was on the "antithesis" of the Old and New Testaments. His views were met by Tertullian in the tracts, "Adversus Marcionem;" and "De Præscriptione Hereticorum." Of his later life nothing is known. The feeling of the orthodox towards him is shown by the reply of Polycarp, on Marcion's asking him if he knew him—"I know thee as the first-born of Satan."—G.
MARCUS, a Gnostic, usually called a disciple of Valentinus, to whose school he belonged in the main. He was a native of Palestine in the latter half of the second century; but all particulars of his life are unknown. His system was set forth in a poetical dress; the æons, whose number he enlarged, were introduced discoursing in liturgical forms and with imposing symbols of worship, while special mysteries were found in the numbers and positions of letters, after the manner of the Jewish Cabbala. The universe in his view was a continuous utterance of the Ineffable. An echo of the Pleroma falls down into the ὕλη, and becomes the Forming principle of a lower creation. His disciples were called Marcosians. They distinguished between psychical and pneumatic christianity; had a corresponding twofold baptism, extreme unction, and other peculiarities.—S. D.
MARCUS AURELIUS. See Aurelius Antoninus.
MARCUS GRÆCUS, author of a treatise, "Liber Ignium," in which the formation of a rocket is described; and this Dr. Jebb has suggested as possibly the source from which Roger Bacon obtained the knowledge he had of a detonating powder. The following are the words of Græcus:—"Secundus modus ignis volatilis hoc modo conficitur; lib. i. sulphuris vivi; lib. ii. carbonis silicis; salis petrosi vi. libras, quæ tria subtilissime terantur in lapide marmoreo." He is supposed to have been that Græcus whose name occurs in the works of Mesua, the Arabian physician, about 800; and it has been suggested that he is the Græcus mentioned by Galen.—D. W. R.
MARDONIUS, a Persian general, who took a prominent part in the wars of Darius Hystaspes and Xerxes, against Greece, was the son of Gobryas, one of the seven conspirators by whom Smerdis the Magian was slain. He married a daughter of Darius, and that monarch gave him command of the forces sent, 492 b.c., to avenge on Athens and Eretria their co-operation with Aristagoras in the Ionian revolt. The expedition, however, had no better success than might have been argued from the youth and inexperience of its leader. He suffered his camp to be surprised by the Thracians; and so large a number of his troops were cut off in the nocturnal assault, that he was compelled to seek the preservation of the remainder by a hasty retreat to Asia, which he accomplished with difficulty, for his fleet had been almost totally destroyed in a tempest off Mount Athos. He subsequently commanded a division of the immense army with which Xerxes crossed the Hellespont. The enterprise had been warmly supported by him in council, and when the defeat at Salamis compelled the king to retire with the main body of his forces into Asia Minor, Mardonius was intrusted with the further prosecution of the war, at the head of the three hundred thousand men who were left behind in the invaded Grecian territories. As soon as the following spring permitted the renewal of active operations, he left his winter quarters in Thessaly, penetrated into Boeotia, and after ravaging Attica, drew back to the Æsopus, where the confederated forces of the Greeks at length offered battle. The issue was decided at Platæa. The Persians suffered a disastrous defeat, and Mardonius himself fell, 479 b.c.—W. B.
MARECHAL, Pierre Sylvain, one of the noted French infidels of the last century, was born at Paris in 1750. He studied law, and took his diploma as an advocate, but did not practice at the bar. Devoting himself to literary pursuits, he first appeared before the public as the author of a few pastoral poems; hence his nom-de-plume of Berger Sylvain, which he prefixed to some of his subsequent writings. In the sublibrarianship of Mazarin college he stored his mind with much information, imbibing in the course of his varied studies the sceptical principles which he afterwards so keenly advocated. Of his numerous works the most important were "Voyages de Pythagore en Egypte;" "Histoire Universelle;" "Histoire de Russie;" and the "Dictionnaire des Athées," which was prohibited by the government. He died at Mont Rouge in 1803.—W. B.
MARENZIO, Luca, a celebrated musician, was born at Coccaglia in the diocese of Brescia about the middle of the sixteenth century. He learned music under Jean Contini, the master of the chapel of Brescia. His natural inclination leading him early to the composition of madrigals, like his contemporary Palestrina, he obtained an acknowledged superiority over many of his brother writers in the same walk. He was called by his countrymen "Il piu dolce Cigno." In early life he went to Poland, and, according to Adami and others, was caressed and patronized by many princes and eminent personages, particularly by the king of that country. The climate, however, not suiting his constitution, he went to Rome in 1581, and was appointed chapel-master to Cardinal Luigi d'Este. He was greatly patronized by Cardinal Aldobrandini, the nephew of Clement VIII., through whose interest in 1595 he was admitted into the Pontifical college. This great musician died in 1599, and was buried in the church of St. Lorenzo in Lucina. He has left us a great number of his compositions. Nine books of his madrigals for five voices were printed at Venice between the years 1587 and 1601. Besides these, he composed six books of madrigals in six parts; madrigals for three voices; another set for five; and another for six voices, different from all the former; canzonets for the lute; "Motetti in 4;" and "Sacra Cantiones, 5, 6, et 7 Vocibus." All these works were printed at Venice and afterwards at Antwerp, and many of them in London to English words.—(See Musica Transalpina, two books; and a Collection of Italian Madrigals, with English words, published in 1589 by Thomas Watson.) The whole of the madrigals of this interesting and fertile writer are charming. For elegant and pleasing melody they have never been surpassed.—E. F. R.
MARET, Hugues Bernard, Duc de Bassano, a French statesman of the revolutionary period, was born in 1763 at Dijon, his father being an eminent physician of that town. Having distinguished himself at the academy of his native place, he studied law in the university there, and subsequently attended the lectures of Bouchaud at Paris, where the patronage of the Comte de Vergennes introduced him to the notice of Condorcet, Lacepede, and other celebrated savans of that period. At the Revolution he brought himself into political prominence as the editor of the Bulletin, in which he reported the debates of the national assembly. That journal, by its union with a rival publication, called the Moniteur, rose rapidly into influence, became one of the most powerful agencies of the new regime, and opened the path of its conductor into official preferment. After acting as secretary of legation at Hamburg and Brussels, Maret held a situation under Lebrun Tondée in the department of foreign affairs, and was sent to attempt further negotiations with England, when the French ambassador Chauvelin was ordered to leave London. He soon afterwards proceeded on a diplomatic mission to Naples, but in the course of his journey fell into the hands of the Austrians, and did not regain his freedom till 1795. His subsequent services having attracted the attention of Napoleon, he was appointed a secretary of state in 1804; for many years he continued among the personal friends and trusted councillors of the emperor, who gave him in 1813 the portfolio of the war department. The events of 1815 drove him into exile; he returned to his native land in 1820; under Louis Philippe he was raised to the peerage, and held office as minister of the interior. His death took place in 1839.—W. B.
MARETS de Saint Sorlin. See Desmarets.
MARGARET (Saint), Queen of Scotland, was the sister of Edgar Atheling, and wife of Malcolm Canmore. On the overthrow of the Saxon dynasty she took refuge in Scotland, and married the king about 1070. She was beautiful, accomplished, and pious, and laboured with great zeal and success to purify the manners and morals of the Scottish people, and to improve their condition. The gentleness and amiability of this excellent woman, combined with her prudence and good sense, enabled her to acquire a great ascendancy over her husband, who seems to have committed to her the management of the religious affairs of his kingdom. Various abuses had crept into the old Culdee church of Scotland. Margaret corrected them in a firm yet temperate manner. Queen Margaret died in 1093, a few days after her husband was killed at Alnwick. Her character is worthy to be "held in everlasting remembrance." Her piety was sincere and deep, though somewhat tinged with asceticism; and her biographer Turgot admits that her health was injured by her long vigils, fasts, and mortifications. After her death, she was received into the Romish calendar. Two hundred years after her burial, her body was removed to a splendid tomb in the church of Dunfermline. If we may believe monkish writers, it was found impossible to lift the body of the queen until that of her husband had received the same honour.—J. T.
