about their business, not by order or license from Peter. bul according to special direction ofGdd's Spirit. I (II.) The nature of the apostolic ministry their noi being fixed in one place of residence, bul continually moving about the world— the state of things at thai time, and the manner of peter'- life, render it unlikely that he had such a jurisdiction over the apostles as some assign him. (12.) It was indeed most requisite that every apostle should ha\ e a complete, absolute, independent authority in managing the duties and concerns of the office, that he might nol anywise be obstructed in the discharge of them, not clogged with a need to consult others, not hampered with orders from those who were at a dis- tance, i 13.) I he discourse and behavior of Paul to- ward- Peter are evidence that In- ilid not acknowledge any dependence on him. or any subjection to him (Gal. ii, 11). ii l.i If Peter had been appointed sovereign of
the Church, it seems that it should have been requisite that he should have outlived all the apostles; for other- wise the Church would have wanted a head, or there must have been an inextricable controversy who that head was. Put Peter did long before John, as all agree, and perhaps before divers others of the apostles." Prom these arguments we must Bee what little ground the < Ihurch of pome ha- to thrive the supremacy of the
pope from the Supposed primacy of Peter. Si . l',,n .
Primas. See Primate.
Prirnat, Clai de-Fraxc/ois-Marie, a French prel- ate, was born at Lyon- July 26, 1717. He studied, at the expense of the Chapter of St. John, at Lyons, ami entered the brotherhood of the Oratorians. From the college at Marseilles he went to that of Dijon, v, here he became professor of rhetoric and theology. At the age of twenty-eighl he was ordained a priest, and became a successful preacher. In 178G he was made curate of St. James at Douai. During the revolutionary agitation he gave his support to the republican cause by taking the recpiired oath. lie was made constitutional bishop of the North .March 27. 1791, and established the seat of his episcopacy at Cambray. He resigned office Nov. l.i. 17'.»:!. and had even the weakness to return to the
convention his letters ofpriesth 1. Put this step did
not prevent him from presiding over a diocesan synod held at Lille in 17117. He assisted at the council held at Pari- at the end of that year, and was transferred by his associates to the bishopric of Rhone and Loire Feb. 1798. At this time he composed a paper to justify his oath of hatred to royalty, which was found in the actions of that council. Alter tin Concordat, he was chosen, April :•. 1802, archbishop of Toulouse, where by his mild measures he triumphed over all obstacles. A- primate he was present at the coronation of Napoleon I, and the pallium was conferred upon him Jan. HI. 1805. lie was finally chosen senator and count of the empire May 19, 1806; and during the Hundred Days he was called to a seat in the Chamber of Peers. June 1. 1815. He died at Toulouse Oct. 10, 1816. Hoofer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, s. v.
Primate (Lat primus; Fr. primat, first) is the title of a grade in the hierarchy immediately below the rank of patriarch (q.v.). In point of jurisdiction the primacy was. historically, developed out id' the episco- pate by papal communication ofprimatial rights. The primates, in this sense of the word, arc more particular- ly an institution of the West: for although the Greek denomination lZ,ap%oQ is generally translated byprimas, there are unmistakable differences. The exarchs of I he Last were subordinated to no patriarch, and were, so far as rights are concerned, their equals in their dioceses, and only in rank were they their inferiors. Such rela- tion- were out of the question in the Western Church. wdiere the patriarchate was held by the papal primate in the person of the bishop of Lome, who was recognised as possessing universal supreme jurisdiction. The pri- mates, as such, were metropolitans who enjoyed a pre- eminence of jurisdiction over the Other bishops of a country. This pre-eminence was founded on their right of consecrating the other metropolitan- and bishops, of convoking national councils, of receiving appeals, etc. ( originally this dignity was connected with the nomina- tion to a pontifical vicariate, as was the case with the
bishop of Aries, and it rested, in general, on an explicit appointment by the pope. There was one exception to that in the person of the bishop of Carthage, who. though
j not assuming the primatial title, exerted all the rights
implied hy it in Africa. The relation in which the pri- macy almost everywhere stood to the national interests, which obliged its hearers, as the first bishops of the
Slate, to take BOme share in the political concerns, exer-
ci-ed a detrimental influence, and led some of them to
assert bearing pretensions contrary lo i lie authority
of the head oi the Church. The importance of the pri- macy has melted away in the course of time, and in
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591
PRIMICERIUS
most cases nothing remains of it but some exterior dis- tinctions. The chief primatial sees of the West were: in Spain — Seville and Tarragona (afterwards united in Toledo) : in France — Aries. Rheims, Lyons, and Rouen (among whom the archbishop of Lyons claims the title of primat des primats, " primate of the primates") ; in England — Canterbury; in Germany — Mainz, Salzburg, and Trier; in Ireland — Armagh, and for the Pale, Dub- lin; in Scotland — St. Andrews; in Hungary — Gran; in Poland— Gnesen; and in the Northern kingdoms — Lund.