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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maerlant, Jacob van

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​MAERLANT, JACOB VAN (c. 1235–c. 1300), Flemish poet, was born in the Franc de Burges (tradition says at Damme) between 1230 and 1240. He was sacristan of Maerlant, in the island of Ost-Voorne, and afterwards clerk to the magistrates at Damme. His early works are translations of French romances. Maerlant’s most serious work in the field of romance was his Ystorien van Troyen (c. 1264), a poem of some forty thousand lines, translated and amplified from the Roman de Troie of Benoît de Sainte-More. From this time Maerlant rejected romance as idle, and devoted himself to writing scientific and historical works for the education and enlightenment of the Flemish people. His Heimelicheit der Heimelicheden (c. 1266) is a translation of the Secreta secretorum, a manual for the education of princes, ascribed throughout the middle ages to Aristotle. Van der Naturen Bloeme is a free translation of De natura rerum, a natural history in twenty books by a native of Brabant, Thomas de Cantimpré; and his Rijmbijbel is taken, with many omissions and additions, from the Historia scholastica of Petrus Comestor. He supplemented this metrical paraphrase of Scripture history by Die Wrake van Jherusalem (1271) from Josephus. Although Maerlant was an orthodox Catholic, he is said to have been called to account by the priests for translating the Bible into the vulgar tongue. In 1284 he began his magnum opus, the Spiegel historiael, a history of the world, derived chiefly from the third part of the Speculum majus of Vincent de Beauvais. This work was completed by two other writers, Philipp Utenbroeke and Lodowijk van Velthem. Maerlant died in the closing years of the 13th century, his last poem, Van den lande van oversee, dating from 1291. The greater part of his work consists of translations, but he also produced poems which prove him to have had real original poetic faculty. Among these are Die Clausule van der Bible, Der Kerken Clage, imitated from the Complaintes of Rutebeuf, and the three dialogues entitled Martijn, in which the fundamental questions of theology and ethics were discussed. In spite of his orthodoxy, Maerlant was a keen satirist of the corruptions of the clergy. He was one of the most learned men of his age, and for two centuries was the most celebrated of Flemish poets.
See monographs by J. van Beers (Ghent, 1860); C. A. Serrure (Ghent, 1861); K. Versnaeyen (Ghent, 1861); J. te Winkel (Leiden, 1877, 2nd ed., Ghent, 1892); and editions of Torec (Leiden, 1875) by J. te Winkel; of Naturen Bloeme, by Eelco Verwijs; of Alexanders Geesten (Groningen, 1882), by J. Franck; Merlijn (Leiden, 1880–1882), by J. van Bloten; Heimelicheit der Heimelicheden (Dordrecht, 1838), by Clarisse; Der Naturen Bloeme (Groningen, 1878), by Verwijs; of Rijmbijbel (Brussels, 1858–1869), by David; Spiegel historiael (Leiden 1857–1863), by Verwijs and de Vries; selections from the Ystorien van Troyen (1873), by J. Verdam.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maelduin, Voyage of

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​MAELDUIN (or Maeldune), VOYAGE OF (Imram Maeleduin), an early Irish romance. The text exists in an 11th-century redaction, by a certain Aed the Fair, described as the “chief sage of Ireland,” but it may be gathered from internal evidence that the tale itself dates back to the 8th century. It belongs to the group of Irish romance, the Navigations (Imrama), the common type of which was probably imitated from the classical tales of the wanderings of Jason, of Ulysses and of Aeneas. Maelduin, the foster-son of an Irish queen, learnt on reaching manhood that he was the son of a nun, and that his father, Ailill of the edge of battle, had been slain by a marauder from Leix. He set sail to seek his father’s murderer, taking with him, in accordance with the instructions of a sorcerer, seventeen men. His three foster-brothers swam after him, and were taken on board. This increase of the fateful number caused Maelduin’s vengeance to be deferred for three years and seven months, until the last of the intruders had perished. The travellers visited many strange islands, and met with a long series of adventures, some of which are familiar from other sources. The Voyage of St Brendan (q.v.) has very close similarities with the Maelduin, of which it is possibly a clerical imitation, with the important addition of the whale-island episode, which it has in common with “Sindbad the Sailor.”
Imram Curaig Mailduin is preserved, in each case imperfectly, in the Lebor na h Uidre, a MS. in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin; and in the Yellow Book of Lecan, MS. H. 216 in the Trinity College Library, Dublin; fragments are in Harleian MS. 5280 and Egerton MS. 1782 in the British Museum. There are translations by Patrick Joyce, Old Celtic Romances (1879), by Whitley Stokes (a more critical version, printed together with the text) in Revue celtique, vols. ix. and x. (1888–1889). See H. Zimmer, “Brendan’s Meerfahrt” in Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum, vol. xxxiii. (1889). Tennyson’s Voyage of Maeldune, suggested by the Irish romance, borrows little more than its framework.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maestro

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​MAESTRO, a north-westerly wind observed in the Adriatic and surrounding regions, chiefly during summer. The maestro is a “fine weather” wind, and is the counterpart of the sirocco.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maelstrom

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​MAELSTROM (whirlpool), a term originally applied to a strong current running past the south end of the island of Moskenaes, a member of the group of Lofoten Islands on the west coast of Norway. It is known also as the Moskenstrom. Though dangerous in certain states of wind and tide, the tales of ships being swallowed in this whirlpool are fables. The word is probably of Dutch origin, from malen, to grind or whirl, and strom or stroom, a stream or current. It appears on Mercator’s Atlas of 1595.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mafeking

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​MAFEKING, a town in the British Bechuanaland division of the Cape, 870 m. N.E. of Cape Town and 492 m. S.S.W. of Bulawayo by rail, and 162 m. in a direct line W. by N. of Johannesburg. Pop. (1904), 2713. It is built on the open veld, at an elevation of 4194 ft., by the banks of the Upper Molopo, is 9 m. W. of the western frontier of the Transvaal and 15 m. S. of the southern boundary of the Bechuanaland protectorate. The Madibi goldfields are some 10 m. south of the town. Mafeking is thus an important trading and distributing centre for Bechuanaland and the western Transvaal. Here are, too, the chief railway workshops between Kimberley and Bulawayo. The headquarters of the administration for the Bechuanaland protectorate are in the town. The chief buildings are the town-hall, Anglican church, Masonic temple, and hospital.
Mafeking was originally the headquarters of the Barolong tribe of Bechuana and is still their largest station, the native location (pop. 2860) being about a mile distant from the town. It was from Pitsani Pothlugo (or Potlogo), 24 m. north of Mafeking, that Dr Jameson started, on the 29th of December 1895, on his raid into the Transvaal. On the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer war in 1899 Mafeking was invested by a Boer force. Colonel R. S. S. Baden-Powell was in command of the defence, which was stubbornly maintained for 217 days (Oct. 12 to May 17), when a relief column arrived and the Boers dispersed (see Transvaal: History). The fate of the town had excited the liveliest sympathy in England, and the exuberant rejoicings in London on the news of its relief led to the coining of the word mafficking to describe the behaviour of crowds on occasions of extravagant demonstrations of a national kind. In September 1904 Lord Roberts unveiled at Mafeking an obelisk bearing the names of those who fell in defence of the town.
R. S. S. Baden-Powell’s Sketches in Mafeking and East Africa (1907) and Lady Sarah Wilson’s South African Memories (1909) deal largely with the siege of Mafeking.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maelius, Spurius

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​MAELIUS, SPURIUS (d. 439 B.C.), a wealthy Roman plebeian, who during a severe famine bought up a large amount of corn and sold it at a low price to the people. Lucius (or Gaius) Minucius, the patrician praefectus annonae (president of the market), thereupon accused him of courting popularity with a view to making himself king. The cry was taken up. Maelius, summoned before the aged Cincinnatus (specially appointed dictator), refused to appear, and was slain by Gaius Servilius Ahala; his house was razed to the ground, his corn distributed amongst the people, and his property confiscated. The open space called Aequimaelium, on which his house had stood, preserved the memory of his death. Cicero calls Ahala’s deed a glorious one, but, whether Maelius entertained any ambitious projects or not, his summary execution was an act of murder, since by the Valerio-Horatian laws the dictator was bound to allow the right of appeal.
See Niebuhr’s History of Rome, ii. 418 (Eng. trans., 1851); G. Cornewall Lewis, Credibility of early Roman History, ii.; Livy, iv. 13; Cicero, De senectute 16, De amicitia 8, De republica, ii. 27; Floras, i. 26; Dion. Halic. xii. 1.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Prestonpans

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​PRESTONPANS, a police burgh and watering-place of Haddingtonshire, Scotland, on the Firth of Forth, 9$^1$⁄$_2$ m. E. of Edinburgh by the North British railway. Pop. (1901), 2614. A mile to the east of the village is the site of the battle of the 21st of September 1745, in which Prince Charles Edward and his highlanders gained a complete victory over the royal forces under Sir John Cope. Colonel James Gardiner was mortally wounded after an heroic stand, and an obelisk in the grounds of his house at Bankton, close to the battlefield, commemorates his valour, while the ballad of Adam Skirving (1719–1803), “ Hey, Johnnie Cope!" has immortalized the rout of Cope.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, the salt trade was prosecuted with great success, the pans having been laid down as long ago as 1185, but the industry has declined. There are manufactures of fire-bricks, tiles and pottery, besides brewing and soap making. In the vicinity there is an extensive coal-field. Fisheries are still of importance, although the bed of Pandore oysters (an esteemed variety) has lost something of its former fertility. There are harbours at Morrison's Haven to the west and at Cockenzie and Port Seton to the north-east, which practically form one village, with a population of 1687. The cross of the barony of Preston dates from 1617. Schaw's Hospital Trust, at one time intended for the education and maintenance of the children of poor parents, has been modified, and the bequest is used to provide free education and bursaries, while the building has been leased by the trustees of Miss Mary Murray, who bequeathed £20,000 (afterwards increased to £30,000) for the training of poor children as domestic servants.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Prestidigitation

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​PRESTIDIGITATION (from Lat. praesto, ready, and digitus, finger), the art of conjuring by nimble-fingered dexterity, particularly as opposed to the use of mechanical devices (see Conjuring). The Latin praestigium, illusion, praestigiae tricks, and praestigiator, juggler (from prae, before, and stingere, to prick), cover the same meaning though differently derived.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Prestige

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​PRESTIGE, influence and authority exercised by reason of high reputation. It is one of the few words which have gained a meaning superior to that of original usage. The word in French, from which it has been borrowed by English, as in Latin praestigium or praestigtae, meant jugglers' tricks, deceit, imposture, and so is found in the 16th century. The Latin stands for praestrigium, from praestrtngere, to bind or fasten tight, hence to blindfold; others derive from praestinguere, to darken, obscure, deceive. The word was at first generally used as foreign and italicized; thus the New English Dictionary quotes Sir Walter Scott (Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk, 1815) for the earliest example in English of the modern usage, “ Napoleon needed the dazzling blaze of decisive victory to renew the charm or prestige . . . once attached to his name and fortunes.” Other words derived from praestigiurn through the French retain the original meaning of juggling or conjuring (see Prestidigitation).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pressensé, Edmond Dehault de

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​ PRESSENSÉ, EDMOND DEHAULT DE (1824-1891), French Protestant divine, was born at Paris on the 7th of January 1824. He studied at Lausanne under Alexander Vinet, and at Halle and Berlin under F. A. G. Tholuck and J. A. W. Neander, and in 1847 became pastor in the Evangelical Free Church at the chapel of Taitbout in Paris. He was a powerful preacher and a good political speaker; from 1871 he was a member of the National Assembly, and from 1883 a senator. In 1890, he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. Pressensé laboured for the revival of biblical studies. He contended that the Evangelical Church ought to be independent of the power of the state. He died on the 8th of April 1891.
He founded in 1854 the Revue chrétienne, and in 1866 the Bulletin théologique. His works include: Histoire des trois premiers siècles de l'église chrétienne (6 vols. 1856-1877; new ed. 1887-1889), L'Église et la révolution française (1864; 3rd ed., 1889), Jésus-Christ, son temps, sa vie, son œuvre (against E. Renan, 1866; 7th ed. 1884), Les Origines, le problème de la connaissance; le problème cosmologique (1883; 2nd ed. 1887). See T. Roussel, Notice sur la vie et les œuvres de Pressensé (1894).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Preston, John

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​PRESTON, JOHN (1587-1628), English Puritan divine, was born at Heyford in Northamptonshire and was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge (fellow 1609). He took orders, and on becoming dean of his college drew large crowds to hear his preaching. On the duke of Buckingham's advice he was appointed chaplain to Prince Charles in 1620; in 1622 he became preacher at Lincoln's Inn and master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. After the accession of Charles I. he worked hard on behalf of the Puritan cause, but could accomplish little or nothing against Archbishop Laud. In theology he was a stanch Calvinist and his writings had considerable popularity.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Presteign

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​PRESTEIGN, a market town, urban district, and assize and county town of Radnorshire, Wales, situated on the Lug amidst beautiful scenery. Pop. (1901), 1245. Presteign is the terminus of a branch of the Great Western railway running north from Titley Junction in Herefordshire. The old-fashioned town contains the fine parish church of St Andrew, dating chiefly from the 15th century, and an interesting old inn, the “Radnorshire Arms,” once the residence of the Bradshaw family in the 17th century. To the west rises the Wardon, a wooded hill laid out as a public park. Presteign is the most easterly spot on the Welsh border, a circumstance that is noted in the Cymric expression to mark the extreme breadth of the Principality—o Tyddewi i Llanandras (“from St Davids to Presteign”). Although the Welsh name of Llanandras is said to denote a foundation by St Andras ap Rhun ap Brychan in the 5th century, the place seems to have been an obscure hamlet in the lordship of Moelynaidd until the 14th century, when Bishop David Martyn of St Davids (1290-1328) conferred valuable market privileges upon this his native place, which on doubtful authority is said to derive its English name from this priest. In 1542 Presteign was named as the meeting-place of the county sessions for Radnorshire in conjunction with New Radnor, and it has ever since ranked as the county town. Although an ancient borough by prescription, Presteign was not included in the Radnor parliamentary district until the 19th century, and of this privilege it was deprived by the Redistribution Act of 1885.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Prestwich

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​Prestwich, an urban district in the Prestwich parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 5 m. N.N.W. of Manchester on the Lancashire & Yorkshire railway. Pop. (1901), 12,830. It possesses cotton manufactures, but consists chiefly of handsome mansions and villas inhabited by Manchester merchants.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Matheran

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​MATHERAN, a hill sanatorium in India, in the Kolaba district of Bombay, 2460 ft. above the sea, and about 30 m. E. of Bombay city. Pop. (1901), 3060. It consists of several thickly wooded ridges, on a spur of the Western Ghats, with a magnificent outlook over the plain below and the distant sea. First explored in 1850, it has since become the favourite resort of the middle classes of Bombay (especially the Parsis) during the spring and autumn months. It has recently been connected by a 2 ft. gauge mountain line with Neral station on the Great Indian Peninsula railway, 54 m. from Bombay.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Matheson, George

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​MATHESON, GEORGE (1842–1906), Scottish theologian and preacher, was born in Glasgow in 1842, the son of George Matheson, a merchant. He was educated at the university of Glasgow, where he graduated first in classics, logic and philosophy. In his twentieth year he became totally blind, but he held to his resolve to enter the ministry, and gave himself to theological and historical study. His first ministry began in 1868 at Innellan, on the Argyllshire coast between Dunoon and Toward. His books on Aids to the Study of German Theology, Can the Old Faith live with the New? The Growth of the Spirit of Christianity from the First Century to the Dawn of the Lutheran Era, established his reputation as a liberal and spiritually minded theologian; and Queen Victoria invited him to preach at Balmoral. In 1886 he removed to Edinburgh, where he became minister of St Bernard’s Parish Church. Here his chief work as a preacher was done. In 1879 the university of Edinburgh conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.D., and the same year he declined an invitation to the pastorate of Crown Court, London, in succession to Dr John Cumming (1807–1881). In 1881 he was chosen as Baird lecturer, and took for his subject “Natural Elements of Revealed Theology,” and in 1882 he was the St Giles lecturer, his subject being “Confucianism.” In 1890 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Aberdeen gave him its honorary LL.D., and in 1899 he was appointed Gifford lecturer by that university, but declined on grounds of health. In the same year he severed his active connexion with St Bernard’s. One of his hymns, “O love that will not let me go,” has passed into the popular hymnology of the Christian Church. He died suddenly of apoplexy on the 28th of August 1906. His exegesis owes its interest to his subjective resources rather than to breadth of learning; his power lay in spiritual vision rather than balanced judgment, and in the vivid apprehension of the factors which make the Christian personality, rather than in constructive doctrinal statement.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Matins

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​MATINS (Fr. matines, med. Lat. matutinae, sc. possibly vigiliae, morning watches; from matutinus, “belonging to the morning”), a word now only used in an ecclesiastical sense for one of the canonical hours in the Roman Breviary, originally intended to be said at midnight, but sometimes said at dawn, after which “lauds” were recited or sung. In the modern Roman Catholic Church, outside monastic services, the office is usually said on the preceding afternoon or evening. The word is also used in the Roman Catholic Church for the public service held on Sunday mornings before the mass (see Breviary; and Hours, Canonical). In the Church of England since the Reformation matins is used for the order of public morning prayer.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mathy, Karl

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​MATHY, KARL (1807–1868), Badenese statesman, was born at Mannheim on the 17th of March 1807. He studied law and politics at Heidelberg, and entered the Baden government department of finance in 1829. His sympathy with the revolutionary ideas of 1830, expressed in his paper the Zeitgeist, cost him his appointment in 1834, and he made his way to Switzerland, where he contributed to the Jeune Suisse directed by Mazzini. On his return to Baden in 1840 he edited the Landtagszeitung at Carlsruhe, and in 1842 he entered the estates for the town of Constance. He became one of the opposition leaders and in 1847 helped to found the Deutsche Zeitung, a paper which eventually did much to further the cause of German unity. He took part in the preliminary parliament and in the assembly of Frankfort in 1848–1849, where he supported the policy of H. W. A. von Gagern, and after the refusal of Frederick William IV. to accept the imperial crown he still worked for the cause of unity. He was made finance minister in Baden in May 1849, but was dismissed after a few days of office. He then applied his financial knowledge to banking business in Cologne, Berlin, Gotha and Leipzig. He was recalled to Baden in 1862, and in 1864 became president of the new ministry of commerce. He sought to bring Baden institutions into line with those of northern Germany with a view to ultimate union, and when in 1866 Baden took sides with Austria against Prussia he sent in his resignation. After the war he became president of a new cabinet, but he did not live to see the realization of the policy for which he had striven. He died at Carlsruhe on the 3rd of February 1868.
His letters during the years 1846–1848 were edited by Ludwig Mathy (Leipzig, 1899), and his life was written by G. Freytag (Leipzig, 2nd ed., 1872).