MISHNA. See Talmud.
MISSA. See Mass.
MISSAL (Lat. Missalis [Li'6er], Missals): The office-book of the Roman Catholic Church, containing the liturgy of the Mass (q.v.). The name came into use in the eighth century, superseding the earlier term "sacramentary," which was applied to a book giving the rites and prayers for all the Saocraments. At first other books also had to be used for a proper celebration of the Eucharist, such as the antiphonary, lectionary, evangelistary, etc. A missal containing all the forms of the mass was called complete or plenary (missals pleruarium). Of course the missal for many centuries was only in manuscript and, as was inevitable, these manuscripts differed more or less. But when printing was discovered there was opportunity to produce a standard and uniform text. So the Council of Trent decreed such an edition, and the pope appointed a commission to prepare it and when it appeared socompanied it by a bull dated July 14, 1570. This edition has undergone revision in 1604, 1634 (see Mass, II., 4, ง 2) and 1884. (Cf. W. H. J. Weals, Bibliographia liturgica. Catalogue misaalium ritus Latini ab anno M. CCCC. LXXV. impresaorum, London, 1886; A. Ebner, Quellenund Forsehungenzur Geschichte und Kunstgeschichte des Missals Romanum im Mittelalter, Freiburg, 1896). Latin editions of the missal are numerous (e.g., F. Pustet, 9th ed., Regensburg, 1904), as well as translations into the modern languages-e. g., The Roman Missal for the Use of the Laity (London, 1806, 1852), and The Missal for the Use of the Laity by F. C. Husenbeth (London, 1853, 1903).
MISSION: The term used by Roman Catholics to express what Protestants style revival services, in which the principal appeal is to the emotions.
MISSIONARY CHURCH ASSOCIATION. See Miscellaneous Religious Bodies, 19.
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MISSIONS TO THE HEATHEN.
[The present article deals with missions, Catholic and Protestant, to non-Christian peoples, considering especially the basis, history, results, and methods of this work. Various aspects of missions, especially of home missions, are treated in the articles City Missions; Emigrants and Immigrants, Mission Work Among; Harms, Georg Ludwig Detlev Theodor; Home Missions; Indians of North America, Missions To; Innere Mission; Jews, Missions To the; and Slavic Missions In the United States; and in the biographical articles on the missionaries who gave their efforts to the Church.] A, Roman Catholic Missions.
[The figures enclosed in parentheses in the following summaries give for purposes of comparison the corresponding data of the Protestant Missions, or, as the author prefers to designate them. "Evangelical," as objectionable term in its implications, though frequently used sad appropriate if properly defined.)
I. Introduction: According to the Roman Catholic conception, the missionary task consists in the Catholicizing of non-Catholic peoples, while Protestants understand by it the Christianizing of nonChriatians. In conformity with this view, this treatment will deal with the work of Roman Catholics among the heathen. It is, however, difficult to carry out this distinction, since efforts are made in the missionary fields not only occasionally to convert Europeans, but also to draw over native Evangelical converts to the Roman Catholic Church [the counterpart to the Protestant propagandaj. Those who are expelled or are dissatisfied furnish a welcome excuse for this work, and an excessive lenity toward unchristian customs serves as a temptation. It therefore happens that among the Roman Catholic converts from heathenism, many are counted who are gathered from Evangelical missions. Besides the Congregation de propaganda fide in Rome, where all the threads of the widely diffused Roman missions are brought together, there are in the different Roman Catholic countries missionary societies. Thus there is the Xavier Society or Society for the Propagation of Faith, founded in 1822 in Lyons; branch societies exist in most Roman Catholic countries. The journal of the society, the "Year Book," appears in various languages. The contributions reach the sum of from one and a quarter to one and a half million dollars annually. Others are the Society of Foreign Missions (Paris, 1820); the Leopoldinische Stiftung (Vienna, 1829); the Society of Holy Childhood (Paris, 1843) for the rescue of heathen children, who are baptized when in danger of death. In fifty years, twelve million children were baptized (mostly in China) and sixteen and one-half million dollars were expended by the society. Missionary seminaries exist in Paris, Lyons, Milan, Verona and Rome. England also has one: St. Joseph of Mill Hill. The seminary at Steyl, Holland, is principally for the education of German missionaries. Recently several mission homes have been founded in Germany to provide for the German colonies. The greater number of missionaries come, however, from the congregations, many of which serve the heathen mission exclusively; for instance, the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary (1841; later combined with that of the Holy Spirit); the Mariate in Lyons and Paris; the Congregation of Picpus (Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary); the order of the Oblates of the Immaculate Conception of Mary; in Algiers, the Fathers of the Holy Spirit (called the White Fathers); in Paris, the Lazarists. The old orders also-Dominicans, Franciscans (Minorites), Capuchins, Carmelites, and othersshare in the work. Many of these orders have special missionary fields assigned to them, and have their procurators with the Propaganda. Others assume an auxiliary position, in thatathey supply the missions with lay brothers in great numbers for teaching, the care of the sick, work of civilization, and similar tasks. Many female orders work in this manner and send out hosts of sisters as missionaries.
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