See GREECE: MYCENÆ: AND ITS KINGS;
also ARGOS; HERACLEIDÆ; and HOMER.
MYCIANS, The.
A race, so-called by the Greeks, who lived anciently on the
coast of the Indian Ocean, east of modern Kerman. They were
known to the Persians as Maka.
_G. Rawlinson,
Five Great Monarchies: Persia,
chapter 1._
MYLÆ, Naval battle at (B. C. 260).
See PUNIC WAR, THE FIRST.
MYONNESUS, Battle of (B. C. 190).
See SELEUCIDÆ: B. C. 224-187.
MYRMIDONS, The.
"Æakus was the son of Zeus, born of Ægina, daughter of Asopus,
whom the god had carried off and brought into the island to
which he gave her name. … Æakus was alone in Ægina: to
relieve him from this solitude, Zeus changed all the ants in
the island into men, and thus provided him with a numerous
population, who, from their origin, were called Myrmidons."
_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 1, chapter 10._
According to the legends, Peleus, Telamon and Phocus were the
sons of Æakus; Peleus migrated, with the Myrmidons, or some
part of them, to Thessaly, and from there the latter
accompanied his son Achilles to Troy.
MYSIANS, The.
See PHRYGIANS.—MYSIANS.
MYSORE, The founding of the kingdom of.
See INDIA: A. D. 1767-1769.
MYSORE WARS, with Hyder Ali and Tippoo Saib.
See INDIA: A. D. 1767-1769; 1780-1783; 1785-1793;
and 1798-1805.
MYSTERIES, Ancient Religious.
See ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES.
MYSTICISM.
QUIETISM.
"The peculiar form of devotional religion known under these
names was not, as most readers are aware, the offspring of the
17th century. It rests, in fact, on a substratum of truth
which is coeval with man's being, and expresses one of the
elementary principles of our moral constitution. … The
system of the Mystics arose from the instinctive yearning of
man's soul for communion with the Infinite and the Eternal.
Holy Scripture abounds with such aspirations—the Old
Testament as well as the New; but that which under the Law was
'a shadow of good things to come,' has been transformed by
Christianity into a living and abiding reality. The Gospel
responds to these longings for intercommunion between earth
and heaven by that fundamental article of our faith, the
perpetual presence and operation of God the Holy Ghost in the
Church, the collective 'body of Christ,' and in the individual
souls of the regenerate. But a sublime mystery like this is
not incapable of misinterpretation. … The Church has ever
found it a difficult matter to distinguish and adjudicate
between what may be called legitimate or orthodox Mysticism
and those corrupt, degrading, or grotesque versions of it
which have exposed religion to reproach and contempt. Some
Mystics have been canonized as saints; others, no less
deservedly, have been consigned to obloquy as pestilential
heretics. It was in the East—proverbially the fatherland of
idealism and romance—that the earliest phase of error in this
department of theology was more or less strongly developed. We
find that in the 4th century the Church was troubled by a sect
called Massalians or Euchites, who placed the whole of
religion in the habit of mental prayer; alleging as their
authority the Scripture precept 'That men ought always to
pray, and not to faint.' They were for the most part monks of
Mesopotamia and Syria; there were many of them at Antioch when
St. Epiphanius wrote his Treatise against heresies, A. D. 376.
They held that every man is from his birth possessed by an
evil spirit or familiar demon, who can only be cast out by the
practice of continual prayer. They disparaged the Sacraments,
regarding them as things indifferent: they rejected manual
labor; and, although professing to be perpetually engaged in
prayer, they slept, we are told, the greater part of the day,
and pretended that in that state they received revelations
from above. … The Massalians did not openly separate from
the Church; they were condemned, however, by two Councils—one
at Antioch in 391, the other at Constantinople in 426.
Delusions of the same kind were reproduced from time to time
in the Oriental Church; and, as is commonly the case, the
originators of error were followed by a race of disciples who
advanced considerably beyond them. The Hesychasts, or
Quietists of Mount Athos in the 14th century, seem to have
been fanatics of an extreme type. They imagined that, by a
process of profound contemplation, they could discern
internally the light of the Divine Presence—the 'glory of
God'—the very same which was disclosed to the Apostles on the
Mount of Transfiguration. Hence they were also called
Thaborites.
{2238}
The soul to which this privilege was vouchsafed had no need to
practise any of the external acts or rites of religion. …
The theory of abstract contemplation, with the extraordinary
fruits supposed to be derived from it, travelled in due course
into the West, and there gave birth to the far-famed school of
the Mystics, of which there were various ramifications. The
earliest exponent of the system in France was John Scotus
Erigena, the contemporary and friend of Charles the Bald. …
Erigena incurred the censures of the Holy See; but the results
of his teaching were permanent. … The Mystics, or
Theosophists as some style them, attained a position of high
renown and influence at Paris towards the close of the 12th
century. Here two of the ablest expositors of the learning of
the middle age, Hugh and Richard of St. Victor, initiated
crowds of ardent disciples into the mysteries of the 'via
interna,' and of 'pure love'—that marvellous quality by which
the soul, sublimated and etherialized, ascends into the very
presence-chamber of the King of kings. … The path thus
traced was trodden by many who were to take rank eventually as
the most perfect masters of spiritual science; among them are
the venerated names of Thomas à Kempis, St. Bonaventure, John
Tauler of Strasburg, Gerson, and St. Vincent Ferrier. … But,
on the other hand, it is not less true that emotional religion
has been found to degenerate, in modern as well as in ancient
times, into manifold forms of moral aberration. … To exalt
above measure the dignity and privileges of the spiritual
element in man carries with it the danger of disparaging the
material part of our nature; and this results in the
preposterous notion that, provided the soul be absorbed in the
contemplation of things Divine, the actions of the body are
unimportant and indifferent. How often the Church has combated
and denounced this most insidious heresy is well known to all
who have a moderate acquaintance with its history. Under the
various appellations of Beghards, Fratricelli, Cathari,
Spirituals, Albigenses, Illuminati, Guerinets, and Quietists,
the self-same delusion has been sedulously propagated in
different parts of Christendom, and with the same ultimate
consequences. A revival of the last-named sect, the Quietists,
took place in Spain about the year 1675, when Michel de
Molinos, a priest of the diocese of Saragossa, published his
treatise called 'The Spiritual Guide,' or, in the Latin
translation, 'Manuductio spiritualis.' His leading principle,
like that of his multifarious predecessors, was that of
habitual abstraction of the mind from sensible objects, with a
view to gain, by passive contemplation, not only a profound
realisation of God's presence, but so perfect a communion with
Him as to end in absorption into His essence. … Persons of
the highest distinction—Cardinals, Inquisitors, nay, even
Pope Innocent himself—were suspected of sharing these
dangerous opinions. Molinos was arrested and imprisoned, and
in due time the Inquisition condemned sixty-eight propositions
from his works; a sentence which was confirmed by a Papal bull
in August, 1687. Having undergone public penance, he was
admitted to absolution; after which, in 'merciful'
consideration of his submission and repentance, he was
consigned for the rest of his days to the dungeons of the Holy
Office. Here he died in November, 1692. … 'The principles of
Quietism had struck root so deeply, that they were not to be
soon dislodged either by the terrors of the Inquisition, or by
the well-merited denunciations of the Vatican. The system was
irresistibly fascinating to minds of a certain order. Among
those who were dazzled by it was the celebrated Jeanne Marie
De la Mothe Guyon," whose ardent propagation of her mystic
theology in the court circles of France—where Fenelon,
Madame de Maintenon, and other important personages were
greatly influenced—gave rise to bitter controversies and
agitations. In the end, Madame Guyon was silenced and
imprisoned and Fenelon was subjected to humiliating papal
censures.
_W. H. Jervis,
History of the Church of France,
volume 2, chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_R. A. Vaughan,
Hours with the Mystics._
_J. Bigelow,
Miguel Molinos, the Quietist._
_T. C. Upham,
Life of M'me Guyon._
_H. L. S. Lear,
Fenelon,
chapters 3-5._
_S. E. Herrick,
Some Heretics of Yesterday,
chapter 1._
_H. C. Lea,
Chapters from the Religious History of Spain: Mystics._
MYTILENE, Siege of.
See LESBOS.
N
N. S.
New Style.
See CALENDAR, GREGORIAN.
NAARDEN: A. D. 1572.
Massacre by the Spaniards.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1572-1573.
NABATHEANS, The.
"Towards the seventh century B. C., the name Edomite suddenly
disappears, and is used only by some of the Israelitish
prophets, who, in doing so, follow ancient traditions. Instead
of it is found the hitherto unknown word, Nabathean.
Nevertheless the two names, Nabathean and Edomite, undoubtedly
refer to the same people, dwelling in the same locality,
possessing the same empire, with the same boundaries, and the
same capital, Selah [Petra]. Whence arose this change of name?
According to an appearances from an internal revolution, of
which we have no record, a change in the royal race and in the
dominant tribe."
_F. Lenormant,
Manual of Ancient History,
book 7, chapter 4._
"This remarkable nation [the Nabatheans, or Nabatæans] has
often been confounded with its eastern neighbours, the
wandering Arabs, but it is more closely related to the Aramæan
branch than to the proper children of Ishmael. This Aramæan
or, according to the designation of the Occidentals, Syrian
stock must have in very early times sent forth from its most
ancient settlements about Babylon a colony, probably for the
sake of trade, to the northern end of the Arabian gulf; these
were the Nabatæans on the Sinaitic peninsula, between the gulf
of Suez and Aila, in the region of Petra (Wadi Mousa). In
their ports the wares of the Mediterranean were exchanged for
those of India; the great southern caravan-route, which ran
from Gaza to the mouth of the Euphrates and the Persian gulf,
passed through the capital of the Nabatæans—Petra—whose
still magnificent rock-palaces and rock-tombs furnish clearer
evidence of the Nabatæan civilization than does an almost
extinct tradition."
_T. Mommsen,
History of Rome,
book 5, chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_H. Ewald,
History of Israel,
volume 5, page 351._
{2239}
NABOB.
NAWAB.
Under the Moghul empire, certain viceroys or governors of
provinces bore the title of Nawab, as the Nawab Wuzeer or
Vizier of Oude, which became in English speech Nabob, and
acquired familiar use in England as a term applied to rich
Anglo-Indians.
NADIR SHAH, sovereign of Persia, A. D. 1736-1747.
NAEFELS, OR NÖFELS, Battle of (1388).
See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1386-1388.
Battle of (1799).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
NAGPUR:
The British acquisition and annexation.
See INDIA: A. D. 1816-1819, and 1848-1856.
NAHANARVALI, The.
See LYGIANS.
NAHUA PEOPLES.
NAHUATL.
See MEXICO, ANCIENT.
NAIRS, The.
See INDIA: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
NAISSUS, The Battle of.
See GOTHS: A. D. 268-270.
NAJARA, Battle of.
See NAVARETTE.
NAMANGAN, Battle of (1876).
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1859-1876.
NAMAQUA, The.
See SOUTH AFRICA: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
NAMNETES,
NANNETES, The.
See VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL.
----------NAMUR: Start--------
NAMUR: A. D. 1692.
Siege and capture by the French.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1692.
NAMUR: A. D. 1695.
Siege and recovery by William of Orange.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1695-1696.
NAMUR: A. D. 1713.
Ceded to Holland.
See UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714;
and NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1713-1715.
NAMUR: A. D. 1746-1748.
Taken by the French and ceded to Austria.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1746-1747;
and AIX-LA-CHAPELLE: CONGRESS.
----------NAMUR: End--------
NANA SAHIB, and the Sepoy Revolt.
See INDIA: A. D. 1848-1856; 1857 (MAY-AUGUST);
and 1857-1858 (JULY-JUNE).
NANCY: Defeat and death of Charles the Bold (1477).
See BURGUNDY: A. D. 1476-1477.
----------NANKING: Start--------
NANKING: A. D. 1842.
Treaty ending the Opium War and opening Chinese ports.
See CHINA: A. D. 1839-1842.
NANKING: A. D. 1853-1864.
The capital of the Taiping Rebels.
See CHINA: A. D. 1850-1864.
----------NANKING: End--------
----------NANTES: Start--------
NANTES:
Origin of the name.
See VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL.
NANTES: A. D. 1598.
The Edict of Henry IV.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1598-1599.
NANTES: A. D. 1685.
The Revocation of the Edict.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1681-1698.
NANTES: A. D. 1793.
Unsuccessful attack by the Vendeans.
The crushing of the revolt and the frightful
vengeance of the Terrorists.
The demoniac Carrier and his Noyades.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY-DECEMBER);
THE CIVIL WAR; and 1793-1794 (OCTOBER-APRIL).
----------NANTES: End--------
NANTICOKES, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.
NANTWICH, Battle of.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1644 (JANUARY).