Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/55

 MUNTJAC MtNZER April 9, 1830. He was professor of theology at Copenhagen, and from 1808 till his death bishop of Seeland. He wrote several books on the history of Christianity and of the reforma- tion in Denmark and Norway, and critical works on the cuneiform inscriptions of Per- sepolis (1800), on similar inscriptions in Sicily (1802), on the religion of the Carthaginians (1816), and various other topics of ancient and mediaeval history. MUNTJAC (cervulus, De Blainv., or stylocerus, H. Smith), the name of several small East In- dian deer, which seem to make the transition from the typical cervida to the musk deer. The horns are small, with only one anterior snag, elevated on pedicels supported by longi- tudinal ridges on the face; there are large canines in the upper jaw, and large and deep suborbital pits ; there are no metatarsal glands nor tufts ; the hoofs are triangular, partly uni- ted in front by a web, and the false hoofs small and transverse ; the hair is thin, shining, Muntjac (Cervulus vaginalis). and generally unspotted, and the tail is tufted; nhabit the forests and jungles of elevated re- gions in India and its archipelago, where they are hunted for their excellent venison. The common muntjac or kijang (C. vaginalis, Gray) is dark reddish brown, with the lower parts lighter, and a narrow white streak on the front edge of the thigh; it is about 2 ft. high at the shoulders; in the living animal there are two folds of skin along the sides of the ridges which support the horns, uniting below like a V, but drying after death in three ribbed lines, which suggested to Pennant the name of rib- faced deer. The principal horns are 4 or 5 in. long, at first straight, but curving inward and backward at the top, the anterior antler being about 1 in. ; the pedicels upon which they rest are 3 in. high, covered with skin and hair, so that when the antlers are shed they appear to have straight horns. The food consists chiefly of a kind of sugar cane, and malvaceous and succulent plants. Its speed and agility are 581 VOL. xii. 4 great, the flight being generally in a circle; when brought to bay, it is capable of inflicting severe wounds upon the dogs with its canines ; it is sometimes taken in snares, and falls a fre- quent victim to beasts of prey. It is found in Sumatra and Java. The Nepaul muntjac (C. moschatus, De Blainv.) is bright reddish yellow, the thigh streaked and under the tail white, and the chin and throat whitish. The Chinese muntjac (C. JReevesii, Gray) is grayish brown, with the hair short, with paler rings ; it has a larger head and tail than the common species, with less red and more bluish tinge, and no white over the hoofs. According to Gray, the earl of Derby had these three species at the Knowsley menagerie; but they so bred to- gether that it became " impossible to discrimi- nate.the mules from the original species." MIJNZER, Thomas, a German mystic, born at Stolberg in the Hartz mountains about 1490, beheaded at Muhlhausen, Thuringia, in May, 1525. After preaching at various places, in 1520 he became pastor of the principal church in Zwickau, Saxony. Here he associated himself with Nikolaus Storch, a weaver, who professed to receive divine revelations. They formed a society among the weavers separate from the church, whose members believed in dreams, visions, and divine inspirations. They soon gained such an influence that Munzer's co-pas- tor Egranus, who opposed him, was obliged to leave the city. The city council, who for a time had favored Mtinzer, finally considered his revolutionary views dangerous to the pub- lic peace, and imprisoned many of his adhe- rents. Others, among whom was Storch, fled to Wittenberg, where they still professed to re- ceive inspirations, and rejected infant baptism. Miinzer went to Bohemia, where he spent six months endeavoring to stir up reformatory movements. Meeting with little success, he went to Thuringia, married, and in 1523 be- came curate at Allstadt. He was the first to substitute the German language for the Latin in the public prayers and singing. He com- posed a directory for worship, which was in harmony with his ideas of the reformation. Infant baptism was to be administered in the presence of the church, instead of privately as before, the baptismal liturgy to be in German. Besides his public ministrations, he organized those whom he considered truly regenerated into a separate society, whose members held community of goods and aimed at the over- throw of hierarchy and despotism. Their fa- naticism soon led them to destroy the images and burn the chapel in a neighboring place of pilgrimages. The Saxon princes opposed these proceedings ; Luther also wrote against them ; and Mtinzer was obliged to leave Allstadt in the summer of 1524. He went to Nuremberg, where he wrote a violent pamphlet against Lu- ther ; then to Basel, where he conferred with (Ecolampadius ; then to Waldshut, where he exerted considerable influence on the men who soon afterward began the peasants' war. Ke-
 * he form is light and elegant. The few species