Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/382

 370 MELEGNANO hunt the boar, which was killed by him. This expedition is known as the Calydonian hunt. It was a favorite subject with ancient artists. Meleager is usually represented as a robust hunter, with curly hair, wearing the ^Etolian chlamys, and carrying a boar's head. II. A Macedonian general who served under Alexan- der the Great. At the battle of the Granicus, 334 B. C., he commanded one of the divisions of the phalanx ; and in almost all the Asiatic campaigns he appears to have held the same office. On the death of Alexander (323) he was co-regent with Perdiccas, and was put to death by order of his colleague. III. A Greek epigrammatist, who flourished about the middle of the 1st century B. 0. He was a native of Gadara in eastern Palestine, and made a collec- tion of epigrams, entitled Srtyavof 'Eiriypaupd- T<JV, from more than 40 authors. This work has perished, but 131 of his own epigrams are still extant, and have been collected and pub- lished by Manso (Jena, 1798), and most com- pletely by Grafe (Leipsic, 1811). MELEGBTANO, Marignano, or Marlgnan, a town of Italy, on the Lambro, in the province and 10 m. S. E. of the city of Milan ; pop. about 4,000. It was destroyed by the emperor Fred- erick II. in 1239 ; and the Guelphs and Ghi- bellines signed a treaty of peace here in 1279. In September, 1515, it was the scene of a fa- mous victory won by Francis I. of France over the Swiss in the service of the duke of Milan, which was called, from its obstinacy and the superior character of the troops on both sides, the " battle of the giants." Another French victory was gained here, June 8, 1859, four days after the battle of Magenta. MELENDEZ VALDEZ, Joan Antonio, a Spanish poet, born at Ribera del Fresno, March 11, 1754, died in Montpellier, France, May 24, 1817. He was educated at Salamanca, where he became professor of belles-lettres. In 1780 he obtained a prize offered by the Spanish academy for the best eclogue. He was after- ward employed in judicial and civil service, in Saragossa, Valladolid, and Madrid, but was banished in 1792, after the downfall of Jove- llanos. After some years he was permitted to return to Salamanca, and in 1808 attached him- self to the French party, sharing in its misfor- tunes. Once he was led out to be shot by the populace of Oviedo, whither he had been sent as a commissioner. Finally he fled to the south of France, where he lived for four years in misery, and his death was hastened by des- titution. His poems embrace odes, eclogues, idyls, and pastoral dramas, of which the most popular is "Oamacho's Wedding." His col- lected works, with a life by Quintana, were published at Madrid in 1820. MKI.KI II s, or Melitias, author of the Mele- tian schism, born in Egypt about 260, died at Lycopolis, in the Thebais, in 326. He was made bishop of Lycopolis about 300, and du- ring the persecution became the head of the extreme party who refused to admit the lapsi MELETIUS to fellowship. Peter, bishop of Alexandria, who entertained more moderate opinions, hav- ing concealed himself in 305, Meletius, who had been condemned to death by the persecu- tors, escaped from prison, and, being second metropolitan of Egypt, undertook to set aside the authority of the absent Peter and of his vicars. He persisted in exercising full episco- pal jurisdiction in Alexandria in spite of the remonstrances of the other bishops, and for this was excommunicated and deposed in a synod held there about 306. He resisted the action of the synod, and, calling his own party the pure church of the martyrs, created a schism in Egypt, which continued- even after the mar- tyrdom of Bishop Peter in 311. The council of Nice in 325 condemned the conduct of Me- letius, and, while allowing him to retain the episcopal rank because he had suffered for the faith, forbade him to exercise any jurisdiction. But at that time 29 bishops had embraced his views, and four priests with three deacons in the city of Alexandria held out for him. Af- ter apparently submitting to the Nicene de- cision, he resumed his episcopal functions, con- secrated a schismatic bishop, and a few days before his death appointed one of his own fol- lowers to be his successor. The Meletian party, without professing Arian doctrines, sided with the Arians against Athanasius. This schism disappeared early in the 5th century. MELETIUS, Saint, bishop of Antioch, born at Melitene, near the Euphrates, about 310, died in Constantinople in 381. In 357 he was elected to succeed Eustathius, the deposed bishop of Sebaste, but soon resigned in consequence of the bitter opposition of the partisans of Eusta- thius. He then led a monastic life at Berosa till about 361, when he was chosen bishop of Antioch in place of the Arian bishop Eudoxius, transferred to the see of Constantinople. The election took place in a large synod of Arian and orthodox bishops, who hoped by this choice to end the schism begun in 330 by the banishment of St. Eustathius. His inaugural discourse gave great offence to the Arian party supported by the emperor Constantius ; they petitioned for his removal, and after holding the see of Antioch only 30 days, he was ban- ished to Armenia. Thus two orthodox parties came to exist side by side in Antioch, the Eus- tathians, who since 330 had held no fellowship with the Arians and Semi-Arians, and the great mass of the people, who now remained attached to the exiled Meletius. The bishop Euzoius, chosen by the Arians in place of Me- letius, was at the head of the heterodox party. The Meletians asked the Eustathians to unite with them against the heretics, but were re- pulsed as infected with Arianism. Meletius was permitted to return to his flock in 362 ; but Lucifer of Cagliari, commissioned to ex- amine into this charge and heal the schism be- tween the Eustathians and Meletians, openly took part with the former, and consecrated their leader Paulinus as their bishop. Mean-