OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lucifer (bishop)

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​LUCIFER (d. 370/1), bishop of Cagliari (hence called Caralitanus), an ardent supporter of the cause of Athanasius. After the unfavourable result of the synod of Arles in 353 he volunteered to endeavour to obtain a new and impartial council. He was accordingly sent by Pope Liberius, with Pancratius the presbyter and Hilarius the deacon, but could not prevent the condemnation of Athanasius, which was renewed at Milan in 355. For his own persistent adherence to the orthodox creed he was banished to Germanicia in Commagene; he afterwards lived at Eleutheropolis in Palestine, and finally in the upper Thebaid. His exile came to an end with the publication of Julian’s edict in 362. From 363 until his death in 371 he lived at Cagliari in a state of voluntary separation from ecclesiastical fellowship with his former friends Eusebius of Vercelli, Athanasius and the rest, on account of their mild decision at the synod of Alexandria in 362 with reference to the treatment of those who had unwillingly Arianized under the persecutions of Constantius. Lucifer was hardly sufficiently educated to appreciate the real question at issue, and the sect which he thus founded did not continue long after his death. It is doubtful whether it ever formulated any distinctive doctrine; certainly it developed none of any importance. The memory of Lucifer is still cherished in Sardinia; but, although popularly regarded there as a saint, he has never been canonized.
The controversial writings of Lucifer, dating from his exile, are chiefly remarkable for their passionate zeal, and for the boldness and violence of the language addressed to the reigning emperor, whom he did not scruple to call the enemy of God and a second Saul, Ahab and Jeroboam. Their titles, in the most probable chronological order, are De non parcendis in Deum delinquentibus, De regibus apostaticis, Ad Constantium Augustum pro Athanasio libri ii., De non conveniendo cum haereticis and Moriendum esse pro Filio Dei. Their quotations of Scripture are of considerable value to the critical student of the Latin text before Jerome. They were first collected and edited by Tilius (Paris, 1568); the best edition is that of W. Hartel in the Vienna Corpus, Script. Eccl. Lat. (1886). See also G. Krüger, Lucifer Bischof von Cagliari und das Schisma der Luciferianer (Leipzig, 1886); F. G. Kenyon, Textual Criticism, pp. 181, 221.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Luchaire, Denis Jean Achille

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​LUCHAIRE, DENIS JEAN ACHILLE (1846–1908), French historian, was born in Paris on the 24th of October 1846. In 1879 he became a professor at Bordeaux and in 1889 professor of medieval history at the Sorbonne; in 1895 he became a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques, where he obtained the Jean Reynaud prize just before his death on the 14th of November 1908. The most important of Achille Luchaire’s earlier works is his Histoire des institutions monarchiques de la France sous les premiers Capétiens (1883 and again 1891); he also wrote a Manuel des institutions françaises: période des Capétiens directs (1892); Louis VI. le Gros, annales de sa vie et de son règne (1890); and Étude sur les actes de Louis VII. (1885). His later writings deal mainly with the history of the papacy, and took the form of an elaborate work on Pope Innocent III. This is divided into six parts: (i.) Rome et Italie ​(1904); (ii.) La Croisade des Albigeois (1905); (iii.) La Papauté et l’empire (1905); (iv.) La Question d’Orient (1906); (v.) Les Royautés vassales du Saint-Siège (1908); and (vi.) Le Concile de Latran et la réforme de l’Église (1908). He wrote two of the earlier volumes of E. Lavisse’s Histoire de France.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lucerne (plant)

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​LUCERNE, Purple Medick or Alfalfa, known botanically as Medicago sativa, a plant of the natural order Leguminosae. In England it is still commonly called “lucerne,” but in America “alfalfa,” an Arabic term (“the best fodder”), which, owing to its increasing cultivation in the western hemisphere, has come Lucerne (Medicago sativa), 1/2 nat. size.  1, Flower, enlarged.  2, Half-ripe fruit, 3/4 nat. size.  3, Fruit, enlarged. into widening usage since the introduction of the plant by the Spaniards. It is an erect perennial herb with a branched hollow stem 1 to 2 ft. high, trifoliolate leaves, short dense racemes of small yellow, blue or purple flowers, and downy pods coiled two or three times in a loose spiral. It has a characteristic long tap-root, often extending 15 ft. or more into the soil. It is a native of the eastern Mediterranean region, but was introduced into Italy in the 1st century A.D., and has become more widely naturalized in Europe; it occurs wild in hedges and fields in Britain, where it was first cultivated about 1650. It seems to have been taken from Spain to Mexico and South America in the 16th century, but the extension of its cultivation in the Western States of the American Union practically dates from the middle of the 19th century, and in Argentina its development as a staple crop is more recent. It is much cultivated as a forage crop in France and other parts of the continent of Europe, but has not come into such general use in Britain, where, however, it is frequently met with in small patches in districts where the soil is very light, with a dry subsoil. Its thick tap-roots penetrate very deeply into the soil; and, if a good cover is once obtained, the plants will yield abundant cuttings of herbage for eight or ten years, provided they are properly top-dressed and kept free from perennial weeds. The time to cut it is, as with clover and sainfoin, when it is in early flower.
In the United States alfalfa has become the staple leguminous forage crop throughout the western half of the country. Some idea of the increase in its cultivation may be obtained from the figures for Kansas, where in 1891 alfalfa was cultivated over 34,384 acres, while in 1907 the number was 743,050. The progress of irrigation has been an important factor in many districts. The plant requires a well-drained soil (deep and permeable as possible), rich in lime and reasonably free from weeds.
See, for practical directions as to cultivation, Farmers’ Bulletin 339 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, by J. M. Westgate (Washington, December 1908).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mottl, Felix

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​MOTTL, FELIX (1856–), German conductor and composer, was born near Vienna, and had a successful career at the Vienna Conservatoire. He became known as a gifted conductor of Wagner’s music, and in 1876 was engaged for the Ring des Nibelungen at Bayreuth. From 1881 to 1903 he was conductor at the Carlsruhe Opera, and made a wide reputation for his activity there, particularly in producing the works of Wagner and Berlioz. In 1886 he directed the performance of Tristan und Isolde at Bayreuth. In later years he visited London and New York, and became known as one of the most brilliant conductors of his day; and in 1904 he was made a director of the Academy of Music at Berlin. He composed some operas, of which Agnes Bernauer (Weimar, 1880) was the most successful, and numerous songs and other music.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mapu, Abraham

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​MAPU, ABRAHAM (1808–1867), Hebrew novelist. His works are chiefly historical romances in Hebrew. His most famous books were The Love of Zion and the Transgression of Samaria. Besides their intrinsic merits, these novels stand high among the works which produced the romantic movement in modern Hebrew literature. Mapu’s plots were somewhat sensational, incident being more prominent than characterization. But underlying all was a criticism of contemporary life. His novels made a deep impression and became instantly popular. Mapu’s Hebrew style is simple and classical. An English translation of the Love of Zion bears the title Amnon, Prince and Peasant, by F. Jaffe (1887). Mapu’s stories have been often translated into other languages.
See N. Slouschz, The Renascence of Hebrew Literature (1909), ch. v. (I. A.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mar, John Erskine, 6th or 11th Earl of

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​MAR, JOHN ERSKINE, 6th or 11th Earl of (1675–1732), Scottish Jacobite, was the eldest son of Charles, the 5th earl (1650–1689), from whom he inherited estates which were heavily loaded with debt. He was associated with the party favourable to the English government; he was one of the commissioners for the Union, and was made a Scottish secretary of state, becoming after the Union of 1707 a representative peer for Scotland, keeper of the signet and a privy councillor. In 1713 Mar was made an English secretary of state by the Tories, but he seems to have been equally ready to side with the Whigs, and in 1714 he assured the new king, George I., of his loyalty. However, like the other Tories, he was deprived of his office, and in August 1715 he went in disguise to Scotland and placed himself at the head of the adherents of James Edward, the Old Pretender. Meeting many Highland chieftains at Aboyne he avowed an earnest desire for the independence of Scotland, and at Braemar on the 6th of September 1715 he proclaimed James VIII. king of Scotland, England, France and Ireland. Gradually the forces under his command were augmented, but as a general he was a complete failure. Precious time was wasted at Perth, a feigned attack on Stirling was resultless, and he could give little assistance to the English Jacobites. At Sheriffmuir, where a battle was fought in November 1715, Mar’s forces largely outnumbered those of his opponent, Archibald Campbell, afterwards 3rd duke of Argyll; but no bravery could atone for the signal incompetence displayed by the earl, and the fight was virtually a decisive defeat for the Jacobites. Mar then met James Edward at Fetteresso; the cause however was lost, and the prince and the earl fled to France. Mar sought to interest foreign powers in the cause of the Stuarts; but in the course of time he became thoroughly distrusted by the Jacobites. In 1721 he accepted a pension of £3500 a year from George I., and in the following year his name was freely mentioned in connexion with the trial of Bishop Atterbury, whom it was asserted that Mar had betrayed. This charge may perhaps be summarized as not proven. At the best his conduct was highly imprudent, and in 1724 he left the Pretender’s service. His later years were spent in Paris and at Aix-la-Chapelle, where he died in May 1732.
Mar, who was known as “bobbing John,” married for his second wife, Frances (d. 1761), daughter of the 1st duke of Kingston, and was thus a brother-in-law of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. He had been attainted in 1716, and his only son, Thomas, Lord Erskine, died childless in March 1766.
See the Journal of the Earl of Mar (1716); R. Patten, History of the late Rebellion (1717); and A. Lang, History of Scotland, vol. iv. (1907).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mara, Gertrud Elisabeth

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​MARA, GERTRUD ELISABETH (1749–1833), German singer, was born at Cassel, the daughter of a poor musician named Schmeling. From him she learnt the violin, and while still a child her playing at the fair at Frankfort was so remarkable that money was collected to provide for her. She was helped by influential friends, and studied under Hillel at Leipzig for five years, proving to be endowed with a wonderful soprano voice. She began to sing in public in 1771, and was soon recognized as the greatest singer that Germany had produced. She was permanently engaged for the Prussian Court, but her marriage to a debauched violinist named Mara created difficulties, and in 1780 she was released. After singing at Vienna, Munich and elsewhere, she appeared in Paris in 1782, where her rivalry with the singer Todi developed into a regular faction. In 1784 she went to London, and continued to appear there with great success, with visits at intervals to Italy and to Paris till 1802, when for some years she retired to Russia. She visited England again in 1819, but then abandoned the stage. She went to Livonia, and died on the 20th of January 1833 at Revel.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maqrīzī

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​MAQRĪZĪ, or Makrizi [Taqī ud-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ‛Alī] (1364–1442), Arabian historian, known as al-Maqrīzī because of his ancestral connexion with Maqrīz, a suburb of Baalbek, was born at Cairo and spent most of his life in Egypt, where he was trained in the Hanifite school of law, though later he became a Shāfi‘ite with an inclination to Zāhirite views. In 1385 he made the pilgrimage. For some time he was secretary in a government office, and in 1399 became inspector of markets for Cairo and northern Egypt. This post he soon gave up to become preacher at the mosque of ‛Amr, president of the mosque ul-Hākim, and a lecturer on tradition. In 1408 he went to Damascus to become inspector of the Qalānisīyya and lecturer. Later he retired into private life at Cairo. In 1430 he made the pilgrimage with his family and travelled for some five years. His learning was great, his observation accurate and his judgment good, but his books are largely compilations, and he does not always acknowledge the sources to which he is indebted. Most of his works are concerned with Egypt. The most important is the Mawā‘iz wal-I’tibār fī dhikr ul-Ḥitaṭ wal-Āihār (2 vols., Bulāq, 1854), translated into French by U. Bouriant as Description topographique et historique de l’Égypte (Paris, 1895–1900; cf. A. R. Guest, “A List of Writers, Books and other Authorities mentioned by El Maqrīzī in his Khiṭat,” in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1902, pp. 103–125). Of his History of the Fatimites an extract was published by J. G. L. Kosegarten in his Chrestomathia (Leipzig, 1828), pp. 115–123; the History of the Ayyūbit and Mameluke Rulers has been translated into French by E. Quatremère (2 vols., Paris, 1837–1845). Maqrīzī began a large work called the Muqaffā, a cyclopaedia of Egyptian biography in alphabetic order. It was intended to be in 80 volumes, but only 16 were written. Three autograph volumes exist in MS. in Leiden, and one in Paris.
Among smaller works published are the Mahommedan Coinage (ed. O. G. Tychsen, Rostock, 1797; French translation by S. de Sacy, Paris, 1797); Arab Weights and Measures (ed. Tychsen, Rostock, 1800); the Arabian Tribes that migrated to Egypt (ed. F. Wüstenfeld, Göttingen, 1847); the Account of Hadhramaut (ed. P. B. Noskowyj, Bonn, 1866); the Strife between the Banī Umayya and the Banī Hāshim (ed G. Vos, Leiden, 1888), and the Moslems in Abyssinia (ed. F. T. Rink, Leiden, 1790). For Maqrīzī’s life see the quotations from contemporary biographies in S. de Sacy’s Chrestomathie arabe (2nd ed., Paris, 1826), ii. 112 seq., and for other works still in MS. C. Brockelmann, Gesch. der arabischen Litteratur (Berlin, 1902), ii. 38-41. (G. W. T.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maqqarī

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​MAQQARĪ, or MAḲḲARĪ [ Abū-l-‛Abbās Aḥmad ibn Maḥommed ul-Maqqarī ] (c. 1591–1632), Arabian historian, was born at Tlemcen in Algeria and studied at Fez and Marrakesh, where he remained engaged in literary work until he made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1618. In the following year he settled in Cairo. In 1620 he visited Jerusalem and Damascus, and during the next six years made the pilgrimage five times. In 1628 he was again in Damascus, where he gave a course of lectures on Bukhārī’s collection of Traditions, spoke much of the glories of Moslem Spain, and received the impulse to write his work on this subject later. In the same year he returned to Cairo, where he spent a year in writing his history. He was just making preparations to settle definitely in Damascus when he died in 1632.
His great work, The Breath of Perfume from the Branch of Green Andalusia and Memorials of its Vizier Lisān ud-Dīn ibn ul-Khatīb, consists of two parts. The first is a compilation from many authors on the description and history of Moslem Spain; it was published by Wright, Krehl, Dozy and Dugat as Analectes sur l’histoire et la littérature des Arabes d’Espagne (Leiden, 1855–1861), and in an abridged English translation by P. de Gayangos (London, 1840–1843). The whole work has been published at Būlāq (1863) and Cairo (1885).
​For other works of Maqqarī see C. Brockelmann’s Gesch. der arabischen Litteratur (Berlin, 1902), ii. 297. (G. W. T.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mar, John Erskine, 1st or 6th Earl of

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​MAR, JOHN ERSKINE, 1st or 6th Earl of (d. 1572), regent of Scotland, was a son of John, 5th Lord Erskine (d. 1552), who was guardian of King James V., and afterwards of Mary Queen of Scots. The younger John, who succeeded his father as 6th Lord Erskine in 1552, joined the religious reformers, but he was never very ardent in the cause, although he subscribed the letter asking Knox to return to Scotland in 1557. The custody of Edinburgh Castle was in his hands, and during the struggle between the regent, Mary of Lorraine, and the lords of the Congregation he appears to have acted consistently in the interests of peace. When Mary Stuart returned to Scotland in 1561 Lord Erskine was a member of her council, he favoured her marriage with Lord Darnley, and his wife, Annabella Murray, called by Knox a “verray Jesabell,” was a frequent companion of the queen. In 1565 Erskine was granted the earldom of Mar (see above). As guardian of James, afterwards King James VI., he prevented the young prince from falling into the hands of Bothwell, and when the Scottish nobles rose against Mary and Both well, Mar was one of their leaders; he took part in the government of Scotland during Mary’s imprisonment at Lochleven, and also after her subsequent abdication. In September 1571 he was chosen regent of Scotland, but he was overshadowed and perhaps slighted by the earl of Morton, and he died at Stirling on the 29th of October 1572.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maple, Sir John Blundell

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​MAPLE, SIR JOHN BLUNDELL, Bart. (1845–1903), English business magnate, was born on the 1st of March 1845. His father, John Maple (d. 1900), had a small furniture shop in Tottenham Court Road, London, and his business began to develop about the time that his son entered it. The practical management soon devolved on the younger Maple, under whom it attained colossal dimensions. The firm became a limited liability company, with a capital of two millions, in 1890, with Mr Maple as chairman. He entered parliament as Conservative member for Dulwich in 1887, was knighted in 1892, and was made a baronet in 1897. He was the owner of a large stud of race-horses, and from 1885 onwards won many important races, appearing at first under the name of “Mr Childwick.” His public benefactions included a hospital and a recreation ground to the city of St Albans, near which his residence, Childwickbury, was situated, and the rebuilding, at a cost of more than £150,000, of University College Hospital, London. He died on the 24th of November 1903. His only surviving daughter married in 1896 Baron von Eckhardstein, of the German Embassy.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mar, John Erskine, 2nd or 7th Earl of

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​MAR, JOHN ERSKINE, 2nd or 7th Earl of (c. 1558–1634), Scottish politician, was the only son of the preceding. Together with King James VI. he was educated by George Buchanan. After attaining his majority he was nominally the guardian of the young king, who was about seven years his junior, and who lived with him at Stirling; but he was in reality a puppet in the hands of the regent, the earl of Morton; and he lost power and position when Morton was imprisoned. He was concerned in the seizure of James VI. in 1582 (a plot known as the raid of Ruthven); but when James escaped from his new custodians the earl fled into the west of Scotland. Then leaving his hiding-place Mar seized Stirling Castle, whereupon James marched against him, and he took refuge in England. Queen Elizabeth interceded for him, but in vain, and after some futile communications between the governments of England and Scotland Mar and his friends gathered an army, entered the presence of the king at Stirling, and were soon in supreme authority (1585). Mar was restored to his lands and titles. Henceforward he stood high in the royal favour; he became governor of Edinburgh Castle and was made tutor to James’s son, Prince Henry, and for his second wife he married Mary, daughter of Esmé Stewart, duke of Lennox. In 1601 the earl was sent as envoy to London; here Elizabeth assured him that James should be her successor, and his mission was conducted with tact and prudence. Having joined the English privy council Mar was created Lord Cardross in 1610; he was a member of the Court of High Commission and was lord high treasurer of Scotland from 1615 to 1630. He died at Stirling on the 14th of December 1634. John (c. 1585–1654), his only son by his first wife, succeeded to his earldom; by his second wife he had five sons, among them being James (d. 1640), earl of Buchan; Henry (d. 1628), whose son David (d. 1671) succeeded to the barony of Cardross; and Charles, the ancestor of the earls of Rosslyn.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kurakin, Boris Ivanovich, Prince

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​KURAKIN, BORIS IVANOVICH, Prince (1676–1727), Russian diplomatist, was the brother-in-law of Peter the Great, their wives being sisters. He was one of the earliest of Peter’s pupils. In 1697 he was sent to Italy to learn navigation. His long and honourable diplomatic career began in 1707, when he was sent to Rome to induce the pope not to recognize Charles XII.’s candidate, Stanislaus Leszczynski, as king of Poland. From 1708 to 1712 he represented Russia at London, Hanover, and the Hague successively, and, in 1713, was the principal Russian plenipotentiary at the peace congress of Utrecht. From 1716 to 1722 he held the post of ambassador at Paris, and when, in 1724, Peter set forth on his Persian campaign, Kurakin was appointed the supervisor of all the Russian ambassadors accredited to the various European courts. “The father of Russian diplomacy,” as he has justly been called, was remarkable throughout his career for infinite tact and insight, and a wonderfully correct appreciation of men and events. He was most useful to Russia perhaps when the Great Northern war (see Sweden, History) was drawing to a close. Notably he prevented Great Britain from declaring war against Peter’s close ally, Denmark, at the crisis of the struggle. Kurakin was one of the best-educated Russians of his day, and his autobiography, carried down to 1709, is an historical document of the first importance. He intended to write a history of his own times with Peter the Great as the central figure, but got no further than the summary, entitled History of Tsar Peter Aleksievich and the People Nearest to Him (1682–1694) (Rus.).
See Archives of Prince A. Th. Kurakin (Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1890); A. Brückner, A Russian Tourist in Western Europe in the beginning of the XVIIIth Century (Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1892).  (R. N. B.)