MEDICINE. See Diseases and the Healing Art, Hebrew.
MEDINA: The city next in importance to Mecca, of the holy cities of Islam. It contains a large mosque with the mausoleum of Mohammed, and is annually visited by a great number of pilgrims. It has about 15,000 inhabitants. See Mohammed, Mohammedanism, I.
MEDLER, NICOLAUS: Leader of the Reformation in Naumburg; b. at Hof (72 m. s. o_ Leipsic) 1502; d. at Bernburg (88 m. s.w. of Berlin) Aug. 24, 1551. His preliminary studies were made in his native town and at the Latin School of Freiberg, after which he attended the universities of Erfurt and Wittenberg. After a brief sojourn as teacher at Arnstadt and Hof, he became rector of the school at Eger, where he caused excitement by his Evangelical sermons, and was obliged to withdraw. Returning to Hof, he took charge of the town school, which flourished under his care from 1527 or 1528 onward, and was associated with the town pastor, Lbner, as preacher at St. Michael's. On account of their sharp sermons both were expelled from the town July 13,1531. Medler removed to Wittenberg, and continued there five years. Provided by the elector of Saxony with an annual stipend, he labored as a private tutor and as assistant preacher to Luther, who was then in poor health, and for some time was chaplain to the exiled Electresa Elizabeth of Brandenburg. On Sept. 1, 1536, he removed to Naumburg as pastor and overseer of the Church of St. Wenceslaus, an important post to which he had been nominated by Elector John Frederick on the recommendation of Luther. For the next eight years he was the reformer of the ecclesiastical and educational system of Naumburg. Starting from the existing beginnings he proceeded mainly along the Wittenberg lines. His plan for reorganizing the parish church of St. Wenceslaus was approved Oct. 21, 1537, by Luther, Jonas, and Melanchthon, and was ratified by the elector. It shows not a few distinctive elements. The school prospectus makes provision for Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and for the mathematical branches. Medler himself gave instruction in Hebrew. In the matter of ceremonial regulation, what is especially to be remarked is the place of the Confiseor and its wording, which proved of considerable influence, and the use of Luther's German paraphrase of the Gloria in ezcelais. The five appendixes, including an order of confirmation, have unfortunately been lost.
By 1540 the victory of Protestantism at Naumburg was assured, and the cathedral alone remained as a citadel of Roman Catholicism. In July, 1541,
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Bibliography: Sources of knowledge are: The t?ratio de vita . . . N. Medleri by A. Streitberger, Jena, 1591; EPistolas Melanchthonis to Medlar, ed. Dana, Jena, 1525; Briefwechsel den J. Jonas, ed. G. Kswerau, 2 vols., Halle, 1884-85; Luthers Briefs, e d. De Wette, vols. iv.-vi.; Braunachwsipische Schulordnungen, ed. F. Koldewey, pp. hx. sqq., 85-97, Berlin, 1888. References to the earlier literature (eighteenth century) will be found in HauckHerzog, RE, xii. 492. Consult: Medal, in Zeitschrift für preuRSische Geschichte und Landeakirche, ii (188b), 85-100; Holstein, in the same, iv (1867), 271-287; 6. Braun, N4umburger Annalen, ed. KSater, Naumburg, 1892; E. Hoffmann, Naumburg im Zeitalter der Reformation, Leipsic, 1900; KSeter, in ZK(i, axii (1901), 145 sqq., 278 sqq.; O. Mertz, Schulwesen der deutschen Reformation, Heidelberg, 1902.
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