been a disciple of Simon Magus, and himself a reputed magician. of Mendicants, as Gregory called them, were reduced to a smaller number, and confined to the four following societies or denominations, viz. the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Augustins, or hermits of St. Augustin. As the pontiffs allowed these four Mendicant orders the liberty of travelling wherever they thought proper, of conversing with persons of every rank, of instructing the youth and multitude wherever they went; and as those monks exhibited, in their outward ap He taught, that no person could be saved unless he were baptised in his name; and he conferred a peculiar sort of baptism, which would render those who received it immortal in the next world; exhibiting himself to the world with the phrenzy of a lunatic more than the founder of a sect as a promised saviour; for it appears by the testimonies of Irenæus, Justin, and Tertullian, that he pretended to be one of the cons sent from the pleroma, or ecclesiastical regions, to succour the souls that lay groan-pearance and manners of life, more ing under bodily oppression and servitude; and to maintain them against the violence and stratagems of the dæmons that hold the reins of empire in this sublunary world. As this doctrine was built upon the same foundation with that of Simon Magus, the ancient writers looked upon him as the instructor of Menander. See SIMONIANS. MENDICANTS, or BEGGING FRIARS, several orders of religious in popish countries, who, having no settled revenues, are supported by the charitable contributions they receive from others. striking marks of gravity and holiness than were observable in the other monastic societies, they rose all at once to the very summit of fame, and were regarded with the utmost esteem and veneration through all the countries of Europe. The enthusiastic attachment to these sanctimonious beggars went so far, that, as we learn from the most authentic records, several cities were divided or cantoned out into four parts, with a view to these four orders: the first part being assigned to the Dominicans, the second to the Franciscans, the third to the Carmelites, and the This sort of society began in the fourth to the Augustins. The people thirteenth century, and the members of were unwilling to receive the sacrait, by the tenor of their institution, were ments from any other hands than to remain entirely destitute of all fix- those of the Mendicants, to whose ed revenues and possessions; though in churches they crowded to perform process of time their number became a || their devotions while living, and were heavy tax upon the people. Innocent extremely desirous to deposit there III. was the first of the popes who per- also their remains after death. Nor ceived the necessity of instituting such did the influence and credit of the Menan order; and accordingly he gave such dicants end here; for we find in the hismonastic societies as made a profession tory of this and of the succeeding ages, of poverty, the most distinguishing that they were employed not only in marks of his protection and favour. spiritual matters, but also in temporal They were also encouraged and patron- and political affairs of the greatest conized by the succeeding pontiffs, when sequence, in composing the differences experience had demonstrated their pub- of princes, concluding treaties of peace, lic and extensive usefulness. But when concerting alliances, presiding in cabinet it became generally known that they councils, governing courts, levying taxes, had such a peculiar place in the es- and other occupations, not only remote teem and protection of the rulers of the from, but absolutely inconsistent with church, their number grew to such an the monastic character and profession. enormous and unwieldy multitude, and However, the power of the Dominicans swarmed so prodigiously in all the Eu- and Franciscans greatly surpassed that ropean provinces, that they became a of the other two orders, insomuch that burden, not only to the people, but to these two orders were, before the rethe church itself. The great inconve- formation, what the Jesuits have been nience that arose from the excessive since that happy and glorious period; multiplication of the Mendicant orders the very soul of the hierarchy, the enwas remedied by Gregory X., in a ge- gines of the state, the secret springs of neral council which he assembled at all the motions of the one and the other, Lyons in 1272; for here all the religious and the authors and directors of every orders that had sprung up after the great and important event, both in the council held at Rome in 1215, under the religious and political world. By very pontificate of Innocent III. were sup- quick progression their pride and conpressed; and the extravagant multitude sequence arrived at such a pitch, that Among the number of Mendicants are also ranked the Capuchins, Recollects, Minims, and others, who are branches or derivations from the former. Buchanan tells us, the Mendicants in Scotland, under an appearance of beggary, lived a very luxurious life; whence one wittily called them not Mendicant, but Manducant friars. they had the presumption to declare || ces, and expressed a like abhorrence of publicly, that they had a divine impulse certain eminent and learned men, who and commission to illustrate and main-endeavoured to open the paths of science tain the religion of Jesus. They treated to the pursuits of the studious youth, rewith the utmost insolence and contempt commended the culture of the mind, all the different orders of the priest- and attacked the barbarism of the age hood; they affirmed, without a blush, in their writings and discourses. Their that the true method of obtaining sal- general character, together with other vation was revealed to them alone; circumstances, concurred to render a proclaimed with ostentation the supe- reformation desirable, and to accomplish rior efficacy and virtue of their indul- || this happy event. gences; and vaunted beyond measure their interest at the court of heaven, and their familiar connexions with the Supreme Being, the Virgin Mary, and the saints in glory. By these impious wiles they so deluded and captivated the miserable, and blinded the multitude, that they would not intrust any other but the Mendicants with the care of their souls. They retained their credit and influence to such a degree towards the close of the fourteenth century, that great numbers of both sexes, some in health, others in a state of infirmity, others at the point of death, earnestly desired to be admitted into the Mendicant order, which they looked upon as a sure and infallible method of rendering heaven propitious. Many made it an essential part of their last wills, that their bodies after death should be wrapped in old ragged Dominican or Franciscan habits, and interred among the Mendicants. For such was the barbarous superstition and wretched ignorance of this age, that people universally believed they should readily obtain mercy from Christ at the day of judgment, if they appeared before his tribunal associated with the Mendicant friars. About this time, however, they fell under an universal odium; but, being resolutely protected against all opposition, whether open or secret, by the popes, who regarded them as their best friends, and most effectual supports, they suffered little or nothing from the efforts of their numerous adversaries. In the fifteenth century, besides their arrogance, which was excessive, a quarrelsome and litigious spirit prevailed among them, and drew upon them justly the displeasure and indignation of many. By affording refuge at this time to the Beguins in their order, they became offensive to the bishops, and were hereby involved in difficulties and perplexities of various kinds. They lost their credit in the sixteenth century by their rustic impudence, their ridiculous superstitions, their ignorance, cruelty, and brutish manners. They discovered the most barbarous aversion to the arts and scien MENNONITES, a sect in the United Provinces, in most respects the same with those in other places called Anabaptists. They had their rise in 1536, when Menno Simon, a native of Friesland, who had been a Romish priest, and a notorious profligate, resigned his rank and office in the Romish church, and publicly embraced the communion of the Anabaptists. Menno was born at Witmarsum, a village in the neighbourhood of Bolswert, in Friesland, in the year 1505, and died in 1561, in the duchy of Holstein, at the country-seat of a certain nobleman, not far from the city of Oldesloe, who, moved with compassion by the view of the perils to which Menno was exposed, and the snares that were daily laid for his ruin, took him, with certain of his associates, into his protection, and gave him an asylum. The writings of Menno, which are almost all composed in the Dutch language, were published in folio at Amsterdam, in the year 1651. About the year 1537, Menno was earnestly solicited by many of the sect with which he connected himself, to assume among them the rank and functions of a public teacher; and, as he looked upon the persons who made this proposal to be exempt from the fanatical phrenzy of their brethren at Munster (though according to other accounts they were originally of the same stamp, only rendered somewhat wiser by their sufferings) he yielded to their entreaties. From this period to the end of his life he travelled from one country to another with his wife and children, exercising his ministry, under pressures and calamities of various kinds, that succeeded each other without interruption, and constantly exposed to the danger of falling a victim to the severity of the laws. East and West Friesland, together with the province of Gronigen, were first visited by this zealous apostle of the Anabaptists; from whence he directed his course into Holland, Guelderland, Brabant and Westphalia; continued it through the German provinces that lie on the coast of the Baltic sea, and penetrated so far as Livonia. In all these places his ministerial labours were attended with remarkable success, and added to his sect a prodigious number of followers. Hence he is deservedly considered as the common chief of almost all the Anabaptists, and the parent of the sect that still subsists under that denomination. Menno was a man of genius, though not of a very sound judgment: he possessed a natural and persuasive eloquence, and such a degree of learning as made him pass for an oracle in the estimation of the multitude. He appears, moreover, to have been a man of probity, of a meck and tractable spirit, gentle in his manners, pliable and obsequious in his commerce with persons of all ranks and characters, and extremely zealous in promoting practical religion and virtue, which he recommended by his example as well as by his precepts. The plan of doctrine and discipline drawn up by Menno was of a much more mild and moderate nature than that of the furious and fanatical Anabaptists (whose tumultuous proceedings have been recited under that article,) but somewhat more severe, though more clear and consistent than the doctrine of the wiser branches of that sect, who aimed at nothing more than the restoration of the Christian church to its primitive purity. Accordingly, he condemned the plan of ecclesiastical discipline that was founded on the prospect of a new kingdom, to be miraculously established by Jesus Christ on the ruins of civil government, and the destruction of human rulers, and which had been the fatal and pestilential source of such dreadful commotions, such execrable rebellions, and such enormous crimes. He declared publicly his dislike of that doctrine which pointed out the approach of a marvelous reformation in the church by the means of a new and extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit. He expressed his abhorrence of the licentious tenets which several of the Anabaptists had maintained with respect to the lawfulness of polygamy and divorce; and, finally, considered as unworthy of toleration those fanatics who were of opinion, that the Holy Ghost continued to descend into the minds of many chosen believers, in as extraordinary a manner as he did at the first establishment of the Christian church, and that he testified his peculiar presence to several of the faithful, by miracles, predictions, dreams, and visions of various kinds. He retained, indeed, the doctrines commonly received among the Anabaptists, in relation to the baptism of infants; the millennium, or one thousand years' reign of Christ upon earth; the exclusion of magistrates from the Christian church; the abolition of war; and the prohibition of oath enjoined by our Saviour; and the vanity, as well as the pernicious effects of human science. But while Menno retained these doctrines in a general sense, he explained and modified them in such a manner as made them resemble the religious tenets that were universally received in the Protestant churches; and this rendered them agreeable to many, and made them appear inoffensive even to numbers who had no inclination to embrace them. It, however, so happened, that the nature of the doctrines considered in themselves, the eloquence of Menno, which set them off to such advantage, and the circumstances of the times, gave a high degree of credit to the religious system of this famous teacher among the Anabaptists, so that it made a rapid progress in that sect. And thus it was in consequence of the ministry of Menno, that the different sorts Anabaptists agreed together in excluding from their communion the fanatics that dishonoured it, and in renouncing all tenets that were detrimental to the authority of civil government, and by an unexpected coalition formed themselves into one community. Though the Mennonites usually pass for a sect of Anabaptists, yet M. Herman Schyn, a Mennonite minister, who has published their history and apology, maintains, that they are not Anabaptists either by principle or origin. However, nothing can be more certain than this fact, viz. that the first Mennonite congregations were composed of the different sorts of Anabaptists; of those who had been always inoffensive and upright, and of those who, before their conversion by the ministry of Menno, had been seditious fanatics; besides, it is alleged, that the Mennonites do actually retain at this day some of those opinions and doctrines which led the seditious and turbulent Anabaptists of old to the commission of so many and such enormous crimes; such partícularly is the doctrine Y y concerning the nature of Christ's king- || the rigid Mennonites are gradually ap dom, or of the church of the New Tes- proaching towards the opinions and distament, though modified in such a man- cipline of the more moderate, or Waterner as to have lost its noxious qualities,|| landians. and to be no longer pernicious in its influence. rigorous laws of Menno and his successors were in various respects mitigated and corrected. See ANABAPTISTS. The first settlement of the Mennonites in the United Provinces was grantThe Mennonites are subdivided into ed them by William, prince of Orange, several sects, whereof the two principal towards the close of the sixteenth cenare the Flandrians, or Flemingians, tury; but it was not before the followand the Waterlandians. The opinions, ing century that their liberty and transays Mosheim, that are held in common quillity, were fixed upon solid foundaby the Mennonites, seem to be all deriv- tions, when, by a confession of faith pubed from this fundamental principle,-lished in the year 1626, they cleared that the kingdom which Christ esta- themselves from the imputations of blished upon earth is a visible church, those pernicious and detestable errors or community, into which the holy and that had been laid to their charge. In just alone are to be admitted; and order to appease their intestine diswhich is consequently exempt from all cords, a considerable part of the Anathose institutions and rules of disci- baptists of Flanders, Germany, and pline that have been invented by hu- Friesland, concluded their debates in a man wisdom for the correction and re- conference held at Amsterdam in the formation of the wicked. This prin- year 1630, and entered into the bonds of ciple, indeed, was avowed by the an- fraternal communion, each reserving to cient Mennonites, but it is now almost themselves a liberty of retaining certain wholly renounced: nevertheless, from opinions. This association was renewed this ancient doctrine many of the reli- and confirmed by new resolutions in the gious opinions that distinguish the Men-year 1649; in consequence of which the nonites from all other Christian communities seem to be derived. In consequence of this doctrine, they admit none to the sacrament of baptism but MEN OF UNDERSTANDING. persons that are come to the full use This title distinguished a denomination of their reason; they neither admit which appeared in Flanders and Bruscivil rulers into their communion, nor sels in the year 1511. They owed their allow any of their members to perform origin to an illiterate man, whose name the functions of magistracy; they deny was Egidius Cantor, and to William of the lawfulness of repelling force by Hildenison, à Carmelite monk. They force; and consider war, in all its shapes, pretended to be honoured with celestial as unchristian and unjust: they enter-visions, denied that any could arrive at tain the utmost aversion to the exe- perfect knowledge of the Holy Scripcution of justice, and more especially tures without the extraordinary sucto capital punishments: and they also cours of a divine illumination, and derefuse to confirm their testimony by clared the approach of a new revelaan oath. The particular sentiments tion from heaven, more perfect than the that divided the more considerable so- Gospel of Christ. They said that the cieties of the Mennonites, are the fol- resurrection was accomplished in the lowing: The rigid Mennonites, called person of Jesus, and no other was to be the Flemingians, maintain with various expected; that the inward man was not degrees of rigour the opinions of their defiled by the outward actions, whatfounder, Menno, as to the human naever they were; that the pains of hell ture of Christ, alleging that it was were to have an end; and not only all produced in the womb of the Virgin mankind, but even the devils themby the creating power of the Holy selves were to return to God, and be Ghost; the obligation that binds us to made partakers of eternal felicity. They wash the feet of strangers, in conse- also taught among other things, that quence of our Saviour's command: the Christ alone had merited eternal life necessity of excommunicating and avoid- and felicity for the human race; and ing, as one would do the plague, not that therefore men could not acquire only avowed sinners, but also all those this inestimable privilege by their own who depart, even in some light in- actions alone that the priests to whom stances pertaining to dress, &c. from the people confessed their trangressions, the simplicity of their ancestors; the had not the power of absolving them, but contempt due to human learning; and this authority was vested in Christ alone other matters of less moment. How--that voluntary penance and mortifica. ever, this austere system declines, and tion was not necessary to salvation. This denomination appears to have been a branch of the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit. MERCY is that disposition of mind -which excites us to pity and relieve those who are in trouble, or to pass by their crimes without punishing them. It is distinguished from love, thus: The object of love is the creature simply; the object of mercy is the creature fallen into misery. Parents love their children simply as they are their children; but if they fall into misery, love works in a way of pity and compassion: love is turned into mercy. mercy too. "Mercy must be distinguished from those weaknesses of a natural temper which often put on the appearance of it. With regard to criminals or delinquents, it is false compassion to suppress the salutary admonition, and refuse to set their guilt before them, merely because the sight of it will give their conscience pain: such unseasonable tenderness in a surgeon may prove the death of his patient: this, however it may appear, is not mercy, but cruelty. So is that fondness of a parent that withholds the hand of discipline from a beloved child, when its frowardness and faults render "As we are all the objects of mercy seasonable and prudent correction nein one degree or another, the mutual cessary to save it from ruin. In like exercise of it towards each other is ne- manner, when a magistrate, through cessary to preserve the harmony and excessive clemency, suffers a criminal happiness of society. But there are who is a pest to society to escape unthose who may be more particularly punished, or so mitigates the sentence considered as the objects of it; such as of the law as to put it into his power to the guilty, the indigent, and the misera- || do still greater hurt to others, he vioble. As it respects the guilty, the great- lates not only the laws of justice, but of est mercy we can show to them is to endeavour to reclaim them, and prevent "Mercy to the indigent and necesthe bad consequences of their miscon- sitous has been no less abused and perduct, James v. 20. Mercy may also be verted by acts of mistaken beneficence, shown to them by a proper mitigation when impudence and clamour are perof justice, and not extending the punish-mitted to extort from the hand of chament beyond the nature or desert of rity that relief which is due to silent the crime. With regard to those who distress and modest merit; or when one are in necessity and want, mercy calls object is lavishly relieved to the detriupon us to afford the most suitable and ment of another who is more deserving. seasonable supplies; and here our bene- As it respects those who are in tribulafactions must be dispensed in propor- tion or misery, to be sure, every such tion to our circumstances, and the real person is an object of our compassion; distress of the object, 1 John iii. 17. As but that compassion may be, and often to those who are in misery and distress, is, exercised in a wrong manner. Some mercy prompts us to relieve and com- are of so tender a make, that they canfort them by doing what we can to re- not bear the sight of distress, and stand move or alleviate their burdens. Our aloof from a friend in pain and affliction, Lord strongly recommended this act of || because it affects them too sensibly, mercy in the parable of the man who when their presence would at least give fell among thieves, and was relieved by them some little comfort, and might the poor Samaritan: and in the conclu- possibly administer lasting relief. This sion he adds, "Go and do thou likewise,' weakness should be opposed, because it Luke x. 30-37. not only looks like unkindness to our "This merciful temper will show and friends, but is really showing more tenexert itself not only towards those of derness to ourselves than to them: nor our own party and acquaintance, but to is it doing as we would be done by. the whole human species; and not only Again; it is false pity, when, out of to the whole human species, but to the mere tenderness of nature, we either animal creation. It is a degree of inhu-advise or permit our afflicted friend to manity to take a pleasure in giving any thing pain, and more in putting useful animals to extreme torture for our own sport. This is not that dominion which God originally gave to man over the beasts of the field. It is, therefore, an usurped authority, which man has no right to exercise over brute creatures,|| which were made for his service, convenience, support, and ease; but not for the gratification of unlawful passions, or cruel dispositions. take or do any thing which will give him a little present transient ease, but which we know at the same time will increase his future pain, and aggravate the symptoms of his disease." Seeing, therefore, the extremes to which we are liable, let us learn to cultivate that wisdom and prudence which are necessary to regulate this virtue. To be just without being cruel, and merciful without being weak, should be our constant |