to those who adopted the sentiments of MAGI, or MAGIANS, an ancient reMacarius, a native of Ireland, who ligious sect of Persia and other eastern about the close of the ninth century, countries, who, abominating the adorapropagated in France the tenet after- tion of images, worshipped God only by wards maintained by Averrhoes, that fire, in which they were directly oppo one individual intelligence or soul per-site to the Sabians. See SABIANS The formed the spiritual and rational functions in all the human race.

Magi believed that there were two principles, one the cause of all good, and the other the cause of all evil; in which opinion they were followed by the sect of the Manichees. See MANICHEES. They called the good princi

MACEDONIANS, the followers of Macedonius, bishop of Constantinople, who, through the influence of the Eunomians, was deposed by the council of Constantinople in 360, and sent into ex-ple Jazden and Ormuzd, and the evil ile. He considered the Holy Ghost as a divine energy diffused throughout the universe, and not as a person distinct from the Father and the Son. The sect of the Macedonians was crushed before it had arrived at its full maturity, by the council assembled by Theodosius in 381, at Constantinople. See SEMI

ARIANS.

MACHIAVELIANISM,

the doc

trine or principles of Machiavel, as laid down in his treatise entitled The Prince, and which consists in doing any thing to compass a design, without any regard to the peace or welfare of subjects, the dictates of honesty and honour, or the precepts of religion. This work has been translated into many languages, and wrote against by many authors, though the world is not agreed as to the motives of the writer; some thinking he meant to recommend tyrannical maxims; others, that he only delineated them to excite abhorrence.

principle Ahraman or Aherman. The former was by the Greeks called Oramusdes, and the latter Arimanius. The reason of their worshipping fire was, because they looked upon it as the tru est symbol of Oromasdes, or the good god; as darkness was of Arimanius, or the evil god. In all their temples they had fire continually burning upon their altars, and in their own private houses.

The religion of the Magi fell into disgrace on the death of those ringleaders of that sect who had usurped the sovereignty after the death of Cambyses; and the slaughter that was made of the chief men among them sunk it so low, that Sabianism every where prevailed against it; Darius and most of his fol lowers on that occasion going over to it. But the affection which the people had for the religion of their forefathers not being easily to be rooted out, the fa mous impostor Zoroaster, some ages after, undertook to revive and reform

The chief reformation this pretended prophet made in the Magian religion was in the first principle of it; for he introduced a god superior both to Oro

MAGDALEN, religious of St. a de-it. nomination given to divers communities of nuns, consisting generally of penitent courtesans; sometimes also called Mag delannettes. They were established at Mentz in 1542; at Paris in 1492: at Na-masdes and Ärimanius. Dr. Prideaux ples in 1324; at Rouen and Bordeaux is of opinion that Zoroaster took the in 1618. In each of these monasteries hint of this alteration in their theology there were three kinds of persons and from the prophet Isaiah, who brings in congregations: the first consisted of those God, saying to Cyrus king of Persia, I who were admitted to make vows, and am the Lord, and there is none else; I those bear the name of St. Magdalen; the form the light, and create darkness; I congregation of St. Martha was the se- make peace and create evil, ch. xlv. 7. cond, and was composed of those whom In short, Zoroaster held that there was it was not thought proper to admit to one supreme independent Being, and vows finally; the congregation of St. under him two principles, or angels; Lazarus was composed of such as were one the angel of light or goed, and the detained by force. The religious of St. other the angel of evil or darkness; Magdalen at Rome were established by that there is a perpetual struggle bePope Leo X Clement VIII settled a tween them. which shall last to the end revenue on them; and farther appoint-of the world; that then the angel of ed, that the effects of all public prostitutes dying intestate should fall to them; and that the testaments of the rest should be invalid, unless they bequeathed a portion of their effects, which was to be at least a fifth part of them.

darkness and his disciples shall go into a world of their own, where they shall be punished in everlasting darkness; and the angel of light and his disciples shall also go into a world of their own where they shall be rewarded in ever"lasting light.

three orders; the inferior clergy, the superintendents, or bishops, and the archimagus, or arch priest.

Zoroaster had the address to bring

gion notwithstanding the strongest opposition of the Sabians, and from that time it became the national religion of all that country, and so continued for many ages after, till it was supplanted by that of Mahomet. Z raster composed a book containing the principles of the Magian religion. It is called Zendavesta, and by contraction Zend. See ZEND

MAGIC, a science which teaches to produce surprising and extraordinary effects; a correspondence with.bad spirits by means of which a person is able to perform surprising things. This was strictly forbidden by the law of God, on pain of death, Lev. xix. 31.

Zoroaster was the first who built firetemples; the Magians before this time performing their devotion on the tops of hills and in the open air, by which means they were exposed to the incon-over Darius to his new-reformed relivenience of rain and tempests, which often extinguished their sacred fires. To procure the greater veneration for these sacred fires, he pretended to have received fire from heaven, which he placed on the altar of the first fire-temple he erected, which was that of Xis, in Media, from whence they say it was propagated to all the rest. The Ma gian priests kept their sacred fire with the greatest diligence, watching it day and night, and never suffering it to be extinguished. They fed it only with wood stript of the bark, and they never blowed it with their breath or with bel lows, for fear of polluting it; to do either of these was death by their law The Magian religion as reformed by MAGISTER DISCIPLINÆ, or Zoroaster, seems in many things to be MASTER OF DISCIPLINE, the appellabuilt upon the plan of the Jewish. The tion of a certain ecclesiastical officer in Jews had their sacred fire which came the ancient Christian church It was a down from heaven upon the altar of custom in some places, particularly in burnt offerings, which they never suffer- Spain, in the time of the Gothic kings, ed to go out, and with which all their about the end of the fifth century, for. sacrifices and oblations were made. Zo-parents to dedicate their children very roaster, in like manner, pretended to have brought his holy fire from heaven; and as the Jews had a Shekinah of the divine presence among them, resting over the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies, Zoroaster likewise told his Magians to look upon the sacred fire in their temples as a Shekinah, in which God especially dwelt.-From these and some other instances of analogy between the Jewish and the Magian religion, Prideaux infers that Zoroaster had been first educated and brought up in the Jewish religion.

The priests of the Magi were the most skilful mathematicians and philosophers of the age in which they lived, insomuch that a learned man and a Magian became equivalent terms. This proceeded so far, that the vulgar, looking on their knowledge to be more than natural, imagined they were inspired by some supernatural power. And hence those who practised wicked and diabolical arts taking upon themselves the name of Magians, drew on it that ill signification which the word Magician now bears among us.

The Magian priests were all of one tribe; as among the Jews, none but the son of a priest was capable of bearing that office among them. The royal family among the Persians, as long at this sect subsisted, was always of the sacerdotal tribe. They were divided into

young to the service of the church. For this purpose they were taken into the bishop's family, and educated under him by some grave and discreet person whom the bishop deputed for that purpose, and set over them, by the name of Presbyter or Magister Disciplinæ, whose chief business it was to inspect their behaviour, and instruct them in the rules and discipline of the church.

MAGNANIMITY, greatness of soul; a disposition of mind exerted in contemning dangers and difficulties, in Scorming temptations, and despising earthly pomp and splendour Cic. de offic. lec. i ch. 20. Grove's Moral Phil. p. 268. vol. ii. See articles COURAGE, FORTITUDE, in this work: Steel's Christian Hero; Watts on Self Murder.

MAHOMETANISM, the system of religion formed and propagated by Mahomet, and still adhered to by his followers. It is professed by the Turks and Persians, by several nations among the Africans, and many among the East Indians

Mahomet was born in the reign of Anushirwan the Just, emperor of Persia, about the end of the sixth century of the Christian era. He came into the world under some disadvantages. His father Abd'allah was a younger son of Abd'almotalleb; and dying very young, and in his father's life-time, left his widow and infant son in very mean cir

now sent to Mahomet. The first overture the prophet made was in the month of Ramaden, in the fortieth year of his age, which is therefore usually called the year of his mission.

cumstances, his whole subsistence consisting but of five camels and one Ethiopian female slave. Abd'aimotalleb was therefore obliged to take care of his grandchild Mahomet; which he not only did during his life, but at his death Encouraged by so good a beginning, enjoined his eldest son Abu Taleb, who he resolved to proceed, and try for some was brother to Abd'allah by the same time what he could do by private permother, to provide for him for the fu-suasion, not daring to hazard the whole ture; which he very affectionately did, affair by exposing it too suddenly to the and instructed him in the business of a || public. He soon made proselytes of merchant, which he followed; and to those under his own roof, viz. his wife that end he took him into Syria, when Khadijah, his servant Zeid Ebn Harehe was but thirteen. He afterwards tha, to whom he gave his freedom on recommended him to Khadijah, a noble that occasion (which afterwards became and rich widow for her factor; in whose a rule to his followers,) and his cousin service he behaved himself to well, and pupil Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, that by making him her husband, she though then very young but this last, soon raised him to an equality with the making no account of the other two, richest in Mecca. used to style himself the first of be After he began by this advantageous lievers. The next person Mahomet ap. match to live at his ease, it was, that heplied to was Abd'allah Ebn Abi Kohafa, formed the scheme of establishing a new surnamed Abu Becr, a man of great religion, or as he expresses it, of reauthority among the Koreish, and one planting the only true and ancient one professed by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets, by destroying the gross idolatry into which the generality of his countrymen had fallen, and weeding out the corruptions and superstitions which the latter Jews and Christians had, as he thought, introduced into their religion, and re-ple. These men were six chief comducing it to its original purity, which consisted chiefly in the worship of one God

Before he made any attempt abroad, he rightly judged that it was necessary for him to begin with the conversion of his own household. Having, therefore, retired with his family as he had done several times before to a cave in mount Hara, he there opened the secret of his mission to his wite Khadijah; and acquainted her, that the angel Gabriel had just before appeared to him, and told him that he was appointed the apostle of God: he also repeated to her a passage which he pretended had been revealed to him by the ministry of the angel, with those other circumstances of this first appearance which are rela ted by the Mahometan writers. Khadijah received the news with great joy, swearing by him in whose hands her soul was that she trusted he would be the prophet of his nation; and imme. diately communicated what she had heard to her cousin Warakah Ebn Nawfal, who, being a Christian, could write in the Hebrew character, and was tolerably well versed in the Scriptures; and he readily came into her opinion, assuring her that the same angel who had formerly appeared unto Moses was

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whose interest he well knew would be of great service to him; as it soon appeared; for Abu Becr, being gained over prevailed also on Othman Ebn, Affan, Abd'airaham Ebn Awf, Saad Ebn Abbi Wakkus, At Zobier al Awam, and Telha Ebn Obeid'allah, all principal men of Mecca, to follow his exam

panions, who, with a few more, were converted in the space of three years: at the end of which, Mahomet having, as he hoped, a sufficient interest to support him, made his mission no longer a secret, but gave out that God had commanded him to admonish his near relations; and in order to do it with more convenience and prospect of success, be directed Ali to prepare an entertainment and invited the sons and descendants of Abd'almotalleb, intending then to open his mind to them.-This was done, and about forty of them came; but Abu Laheb, one of his uncles, making the company break up before Mahomet had an opportunity of speaking, obliged him to give them a second invitation the next day; and when they were come, he made them the following speech: "I know no man in all Arabia who can offer his kindred a more excellent thing than I now do to you; offer you happiness both in this life, and in that which is to come: God Almighty hath commanded me to call you unto him. Who, therefore, among you will be assistant to me herein, and become my brother and my vicegerent?" All of them hesitating and declining the mat. ter, Ali at length rose up, and declared that he would be his assistant, and ve

I

hemently threatened those who should oppose him. Mahomet upon this embraced Ali with great demonstrations of affection, and desired all who were present to hearken to and obey him as his deputy; at which the company broke out into a great laughter, telling Abu Taleb that he must now pay obedience to his son.

This repulse, however, was so far from discouraging Mahomet that he began to preach in public to the people, who heard him with some patience, till he came to upbraid them with the idolatry, obstinacy, and perverseness of them selves and their fathers; which so highly provoked them, that they declared themselves his enemies; and would soon have procured his ruin, had he not been protected by Abu Taleb. The chief of the Koreish warmly solicited this person to desert his nephew, making frequent remonstrances against the innovations he was attempting; which proving ineffectual, they at length threatened him with an open rupture if he did not prevail on Mahomet to desist. At this Abu Taleb was so far moved, that he earnestly dissuaded his nephew from pursuing the affair any farther, representing the great danger that he and his friends must otherwise run. But Mahomet was not to be intimidated; telling his uncle plainly, that if they set the sun against him on his right hand, and the moon on his left, he would not 4leave his enterprise: and Abu Taleb, seeing him so firmly resolved to proceed, used no farther arguments, but promised to stand by him against all his renemies.

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writers unanimously attest, even professed the Mahometan religion.

In the sixth year of his mission, Mahomet had the pleasure of seeing his party strengthened by the conversion of his uncle Hamza, a man of great valour and merit; and of Omar Ebn al Kattab, a person highly esteemed, and once a violent opposer of the prophet. As persecution generally advances rather than obstructs the spreading of a religion. Islamism made so great a progress among the Arab tribes, that the Koreish, to suppress it effectually, if possible, in the seventh year of Mahomet's mission, made a solemn league or covenant against the Hashemites, and the family of Abd'almotalleb, engaging themselves to contract no marriages with any of them, and to have no communication with them; and to give it the greater sanction, reduced it into writing, and laid it up in the Caaba. Upon this the tribe became divided into two factions; and the family of Hashem all repaired to Abu Taleb, as their head; except only Abd'al Uzza, surnamed Abu Laheb, who, out of inveterate hatred to his nephew and his doctrine, went over to the opposite party, whose chief was Abu Sosian Ebn Harb, of the family of Ommeya.

The families continued thus at va. riance for three years; but in the tenth year of his mission, Mahomet told his uncle Abu Taleb, that God had manifestly showed his disapprobation of the league which the Koreish had made against them by sending a worm to eat out every word of the instrument except the name of God. Of this accident The Koreish, finding they could Mahomet had probably some private prevail neither by fair words nor me-notice; for Abu Taleb went immediately naces, tried what they could do by force and ill treatment; using Mahomet's followers so very injuriously, that it was not safe for them to continue at Mecca any longer; whereupon Mahomet gave leave to such of them as had no friends to protect them to seek for refuge elsewhere. And accordingly, in the fifth year of the prophet's mission, sixteen of them, four of whom were women, fled into Ethiopia; and among them Othman Ebn Affan, and his wife In the same year Abu Taleb died at the Rakiah. Mahomet's daughter. This was age of above fourscore; and it is the gethe first flight; but afterwards several neral opinion that be died an infidel; others followed them, retiring, one af- though others say, that when he was at ter another, to the number of eighty- the point of death he embraced Mahothree men, and eighteen women, be- metanism, and produce some passages sides children. These refugees were out of his poetical compositions to conkindly received by the Najashi, or king firm their assertion. About a month, of Ethiopia, who refused to deliver or, as some write, three days after the them up to those whom the Koreish death of this great benefactor and pasent to demand them, and, as the Arabtron, Mahomet had the additional mor

to the Koreish, and acquainted them with it; offering, if it proved false, to deliver his nephew up to them; but, in case it were true, he insisted that they ought to lay aside their animosity, and annul the league they had made against the Hashemites. To this they acquiesced; and, going to inspect the writing, to their great astonishment found it to be as Abu Taleb had said; and the league was thereupon declared void.

tification to lose his wife Khadijah, who || whereas, before, he contented himself had so generously made his fortune. For with persuading them that he had all which reason this year is called the year by the ministry of Gabriel. of mourning.

However, this story seemed so absurd On the death of these two persons. and incredible, that several of his fol. the Koreish began to be more trouble lowers left him upon it; and had prosome than ever to their prophet, and bably ruined the whole design, had not especially some who had formerly been Abu Becr vouched for his veracity, and his intimate friends; insomuch that he declared, that, if Mahomet affirmed it found himself obliged to seek for shelter to be true, he verily believed the whole, elsewhere, and first pitched upon Tayef, Which happy incident not only retrieved about sixty miles east from Mecca, for the prophet's credit, but increased it to the place of his retreat. Thither, there such a degree, that he was secure of fore, he went, accompanied by his ser-being able to make his disciples swallow vant Zeid, and applied himself to two of whatever he pleased to impose on them the chief of the tribe of Thakif, who for the future. And this fiction, notwithwere the inhabitants of that place; but standing its extravagance, was one of they received him very coldly. How the most artful contrivances Mahomet ever, he staid there a month; and some ever put in practice, and what chiefly of the more considerate and better sort contributed to the raising of his reputaof men treated him with little respect,tion to that great height to which it afbut the slaves and inferior people at terwards arrived. length rose against him; and bringing him to the wall of the city, obliged him to depart, and return to Mecca, while he put himself under the protection of Al Motaam Ebn Adi.

This repulse greatly discouraged his followers. However, Mahomet was not wanting to himself; but boldly continued to preach to the public assemblies at the pilgrimage, and gained several proselytes; and among them six of the inhabitants of Yathreb, of the Jewish tribe of Khazraj; who, on their return home, failed not to speak much in recommendation of their new religion, and exhorted their fellow-citizens to embrace the

same.

In this year, called by the Mahome. tans the accepted year, twelve men of Yathreb or Medina, of whom ten were of the tribe of Khazraj, and the other two of that of Aws, came to Mecca, and took an oath of fidelity to Mahomet at Al Akaba, a hill on the north of that city. This oath was called the wman's oath; not that any women were present at this time, but because a man was not thereby obliged to take up arms in defence of Mahomet or his religion; it being the same oath that was afterwards exacted of the women, the form of which we have in the Koran, and is to this effect, viz. That they should renounce all idolatry; and that they should not steal, nor commit fornication, nor kill their children (as the pagan Arabs used to do when they apprehended they should not be able to maintain them,) nor forge calumnies; and that they should obey the prophet in all things that were reasonable. When they had solemnly engaged to all this, Mahomet sent one of his disciples named Masab Ebn Omair home with them, to instruct them more fully in the grounds and ceremonies of his new religion.

In the twelfth year of his mission it was that Mahomet gave out that he had made his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence to heaven, so much spoken of by all that write of him. Dr. Prideax thinks he invented it either to answer the expectations of those who demanded some miracles as a proof of his mission; or else, by pretending to have conversed with God, to establish the authority of whatever he should think fit to leave behind by way of oral tradition, and make his sayings to serve Masab, being arrived at Medina, by the same purpose as the oral law of the the assistance of those who had been Jews. But it does not appear that Ma- formerly converted, gained several prohomet himself ever expected so great selytes, particularly Ösed Ebn Hodeira, a regard should be paid to his sayings a chief man of the city, and Saad Ebn as his followers have since done; and, Moadh, prince of the tribe of Aws; Maseeing he all along disclaimed any powhometanism spreading so fast, that there er of performing miracles, it seems ra. ther to have been a fetch of policy to raise his reputation, by pretending to The next year, being the thirteenth have actually conversed with God in of Mahomet's mission, Masab returned heaven, as Moses had heretofore done to Mecca, accompanied by seventyin the Mount, and to have received sethree men and two women of Medina veral institutions immediately from him, who had professed Islamism, besides

was scarce a house wherein there were not some who had embraced it.