far as an increasing number of dishonest characters was found amongst them, whose object was to levy contributions on the churches;[1] third, from those prophets who were filled with the stern spirit of primitive Christianity and imposed on churches, now becoming assimilated to the world, obligations which these were neither able nor willing to fulfil. It is from this point of view that we must seek to understand the so-called Montanistic crisis. Even the author of the Διδαχὴ finds it necessary to defend the prophets who practised celibacy and strict asceticism against the deprecatory criticism of church members. In Asia Minor there was already in the year 160 a party, called by Epiphanius “Alogi,” who rejected all Christian prophecy. On the other hand, it was also in Asia Minor that there appeared along with Montanus those energetic prophetesses who charged the churches and their bishops and deacons with becoming secularized, and endeavoured to prevent Christianity from being naturalized in the world, and to bring the churches once more under the exclusive guidance of the Spirit and His charismata. The critical situation thus arising spread in the course of a few decades over most of the provincial churches. The necessity of resisting the inexorable demands of the prophets led to the introduction of new rules for distinguishing true and false prophets. No prophet, it was declared, could speak in ecstasy, that was devilish; further, only false prophets accepted gifts. Both canons were innovations, designed to strike a fatal blow at prophecy and the church organization re-established by the prophets in Asia—the bishops not being quite prepared to declare boldly that the Church had no further need of prophets. But the prophets would not have been suppressed by their new methods of judging them alone. A much more important circumstance was the rise of a new theory, according to which all divine revelations were summed up in the apostles or in their writings. It was now taught that prophecy in general was a peculiarity of the Old Testament (“lex et prophetae usque ad Johannem”); that in the new covenant God had spoken only through apostles; that the whole word of God so far as binding on the Church was contained in the apostolic record—the New Testament;[2] and that, consequently, the Church neither required nor could acknowledge new revelations, or even instructions, through prophets. The revolution which this theory gradually brought about is shown in the transformation of the religious, enthusiastic organization of the Church into a legal and political constitution. A great many things had to be sacrificed to this, and amongst others the old prophets. The strictly enforced episcopal constitution, the creation of a clerical order, and the formation of the New Testament canon accomplished the overthrow of the prophets. Instead of the old formula, “God continually confers on the church apostles, prophets, and teachers,” the word now was: “The Church is founded in the (written) word of the prophets (i.e. the Old Testament prophets) and the apostles (viz. the twelve and Paul).” After the beginning of the 3rd century there were still no doubt men under the control of the hierarchy who experienced the prophetic ecstasy, or clerics like Cyprian who professed to have received special directions from God; but prophets by vocation no longer existed and these sporadic utterances were in no sense placed on a level with the contents of the sacred Scriptures.
See Hilgenfeld, Die Glossolalie in der alten Kirche (1850); Bückmann, “Über die Wunderkräfte bei den ersten Christen und ihr Erlöschen,” in the Ztschr. f. d. Ges. luther. Theol. u. Kirche (1878), pp. 216-255 (learned but utterly uncritical); Bonwetsch, “Die Prophetie im apostol. und nachapostol. Zeitalter,” in the Ztschr. f. kirchl. Wissensch. u. kirchl. Leben (1884), pt. 8, p. 408 seq., pt. 9, p. 460 seq.; Harnack, Die Lehre der zwölf Apostel (1884), pp. 93-137; Haller, “Die Propheten der nachapostolischen Kirche,” in the Theol. Studien aus Württemberg (1888), p. 36 seq.; Nardin, “Essai sur les prophètes de l'église primitive,” Thesis, (Paris, 1888); Weinel, “Die Wirkungen des Geistes und der Geister im nachapostolischen Zeitalter bis auf Irenaeus,” (1899); Selwyn, “The Christian Prophets and the Prophetic Apocalypse” (1900); Bénazech, “Le Prophétisme chrétienne depuis les origines jusqu'au pasteur d'Hermas,” Thesis, (Paris, 1901). (A. Ha.; A. C. McG.)
PROPIOLIC ACID, CH⋮C·CO2H, acetylene mono-carboxylic acid, an unsaturated organic acid prepared by boiling acetylene dicarboxylic acid (obtained by the action of alcoholic potash on dibromsuccinic acid) or its acid potassium salt with water (E. v. Bandrowski, Ber., 1880, 13, p. 2340). It forms silky crystals which melt at 6° C., and boil at about 144º C. with decomposition. It is soluble in water and possesses an odour resembling that of acetic acid. Exposure to sunlight converts it into trimesic acid (benzene-1.3.5-tricarboxylic acid). Bromine converts it into dibromacrylic acid, and it gives with hydrochloric acid β-chloracrylic acid. It forms a characteristic explosive silver salt on the addition of ammoniacal silver nitrate to its aqueous solution, and an amorphous precipitate which explodes on warming with ammoniacal cuprous chloride. Its ethyl ester condenses with hydrazine to form pyrazolone (R. v. Rothenburg, Ber., 1893, 26, p. 1722). Phenylpropiolic acid, C6H5C⋮C·CO2H, formed by the action of alcoholic potash on cinnamic acid dibromide, C6H5·CHBr·CHBr·CO2H, crystallizes in long needles or prisms which melt at 136–137° C. When heated with water to 120° C. it yields phenyl acetylene C6H5·C⋮CH. Chromic acid oxidizes it to benzoic acid; zinc and acetic acid reduce it to cinnamic acid, C6H5·CH:CH·CO2H, whilst sodium amalgam reduces it to hydrocinnamic acid, C6H5·CH2·CO2H. Ortho-nitrophenylpropiolic acid, NO2·C6H4·C⋮C·CO2H, prepared by the action of alcoholic potash on ortho-nitrocinnamic acid dibromide (A. V. Baeyer, Ber., 1880, 13, p. 2258), crystallizes in needles which decompose when heated to 155–156° C. It is readily converted into indigo (q.v.).
PROPYLAEA (Πρόπυλον, Προπύλαια), the name given to a porch or gate-house, at the entrance of a sacred or other enclosure in Greece; such propylaea usually consisted, in their simplest form, of a porch supported by columns both without and within the actual gate. The name is especially given to the great entrance hall of the Acropolis at Athens, which was begun in 437 B.C. by Pericles, to take the place of an earlier gateway. Owing probably to political difficulties and to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, the building was never completed according to the original plans; but the portion that was built was among the chief glories of Athens, and afforded a model to many subsequent imitators. The architect was Mnesicles; the material Pentelic marble, with Eleusinian Blackstone for dados and other details. The plan of the Propylaea consists of a large square hall, from which five steps lead up to a wall pierced by five gateways of graduated sizes, the central one giving passage to a road suitable for beasts or possibly for vehicles. On the inner side towards the Acropolis, this wall is faced with a portico of six Doric columns. At the other end of the great hall is a similar portico facing outwards; and between this and the doors the hall is divided into three aisles by rows of Ionic columns. The western or outer front is flanked on each side by a projecting wing, with a row of three smaller Doric columns between Antae at right angles to the main portico. The north wing is completed by a square chamber which served as a picture gallery; but the south wing contains no corresponding chamber, and its plan has evidently been curtailed; its front projected beyond its covered area, and it is finished in what was evidently a provisional way on the side of the bastion before the little temple of Victory (Νίκη). From this and other indications Professor Dorpfeld has inferred that the original plan of Mnesicles was to complete the south wing on a plan symmetrical with that of the north wing, but opening by a portico on to the bastion to the west; and to add on the inner side of the Propylaea two great halls, faced by porticoes almost in a line with the main portico, but with smaller columns. It is probable that this larger plan had to be given up, because it would have interfered with sacred objects such as the precinct of Artemis Brauronia and the altar of Nike, and religious conservatism prevailed over the waning influence of Pericles. In addition to this, the unfinished surface of the walls and the rough bosses left on many
