MARET, HENRI-LOUIS. - Theologian, b. at Merqueis on 20 April 1805, d. at Paris on 16 June 1884. Ordained in 1830, he became famous for an Essai sur le panthéisme dans les sociétés modernes (Paris 1839), which earned him the chair of dogmatics at the Sorbonne, and for the Théologie chrétienne (ibid. 1844).
During the Second Empire he supported the religious policy of Napoleon III, who would have wanted him as bishop of Vannes, but Pius IX limited himself to conferring on him a titular diocese, also in view of M.'s liberalizing and Gallican sentiments. Indeed he took a position against the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility, subsequently publishing two much-discussed books, Du concile général et de la paix religieuse and Le pape et les évêques (Paris 1869), and during the Vatican Council he was among the few to vote against the dogmatic definition, although he then hastened to submit to the majority of the votes. Another battle he vigorously waged and likewise lost was that of obtaining recognition from the Holy See for the theological faculties established by the French government in the public universities.
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Renzo U. Montini MARGARITONE da AREZZO. - Painter, mentioned in a document of 1262. Vasari attributed to him also a vast activity as architect and sculptor, assigning to him works certainly executed by others.
He painted instead very numerous panels in a rather crude manner and with laborious mannerisms, of drawing and highlights of Oriental origin, often signing them with the name Margarito. There are remembered of him some painted antependia with the image of the Virgin, such as that of the National Gallery in London (no. 564), the other of the church of S. Margherita d'Arezzo and yet another of the church of Montelungo near Terranova Bracciolini. Also in S. Maria delle Vertighe near Monte S. Savino there is an antependium partly repainted by M.
More famous, however, are his images of St. Francis, whom he depicted frontally like an Oriental ascetic. Worthy of mention are that of the Pinacoteca d'Arezzo (reproduced in color at the entry FRANCESCO), the other of the Vatican Pinacoteca, that in S. Francesco of Castiglion Fiorentino, the other that is in the Museo civico of Montepulciano and that which is in Rome in S. Francesco a Ripa.
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Emilio Lavagnino