PRITZ
602 PRIVATIO COMMUXIOXIS
the horse, as the last performance would have secured victory. Pritbu'a son pursued the robber, who could no) otherwise escape him than by changing himself into the form of a penitent strewed with ashes and hong all round wiih bones, [ndra succeeded in steal- in- the horse a second time, ami only escaped the un- erring weapons of his foe by the intervention of Brahm. Prithu resigned power in favor of his son, and retired to a solitude, where he was absorbed by the divinity. The
legend of Prithu evidently records b e historical fact
ig the civilizing influences exerted by a great king of Hindu antiquity.— Chambers, Cyclop, s. v.
Pritz, Johann Geoeg, a German theologian, was born ai Leipsic in 1662. Alter having been an evan- gelical minister al Leipsic and al Zerbst,he became su- perintendent at Scbleitz. He was made professor of theology at Greifswalde, and in 1711 was called to Frankibrt-on-the-Main as senior minister. He died in the year 1732. Among his numerous writings we cite the following: De corUemptu diviiiarum apud antiguos philosophos (Leipsic, L693, Ito): -Dt prcerogaliva sexus masculini prce femineo < Ito): Di immortalitate komi- nis, cm, in: Asgilium (ibid. L702, Ito) : Probeii der />'<- redisamkeit (noted for eloquence) (ibid. 1702, 8vo):- Tntroductio in Vovum Testamentum (ibid. 1709, 8vo). He also edited a work of opuscules of St Macaire, and translated some of the writings of Burnet and other English authors.— Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, s.v.
Private Baptism. The Church, even in her mosl ritualistic periods, has always held that, in case of danger or sickness, baptism mighl be administered at any time or in any place. In Thessaly, when bap- tism was restricted to Easter, many died without it, and in consequence the old prohibitions were mitigated, the font being hallowed al Easter and Pentecost for oc- casional use. ( Children, if in danger, might be baptized on i in- day of their birth, by a decree of the councils of Gerona, 517, and Winchester, 1071; and the Constitu- tions of Othobon, 1268. According to Roman Catholic teachings, the vessels in which any have been baptized are to be carried to church and there applied to some nec- essary use, and not to any common purpose, out of rev- erence to the sacrament i Langton's Constitutions, 1223); and the waier with which baptism was ministered was to be thrown into the fire, or carried to the church to
be put into the font. The vessel, Lyndw 1 says, was
t nough to permit immersion, and was to be •• burned or deputed to the use of the < Shurch," by Ed- mund's < institutions of 1236 ; I hat is, as Lyndwood ex- plains, "for washing the church linen." Wooden ves- sels were burned. In England, in the Anglo-Saxon pe- riod, children, if Bick, were brought to the priest, by iElfric's Canons, 957, who was to baptize them, from whose district soeverthej were brought, without delay.
Walcott, Sacred I rchceology, s. v.
Private Confession. See Confession.
Private Judgment is the right the Protestants claimed in the Reformatory movement of the 16th cen- tury, and has Bince become the corner-stone of Protes- tantism (q. v.). The term signifies the right of man to read the Bible for himself and form his own judgment of its meaning under the enlightenment of the Holy spirit. In the view of Protestantism, man does not
only enjoy I his privilege, hut is bound tO exercise it
But, on the other hand, the Romish < hmvh steadfastly li right to any man. and holds the Church liority and guide in Scripture interpretation. On this point the Council of Trent thus decrees: "In order to restrain petulant minds, the council further de- crees thai tatters of faith and morals, and whatever
r( late to the maintenance of Christian doctrine, no one, confiding in his own judgment, -hall dare to wrest the Sacred Scriptures to his own sense of them, contrary to thai winch hath hem held, and still is held, by holy mother Church, whose right il is to judge of the true meaning and interpretation of Sacred Writ, or contrary
to the unanimous consent of the lathers, even though Mich interpretation should never be published. If any disobey, let them be denounced by the ordinaries, and punished according to law." From the terms of this decree, it is plain that Romanists hold that their t Ihurch entitled to judge of the true meaning and in- terpretation of Sacred Scripture. To the sao the creed of pope Pius IV declares: "I also admit the Holy Scripture- according to thai Bense w hich our holy mother the church has held, and does hold, to which it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures. Neither will I ever lake and interpret them otherwise than according to the unanimous con- sent of the lathers." In opposition to such doctrines as these, the Word of God explicitly teaches that erery man is bound to judge lor himself of the true meaning of Scripture. Thus 1 Thess. v. 21, " Trove all things; hold fast that which is good." Acts xvii, 11, "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica. in that t hey receivi d the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things wen so." .Mark xii. 24, "And Jesus answering .-aid unto them. Do ye not then-lore err, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God?" Luke xvi,29, "Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." I>a. viii, 20,"To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not accord- ing to this word, it is because there is no light in them."