RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Metropbanes Meyer
episcoporum, pp. 292-293, supplement, pp. 75, 77; J. F. and N. Tabouillet, Hist, de Metz, 6 vols., Metz, 1769-90; Gallia Christiana, xiii. 677-805, 987, Paris, 1785; Clouet, Hist, ecclesiastique de la province de Treves, 2 vols., Verdun, 1844-51; Hauck, KD, vols, i.-iv., passim; Rettberg, KD, i. 90 sqq., 484 sqq.
MEURER, mei'rer, MORITZ : German Lutheran ; b. at Pretzsch (13 m. s.w. of Wittenberg) Aug. 3, 1806; d. at Callenberg, near Chemnitz, May 10, 1877. He studied theology at the University of Leipsic (1825-28), and then spent four years as private tutor in the house of H. L. Heubner, superintendent at Wittenberg. After temporary service in a Prussian normal school, he obtained his first pastoral appointment at Waldenburg in Saxony. In 1841 he removed to the neighboring Callenberg, where he spent the rest of his life. His industrious spirit manifested itself in frequent participation in the proceedings of the provincial synod, and in the issue of church periodicals. He was the author of numerous larger and smaller works, mainly on the Reformation era. Among these are : Luthers Leben, aus den Quellen erz&hlt (3 vols., Leipsic, 1845-46; Eng. transl., New York, 1848); Katharina Luther (Dresden, 1854); and Philipp Melanchthon (1860). In connection with the collective work entitled Altvater der lutherischen Kirche, Meurer contributed volumes ii.-iv., including the biographies of Bugenhagen, Myconius, and Hausmann. He was a distinguished writer also in the field of ecclesiastical art, and gladly promoted the study of it. Meurer set forth his general views on the subject in two valuable writings: Der Altar schmuck, ein Beitrag zur Paramentik in der evangelischen Kirche (Leipsic, 1867) and Der Kirchenbau vow, Standpunkt und nach dem Brauche der lutherischen Kirche (1877).
Theodor Fickeh.
MEXICO: A republic in the southern part of North America, having an area of 767,005 square miles. Out of a population (1900) of 13,600,000, about 2,500,000 were of pure, or nearly pure, white race; 5,800,000 of mixed race; and 5,200,000 of Indian race. Of these latter about 1,300,000 are of the most ignorant savage type, knowing practically no Spanish and having not the merest rudiments of civilization. Even of the mixed or better class of Indian races, few can be considered civilized, so that the Mexico known to the world includes probably not more than one-third of the entire population. Of that third only a little over a third (1,800,000) could, in 1895, both read and write, while about 325,000 more could read but not write. Since then the proportion has undoubtedly increased under the free and compulsory system of state education, assisted by beneficent societies. In 1904 there were 9,194 elementary, 36 secondary, 20 normal, and 45 professional schools, with 18,310 teachers and 634,136 enrolled pupils. There were also private clerical and association schools to the number of 2,281, with 135,838 pupils.
From the time of the conquest by the Spaniards to 1810 the country was absolutely under the power of the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish government. Then came a revolt, headed by a priest, and in 1821 independence of Spain was achieved; the Church, however, still reigned su-
preme. In 1857 the Liberal party drew up a program of religious liberty, which was not carried into effect till 1867, when the French rule of Maximilian was overthrown and Juarez established the present republic. Roman Catholic religious houses were closed, church property confiscated, ecclesiastical buildings assigned for the use of schools, libraries, hospitals, etc., and a law passed forbidding any ecclesiastical body to acquire landed property. The era of Protestant influence dates from the entrance of a large number of Bibles carried by General Scott's army in the war of 1846. Gradually little companies were formed which met in private houses; these received help from Miss Melinda Rankin's school, first at Brownsville, Tex., and then at Monterey, and from an agent of the Bible Society. A number of similar individual enterprises were started, and a Baptist Church was organized in Monterey in 1864. With the establishment of the new republic Protestant missionaries went into the country until at least seventeen societies are represented there. At first they were bitterly opposed not merely by the Roman Catholic Church authorities but by the strongest elements among the Mexican people. Gradually this opposition has weakened until the best people of the nation and even of the Roman Catholic Church to a certain degree manifest their interest in and approval of the work done by the Protestant evangelists and in the Protestant schools. The latest missionary statistics show 227 missionaries, 491 native workers, 133 schools with 10,447 pupils, 39,838 professing Christians connected with the mission churches. As the number of Protestants reported in 1895 was about 40,000, the total number must on this basis be much larger. The Protestant influence is augmented by four printingpresses issuing annually a great amount of literature; Young Men's Christian Associations and Christian Endeavor Societies are exerting a mighty influence, and the whole tone of Mexican life is changing, even within the bounds of the Roman Catholic Church, with its more than 12,000,000 communicants and its full hierarchy.
Edwin Munsell Bliss.
Bibliography: F. H. Vera, Collection de documentos ecclesidsticos de Mexico, 3 vols., Amecameca, 1887; Concilio provincial Mexicano IV., 1771, Quer^taro, 1898; Acta et decreta concilii provincialis Mexicani quinti, 1896, Mexico, 1899; W. Butler, Mexico in Transition, New York, 1892; C. F. Lummis, Awakening of a Nation; Mexico of Today, ib. 1898; P. P. Martin, Mexico of the 30th Century, 2 vols., ib. 1907; C. R. Enock, Mexico; its ancient and modern Civilization, Hist., and political Conditions, ib., 1909.
MEYER, FREDERICK BROTHERTON: English Baptist; b. at London Apr. 8, 1847. He was educated at Brighton College and Regent's Park Baptist College (B.A., London University, 1869), and held successive pastorates at Pembroke Baptist Chapel, Liverpool, in 1870-72, York, in 1872- 1874, Victoria Road Church, Leicester, in 1874-78, Melbourne Hall, Leicester, in 1878-88, Regent's Park Chapel, London, in 1888-92, and Christ Church, Westminster Bridge Road, Lambeth, in 1892-95. He was president of the National Federation of Free Churches 1904-05. Since that time, as general evangelist of the Federation of Free Churches, he has conducted missions in South Africa and the far
Meyer Mezuzah