MASSOULIE
37
MASSYS
accents" in "Jewish Quarterly Review", 1895). The
invention of points greatly increased the work of
scribes; they now set themselves to list words with a
view to perpetuating not only the consonants but the
vowels. Cod. Babyl. Petropolitanus (a. d. 916), for
instance, lists eighteen words beginning with Lamed
and either Shctva or Hireq followed by Shewa; eigh-
teen words beginning with Lamed and Fa(ftn/!.; together
with an alphabetical list of words ending with n,
which occur only once. '
II. Critical Value op Massorah. — During the seventeenth century, many Protestant theologians, such as the Buxtorfs, defended the Massoretic text as infallible; and considered that Esdras together with the men of the Great Synagogue had, under the in- spiration of the Holy Spirit, not only determined the Hebrew canon but fixed forever the text of the Hebrew Bible, its vowel points and accents, its division into verses and paragraphs and books. Modern text- critics value Massorah, just as the Itala and Peshitto, only as one witness to a text of the second century. The pointed Massoretic text is witness to a text which is not certainly earlier than the eighth century. The consonantal text is a far better witness; unfortunately the tradition of this text was almost absolutely uni- form. There were different schools of Massoretes, but their differences have left us very few variants of the consonantal text (see Manuscripts of the Bible). The Massoretes were slaves to Massorah and handed down one and one only text. Even textual peculiari- ties, clearly due to error or accident, were perpetuated by rabbis who puzzled their brains to ferret out mysti- cal interpretations of these peculiarities. Broken and inverted letters, consonants that were too small or too large, dots that were out of place — all such vagaries were slavishly handed down as it God-intended and full of Divine meaning.
MoRiNus, Ezercitationum biblicarum de HebrcBi Grmcique lextus sinceritate libri duo (Paris, 1669); Kuenen. Les Origines du texte Masoretique (Paris, 1875); Abboit, Essays chiefly on the Original Texts of the Old and New Testaments (London, 1891) ; Buhl, Kanon und Text des Alien Testaments (Leipzig, 1891); LoiSY, Histoire critique du texte et des versions de la Bible (2 vols., Paris, 1892-95) ; Kenyon, Our Bible and the Ancient MSS. (London, 1896); Kahle, Der Masoretische Text des Alten Testa- ments nach der Ueberlieferungder Babylonischen Juden (Leipzig, 1902); GiNSBURG, Introduction to the Massoreiico-critical edition of the Hebrew Bible (1897).
Walter Drum.
Massoulie, .\ntoine, theologian, b. at Toulouse, 28 Oct., l('i:;_'; (I. at Rome, 23 Jan.. 1706. At an early age li(- entered the Order of St. Dominic, in which he held many important offices; but above all these he prized study, teaching, and writing, for the love of which he refused a bishopric and asked to be relieved of distracting duties. It was said that he knew by heart the Summa of St. Thomas. He devoted him- self with such earnestness to the study of Greek and Helirew that he could converse fluently in both of these languages. His knowledge of Hebrew enabled him to overcome in public debate two Jewish Rabbis, one at .\vignon in 1659, the other at Florence in 1695. The latter Ijecame an exemplary Christian, his conver- sion Ijeing modestly ascribed by Massoulie to prayer more than to successful disputation. His published works and some unpublished manuscripts (preserved in the Casanatense Library at Rome) may be divided into two classes: those written in defence of the Tho- mfstic doctrine of physical premotion, relating to God's action on free agents, and those written against the Quieti.sts, whom he strenuously opposed, both by attacking their false teachings and also by explaining the true doctrine according to the principles of St. Thomas. His principal works are: "Divus Thomas sui interprcs de (li\ina motione et libertate creata' (Rome, 1692); "Oratioad explicandamSumman theo- logicam D. Tliomae" (Rome, 17(11); "Meditations de s. Thomas s\ir les trois vies, purgative, illuminative et unitive" (Toulouse, 1678); "Traite de la veritable
oraison, ou les erreurs des Quietistes sont r^futees"
(Paris, 1699); "Traits de I'amour de Dieu" (Paris,
1703).
QuETiF-EcHARD, Script. Ord. Freed., II. 769; TonRON, Hist des hommes illus., V, 751-73; Hurter, Nomenclator.
D. J. Kennedy.
Massuet, Rene, Benedictine patrologist, of the Congregation of St. Maur; b. 13 Aug., 1666, at St. Ouen de Mancelles in the diocese of Evreux; d. 1 1 Jan., 1716, at St. Germain des Pres in Paris. He made his solemn profession in religion in 1682 at Notre Dame de Lire, and studied at Bonnenouvelle in Orleans, where he showed more than ordinary ability. After teach- ing philosophy in the .\bbey of Bee. and theology at St. Stephen's, in Caen, he attended the lectures of the University and obtained the degrees of bachelor and licentiate in law. After this he taught a year at Jumicges and three years at Fecamp. He spent the year 1702 in Rome in the study of Greek. The follow- ing year he was called to St. Germain des Pros and taught theology there to the end of his life. His principal work, which he undertookrather reluctantly, is the edition of the WTitings of St. Irenjeus, Paris, 1710. An elegant edition of these writings had ap- peared at Oxford, 1702, but the editor, John Ernest Grabe, was less intent on an accurate rendering of the text than on making Irenaeus favour Anglican views. Massuet enriched his edition with valuable disserta- tions on the heresies impugned by St. Irenseus and on the life, writings, and teaching of the saint. He also edited the fifth volume of the " Annales Ord. S. Ben. " of Mabillon, with some additions and a preface inclu- sive of the biographies of Mabillon and Ruinart. We owe him, moreover, a letter to John B. Langlois, S.J., in defence of the Benedictine edition of St. Augustine, and five letters addressed to Bernard Pez found in Schelhorn's "Amoenitates Literarife". He left in manuscript a work entitled " Augustinus Graecus", in which he quotes all the passages of St. John Chrysos- tom on grace.
Throl. Quartalschrifl. 1833, 452; T.^ssin. Conor, von St. Maur (Frankfurt, 1773). 575; Hurteh, Nomencl.. IV (Innsbruck, 1910), 527; Kirchenlexikon, a. v.; Bdchbergeh, Kirchl. Handlex.t a. v,
Francis Mershmann.
Massys (Messys, Metzys), Quentin, painter, b. at Louvain in 1466; d. at Antwerp in 1530 (bet. 13 July and 16 September), and not in 1529, as his epitaph states (it dates from the seventeenth century). The life of this great artist is all adorned, or obscured, with legends. It is a fact that he was the son of a smith. There is nothing to prove, but it is not impossible that he first followed his father's trade. In any case he was a "bronzier" and medallist. On 29 March, 1528, Erasmus wrote to Boltens that Massys had engraved a medallion of him (Effigiem meain fudit acre). This was perhaps the medal dated 1519, a copy of which is at the Museum of Basle. In 1575 Molanas in his his- tory of Louvain states that Quentin is the author of the standard of the baptismal fonts at St-Picrre, but his account is full of errors. As for the wrought iron dome over the well in the March<;-aux-(!ants at Antwerp, which popular tradition attributes to him, the attribu- tion is purely fanciful. Tradition also states that the young smith, in love with a young woman of .\ntwerp, became a painter for her sake. Indeed this pretty fable explains the poetical character of Massys. All his works are like love songs. Facts tell us only that the young man, an orphan since he was fifteen, was emancipated by his mother 4 .\pril. 1491, and that in the same year lie was entered a.s a painter on t he regis- ters of the Guild of .Antwerp. He kept a .studio which four different pupils entered from 1 195 to 1510.
He had six cliiMrcn l.\- a lirst niarri.ige with Alyt vanTuylt. She died in 1.507. Shortly afterwards, in 1,508 or 1.509, he married Catherine Heyns, who bore him, according to some, Jen children, according to
