=P. P.=, “Clerk of the Parish,” the feigned signature of Dr. Arbuthnot, subscribed to a volume of _Memoirs_ in ridicule of Burnet’s _History of My Own Times_. Those who were placed around the dinner-table had those feelings of awe with which _P. P._, _Clerk of the Parish_, was oppressed when he first uplifted the psalm in presence of ... the wise Mr. Justice Freeman, the good Lady Jones, and the great Sir Thomas Truby.--Sir W. Scott. =Pragmatic Sanction.= The word _pragmaticus_ means “relating to State affairs,” and the word _sanctio_ means “an ordinance” or “decree.” The four most famous statutes so called are: 1. _The Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis_ (1268), which forbade the court of Rome to levy taxes or collect subscriptions in France without the express permission of the king. It also gave French subjects the right of appealing, in certain cases, from the ecclesiastical to the civil courts of the realm. 2. _The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges_, passed by Charles VII. of France, in 1438. By this ordinance the power of the people in France was limited and defined. The authority of the National Council was declared superior to that of the pope. The French clergy were forbidden to appeal to Rome on any point affecting the secular condition of the nation; and the Roman pontiff was wholly forbidden to appropriate to himself any vacant living, or to appoint to any bishopric or parish church in France. 3. _The Pragmatic Sanction of Kaiser Karl VI. of Germany_ (in 1713), which settled the empire on his daughter, the Archduchess Maria Theresa, wife of François de Loraine. Maria Theresa ascended the throne in 1740, and a European war was the result. 4. _The Pragmatic Sanction of Charles III. of Spain_ (1767). This was to suppress the Jesuits of Spain. What is meant emphatically by _The Pragmatic Sanction_ is the third of these ordinances, viz., settling the line of succession in Germany on the house of Austria. =Pramnian Mixture= (_The_), any intoxicating draught; so called from the Pramnian grape, from which it was made. Circê gave Ulysses “Pramnian wine” impregnated with drugs, in order to prevent his escape from the island. And for my drink prepared The Pramnian mixture in a golden cup, Impregnating (on my destruction bent) With noxious herbs the draught. Homer, _Odyssey_, x. (Cowper’s trans.).