MAGINDANAO MAGNA CHAHTA. 



615 



Magikon, which contains the history of numerous 

 secret doctrines; see also Creuzer's Symbolik itnd 

 Mytliologie ; Wiiidischmann's Inquiries respecting 

 Astrology, Alchemy, and Magic, (in German, Frank- 

 fort, 1818); also, George Conrad Horst, On Ancient 

 and Modern Magic, its Nature, Origin, and history 

 (in German), with his Zauberbibliothck (6 vols., 

 Mentz, 182025). See Divination, Demon, Witch- 

 craft. 



MAGINDANAO; See Mindanao. 



MAGISTER ARTIUM. See Muster of Arts. 



MAGISTER EQUITUM. See Master of the 

 Horse. 



MAGISTER MATHESEOS. See Pythagoras. 



MAGISTRATE; a public civil officer, invested 

 with the executive government or some branch of it. 

 Thus, in monarchical governments, a king is the 

 highest or first magistrate. But the word is more 

 particularly applied to subordinate officers, as gover- 

 nors, intendants, prefects, mayors, justices of the 

 peace, and the like. In Athens, Sparta, and Rome, 

 the chief magistrates were as follows : From Cecrops 

 to Codrus, Athens had seventeen kings; from Medon 

 to Alcmason, thirteen archons for life; from Charops 

 to Eryxias, thirteen decennial, and from that time, 

 annual archons. The democracy established by 

 Solon was changed into a monarchy by Pisistratus, 

 who was succeeded by his sons Hippias and Hippar- 

 chus. The ancient democracy was then restored, 

 but was interrupted for a year, after the unhappy 

 issue of the Peloponnesian war, by the domination of 

 the thirty tyrants, and, for a short time, by that of 

 the decemviri. Under the Macedonian kings, and 

 afterwards under the Romans, except at intervals, 

 the freedom of Athens was only a name. Antipater 

 decreed that 9000 of the principal citizens should 

 administer the government, and Cassander made 

 Demetrius Phalereus prefect of the city. In Sparta, 

 the magistrates were kings, senators, ephori, &c. 

 Chosen by a majority of suffrages, they held their 

 offices, some, as the kings and senators, for life, 

 others for a limited time. Among the Romans, there 

 were different magistrates at different times. The 

 first rulers were elective kings. After the expulsion 

 of Tarquin the Proud (in the year of the city 244, 

 B. C. 510), two consuls were elected annually to 

 administer the government. In cases of pressing 

 danger, a dictator was appointed, with unlimited 

 power, and, in case of a failure of all the magistrates, 

 an interrex succeeded. This course continued, with 

 occasional interruptions, till the year of the city 672, 

 or B.C. 81, when Sylla assumed the supreme power, 

 as perpetual dictator. After three years, however, 

 lie voluntarily laid aside his authority, and the con- 

 sular government lasted till Julius Cassar caused 

 himself to be declared perpetual dictator, B. C. 49. 

 From this time, the consular power was never entirely 

 restored. Soon after the assassination of Caesar, the 

 triumvirs, Octavius, Lepidus, and Antony, assumed 

 a still more absolute sway; and Octavius finally be- 

 came chief ruler of the Roman empire, under the 

 title of princcps or imperator. He retained the 

 magistrates of the republic only in name. In the 

 beginning of the republic, the consuls seem to have 

 been the only regular magistrates. But, on account 

 of the constant wars, which required tlieir presence 

 in the army, various other magistrates were ap- 

 pointed, as pretors, ceilsors, tribunes of the people, 

 &c. Under the emperors, still different officers 

 arose. The Roman magistrates were divided into 

 ordinary and extraordinary, higher and lower, curule 

 and not curule, patrician and plebeian, civic and 

 provincial. A distinction between patrician and 

 plebeian magistrates was first made in the year of 

 Home 260 (B. C. 494); that between civic and pro- 



vincial, when the Romans extended their conquests 

 beyond the limits of Italy. The ordinary magistrates 

 were- diviaed into higher and lower; to the former 

 belonged the consuls, pretors, and censors; to the 

 latter, the tribunes of the people, ediles, questors 

 (q. v.), &c. The most important extraordinary magis- 

 trates were the dictator, with his master of horse, 

 and the interrex. The difference between curule 

 and not curule magistrates depended on the right of 

 using the curule chair, which belonged only to the 

 dictator, consuls, pretors, censors, and curule ediles. 

 During the republic, magistrates were chosen at the 

 comitia, particularly in the centuriata and tributa; in 

 the former, the higher ordinary authorities wen' 

 chosen, and in the latter, the lower ordinary authori- 

 ties. Under the emperors, the mode of the election 

 of magistrates is uncertain. 



MAGLIABECCHI, ANTONIO; a learned critic, 

 who was librarian to the duke of Tuscany, celebrated 

 alike for the variety of his knowledge and the 

 strength of his memory. He was born at Florence, 

 in 1633, and, in the early part of his life, was engaged 

 in the employment of a goldsmith, which he re- 

 linquished to devote himself to literary pursuits. He 

 was assisted in his studies by Michael Ermini, libra- 

 rian to cardinal Leopold de' Medici, and other literati 

 residing at Florence. Through unremitting applica- 

 tion, he acquired a multifarious stock of erudition, 

 which made him the wonder of his age. Duke 

 Cosmo III. made Magliabecchi keeper of the library 

 which he had collected, and gave him free access to 

 the Laurentian library, and the Oriental MSS. ; of 

 the latter collection he published a catalogue. His 

 habits were very eccentric. His attention was 

 wholly absorbed by his books ; among which he took 

 his rest and his meals, dividing his time between the 

 ducal library and his private collection, interrupted 

 only by the visits of persons of rank or learning, at- 

 tracted towards him by the report of his extraordin- 

 ary endowments. He left no literary work deserving 

 of particular notice ; but he freely afforded informa- 

 tion to those authors who sought his assistance in 

 their own undertakings. Notwithstanding his seden- 

 tary mode of life, he was eighty-one years old when 

 he died, in July, 1714. See Spcnce's Parallel be- 

 tween R. Hill and Magliabecchi. 



MAGNA CHARTA LIBERTATUM ; the Great 

 Charter of Liberties, extorted from king John, in 

 1215. (See John.) The barons who composed the 

 Army of God and the Holy Church, were the whole 

 nobility of England ; their followers comprehended 

 all the yeomanry and free peasantry, and the acces- 

 sion of the capital was a pledge of the adherence of 

 the citizens and burgesses. John had been obliged 

 to yield to this general union, and June 15, both en- 

 camped on the plain called Runnymede, on the 

 banks of the Thames, and conferences were opened, 

 which were concluded on the 19th. The preliminaries 

 being agreed on, the barons presented heads of their 

 grievances and means of redress, in the nature of the 

 bills now offered by both houses for the royal assent. 

 The king, according to the custom which then and 

 long after prevailed, directed that the articles should 

 be reduced to the form of a charter, in which state 

 it issued as a royal grant. Copies were immediately 

 sent to every county or diocese, two of which are yet 

 preserved in the Cottonian library in the British 

 museum. To secure the execution of the charter, 

 John was compelled to surrender the city and Tower 

 of London, to be held by the barons till August 15, or 

 until he had completely executed the charter. A 

 more rigorous provision for securing this object is 

 that by which the king consented that the barons 

 should choose twenty-five of their number, to Li- 

 guardians of the liberties of the kingdom, with power, 



