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MEL flourished has not been precisely determined; but from the internal evidences supplied by his works, it seems probable that he lived in the reign of Claudius,. 41-54. The only known and extant work of Pomponius Mela is a tract—"De Situ Orbis." It consists of three books, and is a careful and laborious compilation of all that was known in his time about the earth's surface. It begins with a definition of the cardinal points, and an account of the general divisions of the earth into hemispheres and zones, and afterwards passes on to a more detailed account of the principal continents, islands, and seas. According to Pomponius Mela there are two hemispheres, the northern and the southern. Of these the former alone is known; the southern, which he describes as the abode of the Anticthones, being separated from us by the torrid zone, which cannot be passed. The northern or known hemisphere, therefore, is the only one that can be described in detail. It consists, according to Mela, of three great continents, Europe, Africa, and Asia. On the north of these is the Caspian sea; on the west, the Mediterranean; and on the south, the Arabian. Beyond all is the ocean. A minute account is next given of the various countries which form the three continents, of the islands which belong to each, and of the nations which inhabit them. The countries in the extreme north, east, and south, were unknown to Pomponius Mela, and he supposed the ocean to occupy the space where they are situated. The three books, "De Situ Orbis," were translated into English by Arthur Golding in 1585.—D. M.  MELANCTHON,, the eminent German scholar and reformer, was born at Bretten in the lower Palatinate on the 16th February, 1497. His mother, Barbara Reuter, was a daughter of the mayor of the town, and his father was an armourer, whose original German name was Schwartzerd, which in the case of the son, according to the fashion of the time, the famous Reuchlin Grecized into Melancthon, or as he that bore it spelled it latterly Melanthon. The German and Greek names both signify "black earth." He studied at the academy at Pfortzheim, and happening to lodge in the house of a near female relation, a sister of Reuchlin, he attracted the attention and patronage of that illustrious scholar, whose tuition and example were not lost upon the youthful aspirant. After a residence of about two years at Pfortzheim, Philip removed to Heidelberg where he became bachelor of arts, and for the sake of some pupils composed "Rudiments" of the Greek language. But as his age prevented him from taking a final degree he left for the university of Tübingen, where his range of successful study soon made him celebrated, and where he became M.A., apparently in his sixteenth year. After labouring some time in private tuition, he at length became a public lecturer not only on the classics, but on logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and theology. The fame of the young lecturer drew upon him the eulogies of Erasmus, who, among other praises of him, exclaims "Quid inventionis acumen, quæ sermonis puritas, quanta reconditarum rerum memoria," &c.—What greatness of invention, what purity of diction, what vastness of memory, &c. Latimer tells us too, "I was as obstinate a papist as any in England, insomuch that when I should be made bachelor of divinity, my whole oration went against Phillippe Melancthon and against his opinions." Melancthon's biblical studies were furthered at this time by Reuchlin's present of a Bible, recently printed by Froben, and the incipient exeget noted down on the margin the thoughts which from time to time occurred to him. In 1518 he was elected professor of Greek in the newly-erected monastery of Wittemberg, and at once entered on the duties of his chair. His success was immediate and decided; the insignificance of his person was forgotten in his eloquence and erudition, and his class soon numbered no less than fifteen hundred persons, listening to his prelections on Homer and the epistle of Paul to Titus. Luther also derived great benefit from his colleague in the prosecution of his own Greek studies; and Melancthon bowed to the influence and imbibed the spirit of the intrepid reformer. The views of Melancthon coincided in general with those of Luther; but he was confirmed in his protestant leanings by listening to the disputation at Leipsic between Eck and Carlstadt and Luther. Eck appealed too much, as he saw, to the Fathers, forgetting and undervaluing the holy scriptures. The defeated champion was so annoyed at some remarks of Melancthon, that in his chagrin he stigmatized him, in allusion to his studies, as a Grammatellus. In 1520 Philip married the daughter of one of the burgomasters of Wittemberg, and she proved in all things a congenial spirit.

During Luther's confinement in the castle of Wartburg Melancthon was ill at ease—the sense of responsibility well nigh overcame him. He wanted Luther's leonine heart, and his active and intrepid temperament. He was not fitted, from his constitutional timidity, to be a leader—his place was in the second rank as a counsellor and support. He longed most earnestly for Luther's return—Me desiderium ejus excruciat misere. At this period the divines of the Sorbonne attacked Luther, and Melancthon at once published a vindication—"Adversus furiosum Parisiensium Theologastrorum decretum," in which with quiet satire and bold rebuke he exposed the "womanish" violence, the numerous inconsistencies, fallacious arguments, and haughty claims of his French antagonists. This same year he published another tract in defence of Luther, and in it gives at some length the history of the great dispute between Luther and the church of Rome, and ridicules the scholastic philosophy. In 1521 appeared his "Loci communes theologici"—a brief, compact system of theology under fifty-three heads, and expressed in terse and classic Latinity. The work obtained immediate and great popularity, sixty editions being published during the author's lifetime. Luther praised it very highly. "It is the best book," said he, "next to holy scripture . . . all the Fathers and Sententiarii are not to be compared to it." In a preface to a French edition of it in 1551, Calvin says—"It is a summary of those truths which are essential to a christian's guidance in the way of salvation." The "Loci" are clear and earnest, but they want the fulness, stateliness, and self-adjusted symmetry of the more famous Institutes of Geneva. Melancthon was next plagued by the prophets and anabaptists—Storck, Cellarius, and Stubner. Their pretensions to revelation seem to have confounded him; and at his wit's end, he urged on the elector to send for Luther, "for no one can judge so well on the subject." The elector was afraid that Luther's life might be endangered, and Melancthon wrote to the reformer himself. Luther immediately replied, "I do not approve of your timidity, though you are my superior in talent and learning;" and the gist of the answer is the wise demand, "Let them show their credentials—heed not their professions." The reforming excesses of Carlstadt and his jealous rivalry next vexed him; and this man he calls with some asperity, but with some truth, "a man of savage manners, with no genius or learning, or even common sense, but with a plausible exterior." But his gentle soul was at length relieved of its anxieties, for the presiding genius descended from the Wartburg, and Luther again put himself at the head of the movement.

In the work which now followed—the translation of the scripture—Melancthon bore a prominent part, as he was well qualified to do. Soon after, in 1522, Luther obtained the manuscript of Melancthon's commentary on Romans, and at once published it with a characteristic dedication to its author—"I am he who dares to publish your annotations, and I send you your own book; teipsum ad te mitto." These annotations yet keep their place, and are still admired for their simplicity, their grammatical basis, and their evangelical integrity. In 1525 the wise Elector Frederick died, and Melancthon pronounced a glowing Latin oration over his remains, and composed the long epitaph engraved on his monument. At this period Melancthon, with his friend Camerarius, made a tour into various parts of the country; and while he was in South Germany the legate, Campeggio, made an effort to gain him back to the church—an effort which he answered by his "Summa Doctrinæ Lutheri." During Luther's controversy with Erasmus, the latter wrote him some insinuating letters as if for the purpose of detaching him from the reformer; but he replied that he would never change his opinions from regard to human authority or from dread of disgrace. He refused, too, an invitation to be rector in the new academy at Nürnberg. Melancthon next proposed an inspection of the churches and schools in the electorate; and for this purpose, and to secure uniformity of worship, he composed a "Libellus Visitatorius." The mildness of its tone provoked a popish cry against the author that he had drawn off from Luther; and of this he says in his preface to Colossians—"These acute men think that I differ from Luther because I write without asperity of style—sine verborum asperitate." To a second edition of this commentary Luther wrote a preface, in which he avows that he far prefers Melancthon's works to his own. Agricola, a friend up to this time, charged the "Libellus" with grievous evangelical defects, as if it were reactionary in its tendency. In 1529 Melancthon attended the diet (Reichstag) at Spires in the 