Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/403

PRÆTORIUM. merated above, and Ramsay, Saint Paul the Traveler and the Roman Citizen (New York, 1896).

PRAGA, pra'ga. A suburb of Warsaw (q.v.).

PRAGMATIC SANCTION (Fr. pragmatique, from Lat. pragmaticus, from Gk. rpayiiaTucos, pragmatikos, relating to civil affairs, from rpafna, pragma, deed, from Trpdaaetv, prassein, to do). A solemn ordinance or decree of a sovereign dealing with matters of primal importance and regarded as constituting a part of the fundamental law of the land. The term originated in the Byzantine Empire, and signified a public and solemn decree by a prince, as distinguished from the simple rescript, which was a declaration of law in answer to a question propounded by an individual. The name is given in later European history to several important decrees, of which the principal are: (1) Those issued by the Emperor Frederick II. in 1220 and 1232 confirming certain customary rights of local authority wielded by bishops and nobles in the German Empire. (2) The Pragmatic Sanction of Louis IX. of France asserting the rights of the Galilean Church (1269), a document the authenticity of which has been doubted for a long time and now generally abandoned. (3) An ordinance of Charles VII. of France for the reformation of the Galilean Church issued in 1438 after the Council of Basel. (4) The decree of the Emperor Charles V., issued in 1547, declaring his Burgundian inheritance indivisible and the perpetual appanage of the House of Hapsburg. (5) The ordinance by which the Emperor Charles VI. (q.v.). Emperor of Germany, having no male issue, settled his dominions on his daughter, the Archduchess Maria Theresa. The decree was issued in April, 1713, as a family law of the Hapsburgs, and between 1620 and 1624 was ratified by various national diets under the Austrian Crown, becoming thereupon a part of the organic law. The act provided that in default of male issue to Charles VI., the Austrian territories, which were declared inseparable, should descend in the female line according to the law of primogeniture. To lend greater security to the act, Charles VI. sought to gain first the ratification of the great powers, and to this end Austrian policy was directed during the greater part of his reign. Among the guarantors of the sanction were Great Britain, France, Prussia, Russia, and Holland. Nevertheless, the death of the Emperor was followed by a speedy repudiation of their pledge on the part of a number of the powers, and an attack on the Austrian dominions by Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and France, Spain entering into alliance with the last-named power. England supported Austria. The conflict is known as the War of the Austrian Succession. Consult Varenbergh, "La pragmatique sanction de Charles VI., sa garantie et son infraction," in Academie d'archéologie de Belgique, vol. xxviii. (Antwerp. 1872). (See ; ; ; .) (6) The settlement of the succession of the Kingdom of Naples. which was ceded by Charles II. of Spain in 1759 to his third son and his descendants.

PRAGUE, prag (Bohemian Praha, Ger. Prag). The capital of the Austrian Crownland of Bohemia, situated on both banks of the Moldau, 150 miles northwest of Vienna (Map: Austria, D 1). Excluding the suburbs, Prague consists of seven parts; the Altstadt, on the right bank of the river; the old Ghetto, known as the Josephstadt, and surrounded by the Altstadt; the Neustadt, which incloses the Altstadt; the Kleinseite, on the slopes of the Laurenzberg along the left bank of the river: the Hradschin, the kremlin of old Prague, lying on an elevation northwest of the Kleinseite; the new quarter of Wischehrad, on the right bank of the river south of the Neustadt; and the industrial quarter of Holeschowitz-Bubna in the northeast.

The Moldau is spanned in Prague by nine bridges, of which the best known is the Karlsbrücke (1357-1507), 546 yards long, with two mediæval towers and many buttresses embellished with statues of saints. They include that of Saint John Nepomuk, who is supposed to have been thrown into the river here by order of King Wenceslas, and is regarded by the Bohemians as a patron saint of bridges. The most interesting portion of Prague is the Altstadt, which has still preserved its mediæval appearance. Its centre is the Grosser Ring, a fine square, with a monument (Mariensäule) erected in 1650 in commemoration of the liberation of the city from the Swedes. On the eastern side of the square stands the old Hussite Teyn Church (begun in the fourteenth century), adorned with two striking towers, and containing the tomb of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, marble statues of the apostles to the Slavs, Cyril and Methodius, and a fine winged altar.

Opposite the Teyn Church is the town hall. It is a handsome building with a tower, and contains the council chamber of the old structure which has been so closely associated with the eventful history of the city. Its balcony is embellished with statues, and the council chamber contains a large painting by Brožik, "Huss Before the Council of Constance." Besides the buildings of the famous university (see ), the Altstadt contains also the Rudolphinum, a fine Renaissance edifice on the Rudolfs Quai, with a conservatory of music, an art industrial museum, and an extensive picture gallery containing many very good paintings by Bohemian as well as by Dutch, Italian, French, and German masters; the Kreuzherren-Kirche, modeled after Saint Peter's: the palace of Count Clam Gallas (1701-12) in the baroque style; the Kinsky Pajace. with a valuable library; the Pulverthurm, a relic of the old wall which once separated the Altstadt from the Neustadt; and the Königshof, formerly the palace of the Bohemian kings, now used as barracks.

The Josephstadt formed the Ghetto of Prague until 1848, but is now inhabited mostly by Gentiles. It is the most densely populated portion of the city and contains the old Jewish synagogue dating from the twelfth century, and the curious Jewish burial ground crowded with ancient tombstones having Hebrew inscriptions and various symbols denoting the tribe of the deceased. The Hradschin contains a vast Burg begun, it is fabled, by Princess Libussa and completed by Maria Theresa. In the council chamber of the Burg is shown the window from which the two Imperial counselors were hurled in 1618 — the initial act in the Thirty Years' War. The unfinished Gothic cathedral in the Hradschin was begun in 1344 and its choir completed in 1385. Among the interesting objects in the interior are the marble mausoleum