MENAION, me-nai'en: The breviary of the later Greek Church. It contains the prayers and hymns appointed for each feast and holy day of the year, together with short lives of the saints and martyrs. When it became too bulky, it was divided into twelve volumes, one for each month (whence the name, Gk. men, "month"), which are still extant, both in manuscript and in printed editions dating from the sixteenth century to the present time. They were published first at Venice, later else where.

(Philipp Meyer.)

Bibliography: Krumbacher, Geschichte, pp. 181, 185, 658-659; Analeda Bollandiana, xiv (1895), 396-434; P. Meyer, Die theologische Litteratur der priechiachan Kirche, pp. 148 sqq., Leipsic. 1899; It. Legrand, Bibliographic hell-Inique, Pari1, 1894-96.

MENANDER, m&naarder: One of the oldest Gnostics. He was, according to Justin (ANF, i.171), born at Capparateia, a village in Samaria, and taught in Antioch. According to Irenæus (ANF, i. 348), he was a pupil of Simon Magus. He taught that there was a supreme power unknown to all, and pretended to have been sent from the invisible eons for the salvation of men. The world, according to him, was made by the angels who emanate from Mind. To those baptized by him he promised power over the world-creating angels, immortality, and eternal youth. He was the teacher of Saturninus or Saturnilus and of Basilides. It is not known whether this Samaritan-Syriac gnosis preceded and led to the Hellenistic variety, or whether the Hellenistic developed independently. If the former is the case the importance of Menander would lie in the fact that he formed the transition from Oriental to Hellenistic gnosticism.

(G. Uhlhorn†.)

Bibliography: The sources are indicated in the text. Consult DCB. iii. 902.

MENDELSSOHN, MOSES: German Jewish philosopher; b. at Dessau (67 m. s.w. of Berlin) Sept. 6, 1729; d. in Berlin Jan. 4, 1786. He came of poor parents and pursued his studies in the Bible, the Talmud, Maimonides, and afterward modern languages and literatures, under great privations. In 1750 he became tutor in the family of a rich Jewish manufacturer in Berlin, in 1754 bookkeeper, and, later, partner in the firm. From about the same time date his intimate acquaintance with Lessing, Nicolai, Abbt, etc., an earnest study of the philosophy of Locke, Shaftesbury, Spinoza, and Wolff, and the beginning of his long and varied literary activity. His Phwdon, oder von der Urtsterblichkeit der Seele (Berlin, 1767; Eng. transl., Phaedon; or, the Death of Soavtes, London, 1789), and MOrgenstunden (1786), lectures on the existence of God and immortality, procured for him fame as a philosopher. He also deserves well for his efforts for the elevation, mental and moral, of his coreligionists in Germany, and especially in Berlin. Among his many books may be mentioned: Pope, sin Metaphysika· (in collaboration with Leasing; 1755); Briefs über die Empfindungen (1755); Jeru-

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salem, Oder fiber religiose Macht and Judenthum (2 parts, 1783; Eng. transl., Jerusalem, a Treatise on Ecclesiastical Authority and Judaism, 2 vols., London, 1838); and a commentary on Canticles (1772). He also translated the Pentateuch (1783), and the Psalms (1788). The most complete edition of his works is that by his grandson G. B. Mendelsaohn (7 vols., Berlin, 1843-45); his philosophical writings were edited by M. Brasch (2 vols., Leipsic, 1880).

Bibliography: S. Hensel, Die Familie Mendelaeohn, 9th ed., 1898, Eng. transl., London, 1882; M. Samuels, Memoirs of Moses Mendelesohn, London, 1825; J. H. Bitter, Mendelssohn and Leasing, Berlin, 886; M. Kayserling, Moses Mendelssohn, Leipsic, 1888; JR., viii. 479-485. An excellent bibliography is furnished in J. M. Baldwin, Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, iii. 1, pp. 389-370, New York, 1905.