732 



MAXIMILIAN MAXIMUM. 



(See Germany. History of.) To supply the defects 

 of the German laws and prevent the gross abuses of 

 justice, he adopted, at the same diet, the Roman and 

 canon laws, as subsidiary authorities, in the decision 

 of differences, and instituted the imperial chamber 

 (see Chamber, Imperial), as the supreme tribunal of 

 the empire. He put a stop to the monstrous abuses 

 of the Westphalian Femgerichte, although he was 

 unable entirely to abolish those secret tribunals. 

 (See Feme.) The institution of the German circles, 

 which were intended to secure internal peace and 

 safety, originated from him, as did many other useful 

 institutions for the improvement of the government, 

 and the promotion of science and art. Maximilian 

 was himself a poet, and was the author of a circum- 

 stantial but romantic account of his own life, first 

 published in 1775, under the title Der weiss Kunig, 

 by M. Treitzsaurwein (his private secretary), with 

 Wood-cuts by Hanns Burgmair. He was, for a long 

 time, considered the author of the Theuerdank (q. 

 v.), of which he is the hero ; but his secretary Pfinz- 

 ing is now known to have been the writer. Maximi- 

 lian died in 1519, and was succeeded by Charles V. 



MAXIMILIAN II., German emperor, son of Fer- 

 dinand I., born at Vienna in 1527, was chosen king 

 of the Romans in 1562, and succeeded his father in 

 the imperial dignity in 1564. He was a pattern of a 

 wise, prudent, and good prince. Although he did 

 not join the Lutherans, yet he favoured some of their 

 opinions, and granted to his subjects, in his hereditary 

 dominions, a greater religious freedom than they had 

 previously enjoyed. His toleration was extended to 

 all his territories, and led him to promote the religi- 

 ous peace of 1566. Soliman II., the Turkish sultan, 

 made war upon him, in support of the claims of John 

 Sigismund, prince of Transylvania, to Hungary, but 

 the death of the sultan put an end to the war in 1567, 

 his successor, Selim, having agreed to a truce of 

 eight years. The latter renewed the war in 1576, 

 in which year Maximilian died. He left two daugh- 

 ters and six sons, the eldest of whom (Rodolph) suc- 

 ceeded him, not only as emperor, but also in the 

 Austrian hereditary estates. See Austria. 



MAXIMILIAN THE GREAT; elector of Bava- 

 ria. See Bavaria. 



MAXIMILIAN I., JOSEPH, late king of Bavaria, 

 was born May 27, 1756, in Schwetzingen, a village not 

 far from Manheim. His father was the palatine Fre- 

 deric, Austrian field-marshal. In 1777, Maximilian was 

 made colonel of a French regiment in Strasburg. In 

 1795, his brother Charles died, and he became duke of 

 Deuxponts. In 1799, when the Sulzbach palatine line 

 became extinct by the death of the elector Charles 

 Theodore, the succession passed to the line of Deux- 

 ponts. Thus Maximilian became elector. By the 

 peace of Presburg (1805), he became king. (See 

 Bavaria.) In 1818, he gave a constitution to his 

 kingdom, after having improved it in many respects. 

 He died October 13, 1825. Maximilian, who, when 

 young, little expected to rule over Bavaria, retained 

 always the frankness of a soldier. He had a good 

 heart, and was beloved by his subjects. Education, 

 agriculture, the finances, and the administration in 

 general were improved under his reign. His daughter 

 Augusta Amalia, born June 21, 1788, is the widow 

 of the duke of Leuchtenberg, (Eugene Beauharnais); 

 his daughter Charlotte Augusta, born February 8, 

 1792, was married, in 1816, to Francis I., emperor of 

 Austria. Maximilian was succeeded by his son Louis 

 I., born August 25, 1786. 



MAXIMINUS, CAICS JULIUS VERUS, the son of a 

 peasant of Thrace, was originally a shepherd, and, 

 by heading his countrymen against the frequent 

 attacks of the neighbouring barbarians and robbers, 

 inured himself to the labours and to the fatigues of 



a camp. He entered the Roman armies, where lie 

 gradually rose to the first offices. On the death of 

 Alexander Severus, slain in a mutiny of his troops 

 excited by Maximin, he caused himself to be pro- 

 claimed emperor, A. D. 235, and immediately made 

 his son his colleague. The popularity which he had 

 gained when general of the armies, was at an end 

 when he ascended the throne. He was delighted 

 with acts of barbarity, and no less than 400 persons 

 lost their lives on the false suspicion of having con- 

 spired against the emperor's life. Some were exposed 

 to wild beasts; others expired by blows ; some were 

 nailed on crosses ; while others were shut up in the 

 bellies of animals just killed. The patricians were 

 peculiarly the objects of his cruelty, as if they were 

 more conscious than others of his mean origin. In 

 an expedition in Germany, he cut down the corn, and 

 laid waste about 450 miles, with fire and sword. 

 Such a monster of tyranny at last provoked the 

 people of Rome. The Gordians were proclaimed 

 emperors ; but their pacific virtues were unable to 

 resist the fury of Maximin. After their fall, the 

 Roman senate invested twenty of their number with 

 the imperial dignity, and intrusted to their hands the 

 care of the republic. These measures so highly 

 irritated Maximin, that at the first intelligence he 

 howled like a wild beast, and almost destroyed him- 

 self by knocking his head against the walls of his 

 palace. When his fury was a little abated, he 

 marched to Rome, resolved on slaughter, but his 

 soldiers ashamed of accompanying a tyrant whose 

 cruelty had procured him the names of Busiris, Cy- 

 clops, and Phalaris, assassinated him in his tent 

 before the walls of Aquileia, A. D. 238. He was 

 then in the sixty-fifth year of his age. The news of 

 his death was received with the greatest rejoicings at 

 Rome ; public thanksgivings were offered, and whole 

 hecatombs flamed on the altars. Maximin has been 

 represented by historians as of a gigantic stature : 

 he was eight feet high, and the bracelets of his wife 

 served as rings to adorn the fingers of his hand. His 

 voracity was as remarkable as his corpulence : he ate 

 forty pounds of flesh a day, and drank eighteen bottles 

 of wine. His strength was proportionable to his 

 gigantic shape : he could draw a loaded wagon; 

 with a blow of his fist he often broke the teeth in a 

 horse's mouth, and cleft young trees with his hand. 



MAXIMUM (the greatest); in general, that mag 

 nitude above which no aggrandizement or increase 

 exists or is allowed to exist. Thus, in the time 

 of the French revolution, all the necessaries of 

 life had a price set upon them, above which they were 

 not allowed to be sold : this was called the maximum. 

 This regulation was soon seen to be so prejudicial to 

 agriculture and trade, that it was abolished. In ma- 

 thematics, where an extensive application is made of 

 the notion of greatest and smallest (maximum and 

 minimum), by the greatest or smallest value of a 

 variable quantity is understood that value which is 

 greater or smaller than any preceding or following 

 one in the series of the values of this quantity, how- 

 ever near either may be taken to that greatest or 

 least value. The question of the conditions of the 

 maximum and minimum, the determination of which 

 belongs to the differential and in some more difficult 

 cases to the integral calculus, is of the highest impor- 

 tance. In order to illustrate the subject by a simple 

 case, let it be required to divide a number, 8, for 

 instance, in such a manner that the product of the 

 parts shall be a maximum', the method of maximum 

 and minimum shows that the number must be divided 

 into two equal parts, for 4 times 4 are sixteen, while 

 3 times 5 are only 15, twice 6 only 12, &c.. so that, 

 according to our above definition, 16 is the maximum 

 in the series of numbers successively obtained. Sre 



