The New International Encyclopædia/Marbeck, John

MAR′BECK, or MERBECK, John (?-c.1585). An English musician and theologian, organist of Saint George's Chapel, Windsor, in the reign of Henry VIII. and his successor. He early read Calvin's writings, adopted his views, and joined an association in support of the Reformed doctrines. Among the members were a priest, a chorister of Saint George's Chapel, and a tradesman, and these men, together with Marbeck, were arrested on a charge of heresy. Their papers were seized, and in Marbeck's handwriting were found notes on the Bible, a concordance in English, and a copy of an epistle of Calvin against the mass. They were all condemned to the stake, but Marbeck, on account of his musical talents and through the interposition of Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, was pardoned and restored to his place as organist. He lived to see the triumph of his principles, and to publish his work, The Boke of Common Praier Noted (1550); reprinted in facsimile 1844, and in Jebb's Choral Responses and Litanies, 1857). He published also his Concordance to the Bible (1550), which was the first work of the kind in English on the entire Bible. A Te Deum of his and a mass of five voices are found in Smith's Musica Antiqua, now in the British Museum. In 1574 was published The Lyves of Holy Sainctes, Prophetes, Patriarches, and others; and subsequently The Holie Historie of King David, drawn into English meetre (1579), and A Ripping Up of the Pope's Fardel (1581).