Premonstrant Monk.
Premord, Charles -Leonard, a French priest, was born at Honneur July 30, 17G0. He obtained in 1790 a canonry in the college of St. Honore at Paris. Deprived of it soon afterwards, he retired to England, where he began by giving French lessons. Madame de Levis-Mirepoix went with some French Benedictine nuns to establish herself at Cannington Court, and in- trusted Premord with the spiritual direction of the community. In 1816 he established himself at Paris, where cardinal Talleyrand - Pe'rigord appointed him honorary canon of Notre Dame and chaplain of Charles X (1825). Premord was also appointed vicar-general of Strasburg and of Quimper. After the Revolution of July he returned to England to rejoin the Benedictine community which he had so long directed. He left an English edition of Rules of a Christian Life, and a pub- lication of the (Euvres choisies de M, A sseline, eveque de Boulogne (Paris, 1823, 6 vols. 12mo), accompanied with an incomplete notice. He died Aug. 26, 1837, at Col- wich, Staffordshire. See L 'Ami de la Religion, 1837. — Hoefer, Xouv. Biog. Generate, s. v.
Prenorman Architecture. In a large class of English ecclesiastical structures reared anterior to the Norman invasion the style is so peculiar that it should be classified as distinctively Prenorman. The walls are of rag or rubble, frequently of herring-bone work, and unbuttressed; the quoins present long and short work; strips of stone or pilasters bisect or relieve the towers; the imposts of the shafts are rude, massive, and orna- mented either with classical mouldings or rude carv- ings; the arches are round or angled, and sometimes constructed of bricks; and baluster-like pillars are in- troduced in the windows, which are often deeply splayed within and without. Two pillars from Reculver Ba- silica are standing in the Green Court of Canterbury. The churches of Lyminge, Barnack, Bosham, Bradford (Wilts). Brixworth (the oldest remaining church in England, and possessing a basilican type), Stanton La- cy, Dover Castle, Brytford, Corhampton, Dunham Mag- na, Caversfield, and part of the crypt of York, those of Ripon and Hexham, the towers of Deerhurst, Barton, St. Benet's (Cambridge and Lincoln), Cholsey. St. Mary (York), Bolam, Brigstock, Earl's Barton, and the stee- ples of Bosham and Sompting, and portions of mr.ny other churches, exhibit some or other of these peculiar-
PRENTISS
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ities. Tlio base story of the tower of Barnaek formed a judicial and council chamber, with an angle-headed
Bedil i the west, with stone benches fur the assessors
on either side. They were erected either by the Eng- lish, or possibly by the Danes under Canute, as thai king ordered churches of stone and lime to be built in all places where the minsters had been burned by his countrymen, and out of the hundred, which is the num- ber el these buildings, two thirds are in the eastern counties and Lincolnshire, where the compatriots of the French Normans settled before the latter arrived. In the first half of the 11th century churches so rapidly multiplied in France and Italy thai a chronicler says the world seemed to be putting on a new white robe. Westminster Abbey was built by the Confessor in the Norman style; while in Lincolnshire the 1'renorman
i le was preserved late in the 1 1th century, just as the
Perpendicular lingered in Somerset in the time of Eliz- abeth, and produced Wadbam College chapel by the aid ol west country masons. — Walcott, Sacred Archae- ology, s. v.
Prentiss, Erastus L., a minister of the Method- ist Episcopal Church, was born al New London, Conn., in 1825, was converted at the age of fifteen, and, after joining the Methodists, was licensed to preach in 1848. Seeing the necessity of thorough educational training for the great work of the Gospel, he prepared for college al \n.'m.i Seminary, and then entered Wesleyan Uni- versity. Failing health interrupted his studies for a
ti but he finally graduated at Amherst College in
1855. The following year he entered New York Con- ference, and took a position from the first « hich he ever maintained, as will be seen in reviewing his fields of la- bor. IlisiiM appointment, 1856, was the Sei d Meth- odist church in Kingston; the next year, 1857, at St. Paul's. New York City, as assistant to the lamented Dr. John M'Clintock, the late editor of this Cyclopaedia. In L858 and the following year Prentiss was stationed at the Second .Methodist Church in Newburgh; in I860 and 1861 at Chester; in 1862 and 1863 at Matteawan; in 1864, L865, and 1866 al Tuckahoe; in 1869 and 1870, Cannon Street Church, Poughkeepsie; in 1870 and 1871, St. Paul's Church at Peekskill. In the spring of 1872 he received his last appointment, which was Warwick. There he was receive. I with open arms, engaged in his ministerial duties with -real delight, and was exceed- ingly useful, as his name was -like ointment poured forth," until the day of his death, Feb. 28, 1873. Pren- li.v possessed rare outward attractions. His line and delicate form, his noble brow, his bright eye. .and his genial features made him a beautiful specimen of hu- manity that it was refreshing to behold; but (bey were far surpassed by the inward adorning, his childlike spirit, the kindness of his heart, the gentleness of his disposition, the warmth of his affections, and his pure and unspotted life. His ministry was evangelical and practical in its character to a pre-eminent degree, ami was .1 success. Hea\ en put the broad seal of iis appro- bation upon his labors. See Christian Advocatt iN. V. Max 8, 1873); Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1*7::.