Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/628

 MORIMOND

570

MORMONS

Baldinucci. Nolizie dc' Pro/rssori del disrgnn, II (1688) ; Lanzi, Storia PiUorica. I (1809).

CiEoiuiE Chakles Williamson.

Moiimond, Abbey ok, fourth daughter of Citeaux, situated in Champagne, Dioeese of Langres, France; was founded in 111,') by Odelric dWigreinont and his wife, .\deUne do Choiseul. .\rnold. it.s tirst abbot, a member of one of the noblest families of (Jermany, wa.s for many >ears considered a-s one of the cohimns of the Ci.stercian Order. Thanks to his zeal and influ- ence, Moriniond took on a rapid growth; numerous colonies thcrcfnim established themselves in France, Germany, I'lilund, Bohemia. Spain, and the Island of Cyprus. Amongst the most celebrated foundations were Ebrach (1126) the most flourishing in Germany; Holy Cro.ss (1134), the glory of the Order in .\ustria; Aiguebelle (1137), in France, which the Keformed Ci.s- tercians have now resuscitated from its ruins. This extension was so prodigious that toward the end of the eighteenth century ISIorimond counted amongst its filiations nearly seven hundred monasteries for both Bexes. Briefs from various popes placed the principal Militarj' Orders of Spain under the spiritual jurisdic- tion of the Abbot of Morimond: the Order of Cala- trava (1187); of Alcantara (1214); the Militia of Christ, in Portugal (1319), and later on those of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, in Savoy. The vast wealth that gradually accumulated, and the continual wars wherefrom Morimond had particularly to suffer, on account of its geographical position, became the cause of decadence. Various attempts at reform were made, but the constant political disorders paralyzed the efforts of the reformers. In 1791 the religious were dispersed, and IMorimond ceased to exist.

ISIorimond had sheltered a great number of religious, renowned both for sanctity and science. The abbatial chair was often filled by abbots whose names are yet celebrated, to whom kings and emperors had confided tasks of the most dehcate importance, and whom the popes had honoured with their confidence. A large number of bishops and several cardinals were given to the Church by Morimond; and Benedict XII, be- fore his election, was a monk of affiliation of this abbey. Of the magnificent buildings that formed the abbey and its church, so remarkable for architectural beauty and the richness of ornamentation, nothing now re- mains but ruins; nevertheless the organ, one of the most wonderful in France, and the choir-stalls now beautify the cathedral of Langres.

Gallia Christiana: Martene and I)urand. Voyage LitUraire de deux Binedictins (1717): Dubois, Histoire de t'Abbaye de Mori- mond (Dijon, 1852); AIanrique, Annales Cistercienses (Lyons, 1642); Ja-nauschek, Oriflfniim Cisterciensium, I (Vienna. 1877); JONGUELiNUS, Kolitia Abbatiarum O. Cist. (Cologne, 1640); Le Nain, Essai de I'histoire de I'ordre de CUeaux (Paris, 1696).

Edmond M. Obrecht.

Morin, Jean, a French priest of the Oratory, b. at Blois, in 1.591 ; d. at Paris, 28 Feb., 1659. According to Dupin, whosejudgment posterity has confirmed, hewas the most learned Catholic author of the seventeenth century. Born a Calvinist, he was converted by Car- dinal Dupcrron,and in 1018 joined the Oratory at Paris. At first he was suiierior in houses of his congregation at Orle.ans and .Angers; in 162.5 he wa.s in attendance on Queen Henrietta of France in England; in 1628 he returned to Paris, where he remained until his death, with the exception of a sojourn of a few months in Rome, whither he had been called by Urban VIII in 1640 to aid in bringing about the union of the Greeks and Latins. An order from Richelieu recalled him to Paris, where he continued the publishing of his learned works, at the same time labouring to convert heretics and Jews, many of whom he brought to the true Faith. The General Assemblies of the French clergy often appealed to his great erudition, and entrusted him with various fa.sks. He kept up a correspondence and was often in controversy with the noted savants of the day, such as Muis, Buxtorf, etc.

His chief works are: "Histoire de la d61iverance de I'Eglise chrdtienne par I'empereur Constantin et de la grandeur et souverainete temporelle donn(5e a I'Eglise romaine par les rois de France" (Paris, 1630); "Exer- citationes rcclesi;istic;e in utrumque Samaritanorum Pent;it('ui-hum" (Paris, 1631), in which he maintained thai the S:un:iritan text and the Septuagint should be preferred to the Hebrew text, a position he upheld again in the following work: " Exercitationes biblicae de Hebraei Grscique textus sinceritate . . ." (Paris, 1663, 1669, 1686); " Commentarius historicus de dis- ciplina in administratione sacrament i Pn^nitentia; XIII primus sa?culis" (Paris, 16.51); "Commentarius de sacrisEcelesiieordinationibus" (Paris, 165.5; Antwerp, 1695; Rome, 1751). The two preceding works are very important for the history of the sacraments. Morin also pubUshed : " Biblia grjeca sive Vetus testamentum secundum Septuaginta" (Paris, 1628); and in Lejay's "Polyglotte", vol. V (1645), " Pentateuchus hebra?o- samaritanus" and "Pentateuchus samaritanus". He left several manuscript works.

Constantin, Sciagraphia vita: J. Morini (Paris, 1660) ; Nic£- RON, MeTnoires, IX, 90; Simon. Vita Morini taken from Antiqui- tales ecclesifB. . . dissertationibus epistolin ..,-.;'' i London,

1682): a satire rather than a life; Batter Ki, u h'ques,

II, 435; Gomn, Notice sur Morin (.B\ois, isiii 1; i, // , Cmtier-

titen, IV, 447; Inqold, Essai de bibliography ,', 1 12.

A. .M. V. Incold.

Mormons, or the Church op Jesus Christ op Lat- ter-Dat Saints. — This religious body had its origin during the early part of the nineteenth century. Joseph Smith, the founder and first president of the sect, was the son of a Vermont farmer, and was born in Sharon township, Windsor Countv, in that state, on 23 December, 1805. In the spring of 1S20, while liv- ing with his parents at Manchester, Ontario (now Wayne) County, New York, he became deeply con- cerned upon the subject of his salvation, a condition partly induced by a religious revival which prosely- tized a few of his relatives to the Presbyterian Faith. Joseph himself was inclined toward Methodism: to satisfy his mind as to which one of the existing sects he should join, he sought Divine guidance, and claimed to have received in answer to prayer a visita- tion from two glorious beings, who told him not to con- nect himself with any of these Churches, but to bide the coming of the Church of Christ, which was about to be re-established. According to his own statement, there appeared to him on the night of 21 September, 1823, a heavenly messenger, who gave his name as Mo- roni, and revealed the existence of an ancient record containing the fullness of the Gospel of Christ as taught by the Saviour after His Resurrection to the Nephites, a branch of the House of Israel which in- habited the American continent ages prior to its dis- covery by Columbus. Moroni in mortal life had been a Nephite prophet, the son of another prophet named Mormon, who was the compiler of the record buried in a hill anciently called Cumorah, situated about two miles from the modern village of Manchester. Joseph Smith states that he received the record from the Angel Moroni in September, 1827. It was, he alleges, engraved upon metallic plates having the appearance of gold and each a little thinner than ordinary tin, the whole forming a book about eight inclics long, six inches wide, and six inches thick, bound together by rings. The characters engraved upon the plates were in a language styled the Reformed Egyptian, and with the book were interpreters — Urim and Thummim — by means of which these characters were to be trans- lated into English. The result was the " Book of Mor- mon", published at Palmyra, New York, in March, 1830; in the preface eleven witnesses, exclusive of Joseph Smith, the translator, claim to have seen the plates from which it was taken. On renouncing Mormonism subsequently, Cowdery, Whitmer, and Harris, the three principal witnesses, declared this testimony false.