a

CHAP. factions upheld their respective candidates.148 Gaian
XLVII.

was the disciple of Julian, Theodosius had been the pupil The patri

of Severus: the claims of the former were supported by the arch 'Theo- consent of the monks and senators, the city and the prodosius,

A.D. vince; the latter depended on the priority of his ordination,
537...568. the favour of the empress Theodora, and the arms of the

eunuch Narses, which might have been used in more
honourable warfare. The exile of the popular candidate to
Carthage and Sardinia, inflamed the ferment of Alexan-
dria; and after a schism of one hundred and seventy years,
the Gaianites still revered the memory and doctrine of their
founder. The strength of numbers and of discipline was
tried in a desperate and bloody conflict; the streets were
filled with the dead bodies of citizens and soldiers; the pious
women, ascending the roofs of their houses, showered down
every sharp or ponderous utensil on the heads of the enemy;
and the final victory of Narses was owing to the flames,
with which he wasted the third capital of the Roman world.
But the lieutenant of Justinian had not conquered in the

cause of an heretic; Theodosius himself was speedily Paul, though gently removed; and Paul of Tanis, an orthodox A. D. 533. monk, was raised to the throne of Athanasius. The powers

of government were strained in his support; he might ap-
point or displace the dukes and tribunes of Egypt; the
allowance of bread which Diocletian had granted, was sup-
pressed, the churches were shut, and a nation of schisma-
tics 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 servile Mel-
chites 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 Apolli- station of hatred and ignominy. His successor Apollinaris naris,

entered the hostile city in military array, alike qualified for A. D. 551.

prayer or for battle. His troops, under arins, were distri-
buted 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, CHAP.

XLVII. 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 succeeding patriarchs, Eulogius 146 and John,147 laboured in the conver- Eulogius,

. sion of heretics, with arms and arguments more worthy of A. D. 580.

, their evangelical profession. The theological knowledge of Eulogius 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 dictated John,

A. D. 609. by superstition, or benevolence, or policy. Seven thousand five hundred poor were maintained at his expense: 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 natives from the honours and emoluments of the state.

A more important conquest still remained, of the pa

Their sepa

CHAP. triarch, the oracle and leader of the Egyptian church. The XLVII.

odosius had resisted the threats and promises of Justinian

with the spirit of an apostle or an enthusiast. “Such," reration and plied the patriarch, “ were the offers of the tempter when decay.

" 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 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 predecessors, " 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 of Alexandria, his rivals reigned in the monasteries of Thebais, and were maintained by 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, rejecti il 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 ascends 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:

a

every Melchite, in their eyes, was a stranger, every Jaco- CHAP. bite a citizen; the alliance of marriage, the offices of hu- XLVII. manity, 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 a 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 before the face of an armed enemy. The pusillanimous temper 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 from Alexandria to the desart. In his flight, Benjamin was encouraged by a voice, which Benjamin, bad him expect, at the end of ten years, the aid of a foreign

bite patrination, marked like the Egyptians themselves with the arch, ancient right of circumcision. The character of these de. liverers, 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 apostacy has reduced the Coptic nation to the despicable number of twenty-five or thirty thousand families;148 a race of illiterate beggars, whose only consolation is derived from the superior wretchedness of the Greek patriarch and his diminutive congregation.'49

VI. THE

NIANS
AND NU-
BIANS

CHAP. VI. The Coptic patriarch, a rebel to the Cæsars, or a

slave to the khalifs, still gloried in the filial obedience of

the kings of Nubia and Æthiopia. He repaid their homage Abyssi- by magnifying their greatness; and it was boldly asserted

that they could bring into the field an hundred thousand horse, with an equal number of camels ;150 that their hand could pour or restrain the waters of the Nile ;151 and the peace and plenty of Egypt was obtained, even in this world, by the intercession of the patriarch. In exile at Constantinople, Theodosius recommended to his patroness the conversion of the black nations of Nubia,152 from the tropic of Cancer to the confines of Abyssinia. Her design was suspected and emulated by the more orthodox emperor. The rival missionaries, a Melchite and a Jacobite, embarked at the same time; but the empress, from a motive of love or fear, was more effectually obeyed; and the Catholic priest was detained by the president of Thebais, while the king of Nubia and his court were hastily baptised in the faith of Dioscorus. The tardy envoy of Justinian was received and dismissed with honour; but when he accused the heresy and treason of the Egyptians, the negro convert was instructed to reply that he would never abandon his brethren the true believers, to the persecuting ministers of the Synod of