MARTYR. One who lays down his life for his religion. The word means a "witness." St. Stephen was the first, or proto-martyr.
MARY, The BLESSED VIRGIN. We admit to her the title of "Mother of
God," but protest against her being worshipped. No instance of
Divine honour being paid her is earlier than the fifth century.
Two festivals only in the Church of England are kept in her honour,
viz., the Purification, and the Annunciation.
MASS. In Latin, Missa, with which word congregations were accustomed to be dismissed. Then it was used for the congregation itself, and finally became applied only to the Communion Service.
MATERIALISM. One of the philosophies of the day which looks upon everything as the out-come of mere physical energy; denies the soul, and every spiritual force; and regards matter as eternal.
MATINS, see Morning Prayer.
MATRIMONY, HOLY. With regard to the Marriage Laws, the Church and the State are not agreed. The former maintains Holy Matrimony to be a religious ceremony, while the State recognises the legality of mere civil contracts, and allows people to enter into the nuptial state by a civil ceremony. We find the early Fathers distinctly stating that marriage is of a sacred nature. Paley, in his Moral Philosophy, says, "Whether it hath grown out of some tradition of the Divine appointment of marriage in the persons of our first parents, or merely from a design to impress the obligation of the marriage-contract with a solemnity suited to its importance, the marriage-rite, in almost all countries of the world, has been made a religious ceremony; although marriage, in its own nature, and abstracted from the rules and declarations which the Jewish and Christian Scriptures deliver concerning it, be properly a civil contract, and nothing more." It was forbidden in the 4th century during Lent, and so custom and propriety forbid it now during the same season. In the Manual marriages were prohibited in the following seasons:—(a) Advent to the octave of Epiphany, (b) Septuagesima to the octave of Easter inclusive, (c) Rogation Sunday to Trinity Sunday.
The Roman Church has exalted Holy Matrimony into a Sacrament.
The State so far recognises the position of the Church with regard to Holy Matrimony that no clergyman can be forced to marry a divorced person, though he may be obliged to lend his church to any other who will perform the ceremony.
MATRIMONY, THE FORM OF SOLEMNIZATION OF. Of all our services this preserves most of the older Office in the Sarum Manual. Some of the hortatory portions come as usual from Hermann's Consultation. There has been no change since 1549, except the omission of the ceremony of giving gold and silver to the bride as "tokens of spousage."
The Service is divided into two parts (a) the Marriage Service proper, performed in the body of the Church; (b) the succeeding service at the Holy Table, evidently intended as an introduction to the Holy Communion which should follow.