MAJOR, 
m 
truft and btifinefs, fubordinate to the adjutant, as he is 
to the major. 
Drum- Major, is not only the fil'd drummer in the regi¬ 
ment, but has the fame authority over his drummers as 
the corporal has over his fquad. He indru&s them in 
their different beats; is daily at orders with the ferjeants, 
to know the number of drummers for duty. He marches 
at their head when they beat in a body. In the day of 
battle, or at exercife, he mud be very attentive to the 
orders given him, that he may regulate his beats accord¬ 
ing to the movements ordered. 
Fife- Major, is he that plays the bed on that indrument, 
and has the fame authority over the fifers as the drum- 
major has over the drummers. He teaches them their 
duty, and appoints them for guards, See. 
MA'JOR, yi in law, a perfon who is of age to manage 
his own affairs. By the civil law, a man is not a major 
till the age of twenty-five years; in England, he is a ma¬ 
jor at twenty-one, as in Normandy at twenty. 
Major, in logic, is underdood of the fird propofition 
of a regular fyllogifm. It is called major , becaufe it has a 
more extenfive fenfe than the minor propofition, as con¬ 
taining the principal term. See Logic. 
Major and Minor, in mulic, See Magciore, p. 96 
of this volume, and the article Music. 
MA'JOR, or Maggio'ra. See Lago Maggiorf., 
vol. xii. p. 84. 
MA'JOR (John), a fcholaftic divine and hidorian, was 
born in 1469, in the pariih of North Berwick, in Ead 
Lothian, Scotland. He dudied for forne time at Chrift’s- 
college, Cambridge, and alfo at Oxford. In 1493 he went 
to Paris, where he fucceifively refided in the colleges of 
St. Barbe, Montacute, and Navarre. In 1505 he was made 
a doflor of the Sorbonne; and in 1519 he returned to his 
native country, and became profeffor of divinity at St. 
Andrew’s, where the celebrated Knox was one of his 
pupils. He at length rofe to the provodfhip of that uni¬ 
verfity, where he died in 1 547, at the age of feventy-eight. 
John Major was a famous logician, and wrote a volumi¬ 
nous commentary upon Aridotle, and a multitude of dia¬ 
lectic treaties. He was an equally copious theological 
writer in the fcholallic form then in vogue. His bulky 
folios in thefe branches of fcience have funk into total 
oblivion ; and he is now only known and quoted as an 
hidorian of his own country. His work DeGeJlis Scotorum, 
in fix books, fird publilhed at Paris in 1521, begins from 
the earlied periods, and comes down to the marriage of 
James III. in 1495. He is a drenuous advocate for the 
independence of bis country, and fpeaks freely of the 
pow'er of the people and the prerogatives of the parliament. 
He difplays a liberal fpirit in condemning the profufenefs 
of fome of the kings in alienating their revenues for the 
endowment of monaderies ; and thinks that they ought 
to be redrained by law from fuch abufe. The ftyle of his 
work is not entitled to commendation. Bifiiop Leflie fays, 
that he is“Veritatis ubique quam eloquentiae dudiofior.” 
Dempfter’s judgment of his hidory is, that it contains 
« fome valuable things, many erroneous, fome ridiculous, 
others defective, and, in fine, is throughout negligently 
written.” Biograph. Scot. 
MA'JOR (George), a celebrated German Lutheran 
divine, was born at Nuremberg, in the year 1502. When 
he was very young, we find him removed into Saxony, 
where he obtained the patronage of the elector Frederic III. 
in whofe palace he was educated among the choriders. 
Afterwards he was fent to the univerfity of Wittemberg, 
where he went through a courfe of philofophy under 
Melanfthon, and was admitted to the degree of mader of 
arts. He then entered on the dudy of divinity, which 
he profccuted with great diligence, under the indruftions 
of Luther and MelanCthon, whofe etteem he acquired, 
and whofe theological opinions he zealoufly embraced. 
In the year 1529, he was appointed reClor of the fchool of 
Magdeburg, over which he prefided with great reputation 
for feven years; and in 3 5 36, was made paftor and luper- 
intendant of Eyflehen. He did not continue long in fhi* 
fituation, before he accepted of an invitation to return to 
Wittemberg, where he was appointed one of the profelfors 
in the univerfity, and minilter of one of the churches. 
In 1544, he was created doCIor of divinity; and two 
years afterwards was chofen one of the proteftant depu¬ 
ties, together with Martin Bucer, to defend the reformed- 
doCirines in a conference on the fubjeCt of religion, which 
the emperor had appointed to be held at Ratifbon. On 
the breaking out of the Saxon war, he was driven into 
exile; and, in 1547, was nominated by Maurice duke of 
Saxony, fuperiritendant of the church of Merfburg. From 
this fituation he was transferred to the fuperintendency 
of the church of Mansfield in 1551 ; and in the following 
year he was recalled to Wittemberg, where he refumed 
his former pods, and retained them during the remainder 
of his life. He d.ied in iS74> at the age of feventy-two. 
His works, confiding of Commentaries upon the evange- 
lifts and the apo(ioli- v cal epidles ; Homilies on the gof- 
pels and epidles for Sundays and feffivals ; learned Dif- 
fertations, Thefes, See. have been collected together, and 
publifhed in three volumes, folio. Melchior, Adam. Vit 
Germ. Thcol. 
MA'JOR (Ifaac), a German engraver, was born at 
Frankfort on the Maine in the year 1578, and died in 
1630. Difcovering an early inclination for the arts of 
defign, he was placed with Roland Savery, under whom 
he dudied landfcape-pninting for a time; but, defirous of 
becoming an engraver, he placed himfelf, for indrudtion 
in that art, with Giles Sadeler. He united etching .with 
the work of the graver; but his works want energy, 
though they were held in fome eftimation at the time in 
which he lived. His principal productions are, a fet of 
fix middling-fized landfcapes, wild feenes in Bohemia, 
from Pietro Stephani; a very large landfcape from Roland 
Savery, in which St. Jerome is introduced ; another fet of 
eight mountainous.and favage landfcapes in Bohemia, in 
large folio, after Jer. Wolf; and an allegorical portrait 
of the emperor, in a car of triumph drawn by eagles afid 
fwans. 
MA'JOR (John Daniel), a phyfician and naturalift, 
was born at Bredau in Augud 1634. Having dudied for 
fome time at Wittemberg, he vifited feveral univerfities 
of Germany and Italy, and graduated at Padua in 1660. 
He returned to Silefia through Audria; but, afterafhort 
vidt to Bredau, he fettled himfelf at Wittemberg, where 
he married the daughter of the celebrated Sennertus in 
1661, who died in child-bed in the following year. This 
interruption of his domedic happinefs impelled him to 
leave Wittemberg, and he fettled at Hamburgh, where he 
undertook the office of fuperintendant of the treatment 
of the plague. The fuccefs of his practice obtained for 
him, in 1663, the honour of being enrolled among the 
members of the Academia Naturae Curioforum, under the 
name of He/perus ; and likewife aa invitation, through the 
Ruffian conful at Hamburgh, to fettle at that court, with 
the appointment of fird phyfician ; but he declined this 
offer. In 1665, he was appointed profedor of the theory 
of medicine in the recently-eltablidied univerfity of Kiel; 
and he was afterwards honoured with the appointments 
of profeflor of botany, and dire&or of the botanic garden 
there. Thefe offices called forth the exertion of his ut- 
mod zeal, in fupport of the reputation and utility of the 
rifing univerfity, which he efientially contributed to efta- 
blifh by his travels and refearcbes, and by the valuable 
collections with which he enriched it. By thefe exertions 
his own reputation was likewife extended, fo that in 1603 
he was called to Stockholm by Charles XI. to fuperintend 
the treatment of the diforder of his queen : but he was 
himfelf attacked with a difeafe while in that capital, which 
terminated his life on the 3d of Augud, in that year. 
Major was indefatigable in his refearches, both in na¬ 
tural hidory and. medicine, and was the author of.a con- 
fiderable number of publications. Eloy has enumerated 
J.he titles of upwards of twenty works, exchifive of a mini- 
3 her 
