MELIUS, PETER: Hungarian Reformer and author; b. at Horhi 1515; d. at Debreczin (116 m. e. of Budapest) Dec. 15, 1572. His name is a Hellenization of his Hungarian family name JuhAsz. After three years at the University of Wittenberg (1555-58), he returned as pastor to Debreczin, where he labored till his death. After 1557, only the Lutherans had legally enjoyed religious freedom; but two years later Mehus, with his two colleagues, took the first opposing steps in a pastoral conference, clearly stating Calvin's view in a short Orthodoza sententia de cmna Domini. The Transylvanian Lutherans, led by Matthias Hebler, Superintendent of Szeben, both opposed the Reformed party and excluded it from their church. The Reformed joined Melius, who now composed (1562)

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the comprehensive Confessio Ecclesiae Debrecinensis. The Lutherans appealed to four Lutheran universities in Germany, and accused the men of Debreczin of distorting tfie 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, Mehus, 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 Artieuli majorm, 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 Tranaylvania (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 comr feasionum (Geneva, 1612) under the incorrect designation Polonica confeasio. 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 egefaz keresztyesn tudomkny 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 Debrecinemsis (Debreezin, 1562); Apologia et abstersio Ecclesim Debrecinensia ~a calumnis quibus temere apud academias et principea accusatur (1563); Refutatio confesaionis de coma Damini Matthim Hebler et his coniundorum (1564); Brevis confessio pastorum (both in Latin and in Hungarian; 1567); and Artieuli ex verbo Dei e:t legs naturce

comhossiti (1567).

F. Balogh.

Bibliography: F. A. Lampe, Hist. ecclesia reformatat in Hunparia, passim, Utrecht, 1728; E. Budai, Hist. of Hungary (in Hungarian), ii. 156-168, Debrecain, 1808; P. Bod, Hist. eccl. Hungarorum, ed. Rauwenhoi£, i. 256, L~;den, 1888; J. B. Dal. and B,. M. Patteston, Report of Proceedings of the Second General Council of the Presbyterian Alliance, pp. 1099-1120, Philadelphia, 1874; F. Balogh, Melius Pfter hatcfta, Debrecsin, 1888; idem, Hist. of the Reformed Church of Hungary, Lancaster, Pa., 1908.