Meletius (died after 325) was bishop of Lycopolis in Egypt. He is known mainly as the founder and namesake of the Meletians (c. 305), one of several schismatic sects in early church history which were concerned about the ease with which lapsed Christians reentered the Church. [1] (See also Donatism.)
The Meletians were one of a large group of denominations in early Christian history. The point with which they broke with the larger church was about the ease with which lapsed Christians reentered the church. They were named after Meletius of Lycopolis.
Donatism was a schism in the Church of Carthage from the fourth to the sixth centuries AD. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. Donatism had its roots in the long-established Christian community of the Roman Africa province in the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian. Named after the Berber Christian bishop Donatus Magnus, Donatism flourished during the fourth and fifth centuries.
The details of his life are not clear as there are conflicting accounts of it. According to one version he was imprisoned for his Christianity during the persecution under Diocletian along with Peter of Alexandria. Another source has Peter fleeing the scene and a third one has Meletius himself avoiding prison. Apparently, as early as during the persecution itself, Meletius began to refuse to accept in communion those Christians who had renounced their faith during the persecution and later repented of that choice. Meletius' rigorous stance on this point stood in contrast to the earlier willingness of bishops to accept back into communion those who seemed to have truly repented (a pattern which was addressed during previous similar controversies, including those who had lapsed during the Decian persecution about 50 years earlier).
Pope Peter I of Alexandria, 17th Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. He is revered as a saint by the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Church.
Christians are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words Christ and Christian derive from the Koine Greek title Christós (Χριστός), a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ).
A bishop is an ordained, consecrated, or appointed member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight.
As Bishop of Alexandria, Peter would have been recognized as the leader of the Egyptian church and thus Meletius's superior in church hierarchy. Historian Philip Schaff tells us that prior to Peter's death in 311, he spoke out against Meletius's actions and "deposed him as a disturber of the peace of the church". [2]
The supporters that Meletius drew around him included twenty-eight other bishops, at least some of whom he personally ordained, and the objections against him included that he ordained people in regions where he lacked authority. [3] His group went by the name Church of the Martyrs, inherently objecting to the reacceptance by other bishops of people who chose to avoid the risk of martyrdom. Meletius's influence extended even so far away as Palestine. [4]
Palestine is a geographic region in Western Asia usually considered to include Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and in some definitions, some parts of western Jordan.
It is believed by some that Meletius ordained Arius, known for the Arian controversy, as a priest. Scholarly opinions are divided on whether this is the case. [5]
Arius was a Libyan presbyter and ascetic, and priest in Baucalis in Alexandria, Egypt. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead in Christianity, which emphasized God's uniqueness and the Christ's subordination under the Father, and his opposition to what would become the dominant Christology, Homoousian Christology, made him a primary topic of the First Council of Nicaea, which was convened by Emperor Constantine the Great in 325.
The Arian controversy was a series of Christian theological disputes that arose between Arius and Athanasius of Alexandria, two Christian theologians from Alexandria, Egypt. The most important of these controversies concerned the substantial relationship between God the Father and God the Son.
The Council of Nicaea in 325 attempted to create peace with the Meletians. [6] Meletius was allowed to remain bishop of Lycopolis, but was no longer to ordain bishops outside his region. The bishops he had already ordained were accepted under certain restrictions, and had to be reordained. [7] Meletius's death followed soon after the council met, and the effort to bring unity proved unsuccessful. His followers sided with the Arians in their controversy and existed as a separate sect until the fifth century.
Arianism is a nontrinitarian Christological doctrine which asserts the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who was begotten by God the Father at a point in time, a creature distinct from the Father and is therefore subordinate to him, but the Son is also God. Arian teachings were first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter in Alexandria of Egypt. The teachings of Arius and his supporters were opposed to the theological views held by Homoousian Christians, regarding the nature of the Trinity and the nature of Christ. The Arian concept of Christ is based on the belief that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten within time by God the Father.
