DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0124
04
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap. kit.
belonged to this profession until about the 12th century, since
when it has been Mahometan; and Abyssinia is therefore now
isolated in its Christianity.*
The church of Alexandria was not a little proud of giving a
Patriarch, or rather a Metropolitan, to this remote region, and
drew such glowing pictures of its illustrious suffragans, that
Portugal sent a Jesuit mission to convert these prosperous and
powerful heretics. After much controversy and bloodshed, how-
ever, Abyssinia shook off the Jesuits and their faith, and return-
ed to the Coptic or Jacobite profession, to which they still adhere.
There are about 150,000 persons of this creed in Egypt, so they
would seem to have increased since the time in which Gibbon
wrote of them ; although it is said that considerable numbers
annually become apostate to the Moslem creed, for the sake of
marriage, or money, or both. These Copts differ little in ap-
pearance from the rest of the population in the fashion of their
dress, except that they affect dark colors in their turbans and
their robes. This gloomy garb suits their saturnine and mel-
ancholy countenances, in which the history of their persecuted
race is plainly written.
The head of their church is called the Patriarch of Alexan-
dria. He is selected from amongst the monks of St. Anthony,
who inhabit a convent in the Arabian desert, not far from the
Red Sea. The convents are very numerous, and except for the
greater length and severity of their fasts, they differ little in
their rules from those of the Roman Catholics. The priests are
allowed to marry, however, though their brides must be virgins,
and, if these should die, no second marriage is allowed to the
widower. They reject the use of images in their churches, but
are very proud of their pictures. The services are read in the
obsolete Coptic language, which is seldom understood by the
ou chez les anciens Grecs ; et que Les Arabes, n'ayant ni g devant a o u —
ni la lettre p, remplacent toujours ces lettres par g et b : lea Cophtes sont
done proprement les representans des Egyptiens."—Volney.
* Gibbon observes that the climate of Nubia was too strong for Christia-
nity ; was it not rather the Arab sword of extermination in the first instance,
and the Turkish invasion, under Selim, in the second, which eradicated the
last vestige of the Nubian Christians in the sixteenth century ?
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap. kit.
belonged to this profession until about the 12th century, since
when it has been Mahometan; and Abyssinia is therefore now
isolated in its Christianity.*
The church of Alexandria was not a little proud of giving a
Patriarch, or rather a Metropolitan, to this remote region, and
drew such glowing pictures of its illustrious suffragans, that
Portugal sent a Jesuit mission to convert these prosperous and
powerful heretics. After much controversy and bloodshed, how-
ever, Abyssinia shook off the Jesuits and their faith, and return-
ed to the Coptic or Jacobite profession, to which they still adhere.
There are about 150,000 persons of this creed in Egypt, so they
would seem to have increased since the time in which Gibbon
wrote of them ; although it is said that considerable numbers
annually become apostate to the Moslem creed, for the sake of
marriage, or money, or both. These Copts differ little in ap-
pearance from the rest of the population in the fashion of their
dress, except that they affect dark colors in their turbans and
their robes. This gloomy garb suits their saturnine and mel-
ancholy countenances, in which the history of their persecuted
race is plainly written.
The head of their church is called the Patriarch of Alexan-
dria. He is selected from amongst the monks of St. Anthony,
who inhabit a convent in the Arabian desert, not far from the
Red Sea. The convents are very numerous, and except for the
greater length and severity of their fasts, they differ little in
their rules from those of the Roman Catholics. The priests are
allowed to marry, however, though their brides must be virgins,
and, if these should die, no second marriage is allowed to the
widower. They reject the use of images in their churches, but
are very proud of their pictures. The services are read in the
obsolete Coptic language, which is seldom understood by the
ou chez les anciens Grecs ; et que Les Arabes, n'ayant ni g devant a o u —
ni la lettre p, remplacent toujours ces lettres par g et b : lea Cophtes sont
done proprement les representans des Egyptiens."—Volney.
* Gibbon observes that the climate of Nubia was too strong for Christia-
nity ; was it not rather the Arab sword of extermination in the first instance,
and the Turkish invasion, under Selim, in the second, which eradicated the
last vestige of the Nubian Christians in the sixteenth century ?