MlLLENARIANISM, § 10.
POSTREDEMPTIONISM. See Calvinism, § 9.
POSTULATION: In canon law a legalized procedure of choosing a higher ecclesiastical official where the candidate may be debarred by lacking some of the canonical qualifications or by holding another office which would hinder the legal acceptance of the one to be filled. Through postulation (postulo), petition is made for the availability of the person in question for election. Postulation may be simple where it refers to dismission on account of some official impediment; or it may be ceremonial and more real where it refers to canonical defects (of which only minor ones are admissible) or when, for instance, the candidate is the confirmed bishop of a diocese. The proceeding in the case of the simple postulation is like that of election. In the case of the ceremonial an absolute majority is necessary, unless there is competition with a wholly qualified candidate, in which case there is required a majority of two-thirds. After the ceremonial postulation, the candidate made eligible must seek admissio just as confirmatio after an election. In the case of the rejection of the postulation the power of appointment reverts to the pope. With reference to the Prussian bishoprics as circumscribed in 1821 the distinction between postulation and election was removed.
POTAMI^NA: Christian slave and martyr at Alexandria. The only two sources of value concerning her, Eusebius (Hist, eccl., VI., v.; Eng. transl., NPNF, 2 ser., i. 253) and Palladius (Historia Lausiaca, iii.; MPG, xxxiv. 1009, 1014), report that Potamisena belonged to the metropolitan district of Egypt and was a martyr to modesty and chastity rather than to religion. According to Eusebius, she was plunged into a kettle filled with boiling pitch during the reign of Septimius Severus (202-211), a certain Aquila then being president of Alexandria, or according to Palladius in the reign
Potamius Power
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
of Maximinus II. (about 306-310). The account of Eusebius has been subjected to sharp criticism, partly on account of a general resemblance of his description to many forged acts of martyrs. It should be noted, moreover, that, according to Eusebius himself, legend early clustered round Potamiaena's name. It seems probable that Potamisena was really martyred, as Palladius states, during the persecution of Maximinus, especially as particularly barbarous modes of execution were employed by him; Palladius adds that he heard of her martyrdom, at least indirectly, from St. Anthony, the father of hermits. (Franz Gorres.)
Bibliography: The sources are indicated in the text; discussions of these are: B. Aube, Les Chretiens dans V empire romain, pp. 132-137, Paris, 1881; P. Allard, Hist, des persecutions, ii. 75, 76, ib. 1886; Tillemont, Memoires, iii. 267-273, 511-512; DCB, iv. 447.
POTAMIUS: Bishop of Olisipo (Lisbon), c. 357 According to Hilary, De synodis, xi., the so-called second Sirmian formula of 357 was drawn up by Hosius and Potamius, while Phoebadius (Contra Arianos, iii.) attributes it to Ursacius, Valens, and Potamius. The Luciferian (of San Lucar de Barrameda, Spain) presbyters Faustinusand Marcellinus (Libellus precum) report that Potamius merely signed the formula. This latter work implies, moreover, that Hosius was cited to appear at Sirmium by Potamius, whom Hosius had denounced to the churches of Spain as a heretic. The Luciferian presbyters just mentioned also say that Potamius originally held the Catholic faith but denied it through greed for a piece of land, and that he died while on his way to this property. Catholic orthodoxy is shown in a letter of Potamius to Athanasius (written before 357), and he is mentioned, together with Epictetus of Centumcelfe, as an opponent of Liberius at Rimini in 359 (MPL, x. 681). In the previous year Phoebadius had seen in him an opponent who would endeavor to earry through the formula, and records a letter by him of Patripassian tendency. Potamius was the author of two brief treatises in barbarous Latin, preserved by Zeno of Verona (MPL, viii. 1411-15), De Lazaro and De martyrio Isaice prophetoz.
(Edgar Hennecke.)
Bibliography: H. Florez, Espana Sagrada, xiv. 178 sqq., Madrid, 1754 sqq.; P. B. Gams, Kirchengeschichte von Spanien, ii. 1, pp. 224-225, 231 sqq., 315 sqq., Regensburg, 1864; Ceillier, Auteurs sacres, iv. 549, v. 152, vi. 274; DCB, iv. 448.
POTHINUS (PHOTINUS): Bishop of Lyons; b. 87; d. 177 According to Gallic tradition, he was the first bishop of the see, predecessor of Irenseus, and he may well have been consecrated before 150. The account of his martyrdom, as given in the letter of the church at Lyons on the persecution under Marcus Aurelius (Eusebius, Hist, eccl., V., i. 29-31), reveals the intensity of feeling which prevailed among both Christians and pagans.
(A. Hatjck.) Bibliography: The " Gallic tradition " appears in Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, i. 29, In gloria martyrum, xlviii.-xlix. Consult: Neander, Christian Church, i. 112, 677; DCB, iv. 449; Schaff, Christian Church, ii. 55.
POTTER, ALONZO: Protestant Episcopal bishop; b. at La Grange, Dutchess County, N. Y.,
July 6, 1800; d. at San Francisco July 4, 1865. He graduated at Union College, Schenectady, 1818studied theology in Philadelphia; was chosen pro-' fessor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Union College, about 1821; ordained in 1822; was rector of St. Paul's, Boston, 1826-31; was recalled to the professorship of moral and intellectual philosophy and political economy at Union College in 1832, and was vice-president, 1838^5; and bishop of Pennsylvania, 1845-65. He possessed remarkable executive ability and genius for administration, and by his command of men and means established the Episcopal hospital at Philadelphia, reorganized the Episcopal academy and founded the Philadelphia Divinity School, as well as young men's lyceums and working-men's institutes. Thirty-five new churches in Philadelphia alone during his bishopric attest his energy. He delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell institute in Boston, 1845-49, on Natural Theology and Christian Evidences, without notes, which attracted much attention. He was author of Discourses, Charges, Addresses, Pastoral Letters (Philadelphia, 1858); and Religious Philosophy (1872).
Bibliography: M. A. de W. Howe, Memoirs of the Life and Services of Alonzo Potter, Philadelphia, 1871.
POTTER, HENRY CODMAN: Protestant Episcopal bishop of New York; b. at Schenectady, N. Y., May, 25, 1835; d. at Cooperstown, N. Y., July 21, 1908. He was the son of the preceding, and was educated at the Episcopal Academy, Philadelphia, and the Theological Seminary in Virginia, from which he was graduated in 1857 He was ordered deacon in the same year and priested in 1858. After being curate of Christ Church, Greensburg, Pa. (1857-58), he was rector of St. Johns, Troy, N. Y. (1858-66), when he became assistant at Trinity, Boston. Two years later (1868), he accepted a call to New York City as rector of Grace Church, a position which he held until 1883, being also secretary to the House of Bishops from 1863 to 1883, when he was consecrated bishop-coadjutor of New York, assisting his uncle, Bishop Horatio Potter. In 1887 he succeeded to the full administration of the diocese, over which he presided unaided until 1903, when D. H. Greer (q.v.) was consecrated bishop-coadjutor. He was a broadminded man and cultivated the friendliest relations with those outside of his own church. He also had a prominent part in movements for civic reform. He was justly honored and beloved, and will be enrolled among the foremost of American citizens. Among his numerous writings, special mention may be made of his Sisterhoods and Deaconesses at Home and Abroad (New York, 1871); The Gates of the East, a Winter in Egypt and Syria (1877); Sermons of the City (1881); Waymarks (1892); The Scholar and the State (1897); Addresses to Women engaged in Church Work (1898); The East of To-day and To- Morrow (1902) ; The Citizen in his Relation to Industrial Situation (1902); Law and Loyalty (1903); Modern Man and his Fellow Man (1903); and Reminiscences of Bishops and Archbishops (1906). Bibliography: Harriette A. Keyser, Bishop Potter, the People's Friend, New York, 1910; W. S. Perry, The Episcopate in America, p. 277, ib. 1895.