Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/13

 THE AMERICAN CYCLOPAEDIA. PEIOK PRIOR, Matthew, an English poet, born at Wimborne-Minster, Dorsetshire, July 21, 1664, died at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, a seat of Lord Oxford, Sept. 18, 1721. He graduated at Cambridge in 1686. Here he formed an in- timacy with Charles Montague, afterward earl of Halifax, with whom he wrote "The City Mouse and Country Mouse " (1687), in ridicule of Dryden's " Hind and Panther." He was appointed in 1690 secretary of the embassy at the Hague, and became one of the -gentlemen of the bedchamber to William III. In 1695 he wrote an ode on the death of Queen Mary. In 1697 he was appointed secretary of the com- missioners who concluded the treaty of Kys- wick, and in 1698 secretary of the embassy at the court of France. In 1699 he was made under secretary of state, but losing his place shortly after, received in 1700 the appoint- ment of commissioner of trade. The same year he published his Carmen Seculare, a pan- egyric on King William. In 1701 he was elect- ed a member of parliament from East Grin- stead, and soon after he changed his politics, becoming a violent tory. In 1711 he was sent on a private mission to Paris with proposals of peace. Bolingbroke went to Paris as ambassa- dor to hasten the negotiations; and Prior, who was in company with him, after Bolingbroke's return became the ambassador. When, in August, 1714, the whigs had regained office, Prior was recalled, and was at once arrested on a charge of treason. While a prisoner in his own house for two years he wrote " Alma, or the Progress of the Mind." After his re- lease he published his poems by subscription, through which he realized 4,000 guineas. Lord Harley, son of the earl of Oxford, added an equal sum for the purchase of Down hall in Essex, which was settled upon Prior for his life. He was buried in Westminster abbey, and a monument was erected to his memory, PRISCILLIAN for which he left 500 in his will. The best of the old editions of his poems is that of 1791 (2 vols. 8vo). An edition with a life by Mit- ford (2 vols. 12mo) was published in 1835. I'KISCIAMS, a Eoman grammarian, who lived about A. D. 500, and is supposed from his sur- name Caesariensis to have been born or edu- cated at Ceesarea. He was a pupil of Theoc- tistus, and taught grammar at Constantinople, was in receipt of a salary from the govern- ment, and was probably a Christian. His Com- mentariorum Grammaticorum Libri XVIII contains a large number of quotations from Greek and Latin writers not otherwise known, and a parallel between the Greek and Latin languages. He also wrote a " Grammatical Catechism on twelve Lines of the ^Eneid," a "Treatise on Accents," one on "The Metres of Terence," some short poems, and several translations from the Greek ; and the acrostics prefixed to the plays of Plautus are ascribed to him. His name is familiar in the phrase diminuere Prisciani caput (to break Priscian's head), commonly applied to those who use false Latin. PRISCILLIAN, the founder of a religious sect in Spain and Gaul, born in the neighborhood of Cordova, died in Treves in 385. He was of high birth, and possessed wide learning and great rhetorical talents. It is said that he was instructed by a certain Egyptian called Mark, and by Elpidius and Agape. He appeared as a religious reformer with the pretension of having been called to preach the true doctrine and a spiritual asceticism, and to found within tjie Catholic church a special secret society of initiated and saints. He was excommunicated by a synod held at Saragossa about 380, but to no effect, as he was soon after ordained bishop of Avila. The emperor Gratian was thereupon persuaded to publish an edict exiling Priscillian and his friends, but a revocation of the edict