Piedmont, where they joined the Waldenses; another, above six hundred in number, with a bishop and several ecclesiastics at their head, fled into Corsica, and implored the protection of the Republic of Genoa against the violence of the inquisitors. and built up, the world peopled with inhabitants; it prevents incontinence and fornication, and, where the various duties of it are attended to, renders life a blessing. The laws of revelation, as well as most civilized countries, have made seThe Maronites have a patriarch who veral exceptions of persons marrying resides in the monastery of Cannubin, who are nearly related by blood. The on Mount Libanus, and assumes the marriage of parents and children aptitle of patriarch of Antioch, and the pears, at first view, contrary to nature, name of Peter, as if he seemed desirous not merely on account of the disparity of being considered as the successor of of age, but of the confusion which it inthat apostle. He is elected by the cler- troduces into natural relations, and its gy and the people, according to the an- obliging to inconsistent duties; such as cient custom; but, since their re-union reverence to a son, and the daughter to with the church of Rome, he is obliged be equal with the father. Nor can the to have a bull of confirmation from the son or daughter acquit themselves of pope. He keeps a perpetual celibacy, such inconsistent duties as would arise as well as the rest of the bishops, his from this unnatural union. The marsuffragans: as to the rest of the cccle- riage of brothers and sisters, and of siastics, they are allowed to marry be- some other near relations, is likewise fore ordination; and yet the monastic disapproved by reason on various aclife is in great esteem among them. counts. It frustrates one design of marTheir monks are of the order of St.riage, which is to enlarge benevolence Anthony, and live in the most obscure places in the mountains, far from the commerce of the world. and friendship, by cementing various families in a close alliance. And, farther, were it allowed, young persons, instead As to their faith, they agree in the of entering into marriage upon mature main with the rest of the Eastern consideration, with a settled esteem and church. Their priests do not say mass friendship, and a proper concern and singly, but all say it together, standing provision for the support and education round the altar. They communicate in of children, would be in danger (through unleavened bread: and the laity have the intimacy and affection produced by hitherto partaken in both kinds, though their near relation, and being bred tothe practice of communicating in one gether) of sliding in their inconsiderate has of late been getting footing, having years into those criminal familiarities been introduced by little and little. In which are most destructive of the great Lent they eat nothing, unless it be two ends of marriage. Most nations have or three hours before sun-rising: their agreed to brand such marriages as other fastings are very numerous. highly criminal, who cannot be supposed to have derived their judgment from Moses and the Israelites. It is probable God expressly prohibited these marriages in the beginning of mankind, and from the first heads of families the prohibition might be transmitted as a most sacred law to their descendants. See INCEST. MARRIAGE, a convenant between a man and a woman, in which they mutually promise cohabitation, and a continual care to promote the comfort and happiness of each other. By Grove thus: "A society formed between two persons of different sexes, chiefly for the procreation and education of children." This union is very near and strict, and Some have supposed from those pasindeed indissoluble but by death, ex- sages, 1 Tim. iii. 2. Tit. i. 6. that bishops cepting in one case; unfaithfulness in or pastors ought never to marry a sethe one or the other by adultery or for-cond wife. But such a prohibition would nication, Rom. vii. 2. Matt. v. 32. It is to be entered into with deliberation at a proper age, and with mutual consent, as well as with the consent of parents and guardians, under whose care single persons may be. It is a very honourable state, Heb. xiii. 4. being an institution of God, and that in Paradise, Gen. i. Christ honoured marriage by his pre-Lord, Matt. xix. 3-9. sence, and at such a solemnity wrought his first miracle, John ii. Moreover, it is honourable, as families are formed 29*** be contrary to natural right, and the design of the law itself; neither of which was ever intended to be set aside by the Gospel dispensation. It is more proba bly designed to guard against polygamy, and against divorce on frivolous occasions; both of which were frequent among the Jews, but condemned by cur The duties of this state are on the part of the husband, love, superior to any shown to any other person; a love of complacency and delight, Prov. v. oct. ed. MARTYR, is one who lays down his life or suffers death for the sake of his religion. The word is Greek, nagrug, and properly signifies a "witness." It is applied by way of eminence to those who suffer in witness of the truth of the Gospel. The primitive Christians believed that the martyrs enjoyed very singular privileges; that upon their death they were immediately admitted to the beatific vision, while other souls waited for the completion of their happiness_till the day of judgment; and that God would grant to their prayers the hastening of his kingdom, and shortening the times of persecution. Perhaps this consideration might excite many to court martyrdom, as we believe many did. It must be recollected, however, that martyrdom in itself is no proof of the goodness of our cause, only that we ourselves are persuaded that it is so. "It is not the blocd, but the cause that makes the martyr." (Mead.) Yet we may consider the number and fortitude of those who have suffered for Christianity as a collateral proof at least of its excellency; for the thing for which they suffered was not a point of speculation, but a plain matter of fact, in which (had it been false) they could not have been mistaken. The martyrdom, therefore, of so many wise and good men, taken with a view of the whole system of Christianity, will certainly afford something considerable in its favour. The churches built over the graves of the martyrs, and called by their names, in order to preserve the memory of their sufferings, were distinguished by the title martyrium confessio, or memoria. least from the time of Polycarp, who suffered martyrdom about the year of Christ 168. On these days the Christians met at the graves of the martyrs, and offered prayers and thanksgivings to God for the example they had afforded them: they celebrated the eucharist, and gave alms to the poor; which, together with a panegyrical oration or sermon, and reading the acts of the martyrs, were the spiritual exercises of these anniversaries. The Christian church has abounded with martyrs, and history is filled with surprising accounts of their singular constancy and fortitude under the cruel- The festivals of the martyrs are of est torments human nature was capa- very ancient date in the Christian ble of suffering. The primitive Chris-church, and may be carried back at tians were accused by their enemies of paying a sort of divine worship to martyrs. Of this we have an instance in the answer of the church of Smyrna to the suggestion of the Jews, who, at the martyrdom of Polycarp, desired the heathen judge not to suffer the Christians to carry off his body, lest they should leave their crucified master, and worship him in his stead. To which they answered, "We can neither forsake Christ, nor worship any other; for we worship him as the Son of God; but love the martyrs as the disciples and followers of the Lord, for the great affection they have shown to their King and Master." A like answer was given at the martyrdom of Fructuosus in Spain; for when the judge asked Eulogius, his deacon, whether he would not worship Fructuosus, as thinking, that, though he refused to worship the heathen idols, he might yet be inclined to worship a Christian martyr, Eulogius replied, "I do not worship Fructuosus, but him whom Fructuosus worships." || Of the sayings, sufferings, and deaths of the martyrs, though preserved with great care for the above purpose, and to serve as models to future ages, we have but very little left, the greatest part of them having been destroyed during that dreadful persecution which Dioclesian carried on for ten years with fresh fury against the Christians; for a most diligent search was then made after all their books and papers; and all of them that were found were committed to the flames. Eusebius, indeed, composed a martyrology, but it never reach ed down to us; and those since compiled are extremely suspected. From the eighth century downwards, several Greek and Latin authors endeavoured to make up the loss, by compiling, with vast labour, accounts of the lives and actions of the ancient martyrs, but which consist of little else than a series of fables: nor are those records that pass under the name of martyrology worthy of superior credit, since they bear the most evident marks both of ignorance and falsehood. MARTYROLOGY, a catalogue or list of martyrs, including the history of their lives and sufferings for the sake of religion. The term comes from μagrop "witness," and Aɛyw, dico, or λɛyw colligo. The martyrologies draw their materials from the calendars of particular churches, in which the several festivals dedicated to them are marked; and which seem to be derived from the practice of the ancient Romans, who inserted the names of heroes and great men in their fasti, or public registers. The martyrologies are very numerous, and contain many ridiculous and even contradictory narratives; which is easily accounted for, if we consider how many forged and spurious accounts of the lives of saints and martyrs appeared in the first ages of the church, which the legendary writers afterwards adopted without examining into the truth of them. However, some good critics, of late years, have gone a great way towards clearing the lives of the saints and martyrs from the monstrous heap of fiction they laboured under. See article LEGEND. || year 845; that of Noker, monk of St. Gal, was written about the year 894. The martyrology of Ado, monk of Ferriers, in the diocese of Treves, afterwards archbishop of Vienne, is a descendant of the Roman, if we may so call it; for Du Sollier gives its genealogy thus:-The martyrology of St. Jerome is the great Roman martyrology; from this was made the little Roman one printed by Rosweyd; of this little Roman martyrology was formed that of Beda, augmented by Florus. Ado compiled his in the year 858. The martyrology of Nevelon monk of Corbie, written about the year 1089, is little more tha an abridgment of that of Ado: father Kircher also makes mention of a Coptic martyrology, preserved by the Maronites at Rome." We have also several Protestant martyrologies, containing the sufferings of the reformed, under the Papists, viz. an English martyrology by J. Fox; with others by Clark, Bray, &c. See PERSECUTION. Martyrology is also used in the Romish church for a roll or register kept in the vestry of each church, containing the names of all the saints and martyrs both of the universal church, and of the particular ones of that city or monastery. Martyrology is also applied to the painted or written catalogues in the Roman churches, containing the foundations, orbits, prayers, and masses, to be said each day. MASORA, a term in the Jewish theology, signifying a work on the Bible, performed by several learned rabbins to secure it from any alterations which might otherwise happen. The martyrology of Eusebius of Casarea was the most celebrated in the ancient church. It was translated into Their work regards merely the letter Latin by St. Jerome; but the learned of the Hebrew text, in which they have agree that it is not now extant. That first fixed the true reading by vowels attributed to Beda in the eighth century, and accents; they have, secondly, numis of very doubtful authority; the names bered not only the chapters and sections, of several saints being there found who but the verses, words, and letters of the did not live till after the time of Beda. text: and they find in the Pentateuch The ninth century was very fertile in 5245 verses, and in the whole Bible martyrologies; then appeared that of 23,206. The masora is called by the Florus, subdeacon of the church at Ly- Jews, the hedge or fence of the law, beons; who, however, only filled up the cause this enumeration of the verses, chasms in Beda. This was published &c. is a means of preserving it from beabout the year 830, and was followed by ing corrupted and altered. They have, that of Waldenburtus, monk of the dio-thirdly, marked whatever irregularities cese of Treves, written in verse about the year 848; and this by that of Usard, a French monk, and written by the command of Charles the Bald, in 875, which last is the martyrology now ordinarily used in the Romish church. That of Rabanus Maurus is an improvement on Beda and Florus, written about the occur in any of the letters of the Hebrew text; such as the different size of the letters, their various positions and inversions, &c. and they have been fruitful in finding out reasons for these mysteries and irregularities in them. They are, fourthly, supposed to be the authors of the Keri and Chetibh, or the marginal corrections of the text in our || they could make it. The eastern Jews Hebrew Bibles.. have followed that of Ben Naphtali, and the western that of Ben Asher: and all that has been done since is to copy after them, without making any more corrections, or masoretical criticisms. There is a great and little masora printed at Venice and at Basil, with the Hebrew text in a different character. Buxtorf has written a masoretic commentary which he calls Tiberias. The text of the sacred books, it is to be observed, was originally written without any breaks or divisions into chapters or verses, or even into words: so that a whole book, in the ancient The Arabs have done the same thing manner, was but one continued word: by their Koran that the Masorites have of this kind we have still several an- done by the Bible; nor do the Jews.decient manuscripts, both Greek and La- || ny their having borrowed this expedient tin. In regard, therefore, the sacred from the Arabs, who first put it in pracwritings had undergone an infinite tice in the seventh century. nuniver of alterations; whence various readings had arisen, and the original was become much mangled and disguised, the Jews had recourse to a canon, which they judged infallible, to fix and ascertain the reading of the Hebrew text; and this rule they call masora; "tradition," from DD, tradit, as if this critique were nothing but a tradition which they had received from their forefathers. Accordingly they say, that, when God gave the law to Moses at Mount Sinai, he taught him first the true reading of it; and, secondly, its true interpretation; and that both these were handed down by oral tradition from generation to generation, till at length they were committed to writing. The former of these, viz. the true reading, is the subject of the masora; the latter, or true interpretation, that of the mishna and gemera. 4. According to Elias Levita, they were the Jews of a famous school at Tiberias, about five hundred years after Christ, who composed, or at least began, the masora; whence they are called masorites and masoretic doctors. Aben Ezra makes them the authors of the points and accents in the Hebrew text, as we now find it, and which serve for vowels. MASS, Missa, in the church of Rome, the office or prayers used at the celebration of the eucharist; or, in other words, consecrating the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and offering them, so transubstantiated, as an expiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead. As the mass is in general believed to be a representation of the passion of our blessed Saviour, so every action of the priest, and every particular part of the service, is supposed to allude to the particular circumstances of his passion and death. Nicod, after Baronius, observes, that the word comes from the Hebrew missach (oblatum ;) or from the Latin missa missorum; because in the former times the catechumens and excommunicated were sent out of the church, when the deacons said, Ite, missa, est, after sermon and reading of the epistle and Gospel; they not being allowed to assist at the consecration. Menage derives the word from missio, "dismissing;" others from missa, "missing, sending;" because in the mass the prayers of men on earth are sent up to heaven. The general division of masses consist in high and low. The first is that sung by the choristers, and celebrated with the assistance of a deacon and subdeacon: low masses are those in which the prayers are barely rehearsed with The age of the masorites has been much disputed. Archbishop Usher places them before Jerome; Capel, at the end of the fifth century; father Morin, in the tenth century. Basnage says, that they were not a society, but a succession of men; and that the masora was the work of many grammarians, who, without associating and communicating their notions, composed this col-out singing. lection of criticisms on the Hebrew text. There are a great number of different It is urged, that there were masorites or occasional masses in the Romish from the time of Ezra and the men of church, many of which have nothing the great synagogue, to about the year peculiar but the name: such are the of Christ 1030: and that Ben Asher and masses of the saints; that of St. Mary Ben Naphtali, who were the best of the of the Snow, celebrated on the fifth of profession, and who, according to Bas- August; that of St. Margaret, patronnage, were the inventors of the masora, ess of lying-in-women; that at the feast flourished at this time. Each of these of St. John the Baptist, at which are published a copy of the whole Hebrew said three masses; that of the Innotext, as correct, says Dr. Prideaux, ascents, at which the gloria in excelsis and hallelujah are omitted, and, it being a day of mourning, the altar is of a violet colour. As to ordinary masses, some are said for the dead, and, as is supposed, contribute to fetch the soul out of purgatory. At these masses the altar is put in mourning, and the only decorations are a cross in the middle of six yellow wax lights: the dress of the celebrant, and the very mass-book, are black; many parts of the office are omitted, and the people are dismissed without the benediction. If the mass be said for a person distinguished by his rank or virtues, it is followed with a funeral oration: they erect a chapelle ardente, that is, a representation of the deceased, with branches and tapers of yellow wax, either in the middle of the church, or near the deceased's tomb, where the priest pronounces a solemn absolution of the deceased. There are likewise private masses said for stolen er strayed goods or cattle, for health, for travellers, &c. which go under the name of votive masses. There is still || a further distinction of masses, denomi- || nated from the countries in which they were used: thus the Gothic mass, or missa mosarabum, is that used among the Goths when they were masters of Spain, and which is still kept up at Toledo and Salamanca; the Ambrosian mass is that composed by St. Ambrose, and used only at Milan, of which city he was bishop; the Gallic mass used by the ancient Gauls; and the Roman mass, used by almost all the churches in the Romish communion. Mass of the presanctified (missa præsanctificatorum) is a mass peculiar to the Greek church, in which there is no consecration of the elements; but, after singing some hymns, they receive the bread and wine which were before consecrated. This mass is performed all Lent, except on Saturdays, Sundays, and the Annunciation. The priest counts upon his fingers, the days of the ensuing week on which it is to be celebrated, and cuts off as many pieces of bread at the altar as he is to say masses; and after having consecrated them, steeps them in wine, and puts them in a box; out of which, upon every occasion, he takes some of it with a spoon, and, putting it on a dish, sets it on the altar. MASSACRE, a term used to signify the sudden and promiscuous butchery of a multitude. See PERSECUTION. MASSALIANS, or MESSALIANS, a sect which sprung up about the year 361, in the reign of the emperor Constantinus, who maintained that men have two souls, a celestial and a diabo ||lical; and that the latter is driven out by prayer. From those words of our Lord, "Labour not for the meat that perisheth," it is said, that they concluded they ought not to do any work to get their bread. We may suppose, says Dr. Jortin, that this sect did not last long; that these sluggards were soon starved out of the world; or, rather, that cold and hunger sharpened their wits, and taught them to be better interpreters of Scripture. MASTER, a person who has servants under him; a ruler, or instructor. The duties of masters relate to the civil concerns of the family. To arrange the several businesses required of servants; to give particular instructions for what is to be done, and how it is to be done; to take care that no more is required of servants than they are equal to; to be gentle in our deportment towards them; to reprove them when they do wrong, to commend them when they do right; to make them an adequate recompense for their services, as to protection, maintenance, wages and character.-2. As to the morals of servants. Masters must look well to their servants' characters before they hire them; instruct them in the principles and confirm them in the habits of virtue; watch over their morals, and set them good || examples.—3. As to their religious interests. They should instruct them in the knowledge of divine things, Gen. xiv. 14. Gen. xviii. 19. Pray with them and for them, Joshua xxiv. 15. Allow them time and leisure for religious services, &c. Eph. vi. 9. See Stennett on Domes tic Duties, ser. 8; Paley's Moral Phil. vol. i. 233, 235; Beattie's Elements of Moral Science, vol. i. 150, 153; Doddridge's Lec. vol. ii. 266. MATERIALISTS, a sect in the ancient church, composed of persons, who, being prepossessed with that maxim in philosophy, "ex nihilo nihil fit," out of nothing nothing can arise, had recourse to an eternal matter, on which they supposed God wrought in the creation, instead of admitting Him alone as the sole cause of the existence of all things. Tertullian vigorously opposed them in his treatise against Hermogenes, who was one of their number. Materialists are also those who maintain that the soul of man is material, or that the principle of perception and thought is not a substance distinct from the body, but the result of corporeal organization. There are others called by this name, who have maintained that there is nothing but matter in the uni verse. |