MASSIF, a French term, adopted in geology and physical geography for a mountainous mass or group of connected heights, whether isolated or forming part of a larger mountain system. A “massif” is more or less clearly marked off by valleys.
MASSILLON, JEAN BAPTISTE (1663-1742), French bishop and preacher, was born at Hyères on the 24th of June 1663, his father being a royal notary of that town. At the age of eighteen he joined the Congregation of the Oratory and taught for a time in the colleges of his order at Pézenas, and Montbrison and at the Seminary of Vienne. On the death of Henri de Villars, archbishop of Vienne, in 1693, he was commissioned to deliver a funeral oration, and this was the beginning of his fame. In obedience to Cardinal de Noailles, archbishop of Paris, he left the Cistercian abbey of Sept-Fonds, to which he had retired, and settled in Paris, where he was placed at the head of the famous seminary of Saint Magloire. He soon gained a wide reputation as a preacher and was selected to be the Advent preacher at the court of Versailles in 1699. He was made bishop of Clermont in 1717, and two years later was elected a member of the French Academy. The last years of his life were spent in the faithful discharge of his episcopal duties; his death took place at Clermont on the 18th of September 1742. Massillon enjoyed in the 18th century a reputation equal to that of Bossuet and of Bourdaloue, and has been much praised by Voltaire, D’Alembert and kindred spirits among the Encyclopaedists. His popularity was probably due to the fact that in his sermons he lays little stress on dogmatic questions, but treats generally of moral subjects, in which the secrets of the human heart and the processes of man’s reason are described with poetical feeling. He has usually been contrasted with his predecessor Bourdaloue, the latter having the credit of vigorous denunciation, Massillon that of gentle persuasiveness. Besides the Petit Carême, a sermon which he delivered before the young king Louis XV. in 1718, his sermons on the Prodigal Son, on the small number of the elect, on death, for Christmas Day, and for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, may be perhaps cited as his masterpieces. His funeral oration on Louis XIV. is only noted now for the opening sentence: “Dieu seul est grand.” But in truth Massillon is singularly free from inequality. His great literary power, his reputation for benevolence, and his known toleration and dislike of doctrinal disputes caused him to be much more favourably regarded than most churchmen by the philosophes of the 18th century.
The first edition of Massillon’s complete works was published by his nephew, also an Oratorian (Paris, 1745-1748), and upon this, in the absence of MSS., succeeding reprints were based. The best modern edition is that of the Abbé Blampignon (Paris, 1865-1868, 4 vols.; new ed. 1886).
See Abbé Blampignon, Massillon, d’après des documents inédits (Paris, 1879); and L’Épiscopat de Massitlon d’après des documents inédits, suivi de sa correspondance (Paris, 1884); F. Brunetière “L’Éloquence de Massillon” in Études critiques (Paris, 1882); Père Ingold, L’Oratoire et le jansénisme au temps de Massitlon (Paris, 1880); and Louis Petit de Julleville’s Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française, v. 372-385 (Paris, 1898).
MASSILLON, a city of Stark county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Tuscarawas river and the Ohio canal, 8 m. W. of Canton, and about 50 m. S. by E. of Cleveland. Pop. (1900), 11,944 (1693 foreign-born); (1910), 13,879. It is served by the Pennsylvania (Pittsburg, Ft Wayne & Chicago Division), the Baltimore & Ohio and the Wheeling & Lake Erie railways. Massillon is built among hills in a part of the state noted for its large production of coal and wheat and abounding in white sandstone, iron ore and potter’s clay. The city has various manufactures, including iron, engines, furnaces, reapers, threshers and bottles. The total value of the factory products in 1905 was $3,707,013, an increase of 34.8% over that of 1900. The first settlement was made in 1825; in 1826 the town was laid out and named in honour of Jean Baptiste Massillon; it was incorporated a village in 1853, and became a city in 1868.
MASSIMO, or Massimi, a Roman princely family of great antiquity, said to be descended from the ancient Maximi of republican Rome. The name is first mentioned in 1012 in the person of Leo de Maximis, and the family played a considerable part in the history of the city in the middle ages. The brothers Pietro and Francesco Massimi acquired fame by protecting and encouraging the German printer Ulrich Hahn, who came to Rome in 1467. In the 16th century the Massimi were the richest of the Roman nobles. A marquisate was conferred on them in 1544, and the lordship of Arsoli in 1574. To-day there are two branches of the Massimi, viz. the Principi Massimo, descended from Camillo Massimiliano (1770-1840), and the dukes of Rignano, descended from Francesco Massimo (1773-1844). One of the sons of the present Prince Camillo Carlo Alberto, Don Fabrizio, married Princess Beatrice, daughter of Don Carlos of Bourbon (duke of Madrid), the pretender to the Spanish throne. The Palazzo Massimo in Rome was built by Baldassare Peruzzi by order of Pietro Massimo, on the ruins of an earlier palace destroyed in the sack of Rome in 1527.
See F. Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom (Stuttgart, 1880); A. von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom (Berlin, 1868); Almanach de Gotha; J. H. Douglas, The Principal Noble Families of Rome (Rome, 1905).