A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

Mr. Palmer remarks that “the repetition by the people of the portion of the Preface, beginning ‘therefore with angels,’ never was the custom of the primitive Church, and could not have been intended by those who revised our liturgy, nor is it warranted by the nature of the Preface itself. It has perhaps,” he adds, “arisen from the custom of printing the latter part of the Preface in connexion with the hymn Tersanctus, and from the indistinctness of the rubric, which, in fact, gives no special direction for the people to join in repeating the hymn Tersanctus.” It may be remarked that the Tersanctus is marked as a separate paragraph in the two books of King Edward VI.

With respect to the Preface, there is an ambiguity in our rubrics, but none whatever in the choral usage, which is in accordance with the universal practice of the Church. The Preface is that part recited by the priest, beginning with “It is very meet, right,” &c., ending with “evermore praising thee and saying.” It is commonly imagined that the choir or congregation are to repeat with the priest the words, “Therefore with angels and archangels,” &c.; but this is contrary to all precedent. The choral communion services, and the one of Durham, all agree in beginning the hymn at the words, “Holy, holy, holy,” &c. The rubric merely says, “After each of which Prefaces shall immediately be sung or said;” it does not say by whom. The direction is as indeterminate as that of the Litany, which, like the passage in question, is sung distributively between minister and people in sequence.—Jebb.

PRELATE. An ecclesiastic having jurisdiction over other ecclesiastics. The title, though applicable to bishops, is not confined to their order. Before the Reformation abbots were styled prelates. Archdeacons are prelates in this sense of the word. (See Episcopacy, Bishop.)

PRELECTOR. A Lecturer. In the cathedral of Hereford, one of the prebendaries is elected to the office of Prelector, to hold it till he succeeds to a residentiary canonry, for which he is statutably considered to have a claim to be a candidate. His duty is to preach on Tuesdays, or else on any holiday which may occur during the week for a considerable portion of the year.

PREMONSTRATENSES. (Lat.) In French, Prémontrés. A religious order, founded by St. Norbert, descended from a noble family in the diocese of Cologne. He was educated suitably to his quality, and lived for some time at the emperor Henry the Fifth’s court. At about thirty years of age he was ordained deacon and priest; and, soon after, entering upon a very strict and mortified way of living, he resigned his church preferments, and distributed a large patrimonial estate to the poor. Then he embraced the rule of St. Augustine, and retiring with thirteen companions to a place called Premonstratum, in the diocese of Laon, in Picardy, he there began his order, about the year 1119. This ground, with the chapel of St. John Baptist, was given to St. Norbert by the bishop of Laon, with the approbation of Louis le Gros, king of France, who gave the Premonstratenses a charter of privileges. The place was called Premonstratum, because it was pretended the Blessed Virgin herself pointed out (premonstravit) this place for the principal house of the order, and at the same time commanded them to wear a white habit.

The monks of this order were, at first, so poor, that they had nothing they could call their own but one poor ass, which served them to carry wood, which they cut down every morning and sent to Laon, where it was sold to purchase bread. But, in a short time, they received so many donations, and built so many monasteries, that, thirty years after the foundation of this order, they had above one hundred abbeys in France and Germany.

The popes and kings of France have granted many privileges, and been very liberal, to the Premonstratenses. Besides a great number of saints, who have been canonized, this order has had several persons of distinguished birth, who have been contented with the humble condition of lay-brothers: as, Guy, earl of Brienne; Godfrey, earl of Namur, &c. It has likewise given the Church a great number of archbishops and bishops.

The order of Premonstratenses increased so greatly, that it had monasteries in all parts of Christendom, amounting to 1000 abbeys, 300 provostships, a vast number of priories, and 500 nunneries. These were divided into 30 cyrcaries or provinces. But this number of houses is greatly diminished; for, of 65 abbeys it had in Italy, there is not one remaining at present; not to mention the loss of all their monasteries in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England, Scotland, and Ireland.

These monks, vulgarly called White Canons, came first into England in the year 1146, where their first monastery, called New House, was built in Lincolnshire, by Peter de Saulia, and dedicated to St. Martialis. In the reign of Edward I., when that king granted his protection to the monasteries, the Premonstratenses had twenty-seven houses in this kingdom.

PREROGATIVE COURT. The Prerogative Court of the archbishops of Canterbury and Armagh, is that court wherein all testaments are proved, and all administrations granted, when a party dying within the province has bona notubilia in some other diocese than where he dies; and is so called from having a prerogative throughout the whole province for the said purposes. (See Canons 92, 93, &c.)