THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Bibliography: W. B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 304-307, New York, 1859; W. Walker, in American Church History Series, iii. 110, 264-266, 274, ib. 1894; idem. Ten New England Leaders, pp. 38, 40, 279, 364, ib. 1901.
PRINS, JAR JACOB: Dutch theologian; b. at Langezwaag in Friesland in 1814; d. at Leyden May 24, 1898. He studied in Amsterdam and at Leyden; was Reformed pastor at Eemnes-Binnendyks (Utrecht), 1838; Alkmaar and Rotterdam, 1843-55; professor of exegetical and practical theology at Leyden, 1855-76, and of New-Testament criticism and hermeneutics, and of history of primitive Christian literature, in the same university, from 1876 till he retired in 1885. He was one of the synodical translators of the New Testament, and the author of Disputatio theologica inauguralis de locis Euangelistarum, in quibus Jesus baptismi ritum subiisse traditur (Amsterdam, 1838); De Realiteit van's Heeren Opstanding uit de dooden (Leyden, 1861); Wetenschap en Kerk in hare wederzijdsche betrekking (1867); De Christelijke Zedeleer, de Geschiedenis des Bijbels en der Christelijke Kerk (6 parts, Amsterdam, 1878); De Maaltijd des Heeren in de Korinthische Gemeente, ten tijde van Paulus (Leyden, 1868); Over de Studie der Godgeleerdheid en de keuze van het predikambt in de Hervormde Kerk (Amsterdam, 1868); and Het Kerkrecht der Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk (Leyden, 1870).
PRIOR, PRIORESS: The title of an official over a monastery or convent next in rank to the abbot or abbess. Before the pontificate of Celestine V (1294), the term signified a monk of superior rank or greater age. After that time the prior claustralis was next to the abbot, and was appointed by him to inspect and control the deans, and to maintain discipline among the monks. The prior conventualis was master of his own monastery when it was an offshoot from another monastery, or he was superior of a house of canons.
PRISCA, PRISCILLA. See Montanism.
PRISCILLIAN, PRISCILLIANISTS: Bishop of Abila and Spanish sectary, and his followers; beheaded at Treves about 385. Apparently educated under Gnostic influences by a certain Manichean
Marcus of Memphis, Priscillian held The Ninety to the doctrine that charismata con- Canons, tinued in the Church and regarded the
Apocrypha (q.v.) as inspired. He was a rigid ascetic, though he did not forsake his wife even when he became bishop. The first literary production of Priscillian seems to have been his Nonaginta canones, which purport to refute heretics on the basis of the writings of Paul, and it is marked by a primitive and even Marcionitic spirit. Bishops and clergy on the whole are to be peaceable; apostles, prophets, and masters (doctors) are the divinely appointed orders of the Church, preeminence being due the doctors, among whom Priscillian reckoned himself. The " spiritual " comprehend and judge all things, being " children of wisdom and light"; and the distinction between flesh and spirit, darkness and light, Moses and Christ, and the " prince of this world " and Christ, are emphasized, so that two sorts of spirits and two
wisdoms are contrasted. At the same time this dualism is blended with monism; but though Christ is bothvGod and man, as man he is " not made of divinity, but of the seed of David and of woman," a primitive Christology, drawing upon him the charge of Photinianism (see Photintjs). Justification is by faith, and faith by the grace of God. Rigid asceticism, including abstinence from wine and meat, is recommended, and separation from unbelievers is urged. The Old Testament is ranked far below the New.
Priscillian was not content to remain a lay teacher and leader of conventicles. Like other ascetics, he wished to become priest and bishop to give his views more influence. So formidable became the movement that in 380 Bishop Hydatius of Emerita convened a synod at Saragossa in which
Conflicts, he charged the ascetic faction with reading Apocryphal writings and with Novatianism, Photinianism, Manicheanism (see Novatian; and Manicheans), and all sorts of heresy. Priscillian, still a layman, did not appear at the synod, though he wrote in reply his third tractate justifying the reading of the Apocrypha, without denying that their contents were partly spurious. The resolutions of the synod, which consisted of two Gallic and ten Spanish bishops, condemned certain practises of the conventicles; such as receiving the Eucharist in the church but eating it at home or in the conventicle; fasting for three weeks before Epiphany, as the day of Christ's birth and baptism (the twenty-fifth day of December being not yet accepted in Spain), and substituting meditation in the mountains for attending church during this period, fasting on the Sundays of the period of Quadragesima and on Sundays as a whole; their imitation of Christ in the desert during the forty days of Lent; and their preference of conventicles, in which women spoke and taught, to churches; and Priscillian, though forbidden to call himself doctor, was not expressly condemned. Hydatius, however, claimed that Priscillian and his adherents had been anathematized, whereupon bishops Hyginus of Cordova and Symposius of Astorga, sympathizers with Priscillian, advised that the matter be brought before a synod. The ascetic faction followed this suggestion the more readily since Priscillian was then consecrated bishop of Abila by Instantius and Salvianus. Hydatius, foreseeing defeat, obtained from Gratian a rescript against pseudo-bishops and Manicheans, whereupon Priscillian, Instantius, and Salvianus went to Damasus at Rome, and, laying before him a memorial (the second tractate), asked to be rehabilitated either by a synod or by the emperor. While both Damasus and Ambrose of Milan received the three Spanish bishops with suspicion, they obtained from Gratian a rescript relieving them of the charge of being pseudo-bishops and Manicheans, thus assuring Priscillian of his position.
Theologically (Tractates, iv.-xi.) Priscillian's God is the " God Christ "; he is not Patripassian but Christopassian. God is " invisible in the Father, visible in the Son," and the Holy Ghost is one in the work of the two. In Christ is all; without him, nothing. This God-Christ was to him the order of