Chapter LIX: Act 46: , Parl. 3, Act 106, Parl. 7, Act 24, Parl. 11, King James VI., do (35)

There are but few instances of the papal power in England before the Norman Conquest. But the pope, having favoured and supported William I. in his invasion of this kingdom, made that a handle for enlarging his encroachments, and, in that king’s reign, began to send legates hither. Afterwards he prevailed with King Henry I. to part with the right of nominating to bishoprics; and, in the reign of King Stephen, he gained the prerogative of appeals. In the reign of Henry II. he exempted all clerks from the secular power. This king, at first, strenuously opposed his innovation; but, after the death of Becket, who, for having violently opposed the king, was slain by some of the royal adherents, the pope got such an advantage over the king, that he was never able to execute the laws he had made. Not long after this, by a general excommunication of the king and his people, for several years, King John was reduced to such straits, that he surrendered his kingdoms to the pope, to receive them again, and hold them of him under a rent of a thousand marks. In the following reign of Henry III., partly from the profits of our best Church benefices, and partly from the taxes imposed by the pope, there went yearly out of the kingdom to Rome £70,000 sterling. But in the reign of Edward I., it was declared by the parliament, that the pope’s taking upon him to dispose of English benefices to foreigners, was an encroachment not to be endured; and this was followed by the statute of _Provisors_ against popish bulls, and against disturbing any patron, in presenting to a benefice; which was afterwards enacted in Ireland also.

But the pope’s power received a mortal blow in England, by the reformation in religion, begun in the reign of Henry VIII.; since which time, to maintain the pope’s authority here, by writing, preaching, &c., was, till lately, made a _premunire_ upon the first conviction, and high treason upon the second.

POPERY. (See _Church of Rome_, _Council of Trent_, _Romanism_.) By _Popery_ we mean the peculiar system of doctrine, by adopting which the Church of Rome separates herself from the rest of the Catholic Church, and is involved in the guilt of schism. The Church of Rome, or Popery, has departed from the apostles’ doctrine, by requiring all who communicate with her to believe, as necessary to salvation,

1st, That that man is accursed who does not kiss, and honour, and worship the holy images.

2nd, That the Virgin Mary and other saints are to be prayed to.

3rd, That, after consecration in the LORD’S supper, the bread is no longer bread, and the wine no longer wine.

4th, That the clergyman should be excommunicated who, in the sacrament of the LORD’S supper, gives the cup to the people.

5th, That they are accursed who say that the clergy may marry.

6th, That there is a purgatory; that is, a place where souls which had died in repentance are purified by suffering.

7th, That the Church of Rome is the mother and mistress of all churches.

8th, That obedience is due from all Churches to the bishop of Rome.

9th, That they are accursed who deny that there are seven sacraments.

From those doctrines, contrary to Scripture and the primitive Church, have resulted these evil practices.

From the veneration of images has sprung the actual worship of them.

The invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and of other saints, has given rise to the greatest blasphemy and profaneness.

The bread in the eucharist has been worshipped as though itself were the eternal GOD.

From the doctrine of purgatory has sprung that of indulgences, and the practice of persons paying sums of money to the Romish bishops and clergy, to release the souls of their friends from the fabulous fire of purgatory.

Popery is a corrupt addition to the truth, and we can give the very dates of the several corruptions.

_Attrition_, as distinguished from contrition, was first pronounced to be sufficient.

The priest’s right _intention_ was first pronounced to be indispensable to the valid participation of the sacraments, and

Judicial _absolution_ was first publicly authorized, by the Council of Trent, A. D. 1551.

_Auricular confession_ was first enjoined by Innocent III., at the fourth Council of Lateran, A. D. 1215.

_Apocrypha_ received as canonical first at the Council of Trent, A. D. 1547.

Compulsory _celibacy of the clergy_, first enjoined publicly at the first Council of Lateran, A. D. 1123.

_Communion in one kind only_, first authoritatively sanctioned by the Council of Constance, A. D. 1414.

Use of _images_ and _relics_ in religious worship, first publicly affirmed and sanctioned in the second Council of Nice, A. D. 787.

Invocation of saints_, first taught with _authority by the fourth Council of Constantinople, A. D. 754.

_Papal infallibility_ was utterly unknown to the third Council of Constantinople, A. D. 680.

_Papal supremacy_, first publicly asserted by the fourth Council of Lateran, A. D. 1215.

_Prayers in a foreign tongue_, first deliberately sanctioned by the Council of Trent, were expressly forbidden by the fourth Council of Lateran, A. D. 1215.

_Purgatory_ and _indulgences_, first set forth by the Council of Florence, A. D. 1438.

The Roman _number of the sacraments_ was first taught by the Council of Trent, A. D. 1545.

_Transubstantiation_ was first publicly insisted on by the fourth Council of Lateran, A. D. 1215.

POPPY HEAD. The ornamental finial of a stall end. In design the poppy heads are extremely various; but they are almost universally made to assume the outline of the fleur-de-lis, to which not only foliage, but figures, faces, and whole groups, are made to conform themselves.

PORCH. A part of the church in which anciently considerable portions of the marriage service and of the baptismal services were performed. Being commenced here they were finished in the church.

POSTILS. A name anciently given to sermons or homilies. The name sprung from the fact that these were usually delivered immediately after reading of the Gospel (quasi _post illa_, sc. _Evangelia_). Also, printed expositions of Scripture, from the text being first exhibited, and _post illa_ (after the words of the text) the explication of the writer.

PRÆMUNIRE, in law, is either taken for a form of writ, or for the offence whereon the writ of præmunire is granted. The writ in question is named from its initial words _Præmunire facias_, and it is chiefly known in ecclesiastical matters from a persecuting use to which it is applied by the statute of 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20, which enacts, that if the dean and chapter refuse to elect the person nominated by the king to the vacant bishopric, or if any archbishop or bishop refuse to confirm or consecrate him, they shall incur the penalties of the statutes of the præmunire. These penalties are no less than the following:—From the moment of conviction, the defendant is out of the king’s protection, his body remains in prison during the king’s pleasure, and all his goods, real or personal, are forfeited to the Crown. He can bring no action, nor recover damages, for the most atrocious injuries, and no man can safely give him comfort, aid, or relief.

PRAGMATIC SANCTION, THE. (From πρᾶγμα, _business_.) A rescript or answer of the sovereign, declared by advice of his council, to some college, order, or body of people, upon their consulting him in some case of their community.—_Hutman._

Referring to the expression historically, the earliest Pragmatic Sanction on record is that drawn up by Louis IX., king of France, in 1268, against the encroachments of the Church and Court of Rome. It related chiefly to the rights of the Gallican Church, with reference to the elections of bishops and clergy. It was superseded in 1438 by the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII., which was drawn up at Bourges. This having re-asserted the rights and privileges claimed for the Gallican Church under Louis IX., it accorded with the Council of Basle, at that time sitting, in maintaining that a general council is independent of the pope, and in asserting that all papal bulls should be null and void unless they received the consent of the king. It withheld also the payment of annates. (See _Annates_.) Pope Pius II. succeeded in obtaining the abrogation of this sanction for a time. But the parliament of Paris refused to approve the conduct of Louis XI. in setting it aside, and he was compelled to restore it to its original influential position. It accordingly remained in full force up to the year 1517, when it was supplanted by the concordat, which was agreed upon between Francis I. and Pope Julius II. Although by the concordat privileges were given and received on both sides, yet the real advantages were on the side of Rome; which advantages it has ever since been her constant aim to improve.

PRAISE. A reverent acknowledgment of the perfections of GOD, and of the blessings flowing from them to mankind, usually expressed in hymns of gratitude and thanksgiving, and especially in the reception of the holy eucharist—that “sacrifice of praise, and sublimest token of our joy.” (See _Eucharist_.)

PRAXEANISTS. (See _Patripassians_.)

PRAYER. The offering up of our desires to GOD for things agreeable to his will, in the name of CHRIST, by the aid of his SPIRIT, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies. The necessity of prayer is so universally acknowledged by all who profess and call themselves Christians, and so clearly enjoined in Scripture, that to insist upon this duty—this sacred and pleasant exercise to the renewed in heart—is unnecessary. Prayer is either private or public, and it implies faith in the particular providence of GOD. The general providence of GOD acts through what are called the laws of nature. By his particular providence GOD interferes with those laws, and he hath promised to interfere in behalf of those who pray in the name of JESUS. As we are to shape our labours by ascertaining, through the circumstances under which we are providentially placed, what is the will of GOD with reference to ourselves; as, for example, the husbandman, the professional man, the prince, all labour for different things placed within their reach, and do not labour for that which GOD evidently does not design for them; so we are to regulate our prayers, and we may take it as a general rule, that we may pray for that for which we may lawfully labour, and for that only. And when we pray for what is requisite and necessary for the body or the soul, we are at the same time to exert ourselves. Prayer without exertion is a mockery of GOD, as exertion without prayer is presumption. The general providence of GOD requires that we should exert ourselves, the particular providence of GOD that we should pray.

(For public prayer, see _Liturgy_ and _Formulary_.)

PRAYER BOOK. (See _Liturgy_ and _Formulary_.)

PREACHING. Proclaiming or publicly setting forth the truths of religion. Hence the reading of Scripture to the congregation is one branch of preaching, and is so denominated in Acts xv. 21. “Moses of old time hath in every city them that _preach_ him, being _read_ in the synagogues every sabbath day.” See Archbishop King’s valuable Treatise _On the Inventions of Men_, in which he demonstrates the extensive sense of _preaching_, as scripturally used; showing that all public services in the church are, in a certain sense, preaching. The term is, however, generally restricted to the delivering of sermons, lectures, &c.

_Article_ XXIII. “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 the LORD’S vineyard.”

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, let _preachers_ take 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 by one 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 (see _Orders_): 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 of GOD, 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.”

By _Canon 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 of GOD, 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 preach _pendente 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 for CHRIST’S Holy Catholic Church,” &c. (See _Bidding 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 left off 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 it _Præbenda_, or _Corpus Præbendæ_, the _Corps of the Prebend_. Hence arose the difference between a _prebend_ and a _canonry_. A _canonry_ was 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 a _prebend_ was 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 a _prebend_ in consideration of his officiating at stated times in the church. (See _Dean 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 or _baculus_. 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 “O LORD, open thou our lips.” These anciently formed a regular part of the harmonized _services_ for cathedral choirs, which were set to music by an earlier musician.—_Jebb._ (See _Responses_, _Versicles_, and _Service_.)

PREDESTINATION. (See _Election_; see also _Calvinism_ and _Arminianism_.) Of predestination and election our 17th Article thus speaks: “Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of GOD, 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 in CHRIST out of mankind, and to bring them by CHRIST to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of GOD, be called according to GOD’S purpose, by his SPIRIT working in due season; they through grace obey the calling; they be justified freely; they be made sons of GOD by adoption; they be made like the image of his only-begotten SON JESUS CHRIST; they walk religiously in good works; and at length, by GOD’S mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity. As the godly consideration of predestination and our election in CHRIST is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of CHRIST, 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 through CHRIST, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards GOD: so, for curious and carnal persons lacking the Spirit of CHRIST, to have continually before their eyes the sentence of GOD’S predestination, is a most dangerous downfal, whereby the devil doth thrust them either into desperation, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living, no less perilous than desperation. Furthermore, we must receive GOD’S promises in such wise, as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture: and, in our doings, that will of GOD is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of GOD.”

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 in CHRIST is 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 shall _not_ be wrested to our destruction.

In the first chapter to the Ephesians, we find that there are certain persons whom GOD hath chosen in CHRIST, before the foundation of the world; having predestinated them unto the adoption of children of JESUS CHRIST to 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 that GOD hath “called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in CHRIST JESUS before 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 the LAMB’S book of life, (Rev. xx. 15; xxi. 27,) because the first among GOD’S elect is he who, being GOD as well as man, is the Lamb of GOD, 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 which GOD hath afore prepared unto glory.” (Rom. ix. 22–24.)

And now comes the question, _Who_ are 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, for CHRIST’S sake, as his own children in holy baptism, he justified, or, for the same SAVIOUR’S sake, 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 the HOLY 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 to GOD’S predestination: _them_ GOD hath predestinated to glory. And as such, as GOD’S elect 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 of GOD.” (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 of GOD the FATHER” (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 that GOD has predestinated particular persons to particular offices here on earth, long before their birth: as, for example, in the case of Jeremiah, GOD saith, “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 “pleased GOD to separate him from his mother’s womb, that he might preach CHRIST among 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 the SON of 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 our LORD’S kingdom of glory, our LORD said, “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 of GOD. 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 my FATHER, 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, _if_ we 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 the LAMB, 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. (See _Bishop Pearson’s_ 23 and 24 _Lectiones “de Prædestinatione” in Archdeacon Churton’s edition of his minor Works_.)

PRE-EXISTENCE OF CHRIST, OUR LORD. (See _Generation_.) 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, that JESUS 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 the FATHER before 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, O LORD, Holy FATHER, Almighty, everlasting GOD,”—adds the proper preface which assigns the reason for peculiar thankfulness on that particular day, viz. “_Because_ thou didst give JESUS CHRIST, thine only SON, to be born as at this time for us; who, by the operation of the HOLY 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 and weekly 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 all GOD’S mercies, should at the LORD’S table 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 praise GOD for the mercies of CHRIST’S birth, resurrection, and ascension, for the sending the HOLY GHOST, and for the true faith of the holy TRINITY.—_Dean Comber._

Our LORD himself, before he brake the bread and distributed it, gave thanks; and the Church has thought fit to do the same thing. But, because our LORD has 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 praising GOD for 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 praise GOD for 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 by GOD’S appointment 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 hymn _Tersanctus_.” It may be remarked that the _Tersanctus_ is 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 the one 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. (See _Episcopacy_, _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 has _bona notubilia_ in some other diocese than where he dies; and is so called from having a _prerogative_ throughout 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 the _Presanctified_, 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 they do 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. (See _Bishop_, _Deacon_, _Priest_, _Orders_, _Clergy_.) The name πρεσβύτερος (_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 a _presbyter_ or _elder_ in 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 called _presbyters_ in 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 called _bishops_, while bishops who were properly such were distinguished by other titles, as that of _chief 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 before A. D. 43, when the disciples at Antioch sent their collections to the presbyters of Judea. About A. 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 of GOD,” 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 little inferior 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 over GOD’S heritage.” 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 in JESUS CHRIST.—_Bingham._ _Palmer._ _Augusti._

The word _presbyter_ is substituted for _priest_ in 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. (See _Church 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.) The _Kirk Session_ is 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.) The _Presbytery_ consists 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.) The _Provincial Synod_, which comprises several presbyteries, and is constituted by the ministers and elders by whom these presbyteries themselves were last composed. (4.) The _General Assembly_ is 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 of _London_, containing five congregations,—that of _Liverpool and Manchester_, containing three congregations,—and that of the _North 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 large churches between the easternmost stalls of the choir and the altar; answering to the _solea_ of the ancient basilicas.

PRESENCE. (See _Real Presence_.)

PRESENTATION, (see _Patron_ and _Benefice_,) 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. (See _Orders_, _Ordination_, _Presbyter_, _Sacrifice_, and _Absolution_.) Who can deny that our word _priest_ is corrupted of _presbyter_? Our ancestors, the Saxons, first used _preoster_; whence, by further contraction, came _preste_ and _priest_. The High and Low Dutch have _priester_; the French, _prestre_ [now contracted into _prêtre_]; the Italian, _prete_; but the Spaniard only speaks full, _presbytero_.—_Joseph Mede._