730 



MAURI MAURY. 



tute of the vigour necessary to avert the troubles 

 which soon after shook the kingdom. France was, 

 however, indebted to him for some improvements in 

 t hr marine. The Memoirs of Maurepas, composed 

 by Salle, his secretary, and edited by Soulavie, are 

 amusing, but carelessly written. See Louis Xfl. 



MAI KI, and MAURITANIA. See Moors. 



MAURICE ; count of Saxony, commonly known 

 as marshal Saxe. See Saxe. 



MAURICE, DUKK, and, after 1548, elector of 

 Saxony (of the Albertine line), born in 1521, dis- 

 played, from his early years, great talents, united 

 with a restless, active, and ardent spirit. In 1541, 

 the death of his father, Henry the Pious, placed him 

 at the head of the government, at the moment when 

 the religious disputes had divided the German princes. 

 Although a favourer of Protestantism, he refused to 

 join the Smalcaldic league of Protestant princes, for 

 the defence of the new iloctrines, either out of attach- 

 ment to Ferdinand, king of Hungary and Bohemia, 

 against whose brother Charles V. (q. v.) the league 

 was organized, or because he foresaw that it could not 

 stand. In 1546, he concluded a secret treaty with 

 the emperor, and was obliged to execute the ban 

 of the empire against John Frederic, elector of 

 Saxony (of the Ernestine line), and take possession 

 of his territories. In 1548, the emperor conferred 

 on him the electoral dignity of Saxony, and the 

 greater part of the hereditary estates of the late elec- 

 tor. Charles now thought the moment was come to 

 execute his project of annihilating the rights and 

 privileges of the German princes, and rendering 

 himself absolute master of Germany ; and, although 

 he artfully mainlined a show of protecting the 

 Catholics, laboured only for his own selfish interests. 

 Maurice was not slow to penetrate the crafty policy 

 of the ambitious monarch. Convinced that a forci- 

 ble resistance would become necessary, he made his 

 preparations, in 1550, under the pretence of execut- 

 ing the decree of the diet against Magdeburg, con- 

 cluded a secret treaty with Henry II. of France, and 

 some of the German princes (1551), and behaved 

 so warily, that he had nearly succeeded in making 

 Charles, who lay sick with the gout at Inspruck, his 

 prisoner (1552). In justification of this unexpected 

 act of hostility, Maurice alleged the detention of his 

 father-in-law by the emperor, contrary to solemn 

 promises. The emperor upon this, set free the 

 prince whom he held captive, and proposed terms 

 of accommodation by his brother Ferdinand. The 

 result of this negotiation was the famous treaty 

 of Passau (q. v.), July 31, 1552. Maurice, who 

 had thus recovered the favour of the Protestants, 

 now thought proper to give the emperor likewise, a 

 proof of his attachment, by serving against the 

 Turks. Nothing, however, was effected, and he 

 soon after returned to Saxony. July 9, 1553, he de- 

 feated Albert, margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, 

 who refused to accede to the treaty of Passau, at 

 Sievershausen, and died of a wound received in that 

 battle, two days after. Maurice possessed the talents 

 ot a great prince and general, with a prudence that 

 enabled him to take advantage of circumstances. 

 Notwithstanding the shortness of his reign, Saxony is 

 indebted to him for many useful institutions. 



MAURICE OF NASSAU, prince of Orange, the 

 youngest son by a second marriage, of William I., 

 prince of Orange, born at Dillenburg, 1567, was 

 studying at Leyden, in 1584, when his father was as- 

 sassinated. The provinces of Holland and Zealand, 

 and, soon after, Utrecht, immediately elected the 

 young prince stadtholder, and his talents, as a gene- 

 ral, surpassed all expectations. In 1590, he took 

 Breda by surprise, and delivered Guelderland, Ove- 

 ryssd, Friesland, and Groningen from the Spaniards. 



With the chief command, by land and sea, of all the 

 forces of the United Provinces, he also received the 

 stadtholdership of Guelderland and Overyssel, that t if 

 Friesland and G roningen being conferred on his cousin 

 William, count of Nassau. Previous to the truce of 

 twelve years, concluded in 160'J, about forty towns, 

 and several fortresses, had fallen into his hands. He 

 defeated the Spaniards in three pitched battles, 

 besides the naval victories which were gained by the 

 vice-admirals of the republic, on the coasts of Spain 

 and Flanders. Thus become the object of general 

 affection and respect to his countrymen, his ambi- 

 tious spirit now aimed at the sovereignty. To 

 effect his purposes, he took advantage of the reli- 

 gious quarrels of the Arminians and Gomarists, or 

 the Remonstrants and Counter-Remonstrants. (See 

 Arminians.) He supported the Gomarists, even to 

 acts of violence (see Barneveldt), but, notwithstand- 

 ing all his efforts, he was compelled to abandon his 

 project. He died at the Hague, April 23, 1C25, and 

 was succeeded by his brother Frederic Henry. The 

 life of this stadtholder was an almost unbroken series 

 of battles, sieges, and victories. War he understood 

 as a master, and conducted like a hero. His army 

 was considered as the best school of the military 

 art. The generals educated under him have contri- 

 buted to extend his fame. Like Montecuculi, he 

 possessed the rare art of conducting a march ain.' 

 pitching a camp ; like Vauban, the genius of fortifi- 

 cation and defence ; like Eugene, the skill to sup- 

 port the most numerous armies in the most unpro- 

 ductive and exhausted country ; like Vendome, the 

 good fortune to obtain more from the soldiers than 

 lie had a right to expect ; like Conde, that unerring 

 coup cTceil which determines the issue of the battle ; 

 like Charles XII., the power of rendering the troops 

 insensible to cold, hunger, and sufferings ; like Tu- 

 renne, that of sparing human life. In the opinion of 

 Folard, Maurice was the greatest infantry general 

 that had existed since the time of the Romans. He 

 had learned the art of war from the ancients and 

 extended it by the results of his own and others' 

 experience. 



MAURITIUS. See France, Isle of. 



MAUROKORDATOS. See Mavrocordato. 



MAUROMICHALIS. See Mavromichali. 



MAURUS, RABANUS, a German scholar, of the 

 age of Charlemagne, who did much to promote the 

 improvement of his nation, was a native of Mayence, 

 received his education in the Benedictine monastery 

 at Fulda, and subsequently went to Tours, to com- 

 plete his studies under Alcuin. After his return, in 

 804, he became superintendent of the monastic school 

 at Fulda, from which proceeded many distinguished 

 scholars. After many adversities, which the diffusers 

 of light, in the dark ages, always had to encounter, 

 he was consecrated, in 822, abbot of Fulda, and 

 during the twenty years that he held this office, the 

 beneficial influence of his literary school, and of his 

 truly Christian church discipline, continued to in- 

 crease. Dissatisfied with the turbulence of the times, 

 he was desirous of finishing his life as a hermit ; but 

 king Louis the German obliged him, in 847, to 

 accept the archbishopric of Mayence. In this dig- 

 nity he died in 856. His Latin writings, mainly of a 

 theological character, appeared at Cologne in 1627, 

 in folio. In the diffusion and formation of the Ger- 

 man language he was very active, and so far suc- 

 ceeded as to introduce preaching in German. He 

 also compiled a Latin and German glossary of the 

 Bible, preserved in several manuscripts, a valuable 

 monument of the old Germnn language, which has 

 been printed in Schiller's Thesaurus and in Eckardt's 

 Commentarii de Reb. Franc. 



MAURY, JKAN SITFREIN, born at Vanreas, in 



