m m o u 
MO'ULDINESS, /. The ftate of being mouldy.— Flefh, 
fi(h, and plants, after a mouldinefs, rottennefs, or corrupt¬ 
ing, will fall to breed worms. Bacon's Nat. Hi/L —The 
white down, or lanugo, which is produced on the furface 
of animal or vegetable matters in a hate of putrefaction. 
This mouldinefs, when viewed with a microfcope, affords 
a curious ipeftacle : being a kind of meadow, out of which 
arife herbs and flowers; fome only in the bud, others full 
blown, and others decayed; each having its little root, 
ftalk, and other parts; the figure of which may be feen in 
Hook’s Micrographia. The fame may be obferved of the 
mouldinefs which gathers on the furface of liquid bodies. 
Mr. Bradley obferved this mouldinefs in a melon very 
accurately, and found the vegetation of thefe little plants 
to be exceedingly quick. Each plant had its feeds in 
great abundance, which did not feem to be three hours 
before they began to flioot up; and in fix hours more the 
new plant was complete and mature, and the feed ready 
to fall. When the fruit had been covered with a mould 
for fix days, its vegetative quality began to abate, and it 
was entirely gone in two days more; then came on a pu¬ 
trefaction, and the flefhy part of the melon yielding no¬ 
thing but a flanking water, which began to have a gentle 
motion on its furface; and in two days’ time maggots 
appeared, which in fix more laid themfelves up in their 
bags, where they continued four days, and then came out 
flies. Thefe maggots were owing to the eggs of flies de- 
pofited in the putrefaction. Phil.Tranf, N° 349. 
MO'ULDING, f. Any thing calf in a mould, or that 
feems to have been fo, though in reality it were cut with 
a chifel or the axe. 
MO'ULDINGS, f. in architecture, projeCtures beyond 
the naked wall, column, wainfcot, &c. the aflemblage of 
which forms corniches, door-cafes, and other decorations 
of Architecture. See that article, vol. ii. 
MO'ULDWARP, / [molt>, and peojipan, Sax. This 
is thought to be the proper and original name of the 
mole, as being a creature that turns mould. ] A rnole ; a 
fmall animal that throws up the earth.—With gins we 
betray the vermin of the earth, namely, the fichat and 
the mouldwarp. Walton's Angler. 
Above the reach of loathful finful lull, 
Whofe bafe effeCt, through cowardly diftruft 
Of his own wings, dare not to heaven flie, 
But like a mouldwarp in the earth doth lie. Spenfer. 
MO'ULDY, adj. Overgrown with concretions.—The 
marble looks white, as being expofed to the winds and 
fait fea-vapours, that by continually fretting it prelerve it 
from that mouldy colour which others contract. Addifon. 
Is thy name Mouldy? 
—Yea. 
—’Tis the more time thou wert ufed. 
“Ha, ha, ha; moll excellent. Things that are mouldy 
lack ufe. Well faid, fir John. Shakejpeare's Hen. IV. 
MO'ULE, a river of Devonfhire, which runs into the 
Taw two miles north of Chumleigh. 
MOU'LE (Le), a town of the ifland of Guadaloupe, on 
the north coaft. Lat. 16. 30. N. Ion. 61. 27. W. 
MOU'LER. See Saler Mouler. 
MOULIBER'NE, a town of France, in the department 
of the Mayne and Loire: fix miles fbuth-eaft of Bauge. 
MOULIN', a town of France, in the department of the 
Mofelle, on the Mofelle: three miles fouth-well of Metz, 
and five north-north-eaft of Gorze. 
MOULIN' (Charles du), a very eminent French jurift, 
was born at Paris of an ancient and noble family in 1500. 
From his earlieft years he diftinguifiied himfelf by the fa¬ 
cility with which he imbibed the lefions of his mailers, 
and the ardour of his application. After a preliminary 
education in the univerfity of Paris, he was fent to iludy 
law at Orleans and Poitiers. He was admitted an advo¬ 
cate in the parliament of Paris in 1522, and abted for 
fome years as a pleader in the courts j but an impediment 
M O U 
in his fpeech caufed him at length to quit the bar, and 
devote himfelf to the compofition of thole writings which 
have conferred fo much celebrity on his name. In 1539, 
he publilhecl his “ Commentaire fur les Matieres feodales 
de la Coutume de Paris.” In 1551 appeared his “ Ob- 
fervations fur l’Edit du Roi Henri II. contre les Petites 
Dates.” This edift contained various regulations con¬ 
cerning the conduct of notaries and other perfons rela¬ 
tive to the conveyance of benefices, and had arifen from 
the hoftility between the court of France and that of 
Rome. Du Moulin exaggerated all the abufes imputed 
to the Roman fee, and warmly defended the liberties cf 
the Gallican church; whence his work, though much 
admired in France, was highly offenfive to the papal 
court, which procured a cenfure of it from the Sorbonne ; 
and fo much was the court of France afraid of the pope, 
that the parliament of Paris likewife decreed the fup- 
prellion of this work; and fome zealous catholics found 
means to excite the populace againft him as a favourer of 
herefy: liis houfe was pillaged, and he thought it necef- 
fary to quit Paris and retire into Germany. He ipent 
fome years at different towns in that country and in 
Burgundy, continually occupied in writing, and in giving 
leftures on the law with extraordinary reputation. In 
1556, the count de Montbelliard, upon his refufal to un¬ 
dertake an unjuft caufe, threw him into prifon, whence, 
after a confinement of four months, he was liberated in 
confequence of the folicitations of his wife. He returned 
to Paris, which he quitted for Orleans in the religious 
wars of 1362. He again returned to the capital in 1564, 
where having printed “ Three Confultations,” the laft of 
which regarded the council of Trent, he was imprifoned 
in the Conciergerie, but foon obtained his difcharge 
through the intereft of Joan d’Albret. He was, however, 
enjoined to write no more on matters of Hate, or theolo¬ 
gical fubjefls. He died in 1566, having firft entirely re¬ 
conciled himfelf to the catholic church. 
Charles du Moulin was confidered in France as an 
oracle of jurifprudence, of an authority equal to that of 
the greateft names in the fcience ancient or modern. He 
was conlulted from all the provinces of the kingdom, 
and his opinions were feldom deviated from in the civil 
or ecclefiaftical tribunals. It was particularly in the 
knowledge o e canon and cuftomarylaw that he excelled; 
and in thefe his views were equally profound and exten- 
five. Of his own fuperiority he was abundantly feniible, 
and he did not fcruple to entitle himfelf “ the Doctor of 
France and Germany;” and to prefix to his Confultations, 
“ I, who am fecond to no one, and whom no one can 
teach any thing.” His works were printed colleflively 
in 1681, in 5 vols. folio, and form a great mafs of legal 
erudition. Gen. Biog. 
MOULIN' (Peter du), a learned and very eminent 
French proteftant divine, was the fon of Joachim du 
Moulin, a proteftant minifter at Orleans, and was born 
at Buhy in the French Vexin, in the year 1568. He 
purfued his ftudies at Paris, and afterwards in England, 
whence he removed to the univerfity of Leyden in Hol¬ 
land, where he taught philofophy for fome time with 
great applaufe. After having been admitted to the mi- 
niftry, he accepted an invitation to become pallor to the 
proteftant church of Charenton, near Paris ; where he ac¬ 
quired high reputation as a preacher, and by his able 
and fpirited writings againft the catholics, and in defence 
of the principles of his party. He was honoured with 
the appointment of chaplain to Catharine de Bourbon, 
princefs of Navarre, and filler of Henry IV. who in 1599 
was married to Henry de Lorraine, duke of Bar. In the 
year 1615, he paid a vifit to England, on the invitation 
of king James I. who was at that time intent on bring¬ 
ing about an union between the relormed and Lutheran 
churches, and requefted his afliftance in drawing up a 
fcheme which might have a tendency to determine the 
difputes then exifting between thofe churches, and to 
prevent them for the future. Accordingly du Moulin 
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