MERRY, WILLIAM WALTER: Church of England; b. at Evesham (15 m. s.e. of Worcester), Worcestershire, Sept. 6, 1835. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford (B.A. 1857; M.A., Lincoln College, 1860), and was ordered deacon in 1860 and ordained priest in the following year. He was a fellow and lecturer in Lincoln College from 1859 to 1884, and was also vicar of All Souls, Oxford, from 1862 to the same year. He was classical moderator at Oxford in 1863-64, 1869-71, 1874, 1877, and 1883-84, select preacher at the university in 1878-79 and 1889-90, and Whitehall preacher in 188384. He was likewise a member of the Hebdomadal Council, pro-vice-chancellor in 1902-1904, and vice-chancellor in 1904-06. His literary work has dealt with editions of classical authors: the "Odyssey" (2 vols., Oxford, 1870-78); Specimens of Greek Dialects (London, 1875); the "Clouds" (Oxford, 1879), " Acharnians" (1880), " Frogs " (1884), " Knights " (1887), " Birds " (1889), " Wasps " (1893), and " Peace " (1900) of Aristophanes; and Selected Fragments of Roman Poetry (1891).
MERRY DEL VAL, RAPHAEL: Cardinal; b. in London (of a Spanish father and an English mother) Oct. 10, 1865. He was educated suceessively at Brussels, St. Cuthbert's, England, and the Accademia lei nobili ecalesiastici, Rome, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1889, after having already been made privy chamberlain to the pope in the previous year. In 1892 he became "guardaroba" to the pope, and in 1897 was appointed domestic prelate. He was then entrusted with a mission to Canada, and on his return was made president of the Accademia lei nobili ecclesiastici in 1899. In the following year he was consecrated titular archbishop of Nicea. He was the edvoy of Leo XIII. to congratulate King Edward on his accession to the English throne, and was also secretary of the conclave which elected the present pope. On the accession of Pius X., Merry del Val was appointed pro-secretary of state, and in 1903 was created cardinal priest of Santa Prasede, his promotion to full secretary of state following two days later.
MERSEBURG, mer'se-burg, BISHOPRIC OF: A former episcopal see in Saxony, founded at the same time and in the same manner as those of Meissen and Zeitz, as part of the plan for binding more closely to the empire the territory of the Wends on the right bank of the Saale (967). The first bishop was Boso, a monk of Ratiabon, distinguished by his missionary labors among the Wends. His successor Gisiler procured the suppression of the see through Otto IL's power over Benedict VII. in 981; but this step was so clearly against the interests of the Church that it was revoked in 998 or early in 999 at a Roman synod. The diocese did not, however, recover all its former territory, and was now almost exclusively a missionary jurisdiction among the Wends, who were not wholly converted to Christianity until the middle of the twelfth century (see Wends, Conversion of).
The Reformation was forcibly established here during the episcopate of Sigismund van Lindenau (d. 1544) after his protector, Henry of Brunswick Wolfenbüttel, had been driven out by the Schmal kald League in 1542. The electors of Saxony there after put in members of their own house with the title of administrator, and from 1652 to 1738 with that of duke of Saxony Merseburg. By the decision of the Congress of Vienna three-fourths of the dioce san territory was assigned to Prussia, the rest re-|
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Bibliography: Gams, Series epiacoporum pp 291-292; Chronic= epiacoporum Meraeburg, ed. R. Wilmans in MGH, Script., x (1852), 163-212; cf. Wilmans in Archiv der Gesellschaft Air dltere deutsche Geschichtekunde, I3. 146211; Hauck, KD, ii . 130 sqq., 142 sqq., et passim.
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