RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Meletius Syrigrus Melville, Andrew
the comprehensive Confessio Ecclesim Debrecinensis. The Lutherans appealed to four Lutheran universities in Germany, and accused the men of Debreczin of distorting the Augsburg Confession. Melius replied in two pamphlets {Refutatio and Apologia), defending the Reformed position, while the Reformed themselves turned to Geneva and Beza at two synods held in 1562-63. New impulse was furnished by this act. The young Prince of Transylvania, John Sigismund, still attempted to hold the Protestants together in a single body, and convened a general synod at Enyed (Apr., 1564); but, after joint debate, the cause of union was lost, and the Diet of Torda (June, 1564) sanctioned equal freedom for the Reformed Church. The matter of organization thus becoming a practical necessity, Melius, as the first Reformed bishop, convoked the first general synod at Debreczin (Feb., 1567), where seventeen presbyteries were represented from both sides of the River Tisza. By adopting the Second Helvetic Confession, they declared themselves an integral part of the Reformed Church in Europe. At the same synod, canons were drawn up, entitled Articuli majores, and defining the polity of the synod.
The young Church had hardly been organized when it was destined to encounter a new enemy. The prince's court physician, Georgius Blandrata (q.v.), secretly brought with him from Poland the books of Servetus, and imparted their tenets to the court preacher, Franciscus Davidis (q.v.), who then began to spread the Unitarian doctrines in Transylvania (1566). Melius firmly withstood him, and finally took part in the synod of Csenger (July 26, 1570), but Unitarians who had been invited did?not appear. The synod formulated the Confessio vera, which was embodied in the Corpus et syntagma confessionum (Geneva, 1612) under the incorrect designation Polonica confessio. The credit is thus due to Melius and his companions that Hungarian Calvinism was not swallowed up in the Unitarian stream. Melius likewise purposed to oppose the theses of the Jewish rabbis of Paris, assailing the divinity of Christ, but his career was cut short by death.
Melius corresponded with Bullinger, Beza, Thretius, and Dudics, and wrote many books. Among his thirteen Hungarian productions special mention may be made of his Az egesz keresztyen tudomdny summdja (" Summary of Christian Doctrine," Debreczin, 1562). He also composed exegetical works, and translated the Books of Samuel and Kings, and the New Testament (1567), the latter version being lost. His nine Latin works are mainly polemical and doctrinal. Of these the most important are Confessio Ecclesim Debrecinensis (Debreczin, 1562); Apologia et abstersio Ecclesim Debrecinensis a calumnis quibus temere apud academias et principes accusatur (1563) ; Refutatio confessionis de cmna Domini Matthim Hebler et his coniunctorum (1564) ; Brevis confessio pastorum (both in Latin and in Hungarian; 1567); and Articuli ex verbo Dei et lege naturm compositi (1567). F. Balogh.
Bibliography: F. A. Lampe, Hist, ecclesice reformats in Hungaria, passim, Utrecht, 1728; E. Budai, Hist, of Hungary (in Hungarian), ii. 156-168, Debreczin, 1808; P. Bod, Hist. eccl. Hungarorum, ed. Rauwenhoff, i. 256, Leyden, 1888; J. B. Dales and R. M. Patterson, Report
of Proceedings of the Second General Council of the Presbyterian Alliance, pp. 1099-1120, Philadelphia, 1874; F. Balogh, Melius Peter hatdsa, Debreczin, 1866; idem, Hist, of the Reformed Church of Hungary, Lancaster, Pa., 1906.
MELLITUS: First bishop of London and third archbishop of Canterbury; d. at Canterbury Apr. 24, 624. Pope Gregory the Great sent him with Justus, Paulinus, and Rufinianus to join Augustine (q.v.) at Canterbury in 601. Augustine consecrated him bishop of the East Saxons in 604. Ethelbert, king of Kent, with his uncle Sabert, the East Saxon king, built for Mellitus the Church of St. Paul at London, where he established his episcopal see. Mellitus went to Rome in 608 to consult Boniface IV., was present at a synod there, Feb. 27, 610, and brought its decrees, with letters from the pope, to England. Eadbald, son and successor (616) of Ethelbert, as well as the sons of Sabert, adhered to the heathen religion, and Mellitus was driven from London and went to Gaul. After a year, however, he was able to return to Kent (see Laurence of Canterbury), but not to his bishopric. He succeeded Laurence as archbishop in 619, but never received the pallium. Bibliography: Bede, Hist, eccl., i. 29, 30, ii. 3-7; Haddan
and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 5-38, 71; DCB, iii. 900-901;
DNB, xxxvii. 221-222.
MELVILL, HENRY: Church of England; b. at Pendennis Castle (2 m. s.w. of Falmouth), Cornwall, Eng., Sept. 14, 1798; d. in London Feb. 9, 1871. He was graduated from the University of Cambridge (B.A., 1821; M.A., 1824; B.D., 1836); was minister of Camden Chapel, Camberwell, London, 1829-43; was appointed chaplain to the Tower of London, 1840; was principal of the East India College, at Haileybury, 1843-59; and held the Golden Lectureship, St. Margaret's Lothbury, 1850-56. In 1853 he was appointed one of her Majesty's chaplains; in 1856 a canon of St. Paul's; in 1863 he was made rector of Barnes, Surrey, and rural dean. He enjoyed a high reputation for pulpit oratory; his style was florid, and his delivery impassioned. Of the twelve volumes published by him, some of them in several editions, all were the results of his pulpit activities. His Lectures on Practical Subjects was reprinted in Philadelphia, 1864; and two volumes of his Sermons, ed. Bishop McIIvaine, appeared New York, 1870.
Bibliography: J. Grant, Metropolitan Pulpit, ii. 1-21, London, 1839; The Lamps of the Temple, pp. 210-241, ib. 1856; J. E. Ritchie, London Pulpit, pp. 60-68, ib. 1858; DNB, xxxvii. 229-230.
MELVILLE, ANDREW: B. at Baldovy, near Montrose (30 m. n.e. of Dundee), Scotland, Aug. 1, 1545; d. at Sedan (130 m. n.e. of Paris), France, in 1622. After preliminary training in Latin, Greek, and French, at Montrose, he entered St. Mary's College, St. Andrews, in 1559; and when he left St. Andrews for the University of Paris, in the autumn of 1564, he was commended as "the best philosopher, poet, and Grecian of anie young maister in the land." In Paris he studied Hebrew as well as Latin, Greek, and philosophy. Two years later he went to Poitiers to master civil law and became a regent in the College of St. Marceon. He afterward traveled to Geneva, where he was speedily appointed to
Melville, Andrew Memorials and Sacred Stones