there arc 248 affirmative precepts, or precepts of com- mission, ("i'l"* T"S'2. corresponding to the 248 mem- bers of the human body, and oi'o negative precepts, or precepts of omission, "J"? S3 MX73, corresponding to Ihe number of days of ihe solar year." The rabbins
asseri thai the multiplicity of precepts which God has given io the nation of Israel in preference to all others is a sign of his predilection for them, for. says rabbi Chanania bcn-Akashiah, "The Holy < hie (blessed be he! i has been pleased to render l-rail meritorious; therefore he multiplied to them ihe law and ihe com- mandments, as ii is Finid, •The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; be will magnify the law. and
PRECES
495
PRECIPIANO
make it honorable'" (Isa. xlii, 21). If ivc may believe Jewish notions, we also learn that the patriarchs already fulfilled the 613 precepts. The Jewish commentator Rashi (q. v.) thus comments very gravely on Gen. xxxii, 5: "Vila "2b C", 'I have sojourned with La- ban:' the word T\~il, according to the Gematria [comp. the art. Cabala, vol. ii, p. 4], amounts to 613 (i. e. 1 = 10, n = 400, 1=200, 5=3, or 10+400+200+3 = 613), by which he (i. e. Jacob) wished to communicate (to his brother Esau), 'It is true I have sojourned with the wicked Laban, but still I observed the 613 precepts, and I have not been infected with his evil deeds;' or, as the original reads, S3 ISlba S^in ">5n Via
vnab xbi viaia mxa jpim via sain "pb
EVin "PlUSHa;" the same is the remark of Baal Haturim, ad loc. Strictly orthodox Jews make their children commit to memory all the 613 precepts, as they consider a thorough knowledge of them to be a key to the oral law, though the majority of them are unintelli- gible to a child. Rabbi Gedaliah, of Amsterdam, pub- lished a catalogue of them in 1745, which he designated jlip niin, Torath Katon, or The Laic in Miniature. He says in his preface, "Which children are to learn in their infancy, to know them off by heart; which will be a great introduction for them to learn the oral law ; and also that what they have learned in their youthful days they may remember in their old age; that they may know to do them, and live by them in this world and in the world to come." The arrangement of these precepts is different. Some, as Maimonides, arrange them according to the matter, and the same has been followed by Jon. Eybenschlitz, who put them in verse (Prague, 1765). Another is that by Gedaliah, of Am- sterdam, who gives them according to the order of the Pentateuch, which is by far more preferable. As it would be tedious and fruitless to enumerate them, we will refer the reader who may feel interested to Jost, Geschichte. d, Juden u. s. Sekten, i, 451 sq. ; Bodenschatz, Kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen Juden (Erlangen, 1748), iv, 181 sq. (where the Hebrew is also given); Margoliouth, Modem Judaism Investigated (Lond. 1843), p. 115 sq. ; and The Home and the Sy?iagogue of the Modern Jew (ibid. 1843), p. 202 sq. (B. P.)
Preces (i. e. prayers) are the verses and responses said in the Roman Catholic, English, and other churches at the beginning of matins and even-song.
Preces Dominicales females. The preces Dominicales, so called from the Dominica or Lord's Day, when they are usually recited, are those prayers which are addeil as a complement of devotion to prim and com- pletorium, after the regular psalms. These preces are not recited at all duplices (double feasts), nor within the "octaves," nor in the "vigil of Epiphany," in theymee sexta, nor in sabbato, after the " octave of Ascension." The preces feriales take place in penitential times, and on the days of penitence. They are prayed kneeling at lawks, and at every single hora (time of the day) at all ferial offices in Advent, in the forty days of Lent, in the Ember days, and vigils connected with a day of fast; with the exception of the vigil of Christmas, the vigil of Pentecost, and the ensuing Ember days. These preces are also omitted on the vigils of Epiphany and Ascension, as these feasts have no day of fast. The preces feriales begin with the " Kyrie eleison" and a whispered "Pater-noster;" then, at laudes and vespers, follow, "in versicles" and " responsories," prayers for the clergy, sovereign and people, for the community, for the deceased, for the absent brethren, the oppressed, and prisoners. Then follows the psalm " De profundis," so full of abnegation and contrition (at laudes), or "Miserere" (at vespers), with some suitable final ver- sicles and the oration of the day.
Prechtl, Maximilian, a German Benedictine, noted as a theologian and renowned as a student of canon
law, was born Aug. 20, 1757, at Hahnbach. in the Bavarian Palatinate; he studied first under the Jesuits at Amberg, and was at the age of eighteen years admit- ted to the college of the Benedictines at Michaelfeld, where he studied philosophy and theology, and was consecrated in 1781. In 1782 his monastery sent him to Salzburg, where he acquired a knowledge of the law, which served in good stead to his congregation in sev- eral lawsuits. He was then a professor of dogmatics and morals ; in 1790 he was called to Amberg as teacher of dogmatic and ecclesiastical history, and in 1798 he was rector in the same city. Jan. 14, 1800, he was elected abbot of the monastery of Michaelfeld. After the suppression of his monastery he lived at Yilseck, entirely devoted to study and to acts of benevolence. He died Jan. 13, 1832. The following are his works : Positiones juris ecclesiastici universi, Germanice- ac Ba- varice accommodati (Amberg, 1787) : — Succincta series theologias theoretics, quam in monasterio Michaelfeld de- fendant, etc. (ibid. 1791) : — HistOi Ha MonasU Hi Michael- feldensis: — Trauerrede avf das Himcheiden Carl The- odors: — Wie sind die oberpfalzischen Abteien im Jahre 1669 abermal an die gi istlirhi it Ordi nsstande gi h»umi-u i (1802) : — Friedensworte an die. katholische und protes- tantische Kirche fiir ihre Wiedervereinigung (Salzb. 1810): — Seitenstiicke zur Weisheit Dr. Martin Luthers an den neuesten Herausgeber seiner Streitschrift : Das Papstthum zu Rom vom Teufel gestiftet (ibid. 1817) : — Abgedrungene Antwort aufdas zweite Sendschreiben Dr. Martin Luthers an den Herausgeber, etc. (ibid. 1818) : — Kritischer Riiekblick auf Hrn. Chr. Bubcrts kritische Beleuchtung der Seitenstiicke zur Weisheit Dr. M. Lu- thers (ibid. 1818). Prechtl, it will be noticed from the list of his works, entered into a controversy on the questions at issue between Romanists and Protestants. His own desire was a union of all Christians, and he first wrote for this purpose ; but, like all Romanists, he was unwilling to acknowledge the corrupt condition of his own ecclesiastical body, and was therefore assailed by the Lutherans. The result was a decided polem- ical cast in his later writings, and a proportionate decline of scholarship and increase of haste and acri- mony. (J. H. \V.)