Anglorum sive historia minor (1067–1253) has been edited by F.
Madden (3 vols., Rolls series, 1866–1869). Matthew Paris is often
confused with “Matthew of Westminster,” the reputed author of
the Flores historiarum edited by H. R. Luard (3 vols., Rolls series,
1890). This work, compiled by various hands, is an edition of
Matthew Paris, with continuations extending to 1326. Matthew
Paris also wrote a life of Edmund Rich (q.v.), which is probably
the work printed in W. Wallace’s St Edmund of Canterbury (London,
1893) pp. 543–588, though this is attributed by the editor to the
monk Eustace; Vitae abbatum S Albani (up to 1225) which have
been edited by W. Watts (1640, &c.); and (possibly) the Abbreviatio
chronicorum (1000–1255), edited by F. Madden, in the third volume
of the Historia Anglorum. On the value of Matthew as an historian
see F. Liebermann in G. H. Pertz’s Scriptores xxviii. pp. 74–106;
A. Jessopp’s Studies by a Recluse (London, 1893); H. Plehn’s
Politische Character Matheus Parisiensis (Leipzig, 1897). (H. W. C. D.)
MATTHEW OF WESTMINSTER, the name of an imaginary person who was long regarded as the author of the Flores Historiarum. The error was first discovered in 1826 by Sir F. Palgrave, who said that Matthew was “a phantom who never existed,” and later the truth of this statement was completely proved by H. R. Luard. The name appears to have been taken from that of Matthew of Paris, from whose Chronica majora the earlier part of the work was mainly copied, and from Westminster, the abbey in which the work was partially written.
The Flores historiarum is a Latin chronicle dealing with English history from the creation to 1326, although some of the earlier manuscripts end at 1306; it was compiled by various persons, and written partly at St Albans and partly at Westminster. The part from 1306 to 1326 was written by Robert of Reading (d. 1325) and another Westminster monk. Except for parts dealing with the reign of Edward I. its value is not great. It was first printed by Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1567, and the best edition is the one edited with introduction by H. R. Luard for the Rolls series (London, 1890). It has been translated into English by C. D. Yonge (London, 1853). See Luard’s introduction, and C. Bémont in the Revue critique d’histoire (Paris, 1891).
MATTHEWS, STANLEY (1824–1889), American jurist, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 21st of July 1824. He graduated from Kenyon College in 1840, studied law, and in 1842
was admitted to the bar of Maury county, Tennessee. In 1844
he became assistant prosecuting attorney of Hamilton county,
Ohio; and in 1846–1849 edited a short-lived anti-slavery paper,
the Cincinnati Herald. He was clerk of the Ohio House of
Representatives in 1848–1849, a judge of common pleas of Hamilton
county in 1850–1853, state senator in 1856–1858, and U.S.
district-attorney for the southern district of Ohio in 1858–1861.
First a Whig and then a Free-Soiler, he joined the Republican
party in 1861. After the outbreak of the Civil War he was
commissioned a lieutenant of the 23rd Ohio, of which Rutherford
B. Hayes was major; but saw service only with the 57th
Ohio, of which he was colonel, and with a brigade which he commanded
in the Army of the Cumberland. He resigned from the
army in 1863, and was judge of the Cincinnati superior court in
1863–1864. He was a Republican presidential elector in 1864
and 1868. In 1872 he joined the Liberal Republican movement,
and was temporary chairman of the Cincinnati convention
which nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency, but in the
campaign he supported Grant. In 1877, as counsel before the
Electoral Commission, he opened the argument for the Republican
electors of Florida and made the principal argument for the
Republican electors of Oregon. In March of the same year he
succeeded John Sherman as senator from Ohio, and served until
March 1879. In 1881 President Hayes nominated him as associate
justice of the Supreme Court, to succeed Noah H. Swayne;
there was much opposition, especially in the press, to this appointment,
because Matthews had been a prominent railway and
corporation lawyer and had been one of the Republican “visiting
statesmen” who witnessed the canvass of the vote of Louisiana[1]
in 1876; and the nomination had not been approved when the
session of Congress expired. Matthews was renominated by
President Garfield on the 15th of March, and the nomination
was confirmed by the Senate (22 for, 21 against) on the 12th of
May. He was an honest, impartial and conscientious judge.
He died in Washington, on the 22nd of March 1889.
MATTHIAE, AUGUST HEINRICH (1769–1835), German
classical scholar, was born at Göttingen, on the 25th of December
1769, and educated at the university. He then spent some years
as a tutor in Amsterdam. In 1798 he returned to Germany, and
in 1802 was appointed director of the Friedrichsgymnasium at
Altenburg, which post he held till his death, on the 6th of January
1835. Of his numerous important works the best-known are
his Greek Grammar (3rd ed., 1835), translated into English by
E. V. Blomfield (5th ed., by J. Kenrick, 1832), his edition of
Euripides (9 vols., 1813–1829), Grundriss der Geschichte der
griechischen und römischen Litteratur (3rd ed., 1834, Eng. trans.,
Oxford, 1841) Lehrbuch für den ersten Unterricht in der Philosophie
(3rd ed., 1833), Encyklopädie und Methodologie der Philologie
(1835). His Life was written by his son Constantin (1845).
His brother, Friedrich Christian Matthiae (1763–1822), rector of the Frankfort gymnasium, published valuable editions of Seneca’s Letters, Aratus, and Dionysius Periegetes.
MATTHIAS, the disciple elected by the primitive Christian
community to fill the place in the Twelve vacated by Judas
Iscariot (Acts i. 21–26). Nothing further is recorded of him in
the New Testament. Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., I. xii.) says he
was, like his competitor, Barsabas Justus, one of the seventy,
and the Syriac version of Eusebius calls him throughout not
Matthias but Tolmai, i.e. Bartholomew, without confusing him
with the Bartholomew who was originally one of the Twelve,
and is often identified with the Nathanael mentioned in the
Fourth Gospel (Expository Times, ix. 566). Clement of Alexandria
says some identified him with Zacchaeus, the Clementine
Recognitions identify him with Barnabas, Hilgenfeld thinks he
is the same as Nathanael.
Various works—a Gospel, Traditions and Apocryphal Words—were ascribed to him; and there is also extant The Acts of Andrew and Matthias, which places his activity in “the city of the cannibals” in Ethiopia. Clement of Alexandria quotes two sayings from the Traditions: (1) Wonder at the things before you (suggesting, like Plato, that wonder is the first step to new knowledge); (2) If an elect man’s neighbour sin, the elect man has sinned.
MATTHIAS (1557–1619), Roman emperor, son of the emperor Maximilian II. and Maria, daughter of the emperor Charles V., was born in Vienna, on the 24th of February 1557. Educated by the diplomatist O. G. de Busbecq, he began his public life in 1577, soon after his father’s death, when he was invited to assume the governorship of the Netherlands, then in the midst of the long struggle with Spain. He eagerly accepted this invitation, although it involved a definite breach with his Spanish kinsman, Philip II., and entering Brussels in January 1578 was named governor-general; but he was merely a cipher, and only held the position for about three years, returning to Germany in October 1581. Matthias was appointed governor of Austria in 1593 by his brother, the emperor Rudolph II.; and two years later, when another brother, the archduke Ernest, died, he became a person of more importance as the eldest surviving brother of the unmarried emperor. As governor of Austria Matthias continued the policy of crushing the Protestants, although personally he appears to have been inclined to religious tolerance; and he dealt with the rising of the peasants in 1595, in addition to representing Rudolph at the imperial diets, and gaining some fame as a soldier during the Turkish War. A few years later the discontent felt by the members of the Habsburg family at the incompetence of the emperor became very acute, and the lead was taken by Matthias. Obtaining in May 1605 a reluctant consent from his brother, he took over the conduct of affairs in Hungary, where a revolt had broken out, and was formally recognized by the Habsburgs as their head in April 1606, and was promised the succession to the Empire. In June 1606 he concluded the peace of Vienna with the rebellious Hungarians, and was thus in a better position to treat with the sultan, with whom peace was made in November. This pacific policy was displeasing to Rudolph, who prepared to renew the Turkish War; but having secured the support of the national party in Hungary and gathered an army, Matthias forced his brother to cede to him this
- ↑ It seems certain that Matthews and Charles Foster of Ohio gave their written promise that Hayes, if elected, would recognize the Democratic governors in Louisiana and South Carolina.
