See F. T. Perrens, Étienne Marcel et le gouvernement de la bourgeoisie au xive siècle (Paris, 1860); P. Frémaux, La Famille d’Étienne Marcel, in the Mémoires of the Société de l’histoire de Paris et de l’Île de France (1903), vol. xxx.; and Hon. R. D. Denman, Étienne Marcel (1898).
(J. V.*)
MARCELLINUS, ST, according to the Liberian catalogue, became bishop of Rome on the 30th of June, 296; his predecessor was Caius or Gaius. He is not mentioned in the Martyrologium hieronymianum, or in the Depositio episcoporum, or in the Depositio martyrum. The Liber pontificalis, basing itself on the Acts of St Marcellinus, the text of which is lost, relates that during Diocletian’s persecution Marcellinus was called upon to sacrifice, and offered incense to idols, but that, repenting shortly afterwards, he confessed the faith of Christ and suffered martyrdom with several companions. Other documents speak of his defection, and it is probably this lapse that explains the silence of the ancient liturgical calendars. In the beginning of the 5th century Petilianus, the Donatist bishop of Constantine, affirmed that Marcellinus and his priests had given up the holy books to the pagans during the persecution and offered incense to false gods. St Augustine contents himself with denying the affair (Contra litt. Petiliani, ii. 202; De unico baptismo, 27). The records of the pseudo-council of Sinuessa, which were fabricated at the beginning of the 6th century, state that Marcellinus after his fall presented himself before a council, which refused to try him on the ground that prima sedes a nemine iudicatur. According to the Liber pontificalis, Marcellinus was buried, on the 26th of April 304, in the cemetery of Priscilla, on the Via Salaria, 25 days after his martyrdom; the Liberian catalogue gives as the date the 25th of October. The fact of the martyrdom, too, is not established with certainty. After a considerable interregnum he was succeeded by Marcellus, with whom he has sometimes been confounded.
See L. Duchesne, Liber pontificalis, I. lxxiii.-lxxiv. 162-163, and II. 563.
(H. De.)
MARCELLO, BENEDETTO (1686-1739), Italian musical composer, was born in 1686, either on the 31st of July or on the 1st of August. He was of noble family (in his compositions he is frequently described as “Patrizio Veneto”), and although a pupil of Lotti and Gasparini, was intended by his father to devote himself to the law. In 1711 he was a member of the Council of Forty, and in 1730 went to Pola as Provveditore. His health having been impaired by the climate of Istria, he retired after eight years to Brescia in the capacity of Camerlengo, and died there on the 24th of July 1739.
Marcello is best remembered by his Estro poetico-armonico (Venice, 1724-1727), a musical setting for voices and strings of the first fifty Psalms, as paraphrased in Italian by G. Giustiniani. They were much admired by Charles Avison, who with John Garth brought out an edition with English words (London, 1757). Some extracts are to be found in Hawkins’s History of Music. His other works are chiefly cantatas, either for one voice or several; the library of the Brussels conservatoire possesses some interesting volumes of chamber-cantatas composed for his mistress. Although he produced an opera, La Fede riconosciuta, at Vicenza in 1702, he had little sympathy with this form of composition, and vented his opinions on the state of musical drama at the time in the satirical pamphlet Il Teatro alla moda, published anonymously in Venice in 1720. This little work, which was frequently reprinted, is not only extremely amusing, but is also most valuable as a contribution to the history of opera.
A catalogue of his works is given in Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte, vol. xxiii. (1891).