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 MICHAS

277

MICHEAS

sacred, hence the numerous mountain chapels of St. Michael all over Germany.

The hymns of the Roman Office are said to have been composed by St. Rabanus Maurus of Fulda (d. 856). In art St. Michael is represented as an angelic warrior, fully armed with helmet, sword, and shield (often the sliield bears the Latin inscription: Quis ut Deus). standing over the dragon, whom he some- times pierces with a lance. He also holds a pair of scales in which he weighs the souls of the departed (cf. Rock, "The Church of Our Fathers", III, 160), or the book of life, to show that he takes part in the judgment. His feast (29 Sept.) in the Middle Ages was celebrated as a holy day of obligation, but along with several other feasts it was gradually abolished since the eighteenth century (see Fe.\sts). Michaelmas Day, in England anil other countries, is one of the regular quarter-da\s for settling rents and accounts; but it is no lo.iger remarkable for the hospitality with which it was formerly celebrated. Stubble-geese being es- teemed in perfection about this time, most families had one dressed on Michaelmas Day. In some par- ishes (Isle of Skye) they had a procession on this day and baked a cake, called St. Michael's bannock. (Hampson, " Medii ^EviCalendarium", London, 1841, I, 348 sqq.)

BoNAVENTURA i>A SoRRENTO, Mi-cha-el (Naples, 1892); Kellner, Hmrtoloati (St. Ixiuis. 1908), 328 sqq.; Lucics- Aniii.ii l.jf:.-, ' ■ ?/-:'; r./-,,Wws (Tiibingen, 1904), 266 aqn : i;... 1/ ' ■ ' '.''■(-/ in Kuust, Staatsanz. f.

H',, : I i-l >M ;. , /(,,- ,/,«/,.,■/„ .Ui(7/rf (Hamm,

I'liii,. Ii.i,,,,, / ,(,,,„ -..>, r,im,iihni,i, (.Minister, 1892),

US; .1,/,, ,S.V...s .\luv; ju,>,-|ii..; PiistoralbliM {m. Louis, July. 1910); Homilelic Reoieiv (IHM); Duchesne, Origines du Culte chrttien (1889), 264.

Frederick G. Holweck.

Michas. See Micheas.

Michaud, Joseph-Francois, historian, b. at Al- bens. Savoy, 1767; d. at Passy, 30 Sept., 1839. He belonged to an ancient family of Savoy. Educated at the College of Bourg at Gresse, in 1786 he entered apublishing house at Lyons, but left it after a few years to take up jour- nalistic work at Paris, where, dur- ing the Revolu- tion, he defended warmly and not without risk the royal cause. Ar- rested on 13 Ven- demiaire, 1795, he succeeded in escaping and re- sumed the jour- n a 1 i s t i c war. L'nder the Con- sulate he wrote several pamphlets in which appeared criticisms of Napoleon that led to his imprisonment in the Temple for a time. After his release from prison he decided to abandon politics for literature. In 1808 he published the first volume of the " History of the Crusades". In the same year he founded with his brother the " Biographie Universelle". Elected to the French .\cademy in 1814, he was, under the Res- toration, deputy editor of "La Quotidienne", and then lecturer to Charles X. In May, 1830, he under- took a voyage to the East and the Holy Land in order to study phases of Eastern life ancl thus im- part more realistic colour to the accounts of his " History of the Crusades". He was unable to com- plete the final edition.

Michaud's most import-ant work is his "History of the Crusades" (1st ed., 3 vols., Paris, 1812-17; 6th

ed., Poujoulat, 6 vols., Paris, 1841). In his choice of the subject and the manner in which he treated it Michaud was an innovator; his work was one of the first productions of the historical school which, in- spired by the works of Chateaubriand, restored the Middle Ages to a place of honour. To-day the value of this work seems open to question; the information appears insufficient and the romantic colour is often false. It was none the less the starting point of studies relating to the Crusades, and it was under the influence of this publication that the Academy of In- scriptions in 1841 decided to publish the collection of Historians of the Crusades. Michaud had accom- panied his work with a " Bibliothrquc iles Croisades" (Paris, 1829, 4 vols., 12°), which contained French translations of the European and .Vraliic chronicles relating to the Crusades. Besides, he directed the publication of the "Biographie Universelle" (2nd ed., 45 vols., Paris, 1843), and in collaboration with Pou- joulat that of the "Collection des Memoires pour servir a I'histoire de France depuis le 13" siecle jus- qu'au 1S«" (32 vols., Paris, 1836-44). Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, VII, 20-41.

Louis Brehier.

Micheas (Michas). — In Hebrew the comjilete form of the name is Mikhayahu or Mikhfiyeln'i iconlraeted into .\Iikhehu? II Paral., xviii, S, k;'t/i!h/i) or Mikha- yah (who is like Yahii, Vehu, Yah?); the shortened form is Mikhah. .4mong the O.-T. bearers of this name three especially deserve notice.

I. The Book of Judges (xvii-xviii) contains the history of a certain Michas (Hebr., xvii, 1 and 4: Mikhayehu; elsewhere Mikhah), a resident of the hill- country of Ephraim who founded an idolatrous sanc- tuary. As he restored to his mother the 1100 pieces of silver which he had stolen from her, she devoted 200 wherewith to make an idol which was set up in the house of Michas. In addition, Michas made an ephod and terapli'im. He first appointed as priest his son, but afterwards engaged a Levite of Bethlehem, Jona- than, a descendant of Moses by (Jersam. The Dan- ites, passing by whilst on a migration, took with them the Levit* Jonathan and the objects of the idolatrous worship belonging to Michas, in spite of the latter's protests, and set them up in the sanctuary which they established in the town of Dan, so calletl after their name. See the commentaries on Book of Judges, by G. F. Moore (Edinburgh, 1903); Budde (Tu- bingen, 1.S97); Hummelauer (Paris, 1888); Lagrange (Paris, 1903) ; etc. ; cf. A. Van Hoonacker, " Le Sacer- doce L^vitique" (London and Louvain, 1899), 225, 227, 230, 239, 244, and 372.

II. Micheas, son of Jemla (Hebr. Mikhayehii; II Paral., xviii, 14: Mikliah; ibid., verse 8: Mikhehft? keth.), a prophet of the Kingdom of Samaria, contem- porary with Elias and Eliseus. It is related in III Kings, x,xii (cf. II Paral., xviii), that Achab, King of Israel (c. 873-852 b. c), allied to Josaphat, King of Juda, having obtained from 400 prophets an assur- ance that his intended expedition against Ramoth- Galaad, a town which he wished to recover from the Syrians, would succeed, summoned at the earnest re- quest of Josaphat the Prophet Micheas, son of Jemla, although the latter, he asserted, had always proved to him a prophet of evil. Micheas, in his first answer, foretokl the success of the enterprise, but his words were probably spoken in an ironical tone, for .\chab adjured him in the name of the Lord to speak the truth. Micheas then announced the defeat of the two kings. He added that he had seen in a vision a spirit promise Yahweh to deceive Achab by his prophets. Whereupon one of these prophets, vSedecias, son of Chanaana, struck him on the face, .^chab ordered the imprisonment of Micheas till the day when he should return in peace. " If thou return in peace", said Micheas, "the Lord hath not spoken by