Premonstratensians

PREMONSTRATENSIANS, also called Norbertines, and in England White Canons, from the colour of the habit : an order of Augustinian Canons founded in 1120 by St. Norbert, after wards archbishop of Magdeburg. He had made various efforts to introduce a strict form of canonical life in various communi ties of canons in Germany; in 1120 he was working in the diocese of Laon, and there in a desert place, called Premontre, in Aisne, he and thirteen companions established a monastery to be the cradle of a new order. They were canons regular and followed the so-called Rule of St. Augustine (see AUGUSTINIANS), but with supplementary statutes that made the life one of great austerity. St. Norbert was a friend of St. Bernard of Clairvaux—and he was largely influenced by the Cistercian ideals as to both the manner of life and the government of his order. But as the Premonstra tensians were not monks but canons regular, their work was preaching and the exercise of the pastoral office, and they served a large number of parishes incorporated in their monasteries. The strength of the order now lies in Belgium, where at Tongerloo is a great Premonstratensian abbey that still maintains a sem blance of its mediaeval state.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-See

Max Heimbucher, Orden u. Kongregationen (1907) ; ii. § 56; articles in Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchenlexikon (2nd ed.) ; Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopddie (3rd ed.) and Catholic Encyclopae dia, art. "Premonstratensians." The best special study is F. Winter, Die Prdmonstratenser des 12. Jahrh. and ihre Bedeutung fur das nordost liche Deutschland (1865).

PitEMYSL,

the reputed ancestor of the line of dukes and kings which ruled in Bohemia from 873 or earlier until the murder of Wenceslaus III. in 1306, and which was known as the Piemyslide dynasty. According to legend Pfemysl was a peasant of Staditz who attracted the notice of Libussa, daughter of a cer tain Krok, who ruled over a large part of Bohemia, and is said to have been descended from Samo. Piemysl married Libussa, the traditional foundress of Prague, and during the 8th century be came prince of the Bohemian Czechs. His family became extinct when Wenceslaus III. died, but through females the title to Bohemia passed from the Piemyslides to the house of Luxem bourg and later to the house of Habsburg.

See F. Palacky, Geschichte von Bohmen, Bd. I. (Prague, 1844)•