MARTINICO, or MARTINIQUE , one of the Caribbee■Islands, the middle of which is situated in Lon. 61. 21. W. Lat.14.44. N. This island was first settled by M. Desnambuc a French-man, in 1635, with only 100 men from St. Christopher ’s. Theycompleted their first settlement without any opposition from thenatives, who, intimidated by their fire-arms, or seduced by pro-mises, gave up the W. and b. parts of the island to them. In ashort time, however, perceiving the number of these enterprisingstrangers daily increasing, they rose to extirpate them, but wererepulsed, with the loss of 700 or 800 of their best warriors. Afterthis a reconciliation took place, and peace seemed to be settled.But several of the settlers having been successively murdered inthe woods, the rest rose upon the savages, who were all eitherslain, or driven out of the island, to which they never returned.The island is 16 leagues in length and 45 in circumference, with-out reckoning the capes, some of which extend two or threeleagues into the sea. It is very uneven, and intersected in allparts by a number of hillocks ; w hich are mostly of a conical form.Three mountains rise above'these smaller eminences. The highestbears the indelible marks of a volcano. The woods w ith which itis covered continually attract the clouds, which occasions noxiousdamp-;, and contributes to make it horrid and inaccessible ; whilethe two others are in most parts cultivated. From these moun-tains issue many springs which water the island, and flow ingentle streams, hut are changed into torrents on the slighteststorm.
Martinico, or Martinique , Little, one of the Grena-dines. Lon. 61. 18. VV. Lat. 13. 38. N.
MARTINMAS, [niurtin and »wss,] the feast of St. Martin:the lllh of November, commonly corrupted to martilmass orniartlemass.
MARTINVILLE, a town of North Carolina , capital ofGuildford countv, 28 miles N. W. of Hillsborough. Lon. 79.43. W. Lat. 36. 5. N.
MARI'LETS, in heraldry', little birds represented withoutfeet; and used as a difference or mark of distinction for youngerbrothers, to put them in mind that they are to trust to the wingsof virtue and merit, in order to raise themselves, and not to theirfeet, they having little land to set their foot on. See He-raldry.
MARTNETS, small lines fastened to the leetch of the sail, tobring that part of the leetch which is next the yard-arm close upto the yard, when the sail is to be furled.
maRtynia, in botany, a genus of the angiospermia order,and didynamia class of plants; natural order, Personatar. Calyxfive-cleft; corolla ringent; capsule woody, corticate, with a hook-ed beak, four-celled, two-valved. There are six species. Theyflower in July and August, and are very ornamental, but requirealways to be kept in the hottest parts of the stove.
MARTYR, [p.tij7vs, a witness,] a term applied, by way ofeminence, to those who suffer in witness of the truth ot the gos-pel. The Christian church has abounded in martyrs, and historyis tilled with surprising accounts of their singular constancy andfortitude, under the most cruel torments human nature was capa-ble of suffering. The primitive Christians were accused by theirenemies of paying a sort of divine worship to the martyrs. Ofthis we have an evidence in the answer of the church of Smyrnato the suggestion of the Jews, who, at the martyrdom of Polycarp ,desired the heathen judge not to suffer the Christians to carry' offhis body, lest they should leave their crucified master and worshiphim in his stead. To which they answered, we can neither for-sake Christ nor worship any other : for we worship him as the Sonof God ; but love the martyrs as the disciples and followers of theLord, for the great affection they have shewn to their King andMaster.” A similar answer was given at the martyrdom of Fruc-tuosus in Spain, by Eulogius, his deacon. The primitive Chris-tians believed, that the martyrs enjoyed very singular privileges;that upon their death they were immediately admitted to the bea-tific vision, while other souls waited for the completion of theirhappiness till the day of judgement, &c. The churches builtover the graves of the martyrs, and called by their names, to pre-serve the memory of their sufferings, were distinguished bv thetitle martyrium confessio, or memcria. The festivals of the'mar-tyrs are of very ancient date in the Christian church, and took>heir rise about the time of Polycarp , who suffered martyrdom
about the year 168. On these days the Christians met at tin-graves of the martyrs, and offered thanksgivings to God for theexamples they had afforded them : they celebrated the eucharisband gave alms to the poor ; which, together with a panegyric 31oration or sermon, and reading the acts of the martyrs, were d' espiritual exercises of these anniversaries. Of the sayings, sutler'ings, and deaths, of the martyrs, we have but very little left, th®greatest part of them having been destroyed during the dreadf"persecution carried on by Dioclesian for ten years, against tl>®Christians ; when diligent search was made after their books an 1papers, and all that were found were burnt. Eusebius , indeed,composed a martyrology, but it never came down to us; ai>“tlmse since compiled are extremely suspected. From the eighy 1century, several Greek and Latin writers endeavoured to mak®up the loss by compiling, with vast labour, accounts of the li'J®®and actions of the ancient martyrs, but which consist of little ®* sethan a series of fables.
MARTYROLOGY, a list of martyrs, including the historyof their lives and sufferings for the sake of religion. The martyr®'logics draw their materials from the kalendars of particid®churches, in which the several festivals dedicated to them 31 jmarked ; and which seem to be derived from the practice of t®ancient Romans, who inserted the names of heroes and great M®in their fasti or public registers. The Roman martyrologies ® r ®very numerous, and contain many ridiculous and even contradi®tory narratives; which is easily accounted for, if we consider h®^many forged and spurious accounts of the lives of the saints 3,1 _martyrs appeared in the first ages of the church, which the leg®)!dary writers afterwards adopter! without examining into the trioof them. However, some good critics, of late years, have g® ,! .a great way towards clearing the lives of the saints and mart) 1 ’from the monstrous heap oY fiction they laboured under. .martyrology of Eusebius of Caesarea was the most celebrated 1the ancient church. It was translated into Latin by St. Jeroi’hbut the learned agree, that it is not now extant. That attributeto Beda, in the eighth century, is of very doubtful authority; y 1 ,names of several saints being there found who did not live till 3ter the time of Beda. The ninth century was very fertile in > n! Utyrologies ; then appeared that of Florus , subdeacon of the elm 1 ’®at Lyons; who, however, only filled up the chasms of B®®"'There are also several Protestant martyrologies, containingsufferings of the reformed under the papists, viz. au English ,lia .tyrology, by J. Fox ; with others by Clark, Bray, &c. and a Sc®tish martyrology entitled, “ A Cloud of Witnesses,” &c. a
Martyrology is also used, in the Romish church, for a'®or register kept in the vestry of each church, containing the nal .’\fof all the saints and martyrs, both of the universal church, an®the particular ones of that city or monastery. .
Martyrology is also applied to the painted or written c®;logues in the Romish church, containing the foundations, oh 1 ’prayers, and masses, to be said each day. T
MARVEJOLS, a town of France , in the department of VYzere, on the Colange; 10 miles N. W. of Mende, and 300 S*Paris. Lon. 2. 23. E. Lat. 44. 36. N. _
MARY, the mother of our Saviour Jesus Christ , and a virg ^at the time that she conceived him; daughter of Joachim an®'Anna, of the tribe of Judah, and married to Joseph of the s® 1 ^tribe, 'l’he scripture tells us nothing of her parents, not so n 1 ®. <,as their names, unless Heli mentioned by Luke iii. 23, b® * .same with Joachim . Ail that is said concerning the birth of m®.',and of her parents is only to be found in some apocryphal "' qings: which, however, are very ancient. Mary was of the r®>‘race of David, as was also her husband. (See Luke i. 27.)
Whitby thinks the passage might be better rendered thus:
— . . — --- pi®
plainly told the virgin, that she should have this son witlmm^ 0 (knowledge of any man, it was not Joseph’s but Mary’s beii'r^the house of David, that made David his father. Mary '\ a ]‘' v3 sa-kin to the race of Aaron, as Elizabeth the wife of Zaelia 1 ' 1 ® 3her cousin (ver. 36.) Her visit to her eousin Elizabeth dmher pregnancy; her journey with Joseph to Bethlehem, ' n ®® " r yquciice of Augustus ’s decree of universal taxation ; her d®' 1 j)i
t*