PERTUS.
MEIER, mai'er, ERNST JULIUS: German Lutheran; b. at Zwickau Sept. 7, 1828; d. at Dresden Oct. 6, 1897 He studied at the University of Leipsic and filled the successive positions of pastor at Flemmingen (1854-64), superintendent at Lossnitz (1864-67), superintendent of the diocese of Dresden (1867-90), and court preacher and vice-president of the national consistory at Dresden (1890-97). By his vigorous personality he exercised a profound influence upon the national church of Saxony and its clergy. His especial gift was preaching. His versatile spiritual interest was coupled with ready command of expression, together with much skill in the way of ingenious coordination of ideas. His sermons stick closely to their text, and his ideas are clearly presented, though their style presupposes a rather high degree of culture in the audience. He published three volumes of sermons (Leipsic, 1871, 1877, 1886), two collections of addresses as superintendent (1871, 1881), and sundry lectures. Georg Rietschel.
Bibliography: B. Kiihn, in Beitrage zur sachsischen Kirchengeschichte, xii. 1 sqq., Leipsic, 1897; C. Mensel, Kirchliches Handlexikon, iv. 524-525, Leipsic, 1894.
MEINHOLD, main'holt, JOHANN FRIEDRICH HELLMUT: German Lutheran; b. at Kammin (40 m. n.n.e. of Stettin), Aug. 12, 1861. He was educated at the universities of Leipsic, Berlin, Greifswald, and Tubingen from 1879 to 1884, and
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Megapolensis Meissen
in the latter year became privat-docent for theology at Greifswald, where he was appointed associate professor four years later. In 1889 he went in a similar capacity to Bonn, where he was promoted to his present position of full professor of Old-Testament exegesis and Hebrew in 1903. In addition to briefer contributions, he has written: Die Composition des Buches Daniel (Greifswald, 1884) ; Beitrdge zur Erkldrung des Buches Daniel, i. (Leipsic, 1888) ; Die geschichtlichen Hagiographen (Chronika, Esra, Nehemia, Ruth, Esther) und das Buch Daniel ausgelegt (in collaboration with S. Oettli; Nordlingen, 1889) ; Wider den Kleinglauben, ein ernstes Wort an die evangelischen Christen alter Parteien (Freiburg, 1895); Jesus und das Alte Testament, ein zweites ernstes Wort an die evangelischen Christen (1896); Jesaja und seine Zeit (1898); Die Jesajaerzahlungen, Jesaja 36-39 (Gottingen, 1898); Die Lade Jahves (Tubingen, 1900); Studien zur israelitischen Religionsgeschichte, i. (Bonn, 1903); Die biblische Urgeschichte in gemeinverstdndlicher Darstellung (1904); and Sabbat und Woche im Alten Testament (Gottingen, 1905).
MEINHOLD, KARL HEINRICH JOACHIM: German Lutheran; b. at Liepe (on the Island of Usedom in the Baltic) Aug. 21, 1813; d. in Kammin (120 m. n.n.e. of Berlin) July 20, 1888. His father was a pastor and a rationalist, like the clergy of his synod of that time, though his rationalism was not consistent. In 1827 he entered Mary's College at Stettin and in 1831 the University of Greifswald and later that of Halle. Under the influence of Tholuck and of Ullmann, and later of Schleiermacher in Berlin, he severed all relations with rationalism, drawing closer to the Bible. In 1838, he was appointed pastor at Kolzow, in the Island of Wollin," Pomerania, where he succeeded in maintaining Lutheran interests and soon became one of the acknowledged champions of the Lutheran Church. In the later part of the period of organization of Lutheranism within the Prussian state church Meinhold was a prominent worker and influenced the final settlement. The synod of Wollin, to which Kolzow belonged, resolved that their parishioners should take the name of Lutherans officially and that the sacraments should be administered according to the Lutheran rite. In 1846, a general synod petitioned the authorities to guarantee the Lutheran rights, but without success. After 1848, the authorities decided that the Union should become absolute. During the political struggles the Lutheran associations, with headquarters at Naugard, planned for self-defense. In 1851, Meinhold was appointed superintendent at Kammin, where he soon became the leader of the associations in their contest with the authorities. These associations had to contend with two tendencies, first that toward separation, secondly that toward absorption, with the latter of which the authorities sided, and in the contest Meinhold received blame from both parties. In 1869, Superintendent Meinhold was suspended, but he was reinstated in 1874 by order of the ministry. Then supervened the Falk era: the clergy, expecting greater freedom and led by Meinhold, outlined
their position at a conference at Gnadau in 1874. However, disciplinary measures were taken against Meinhold. A synodal order was issued, looking to a union between the confessional group and the authorities. In 1875, a general synod assembled and determined upon harmony; the result was that the Lutheran Church gained a right of existence within the Prussian state church. In 1880, Meinhold was reappointed superintendent, then district school inspector, and in 1888 a jubilee was celebrated for his fifty years of active service. (T. Meinhold.) Bibliography: Allgemeine evangelisch-lutherische Kirchenzeitung, 1888, pp. 1107 sqq.
MEINR AD (MEGINH ARD) , ST. See Einsiedeln.
MEINWERK, main'verk: Bishop of Paderborn, 1009-1036. He was related to the royal family and received his education in the ecclesiastical schools of Halberstadt and Hildesheim. He was made a canon of Halberstadt; later, in the time of Otto III., court chaplain, and in 1009 Heinrich II. made him bishop of Paderborn. He served faithfully in internal and external affairs the emperor and his country, and was able with great cleverness to assert his influence among kings and nobles, among wealthy clergymen and laymen, obtaining endowments for his diocese or for the monastery of Abdinghofen, built between 1015 and 1031 in the western suburb of Paderborn. (Franz Gorres.)
Bibliography: The basal source is an anonymous life written about 1150, ed. G. H. Pertz in MGH, Script., xi (1854), 104-161, and in ASB, June, i. 511-553. A very useful bibliography is given in Potthast, Wegweiser, pp. 1478-79. Consult: F. X. Schrader, Leben und Wirken des . Meinwerks, . , 1009-36, Paderborn, 1895; H. Bresslau, Jahrbucher des deutschen Beichs unter Kon~ rad II., ii. 460 sqq., Leipsic, 1884.
MEISNER, mais'ner, BALTHAZAR: German theologian; b. at Dresden Feb. 3, 1587; d. at Wittenberg Dec. 29, 1626; belonged to that circle of theologians in the first decades of the seventeenth century who did not lose sight of the needs of the church. He studied at Wittenberg, Giessen, Strasburg, and Tubingen; was appointed professor in Wittenberg, 1613. He was on intimate terms with B. Mentzer in Giessen and J. Gerhard in Jena, but among them it was he who had the sharpest eye for the deficiencies of the church and made effectual efforts to remedy them. These attempts are evidenced in his publication, B. Meisneri Pia Desideria, dictated shortly before his death and published anonymously (Frankfort, 1679). His Philosophia Sobria (3 vols., Wittenberg, 1614-23) opposed the prevailing tendencies of logical studies and established his literary fame. (A. Hauck.)
MEISSEN, mais'sen, BISHOPRIC OF: An ancient episcopal see in Germany, founded by the Emperor Henry I. in the sense that it grew out of the fortress which he built at the confluence of the Elbe and the Triebisch. The erection of the bishopric was decided at a synod held at St. Severus in Classe near Ravenna in 972. The first bishop, Burchard, was consecrated at Christmas, 968, and received the largest territory of any of the sees subject to the archbishop of Magdeburg. (A. Hauck.)
The bishops received the dignity of princes of
Mejer
Melanchthon, Philipp