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which Jesus Christ has delivered by his death. This year Luther had occasion to canonize two of his followers, who, as Melchior Adam relates, were burnt at Brussels, in the beginning of July, and were the first who suffered martyrdom for his doctrine. He wrote also a consolatory letter to three noble ladies at Misnia, who were banished from the duke of Saxony's court at Friburg, for reading his books.

In the beginning of the year 1524, Clement VII. sent a legate into Germany to the diet which was to be held at Nuremberg. Hadrian VI. died in October 1523, and was succeeded by Clement upon the 19th of November. A little before his death, he canonized Benno, who was bishop of Meissen, in the time of Gregory VII. and one of the most zealous defenders of the holy see. Luther, imagining that this was done directly to oppose him, drew up a piece with this title, Against the new idol and old devil set up at Meissen, in which he treats the memory of Gregory with great freedom, and does not spare even Hadrian. Clement VII's legate represented to the diet of Nuremberg the necessity of enforcing the execution of the edict of Worms, which had been strangely neglected by the princes of the empire; but, notwithstanding the legate's solicitations, which were very pressing, the decrees of that diet were thought so ineffectual, that they were condemned at Rome, and rejected by the emperor. In October, 1524, Luther flung off the monastic habit; which, though not premeditated and designed, was yet a very proper preparative to a step he took the year after: we mean his marriage with Catherine de Bore.

|| rect, and aid them in doing it. The emperor threatened temporal punishment with armies, and the pope eternal with bulls and anathemas; but Luther cared for none of their threats.

In the year 1533, Luther wrote a consolatory epistle to the citizens of Oschatz, who had suffered some hardships for adhering to the Augsburg confession of faith; in which, among other things, he says, "The devil is the host, and the world is his inn; so that wherever you come, you will be sure to find this ugly host." He had also about this time a terrible controversy with George duke of Saxony, who had such an aversion to Luther's doctrine, that he obliged his subjects to take an oath that they would never embrace it. However, sixty or seventy citizens of Leipsic were found to have deviated a little from the Catholic way in some point or other, and they were known previously to have consulted Luther about it; upon which George complained to the Elector John, that Luther had not only abused his person, but also preached up rebellion among his subjects. The elector ordered Luther to be acquainted with this; and to be told, at the same time, that if he did not acquit himself of this charge, he could not possibly escape punishment. But Luther easily refuted the accusation, by proving, that he had been so far from stirring up his subjects against him on the score of religion, that, on the contrary, he had exhorted them rather to undergo the greatest || hardships, and even suffer themselves to be banished.

In the year 1534, the Bible, translated by him into German, was first printed, as the old privilege, dated Bibliopolis, His marriage, however, did not retard under the elector's hand, shows; and it his activity and diligence in the work of was published the same year. He also reformation. He revised the Augs-published this year a book against burg confession of faith, and apology for the Protestants, when the Protestant religion was first established on a firm basis. See PROTESTANTS and REFOR

MATION.

After this, Luther had little else to do than to sit down and contemplate the mighty work he had finished; for that a single monk should be able to give the church so rude a shock, that there needed but such another entirely to overturn it, may very well seem a mighty work. He did indeed, little else; for the remainder of his life was spent in exhorting princes, states, and universities, to confirm the reformation which had been brought about through him; and publishing from time to time such writings as might encourage, di

masses, and the consecration of priests, in which he relates a conference he had with the devil upon those points; for it is remarkable in Luther's whole history, that he never had any conflicts of any kind within, but the devil was always his antagonist. In February, 1537, an assembly was held at Smalkald about matters of religion, to which Luther and Melancthon were called. At this meeting Luther was seized with so grievous an illness, that there were no hopes of his recovery. He was afflicted with the stone, and had a stoppage of urine for eleven days. In this terrible condition he would needs undertake to travel, notwithstanding all that his friends could say or do to prevent him: his resolution, however, was attended with a

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they had shown in this lie, wrote a book at the same time to prove, that "the papacy was founded by the devil."

good effect; for the night after his departure he began to be better. As he was carried along he made his will, in which he bequeathed his detestation of Lutheranism has undergone some alpopery to his friends and brethren; terations since the time of its founder. agreeably to what he used to say: Pestis || Luther rejected the epistle of St. James eram vivus, moriens ero mors tua, pa- as inconsistent with the doctrine of St. pa; that is, "I was the plague of popery Paul in relation to justification; he also in my life, and shall continue to be so in set aside the Apocalypse: both of which my death." are now received as canonical in the Lutheran church.

Luther reduced the number of sacra

works, indulgencies, purgatory, the worship of images, &c. which had been introduced in the corrupt times of the Romish church. He also opposed the doctrine of free will, maintained predestination, and asserted our justification to be solely by the imputation of the merits and satisfaction of Christ. He also opposed the fastings of the Romish church, monastical vows, the celibate of the clergy, &c.

This year the pope and the court of Rome, finding it impossible to deal with the Protestants by force, began to havements to two, viz. baptism and the eurecourse to stratagem. They affected, charist; but he believed the impanation, therefore, to think, that though Luther or consubstantiation; that is, that the had, indeed, carried things on with a matter of the bread and wine remain high hand, and to a violent extreme, with the body and blood of Christ; and yet what he had pleaded in defence of it is in this article that the main difthese measures was not entirely with-ference between the Lutheran and the out foundation. They talked with a English churches consists. seeming show of moderation; and Pius Luther maintained the mass to be no III. who succeeded Clement VII. pro- sacrifice; exploded the adoration of the posed a reformation first among them-host, auricular confession, meritorious selves, and even went so far as to fix a place for a council to meet at for that purpose. But Luther treated this farce as it deserved to be treated; unmasked and detected it immediately; and, to ridicule it the more strongly, caused a picture to be drawn, in which was represented the pope seated on high upon a throne, some cardinals about him with foxes' tails on, and seeming to evacuate upwards and downwards, (sursum deorsum repurgare, as Melchior Adam The Lutherans, however, of all Proexpresses it.) This was fixed over testants, are said to differ least from the against the title page, to let the reader Romish church; as they affirm that the see at once the scope and design of the body and blood of Christ are materially book; which was to expose that cun- present in the sacrament of the Lord's ning and artifice with which these sub-supper, though in an incomprehensible tle politicians affected to cleanse and pu- manner; and likewise to represent some ry themselves from their errors and religious rites and institutions, as the use superstitions. Luther published, about of images in churches, the distinguishing the same time, a confutation of the pre-vestments of the clergy, the private contended grant of Constantine to Sylves- fession of sins, the use of wafers in the ter, bishop of Rome; and also some administration of the Lord's supper, the letters of John Huss, written from his form of exorcism in the celebration of prison at Constance to the Bohemians. baptism, and other ceremonies of the In this manner was Luther employed like nature, as tolerable, and some of till his death, which happened in the them as useful. The Lutherans mainyear 1546. tain with regard to the divine decrees, A thousand lies were invented by the that they respect the salvation or miPapists about Luther's death. Some sery of men, in consequence of a presaid that he died suddenly; others, that vious knowledge of their sentiments and he killed himself; others, that the de-characters, and not as free and unconvil strangled him: others, that his corpse stunk so abominably, that they were forced to leave it in the way, as it was carried to be interred. Nay, lies were invented about his death, even while he was yet alive. Luther, however, to give the most effectual refutation of this account of his death, put forth an advertisement of his being alive; and, to be even with the Papists for the malice

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tinual, and as founded on the mere will of God. Towards the close of the seventeenth century, the Lutherans began to entertain a greater liberality of sentiment than they had before adopted; though in many places they persevered longer in severe and despotic principles than other Protestant churches. Their public teachers now enjoy an unbounded liberty of dissenting from the decisions

of those symbols or creeds which were once deemed almost infallible rules of faith and practice, and of declaring their dissent in the manner they judge the most expedient. Mosheim attributes this change in their sentiments to the maxims which they generally adopted, that Christians were accountable to God alone for their religious opinions; and that no individual could be justly punished by the magistrate for his erroneous opinions, while he conducted him- || self like a virtuous and obedient subject, and made no attempts to disturb the peace and order of civil society. In Sweden the Lutheran church is episcopal in Norway the same. In Denmark, under the name of superintendent, all episcopal authority is retained; whilst through Germany the superior power is vested in a consistory, over which there is a president, with a distinction of rank and privileges, and a subordination of inferior clergy to their superiors, different from the parity of Presbyterianism. Mosheim's Eccles. History; Life of Luther: Hawies's Ch. Hist. vol. ii. p. 454; Enc. Brit. Robertson's Hist. of Charles V. vol. ii. p. 42; || Luther on the Galatians.

for whoever seriously addresses his discourse to another, tacitly promises to speak the truth, because he knows that the truth is expected." There are various kinds of lies. 1. The pernicious lie, uttered for the hurt or disadvantage of our neighbour.-2. The officious lie, uttered for our own or our neighbour's advantage.—3. The ludicrous and jocose lie, uttered by way of jest, and only for mirth's sake in common converse. 4. Pious frauds as they are improperly called, pretended inspirations, forged books, counterfeit miracles, are species of lies.-5. Lies of the conduct, for a lie may be told in gestures as well as in words; as when a tradesman shuts up his windows to induce his creditors to believe that he is abroad.-6. Lies of omission, as when an author wilfully omits what ought to be related: and may we not add,-7. That all equivocation and mental reservation come under the guilt of lying. The evil and injustice of lying appear, 1. From its being a breach of the natural and universal right of mankind to truth in the intercourse of speech.-2. From its being a violation of God's sacred law, Phil. iv. 8. Lev. xix. 11. Col. iii. 9.-3. The faLUXURY, a disposition of mind ad-culty of speech was bestowed as an indicted to pleasure, riot, and superfluities. || strument of knowledge, not of deceit ; Luxury implies a giving one's self up to communicate our thoughts, not to to pleasure; voluptuousness, an indul-hide them.-4. It is esteemed a regence in the same to excess. Luxury proach of so heinous and hateful a namay be farther considered as consisting ture for a man to be called a liar, that in 1. Vain and useless expenses.-2. In sometimes the life and blood of the slana parade beyond what people can afford. derer have paid for it.-5. It has a ten3. In affecting to be above our own dency to dissolve all society, and to inrank.-4. In living in a splendour that dispose the mind to religious impressions. does not agree with the public good. In-6. The punishment of it is consideraorder to avoid it, we should consider that it is ridiculous, troublesome, sinful, and ruinous. Robinson's Claude, vol. i. p. 382; Ferguson on Society, part. vi.

sec. 2.

ble: the loss of credit, the hatred of those whom we have deceived, and an eternal separation from God in the world to come, Rev. xxi. 8. Rev. xxii. 15. Psalm ci. 7. See EQUIVOCATION.LYING, speaking falsehoods wilfully, Grove's Mor. Phil. vol. i. ch. 11; Pawith an intent to deceive. Thus, by ley's Moral Phil. vol. i. ch. 15; DodGrove, "A lie is an affirmation or de- || dridge's Lect lect. 68; Watts's Serm. nial by words, or any other signs to vol. 1. ser. 22; Evans's Serm. vol. ii. which a certain determinate meaning is ser. 13; South's Serm. vol. i. ser. 12; affixed, of something contrary to our Dr. Lamont's Serm. vol. i. ser. 11 and real thoughts and intentions." Thus, by 12. Paley, "a lie is a breach of promise;

M.

MACARIANS, the followers of Ma- tue. In his writings there are some carius, an Egyptian monk, who was superstitious tenets, and also certain distinguished towards the close of the opinions that seem tainted with Origenfourth century for his sanctity and vir-ism. The name has been also applied

S s

to those who adopted the sentiments of Macarius, a native of Ireland, who about the close of the ninth century, propagated in France the tenet afterwards maintained by Averrhoes, that one individual intelligence or soul performed the spiritual and rational functions in all the human race.

MAGI, or MAGIANS, an ancient religious sect of Persia and other eastern countries, who, abominating the adoration of images, worshipped God only by fire, in which they were directly opposite to the Sabians. See SABIANS. The Magi believed that there were two principles, one the cause of all good, and the other the cause of all evil; in which opinion they were followed by the sect of the Manichees. See MANICHEES. They called the good principle Jazden, and Ormuzd, and the evil principle Ahraman or Aherman. The former was by the Greeks called Oro

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

ARIANS.

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

MAGDALEN, religious of St. a denomination given to divers communities of nuns, consisting generally of penitent courtezans; sometimes also called Magdalanettes. They were established at Mentz in 1542; at Paris in 1492; at Naples in 1324; at Rouen and Bourdeaux in 1618. In each of these monasteries there were three kinds of persons and congregations: the first consisted of those who were admitted to make vows, and those bear the name of St. Magdalen; the congregation of St. Martha was the second, and was composed of those whom it was not thought proper to admit to vows finally; the congregation of St. Lazarus was composed of such as were detained by force. The religious of St. Magdalen at Rome were established by Pope Leo X. Clement VIII. settled a revenue on them; and farther appointed, that the effects of all public prostitutes dying intestate should fall to them; and that the testaments of the rest should be invalid, unless they bequeathed a portion of their effects, which was to be at least a fifth part of them.

reason of their worshipping fire was, because they looked upon it as the truest symbol of Oromasdes, or the good god; as darkness was of Arimanius, or the evil god. In all their temples they had fire continually burning upon their altars, and in their own private houses.

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

The chief reformation this pretended prophet made in the Magian religion was in the first principle of it; for he introduced a god superior both to Oromasdes and Arimanius. Dr. Prideaux is of opinion that Zoroaster took the hint of this alteration in their theology from the prophet Isaiah, who brings in God, saying to Cyrus king of Persia, I am the Lord, and there is none else: I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace and create evil, ch. xlv. 7. In short, Zoroaster held that there was one supreme independent Being, and under him two principles, or angels; one the angel of light or good, and the other the angel of evil or darkness; that there is a perpetual struggle between them, which shall last to the end of the world; that then the angel of darkness and his disciples shall go into a world of their own, where they shall be punished in everlasting darkness; and the angel of light and his disciples shall also go into a world of their own, where they shall be rewarded in everlasting light.

Zoroaster was the first who built firetemples; the Magians before his time performing their devotion on the tops of hills and in the open air, by which means they were exposed to the inconvenience of rain and tempests, which often extinguished their sacred fires. To procure the greater veneration for these sacred fires, he pretended to have received fire from heaven, which he placed on the altar of the first fire-temple he erected, which was that of Xis, in Media, from whence they say it was propagated to all the rest. The Magian priests kept their sacred fire with the greatest diligence, watching it day and night, and never suffering it to be extinguished. They fed it only with wood stript of the bark, and they never blowed it with their breath or with bellows, for fear of polluting it; to do either of these was death by their law. The Magian religion as reformed by Zoroaster, seems in many things to be built upon the plan of the Jewish. The Jews had their sacred fire which came down from heaven upon the altar of burnt offerings, which they never suffered to go out, and with which all their sacrifices and oblations were made. Zoroaster, in like manner, pretended to have brought his holy fire from heaven; and as the Jews had a Shekinah of the divine presence among them, resting over the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies, Zoroaster likewise told his Magians to look upon the sacred fire in their temples as a Shekinah, in which God especially dwelt.-From these and some other instances of analogy between the Jewish and the Magian religion, Prideaux infers that Zoroaster had been first educated and brought up in the Jewish religion.

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

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

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

Zoroaster had the address to bring over Darius to his new-reformed religion, notwithstanding the strongest opposition of the Sabians; and from that time it became the national religion of all that country, and so continued for many ages after, till it was supplanted by that of Mahomet. Zoroaster composed a book containing the principles of the Magian religion. It is called Zendavesta, and by contraction Zend. See ZEND.

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

MAGISTER DISCIPLINE, or MASTER OF DISCIPLINE, the appellation of a certain ecclesiastical officer in the ancient Christian church. It was a custom in some places, particularly in Spain, in the time of the Gothic kings, about the end of the fifth century, for parents to dedicate their children very young to the service of the church. For this purpose they were taken into the bishop's family, and educated under him by some grave and discreet person whom the bishop deputed for that purpose, and set over them, by the name of Presbyter or Magister Disciplina, whose chief business it was to inspect their behaviour, and instruct them in the rules and discipline of the church.

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

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

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

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