MORDVINS. 792 MOBE. of Russia Ijetween the Volga and Oka. In lieight they average 1.039 meters, and are bracliytcphalic (oeplialic index. 83.8). They are finely built, and have dark hair — darker in the south than in the north — and blue eyes. Agriculture is their principal occupation, and they are excellent carpenters and woodworkers, selling great (pinntitics of wooden vessels and other objects, and they are noted for bee-keep- ing. Nominally the Jlordvins have accepted Christianity, but many interesting pagan cus- toms are preserved among them. The women especially preserve their old national costume, wearing embroidered jackets and skirts, an elabo- rate coiffure, large earrings, and necklaces. MOKE, mor. Hannah (1745-1833). An Eng- lish author, born at Stapleton, near Bristol, February 2, 1745. She was well educated, .scrib- bled essays and verse as a girl, and wrote a pas- toral drama. She became acipiainted with (Jar- rick, Burke, Reynolds, and Dr. .Tohnson. and was encouraged by (Jarrick to write two tragedies, I'ticy (1777) and Tlic Fattil Falsehood (1770), both of which met with some success. About 1780 she withdrew from society, built a cottage at Cowslip Green, ten miles from Bristol, and began writing moral and religious works. Hacred Dramas (1782) were succeeded by the extensively read Thoughts on the Importance of the ilan- iicrs of the Great to General Society (1788). With the aid of her sisters she established Sim- day-schools in the iicighbdring districts. A suc- cessful tract called VUluijc I'olilics (1703) led to the famous Clieap depository Tracts I 1705- 98), of which two millions were circulated the first year. Her religious novel Vrrlehs in Search of a Wife (1809) ran through eight editions the first year, and was still more popular in the United States. She died at Clifton. Septeml)er 7, 1833. Consult: Life of Hannah More, by V. Roberts (3d ed. 1838). and by H. Tliompson (1838); also INIarion Harland. Literary Hearth- stones: Ilannah More (Xew York, 1000). MORE, Henry (1014-87). An English theo- logian. He was born at (Irantham. Lincoln- shire, of Calvinfst parents, but 'r)ccame a warm adherent of the Church of Ivngland. After some years at Eton be went to Christ's College. Cam- bridge, where he i)ursied the study of philosophy, especially the I'lalonie writers. About 1039 he took holy orders and lived henceforth a quiet life within the courts of his college, refusing all preferments. His numerous works represent the mysticism of the Cambridge I'latonists (q.v.). His poems, including the "Song of the Soul," were collected and published !is I'liilnsnphieal I'lienis (1047). The characteristic principles of his |)hilosophy are to be found in the Divine Diatiiiiues (1008). Complete editions of his Opera Theologiea appeared in 1075, and of his Opera I'hilosophica in l(i78. Consult his Life by A'ard (London, 1710), and an analysis of his life and works in I'rincipal Tulloeh's l/ationnl 'J'lieiilDfiii, vol. ii. (Edinburgh. 1872). MORE, Xkiiolas (M0S9). A Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, born in England. He was chair- man of the first I'rovincJMl .s,i'inbly in 1082, ."Speaker of the Assembly in 10S4. and in the same year was appointed Chief .Justice. In 1085 ho was impeached by the .ssend)ly for exceeding his powers, but he was never tried by the Cmmeil. His case is peculiarly interesting as being prob- ably the first instance of impeachment that oc- curred in America. Consult: Shepherd, History of Proprietary Government in Pennsylraniu (New York, 1890) ; vol. vi. of Columbia Univer- sity titudies in History, Economies, and Public Law. MOBE, Sir Tiio.mas (1478-1535). An Eng- lish author and statesman. He was born in London and educated first at Saint Anthony's School near his home, but at thirteen was placed in the household of Cardinal Morton. .Morton quickly recognized his gifts, and predicted th:it lie would 'prove a marvelous man.' His interest a year or two later sent the l)oy to Oxford, where he entered at Canterbury Hall, afterwards merged in Christ Church. Here he laid the foundations of the scholarship which made him such an ad- mirable type of the Renaissance learning, under Linacrc and Grocyn. Though he left Oxford after two years and studied law at New Inn and Lin- coln's Inn. he kept uj) his literary studies and his friendship with tlicse men anil with Erasmus, Colel, and Lilly; with Erasmus, in particular, whom he met in 1497 on his first visit to England, he had a close friendship which was only termi- nated by death. More at one time thought of becoming a priest, and in these days lived a very austere and ascetic life. He lectured on Saint Augustine's De Ciritatc Dei: and it is possible that his meditations on the City of God may have suggested his own famous conception of an ideal conununity in the I'lopia. Though he abandoned his idea of taking orders about 1503. he remained a fine specimen of the devout layman all his life, though a sharp critic of any shortcomings in the clergy. In 1504 he entered Parliament and soon gained fame by opposing a large grant of money to the King, Henry VII., whose hostility compelled him to retire to private life. His law practice, however. Ijrought him a large income. When Henry VIII. came to the throne, he was made under-sheriff of London, and engaged in a num- ber of important commercial missions, during his absence in Flanders on one of which be l)cgnn his I'litpia, ])ublislicd I5l(i. He w:is m:ule justice of the peace in 1515, and two years hiter master of requests, an office which brought him into frequent contact with the King, to whose council he was admitted in the same year. He was knighted in 1.521, and continued a prominent fig- ure at Court. Attracting the notice of Wolsey. he was recommended by the Cardinal as !~;])cakcr of the House of Conunons. and elected in 1523. Though, like Erasmus and Colet. he had nuich at heart a reform of the Church in practical matters, he had no sympathy with the violent measures of Luther and his followers, and in 1523 appeared as a cham|)ion of his sovereign against the German reformer. Thenceforward until his death he was constantly in the lists against the supporters of the new doctrines. On Wcdsey's fall in 1529, More was ajipoinlcd to succeed him as Chancellor, the holding of the oHice by any but a great ecclesiastic being an unheard-of innovation, He hehl the ollice only two years and a half, and then resigned it. fore- seeing that his conscience would bring him to an open struggle with the King, whom he had al- ready opposed at .several stages of the gradual breach with Rome. The inevitable conflict came in the spring of
