksgiving and joy; but the deliverance of the soul by the blessings commemorated on these times, deserves a much longer time of praise and acknowledgment. Since, therefore, it would be injurious to Christians to have their joy and thankfulness for such mercies confined to one day, the Church, upon the times when these unspeakable blessings were wrought for us, invites us, by her most seasonable commands and counsels, to fill our hearts with joy and thankfulness, and let them overflow eight days together.
3. The reason of their being fixed to eight days is taken from the practice of the Jews, who byGod’sappointment observed their greater festivals, some of them for seven, and one, namely, the feast of Tabernacles, for eight days. And therefore the primitive Church, thinking that the observation of Christian festivals (of which the Jewish feasts are only types and shadows) ought not to come short of them, lengthened out their higher feasts to eight days.—Bp. Sparrow.Wheatly.
These prefaces are very ancient, though there were some of them, as they stood in the Latin service, of later date. For as there are ten in that service, whereof the last, concerning the Virgin Mary, was added by Pope Urban, 1095, so it follows that the rest must be of a more considerable antiquity. Our Church has only retained five, and those upon the principal festivals of the year, which relate only to the persons of the ever-blessed Trinity, and not to any saint.—Dr. Nicholls.
Mr. Palmer remarks that “the repetition by the people of the portion of the Preface, beginning ‘therefore with angels,’ never was the custom of the primitive Church, and could not have been intended by those who revised our liturgy, nor is it warranted by the nature of the Preface itself. It has perhaps,” he adds, “arisen from the custom of printing the latter part of the Preface in connexion with the hymn Tersanctus, and from the indistinctness of the rubric, which, in fact, gives no special direction for the people to join in repeating the hymnTersanctus.” It may be remarked that theTersanctusis marked as a separate paragraph in the two books of King Edward VI.
With respect to the Preface, there is an ambiguity in our rubrics, but none whatever in the choral usage, which is in accordance with the universal practice of the Church. The Preface is that part recited by the priest, beginning with “It is very meet, right,” &c., ending with “evermore praising thee and saying.” It is commonly imagined that the choir or congregation are to repeat with the priest the words, “Therefore with angels and archangels,” &c.; but this is contrary to all precedent. The choral communion services, and theone of Durham, all agree in beginning the hymn at the words, “Holy, holy, holy,” &c. The rubric merely says, “After each of which Prefaces shall immediately be sung or said;” it does not say by whom. The direction is as indeterminate as that of the Litany, which, like the passage in question, is sung distributively between minister and people in sequence.—Jebb.
PRELATE. An ecclesiastic having jurisdiction over other ecclesiastics. The title, though applicable to bishops, is not confined to their order. Before the Reformation abbots were styled prelates. Archdeacons are prelates in this sense of the word. (SeeEpiscopacy,Bishop.)
PRELECTOR. A Lecturer. In the cathedral of Hereford, one of the prebendaries is elected to the office of Prelector, to hold it till he succeeds to a residentiary canonry, for which he is statutably considered to have a claim to be a candidate. His duty is to preach on Tuesdays, or else on any holiday which may occur during the week for a considerable portion of the year.
PREMONSTRATENSES. (Lat.) In French,Prémontrés. A religious order, founded by St. Norbert, descended from a noble family in the diocese of Cologne. He was educated suitably to his quality, and lived for some time at the emperor Henry the Fifth’s court. At about thirty years of age he was ordained deacon and priest; and, soon after, entering upon a very strict and mortified way of living, he resigned his church preferments, and distributed a large patrimonial estate to the poor. Then he embraced the rule of St. Augustine, and retiring with thirteen companions to a place called Premonstratum, in the diocese of Laon, in Picardy, he there began his order, about the year 1119. This ground, with the chapel of St. John Baptist, was given to St. Norbert by the bishop of Laon, with the approbation of Louis le Gros, king of France, who gave the Premonstratenses a charter of privileges. The place was called Premonstratum, because it was pretended the Blessed Virgin herself pointed out (premonstravit) this place for the principal house of the order, and at the same time commanded them to wear a white habit.
The monks of this order were, at first, so poor, that they had nothing they could call their own but one poor ass, which served them to carry wood, which they cut down every morning and sent to Laon, where it was sold to purchase bread. But, in a short time, they received so many donations, and built so many monasteries, that, thirty years after the foundation of this order, they had above one hundred abbeys in France and Germany.
The popes and kings of France have granted many privileges, and been very liberal, to the Premonstratenses. Besides a great number of saints, who have been canonized, this order has had several persons of distinguished birth, who have been contented with the humble condition of lay-brothers: as, Guy, earl of Brienne; Godfrey, earl of Namur, &c. It has likewise given the Church a great number of archbishops and bishops.
The order of Premonstratenses increased so greatly, that it had monasteries in all parts of Christendom, amounting to 1000 abbeys, 300 provostships, a vast number of priories, and 500 nunneries. These were divided into 30 cyrcaries or provinces. But this number of houses is greatly diminished; for, of 65 abbeys it had in Italy, there is not one remaining at present; not to mention the loss of all their monasteries in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England, Scotland, and Ireland.
These monks, vulgarly called White Canons, came first into England in the year 1146, where their first monastery, called New House, was built in Lincolnshire, by Peter de Saulia, and dedicated to St. Martialis. In the reign of Edward I., when that king granted his protection to the monasteries, the Premonstratenses had twenty-seven houses in this kingdom.
PREROGATIVE COURT. The Prerogative Court of the archbishops of Canterbury and Armagh, is that court wherein all testaments are proved, and all administrations granted, when a party dying within the province hasbona notubiliain some other diocese than where he dies; and is so called from having aprerogativethroughout the whole province for the said purposes. (See Canons 92, 93, &c.)
PRE-SANCTIFIED. A word used by the Greek Church, who have a liturgy called that of thePresanctified, because that upon those days they do not consecrate the bread or wine, but receive the bread which was consecrated the day before. This service is observed all Lent long, except Saturdays and Sundays, and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, which, being festivals, are exempt from fasting; the Greeks being of opinion that the whole communion service is not to be celebrated on fasting days, and upon this account charging the Latin Church with breach of the canons, because they celebrate the eucharist in Lent time, as theydo the rest of the year, Good Friday excepted; for on that day this liturgy of the Presanctified is offered in the Latin Church; the priest then consecrating neither bread nor wine, but making use of the bread which was consecrated the day before, and communicating only under one kind; for the wine he receives is only for ablution, being unconsecrated. The Greeks do the same thing, from whence we may conclude that they communicate only in one kind during Lent, the wine that they then receive being not consecrated. The Communion of the Sick, as enjoined by the First Book of King Edward, if administered on any day of public communion, was a liturgy of the pre-sanctified; as the elements were not consecrated in the private house, but previously in the church.
PRESBYTER. (SeeBishop,Deacon,Priest,Orders,Clergy.) The nameπρεσβύτερος(elder) is a word borrowed from the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which commonly signifies a ruler or governor, being, as St. Jerome observes, a name of office, not a mere indication of a man’s age; for elders were chosen, not by their age, but by their merits and wisdom. So that, as a senator among the Romans, and an alderman in our own language, signifies a person of such an order and station without any regard to age, in like manner apresbyterorelderin the Christian Church is one who is ordained to a certain office, and authorized by his quality, not his age, to discharge the several duties of that office and station in which he is placed. In this large and extensive sense, bishops were sometimes calledpresbytersin the New Testament, for the apostles themselves did not refuse that title. On the other hand, it is the opinion of many learned men, both ancient and modern, that presbyters were sometimes calledbishops, while bishops who were properly such were distinguished by other titles, as that ofchief priests,apostles, &c. Bingham shows, however, that those who maintained the identity of the names, did not thence infer identity of offices, but always esteemed bishops and presbyters to be distinct officers.
We know not the exact period at which the apostles first ordained presbyters. We do not read of their existence beforeA. D.43, when the disciples at Antioch sent their collections to the presbyters of Judea. AboutA. D.56, St. Paul sent for “the presbyters of the church” of Ephesus; and we afterwards read of bishops or presbyters at Philippi: and the directions to Timothy and Titus for their ordination in every city; the exhortation of St. Peter to “the presbyters;” and of St. James, “is any one sick among you, let him send for the presbyters of the church;” suffice to prove the general ordination of presbyters by the apostles.
The office of presbyters, like that of bishops, consisted in “feeding the Church ofGod,” and overseeing it; exhorting and convincing the gainsayers by sound doctrine. Being invested with the power of teaching, they also possessed authority in controversies. The Church of Antioch sent to Jerusalem to consult the apostles and “presbyters” on the question of circumcision; and we find afterwards that heretics were sometimes condemned by the judgment of presbyters, as well as by bishops in councils. They possessed in their degree the power of remitting or retaining sins by absolution, and by spiritual censures. They must, even at the beginning, have had the power of baptizing and celebrating the eucharist, of performing other rites, and offering up public prayers in the absence of the apostles, or by their permission; and the institution of bishops in every Church by the apostles only restrained the ordinary exercise of these powers. We know in particular from St. James, that presbyters had authority to visit the sick and offer prayers, anointing them with oil for the recovery of their health. From the time of the apostles, the office of public teaching in the Church, and of administering the sacraments, was always performed by the bishop, unless in cases of great necessity. The power of spiritual jurisdiction in each Church, of regulating its affairs generally, and especially its discipline, was shared by the bishop with the presbyters, who also instructed and admonished the people in private. The presbyters sat on seats or thrones at the east end of the church, and the bishop on a higher throne in the midst of them. In some churches they laid their hands with the bishops on the head of those who were ordained presbyters, and in others administered confirmation.
The wealth and temporal power of bishops during the middle ages may have induced some of the ignorant to suppose that presbyters were exceedingly inferior to bishops; but the Catholic Church, which sees with the eye of faith, as she acknowledges the same sacred dignity of the priesthood in every bishop, whether oppressed with extreme poverty, or whether invested with princely dignity and wealth, also views the greatness and the sanctity of the office of presbyter as littleinferior to those even of the chief pastors who succeeded the apostles; and the Church has never flourished more, nor has the episcopate ever been held in truer reverence, than under the guidance of those apostolical prelates who, like St. Cyprian, resolved to do nothing without the consent of the clergy, and who have sedulously avoided even the appearance of “being lords overGod’sheritage.” The spirit of a genuine Christianity will lead the presbyters to reverence and obey the bishops as their fathers; and will induce bishops to esteem the presbyters as fellow-workers together with them, and brethren inJesus Christ.—Bingham.Palmer.Augusti.
The wordpresbyteris substituted forpriestin the Scotch liturgy, compiled in the reign of King Charles I.
PRESBYTERIANS. A Protestant sect, which maintains that there is no order in the Church superior to presbyters, and on that account has separated from the Catholic Church. This sect is established by law in Scotland, where there nevertheless exists a national branch of the Catholic Church, under canonical bishops. The establishment of a sect cannot, of course, convert that sect into a Church: for instance, if the Socinian sect were established in England, it would not be a whit more a Church than it is at present. (SeeChurch in Scotland.)
The Presbyterians had many endowed chapels in England, but the trustees and ministers having become Socinians, these endowed chapels, upwards of 170 in number, are the strongholds of Socinianism and Rationalism in this country. In England, Socinian and Presbyterian have thus become synonymous terms. These observations do not, however, apply to the meeting-houses in England of the Scotch Presbyterians.
The following statement is taken from the Registrar’s return:
“The Scottish Kirk adopts the Confession, Catechism, and Directory prepared by the Westminster Assembly as its standards of belief and worship. Its discipline is administered by a series of four courts or assemblies. (1.) TheKirk Sessionis the lowest court, and is composed of the minister of a parish and a variable number of lay elders, appointed from time to time by the session itself. (2.) ThePresbyteryconsists of representatives from a certain number of contiguous parishes, associated together in one district. The representatives are the ministers of all such parishes and one lay elder from each. This assembly has the power of ordaining ministers and licensing probationers to preach, before their ordination: it also investigates charges respecting the conduct of members, approves of new communicants, and pronounces excommunication against offenders. An appeal, however, lies to the next superior court; viz. (3.) TheProvincial Synod, which comprises several presbyteries, and is constituted by the ministers and elders by whom these presbyteries themselves were last composed. (4.) TheGeneral Assemblyis the highest court, and is composed of representatives (ministers and elders) from the presbyteries, royal burghs, and universities of Scotland, to the number (at present) of 363; of which number rather more than two-fifths are laymen.
“The National Church of Scotland has three presbyteries in England; that ofLondon, containing five congregations,—that ofLiverpool and Manchester, containing three congregations,—and that of theNorth of England, containing eight congregations.
“Various considerable secessions have from time to time occurred in Scotland from the National Church, of bodies which, while holding Presbyterian sentiments, dissent from the particular mode in which they are developed by the Established Kirk, especially protesting against the mode in which Church patronage is administered, and against the undue interference of the civil power. The principal of these seceding bodies are,—the ‘United Presbyterian Church,’ and the ‘Free Church of Scotland;’ the former being an amalgamation (effected in 1847) of the ‘Secession Church’ (which separated in 1732) with the ‘Relief Synod’ (which seceded in 1752); and the latter having been constituted in 1843.
“The ‘United Presbyterian Church’ has five presbyteries in England, containing seventy-six congregations; of which, however, fourteen are locally in Scotland, leaving the number locally in England 62.
“The ‘Free Church of Scotland’ has no ramifications, under that name, in England; but various Presbyterian congregations which accord in all respects with that community, and which, before the disruption of 1843, were in union with the Established Kirk, compose a separate Presbyterian body under the appellation of the ‘Presbyterian Church in England,’ having, in this portion of Great Britain, seven presbyteries and eighty-three congregations.”
PRESBYTERIUM, or PRESBYTERY, the space in collegiate and largechurches between the easternmost stalls of the choir and the altar; answering to thesoleaof the ancient basilicas.
PRESENCE. (SeeReal Presence.)
PRESENTATION, (seePatronandBenefice,) is the offering of a clerk to the bishop by the patron of a benefice. It differs from nomination in this, that while presentation signifies the offering a clerk to the bishop for institution, nomination signifies offering a clerk to the patron in order that he may be presented.
PRIEST. (SeeOrders,Ordination,Presbyter,Sacrifice, andAbsolution.) Who can deny that our wordpriestis corrupted ofpresbyter? Our ancestors, the Saxons, first usedpreoster; whence, by further contraction, camepresteandpriest. The High and Low Dutch havepriester; the French,prestre[now contracted intoprêtre]; the Italian,prete; but the Spaniard only speaks full,presbytero.—Joseph Mede.
The Greek and Latin words, (ἱερεύς,sacerdos,) which we translate “priest,” are derived from words that signify holy: and so the wordpriest, according to the etymology, signifies him whose mere charge and function is about holy things; and therefore seems to be a most proper word to him who is set apart to the holy public service and worship ofGod, especially when he is in the actual ministration of holy things. If it be objected that, according to the usual acceptation of the word, it signifies him that offers up asacrifice, and therefore cannot be allowed to a minister of the gospel, who hath no sacrifice to offer, it is answered, that the ministers of the gospel have sacrifices to offer, (1 Pet. ii. 5,) “Ye are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices” of prayer, praises, thanksgiving, &c. In respect of these, the ministers of the gospel may safely, in a metaphorical sense, be called priests; and in a more eminent manner than other Christians, because they are taken from among men to offer up these sacrifices for others. But besides these spiritual sacrifices mentioned, the ministers of the gospel have another sacrifice to offer, viz. the “unbloody sacrifice,” as it was anciently called, the commemorative sacrifice of the blood ofChrist, which does as really and truly show forth the death ofChrist, as those sacrifices under the law did; and in respect of this sacrifice of the eucharist, the ancients have usually called those that offer it up, priests.—Fludyer’s Comm.
That it might not be doubted by whom the form of absolution may be pronounced, the rubric expressly informs us, that it is the priest who officiates. Bypriest, in Church language, is understood a person who is advanced in the ecclesiastical orders to the dignity of a presbyter; and no person, in any age of the Church, who was under this degree, did ever pretend, as of right, to pronounce absolution. The penitentiaries, in the ancient and more modern ages of the Church, were always of this degree. It was adopted into an axiom in the canon law, “ejus est absolvere cujus est ligare.” No one could pronounce absolution but he who had power to excommunicate. In the body of that law, absolutions of all kinds are reserved either to presbyters or bishops; and in our provincial constitutions it is strictly enjoined, “de pœnitentia præcipimus quod diaconi pœnitentias dare non presumant,” unless the priest be away when a man is dying.—Lyndwood.Our Church, in the last review of the liturgy, has chosen to put in the wordpriestinstead ofminister, (which was in King Edward VI.’s Second Book, and in Queen Elizabeth’s,) to the end that no one might pretend to pronounce this but one in priest’s orders; being sensible that some bold innovations have been made herein, by reason of some persons misunderstanding or misapplying the wordminister. But the first compilers of the Common Prayer understood the same byministeras we do now bypriest, that being the general acceptation of the word at that time. The compilers of the Second Book of Edward VI. (in which the Confession and Absolution were first inserted) put into the rubric, “to be pronounced by the minister” (or priest) “alone,” to avoid the imputation which the Papists had charged some of the reformed with, for permitting absolution to be pronounced by persons not of this order. For in the provincial Council of Sens,A. D.1528, which was before that of Trent, and twenty years before the compiling our Common Prayer, we find the Protestants found fault with for affirming, that laics and women among them might pronounce absolution; which indeed was Luther’s opinion, but only so (as Chemnitius explains it) that in case of extreme necessity they might use it; which doctrine he had from the Papists themselves.—Nicholls; and see his long note on the subject, if necessary, in his “Commentary on the Common Prayer,” Evening Service.
In the diocese of Alexandria, the privilege of giving absolution to great criminals and scandalous offenders was reserved to the patriarch; as appears in the case of Lamponianus, an excommunicated presbyter.“Though,” says he, “he expressed his repentance with tears, and the people interceded for him, yet I refused to absolve him; only assuring this, that if he should be in manifest danger of death, any presbyter should receive him into communion by my order.” And in general, in the primitive Church, the granting absolution to reconcile penitents, was the bishop’s sole prerogative, and rarely committed to presbyters; but never to deacons, except in cases of extreme necessity, when neither bishop nor presbyter was at hand.—Bingham.
The privilege was also allowed in times of persecution, to martyrs and confessors in prison; but then they always signified what they had done to the bishop.—SeeCave’s Prim. Ch.
At the last review of the Common Prayer Book,A. D.1661, the Presbyterian divines requested that “as the wordminister, and not priest or curate, is used in the Absolution, and in divers other places, it may throughout the whole book be so used, instead of those two words.” To which the Episcopalian commissioners replied, that “it is not reasonable the wordministershould be only used in the liturgy. For since some parts of the liturgy may be performed by a deacon, and others, such as absolution and consecration, by none under the order of apriest, it is fit that some such word as priest should be used for those offices, and notminister, which signifies at large every one that ministers in that holy office, of what order soever he be.” Accordingly the word “priest,” in its exclusive sense, and in contradistinction to the worddeacon, was inserted, and the sense of the Church of England on this subject, ascertained through the objection made by the Presbyterian divines, was adopted and ratified by the act of parliament.
In the primitive Church, the deacons were ranked among the “sacred orders;” and though their office has not always been so accurately defined as that of the presbyters, or priests, yet in the Church of England they are to most purposes considered as an inferior degree of “the priesthood.” Their duties are laid down in the office of “the Form and Manner of making Deacons;” and, “for the resolution of all doubts,” the preface to the Book of Common Prayer has wisely directed, that “the parties that so doubt, or diversely take anything, shall always resort to the bishop of the diocese, who by his discretion shall take order for the quieting and appeasing of the same; so that the same order be not contrary to anything contained in this book.”
It has generally been customary for deacons to substitute a prayer taken from the liturgy, which has been usually one of the collects in the conclusion of the Communion Service; and a pious commentator (Mr. Waldo) countenances this by saying, “a deacon, when he officiates, is never to use it, but is to offer up some short prayer in its stead.” But this is improperly said. For if a deacon, an officiating minister of the lowest order, may be considered at liberty to make this alteration in breach of the act for uniformity, where is the point at which he shall stop? What in this case he should do seems settled by the authorities referred to by Shepherd.
“If a deacon is neither to read the Absolution, nor to substitute a prayer in its room, what is he to do? The rule is plain, and leaves him no alternative. After the confession, he is to remain kneeling, and to proceed to theLord’sPrayer. This always appeared to me to be the necessary and only conclusion to be drawn from the premises. Suspecting, however, the validity of my own arguments, I requested the opinion of a respectable divine, for whose modesty I have such regard, that I dare describe him only as having been, for many years, the confidential and intimate friend of Bishop Lowth. By his judgment, the opinion already given was sanctioned and confirmed. In consequence of further inquiry, I have since learned, that the heads of a cathedral church lately recommended the same practice. It is the business of priest vicars, I understand, in some cathedrals, to read morning and evening prayer; and it once happened, that a deacon was appointed a priest vicar. When it came to his turn to officiate, he was directed to omit the Absolution, and after the confession to say theLord’sPrayer.”—Shepherd.
PRIEST’S INTENTION. (SeeIntention.)
PRIMATES, or METROPOLITANS. In the Christian hierarchy, or scheme of Church government, are such bishops of a province, as preside over the rest.
Some derive the original of primates or metropolitans from apostolical constitution.—Bingham, Orig. Eccles.b. ii. c. 16. But it may be doubted, whether the apostles made any such general settlement in every province; and the records of the original of most churches being lost, it can never be proved that they did. It is most probable, that this order of bishops commenced not long after the apostolic age, whensects and schisms began to break in apace, and controversies multiplying between particular bishops, it was found necessary to pitch upon one in every province, to whom the decision of cases might be referred, and by whom all common and public affairs might be directed. Or, it might take its rise from that common respect and deference, which was usually paid by the rest of the bishops to the bishop of the metropolis, or capital city, of each province: which advancing into a custom, was afterwards settled by a canon of the Council of Nice.—Conc. Nic.c. 6.
As to the offices and privileges of primates or metropolitans, they were as follows. First, they were to regulate the elections of all their provincial bishops, and either ordain, or authorize the ordination of them: and no election or ordination of bishops was valid without their approbation. Nor was this power at all infringed by setting up the patriarchs above them. For, though the metropolitans were to be ordained by the patriarchs, yet still the right of ordaining their own suffragans was preserved to them. It is to be observed, that this power was not arbitrary: for the primates had no negative voice in the matter, but were to be determined and concluded by the major part of a provincial synod.—Conc. Chalced.Act. 16.
Their next office was, to preside over the provincial bishops, and, if any controversies arose among them, to interpose their authority to end and decide them: also to hear the accusations of others, who complained of injury done to them by their own bishops, from whom there was always liberty of appeal to the metropolitan. But still there lay an appeal from the metropolitan to a provincial synod, of which he was only the president or moderator.
A third office of the metropolitans or primates was, to call provincial synods, and preside in them. To this end, their circular letters, calledSynodicæandTractoriæ, were a legal summons, which no bishop of the province might disobey under pain of suspension, or other canonical censure, at the discretion of the metropolitan and council.
Fourthly, it belonged to the primates to publish and disperse such imperial laws and canons, as were made either by the emperors or the councils, for the common good of the Church. This gave them a right to visit, and inquire into neglects, abuses, and disorders, committed by any bishop throughout the whole province.
Fifthly, bishops, when they travelled into foreign countries on extraordinary occasions, used to consult the primate, and take hisFormatæ, or letters of commendation. This was particularly required of the African bishops by the third Council of Carthage.
A sixth branch of the metropolitan office was, to take care of all vacant sees within their province, by administering the affairs of the Church, securing the revenues of the bishopric, and procuring a speedy election of a new bishop.
Seventhly, it belonged to the metropolitans, yearly to review the calculation of the time of Easter, and give notice to their suffragans of it. The care of composing the cycle was, indeed, by the Nicene fathers particularly committed to the bishop of Alexandria. But due care not being always taken in this matter, the metropolitan in every province was concerned to settle the time, and acquaint the whole province with it.
The primate of Alexandria was the greatest metropolitan in the world, both for the absoluteness of his power, and the extent of his jurisdiction. For he was not metropolitan of a single province, but of all the provinces of Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis, in which there were at least six large provinces, out of which above an hundred bishops were called to a provincial synod.
Besides an actual primacy of power, there was likewise a primacy of honour; that is, some bishops had the name and title of primates, but not the jurisdiction. Of these there were three sorts. First, the senior bishops in each province, next to the metropolitan. These primates had no power above others, except when the metropolitans were some way disabled, or disqualified for discharging their office, by irregularity or suspension. In this case, their power devolved on the senior bishop of the province.
The second sort of honorary primates were the titular metropolitans, or bishops of such cities as had the name and title of metropolis bestowed on them by some emperor, without the privileges, which were still continued to the ancient metropolis of the province. Of this sort were the cities of Chalcedon and Nice.
Thirdly, some bishops were honoured with the title of primates, in regard to the eminency of their see, being some mother-church, or particularly honoured by ancient prescription. This was the case of the bishop of Jerusalem, in consideration of its being the mother-church of the Christian world.
The division of England into two provinces, Canterbury and York, in 1152, gave occasion to the introducing primacies among us. Canterbury, which before was the metropolis, gives to its bishop the title of Primate ofallEngland; York, only that of Primate of England. Accordingly, the former has some jurisdiction over all England, which the latter has only in his own province.
The archbishop of Armagh is primate of all Ireland; of Dublin, that of Ireland. Until the late mutilation of the Irish branch of the Church, the archbishop of Cashel was primate of Munster; of Tuam, primate of Connaught. The archbishop of St. Andrew’s was primate of Scotland. The archbishop of Rheims is primate of France; of Rouen, primate of Normandy; of Lyons, primate of Gaul; of Toledo, primate of Spain, &c.
PRIME. The service said at sunrising. (SeeCanonical Hours.)
PRIMER. (Primarius, Lat. A book of primary or elementary instruction.) Dr. Burton, in his preface to King Henry VIII.’s Three Primers, shows that the word was in use at least as far back as 1527, when a Primer of the Salisbury use was printed: and that it was “applied to a first or elementary book, which was put into the hands of children. The term was, perhaps, sometimes applied to a mere spelling-book, or to any book which was used for teaching children to read; but it seems generally to have conveyed the notion of religious instruction. The lessons were taken from the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Ave Maria, or from some other common formulary, with short and easy explanations, for the use of young beginners, or for private devotion. In course of time, the word came to have a still more limited meaning, as applied to offices of religion, and was analogous to the modern term Prayer Book, with the exception that a Primer was not confined to any one definite set of prayers, but contained different selections, according to the choice of the compiler; though the Creed, Pater Noster, and Ave Maria, always held a prominent place in the Primer.”
The earliest Primer printed by Dr. Burton was in Henry VIII.’s reign, in 1535: “A goodly Primer in English.” This was an improved edition of a former one, and was one of the first overt advances towards reformation, though containing much Romish doctrine. It contains, among a great many other things, an exposition of the Ten Commandments, and the Creed, and the Offices for the Seven Hours, mainly taken from the old offices. In 1537 appeared the Institution of a Christian Man, a still further advance; published by authority of convocation. In 1539 appeared a Primer by Bp. Hilsey of Rochester, the subject, though not the form, being much the same as in the first-mentioned Primer. In 1545 King Henry VIII.’s Primer appeared. The services for the Hours in this, formed the basis for all future Primers, and were much the same as in Queen Elizabeth’s of 1559. In Edward VI.’s reign appeared, in 1547, a reprint of Henry VIII.’s Primer. In 1549, 1551, 1552, improved editions, with omissions of the superstitious invocations of the Virgin Mary. Queen Elizabeth’s first Primer, 1559, was a reprint of King Edward’s of 1551, or rather, 1552. The next, in 1566, was altered a good deal from the form. A second edition was published in 1575. All these had the services of the Hours, besides Litanies, and other prayers. Some the catechism, some the penitential psalms, &c. A Latin Form of Prayer, like the Primer, was published by authority in 1560, and Preces Privatæ, a distinct, though similar publication, in 1564. The last Primer which appeared (though not under that name) was Dr. (afterwards Bp.) Cosin’s “Collection of Private Devotions: in the practice of the ancient Church, called the Hours of Prayer; as they were after this manner published by authority of Queen Elizabeth, 1560, &c.” This was published in 1627, by command of King Charles I. See Mr. Clay’s valuable edition of “Private Prayer,” &c.,during the reign of Elizabeth, edited for the Parker Society; andDr. Burton’s Three Primers.
PRIMICERIUS, orPrimmicerius, defined by Suicer as “qui inprimâ cerâ hæres scriptus,” one who is designated as the principal heir. Hence it came to signify one who presided over any particular department; the chief notary, for instance, was calledπριμμικήριος νοταρίων: and so the chief reader, the chief chanter, &c., in great churches. It is the title of a dignitary in several Italian cathedrals, and is supposed to answer to our chancellor; a name not used in Italy as that of a cathedral officer. The precentor of Aberdeen cathedral was anciently called Primicerius, as Kennedy states in hisAnnals of Aberdeen.
PRIMITIVE CHURCH. (SeeTradition.) The Church as it existed in the ages immediately after its first establishment. From its near connexion with the apostlesand other inspired men, the primitive Church enjoyed many advantages, of which, at later periods, it was deprived. To the earliest ages we naturally look for illustrations of obscurities in the New Testament, for evidence and testimony of matter of fact, for sound interpretations of doctrine, for proofs of the efficacy of the gospel, and for examples of undaunted Christian heroism. Hence the value we are accustomed to attach to the writings which have come down to us from the first three centuries afterChrist; and this value is considerably enhanced by the fervour, the beauty, and the surpassing eloquence which adorned the Church in that early day, and in the ages following. These were familiarly known to the Reformers of the Church of England; and, having taken the primitive Church as their model, and as the best witness of Catholic principles and usages, they transfused its spirit, not only into the liturgy, but into the whole framework and superstructure of that venerable fabric they aimed to restore. How well they succeeded, is evidenced in that fearless appeal which Catholics ever make, first to the Apostolic Church, then to those who drew their principles from it along with their infant breath, and flourished and died in an age when inspiration itself was scarcely extinct. That Church has nothing to dread which can lay its standards on the altar of antiquity, and return them to her bosom, signed with the glorious testimony of a Polycarp, an Ignatius, a Clement, and a “noble army of martyrs;” nothing has she to dread but the possibility of declension, and unfaithfulness to her sacred trust.
PRIOR. (SeeMonk.) The head or superior of a convent of monks, or the second person after the abbot, corresponding nearly to the dean in churches of secular canons.
PRIORY. (SeeMonastery.) A house occupied by a society of monks or nuns, the chief of whom was termed a prior or prioress; and of these there were two sorts: first, where the prior was chosen by the convent, and governed as independently as any abbot in his abbey; such were the cathedral priors, and most of those of the Augustine order. Secondly, where the priory was a cell subordinate to some great abbey, and the prior was placed or displaced at the will of the abbot. But there was a considerable difference in the regulation of these cells; for some were altogether subject to their respective abbots, who sent what officers and monks they pleased, and took their revenues into the common stock of the abbeys; whilst others consisted of a stated number of monks, under a prior sent to them from the superior abbey, and those priories paid a pension yearly, as an acknowledgment of their subjection, but acted in other matters as independent bodies, and had the rest of the revenues for their own use. The priories or cells were always of the same order as the abbeys on which they depended, though sometimes their inmates were of a different sex; it being usual, after the Norman Conquest, for the great abbeys to build nunneries on some of their manors, which should be subject to their visitation.
Alien priorieswere cells or small religious houses in our country, dependent on large foreign monasteries. When manors or tithes were given to distant religious houses, the monks, either to increase the authority of their own order, or perhaps rather to have faithful stewards of their revenues, built convenient houses for the reception of small fraternities of their body, who were deputed to reside at and govern those cells.
PRISCILLIANISTS. Certain heretics whose founder was Priscillian, a Spaniard of noble extraction, very wealthy, and endued with much wit, learning, and eloquence. Mark, an Egyptian heretic, having sown the errors of Gnosticism in Gaul, went into Spain, where carnal pleasure, which was the principal article of his doctrine, procured him quickly a great many disciples, the chief whereof was Priscillian, who covered his vanity under the appearance of a profound humility. He taught, besides the abominations of the Gnostics, that the soul was of the same substance withGod, and that, descending to the earth, through seven heavens, and certain other degrees of principality, it fell into the hands of the evil one, who put it into the body, which he made to consist of twelve parts, over each of which presided a celestial sign. He condemned the eating of the flesh of animals, and marriage as an unlawful copulation, and separated women from their husbands without their consent; and, according to his doctrine, man’s will was subject to the power of the stars. He confounded the holy persons in theTrinity, like Sabellius, ordered his followers to fast on Sundays and Christmas day, because he believedChristhad not taken true flesh upon him. Lying, a most abominable vice, and so contrary to theGodof truth, was a thing tolerated amongst his followers. There was a volume composed by them calledLibra, becausethat in the twelve questions in it, as in twelve ounces, their whole doctrine was explained. Priscillian broached his heresy in the fourth century. He was put to death, with some of his followers, at Treves, in 385, by order of the usurper Maximus, contrary to the earnest instance of St. Martin, bishop of Tours. This was the first instance of the infliction of death for heresy, and at the time excited universal horror among Christians. St. Ambrose refused to communicate with the bishops who had taken part in it, and a synod at Turin excommunicated them.
PROCESSION OF THE HOLY GHOST. As theFatheris eternal, without beginning, so is theSonwithout beginning, the only begottenGodofGod, Light of light, being veryGodof veryGod: in like manner theHoly Ghost, without beginning, hasproceededfrom theFatherand theSon. This is one of the mysteries which must be always incomprehensible, from our inability to comprehend an eternitya parte ante. In all discussions relating to these subjects, we may quote to the objector the wise words of Gregory Nazianzen: “Do you tell me how theFatheris unbegotten, and I will then attempt to tell you how theSonis begotten and theSpiritproceeds.”
We will first give the doctrine as stated in the Articles and Creed, and then give from Dr. Hey the history of the controversy which has long subsisted between the Eastern and the Western Church.
Of theHoly Ghostthe fifth article says, “TheHoly Ghost, proceeding from theFatherand theSon, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with theFatherand theSon, very and eternalGod.”
The same doctrine is declared in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds.
In the Nicene Creed:
“I believe in theHoly Ghost, who proceedeth from theFatherand theSon.”
In the Athanasian Creed:
“TheHoly Ghostis of theFatherand of theSon, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding.”
In the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, various disputes took place with the followers of Macedonius with respect to the nature and procession of theHoly Ghost. It may be particularly mentioned, with a view to what followed, that so soon as the years 430 and 431, in the Councils of Alexandria and Ephesus, it was declared that theHoly Ghostproceedeth from theSonas well as from theFather. In order to terminate these disputes, the Church in general made a sort of settlement or determination what should be accounted Catholic doctrine; and, to avoid further adjustings of formularies, agreed that nothing should from that time beaddedto those then under consideration. It is probable that, at that time, the question whether theHoly Ghostshould be spoken of as proceeding from theFatherand theSon, (Filioqueis the famous word,) did not occur to men’s minds.Filioquewas not in the creeds, though it was not new. The students in the Western Church seem ere long to have contracted an opinion, that it was proper for them to profess in a creed, that theHoly Ghostproceedeth from theSon; they, therefore, inserted (or, one might say,restored)Filioque, meaning, probably, no harm; and then the Eastern Church thought as little of complaining as the Western of offending. Afterwards, however, contentions for worldly grandeur produced contentions about theological truth. Rome and Constantinople were rivals, not only for imperial but for spiritual pre-eminence. The patriarch of Constantinople styled himselfEpiscopus Œcumenicus. Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, was more lowly in the title he assumed; he was “servus servorum” scilicet Dei; but in his pretensions to authority he was equally ambitious. The patriarch was at the head of the Eastern Church, the pope of the Western. This rivalship made the Churches seek occasions for blaming each other, and thus the insertion ofFilioquecame to be complained of as a breach of faith. It was defended by the Western Church, because the word contained rightdoctrine: this was enough to make the Eastern Church dispute thedoctrine: they did so, and the dispute still subsists, and still causes a separation between the Eastern and Western Churches. One pope (Leo III.) did once, for the sake of peace, orderFilioqueto be put out of the creed, at the same time ratifying the doctrine which it comprehends; but he could only prevail in those churches which were under his immediate sanction, and that only for a time. The obstinate resistance of the Greek or Eastern Church to the insertion ofFilioque, is the more likely to be owing to some worldly consideration, as several of the Greek fathers have the doctrine in their works clearly expressed.—Hey.(SeeHoly Ghost.)
PROCESSION. The formal march of the clergy and the people putting up prayer.
The first processions mentioned in ecclesiasticalhistory are those begun at Constantinople by St. Chrysostom. The Arians of that city being forced to hold their meetings without the town, went thither night and morning, singing anthems. Chrysostom, to prevent their perverting the Catholics, set up counter-processions, in which the clergy and people marched by night, singing prayers and hymns, and carrying crosses and flambeaux. From this period, the custom of processions was introduced among the Greeks, and afterwards among the Latins; but they have subsisted longer, and been more frequently used, in the Western than in the Eastern Church. The name ofProcessionwas formerly sometimes used for theLitany. (SeeLitany,Rogation Days.)