Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/478

* PBIOR. 410 PRISCILLIAN. the Treaty of Rysvviek (1C97) ; secretary to the Embassy at I'aris (l(j9S); secretary to the Board of Trade (UiDO); sat in Parliament (1701); and soou after forsook the Whigs for the Tories. He had a hand in the negotiations preliminary to the Peace of Utrecht, and was for a short period Ambassador at Paris; on the ad- vent of the Vhigs to power he was impeached and imprisoned for two years (171517). His last years were passed at Down-Hall, in Essex. He died September 18, 1721, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Prior gained recognition among the wits by The Vountry-ilouse and the Citif-Mousc (1G87), written in conjunction with Charles Jlontagu. It is a readable travesty on Drjden's Jliiid and Panther. In 1700 he published a panegyric on King William, called Carmen Seculare. While in prison he amused himself with a long whim- sical poem, entitled Abna ; or the Progress of the Hind. A collection of his poems appeared in 1709, and another in 1718; the latter brought him four thousand guineas. Prior's short poems, comprising odes, epistles, and epigrams, are among the choicest specimens of English occa- sional verse. We may cite "To a Child of Qual- ity Four Years Old," "The Merchant," "A Better Answer," "A Song," "To a Lady," and "For My Own Tomb-Stone." His verse tales have perfect grace. Consult the Selected Poems, ed. by Dob- son, Parchment Library (London, 1889) ; and the edition by .lohnson in the Aldine series (London, 1892) ; and Thackeray's English Humorists (London, 1853). PKIPET, prep'et {Russian Pripy at ) . A river of estern Russia, the largest right tributary of the Dnieper. It rises in a group of lakes and marshes in the Government of Volhynia. near the boundary of Poland, and flows eastward through Volhynia and Minsk, then southeast into the C4ov- <'rnment of Kiev, where it joins the Dnieper some distance above the town of Kiev (Map: Russia, C 4). For the greater part of its course of 500 miles it flows through innncnse marshes and for- ests, which are almost luiinhabited. and through which the river and its branches form a network of side channels and backwaters. The Prr|)et is navigable to Pinsk, and is connected by canals with the Vistula and the Niemen. PRISCIAN, prish'tm (Lat. Priscianus Cw- sariensis). A Latin gj-ammarian, perhaps, in point of reputation, the first of Latin gram- marians, though one of the last in point of time. He belongs probably to about the early part of the sixth century, for he is mentioned by Paulus Diaconus as a contemporary of Cas- siodorus. He taught Latin at Constantinople, probably at the Imperial Court, for he en- joyed a Government salary. The work which has mainly preserved his name is his Commen- tariorum Grammaticorum Libri XVIII., dedi- cated to his patron, the Consul Julianus. The first sixteen books treat of the different parts of speech as conceived by the ancients; the remaining two are devoted to syntax, and in one manuscript l)ear the separate title of De Con- stnictione Lihri Duo. Priscian's Commentary is, for the time, a solid and comprehensive work, the production of a man nf great learning and good sense, and is enriched with quotations from many Greek and Latin authors no longer ex- tant. The epitome e.xecuted by the German bishop, Rabanus JIaurus, in the ninth century, was very popular in the iliddle Ages, Besides the Commentary, Priscian wrote six smaller granunatical treatises, and two didactic poems in hexameter, De Laude Imperatoris Anastasii, and a free translation of the Periegesis of Diony- sius. The first edition of the grammar appeared at Venice (1470); the best is that by H. Keil (Leipzig, 1884), The two poems will be found in vol, v, of Baelirens's Poetce Lutini Minorcs (Leipzig, 1883). PRISCIL'LA and AQ'UILA, The names of two persons, wife and husband, connected with the personal work of Saint Paul and the early history of the Christian Church. The name Priscilla is a diminutive from the original Prisca, in which form it is found in the best texts in the three references to her in Saint Paul's Epistles. Her husband. Aquila, is de- scribed in Acts xviii. 2 as "a man of Pontus by race, lately come [to Corinth] from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had com- manded all the Jews to depart from Rome." This decree was promulgated in a.d. 52. Like Paul, they were tent-makers by trade (Acts xviii. 3). It seems very probable that Aquila and Priscilla had accepted the Christian faith before leaving Rome; if so they were among the earliest be- lievers there, and may have given Paul his in- formation concerning the conditions obtaining among the Roman Christians (Rom. xvi. 17-19), They remained with Paul eighteen months after reaching Corinth, went thence with him to Ephesus, and tarried there while he went on to Jerusalem (Acts xviii, 11, 18, 19, 20). From there they returned later to Rome (Rom. xvi. 3). Still later they were at Ephesus again (II. Tim. iv. 19). These clianges are quite consistent with the shifting character of Jewish life at the time, and with their function as missionaries of the new faith. They were regarded most affection- ately by Saint Paul, who reckoned their service as hazardous and precious. There are no re- liable sources of information concerning the close of their lives. The name of Priscilla (Prisca) figures quite largely in later tradition. There is a church in Rome bearing her name ; a volume of Acts of Saint Prisca goes back at least to the tenth century: and one of the oldest catacombs in Rome is called Cccmeteriiim Priscilke. The reason why the wife's name is ])laced first in so many cases has not yet been fully cleared up. The names of these two early Christians have recently become more prominent through the interesting hvpothesis. put forward by Prof. Adolf Harnack of Berlin, in 1900, that tiie authors of the Epistle to the Hebrews were Aquila and Priscilla. Consult Sanday-Headlam, Epistle to the Romans {International Critical Commrnfan/. Xew York, 1899). PRISCILLA. The heroine of Longfellow's Courtship of Miles Standi-^h. wooed by John Alden for his friend Standish, but won for him- self. PRISCILLIAN {Lat. Priscillianus) ( ?-385). A Spanish Cliristian of prominence, who. while still a layman, started a reform movement with the view of deepening religious life and en- couraging asceticism. He afterwards entered holy orders and was made Bishop of Avila. in Ceutral Spain. His theologs- diverged from or- thodoxy at some points, and in the end he was