Morier, James, noted as the author of a series of novels descriptive of Eastern life and manners, and also for his accurate observations of the East as recorded in his books of travel, was born in England in 1780. When still very young he made an extensive tour through the East, the main incidents of which he described in his Travels through Persia, Armenia, Asia Minor, to Con- stantinople (Lond. 1812). In 1810 he was appointed British envoy to the court of Persia, where he remained till 1816, and soon after his return he published A Sec- ond Journey through Persia, etc. (ibid. 1818). During his stay in the East Morier made great use of his op- portunity of studying the character of the people; and the knowledge thus acquired was turned to excellent account in his Adventures of Ilajji Baba of Ispahan ^1824-28, 5 vols.) (a species of Gil Bias, like Hope's ^r«- astasius), whose " adventures in England" he described ill a second series (1834); Zohrab the Hostage; Agesha, or the Maid of Kars ; A bel A Inutt ; The Banished, etc.; in all of which, but especially in the first three, the manners, customs, and modes of thought prevalent in the East are portrayed with a liveliness, skill, and truthfulness to nature attained by few. He died in 1848. See the references in Allibone's Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Authors, ii, 1368, 1369.
Morigia, Jacobo Antonio de (1), an Italian monastic, noted as the founder of a religious order, was born in November, 1497, at Jlilan. Up to the age of twenty-five he indulged in all the pleasures of the world, but at that period experienced a change of heart, and enrolled himself directly in a brotherhood of penitents which existed in Milan under the name of '■ Brother- hood of Eternal Wisdom." Admitted into the Francis- can Order of the Minorites, he refused the rich abbey of San Victor, and performed ministerial functions of charity during the plague which in 1525 devastated Jlilan. A few years later he joined Antonio Maria Zacharia of Cremona and Barthelemi Ferrari of Milan, noblemen like himself, and the three together founded the Congregation of the Regular Clericos of St. Paul, so named after their first chapel, taking subsequently the appellation of Barnabites, from the church of San Bar- nabas. By a decree of Feb. 18, 1533, Clement YII ap- proved the institution, and jMorigia, after he had become formally a priest, was appointed its first provost, April 15, 1536. These regulars, established for missions and other sacerdotal functions, lived in their beginning only upon alms, and were not allowed any fixed revenues; but all this has since changed. Morigia undertook mis- sions to Yicenza, Verona, and several other cities of Ita- ly. He resigned his office in November, 1542, after he had governed wisely his congregation ; but his colleagues re-elected him June 30, 1545, and on Oct. 20 following he took possession of the church of San Barnabas. He
died April 14, 1546. At present the Barnabites have a general in Rome and a house at Paris, and are spread through almost all Roman Catholic countries. See Barnabites.
Morigia, Jacobo Antonio de (2), an Italian prelate of note, was born at Milan Feb. 23, 1632, entered the Order of the Barnabites when only seventeen years of age, taught philosophy at Macerata and at ]\lilan, and preached with success in the principal churches of Italy. Cosmo HI of Medici, grand-duke of Tuscany, chose him for theologian, and made him tutor of Ferdi- nand, his oldest son. The influence of this same prince procured for him in 1681 the bishopric of San Miniato, whence he was transferred, Jan. 11, 1683, to the arch- bishopric of Florence. In the promotion of Dee. 12, 1695, he was made cardinal " in petto" bj' pope Inno- cent XII, but this nomination was not published until the Consistory of 1698, simiUtaneously with the decla- ration that Morigia should have precedence of all the cardinals created in 1695, because he had been reserved for that verj' purpose. Archpriest of the Basilica Li- beriana, it was he who at the jubilee of 1700 was charged to open the holy gate. Vacating his bishopric of Florence in 1 699, he refused in the same year, after the death of Federigo Cacua, the appointment as arch- bishop of Milan, became a titular official of two abbeys, and finally in 1701 bishop of Pavia, where he died, Oct. 18, 1708. Literary remains of his are Orazione funebre nelle obsequie di Filippo Visconte, vescovo di Ca7itanzano (1664, 4to) : — Pietosi tributi resi alia grand' anima di Filippo IV (Milan, 1666, 4to) ■.—L'Aquila volante, ora- zione funebi-e, pier la stessa occazione (Milan, 1666, 4to) : — Leite?-e pastorali al popolo di Firenze (fol.). — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, xxxvi, 584.
Morin, Etienne, a learned French Protestant, noted for his attainments in Orientalia, was born at Caen Jan. 1, 1625. His father, who was a merchant, died when he was only three years of age, and his mother, though designing him for trade, suifered his vehement inclination to books, until she found him so greatly drawn to study as to make any attempt for his conversion to trade futile. He went through the clas- sics and philosophy at Caen, and then removed to the Huguenot seminary at Sedan, to study theology under Peter du Moulin, who conceived a great friendship for him. Morin aftenvards continued his theological stud- ies under Andrev*' Rivet, and joined to them that of the Oriental tongues, in which he made a great proficiency under Golius. Returning to his countrj' in 1649, Mo- rin became a minister of two churches in the neigh- borhood of Caen. He was distinguished by uncommon tact and learning, and had several advantageous offers from abroad; but he did not care to stir from his o^vn countrj'. • In 1664 he was chosen minister of Caen, and his merits soon connected him in friendship with several learned men who were then in that city, such as Hue- tius, Segrais, Bochart, and others. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 obliging him to quit Caen, he retired with his family into Holland. He went at first to Leyden, but soon after was called to Amsterdam to be professor of the Oriental tongues in the university there, to which employment was joined, two years after, that of minister in ordinary. He died May 5, 1700. Morin wrote considerably. His most important works are, Dissertationes octo, in quibus nndta sacrce et profanes antiquitatis monumenta explicantur (Geneva, 1683, 8vo ; a 2d ed., enlarged and corrected, Dort, 1700, 8vo) : — Oratio inauguralis de linguarum orientalium ad intelli- gentiam Sacrce Scriptirrce utilitate (Ludg. Bat. 1686) : — Erplanationes sacrm et philologica in aliquot V. et N', Testamenti loca (ibid. 1698, 8vo) : — Exercitationes de lingua primceva ejusque appendicibiis (Ultraj. 1694, 4to) : — Dissertatio de paradiso terrestri (printed in Bochart's works, the 3d ed. of which was published at Utrecht in 1692, with Bochart's life by Morin prefixed) -.—Epistolm dum, sen responsiones ad Ant, Van Dale de Peniateucko