Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/805

* MAINPEIZE. 715 KAUfZ. mantis, liand + prendre, tu lake, from Lat. pren- derc. prrhoidere, to seize, from prw, before + "hcndirv, Gk. ;{'av(!dr£iv, chundanein, to seize; uUimatcly connected with Eng. yet). In Eng- lish law, a proceeding by which a person was temporarily released from prison upon an under- taking being given by one or more responsible persons, known as mainpernors, to produce him at the trial. It was very ancient in its origin and was coiiunon in the reign of Edward 1. It differed from bail in that the mainpernors had not the custody of the released prisoner and could not surrender him up at discretion as in case of bail. The practice is now obsolete, having been superseded by bail ( q.v. ) . MAINTENANCE (OF., Fr. mainlenunce, from mainlenir. to maintain, from Lat. niaiiu tcnere, to hold in the hand, from manu, abl. sg. of miiniis, hand + tenerv, to hold). In its legal sense, an ollicious intermeddling bj- a person in litigation in which he is not concerned or finan- cially interested, by assisting either party with money or otherwise. It differs from champerty, in that, in order to constitute maintenance, it is not necessary that the offender shall bargain for a part of the proceeds on the contingency that the person assisted is successful. It is punishable as a crime at common law on the theory that it tends to. increase groundless and vexatious litiga- tion and to obstruct the administration of jus- tice. The early common law carried the doe- trine to extremes, and it was formerly danger- ous for a man to advise a friend to con.*ilt a lawyer to protect his rights, but it has been greatly moditted in the course of time, and to- day where the common-law rules prevail, the intention witii which the assistance is given is considered the gist of the offense. Thus, in such jurisdictions, if one assists a relative or even a friend to carry on litigation solely because of the relationship existing l)etween them, and is not actuated by malicious motives against the opposite party, he is not guilty of mainte- nance, .t common law a civil action for dam- I ages may be brought by the injured party against ! such an offender, and such right still exists in many jurisdictions where maintenance as a I criminal offense is no longer recognized. In I New ^ork the common-law rules above men- tioned do not exist to-day, but by statute a person is prohibited from taking title to lands which are the subject of legal controversy, and an attorney cannot buy or take an assignment of a claim for llie purpose of prosecuting it by action. In several other States it is not recog- nized as a Lriminal offense and probably not as a civil cause of action. In the United States generally, however, agreements between attorne.v and client for fees contingent upon the success of the action are enforced, even where they have amounted to one-half of the amount recovered. See Barratry; Champerty, Consult the au- thorities referred to under Criminal Law': Tort. MAINTENON, max't'-nox', l^AX^oi.sE d'Au- BIGNE, .Mariiuise de (IG3.5-1710). .Second wife of Louis XIV, She was the daughter of Constant d'Aubigne and of .Jeanne de Cardillac, and grand- daughter of Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne, the famous Protestant champion. She was born Xo- vember 27, 1635, in the prison at Xiort. where her parents were then incarcerated. On obtaining their release, her parents went to Jlartinique. Vol. XII.— 46. where the father died in 104.3. After her fa- ther's death, Francoise returned to France with her mother, after whose death her father's sisters took her under their care, and educated her in a convent, where her conversion to the Koroan Catholic religion w^as accomplished at the age of about fourteen. When she was sixteen, she became acquainted with the poet Scarron (q.v.), who, struck l>.v her beauty, intelligence, and help- less condition, offered her his hand, or, if she should prefer it, a sum of money sufficient for her entrance into a nunnery. Although Scarron was lame and deformed, she chose to marry Lim, and lived in the midst of the intellectual society which frequented the house of the poet. On his death in 1660, she was reduced to great poverty; but through the intervention of Madame de ilontespan (q.v.) obtained a pension from the King. In 106'.) she was intrusted with the educa- tion of the two sons whom Madame de Montes- pan had borne to Louis XIV., and in this capac- ity attracted the attention of the King by her excellent intellectual gifts, finally supplanting Madame de Montespan in the changeable mon- arch's regard. War between the two women re- sulted in the triumph of the new favorite. The King bestowed on her the sum of 100.000 livres, with which she liought the estate of .Maintenon and in 107.5 received the title of marquise. She was not, it is believed. Louis's mistress in the or- dinary sense of the term, but from that time to the end of his life she exercised an extraordinary ascendency over him. She had become an ardent Catholic and succeeded in bringing the King under the influence of religious teachings. She favored the revocation of the Edict of Xantes. but was opposed to the violent persecutions that followed it, Louis privately married her in 10S4, soon after the death of the Queen, and. though she was never publicly acknowledged as his wife, her positicm at Court was quite different from that of her predecessors in the favor of the King, She carefully brought up the children of Madame de Montespan : and it was at her instigation that Louis legitimatized them. When he died in 171.5, she retired to the former Abljey of Saint Cyr. which, at her wish, had been changed thirty years before into a convent for young ladies. Here she died. April 15, 1710. She received to the end of her life the honors of a King's widow. Consult: Geffroy, .If me, de Main- tenon d'afiris sa eorrespondance aiithentique (Paris, 1887) : Xoailles, Hixtoire de .If me. de Maintenon (Paris, 184S-.58) ; Read. "La petite- iille d'Agrippa." in the Bulletin lii.itori(ine dn prat est ant isme francais. vols, 36 and 37: Brune- ti&re, "Mme, de Maintenon," in the Revue des Deux Mondes (Paris, 1887): Tapham, "Mme. Maintenon," in the Iterue Historique (Paris, 1895), MAINZ, mints (Fr, Mai/ence). The largest town in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, and one of the most ancient cities of Germany, and a great fortress of the Empire (Map: Germany, C 4). It is situated on the left bapk of the Rhine at its confluence with the Main, about eighteen miles northwest of Darmstadt. The southern and older ])art of the city, with its narrow and irregular streets and Gothic buildings, presents a striking contrast to the modern quarters in the north, built up since the reconstruction of the fortifica- tions, A modern bridge connects Mainz with