Melitians
Christian denomination, 4th-8th centuries
The Melitians, sometimes called the Church of the Martyrs, were an early Christian sect in Egypt. They were founded about 306 by Bishop Melitius of Lycopolis and survived as a small group into the eighth century. The point on which they broke with the larger catholic church was the same as that of the contemporary Donatists in the province of Africa: the ease with which lapsed Christians were received back into communion. The resultant division in the church of Egypt is known as the Melitian schism.
Start of the schism, 306–311
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. During the Diocletianic Persecution, he was imprisoned, alongside Patriarch Peter I of Alexandria in 305/306. Both of them were released during a lull in the persecutions, and Peter laid down terms for the readmission of "lapsed" Christians: those who had abjured the faith under persecution. Melitius found his terms too lax and, during the dispute that followed, ordained some of his supporters. Peter excommunicated him.
When the persecutions flared up again, Peter was killed (311), and Melitius was condemned to the mines.
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This entry incorporates text from “Melitians” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.