Meisel, Marco or Mordechai, a great Jewish phi- lanthropist, was born in 1528 and died in 1601. Little is known of his life, except that he was one of the wealthiest men at that time in Germany, and that he used his means for philanthropic purposes. He built homes, hospitals, synagogues, colleges, and did fJl in his power to elevate the condition of his brethren, especially at Prague. The German emperor, Eudolph I, honored him by the appointment of councillor. See Gr'Atz,Gesch. d. Juden, ix, 497-99 (Leipsic, 1866) ; Jost, Gesch. d. Ju- denthums, ni,28L (B.P.)
Meisels, Bar, a celebrated rabbi, was born in 1797, and died on the 15th of February, 1871, at Warsaw, where for many years he had ably tilled the eminent distinction of a leader in Israel. A decided republican in politics, he was long the eyesore of the Russian gov- ernment, but the very eye-apple of the Poles. Of his life we hardly know anything, because the papers were prohibited by the police from giving any biographical notices of the deceased, or any description of the demon- stration at his funeral. That Meisels's death was felt as a loss to the community at large, we may gather from the fact that forty thousand people, representing all creeds, nationalities, and m^s, attended his funeral. In him the Poles lost one of flreir stanchest patriots, a man who was never afraid to utter his political sentiments. In 1861 he suffered imprisonment for six months on ac- count of his political activity. (B. P.)
Meisner, Balthazar, one of the most eminent German Protestant theologians of the early part of the 17th century, was born in 1587, He studied at Witten- berg, Giessen, Strasburg, and Tubingen, and in 1613 be- came professor at Wittenberg. In connection with B. Blentzer (q. v.) of Giessen, and J. Gerhard of Jena, he perceived the requirements of the Church, and did his utmost to satisfy them. This we see in a remarkable sketch of his on the subject, published anonymously at Frankfort in 1679, under the title B. Meisneri pia. dc sideria paulo ante beatum obitum ah ipso manifestata. The principal passages of it were also published in Tho- luck's Wittenherger Theologen, p. 96. He had made him- self known in the literary world wlicu but twenty-four years of age by his Philosophiu siit)ria ((iiessen, IGll), which passed through several eiliiimis. This work in- volved him in a controversy with Cornelius INIartin of Helmstiidt, the champion of the Aristotehan school (see Henke, Calixtus, i, 258). His merits as a theologian have lately been fully recognised by Kaltenborn, in his Vorldufer d. Grotius avf dem Gebiete des " Jus natures gentium" (1848), p. 220. 'Meisner died Dec. 29, 1626. See Herzog, Real-Encyklop, ix, 251. (J. N. P.)
MEISXIC INTERIM
52
MELANCHOLY
Meisnic Interim is the former name for the first
formula of the I.i:ii-sk- Intkhim (q. v.).
Meister, Christoph Andreas, a German theo- loi^ian, was bom at Aliornber^ -^"K- -3, 1671. He was the son of a minister, who gave him his first education. Afterwards he attended school at Miinchberg, Hof, and Bayreuth, where he excelled in the study of the ancient j languages. He went to Wittenberg to study theology, : and, thanks to several influential men, he became in 1693 minister at Langensteinach, but resigned in 1701, i when he was appointed minister at the court of Lim- burg-Speckfeld, and located at Mark Eimersheim. In 1704 he became chief minister and inspector at Sommer- hausen, and in 1709 minister at the court of Hohen- lohe ; also superintendent and counsellor of the consis- tory at Weikersheim, where he died Oct. 31, 1728. Mei- ster bore the reputation of one thoroughly acquainted \ with the theology of his time. He was above all things [ tolerant towards those who differed from him in their j religious opinions. Several of his sermons were pub- I lished. A list of them is given bv During, Gelehrte Thiol IkHtsMaiuh, s. V.
Meister, Christoph Georg Ludwig, a Ger- j m.in theologian, was born at Halle Aug. \i, 1738, where he began his education at Franke's orphan school; in riper years he was a student at the university of his na- tive town. In 1763 he was appointed second minister ! at Ballenstedt. In 1784 he was called to Duisburg, on j the Kliine, where ho filled, besides the office of a minis- ter, a professorship of theology. In the autumn of 1784 ' he was called to Bremen, and was there installed as third minister of the Liebfrauen Kirche, at the same time serving also as professor of theology at the high- school; he became in 1789 second minister of the same church, and in 1795 first minister. Hedied Jan. 26,1811, holding in his hands the manuscript of a sermon which he was to deliver the day after. Meister was highh' esteemed by his contemporaries as the author of several
ascetic works. lie published also .7. /.. mu J ,'.,■,■//. ///,'.■ KrkUirm,'! irlrhlhi, r Sh Ih „ ,1. r h, i/i;/, i, Srh,:/!. ,u,s ./, x- S<n \V> rh I, v •."'/' " "/'"' "lit I'ninisrh, „ /„^,l ., „ fur -//-• hiinslirh,' Andarht b.ykiM ( Leipsic and AVesel', 1777, 8vo) ; and Khiiic tlu'<d„fjische Schriften (Hrem. 1790,8vo).
Me-jar'kon {\l(ih.Mey-IIcnj-tjai-kon','{^p'~}^'n "^^^ tcaters of yellowness, or clear water; Sepf.SaXrtira 'lapa- Kiov,\u\g. Mejurcon), a town in the tribe of Dan, men- tioned betAveen Gath-rimmon and Rakkon (.Josh, xix, 4G) ; probably so called from a spring in its vicinity. Schwarz (Palest, ^t. Ml) regards the name as equivalent to rinr afilisi ii.o- (lit. of palcmss), and states that there is a •• Wiiili/ l''/s/,i which descends from the mountains of Lw(l" (imilialily referring to the ravine in the south rear of LiKJdj, a nearly synonymous epithet, according to him, on the strength of which he is disposed to iden- tify the locality. " It is difficidt not to suspect that the name following that of Me-hajjarkon, har-Kakon (A. A'. Kakkon), is a mere corrupt repetition thereof, ao the two bear a very close similarity to each other, and oc- cur nowhere else" (Smith).