RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Primate Prince
of the Soul, gathered out of many Lands and Ages (1873); Alhambra and the Kremlin, Journey from Madrid to Moscow (1873); Fifteen Years of Prayer in the Fulton-street Prayermeeting (1873); Under the Trees (1874); Life of Samuel F. B. Morse (1875); Prayer and its Answer illustrated in the first Twenty-five Years of the Fulton-street Prayer-meeting (1882); Irenwus Letters (3 series, 1882; with portrait, 1885; with sketch of Dr. Prime's life, 1886, containing his autobiography in the form of letters).
P. and D. S. Schapf.
Bibliography: W. Prime, S. I. Prime. Autobiography and Memorials, New York, 1888.
PRIMER: Ecclesiastically, an elementary book upon the cardinal points of Christian belief; liturgically, the name given to a series of works which have an important place in the history of the Anglican Prayer Book (see Common Pbayer, Book of) . The earliest example of the liturgical primer (with which this article is principally concerned) was compiled about 1390. The first of consequence was that by William Marshall, Prymer in Englysshe (London, 1535), which contained expositions of the Apostles' Creed, Decalogue, Lord's Prayer, and Ave Maria, also the various offices and hours, seven penitential Psalms, the Dirige, and the Roman Commendations. The next of importance was the " Bishops' Book," The Godly and Pious Institution of a Christian Man (1537), authorized by the king, the two archbishops, and a number of other ecclesiastical authorities, and marking a great step in advance from Romanism to Anglicanism. Bishop Hilsey's Manuall of Prayers, or the Prymer in Englyshe (1539) furnished a basis for the system of lessons and for that of the epistles and gospels. A step further was taken by The Prymer set forth by the King's Majesty (1545, reprinted 1547), which included the Litany. In 1553 appeared the Primer of Private Prayers, which was used in making Queen Elizabeth's First Primer (1560); her second (1566) incorporated many changes. The last known was issued in 1571. The employment of these belongs to the history of the Prayer Book (see Common Prayer, Book of, § 1).
Bibliography: Consult the literature under Common Prayer, Book of, especially F. Procter and W. H. Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chaps, i.-ii., London, 1905. The three primers (Marshall's, Hilsey's, and King Henry's of 1545) were reprinted in E. Burton's Three Primers put forth in the Reign of Henry VIII. , Oxford, 1834, 2d ed., 1848.
PRIMICERIUS: In the medieval Church an administrative church official of lesser rank. He was classed with the archdeacon and treasurer, and his duties included, according to Isidore of Seville (Epist., i. 13), the supervision of the acolytes, exorcists, and psalmists; the furnishing of an example for the clergy in duties, morals, devotions, and zeal of perfection; the distribution of assignments to the clergy and the regulation of chanting and the bearing of candles at feasts; the giving of advice to the parish priests; and direction through the Ostiarii (q.v.) of the episcopal letters enjoining fasts. The office was in vogue everywhere in the West in the sixth and seventh centuries. Later with the introduction of the canonical order the office was attached to the chapter. The decretals of Gregory IX. (1227-41) placed the primicerius after the archdeacon, and made him the superior over the minor clergy with special supervision of the IX.— 17
service in the choir, thus identifying him with the prmcentor In many dioceses the primicerius discharged the functions of the scholasticus and was the head of the cathedral school. Later still a portion of his functions were transferred to the dean, while special prcecentori were frequently retained in the chapters. A peculiar development of the primicerius took place at Rome, where the office occurs possibly as early as the fourth century, and where almost a complete list of the primicerii notariorum from 544 to 1297 has been preserved (P. L. Galetti, Del primicero delta Santa Sede Apostolica, pp. 20 sqq., Rome, 1776). This primicerius notariorum belonged to the lower clergy and had charge of parochial correspondence, of the martyrology, and the like; and after Gregory the Great (590-604) he was the scribe of papal documents. He thus became the chancellor and director of the papal archives. By the seventh and eighth centuries he had risen to such importance, that he, together with the archdeacon and archpresbyter, acted as pope during a vacancy. Late in the tenth century he was the first of the seven papal judges palatine. With the end of the thirteenth century, however, the office seems to have disappeared. (A. Hatjck.)
Bibliography: Bingham, Origines, II., xxi. 11, III., xiii. 5; DCA, ii. 1709-1710; G. Phillips, Kirchenrecht, vi. 343, Regensburg, 1864; P. Hinschius, Kirchenrecht, i. 380— 381, Berlin, 1869; H. Breslau, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre, i. 157 sqq., Leipsic, 1889.
PRIMIN, SAINT. See Pirmin.
PRIMITIVE (" HARDSHELL ") BAPTISTS. See Baptists, II., 4 (h).
PRIMITIVE METHODISTS. See Methodists, I., 4, IV 9.
PRINCE, THOMAS: Congregationalist ; b. at Sandwich, Mass., May 15, 1687; d. in Boston Oct. 22, 1758. He was graduated at Harvard College, 1707; visited Barbados and Madeira; preached for several years at Coombs and other places in England; returned to Boston, 1717, and in 1718 was ordained associate pastor of the Old South Church, Boston. His memory rests upon his Chronological History of New England in the Form of Annals with an Introduction Containing a Brief Epitome of Events Abroad from the Creation (vol. i., Boston, 1736; nos. 1, 2, 3 of vol. ii., 1755; ed. Nathan Hale, Boston, 1826; ed. S. G. Drake, 1852). The history proper begins with 1602. He intended to bring it down to 1730; but almost twenty years elapsed after the appearance of the first volume, ere he began the second ; and, his death coming soon after, he brought the history down no later than Aug. 5, 1633. During the Revolutionary War many of his manuscripts, kept in the tower of the Old South Church, were destroyed, and thus a large part of his invaluable collection respecting the early history of the country has perished. Besides this, he published a number of sermons, and An Account of the Earthquakes of New England (1755), and New England Psalm Book Revised and Improved (1758). His library, including his manuscripts, was bequeathed to the Old South Church, and by it deposited in the Public Library, Boston, 1866, of which a catalogue has been published.
PrlnB Friscillian