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Melitians

"Church of the Martyrs" redirects here. For other uses, seeChurch of the Martyrs (disambiguation).
"Melitian" redirects here. For the breed of dog, seeMaltese dog.
"Melitian schism" redirects here. For the schism in the church of Antioch, seeMeletian schism.

TheMelitians,[a]sometimes called theChurch of the Martyrs,[b]were anearly ChristiansectinEgypt.They were founded about 306 by BishopMelitius of Lycopolisand survived as a small group into the eighth century. The point on which they broke with the largerCatholic church[c]was the same as that of the contemporaryDonatistsin theprovince of Africa:the ease with whichlapsed Christianswere received back intocommunion.The resultant division in the church of Egypt is known as theMelitian schism.[d]

Start of the schism, 306–311

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Melitius advocated the open practice of Christianity in the face of official persecution, including the celebration of the liturgy, and urged Christians not to go into hiding.[7]During theDiocletianic Persecution,he was imprisoned alongside PatriarchPeter I of Alexandriain 305/306.[8]Both of them were released during a lull in the persecutions, and Peter laid down terms for the readmission of "lapsed" Christians, i.e., those who had abjured the faith under persecution. Melitius found his terms too lax and during the dispute that followed he ordained some of his supporters. Peterexcommunicatedhim.[3]

When the persecutions flared up again, Peter was killed (311) and Melitius was condemned to the mines.[3]He was released by theEdict of Serdica(311),[7]but the persecutions came to a permanent end only with theEdict of Milanin 313. When Melitius returned to Egypt, he founded what he called the Church of the Martyrs with clergy of his own ordination.[3][9]The name "Melitians" was at first used only by the sect's opponents, who sought thereby to contrast them (as heretics) with true Christians. It was also used by the imperial chancery. The name eventually lost its negative connotations and was adopted by the sect.[6]

Attempts to resolve the schism: Nicaea (325) and Tyre (335)

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Peter's successor as patriarch,Achillas,failed in his short pontificate to resolve the growing crisis.[9]His successor,Alexander I,who came to power in 313, sought to heal the schism in the Egyptian church in order to better combatArianism,since he regarded the Melitians'Christologyas sound.[7]In 325 theCouncil of Nicaeaunder the EmperorConstantine Iattempted to incorporate the Melitians into the now legal church. The council agreed to grant Melitian priests "full clerical privileges" if they were willing to forswear schism and "acknowledge the authority" of the patriarch of Alexandria.[10]It was permitted for Melitian clergy to be elected to succeed Catholic bishops and Melitius himself was to remain a bishop with no fixed see. He was not restored to Lycopolis.[3]Melitius submitted to the council a list of his bishops and clergy known as theBreviarium Melitii.[11]The list shows a Melitian presence along the whole length of Egypt and there is little evidence for the theory that the centre of Melitian strength was inUpper Egypt.[12]There were 28 Melitian bishops in 325,[7]and several hadCopticnames.[9]

The period of concord lasted three years. Melitius died in 327,[e]having appointedJohn Archaphas his successor.[13]In 328,Athanasiuswas electedin absentiato succeed Alexander I as patriarch.[14][15]Encouraged byEusebius of Nicomedia,the Melitians went into schism and elected a rival patriarch named Theonas with the support of the Arians.[14]Richard Hansonargues that the Arians, the followers of Eusebius, made a pact with the Melitians only after the Melitians had unsuccessfully appealed to the emperor for protection from Athanasius.[16]A certain Pistos, a friend ofArius,was even ordained a bishop in the Melitian church.[7]It is unclear if or to what extent the Melitians' Christology had been influenced by or approximated to Arianism in this period.[9]In several letters, the Melitians accused Athanasius of beating their bishops, even of murdering one, and of desecrating Melitian liturgical vessels.[7][8]

In 335, as a result of these accusations, Athanasius was condemned at theCouncil of Tyre,excommunicated, deposed and forced into exile.[8][17]Athanasius responded in his famous anti-Arian tractsApologia contra ArianosandHistoria Arianorumby accusing the Melitians of lying and conspiring with Arians to unseat him.[8]Constantine I reacted to the Council of Tyre by exiling the Melitian clergy, including John Arkaph.[18][19][20]

Survival as a monastic movement

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The names of the leaders of the sect following John Archaph (who is not mentioned after 335) are not known.[9]Athanasius continued to refer to them as an ongoing threat in his writings of the 350s and 360s. He claims in his biography ofAnthony the Greatthat the Melitians claimed the hermit saint as one of their own.[12]As a schismatic sect, the Melitians declined in importance by 400, but they did not disappear. They are mentioned in the writings ofCyril of Alexandria(d. 444) andShenoute(d. c. 465) and persisted into the eighth century (after theArab conquest of Egypt) as a small monastic sect.[3][7][8]

Numerouspapyrihave been discovered bearing evidence of a Melitianmonasticismflourishing in the Egyptian desert in the fourth century. It is clear that Melitian monks lived in communities, but is not certain if these were tightly structured arrangements like thecoenobiaof thePachomiansor loose quasi-eremiticgroupings like the monasteries ofNitriaandScetis.[9]Timothy of Constantinople,in hisOn the Reception of Hereticswritten towards 600, says of the Melitians that "they engaged in no [theological] error, but must pronounce their schismanathema"to rejoin the church.[21]According to theHistory of the Patriarchs of AlexandriabyJohn the Deacon,some Melitians were reconciled to theCoptic Patriarchate of Alexandriaby the efforts of BishopMoses of Letopolislate in the reign of PatriarchMichael I(died 767).[22]

According toTheodoret(d. c. 460), the Melitians developed unique forms of worship that included hand clapping and music.[9]It has been argued that the movement was dominated by Copts (native Egyptian speakers).[12]Coptic papyri, the writings of the Pachomians and mentions in the writings of Shenoute lend some weight to this view.[9]

Notes

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  1. ^This spelling comes from the contemporaryLife of ConstantinebyEusebius of Caesarea,which uses Μελιτιανοί (Melitianoi) inGreek.It is also attested inSyriac.[1]Although the spellingMeletianis common, it correctly describes only the schism ofMeletius of Antiocha generation later.[2][3][4]
  2. ^The name "Church of the Martyrs" was chosen by Melitius himself, but his was not the only rigorist sect to use this name in the early church.[5]
  3. ^Epiphanius of Salamis,a contemporary critic of the Melitians, contrasts the Melitian church with the "Catholic church".[6]
  4. ^In sources that use the same spelling of Melitian/Meletian for both the schism in Egypt and the one in Antioch, the Egyptian schism may be called theFirst Meletian Schism.[7]
  5. ^Historian Janet Timbie says that the date is unknown, only that he died between 325 and 332.[9]

Citations

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  1. ^Schwartz 1905,p. 164n.
  2. ^Carroll 1989,p. 1.
  3. ^abcdefCross & Livingstone 2009.
  4. ^McGuckin 2004,pp. 222–223.
  5. ^Carroll 1989,pp. 94, 170.
  6. ^abHauben 1998,p. 331.
  7. ^abcdefghGregory 1991.
  8. ^abcdeGwynn 2018.
  9. ^abcdefghiTimbie 1991.
  10. ^Barnes 1981,p. 217.
  11. ^Carroll 1989,pp. 194–195 (Appendix 6).
  12. ^abcGwynn 2012.
  13. ^Carroll 1989,p. 115.
  14. ^abCarroll 1989,p. 117.
  15. ^Hanson 1988,p. 249: "Athanasius was indeed elected, but not by an immediate and unanimous acclamation and not without suspicion of sharp practice."
  16. ^Hanson 1988,p. 250: "Eusebius of Nicomedia... promised that he would obtain for [the Melitians] an audience with the Emperor if they would receive and champion Arius, and, on their agreeing, the fusion of the causes of Arius and of Melitius took place."
  17. ^Hanson 1988,p. 261.
  18. ^Carroll 1989,p. 144.
  19. ^Telfer 1955.
  20. ^Hanson 1988,p. 262.
  21. ^Migne 1865,cols. 39–40 and n. 34.
  22. ^Mikhail 2014,p. 299 n68.

Bibliography

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  • Barkman, Heather (2014). "The Church of the Martyrs in Egypt and North Africa: A Comparison of the Melitian and Donatist Schisms".Journal of the Canadian Society for Coptic Studies.6(1): 41–58.
  • Barnard, L. W. (1973). "Athanasius and the Meletian Schism in Egypt".Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.59:281–289.doi:10.1177/030751337305900121.S2CID192269982.
  • Barnard, L. W. (1975). "Some Notes on the Meletian Schism in Egypt".Studia Patristica.12(1): 399–405.
  • Barnes, T. D.(1981).Constantine and Eusebius.Harvard University Press.
  • Bell, H. I.;Crum, W. E.,eds. (1972) [1924].Jews and Christians in Egypt: The Jewish Troubles in Alexandria and the Athanasian Controversy.Greenwood.
  • Carroll, Scott T. (1989).The Melitian Schism: Coptic Christianity and the Egyptian Church(Ph.D. thesis). Miami University.
  • Cross, F. L.;Livingstone, E. A.,eds. (2009) [2005]."Melitian Schisms".The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church(3rd rev. ed.). Oxford University Press.ISBN9780192802903.
  • Davis, Stephen J. (2004).The Early Coptic Papacy: The Egyptian Church and Its Leadership in Late Antiquity.American University in Cairo Press.
  • Gregory, Timothy E.(1991)."Meletian Schism in Egypt".InKazhdan, Alexander(ed.).The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-504652-8.
  • Gwynn, David M. (2007).The Eusebians: The Polemic of Athanasius of Alexandria and the Construction of the 'Arian Controversy'.Oxford University Press.
  • Gwynn, David M. (2012). "Meletian Schism". InRoger S. Bagnall;Kai Brodersen;Craige B. Champion; Andrew Erskine;Sabine R. Huebner(eds.).The Encyclopedia of Ancient History.Wiley. pp. 4420–4421.doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah12149.ISBN9781444338386.
  • Gwynn, David M. (2018). "Meletius and Meletians". In Oliver Nicholson (ed.).The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity.Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. pp. 1000–1001.
  • Hanson, R. P. C.(1988).The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318–381.T&T Clark.
  • Hauben, Hans (1998). "The Melitian 'Church of the Martyrs': Christian Dissenters in Ancient Egypt". In T. Hillard; R. Kearsley; C. Nixon; A. Nobbs (eds.).Ancient History in a Modern University, Vol. 2: Early Christianity, Late Antiquity and Beyond.Eerdmans. pp. 329–349.
  • Hauben, Hans (2012). Peter Van Nuffelen (ed.).Studies on the Melitian Schism in Egypt (AD 306–335).Variorum Collected Studies. Ashgate.
  • McGuckin, John Anthony(2004).The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology.Westminster John Knox Press.
  • Migne, Jacques Paul,ed. (1865)."Timotheus Constantinopolitanus Presbyter".Patrologia Graeca.Vol. 86. Paris. I, cols. 12–69.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Mikhail, Maged S. A. (2014).From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: Religion, Identity and Politics after the Arab Conquest.I. B. Tauris.
  • Schwartz, Édouard (1905)."Zur Geschichte des Athanasius, V".Nachrichten von der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (Philologisch-historische Klasse).Weidmannsche Buchhandlung. pp. 164–256.
  • Telfer, William(1955). "Meletius of Lycopolis and Episcopal Succession in Egypt".Harvard Theological Review.48(4): 227–237.doi:10.1017/S0017816000025220.S2CID162693650.
  • Timbie, Janet (1991)."Melitian Schism".InAziz Suryal Atiya(ed.).The Coptic Encyclopedia.Vol. 5. New York: Macmillan Publishers. pp. 1584a–1585a.
  • Van Nuffelen, Peter (2012). "The Melitian Schism: Development, Sources, and Interpretation". In Peter van Nuffelen (ed.).Studies on the Melitian Schism in Egypt (AD 306–335).Variorum Collected Studies. Ashgate. pp. xi–xxxvi.
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