PREMISES. 361 PRENTICE. the property in a deed as the premises, popular usage has extended the meaning of the tenn to include lands, tenements, and herfditaments themselve'. PEEMONSTRATENSIANS, called also XoBBERTlXES. A religious Order which, during the four centuries from the twelfth to the six- teenth, was one of the most numerous and pow- erful monastic bodies in Europe. Its houses were especially nimierous in Germany, but there were many monasteries also in England, where, be- cause of the color of their habit, the Xorbertines were called White Canons. The Order was foimd- ed by Saint Xorbert, a native of Xanten, in the Diocese of C'leves, who was born about 1080. Xor- bert's youth had been irregular, but, converted at the age of 35, he afterwards lived very strictly, devoting himself to the conversion of others. While engaged in this work he realized the need for missionaries to help the local clergy. He was soon joined by thirteen companions to whom he gave the rule of Saint Augustine, and founded his first monasteiy in the forest of Couc.v, near Laon, at a place called Pre Monstre (the field shown), or Premonstre (foreshown), because Xorbert felt that this was the place that had been pointed out to him by a vision. This became the mother house and the Order came to be named from it. The rule adopted by Saint Xorbert was very strict. It imposed perpetual fasting, that is, allowed only one meal a day, not to be taken be- fore noon, and required entire abstinence from meat. Besides the daily chanting of the office. the monks were boimd to the duties of preaching and hearing confessions in connection with the parish clergy. The Order spread rapidly, first in France and the Low Countries, and. after Xorbert's election (1127) as Archbishop of Magdeburg, also in Ger- many. The abbot of the mother house at Coucy held the rank of general and was superior of the entire Order. This continued to be the case until the French Revolution. Saint Xorbert also founded an Order of nuns which spread almost as rapidly and as widely as that for men. At the end of the fifteenth century the Premonstraten- sian Order had not less than 1.500 monasteries for men and 500 for women, most of them situated in France. Germany, and England, for the Order never made much progress in Italy or Spain. It maintained its first fen'or for several centuries, but mitigations of the rule gradually crept in and were followed by relaxations, which made various reforms necessary. Toward the close of the sixteenth century (1573), as the result of the Catholic reaction that followed the Coun- cil of Trent, a reform movement similar to that in the Franciscan Order made considerable modification of the existing Premonstraten- sian Institute. The reformed communities re- mained united with the older body, however, and in 1630 the modified rule was accepted by all the communities. Since the end of the seven- teenth century the Order has declined in num- bers. The female branch became almost extinct in the eighteenth centurj-. There was a reawak- enmg in the nineteenth century in the male branch, but the Order has suffered much from suppression in Italy. Spain, the German Empire, and Switzerland. It flourishes in Austria and Holland, however, and there are some houses in England. In the United States there is a house at De Pere, Wis., which was founded from the Abbey of Heeswijk (Holland). Consult Currier, History of Religious Orders (Xew York, 1894). PRENCE, or PRINCE, Thomas (c.1600-73). An Americau colonist, born at Lechdale, in Glou- cestershire, England. He was one of the com- pany of Puritans that settled in Leyden, Holland, and in 1621 he followed the Pilgrims to Xew Plymouth. He was a man of considerable wealth, and soon became a person of influence in the col- ony and was chosen to fill its most responsible offices. He was elected Ciovernor in 1634 and 16.38, and annually from 1657 until his death in 1673, the law requiring the Governor to live in Plymouth being waived in his favor. From 1635 until 1637 and from 1630 until 1656 he was one of the assistants, and in 1654 he was sent to Kenebec patent, where he established a govern- ment subordinate to that at Pljinouth. In relig- ious affairs he represented the intolerance of his age, but, on the other hand, he may be considered the founder of the X'ew England "public schools, for he zealously advocated the establishment of a system of free education and secured the pas- sage of a law appropriating the profits of the Cape Cod fisheries to the support of a school in Plymouth. Consult Baylies, An Historical Me- moir of the Cotonij of Xeic Plymouth (1866). PREN'DERGAST, Sir H.bbt Xoeth Dai.- RYMPLE (1834—). An English soldier, born in India. He was educated at Brighton College and the East India Company's College at Addiscombe, entered the military service in 1854, was with the sappers and miners during the Persian War of 1856-57, and as a member of the Central India field force distinguished himself in 1858. In the Abys- sinian War (1867-68) he commanded the detach- ment of Madras sappers and miners, and in 1885- 86 he commanded the expedition which obtained the annexation of Upper Burma to the British Empire. He then (1886) commanded all the British forces in Burma, and subsequently occu- pied various posts, including that of officiating resident at ilysore and chief commissioner of Coorg in 1891-92. In 1887 he attained the rank of general of Royal Engineers. PRENDERGAST, .Johx Patrick (1808-93). An Irish politician and historian, bom at Dublin. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, was admitted to the bar in 1830, and was active as a writer of pamphlets and newspaper articles from the Liberal Xationalist point of view. His chief work was. however, in connection with Irish his- tory, in which he published the following studies : The Histoni of the Cromivellian. Settlement of Ireland (1863: 2d ed. 1875) : The Tory War in Ulster (1868) : and Ireland from the Restoration to the Revolution (1887). PREN'TICE, George Dexisox (1802-70). An American journalist, born at Preston, Conn. He graduated at Brown in 1823. studied law and was admitted to the bar. but never practiced, and in 1828 became the first editor of the Xeie England Rerieir. In 1830 he removed to Kentucky and there published his popular campaign life of Henry Clay ( 1831 ) . He established in the Whig interest at Louisville in 1830 the Journal, which soon came to be the best edited and most read newspaper in that section. He did much to in- crease the Journal's circulation and his own fame through originating the brief, pointed paragraph, theretofore almost unknown. A collection of these
