MERSWIN, RULMAN. See Friends of God.

MERULA, ANGELUS (Engel de Merle): Early Dutch Protestant; b. at Briel (14 m. w. of Rotterdam) 1482 or 1487; d. at Bergen (34 m. s.s.e. of Brussels) July 26, 1557. He studied four years at the University of Paris (M.A., 1507; Lie. theol., 1508), was ordained priest at Utrecht, 1511, and became preacher in Briel. In 1530 he removed to Heenvliet. Before 1540 he came under suspicion of heresy, but was not molested till 1553, when he was arrested at The Hague. In 1554 the authorities claimed that he retracted, but it is probable that, being deaf, he did not understand the document which was read to him. He was not released and was finally condemned to death at Bergen, but died while kneeling in prayer at the place of execution. He was a learned scholar and his convictions were the fruit of his study. His view of the Lord's Supper was the same as Zwingli's, but was not borrowed from him. He wished to reform the Church from within by the pure preaching of God's Word, which he made the sole authority; to church tradition he attached no worth. Each one must follow his own conscience, since without freedom no faith is possible. Unbelief is the chief sin. Christ alone is savior, and the invocation of the saints is fruitless. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the only sacraments. All Christians are priests. The Roman Church is but one branch of the Church catholic and the pope is antichrist. He rejected purgatory, transubstantiation, and the church doctrine of absolution and indulgences. He is described as an amiable, discreet, and good-hearted man, who loved to do good. An orphan asylum founded by him in Briel is still in existence.

(S. D. Van Veen.)

Bibliography: W. Moll, Angelus Merula, de hervormer en martelaar des peloofs, Amsterdam, 1855 (cf. on this H. de Jager, in Archief voor Nederlandache Kerkgesch%edenis, vi. 1-44, and A. H. L. Hensen, in De Katholiek, cu., 1897, 43-68); T. M. J. Hoog, De Verantwoording van Angelus Merula, Leyden, 1897.

MERX, ERNST OTTO ADALBERT: German Protestant; b. at Bleicherode (10 m. s.w. of Nordhausen), Prussian Saxony, Nov. 2, 1838; d. at Heidelberg Aug. 4, 1909. He was educated at the universities of Marburg, Halle, and Berlin, 1857-61 (Ph.D., Breslau, 1861); became privat-docent at the University of Jena, 1865, and associate prof^ssor, 1869; professor of Oriental languages at Tübingen, 1869; of theology at Giessen, 1873; and of Old-Testament exegesis at Heidelberg, 1875. He was the author of Meletemata Ignatiana (Halle, 1861); Bardesanes von Edessa (1863); Cur in libro Danielis yuxta Hebrceam Aramaxi adhibita sit dialectus (1865); Grammatica Syriaca (1867); Das Gedicht von Hiob (Jena, 1871); Neusyrisches Lesebuch (Tübingen, 1873); Tfirkische Sprichworter ins Deutsche ubersetzt (Venice, 1877); Die Prophetic des Joel und ihre Ausleger von den altesten Zeiten bis zu den Re- formatoren (Halle, 1879); Die saadjanische Uebersetzung des Hohen Liedes ins Arabische (Heidelberg, 1882); Chrestomathia Targumica (1887); Idee and Grundlinien der alIgemeinen Geschichte der Mysterien (Heidelberg, 1892); Documents de paUographie hebreue et arabe (Leyden, 1894); Ueber die heutigen Aufgaben des evangelischen Bundes (Leipsic, 1892); Die vier kanonischen Evangelien nach ahrem altesten bekannten Texte (3 vols., Berlin, 1897-1905); Aus Muallim Nadschia Sunbule (1898); Die morgenldndischen Studien and Professoren an der Universitat Heidelberg (Heidelberg, 1903); and Die Bücher Moses and Josua . . . für Laien (Tübingen,1907). He edited the Archiv für wissenschaftliche Erforschung des Alten Testaments since 1871, as well as Vocabulary of the Tigrd Language written down by Moritz von Beurmann (Halle, 1868); and the second edition of F. Tueh's Commentar über die Genesis (1871).