MAC 
fucceflbr of Antiochus Eupator,. and contain fuclr va¬ 
rieties in their ftyle, as render it doubtful whether they 
had the fame author as the reft of the work. This fecond 
book contains an hiftory of about fifteen years, from the 
execution of Heliodorus’s commiffion,. who was fent by 
Seleucus to fetch away the treafures of the Temple, to 
the victory obtained by Judas Maccabseus over Nicanor; 
that is, from the year of the world 3828 to the year 3843, 
157 years before Chrift. 
There are in the Polyglot bibles, both of Paris and Lon¬ 
don, Syriac verfions of both thefe books ; but they, as 
well as the Englifn verfions which we have among the 
apocryphal writers in our Bibles, are derived from the 
Greek. For a further account of Judas Maccabasus and 
of his brothers, whofe hiftory is recorded in the firft and 
fecond books of the Maccabees, and alfo by Jofephus in 
his Antiquities; we refer to the article Jew, vol. x. p.725, 
and alfo to the biographical article Judas Maccabeus, 
vol. xi. p. 476. The two firft books of the Maccabees 
are received into the canon of the church of Rome. 
The Third Book of the Maccabees contains the hiftory 
of the perfecution of Ptolemy Philopater againft the Jews 
in Egypt, and their fufferings under it; and feems to have 
been written by fome Alexandrian Jew in the Greek lan¬ 
guage, and long after the time of Siracides. This book, 
with regard to its fubje< 5 t, ought to be called the firft, as 
the things which are related in it occurred fifty years be¬ 
fore the time of the Maccabees, whofe hiftory is recorded 
in the firft and fecond books; but, as it is of lefs autho¬ 
rity and repute than, the other two, it is reckoned after 
them. It is extant in Syriac, though the tranflator did 
not feem to have well underftood the Greek language. 
It is in molt of the ancient manufcript copies of the Greek 
Septuagiitf, particularly in the Alexandrian and Vatican ; 
but was never inferted into the vulgar Latin verfion of 
the Bible, nor confequently into any of our Englilh-copies. 
The firft authentic mention we have of this book is in 
Eufebius’s Chronicon. It is alfo named with two other 
books of the Maccabees in the 85th of the apoftolic ca¬ 
nons. But it is uncertain when that canon was added. 
Grotius thinks that this book was written after the two 
firft books, and Ihortly after the book of Ecclefiafticus, 
from which circumftance it was called the Third Book of 
Maccabees. In order of time, the Third Book of the Mac¬ 
cabees ought to be placed firft ; and the Firft, third. 
Jofephus’s hiftory of the martyrs that fuffered under 
Antiochus Epiphanes, is found in fome manufcript Greek 
bibles under the name of the Fourth Book of the Macca¬ 
bees. This book, afcribed to Jofephus, occurs under the 
title “ Concerning the Empire or Government of Rea- 
fon but learned men have exprelfed a doubt whether 
this was the book known to the ancients as the Fourth 
Book of the Maccabees. Philoftratus, Eufebius, and St. 
Jerome, knew the book concerning the Government of 
Reafon ; and afcribed it to Jofephus, by the name of The 
Book of the Maccabees. St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Am- 
brofe, and St. Chryfoftom, in the characters they have 
given of the feven Maccabees, and of old Eleazar, have 
plainly followed what we find in this book. The author 
has enlarged and adorned the hiftory of Eleazar, and of 
the feven brothers the Maccabees, who are faid to have fuf¬ 
fered martyrdom with their mother, as it has been faid, 
chiefly on the authority of Rufinus, who has given the 
names of the feven brothers and of their mother, at 
Antioch. (2 Mac. vi. vii.) Others, however, have fup- 
pofed, that the fcene of the martyrdom of the feven bre¬ 
thren was at Jerufalem. As it was defigned for an exam¬ 
ple of terror to the Jews of Judaea, it would have loft its 
force, if it had been executed any where elfe befides that 
country. Thofe who maintain that they fuffered at An¬ 
tioch, allege, that their tombs were fhown there in the 
time of St. Jerome; and that a church, dedicated under 
their name, was found there in the time of St. Augultine. 
The firft of the feven brethren, as the ftory is related, 
having- declared to the king that he would die fooner than 
• MAC' 3 Jr 
violate the laws of God, was feized by the executioners, 
who cut out his tongue, and the extremities of his hands 
and feet, and tore off the fkin of his hand. While ftill 
alive, after being thus mangled,, he was thrown into a 
burning pan, heated over a fierce fire. Such is the ac¬ 
count in 2 Mac. vii. 2-7. The Government of Reafon 
declares, that, the executioner, having ftripped oft' his 
clothes, tied his hands behind his back, and whipped hitn 
with fcourges, without his indicating the leaft fign of pain. 
Afterwards they fixed him upon a wheel, where, after hav¬ 
ing had his limbs fhattered to pieces, he expoftulated with 
Antiochus, reproached him for his barbarity, and infulted 
him on account of all his unfuccefsful attempts. Then 
the executioner, railing the wheel upon which he was ex¬ 
tended, and lighting a fire under it, thus confumed him 
by a new torture. He died, exhorting his brethren to 
manifeft a fimilar conftancy. The other brothers alfo fuf¬ 
fered by the moft cruel tortures which the king could in- 
fiidt; but it is needlefs to recount them. The mother of 
thefe martyrs alfo fuffered death, as fome fay, by throwing 
herfelf into the fire, to evade the cruelty pradtifed on her 
fons, and threatened to herfelf. The church of Rome 
has celebrated a feaft, Auguft 1, in honour of thefe mar¬ 
tyrs; who were the firft, and for a long time the only, mar¬ 
tyrs of the Old Teftament, in honour of whom altars and 
temples were eredted ; and they are the only faints of that 
kind, for whom there remains an office in the Roman 
Breviary. The fufferings of thefe feven brethren, and 
likewife of Eleazar, related 2 Mac. vi. are entirely omit¬ 
ted in the Firft Book of Maccabees ; although the author 
of it there writes of the Jewifh affairs, and of the fuffer- 
ings of the Jews in the time of Antiochus. We add 
that there is not any notice taken of this Eleazar, or 
thefe feven brethren, or their mother, by Jofephus, in 
any of his authentic writings; though he had twice a 
fair occafion of mentioning them, once in his Hiftory 
of the Jewifh War, book i. and again in his Antiquities,, 
book xii. chap. 5. It is prefumed that he would have 
mentioned a faff fo remarkable, if it had really oc¬ 
curred. As to the work above mentioned, “Of the Go¬ 
vernment of Reafon,” which has been afcribed to him, 
many learned men, as Cave fays, deny it to be his; and 
Mr. Whifton, in his Englifti tranflation. of all the ge¬ 
nuine writings of Jofephus, has omitted this. Dr. Lard- 
ner thinks that it was the work of fome Chriftian. This 
hiftory wants certain internal charafters of credibility. 
The faft itfelf is very extraordinary, inforauch that it is. 
very improbable, and almoft incredible. The whole ftory 
has the appearance of a contrived fidfion. The fufferers 
are not described fo particularly as they ought to be ; and 
the relations generally are incredible. Befides, it is im¬ 
probable that thefe feven brothers fhould have been exa¬ 
mined, tortured, and flain, one after another, in the pre¬ 
fence of king Antiochus; for fuch examinations and exe¬ 
cutions are generally delegated to officers: nor is it faid, 
or even hinted, where thefe perfons fuffered. It has been 
faid, however, that the writer of the Epiftle to the Hebrews 
refers to this hiftory, and thus affures us of its truth. 
(Heb.xi. 35.) But it is very far from being clear or cer¬ 
tain, that there is a reference to this hiftory in that text. 
Hallet, Lardner, and others, deny it. See Lardner’s Works, 
vol. xi. 
MAC'CLESFIELD, called in ancient records Maxfidi , 
is a populous corporate and borough town of Chefhire, 
built on the fide of a fteep hill, at the diftance of 18 miles 
from Manchefter, and 166 from London. Rada),.earl of 
Chefter, firft conftituted it a borough ; and in or near the 
year 1261, the prince of Wales, afterwards king Edward I. 
made it a free borough, and granted the burgeffes a mer- 
catorial guild, and other privileges. By the conditions of 
the charter thus obtained, the burgefles were required to 
grind only at the earl’s mill, and to bake at his oven. This 
oven, or bakehoufe, is ftill vefted in the crown 5 and a leafe 
of it was granted, in 1791, for twenty-four years and a 
half. By a charter of queen Elizabeth’s, the corporate 
3 body; 
