Portail, Antoine, a French priest noted for hi- re- lation to the '•Congregation of Priests ofthe Mi — ion." which body he joined immediate*) after their institution by Vincent de Paul, flourished in the firsl half ofthe 17th century. Nothing i- known of bis personal history, but be is reputed to have been not only Paul'.- firsl compan- ion, but also hi- mosl devoted coadjutor. See Jervis, Hist, oftfo Church of France, i. 820 sq.
Portal (i. e. avant-portail), an architectural term, designates an external canopy raised in front of the
principal doors of a church by way of shelter, w bereas a porch i- a projecting outwork independent ofthe door. See I'm:, ii. I lure are line example- of portals in the cafhi drals >>t Rheims, Pari-. St. < tuen's, and Rouen, \iniei,-. Sems, Senlis, and Bourges, Westminster, and of smaller dimensions at churches in Salisbury. Lich- field, and Verona and other Italian towns. ••Penniless porch." the resort of beggars, was the local name ofthe
cemetery-gate of Wells.
PORT AS VESTRAS ^ETERNALES 427
PORTER
Portas vestras aeternales. This is the begin- ning of one of the few Ascension hymns which we have in the Latin language. "Nothing is poorer," says Trench, "throughout the whole Christian Church than the hymnology of the Ascension. Even the German Protestant hymn-book, so incomparably rich in Passion and Resurrection and Pentecost hymns, is singularly ill- furnished with these. . . . The Latin forms no excep- tion ; it does not possess a single first-rate hymn on the Ascension." This hymn, which strangely enough has never found its way into any of the more modern collec- tions of Latin hymns, runs thus :
" Portas vestras aeternales, Triumphales, priucipales,
Angeli, attollite. Kja, tollite iictutum, Vend Dominus virtutum, Rex seternae glorias." An English translation is given by Benedict in The Hymn of Hildebert, etc., p. 81 (N. Y. 18G7) ; for the orig- inal copy, see Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 172 sq.
Portatile Altare is the name of a square portable stone framed in wood, at the angles and in the middle of which there is a cross, and the cavity of which re- ceives the relics. The portatile is consecrated by the bishop, and can be used after this ceremony for the pur- pose of saying mass in private chapels. See Portable Altars.
Portatives is the technical term applied to candle- sticks used in churches and carried by hand.
Porteous Mob. This tragical incident is intro- duced here from its connection with the ecclesiastical history of Scotland. Some new custom-taxes were felt to be odious and galling in Scotland, and revenue-offi- cers were specially obnoxious in some of the seaports. Two men, named Wilson and Robertson, who had robbed the collector of Pittenweem, in Fife, were apprehended and condemned. Some attempts to break out of jail, after sentence had been passed upon them, had proved abortive. On the Sabbath before the execution the criminals, as usual, were taken to church, under custody of four soldiers of the city guard, when, as the congrega- tion was dismissing, Wilson, laying hold of two of the soldiers, one in each hand, and seizing the third with his teeth, called on Robertson to run. The latter at once knocked down the remaining guard and tied, without any one trying to arrest him. The romantic pity of Wilson for his junior accomplice, and his successful de- liverance of him, created great sympathy for him. At his execution, April 14, 173G, the mob became unruly, rushed to the scaffold, and cut down the dead man. Captain Porteous, of the city guard, who was at that time surly and excited, ordered his men to fire — nay, fired a musket himself on the crowd. Six or seven per- sons were killed by the first volley, and more by the second. Some respectable citizens were shot as they were looking out from their windows. Captain Porteous was tried before the High Court of Justiciary, and con- demned to death. Queen Caroline, in the absence of George II on the Continent, sent down a reprieve. The populace were filled with terrible indignation, and re- solved to take the law into their own hands. On Sept. 7 a crowd assembled under some unknown command, secured all the military posts, locked the gates, opened the prison, took out captain Porteous, entered a shop, brought away a halter, leaving a guinea on the counter to pay for it, and hanged him on a dyer's pole. The mob dispersed with perfect order, and did no other vio- lence. The riot is enveloped in mystery — no one of the parties was ever apprehended. But a bill of great and vindictive penalties was prepared, and though shorn of many of its original terrors in passing through Parlia- ment it contained the enactment that every minister in the Church of Scotland was to read a proclamation against the rioters from the pulpit, during public worship, on the first Sabbath of each month during a whole year. If any minister refused, he was, for the first offence, to be
declared incapable of sitting and voting in any Church court, and, for the second, he was pronounced incapa- ble of " taking, holding, or enjoying any ecclesiastical benefice in Scotland." The majority of the ministers bowed to this edict, some used ludicrous shifts to evade it, and only a few pointedly refused. The act was felt by many to be a wanton infringement on the rights of the Church — a dictation to which none but an Erastian community could submit. The Parliament had assumed the power of declaring what ministers should do, and of indicting discipline if they should refuse. Compliance with the enactment raised commotion in many parishes, and aided the spread of the first Secession. The seced- ers were accused of disloyalty, because they unanimous- ly, and without hesitation, refused to read the edict. In Carlyle's Antobioyrap/iy will be found a graphic ac- count. Carlyle saw the rescue and witnessed the exe- cution.—Scott, Heart of Mid-Lothian,