unmistakably set forth, the anguish being in exact proportion to the rootedness of the sinful habits—μέτρον τῆς ἀλγηδόνης ἡ τῆς κακίας ἐν ἑκάστῳ ποσότης ἐστίν, p. 227), she noticed that her brother was weary and sent him to rest awhile in an arbour in the garden. Towards the close of the same day he revisited her bedside. She began a thankful review of her past life, recounting God's mercies to her (ib. 191, 192). At last her voice failed, and only by the motion of her lips and her outspread hands—διαστολὴ τῶν χειρῶν—was she known to be praying. She signed her eyes, mouth, and breast with the cross. Dusk came on; lights were brought in; she immediately attempted to chant the ἐπιλύχνιος εύχαριστία—but "silently with her hands and with her heart." She once more signed her self on the face with the cross, gave a deep sigh, and finished her life and her prayers together (ib. 195). Round her neck was found an iron cross, and a ring containing a particle of the true cross (ib. 198). She was buried by her brother in the grave of her parents in the chapel of the "Forty Martyrs," about a mile from her monastery. Gregory was assisted in carrying the bier by Araxius the bishop of the diocese (probably Ibora), and two of the leading clergy. After her death many miracles said to have been performed by her were reported to Gregory (ib. 199, 202–204) Tillem. Mém. eccles. ix. 564–573.
[E.V.]
Magnentius, Flavius Popilius, emperor, 350–353. He rose under Constantius to the rank of count; and Constans gave him command of the Jovian and Herculian legions embodied by Diocletian and Maximian I. On Jan. 18, 350, he was proclaimed emperor instead of Constans, then absent on a hunting expedition. Constans fled, but was murdered at Helena or Elve at the foot of the W. Pyrenees. Gaul and all the Western Empire, including Italy, Sicily, Spain, and Africa, submitted to the new emperor. Socrates (H. E. ii. 26) says that the general confusion of affairs now encouraged the enemies of Athanasius to accuse him to Constantius; and Athanasius indignantly disclaims any correspondence or connexion with Magnentius, in the apology to Constantius; some false charge of the kind may have been made (Athan. vol. i. pp. 603 seq. Migne).
On Sept. 28, 351, the battle of Mursa on the Drave was fought, which deprived Magnentius of nearly all his provinces excepting Gaul. His last centre of operations was Lyons, and he fell upon his sword in Aug. 353. His coins, as Tillemont says (Hist. des Emp. iv. p. 354), prove his profession of Christianity; and he employed bishops in his negotiations with Constantius (Athan. op. cit. p. 606). But his usurpation began an unbroken career of crimes, and Athanasius's somewhat pithy summary of him (ib. 603) as τὸν διάβολου Μαγνέντιον is confirmed after their fashion by Zosimus and Julian.
[R.ST.J.T.]
Majorianus, Julius Valerius, declared emperor of the West Apr. 1, 457, at Columellae, six miles from Ravenna. Tillemont argues (Emp. vi. 634) that he did not become emperor till some months later. Majorian apparently remained at Ravenna till Nov. 458, the year of his consulship, which was marked by a series of remarkable laws, which may be found among the "Novels" at the end of the Theodosian Code. An outline of these laws is given by Gibbon; the seventh enacted that a curialis who had taken orders to avoid the duties of his position, if below the rank of a deacon, should be at once reduced to his original status, while, if he had been ordained deacon, priest, or bishop, he was declared incapable of alienating his property. The sixth law, intended to encourage marriage, forbade nuns to take the veil before the age of forty. A girl compelled by her parents to devote herself to perpetual virginity was to be at liberty to marry if at her parents' death she was under 40. The whole of this law, except the restrictions on the testamentary power of widows, was repealed by Majorian's successor, Severus. It is remarkable that the Catalogue of the Popes given by the Bollandists (AA. SS. Apr. i. 33) states that Leo the Great forbad a woman taking the veil before 60 years of age, or according to a various reading 40, and that the 19th canon of the council of Agde (Mansi, viii. 328), following the law of Majorian, fixes the age at 40.
On his arrival at Lyons, before the close of 458, Majorian was greeted by Sidonius with a long panegyric (Carm. v.). At Arles, Mar. 28, 460, he issued a law declaring ordinations against the will of the person ordained to be null; subjected an archdeacon who had taken part in such an ordination to a penalty of ten pounds of gold to be received by the informer, and referred a bishop guilty of the same offence to the judgment of the apostolic see. By the same law parents who compelled a son to take orders against his will were to forfeit to him a third part of their property.
On Majorian's return to Italy in 461 Ricimer excited a mutiny in the army against him at Tortona, forced him to abdicate on Aug. 2, and five days afterwards caused him to be assassinated on the banks of the Ira.
[F.D.]
Majorinus, a reader in the church at Carthage, holding some domestic office in the household of Lucilla, who was, through her influence, chosen bp. in opposition to CAECILIAN. This Augustine and Optatus denounced as an act of rebellion, and it was undoubtedly one of the first steps towards definite schism, a.d. 311. His party afterwards became known by the greater name of DONATUS. One of his consecrators was Silvanus, Donatist bp. of Cirta, who was afterwards proved before Zenophilus to have been a "traditor." Majorinus died c. 315. Aug. Epp. 43; 3, 16; 89; c. Parm. iii. 11, 18; c. Cresc. ii. 3; iii. 30, 32; iv. 9; de Haer. 69; Opt. i. 14, 15, 19; Mon. Vet. Don. iv. ed. Oberthür; Tillemont, Mem. vi. 15, 19, 24, 699, 700; Sparrow Simpson's Aug. and Afr. Ch. Divisions (1910), p. 18.
[H.W.P.]
Malchion, a presbyter of Antioch in the reigns of Claudius and Aurelian, conspicuous for his prominent part in the deposition of the bp. of Antioch, Paul of Samosata, in 272. He was famed as a rhetorician and was a learned man well acquainted with heathen writers, from whom he was accustomed to make quotations (Hieron. Ep. lxx. 4), and held, while a presbyter of the church, the office of president of the faculty of rhetoric (Eus. vii. 29). The bishop having announced or implied
