PROCESS ENGRAVING 



PROCLUS 



433 



of the Asiatic possessions of Rome ; and such was 

 the zealous attachment evinced for him by his 

 soldiers that on the death of Tacitus they forced 

 him to assume the purple ; and, his rival Florianus 

 having been removed, Probus was enthusiastically 

 hailed emperor by all classes (276 A.D.). His brief 

 reign was signalised by brilliant and important 

 successes ; the Germans were driven out of Gaul, 

 and the Barbarians from the Rhretian, Pannonian, 

 and Thracian frontiers ; and Persia was forced to 

 agree to a humiliating peace. The external secur- 

 ity of the empire l>eing established, Probus devoted 

 himself to the development of its internal resources. 

 But fearing that the discipline of the army would 

 be deteriorated by inactivity, he employed the sol- 

 diers as labourers in executing various extensive 

 and important works of public utility. Such occu- 

 pations, considered as degrading by the soldiers, 

 excited among them the utmost irritation and dis- 

 content ; and a large body of troops engaged in 

 draining the swamps aliout Sirnnum murdered 

 their excellent emperor in 282. 



Process Engraving. See ILLUSTRATION OF 

 BOOKS, PHOTOGRAPHY. 



Procession of the Holy Spirit. See 



SPIRIT, CREEDS. 



Processions, as solemn and religious rites, 

 are of very great antiquity. With the Greeks and 

 Romans they took place chiefly on the festivals of 

 Diana, Bacchus, Ceres, and other deities ; also 

 before the beginning of the games in the Circus ; 

 and in spring, when the fields were sprinkled with 

 holy water, to increase their fertility. The priests 

 went at their head, bearing images of the gods and 

 X'xldesses to l>e propitiated, and started either from 

 certain temples or from the Capitol. Among the 

 Jews certain processions around the altar were 

 and still are to a certain extent usual on the 

 Feast of Tal>ernacles ; and from them the Moham- 

 medans have adopted their mode of encompassing 

 the sanctuary seven times at Mecca. Processions 

 also form a prominent part of the Buddhist wor- 

 ship. The practice was early introduced into the 

 Christian church, but seems to have been adopted 

 by Chrysostom at Constantinople to counteract 

 the influence of the Arian processions through 

 the streets to their churches outside the walls. 

 Ambrose speaks of them as ancient in his day. 

 During the middle ages processions were arranged 

 on a scale of great magnificence, as at the Corpus 

 Christi Festival. Since the Reformation they 

 have been much less elaborate, especially in 

 mixed countries ; but at Vienna, and still more at 

 Munich, the Corpus Christ! procession is still mag- 

 nificent. Processions are either Supplicatory pro- 

 cesions or Cross processions, and are either directed 

 to a certain distant place, to some miraculous 

 image or object, or they are confined to the 

 streets of the cities and the churches. Banners, 

 crosses, and images are generally carried in front ; 

 the clergy follow ; and the people make up the 

 rear, singing hymns or reciting prayers. Proces- 

 sions tn beseech the special mercy of God are 

 variously to l>e described us Litanice, Rogationes, 

 Statianex, Xii/i/i/ifitioties, and Exvmoloqeses ; and 

 again, they are to be distinguished as being with 

 or without the Blessed Sacrf.:r,e:it, relics, or images 

 of the Virgin or Saints. Some are extraordinary 

 and specially arranged ; others are ordinary and fall 

 under the common ritual, as those on Candlemas, 

 Palm Sunday, St Mark's Day, three Rogation 

 days, and at funerals. The Processional is the 

 ervice-book containing the prayers, hvmns, and 

 ceremonial of processions. There is no doubt that, 

 whatever their general intrinsic value, they offer 

 in many instances one of the most strikingly 

 picturesque features of the Roman faith, and that 

 399 



they answer a certain instinctive craving of the 

 multitude. Processions through the streets are 

 frequent in modern life as political and social 

 demonstrations, as during strikes and the like, and, 

 when not decreed dangerous to order or obstructive 

 to traffic, are claimed as a privilege of free-born 

 citizens ; and they have been introduced to break 

 the quiet of many English towns and villages as 

 part of the peculiar warfare of the Salvation Army. 

 For extensive pilgrimages, as such, their history 

 and rites, see PILGRIM, MECCA, FESTIVALS, &c. 



Prochein Ami. See INFANT. 



Pro'cida, an islet of Italy, between the island 

 of Ischia and the mainland (Cape Miseno), 50 miles 

 W. by S. of Naples. Area, 1 sq. m. ; pop. 13,131. 

 On its shores is the city of the same name, with 

 a harbour, a royal palace, a state-prison, and a 

 marine school. The people fish coral, tunny, and 

 sardines, and grow fruits, wine, and oil. The 

 island was occupied by Britain on two or three 

 occasions between 1799 and 1813. 



Proclamation, a public notice given by the 

 sovereign or governing power to the people. The 

 power of issuing proclamations is part of the pre- 

 rogative of royalty as the fountain of justice. They 

 sometimes consist of an authoritative announcement 

 of some matter of state, or act of the executive gov- 

 ernment affecting the duties and obligations of sub- 

 jects. The demise of the crown, and accession of a 

 new sovereign, a declaration of war, and the issue of 

 new coin are all occasions on which a royal proclama- 

 tion is issued. In time of war, the crown by a pro- 

 clamation may lay an embargo on shipping, and 

 order the ports to be shut. But the most usual 

 class of proclamations are admonitory notices for 

 the prevention of offences, consisting of formal 

 declarations of existing laws and penalties, and of 

 the intention to enforce them ; such as the pro- 

 clamation against vice and immorality, formerly 

 read at the opening of courts of assize and quarter 

 sessions in England. In Scotland proclamations 

 summon the Scottish peers to elect representatives 

 to the House of Lords. 



Proclamations are binding when they enforce the 

 execution of laws already in being. Towards the 

 end of Henry VIII. 's reign it was enacted that the 

 king's proclamation should have the same force as 

 an act of parliament ; but this ill-judged law was 

 repealed in the first year of Edward VI. It is now 

 clear that the sovereign can neither make a new 

 law, nor dispense with the existing law, unless by 

 consent of parliament. A meeting which is pro- 

 claimed is not thereby rendered illegal ; the pro- 

 clamation is only a notice that, in the opinion of 

 the government, the meeting is likely or certain to 

 assume an illegal character. Proclamations are 

 issued under the Great Seal, and are read aloud by 

 heralds or other royal officers in the three capital 

 cities of the United Kingdom ; the reading is pre- 

 faced with the cry of ' O yes ' ( Fr. oyez, ' hear '). 



Proclns, the Neoplatonist, called the SUC- 

 CESSOR (Diadochos), i.e. of Syrianus, as the head of 

 the Athenian school, was born in Constantinople 

 about 41 1 A. D. He was of Lycian origin, and re- 

 ceived his first instruction at Xanthus, in Lycia. 

 He then studied at Alexandria under Arion, Leon- 

 aras, Hero, and especially under Heliodorus, with 

 whom he applied himself chiefly to Aristotelian and 

 Platonic philosophy. From thence he went to 

 Athens, where a certain Plutarch, a philosopher, 

 and his daughter, Asclepigeneia, a priestess of 

 Eleusis, became his instructors, chiefly in theurgic 

 mysteries. The vivid imagination and enthusiastic 

 temperament which in his childhood already had 

 led him to believe in apparitions of Minerva and 

 Apollo, naturally convinced him, when all the 

 influences of the mysteries were brought to bear 



