So there are now two Catholic Patriarchs of Alexandria. There is a Coptic one for the converted Copts, and a Melkite Patriarch who rules the converts from the Orthodox Church. Antioch is represented by three Catholic Eastern Patriarchs. There is one for the Melkites of the Byzantine rite, one for the Syrian Uniates, corresponding to the Jacobite Patriarch, and one for the Maronites.
This last case is an interesting example of the way Rome, as far as possible, changes nothing of the individuality of Churches in the East which return to her communion. The Maronite Patriarchate began as one more schismatical line. It represents the Monothelete schism of the seventh century. When a body of formerly Orthodox Christians in the Lebanon became a Monothelete sect, it set up a Patriarch for itself. This Patriarch of Antioch had, by common Catholic law, no right to exist. When these Monotheletes came back to the Catholic Church at the time of the Crusades, in theory they should have become Melkites; their Patriarch should have been deposed. But for centuries they were already a "nation" with their own Head. So Rome left them such and recognized the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch as their Head, under the Pope.
So also a Chaldean Patriarch is theoretically an anomaly. When some Nestorians came back to Catholic unity, in theory they should have submitted to the (supposed) one Catholic Patriarch of Antioch. But they had forgotten almost that there was such a person as a Patriarch of Antioch. For many centuries the Nestorians had called their Katholikos Patriarch; so the Uniates from that sect were given a Uniate Patriarch of Babylon, to balance the Nestorian Patriarch and Katholikos of the East.
Then occurs a further complication. Not only are the old Patriarchates divided to correspond to the rival lines outside the Church; portions of them are grouped together, for practical reasons. We have mentioned above the Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria and of Antioch. There is also one of Jerusalem. But these are, for the present, all one and the same person. Namely, there are not at present enough Melkites to justify the appointment of three Patriarchs for their three chief sees. So, until their number grows, the same Prelate is Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and all the East.
Thus we have a new grouping of Catholics of Eastern rites, cutting right across the old simple arrangement of Patriarchate by geographical position. One old Patriarchate is divided into
