MARCADÉ, EUSTACHE
(d. 1440). Author of a mystery play, the Vengeance Nostre Seigneur, and presumed
author of the Mystère de la Passion, both from Arras. Marcadé studied theology and law
at the University of Paris and was an official at the Benedictine abbey of Corbie near
Amiens. He was later dean of the faculty of ecclesiastical law in Paris. It was Marcadé
who gave the mystery plays their vast dimensions. The Passion (25,000 lines) required
four days for playing and the Vengeance (14,000 lines) three days. He also introduced to
the Passion play the theological framework of the Procès de paradis, a debate in Heaven
between Mercy and Justice, during which God decides to become man. Marcadé’s
Passion celebrates the birth of the church by emphasizing the primacy of Peter. His
Vengeance shows the origin of the Diaspora by dramatizing the destruction of Jerusalem
by the Roman emperor Titus.
Alan E.Knight
[See also: MYSTERY PLAYS]
Marcadé, Eustache. Le mystère de la Passion, texte du ms. 697 de la Bibliothèque d’Arras, ed. Jules
Marie Richard. Arras: Imprimerie de la Société du Pas-de-Calais, 1893.
Bordier, Jean Pierre. “Rome contre Jerusalem: la légende de la Vengeance Nostre Seigneur.” In
Jérusalem, Rome, Constantinople: l’image et le mythe de la ville au moyen âge, ed. Daniel
Poirion. Paris: Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1986, pp. 93–124.
MARCEL, ÉTIENNE
(1310–1358). A prosperous Parisian draper who, as prévôt des marchands, led a rebellion
against the monarchy in 1357–58. Born into a less wealthy cadet branch of a large and
influential family, Marcel was successful in business, a supplier for the royal household,
and a respected figure in Paris by the late 1340s. He was elected prévôt in 1354.
Connected by kinship or marriage to many Parisians who had gained wealth and
sometimes ennoblement in royal service, risking disgrace and destitution for corrupt
practices but often regaining royal favor, Marcel was perhaps too cautious or too honest
to follow their example, and he increasingly resented these rich royal officers from his
own circle.
In December 1355, the Estates General met in Paris, and Marcel became the
spokesman for the towns of Languedoil, as the assembly worked out an ambitious plan to
raise a large tax to support the army, in exchange for governmental reforms and a return
to stable currency. Marcel and the Parisians were then staunch supporters of John II in his
campaign against the kings of England and Navarre, who had claims to the French throne
and sought to partition the realm. By May 1356, however, the tax plan was failing, and
without adequate revenues for his troops John II resumed manipulating the currency and
restored to power the officials he had agreed to dismiss. These actions caused Marcel to
break with the king, no longer providing him with Parisian troops. When John met defeat
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