of St. George's chapel, Windsor, in 1531. His early life was chiefly spent in the practice of the organ, upon which instrument he is said to have possessed great skill. About the year 1543 a number of persons at Windsor who favoured the Reformation had formed themselves into a society. Among them were Anthony Person, a priest; Robert Testwood, a "singing man" in the choir of Windsor; John Marbeck, then one of the organists of the chapel; and Henry Filmer, a tradesman of the same town. Upon intimation given that these persons had frequent meetings, Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, procured a commission from the king to search suspected houses in the town for heretical works, upon which the four persons above-named were apprehended and their books seized, among which were found some papers of notes on the Bible, and a concordance in English, in the hand-writing of Marbeck. Upon his examination before the commissioners of the Six Articles touching these papers, he said as to the notes, that he read much in order to understand the scriptures, and that whenever he met with any exposition thereof he extracted it, and noted the name of the author; and as to the concordance, that being a poor man he could not afford to buy a copy of the English Bible, which had then lately been published with notes, by Thomas Matthews, and therefore had set himself to write one out, and was entered into the book of Joshua, when a friend of his, one Turner, knowing his industry, suggested to him the compilation of a concordance in English: but he told him he knew not what that meant, upon which his friend explained the word to him, and furnished him with a Latin concordance and an English Bible; and having in his youth learned a little Latin, he, by the help of these, and comparing the English with the Latin, was enabled to draw out a concordance, which he had brought as far as the letter L. This story seemed so strange to the commissioners who examined him, that they did not believe it. To convince them, Marbeck desired they would draw out any words under the letter M, and give him the Latin concordance and English Bible, and in a day's time he had filled three sheets of paper with a continuation of his work, as far as the words given would enable him to do. The ingenuity and industry of Marbeck were much applauded even by his enemies: and it was said by Dr. Oking, one of the commissioners who examined him, that "he had been better employed than his accusers." However, neither his ingenuity nor his industry could prevent his being brought to trial for heresy at the same time with the three other persons, his friends and associates. Person and Filmer were indicted for irreverent expressions concerning the mass. The charge against Marbeck was copying with his own hand an epistle of Calvin against it, which it seems was a crime within the statute of the well-known Six Articles. Testwood had discovered an intemperate zeal in dissuading people from pilgrimages, and had stricken off, with a key, the nose of an alabaster image of the Virgin Mary, which stood behind the high altar of St. George's chapel. It was also related of him that in the course of divine service, one of the same chapel named Robert Philips, singing, as his duty required, on one side of the choir these words, "O redemptrix et salvatrix," was answered by Testwood singing on the other side, "Non redemptrix nee salvatrix." They were found guilty and condemned to be burnt, which sentence was executed on all except Marbeck, the day after the trial. Marbeck was a man of meek and harmless temper, and highly esteemed for his skill in music. He behaved with so much integrity and uprightness during his trial, that through the intercession of Sir Humphrey Foster, one of the commissioners, he obtained the king's pardon. Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, was sorry for having brought him into trouble, and from his persecutor became his staunch friend and patron. Having thus escaped martyrdom, Marbeck applied himself to the study of his profession; and not having been required to make any public recantation, he indulged his own opinions in secret, without doing violence to his conscience or giving offence to others, till the death of Henry VIII., when he found himself at liberty to make a public profession of his faith. Marbeck now set about completing his concordance, and in the course of four years it appeared under the following title:—"A Concordance, that is to saie, a worke wherein by the ordre of the letters of A, B, C, ye maye redelye finde any worde conteyned in the whole Bible, so often as it is there expressed or mentioned," London, Richard Grafton, 1550. In the dedication "To the most highe and mightie Prince Edward VI.," Marbeck thus speaks of himself:—"One of your highnes' most poore subjects, destitute both of learnynge and eloquence, yea, and such a one as in maner never tasted the sweetness of learned letters, but altogether brought up in your highnes' college at Windsore in the study of musicke and playing on organs, wherein I consumed vainly the greatest part of my life. As I had almost finished this worke, my chaunce, among others, was at Windsore to be taken in the labirinth and troublesome letter called the Statute of Six Articles. I was quickly condemned and judged to death for copying out of a worke made by the great clerke, Mr. John Calvin, written against the same Six Articles, and this my concordance was not one of the least matters that they then alleged. Your highnes' father granted me his most gracious pardon, which I enjoyed, and was set at liberty."
Marbeck was also the author of the following works—the "Lyves of Holy Sainctes, Prophets, Patriarchs, and others, contayned in Holye Scripture," 1574; the "Holie Historie of King David drawne into English Meetre," 1579; a "Ripping up of the Pope's Fardel," 1581; a "Book of Notes and Common Places, gathered out of divers writers," 1581; "Examples drawn out of Holye Scripture, with their application," 1582; a "Dialogue between Youth and Old Age," 1584; and probably others which have not descended to the present generation. But by far the most important work which Marbeck has left to posterity, is his "Booke of Common Praier, noted," printed by Richard Grafton, the king's printer, in the year 1550. In the order of publication it takes its place between the first and second Prayer-books of Edward VI., and contains the groundwork of the plain-song as used in our cathedrals from the time of the Reformation to the present day. This valuable book includes the order of morning and evening prayer, together with the office of the holy communion and the burial service, all adapted to music selected from the Latin service books. It must be borne in mind that it contains no new compositions. All that Marbeck did was to adapt the ancient melodies of the church to the English words of the Te Deum, Benedictus, &c., and apply the rules of ecclesiastical accent to the suffrages, &c. Marbeck's great object throughout the work seems to have been the simplification of these fine old melodies, and the preservation of their leading characteristics. There is scarcely an instance of more than one note set to a syllable, and this it is highly probable was the result of the known wishes of Archbishop Cranmer, who not only went the length of desiring the banishment of figured music from the church—"vibratam illam et operosam musicam, quæ figurata dicitur, auferri placet"—but the simplification of the plain-song in such sort that it should be "clarus et aptus, ut ad auditorum omnia sensum et intelligentiam proveniant." Two editions of this valuable manual have lately been printed under the editorial care of Dr. Rimbault—one, in facsimile, printed uniform with Pickering's Prayer-books; the other, a less expensive reprint, with a historical preface. In the year 1550, according to Wood, "John Merbeck or Marbeck, organist to Saint George's chapel at Windsor, did supplicate for the degree of bachelor of music: but whether he was admitted it appears not, because the admissions in all faculties are for several years omitted." It appears, however, from a manuscript preserved in the music school at Oxford, written in the year 1553, that Marbeck was admitted to the degree of bachelor in the year of his application. Fox, in his Acts and Monuments, 1562, and Burnet, in his History of the Reformation, give a circumstantial detail of the troubles in which Marbeck was involved on account of religion; but it is somewhat singular that Fox, who was personally acquainted with him, should have asserted in the first edition of his work that he actually suffered in the flames at Windsor, in conjunction with Person, Filmer, and Testwood. This mistake was afterwards corrected in the second edition of that work, but not until it had exposed its author to the severe censures of Cope, Parsons, and other adherents to the Church of Rome. The second English edition of Fox's Acts and Monuments was printed in 1583, in which the author says of Marbeck—"He is not yet dead, but liveth, God be praised, and yet to this present singeth merrily, and playeth on the organs." Marbeck died in 1591, and was buried in the cloisters of St. George's chapel, Windsor.—He left a son, Roger, who was a student of Christ church, Oxford, and the first standing perpetual orator of that university. He was afterwards canon of Christ church, provost of Oriel, and chief physician to Queen Elizabeth. Wood informs us that he died in 1605, and was buried in the church of St. Giles Without, Cripplegate.—E. F. R.
