A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

Papal infallibility was utterly unknown to the third Council of Constantinople, A. D. 680.

Papal supremacy, first publicly asserted by the fourth Council of Lateran, A. D. 1215.

Prayers in a foreign tongue, first deliberately sanctioned by the Council of Trent, were expressly forbidden by the fourth Council of Lateran, A. D. 1215.

Purgatory and indulgences, first set forth by the Council of Florence, A. D. 1438.

The Roman number of the sacraments was first taught by the Council of Trent, A. D. 1545.

Transubstantiation was first publicly insisted on by the fourth Council of Lateran, A. D. 1215.

POPPY HEAD. The ornamental finial of a stall end. In design the poppy heads are extremely various; but they are almost universally made to assume the outline of the fleur-de-lis, to which not only foliage, but figures, faces, and whole groups, are made to conform themselves.

PORCH. A part of the church in which anciently considerable portions of the marriage service and of the baptismal services were performed. Being commenced here they were finished in the church.

POSTILS. A name anciently given to sermons or homilies. The name sprung from the fact that these were usually delivered immediately after reading of the Gospel (quasi post illa, sc. Evangelia). Also, printed expositions of Scripture, from the text being first exhibited, and post illa (after the words of the text) the explication of the writer.

PRÆMUNIRE, in law, is either taken for a form of writ, or for the offence whereon the writ of præmunire is granted. The writ in question is named from its initial words Præmunire facias, and it is chiefly known in ecclesiastical matters from a persecuting use to which it is applied by the statute of 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20, which enacts, that if the dean and chapter refuse to elect the person nominated by the king to the vacant bishopric, or if any archbishop or bishop refuse to confirm or consecrate him, they shall incur the penalties of the statutes of the præmunire. These penalties are no less than the following:—From the moment of conviction, the defendant is out of the king’s protection, his body remains in prison during the king’s pleasure, and all his goods, real or personal, are forfeited to the Crown. He can bring no action, nor recover damages, for the most atrocious injuries, and no man can safely give him comfort, aid, or relief.