MICHAEL AND ALL AXGELS 220
MICHAEL ANGELO
•wings. When introduced in pictures of the Madonna and Child he presents the balance to Christ, who seems to welcome the happy soul. Whether with or without the balance, he is always the lord of souls in pictures of the death, assumption, or t^loritication of the Virgin Mary, for tradition teaches that he received her spirit, and cared for it until it was reunited to her body and ascended to her Son. The old English coin called an angel was so named because it bore the image of this archangel."
On the subject generally, see Surenhusius, Bibl. Ka- tall. p. 701 ; Fabricius, Psmdepigr. i, 839 sq. ; Wetstein, 1,649; ii, 735; Hartmann, Fe/feW. p. 83 ; Eisenmenger, Judentli. i, 80G sq. ; Thilo, Apoa-yph. i, 691 ; Trigland, Dissoi. theol. p. 198 sq. ; Laurmann, Collectun. in ep. Jud. p. 71 sq. ; Seeland, in the Brent, u. Verdmsch. Bib- lioth. iii, 89 sq. ; Braun, De Michuele (Altorf, 1726) ; Hu- renius, De Michaele (Vitemb. 1593). See Angel ; Mo- ses.
2. The father of Sethur, which latter was the Asher- ite commissioner to explore the land of Canaan (Numb, xiii, 13). B.C. ante 1657.
3. One of the four sons of Izrahiah, the great-grand- son of Issachar (1 Chron. vii, 3). B.C. prob. post 1618. Possibly tlie same with No. 8.
4. One of the " sons" of Bcriah, a son of Elpaal, of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Chron. viii, 16). B.C. post 1612.
5. A chief Gadite resident in Bashan (1 Chron. v, 13), B.C. apparently post 1093. lie was perhai)s identical with the son of Johishai and father of (Jilead, some of the posterity of whose descendant xVbihail are mentioned as dwelling in the same region (1 Chron. iv, 14). B.C. long ante 782.
6. One of the Manassite chiliarchs who joined David when he returned to Ziklag (1 Chron. xii, 20). B.C. 1053.
7. The son of Baaseiah and father of Shimea, among the ancestors of the Levite Asaph (1 Chron. vi, 40). B.C. considerably ante 1014.
8. The " father" of Omri, which latter was the ph}'- larch of the tribe of Issachar under David and Solomon (1 Chron. xxvii, 18). B.C. ante 1014.
9. One of the sons of king Jchoshaphat, whom he portioned before the settlement of the succession upon Jehoram, but whom the latter, nevertheless, out of jeal- ousv, caused to be slain upon his own accession (2 Chron. xxi, 2). B.C. 887.
10. A "son" (prob. descendant) of Shephatiah, whose son Zebadiah returned with eighty males from Babylon (Ezra viii, 8). B.C. ante 459.
Michael, St., and all Angels, Feast of. This festival of the Latin ami (ircek cliurthes, conmiemo- rating the ministry of the lioly angels to the heirs of salvation, originated in some provincial festivals which ■were introduced between the 3d and 5th centuries, and ■which were then combined into one common celebra- tion on the 29th of September by pope Felix III in 480 (Mansi, xiv, 73). Its observance was not enjoined upon the Greek Church before the 12th century (Guericke, Ki>-chen-Gesck. p. 194 sq.). The Collect is taken from the Missal : " Deus, qui miro online angelorum ministeria hominumque dispensas; concede pro])itiiis ut a quibus tibi ministrantil)us in ca-lo semper assistitur, ab his in terra vita nostra muniatur. I'er dominum" (MLsmiI S<n: "In fosto sancti ^liohaelis Archangeli," fol. ccvi). See Procter, ///>•/. /umh nf Common I'ntyer, p. 301.
Michael Alexandriuus, a noted patriarch of Al- exandria, nourished near the middle of the 9th century. He was very active in behalf of a union of the Eastern and Western churclics, and wrote, about A.D. 869, De Unitate F.crh.t'Kr (iiriiitcd in Labbe's Coiicil. vol. viii, and in Ilardoiiiu. ( 'oiirll. vol. \). See ( 'ave, llist. Lit. ad an. 869; Fabricius, liihi. Cror,,. xi. !««.
Michael Anchi^lus, another distinguished East- ern eL-ilcsiastif. patriaroli i>rConstaiiliiioiile from 1167 to 1185, was a decided opi)onent to the attempt at uniou of
the Eastern and Western churches. He was also noted as an eminent disciple of Aristotelian philosophy. His extant works are live synodal decrees, published in Greek and Latin in the ./h.* (!r. Rom. (iii, 227), and a dialogue with the emperor JIanuel Comnenus concern- ing the claims of the Koman pontiff". Of the latter work only some extracts have been published by Leo Allatius. See Smith, Did. of Gr. and Rom. Bioij. i, 167.
Michael Angelo Bi-onar(k)ot(t)i, an Italian artist, wlio, in an aij,i' when Christian art had reached its zenith, stood unrivalled as a pauiter, sculptor, poet, and architect, was born in 1474 at the Castle of Caprese, in Tuscany. He was of noble origin, having descended on his mother's side from the ancient family of Ca- nossa, in Tuscany, while the Buonarotti had long been associated with places of trust in the Florentine repub- lic. ^Michael Angelo was very early afforded the ad- vantages of association with tirst-class artists, and this gave rise to the saying that "he sucked in sculpture with his milk." About 1488 he was admitted as a stu- dent into the seminary which was established by Lo- renzo the Jlagnificent for the study of ancient art in connection with the collections of statuar}- in the Med- icean Gardens, and there he attracted the notice of Lorenzo by his artistic skill, and was invited by that generous Florentine prince to take up his residence at the palace of the Medici. As an inmate of the pal- ace, he enjoyed the societj' of eminent literary men, one of whom, Angelo Poliziano (Politian), became his intimate friend. Among his earliest works was a mar- ble bass-relief, the subject of which was The Battle of Hercules u-ith the Centaurs. This work, which was approved by his own mature judgment, is preserved in Florence. Lorenzo's death in 1492, and the tem- porary reverses which befell the Medici family in con- sequence of the incapacity of Lorenzo's successor, Pi- etro, led Michael Angelo to quit Florence for Bologna. There, however, he remained only about a year, and gladly enough turned his face towards Florence again. Michael now found a patron in the person of I'ictro Soderini, the gonfaloniere (chief ruler) of Florence. About 1497 he produced an admirable marble group called a " Pieta," representing "The A'irgin wee]>ing over the Dead Body of her Son." " In none of his works," says Ernest Breton, "has he dis]ilayed more per- fect knowledge of design and anatomy, or more pro- found truth of expression" {Xviiv. Bio;!. Cenerale, s. v.). This Mater Dolorosa now adorns a chapel in the Church of St. Peter at Kome. After this he executed a gigan- tic marble statue of the psalmist David, which stands in front of the Palazzo Yecchio, in Florence. He received 400 ducats for this work, on which he spent about eight- een months, and which he linished in 1504. Next in order of time, and, according to some of his contempora- ries, tirst in merit, ranks his great cartoon for the ducal palace at Florence, which, together with the pendant executed by Leonardo da Vinci, has long since perished. This work, which represented a scene in the wars with Pisa, when a number of young Florentines, while bath- ing in the Arno, are surprised by an attack of the Pi- sans, showed so marvellous a knowledge of the anatom- ical development of the human figure, and such extraor- dinary facility in the powers of execution, that it became a study for artists of every land, creating actu- ally a new era in art. " Such was the excellence of this work," says Vasari, "that some thought it abst)lute perfection." Another production which belongs to this period, and which is of special interest to the student of Christian art. is an oil-painting of the lloli/ Family (about 1504). Sluirlly alter his accession to the pon- tificate, Julius II called ^lichael Angelo to Kome. and commissioned him to make the pope's monument, which was to be erected within St. Peter's. Although this work was never completed on the colossal scale on which it had been designed, and was ultimately erected in the Church of St. Pietro ad Vincolo, it is a magnifi- cent composition, and is memorable for having givea