Pratensis, Felix, is noted as the famous editor of the editio princeps of Bomberg's Rabbinic Bible. Little is known of his personal history beyond that he was bom a dew. was corrector of the press in Bomberg's fa- mous printing-office, embraced Christianity in Rome in 1513, was created mauister theologus in 1523, and that he died in 1539. The Rabbinic Bible, which immortal- ized him, was published in four parts (Venice, 1516 17) four years after bis embracing Christianity; and, he- si. Its the Hebrew text, contains as follows: 1. In The /'. ntah ii' ii. the i haldi e paraphrase of < inkelos and the commentaries of Rashi. •_'. The Prophets, the Chaldee paraphrase and the commentaries of Kirachi. ■".. The Hagiographa, the< !haldee paraphrase and Kimchi's com- mentary on Tin Psalms, the Chaldee paraphrase and Ibn-Jachja's commentary on Provei-bs, the Chaldee par- aphrase and Xachnianide.-'s and Earissol's commentaries on ./.,//.• the reputed I ibaldee paraphrases of Joseph the Blind and Rasbi's commentary on 'Tin Tin Megilloth; Levi ben-Gershom's commentary (.u Daniel; Rashi's and Simon Darshan's . """""ITi ~Z I commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles, the latter consistii cerpts from the Jalkul Shtmoni. See Cara; Minn ash.
i to the volume are the Targum Jentsall in on
the Pentateuch, the Second Targum on Esther, the va- riations l.etwei n Ben- \-h. r and Ben-Naphteli, the dif- ferences between the Eastern and Western Codd., Aaron b.-Asher'a Dissertation on the Accents. Maimonides's thirteen articles ol faith see Maimonides], the -i\
hundred and thirl., n precepts [see PbECBPTS], a I a-
ble of the Parshoth and Haphtaroth, both according to the spani-h and German ritual. Considering that this wa- the first effort to give some of the Masoretic apparatus, ii is no wonder thai the work i- imperfect, and that it contains many blunders. Pratensis also
PRATILLI
471
PRAXEANS
published a Latin translation of the Psalms, with anno- tations, first printed at Venice in 1515, then at Hazenauin 1522, and at Basle in 1526. See Wolf, Bibliotheca ffebrai- ca, ii, 363 ; iii, 935 sq. ; Masch's ed. of Le Long's Biblio- theca Sacra, i, 96 sq. ; Steinschneider, Catalogus Libr. Ilebi: in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, col. b. 2111 sq.— Kitto, Cyclopaedia, s. v.
Pratilli, Francesco-Maria, an Italian ecclesiastic, noted especially as an antiquarian, was born November, 1689, at Capua. He received holy orders, and was at once provided with a canonry at the Cathedral of Capua. He died at Naples Nov. 29, 1763. Among his archa?o- logical works we mention, Delia Via Appia riconosciuta e descritta da Roma a Brindisi (Naples, 1745, 4to) ; this work is ornamented with plans and maps, and is fidl of varied erudition : — Di una Moneta singolare del Tiranno Giovanni (ibid. 1748, 8vo) ; explanation of a medal, the only one of its kind, of a usurper who was proclaimed emperor in 423 -.—Delia Orirjine della Metropolis < cell si- astica di Capoa (ibid. 1758, 4to). Pratilli published an edition, enriched with unpublished documents, disserta- tions, and a life of the author, of the Tlistoria Principum Longobardorum of C. Pellegrini (ibid. 1719-54, 5 vols. 4to). He left in manuscript a History of the Norman Princes, in 6 vols. See Nomi illustri del Regno di JVa- 2>oli, vol. ix.— Hocfer, Xoiu: Biog. Generate, s. v.
Pratorius, Abdias, a German theologian of some renown, was born in 1524 in the Brandenburg territory. He was master of many languages, and especially noted as a Greek scholar. He was at first rector of a school at Magdeburg, lived then at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, was called in 1560 to the electoral court of Brandenburg, and dieil in 1573 as professor of philosophy at Witten- berg. He attacked the Lutheran distinction between law and Gospel, and the definition of the latter as an unconditional message of grace. The most distin- guished of his adversaries was Andrew Musculus, one of the authors of The Formula of Concord.
Pratorius, Stephen, a German minister, flour- ished at Salzwedel towards the close of the 16th cen- tury. He was involved in various disputes in conse- quence of some doctrines professed or approved by Lu- ther, or which seemed to him logical conclusions to be drawn from Luther's theory of justification. He as- serted that between righteousness and beatitude there was no difference; that every man who received bap- tism and believed in Christ was saved, and could dis- pense with seeking the means to be saved; that the law was useless; that faith and justification obtained by it could be darkened and benumbed by sin, but never lost. John Arnd, the Fe'nelon of the Lutheran Church, published a collection of the writings of Pratorius, and Martin Statins (1655), minister at Dantsic, edited ex- tracts from them under the title Geislliche Schatzkam- mer der Gldubigen.
Pratt, Albert L , a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born at Wilmington, Yt., in 1828, and was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1851. He was licensed as a local preacher in 1853. In 1855 he was received into what was then the Oneida but is now the Central N. Y. Conference, and was stationed successively at LTnion Yillage, Bellows Falls, Brattleborough, Guilford, Woodstock, Bradford, Rochester, Windsor, and Colchester, where he finished his earthly work. Though constitutionally frail, his pastoral labors were prosecuted with great diligence un- til near his death, which occurred July 17, 1870, at Col- chester, Yt. He was a good man, and succeeded well in the cause of his Master.