RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
McAll Mission MacArthur
desert; b. in Upper Egypt about 300; d. in the Scetic desert, 391. He was won to the religious life at an early age by St. Anthony and when thirty years old became a monk. Ten years later he was ordained priest, and for the remainder of his life presided over the monastic community in the Scetic desert, except for a brief period during which he was banished, with other adherents of the Nicene Creed, to an island in the Nile by the Emperov Valens. The day appointed for his feast in the Eastern Church is Jan. 19, while the Western Church celebrates it four days earlier. Certain monasteries of the Libyan desert still bear the name of Macarius, and the neighborhood is called the Desert of Macarius and seems to be identical with the ancient Scetic district. The ruins of numerous monasteries in this region almost confirm the local tradition that the cloisters of Macarius were equal in number to the days of the year. Although Gennadius recognizes as the only work of Macarius a letter addressed to the younger monks, there seems to be no reason to deny the genuineness of the fifty homilies ascribed to him. The Apophthegmata edited with the homilies may also be genuine, but the seven so-called Opuscula ascetica edited under his name by P. Possinus (Paris, 1683) are merely later compilations from the homilies, made by Simeon the Logothete, who is probably identical with Simeon Metaphrastes (d. 950). Macarius likewise seems to have been the author of several minor writings, including an Epistola ad filios Dei, and a number of other letters and prayers. The teachings of Macarius are characterized by a mystical and spiritual mode of thought which has endeared him to Christian mystics of all ages, although, on the other hand, in his anthropology and soteriology he frequently approximates the standpoint of St. Augustine. Certain passages of his homilies assert the entire depravity of man, while others postulate free will, even after the fall of Adam, and presuppose a tendency toward virtue, or, in semi- Pelagian fashion, ascribe to man the power to attain a degree of readiness to receive salvation.
2. Macarius The Younger, or Macarius of Alexandria: A somewhat younger contemporary of the preceding, was a monk in the Nitric desert, where he died c. 406. He was an extreme ascetic, and numerous miracles were ascribed to him. He presided over the 5,000 Nitric monks with the same success as had the elder Macarius in the Scetic desert. According to oriental tradition, he died on Jan. 2, but he is also commemorated on the same days as Macarius the Egyptian, with whom he is often confused. In addition to a monastic rule and three brief apothegms, a homily " On the End of the Souls of the Righteous and of Sinners " is ascribed to him, although excellent Vienna manuscripts assign the latter to a monk named Alexander. Palladius and Sozomen also mention a Macarius the Younger of Lower Egypt, who lived in a cell for more than twenty-three years to atone for a murder which he had committed.
3. Macarius Magnes: Probably to be identified with the bishop of Magnesia who, at the Synod of the Oak in 403, brought charges against Heraclides, bishop of Ephesus, the friend of Chrysostom
(see Chrysostom, § 4). He seems to have been the author of an apology against a Neo-Platonic philosopher of the early part of the fourth century, contained in a manuscript of the fifteenth century discovered at Athens in 1867 and edited by C. Blondel (Paris, 1876). This work agrees in its dogmatics with Gregory of Nyssa, and is valuable on account of the numerous excerpts from the writings of the opponent of Macarius. These fragments are apparently drawn from the lost "Words against the Christians " of Porphyry or from the " Truth- Loving Words " of Hierocles. Like Macarius the Younger, this Macarius is frequently confused with Macarius the Egyptian.
4. Macarius of Jerusalem: A bishop who took part in the Council of Niea?a and also received a long letter from Constantine the Great with reference to the building of the Church of the Redeemer at Jerusalem. Of his life no details are known. (O. ZocKLERf.)
Bibliography: 1. The Opera are in MPL, xxxiv. 409-822; a Germ, transl. in 2 vols, appeared at Sulzbach, 1839; fifty Homilice were edited by J. G. Pritius, Leipsic, 1598; and H. J. Floss issued Epistolce, homiliarum loci, preces, Cologne, 1850, and Zwei Fragmente des heiligen Makarius, Bonn, 1866. Consult: J. Stoffels, Die mystische Theologie Makarius des Aegypters und die altesten Ansatze christlicher Mystik, Bonn, 1908; B. Lindner, Symbols histories theological mysticce: de Macario, Leipsic, 1846; T. Forster, in Jahrbiicher fur deutsche Theologie, 1873, pp. 439-501; R. L6be, in Kirchliches Jahrbuch fur Sachs.-Altenburg, 1900, pp. 37-38.
2. The Regula monastica ascribed to Macarius, a homily, and three apothegms are in A. Gallandi, Bibliotheca veterum patrum, vol. vii., 14 vols., Venice, 1765-81. Consult: Floss, ut sup.; O. Zookler, Askese und Mbnchtum, pp. 226-227, 247, 335, 375, Frankfort, 1897; O. Bardenhewer, Patrologie, pp. 232-233, Freiburg, 1901.
3. C. Blondel, Macarii Magnetis qu& supersunl, Paris, 1876; L. Schalkhausser, Zu den Schriften des Macarius von Magnesia, in TV, 1907; L. Duchesne, De Macario Magnete, Paris, 1877; W. Moller, in TLZ, 1877, no. 19; T. Zahn, in ZKG, iii. 450-459; C. J. Naumann, Scriptorum Gr&corum . quo? supersunl, fasc. iii., Leipsic, 1880; O. Bardenhewer, ut sup., pp. 331-332.
MACARTHUR, JAMES: Church of England, bishop of Southampton; b. at Dawsholme, Dumbartonshire, June 6, 1848. He was educated at the University of Glasgow (M.A., 1868), and after being called to the Scottish Bar in 1871 and to the Inner Temple in 1874, entered Cuddesdon Theological College, where he studied in 1877-78, being ordered deacon in 1878 and ordained priest in the following year. He was successively curate of St. Mary's, Redcliff, Bristol, in 1878-80, rector of Lamplugh, Cumberland, in 1880-87, and vicar of St. Mary's, Tothill Fields, Westminster, in 1887-92 and of All Saints', South Acton, Middlesex, in 1892- 1893. He was also rural dean of Ealing in 1894- 1898, and in the latter year was consecrated bishop of Bombay, a diocese which he retained until 1903. He was acting metropolitan of India in 1902, and in the following year was translated to his present see of Southampton (suffragan to the bishop of Winchester). In addition to charges, addresses, and sermons, he has written Christianity and Indian Nationality (London, 1903).
MACARTHUR, ROBERT STUART: Baptist; b. at Dalesville, P. Q., July 31, 1841. He was educated at the University of Rochester (A.B., 1867)
McAuley M'Cabe