THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
delphia, 1861. Sidelights from the papal side are oast by Pastor, Popes, vol. i.
PROCTER, JOHN: English Dominican; b. at Manchester Jan. 23, 1849. He was educated at the Dominican colleges at Hinckley (1863-66) and London (1867-72) and at the University of Lou vain (1872-74; S.T.L., 1874). In 1872 he was ordained to the priesthood, and in 1866-72, 1874-78, 1882- 1883, and 1885-1900 was stationed at St. Dominic's Priory, London, and also conducted a large number of missions and retreats in England, Ireland, Scotland, and the United States. He has been superior of the Dominican Houses in Newcastle-on- Tyne (1878-82), Leicester (1883-85), and London (1888-94), and was provincial of his order from 1894 to 1902. Since 1906 he has been parish priest of St. Dominic's Priory Church, London. He ha? written Savonarola and the Reformation (London, 1898); Saint Sebastian, Lay-Apostle and Martyr (1899); The Rosary Confraternity (1899); The Living Rosary (1900); Indulgences (1900); The Catholic Creed; or, What do Catholics believe? (1900); The Rosary Guide for Priests and People (1901) ; The Dominican Tertiary' s Daily Manual (1901); The Perpetual Rosary (1904); and Ritual in Catholic Worship (1906). He has likewise edited the anonymous Short Lives of the Dominican Saints (London, 1900); T. A. Drane's Spirit of the Dominican Order (1897) and Daily Life of a Religious (1898); and M. E. Capes' Flower of the New World (1899), and has translated Savonarola's Triumph of the Cross (1901) and St. Thomas Aquinas' Apology for the Religious Orders (1902) and The Religious State, the Episcopate, and the Priestly Office (1902).
PROCURATOR: In general, one who acts as agent or factor for another in temporal interests. The term was anciently applied to lawyers in the civil courts and to proctors in ecclesiastical judicatories. As a secular calling it was forbidden to the clergy by a series of synods beginning with the Firgt Synod of Carthage (348, chaps, viii.-ix.) and coming down to the Synod of Mainz (813, chap. xiv.). In case one who followed the profession desired to enter the clergy, he was required first to purge himself from participation in the duties which his profession involved. The clergy were repeatedly enjoined to abstain from labors of this sort, the only exception being service in behalf of widows or orphans, that intrusted to them by their bishop, or where the property of the church was concerned. In church life the term seems to have been applied to those who had charge of the temporalities. It was also applied to those who represented a person in absence during the ceremony of marriage or betrothal, as well as in some other ecclesiastical ceremonies.
PRODICIANS: A sect of Antinomian Gnostics, founded in the second century by Prodicus, a heretic of whom no definite information has come down . They claimed, as the sons of the most high God (not of the demiurge), and as a royal race, to be bound by no laws. They rejected the Sabbath and all external ceremonies as something fit only for those who stood under the sway of the demiurge*
As their authorities, they quoted some apocryphal writings of Zoroaster.
PROFESSIO FIDEI TRIDENTINvE. See Tbi-
dentine Profession of Faith.
PROLES, ANDREAS: German Augustinian; b. at Dresden Oct. 1, 1429; d. at Kulmbach (48 m. n.e. of Nuremberg) June 5, 1503. After completing his education at Leipsic, he entered the Observantine Augustinian order at Himmelpforte, near Wernigerode, in 1450, and was ordained priest three years later. He was directed to study at Perugia for a year and a half, and then taught theology in the monastery at Magdeburg until 1456, when he became prior at Himmelpforte. Here he maintained the union of the five Observantine monasteries of Himmelpforte, Magdeburg, Dresden, Waldheim, and Konigsberg in Franconia, securing a renewal of the papal sanctions and privileges. Proles himself was elected vicar in 1460 or 1461, but the machinations of one of his subordinates resulted in a papal bull that the Observantine monasteries be subject to the provincial of Saxony. At the expiration of his term in 1467, he taught at Magdeburg for six years, and then was reelected vicar, this time holding office for thirty years. With unwearying energy, and appeals to the secular arm, Proles reformed monastery after monastery despite the resistance of monks and provincials alike. In 1475 he was forbidden by the Augustinian general to discharge the functions of vicar, while the reformed monasteries were returned to their provincials; and in 1476, as he refused compliance, he and his followers were placed under the ban of the general. Proles appealed to the pope, the result being the annulment of all edicts against him and the renewal of the privilege of Observantine reunion. In 1496, after further struggles, the Saxon, or German, congregation of Observantine Augustinians was fully rceognized, and its delegates were accorded equal rights at the general chapters with those of the provinces of the order. In course of time he thus reformed and incorporated with his congregation about thirty monasteries, the most important in all Germany. Proles was gladly consulted by princes regarding secular affairs, and likewise furthered the intellectual development' of his monks, as well as their talents as preachers. He himself was a distinguished preacher, and in 1530 the Dominican Petrus Sylvius issued some of his sermons, with, at least, partial revision. (T Koi.de.)
Bibliography: Accounts of the life were written by C Schottgen, Dresden, 1737; G. Schutze, Leipsic, 1744; and H. A. Prohle, Gotha, 1867. Consult also: T. Kolde, Die deutsche Augustinerkongregation und Johann ron Staupitz, pp. 90 sqq., Gotha, 1879; E. Jacobs, in Geschichtsquellen der Provinz Sachsen, xv. 478 sqq., Halle. 1882; KL, x. 460-461.
PROLOGUS GALEATUS (" Helmeted Preface "): The name given by Jerome himself to the first published and most celebrated of his prefaces, that prefixed to his translation of the Books of Samuel and Kings. The preface is important as setting forth the principles adopted by Jerome in his translations from the Hebrew. It contains also a brief general introduction to the Old Testament, describes