THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Metropolitan of Memphis and Egypt; and in 1637 he was enthroned as patriarch, signing the synod's condemnation of Lucar's teachings in 1638.
His most important work is his " Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church," written at Helmstedt (given in full by J. Michaelcescu, Die Bekenntnisse der griechisch-orientalischen Kirche, Leipsic, 1904). This is a clear presentation of Greek doctrine and worship with sharp criticism of Roman Catholic tenets. Dividing theology into " simple " and " economic," he treats under the former head the doctrine of God and the Trinity, showing that each of the Persons sustains a definite relation to the other two, and defending the single procession of the Holy Ghost. In the " economic " section he seeks to show that man, deprived of the light of the Spirit by his fall (but not bereft of free will), and long condemned by the law, could best be reconciled with God only through the Incarnation in sinful flesh, mankind both being reconciled through the sacrifice of Christ, and being renewed and pardoned by immediate participation in the Divine. He cautiously defines the Church as possessing the marks of catholic and apostolic holiness and doctrine, though making little mention of hierarchic organization. The sacraments are reduced to three : baptism, representing reconciliation with the Father; the Eucharist, incorporation with the Son; and penance, the perseverance of the Holy Ghost. The remainder of the work is devoted chiefly to the rites of the Greek Church.
In his " Panegyric on the Incarnation " (ed. G. Queccius, Altdorf, 1626) he polemizes against those who deny the divinity of Christ, besides treating of redemption and emphasizing the true humanity of Christ. In his " Answer to the Inquiry . on Gal. v. 16 " (Nuremberg, 1626), moreover, he explains the opposition between flesh and spirit, in genuine Greek fashion, as that between body and soul. He also wrote an Epistula de voaibus
in musica liturgica Grcecorum usitatis in 1626 (ed. J. J. Crudelius, probably in 1737), as well as letters, sermons, the polemic Antipanoplia against the Uniate Rhodinus, and a large work still preserved in manuscript in Cod. Harl. 5059.
Considered by some a Greek Lutheran, by others a Calvinist, and by others still a friend of the Roman Catholics, Metrophanes seems to have been willing to enjoy the favor of the powerful without regard to creed. Herein may lie the reason why he was not polemic against other communions, and was relatively indifferent to his own.
(Philipp Meyer.) Bibliography: Lives have been written by J. A. Dietelmair, Altdorf, 1769; A. C. Demetracopulos, Leipsic, 1870; and G. G. Mazarakis, Cairo, 1884. Consult further: Fabricius-Harles, Bibliotheca Grceca, xi. 597 sqq., Hamburg, 1808; A. H. Hore, Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church, pp. 560-561, New York, 1899; KL, viii. 1444-46.
METROPOLITAN: The title of the bishop of the provincial capital, who possesses provincial as opposed to merely diocesan rights, including jurisdiction over (neighboring) suffragan bishops. See Aechbishop; Exarch; Patriarch, and cf. Bingham, Origines, II., xvi., where synodal and other references are given.
METROPOLITAN CHURCH ASSOCIATION. See
Miscellaneous Religious Bodies, 18.
METZ, BISHOPRIC OF: An ancient episcopal see in Lorraine, founded according to unhistorical tradition by disciples of the apostles, probably in fact during the Roman domination. The town, known as Divodurum when it was the old capital of the Celtic tribe of the Mediomatrici, survived the fall of the empire and appears under the name of Mettis in the Frankish era as the seat of a bishop. The first certain occupant of the see is Hesperius, whose name is attached to the proceedings of the Synod of Clermont in 535. The diocese was of considerable extent in the Middle Ages, and contained a mixed population, though more German than French. (A. Hauck.)
Angilram or Engelram (bishop 768-791), a Benedictine, was archicapellanus to Charlemagne and apocrisiarius under Adrian I. From 823 to 855 the see was occupied by Drogo, a brother of Louis I. Bishop Theodoric I. of Hamaland (964-984), one of the most influential counselors of Otto I. and Otto II., secured from the latter (977) the insignia and title of a prince of the empire for himself and his successors. With the next bishop, Adalbero II. of Bar (984-1005), a son of Duke Frederick I. of Upper Lorraine, begins a new period of nearly six centuries, during which the see is no longer involved in the affairs of the court and develops a strong ecclesiastical life, though troubled frequently by conflicts between the citizens of Metz and the bishops as secular lords. With the election of Henry II. of Lorraine- Vaudemont (1484-1505) the see became for over a century an appanage of the house of Lorraine— a relation which helped materially to retard the progress of the Reformation. The peace of Cateau-Cambresis (1559) gave the king of France a protectorate over his " allies " of the districts of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, without altering their fundamental relations to the empire. Charles IX. attempted to suppress the Protestant religion, but Henry IV permitted it to be practised in 1592 and 1597, and this liberty continued until the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, after Metz had become part of France by the Peace of Westphalia (1648). The last prince-bishop, Louis-Joseph de Montmorency-Laval (1761-1802), was driven out by the Revolution, and even the " constitutional bishop of the department of the Moselle," Nicolas Francin, was imprisoned in 1793, while the cathedral was turned into a Temple of Reason and all church property confiscated. By the Concordat of 1801 the bishopric was restored and made subject to the archbishop of Besancon, although with somewhat altered limits, which were reduced to about one-third of the former extent by the agreement of Louis XVIII. with Rome (1817-21). When Lorraine was annexed to Germany in 1871, the diocese was removed by Pius IX. from the metropolitan jurisdiction of Besancon and made immediately subject to the Holy See, with a further readjustment of boundaries.
Bibliography: Sources for the early history are found in MGH, Script, ii (1829), 260-270, iv (1841), 420 sqq., 461 sqq., 658 sqq., 696-700, x (1852), 531-572, xii (1S5I>), 450-479, xiii (1881), 303 sqq. Consult: Gams, Series