MATTHEW
65
MATTHEW
these passages proclaiming that before this event took
place the Gospel should be preached to all nations?
These doctrines do not emanate from St. Paul and his
disciples. Long before St. Paul could have exercised
any influence whatever over the Christian conscience,
the Evangelical sources containing these precepts had
already been composed. The Apostle of the Gentiles
was the special propagator of these doctrines, but he
was not their creator. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit,
he uiiilci-stood that the ancient prophecies had been
realized in the Person of Jesus, and that the doctrines
taught by Christ were identical with those revealed by
the Scriptures.
Finally, by considering as a whole the ideas consti- tuting the basis of the earliest Christian writings, we ascertain that these doctrines, taught by the prophets, and accentuated by the life and words of Christ, form the framework of the Gospels and the basis of Pauline preaching. They are, as it were, a kind of fasces which it would be impossible to unbind, and into which no new idea could be inserted without destroying its strength and unity. In the prophecies, the Gospel-;, the Pauline Epistles, and the first Christian writiiigs an intimate correlation joins all together, Jesus Christ Himself being the centre and the common bond. What one has said of Him, the others reiterate, and never do we hear an isolated or a discordant voice. If Jesus taught doctrines contrary or foreign to those which the Evangelists placed upon His lips, then He becomes an inexplicable phenomenon, because, in the matter of ideas. He is in contradiction to the society in which He moved, and must be ranked with the least intelligent sections among the Jewish people. We are justified, therefore, in concluding that the discourses of Christ, recorded in the First Gospel and reproducing the Apostolic catechesis, are authentic. We may, however, again observe that, his aim being chiefly apologetic, Matthew selected and presented the events of Christ's life and also these discourses in a way that would lead up to the conclusive proof which he wished to give of the Messiahship of Jesus. Still the Evan- gelist neither substantially altered the original cate- chesis nor invented doctrines foreign to the teaching of Jesus. His action bore upon details or form, but not upon the basis of words and deeds.
Catholic Authors: Maldonatus, In Matt. (Mainz. 1S74); VAN Steenkiste, Comment, in Evang. secundum Matt. (4 vols., 3rd ed.,3ruges.l88U-2);FiLLloN,£iian(;.se/ons.Ma((Heu (Paris, 1878); ScHANZ, Commentar uber das Evang. des hi. Matt. (Frei- burg, 1879); KNABENBAnER, Comment, in Evang. secundum Matt. (2 voU., Paris, 1892-3); Rose, Evang. selon s. Matthieu (Paris. 1904); Gutjahr, Das hi. Evang. nach Matthaus (Graz. 1904); Jacqoier. Hist, des livres du Nouveau Testament, II (6th ed., Paris. 1910) ; Maas, Comment, of Gospel of St. Matthew (New York, 1898); MaoEvilly, Exposition of the Gospels (Dublin, 1876).
Non-Catholic Authors: Mansel and Cook, The Gospel ac- cording to St. Matthew in The Speaker's Coin. New Testament, I (London, 1878); Bruce, The Synoptic Gospel according to St. Matthew (London, 1905, 1906); Willodghby Allen, C'ommen- tary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew (Edinburgh, 19()7); Plhmmer, Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew (London, 1909); Hawkins, Horce Synoptica (2nd ed., Oxford, 1909); B. Weiss, Emngelitim Matthai (Gottingen, 1898); Idem, Das Matlhiius Evangthum und .Heine Lucasparallelen (2nd ed.. 1 Halle, 1902); Holtzmann, Di, S,/noptiker (3rd ed., Tubingen; 1901); Zahn, Dos E:'an,hl<'iiii drs Matthaus (Leipzig, 1903), Welhadsen, Das Kniniirhum Matthai (Berlin, 1904); J. Weiss Die Schriften des N. T., I, Mullhaus (3rd ed., Gottingen, 1908); Gressm.ann and Klostermann, Matthaus (Tubingen, 1909). E. Jacquier.
Matthew, Liturgy op Saint. See Syro-Jaco- BiTB Liturgy.
Matthew, Pseudo-Gospel of. See Apocrypha.
Matthew, Sir Tobie, English priest, b. at Salis- bury, 3 (^ct., 1577; died at Ghent, 13 Oct., 1655. He was the son of Dr. Tobie Matthew, then Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, afterwards Anglican Bishop of Dur- ham, and finally Archbishop of York, and Frances, daughter of William Barlow, Anglican Bishop of Chi- chester. Tobie Matthew matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, 13 March, 1589-90, and became M.A. X.— 5
5 July, 1597. He seems to have been harshly treated
by his parents, who were angered at his youthful (ex-
travagance. On 15 May, 1599, he was admitted at
Gray's Inn, where he began his close intimacy with
Sir Francis Bacon, and two years later became M.P.
for Newport, Cornwall. During this period of his life
he frequented the dissolute court of Elizabeth. On
the accession of James I he sat in Parliament for St.
Alban's, and joined the new court, receiving a large
grant from the Crown which amply provided for his
future. Having always desired to travel, he left Eng-
land in November, 16(54, visiting France on his way to
Florence, though he had promised his father he would
not go to Italy. At Florence he came into the society
of several Catholics and ended by being received into
the Church. A new persecution was raging in Eng-
land, but he determined to return. He was impris-
oned in the Fleet for six months, and every effort was
made to shake his resolution. Finally he was allowed to
leave England, and he travelled in Flanders and Spain.
In 1614 he studied for the priesthood at Rome and was
ordained by Cardinal Bellarmine (20 May). The king
allowed him to return to England in 1617, and he
stayed for a time with Bacon, whose essays he trans-
lated into Italian. From 1610 to 1622 he was again
exiled, but on his return was favourably received by
the king, and acted as an agent at court to promote the
marriage of Prince Charles with the Spanish Infanta.
In the same cause James sent him to Madrid and on
his return knighted him, 20 Oct., 1623. During the
reign of Charles I he remained in high favour at court,
where he laboured indefatigably for the Catholic
cause. When the Civil War broke out in 1640 he,
now an old man, took refuge with the English Jesuits
at their house at Ghent, where he died. He was al-
ways an ardent supporter of the Jesuits, and, though it
has long been denied that he was ever himself a Jesuit,
papers recently discovered at Oulton Abbey show
strong reason for supposing that he was in fact a mem-
ber of the Society. Besides the Italian version of
Bacon's "Essays", he translated St. Augustine's
"Confessions" (1620), the Life of St. Teresa written by
herself (i623), and Father Arias's "Treatise of Pa-
tience" (1650). His original works were :" A Relation
of the death of Troilo Savelie, Baron of Rome " (1620) ;
" A Missive of Consolation sent from Flanders to the
Catholics of England (1647); "A True Historical Re-
lation of the Conversion of Sir Tobie Matthews to the
Holie Catholic Faith" (first published in 1904); some
manuscript works (see Gillow, "Bibl. Diet. Eng.
Cath.", IV, 541-42). His letters were edited by Dr.
John Donne in 1660.
Mathew, Life of Sir Tobie Matthew (with portrait and many now documents) (London, 1907); Idem. A True Historical Relation of the Conversion of Sir Tobie Matthew (himdnn. 1904); Alban Butler, The Life ofSirTobie Matth.u,. v,\ l,v I nAnLES Butler (London. 1795); Gillow, Bibl. Do-I i:,,; '-./'/. IV, 531-43 (giving references to many other suiims) , ,^i ••> nMHEin Diet. Nat. Biog. (with numerous and valualih' olljir nf.rcaces). Edwin Burton.
Matthew of Cracow, renowned scholar and preacher of the fourteenth century, b. at Cracow about 1335; d. at Pisa, 5 March. 1410. The view, once gen- erally held, that he was descended from the Pomer- anian noble family of Crakow, is now entirely discred- ited (cf. SorameHad, " Matthaus von Krakow '\ 1.S91). His father was probably a notary in Cracow. Entering the University of Prague, Matthew gra<luated liach- elor of arts in"l355 and master in 1357, an<l lat<T filled for several terms the office of dean in the same faculty. In 1387 we first find documentary reference to Inm as professor of theology, and one manuscript ,spc:iks of him as "city preacher of Prague". About l:i.S2 he headed an embassy from his university to Urban VI, before whom he delivered a dissertation in favour of reform. Accepting an invitation from the University of Heidelberg, he joined its professorial staff in 1395, and a year later was appointed rector. In 1 395 he was
