Matthevr of Bassi. See Capuchins.
Matthew of Blatares. See Blatares.
Matthew of Cracow (more accurately of Kro- kow, in Pomerania), a noted German prelate of the Church of Rome, and worthy to be counted foremost among the forerunners of the great Reformation, was a native of Pomerania, and flourished near the opening of the 15th centurj'. But little is known of his personal history, except that he was made by the emperor Ru- pert a professor In the young University of Heidelberg ; afterwards became chancellor to Rupert, and through the latter's influence became bishop of Worms in 1405, and that he attended the Council of Pisa in 1409, and died in 1410. But of his labors we know enough to award him great praise as an ardent and faithful worker for reform among the clergj' of his Church. Indeed, the corrupt condition of the Romish Church, and espe- cially of the ecclesiastical body, seems to have earlj' engaged his serious attention. In 1384 he delivered a discourse on the improvement of morals, both in priests and people, before an archiepiscopal synod in Prague ; and, as he began then, so he continued through life to battle for reform and the eradication of corruption, and the abandonment of simony and other vile practices. Both with his tongue and by his pen he sought to ad- vance the interests of the noble cause he had espoused, and, as his position secured him great influence, his la- bors were certainly not in vain. For his day and gen- eration he was no doubt another cardinal Julian (q. v.). He desired reform rather than a revolution, and there- fore failed to accomplish his mission.
Matthew left behind him a number of MSS., some of ^vhich were afterwards printed. Among the most noted of his works is a treatise on the pollutions of the Romish court, which appears to have been writ- ten a little previous to the year 1409, about the pe- riod when the schism in the papacy seemed to open a door for conscientious minds to cherish doubts, at least privately, yet sufficiently to afford a leaven for the future, respecting the boasted infallibility of the popes, and the degree of implicit faith and obedience due to their appointments and decisions. It may be that the weakness occasioned bj^ this papal schism furnished a reason why the author of so bold an attack on the prevailing corruptions did not encounter the hostil- ity and persecution of the ecclesiastical powers. His favor with the emperor was an additional source of im punity, and probably also his early death after the pub- lication of the work. We have no information of the effect immediately produced by the treatise, but it shows that the harvest of the 16th century was even then in its germ, and it seems like some of the seed towards the harvest, sown for a hundred vears, to produce fruit in v.— L L L
the times of Luther and Melancthon. See Ullmann, Reformers hefore the Reformation, vol. i ; Hodgson, Re- formers and Martyrs (Phila. 1867, 12mo), p. 118 sq. (J.H.W.)
Matthew {Matthceus) of Paris, an English mo- nastic, of great celebrity as a chronicler of England's early history, was born about the end of the 12th cen- turj'. He took the religious habit in the Benedictine monastery of St. Albans in 1217. Almost the only in- cident of his life that has been recorded is a journej' he made to Norway, by command of the pope, to introduce some reforms into the monastic establishments of that country, which mission he has the credit of having ex- ecuted with great ability and success. He is said to have stood high in the favor of Henry III, and to have obtained various privileges for the University of Ox- ford through his influence with that king. His ac- quirements embraced all the learning and science of his age ; besides theology and history ; oratory, poetry, painting, architecture, and a practical knowledge of mechanics, are reckoned among his accomplishments by his biographers or panegyrists. His memory is pre- served mainly by his history of England, entitled Ilis- toria Major, really a continuation of a work begun at St. Albans by Roger of Wendover (who died in May, 1236), and which was subsequently entitled Chronica Major, or Chronica Majora Sancti Albani. Roger's name, however, was obscured by that of our subject, Matthew of Paris, who, though he adopted the plan of Roger's work, really furnished a most valuable chron- icle, especially of mediiBval history. In the British Museum, and in the libraries of Corpus Christi and Benedict colleges, Cambridge, there are manuscripts of an epitome, by Matthew of Paris himself, of his history, generally referred to by the names of the Historia Minor, or the Chronica, which, bishop Nicholson says, contains " several particulars of note omitted in the larger his- tory." This smaller work was for a long time ascribed to a Matthew of Westminster (q. v.). Of late, however, the question of authorship has been fairly settled by Sir Frederick Madden, who edited and published these chronicles. He pronounced the Westminster JNIatthew " a phantom who never existed," and observes that even the late IMr. Buckle was so deceived by the general tone of confidence manifested in quoting this writer that he characterizes him as, after Froissart, the most celebrated historian of the 14th century. " The mystery of the ' phantom historian,' " says a writer in the Westminster Revieio (Oct., 1866, p. 238), "has been happily unveiled by Sir Frederick Jladden, whose correct anticipation is unexpectedly confirmed by his discovery of the original copy of the work, now in the Chetham Library at Man- chester. This manuscript establishes beyond all doubt that the largest portion of the Flores Ilistoriarum, at- tributed to the pseudo Matthew of Westminster, was written at St. Albans, under the eye and by direction of Matthew of Paris, as an abridgment of his greater chronicle ; and the text from the close of the year 1241 to about two thirds of 1249 is in his own handwriting. This manuscript, continued after his death by another hand on the same plan, down to the issue of the battle of Evesham in 1265, ceased after that date to be written at St. Albans, and passed eventually into tlie library of the Monastery of St. Peter, at Westminster. The au- thor of the first continuation, after the manuscript had left St. Albans, was. Sir F. Madden thinks, John Bevere, otherwise named John of London. It was brought down by Bevere to the year 1306. A special class of manuscripts, including the Eton MS. of Matthew of Westminster, implicitly follows Bevere's chronicle ; but in the original coi)y of the Flo7-es Ilistoriarum, after it came to Westminster, Bevere's text is generally abridged, althougli under some years there are addi- tions. The entire work is carried on to the year 1305. ' It was,' says Sir Frederick, ' no doubt from the fact that the latter portion of the Floi-es Historiarum was composed by a Westminster monk, that the entire work