THE COPTS IN OUR TIME 265
they had an Iconoclast Patriarch. Cyril IV (1854-1862), in many ways a reformer, thought his people guilty of idolatry.[1] So he made a collection of holy pictures, burned them publicly and told the people to adore God alone.[2] In burning valuable pictures he was guilty of foolish and wasteful conduct. Nor could he have burned more than a few. Coptic churches are still full of old pictures. But he would have found his Dyophysite brother at Rome in warm agreement with his warning. We, too, have learned that we may not adore these things, for they can neither see, nor hear, nor help us. Lastly, the Copts are vague about the Canon of Scripture. They include in it, besides our books,[3] the Epistle of Barnabas, Hermas, Clement of Rome, various Clementine and other strange apocryphas.[4]
From all this we see that, except for their Monophysism (which is, of course, the great question of all), the Copts in matters of faith occupy much the same position as the Orthodox. They differ from Catholics in little except Monophysism, rejection of the Papacy, and perhaps the procession of the Holy Ghost. I do not think that their characteristic heresy occupies nearly as large a place in their consciousness now as it did in that of Dioscor and the Cat. The cause they stand for with ardour is rather the existence of their National Church, their customs and traditions, and a vehement rejection of the Pope, whom they look upon as a foreign tyrant who wants to make them all his slaves, to Latinize them and oppress their Patriarch.
3. Churches, Ornaments, Vestments
We have noted (p. 252) that Coptic archæology is a special and an important subject. It is indeed to this that the present sect owes its importance. Archæologists recognize that the art, architecture and customs of the Copts are not merely a subdivision of Byzantine archæology; they are an independent stream full of
- ↑ He had been educated in Mr. Lieder's Protestant School (p. 258, n. 3).
- ↑ Mrs. Butcher: op. cit. ii. 398-399.
- ↑ They admit, of course, the deutero-canonical books.
- ↑ F. Scrivener: A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the N. Test. (4th ed. London, 1894), 91-144. J. M. Fuller: "Coptic Church" in Smith's Dict. of Christ. Biography (London, 1877), i. 664-686.
