MORTON
582
MOSAIC
uses or purposes of a superstitious nature, and not cal-
culatoii to promote objects of tharity or utility".
Not wit list amling this early lieclaration, no such doctrine as that of the English courts on the subject of superstitious uses or trusts can well have a place in the jurisprudence of the United States, where "all re- ligious beliefs, doctrines and forms of worsliip are free" (Holland vs. Alcoek, 108 New York Court of Appeals Reports, 329).
The people of the States make known their sover- eign will by enactments of the State legislatures, to which bodies the prerogatives of sovereignty have been delegated. And, therefore, the validity of dis- positions of land in favour of charity is controlled by the law of the State where the land is situated, and without any implied delegation of prerogative to any judicial officer. And the same remark applies to the general power of corporations to acquire and to hold land in the several States. (See Property, Ecclesi- astical.)
Pickering, The Stattites at Large (Cambridge, 1800) ; Stubbs, Select Charters and other illustrations of English Constitutional His- tory {5th ed., Oxford, 1SS4) ; Burgk. Coiruncntarics on Colonial and Foreign Laws generally (London, \^':~^' II, (m,, i:),S; Vidalvs. Girard's Executors, 2 Howard, Unittd ^ ' nurt Reports,
V, 194, 19.5; Fountainv.Ravenel, 17 '! - '■ .;s9; Dillon,
Bequests for Masses for the Souls "f ■ . /" '>ns (Cbicago,
1896); Holmes vs. Mead, 52 New York Court of Appeals Reports, 332: Alien vs. Stevens, ISl do., 122; Thompson, Commentaries on the law of Private Corporations (Indianapolis, 1909), sections 2365- 2400; Halsbury, The Laws of England (London, 1909), s. v. Corporations,
Charles W. Sloane.
Morton, John, Cardinal, Archbishop of Canter- bur>-, b. in Dorsetshire about 1420; d. at Ivnowle, Kent, 1.5 Sept., 1500. He was educated at O.xford (Ballioi College) where he graduated D.C.L. Being ordained priest he practised in London as an ecclesi- astical lawyer. The patronage of Cardinal Bourchier obtained for him much preferment and he became pri^■y councillor. Chancellor of the Duchy of Cornwall, master in Chancery, subdean of Lincoln (14.50), prin- cipal of Peckwater Inn, Oxford (1453), and preben- dary of Salisbury and Lincoln (1458). During the Civil War he joined the Lancastrians, was attainted by the Yorkists and lost all his offices. During the reign of Edward IV his attainder was reversed on his sub- mission, and he was made Ma-ster of the Rolls (16 March, 1472-3), Archdeacon of Winchester and Ches- ter (1474), and was elected Bishop of Ely on 31 Jan., 1478-9. During the reign of Richard III he was im- prisoned but escaped to Flanders, returning to Eng- land when Henry VII became king in 1485. He was much trusted by the king and was all-powerful in the government. He was elected Archbishop of Canter- bury, 8 Oct., 1486, and in the follow-ing March be- came Lord Chancellor of England. In 1493 Alexan- der VI created him Cardinal of St. Anastasia. He was made Chancellor of Oxford in 1495. It is prob- able that he was the author of the "History of Richard III", u.sually a.scribed to Ble.ssed Thomas More, who as a boy was a page in his household and who subse- quently translated it into English.
Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury (London, 1860- 84); Williams, Lives of the English Cardinals (London, 1877); Archbold in Diet. Nat. Biog., with list of contemporary refer- ences,
Edwin Burton.
Morton, Robert, Venerable, English priest and martyr, b. at Bawtry, Yorks, about 1548; executed in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, Wednesday, 28 August, 1588 (the catalogue probably compiled by Fr. ,Iohn Gerard, S.J., and printed by I V. Pollen, S.J., in "Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ.", V, 288-29:!, gives the d.ate of the deaths of the Venerabiles Morton, Moor, Holford, Claxton, and Felt on !is 30 .\ugust, hut this .seems to be an error). He was the son of Robert Morton, and nephew of Dr. Nicholas Morton, was ordained dea- con at Rome and priest at Reims in 1587, and con-
demned at Newgate 26 August merely for being a
priest contrary to 27 Eliz., c. 2. At the same time
and place sulTered Hugh Moor, a layman, aged 25, of
(jrantliam. Lincolnshire, and Gray's Inn, London, for
having been reconciled to the Church by Fr. Thomas
Steplieiisiin. S.J. On the same day suffered (1) at
Mile Fiiil, William Dean, a priest (q. v.); and Henry
Weblcy, a layman, born in the city of Gloucester; (2)
near the Theatre, William Gunter, a priest, born at
Raglan, Monmouthshire, educated at Reims; (3) at
Clerkenwell, Thomas Holford, a priest, born at Aston,
in Acton, Cheshire, educated at Reims, who was
hanged only; and (4) between Brentford and Houns-
low, Middlesex, James Claxton or Clarkson, a priest,
born in Yorkshire and educated at Reims; and Thomas
Fell on, born at Bermondsey Abbey in 1567, son of B.
John Felton, tonsured 1583 and about to be professed
a Minim, who had suffered terrible tortures in prison.
According to one account there also suffered on the
same ila\' at Holywell, London, one Richard Williams,
a Welsh priest of Queen Mary's reign. Another, how-
ever, puts his death in 1592 or 1593. Fr. Pollen
thinks his name occurs in this year in mistake for that
of John Harrison, alias Symonds, a letter carrier, who
was it seems executed at Tyburn, 5 October. 1588.
Pollen, English Martyrs lSSi-1603 in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., V (privately printed, London, 1908) ; Idem. Acts of English Martyrs (London. 1891) : Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, 1 (Manchester, 1802).
J. B. Wainewright.
Mosaic Legislation, the body of juridical, moral, and ceremonial institutions, laws, and decisions com- prised in the last four books of the Pentateuch, and ascribed by Christian and Hebrew tradition to Moses.
Name. — As early as the Davidic era, the name miD, tordh was popularly used to designate this compila- tion, which, however, might not then have embraced all the enactments it now contains. After the captiv- ity, the term became synonymous with the Penta- teuch, and this usage has obtained ever since. Side by side with these meanings are others less compre- hensive and more ancient. If, as is generally ad- mitted, yardh (to cast) be the root, there would be a peculiar historic interest attaching to the word, be- cause of the implication that the first toroth, or deci- sions, of whatever kind, were arrived at chiefly, or at least in important cases, by the casting of lots. The deity would then be regarded as the author of them. More developed than these are the first available his- toric loroth, such as were pronounced in cases of pri- vate litigation at Raphidim (Ex., xviii, 13 sq.) by Moses, relying for his direction on the analogies of prec- edent or custom. On the lips of the priests and prophets lordh was sometimes referred to the moral and religious prescriptions of the Law alone, or again, to the ceremonial part of it, whether in theory or practice; in short, to any direction, written or oral, given in Jehovah's name by one enjoying an official capacity.
Quite naturally, when the period of formal codifica- tion set in, each new code was styled a tordh, and these separate t&rolh were the stepping-stones to, and after- wards the constituent parts of, the "Torah" or Cor- pus, which has always been identified with the name of Mo.ses. — More restricted in their signification are the following Biblical terms: DnipS, pujqtVHm, precepts; mVO, mlgu'dh, commandment; nny, 'ed(w)6th, testi- monies, i. e. expressions of God's will to man, chiefly in moral and religious matters; t3DL"D, iinxhpdt, a judg- ment, usually though not exclusively relating to civil or criminal law, and, eventually, implying an obliga- tory force arising fmm the nature of moral rectitude, which is enhanced, not obscured, by 1 he notion of theo- cratic economy; :uid ■;>r^, npn, liuq, liw/f/dh (root, to en- grave), statute, or thing engraved (e. g. on stone), thereby becoming fixed, so to speak, iis an ordinance. From this varied terminology, however indiscriminate
