MELETIUS (MELIZIO) of LICOPOLIS. — Bishop of Lycopolis in the Thebaid (Egypt), d. c. 325–26, author of the schism, called Melitian, which probably began in 306 and was not fully extinguished until the beginning of the 6th century.
From sources that are not always consistent, it appears that between 305 and Easter 306, while Diocletian’s persecution was raging and many bishops and faithful were in prison and Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, was in hiding, M., Bishop of Lycopolis, arrogated to himself, in fact, authority throughout Egypt, including Alexandria itself, acting as superior of the Egyptian Church, visiting communities, ordaining clergy, and excommunicating. Of rigorist sentiments, he seems to have regarded Peter’s flight and that of his vicars as a betrayal and perhaps therefore considered Peter himself as having forfeited his office. He succeeded in persuading some Alexandrian priests, whereupon some imprisoned bishops protested against M.’s actions (Fragment of their letter, ed. Kettler, op. cit., V. BIBLICA., pp. 159–60) and Peter, in a letter, warned his faithful (ibid.) against him.
After Easter 306, when the persecution abated, many who had compromised themselves (lapsi) sought to return to the Church, and Peter, in a pastoral letter (PG 18, 467–508), regulated their situation, decreeing that only in the most excusable cases should the lapsi be immediately admitted to canonical penance, while for others their cases would be examined only after a year of probation; at the same time, he defended the legitimacy, in certain circumstances, of flight during persecution. M., opposed to this leniency, incited against Peter a large number of those who had publicly confessed the faith (Epiphanius, Haer., 68, 1–3: PG 42, 184–89), so that Peter had M. deposed by a synod of bishops (Athanasius, Apol. c. Ar., 59: ibid., 25, 356; Socrates, Hist. eccl., I, 6: ibid., 67, 52 sqq.). M., now openly schismatic (Athanasius, loc. cit., and Ep. ad episc. Aegypti et Lyb., 22: ibid., 25, 589), proceeded to organize the so-called “Church of the Martyrs,” i.e., of the confessors (Epiphanius, Haer., 68, 3: ibid., 42, 189). In 308–309, when the persecution flared up again, M. was deported to the mines in Palestine. He returned in 311 with the halo of a confessor, which enhanced the prestige of his faction. Bishop Peter, to counter its advance, declared the baptism of the Melitians invalid, provoking opposition from some members of his clergy, among whom stood out the deacon Arius, the future heresiarch, who, even as a layman, had adhered to M. Peter excommunicated him (Sozomen, Hist. eccl., I, 15: PG 67, 905). Toward the end of 311 Peter himself died a martyr, and he was succeeded by Achillas and then (313) by Alexander. But M. persisted in his schism, and the schismatic hierarchy spread throughout Egypt (Athanasius, Apol. c. Ar., 71: ibid., 25, 373), and Hosius of Córdoba, when he came to Alexandria in 324 on the matter of Arius, had also to deal with the Melitians (Eusebius, Vita Const., II, 62–63: ibid., 20, 1036; III, 4: ibid., 1057). The same was done in 325 by the Council of Nicaea (v. Socrates, Hist. eccl., I, 9: PG 67, 77–81): M. was recognized as Bishop of Lycopolis, but without the right to ordain; clergy ordained by him were to be reordained and thus enabled to exercise their functions among Catholics, taking their place, in the corresponding rank, after members of the regular hierarchy, though with the hope of promotion in the event of a regular election. The Council, in its canon 6, explicitly confirmed to the Bishop of Alexandria his traditional and extensive metropolitan rights over all Egypt, Libya, and the Pentapolis (Cyrenaica; Mansi, II, 669 sqq.).
The Melitians appealed to Constantine (Eusebius, Vita Const., III, 23: PG 20, 1084), seeking the aid of Eusebius of Nicomedia (Epiphanius, Haer. 68, 5 sqq.: PG 42, 192–93); but the exile of Eusebius forced the Melitians, more or less sincerely, to reconcile themselves with Alexander (Athanasius, Apol. c. Ar., 71: PG 25, 376). Before his death (c. 325–26), however, M. managed to appoint a successor, John Arkaph, whom he consecrated Bishop of Memphis (Sozomen, Hist. eccl., II, 21: PG 67, 985), and the sect, now in close alliance with the Arians, waged relentless warfare against the new Bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius (328), details of which are clarified by recent papyri (v. BIBLICA) and by Athanasius himself in his Apologia contra Arianos, so that the Melitians were counted among the Arians (Sozomen, loc. cit.) and shared their fate. Traces of them are found in the 5th century (Theodorus, Hist. eccl., I, 8: PG 82, 932) and at the beginning of the 6th, especially among monks. The Melitian affair shows clear parallels with the cases of the Donatists and the Novatians.
