PR A 
to e^ideavour a change of government ei- 
ther ill church or state ; or that both or ei- 
ther house of Parliament have or hath a le- 
gislative power without the King, &c- The 
Judgment in praemunire at the suit of the 
King, against the defendant being in prison, 
is, that he shall be out of the King’s protec- 
tection ; that his lands and tenements, 
goods and chattels, shall be forfeited to the 
King ; and tliat his body shall remain in pri- 
son at the King’s pleasure ; but if the de- 
fendant be condemned upon bis default of 
not appearing, whether at the suit of the 
King or party, the same judgment shall be 
given as to the being out of the King’s pro- 
tection and the forfeiture ; but instead of 
tlie clause that the body shall remain in 
prison, there shall be an award of a ca- 
piatur or arrest. Upon an indictment of a 
pi-ffimimire, a peer of the realm shall not be 
tried by his peers. 
PRAGMATIC sanction, in the civil law, 
is defined by Hottoman to be a rescript, or 
answer of the sovereign, delivered by ad- 
vice of his council, to some college, order, 
or body of people, upon consulting him on 
some case of their community. The like 
answer given to any particular person, is 
called simply rescript. The term pragmatic 
sanction, is chiefly applied to a settlement 
of Charles VI. Emperor of Germany, who, 
in the year 1722, having no sons, settled his 
hereditary dominions on his eldest daughter, 
the Archduchess Maria Theresa, which 
was confirmed by the diet of the Empire, 
and guaranteed by Great Britain, France, 
the States General, and most of the powers 
in Europe. 
PRAM, or Prame, a kind of lighter 
used in Holland and the ports in the Baltic 
Sea, to carry the cargo of a merchant ship 
along-side, in order to lade it, or to bring it 
to the shore to be lodged in warehouses. The 
same term is in use in military affairs, for a 
kind of floating battery, being a flat bot- 
tomed vessel, which draws little water, 
mounts several guns, and is exceedingly 
Rseful in transporting troops over the im- 
mense lakes in North America. 
PRASIUM, in botany, a genus of the 
Didynamia Gymnospermia class and order. 
Natural order of Verticillatas. Labiat®, 
Jussieu. Essential character : berries four, 
one-seeded. There are two species, viz, P. 
majus, great Spanish hedge-nettle, and P, 
minus, small Spanish hedge-nettle. 
prayer; in theology, a petition put up 
to God, either for the obtaining some future 
PRE 
favour, or the returning of thanks for a past 
one. 
prebend, the maintenance a preben- 
dary receives out of the estate of a ca-' 
thedral or collegiate church. Prebends 
are distinguished into simple and digni- 
tary ; a simple prebend has no more than 
the revenue for its support : but a prebend 
with dignity, has always a jurisdiction an- 
nexed to it. 
prebendary, an ecclesiastic who 
enjoys a prebend. The difference between 
a prebendary and a canon is, that the for- 
mer receives his prebend, in consideration 
ofhis officiating in the church ; but the lat- 
ter merely by liis being received into the 
cathedral or college. 
PREBENDARY,goW£a, of Hereford, called 
also prebendarius episcopus, is one of the 
twenty-eight minor prebendaries, who has, 
ex officio, the first canon’s place that falls. 
He was anciently confessor of the bishop 
and cathedral, and had the offerings at the 
altar ; on which account he was called the 
golden prebendary. 
PRECEDENCE^ or Precedency, a 
place of honour to which a person is en- 
titled : this is either of courtesy or of 
right. The former is that which is due to 
age, estate, &c. winch is regulated by ciis- ' 
tom and civility : the latter is settled by 
authority, and when broken in upon gives 
an action at law. 
The order of precedency, which is ob- 
served in general, is thus : that persons of 
every degree of honour or dignity take 
place according to the seniority of their 
creatioh, and not of years, unless they arts 
descended from the blood-royal ; in which 
case, they have place of all others of the 
same degree. 
The younger sons of the preceding rank 
take place from the eldest son of the next 
mediate, viz. the younger sons of Dukes 
from the eldest sons of Earls ; the younger 
sons of Earls from the eldest sons of Barons, 
All the chain of precedency is founded upon 
this gradation, and thus settled by act of 
parliament, 31 Henry VIII. c. lo, anno 
1639. 
But there have been since some al- 
terations made in this act, by several de- 
crees and establishments in the succeeding 
reigns, whereby all the sons of Viscounts 
and Barons are allowed to precede Baro- 
nets. And the eldest sons and daughters of 
Baronets have place given them before the 
Gg g 
