376 



PREFECT 



PRAGMATIC SANCTION 



Pra-fert, a common name applicable to various 

 Roman functionaries. Tin- most im|Hirt*nt was 

 the Prtefediu urbi, or warden of the city, whose 

 office existed at an early ]>criod of Koman lii-t.n y, 

 but wa revived under Augustus, iili new and 

 greatlv oltcicd and extended niitlioiity, including 

 tin- wnolc |M>wers necessary for the maintenance 

 of peace and order in the city, and an extensive 

 jurisdiction civil and criminal. The Prttfeetut 

 pnetorto was the commander of the troops that 

 guarded the emperor's person. 



Pnrfloratiun. See .ESTIVATION. 



Pni'folinlion. See VERNATION. 



Pra-nionstratrnsianK. See PBEMOXSTRA- 



TKN-I \\^. 



Pr. Till ll II I re. the name given, in English law, 

 to a species of offence of the nature of a contempt 



against tin- sovereign and his government, and 

 punishable with forfeiture and imprisonment. The 

 name is derived from the first words (mnrmnnire or 

 jirtenumere facia*) of a writ originally introduced 

 lor the piirp<>-e of repressing papal encroachments 

 on the power of the crown. The attacks of the 

 popes on the rights of private patrons, by bestow- 

 ing bishoprics, abbacies, &c. on favourites, often 

 aliens, and the |>ope's insisting on deciding in his 

 curia cases that ought to have lieen tried in the 

 king's courts, were especially unpopular in Eng- 

 land, and were the immediate cause of various 

 statutes of pnemunirc. Severe penalties were 

 imposed on those who gave or sought to enforce 

 obedience to the pupal encroachments. The 

 Statute of Provisors ( 1330; see ENGLAND, CHURCH 

 OF, Vol. IV. p. 357) was an early act of this sort; 

 the first act called I'm iminire was passed in 1353; 

 but the name of I'nemunire is specially used of an 

 act of 1393, in which Kichard II. re-enacted and 

 strengthened the statute of Edward III. Under 

 Klizalieth it was made a breach of the Statute of 

 Pnemunire to refuse the oath of supremacy. By 

 later statutes a number of offences of a miscellane- 

 ous description were rendered liable to the penal- 

 ii- - of a pnemnnire, as (by 6 Anne, chap. 7) the 

 asserting that any person, other than according 

 to the Acts of Settlement and Union, has any 

 right to the throne of these kingdoms. The know- 

 ingly and wilfully solemnising, assisting, or IMMIIE 

 present at any marriage forbidden by the Royal 

 Marriage Act is declared by 12 Geo. III. chap. 11 

 to infer a pnrmnnire. 



See PALESTRINA. 



Pra'tor was, among the ancient Romans, the 

 title given to the consuls as leaders of the armies 

 of the state ; but it was specially employed to 

 designate a magistrate whose powers were scarcely 

 inferior to those of a consul. The pra-torship. in 

 this specific sense of the term, was lit*! instituted 

 in 30(5 B.C., as a compensation to the patricians for 

 living obliged to share with the plebeians tin- 

 honours of consulship. It was virtually a third 

 consulship; the pra-tor was entitled co//f</ run- 

 nilibut ; lie was elected by the same auspices and 

 at the same comitia. Plot nearly thirty 

 patricians alone were eligible for the ollice ; but in 

 337 n.r. the plclieiatis made good their right to it 

 also. The pnetor's functions were chiefly judicial. 

 Though he sometimes commanded armies, ami. in 

 the absence of the consuls, exercised consular 

 authority within the- city, yet his principal biisi- 

 ness was the administration of justice Imth in 

 matter- civil and criminal ; and to the edicts of 

 successive prtetor* I he 1 Ionian law owes much of 

 its development and improvement. Originally 

 them was only one pnetor ; but as the city and 

 tat<- increased, and their relations with other 

 nations became more complicated, others were 



added. In 246 B.C. a second pnetor was appointed, 

 to settle disputes that might arise between Unmans 

 and foreigners temporarily resident at Koine, for 

 flailing or other piir|>ot>es, lience called prtttor pert- 

 yrtnvs (' foreign pnetor'), to distinguish him from 

 the original jirnlur iirbaniu ('city pra-tor'). In 

 J-7 two new lira-tors were appointed, to administer 

 affairs in Sicily and Sardinia; and in 197 two more 

 for the Spanish provinces, or six in all. Sulla 

 increased the nuinU-r to eight, and Julius Ca-sar 

 to sixteen. Augustus reduced the iniinlier to 

 twelve ; but at a later period we read of eighteen, 

 if not more. The city pia-torship was reckoned 

 the highest; and after a person had filled this 

 office he sometime-. icceived the administration of 

 a province with the title of proprietor or proconsul. 



Pra'torian Guard ( Iat. Prirtoria; Cohortcs 

 and Prut'iniiiii), a body of soldiers organised for 

 the purpose of protecting the person and maintain- 

 ing the power of the emperors. We read of a 

 prtttoria cohors, or select guard of the most valiant 

 soldiers, attached to the person of Scipio Africanus, 

 but it is to Augustus that the institution of them 

 as a separate force was owing. He formed nine or 

 ten cohorts, each consisting of a thousand men 

 (horse and foot), but kepi only three of them in 

 Rome, the rest'lieing dispersed in cities not far oil'. 

 Tilierius, however, assembled the nine cohorts at 

 the capital in a permanent camp, and Vitellius in- 

 creased their numlier to sixteen. The Praetorians 

 served at first for twelve, and afterwards for six- 

 teen years ; they received double pay ; the privates 

 were'held equal in rank to the centurions in the 

 regular army, and on their retirement each received 

 20,000 sesterces. They soon acquired a dangerous 

 power, which they exercised in the most unscrupu- 

 lous manner, deposing and elevating emperors at 

 their pleasure. Aspirants for the imperial dignity 

 found it advisable, and even necessary, to bribe 

 them largely ; while those who acquired that dig- 

 nity without their assistance were accustomed on 

 their accession to purchase their favour by lil>eral 

 donations. The Praetorians, however, bad no 

 jMilitical or ambitious views ; they were simply an 

 insolent and rapacious soldiery, fond of substantial 

 gratifications, and careless how they got them. 

 After the death of Pertinax ( 193 A. n. ) they actually- 

 sold. ' the purple ' for a sum of money to Didius 

 Juliamis ; but in the same year their peculiar 

 organisation was entirely broken up by Sevems, 

 who formed new cohorts altogether out of the best 

 legions serving on the frontiers, which he increased 

 to four times the number of the old. After several 

 other changes Constantine (312) dispersed them 

 among his regular legions. 



Pragmatic Sanction (sometimes I'mi/iiintfr 



Resrriiil I, a solemn ordinance or decree of the head 

 of a kingdom relating either to church or slate 

 affairs. The term originated in the By/anline 

 empire, and signified a public and solemn ill 

 by a prince (pmgmatueot, ' business like.' later, 

 1 verseu in affairs,' 'official'), as distinguished 

 from the simple leseript. which was a declaration 

 of law in answer to a question propounded by an 

 individual. This name is given to several import- 

 ant treaties, of which the principal are (1) that of 

 St Louis in 1269 and (2) that of Charles VII. in 

 1437, in Ixtth of which the rights of the Callican 

 Church (q.v.) were asserted; (3) the instrument 

 which willed the empire of Germany in the House 

 of Austria (1439); (4) the ordinance by which 

 Charles VI., emperor of Germany, having no male 

 i-suc-, settled his dominions on his daughter, the 

 Archduchess Maria Theresa: (ft) the -.-n l.-m.-nt of 

 the succession of the kingdom of Naples, which 

 was ceded by Charles III. of Spain, in 1759, to hix 

 thin) son and his descendants. 



