PRIMUS
427
PRIOR
"primicerius protectorum " etc. (cf. Forcellini, "To-
tius latinitatis Lexicon", s. v.). In ecclesiastical use
the term was given to heads of the colleges of Nolarii
and Defensores, which occupied so important a place
in the administration of the Roman Church in later
antiquity and in the early Middle Ages. When young
clerics were assembli'd in .schools for training in the
ecclesiastical service in the lUfferent districts of the
Western Church (from the fifth or sixth century), the
directors of these schools were also commonly given
this title. Thus, an inscription of the year 551 from
Lyons mentions a "Stephanus primicerius scolse lec-
torum servientium in ecclesia Lugdunensi" (Le Blant,
"Inscriptions chretiennes de la Gaule", I, 142, n. 45;
cf. similar notices in Ducange, "Glossarium", s. v.;
Gregory of Tours, "Hist. Francorum", II, xxxvii).
St. Isidore of Seville treats of the obligations of the
primicerius of the lower clerics in his "Epistola ad
Ludefredum" (P. L., LXXXIII, 896). From this
position the primicerius also derived certain powers
in the direction of liturgical functions. In the regu-
lation of the common life of the clergy in collegiate
and cathedral churches, according to the Rule of
Chrodegang and the statutes of Amalarius of Metz,
the primicerius appears a.s the first capitular after the
archdeacon and archpresbyter, controlling the lower
clerics and directing the liturgical functions and chant.
The primicerius thus became a special dignitary of
many chapters by a gradual development from the
position of the old primicerius of the scola canlorum or
leclorum.
Thomassinus, Vetus €t nova EcclesicE diiciplina, I (Lyons, 1 700) ; Galletti, De/ Primicerio di Santa Sede Apost. (Rome, 1776): Phillips. Kirchenrecht. VI (Ratisbon. 1864), 343; Keller, Die aieben Tiim. Pfnlzrichter (Stuttgart, 1904).
J. P. KiRSCH.
Primus and Felician, Saints, suffered martyrdom about 304 in the Diocletian persecution. The "Mar- tyrologium Hieronymianum" (ed. DeRossi-Duchesne, 77) gives under 9 June the names of Primus and Felician who were buried at the fourteenth milestone of the Via Nomentana (near Nomentum, now Men- tana). They were evidently from Nomentum. This notice comes from the catalogue of Roman martyrs of the fourth century. In 648 Pope Theodore translated the bones of the "two saints to the Roman Church of San Stefano, under an altar erected in their honour (Liber Pontificalis, I, 332), where they remain. Their feast is still observed on 9 June.
Acta SS., June, II, 152 gq.; Dufourcq, Les Gesta martyrum romains, I (Paris, 1900), 213; De Rossi, Inscriptiones chrisl., urbis Romfs, II, 152; Idem, / musaici delle chiese di Roma (Rome, 1899). plate XVII with text; Marucchi, Les basitiques el eglises de Rome (2nd ed., Rome, 1909), 221 sq.
J. P. KiRSCH.
Prince Albert, Diocese op, a suffragan see of St. Boniface, Manitoba, in the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada. Originally part of the Diocese of St. Albert, it was formed, 4 June, 1891, into the Vicariate Apos- tolic of the Saskatchewan, bounded in the south by 52° 30' N. lat., in the west by 109° W. long., in the east by the present boundaries of the province of the same name, and in the north by the Arctic Sea. On 2 Dec, 1907, most of this was erected into the Diocese of Prince Albert, and Rt. Rev. Albert Pascal, O.M.I. , became its bishop. The new diocese is bounded on the south by a line passing between the thirtieth and the thirty-finst township, approximately 51° 30' N. lat. Its western and eastern limits are coincident with the boundaries of the civil province as far north as the sixtieth township (about 54° 20') in the west, and the fifty-second township (or 53° 30') in the east, thus forming in the north a line of demarcation with two right angles just half way between its eastern and western limits.
Fort Carlton within that territory had been pe- riodically visited by Catholic mis.sionaries ever since
1842. In 1870 Father Moulin was put in charge of
the French half-breed families who had settled on the
banks of the south branch of the Saskatchewan.
In 1874 the permanent mission of St. Laurent was
established by Father Andre, who was replaced in Nov.,
1877, by Father Lestanc, the real founder of that mis-
sionary post on the south branch of the Saskatche-
wan. Then followed the missions of St. Anthony, at
Batoche, established in 1881 by Father Vegreville,
succeeded by Father Moulin, and of Prince
Albert, started by Father Andre in 1882. The first
missionaries of the diocese were French Oblates of
Mary Immaculate. The uprising of the dissatisfied
population in 1885 resulted in the battles of Fish
Creek and Batoche, the murder of two missionaries
by Plains Crees, the destruction of several mission-
ary establishments, and the capture and execution
of the half-breed leader, Louis Riel. St. Louis de
Langevin was founded by Father Lecooq in 1886.
The advent of railways prompted the foundation
of parishes and farming settlements, of which the
most important is the German colony of St. Peter,
founded in 1903 by the Very Rev. Bruno Doerfler,
O.S.B., now attended by several priests of the same
order.
The Catholic population of the diocese is estimated (1911) at 45,000, of whom some 15,000 follow the Ruthenian Rite. The French have 18 parishes, with resident priests, and number 11,0.50; the Germans are between 10,.500 and 1 1,000, distributed in 12 parishes; while the English-speaking population, about 3100, have 4 parishes of their own. In other centres the Catholics are of mixed nationalities. There are also some 1000 Catholic Crees, whose spiritual needs are attended to by French Oblates established on, or near, their reserves. The schools of all these parishes, whether public or separate, are equally satisfactory but not up to the Catholic ideal (see Saskatchewan, Province op). Saskatoon has 15,000 inhabitants, and Prince Albert, 8000. The diocese counts 28 Oblate fathers, 22 secular priests, 14 Benedictines, and 6 communities of women. It has 42 academies and parish schools, 2 Catholic hospitals, and 2 board- ing-schools for Indians with 130 pupils.
Official Catholic Directory; Morice, History of the Catholic Church in Western Canada (Toronto, 1910).
A. G. Morice.
Prince Edward Island. See Charlottetown, Diocese op.
Prior, a monastic superior. In the Rule of St. Benedict the term prior occurs several times, but does not signify any particular superior; it is indiscrimi- nately applied to any superior, be he abbot, provost, dean, etc. In other old monastic rules the term is used in the same generic sense. With the Cluniac reform the term prior received a specific meaning; it supplanted the provost (■proeposilus) of the Rule of St. Benedict. In the congregation of Hirschau, which arose in Ger- many in the eleventh century, the terra prior was also substituted for provost, anil the example of the Cluniac and Hirschau congregations was gradually followed by all Benedictine monasteries, as well as by the Camal- dolese, Vallombrosians, Cistercians, and other off- shoots of the Benedictine Order. In the Benedictine Order and its branches, in the Premonstratensian Order, and in the military orders there are two kinds of priors, — the claustral prior {prior clauslralis) and the conventual prior {prior conventualis) . The claus- tral prior, in a few monasteries called dean, holds the first place after the abbot (or grand-master in military orders), whom he assists in the government of the monastery and whose place he supplies in his absence. He has no ordinary jurisdiction by virtue of his office, since he performs the duties of his office entirely ac- cording to the will and under the direction of the ab- bot. His jurisdiction is, therefore, a delegated one
