S66 iiALCBXJi
turned to Brazil, but was recalled to Lisbon in 1753 tyrants of the Renaissance, without fear of Cod of
upon the request of the queen dowager, Marianna man. At the same time, he shared to a high degree in
of Austria, mother of Joseph, who had succeeded the Renaissance cult of art; and letters, and many
to the Throne upon the deatn of his father John V. humanists and poets foimd shelter at his court. The
The great influence which he exerted at the Court of wonderful temple of San Francesco at Rimini, the
Lisbon was a thorn in the side of Pombal, the prime most pagan of all professedly Christian churches, was
minister. By intrigues and calumnies he induced the built for him by Leon Battista Albert! ; Piero de'
young king, Joseph I, to banish Malagrida to Setubal, Franceschi painted him as kneeling before St. Sigis-
Nov., 1756, and to remove all the Jesuits from the mund, and Pisanello cast his portrait in a splendid
Court. An attempt upon the life of the royal chamber- medal which is a masterpiece of its kind. Sigismondo
lain Tei^eira, dunng which the king was accidentally is accused of the murder of his two wives, Ginevra
wounded, was amplified by Pombal into a conspiracy d'Este and Polissena Sforsa. He afterwards married
headed bv Malagrida and other Jesuits. Without his mistress, the famous Isotta degli Atti, in whose
Eroof. Malagrida was declared guilty of high treason honour he composed poems which are still extant,
ut, oeing a priest, he could not be executed with- In 1465 he commanded the Venetian army in the un-
out the consent of the Inquisition. Meanwhile the successful campaign undertaken against the Turks in
officials of the Inquisition, who were friendly towards the Morea, ana on this occasion he discovered the re-
Malagrida^ were replaced by tools of Pombal, who con- mains of Gemisthus Pletho (the Byzantine scholar who
demned him as a heretic and visionary ^ whereupon he introduced Platonism into Italy), which he brought
Was strangled at an aulfMia-f^. and his body oumt. back with him to Rimini and solemnly emdirineain
The accusation of heresy is based on two visionary trea- San Francesco. Pius II, who held him in peculiar
tises which he is said to have written while in prison, abhorrence, partly because of his treachery towards
His authorship of these treatises has never been Siena, had begim by degrees to deprive nim of his
proved, and they contain, such ridiculous statements dominions, and Paul II continued the same course
that if ne wrote them he must previously have lost his until only Rimini itself remained. Infuriated at a
reason in the horrors of his two and a half years' im- demand to surrender Rimini also, Sigismondo went to
prisonment. That he was not guilty of any conspiracy Rome in 1468, with the intention of slaying the pope
against the king, is admitted even by the enemies of with his own hands. Either opportunity or resolution
the Jesuits. A monument in his honour was erected failed him. Paul seems to have pardoned him and
in 1887 in the parochial church of Menaggio. even confirmed him in the possession of Rimini, but
MuRT, Hiooire de Oabriel MaUxgrida (Paris, 1864: 2n(i ed., Sigismondo returned home a broken man, and died a
StraBburg, 1899; German tr. Salzbung* 1890); Un monumento al *«,«, Tr»ftr»fVia la*oi» P. Malagrida in La CxvOUl CaUolica, IX, series XIII (Rome, '^W moni,ns later. 1888). 30-43, 414-430, 658-679; Sommervogel, Bibliothi'Xtue de ROBERTO MaLATESTA (d. 1482), an illegitimate SOn
la Compaanxe de JSsut, V (BniMela, 1894), 394-5; Butina, of Sigismondo, possessed himself of Rimini by treach-
Fuia Aj JlfoAK^rute (Barcelona. 1886). j^^^^^^^ ^^ ery on his father's death. He murdered his two half-
MiCHAEL UTT. brothers, the sons of Sigismondo by Isotta, and is said
Malalas, John. See John Malalas. to have poisoned Isotta herself. In 1475 he was
invested with the vicariate of Rimini by Sixtus IV.
Malatesta, House of, an Italian family prominent Roberto inherited his father's military talent, and
in the history of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, recovered some of the territory that he nad lost. His
famous alike in the poetry of Dante and in the annals great achievement was the liberation of Rome by the
of the early Renaissance. The founder of their power victory of Campo Morto, 21 August, 1482, when, at
was Malatesta da Verrucchio (d. 1312), the leader of the head of the Venetian and papal forces, he com-
the Guelphs in Romagna, who in 1295 made himself pletely defeated the royal army of Naples under the
mas^r of Rimini by the slaughter of the chief mem- command of Duke Alfonso of Calabria. He died of
bers of the rival Ghibelline family, the Parcitati. fever, while pursuing the campaign, in the following
Thenceforth the Malatcsti ruled over a number of month. His son, Pandolfo, a cruel and contemptible
cities in Romagna and the March of Ancona, including tyrant, was expelled from Rimini by Cesare Borgia in
Rimini until 1500, Pesaro until 1446, Fano, Cesena, 1600, and, after several brief restorations of the Mal-
Fossombrone, and Cervia, sometimes with papal inves- atestj, the city was finally incorporated into the Papal
titures, sometimes merely by the sword. While many States in 1528.
of the family were notorious for their crimes and ^ S»^M«N™*f». /2aa»fto wtorico d«Ma /ondai^^ e
(d. 1429), a staunch supporter of the Church, who 1882); Ywarte, Un CondoUiere au XV* Si^de (Paris, 1882);
represented Gregory Xllat the Council of Constance, P4»»«"^' .^,^^^^^\ ^*'"„*'l* feHR*®??^* ^ Litta, Fawi-
AnH rialiv^ffr^ PnK«»rf/^ (A ^±'V>\ whn VkAPamo a Pr«n ^**« cet^^TX vtaluine) (Milan. 1869-1870) ; ^yuonus, Sketchei and Mia UaleOttO KObertO (d. 14d^;, wno became a l^ran- studies in Italy and Greece, II (London, 1898); HOTTON. 5tbt»-
Ciscan and shortened his life by his austenties. mondo Pandolfo MalaUsta (London, 190d).
Giovanni Malatesta (d. 1304), known, from his Edmund G. Gardner.
lameness, as Gianciotto, or Giovanni, lo Sciancato was Malchion of Antioch. See Paul op Samosata. the eldest son of Malatesta da Verrucchio. From 1275
onwards he played an active part in the Romagnole Malchus (MdXxof), Greek form of Malluch (i. e.
wars and factions.. He is chieflv famous for the do- counsellor), a name common in the Semitic langua^
mestic tragedy of 1285, recorded in the '* Inferno" of and of special interest as being that borne by the Jewish
Dante, when, having detected his wife, Francesca da servant whose ear was struck off by St. Peter. The
Polenta, in adultery with his brother Paolo, he killed incident is described by all the Evangelists (Matt.,
them both with his own hands. He captured Pesaro xxvi, 51 ; Mark, xiv, 47 ; Luke, xxii, 50; John, xviii, 10),
in 1294, and ruled it as podest^ imtil his death. though St. John alone furnishes us the names of the
Sigismondo Malatesta (b. 1417; d. 1468) was a son servant and the disciple, and only St. Luke mentions
of Pandolfo di Galeotto Malatesta, the descendant of a the miraculous healing of the injurjr. According to
half-brother of Gianciotto. On the abdication of his the Fourth Gospel, Judas, accompanied by a band of
half-brother, Galeotto Roberto, in 1432, he succeeded soldiers and servants sent out by the high-priests and
to the lordship of Rimini, Fano, and C^na, as papal Pharisees, set out from the city to apprehend Jesus,
vicar. From nis childhood he was a skilful and durmg After the meeting, when the soldiers were about to
soldier, and throughout his life was regarded as af seize Jesus, St. Peter drew his sword and cut off the
most the first captain in Italy. An appalling picture right ear of a servant of the high-priest. We may
of his character is given by Pope Pius II in his * Com- conclude that Malchus was in the van of the hostile
mentAriea", He was undoubtedly one of the worst party and showing particular zeal, for St. Peter would
