Martin

Buber, Martin, 1878-1965, Jewish philosopher, b. Vienna. Educated at German universities, he was active in Zionist affairs, and he taught philosophy and religion at the Univ. of Frankfurt-am-Main (1924-33). From 1938 to 1951 he held a professorship in the sociology of religion at the Hebrew Univ. in Jerusalem. Greatly influenced by the mysticism of the Hasidim, which he interpreted in many of his works, and by the Christian existentialism of Søren Kierkegaard, Buber evolved his own philosophy of religion, especially in his book I and Thou (1923, 2d ed. 1958). Conceiving the relations between God and man not as abstract and impersonal, but as an inspired and direct dialogue, Buber has also had a great impact on contemporary Christian thinkers. He worked to permeate political Zionism with ethical and spiritual values and strongly advocated Arab-Israeli understanding. Among his writings are Jewish Mysticism and the Legends of Baalshem (1931), Mamre (tr. 1946, repr. 1970), Moses (1946), and The Origin and Meaning of Hasidism (2 vol., tr. 1960).

Bucer or Butzer, Martin, 1491-1551, German Protestant reformer born Martin Kuhhorn. At 14 years of age he joined the Dominican order, and he studied at Heidelberg, where he heard (1518) Luther in his public disputation on the doctrine of free will. Influenced by the reformist thought, Bucer left the order and accepted a pastorate at Landstuhl. In 1523 he entered upon the work of the Reformation in Strasbourg, where he helped to lay the foundations of the Protestant educational system. Many of his activities were attempts to reconcile the differences in regard to the Eucharist (see Lord's Supper) that divided the Lutherans from the Swiss and S German reformers. Bucer's position was closer to that of the Swiss leader, Zwingli, and in this, as in other doctrinal matters, he is credited with a spiritual kinship to Calvin. In spite of his desire for unity, Bucer rejected the Augsburg Confession (see creed), drawn up in 1530 in the hope of achieving religious peace. It was not until a personal meeting with Luther in 1536 that, in the Wittenberg Concord, Bucer was successful in securing agreement on the Eucharist among himself, Luther, and the reformers of S Germany. When Bucer failed to subscribe to the Augsburg Interim (1548)—a compromise between Roman Catholics and Protestants proposed by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V—he found it expedient to accept the invitation of Cranmer and moved to England. There, highly honored, he taught at Cambridge and tutored Edward VI, at whose request he wrote De regno Christi.

Niemoeller or Niemöller, Martin, 1892-1984, German Protestant churchman. He studied theology after distinguishing himself as a submarine commander in World War I. Though at first a supporter of National Socialism, Niemoeller (then a pastor at Berlin-Dahlem) preached courageously against the Hitler regime after it came into power in 1933. He attacked Hitler's creation of the German Evangelical Church and became the leader of the German pastors' emergency league and of the Confessing Church. Briefly arrested in 1937, he was imprisoned again from 1938 until his liberation (1945) by the Allies. After his release Niemoeller became (1947) church president (the equivalent of bishop) of the Evangelical Church in Hesse-Nassau, with his seat at Wiesbaden, and founded (1948) a cooperative council of all German Protestant churches, of which he became president. Among his writings are his autobiography, Vom U-Boot zur Kanzel [From U-boat to pulpit] (1934).

Bormann, Martin, 1900-1945, German National Socialist (Nazi) leader. He met Adolf Hitler in 1924 and soon became an important figure in the Nazi party hierarchy. He succeeded Rudolf Hess in Hitler's inner circle in 1941 after Hess's flight to Scotland. In 1942 he became Hitler's personal secretary. After Hitler's suicide in 1945, Bormann disappeared and was assumed dead. He was tried in absentia at Nuremberg and sentenced to death. Rumors persisted, however, that Bormann had escaped to Argentina. In 1973, after identification of a skeleton unearthed in West Berlin, the West German government declared him dead, a suicide on May 2, 1945.

Chalfie, Martin, 1947-, American biologist, b. Chicago, Ph.D. Harvard, 1977. In 1982 Chalfie joined the faculty at Columbia, where he is now the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Biological Sciences. In 2008 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Roger Tsien and Osamu Shimomura for their discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP). Chalfie demonstrated the value of GFP as a luminous genetic tag for various biological phenomena, enabling specific proteins to be located and tracked in living organisms. As a result of the work of the three, GFP has become one of the most important tools in contemporary bioscience.

Dies, Martin, Jr., 1901-72, American political leader, b. Colorado, Tex. A lawyer, he represented Texas as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1931-45; 1951-59). He urged Congress to create what became the House Un-American Activities Committee and was its first chairman. The committee was notorious for its exposés of alleged Communist infiltration into U.S. business and government. Dies wrote The Trojan Horse of America (1940).

Waldseemüller, Martin, Gr. Ilacomilus, 1470?-1522?, German cosmographer. One of a group of humanists known as the Gymnasium Vosagense, he lived at Saint-Dié, Lorraine, during the latter part of his life. He was the first cartographer to call the New World America. He sketched the New World in two maps (the first to show North and South America separate from Asia) that he published in 1507 together with an explanatory treatise, Cosmographiae introductio, and Amerigo Vespucci's account of his voyages to the New World. A first edition of this rare work is in the New York Public Library. Waldseemüller also prepared with his colleagues a new edition of Ptolemy, published in 1513.

Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862, 8th President of the United States (1837-41), b. Kinderhook, Columbia co., N.Y.

Early Career

He was reared on his father's farm, was educated at local schools, and after reading law was admitted (1803) to the bar. He practiced law successfully and soon became active in politics. After he was (1808-13) surrogate of Columbia co., he served (1813-20) in the state senate and became prominent in the state Democratic party. While still a senator Van Buren was made state attorney general in 1815, but because of his mounting rivalry with De Witt Clinton, the governor of New York, he was removed from this post in 1819. Meanwhile he had helped to secure the election (1816) of Daniel D. Tompkins as Vice President.

Van Buren served (1821-28) in the U.S. Senate, where he firmly backed the tariffs of 1824 and 1828. His record there was inconsistent as to states' rights, slavery, and internal improvements; this wavering was later brought up against him by his political enemies. Van Buren was far more important as a political leader than as a legislator. He organized the closely knit political group known as the Albany Regency and was a leading supporter of William H. Crawford, who ran for President in 1824. After the election of John Quincy Adams, Van Buren gradually swung his power to the support of Andrew Jackson.

A Jacksonian Democrat

Elected (1828) governor of New York state, Van Buren resigned in 1829, after Jackson had become President, to become his Secretary of State. Probably the most influential of Jackson's advisers, Van Buren, although essentially opposed to the doctrine of nullification, did not at first take a conspicuous part in the rising hostilities between Vice President John C. Calhoun and the President. Van Buren further strengthened his position with Jackson by being courteous to Peggy Eaton (see O'Neill, Margaret). His resignation (1831) as Secretary of State brought about that of the other cabinet officers and enabled Jackson to eliminate the supporters of Calhoun from the cabinet. Jackson immediately appointed Van Buren minister to Great Britain, but the deciding vote of Calhoun in the Senate prevented him from being confirmed in the post.

Thoroughly in accord with Jackson's policies, Van Buren was nominated for Vice President by the Democratic party in 1832 and was elected to office along with President Jackson. It was largely through Jackson's influence that Van Buren was chosen as Democratic candidate for President in 1836. The Whig party was still in the formative stage, and there was no well-organized opposition; Van Buren, therefore, was easily swept into office.

Presidency

As President, Van Buren announced his intention of following Jackson's policies, but the Panic of 1837 and the hard times that followed brought Van Buren a great deal of unpopularity. To meet the economic crisis, Van Buren, wary of the existing banking system, backed after 1837 the Independent Treasury System. Not until 1840, however, did Congress pass measures establishing it. In foreign affairs, Van Buren attempted to conciliate differences with Great Britain arising out of the Caroline Affair and the Aroostook War.

Later Years

He was again the presidential candidate of the Democratic party in 1840, but he was defeated in the "log cabin and hard cider" campaign by William Henry Harrison. The Whigs unfairly painted Van Buren as a man of great wealth who was ignorant of, and disdainful toward, the common people. In 1844, Van Buren was the leading possibility as Democratic candidate for the presidency, but he flatly opposed the annexation of Texas because he felt it would provoke war with Mexico and because he opposed the extension of slavery. Although he held a majority in the nominating convention, he was unable (largely as a result of the efforts of Robert J. Walker) to obtain the two-thirds majority necessary to win the nomination. Van Buren, bitterly disappointed, saw James K. Polk elected President.

He remained prominent in Democratic party politics, and helped lead the Barnburners in their violent struggle with the Hunkers. In 1848 he was the presidential candidate of the newly organized Free-Soil party and managed to take enough New York votes away from the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass, to aid Zachary Taylor, the Whig party candidate, in winning the election. He voted for the Democratic candidate in the elections of 1852, 1856, and 1860, but supported Abraham Lincoln during the secession crisis. An Inquiry into the Origin and Course of Political Parties of the United States (1867) was written by Van Buren, edited by one of his sons, and published posthumously.

Bielski, Martin, Pol. Marcin Bielski, c.1495-1575, Polish historian and poet. His history of Poland, the first historical work written in Polish, was completed by his son, Joachim Bielski.

Schongauer, Martin, 1430-91, German engraver and painter, son of a goldsmith of Colmar, Alsace. Schongauer's only certain painting is Madonna of the Rose Arbor (1473; Church of St. Martin, Colmar). The strong figures and faces are treated with the almost metallic sharpness and linearity that later characterized his engravings. There also exist fragments of a mural in the Church of St. Stephen, Breisach, where he lived (1488-91). His work shows Flemish influences, particularly of Roger van der Weyden and Dierick Bouts. Schongauer is best known for his remarkable engravings of religious subjects. He produced 115 engravings signed with his monogram, M+S. Executed with exceptional virtuosity, they were of great importance for the development of German art and were particularly admired by Dürer. Outstanding examples of Schongauer's engraving are The Wise and Foolish Virgins, The Passion, Bearing the Cross, Death of the Virgin, Adoration of the Magi, Christ Enthroned, and Temptation of St. Anthony. Schongauer was one of the earliest engravers to use copper for reproduction and contributed much to the development of the art.

Scorsese, Martin, 1942-, American film director; b. Queens, N.Y. A major figure in contemporary cinema, he grew up in Manhattan's Little Italy, attended film school at New York Univ., made his first feature-length film in 1968, and scored his first success with Mean Streets (1973). Often dealing with violent and obsessive aspects of modern America and focusing on Italian-American characters, Scorsese's films frequently feature a struggling hero and themes of sin and redemption. His major movies include Taxi Driver (1976), a harrowing urban morality tale; Raging Bull (1979), a look into the savage world of boxing; Goodfellas (1990), an exploration of the brutalities of Mob life; and Gangs of New York (2002), a violent epic of life in Manhattan's 19th-century slums.

Among Scorsese's other films are Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), New York, New York (1977), The King of Comedy (1983), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995), Kundun (1998), The Aviator (2004), and The Departed (2006, Academy Award). His documentaries A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies (1995) and Il Mio Viaggio in Italia [my journey in Italy] (2001), reflections on great filmmaking in the United States and Italy, provide revealing glimpses into the influences that have shaped his art. He has also made documentaries on a number of contemporary musicians: The Band in its farewell concert (The Last Waltz, 1978), the Delta blues (Feel like Going Home, 2003), Bob Dylan (No Direction Home, 2005), and the Rolling Stones in their latter days (Shine a Light, 2008).

Behaim, Behem, or Boeheim, Martin, b. 1436? or 1459?, d. 1506?, German traveler and cosmographer. He studied (possibly under Regiomontanus) astronomy, navigation, and mathematics. He went to Portugal as a merchant c.1480, and in 1486, he went to Fayal in the Azores. He is believed to have developed an astrolabe and other devices for the use of navigators, but is best known for the terrestrial globe that he made in 1492 and gave to his native city Nuremberg (it is in the Germanic Museum there). The globe, however, is inaccurate and does not represent the best geographical information of the period.

Behem, Martin: see Behaim, Martin.

Boeheim, Martin: see Behaim, Martin.

Boehm, Martin, 1725-1812, American evangelical preacher, b. Conestoga, Pa. He was the son of a Palatinate Mennonite who settled in Lancaster co., Pa. Boehm became a Mennonite preacher c.1756 and a bishop in 1759. A personal conversion resulted in dissatisfaction with the formalism of his denomination and his adoption of a more evangelistic type of preaching. He was excluded from the Mennonite Church. In association with Philip William Otterbein, whom he met c.1768, he traveled as an evangelist through Pennsylvania and Maryland and into Virginia, attracting large audiences, especially in the German settlements. Boehm was allied with the Methodists for a time, but finally became one of the founders of the United Brethren in Christ (see Evangelical United Brethren Church), of which he was elected bishop at the first annual conference in 1800.

Luther, Martin, 1483-1546, German leader of the Protestant Reformation, b. Eisleben, Saxony, of a family of small, but free, landholders.

Early Life and Spiritual Crisis

Luther was educated at the cathedral school at Eisenach and at the Univ. of Erfurt (1501-5). In 1505 he completed his master's examination and began the study of law. Several months later, after what seems to have been a sudden religious experience, he entered a monastery of the Augustinian friars at Erfurt. There, devoutly attentive to the rigid discipline of the order, he began an intensive study of Scripture and was ordained a priest in 1507. In 1508 he was sent to the Univ. of Wittenberg to study and to lecture on Aristotle. In 1510, Luther was sent to Rome on business for his order, and there he was shocked by the spiritual laxity apparent in high ecclesiastical places.

Upon his return he completed the work for his theological doctorate and became a professor at Wittenberg. This period was the beginning of the intimacy between Luther and John von Staupitz, whose influence led Luther to say in 1531, "I have received everything from Staupitz." For Luther these years were times of profound spiritual and physical torment. Obsessed with anxieties about his own salvation, he sought relief in frequent confession and extreme asceticism. His search for peace of mind led him, under the guidance of Staupitz, to further study of the Scriptures.

In preparation for his university lectures in 1513, especially on the letters of Paul, Luther resolved his turmoil. In the Scriptures Luther found a loving God who bestowed upon sinful humans the free gift of salvation, to be received through faith, against which all good works were as nothing. Luther devoted himself with increasing vigor to the work of the church, and in 1515 he became district vicar.

The 95 Theses

From 1516 on, as a consequence of his new convictions, Luther felt compelled to protest the dispensation of indulgences (see indulgence). The arrival of Johann Tetzel in Saxony in 1517 to proclaim the indulgence granted by Leo X prompted Luther to post his historic 95 theses on the door of the castle church. The abuse of indulgences had been condemned by many Catholic theologians, but it had had great financial success, and ecclesiastical authorities had not halted it. Luther's theses were widely distributed and read, finding sympathy among the exploited peasantry and among the civil authorities, who deplored the drainage of funds to Rome. The propositions were brought to the attention of the pope, who ordered the head of the Augustinians to keep peace in his order. Meanwhile Tetzel was committed to the struggle against Luther, and he found an able colleague in Johann Eck.

Although Luther still considered his activities as directed toward reforms within the church, his opponents found his ideas heretical. In the following years several attempts were made to reconcile Luther to the church, but the basis of compromise was lacking on both sides. At a meeting with the papal legate at Augsburg in 1518, Luther refused to recant, and in 1519 in a public disputation with Eck in Leipzig he was forced to declare his stand as one at variance with some of the doctrines of the church.

Break with the Church

As the break with Rome became inevitable, Luther broadened his position to include widespread reforms. In his Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520) he supported the new nationalism by advocating German control of German ecclesiastical matters and appealed to the German princes to help effect the reformation in Germany. He attacked the claim of the papacy of authority over secular rulers and denied that the pope was the final interpreter of Scripture, enunciating the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. He assailed the corruption of the church and attacked usury and commercialism, recommending a return to a primitive agrarian society.

Catholic theologians were further aroused with the publication of The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, in which Luther, in an uncompromising attack on the papacy, denied the authority of the priesthood to mediate between the individual and God and rejected the sacraments except as aids to faith. He followed this work with a tract entitled The Freedom of a Christian Man. in which he reiterated his doctrine of justification by faith alone and presented a new ideal of piety—that of the Christian man, free in conscience by virtue of faith and charged with the duty of conducting himself properly in a Christian brotherhood.

By the time the papal bull Exsurge Domine, condemning his views and threatening excommunication, reached Germany, Luther's position was well understood and widely supported. In a dramatic renunciation of papal authority, Luther held a public burning of the bull and of the canon law. In 1521 formal excommunication was pronounced. In the same year Luther was given a safe-conduct and was summoned before the Diet of Worms (see Worms, Diet of). The opinions at the diet were divided, but when an edict of the diet called for Luther's seizure, his friends placed him for safekeeping in the Wartburg, the castle of Elector Frederick III of Saxony. There Luther translated the New Testament into German and began the translation of the entire Bible, a work not completed until 10 years later.

Growth of Lutheranism and His Last Years

At Wittenberg the iconoclasts under Carlstadt had instituted radical changes that Luther greatly deplored. Fearing that his movement was endangered, Luther disregarded his personal safety and returned to Wittenberg, where he spent most of the remainder of his life organizing and spreading the new gospel. Luther suffered a loss of popular appeal when he stoutly opposed (1524-25) the Peasants' War, a revolt that his own spirit of independence had helped to foster. His position was further weakened by a break with the humanists brought about by Erasmus's work, Freedom of the Will (1524), in which Erasmus attacked Luther's doctrine of the enslaved will. Nevertheless, through his forceful writings and preaching his doctrines spread to many towns and free cities, strengthened by the support of many German nobles.

He married (1525) a former nun, Katharina von Bora, and raised six children. His closest friends and associates, Philip Melanchthon and Justus Jonas, helped carry forward his endeavors, and after the death of Frederick III he enjoyed the active support of John Frederick I, who succeeded to the electorate. Luther worked actively to build a competent educational system; his extensive writing on church matters included the composition of hymns, a liturgy, and two catechisms that are basic statements of the Lutheran faith.

His attitude hardened toward various sects, especially the Anabaptists, whose growth presented a serious challenge to his conception of the church. His uncompromising attitude in doctrinal matters helped break up the unity of the Reformation that he was anxious to preserve; the controversy with Huldreich Zwingli and later with Calvin over the Lord's Supper divided Protestants into the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Churches. After attempts at union, the Lutherans drew up their own articles of faith in the Augsburg Confession (see creed 4), which was written by Melanchthon at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 with the sanction of Luther, who was not permitted to attend. About this time the control of the Lutheran Church had passed further into the hands of the Protestant princes.

During the last years of Luther's life he was troubled with ill health of increasing severity and the plagues of political and religious disunion within the nation. He died in Eisleben and was buried at Wittenberg, leaving behind an evangelical doctrine that spread throughout the Western world and marked the first break in the unity of the Catholic Church. In Germany his socio-religious concepts laid a new basis for German society. His writings, in forceful idiomatic language, helped fix the standards of modern German.

Amis, Martin, 1949-, English novelist; son of Kingsley Amis. The younger Amis, who turned from literary journalism to fiction, invites comparison with his father through his choice of career and style. Often writing satire so bitterly sardonic that it goes far beyond the caustic comedy of his father's fiction, he has exposed the darker aspects of contemporary English society in his novels. Among them are The Rachel Papers (1973), Dead Babies (1975), Money (1984), London Fields (1990), Time's Arrow (1991), The Information (1995), and Yellow Dog (2003). His short-story collections include Heavy Water and Other Stories (1999). Among his nonfiction works are The War against Cliché (2001), a selection of essays, and Koba the Dread (2002), an examination of Stalinism's horrors and the attitudes of Western intellectuals toward the Soviet regime. His subsequent novel House of Meetings (2006) is a powerful fictional memoir that treats similar themes—the monstrous nature of the Soviet gulag and Stalinist atrocities. His collection of essays and stories, The Second Plane September 11 (2008), is collectively a polemic that condemns Islamic fundamentalism and Islamist terrorism.

Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976, German philosopher. As a student at Freiburg, Heidegger was influenced by the neo-Kantianism of Heinrich Rickert and the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. In 1923 he became professor at Marburg, where he wrote and published the only completed part of his major work, Sein und Zeit (1927; tr. Being and Time, 1962). On the basis of this work Heidegger was called (1928) to Freiburg to succeed Husserl in the chair of philosophy, which he occupied until his retirement in 1951. He actively supported Adolf Hitler during the dictator's first years in power, and after World War II was banned from teaching and publishing for five years.

Although generally considered a founder of existentialism, Heidegger vehemently rejected the association, just as he came to reject Husserl's phenomenology. Heidegger's fundamental concern, as announced in Sein und Zeit and developed in his subsequent works, is the problem of being. In Sein und Zeit, being is shown to be intimately linked with temporality; the relationship between them is investigated by means of an analysis of human existence. Strongly influenced by Sören Kierkegaard, Heidegger delineated various aspects of human existence, such as "care," "moods," and the individual's relationship to death, and related the authenticity of being, as well as the anguish of modern society, to the individual's confrontation with his own temporality. It was this work and its influence upon Jean-Paul Sartre that have led many critics to consider Heidegger an existentialist. In addition to its influence on Sartre, Heidegger's thought influenced both modern Protestant theology (through Paul Tillich and Rudolph Bultmann) and the work of Jacques Derrida and other advocates of deconstruction.

The ontological aspect of Heidegger's thought assumed greater prominence in his later writings, which included studies of poetry and of dehumanization in modern society. Heidegger considered himself the first thinker in the history of Western philosophy to have raised explicitly the question concerning the "sense of being," and he located the crisis of Western civilization in mass "forgetfulness of being." Among his other works are Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics (1929, tr. 1962), What Is Metaphysics? (1929, tr. 1949), An Introduction to Metaphysics (1953, tr. 1959), What Is Philosophy? (1956, tr. 1958), and The End of Philosophy (1956, tr. 1973).

Andersen Nexø, Martin: see Nexø, Martin Andersen.

Chemnitz or Kemnitz, Martin, 1522-86, German Lutheran theologian. Under the tutelage of Phillip Melanchthon, he accepted and defended Lutheran doctrine, both in lecturing and in writing. Largely through his endeavors the Formula of Concord, one of the nine creeds of the Book of Concord, was adopted by the Lutherans of Saxony and Swabia.

Butzer, Martin: see Bucer, Martin.

Opitz, Martin, 1597-1639, leader of the Silesian school of German poetry. His influence as poet, critic, and metrical reformer was widely recognized during his time; he was ennobled as Opitz von Boberfeld by Emperor Ferdinand II in Vienna. Opitz's poems, written during the Thirty Years War, reflect shifting religious and worldly loyalties; Lob des Krieges-Gottes [in praise of the god of war] preceded only briefly Trost Gedichte in Widerwertigkeit des Krieges [comfort poems in troubled war times] (1633). Opitz's greatest contribution to the literary arts was his Buch von der deutschen Poeterey [book on German poetry] (1624). His translation of Rinuccini's Dafne became the libretto for the first German opera.

Rodbell, Martin, 1925-1998, American biochemist, b. Baltimore, Ph.D. Univ. of Washington, 1954. He was a researcher (1956-1985) at the National Heart Institute in Bethesda, Md., before becoming scientific director (1985-94) of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Chapel Hill, N.C. Rodbell is credited with shedding light on cell communication by determining that the process requires discriminators to receive information from outside the cell, amplifiers to strengthen the signals and thereby initiate reactions within the cell, and transducers to provide a link between the two. Rodbell was co-winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Alfred G. Gilman, who identified the transducers as G-proteins, so-called because they react with guanosine triphosphate (GTP).

Martin, Saint, c.316-397, bishop of Tours. Born a heathen in Pannonia (in modern Hungary), the son of a soldier, he became a convert and refused to fight Christians. He went (c.360) to St. Hilary of Poitiers and built himself a hermitage. In 371 he was acclaimed bishop, against his will. He continued to live as a monk in the monastery of Marmoutiers, near Tours, which became the training ground for Celtic missions. He was a staunch Catholic, but his zeal for orthodoxy did not prevent his withholding communion from those bishops who connived at the ruthless slaughter of the Priscillianist heretics. St. Martin was universally loved, and his cloak is a symbol of heroic charity (see chapel). His principal shrine was at Tours. Feast: Nov. 11 (known in England as Martinmas). St. Martin's summer is an English counterpart of the American Indian summer; it occurs in mid-November around the time of Martinmas.

Martin, 1356-1410, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona (c.1395-1410) and, as Martin II, king of Sicily (1409-10). He succeeded his brother, John I, in Aragón and became king of Sicily on the death of his son, Martin I of Sicily, who had married Maria, last of the Sicilian branch of the house of Aragón. Martin of Aragón and Sicily died without a male heir and thus was the last ruler from the Catalan dynasty of Aragón. After a two-year interregnum, his nephew, Prince Ferdinand of Castile, was chosen (1412) king of Aragón and Sicily as Ferdinand I.

Martin, Agnes (Agnes Bernice Martin), 1912-2004, American painter, b. Macklin, Canada. She moved to the United States in 1931, became a U.S. citizen in 1950, and emerged as an important artist in the late 50s and early 60s. Martin is best known for her spare, abstract all-over grid paintings. Penciled on canvases that are monochrome or washed in muted colors, these emotionally evocative works seem to glow with an interior light. Her use of line expresses both strength and delicacy within a restrained yet luminous form. Martin, who came to New York City in 1957 and left it a decade later, settled in New Mexico, and abandoned painting until 1974. Her later works are intimate yet impersonal, and often created in series. They usually contain horizontal bands drawn in graphite and painted in a subtle, limited palette that suggest a shimmering, mysteriously lighted, and depthless space. Among the many public collections that include her paintings are the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum, and Guggenheim Museum, New York City, and the Tate Gallery, London.

Martin, Archer John Porter, 1910-2002, English biochemist, educated at Cambridge. From 1938 to 1946 he carried on chemical research in the laboratories of the Wool Industries Association at Leeds, Yorkshire. In 1948 he joined the staff of the National Institute for Medical Research, London, where from 1953 to 1956 he was head of the physical chemistry division. After 1956 he was chemical consultant to the institute. A specialist in the development of chromatographic and other methods of chemical analysis, he was awarded jointly with R. L. M. Synge the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to paper partition chromatography, a method for separating and identifying chemical substances in a mixture.

Martin, François Xavier, 1762-1846, American jurist, b. Marseilles, France. He emigrated to the United States (c.1786) and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1789. He held federal positions as judge for Mississippi Territory (1809) and for Louisiana Territory (1810). In the government of the state of Louisiana he was attorney general (1813), justice of the state supreme court (1815), and chief justice (1836). His wide learning did much to harmonize the strands of English, Spanish, and French law in the legal system of Louisiana. Besides digests of Louisiana cases, Martin wrote A History of Louisiana (1827) and A History of North Carolina (1829).

Martin, Homer Dodge, 1836-97, American landscape painter, b. Albany, N.Y. His earlier works are in the style of the Hudson River school, but after his stay in France (1881-86) his work showed the influence of the Barbizon school, notably Corot; his style, however, retained its individuality. Martin's landscapes are melancholy, poetical interpretations of nature, subtle in coloring and in the treatment of light and atmosphere. Among his best-known works are Harp of the Winds (1895), Sand Dunes at Lake Ontario, White Mountains (all: Metropolitan Mus.), and Sea at Villerville (Kansas City Art Inst.). His last years were spent in St. Paul, Minn., where, nearly blind, he painted Adirondack Scenery from memory.

Martin, John, 1789-1854, English painter and engraver. Martin's visionary and grandiose landscapes, the pictorial counterparts of English romantic poetry, won him international popularity. He is also known for his illustrations for the Bible and Milton's Paradise Lost (1827).

Martin, Joseph William, 1884-1968, American politician, Speaker of the House of Representatives (1947-49, 1953-55), b. North Attleboro, Mass. He was a reporter (1902-8) for several newspapers until he formed a combine to purchase the North Attleboro Evening Chronicle. His newspaper work led to an interest in politics, and he served (1912-17) in the state legislature before entering the U.S. House of Representatives in 1925, where he served continuously until 1967. A staunch conservative, Martin became minority leader of the House in 1939, a position he held until 1959, except for those periods when he was Speaker. He served as permanent chairman of every Republican National convention from 1940 to 1956. After the Republican congressional defeat in the 1958 elections, Martin was ousted as Republican leader on the grounds that his leadership was not vigorous enough.

Martin, Josiah, 1737-86, British colonial governor, b. West Indies. An army officer, he had attained the rank of lieutenant colonel when he was appointed governor of North Carolina in 1771. He established cordial relations with the leaders of the Regulator movement on the frontier but clashed with the assembly over the collection of taxes and court regulations. He unsuccessfully attempted to organize the Loyalists of the colony to resist the American Revolution. When his Loyalist Highlanders were defeated (1776) and the Revolution became general, he left the colony. Later he took part in the attack on Charleston and was an adviser to generals Clinton and Cornwallis. He returned to England in 1781.

Martin, Luther, c.1748-1826, American lawyer and political leader, b. New Brunswick, N.J. He practiced law in Maryland and became the first attorney general of the state, holding office from 1778 to 1805 and again from 1818 to 1822 (although he was inactive in his last two years of office). He was a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention but refused to sign the Constitution because he felt it violated states' rights. Martin, considered one of the nation's leading lawyers, was one of the defense counsel in the trials of Justice Samuel Chase (1805) and of Aaron Burr (1807). He was a bitter opponent of Thomas Jefferson.

Martin, Mary, 1913-90, American musical comedy star, b. Weatherford, Tex. From Martin's first stage appearance in Leave It to Me (1938), she starred in several enormously successful musicals, including One Touch of Venus (1943), South Pacific (1949); Peter Pan (1954), and The Sound of Music (1959). Her buoyant singing voice and high-spirited temperament won her widespread popularity. Her films included The Great Victor Herbert (1939) and, for television, Peter Pan and Annie Get Your Gun.

Martin, Paul Edgar Philippe, Jr., 1938-, Canadian politician, prime minister (2003-6) of Canada, b. Windsor, Ont. The scion of a politically active family (his father served in parliament and ran unsuccessfully for Liberal party leader three times), Martin became a lawyer (1966) and president of Canada Steamship Lines (1974), which he later purchased. Elected as a Liberal to parliament in 1988, he made an unsuccessful bid for the party leadership post two years later. In 1993, Martin became finance minister under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, and by the late 1990s had brought the federal budget out of deficit, making a name for himself as a fiscal conservative. By 2001, Martin was actively maneuvering to succeed Chétien, a situation that led the prime minister to fire the more popular Martin as finance minister in 2002. In Oct., 2002, Chrétien announced he would not seek a fourth term, and Martin began campaigning openly for the leadership post, which he won in Nov., 2003. He succeeded Chrétien as prime minister the following month. Elections in June, 2004, returned Martin and his party to power, albeit as a minority government forced to contend with fallout from financial improprieties that occurred under Chrétien. His government fell in Nov., 2005, forcing him to call an election, which the Liberals lost (Jan., 2006), and Martin resigned as party leader.

Martin, Steve, 1945-, American comedian, actor, and writer, b. Waco, Tex. An Emmy-winning television comedy writer in the late 1960s, he began performing stand-up comedy in the early 70s and became a recurrent guest host on Saturday Night Live beginning in the late 70s. His catchphrases, e.g., "I'm a wild and crazy guy," became instant clichés, and his characters, e.g., a hopelessly gauche Eastern European swinger, instant classics. He recorded several comedy albums, two of them Grammy winners, and starred in TV specials. Turning to films, Martin starred in and wrote The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983), and Bowfinger (1999). He also starred in the comedies All of Me (1984), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), and Roxanne (1987) as well as in the despairing Pennies from Heaven (1981), the drama Grand Canyon (1991), David Mamet's dark The Spanish Prisoner (1998), and the black thriller Novocaine (2001). Martin also has written humorous pieces; several plays, notably Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1993); and two novellas, Shopgirl (2000; he wrote the screenplay and starred in the 2005 film version) and The Pleasure of My Company (2003).

Martin, William McChesney, Jr., 1906-98, U.S. banker, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (1951-70), b. St. Louis. After an early career as a stockbroker, Martin became (1938) the first salaried president of the New York Stock Exchange. He served in World War II and then held high-level positions in the Export-Import Bank, the U.S. Treasury Dept., and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. President Harry Truman appointed him chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in 1951, and he held the position under six successive administrations until his retirement. Favoring a "hard money" policy, Martin fought to keep the Federal Reserve System independent of political control, and he opposed excessive expansion of the monetary supply, which he considered a major cause of inflation. He is considered the creator of the modern, independently operating Federal Reserve. He reentered private business after 1970.

martin: see swallow.

Kemnitz, Martin: see Chemnitz, Martin.

Any of several species of songbirds in the family Hirundinidae. In the U.S., the name refers to the purple martin (Progne subis), at 8 in. (20 cm) long, the largest U.S. swallow. The sand martin, or bank swallow (Riparia riparia), a 5-in. (12-cm) brown-and-white bird, breeds throughout the Northern Hemisphere, nesting in sandbank burrows. The house martin (Delichon urbica), blue-black above and white-rumped, is common in Europe. The African river martin (Pseudochelidon eurystomina) of the Congo is black, with red eyes and bill.

Learn more about martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Dec. 5, 1782, Kinderhook, N.Y., U.S.—died July 24, 1862, Kinderhook) Eighth president of the U.S. (1837–41). He served in the New York Senate (1812–20) and as state attorney general (1816–19). An informal group of his political supporters came to be known as the Albany Regency because they dominated state politics even while Van Buren was in Washington. He was elected to the U.S. Senate (1821–28), where he supported states' rights and opposed a strong central government. After John Quincy Adams became president, he joined with Andrew Jackson and others to form a group that later became the Democratic Party. He was elected governor of New York (1828) but resigned to become U.S. secretary of state (1829–31). He was nominated for vice president at the first Democratic Party convention (1832) and served under Jackson (1833–37). As Jackson's chosen successor, he defeated William H. Harrison to win the 1836 election. His presidency was marked by an economic depression, the Maine-Canada border dispute (see Aroostook War), the Seminole Wars in Florida, and debate over the annexation of Texas. He was defeated in his bid for reelection and failed to win the Democratic nomination in 1844 because of his antislavery views. In 1848 he was nominated for president by the Free Soil Party but failed to win the election and retired.

Learn more about Van Buren, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 14, 1945, Waco, Texas, U.S.) U.S. comedian and writer. He began writing for the Smothers Brothers in 1967. In the 1970s he wrote for and performed on shows such as Saturday Night Live. His slapstick and absurdist humour were showcased in The Jerk (1979), which he both wrote and starred in. His other film comedies include All of Me (1984), Roxanne (1987), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), Parenthood (1989), L.A. Story (1991), Bowfinger (1999), and Bringing Down the House (2003). He wrote the stage play Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1995).

Learn more about Martin, Steve with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born circa 1535, Yorkshire, Eng.—died Nov. 22, 1594, Plymouth, Devon) English navigator and early explorer of Canada's northeastern coast. Searching for the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean, he crossed the Atlantic in 1576 and reached Labrador and Baffin Island, discovering Frobisher Bay. Returning to England with reports of possible gold mines, he obtained royal backing for further expeditions in 1577 and 1578; when he brought back nothing of value, his backing collapsed. In 1585 he sailed as vice admiral of Sir Francis Drake's expedition to the West Indies, and in 1588 he played a prominent part in the campaign against the Spanish Armada.

Learn more about Frobisher, Sir Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 18, 1922, New York City, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 31, 2006, Arlington, Va.) U.S. sociologist and political scientist. He received his bachelor's degree from the City College of New York and his Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he later taught (1950–56). While teaching at the University of California, Berkeley (1956–66), he also served as director of its Institute of International Studies (1962–66). Since then he has taught at Harvard University, Stanford University, and George Mason University. His many books about class structure, elite behaviour, and political parties have significantly shaped the study of comparative politics.

Learn more about Lipset, Seymour Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 17, 1942, Flushing, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. film director. Scorsese earned a graduate degree in filmmaking at New York University. After directing several short films, he won critical attention for his feature film Mean Streets (1973) and was widely praised for Taxi Driver (1976); both films starred his frequent lead actor, Robert De Niro. Noted for his realistic, violent portrayals of New York street life, innovative camera work, classic film knowledge, and a spirited cynicism, he rose to the top rank of American directors with such films as Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), GoodFellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), and Gangs of New York (2002). In 2007 Scorsese won an Academy Award for best director for the Boston mob drama The Departed (2006), which was also named best picture.

Learn more about Scorsese, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1445/50, Colmar, Alsace—died Feb. 2, 1491, Breisach, Baden) German painter and printmaker. Though a prolific painter whose panels were sought in many countries, it was as an engraver that he was unrivaled in northern Europe. His engravings, consisting of about 115 plates, represent a highly refined manifestation of the late Gothic spirit. He brought engraving to maturity by expanding its range of contrasts and textures, bringing an artist's sensibility to an art hitherto the domain of goldsmiths. The grace of his work became proverbial in his lifetime, giving rise to such nicknames as Hübsch (“Charming”) Martin and Schön (“Beautiful”) Martin.

Learn more about Schongauer, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born circa 316, Sabaria, Pannonia—died Nov. 8, 397, Candes, Gaul; Western feast day, November 11; Eastern feast day November 12) Patron saint of France. Born a pagan, he converted to Christianity at age 10. He was forced to join the Roman army but asked to be released because service was incompatible with his Christianity. After imprisonment he settled in Poitiers and then became a missionary on the Balkan Peninsula. He returned to Poitiers in 360 and founded the first monastery in Gaul. In 371 he was made bishop of Tours. A second monastery he founded, at Mormoutier, became a great monastic complex. St. Martin was known as a miracle worker in his own lifetime and was one of the first venerated saints who was not a martyr.

Learn more about Martin of Tours, Saint with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Dutch Sint Maarten

Island, Leeward Islands, eastern West Indies. It is located northwest of Saint Kitts and Nevis and covers an area of 33 sq mi (85 sq km). Saint Martin was discovered by Christopher Columbus and was divided in 1648 between the French and the Dutch. The northern section of the island, Saint-Martin (20 sq mi [52 sq km]; pop., 1999: 29,078), was formerly a dependency of the French overseas department of Guadeloupe but attained separate status as an overseas collectivity of France in 2007; its chief town is Marigot. The island's southern section, Sint Maarten (13 sq mi [34 sq km]; pop., 2005 est.: 35,035), is administratively part of the Netherlands Antilles; its main town is the island's capital, Philipsburg. The island's economy is based on tourism.

Learn more about Saint Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 23, 1881, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France—died Aug. 22, 1958, Bellême) French novelist and dramatist. Originally trained as a paleographer and archivist, he brought to his literary works a spirit of objectivity and a scrupulous regard for detail. He first attracted attention with the novel Jean Barois (1913), the story of an intellectual torn between the Roman Catholic faith of his childhood and the scientific materialism of his maturity. He is best known for the eight-novel cycle Les Thibault (1922–40), the record of a family's development that chronicles the social and moral issues facing the French bourgeoisie in the pre-World War I era. He received the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Learn more about Martin du Gard, Roger with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 20, 1939, Baie-Comeau, Que., Can.) Prime minister of Canada (1984–93). The son of an electrician in a paper-and-pulp town, he grew up bilingual in English and French. He began practicing law in Montreal in 1965. In 1974 he served on a commission to investigate crime in Quebec's construction industry. From 1977 to 1983 he was president of the Iron Ore Company. Elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1983, he became prime minister when the party defeated the Liberals in the general election in 1984. Creating a coalition of Quebec nationalists and western conservatives, he advocated unification while recognizing Quebec as a “distinct society.” He sought U.S. cooperation on acid rain and trade policies and helped negotiate NAFTA. He retired from politics in 1993.

Learn more about Mulroney, (Martin) Brian with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Dec. 1, 1913, Weatherford, Texas, U.S.—died Nov. 3, 1990, Rancho Mirage, Calif.) U.S. singer and actress. She co-owned a dancing school in her native Weatherford, Texas, before moving in 1938 to New York City, where she won a small part in the musical Leave It to Me and became famous for her rendition of “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” She appeared in movies before returning to Broadway to star in One Touch of Venus (1943). Martin originated the role of Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (1949–53) and later starred in Peter Pan (1954, Tony Award; television version, 1955), The Sound of Music (1959, Tony Award), and I Do, I Do (1966).

Learn more about Martin, Mary (Virginia) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Dec. 1, 1913, Weatherford, Texas, U.S.—died Nov. 3, 1990, Rancho Mirage, Calif.) U.S. singer and actress. She co-owned a dancing school in her native Weatherford, Texas, before moving in 1938 to New York City, where she won a small part in the musical Leave It to Me and became famous for her rendition of “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” She appeared in movies before returning to Broadway to star in One Touch of Venus (1943). Martin originated the role of Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (1949–53) and later starred in Peter Pan (1954, Tony Award; television version, 1955), The Sound of Music (1959, Tony Award), and I Do, I Do (1966).

Learn more about Martin, Mary (Virginia) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 14, 1945, Waco, Texas, U.S.) U.S. comedian and writer. He began writing for the Smothers Brothers in 1967. In the 1970s he wrote for and performed on shows such as Saturday Night Live. His slapstick and absurdist humour were showcased in The Jerk (1979), which he both wrote and starred in. His other film comedies include All of Me (1984), Roxanne (1987), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), Parenthood (1989), L.A. Story (1991), Bowfinger (1999), and Bringing Down the House (2003). He wrote the stage play Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1995).

Learn more about Martin, Steve with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born circa 316, Sabaria, Pannonia—died Nov. 8, 397, Candes, Gaul; Western feast day, November 11; Eastern feast day November 12) Patron saint of France. Born a pagan, he converted to Christianity at age 10. He was forced to join the Roman army but asked to be released because service was incompatible with his Christianity. After imprisonment he settled in Poitiers and then became a missionary on the Balkan Peninsula. He returned to Poitiers in 360 and founded the first monastery in Gaul. In 371 he was made bishop of Tours. A second monastery he founded, at Mormoutier, became a great monastic complex. St. Martin was known as a miracle worker in his own lifetime and was one of the first venerated saints who was not a martyr.

Learn more about Martin of Tours, Saint with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 23, 1881, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France—died Aug. 22, 1958, Bellême) French novelist and dramatist. Originally trained as a paleographer and archivist, he brought to his literary works a spirit of objectivity and a scrupulous regard for detail. He first attracted attention with the novel Jean Barois (1913), the story of an intellectual torn between the Roman Catholic faith of his childhood and the scientific materialism of his maturity. He is best known for the eight-novel cycle Les Thibault (1922–40), the record of a family's development that chronicles the social and moral issues facing the French bourgeoisie in the pre-World War I era. He received the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Learn more about Martin du Gard, Roger with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Dec. 5, 1782, Kinderhook, N.Y., U.S.—died July 24, 1862, Kinderhook) Eighth president of the U.S. (1837–41). He served in the New York Senate (1812–20) and as state attorney general (1816–19). An informal group of his political supporters came to be known as the Albany Regency because they dominated state politics even while Van Buren was in Washington. He was elected to the U.S. Senate (1821–28), where he supported states' rights and opposed a strong central government. After John Quincy Adams became president, he joined with Andrew Jackson and others to form a group that later became the Democratic Party. He was elected governor of New York (1828) but resigned to become U.S. secretary of state (1829–31). He was nominated for vice president at the first Democratic Party convention (1832) and served under Jackson (1833–37). As Jackson's chosen successor, he defeated William H. Harrison to win the 1836 election. His presidency was marked by an economic depression, the Maine-Canada border dispute (see Aroostook War), the Seminole Wars in Florida, and debate over the annexation of Texas. He was defeated in his bid for reelection and failed to win the Democratic nomination in 1844 because of his antislavery views. In 1848 he was nominated for president by the Free Soil Party but failed to win the election and retired.

Learn more about Van Buren, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Oddo Colonna

(born 1368, Genazzano, Papal States—died Feb. 20, 1431, Rome) Pope (1417–31). His election at the Council of Constance marked the end of the Western Schism. He condemned conciliar theory (see Conciliar movement) and any appeals of papal judgment on matters of faith. Martin rejected French efforts to persuade him to live at Avignon (see Avignon papacy). Instead he returned to Rome (1420), where he helped to rebuild the ruined city. He also tried to recover control of the Papal States. He mediated in the Hundred Years' War and organized crusades against the Hussites, and he asserted the rights of the church against the crown.

Learn more about Martin V with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 17, 1942, Flushing, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. film director. Scorsese earned a graduate degree in filmmaking at New York University. After directing several short films, he won critical attention for his feature film Mean Streets (1973) and was widely praised for Taxi Driver (1976); both films starred his frequent lead actor, Robert De Niro. Noted for his realistic, violent portrayals of New York street life, innovative camera work, classic film knowledge, and a spirited cynicism, he rose to the top rank of American directors with such films as Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), GoodFellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), and Gangs of New York (2002). In 2007 Scorsese won an Academy Award for best director for the Boston mob drama The Departed (2006), which was also named best picture.

Learn more about Scorsese, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born 1445/50, Colmar, Alsace—died Feb. 2, 1491, Breisach, Baden) German painter and printmaker. Though a prolific painter whose panels were sought in many countries, it was as an engraver that he was unrivaled in northern Europe. His engravings, consisting of about 115 plates, represent a highly refined manifestation of the late Gothic spirit. He brought engraving to maturity by expanding its range of contrasts and textures, bringing an artist's sensibility to an art hitherto the domain of goldsmiths. The grace of his work became proverbial in his lifetime, giving rise to such nicknames as Hübsch (“Charming”) Martin and Schön (“Beautiful”) Martin.

Learn more about Schongauer, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 15, 1929, Atlanta, Ga., U.S.—died April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tenn.) U.S. civil-rights leader. The son and grandson of Baptist preachers, King became an adherent of nonviolence while in college. Ordained a Baptist minister himself in 1954, he became pastor of a church in Montgomery, Ala.; the following year he received a doctorate from Boston University. He was selected to head the Montgomery Improvement Association, whose boycott efforts eventually ended the city's policies of racial segregation on public transportation. In 1957 he formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and began lecturing nationwide, urging active nonviolence to achieve civil rights for African Americans. In 1960 he returned to Atlanta to become copastor with his father of Ebenezer Baptist Church. He was arrested and jailed for protesting segregation at a lunch counter; the case drew national attention, and presidential candidate John F. Kennedy interceded to obtain his release. In 1963 King helped organize the March on Washington, an assembly of more than 200,000 protestors at which he made his famous “I have a dream” speech. The march influenced the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize for Peace. In 1965 he was criticized from within the civil-rights movement for yielding to state troopers at a march in Selma, Ala., and for failing in the effort to change Chicago's housing segregation policies. Thereafter he broadened his advocacy, addressing the plight of the poor of all races and opposing the Vietnam War. In 1968 he went to Memphis, Tenn., to support a strike by sanitation workers; there on April 4, he was assassinated by James Earl Ray. A U.S. national holiday is celebrated in King's honour on the third Monday in January.

Learn more about King, Martin Luther, Jr. with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 10, 1483, Eisleben, Saxony—died Feb. 18, 1546, Eisleben) German priest who sparked the Reformation. The son of a miner, he studied philosophy and law before entering an Augustinian monastery in 1505. He was ordained two years later and continued his theological studies at the University of Wittenberg, where he became a professor of biblical studies. He was shocked by the corruption of the clergy on a trip to Rome in 1510 and was later troubled by doubts centring on fear of divine retributive justice. His spiritual crisis was resolved when he hit on the idea of justification by faith, the doctrine that salvation is granted as a gift through God's grace. He urged reform of the Roman Catholic church, protesting the sale of indulgences and other abuses, and in 1517 he distributed to the archbishop of Mainz and several friends his Ninety-Five Theses (according to legend, Luther nailed the theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg); the theses questioned Roman Catholic teaching and called for reform. In 1521 he was excommunicated by Pope Leo IX and declared an outlaw at the Diet of Worms (see Worms, Diet of). Under the protection of the elector of Saxony, Luther took refuge in Wartburg. There he translated the Bible into German; his superbly vigorous translation has long been regarded as the greatest landmark in the history of the German language. He later returned to Wittenberg, and in 1525 he married the former nun Katherina von Bora, with whom he raised six children. Though his preaching was the principal spark that set off the Peasants' War (1524–25), his vehement denunciation of the peasants contributed to their defeat. His break with Rome led to the founding of the Lutheran Church (see Lutheranism); the Lutheran confession of faith or, Augsburg Confession, was produced with Luther's sanction by Philipp Melanchthon in 1530. Luther's writings included hymns, a liturgy, and many theological works.

Learn more about Luther, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 26, 1889, Messkirch, Schwarzwald, Ger.—died May 26, 1976, Messkirch, W.Ger.) German philosopher. He taught at the universities of Marburg (1923–27) and Freiburg (1927–44). In 1927 he published his magnum opus, Being and Time. It strongly influenced Jean-Paul Sartre and other existentialists, and, despite Heidegger's protestations, he was classed as the leading atheistic existentialist. His declared purpose in the work was to raise anew the question of the meaning of being. His preliminary analysis of human existence (Dasein, or “being-there”) employed the method of phenomenology. In the early 1930s his thought underwent a Kehre (“turning around”), which some have seen as an abandonment of the problem of Being and Time. Heidegger joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and supported Hitler's policies as rector of Freiburg (1933–34) and less actively through the end of the war. His complicity with the Nazis, which he never publicly disavowed, has prompted debates about whether his philosophy is inherently “totalitarian.” Heidegger's work strongly influenced hermeneutics and poststructuralism.

Learn more about Heidegger, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 5, 1901, Colorado, Texas, U.S.—died Nov. 14, 1972, Lufkin, Texas) U.S. politician. He received a law degree from National University in Washington, D.C. in 1920. After practicing law in Texas, he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (1931–45, 1953–59). Though originally a supporter of the New Deal, by 1937 he had turned against it. In 1938 he was named chairman of the newly created House Un-American Activities Committee; popularly known as the Dies Committee, it pursued alleged communist subversives in New Deal agencies and labour unions. Wheareas conservatives applauded the exposure of supposedly disloyal government and union officials, liberals accused Dies of smearing reputations with unproved charges.

Learn more about Dies, Martin, Jr. with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 8, 1878, Vienna, Austria-Hungary—died June 13, 1965, Jerusalem) German Jewish religious philosopher and biblical translator. Brought up in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine), he studied in Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig, and Zürich. Friedrich Nietzsche's heroic nihilism led Buber, a nonobservant Jew, to Zionism. He advocated Jewish-Arab cooperation in Palestine and saw Hasidism as a healing power for the malaise of modern Judaism. Under Nazi pressure, he emigrated to Palestine in 1938, and he taught at Hebrew University until 1951. I and Thou (1923) expresses Buber's belief that the human (I) encounters God (Thou) as a distinct being, rather than merging in mystical union. The Bible was for Buber derived from the encounter between God and his people, but he rejected many of the Talmud's laws as emerging from a relationship in which God was objectified rather than truly addressed.

Learn more about Buber, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 17, 1900, Halberstadt, German Empire—died May 1945, Berlin, Ger.) German Nazi leader. He joined the Nazi party in 1925 and served as Rudolf Hess's chief of staff (1933–41). He was appointed head of the party chancellery in 1941 and became one of Adolf Hitler's closest lieutenants. A shadowy but extremely powerful presence, Bormann controlled all legislation, party promotions and appointments, and the personal access of others to Hitler. He disappeared shortly after Hitler's death. Though some reports allege that he escaped to South America, German authorities officially declared him dead after exhuming his presumed remains.

Learn more about Bormann, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 25, 1949, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng.) British writer and critic. The son of writer Kingsley Amis, he graduated from Oxford University in 1971. He worked for the Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman before becoming a full-time writer. His works—including the novels Money (1984), London Fields (1989), Time's Arrow (1991), and Night Train (1998)—feature inventive word play and often scabrous humour as they satirize the horrors of modern life. Amis also published an acclaimed autobiography, Experience (2000). Stalinism is the subject of the nonfiction Koba the Dread (2002) and the novel House of Meetings (2006).

Learn more about Amis, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 10, 1483, Eisleben, Saxony—died Feb. 18, 1546, Eisleben) German priest who sparked the Reformation. The son of a miner, he studied philosophy and law before entering an Augustinian monastery in 1505. He was ordained two years later and continued his theological studies at the University of Wittenberg, where he became a professor of biblical studies. He was shocked by the corruption of the clergy on a trip to Rome in 1510 and was later troubled by doubts centring on fear of divine retributive justice. His spiritual crisis was resolved when he hit on the idea of justification by faith, the doctrine that salvation is granted as a gift through God's grace. He urged reform of the Roman Catholic church, protesting the sale of indulgences and other abuses, and in 1517 he distributed to the archbishop of Mainz and several friends his Ninety-Five Theses (according to legend, Luther nailed the theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg); the theses questioned Roman Catholic teaching and called for reform. In 1521 he was excommunicated by Pope Leo IX and declared an outlaw at the Diet of Worms (see Worms, Diet of). Under the protection of the elector of Saxony, Luther took refuge in Wartburg. There he translated the Bible into German; his superbly vigorous translation has long been regarded as the greatest landmark in the history of the German language. He later returned to Wittenberg, and in 1525 he married the former nun Katherina von Bora, with whom he raised six children. Though his preaching was the principal spark that set off the Peasants' War (1524–25), his vehement denunciation of the peasants contributed to their defeat. His break with Rome led to the founding of the Lutheran Church (see Lutheranism); the Lutheran confession of faith or, Augsburg Confession, was produced with Luther's sanction by Philipp Melanchthon in 1530. Luther's writings included hymns, a liturgy, and many theological works.

Learn more about Luther, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 18, 1922, New York City, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 31, 2006, Arlington, Va.) U.S. sociologist and political scientist. He received his bachelor's degree from the City College of New York and his Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he later taught (1950–56). While teaching at the University of California, Berkeley (1956–66), he also served as director of its Institute of International Studies (1962–66). Since then he has taught at Harvard University, Stanford University, and George Mason University. His many books about class structure, elite behaviour, and political parties have significantly shaped the study of comparative politics.

Learn more about Lipset, Seymour Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 15, 1929, Atlanta, Ga., U.S.—died April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tenn.) U.S. civil-rights leader. The son and grandson of Baptist preachers, King became an adherent of nonviolence while in college. Ordained a Baptist minister himself in 1954, he became pastor of a church in Montgomery, Ala.; the following year he received a doctorate from Boston University. He was selected to head the Montgomery Improvement Association, whose boycott efforts eventually ended the city's policies of racial segregation on public transportation. In 1957 he formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and began lecturing nationwide, urging active nonviolence to achieve civil rights for African Americans. In 1960 he returned to Atlanta to become copastor with his father of Ebenezer Baptist Church. He was arrested and jailed for protesting segregation at a lunch counter; the case drew national attention, and presidential candidate John F. Kennedy interceded to obtain his release. In 1963 King helped organize the March on Washington, an assembly of more than 200,000 protestors at which he made his famous “I have a dream” speech. The march influenced the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize for Peace. In 1965 he was criticized from within the civil-rights movement for yielding to state troopers at a march in Selma, Ala., and for failing in the effort to change Chicago's housing segregation policies. Thereafter he broadened his advocacy, addressing the plight of the poor of all races and opposing the Vietnam War. In 1968 he went to Memphis, Tenn., to support a strike by sanitation workers; there on April 4, he was assassinated by James Earl Ray. A U.S. national holiday is celebrated in King's honour on the third Monday in January.

Learn more about King, Martin Luther, Jr. with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 26, 1889, Messkirch, Schwarzwald, Ger.—died May 26, 1976, Messkirch, W.Ger.) German philosopher. He taught at the universities of Marburg (1923–27) and Freiburg (1927–44). In 1927 he published his magnum opus, Being and Time. It strongly influenced Jean-Paul Sartre and other existentialists, and, despite Heidegger's protestations, he was classed as the leading atheistic existentialist. His declared purpose in the work was to raise anew the question of the meaning of being. His preliminary analysis of human existence (Dasein, or “being-there”) employed the method of phenomenology. In the early 1930s his thought underwent a Kehre (“turning around”), which some have seen as an abandonment of the problem of Being and Time. Heidegger joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and supported Hitler's policies as rector of Freiburg (1933–34) and less actively through the end of the war. His complicity with the Nazis, which he never publicly disavowed, has prompted debates about whether his philosophy is inherently “totalitarian.” Heidegger's work strongly influenced hermeneutics and poststructuralism.

Learn more about Heidegger, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born circa 1535, Yorkshire, Eng.—died Nov. 22, 1594, Plymouth, Devon) English navigator and early explorer of Canada's northeastern coast. Searching for the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean, he crossed the Atlantic in 1576 and reached Labrador and Baffin Island, discovering Frobisher Bay. Returning to England with reports of possible gold mines, he obtained royal backing for further expeditions in 1577 and 1578; when he brought back nothing of value, his backing collapsed. In 1585 he sailed as vice admiral of Sir Francis Drake's expedition to the West Indies, and in 1588 he played a prominent part in the campaign against the Spanish Armada.

Learn more about Frobisher, Sir Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 5, 1901, Colorado, Texas, U.S.—died Nov. 14, 1972, Lufkin, Texas) U.S. politician. He received a law degree from National University in Washington, D.C. in 1920. After practicing law in Texas, he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (1931–45, 1953–59). Though originally a supporter of the New Deal, by 1937 he had turned against it. In 1938 he was named chairman of the newly created House Un-American Activities Committee; popularly known as the Dies Committee, it pursued alleged communist subversives in New Deal agencies and labour unions. Wheareas conservatives applauded the exposure of supposedly disloyal government and union officials, liberals accused Dies of smearing reputations with unproved charges.

Learn more about Dies, Martin, Jr. with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 8, 1878, Vienna, Austria-Hungary—died June 13, 1965, Jerusalem) German Jewish religious philosopher and biblical translator. Brought up in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine), he studied in Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig, and Zürich. Friedrich Nietzsche's heroic nihilism led Buber, a nonobservant Jew, to Zionism. He advocated Jewish-Arab cooperation in Palestine and saw Hasidism as a healing power for the malaise of modern Judaism. Under Nazi pressure, he emigrated to Palestine in 1938, and he taught at Hebrew University until 1951. I and Thou (1923) expresses Buber's belief that the human (I) encounters God (Thou) as a distinct being, rather than merging in mystical union. The Bible was for Buber derived from the encounter between God and his people, but he rejected many of the Talmud's laws as emerging from a relationship in which God was objectified rather than truly addressed.

Learn more about Buber, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 17, 1900, Halberstadt, German Empire—died May 1945, Berlin, Ger.) German Nazi leader. He joined the Nazi party in 1925 and served as Rudolf Hess's chief of staff (1933–41). He was appointed head of the party chancellery in 1941 and became one of Adolf Hitler's closest lieutenants. A shadowy but extremely powerful presence, Bormann controlled all legislation, party promotions and appointments, and the personal access of others to Hitler. He disappeared shortly after Hitler's death. Though some reports allege that he escaped to South America, German authorities officially declared him dead after exhuming his presumed remains.

Learn more about Bormann, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 25, 1949, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng.) British writer and critic. The son of writer Kingsley Amis, he graduated from Oxford University in 1971. He worked for the Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman before becoming a full-time writer. His works—including the novels Money (1984), London Fields (1989), Time's Arrow (1991), and Night Train (1998)—feature inventive word play and often scabrous humour as they satirize the horrors of modern life. Amis also published an acclaimed autobiography, Experience (2000). Stalinism is the subject of the nonfiction Koba the Dread (2002) and the novel House of Meetings (2006).

Learn more about Amis, Martin with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Martin is a town in Franklin County and Stephens Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population was 311 at the 2000 census.

Geography

Martin is located at (34.486662, -83.185656)

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.5 square miles (3.9 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 311 people, 127 households, and 84 families residing in the town. The population density was 207.8 people per square mile (80.1/km²). There were 153 housing units at an average density of 102.2/sq mi (39.4/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 72.03% White, 26.37% African American, 0.96% Asian, 0.32% from other races, and 0.32% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.64% of the population.

There were 127 households out of which 30.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.3% were married couples living together, 10.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.1% were non-families. 28.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.05.

In the town the population was spread out with 25.7% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 26.0% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 98.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.3 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $29,000, and the median income for a family was $43,750. Males had a median income of $31,333 versus $19,191 for females. The per capita income for the town was $15,009. About 3.4% of families and 10.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.0% of those under age 18 and 41.9% of those age 65 or over.

References

External links