See MAMELUKES.
----------MEMPHIS, Egypt: Start--------
MEMPHIS, Egypt.
The foundation of Memphis is the first event in Egyptian
history, the one large historical incident in the reign of the
first king, who emerges a real man from the shadow land which
the Egyptians called the reign of the gods. … Menes, the
founder of Memphis and Egyptian history, came from the south.
Civilisation descended the Nile. His native place was Thinis,
or This, in Upper Egypt, a still older town, where his shadowy
predecessors ruled. … A great engineering work was the first
act of the builder. He chose his site … but the stream was
on the wrong side, flowing below the Libyan chain, flowing
over where the city should be, offering no water-bulwark
against the invader from the eastern border. So he raised, a
few miles to the south, a mighty dyke, and turned the river
into the present course, founding the city on the west bank,
with the desert behind and the Nile before. … The new city
received a name which reflects the satisfaction of the ancient
founder: he called it Mennufre, 'the Good' or 'Perfect
Mansion.' This was the civil name. … The civil name is
the parent of the Greek Memphis and the Hebrew Moph, also
found in the form Noph."
_R. S. Poole,
Cities of Egypt,
chapter 2._
See, also,
EGYPT: THE OLD EMPIRE AND THE MIDDLE EMPIRE.
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MEMPHIS: A. D. 640-641.
Surrender to the Moslems.
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 640-646.
----------MEMPHIS, Egypt: End--------
----------MEMPHIS, Tennessee: Start--------
MEMPHIS, Tennessee: A. D. 1739-1740.
A French fort on the site.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1719-1750.
MEMPHIS, Tennessee: A. D. 1862.
Naval fight in the river.
Surrender of the city to the Union forces.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (JUNE: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).
----------MEMPHIS, Tennessee: End--------
MENAPII, The.
See BELGÆ;
also, IRELAND: TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
MENDICANT ORDERS.
Franciscans.
Dominicans.
"This period [12-13th centuries], so prolific in institutions
of every sort, also gave birth to the Mendicant orders, a
species of spiritual chivalry still more generous and heroic
than that which we have just treated [the military-religious
orders], and unique in history. … Many causes combined to
call them into existence. In proportion as the Church grew
wealthy her discipline relaxed, and dangers menaced her on
every side. … The problem thus presented to the Church was
taken up at the opening of the 13th century, and thrown into
practical shape by two men equally eminent in intellectual
endowments and spiritual gifts. While each solved it in his
own way, they were both attached to each other by the closest
friendship. Dominic, a member of the powerful house of Guzman,
was born in the year 1170, at Callaruega (Calahorra, in Old
Castile), a village in the diocese of Osma. While pursuing his
studies in the university of Valencia, he was distinguished by
a spirit of charity and self-sacrifice. … Diego, Bishop of
Osma, … a man of severe character, and ardently devoted to
the good of the Church, found in Dominic one after his own
heart. He took the young priest with him on a mission which he
made to the south of France." Dominic was finally left in
charge of the mission. "His peaceful disposition, his spirit
of prayer, his charity, forbearance, and patient temper formed
a consoling contrast to the bloody crusade which had recently
been set on foot against the Albigenses. After spending ten
years in this toilsome and thankless mission, labouring only
for love of God and the profit of souls, he set out for Rome,
in 1215, with his plans fully matured, and submitted to Pope
Innocent III. the project of giving to the Church a new method
of defence, in an order which should combine the contemplative
life of the monk with the active career of a secular priest.
… Innocent gave his sanction to Dominic's project, provided
he would manage to bring it under some of the existing Rules.
Dominic accordingly selected the Rule of St. Augustine,
introducing a few changes, with a view to greater severity,
taken from the Rule of the Premonstratensians. That the
members of the new order might be free to devote themselves
entirely to their spiritual labours, they were forbidden to
accept any property requiring their active administration, but
were permitted to receive the incomes of such as was
administered by others. Property, therefore, might be held by
the Order as a body, but not administered by its members. Pope
Honorius III. confirmed the action of his illustrious
predecessor, and approved the Order in the following year,
giving it, from its object, the name of the 'Order of Friars
Preachers' ('Ordo Prædicatorum, Fratres Prædicatores'). …
Dominic founded, in the year 1206, an Order of Dominican nuns.
… The dress of the Dominicans is a white garment and
scapular, resembling in form that of the Augustinians, with a
black cloak and a pointed cap. Francis of Assisi, the son of a
wealthy merchant named Bernardini, was born in the year 1182,
in Assisi, in Umbria. His baptismal name was John, but from
his habit of reading the romances of the Troubadours in his
youth, he gradually acquired the name of Il Francesco, or the
Little Frenchman. … When about twenty-four years of age, he
fell dangerously ill, and, while suffering from this attack,
gave himself up to a train of religious thought which led him
to consider the emptiness and uselessness of his past life.
… He … conceived the idea of founding a society whose
members should go about through the whole world, after the
manner of the apostles, preaching and exhorting to penance.
… His zeal gradually excited emulation, and prompted others
to aspire after the same perfection. His first associates were
his townsmen, Bernard Quintavalle and Peter Cattano, and
others soon followed. Their habit consisted of a long brown
tunic of coarse woolen cloth, surmounted by a hood of the same
material, and confined about the waist with a hempen cord.
This simple but ennobling dress was selected because it was
that of the poor peasants of the surrounding country. … He
sent his companions, two-and-two, in all directions, saying to
them in taking leave: 'Go; always travel two-and-two. Pray
until the third hour; then only may you speak. Let your speech
be simple and humble.' … With St. Francis, absolute poverty
was not only a practice, it was the essential principle on
which he based his Order. Not only were the individual members
forbidden to have any personal property whatever, but neither
could they hold any as an Order, and were entirely dependent
for their support upon alms. … Hence the chief difference
between mendicant and other monastic orders consists in this,
that, in the former, begging takes the place of the ordinary
vow of personal poverty. … In 1223, Pope Honorius III.
approved the Order of Franciscans (Fratres Minores), to which
… Innocent III. had given a verbal sanction in 1210."
_J. Alzog,
Manual of Universal Church History,
section 247 (volume 2)._
"They were" called 'Friars' because, out of humility, their
founders would not have them called 'Father' and 'Dominus,'
like the monks, but simply 'Brother' ('Frater,' 'Frère,'
Friar). … Dominic gave to his order the name of Preaching
Friars; more commonly they were styled Dominicans, or, from
the colour of their habits, Black Friars. … The Franciscans
were styled by their founder 'Fratri Minori'—lesser brothers,
Friars Minors; they were more usually called Grey Friars, from
the colour of their habits, or Cordeliers, from the knotted
cord which formed their characteristic girdle."
_E. L. Cutts,
Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages,
chapter 5._
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"People talk of 'Monks and Friars' as if these were
convertible terms. The truth is that the difference between
the Monks and the Friars was almost one of kind. The Monk was
supposed never to leave his cloister. The Friar in St.
Francis' first intention had no cloister to leave."
_A. Jessopp,
The Coming of the Friars, 1._
ALSO IN:
_Mrs. Oliphant,
Life of St. Francis of Assisi._
_H. L. Lacordaire,
Life of St. Dominic._
_R. Pauli,
Pictures of Old England,
chapter 2._
_E. F. Henderson,
Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages,
book 3, number 8._
_P. Sabatier,
Life of St. Francis of Assisi._