MOLUCCAS or SPICE ISLANDS (400), an archipelago of mountainous islands, mostly volcanic, between Celebes and New Guinea, is in two main groups; in the N. the largest island is Jilolo, but the most important Tidor and Ternate, which export spices, tortoise-shell, and bees-wax; in the S. Buru and Ceram are largest, most important, Amboyna, from which come cloves; the people are civilised Malays; the islands are equatorial, but tempered by sea-breezes, and healthy; discovered by the Portuguese in 1521, they have been in Dutch possession since 1607, except when held by Britain 1810-1814.

MOMBASA (Africans and Arabs 20), capital of British East Africa, on a rocky islet, close inshore, 50 m.  N. of Pemba; was ceded with a tract of country six times the size of the British Isles, and rich in gold, copper, plumbago, and india-rubber, to the British East African Company by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1888, since when it has been rebuilt, and the harbour, one of the best and healthiest on the coast, made a naval coaling-station and head-quarters.

MOMMSEN, THEODOR, historian, born in Schleswig, a man of immense historical knowledge; his greatest work the “History of Rome”; was professor of Ancient History at Berlin; his forte was his learning more than his critical capacity; b. 1817.

MOMUS, the god of raillery, the son of Night, a kind of ancient MEPHISTOPHELES (q. v.).

MONACHISM, or MONASTICISM, is an institution in which individuals devote themselves, apart from others, to the cultivation of spiritual contemplation and religious duties, and which has constituted a marked feature in Pre-Christian Jewish asceticism, and in Buddhism as well as in Christianity; in the Church it developed from the practice of living in solitude in the 2nd century, and received its distinctive note when the vow of obedience to a superior was added to the hermit’s personal vows of poverty and chastity; the movement of St. Benedict in the 6th century stamped its permanent form on Western Monasticism, and that of St. Francis in the 12th gave it a more comprehensive range, entrusting the care of the poor, the sick, the ignorant, &c., to the hitherto self-centred monks and nuns; during the Middle Ages the monasteries were centres of learning, and their work in copying and preserving both sacred and secular literature has been invaluable; English Monachism was swept away at the Reformation; in France at the Revolution; and later in Spain, Portugal, and Italy it has been suppressed; brotherhoods and sisterhoods have sprung up in the Protestant churches of Germany and England, but in all of them the vows taken are revocable.

MONACO (13), a small principality 9 m.  E. of Nice, on the Mediterranean shore, surrounded by French territory and under French protection; has a mild salubrious climate, and is a favourite winter resort.  The capital, MONACO, is built on a picturesque promontory, and 1 m.  NE. stands Monte Carlo.