Pragaladen, a particular and holy worshipper of the Hindu god Vishnu, who was for a long time tortured by the demon Tronya, until Vishnu, in his fourth incar- nation, as man-lion, killed the giant. See Vishnu.
Pragmatic Sanction was a general term (from
irpayna, business) for all important ordinances of Church or State — those perhaps more properly which were en- acted in public assemblies with the counsel of eminent jurisconsults or pragniatici. The term originated in the Byzantine empire, and signified there a public and solemn decree by a prince, as distinguished from the simple rescript which was a declaration of law in answer to a question propounded by an individual. But the most familiar application of the term is to the impor- tant articles decided on by the great assembly held-at Bourges (q. v.) in 1438, convoked and presided over by Charles VII. These articles have been regarded as the great bulwark of the French Church against the usurpa- tion of Kome. King Louis IX had drawn up a prag- matic sanction in 1268 against the encroachments of the Church and court of Kome. It related chiefly to the right of the Gallican Church with reference to the se- lections of bishops and clergy. But the great articles of 1438 entirely superseded those of Louis IX ; for though they reasserted the rights and privileges claimed by the Gallican Church under that monarch, the articles were chiefly founded on the decrees of the Council of Basic. Some of them relate to the periodical assembling and su- perior authority of general councils; some to the cele- bration of divine offices and other matters not connected with papal prorogation; but of the rest it has been truly said that the abuses of the papal prorogation against which they were directed were chiefly connected with its avarice. This was the most unpopular of the vices of the holy see, and was at the bottom of more than hall' the grievances which alienated its children from it. Pope l'ius II succeeded in obtaining the abrogation of this sanction for a time; but the Parliament of Paris refused to sanction the ignominious conduct of Louis XI in set- ting it aside, and he was compelled to restore it to its original influential position. Accordingly the prag- matic sanction continued in force till Francis Fs con- cordat in 1516 supplanted it. Although by the con- cordat privileges were given and received on both sides, yet the real advantages were on the side of Kome, which advantages it has ever since been her constant aim to improve. See Jervis, Hist. Ch. <;/' France, i, 23 sq. ; Hist, of Popery, p. 202 ; Gieseler, Eccles. Hist, (see Index to vol. iii) ; Fisher, Hist, of the kef. p. 48, 49; Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. vol. iii; Milman, Hist. Latin Christianity (see Index to vol. viii); Hardwick, Hist, of the Church in the Middle Ages, p. 272, 358, 362; id. Ref. p. 7, 353; Waddington, Eccles. Hist. p. 576 ; Ranke. Hist, of the Papacy, i, 28 sq.; Alzog, Kirchengesch. ii, 48, 180J 189, 191; Ebrard, Bogmengesch. iv, 206; Brit. Quar. Rep, April, 1873, p. 273.
Prague, Council of (Concilium Pragense), an im- portant ecclesiastical gathering, was convened by arch- bishop Ernest of Prague in 1346, and passed among other regulations one relating to the proper observance of the Christian faith, the abuses arising from the use of rescripts from Home, the impropriety of allowing strange priests to assist at communions without letters from their own bishop, the rights of Roman delegates upon subjects of interdicts, and the private life and morals of the clergy. (See Mansi, Condi, iii, col. 543 sq. ; He- It Je, Conciliengesch. vol. vi.) How little these efforts for the purifying of the Church and strengthening of the Christian cause availed is but too well known to the historical student of the Hussite movement which fol- lowed in the next century and finally brought about many strong reforms in Bohemia, besides preparing the way for the great Reformation. See Hussites.
Praise, an acknowledgment made of the excellency or perfection of any person or action, with a commenda- tion of the same. "The desire of praise," says an ele- gant writer, "is generally connected with all the finer sensibilities of human nature. It affords a ground on which exhortation, counsel, and reproof can work a prop- er effect. To be entirely destitute of this passion ber tokens an ignoble mind on which no moral impression
PRAISE OF (in] i
470
PRATENSIS
is easily made, for where there is no desire of praise there will also be no rense of reproach; bul while it is admitted to be a natural and in many respects a use- ful principle of action, we are to observe thai il i- en- titled i" no more than our ~cc.iini.iry regard. It has its boundary set, by transgressing which it i> at once trans- formed from an innocent into a most dangerous passion. When, passing its natural line, it becomes the ruling spring of conduct; when the regard which we pay to the opinions .if men encroaches on thai reverence which we owe t" the voice of conscience and the sense "I duty. the love of praise, having then gone out of its proper istead of improving, corrupts, and instead of elevating, debases our nature" See Young, Lovt of i I '.lair. Sermons, voL ii. ser. 6; Jortin, Diss. No.