Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/402

 MIRANDOLA

3.52

MISERERE

to which Italian society was exposed at the time, lie soumleil ;i waniing on the ooeasioii of the I.atenHi Council; "Joaniiis I'raiicisci I'ici oralioiui Lconein X et concilium l.ateraneiiso de reformandis lOcclesia- Moribus" (Hagenau, 1512, dedieuteil to Firckhei- mer). He was iliscussing funerals and tombs with Lillio Giraldi when the catastrophe occurred which carried him off. (iiraldi commemorated the tragic event in a touching postscript to the " De sepulcris" (in his works, Hasle, ijSO, I, (ilO).

NicKiiON, Jl/.mmrrs, XXXI\'; Tiuaboscih, Slon'a detta lette- ratura Ilaliann, VII, part I, 397; ISANnvs, .1 History of Classical S<-hotarxhip, II (Cambridge, 1908), 113. His works are ap- pended to those of his uocle in the ed. of Basle. 1601.

Pa0l Lejat.

Mirandola, Giov.\nxi Pico della, Italian phi- losopher and scholar, b. 24 Feljruary, 1403; d. 17 XoN'cmber, 1494. He belonged to a family that had long dwelt in the Castle of Mirandola (Duchy of .\Ioilena), which had become independent in the fourteenth century and had receiveil in 1414 from the Emperor Sigismund t he fief of Concordia. To devote himself wholly to study, he left his share of the an- cestral principality to his two brothers, and in his fourteenth year went to Bologna to study canon law and fit himself for the ecclesiastical career. Repelled, however, by the purely positive science of law, he de- voted himself to the study of philosophy and theology, and spent seven years wandering through the clnef universities of Italy and France, .studying also Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. An impostor sold him sLxty Hebrew manuscripts, asserting posi- tively that they were written by order of Esdras, and contained the secrets of nature and religion. For many years he believed in the Kabbala and interwove its fancies in his philosophical theories. His aim was to conciliate religion and philosophy. Like his teacher, Marsilius Ficinus, he based his views chiefly on Plato, in opposition to Aristotle the doctor of scholasticism at its decline. But Pico was constitu- tionally an eclect ic. and in some respects he represented a reaction against the exaggerations of pure human- Lsm. .According to him, we should study the Hebrew and Talmudic sources, while the best products of scholasticism .should be retained. His "Heptaplus", a mystico-allegorical exposition of the creation accord- ing to the seven Biblical senses, foUow-s this idea (Florence, about 14S0) ; to the same period belongs the "De ente et uno", with its explanations of several passages in Moses, Plato, and Aristotle; alsoan oration on the Dignity of Man (published among the "Com- mentationes").

With bewildering attainments due to his brilliant and tenacious iminory, lie returned to Rome in 1486 and undertook to m nni.iin '.){I0 theses on all possible subjects (••Conclu-ioni-s |jhilosophic;c, cabalasticaj et theological", Rome, 148(5, in fol.). He offered to pay the expenses of those who came from a distance to en- gage with him in public discussion. Innocent VIII was made to believe that at least thirteen of these theses were heretical, though in reality they merely revealed the shallowmess of the learning of that epoch. Even such a mind as Pico's showed too much credulity in nonsensical beliefs, and too great a liking for childish and unsolvalile problems. The proposed disputation ■was prohibited and t he book containing the theses was interdicted, notwithstanding the author's defence in "Apologia J. Pici .Mirandolani, Concordia; comitis" (148!)). One of his detractors had maintained that Kabbala was the name of an impious writer against Jesus Christ. Despite all efforts Pico was condemned, and he decided to travel, visiting France first, hut he aftenvards returned to Florence. He destroyed his poetical works, gave up profane science, and deter- mineil to devote Ids old age to a defence of Christianity against ,Iews, Mohammedans, and astrologers. A por- tion of this work was published after his death

(■'Disputationes adversus astrologiam ilivinatricem", Bologna, 1495). Becau.se of this book and his contro- versy again:,t astrology, Pico marks an era and a deci- sive progressive movement in ideas. He died two months after his intimate friend Politian, on the day Charles \III of France entered Florence. He was interred at San Marco, and Savonarola delivered the funeral oration.

Besides the writings already mentioned, see his com- plete works (Bologna, 1496; Venice, 149S; Strasburg, 1504;B;isle, 1557, 1573, 1601). He wrote in Italian an imitation of Plato's " Banquet". His letters (" Aurea ad familiares epistolae", Paris, 1499) are important for the history of contemporary thought. The many editions of his entire works in the sixteenth century sufficiently prove his influence.

NicfmoN, Mi-moires, XXXIV; Tiraboschi, Biblioleca Mode- nese, IV, 95; biography by his nephew, in complete works; Sioria delta lettcratura italiana, VI, part I, 323; ^Sandys, A History of Ctassicat Scholarship, II (Cambridge. 1908), 82.

Paul Lejay.

Miridite, Abbey op (Miriditabum, orSANcxi Alex- andri de Oroshi), the name of an abbatia mdlius in Albania, where there formerly stood a Benedictine abbey, now destroyed, dedicated to St. Alexander, martyr. By decree of 25 October, 18SS, this abbey with its two affiliated parishes, together with five other par- ishes in the Diocese of Ljes (Alessio, or Alise), were re- moved from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Ljes. In 1800 three parishes from the Diocese of Sappa were added, and in 1894 five from Ljes. The country fonns part of the Turkish dominions in Europe and is inhab- ited by Mohammedans, Greek Schismatics, and Catho- lics. The Catholics number 16,550, and are under the care of secular and regular clergy. The abbot is chosen from among the secular clergy. The present abbot, Mgr. Primus Docchi, who resides at Oroshi was bom at Bulgri, 7 Feb., 1846, and studied at the Propa- ganda College, Rome. The Franciscans have a parish and a hospital at Gomsice.

RouKis, Ethnographische und statistiscke Mittheilungen iiber Albanien in Petermann's Mittheilungen (1884), 367 sqq.; Mis- sioncs Cathoticcp; Mihacevic, *Sera.;?nsAiPen'roy, XXIII (Lix'no- Sarajevo. 1909), 126. A. L. GANCEVld.

Miserere, the first word of the Vulgate text of Psalm 1 (Hebrew, li). Two other Psalms (Iv and Ivi) begin with the same word, and all three continue with mei, Deus (Have mercy on me, O God). In alphas betical indexes to the (Latin) Psalms they are inter- distinguished by the fourth word, which in Ps. 1 is secundum; Ps. Iv, quoniam; in Ps. Ivi, miserere: so that Ps. 1 will appear as " Miserere . . . secundum". So liturgically and musically pre-eminent is Ps. 1, however, that it is commonly referred to as the Mis- erere, without further qualification. The psalm has a title which is one of the best authenticated of all, as it is found in the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Latin, and which in the Vulgate reads: " In finem, Psalmus David, Cum venit ad eum Nathan propheta, quando intravit ad Bethsabee." This title forms vv. 1 and 2 of the p.salm, and refers to the sin of David (II Kings, xi) and to the reproaches and warnings of the prophet Nathan (II Kings, xii). Some commentators think that the last two verses of the psalm were added in the time of the Captivity. Delitzsch nevertheless con- siders them quite admissible in the mouth of David, arguing that the Hebrew word for " build " means not only "to rebuild", but "to complete what is being built", and that Solomon's wall (III Kings, iii, 1) can be regarded as a fulfilment of David's prayer "that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up". (Cf. the appended bibliography, which gi\es the suffrages of some recent Catholic commentators to the tradi- tional ascription, in addition to the opinions of several of the more recent non-Catholic commenta- tors.)

The Miserere has a most prominent place in the Di-