ALEXANDRIA, CHURCH OF. Christianity was early introduced into Alexandria, probably by some of the Jews converted by the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost; but its progress was slow ; for it had to struggle against all the varieties of wor- ship and opinion known to exist, and the spirit of the Neo-Platonic philosophy, which, by forcing every creed to bear an allegorical signification, represented each as a variety of itself. See Alexandrian Schools. In consequence of the disputations to which the at- tempt to blend the simple truths of Christianity with the abstruse speculations of the Platonic philosophy gave rise, the Church of Alexandria was early divided into sects and parties, whose violent controversies soon engaged the attention of the whole Christian world. In Alexandria itself the rivalry between the follow- ers of Athanasius and Arius led to deeds of atrocious violence on both sides, and inflicted a schism on the Christian community which lasted for several centu-
ALEXANDRIA
154
ALEXANDRIAN
ries. The final triumph of the orthodox party was followed by a manifest decay of piety, and when the Saracens introduced the religion of Islam by the sword, they found little obstinacy in the Alexandrian Chris- tians, the greatest portion of whom became apostates. Since that time a Christian Church has only had a nominal existence in the city, where the slightest va- riation in a single article of faith was once deemed of sufficient importance to require the interference of a general council. Ecclesiastical historians generally attribute most of the early heresies which divided the Christian Churches, not only of Asia, but of Europe, to the influence of the Alexandrian Platonists.
Alexandria was the scene of some of the fiercest per- secutions which wasted the early Church ; and among the sufferers in the time of the Emperor Severus was Leonides, father of the celebrated Origen, and Pota- miaena, a woman not less distinguished for her chastity than her beauty, who, with her mother, Marcella, was burned to death, boiling pitch being poured over their naked bodies. These calamities induced Tertullian to compose his "Apology."
Alexandria was the source, and for some time the principal stronghold, of Arianism, as Anus was a pres- byter of the Church of this city about the year 315. His doctrines were condemned by a council held here in the year 320, and afterward by a general council of three hundred and eighty fathers held at Nice, by order of Constantine, in 325. These doctrines, how- ever, which suited the reigning taste for disputative theology and the pride and self-sufficiency of nominal Christians better than the unsophisticated simplicity of the Gospel, spread widely and rapidly notwithstand- ing that Arius was steadfastly opposed by the cele- brated Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, the intrepid champion of the Catholic faith, who was raised to the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria in 326.
This city was, in 415, distinguished by a fierce per- secution of the Jews by the Patriarch Cyril. They who had enjoyed the rights of citizens and the freedom of religious worship for seven hundred years, ever since the foundation of the city, incurred the hatred of this ecclesiastic, who, in his zeal for the exter- mination of heretics of every kind, pulled down their synagogues, plundered their property, and expelled them, to the number of forty thousand, from the city.
Alexandria, Patriarchate of. I. Alexandria was the metropolis of Egypt, which was divided after the time of Marcellinus into nine provinces : 1, Egyptus Prima ; 2, Augustamnica Prima ; 3, Augustamnica Secunda; 4, Egyptus Secunda; 5, Arcadia; 6, Thebais Inferior; 7, Libya Superior ; 8, Thebais Superior ; and 9, Libya Inferior. Libya was also called Cyrenaica. The number of bishops in these provinces was, early, very numerous. At a synod held in 321, about 100 were present. At that time the bishop of Alexandria held the second rank in the Christian Church, next to the bishop of Rome. Later, the}' had to yield this place to the bishop of Constantinople. See Patri- ARCH, During the Arian and Monophysite contro- versies the patriarchate was sometimes temporarily in the hands of these sects; and the latter obtained the permanent possession of it about the middle of the Till century. The orthodox Greek (Melchite) Church established a second patriarchate of their own; and a third, though only nominal, was created by the Roman ( Ihurcb ( Neale, Hist, of A lex. Patriarchate., Lond. 1847).
II. In modern days the number of dioceses within this patriarchate is miserably reduced. The Jacobites (< 'opts), who prevail in number, had in 1G80 but eleven virtual sees, viz. : 1, Neggadei ; 2, Girge; 3, Abuteg; 4, Siut (to which Girge and Abuteg are united) ; 5, Monfallut; 6, Koskam; 7, Melave; K, Rehnese; 9, At- fish; 10, Tahla, with Aschumin ; 11, Fium; 12, Bil- beis; 13, Mansoura ; 11, Damietta, to which the last mentioned two are united; 15, Menuf. See Copts.
The Melchites, or Catholics, had but four sees be- sides Alexandria : 1, that of Libya, or ./Ethiopia ; 2, Memphis, or Old Cairo; 3, Pelusium, or Damietta; and, 4, Rosetta. These four sees, Mr. Neale informs us, have now virtually ceased to exist (Hist. East. Ch. ii, 474). See Greek Church.
Roth the patriarchs, viz., the Melchite, or orthodox, and the Jacobite, reside at present at Cairo. The title of the Jacobite patriarch, as given by Le Quien, is "Pater N . . . . , sanctissimus archiepiscopus magnae urbis Alexandria? Eabylonis et Nomorum, vEgypti, Thebaidis," etc. Wiltsch, Geogr. and Stat, of the Church (Lond. 1860).