[Brit. Mus. Catalogues of Printed Books and Maps; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Gough's Brit. Topography; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. ix. 64, 6th ser. xii. 227, 374, 7th ser. iv. 188; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub.]
MORDINGTON, Lord. [See Douglas, George, fourth Lord, d. 1741.]
MORE, ALEXANDER (1616–1670), protestant divine and Milton's antagonist, was born on 25 Sept. 1616 at Castres in Languedoc, where his father, a Scotsman, was rector of the protestant college. He was educated at Castres and Geneva, where in 1639 he was elected to the chair of Greek over the head of Stephen Le Clerc, and in 1642 succeeded Frederic Spanheim in the chair of theology. Grave charges of heresy and immorality, which he was unable to repel, led in 1648 to his resignation. He was, however, in the following year elected, through the influence of Salmasius, to the chair of theology at Middelburg, which he resigned in 1652 for that of ecclesiastical history at Amsterdam. On the appearance of the anonymous 'Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Cœlum adversus Parricidas Anglicanos' (1652), it was generally, though falsely, ascribed to More, who was merely its editor, and Milton, who believed the common report, made a violent attack upon the supposed author's personal character in his 'Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio Secunda' [cf. Moulin, Peter du].
More published a spirited defence of his life entitled 'Alexandri Mori Ecclesiastæ et Sacrarum Litterarum Professoris Fides Publica contra Calumnias Joannis Miltoni' (the Hague, 1654, 4to), but suffered Milton to have the last word. In 1655 he visited Italy, returned to Holland in May 1656 to find his reputation fatally damaged, and in 1659 he was compelled to resign his professorship. Nevertheless, the church at Charenton, near Paris, welcomed him as its pastor; and there, except for a brief sojourn in England in the winter of 1661-2, he remained till his death on 28 Sept. 1670. He was interred in the Charenton cemetery. He did not marry.
More was a fine scholar and an eloquent preacher; in theology he leaned towards Arminianism; unless grossly calumniated throughout his public career, his morals must have been far less strict than his theology. Besides the 'Fides Publica' More's remains comprise some volumes of sermons and theological treatises, a few Latin poems, a 'Panegyric' on Calvin, and some other miscellanea. A portrait of More by Vaillant, and four engravings, two by Pass and Visscher, are mentioned by Bromley.
[The Fides Publica, above referred to; Senebier's Hist. Litt. do Genève, 1790, i. 195 et seq.; Haag's La France Protestante; Bruce's Critical Account of the Life, Character, and Discourses of Mr. Alexander Morus, 1813; Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden, 1869; Masson's Life of Milton, 1871, iv. 586, 627; Bayle's Hist. and Crit. Dict. 2nd edit. (1737); Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; see art. Milton, John, poet.]
MORE, Sir ANTHONY, who is also known as Antonio Moro, but whose name was properly Anthonis Mor (1512?–1576?), portrait-painter, was born at Utrecht about 1512. His family was known as Mor van Dashorst, a small property near Utrecht, to distinguish them from a neighbouring family of Mor van Amersfoort; the names of his parents have not with certainty been ascertained. Mor was a pupil of the painter Jan Scorel, and his earlier works show that master's influence. A portrait of Scorel by Mor, painted in 1560, is in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries in London; this portrait is perhaps identical with that once forming part of Scorel's epitaph in St. Mary's Church at Utrecht. A portrait of a Utrecht canon in the Dresden Gallery by Mor has also been conjectured to represent Scorel. The earliest dated work of Mor is the double portrait, painted in 1544, of Cornelis van Horn and Antonis Taets, canons of Utrecht, which is now in the Berlin picture gallery. In 1547 Mor was admitted into the guild of St. Luke at Antwerp, and he spent 1550 and 1551 in Italy. Mor owed his advancement principally to Cardinal Granvelle, of whom he painted in 1549 a fine portrait, which is now in the Vienna picture gallery. Granvelle introduced Mor to the notice of the emperor Charles V and his son Philip of Spain. He was summoned to Madrid in 1552 and employed extensively at court, and was also sent on a commission to the court of Portugal, where he was treated with similar honour. Among the portraits still preserved at Madrid are those of Philip II, his sisters Joanna, princess of Brazil, and Mary, archduchess of Austria, and the latter's husband, afterwards the emperor Maximilian II. In 1553, when negotiations were commenced for a marriage between Philip and Queen Mary of England, Mor was sent to England to paint for Philip the well-known portrait of the queen which is now in the Prado Gallery at Madrid. Other portraits of the queen at this date are attributed to him, notably those in the collection of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, of the dean and chapter at Durham Cathedral (Tudor Exhibition, 1890, No. 204), and in the picture gallery at Pesth. He appears to have received the honour of knighthood for his
