A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

The same name is sometimes given to a church erected over the spot where a martyr has suffered.

MARTYROLOGY, in the Church of Rome, is a catalogue or list of martyrs, including the history of their lives and sufferings for the sake of religion.

The Martyrologies draw their materials from the calendars of particular churches, in which the several festivals, dedicated to them, are marked. They seem to be derived from the practice of the ancient Romans, who inserted the names of heroes and great men in their Fasti, or public registers.

The Martyrologies are very numerous. Those ascribed to Eusebius and St. Jerome are reckoned spurious. Bede is the first who, in the eighth century, composed two Martyrologies, one in prose, and the other in verse. Florus, the deacon of Lyons, in the ninth century, enlarged Bede’s “Martyrology,” and put it almost in the condition it is at present. Valdelbertus, a monk of the diocese of Treves, in the same century, wrote a martyrology in verse, extracted from Bede and Florus, and now extant in Ducherius’s Spicilegium. About the same time, Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mentz, drew up a martyrology, published by Canisius, in his Antiquæ Lectiones. After these, Ado, archbishop of Vienne, compiled a new Martyrology, while he was travelling in Italy, where, in a journey from Rome to Ravenna, A. D. 857, he saw a manuscript of an ancient martyrology, which had been brought thither from Aquileia.

In the year 870, Usuardus, a monk of St. Germain des Près, drew up a much larger and more correct martyrology than those above mentioned. This performance was well received, and began to be made use of in the offices of the Western Church. About the beginning of the next century, Notkerus, a monk of Switzerland, drew up another martyrology from Ado’s materials. This martyrology, published by Canisius, had not the same success with that of Usuardus. The churches and monasteries, which used this last, made a great many additions and alterations in it. This gave rise to a vast number of different martyrologies during the six following centuries.

The moderns, at last, desirous to rectify the errors and defects of the old martyrologies, compiled new ones. Augustinus Belinus, of Padua, began this reform in the fifteenth century. After him, Francis Maruli or Maurolycus, abbot of Messina, in Sicily, drew up a martyrology, in which he has entirely changed Usuardus’s text. John Vander Meulen, known by the name of Molanus, a doctor of Louvain, restored it, with alterations and very learned notes. About the same time, Galesinus, apostolic prothonotary, drew up a martyrology, and dedicated it to Gregory XIII.; but this was not approved at Rome. Baronius’s “Martyrology,” written some time after, with notes, was better received, being approved by Pope Sixtus Quintus, and has since passed for the modern martyrology of the Roman Church. It has been several times corrected, and was translated into French by the Abbot Chatlain, canon of Notre Dame at Paris, with notes, in the year 1709.

There are very ridiculous and even contradictory narratives, in these several martyrologies; which is easily accounted for, if we consider how many forged and spurious accounts of the lives of saints and martyrs, from whence the martyrologies were compiled, appeared in the first ages of the Church; and which the legendary writers of those times adopted without examining into the truth of them. Those of later ages, who have written the lives of saints and martyrs, either through prepossession, or want of courage to contradict received opinions, have made use of a great part of this fabulous stuff, and passed it off for genuine history. However, some good critics of late years have gone a great way towards clearing the lives of the saints and martyrs from the monstrous heap of fiction they laboured under. Of this number are M. de Launoy, of Paris, M. Baillot, in his “Lives of the Saints,” M. le Nain de Tillemont, and others.—Broughton.

MARY. (See Virgin Mary and Mariolatry.)

MASORA. A term in Jewish theology, signifying tradition. It includes notes of all the variations of words, letters, and points which occur in the Hebrew Scriptures; an enumeration of all the letters, &c.; in short, the minutest points of verbal criticism, and pretends to an immaculate accuracy. The authors of it are unknown. Some attribute it to Moses; others to Ezra; others to the Masorites of Tiberias. The probability is, according to Bishop Walton, that the Masora was begun about the time of the Maccabees, and was continued for many ages.—See Bishop Walton’s Prolegomena to his Polyglott Bible.

MASORITES. A society of learned Jews, who had a school or college at Tiberias. They paid great attention to the critical study of the Hebrew Scriptures; and to them by many able scholars, as Walton, Capellus, &c., is attributed the invention of the vowel points now used for the guidance of the pronunciation in reading Hebrew.