460 PROVISIONS OF OXFORD 



PRUNELLA 



an independent act, it retains the title of a pro- 

 visional iinli-r. Provisional orders are moat useful 

 in facilitating the modification <ir extension of the 

 provisions of general act*, s<i as to adapt them to 

 the special necessities of particular district*. They 

 may I* obtained with much greater expedition and 

 less cost than a private Kill ; the confirmatory an 

 when unopposed mny !" obtained in a week m 

 two, and has all the facilities of a government 

 measure. 

 Provisions of Oxford. See MONTFORT. 



Provisory STATTTE OK. The nhject of this 



statute. pa~sed iii the reign of Kdward III. (13.VI), 

 was to correct and put an end to the almses which 

 had arisen in the exercise of the papal ] in- r< Datives 

 as to the disposal of lieneficcs in England. See 



l-'.Ni.l.AXI) (CliriiCH OK), Vol. IV. ]i. :iTi7. 



Provo Citv, capital of Utah county, I' tali, i.s 

 on the Provo River, Wtween I' tali Lake and the 

 Walisatch Mountains, and 46 miles hv rail SSE. of 

 Bait Lake City. It contains Hour-nulls, tanneries, 

 &c. Pop. (1900) GlvY 



Provost l. Lat. /irii'/in.iftiin, 'set over"), in Cliurcli 

 Law, the chief dignitary of a cathedral or collegiate 

 cliurcli, from which use the title has also been 

 transferred to the heails of other bodies, religious, 

 literary, or administrative. The name is also 

 given to the superiors of certain religious houses 

 of lesser rank, ami the relation of which to the 

 more important houses is analogous to that of 

 the priory to the abbey. The head of a cathe- 

 dral chapter was anciently the archdeacon. At 

 present, in the Roman Catholic Church, cathedral 

 chapters are presided over by provosts in Austria, 

 Prussia, Bavaria, ami England, but in other 

 parts of Germany and in France by deans. In 

 the Church of England the Dean (q.v.) is tlie 

 chief officer of a catTiedral ; bnt the title of prm n>t 

 survives, alongside that of dean, in the Scottish 

 Episcopal Church. In the Protestant Church in 

 Germany, in the north especially, where several 

 minor churches or chapels are attached to one chief 

 church, the minister of the latter is called provost 

 (/ira/jst). In England the heads of Oriel, Queen's, 

 and Worcester colleges in the university of Oxford, 

 and the head of King's College, Cambridge, are 

 designated provost. The head of Eton College is 

 also so called. 



In Scotland the chief municipal magistrate of 

 a city or burgh is called provost, the term cone 

 ponding to tin; English word mayor. The provost 

 presides in the civic courts along with the bailies, 

 who are his deputies (see BOROUGH). The pro- 

 vosts of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Perth, 

 and, since IMC.'. Iliin.lec, are styled Lord Provost. 

 The Lord Provost of Edinburgh is entitled to the 

 prelix ' Itight Honourable,' which may he attached 

 not merely to the name of his office, but to his 

 Christian name and surname. See ADDRESS 

 ( FORMS OF), PRECEDENCE. Within the city ami 

 lilx'rlies of Edinburgh the Lord Provost takes pre- 

 cedence next after members of the royal family. 



Provost-llinrslinl, in the Navy, is a person 

 appointed to have charge of a prisoner before a 

 court martial, ami until the sentence of the court 

 is can ied into execution. In the British Army the 

 provost marshal is an officer, appointed only abroad, 

 to superintend the preservation of order, and to be, 

 as it were, the head of the police of any particular 

 camp or district. He has cognisance of all camp- 

 followers, as well as of members of the armv. 

 Under the Army Act of 1881 he cannot as formerly 

 inflict any punishment of his own authority, bnt 

 may apprehend anv offender and bring him before 

 a court-martial, it may then be his duty to Me 

 the sentence of the court carried out. 



Proxy (contracted for Procuracy), the agency 

 of one person who acts as substitute for another. 

 KM IY iiieniW of the House of Lords was formerly 

 permitted, on obtaining a nominal license from the 

 crown, to appoint another lord of parliament his 

 proxy to vote for him in his absence. Only a 

 spiritual lord could lie proxy for a spiritual lord, 

 and a temporal for a temporal lord, ami no peer 

 could hold more than two proxies at the same 

 time. Proxies were never used in judicial busn 

 or in committees of the House, nor could a pi. 

 sign a protest. The practice of admitting proxi.- 

 was discontinued in 1867. Shareholders in joint 

 stock companies may vote by proxy. Formerly 

 princely (tersons were sometimes, for reasons n f 

 state or convenience, represented by deputy at 

 their own marriages; but marriage "by proxy is 

 not recognised by the law of England. See MAR- 

 RIAGE, Vol. VII. p. 58. 



I'rmlcnliiis. MARCUS AritKi.it s CI.EMI 



the most important of the Koman Christian |x>eta, 

 was liorn in the north of Spain in :i|s \.n. Nothing 

 is known regarding him except what he has himself 

 told in a poetical autobiography prefixed to his 

 works. From this we learn that he received a 

 liberal education, practised as a pleader, discharged 

 the functions of civil and criminal judge, and was 

 ultimately appointed to a high office at the im- 

 perial court. His religious convictions came late 

 in life, and he devoted the evening of his days to 

 the composition of religious poetry. The year of 

 his death is not known. Of his poems the chief 

 are ( 1 ) Cathemerinon Liber, a series of twelve 

 hortatory hymns, the first half for the dim-rent 

 hours of the day, the latter half for different church 

 seasons ( Eng. trans. 1845); (2) Peristejilunwn , a 

 collection of fourteen lyrical poems in honour of 

 martyrs; (3) Apotheosis, a defence of the doctrine 

 of the Trinity against heretics ; (4) lliniinrtiiii , 

 on the Origin of Evil, a polemic, in verse, against 

 the Marcionites ; (5) Psycliomachia, on the Triumph 

 of the Christian Graces in the Soul of a ]>clic\cr : 



(6) Contra Symmachum, the first book a polemic 

 against the heathen gods, the second against a 

 petition of Syimiiachus for the restoration of tin- 

 altar and statue of Victory cast down by Gratian ; 



(7) Difitychon, a series of forty-nine licxaim-ieis. 

 arranged in four verses, on scriptural incidents 

 and personages. Bentley calls Prudeiitius ' the 

 Horace and Virgil of the Christians,' which may 

 IK; true enough if the critic only meant to say that 

 he is the first of the early Christian verse makers. 

 See the article HYMN, Vol. VI. p. 46. 



Editions are by F. Areval (Rome, 1788), reprinted in 

 igne's Patroloiiia, lix.-lx. ; Obbar (Tiil.mj;i.|i, IM.'il; 



and Dresnel (Leip. 1860). See Urockliaus, A. J'ruit, ul 

 (1872); Ebert, OeJiicJUe der Chrutlich-Isitrn,. l.,l. 

 (vol. i. 1874); Faguet, De A. Prudentii r/,,i,,,,iis 

 Carm. lyricit (1883); and V. St John Tliack. 

 Trantlationt from Pradeiitiut (1890), with an exct-llcnt 

 introduction on his lift- ami Mimes, language, nidi.. 

 and Htylr. 



Prmriioiiimes, COUNCILS OF. See FRANCE, 



Vol. IV. p. 77ti. 



Prunella. Skeat defines this material as 'a 

 strong woollen stud', originally of a dark colour," 

 Fr. jirunelle, 'a sloe," whence /iriinrUn in a Latin- 

 ised form. We know this word chielly from Pope's 

 fine lines (Essay on Man, iv. 204) : 



Worth iimken thr ni*n, and want of It the fellow, 

 The rest li all Imt leather or prunella. 



To which passage, in the Globe edition, Mr Ward 

 notes 'localise clergymen's gowns were often made 

 of this kind of stuff.' Tne name Pninellr is 

 also given to a genus of plants of the natural 

 order Labiatii-. Several sjiecies are natives of 

 Europe ; one only is found in Britain, P. vutgant. 



