Chapter LII: Act 46: , Parl. 3, Act 106, Parl. 7, Act 24, Parl. 11, King James VI., do (28)

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 Nauvoo itself 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 any _actual_ sin. 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 must _believe_ in Christ’s atonement; (2.) they must _repent_ of their transgressions; (3.) they must receive _baptism_ by immersion for the remission of sins, administered only by one authorized of Christ; and (4.) they must receive the _laying on of hands_ for the gift of the Holy Ghost—_this_ ordinance 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 was not returned,) was 30,783. The _attendance _on 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. (See _Deadly 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 gift _mortua 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 tenants in 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 3_s._ 4_d._ 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 6_s._ 8_d._ 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 10_s._ 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 Italian _Mottetto_, 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. (See _Mariolatry_, _Virgin Mary_, _Nestorians_.) “The Virgin Mary,” says Pearson on the Creed, “is frequently styled the Mother of JESUS in the language of the evangelists, and by Elizabeth, particularly, the _Mother of her Lord_, as also, by the general consent of the Church, because he which was born of her was GOD, the _Deipara_: 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 the _Mother of God_.”

We admit that the Virgin Mary is the mother of GOD; 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 her SON: He whom she brought forth was GOD, and therefore she is a bringer forth or mother of GOD.

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 of GOD, for she was a woman, and it is impossible that GOD should 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 acknowledge JESUS CHRIST as GOD, 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 of GOD; for if our LORD JESUS CHRIST is GOD, how is not the Holy Virgin, his mother, the mother of GOD? This is the faith we have been taught by the apostles.” He next proves that he who was born of the Virgin Mary is GOD in his own nature, since the Nicene Creed says that the only begotten SON of GOD, of the same substance with the FATHER, 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 the WORD is eternal, and of the substance of the FATHER. 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 of EMMANUEL, since the WORD, having taken flesh upon him, is called SON of Man.” In a letter to Nestorius himself he enters into a fuller explanation: “We must admit in the same CHRIST two generations: first, the eternal, by which he proceeds from his FATHER; second, the temporal, by which he is born of his mother. When we say that he suffered and rose again, we do not say that GOD the WORD suffered 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 Divine WORD is 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 the WORD, 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 the WORD is in no degree external or separated from the WORD.”—_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 of GOD, not that the nature of the WORD, 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 the WORD united himself in hypostasis, which is the reason of its being said, ‘he was born according to the flesh.’”

It was jealousy for the LORD 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 is GOD whom she brought forth. The heresy of Nestorius related to the incarnation or junction of the two natures in CHRIST, which he affirmed not to be a _union_, but merely a _connexion_; whereas the object of the Council of Ephesus was to assert “the real and inseparable union of the two natures in CHRIST, and to show that the human nature, which CHRIST took of the Holy Virgin, never subsisted separately from the Divine person of the SON of GOD.”

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 my LORD;” and this phrase sufficed until, as we have seen, heretics arose who understood the word LORD in an inferior sense, and then it became necessary to assert that GOD and LORD, as applied to our blessed Saviour, are synonymous terms. And sound theologians will still occasionally use the term Mother of GOD, lest Nestorianism should be held unconsciously by persons who wish to be orthodox, and people forget the great truth expressed by St. Paul, that “GOD purchased the Church with his own blood;” and that CHRIST is “over all, GOD blessed 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 called Θεοτόκος, because the same person who was born of her is truly GOD as 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.

Septuagesima │ Sunday is │Nine │Weeks before │ │ │Easter. Sexagesima │ „ │Eight │ „ Quinquagesima │ „ │Seven │ „ Quadragesima │ „ │Six │ „ │ │ │ Rogation Sunday │ is │Five Weeks │after Easter.” Ascension Day │ „ │Forty Days │ „ Whit Sunday │ „ │Seven Weeks │ „ Trinity Sunday │ „ │Eight Weeks │ „

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 of GOD’S word, to preach eight sermons every year on the Trinity and Divinity of our ever-blessed SAVIOUR, 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 always providing 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 correctly _Monial_. 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 service _in music_ abroad 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 in _Canterbury’s Doom_, 1646.

MYNCHERY. A nunnery. A corruption of ministere, or minster.

MYSTERY. (From μύειν τὸ στόμα, _to shut the mouth_; hence μυστήριον, _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 of the “sacred” and “tremendous mysteries,” in allusion to this sacrament. With this application, the term appears in our own Communion Office, where CHRIST is 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 to GOD, 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 his SON, our SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST.”

MYSTERIES. (See _Moralities_.)

MYSTIC. Sacredly obscure.

MYSTIC RECITATION. Several parts of the Greek liturgy are ordered to be said μυστικῶς, that is, in a low voice, or whisper, like the _secreto_ of the Roman offices.—_Jebb._

MYSTICAL. Having a hidden, allegorical, or secret meaning. In the baptismal offices we read, “Sanctify this water to the mystical washing away of sin:” from which it would be absurd to infer that the mere physical application of water can remove sin; and yet, on the other hand, the fact that the remission of sin is associated with baptism, rests on Scriptural authority. There is, therefore, a secret operation of GOD’S grace in cleansing the soul linked to the sacramental application of water to the body; and the concurrence or co-existence of these the Church regards as a “mystical washing away of sin.”

Again: in the Communion Office, the faithful recipients are said to be “very [true] members incorporate of the mystical body of CHRIST.” Now, _how_ the Church can constitute “the body of CHRIST,” will appear to any one an inscrutable _mystery_, if he will but divest himself of the familiarity of the terms. As to the fact, it is indisputable; but the manner is beyond our full comprehension, partaking in some measure of the nature of allegory, and being strictly _mystical_. It is worth while to add, that the Church does not recognise the notion of an invisible Church, as constituting this “mystical body,” composed of those only who shall be finally saved; for she goes on to pray for the assistance of GOD’S grace, “that we _may continue_ in that holy fellowship,” &c., a petition somewhat irrelevant if such an hypothesis be adopted.

MYSTICS. A party which arose towards the close of the third century, distinguished by their professing pure, sublime, and perfect devotion. They excuse their fanatical ecstasies by alleging the passage of St. Paul, “The SPIRIT prays in us with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered.” They contend that, if the SPIRIT prays within us, we must resign ourselves to its motions, and be guided and swayed through its impulse by remaining in a state of mere inaction. The principles proceeded from the known doctrine of the Platonic school, which was also adopted by Origen and his disciples, that the Divine nature was diffused through all human souls; or that the faculty of reason, from which proceed the health and vigour of the mind, was an emanation from GOD into the human soul, and comprehended in it the principles and elements of all truth, human and divine. They denied that men could, by labour or study, excite this celestial flame in their breasts; and therefore they disapproved highly of the attempts of those who, by definitions, abstract theorems, and profound speculations, endeavoured to form distinct notions of truth, and to discover its hidden nature. On the contrary, they maintained that silence, tranquillity, repose, and solitude, accompanied with such acts as might tend to extenuate and exhaust the body, were the means by which the hidden and internal word was excited to produce its latent virtues, and to instruct them in the knowledge of Divine things. For thus they reasoned: Those who behold with a noble contempt all human affairs; who turn away their eyes from terrestrial vanities, and shut all the avenues of the outward senses against the contagious influences of a material world, must necessarily return to GOD when the spirit is thus disengaged from the impediments that prevented that happy union; and in this blessed frame they not only enjoy inexpressible raptures from their communion with the Supreme Being, but are also invested with the inestimable privilege of contemplating truth undisguised and uncorrupted in its native purity, while others behold it in a vitiated and delusive form.

The number of the Mystics increased in the fourth century, under the influence of the Grecian fanatic, who gave himself out for Dionysius the Areopagite, disciple of St. Paul, and probably lived about this period; and by pretending to higher degrees of perfection than other Christians, and practising greater austerity, their cause gained ground, especially in the Eastern provinces, in the fifth century. A copy of the pretended works of Dionysius was sent by Balbus to Louis the Meek, in the year 824, which kindled the holy flame of mysticism in the Western provinces, and filled the Latins with the most enthusiastic admiration of this new religion. In the twelfth century, these Mystics took the lead in their method of expounding the Scriptures. In the thirteenth century they were the most formidable antagonists of the Schoolmen; and, towards the close of the fourteenth, many of them resided and propagated their tenets in almost every part of Europe.

Among the Mystics of that time we may notice the Dominican John Tauler, of Strasburg, A. D. 1361; Henry Suso of Ulm, A. D. 1365; and especially John Ruysbroock, called Doctor Ecstaticus, A. D. 1381, who of all the Mystics was the most dreamy and enthusiastic. Among Protestants there have been and are many Mystics, but they have not formed a sect.—_Mosheim._ _Gieseler._

NAG’S HEAD FABLE. (See _Consecration of Bishops_.)

NAHUM, THE PROPHECY OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. Nahum is the seventh of the twelve lesser prophets; a native of Elkoshai, a little village of Galilee, the ruins of which were still to be seen in the time of St. Jerome. The particular circumstances of this prophet’s life are altogether unknown.

Authors are divided as to the time when Nahum prophesied, some fixing it to the reign of Ahaz, others to that of Manasseh, and others to the times of the captivity. St. Jerome places it in the reign of Hezekiah, after the war of Sennacherib in Egypt, which the prophet speaks of as a thing passed.

The subject of Nahum’s prophecy is the destruction of Nineveh, which he describes in the most lively and pathetic manner; and this prophecy was verified in the siege of that city by Astyages in the year of the world 3378, before Christ 622.

NAME. (See _Christian Name_.) The Christian name is given us in baptism. All things being prepared for the baptism of the child, the minister is now to “take it into his hands,” and to ask the godfathers and godmothers to “name” it. For the “Christian name” being given as a badge that we belong to CHRIST, we cannot more properly take it upon us, than when we are enlisted under his banner. We bring one name into the world with us, which we derive from our parents, and which serves to remind us of our original guilt, and that we are born in sin: but this new name is given us at our baptism, to remind us of our new birth, when, being washed in the laver of regeneration, we are thereby cleansed from our natural impurities, and become in a manner new creatures, and solemnly dedicate ourselves to GOD. So that the naming of children at this time hath been thought by many to import something more than ordinary, and to carry with it a mysterious signification. We find something like it even among the heathens; for the Romans had a custom of naming their children on the day of their lustration, (that is, when they were cleansed and washed from their natural pollution,) which was therefore called “Dies Nominalis.” And the Greeks also, when they carried their infants, a little after their birth, about the fire, (which was their ceremony of dedicating or consecrating them to their gods,) were used at the same time to give them their names.

And that the Jews named their children at the time of circumcision, the Holy Scriptures, (Gen. xxi. 3, 4; Luke i. 59, 60; ii. 21,) as well as their own writers, expressly tell us. And though the rite itself of circumcision was changed into that of baptism by our SAVIOUR, yet he made no alteration as to the time and custom of giving the name, but left that to continue under the new, as he had found it under the old dispensation. Accordingly we find this time assigned and used to this purpose ever since; the Christians continuing from the earliest ages to name their children at the time of baptism.—_Wheatly._

NANTES, EDICT OF. An edict of toleration, promulgated by Henry IV. of France in 1598, which restored the Protestants to all the favours which had been granted them in former reigns, and gave them the liberty of serving GOD according to their conscience, and a full participation in all civil rights and privileges. This edict was, at the instigation of the Jesuits, revoked by Louis XIV. in the year 1685.

NARTHEX. (_Gr._ and _Lat._) This name is given by ancient writers to a part of the fabric of the Christian church. There was the exterior or outward, and the interior or inward, _Narthex_.

The exterior narthex, which we may call the ante-temple, consisted of the whole circumference of the outward courts, including the vestibulum or porch, and the atrium or area before the church.

The interior narthex, or ante-temple within the church, (the only part properly so called,) was the first section or division of the fabric, after entering into the church, and was peculiarly allotted to the monks and women, and used for the offices of rogations, supplications, and night watches. Here likewise they placed the dead corpses, whilst the funeral rites were performing. This lower part of the church was the place of the _Energumens_ and the _Audientes_; and hither Jews, heathens, heretics, and schismatics were sometimes allowed to come, in hopes of their conversion by hearing the Scriptures read and sermons preached.

Dr. Beveridge and others seem to place here the font or baptistery, as in our modern churches. But it is certain that, for many ages, the baptistery was a distinct place from the body of the church, and reckoned among the _Exedræ_, or buildings adjoining to the church.

This part of the church was called _Narthex_, because being long, but narrow, and running across the front of the church, it was supposed to resemble a _ferula_, that is, a rod or staff; for any oblong figure was by the Greeks called νάρθηξ, _Narthex_.

NATIONAL COVENANT. (See _Confessions of Faith_.)

NAVE. The central passage of the church, extending from the west end to the transept or choir. The derivation of this word has been a matter of dispute. Some very plausibly derive it from νάος, others from _navis_, a ship, since the nave resembles the hull of a ship turned upside down; and refer both this term and νάος also to the ancient Phœnicians, whose original temples were said to be their vessels thus reversed. At all events it is remarkable that both the old French _nef_, the Italian and Spanish _nave_, and the Latin _navis_, all signify a ship as well as the nave of a church. (See _Churches_ and _Cathedral_.)

NAVICULA; _ship_, or _ark_. A vessel formed “like the keel of a boat,” out of which the frankincense was poured in Bishop Andrewes’ chapel, and Queen Elizabeth’s chapel. _Canterbury’s Doom_, 1646. See _Hiereugia Anglicana_, pp. 4, 5, and 9.

NAZARENES. Christian heretics, so called. This name was originally given to all Christians in general, because JESUS CHRIST was of the city of Nazareth. But afterwards it was restrained to a sect of heretics, who affected to assume it rather than that of Christians. Their religion was a strange jumble of Judaism and Christianity: for they were Jews by birth, were circumcised, kept the sabbath, and other observances of the Mosaical law; and at the same time received the New Testament as well as the Old, acknowledged JESUS CHRIST to be the MESSIAH, and practised the Christian baptism. Theodoret indeed pretends they honoured JESUS CHRIST only as a just and good man; and he places the beginning of their heresy about the time of Domitian. St. Augustine makes them the successors of those whose obstinacy in the like opinions was condemned by the apostolical Council of Jerusalem.

The Nazarenes (as well as the Ebionites) were descended from those Christians, who left Jerusalem a little before the siege, and retired to the country about Jordan, called Perea; whence they are sometimes called Peratics. There were some of them remaining in the time of St. Augustine. They dwelt about Pella in Decapolis, near the river Jordan, and at Berea, a city of Lower Syria. They perfectly understood the Hebrew tongue, in which they read the books of the Old Testament.

These heretics, keeping the mean between the Jews and the Christians, pretended to be friends alike to both: nevertheless, the Christians treated them as abominable heretics, and the Jews detested them more than the other Christians, because they acknowledged JESUS CHRIST to be the MESSIAH. Epiphanius says, they cursed and anathematized them three times a day in their synagogues.—_Broughton._

NEHEMIAH, THE BOOK OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. Nehemiah was born at Babylon during the captivity, and succeeded Ezra in the government of Judah and Jerusalem; whither he came with a commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus, authorizing him to repair and fortify the city in the same manner as it was before its destruction by the Babylonians.

Nehemiah was a Jew, and was promoted to the office of cup-bearer to the Persian king; and the opportunities he had of being daily in the king’s presence, together with the favour of Esther the queen, procured him the privileges he obtained for building the city, and the settlement of his country. When he came to Jerusalem, he finished the rebuilding of the walls in fifty-two days, and dedicated the gates of the city with great solemnity. Then he reformed some abuses, which had crept in among his countrymen, particularly the extortion of the usurers, by which the poor were so oppressed, as to be forced to sell their lands and children to support themselves and their families. Then he returned to Persia, and came back again with a new commission, by virtue of which he regulated everything relating both to the state and religion of the Jews. The history of these transactions is the subject matter of this Book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah died at Jerusalem, having governed the people of Judah for about thirty years.

NEOLOGIANS. German Rationalists are so designated; from νέος, _new_, and λόγος, _doctrine_. They are distinguished from mere deists and pantheists, by admitting the principal facts of the Bible, though they attempt to explain away what is miraculous, while they treat the Scriptures with no more of reverence than they would show to any other ancient book, and regard our LORD himself as they would regard any good and wise philosopher.