evidence for the prevalence of human sacrifice has as yet been found in those lands (A. Jeremias, Das Alte Test. im Lichte d. alten Orients, 2nd ed., p. 454). Among the Canaanite branch, the king-god is more prominent, and apart from the Ammonite variant Milcom, numerous names compounded with Milk- are found on Phoenician inscriptions and among western Semites mentioned in cuneiform literature (H. Zimmern, Keilinschr. u. das Alte Test., 3rd ed. pp. 470 sqq.). It is true that child-sacrifice in connexion with fire prevailed among the Phoenicians, and, according to the Greeks, the deity honoured with these grisly rites was Kronos (identified with the Phoenician El, “God”). On the other hand, the seat of the cult appears to have been at Jerusalem, and the period during which it flourished does not favour any strong Phoenician influence. Again, the form of the word Tophet and Ahaz’s association with Damascus might point to an Aramaean origin for the cult; but it would not be safe to support this view by the statements and names in 2 Kings xvii. 31. On the whole, the biblical tradition that the Molech-cult was Canaanite and indigenous (Deut. xii. 29 sqq., xviii. 9 seq.) holds the ground. There was a tendency in time of misfortune to revert to earlier rites (illustrated in some ancient mourning customs), and it may have been some old disused practice revived under the pressure of national distress.
See, generally, G. F. Moore, Ency. Bib., s.v.; Lagrange, Études sur les religions sémitiques 2nd ed. pp. 99–109; B. Stade, Bib. Theol. d. Alt. Test. i. 232 seq., 244 seq.; J. G. Frazer, Adonis, &c., 2nd ed. pp. 144 seq. 401 sqq; and J. A. Montgomery, Journ. Bib. Lit., 1908, i. 40 sqq. On archaeological evidence for human sacrifice from Palestinian soil, see H. Vincent, Canaan d’après l’exploration récente, pp. 50, 116, 189 sqq. (W. R. S.; S. A. C.)
MOLSHEIM, a town of Germany, in the imperial province of
Alsace-Lorraine at the foot of the Vosges, on the Breusch and
at the junction of railways to Zabern and Strassburg. Pop.
(1905), 3164. It contains a beautiful Roman Catholic and a
Protestant church, a handsome new town-hall and an agricultural
school. Its industries embrace the manufacture of iron and
steel goods, tanning and organ-building. There is also some
trade in wine. Molsheim was known in the 9th century as
Molleshem, and formerly was the seat of a famous Jesuit college,
which in 1702 was removed to Strassburg and united with the
university of that city.
MOLTKE, ADAM GOTTLOB, Count (1710–1792), Danish courtier, was born on the 10th of November 1710, at Riesenhof in Mecklenburg. Though of German origin, many of the Moltkes were at this time in the Danish service, which was considered a more important and promising opening for the young north German noblemen than the service of any of the native principalities; and through one of his uncles, young Moltke became a page at the Danish court, in which capacity he formed a life-long friendship with the crown prince Frederick, afterwards Frederick V. He never had any opportunity of enriching his mind by travel or study, but he was remarkable for a strongly religious temperament and seems for some time to have been connected with the Moravians. Immediately after his accession, Frederick V. made him hofmarskal (court marshal), and overwhelmed him with marks of favour, making him a privy councillor and a count and bestowing upon him Bregentved and other estates. As the inseparable companion of the king, Moltke’s influence soon became so boundless that the foreign diplomatists declared he could make and unmake ministers at will. Fortunately he was no ordinary favourite. Naturally tactful and considerate, he never put difficulties in the way of the responsible ministers. Especially interesting is Moltke’s attitude towards the two distinguished statesmen who played the leading parts during the reign of Frederick V., Johan Sigismund Schulin and the elder Bernstorff. For Schulin he had a sort of veneration. Bernstorff irritated him by his grand airs of conscious superiority. But though a Prussian intrigue was set up for the supersession of Bernstorff by Moltke, the latter, convinced that Bernstorff was the right man in the right place, supported him with unswerving loyalty. Moltke was far less liberal in his views than many of his contemporaries. He looked askance at all projects for the emancipation of the serfs, but, as one of the largest landowners of Denmark, he did much service to agriculture by lightening the burdens of the countrymen and introducing technical and scientific improvements which greatly increased production. His greatest merit, however, was the guardianship he exercised over the king, whose sensual temperament and weak character exposed him to many temptations which might have been very injurious to the state. Frederick had the good sense to appreciate the honesty of his friend and there was never any serious breach between them. On the death of Queen Louisa the king would even have married one of Moltke’s daughters had he not peremptorily declined the dangerous honour. On the decease of Frederick V., who died in his arms (Jan. 14, 1766), Moltke’s dominion was at an end. The new king, Christian VII., could not endure him, and exclaimed, with reference to his lanky figure: “He’s stork below and fox above.” He was also extremely unpopular, because he was wrongly suspected of enriching himself at the public expense.[1] In July 1766 he was dismissed from all his offices and retired to his estate at Bregentved. Subsequently, through the interest of Russia, to whom he had always been favourable, he regained his seat in the council (Feb. 8, 1768), but his influence was slight and of brief endurance. He was again dismissed without a pension, on the 10th of December 1770, for refusing to have anything to do with Struensee. He lived in retirement till his death on the 25th of September 1792.
His memoirs, written in German and published in 1870, have considerable historical importance. See H. H. Langhorn, Historische Nachricht über die dänischen Moltkes (Kiel, 1871). (R. N. B.)
MOLTKE, ADAM WILHELM, Count (1785–1864), Danish
statesman, son of the minister Joachim Godske Moltke (1746–1818),
and grandson of Adam Gottlob Moltke, was born at
Einsiedelsborg in Funen, on the 25th of August 1785. Under
the influence of the agricultural reformer Christian Colbjörnsen
he abandoned the legal career he had adopted and entered the
administrative service of the state, to which he devoted the
remainder of his life. In 1831 he succeeded Johan Sigismund
Mösting (1780–1843), as minister of finance. On the death of
Christian VIII. he was one of the most prominent members
of the Council of State, and when the constitutional crisis came
in 1848 he seemed marked out as the man who could bridge over
the gap between the old era and the new. The services which
Count Moltke rendered to Denmark cannot be too highly appreciated.
The mere fact that a distinguished statesman who had
served the last two absolute kings of Denmark now voluntarily
placed himself at the head of a ministry which included the
most advanced of the popular agitators, gave the new government
the hall-mark of stability and trustworthiness, whilst
the fact that he still retained the ministry of finance was of
itself a guarantee of security during the earlier years of a troublesome
and costly war. It was this, his first administration,
which introduced the constitution of the 5th of June 1849,
and he also presided over the third constitutional ministry
which was formed in July 1851; but he resigned on the 27th of
January 1852, because he could not approve of the decree which
aimed at transforming Denmark into a composite, indivisible,
monarchy. Moltke continued to take part in public life as a
member of the Landsting, or Upper House, but henceforth kept
in the background. On the 2nd of October 1855 he was elected
a member of the consultative Rigsraad, a position he continued
to hold till 1863. He died on the 15th of February 1864.
See Swalin, Det danske Staatsraad (Stockholm, 1881); Madvig, Livserindringer (Copenhagen, 1887). (R. N. B.)
MOLTKE, HELMUTH CARL BERNHARD, Count von
(1800–1891), Prussian field marshal, for thirty years chief of
the staff of the Prussian army, the greatest strategist of the
latter half of the 19th century, and the creator of the modern
method of directing armies in the field, was born on the 26th of
October 1800, at Parchim in Mecklenburg, of a German family
of ancient nobility. His father in 1805 settled in Holstein and
- ↑ He was said to be worth 10 million rix-dollars, but proved that he had less than one million.
