PRELATE 



PEE-llAPHAELITISM 



389 



8th November 1888, and Proc. Boy. Geog. Soc., 

 1879 et sey. The name also appears in the forms 

 Prjevalski, Prchevalsky, and Prschevalsky. 



Prelate (Lat. prcelatus, 'one set over'), in 

 Church law, is the name giveli to the holders of 

 those higher dignities in the church, to which, of 

 their own right, is attached a proper jurisdiction, 

 not derived by delegation from any superior official. 

 In this sense the name comprises not only prelates 

 of the first class, as bishops, but also the heads of 

 religious orders, abliots or priors of religious houses, 

 and other similar ecclesiastical dignitaries. In the 

 pope's court and household many of the officials, 

 although not possessing episcopal or quasi-episcopal 

 jurisdiction, have the insignia and title of prelate ; 

 and these honours are frequently bestowed on 

 clergy whose duties keep them far from Home. 



Prelude (Lat. pr<e, 'before,' and ludo, 'I 

 play'), the introductory movement of a musical 

 work (see INTRODUCTION). The first movement 

 of a suite was usually a prelude ; and the term is 

 especially associated with the pieces prefaced by 

 Bach to nis celebrated clavichord and organ fugues. 

 It has also been applied, without special signifi- 

 cance, by Chopin to his collection of short pieces, 

 op. 28. Its I'm in is indeterminate, but the piece 

 is always in the same key as that succeeding it. 



Premature Interment. See BURIAL. 



Premature Labour. See ABORTION, Forrus, 

 BIRTH. 



Premier. See TREASURY, CABINET. 

 Pre-millenarians. See MILLENNIUM. 



PremoiistrateiiNians (called also NORBER- 

 TINKS), an order of regular canons, founded by St 

 Xorliert, a canon of Cleyes, in 1119, at a place in 

 the forest of Coucy, pointed out in a vision, and 

 thence called Premontre (Lat. Pratiim Manstra- 

 tmn, 'the meadow pointed out'). Their habit 

 was white, hence in England they were com- 

 monly called the White Canons. Norbert or- 

 ganised his new order, which was substantially 

 a branch of the Canons Regular of St Augustine, 

 as well with a view to the sanctification of the 

 memliers as to their usefulness in effecting the 

 reformation of the age. Himself a man of remark- 

 able piety and austerity of life, his rule is a return 

 to the primitive fervour of the monastic institute ; 

 and the great work which be proposed for his 

 brotherhood, in addition to the daily choral ser- 

 virri of the church, was the practical instruction 

 of the people, and the direction of consciences in 

 the confessional. It was taken up with ardour, 

 ami spread rapidly in France and the Low Conn 

 tries, and afterwards on Norliert's being chosen, 

 in 1127, Archbishop of Magdeburg in Germany ; 

 the abbot of the mother- house at Coucy, however, 

 retaining the rank of general and of superior of the 

 entire order. In 1512 all the abbeys in England 

 ;iml Wales were placed under the Abbot of VVel- 

 lieck. There, just before the dissolution, were 

 thirty-five houses; in Scotland there were six, one 

 of them Dryburgh. It does not seem at any time 

 to have made much progress, or at least to have 

 established many houses, in Italy or Spain. In the 

 name spirit of reformation Norbert established an 

 order of nuns, which attained to equal success. 

 Helyot states that at one time there were as many 

 as a thousand Premonstratensian abl>eys, besides 

 provostships and priories, and 500 houses of nuns, 

 mostly in France, Germany, and the northern 

 kingdoms. Lecuy, the last ablx>t of Premontre, 

 died so late as 1834. The abbeys were proscribed 

 at the Revolution, and even in Germany, Belgium, 

 and Austria there remain only miserable fragments 

 of their former splendour. Small communities 



have been revived at Crowle and Spalding in Lin- 

 colnshire and at Storrington in Sussex. 



Prentice Pillar. See ROSLIN. 



Prenzlail, or PRESZLOW, an agricultural town 

 of Prussia, stands at the northern end of Lake Ucker, 

 67 miles by rail NNE. of Berlin. It has a beautiful 

 Gothic church (1325-40). Pop. (1895) 19,689. 



Pre-Raphaelitism. English art of the isth 

 century had in its genesis one national peculiarity. 

 There being no demand for it from church or state, 

 it had to find its patrons (i.e. its means of existence) 

 in the wants of the people. Hogarth, the first dis- 

 tinctly national subject- painter, found his themes in 

 the social manners of his day, which were valued by 

 the true instinct of the common people. Portrait- 

 painters of national origin there had been before- 

 his time, but these, good and bad alike, had been 

 followers of foreign masters introduced by the 

 court and supported by its patronage. That art 

 other than architecture was not necessarily an exotic 

 in England is proved convincingly by the many 

 lieautiful examples of monumental portraiture pro- 

 duced by native workmen l>efore the Wars of the 

 Roses. The bronze effigies of Henry III. and 

 Queen Eleanor in Westminster Abbey were exe- 

 cuted by William Torel, citizen of London, in 

 1291-92, and those of Richard II. and Queen Anne 

 of Bohemia by Nicholas Broker and Godfrey Prest, 

 coppersmiths and citizens of London, in 1395-97. 

 Austin of London furnishes an excellent and later 

 example of this in his monumental tomb in the 

 Beaiichamp Chapel, Warwick. Those wars, followed 

 as they were by the Reformation and in quick suc- 

 cession by the parliamentary troubles, smothered 

 native art and necessitated the calling in of foreign 

 aid ; for it must be remembered that under the 

 happiest conditions a native artist cannot be pro- 

 duced in less time than a full generation. 



Hogarth having once arisen with full daylight 

 of an independent inspiration, it was no longer 

 possible for the mannered reproductions of the 

 imitators of Kneller and Lely to satisfy the spirit 

 of an age now awakened from its long sleep. 

 Hogarth at first gained a footing by portraiture, 

 and when later he devoted himself to subject- 

 pictures he found a poor support by the sale of his 

 engravings to the strictly middle classes. Amongst 

 the wealthy there were two incentives to interest 

 in art, one of these being found in ancestral dignity, 

 the other in that love of sport so indelibly stamped 

 upon English character. Sir Joshua Reynolds and 

 Gainsborough arose, inspiring portraiture with their 

 own precious grace and loveliness ; animal-painters 

 now well-nigh forgotten (such as Stubbs and his 

 fellows) satisfied the latter ; and Wilson as a land- 

 scape-painter made a heroic effort to graft upon the 

 sportsman's instinct a larger love of nature. It 

 has always been regarded as fortunate that at 

 this time the reigning monarch, George III., de- 

 clared bis interest in the higher aims of art, an 

 interest which expressed itself first in the estab- 

 lishment of the Royal Academy, and later in the 

 patronage of Benjamin West for subjects of an 

 exalted character. Although it is just that many 

 of the works of this painter have since suffered 

 a reversal of judgment, his picture of the ' Death 

 of General Wolfe ' will always remain a noble illus- 

 tration of English history, largely justifying the 

 king's favour. The great war for supremacy which 

 at that time absorbed the nation's life, together 

 with the almost ruinous debt then contracted, made 

 further royal patronage impossible. It is easy now 

 for any thoughtful person to trace bow the hig^i 

 standard originally set was largely instrumental in 

 sustaining the character of the art that followed. 

 Its effects may be seen in the noble nature 

 of the best works of Romney, Copley, Raeburn, 



