Merle, Matthieu, a noted Huguenot soldier, was born at Uzis, Languedoc, in 1548. He was not, as De Thou represents, the son of a wool-carder, nor did he follow in his youth the trade of wool-carding. He be- longed to a noble but poor family of Lower Languedoc, did not receive any school education, and never learned either to read or to write. Having a decided liking for war and the profession of arms, ^Merle, at the age of twenty, enlisted in a guard commanded liy D'Acicr, who subsequently became the duke of Uzes. As a member of that guard, Merle went through the cam-
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paign of 1569 in Poitou. After the pacificntion in 1570, he entered the service of Francjois de Peyre, a gentle- man of the horse, who intrusted him with the super- vision of his castle in Genaudau. Shortly after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, hostilities having been kindled afresh, Merle inflicted the bloodiest retaliation upon the Eomanists, and by his deeds of valor and prowess became so redoubtable that the mere mention of his name was sufficient to cause far and near the direst consternation among his enemies. He died about 1590. Goudin, in his Memoires, published a brief sketch of Merle, and his career as a soldier. See De Thou, His- toria sui tempo ris ; M. Imberais, Hist, des guerres re- Kffieuses en A uvergne ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Ghierale, s. v.
Merlin, Charles, a French critic, was born at Amiens in 1G78. He joined the Society of Jesus; at first was a teacher of belles-lettres, and subsequently instructed in theology with much success. He was also one of the editors of the Memoires de Trevoux. Merlin died in Paris about 17-17. He is the author of Refuta- tion des critiques de M. Bayle sur St. Augustin (Paris, 1732, 4to). He had also undertaken to examine or re- fute Bayle's criticisms on religious matters, but this work was never given to the public. Nearly all the articles which Merlin contributed to the Memoires de Trevoux were intended to controvert Bayle's religious opinions. Other Avorks of his are, Vei-itable clef des ouvrages de St. Augustin (Paris, 1732, 4to): — Examen exact et detaille diifait d'Uonorius (1738, r2mo) : — Traite historique et dogmatique sur les jmroles ou les formes des Sacremenis de VEglise (Paris, 174:5, 12mo ; reprinted in 1840 by Migne) Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s. v.
Merlin, Jacques (1), a French theologian, was born in Saint- Victurnin, Limousin, about the latter part of the 15th century. After having received his diploma as a doctor of theology at Navarre (1499), he became lecturer on divinity to the chapter of Saint-Etienne de Limoges. Subsequently he was ordained curate of Montmartre, near Paris. In 1525 he was appointed chief penitentiary of the cathedral of Notre-Dame, of which he had previously been resident canon. In 1527, king Francis I caused his arrest and incarceration for preaching against certain courtiers who were suspected of sympathy with the reform movement. He was cast into the dungeon of the Louvre. At the entreaties of the prebendaries of Paris he was liberated, after having suffered incarceration for two years, but even then was confined in his residence at Nantes. He was allowed, however, to return to Paris in 1530, when he was in- stalled grand-vicar to the bishop of Paris, and also cu- rate and archpriest of La iMadeleine. In the introduc- tion to the edition of Origen's works, which he pub- lished in 1511, he wrote an Apologie d'Orig'ene. This apology, wherein, for the first time, the errors imputed to Origen are justified, caused Merlin's condemnation by the Paris Faculty of Theology, and by the impetu- ous syndic Noel Beda. He likewise published a Collec- tion de tous les Conciles, the first ever issued from the press (Paris, 1524, fol. ; Cologne, 1530, 8vo; and Paris, 1535, 8vo). He also edited the works of Richard de Saint-Victor (Paris, 1518) t — Pjer/'e de Blois (Paris, 1519): — Durand de Saint-Pour^ain (1515); and six J/omelies en Fran^ais, sur ces paroles de rjEvangile : Missus est angelus Gabriel (Paris, 1538, 8vo). Merlin died in Paris Sept. 26, 1541, and was buried in the crypt of Notre-Dame. See Dupin, A ut. eccl. du seizieme siecle, iv, 545; Salmon, jyaite de V Etude des Conciles, p. 197, 474.
Merlin, Jacques (2), a Protestant clergyman, the son of Pierre Merlin, was born at Alen^on Feb. 5, 1566. He studied at (ieneva, and at Oxford, England. In 1589 he was appointed incumbent of La Rochelle, where he continued to labor until the end of his life. In 1601 he was a delegate from his province to the political as- sembly at Sainte-Foi. He was chosen vice-president of the national synod held at La Rochelle in 1607, and
president of the synod convened two years later in Saint-Maxent. He wrote Diaire ou Journal du minis- tre Merlin (Geneva, 1855, 8vo, 65 pp.), published by M. Crottet from a MS. deposited in the library at La Ro- chelle. In this same library there is another IMS. by Jacques INIerlin, which contains a chronological record . of the events noted by him in La Rochelle. He died about 1620. See Haag, La France Protest.; Arcere, Hist, de La Rochelle. — Hoefer, Nouc. Biog. Generale, s. v.
Merlin, Jean-Raymond (surnamed Monroy), a Protestant theologian, was born at Romans, France, about 1510. He was a professor of Hebrew at Lausanne, probably from 1537 to 1558, when he resigned his posi- tion in order the better to protest against the removal from office of two of his colleagues, Pierre Viret and Ja- cob Valier, by act of the Bernese government. He af- terwards retired to Geneva, where he was pastor for three years. Called to Paris in 1561, at the instance of Coligny, he was intrusted with a mission to La Ro- chelle, and attended the Conference at Poissy, where he took, however, only a secondary part. Jeanne d'Albret then invited him to visit the Beam, and engaged him to projiagate the doctrines of the Reformation. He re- turned to Geneva about the middle of 1564. Shortly thereafter he came in conflict with the civil authorities, and, because of his decided opposition to civil interfer- ence in ecclesiastical affairs, was removed. Merlin then went into the Dauphine, from which the massacre of St. Bartholomew drove him away. He sought refuge in Geneva. He died about 1578. Merlin wrote a French translation entitled Commentaires d'CEcolam- pade sur Job et Daniel (Geneva, 1561, 8vo). He also published Catechisme extrait de celui de Geneve, piour examiner ceux qu'on veut recevoir a la C'ene, avec la translation en langue Beamoise (Limoges, s. d. 8vo) : — Les dix Commandements de la lot de Diev, translates d^Hebreu en Fran^ais, et exposes avec six autres transla- tions (Geneva, 1561, 8vo). See Marchand, Diet. Histo- rique ; Haag, La France Protestunte.