M A R 
cxpella to cardinal Luigi d’Efte ; and, according to Adami 
and others, was rarefied and patronifed by many princes 
and great perfonages, particularly the king of Poland and 
Cardinal Cinthio Aldobrandini, nephew to pope Clement 
VIII. Upon his return to Rome, after quitting Poland, 
he was admitted into the pope’s chapel; and, dying in 
that city, 1599, he was buried in the church of St. Lo¬ 
renzo, in Lucina. 
Our countryman, Peacham, in his Complete Gentle¬ 
man, fpeaks of his delicious aire and fweet invention in 
madrigals ; and fays, “ that he excelled all other whatfo- 
ever, having publiihed more fets than any author elfe, and 
hath not an ill fong.” And I 3 r. Burney, a much better 
judge of thefe things, allows, that “ there are no madri¬ 
gals fo agreeable to the ear, or amuling to the eye, as thofe 
of this ingenious and fertile compofer. The lubjeCts of 
fugue, imitation, and attack, are traits of elegant and 
plealing melody ; which, though they feem felefied with 
the utmoft care for the fake of the words they are to ex- 
prefs, yet fo artful are the texture and dilpoiition of the 
parts, that the general harmony and effeft of the whole 
are as complete and unembarrafled as if be had been 
writing in plain counterpoint, without poetry or contri¬ 
vance.” 
MAREO'TIS, a lake in Egypt near Alexandria. Its 
neighbourhood was famous for wine ; though, according 
'to fome, the Mareoticum vinum is the produce of Epirus, 
or of a certain part of Libya, called alfo Mareotis, near 
Egypt. Now Siwah. As to its extent and prefent Itate, 
fee the article Egypt, vol. vi. p. 364. 
M AR'ESCHAL. See Marshal. 
MA'RESFIELD, a village in Suflex, with a fair on the 
4th of September. 
MAR'ESIIAH, or Maris'sa, a city of Judah ; alfo 
■called Morejhith and Morajlhe. The prophet Micah was a 
native of this city. In the time of Eufebius it was for- 
faken, being two miles from Eleutheropolis. Near Mare- 
Ihah, in the vale of Zephathah, was fought the famous 
battle between Afa king of Judah, and Zorah king of 
Chus, in which Afa defeated an army of a million of men, 
which he purfued to Gerar. In 1 Macc. v. 66. we read 
Samaria inltead of. Marifla, In the later times of the 
Jewifh commonwealth, Mareffiah belonged to Idumaea, 
as did feveral other foutherly cities of Judah. It was 
peopled by the Jews, and their allies, in the time of John 
Hyrcanus. King Alexander Jannasus took it from the 
Arabians. Pompey reltorcd it to its firft inhabitants. 
Gabinius rebuilt it ; and, laftiy, the Parthians deftroyed 
it in the war of Antigonus again (1 Herod. Joj'eph. Antiq. 
lib. xiii. xiv. 
MARESI'GO, a town of Iftria : four miles fouth of 
Capo d’lffria. 
MARETI'MO, an ifland in the Mediterranean, near 
the weft coalt of Sicily, about twelve miles in circumfer¬ 
ence, containing only a chateau and fome farms. It is 
chiefly remarkable as being a place of banifhment for Itate- 
criminals : fifteen miles weft of Trapani. Lat. 48.4. N. 
Ion. is. 1 5. E. 
MARE'TS (Samuel des), a learned and very celebrated 
French proteftant divine, was born at Oifemond in Pi¬ 
cardy, in the year 1599. At the age of thirteen he was 
■Lent to Paris, where he made confiderable proficiency in 
the belles lettres and philofophy 5 and three years after¬ 
wards to Saumur, where he Itudied divinity and the He¬ 
brew language. He completed his theological courfe at 
Geneva ; and, in 1620, was admitted to the minilterial 
office, and fettled in the church of Laon. About the year 
•362430 attempt upon his life rendered it neceflary for 
him to confult his perfonal fafety, by removing to fome 
other place. This was attributed to the machinations of 
the Jefuirs, whom he had exafperated by his correfpond- 
■ence in writing with the wife of the governor of La Fere. 
In imitation of her hufband’s example, that lady had been 
prevailed upon by them to renounce the Proteftant reli¬ 
gion, and to turn Catholic. Upon this, M. des Marets 
M A R SFl 
Tent her a letter full of exhortations to return to the faith 
which (he had deferted. In reply, ihe wrote to him a 
vindication of her condufi, accompanied with a pamphlet 
containing the hiftory of her converfion. That biftory 
abounded in falfehoods, which our author thought it his 
duty fo expofe, at the fame time that he anfwered her vin¬ 
dication. The manner in which he executed this talk 
provoked the Jefuits to fuch a degree, that they threatened 
to be revenged on him for it ; and, as he was one night 
returning home from a vilit, an a Baffin, who lay in 
wait for him, plunged a knife into his breaft. Though 
this blow did not prove mortal, yet, as the villain elcaped 
undifcovered, and the magiltrates Ihowed an indifference 
about fearching into the affair, it was thought proper to 
releafe M. des Marets from the minilterial charge in a 
place where he was expofed to fo much danger; and he 
accepted of an invitation to fucceed James Cappel in the 
office of paftor and profeffor of divinity at Sedan, upon 
being allowed a year to prepare himfelf for executing the 
duties of the laft-mentioned office. During this interval, 
he obtained leave of abfence from his flock, and vifited 
Holland, where he was admittrd to the degree of doctor of 
divinity at Leyden, in 1625. Front Holland he took a 
voyage to England ; and after a fhort ttay in that country 
returned to Sedan, where he commenced his labours in 
the divinity-chair. Thefe he continued about feven years, 
with confiderable reputation; but net without being in¬ 
volved in fome troubles, which he fupported with refolu- 
tion, encouraged by the favour of the duke de Bouillon, 
and the affection of his church. In the year 1631, des 
Marets attended the duke de Bouillon into Holland, in 
the capacity of chaplain to his army ; and in the follow¬ 
ing year engaged in the fervice of the ftates general, who 
made him minifter of the church at Maeltricht. Wiih this 
appointment he retained his chaplaincy, till after the duke 
had married a Roman-catholic lady, and had himfelf pri¬ 
vately engaged to be reconciled to the church of Rome. 
Des Marets ufed his utmoft endeavours, though ineffec¬ 
tually, to preferve the duke in his adherence to the pro- 
teftant religion, and by fo doing incurred the hatred of 
the duchels, which proved the caufe of much vexation to 
him. While thus circumftanced, in 1636 he received an 
invitation to become paftor to the church of Bois le-duc, 
with which he complied ; and in the following year he 
was appointed profeffor in the Schola Ulultrisof the lime 
city. The duties of this poll he difeharged with Inch di¬ 
ligence and fuccefs, that, in 1640, the curators of the uni¬ 
versity of Franeker lent him the offer of a profelforlhip, 
which he declined ; but two years afterwards he accepted 
a fimilar invitation from the univerfity of Groningen. 
To this univerfity he zealoufly devoted his tervices for 
above thirty years ; and railed it into fuch high repute, 
that it became one of the molt flourifhing feminaries in 
the Low Countries. In 1632, he was made idle minifter 
of the Walloon church at Groningen, where till that time 
he had gratuitoully preached once every Sunday, to a Hi ft 
the paftor. Influenced by the fame of his extraordinary 
merits, in 1661, the magiltrates of Berne offered him the 
chair of profeffor of divinity at Laufanne, with coniider- 
able emoluments, but without effect ; and in 1663, he had' 
an invitation to the lame poll in the univerfity of Leyden*, 
of which he fignified his acceptance. His death at Gro¬ 
ningen m the fame year, however,, prevented him from 
taking poffeffion of that office. 
M. des Marets was the author of a prodigious number 
of Differtations, Orations, Deputations, and controverfial 
treadles again ft the Catholics, Remonftrants, and Soci- 
nians, of which a. chronological lilt is given at the end of" 
his “ Collegium Theologicum, five Syftema Breve uni- 
verfas Theologise,” in 410., This fyltein of divinity met 
with a very favourable reception, and was much ufed as 
a text-book in the proteftant univerfities in Germany and 
other countries, as well asin the United Provinces. The 
belt edition of it is that publiihed at Groningen in 1675^, 
in 2 vois 4to. In Bayle the reader may. meet with exT 
tract & 
