MARCHANT (Marchantius), Jacques. – A theologian and priest of the diocese of Liège, born in Couvin (Namur) around 1585, died there in 1648. From 1616 he was parish priest of his native village, and from 1630 archpriest of Chimay. He is among the most celebrated writers of pastoral theology of his time.
Works: *Hartus pastorum sacrae doctrinae floribus polymitus exemplis selectis adornatus* (3 vols., Mons 1626–27); *Candelabrum mysticum* (treatise on the Sacraments, ibid. 1629); *Tuba sacerdotalis* (treatise on the capital vices, ibid. 1632); *Resolutiones pastorales de praeceptis, vitiis capitalibus et de Sacramentis* (ibid. 1635); *Rationale evangelizantium* (2 vols., ibid. 1637); *Vitis florigera de palmibus electis odorem spirans suavitatis* (lives of the saints, 2 vols., ibid. 1639); *Opuscula pastoralia de diversis sive commixtum migma* (2 vols., ibid. 1641–43). A French translation of his works was published by Vivès (13 vols., Paris 1865–67).
MARCHE. – The Marches (or the Marca), so called from their frontier position in the early Middle Ages with respect to Byzantine possessions, correspond to the Adriatic side of the Apennines between the rivers Foglia and Tronto, which respectively define their boundaries with Romagna and Abruzzo.
I. GEOGRAPHY
Within the limits of the physical region, the watershed between the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas coincides with the internal boundary.MARCHE – 1) State boundaries; 2) regional boundaries; 3) provincial boundaries; 4) ecclesiastical district boundaries; 5) roads; 6) railways; 7) oratories; 8) parishes; 9) abbeys.
| Provinces and capitals | Population |
| Provinces and capitals | Evaluation |
| Places (population in 1000s [1949]) | in 1000s [1949] | Census- | as of 1949 |
| Ancona (82) | 49 | 1938 | 372,229 | 391 | 192.1 |
| Ascoli Piceno (46) | 72 | 2,090 | 303,869 | 324 | 145.5 |
| Macerata (30) | 57 | 2,774 | 290,057 | 296 | 104.5 |
| Pesaro (52) | | | | | |
| Urbino (24) | 67 | 2,893 | 311,916 | 326 | 107.8 |
| Marche | 245 | 9,695 | 1,278,071 | 1,337 | 131.8 |
II. HISTORY
The Marches were inhabited from earliest times by Italic peoples, the principal one being the Picenes. Christian religion must have been preached in Picenum quite early. Yet scholars differ as to when the individual cities of the Marches received the light of the Gospel. However, from the holy propagators of the faith, whose acts are not always reliable, it seems certain that by the beginning of the 4th century the full triumph of Christianity had been achieved in the region: in 492 Pope St. Gelasius I opposed the spread of the Pelagian heresy.During the barbarian invasions, when administrative unity was shattered, bishops and abbeys remained almost the only authorities recognized by the people and thus accumulated civil powers as well. This state of affairs, after the expulsion of the Lombards, evidently induced first Pepin and then Charlemagne to donate those lands to the Church (752 and 774), though the Church could not immediately avail itself of them nor then constitute a State that would make this donation effective. Already at that time feudalism had arisen as a disruptive element. With the advent of the German emperors (961), the first names of marches begin to appear, from the Germanic *Marichio* and “frontier”: in chronological order, the march of Camerino, Fermo, Ancona, etc. Besides the feudal families, the communes also competed to undermine the authority of bishops and monasteries; the most powerful of these was Ancona, which had notable Levantine activity, held its own against Venice, and victoriously resisted Barbarossa. Religious life then received fresh impetus especially through the Franciscans and Dominicans, and everywhere grand temples, convents, and shrines arose, among which the most famous is that of Loreto.
At the same time as the communes, certain great feudal families asserted themselves in the region. Thus the Montefeltro extended their dominion to Gubbio, Urbino, Cagli, and Fossombrone; the lords of Varano made themselves masters of Camerino and many other places; the Malatesta established their predominance in the area between Pesaro and Osimo and for a short time even dominated Ancona. But the Holy See never renounced the rights deriving from the ancient donation over those lands and left no means or opportunity unused to reassert and reclaim them.
At the middle of the 14th century, faced with new usurpations and political defections, Cardinal Legate Egidio Albornoz, with energetic, methodical, and enlightened action, succeeded in restoring full papal authority in the Marches. Then remained memorable the fundamental code of the ecclesiastical State, known as the *Constitutiones Aegidianae* and approved at Fano by a general parliament (1357).
Even in the following century, after the end of the Western Schism, the Holy See continued its work of assistance and protection of its territories and, more or less promptly, succeeded in asserting its supremacy everywhere. Only for a brief period (1433–44) were the lordships able to resist and maintain themselves: Francesco Sforza’s dominion, extended to almost all the Marches, and somewhat longer those of his brother Alessandro at Pesaro and Sigismondo Malatesta at Fano (1463). At the beginning of the 16th century, Cesare Borgia, fighting with both valor and perfidy, overthrew other local lords intolerant of obedience. In 1532, through the work of Cardinal Benedetto Accolti, the commune of Ancona capitulated, renouncing its autonomy; later, in 1545, the lordship of Camerino, under the rule of Ottavio Farnese, was reintegrated into the Papal State; finally, in 1631, even the Duchy of Urbino, with Pesaro and Senigallia, after the extinction of the della Rovere family, returned to form part of the territorial dominions of the Church.
Thus the political and administrative unity of the Marches was then fully reconstituted and remained almost unchanged for more than a century and a half, that is, until the end of the 18th century, precisely until the spring of 1798. Then the Marches were occupied by the French republicans, commanded by General Berthier, and later, after various vicissitudes (1808–13), annexed to the Kingdom of Italy and divided into the three departments of Metauro, Musone, and Tronto. In 1815, after the Restoration, they were returned by Austria along with the other provinces and once again became part of the ancient Papal State, remaining there for another 45 years, until the invasion of the Marches by the Sardinian army, the battle of Castelfidardo (q.v.) and the siege of Ancona (q.v.) forced the papal forces to capitulate (21 Sept. 1860).
