THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
menos, Kummus), priest, deacon, reader, and, in early times (cf. JTS, i. 254) the minor orders also.
The canon law whereby the Church is governed is based upon pseudoapostolic documents and conciliar and patriarchal (external as well as native) decisions, digested by medieval scholars into nomocanons or preserved independently, always in Arabic translations. Considerable judicial power still remains in the hands of the patriarch and bishops.
m. Liturgy, Church Buildings, etc.: Among the earliest sources for a knowledge of Egyptian liturgical usage are the so-called Hippolytan Canons. Those bearing the names of Basil (cf. W. Riedel, Die Kirchenrechtsquellen des Patriarchats Alexandrien, Leipsic, 1900, pp. 272 sqq.; PSBA, xxvi. 57) and Athanasius (ed. Riedel-Crum, 1904) also contain early evidence. For information from third century patristic writers cf. F. Probst, Liturgie des vierten Jahrhunderts, Miinster, 1893, p. 106; Brightman, 504. After the schism of 451 the Egyptian Church was obliged to revise its liturgy in conformity with the dogmatic I. Lit- position it had adopted; hence in urgies. time arose a number of Greek, then Greco-Coptic, finally Copto-Arabic (today even simply Arabic) service-books, of which the Anaphoras of Basil, Gregory, and Cyril are the most conspicuous survivors. Since about the thirteenth century these and all other liturgical books have been read in the northern dialect of Coptic; but sufficient remains are extant to show that an independent series existed in the more ancient southern idiom. Besides the missal (or euchologium), there are separate books for the sacramental and paschal services, lectionaries {kata meros), synaxaria (lives of saints to be read in church), with several psalm and hymn-books in constant use. The church festivals are preceded by long fasts, amounting in all to seven months of the year.
Only a few of the characteristic features of Coptic religious life can here be mentioned. The clergy communicate frequently, the laity seldom, but in both kinds; previous confession is not now demanded. Transubstantiation, the efficacy of relics, of prayers for the dead, and of the intercession of saints are accepted doctrines. Baptism is by triple immersion, boys being frequently circumcised beforehand; and confirmation follows immediately The services are generally of inordinate length, beginning often at six in the 2. Doctrine morning. Magic has always played a and part in the belief of the Copts, as with
Practise, their pagan ancestors, and among the less educated is still freely resorted to. Much has been written as to the relations of popular Christianity in Egypt to the foregoing heathendom (cf. AmilineBM, in RHR, xiv., xv.; Forbes Robinson, in commentary to his Coptic Apocryphal Gospels, Cambridge, 1896), and it is undeniable that superficial features of the surrounding idolatry were adopted and reinterpreted by the converts to the new religion; but as yet no study of these relations has been made sufficient to warrant generalization.
Of the earliest churches in Lower Egypt (as at Alexandria, churches of St. Mark, of Theonas, of
Dionysius, of Athanasius) no undisputed traces survive. Many were destroyed in early times, or in later ages converted into mosques. In the south
the sites are stUl visible (at Philse, 3. Churches. Thebes, Heracleopolis, etc., and in the
Outer Oasis) of churches, set often directly within the ancient temple precincts. Pagan rock tombs also have often been utilized as chapels (Thebes, El-Amarna, Der Abu Hennis). Among the older of the churches still in use are the group in Old Cairo (Babylon). These lie to-day embedded in masses of later building and have been repeatedly restored. Their form is usually the basilican, with three parallel apsides and several cupolas. The number of churches officially recorded in Egypt in 1896 was only about 400.
IV. Monasticism: A primary incentive toward the eremitic life may have been persecution; the desire for contemplative seclusion at any rate early led many in Egypt to retire into solitude, whether singly or in communities. Among the earliest of these was Anthony (c. 270) and, farther south, Pachomius (c. 315; see Monasticism; Pachomius). Coptic monasticism since the Council of Chalcedon (451), however, has received little attention; the materials for its study are, in great part, still unpublished, while the usual authorities (Moschus, Leontius of Neapolis, Sophronius, the Acta sanctorum) are Catholic and ignore Monophysites. A mild form of cenobitism appears to have superseded the anchorite type. The Pachomian rule was revived and reformed by Shenoute (d. 451), the founder of the great White Monastery, near Achmim (cf. Pears, in Archaeological Journal, June, 1904). We hear nothing of other rules, that of Anthony being a relatively late production. Yet it is by this last that Coptic monks to-day claim to live. Vows are now no longer professed, though they observe certain general precepts as to obedience, fasting, etc. For the medieval requirements cf. J. M. Wansleben, Histoire de Veglise d' Alexandria, Paris, 1677, 39 sqq. The schema (askim), once the sign of superior strictness of life, is now worn by all. Inmates of the monasteries are exempt from taxation and military service — a privilege which has been fruitful of abuses. The monasteries were early liable to episcopal interference, and in the seventh century appear as under the control of two bishops. In later times the patriarch would take over the direction and so the revenues of certain houses to his own use. Monastic officials still bear the same titles as in earlier times. Those of the White Monastery in the twelfth century were: archimandrite or hegumenus (elsewhere proestos), deuterarios, CEConomus (steward), archdeacon, didaskalos. The property of the monastery grew by pious bequests, the number of its inmates by the " oblation " of children (at any rate in the eighth century). The abbot might sometimes dispose of the monastery by will or it might be sold, like any secular property. Of the countless monasteries and nunneries which once covered Egypt (cf. Abu Salih and Makrizi) but few have remained in use. Among these, seven are conspicuous; four of the once numerous group in the Nitrian oasis, with ten to twenty monks each; those