ABSTRACT
The Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in 312 and the Edict of Milan a year later, which established the principle of religious toleration throughout the Roman Empire, set in motion an avalanche of commentary, doctrinal discussion and discord. Three Apostolic Sees were at first involved: Rome in the West, Alexandria in Egypt, and Antioch in Syria. The names that dominate early Church history are the Emperor Constantine; Athanasius, the young deacon of Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, who came to symbolise, for Egyptians, the expression of their independent will; and Arius, the intellectual elderly parish priest in the church of Baucalis in Alexandria, whose doctrine (the Arian creed) was eventually adopted as imperial policy. One of the earliest controversies took place in Egypt and concerned Christians who had been rounded up from Upper and Lower Egypt during the Diocletian repression and imprisoned in Alexandria. Melitius, Bishop of Lycopolis (Asyut) was among them. While still interred, he had discussions with Peter, then Bishop of Alexandria, nicknamed ‘The Merciful’, and senior in the Church hierarchy, on how to deal with Christians who had ‘lapsed’ but repented. The Bishop of Alexandria advocated leniency. He suggested that provincial priests who renounced their faith under pressure of torture and imprisonment should be allowed to return to the fold. Melitius was harsher. He opined that they should never again be permitted to resume their sacred ecclesiastical duties. On his release from prison, however, Melitius undertook personally to ordain priests and consecrate bishops in Upper Egypt, independently and without authority from Peter of Alexandria, thus creating a power base of his own.
