., Rhangabe, Emperor of Constantinople, was the son of Theophylactus, and grandson of Rhangabe, from whom he derived his surname. The Emperor Nicephorus honoured him with the hand of his daughter Procopia, and the office of master of the palace; but after the battle with the Bulgarians, in which that monarch was slain, and his son Stauracius was mortally wounded, the latter, while sensible that he could not long retain the purple, was opposed to Michael as his successor. Michael, however, was in 811 named emperor even before the death of Stauracius, and made an ineffectual attempt against his life; but he was unable to retain the throne against the opposition of the army, although the people were well disposed towards him. He retired to a convent after a reign of two years, and died in the year 845. Michael II., Michael II., Babbos, or the Stammerer, Emperor of Constantinople, was born at Amorium in Phrygia, and was one of the principal officers of Bardanes. He assisted Leo V., his companion in arms, to obtain the throne, but afterwards conspired against him; and being convicted of treason, was condemned to be thrown into a fiery furnace. Before the sentence was executed, however, Leo was murdered by the other conspirators, and Michael was removed from his dungeons to the throne, even before his irons could be struck off. Michael was opposed by Thomas, another of the officers of Bardanes, who led 80,000 Asiatics against Constantinople, but was defeated and taken captive by the emperor, and treated with great cruelty. Michael died in 829, after a reign of nine years.

Michael III., Emperor of Constantinople, grandson of the preceding, succeeded his father Theophilus in 842 at the age of three, and was for some time under the guardianship of his mother Theodora. This emperor rivalled Nero in vice and cruelty; and neglected the loss of provinces for the sake of a victory in the chariot race. These excesses, along with the profane insults which he offered to the religion of his people, made him an object of universal hatred and contempt; and he was at last murdered by Basil the Macedonian in 867, after a reign of twenty-five years.

Michael IV., The Paphlagonian, Emperor of Constantinople, was raised to the throne in 1034 by Zoe, daughter of Constantine IX., the last of the Macedonian dynasty. This princess was married to Romanus III.; but becoming enamoured of Michael, her chamberlain, she poisoned her husband, and married her attendant. He, however, being of a weak character, and subject to epileptic fits, possessed the supreme power only in name, and was a mere instrument in the hands of his brother John. During his reign the Bulgarians made an incursion into Thrace and Macedonia, and Constantinople itself was in no small danger; but the indolent and infirm emperor, much to the surprise of friends and foes, put himself at the head of the army, and gained a victory, which compelled the invaders to retire. Michael returned in triumph to Constantinople, and shortly after died in 1041, after a reign of seven years.

Michael V., Calaphates, Emperor of Constantinople, and nephew and successor of the preceding, was the son of a caulker of ships, from whom he derived his surname, and was invested with the purple in 1041 by the influence of his uncle John. No sooner was he established on the throne than he banished his uncle and the empress Zoe, an act which raised a tumult against Michael, and put an end in 1042 to his short reign of four months. The deposed emperor lived for some time afterwards in a monastery.

Michael VI., Stratioticus, Emperor of Constantinople, succeeded the Empress Theodora in 1056, being, as his surname indicates, of the military profession. His government was feeble in the extreme; and he was at last compelled to abdicate by Isaac Comnenus, who had defeated his army in Phrygia. Thus, after an inglorious reign of one year, Michael retired to a convent where he spent the rest of his life.

Michael VII., Parapinaces, Emperor of Constantinople, was the son of Constantine XI.; and was appointed by his father in 1067 joint emperor along with his brothers Andronicus and Constantine. Michael, however, was in reality sole emperor, as his brothers were contented with mere empty titles and honours; but he was by no means fitted for the duties of his station, being a man of narrow mind, and a dabbler in philosophy and rhetoric. At length two generals of the name of Nicephorus, surnamed Bryennius and Botaniates, simultaneously rebelled against him, when Michael in 1078 resigned the purple, and retired into a monastery. He was afterwards made Archbishop of Ephesus.

Michael VIII., Paleologus, Emperor of Constantinople, was born, as his name indicates, of the ancient and noble race of the Paleologi, in the year 1234; and at an early age was distinguished as a soldier and statesman as to be raised to the dignity of constable or commander of the French mercenaries. Although by his generosity and affability he gained the affections of the army and populace, his ambition rendered him an object of fear and suspicion to the court, and involved him in dangers from which it required all his courage and prudence to effect his escape. On the death of Theodore II., who had more than once unjustly attempted his life, Michael took part in the conspiracy by which Muzalon, one of the guardians of the young successor to the throne, was murdered; and succeeded in getting himself appointed regent in his stead. Shortly afterwards Michael was crowned emperor at Nice; and his reign was rendered illustrious by the recovery of Constantinople in 1261. This emperor died in 1282, after a troubled reign of twenty-two years, during the course of which, though stained with many cruelties and crimes, he restored by his vigour and ability the decayed fortunes of the Greek empire. (For further information respecting these emperors, see Constantinopolitan History).

Michael's Mount, St., a granite rock in Mount's Bay, county of Cornwall, England, about three-quarters of a mile S. of Marazion; N. Lat. 50° 7', W. Long. 5° 28'. It is of a pyramidal form, 260 feet in height, and about a mile in circuit, and is joined to the land by a causeway, which is covered by the sea at high water. This has been supposed by some to be the place called by the Greeks Ictis, from whence they obtained tin; but this opinion is by no means certain. As early as the fifth century a chapel was founded here, which was an object of pilgrimage; and remains of a Benedictine priory, founded by Edward the Confessor, are yet to be seen. It was fortified, and a place of some importance in former times; and was taken by John de Vere, a follower of the House of Lancaster, in 1471; by the Cornish rebels in 1548; and by Colonel Hammond, in the civil war in 1646. The Mount is still fortified, having 3 batteries and 18 guns. There is a small village on the lower part of the peninsula, with a population of 163.

Michael, St. See Azores.

Michaelis, Johann David, a celebrated biblical critic of Germany, was the eldest son of the distinguished Hebrew scholar Dr Christian Benedict Michielis, professor in the university of Halle, and was born at that place on the 27th of February 1717. His father devoted him at an early age to an academical life; and with that view he received his elementary education in a celebrated Prussian seminary called the Orphan-house, at Glanche, in the neighbourhood of his native place. He commenced his academical career at Halle in 1733, and took his master's degree in the faculty of philosophy in 1739. In 1741 he visited England, where his superior knowledge of the oriental languages, which was considerably increased by his indefatigable researches in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, introduced him to the acquaintance, and gained him the esteem, of the first literary men of the day, with several of whom, particularly Bishop Lowth, he afterwards kept up a regular correspondence. On his return to Halle, after an absence of fifteen months, he began to read lectures on the historical books of the Old Testament, which he continued after his removal to Göttingen in 1745. On the death of the chancellor Ludwig, whose lectures on German history laid the foundation of that peculiar knowledge of social law so admirably displayed in the Mosaiches Recht, Michielis was appointed to catalogue the immense library of his former master. The result of his labours was published in 1745, and is considered an excellent specimen of such works. In 1746 he was appointed professor extraordi- nary, and soon afterwards professor of philosophy, in the university of Göttingen, where he afterwards, in the capacity of professor of theology and oriental languages, rendered the highest services to this institution. The next year he obtained the place of secretary to the Royal Society there, of which he was director in 1761, and he was subsequently made aulic councillor by the court of Hanover. In 1764 his distinguished talents, and a publication relative to his plan for an expedition to Arabia, procured him the honour of being chosen a corresponding, and afterwards a foreign, member of the Academy of Inscriptions at Paris, of which class the institution admitted only eight; and in the same year he became a member of the society of Häerlem. In 1775 Count Hopkyn, who eighteen years before had prohibited the use of his writings at Upsal, when he was chancellor of that university, prevailed upon the King of Sweden to confer upon him the order of the Polar Star as a national compensation. In 1786 he was raised to the distinguished rank of privy councillor of justice by the court of Hanover; and in 1788 he received his last literary honour by being unanimously elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London. His great critical knowledge of the Hebrew language, which he displayed in a new translation of the Bible and in other works, raised him to a degree of eminence almost unknown before in Germany; and his indefatigable labours were only equalled by his desire of communicating the knowledge he had acquired to the numerous students of all countries who frequented his admirable lectures, which he continued to deliver in half-yearly courses on various parts of the sacred writings, and on the Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac languages, to the last year of his life. He was forty-five years professor in the university of Göttingen, and during that long period he filled the chair with dignity, credit, and usefulness. He died on the 22d of October 1791, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.

The principal works of J. D. Michielis are, in oriental literature, grammars of the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syrian, and Arabic languages, Oriental u. exeget. Bibliothek, 1781-85, 23 vols.; Supplementa et emendationes ad Lexica-Helvatica, Göt. 1784. In history, geography, and chronology, Spicilegium Geographia Hebraeorum extera post Bochartum; several discourses on Jewish law and antiquities, mainly embodied in his masterpiece the Mosaisches Recht, 1770-5, 6 vols., and translated into English in 1814 by Dr Alex. Smith, and entitled Commentaries on the Laws of Moses. His Introduction to the New Testament is familiar to the English reader through the well-known translation of Bishop Marsh.