METZ, Council of {Concilium Metense). Church councils were held at Metz as early as A.D. 590. At this time ^gidius, archbishop of Rlicims, was deposed and banished for high-treason against king Childebert. Of far greater importance, however, was a council held here in A.D. 835, which revoked the excommunication of Louis le Debonnaire, who had been unjustly treated by Ebbo, archbishop of Rheims. Another council, in the year following, supplemented the action of 835 by crowning Louis, Ebbo himself receding from his former position. See Louis le Deuonnaiuk. See also Lan- don, Manucd of Councils, s. v.
Metz, Christian. See Inspired.
Metz, Joseph von, a German Roman Catholic theologian, was born at Ebenhofen, Bavaria, March 9, 1758. He was educated by Meinrad jMeichelbeck, prior of the monastery at Reichenau, continued his education at the monastery at Benedictheuren, and graduated in 1779 at Augsburg. Afterwards he studied at the semi- nary at Pfaffenhausen ; Avas ortiained at Augsburg in 1785 ; became in the same year tutor of the children of the count of Stauffenberg, with whom he went to Stras- burg, aientz, and Wiirzburg; was then installed as min- ister at Freighalden, and a few years after as chaplain at Eberstall. In 1801 he was nominated clerical counsel- lor by Carl Theodor of Dalberg, bishop at Constance. In 1802 he got a position as minister to Riszdissen, and in 1804 as deacon at Laupheim; in 1809 poor health forced him to resign both positions, but in 1810, being restored to health, he became clerical counsellor of the government of the bishopric of Constance ; in 1812 gen- eral counsellor of the vicarage at Elwangen ; resigned in 1817, and died January 4, 1819. His manifold duties as pastor prevented the composition of extended literary works. IBesides several essays in journals, he published Katechismus, ocUr Leitfaden zum Christ-katholischen Re- lifjionsunterricht (Const. 1812, 8vo). ^ Dciring, Gelehrie fheol. Deutschlands des \8ten v. l^ten Jahrhunderts, iij s. V.
Meucci, ViNCENZio, a Florentine artist, born in 1694, was chiefly employed in works of perspective, which he executed at various places in Tuscany, and in the cupola of the royal chapel in S. Lorenzo. Several works of iNIeucci are dispersed through various churches in Florence, and in a chapel of the Wunziata, where he painted a lovely Madonna, which is allowed to be one of his best works. He died in 1776. See Lanzi's His- tory of Painting, transl. by Roscoe (London, 1847, 3 vols. 8vo),'i, 253.
Meuillon, Raymond de, a French preacher and
MEUXBI
202
MEUSEL
theolo<,'ian, was born about 1235 in Dauphiny. After having declared to adhere to the rules of St. Dominic at tlie Convent of Sisteran, he %vas elected in 126-1 gen- eral preacher of that order, and some time afterwards he was nominated dclinitor. In 1278 he was commis- sioned to go to England to supjiress the too liberal dis- courses of some Dominicans, accused of irreverence to the memorj' of St. Tliomas. After having accomplished the mission assigned to him, Haymond gave an account of his journey to the assembled chapels in Paris in May, 1279. The delinquents were condemned, and the priors authorized to punish vigorously whosoever should attempt new excesses. As a reward for his zeal, Kay- mond was nominated definitor for a second time. Some years after he was introduced to the secular Church in the capacity of a bisliop. In 1289 Raymond was pro- moted archbishop of Embrun. He died June 29, 1294. Raymond de Meuillon's writings may be divided into two distinct categories, viz. his statutes and his dogmat- ical books. Lllistoire Litteraire analyzes them both. His dogmatical books have been translated into Greek. The only copy of this version, once kept in the ]\Ionas- tery of St. Germain-des-Pres at Paris, is now in the im- perial library of St Petersburg, with a great number of other manuscripts of his. See Le Caiulogue des J/<S'<S'. JJibl. iiitpcr. by INI. Edouard de Jluralt, and the valuable article of M. Y. Le Clerc in L'llistoire Litteraire. — Iloe- fer, Naur. Biog. Generuh, s. v.
Meil'iiim (Neh. vii, 52). Sec Meiil-xim.
Meur, YixcEXT, a noted French divine, the in- spircr of French foreign missions, was born at Tongue- dec, in the diocese of Frezuier, France, in 1628. When yet a young man, he obtained the post of almoner to tlie court of Louis XIY. Tiring, however, of the idleness which frequently intervened in the discharge of his du- ties, he induced several other ecclesiastics, his friends and colleagues, to unite with him in founding an insti- tution to prepare zealous apostles and effective preach- ers of the Word, and by this movement originated the French Board of Foreign Missions. In its incipiency, twelve persons assembled for consultation and delibera- tion in a small house in the Hue de la Harpe. Meur pre- sided at this meeting. The Jesuits, comprehending the advantages which their society would derive from co- operative work witli such auxiliaries, in 1652 affiliated with them. Meur, the moving spirit of these Roman Catholic missionaries, advised that work be inaugura- ted in South-castiTn Asia, and, to obtain the approval of po))c Ak'xandcrYII, in 1()57 repaired to Rome. The pon- tiff warmly approved the project. INIeur himself, how- ever, instead of accompanying his associates, returned to Paris, and there engaged in theological discussions. He attacked Jansenius and his followers; in 16G-1 was appointed superior of the Seminary fur Foreign Missions; assumed the priorate of St. Andre, in Brittany; and went on some religious missions to Dijon, Auxerre, and other cities of Burgundy, where he had friends. He ha<l just returned from Brittany, to receive property bequeath- ed to him by his father and his brother, when he died, at Yieux-Chateaux-en-Brie, in 1668. Sec Richard et (Jiraud, Biblioth. Sucrec ; Moefer, Xoiiv. Biorj. Cenerale, s. v.