Melitians
The Melitians,
Start of the Schism, 306–311
Melitius advocated the open practice of Christianity in the face of persecution and urged Christians not to go into hiding.
When the persecutions flared up again, Peter was killed (311) and Melitius was condemned to the mines.[3] He was released by the Edict of Serdica (311),[6] but the persecutions came to a permanent end only with the Edict of Milan in 313. When Melitius returned to Egypt, he founded what he called the Church of the Martyrs with clergy of his own ordination.[3][8] 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.[9]
Attempts to resolve the schism: Nicaea (325) and Tyre (335)
Peter's successor as patriarch,
The period of concord lasted three years. Melitius died in 327,
In the traditional account, encouraged by Eusebius of Nicomedia, the Melitians went into schism and elected a rival patriarch named Theonas with the support of the Arians.[16] But Hanson argues that the Eusebians (the so-called Arians) only made a pact with the Melitians AFTER the Melitians had already but unsuccessfully appealed to the emperor for protection from Athanasius.[17]
Athanasius claimed that 'Arians' drummed up false charges to neutralize him as their theological opponent. However, Hanson says, “it seems clear also that Athanasius' first efforts at gangsterism in his diocese had nothing to do with difference of opinion on the subject of the Arian Controversy, but were directed against the Melitians. He had not agreed with the arrangement made about the Melitians at Nicaea. Once he was in the saddle, he determined to suppress them with a strong hand, and was not at all scrupulous about the methods he used.”[18]
In several letters, the Melitians accused Athanasius of beating their bishops, even of murdering one, and of desecrating Melitian liturgical vessels.[6][7] “Was this more than wild hearsay? Had they any genuine grievances? We might dismiss the accusations against Athanasius retailed by Sozomenus and Epiphanius as the product of sheer partisanship and not worthy of credence, as, for instance, Gwatkin does, and many a church historian before and after him who was willing to take Athanasius' protestations of his innocence at their face value.”[19] “But, accidentally or providentially, we have available to us contemporary evidence which we cannot possibly dismiss as invention or exaggeration or propaganda, to decide this point.”[20] Hanson continues to explain that evidence.
It is unclear if or to what extent the Melitians' Christology had been influenced by or approximated to Arianism in this period.[8] However, Hanson says that the conflict with the Melitians had nothing to do with doctrine.[21]
"John Arcaph was thought by Constantine to have overplayed his hand at Tyre, perhaps in reviving the exploded affair of Arsenius. He was banished in consequence."[22]
Survival as a monastic movement
The names of the leaders of the sect following John Archaph (who is not mentioned after 335) are not known.[8] Athanasius continued to refer to them as an ongoing threat in his writings of the 350s and 360s. He claims in his biography of Anthony the Great that 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 of Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444) and Shenoute (d. c. 465) and persisted into the eighth century (after the Arab conquest of Egypt) as a small monastic sect.[3][6][7]
Numerous
According to Theodoret (d. c. 460), the Melitians developed unique forms of worship that included hand clapping and music.[8] 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.[8]
Notes
- ^ 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]
- ^ 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 the First Meletian Schism.[6]
- ^ Historian Janet Timbie says that the date is unknown, only that he died between 325 and 332.[8]
Citations
- ^ Schwartz 1905, p. 164n.
- ^ Carroll 1989, p. 1.
- ^ a b c d e f Cross & Livingstone 2009.
- ^ McGuckin 2004, pp. 222–223.
- ^ Carroll 1989, pp. 94, 170.
- ^ a b c d e f Gregory 1991.
- ^ a b c d Gwynn 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Timbie 1991.
- ^ Hauben 1998, p. 331.
- ^ Barnes 1981, p. 217.
- ^ Carroll 1989, pp. 194–195 (Appendix 6).
- ^ a b c Gwynn 2012.
- ^ Carroll 1989, p. 115.
- ^ “Athanasius was indeed elected, but not by an immediate and unanimous acclamation and not without suspicion of sharp practice.” Hanson RPC, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318-381. 1988, page 249
- ^ Hanson RPC, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318-381. 1988, page 261
- ^ Carroll 1989, p. 117.
- ^ “Epiphanius goes on to say that the leaders of the Melitians were, after their discomfiture [their failed appeal to the emperor], near the court … and were at that point taken in hand by Eusebius of Nicomedia who promised that he would obtain for them 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.” (Hanson, p250)
- ^ Hanson RPC, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318-381. 1988, page 254
- ^ Hanson RPC, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318-381. 1988, page 251
- ^ Hanson RPC, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318-381. 1988, page 251-2
- ^ The alliance between the Eusebians and Melitians “gave Athanasius an opportunity of clouding the issue by ascribing all protest against his outrageous conduct to bias towards Arianism, an opportunity of which he strove earnestly to take advantage. But … Athanasius' offence had nothing to do with doctrine.” (Hanson, page 255)
- ^ RPC Hanson, page 262
- ^ Migne 1865, cols. 39–40 and n. 34.
- ^ Mikhail 2014, p. 299 n68.
Bibliography
- 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. S2CID 192269982.
- 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.
- ISBN 9780192802903.
- Davis, Stephen J. (2004). The Early Coptic Papacy: The Egyptian Church and Its Leadership in Late Antiquity. American University in Cairo Press.
- ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- 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". In ISBN 9781444338386.
- 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.
- 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.
- S2CID 162693650.
- Timbie, Janet (1991). "Melitian Schism". In 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.