to Alexandria. In the case of the Nestorians their sect arose in an outlying little-known corner of the Church, whose previous history demanded some account before we came to the beginning of the heresy which eventually cut it off. But Egypt was a very important province of the Church. The origin of the Alexandrine Patriarchate, once second in Christendom, its famous school, the tragic story of Origen, the Arian heresy, the life of the greatest of all Alexandrine Patriarchs, Athanasius — this is in the strictest sense part of general Church history, which one may suppose known to every reader. And Cyril's war against Nestorianism, also well known, has been told again in our first part. Leaving all this, then, we begin our account of the Copts with their schism.
Our general account of Monophysism (Chapter VI) has already covered much of this. The shortest statement of the events which led up to the founding of a stable Monophysite Patriarchate in Egypt will be enough here.
At first, as happens in nearly every heresy, the heretics did not constitute themselves in a separate organized body. The quarrel begins more or less within the Church.[1] In Egypt we now see several lines of Patriarchs, each claiming the title of Alexandria, with a further qualification (Coptic Patriarch, Orthodox Patriarch, Uniate Patriarch, etc.), each agreeing to differ, and, side by side, ruling the various groups which recognize them. Now they have their berat from the Government, each for his own "nation"; they even pay each other friendly visits on New Year's Day. Not so at the beginning. No one then conceived the possibility of two Patriarchs side by side on terms of practical mutual recognition. There could be only one Patriarch, as there could be only one bishop in each see. The two parties, Monophysite and Catholic, struggled and fought over these. When a Catholic, supported by the Government, succeeded in holding the Patriarchal throne, he promptly drove out all Monophysite bishops, forbade Monophysite theology, tried to stamp out the heresy, and
- ↑ In most cases it is difficult to say exactly at what moment a sect has begun to exist outside the Church. At first the heretics are rather disturbers of the peace within. It is only gradually that, being excommunicate, they form themselves into a schismatical group, and so begin their career as a separate body.
