558 M A U 
g ■ at affinity to thofe of the foxglove, Seeds oblong and 
k. Curt. Mag. t. 460. 
-; AU'RB ACH, a town and cliartreux of Aultria ; nine 
*n:ir* wp|t north weft of Vienna. 
VIAU RE, a town of France, in the department of the 
e and Vilaine : fifteen miles north of Redon, and feven- 
teen fonth-weil of Rennes. 
MAUREPA'S (John Frederic Philippeaux, Count de), 
a French ftatefman, was born in 1701, and in 1715 was 
appointed fecretary of ftate; which, confidcring his youth, 
mutt have been a finecure. In 172.3, lie was made fuper- 
intendant of the marine; and, in 173B, mini tier of ftate. 
By the intrigues of madame Pompadour, he was exiled to 
Bourges in 1749. He was not recalled till 1774, when 
Louis XVI. entrufted the public affairs to his management. 
He attended greatly to the marine department; and was a 
liberal encourager of the fciences. He died in 1781. His 
Memoirs, by himfelf, are curious, but carelefsly written ; 
they were printed at Paris in 1792, 2 vols. 8vo. 
MAUREPA'S, in geography, a town of France, in the 
department of the Somme: fix miles fouth of Ham. 
MAUREPA'S, a lake of Weft Florida, ten miles long 
and feven broad ; communicating eaftward with Lake 
Pontchartrain. 
MAUREPA'S, or Michipic'oton I'sland, an ifland 
and fort of North America, in Lake Superior, forty miles 
in circumference. Lit. 47. 42. N. Ion. 85. 30. W. 
MAURER' (Chriftopher), an engraver both on copper 
and on wood, was born at Zurich in 1558, and died at 
Winterthour in 1614. His father Jofhua was an artift ; 
and under the paternal roof he learned the rudiments of 
art; but was afterwards removed to Strafburg, and placed 
under Tobias Stimmer, where both the mafterand fcholar 
were clofe (Indents, and foon began to be diftinguiflied by 
the number of interelling and beautiful works which they 
produced. After pafling fome years in the fchool of Stim- 
wer, he returned to his native city, and added to his re¬ 
putation by his frefco piclures which adorn the facades 
of diftinguiflied houfes, and by the juft likeneffes he dif- 
played in his portraits; with the true fpirit of a Swifs 
artift, he always preferred patriotic fubjeCls, and has often 
painted the origin of the Helvetic confederacy. Of his 
engravings, thofe on copper are moft fought after by con- 
noifleurs, particularly a fet of bible cuts, and four em¬ 
blematical etchings relative to proceedings in the courts 
of law, which, after the death of the artift, were intro¬ 
duced into a Latin book. Of his letter-prefs engravings, 
which are neatly executed, the heft are pro¬ 
bably the fet of animals of the chace, which 
lie executed in conjunction with his mafter, 
and which were publifhed at Strafburg in the 
year 1605 ; and a fet of the bible, under the 
title of “ Hiftorifche Vorftellungen iiber die 
gange Bible,” which do honour to his in¬ 
ventive talent, as well as to his manual pow¬ 
ers as an engraver. To the works which he 
publifhed in conjunction with Tobias Stimmer, the firft 
of the annexed monograms was appended ; to thofe which 
were exclufively his own, the fecond. 
MAU'RI, in ancient geography, the inhabitants of 
Mauritania. This name is derived from their black com¬ 
plexion (^as’goj). 
MAURIAC', a town of France, and principal place of 
a diftriCt, in the department of the Cantal : thirty-four 
miles well-north-weft of St. Flour, and eighteen north- 
north-weft of Aurillac. 
MAU'RICE, a Chriftian and furname of men. 
MAU'RICE (St.), commander of the Theban legion, 
was a Chriftian, together with the officers and foldiers of 
that legion, amounting to 6600 men. This legion re¬ 
ceived its name from the city of Thebes in Egypt, where 
was raifed. It was fent by Dioclelian to check the Ba- 
gaudac, who had excited fome difturbances in Gaul. 
Maurice having led his troops over the Alps, the emperor 
Maximinian commanded liim to employ his utmofl exer- 
M A V 
tions to extirpate Chriflianity. This propofal was received 
with horror both by the commander and by the foldiers. 
The emperor, enraged at their oppofition, commanded 
the legion to be decimated ; and, when they (till declared 
that they would fooner die than do any thing prejudicial 
•to the Chriftian faith, every tenth man of thofe who re¬ 
mained was put to death. Their perfeverance excited 
the emperor to (till greater cruelty; for, when hefaw that 
nothing could make the reft relinquifh their religion, he 
commanded his troops to furround them and cut them all 
to pieces. Maurice, the commander of tbefe Chriftian he¬ 
roes, and Exuperus and Candidus, officers of the legion, 
who had chiefly inftigated the foldiers to this noble refin¬ 
ance, fignalized themfelves by their devotion and their 
attachment to the doftrines of the Chriftian religion. They 
were maflacred, it is believed, at Agaune, in Chablais, 
the 22d of September, 286. Notwithftanding many proofs 
which fupport this tranfaftion, Dubordier, Hottinger, 
Moyle, Burnet, and Mofheim, are difpofed to deny the 
fa ft. It is defended, on the other hand, by Hickes, an. 
Englith writer, and by Dom Jofeph de Lille, a Benediifline 
monk of the Congregation of St. Vannes, in a work enti¬ 
tled Defence de la Veriti du Martyre de la Legion Thebcnne > 
1737. In defence of the fame fadl, the reader may con- 
fult Hifloria di S. Mauritie, by P. Roftignole, a Jefuit; and 
the AEla Santdorum for the month of September. 
St. Maurice is the patron of a celebrated order in the 
king of Sardinia’s dominions, created by Emanuel Phili¬ 
bert duke of Savoy, to reward military merit. See the 
article Knighthood, vol. xi. p. 816. The fuccefs of the 
Britifh arms, by fea and land, during the late war for the 
deliverance of Europe, has opened moft of the foreign 
orders for the admiffion of our diftinguiffied officers; and, 
in Oftober 1814, the prefent king of Sardinia was pleafed 
to convey to lord Exmouth, under his own hand, the 
grand crofs of this order, in teftimony of his high elteem 
for that officer during his command in chief of his ma» 
jelly’s fleet in the Mediterranean. 
The above faint, commander of the Theban legion, 
mud not be confounded with another St. Maurice, men¬ 
tioned by Theodoret, who fuffered martyrdom at Apamea 
in Syria. 
MAU'RICE, Emperor of the Eaft. See the article 
Rome. 
MAU'RICE, Marquis of Mifnia and Thuringia, and 
Eleflor of Saxony. See the article Germany, vol. viii. 
p. 524. 
MAU'RICE of Nassau, fon of William prince of 
Orange, by his fecond wife Anne daughter of the pre¬ 
ceding Maurice of Saxony, was about eighteen years of 
age, and a ftudent in the nniverfity of Leyden, at the 
time of his father’s aflaffination in 1584. Upon that fatal 
event he was appointed by the dates of Holland and Zea¬ 
land their ftadtholder and captain-general, and foon after 
he took his poll as an antagonill of the prince of Parma, 
the moft celebrated general of that ag?. We have feen, 
under the article Holland, vol. xi. p. 233. that this 
young prince, reared that edifice of liberty of which his 
father had laid the foundation. By the year 1600, he had 
driven the Spaniards entirely out of Holland. But the 
dark part of his charafler remains to be fhown. Maurice 
not only laboured for the commonwealth, but alfo for 
himfelf. He coveted the fovereignty of Holland, and was 
oppoted in the profecution of his defign by the penfioner 
Barneveldt. The zeal and ailivity of this wife republican 
coft him his life. He was an Arminian ; and at this time 
Maurice defended Gomar againfl Arminius. Taking ad¬ 
vantage of the general odium under which the Arminians 
lay, he found means to get Barneveldt condemned in 
1619. His death, wholly owing to the cruel ambition of 
the prince of Orange, made a deep impreffion on thf 
minds of the Hollanders. See Barneveldt, vol: ii. p. 733. 
The truce with Spain being expired, Spinola laid liege to 
Breda in 1624; and in lix months, by the proper direc¬ 
tion of his great talents, though with great daughter of 
