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Rh were prescribed. The Puritans, who aimed at setting up the model, objected; and the visitation articles of the Genevan bishops in Charles I’s time make frequent inquisition into the neglect of the clergy to obey the law in this matter. With “ the profane, ungodly, presumptuous multitude ” (to quote Baxter's Saint's Rest, 1650, pp. 344, 345), however, these “processions and perambulations” appear to have been very popular, though “ only the traditions of their fathers.” However this may be, the Commonwealth made an end of them, and they seem never to have been revived; Sparrow, in his Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer (London, 1668), speaks of “the service formerly appointed in the Rogation days of Procession.”

Among the processions that survived the Reformation in the English Church was that of the sovereign and the Knights of the Garter on St George's day. This was until Charles II.'s time a regular rogation, the choristers in surplices, the gentlemen of the royal chapel in copes, and the canons and other clergy in copes preceding the knights and singing the litany. In 1661, after the Restoration, by order of the sovereign and knights companions in chapter “ that supplicational procession” was “ converted into a hymn of thanksgiving.” Akin to this procession also are the others connected with royal functions; coronations, funerals. These retained, and retain, many pre-Reformation features elsewhere fallen obsolete. Thus at the funeral of George II. (1760) the body was received at the door of the Abbey by the dean and prebendaries in their copes, attended by the choir, all carrying lighted tapers, who preceded it up the church, singing.

The only procession formerly prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer is that in the order of the burial of the dead, where the rubric directs that “ the priest and clerks meeting the corpse at the entrance of the churchyard, and going before it, either into the church, or towards the grave, shall say, or sing ” certain verses of Scripture. Tapers seem to have been carried, not only at royal funerals, until well into the 18th century (see LIGHTS, CEREMONIAL). Processions, with singing of the litany or of hymns, appear also to have been always usual on such occasions as the consecration of churches and churchyards and the solemn reception of a visiting bishop. Under the influence of the Catholic revival, associated with the Oxford T ractarians, processions have become increasingly popular in the English Church, pre-Reformation usages having in some churches been revived without any legal sanction. The most common forms, however, are the processional litanies, and the solemn entry of clergy and choir into the church, which on festivals is accompanied by the singing of a processional hymn, their exit being similarly accompanied by the chanting of the Nunc Dimittis. In this connexion the use of the processional cross, banners and lights has been largely revived.

See the article “Bittgänge,” by M. Herold, in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, iii. 248 (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1897); Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexikon, s.v. “Prozession, Bittgänge Litanei” and Smith’s Dictionary of Christian Antiquities s.v. “Procession.” For the early ritual see Duchesne, Origines du culte ohrétien (3rd ed., Paris, 1903). See also G. Catalani, Rituale rornanum perpetuis commentaries exornatum (1760); N. Serarius, Sacri peripatetic de sanris ecolesiae fatholicae processionibus (2 vols., Cologne, 1607); ]ac. Gretser, De ecclesiae rornanae processionibus (2 vols., Ingolstadt, 1606); Jac. Eveillon, De proressionibus ecclesiae (Paris, 1641); Edw. Martene, De antiquis ecelesiae ritibus (3 vols., Antwerp, 1763), &c. For the past usage of the Church of England, Hierurgia anglicana, ed. Vernon Staley, p. ii pp. 3-22 (London, 1903).

PROCESSION PATH (Lat. ambitus templi), the route taken by processions on solemn days in large churches—up the north aisle, round behind the high altar, down the south aisle, and then up the centre of the nave.

PROCÈS-VERBAL (Fr. procès, process, Late Lat. verbalis, from verbum, word), in French law, a detailed authenticated account drawn up by a magistrate, police officer, or other person having authority of acts or proceedings done in the exercise of his duty. In a criminal charge, a procès-verbal is a statement of the facts of the case. The term is also sometimes applied to the written minutes of a meeting or assembly.

 PROCIDA (Gr., Lat. Prochyta), an island on the coast of Campania, Italy, 2 m. S.W. of Capo Miseno, and 2 m. N.E. of Ischia on the west side of the Gulf of Naples, and about 12 m. S.W. of Naples. Pop. (1901), of the town, 2520; of the whole island, one commune, 14,440. It is about 2 m. in length and of varying width, and, reckoning in the adjacent island of Vivara, is made up of four extinct craters, parts of the margins of all of which have been destroyed by the sea. The highest point of it is only 250 ft. above sea-level. It is very fertile, and the population is engaged in the cultivation of vines and fruit and in fishing. Procida, the only town, lies on the east side; its castle is now a prison. It also contains a royal palace. Classical authors explained the name of Procida either as an allusion to its having been detached from Ischia, or as being that of the nurse of Aeneas.

 PROCLAMATION (Lat. proclamare, to make public by announcement), in English law, a formal announcement (royal proclamation), made under the great seal, of some matter which the king in council desires to make known to his subjects: e.g. the declaration of war, the statement of neutrality, the summoning or dissolution of parliament, or the bringing into operation of the provisions of some statute the enforcement of which the legislature has left to the discretion of the king in council. Royal proclamations of this character, made in furtherance of the executive power of the Crown, are binding on the subject, “where they do not either contradict the old laws or tend to establish new ones, but only confine the execution of such laws as are already in being in such manner as the sovereign shall judge necessary” (Blackstone's Commentaries, ed. Stephen, ii. 528; Stephen's Commentaries, 14th ed. 1903, ii. 506, 507; Dicey, Law of the Constitution, 6th ed., 51). Royal proclamations, which, although not made in pursuance of the executive powers of the Crown, either call upon the subject to fulfil some duty which he is by law bound to perform, or to abstain from any acts or conduct already prohibited by law, are lawful and right, and disobedience to them (while not of itself a misdemeanour) is an aggravation of the offence (see charge of Chief Justice Cockburn to the grand jury in R. v. Eyre (1867) and Case of Proclamations 1610, 12 Co. Rep. 74). The Crown has from time to time legislated by proclamation; and the Statute of Proclamations 1539 provided that proclamations made by the king with the assent of the council should have the force of statute law if they were not prejudicial to “ any person's inheritance, offices, liberties, goods, chattels or life.” But this enactment was repealed by an act of 1547; and it is certain that a proclamation purporting to be made in the exercise of legislative power by which the sovereign imposes a duty to which the subject is not by law liable, or prohibits under penalties what is not an offence at law, or adds fresh penalties to any offence, is of no effect unless itself issued in virtue of statutory authority (see also .). The Crown has power to legislate by proclamation for a newly conquered country (Jenkyns, British Rule and Jurisdiction beyond the Seas); and this power was freely exercised in the Transvaal Colony during the Boer War of 1899–1902. In the British colonies, ordinances are frequently brought into force by proclamation; certain imperial acts do not take effect in a colony until there proclaimed (e.g. the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870); and proclamations are constantly issued in furtherance of executive acts. In many British protectorates the high commissioner or administrator is empowered to legislate by proclamation.

In the old system of real property law in England, fines, levied with “proclamations,” i.e. with successive public announcements of the transaction in open court, barred the rights of strangers, as well as parties, in case they had not made claim to the property conveyed within five years thereafter (acts 1483–1484 and 1488–1489). These proclamations were originally made sixteen times, four times in the term in which the fine was levied, and four times in each of the three succeeding terms. Afterwards the number of proclamations was reduced to one in each of the four terms. The proclamations were endorsed on the back of the record. The system was abolished by the Fines and Recoveries Act 1833.

PROCLUS, or ( 410–485), the chief representative of the later Neoplatonists, was born at Constantinople, but