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MELETIUS OF LYCOPOLIS (4th century), founder of the sect known after him as the “Meletians,” or as the “Church of the Martyrs,” in the district of Thebes in Egypt. With Peter, archbishop of Alexandria, he was thrown into prison during the persecution under Diocletian. His importance is due to his refusal to receive, at least until the persecution had ceased, those Christians who during the persecutions had renounced their faith, and then repented. This refusal led to a breach with Peter, and other Egyptian bishops who were willing to grant absolution to those who were willing to do penance for their infidelity. Meletius, after regaining his freedom, held his ground and drew around him many supporters, extending his influence even so far away as Palestine. He ordained 29 bishops and encroached upon Peter’s jurisdiction. The Council of Nicaea in 325 upheld the bishops, but Meletius was allowed to remain bishop of Lycopolis though with merely nominal authority. His death followed soon after. His followers, however, took part with the Arians in the controversy with Athanasius and existed as a separate sect till the 5th century.

MELFI, a city and episcopal see of Basilicata, Italy, in the province of Potenza, 30 m. by rail N. of the town of that name. Melfi is picturesquely situated on the lower slopes of Monte Vulture, 1591 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 14,547. The castle was originally erected by Robert Guiscard, but as it now stands it is mainly the work of the Doria family, who have possessed it since the time of Charles V.; and the noble cathedral which was founded in 1153 by Robert’s son and successor, Roger, has had a modern restoration (though it retains its campaniles) in consequence of the earthquake of 1851, when the town was ruined, over one thousand of the inhabitants perishing. It is the centre of an agricultural district which produces oil and wine. In the town hall is a fine Roman sarcophagus found 6 m. W. of Venosa.

 MELICERTES, in Greek legend, the son of the Boeotian prince Athamas and Ino, daughter of Cadmus. Ino, pursued by her husband, who had been driven mad by Hera because Ino had brought up the infant Dionysus, threw herself and Melicertes into the sea from a high rock between Megara and Corinth. Both were changed into marine deities—Ino as Leucothea, Melicertes as Palaemon. The body of the latter was carried by a dolphin to the Isthmus of Corinth and deposited under a pine tree. Here it was found by his uncle Sisyphus, who had it removed to Corinth, and by command of the Nereids instituted the Isthmian games and sacrifices in his honour. There seems little doubt that the cult of Melicertes was of foreign, probably Phoenician, origin, and introduced by Phoenician navigators on the coasts and islands of the Aegean and Mediterranean. He is a native of Boeotia, where Phoenician influences were strong; at Tenedos he was propitiated by the sacrifice of children, which seems to point to his identity with Melkart. The premature death of the child in the Greek form of the legend is probably an allusion to this.

 MELILLA, a Spanish fortified station and penal settlement on the north coast of Morocco, south of Cape Tres Forcas and 135 m. E.S.E. of Ceuta. Pop. about 9000. The town is built on a huge rock connected with the mainland by a rocky isthmus. There is a harbour, only accessible to small vessels; the roadstead outside is safe and has deep water a mile to the east of the fortress. From the landing-place, where a mole is cut out of the rock, there is a steep ascent to the upper town, characteristically Spanish in appearance. The town is walled, and the isthmus protected by a chain of small forts. A Moorish custom-house is placed on the Spanish border beyond the fort of Santa Isabel, and is the only authorized centre of trade on the Riff coast between Tetuan and the Algerian frontier. It thus forms the entrepot for the commerce of the Riff district and its hinterland. Goat skins, eggs and beeswax are the principal exports, cotton goods, tea, sugar and candles being the chief imports. For the period 1900–1905 the annual value of the trade was about £200,000. Melilla, the first place captured by Spain on the African mainland, was seized from the Moors in 1490. The Spaniards have had much trouble with the neighbouring tribes—turbulent Riffians, hardly subject to the sultan of Morocco. The limits of the Spanish territory round the fortress were fixed by treaties with Morocco in 1859, 1860, 1861 and 1894. In 1893 the Riffians besieged Melilla and 25,000 men had to be despatched against them. In 1908 two companies, under the protection of El Roghi, a chieftain then ruling the Riff region, started mining lead and iron some 15 m. from Melilla and a railway to the mines was begun. In October of that year the Riffians revolted from the Roghi and raided the mines, which remained closed until June 1909. On the 9th of July the workmen were again attacked and several of them killed. Severe fighting between the Spaniards and the tribesmen followed. The Riffians having submitted, the Spaniards, in 1910, restarted the mines and undertook harbour works at Mar Chica.

MÉLINE, FÉLIX JULES (1838–), French statesman, was born at Remiremont on the 20th of May 1838. Having adopted the law as his profession, he was chosen a deputy in 1872, and in 1879 he was for a short time under-secretary to the minister of the interior. In 1880 he came to the front as the leading spokesman of the party which favoured the protection of French industries, and he had a considerable share in fashioning the protectionist legislation of the years 1890–1902. From 1883 to 1885 Méline was minister for agriculture, and in 1888–1889 he was president of the Chamber of Deputies. In 1896 he became premier (président du conseil) and minister for agriculture, offices which he vacated in 1898. At one time he edited la République française, and after his retirement from public life he wrote Le Retour à la terre et la surproduction industrielle, tout en faveur de l’agriculture (1905).

MÉLINGUE, ÉTIENNE MARIN (1808–1875), French actor and sculptor, was born in Caen, the son of a volunteer of 1792. He early went to Paris and obtained work as a sculptor on the church of the Madeleine, but his passion for the stage soon led him to join a strolling company of comedians. Finally chance gave him an opportunity to show his talents, and at the Porte Saint Martin he became the popular interpreter of romantic