MASSUET, RENE: French Benedictine of Saint Maur (q.v.); b. at St. Quen, near Bernay (83 m. n.w. of Paris), Aug: 13, 1665 (or 16667); d. at Paris Jan. 19, 1716. He became a professed on Oct. 20, 1682, and began his literary career by his anonymous Lettre dun ecdUsiastique au R. P. E. L. J. sur cells qu'il a 4crite nux RR. pp. Belttkdictins de la Congregation de St. Maur (Osnabrück, 1699), in which he defended the Maurists against the Jesuit charges that their edition of Augustine was designed to propagate Jansenism. In 1703 he was called to St. Germain des Pr6s, where he prepared an admirable edition of the Contra h&,retres of Irenæus (Paris, 1710). In 1713 he edited the fifth volume of the Annales ordinis S. Benedidi, which had almost been completed by J. Mabillon, prefixing biographies of Mabillon and T. Ruinart. Five interesting letters of Massuet to B. Pez are contained in J. G. Schelhorn's Amaenitates literarice, xiii. 278310 (Frankfort, 1725-31); twelve to M. Miller in St. Gall in the Archives des missions scientiftques et litWairea, vi. 448-474 (Paris, 1857); a few in E. Gigas' LettreB iMdifes de divers savants, ii. 2 (Copenhagen, 1893); and one to the monastery of St. Emmeran in J. A. Endres' Rorreepondenz der mauriner (Stuttgart, 1899, p. 41). His Mémoire our l'histoire des patriarcats still exists in manuscript in the Biblioth6que Nationale, Paris.
Bibliography:
D.
Tessin, Hist. litt*aire de la oongrr
MATAMOROS, mat"a-m5'rcs, MANUEL: Spanish Protestant; b. at Lepe (70 m. w. of Seville) Oct. 8, 1835; d. at Lausanne July 31, 1866. He passed his early youth in Malaga, and at the age of fifteen entered the military school at Toledo, but left before the completion of the course and returned to his home. A trip to Gibraltar marked the turning-point of his life, for he there met a Catalan named Francisco de Paula Ruet, who had become a convert to Protestantism, through whose preaching Matamoros abandoned his former faith. He was recalled to Spain to serve his term in the army, and during service in Seville endeavored to make a Protestant propaganda among his comrades. This conduct was brought to the attention of the chaplain of the regiment, and Matamoros found his position so uncomfortable that he was glad to have his mother purchase his discharge. In the service of a Protestant society of Paris Matamoros visited Granada, Seville, and Barcelona. The discovery of letters addressed by him to a Protestant convert caused him to be arrested and brought for trial to Barcelona, where he was imprisoned with some of his coreligionista for more than two years. The efforts of the Evangelical Alliance to secure the release of the prisoners in 1863 were fruitless, but the intervention of the Prussian government resulted in the commutation of the sentence of nine years' labor in the galleys to banishment for an equal length of time. On May 28, 1863, the prisoners were accordingly released and Matamoros went to England, where he was received as a martyr to the Gospel. His stay there was brief, however, and he went to Lausanne to attend the theological lectures of the university. His health soon obliged him to make a long residence in southern France, and at Pau he was instrumental in the foundation of a short-lived Spanish school. In May, 1866, he returned to Lausanne to die.
Bibliography: H. Dalton, Die evangelische Beioepung in Spanien Wiesbaden, 1872; F. Pressel, Das Evangelium in ~panien. Freienwa(de, 1877.
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