Marnix

Marnix, PHILIP VAN, Lord of St Aldegonde, Dutch writer and patriot, was born at Brussels in 1538. A pupil of Calvin and Beza at Geneva, on his return home he took an active part in promoting the Reformation, and in 1566 a no less active part in the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain. An intimate friend of William of Orange, he was appointed by this great man to be his representative at the first meeting of the Estates of the United Provinces, held at Dort in 1572, and on subsequent occasions was sent on special missions to the courts of France and England. After helping to cement the Union of Utrecht and visiting the diet at Worms, he was nominated in 1583 burgomaster of Antwerp. This city he defended thirteen months against the Spaniards; but, having then capitulated, he incurred so much ill-will that he retired from public life. The leisure of his retirement he utilised for literary work, besides taking an active interest in the newly-founded university of Leyden. From his pen came the Wilhelmus song, the hymn of Dutch liberty and Protestantism; the epoch-making prose satire on the Roman Catholic Church, entitled The Roman Bee-hive (1569); a metrical translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew (1580); and the beginning of a prose translation of the Bible. Marnix died at Leyden, 15th December 1598. His works were edited in 7 vols. (Brussels, 1855-59); his religious works in 2 vols. (1871-73). See Lives in Dutch by Broes (1840) and Frédéricq (1882), and the French monograph by Juste (1858).