Primerose, Gilbert, D.D., a Scotch divine, flour- ished in the first half of the 17th century, first as minister of the French Church in London, later as chaplain to James I, and still later as canon of Windsor. He died in 1642. His works are, La Trompette de Sion, etc., en. XVIII Sermons (Berger, 1610, 8vo; and in Latin by Joan Anchoranum Dantis, 1631, 8vo) : — Le Vceu de Ja- <■<<}) oppose aux Vceux de Moines (ibid. 1610, 4 vols. 8vo; in English by John Bulteel, Lond. 1617, fol.) :—La De- fense de la Religion reformee contre M. Francois Blo- vin (Berger, 1619, 8vo) : — Punegyrique, au ires -grand Prince Charles, Prince de Galles (Paris, 1624, 8vo) : — Nine Sermons on Psa. xxxiv, 19 (Lond. 1625, 4to): — Two Sermons on Matt, r, 4, and Luke vi, 21 (1625, 8vo).
Primicerius, i. e. the chief of his order (from Lat. primus, first, and cera, wax), one whose name was first inscribed on the tablet of the church, which was covered with wax. The word does not always signify priority of power or jurisdiction ; sometimes only prior- ity of time, or precedency of honor or dignity in respect of place. Augustine calls Stephen primicerius ruar/y- rum. Bernard calls many primiceria virginitatis. The word is frequently met with in mediaeval Latin, and designates an officer in monasteries. In the Liber Ro- mani Ordinis the duties of the office are thus described : Primicerius sciat se esse sub archidiacono, etc. : " The primicerius must understand that he is subordinate to the archdeacon ; and to his office it specially belongs to preside over the deacons during the time that the}* are communicating instruction; to maintain proper disci- pline, as one who must render account to God ; to fur- nish the deacons with subjects on which they must dis- course," etc. Du Cange gives various meanings of the term, dependent on the word with which it happens to be connected ; as primicemus subdiaconorum, notario- rum, lectorum, etc. But in a more restricted sense, pri- micerius designates the holder of a chapter dignity, and
PIJIMITLE
592 PRIMITIVE METII. CONNECTION
is employed with this specific meaning in Chrodegang's rule, and in the statutes of Amalarius, confirmed by the Synod of Aix-la-Chapelle in 817, where the primicerius appears at the head of the capitulary register, imme- diately after the archdeacon and archpresbyter. The functions of the primicerius were specially to instruct the deacons, subdeacons, and minorists in the choral Bong (hence his name of /'awittoi ; lh can.oa-t. i, 1 ). in the liturgy, and in the functions of the Church; to inform the canons of the order of the office in the choir; to explain to the younger ones the management of the Breviary, etc. There is a very circumstantial enume- ration of the duties of the primicerius in the Epistola Isidoti Spal. ad Landefredum Cordub., "De omnibus eccl. gradibus" (comp. c. 1, § 13, Dist. xxv, and the fragment of the Ordo Romanics in c. nn. s, '• De off. primicerii," i, 25). When the archdeacons, in the pro- gressive extension of their importance, obtained the lower jurisdiction over the priests and arch priests, the primicerius obtained also the full disciplinary power over the minorists. His situation in the chapter was tin in fore one of importance; it is sometimes called a dignity \ De consuet. i. -I |, sometimes apt rsonalt I D< con- slit. 1. 2), sometimes it is put simply among the offices {pfficia nuda). There was. in general, no uniform dis- tribution of ranks in the different chapters. When the institution of the Minorites was suppressed, the office of the primicerius was also extinguished.— l'arrar, s. v.; Wetzer u.Welte, a. v.
Piimitiae, Premices. Prioritise is, with the an- cient pagans, the name given to the first-fruits of the fields and gardens, which were annually brought as offerings to the temples or abodes of the priests. We find this custom among almost all nations of antiquity, and also among the Israelites. Like, many other relig- ious customs and institutions of the dews, this kind of exterior worship, considered as a tribute of gratitude for God's blessings, was adopted by the Christian Church, and urgently recommended by the fathers, the kind and quantity of the gifts being left to be determined by the
I - feelings of the individual: "Non erant special]
nomine difihritse, sed offerentium arbitrio derelictae" 1 1>>
decim. <t prim. iii. 30). They certainly bore the char- acter of free offerings, while the tithe — with the Jews always, since Moses's time; with the Christians at least Bince < lharlemagne's time — represents a strict right; for, that the premices should not remain below the sixtieth part, and not exceed a fortieth of the complete harvest, is only an approximate indication, to be found in Jer- ome, i 'mum, hi. in Ezeck. c. xlvi. With the more gen- ( ral and stricter execution of t he laws about the tithe, in the Carlovingian age, the premices disappeared, lit- tle by little, or were preserved only in part, and in a changed form.— Wetzer u.Welte. s. v.
Primitive Christianity is the religion of the New Testament as first exemplified alter the establish- ment of the new faith by that ecclesiastical organiza- tion called the Church, under State patronage. See Pjrimitive Church. In distinction from this, we have apostolic Christianity, the period that immediately suc- ceeded the labor- of ih.- founder of the New '-Testament dispensation. See Apostolk Chi rch ; Ciiimstiamtv.