PRIORESS
428
PRISCA
and extends just as far as the abbot desires, or the con-
stitutions of the congregation prescribe. He is ap-
pointed by the abbot, generally after a consultation
with the capitulars of the monastery, and maj' be re-
moved by him at any time. In many monasteries, es-
pecially larger ones, the claustral prior is assisted by a
sulsprior, who holds the third place in the monaster>-.
In former times there were in larger monasteries, be-
sides the prior and the subprior, also a third, fourth,
and sometimes even a fifth prior. Each of these was
called circa (or circator), because it was his duty to
make the rounds of the monastery to see whether any-
thing was amiss and whether the brethren were intent
on the work allotted to them respectively. He had no
authority to correct or punish the brethren, but was
to report to the claustral prior whatever he found
amiss or contrary to the rules.
The conventual prior is the independent superior of a monastery that has no abbot ; he rules in temporals and spirituals just Uke an abbot. Ordinarily he is elected by the chapter of his monastery and holds his office for life, though in former times he was often elected for a specified period of time. He may be assisted by a subprior, whose office is similar to that of the claustral prior in an abbey. In the Con- gregation of Cluny and others of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries there was also a greater prior {prior major) who preceded the claustral prior in dig- nity and, besides assisting the abbot in the govern- ment of the monastery, had some delegated jurisdic- tion over external dependencies of the abbey. The appellation of simple, or obecUentiary, prior {prior simplex or prior ohedientiarius) is often applied to the superior of a monastic estabhshment which is a de- pendency of an abbey. He is an obedientiary of the abbot, is appointed by him, and may be removed by him at any time.
The Augustinian Hermits, CarmeUtes, Servites, and Brothers of Mercy have three kinds of priors, — the conventual prior, "the provincial prior, and the prior general. The conventual prior is the fir.st superior over a monastery. He is generally elected by the chapter of the monastery for a specified time, arid his election requires the approbation of the provincial prior. The provincial prior is the superior over a number of monasteries that are united into a pro\nnce. He is generally elected for a specified time by the con- ventual priors and delegates from the various monas- teries of the province, and his election requires the ap- probation of the prior general. The prior general is the superior over the whole order; he is elected in the general chapter for a specified time and resides in Rome. The Dominicans also have conventual and provincial priors, but the superior of the whole order is not called prior general, but master general. The Carthusians have conventual priors and a prior general, but no provincial priors. Their prior general is the only superior of an order who does not reside in Rome. Before their suppression in France the prior of the Grande Chartreuse was always prior general, an office now filled by the prior of Farneta near Lucca in Italy. In all these orders the second superior of a monastery is called subprior and his office is similar to that of the claustral prior in the Benedictine Order.
Gabquet, English Monastic Life (London. 1904), passim, es- pecially 52-7; MoLiTOR, Retigiosi juris capita selecia (Ratisbon, Rome, New York. Cincinnati, 1909), passim; BR.iONMULLEn, Propst, Decan u. Prior in Studien u. Mitteil. aus dem Benedidiner- u. Ciaterciemer-Orden, IV, i (WOrzburg and Vienna, 1883), 231- 49. See also REuaioos Life.
Michael Ott.
Prioress (Priorissa, pr.eposita), a superioress in a monastic community for women. The term prioress is properly applied only to a superioress in a convent which has the papal approbation and whose members make solemn profession, that is, to convents which belong to an order in the strict sense of the word. In .some places, however, it is customary
to apply the title of prioress also to a superioress in a
convent which has only the episcopal approbation
and whose members do not make solemn profession.
In general, the office of a prioress in an order for
women corresponds to that of the prior in the same
order for men. If the prioress is the first superior, her
authority over the convent is similar to that of a con-
ventual prior over his priory; if the first superior is an
abbess, the office of the prioress is similar to that of a
claustral prior in an abbey.
For bibliography see Prior.
Michael Ott.
Priory, a monastery whose superior is a prior. The Dominicans, Augustinian Hermits, Carthusians, Carmelites, Servites, and Brothers of Mercy call all their monasteries priories. The Benedictines and their offshoots, the Premonstratensians, and the mili- tary orders distinguish between conventual and simple or obedientiary priories. Conventual priories are those autonomous houses which have no abbots, either because the canonically required number of twelve monks has not yet been reached or for some other reason. The Congregation of Cluny had many conventual priories. There were likewise many conventual priories in Germany and Italy during the Middle Ages, and in England all monasteries attached to cathedral churches were known as cathe- dral priories. Nearly all the monasteries of the famous Maurist Congregation in France (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) were called priories. At present the Benedictine Order has twenty-seven conventual priories. Simple or obedientiary priories are dependencies of abbeys. Their superior, who is subject to the abbot in everything, is called simple or obedientiary prior.
For bibliography see Prior.
Michael Ott.
Prisca, Saint, a martyr of the Roman Church,whose dates are unknown. The name Prisca or Priscilla is often mentioned by early authorities of the history of the Church in Rome. The wife of Aquila, the pupil of St. Paul, bore this name. The grave of a martyr Prisca was venerated in the Roman Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. The place of interment is explicitly mentioned in all the seventh-century itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs (De Rossi, "Roma sotterranea", I, 176, 177). The epitaph of a Roman Christian named Priscilla was found in the "larger Catacomb", the Coemeterium mains, on the Via Nomentana, not far from the Catacomb of St. Agnes [De Rossi, Bull, di arch, crist. (1888-1889), 130, note 5]. There still exists on the Aventine a church of St. Prisca. It stands on the site of a very early title church, the Titulus PrisctE, men- tioned in the "fifth century and built probably in the fourth. In the eighteenth century there was found near this church a bronze tablet with an inscription of the year 224, by which a senator named Caius Marius "Pudens Cornelianus was granted citizenship in a Spanish city. As such tablets were generally put up in the hou.se of the person so honoured, it is possible that the senator's palace stood on the spot where the church was built later. The assumption is proba- ble that the Prisca who founded this title church, or who, perhaps as early as the third century, gave the use of a part of the house standing there for the Christian church services, belonged to the family of Pudens Cornelianus. Whether the martyr buried in the Catacomb of Priscilla belonged to the same family or was identical with the founder of the title church cannot be proved. Still some family relationship is probable, because the name Priscilla appears also in the senatorial family of the Acilii Glabriones, whose burial-place was in the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. The " Martyrologium Hieronymianum " mentions under 18 January a martyr Priscilla on the
