strong force sent by his rival Velasquez, governor of Cuba, to seize upon the splendid prize he had won; and during his absence the cruelty of his lieutenant, Alvaredo, led to an outbreak in the city of Mexico. Cortez, having conquered the hostile Spaniards and united them to his own band, returned at the head of twelve hundred warriors, only in time to save the little garrison from destruction, and to make head against Cuitlahuac, brother of Montezuma, who had placed himself in command of the Mexican forces. The hapless emperor, at the request of Cortez, came forth to induce his people to allow the Spaniards to leave the city; but was greeted with a volley of stones, by one of which he was severely wounded. He retired broken-hearted, and died 30th June, 1520, refusing to the last to abjure the religious faith of his forefathers. He left a numerous family, two of whom became the founders of noble families in Spain.—F. M. W.
MONTFAUCON, Bernard de, a learned French author, born on the 7th January, 1655. Of noble and ancient lineage, he was sent to the college of Limoux; but disgusted with the discipline he returned home, and was allowed to pursue his studies after his own inclination. At the age of seventeen he had made himself acquainted with several modern languages, with geography, history, and the condition of modern nations. He wished to enter the army, and in a short time his wish was gratified. In 1673 he joined the regiment of Languedoc, and made two campaigns under Turenne. Losing his father and mother, he resolved to renounce the world and to enter the order of St. Benedict. By his superiors he was sent to the abbey of Sorrèze, and there he entered on the study of Greek, philosophy, theology, and ecclesiastical history. So great was his progress, and so accurate was his scholarship, that in 1687 he was called to Paris and became intimate with Ducange and Bigot. He there published some Greek manuscripts hitherto unknown to the world of letters, and assiduously laboured at an edition of St. Athanasius' works. The success of this edition induced his patrons to undertake an edition of St. Chrysostom. He was sent to Rome in 1698, and by Innocent XII. was received with peculiar favour. At Rome he was offered occupation by the papal authorities, and even appointed to office as procurator-general of the congregation of St. Maur; but he soon resigned the office, wishing to devote himself to letters. He therefore visited the principal towns of Italy, and returned to Paris to arrange the materials he had collected. He lived to the age of eighty-seven without infirmities, and died almost suddenly on the 21st December, 1741. He had been a member of the French Academy of Inscriptions for many years. His editions of St. Athanasius and St. Chrysostom are held in high esteem. He also published a history of Judith in three parts, the two first containing the history of the heroine and of the Medes, drawn from Greek writers; and the third answers to those who regard the biblical narration as a fiction or a parable. In addition to these he published "Diarium Italicum," or notes on the libraries of Italy; "Palægraphia Græca," a work intended to fix the age of Greek manuscripts; "Bibliotheca Coisliniana," in which forty-two Greek pamphlets are translated for the first time; "L'Antiquité expliquée et representée en figures," a work of immense research, to which most of the cabinets of Europe contributed, and which evoked in France the study of archæology; "Monuments of the French Monarchy;" and various other works on history, antiquities, and bibliography, considered of high value in the literary history of southern Europe.—P. E D.
MONTFERRAND, A. R. de, the architect to whom St. Petersburg owes its most imposing building, the Izak's-church, was born at Paris about 1785, and having completed his education as an architect, was induced to settle in St. Petersburg in 1813. He obtained the confidence of the Emperor Alexander and of his successor Nicholas, and was employed to erect the Admiralty chapel; a theatre on Aplugin island; the Alexander column, a vast monolith eighty feet high, &c.; but his grand work was the Izak's church, the most spacious and costly ecclesiastic edifice erected in modern times. It was begun in 1818, and could hardly be considered as finished at the architect's death. In size, the Izak's-church exceeds that of Cologne cathedral as originally designed; the piling for the foundation is said to have required a forest of trees, and cost £200,000. The plan is that of a Greek cross, with a great central dome supported on thirty polished granite shafts, and several smaller cupolas, covered with copper and gilt. The walls are plated inside and out with marble. The four entrances are each a peristyle with polished monolithic columns of gray granite sixty feet high and seven in diameter. The interior presents a combination of the costliest materials; walls and floor of coloured marbles and mosaics; a screen fifty feet high, with two lofty columns of malachite, and two of lapis-lazuli, the interspaces being decorated with mosaics; a sepulchre of solid silver; and elsewhere plated gold, bronze, paintings, and whatever can add to the splendour and magnificence of the building. The entire cost is spoken of as something fabulous. As regards its architectural character the exterior seems to be fairly open to objection; the effect of the interior is, however, described as gorgeous in the extreme, and very impressive, though not in the purest taste. M. de Montferrand died at St. Petersburg, July 11, 1858.—J. T—e.
MONTFERRAT, Conrad, Marquis of. See Conrad.
MONTFORT, Simon de, father of the celebrated leader of the English barons, was descended from a noble family, and was born during the second half of the twelfth century. In 1190 he married Alix de Montmorenci, and in 1203 served in Palestine. A crusade nearer home, that against the Albigenses, next employed his sword. Appointed by the papal legate as chief of the so-called "crusaders," he obtained in 1213 a signal victory over the king of Arragon and Raymond, count of Toulouse, in which the former was killed, and the estates of the latter were conferred upon his conqueror. In 1217, however, young Raymond of Toulouse, eager to avenge his father's death and to regain his father's possessions, established himself in the town from which he took his title, while Simon was absent. Speedily returning, the old warrior besieged the place, but was struck on the head by a stone during the battle, and expired. The praise of valour and sincerity cannot be withheld from him. Undoubtedly his bravery was signal; probably his zeal for the church was honest, but he had a great zeal also for the possession of property belonging to heretics; and if his courage was remarkable, so also were his cruelties. Much of all this may be laid to the account of his age; but in no age would he have been other than a stern and grasping soldier.—W. J. P.
MONTFORT, Simon de, a famous English baron, second son of the preceding, obtained the family possessions in England, his elder brother inheriting the French estates. He came over to this country in 1236, and soon became a favourite of Henry III., who created him Earl of Leicester, and in 1238 gave him the hand of his sister, the countess-dowager of Pembroke, in marriage. He was a bold and ambitious man, and very early began to take a prominent part in the discussions which then convulsed the kingdom. His insinuating address, together with his commanding abilities and extensive possessions, gained him vast influence in the country, and he became a great favourite among the common people, as well as among the barons. He was alternately the object of regard, and of dislike and dread, on the part of his fickle and imprudent sovereign, by whom he was expelled the court, then recalled, made lieutenant-general in Gascony, where he did the king good service, and was then once more disgraced and ignominiously banished. He was again restored, however, to some degree of favour and authority. But he seems to have become wearied of his efforts to preserve the good-will of the facile and frivolous monarch, and formed a powerful confederacy among the nobles for the redress of public wrongs, and the protection of the people against the tyranny and extortion of the king and the pope. An opportunity of carrying out their views soon presented itself. In 1258 Henry having summoned a parliament for the purpose of obtaining supplies, to secure for his son the crown of Sicily, the barons compelled him to give his consent to certain regulations called the provisions of Oxford, by which authority was granted to twenty-four nobles, one half chosen by the king's council, and the other by the parliament, to reform the abuses of the government and to redress the grievances of the people. Leicester was placed at the head of this supreme council which speedily engrossed both the legislative and executive power of the kingdom. They ordered four knights to be chosen by each county, who should make inquiry into the state of their respective districts, and should attend the ensuing parliament to give information concerning the complaints of their constituents. They decided that three sessions of parliament should be regularly held every year, that a new sheriff should be elected annually by the freeholders, that no wards or castles should be intrusted to foreigners, that no new warrens or forests should be made, nor the revenues of any counties farmed out. The twenty-four barons continued to exercise supreme authority in the country
