Prendergast

3820

Presbyter janism

silver and paper notes of the same nominal
amount. In insurance it is a sum periodically
paid to secure from a company or association
a. stated amount in certain contingencies of
loss or damage. Again, it means the sum paid
in consideration of being taught a trade or
profession; or it may be used in the sense
of bonus, a sum given in respect of services
rendered in addition to stated wages. Stock
is said to be at a premium when its price is
quoted above par—its face value.

Prendergast, Edmond Francis OS^J-
1918), American Roman Catholic prelate, was
born in Clonmcl, Ireland. He came to the
United States in 1859; he was consecrated
auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia. From 1895
to 189.7 he was vicar-general of the arch-
diocese, and in 1911 was appointed arch-
bishop.

Prendergast, William A, (1867- ),
American public official, was born in New
York City, and was educated in the public
schools of New York and Brooklyn. From
1907 to 1909 he was register of Kings County,
N. Y., and in 1909 he was elected controller
of the City of New York. He was active in
the organization of the Progressive Party.
From 1921-30 he was chairman, Public Serv-
ice Commission, New York State.

Preposition, in grammar, the part of
speech which connects a noun or a pronoun
in an adjectival or adverbial sense with some
other word, and which denotes position, di-
rection, time, or similar relationship.

Prepotency, a term used in discussions on
heredity. Thus, if an organism A be mated
with an organism B, and the resultant off-
spring partake more of the characters of A
than of those of B, then A is described as
being prepotent.

Pre-Raphaelites, a designation usually ap-
plied to those artists of the nineteenth cen-
tury who imitated the art of the Italian
painters before Raphael. The name is com-
monly used of the group of English artists
originally comprising W. H o 1 m a n Hunt,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and, in his earlier
period, John Everett Millais. Hunt, Rossetti,
and Millais determined to disregard all ar-
bitrary rules of existing schools, and to seek
their own road in art by the patient study
of nature, on which the great masters had
founded their strength of style. Broadly
speaking, their work is characterized by an
exaggerated emphasis of detail, such as is
found in the simpler art that preceded the
advent of Raphael. Ford Madox Brown,
from first to kst, was in sympathy with the

work of the younger men, and exercised a
strong influence on them. For a time in 1850
they published a periodical, the Germ, in
which some of Rossetti's earliest poetical
work and his fine prose study, Hand and
Soul, appeared. There can now be little ques-
tion that the Pre-Raphaelite school has ex-
ercised a powerful influence upon modern art.
One of its chief ambitions from the begin-
ning was the restoration of decorative art,
and the sincere expression of spiritual and
poetic feeling which had almost disappeared
from British art.

Prerau, or Prerov, town, Moravia. It
has an old castle and a Gothic town hall.
Manufactures include hardware, machinery,
and sugar. It was formerly the chief seat of
the Moravian Brethren; p. 21,416.

Prerogative, in England, the right per-
taining to certain offices, now commonly used
in reference to the crown. The royal pre-
rogative is a power of the crown that does
not clepcnrl on the sanction of Parliament.

Presbyter, an officer in the early church
who acted essentially in a judicial capacity.
The presbyters were the older men in the
community and by some authorities the pres-
byters and bishops are held to be originally
identical. It is more probable, however, that
the bishops, aided by the deacons, were the
administrative officers who directed divine
worship and financial affairs. As the growth
of church organizations progressed the eld-
ers of the community formed two groups,
the ruling and the executive officials, called
bishops and deacons. At first the term pres-
byter was applied only to the bishops but
later presbyters and bishops were-identified,
the terms became titles of separate officers
and the board of executive officers were called
presbyters while the head of the entire cong-
regation was known as the bishop.

Presbyter ianism, a form of ecclesiastical
government by courts composed of presby-
ters (see ELDERS), being opposed to episco-
pacy on the one hand, and to Congregation-
alism on the other. Strictly interpreted, the
term Prcsb3rtcrian includes all bodies ac-
cepting the principle of government by pres-
byteries, regardless of their theological teach-
ings. In general, however, Presbyterians are
strongly Calvinistic.

The Presbyterian form of worship is sim-
ple. The church recognizes no priest save
Jesus Christ, and its ministers exercise no
priestly functions, but arc simply preachers
and spiritual leaders of the people. It ob»
serves two sacraments—Baptism, which is