154 M A I 
Majefty Items to be the moft and juft title that cart be at¬ 
tributed to fovereigns, fince. it fignifies no more than, the 
royalty or fovereign power. 
MAIEU'L (St.) Clerks of or Fathers of Somasouo, 
the appellation of a religious order deduced from the 
name of the place where their founder refided. It was 
fir ft formed into a d i fi i n £t fociety by Jerome iEmiliani, a 
r.oble Venetian, and confirmed by Paul III. and Pius IV. 
in 154-0 and 1653, Their office was the inftrurtion of the 
young and ignorant, and the relief of orphans. 
MAIFE', a town of Egypt, on the left bank of the 
Nile: three miles of Gizeh. 
MA'IG, a river of Ireland, which runs into the Shan¬ 
non feven miles below Limeric. 
MA'IGRN, a town of Auftria: five miles fouth-weft of 
Drofendorf. 
MAIGNAN' (Emanuel), a French philofopher and 
mathematician, was defcended from an ancient and noble 
family, and born at Touloufe in the year 1601. He gave 
very early indications of an inquifitive difpofition, and all 
inclination for learning. He went through a courfe of 
grammar-learning at the college of the Jefuits 5 and at that 
period of life, inllead. of joining in the amufements of his 
fchool-fellows during the hours of recreation, he ufed to 
fpend them in liltenirig to ferious converfation. By this 
means he became predifpofed to embrace the religious 
life ; and the chagrin which he felt at having a prize which 
he confidered to be his due adjudged to another fcholar, 
determined him to renounce the world. Accordingly, 
■when he was eighteen years of age he was admitted into 
the fraternity of Minims. While he was going through 
a courfe of philofophy, he foon became dilfatisfied with 
the principles of Ariltotle, which his preceptor taught, 
and difputed againlt them on every opportunity. He alfo 
took delight in inventing and folving geometrical pro¬ 
blems ; which he would do with as much ingenuity and 
neatnefs as if he had been carefully inftrurted in Euclid’s 
Elements, which he had never feen. In a ffiort time his 
tutor was aitonithed by the difcovery, that, without any 
afliflance from a mafter, our young monk had become quite 
a proficient in mathematical learning. The numerous 
proofs of extraordinary genius which he exhibited, dur¬ 
ing his pupilage, pointed him out as a proper perfon to be 
employed in teaching the fciences to others ; and he was 
accordingly appointed by his fuperiors to the mathematical 
chair, which he filled fuch addrefs and judgment, that his 
reputation loon fpread beyond the boundaries of his own 
country. In the year 1636, the general of the Minims 
fent for him to Rome, and appointed him mathematical 
profeffor in the convent of the Tiinity upon mount Pin- 
cio: afterwards he was appointed to teach divinity alfo in 
the fame feminary. Here he fpent fourteen years in the 
moft alliduous difchaTge of the duties of his appointments, 
eminently diftinguiffiing himfelf by his mathematical dif- 
coveries and phyfical experiments, which extorted the 
applaufe and admiration of thole who were the moft con- 
verfant in thofe fciences. One circumftance which con. 
tribufed to extend the fame of his great abilities, was a 
conteft which arofe between him and Kircher the Jefuit, 
concerning the firft invention of a catoptrical work ; which 
•was decided in fuch a manner by the learned men at Rome, 
as that the glory of the difcovery was left to each of the 
contending parties. In the year 1648, Maignan printed 
at Rome, at the expenfe of cardinal Spada, his treatife De 
Perfpertiva Horaria; which met with a very favourable re¬ 
ception, and particularly as noonehad at that time under¬ 
taken a performance of that kind. It contains a method 
of making telefc.opes, invented by himfelf, which he ex¬ 
plains at large. 
In the year 1650, he returned from Rome to Touloufe, 
■where he was received with univerfal fatisfaction, and 
created provincial the fame year, notwithltanding his 
earned wifh not to have any office conferred upon him 
which might .interrupt his attention to his ftudies. - In 
j&he. year 165a, he publiffied, in Latin, his courfe of Philo- 
M A I 
fophy, in four volumes ortavo; by which work he might 
at leaft expert to be confidered as the reftorer of it. To 
a fecond edition of this work, publiffied in 1673, in folio, 
the author added a treatife againft the vortices of Def- 
cartes, and another upon the fpeaking-trumpet, invented 
by our countryman lir Samuel Morland. He alfo illuf- 
trated the firft of thefe treatifes by the invention of a ma¬ 
chine, the movements of which fatisfartorily overthrew 
JDefcartes’s fuppofition concerning th.e manner in which 
the univerfewas formed, or might have been formed, and 
concerning the contrifugal force. When this work firft 
appeared, the partifans of Ariftotle infifted, that it was 
impoffibleto reconcile the author’s opinions with the truths 
of religion. This objertion our author undertook to re-, 
lute in a work entitled Pki/ofophia Sacra, of which he pub¬ 
liffied the firft volume in the year 1662. This drew him 
into a long controverfy with feveral learned opponents. 
His replies to their ftrirtures were publiffied in five fepa- 
rate appendixes, which were collerted together in one vo¬ 
lume in the year 1672. In the fame year he fent into the 
world the fecond volume of his Philofophia Sacra; and in 
the following year, a djflertation De Ufu licito Pecuniae, 
i2mo. In the midft. of thefe occupations, old age was 
Healing on our author, with the infirmities infeparable 
from a very ftudious and auftere life. As long as his 
ftrength permitted, however, he continued making expe¬ 
riments, reading lertures, and fuperintending the inftruc- 
tion of the younger members of his order ; and he had 
the fatisfartion, after the age of feventy, of forming feve¬ 
ral excellent philofophers, who reflerted honour on their 
mafter, and rendered no little fervice to the interefts of 
fcience. No perfon ever loved idlenefs lefs than he did. 
He is faid to have ftudied even in his fleep ; for in his 
dreams he was often employed on fome theorems, the de- 
durtion of which he purfued, till he arrived at their de- 
monftration ; and he was often fuddenly awakened by the 
great pleafure which he felt in fuch difcoveries. That 
thofe ideas might not be loft, he marked them down in 
fliort chararters upon paper, as^vell as the darknefs would 
permit, with a piece of chalk of pencil which he laid un¬ 
der his pillow. The innocence of his life, the fimplicity 
of his manners, and his amiable virtues, rendered him no 
lefs the objert of efteem, than he was of refpert on ac¬ 
count of his genius and learning. He died at Touloufe 
in 1676, in the feventy-fifth year of his age. He is faid 
to have cornpofed with great facility, and with fuch cor- 
rertnels, that he made no alterations in his manufcripts. 
Bayle. Mortri . 
MAHHEM, or Mayhem, /, in law, a maim, or corpo¬ 
ral hurt, whereby a man lofeth the ufe of any member 
that is, or may be, of defence to him in battle ; as, befides 
arms and legs, the eye, hand, foot, fcalp of the head, fore¬ 
tooth ; or, as fome lay, a finger or toe; but the cuttinp- 
off his ear or nofe, or lofs of his jaw-teeth, are not held 
to be mayhems at common law, becaufe they do not 
weaken but only disfigure him. Finch. L. 204. 1 Hawk. P.C. 
hi. The word comes from the French mekain, of me- 
haigner, to mutilate: the canonitts call it membri mulilciio j 
and all agree that it coniifts in the lofs of a member, or 
of the ufe thereof. 
By the ancient law of England, he that maimed any 
man was fentenced to lofe the like part, membrum pro 
membro, which is Hill the law in Sweden : but this was 
difufed ; and mayhem, by the common law, (1 Hawk. 
P.C. 112.) was only puniffiable by fine and imprifon- 
ment; unlefs perhaps the offence of mayhem by caftra- 
tion, which ail our old writers held to be felony. But 
by fubfequent ftatutes the crime and punilhment of may¬ 
hem were put more out of doubt. By 5 Hen. IV. c. 5. 
cutting out the tongue, or putting out the eyes of man, 
to prevent him being an evidence againft thofe who beat, 
wounded, or robbed, him, was an offence declared to be 
felony, if done.of malice prepenfe, that is, as fir Edward 
Coke explains it, voluntarily, and of a fet purpcife, though 
done upon 1'udden occatjon. The Itat. 37 Hen. VHI. 
c. 6 a 
