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 282 MATTHEW PARIS logians, as Lachmann, Credner, Ewald, Reuss, Meyer, Bleek, Bunsen, Schenkel, Keim, and generally all the theologians of the Tubingen school, infer from a passage of the early ec- clesiastical writer Papias, that Matthew him- self compiled only a summary of the sermons and sayings of Christ, which was put into his- torical form by another writer. But weighty authorities have since shown that this pas- sage of Papias admits of another interpretation. The Gospel was undoubtedly written for Chris- tians of Jewish descent in Palestine. With re- spect to its date ecclesiastical traditions vary from A. D. 41 to 67 ; a majority of modern writers seem to agree in fixing it between 60 and 67. The chief aim of this Gospel is evi- dently to prove the Messianic character of Jesus. For its relation to the Gospels of Mark and Luke, see MARK ; for collective commenta- ries on all the four, or the first three Gospels, see LUKE. See Sieffert, Ueber die Echiheit und den Ursprung des ersten canonischen Eoange- liums (1832) -, Schneckenburger, Ueber den Ur- sprung des ersten Evangelii (1834); Schott, Ueber die Authenticitat des canonischen Evan- geliums nacJi Matthaus benannt (1837) ; Kern, Ueber den Ursprung des Eoangeliums Matthai (1837) ; and Holtzmann, Die synoptischen Evan- gelien (1863). MATTHEW PARIS, or Matthew of Paris (Lat. MatthcBus Parisiensis, so called from his hav- ing studied in that city), an English historian, born about 1195, died in 1259. From 1217 he was a Benedictine monk of St. Albans, where he continued the Flores Historiarum of Roger of Wendover from 1235 to 1259, adding a near- ly equal amount of his own to the original. This, known as the Historia Major, was first printed by Archbishop Parker in 1571, and an edition by Dr. William Watts (fol., London, 1640; Paris, 1644). Matthew Paris made a compilation from it, extending from 1066 to 1253, known as the Historia Minor, the Chro- nicon, and the Liber Chronicorum, which Sir Frederick Madden published under the title Historia Anglorum (London, 1866), from the original in the British museum. An original manuscript of the Flores Historiarum, discov- ered in the Ohetham library at Manchester, ac- cording to Sir Francis Madden, settles beyond doubt that the largest portion of that work, attributed to "the pseudo Matthew of West- minster," was written at St. Albans, under the eye of Matthew Paris, as an abridgment of his " Greater Chronicle," and the text from the close of 1241 to 1249 is in his own handwri- ting. It was continued by monks of St. Al- bans to 1265, and to 1325 at Westminster, whence the name Matthew of Westminster, otherwise unknown, became attached to it. The Historia Major has been translated into English by the Rev. J. A. Giles (5 vols. 8vo, London, 1849-'54), and the Flores Historiarum by C. D. Yonge (2 vols. 8vo, 1853). MATTHEWS, an E. county of Virginia, bor- dering on Chesapeake bay; area, 68 sq. m. ; MATTHIAS pop. in 1870, 6,200, of whom 2,096 were col- ored. It is a peninsula, having the Piankatank river on the N., the Chesapeake on the E., and Mobjack bay on the S. W., and is connected with the mainland by an isthmus 1 m. wide ; length 20 m., greatest width 8 m. It has a level surface and moderately fertile soil. The chief productions in 1870 were 3,268 bushels of wheat, 104,867 of Indian corn, and 13,577 of oats. There were 390 horses, 2,269 cattle, 957 sheep, and 4,055 swine. Capital, Matthews. MATTHIAS, a religious impostor, whose real name was ROBERT MATTHEWS, born in Wash- ington co., N. Y., about 1790, died in Arkansas. He kept a country store, failed in 1816, and went to reside in New York. In 1827 he re- moved to Albany, where he became excited by the preaching of the Rev. Messrs. Kirk and Finney. He engaged in the temperance cause, and, claiming to have received a revelation, took to street preaching. Failing to convert Albany, he prophesied its destruction and fled to New York, where he involved several re- spectable families in his delusions, and was tried and acquitted on a charge of poisoning a wealthy disciple in whose family he lived. His impositions having been exposed, he disap- peared. See "Matthias and his Imposture," by W.L. Stone (New York, 1835). MATTHIAS, emperor of Germany, born Feb. 24, 1557, died March 20, 1619. His mother was a daughter of the emperor Charles V. His father was Maximilian II., who died in 1576, and was succeeded by his eldest son Rudolph II., whose jealousy of his brother's participation in affairs at home had early impelled Matthias to espouse the cause of the revolted Nether- landers ; and he was their nominal ruler from 1577 to 1580, when he withdrew before the superior influence of the prince of Orange. The death of his brother Ernest, archduke of Austria (1595), brought him into prominence, Rudolph intrusting him with the administra- tion of that archduchy. He was notorious for his persecution of the Protestants. Commis- sioned by the emperor, he restored tranquillity in 1606 among the Hungarians, who had in- voked the aid of Bocskay of Transylvania and of the Turks against the house of Hapsburg ; and in 1608, having formed a confederation of the Hungarian, Moravian, and Silesian estates, he forced Rudolph to cede to him Hungary, Moravia, and Austria, and to secure to him the succession to the kingdom of Bohemia. He now sought to propitiate the Protestants in order to obtain this concession; and subse- quently, when Rudolph manifested a prefer- ence for the archduke Leopold as future king of Bohemia, Matthias joined the disaffected Bo- hemians against his brother, and secured from him the cession not only of Bohemia, but also of Silesia and Lusatia. His brother leaving no issue, Matthias was unanimously elected (June, 1612) to succeed him as emperor. He was un- able to grapple with the Turks in Hungary, whose advance on Vienna was only arrested by