PREBENDARY. A clergyman attached to a Cathedral Church, who anciently enjoyed a prebend, or stipend, arising from some part of the Cathedral property, in return for his officiating at stated times in the Cathedral. The appointment is now often honorary. (See Canon.)
PRECENTOR. The leader of a choir. In almost all Cathedrals of old foundation in England, and very generally on the Continent, the precentor was the first dignitary in the chapter, ranking next to the dean. He superintended the choral service and the choristers. In all new foundations the precentor is a minor canon, holding a rank totally different from, and inferior to that of his namesake of the older foundation. (See Minor Canon.)
PREDESTINATION, see Election. The 17th Article treats of Predestination, but in such a way as to make it very difficult to comprehend what it teaches with regard to this most controverted subject. It seems designedly drawn up, in guarded and general terms, on purpose to embrace all persons of tolerably moderate views. (See Arminianism, Calvinism, Antinomianism.)
PRELATE. Generally a Bishop, but strictly an ecclesiastic having jurisdiction over other ecclesiastics.
PRESBYTER. A Greek word signifying an Elder. In the Christian Church a presbyter or elder is one who is ordained to a certain office, and authorized by his quality, not his age, to discharge the several duties of that office and station in which he is placed. In this large and extended sense, Bishops were sometimes called presbyters in the New Testament, for the apostles themselves did not refuse the title. Priests are in an ordinary sense the presbyters of the Church, and in the Scotch Liturgy, compiled in the reign of Charles I, the word presbyter is substituted for that of priest. (See Orders.)
PRESBYTERIANS. A Protestant sect which maintains that there is no order in the Church superior to presbyters, and on that account has separated from the Catholic Church. This sect is established by law in Scotland, where there nevertheless exists a national branch of the Catholic Church, under canonical Bishops. Of course the establishment or disestablishment of a sect in no way alters its position as being, or not being, a branch of the Catholic Church. From time to time considerable secessions have occurred in Scotland from the Established Church, the principal being the "United Presbyterian Church," and the "Free Church of Scotland." English Presbyterians are not to be confounded with Scotch Presbyterians, the former being the main supporters of Socinianism and Rationalism in this country.
The "Presbyterian Church of England" has 10 presbyteries, 275 congregations, 56,099 communicants.
PRESENCE, REAL, see Communion, Holy, part iv. The Homily on the Sacrament asserts, "Thus much we must be sure to hold, that in the Supper of the Lord there is no vain ceremony or bare sign, no untrue figure of a thing absent; but the communion of the body and blood of our Lord in a marvellous incorporation, which, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, is, through faith, wrought in the souls of the faithful."
PRESENTATION. The offering of a clerk to the Bishop by the patron of a benefice, for institution.
PRIEST, see Presbyter, & Orders, Holy.