The manner of admission to the monastic life was usually by some change of habit or dress, not to signify any religious mystery, but only to express their gravity and contempt of the world. Long hair was always thought an indecency in men, and savouring of secular vanity; and therefore they polled every monk at his admission, to distinguish him from seculars; but they never shaved any, for fear they should look too like the priests of Isis. This, therefore, was the ancient tonsure, in opposition to both these extremes. As to their habit and clothing, the rule was the same: they were to be decent and grave, as became their profession. The monks of Tabennesus, in Thebais, seem to have been the only monks, in those early days, who were confined to any particular habit. St. Jerome, who often speaks of the habit of the monks, intimates that it differed from others only in this, that it was a cheaper, coarser, and meaner raiment, expressing their humility and contempt of the world, without any singularity or affectation. The father is very severe against the practice of some who appeared in chains or sackcloth. And Cassian blames others who carried wooden crosses continually about their necks, which was only proper to excite the laughter of the spectators. In short, the Western monks used only a common habit, the philosophic pallium, as many other Christians did. And Salvian seems to give an exact description of the habit and tonsure of the monks, when, reflecting on the Africans for their treatment of them, he says, “they could scarce ever see a man with short hair, a pale face, and habited in a pallium, without reviling, and bestowing some reproachful language on him.”
We read of no solemn vow, or profession,required at their admission: but they underwent a triennial probation, during which time they were inured to the exercises of the monastic life. If, after that time was expired, they chose to continue the same exercises, they were then admitted without any further ceremony into the community. This was the method prescribed by Pachomius, the father of the monks of Tabennesus, from which all others took their model.
Nor was there, as yet, any solemn vow of poverty required; though it was customary for men voluntarily to renounce the world by disposing of their estates to charitable uses, before they entered into a community, where they were to enjoy all things in common. Nor did they, after renouncing their own estates, seek to enrich themselves, or their monasteries, by begging, or accepting, the estates of others. The Western monks did not always adhere to this rule, as appears from some Imperial laws made to restrain their avarice. But the monks of Egypt were generally just in their pretensions, and would accept of no donations but for the use of the poor. Some, indeed, did not wholly renounce all property, but kept their estates in their own hands, the whole yearly revenue of which they distributed in charitable uses.
As the monasteries had no standing revenues, all the monks were obliged to exercise themselves in bodily labour to maintain themselves, without being burdensome to others. They had no idle mendicants among them; they looked upon a monk that did not work as no better than a covetous defrauder. Sozomen tells us, that Serapion presided over a monastery of ten thousand monks, near Arsinoë in Egypt, who all laboured with their own hands, by which means they not only maintained themselves, but had enough to relieve the poor.
The monasteries were commonly divided into several parts, and proper officers appointed over each of them. Every ten monks were subject to one, who was called thedecanus, ordean, from his presiding over ten; and every hundred had another officer calledcentenarius, from his presiding over a hundred. Above these were thepatres, or fathers of the monasteries, called likewiseabbates,abbots, from the Greekἄββας, which signifiesfather; andhegumeni(ἡγούμενοι)presidents; andarchimandrites, frommandru, a sheep-fold. The business of the deans was to exact every man’s daily task, and bring it to theœconomus, or steward, who gave a monthly account thereof to the father, or abbot. (SeeAbbot.)
To their bodily exercises they joined others that were spiritual. The first of these was a perpetual repentance. Upon which account the life of a monk is often styled thelife of a mourner. And in allusion to this, the isle of Canopus, near Alexandria, formerly a place of great lewdness, was, upon the translation and settlement of the monks of Tabennesus there, calledInsulæ Metanœæ, theIsle of Repentance.
The next spiritual exercise was extraordinary fasting. The Egyptian monks kept every day a fast till three in the afternoon, excepting Saturdays, Sundays, and the fifty days of Pentecost. Some exercised themselves with very great austerities, fasting two, three, four, or five days together; but this practice was not generally approved. They did not think such excessive abstinence of any use, but rather a disservice to religion. Pachomius’s rule, which was said to be given him by an angel, permitted every man to eat, drink, and labour, according to his bodily strength. So that fasting was a discretionary thing, and matter of choice, not of compulsion.
Their fastings were accompanied with extraordinary and frequent returns of devotion. The monks of Palestine, Mesopotamia, and other parts of the East, had six or seven canonical hours of prayer. Besides which they had their constant vigils, or nocturnal meetings. The monks of Egypt met only twice a day for public devotion; but, in their private cells, whilst they were at work, they were always repeating psalms, and other parts of Scripture, and intermixing prayers with their bodily labour. St. Jerome’s description of their devotion is very lively: “When they are assembled together, (says that father,) psalms are sung, and the Scriptures read: then, prayers being ended, they all sit down, and the father begins a discourse to them, which they hear with the profoundest silence and veneration. His words make a deep impression on them; their eyes overflow with tears, and the speaker’s commendation is the weeping of his hearers. Yet no one’s grief expresses itself in an indecent strain. But when he comes to speak of the kingdom of heaven, of future happiness, and the glory of the world to come, then one may observe each of them, with a gentle sigh, and eyes lifted up to heaven, say within himself, ‘Oh that I had the wings of a dove, for then would I flee away, and be at rest!’” In someplaces, they had the Scriptures read during their meals at table. This custom was first resorted to in the monasteries of Cappadocia, to prevent idle discourses and contentions. But in Egypt they had no occasion for this remedy; for they were taught to eat their meat in silence. Palladius mentions one instance more of their devotion, which was only occasional; namely, their psalmody at the reception of any brethren, or the conducting them with singing of psalms to their habitation.
The laws did not allow monks to interest themselves in any public affairs, either ecclesiastical or civil; and those who were called to any employment in the Church, were obliged to quit their monastery thereupon. Nor were they permitted to encroach upon the duties, or rights and privileges, of the secular clergy.
By the laws of their first institution, in all parts of the East, their habitation was not to be in cities, or places of public concourse, but in deserts, and private retirements, as their very name implied. The famous monk Anthony used to say, “That the wilderness was as natural to a monk, as water to a fish; and therefore a monk in a city was quite out of his element, like a fish upon dry land.” Theodosius enacted, that all who made profession of the monastic life should be obliged by the civil magistrate to betake themselves to the wilderness, as their proper habitation. Baronius, by mistake, reckons this law a punishment, and next to a persecution of the monks. Justinian made laws to the same purpose, forbidding the Eastern monks to appear in cities; but, if they had any business of concern to be transacted there, they might do it by theirApocrisariiorResponsales, that is, their proctors or syndics, which every monastery was allowed for that purpose.
But this rule admitted of some exceptions. As, first, in times of common danger to the faith. Thus Anthony came to Alexandria, at the request of Athanasius, to confute the Arian heresy. Sometimes they thought it necessary to come and intercede with the emperors and judges for condemned criminals. Thus the monks in the neighbourhood of Antioch forsook their cells, to intercede with the emperor Theodosius, who was highly displeased with that city for demolishing the imperial statues. Afterwards, indeed, this practice grew into an abuse, and the monks were not contented to petition, but would sometimes come in great bodies or troops, and deliver criminals by force. To repress which tumultuous way of proceeding, Arcadius published a law, forbidding any such attempts under very severe penalties.
As the monks of the ancient Church were under no solemn vow or profession, they were at liberty to betake themselves to a secular life again. Julian himself was once in the monastic habit. The same is observed of Constans, the son of that Constantine, who, in the reign of Honorius, usurped the empire in Britain. The rule of Pachomius, by which the Egyptian monks were governed, has no mention of any vow at their entrance, nor any punishment for such as deserted their station afterwards.
In process of time, it was thought proper to inflict some punishment on such as returned to a secular life. The civil law excludes deserters from the privilege of ordination. Justinian added another punishment; which was, that if they were possessed of any substance, it should be all forfeited to the monastery which they had deserted. The censures of the Church were likewise inflicted on deserting monks in the fifth century.
MONOPHYSITES. (Fromμόνος,only, andφύσις,nature.) A general name given to all those sectaries in the Levant who only own one nature in our blessedSaviourand who maintain that the Divine and human nature ofJesus Christwere so united as to form only one nature, yet without any change, confusion, or mixture of the two natures. (SeeEutychians.)
MONOTHELITES. Christian heretics in the seventh century, so called from the Greek wordsμόνος(only) andθέλημα(will), because they maintained, that, though there were two natures inJesus Christ, the human and the Divine, there was but one will, which was the Divine.
The author of this sect was Theodore, bishop of Pharan in Arabia, in 626, who first started the question, and maintained that the manhood inChristwas so united to theWord, that, though it had its faculties, it did not act by itself, but the whole act was to be ascribed to theWord, which gave it the motion. Thus, he said, it was the manhood ofChristthat suffered hunger, thirst, and pain; but the hunger, thirst, and pain were to be ascribed to theWord. In short, theWordwas the sole author and mover of all the operations and wills inChrist.
Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, was of the same sentiment; and the emperor Heraclius embraced the party so much the more willingly, as he thought it a means of reconciling some other heretics to the Church.
Pope Martin I. called a council at Rome in 649, upon the question about the two operations and two wills. In this council, at which were present 105 Italian bishops, the doctrine of the Monothelites was generally condemned. The emperor Constans, who looked upon this condemnation as a kind of rebellion, caused Pope Martin to be violently carried away from Rome, and, after most cruel usage, banished him to Chersona.
However, this heresy was finally condemned in the sixth general council, held at Constantinople, under Constantine Pogonatus, in the year 680.
MONTANISTS. Christian heretics, who sprung up about the year 171, in the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. They were so called from their leader, the heresiarch Montanus, a Phrygian by birth, whence they are sometimes styled Phrygians and Cataphrygians.
Montanus, it is said, embraced Christianity in hopes of rising to the dignities of the Church. He pretended to inspiration, and gave out that theHoly Ghosthad instructed him in several points which had not been revealed to the apostles. Priscilla and Maximilla, two enthusiastic women of Phrygia, presently became his disciples, and in a short time he had a great number of followers. The bishops of Asia, being assembled together, condemned his prophecies, and excommunicated those who dispersed them. Afterwards, they wrote an account of what had passed to the Western Churches, where the pretended prophecies of Montanus and his followers were likewise condemned.
The Montanists, finding themselves exposed to the censure of the whole Church, formed a schism, and set up a distinct society, under the direction of those who called themselves prophets. Montanus, in conjunction with Priscilla and Maximilla, was at the head of the sect.
These sectaries made no alteration in the creed. They only held that theHoly Spiritmade Montanus his organ for delivering a more perfect form of discipline than that which was delivered by the apostles. They refused communion for ever to those who were guilty of notorious crimes, and believed that the bishops had no authority to reconcile them. They held it unlawful to fly in time of persecution. They condemned second marriages, allowed the dissolution of marriage, and observed three Lents.
The Montanists became separated into two branches, one of which were the disciples of Proclus, and the other of Æschines. The latter are charged with following the heterodoxy of Praxeas and Sabellius concerning the Trinity. The celebrated Tertullian was a Montanist.
MONUMENT. The memorial placed over the body of a Christian, after his burial in consecrated ground.
The earliest monuments in England which have come down to us are, perhaps, not older than the Norman Conquest; and the most ancient is the simplest form. A stone coffin is covered with a single stone slab, which is also the only recipient of whatever device may be designed to commemorate the tenant of the narrow dwelling over which it closes. So early as the middle of the ninth century, (840,) Kenneth, king of Scotland, made an ordinance that such coffins should be adorned with the sign of the cross, in token of sanctity, on which no one was on any account to tread; and, perhaps, there were none but purely religious emblems employed for some generations after this time. The sign of the cross still continued for centuries the most usual ornament of tombs, but by-and-by it became associated with others which were most of them intended to designate the profession of him whose dust they honoured. Hence we have the crosier and mitre, with perhaps a chalice and paten, upon the tomb of an ecclesiastic, of an abbot, or a bishop; the knight has a sword, and his shield at first plain, but afterwards charged with his arms on his tomb. Sometimes an approach to religious allegory is discovered on monuments even of these very early ages, such as, for instance, the cross or crosier stuck into the mouth of a serpent or cockatrice, indicating the victory of the cross and of the Church over the devil. These, and the like devices, occurring before any attempt at the human figure was made, are in a low relief, or indented outline.
By-and-by the human figure was added, recumbent, and arrayed in the dress of the individual commemorated; and this figure soon rose from low relief to an effigy in full proportions. The knight and the ecclesiastic are now discovered so perfectly attired according to their order and degree, that the antiquary gathers his knowledge of costume from these venerable remains. Some affecting lessons of mortality are now forcibly inculcated by circumstances introduced into the sepulchre; for instance, the figure of the deceased appears nearly reduced to a skeleton, and laid in a shroud; a few instances occur in which the corpse thus represented is below a representation of the living person. Anotherinteresting intimation of the character of the deceased appears in the crossed legs of those who had vowed a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; and the lion is frequently found, as well as the serpent, at the feet of the recumbent figure, perhaps in allusion to the words of the psalmist, “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet.”
All this time the tomb has been gradually increasing in height and in general splendour, the sides are adorned with figures in several compartments, which run into niches or panels, according to the advance of architectural design, and at last they are surmounted with an arch, low at first and little decorated, but afterwards very elaborately wrought into a rich canopy. Religious allegories become more complex on the sides of the tomb, and we have instances of some which have since been borrowed by artists of name, and perhaps accounted new by many; for instance, it is not rare to see a representation of the soul of the dying conveyed to heaven by angels, while the corpse lies upon the litter, and this was a design chosen for the cenotaph of the Princess Charlotte. The relatives of the deceased are sometimes represented by many small statues in the niches; or armorial bearings are introduced, sparing at first, and often, as on the tomb of Lionell Lord Wells, in Methley church, supported on the breasts of angels. Angels also frequently support the head of the recumbent figure, and at the feet are sometimes one or more priests with an open book in their hands. The space in the wall behind the tomb and beneath the canopy allows of allegorical devices, sometimes in fresco, sometimes in mosaic. But what most demands attention are the recumbent figures themselves, generally with both hands raised in the attitude of prayer; or, if they be bishops, with the right hand as if giving a blessing. The effigies of the man and his wife appear always on the same tomb, lying side by side, and in the same pious attitude; a frequently recurring sight, which inspired the lines of Piers Plowman:—
“Knyghts in ther conisance clad for the nones,Alle it semed seyntes ysacred opon erthe,And lovely ladies ywrought leyen by her sides.”
“Knyghts in ther conisance clad for the nones,Alle it semed seyntes ysacred opon erthe,And lovely ladies ywrought leyen by her sides.”
“Knyghts in ther conisance clad for the nones,Alle it semed seyntes ysacred opon erthe,And lovely ladies ywrought leyen by her sides.”
“Knyghts in ther conisance clad for the nones,
Alle it semed seyntes ysacred opon erthe,
And lovely ladies ywrought leyen by her sides.”
And surely there is a beauty and propriety in that character of monuments for Christian men in Christian churches, which could suggest the words,
“Alle it semed seyntes ysacred opon erthe,”
“Alle it semed seyntes ysacred opon erthe,”
“Alle it semed seyntes ysacred opon erthe,”
“Alle it semed seyntes ysacred opon erthe,”
far greater than we recognise in the vain-glorious boastings of success in secular pursuits, perhaps even in sinful undertakings, which cumber church walls. It is a holier thought to remember what was sacred in the Christian man; who, imperfect as he may have been, was yet, as he was a Christian, in some sense a saint, and to embody it in some pious attitude upon his tomb, than to forget everything that is Christian, and to celebrate only the secular or the vicious.
Gorgeous as some of these tombs are, they did not satisfy the splendour of that age, and the canopy swells into an actual chapel, sometimes in the body of the larger church, as that of William of Wykeham, in Winchester, and those of Cardinal Beaufort, and Bishops Waynflete and Fox, in the same cathedral. Sometimes the chapel is a building complete in itself, as that of the Beauchamps, at St. Mary’s church, Warwick, and that of Henry VII. at Westminster.
MORALITIES, MYSTERIES, and MIRACLES. A kind of theatrical representations, which were made by the monks, friars, and other ecclesiastics of the middle ages, the vehicle of instruction to the people. Their general character was the same, but themiraclesmay be distinguished as those which represented the miracles wrought by the holy confessors, and the sufferings by which the perseverance of the martyrs was manifested; of which kind the first specified by name is a scenic representation of the legend of St. Catherine. Themoralitieswere certain allegorical representations of virtues or vices, always so contrived as to make virtue seem desirable, and vice ridiculous and deformed. Themysterieswere representations often of great length, and requiring several days’ performance, of the Scripture narrative, or of several parts of it, as, for instance, the descent ofChristinto hell. Of these mysteries two complete series have lately been published from ancient manuscripts,the Townley Mysteries, performed by the monks of Woodchurch, near Wakefield, and the different leading companies of that town; andthe Coventry Mysteries, performed with like help of the trades in Coventry, by the Grey Friars of that ancient city. Both of these collections begin with the creation, and carry on the story in different pageants or scenes until the judgment-day.
It will not be supposed that these plays are free from the deformities of everyother kind of literature of the times to which they are referred; nor that the performance of them was without a great deal more of the coarseness of an unrefined age than would be tolerated now: neither need it be concealed that the theology therein embodied was sometimes rather Popish than Catholic.
On the whole it may fairly be said, that thesemiracles,mysteries, andmoralities, were wholesome for the times; and that though they afterwards degenerated into actual abuses, yet that they are not to be condemned without measure and without mercy.
Their history and character are interesting, not only as giving a fair picture of the character of remote ages, but also because they seem to be the original from which arose stage plays and oratorios.
As a specimen of these old moralities see in Dodsley’s collection of Old Plays—God’s Promises, by Bale, bishop of Ossory, which dramatizes the leading events of the Sacred History. It was printed in 1538.
MORAVIANS, or UNITED BRETHREN. A sect generally said to have arisen under Nicholas Lewis, count of Zinzendorf, a German nobleman of the last century, and thus called because the first converts to the system were some Moravian families. According to the society’s own account, however, they derive their origin from the Greek Church in the ninth century, when, by the instrumentality of Methodius and Cyrillus, two Greek monks, the kings of Bulgaria and Moravia, being converted to the faith, were, together with their subjects, united in communion with the Greek Church. Methodius was their first bishop, and for their use Cyrillus translated the Scriptures into the Sclavonian language.
It is sometimes supposed that because the Moravians have bishops, they are less to be blamed than other dissenting sects. But, to say nothing of the doubt that exists with respect to the validity of their orders, an episcopal church may be, as the Moravians and Romanists of this country are, in a state of schism. And the very fact that the difference between them and the Church is not great, if this be so, makes the sin of their schism, in not conforming, yet greater.
Though the Brethren acknowledge no other standard of truth than the sacred Scriptures, they in general profess to adhere to the Augsburg Confession of Faith. Both in their Summary of Christian Doctrine, which is used for the instruction of their children, and in their general instructions and sermons, they teach the doctrine of the Trinity; and in their prayers, hymns, and litanies address theFather,Son, andHoly Ghost, in the same manner as is done in other Christian Churches; yet they chiefly direct their hearers toJesus Christ, as the appointed channel of the Deity, in whomGodis known and made manifest unto man. They dwell upon what he has done and suffered, and upon the glorious descriptions given of him as an Almighty Saviour. They recommend love to him, as the constraining principle of the Christian’s conduct; and their general manner is more by beseeching men to be reconciled toGod, than by alarming them with the terrors of the law, and the threatenings against the impenitent, which they, however, do not fail occasionally to set before their hearers. They avoid, as much as possible, everything that would lead to controversy; and though they strongly insist upon salvation by grace alone through faith, yet they will not enter into any explanation, or give any decided opinion, concerning particular election. They have, therefore, been considered by high Calvinists as leaning to Arminianism, and by others as Calvinists; but they themselves decline the adoption of either name, and conceive that the gospel may be preached by both. They profess to believe that the kingdom ofChristis not confined to any party, community, or church; and they consider themselves, though closely united in one body or visible Church, as spiritually joined in the bond of Christian love to all who are taught ofGod, and belong to the universal Church ofChrist, however much they may differ in forms, which they deem non-essentials.
SeeCrantz’s History of the Brethren;Spangenberg’s Exposition of Christian Doctrine;Ratio Disciplinæ Unit. Fratrum, by Loretz, &c.
MORMONISTS, or LATTER DAY SAINTS. The Census Report published in 1854, gives the following account of these enthusiasts. Although, in origin, the Mormon movement is not English, but American, yet, as the new creed, by the missionary zeal of its disciples, has extended into England, and is making some not inconsiderable progress with the poorer classes of our countrymen, it seems desirable to give, as far as the inadequate materials permit, some brief description of a sect, the history of whose opinions, sufferings, and achievements, shows, perhaps, the most remarkable religious movement that has happened since the days of Mahomet.
Joseph Smith, the prophet of the new belief, was born in humble life in 1805, at Sharon in the state of Vermont, from whence in 1815 he removed with his parents to Palmyra, New York. When about 15 years old, being troubled by convictions of his spiritual danger, and perplexed by the multitude of mutually hostile sects, he saw, he says, while praying in a grove, a vision of “two personages,” who informed him that his sins were pardoned, and that all existing sects were almost equally erroneous. This vision was repeated three years afterwards, in 1823, when an angel, he reports, informed him that the American Indians were a remnant of the Israelites, and that certain records, written by the Jewish prophets and containing history and prophecy, had, when the Indians fell into depravity, been buried in the earth at a spot which the angel indicated. Smith was further told, thathehad been selected as the instrument by which these valuable records should be brought to light; the revelations they contained being necessary for the restoration of that purity of creed and worship from which all the modern churches had alike departed.
Accordingly, upon the 22nd of September, 1823, Smith, the story runs, discovered in the side of a hill, about four miles from Palmyra in Ontario County, a stone box, just covered by the earth, in which was deposited the “Record,”—a collection of thin plates of gold, held together by three golden rings. Part of this golden book was sealed, but the portion open to inspection was engraven thickly with “Reformed Egyptian” characters. Together with the book he found two crystal lenses “set in the two rims of a bow,” apparently resembling an enormous pair of spectacles; this instrument he said was the Urim and Thummim used by ancient seers.
The simple inspection of these treasures was the whole extent of Smith’s achievements on his first discovery of them; he was not permitted by the angel to remove them until four years afterwards, on the 22nd of September, 1827. During the interval he received occasional instruction from his supernatural visitant.
The news of his discovery attracted such attention, and procured him so much obloquy, that, according to the narrative of his biographers, he was exposed to personal violence, and was obliged to fly to Pennsylvania, carrying his golden plates concealed in a barrel of beans. When thus in some security, he, by the aid of the Urim and Thummim, set to work upon the translation of the unsealed portion, which, when complete, composed a bulky volume, which he called the “Book of Mormon”—“Mormon” meaning, he explained,more good, from “mor,” a contraction formore, and “mon,” Egyptian forgood. “Mormon,” too, was the name of a supposed prophet living in the fourth or fifth century, who, after the principal portion of the American Israelites had fallen in battle, and the whole of them become degenerate, engraved on plates a summary of their history and prophecies. These plates, his son, Moroni, in the troublous times which followed, hid for safety in a hill then called Cumora, about the yearA. D.420.
Mormons defend the authenticity of this recital, by asserting the improbability that Smith, an illiterate person, could invent it, and, unaided, write so large and peculiar a volume. To the objection that the golden plates are not produced, they give Smith’s own reply to the applications made to him by his disciples for a view—that such an exhibition of them is prohibited by special revelation. Nevertheless, in further proof of Smith’s veracity, three “witnesses” were found to testify that they had actuallyseenthe plates, an angel having shown them; and a similar testimony was borne by eight other “witnesses,”—four of those belonging to a family named Whitmer, and three being the two brothers and the father of Smith. The utmost that Smith did towards allowing access by indifferent parties to the plates, was to give to one of his inquiring followers a copy upon paper of a portion of the plates in the original hieroglyphics, viz. the “Reformed Egyptian.” This was submitted by the yet unsatisfied disciple to Professor Anthon of New York, who, however, did not recognise the characters as those of any ancient language known to him. The Mormon advocates appear to think these evidences irresistible.—Upon the other hand, it is asserted, by opponents of the Mormons, that about the years 1809–12, a person of the name of Solomon Spaulding, who had been a clergyman, conceived and executed the design of writing a religious tale, the scenes and narrative of which should be constructed on the theory that the American Indians were the lost ten tribes of Israel. This work, when finished, he entitled “The Manuscript found;” and the purport of the fiction was, to trace the progress of the tribes from Jerusalem to America, and then describe their subsequent adventures in the latter country,—“Mormon” and his son “Moroni” beingprominent characters, and Nephi, Lehi, and the Lamanites (names frequently occurring in the Book of Mormon) being also mentioned. The MS. of this production, it is further stated, found its way into the hands of one Sidney Rigdon, who was intimately connected with Smith from the commencement of his career.
The “Book of Mormon” was succeeded by a “Book of Doctrine and Covenants,” being a collection of the special revelations made to Smith and his associates upon all points connected with the course and welfare of the Church. This was continually enlarged as further revelations, consequent upon the varying fortunes and requirements of the body, were received. Amongst these was one by which the “Aaronic Priesthood” was revived—another by which baptism by immersion was commanded—a third for the institution of “Apostles”—and others for the temporal regulation of the Church from time to time. In these productions the peculiar phraseology of the sacred Scriptures was profusely imitated.
It appears that at the end of about three years after Smith’s announcement of himself as a prophet, about thirty persons were convinced of the reality of his pretensions, and from this time forward converts rapidly increased. Smith removed to Kirtland in Ohio, and set up a mill, a store, and a bank.
It was not without opposition that this progress was effected. As appears to be usual upon the rise of new religious sects, the Mormons were accused of holding many outrageous and immoral doctrines, and, amongst them, that of a community of wives. The popular hostility was often violently manifested, and the “saints” were subjected to much ill-treatment. Smith himself, in 1832, was tarred and feathered by a midnight mob; and, in the following year, the whole of the Mormons in Missouri (amounting to above a thousand persons) were expelled from Independence, Jackson County, which had been described by Smith as the Zion appointed by revelation for the resting-place of the “saints.” They removed to Clay County, where, in 1837, they were joined by the prophet himself, whose bank in Kirtland had failed. Meantime, the prejudice against the Mormons followed them to their new habitation, and, in 1838, after several sanguinary outbreaks, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were imprisoned, and the whole community of Mormons were expelled from their possessions in Missouri. They took refuge in the neighbouring state of Illinois. Here, in 1839, their prophet, who had managed to escape from prison, joined them. They now numbered 15,000 souls.
In Illinois, they chose the village of Commerce as their residence, which soon became converted into a considerable town, of which the “prophet” was appointed mayor. This town they called Nauvoo, or “Beautiful,” according to the language of the Book of Mormon. A body of militia, called the Nauvoo Legion, was established—Smith being “General.” In 1841, a “revelation” ordered the construction of a splendid temple, towards which object all the Mormons were to contribute a full tithe of their possessions. It is said that they expended on this structure nearly a million of dollars.
In Nauvoo, the Mormons seem to have increased and prospered greatly: the town extended fast; the temple gradually rose; and the prophet was the absolute head of a comparatively powerful community, which hardly recognised the ordinary laws of the state. In 1843 he became a candidate for the presidency, and put forth a statement of his views. In 1844, however, occurred the final catastrophe of his life. A Nauvoo paper, having printed certain scandal of him, was, by order of the council of the town, suppressed, and its office razed; on which, the editors retired to Carthage, and obtained a warrant against Smith and his brother. This warrant Smith refused to recognise: the county force prepared to execute it; and the “saints” prepared their city for defence. To save the town, however, Smith surrendered on the promise of protection from the governor. This promise proved of little value; for, on the 27th of June, 1844, a mob broke into Carthage prison, and Joseph and Hyrum Smith were shot.
Upon the prophet’s death there were two competitors for the vacant supremacy—Sidney Rigdon and Brigham Young. The former was the earliest associate of Smith, and professed to be acquainted with “all his secrets;” but, as the prominent advocate of the “Spiritual Wife” doctrine, he was looked upon with disfavour as the virtual author of much of the suspicion and hostility with which the Mormons were regarded. Brigham Young succeeded therefore to the post of “prophet,” (which he still retains,) and Rigdon was expelled from the community. An interval of scarcely interrupted progress followed, during which the temple was completed; but in 1845 the troubles were renewed: perpetual conflicts, in which blood was shed, occurred, and the city of Nauvooitself was regularly besieged. At length the Mormons, conscious of their inability alone to cope with their antagonists, and seeing that no confidence could be reposed upon the law for their protection, undertook (since nothing less would satisfy their enemies) that they would altogether quit the State—commencing their departure in the spring of 1846.
This time it was no mere temporary, neighbouring refuge which the Mormons sought. The elders of the church, aware of the hostility to which it would be constantly exposed in any portion of the populated States, resolved, with equal policy and daring, to escape entirely from the settled territory, and to seek far off, beyond the Rocky Mountains, some secluded and unoccupied retreat in which they could, secure from molestation, build their earthly “Zion,” and, by gathering thither from all quarters of the world the converts to their faith, become a thriving and a powerful community, too potent to be further interfered with. This remarkable pilgrimage, involving the removal of some thousands of men, women, children, cattle, and stores, over thousands of untrodden miles—across wide unbridged rivers—by the difficult passes of snow-capped mountains—and through deserts, prairies, and tribes of predatory Indians—was at once commenced. A party of pioneers set out from Nauvoo in February, 1846, when it was still winter—the waggons crossing the Mississippi on the ice. These were to prepare the way for the main body of the citizens, who, according to stipulation, might remain in Nauvoo till these preparations were completed. Their departure was, however, hastened by the fresh hostility of their opponents, who—concluding from the progress still continued in the decorations of the temple that the Mormons secretly intended to elude their promise and return—attacked the town in September, 1846, and expelled the whole of its remaining population. These then followed and overtook the pioneering party, which, after dreadful sufferings from cold and heat, from hunger and disease, had, finding it impossible to reach their destination till the following year, encamped upon the banks of the Missouri, on the lands of the Omahas and Pottawatamies. Here they had sown the land to some extent with grain, the crops of which were to be reaped by their successors. After a dreary winter, spent in this location, they began their march towards their final settlement. In April, 1847, the first detachment of 143, with 70 waggons, crossed the Rocky Mountains; arriving at the basin of the Great Salt Lake, in the latter portion of July, in time to sow the land for an autumn crop. The second party started in the summer with 566 waggons and a great supply of grain. The others followed in the course of 1848—their passage much alleviated by the tracks prepared by their predecessors, and the harvests left for them to gather.
The valley of the Great Salt Lake is a territory of considerable extent, enclosed on all sides by high rocky mountains. The Lake itself is nearly 300 miles in circumference, with islands rising from its surface to an elevation of some thousand feet: its shores are covered in some places with the finest salt, and its water is as buoyant as the waves of the Dead Sea. Portions of the land are desert; but a vast expanse is wonderfully fertile, and abounds in all facilities for pasturage and cultivation. Here the Mormons have now firmly fixed themselves, and made, since 1848, continual progress. Further settlements have been established, and several cities founded: that of the Great Salt Lake itself has a plot of several acres, destined to support a temple whose magnificence shall far exceed the splendour of the former Nauvoo edifice. Relying on the inexhaustible resources of the region to sustain innumerable inhabitants, the principal endeavour of the rulers is to gather there as many immigrants as possible, professing the same faith. They calculate that thus, established in an almost inaccessible retreat, with numbers continually augmenting, they will soon be able to defy external enmity, and rear upon a lasting basis their ecclesiastical republic. Missionary agents are despatched to almost every portion of the world to make fresh converts and facilitate their transit to America. In England these endeavours have been followed by no slight success: it is computed that at least as many as 30,000 persons in this country belong to the community, and nearly 20,000 have already, it is said, departed for the Great Salt Lake. This settlement itself has now, by the name of “Utah,” been admitted to the United States’ Confederacy; but it seems, from a report of the judges sent there by the recent President, that the authority of the federal government is virtually set at nought; the laws and their administration being always found accordant with the pleasure of the Mormon rulers.
A printed “Creed” presents the following summary of their opinions, but omits some rather material points:—
“We believe in God the eternal Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
“We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgressions.
“We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
“We believe that these ordinances are: 1st, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2d, Repentance. 3d, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. 4th, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Spirit. 5th, The Lord’s supper.
“We believe that men must be called of God by inspiration, and by laying on of hands by those who are duly commissioned to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
“We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church, viz. apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, &c.
“We believe in the powers and gifts of the everlasting gospel, viz. the gift of faith, discerning of spirits, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, tongues and the interpretation of tongues, wisdom, charity, brotherly love, &c.
“We believe in the word of God recorded in the Bible. We also believe the word of God recorded in the Book of Mormon and in all other good books.
“We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal; and we believe that he will yet reveal many more great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and Messiah’s second coming.
“We believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration of the ten tribes; that Zion will be established upon the Western continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth a thousand years; and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory.
“We believe in the literal resurrection of the body, and that the dead in Christ will rise first, and that the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are expired.
“We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our conscience, unmolested, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how or where they may.
“We believe in being subject to kings, queens, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honouring, and sustaining the law.
“We believe in being honest, true, chaste, temperate, benevolent, virtuous, and upright, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul,—we ‘believe all things,’ we ‘hope all things,’ we have endured very many things, and hope to be able to ‘endure all things.’ Everything virtuous, lovely, praiseworthy, and of good report we seek after, looking forward to the ‘recompence of reward.’”
A rather more specific outline of some points of their belief is given by one of their “apostles.” According to him, the “saints” believe that all mankind, in consequence of Adam’s sin, are in a state of ruin: from this, however, they are all delivered by the sacrifice of Christ, and are made secure of everlasting happiness, unless they commit anyactualsin. Infants, therefore, being irresponsible, will be eternally redeemed; and such among the people of the earth as have not had the benefit of revelation will receive a mitigated punishment. The rest, in order to be saved from endless ruin, must comply with four conditions:—(1.) they mustbelievein Christ’s atonement; (2.) they mustrepentof their transgressions; (3.) they must receivebaptismby immersion for the remission of sins, administered only by one authorized of Christ; and (4.) they must receive thelaying on of handsfor the gift of the Holy Ghost—thisordinance also being, like that of baptism, only to be administered by duly authorized apostles or elders. All who comply with these conditions obtain forgiveness of their sins and are made partakers of the Holy Ghost—enjoying, too, the gifts of prophecy and healing, visions and revelations, and the power of working miracles.
Among the prominent opinions, not included in these statements, are their doctrines of the materiality of the Deity, and of the two-fold order of the priesthood, viz. the Melchisedekian and the Aaronic. They are also charged by their opponents with the practice and the sanction of polygamy; and evidence is not unplentiful of their allowance of something closely similar; and in their various publications very peculiar doctrines on the subject of marriage are propounded. Their standard books, however, specially denounce the crime.
In England and Wales there were, in 1851, reported by the Census officers as many as 222 places of worship belonging to this body—most of them however being merely rooms. The number of sittings in these places (making an allowance for 53, the accommodation in which wasnot returned,) was 30,783. Theattendanceon the Census Sunday (making an estimated addition for 9 chapels from which no intelligence on this point was received) was:Morning, 7,517;Afternoon, 11,481;Evening, 16,628. The preachers, it appears, are far from unsuccessful in their efforts to obtain disciples: the surprising confidence and zeal with which they promulgate their creed—the prominence they give to the exciting topics of the speedy coming of the Saviour and his personal millennial reign—and the attractiveness to many minds of the idea of an infallible church, relying for its evidences and its guidance upon revelations made perpetually to its rulers,—these, with other influences, have combined to give the Mormon movement a position and importance with the working classes, which, perhaps, should draw to it much more than it has yet received of the attention of our public teachers.
MORTAL SIN. (SeeDeadly Sin.)
MORTIFICATION. Any severe penance observed on a religious account. The mortification of sin in believers is a duty enjoined in the sacred Scriptures. (Rom viii. 13; Col. iii. 5.) It consists in breaking the league with sin; declaration of open hostility against it; and strong resistance to it. (Eph. vi. 10, &c.; Gal. v. 24; Rom. viii. 13.)
MORTMAIN. This is where lands are given to some spiritual person or corporation and to their successors; and because the lands were never to revert to the donor, or his heirs, and by that means the services and other profits due for the same were extinct, therefore it was called a giftmortua manu.
The first statute against mortmain was that of Magna Charta, (9 Hen. III. c. 36,) which declares, “that if any one shall give lands to a religious house, the grant shall be void, and the land forfeited to the lord of the fee.” The next was the 7 Edw. I. stat. ii., commonly called the statute “De Religiosis,” which restrained people, at the time of their death or otherwise, from giving or making over any lands or rents to churches or religious houses, without the king’s leave first obtained. This is called the statute of mortmain; but being evaded, the 13 of Edw. I. was passed, and afterwards by the 15 Rich. II. c. 5, it was declared, “that it was within the compass of the statute of Edward I. to convert any land into a churchyard, though it be done with the consent or connivance of the ter-tenant, and confirmed by the pope’s bull.
This last statute extended only to bodies corporate, and, therefore, by the 23 Hen. VIII. c. 10, it is enacted, “that if any grants of lands or other hereditaments should be made in trust to the use of any churches, chapels, churchwardens, guilds, fraternities, &c., to have perpetual obits, or a continual service of a priest for ever, or for sixty or eighty years, or to such like uses or intents, all such uses, intents, and purposes shall be void; they being no corporations, but erected either of devotion, or else by the common consent of the people; and all collateral assurances made for defeating this statute shall be void, and the said statute shall be expounded most beneficially for the destruction of such uses as aforesaid.”
Though the prohibition by the statute of mortmain in the Magna Charta was absolute, yet a royal charter of licence (18 Edw. III. stat. iii. c. 3) afforded relaxation of the restraint, and by the 17 Car. II. c. 3, the following relief was granted:—“Every owner of any impropriations, tithes, or portion of tithes, in any parish or chapelry, may give and annex the same, or any part thereof, unto the parsonage or vicarage of the said parish church or chapel where the same do lie or arise; or settle the same in trust for the benefit of the said parsonage or vicarage, or of the curate and curates there successively, where the parsonage is impropriate and no vicar endowed, without any licence of mortmain.
“And if the settled maintenance of any parsonage, vicarages, churches, and chapels united, or of any other parsonage or vicarage with cure, shall not amount to the full sum of £100 a year clear and above all charges and reprises, it shall be lawful for the parson, vicar, and incumbent of the same, and his successors, to take and purchase to him and his successors lands and tenements, rents, tithes, or other hereditaments, without any licence of mortmain.” This dispensing power was carried so high in the reign of King James II., that by the 1 Wm. III. sess. ii. c. 2, it was enacted, that no dispensation, by “non obstante,” to any statute shall be allowed. By the 7 & 8 Wm. III. c. 37, and 2 & 3 Anne, c. 11, certain relaxations were again made; but by the 9 Geo. II. c. 36, further restraints were imposed, which render it impossible for the Church of England to augment poor livings, under the provisions of 17 Car. II. c. 3, already recited.
By 12 & 13 Vict. c. 49, s. 4, grants of land for sites of schools, not exceeding five acres, made by owners or tenantsin tail are valid, although the grantor die within twelve months.
MORTUARY, (Mortuarium,) in the English ecclesiastical law, is a gift left by a man at his death to his parish church, in recompence of personal tithes omitted to be paid in his lifetime; or, it is that beast, or other cattle, which, after the death of the owner, by the custom of the place, is due to the parson or vicar, in lieu of tithes or offerings forgot, or not well and truly paid by him that is dead.
Selden tells us, it was usual anciently to bring the mortuary along with the corpse, when it came to be buried, and to offer it to the Church as a satisfaction for the supposed negligence and omission the deceased had been guilty of in not paying his personal tithes; and from thence it was called a corpse present.
A mortuary is not properly due to an ecclesiastical incumbent from any but those of his own parish; but by custom, in some places, they are paid to the incumbents of other parishes, when corpses are carried through them. The bishops of Bangor, Landaff, St. David’s, &c. had formerly mortuaries of priests, abolished by 12 Anne, stat. ii. c. 6. And it was customary, in the diocese of Chester, for the bishop to have a mortuary, on the death of every priest dying within the archdeaconry of Chester, of his best beast, saddle and bridle, and best gown or cloak, hat, and upper garment under the gown. By 28 Geo. II. c. 6, mortuaries in the diocese of Chester were abolished, and the rectory of Waverton attached to the see in lieu thereof. By the 21 Hen. VIII. c. 6, mortuaries were commuted into money payments, which were regulated as follows:—“No parson, vicar, curate, parish priest, or other, shall for any person dying or dead, and being at the time of his death of the value in moveable goods of ten marks or more, clearly above his debts paid, and under the sum of £30, take for a mortuary above 3s.4d.in the whole. And for a person dying or dead, being at the time of his death of the value of £30 or above, clearly above his debts paid, in moveable goods, and under the value of £40, there shall no more be taken or demanded for a mortuary, than 6s.8d.in the whole. And for any person dying or dead, having at the time of his death of the value in moveable goods of £40 or above, to any sum whatsoever it be clearly above his debts paid, there shall be no more taken, paid, or demanded for a mortuary, than 10s.in the whole. The Welsh bishoprics and the diocese of Chester were excepted from the operation of this statute, and therefore subsequent acts were passed with respect to them.
MOTETT, in Church music, a short piece of music highly elaborated, of which the subject is taken from the psalms or hymns of the Church. It somewhat resembles our anthems. The derivation is from the ItalianMottetto, a little word or sentence; originally signifying a short epigram in verse; and afterwards applied as now defined, as the words of the Motett properly consist of a short sentence from Holy Scripture.—Jebb.
MOTHER OF GOD. (SeeMariolatry,Virgin Mary,Nestorians.) “The Virgin Mary,” says Pearson on the Creed, “is frequently styled the Mother ofJesusin the language of the evangelists, and by Elizabeth, particularly, theMother of her Lord, as also, by the general consent of the Church, because he which was born of her wasGod, theDeipara: which, being a compound title, begun in the Greek Church, was resolved into its parts by the Latins, and so the Virgin was plainly named theMother of God.”
We admit that the Virgin Mary is the mother ofGod; but we protest against the conclusion that she is, on that account, to be treated with peculiar honour, or to be worshipped; for this expression is used not to exalt her, but to assert unequivocally the Divinity of herSon: He whom she brought forth wasGod, and therefore she is a bringer forth or mother ofGod.
The term was first brought prominently forward at the Council of Ephesus, (A. D.431,) the third of those four general councils, the decisions of which are authoritative in the Church of England; and it was adopted as a formula against the Nestorians. The Nestorian controversy originated thus. In the year 428, Nestorius was bishop of Constantinople, and he had brought with him from Antioch, where he had before resided, a priest named Anastasius, his chaplain and friend; this person, preaching one day in the church of Constantinople, said, “Let no one call Mary mother ofGod, for she was a woman, and it is impossible thatGodshould be born of a human creature.” These words gave great offence to many both of the clergy and laity; for they had always been taught, says the historian Socrates, to acknowledgeJesus ChristasGod, and not to sever him in any way from the Divinity. Nestorius, however, declared his assent to what Anastasius had said, and became,from his high position in the Church, the heresiarch.
When the heresy had spread into Egypt, it was refuted by St. Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, in a pastoral letter, which he published for the direction of his people. “I wonder,” he says, “how a question can be raised, as to whether the Holy Virgin should be called mother ofGod; for if ourLord Jesus ChristisGod, how is not the Holy Virgin, his mother, the mother ofGod? This is the faith we have been taught by the apostles.” He next proves that he who was born of the Virgin Mary isGodin his own nature, since the Nicene Creed says that the only begottenSonofGod, of the same substance with theFather, himself came down from heaven and was incarnate; and then he proceeds, “You will say, perhaps, is the Virgin, then, mother of the Divinity? We answer, It is certain that theWordis eternal, and of the substance of theFather. Now, in the order of nature, mothers, who have no part in the creation of the soul, are still called mothers of the whole man, and not of the body only; for surely it would be a hypercritical refinement to say, Elizabeth is mother of the body of John, and not of his soul. In the same way, therefore, we express ourselves in regard to the birth ofEmmanuel, since theWord, having taken flesh upon him, is calledSonof Man.” In a letter to Nestorius himself he enters into a fuller explanation: “We must admit in the sameChristtwo generations: first, the eternal, by which he proceeds from hisFather; second, the temporal, by which he is born of his mother. When we say that he suffered and rose again, we do not say thatGodtheWordsuffered in his own nature, for the Divinity is impassible; but because the body which was appropriated to him suffered, so also we say that he suffered himself. So too we say he died. The DivineWordis in his own nature immortal. He is life itself; but because his own true body suffered death, we say that he himself died for us. In the same way, when his flesh is raised from the dead, we attribute resurrection to him. We do not say that we adore the man along with theWord, lest the phrase ‘along with’ should suggest the idea of non-identity; but we adore him as one and the same person, because the body assumed by theWordis in no degree external or separated from theWord.”—Conc. Eph.part i. v. 8. “It is in this sense,” he says afterwards, “that the Fathers have ventured to call the Holy Virgin mother ofGod, not that the nature of theWord, or his Divinity, did receive beginning of his existence from the Holy Virgin, but because in her was formed and animated a reasonable soul and a sacred body, to which theWordunited himself in hypostasis, which is the reason of its being said, ‘he was born according to the flesh.’”
It was jealousy for theLord Jesus Christ, and anxiety to maintain his honour, and to assert his Divinity, which influenced the Fathers at the Council of Ephesus, and not any special regard to the creature through whose instrumentality he was brought into the world. And the decisions of that council, because they can be proved to be scriptural, the Church of England accepts. The council vindicated this title, not because it was a high title for Mary, but because to deny it is to deny that he isGodwhom she brought forth. The heresy of Nestorius related to the incarnation or junction of the two natures inChrist, which he affirmed not to be aunion, but merely aconnexion; whereas the object of the Council of Ephesus was to assert “the real and inseparable union of the two natures inChrist, and to show that the human nature, whichChristtook of the Holy Virgin, never subsisted separately from the Divine person of theSonofGod.”
To the use of the term, however, though we contend for its propriety, divines of the Church of England are not partial, because, by the subtilty of the Romish controversialists, it has been so used, or rather misused, as to make it seem to confer peculiar honour and privileges upon the Virgin Mary. The primitive Christians, like ourselves, were contented with speaking of the Virgin as “the mother of myLord;” and this phrase sufficed until, as we have seen, heretics arose who understood the wordLordin an inferior sense, and then it became necessary to assert thatGodandLord, as applied to our blessed Saviour, are synonymous terms. And sound theologians will still occasionally use the term Mother ofGod, lest Nestorianism should be held unconsciously by persons who wish to be orthodox, and people forget the great truth expressed by St. Paul, that “Godpurchased the Church with his own blood;” and thatChristis “over all,Godblessed for ever.”
The Council of Ephesus caused the Nicene Creed, and several passages out of St. Cyprian, St. Basil, Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, and many others, to be read in council. And from them they gathered,and therefore pronounced, that according to the Scriptures, as interpreted by the catholic Church, Christ, though he have two natures, yet he is but one person, and by consequence that the Virgin Mary might properly be calledΘεοτόκος, because the same person who was born of her is trulyGodas well as man: which being once determined by an universal council to be the true sense and meaning of the Scriptures in this point, hath been acknowledged by the universal Church ever since, till this time.—Bishop Beveridge.
MOULDING. An ornamental form given to angles and edges of masonry or wood-work, and carried uniformly along a considerable extent. The use of mouldings must commence with the earliest attempts at ornament in masonry or carpentry. The Saxon mouldings, so far as we can collect from existing specimens, were extremely rude and simple; but with the Norman mouldings the case is precisely the reverse, so far, at least, as simplicity is concerned: for though the mouldings themselves may be resolved into a very few forms and combinations, they were often either treated as if themselves broken and mitred together at various angles, as in the case of the chevron and embattled mouldings; or they were themselves decorated with forms not of their own nature, as the medallion, beak head, and other like mouldings, which are however, strictly speaking, rather decorations of mouldings, than themselves mouldings. It would far exceed our limits to describe the several mouldings of the succeeding styles. We must be content with saying, in general, that in the Early English they reached their greatest complexity and depth, and that they gradually became less numerous, and shallower, to the Perpendicular; the happy mean being reached in this, as in almost everything else, in the Geometrical. The particular mouldings, which may be said to be distinctive of a style, are chiefly the ogee, in several of its forms, of the Decorated; the scroll of the Decorated, with the later Geometric; the wide and shallow casement or hollow of the Perpendicular. The hollows, in the Early English, usually separate single mouldings, in the Decorated groups of mouldings. The earlier mouldings, as Norman and Early English, generally occupy the planes of the wall and of the soffit; the later, especially Perpendicular, the chamfer plane only. To be at all appreciated, the subject of mouldings must be studied in the “Oxford Glossary,” or in Paley’s “Manual of Gothic Mouldings;” and to be mastered, it must be pursued, pencil in hand, in our ancient ecclesiastical edifices.
MOVEABLE and IMMOVEABLE FEASTS. The feasts kept in the Christian Church are called moveable and immoveable, according as they fall always on the same day in the calendar in each year,—as the saints’ days; or depend on other circumstances,—as Easter, and the feasts calculated from Easter. The Book of Common Prayer contains several tables for calculating Easter, and the following rules to know when the moveable feasts and holy-days begin:
“Easter Day, on which the rest depend, is always the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon, or next after, the twenty-first day of March; and if the full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after.
“Advent Sunday is always the nearest Sunday to the feast of St. Andrew, whether before or after.
MOYER’S LECTURE. A lecture established by Lady Moyer. The following is an extract from the will of the Lady Moyer, or, as she is therein styled, “Dame Rebecca Moyer, late of the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, in the county of Middlesex, widow.”
“My now dwelling-house in Bedford Row, or Jockey Field, I give to my dear child Eliza Moyer, that out of it may be paid twenty guineas a year to an able minister ofGod’sword, to preach eight sermons every year on the Trinity and Divinity of our ever-blessedSaviour, beginning with the first Thursday in November, and to the first Thursday in the seven sequel months, in St. Paul’s, if permitted there, or, if not, elsewhere, according to the discretion of my executrix, who will not think it any encumbrance to her house. I am sure it will bring a blessing on it, if that work be well and carefully carried on, which in this profligate age is so neglected. If my said daughter should leave no children alive at her death, or they should die before they come to age, then I give my said house to my niece, Lydia Moyer, now wife to Peter Hartop, Esq., and to her heirs after her, she alwaysproviding for that sermon, as I have begun, twenty guineas every year.”
There is a list of the preachers of this lecture at the end of Mr. John Berriman’s “Critical Dissertation on 1 Tim. iii. 16,” (which is the substance of the lectures he preached,) down to the year 1740–1: and in a copy of that book in Sion College library, there is a continuation of the list in MS., by Mr. John Berriman, to the year 1748. In the year 1757, they were preached by Mr. William Clements, librarian of Sion College, but he did not publish them till 1797. In the year 1764, or thereabouts, the preacher was Benjamin Dawson, LL.D., who printed them under the title of “An Illustration of several Texts of Scripture, particularly wherein the Logos occurs, 1765.” Dr. Thomas Morell, author of the “Thesaurus Græcæ, Poeseos,” is supposed to have been the last. Mr. Watts, librarian of Sion College, (to whom the reader is indebted for the information here given,) heard him preach one of them in January, 1773. One of these lectures Dr. Morell published,without his name, in April, 1774. It was written against Lindsey, and entitled “The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity justified.” In the “Gentleman’s Magazine for 1804,” p. 187, mention is made of a Mrs. Moyer, who “died at Low Layton, February, 1804, the widow of Benjamin Moyer, Esq., son of Lawrence Moyer, merchant, who succeeded as heir of his uncle, Sir Samuel Moyer, a rich Turkey merchant, sheriff of Essex in 1698; Bart., 1701; died, 1716. His widow Rebecca, sister of Sir William Jolliffe, Knt., founded the lecture for a limited number of years.” This does not, however, appear to have been the case, no limitations being mentioned in Lady Moyer’s will. But since there is no compulsory obligation in the will to perpetuate the lecture, the probability is that, in course of time, (perhaps immediately after Dr. Morell’s turn expired,) the property fell into other hands, and the lecture was no longer continued.
MOZARABIC LITURGY. The ancient liturgy of Spain; the name Mozarabic signifying those Christians who were mixed with, or lived in the midst of, Arabs, or Moors. Mr. Palmer considers that this liturgy was derived at a very early age from that of Gaul, which it much resembles. It was abolished in 1060 in Arragon, but was not for some time afterwards relinquished in Navarre, Castile, and Leon. Cardinal Ximenes founded a college and chapel in Toledo for the celebration of this rite: the only place perhaps in Spain where it is preserved.—Palmer’s Origin. Liturg.
MOZECTA, MUZECTA, MOZZETTO. An ecclesiastical vestment, like the bishop’s colobrium or tunicle, worn by the canons in certain cathedrals of Sicily.—Peiri Sicilia Sacra.
MULLION, more correctlyMonial. The upright bars dividing a traceried window into lights.
MUSIC, as connected with the Church service, is sometimes used in a peculiar and technical sense, to signify the accompaniment of a band of instrumental music, as violins and wind instruments, not the organ only. A servicein musicabroad is understood in this sense. These kind of accompaniments are foreign to the genuine spirit of the Church of England, which, as a general rule, recognises the organ only. Charles II. introduced the foreign style of music into his chapel, which, however, was but short-lived. Evelyn in his Memoirs, (Dec. 22, 1662,) speaking of the service at the Chapel Royal when he was present, says, “Instead of the ancient, grave, and solemn wind music accompanying the organ, was introduced a concert of 24 violins between every pause, after the French fantastical light way, better suiting a tavern or a play-house than a church.” The only stated musical service in the Church was that performed annually a few years since at the feast of the sons of the clergy at St. Paul’s. The instrumental accompaniments are now laid aside. At what are called musical festivals the service is so accompanied.
MUSIC TABLE. A sort of Lectern, with three sides, round which the choir were placed, in the middle of Bishop Andrewes’s chapel; as appears by the plan given inCanterbury’s Doom, 1646.
MYNCHERY. A nunnery. A corruption of ministere, or minster.
MYSTERY. (Fromμύειν τὸ στόμα,to shut the mouth; henceμυστήριον,mystery.) Something secret, hidden from human comprehension, or revealed only in part. The term is applied both to doctrines and facts. By the usage of the Church it also denotes that inscrutable union in the sacrament of the inward and spiritual grace with the outward and visible sign. Hence in the early Church the sacraments were denominated “mysteries,” and the term derived a still greater force, from the secrecy which was observed in the administration of those ordinances. More especially, however, was the holy communion thus designated, as we learn from the ancient Fathers, who speak repeatedly ofthe “sacred” and “tremendous mysteries,” in allusion to this sacrament. With this application, the term appears in our own Communion Office, whereChristis said to have “instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of his love, and for a continual remembrance of his death.” We are also exhorted so to prepare ourselves, that we may be “meet partakers of those holy mysteries;” and after their reception, thanks are rendered toGod, that he has vouchsafed to “feed us who have duly received these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of hisSon, ourSaviour, Jesus Christ.”