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 PREROGATIVE COURTS, the name given to the English provincial courts of Canterbury and York, as far as regarded their jurisdiction over the estates of deceased persons.

 PRESBYTER (Gr., elder, the comparative of , an old man), the title borne from very early times by certain officers or ministers of the Christian Church intermediate between "bishops " and "deacons." The specialized use of the word as implying not only age, but consequently wisdom and authority, is analogous to that of "senate" (from senior), of "gerousia" (from ), and of "elder." It is the original form of (q.v.). The word is not found in pre-Christian writings except in the Septuagint, though as Deissmann has shown it is found on the Papyri as an official title for the village magistrates of Egypt and the members of the, or senate, of many towns in Asia Minor. The office is, however, closely analogous to, and perhaps founded on, a similar office in the Jewish synagogue organization among the officials of which were the zekenim, or elders, sometimes identified with the archisynagogues. In the New Testament the Greek word is used both for the ancient Jewish official and for the Christian elder. On Jewish tombstones of the Hellenistic period the title is frequently found, sometimes applied to women. The head official of the English Jews prior to their expulsion bore the title of Presbyter judaeorum; opinions differ as to whether this officer was ecclesiastical or had merely the secular duty of supervising the exchequer of the Jews (see further The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1905, x. 190, 191).

The history of presbyteral government as opposed to episcopacy and pure congregationalism is not known in detail. After the Reformation, however, it was adopted by Calvin and his followers, who created that system which has ever since been known as (q.v.). There are many theories as to the origin of the office of presbyter in the Christian Church. (1) Some connect it with the appointment of the seven recorded in Acts vi. This is the view taken by Boehmer, Ritschl and Lindsay. It is urged that the traditional view which regards the seven as deacons is untenable because the term "deacon" is never used in the narrative, and there is no reference to the office in the Acts. On the other hand the officials of the Jerusalem church are always called "elders" and when they are first introduced (Acts xi. 30) appear to be discharging the functions for which "the seven" were specially set apart. (2) The view adopted by the majority of English scholars is, while refusing to accept the connexion between the presbyters and the seven, to regard the office as distinctly primitive and say that it was taken over by the earliest Christian community at Jerusalem from the Jewish synagogue. (3) Harnack and a few other modern scholars maintain that the office of presbyter did not come into existence till the 2nd century. During the last quarter of the 1st century, a three-fold organization is found in the Church: (a) a spiritual organization composed of "apostles, prophets and teachers who had been awakened by the spirit and by the spirit endowed"; (b) an administrative organization, "For the care of the poor, for worship, for correspondence, the congregation needed controlling officials. These were the bishop and the deacons, the former for higher, the latter for inferior services"; (c) a patriarchal organization based upon the natural deference of the younger to the older members of the Church. The senior members of the community, by virtue of their age and experience, watched over the conduct and guided the action of the younger and less experienced portion of the Church, though they held no official position and were not appointed for any particular work like the bishops and deacons. In the 2nd century the patriarchal element in the organization was merged in the administrative, and the presbyters