Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/299

 for the province of Canterbury early in 1406, and opened it as the archbishop's commissary on 10 May with a Latin sermon (ib. pp. 139, 140; cf., Concilia, iii. 272–273). Merke seems to have been one of the three Englishmen, ‘viri non modice auctoritatis,’ who were present at Lucca in May 1408, and took sides with the dissenting cardinals against the pope (, Nemus, vi. 31). He apparently signed as a witness the appeal of the cardinals at Pisa against Gregory (, Concilia, xi. 2, 2217;, viii. 101).

Merke died during 1409 (, ii. 133;, p. 766; for the bible given by him to Robert Stonham, vicar of Oakham, see Lincoln Wills, p. 139). He appears in a cowl in an illumination representing the consultation of Richard with his friends at Conway Castle in a manuscript of Creton in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 1319). This is reproduced in Strutt's ‘Regal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities’ (No. xxiv), and by Mr. Webb in ‘Archæologia’ (xx. 97). 

MERLE or MORLEY, WILLIAM (d. 1347), meteorologist, son of William Merle, is said to have been a fellow of Merton College, Oxford (Digby MS. 176, f. 3), but his name does not appear on the extant lists of fellows. He was presented to the rectory of Driby, near Alford, Lincolnshire, by John Harsyk in 1331, was admitted thereto on 13 May in that year, and died in 1347. His connection with Oxford is supported by the fact that some of his observations were made there. Those contained in Digby MS. 176 were prepared for William Reed (d. 1385) [q. v.], bishop of Chichester, a former fellow of Merton, who presented this volume to his old college. Mr. Symons suggests that Merle was of French extraction, on the supposition that the name is French and not English. This conjecture seems needless; the modern form of the name may be Morley, as given by Tanner, and in any case Merle is not uncommon in thirteenth and fourteenth century records (cf. Patent Rolls Edward I., sub anno 1283, and Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, iii. 257); in Digby MS. 147 the name is spelt Merlee, and in Digby MS. 97 Merla.

Merle wrote: 1. ‘Temperies aeris Oxoniæ pro septennio scilicet a Januario ad Januar. .’ In Digby MS 176, ff. 4–8. This tract is perhaps the oldest systematic record of the weather, which is noted month by month, and in large part day by day. The last date is 8 Jan. 1344. Reference is made both to Lincolnshire and to Oxford. A photographic reproduction of the manuscript, with a translation, was published, under the supervision of Mr. G. J. Symons, in 1891, with the title, ‘Consideraciones temperiei pro 7 Annis.’ 2. ‘De futura aeris intemperie:’ incipit ‘Hec sunt consideranda ad hoc.’ Digby MS. 97, f. 128b and Digby MS. 176, f. 3 in the Bodleian Library. 3. ‘De prognosticatione aeris.’ Digby MS. 147, ff. 125–37. A footnote states ‘Expletum igitur est opus istud Exon. [?Oxon.] anno domini 1340 per magistrum Willielmum Merlee.’ 

MERLIN AMBROSIUS, or MYRDDIN EMRYS, legendary enchanter and bard, is first to be definitely traced in the ‘Historia Brittonum’ ascribed to Nennius, a work which seems to date from the end of the eighth century (, Nennius Vindicatus). Nennius relates that the wise men had told Vortigern that he could not build his castle on Snowdon unless the foundations were sprinkled with the blood of a child that had no father. On a search being made a child whose mother swore that he had no father was by accident discovered at a place called ‘Campus Elleti’ (perhaps Maesaleg or Bassa-