I 
m M E R 
during feveral years, wfith great fuccefs and reputation. 
Reiinquiihing this employment, he applied himfelf par¬ 
ticularly to the ftudy of the facred Scriptures and of 
tradition ; commenced preacher; and was admitted to 
the degree of doftor of divinity. He died at the college 
of Beauvais in Paris, in 1684, about the age of fixty- 
eight, equally refpefted for his learning, difinterellednefs, 
and modefty. He was the author of a work of merit, 
entitled, “ Summa Chriftiana, feu Orthodoxa Morum 
Difciplina, ex facris Literis, Sanftorum Patrum Monu- 
mentis, Conciliorum, Oraculis, (uinmorum denique 
Pontificum Decretis, fideliter Experpta, &c." 1683, in 
two volumes folio. This work is commended for the 
purity and elegance of its Latinity ; but the ftyle is too 
pompous and rhetorical for a moral treatife. Moreri. 
MER'BES-le-CHATEAU', a town of France, in the 
department of Jemappe, and chief place of a canton, in 
the dillrift of Charleroy. The place contains 661, and 
the canton 6382, inhabitants. 
MER'CABLE,«d/. [morcor, Lat.] Tobefold or bought. 
MER'CADAL, the chief town of the Terminos Mer- 
cadal in the iiland of Minorca, fituated nearly in the mid¬ 
dle of the iiland, on the great road between Mahon and 
Ciudadella. Its ftreets are narrow, winding, and ill 
paved. The public edifices confift of the old pariih- 
churcli, which is decaying, and a new one. The fituation 
of this town is the leaft falubrious in the whole iiland. 
During the extreme heats, the inhabitants are afflifted 
with obftinate fevers ; water is fcarce, as the great public 
ciftern is often dry during the fummer. The territory of 
this place is about five leagues and a half in length, and 
four and a half in breadth. 
In the fame dillrift, about four leagues from Mercadal, 
is Ferarias, where the Englifh have conftrufted barracks 
for two hundred foldiers. The territory of Ferarias is five 
leagues in length and two in breadth. Few of the occu¬ 
piers are huibandmen,the greater number being employed 
in hunting, as game is very abundant. 
MER'CANTANT, f. [Italian.] A foreigner, or .fo¬ 
reign trader: 
A mer cant aid, or elfe a pedant; 
I know not what, but formal in apparel. Shajiefpcare. 
MERCANTILE, adj. Trading ; commercial; relating 
to traders.—The expedition of the Argonauts was partly 
mercantile, partly military. Arbnthnot on Coins. 
MERCA'RA, a city of Hindooftan, and refidence of 
the rajah of Coorga : twenty-fix miles weft of Periapatam, 
and fifty-five weft of Seringapatam. 
MER'CAT, /! [ mercatus , Lat.] Market; trade.—With 
irreliftible majefty and authority our Saviour removed the 
exchange, and drove the mercat out of the temple. Spratt. 
MERCA'Tl (Michael), a phyfician and naturalift, 
born in 1541 at St. Miniato in Tulcany, was the fon of 
Peter, an eminent phyfician of that place. He was edu¬ 
cated at Pifa, under Cefalpini, from whom he derived 
his tafte for the ftudy of nature. After taking his de¬ 
grees in that univerfity, he went to Rome, where Pius V. 
gave him the fuperintendence of the Vatican botanical 
garden. He was in favour with the fucceeding popes, 
Gregory XIII. and Sixtus V. the latter of whom con¬ 
ferred upon him the dignity of apoftolical protonotary, and 
lent him into Poland with the cardinal Hippolito Aldo- 
brandini, that he might enjoy -the opportunity of in- 
ereafing his colleftions in natural hiftory. Clement VIII. 
nominated him his firft phyfician, and bellowed upon him 
many marks of favour. He was alfo much efteemed by 
•the emperor, the king of Poland, and Ferdinand grand 
duke of Tulcany, from the laft of whom he received let¬ 
ters of nobility. He bore an excellent charafter in pri¬ 
vate life ; and it is a proof of his attachment to religion, 
that he expired in the arms of his intimate friend St. 
Philip Nen. This was in 1593, in the fifty-lecond year 
of his age. He wrote in Italian a work “ On the Plague, 
®n the Corruption of the Any and on the Gout and Pally,” 
M E R 
* 54 t0 - and a “ Dilfertation on the Obelilks of Rome,” 
1 589, 4to. He is principally remembered for his defcrip- 
tion of tbefubjefts of natural hiftory, particularly in the 
mineral kingdom, contained in the Vatican mufeum, 
which was formed under the aufipices of Gregory XIII. 
and Sextus V. and was afterwards totally difperfed. His 
manufcript came into the hands of Carlo Dati in Florence, 
where it remained till the time of Clement XI. who pur- 
chaled it, and caufed it to be fplendidly edited by his 
firft phyfician Lancifi in 1717, under the title of “ Me- 
tallotheca, opus Pofthumum, Authoritate et Munificentia 
dementis XI. Pont. Max. eTenebris in Lucem eduftum, 
&c." folio. An Appendix to it was publilhed in 1719. 
.Gen.liiog. 
MER'CATIVE, adj. Belonging to trade. Cole. 
MERCA'TOR (Marius), an eccleliaftical and contro- 
verfial writer in the fifth century, who was the friend of 
St. Auguftine, by whom he is fpoken of as a man of learn¬ 
ing and worth. It is uncertain of what country he was a 
native ; fome writers maintaining that he was an Italian, 
while others, among whom are Cave and the learned 
father Gerberon, offer weighty reafons to Ihow that he 
mull have been an African. It feems alfo moll probable 
that he was not of the clerical order; at leaft it may 
be proved that he was a layman at a very advanced pe¬ 
riod of life. He diftinguilhed himfelf by his writings 
agaiuft the Pelagians and Nellorians, commencing his 
polemical career in the year 418, and continuing it till 
about 451. His works, however, are not lb much original 
compofitions, as they are abridgments and colleftions 
from the productions of other writers, particularly from 
heretical authors. Many of them alfo are tranftations 
from the Greek into Latin, with prefaces by Mercator, 
of confiderable ufe in the ftudy of eccleliaftical hiftory. 
For the titles and lubjefts of thefe different pieces, we 
refer the reader either to Cave or Dupin. The author's 
ftyle is perfpicuous, but. inelegant, and deficient in live- 
linefs and vigour. The firft complete edition of his 
.works was publilhed at Paris, in 1673, folio, by father 
Garner, a Jeluit, with a diffufive and learned commen¬ 
tary, long notes, and a number of differtations ; and was 
inferted in the twenty-feventh volume of the Bibl. Patr. 
In the fame year, father Gerberon, a Benediftine,under 
the affumeri name of Rigberius, publilhed feveral of Mer¬ 
cator’s pieces at Brullels, in nmo. with Ihort, but learn¬ 
ed and ufeful, notes. In .1654, a new and more correft 
edition of them was given by M. Baluze, with notes, in 
oftavo. Cave's Hi/ 1 . Lit. 
MERCA'TOR (Gerard), a very eminent Flemilh geo¬ 
grapher and mathematician, was born at Ruremond in 
the year 1512. After having been initiated in the rudi¬ 
ments of claftical learning, he lludied philofophy at Bois- 
le-Duc : whence he removed to the univerfity of Louvain, 
where he applied with great diligence to the cultivation 
of philolophical and polite learning, till he was admitted 
to the degree of M. A. Afterwards he lludied the ma¬ 
thematics for fome years, with fuch delight and intenfe- 
nefs of application, that, as the authors of his life inform 
us, he often forgot to eat and ileep. When he was about 
twenty-four years of age he married the daughter of a 
citizen of Louvain ; foon after which he applied himfelf 
to learn the art of engraving, under the private jnftruc- 
tions of the learned and ingenious Reinier Gemma, a 
Dutch phyfician and mathematician. The firft produc¬ 
tion of Mercator’s labours was a defeription and map of 
the Holy Land, which he publilhed in 1537, when he 
was about the age of twenty-five. In the year 1541, he 
acquired high reputation by giving to the public a ter- 
rellrial globe; which proved the means of introducing 
him to the patronage of the emperor Charles V. for 
whom lie made maps, globes, and a collection of other 
mathematical inllruments, all executed with uncom¬ 
mon Ikill. This colleftion being afterwards deftroyed 
during the war between the emperor and the confede¬ 
rates of Smalkalde, Mercator, by the direftion of that 
4 prince, 
