Meletian Schisms

   The schisms involved two different persons named Meletios. The first was Meletios, bishop of Lycopolis in Egypt (q.v.), who was excommunicated by the archbishop Peter of Alexandria (qq.v.) for being too lenient on Christians who had compromised the faith in 306 during the Great Persecution of Diocletian (qq.v.). Twenty years later Athanasios (q.v.) was a staunch opponent of any compromise with the Meletians. The second Meletian schism involved Meletios, Orthodox bishop of Antioch (qq.v.), who was deposed in 360 in favor of Paulinus, favored by an Orthodox splinter party that followed the teachings of Eusthathios of Antioch (q.v.). Meletios was finally rehabilitated after the death of Valens (q.v.) and presided over the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople (qq.v.) in 381.