Matter, Jacques, a noted French historian and ])hilosopher, was born in Alt-Eckendorf, Alsace, May 31, 1791. His parents were Germans, and, though living imder French rule, remained true to the fatlierland. Jacques, however, was taught French from his child- hood, as he was expected to take a position under the French government. He was intended for the legal profession, and, after enjoying the best educational ad- vantages of private instructors, was sent to the gymna- sium at Strasburg, and then entered as a student at the University of Gcittingen, Germany, where he enjoyed the instruction and association of Heeren, the noted his- torian, and Eichhorn, the celebrated Orientalist. He re- moved to Paris with a diplomatic career in view, at- tended the lectures of the Faculty of Letters, and wrote his Essui historique sur Vecole d'Alexandrie (published in 1820), which, crowned by the academy in 1816, gave him a reputation among those French scholars who were interested in German erudition. By favor of Roj'er-Collard and Guizot, lie received in 1819 a profess- orship in the College of Strasburg, which he exchanged two years afterwards for the directorship of the gymnasi- um and the professorship of ecclesiastical history in the Protestant academy of the same city. Applying him- self to the study of ecclesiastical history and philosophy, he wrote Hisfoire critique dti Gnosticisme (Paris, 18'28, 2 vols. 8vo ; 2d ed. 1843-44, 3 vols. 8vo), and Ilistoire ujii- verselle de VEr/Use Chretienne (1829-32, 3 vols.; 2d edit. 1838). In 1828 he was appointed inspector of the Acad- emy of Strasburg, and, in 1831, corresponding member of the Academy of Inscriptions. His treatise De V influ- ence des moeurs sur les lois et des lois sur ks moeurs (Par- is, 1832) received from the academy the extraordinary prize of 10,000 francs. In 1832 he was appointed by
Guizot general inspector of the University of Paris, and removed to that city. Among his later productions are, Ilistoire des doctrines morales et poUtiques des trots der- niers siecles (1836-37, 3 vols.) : — De Vaffuiblissement des idees et des etudes morales (18-11) : — Schelling et la philo- sopliie de la nature (1842) : — De Vetat morale politique et litteraire de rAllemac/ne (1847, 2 Vols.) : — Histoire de la j)hilo Sophie dans ses rapports avec la religion (18;j4) : — Philosophie de la i-elirjion (1857, 2 vols) : — Morale, plii- losophie des moeurs (1860) : — St. Martin, philos. inconnu (1862) : — Emmanuel de Swedenhoi-g (1863) : — Le Mysti- cisme en France aux temjis de Fenelon (1864). He has also written occasional treatises concernmg schools and education, and numerous articles in the Dictionnaire de la conveisation and other cyclopa3dias. He died at Strasburg June 23, 1864.
Matthai, Chkistian Friedrich von, a noted Ger- man theologian, was born in Thuringia in 1744; was educated at the University of Leipsic, and immediately upon the completion of his studies became rector of the Gymnasium at Moscow. While here he devoted him- self to a critical study of the Greek fathers of the Church, and published editions of the writings of Chrj'sostom, Basil the Great, and others. He was promoted to a professorship in the universitj' about 1776, but in 1785 gladly accepted the position of rector at Meissen — this affording him an opportunity to return to his fatherland. In 1789 he was called to the University of Wittenberg, whence he again returned to Moscow in 1805. He died in Russia Sept. 26, 1811. Matthai, besides patristic stud- ies, devoted himself largely to exegesis. He edited the commentary of Euthymius Zigabenus on the Gos- pels, with notes, and Nemesius of Emesa on the Nature of Man. But his most celebrated critical labor is his edition of the Greek Testament, for which he made an extensive collation of manuscripts; though, as he chiefly followed the authority of one class, the Byzantine, his edition is less valuable in itself than as a collection of materials for the further labors of the critical editor. A second edition of this Testament appeared in 1803-7, in 3 vols. 8vo. The work is entitled Novum Test. Greece et La- tine: Textum denuo recensuit,varias Lectiones numquam antea vulgatas collegit, scholia Grceca addidit, animadver- siones criticas adjecit, etc. (Riga?, 1782-88, 12 vols. 8vo). The competent judgment of Michaelis pronounces its great value in few words. He says : " He has made his collection of various readings with great labor and diligence ; he found in liis MSS. a confirmation of many readings, which I should liave hardly expected, because they are found in MSS. of a different kind and of a dif- ferent country from those which he used ; naj', even those of the Western edition, of which he speaks with the utmost contempt, he has corroborated by the evi- dence of his Moscow MSS. This edition is absolutely necessarj^ for every man who is engaged in the criticism of the Greek Testament." See Doring, Gelehrte Theol. Deutschktnds d. 18'"' u. 19'"" Jarh. vol. ii, s. v. ; Home, Introd. to the Grit. Study of the Scriptures ; Kitto, Cyclop. Bibl. Lit. vol. iii, s. v.
Matthaeus, Cantacuzenus, co- emperor of Con- stantinople, was the eldest son of the far-more illustri- ous John V Cantacuzenus (Johannes VI). At twenty- one, four years before he was of age, he was associated by his father in the supreme government as a means of checking the rebellion of John Palieologus. This meas- ure of Cantacuzenus. however, owing to the popularitj' of Palieologus, failed in its design, and in 1355 the asso- ciate emperors, father and son, were compelled to alidi- cate the throne in favor of their rival. Matthanis now retired with liis father to a monastic life in the convents of Mount Athos. He married Irene Paheologina, and became the father of six children. His death, preceding that of his father, occurred towards the end of the 14th century. He was a man of much learning, and the au- thor of various works, mostly Biblical commentaries, several of which are still extant in MS. The one enti- tled Commentarii in Cantica Canticorum has be€n pub-