Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1060

Rh 1046 MERCATOR. leam from the full title that this end was ac- complished, and that the two hierarchs, with their followers, were banished by an impsrial edict, and subsequently condemned in the Council of Ephesus (231 ) by the judgment of 275 bishops. 2. Commo7iitorium adversus Haeresin Pelagii et Coelestii vel etiam Scripta Juliani, made up of ex- cerpts from the writings of Julianus, with answers {subnotationes) annexed by Mercator. Gamier gives to this production the title Liber Subnota- tionum ad Pieritium Presbyterum, and considers it as consisting of two parts, the first, or Commonitorium, being a preface or introduction ; the second, ovSub- notationes ad Verba Juliani, forming the main body of the work. 3. Refutatio Symboli Theodori Mopsuestani, an examination of the false doctrine with regard to the Nature of Christ, contained in a creed attributed to Theodorus of Mopsuestia, the friend and supporter of Julianus. Of the following it will be enough to give the names : — 4. Comparatio Dogmatum Pauli Samosateni et Nestorii. 5. SermoTtes V. Nestorii adversus Dei Ge?iitricem Manam. 6. Nestorii Epistola ad Cyrillum Aleocandrinum. 7. Cyrilli Alexandrini Epistola ad Nestor ium. 8. Cyrilli Aleocandrini Epistola secunda ad Nestorium. 9. Cynlli Alexandrini Epistola ad Clericos suos. 10. Eoccerpta ejo Codicibus Nestorii. 11. Nestorii Ser- mones I V. adversus Haeresim Pelagianam. 1 2. A^es- torii Epistola ad Coelestium. 1 3. Nestorii Blas- pliemiarum Cupitula, containing the replies of Nes- torius to the letters of Pope Coelestinus and Cyril of Alexandria. 14. Synodus Epliesiuna adversus Nestorium, extracts from those proceedings of this council which were most hostile to the views of Nestorius. 15. Cyrilli Alexandrini Apologeticus adversus Orientales. 16. Cyrilli Alexandrini Apolo- geticua adiersus Tlieodoretum, 11, Fragmenta Tkeo- doreti, Diodori et Ibae. 18. Eutherii Tya7iensis Fragmentum. 19. Nestorii Epistola ad Papam Coelestinum. 20. Epistola Synodica Cyrilli ad Nesto- rium. 21. Cyrilli Scholia de Incarnatione Unigerdti. Among the lost works of this author we may reckon the Libri contra Pelagianos, of which we hear in the epistle of St. Augustin (cxciii.). Dupiu hazards a conjecture that the Hypognosticon, com- monly attributed to the bishop of Hippo, may be in reality the treatise in question. It is remarkable that no ancient writer, if we except St. Augustine in the letter named above, takes any notice of Mercator, who remained alto- gether unknown until the seventeenth century, when Holstein discovered a MS. of his works in the Vatican, and soon after a second was found by Labbe, in the library of the Chapter of Beauvais. Labbe printed the Commonitorium super Nomi?ie Coelestii, in his collection of councils, fol. Paris, 1671, vol. ii. pp. 1512 — 1517 ; a selection from the Vatican MS. was published by Gabriel Ger- beron, a Benedictine, under the assumed name of Righerius, 12mo. Brux. 1673, and in the same year the first complete edition appeared at Paris in folio, under the editorial inspection of the learned Gamier, the text being fomied upon a comparison of the only two existing MSS. The most esteemed edition is that of Baluze, 8vo. Par. 1 684, reprinted with additions and corrections, by Galland, in his Bihliotheca Patrum, vol. viii. pp. 615 — 737, fol. Venet. 1772. A very full account of the labours of Gamier and Baluze will be found in Schone- mann. Bill. Patrum LaL vol. ii. § ] 6, See also MERENDA. Dupin, Ecclesiastical History of the Fifth Century / the preface of Gamier ; and the Prolegomena of Galland. [W. R.] MPIRCU'RIUS, a Roman divinity of commerce and gain, probably one of the dii lucrii. The cha- racter of the god is clear from his name, which is connected with merx and mercari. (Paul. Diac. p. 124, ed. MUller ; Schol. ad Pers. Sat. v. 112.) A temple was built to him as early as b. c. 495 (Liv, ii. 21, 27 ; Ov. Fast, v, GGd near the Circus Maximus (P, Vict. Reg. Urb. xi.); and an altar of the god existed near the Porta Capena, by the side of a well ; and in later times a temple seems to have been built on the same spot. (Ov. Fast. V. 673 ; P. Vict. Reg. Urb. i.) Under the name of the ill-willed {malevolus), he had a statue in what was called the vicus sobrius, or the sober street, in which no shops were allowed to be kept, and milk was offered to him there instead of wine. (Fest. pp. 161, 297, ed. Miiller.) This statue had a purse in its hand, to indicate his functions. (Schol. ad Pers. I.e.) His festival was celebrated on the 25th of May, and chiefly by merchants, who also visited the well near the Porta Capena, to which magic powers were ascribed ; and with water from that well they used to sprinkle them- selves and their merchandise, that they might be purified, and yield a large profit. (Ov. Fast. v. 670, &c. ; Fest. p. 148, ed. Miiller.) The Romans of later times identified Mercurius, the patron of merchants and tradespeople, with the Greek Hermes, and transferred all tlie attributes and myths of the latter to the former (Hor. Carm. i. 10), although the Fetiales never recognised the identity ; and instead of the caduceus used a sacred branch as the emblem of peace. The resemblance between Mercurius and Hermes is indeed very slight ; and their identification is a proof of the thoughtless manner in which the Romans acted in this respect. [Comp. Hermes.] [L. S. ] MERCU'RIUS MO'NACHUS (MepKo«>os MoVaxos), the reputed author of a short trentise (or fragment) on the Pulse, published at Naples, in Greek and Latin, with notes and a long intro- duction, by Salvator Cyrillus, 8vo. 1812. It does not seem to be derived from Greek sources, and nothing is known respecting the writer. Some suppose him to have been a monk, who lived in the south of Italy, about the tenth century ; but Sprengel, in the last edition of his Gesch. der Arz- neikunde (ii. p. 560, quoted by Choulant in his Handb. der Bucherktmde fur die Aeltere Mediciu) conjectures that he lived in the thirteenth century, and derived his opinions from some one who had travelled in the East, — perhaps Carpini. Cardinal Mai, however, in the preface to the fourth volume of his collection Classicor. Aud:or.e Vaticati. Codicib. Editor, (p. xii. &c.) affirms, apparently from actual inspection of some manuscripts containing the work, that it does not belong to Mercurius at all, but to a person called Abitianus. The writer has no means of deciding whether this assertion is cor- rect, but it agrees well enough with the proof arising from internal evidence that the work is de- rived from Oriental sources, for this Abitianus must be no other than the celebrated Arabic physician Abu 'All Ibn Sina, commonly called Avicenna. [Abitianus.] [W. A. G.] MERCU'RIUS TRISMEGISTUS. [Hkrmbs Trismegistus.] MEREN'DA, was a surname, of rare occu^