MOLO
443
MOLOCH
easily intelligible and interesting to his hearers.
Under the auspices of the Royal Dublin Society, of
whose council he was a member, he delivered a series
of lectures on natural science, and in particular on
electricity, in which he was an acknowledged expert.
On one occasion he joined issue on the subject of
lightning conductors with no less an adversary than
Sir Oliver Lodge. Among his works are: "Geology
and Revelation" (1870), a fuller and maturer treat-
ment of a series of papers on geology in its relation
with revealed religion, which appeared from time
to time in the "Irish Ecclesiastical Record", and
dealt with the supposed conflict between geology
and revelation, solving the problem of reconcilement;
"Outlines of a course of Natural Philosophy" (ISSO);
"Gleanings in Science" (1888), an interesting series
of popular lectures on scientific subjects; "The Irish
Difficulty, Shall and Will" (1897). He also trans-
lated a number of passages from Dante's "Purga-
torio", wrote of the Passion Play at Oberammergau,
and was a frequent contributor to several magazines.
At the time of his sudden death, due to heart failure,
Father Molloy was representing the Catholic Uni-
versity at tiio celebration of the fourth centenary of the
Aberdeen University, and was one of those on whom
the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred
by the latter university a few days before. His
career is another striking contradiction of the theory
that a Catholic clcrg\-man must necessarily be an
opponent nf -> ■ iiiifh i.rogress.
Freeman's. I I' i . 2 Oct., 1906) ; MoLLOT, Geotoff!/ and
Revelation: Ii>i : "f Science; Dublin Review (,1S72) and
Irish Eccles. lu >• ' Isi.i. ■«:.
Peter F. Cusick.
Molo, G,\sp.\p.o (he wrote his name also MoL.\ and MoLi), skilful Italian gold-smith and planisher, chiefly known as a medalist, b. (according to Forrer) in Breglio near Como or (according to older records) in Lugano; date of death unknown. He was first active at Milan, then at Mantua, from 1608 at Florence, from which latter period we possess his first signed medal. Here he was maestro dclle slampe delta mnne.te. In 1609 he became well known by his medals commemorating the marriage and the accession of Cosmo II. In 1609 and 1610 he cut the dies for the talers and the "medals of merit" conferred by the grand duke. According to Kenner, it is not necessary to suppose that he gave up his connexion with the Florentine court at this time, because, in the following years, he struck medals for the court in Mantua, as well as coins for Guastalla and Castiglione. especially as he was again working in Florence in 1614 (certainly in 1615). The medals also, which he made after 1620 for Prince Vincenzo II of Mantua, may very well have been struck at Florence. His further sojourn in Tuscany seems to have been rendered distasteful to him by intrigues. About 1(52:3 he moved to Rome, where he became die-cutter at the papal mint in place of J. A. Moro, who died in 162.5. Here he made a great manv coins and medals for Urban VIII (1623-44), Innocent X (1644-55), and Alexander VII (1655-57). His last works date from 1664. As it seems strange that Molo should, at the age of eighty-four, still continue working with unabated strength, it is thought that atiother artist of his name — perhaps his son — con- tinued Gasparo's work. Indeed, we find in 16.39 a G. D. Molo, who might have been a son of Gasparo and who apparently died young; but it is more likely that Gasparo founded a school in Rome, and that his engravers worked according to his instructions and in his stvle, but passed oiT their works under his name and with his signature. One of his numerous pupils is his successor at the Zecca, the famous Haraerani (Hameran, a German), the founder of that long-lived family of artists, Hamerani. Molo is a good and faithful delineator of character (cf. the
medal of Pope Innocent VII) ; he is also excellent in
figure compositions. The dragon-killer St. George,
as Kenner remarks, by its natural and beautiful
filling in of space, reminds us of classical coins. As
long as cast medals were generally used, public
interest in the portrait predominated, and the re-
verse was usually neglected; this changed with the
introduction of the stamping technique. We know
only a few cast medals of Molo; he preferred the
stamped medal, and his works of this kind are among
the best of that time. It may be stated that he was
directly responsible for the new ideas in stamping
technique. Molo's biography is still very obscure.
Kexner in Jahrb. der kunsthistor. Sammlungen des Ah, Kaiser' houses. XII (Vienna, 1S91), 137-49; Forrer, Biogr. Diet, of Medalists, etc. (4 vols., London, 1902-09).
K. DOMANIG.
Moloch (Heb. Molech, king). — A divinity wor- shipped by the idolatrous Israelites. The Hebrew pointing Mulcch does not represent the original pro- nunciation of the name, any more than the Greek vocalization MoX6x found in the LXX and in the Acts (vii, 43). The primitive title of this god was very probably Melech, "king", the consonants of which came to be combined through derision with the vow- els of the word Boshelh, "shame". As the word Mo- loch (A. V. Molech) means king, it is difficult in sev- eral places of the Old Testament to determine whether it should be considered as the proper name of a deity or as a simple appellative. The passages of the original texi in which the name stands probably for that of a god are Lev., xviii, 21 ; xx, 2-5; III (A. V. I) Kings, xi, 7; IV (II) Kings, xxiii, 10; Is., xxx, 33; Ivii, 9; Jer., xxxii, 35. The chief feature of Moloch's wor- ship among the Jews seems to have been the sacrifice of children, and the usual expression for describing that sacrifice was "to pass through the fire", a rite carried out after the victims had been put to death. The special centre of such atrocities was just outside of Jerusalem, at a place called Tophet (probably "place of abomination"), in the valley of Geennom. According to III (I) Kings, xi, 7, Solomon erected "a temple" for Moloch "on the hill over against Jerusa- lem", and on this account he is at times considered as the monarch who introduced the impious cult into Israel. After the disruption, traces of Moloch wor- ship appear in both Juda and Israel. The custom of causing one's children to pass through the fire seems to have been general in the Northern Kingdom [IV (II) Kings, xvii, 17; Ezech. xxiii, 37], and it gradually grew in the Southern, encouraged by the royal exam- ple of Achaz (IV Kings, xvi, 3) and Manasses [IV (II) Kings, xvi, 6] till it became prevalent in the time of the prophet Jeremias (Jerem. xxxii, 35), when King Josias suppressed the worship of Moloch and defiled Tophet [IV (II) Kings, xxiii, 13 (10)]. It is not im- probable that this worship was revived under Joakim and continued until the Babylonian Captivity.
On the basis of the Hebrew reading of III (I) Kings, xi, 7, Moloch has often been identifiefl with Milcom, the national god of the Ammonites, but this identifi- cation cannot be considered as probabN^ : ;is .shown by the Greek Versions, the original reading of III (I) Kings, xi, 7, was not Molech but Milchom [cf. also III (I) Kings, xi, 5, 33]; and according to Deut., xii, 29-31; xviii, 9-14, the passing of children through fire was of Chanaanite origin [cf. IV (II) Kings, xvi, 3]. Of late, numerous attempts have been made to prove that in sacrificing I heir children to Moloch the Israel- ites simply thought that they were offering them in holocaust to Yaliwch. In other words, the Mclcch to whom child-sacrifices were offered was Yahwch under another name. To uphold this view appeal is made in particular to Jer., vii, 31; xix, 5, and to Ezech., xx, 25-31. But this position is to say the least improb- able. The texts appealed to may well be understood otherwise, and the prophets expressly treat the cult of
