RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Cooper
Coptic Church
became the national faith of Egypt, the history of whose Church is henceforth reduced to a record of the struggles between the royal ("iMelkite") and Monophysite sects, each headed by its own patriarchs. The latter party always comprised the vast majorityof the Egyptian population, while the royal sect consisted solely of the official class; but success or failure was not independent of the momentary attitude of the court, whose influence was exerted, now in pacification (Zeno, Anastasius), now in coercion (Justinian). The reign of Justinian (d. 565) saw the final extinction of Egyptian paganism (cf. Victor Scliultze, Geschichte des Untergangs des griechisch-rdmischen Heidenthums, ii., Jena, 1892, pp. 226 sqq.), which, despite the energies of Theophilus and Cyril, still lingered in out- Ijring districts.
In the succeeding generation the Byzantine world was occupied with the Monothelite controversy (see MoNOTHELiTES), and in Egypt a union with the Monophysites was enforced for the moment by the imperial patriarch, Cyrus (cf. A. J. Butler, Arab Conquest of Egypt, London, 1902, p. 508). The impotence of the empire had already made possible the Persian invasion (616-627); that of the Arabs in 639 finally crushed and impoverished the national Church. If the Copts looked to their new masters for relief from imperial tyranny, they were speedily undeceived. The promises of the first invaders were soon forgotten, and oppressive taxation began to cause those defections to the religion of the conquerors which characterized the subsequent history of native Christianity. The story of the Coptic Church is henceforth a mere list of oppressions due to official expediency or official greed with occasionally a con- 2. The Arab sequent revolt, bloodily suppressed Dominion, (cf. C. H. Becker, Beitrdge zur Ge- 639-1517- schichte Aegyptens, Strasburg, 1902).
Throughout, the meager history of Severus is the sole authority; the Moslem historians, except Makrizi, pay no heed to Christian affairs. The internal war of sects continued unaffected by larger misfortunes. Dynastic changes, as from Ommiads to Abbassids (750), brought no improvement, though the new house usually found it politic to begin with promises of indulgence or relief. Extortion resulted in universal simony; all ecclesiastical offices were bought and large sums paid to the civil authorities for preferment. The rise of the Fatimites (969) saw indeed many Copts in civil employment; and ere long (996) the terrible persecution of Al-Hakim surpassed all that the Christians had hitherto suffered. A century later a succession of Armenian viziers (from 1074) Hghtened the burdens of their coreligionists. But indulgence provoked a renewal of Moslem animosity. Under such conditions the Church could not maintain a high code of morals or conduct. The relatively mild government of the Aiyubite Sultans (from 1169) seemed but to give freedom to the misconduct of the clergy, conspicuous among whom was the infamous patriarch Cyril III. {Ihn Laklak). With Cyril's death (1243) we lose even the guidance of Severus's patriarchal history, and knowledge of the subsequent medieval
period is of the most threadbare nature. In 1440 one of the Coptic patriarchs is found making advances to Rome at the Council of Florence, and in the succeeding centuries various attempts were made by the popes to obtain possession of the Church.
Neither the Turkish conquest (1517) nor the French (1798) had much effect upon the condition of native Christians; but Moham- 3. Turkish med Ali (1805) gave freedom to all and Modern creeds alike and this led to the com- Rule. mencement of foreign missionary enterprise among the Copts and allowed a movement, initiated by Cyril IV (1854), for their improvement in matters of church government and education. A mixed clerical and lay council was established in the hope of controlling patriarchal action, but its place was subsequently taken by a smaller committee, while the education of the clergy was provided for by the establishment of seminaries.
Statistics show a steady increase in the Coptic population since the succession of the present khedival house. Their total in 1820 was about 100,000, in 1855 about 217,000, in 1870 250,000, while the census of 1897 gave 592,374 or about 4. Statistics, one-sixteenth of the total population.
The Copts are at present most numerous in the lower (northern) Said (Siut, Achmim, Girgeh), where they form, in many villages, the majority. At the time of the Arab conquest the Copts (then practically the whole population) numbered some six millions (Abu Salih, 22a); in a hundred years this number had been reduced by a million (Al Kindi, in Abu Salih, 26b), and throughout the Middle Ages they no doubt constantly diminished in numbers.
II. Constitution, Ecclesiastical Law, etc.: The bishop of the capital was doubtless not long in extending his authority over the immediately surrounding districts (Mareotis), and gradually over the rest of the Nile valley, including Nubia and (indirectly) Ethiopia to the south and Libya to the west. Originally nominated, it would seem, by presbyters (cf. Cabrol, Dictionnaire, 1204), the papas or patriarch was, in all later times, chosen by the clergy, with the concurrence of the people of Alexandria or Cairo, and eventually with that of the Moslem government. Since the eleventh century he has resided in Cairo, the remaining bishops occupying the capitals of the ancient nomes with which their sees were generally conterminous. The existence in early times of intermediate metropolitans is uncertain; at present there exist five or six. Diocesan bishops are met with under Demetrius (d. 231), and Athanasius could already count about a hundred sees. The completest list (though in recent MSS. only) gives eighty-five (cf. E. Am61ineau, La Geographic de I'Egypte d Vepoque copte, Paris, 1893, pp. 571 sqq.). Poverty and persecution, however, by degrees reduced their nurriber, by the amalgamation of poor neighbors, until in the seventeenth century Wansleben could count but seventeen. Patriarch and bishops have been invariably chosen from the monasteries. The remaining clerical orders are: archpriest {hegou-
Coptic Church CoQuerel