MAGDALENE, ORDERS OF ST. MARY:
Several orders established at various times and in different places for the reformation of fallen women. The oldest community of penitents under the patronage of St. Mary Magdalene was probably that established at Metz, which traces its history, doubtless with some exaggeration, back to 1005, while a similar institution is said to have been founded at Treves about 1148. In the early part of the thirteenth century several convents of magdalens were established, influenced in great part by the revival inaugurated by St. Francis, the most noteworthy being those at Goslar about 1215, and at Worms and Strasburg between 1220 and 1230. Bulls confirming the privileges of such orders were issued by Gregory IX. and Innocent IV. between 1227 and 1251. The inmates followed the Augustinian rule and were supervised by provosts appointed by the general provost of the entire order. About the middle of the thirteenth century, convents of magdalens existed at Erfurt, Prenzlau, Malchow, Vienna, Regensburg, and elsewhere, attaching themselves now to one of the great orders and again to another. Refuges for fallen worrier were established at Marseilles in 1272, at Naples in 1324, and at Prague about 1372. One was founded at Paris in 1492, at Rome by Leo X. in 1520,
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Madagascar, Missions in Magdeburg- Centuries
at Seville in 1550, and at Rouen and Bordeaux in 1618.
At first the discipline in the convents for magdalens was extremely severe, but gradually it grew lax, especially through the admission of those for whom the order was not originally intended, until in 1637-40 a reformation was enforced at Paris, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Rouen, and elsewhere by St. Vincent de Paul. According to the new rule, which was officially approved in 1640, the order was to be divided into three grades. The first of these was the Congregation of St. Mary Magdalene with strict vows, which were assumed after a novitiate of two years, and required fasting throughout Advent, and on all Fridays, as well as frequent retreats, and other acts of penance. The second grade of the order was the Congregation of St. Martha, which required no vows and permitted those who were truly penitent and reformed to reenter the world and marry. The third grade was the Congregation of St. Lazarus, which forcibly detained those who were entrusted to its care for reformation.
Numerous other Roman Catholic orders of more recent times have devoted themselves to the rescue of fallen women, noteworthy among them being the Order of Our Lady of Refuge, founded at Nancy by Elisabeth de la Croix (d. 1649), the Sisters of St. Joseph, established in 1821, and the Order of the Good Shepherd, founded at Angers in 1828. The first impulse toward similar work in Evangelical circles was given by the work of Theodor Fliedner (q.v. ; see also Deaconess, III., 2, a, § 2) at Kaiserswerth beginning with 1833, and his example has since found numerous followers. (O. ZOcKLERf.)
MAGDEBURG, ARCHBISHOPRIC OF: A
former archbishopric, named from an ancient city of Germany, situated on the Elbe, 88 m. w.s.w. of Berlin. The town was an important commercial center as early as the reign of Charlemagne, and its oldest church is supposed to date from this period. In the tenth century, when the city belonged to the diocese of Halberstadt, it contained a parish church, and on Sept. 21, 937, Otho I. founded there a Benedictine monastery, which he endowed richly. Later he conceived the plan of transferring the episcopal palace from Halberstadt to Magdeburg, incorporating the monastery with it, and transforming the bishopric into an archbishopric for the Wends. In 955 he assured himself of the papal sanction through Abbot Hadamar of Fulda, but his plans failed on account of the opposition of Archbishop William of Mainz, who refused to relinquish Halberstadt and proposed to separate Magdeburg from the diocese of Halberstadt and create of it a new bishopric among the Wends. This plan was carried out. In the Roman synod of Feb. 12, 962, Magdeburg was made an archbishopric with jurisdiction over all future Wendish dioceses, according to the emperor's wish. The final negotiations took place at Ravenna in Oct., 968, when Archbishop Hatto II., who had succeeded William seven months previously at Mainz, agreed to the creation of the new archbishopric. Otho appointed Adalbert, abbot of Weissenburg in Alsace, the first archbishop. The archdiocese of
Magdeburg comprised the dioceses which already existed in Brandenburg and Havelberg, as well as the new bishoprics of Merseburg, Meissen, and Zeitz, thus stretching from the Saale and Elbe in the west to the Oder in the east. (A. Hauck:.)
Bibliography : Sources are the Gesta archiepiscoporum Magdeburgensium, and the Catalogi, ed. W. Schum, in MGH, Script, xiv (1883), 361 sqq., 484-486; Annates Magdeburgensis, ed. G. H. Pertz, ib., xvi (1859), 105-196; G. A. von Miilverstedt, Regesta archiepiscopatus M agdeburgensis, 4 vols., Magdeburg, 1876-99; and Die Magdeb. Schoppenchronik, ed. W. Janicke, in Chroniken der deutschen Stadte, vol. vii., Leipsic, 1869; Gams, Series episcoporum, p. 288. Consult: F. W. Hoffmann, Geschichte der Stadt Magdeburg, 2 vols., Magdeburg, 1885-86; W. Kawerau, Aus Magdeburgs Vergangenheit, Halle, 1886; K. Uhlirz, Geschichte des Erzbistums Magdeburg, Magdeburg, 1887; C. Eubel, Hierarchia catholica medii cevii, 2 vols., Miinster, 1898-1901; Hauck, KD, vols, iii.-iv.
MAGDEBURG CENTURIES: The first attempt to write the history of the Church from the Evangelical point of view. The plan of this work was conceived by Matthias Flacius (q.v.). He projected a church history from the original sources showing that the Church of Christ since the time of the apostles had deviated from the right course, a documentary history of anti-Christianity in the church of Christ from its beginnings to its highest development up to the restoration of true religion in its purity by Luther. From 1553 Flacius gave his efforts to the securing of patrons to aid the work financially, whom he found among German noblemen and wealthy citizens, in Augsburg, Nuremberg, and elsewhere, and in obtaining collaborators. The active interest and assistance manifested by the Imperial Councilor Niedbruck, curator of the Royal Library in Vienna, proved especially valuable. Libraries had to be searched for sources and documents; for this purpose Flacius himself undertook journeys in Germany, and his assistant Marcus Wagner of Friemar near Gotha with great success traveled through Denmark, Scotland, Austria, Bavaria, and other territories, while many manuscripts and books were purchased or donated by patrons. In Magdeburg Flacius, Johann Wigand, and Matthaus Judex stood at the head of the project and worked out the details of the plan. Tha Councilor Ebeling Alemann, and the physician, Martin Copus, were treasurers; assistants were trained in furnishing the necessary excerpts, which two learned masters put into shape. From Jena Flacius directed the entire work. Thus there appeared in Basel, 1559-74, the Ecclesiastica historia secundum singulas centurias per aliquot
studiosos et pios viros in urbe Magdeburgica, hence called the Magdeburg Centuries. Centuries seven to thirteen were elaborated especially by Wigand in Wismar. Wigand and subsequently Stangewald afterward worked on the three following centuries without completing them (the sixteenth century, compiled by Wigand, is in Wolfenbiittel in manuscript form); attempts made by several persons in the eighteenth century to bring the work down to date were also without result. The " Centuries " mark immense progress in ecclesiastical historiography, not only by the tracing of the sources and the completeness with which the material was collected, but also because there is ap-
Magee Magic