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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Matter" to "Mecklenburg", Volume 17, Slice 8

VOLUME XVII SLICE VIII Matter to Mecklenburg (continued 2)

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The endless tergiversations and depredations of the emperor speedily induced Matthias to declare war against him for the third time (1481), the Magyar king conquering all the fortresses in Frederick’s hereditary domains. Finally, on the 1st of June 1485, at the head of 8000 veterans, he made his triumphal entry into Vienna, which he henceforth made his capital. Styria, Carinthia and Carniola were next subdued, and Trieste was only saved by the intervention of the Venetians. Matthias consolidated his position by alliances with the dukes of Saxony and Bavaria, with the Swiss Confederation, and the archbishop of Salzburg, and was henceforth the greatest potentate in central Europe. His far-reaching hand even extended to Italy. Thus, in 1480, when a Turkish fleet seized Otranto, Matthias, at the earnest solicitation of the pope, sent Balasz Magyar to recover the fortress, which surrendered to him on the 10th of May 1481. Again in 1488, Matthias took Ancona under his protection for a time and occupied it with a Hungarian garrison.

Though Matthias’s policy was so predominantly occidental that he soon abandoned his youthful idea of driving the Turks out of Europe, he at least succeeded in making them respect Hungarian territory. Thus in 1479 a huge Turkish army, on its return home from ravaging Transylvania, was annihilated at Szászváros (Oct. 13), and in 1480 Matthias recaptured Jajce, drove the Turks from Servia and erected two new military banates, Jajce and Srebernik, out of reconquered Bosnian territory. On the death of Mahommed II. in 1481, a unique opportunity for the intervention of Europe in Turkish affairs presented itself. A civil war ensued in Turkey between his sons Bayezid and Jem, and the latter, being worsted, fled to the knights of Rhodes, by whom he was kept in custody in France (see Bayezid II.). Matthias, as the next-door neighbour of the Turks, claimed the custody of so valuable a hostage, and would have used him as a means of extorting concessions from Bayezid. But neither the pope nor the Venetians would hear of such a transfer, and the negotiations on this subject greatly embittered Matthias against the Curia. The last days of Matthias were occupied in endeavouring to secure the succession to the throne for his illegitimate son János (see Corvinus, János); but Queen Beatrice, though childless, fiercely and openly opposed the idea and the matter was still pending when Matthias, who had long been crippled by gout, expired very suddenly on Palm Sunday, the 4th of April 1490.

Matthias Hunyadi was indisputably the greatest man of his day, and one of the greatest monarchs who ever reigned. The precocity and universality of his genius impress one the most. Like Napoleon, with whom he has often been compared, he was equally illustrious as a soldier, a statesman, an orator, a legislator and an administrator. But in all moral qualities the brilliant adventurer of the 15th was infinitely superior to the brilliant adventurer of the 19th century. Though naturally passionate, Matthias’s self-control was almost superhuman, and throughout his stormy life, with his innumerable experiences of ingratitude and treachery, he never was guilty of a single cruel or vindictive action. His capacity for work was inexhaustible. Frequently half his nights were spent in reading, after the labour of his most strenuous days. There was no branch of knowledge in which he did not take an absorbing interest, no polite art which he did not cultivate and encourage. His camp was a school of chivalry, his court a nursery of poets and artists. Matthias was a middle-sized, broad-shouldered man of martial bearing, with a large fleshy nose, hair reaching to his heels, and the clean-shaven, heavy chinned face of an early Roman emperor.

See Vilmós Fraknói, King Matthias Hunyadi (Hung., Budapest, 1890, German ed., Freiburg, 1891); Ignácz Acsády, History of the Hungarian Realm (Hung. vol. i., Budapest, 1904); József Teleki, The Age of the Hunyadis in Hungary (Hung., vols. 3-5, Budapest, 1852-1890); V. Fraknói, Life of János Vitéz (Hung. Budapest 1879); Karl Schober, Die Eroberung Niederösterreichs durch Matthias Corvinus (Vienna, 1879); János Huszár, Matthias’s Black Army (Hung. Budapest, 1890); Antonio Bonfini, Rerum hungaricarum decades (7th ed., Leipzig, 1771); Aeneas Sylvius, Opera (Frankfort, 1707); The Correspondence of King Matthias (Hung. and Lat., Budapest, 1893); V. Fraknói, The Embassies of Cardinal Carvajal to Hungary (Hung., Budapest, 1889); Marzio Galeotti, De egregie sapienter et jocose, dictis ac factis Matthiae regis (Script. reg. hung. I.) (Vienna, 1746). Of the above the first is the best general sketch and is rich in notes; the second somewhat chauvinistic but excellently written; the third the best work for scholars; the seventh, eighth and eleventh are valuable as being by contemporaries.

(R. N. B.)

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MATTHISSON, FRIEDRICH VON (1761-1831), German poet, was born at Hohendodeleben near Magdeburg, the son of the village pastor, on the 23rd of January 1761. After studying theology and philology at the university of Halle, he was appointed in 1781 master at the classical school Philanthropin in Dessau. This once famous seminary was, however, then rapidly decaying in public favour, and in 1784 Matthisson was glad to accept a travelling tutorship. He lived for two years with the Swiss author Bonstetten at Nyon on the lake of Geneva. In 1794 he was appointed reader and travelling companion to the princess Louisa of Anhalt-Dessau. In 1812 he entered the service of the king of Württemberg, was ennobled, created counsellor of legation, appointed intendant of the court theatre and chief librarian of the royal library at Stuttgart. In 1828 he retired and settled at Wörlitz near Dessau, where he died on the 12th of March 1831. Matthisson enjoyed for a time a great popularity on account of his poems, Gedichte (1787; 15th ed., 1851; new ed., 1876), which Schiller extravagantly praised for their melancholy sweetness and their fine descriptions of scenery. The verse is melodious and the language musical, but the thought and sentiments they express are too often artificial and insincere. His Adelaide has been rendered famous owing to Beethoven’s setting of the song. Of his elegies, Die Elegie in den Ruinen eines alten Bergschlosses is still a favourite. His reminiscences, Erinnerungen (5 vols., 1810-1816), contain interesting accounts of his travels.

Matthisson’s Schriften appeared in eight volumes (1825-1829), of which the first contains his poems, the remainder his Erinnerungen; a ninth volume was added in 1833 containing his biography by H. Döring. His Literarischer Nachlass, with a selection from his correspondence, was published in four volumes by F. R. Schoch in 1832.

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MATTING, a general term embracing many coarse woven or plaited fibrous materials used for covering floors or furniture, for hanging as screens, for wrapping up heavy merchandise and for other miscellaneous purposes. In the United Kingdom, under the name of “coir” matting, a large amount of a coarse kind of carpet is made from coco-nut fibre; and the same material, as well as strips of cane, Manila hemp, various grasses and rushes, is largely employed in various forms for making door mats. Large quantities of the coco-nut fibre are woven in heavy looms, then cut up into various sizes, and finally bound round the edges by a kind of rope made from the same material. The mats may be of one colour only, or they may be made of different colours and in different designs. Sometimes the names of institutions are introduced into the mats. Another type of mat is made exclusively from the above-mentioned rope by arranging alternate layers in sinuous and straight paths, and then stitching the parts together. It is also largely used for the outer covering of ships’ fenders. Perforated and otherwise prepared rubber, as well as wire-woven material, are also largely utilized for door and floor mats. Matting of various kinds is very extensively employed throughout India for floor coverings, the bottoms of bedsteads, fans and fly-flaps, &c.; and a considerable export trade in such manufactures is carried on. The materials used are numerous; but the principal substances are straw, the bulrushes Typha elephantina and T. angustifolia, leaves of the date palm (Phoenix sylvestris), of the dwarf palm (Chamaerops Ritchiana), of the Palmyra palm (Borassus flabelliformis), of the coco-nut palm (Cocos nucifera) and of the screw pine (Pandanus odoratissimus), the munja or munj grass (Saccharum Munja) and allied grasses, and the mat grasses Cyperus textilis and C. Pangorei, from the last of which the well-known Palghat mats of the Madras Presidency are made. Many of these Indian grass-mats are admirable examples of elegant design, and the colours in which they are woven are rich, harmonious and effective in the highest degree. Several useful household articles are made from the different kinds of grasses. The grasses are dyed in all shades and plaited to form attractive designs suitable for the purposes to which they are to be applied. This class of work obtains in India, Japan and other Eastern countries. Vast quantities of coarse matting used for packing furniture, heavy and coarse goods, flax and other plants, &c., are made in Russia from the bast or inner bark of the lime tree. This industry centres in the great forest governments of Viatka, Nizhniy-Novgorod, Kostroma, Kazan, Perm and Simbirsk.

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MATTOCK (O.E. mattuc, of uncertain origin), a tool having a double iron head, of which one end is shaped like an adze, and the other like a pickaxe. The head has a socket in the centre in which the handle is inserted transversely to the blades. It is used chiefly for grubbing and rooting among tree stumps in plantations and copses, where the roots are too close for the use of a spade, or for loosening hard soil.

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MATTO GROSSO, an inland state of Brazil, bounded N. by Amazonas and Pará, E. by Goyaz, Minas Geraes, São Paulo and Paraná, S. by Paraguay and S.W. and W. by Bolivia. It ranks next to Amazonas in size, its area, which is largely unsettled and unexplored, being 532,370 sq. m., and its population only 92,827 in 1890 and 118,025 in 1900. No satisfactory estimate of its Indian population can be made. The greater part of the state belongs to the western extension of the Brazilian plateau, across which, between the 14th and 16th parallels, runs the watershed which separates the drainage basins of the Amazon and La Plata. This elevated region is known as the plateau of Matto Grosso, and its elevations so far as known rarely exceed 3000 ft. The northern slope of this great plateau is drained by the Araguaya-Tocantins, Xingú, Tapajos and Guaporé-Mamoré-Madeira, which flow northward, and, except the first, empty into the Amazon; the southern slope drains southward through a multitude of streams flowing into the Paraná and Paraguay. The general elevation in the south part of the state is much lower, and large areas bordering the Paraguay are swampy, partially submerged plains which the sluggish rivers are unable to drain. The lowland elevations in this part of the state range from 300 to 400 ft. above sea-level, the climate is hot, humid and unhealthy, and the conditions for permanent settlement are apparently unfavourable. On the highlands, however, which contain extensive open campos, the climate, though dry and hot, is considered healthy. The basins of the Paraná and Paraguay are separated by low mountain ranges extending north from the sierras of Paraguay. In the north, however, the ranges which separate the river valleys are apparently the remains of the table-land through which deep valleys have been eroded. The resources of Matto Grosso are practically undeveloped, owing to the isolated situation of the state, the costs of transportation and the small population.

The first industry was that of mining, gold having been discovered in the river valleys on the southern slopes of the plateau, and diamonds on the head-waters of the Paraguay, about Diamantino and in two or three other districts. Gold is found chiefly in placers, and in colonial times the output was large, but the deposits were long ago exhausted and the industry is now comparatively unimportant. As to other minerals little is definitely known. Agriculture exists only for the supply of local needs, though tobacco of a superior quality is grown. Cattle-raising, however, has received some attention and is the principal industry of the landowners. The forest products of the state include fine woods, rubber, ipecacuanha, sarsaparilla, jaborandi, vanilla and copaiba. There is little export, however, the only means of communication being down the Paraguay and Paraná rivers by means of subsidized steamers. The capital of the state is Cuyabá, and the chief commercial town is Corumbá at the head of navigation for the larger river boats, and 1986 m. from the mouth of the La Plata. Communication between these two towns is maintained by a line of smaller boats, the distance being 517 m.

The first permanent settlements in Matto Grosso seem to have been made in 1718 and 1719, in the first year at Forquilha and in the second at or near the site of Cuyabá, where rich placer mines had been found. At this time all this inland region was considered a part of São Paulo, but in 1748 it was made a separate capitania and was named Matto Grosso (“great woods”). In 1752 its capital was situated on the right bank of the Guaporé river and was named Villa Bella da Santissima Trindade de Matto Grosso, but in 1820 the seat of government was removed to Cuyabá and Villa Bella has fallen into decay. In 1822 Matto Grosso became a province of the empire and in 1889 a republican state. It was invaded by the Paraguayans in the war of 1860-65.

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MATTOON, a city of Coles county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the east central part of the state, about 12 m. south-east of Peoria. Pop. (1890), 6833; (1900), 9622, of whom 430 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 11,456. It is served by the Illinois Central and Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis railways, which have repair shops here, and by inter-urban electric lines. The city has a public library, a Methodist Episcopal Hospital, and an Old Folks’ Home, the last supported by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mattoon is an important shipping point for Indian corn and broom corn, extensively grown in the vicinity, and for fruit and livestock. Among its manufactures are foundry and machine shop products, stoves and bricks; in 1905 the factory product was valued at $1,308,781, an increase of 71.2% over that in 1900. The municipality owns the waterworks and an electric lighting plant. Mattoon was first settled about 1855, was named in honour of William Mattoon, an early landowner, was first chartered as a city in 1857, and was reorganized under a general state law in 1879.

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MATTRESS (O.Fr. materas, mod. matelas; the origin is the Arab. al-materah, cushion, whence Span. and Port. almadraque, Ital. materasso), the padded foundation of a bed, formed of canvas or other stout material stuffed with wool, hair, flock or straw; in the last case it is properly known as a “palliasse” (Fr. paille, straw; Lat. palea); but this term is often applied to an under-mattress stuffed with substances other than straw. The padded mattress on which lay the feather-bed has been replaced by the “wire-mattress,” a network of wire stretched on a light wooden or iron frame, which is either a separate structure or a component part of the bedstead itself. The “wire-mattress” has taken the place of the “spring mattress,” in which spiral springs support the stuffing. The term “mattress” is used in engineering for a mat of brushwood, faggots, &c., corded together and used as a foundation or as surface in the construction of dams, jetties, dikes, &c.

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MATURIN, CHARLES ROBERT (1782-1824), Irish novelist and dramatist, was born in Dublin in 1782. His grandfather, Gabriel Jasper Maturin, had been Swift’s successor in the deanery of St Patrick. Charles Maturin was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and became curate of Loughrea and then of St Peter’s, Dublin. His first novels, The Fatal Revenge; or, the Family of Montorio (1807), The Wild Irish Boy (1808), The Milesian Chief (1812), were issued under the pseudonym of “Dennis Jasper Murphy.” All these were mercilessly ridiculed, but the irregular power displayed in them attracted the notice of Sir Walter Scott, who recommended the author to Byron. Through their influence Maturin’s tragedy of Bertram was produced at Drury Lane in 1816, with Kean and Miss Kelly in the leading parts. A French version by Charles Nodier and Baron Taylor was produced in Paris at the Théâtre Favart. Two more tragedies, Manuel (1817) and Fredolfo (1819), were failures, and his poem The Universe (1821) fell flat. He wrote three more novels, Women (1818), Melmoth, the Wanderer (1820), and The Albigenses (1824). Melmoth, which forms its author’s title to remembrance, is the best of them, and has for hero a kind of “Wandering Jew.” Honoré de Balzac wrote a sequel to it under the title of Melmoth réconcilié à l’église (1835). Maturin died in Dublin on the 30th of October 1824.

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MATVYEEV, ARTAMON SERGYEEVICH ( -1682), Russian statesman and reformer, was one of the greatest of the precursors of Peter the Great. His parentage and the date of his birth are uncertain. Apparently his birth was humble, but when the obscure figure of the young Artamon emerges into the light of history we find him equipped at all points with the newest ideas, absolutely free from the worst prejudices of his age, a ripe scholar, and even an author of some distinction. In 1671 the tsar Alexius and Artamon were already on intimate terms, and on the retirement of Orduin-Nashchokin Matvyeev became the tsar’s chief counsellor. It was at his house, full of all the wondrous, half-forbidden novelties of the west, that Alexius, after the death of his first consort, Martha, met Matvyeev’s favourite pupil, the beautiful Natalia Naruishkina, whom he married on the 21st of January 1672. At the end of the year Matvyeev was raised to the rank of okolnichy, and on the 1st of September 1674 attained the still higher dignity of boyar. Matvyeev remained paramount to the end of the reign and introduced play-acting and all sorts of refining western novelties into Muscovy. The deplorable physical condition of Alexius’s immediate successor, Theodore III. suggested to Matvyeev the desirability of elevating to the throne the sturdy little tsarevich Peter, then in his fourth year. He purchased the allegiance of the stryeltsi, or musketeers, and then, summoning the boyars of the council, earnestly represented to them that Theodore, scarce able to live, was surely unable to reign, and urged the substitution of little Peter. But the reactionary boyars, among whom were the near kinsmen of Theodore, proclaimed him tsar and Matvyeev was banished to Pustozersk, in northern Russia, where he remained till Theodore’s death (April 27, 1682). Immediately afterwards Peter was proclaimed tsar by the patriarch, and the first ukaz issued in Peter’s name summoned Matvyeev to return to the capital and act as chief adviser to the tsaritsa Natalia. He reached Moscow on the 15th of May, prepared “to lay down his life for the tsar,” and at once proceeded to the head of the Red Staircase to meet and argue with the assembled stryeltsi, who had been instigated to rebel by the anti-Petrine faction. He had already succeeded in partially pacifying them, when one of their colonels began to abuse the still hesitating and suspicious musketeers. Infuriated, they seized and flung Matvyeev into the square below, where he was hacked to pieces by their comrades.

See R. Nisbet Bain, The First Romanovs (London, 1905); M. P. Pogodin, The First Seventeen Years of the Life of Peter the Great (Rus.), (Moscow, 1875); S. M. Solovev, History of Russia (Rus.), (vols. 12, 13, (St Petersburg, 1895, &c.); L. Shehepotev, A. S. Matvyeev as an Educational and Political Reformer (Rus.), (St Petersburg, 1906).

(R. N. B.)

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MAUBEUGE, a town of northern France, in the department of Nord, situated on both banks of the Sambre, here canalized, 231⁄2 m. by rail E. by S. of Valenciennes, and about 2 m. from the Belgian frontier. Pop. (1906), town 13,569, commune 21,520. As a fortress Maubeuge has an old enceinte of bastion trace which serves as the centre of an important entrenched camp of 18 m. perimeter, constructed for the most part after the war of 1870, but since modernized and augmented. The town has a board of trade arbitration, a communal college, a commercial and industrial school; and there are important foundries, forges and blast-furnaces, together with manufactures of machine-tools, porcelain, &c. It is united by electric tramway with Hautmont (pop. 12,473), also an important metallurgical centre.

Maubeuge (Malbodium) owes its origin to a double monastery, for men and women, founded in the 7th century by St Aldegonde relics of whom are preserved in the church. It subsequently belonged to the territory of Hainault. It was burnt by Louis XI., by Francis I., and by Henry II., and was finally assigned to France by the Treaty of Nijmwegen. It was fortified at Vauban by the command of Louis XIV., who under Turenne first saw military service there. Besieged in 1793 by Prince Josias of Coburg, it was relieved by the victory of Wattignies, which is commemorated by a monument in the town. It was unsuccessfully besieged in 1814, but was compelled to capitulate, after a vigorous resistance, in the Hundred Days.

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MAUCH CHUNK, a borough and the county-seat of Carbon county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Lehigh river and on the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company’s Canal, 46 m. by rail W.N.W. of Easton. Pop. (1800), 4101; (1900), 4029 (571 foreign-born); (1910), 3952. Mauch Chunk is served by the Central of New Jersey railway and, at East Mauch Chunk, across the river, connected by electric railway, by the Lehigh Valley railway. The borough lies in the valley of the Lehigh river, along which runs one of its few streets and in another deeply cut valley at right angles to the river; through this second valley east and west runs the main street, on which is an electric railway; parallel to it on the south is High Street, formerly an Irish settlement; half way up the steep hill, and on the north at the top of the opposite hill is the ward of Upper Mauch Chunk, reached by the electric railway. An incline railway, originally used to transport coal from the mines to the river and named the “Switch-Back,” now carries tourists up the steep slopes of Mount Pisgah and Mount Jefferson, to Summit Hill, a rich anthracite coal region, with a famous “burning mine,” which has been on fire since 1832, and then back. An electric railway to the top of Flagstaff Mountain, built in 1900, was completed in 1901 to Lehighton, 4 m. south-east of Mauch Chunk, where coal is mined and silk and stoves are manufactured, and which had a population in 1900 of 4629, and in 1910 of 5316. Immediately above Mauch Chunk the river forms a horseshoe; on the opposite side, connected by a bridge, is the borough of East Mauch Chunk (pop. 1900, 3458; 1910, 3548); and 2 m. up the river is Glen Onoko, with fine falls and cascades. The principal buildings in Mauch Chunk are the county court house, a county gaol, a Young Men’s Christian Association building, and the Dimmick Memorial Library (1890). The borough was long a famous shipping point for coal. It now has ironworks and foundries, and in East Mauch Chunk there are silk mills. The name is Indian and means “Bear Mountain,” this English name being used for a mountain on the east side of the river. The borough was founded by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in 1818. This company began in 1827 the operation of the “Switch-Back,” probably the first railway in the country to be used for transporting coal. In 1831 the town was opened to individual enterprise, and in 1850 it was incorporated as a borough. Mauch Chunk was for many years the home of Asa Packer, the projector and builder of the Lehigh Valley railroad from Mauch Chunk to Easton.

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MAUCHLINE, a town in the division of Kyle, Ayrshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 1767. It lies 8 m. E.S.E. of Kilmarnock and 11 m. E. by N. of Ayr by the Glasgow and South-Western railway. It is situated on a gentle slope about 1 m. from the river Ayr, which flows through the south of the parish of Mauchline. It is noted for its manufacture of snuff-boxes and knick-knacks in wood, and of curling-stones. There is also some cabinet-making, besides spinning and weaving, and its horse fairs and cattle markets have more than local celebrity. The parish church, dating from 1829, stands in the middle of the village, and on the green a monument, erected in 1830, marks the spot where five Covenanters were killed in 1685. Robert Burns lived with his brother Gilbert on the farm of Mossgiel, about a mile to the north, from 1784 to 1788. Mauchline kirkyard was the scene of the “Holy Fair”; at “Poosie Nansie’s” (Agnes Gibson’s)—still, though much altered, a popular inn—the “Jolly Beggars” held their high jinks; near the church (in the poet’s day an old, barn-like structure) was the Whiteford Arms inn, where on a pane of glass Burns wrote the epitaph on John Dove, the landlord; “auld Nanse Tinnock’s” house, with the date of 1744 above the door, nearly faces the entrance to the churchyard; the Rev. William Auld was minister of Mauchline, and “Holy Willie,” whom the poet scourged in the celebrated “Prayer,” was one of “Daddy Auld’s” elders; behind the kirkyard stands the house of Gavin Hamilton, the lawyer and firm friend of Burns, in which the poet was married. The braes of Ballochmyle, where he met the heroine of his song, “The Lass o’ Ballochmyle,” lie about a mile to the south-east. Adjoining them is the considerable manufacturing town of Catrine (pop. 2340), with cotton factories, bleach fields and brewery, where Dr Matthew Stewart (1717-1785), the father of Dugald Stewart—had a mansion, and where there is a big water-wheel said to be inferior in size only to that of Laxey in the Isle of Man. Barskimming House, 2 m. south by west of Mauchline, the seat of Lord-President Miller (1717-1789), was burned down in 1882. Near the confluence of the Fail and the Ayr was the scene of Burns’s parting with Highland Mary.

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MAUDE, CYRIL (1862- ), English actor, was born in London and educated at Charterhouse. He began his career as an actor in 1883 in America, and from 1896 to 1905 was co-manager with F. Harrison of the Haymarket Theatre, London. There he became distinguished for his quietly humorous acting in many parts. In 1906 he went into management on his own account, and in 1907 opened his new theatre The Playhouse. In 1888 he married the actress Winifred Emery (b. 1862), who had made her London début as a child in 1875, and acted with Irving at the Lyceum between 1881 and 1887. She was a daughter of Samuel Anderson Emery (1817-1881) and granddaughter of John Emery (1777-1822), both well-known actors in their day.

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MAULE, a coast province of central Chile, bounded N. by Talea, E. by Linares and Nuble, and S. by Concepción, and lying between the rivers Maule and Itata, which form its northern and southern boundaries. Pop. (1895), 119,791; area, 2475 sq. m. Maule is traversed from north to south by the coast range and its surfaces are much broken. The Buchupureo river flows westward across the province. The climate is mild and healthy. Agriculture and stock-raising are the principal occupations, and hides, cattle, wheat and timber are exported. Transport facilities are afforded by the Maule and the Itata, which are navigable, and by a branch of the government railway from Cauquenes to Parral, an important town of southern Linares. The provincial capital, Cauquenes (pop., in 1895, 8574; 1902 estimate, 9895), is centrally situated on the Buchupureo river, on the eastern slopes of the coast cordilleras. The town and port of Constitución (pop., in 1900, about 7000) on the south bank of the Maule, one mile above its mouth, was formerly the capital of the province. The port suffers from a dangerous bar at the mouth of the river, but is connected with Talca by rail and has a considerable trade.

The Maule river, from which the province takes its name, is of historic interest because it is said to have marked the southern limits of the Inca Empire. It rises in the Laguna del Maule, an Andean lake near the Argentine frontier, 7218 ft. above sea-level, and flows westward about 140 m. to the Pacific, into which it discharges in 35° 18′ S. The upper part of its drainage basin, to which the Anuario Hydrografico gives an area of 8000 sq. m., contains the volcanoes of San Pedro (11,800 ft.), the Descabezado (12,795 ft.), and others of the same group of lower elevations. The upper course and tributaries of the Maule, principally in the province of Linares, are largely used for irrigation.

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MAULÉON, SAVARI DE (d. 1236), French soldier, was the son of Raoul de Mauléon, vicomte de Thouars and lord of Mauléon (now Châtillon-sur-Sèvre). Having espoused the cause of Arthur of Brittany, he was captured at Mirebeau (1202), and imprisoned in the château of Corfe. But John set him at liberty in 1204, gained him to his side and named him seneschal of Poitou (1205). In 1211 Savari de Mauléon assisted Raymond VI. count of Toulouse, and with him besieged Simon de Montfort in Castelnaudary. Philip Augustus bought his services in 1212 and gave him command of a fleet which was destroyed in the Flemish port of Damme. Then Mauléon returned to John, whom he aided in his struggle with the barons in 1215. He was one of those whom John designated on his deathbed for a council of regency (1216). Then he went to Egypt (1219), and was present at the taking of Damietta. Returning to Poitou he was a second time seneschal for the king of England. He defended Saintonge against Louis VIII. in 1224, but was accused of having given La Rochelle up to the king of France, and the suspicions of the English again threw him back upon the French. Louis VIII. then turned over to him the defence of La Rochelle and the coast of Saintonge. In 1227 he took part in the rising of the barons of Poitiers and Anjou against the young Louis IX. He enjoyed a certain reputation for his poems in the langue d’oc.

See Chilhaud-Dumaine, “Savari de Mauléon,” in Positions des Thèses des élèves de l’École des Chartes (1877); Histoire littéraire de la France, xviii. 671-682.

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MAULSTICK, or Mahlstick, a stick with a soft leather or padded head, used by painters to support the hand that holds the brush. The word is an adaptation of the Dutch maalstok, i.e. the painter’s stick, from malen, to paint.

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MAUNDY THURSDAY (through O.Fr. mandé from Lat. mandatum, commandment, in allusion to Christ’s words: “A new commandment give I unto you,” after he had washed the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper), the Thursday before Easter. Maundy Thursday is sometimes known as Sheer or Chare Thursday, either in allusion, it is thought, to the “shearing” of heads and beards in preparation for Easter, or more probably in the word’s Middle English sense of “pure,” in allusion to the ablutions of the day. The chief ceremony, as kept from the early middle ages onwards—the washing of the feet of twelve or more poor men or beggars—was in the early Church almost unknown. Of Chrysostom and St Augustine, who both speak of Maundy Thursday as being marked by a solemn celebration of the Sacrament, the former does not mention the foot-washing, and the latter merely alludes to it. Perhaps an indication of it may be discerned as early as the 4th century in a custom, current in Spain, northern Italy and elsewhere, of washing the feet of the catechumens towards the end of Lent before their baptism. It was not, however, universal, and in the 48th canon of the synod of Elvira (A.D. 306) it is expressly prohibited (cf. Corp. Jur. Can., c. 104, caus. i. qu. 1). From the 4th century ceremonial foot-washing became yearly more common, till it was regarded as a necessary rite, to be performed by the pope, all Catholic sovereigns, prelates, priests and nobles. In England the king washed the feet of as many poor men as he was years old, and then distributed to them meat, money and clothes. At Durham Cathedral, until the 16th century, every charity-boy had a monk to wash his feet. At Peterborough Abbey, in 1530, Wolsey made “his maund in Our Lady’s Chapel, having fifty-nine poor men whose feet he washed and kissed; and after he had wiped them he gave every of the said poor men twelve pence in money, three ells of good canvas to make them shirts, a pair of new shoes, a cast of red herrings and three white herrings.” Queen Elizabeth performed the ceremony, the paupers’ feet, however, being first washed by the yeomen of the laundry with warm water and sweet herbs. James II. was the last English monarch to perform the rite. William III. delegated the washing to his almoner, and this was usual until the middle of the 18th century. Since 1754 the foot-washing has been abandoned, and the ceremony now consists of the presentation of Maundy money, officially called Maundy Pennies. These were first coined in the reign of Charles II. They come straight from the Mint, and have their edges unmilled. The service which formerly took place in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, is now held in Westminster Abbey. A procession is formed in the nave, consisting of the lord high almoner representing the sovereign, the clergy and the yeomen of the guard, the latter carrying white and red purses in baskets. The clothes formerly given are now commuted for in cash. The full ritual is gone through by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Westminster, and abroad it survives in all Catholic countries, a notable example being that of the Austrian emperor. In the Greek Church the rite survives notably at Moscow, St Petersburg and Constantinople. It is on Maundy Thursday that in the Church of Rome the sacred oil is blessed, and the chrism prepared according to an elaborate ritual which is given in the Pontificale.

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MAUPASSANT, HENRI RENÉ ALBERT GUY DE (1850-1893), French novelist and poet, was born at the Château of Miromesnil in the department of Seine-Inférieure on the 5th August 1850. His grandfather, a landed proprietor of a good Lorraine family, owned an estate at Neuville-Champ-d’Oisel near Rouen, and bequeathed a moderate fortune to his son, a Paris stockbroker, who married Mademoiselle Laure Lepoitevin. Maupassant was educated at Yvetot and at the Rouen lycée. A copy of verses entitled Le Dieu créateur, written during his year of philosophy, has been preserved and printed. He entered the ministry of marine, and was promoted by M. Bardoux to the Cabinet de l’Instruction publique. A pleasant legend says that, in a report by his official chief, Maupassant is mentioned as not reaching the standard of the department in the matter of style. He may very well have been an unsatisfactory clerk, as he divided his time between rowing expeditions and attending the literary gatherings at the house of Gustave Flaubert, who was not, as he is often alleged to be, connected with Maupassant by any blood tie. Flaubert was not his uncle, nor his cousin, nor even his godfather, but merely an old friend of Madame de Maupassant, whom he had known from childhood. At the literary meetings Maupassant seldom shared in the conversation. Upon those who met him—Tourgenieff, Alphonse Daudet, Catulle Mendès, José-Maria de Heredia and Émile Zola—he left the impression of a simple young athlete. Even Flaubert, to whom Maupassant submitted some sketches, was not greatly struck by their talent, though he encouraged the youth to persevere. Maupassant’s first essay was a dramatic piece twice given at Étretat in 1873 before an audience which included Tourgenieff, Flaubert and Meilhac. In this indecorous performance, of which nothing more is heard, Maupassant played the part of a woman. During the next seven years he served a severe apprenticeship to Flaubert, who by this time realized his pupil’s exceptional gifts. In 1880 Maupassant published a volume of poems, Des Vers, against which the public prosecutor of Etampes took proceedings that were finally withdrawn through the influence of the senator Cordier. From Flaubert, who had himself been prosecuted for his first book, Madame Bovary, there came a letter congratulating the poet on the similarity between their first literary experiences. Des Vers is an extremely interesting experiment, which shows Maupassant to us still hesitating in his choice of a medium; but he recognized that it was not wholly satisfactory, and that its chief deficiency—the absence of verbal melody—was fatal. Later in the same year he contributed to the Soirées de Médan, a collection of short stories by MM. Zola, J.-K. Huysmans, Henry Céard, Léon Hennique and Paul Alexis; and in Boule de suif the young unknown author revealed himself to his amazed collaborators and to the public as an admirable writer of prose and a consummate master of the conte. There is perhaps no other instance in modern literary history of a writer beginning, as a fully equipped artist, with a genuine masterpiece. This early success was quickly followed by another. The volume entitled La Maison Tellier (1881) confirmed the first impression, and vanquished even those who were repelled by the author’s choice of subjects. In Mademoiselle Fifi (1883) he repeated his previous triumphs as a conteur, and in this same year he, for the first time, attempted to write on a larger scale. Choosing to portray the life of a blameless girl, unfortunate in her marriage, unfortunate in her son, consistently unfortunate in every circumstance of existence, he leaves her, ruined and prematurely old, clinging to the tragic hope, which time, as one feels, will belie, that she may find happiness in her grandson. This picture of an average woman undergoing the constant agony of disillusion Maupassant calls Une Vie (1883), and as in modern literature there is no finer example of cruel observation, so there is no sadder book than this, while the effect of extreme truthfulness which it conveys justifies its sub-title—L’Humble vérité. Certain passages of Une Vie are of such a character that the sale of the volume at railway bookstalls was forbidden throughout France. The matter was brought before the chamber of deputies, with the result of drawing still more attention to the book, and of advertising the Contes de la bécasse (1883), a collection of stories as improper as they are clever. Au soleil (1884), a book of travels which has the eminent qualities of lucid observation and exact description, was less read than Clair de lune, Miss Harriet, Les Sœurs Rondoli and Yvette, all published in 1883-1884 when Maupassant’s powers were at their highest level. Three further collections of short tales, entitled Contes et nouvelles, Monsieur Parent, and Contes du jour et de la nuit, issued in 1885, proved that while the author’s vision was as incomparable as ever, his fecundity had not improved his impeccable form. To 1885 also belongs an elaborate novel, Bel-ami, the cynical history of a particularly detestable, brutal scoundrel who makes his way in the world by means of his handsome face. Maupassant is here no less vivid in realizing his literary men, financiers and frivolous women than in dealing with his favourite peasants, boors and servants, to whom he returned in Toine (1886) and in La Petite roque (1886). About this time appeared the first symptoms of the malady which destroyed him; he wrote less, and though the novel Mont-Oriol (1887) shows him apparently in undiminished possession of his faculty, Le Horla (1887) suggests that he was already subject to alarming hallucinations. Restored to some extent by a sea-voyage, recorded in Sur l’eau (1888), he went back to short stories in Le Rosier de Madame Husson (1888), a burst of Rabelaisian humour equal to anything he had ever written. His novels Pierre et Jean (1888), Fort comme la mort (1889), and Notre cœur (1890) are penetrating studies touched with a profounder sympathy than had hitherto distinguished him; and this softening into pity for the tragedy of life is deepened in some of the tales included in Inutile beauté (1890). One of these, Le Champ d’Oliviers, is an unsurpassable example of poignant, emotional narrative. With La Vie errante (1890), a volume of travels, Maupassant’s career practically closed. Musotte, a theatrical piece written in collaboration with M. Jacques Normand, was published in 1891. By this time inherited nervous maladies, aggravated by excessive physical exercises and by the imprudent use of drugs, had undermined his constitution. He began to take an interest in religious problems, and for a while made the Imitation his handbook; but his misanthropy deepened, and he suffered from curious delusions as to his wealth and rank. A victim of general paralysis, of which La Folie des grandeurs was one of the symptoms, he drank the waters at Aix-les-Bains during the summer of 1891, and retired to Cannes, where he purposed passing the winter. The singularities of conduct which had been observed at Aix-les-Bains grew more and more marked. Maupassant’s reason slowly gave way. On the 6th of January 1892 he attempted suicide, and was removed to Paris, where he died in the most painful circumstances on the 6th of July 1893. He is buried in the cemetery of Montparnasse. The opening chapters of two projected novels, L’Angélus and L’Ame étrangère, were found among his papers; these, with La Paix du ménage, a comedy in two acts, and two collections of tales, Le Père Milon (1898) and Le Colporteur (1899), have been published posthumously. A correspondence, called Amitié amoureuse (1897), and dedicated to his mother, is probably unauthentic. Among the prefaces which he wrote for the works of others, only one—an introduction to a French prose version of Mr Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads—is likely to interest English readers.

Maupassant began as a follower of Flaubert and of M. Zola, but, whatever the masters may have called themselves, they both remained essentially romantiques. The pupil is the last of the “naturalists”: he even destroyed naturalism, since he did all that can be done in that direction. He had no psychology, no theories of art, no moral or strong social prejudices, no disturbing imagination, no wealth of perplexing ideas. It is no paradox to say that his marked limitations made him the incomparable artist that he was. Undisturbed by any external influence, his marvellous vision enabled him to become a supreme observer, and, given his literary sense, the rest was simple. He prided himself in having no invention; he described nothing that he had not seen. The peasants whom he had known as a boy figure in a score of tales; what he saw in Government offices is set down in L’Héritage; from Algiers he gathers the material for Maroca; he drinks the waters and builds up Mont-Oriol; he enters journalism, constructs Bel-ami, and, for the sake of precision, makes his brother, Hervé de Maupassant, sit for the infamous hero’s portrait; he sees fashionable society, and, though it wearied him intensely, he transcribes its life in Fort comme la mort and Notre cœur. Fundamentally he finds all men alike. In every grade he finds the same ferocious, cunning, animal instincts at work: it is not a gay world, but he knows no other; he is possessed by the dread of growing old, of ceasing to enjoy; the horror of death haunts him like a spectre. It is an extremely simple outlook. Maupassant does not prefer good to bad, one man to another; he never pauses to argue about the meaning of life, a senseless thing which has the one advantage of yielding materials for art; his one aim is to discover the hidden aspect of visible things, to relate what he has observed, to give an objective rendering of it, and he has seen so intensely and so serenely that he is the most exact transcriber in literature. And as the substance is, so is the form: his style is exceedingly simple and exceedingly strong; he uses no rare or superfluous word, and is content to use the humblest word if only it conveys the exact picture of the thing seen. In ten years he produced some thirty volumes. With the exception of Pierre et Jean, his novels, excellent as they are, scarcely represent him at his best, and of over two hundred contes a proportion must be rejected. But enough will remain to vindicate his claim to a permanent place in literature as an unmatched observer and the most perfect master of the short story.

See also F. Brunetière, Le Roman naturaliste (1883); T. Lemaître, Les Contemporains (vols. i. v. vi.); R. Doumic, Ecrivains d’aujourd’hui (1894); an introduction by Henry James to The Odd Number ... (1891); a critical preface by the earl of Crewe to Pierre and Jean (1902); A. Symons, Studies in Prose and Verse (1904). There are many references to Maupassant in the Journal des Goncourt, and some correspondence with Marie Bashkirtseff was printed with Further Memoirs of that lady in 1901.

(J. F. K.)

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MAUPEOU, RENÉ NICOLAS CHARLES AUGUSTIN (1714-1792), chancellor of France, was born on the 25th of February 1714, being the eldest son of René Charles de Maupeou (1688-1775), who was president of the parlement of Paris from 1743 to 1757. He married in 1744 a rich heiress, Anne de Roncherolles, a cousin of Madame d’Épinay. Entering public life, he was his father’s right hand in the conflicts between the parlement and Christophe de Beaumont, archbishop of Paris, who was supported by the court. Between 1763 and 1768, dates which cover the revision of the case of Jean Calas and the trial of the comte de Lally, Maupeou was himself president of the parlement. In 1768, through the protection of Choiseul, whose fall two years later was in large measure his work, he became chancellor in succession to his father, who had held the office for a few days only. He determined to support the royal authority against the parlement, which in league with the provincial magistratures was seeking to arrogate to itself the functions of the states-general. He allied himself with the duc d’Aiguillon and Madame du Barry, and secured for a creature of his own, the Abbé Terrai, the office of comptroller-general. The struggle came over the trial of the case of the duc d’Aiguillon, ex-governor of Brittany, and of La Chalotais, procureur-général of the province, who had been imprisoned by the governor for accusations against his administration. When the parlement showed signs of hostility against Aiguillon, Maupeou read letters patent from Louis XV. annulling the proceedings. Louis replied to remonstrances from the parlement by a lit de justice, in which he demanded the surrender of the minutes of procedure. On the 27th of November 1770 appeared the Édit de règlement et de discipline, which was promulgated by the chancellor, forbidding the union of the various branches of the parlement and correspondence with the provincial magistratures. It also made a strike on the part of the parlement punishable by confiscation of goods, and forbade further obstruction to the registration of royal decrees after the royal reply had been given to a first remonstrance. This edict the magistrates refused to register, and it was registered in a lit de justice held at Versailles on the 7th of December, whereupon the parlement suspended its functions. After five summonses to return to their duties, the magistrates were surprised individually on the night of the 19th of January 1771 by musketeers, who required them to sign yes or no to a further request to return. Thirty-eight magistrates gave an affirmative answer, but on the exile of their former colleagues by lettres de cachet they retracted, and were also exiled. Maupeou installed the council of state to administer justice pending the establishment of six superior courts in the provinces, and of a new parlement in Paris. The cour des aides was next suppressed.

Voltaire praised this revolution, applauding the suppression of the old hereditary magistrature, but in general Maupeou’s policy was regarded as the triumph of tyranny. The remonstrances of the princes, of the nobles, and of the minor courts, were met by exile and suppression, but by the end of 1771 the new system was established, and the Bar, which had offered a passive resistance, recommenced to plead. But the death of Louis XV. in May 1774 ruined the chancellor. The restoration of the parlements was followed by a renewal of the quarrels between the new king and the magistrature. Maupeou and Terrai were replaced by Malesherbes and Turgot. Maupeou lived in retreat until his death at Thuit on the 29th of July 1792, having lived to see the overthrow of the ancien régime. His work, in so far as it was directed towards the separation of the judicial and political functions and to the reform of the abuses attaching to a hereditary magistrature, was subsequently endorsed by the Revolution; but no justification of his violent methods or defence of his intriguing and avaricious character is possible. He aimed at securing absolute power for Louis XV., but his action was in reality a serious blow to the monarchy.

The chief authority for the administration of Maupeou is the compte rendu in his own justification presented by him to Louis XVI. in 1789, which included a dossier of his speeches and edicts, and is preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale. These documents, in the hands of his former secretary, C. F. Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, formed the basis of the judicial system of France as established under the consulate (cf. C. F. Lebrun, Opinions, rapports et choix d’écrits politiques, published posthumously in 1829). See further Maupeouana (6 vols., Paris, 1775), which contains the pamphlets directed against him; Journal hist. de la révolution opérée ... par M. de Maupeou (7 vols., 1775); the official correspondence of Mercy-Argenteau, the letters of Mme d’Épinay; and Jules Flammermont, Le Chancelier Maupeou et les parlements (1883).

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MAUPERTUIS, PIERRE LOUIS MOREAU DE (1698-1759), French mathematician and astronomer, was born at St Malo on the 17th of July 1698. When twenty years of age he entered the army, becoming lieutenant in a regiment of cavalry, and employing his leisure on mathematical studies. After five years he quitted the army and was admitted in 1723 a member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1728 he visited London, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1736 he acted as chief of the expedition sent by Louis XV. into Lapland to measure the length of a degree of the meridian (see Earth, Figure of), and on his return home he became a member of almost all the scientific societies of Europe. In 1740 Maupertuis went to Berlin on the invitation of the king of Prussia, and took part in the battle of Mollwitz, where he was taken prisoner by the Austrians. On his release he returned to Berlin, and thence to Paris, where he was elected director of the Academy of Sciences in 1742, and in the following year was admitted into the Academy. Returning to Berlin in 1744, at the desire of Frederick II., he was chosen president of the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1746. Finding his health declining, he repaired in 1757 to the south of France, but went in 1758 to Basel, where he died on the 27th of July 1759. Maupertuis was unquestionably a man of considerable ability as a mathematician, but his restless, gloomy disposition involved him in constant quarrels, of which his controversies with König and Voltaire during the latter part of his life furnish examples.

The following are his most important works: Sur la figure de la terre (Paris, 1738); Discours sur la parallaxe de la lune (Paris, 1741); Discours sur la figure des astres (Paris, 1742); Éléments de la géographie (Paris, 1742); Lettre sur la comète de 1742 (Paris, 1742); Astronomie nautique (Paris, 1745 and 1746); Vénus physique (Paris, 1745); Essai de cosmologie (Amsterdam, 1750). His Œuvres were published in 1752 at Dresden and in 1756 at Lyons.

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MAU RANIPUR, a town of British India in Jahnsi district, in the United Provinces. Pop. (1901), 17,231. It contains a large community of wealthy merchants and bankers. A special variety of red cotton cloth, known as kharua, is manufactured and exported to all parts of India. Trees line many of the streets, and handsome temples ornament the town.

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MAUREL, ABDIAS (d. 1705), Camisard leader, became a cavalry officer in the French army and gained distinction in Italy; here he served under Marshal Catinat, and on this account he himself is sometimes known as Catinat. In 1702, when the revolt in the Cévennes broke out, he became one of the Camisard leaders, and in this capacity his name was soon known and feared. He refused to accept the peace made by Jean Cavalier in 1704, and after passing a few weeks in Switzerland he returned to France and became one of the chiefs of those Camisards who were still in arms. He was deeply concerned in a plot to capture some French towns, a scheme which, it was hoped, would be helped by England and Holland. But it failed; Maurel was betrayed, and with three other leaders of the movement was burned to death at Nîmes on the 22nd of April 1705. He was a man of great physical strength; but he was very cruel, and boasted he had killed 200 Roman Catholics with his own hands.

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MAUREL, VICTOR (1848- ), French singer, was born at Marseilles, and educated in music at the Paris Conservatoire. He made his début in opera at Paris in 1868, and in London in 1873, and from that time onwards his admirable acting and vocal method established his reputation as one of the finest of operatic baritones. He created the leading part in Verdi’s Otello, and was equally fine in Wagnerian and Italian opera.

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MAURENBRECHER, KARL PETER WILHELM (1838-1892), German historian, was born at Bonn on the 21st of December, 1838, and studied in Berlin and Munich under Ranke and Von Sybel, being especially influenced by the latter historian. After doing some research work at Simancas in Spain, he became professor of history at the university of Dorpat in 1867; and was then in turn professor at Königsberg, Bonn and Leipzig. He died at Leipzig on the 6th of November, 1892.

Many of Maurenbrecher’s works are concerned with the Reformation, among them being England im Reformationszeitalter (Düsseldorf, 1866); Karl V. und die deutschen Protestanten (Düsseldorf, 1865); Studien und Skizzen zur Geschichte der Reformationszeit (Leipzig, 1874); and the incomplete Geschichte der Katholischen Reformation (Nördlingen, 1880). He also wrote Don Karlos (Berlin, 1876); Gründung des deutschen Reiches 1859-1871 (Leipzig, 1892, and again 1902); and Geschichte der deutschen Königswahlen (Leipzig, 1889). See G. Wolf, Wilhelm Maurenbrecher (Berlin, 1893).

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MAUREPAS, JEAN FRÉDÉRIC PHÉLYPEAUX, Comte de (1701-1781), French statesman, was born on the 9th of July 1701 at Versailles, being the son of Jérôme de Pontchartrain, secretary of state for the marine and the royal household. Maurepas succeeded to his father’s charge at fourteen, and began his functions in the royal household at seventeen, while in 1725 he undertook the actual administration of the navy. Although essentially light and frivolous in character, Maurepas was seriously interested in scientific matters, and he used the best brains of France to apply science to questions of navigation and of naval construction. He was disgraced in 1749, and exiled from Paris for an epigram against Madame de Pompadour. On the accession of Louis XVI., twenty-five years later, he became a minister of state and Louis XVI.’s chief adviser. He gave Turgot the direction of finance, placed Lamoignon-Malesherbes over the royal household and made Vergennes minister for foreign affairs. At the outset of his new career he showed his weakness by recalling to their functions, in deference to popular clamour, the members of the old parlement ousted by Maupeou, thus reconstituting the most dangerous enemy of the royal power. This step, and his intervention on behalf of the American states, helped to pave the way for the French revolution. Jealous of his personal ascendancy over Louis XVI., he intrigued against Turgot, whose disgrace in 1776 was followed after six months of disorder by the appointment of Necker. In 1781 Maurepas deserted Necker as he had done Turgot, and he died at Versailles on the 21st of November 1781.

Maurepas is credited with contributions to the collection of facetiae known as the Étrennes de la Saint Jean (2nd ed., 1742). Four volumes of Mémoires de Maurepas, purporting to be collected by his secretary and edited by J. L. G. Soulavie in 1792, must be regarded as apocryphal. Some of his letters were published in 1896 by the Soc. de l’hist. de Paris. His éloge in the Academy of Sciences was pronounced by Condorcet.

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MAURER, GEORG LUDWIG VON (1790-1872), German statesman and historian, son of a Protestant pastor, was born at Erpolzheim, near Dürkheim, in the Rhenish Palatinate, on the 2nd of November 1790. Educated at Heidelberg, he went in 1812 to reside in Paris, where he entered upon a systematic study of the ancient legal institutions of the Germans. Returning to Germany in 1814, he received an appointment under the Bavarian government, and afterwards filled several important official positions. In 1824 he published at Heidelberg his Geschichte des altgermanischen und namentlich altbayrischen öffentlich-mündlichen Gerichtsverfahrens, which obtained the first prize of the academy of Munich, and in 1826 he became professor in the university of Munich. In 1829 he returned to official life, and was soon offered an important post. In 1832, when Otto (Otho), son of Louis I., king of Bavaria, was chosen to fill the throne of Greece, a council of regency was nominated during his minority, and Maurer was appointed a member. He applied himself energetically to the task of creating institutions adapted to the requirements of a modern civilized community; but grave difficulties soon arose and Maurer was recalled in 1834, when he returned to Munich. This loss was a serious one for Greece. Maurer was the ablest, most energetic and most liberal-minded member of the council, and it was through his enlightened efforts that Greece obtained a revised penal code, regular tribunals and an improved system of civil procedure. Soon after his recall he published Das griechische Volk in öffentlicher, kirchlicher, und privatrechtlicher Beziehung vor und nach dem Freiheitskampfe bis zum 31 Juli 1834 (Heidelberg, 1835-1836), a useful source of information for the history of Greece before Otto ascended the throne, and also for the labours of the council of regency to the time of the author’s recall. After the fall of the ministry of Karl von Abel (1788-1859) in 1847, he became chief Bavarian minister and head of the departments of foreign affairs and of justice, but was overthrown in the same year. He died at Munich on the 9th of May 1872. His only son, Conrad von Maurer (1823-1902), was a Scandinavian scholar of some repute, and like his father was a professor at the university of Munich.

Maurer’s most important contribution to history is a series of books on the early institutions of the Germans. These are: Einleitung zur Geschichte der Mark-, Hof-, Dorf-, und Stadtverfassung und der öffentlichen Gewalt (Munich, 1854); Geschichte der Markenverfassung in Deutschland (Erlangen, 1856); Geschichte der Fronhöfe, der Bauernhöfe, und der Hofverfassung in Deutschland (Erlangen, 1862-1863); Geschichte der Dorfverfassung in Deutschland (Erlangen, 1865-1866); and Geschichte der Slädteverfassung in Deutschland (Erlangen, 1869-1871). These works are still important authorities for the early history of the Germans. Among other works are, Das Stadt- und Landrechtsbuch Ruprechts von Freising, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Schwabenspiegels (Stuttgart, 1839); Über die Freipflege (plegium liberale), und die Entstehung der grossen und kleinen Jury in England (Munich, 1848); and Über die deutsche Reichsterritorial- und Rechtsgeschichte (1830).

Sec K. T. von Heigel, Denkwürdigkeiten des bayrischen Staatsrats G. L. von Maurer (Munich, 1903).

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MAURETANIA, the ancient name of the north-western angle of the African continent, and under the Roman Empire also of a large territory eastward of that angle. The name had different significations at different times; but before the Roman occupation, Mauretania comprised a considerable part of the modern Morocco i.e. the northern portion bounded on the east by Algiers. Towards the south we may suppose it bounded by the Atlas range, and it seems to have been regarded by geographers as extending along the coast to the Atlantic as far as the point where that chain descends to the sea, in about 30 N. lat. (Strabo, p. 825). The magnificent plateau in which the city of Morocco is situated seems to have been unknown to ancient geographers, and was certainly never included in the Roman Empire. On the other hand, the Gaetulians to the south of the Atlas range, on the date-producing slopes towards the Sahara, seem to have owned a precarious subjection to the kings of Mauretania, as afterwards to the Roman government. A large part of the country is of great natural fertility, and in ancient times produced large quantities of corn, while the slopes of Atlas were clothed with forests, which, besides other kinds of timber, produced the celebrated ornamental wood called citrum (Plin. Hist. Nat. 13-96), for tables of which the Romans gave fabulous prices. (For physical geography, see Morocco.)

Mauretania, or Maurusia as it was called by Greek writers, signified the land of the Mauri, a term still retained in the modern name of Moors (q.v.). The origin and ethnical affinities of the race are uncertain; but it is probable that all the inhabitants of this northern tract of Africa were kindred races belonging to the great Berber family, possibly with an intermingled fair-skinned race from Europe (see Tissot, Géographie comparée de la province romaine d’Afrique, i. 400 seq.; also Berbers). They first appear in history at the time of the Jugurthine War (110-106 B.C.), when Mauretania was under the government of Bocchus and seems to have been recognized as organized state (Sallust, Jugurtha, 19). To this Bocchus was given, after the war, the western part of Jugurtha’s kingdom of Numidia, perhaps as far east as Saldae (Bougie). Sixty years later, at the time of the dictator Caesar, we find two Mauretanian kingdoms, one to the west of the river Mulucha under Bogud, and the other to the east under a Bocchus; as to the date or cause of the division we are ignorant. Both these kings took Caesar’s part in the civil wars, and had their territory enlarged by him (Appian, B.C. 4, 54). In 25 B.C., after their deaths, Augustus gave the two kingdoms to Juba II. of Numidia (see under Juba), with the river Ampsaga as the eastern frontier (Plin. 5. 22; Ptol. 4. 3. 1). Juba and his son Ptolemaeus after him reigned till A.D. 40, when the latter was put to death by Caligula, and shortly afterwards Claudius incorporated the kingdom into the Roman state as two provinces, viz. Mauretania Tingitana to the west of the Mulucha and M. Caesariensis to the east of that river, the latter taking its name from the city Caesarea (formerly Iol), which Juba had thus named and adopted as his capital. Thus the dividing line between the two provinces was the same as that which had originally separated Mauretania from Numidia (q.v.). These provinces were governed until the time of Diocletian by imperial procurators, and were occasionally united for military purposes. Under and after Diocletian M. Tingitana was attached administratively to the dioicesis of Spain, with which it was in all respects closely connected; while M. Caesariensis was divided by making its eastern part into a separate government, which was called M. Sitifensis from the Roman colony Sitifis.

In the two provinces of Mauretania there were at the time of Pliny a number of towns, including seven (possibly eight) Roman colonies in M. Tingitana and eleven in M. Caesariensis; others were added later. These were mostly military foundations, and served the purpose of securing civilization against the inroads of the natives, who were not in a condition to be used as material for town-life as in Gaul and Spain, but were under the immediate government of the procurators, retaining their own clan organization. Of these colonies the most important, beginning from the west, were Lixus on the Atlantic, Tingis (Tangier), Rusaddir (Melila, Melilla), Cartenna (Tenes), Iol or Caesarea (Cherchel), Icosium (Algiers), Saldae (Bougie), Igilgili (Jijelli) and Sitifis (Setif). All these were on the coast but the last, which was some distance inland. Besides these there were many municipia or oppida civium romanorum (Plin. 5. 19 seq.), but, as has been made clear by French archaeologists who have explored these regions, Roman settlements are less frequent the farther we go west, and M. Tingitana has as yet yielded but scanty evidence of Roman civilization. On the whole Mauretania was in a flourishing condition down to the irruption of the Vandals in A.D. 429; in the Notitia nearly a hundred and seventy episcopal sees are enumerated here, but we must remember that numbers of these were mere villages.

In 1904 the term Mauretania was revived as an official designation by the French government, and applied to the territory north of the lower Senegal under French protection (see Senegal).

To the authorities quoted under Africa, Roman, may be added here Göbel, Die West-küste Afrikas im Alterthum.

(W. W. F.*)

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MAURIAC, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Cantal, 39 m. N.N.W. of Aurillac by rail. Pop. (1906), 2558. Mauriac, built on the slope of a volcanic hill, has a church of the 12th century, and the buildings of an old abbey now used as public offices and dwellings; the town owes its origin to the abbey, founded during the 6th century. It is the seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of first instance and a communal college. There are marble quarries in the vicinity.

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MAURICE [or Mauritius], ST (d. c. 286), an early Christian martyr, who, with his companions, is commemorated by the Roman Catholic Church on the 22nd of September. The oldest form of his story is found in the Passio ascribed to Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, c. 450, who relates how the “Theban” legion commanded by Mauritius was sent to north Italy to reinforce the army of Maximinian. Maximinian wished to use them in persecuting the Christians, but as they themselves were of this faith, they refused, and for this, after having been twice decimated, the legion was exterminated at Octodurum (Martigny) near Geneva. In late versions this legend was expanded and varied, the martyrdom was connected with a refusal to take part in a great sacrifice ordered at Octodurum and the name of Exsuperius was added to that of Mauritius. Gregory of Tours (c. 539-593) speaks of a company of the same legion which suffered at Cologne.

The Magdeburg Centuries, in spite of Mauritius being the patron saint of Magdeburg, declared the whole legend fictitious; J. A. du Bordien La Légion thébéenne (Amsterdam, 1705); J. J. Hottinger in Helvetische Kirchengeschichte (Zürich, 1708); and F. W. Rettberg, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (Göttingen, 1845-1848) have also demonstrated its untrustworthiness, while the Bollandists, De Rivaz and Joh. Friedrich uphold it. Apart from the a priori improbability of a whole legion being martyred, the difficulties are that in 286 Christians everywhere throughout the empire were not molested, that at no later date have we evidence of the presence of Maximinian in the Valais, and that none of the writers nearest to the event (Eusebius, Lactantius, Orosius, Sulpicius Severus) know anything of it. It is of course quite possible that isolated cases of officers being put to death for their faith occurred during Maximinian’s reign, and on some such cases the legend may have grown up during the century and a half between Maximinian and Eucherius. The cult of St Maurice and the Theban legion is found in Switzerland (where two places bear the name in Valais, besides St Moritz in Grisons), along the Rhine, and in north Italy. The foundation of the abbey of St Maurice (Agaunum) in the Valais is usually ascribed to Sigismund of Burgundy (515). Relics of the saint are preserved here and at Brieg and Turin.

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MAURICE (Mauricius Flavius Tiberius) (c. 539-602), East Roman emperor from 582 to 602, was of Roman descent, but a native of Arabissus in Cappadocia. He spent his youth at the court of Justin II., and, having joined the army, fought with distinction in the Persian War (578-581). At the age of forty-three he was declared Caesar by the dying emperor Tiberius II., who bestowed upon him the hand of his daughter Constantina. Maurice brought the Persian War to a successful close by the restoration of Chosroes II. to the throne (591). On the northern frontier he at first bought off the Avars by payments which compelled him to exercise strict economy in his general administration, but after 595 inflicted several defeats upon them through his general Crispus. By his strict discipline and his refusal to ransom a captive corps he provoked to mutiny the army on the Danube. The revolt spread to the popular factions in Constantinople, and Maurice consented to abdicate. He withdrew to Chalcedon, but was hunted down and put to death after witnessing the slaughter of his five sons.

The work on military art (στρατηγικά) ascribed to him is a contemporary work of unknown authorship (ed. Scheffer, Arriani tactica et Mauricii ars militaris, Upsala, 1664; see Max Jähns, Gesch. d. Kriegswissensch., i. 152-156).

See Theophylactus Simocatta, Vita Mauricii (ed. de Boor, 1887); E. Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (ed. Bury, London, 1896, v. 19-21, 57); J. B. Bury, The Later Roman Empire (London, 1889, ii. 83-94); G. Finlay, History of Greece (ed. 1877, Oxford, i. 299-306).

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MAURICE (1521-1553), elector of Saxony, elder son of Henry, duke of Saxony, belonging to the Albertine branch of the Wettin family, was born at Freiberg on the 21st of March 1521. In January 1541 he married Agnes, daughter of Philip, landgrave of Hesse. In that year he became duke of Saxony by his father’s death, and he continued Henry’s work in forwarding the progress of the Reformation. Duke Henry had decreed that his lands should be divided between his two sons, but as a partition was regarded as undesirable the whole of the duchy came to his elder son. Maurice, however, made generous provision for his brother Augustus, and the desire to compensate him still further was one of the minor threads of his subsequent policy. In 1542 he assisted the emperor Charles V. against the Turks, in 1543 against William, duke of Cleves, and in 1544 against the French; but his ambition soon took a wider range. The harmonious relations which subsisted between the two branches of the Wettins were disturbed by the interference of Maurice in Cleves, a proceeding distasteful to the Saxon elector, John Frederick; and a dispute over the bishopric of Meissen having widened the breach, war was only averted by the mediation of Philip of Hesse and Luther. About this time Maurice seized the idea of securing for himself the electoral dignity held by John Frederick, and his opportunity came when Charles was preparing to attack the league of Schmalkalden. Although educated as a Lutheran, religious questions had never seriously appealed to Maurice. As a youth he had joined the league of Schmalkalden, but this adhesion, as well as his subsequent declaration to stand by the confession of Augsburg, cannot be regarded as the decision of his maturer years. In June 1546 he took a decided step by making a secret agreement with Charles at Regensburg. Maurice was promised some rights over the archbishopric of Magdeburg and the bishopric of Halberstadt; immunity, in part at least, for his subjects from the Tridentine decrees; and the question of transferring the electoral dignity was discussed. In return the duke probably agreed to aid Charles in his proposed attack on the league as soon as he could gain the consent of the Saxon estates, or at all events to remain neutral during the impending war. The struggle began in July 1546, and in October Maurice declared war against John Frederick. He secured the formal consent of Charles to the transfer of the electoral dignity and took the field in November. He had gained a few successes when John Frederick hastened from south Germany to defend his dominions. Maurice’s ally, Albert Alcibiades, prince of Bayreuth, was taken prisoner at Rochlitz; and the duke, driven from electoral Saxony, was unable to prevent his own lands from being overrun. Salvation, however, was at hand. Marching against John Frederick, Charles V., aided by Maurice, gained a decisive victory at Mühlberg in April 1547, after which by the capitulation of Wittenberg John Frederick renounced the electoral dignity in favour of Maurice, who also obtained a large part of his kinsman’s lands. The formal investiture of the new elector took place at Augsburg in February 1548.

The plans of Maurice soon took a form less agreeable to the emperor. The continued imprisonment of his father-in-law, Philip of Hesse, whom he had induced to surrender to Charles and whose freedom he had guaranteed, was neither his greatest nor his only cause of complaint. The emperor had refused to complete the humiliation of the family of John Frederick; he had embarked upon a course of action which boded danger to the elector’s Lutheran subjects, and his increased power was a menace to the position of Maurice. Assuring Charles of his continued loyalty, the elector entered into negotiations with the discontented Protestant princes. An event happened which gave him a base of operations, and enabled him to mask his schemes against the emperor. In 1550 he had been entrusted with the execution of the imperial ban against the city of Magdeburg, and under cover of these operations he was able to collect troops and to concert measures with his allies. Favourable terms were granted to Magdeburg, which surrendered and remained in the power of Maurice, and in January 1552 a treaty was concluded with Henry II. of France at Chambord. Meanwhile Maurice had refused to recognize the Interim issued from Augsburg in May 1548 as binding on Saxony; but a compromise was arranged on the basis of which the Leipzig Interim was drawn up for his lands. It is uncertain how far Charles was ignorant of the elector’s preparations, but certainly he was unprepared for the attack made by Maurice and his allies in March 1552. Augsburg was taken, the pass of Ehrenberg was forced, and in a few days the emperor left Innsbruck as a fugitive. Ferdinand undertook to make peace, and the Treaty of Passau, signed in August 1552, was the result. Maurice obtained a general amnesty and freedom for Philip of Hesse, but was unable to obtain a perpetual religious peace for the Lutherans. Charles stubbornly insisted that this question must be referred to the Diet, and Maurice was obliged to give way. He then fought against the Turks, and renewed his communications with Henry of France. Returning from Hungary the elector placed himself at the head of the princes who were seeking to check the career of his former ally, Albert Alcibiades, whose depredations were making him a curse to Germany. The rival armies met at Sievershausen on the 9th of July 1553, where after a fierce encounter Albert was defeated. The victor, however, was wounded during the fight and died two days later.

Maurice was a friend to learning, and devoted some of the secularized church property to the advancement of education. Very different estimates have been formed of his character. He has been represented as the saviour of German Protestantism on the one hand, and on the other as a traitor to his faith and country. In all probability he was neither the one nor the other, but a man of great ambition who, indifferent to religious considerations, made good use of the exigencies of the time. He was generous and enlightened, a good soldier and a clever diplomatist. He left an only daughter Anna (d. 1577), who became the second wife of William the Silent, prince of Orange.

The elector’s Politische Korrespondenz has been edited by E. Brandenburg (Leipzig, 1900-1904); and a sketch of him is given by Roger Ascham in A Report and Discourse of the Affairs and State of Germany (London, 1864-1865). See also F. A. von Langenn, Moritz Herzog und Churfürst zu Sachsen (Leipzig, 1841); G. Voigt, Moritz von Sachsen (Leipzig, 1876); E. Brandenburg, Moritz von Sachsen (Leipzig, 1898); S. Issleib, Moritz von Sachsen als protestantischer Fürst (Hamburg, 1898); J. Witter, Die Beziehung und der Verkehr des Kurfürsten Moritz mit König Ferdinand (Jena, 1886); L. von Ranke, Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation, Bde. IV. and V. (Leipzig, 1882); and W. Maurenbrecher in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, Bd. XXII. (Leipzig, 1885). For bibliography see Maurenbrecher; and The Cambridge Modern History, vol. ii. (Cambridge, 1903).

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MAURICE, JOHN FREDERICK DENISON (1805-1872), English theologian, was born at Normanston, Suffolk, on the 29th of August, 1805. He was the son of a Unitarian minister, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1823, though it was then impossible for any but members of the Established Church to obtain a degree. Together with John Sterling (with whom he founded the Apostles’ Club) he migrated to Trinity Hall, whence he obtained a first class in civil law in 1827; he then came to London, and gave himself to literary work, writing a novel, Eustace Conyers, and editing the London Literary Chronicle until 1830, and also for a short time the Athenaeum. At this time he was much perplexed as to his religious opinions, and he ultimately found relief in a decision to take a further university course and to seek Anglican orders. Entering Exeter College, Oxford, he took a second class in classics in 1831. He was ordained in 1834, and after a short curacy at Bubbenhall in Warwickshire was appointed chaplain of Guy’s Hospital, and became thenceforward a sensible factor in the intellectual and social life of London. From 1839 to 1841 Maurice was editor of the Education Magazine. In 1840 he was appointed professor of English history and literature in King’s College, and to this post in 1846 was added the chair of divinity. In 1845 he was Boyle lecturer and Warburton lecturer. These chairs he held till 1853. In that year he published Theological Essays, wherein were stated opinions which savoured to the principal, Dr R. W. Jelf, and to the council, of unsound theology in regard to eternal punishment. He had previously been called on to clear himself from charges of heterodoxy brought against him in the Quarterly Review (1851), and had been acquitted by a committee of inquiry. Now again he maintained with great warmth of conviction that his views were in close accordance with Scripture and the Anglican standards, but the council, without specifying any distinct “heresy” and declining to submit the case to the judgment of competent theologians, ruled otherwise, and he was deprived of his professorships. He held at the same time the chaplaincy of Lincoln’s Inn, for which he had resigned Guy’s (1846-1860), but when he offered to resign this the benchers refused. Nor was he assailed in the incumbency of St. Peter’s, Vere Street, which he held for nine years (1860-1869), and where he drew round him a circle of thoughtful people. During the early years of this period he was engaged in a hot and bitter controversy with H. L. Mansel (afterwards dean of St Paul’s), arising out of the latter’s Bampton lecture upon reason and revelation.

During his residence in London Maurice was specially identified with two important movements for education. He helped to found Queen’s College for the education of women (1848), and the Working Men’s College (1854), of which he was the first principal. He strongly advocated the abolition of university tests (1853), and threw himself with great energy into all that affected the social life of the people. Certain abortive attempts at co-operation among working men, and the movement known as Christian Socialism, were the immediate outcome of his teaching. In 1866 Maurice was appointed professor of moral philosophy at Cambridge, and from 1870 to 1872 was incumbent of St Edward’s in that city. He died on the 1st of April 1872.

He was twice married, first to Anna Barton, a sister of John Sterling’s wife, secondly to a half-sister of his friend Archdeacon Hare. His son Major-General Sir J. Frederick Maurice (b. 1841), became a distinguished soldier and one of the most prominent military writers of his time.

Those who knew Maurice best were deeply impressed with the spirituality of his character. “Whenever he woke in the night,” says his wife, “he was always praying.” Charles Kingsley called him “the most beautiful human soul whom God has ever allowed me to meet with.” As regards his intellectual attainments we may set Julius Hare’s verdict “the greatest mind since Plato” over against Ruskin’s “by nature puzzle-headed and indeed wrong-headed.” Such contradictory impressions bespeak a life made up of contradictory elements. Maurice was a man of peace, yet his life was spent in a series of conflicts; of deep humility, yet so polemical that he often seemed biased; of large charity, yet bitter in his attack upon the religious press of his time; a loyal churchman who detested the label “Broad,” yet poured out criticism upon the leaders of the Church. With an intense capacity for visualizing the unseen, and a kindly dignity, he combined a large sense of humour. While most of the “Broad Churchmen” were influenced by ethical and emotional considerations in their repudiation of the dogma of everlasting torment, he was swayed by purely intellectual and theological arguments, and in questions of a more general liberty he often opposed the proposed Liberal theologians, though he as often took their side if he saw them hard pressed. He had a wide metaphysical and philosophical knowledge which he applied to the history of theology. He was a strenuous advocate of ecclesiastical control in elementary education, and an opponent of the new school of higher biblical criticism, though so far an evolutionist as to believe in growth and development as applied to the history of nations.

As a preacher, his message was apparently simple; his two great convictions were the fatherhood of God, and that all religious systems which had any stability lasted because of a portion of truth which had to be disentangled from the error differentiating them from the doctrines of the Church of England as understood by himself. His love to God as his Father was a passionate adoration which filled his whole heart. The prophetic, even apocalyptic, note of his preaching was particularly impressive. He prophesied in London as Isaiah prophesied to the little towns of Palestine and Syria, “often with dark foreboding, but seeing through all unrest and convulsion the working out of a sure divine purpose.” Both at King’s College and at Cambridge Maurice gathered round him a band of earnest students, to whom he directly taught much that was valuable drawn from wide stores of his own reading, wide rather than deep, for he never was, strictly speaking, a learned man. Still more did he encourage the habit of inquiry and research, more valuable than his direct teaching. In his Socratic power of convincing his pupils of their ignorance he did more than perhaps any other man of his time to awaken in those who came under his sway the desire for knowledge and the process of independent thought.

As a social reformer, Maurice was before his time, and gave his eager support to schemes for which the world was not ready. From an early period of his life in London the condition of the poor pressed upon him with consuming force; the enormous magnitude of the social questions involved was a burden which he could hardly bear. For many years he was the clergyman whom working men of all opinions seemed to trust even if their faith in other religious men and all religious systems had faded, and he had a marvellous power of attracting the zealot and the outcast.

His works cover nearly 40 volumes, often obscure, often tautological, and with no great distinction of style. But their high purpose and philosophical outlook give his writings a permanent place in the history of the thought of his time. The following are the more important works—some of them were rewritten and in a measure recast, and the date given is not necessarily that of the first appearance of the book, but of its more complete and abiding form: Eustace Conway, or the Brother and Sister, a novel (1834); The Kingdom of Christ (1842); Christmas Day and Other Sermons (1843); The Unity of the New Testament (1844); The Epistle to the Hebrews (1846); The Religions of the World (1847); Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy (at first an article in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, 1848); The Church a Family (1850); The Old Testament (1851); Theological Essays (1853); The Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament (1853); Lectures on Ecclesiastical History (1854); The Doctrine of Sacrifice (1854); The Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament (1855); The Epistles of St John (1857); The Commandments as Instruments of National Reformation (1866); On the Gospel of St Luke (1868); The Conscience: Lectures on Casuistry (1868); The Lord’s Prayer, a Manual (1870). The greater part of these works were first delivered as sermons or lectures. Maurice also contributed many prefaces and introductions to the works of friends, as to Archdeacon Hare’s Charges, Kingsley’s Saint’s Tragedy, &c.

See Life by his son (2 vols., London, 1884), and a monograph by C. F. G. Masterman (1907) in “Leader of the Church” series; W. E. Collins in Typical English Churchmen, pp. 327-360 (1902), and T. Hughes in The Friendship of Books (1873).

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MAURICE OF NASSAU, prince of Orange (1567-1625), the second son of William the Silent, by Anna, only daughter of the famous Maurice, elector of Saxony, was born at Dillenburg. At the time of his father’s assassination in 1584 he was being educated at the university of Leiden, at the expense of the states of Holland and Zeeland. Despite his youth he was made stadtholder of those two provinces and president of the council of state. During the period of Leicester’s governorship he remained in the background, engaged in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the military art, and in 1586 the States of Holland conferred upon him the title of prince. On the withdrawal of Leicester from the Netherlands in August 1587, Johan van Oldenbarneveldt, the advocate of Holland, became the leading statesman of the country, a position which he retained for upwards of thirty years. He had been a devoted adherent of William the Silent and he now used his influence to forward the interests of Maurice. In 1588 he was appointed by the States-General captain and admiral-general of the Union, in 1590 he was elected stadtholder of Utrecht and Overysel, and in 1591 of Gelderland. From this time forward, Oldenbarneveldt at the head of the civil government and Maurice in command of the armed forces of the republic worked together in the task of rescuing the United Netherlands from Spanish domination (for details see Holland). Maurice soon showed himself to be a general second in skill to none of his contemporaries. He was especially famed for his consummate knowledge of the science of sieges. The twelve years’ truce on the 9th of April 1609 brought to an end the cordial relations between Maurice and Oldenbarneveldt. Maurice was opposed to the truce, but the advocate’s policy triumphed and henceforward there was enmity between them. The theological disputes between the Remonstrants and contra-Remonstrants found them on different sides; and the theological quarrel soon became a political one. Oldenbarneveldt, supported by the states of Holland, came forward as the champion of provincial sovereignty against that of the states-general; Maurice threw the weight of his sword on the side of the union. The struggle was a short one, for the army obeyed the general who had so often led them to victory. Oldenbarneveldt perished on the scaffold, and the share which Maurice had in securing the illegal condemnation by a packed court of judges of the aged patriot must ever remain a stain upon his memory.

Maurice, who had on the death of his elder brother Philip William, in February 1618, become prince of Orange, was now supreme in the state, but during the remainder of his life he sorely missed the wise counsels of the experienced Oldenbarneveldt. War broke out again in 1621, but success had ceased to accompany him on his campaigns. His health gave way, and he died, a prematurely aged man, at the Hague on the 4th of April 1625. He was buried by his father’s side at Delft.

Bibliography.—I. Commelin, Wilhelm en Maurits v. Nassau, pr. v. Orangien, haer leven en bedrijf (Amsterdam, 1651); G. Groen van Prinsterer, Archives ou correspondance de la maison d’Orange-Nassau, 1e série, 9 vols. (Leiden, 1841-1861); G. Groen van Prinsterer, Maurice et Barneveldt (Utrecht, 1875); J. L. Motley, Life and Death of John of Barneveldt (2 vols., The Hague, 1894); C. M. Kemp, v.d. Maurits v. Nassau, prins v. Oranje in zijn leven en verdiensten (4 vols., Rotterdam, 1845); M. O. Nutting, The Days of Prince Maurice (Boston and Chicago, 1894).

Illustration from Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Matter" to "Mecklenburg" Volume 17, Slice 8

MAURISTS, a congregation of French Benedictines called after St Maurus (d. 565), a disciple of St Benedict and the legendary introducer of the Benedictine rule and life into Gaul.1 At the end of the 16th century the Benedictine monasteries of France had fallen into a state of disorganization and relaxation. In the abbey of St Vaune near Verdun a reform was initiated by Dom Didier de la Cour, which spread to other houses in Lorraine, and in 1604 the reformed congregation of St Vaune was established, the most distinguished members of which were Ceillier and Calmet. A number of French houses joined the new congregation; but as Lorraine was still independent of the French crown, it was considered desirable to form on the same lines a separate congregation for France. Thus in 1621 was established the famous French congregation of St Maur. Most of the Benedictine monasteries of France, except those belonging to Cluny, gradually joined the new congregation, which eventually embraced nearly two hundred houses. The chief house was Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, the residence of the superior-general and centre of the literary activity of the congregation. The primary idea of the movement was not the undertaking of literary and historical work, but the return to a strict monastic régime and the faithful carrying out of Benedictine life; and throughout the most glorious period of Maurist history the literary work was not allowed to interfere with the due performance of the choral office and the other duties of the monastic life. Towards the end of the 18th century a tendency crept in, in some quarters, to relax the monastic observances in favour of study; but the constitutions of 1770 show that a strict monastic régime was maintained until the end. The course of Maurist history and work was checkered by the ecclesiastical controversies that distracted the French Church during the 17th and 18th centuries. Some of the members identified themselves with the Jansenist cause; but the bulk, including nearly all the greatest names, pursued a middle path, opposing the lax moral theology condemned in 1679 by Pope Innocent XI., and adhering to those strong views on grace and predestination associated with the Augustinian and Thomist schools of Catholic theology; and like all the theological faculties and schools on French soil, they were bound to teach the four Gallican articles. It seems that towards the end of the 18th century a rationalistic and free-thinking spirit invaded some of the houses. The congregation was suppressed and the monks scattered at the revolution, the last superior-general with forty of his monks dying on the scaffold in Paris. The present French congregation of Benedictines initiated by Dom Guéranger in 1833 is a new creation and has no continuity with the congregation of St Maur.

The great claim of the Maurists to the gratitude and admiration of posterity is their historical and critical school, which stands quite alone in history, and produced an extraordinary number of colossal works of erudition which still are of permanent value. The foundations of this school were laid by Dom Tarisse, the first superior-general, who in 1632 issued instructions to the superiors of the monasteries to train the young monks in the habits of research and of organized work. The pioneers in production were Ménard and d’Achery.

The following tables give, divided into groups, the most important Maurist works, along with such information as may be useful to students. All works are folio when not otherwise noted:—

I.—The Editions of the Fathers

Epistle of Barnabas (editio princeps) Ménard 1645 1 in 4to

Lanfranc d’Achery 1648 1

Guibert of Nogent d’Achery 1651 1

Robert Pulleyn and Peter of Poitiers Mathou 1655 1

Bernard Mabillon 1667 2

Anselm Gerberon 1675 1

Cassiodorus Garet 1679 1

Augustine (see Kukula, Die Mauriner-Ausgabe des Augustinus, 1898) Delfau, Blampin, Coustant, Guesnie 1681-1700 11

Ambrose du Frische 1686-1690 2

Acta martyrum sincera Ruinart 1689 1

Hilary Coustant 1693 1

Jerome Martianay 1693-1706 5

Athanasius Loppin and Montfaucon 1698 3

Gregory of Tours Ruinart 1699 1

Gregory the Great Sainte-Marthe 1705 4

Hildebert of Tours Beaugendre 1708 1

Irenaeus Massuet 1710 1

Chrysostom Montfaucon 1718-1738 13

Cyril of Jerusalem Touttée and Maran 1720 1

Epistolae romanorum pontificum2 Coustant 1721 1

Basil Garnier and Maran 1721-1730 3

Cyprian (Baluze, not a Maurist) finished by Maran 1726 1

Origen Ch. de la Rue (1, 2, 3) V. de la Rue (4) 1733-1759 4

Justin and the Apologists Maran 1742 1

Gregory Nazianzen3 Maran and Clémencet 1778 1

II.—Biblical Works

St Jerome’s Latin Bible Martianay 1693 1

Origen’s Hexapla Montfaucon 1713 2

Old Latin versions Sabbathier 1743-1749 3

III.—Great Collections of Documents

Spicilegium d’Achery 1655-1677 13 in 4to

Veterae analecta Mabillon 1675-1685 4 in 8vo

Musaeum italicum Mabillon 1687-1689 2 in 4to

Collectio nova patrum graecorum Montfaucon 1706 2

Thesaurus novus anecdotorum Martène and Durand 1717 5

Veterum scriptorum collectio Martène and Durand 1724-1733 9

De antiquis ecclesiaeritibus Martène 1690-1706

(Final form) 1736-1738 4

IV.—Monastic History

Acta of the Benedictine Saints d’Achery, Mabillon and Ruinart 1668-1701 9

Benedictine Annals (to 1157) Mabillon (1-4), Massuet (5), Martène (6) 1703-1739 6

V.—Ecclesiastical History and Antiquities of France

A.—General.

Gallia Christiana (3 other vols. were published 1856-1865) Sainte-Marthe (1, 2, 3) 1715-1785 13

Monuments de la monarchie française Montfaucon 1729-1733 5

Histoire littéraire de la France (16 other vols. were published 1814-1881) Rivet, Clémencet, Clément 1733-1763 12 in 4to

Recueil des historiens de la France (4 other vols. were published 1840-1876) Bouquet (1-8), Brial (12-19) 1738-1833 19

Concilia Galliae (the printing of vol. ii. was interrupted by the Revolution; there were to have been 8 vols.) Labbat 1789 1

B.—Histories of the Provinces.

Bretagne Lobineau 1707 2

Paris Félibien and Lobineau 1725 5

Languedoc Vaissette and de Vic 1730-1745 5

Bourgogne Plancher (1-3), Merle (4) 1739-1748, 1781 4

Bretagne Morice 1742-1756 5

VI.—Miscellaneous Works of Technical Erudition

De re diplomatica Mabillon 1681 1

Ditto Supplement Mabillon 1704 1

Nouveau traité de diplomatique Toustain and Tassin 1750-1765 6 in 4to

Paleographia graeca Montfaucon 1708 1

Bibliotheca coisliniana Montfaucon 1715 1

Bibliotheca bibliothecarum manuscriptorum nova Montfaucon 1739 2

L’Antiquité expliqué Montfaucon 1719-1724 15

New ed. of Du Cange’s glossarium Dantine and Carpentier 1733-1736 6

Ditto Supplement Carpentier 1766 4

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