The festival is commemorated Aug. 24. — Herzog, Real" Encyklopddie, ix, 142.
Massagetae, an ancient nomadic people, who in- habited the broad steppes on the north-east of the Cas- pian Sea, to the northward of the river Araxes or Jax- artes. Herodotus says that they had a community of wives ; that they sacrificed and devoured their aged peo- ple ; that they worshipped the sun, and offered horses to him ; that they lived on the milk and flesh of their herds, and on fish ; and fought on horseback and on foot with lance, bow, and double-edged axe. Cyrus is said to have lost his life in fighting against them, B.C. 530. Niebuhr and Bockh are of opinion that they belonged to the Mongolian, but Humboldt and others, to the Indo- Germanic or Ar^-an family. — Chambers, Cyclop, s. v.
Mas'sah (Heb. Massah', ilS'O, trial, as often ; Sept. TTf (pcrffjiioc, iriipa ; Vulg. tentatio'), a name given to the spot in Rephidim where the Israelites provoked Jeho- vah bj' murmuring for want of water; otherwise called Meribah (Exod. xvii, 7 ; Deut. vi, 16 ; ix, 22 ; xxviii, 8). The name also occurs (in the Heb.), with mention of the circumstances which occasioned it, in Psa. xcv, 8, 9, and its Greek equivalent in Heb. iii, 8.
Massalians (from "|"'^^'2) or Messalians, also called Enthusiasts, were a sect which sprung up about the year A.D. 360, in the reign of the emperor Constair- tius. They were mainly roammg mendicant monks, and flourished in IMesopotamia and Syria. They main- tained that men have two souls, a celestial and a dia- bolical; and that the latter is driven out by prayer. They consequently conceived the Christian life as an unintermitted prayer, despised the moral law and the sacraments, and claimed to enjoy perfection. The Gos- pel historj' they declared a mere allegory. But they concealed their pantheistic mysticism and antinomian- ism under external conformity to the Cathohc Church. From those words of our Lord, "Labor not for the meat that perisheth," it is said that they concluded they ought not to do any work to get their bread. We may sup- pose, says Dr. Jortin, that this sect did not last long; that these sluggards were soon starved out of the world ; or, rather, that cold and hunger sharpened their wits, and taught them to be better interpreters of Scripture. ToAvards the close of the 4th century the Church dis- covered the real tendency of the IMassalians, and they were sorely persecuted ; but, notwithstanding all oppo-
MASSARIUS
869
MASSILLON
sition, they perpetuated themselves to the 7th centurj', and reappeared in the Euckites and Bogomiles (q. v.) of the Middle Ages. See Buck, Theol. Did. s. v. ; Nean- der, Ch. Hist, i'i, 240-247 ; SchafF, Ch. Hist, ii, 199.
IMassarius, a chamberlain of the massa communis, which Mas the common fund of a cathedral. Masseketh. See Talmud. Massi'as (Mao-o-iac v. r. 'Aaaiiar), given (1 Esdr. ix, 22) in place of the Maassei.vh (q. v.) of the Heb. list (Ezra x, 22).
Massie, James William, D.D., LL.D., a mmister of the English Independents, for some time engaged in the missionary field, was born in Ireland in 1799. He was educated for the ministry by Dr. Bogue, and went out as a missionary to India. After laboring there a few years he returned to Great Britain, was pastor for a time at Perth, Scotland, and subsequently at Dublin, Ireland, and Salford, England, from which latter place he re- moved to London, to act as secretary of the Home Mis- sionary Society. Deeply interested in all the public movements of the day, he took a prominent part in the anti-slavery movement, and was an active member of the Union and Emancipation societies formed during the late war in the United States. He visited this country several times, and was twice delegated from the Independents to our Congregationalists and Presbyte- rians. He died at Kingston, Ireland, May 8, 1869. Dr. Massie was the author of several works, among which were Continental India (1839, 2 vols. 8vo ; 1840, 2 vols. 8vo) : — Recollections, illustrating the Religion, etc., of the Hindus (2 vols.) : — The Nonconformists' Plea for F?-ee- dom of Education (1847) : — The Evangelical Alliance, its Origin and Development (1847) : — Liberty of Conscience illustrated, etc. (1847) : — Social Improveinoit among the Working Classes affecting the entire Body Politic (1849) : — Slavery the Ci'ime and Curse of America (1852): — The Contrast — War and Christianity: Mai'tial Evils and their Remedy (1855) : — Christ a Learner (1858) : — Revivals in Ireland : Facts, Documents, and Correspond- ence (1859-60) -.—Revival Work (1860) -.—The A merican Crisis in Relation to the Anti-slavery Cause (1862): — America, the Origin of her jjresent Conflict; her Pros- pect for the Slave, and her Claim for Anti-slavery Sym- pathy, illustrated hy Incidents of Travel during a Tour in the Summer of 1863 throughout the United States (1864) ; etc.
Massieu, Guillaume, a learned French writer, was born April 13, 1605, at Caen, where he finished his classical studies. At sixteen he began a course of phi- losophy at the college of the Jesuits. As he proved himself an apt pupil, the Jesuits desired to attach him to their order, and sent him to Rennes to teach rhetoric, de- signing him idtimately for the professorship of theology; but his studies were not congenial to his tastes, and, his love for belles-lettres far exceeding that for theology, he forsook the society after he had actually joined it, and returned to the worid. His remarkable gifts soon gained him friends, and he found work as an instructor. While at Paris he made the acquaintance of the abbot De Tourreil, whom he aided in translating the works of Demosthenes; through his influence also he became a pensioner of the Academy of Inscriptions in 1705, and in the same j-ear was elected professor royal of the Greek language in the College of France, where he distin- guished himself during the twelve j'ears that he held the position by his profound knowledge and a pure and delicate taste. In 1714 the French Academy was opened to him. His oration delivered on this occasion is printed in the collections of the academy. Having translated Pindar, he naturally defended the writers of antiquity against the attacks of Pcrrault and of Lamothe. The Memoires de V Academic des Inscriptions (vol. i, ii, and iii) contain a great number of dissertations from the abbe Massieu. They are still read with pleasure, al- though they are more distinguished for delicacy of finish than for profound erudition ; the principal are, Les