Meyer, Johann Hermann, a German Protestant theologian, was b(irn at Hamburg October 6, 1737, and was educated at the University of llelmstjidt. He was appointed minister at Hamburg in 17t;6, in 1778 at Hendsl)iirg. He was elected deacon in 1771 by the pa- rishioners of tlic Nicolai Kirche at Kiel, and made, in 1778. archdeacon, and in 1786 pastor of tliat cliiirch. He died August 26, 1795. Meyer was verj' much be- loved for his strict sense of honesty, morality, friend- ship, and love. He was very devoted to his vocation as minister, and found but little time for the publication of books. The following dissertations are the most im- portant works he gave to the public : Ilamburgische A bschiedsrede- uud Rendsburgische A ntrittspredigt. (Ham- burg, 17()8, 4to); GedenkTerse niit dem Inhalt I'redigten vom J. 1774 (Kiel, 1774, 8vo); Der Verlust der Gmtde:
MEYER
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in einer Wahlpredigt (Hamburg, 1775, 8vo) ; Das A n- denlcen voriger Zeiten (Kiel, 1770, 8vo).
Meyer, John, a noted Dutch theologian and He- braist, was born about the middle of the 17th century. He tiourished as professor of theology at the University of Haderwyk, and died in 1725. His works are of great value to tiie exegete. Those most worthy of notice are his Uxor Christiana, sive de conjugio inter duos, deque incestu et dicortiis, dissertationes ires (Amst. 1688, 4to) ; Tractatus de temjooribus et fasti diehus Hehrce- orum (Amst. 1724r) ; and his edition of Seder Olam, a Hebrew chronicle of great esteem among the Jews, usu- ally attributed to rabbi Jose ben-Chilpeta.
Meyer, John H., son of Dr. Herman Meyer (q.v.), anotlier ilistingaished minister of the Keformed Church, was born at reqiiinet, N. J., Oct. 19, 177-±; graduated at Columbia College in 1795; studied theology under Dr. Livingston, and was licensed to preach in 1798 ; settled as pastor of the Dutch churches at New Paltz and New Hurley, N. Y., from 1799 to 1803, and at Schenectady from 1803 to 180G. He was an accomphshed scholar, and preached with great elegance and ease in the Dutch and English languages. He was remarkable for unction and popularity as a preacher.
Meyerbeer, Giacomo, a very noted German com- poser of music, was born in Berlin in 1794, and was of Jewish descent. At the age of nine years he was re- garded as a masterly pianist in a city full of cultivated musicians, and at ten he commenced his career as a composer, producing many songs and pieces for the piano-forte, which excited the wonder and admiration of his friends by their spirit and originalit}% At fifteen he was placed under the tuition of abbe Vogler, who had established a celebrated school of composition in the city of Darmstadt. Here, under the abbe's instruction, young Meyerbeer composed a quantity of classic and elaborate sacred music in the severest scholastic style of his master, all of which, however, is lost to the world, as the composer, when his ideas became more matured, did not care to preserve it. One of these composi- tions, however, brought him into notoriety : it was an oratorio bearing the title God and Nature, and was per- formed in the presence of the grand-duke of Darmstadt, gaining for its author the distinction of being appointed composer to the court. When Meyerbeer was eighteen, his first dramatic piece, JephtluMs Daughter, was per- formed at Munich. Though intended for the stage, it was more of an oratorio than an opera ; but on account of its severe style, and the evident inattention to the minor attractions of melody, it was not received in a flattering manner by the Bavarian public. After a se- ries of professional disappointments, his first success was achieved at Padua in 1818, in the performance of Ro- milila e Custama, which, together with Semiramide, pro- duced at Turin in 1819, and Emma di Resburgo, at Ven- ice in 1820, firmly established the composer's reputa- tion. In 1831 he gave to the public Robert the Devil. His subsequent works are operatic. He died ]\Iay 2, 18G4. See L. de Lomenie, M. ]\Ieyerbeer,par un Homme de Rien (1849) ; De Bury, Meyerbeer et son temps (1865) ; Mentel, Meyerbeer, s. Leben u. Werke (1868).
Meyere, Lievin de, a Belgian Jesuit, was born at Gaud in 1G55. In 1700 he became a member of the So- ciety of Jesus. He subsequently taught philology, phi- losophy, and theology, and was made rector of a college at Louvain. He bitterly opposed the tenets of the Jan- senists. His numerous writings, nearly all poetical, are replete with animadversions against them. IMeyere died at Louvain in 1730. The following work, said to have been written by Theod. Eleutherius, was edited by jNIeyere: Historia Controversiarum tie liiriin'- ;ii-(iti(e auxiliis sub pontif. Si.rto V, Clemente VIII. ,t I'mih, \\ lib. vi (Antwerp,' 1705, fol.). See Moreri. (inuid Diet. Hist. s. v. ; Goethals, Lectures relatives a I'hist. des sciences et des lettres en Belgique, vol. i.
Meyfart (or Mayfart), Johann Matth.«us, a
Lutheran theologian of considerable note, son of a Prot- estant divine, was born at Jena in 1590. He received an excellent philological and philosophical education at Gotha, and afterwards entered the University of Wit- tenberg, where he devoted himself to the study of logic, physics, ethics, and the classics. In 1611, having se- cured the degree of A.M., he began the study of theol- ogy. In 161G Meyfart was called to a professorship at the newly-founded University of Coburg. He pub- lished his first theological essays in 1617. In 1624 he was created doctor of theology by the University of Jena. In the same year he began the preparation of a large dogmatic work entitled De theologia,dephilosophi(B sobrio usu, de S. JS., et de symbolis ; but he never com- pleted this work. In 1627, however, he went before the public with quite large and valuable works : Anti- Becaiiiis sire inanualis controversiarum theoL, a Beca- no colli r/i (-"iii'ii/dtio (Leipsic, 1627, 2 vols.); N'odus Gordiu.'i Soji/ilstiirum solutus, i. e. de 7-atione solvendi argumenta sophistica, etc., libri iv (Coburg, 1627, 8vo). ]\Ieyfart is one of the most remarkable characters of the 17th century, and can justly be called the forerunner of Spener (q. v.). With an intense longing for the high- est ideals, which undoubtedly had been fostered by his classical studies, he united a true, living faith in Christ, and desired to leave this earth to be with his Saviour. At the same time he was quick to perceive the many errors and the moral decay of the Church, and, with an earnestness seldom surpassed, he raised his voice against the manifold sins and imperfections of the Church of his day and country. In 1626 he issued his Tuba no- vissima, i. e. of the four last things, viz. death, judg- ment, eternal life, and condemnation. These were orig- inally four sermons preached by him at Coburg; but they created such an imjiression that he had not only to publish them in book form, but was also urged to pub- lish more sermons and admonitions on these and sim- ilar subjects. Thus he published six more volumes on The Heavenly Jerusalem, Eternal Damnation, and the Final Judgment. Some of these books passed through five and more editions. Henke, in just appreciation of his merits, calls Meyfart " a (ierman Dante, full of po- etry and knowledge." During his later life Meyfart published several books and essays which Avere written in the spirit of the Reformation. One of his essays con- tains an earnest address to the clergy how to live and how to pray; another is directed against the vice of nepotism and simony; and in another, De concilianda pace inter ecclesias per Germ.aniam evangelicas, he enu- merates seventeen characteristic reasons why theolo- gians are so ill adapted to peace, e. g. insnfficientia morum et eruditionis, metus odii et invidice, intuitus humanm aiic- toritatis, etc. After the capture of Erfurt by Gustavus Adolphus, Meyfart was called as professor of theology to the newly-reorganized Lutheran University of Erfurt, and in 1635 he was elected rector of the university, and senior of the theological department. He died Jan. 26, 1642.