lite)-as turn in grammaticam collatis (Breslau, 1869). (B. P.)
Profitt, George Marion, a minister of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, South, was born in Yancey Coun- ty, N. C, about 1835. He professed religion and joined the Church in 1849. He was admitted into the Holston Conference in 1858. His first appointment was to the Cleveland circuit as junior preacher; his second year was spent on Spencer mission; his third, on Sulphur Springs circuit ; his fourth, on Newport circuit. His health having failed, he went to Florida, where he died on Sunday, June 5, 1864. He led an exemplar)- and pious life.
Frognosticator. The phrase "monthly prognos- ticators" occurs in the A. V. as a rendering of D'sS*>'liB Edwins, making known as to the mouths, in Isa. xlvii, 13, where the prophet is enumerating the astrological superstitions of the Chaldeans. It is known that the Chaldean astrologers professed to divine future events by the positions, aspects, anil appearances of the stars, which they regarded as having great influence on the affairs of men and kingdoms; and it would seem, from the present text, that they put forth accounts of the events which might be expected to occur from month to month, like our old almanac-makers. Some carry the analogy further, and suppose that they also gave monthly tables of the weather; but such prognostica- tions are only cared for in climates where the weather is uncertain and variable; while in Chaldsea, where (as we know from actual experience) the seasons are re- markably regular in their duration and recurrence, and where variations of the usual course of the weather are all but unknown, no prognosticator would gain much honor by foretelling what every peasant knows. — Kitto. See Astrology ; Divination.
Pro-Hegoumenos, the ex-supcrior of a Greek convent who has completed his term of office, which is two years, and retires divested of nothing but his au- thority.—Gardner, Faiths of the World, s. v.
Prohle, Heinkich Andreas, Dr., a Lutheran minister, who died April 19, 1875, at Hornhausen, near Oschersleben, in Germany, is best known by his writ- ings in the department of homiletics, liturgy, and peda- gogics. He published, Materialien zu Homilien in katechetischer Form (Halberstadt, 1846): — Die kor- perliche, christliche und biirgerliche Schulerziehung (Magdeburg, 1846): — Leitfaden bei dem Konfirmanden- Unterrichte, mit einem Vorworte von Clans Harms (q. v.) (Halberstadt, 1851): Liturgischer Festring (Wernige- rode, 1856) : — Predigt-Entwiirfe iiber die Evangelien u. Kpisteln, etc. (ibid. 1856) : — Das Ilalberstddtische Kit- chen- und Haus-Gesangbuch in seiner erneueten Gestalt (Oschersleben, 1856) ■.—Kirchliche Sitten. Fin Bild aus dem Leben evangelischer Gemeinen (Berlin, 1858). This latter work is the most important of his writings. See Zuchold, Bibliotheca Theohupca. iii. 1015 ; Literarischer FIandw( her (1875), p. 222 ; ' Hauck, Theol. Jahresh richt (1866), ii, 734. (B. P.)
Proistameni (-poiordpn'oi) is only another title which was given to the preacher of the early Church. See Proestos.
Prokimenon (irpoicsifiivov, something that lies be- fore) is, in the Greek liturgy, the short anthem pro- nounced previous to the reading of the epistle from the Holy Scriptures, consisting of verse and response usually taken from the Psalms. The purpose is to give a hint as to the way in which the day ought to be celebrated. Such phrases are, for instance, " Praise ye the Lord," "Give ear to my prayer, O Lord," "Thy mercy, O Lord," "God help me through thy name," "My help comes from the Lord," " O Lord, thou art my protec- tor." Previous to the calling-out of the prokimenon the deacon exclaims, "Let us listen!" — Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lex. s. v.
Prokopovitch, Teophan, a Russian prelate of
PROLOCUTOR
62i
PROMOTIO PER SALTU.M
great renown, especial]; as a pulpit orator, and there- fore called the ' hrysostom ol the Russo-Greek Church, was born al Kief June 8, L68L Baptized Eleazar, be ed it tor Elisha, with the dress of St. Basil, in a United Greek monastery of that order in Lithuania, to I.' iii. to finish his studies, and there had remained three years when lie suddenly removed, by i. umstances not known, and went to Potche- rif, in Volbynia, where he renounced his faith, and was transferred, under the new name of father Samuel, to the chair of rhetoric in the Academy of Kief. "When Peter I passed through the city, alter the victory at Pultava, the duty of complimenting him was confided to Prokopovitch. He accompanied the czar in his un- lucky campaign on the Pruth, and was made abbol of the monastery of Kief, [n 1715 he was promoted to the seat of Pskopf, although he avowed that he had expressed heretical doctrines al the court and in his writings. The doctors of the Sorbonne, wishing to profit by the visit Peter I had paid to them in 1717. at- tempted l" l titer into friendly relations with the Rus- sian Church. Appointed to reply to their address to the czar, Prokopovitch frustrated this attempt; and, yielding himself to all the views of the despot, he com- posed an ecclesiastical constitution which made of the Church a civil institution, and the clergy servants etn- ployedbytheState-ra condition which remains unaltered in the Russian Church to this day. He also, at the em- peror's instigation, consented to the sequestration of the Church domains, and apportioned totbeclergyashareof the ii me proportionate to their several ranks. He re- ceived from Catharine, whom he had crowned empress, the presidency of the synod and the archbishopric ol Novgorod, founded by Theodosius. Prokopovitch crowned Peter II. whose righl to the throne he had at- tacked in a work condemned by a ukase of July 26', 17J7, by the then empress Anna, and encouraged the laiier to commit in L730 the stroke of policy from the i Efi cts of which Russia yet suffers the most deplorable consequences. He died at St. Petersburg Sept. 8, 1736. He left a greal number of panegyrics and expositions of till sorts, some in impure Russian, some in Latin Oustrailif admits that the works of this prelate were specimens of the basest adulation. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, s. v. See Tchistovitch, Theophane Prokopo- vitchel Theophilacte Lopatinski (St.Yeterab.1861); Otto, Ruse. Lilt. s. v. ; .\h th. Quar. Rev. July, 1873, p. 499.