THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
is given through the sacraments, baptism, penance, but is lost through mortal sin. A meritorious work requires the cooperation of both. Among good works especially meritorious are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. The grace that is lost through deadly sin is restored by penance. The general idea is that the church system acts as a factor along with human free will in the attainment of salvation.
The Reformation was especially a conflict against the theory of merit, but Luther's final position on this question was the result of a development. In his earlier years he talked of congruous merit and accepted the terms " preparation " and " disposition " for salvation. Later on he still continued to
use the word merit, but evacuated it 6. Protes- of its meaning. He recognized nothing tant Views, in man to increase the value of human
works. There is no longer any room for merit, since all are made just by the justness of Christ. The works do not deserve heaven, but men, receiving heaven, through faith do good works. Melanchthon incorporated in the Augsburg Confession and Apology (cf. Apology, lxii. 17 sqq.) a clear-cut definition of Luther's position where he attacks the distinction between congruous and condign merit and develops the Reformed justification-teaching in opposition to the whole merit theory, especially denying the possibility of the transference of the merits of the saints. Christ's merits are given us in order that we may be reputed just by our faith in the merits of Christ when we believe in him, just as if we had our own proper merits (Apology, ccv. 14 sqq.). The use of the word merit in Protestant theology is associated with the satisfaction of Christ, not with individual deserts enabling man to appear before God. Kant discussed the question of merit, but in an unfavorable sense, saying the impulse to it was due to selflove and that it had some relation to sensuousness. Paulsen approximates to Roman Catholic ethics by distinguishing between actions which are in accordance with duty and others which deserve merit. Stange opposes this classification of an ordinary and extraordinary morality, as if there was something higher than duty. The deficient element in Roman Catholic teaching is that it makes the essence of morality depend on the separate act rather than on the whole atmosphere and direction of the personal will. See Atonement; Grace; Good Works; and Satisfaction.
(Johannes Kunze.)
Bibliography: The subject is treated usually in the works on systematic theology, e.g., W. G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, i. 366 sqq., New York, 1891; C. Hodge, Systematic Theology, ii. 308-311, New York, 1871-73; and in the theological dictionaries, e.g., J. H. Blunt, pp. 139- 141, 145, 805-808. Consult further: K. H. Wirth, Der Begriff des meritum bei Tertullian, Leipsic, 1892; idem, Der Verdienstbegriff bei Cyprian, ib. 1901; K. R. Hagenbach, Hist, of Christian Doctrines, ii. 308-311, Edinburgh, 1880; H. Schultz, in TSK, lxvii (1894), 1-50, 245-314; C. Stange, Einleitung vn die Ethik, vol. ii., Leipsic, 1901; KL, xii. 690-694; Harnack, Dogma, consult Index.
MERKLE, SEBASTIAN: German Roman Catholic; b. at Ellwangen (4.5 m. e.n.e. of Stuttgart) Au£. 28, 1S62. He was educated at the University of Tubingen from 1882 to 1886, and after being a
teacher at Rottenburg in 1887-88, was a lecturer at the Wilhelmsstift, Tubingen, from 1888 to 1898. Since the latter year he has been professor of church history, dogmatics, and Christian archeology in the University of Wiirzburg, of which he was rector in 1904-05. In 1894 he visited Italy, where he became a member of the historical institute of the Gorres-Gesellschaft, under whose auspices he visited Spain and France in 1896 and Austria, Hungary, and South Germany in 1897. He has written, Giovanni Dominici und seine Lucula noctis (Tubingen, 1892); Die ambrosianischen Tituli (Rome, 1896); Kardinal Gabriel Paleotti (1897); Zur Quellerikunde des Trienter Konzils (Tubingen, 1898) ; Concilium Tridentinum, i. (Freiburg, 1901); Gutachten im Prozess Berlichingen (Munich, 1904) ; Die theologischen Fakultdten und die religiose Friede (Berlin 1905); Das Konzil von Trient und die Universitaten (Wiirzburg, 1905); and Die katholische Beurteilung des Aufklarungszeitalters (Berlin, 1909).
MERLE D'AUBIGNE, marl do"bi"nye', JEAN HENRI: Swiss Protestant; b., of French family exiled during the religious disturbances, at Eaux Vives (now a part of Geneva) Aug. 16, 1794; d. at Geneva Oct. 21, 1872. His father, though a citizen of Geneva, was a merchant in Marseilles, and it was intended that the son should follow a like career;
but a strong personal inclination led Life. the latter to the ministry. He was a
student at the University of Geneva when the religious movement known as " the Awakening " (le reveil) began, and in 1816, when the pastors of the city were accused of rejecting the divinity of Christ, he led his fellow students in a public expression of confidence in their spiritual superiors. Early in the following year, however, he came fully under the influence of Robert Haldane (q.v.), the leading spirit of the awakening. It was not without hesitation that he subscribed to the edict issued by the Venerable Company of Pastors May 3, 1817, forbidding preachers to speak in the pulpit on doctrines in dispute (see Malan, Cesar Henri Abraham); but the edict was interpreted liberally, and Merle d'Aubigne' was ordained July 3, 1817. He almost immediately went to Germany, where he busied himself with literary studies, translating Ariosto and Schiller, and intending to devote his life to literature. But the celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation at Eisenach in October gave his ambition a new direction and suggested to him the idea of writing an exhaustive history of the Reformation. He went to Berlin, heard Schleiermacher, DeWette, and Neander, and became the warm friend of Neander, whose influence remained with him permanently. Appointed pastor of the Reformed congregation in Hamburg in 1818 and court preacher in Brussels in 1824, he exercised great influence in both places, although opposition in Hamburg at one time induced the consistory to attempt to secure his recall. The revolution of 1830 drove him from Belgium. He was offered a professorship at Montauban and a church in Paris, but, although it involved some pecuniary sacrifice, decided to return to his native city. The Evangel-