PRELATE PRESBYTERIANS. 



679 



cence into a pale green or yellow glass, and con- 

 sists of silex 43.83, alumine 30.33, lime 18.33, 

 oxide of iron 5.66, and water 1.83; it belongs to 

 trap rocks and sienite, in which it is found in the 

 Ibrm of veins and geodes. It is found in various 

 parts of the world, and especially, in very fine pieces, 

 in Scotland. 



PRELATE; in the Roman Catholic church, 

 those spiritual officers who exercise jurisdiction in 

 their own name. These were, originally, only the 

 bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, and the pope. 

 The cardinals and legates, abbots and priors, also 

 obtained certain privileges of jurisdiction by grant 

 or prescription. In the German empire, previous to 

 the secularizations of 1803, a number of high eccle- 

 siastics, who held immediately of the emperor, had 

 also a secular jurisdiction, and several had the 

 princely dignity, with a seat and voice in the diets. 

 (See Elector, and German Empire.) The term pre- 

 lates is often used merely to signify the higher dig- 

 nitaries of the church. 



PREMISES. See Syllogism. 



PREMIUM. See Bounty. 



PREMONSTRATENSES; a religious order, 

 founded in the French bishopric of Laon, by Nor- 

 bert, a canon of Xanten in Cleves, who, by the 

 austerity and zeal which he manifested as arch- 

 bishop of Magdeburg (in 1127), acquired the hon- 

 our of canonization. In the forest of Coucy, in a 

 meadow pointed out to him, as he said, by Heaven 

 (pr6 montre, pratum monstratum ; thence the name 

 of the order), he collected his first disciples (1120), 

 and gave them the rule of St Augustine with some 

 additional rigour. The Premonstratenses, there- 

 fore, consider themselves as regular canons, though, 

 by their constitution, they are actually monks. 

 Their order increased rapidly ; several nunneries 

 were established with the same rigid rules ; at first 

 (as was the case with that of Fontevraud) in the 

 neighbourhood of the monasteries, from whose 

 revenues they were supported, but subsequently at 

 a distance from them, to avoid the dangers of into> 

 communication. The abbot of the original monas- 

 tery Pre'montre, near Coucy, was general, and, with 

 three other abbots, formed the great council of the 

 fathers of the order. The order was introduced 

 into England in 1146, and its members were there 

 regularly known as the White Canons. Before the 

 reformation, they had 2000 monasteries, among 

 which were 500 nunneries, mostly in Germany, the 

 Netherlands, France, England, and the north of 

 Europe ; but the reformation diminished this num- 

 ber by more than one-half, in the sixteenth century. 

 The monasteries in Spain attempted to revive their 

 discipline in 1573, by uniting in a strict observance 

 of their rules ; but they remained in communion 

 with those of the common observance. In 1630, 

 this communion of all the monasteries, of both kinds, 

 was confirmed by new statutes. In the eighteenth 

 century, the order had no houses in Italy ; in France, 

 it had forty-two monasteries ; the nunneries had all 

 disappeared. It now consists of a few houses in 

 Spain, Poland, and the Austrian states, especially in 

 Bohemia, where it has at Prague one of its hand- 

 somest and richest monasteries. 



PREPOSITION (homprapositus, placed before); 

 a part of speech, which is used to show the rela- 

 tion of one object to another, and derives its name 

 from its being usually placed before the word which 

 expresses the object of the relation. In some lan- 

 guages, this relation is often expressed by changes 

 of the termination (cases), without the use of a pre- 

 position. 



PREROGATIVE COURT. See Court, division 

 Ecclesiastical Court*. 



PREROGATIVE OF THE KING OF ENG- 

 LAND. See Britain. 



PRESBURG (Posonium; in Hungarian, Posony; 

 in Sclavonic, Pressburek); a city of Hungary, ca- 

 pital of a palatinate of the same name, on the left 

 bank of the Danube, which here divides into several 

 branches, and is crossed by a flying bridge ; lat. 48 

 8' N.; Ion. 17 6' E. It is built on a hill overlook- 

 ing a wide plain ; the walls, which formerly sepa- 

 rated it from the suburbs, have been demolished ; 

 the streets are narrow, steep, and only in part 

 paved . The handsomest streets and squares are in 

 the suburbs. The cathedral dedicated to St Martin 

 is a large building in the Gothic style ; in the cha- 

 pel of St John, belonging to it, the coronation of 

 the kings of Hungary formerly took place. The 

 castle, which served as a barrack, was burnt down 

 at the beginning of the present century, but its 

 walls are standing. Presburg contains seven mo- 

 nasteries, fourteen churches (of which twelve are 

 Catholic), one synagogue, several hospitals, and 

 some literary institutions. Population 32,026, of 

 which 25,000 are Catholics, 5000 Lutherans, and 

 2000 Jews. The transit trade is considerable, and 

 there are some manufactures. Presburg was the 

 capital of Hungary until Joseph II. made Buda the 

 capital. The peace of Presburg (concluded Dec. 

 16, 1805, between Francis, emperor of Germany, 

 and Napoleon) was the immediate consequence of 

 the battle of Austerlitz. (See Austria, and Auster- 

 litz.) The German emperor ceded the part of the 

 territory of Venice acquired by the peace of Lune- 

 ville to the kingdom of Italy ; acknowledged the 

 regal dignity and sovereignty of the electors of 

 Bavaria and Wurtemberg, and the sovereignty of 

 the elector of Baden ; ceded Tyrol, Vorarlberg, and 

 some districts, to Bavaria ; the greater part of the 

 Brisgau, with Constance, to Baden ; and the towns 

 on the Danube, and some other portions of the Sua- 

 bian possessions of Austria to Wurfcemberg. For 

 these cessions, Austria received some indemnifica- 

 tion. (See Confederation of the Rhine; and consult 

 Scholl's Histoire des Traites de Paix, 7th vol. 



PRESBYTERIANS (from the Scripture term 

 r^nrftuTi^m, elder); those Christians who maintain 

 that there is no order in the church superior to that 

 of presbyters or elders, affirming the terms ^ttrftu- 

 Tigo; (elder) and liriffxivros (bishop) to be of precisely 

 the same import. The Presbyterians believe that 

 the authority of their ministers to preach the gos- 

 pel, and to administer the sacraments of baptism 

 and the Lord's supper, is derived from the Holy 

 Ghost by the imposition of the hands of the pres- 

 bytery (assembly of presbyters); and accordingly 

 they oppose the scheme of the Independent or 

 Congregational churches, with the same argument 

 which the Episcopalians use, while they differ from 

 these latter in not admitting any inequality of rank 

 among the ministers of the church. The established 

 church of Scotland is Presbyterian ; this mode of 

 ecclesiastical government having been introduced 

 thither from Geneva by John Knox, the celebrated 

 Scotch reformer. (See Knox, and Scotland.) The 

 doctrines of the church are Calvinistic, the West- 

 minster Confession of Faith being the standard of 

 the national creed, which all ministers are required 

 to subscribe. There are four ecclesiastical judica- 

 tories, viz. the kirk session, composed of the min- 

 ister of the parish, and a number of the most re- 

 spectable laymen ; the presbytery, composed of the 

 ministers of a certain district, with an elder from 

 each parish ; the synod, consisting of the ministers 

 and elders of a certain number of presbyteries ; and 

 the general assembly, composed of representatives 

 of the presbyteries (200 ministers, and 15G elders), 



