sideration of such of our readers as may deem such subjects deserving of their inquiry.

Six or seven years had now elapsed since Regiomontanus was at Rome, which he had left with a high character for erudition and scientific knowledge. But his fame had received such an accession from his various productions, particularly his "Ephemerides," and his "Commentaries" on the Almagest, that the learned men in that city expressed their earnest wishes to have him again amongst them. At this time, likewise, pope Sixtus IV. entertained a design of reforming the calendar; and conceiving Regiomontanus to be the most proper and able person for accomplishing such an undertaking, he sent for him to Rome. To induce him the more readily to accept the invitation, his holiness made him magnificent promises; and, as an earnest of his future favours, nominated him for the present bishop of Ratisbon. Regiomontanus was for some time in suspense, before he could prevail with himself to accept the invitation. The splendor of the dignity offered him was a powerful temptation; but much dearer to him were the delights of his studies, which the discharge of the pastoral functions must necessarily interrupt. The thought, likewise, of leaving the editions of many valuable authors imperfect, the completion of which he had so much at heart, was not a little distressing to him. But the importunity and authority of the pope prevailed, and he consented, though not without great regret, to relinquish his employments at Nuremberg. One strong motive he had, indeed, for acquiescence in the pope's pleasure, arising from the consideration of the great importance and value of the work to the public, for which his assistance was required. He therefore repaired to Rome in the year 1475: but died in that city about the end of July 1476; not without strong suspicions of his having been poisoned by the sons of George of Trebisond, out of revenge for the death of their father, which was said to have been hastened by the mortification which he felt on account of the criticisms made by our author on his translation of Ptolemy's "Almagest." Regiomontanus died at the age of forty years and one month; and, as it was the subject of astonishment that he could undertake so many and such prodigious works in so short a space of time, so his death was attended with universal lamentation for the loss of such an extraordinary man. He was buried in the Pantheon, and his memory was cele

brated by the best poets of the times. Purbach was the first mathematician who reduced the trigonometrical tables of sines, from the old sexagesimal division of the radius, to the decimal scale. He supposed the radius to be divided into 600,000 equal parts, and computed the sines of the arcs to every ten minutes, in such equal parts of the radius, by the decimal notation. This project of Purbach was perfected by Regiomontanus, who not only extended the sines to every minute, the radius being 600,000, as designed by Purbach, but afterwards, disliking that scheme, as evidently imperfect, he computed them likewise to the radius 1,000,000 for every minute of the quadrant. Regiomontanus also introduced the tangents into trigonometry, the canon of which he called fecundus, because of the many great advantages arising from them. Besides these things, he enriched trigonometry with many theorems and precepts. Indeed, excepting for the use of logarithms, the trigonometry of Regiomontanus is but little inferior to that of our own time. His "Treatise on plane and spherical Trigonometry" is in five books. It was written about the year 1464, and printed in folio at Nuremberg in 1553. In the fifth book are various problems concerning rectilinear triangles, some of which are resolved by means of algebra: a proof that this science was not wholly unknown in Europe before the treatise of Lucas de Burgo. Regiomontanus was author of some other works besides those enumerated in the preceding narrative; for an account of which, we refer to Gassendi Vita Purbach. et Regiomont. Martin's Biog. Phil. Hutton's Math. Dict. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

MULLER, JOHN, a learned German Lutheran divine and celebrated controversial writer in the seventeenth century, was born at Breslaw the capital of Silesia, in the year 1598. After having gone through his course of grammar learning, he commenced the study of philosophy and divinity in his native city, and at the age of twenty entered of the university of Wittemberg. Here he pursued his studies with uncommon assiduity, and about the year 1619 took the degree of master of philosophy with great applause. He now removed for a short time to the university of Leipsic; and returning afterwards to Wittemberg, in 1622 he was appointed to the professorship of moral philosophy. Two years after this he was admitted a licentiate in divinity, and in 1627 accepted an invitation to become pastor of:

the church of St. Peter and St. Paul at Hamburg. In this city he lived till he was senior minister; was appointed inspector of the schools and churches; was frequently consulted in ecclesiastical affairs, by the princes of Brunswick, Brandenburg, and the Palatinate; and acquired great celebrity by his numerous writings in defence of the protestant cause against the Papists, as well as by his other various and controversial productions. He expired suddenly at church, when about to enter the pulpit, in 1673, at the age of seventyfive. He had been a great favourite with Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, who was charmed with his conversation, and spent hours at a time with him in his chamber. Among other works, he was the author of "De Elementis, Disput. XII." "De Summo Bono, Disput. X.;" "Atheismus devictus;" "Conciones Scholastica de Educatione Juventutis;" "Conciones VII. Super Psalmum XXII.;' ;" "Conciones VIII. Super Psalmum VIII.; ""Conciones IX. in Symbolum Athanasii;" "Explicatio Augustana Confessionis;" "Utrum Laici Vet. Test. absque Cognitione Christi fuerint Salvati ;" "Judaismus ;"" Anabaptismus;" "Colluvies Quackerorum ;""Prodromus Anti-Jansenii,"" Anti-Jansenius;" "Refutatio objectionum, quibus Pontificii Religionem Lutheranam suspectam reddere volunt;" "Admonitio ad Hamburgenses de Erroribus Pontificiorum ;"" Figmentum cerebri humani de reprobatione Hominum ex Mero Dei Beneplacito;" "Refutatio absoluti decreti Dordrechiani," "De Sacrificio Missæ Pontificio vitando Libellus," &c. Freheri Theat. Vir Erud. Clar. Witte Diarium Biog.-M.

MULLER, JOHN, a celebrated divine and preacher at Zurich in the seventeenth century. Though we are supplied with no materials relative to his personal history, excepting that he was living in the year 1678, yet the various literature requisite for the production of his numerous works seems to entitle him to this slight notice. The principal of them are, "Quæstiones miscellanæ de Muhammedonorum Deo;" "De Persico Twasi Pentateuchs;" "De Sadducæis," 1653; "Dyas Quæstionum de Nomine Jesu et Versione Æthiopica," 1654; "Disputationes de Historiæ Definitione," 1659; "De Sacris Scriptoribus in Genere;" "De Evangelica Magorum Historia;" "De Scriptis S. Matthæi," 1660; "Heptas Quæstionum de Nativitatis Christi Festo," 1672; "Vindiciae Locorum Vet. Testament, Gen. I. iii, 11. Gen. xvii. 11;""Decas Concionum ;" "Horolo

gium poenitentiale;" "Tuba Joelis ;" "Speculum pcenitentiale" "Tractatus de Monachatu et Eucharistia," &c. Moreri.—M.

MUMMIUS, LUCIUS, consul of Rome, B. C. 146, was sent in that year to supersede Metellus in the conduct of the war against the Achaians. He immediately encamped on the isthmus of Corinth, and invested that celebrated city, which was doomed to destruction by the Roman senate on account of the violation of the embassadors of Rome. Mummius gave a total and bloody defeat to the Achaians commanded by Diæus, in the valley of Leucopetra, after which Corinth was deserted by most of its inhabitants, and left defenceless. After waiting three days through the apprehension of an ambuscade, the Roman army entered, put to death all the men they found of military age, and made slaves of the women and children. The plunder of Corinth, the richest city then in the world in the remains of antient art, was given to the soldiery, with the exception of such pieces as the consul thought worthy of preserving for the decoration of Rome. His judgment in this matter, however, was much inferior to his disinterestedness and integrity; for so little did he possess of the taste of a connoisseur, that when the spoils were put on ship-board to be conveyed to Rome, he gave notice to the masters of the vessels that if any of them were lost, they were to be replaced with others as good, at their own expence. The fortune of a famous picture, the Bacchus of Aristides, was remarkable. It was found employed by some Roman soldiers as a table to play at dice upon; and being rescued from their hands, was put up to sale with the other spoils. Attalus, king of Pergamus, bid for it near 5,000l. sterling; at which Mummius was so much surprised, that supposing it to possess some magical virtue, he cancelled the bargain, to the king's great mortification. The consul placed it in the temple of Ceres, where it was seen by Strabo before its destruction in the conflagration of that edifice. When Corinth had been pillaged of all its portable treasures, it was reduced to ashes according to the decree of the senate, and its foundations were razed-a severity which Cicero liberally censures. Mummius on his return to Rome was honoured with a triumph, which was embellished by a display of all the rarities of art that he had brought from Corinth. He afterwards served the office of censor; and falling upon some account under the displeasure of his fellow-citizens, was sent into ba

MUNDINUS. See MONDINO. MUNCER, THOMAS, a famous German fanatic in the sixteenth century, was a native of Zwickaw, a town in Misnia; but of the year of his birth we have seen no notice. He was educated to the church, and became a disciple of Luther, whose principles he propagated for some time with great zeal and success in Thuringia. Being, however, of an enthusiastic turn of mind, it was his misfortune to become connected with Nicholas Stork, the leader of a fanatical branch of the sect of anabaptists, who pretended to divine revelations, and to greater purity of doctrine than the rest of that communion. To his notions Muncer became a convert; and having been re-baptized, with the same pretensions embarked in making proselytes to his new principles from among his former followers. "Luther, he told them," says Dr. Robertson, "had done more hurt than service to religion. Ile had, indeed, resHe cued the church from the yoke of popery, but his doctrines encouraged, and his life set an example of, the utmost licentiousness of manners. In order to avoid vice," says he, "men must practise perpetual mortification. They must put on a grave countenance, speak little, wear a plain garb, and be serious in their whole deportment. Such as prepare their hearts in this manner, may expect that the Supreme Being will direct all their steps, and by some visible sign discover his will to them; if that illumination be at any time withheld, we may expostulate with the Almighty, who deals with us so harshly, and remind him of his promises. This expostulation and anger will be highly acceptable to God, and will at last prevail on him to guide us with the same unerring hand which conducted the patriarchs of old. Let us beware, however, of offending him by our arrogance; but as all men are equal in his eye, let them return to that condition of equality in which he formed them, and having all things in common, let them live together like brethren, without any marks of subordination or pre-eminence." These wild and enthusiastic notions spread wonderfully among the peasants of Thuringia, and, combined with the spirit of revolt against tyrannical oppression which broke out among them about the same time, produced the most unhappy tumults and commotions in that country and the adjacent parts of Germany. In our life of Luther we have already given a particular account of the pro

ceedings of Muncer and his deluded followers, and of the destruction which he proved the means of drawing down on their heads and his own in the year 1526. To that account we refer our readers, adding only, that, notwithstanding his enthusiasm, Muncer met the ignominious death which his crimes deserved with a poor and dastardly spirit; and that the fanatical notions which he had disseminated produced, not long afterwards, effects still more memorable as well as more extravagant at Munster, as may be seen in all the historians of the times. Seckendorf. Hist. Lutheran, lib. ii. Robertson's Hist. Charles V. vol. II. book i: Mosh. Hist. Eccl. sac. xvi. cap. iii. sect. iii. par. 2. Moreri.-M.

MUNCK, JOHN, a celebrated Danish navigator, was born towards the end of the sixteenth century. The discoveries of Hudson, in 1610, having excited considerable attention in all the maritime countries of Europe, Munck was ordered by his sovereign to pursue the same route, in order to determine whether it was possible to proceed to India by a north-west passage. Two ships were equip-ped for this purpose, and on the 16th of May, 1619, Munck set sail from the Sound. On' the 20th of June following, he saw Cape Fare-well, and passing through Hudson's Strait, to which, in honour of his king, he gave the name of Fretum Christiani, or Christian's Strait, discovered in it an island, in lat 60° 20′ North, which, on account of the reindeer found in it, was called Deer Island. He also gave the name of Mare Novum, or the New Sea, to that which washes the coast of Labra-dore, and the appellation of Mare Christianum, or Christian's Sea, to the part adjacent to Greenland. In the latitude of sixty, this navigator met with so much ice as rendered it impracticable for him to advance farther north; he therefore directed his course to Churchill's river, where he landed, and where he found the ice to be from three hundred to three hundred and sixty feet in thickness. Here the greater part of his men were attacked by the scurvy, which was followed by the dysentery, and on the 4th of June 1620, Munck himself was taken so ill that he remained four days without food or drink, as his provisions were almost entirely exhausted. On crawling out of his hut, after recovering some degree of strength, he found no more than two of his men alive; though the crews of his two ships had consisted of sixty-four. These two men were overjoyed to see their commander; and the three.

survivors endeavoured to give each other every assistance in their power. The ice being dissolved on the 18th, they began to fish for salmon and trout; and in a little time they were completely restored to health. They now left the larger of the two vessels in the river, giving it the name of Munck's harbour, and set out in the smaller in order to return. Soon after, they lost their boat, and the ice having broken their rudder, they found it very difficult to repair it. They, however, recovered their boat in the course of ten days, and after encountering a violent storm, which shattered their mast and carried away their sails, they were so fortunate as to reach a harbour in Norway, and in a few days after arrived at Copenhagen, where the king, who had considered Munck as lost, was much astonished to see him. Munck was afterwards employed by his sovereign in the North Sea, and in the Elbe, in the years 1624, 1625, and 1627, and died in the month of June 1628, during a maritime expedition. Forster's History of the Discoveries in the North.-J.

MUNIC, BURCHARD CHRISTOPHER, Count, a celebrated general, was born of a noble family, at New-Huntorf, in the county of Oldenburgh, in the year 1683. He received an excellent education; and being endowed with a ready genius, and a strong desire for the acquirement of knowledge, he had made such progress in languages and sciences that, at the age of sixteen, he was qualified to undertake a tour to France, where he improved himself in every branch of learning, and applied in particular to engineering both civil and military, and also to fortification. Having by these means become advantageously known to the court of Lewis XIV. he was appointed an engineer in the French army; but being unwilling to serve against the empire, he returned to Germany, and in consequence of his knowledge of tactics was made a captain by the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, and with his troops was present at the siege of Landau. Soon after, he entered into the service of the prince of Hesse-Cassel, by whom he was promoted to be a major of the foot-guards; and in this situation he had an opportunity of improving himself in the art of war under the duke of Marlborough and prince Eugene. He distinguished himself by his cool intrepidity in several engagements and sieges, and particularly at the battle of Malplaquet; when, as a recompense for his bravery, he was raised to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. At the battle of Denain, in 1712, he was dangerously wounded

and taken prisoner by the French; but being liberated the year following, he was promoted to the command of a regiment. In 1716 he quitted the Hessian and entered into the Polish service under Augustus II. where he soon rose to the rank of major-general; but being insulted in 1721 by count Fleming, the king's favourite, he repaired to Petersburgh, by the advice of prince Dolgorucki the Russian minister in Poland, and was received in the most honourable manner by Peter the Great, who employed him in several important affairs, both civil and military, so that he successively filled the highest posts in the army and the state. In 1723 he was intrusted with the construction of the famous canal of Ladoga, and this work he completed with so much skill and expedition that the czar, as a mark of his satisfaction, admitted him a member of his council. But his talents were more suited to the field than the cabinet. By the imprudence of his conduct he incurred the displeasure, in particular, of count Osterman; nevertheless, the empress Catharine conferred on him the order of Alexander Newski; and in 1727, Peter II. made him commander in chief, and in 1728 raised him to the rank of count. He was in no less favour with the empress Ann, who honoured him with various marks of her approbation, so that in the course of a few years he became president of the College of War, general field-marshal, chief of the new corps of noble land cadets, and knight of the order of St. Andrew. Count Osterman, however, was continually labouring to procure his fall; and having at length gained over counts Löwenwolde and Biren to be of the same party, the latter, to remove Munic from court, caused him to be appointed commander of the Russian troops in Poland, with orders to reduce Dantzie, which had given shelter to the fugitive king Stanislaus. Though his enemies threw every possible obstacle in the way to impede his progress, he carried on his operations with so much effect, that the place at length surrendered, after a long and close siege. He was then ordered to restore tranquillity in Poland, which he did with so much success, that the whole kingdom submitted to king Augustus; but war having, in the mean time, broken out between Russia and the Porte, he was again obliged to take the field, being appointed commander in chief of the Russian army sent into the Ukraine. The campaign was opened in the month of October 1735, and before the end of the next year Munic had defeated the Tartars of the Crimea.

in two skirmishes, and made himself master of Perekop, Koslof, and Baktschisari, but with the loss of 30,000 men, and the discontent of several of his officers, of whom the prince of Hesse-Homburg and a nephew of count Biren were the most considerable. The empress, however, was so well satisfied with his conduct, that she rewarded him with the grant of a considerable estate in the Ukraine. In the year 1737 he took Oczacow by storm, and after an almost uninterrupted series of victories reduced Choczim in 1739, and subjected the greater part of Moldavia to the Russian dominion. But most of these conquests were restored to the Turks by the treaty of peace which followed soon after; and this gave considerable umbrage to Munic, whose discontent was still further increased in consequence of his not having been consulted in regard to that treaty. When Biren, after the death of the empress Ann, in the year 1740, got the chief management of affairs during the minority of prince Ivan, Munic endeavoured, by every means in his power, to obtain his favour, with a view of being appointed generalissimo of the naval and land forces; but being disappointed in his expectation, he resolved, if possible, to effect the duke's overthrow, a design which he at length accomplished, Biren with two other persons of distinction being arrested about the end of the year 1740, and conveyed to Siberia. Munic, however, did not obtain that office of which he was so ardently desirous; and though the grand duchess made him prime minister, he was so dissatisfied at not being appointed generalissimo, and his ambition began to excite the jealousy of the court so much, that he requested permission to resign his employments; and this request was granted with a readiness which he little expected. Instead, therefore, of repairing to the Prussian court, to which he was strongly invited, he imprudently remained in Russia, flattering himself with the hopes of being reinstated in his former dignity; and when the empress Elizabeth ascended the throne, in consequence of a new revolution, he was arrested by order of that princess on the 6th of December 1741. The ostensible reason of this disgrace was, that he had persuaded the empress Ann to nominate Ivan her successor; but the real cause, according to a late traveller in Russia, was, that by order of that empress he had taken into custody one of Elizabeth's favourites. Munic was brought before a committee appointed to examine state prisoners, and being harassed

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with repeated questions, and perceiving that his judges were determined to find him guilty, he said to them: "Dictate the answers which you wish me to make, and I will sign them." The judges immediately wrote down a confession of several charges, which being subscribed by Munic, his mock-trial was concluded. ing thus convicted of high treason, he was condemned to be quartered; but his sentence was changed by Elizabeth to perpetual imprisonment. During the long period of twenty years he was confined at the small town of Pelim in Siberia, in an ostrog or prison of which, according to Manstein, he had himself drawn the plan for the reception of Biren. It was an area inclosed by high palisades about 170 feet square, within which was a wooden house inhabited by himself and his wife, with his chaplain Marten, and a few servants, and a small garden which he cultivated with his own hands. He received a daily allowance of twelve shillings for the maintenance of himself, his wife, and domestics; which small sum he increased by keeping cows and selling part of the milk, and occasionally instructing youth in geometry and engineering. During his tedious confinement he exhibited the utmost resignation, tranquillity, and even cheerfulness. He was accustomed every day, at dinner, to drink to his wife, "a happy return to Petersburgh." He had prayers twice a day from eleven to twelve in the morning, and from six to seven in the evening: they were read, in German, by his chaplain, who dying in 1741, the count himself afterwards performed the service. Notwithstanding the time spent in the culti vation of his garden, and in giving instruction, he found sufficient leisure for composing hymns, for translating several psalms and prayers into German verse, and for writing a treatise on the art of war, which he proposed, if released from his confinement, to present to the king of Prussia. In the last year of his confinement a soldier, whom he had caused to be arrested on account of some theft, having threatened to inform against his servants for supplying him with pens and paper, he was obliged, in order to prevent a discovery, to destroy all his writings, the labour and amusement of so many solitary hours. He had always flattered himself with the expectation of recovering his liberty at the accession of Peter III.; but he was no sooner informed of that event than, with the agitation natural to a person in his state, he began to dread that his expectation was illfounded. For several weeks he suffered the

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