Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/415

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EGYPT


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EGYPT


d'Acace" (Monuments pour servir, etc.; M^moires publics par les Membres de la Mission Arch^ologique fran?aise au Caire, IV, pp. 196-228). This correspon- dence is ol5viously spurious.

(6) On another document possibly of greater histor- ical interest, but too short or too badly preserved to be of any practical use, see Crum, "A Coptic Palimp- sest" in "Proceed, of the Soc. of Bibl. Arch.", XIX (ISOV), pp. 310-22 (Justinian times; name of Zoilus occurs). Two Sahidic fragments of the lives of a cer- tain Samuel, superior of a monastery, and Patriarch Benjamin, both of whom lived at the time of the Arabic conquest, furnished E. Amelineau with the basis of a new solution of the problem as to the iden- tity of the Makaukas [" Fragments coptes pour servir a I'hist. de la conquete de I'Egypte par les Arabes" in "Journal Asiatique", VHP S^rie., t. XII, pp. 361- 410. Cf . A. J. Butler, " On the Identity of Al Mukau- kis" in "Proceedings Soc. of Bibl. Arch.", XXIII (1901), pp. 275 sqq.].

There is also quite a number of Sahidic fragments of lives or encomiums of patriarchs and bishops, etc. which either have not yet been examined or have proved to contain none of the historical information often to be found in documents of their nature.

Liturgy. — The Coptic liturgy was derived from the ancient Alexandrine liturgy by the simple way of translation. The fact that in all the principal Coptic liturgical books most of the parts recited by the deacon (Dialwnika), the responses by the people, and several prayers by the priest appear ui Greek, even to this day, bears sufficient witness to the correctness of this statement. The change of language did not take place everywhere at the same time. At any rate it was gradual. The vernacular Coptic appeared first in the side column, or on the opposite page, as an explana- tion of the Greek text, which was no longer sufficiently intelligible to the people. In course of time the Greek disappeared entirely, with exception of the Diakonika and corresponding responses, which, on account of their shortness and frequent recurrence, continued to be familiar to the people. The most ancient relics of Coptic liturgy are all in the Sahidic dialect, a fact which by it.self, perhaps, would not be a sufficient reason for as.serting that in the north of Egypt Bohai- ric was not u,sed as a liturgical language as early as the Sahidic in Upper Egypt ; although, for reasons which time and space do not allow us to discuss, this seems quite probable. For several centuries Bohairic, which was the liturgical language adopted by the Jacobite patriarchs when they gave up Greek, has been the sole sacred idiom all over Egypt. The substitution of the Northern dialect for the Southern one probably took place by degrees and was not completed until about the fourteenth century, when Sahidic ceased to be gen- erally understood by the faithful. It was not a mere substitution of language, but one of recension as well, as evidenced by the remains of the Sahidic liturgy.

The literature of the Coptic Liturgy, as now in force, comprises the following books: —

Euchologium' (.Arabic, Khulagi). — Like the Eix"^^ 7101' t4 ii^-ya of the Greeks, it is a combination of the Evxo\6yiov with the \eiTov pymiv. It includes, therefore, not only the Liturgy proper, or Mass, with the Diacon- icuni (which contains the part of the deacon and re- sponses of the people), but also all the various liturgi- cal matter pertaining to the Pontifical and Ritual. It contains in addition the services of the morning and of the evening incense, performed at Vespers, Matins, and Prime. The Mass consists of (1) the Ordo Com- munis (Prothesis and Mass of the Catechumens), which never varies; (2) the Mass of the Faithful or Ana- phora, of which there are three varieties: St. Basil's for ordinary days; St. Cyril's (a recension of the Alex- andrine Anaphora of St . Mark) for the month of Choiac (Advent) and Lent, and St. Gregory Nazianzen's for feast days.


The Euchologium was edited by Raphael Tuki in three books imder both Coptic and Arabic titles, which we translate as follows: (1) "Book of the three Ana- phoras, namely, those of St. Basil, St. Gregory the Theologian , and St . Cyril , with the other holy prayers " , Rome, Propaganda, 1736, pp. 2S2, 389— Contents: Evening Incense, and Morning Incense with the pro- prium iemporis thereto; Mass, including the three Anaphoras ; Prayers Before and After Meals, Blessing of the Water, and the Ordo Renovationis Calicis. (2) "Book containing all the holy prayers", ibid., 1761-2, 2 vols. — Contents: I, Ordinations, Blessing of Religious Habit, Enthronization of Bishops, Consecra- tion of myron (Holy Chrism) and Churches (676 pages); II, Consecration of Altars and Sacred Vessels, Blessing of Church Vestments, Sacred Pictures, Relics, Consecration of Churches (if rebuilt) and Baptismal Fonts; Blessing of the Boards used forthe/Zei'/if/ (Holy of holies) ; Reconciliation of the same if replaced be- cause decayed or if desecrated ; Special Services for the Epiphany ,'Maundy Thursday, Pentecost, the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul; Reconciliation of persons guilty of apostasy and other special crimes; Blessing of the Oil, Water, and Loaf for one bitten by a mad dog, etc., etc. (515 pages). (3) "Book of the Service of the Holy Mysteries, Funerals of the Dead, Canticles, and one month of the Katameros" (this last item, a reduction of the work of the same name described hereunder, is printed here for convenience). The three books just described are generally referred to as " Missale Copto- Arabice", "Pontificale Copto-Arabice", and "Rituale Copto- Arab ice", although these designations do not appear on the title pages nor elsewhere in the books. Neither does the name of the editor (Tuki) appear.

The Missale has been edited anew with a slightly different arrangement, both in Coptic and Arabic, un- der the title: "Euchologium of the Alexandrine Church", Cairo, Catholic Pre.ss of St. Mark, Era of the Martyrs 1614 (a. d. 1898). Another Egyptian edition (Jacobite?) of the Missale (Cairo, 1887) is mentioned by Brightman (Liturgies Ea.stern and Western, I, p. Ixvii), and a Jacobite "genuine" edition of the "Eu- chologium [complete?] from manuscript sources" (Cairo, 1902), by Crum (Realencyklopiidie fiir protes- tantische Theologie, 3d edition, XII, p. 810). The Missal edited by Tuki does not differ from the oldest manuscript of the Vatican Library (thirteenth cent.), except that the names of Dioscurus, Severus of Anti- och, and Jacobus Barada^us have been expunged from the diptychs, and that of the pope added to them, the mention of Chalcedon introduced after that of Ephe- sus, and the FUioque inserted in the Creed. As for his Pontifical and Ritual, they certainly contain every- thing that is essential and common to the majority of good codices. Naturally the latter vary both in the arrangement and in the selection of prayers according to their origin and date of compilation. Tuki's Ordo Communis, and St. Basil's Anaphora, with rubrics in Latin only, were reprinted by J. A. Assemani, "Missale Alexandrinum ", pars II, pp. 1-90, in "Codex Liturgicus", VII (Rome, 1754). John, Marquess of Bute, published also an edition of the Morning Incense, Ordo Communis (from Tuki's text with some addi- tions), and St. Basil's Anaphora (from Tuki's?): "The Coptic Morning Service for the Lord's Day" (London, 1882), pp. 35 sqq. (See Brightman, op. et loc. cit.)

There has been no complete translation. The Ordo Cbmmunis and the three Anaphoras have been trans- lated into (1) Latin, (a) from an Arabic (Vienna?) manuscript by Victor Scialach, " Liturgia; Basilii Magni, Gregorii Theologi, Cyrilli Alexandrini ex Arabico con- versa>" (Vienna, 1604 — reprinted in "Magna Biblio- theca Patrum", Paris, 16.54, t. VI); (b) from a Paris Coptic manuscript by Renaudot, " Liturgiarum Orien- talium Collectio" (2 vols., Paris; Frankfort, 1847), I; (2) English, (a) from "an old manuscript", by Malan, "Original Documents of the Coptic Church; V, the