Mele'tius
7. Of MOPSUESTIA, an ardent supporter of the unfortunate Nestorius [NESTORIUS], of Constantinople.
He succeeded the celebrated Theodore as bishop of Mopsuestia, in Cilicia [THEODORUS MOPSUESTENUS], probably in or about A. D. 427. lHe supported John, patriarch of Antioch [JOANNES, No. 9], in his opposition to the hasty and unjust deposition of Nestorius by Cyril of Alexandria and his party [CYRILLUS, ST. of ALEXANDRIA], in the third general (Ephesian) council, A. D. 431 and when John was induced to come to terms with Cyril and to join in condemning Nestorius, Meletius persisted in supporting the cause of the deposed patriarch, and refused to hold communion with either Cyril or John, denouncing such communion as diabolical; and when the latter sent a conciliatory letter to him, he threw it in the messenger's face. Being forcibly expelled front his see by the emperor Theodosius II., at the desire of John, on account of his pertinacious support of Nestorius, he induced many persons to secede from the church, and, forming them into separate communities, continued to exercise the priestly office among them.
This being regarded as an aggravation of his offence, he was banished by the emperor's order, issued at John's instigation, to Melitene in Armenia Minor, and placed in the charge of Acacius, bishop of that city, from whom he endured much hard usage.
In this exile Meletius died, retaining his zeal for the cause of Nestorius till the last.
Works
Epistles
From these letters of Meletius, and from other letters in the same collection, the foregoing facts of his history are derived.
The letters of Meletius are contained in Cap. seu Epist. 92 (not 82, as Cave has it), 119, 124, 141, 145, 155, 158, 163, 171,174, and 177, in the work of Lupus.
The memorandum of his death is in Cap. 190.
In the editions of Garnier and Schulze they are Epist. 76, 101, 105, 121,125, 133, 136, 141, 149, 152, 155.
The memorandum of Meletius' death is inserted after Epist. 164.
Editions
Various epistles of Meletius were published in a Latin version, in the Ad Ephesinum Concilium Variorum Patrum Epistolae of Christianus Lupus of Ypres, 4to. Louvain, 1682; and were
re-published by Baluzius, in his Nova Concilior. Collectio, by Garnier, in his Auctarium Theodoreti, fol. Paris, 1684, and
by Schulze, in his edition of Theodoret, 5 vols. 8vo., Halae, 1769-1774.
Further Information
Cave,
Hist. Litt. ad ann. 428, vol. i. p. 414 ;-Le Quien,
Oriens Christianus, vol ii. col. 891; Fabric.
Biblioth. Graec. vol. ix. p. 305, vol. x. p. 348; Tillemont,
Mémoires, vol. xiv.
