Apollinaris, A. D. 551. CHA P. ment were strained in his support; he might ap-. XLVII. point or displace the dukes and tribunes of Egypt; the allowance of bread which Diocletian had granted was suppressed, the churches were shut, and a nation of schismatics was deprived at once of their spiritual and carnal food. In his turn, the tyrant was excommunicated by the zeal and revenge of the people; and none except his rervile Melchites, would salute him as a man, a Christian, or a bishop. Yet such is the blindness of ambition, that, when Paul was expelled on a charge of murder, he solicited, with a bribe of seven hundred pounds of gold, his restoration to the same station of hatred and ignominy. His successor Apollinaris entered the hostile city in military array, alike qualified for prayer or for battle. His troops, under arms, were distributed through the streets; the gates of the cathedral were guarded; and a chosen band was stationed in the choir, to defend the person of their chief. He stood erect on his throne, and throwing aside the upper garment of a warrior, suddenly appeared before the eyes of the multitude in the robes of patriarch of Alexandria. Astonishment held them mute; but no sooner had Apollinaris begun to read the tome of St Leo, than a volley of curses, and invectives, and stones, assaulted the odious minister of the emperor and the synod. A charge was instantly sounded by the successor of the apostles; the soldiers waded to their knees in blood; and two hundred thousand Christians are said to have fallen by the sword: An incredible account, even if it be extended from the slaughter of a day to the eighteen years of the reign of Apollinaris. Two Eulogius, A. D. 609. Two succeeding patriarchs, Eulogius* and John †, CHA P. laboured in the conversion of heretics, with arms XLVII. and arguments more worthy of their evangelical profession The theological knowledge of Eulo- A.D. 580. gius was displayed in many a volume, which magnified the errors of Eutyches and Severus, and attempted to reconcile the ambiguous language of St Cyril with the orthodox creed of pope Leo and the fathers of Chalcedon. The bounteous alms of John the eleemosynary were John, dictated by superstition, or benevolence, or policy. Seven thousand five hundred poor were maintained at his expence; on his accession, he found eight thousand pounds of gold in the treasury of the church; he collected ten thousand from the liberality of the faithful; yet the primate could boast in his testament, that he left behind him no more than the third part of the smallest of the silver coins. The churches of Alexandria were delivered to the Catholics, the religion of the Monophysites was proscribed in Egypt, and a law was revived, which excluded the * Eulogius, who had been a monk of Antioch, was more conspicuous for subtlety than eloquence. He proves that the enemies of the faith, the Gainites and Theodosians, ought not to be reconciled; that the same proposition may be orthodox in the mouth of St Cyril, heretical in that of Severus; that the opposite assertions of St Leo are equally true, &c. His writings are no longer extant, except in the extracts of Photius, who had perused them with care and satisfaction, cod. ccviii. ccxxv, ccxxvi, ccxxvii. ccxxx. cclxxx. See the life of John the eleemosynary, by his contemporary Leontius, bishop of Neapolis, in Cyprus, whose Greek text, either lost or hidden, is reflected in the Latin version of Baronius, (A. D. 610, No. 9. A. D. 620, No. 8.) Pagi (Critica, tom. ii. p. 763.) and Fabricius (1. v. c. II. tom. vii. p. 454.) have made some critical observations. CHA P. the natives from the honours and emoluments of Their se and de cay. A more important conquest still remained, of paration the patriarch, the oracle and leader of the Egyptian church. Theodosius had resisted the threats and promises of Justinian with the spirit of an apostle or an enthusiast. "Such," replied the patriarch," were the offers of the tempter, when he "shewed the kingdoms of the earth. But my "soul is far dearer to me than life or dominion. "The churches are in the hands of a prince who 66 can kill the body; but my conscience is my "own; and in exile, poverty, or chains, I will stedfastly adhere to the faith of my holy pre 66 decessors, Athanasius, Cyril, and Dioscorus. "Anathema to the tome of Leo and the synod of "Chalcedon! Anathema to all who embrace "their creed! Anathema to them now and for "evermore! Naked came I out of my mother's "womb; naked shall I descend into the grave. "Let those who love God follow me, and seek "their salvation." After comforting his brethren, he embarked for Constantinople, and sustained, in six successive interviews, the almost irresistible weight of the royal presence. His opinions were favourably entertained in the palace and the city; the influence of Theodora assured him a safe conduct and honourable dismission; and he ended his days, though not on the throne, yet in the bosom, of his native country. On the news of his death, Apollinaris indecently feasted the nobles and the clergy; but his joy was checked by the intelligence of a new election; and while he enjoyed the wealth wealth of Alexandria, his rivals reigned in the CHA P. monasteries of Thebais, and were maintained by XLVII. the voluntary oblations of the people. A perpetual succession of patriarchs arose from the ashes of Theodosius; and the Monophysite churches of Syria and Egypt were united by the name of Jacobites, and the communion of the faith. But the same faith, which has been confined to a narrow sect of the Syrians, was diffused over the mass of the Egyptian or Coptic nation; who, almost unanimously, rejected the decrees of the synod of Chalcedon. A thousand years were now elapsed since Egypt had ceased to be a kingdom, since the conquerors of Asia and Europe had trampled on the ready necks of a people, whose ancient wisdom and power ascend beyond the records of history. The conflict of zeal and persecution rekindled some sparks of their national spirit. They abjured, with a foreign heresy, the manners and language of the Greeks Every Melchite, in their eyes, was a stranger, every Jacobite a citizen; the alliance of marriage, the offices of humanity, were condemned as a deadly sin; the natives renounced all allegiance to the emperor; and his orders, at a distance from Alexandria, were obeyed only under the pressure of military force. A generous effort might have redeemed the religion and liberty of Egypt, and her six hundred monasteries might have poured forth their myriads of holy warriors, for whom death should have no terrors, since life had no comfort or delight. But experience has proved the distinction of active and passive courage; the fanatic who endures without a groan the torture of the rack or the stake, would tremble and fly CHA P. fly before the face of an armed enemy. The puXLVII. sillanimous te nper of the Egyptians could only hope for a change of masters; the arms of Chosroes depopulated the land, yet under his reign the Jacobites enjoyed a short and precarious respite. The victory of Heraclius renewed and aggravated the persecution, and the patriarch again escaped Benjamin from Alexandria to the desert. In his flight, Benthe Jaco- jamin was encouraged by a voice, which bade him triarch, expect, at the end of ten years, the aid of a fo625-661. reign nation, marked like the Egyptians them bite pa A. D. selves with the ancient right of circumcision. The character of these deliverers, and the nature of the deliverance, will be hereafter explained; and I shall step over the interval of eleven centuries, to observe the present misery of the Jacobites of Egypt. The populous city of Cairo affords a residence, or rather a shelter, for their indigent patriarch, and a remnant of ten bishops: Forty monasteries have survived the inroads of the Arabs; and the progress of servitude and apostasy has reduced the Coptic nation to the despicable number of twenty-five or thirty thousand families'*; a race of illiterate beggars, whose only consolation is derived from the superior wretchedness of the Greek *This number is taken from the curious Recherches sur les Egyptiens et les Chinois, (tom. ii. p. 192, 193.) and appears more probable than the 600,000 ancient, or 15,000 modern, Copts of Gemelli Carreri. Cyril Lucar, the Protestant patriarch of Constantinople, laments that those heretics were ten times more numerous than his orthodox Greeks, ingeniously applying the πολλαι κεν δεκάδες δευοιατο οινοχοιo of Homer, (Iliad ii. 128.) the most perfect expression of contempt, (Fabric. Lux Evangelii, 740.) |