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MAftlVS

Mariotte, Edme, French physicist, b. at Dijon, Prance, about 1620; d. at Paris, 12 May, 1684. His residence was at Dijon, and some of his works are dated from that place. He was ordained and, as a reward for his successful scientific labours, was made

Srior of Saint-Martin-sous-Beaune near Dijon. Con- orcet remarks on that crubject that *'no profane use is made of the property of the Church, when it goes to reward services rendered to humanity". Mariotte is pronounced the first in France to "bring into the study of physics a spirit of observation and of doubt, and to inspire that caution and timidity so necessary to those who question nature and who try to interpret her answers." In his "Essay on Logic" he enu- merates rules of reasoning as well as the fundamental principles themselves, especially in the case of what he calls the natural and the moral sciences. He there teaches a method of experimental research for the es- tablishment of truth, so that we are thus able to study the methods which he used himself to obtain those great results from his experiments.

His fame rests on his work on hydrostatics and on the establishment of the law of gases that bears his name. This was first published in an essay on the nature of air in 1676. "The diminution of the volume of the air proceeds in p^portion to the weights with which it is loaded. " This law is now stated as fol- lows: The volume of a gas, kept at a constant tem- perature, changes inversely as the pressure upon the fas. This is uie fundamental generalization of our knowledge concerning gases. He invented a device for proving and illustrating the laws of impact be- tween bodies. The bobs of two pendulums are struck against each other, and the resultant motions are measured and studied. He added to tiie mathemat- ical deductions of Galileo, Pascal, and others, a num- ber of experimental demonstrations of the laws of the Eendulum, of the flow of water through orifices, of ydrostatic pressure ete. Mariotte's uask is an in- genious device to obtain a uniform flow of water. His work included experiments on heat and cold, light, sight, and colour. He was a member of the Royal Society of Science from its foundation in 1666. His contributions ((Euvres) were collected and published at Leyden in 1717, and again at The Hague in 1740. They include reprints of the following: "Nouvelles d^couvertes toucnant la vue" (Paris, 1668); "Expe- riences sur la congelation de Teau" (Paris, 1682); "Traite du niveUement" (Paris, 1672-4); "Traits de la percussion des corps " (Paris, 1676); " Essais de phy- sique" (4 vols., Paris, 1676-81); "De la vegetation des plantes " (Paris, 1679 and 1686); " De la nature de Fair" (Paris. 1679); "Traite des couleurs" (Paris, 1681); "Essai de logique" (Paris, 1678); "Traite du mouvement des eaux et des autres corps fluides" (Paris, 1686; 2nd ed., 1700).

Merueux in Nouv. Biogr. G&n., b. v.; Condorcet in (Euvres, I, 61-75. Eioge (Brunswick and Paris, 1804).

William Fox.

Maris. Martha, Audifaz, and Abachmn, Saints, martvrea at Rome in 270. Maris and his wife Martha, who belonged to the Persian nobility, came to Rome with their children in the reign of Emperor Claudius II. As zealous Christians, they sympathized with and suc- coured the persecuted faithful, and buried the bodies of the slain. This exposed them to the imperial venge- ance; they were seized and delivered to the judge Muscianus, who, unable to persuade them to abjure their faith, condenmed them to various tortures. At last, when no suffering could subdue their courage. Maris and his sons were beheaded at a place callea Nymphae Catabassi, thirteen miles from Rome, and their bodies burnt. Martha was cast into a well. A Roman lady named Felicitas, having succeeded in securing the half-consumed remains of the father and sons and also the mother's bod^ from the well, had the sacred relics secretly interred in a catacomb, on the

thirteenth before the Kalends of February (20 Jan- uary). The commemoration of these four martyrs, however, has been appointed for 19 February, doubt- less so as to leave the twentieth for the feast of St. Sebastian.

Acta SS. (1643), II Jan., 214-6; Baroitiub, Annalea (1589), 270, 2-0, 12-16; Bosco, Utm famiglia di martiri osaia vita de% SS, Mario, Maria, Audiface ed Abaco (Turin, 1892); Mombri- TIU8, Sanctuarium (1479), II, cxxxi-iii; Surius, De vitxs 9anc- torum (Venice, 1581), I, 309-10; Txllbmont, Mhn, pour aervir ii Vhitt. eceUa. (1606). IV. 675-7.

L6oN Clugnet.

Marisco. Adam de (or Adam Marsh), Franciscan. He probably came from the county of Somerset, but the date of his birth is unknown; d. at the end of 1257 or the beginning of 1258. He was educated at Ox- ford, where he acquired a great reputation. He had been for three years rector of Wearmouth, in Durham, when he joined the Friars Minor about 1237. He suc- ceeded Robert Grosseteste as lecturer at the Fran- ciscan house in Oxford, and soon became acauainted with many of the most distinguished men of the time. The extent and character of his correspondence shows how widespread was his personal influence, and is a striking illustration of the moral force exerted b^ the early Franciscans in England. Adam was intimate with Grosseteste and Archbishop Boniface, with Richard of Cornwall and Simon de Montfort. Always a reformer himself, he must have helped^ give Earl Simon, who began his career in End f elf M a forei^ favourite, his deep patriotic and roLe OaiiKnterest m the cause of reform. Over Henry III ne had no direct influence, but he had friends at Court and he was most anxious to combine peace and reform. Unfortunately he died just when the great political crisis of the reign was beginning. Before his death his name was pro- posed by Archbishop Boniface for the See of Ely, where uiere had beien a disputed election, but he seems to have been opposed by the monastic interest. As a man of learning Adam had much to do with the organization of studies at Oxford, and as "Doctor Iflustris" was known throughout Europe. Roger Bacon professed for him the same perhaps rather ex- cessive admiration with which he regarded Grosse- teste, calling them the ''greatest clerks in the world". Among the works attributed to Adam are commen- taries on the Master of the Sentences, on parts of Scripture, and on Dionysius the Areopagite.

The chief source of information is Adam's own correspond- ence published in Brewer, Monumenta Franeiacana \RoUa Seriea), Ecct.bston, De Adventu Minorum, GROSSBrasTE's Lettera and Matthew Paris's Chronicle should also be con- sulted. Modern works: Brewer. Preface to Monumenta; Rasbdall. Univeraitiea of the Middle Agea, II (Oxford, 1895;; Stevenson. Life of Oroaaeteate (London, 1899); Crbiobton m Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v. Adam de Mariaco.

F. F. Urquhart. Marist Brothers. See Mart, Little Brothers

OF.

MaristB. See Mart, Societt of.

MariuB AventicuB (or Aventicensis), Saint, Bishop of Avenches (Switzerland) and chronicler, b. about 530 in the present Diocese of Autun; d. at Lau- sanne, 31 December, 594. Of the events of his life little is known. From an inscription on his tomb in the church of St. Thyrsius in Laxisanne (pubUshed in the "Monumenta Germ. Scriptores", XXIV, 795). we learn that he came of a distinguished, rich and

Erobably Roman family, and at an early age em- raced the ecclesiastical state. In 574 he was made Bishop of Avenches, took part in the Council of M4^ con in 685, and shortly afterwards transferred hie episcopal see from Avenches, which was rapidly declining, to Lausanne. He is extolled ae an ideeJ bishop; as a skilled eoldsmith who made taef- * vesse& with his own nands; as a protector aod^ factor of the poor; as a man of prayer, and ae a -' full of Anf.hiifliaiim for aerious mtellectual

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587 he consecrated St. Mary's