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 MECCA

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MECCA

Diocese of Meaux. The Paris massacres on 2 and 3 September, 1792, at the prisons of the Carnies and the Abbaye had their counterpart at Meaux where seven priests were massacred in prison on 4 September. The Abbey of Notre Dame de Juilly of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine was established in 1184, and adopted the rule of the Abbey of St- Victor of Paris. Cardinal de Joyeuse was abbot from 1613-1615. In 1637 Pere de Condren, Superior of the Oratory, took possession of it, and in 1638 the house of Juilly became a royal academy for the education of young men. The new order of studies approved by Richelieu marked a peda- gogical revolution: the Latin grammars written in Latin were abandoned and French textbooks were used in the study of the dead languages. The college be- came national property in 1791, and was re-purchased in 1796 by a few Oratorians; in 1828 by Salinis, future Bishop of Amiens and Scorbiac, chaplain-general of the university; in 1840 by the Abb^ Bautain; finally, in 1867, the college returned into the hands of the new Congregation of the Oratory founded by the Abb6 P^tetot. In the salon of the Abbe de Salinis, at Juilly, was established in December, 1830, the Agence gener- ale pour la defense de la liberty religieuse. Lamen- nais resided at Juilly while editor of " L'Avenir". It was at Juilly, in 1836, that the future bishop, Gerbet, founded the review " L'Universit6 CathoHque". Among the students at Juilly in the seventeenth cen- tury were the Marshals de Berwick and de Villars; in the nineteenth. Mgr de M<!'rode and the famous law- yer, Berryer.

A council convoked in 845 at Meaux by Charles the Bald adopted important measures for the re-establish- ment of discipline in the three ecclesiastical provinces of Sens, Bourges, and Reims. Other councils were held at Meaux in 962, 1082, 1204, 1229 (ended in Paris), where the Count of Toulouse was reconciled with the Church; in 1240 a council was held in which the sentence of excommunication was pronounced against Frederick II by Joannes of Palestrina, legate of Gregory IX; there was held an important council in 1523. Four councils were held at Melun, in 1216, 1225, 1232, 1300. The city of Provins was famous in the Middle Ages for its burlesque ceremonies (fete de fous, fete de I'ane, fete des Innocents) held in the church. The cathedral of St-Etienne de Meaux is a fine Gothic edifice begun about 1170. The church of Champigny has a magnificent crypt dating from the thirteenth century. The principal pilgrimages of the diocese are: Notre Dame de Lagny, dating from 1128; Notre Dame du Chene de Preuilly, dating from the foundation of the Cistercian Abbey (1118); Notre Dame du Chene at Crouy-sur-Ourcq, dating from the beginning of the seventeenth century; Notre Dame de Bon Secours near Fontainebleau (the pil- grimage was established in 1061 by d'Auberon, an offi- cer of the great Conde); Notre Dame de la Cave at Champigny; Notre Dame de Piti6 at Vcrdelot; Notre Dame de Melun at Melun; Notre Dame du Puy at Sigy. The head of St. Veronica at Pomponne has long been the object of a pilgrimage, greatly furthered by the Jesuits in 1670; the cloak (chape) of St. Martin of which a large portion is preserved at Bussy-St- Martin, also attracts pilgrims.

Before the application of the Associations Law of 1901 religious communities were represented in the diocese by the Lazarists, Oratorians, Little Brothers of Marj', Fathers and Brothers of St. Mary of Tinche- bray. School Brothers of the Christian Doctrine. Of the congregations of women the following may be men- tioned: the Celestine Sisters, a teaching and nursing order founded in 1839 (mother-house at Provins); the Sisters of St. Louis, a nursing and teaching order, founded in 1841 by the \hh6 Bautain (mother-hou.se at Juilly), the Carmelites of Meaux, called Carmel of Pius IX, founded .30 August, 1860. The Benedictines of the Sacred Heart of Mary, devoted to teaching and

contemplation, restored in 1S37 the ancient abbey of Jouarre. The religious congregations had under their care : 4 creches, 52 day nurseries, 1 orphanage for boys, 15 orphanages for girls, 14 industrial rooms, 10 houses of mercy, 26 hospitals or asylums, 19 houses for the care of the sick in their own homes, 1 house of retreat. In 1908 the Diocese of Meaux had 361 ,939 inhabitants, 39 parishes, 402 succursal parishes, 8 vicariates.

Gallia Christiana (nova, 1744), VIII. 1596-1670, instrumenta, 547-574; Duchesne, Pastes Episcopaux, II, 471-475; Du Plessis, Histoire de I'Eglise de Meaux (2 vols., Meaux, 1731); Carro, Histoire de Meaux et du pays Meldois (Meaux, 1865); Allou, Chronique des eveques de Meaux (Meaux, 1876): Neret, Martyrs et confesseurs de la foi du diocese de Meaux, 1792-1795 (Meaux. 1905); Hamel, Histoire de I'Eglise et du Colltge de Juilly (3rd ed.. Paris, 1888); Thiercelin, he monasti're de Jouarre (Paris, 1861); Chevalier, Topo-Bibl., 1886-87.

Georges Goyatt.

Mecca, the capital of Arabia and the sacred city of the Mohammedans, is situated in the district of Hijaz about 21° 30' N. latitude and 40° 20' E. longitude, some seventy miles east of the Red Sea. It lies in a sandy valley surrounded by rocky hills from two hun- dred to five hundred feet in height, barren and desti- tute of vegetation. The birthplace of Mohammed and the seat of the famous Kaaba, it was celebrated even in pre-Islamic times as the chief sanctuary of the Arabs, and visited by numerous pilgrims and dev- otees. The city presents an aspect more pleasing than that of the ordinary Eastern town, with com- paratively wide streets and stone houses, usually of three stories, and well aired and lighted. The inhabit- ants, numbering about 60,000, are with few excep- tions Arabians whose chief employment consists in lodging the pilgrims and serving the temple, although no inconsiderable amoimt of trade is carried on with the Bedouins of the surrounding desert. Mecca, the seat of government during the reign of the first five Khalifs, is now governed by a Sharif, chosen by the people from the Sayyids or the descendants of Moham- med, but under the immediate authority of the Sultan of Turkey (Hughes, "Dictionary of Islam", q. v.). Mecca is annually visited by some 80,000 pilgrims from all over the Mohammedan world. On their way the pilgrims pass through Medina, the second sacred town of Arabia, and on approaching Mecca they un- dress, laying aside even their headgear, and put on aprons and a piece of cloth over the left shoulder. Then they perform the circuit of the Kaaba, kiss the Black Stone, hear the sermon on Mount Arafat, pelt Satan with stones in the valley of Mina, and conclude their pilgrimage with a great sacrificial feast. In a year or two Mecca will be reached by the Hijaz Rail- way already completed as far as Medina, (about eight hundred and fifty miles from Damascus). From Medina to Mecca the distance is two hundred and eighty miles, and from Mecca to Damascus about one thousand one hundred and ten miles. The rail- way passes through the old caravan route, Damas- cus, Mezaril), Maan, Medawara, Tebuk, Madain Saleh, El-Ula, Medina, and Mecca.

The early history of Mecca is shrouded in obscurity, although Mohammedan writers have preserved an abundance of legendary lore according to which the city dates back to Abraham who is said to have there worshipped the true God. It is also stated that after the death of Abraham, the inhabitants of Mecca, ow- ing to the evil influence of the heathen Amalekites, fell into idolatry and paganism, and the Kaaba itself became surrounded with their idols. Hundreds of these idols were destroyed by Mohammed on his en- trance into the city at the head of a Moslem army in the eighth year of the Hejira, or A. d. 629. During the century before Mohammed we find the tribe of Qur- aish in undisputed possession of the city and the ac- knowledged guardians of the Kaaba. The leading events in Mecca at that period, such as the Abyssinian expedition against Yemen and the utter defeat of