Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/435

 PREBEND

371

PRECEDENCE

But La PeyrSre's proofs are not solid. (1) Scrip- ture itself points out that the creation of man in Gen., i, 26 sqq., is identical with that mentioned in Gen., ii, 7, for according to Gen., ii, 5, "there was not a man to till the earth"; according to Gen., ii, 20, "for Adam there was not found a helper like him- self"; according to iii, 20, "Adam called the name of his wife Eve; because she was the mother of all the living". Scripture, therefore, knows of no men created before Adam. (2) The appeal to the inci- dents in the history of Cain loses its force, if we re- member that they happened about 130 years after Adam had been driven from Paradise: at that time, the progeny of Adam must have amounted to several thousand souls, so that Cain's fear and flight and his building of a primitive city are easily explained. (3) The difficulty arising from Cain's marriage was satis- factorily explained by St. Augustine ("De civit. dei", XV, xvi; cf. Epiphanius, "Ha;r.", xxxix, 6), who points out that necessity compelled the im- mediate offspring of Adam and Eve to marry even their sisters. (4) The context renders La Peyrere's explanation of Rom., v, 12-14, impossible. If the law mentioned in the passage refers to the law given to Adam in Paradise, and not to the Mosaic Law, the phrase "but death reigned from Adam unto Moses" is meaningless, and the whole force of the Apostle's argument is destroyed. (.5) Finally, La Peyrere's appeal to the traditions of the Kabbalists, Chaldeans etc., has been investigated and found wanting by R. Simon ("Lettres choisies", II, Amsterdam, 1730, ii, xx^-ii). It is, therefore, not astonishing that La Peyrere's Preadamism proved to be a nine days' wonder and did not survive its author. The theory was strongly opposed from the beginning by such scholars as Alaresius, Hoornbeek, and Voetius on the part of the Reformed Church, and by the Lutheran theologians Calovius, Quenstedt, and Hollazius. The author himself renounced his error, and became a Catholic, and a member of the Oratory. In more recent times a political or social Preadamism has been introduced by Dominic M'Causland ("Adam and the Adamite, or the Harmony of Scripture and Ethnology", London, 1864) and Reginald Stuart Poole ("The Genesis of the Earth and of Man", London, 1.S60), who follow the ethnological views of euch authorities as Morton, Nott, GUddon, and Agassiz. They maintain that Adam is the pro- genitor of the Caucasian race, while the other races descend from Preadamite ancestry, having either a common or various parentage. The pro-slavery sentiment prevalent in certain parts of America in- directly supported such Preadamite theories. But their truth must be judged in the light of what has been said about scientific and Scriptural Preadamism.

Natalis Alexander, Hist, eccles., I (Bingen, 1785), 103 sqq., diss, iii, De Adam et Eva. .\3 to Scriptural Preadamism, see the various dogmatic treatises on Creation (Pesch, Palmieri, Perroke etc.), where they treat of the unity of the human race. For scientific Preadamism see Gla. Repertorium der kathol. theol. Literatur, I, i (Paderborn, 1895), 218 sqq.; for Preadamism in the strictsense: Recsch, Bibet u. Natur (4th ed.. Bonn, 1876), 437; Rauch, Einheit des Menschengeschlechtes (Augsburg, 1873): Hettinger, .A-pologie. II, i (4th ed., Freiburg, 1S72), 221-304; WiNCHELL, Preadamites, or a Demonatralian of Existence of Men before Adam (Chicago, 1880).

A. J. Maas.

Prebend, the right of a member of a chapter to his share in the revenues of the cathedral; also the share to which he is entitled; in general, any portion of the cathedral revenues set aside for the support, of the clergy attached to it (semi-prebends) even for those who are not members of the chapter. They are regarded as benefices (q. v.) and governed by the same laws. (See Chapter.)

Precaria (Preces, prayers) is a contract granting to a pptitoner the use and usufruct of a revenue-bear- ing ecclesiastical property for a specified time, or dur-

ing the life of the grantee, and principally for services rendered the Church. This contract (tit. XIV, lib. Ill of the Decretals) is based on the "precarium" of the Roman Law (De precario, XLIII, xxvi); it differed from it inasmuch as the "precarium" could have for its object either moveable or fixed goods and was revocable at the pleasure of the proprietor. Both contracts left to the owner the proprietorship of the goods. This contract, beside depriving the Church of its revenues, threatened the extinction of her proprietary rights, especially when she was com- pelled to grant the precaria, at royal request, or rather order (precaria verba regis). The Council of Meaux (82.5) prescribed for this reason the renewal of these concessions every five years. It ceased at the death of the grantee, or at the expiration of the allot- ted period, after which it could be revoked at the desire of the grantor.

See Franks; Laicization; Property, Ecclesiastical; also the canonists on De Precario, lib. Ill, tit. xiv.

A. BOUDINHON.

Precedence (Lat. prcecedere, to go before another) signifies the right to enjoy a prerogative of honour before other persons; e. g. to have the most dis- tinguished place in a procession, a ceremony, or an assembly, to have the right to express an opinion, cast a vote, or append a signature before others, to perform the most honourable offices. Questions of precedence sometimes give rise to controversies. In both ci\-il and ecclesiastical legislation they are regulated by laws and rules. In canon law the general rule is that precedence is determined by rank in the hierarchy both of juris- diction and of order. Where rank is equal it is deter- mined by priority of foundation : Qui prior esl tempore, potior est jure (Regula juris 54, in VI°). With regard to colleges (collegia), precedence is determined by the quality of the person to whom the college is attached. The order of precedence is regulated as follows: the pope always takes first rank, after him come cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, exempt bishops, suffragan bishops, titular bishops, and prelates nullius. In these categories priority of ordination and promo- tion determines precedence, among bishops or arch- bishops the date of their first promotion to the epis- copal or archiepiscopal dignity. Custom or privilege may derogate from this rule. A Decree of Propaganda (15 Aug., 18.58) grants to the Archbishop of Baltimore the right of precedence in the LInited States (Collectio Lacensis, III, 572). In their own diocese bishops have precedence before strange bishops and arch- bishops, but not before their own metropolitan. Metropolitan chapters have precedence before cathe- dral chapters, and the latter before collegiate chapters. The secular clergy according to the importance of their office or the date of their ordination precede the regu- lar clergy. Canons regular take the first place among the regular clergy, then come clerics regular, the monastic orders, and the mendicant orders. Among the mendicants the Dominicans take first place out- side of processions; in processions, the acquired right of precedence or that appertaining to priority of estab- lishment in a town must be respected. This last rule applies also to confraternities, but in processions of the Blessed Sacrament the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament has precedence. The Third Orders have precedence of cor^fraternities. Questions of precedence at funerals have given rise to numerous decisions of the Congregation of Rites (see "Decreta S. S. Rituum Congregationis", Rome, 1901, V, Index generalis, V° Prcecedentia). The provisory solution of questions of precedence in processions arising between regulars belongs to the diocesan bishoji. The Con- gregation of Rites decides concerning those with re- gard to liturgical ceremonies; the Congregatio Ca^re- monialis regulates the precedence of the papal court.

Ferraris. Prompta Bibliatkecn (Paris, 1861), V Prmcedentia, VI, 559 sq.; HlNSCHlcs, System d. kath. Kirchenrechta, II (Berlin,