[Maudsley, Henry], specialist in mental diseases, born near Giggleswick; was educated at University College, London, and graduated M.D. 1857; after being physician in Manchester Asylum, he returned to London 1862, and was professor of Medical Jurisprudence at his own college 1869-79; he is the author of several works on mental pathology; b. 1835.
[Maunday-Thursday], the Thursday before Good Friday, on which day it was customary for high people to wash the feet of a number of poor people, and on which Royal alms are bestowed by the Royal Almoner to the poor.
[Maupassant, Guy de], a clever French romancer, born at Fécamp; served in the Franco-German War, and afterwards gave himself to letters, producing novels, stories, lyrics, and plays; died insane (1850-1893).
[Maupeou], chancellor of France, whose ministry was signalised by the banishment of the Parlement of Paris, and the institution of Conseils du roi; the Parlement Maupeou became a laughing-stock under Louis XV., and Louis XVI. recalled the old Parlement on his accession (1714-1792).
[Maupertuis, Pierre Louis Moreau de], French mathematician and astronomer, born at St. Malo; went to Lapland to measure a degree of longitude, to ascertain the figure of the earth; wrote a book "On the Figure of the Earth"; was invited to Berlin by Frederick the Great, and made President of the Academy of Science there; was satirised by Voltaire much to the annoyance of the king, who patronised him and prided himself in the institution of which he was the head (1698-1759).
[Maur, St.], a disciple of St. Benedict in the 6th century; the congregation of Saint-Maur, founded in 1613, was a perfect nursery of scholarly men, known as Maurists.
[Maurepas], French statesman, born at Versailles; was minister of France under Louis XV. and again under Louis XVI., an easy-going, careless minister, "adjusted his cloak well to the wind, if so be he might have pleased all parties" (1701-1784).
[Maurice, Frederick Denison], a liberal theologian and social reformer, born at Normanstone, near Lowestoft, the son of a Unitarian minister; started as a literary man, and for a time edited the Athenæum, and took orders in the English Church in 1834; was chaplain to Guy's Hospital and afterwards to Lincoln's Inn, and incumbent of Vere Street Chapel; held professorships in Literature, in Theology, and Moral Philosophy; was a disciple of Coleridge and a Broad Churchman, who "promoted the charities of his faith, and parried its discussion"; one of the originators of Christian Socialism along with Kingsley, and the founder of the Working-Man's College; his writings were numerous though somewhat vague in their teachings, and had many admirers (1805-1872).
[Maurice of Nassau], Prince of Orange; one of the most famous generals of modern times, son of William the Silent, on whose assassination he was elected Stadtholder, and became by his prowess the liberator of the United Provinces from the yoke of Spain; his name is stained by his treatment of Barneveldt, who saw and opposed his selfish designs (1567-1625).
[Maurists], a congregation of reformed Benedictines, with head-quarters in Paris, disbanded in 1792; were through the 17th and 18th centuries noted for their services to learning; they published many historical and ecclesiastical works, including a "History of the Literature of France," and boasted in their number Montfauçon, Mabillon, and other scholars. See [Maur, St].