Butler_Alfred Joshua 1884 Ancient Coptic Churches

ÛBRAIRjE-PAPETEPIf

THORNTON & SONBooksellers

11 The BroadOxford

THE

Ancient Coptic Churches

f

VOL. I.

Honfcon

HENRY FROWDE

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE

AMEN CORNER

T II E


of Egypt

BY

ALFRED J. BUTLER, M.A. F.S.A.

Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford

/.V T\VO VOLUMES

VOL. I.

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1884

[All rights reserved \

PREFACE.

r I ^ HE aim of this book is to make a systematic

j beginning upon a great siibject -the Christian

antiquities of Egypt. Few subjects of equal

importance have been so singularly neglected. One

writer admits that the Coptic Church is still'

the

most remarkable monument ofprimitive Christianity' ;

another that it is'

the only living representative of the

most venerable nation of all antiquity' ; yet even the

strength of this double claim has been powerless to

create any working interest in tlie matter. No doubt

the attention of mere travellers has deen bewitched

andfascinated by the colossal remains ofpagan timest

by the temples and pyramids which still glow in

eternal sunshine, while the Christian churches lie

buried in the gloom of fortress walls, or encircled

and masked by almost impassable deserts. Yet the

Copts of to-day, whose very name is an echo of the

word Egypt, trace back ttieir lineage to the ancient

Egyptians who built the pyramids, and the ancient

tongue is spoken at every Coptic mass : tlie Copts were

among the Jirst to welcome the tidings of the gospel,

to make a rule of life and worship, and to erect

viii Preface.

religious buildings : they have upheld the cross un-

waveringly through ages of desperate persecution :

and their ritual now is less changed than that of

any other community in Christendom. All this

surely is reason enough to recommend the subject to

churchman^ historian, or antiquarian.

But although I need offer no apology for the essay

contained in the volumes, I am fully aware of its

many shortcomings. It is the result of seven months'1

research in Egypt ; and thai brief period was inter-

rupted and shortened by a fever. The work was

begun, too, it must be confessed, at a time when the

writer s mind was a mere blank as regards archi-

tect^l,re, ritual, and ecclesiology -a fact of which the

traces cannot have been qtdte obliterated by subsequent

study. Nor indeed was study possible in Egypt,

where it would have been most valuable in guiding

and correcting observation; for there is scarcely a

more bookless country now than that which once

boasted the best library in the world. The lack of

special training, and the sense of unfitness thence

arising, would certainly have deterred me from un-

dertaking a task beyond mypowers, had there appeared

any likelihood of a more competent person devoting

himself to it. But that was not the case ; and it

seemed better to make a beginning, however inadequate.

It was, of course, a great advantage to be living as a

resident in Egypt, to have even a smattering know-

ledge of the native Arabic, to be on friendly terms

Preface. ix

with many of the Copts, and, above all, to have plenty

of leisure. For no one who has not tried can imagine

what time and trouble it has often cost to obtain access

even to some of the churches at Old Cairo ; no one

would believe kow many fruitless journeys under a

scorching sun can go to a scanty handful of Coptic

notes. And if one searches for oral information,

trouble multiplies a hundredfold. Very few indeed

of the Copts know anything about their own history

or their own ritual, or can assign a reason for the

things which they witness in their daily services.

A question on a point of ceremonial is usually

met either by a shake of the head or by a palpably

wrong answer veiling ignorance. Moreover the

oracle, when discovered,' generally prefers speaking

to-morrow.

The difficulties, then, both physical and moral,

which face the enquirer are rather exceptional ; but

tliey are such as tact andpatience tuill mitigate, if not

conquer. I have briefly indicated in the text how

much remains to be done in Upper Egypt in the way

of exploring and describing the early Christian

churcfies there ; and the very incompleteness of this

work proves how much is still lacking to an adequate

treatise on Coptic rites and ceremonies. Nor is there

less scopefor the historian than for the antiquarian

and tlie ecclesiologist ; for the history of Christian

Egypt is still unwritten, or at least that part of it

about which the most romantic interest gatfiers, the

x Preface.

period which witnessed the passing; away of the

ancient cults and the change of the pagan world. Wehave yet to learn how the cold worship, the tranquil

life, and the mummified customs of that immemorial

people dissolved in the fervour of the new faith ;

how faces like those sculptured on the monuments of

the Pharaohs became the faces of anchorites, saints,

and martyrs.

Even of later Coptic history very little is known.

It had been my wish to sketch roughly some portion

of the meagre records ; but space has failed me ;

and besides I could add nothing fresh to the story.

Renaudofs '

Liturgiarum Orientalium Collectw and' Historia Patriarcharum Alexandrinoruml A I

Makrizi's '

History of the CoptsI translated by the

Rev. S. C. Malan, Neales ' Eastern Church'

(a work

full of errors] these are almost the only authorities :

and all that they relate has been ably summarised in

Mr. Fuller s article on the Coptic Church in the

Dictionary of Christian Biography.

It has not come within my province to discuss points

of doctrine which separate the Jacobites from the

Melkites, the Coptsfrom the orthodox Alexandrians.

Nor needI enter into the origin ofthe Monophysite con-

troversy. I may however remark that the great mass

of the Copts to-day are entirely free from any strong

bias or evenfrom any knowledge on the question ; and

a few years ago political obstacles alone hindered the

union of the two Churches. The few who can call

Preface. xi

themselves theologians among the Copts cling to their

ancient formula of pia 0t5<ns, not however denying

either the humanity or the divinity of our Lord, but

alleging that' out of the two natures arose a single

nature,' <j^-^JÂxL ^l> ^yJUsiAxLaM <^ in the words

of tlieir chief authority.

And, as I have not felt called upon to treat of the

doctrine apart from the practice of the Copts, so I

have been anxious to avoid any signs of party pre-

judice in relation to the questions which divide our

Church of England. My purpose throughout has

been merely to give a statement of facts, and neither

to twist the facts nor to colour the statement in anycontroversial manner. If anything that I have

written has any bearing on the tenets of English

churchmen, I leave it to others to point the moral.

But while I have candidly striven to write in an un-

sectarian spirit, it would be foolish and disingenuous

to pretend blindness to the nature of the conclusions

likely to be drawn from a study of Coptic ritual.

No fairminded person who has any regard for the

teaching of the early Church can make a careful com-

parison of our present liturgy and ritual with an

unchanged liturgy and ritual, like the Coptic, without

regretting the reckless abandonment of much that we

have abandoned.

T/ie rendering of Arabic names and words in

English characters is a problem which no writer on

oriental subjects has yet solved satisfactorily. The

xii Preface,

'

missionary alphabet'

devised by Professor MaxMiiller, and mainly adopted by the translators of the

Sacred Books of the East, seems originally designed

rather with reference to the Indian languages ; and

though itfinds indeed an equivalentfor every Arabic

letter, it has recourse to no less than three separate

founts of type, and modifies all three by the use of

diacritical marks. Thus a simple phrase like ic/W^

-eoî (altar coverings] would have to be rendered

g/mti&n al maDtiba'h surely an intolerable combina-

tion. It isfar better with Spitta Bey to use a single

fount of type largely varied by points and dots. But

neither Spitta Bey s system nor any other yet devised

can be called clear, consistent, and faultless. It is

next to impossible to transliterate Arabic so as to

render consonants, vowels, and vowel points in any

manner at once coherent and readable. I have merely

tried to indicate A rabic words in terms intelligible to

an Arabic scholar without straining after an unat-

tainable precision. Thus is rendered by k, (Ji by k,

A by h, ^ by h, and so forth : } andj are generally

distinguished from the corresponding vowelpoints by

a and u or 6, but not when they are either initial or

final. I write, for instance, abu not abu, and anba

not anba, because in such cases there is no real am-

bigiiity. But I cannot claim any sort of absohite

accuracy, for the simple reason that in many cases

where a proper name has been learnt by ear. or bor-

rowed from another writer, I have been unable to

Preface. xiii

ascertain exactly the Arabic spelling. Some mistakes

therefore are inevitable.

All the plans in the text are carefully drawn to

scale with the exception of some of the small plans of

Cairo churches. It had not been my intention to pub-lish these, but merely to use themfor my ownguidance :

however on consideration it seemed better to give a

slight plan than none at all. These plans, then,

rough as they are, will serve to give an idea of the

general arrangement of buildings quite unfamiliar to

English readers : and in most if not in all cases

measurements will be found in the text sufficient to

give the scale approximately.

A pleasant task remains to acknowledge the kind-

ness of those who have aided me in my work. The

largest measure of thanks a measure larger than

I can find wo} ds fitly to express is clue to my friend

Mr. J . Henry Middleton, to whom I owe the best

plan and many of the most beautiful drawings in the

text, drawings which I am forbidden to particularise.

Nor have Iprofited less by the immense learning than

by the rare draughtmanship of Mr. Middleton. In-

deed butfor his mostgenerous assistance andencourage-ment I do not know that this book would have been

written. My thanks also are gladly rendered to Sir

Arthur Gordon, Governor General of Ceylon, for

three very interesting plans of churches in Upper

Egypt; to the Very Reverend Dean Butcher, of

Cairo, for much help and befriending in my task ;

xiv Preface.

to the Coptic Patriarch for his authority and counte-

nance in my journeys and researches; to A buna

Philotheos, Kummus of the Cathedral in Cairo, and

to 'Abdu 7 Massih Simaikahfor much information;

and to many others, whose names if unrecorded here

are gratefully remembered.

A. J. B.

OXFORD,

October, 1884.

GLOSSARY OF ARABIC OR COPTIC TERMS.

Anba, the Coptic term for father : this title is usually but not exclu-

sively given to the patriarch.

Dair, a ring-wall enclosing Coptic churches or monastic buildings.

Galilaeon, one of the holy oils of Coptic ritual : the term is a corrup-

tion of dya\\idcr(a>s ?Aaioi>.

Haikal, the central of the three chapels in a Coptic church, or

principal sanctuary, containing the high altar : literally the

word signifies'

temple.'

Isbodikon, the central part of the Coptic eucharistic wafer: from

SfcriroTiKov (criofta).

Kasr, the keep or tower of a dair in the desert.

Korbdn, literally the oblation ; and so either the wafer or the mass.

Kummttf, either archpriest, or in a monastery the abbot.

Manddrah, the guest-room of a church or monastery.

Mdri, the Coptic term for saint.

Mushrabiah, a peculiar kind of finely jointed lattice-work used for

windows, etc.

Myron, Arabic miriin, the pvpov or chrism, the chief of the holy oils.

PatrashU, a kind of stole; Greek eTnrpa^Xioi/.

Shamlak, a kind of amice.

Tarb&sh, the red cap or fez round which the turban is wound.

CONTENTSOF THE FIRST VOLUME.

PACK

PREFACE vii

GLOSSARY xv

LIST OF PLANS AND ILLUSTRATIONS xix

CHAPTER I.

ON THE STRUCTURE OF COPTIC CHURCHES IN GENERAL . i

CHAPTER II.

THE CHURCH OF DAIR MART M!NA AT OLD CAIRO . . 47

CHAPTER III.

DAIR ABU-'S-SIFAIN AT OLD CAIRO. THE CHURCH OF ABU-'S-

SIFAIN. THE NUNNERY CALLED DAIR AL BANAT. THE

CHURCH OF ANBA SHANUDAH. THE CHURCH OF SITT

MARIAM 75

CHAPTER IV.

THE ANCIENT ROMAN FORTRESS OF BABYLON AND THE

CHURCHES WITHIN IT. CHURCH OF ABU SARGAH. THE

CHURCH CALLED AL MU'ALLAKAH. THE CHURCH OF

ST. BARBARA. THE CHURCHES OF AL 'ApRA AND MARI

GIRGIS 155

VOL. i. b

xviii Contents.

CHAPTER V. .

PA<;E

THE MINOR CHURCHES OF OLD CAIRO. THE CHURCHES

OF DAIR BABLUN AND DAIR TADRUS .... 250

CHAPTER VI.

THE CHURCHES IN CAIRO. THE CHURCHES IN THE HARAT-

AZ-ZUAILAH. THE CHURCHES IN THE HARAT-AR-RUM.

THE CHAPEL OF ST. STEPHEN . . . . . .271

CHAPTER VII.

THE MONASTERIES OF THE NATRUN VALLEY IN THE LIBYAN

DESERT. DAIR ABU MAKAR. DAIR ANBA BISHOI.

DAIR-AS-SURIANI. DAIR AL BARAMUS .... 286

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CHURCHES OF UPPER EGYPT. THE MONASTERIES OF

ST. ANTONY AND ST. PAUL IN THE EASTERN DESERT.

THE CONVENT OF THE PULLEY. THE WHITE AND

THE RED MONASTERY. CHURCH AT ARMANT. THE

CHURCHES OF NAKADAH, CHURCH AT ANTINOE. MIS-

CELLANEOUS 341

INDEX TO VOL. i 373

LIST OF PLANS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

IN VOL. I.

PAGE

View of Dair Abu-'s-Sifain at Old Cairo . . . frontispiece

Plan of Man Mina 48

Ancient Bronze Candelabrum at the Church of Mari Mina . 59

Plan of Abu-'s-Sifain and the adjoining Chapels ... 78

Marble Ambon at Abu-'s-Sifain 85

Blocks of solid ivory carved in relief : from the Choir Screen at

Abu-'s-Sifain 88

Ivory-inlaid door of the Haikal at Abu-'s-Sifain . . .100

Plan of the Upper Chapels of Abu-'s-Sifain . . . .119Plan of the Church of Anba Shanudah 136

Plan of Upper Story of Anba Shanudah, showing Chapels

attached 143

Plan of the Church of Sitt Mariam 149

Plan of the Roman Fortress of Babylon .... 154-155

Plan of the Church of Abu Sargah 182-183

Wood Carvings at Abu Sargah 191

Crypt under main Church of Abu Sargah .... 200

Plan of the Church called Al Mu'allakah within the Roman

Fortress of Babylon 211

Cedar and Ivory Screen at Al Mu'allakah . . . .213Marble Ambon at Al Mu'allakah 217

Plan of the Church of St. Barbara 236

View of Dair Bablun and Dair Tadrus 251

Plan of Al 'Adra 273

xx List of Plans and Illustrations.PAGE

View of Dair Macarius from the south-east .... 295

View of Dair Anba Bishoi from the north-west . . . 309

Plan of the Monastic Church of Anba Bishoi . . . .312View from the tower of Dair-as-Suriani, showing the interior

of that Convent and the neighbouring Convent of Anba

Bishoi 317

Plan of the Church of Al 'Adra, Dair-as-Suriani . . . 321

View of Dair Al Baramus 327

Plan of rock-cut Church at the Convent of the Pulley . . 349

Plan of the White Monastery 352

Plan of Church at Nakadah 360

Plan of group of Churches at Nakadah 362

Plan of Convent of St. John near Antinoe .... 365

ERRATA.

Page 18, 1.^12, for Abu-s'-Sifain read Atm-'s-Sifain

39> 1- 3, for St. read S.

,, 101, 1. 19, for 'Glory to God in the Highest,' read 'Peace on the

Sanctuary of God the Father,'

172, note 2, for chap, read cap.

,, 174, 1. 29, for prefect read prefect,

,, 182, 1. 31, for even read ever

35 2)

gr The author has reason to believe that these plans which he

-g a I borrowed are erroneous (1893).

[Butler's 'Ancient Coptic Churches," Vol. /.]

THE

ANCIENT COPTIC CHURCHESOF EGYPT.

CHAPTER I.

On the Structure of Coptic Churches in

general.

I

HE seed sown by St. Mark was quick in

bearing fruit. Christian doctrines spreadand Christian churches sprang up throughall the land of Egypt. The Delta was

covered with them : singly or in clusters they were

dotted along the banks of the Nile for at least a

thousand miles south towards the sister churches of

Ethiopia : and even the silence of the desert wasbroken by hymn and chaunt from chapels built uponscenes that were hallowed by the life and death of

holy anchorites. For monasticism began in Egypt,as pious or frail believers were driven by the vani-

ties or persecutions of the world into the drearysolitudes where neither the fear of the sword nor the

allurements of the flesh could follow them.

To trace the history of these churches, to showhow Christianity, at first driven into holes and caves,

came forth from the dim catacombs of Alexandria,

stood in the light, and in spite of fierce opposition

2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.I.

won its way from the Mediterranean to the tropics

-this would be a work for which time and material

alike fail. Still more impossible is it to give any-

thing like a complete description of the ancient

church buildings. With comparatively few excep-

tions the churches, like the heathen temples before

them, are fallen and gone. Of the many ancient

churches at Alexandria not one now remains : Tanis

(the Zoan of Scripture), once the site of manychurches, is now a desolate morass, out of which

stand here and there heaps of ruins : of the monas-

teries at the Natrun Lakes, while a few remain, the

greater part lie buried in the sand : and of the

churches in Upper Egypt perhaps not one tenth is

left. Fortunately, however, some of the most in-

teresting in point of history and of structure are at

once the best preserved and the most accessible.

With the single exception of St. Mark's church in

Alexandria, which is quite destroyed, there is scarcely

any building of foremost renown in Coptic history

which may not be seen to-day. But the centre of

interest is Cairo, or rather Old Cairo, not Alexandria.

The earliest churches there date at least from the

third century of our era, and cannot be much later

than the earliest in the northern city. Even before

the Mohammedan conquest there are signs of a

struggle for supremacy between the two cities;and

once the Muslim rule was established, the seat of the

patriarchate was removed to Old Cairo, which thus

became practically the religious as well as the political

capital for the Christians, though the spiritual claims

of Alexandria, acknowledged at first by a tribute of

money and the homage of every new patriarch, are to

this day neither abated nor denied.

CH. i.] General Structure. 3

The predominant type of Christian architecture in

Egypt is basilican. It has been the fashion to regardthis type as adopted from the secular Roman basilica

by the early Christians;but in his recently published

'Essay on the History of English Church Archi-

tecture,' Mr. G. Gilbert Scott shows good reason

for assigning an earlier and independent origin to

this form of building. According to his theory the

germ of the Christian basilica was a simple oblongaisleless room divided by a cross arch, beyond which

lay an altar detached from the wall. This germ was

developed by the addition of side aisles, and some-

times an aisle returned across the entrance end :

over these upper aisles were next constructed, and

transepts added, together with small oratories or

chapels in various parts of the building. On the

other hand, the secular basilica is shown to have

begun with a colonnade enclosing an open area, to

have been roofed in, to have lost the colonnades, and

to have passed into a lofty hall covered with a brick

vaulting. I have little or no hesitation in acceptingthis theory, more especially as the churches of Egyptare rich in evidence that favours it. It is of course

clear that the two separate developments at one

point closely coincided, and that the resemblance, at

first accidental, became in later times conscious and

designed : but the secular basilicas of the fourth

century are very different from the Christian churches

of that epoch, which resemble rather the paganbasilicas of three centuries earlier. The question

may perhaps be narrowed down to a smaller issue.

Since it is quite certain that the earliest places of

worship in the East were plain aisleless rooms, and

that aisles were a later addition, can it reasonably be

B 2

4 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. \.

maintained that aisles were in no case thrown out

before the suggestion had been caught from a Romanbasilica ? This seems in the last degree improbable :

for the logic of thought and logic of fact are alike

against it. The rock-cut church at Ephesus, called

the Church of the Seven Sleepers, which is not

later than the third century, already shows a triple

division lengthwise, corresponding1

to nave and

aisles, though there are no actual columns. Oneof the simple and very early rock-cut churches at

Surp Garabed in Cappadocia] shows side pilasters

which have only to be detached to make an aisled

basilica. The crypt at Abu Sargah in Old Cairo,

which may, in spite of its Saracenic capitals, date

from the second or third century, is tripartite. If I

remember rightly, a similar division might be traced

in a church among the catacombs of Alexandria

near the so-called Baths of Cleopatra though the

fire of the English fleet is likely enough now to

have laid that very spot in ruins. Further, the

uniformity in the arrangement of the three eastern

chapels in the oldest monuments of church buildingin Egypt, gives a strong presumption that the tradi-

tion dates from the remotest Christian antiquity.

Al Makrizi mentions a wholesale destruction of

churches in Alexandria by order of Severianus about

200 A. D.;and of churches at Jerusalem nearly a

century earlier under Hadrian. These can scarcelyall have been devoid of aisles and columns.

But though the Christian basilica had thus pro-

bably a non-Roman origin in Egypt and elsewhere,

no doubt certain determinations of detail and finish

1 Texier and Pullan's Byzantine Architecture, p. 39.


were received either directly from Roman basilican

models in Alexandria and Babylon, or indirectly

from the type of Roman architecture which was

brought into the East by Constantine. In example

may be cited the classic entablature over the nave

columns, in churches like Abu Sargah and AnbaShanudah

; perhaps the upper aisles or large triforia

found in most churches;and the outer or second

aisles (as in Al Mu'allakah and Al 'Adra in the

Hdrat-az-Zuailah), which are of frequent occurrence

in the period of Constantine, occurring for instance in

the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem and

the basilica at Tyre, both built by that emperor.

Setting aside however the question of origin, and

granting merely that most of the Egyptian churches

may be roughly termed basilican, it remains to notice

a subordinate though powerful influence of another

kind, which, for want of a better name, must be called

Byzantine. The leading characteristics of the Byzan-tine style, exemplified for instance at St. Sophia in

Stambul and the little churches of Athens, are the

domed roofing, the absence of many-pillared aisles,

and sometimes a cruciform design. Of these the

dome by far the most important is distinctively of

eastern origin : and I think it far more probablethat Byzantium borrowed it from Alexandria than

the reverse. The dome would more easily pass from

India to Egypt than to the remoter West;and seeing

that Egypt lies nearer the cradle of our religion and

her Church was founded by St. Mark, there is everylikelihood that Alexandria was before the rest of the

world in building churches as in general civilisation,

and started the type of architecture which, becomingfamiliar to Europeans in Byzantium, was called after

6 Ancient Coptic Churches, [CH. i.

that city. The use of the dome in Babylonia is

certainly of the highest antiquity, and domed buildingswere common in the time of the Sassanides : so

that without any disparagement to the genius of

Anthemius, the architect of St. Sophia, one mayimagine that, like the architects of Greece in classic

times, he owed much to Egypt. But abandoning

any attempt to push the theory, it will be interesting

to examine the churches of Cairo with a view to

determining the relative importance of the Latin and

the Byzantine element in their structure, and to note

any peculiarities that may be called distinctively

Coptic.

Among all the buildings that I have visited in

Egypt proper and the desert, and I believe amongall the churches scattered up and down the Nile,

there is not a single specimen of purely Byzantinearchitecture. The Coptic builders seem to have had

no'

liking for or no knowledge of the cruciform

groundplan. It would be less difficult, though not

easy, to find an instance of a purely basilican church,

the best example being the Jewish synagogue at

Old Cairo, once the Coptic church of St. Michael.

This little building, with its side aisles, aisle returned

across the western end, upper aisles, its single broad-

curved apse breaking from the straight eastern wall,

and its finely ornamented triumphal arch above the

sanctuary, presents most of the characteristics of the

Latin style. But though the cruciform groundplanis unknown, the dome is almost if not quite universal.

Many of the churches are roofed entirely with a

cluster of equal domes : wherever a church is figuredin a Coptic painting it is always a domed building :

and even those churches of the two Cairos that are


most markedly basilican (with the single exceptionof Al Mu'allakah, where there are special reasons for

the absence of the dome), have at least one domeover the sanctuary, and far more usually one over

each of the three altars. The result is that in the

majority of cases the architecture of the Copticchurches is of a mixed type, half-basilican and half-

Byzantine : while in other cases there is a type

entirely non-basilican yet not entirely Byzantine. But

there is no case, as far as I know, of an architecture

unleavened by either of these two elements, however

variously they enter into combination with each

other and with other elements.

To take the non-basilican order first. The best

examples of this style are perhaps to be found in the

monasteries of the desert. There are two twelve-

domed churches in Dair Mari Antonios in the eastern

desert by the Red Sea : and though the churches of

the Natrun valley in the western desert are not

distinguished by any great number of domes, yet the

domes there are wider in span, lower in pitch, and

finer in structure than anything in Cairo. At the

village of Bush on the Nile, near Bani Suif, there

occurs the very unusual and, as far as I know, unique

arrangement of a central dome with four semi-domes

attached and four small domes at the angles of a

square about it. As a rule the Coptic architect not

merely placed his noblest domes to overshadow the

altars, but seldom cared to raise any other domes at

all. In Cairo, however, both of the churches in the

Harat-ar-Rum, namely Mari Girgis and Al 'Adra,

are covered in with a twelve-domed roofing. The

plan of each is a square, divided into twelve minor

squares, or, to be more accurate, nine squares and

8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

three apsidal figures. Each division has its own

dome, and the roof is upheld at Al 'Adra by six

piers, at Mari Girgis by pillars. The terms aisle and

nave can scarcely be applied in strictness at either

church : and were it not for the absence of a cruci-

form groundplan, and perhaps the presence of the

triple apse, these little churches might be regardedas typical Byzantine structures. With them may be

classed the two churches in Dair Tadrus at Old

Cairo, which are of quite the same style thoughless regular in design, and the upper church in

the Harat-az-Zuailah. These then are the cases in

which the architecture is of decidedly non-basilican

order. But I must not omit to notice that amongthe Cairo churches there is one solitary example of

the central dome, namely K. Burbarah ; and this is

the only church with anything like a cruciform plan,

though generally its details are basilican. Thecentral dome was the most characteristic feature of

the Byzantine style, and after the time of Justinian' became universal in all towns of the eastern

empire V Egypt however makes a striking excep-tion to this rule. The Coptic dome further differs

from the Byzantine in showing externally either plain

brick or a surface of white plaster, and in having no

regular windows, still less anything like the beautiful

arcading of Mone Tes Koras at Constantinople, the

Katholikon in Athens, and the monastery of Daphnitowards Eleusis, or like the extremely rich decoration

of the domes on the church of the Holy Apostles at

Thessalonica. Further, that which is the rule in the

Coptic churches is at least the exception in all other

1 Texier and Pullan, p. 21.


churches ;for I believe there is no case of a Byzan-

tine church out of Egypt in which the apses are

covered with full domes : whereas the churches of

Masr almost always terminate eastward with three

fully domed apses, and never in semi-domes.

This peculiarity is found in the basilican as well as

the Byzantine edifices. Thus Abu-'s-Sifain, Anba

Shanudah, and most other churches, have three

domes, one over each of the three chapels. Abu

Sargah has a dome over each of the side chapels,

while the haikal curiously enough is roofed with a

wagon-vaulting of wood. The wagon-vaulted roof

is found also in the church of Sitt Mariam;

in the

main church and in the chapel of St. Banai at Mari

Mina;the chapel of Sitt Mariam belonging to Abu-'s-

Sifain;the basilica in the Harat-az-Zuailah

;and

Al Mu'allakah. In the last named the aisles and

nave are both wagon-vaulted and the vaulting is

continued over the eastern chapels in place of the

customary domes. If this be the original arrange-

ment, as it very well may be, we have a solitary

instance of a domeless church. It is probable that

the Copts borrowed this form of roof from the

Romans at a very early period, and it is not sur-

prising that the most marked instance of it should

occur in the church built upon the gateway of the

Roman fortress. But its frequent employment in

Coptic churches is very remarkable and deserves to

be noted as a Coptic peculiarity because the wagon-vaulted roof was never used for basilican churches in

any part of western Christendom with the solitary

exception of Ireland. In Egypt it is more commonthan the high-pitched timber roof like that at Abu-'s-

Sifain and Anba Shanudah. There is no evidence

io Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

to show that this skeleton roof of the nave was ever

underdrawn with a flat ceiling coffered and gilded,

such as was common in churches built by Constan-

tine : but that work of the kind was used for ceiling

is proved by the beautiful remnants of coloured wood-

work in the south upper aisle at Abu-'s-Sifain as well

as by the analogous but far earlier decoration of the

entablature in Anba Shanudah and elsewhere.

The entrance to a Coptic church is almost invari-

ably towards, if not in, the western side, while the

sanctuaries lie always on the eastern. The one

eastern entrance at the Harat-az-Zuailah is modern,

and even there the altars are at the same end.

Whatever may have been the primitive arrangementof the Latin Church and it would be difficult to

refute the evidence by which Mr. G. Gilbert Scott

proves that the earliest buildings in south Italy had

eastern doorways and a western altar it is quite

certain that there is no trace or tradition of any such

arrangement in a Coptic sacred building. There, in

every instance, the orientation of the altar is clear

and decided, although accidents of site have of

course in some cases deflected the axis of a church

slightly from the true east. It is quite possible that

the orientation of our European churches, which

was not the usual practice in the beginning, but

which became almost universal in the middle ages,

may have been derived from Egypt. The Coptsseem to have aimed at securing three western doors :

and in their earliest churches this arrangement was

doubtless the ordinary one. But almost from the

beginning of their Christianity they were harried

with incessant persecutions : thus, more especially

after the Muslim conquest, when they found their

CH. i.] General Structure. \ i

lives and possessions exposed to ceaseless outbursts

of fanatical violence and rapacity on the part of

their conquerors, it became a necessity of existence

to fortify their churches. Hence the absence of

windows other than small skylights in all Coptic

churches, and the early disuse of the triple western

doorway. The latter was retained at Al Mu'allakah,

which, owing to its peculiar structure'

in the air,'

depended for its security on other defences. At Abu

Sargah there is one existing door at the west, with

clear evidence of one if not two others having been

blocked up: while at Kadisah Burbarah, Abu-'s-

Sifain, and Anba Shanudah, there is a single western

entrance with no indication of any other having ever

existed. The Jewish synagogue (church of St.

Michael) differs from all others at the present dayin retaining its single original western entrance in

the centre : in the other cases quoted the western

door opens into one of the side aisles. Manychurches have their doorway on the north or south

side, the arrangement being determined by the acci-

dents of the situation and the facilities afforded bymasses of surrounding buildings. At Mari Mlnathere is a western door opening into the south aisle,

and another opening into the north aisle, though the

latter has been walled off and excluded from the

sacred building. The interesting basilica in the

Harat-az-Zuailah seems to have had one or morewestern doorways, though from the west, as the

level of the city rose about the church, the entrance

was removed to the south, and finally to the east.

In nearly all cases the western wall of a Copticchurch aligns the street, but in the little isolated

dairs of Mari Mina and Tadrus, which have no


street within them, and in upper churches like those

at Cairo proper, the rule is of course departed from.

It is this western side which is generally exposed to

view, but the wall, instead of ending with the limits

of the church, is nearly always prolonged and lost

in neighbouring houses. For there is no instance

of a sacred edifice standing clear and detached like

an English church in its churchyard. A Copticchurch outside never shows any outline : around it

is huddled a mass of haphazard buildings which

show that the architect's idea was concealment of

the exterior rather than adornment. These build-

ings serve of course to shelter the church, and though

they have long ago been turned from their original

monastic uses, many of them are still inhabited bythe priests or other satellites employed in the church

services ; while in many cases, as at Abu Sargahfor instance, the upper aisles or triforia which openedinto domestic chambers adjoining have been turned

into women's apartments for the priest's family. AtDair Tadrus the chambers are all silent and deserted,

not a soul residing within the walls, and this was

the case even a hundred and fifty years ago, whenPococke visited Old Cairo : Dair Bablun has three

or four inhabitants : Mari Mtna keeps its rooms

unswept and unfurnished for the pilgrims that comethere once every year : in the Harat-az-Zuailah nuns

are still living in the old monastic buildings attached

to the church. The houses, then, piled at randomabout a Coptic church had two purposes, monastic

and defensive : but it is obvious that they made

anything like exterior ornamentation impossible, and

one may say roughly that an Egyptian church has

neither outline nor exterior architecture. The out-


side is a rude shapeless congeries of brickwork

intended rather to escape notice than to attract

admiration ;it was meant that there should be

nothing to delight the eye of the Muslim enemyprowling without, while architectural and liturgical

splendours alike were reserved for the believer

within.

This entanglement of the sacred fabric in other

buildings, wall against wall, and this absence of out-

side adornment, may be set down as distinctly Coptic

peculiarities : they are found neither in Syria nor

in Byzantium, nor in Latin Christendom : because,

while in other countries it was felt that the outside

as well as the inside of the church deserved a grandand glorious architecture, to the Copts this outer

plainness was a condition of existence. Another

external peculiarity is the arrangement or want of

arrangement in the accessory chapels, which openfrom either aisle or from the triforia, which are

sometimes grouped three or four together under one

roof, which occupy an upper or a lower story indif-

ferently, are walled or not walled on to the mother

church, and are sometimes piled in almost impossible

positions one on top of another. Almost everychurch furnishes examples ;

but I may refer speciallyto the two upper churches of Mari Girgis in Cairo

proper, to Mari Mina, Anba Shanudah, and above

all to Abu-'s-Sifain. Details will be found in the

description of those churches.

Many of these chapels possess the full complementof three altars each within its own sanctuary, and

therefore deserve rather to be called churches, exceptin so far as they are grouped about a larger church

and are under the direct ministration of its clergy.


Abu-'s-Sifain, for example, though an ecclesiastical

and in some sense an architectural unit, is really

a group of churches. The neighbouring group at

Anba Shanudah lies within the circuit of Dair Abu-'s-

Sifain. Several similar units or groups are enclosed

by the ring-wall of the Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah : so too

the churches of Dair Tadrus lie in a walled enclosure

not sixty yards in diameter;and the monasteries in

the western desert are built on precisely the samemodel. This whole arrangement corresponds sin-

gularly with the earliest monastic buildings of Ireland,

where it was customary to erect several small

churches close together, instead of large churches,

and to enclose each group with all its monastic

buildings cells, chambers, kitchens, &c. in a 'cashel'

I

or ring-wall1

. Another curious coincidence between

Irish and Coptic practice is the use of the wagon-vault to roof nave and chancel, there being appa-

rently no other parallel for its early employment in

I

western Christendom. Mr. Warren, in his'

Liturgyand Ritual of the Celtic Church 2

/ quotes a state-

ment that seven Egyptian monks are buried at

Disert Ulidh in Ireland, and are invoked in the

1 Litany of Oengus. So that the coincidence may be

not wholly accidental. Moreover, Ledwich 3 relates

that a colony of Egyptians settled in the isle of

Lerins, off the south coast of France, and adds that

in England'

the Egyptian plan was followed at

Glastonbury.' The monks of Bangor, St. Columba,

Congel, &c., adopted the rule of St. Basil : and the

1

English Church Architecture, by G. Gilbert Scott, pp. 72, 73.2 P. 56.3

Antiquities of Ireland, 2nd edv pp. 88, 89.

CH.i.] General Structure. 15

distinguished antiquaries Sir R. Cotton, Sir H. Spel-

man,W. Camden, and J. Selden, when appealed to on

the subject,' drew up a certificate wherein they de-

clared that previous to the coming of St. Augustinein 597 the Egyptian rule (of monastic life) was onlyin use.'

Before quitting this part of the subject, I mayremark that no Cairo church has any spire or tower :

neither the Byzantine campanile nor the Muslim

minaret has any counterpart in the ordinary build-

ings of the Copts. But this peculiarity arises not

from any dislike on the part of the Christians to

bells, but from the Muslim prohibition of their usage.

Accordingly we find bell-towers still standing and

still in use in the desert monasteries of the Natrun

valley and other remote places, where there is no

chance of Muslim interference. These towers are

built of brick and covered with plaster : as far as

they have any character they may be called Byzan-tine. Each tower is usually two stories high, squareon plan, and each side in the upper story is relieved

by two open arches, highly stilted and round-headed.

The position which the tower occupies with regardto the church is quite immaterial, but it is always

virtually detached.

We may now turn to the interior structure and

arrangement of the Cairo churches, distinguishingas before such features as may be called basilican

or Byzantine or Coptic.

Generally speaking the nave is divided from the

aisle on each side by a row of Greek or Romancolumns. The favourite arrangement was to have

twelve such columns distributed round the three

sides of the nave, as at Abu Sargah, leaving the

1 6 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. r.

eastern side open, but making a narthex or returned

aisle at the west end. It is extremely rare to find

the rows of columns ending abruptly in a western

wall without any cross-row, as for instance was the

case in the old basilica of St. Peter's at Rome and

perhaps the cathedral at Ravenna : but it is equallyrare now to find the cross-row of columns standingclear and making a true returned aisle, such as maybe seen in the synagogue at Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah.

For the spaces between the pillars of the returned

aisle have in most cases been walled up, so that the

western aisle has become rather a true narthex. Acomparison of the plan of Abu Sargah or Kadisah

Burbarah with the ancient basilica of Thessalonica l

will show the same transition from the returned aisle

to the narthex proper in widely different localities.

As far as I know, Al Mu'allakah affords a solitary

instance of an exo-narthex which contains, like that

at Thessalonica, a fountain for ablutions. At the

period when Abu-'s-Sifain was built, i.e. the tenth

century, the narthex was so far necessary that it is

made a distinct feature of the church instead of beingan adaptation : while the adjacent but much earlier

building of Anba Shanudah shows no sign of anynarthex. The narthex was of course the place

appointed for catechumens during the service of the

church, besides being the place of discipline and

admonition for penitents, and sometimes the place

of baptism. But the state of decay and disorder into

which this part of the sacred edifice has fallen shows

a very long discontinuance and oblivion of such

primitive usage. At Abu Sargah, Abu-'s-Sifain, and

1

Figured in Texier and Pullan's Byzantine Architecture, p. 173.


Al Adra Harat-az-Zuailah the large Epiphany tank

is sunk in the floor of the narthex : but although the

orthodox place would seem to be at the west end, its

position in other churches varies so much that it can

only have been determined by random choice or

hazard. Still, in these three principal buildings the

narthex was used at the feast of Epiphany (whenthe people plunged into the waters blessed by the

priest), long after its original uses were forgotten.At Kadisah Burbarah the central part of the narthex

is walled off and serves as mandarah or guest-room,while the entrance passes through the north part, and

the south part is walled off into a separate sacristy.

The narthex is finely marked in some of the ancient

churches of Upper Egypt. Thus the church of the

White Monastery near Suhag, which dates from at

least the third or fourth century, has a central western

entrance and a narthex completely walled off from

the aisles as well as from the nave : a single central

door in the eastern wall of the narthex gives admis-

sion to the church. This narthex once contained a

beautiful baptistery, and it remains even now one of

the most splendid monuments of early Christian

ritual. Among the monasteries of the desert, the

rite of baptism was comparatively rarely exercised,

because it very seldom happened that any resorted

thither who had not already been signed with the

cross of Christ. Consequently many of the churches

there are quite destitute of baptisteries, and even

where the font is found, it is seldom or never placedat the western entrance : and such is the modifyinginfluence of ritual upon architecture, that there does

not occur one instance of a true narthex in all the

churches of the Natrun valley, although the western

1 8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. \.

returned aisle is not unfrequent. A glance at the

plan of Al Adra Dair-as-Suriani will show how

easily a narthex might have been built in place of

the returned aisle, had need so required.

The walls of the nave in basilican churches are

generally carried on a continuous wooden architrave

joining the columns, and are lightened by small

relieving arches. But instead of the classic entabla-

ture, which was blazoned with colours and gold,

adorned with Coptic texts and carved crosses, wefind the pillars spanned by arches on the north side

of Al Mu'allakah : while at Abu-s'-Sifain there are

neither columns nor architrave but heavy solid piers

united by arches. The structure of Miri Mlna is

somewhat similar : while in the more Byzantine

buildings we often find piers not in line but in

groups, with arches springing from all four sides.

Of these two methods of construction, the arched is

of course later than the trabeated;and many of the

Coptic churches are remarkable for their combination

of both methods, showing in fact with curious felicity

the history of the transition. The Greek architects

set their columns close together, or, in technical

language, employed the pyknostyle arrangement :

but the Romans, choosing to place wider intervals

between the columns, were obliged to find some

way of distributing the heavy bearing which resulted

from this araeostyle construction. Accordingly theyintroduced relieving arches, which were at first not

open, but hidden in the wall above the architrave.

The next step was to show the relieving arches

boldly, as they are shown for instance at Abu Sargahand Anba Shanudah, and to substitute a wooden for

a stone architrave;and it is easy to see how the

CH.i.] General Structure. 19

widening of the relieving arches would finally do

away with the necessity for the architrave altogether.Such are the changes arising from a change in the

method of intercolumniation : and even from this

brief review it will be obvious that where we find

so decided examples of the trabeated and of the

arched style of construction in the same building, as

at Al Mu'allakah, we must assign them to different

epochs. I may add that a continuous marble archi-

trave with small relieving arches visible occurs in

the church of Sta. Maria in Trastavere at Rome.Over the lateral aisles, and over the returned aisle

or the narthex, upper aisles are nearly always built,

of equal dimensions with those below. These upperaisles, or triforia as they may be called for con-

venience, were used to accommodate women at

times of service at least as early as the days of

St. Augustine1

. They opened into the nave by large

bays with an arrangement of columns. Whether the

spaces between the columns were screened or not is

uncertain, but the parapet of the gallery would be

sufficient almost to hide the worshippers from the

congregation below. Good examples of these gal-leries may be seen at Abu Sargah and Kadlsah

Burbarah, while they are quite unknown in the

contemporary churches of the desert monasteries,

where of course there were no women. In lapse of

time however, as it became customary for women to

attend service in the body of the church, a special

place westward was railed and screened off for them.

Consequently, when the gallery was no longer re-

quired, the spaces between the pillars were walled up

1 Civ. Dei, iii. p. 27.

C 2

2o Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.I.

and the galleries were turned to other uses. This

change was facilitated by their arrangement, for the

entrance to them is in all cases from without the

church by a doorway communicating with the ad-

jacent monastic dwellings : so that it was easy to

sever this part of the church from the general service

of the sacred building. The first step was to convert

the women's galleries into chapels ;and this was done

at an early period at Kadisah Burbarah, and most

likely at Abu Sargah, though there I was forbidden

to enter the triforium to examine. The church of

Abu-'s-Sifain is remarkably interesting in this con-

nexion as having been built at a time when the

transition had already taken place. For the divisions

below into men's section and women's section are

undoubtedly part of the original arrangement datingfrom the tenth century. Accordingly we find that,

inasmuch as provision was made at the first for

women in the body of the church, although the

basilican tradition so far determined its structure as

to necessitate a continuous gallery over the aisles

and narthex, yet this gallery is, with the exception of

one small and almost inaccessible opening, entirely

shut off from the nave by solid walls, so that no one

in it could follow the service below. But the galleryis furnished with chapels of its own, contemporarywith the main building, and designed for quite sepa-rate services. It may then be taken for granted that

the practice of admitting women to the nave of the

church, though the two sexes were kept apart, had

become general if not universal by the tenth century.

But the chapels erected in the galleries have

themselves long fallen into disuse, as the zeal and

the number of worshippers diminished : though the

CH. i.] General Structure. 2 1

traces of gorgeous colours and gilding, of elaborate

frescoes and beautiful wood-carving, still bear witness

to the olden splendour of these oratories and the

pomp of their vanished ceremonial. To-day the

upper aisles are either entirely disused, or service is

held in each chapel on one solitary day in the whole

year's round, the feast-day of the patron saint;or the

entire gallery is given up to the women of the

priest's household, who make it their special apart-ment and deck it with hangings and mirrors. Even

now, however, on the occasion of great festivals, whenthe congregation of women is too large for the placeset apart in the nave, they are admitted into the

gallery wherever, as at Abu Sargah, latticed gratingshave been let into the walls which block the ancient

bay openings. It is interesting to notice that the

present restoration of Al Mu'allakah displays a

reversion to primitive practice ;for there the screens

that separated the sexes in the nave have been

entirely abolished, and the women are relegated to

the galleries. In the modern cathedral of Cairo too

the women are not allowed in the body of the church,

but have two stories of latticed galleries over the

aisles, from which they see and hear the service.

Examples of churches with large upper aisles for

women are found at Rome (St. Agnes without the

walls and St. Lawrence) : the basilica of the fifth

century at Thessalonica preserves the same arrange-ment ; though it was not found in the great Romanbasilicas of St. Peter or St. Paul. I may add that

there is no instance of a clerestory in Coptic architec-

ture : nor is there anything resembling the narrow

triforium of our Gothic buildings. The broad

triforium at Westminster Abbey offers perhaps the


closest parallel to the Coptic upper aisles, and the

resemblance is the more complete as there is evidence

to show that it once contained chapels.

The transept is a very rare feature in the churches

of Egypt. Abu Sargah contains a short northern

transept, and Kadlsah Burbarah both northern and

southern. The latter church (I repeat) is the one ex-

ample of a cruciform plan, irregular as it is, and over

the centre of the cross rises a large and lofty dome ;

but in other respects the church is decidedly basili-

can. Besides these two I have seen no other church

in Cairo with a transept.

The division of the nave into men's section and

women's section by means of screens, which, as I

have shown, is at least as ancient as the tenth cen-

tury, is the normal arrangement at the present dayin the main churches, and is carried out even in

many of the little chapels and baptisteries. Thedivision is in all cases across the body of the church,

so that the women are ranged entirely behind and

westward of the men. Thus, as the whole congre-

gation faces eastward, no interchange of glances is

possible.

Allusion has already been made to the large

Epiphany tank which forms a regular part of a

Coptic church. These tanks are eight or ten feet

long, six feet broad, and five or six feet deep. Theyseem to have been boarded over when not actuallyin use. It is reasonable to suppose, especially from

their prevalent position in the narthex, that these

tanks were meant in the early ages of the Church for

baptism by total immersion, although there is no

distinct evidence or tradition to that effect, except

perhaps the fact that they generally occupy the


place assigned to the font in the churches of the

West. It is however certain that any such custom

has been abolished for centuries, during which time

these tanks have been used exclusively on the feast

of Epiphany ;and this latter usage was suppressed

from the disorder it occasioned within the memoryof the present generation. But there is another

tank of much smaller size which forms no less

characteristic a feature of the Egyptian churches.

This is a shallow rectangular basin about two feet

long by one foot broad, which is sunk in the floor

and edged about generally with costly marbles. Its

usual position is in the westward part of the nave,

where it may be seen at Abu-'s-Sifain, Anba Shanu-

dah, Abu Sargah, Al Mu'allakah, &c.;but in many

of the desert churches it lies rather more eastward.

In olden times it was undoubtedly used for the

mandatum, and possibly also for ablutions.

From the canons of Christodulus, as late as the

eleventh century, we know that men were requiredto come barefoot to church

;and the tank was per-

haps placed in the floor in order that worshippers

might conveniently' shake off the dust of their feet'

before service : and the dust of Cairo is by no meansan imaginary evil or pollution. At the present dayhowever, the practice of wearing shoes has rendered

this cleansing less necessary, and the use of the tank

for ablutions is wholly unknown except on MaundyThursday, when the ancient ceremony of feet-wash-

ing, once common alike to the eastern and western

churches, but with us long neglected, is still per-

formed by the priest. While the Epiphany tank

seems a peculiarity of the Coptic ritual, the font or

tank for ablutions was common to all the oriental


churches, and even the churches of the West retain

in their holy-water stoups the same tradition 1. But

the Coptic practice differs from that of the Syrianand Byzantine churches in the position of the tank

;

for both in the great basilica of Tyre as restored byConstantine, and in the church of St. Sophia, the

tank lay in the centre of the atrium external to the

main building, and surrounded by quadrangularcloisters or colonnades. So too at Thessalonica

the fountain lies outside at the north-east corner

of the church. It is worth remarking that a similar

tank for washing the feet before prayer, or else a

fountain, is invariably attached to the Mohammedan

mosques of Egypt : and moreover the position of

the fountain in the centre of the courtyard at all the

larger mosques, and the surrounding cloisters, almost

exactly reproduce the Christian atrium. The ana-

logy is carried even further in the many cases where

the Muslim fountain is covered with a dome resting

on a circle of pillars ;for this was a common Christian

arrangement, and was found at the early church of

St. John at Constantinople as described by Clavijo,

and still exists at the churches of Zographe and St.

Laura at Mount Athos.

In the arrangement of the choir in Coptic churches

there are three distinct methods discernible. In

some of the more Byzantine buildings, as Al AdraHarat-ar-Rum and Abu Kir wa Yuhanna, the choir

is neither marked off from the nave by any screen

nor distinguished by a higher level : in other churches,

like Al Amir Tadrus, a single step divides choir and

nave, while a high lattice screen intervenes : again,

1

History of English Church Architecture, p. 16 n.

CH. i.] General Struct^lre. 25

in the chief basilican churches the choir is raised

two steps above the nave and screened by lattice-

work. To this latter class however there are two

singular exceptions, Al Mu'allakah and Kadisah

Burbarah, in which choir and nave are at one con-

tinuous level, and the screens that parted the twohave been removed

;so that an unbroken view may

be had from the west to the sanctuary. At Abu-'s-

Sifain, the choir-screen is solid and pierced by a

small square sliding-door or window on either side :

the entrance closes by folding-doors, across which

hung in olden times a curtain. At Abu-'s-Sifain,

Abu Sargah, and Al Adra Harat-az-Zuailah the

screen recedes about three feet eastward from the

edge of the choir platform, leaving in the navea kind of stone bench. This probably correspondsto the solea of the Greek Church, where candidates

for ordination stood till the Cherubic Hymn was

ended, when they were led into the sanctuary. It

should be remarked that there is a solea before

the sanctuary-screen, at Al Mu'allakah, thoughthere is no choir now otherwise distinguished than

by the lecterns. It is doubtful whether, in the

very earliest times, the choir was separated from

the nave or had any distinct existence, as the first

clear mention of it seems to be in the seventh

century. Later it was marked off from the nave

by a low railing something like the wall or balu-

strade common in early Italian basilicas, with this

difference in the Coptic churches, that the choir-

railing always extended across the whole building

instead of returning along the wings or aisles east-

ward. There was a front railing, in fact, but no

side railings. The reason for this difference of


structure lies in the fact that a Coptic church has

three chapels eastward, shut off either by a single

continuous screen or by three screens in the same

line, and requiring therefore a continuous choir.

The choir then in all cases extends the whole

breadth of the church, and is even drawn out

along the transepts, where such exist, as at Kadi-

sah Burbarah. There is a very curious arrange-ment in some of the churches in the Natrun valley,

for example at Al 'Adra Dair-as-Suriani, where the

choir is entirely separated from the nave by a wall

reaching the whole height of the building, and open-

ing from the nave only by a central doorway fitted

with folding-doors. One may remark also that these

monastic churches have often low screens of solid

stone instead of the lofty lattice screens of the Cairo

buildings.

The choir-screen is sometimes, though not always,adorned with a series of pictures ranged along the

top: the subjects are either sacred scenes or figures

of apostles and saints;but it seems a fixed rule that

the central painting over the choir door should repre-

sent the crucifixion. The analogy with the western

practice is the more obvious when we remember that

in later times at all events the rood was generallya crucifix. It was before this door, in the Coptic as

in the Roman ritual, that processions made a station

while singing antiphons. A rood proper or cross of

wood is sometimes, though rarely, found on the choir-

screen, as in the chapel of St. Antony at Abu-'s-Sifain.

At Al'Adra Harat-ar-Rum, which has no choir-screen,

a large rood with pictures of Mary and John attached

rests upon a rood-beam fastened between the two

piers, which in the ordinary arrangement would be

CH. i.] General Structtire. 27

joined by the choir-screen ; while at Al 'Adra Harat-

az-Zuailah, there is a true rood over the door, not of

the choir but of the haikal ; and the same is the case

at Al 'Adra in Dair-as-Suriani in the western desert.

The Coptic choir, measured from west to east, is

seldom more than ten or twelve feet deep ;it con-

tains no stalls either for clergy or ' chorus cantorum/and no seats of any description, but usually two

moveable lecterns and a tall standard candlestick.

The pulpit is placed in the nave, near the north-

east corner : sometimes it resembles closely our

western pulpits, in other cases it may more rightly

be called an ambon : and sometimes again it has

quite disappeared. Fine examples of the ambonoccur at Al Mu'allakah, Abu-'s-Sifain, and Mari

Mlna : but its position never varies, and its greater

length is invariably east and west, not north and

south, as was usual in the early churches, as for

example at St. Sophia. It is never mounted by two

flights of steps, does not stand in the centre of the

church, and has no column to serve as paschal candle-

stick. The usual pulpit in the monastic churches of

the desert is a recess in the nave wall furnished with

a rude balustrade.

Every church has three contiguous sanctuaries

and three altars, neither more nor less. Many other

chapels are attached externally to the main building,

or are located in the upper aisles;but in the main

body of the church no altars are allowed to be scat-

tered about the building, but all must be ranged in a

line at the eastern end. There are only two altars at

present at Al Amir Tadrus and at Abu-'s-Sifain : but

it is almost certain that at the former church an altar

has been removed, and even if the same is not true


of Abu-'s-Sifain the comparatively late date of that

edifice makes its exceptional structure less note-

worthy. Kadisah Burbarah and Al 'Adra Harat-az-

Zuailah, though both very ancient buildings, include

part of a still earlier foundation;and I have no

doubt this tradition rightly accounts for the addi-

tional altars possessed by those two churches. But

the concurrence of evidence is so overwhelming, and

the exceptions so few and doubtful, that the generallaw of three altars is very clearly established. Evenin the tiny chapels adjoining the main churches, as

St. Banai at Mari Mina and Sitt Mariam above

Abu-'s-Sifain, it is extremely rare to find a single

altar : three always were built wherever space could

be devised for placing them side by side. Each altar

has its own dedication, but the central is invariably

the high altar : each stands detached in the middle

of its sanctuary. A continuous wooden screen divides

the three sanctuaries from the common choir, and

the central is parted from the side sanctuaries by walls,

with or without open passages of communication.

These chapels, of which the central corresponds to

the Greek bema, or presbytery, are generally, thoughnot invariably, raised one step above the level of the

choir, never more than two.

The sanctuary screen is always of solid opaquewoodwork, enriched with intricate arabesques or

geometrical patterns, and inlaid with superblycarved crosses and stars of ivory. Each chapelhas its own low round-arched doorway, fitted with

double doors, and over each door is a Coptic or

Arabic text inlaid in ivory letters. In one or two

of the older churches, as Abu Sargah and Al 'Adra

Harat-az-Zuailah, the screen of the haikal, instead


of aligning with that of the side chapels, projects out

three or four feet into the choir, and is returned so

as to allow of a door on the north and south as well

as on the western side of the high altar an arrange-

ment that clearly points to the ceremonial proces-

sions of the greater and the lesser entrance. Besides

these doors there is often, but not always, found on

each side of the haikal door a small square opening,with a sliding shutter, about five feet from the ground.At Abu-'s-Sifain these windows exist in the choir-

screen as well as in the haikal-screen, though in

neither case could they ever serve the purpose of

allowing the congregation a glimpse of the celebra-

tion within, like the hagioscopes of our own churches.

Before the sanctuary there hang always a number of

lamps, which are sometimes of silver, and the door is

Veiled by a silk curtain, often of great magnificence,with texts, crosses, and sacred figures wrought in

silver embroidery. On entering the church a wor-

shipper always prostrates himself and kisses the

hem of this curtain a reverent custom that ascends

to the remotest antiquity. The hanging is drawn

aside during the whole period of the celebration, and

the doors fold back inwards towards the altar. Atthe centre of the doorway arch is fastened a ringfrom which at a certain point in the mass the priest

suspends the censer of burning incense in full view

of the congregation. Along the top of the screen,

which is seven to ten feet high, are ranged several

pictures or a continuous tablet divided into panels.

The central panel or picture usually represents the

Virgin and Child, and those on the sides the figures

of apostles or prophets.Thus the Coptic haikal-screen, with its pictures


or icons, answers very closely to the Greek icono-

stasis. Originally the sanctuary-screen seems to have

been of trellis, or some kind of light open-work,whether in wood or metal. At the great church of

Tyre were, as Eusebius relates, wooden gratings'

wrought with so delicate an art as to be a wonder

to behold' perhaps like the Arab mushrabiah.

St. Sophia in the sixth century boasted a screen

of silver divided by columns into panels, upon which

were medallions chased with icons of Christ and

other holy figures, the door being surmounted with

a crucifix. At the church of Patras there was a

flabellum ornamented with cherub-heads on each

side of the rood 1. Clavijo speaks of silver-gilt doors

with silk hangings at the church of St. John,

Constantinople. The mosaics of St. George's at

Thessalonica show a low screen in front of the

altar : and a low stone screen or wall, supportingslender columns which are joined above by an archi-

trave, forms a type of iconostasis not uncommon in

the early Italian churches. According to Goar, the

opaque form first came into vogue in the eighth

century, and was adopted to gain more space for

pictures in virtue of a sharp reaction against the

iconoclasts. But this canon does not necessarily

apply to the churches of Egypt. There is not

the slightest sign of a low stone screen before the

altar in any one of the Coptic buildings, nor of

any altar-screen other than a lofty and opaqueiconostasis. The central haikal-screens at Abu Sar-

gah and Al 'Adra Hdrat-az-Zuailah are not later

than the tenth century, and might, I think, reason-

1

Lenoir, Architecture Monastique, vol. i. p. 345.


ably be placed quite a century earlier. But these

examples have already the low round-arched door-

way with double doors, which is only a developmentfrom an earlier arrangement. In proof of this

statement I rely on a very curious and interesting

discovery which I have made at the monasteries of

the- Natrun valley. In Dair-as-Suriani the grandbasilican church of Al 'Adra has for its haikal-screen

a pair of very lofty folding-doors each in three

leaves the jambs of which stand against the side

walls of the sanctuary. These doors throw open, or

fold back, in such a manner against the walls as to

leave the whole interior of the haikal open to view;

but when they are closed they form a solid screen

entirely concealing the altar and its surroundings.The character of the Syriac inscription on the lintel

and jambs fixes the date of the doors as not later

than the year 700 A.D. Now it so happens that in

the neighbouring monastery of Anba Bishoi the

haikal-screen is made after the same model with

the exception that each door has only two leaves

instead of three. But there the four lofty leaves

have been closed permanently to form an immove-able screen : and about five feet six inches from the

ground the two inner leaves have been sawn throughin a semicircle, the result being to leave a low

round-arched doorway with one leaf on each side

opening inwards, or in other words an entrance to

the haikal identical with that at Abu Sargah. I mayadd that these very ancient iconostases have of

course no pictures on their top, but the icons are

inlaid in ivory upon the panels of the doors.

But although it be thus conclusively proved that

the arrangement at Abu Sargah is not the earliest


form of the Coptic altar-screen, it is still early enoughto surpass most surviving examples of the icono-

stasis, eastern and western. For most of the western

churches have lost their ancient screens through

decay, removal, or restoration : while even those

eastern churches which escaped total destruction

at the hands of the Turks and were turned into

mosques as 'some of the churches at Constan-

tinople and Thessalonica even these had all their

fittings broken to pieces when the crescent replacedthe cross.

Each of the side chapels in a Coptic church has

its own set of icons over the screen, but as a rule

the door is not curtained. At Abu-'s-Sifain and Mari

Mina the choir, like the sanctuaries, has a separateiconostasis a solid screen with central folding-

doors and a row of pictures above instead of the

ordinary light lattice screen that divides choir from

nave. These examples of the double iconostasis

are curious, and I believe unparalleled in any other

churches.

It has already been shown that a Coptic church

has always three eastern chapels, each with its own

altar, its own entrance, and its own iconostasis, andall standing in a line upon the same platform.There are also three divisions in a Greek church

bema, or presbytery, prothesis, and diakonikon.

The prothesis lies on the north of the sanctuaryand contains a table which is set against the wall,

but no altar. It is the place where the elements

are made ready and set in order for consecration.

The diakonikon, on the south side of the sanctuary,contains also a table and serves as a vestry and

sacristy: here are kept the books and vestments,

CH.I.] General Structure. 33

vessels, incense, and tapers ;but here also there is

no altar. In fact a Greek church has only one altar, a

Coptic church has three;and this is a vital distinc-

tion between them. For although in many of the

Egyptian churches the southern side-chapel is used,

like the diakonikon, as a sacristy, such usage is

rather an abuse arising from the neglect into which

the minor altars have fallen, than a tradition of

primitive custom.

The eastern wall of all three chapels generally,

but more especially of the haikal, is apsidal ;the

apse, however, is invariably internal, so that stand-

ing outside one sees a plain rectangular ending to

the church, unbroken by any outward curvature.

This internal apse is a feature of very great anti-

quity, and it was characteristic of all the earliest

churches of Asia and Europe. The single apse is

sometimes said to be earlier than the triple ;it is

found at Al 'Adra Harat-az-Zuailah, for example,K. Burbarah, and the satellite church at Al Mu al-

lakah. Yet Al Mu'allakah itself has three apses ;

so had Mari Mina and Abu-'s-Sifain, though in

each case one has been blocked up. Mr. Fresh-

field's canon 1 that a Greek triapsal church is later,

and a monapsal church earlier, than the time of

Justin II, i.e. about 550 A.D., has a tempting pre-

cision about it, but cannot be applied to determine

the date of the churches of Cairo. For the changefrom the single to the triple apse was made by the

Greeks deliberately to suit the ritualistic require-

ments of a new processional hymn ; but, as I have

already explained, the Greek prothesis and dia-

1

Archaeologia, vol. xliv. p. xxiv.

D

34 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. r.

konikon have no counterpart in the side-chapels of

a Coptic church, which always contained altars, and

therefore always had their own distinct ritual asso-

ciations. And it must be remembered that the

monastic churches in the Natrun valley, which

yield to none perhaps in point of antiquity, and

which yet represent different epochs-, are entirely

destitute of apses, but have all three chapels rect^

angular. We must therefore be content with the

fact that out of Egypt a single apse points to a build-

ing of high antiquity. Thus the ancient churches

of Dana on the Euphrates, Kalb Luzah, andthose of central Syria generally, have only one

apse : three apses, however, are found in the main

church, a single apse in the satellite church at Kalat

Saman 460-560 A.D. The Katholikon and Panagiaat Athens, and the small monastic church at Daphni,the church of the Virgin at Mistra, of St. Sophia at

Thessalonica, are all triapsal. The early basilicas of

St. Peter and St. Paul, also Sta. Maria Maggiore and

Sta. Agnese at Rome, and S. Apollinare Nuovo at

Ravenna, may be quoted as examples of single-

apsed churches. In England, the church of Wingin Buckinghamshire has one apse and two square-ended side-chapels ;

and the same arrangement was

made in the original plan of the church at Brix-

worth. The Saxon church of Deerhurst, near

Tewkesbury, still retains one of its three original

apses. The same number existed at Lindisfarne

priory, while Lanfranc's cathedral at Canterburyhad no less than five apsidal chapels. In all these

churches, and with scarcely an exception in all

churches beyond the limits of Africa, the curve of

the apse wall shows on the exterior.


Whether the Christian apse was suggested by a

like feature in the pagan basilica or not, in the

.Christian churches it had a specific and independent

purpose. In its normal structure the curve is followed

by a tier of curving steps, at the top of which a bench

runs round the wall, divided in the centre by a raised

seat or throne;while the altar of course stands

detached. The throne was meant for the bishop,the bench for twelve presbyters or elders of the

church, who thus sat along the wall facing westward

and looking down upon the celebration of the

mysteries. This arrangement, styled a tribune, was

common in the early churches of the West, and maystill be seen in the well-known seventh-centurychurch of Torcello near Venice, and the cathedral

of Parenzo in I stria. But nowhere has the idea

taken so large and lasting hold upon Christian archi-

tecture as in Egypt, and nowhere are finer early

specimens of the tribune preserved. The churches

of Abu Sargah, Al 'Adra in the Harat-az-Zuailah,

and Abu-'s-Sifain, furnish beautiful examples of

raised marble tribunes with central thrones : while

smaller tribunes may be seen at Al Mu'allakah, AlAdra Harat-ar-Rum, and in most churches. Generallybehind the throne a round-headed niche is let into

the wall, and in it there often hangs an ever-burning

lamp. Even the square-ended churches of the desert

retain the niche and have straight instead of curved

tribunes.

So strong is the tradition of the tribune with the

Copts, that a second and even a third are sometimes

found in the side-chapels, as at Al Mu'allakah, wherethe low tiers of steps seem quite too narrow for

use and have perhaps only an ideal value. Since

D 2


too the tribune is associated with an apse, since all

the early Cairo churches were built with an apse and

with a tribune together, it is curious to note that

even in the very rare cases where a church exists

with square-ended chapels, there is always preservedsome reminiscence of the apse or tribune. Thus in

the church of Sitt Mariam Dair Abu-'s-Sifain all three

chapels are singularly enough square-ended, but in

the eastern wall of the haikal is a large shallow niche

covered with fine Damascus tiles. So at Mari

Girgis Harat-ar-Rum, the only other church where

all the chapels are square, the haikal has a tribune of

two straight steps with five steps leading up to the

throne, which is set under a rectangular recess : and

in the south side-chapel there is another round-

niched throne mounted by a flight of seven steps.

No Coptic chapel is found, I believe, without a niche

in the eastern wall, though these recesses were never

used as in the West for images. Sometimes they are

painted with the figure of our Lord in the attitude

of benediction, and sometimes a hanging lamp burns

before the niche : but more often in the present day

they are uncoloured and lampless. Whether theyhad any definite ritual purpose, or whether they are

merely a feature of the full apse and meant to recall

it, must remain undecided.

The walls of the Coptic tribune are generally faced

with slabs and panels of many-coloured marble, which

form a dado six or eight feet high, such as may be

seen at Al Adra in the Harat-az-Zuailah. This use

of variegated marble for wall-facing and paving is

common both in the ancient churches and in the

earlier mosques of Egypt : a very beautiful examplefor instance may be seen at the mosques of Al

CH.I.] General Structure. 37

Ashraf and of Kait Bey, among the so-called tombs

of the Khalifs at Cairo, where both wall and floor are

decorated with the most exquisite designs and colours.

This form of art is however Christian, not Muslim,in origin, and was borrowed by the Muslim builders :

or rather was lent by the Coptic architects and

builders, whom the Muslims employed for the con-

struction of their mosques. In the West the art

seems to have decayed comparatively early : thoughat Torcello the marbled walls of the apse still remain

uninjured in curious likeness to those at Al Adra.

In the East the art was applied to church decoration

at least as early as the fourth century: for Eusebius,

speaking of the church of St. Saviour at Jerusalemin 333 A.D., tells of walls covered with variegatedmarble. Texier and Pullan give a splendid illustra-

tion of a mosaic pavement at St. Sophia in Trebizond,

which they assign to the second or third century.

Long after the Arab conquest, when the beautiful

churches of central Syria had fallen in ruins, this

form of decoration lingered on in Egypt where

most likely it first arose, and in the twelfth and

thirteenth centuries, when in greatest danger of

decaying, was adopted by the Muslim conquerorsfor the adornment of their mosques, and during that

period, always in the hands of Coptic artists, attained

its most sumptuous perfection.

The same remarks hold good of another like form

of art Coptic mosaic. This differs from the sectile

marble-work more in degree than kind;for it is made

of exceedingly minute pieces of coloured marbles

and porphyries tesselated together, but contains also

a curious admixture of mother-of-pearl. The whole

constitutes an inlay of almost incredible fineness.


In the churches of Egypt this work is lavished on

the places of greatest honour, and may be seen

chiefly in the niche of the haikal. Perhaps the best

early example is in the tiny baptistery of the little

church at Al Mu'allakah : while the southern chapelof the larger church displays both mosaic and sectile

work of great splendour. The ambon of Abu-'s-

Sifain contains a mosaic design of most extraordinary

intricacy, though unmixed with mother-of-pearl.

Among the Arab mosques the same style of mosaic

in conjunction with sectile work may be seen at the

tomb-mosque of Al Ashraf and of ICait Bey without

the walls of Cairo : within the walls also the mosquesof Al Hakim and Al Ghuri furnish rich and gorgeous

examples.This Coptic mosaic differs entirely from the

mosaic that has become familiar to western eyes at

St. Sophia in Constantinople or St. Mark in Venice.

There the tesserae vary little in shape, being nearlyall cubes, and they are composed of coloured enamel,

i.e. pastes of glass rendered opaque and coloured bymetallic oxides. The gilt tesserae were made byfusing on to a cube of earthenware two thin plates of

glass with a film of gold-leaf between them. Mosaic

with gold backgrounds made in this manner is

anterior to the reign of Justinian. Among the

Copts the use of vitreous pastes and metallic oxides

is quite unknown : their mosaic is composed only of

natural marbles cut into minute pieces of all shapes,

square, round or triangular, and arranged in

ornamental patterns according to their natural

colours. There is this further difference, that the

Coptic churches show no single instance of a picturein mosaic : the artists confined themselves to con-


ventional designs, aware that with the stiffness and

hardness of their material and its colours they could

achieve nothing like the harmonious richness and

softness required for a mosaic picture. No doubt

the Coptic is earlier than the Byzantine form of

mosaic-work, and it was never disturbed by its later

rival in Egypt. For although the Saracens in Syriaborrowed the art from Byzantium and used vitreous

enamels for the decoration of their mosque walls, as

well as for inlaying jewellery and steel armour on a

smaller scale, yet the Mohammedans of Egypt never

adopted any but the native or Coptic marble mosaic;

partly because its unpictorial character suited their

taste, and partly because they found ready made both

art and artists, artists whose names have perished,

but whose skill is still recorded in work of unex-

ampled splendour which adorns the great mosques of

Cairo. In visiting these mosques one is met by a

striking coincidence : for just as every Coptic church

and chapel has its eastern niche, so every mosquealso has its kiblah or niche in the like position : andas in the Coptic church, so in the Muslim mosque,it is the niche that is covered with the most delicate

and beautiful mosaics. It would however be perhapstoo bold to conjecture that the Coptic architects

introduced the niche as well as the mode of its

decoration from their own sacred edifices.

Marble and mother-of-pearl mosaic is of very rare

occurrence in the West, though examples are found,as in the church of St. Vitale, Ravenna, and the

cathedral of Parenzo : but it is not so much the

mere admixture of mother-of-pearl, as the extra-

ordinary minuteness of the tesserae and the be-

wildering intricacy of the designs that form the


distinguishing characteristics of the Coptic mosaic,

and make it unique in manner and in charm.

But to return from this digression. While the

lower part of the .apse wall in the haikal is covered

with marble slabs, above there should always be

ranged in order the figures of the twelve apostles,

and in the centre, over or in the niche, our Lord

enthroned in the attitude of benediction. These

figures of course are painted in fresco or on panel,

statues being entirely forbidden. This arrangement

may be seen at Abu-'s-Sifain, Datr Bablun, and in

most churches. Sometimes it may be there is no

marble, and the wood or fresco painting descends to

the floor, but the figures in the conch are as regulara part of church adornment as the icons on the screen.

Gear's J

testimony shows that the same practice holds

in the Greek Church, and the remains at Torcello

preserve precisely the same method of decoration

as an example in western Christendom.

There seems no fixed rule as regards communi-

cation between the haikal and side-chapels. In

some cases il exists on both sides, sometimes on

one side only, and often is entirely wanting. Pre-

sumably the earliest arrangement was the simplestand originally the haikal had no communication with

either chapel : for however early the three altars

became normal, the side-altars must still be later

than the central. In the desert churches the party-walls are generally pierced with doorways, as in

Dair-as-Suriani : but there is not the remotest signof uniformity in the arrangement of the churches

of the two Cairos. While for instance Al Mu'allakah

1

Euchologion. p. 14.


has not even party-walls dividing haikal from the

side-chapels, but merely piers carrying arches and

once closed either by screens or hangings, AnbaShanudah has a screen on the north of the high

altar, and on the south a stone wall divided by an

open passage ;K. Burbarah has stone party-walls

and no passage ;Sitt Mariam in Dair Abu-'s-Sifain

has a passage through to the north chapel only ;

while at Mari Mina and Dair Bablun the only

thoroughfare is on the south side;

in the two

churches in the Harat-ar-Riim, Al 'Adra and Mari

Girgis, the haikal communicates directly through

pierced party-walls with both side-chapels ; and

lastly, in the small satellite churches there is as a

rule no communication. In such a strange varietyof usage, it is not easy to believe that the pierc-

ing of the party-walls had any ritual significance,

or was more than a matter of accidental con-

venience.

The side-chapels in a Coptic church are now

generally used but once a year each upon the

festival of the saint to whom it is dedicated. It

is however a curious fact, of which' the writer can

offer no explanation, that the chapel on the south

side of the haikal is often much more richly orna-

mented than that upon the north, as for exampleat Mari Girgis satellite of Mari Mina, Abu Sargah,and Al Mu'allakah. Moreover if a second chapelis used at all habitually, it is always the south

chapel; and if an altar has been demolished, it is

always the north altar.

A baptistery is attached to every church, but its

position varies greatly. It is found in the north

aisle, as at Abu Sargah ;in the south, as at Abu-'s-


Sifain;

at the western end in the narthex, as at

Sitt Mariam near Abu-'s-Sifain ;outside the main

building in a satellite church, as at Al Mu allakah;

or in an adjoining passage, as at Mari M!na and

at most other churches. It scarcely admits of ques-tion that originally the baptistery was outside the

church in most countries;but this rule does not

apply to Egypt, where the need of secrecy was felt

very early, and where the font is always found inside.

Doubtless in some cases the baptistery has been

removed out of its original place, which was in the

narthex. This is true of Abu-'s-Sifain, where the

font stands before a blocked aisle-chapel, and of

Abu Sargah, for instance. The Coptic churches

then hardly bear witness to the very ancient prac-tice of administering the rite without the sacred

building, as recorded by Tertullian and Justin

Martyr. For there is no instance of an entirely

isolated baptistery, such as that built by Constan-

tine near the church of Sta. Agnese without the

walls at Rome;or like that at Nocera, which has

been converted into a church. In very early times

the baptistery was often in the atrium 1 before the

church, and the Coptic Epiphany-tanks are perhapsa reminiscence of this usage, and their border, pavedwith marble, may recall the tradition that the placewhere Christ was baptized in the Jordan was markedwith marble walls and steps, and thronged with

crowds of people at the feast of Epiphany. At St.

Sophia the baptistery was outside near the western

door, and so also at Parenzo in I stria, in the sixth

century, and commonly in Roman basilicas. The

1Lenoir, Architecture Monastique, i. p. 101.


Coptic font is now usually a deep circular basin,

very much resembling those of our own churches,

but set like a copper in a solid bench of masonryagainst a wall, not detached or supported on a

pedestal. The very early font near the chapels of

St. James and St. John adjoining Abu-'s-Sifain

differs in being deeper and in having on each side

of the well a short flight of steps ;in other words it

is adapted more for immersion than sprinkling. Theother fonts in use at present would serve only for

aspersion, except in the case of very young children;

though the Epiphany-tanks are large and deep

enough for several grown-up people to stand in

together.

There is no altar in the Coptic baptistery, thoughthe eastern wall, against which the font is set, gener-

ally contains a niche, just as early Roman baptis-teries those for instance at Aquileia and Nocerahad an eastward apse. The niche is decorated either

with a moveable picture, or else with a fresco paint-

ing of our Lord's baptism in the Jordan. Belongingto the font is always a small hand-cross of silver

or other metal, and few baptisteries are without a

gospel-table set with prickets for candles : for tapersare always kindled at the service. According to

ancient custom a separate apartment is screened

off for women.There is no trace in any of the churches of Cairo

of any detached circular or hexagonal baptistery,

such as was common at an early date in western

Christendom and also in central Syria.

Concerning the outbuildings attached to Egyptianchurches there is no need here of lengthy notice.

All over the East the annexation of such buildings


was a common practice. Eusebius speaks of spacious

outhouses belonging to the church at Tyre and also

at Antioch. Augustine too mentions a large room

attached to the church at Csesarea. This doubtless

corresponds to the Coptic mandarah or reception-

room, where worshippers meet for conversation. AtAbu-'s-Sifain the mandarah is quite distinct from the

church though adjoining it; elsewhere, as at Abu

Sargah, it is a small open courtyard surrounded bybenches

;but the finest specimen of an ancient man-

darah is that at Mari Girgis in Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah,now alas in ruins, but once enriched with stucco-

work and carved woodwork of great magnificence.Later innovations have sometimes removed the

reception-room within the sacred building, as at

K. Burbarah, where it now occupies the narthex.

Since every Coptic church was complete in itself

as a miniature monastic establishment, it contained

dwelling-rooms for the priest or priests, a well with

storage for water, and an oven for baking the eu-

charistic bread. Nowhere, however, is there found

among the Cairene churches the same developed

system of building, with cells, refectory, &c., which

is seen in the kindred monasteries in the Libyandesert. Moreover now-a-days the domestic cham-

bers are often quite deserted, as at Abu-'s-Sifain,

Al Mu'allakah, Dair Tadrus, and elsewhere;or else,

as at Mari Mina, they are used only at the time of

the festival to lodge the pilgrims that resort in largenumbers

;while in other cases, as at Abu Sargah

and K. Burbarah, the priest with his family not

only lives in the old rooms, but has usurped the

galleries of the church. Abu Sargah differs from

the other churches in having the well within its

CH. i.] General Strnctiive. 45

walls in the choir : no doubt by reason of the

special sanctity of the fountain that gave water to

the Holy Family. It is however curious to remark

that a sacred well is also mentioned by Paul the

Silentiary as lying near the ambon in the church

of St. Sophia, and its coping is said to have been

brought from Samaria. In the Jewish synagogueat Old Cairo, the ancient Christian well is situated

at the eastern end, almost behind the apse, and from

its size resembles rather a tank.

The Copts now usually bury their dead in ceme-

teries, but some of the ancient churches, such as

Mari Mina, have separate churchyards not unlike

our own, but outside the dair walls and not acces-

sible directly from the church, though they adjointhe sacred enclosure. The practice of burying within

the church is not unknown, but the honour was alwaysreserved for patriarchs or persons of great distinc-

tion : thus within Abu-'s-Sifain, Al Mu'allakah, and

St. Stephen by the cathedral, spots are pointed out

as the tombs of patriarchs. Yet there is no singleinstance of any inscription or monument to mark the

resting-place of great men buried within the church.

So too when a rich man has given a vessel to the

altar, it is inscribed as a gift and a short prayer is

lettered upon it, but the donor's name is almost

invariably unrecorded. This is the silence that is

golden, and full of golden lessons.

To the same right oblivion are consigned the

bodies of such as were honoured with burial within

the enclosure about the church, as at Anba Shanudah.

In vaults beneath the dark rooms which adjoin the

western end of that church many great worthies are

buried without a line to perpetuate any remembrance


beyond that which is graven in the minds of men.

Still within the precincts of the church, but somewhatfarther removed from the building, are the curious

early sepulchres at K. Burbarah under the Romanwall. There also the dead rest nameless and for-

gotten. It is only in modern graveyards and ceme-

teries, such as that at Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah, that the

Copts have begun to cumber the ground with sculp-

tured monuments recording worthless names, for-

getting the truth their forefathers well understood,

that none deserve to live or can live after death

save those whose works have made them remem-bered. But the old tradition lingers still in the

solitude of the Natrun valley, where nothing is

more remarkable than to find that the monks, with

all their multitude of churches, have not one singleo

graveyard : with them God's acre is the boundless

desert : and though they retain the bones of somefew saints as relics, yet for all the countless dead

who have passed away during the space of full

fifteen centuries, they cannot show one single tomb l.

1It is strange that no previous traveller should have remarked

so strange a fact.

CHAPTER II.

Dair Mari Mtna

ETWEEN Cairo and Old Cairo lies a dair,

or walled enclosure, which is marked byan Arab domed sibil or drinking-fountainfronted with bronze grillwork. It con-

tains an ancient church dedicated to St.

Menas, who was an early Coptic martyr, born, it

seems, at Mareotis, and slain in the persecutionunder Galerius Maximinus at Alexandria. His

name recalls that of the first king of Egypt, the

reputed founder of Memphis. This saint must not

be confounded with Anba Mina, patriarch in the

eighth century. The ring-wall of the dair is weakand low

; the double door large and slender : both

obviously are of recent construction, and were re-

newed at a time when the need for bulwarks and

posterns had almost passed away. Inside the wall

is first a small garden and a few rude dwelling hovels

by which a path leads to the church. On the left

one sees a flight of stone steps and a door leading to

a new 1 and uninteresting Armenian church;and a

short way beyond on the same side in the same wall

is a modern-looking doorway. The door, built of

huge vertical beams of timber cramped across with

iron, stands back on its hinges : one sees within a

small courtyard surrounded on three sides by build-

1 The foundation of the Armenian church is very ancient,

though the fabric is new.

48 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. H.

ings of which the upper stories project and rest on

pillars and have open balconies. On the fourth side

is the church, so sunken now that one enters by a

short flight of downward steps from the door which

is at the western end of the south aisle. The west

front is as usual a plain high blank wall whose limits

. 7. B.

Fig. 1. Plan of Mari Mina and the adjoining church of Mari Banai.

are lost in the buildings which align with it on

either side. There seems no trace of any central

western entrance : for the present doorway leads

into the south aisle;and although there is a cor-

responding doorway into what was once the north

aisle, the third entrance into the nave is wanting.The church is small only about 60 ft. long and

50 ft. wide, the latter measure being taken across the

choir. The peculiarities of its structure are that it

has no narthex nor any sign of one having existed;

that the northern aisle as far as the choir has been

CH. ii.] Dair Mari Mina. 49

entirely shut out of the church and is now occupied

by outhouses including a bakehouse for the euchar-

istic bread : and that there is no regular triforium,

although part of one of the upper chapels lies over

the south aisle. This aisle is narrow and low,

roofed with a groined vaulting and separated from

the nave by three heavy piers.

The nave is covered with a wagon -vaulting of

brick strengthened by stone ribs. The west end is

divided from the rest of the nave and aisle by onlya rude lattice-work screen, and serves for the women's

section. Here too is the Epiphany tank. Over the

eastward door of this screen is a curious picture of

the Baptism of our Lord. St. John, who stands to

the right on a low Nile-like bank, carries a staff with

a Coptic scroll flying from the end : he wears a loose

robe, and his feet are bound with sandals and buskins

half way up to the knee. Before him is a small

lamb with one forefoot raised : Christ on a largeround boulder in mid stream is crushing under his

left foot a huge dolphin-headed serpent with fiery

tongue protruding and tail coiled round under the

rock. On the left bank, kneeling and gazing upwardat the dove, which is descending in a golden halo

set round with rays, is an angel, who is receivingChrist's robe as it parts from his shoulders. Christ

stands with his arms crossed on his breast, bendinghis left shoulder forward towards St. John, whose

upraised hand is pouring water on his head. The

expression of both and the type of countenance, the

long flowing hair, beard and moustache, are almost

identical 1.

1 The composition exactly resembles that of the same subject in

a French ' Liber Precum,' date 1430.

VOL. i. E

50 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

The body of the nave, or men's section, is about

22 ft. long by 12 ft. wide. Against the north wall is

a very interesting ambon or pulpit, the floor of which

is about 7 ft. above the nave floor : it rests on wooden

beams projecting from the wall, and these again on

crossbeams upheld by two slender octagonal pillars.

There are as usual two parts, a sort of straightentrance balcony and the pulpit proper which is

circular. Both are of marble the pulpit properinlaid with various devices in red, black and white

marble mosaic ;while the side of the balcony is

formed by a slab of white marble carved with five

beautiful designs in low relief. Of these designsthree are large conventional roses : the other two

in panels dividing them represent graceful vases

overflowing with chrysanthemums and other flowers.

At present there is no access to the pulpit, and no

trace of a staircase : it was probably mounted by a

moveable ladder. Under the pulpit a little corner

is railed across, and in the rail are two or three score

of T-shaped staves or crutches for worshippers to

lean upon during the service.

The pictures in the nave, painted on canvas and

so not very early, are as follows :

On the north wall a large picture in a frame

inlaid with ivory shows Mari Mina on horseback

slaying a dragon.Then at about 10 ft. from the ground begins a

series of pictures which is continued across the screen

and on the south wall.

On the north wall are two :

i. A composition containing two almost identical

figures, each wearing a mantle, short tunic, and

buskins : each has a glory, each raises his right

CH.II.] Dair Mari Mtna. 51

forefinger before his breast, and in the left hand

each carries a severed head, the symbol of his

martyrdom.The right figure is labelled in Arabic '

James,

bishop of Jerusalem:' the left figure 'John the

Baptist.'

2. Another composition containing two figures

of extraordinary appearance exactly alike in attitude

and feature. They stand side by side full face

to the spectator with a grave wistful look in their

fixed farseeing eyes : they are naked save for a

camels' hair girdle round the loins : but their longwhite narrow beards flow nearly to their feet : and

the hair of their upper lip and their head is

very long and snowy white. Their arms are

bent at the elbow, the left hand carrying a

cross and the right uplifted before the chest in

benediction. In the background is a single palm-tree laden with yellow fruit. Clearly they are an-

chorites. The right figure is the familiar Barsiim

al 'Arian : the left is called Abu Nafr as Saiah,

i. e. Abu Nafr the Wanderer. Both are Copticsaints. Abu Nafr is called now among the Coptsthe ruler of snakes, scorpions, etc. ;

and if a Coptsees a scorpion or a viper in his house he ex-

claims' Abu Nafr is angry,' and sends in propitia-

tion a candle to the church to be burnt before

the picture.

The west screen is of open woodwork coloured :

over the door is a picture Christ being uplifted on

the cross. The cross is slanting, in the act of being

raised, and a soldier is loosening the cords that

bound the hands before they were nailed. Highabove the screen near the roof is a large picture

E 2


of the Crucifixion : women are at the foot of the

cross and soldiers behind : the two thieves have

their arms tied over and behind the branches of the

cross, not nailed on in front.

Resuming now the continuous series, on the screen

there are seven :

1. The Resurrection. An empty tomb with people

gazing in : above in the clouds is seated the Virgin,

and an angel flies on either side : slightly to her left

below another angel in clouds is receiving a stole or

pall which is falling from her hand.

2. Christ and Mary Magdalen.

3. The Crucifixion.

4. Christ carrying the cross.

5. Christ before Pilate.

6. Judas kissing Christ in the garden ;in the back-

ground are soldiers with spears, one with a flaming

cresset, and one with a scourge.

7.'

Joseph the carpenter taking the hand of the

Messiah.' This is a literal rendering of the Arabic

title. Christ is a boy of twelve years, and both are

walking on a solitary mountain-top. The imagi-native unconventional character of this picture is

remarkable.

The series is continued with seven more pictureson the east wall :

i. The child John the Baptist greeting the child

Christ. A very interesting picture. The scene is

under a tree in the wilderness; where, kneeling

on one knee at the Virgin's right, St. John upraisesfolded hands while his crook slopes over his right

shoulder. As he looks up with an expression of

mingled humility and rapture, the child Christ leans

forward from his mother's arms raising his right

CH. ii.] Dair Mdri Mma. 53

forefinger over John's uplifted face. The expressionon Christ's face of conscious power and authority, yet

gentleness and childlikeness, harmonises admirablywith John's look of deep adoration. The Virgin is

bending slightly to allow of Christ's forward move-

ment, but her face is half averted from John, at

whom she is looking askance with an air of prophetic

anxiety.

2. The Birth of Christ, who is represented laid in

a manger : above is a choir of angels in the clouds.

This painting is remarkable for the sweetness and

beauty of the Virgin's face as she watches with

drooping eyelids over her son. It is very rare in

these pictures to find a really beautiful face; though

it is difficult to define the prevailing type. The

apostles and saints are generally of a fine Jewishcast, but the women are neither Greek, nor Jew, nor

Egyptian rather perhaps like the modern Syrian

women, who seem a blended type, recalling at once

Hellenic and Canaanite models, without the marked

beauty of either.

3. The Annunciation. The subject is treated in

the conventional manner as described in Abu-'s-

Sifain pictures, with this difference, that the holydove is slanting down towards Mary, as usual in

Italian paintings.

4. Virgin and Child. The Virgin, a half-length

figure, holds the child with both arms : his legs are

crossed and arms outspread, possibly in a mannermeant to foreshadow the cross. The drapery of the

figures is well rendered, and the faces have decided

expressiveness.

5. A curious bearded figure with halo and largewhite wings, neither saint nor angel, for no saint or


martyr is represented as winged elsewhere, and no

angel has a beard. He is standing in a lonely desert-

looking place on a little hill : he bends forward to

his right and carries in his left hand an open scroll :

over his left shoulder slopes a long staff with a cross-

piece and a flag : his right hand is uplifted in bene-

diction or possibly in preaching. In the backgroundis a rude tree with an ' axe laid to the root/ or rather

balanced across a division in the trunk near the

ground. I tried from every side and every point of

vantage steps and bench and pulpit to distinguishthe dim Arabic title, but I could not make out a

letter. The attendants of course knew nothing of

this or any other picture, and could only tell me that

it was '

Christ.' The probability is that it repre-sents John the Baptist, and was painted by someartist not familiar with all the conventions of such

art. Indeed there is an absence of convention in the

whole series.

6. Christ bearing the cross.

7. Virgin and Child. The Virgin, a half-length

figure, is carrying on her left arm the child, who looks

like a girl of twelve : he is fully robed, his right hand

is outstretched, and in his left is a golden book with

a cross upon the cover. Above are two angels each

holding one end of a flying scroll, which forms an

arch above the Virgin's head.

Next to these, in the same line but not in the

same series, follow three pictures in mushrabiah

framework :

1. St. Irene.

2. Anba Sarabamun, who is robed as a patriarchwith a gold cross in his right hand, in his left a bookand pastoral staff. The crozier, as depicted here

CH. ii.] Dair Mdri Mina. 55

and in other paintings in this church, is rather

unusual, having merely a double curl at the upperend

0,9, instead of the more common serpentheads.

3. Mari Mina.

The choir as before mentioned opens out on either

side beyond the width of the nave. It contains two

ordinary lecterns and a pair of tall standard candle-

sticks. Before the sanctuary-screen hang six silver

lamps of graceful shape, with ostrich eggs over them :

there are two ostrich eggs without lamps but mountedin metal with a little metal cross above and pendantsbelow. Six wretched glass chandeliers and some

plain bowl-shaped glass lamps complete the list. Thescreen of the north chapel has disappeared if there

ever was one : at present there is a bare wall in its

place, and the chapel itself, which like most north

chapels was used as a store-room, is now blocked upand disused. The sanctuary-screen, and the east-

ward side of the choir-screen, are both inlaid with

ivory crosses which are followed round by mouldingsbut not carved. The door of the choir-screen is

very curious : above it is a large picture of Aaronrobed as priest, with a by-scene representing the

stoning of Stephen, and on each side is a folding

door, the upper part of which closes over the picture

so as to form a kind of triptych with it. When the

doors are closed their lower and middle part would

of course be seen from the nave;but oddly enough

even when the doors are shut they do not meet

together, but are parted by a gap of nine inches.

Each door is divided into four panels, one above

another, variously painted. The lowest panel is

merely decked with a pattern of small flowers.


On the northward leaf of the door the three sub-

jects are:

1. Pentecost The twelve are sitting in a semi-

circle, while from above spear-headed rays or tonguesare descending upon them.

2. The Ascension.

3. Feast of St. Thomas (^V* cv^v).

On the southward leaf the panel pictures are :

1. The Nativity. An extraordinary mixture of

various scenes in one picture, each scene beingmarked off by a wide irregular border of colour. In

the middle is a rough oval slanting sideways, and in

it the Virgin is shown lying down with pillows under

her head. Below is a country scene with sheep and

shepherds, and the child is being washed at a largevessel of water. Above a star has descended in

a train of light and now is resting over the mouth of

a mountain cave, within which Christ is lying in a

manger and two bodiless heads of oxen are lookingover the side. To the left of the cave outside, but

in the plain at some distance, the Magi are depicted

bringing gifts and kneeling. Exactly the same mixed

composition, common in the Coptic churches, is found

in early western work : it may be seen for examplein a panel in the pulpit at Pisa carved by Niccolo

Pisano in 1 260, and in a Carlovingian ivory of the

ninth century now at the South Kensington Museum.2. The Presentation in the Temple.3. The Baptism of Christ.

Above this is a tablet of fine small pictures in line.

The Last Supper is in the middle, and the others are

the Entry into Jerusalem, the Appearance after the

Resurrection, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

Then above the screen is a series of eleven icons

CH. ii.] Dair Mdri Mitia. 57

large pictures, angels and apostles, very similar in

treatment to the series on the southward side of the

choir-screen at Abu-'s-Sifain : the resemblance is

specially remarkable in the centre figure our Lord.

Underneath these is a broad band of Coptic writing,and other Coptic inscriptions are scattered on avail-

able spaces in the screen below. On the piers, into

which the screen' runs, are two pictures of an angel

facing each other.

On the western wall are :

i. The Virgin : a fine painting. The central

figure is surrounded by forty little figures, each

painted off in a little oblong space by itself, each

wearing a crown and carrying the usual cross and

palm.2-6. Angels and saints.

The northern wall is entirely hidden by a wooden

panelling consisting of three elaborate niches, con-

taining each a picture. The three have a moremodern and Italian look than usual, and perhapsmore delicacy and more freedom, less of Byzantinecoldness and stiffness.

1. The Baptism of Christ.

2. Virgin and Child. Her head is hooded as

usual, and bent to the left, over the child, whose

face is full of life and spirit. Both faces are faintly

smiling. On each side of the Virgin's head above

is a sleeping cherub-head.

3. St. John the Evangelist. Here too the treat-

ment is unusual. St. John is walking alone, and

pondering with eyes fixed before him ;the left

hand is holding an open gospel, the right, which is

lifted to a level with the shoulder, holds a quill for

writing. The body is curved slightly to the left ;


for the left leg is bent at the knee, the foot just

lingering as it leaves behindward a boulder on which

it has been planted. The large, deep, meditative

eyes give admirably the key to the whole attitude,

which is that of a man arrested in mid-step by some

profound thought or divine remembrance. It is a

great man communing with his own spirit in the

wilderness, and finding inspiration.

On the eastern wall before what should be the

north chapel are five more pictures of saints, includ-

ing Mari Mina and Abu-'s-Sifain. Next comes a

little detached painting representing a family of five

martyr sons standing in a group, or rather line, with

their mother. The drawing is rude, but the scene is

pathetic. It is called' The Five and their Mother,'

and bears a date corresponding to about 1 790 A. D.

A date is also fixed for the next picture, 1780 A. D.

It is a representation of Mari Mina, the patron saint

of the church;who is honoured by a large niche of

woodwork. The shrine contains of course a bolster

of relics;but instead of the ordinary spikes or prickets

for candles, before it stands a bronze taper-holder of

very singular and original design. Two winged

dragons or serpents stretched at full length cross

their tails together ;the head is retorted, with the

mouth upwards, and the wings are above the body,but there is no twist in the dragon's neck as one

would expect. A bar of bronze slightly curved joinsthe dragons above

;on this bar are thirteen bell-

shaped sockets for tapers, and one in each dragon'smouth and on each wing seventeen in all. The

design is either copied from or copied in the adjoin-

ing Armenian church;

of the two candelabra the

Armenian certainly looks the older, and may date

I .6.


from the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The haikal-

screen is inlaid with plain ivory, a cross-in-square

pattern, very pretty, though not remarkably fine.

There is a detached Madonna above the central

door, and the usual arrangement of pictures, seven

in number. The centre is a Madonna ;each of

the six side pictures contains two apostles, and is

divided into two arches with a pillar between. All

the figures are seated, and half-face towards the

Virgin, each upholding a cross;those to the north

carry the cross in their left hand, those to the

south in their right. The ground is of gold in

every case.

Five pictures in the same style are over the south

iconostasis;Christ in the centre, and on each side

two angels, separate.

On the screen outside near the haikal door, accord-

ing to common practice, is fastened a small rude

block of wood (4 in. by 4 about), hollowed out cup-like

;it contains two little glass crewets, each holding

less than a gill of wine. This is the wine used for

the sacrament;

it is unfermented, and made of dried

grapes ;it is sweet, thick, and opaque, never clear-

coloured.

There follow five scenes on the south wall;above

the screen dividing this end of the choir from the

south aisle two others;and on the east wall a huge

indecipherable Mari Banai a Syrian martyr.The sanctuary or haikal is remarkable for an

unusually lofty altar-canopy, which originally rested

on four tall slender columns of wood, still standingat the four corners of the altar. But while the

original columns remain, above them is now a

larger and incongruous though handsome dome,

CH. ii.] Dair Mari Mma. 61

supported on cross-beams running into the walls.

The canopy shows fully from the choir above

the screen;round the lower part outside is a wide

border of painted arcading, and under every arch is

a Greek cross, with the Coptic sacred letters between

the branches ; above each pillar too in the spandrelsis a cross. Soft red and gold are the chief colours

used : and the whole, as one glances from the sombre

screen up to the line of apostles throned under goldenskies beside the Virgin to the dome beyond, makesa picture in which the scale of colour is delightfully

harmonious. The under part of the canopy is plain

and unadorned. Although the interior of the apseis small, it contains a tribune, the steps of which are

covered with plates of lead. The curved wall is

panelled all round to a height of 12 ft., and paintedwith a design in three bands : lowest comes a

sort of diaper filled with ugly flowers; next, six large

figures of saints, three on each side of the central

niche;above in circular medallions are six other

smaller designs, two cherubs and an angel on each side.

A figure of the throned Saviour, inscribed with the

Arabic title'

King of kings,' is frescoed in the niche :

and above it is painted a triptych-shaped fresco 1 of

the seraphim and two angels, one in each of the openleaves. The work in detail has little merit, but the

general effect is rich, especially when merely caughtin glimpses from the nave or choir, as it would be

to all but the priest and the few communicants.

A doorway from the sanctuary southward communi-

cates with the aisle-chapel, which has long been

1 These Coptic wall-paintings are always in distemper, and are

not technically frescoes;but the term is convenient.

62 Ancient Coptic Churches, [CH. n.

disused, and lies in pitch darkness;

it contains a few

decaying and worm-eaten paintings.

From the south end of the choir a door leads into

a long vaulted passage running east and west. At

the east end of the passage is a baptistery, with a

small font arranged in the usual fashion, i. e. a

round cauldron-like stone basin sunk in a bench

of masonry. The whole passage is vaulted, but

the baptistery is lighted by a small, oblong, openshaft of brickwork, quite thirty feet high. Three

old pictures, a small aumbry in the wall for oil

and incense, a bronze cross, and a gospel-stand, are

the only ornaments of this curious dim little recess.

The gospel -stand is a sort of high, four-legged,

oblong table; upon it in the centre a small frame

is nailed, making a lidless box, in which the silver

gospel rests during the baptismal service;and round

the outer edge is another frame, set with prickets for

tapers to give light at the ceremony. Details varya little, but the gospel-stand as here described is as

much an appanage of the baptistery as the lectern

is of the choir in Coptic churches.

Outside the baptistery in the passage one maynotice a rather curious picture of St. John greetingthe child Christ, and then pass on into the light

to the church of the martyr Mari Banai, which lies

to the south of this passage, and is divided by it

from the main building. The arrangement is rather

like that of the chapels of St. John and St. James at

Abu-'s-Sifain : for there are really two chapels side

by side, each chapel consisting of three parts west,

middle, and east or haikal. Each of the west parts is

railed off for the women, and the two are divided

by an open screen ; the haikals are of course shut

CH. ii.] Dair Mari Mtna. 63

out of view entirely by panel screens, and are divided

by a wall. The roofing is low : the west chambers

are covered each with its own groined vaulting ;

while two parallel wagon-vaultings run east and

west over the middle chambers and haikal. Each

chapel then has a single groined vaulting in the

western part, and an unbroken wagon-vaulting over

the middle and eastern parts. Over the haikal this

vaulting springs from the side wall and the partition

wall;thence it is carried on beams laid from the end

of the partition wall to a heavy pier which stands

central for the four remaining contiguous chambers,

and which lends its support also to the two groined

vaultings. One enters into the north-west division,

where there is a picture of the Crucifixion; passing

thence through the screen into the south-west cham-

ber, one sees an ugly piece of modern upholsterycovered with flimsy embroidery the patriarch's chair

a strange contrast to the beautiful Arab thrones

of mushrabiah work still abounding in these churches.

There is nothing else of interest here except a picture

of the patron saint, Mari Banai. He is riding a

prancing horse and balancing a long spear. All

round him in the picture are by-scenes : below in

the right corner a man and woman talking before

a house, with a well between them : possibly Christ

and the woman of Samaria. Above this in the skyis a squadron of Turkish horsemen led by a sultan.

Still higher on the same side is a saint preaching ;

then to the left a man chasing deer with hounds ;

and in the top left corner a woman being crowned

by two ecclesiastics. This picture is dated 1782 A.D.,

and if it may be taken as a fair index to the state of

art at that period, it shows the nadir of decline. The


drawing is rude and stiff; the colours, though mel-

lowed by time, are vulgar ;the faces are expression-

less, and anatomy is unknown. The two middle

chambers or choir are not separated by a screen ;

they contain together sixteen pictures, most of them

dim with dust and. dirt, some eaten into huge holes

where they are painted on canvas, others on wood

having the surface ploughed up or fretted away byinsects, all presenting a melancholy spectacle of

neglect and forlorn decay. The haikals of course

have the usual hollow stone altar with a loose slab

of wood let into a rectangular depression in the

centre : in one are the remains of a very fine altar-

canopy mouldering fast away. In the spandrels of

this haikal door (the northernmost) is some pretty

inlay work of ivory flowers : and above a curious

little tablet, three inches square, with a design of the

Virgin and Child in mother-of-pearl mosaic. The

design is not very clear, but the Virgin seems to

have open wings drooping. The date of this door

is 1814 A.D., and the work is decidedly inferior

in character.

The whole of this church of Mari Banai is lighted

by square holes in the roof. There is a special

guest-room outside it, which is reached by mountinga short flight of steps to the level of the outer earth

(see plan, p. 48), a low cold stone-vaulted room with

stone benches on three sides, the fourth open. There

is no door, but outside on the right a narrow an-

gular passage leads back to the court-yard before the

door of Mari Mina, enclosing some lumber-rooms, a

sacristy, and perhaps the entrance to the burial vaults.

But instead of returning by the passage one maymount to the left a flight of some twenty stone steps

CH. ii.]Dair Mart Mina. 65

and land upon the roof. Here a strange scene pre-

sents itself. Just in front, i.e. over the chapel of

Mari Banai, is a stone floor hemmed in on three

sides by lofty irregular walls of brick, but open on

the west. Against the walls piled in reckless con-

fusion are broken relics of church furniture, mushra-

blah-work, screens, lecterns, taper-racks and all kinds

of odd timbers : and if these signs were doubtful, a

change in the level of the floor towards the east end

shows plainly enough that one is looking at the

debris of a ruined chapel. It was called the church

of the Virgin. Through an open grating here one

gets a view down into Mari Banai, arid one realizes

the dangers to which pictures and works of art are

exposed from the changes of weather, and the en-

trance of bats and owls. The south and east walls

of this ruined chapel are boundary walls of the whole

dair, and they are finished off upwards in a verycurious and interesting way. Even when the chapelwas entire, the walls rose some way above the roof;

and instead of being capped with coping stones theyhave great pitchers or jars of rather frail red potteryembedded into the masonry and forming a parapet.

From outside one can count as many as six rows,

one above another. The same construction may be

seen at Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah in the Arab masonrybuilt upon the Roman wall where it skirts the gardenof the Jewish synagogue. From within, only two

rows are visible, one above the other ;in some places

only a single row ;and elsewhere the parapet of pots

has fallen. The jars are about 3 ft. high, of course

hollow, and all have a hole broken in the shoulder,

apparently with the design of weakening the resist-

ance. For they are intended as a defence againstVOL. I. F


secret assaults and were arranged to break and give

the alarm in case a robber or other enemy tried

to scale the walls. At Imarat in Persia, as Mr.

Floyer tells me, walls are sometimes built tapering

to. a thickness of three or four inches at the top,

and a yard from the top are set with a row of sticks

projecting horizontally : any ladder placed against

these would break them and bring down the wall

above.

On the same level with the floor of the ruined

chapel is another chapel, that of Mari Girgis, which

has a flat timber roof rudely painted and blazoned

with stars. Railed off from the nave by a blue

cross-bar screen and running along the north wall

is a narrow baptistery, the font of which lies under

the nave pulpit. It contains a pitcher, cross and

gospel-stand. Two grated openings through the

wall show a view of the ambon in the nave of Mari

Mina below. In a little aumbry in the wall I found

four decayed pictures, one a mere board without a

trace of colour left, one a triptych of the Crucifixion

Christ in the panel and a thief on each door. The

pulpit here is of commonplace design : and all over

the body of the chapel is the usual network of flying

spars or beams for hanging lamps, etc. The choir

is raised two steps above the nave floor : it contains

eight large pictures of small merit, though one is

unusual John the Baptist greeting Christ. Christ

is represented as a child alone in the desert and the

child John is falling and kissing his feet : the absence

of the Virgin is remarkable. The scene too is sur-

rounded by a curious sort of tasteless scroll workembellished with festoons of flowers and fruit,

grapes, roses and strangely enough English blue-

CH.ii.]

Dair Mart Mina. 67

bells : above are two birds and a head wreathed

in a garland of roses. In the air above Christ's

head are five winged cherubs. The style of this

work reminds one of English seventeenth century

painting.

The east end of the chapel contains a sacristyas well as haikal or sanctuary. But the former is

now a mere lumber-room and is fenced off only

by an open screen instead of the high panel-screenthat always veils an altar. The roof is stone wagon-vaulting. A dozen musty pictures hang about the

walls or on shelves : and one or two of them, whichat first looked mere dirty pieces of board, well

repaid the trouble of dusting and washing, and

proved really fine and ancient pictures. On the

floor are tumbled broken planks some with dabs

of colour or fragments of Arabic inscriptions,

candlesticks, an altar-casket, a lectern and one or

two disused coronae of ancient bronze. The latter

are large crowns of pierced metal-work hung bychains ; and though the design is plain and un-

finished in detail, yet one could not help a feelingof anger against the men who could fling such an

ornament into a dark hole full of dust and cob-

webs and could set up in its place a Paris chandelier

with hanging prisms and festoons of glass stars.

The Copts are jealous of their treasures, or jealousof strangers meddling with them

;but they care for

them chiefly as fetishes or relics, objects of supersti-

tious reverence and not of artistic value. In one

corner of this (northern) sanctuary, after a pile of

timber had been removed, I discovered a small door

which led by a short passage into a dark chamberabout 1 2 ft. square lying directly behind the haika!.

F 2


There were aumbries in the wall which excited

visions of hid treasures, but a short search provedthem empty and desolate. No doubt the placewas built as a strong-room for the church plate ;

but its position behind the main altar is as far as

I know unique, though there is something of the

kind under the tribune steps at Abu Sargah. The

sanctuary has its iconostasis with the conventional

series of seven pictures the Virgin and on each

side three pairs of apostles. The decoration inside

is elaborate and reminds one on a smaller scale of

the haikal at Abu-'s-Sifain. Over the altar is a

delicate little domed baldakyn, not supported on

four pillars, but differing from this arrangement

by resting on a pair of horizontal spars, which run

into the north and south walls. All round the apseis an array of saints blazoned in panels. In the

niche is the figure of Christ robed and throned, and

on the wall above the niche a quaint design of the

Resurrection. Both these paintings and the screen

are rude in style. The Arabic characters over the

doorway are thick and unfinished, and the other

ivory work is clumsy. This is the more disappoint-

ing that the inlaid inscription on the lintel gives a

date corresponding to 1445 A.D. a time when cer-

tainly the arts were flourishing in Egypt although

decay had set in. But we cannot tell how hurriedlythe chapel was built or rebuilt, or what special pres-

sure of war or terror or want may have disabled the

builders from employing the best artists. Moreover

the very date may be misleading ;the work may be

merely an inferior copy of older work, reproducingthe design without the spirit, and renewing the date

as it renewed a cross or a flower. So that in either

CH. ii.]Dair Mart Mlna. 69

case, whether the date be true or false, it is not

of much value in determining the state of art at

any fixed epoch. One is driven more and moreto the conclusion that anything like a history of the

rise and fall of Coptic art is impossible : that the

rise and fall are comparatively short periods of which

little or nothing is known : that between the two

there was no definite progression, no scale of merit

mounting slowly on previous acquirement : but that

at its best, art as it were crystallised into fixed forms,

which were handed down for many centuries with

little loss of excellence. Invention seems to have

ceased early: but taste and skill of execution remained

hereditary.

There are no more chapels attached to Mari

Mina ; but quitting Mari Girgis one may pass across

into one of the three-storied houses which have been

mentioned as forming three sides of the main court-

yard. These houses the old monastic buildings-are all united by corridors and staircases together,and one may wander from floor to floor and house

to house at will. One desolate chamber succeeds

another : the rooms are all bare and empty, un-

garnished and unswept : and that is their normal

state. But at a certain season of the year, at the

festival of Mari Mlna, these cold-looking cells are

thronged with families of pilgrims. Not that the

tenants come generally from any great distance : but

pious people belonging to the dair, or bound by

special ties of gratitude or veneration to its patron

saint, come and dwell here for three or four days to

keep the feast.

Working round from the chapel of Mari Girgison the east side one reaches a balcony on the north

jo Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

side, whence it is only a step on to the roof of

the main building. One sees now that the curved

roof or vaulting of the nave is of brickwork and

the dome also is brick : there is however no clear-

cut design which one can call distinctly the roof.

The general impression despite the nave and the

dome is that of a flat-roofed building : but there is

the usual multitude of little roofs whose many levels

give the chaotic haphazard look peculiar to all Copticchurches seen from above or outside. For it seems

an unvarying canon, that in the outer shell of a

church strength alone was studied, not beauty. But

pass along the dome and stand looking over the

eastern parapet : you will soon cease to think of the

ugliness of your standing-place. In front opens one

of the grandest views in Egypt. At the foot of the

wall lies an old graveyard resting amid ruins : the

tombs are flat, and English in form not of the

Muslim type, which is a sort of stone altar on a

broader base with a short pillar at each end, and

a tree here and there reminds one further of an

English churchyard. Beyond the circuit-wall on

every side stretches or undulates a dark iron-looking

desert, sweeping away in broad levels or rising in

huge mounds, not the mere barren sand or pebbly

plain that makes nature's desert, but a desert of

man's making, a desert formed out of and over the

ruins of a great and ancient city. In a landscape of

this kind there is something even more desolate and

more hopeless than in all the sands of Sahara. Well

in the foreground is a sheet of gleaming water :

round it stand a few stray palms, some of which cast

their shadow on the unbroken azure surface. The

repose and beauty and brightness of this little lake

CH. ii.]Dair Mari Mma. 71

contrast strangely with the sombre melancholy of the

landscape around : one needs not the imagination of

an Arab to picture the banished spirit of the place

brooding on old-world memories in the depths below.

In the plain beyond the lake lies a small walled

village about which are scattered some droopingtamarisks : and the minaret of the mosque of

Zainum al 'Abidin rises picturesquely above the

houses. The background is formed by huge rubbish

mounds high enough to bound the horizon there,

save where a short fall lets in a glimpse of the far

white Mukattam hills and the ancient ruined mosquethat crowns the ridge. To the north the line of

mounds is broken, and gives a view of the grandcitadel of Cairo shining in the sun : near its base

stand the ruined shrines and clustered minarets of

the Mamaluke kings. All the rest of Cairo is shut

out of view, but nothing could be more magnificentthan the part that is seen. Southward again lie

other pools of water and lower rubbish mounds,

beyond which stretches a nearly level plain spanned

by the long low aqueduct. In the far distance the

Mukattam range comes again into view, faint, blue,

and mist-crowned, if the word mist can be used to

denote that faint ethereal splendour in which the

mountain-tops are lost.

But abandoning the view one may notice that the

parapet of pots seems to have gone all round the

church. To the north of the nave roof one looks

down a huge open shaft into a space that was once

the north aisle but is unaccountably walled off the

church, and used it would seem as a mere outhouse

or store for filters and various utensils. Here also is

the oven for baking the korban or eucharistic bread,


which is always prepared by the sacristan in a place

specially set apart for that purpose somewhere

within the enclosure of the church. The flat roof of

the courtyard buildings is higher than the church roof,

but a scramble up is rewarded only by the discoveryof a small ancient bell hung in a cupola, in which the

ringer stands. Not many of the churches have bells

or any instrument for calling the people to prayer.

The bell here has no date or inscription.

CH. ii.]Dair Mart Mtna. 73

HISTORICAL NOTE ON THE CHURCH OF

MARI MINA.

THE first foundation of this church was probablyin the fourth century, but the solitary notice that I can

find of it is given by Al Makrizi 1 to the effect that

the building was restored in the time of Theodorus

XLV, patriarch about the year 730 A.D. Thesaint belonged to Alexandria and the first church

erected to his memory was nine miles from that city,

at the place where his body is said to have been

discovered. For at his death, according to the

legend, he requested that his body might be placed

upon a camel, and that the beast might be turned

loose into the desert. The story of the finding of

his remains will be given among the legendsrendered from the Synaxar in another part of

this work. There can be no doubt that churches

were dedicated to St. Menas soon after his death in

various parts of Egypt. His shrine near Alexandria

was the resort of pilgrims from all parts of the East,

and a similar pilgrimage is made even now to his

church at Old Cairo. Very early and interestingevidence of his repute is afforded by the small

bottles or cruses of grey earthenware which are

found in large quantities at Alexandria and else-

where. They are about four to six inches in heightwith flat circular body, neck, and double handle

joining neck and body. These flasks are meant to

1

History of the Copts, translated from the Arabic by Rev. S. C.

Malan, p. 77.


be carried by strings as they will not remain uprightunless suspended. The body has generally the

figure of Mari Mina with arms outstretched in

prayer : low down on either side a camel or some

other animal is represented, and higher up are two

or three small Greek crosses. Sometimes, but not

always, a Greek inscription is also found, either

EVLOTIA TOY ATIOV MHNA or simply TOY AHOYMHNA or O ATIOC MHNAC 1

. The whole of the work is

in low relief and surrounded by a circular moulding.The British Museum and most of the continental

museums contain examples of these pilgrim bottles,

which may have been used as chrismatories 2. Two

in my possession have no inscription, but a double

circular moulding with a band of small pellets

between them.

1 Menas or JULHItA. was a common Coptic name in the fourth

century.2

v. De Rossi, Bulletino di Archaeologia Cnstiana, 1869, p. 31,

32, and 1872, pp. 25-30, where cuts are given.

CHAPTER III.

Dair Abn-s-Sifain

The Church of Abu-s-Sifain. The Nunnery called Dair al Bandt.-

The Church ofAnba Shanudah. The Church of Sitt Mariam,

A L F a mile beyond Mari Mlna lies the

walled enclosure or dair of Abu-'s-Sifain;

so called after the principal though not

the most ancient church within it. The

high straggling windowless walls, propped

by rude buttresses, give this dair a picturesquelook on all sides

;but the best view is from the

south, where, above the varied lines of wall, clusters

of palm are seen waving and half-concealing the

white domes of the churches. The dair is only about

a furlong in diameter : yet it contains the three

churches of Al 'Adra, Anba Shanudah, and Abu-'s-

Sifain, besides the nunnery called Dair al Banat.

At the low square doorway of the enclosure one

sees, swung back on its hinges, a ponderous door,

plated with bands of iron and studded over with

flattened bolt-heads. This iron casing stands out

six inches from the wooden frame or backing, and

fits closely into the doorway. A short dim passageleads by a turn to the left to Al Adra : straight on-

j6 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.HI.

wards it emerges from a sort of tunnel into a street

about eighty yards long, on one side of which are

high dwelling-houses, on the other the churches of

Anba Shanudah and Abu-'s-Sifain separated by the

ruins of an early mosque, the kiblah or eastern

recess of which is still visible.

The church of Abu-'s-Sifain dates from the tenth

century ;it is dedicated to St. Mercurius, who in

Coptic paintings is represented as brandishing a

sword in each hand over his fallen foe, the heathen

king Julianus, and who is hence called in the vulgar

Abu-'s-Sifain, i. e.'

the Father of Two Swords V or'

the Master of Two Swords.' The legend of St. Mer-

curius and the legend of the building of the church

will be found elsewhere.

The western fa9ade aligning the street is built of

small dark-coloured brick, and has no windows or

pretence of ornament except six little oriels from

the west triforium, which are covered with wood-work

at a distance of twenty feet from the ground. The

single door now existing is at the north aisle en-

trance : it is sheeted with iron, but quite modern;in

fact, the doorway has been squared and enlargedwithin the last ten years. The ancient door was

plated with crocodile scales, and part of it lies nowin the narthex of the church, though scarcely a shred

of the scales remains.

1 The Arabic 'abu' often denotes a mere quality or characteristic:

thus the Spanish dollar is called, from the pillars figured on it, 'abu

madfa/i.e. the cannon piece: so a butterfly is called 'abu dakik,'

or 'master of flour,' from the dust on its wings. The term is,

however, sometimes used as a prefix to the names of saints or other

worthies, in its literal sense of'

father.'

CH. in.] Dair Abu-s-Sifain. 77

The church is an oblong building, roughly about

ninety feet long and fifty broad, but beset on the

north side with various irregular chapels. Thenorthern aisle is cut off from the body of the church,

and serves merely as a passage. Just inside the

doorway a space with a groined vaulting forms a sort

of porch, northwards of which a door opens to the

mandarah or guest-room, where worshippers meet

after the service, talk, smoke, and take coffee toge-ther. Half of the guest-room is open to the sky,

half roofed by cloven palm-trunks, over which are

laid loose pieces of board, wattled palm-sticks, &c.

Round the walls are ranged some old benches : over-

head is the chapel of St. Mary of which hereafter.

It should be noticed that the guest-room lies outside

the shell of the church. In the porch itself is another

bench, and on the left the patriarchal throne, the highchair of lattice-work found in all Coptic churches. Alittle further on in the passage, still on the left, are

seen double doors of open woodwork and above

them a rude painting of an ancient anchorite. This

is Barsum al 'Arian, and these are the doors at the

head of a short steep staircase of stone by which

one descends to his shrine a small dark under-

ground chapel. The chamber, roughly about ten

feet square, is vaulted and the walls cemented, but

the water oozes in when the Nile rises. There is

no ornament of any kind, not even a niche east-

ward; the altar stands in the centre of the little

chapel ;it is of stone, but the altar-board is square

instead of oblong as usual. The priest told methat Barsum lived 400 years ago, that he aban-

doned great riches to become a hermit, and passed

eighteen years on the roof of Abu-'s-Sifain without

78 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

shelter from the sun. He seems to have dug some

sort of cave, where his shrine now is. after this

period of exposure. Once a year a service is still

held in the chapel, and sick people resort there

with faith in the healing virtues of the altar which

probably encloses the saints' relics. This chapelcan hardly perhaps be called a crypt or confes-

sionary, because it lies outside the church walls,

and is also much later in date than the high altar,

from which it is far removed in position also : but

it is remarkable owing to the great rarity of subter-

ranean altars in the churches of Egypt.

A.J.K. GROUND PLAN

Fig. 3. The church of Abu-'s-Sifain, and the several adjoining chapels.

General Description. The church is built of

small greyish brick, with scarcely a trace of stone-

work, but the pendentives of the large dome are

fashioned of stone, and marble is used for inner

CH. in.] Dair Abu- s-Sifain . 79

decoration. Abu-'s-Sifain is distinguished from

other churches by the absence of pillars. Theaisles and narthex are marked off from the nave

by enormous piers instead of by columns, and the

inner walls of the triforium are not broken by baysor relieved by pillars. The reason for this pecu-

liarity is simple : the church was built in the tenth

century a period when the wrecks of Greek and

Roman temples and palaces had vanished.

Of these piers the two eastward and the two

westward are extremely massive. The former helpto uphold a large and lofty dome which covers the

haikal and choir. Halfway down the church, on either

side, is a pair of heavy oblong piers close together,

and each side of the pair a smaller pier. Advantageis taken of these piers to curve the walls on the

north and south each into two wide and lofty arched

recesses. The western or narthex wall remains

straight, but is lightened by three pointed-arched

openings covered with wooden grills.

Above the aisles and the narthex the usual

gallery or triforium runs round the body of the

church, and is divided into various corridors and

chapels. Only from one or two points can even

a narrow glimpse be seen of the church below;a

fact which unquestionably indicates that at the date

of building women were allowed to worship in the

body of the church and were not consigned to the

gallery. For the present division of the nave into

men's section and women's section is clearly un-

altered from the original arrangement ;whereas in

older churches, such as Abu Sargah, the nave-

screens formed no part of the builder's plan, but

were added as the custom arose for women to

8o Ancient Coptic Churches.[C-H. m.

attend service in the nave. The men's section of

course lies eastward of the two; beyond is the choir,

and then the haikal.

The choir is only about eight feet long and the

same width as the nave, thirty feet. Southward it

is walled off from a baptistery which lies at the end

of the aisle and may be entered by a door from the

choir ; northward a wing-wall, thrown out from the

main pier, half divides it from a low dark chamber

which forms a kind of choir to the northern aisle-

chapel. This chamber is really part and parcel of

the north aisle which, as was mentioned, is severed

from the church.

The haikal is apsidal and has a very perfect

tribune. There were, I think, originally two other

apses. The northern aisle-chapel is not rounded,

but the eastern wall may have been straightenedwhen the exterior chapels were added on. There

is, strangely enough, no southern aisle-chapel ;the

east wall of the aisle, against which the font is

placed, aligns with the haikal-screen;

but there

must be a blocked chapel or space of some kind

behind it, because the triforium above projects

eastward beyond it and ends in an apse. It is

almost certain therefore that there was an apsebelow on the ground floor

;and the south aisle,

like the north, terminated in a chapel.

The western wall shows no sign of having been

pierced with three doorways : but it is said to have

been rebuilt probably in turbulent times, when it

was felt that a triple entrance seriously weakened

the defensive powers of the fabric.

The nave is covered with a pointed wooden roof,

of the kind known as a '

pair of principals.' It has

OH. in.] Dair Abu-s-Sifain. 81

tie-beam and collar-beam, king-post and queen-

posts, which are held together by braces, struts,

and straining-piece. The peculiarity is that the

small rafters run longitudinally : there are no pur-lins. The triforium is flat-roofed.

Details. It will be convenient to take the details

in the following order : i. narthex : ii. women's sec-

tion : iii. men's section : iv. choir and choir north :

v. north aisle-chapel : vi. haikal : vii. south aisle.

i. The narthex is a gloomy place unillumined

by a single window, and unless it had originally a

western entrance, it can have been designed for use

only at the Epiphany ceremony. The tank still

remains, but the custom of plunging in the waters

has been for some years abolished. The old door-

leaves, once plated with crocodile scales, which now lie

on the ground there have been already mentioned.

Here too may be seen lying part of a white marble

column with an Arabic version of the Trisagionthe legend that is printed on the eucharistic bread-

sculptured in high relief. The original place and

purpose of the column are not known;but as the

writing is ordinary Arabic, not Cufic, it can scarcely

be coeval with the church.

ii. The entry for worshippers is by a door between

the outer passage and the women's section. In the

middle of the floor is a small tank, edged with

marble, where, following the ancient usage, the

priest once a year, after the consecration of the holy

oils, washes the feet of sundry poor folk. On the

walls hang five pictures. Of the three on the narthex

wall, one in the centre, representing the Baptism of

Christ, is old and interesting. The perspective is

rude, and the river, full of the conventional fishes, is

VOL. 1. G


shown in section half-submerging the figure of our

Lord;but the faces are well drawn and expressive.

The paintings of St. Michael and St. Menas, on the

same wall, are very poor. The other two subjects

face each other on opposite piers near the screen.

On the north side is the Coronation of the Virgin.This picture is mounted in a frame which holds it six

inches clear of the wall;before it is fixed a little

beam set with a row of prickets for candles. The

Virgin is a three-quarter length figure, robed in a

dark mantle that forms a hood over the head. In

front a dim red dress shows under the mantle, but

both are thickly covered with golden stars, or rather

star-like crosses. The child is held on the left arm,

the Virgin's fore-arm falling, and the hands crossingat the wrist. A flying angel at each side above is

holding a golden crown;and six cherub-faces peer

dimly from the gold background round the head and

shoulders. The Virgin has a fixed look, perhapstoo apathetic to be called pensive. Still, the pictureis pleasing, and recalls Albert Durer's treatment of

the same subject. The Arabic title upon it runs as

follows :

' Peace on Mary, the Mother of our Lord

Jesus.' It may be noticed that even Muslim writers,

when they have occasion to mention Christ or Mary,add after the name,

' on whom be peace.' The other

painting represents one St. Kultah, apparently a

notable physician. In his right hand he holds

a wand pointing to a casket in his left hand;the

lid of the casket is raised, and shows six little com-

partments for drugs. On the dexter side in mid air

is a fine gold cross;on the sinister a long gold staff

or crozier. Many of the patriarchs were renowned

for their skill in medicine.


Abu-'s-Sifain is so very rich in pictures that I

think it worth while to give a complete list of themas they stand, choosing the more remarkable for

special description.

iii. Passing now from the bare and cold division

for the women, one is at once struck by the magnifi-c^nce of ornament lavished on the men's section.

The screen between the two is heavy, and of plain

bar-work, but the spandrels of the screen-door are

very delicately carved, and very beautiful. But the

screen between the men's section and the choir the

choir-screen is a most superb and sumptuous pieceof work. It is a solid partition of ebony, inlaid with

carved ivories of the most exquisite workmanship.The south side of this section, and the north side

from the women's screen to the ambon, or pulpit,

are also bounded by lofty screens. The result is a

beautiful chamber, thirty-one feet long and twenty-three broad, shut in on all sides with screens. Acontinuous band of little pictures mounted on the

screens runs round the chamber ;and other pictures

are set above and below, save when the line is

broken for about twelve feet by the ambon, which

stands at the north-east of the nave.

At the south-west corner of the men's section,

whence it is well to start, a little room that is railed

off and placed between two piers is used as a sacristy.

Here the principal vestments are kept. Between

this and the ambon comes the shrine of Abu-'s-

Sifain, an arched recess of gaudily painted wood-

work. The top is square, and mounted with gilt

plates of pierced metal-work. In front hangs a cur-

tain of the silk and velvet tissue once woven at

Rosetta. The whole reminds one of a small theatre,

G 2


or peep-show. At the back of the recess is the pic-

ture of St. Mercurius slaying Julian like the shrine,

a poor performance. A metal glory has been nailed

over the head of the saint. Under the picture is a

locker containing relics of St. Mercurius enclosed in

the usual silk bolster. A small pendant lamp burns

before the shrine, and there stands also on the

ground a very curious and ancient candlestick of

iron, with three prickets. The shrine is quite

recent, and unfortunately obscures part of the

ambon. Many chains for lamps hang from the roof,

but are used only at great festivals.

The ambon is built of marble. At the foot of

the choir-screen lies a narrow stone platform, pro-

bably the solea. Thence a staircase leads througha carved doorway, with lintel and posts of marble,

up to the ambon. This consists, as at Mari Mina,of a balcony and pulpit proper. The balcony is

faced with an oblong panel inlaid with the most

beautiful and elaborate marble mosaic. On each

side of the panel is a little pillar of white marble,

sculptured with scroll-work, and finished with an

oval cap. Along the top of the panel and down the

balustrade runs a broken Coptic inscription carved

in high relief. The pulpit proper is circular, andset round with five semi-columns alternated with

wedge-shaped projections. These pillars and wedgesare covered with a minute mosaic of coloured marble

and shell-pearl ;but the full arrangement can only

be seen from inside the pulpit, because three of the

pillars and three of the wedges are quite hidden bythe shrine, which is thrust up against the ambon.

Behind the ambon, the arched recess, across the

chord of which it stands, is filled up nearly to the

A. J. BUTLER.

ELEVATION.

i I

PLAN.

_ a

SCALE Of fCT.

g. 4 Marble Ambon at Abu-'s-Sifain (tenlli century).

86 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IH.

level of the pulpit-top with a platform of masonry,beneath which are said to rest the remains of a

patriarch. There is of course no inscription to

record the name.

On the south side of this section is a solid wooden

partition, drawn in front of and therefore hiding the

somewhat ungainly piers. Most of this partition is

occupied by three arched recesses of carved and

painted woodwork, decked with small pillars at the

corners. In the back of each recess is a picture

Elias, Barsum al Arian and between them a curious

painting of the Virgin in triumph. She occupies a

small arched panel in the centre of the piece, and

round it twenty small oblong panels are marked off

by lines of colour. She is seated on a high-backed

Byzantine-looking throne, holding a cross in her right

hand and a palm in her left. Over her head are two

flying angels, one carrying a cross, the other a palm,and above the angels in the middle is a wingedcherub-head. Each of the twenty small panels con-

tains two half-length figures of angels robed and

crowned;and every figure carries a cross and a

palm-branch sloped together so as to touch over the

angel's breast. The ground of the whole picture is

gold, but the Arabic date proves that it is nineteenth-

century work.

The choir-screen is worth a journey to Egypt to

see. It is a massive partition of ebony, divided into

three large panels doorway and two side panelswhich are framed in masonry. At each side of the

doorway is a square pillar, plastered and painted ;on

the left is portrayed the Crucifixion, and over it the

sun shining full;on the right, the Taking down from

the Cross, and over it the sun eclipsed. Each of the


three panels is about six feet wide and eight high.In the centre a double door, opening choirwards, is

covered with elaborate mouldings, enclosing ivorycrosses carved in high relief. All round the framingof the doors tablets of solid ivory chased with

arabesques are inlet, and the topmost part of each

panel is marked off for an even richer display of

chased tablets and crosses. Each of the side-panelsof the screen is one mass of superbly cut crosses of

ivory, inlaid in even lines, so as to form a kind of

broken trellis-work in the ebony background. The

spaces between the crosses are filled with little

squares, pentagons, hexagons, and other figures of

ivory, variously designed, and chiselled with ex-

quisite skill. This order is only broken in the

centre of the panel, where a small sliding window,fourteen inches square, is fitted

;on the slide a

single large cross is inlaid, above and below which

is an ivory tablet containing an Arabic inscription

interlaced with scroll-work. In these ivories there

is no through-carving ;the block is first shaped

in the form required cross, square, or the like ;

next, the design is chased in high relief, retainingthe ivory ground and a raised border

;and the piece

is then set in the woodwork and framed round with

mouldings of ebony, or ebony and ivory alternately.

It is difficult to give any idea of the extraordinaryrichness and delicacy of the details or the splendourof the whole effect. The priest told me that this

screen was 953 years old, i. e. dates from 927 A. D.,

which seems to be the year of the church's founda-

tion. The tradition is doubtless right : work of

exactly the same style may be seen on the mumbarat the mosque of Ibn Tulun, built in 879 A.D. Many

Fig. 5. Blocks of solid ivory carved in relief: from the choir-screen at Abu-'s-Sifain (tenth century'.


of the designs there are absolutely identical with

those at Abu-'s-Sifain, though neglect and exposurehave half ruined them. It may be remarked that

the Ibn Tulun was built by a Copt.Over the doorway of the screen a small beam

projects on brackets;

it was meant to uphold a

curtain, no longer used, and is painted with a Coptictext too dim to be decipherable. The screen is

carried upwards flush with the masonry setting or

framing of the large panels by some beautiful

woodwork which serves as mounting for a greatnumber of pictures. First comes a band of goldentexts with large letters carved in relief on the

dexter side Coptic and on the other Arabic writing ;

then a row of small pictures set in a continuous

framing or arcading of woodwork;above this a

second band of golden texts in Coptic and Arabic;

then twelve small painted beams, projecting about

a cubit and fitted each with an iron ring long dis-

used but meant to hold a pendant lamp. Above the

beams a third band of golden letters all Arabic;

and lastly, a row of eleven separate large pictures.

The series of large pictures is continued round

nearly the length of the south wall;while the series

of little pictures runs between its bands of goldentexts without change or break all along the four

sides of the men's section, stopping only at the

shrine of Abu-'s-Sifain by the pulpit.

To take the upper row first. Each picture is

about 30 in. by so. In the centre is Christ, robed

with cross-embroidered pall and dalmatic. The right

hand is uplifted in the attitude of benediction : in the

left hand is a book of the gospels drooping down-

wards. The type of countenance with small oval

QO Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

outline, arched eyebrows, and short pointed beard,

is unusual and scarcely eastern. All the figures

in this series are three-quarter length : those at the

side all turn toward the central figure, but show

nearly full face. The features are bold, powerful,and dignified, but decidedly Jewish in cast. The

subjects are : (i) St. Paul, (2) St. Peter, (3) St. John,

(4) The Angel Michael, (5) The Virgin, (6) Christ,

(7) John the Baptist, (8) The Angel Gabriel, (9) St.

Matthew, (10) St. Mark, (n) St. Luke. All the

figures are nimbed and carry open gospels, exceptthe Virgin, the two angels, and St. Peter, who bears

instead two long golden keys. The picture of Gabriel

is exceptional. The angel's right hand is uplifted,

palm outwards ;in the left are two large lilies, which

part at a wide angle from his hand;the lilies blos-

soming with red and white flowers, alternated on

each side of the stalk and divided by leaves, are

rendered with exquisite colouring.On the south side are nine pictures of the same

series. Here also the central figure is Christ, and

the others face towards it. They are : (i) St. James,

(2) Thaddaeus, (3) Simon the Canaanite, (4) St.

Michael, (5) Christ with glory lettered &Nyi.e. o &v

' The Being,' or,' He that Is.' This title is common

in the Greek Church, but according to the' Guide

to Painting' an ancient MS. brought by Didron

from Mount Athos it should be used only for the

Trinity. The Copts, however, while they rarely

if ever represent the Father, ascribe all his attri-

butes to the Son. (6) St. James, Son of Alphaeus,

(7) St. Gabriel, (8) St. Andrew, (9) St. Jude.Here the series ceases, but in the same line,

between St. Jude and the western screen, is a panel


5 ft. long and i ft. high, containing seven half-figures

of saints on a gold background, each in its owndivision.

Of the under row or small pictures running all

round the men's section there are no less than 65,

all on a gold ground; viz. 21 on the east screen,

20 on the south screen, 1 7 on the west screen, 7 on

the north wall. Starting from the north end of the

choir-screen they are as follows :

1. The Annunciation. The angel is crossing a

courtyard to the Virgin, who stands facingthe spectator ;

she has risen from a bench

and is lifting her right hand in a deprecatingattitude.

2. The Nativity. In the foreground is a kind of

cradle or crib into which two oxen are gazingas the child is being taken out of it. Farther

back the Virgin is seen sitting up in a kind

of couch;

the child, wound arms, legs and

body with a mummy-like swathing, lies on

his back at a little distance above the Virginin mid-air. At the sides and in the back-

ground crowned kings are kneeling and

offering vessels of gold and silver.

3. The Presentation in the Temple. In the

background is a red-coloured altar-canopy.

4. The Flight into Egypt.

5. The Resurrection of Lazarus. A very curi-

ous painting. Lazarus is standing uprightswathed from head to foot in bands of linen

like a mummy, while over his head and fall-

ing behind is a dark heavy robe which forms

a head-dress or hood, precisely like the

arrangement seen on mummy-cases. Two

92 Ancient Coptic Churches. [C H. m.

men are represented unwinding the strips

of linen.

It is quite probable that ancient Egyptian forms

of burial survived among wealthy people even into

Christian times, though nothing of the kind is

known now 1

;and it is very singular to remark

that the same kind of wrapping is common in early

Italian frescoes or paintings in the late third and

following centuries-. It may be seen, if I remember

rightly, in the mosaics of the porch of St. Mark's

at Venice;and the

' swathed mummy-like figures of

Christ' found in early Celtic work are quoted, though

wrongly, by Mr. Warren in distinctive evidence

of a connexion between the Celtic and eastern

Churches 3.

6. The Marriage at Cana.


1

Embalming was still common as late as the middle of the

fourth century : for we read that St. Antony's dread of the process

was the chief reason why his followers concealed the place of his

burial. But the whole subject of the transition from ancient

P^gyptian to Christian rites awaits investigation.

The Mohammedan custom as described to me by a native,

and as I have witnessed it, is to lay the body on a white shroud

which is then loosely folded over it. Round this a winding-sheetis wrapped, of a material varying with the wealth of the deceased's

family : rich people use silk, and red silk for a maiden. Three

loose bands are then tied round the sheet one at the neck, one

at the waist, and one at the knees or feet. When the body is

placed in the tomb these bands are further loosened or removed.

The present Coptic custom is to dress the deceased in his best

dress, and to lay over this a sheet of cloth, silk, or cashmere.

They do not swathe the body in bands, and they use a coffin.2 Roma Sotteranea, vol. ii. p. 99.3

Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p. 51.


8. The Transfiguration.

9. Christ and the Eleven;

the Temple in the

background is represented by a stiff" Byzan-tine building with three domes and oblongwindows.

10. Christ blessing two children.

11. (Centre) The Resurrection. Christ standingon the tomb and holding a flag of victory ;

at each side an angel sitting.

12. The Crucifixion.

13. The Last Supper.

14. The Entry into Jerusalem.

15. Christ in Glory, or the Transfiguration. Anaureole with rays, and at the four corners

the apocalyptic symbols. This somewhatresembles a fresco in the apse of the crypt of

the cathedral at Auxerre twelfth century1

.

1 6. The Ascension. Christ in an azure medallion

upheld by two flying angels ;the disciples

below gazing upwards.'

i 7. Christ with a boy who carries balanced on his

head a sort of cradle surrounded by an open

railing. The subject is doubtful, but it maybe the sick of the palsy carrying his bed, our

Lord being drawn on a larger scale, as was

the custom sometimes in the West.

1 8. The woman of Samaria. In the foregroundis the well with a coping round it. A hori-

zontal rope slung between two tree-tops up-holds another rope from which the pitcher

hangs by a pulley. One of the trees is

beside the well, the other behind in the

1 Didron's Christian Iconography, tr. by Millington, vol. i. p. 108.


distance, so that a line joining them would

pass nowhere near the well. The trees are

large sycamores, but bend under the strain

of the rope. Perspective is not much re-

garded in these pictures.

19. Christ healing the blind and halt. The manis kneeling and our Lord touching his eyes.

20. Christ and the man who ' had great posses-sions.' The latter wears a crown.

21. Christ raising the widow of Main's son. The

body lies on its back and is being carried

head foremost on a bier with four corner-

poles. The body is swathed in the same

mummy-like fashion as Lazarus in (5).

This ends the pictures over the choir-screen,

eastern side. The following twenty on the south

side are chiefly Old Testament subjects :

22. The Three Children in the furnace. Towardsthe top of the picture in the background is

a golden image, and each side of it a man

falling in worship. In the foreground to the

left is Nebuchadnezzar crowned and robed

in ermine;to the right is a dome-shaped

furnace of brick, one side of which is broken

open ;it resembles the ordinary lime-kiln

of the country. Flames issue from the top ;

inside are the three children, and with theman angel.

23. Moses and the burning bush. The painter

clearly had no idea of a bush or thicket,

(cf. No. 33 infra), only of trees with bare

trunks and branches above. So he repre-

sents a group of sycamores with their topsalone on fire and their stems showing under-


neath. An angel leans out of the flames

looking downwards. From the left of the

picture a piece of ruined wall projects with-

out apparent purpose.

24. Ascent of Elijah.

25. David bringing the Ark from the house of

Obed-edom. David in front is playing the

harp ;behind him walk a man playing a

lute (the Arab 'add) and some other figures.

The Ark is a large coffer on wheels drawn

by oxen; soldiers bring up the rear.

26. Jonah being cast up by the fish.

27. Jacob's Vision. A short Arab ladder restingon low clouds

;one angel ascending, one

descending.28. The angel appearing to Zacharias in the

Temple. The Temple is represented by a

short arcade in the background ;Zacharias

is robed as priest and swinging a thurible.

29. The miracle of the loaves and fishes.

30. The finding of Moses. In the background are

shown the Pyramids, and a sort of castellated

wall runs up to them from near the river. Pha-

raoh's daughter has ridden down on a hand-

some donkey.

31. The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth.

32. Christ at Bethany. Arab spoons and tumblers

are on the table, and beside it an Arab ewer

and basin for hand-washing.

33. The sacrifice of Isaac. The ram '

caught in

a thicket' is shown hung in mid-air by his

horns to the top of a tree which has no lower

branches. Yet the ram is nearly as large as

the tree.


34. The Ark resting upon Mount Ararat. TheArk is on a slope and shored up by wooden

props ;a raised causeway of wood leads up

to it. Noah and animals in the foreground.o

35. Pharaoh and his host overwhelmed in the

Red Sea. . Heads of men and spear-topsare showing between all the waves. Pha-

raoh's chariot is on the water but sinking.

36. Samuel anointing Saul.

37. Isaiah. An angel flying above a flaming altar

holds between a pair of tongs a live coal

with which he is touching the prophet's lips.

38. Moses on Sinai receiving the tables of the law

from a cloud.

39. Aaron in the Tabernacle. With both hands

he is swinging a thurible hanging by three

chains;

in his right hand he holds a branch,

like olive, budding ;on the altar is a book

with golden clasps and a pair of goldencandlesticks.

I have never seen a Coptic book with clasps ;the

altar books are always sealed in metal cases. Pro-

bably clasps are earlier.

40. Peter walking on the water,

41. Peter receiving the keys.

The seventeen pictures on the west side are these :

42. The Temptation of Christ. The devil in goldenair is flying away from the mountain.

43. The devil being cast out of Mary Magdalene.

44. The man with a withered hand.

45. The healing of the lame man(?).

46. The sick of the palsy. He is being let down,not through a roof, but from the housetopinto an open courtyard.

CH. in.] Daiv Abu-s-Sifain. 97

47. Mary anointing Christ's feet.

48. Christ arguing with the doctors.

49. The healing of the man whom Satan had bound

thirty-eight years.

50. The Crucifixion. The cross stands between

two heavy Byzantine buildings.

51. The Syro-Phoenician woman.

52. Christ casting out a devil.

53. Christ cursing the fig-tree.

54. Christ on the sea of Tiberias rebuking the

storm.'

Peace, be still.'

55. Christ asleep in the storm. 'Save us: we

perish.'

56. Christ and the disciples walking through the

cornfields.

57. The woman with the issue of blood.

58. The raising of Jairus' daughter.There remain on the north side seven of the same

series :

59. The widow casting her two mites into the

Treasury.60. The man among the tombs from whom Christ

is casting out a devil.

6 1 . The healing of the centurion's servant.

62. Constantine.

63. A plain white cross of Greek form.

64. Helena.

65. Christ sending forth the Apostles.The figures of Constantine and Helena, and the

cross between them, commemorate of course the

finding of the cross. The legend is well told in

Curzon's Monasteries 1. The emperor and empress

1 Monasteries of the Levant, p. 164.

VOL. I. II


are both crowned and robed in sacerdotal vest-

ments chasuble, dalmatic, alb, and stole. Thestole is the single epitrachelion and hangs between

chasuble and dalmatic. The dalmatic is short,

reaching only a little below the waist ; it is cut

so as to leave a curve at the bottom : the chasuble

also has a very short curve in front, but seems to

be very full behind and at the sides.

This ends the somewhat lengthy catalogue of

pictures in the men's section. They were perhaps

painted in the fifteenth and sixteenth century, but

the date must be quite conjectural. In drawingand perspective they are very rude if closely ex-

amined, but seen, as they are meant to be seen,

at a distance they have their own enchantment.

The colours are very soft and harmonious, and the

figures have all a freedom and even grandeur of

outline that redeems the want of technical finish.

The whole tone is one of unmistakable splendour ;

and the contrast between the dark screen below,

starred over with ivory crosses, and the space above

divided by bands of golden writing and set with

panels in which haloed saints and sacred scenes

glow under golden skies, is something admirable

and delightful. And when in olden times the twelve

silver lamps that hung before the screen were burn-

ing at night and throwing a mellow light upon it,

the beauty and richness of the view with all its

sacred memories and suggestions must have deeplymoved the worshippers, and helped, with the odour

of frankincense and the sound of chaunt and cymbals,to create an impression of ritual splendour now quite

unrivalled.

iv. The choir is raised 2 ft. above the nave, and

CH. HI.] Dair Abu-s-Sifain. 99

is very long from north, to south but narrow.

Passing inside, one remarks that the inner as well

as the outer face of the screen is inlaid with

ivory : and a bridge of masonry, invisible from the

nave, is seen to join the two great piers between

which the screen stands, and from which the wide

dome springs to cover the choir and apse. This

bridge (about 2 ft. high) is lightened by five drop-arched openings, on the spandrels of which six-wingedcherubim are painted in dusky red colours. On this

side of the screen too are many pictures and some

Coptic writing.

The lectern which stands in the centre of the

choir is quite plain, adorned only with geometrical

mouldings. A fifteenth century book of prayers

lying upon it has some good illuminations. The tall

standard bronze candlestick beside the lectern, and

the silver censer hanging on the candlestick, are both

ancient and fine pieces of work. Several silver

lamps, lamps of plain glass, and silver-mounted

ostrich eggs depend from a lofty beam before the

haikal-screen.

The centre part of this, the iconostasis, resembles

in style the choir-screen, and is doubtless of the same

period. It is made of ebony inlaid with thin plates

of ivory variously shaped and carved in relief, and

with carved blocks of ebony marked off by ivoryborders. The side-pieces are of a lighter-coloured

wood, perhaps cedar, inlaid with crosses and other

patterns of plain flat ivory. All the doors however

there is one on each side of the haikal-door are very

fine, having their spandrels inlaid with flowers. More-

over at each side of the haikal door is a little square

slide-window, as in the choir-screen. A silk curtain

H 2

SCALE Of FECT

Fig. 6. Ivory-inlaid doorway of the Haikal at Abu-'s-Sifain.

(Designs in geometrical mouldings merely indicated : design of framing facsimile).

CH. in.] Dair Abu-s~Sifain. 101

embroidered with a gold cross hangs before the

entrance : just over it is a splendid ivory cross inlaid,

and on each side of the cross a superb panel of open

ebony carving. The screen of course ends upwardswith a row of pictures. The central doorway closes

by folding doors beautifully inlaid : on each is a de-

licate bronze knocker, a ring resting on a scutcheon

with open work above and below and shapely bosses.

The horse-shoe arch of the doorway is followed

round by a sort of baluster pattern in ivory : each

spandrel is inlaid with an eight-branched flower

springing from a vase and curving towards the

centre, where a dove meets it. The vacant spacesare filled with stars, and at each corner is a tablet

with an inlaid inscription of dedication in Arabic

the usual'

Reward, O Lord.' Across the lintel is

a band with Coptic writing inlaid on the dexter,

and Arabic on the other side. The Coptic means'

Glory to God in the highest/ while the Arabic

is a verse from the psalms,'

Lift up, O kings, your

gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors.'

Exactly the same variation from the better known

rendering occurs in the Ecgbert Pontifical 1. The

illustration will give some idea of this beautiful

door.

The choir is strewn with Turkey and Persian

carpets much worn. Round the walls on shelves

are a number of pictures.

i. On the north pier but facing south the twenty-four priests of the Levitical courses : the

figures are painted in two rows of twelve,

one above the other, on a gold ground.

1

Ecgbert Pontifical, ed. Surtees Society, p. 31.

IO2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

On the back of the choir-screen are these :

2. The Three Children in the burning fiery

furnace. Christ is seated blowing on the

fire to quench it.

3. John the Baptist's head being brought to Herod

on a charger.

4. St. George and the Dragon.

5. The anchorites St. Antony and St. Paul.

6 and 7. St. George and the Dragon.8. Abu Iskharun a native saint as indicated by

the camels in the scene. In the backgroundof this picture is a church or chapel like a

doll's house with open doors. On the groundfloor inside are six little figures standingin a row : in the upper story an altar is

seen with the area or altar-casket upon it,

two golden candlesticks and three goldenthuribles.

The average size of the above paintings is 30 in.

by 20.

This brings us to the doorway of the screen, over

which are three glazed pictures the only glazed

pictures I have seen in a Coptic church set in a

single frame. They are about 10 in. by 7, and

represent

9. The angel Michael triumphing over Death.

Death is a bearded man lying with closed

eyes and resting his head on a pillow. The

angel is standing upon him.

10. The Baptism of Christ,

n. St. Mark.

The glass of the two latter was so dingy that I

could not distinguish them, but took the titles on

trust from the priest.

CH. III.] Dair Abn-s-Sifain. 103

Thence the larger series continues :

1 2. Mary and Martha, both full-face. Mary in her

left hand carries a palm-branch with which

she touches Martha's right.

13. Abu-'s-Sifain and his father.

14. Mary finding Christ among the doctors. Silver

crescents are nailed on for o-lories.o

15. St. Julius.

1 6. St. Stephen (?) crowned, swinging a thurible

in his right hand and carrying a model of a

church in his left.

17. St. James the martyr.1 8. Anba Ruais : a Coptic martyr. There is a

church dedicated to him at the Coptic ceme-

tery near the 'Abbasiah road, Cairo.

On the south wall of the choir are three :

19. Anba Barsum al 'Arian.

20. Baptism of Christ.

2 i. Virgin and Child.

22 30. The icons or pictures over the haikal-

screen are no less than twenty-nine in number, all

about 10 in. by 7. Over the central part, i.e. before

the high altar, are nine three panels each with

three arches.

In the middle is the Virgin and Child, i" : on each

side of her an angel, 2 : under each of the remain-

ing six arches are two apostles, 3 5. The icons

therefore consist of Christ and his Mother, two

angels, and the twelve apostles.

io4 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

On the north part of the screen is a single panel

containing nine pictures (31 39) :

5

CH. III.]Dair Abu- s-Sifain. 105

twelve scenes, which are among the best and the most

interesting paintings in any of the churches of Egypt.As usual in ancient Coptic pictures, the wood panelhas been overlaid with a thin coating of plaster or'

gesso ': the plaster was then washed all over with

gilt, and on the gilt the colours were laid. The

early Italian painters, in employing the same method,were careful to paste strips of parchment across the

joinings of the wood at the back, to prevent it

starting. The Coptic artist took no such precaution,and his picture is now disfigured by narrow rifts

that run from top to bottom. Neglect and wanton

damage have further injured it : but not so far that

its value as a work of art is seriously diminished.

Its age cannot be less than 500 years : I think it maydate as far back as the eleventh century. The choir

north is so dark that candles are required to see the

picture : but its position may have saved it whenothers more exposed have been broken in pieces.

1


palm outwards, with a gesture of deprecation. Herface has been injured by some malicious person, whohas picked out the eyes : but there is a look of

sorrow and fear upon it, not of rejoicing. The

angel, too, has an almost pained expression of so-

lemnity : the eyebrows are drawn together, and lips

half open. The treatment, in point of expression,reminds one very curiously of Mr. Burne Jones'

picture of the same subject, though the scale is

much smaller. The angel's wings are a soft greenwith rich red underwings. A shaft of deep green

light is slanting down on the Virgin's head. In

the background is an arcade of Corinthian pillars

supporting a Byzantine building. Here the draw-

ing is rude and careless, although the figures are

modelled and coloured with all the skill of a master's

hand.

2. The Nativity. The Virgin is lying on a couch

in the centre; below, a desert pastoral scene, amid

which the Child is being washed in a large brass

vessel. Higher up on the dexter side are the Magibringing gifts; and above the Virgin, in another scene,

the Child is lying in a manger. This is the conven-

tional composition as found also in all the western

Churches.

3. Christ in Glory. This is the central pictureof the upper row. The background in gold ;

at

the four corners are the apocalyptic symbols ;in the

midst an orb of dark yet faint green colour, in which

Christ is seated with outspread hands. The hair of the

face is full, but short, and the type quite unusual.

The expression is severe but powerful. The drapery,

particularly the folds falling from the knees, is

beautifully rendered.

CH. in.] Dair Abtt-s-Sifain. 107

4. The Presentation in the Temple. Simeon has

just taken the Child in his arms from the Mother :

at each side is a figure, one of whom, Joseph, carries

a pair of turtle-doves.

5. The Baptism of our Lord. Christ wears no

loin-cloth. The angels stand on Christ's left hand

instead of the right. Fishes are swimming in the

water, and uncouth little figures riding on strangebeasts like dwarf hippopotami. These figures de-

note probably the evil spirits which reside in the

Nile, and which are exorcised at the consecration of

the water for baptism in the Coptic service. In this

picture, as in that at Mari Mina, Christ is standing

upon a serpent.

6. The Transfiguration. Of the three figures,

Peter, James, and John, two are falling headlong on

their faces, down the mountain side : one is seated

burying his face in his hands. Christ stands in an

orb, from which shoot out curious wing-like or

feathered rays of glory. At each side is a figurein clouds Moses and Elias.

7. The Entry into Jerusalem. The faces here

are very finely modelled, and surprisingly powerful in

expression : but the drawing of the ass is almost

ludicrous. The painter's indifference to all the

accessories in these pictures is very remarkable.

8. The Ascension. Christ rising is upheld bytwo ascending angels. Below are two holy womenwith glories, and the apostles gazing up with shaded

eyes.

9. Pentecost. The twelve are seated on a large

horseshoe bench, and rays are falling upon them.

The treatment is clearly suggested by the ring of

presbyters seated in the apse.


10. The Death of the Virgin. This subject is so

rare in the Coptic paintings that I know no other

instance of it. In the western Churches it was

common. The Virgin lies on a high altar-like couch,

behind which Christ is standing and receiving in his

arms a little swathed figure, which represents Mary'ssoul. On each side of our Lord is an angel holding,

and sloping towards him, a large golden candlestick.

Round about the bier are twelve figures the apostles

who wear the episcopal omophorion. One carries

a pyx, or a vessel of chrism, and a swinging censer :

one is reverently touching the bier : and another

wears a most pathetic look of sorrow as bend-

ing down over the bier with forward-leaning face,

and hand laid gently on the coverlet, he gazes

sadly and enquiringly on the closed eyes and still

face of Mary. Of these twelve figures only the

three highest up in the picture, whose heads show

against the sky, wear the nimbus : the others have

none, perhaps because the close grouping made it

difficult to render. The whole composition is almost

precisely identical, even in detail, with the bas-relief

of the same subject at Or-san-Michele in Florence.

It will be noticed that the events depicted were

in chronological order, showing the unity of design.The titles are given in Coptic only not in Arabic

which is generally a proof of great age, if proofwere wanted.

v. The north aisle-chapel is completely walled off

from the haikal. It has its own screen : the roof is

low, as there is a chapel above it, and the interior is

very dark. Yet there is perhaps less sign of neglectthan usual in these side-chapels. In the eastern wall,

which is straight, not apsidal, there is a niche covered


with fine Damascus tiles. The altar candlesticks, of

bronze, are of a simple but good design : but the most

interesting thing in this chapel is the ark or altar-

casket,which I found lying in darkness, and smothered

in rubbish and dust, on the ground in the corner of

one of the outer chapels, and which apparently had

long fallen into disuse. The priest was unaware of its

existence, but has had the good sense to remove it

into the church. This box is more than six hundred

years old: for it bears the Coptic date 996, cor- ft

responding to 1 280 A. D. The form is cubical, with a

round hole at the top : the sides are covered with

paintings. If one imagines the box in its positionfor the celebration of the korban, the order will be

as follows : On the east side : The Redeemer. This

is an exceedingly fine picture, quite Rembrandt-like

in tone, in its splendid depths of shadow and play of

light, and almost worthy of the master. Christ, half-

turning to the left, is walking with earnest luminous

eyes fixed before him, and lips half-parted. In his

left hand a golden chalice is held outstretched :

two fingers of the right hand are uplifted in benedic-

tion. Under his feet is an eagle flying reversed,

i.e. with the under parts uppermost, and head

curved over the breast. The face of Christ is full-

bearded, resembling the type traditional in the

western Churches : and the rich umber shadowsround it deepen the impression, which is one of

fascinating solemnity. This is among the most

powerful pictures I. have ever seen.

Southward. Virgin and Child. The backgroundis gold, and the nimbs are covered with patterns of

stippled or dotted work. The Child rests on the

Virgin's right arm : her right hand is holding his

no Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

fore-arm. Christ carries an open scroll. On either

side is a red-robed angel with arms crossed upon the

breast.

Westward. The Annunciation. The subject is

treated in the conventional manner : but the angelbears a lily in his left hand, more after the typefound in the western Churches. The angel's wings,the two glories, and the whole sky are covered with

stars, each star consisting of a cluster of seven dots,

or shallow dents;and the whole scene is worked

over with conventional flowers and scrolls traced in

red dotting. This style of work is found also in

early Italian painting.

Northward. The picture here is sunk in a frame

instead of being flush with the edges, like the other

three. The execution is ruder and stiffer probably

later, and the work of a feebler hand. It representsa priest administering the eucharist to a Coptic

martyr called Mariam-as-Saiah (the Wanderer) a

hideous naked famished-looking figure, such as is

generally drawn to depict an anchorite. The priest

holds in his left hand a golden chalice, and over the

chalice, with his right, a golden spoon containing a

wafer, which is stamped with a single cross, such as

may be seen in mediaeval Latin illuminations, or the

mosaics of St. Mark at Venice 1.

The northermost of the three doors in the haikal-

screen opens into a tiny room, shut off by heavy

1I much regret to state that on a visit to the church of Abu-'s-

Sifain in the early part of this year (1884), since the above was

written, I could neither see nor hear of this beautiful altar-casket.

It is only fair, however, to state that the priest of the church was

absent.

CH. in.] Dair Abu- s-Sifain. 1 1 1

woodwork from the sanctuary. This is the shrine

of the Virgin, whose picture is set in the back of

a deep wooden niche carved and painted. She is

seated on a Byzantine throne, and above her two

flying angels are holding a crown. The treatment

is singularly free from convention. On the wall are

three other pictures :

1. Tikla Himanut, the Abyssinian. Here is a

large palm laden with purple dates, and at either side

canopied by the branches stands a saint.

2. A good painting of the first monk, St. Antony,which the priest declares to be 900 years old : but he

seems mistaken by some centuries.

3. Abu-'s-Sifain. The southermost door opensinto a similar little room, railed off from the sanctuary,and used as a sacristy. Here are some books and

vestments.

vi. The haikal or sanctuary is of course entered

by the central door. It is raised one step above the

choir and therefore three above the nave : and is

remarkable for a singularly fine tribune in the apse,

the wide arc of which spans not only the sanctuarybut also the two side chambers which are railed off

from it by crossbar woodwork. The floor of the

haikal is oblong and the altar stands nearly in the

midst : eastward the tribune rises in two stages

filling the area of the arc. Three narrow straight

steps, faced with red and white marble alternately,

lead up to the first stage or landing, which is semi-

circular : thence two curved steps which follow it

round lead to a broader landing bounded only bythe apse wall, or rather by the wide marble bench

which runs round the apse wall forming the seat

for the presbyters. This bench is divided in the

ii2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

midst by the patriarch's throne which like all

the tribune is of marble. At the back of the

throne, before which is a single step, a niche is hol-

lowed in the wall : the sides of the seat are of white

marble and slope downwards between marble posts.

These posts or pillars have oval caps resemblingthose on early Muslim tombs.

In the niche is a fresco representing our Lord:

and over the arch of the niche another wall-painting

in form of a triptych, which contains in the centre

panel a head girt with six wings crossed in pairs

representing the seraphim : and in each side panelthe figure of an angel. This triptych is about 2 ft.

high and cuts into an oblong space of wall, some1 2 ft. by 4, overlaid with fine blue and green porce-lain tiles, which enclose also two panels of plain

colour. On each side of the tiles is a row of six large

pictures, or rather a continuous wooden panel with

painted arcading, containing figures of the twelve

apostles. Here the perpendicular wall ends and

the curve of the dome begins. Upon this curve

directly above the tiles is a semicircular fresco re-

presenting Christ in glory upheld by two angels. Aconventional border encloses this painting, and at its

highest point is the figure of an eagle with outspread

wings slaying a serpent. The rest of the dome is

plain whitewash.

Below the row of apostles the wall is painted with

a large diaper pattern in flat colours.

To the left of the lowest steps, in the wall that

forms the chord of the arc, is a small recess or aum-

bry. Within it is a curious little wooden stand, for

a vessel of chrism which is used to anoint the steps


ere the patriarch mounts his throne. In the same

aumbry may be seen an ancient iron or bronze lampof very unusual design a kind of low-rimmed bowl

with seven lips for as many wicks, and a flat raised

handle at the back. It is made of a single piece of

metal. The iron stand on which the lamp is placedwhen kindled is also a singular and pretty piece of

rude work, and may be seen resting and rusting onthe tribune. This lamp is used only once a year,at the festival of Abu-'s-Sifain. The bronze ewer

mentioned by Murray seems to have disappeared :

for in answer to my questions the sacristan always

replied that it was under repair. The basin *in blue

and green enamel' still exists in very filthy condition,

but the description is scarcely accurate. Six little

bosses round the bowl inside are enamelled, but

otherwise the basin is quite plain, and by no means

specially beautiful. The altar, standing nearly in

the midst of the sanctuary and overshadowed by a

canopy, is 3 ft. 4 in. high, 7 ft. i in. long from north

to south, and 4 ft. 3 in. broad from east to west. It

has the usual depression for the altar-board on top,

and the cavity for relics;but though built of ma-

sonry in the orthodox manner, it is cased in wood,for some reason unknown. Over the wood is the

usual tight-fitting covering of brocade.

The altar-canopy or baldacchino is a dome resting

on woodwork with four open pointed arches, which

spring from four marble pillars. The two eastern

pillars stand at a distance of 2 ft. from the nearest

corner of the altar : the two western at a distance

of 2 ft. 8 in., close against the screen. The canopy

projects on all sides over the altar and the pillars

stand clear, so that the celebrant can move round

VOL. I. I

1 14 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

the altar without passing from under the canopy :

but the centre of the canopy is not quite over

the centre of the altar.

The whole underpart of the dome is richly painted.

At each of the four corners inside, where the arches

spring from the pillars, is a large figure of an angel

kneeling : a glory shines round his head;his wings

are raised and outspread to the utmost on each side,

so that they follow the curve of the arch. Thus the

tips of the wings of the four angels meet together.

Just underneath the meeting tips of the wings, i.e.

at the point of every arch, a small circle is painted

enclosing a cross in red and gold colours. All the

four angels with uplifted hands grasp and hold above

their heads a golden circle. Within this circle is

another golden ring concentric with it, and in the

space between stand the four apocalyptic symbols,each bearing a golden gospel and crowned with a

glory. They are divided one from another by circles-

one circle at each cardinal point of the compass : in

the eastern and western circles is an eight-rayedstar ; north and south are two suns or sun-like faces,

one eclipsed, one shining in strength. The inner

golden ring, or the centre of the dome, is chargedwith a half-length figure of the Redeemer. The nimbis lettered '0 ON : the right hand is raised in benedic-

tion;the left carries the book of the gospel. On

the dexter side of the head are the letters CX, on the

sinister Cl, curiously written backwards, instead of

1C XC, or Jesus Christ, The line of the figure

runs east and west, the head lying towards the

western star.

Each spandrel of the canopy outside, fronting the

choir and visible from it, is decked with a haloed

CH. in.] Daiv Abu- s-Sifain. 115

angel holding a palm. All the arches are pointedas mentioned above, and from each point an ostrich

egg hangs down by a short chain. The caps of the

four pillars are joined by spars on which rings are

fastened, doubtless used in ancient times to suspendthe curtains that veiled the altar. These spars are

joined by cross-beams which form a cross above the

altar, thus Jj. High above the ground the whole

sanctuary is covered with a network of flying spars,

crossing each other, and used for hanging lamps.Before quitting the haikal one may notice that the

back part or inside of the screen, the choirward face

of which is so magnificent, shows nothing but the

rude skeleton framework without any pretence of

concealment or adornment. This contrast however

is usual, not exceptional.vii. The south aisle of Abu-'s-Sifain extends the

whole length of the church except the sanctuary : it

is divided by three rough screens into four sections,

the easternmost of which contains a font;

for the

whole aisle is used as a baptistery. The font is a

round basin 3 ft. deep, embedded in masonry, en-

closed by a sort of wooden cupboard and surmounted

by a little wooden canopy. The doors of the cup-

board are very rudely painted with flowers. Fromthe second division of this baptistery one may getbehind the south screen of the men's section. There,

lying disused and forgotten on the ground, are two

coronae one of bronze circular, and one of wood

octagonal, tapering in stages pierced with holes for

glass lamps.One other object of interest remains to be noted

the curious ancient winepress of rough woodwork,which ordinarily lies in the western division of the

I 2

n6 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

baptistery. Every year, however, in the spring, it

is transported to the chapel of Abu-'s-Sifain next the

church of Harat-az-Zuailah in Cairo. The grapes, or

rather raisins, are placed in rush mats between two

round wooden trays, the lower of which is fixed, the

upper moveable and worked by a screw lever. Thewhole is mounted on a heavy wooden frame.

THE EXTERIOR CHAPELS OF ABU-'S-SIFAIN.

Just beyond the doorway leading down to the chapelof Barsum al 'Ariin is another on the same side,

leading out of the church and into a courtyard roofed

with palm-beams. In the left corner of the courtyardis the door of the bakehouse, where the eucharistic

breads are made, and where the wooden die for

stamping them is kept. Opposite, in a recess, are

six or seven large waterpots in a masonry setting :

close by is a well, and a staircase for mounting to the

upper chapels.

From the courtyard a roofed passage leads east-

ward to a cluster of tiny chapels, more resembling

dungeons than shrines or places of worship. First

on the left comes

The Chapel of St. Gabriel.

Here a scanty light falls through a small open

grating in the roof, which a solitary Corinthian

column upholds. The chapel consists merely of

choir and haikal, but there is a curious side section


for the women, very narrow, but aligning the sanctuaryas well as the choir. The woodwork of the haikal

screen is very rude, and the icons above it Christ

and the twelve Apostles are mere daubs. Rude

painting replaces inlaying in the spandrels of the

doorway.At the end of the passage, candles must be lighted

to show the way. Turning to the right, one passes

through two heavy open screens into a small bap-

tistery, where there is a font, or rather large basin

of stone, built up in masonry. The basin is circular,

with a square enlargement east and west, at the

bottom of which are two steps, obviously adapted for

immersion, although the font is not more than about

four feet in depth. It was in this font, according to

the legend of the priest, that the Sultan Mu'azz was

baptized on his conversion to Christianity.

Leaving the baptistery, one passes under an arch-

way into

T/ie Chapel of St. John the Baptist,

consisting merely of choir and sanctuary. It was in

the haikal of this chapel that I found, lying unknownin dust and darkness, the beautiful altar-casket, nowin the north aisle-chapel of Abu-'s-Sifain. An arch-

way separates St. John from the adjoining

Chapel of St. James,

but the same screen is continued, and serves for both

sanctuaries. The work is poor : so are the paintings.

Both these chapels, built in dark, low, vaulted re-

cesses, with round arches springing here and there,

are very crypt-like.

ii8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

Returning towards the doorway of the passage

facing north one sees in front a thick open screen,

beyond which lies

The Chapel of Mart Buktor.

This is larger than St. John and St. James, and the

haikal is more artistic. The pictures are worthless.

Over the sanctuary door, Mari Buktor is representedin a large painting, on horseback. The altar here is

remarkable for a curious variation. It has no altar-

board, but a large slab of marble is inlet into the

top, and is carved with a horse-shoe depression to

the depth of two inches : within this depression is

another of like form, but shallower, and with a

channel or groove tending westward, but blocked

by a ridge at the outlet. This altar-top resembles

one at Al Mu allakah.

Buktor, it may be noted, is the Arabic form of

Victor.

THE UPPER CHAPELS OF ABU-'S-SIFAIN.

Mounting now the staircase, one arrives in the

open air, on a flat roof. This story is about half

the height of the main building : on it the triforium

runs round the church : and outside is another cluster

of chapels, over those in the crypt-like buildingsbelow.

East of the landing is a small roofless enclosure :

a door in the farthest wall opens with a wooden key,and shows beyond

CH. III.] Dair Abu- s-Sifain . 119

The Chapel of St. A ntony,

in three divisions. Between the women's section

and the choir (which serves also for the men) is an

open screen, surmounted by a plain wooden cross

an uncommon arrangement. The haikal-screen is of

an ordinary geometrical design. The altar-canopy

A. J. R.

Fig. 7. The Upper Chapels of Abu-'s-Sifain.

is painted, and has been extremely beautiful, but is

now rotting to pieces. Behind the altar, in the

niche, is a dim fresco of the Virgin and Child, a

very unusual subject for this position, which is

nearly always occupied by a pourtrayal of our

Lord in glory. The whole of this chapel, exceptthe haikal, is roofless, and answers the purpose of

a fowl-house.

1 20 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

Returning and passing through another door, one

enters a double chapel two similar chapels side by

side, divided only by an open screen : each of them

has a place for women and for men, besides choir

and haikal. In the first, called

The Chapel of Abba Nub,

the sanctuary screen is of very intricate and graceful

workmanship, though the icons are very rustic-

looking. Within the haikal is a fine niche, faced

with little Damascus tiles of rich colour.

The other, called

The Chapel of St. Michael,

is also remarkable for a good screen, and a very

pleasing picture of the angel Michael holding a

sword in his right hand and a balance in his left.

Other decayed and battered paintings stand about

the walls on shelves. From this chapel a window, or

rather shutter, opens, giving a view of the sanctuaryof Abu-'s-Sifain below. One sees that the roof of

the altar-canopy is painted with bands of colour, and

is surmounted by a cross of gilt metal.

Leaving these chapels, and returning to the landing,one passes now along beside a low coping, over which,

through a huge grating of palm beams, may be seen

the courtyard below, near the bakehouse. A door-

way now leads from the open air into a corridor,

which corresponds to and lies over the entrance

passage or north aisle below, and therefore belongsto the triforium of the church. A few paces forward

one discovers on the right,

CH. HI.] Dair Abit-s-Sifain. 121

The Church ofATAdra.

This is not in the triforium, but quite outside the

walls of Abu-'s-Sifain, built in fact over that half of

the guest-room which was described as being roofed

in, but projecting further eastward, not coextensive

with it. The western wall of this chapel is merelyan open screen, through which one may look down

upon the floor of the guest-room. This little church

is divided into women's section, choir, and haikal:

but it contains three altars, in three separate sanc-

tuaries at the east end. The roof alone shows

indications of a former division into nave and aisles :

for while at each side it is low and horizontal, in the

centre it is arched into a semi-decagon. The eastern

gable is filled with a window, in which are some

quarries of coloured glass.

In the nave is a large picture of the Virgin and

Child, noticeable only for the fact that Christ is

holding a regal orb. A St. George, a pair of

unknown saints, and the icons, are all clownish

performances.The canopy over the central altar, upheld on four

horizontal beams, shows now only dim traces of its

former splendour, but some figures of lions are

distinguishable. The niche in the eastern wall

is unusual in size and in structure. It is nine

feet high, and six feet broad, and covered with

most beautiful old Persian or Damascus tiles, of a

design and colour which seem to be unique : the

ground of the tiles is an extremely delicate olive

hue, upon which clusters of marigolds are figuredin very dark green.


The adjacent chapel on the south contains in the

wall-niche a dim monochrome fresco of the baptismof our Lord. St. John is standing on a high rock

by the river-side, and pouring water on Christ's head :

above, a dove is descending, and sending down three

rays : at each side is a tree laden with fruit perhaps

pomegranate and another very curious shrub, pos-

sibly an aloe, but exactly like a Gothic pinnacle on a

Gothic turret. It is probable that the whole of this

chapel, indeed the whole building of Abu-'s-Sifain, was

once painted where now the walls are merely white-

washed : here for instance, where a piece of plaster is

broken away beside the niche, bands of colour are

visible below. Certainly the contrast between the

bare white walls which form the shell of the building,

and the magnificence of the fittings, is singular.

The end of the corridor is screened off, making a

dim empty chamber. Turning now into the western

part of the triforium, which lies over the narthex,

one finds it quite devoid of ornament. In the right-

hand wall are a number of blocked window-bays, but

no windows, save the little oriels noticed outside.

The eastern wall, however, is pierced with an opening,

eight feet by six feet, from which a mushrabiah

framework projects into the nave. This opening is

so high above the floor, that no one standing in the

triforium can see into the church below: it cannot

therefore have been meant for women. The view

from this point, as one looks down over the golden-

pictured nave to the choir, and the haikal beyond,with its painted canopy, is surprising, and admirable

in its tone of dim religious splendour.Where the plaster has fallen from this corridor wall,

one sees that it is built of small brick, laid in fine


hard cement. The priest said this wall has stood

since the church was built.

At the end of this passage, as in the correspondingcorner of the church below, are the latrines.

The third corridor, i. e. the south triforium, is

walled off, and forms by itself a single long chapelcalled

The Chapel of Mdri Girgis.

Three transverse screens of plain design divide

it into women's section, men's section, choir, and

sanctuary. In the second division is a very curious

wooden ambon, or pulpit, let into the north wall.

It is merely a little box adorned in front with

geometrical designs. The stone staircase is cut off

abruptly, the lowest step being four feet above the

ground, so that it cannot be mounted without the

aid of a ladder. The choir of this chapel retains

part of the ancient panelled roof which probablyonce covered the whole triforium. The beams and

coffers are sumptuously gilt and coloured in the style

of the thirteenth century : but only faint relics of its

former beauty remain. Such work is distinctively

Arabian, not Byzantine. The pictures here St.

Michael, mounted with a projecting frame and a

candlebeam on brackets in front, the Virgin, and

Abu-'s-Sifain, are old but rude, and in ruinous

condition.

The haikal-screen is exceptional, differing from all

others in the church in its unconventional, un-

geometric character. It is made up of a number of

small oblong panels set in mouldings, and variouslycarved with vine-leaves, crosses, and figures of saints.

124 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.HI.

The cedar-wood of which it is composed is un-

fortunately so much decayed that the figures cannot

easily be identified. The haikal is entirely roofed

with a small dome, the south dome of the main

building as seen from without. The wall-niche

behind the altar contains a fresco of Christ in an

aureole 1throned, holding a gospel in the left, and

raising the right hand in benediction. North of the

altar, in a small irregular chamber which opens out of

the sanctuary, and may have been used to guard the

sacred vessels, the curved wall of the main apse

may be seen starting.


ABU-'S-SIFAIN.

The materials for the history of Abu-'s-Sifain are

very scanty, and to separate the true from the

legendary would require much fine winnowing. But

there can be little doubt that Makrizi is mistaken in

stating that the church was built by the patriarch

Christodulus 2,c. 1060 A. D. A very strong tradition

assigns to it an earlier origin, and connects its

foundation with the Sultan Mu'azz, the builder of

Cairo, in the tenth century. Here is the legend as

given by Renaudot 3.

1I avoid the word ' vesica

'

as both ugly and inappropriate.2 Malan's History of the Copts, p. 92.3

Hist. Pat. Alex. p. 369 seq.


The khallf having heard that it was written in the

gospel of the Christians that if a man had faith he

could by his word remove a mountain, sent for the

patriarch Ephraim, and asked if this strange storywere true. On the patriarch answering that it wasindeed so written, the khalif replied,

' Then do this

thing before mine eyes ;else I will wipe out the very

name of Christian.' When the tidings spread, greatwas the consternation among all the churches : a

solemn assembly of clergy and monks was held, and

prayers with fasting were continued for three days,without ceasing, in Al Mu'allakah. On the third

morning the patriarch, worn out with watching and

fasting, fell asleep, and saw in a dream the Blessed

Virgin, to whom he told the matter, and was bidden

to be of good cheer, and to go out into the street

where he would find a one-eyed man carrying a

vessel of water.

So the patriarch went out, and meeting a man

bearing a pitcher, bade him kiss the cross and tell

the story of his life. Thereon the water-carrier said,'

I was born with two eyes even as other men : but

according to the scripture, I plucked out one eye to

enter the kingdom of heaven, rather than have two

and go to hell-fire. All day long, from morning till

night, I work as a dyer of wool; I eat nought but

bread; the rest of my wages I give in alms to the

poor, and by night I draw water for the poor.' Then

hearing of the patriarch's vision, he told him to gowithout fear to the khallf, bearing in processioncrosses and gospels and censers, and his faith should

prevail.

Then a great multitude of Christians went to the

place appointed, where the khalif and his court


were assembled before a mountain: and when the

patriarch had made solemn prayers, crosses and

gospels were lifted on high amid the smoke of burn-

ing incense, and as all the people shouted together'

Kyrie Eleeson,' the mountain trembled and re-

moved.

Thereon Mu'azz promised to grant Ephraim what-

soever he might desire: and the patriarch demandedthe rebuilding of the church of Abu-'s-Sifain. Sothe church was rebuilt.

It is to be noticed that in this legend only re-

storation is spoken of, as if an earlier church on the

same site had suffered destruction. It is curious to

find the legend surviving to this day, though in a

somewhat changed form. The story, as related to

me by the present priest of Abu-'s-Sifain, is briefly as

follows: The khalif Mu'azz, founder of Cairo, hearingmuch of the godly life of the Christians, their devo-

tion to their prophet, and the wonderful thingswritten in their scripture, sent for the chief amongthe Christians and the chief among the elders of his

own people, and commanded a solemn reading first

of the Gospel of Christ, then of the Kuran. After

hearing both with great attention, he decided very

resolutely 'Muhammad ma fish' Mohammed is

nothing, nobody, or nowhere, ordered the mosque

against the church of Anba Shanudah to be pulled

down, and the church of Abu-'s-Sifain to be rebuilt or

enlarged in its place. The ruins of this mosque still

remain between the two churches. The priest added

that the khalif Mu'azz became a Christian, and was

afterwards baptized in the baptistery beside the

chapel of St. John.The coincidence of the two legends the one

CH. m.] Dair Abu-s-Sifain. 127

written down from hearsay by Al Makln in the four-

teenth century, the other current among the Coptsof to-day is enough I think to establish the fact

that the church was either built or rebuilt in the

time of Mu'azz, that is, c. 980 A.D. The traditions

of the church fix the date of its foundation very

precisely at 927 A. D., and I see no reason to doubt it.

There is another early legend1 which assumes

the existence of the church a little later than Mu'azz

in the time of the XLI 1 1 patriarch Philotheus, who

reigned from about 981 to 1002 A.D. The story is

that once a certain Wazah, a Mohammedan, seeing a

Christian convert being dragged to execution in Old

Cairo, reviled him and beat him with his shoe. Sometime later Wazah, returning through the desert from

a pilgrimage to Mecca, strayed from his companionsand lost his way. While wandering about the moun-

tains, he saw a vision of a horseman clad in shining

armour, and girt with a golden girdle. The horse-

man questioned him, and hearing his case bade him

mount behind him. I n a moment they were caught up

through the air to the church of Abu-'s-Sifain, where

the horseman vanished. Next morning Wazah was

found in the church by the doorkeeper, who at first

thought him mad, but on learning what had happened

pointed out the picture of Abu-'s-Sifain, whomWazah now recognised from the golden girdle.

Wazah believed, was baptized, and retired as a

monk to the monasteries of the Natrun desert:

Thence he returned to Old Cairo, was thrown into

prison and starved by his family, but relieved bySt. Mercurius : then he was accused before the

1

Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex. 374 seq.


Sultan but pardoned, and became a great writer of

Christian books.

It seems then that the claims of Christodulus maybe dismissed. The only other notices of the church

that I have found are later. The LXX patriarch,

Gabriel Ibn Tarikh, was a deacon of Abu-'s-Sifain \

elected 1131 A.D. The church is stated by Makrizi

to have been burnt down about the year 1 1 70 A.D.,'

in the fire of Shauer the Vizier' 2 on the 1 8th day of

Hator. But towards the middle of the next centurythe scandalous Cyril, the LXXV patriarch, after his

second imprisonment, celebrated with great pomp in

the church on the feast of the patron saint 3. It may

be mentioned that the festival of St. Mercurius is the

1 5th day of the month Hator, corresponding to our

2 ist of November 4.

THE NUNNERY CALLED DAIR AL BANAT,

OR THE CONVENT OF THE MAIDENS, IN DAIR ABU-'S-SIFAIN.

It was only after many visits to Abu-'s-Sifain

that I had the good fortune to discover the Convent

of the Maidens 5. Guide-books know nothing about

it, and I never met a Cairene, at least a European,

1 Malan's History of the Copts, p. 93.2 Id. p. 95.

8Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex. p. 582.

* Malan's Calendar of the Coptic Church, p. 12.G

Sir Gardner Wilkinson is of course wrong in stating that

'Egypt is entirely destitute of nunneries' (Modern Egypt and

Thebes, vol. i. p. 392 : London, 1843). Besides Dair al Banat

there are two others in Cairo.

CH. in.] Dair Abu-s-Sifain. 1 29

who had heard of it. The patriarch and somefew other Copts are perhaps aware of its existence :

but the idea that it possesses any special interest

or beauty would probably strike them with asto-

nishment. It is one of the most out-of-the-world

and picturesque places imaginable : and if the in-

mates resort there in search of tranquillity, theyhave it to perfection in their surroundings. Dair

Abu-'s-Sifain itself stands like a walled oasis in

the desert of dust and potsherds which stretches for

miles south of Cairo : no wheeled thing ever enters

there, and its peace is unbroken by any stir and

clamour of life or noise of the world. In old times

the clash of swords and the shouts of battle were

often heard under the walls and in the narrow

streets : now its stillness is almost unearthly.The lane in which the churches of Anba Shanudah

and Abu-'s-Sifain stand seems a cul-de-sac, but a

little way beyond the latter church it really opens out

by a narrow passage : a few turns at sharp angles,

still between high walls, bring one to the outer

convent door. Thence a straight dark passage of

twenty yards, and another door which is barred and

bolted. There is no knocker, though the knocker is

seldom missing from an old Arab house, and many of

the designs in plain ironwork are of great beauty.But a few gentle taps will bring the porteress. 'Whois there ?

'

and '

open'

are the usual question and

answer : she opens and stands shyly with a corner

of her veil drawn over her mouth. Permission to

enter is readily given by the mother superior a tall

and rather comely matron, who receives one with a

frank smile of welcome.

Just at the entrance in a recess to the right lies a

VOL. I. K


very pretty well with a windlass above, and pitchersand other water-vessels scattered about in charmingdisorder. To the left is the small but beautiful

courtyard of the convent overshadowed by a fine

tall nabuk or zizyphus tree, which rises near the

well and mounts in a sweeping curve into the midst

of the court : higher up its branches spread out,

and their graceful leaves brush against the upperwindows. The east face of the court is formed

by a large open screen of woodwork, with two

circular steps leading up to an open doorway with

tall folding doors in the centre. Inside is a longshallow room, 15 ft. by 7, with a kuramani carpetand some cushions or pillows against the wall. Herethe nuns recline at their ease, and on feast days their

friends are regaled with such good things as the

convent provides. It is in fact the mandarah or

reception-room. It opens to the north by a high

pierced wooden screen into a tiny oratory, TO ft. by6, which has a low niche eastward containing a

picture of the Virgin, and a shelf running round the

wall with several other paintings. There is also a

curious wooden candlestick in the form of a cross

with an iron pricket on each of the three branches.

Of the pictures two or three are noticeable. There

is an old picture of the Virgin and Child, in which

the Child is seated on the Virgin's right arm, and is

clasping her neck : he wears a golden dress, and the

background of the painting is gold. There is also

a curious sixteenth-century picture with a backgroundthe lower half of which is pale green, the upper half

gold (as in the series at Sitt Mariam). It shows two

figures, who wear glories edged with a red margin :

leftward St. Anthony robed as a priest, with staff and


scroll : rightward St. Paul the anchorite, dressed in

sackcloth, and wearing a rosary hung at his girdle.

His long beard falls down in front; his open angulararms are half raised ; and a raven in the air is

bringing him food : at his feet are two lions, his

usual symbol. The other paintings call for no

remark.

So much for the east side of the courtyard. Thenorth consists of a large rude whitewashed balcony

supported on two piers of masonry, and backed by a

high wall. A small bell pulled by a rope from below

hangs at one corner, and underneath is a stone bench.

But it is the eastern wall that moves one most to

admiration. This is the front of the house in which

the nuns live, a fine, tall, three-storied house in goodArab style. The topmost story has a large panel of

mushrabiah work framed into the wall. Below this

comes a true mushrabiah or projecting bay-window of

carved woodwork, not glazed but covered with ex-

tremely fine and delicate grills of wood. This first

story as usual in old Arab houses projects some three

feet beyond the ground story. There are two doors

below, one in each corner, and the space between is

lightened in a singular manner. Half is walled :

half occupied by an open screen of woodwork,divided horizontally into belts or sections, and the

sections again into panels, each of which has its own

design. The effect is charming from the ingenious

variety of pattern and the light airy look of the

whole, in contrast with the solid walls beside and

above.

But the mother superior comes to say coffee is

ready. We re-enter the reception- rcom, and sit

down on the carpet in oriental fashion, or recline

K 2


against a cushion. A nun hands each of us ao

tiny china cup resting in a brass zarf or holder.

.We drink, making many salams to the mother

superior, who does not disdain the formality of a

cigarette : though the nuns apparently are not givento the practice of smoking. Against the wall oppo-site is a large and beautiful old bench

;on this

three or four damsels are sitting, or squatting, with

modest eyes downcast on their embroidery. Theyare clad in the ordinary black Arab dress, but wear

no veils;

their wrists are circled with bangles or

bracelets of massive silver; they wear also neck-

lets of silver or gold, beads or brass, and earringsand anklets. Their quiet, shy, incurious manner,and the tranquil smile about their lips denote

admirably the peaceful anchorite retirement of their

lives. Under the bench lie scattered about crocks

and pitchers and millstones;close by is an old

brass mortar, and near the door an exquisitely de-

signed little brazier of octagon shape with legs and

pinnacles ;its sides are finely chased and engraved

with Arabic characters. Charcoal embers are glow-

ing in it, and on them a coffee-jug is simmering as

one of the maidens, kneeling, fans the fire with a

fan of falcon feathers. High over all the nabtik

tree is lazily waving its branches, across which the

sun is striking : and the blue above seems deeperand more dazzling than ever, as the eye follows upthe sombre colours of the wall.

But the scene varies from day to day. Some-times the maidens are busy with needlework,sometimes tidying and cleaning the house or the

vessels;and another time one may see a group

sitting in the middle of the courtyard sifting and

CH. in.] Daly Abu-s-Sifain. 133

winnowing corn, while close by a crone is grinding

beans, turning the handle of the millstone with her

left, and feeding the mill continually with her right

hand. The pigeons know when it is a corn-day ;

and their ceaseless cooing as they perch about the

mills, and the noise of their beating wings as they

sweep down and up again, add not a little to the

charm of the scene.

Out of the courtyard, round behind the mandarah,is an open stable, where the convent cow is stalled

which supplies milk and butter to the inmates. Onoccasion too she turns the flour-mill, which is a

curious antique structure in a room adjoining.

There is a brick-walled pit about 3 ft. deep and

1 2 across;

in the middle a big cogwheel revolves

on a heavy wooden pivot, which turns above at a

height of 8 ft. in a solid beam running into the

north and south walls of the mill-room. From the

pivot a thick crooked pole rises and projects beyondthe edge of the pit to receive the yoke of the ox.

The millstones which are turned by wheels in con-

nexion with the large cogwheel, are not in the pit

but sunk beside it : above them is a wooden frame

to hold the corn, and below a receptacle for the

flour. There is an Arabic inscription on this frame

rudely carved, with date 1480 A. D. On the trans-

verse beam between the two walls are cut the

triangular symbol of the Trinity in a border, and

the 'svastica' or revolving wheel of light, the

original symbol of the worship of the sun in the

East, and the earliest known ornament. It is a

mere coincidence : but not without its significance.

From the stable a rough stone staircase leads upto a flat roof, on which there are two little streets

134 Ancient Coptic Churches, [CH. m.

or corridors of cells. Each cell has its own door,

but no window;

all seem disused, containing

only palm-fibres for ropes, some baskets, broken

pitchers, and two little lamps of the old Arabic

pottery, thickly glazed in very beautiful colours,

turquoise blue and emerald green. One finds frag-

ments of such lamps at all depths in the rubbish

heaps at Old Cairo. There is nothing else here

to notice except a small but curious wooden cross,

of Latin form, with a leathern bag attached to the

branches, the use of which is to collect alms. It is

evidently ancient and long disused, and is the only

example I have seen of this instrument.

There are fifteen inmates in all ten besides the

mother superior and four servants. Admission is

granted by the patriarch to any young girl left

resourceless and helpless, or even to a widow.

Indeed the refuge is rather an almshouse than a

nunnery. The inmates are allowed to receive their

friends sometimes, or even to go to Cairo for a dayto pay visits. No conventual vows are required.

There is no veil to be taken;rather in the convent

the veil is laid aside;so far out of the world it is

not needed. Nor is marriage forbidden. If a girl

discovers relations who will receive her, or if she

finds a husband, she may open the door and walk

out. Their life is very quiet and simple. A bell

rings at dawn to arouse them; they all rise and

pray together ;then they busy themselves in house-

hold work, cleansing, cooking, embroidery, and the

like;and when there is nothing special to do, as

the priest naively put it, they read the gospel and

pray again. Every Saturday evening the priest

holds a service in their little oratory. They have,


however, in theory at least, their seven daily offices

or hours. The psalms form a large part of their

devotional exercises;and I have seen manuscript

books of psalms and other service-books in Copticand Arabic written by present inmates of the con-

vents with very considerable skill and finish.

THE CHURCH OF ANBA SHANUDAH(voyui UM),

IN DAIR ABU-'S-SIFAIN.

ANBA Shanudah stands close to Abu-'s-Sifain, as

was before mentioned;

their western walls are in

a line, with a distance of some twenty yards dividingthem. But the plain modernised stone front of AnbaShanudah is neither curious in structure nor pleas-

ing in colour, like the blind high wall of ancient

brick that fronts Abu-'s-Sifain. The doorway is at

the north-west corner and opens into a dim broad

passage, the latter end of which is cut out of the

north aisle of the church. But about the middle

of the passage there is a door on the right throughwhich one sees the ancient and very pretty well of

the church. Water is drawn by means of a pulley

suspended on a beam above;the well is set round

with a low cone-like coping of stone, and is most

picturesquely placed between rude lofty walls and

doorless unillumined chambers, some of which are

entrances to vaults of departed worthies of the

church. In the background is a rough stone stair-


case, and troughs, pitchers, and water-jars are lying

at random about the stone-floor. In these little

scenes everything is so uniformly picturesque that

only the naturalness of the result saves it from the

suggestion of studied arrangement. The well lies

outside the west end of the church;the entrance

is on the north, near the end of the passage, and

leads into the women's section. For there is no

narthex at Anba Shanudah, and consequently no

A. J. B.

Fig. 8. Plan of the Church of Anba Shanudah.

western triforium. The women's section, if ever it

were intended for women, which is very doubtful,is only about 6 ft. wide (east to west), and is railed

off by a heavy railing of rectangular pattern only

4ft. high. It contains a small tank for ablution or

for the mandatum.The church consists of nave, which is divided

into men's section and women's section, and is

covered with a high-pitched roof like that at Abu-'s-

CH. in.] Daiv Abu-s-Sifain. 137

Sifain, north and south aisles, and an outer aisle

southward, choir, and the usual three chapels side

by side at the east end. The nave is marked off

from the two aisles by marble pillars, most of which

have classical capitals, and stood once in some Greek

or Roman building. A continuous wooden archi-

trave rests on the pillars to support the nave walls,

which are lightened above by drop-arched open-

ings, highly stilted, one between every two columns.

These relieving arches are curiously varied on the

south wall;

for while on the naveward side theyare pointed, half way through they change form,

and as seen from the south aisle, are round-headed.

There is no such change on the north side. Thearchitrave bears traces of magnificent colours and

Coptic letters, and is carved with crosses in relief,

one between each pair of pillars. These maypossibly be consecration crosses, although they are

too high for the bishop to have anointed the placeswithout a ladder.

The pulpit in the nave is a good piece of Arab

carving in rosewood : the design is composed of

crosses, which are made up of minute ivory scroll-

work, like the ivory carvings at Abu-'s-Sifain. The

angles of the pulpit are bound with small bronze

clamps.The screen between nave and choir is divided

by two ancient columns into central and two side

portions ;and in each side portion is an ancient

panel of cedar, framed by open wooden grills.

These panels are beautifully inlaid with little

blocks and crosses of ivory. The first time I

visited this church a boy who was showing meround coolly took out a penknife and would have

138 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IH..

hacked at one of these crosses to get a piece of

ivory.

The north aisle is only about 6 ft. deep, but the

south aisle is itself much broader, and opens out

again southward into an outer aisle, the western

half of which contains a large Epiphany tank, the

other a baptistery with stone font or basin under

a wooden dome ;a mushrabiah screen divides

them.

In the choir is the usual lectern, draped in an

embroidered cloth which covers the top and falls in

front;a tall bronze candelabrum with silver censer

swinging from the plate ;a tongueless bell, cymbals,

and a pair of coloured cloth alms-trays on the shelf

of the lectern underneath. The easternmost screen

is curious. To the right, before the south aisle-chapel,

is a magnificent piece of work inlaid with ivories

superbly carved. The style is the same as that at

Abu-'s-Sifain. The back of the screen, as seen in-

side the chapel, is covered with rude flower paintings.

Originally this was the iconostasis of the sanctuaryor central chapel ;

but in true churchwarden fashion

it was judged ugly and antiquated, and was degradedto a lower position in favour of a modern screen of

red cedar plainly inlaid with a wheel-and-cross patternof unchased ivory. The north iconostasis is againdifferent. It is quite black, and consists of a numberof tiny panels, each painted with a rude flower or

branch in white. Exactly similar screenwork maybe seen in the mosque of Sultan Barkuk, amongthe tombs of the khalifs at Cairo, dating about

1400 A. D.

The structure of the dome, with its lofty arch

springing from the choir piers to support it, re-


sembles that at Abu-'s-Sifain. One of the marble

columns against the choir-screen bears clear traces

of an ancient distemper painting the figure of an

angel 4 ft. high ; under it are worn Coptic letters.

But all through the church the surface of the

columns is fretted and frayed ;at a mere touch of

the finger there falls off a fine white powder like

salt or snow crystals.

All round the choir, ranged on shelves, set in

niches, or mounted on mushrabiah frames, are

paintings of saints and angels. On the north wall

the most interesting is a figure of the patron saint,

Anba Shanudah. He appears as a long-bearded

stumpy little man, with huddled shoulders and a

sad wistful look in his large eyes, as he claspsa cross with folded hands before his breast. His

vestments are of singular splendour. A black

hood covers his head, but on the margin over the

forehead are three white crosses. The cope and

dalmatic are decked all over with the richest em-

broidery of flowers and crosses. He wears the

patrashil with the twelve apostles figured in pairs-six little pictures one above the other finely coloured.

There is a touch and tone about this painting which

suffice to mark it as fairly early, probably about the

sixteenth century. Later work is never so fine, or

so careful in detail.

Next comes the angel Gabriel holding a triple

cross and a pair of scales ;he is standing on a red

bolster of relics.

On the screen are five pictures :

i. Michael the archangel carrying a scroll and

holding in his left hand a round medallion

enclosing a bust of the Redeemer.


2. Virgin and Child. The attitude is just that of

the Sta. Maria of Cimabue. The Virgin has

a typical Syrian face half Greek and half

Jew and shows unusual emotion. But

both faces are of an ugly brickdust colour;

altogether it is an exceedingly poor picture.

3. Filtaus on horseback.

4. In a wooden framework on a gold groundare two figures, Anba Shanudah and AnbaRuais. Underneath lies a bolster of relics in

a locker.

5. An angel badly daubed.

On the south wall of the choir . are five large

pictures :

i. Virgin and Child, both crowned. Mary's crown

is held by two flying angels ;she is giving

a rose to the Child, who is reaching forth his

right hand to receive it;his left is holding

a golden orb.

2 and 3. Coptic saints.

4. A tall majestic figure of the angel Gabriel;

he is standing on a relic bolster;in his left

hand he is wielding a spear, in his right he

holds a lily drooping, and grasps a medallion

with a bust figure of Christ. His face wears

a look of heavy wrath.

5. The Resurrection.

Against the choir- screen rest two loose pictures

(i) Paul the ascetic with his two lions in the

wilderness : this is the founder of Dair Bolos in the

eastern desert. (2) The Virgin with cross and palm,set round with twenty little figures bearing the same

emblems.

Upon the haikal-screen, about 5 ft. from the


ground, is fastened a small wooden crewet-holder.

For the icons stand the usual series of seven paint-

ings : in the centre the Virgin throned and crowned

by angels ;on either side three pairs of apostles,

who all carry a cross in the right and a gospel in

the left hand, and wear glories. Their faces are

all of the same type, but two have grey beards, the

rest black.

In the haikal both on the north and south side are

doorways into the adjoining chapels, the former

through a screen, the latter through a partition wall.

The haikal itself is apsidal and contains a tribune :

but the side chapels are square. On the highest of

the marble steps in the apse are nine loose picturesof no great merit, and in the central niche is a fresco

of Christ in attitude of benediction. The high altar

is covered by a plain deal canopy resting on four

white marble columns : upon it lie vestments, candle-

sticks, altar-casket, and censers. In one corner of

the sanctuary a graceful wooden stand holds a basin

and plain earthenware pitcher, for the priest to washhis hands at the celebration of the korban.

In the south aisle-chapel one sees on the altar the

same tumbled disarray. Torn books, dirty vest-

ments, a bronze cross, altar-casket, and a very pretty

wooden cross 8^ inches high inlaid with mother-

of-pearl. The central design upon the cross is a

small engraved figure of Christ crucified : on either

side is a medallion one containing a pair of arms

crossed., the other containing a cross with smaller

crosses between the branchesji

: above and below

also are medallions chased with flowers. This is

the nearest resemblance to a crucifix I have seen

in any church.


In the niche are pitchers of clay and wickerwork

bottles;a few flasks of wine, some loose leaves, and

some old plain altar-caskets.

In the north aisle-chapel are two very curious

pieces of church furniture a chrismatory and a

cresset-stone. The chrismatory is a round block of

wood drilled with three large holes for the three

kinds of oil for anointing : it has a lid revolving on a

central pivot but not opening, only drilled with a

single hole 1. The cresset-stone is a slab of marble

in the form of a semicircle, the chord of which

is about 2 ft. 6 in. in length. Three parallel

grooves follow the outlines, and in the inner semi-

circle there formed are nine cuplike hollows for oil.

The central hollow alone is pierced through with a

small drain. The spaces between these nine circles

are chased with designs of flowers. The stone is

lying loose upon the ground, and the doorkeeper

only tells one vaguely that it is something extremely

ancient, but has no idea of its use : conceivably it

may be an altar-slab.

The altar here is covered with a mass of old

Coptic books psalms and liturgies piled togetherand crusted with dust. In the niche are broken

ostrich eggs, and a large heap of leaves and frag-ments of books in the last stage of decay but

showing traces of fine illumination. I saw no sign

of any Greek, Latin, or Syriac manuscript, either in

this or in any other church near Cairo, though I

have always been alive to the chances of discovery.

1 An illustration is given in the chapter on eucharistic vessels.

CH. III.] Dair Abu-s-Sifain. H3

The Chapel of Mdri Girgis.

Passing out of the porchway past the well and upa flight of steps, one reaches a series of flat roofs at

different levels, among which the high pointed roof

and the brick dome of Anba Shanudah rise con-

spicuous. Along half the southern wall of the main

building, and forming a sort of triforium to it, is the

A. j. a

Fig. 9. Upper story of Anba Shanudah, showing chapels attached.

chapel of Mari Girgis. Its form is nearly square,

but a large pier, a column, and an arrangement of

screens divide it into six compartments two western

chambers, one of which serves as a baptistery and

contains a pretty domed front panelled off by wood-

work;a section for men running all across ;

then a

choir ;and two haikals with altars. The iconostases

are beautiful pieces of wood and ivory work : the

doors especially are magnificent, blazoned with stars

and crosses and flowers of ivory.


The choir and nave screens are low open rails

with tall uprights joined by horizontal spars : but

the baptistery is fenced off by a splendid panel of

mushrabiah work. Inside this baptistery there is

a recess in the wall, like a blind window-bay, at the

back of which are nine extremely rude and ancient

monochrome frescoes of saints with glories. Theenormous size of the head in proportion to the body,the large starting eyeballs, and quaint pouting lips,

are enough to prove the antiquity of these figures.

The little chamber screened off from the rest of the

baptistery to hide the font conceals also part of the

frescoes. It has two little windows with slides

and an arched doorway ;a little lamp is hanging

in front. The font is overshadowed by a tiny

dome.

Mari Girgis is flat-roofed, and lighted by square

gratings or skylights. Owls and bats enter freely,

and find their way through the side windows into

Anba Shanudah below. The view from the roof of

the chapel is exceedingly fine;to the east one sees

long ranges of low rubbish hills backed by the white

Mukattam mountains which trend away toward the

lofty mosque and minarets of the citadel of Cairo :

to the west one looks across what seems a forest of

tamarisks and palms, between which now and then

tall white sails are moving, while boats and river are

alike unseen : and beyond the Nile rise the Pyramidsof Gizah in that distant blue aerial mist of excessive

brightness, which is the charm of an Egyptian

landscape.

Passing now round the west end of the main roof,

one reaches a tiny courtyard still on the first floor

whence opens a door. Under a low pointed arch


of ancient brickwork one enters a chapel that runs

the whole length of Anba Shanudah, forming the

north triforium, and is called The Chapel of Filiatts,

i. e. Philotheos, perhaps the patriarch of that name,who was elected near the end of the tenth century.It is a long and narrow building divided into four

sections by screens.

The women's section is bare and empty : from

it four large oblong windows, half-blocked with frag-

ments of lattice-work and coloured planks relics of

the old flat painted roof of the chapel look downinto Anba Shanudah. Between this and the men's

section is a railing 4 ft. high, with tall uprights

joined at the top. Cross-beams are laid from this

screen to that of the choir, which is of the same type,

and on them curiously is placed a pulpit.

The choir has no ornaments but a few rotten

pictures : and above the haikal-screen or icono-

stasis, which is ivory-inlaid, is a series of wretched

daubs.

The haikal is domed, and the corner pendentivesare of unusual size and boldness.

The church of Anba Shanudah then as a whole

is two-domed, the third dome having probablybeen removed when the chapel of Mari Girgis was

built.

A door leading out of the choir of Filtaus givesaccess to a small Shrine of tJu Virgin, which, like

many of the upper chapels, is a mere fowl-house at

present. It is a small nearly square room with four

divisions. In one division there is a poor triptych

with a date showing an age of about a century; and

facing it, nailed at the back of the screen, is a tablet

of wood with an Arabic inscription in extremely

VOL. I. L


rude and ancient characters very much resembling

Cufic.

It is as follows, in three lines :

&> j *

i. e. O Lord, forgive the sins of thy servants, and giverest to their souls, those for whose sake (is) this

(church) : and reward in the kingdom him who has

taken these pains.This inscription is said to be dedicatory of the

chapel 800 years old. The words of the last line'

reward, &c.' are those ordinarily employed, the

formula of dedication of any object. On pictures,

crosses, screens, the formula occurs with scarcely

any variation. The word Âi naiah in the first

line would seem to imply that the church was built

by a patriarch. For even at the present day the

word '

tanalah'

is used when a patriarch or bishopis dead. The Copts say,

' Al batrak tanalah'

' the

patriarch has entered into his rest,' not '

is dead.'


ANBA SHANUDAH.

Shanudah (Arabic), Shanuti (Coptic), or Sanutius

(Latin) is a common name in Coptic history1

. Of

1 There is a learned dissertation on the origin of the name byA. Georgius in his Fragmentum Evangelii S. Johannis, p. cliv seq.

CH. in.] Dair Abu- s-Sifain . 147

the two patriarchs who bore it, the first, who was

elected in 859 A.D., was as distinguished for his

singular virtues, as his namesake, elected 1 70 years

later, was for his notorious vices. It is the former

who is said to have established the Coptic way of

writing the sacred letters still in vogue1

. But the

church of Anba Shanudah takes its name from

neither of these patriarchs, but from a famous an-

chorite of the fifth century, who rose to high dignityin the church, and went as a bishop to the Council of

Ephesus. A brief notice of his life will be found

among the legends.The date of the church cannot be fixed accurately,

but it is without doubt earlier than Abu-'s-Sifain and

may be assigned to the seventh or eighth century.The first mention of it occurs in a story quoted byRenaudot 2

. About the year 740 A.D., in the days of

the turbulent Khail, one Kassim son of 'Abaidullah

came on horseback to Anba Shanudah accompanied

by his favourite mistress. The chief priest forbade

them to enter, saying that no woman had ever

ventured in without drawing the wrath of God on

her head forthwith 3. They persisted : but no sooner

had they set foot within the church than the womanwas stricken dead on the spot, and Kassim was

seized with a devil, from which he never more was

quite delivered. He gave 300 dinars to the church ;

(Rome, 1789, 410.). He shows that the name means 'herald of

God/ i. e. prophet.1 Malan's History of the Copts, p. 84.2 Hist. Pat. Alex., p. 203.3 The absence of provision for women to worship in the

church lends a curious air of probability to the main facts of this

story.

L 2


but some time after, hearing of a sumptuous ebonycoffer inlaid with ivory, wherein the books of service

were kept, he coveted it, and came with thirty mento carry it away. But finding they with all their

force were unable to move it from its place, he

departed and gave 300 more dinars to the church in

token of repentance.

Thirty years later there is an incidental mention

of the church in Al Makrizi, where he states that Sitt

Mariam, near Anba Shanudah, was pulled down 1:

and early in the eleventh century the wild fanatic

Al Hakim Bi'amr Illahi 'allowed the call to prayerfrom the church of Senuda in Misr 2

,'which may mean

either that he spared it, or, as seems more consistent

with the context, that he turned it into a mosque.The chapel of Filtaus and the Shrine of the

Virgin were probably built by the patriarch Philo-

theos about the year 990 A. D.; and it is worth notice

that the triforium is entirely occupied by Filtaus,

and therefore was not designed to accommodatewomen at the services in the main building below.

Al Makrizi is very curt in his history of Philotheos :

' He lived 24 years and died : but he was a glutton3.'

Still he may have built chapels.

CHURCH OF AL WDRA, CALLED BiD-DAMSHiRiAii 4,

OR SITT MARIAM, IN DAIR ABU-'S-SIFAIN.

The church of Al 'Adra or Sitt Mariam, the Virginor Lady Mary, is reached by the first turning to the

1

History of the Copts, p. 80. 2Id. p. 90.

3Id. p. 88.

*

v^-i-o^Jlj l^JuxJI.This is the official title, but the meaning

of Ad-Damshiriah is now quite unknown. The church is popularly

CH. III.] Dair Abu-s-Sifain. 149

left after passing through the doorway of the dair.

tlt has been recently repaired and has a newish look :

but it has not lost all its interest.

Crossing a courtyard one arrives at the church

door, which is on the south side. There is no porch,

but a walled passage runs straight into the body of

the church, dividing a baptistery, which occupies the

south-west corner, from the southern aisle. In this

A. J. B.

Fig. 10. Church of Sitt Mariam.

passage is a stone basin, very like a holy-water

stoup, let into the wall : its purpose however is

merely to feed the font in the baptistery, with which

it communicates by a drain cut through the stone.

The water-carrier thus has only to stand in the

passage and empty his goatskin into the little basin,

as often as required, till the font is filled.

called Sittna Mariam or Sitt Mariam, and I retain the latter here

to distinguish it from the many other churches dedicated to Al'Adra.


In structure Sitt Mariam is the most simple, regular,

and symmetrical of all the churches. The whole

plan is obvious at a glance : there are none of those

errant side-chapels and wandering aisles which per-

plex Mari Mina and Abu-'s-Sifain. The division of

the building longitudinally into nave and two aisles,

and again laterally into narthex, nave and choir, is

clear and precise. The main roof covering the nave

is wagon-vaulted and very lofty ;while that of the

north and south aisles and narthex is low and

horizontal. The aisles are marked off by six marble

columns, three on each side. These columns are,

as generally happens, of various sizes and orders,

but their arrangement is regular. Above the capital

of each pillar is a cubical block technically called

a dosseret, a very unusual arrangement in a Coptic

church, and one stated by Texier and Pullan to be a

distinctly Byzantine characteristic. These dosserets

were originally cased in wood, carved in delicate

pendentives, and finely coloured. Few traces of

this casing now remain. Next above the dosseret

comes a square pillar of masonry continuing the

column upwards for 4 ft., the total height being

15 ft. Flat beams are laid across from pillar to

pillar, forming a continuous architrave, upon which

is built a wall rising to a height of 6 ft. before the

spring of the wagon-vaulting begins. From the

architrave also run at right angles on three sides,

north, south, and west, towards the outer walls, a

succession of horizontal beams to support the flat

roof of the aisles and of the narthex.

The narthex now serves as a place for the women,but there is a complete triforium or gynaekonitis

running all round. The wooden pulpit is in an


unusual place, the north aisle : it is very old, and

adorned with a fine geometrical design in cedar set

with little blocks of ebony. This aisle also contains

a lattice-work patriarchal chair, the ordinary step-

ladder, and a candelabrum or two. In the south aisle

are three poor and three ruined pictures. Over the

choir doorway is a double-faced picture with' the

Crucifixion navewards and the Resurrection showingchoirwards : it is recent and worthless, except as

indicating that the traditional place for the cruci-

fixion is still recognised. In almost all churches it

is found in this position. It corresponds obviouslywith the rood on the rood-screen in the early EnglishChurch.

The sanctuary-screen itself is inlaid with plain

ivory, which forms a number of squares and crosses

upon it. It is continued north and south by workof a different and older kind, resembling that of

the pulpit, fine Arabic mouldings, enclosing centres

of uncarved ebony.On the north wall is a set of four pictures of

horsemen in a single frame of lattice-work. Onthe south wall are three sixteenth-century paint-

ings, viz. :


2. Abu Nafr, the eremite;he is a strange gaunt

figure, represented as gathering dates from

a palm tree in the desert.

3. Anba Shanudah and his pupil Wisah.

Another sixteenth century painting is a shrine-like

picture of the Virgin and Child on the screen againstthe wall which divides the haikal from the north aisle-

chapel ;it bears a date corresponding to 1541 A.D.

The ground is gold. The Virgin is throned, holding


the Child;her crown is upheld by two flying angels

who have blue wings and red robes with scarlet

streamers. The Virgin's robe as usual has a hoodraised over the head, the outlines coming down and

meeting at a point on the breast. The colours are

soft, and the decoration of the robes and work of

the crown is very delicate;

but Mary's face and

hands are poorly drawn. Upon the expression of

the Child's countenance much more care has been

spent ;and the artist seems really to have caught

a glimpse of ideal beauty.The iconostasis has on either side a crewet-holder,

and above the usual series of twelve apostles with

the Virgin for a centrepiece. The apostles stand

in pairs under arches, and are painted on a dim gold

ground.There is a smaller series of five unusually interest-

ing pictures over the screen of the south chapel.

The priest assured me that there was no date, but

by climbing a ladder and peering closely in the dim

light, I discovered figures giving the equivalent in

the Coptic era of 1478 A.D. The background is

curiously divided between two colours;

the lower

half is a soft olive green, the upper half a clear

gold : but in all, except the central picture, the topcorners also are marked off with green. The tri-

angular spaces so formed are tricked with a sort of

scrollwork in faint yellow. The whole tone is veryrich and pleasing.

The central picture is a Virgin and Child. Thefaces are rude and careless save for a singularly

earnest look about the eyes. On each side stands

the figure of an apostle, and beyond this an arch-

angel, St. Peter and Raphael on her right, on the


left St. Paul and Ithuriel. All four figures are

dressed in the same vestments, chasuble, dalmatic,

alb, and stole, but the colours are varied. Raphaelcarries a small cross and a staff in one hand, anda medallion of Christ in the other

;he wears a red

nimbus, with a conventional gold design runninground. The wings are blue, with white under-wings.Ithuriel's figure is much the same, but while hold-

ing a cross in his right hand, with his left he holds

a trumpet which he is blowing.This church is peculiar in having no apse, all

three chapels being rectangular. The triforia are

continued over the north and south sanctuaries ;

but there is over the haikal a lofty domed roof

with large pendentives. Over the main altar is a

high canopy resting on horizontal beams fastened

into the walls north and south. The eastern niche

is lined with magnificent Damascus tiles, many of

which are of unusual design, while others resemble

patterns common in all mosques. Unfortunately a

great number of the pieces are mere fragments, and

all are flung together at random without any attemptat unity. The effect is further marred by the usual

dust and darkness. Above the arch of the niche is

a cross in tilework, which seems to have escapedrestoration

;but the tiles are more modern and less

beautiful.

There is an open doorway from the haikal throughthe wall to the north chapel, but none to the south ;

this latter is entered only from the choir, but adjoin-

ing it is a small sacristy.

Among the vestments of the church should be

noticed a very fine cope of silk, embroidered with

flowers in tissue of gold, and fastened by a morse

154 Ancient Coptic Churches.

with a cross in relief. This is used on festivals, and

not as an ordinary part of the priest's vestments.

I discovered also, thrown away in a dirty locker

and buried in rubbish, two old Arabic glass lamps,one entirely of plain white glass, the other set round

with blue bosses and little plaques containing each

a lion's head. The latter is of very unusual form;

it has a globular body, narrow neck, and wide lip ;

but below descends in lessening rings to a pear-

shaped finial, ending off with a small twisted globeand a boss in deep blue colour l

. I only know one

other lamp of the kind at the small church of the

Virgin next to Mari Girgis in the Kasr-ash-Sham-

m'ah. These lamps have been disused for manyyears, and only await destruction.

HISTORICAL NOTE ON THE CHURCH OF SITT MARIAM.

The original foundation of this church was at least

as early as the eighth century. Indeed the record

at that date is a record not of building but of destruc-

tion. For Al Makrtzi, speaking of the year 770 A.D.,

says,' The church of Sitt Mariam anent that of Abu

Shanudah in Masr was pulled down2.' The destruc-

tion was perhaps only partial ;at any rate the church

was rebuilt almost as soon as it had fallen, togetherwith the other churches which had been thrown

down, and in its present form doubtless goes back

to about the year 800 A. D.

1 An illustration is given in vol. ii.

2 Malan's History of the Copts, p. 80.

Vol. I. To face p. 155.

ROMAN FORTRESS OF BABYLON

(KASR-ASH-SHAMMAH)ROMAN WORKROMAN DRAIN

CHURCHESARAB WORK

CHAPTER IV. zg'El*

The Ancient Roman Fortress of Babylon,

NOW CALLED

Kasr-ash-Shamm 1ah

The Roman Fortress. The Church ofAbu Sargah. The Chtirch of

Al'Adra, called Al Mu'allakah. The Church of Kadisah Bur-bdrah. The Churches ofAl'Adra and Mdri Girgis.

IKE most other antiquities of Old Cairo,

its fine Roman remains have been little

noticed, and no plan of them has been

published. Yet they are extremely interest-

ing. There is plenty in Egypt to remind one of the

period of Greek rule : but the traces of Roman

conquest are rare and not striking. One scarcelyrealises how firmly the power of Rome was plantedon the Nile. But the fortress of Babylon with its

massive walls and colossal bastions is a type of

the solid strength by which Rome won and kepther empire. And beyond its value in the cause of

Roman archaeology, this ancient castle has a far

wider interest : for it encloses no less than six

churches of the Copts, some of which were certainly

standing when the wave of Arab invasion dashed

idly against their defences. In this fortress, too, the

fate of nations centred : for it was here that by their

treacherous surrender the Jacobites sealed at once

156 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

the triumph of Al Islam and their own doom of

perpetual subjection, well content to purchase at the

price of their country's freedom a final victory over

their religious adversaries the Melkites : it was here

that the Greek empire over Egypt fell;and here

that the Crescent rose above the Cross.

The wall, as usual with Roman walls, consists of

alternate layers of brick and stone, five courses

of stone alternating with three courses of brick,

a very common arrangement. The height of a

brick layer is nearly I ft., and that of a stone

layer 3 ft. : taking the two together as 4 ft.,

one may easily calculate heights without mea-

surement. The mortar is made of sand, lime,

pebbles and charcoal;and it is curious to notice

that the Arabs of Old Cairo to this day mix their

mortar with charcoal in the same manner.

The circuit at present is far from complete, and

every year sees some fresh defacement or destruc-

tion. Roughly one may say the fortress was quad-rilateral : but the northern wall has now almost

entirely disappeared. Off the north-east corner a

block of masonry stands solitary among the rubbish

mounds, representing possibly a small detached fort.

The western wall has been severely dealt with the

last few years : for the first hundred yards it has

been razed almost level with the ground, and the

point where it ceases is now concealed behind the

new western wall of the cemetery. At this point

quite recently traces of a corner bastion were visible

showing clearly the junction of the original western

with the northern wall. This latter ran across the

ground newly enclosed for the cemetery towards

the north-east : but even the foundations now lie

CH. iv.] The Roman Fortress. 157

hidden below the earth. The level of the soil all

round the fortress has risen, as I have calculated,

at the rate of more than a foot a century since

Roman times.

Proceeding southward the wall throws out a sharpshoulder at the dip of the road : this shoulder was

pierced with windows and formed an angular bastion.

Thence the wall runs at a slightly changed angle for

150 yards to the Greek convent. Halfway comes

the Coptic entrance of Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah a door

so low that one has to descend into a kind of pit to

reach it. The entrance has been cut in early Chris-

tian times through the solid Roman masonry, which

here is 8 ft. in thickness. A new door has just been

made through the wall a little further on as an

entrance to the premises of the Greek convent,

the one ancient Melkite church now remaining.Below the Greek convent the wall disappears

under plaster and whitewash and bends inward bya sharp curve for about 10 ft. : after a gap of

about 90 ft. crossed by an Arab wall, one finds

again the Roman wall bent outwards in a correspond-

ing curve, and thence continuing straight. Thesetwo curves were puzzling at first, but by good fortune

I found the key to their meaning. A view obtained

one day from the roof of Al Mu'allakah revealed

a mass of masonry, apparently Roman, lying just

behind and adjoining one of the curves : and sub-

sequent research on the spot discovered the remains

of a large circular tower of Roman work, to which

the wall formed a tangent. Only half the tower

remained, showing a sort of vertical section;but

there was enough to indicate the plan, which con-

sisted of two concentric circles with the space between


them divided into eight equal segments by radiating

walls. The approach to the eight chambers was

from the central chambers inside the inner circle,

but there were no remains of any staircase. On the

ground floor in the very centre of the tower I found

the Roman sewer, which is still visible without the

fortress, and runs nearly all round its eastern side.

Thinking over the matter, I easily conjecturedthat the corresponding whitewashed curve in the

Greek convent wall must belong to a corresponding

tower, and that in fact the Greek convent was built

on the top of the old tower. This at once accounted

for its unusual elevation, and lent colour to its claims

to very great antiquity. The first visit set all doubts

at rest. Though Arab buildings are clustered thickly

round and rise on nearly every side to a great height ;

and though repairs and additions,. plaster and white-

wash, have disguised the original building in almost

a magical manner; yet having the clue beforehand

one could trace all the details of the plan clearly

enough, and prove the existence almost in its com-

pleteness of a splendid Roman building, unique in

construction, though unnoticed by the travellers that

have passed inside it for generations.The modern entrance is on the third story

1. The

aperture of a Roman window has been enlarged, and

a flight of stone steps built up to it from outside the

tower against the fortress wall which forms a tangentto the tower. Consequently it was from this third

1

Revisiting the scene in January, 1884, I found a vast pile of

new buildings in course of construction actually against the tower.

The old staircase is gone, and the old exterior wall is now finally

and hopelessly concealed. The text is already bygone history.


story that the process of discovery began. Travellers

who have visited the Greek convent will remember

that after the first staircase, they entered a broad

short passage leading into an irregular room, the

roof of which is partly upheld by some ancient

columns. A little inspection will show that there

are really eight columns, though some are nearly

buried in Arab walls : that on these eight columns

rests a circular wooden architrave to support the

ceiling, and that the columns make a ring inside a

circular chamber, the original central chamber of the

tower. This much being made clear, one may follow

round the chamber wall and find it pierced with eight

doorways at equal intervals, each doorway leadinginto another chamber, one of the segments of the

space between the two concentric circles. An eight-

spoked cart-wheel with a disproportionately large

axletree gives one a very fair idea of the plan.

The axletree will then represent the central chamber,

the spokes the radiating walls, and the spaces between

the spokes the chambers round the central chamber.

In the middle of this central room is a so-called well ;

but the Arabs say the water is never used, beingbrackish. The shaft of the well pierces down the verycentre of the tower, and I have little doubt that it wasnever meant for a well at all, but as a sink for sewage :

it is of Arab work, but falls directly into the Romansewer below, and may be a replacement of a similar

Roman shaft. Of the surrounding chambers one is a

chapel which the priests say is older even than the

convent ; a sink-pipe may be noticed in one corner of

the stone floor. Another is a sort of hermit's cell, with

a rude bed, and some good pictures : one is filled with

lumber : and the rest are foul with ages of filth and


darkness. All originally had two windows;but ex-

cept in the chapel, the hermit's cell, and the entrance-

way, the windows have been blocked in such a manner

that, although outside they are flush with the wall,

and under plaster and whitewash the openings are

invisible, yet inside, from the greater thickness of

the Roman wall, the round-arched headings are

clearly shown, and the difference between the ancient

and the modern work is obvious.

I have said that there are eight similar chambers

round the central one;

this is not quite accurate.

For one of the segments, the southernmost, is

occupied by the old Roman staircase. The visitor

entering by the Arab staircase crosses the hall of

pillars into a short passage ;here is an old carved

folding-door, and just beyond it steps mounting upto the convent. These steps leading upwards are

part of the old Roman staircase ; and by openingthe folding-doors one finds the same staircase de-

scending downwards for two stories, with this differ-

ence, that below all is in pitch darkness;

it is a placeof mystery and horror, said to be peopled by devils,

and is unknown and unvisited happily even by the

whitewasher.

With some difficulty I persuaded the priests of

the convent to light me down with tapers. Thestaircase proved to be a beautiful piece of work

;

it is a steep slanting shaft, walled and wagon-vaultedwith large courses of finely-worked ashlar, and turn-

ing about a rectangular pier by long and short flights

alternately. After four flights, completing one turn

round the pier, one faces a door loft, high, with

flat lintel and void relieving arch. It leads into

the central chamber of the first floor, but the original


design has been quite altered and disguised by Arabwork. Inside the inner Roman circle a third circular

wall has been built, corresponding to the ring of

columns on the story above. Embedded in it maystill be seen two of the eight columns it was de-

signed to replace ;and these are joined by a wooden

architrave exactly like that above. Possibly the

remaining six columns are completely immured;but

no trace of them remains, though there is still

visible, flush with the Arab wall, part of a Roman

doorway, with lintel of freestone ornamented with

dentels. The interior of this Arab circle is piled

so thick with dust and rubbish in two of the four

chambers into which it is divided, that the level

varies 7 or 8 ft. in places, and gives at first the

impression of two stories. The well-shaft in the

ce'ntre is clearly, as it stands, not Roman. Outside,

too, there are walls of Arab work joining the Arabcircle to the inner Roman wall

; one passes from

room to room by a doorway just large enough for

a man's body. No doubt all these cells were con-

trived for monastic uses.

The compartments between the Roman circles

are also divided by Arab walls, lightened generally

by high pointed arches, but forming together a ring ;

so that altogether round the well-shaft are rangedin four concentric circles two Arab and two Romanwalls. The two pillars have each a cross in a

circular moulding cut in relief just under the abacus,

between the foliage of the Corinthian-like capital ;

and the crosses were clearly part of the original

carving, not an interpolation. It is possible, though

unlikely, that the entire capitals may have been

changed ; otherwise the conclusion would be that

VOL. I. M

1 62 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

the fortress dates from Christian times. But there

is nothing else to detain one;one is glad to escape

from the thick black dust, spiders, centipedes, and

other noisome creatures which dwell in this eternal

darkness. Such an experience recalls with vivid

meaning the words of Vergil,'

ire per umbras, perloca senta situ . . . noctemque profundam,' and one

such experience is enough. Leaving, then, this story,

one continues downwards by the staircase, and after

one more complete turn round the pier one reaches

the end a cul-de-sac. There is, however, a blocked

doorway on the north side, which led into the central

chamber on the ground floor; beyond this doorway

the staircase issues in a level vaulted recess 7 ft.

deep, probably meant for sentinels. It is pavedwith heavy slabs, some of which have been torn

up, no doubt in search for hidden treasure;but the

natural earth appears beneath.

Returning upwards I noticed that at every land-

ing on the outward or south side of the staircase is

a narrow blocked window. The passage is 1 2 ft.

high, built of nine courses of stone, each i6in. in

depth ;the vaulting consists of seven courses parallel

to the line of descent of the passage, not running at

right angles across it. The passage is 4 ft. 2 in. in

width; the pier 7 ft. long, 3ft. loin, broad; twenty-two steps lead from the ground to the first floor, and

the same number from first to second. The steps

average as nearly as possible 8 in. in height.

Directly one reaches the light again one is amused

at the look of relief on the priests' faces, and vexed

to find nothing but whitewashed surfaces. Thefurther ascent towards the Greek convent shows the

same kind of masonry as far as one can judge ; but


it is not easy to pronounce. The best outside view

is from a position between the two towers, which can

only be obtained by passing through the court of a

house;but the goodwife may be moved by polite-

ness and piastres. On this side the Roman workends suddenly in a level line, which may have been

the original top of the tower, though it is continued

up much higher by Arab work. Above the second

floor, which is marked by a brick-course, five other

brick-courses stand clear, with stone-courses above

and below, giving a height of 23ft. This would

make the original height of the whole tower roughlyabout 55 ft. It may here perhaps be mentioned

that the Greek church of St. George, now perchedlike an eagle's nest on the very top of the tower,

not only offers a splendid bird's-eye view of old

Cairo, but is in itself a most ancient and curious

structure. The folding doors of the church contain

eight small panels beautifully carved in subjects,

but unfortunately smeared thick with layers of paint ;

they resemble, or at least show the purpose of, the

ancient panels in Abu Sargah, which doubtless were

similarly enclosed in the framing of a door. Thechurch is hung with ostrich eggs and lamps of silver,

and on the walls are some magnificent examples of

both Damascus and Rhodian tilework, alone well

worth a visit. The church is further interesting as

being the only sacred building within these ancient

walls which the Melkites have succeeded in retain-

ing. For though called'

the Greek convent,' it

belongs not of course to any foreign community,but to the orthodox patriarch of Alexandria. Thechurch was plundered by a mob of Muslims at the

time of the war in 1882.

M 2


From the same point of view one sees a curious

arrangement by which a small but complete semi-

circle has been, as it were, scooped away from

the outside wall the whole height of the staircase.

This semicircle has a diameter of 17 ft, and is

designed to relieve the otherwise excessive thick-

ness of the wall, and to facilitate the admission

of light through the narrow windows of the stair-

case.

I have given the foregoing details generally in

the order of their discovery. The chief problemremained to find the original entrance to the

tower. The staircase, after leading down to the

ground floor, was blocked between the two circles;

it seemed impossible that the Romans entered bya staircase from outside, landing on the second floor

as visitors enter at present, yet on the ground I had

failed to find any sign of a doorway.The next move was to call on the chief priest,

whom I found in a little room at an immense height,even above the convent. Over coffee I drew him to

talk about the lower parts of the building, mentioned

my visit to the lower regions, and said there were

some houses outside, adjoining the tower, which I

should very much like to explore. He told me

they were ruined, and I could go where I liked, but

must take a guide. Gladly accepting, I went down,and after stumbling over broken doors and fallen

stones wound through a maze of dark passages

among tumbledown hovels, and at last stood before

the east side of the tower, and the mystery was

ended. Close together only 8 ft. apart were two

similar doorways 4 ft. 6 in. in width. These both

led into the same room or division between two


radiating walls : one of these walls is pierced with a

door, and the adjoining compartment has three ad-

ditional doors two for entrance from without, and

one leading inwards into the central chamber. This

latter was quite blocked, but the design is now clear.

Of the eight divisions on the ground floor one is occu-

pied by the staircase : two eastward of this are open,each by two doorways ;

the other five divisions, as

well as the central chamber, are blocked up in dark-

ness, and apparently have been so for generations.It is not easy to see the need of the four original

doorways ; but they have their convenience now for

the herd of swine, which are the sole tenants of the

vacant chambers. The walls of these chambers are

of ashlar, but end upwards in brickwork, sixteen

courses deep ;the brickwork is divided from the

stone by timber beams, which show not the slightest

sign of age or decay, despite the weight that has

been bearing upon them for full fifteen centuries.

From the topmost course of this brickwork springsthe wagon-vaulting of the roof, which likewise is of

very fine brickwork. The courses in the vaultingrun at a considerable angle to the line of the wall.

The four outer doorways are round-headed;but

the inner doorway or passage between the two

chambers has an arch of horseshoe form. All the

arches are made of brickwork.

Between the two towers there stood, no doubt,

originally a gateway and a curtain wall : no vestigeof either remains, but the curtain wall must have

crossed just behind the modern Arab wall. The

place where it joined the northern tower is marked

by a lofty narrow pile of native work, doorless,

windowless, and apparently purposeless, unless it was


meant merely to hide the jagged end of the curtain

wall after its destruction.

With a slight change of direction the fortress

wall proceeds from the broken tower southwards

for about 100 yards., then turns at an obtuse angleto form the southern side of the quadrilateral.

There it loops outward into three large straight-

sided round-headed bastions, two of which are toler-

ably well preserved. The first is much damaged,but contains inside a small chamber, with a most

beautiful roof of pyramidal brick-vaulting ;and the

curtain-wall between the first and the second bastion

has had the entire facing stripped off for a height of

8 ft, and in some parts is hollowed to a depth of

3 ft, making a sort of cavern where a whole herd

of goats find shelter from the heat. The second

bastion is split with huge cracks, and shows someArab patchwork ;

then comes the well-known gate-

way of solid ashlar, with a fine triangular pedimentstill remaining. This pediment is ornamented with

dentels, and quite classical in character ; under one

corner may still be seen the aetos, a small figure of

an eagle sculptured in relief. Above the pedimenta tablet seems to have been torn away : the reliev-

ing arch shows clearly below it, and still lower maybe seen the top of the old gateway arch, now only

just projecting above the surface of the ground. It

is over this gateway, swung as it were between two

bastions, with its southern wall resting on the Romancurtain-wall, that the ancient church of Al Adra is

built, hence called Al Muallakah, or The Hanging'

Church. Its side-chapels project into and occupy the

upper story of the third bastion, which is the most

perfect of all;the lower story is filled with tombs of


Coptic dignitaries. Each floor of the bastion shows

seven windows, blocked up in the usual manner.

A little farther on the Roman wall suddenly dis-

appears after turning a corner, and merges in Arabwork. A large rectangular palm-garden, bounded

on three sides by Arab walls, here lies close againstthe fortress. It was almost certain that the Romanwall formed the fourth side of the garden, but by no

means easy to prove it. There was a heavy woodendoor through the lofty wall into the garden, at which

I knocked in vain many days. Sometimes voices

would answer, but only to say that the key was lost,

or that the master had taken it away with him ; mere

fictions to hide refusal. At last one burning dayas I passed the door was standing ajar. I ran upand planted myself in the doorway, hastily changing

my tarbush for an English hat, lest I should be

taken for an official. An infant seeing me shrieked,'

Oh, mother, quick ! here's a Frank ! quick !' and the

mother came forth from the palms to guard the child,

drawing her veil over her mouth. I said,'

I am very

thirsty, will you be so kind as to give me a drink of

water, O lady ?'

' Be so kind, did you say ?' She seemed unac-

customed to so much civility.' Yes

;will you be so kind ? The sun is fiery and the

world is hot to-day, and I have come a long journeyand am thirsty. Our Lord lengthen your life.'

' Good;

I will go and ask my husband.' Thehusband it seems was asleep, but soon came and

invited me in. I called my friend, and we entered

and went to the well, which lies in the middle of

the garden, and sends forth under the palms a clear

cold stream of beautiful water.


There we drank and were refreshed. Then I said

to the gardener,' This is such a beautiful garden,

that Paradise itself cannot be fairer; may we eat

as well as drink here ? we have our noonday meal

without.' He readily agreed, and we lunched under

the welcome shade of the palm-trees. Afterwards, as

we were smoking with our host, I professed astonish-

ment and admiration at the unusual size of the garden.He was flattered, and said there was none like it.

' What do you suppose is the length ?'

I asked.'

Quite seventy or eighty yards/ he said.' Not more

than that ? why, I am sure it is at least one hundred.

Will you let me measure?' 'Certainly.' 'Verywell; we will measure that wall over there' which

I had from the first moment identified as the Romanwall I was in search of. So we measured and

proved it to be more than one hundred yards in

length ;discovered traces of another bastion

;and

departed well content with the success of our little

stratagem. Something of the kind was rendered

necessary by the inveterate suspicion which the

natives entertain of strangers coming with strangeinstruments uncanny machines which ' devour' their

houses, as they put it. And my court uniform had

given rise to the rumour that I was an official sent

by the divan or government.At the far end of the palm-garden projects a

bastion, the ruined walls of which have been built

up with Arab brickwork and crowned with a circlet

of pots, like those at Mari Mina. This bastion,

however, is better viewed from inside the dair,

and is reached by a visit to the Jewish synagogue,behind which it stands. The interior is filled with

fallen bricks and stones, but it is possible to get


measurements. The greatest length is 33ft. 6 in.,

width 25ft.; there are only five windows to each

floor, not seven as in the southern bastion. In the

first and second story the windows are 4 ft. 6 in.

wide, in the third 2 ft. 3 in.;the height of the middle

floor windows is ioft, and those above 5ft.; the

lower or original ground floor windows are now too

deeply buried for vertical measurement. The brick-

courses are in all cases bent round the head of the

windows forming a circular arch.

This Jewish synagogue is worth a visit. It was

originally a Coptic church dedicated to St. Michael,

and was sold to the Jews by his namesake Michael,

fifty-sixth patriarch, towards the end of the ninth

century1

. Eutychius says that St. Michael in Kasr-

ash-Shamm'ah was the last church held by the Melk-

ites about the year 725 A. D., when all other churches

throughout the land of Egypt had passed into the

hands of the Jacobites. How long it remained with

the Melkites is uncertain;but the violent antipathy

of the two factions no doubt gave a cause of quarreland conquest to the Jacobites, long before the time

when, according to Makrizi, it was made over to the

Hebrews.

The synagogue is about 65ft. long and 35ft. broad,

and shows in miniature a Coptic basilica in its simplestand perhaps its earliest form. If the eastern end has

suffered some alteration, the nave, side-aisles, and

returned aisle with triforium above, are unchangedfrom the old design, though whitewash has long since

defaced the splendid colours once blazoned on the

walls. In point of detail there is not much of interest

1 Al Makrizi, Malan's Trans, p. 85.


remaining, except the fine stucco work about the

arch of triumph, the tank or well behind the apse,

and the carved doors at the end of the south aisle;

upon which one may notice gazelles, and that other

ancient Christian symbol, a pair of birds with re-

torted drooping heads, and between them a bunch

of grapes a symbol one may see graven with equal

fidelity in the mosque of St. Sophia at Constan-

tinople, the church of St. Eleutherios at Athens, the

cathedral of St. Nicholas at Bari in Italy, and on

the minster font at Winchester.

One is tempted to linger among the acacia and

pomegranate trees in the synagogue garden ;but

there is little more of the Roman wall to be seen

here, and to see the rest one must return outside

the dair and work round beyond the palm garden,

noticing on the way and following the Roman sewer

that skirts it1

. The sewer, which is the same as

that passing under the round towers, disappears just

before another bastion, the last on the long eastern

wall. Between this and the synagogue bastion are

remains of a third clearly visible;

so that there

were four altogether on the eastern side. Further

research is again baffled by a lofty Arab wall

starting from the last bastion and enclosing another

garden ;but following it round, one discovers on the

northern side a piece of Roman wall, which a little

examination shows to have been the back wall of

a bastion. This is the only trace remaining of the

1 This sewer is about 4 ft. deep and 18 in. wide; it is lined

with cement and roofed with slabs of limestone. The fact that

it skirts the palm gardens shows that the space they now cover was

once occupied by Roman buildings.


northern wall of the fortress, but is invaluable as

giving the direction of the line which, if producedacross the Greek cemetery, exactly strikes the pointfrom which we started, and completes the quadri-lateral. In the middle of this back wall is the

garden door, which occupies the original doorwayof the ground floor of the bastion

;for the ground

floor chamber in every bastion was roofed with a

vaulting of heavy masonry, and entered by an

arched doorway from within the fortress. In this

garden may be had a fine view of the domes of

the smaller church of Al Adra : remains there also

prove the fact that the bastion stood exactly at

the north-east corner of the fortress, and that the

wall which crossed the garden formed a right anglebefore it struck the nearest eastern bastion and

resumed its original direction.

To sum up. On the north side we have two

rounded bastions at the corners, and there were no

doubt at least two others between;on the western

side one angular bastion and two huge round towers;

on the south side three rounded bastions, and on

the east four. The walls were 8 ft. thick at the

base, changing to 5 ft. at the distance of about 1 5 ft.

from the ground, the offset being of course inwards.

Of the foundation of this fortress there is no

record remaining, and its date is very difficult to

determine. In Rome the date of a building can

be fixed by the style of the work ;but the law does

not hold in the colonies, where the accidents of place

and material confounded all order of succession and

overruled canons of taste. It is clear, however, that

a town called Babylon existed long before the Roman

occupation of Egypt. There are various legends


of its origin. Strabo 1

says some revolted Babylo-nians obtained a settlement there from the kingsof Egypt. The version of Diodorus Siculus 2

tallies

with this : he writes that some captives broughtfrom Babylon by Sesostris established themselves in

a fortified castle called after their mother city, whence

they made raids on the country round, but were

finally pacified and pardoned. Josephus3 relates

that Babylon was built when Cambyses conquered

Egypt, i.e. 525 B.C. : while, according to Eutychius4

,

the founder was a Persian king called Athus, whobuilt a temple to the sun on the spot where nowstands the church of Tadrus. The main fact, then,

of the existence of an early Babylonian fortress,

needs no further question : and I think it must

have been this fortress, or at least the site of it,

which the Romans occupied at the time of Strabo's

visit to Egypt. Murray thinks that the fort men-

tioned by Strabo is the Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah, but

needlessly perplexes the matter with a misquota-

tion, which occurs I believe in every writer whohas touched the subject since La Martiniere.

Strabo does not say that the position was '

fortified

by nature :

'

his words are, typovpiov epv[j.v6v, d-rroa-TavTcov

Ba(3v\(ovia)i> rivSiv, &c. It is true that kpv^vo^ is some-

times used to signify natural strength : but primarilyand usually it denotes artificial strength. So that in

spite of the low-lying situation of Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah,there is no reason why Strabo, had he seen it, should

not have described it as <ppovpi.ov tpvfjLvov. The theory

1Strabo, Geog. bk. xvii. chap. i. 35.

2 Diod. Sic. Hist. lib. i. chap. Ivi. 3.3

Josephus, Ant. Jud. 2. 5.4

Eutych. ap. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus, vol in. p. 967.


that the rubbish mounds now gathered round the

castle may'

conceal its once elevated base'

is refuted

by a survey of the locality, which reveals no strikingdifference of level : besides, to imagine any such

elevated plateau on the spot is to give the Nile-bed

an impossible depression. The fortress is so far

sunken now, that however much the bed of the Nile

may have risen, the level of the two cannot originally

have been very different. Strabo goes on to saythat this (]>povpioi> was at the moment he saw it (ywH)the camp of one of the three legions guarding Egypt ;

and he adds,'

there is a ridge from the camp(orparoTreôi/) to the Nile along which water is

brought by machinery worked by one hundred and

fifty prisoners,' i.e. probably by an arrangement of

water-wheels, such as may be seen at the mediaeval

aqueduct of old Cairo.

Now it is perfectly certain that between Kasr-ash-

Shamm'ah and the Nile no ridge exists or ever

existed;while 200 yards to the south, between the

castle and the church of Tadrus, there is both a place'

fortified by nature,' if such be wanted, and a ridge

running Nilewards. A large island of rock detached

from the Mukattam range stands with steep sides,

and near the Dair Bablun throws out a spur, which

is continued towards the river by a ridge of hill.

I have no doubt that this is the spot where the

Babylonians built the fortress, and where the campwas seen by Strabo. The conjunction of the

words in the Greek shows clearly that in the

writer's mind there was a logical connexion between

the revolt and the castle : he could scarcely have

used such language had he been speaking of a revolt

made some centuries ago by Babylonians, and a castle

174 Ancient Coptic Churches, [CH. iv.

just built by the Romans. Further, there is no other

ridge in the neighbourhood : and had the water gone

up and along this, it would have had to come down

again to reach Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah. Moreover, the

Romans in Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah could easily have

obtained water by digging wells;and I find in the

Arab historian Murtadi that there was actually a

Nilometer built by the Romans inside their fortress.

On the other hand, the Babylonians, if they were on

the rocky ground, where I imagine their strongholdand the Roman camp in Strabo's time to have been,

could not have pierced the rock, but would have

been forced to convey water by some kind of

aqueduct. Another point worth notice is Strabo's

statement that from Babylon the Pyramids are

clearly visible in the distance. What is the fact

now ? From the hill-top the Pyramids are easily

seen, and the view of the country on all sides is

perhaps unrivalled for splendour and interest in

the world;but from the low ground by Kasr-ash-

Shamm'ah ground still lower in Strabo's time the

Pyramids are quite invisible. For these reasons,

then, I think the Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah cannot pos-

sibly have existed in Strabo's time.

Moreover, the evidence of dates alone is almost

decisive. Egypt was made a Roman province in

the year 30 B.C. : and Strabo's journey up to the

First Cataract was made in company with his friend

/Elius Gallus, the prefect in the year 25-24 B.C. It

does not seem probable that a fortress of such size,

strength, complexity, and admirable finish could have

been designed and completed in so short an interval :

and, further, had so striking and beautiful a work

existed, I think it impossible that Strabo could have

CH. iv.] The Roman Fortress. 1 75

passed it over with so vague, obscure, and scanty a

notice.

It was only since writing the foregoing that I hadthe opportunity of referring to Pococke. There I

find that he holds the same opinion of the positionof the ancient Babylon, placing it on the island of

rock which he calls the Gebel Jehusi. He gives,

moreover, a plan of the Roman fortress l,and of the

two round towers : and a sketch of the southern wall

with the gateway. No doubt in his time, c. 1735,much of the fortress was standing that is now quite

gone ;and it is extremely disappointing that he

should not have taken more pains to be accurate.

He represents the walls as forming a neat right-

angled parallelogram about 1 600 ft. long and 300 ft.

broad. The wall-line cuts through the centre of the

towers instead of making a tangent : the towers are

1 80 instead of 60 ft. apart, and another pair of

towers is imagined with the same line for symmetry'ssake. I am quite sure from my own examination

that no second pair of towers can have existed.

He adds that one tower was then 40 ft. high, and

the other much higher, having a church above it :

so that the now ruined tower was in good pre-

servation when Pococke saw it. But he tells us

that even then the people were carrying away the

Roman stone for building. On the east side he

gives no less than twelve bastions, and carries the

wall 350 ft. even beyond the fragment of Romanwork marked in my plan as detached from the

fortress. It is possible, of course, that the fortress

was enlarged in later Roman times northwards, and

1

Description of the East, vol. i. p. 26. pi. ix.


the wall carried along the dotted line for somedistance : in that case the position of the fragmentwith reference to the north-east bastion is less

puzzling. But Pococke unfortunately neither sayshow much he saw of the wall nor whence he got his

plan ;and the latter is so very erroneous in places

where it can be challenged, that it is quite untrust-

worthy in others where it cannot. The plan he givesof a tower is fairly correct, except that he omits the

staircase and inserts a door between the two windowsof every compartment. In this, as in the plan of the

fortress, he assumes a symmetry which does not

exist : he makes a very pretty building, but

it is quite original. He seems to have measured

one wall and one tower which he calls' a very

particular sort of building' and then either

to have drawn the rest from imagination, or at least

to have twisted his facts to fit his fancies. Hedesigns his fortress after some ideal architype.

The elevation which he gives of the principal

gateway is no less faulty : it shows the four bastions,

but they are represented as circular. The gate with

pediment and relieving arch is indicated in such a

way as to imply that the whole was visible whenthe sketch was taken 1

. It is worth noting, however,that he gives a wall running parallel behind the

south wall at a distance of about 35ft. inside;

and though the interval is wrong, there doubtless

was some such rear-wall, on which the northern

wall of the Mu'allakah rests, as the southern rests

on the Roman gateway. Besides Pococke's, one

1It is to be hoped that some day this gateway may be excavated :

indeed the whole fortress would richly repay exploration.


other plan exists, that given in Panckoucke's'

Descriptions de 1'Egypte,' compiled by officers of

the French expedition, and published at Paris in

1823. A more incorrect and worthless plan never

was made. It gives with great inaccuracy merelythe boundary walls of the whole group of buildings :

and these walls are flatly called Roman ! The sur-

veyor was unable to distinguish between Arab and

Roman work;even the outer wall of the palm-

garden deceives him. In the whole circuit onlythree bastions those on the south side are figured;

the round towers are quite ignored. Pococke's planis far better : at least he knew what he was looking

for, and he does not confound styles and epochsof building which a child might distinguish.

It is easier to put aside a wrong date for the

fortress than to fix the right. But there are plau-

sible reasons for assigning it to an early epoch.The fact that on the high rocky ground the supplyof water might be at any moment cut off by a

besieging enemy, was enough in itself to determine

the Romans to choose a lower site where water

could be had for digging : though the remains of a

six foot sewer 1 near Dair Mikhail show that the

Roman town, which sprang up outside the fortress

walls, extended southward beyond the rocky ridge,

and covered the site of the first encampment.Moreover the ancient canal or Khalig, which nowruns through Cairo and once reached to the Red

1I am not aware that this sewer has been noticed before. The

road now runs over it, and the vaulting is broken through in several

places. A steep fall in the ground at one side marks clearly the

ancient course of the Nile for some distance, and the sewer ran

under the Roman quay, as was usual.

VOL. I. N


Sea, is generally identified with the Amnis Trajanus.It joins the Nile at Old Cairo; and the Romancastle is so built as to block the narrow neck of the

Nile valley, and to dominate the entrance of the

canal. It seems therefore reasonable to supposethat if Trajan had the canal cut, he also erected

the fortress;that he wished to command at once

the land and water passage between Upper and

Lower Egypt and the trade route to Arabia. Here

really were the gates of the East : at Kasr-ash-

Shamm'ah he could hold the gate of the Nile and

the gate of the Red Sea. If this theory be rightthe date would be about A. D. 100. The alternative

seems to assign the work to Probus 281 A. D., who

certainly built many'

temples, bridges, porticoes and

palaces in Egypt'1

. It is true the pediment of

the main gateway is late in style, and true also that

the cross-carved capitals on the pillars in the round

tower cannot be much earlier than the third century.But it is not certain that they belong to the original

building, the general features of which suit better

the time of Trajan, even were it likely that the

Romans should have deferred for three centuries the

building of a powerful fortress in so vital a position.

The names of the place are legion. Althoughthere probably was an early Egyptian town called

Kerkau at Old Cairo, Gibbon is wrong in speakingof the fortress as a part of 'Memphis or Misrah' 2

.

No theory of the size of Memphis can bring the

walls down near Masr, which is ten miles as the

crow flies from the fallen colossus of Rameses. Still

Masr is the oldest name and the commonest to-day.

1

Gibbon, chap. 12.2Chap. 51.

CH. iv.] The Roman Fortress. \ 79

In Roman times, however, there is no doubt that

the prevailing title was Babylon. Both in the

Notitia Provinciarum and the Itinerarium Antonini

the station is called'

Babylonia' : among the prelates

at the Council of Ephesus is recorded a bishop of

Babylon1

: and this name, which has lingered on side

by side with its elder, has still a local habitation at

Dair Bablun, two furlongs south of the fortress.

In the Mohammedan invasion of Egypt 638 A. D.

'Amr hurled his troops and his engines in vain

against the solid walls of Babylon : until after a

fruitless siege of seven months the Jacobite Coptswithin the fortress parleyed with 'Amr, deserted the

walls, and joined with the invader in wreaking their

vengeance on the Melkite Greeks, their co-defenders.

On the spot where Amr pitched his leather tent

(fustat) a mosque was built, and the Arab town

called after the tent Fustat. The mosque, one of

the most interesting monuments of Egypt, is still

called the mosque of 'Amr;

but though Fustat

lasted some centuries, when the new Cairo was

built, as the town fell wasted by fire and decay,the Arab name sank into oblivion and the old nameresumed its place, Masr the ancient as opposed to

Masr the victorious. The disdain with which the

Arabs looked down from the splendid citadel and

towers of Cairo on the forlorn ruins of Masr is

expressed in a current Arabic proverb,'

They mademention of Masr to Kahirah, and Bab al Luk rose

with her rubbish.' Bab al Ltik or' The Gate of

Folly' a contemptuous play on the word Babylon

1 La Martiniere, Dictionnaire Gôgraphique et Critique, s.v.

Babylon.

N 2

180 Ancient Coptic Chiwches. [CH. iv.

is curious as showing that the name in its wider

sense is not quite lost among the natives of to-day.

According to Pococke 1 the Arabs called the fortress

Kasr Kieman, which he explains to mean '

Archer's

Castle,' though I cannot find the word in Arabic

dictionaries and never heard it so applied. Thename Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah however was given bythe conquerors, and means '

Castle of the Candle'

or' Beacon Castle.' Murtadi 2 tells a curious legend

of a certain mirror made of all sorts of minerals

which stood on a high turret of brass at old Cairo in

the days of Sesostris. It showed the states of all

regions in Egypt, and reflected all passing events.

The beacon however is rather less mythical ;several

authors mention a irvpeiov, and the Arab Yakuti,

quoted by Golius, speaks of a Kubbat-ad-Dukhan,i.e. Dome or Temple of Smoke 3

: which is said to

have been a relic of the old Babylonian fire-worship.

Possibly even in Roman times a beacon-fire \vas

lighted on one of the round towers : for there are

some very puzzling flues in the ruined tower which

may have reference to some purpose of the kind,

but the walls about them are so broken that it is not

easy to guess their meaning. However that maybe, it is neither the name ' Dair-an-Nasarah' (Conventof the Nazarenes) nor ' Dair Mari Girgis' (Conventof Saint George), but rather Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah

that remains in familiar use to-day among Coptsand Muslims alike : though they seem to have no

1 Vol. i. p. 23 : no doubt the word should be kiman

means hills or mounds.2

Egyptian History, p. 26.:; See D'Anville, Mdmoires sur 1'Egypte, p. 112.

CH. iv.] 77ie Roman Fortress. 181

tradition to tell why the fortress was styled' The

Castle of the Candle' 1.

Abu Sargah, or St. Sergius, is the only church to

which tourists in search of shows are annually haled

by their exceedingly ignorant dragomans ;and it

thanks for this distinction rather the legend which

points to the crypt as the resting-place of the HolyFamily on their arrival at Masr, than any artistic or

antiquarian attraction supposed to reside in the

building2

. Yet its inherent interest is very great,

though possibly second to that of Al Mu'allakah.

There is little reason to doubt that the present

building dates unaltered in its main features

though of course fittings and details have been

changed from at least the eighth century, and this

date accords with the tradition as related to me bythe priest of Al Mu'allakah, though sometimes it is

1 Pococke mentions.in a note that the fortress was called in his

day' Casrkeshemeh

'

(sic), which is doubtless Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah ;

vol. i. p. 25 n.

2 The sort of impression produced by the church and its sur-

roundings on the ordinary traveller is painfully illustrated in most

story books about Egypt. Even a careful and just observer like

George Fleming puts into the mouth of her characters so falsely

coloured a description of the scene, that one hesitates whether to

term it rather shameful or ridiculous. The dull grey dust of the

rubbish mounds is called 'desert sand, looking like a sea of gold':

the crypt,' a hole in the ground in which the Virgin took refuge on

her flight into Egypt': and so on ad nauseam. See A Nile Novel,

vol. i. pp. 163-4 (second edition, London, 1877).


assigned to the sixth century. The truth probablyis that the crypt dates from the sixth century at the

very latest, and is doubtless considerably earlier,

while the main fabric is only about a thousand yearsold.

Abu Sargah lies nearly in the centre of the Romanfortress : north and west its walls align a narrow

street : eastward it touches ground encumbered with

ruined houses : and on the south it is pressed close

and hidden by later walls of ashlar and domestic

buildings. It is built of ordinary small brown

Egyptian bricks, varied here and there with bond

timbers of palm or tamarisk unmortised and un-

connected, or short square pilasters with cap-like

projections. The north wall runs unevenly with

an offset inwards some 20 ft. from the north-\vest

corner, a buttress farther on, and then a marked

deflection as shown in the plan. It is certain that

there were two western doorways : of these the

southern is still used, though the part of the narthex

into which it led has been strangely altered, and

now the passage doubles round a small block of

buildings into a porch cut out of the south aisle,

whence another door opens into the church. Fromthe passage a staircase (N) ascends to the women's

galleries : but there can be little doubt that anciently

this corner of the narthex was occupied by the bap-

tistery. The original central doorway has been longsince blocked up, but the blocking is clearly trace-

able outside, and a recess (M) in the wall inside also

plainly marks the position. Whether there was even

a north aisle door is very doubtful. Outside there

are no signs of it : inside the floor has been raised

more than three feet above the nave-floor: and though

z wI

C H APEL5S5J PRESENT FLOOR 3-6

NARTHEXN TWO STORIES: WITH

FLAT ROOF OVER IT

Vol. I. To face p. 182.

TORCH OF ABU SARGAH:(ST SERGIUS)-OLD CAIRO


there is a recess in the wall which might have been

saved in blocking a doorway, there is not evidence

enough to decide the question.I think, however, that a comparison of the plan

with that of the White Monastery near Suhag in

Upper Egypt, will settle the fact that the western

apsidal chamber in the one case as in the other waseither a chapel or a baptistery, and the probabilitiesare very largely in favour of the former. In the planof the White Monastery a north aisle door is simply

impossible to imagine, and there is definite evidence

for the altar in this part of the narthex. Similarly,

it is almost indisputable that the apsidal chamberat Abu Sargah was anciently a chapel, and that

the original entrance to it was southward from the

central part of the narthex, and not westward from

the street. It was doubtless this chapel into which

the newly-baptised were taken to receive their first

communion.

The general shape of the church is, or was, a

nearly regular oblong, and its general structure is

basilican. It consists of narthex, nave, north and

south aisle, choir, and three altars eastward each

in its own chapel : of these the central and southern

chapels are apsidal, the northern is square-ended.On plan Abu Sargah much resembles a typecommon among the Syrian churches of the sixth

and seventh centuries, such as that of Kalb Luzah,

Turmanin, or Al Barah 1: but these Syrian churches

differ from the Coptic in beingbuilt ofhewn stone, with

windows and wide arches, and above all in their aimingat an exterior effect of architectural splendour. The

1I have not adopted the Count de Vogue's orthographies.

184 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IV.

same plan is found in some Anatolian churches, as

at Cassaba in Lycia : also in the church of St. Irene

at Constantinople : and in many early churches at

Rome, S. Niccolo in Carcere, S. Pietro in Vincoli,

Sta. Agnese without the walls, and others : thoughin some cases the original arrangement has been

obscured by later additions or alterations.

Over the aisles and narthex runs a continuous

gallery or triforium, which originally served as the

place for women at the service. On the north side

it stops short at the choir, forming a kind of transept,

which however does not project beyond the north

aisle on plan. On the south side of the church the

triforium is prolonged over the choir and over the

south side-chapel. The gallery is flat-roofed : while

the nave is covered with a pointed roof with framed

principals like that at Abu-'s-Sifain. In the Copticroofs no metal is used, but the tenons are pinned

through by wooden bolts. Outside, the roof of Abu

Sargah is plastered over with cement showing the

king-posts projecting above the ridge-piece. Over

.the central part of the choir and over the haikal the

roof changes to a wagon-vaulting : it is flat over the

north transept, and a lofty dome overshadows the

north aisle-chapel. There is a second dome visible

from outside above the east end of the south tri-

forium; though whether a chapel directly over the

south aisle-chapel ends the triforium, I cannot say.

The churlish priest of Abu Sargah vowed there wasnone

;but he angrily refused to let me look, and

neither soft words nor hard, neither fiat of patriarchnor glitter of money, could conquer his stubborn

resistance. One may be sure however that a chapelof the kind once existed, even though now it has

.CH. iv.] The Roman Fortress. 185

been desecrated by domestic usage. For domestic

purposes also the large bays or openings from the

triforia into the nave have been blocked up with thin

walls : but on each side north and south the two

bays remain visible, each divided by two small

columns : in each bay also three small latticed

windows still give a little light to the triforia. Themain building is lighted only by a window in the east

and in the west gable, and by a single skylight in the

nave roof, the result, of course, being obscurity.

The whole south-western corner of the church has

been sadly altered. The south part of the narthex

has been cut out of the church, and an entrance

porch besides has been thrust into the south aisle.

So the modern entrance-way, by the original south

aisle door, is blocked in front, but turns to the right,

then winds back through another opening in the

original south wall to the porch (which serves as

guest-room), and so reaches the nave. Over the

modern entrance are domestic buildings occupied

by the priest's family and communicating with the

triforia.

The large Epiphany tank lies boarded over in

the narthex : a smaller tank for ablutions and for

the Maundy washing of feet, as at Abu'-s-Sifain, is

in the women's section, which is divided from the

narthex by a lofty lattice screen. Between the

women's section and men's section there is the

unusual arrangement of a third division, a narrow

space co-extensive in width with the nave, but onlyabout 8 ft. broad from east to west

;it has four door-

ways one into the south aisle and one into the bap-

tistery in the north aisle, besides those leading into

the sections of the nave. Within this narrow space,

1 86 Ancient Coptic Chtirches. [OH. iv.

just beside the western of the four doorways and

facing south, stands the chair of the patriarch the

high broad seat of lattice-work on which he sits now

upon days of visitation, holding the golden cross and

giving benediction to the people as they pass before

him.

What remains of the south aisle is railed off from

the nave and divided into two parts : it projectsfurther eastward than the nave, running into the

choir instead of ending at the choir-screen, where

the north aisle ends. Yet the general arrangementof the north aisle is very irregular. Part of it, co-

extensive in length with the men's section of the

nave, is undivided from it by any screen. West of

this part comes a screened baptistery with a round

font embedded in masonry: westward still a flight

of seven steps leads up to a raised landing before

the chapel which occupied the north end of the nar-

thex. Beneath this landing and the chapel floor are

said to lie the remains of some ancient patriarch,

though there is no record of his name. The altar is

gone from this chapel, which is now used as a mere

lumber-room : but the apse remains in the north

wall, and where the plaster has not fallen, are traces

of some very early and interesting paintings. The

completest figure, which is that nearest the door,

represents Christ standing with his right hand up-raised in benediction and held half across the breast :

the left hand carries a scroll bearing an inscription

in Coptic letters signifying' Behold the Lamb of

God, which taketh away the sins of the world.' It is

worth notice in passing that the Coptic term for' world

'

is the Greek /coo-^09. The figure wears a

glory but no mitre;an amice covering the head and


falling on the shoulders;a fine cope embroidered

with a diaper pattern and fastened by a triple-lobed

morse; alb, girdle, and perhaps sleeve. The portrait

corresponds curiously in type of features with the

earliest known likeness of Christ, that depicted on

the ceiling in the catacomb of Domitilla at Rome,

assigned to the third century1

: the hair on the face

and upper lip is unshorn, but slight ;beard rather

pointed. The still prominent figure at the other end

of the curve is more fully bearded, is vested in an

early chasuble, is nimbed, and carries in each hand a

cross. Of the figures between which once filled the

apse, very faint tokens remain : but enough is left to

give the little room great interest, even if it were not

the unique instance of a western apsidal chamber in

the churches of Cairo.

The twelve monolithic columns round the nave

are all, with one exception, of white marble streaked

with dusky lines, like common Italian cippolino,

which is used for example on the outside of St.

Mark's at Venice. The exceptional column (L) is

of red Assuan granite, 22 in. in diameter, and seems

a later addition replacing a former pillar of white

marble. The original columns have what is tech-

nically called diminution and entasis; they are about

1 6 in. in diameter; and their capitals are of a de-

based Corinthian order familiar in Roman work of

the third and fourth centuries. They were doubtless

taken from some Roman temple or other building.

The bases on which they stand are also classical in

character, and stand on square pedestals of the same

marble. On each of these eleven ancient pillars is

1 Roma Sotteranea, vol. ii. p. 218.


painted the life-size figure of a saint or apostle, nowso begrimed and obscured that in the doubtful light

all may easily escape notice, and it requires close

attention to make them out when discovered 1. Near

the pulpit, but in the choir, stands a pair of small

marble columns with early Saracen capitals and

bases formed by inverted Corinthian capitals. Eachof these two small columns, and each of the eleven

nave columns, is incised with a fine clear dedication

cross of the usual Coptic form in an oblong de-

pression. Probably however the original number of

crosses was twelve, and they were confined to the

nave columns, the others being later.

The columns are joined by a continuous woodenarchitrave which rests on the abaci, with short flat

pieces of timber intervening to distribute the bearing.The whole of this architrave was originally paintedin various colours, and traces of coloured arabesque

designs are still clearly visible on the soffit. The

weight of the upper nave wall which rests on the

architrave is relieved by arched openings of the

pointed form common in Arab architecture.

The wooden pulpit, standing at the north-east

corner of the nave, is mounted only by a moveable

ladder. It is of rosewood inlaid with designs in

ebony set with ivory edgings. Curiously enoughthere are no traces of an original stone ambon such

as doubtless existed. The pulpit is now used but

once a year on Good Friday.

1

Murray, though noticing the frescoes in the western chamber,

is ignorant of these;and I never met a traveller who was aware

of their existence. I pointed them out to Mr. Middleton, who

mentions them in his paper in the Archaeologia.


Abu Sargah is paved with hard siliceous grey lime-

stone. The choir floor is two steps higher than the

nave floor: a broad stone bench, probably answer-

ing to the solea, runs across the nave and north aisle

at the foot of the choir-screen, which is of modern

lattice-work. In a panel over the central choir door

there is written, or rather wrought, in square Cufic-

like letters of wood a short text,' Ya Allah al Khalas,'

i.e.' O God, Salvation.' There is also a rude Coptic

inscription upon the lintel of the doorway, which

closes by double doors. Over the screen is a row

of fifteen small paintings, and higher still nine large

ones all, except the central Redeemer, nearly iden-

tical in treatment with those in the corresponding

position at Abu-'s-Sifain;and here, as there, the

larger series lies between two bands adorned with

golden texts in Arabic and Coptic. The other three

pictures in the nave are of no merit artistically : one

however, representing Abu Sargah and Abu Rakus,stands over a locker in which the relics of the two

saints are treasured : and another depicting the Flightinto Egypt is interesting from the fact that it shows

the Holy Family arriving at a Coptic dair.

Before the haikal and the north chapel the choir

is of unusual width, but is narrowed southward bythe intrusion of the south aisle and by the heavy

pier1

through which one descent is cut from the

aisle to the crypt. The other descent is by an openstaircase railed round in the northern part of the

1 On this pier, at a height of about twelve feet from the ground,

there is a large stucco cross in relief with small crosses between

the branches ; the principal cross is about two feet long and broad,

and of Maltese form.

IQO Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IV.

choir (K, K). Near the head of the staircase is a

well surrounded by a stone coping, and close by a

sink both curiously situated in the very body of the

church. All churches have their own well somewhere

on the premises : in no other case is it found within

the sacred walls. Doubtless tradition attaches a

special sanctity to this, as the well of which the HolyFamily drank.

The haikal-screen projects forward into the choir,

as at Al 'Adra in the Harat-az-Zuailah. It is of

very ancient and beautiful workmanship ; pentagonsand other shapes of solid ivory, carved in relief with

arabesques, being inlaid and set round with rich

mouldings. Where some of the ivory blocks have

fallen out, the skeleton frame of the screen is

visible, resembling a design in woodwork at the

mosque of Barkuk among the tombs of the khalifs

(c. 1400 A.D.) : but the resemblance does not decide

the date, which is doubtless very much earlier. The

upper part of the screen contains square panels of

ebony set with large crosses of solid ivory, most

exquisitely chiselled with scrollwork, and panels of

ebony carved through in work of the most delicate

and skilful finish. Above these panels stand the icons.

The screens of the two side-chapels are more recent

and inlaid only with plain ivory : the design however

of the north screen is good, being enriched with

flowers besides crosses and stars. All three screens

are pierced with a small square window (D) on each

side of the door. In the ordinary place, i.e. uponthe screen just before the wall or pier dividing the

haikal from the north chapel, is fastened the wooden

bracket or holder for the crewet (E). Between this

point and the angle formed by the abutment of

CH. IV.] The Roman Fortress. 191

the haikal-screen are

some very curious

early carvings in re-

lief (F) panels that

were once no doubt

framed in the leaves

of a door like that

of Al Muallakah.

There are eight

panels in all, each

ioj in. high by 6J

| broad : of these, five

1 represent sacred sub-

| jects and are proba-

bly of the eighth cen-

& tury, contemporary

Iwith the foundation

3 of the church;

the*

otherthree onecon-bO

| taining carvings of'

gazelles, two merelyI conventional scroll-

j work are. rather

M later. Taking the

subjects in order as

they stand from left

to right, we find

(i) The Nativity.The Child lies swath-

ed in a manger with

rays of glory fallingfrom a bow or circle

above, in which are

carved two faces,


perhaps meant for the other persons of the

Trinity. In the top background an ox on one

side of the manger and an ass on the other stand

gazing upon it, and behind each animal stands an

angel with outspread wings. Below them, and partly

concealing them, Mary is seen lying on a couch and

Joseph kneeling on one knee. The lower half of the

panel is occupied partly by two shepherds, indicated

by their crooks and by a lamb, and partly by the magi

bringing gifts. Every panel is surrounded by a very

beautifully carved border, generally of scrollwork,

but all different. In this case crosses are carved at

the angles and in the centre of the sides. The Holy

Family and the angels all wear plain nimbs.

(2) Perhaps St. Demetrius. A bearded equestrian

figure clad in richly embroidered raiment : in his

right hand he carries a long spear ending upwardsin a cross, while the lower end is grasped by a

prostrate foe whom he seems to be slaying. In the

upper dexter corner an eagle is carved with folded

wings. The horseman is turned full face to the

spectator : a row of small circles round the brow

represents curling hair or possibly a diadem. Hewears a fine full glory. The horse has oriental

trappings, which might be of any age.

(3) Mdri Girgis. This is another equestrian, verysimilar in treatment to the last : the spear-shaft,

however, ends in a loop instead of a point at the

bottom : there is no figure, not even a dragon, on the

ground : and the eagle, here placed in the sinister top

corner, is bending its head very low. The horseman's

lace is quite beardless, and the hair vaguely indicated.

(4) Abu- s-Sifain, or St. Mercurius. This title,

like the last two, is very doubtful. The horseman


is in almost precisely the same attitude as the others,

the right hand carrying a long spear, the left reiningthe steed. But under the horse's feet a man is seen

sitting on the ground and apparently pierced with

the spear. The victim, however, seems unconscious

of his wound, and in his right hand is grasping a

short rod which rests on a very perplexing little

object in the background. I can only conjecturethat it may be an oven, that the figure on the

ground is heating a bar of iron, and that he repre-sents some persecutor and torturer of the Christians

being slain by their champion. The horseman is

under a sort of trefoil arch : in both spandrels there

are indications of curtains : in the sinister spandrel a

hand is appearing, as from the clouds, holding out

a crown.

(5) The Last Supper. This is an extremely in-

teresting carving. It represents our Lord and the

apostles seated round a long table which occupiesthe centre of the panel. The shape of the table is

remarkable, the near end having square corners, the

far end being rounded. On it are laid twelve small

loaves, and in the centre is a large fish on a platter :

there is no cup or drinking vessel. Christ in the

lower dexter corner of the panel is grasping the fish.

All the figures seem seated on the ground, wear

nimbs, and face the spectator. The whole scene is

grouped under an altar-canopy supported on two

slender columns with early Arab capitals. A pairof altar curtains are seen running on rods above,but each is caught up and looped round a pillar,

so as to leave a clear view of the scene below. The

canopy is in the form of a circle between two trian-

gles, all with elaborate borders. The circle encloses

VOL. I. O


a fine cross, and a smaller cross stands on the apexof each triangle.

The ritual significance of this carving, which is

obvious enough, has been commented upon in another

part of this work. It is, I think, the only artistic

monument definitely recording the early altar curtains

of the Coptic ceremonial; although, as I have pointed

out, there is abundance of other evidence to establish

their existence. Possibly even the form of the table

may have its own meaning1.

Over these panels are set three large pictures,

neither ancient nor well executed. One, however,

representing Gabriel, deserves remark on account

of a strange and puzzling instrument or emblemwhich the archangel is carrying. With his left hand

he holds a tall three-transomed cross called the cross

of the patriarch of Jerusalem : and in the right some-

thing which exactly resembles in size and shape an

ordinary hand-mirror. Its straight handle and circular

frame are ornamented with the very pattern used bythe Arabs, as may be seen in any barber's shop in

Cairo to-day. Very possibly the instrument may be

a flabellum or fan instead of a mirror;but the priest

could tell me nothing, and I can give no certain

explanation.Another painting over the locker or aumbry in

the pier of the choir pourtrays the archangel Michael

holding a Jerusalem cross with his right hand, and

lifting in his left a balance. The stole, marked with

crosses and stars, hangs down straight in front, and

passes from the centre of the chest over the left

shoulder, thence over the right shoulder across the

1 See vol. ii. chap. i.


breast, under the left arm, and round the waist : the

end is then thrown over the left wrist a curious

arrangement, because it does not seem to admit of a

crossing at the back. The vestment is painted red

with frequent vertical lines of gold : the backgroundof the painting is also gold. A picture of St. Stephenon the pier by the south chapel should not be passedover. The^ saint is vested in a white dalmatic,

beautifully embroidered with a repeated pattern of a

red rose with stalk and leaves. Only one end of

the stole is visible, falling over the left shoulder;

but the stole is crossed also over the breast. Thenimb is set round with a dotted border and covered

all over with circles and stars of dotwork. Thedalmatic opens by a slit down the front in the centre,

not at the side, and the opening as well as the collar

is edged with a rich orfrey. Both arms are bent at

the elbow : the right hand is swinging a covered

censer suspended by four chains, which are decked

with little bells;and in the left hand there reposes

on a corporal or cloth a splendidly jewelled casket,

which is either an incense box, or else a pyx or recep-tacle for the reserved host. This evidence of the

practice of reservation, if such it be, is unique and

extremely interesting. The picture, however, is not

later than the sixteenth century, when the reservation

of the host was not generally practised.

Before the haikal door hangs a magnificent curtain

of ancient fabric embroidered with a figure of the

Virgin and Child, figures of angels, the Coptic sacred

letters, and many texts of Arabic all wrought in

massive thread of silver, and set round with beautiful

borders also of silver embroidery, like that used for

the vestments at Abu Kir wa Yuhanna. The inter-

o 2

196 Ancient Coptic Chiirches. [CH. iv.

pretation of the Coptic sentence across the top of the

curtain is' Peace to the Sanctuary of God the

Father, Lord of All.' The last word may be easily

identified as the Greek TravTOKparap. Besides this

front door there are two side doors (C) to the haikal;

and the usual small slide-windows open one on each

side of the principal entrance.

The haikal itself and the altar (H) are both verysmall for the size of the church. The altar is 4ft.

5J in. long from north to south, and 3 ft. 3 in. broad :

height, 2ft. 10^ in. It stands at a distance of 3 ft.

from the screen, and is overshadowed by a large and

lofty canopy,which rests upon four Saracenic columns.

The spandrels of the canopy are finely painted with

angels carrying lilies or other flowers in their hands.

The two easternmost pillars stand 3 ft. 3-^ in., and

the two westernmost 2 ft. 9 in., from the nearest

corner of the altar. The central groove or depressionfor the altar-board is 2 ft. by i ft. 9^ in., but the

board itself is a more decided oblong, and does not

fit exactly. The side altars (I, J) show no such de-

parture from the ordinary usage.The four pillars of the canopy are joined together

by four small dark-painted beams on which Coptictexts are written in white letters

;and from the

beams rings are fastened with strings or chains for

hanging lamps or curtains. About the walls of the

apse rises a fine and lofty marble tribune consistingof seven stages three short and straight steps (B)

running north and south, and four seats sweepinground the whole curve of the apse and in the midst of

the curve is placed the patriarch's throne (A) with a

niche behind it. The outline of the niche is markedall round by a design of coloured marbles in which


the cross is conspicuous : there is also set about it a

square framing, the spandrels of which are inlaid with

a fine minute mosaic of coloured marble mixed with

mother-of-pearl, such as may be seen in the baptis-

tery of the Little Church at Al Mu'allakah, or in far

greater richness and profusion at the tomb-mosqueof Al Ashraf among the tombs of the khallfs. In

Europe the same style of work is found in the

Church of St. Vitale at Ravenna, and at the Cathe-

dral of Parenzo in I stria. The tribune steps andseats are faced with vertical strips of red, black, andwhite marble. On the top seat a number of bad

paintings, two large candlesticks, books, papers andvestments repose in ease and dust untroubled.

There is also a picture and a loose wooden cross

lying within the niche. The haikal is crowned bya small dome.

A larger and loftier dome covers the north aisle-

chapel, the walls of which are square : the spring of

the dome is relieved by gated pendentives. Before

the eastern wall is a small tribune of three bow-shaped

steps and a throne unusual features in a side-

chapel. Beyond a number of books well cased in

dust upon the altar, and some loose leaves ilunginto a rush basket beside it, there is nothing here to

notice.

The arrangement of the south aisle-chapel, which

is still in frequent use for service, is quite different.

It contains a broad apse with a niche, before which

burns a perpetual lamp, but no tribune. The apsewall curves into a low semidome above ;

but the rest

of the chapel is flat-roofed, having, it will be remem-

bered, the triforium overhead. The walls are covered

with a low wainscot of deal : in the north wall is an


aumbry. An old and disused patriarchal chair is

kept within the chapel.

A low dark vaulted passage, blocked in the middle

by a partition wall, runs round the haikal underneath

the tribune steps \ but is entered from without bya door (G) on either side of the abutting screen.

On the north side there is nothing to discover;but

entering the passage on the south, one finds at the

far end, by help of candlelight, a recess containing a

fine old Arabic lamp of plain white glass, with handles

on the shoulder. It is of the same shape as the

magnificent enamelled specimens of the thirteenth

century, such as may be seen at the British Museumand also at South Kensington, and such as were once

in common use in the churches and mosques of

Egypt. Now a good example is worth at least

^500. The lamp at Abu Sargah has neither colour

nor enamel : still it seems to be held in honour, for

it is only used once a year on Good Friday. This

vaulted passage is also used as the store-place for the

sacred vessels of the church. It contains a large

wooden coffer, the lid of which I raised and caught a

hasty glimpse of a silver chalice, silver hand-cross,

and processional cross, and of two silver fans like

those at Dair Tadrus;but in a moment the ill-

humoured priest flew into an ungovernable passion,

1 This passage bears a curious resemblance to the passage under

the very similar tribune at Torcello. There, however, the crypt

for such it is instead of being blocked in the centre of the curve

under the throne, opens out forming a small apsidal chapel with an

altar. (See La Messe, vol. ii. pi. cxxx.) Of course it is just possible

that the block under the throne at Abu Sargah encloses relics;

but the passage cannot have been designed as an oratory, nor

have contained an altar.


shut down the lid, and locked the passage-door,

venting his fury in storms of Arabic abuse. Whetherthis passage can ever have been used as a crypt or

confessionary, or contained the relics of the church,

is doubtful. It is, however, worth remarking that the

position of the entrance doors, the arrangement of

the passage circling round beneath the sanctuary,even its barrel-vaulting, are so many points of

resemblance to crypts such as that of the ancient

basilica of the Vatican, the old crypt at Canterbury,or that of the seventh century still standing at

Brixworth in Northampton. Still the lowness of the

passage it is scarcely 4 ft. high may be a con-

clusive objection against its claim to be a con-

fessionary.

The Crypt.

The crypt of Abu Sargah is a small low subter-

ranean church, lying under the centre of the choir

and part of the haikal. Two flights of steps lead

down to it, as was mentioned, one from the north

choir or transept, one from the south aisle by the

large pier. (See K and K on plan.) The floor of

the crypt is 8 ft. 9 in. below the level of the choir,

or 7 ft. i in. below the nave floor. The nave floor

is about 5 ft. 6 in. below the ground-level outside

the church, and this again is some 7 ft. 6 in. belowthe average level of the ground outside the Romanfortress. The crypt floor is therefore no less than

21 ft. i in., and the floor of Abu Sargah 13 ft. belowthe modern level of Old Cairo. The greatest lengthof the crypt is 20 ft., and the breadth 15 ft. It is

wagon-vaulted in three spans, and may be said to

consist of a nave with north and south aisle. Theaisles are divided off by slender columns, nine in


number altogether. Two short walls, in the line of

these columns, project 6 ft. from the eastern wall of

the crypt, and form a sort of haikal, but there is

no screen here nor any furniture whatsoever. Thecolumns are about 5 ft. each in height : the capitals

are formless, except in one case, where the column

has a late classical capital, and a classical capital also

used for the base. One shaft near the southern

entrance is twisted and fluted, resembling the small

columns in the bays of the triforium of the upperchurch : there is also a pair of similar columns on the

ambon at Al Mu'allakah.

In the floor of the central division, just within

what may perhaps be called the haikal, there is a

circular slab (F) of white marble let into the limestone

floor. This is directly underneath the chief altar of

the church above, and may perhaps mark the place

originally assigned to the well, of which the HolyFamily drank when they rested on this spot.

Perhaps, however, the most curious feature of the

crypt is the structure of three arched recesses, one in

the northern, one in the southern, and one in the eastern

wall. The last of these (A) is undoubtedly an altar.

It is semicircular in plan, with straight walls about

20 inches high and a domical roof all wrought in

finely jointed ashlar work of limestone. Inlet in

the bottom of the recess is a slab of white marble

containing a beautiful cross, io| in. in diameter,

sculptured within a roundel. The niche in the south

wall (B) is very similar, and likewise contains a slab

sculptured with a cross, but of rather different design1

.

It is curious, however, that in neither case is the slab

1 A woodcut of these crosses is given in vol. ii. I JL/

2O2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

placed in the middle of the floor of the niche, nor is

the cross cut in the middle of the slab. The recess

in the north aisle (C) has a slab of nearly the same

dimensions as the other two, but instead of beingflush with the flooring of the niche it is depressed to

the depth of an inch with a raised border on all sides.

It is thus in the form of an oblong tray. The

meaning of this form has not yet been satisfactorily

explained. The Copts say that it represents the

manger, while the eastern niche represents Mary's

resting-place, and the southern niche that of Joseph.

They do not, however, state why the manger followed

the Holy Family into Egypt. The story is obviouslya confusion of the resting-place in Egypt with the

place of the nativity, and is in fact a confession of

ignorance. I am inclined to think that all three

recesses contain genuine altars. The difficulty, of

course, lies in this, that there are no other examplesof altars thus undetached

;and the position north

and south is almost unique : but the whole structure

of the crypt and its interest are so exceptional,that altars may have been erected in this unusual

position each to commemorate some special point in

the ancient legend, of which now all has vanished

but the broad outline. It may be regarded as

certain that the eastern recess was used as an altar;

and, if so, the close resemblance of the slab in the

southern niche makes it difficult to associate this

with another purpose. Finally, the tray-like slab in

the northern recess has its exact counterparton a larger scale in one of the altar-tops at Al

Mu'allakah;and it seems also to have been copied

for the altars of some of the churches in the Natrundesert.


At the end of the south aisle of the crypt is a

baptistery or rather font, a round stone vessel set

in solid masonry near the ground (D). The north

aisle has nothing whatever to mark the place where,in an ordinary church, there would be a chapel ;

but

in the wall dividing part of the aisle from the haikal

there is a small squint, which however is not splayedtowards the eastern altar.

It is quite impossible to fix the date of this crypt ;

but it is doubtless anterior to the main church bysome centuries. It maybe taken for granted that a

spot said to be hallowed by the presence of our Lordwould be walled in, and kept as sacred, from the

very beginning of Christianity in Egypt. There was

therefore, in all probability, a church upon this spot

by the second or third century : the present crypt

may be a replacement of the original shrine and maydate from the sixth century. It was natural that

in after times a larger and more sumptuous edifice

should have been erected on the same site, and so

arranged that the high altar should cover the

omphalos of the earlier building. Moreover, by the

eighth century the level of the ground about the

little church had risen so high, that the question of

pulling it down can hardly have been considered. It

was much easier to build above it, and much more in

accordance with western tradition, if not with eastern,

to make the little church into a confessionary for the

larger.

204 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.

HISTORICAL NOTE ON ABU SARGAH.

WHO the St. Sergius was to whom this church is

dedicated is uncertain. Two saints of the name are

recorded in the Coptic calendar : one martyred with

his father and sister, whose festival is on the thir-

teenth day of Amshir (yth Feb.), the other a'

fol-

lower of Wakas and saddler at the court of KingMaximianus/ whose feast falls on the tenth day of

Babeh (yth Oct.). Nothing is really known of either

martyr. But the name is rather a favourite in

Russia, and there is a large monastery with this

dedication near Moscow 1.

The history of the church is, as usual, comprisedin a handful of scanty gleanings. But it has an

early beginning. In the year 859 A.D. the piousShanudah was elected patriarch in Abu Sargahthe father who cast the form of the Coptic sacred

letters which remains to this day. There also in

977 A.D. Ephraim was elected, and taken thence in

chains for his enthronement at Alexandria. Mention

has been made elsewhere of the contest for supre-

macy that arose under Christodulus between Abu

Sargah and Al Mu'allakah, ending in the virtual

victory of the latter. A hundred years later the

claim of the older church was no longer questioned,if Renaudot is right in saying that Gabriel, the LXXpatriarch, was elected at Al Mu'allakah although a

deacon of Abu Sargah. Al Makrizi, however, says he

1

Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex., p. 301. A curious legend of the

pilgrimage of St. Sergius with SS. Theophilus and Hyginus maybe found in Lord Lindsay's Christian Art, vol. i. p. clx, translated

from Rosweyde's Vitae Patrum.


was deacon of Abu-'s-Sifain, not Abu Sargah1

. Now-

a-days the newly elected primate celebrates first at

Al Mu'allakah, and at Abu Sargah afterwards.

About the year noo A.D. we find Michael excom-

municating Sanutius, bishop of Masr or Old Cairo,

for celebrating on the same day in both churches,

just as in the western ritual a priest was forbidden

to celebrate twice a day, except on Easter Day and

Christmas Day, or when a burial service had to be

performed after the ordinary mass 2. But the suc-

cessor to Sanutius in the bishopric was escorted to

Abu Sargah in a grand procession of clergy carrying

burning tapers, thuribles, and gospels3

. There, after

a solemn service, his letters of nomination were read,

and he was ordained, but his proclamation took placein the Harat-az-Zuailah of Cairo. A similar proces-sion accompanied by a multitude of priests chauntingfrom missals attended Macarius from the church of

St. Cosmas in Old Cairo 4 to Abu Sargah, where he

was formally elected to the chair of St. Mark, c. 1 103A.D. Later we read that a grand funeral service washeld in Abu Sargah over the body of the deceased

bishop Sanutius,who was afterwards buried in the field

of the Abyssinians a place often mentioned in Coptic

history, but quite unknown to the Copts of to-day : it

seems, however, to have been near the Fum al Khallg.So the brief story ends, giving us a glimpse of

liturgical splendour hard to imagine after looking on

the cold and slovenly service in the dim neglected

building of to-day.

1Malan, Hist. Copt, p. 93.

2Rock, vol. iii. part 2. p. 166.

3Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex., p. 492.

4 There is no trace or tradition of this church left. It seems

to have been on the island of Roda.


The Cathedral Church of AI 'Adra,

COMMONLY CALLED

AI Muallakah (**.UU ÂôiJ! \j<^\),

or The Hanging Church.

PASS along the northern wall of Abu Sargah to-

wards the Jewish Synagogue; thence to the right

down a quaint, narrow, shadowed street with a few

high lattice windows; again to the right where the

street is roofed over in places with palm-beams ;

finally, from the street a narrow passage between

blind walls leads to a staircase doorway beside which

lies topsy-turvy a very large and fine Corinthian

capital. This is the doorway of Al Mu'allakah

the most ancient of the churches in Kasr-ash-Sham-

m'ah.

As was mentioned before, the church derives its

common name from the fact of its suspension between

two Roman bastions, and the ascent is made by a

staircase built close by one of these bastions, the cen-

tral one of the three on the southern side of the

fortress. Towards the top of the stairs may be seen

on both sides Roman brickwork, the spring of a

'bridge' as the priests call it, i.e. an arched vaultingwhich supported a floor in some building near the

bastion. At the landing the way divides that on

the left leading to sets of half-ruined cells and cham-

bers, in the first of which one may notice a cross

carved in the capital of a column : that on the right


leading through a lattice-screen to a school, and

through a door opposite the screen to a small oblong

courtyard fronting the western side of the church.

This courtyard is open and surrounded by lofty

walls lightened above by large pointed arches. The

pavement encloses in the middle a bed of soil, in

which two fine palm-trees are growing in a kind of

large stone flowerpots. There is something bold

and original in planting date-palms at this heightabove ground ;

but it is a pretty idea to place thembefore the entrance of '

the church in the air/ Palm-

leaves are largely used in the church festivals at

Easter, and delicate baskets woven of palm are used

to carry the eulogiae, or blessed bread, and are givenas gifts among neighbours and friends at that season.

There is also a Coptic legend that at the flight into

Egypt the fruit of the palm was the first food of

which the Virgin partook, and that the little dent in

the back of the datestone (not the cleft) was first

caused by the Virgin's tooth. Another version tells

that the mark is the Arabic exclamation '

Ya,''

Oh,'

there printed, because on tasting the date the Virgincried out,

'

Oh, God ! this is good.' But it requiresa powerful imagination to detect any resemblance

between the mark and the Arabic l_>.

Besides the palms, one may notice another eastern

plant, the aloe, tufts of which hang above the door-

way at the foot and at the top of the staircase. It

is thought to have a magic virtue against the powerof the evil eye

1 a superstition common to Coptsand Muslims alike.

1 A native once told me, with the utmost possible seriousness,

that a glance of the evil eye can slay a camel. See on this subject

Lane's Modern Egyptians, vol. i. p. 70, &c.


Close by the courtyard door in the wall is a

pretty, though recent, drinking-fountain, which must

not be mistaken for a stoup ;for the only regular

use of holy water in the Coptic Church is at the

end of the Sunday mass, when the bishop sprinkles

the people; there are no vessels of stone to retain

it permanently.Al Mu'allakah is a triapsal church of the basilican

order;but it has this unique peculiarity among the

churches of the two Cairos, that it is entirely dome-

less. It therefore approximates more closely to

the pure type of basilican architecture than anyof the other churches into the structure of which

some Byzantine element enters. The apses are

very shallow;

the curve in all three cases falls

within the eastern walls instead of sweeping round

the altar in such a manner that the chord of the

arc would fall to westward of the altar. But this

arrangement is obviously a structural necessity ;

for the architect was building, it must be remem-

bered, not on the ground, but in the air, and could

get no solid foundations for regular apses. Perhapsthe same fact may explain the absence of domes,which require to rest on walls or piers of great

strength and thickness.

The church has at present a sort of exterior

narthex or porch consisting of two stories, of which

the upper is supported on pillars. The back wall

is of stone, elaborately worked with a debased style

of arcading, and painted to resemble in parts sectile

work of coloured marbles. Above the central arch,

but at such a height as to be quite undecipher-

able, lies let into the wall the cedar beam men-tioned by Murray as forming the lintel of an inner


doorway1

. The priest states that the scene repre-

sents the -triumphal entry into Jerusalem ;but this

is questionable. The beam has been moved from

its original position in the course of a restoration,

still unfinished, which has gone far to mar the in-

terest of the church. It is said that the shape and

details of the former building have been exactly

reproduced ;but the statement must be taken for

what it is worth. The shell of the building re-

mains unaltered, except perhaps at the western end;

the exterior porch is, I believe, an innovation, and

the four doors opening from it are an entire de-

parture from the original design. Inside a fresh

west gallery has been built;a number of beautiful

old carved screens have been huddled and ham-

mered together into a long wooden wall;the altars

and altar-canopies have been thrown down, and

will be replaced by new Greek designs from Alex-

andria;new glass, tasteless and staring in colour,

has been put in the eastern windows in lieu of

the old;

in fact English restorers could not have

made more havoc. Worst of all, perhaps, is the loss

of the cedar door-leaves sculptured in panels, as

described by Murray. When, after searching every-

where, I asked the priest about them, he could only

reply,' Ma fish

'

there is no such thing.'

But,' I

persisted,'

I have read books written in English by

people who have seen the doors;what has become

1 The inscription was copied by Mr. Greville Chester, and is

given in his short 'Notes on the Ancient Christian Churches

of Musr el Ateekah.' For the translation and date (284 A.D.),

he there refers to'

Archaeologia Cambrensis/ series 4, vol. iii.

p. 152.

VOL. I. P

2io Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. TV.

of them ?' 'The church was falling down in 1879,

and doubtless they were destroyed.'' What ? only

a year ago ? in 1879 ?''

No,' he said, changing his

tone ;

'

I mean seven years ago.'' Or seventy-seven,'

I thought ;but it was idle arguing, since obviously

the doors had been either stolen, or sold by the

priest *.

The porch of the church is used as a mandarah or

guest-room, the place of gossip and coffee. Againsteach of the three walls is a wooden bench worth

noticing for its antique design. Four doors openinto the church, one north and south and two east

of the porch. But only the south door is generallyused 2

; it leads into a small chamber from which

1 The latter seemed on all grounds most likely, and I have since

ascertained it for a fact. The price given to the priest was 100;

the doors adorned the buyer's house in Paris for some time,

and were ultimately resold to the British Museum, their fittest

destination if they could not remain in their place at Al Mu'allakah :

but of course they are comparatively uninteresting, and quite lost in

their present position. I have no desire to palliate the priest's con-

duct. The rudeness and cupidity of the man, the mean shifts he

found for evading the patriarch's orders and refusing admission

or information, have not prejudiced me in his favour;but in justice

let it be remembered that the miserable pay of the Coptic priest-

hood averaging 2 monthly makes it very hard for them to

resist the offers they may receive from wealthy curiosity-hunters.2 See plan. I may here perhaps explain how it happens that

M. Rohault de Fleury gives this same plan of Al Mu'allakah, which

he calls Sitt Miriam, and I claim as my own. It is figured in La

Messe, vol. ii. pi. ccli, together with St. Sergius, and both plans are

labelled '

d'apres M. Middleton.' The truth is that the plan of Abu

Sargah is entirely the work of Mr. Middleton; though I was pre-

sent when Mr. Middleton made the plan, I cannot claim any share

in it whatever. On the other hand my friend was not even in

Egypt when I made the plan of Al Mu'allakah, which I did without

P 2

212 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. rv.

a staircase ascends to the western gallery, which is

reserved for women. This gallery projects eightor ten feet into the church, and under it lies the

wooden wall of patched screenwork before men-

tioned. Some of these screens are of very unusual

pattern, and very beautiful. One is unique ;above

and below are narrow panels of carved cedar and

ebony alternately, chased with rich scrollwork and

interwoven with Cufic inscriptions ;the framework

also is of cedar, wrought into unusual starlike

devices, and the intervals are filled with thin _plates

oj" ivory, through which, when the screen was in its

original position, the light of the lamps behind fellwith

\ a soft rose-coloured glow, extremely pleasing. There

;

is an almost magical effect peculiar to this screen ;

for the design seems to change in a kaleidoscopic

manner, according as the spectator varies his distance

from it. Something of this effect is preserved in

the illustration here given. There are many other

examples of fine early carving and inlaying in this

wooden wall, but the motley mixing of styles and

epochs makes the result of the whole harsh and

tasteless.

any assistance. On my return to England I found that Mr. Middle-

ton had drawn out fair the beautiful plan of Abu Sargah, which he

generously placed at my disposal. He also very kindly offered to

draw out fair from the rough my plan of Al Mu'allakah, and myplans of other churches, K. Burbarah, Abu-'s-Sifain, Mari Mina,

&c. In communicating his own plan of Abu Sargah to M. de

Fleury, he inadvertently included with it the fair drawing of Al

Mu'allakah. The latter I believe had never before been published,

and I may claim it as mine, if the claim is worth making. I mayadd that the 'Baptistere' inserted by M. de Fleury is a purely

imaginary description an antiquarian's fiction resting on analogy,not on evidence.

n in> ozzo onn o o ?~~x o o IZEIOozô <zii n

Fig. 14 Cedar and ivory Screen at Al Mu'allakah. (Perhaps eleventh century.)


All the old transverse screens have been torn

down, except that of the haikal ;the result is a

much greater unity of appearance in the church.

The division into nave and aisles is clear and un-

broken by cross-screens; resembling rather that of

a Greek church, or the English arrangement of

church and chancel;and this is doubtless a rever-

sion of the original arrangement at Al Mu'allakah.

But there is one very curious, not to say unique,feature to be noticed, the entire absence of the choir.

Before restoration no doubt a place for the choir

was marked off by screens;now there is no sign

of any choir having belonged to the original arrange-ment of the church. In front of all three eastern

chapels is a continuous narrow platform or solea;

but from this point the floor of the whole church

is of uniform level;whereas elsewhere the choir is

almost invariably raised at least one step above the

nave. The omission is very remarkable, but probablythe solea served the purpose of the choir. It is at

least broad enough to hold the lecterns and a number

of singers.

The south aisle is parted from the nave by a row

of eight columns, joined by a continuous wooden

architrave, which is lightened by small pointed

relieving arches as at Anba Shanudah. Between

the nave and the north aisle are only three columns

spanned by wide pointed arches without architrave;

but there is beyond a third or outer aisle, divided

off by an arrangement of columns symmetrical with

that between nave and south aisle. The north wall

runs at an angle with this line of columns, with an

offset inwards;the outer aisle thus narrows eastward

to a width of only 7 ft. and ends with a small sacristy,


the door of which the priest declined to open. Thesouthern wall of the main building is also relieved

by small arches, and a doorway in it leads into the'

little church,' as it is called, of which more anon.

The nave and the main aisles end eastward each in its

own chapel ;and they are roofed separately in three

spans with lofty wagon-vaulting of timber;while

the outer aisle has a low flat roof forming a floor

for a small gallery above, a sort of triforium, con-

tinuous with the western gallery, whence the womenlook down through lattice windows on the church

below.

Al Mu'allakah may then be styled a double-aisled

church, and as such is extremely remarkable in havingno transepts. So rare is this peculiarity that Mr. G.

Gilbert Scott says boldly, 'There is no example knownof a double-aisled basilica without transepts V But

another very distinct instance is supplied by a Coptic

church, viz. that of Al Adra in the Harat-az-Zuailah

at Cairo, where there are two double aisles and no

transept. It is difficult to see why, in point of archi-

tectural fitness, double aisles should necessitate tran-

septs, and the Coptic examples tell against Mr. Scott's

assumption that the church of St. Felix at Nola miist

have been transeptal.

The columns are all of white marble except one

which is of black basalt. On four are consecration

crosses exactly like those at Abu Sargah : a fifth

has a group of four crosses of slightly different and

perhaps more recent design. These are all south-

ward of the nave. On another shaft near the north^

west corner of the nave is a cruciform depression

1

History of English Church Architecture, p. 63, note nn.


dotted with nail-marks : here originally a silver dedi-

cation cross was fastened, which measured seven

inches each way. The pillars have all been movedin restoration, and the crosses face all ways ;

so that

their present position proves nothing. But not onlyis the shape in this case remarkable, but I know of

no other instance of a metal cross attached to a 'pillar

in a Coptic church; though evidence of the same

practice is found in English churches. The dedica-

tion crosses outside Salisbury Cathedral were of

metal : inside Chichester Cathedral are two incisions

with nail-holes over them, showing that a metal cross

was hung before the incision : and in Westminster

Abbey the crosses painted in the south aisle of the

Lady Chapel have a central hole plugged with wood,into which a spike from the metal cross was fastened,

while a similar plug below held a small metal taper-

stand for use at the feast of the Virgin. The figures

of apostles or saints, which doubtless here as at

Abu Sargah were painted on every pillar, have all

vanished under the scrubbing and polishing which

I am told they received during the restoration : there

remains, however, one interesting though damagedpainting of an early patriarch, and here and there a

few traces of colour. The design on the pall of the

patriarch closely resembles on a smaller scale a

design upon the sides of the mumbar or pulpit in

the mosque of Sultan Hassan at Cairo, built in 1356A.D. : but I think the Coptic fresco some centuries

earlier, notwithstanding.There is a large Epiphany tank in the north aisle

an unusual -place and a smaller tank for the Man-datum in the nave. At the west end of the nave

is the patriarch's chair of old lattice-work, and on it

PLAN


a shabby tin almsbox. Further east is the ancient

ambon, a most original and beautiful piece of work,of which I give a woodcut. It stands on fifteen

exceedingly delicate Saracenic columns arranged in

seven pairs with a leader. The two columns of

each pair are identical, but no two pairs are alike.

They stand on a slab of white marble carved with

wavy outline, and this rests on a base raised nine

inches from the floor and faced with vertical strips

of coloured marble. The body of the ambon is

faced in the same way, but has a coping of white

marble carved with most exquisitely minute and

graceful pendentives. Under the floor of the balconyare six crosses in circles finely sculptured and filled

with rich designs: the two larger are 13 in., the

others 8 in. in diameter. Of the twelve steps which

formed the staircase only the upper four are nowleft : but on the marble sides of the staircase remain

two crosses cut in relief, one a low broad resurrec-

tion cross, the other between pillars joined by an

arch a common early design that may be seen, for

instance, on a stone taken from the ancient church

of St. John at Ephesus now built into the Greek

chapel which stands on the original site. Thoughthis ambon is distinctly Arab in character and pos-

sibly not older than the twelfth century, yet it is

perhaps the most interesting thing left in the church

so far untouched by the restorers. I need scarcely

add that they talk of pulling it down 1. This ambon

1

According to Mr. Greville Chester ' a certain patriarch named

Abraham lies buried under this pulpit.' A patriarch is certainly

buried behind the ambon at Abu-'s-Sifain, but I can find no ' Abra-

ham '

in the list of Coptic patriarchs. Al Makrizi mentions one'

Afraham,' or Ephraim, a very pious man, poisoned by a clerk


follows the rule invariable with Coptic ambons of

extending lengthwise from east to west and not

across the church from north to south.

Near the steps of the ambon, but standing rather

in the north aisle and facing east, is a curious old

reliquary a sort of large wooden coffer on four legs

with a front of lattice-work and a square doorless

opening veiled by a curtain. It contains four bun-

dles or bolsters of relics, covered in silk brocaded

with silver as usual : the bones enclosed are those

of Mari Girgis, Tadrus, Baskharun, and Abu Ishak.

Round the opening and at the sides of the reliquary

hang pictures of these saints and of angels. As a

rule such bolsters of relics are placed in a locker in

the wall under the principal pictures in the several

churches : this moveable reliquary is unique in the

churches of the two Cairos.

The paintings here are not very interesting or

ancient. On the south wall are (i) Abu Nafr with

his palm and fountain, (2) a patriarch, (3) an angel,and (4) a rather curious throned Virgin. She is

seated before an iconostasis with the usual three

chapels : in front of each chapel a lamp of the old

Arabic sort is hung by a pulley : above in the back-

ground the roof of the church is represented by

twenty-nine little domes with crosses. Round this

scene are painted separately thirty-four saints each

carrying cross and palm-branch. The date of this

picture is I777A.D. (5) Another modern picture

whose sins he rebuked. This was about 980 A.D., and if the tra-

dition points to this Ephraim, the pulpit may be as old as 1000 A.D.

But it is very questionable whether the thickness of the floor of the

church is sufficient to allow of any burial beneath it.

22O Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

shows Virgin and Child surrounded by ten little

scenes curious but not fine work.

The sanctuary-screens at Al Mu'allakah are veryremarkable for their beauty. That of the northern

chapel resembles a screen at Abu-'s-Sifain, havinga design of squares with crosses at all the angles.

But the details vary. The body of the crosses is

alternately ivory and ebony : the ivory body is

framed in ebony bordered again with ivory : and

the ebony body is framed in ivory bordered again

by ebony. The squares are ebony bordered with

ivory and enclose ivory octagons, which again en-

close ivory crosses set in ebony. But descriptionof such work is dangerous : it can convey little idea

of the clearness and splendour, while it retains all

the complexity, of the original.

The piers at either side of the central or haikal

screen are cased in deal, carved and set with a star-

and-tongue pattern in flat ivory. This is modern;

but the haikal-screen itself is very old, and thoughit has suffered some repairing, it remains a marvel

of art. The frame is ebony and rosewood, exqui-

sitely chased and set with beautiful designs in worked

ebony. The pattern is chiefly what I have called

star-and-tongue, a central many-branched star in

a ring of tongue-shaped plaques divided off by ela-

borate mouldings. Above this screen, and above

the two side-screens also, is a delicate boarding set

with panels of chased ivory and very fine through-

carvings of ebony. Similar work of equal skill and

beauty may be seen at Abu Sargah and Abu-'s-

Sifain.

The southern screen shows a cruciform pattern :

each cross is filled with carved ebony in an ivory


border, and between the crosses runs a sort of key

pattern. On top of this screen is a series of small

scene pictures, old but not specially good : those

above the northern screen are of the same type, but

recent. The seven large pictures which stand on

the central iconostasis are set in a single frame;and

on the frame are Coptic and Arabic gold writingsin relief. In the- midst is Christ throned, in the

attitude of benediction, instead of the more usual

Virgin Mary ;on the dexter side the Virgin ;

the

other figures are two angels and three apostles.

Each picture is about 4 ft. high.

Al Mu allakah is triapsal, but all the three apses

vary slightly in span. The central haikal has a

tribune with three straight and three curved steps

besides the topmost bench : the other chapels have

a different arrangement. The haikal is divided from

the side chapels by wide openings with lofty pointedarches which had originally, no doubt, a wooden

casing splendidly gilt and painted. This paintedwoodwork still remains on the soffit of the similar

arches over the tribune and in the southern chapel.Of the three altars not a stone was left standing at

my last visit in 1884; they were pulled down, one

might say out of sheer mischief, four or five years pre-

viously ; and are to be replaced, if the priest is right,

by slabs on pillars the latest Greek fashion from

Alexandria. But leaning against the wall in the

northern chapel were two curious ancient altar-slabs

of white marble, which belonged most likely to the

north and south chapel altars, while that of the haikal

was of the ordinary type. Of these tops one is horse-

shoe shaped, the chord and the greatest diameter of

the curve being each 3 ft. 9 in. The interior surface


is depressed about 2 in., leaving a narrow fillet or

border all round, except that in the middle of the

chord a channel is cut through the border, of a depth

corresponding to that of the depression. The design

very much resembles that of the altar-top in the

chapel of Mari Buktor, Abu-'s-Sifain. The other

is perhaps unique in these Cairo churches : it is a

rectangular slab 3 ft. 1 1 in. by 3 ft., hollowed like the

last to the depth of 2 in. all over, with a narrow

border left standing round. The centre of the slab

is pierced through with a hole. Further remarks

on these slabs will be found in the chapter on

the Coptic altar.

The north apse has two straight steps, and

above these two more following the curve. In the

wall is a niche and on each side of the niche an

aumbry.There is a niche without aumbries in the eastern

wall of the haikal, and a good many pictures lie

scattered about on the steps in both chapels : but

none are worth notice except a double picture, the

Virgin and St. Gabriel, in a frame carved with

Coptic letters in relief. The work is early but not

very skilful. There is however another picture of

Mary with Christ, which is earlier and certainly

better : while another subject, Michael slaying Satan,

is treated in a most powerful and masterly manner.

Here the prostrate fiend, the angel's flying drapery,the back-swung sword just balanced for the blow,and the look of heroic strength and anger in the

face, prove that the painter had very great imagina-tive sympathy as well as power over form andcolour unusual qualities in Coptic art. The date

of the painting is the sixteenth century, and the


style is scarcely inferior to the Annunciation and

the Christ on the altar-casket at Abu-'s-Sifain.

The apse wall in the south aisle-chapel was faced

to a height of loft, with coloured marble arrangedin very beautiful patterns. The upper part of this

work remains, although lower down the lost facing

is replaced by plaster painted in imitation. Theniche is splendidly inlaid with opus Alexandrinum,

which contains a fine cross inwrought in the design.

There should be noticed in this chapel a very sin-

gular and beautiful recess for relics, set in the south

wall at a height of 1 1 ft. from the ground. A spaceabout 4 ft. high and 9 ft. long is enclosed by an ex-

quisitely carved marble border, within which is a

triple arcading worked with very delicate penden-tives. The central arch rises over a sort of wooden

locker : the side arches are filled with some wonder-

fully fine open-work carving in marble a grill almost

as fine as the ebony through-carving on the icono-

stasis. Above is a space filled with Arabic writing,

tracery, and crosses, the whole forming as rich and

skilful a piece of chisel-work as can be found in

Egypt. Walled up behind the grills are doubtless

relics of saints, and some less sacred were also keptin the locker.

The three altars were recently canopied with

baldakyns, two of which I saw dismounted from

their columns and thrown one above the other in

the western aisle-chapel. They were very old, and

had been finely painted with figures ;but time and

neglect had ruined them. It is uncertain whether

they will be replaced or will disappear entirely.

The wagon-vaulting of the nave and two main

aisles is continued eastward over the altar, and ends

224 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n-.

in each case with a gable having a semicircular win-

dow of painted glass. Most of the work is new;but

traces of the old remain, particularly in the north

chapel, where one or two ancient lights still show

clearly enough the original effect. The panes or

quarries are extremely small, with a lustre of soft har-

monious colours, a sort of bright mosaic arrangedin cypress-tree and other eastern designs. Like

designs may be seen in the painted windows of the

mosque of Kait Bey, among the tombs of the khalifs,

or the mosque of Al Ghuri dated 1500 A.D. in Cairo :

and are common in Damascus tiles of the sixteenth

century, of which the most magnificent display in

Egypt and perhaps in the world may be seen in the

mosque of Ibrahim'

Agha near the citadel of Cairo.

THE LITTLE CHURCH.

Opening out by a door in the south wall of Al

Mu'allakah on the same level is the very ancient

and curious'

little church,' fortunately almost un-

touched by restoration. It occupies the floor of a

Roman bastion, but the windows have been blocked

up, and a huge central pier of Arab work added to

support the floor of a chapel above, and to strengthenvarious structures crowded within. The little church

is used now chiefly for its baptistery ;but it is

divided into a number of tiny chapels. Of these

the northernmost adjoining Al Mu'allakah has four

regular divisions haikal, choir, men's section, and

women's section. The last is only 3 ft. deep, and

capable of containing eight or ten women : but the


screen before it is good, lattice-work with panelsabove of finely carved cedar. In the haikal are

candlesticks and altar-casket : also a corporal and

altar-frontal of very rich embroidery : against the

wall reclines a plain bronze processional cross. The

baldakyn is quite rude and unadorned, but it is in

replacement of an earlier one ; for there are manysigns of departed splendour in this chapel besides

the altar-vestments. The eastern window, set as in

the large church at the gable-end of a wagon-vaulted

roof, is of painted glass, and survives less damagedthan the others. The eastern wall has been adorned

with a very fine painting in distemper, of which faint

traces are left, indicating a central figure and a groupof figures at each side. The priest could only saythat they stood for the twelve apostles ;

but I counted

twenty figures, and there may have been a few more

originally, possibly as many as twenty-five. If I

remember rightly all wore the nimbus : but there

is no other evidence to decide the subject. The

painting is at some height from the ground, in a wide

arched recess: the dimensions are nearly 14 ft. by3 ft. 6 in. The Coptic inscription carved round the

arch points to an early date.

From the haikal one passes through a screen

southward into a tiny narrow room filled with lumber,and by another screen into a second chapel, which

has an altar under a baldakyn, and a deep recess

eastward, the bay of a Roman window : a short

Arab wall parts this chapel from the very beau-

tiful little baptistery. In the Arab wall is fixed

a stone basin standing out 16 in. and measuring2 ft. across : it communicates by a drain with the

font in the baptistery, and may possibly have been

VOL. I. O


used as a piscina : though I think from its size it

was rather meant for filling the font, like the basin

in the church of Sitt Mariam. For while the posi-

tion corresponds to that of the piscina in western

churches, it is difficult to believe that the rinsings of

the priest's hands flowed into the font, more espe-

cially as they would have to be removed thence,

because the font has no drain to carry them

away. The question however is open : though the

long disuse of the chapel renders the priest's

evidence of little value. In the Ecgbert Pontifical

is a rubric ordering the' water in which the cor-

porals have been washed'

to be turned '

into the

baptistery1

'.

The baptistery itself consists of two tiny cham-

bers : the outer is reserved for women and screened

off from the inner, which occupies a window recess

in the Roman wall. The recess, originally less than

5 ft. square, has been very slightly enlarged : a second

small recess, about 3 ft. deep, has been hollowed in

the heart of the wall, and a font has been placed low

within it, and secured at the back with mortar. Thefont is a deep round basin with out-curved rim and

fluted sides, hewn of white marble, but unpolisheda very pretty piece of sculpture. The arch above

the basin is covered with mosaic of coloured marbles,

and the walls are overlaid with vertical strips of

marble in many colours. A shallow recess oppo-site the font, and another beside it, are also decked

with the richest and finest mother-of-pearl and marble

mosaic, the main design being a sort of conventional

lotus pattern, singular and pleasing. This baptistery

P.


is still used, but it can only be seen by the light of

candles : for there is no window.

The gospel-stand belonging to the baptistery is

ancient, and departs from the usual design in havingat each corner a floriated cross of metal, fixed on

wooden stems rising about 1 8 in. above the board.

It lies among a heap of church lumber, window-

frames, broken screens, strips of marble, doors, lat-

tice-work, panels, &c. The rest of the space within

the curve of the bastion is vacant, but formerly was

divided by many screens into irregular compart-ments.

The central pier has been mentioned as upholdingthe floor of a chapel above. This floor however lies

only to the south side of the pier, so that it roofs

that part alone of the little church which lies in the

actual curve of the bastion, and not the first chapeldescribed as adjoining the Mu'allakah. The wagon-vault roofing of the first chapel is very lofty : where-

as the ceiling over the second chapel and over the

baptistery is but half the height, and this ceiling is

the floor of an upper room called the chapel of St.

Mark. The ascent is made by a staircase at the

west end of the first chapel.

The women's section at the west end of St. Mark's

is divided into three parts : on the south is a tiny

oratory railed off by lattice-work : on the north side

is a door opening into a flying gallery or bridge,

which crosses the little church and enables worship-

pers to look down on the choir and haikal. Fromthis bridge the best view is to be had of the paintedwindow. The sanctuary-screen in St. Mark's is of

ancient ebony and ivory resembling the principal

screen in Al Mu'allakah, but not carved with the

Q 2


same delicacy. The altar has an unusual feature :

instead of the ordinary wooden board a kind of cir-

cular marble tray 2 in. deep with raised border is let

into the masonry, so that the top of the border is

flush with the altar-top. The latter is oblong, 3 ft.

1 1 in. by 3 ft. 3 in. : the tray is 3 ft. in diameter.

In the small sacristy northward of the haikal are

various relics of church furniture, but nothing of

interest or value, except the fragments of a plain

colourless Arabic lamp, fragments which seem to

have been cherished for some years.

It is probable that this little church is either the

original Al Mu'allakah or part of it, and has re-

mained with only trifling alteration of detail un-

changed from the day of its dedication. It maytherefore lay claim to the surpassing interest of beingone of the oldest places of Christian worship in the

world.

HISTORICAL NOTE ON AL MU'ALLAKAH.

The church of Al Mu'allakah competes with Abu

Sargah for the honour of being reckoned the earliest

of the surviving churches in Masr : but it is certain

that both Christian and Arab writers alike makemention of the Hanging Church long before Abu

Sargah ;and the former, if not of remoter antiquity,

is at least of more ancient importance. The recent

restoration of Al Mu'allakah has done much to

silence internal evidence : still if one may hazard a

date, perhaps the present fabric of the larger church

maybe assigned to the sixth century, and the smaller

CH. iv.j The Roman Fortress. 229

to the third or fourth of the Christian era. This

estimate however neither clashes with the probability

of there having been an earlier building in place of

the main church, nor denies the fact that some of the

decoration in the little church is very considerablylater. The first great epoch of church-building in

Egypt as elsewhere was the reign of Constantine :

but there is no doubt that even in the second

century churches sprang up in many parts of the

country. The fine condition in which the two bastions

of the Roman fortress and the gateway upholdingAl Mu'allakah remain, the clear level line where

the Roman work ends and the native work above

begins, this shows at least that the first church was

fitted on to the Roman wall at a time when the

parapet was uninjured, i.e. before the ruin or dis-

mantling consequent on the Arab siege in the

seventh century. The history of the siege, the

betrayal of the fortress by Makukar and the Jacob-ite Copts, the toleration they received in return

from the Muslim, and the vengeance they wreaked on

their Melkite co-defenders, are too well known to

need recounting here : but the facts furnish the

reason why the Jacobite churches were saved from

destruction at the Mohammedan conquest.But there are two other points on which I think

great stress may be laid, as determining a very earlydate for the first structure. These are the occur-

rence of the cross sculptured on the classical capitals

of some of the columns, and the testimony of Arab

legends. Both here and in the pillars on the first

floor of the round tower, crosses set in roundels

and carved in relief are so worked into the foliage of

the capitals, that they cannot be other than part of


the original design. Like columns are found in the

earliest Syrian churches, and may be attributed to

the third or fourth century with some confidence.

To the third century also belongs, it will be remem-

bered, the carved beam already mentioned as lyingover the principal doorway. The date given to it

(284 A.D.) is the first year of Diocletian, (not the third

as Mr. Chester's pamphlet says,) which is the start-

ing-point of the Coptic era, though the great perse-

cution was nearly twenty years later. Of course it

does not follow that the beam is in any way dedica-

tory of the church to which it belonged, or determines

its foundation. When the inscription was carved,

the church may have been many years in existence;

but the coincidence of the two pieces of evidence

the crosses on the capitals and the Greek inscription-

might be taken, even if no further testimony could

be derived from other sources, as proving that somechurch existed on the spot at least as early as the

third century.

The evidence however of Arab legends corrobo-

rates this conclusion. Passing over the wild but not

worthless myth1

,which tells that Al Mu'allakah was

built by one Bursa, son of Nebuchadnezzar, who was

born of a '

captive Coptess' and returned with his

mother to Egypt, it is worth while to give at lengthanother tradition related by Murtadi 2

,who quotes it

from Abu Nafr :

'Abu Nafr of the west (God's mercy on him), in

the book of the Histories of Egypt, (which Godcontinue prosperous and well-cultivated,) says that

on the castle gate at Masr, in the time of the Romans

1

Murtadi, p. 174.2

p. 254.


before the Musulmans conquered Egypt, there wasnear the gate of the Church of Mu'allakah called the

Gate of Grace an Idol of Brass in the form of a

Camel, with the Figure of a man riding on him, havingan Arabian Turbant on his Head, and his Bow over

his Shoulder and shoes on his Feet. The Romansand the Coptites, when any one injured or unjustly

persecuted another, came to that statue, and standingbefore it he who suffered the injuryr

said to him whodid it, "Give me what belongs to -me, otherwise I

will make my complaint to that Cavalier who will

oblige thee to do me right by fair means or by foul."

By that Cavalier they meant Mohammed (God's

peace and mercy be with him), for it is written amongthem in the laws of Moses and the Gospel where

the countenance and posture of Mahomet is thus

described : "He shall ride on a Camel and have

Shoes on : he shall carry the Arabian Bow and have

a Turbant on his Head :" God's peace and mercy be

with him. When Gamrou (Amr) came to Egypt,he and the Musulmans (God's peace be with them,)the Romans perceiving they would certainly be sub-

dued, hid that Statue underground that it might not

serve the Musulmans for an argument against them

in the dispute. "I have heard" (says the son of

Lahigus),"that that Statue had continued in that

place several thousands of years, and that they knownot who had made it : God knows how it stands."

A safe verdict.

This Abu Nafr was one of the companions of the

prophet, took part in the siege of the fortress, and

became one of the founders of the famous mosqueof Amr at Old Cairo, which remains to this daythe earliest mosque in Egypt. His story refers


probably to some sphinx or other figure of ancient

Egyptian work, which had been placed at the portal

of the church : the dress and equipment are no doubt

purely fanciful. But I think that without either

wresting or straining the sense of the legend one

may fairly gather, that at the time of the siege the

church had been already so long built as to date in

the rude imagination of an Arab from time imme-

morial.

For nearly two hundred and fifty years after the

taking of Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah I can find no further

notice of Al Mu'allakah. The next mention of the

church is quite incidental, where Al Makrlzi states 1

that in the days of the Sultan Ahmad Ibn Tulun the

patriarch Khail '

sold to the Jews the church adjoin-

ing Al Mu'allakah,' i.e. the church of St. Michael,

still used as a Jewish synagogue. This was about

the year 880 A.D. Tulun was the builder of the

superb mosque bearing his name and now standingin ruins near the citadel of Cairo. About the year1000 A.D. the wild fanatic and persecutor, called

Al Hakim bi'amr Illahi, is said 2 to have 'built a

wall round the church of Al Mu'allakah' what-

ever that means. Perhaps the precincts within the

Roman wall were enclosed, and the church turned

into a mosque, like Anba Shanudah. It is quite

certain that the same khalif sanctioned an indiscri-

minate persecution of the Christians and plunder of

their churches.'

All the gold and silver vessels in

them were plundered, their endowments were for-

feited;and those endowments were splendid and

bestowed on wonderful edifices,' says the Arab his-

1

History of the Copts, p. 85.2 Id. p. 90.


torian : and he specially mentions that in the Mu'al-

lakah was found '

a very great, endless quantity of

gold fabrics and silken vestments 1'.

It may be noted as a curious fact in this and in

many other cases that there was no destruction of

the fabric, whether it was shielded by the indolence

or by the superstition of the Muslims. In 1049 A.D.

we find the church and the monastic buildings in

good repair, and the services unbroken in order, if

diminished in splendour. It was in this year that

the well-known Christodulus was chosen patriarch,and signalized his election by reviving an ancient

usage. The proclamation of the new patriarch,

after his return from the Natrun monasteries, as

well as his election, had lately, but wrongly, been

made at Abu Sargah,'

quod ea ecclesia esset Catho-

lica seu Cathedralis 2'. Christodulus, however, got

the consent of a council of twenty-four bishops,beside the bishop of Old Cairo, and was proclaimedin Al Mu'allakah where he duly celebrated. The

priest of Abu Sargah, angry at this infringement of

his prerogative, refused to mention the patriarch's

name in the diptychs at the holy eucharist : whereat

Christodulus was so concerned, that he was fain to

make peace by celebrating also in Abu Sargah.Nevertheless he wholly usurped and retained

the churches of Al Mu'allakah and Al Adra in

Harat-ar-Rum of Cairo 3, driving out their bishops :

1

History of the Copts, pp. 91 and 90.2Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex., p. 424.

3 Al Makrizi is clearly wrong in saying that Christodulus ' made '

this church, and that of St. Mercurius or Abu-'s-Sifain. (Historyof the Copts, p. 92.)


and after thirty years he 'died in the Mu'allakah,'

i.e. in the episcopal or patriarchal residence attached

to it. There too died in 1102 A.D. the iniquitous

patriarch Michael;who having given his solemn

bond in writing that he would, if elected, restore to

their bishops these two churches which Christodulus

had usurped, no sooner felt himself secure upon the

throne than he laughed in the faces of the bishops,denied flatly all knowledge of his promise, and

threatened to excommunicate any who dare pro-

duce one of the duly signed and sealed copiesof the document. This story, given in Renau-

dot, seems to show distinctly that Al Mu'allakah

was the episcopal church of the see of Masr or

Babylon : nowhere is a bishop of Abu Sargahmentioned.

The successor of Michael, named Macarius, after

the customary journey to Alexandria for installation

and visit to the monasteries of the western desert,

returned to Old Cairo to celebrate in Al Mu'allakah :

and the pre-eminence asserted or re-asserted byChristodulus seems ever after to have been quietly

acknowledged. Certainly patriarchs were conse-

crated there all through the twelfth century. Earlyin the thirteenth the patriarch Johannes died there,

but was buried outside : thither the dishonest and

unscrupulous David, called Cyril, the LXXV patri-

arch, came in a grand procession with crosses and

gospels, tapers, thuribles, and music, preceded by

priests and deacons and followed by a great multi-

tude of Christians and Muslims: in 1251 A.D.

Athanasius was consecrated there : the church was

plundered about 1259, when a chalice of wonderful

workmanship was found buried under the altar, i.e.


hidden in the altar-cavity ;and again in 1 280 A.D.

under the Mameluke sultan Al Ashraf Khalil,

founder of the beautiful mosques which bear his

name, and of the Khan Khalili in Cairo, still the

finest bazaar in the world. Some twenty years later

the same relentless enemy of the Nazarenes closed

all the churches of Cairo, and Al Mu'allakah re-

mained shut for nearly two years.

There the history ends abruptly, and the imagina-tion has to leap over a gulf of nearly six centuries

to find the ancient and venerable fabric in danger of

suffering to-day, at the hands of its friends, worse

ruin than it has received in the shocks of war and

the clash of creeds during perhaps sixteen hundred

years of existence 1.

The Church of Burbarah, or St. Barbara.

St. Barbara to whom this church is dedicated was,

according to the Coptic calendar,'

the daughter of a

great man in the land of the East,' and suffered mar-

tyrdom under Maximinus 2. The church is a large

and lofty building of the eighth or ninth century, and

must have been of great importance : but I can find

1I revisited the church early in 1884, and am bound to admit

that as a whole, and with the exceptions noted at the beginning

of this chapter, the restoration has been carried out with more care

and truthfulness than seemed possible when I wrote the above

paragraph.2Malan, Notes on the Calendar, p. 61.


no direct mention of it in Al Makrizi or other authors.

It lies on the eastern side of Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah

close to the Roman wall, and is entered from the

street of the Jewish synagogue.Its monastic character is proved by the strange en-

tanglement of domestic and ecclesiastical buildingsaround it. The dwelling-rooms have been little

altered, but the church obviously has suffered a gooddeal, and is still undergoing a mischievous restora-

tion. Here, as at Al Mu'allakah, all the screens

o I ra I m I ra aA. J. B.

Fig. i6.--Plan of the Church of St. Barbara.

in the body of the church have been taken down,and probably will not be replaced : while the ancient

and most interesting stone ambon has entirely

disappeared.

Though the plan of the main church was origin-

ally of the orthodox kind, with nave 'and two aisles,

haikal and aisle-chapels, and a triforium over the

aisles and narthex, yet this plan has its peculiar

modifications, which include two transepts of singular

shape and extent. Part of the north aisle and all

the narthex have been walled off and secularised, the


former making a sort of passage leading either to

the church or the dwelling-rooms, while the narthex

serves now as the mandarah, where coffee is drunk,

and tobacco is smoked none the less because the

fumes may wander through arched openings into the

church. The mandarah is of the same width as the

nave, and the wall dividing the two encloses two

columns that formerly stood clear. Ten other

columns, five on each side of the nave, made the

complete number twelve as at Abu Sargah, and

were doubtless painted with figures of apostles or

prophets, symbolizing the teaching on which the

Church of Christ rests. But of the whole twelve

only half now are disengaged, the rest being moreor less lost in walls or piers. They are as usual

joined by a finely painted and carved wooden archi-

trave, and the masonry above is lightened by small

arched openings.The triforium or women's gallery at present shows

five oblong bay openings, two north, two south, and

one west. Each of the bays north and south is

divided by a single column, while the western bayhas two clear columns. Others stand engaged, so

that the columns of the triforium correspond in

number and position though not in size with those

upholding it. This arrangement seems to indicate

that the entire gallery originally was open, as in

many western basilicas, and that the interior wall

with its bays is merely a later addition.

The transepts are carried out north and south

beyond the aisles, southward into a plain square

chapel now reft of altar and all ornaments, and re-

taining only a small niche in the eastern wall to

mark its former purpose : northward into a dark

238 Ancient Coptic Churches.[C H. iv.

corridor about 45 ft. in length, ranged along which

are three little chapels (or rather two chapels and a

baptistery), with a continuous iconostasis. Each of

these three divisions is entered by its own double

door through the screen. They are now mere rub-

bish holes, where a few books and many pictures lie

rotting and decaying in deepening dust and unbroken

darkness. The baptistery lies northernmost of the

three, and the priest affirms with some show of

reason that this corridor is much older than the rest

of the church. Indeed it may be regarded as abso-

lutely certain that the three divisions represent the

haikal and aisle-chapels of some smaller earlier

building. Opposite the more southern of the

corridor chapels, the corridor is widened out

and the additional space encloses a large Epi-

phany tank.

A very curious hiding-place for the sacred vessels

exists at the north end of the corridor. A door

flush with the wall opens revealing another door

inside the wall, and when the latter is thrown back

the floor of a secret chamber is seen 3 ft. above the

level of the threshold, whence it rises without steps.

This chamber, like the chapels, is unillumined by a

ray of light, and at present is a mere storehouse for

pots and cauldrons and vessels, used to prepare the

viands which the priest sets before his friends and

neighbours at the yearly festival of dedication. Amore likely place for hidden treasure it is not easyto imagine : but though a light was flashed in

every nook and corner, it discovered neither silver

nor gold, nor anything more precious than the wares

of an Arab scullion.

Returning now to the main building through the

CH. iv.]The Roman Fortress. 239

open screen that marks off the corridor, one maynotice that the haikal proper, and the two aisle-

chapels are under lofty semidomes. But the eastern

wall of the haikal has the unusual form of a seven-

sided apse below changing roofwards to a semicircle.

The haikal-screen is ancient and good, though some-

what battered : and in each spandrel of the doorwayinlaid with ivory is a remarkable design of a rude

winged figure climbing among and holding a creeping

plant. These figures can scarcely be meant for

angels, or for mere grotesques : for that strangelove of mingling the solemn and the ludicrous, the

sublime and the grotesque, which seems a perma-nent trait in the English character, has no counter-

part among the Copts ; though early Byzantinechurches abound in quaint ridiculous carvings and

impossible figures. There is nothing in Copticchurches like our ape-headed corbels, gurgoyles,frescoes of devils, and the monstrous beasts commonin mediaeval churches, where a sacred subject is

treated in a jesting manner : as for instance in the

church of Stanley St. Leonards, Gloucestershire,

where the fall of man is represented by a splay-

footed, fish-mouthed, frog-eyed, melancholy quad-

ruped, holding in one hand an apple, and with

the other pulling the tail of a heavily-moustached

ape or cat, whose pursed lips and fixed averted

eyes convey most amusingly the idea of shocked

virtue.

In the haikal I saw three fine processional crosses

of silver, each cross hung with six small bells, and

on the staff a banner. The two candlesticks on the

altar are fine pieces of brass-work : there is also a

small oval wooden incense-box now used as a crewet

240 Ancient Coptic Chttrches. [CH. iv.

(5 in. high and 4 in. across) beautifully carved with

foliated scrollwork and Arabic letters in high relief.

The lid unfortunately is missing.The screen before the south aisle-chapel is new :

the chapel is square, but in the east wall is a wide

niche, in the north wall a large aumbry 3 ft. across

and 2 ft. deep. A score of small pictures lie rottingunder the orthodox quantity of dust.

Against the screen of the north aisle-chapel hangsa picture of St. Barbara and her daughter Juliana.

With a palm branch in her left hand, the saint is

pointing to a model of a church which she holds in

her right. The church is a six-domed Byzantine-

looking building with a turret and cross-capped spire-

probably a purely conventional symbol, as there is

no trace of tower or spire in any Coptic church near

Cairo at present. A silver plate, like a crescent,

nailed round St. Barbara's head represents a nimbus.

Before the picture is a stand for a bolster of relics,

and a curious three-branched pricket candlestick of

iron, somewhat resembling that at Abu-'s-Sifain.

The interior of the chapel is wainscoted, and over

the altar is a plain baldakyn. A curious little port-

able tower-shaped shrine (2 ft. 3 in. high and 9 in.

square) shows in front a very fine deep-shadowed

painting of John the Baptist, who carries a scroll

with the legend'

Repent : for the kingdom of heaven

is at hand.' Before the picture is a little beam or

bracket for tapers. The altar is littered all over

with more or less ancient books of ritual that have

been flung and tumbled together. Scattered amongthem or tossed in heaps on the ground at randomlie candles, altar-caskets, old pictures, candlesticks,

incense, ostrich-eggs, and silver censers in even


unusual profusion and disorder, under layers of dust

immemorial.

The triforium is not usually shown to strangers,for a reason unanswerable in the logic of eastern

life -that the priest's harim(i.e. wife and children)

use it habitually, though they live and sleep in ad-

joining chambers. But at my request the priest

very kindly sent a messenger to clear out the ladies :

and that done led me through a courtyard and up a

dark rickety staircase on to a flat roof, that lies over

the chapels of the north transept. Here in bygonetimes had clearly stood another chapel or chapels, of

which now only the eastern and northern wall re-

main, and a few small columns and loose fragmentsof screens and church furniture, The triforium is

entered by a door on the north side. It forms a

continuous gallery running round three sides of the

church, stopping of course at the transepts.

Originally there must have been several chapelshi and about the triforium

;but the only one now

standing is at the east end of the north triforium,

and is called the Chapel of Mdri Girgis. It is railed

off by a screen, within which lies an extremely fine

and interesting iconostasis, though the icons have

long disappeared. The panelling is about 7 ft. high,and is continued upwards to the roof by later lattice-

work. The wood seems to be cedar, but the pecu-

liarity of the work is the entire absence of geometrical

patterns. The whole screen is divided by broad

borders into small panels, which are beautifullycarved in relief with figures and arabesques. Thedouble doors have each four vertical panels : each

spandrel has a figure on horseback enclosed in a

circular moulding : above the doorway in a small

VOL. I. R


square is a symbol not uncommon in western Chris-

tendom but very rare in these Coptic churches two

peacocks standing face to face on opposite edges of

a flower-vase.

The other carvings represent chiefly animals.

Gazelles are frequently pourtrayed, one being torn

by an eagle, another devoured by a leopard or lion,

a third having its eyes plucked out by a vulture or

roc. Hares and camels are well rendered in other

panels, and there are two figures of four-legged

winged griffins. Two curious little life-pictures de-

serve special notice : they represent two men in

flowing drapery sitting cross-legged in eastern fashion

on the ground, each waited upon by two standingslaves or ministers. The existence of this screen is

quite unknown even to the few travellers or residents

who have ever visited any church besides Abu

Sargah : and I could not hear that any one had

ever before been admitted to the triforium 1. But

the extraordinary interest of these carvings alone

will well repay the trouble of a visit a trouble the

politeness of the priest will probably lighten. At

1 Since I wrote the above, the screen has had a narrow escapeof being removed and carried away to England. When it became

clear that the priest could not be prevailed upon to sell it, he

was threatened with the displeasure of the British Government (!) :

and, the threat failing, an effort was made to frighten the patriarch

into yielding up the screen. Fortunately all endeavours provedunsuccessful. They were known, however, all over Cairo, and

produced a great deal of natural ill-feeling among the Copts.

I protest in the strongest manner possible against such attempts

to rob the Coptic churches of their few remaining treasures : more

particularly when the object in question has a structural importance,

and loses its chief interest in being removed from its original

position. In such a case museums may be gainers ;but the cause

of art and archaeology suffers.


the same time it is to be hoped that some action

will be taken to prevent the use of this and other

parts of sacred buildings for domestic purposes.No doubt the triforia were meant for the women

originally, and communication was often madedirect with the women's apartments in the build-

ings attached to the churches, as for instance

was the case also at St. Cross, near Winchester.

It is easy to understand, moreover, how when pro-

vision was made in the body of the church for the

presence of women, and the galleries were no longerneeded for the purpose of worship, they were grad-

ually turned to profane uses. But this is not onlya departure from primitive custom and a desecration,

but it places one of the most interesting parts of

these ancient buildings at the mercy of ignorant and

reckless people, and leaves visitors dependent on

the temper of a priest, who may be courteous and

obliging as at K. Burbarah, or may be morose and

bearish as the priest at Abu Sargah, who flatly and

effectually refuses permission of entrance.

What treasures have been destroyed or still re-

main in such inaccessible places, may be conjecturedfrom the fact that in the one church of K. Burbarah

I discovered besides the beautiful screen some veryremarkable wall-paintings on plaster. These are

chiefly on the south wall of the south triforium, and

formed the decoration of a chapel corresponding to

Mari Girgis, but now quite abolished. The paintingsare difficult to decipher, owing to the fact that at

least three layers of plaster may be distinguished,each coloured with a different design at a different

period. In some places too one coating has fallen :

in others two if not three are gone, while various

R 2


attempts at restoration or repainting have left the

work in helpless confusion. But as far as I could

judge, the earliest painting was a conventional pat-

tern of roundels enclosing crosses and the sacred

letters. This design shows clearest on a pilaster of

the north wall of the south triforium. Another

design clearly distinguishable, though it seems to

have been painted over the first, is a series of large

figures of apostles or prophets under a continuous

painted arcading. One figure is still in fair condition

though the head is gone, and probably representsthe Redeemer : the left hand carries a scroll. There

are traces of ten other figures.

The second layer is covered with a large bold

design showing crosses with circles both on the

branches and in the angles between the branches.

On the third layer human figures are again

painted : of these the best preserved and most re-

markable are two equestrians, probably Miri Girgisand Abu-'s-Sifain, drawn with great spirit and well

coloured. They lie to the westward end of the

triforium. But the face of the wall is not, and ap-

parently never has been, quite level;so that the

various layers run one into another, as successive

coatings of plaster have been carelessly laid on an

uneven surface. Thus where a slight curve or splayhas been filled up level, leaving a figure half-con-

cealed and half-exposed, sometimes a new designhas been painted over the junction, sometimes the

original figure has been restored. The result is a

mass of scattered details extremely puzzling. Underthe chief remaining figures are Coptic writings-

very fragmentary, but no doubt worth deciphering.But it is evident that the whole of the south tri-


forium was covered with mural paintings : there are

also traces of paintings on the piers in the north and

west divisions. These latter are the parts now mostin domestic use, and I feel sure that traces of like

work could be found under the plentiful whitewash

of the main walls, and that the triforia all round were

once blazoned with figures, rivalling in their own

degree the triforia of St. Mark's at Venice 1.

I made great exertions to obtain a photograph of

the carved screen. It was quite invisible throughthe camera at a distance of even ten feet owing to

the darkness : but by an arrangement of mirrors we

brought the sunlight from out-of-doors and flashed it

round a number of corners. Thus the photographerwas able to play it over the screen, and he spoke of

the experiment as likely to prove a great triumph.There is no reason it should not answer again : but

he misjudged the time, and the picture showed the

panels clearly enough, but only a dim blurred outline

of the carvings. It was my last opportunity and a

vexing failure.

The following measurements of the church were

all I could take, but they will serve to give someidea of its size :

Length of mandarah or original narthex

(E. and W.) . . . .11 ft. 6 in.

1I deeply regret to say that at my last visit in January, 1884,

I found that these interesting frescoes had been almost entirely

destroyed. All the heads had been deliberately cut out of the wall,

and now blank circular holes in the plaster alone show their posi-

tion. Besides this, every available fragment of the smallest interest

has been removed, and nothing whatever is left but a few incoherent

patches of colour. There is reason to believe that this is the work

of an Englishman.

246 A;ncient'. Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

Wall ;bqtween mandarah and nave . 2 ft. 6 in.

Length pf.nave >

: . . . 56ft. gin.

Length .of. haikal (from outside screen;

to .centre of apse) . , . . 1 2 ft.

Width of nave . . ..

. 25 ft.

Width of church (nave and two aisles) . 46 ft. 6 in.

Thus, the .total length is 82ft. gin., the width ex-

cluding the transepts 46 ft. 6 in.

The graveyard belonging to K. Burbarah lies

behind the church and is bounded eastward by the

Roman wall": ? It contains some extremely curious

and. interesting tombs, which date undoubtedly from

a very early epoch, whether or not the priest is right

in ascribing to them an age of 1500 years. The

majority are pits, square or conical, hollowed out

beneath, the earth and lined with brick. One or two

of these are open ;but the bodies have either

vanished or are hidden under the bricks and rub-

bish that has fallen in with the roof upon them.

But one floor of the Roman bastion at the angle of

the wall here remains uninjured, and this is the only

place where a clear idea can be formed of the ori-

ginal design. of the lowest story in these bastions.

The entrance had been blocked up at some remote

period in such a way that . the windowless chamber

within was completely sealed. But shortly before

my visit in the spring of 1881 some of the masonryhad fallen from the archway, and the light that

streamed in through the opening revealed as horri-

fying a sight as any that can well be imagined. Thechamber proved to be a mere vault about 6 ft. by 10,

walled and roofed with Roman tiles, and in it piled

onfe over another in hideous disorder lay a score of

human bodies. Some of them were in coffins : from


others the wood had fallen or decayed. Some were

lying face upwards, some on their side: some straight,

some doubled up with arms bent behind the head,

or limbs twisted and distorted in various ghastlyfashions. All had their, faces muffled up and their

forms shrouded^ save where fleshless bones protrudedfrom beneath their decaying drapery ;

one head was

resting on a sort of velvet cushion;and all lay with

their feet towards the east. It seemed as if someof the bodies had become mummies, not skeletons,

as withered flesh here and there was showing, a re-

sult quite possible in an excessively dry climate,

especially as in an air-tight chamber of the kind the

temperature would scarcely alter winter or summer.

Close by, aligning the Roman wall, is a row of modern

sepulchral vaults above ground, each with an arched

doorway westward, blocked by a single doorstone

which is lifted away by an iron ring. This arrange-ment is that of the traditional early eastern tombs,and in looking upon it one feels the old words '

roll

away the stone from the door' quickened with a

vivid meaning.

The Churches of Mari Girgis andAI 'Adra. 1

Of the two remaining churches which completethe list of those lying within the walls of Kasr-ash-

Shamm'ah, there is little to be said. They are

situated close together, nearly adjoining the modern

1 The latter is curiously called ^larLJl Ij.îg,.> x^^JLJI ^JuJI or

the Virgin of the Pot of Basil. The reason of the name is quite

lost by the Copts of to-day.


cemetery. The entrance to the precincts of Al'Adra

is through a low narrow arched doorway, such as

belonged once to nearly all the churches. The

priest is an extremely fine and venerable old man,with snowy patriarchal beard

; and, like the priest

at K. Burbarah, he is conspicuous for having refused

bakshish;for he excused himself with the graceful

remark that visitors came as his guests. Such an

idea is quite out of fashion with the Copts gene-

rally. The church is a small, dark, nearly square

building, with the usual features. Hanging before

the iconostasis is a small ancient Arabic or Vene-

tian glass lamp, the stem built of rings tapering

downwards, the body encrusted with medallions.

It resembles one of the lamps noted at Sitt Ma-

riam, Dair Abu-'s-Sifain. But unless there are anycurious vessels in the treasury or sacristy a fact

I was unable to ascertain there is nothing else

of interest in this church, which is said to have

suffered some rebuilding. The ancient Epiphanytank, however, which lies south of the main building,remains unaltered.

Mari Girgis also may be shortly dismissed. The

original mandarah, which is first entered from the

street, was a magnificent piece of work, and still

retains tracery and carvings of great beauty. The

high pointed arches, painted woodwork, and deli-

cate arabesques remind one very much of the

Arab domestic architecture of the best period, such

as still may be seen in a few old houses in Cairo,

the finest of which is owned by the courtly and

genial Shaikh Ahmad as Sadat. But all that

remains now is a neglected ruin. The church,

which stands a little way beyond, is a most dis-

CH. iv.]The Roman Fortress. 249

heartening structure. The old church was destroyed

by fire, and has been replaced by a half-gaudy,

half-sordid, altogether pitiful building, in which all

that bad taste and unskilful workmanship could do

has been done to produce the nearest imitation of

a third-rate Greek model. Northwards of this newchurch are the ruins of an old one ; but I cannot

say whether they mark the site of the original Mari

Girgis, or of some chapel attached to it. Traces are

still distinguishable of a nave, two aisles and triforia;

the lines of the eastern wall may also be followed,

and one or two columns are standing with the cross

sculptured on their capitals.

According to Eutychius the church of Mari Girgiswas built about the year 684 A.D., by one Athana-

sius, a wealthy scribe, who also founded the church

of Abu Kir 'within Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah.' This

description of Abu Kir is not accurate, for there

is now no church of that name within the walls,

but it lies so close to the Roman fortress that the

misstatement is not very serious. The fortress mayhowever have contained a church called Abu Kir,

though every vestige of it has now vanished.

CHAPTER V.

The Minor Churches of Old Cairo.

The Churches of Dair Bablun, The CJmrches ofDair Tadrus,

if '.

yJX/JyOUNDS of rubbish piled to the south of

//f\v\W\Kasr-ash-Shamrn ah, and the natural ridge,

/{/ \^v spoken of by Strabo, on part of which is

now settled a Muslim village, completelyclose the view and screen off a little group of very old

and curious Coptic churches. The shortest way to

reach them is through the village ;but it is far better

to climb a windmill-hill a little to the left, whence a

bird's-eye view may be had of the Roman fortress

on 'the one side, and of these churches on the other.

The churches lie within two dairs, which will be

seen standing close together in singular isolation,

like a pair of time-worn towers, built in a barren

hollow between high mounds. The nearer is called

Dair Bablun, the other Dair Tadrus;each is girt

by its own belt of lofty wall, built of grey brick,

and covered in places with plaster ;but Bablun

throws out northward a low fence-wall, which forms

an enclosure before the entrance. Tadrus is at

once distinguished by three palm-trees, that lift

their tufts well above the clair. By keeping still

on the high ground, but moving a little southward,

Minor Churches of Old Cairo. 251

and back from the churches, a rocky point may be

reached whence opens a view for range and magni-ficence almost unrivalled in the world. Eastward

the white Mukattam hills spread till they touch the

citadel of Cairo, and seem to vanish away in the

Delta beyond. At their feet stand the ancient tombs

of the Mamelukes, looking very sombre and sad in

contrast with the minarets of the shining city, but har-

Fig. 17. Dair Babliin and Dair Tadrus.

monising with the dark tract of desert that surrounds

them and reaches past Babylon. On the west the land

is divided by a huge sweep of the Nile from above

Bulak and the palaces of Cairo to below Bidrashin

and the palm-forests of Sakkara. The pyramids of

Gizah and the whole group of the Sakkara pyramids

maybe seen together; and nothing can be finer than

the latter, as they rise severed from the river by thick

252 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

masses of palm, and stand high on the horizon, which

seems and is the beginning of infinite unknown soli-

tudes. This side the Nile, bounded by a great arc

of the stream on the one hand, and by yellow cliffs

on the other, lies a broad plain covered with corn

and clover in the greatest richness, and dotted with

shady villages. The nearest of these villages, con-

spicuous for its ring-wall and white dome showingAvithin between palms and acacias, is the CopticDair Mikhail l

enclosing the church of St. Michael.

But to return to Dair Bablun. This little dair,

which is scarcely one hundred yards in circum-

ference, but is girt by a wall 30 ft. high, stands

very near the site of the pre-Roman Babylon, whosename it preserves, though the site was subsequentlycovered by the Roman town that sprang up round

the fortress. The Roman sewer, running along the

edge of the plain near Dair Mikhail, has been

already mentioned as marking the ancient bank of

the river and the extent of the town in a south-

ward direction. The dair is occupied entirely bythe Church of A I 'Adra, which is called in full

'

the

Church of the Virgin by Bablun of the Steps2,'and by

the few monastic cells or dwelling chambers attached

to it. Three or four women live there now, and some-

times are obliging enough to let one enter the door ;

but the key of the church is kept by the priest wholives at Cairo, and comes over only on Saturday

evening and early Sunday morning for service. It

is therefore extremely difficult even to get into the

1 Called in full Jj_Ur dÎl or the Angel Michael.2

.

;jJ\ ^jJbLo : the Copts do not know the origin or meaning

of this title.

CH. v.] Minor Churches of Old Cairo. 253

church, much more to study it. The plan nearly

approaches a square, and it consists of narthex,

nave, and two aisles, haikal and two aisle-chapels,

while above the narthex and aisles are triforia. Theaisles are nearly of the same breadth as the nave,

from which they are divided by an alternate arrange^-

ment of pier and pillar supporting the triforia above.

The choir runs the whole breadth of the church, but

the nave, or men's section, is shut off by screens from

the aisles as well as from the narthex and the choir.

There are no transepts, but the architrave, either

side of the nave, is carried across the choir on a

pillar, and runs into the wall which divides the

haikal from the side-chapels. The south aisle is

probably meant to be reserved for women. The

baptistery lies at the south-west corner of the church

in the narthex ; the font being, as usual, againstthe east wall, which divides the baptistery from the

south aisle. Near the entrance in the narthex a

large basin of stone rests on the ground ; it seems

to have been used anciently as a font, but has nowno purpose. The nave is a step higher than the

narthex, and the choir than the nave : there are

rows of pictures over the choir-screen and the haikal-

screen;the former are quite devoid of merit, and

the latter have no special interest. Of the two

pillars standing in the choir to uphold the archi-

trave one is plain, the other, or northern, is fluted

and twisted. All round the choir are various in-

ferior pictures.

The lectern here is very fine and of unusual

design, being panelled with fine Arab lattice-work.

The standard candlestick too departs from the

common pattern ;and the silver censer, generally


hanging from its plate, has little bells upon the chains,

as depicted in the painting of St. Stephen at Abu

Sargah and elsewhere. Over the high altar in the

haikal is a canopy painted inside with a figure of

Christ in the attitude of benediction. The sanc-

tuary is walled off on each side from the aisle-

chapels, but a thoroughfare is open to the south

aisle-chapel against the eastern wall. The walls

all round the haikal are decorated with fine mural

paintings : on the north side is the figure of Gabriel

between two panels, each containing the six-winged

seraphim ;on the south is a corresponding device

with Michael in the centre. The eastern wall is

apsidal, and in the niche is a fresco of our Lord

seated, the right hand uplifted in benediction, the

left holding a gospel. By the head of the niche

are also two evangelists, one at each side upon the

wall/ These paintings are all very ancient, and,

though partially damaged, retain enough colour and

spirit to make them singularly interesting.

The altar in the north aisle-chapel is not only

stripped of its vestments as usual, but part of the

plaster coating has fallen away, revealing a mixed

structure of brick and stone. The eastern wall is

faintly curved, containing a central niche and two

aumbries, like the corresponding chapel at Al Mu'al-

lakah. There is here the ordinary litter of sacred

books and ornaments, dismounted eggs, rubbish and

lumber generally ;but nothing noteworthy.

The chapel south of the haikal is curious, and

perhaps has no title to be called a chapel, for it

contains at present no altar. It is, however, diffi-

cult to believe that this little church should furnish

a solitary exception to what seems otherwise a


universal custom. Moreover, the likelihood of its

having been designed for a sacristy or a dia-

konikon, as in Greek churches, is disproved by the

fact that a separate little storeroom for sacred vessels

and vestments actually exists on the south side of

this chapel, entered by a door from it, and divided

by a party-wall On the other hand, the choirward

screen is of a kind quite unparalleled in this position ;

for being made of lattice-work, or mushrabiah, it is

of course transparent; and though a chapel screen

may have slide windows to open on occasion, it is

never allowed to be transparent. Another point to

notice is that there are no icons, as there should

be before every chapel, and that the screen is

little more than 5 ft. high. But the truth doubt-

less is that the altar was removed at some distant

time for convenience sake, and the original screen

was then replaced by the present low lattice-

work.

There is nothing specially remarkable that I could

discover in the furniture of this church, except a

small textus-case of silver repousse, which has the

peculiarity of opening at one side, instead of being

closely sealed up for ever, and a small but very

finely chased processional cross of bronze.

Both the north and the south triforium are occu-

pied by a chapel, dedicated respectively to Mari

Girgis or St. George, and Al Malak Mikhail or the

angel Michael, but they contain nothing of interest

beyond an altar-casket in the latter, on one panel

of which is painted the Last Supper. The painting,

however, is of very average merit.

It should be mentioned that the nave of Al 'Adra

is covered in with a wagon-vaulting of stone. For


the following measurements I am indebted to the

Rev. Greville Chester :

ft. in.

Length from west wall to haikal-screen 38'

6

Length from haikal-screen to centre of

apse . . . . . 14 9Total length . . -533Total breadth, including two aisles . 52 o

Breadth of central apse . . . 14 10

Depth of niche . . . . .20

DAIR TADRUS.

THE little dair lying close to Bablun contains two

dim and ancient churches, remarkable not so muchfor any peculiarity of structure as for the extraor-

dinary number and richness of the vessels or vest-

ments belonging to the service. These churches

are named Abu Kir wa Yuhanna, and Tadrus,the former lying to the right and the latter to the

left of the narrow courtyard into which the door

of the circuit-wall gives entrance. This courtyarddivides the dair into two halves, one of which is

covered by each church together with its own mo-

nastic buildings. Provision seems to have been

made in each case for about twelve residents : and

from the cell-like character of the rooms, it seems

more likely that they were meant to hold a body of

monks, than merely to shelter a tiny colony of refu-

gees rendered houseless by the decay or destruction

of their homesteads. Yet one may imagine, with

fair show of reason, that the three churches were

once part of a larger village or town, that they were


in fact built before the ancient Masr was split upand scattered into isolated strongholds, as at present :

and that when the houses in the vicinity were wrecked,a ring-wall was thrown round the churches to defend

them from the results of the consequent exposure.These walls have been plastered and patched againand again, as windows and doors have been renewedor altered : but substantially they are unchangedfrom a very remote antiquity. It requires some

courage to guess at the date of an Arab wall of

brick ; but the period may lie between the tenth

and the twelfth century : and the churches maybelong to the seventh or eighth.

The Church of Abu Ktr^ wa Yuhanna is dedi-

cated to two martyrs, Abu Kir and Yuhanna, or SS.

Cyrus and John of the town of Damanhur in Lower

Egypt. Their festival is on the fourth day of the

month Ablb, i.e. about the 2Oth of June.The doorway leading from the courtyard already

mentioned towards the church is a low narrow

postern with an arched head : it is closed by an

extremely thick and massive wooden door, and is a

rare example of a type once common in ancient

churches. Fortunately however the type is preservedin indestructible material : for the mosque of Zainumal 'Abidln, which lies among the rubbish moundseast of Mari Mlna, and is built upon the site of a

very early Christian church, still contains an ex-

tremely fine doorway and door of black basalt, once

the entrance to the church. One jamb was originally

a separate piece, while the other jamb and the round

1Vulgarly but wrongly pronounced Abu'eer: the j is not

sounded in the base Arabic of the modern Egyptians. The Arabic

is


arch were formed of a single stone like a J reversed.

A crack now divides them, but the door, still unin-

jured, is a ponderous rectangular slab 8 in. thick

which swings on its own pivots. The massive size

and strength of the stones incline one strongly to

suspect that they may have belonged to some ancient

Egyptian treasury or tomb, before they were used

for a church : in any case the work is extremelyold, and the design was regularly copied for Chris-

tian buildings. It is the common form of entrance

to the monasteries in the Libyan desert now. In

the middle of the door a cavity is cut to receive a

lock which must have exactly resembled the woodenlock in common use among the Arabs to-day, and

such as still remains upon the door at Abu Kir waYuhanna. There the lock consists of a heavy square

beam, the under face of which is cut into largenotches or teeth : when the beam is shot home someof these teeth fall upon and fit into correspondingteeth in a socket in the wall. The key is a small

rod of iron with a loose joint near the middle and a

flange, but no wards. It has no bow : but the swing-

ing handle makes a lever to turn the key : everyturn lifts the beam and frees a single tooth, till the

beam comes out of the socket and the door opens.A short passage leads into a second small court-

yard whence steps ascend to the dwelling chambers,and a door opens at the south-west corner of the

church. The building is quite shapeless, though bya stretch of language a nave and two aisles mayperhaps be distinguished : it contains, however, the

usual haikal and two side-chapels with a continuous

iconostasis, in front of which is a choir : but the little

space remaining westward of the choir-screen is so


irregular in shape, the walls run at such odd angles,that no name will cover its usage. Its positionanswers to that of the narthex generally, but pro-

bably in the rare event of women coming here to

worship they would be placed in this section and the

men would stand within the choir. At the farthest

point westward in a gloomy corner is a door openinginto a narrow sacristy, in which are stored some ex-

tremely valuable and interesting ornaments.

The altar in the haikal is dedicated of course to

the patron saints of the church, St. Cyrus and St.

John. The wall-niche contains a distemper paintingof Christ in glory on a gold ground. The north

side-chapel is dedicated to Al 'Adra, and the south

to Mari Girgis. Neither the icons nor any other

of the pictures in this church have any merit or

attraction. Relics of the two martyrs are preservedîn silk brocade cases, in a small shrine named after

them, on the south side of the church.

Before the sanctuary-screen hangs a small bronze

corona, and another larger one reposes disused in

the chapel of Al 'Adra. Near the first one is also

suspended a metal lamp which I take to be a tra-

ditional copy of a Venetian design in glass. It has

a wide flat rim, with a globe below, then descends

with sharply tapering hoops to a point. On the

globe are three heads, or rather bust figures, from

which slender rods are fastened by rings. A single

cross-piece meets and joins the rods above, and from

the centre of this the lamp is suspended by a chain.

The pattern curiously resembles the glass lamps de-

scribed at Al 'Adra, Dair Abu-'s-Sifain, and Al

'Adra in the Roman fortress : and, what is more

curious, the very model of it may be seen in brass

s 2


or silver at St. Mark's and other churches in Venice.

Besides several altar candlesticks of bronze, brazen

cymbals, and silver thuribles both plain and parcel

gilt, the church also possesses a plain silver chalice

and paten with its asterisk or dome (kubbah) of

silver, and silver spoon, also belonging to the service

of the altar. There are also two fine processionalcrosses of silver with silver sockets, two small hand-

crosses of silver, and two silver fans or flabella,

circular discs, each with two figures of six-winged

seraphim in repouss^ work, a cross above, and a

beautiful design round the border. Here also is that1

marvellous faire booke,' the magnificent textus-case

of silver given in the engraving (vol. ii).It is 15 in.

long, 1 3 in. broad, and 3 in. deep. It is covered all

over with repousse silver : the front and the back

are nearly similar in design, and round the sides is

a conventional pattern. The large plates of silver

overlap the sides, and are rivetted down upon them.

The copy of the gospel is first enclosed in a silken

wrapper : then cased all over with cedar or ebony,which in turn is completely overlaid with plates of

silver. The rivet-heads fastening down the silver form

a graceful border about all the edges, and are taste-

fully scattered besides over the whole design. In-

side the rivet-border runs a narrow band of dotted

work : a like band cuts off a space top and bottom

to enclose a raised inscription in Coptic' The

beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Sonof God.' Farther inward an oblong is marked off

by another dotted band, and the interval is filled by

very beautiful interlacing arabesques with a cross at

the four angles. Touching the dotted band inside

comes a flat band with raised edges set with rivets;


and from the enclosed space two vertical lines divide

off a square, leaving side compartments, which are

worked over with fine feathery scrolls. In the midst

of the square stands out a fine large cross with pear-

shaped branches starting from a central boss : andall the remaining surface is richly decked with

flowers closely resembling the Rhodian or the Per-

sian cornflower. The five crosses and the flat border

round the central cross are delicately gilt. Alto-

gether it is a sumptuous and really glorious work of

art one of the finest treasures of all in the Copticchurches. It dates probably from the sixteenth or

late fifteenth century1.

1 The trouble it cost to get the photograph of this gospel-casetaken will not be soon forgotten. A letter from the patriarch was

not easy to get : a photographer was hard to find : and the priest

almost impossible to catch except at impossible times, late Saturday

evening and early Sunday morning. But having with untold exer-

tion brought the priest, the photographer, and the letter face to face

at the church door, only two or three days before my departure

from Cairo, I nearly found all my labour in vain. The priest read

the letter bidding him show me all honour, and allow me to draw

in the church : but said the letter only referred to the walls not to

the vessels or ornaments 1 Logic was lost labour and threats wasted

breath : even bakshish seemed powerless. He seemed really afraid

that the book would be stolen ;and seeing this, I promised, on the

word of an Englishman, not to touch it, and only to require it out-

side the church five minutes, adding,'

I am tired of asking : nowanswer me once for all speech single and speech straightforward

will you bring out the book or will you not?' In a moment he

relented, locked the dair door, and laid the book on the bench.

I was in alarm lest he should snatch it away before the photo-

grapher could finish;but a magic change had passed on his mood

;

and he afterwards very kindly allowed the stole and the sleeves to be

photographed also. All were unfortunately so badly taken, that only

the exceptional skill of the friends who copied them for me could

have produced anything like the beautiful drawings given in vol. ii.


Scarcely inferior in interest to the textus-case are

the splendid ancient vestments belonging to this

little church. Besides some finely embroidered stoles

and dalmatics, now sadly worn and tattered with ageand neglect, there is a very fine patrashil, with a pair

of armlets to match, and a girdle with silver clasps.

The patrashil, answering to the Greek tTnTpayr\\iov,

is about 6 ft. long and 8 in. wide : the upper partis pierced with a hole for the head. It is made of

crimson silk-velvet, most richly embroidered with

figures and designs in thick thread of silver. Onthe top under a double line is a dedicatory inscrip-

tion in Arabic, enclosing two crosses : a double border

runs all down the front on each side worked with

a pretty olive or other leaf-pattern : two twisted

lines also run down the centre, and the whole spaceis divided into twelve little compartments each con-

taining the figure of an apostle, with his name in a

little band of Arabic writing above his head. Each

figure is clothed in a kind of hooded cope, bears his

hands crossed upon the breast, the right hand clasp-

ing a cross : the dalmatic under the cope shows three

crosses between diagonal lines. The embroidery of

these figures is so closely wrought that they look as

if made of solid metal without its stiffness. Thesame is true of the Arabic writing and the borders,

which like the figures are finely gilt. The whole is

so massive with weight of inworked silver, that it

must be as uncomfortable to wear as it is beautiful

to look upon. The patrashil is merely the ordinary

stole, as it hung in front over both shoulders, brought

together under the chin, and sewn down the whole

length : and the absence of any border at the bottom

may be a reminiscence of this origin.


The armlets are also of crimson silk-velvet, lined

with silk, and richly adorned with silver embroidery.

They reach as far as the elbow, where they widen

slightly as compared with the wrist, and correspondto the Greek eiripaviKia. Round each wrist is a

double band filled with a sort of crossbar design : the

space between the two bands is covered with Arabic

writing. Then comes the main part of the sleeve,

which is worked all over with beautiful arabesquesand stars enclosing floriated crosses, in the midst of

which, on the right sleeve, is a figure of the Virgin

Mary holding the child Christ, and on the other the

angel Michael holding sword and balance : both these

figures are done in fine needle-work embroidery of

choice colours. Next a wide band between two

lines is filled with alternate crosses and stars, both

very intricately worked : this is followed by another

band of Arabic writing, and finally the elbow-open-

ing is trimmed with a border like those about the

wrist. Lengthwise also, from wrist to elbow, there

runs a narrow band, crossing all the others. All the

devices on these armlets, and the nimbs on the

figures, are wrought in thread of silver.

The girdle is made of the same stuff as the patra-

shil and armlets, but is quite plain, without any

embroidery or other embellishment. The clasps

however are of massive silver : when closed theyshow as a single plate of curved metal 7 in. long and

2 in. broad, the angles rounded and the ends slightly

pointed. The joint is covered by a large gilt shield-

like boss, decked with smaller bosses in rings, and

divided by lines of raised dotwork. At either side

is another large boss worked over with enamel and

set with an enamelled outline of wavy form : and all


along the edges of the clasp there runs a border of

the same dark-coloured enamel.

These are all the treasures that the writer saw in

the church : but there may be others to discover.

On all alike the dedicatory inscription is the same;

it runs thus :

A perpetual comely gift to the houses of the glorious

martyrs Abu Kir and Yuhanna between the hills.

Reward, O Lord, him that hath taken these pains.Some of the engraving is very rude, and clearly

done by an illiterate person, who writes for instance

vjy^<o for cy*>o. The expression' between the hills

'

((^/UXM O-A-?) is a curious variation from the fixed

formula. There can be no doubt however' that it is

the ancient title and description of the church, and

denoted its position in the remotest times as accu-

rately as it does to-day. The hills therefore are not

mere rubbish-mounds of mediaeval date, as they

might seem to be, but are part and parcel of the

high ground occupied by the Babylonian fortress

and by the Roman camp, as seen and recorded byStrabo.

The solitude of the two churches in Dair Tadrus

is worse than that of Al 'Adra in Dair Bablun : for

while the priests of all three churches live at a dis-

tance, and come only for evensong on Saturday and

matins on Sunday, in Dair Tadrus there is not a

single inhabitant not even a woman as at Bablun

but only a forlorn and friendless cat, locked within

the monastery walls for six days, and left foodless till

the seventh.

The Church of Prince Tadrus the Oriental^ is


consecrated to a martyr of that name, and '

prince/as he is called in the dedicatory inscriptions. His

legend will be found in its place. Tadrus, or Tadrus,is the Arabic form of Theodorus.

This church has the usual three chapels at the

east end, each with its own niche : in the northern

side-chapel is also an aumbry, where lay an ancient

marble capital of Roman form, and a plain bronze

censer. Before the niche in the haikal there hangsa very beautiful little lamp of silver. The body of

the church consists of nave and two aisles, the aisles

being divided off on each side by two piers, between

which stand close together a pair of slender columns.

North of the choir is a shallow recess or shrine

fenced off by lattice-work, and adorned with pictures

of no merit. In the south aisle is a cupboard or

bookcase containing a great quantity of books, a few

of which are both ancient and in fine condition. Theroof of the building is irregular, but comprises four

domes, one of which over the centre of the church

shows four crosses in relief upon the plaster, which

possibly may be consecration crosses, though theyare quite out of reach.

But like Abu Kir wa Yuhanna, the church of

Amir Tadrus is more remarkable for the numberand beauty of its ancient ornaments, than for any-

thing strange or striking in its architecture. Besides

the bronze censer mentioned above, and the little

lamp of pierced silver-work hanging by chains of

silver before the haikal niche, in the haikal may (or

might) be seen two very fine censers of solid silver,

engraved with scroll-work, and hung by silver chains

with little bells upon them : a silver cross : two plain

white shamlahs, i6ft. 9 in. long and i ft. 3 in. broad,


of linen, embroidered near the ends with two largecrosses in red and yellow needlework with the sacred

letters between the four branches, a above, and co

below it. The centre of one cross is 2 ft. 6 in. from

the end, and of the other 3 ft. 4 in., and a thin stripe

of red is drawn across each end of the shamlah

nearly 4 in. from the hem. Here also are two dal-

matics, embroidered in front with a figure of the

Virgin and Child throned, and two flying angels

holding her crown : on either side the throne a blue

cross outlined in black, and underneath it a figure of

the Amir Tadrus on horseback slaying a dragon :

below in a wide curve runs an inscription in red, and

a date 1217 Coptic, or 1501 A.D. Round each sleeve

is a yellow border edged with black, and decked with

an olive-branch pattern : above the border is a row

of three crosses, and above that a star between two

crosses all in various colours : and above the star

is the figure of an angel holding a Latin cross.

In the middle of the back is a yellow cross edgedwith black. All this work is embroidered in fine

silk.

In the south aisle-chapel are an ancient patrashil

and pair of sleeves to match : they are of yellow-brown colour richly brocaded, but not worked with

silver. There lie on the altar two fine large gospel-

cases, one of silver covered with repousse ornament

of crosses, flowers, scrolls, Coptic and Arabic writing :

the other made of plain copper is altogether of ruder

workmanship, but bears some figures of angels, and

a title in the two languages. When used at baptismthe silver gospel is set upright upon the gospel-board a wooden frame that closes by hinges in the

middle : round the edge of the frame are prickets


for candles. Four fans or flabella of fine silver with

wooden handles, half cased in silver, are among the

best treasures of this church : they resemble those

of Abu Kir wa Yuhanna mentioned above, but their

original use seems forgotten, and now they are em-

ployed merely to decorate the gospel-board. Thewooden handles are hollowed to receive a pricket, so

that the four fans stand upright round the gospel at

solemn service : sometimes tapers are even fastened

on to the fans at top, by forcible compressment of

the wax upon the silver !

In the niche of this chapel was a fine fifteenth or

sixteenth century picture divided into four panelsthe Virgin, St. Peter, and two equestrians identical

in form and treatment with a painting to be seen in

one of the cells opening out of the eight-pillared

room of the Roman round tower, and belonging to

the Greek convent.

But the treasury of Tadrus, where the great rnass

of precious things is stored, is a low dark room en-

tered from the south-west corner of the church : and

though it is by no means rich enough to comparewith the treasuries of Priam or Atreus, or like the

treasury of St. Mark's at Venice to tempt a second

Stammato, yet the nature of the scene, if not the

value of the possessions in ward, gives a visit here

a sharper flavour of oriental romance even than life

in 'grand Alcairo' ordinarily furnishes. The strangesite of the lonely convent in its desert valley, the

high walls and dim passage, the massive doors that

close with ponderous locks and bolts behind one, the

silence and gloom of the ancient church, would

quicken the dullest imagination : and visions of

hoarded wealth come thick, when one is led by the


venerable grey-bearded priest to the secret chamber,where by the scanty taper-light that flickers about the

walls one sees a bronze corona or two, some ostrich-

eggs and many old lamps scattered about, and close

together two deep and roomy coffers. One of these

contains nothing but ancient books of ritual, chiefly

torn to pieces or eaten through and through byworms : a pair or two of cymbals and a score of

tapers are flung in with them. But from the next

coffer, when the lid is lifted, comes a great flash of

silver. Here are half-a-dozen beautiful hanging

lamps of silver in a peculiar kind of pierced work :

the shapes as well as the sizes vary a little but are

very graceful, and the piercing gives a pleasing

lightness and delicacy to the design. There is also

a plain silver chalice, silver paten and dome : several

silver spoons and small silver crosses : three or four

silver censers and several silver-gilt diadems, one of

which is figured in the engraving (vol. ii). These

diadems are used at the marriage service. I have

never seen them at any other church, though Mr.

Chester mentions two at the church of Anba Shanu-

dah. The raised Arabic inscription upon them

means in English'

Glory to God in the highest and

on earth peace:' there is nothing said about 'menof good pleasure.' The words incised at either end

are merely the usual '

Reward, O Lord,' of dedication.

Besides these silver ornaments there was a fine

chalice of plain white Venetian glass, with gilt deco-

rations;some old Coptic and Arabic books in a

fair state but devoid of illuminations;and one or

two silver-embroidered corporals, and some brazen

cymbals.The priest of this church rides over on his donkey


from Dair Abu-'s-Sifain on Saturday evening : he

passes the night in the church not in a devout vigil,

but sleeping wrapped in his rug on the floor under

the central dome.

The Church of St. Michael has been mentioned as

lying in the rich plain that touches southward the

Old Cairo desert. The dair is not half-a-mile from

Dair Tadrus, but is scarcely worth a visit except for

the beauty of its situation. The present church is

quite modern, though the foundation apparently is

ancient enough. But neither in the structure nor

in the furniture of the church is there much worth

special notice. The one unusual feature it possessesis a Jesse-tree, painted in distemper on the flat inside

of the chancel-arch above the iconostasis. The workhowever is new, and in idea seems more Greek than

Coptic. Against the western wall, in a kind of shrine

covered with a wire grating, rests a large paintingof the angel Michael, which is held in high venera-

tion by all the Copts of Cairo. Great belief is placedin his powers of intercession, and his influence is

thought specially potent in controlling the rise of

the Nile : so that many prayers and vows are offered

up to him, and his shrine is adorned or disfiguredwith gold-embroidered kerchiefs, silk bands, and

various cloths and clouts of humbler stuff, that are

tied on the bars by pious pilgrims in deprecation of

wrath threatened or in remembrance of prayers

granted. Outside the church two small bells are

hung one at an open window half way up the wall,

the other in a sort of lantern above.

The last of the minor churches called Al'Adrabil 'Adawtah at Tura, like that of St. Michael, is un-

interesting, because it has been entirely rebuilt. It


lies three miles south of the latter across the plain

in a little dair perched upon the bank of the river.

Everything in it is modern, down to the curious but

ugly little textus-case of silver embossed with cherub-

heads and a figure of the Virgin and Child. Yet the

lintel of the outer door is formed by a slab carved

with hieroglyphics. But even though wanting in

antiquarian interest this church is well worth a visit :

the ride along the river-bank is extremely picturesque,as well as the situation of the dair. And there is

always the hope and chance of finding some ancient

treasure that has passed unnoticed before, or that

has been lost or forgotten by the Copts themselves,but rediscovered and brought again into usage.

CHAPTER VI.

The Churches in Cairo.

The Churches in the H&rat-az-Zuailah. The Churches in the

Hdrat-ar-Rum.The Chapel of St. Stephen.

OT very far from the Rond-point of the

Muski in Cairo is an ancient Christian

dair, a block of buildings containing the

churches of Al Adra with the adjoining

chapel of Abu-'s-Sifain, and, above, the church of

Mari Girgis, besides a small nunnery of some

eighteen nuns with their lady superior. It is

curious that the churches in the heart of Cairo

should alone have retained their monastic uses,

though the buildings were meant, no doubt, for

monks and not for nuns while from the more re-

mote and solitary churches of Old Cairo the friars

or brethren have completely vanished.

The upper church in the Harat-az-Zuailah, dedi-

cated to St. George, is very small, and though fairly

old it possesses no special points of interest. It is

a squarish, characterless building with three domed

chapels, choir, men's section, and women's section ;

the aisles are divided from the nave by classical

columns, and in the middle of the eastern division

a space is railed off and set with benches, to serve

as a sort of porch to the church. There priests and

272 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vi.

guests sit chatting and smoking, regardless of the

fact that the fumes wander through and over the

screens into the sacred building. There are lampsof silver and glass hanging before the haikal, but

no ornaments of great value;the chief interest of

the church seems to lie in the reputed healing powerof its relics. I have seen women sitting crossleggedabout the floor on the old oriental carpet, with which

it is strewn, gossiping together and taking it byturns to nurse the little silk-covered bolster of relics

with simple faith in its miraculous virtues. Outside

the church there is also a shrine of the Virgin, a

chamber about 20 ft. by 12, one end of which is

screened off. It may have contained an altar in

former times, but no traces of one remain. Within

the screen a shelf some 7 ft, from the ground runs

round the walls;on it are ranged many paintings

of saints and martyrs, and in the midst a little shrine

opens with latticed doors, revealing a picture of the

Virgin Mary. Candles are lit before the picture on

the days of solemn service for the sick, when the

priests stand in the doorway of the screen, readingor chaunting to the wild music of bells and cymbals.In the church, too, may be seen at times the cere-

mony of laying-on of hands upon sick people, i. e.

such as are able to come to the church. This takes

place on Sunday morning, after the celebration of

the eucharist.

It is more difficult perhaps, but far better worth

while, to pay a visit to the lower church, called

The Church of A I 'Adra.

This is without question the earliest church in

the city of Cairo;and it differs from the church

CH. VI.] Churches in Cairo. 273

above and those in the Harat-ar-Rum in its basi-

lican structure. In many points it reminds one of

Al Mu'allakah ; in others it is peculiar. It lies

about 14 ft. below the present average level of

the neighbourhood proof enough of its great an-

tiquity. Its length is about 60 ft.

The entrance is curiously placed at the eastern

end. This is not likely to have been the original

tHAPEL OFABU-S-SIPAIN

HOUSE

A. J. B.

Fig. 18. Plan of Al 'Adra.

arrangement ;but the growth of the soil at the

west end doubtless choked up the doors there manygenerations ago. There are signs of a later entrance

in the middle of the south aisle, though this also

has been blocked up. Round the body of the church

choir and nave together there are twelve ancient

columns, six on each side. Nine more columns stand

in the narthex, which is divided into four small sec-

tions by screens. There are ten other columns in

the aisles, placed, for the most part, in rather a

VOL. I.


random fashion, and four against the choir-screen.

The nave contains a women's section as well as

one for men, and the choir opens out at either side,

embracing the width of the aisles. There is no

transept, however, for the painted architrave, which

rests upon the nave pillars, is carried across the

choir, and runs into the wall dividing the haikal

from the side-chapels. The triforia therefore extend

over the choir, which in common with the nave is

covered with a wooden wagon-vaulted roof. Thesouth aisle is very narrow; northward are two,

aisles, the outer one of which is barely 3 ft. wide in

the western half of the church, but about midwayopens out, and at the eastern end becomes wide'

enough to terminate in a chapel of ordinary dimen-

sions. It is possible that there may have been a

corresponding outer aisle on the south side also;

for on the south side of the haikal, though only one

aisle-chapel remains, the choir is wide enough for

two, and the present entrance has clearly been cut

through a second chapel from which the altar has

been removed; but, as only half the area of the

chapel was required for the passage, the remaininghalf has been railed off and made into a shrine.

The church, then, originally had four chapels, besides

the haikal, three of which are still uninjured. The

capitals of the pillars are chiefly debased Corinthian ;

two of Byzantine form have crosses sculptured amongthe foliage ;

there are besides one Doric and three

Saracenic capitals. The choir-screen runs into a pier

of masonry on either side, and is continued northward

into a third pier. The doorway of the choir stands

between two pairs of octagonal Saracenic columns,

each of which has two well-cut consecration crosses,

CH. vi.] Churches in Cairo. 275

one eastward and one westward. They resemble

roughly the crosses at Abu Sargah, but are larger,

measuring 6J in. by 3^. Beyond these four there

seem to be no other dedication crosses ;and the

fact that they occur on Saracenic pillars is interest-

ing, as possibly determining a date for the recon-

secration of the church in the tenth century, whenCairo was founded. The pillars with crosses in

relief among the foliage point clearly to a muchearlier date for the main edifice, which cannot be

later than the sixth or seventh century.

The pulpit in the nave is an imitation of an older

one, the marble mosaics being imitated in paintedwoodwork. It remains without staircase other than a

moveable ladder. There is a little shrine railed in

between two columns in the north outer aisle ;and

another rather larger in a recess 6 ft. by 4 off the

south aisle. In the latter, called the Shrine of the

Virgin, the pictures are fenced by a wire grating

hung with shreds, in remembrance of prayers or

vows, as at Dair Mikhail. The principal painting

represents Mary with the Child in the branches of

a Jesse-tree, which is surrounded by a number of

saints, each in a separate little panel. The face,

unfortunately, is burnt by candles that have been

carelessly held before it; still the painting is interest-

ing from its style and treatment, as well as from its

antiquity. A lamp hangs in front of it burning

perpetually.The pictures on the iconostasis are also ancient,

but much decayed ;above them towers conspicuously

a large cross or rood the only instance I have seen

of a true rood on the haikal-screen of a Coptic church

in Cairo. At either side of the foot of the cross an

T 2


eagle is carved in conflict with a strange human-headed dragon ;

on the curved neck of each eaglea panel is supported, painted with the usual figures

of Mary and John. The work has a very modern

look, but the priests declare it to be ancient;

it may,therefore, be a copy or restoration of a rood coeval

with the church. On the frames, or rather mount-

ings, of three pictures in the choir is some fair carvingof roses, crosses, and small curious birds.

The haikal-screen projects, like those at Al Mu'al-

lakah and Abu Sargah, into the choir about three

feet beyond the line of the chapel-screens, and has

two side-doors as well as the central door. Thescreen is old, inlaid in uncarved ivory with the

design repeated of a star in a double ring divided

by mouldings. The design on the screen of the

south aisle-chapel is a unique kind of cross-in-square

pattern. Over the haikal is a lofty dome rising

above the wagon-vaulting of the nave, and orna-

mented with gated pendentives, i.e. pendentives

retaining a delicate 'gate' or pierced panel of stone

before the hollows. On three sides of the dome are

coloured windows of Byzantine form two round-

arched lights with circular light over the mullion

between them.

The haikal apse is remarkable for a very fine and

clear-cut tribune rising in six marble steps, of which

the lower three are straight, the upper three curved

parallel to the wall, which is covered with mosaic of

coloured marble in large panels. The patriarch's

throne and the niche are in the centre;above the

niche is a good design of old Damascus tilework. Therest of the haikal wall, north and south, is covered

with inferior tiles of the eighteenth or nineteenth


century. Into the north wall there is inlet a curious

tablet, or rather fragment of white stone, which

shows a border of dolphins enclosing three sets of

figures between strapwork a pair of human-headed

harpies, a centaur, and two human forms. The last

are broken across, and it is not clear what they were

meant for. The work is early Byzantine ;whatever

place the slab was destined for, it has been removedfrom its original position, and is set topsy-turvy in

the wall.

A door in the north-west corner of Al Adra opensinto the adjoining chapel, or rather

Church of Abu-s-Sifain the Lesser,

which contains a pulpit of rosewood, carved in panels

showing sunflowers, with starlike ivory centres,

springing from vases. Here too may be seen in

actual usage a moveable ladder for mounting the

pulpit, such as must have been employed at Mari

Mina, Abu Sargah, and elsewhere. Neither the

haikal nor the side-chapels are in any way remark-

able, though in the former may be seen someseventeenth century yellow tiles, and a Small square

altar-frontal, finely embroidered with a figure of the

Virgin and various crosses. But if the church be

visited in Lent, the curious wooden winepress be-

longing to Abu-'s-Sifain the Greater in Old Cairo

may here be seen in working ;for it is brought

here every year, and wine for all the churches is

made within this building. .

One may note that the arrangement of this outer

chapel singularly resembles that of the chapel of SS.

Servulus and Justus, adjoining the basilica of Trieste,

except that here it opens out from the north-west


instead of the south-east corner of the main building.

The plan of the Trieste basilica is given in Lenoir's'

Architecture Monastique,' and may be comparedwith that in the text.

The Churches in the Harat-ar-Rum of

Cairo.

In the Harat-ar-Rum or Greek quarter of Cairo

city is a Coptic dair called Dair Tadrus, containinga nunnery in which twelve nuns reside, and the two

churches ofAl'

Adra, or the Virgin, and Mari Girgis,

or St. George. They are best reached by the narrow

lane branching off from the Sukkariah at the Sibil of

Muhammad 'Ali. The old gate of the quarter maybe seen in its place, though the soil which has risen

about it now prevents it from closing. The churches

are near the end of the lane;from which there are two

entrances, one by a passage through the ancient pa-

triarchal residence, where the flat stone roofing near

the doorway is adorned with fine Arab tracery ;the

other from a little by-lane farther on. Some steps

have in either case to be descended, and some dark

places to be traversed before

7 he Church ofA I 'Adra

is reached. The first thing at once that strikes one

is the roof, which consists of twelve domes one over

each of the three eastern chapels, and nine over the

rest of the church in all four rows of three domeseach. Six piers, of which two are within the haikal-

screen, uphold the domes, and are connected by


round arches. The plainness of the architecture

is unredeemed by any ornament, even the commonArab pendentives being absent from all the domes

except that above the haikal. The haikal dome is

pierced with a small stained window, and the others

have a few small round holes glazed. These with a

small grating or two give the only entrance to day-

light. The same union of temple and fortress strikes

one here as in the churches of Old Cairo : the samenecessities of defence have shaped the shell of the

building. The church is very small perhaps 50 ft.

by 40 but the division of nave and aisles is plain

enough. A sort of narthex too, exists, and over it

a screened gallery for women. The choir is not

marked off from the nave a most unusual omission

though its position is denoted by two plain lecterns

standing on a Persian carpet. In the nave, on a

beam crossing between two piers, is a large rood,

a cruciform picture of the crucifixion : on the cross,

Christ is hanging dead ; at the foot is a skull and

bones, below which the entombment is figured. Thebranches have trefoil ends, each containing an angel.Near the foot of the cross on each side, carved in

wood, an eagle is strangling a serpent ;each eagle

bears on its head a tablet painted with the figure of

an angel. The work possesses no merit.

The under-part of the altar-canopy is embellished

with a painting, resembling that at Abu-'s-Sifain : and

though the haikal-screen is rather plain and modern-

looking, the doorway is finer;a row of seven silver

lamps hanging before the screen shed their lustre

upon it, and a single lamp hangs before each of the

side-chapels. The choir is slightly lengthened out

at each end, forming in each case a shrine adorned

280 Ancient Coptic Chttrches. [CH. vi.

with pictures. That to the south contains paint-

ings of

1 . Takla Himanut al Habishi, an Abyssinian saint,

as the title denotes. He is an aged man robed as

patriarch, and bearing in his left hand the Coptic

patriarchal staff : in his other hand he carries a cross

and a rosary.

2. St. Marina trampling upon Satan.

3. A fine tablet 3 ft. by 2 ft. 6 in. painted in nine

panels the Virgin and Child in the centre, and sacred

scenes all around. This seems an unusually skilful

piece of work, both for the modelling of the figures

and the management of the colours, but it lies in so

deep shadow, not to say darkness, that judgment is

difficult. The Virgin is holding Christ on her right

arm,, and lowering her face to meet his, which is up-raised. The tablet is set in a niche : it is ill preserved.

4. An angel on a gold ground, and with it

5. A triptych, with a pair of angels in the centre

panel, between two single angels at the sides. All

are rudely-drawn full-face figures on a gold ground.Most if not all the other paintings are recent and

artistically worthless. One treating of the Annun-

ciation is curious perhaps for its arrangement : the

angel holding a lily is advancing from the sinister

instead of the dexter side, and in common with Marywears a very hurried, frightened look.

The baptistery, some 24ft. long by 12 wide,

opening out of the church by a door at the north-

west corner, has a flat roof of palm-thatch upheld bytwo pairs of slender columns. Upon the font, which

is screened off at the eastern end, lies an old iron

cross, a bronze cross, and a book of service. The

gospel-board is of good design.


The church itself possesses a gospel finely cased in

silver, embossed with flowers and letters, and a goodsilver cross for benediction.

The Church of Mart Girgis, with a small nun-

nery adjoining, in the Harat-ar-Rum, is built one

story above the ground, close to but not directly

over Al Adra, which in size and general structure it

greatly resembles. The twelve-domed roofing is the

same, and the piers supporting the domes are joined

together by round arches. The west end or narthex

is raised about 4ft. above the level of the nave and

aisles : it serves at once for a baptistery, and for the

women's section at the ordinary services. The font

is railed off at the north end, and the whole screened

by lattice-work from the body of the church.

Next comes the men's section, divided by an open

5 ft. railing from the choir : it contains a plain pulpit.

In the choir are two lecterns, a standard candlestick

of bronze, and a three-branched iron candlestick like

that at Abu-'s-Sifain and Kadisah Burbarah. Before

the haikal hang two silver lamps, several glass lamps,and some ostrich-eggs. Each of the three chapelshas its own screen inlaid with plain ivory or bone in

different designs. There is nothing remarkable in

either of the side chapels, though the niche of the

haikal contains a fine gold-ground painting of Christ

in glory, crowned. North of the north aisle chapellies a sacristy, which I was unable to enter.

The church is not rich in pictures : scarcely anyare worth notice save one of Anba Shanudah in pa-triarchal robes ; and one of Sitt Dimianah, who is

reclining on a divan, and is girt round with fortydim little figures. But the church derives peculiar

sanctity from the possession of the relics of the great

282 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.VI.

and famous prince and martyr Tadrus. These relics

are treasured in the shrine of Tadrus, which opens

by a pretty door in a large panel of fine Arab lattice-

work set flush in the south wall of the choir. Theshrine is a little vaulted chamber, a recess 3^ ft. deep,and 6 ft. wide. Fronting the door an arched niche

of elaborate woodwork with seven little pillars on

each side encloses a picture of Tadrus a mountedcavalier encountering a dolphin-headed dragon and

rescuing a youth whom the dragon was about

devouring : on an eminence in the backgroundstands a fair maiden lifting her hands in encour-

agement of the hero. The horse of course is a

ridiculous-looking animal, but the Arab trappings,

saddlecloth, stirrups, and the rest, as well as the

drapery of the figure, are well rendered and well

coloured. There is also something very pleasing in

the frank open smile, the confident, determined face

of Tadrus : the woman's face too is singularly sweet.

Before the picture a lamp or candle is generally burn-

ing, and the silk-covered case of relics reposes in the

niche. This shrine is held in the greatest veneration,

not only by the Copts but by the Muslims also, and

the virtues of the relics in casting out devils were

publicly and solemnly put to the proof on Wednesdayin every week, when Coptic and Muslim womenresorted in great numbers. Strange stories are told

of the cures wrought upon believers of both nations;

stranger still of scandals and immoralities to which

the ceremony gave occasion: till in the year 1873the practice was abolished by the then patri-

arch 1

. But those possessed with evil spirits can still

] See Murray's Egypt, sixth edition, vol. i. p. 189.


proceed to the church of Lady Dimianah between

the rivers Balkas and Nabru, in the north of the

Delta. There, once a year, a great festival is held in

the church, and while the possessed are being exor-

cised, a shadow-play of departing devils exhibited on

the interior of a large dome confirms the belief of

the superstitious : and the contrivances by which it is

produced are so cunningly hidden as to completely

puzzle those who have no faith in miracle-working.Even the priests of Mari Girgis seem scarcely to

have abandoned their powers or their claims. Onone of my visits to the church, when I wished to

enter the haikal, I was not allowed to pass the thresh-

hold until the priest had given me a solemn censing,and signed my forehead with the sign of the cross.

So the evil spirits were exorcised.

HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE CHURCHES IN CAIRO.

Though very little is known about the history of

the church in Harat-az-Zuailah or Harat-ar-Rum,

yet there is enough direct mention to establish their

claim to a great antiquity. The former is a patri-

archal church, the latter episcopal. Soon after 1 100

A.D. the bishop of Masr who succeeded Sanutius was

proclaimed in the Harat-az-Zuailah, though elected

and ordained at Abu Sargah1

. With this church,

too, the notorious Cyril, LXXV patriarch, was closely

associated. It was here that a council of bishopsmet to protest against his barefaced simony and ex-

tortion about 1 250 A. D., and Cyril resided in the

1

Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex., p. 492.


monastic building between his first and second im-

prisonments1

,when probably he devised his canons.

The usurpation of the episcopal church of Al

'Adra in the Harat-ar-Rum by Christodulus, c.

1050 A.D., has been mentioned in another context,

where it was shewn how Michael forty years later

violated his solemn vow to restore the church

to its bishop : but beyond these meagre allusions

history seems silent.

THE CHAPEL OF ST. STEPHEN BY THE

CATHEDRAL.

The Coptic cathedral, built in the present century,is so ugly and void of interest that it is not worth a

visit, except to those who care to see how the Coptsof to-day depart from their own traditions and adoptforms and practices of the Greek Church. It

contains, however, a superb ancient lectern most

richly inlaid with crosses and other designs of chased

ivory. This lectern once belonged to Al Mu'al-

lakah. But adjoining the cathedral is the mucholder chapel of St. Stephen, with choir and haikal,

and a baptistery lying to the north. On the south

side of the haikal a raised platform of plain stone-

work is said to cover the remains of a patriarch.

Before the haikal door hung recently a curtain most

beautifully embroidered, with a figure of the Virginand Child and of two angels set in separate panels.

The work was very old;and therefore, although it

was well preserved, it has been removed and re-

placed by a new curtain of green silk with a red

1

Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex., p. 582.


cross sewn upon it. The old embroidery, as a Copttold me, will probably be used to make a pinaforefor a child: at present it is merely flung aside in

a corner. The usual altar vessels paten, chalice,

and dome of silver, wooden altar-casket, and corpo-rals may be seen here more easily than at some of

the larger churches, both because the chapel is more

accessible, and because the vessels are less jealouslyhidden from travellers. One of the corporals is re-

markable in being fitted with little bells one at each

corner and one in the centre : it is of red silk, havinga square of green silk in the midst embroidered with

a cross. The baptistery has a place as usual railed

off for women : the font lies eastwards, and in a

niche just above it stands a very beautiful little

painting of Christ's baptism. Above the four prin-

cipal figures our Lord, St. John, and two angelsthe dove is descending in a golden circle, round

which is an outer circle of cherub-heads : from the

inner circle a widening beam of golden light is falling

upon the head of Christ. The ground of the pictureis of very singular tone a pale faded green colour,

extremely pleasing. The deep golden aureoles of

the four figures are set with real jewels rubies and

emeralds.

CHAPTER VII.

The Monasteries of the Natrun Valley

in the Libyan Desert.

Dair Abu Makdr. Dair Anba Bishoi. Dair-as-Sfiridni.

Dair al Baramtis.

'LL the ancient churches of the two Cairos

have now been passed in review;and if

I have lingered too long among them,it is because they are almost daily losing

something from wilful destruction or de-

structive renovation. Moreover, even where the

churches are spared, they are fast falling out of

harmony with their surroundings ; as in place of the

old Arab houses and gardens vast and unsightlycubes of modern buildings are arising. Hence everydetail seems worth recording, in the fear that soon it

may have no other record left. The same is true in

a far less degree of the monasteries in the Natrun

valley, to which we are now coming. There at

least are no new houses building : but the monas-

teries seem to stand in eternal harmony with the

eternal solitudes around them. Yet fourteen cen-

turies cannot have passed over these ancient abodes

with quite so light a touch as over their changelesssands. Here and there the ruins of shattered con-

vents lie about the desert, marking sites of which the

very name is long forgotten : the churches within

Desert Monasteries. 287

the convents bear the marks of various styles, and

date from different epochs : most of them have longbeen under the shadow of decay, and lately one has

suffered severely under sentence of restoration. Butthe traditions of the place remain unbroken, andfadeless as the scene that enshrines them. The life

too, in its outer guise at least, is scarcely altered since

the dawn of monasticism; though the high ideals of

the early recluses are long since levelled with the

dust, though their heroic enthusiasms have sunk

down to a dull stagnation, though the lamp of their

knowledge is extinguished, and the pulse of their

devotion is still.

The monasteries lie to the north-west of Cairo,

three days' journey in the Libyan desert. Of the

fifty mentioned by Gibbon only four now remain in-

habited : most of the others have vanished and left

no vestige behind 1. Vansleb 2 mentions seven as

having formerly existed, namely Macarius, John the

Little, Anba Bishoi, Timothy, Anba Musa, AnbaKaima, and Suriani, of which, he adds, only Bishoi

and Suriani now survive : an obvious error, for

besides Macarius there is still left one other called

Al Baramus, which lies nearest to the Natrun lakes.

The locality is variously termed the desert of Scete,

desert of Schiet, desert of Nitria, and Wadi Natrun

or Natrun valley : it seems however that the nameScete applies more properly to the southerly part of

1 Gibbon probably derived his information from Rufinus, who

speaks of fifty'

tabernacula,' adding that some of these had manytenants, others but few, while some held solitary recluses. It is

clear therefore that single cells or caves were included in the term.

See Rosweyde, Vitae Patrum, p. 364.*

Voyage fait en Egypte, p. 227.

288 Ancient Coptic Chiirches. [CH. vn.

the valley, and Nitria to the northerly part. ThusDair Abu Makar is spoken of as being in the desert

of Scete, while the region about Al Baramus takes

its name from the ancient town of Nitria, which dated

at least from Roman times. The salt lakes in the

valley furnish abundance of nitre, whence their name :

the nitre has been worked for full two thousand

years: and a small colony of fellahin at the present

day is settled on the western borders of the lakes to

collect both nitre and salt for the Egyptian govern-ment 1

. There is reason to think that from Romanto mediaeval times glass-works existed almost con-

tinuously at Nitria. Such at least is the tradition,

which is confirmed both by the evidence of travellers 2,

and by the fragments discovered on the site of the

town. And even within the last generation the

monasteries were rich in those famous but nowalmost fabulous enamelled glass lamps of Arab

workmanship. In Coptic the town was known as

$.môceJUL, and the district as TIJULGJU. niôcejw..The monasteries of the eastern desert by the Red

Sea coast, which are called after the first anchorites

St. Anthony and St. Paul, are said to have been

founded by those worthies, and therefore to be

anterior in date to the convents of the Wadi Na-

trun. But this statement, if pressed, can mean no

1 The best account of this settlement is to be found in Sir

Gardner Wilkinson's 'Modern Egypt and Thebes' (London, 1843).

The author mentions also the Coptic monasteries, but on these his

remarks are singularly slight and barren. He scarcely notices one

single detail of architecture or ritual. See vol. i. pp. 382-398.2 Thus Le Sieur Granger, who travelled in Egypt in 1730,

mentions '

trois verreries abandonees '

between the lakes and

St. Macarius. See ' Relation du Voyage fait en Egypte'

(Paris,

1745), P- i79-

CH. vii.] Desert Monasteries. 289

more than that the one region was occupied byhermits some time before the other. For it is very

improbable that SS. Anthony and Paul were the

founders of any monastery at all, in the ordinary

meaning of the term. They doubtless chose some

lonely spot, which speedily was haunted by other

recluses : but there can be no question that both in

the eastern and in the western desert the first recluses

were solitary hermits living apart in scattered cells

or caves, and not united in any ccenobitic rule of

life, much less congregated within the walls of anymonastic building. Moreover St. Anthony was not

born till the middle of the third century, whereas

the Nitrian valley is said to have been frequented

by the Therapeutse even in the days of St. Mark ;

and it seems certain that St. Frontonius withdrew

there with a company of seventy brethren in the

second century, and St. Ammon, who founded a

hermit settlement there, was rather earlier than St.

Anthony. The monasteries of the Natrun desert

may therefore claim to rest on a site hallowed bythe history of eighteen centuries of Christian wor-

ship, although none of the surviving religious houses

date their first foundation earlier than the third or

fourth century. When to this historic interest is

added the romantic picturesqueness of their situation,

the boundless waste of barren sand that severs

them from the world, the changeless sunshine that

brightens their desolation, their loneliness broken

only by sudden troops of marauding Beduin, the

yearly convoy of friendly camels, or the rare advent

of pilgrim or wayfarer; and when one remembersthe true fairy-tales of the hidden treasures of the

monks, not gold, but books worth their weight in

VOL. I. U

290 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vu.

rubies : then one may feel some astonishment,

perhaps, that the charm of the Natrun valley should

have worked with so feeble a spell, as not to draw

one traveller in ten thousand of those who visit

Egypt.No doubt, however, the route is tedious and even

dangerous. When first I wished to make the

journey in the spring of 1881, the khedive ordered

careful enquiries to be made by the authorities;and

the result was a prohibition. It was reported that

the Beduins were in a restive and hostile mood

owing to some recent fighting with Egyptian soldiers,

and would be certain to rob and turn back anytravellers they might encounter in the desert, thoughon the whole the chances were against their caring

particularly for unnecessary murder 1. I was on the

point of leaving Egypt, as it seemed for ever, and

the disappointment was bitter : yet to go would

have been fruitless folly. But in the winter of 1883-4I was enabled to revisit Egypt

2,and a journey to the

Wadi Natrun fell within the compass of my mission.

This time the khedive, with his usual ready know-

ledge of the country, pronounced the route secure;

and with customary kindness sent a telegram to

the mudir of the province, whence our party wasto start across the desert, ordering all arrange-ments to be made for our safety and honour. We

1 Some idea of the perils of the journey one hundred years ago

may be formed from Sonnini's account. He was robbed, and onlysaved from a second ambuscade by a sudden change of route which

foiled the plot of the Beduins for his destruction. See Voyagedans la Haute et Basse Egypte, vol. ii. p. 179 seq.

2 As an envoy of the Association for the Furtherance of Chris-

tianity in Egypt, to wh om my thanks are due for this opportunity.


were, however, recommended to wear the tarbush or

fez, as the sight of western hats is somewhat irri-

tating to the children of the wilderness. The Coptic

patriarch furnished us with letters both to the priest

at Tris, which, although a Muslim village, contains

a small Coptic colony and two churches, and also to

the superiors of the four monasteries in the desert.

So we started on the morning after Christmas day,

not unaccompanied by predictions of disaster.

We reached Wardan by train, and there the mudlr's

representative, summoned by the telegram of the

khedive, met us : but, instead of waiting for us to

alight, he came into the carriage to deliver his mes-

sage. We received his obeisance, and bade him be

seated. At the same time the envoy of the priest

at Trls entered the carriage, and we had a long and

leisurely conversation drawn out with copious com-

pliments, for which of course the train politely waited.

The mudir offered us horses and camels and guides,

placing in fact his province at our disposal : but

when we heard that the Copts had already been

warned of our coming and had made every prepara-tion for our journey, it only remained to thank the

mudir for his kindness. We found, however, that

the natives were widely impressed with the ceremonywhich surrounded our arrival. An hour's ride in

hard rain brought us to Tris, where the kindly priest

Ibrahim welcomed us to the guest-room, specially

reserved for the patriarch's use on the rare occasion

of his visit to the desert convents. According to

ancient custom, as recorded for instance by Rufinus 1,

1 See Rosweyde's Vitae Patrum, pp. 348, 349, etc. For a still

earlier reference to the custom, the earliest in eastern literature, see

Genesis xviii. 4.

U 2

292 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

our host offered water to wash our feet : but we were

really more grateful for a large brazier of burningcoals which was set in the middle of the room, and

replenished, as the fire sank, with logs of wood. Theheat and the smoke together soon dried us : and as

the rain without continued, and quickly drenched our

tents, we were very thankful that night to sleep with

a roof above our heads.

Next day rose clear, but with a strong gale

blowing from the west. The shape and relief of the

desert hills were blurred by a ceaseless storm of

sand, in the teeth of which lay our line of march. It

was soon decided that advance against such a wind

was impossible : our guides said that the driving sand

would strike like shot upon our faces, and that the

camels would refuse to move. So as it blew with

unabated fury till sundown, we were forced to remain

another day, which we spent partly in revolver prac-

tice and partly in talking theology with our Coptichosts. We saw the little domed churches which lie

one at each side of the village : but they offered

nothing of interest. The dair within which we were

staying contained, beside the priest's house, a school

for little children, whom we saw through an opendoor sitting on the ground in a windowless room,

with their tin slates on which they write with reed

pens and ink. At our approach they all rose, and

thronged to the door to kiss our hands.

The Copts had been living in daily terror of death

at the time of Arabi's rebellion. At Trls the story

was the same as at Cairo, all agreeing that only the

arrival of the English army had saved the Christians

from massacre. It was curious to notice that the

gratitude of the Copts seemed directed personally to


the 'gracious lady Victoria the queen,' whose nameand praises they were never tired of repeating. This

unfortunately is no longer the case with dwellers in

the cities, with whom all gratitude seems cancelled bythe usury of suffering added to their lives by Englishmisrule as the price of English deliverance. Herein the country the little colony planted in a hostile

village had not yet recovered from the shock of a

danger, such as the oldest Copts could not remember,and such as could scarcely be found recorded in the

wildest pages of their troubled history.

With the morning the wind had fallen : but thoughwe rose at dawn, it was quite eight o'clock before we

got under weigh. As we were taking leave Ibrahim,

whom illness prevented from coming with us as the

patriarch had ordered, stood at the door of the dair,

and lifting hands and eyes said a prayer for our safety.

Then he walked a short distance with us on our way,ere we parted and filed across the plain. An hour's

ride brought us to the Beduin village of Bani Salamah,to which our guides belonged: we exchanged greetingswith some of the men, passed on across the canal

where our beasts drank deep, as if they foreknew the

parched wilderness before them, and mounted the

ridge that borders the desert table-land. As the

green plains and clustered palms of the Delta fade

from the view, the world seems to close behind one,

leaving a sense of helpless abandonment and desola-

tion : a sense that soon passes away, as one yields

to the silent magic of the desert. The journey lies

over a monotonous series of slightly undulating hills :

ridge after ridge they rise and fall, and each ridge is

precisely like the last;

the ground slopes gently

away, remains flat for a while, and then curves


gently upward again to make another hillock. Thedistances vary a little, but the view is always bounded

by a ridge in front and a ridge behind. After a longand toilsome day, just as the sun was setting, wemounted the last ridge, and saw an immense valleyof sand stretching far away below us. The brief

purple twilight showed us too in the remote distance

a momentary glimpse of Dair Macarius, where we

hoped to make our quarters for the night. But the

darkness fell, moonless, almost starless, and so deepthat we could scarcely see each other. We were still

some miles from our monastery, which had vanished

again like an evening ghost : our beasts were tired,

our guides seemed doubtful of the way, the partycould only keep touch by continual shouting, and

our camels were far behind, we knew not where. Thesensation of being lost in the Sahara at night without

food or water is something to have experienced, if

only for two hours : nor was the feeling less real at

the time, because the after result proved it to have

been unnecessary. The descent into the valley was

steep : then we stumbled on over loose sand mixed

with rushes and Christ-thorn, and we found the waymuch more difficult than the hard stony surface of

the desert during our journey by day. The gloomand silence around us were awful : it was like the

valley of the shadow of death. But it ended at last,

when a light flashed out in the distance and then

burned steadily, welcome as ever light was to be-

nighted wayfarers in desolate places : for though at

first we took it for a star, we soon knew that it was a

lantern burning on the convent walls to guide us.

We hastened on, and found the monks waiting in a

group outside the dair to receive us : they kissed our

CH. VII.] Desert Monasteries. 295

hands with exclamations of thankfulness for our safe

arrival, and led us through the narrow doorwaywithin the fortress, where we were soon lodged in

the guest-chamber, and lay on rugs upon the floor

to rest and wait for our tents and camels. The

guest-chamber was a bare room with latticed but

unglazed windows : it was on the first floor, and

reached by a flight of steps in the open air without :

some dark cells are annexed to it, but did not look

very tempting. The monks gave us the usual eastern

A.y.n.

Fig. 19. Dair Macarius from the south-east.

thimbleful of coffee, but it was nearly ten o'clock

before we dined. Next morning the unwonted sound

of a church bell roused us at five o'clock, and with

the dawn we got a view of the monastery, which the

darkness of the night before had rendered im-

possible.

All the four monasteries here are built roughly on

the same model, although the details vary in arrange-

ment, and a description of our first resting-place,

Dair Macarius, will more or less accurately describe

the others. The monastery is a veritable fortress,

standing about one hundred and fifty yards square,


with blind lofty walls rising sheer out of the sand.

A high arched recess in one wall of the quadrilateralmarks the place of the doorway; this however is

very diminutive, being scarcely four feet high, and is

closed with a massive iron-plated door, behind which

tons of loose stones are piled in times of danger.The door is further shielded in front by two large

granite millstones, which the monks roll before it,

and are then themselves hauled up to the top of the

wall by a pulley. These precautions now are seldom

taken : but they have sufficed to secure these dairs

in their age-long existence. Their enemies amongthe Beduin in bygone times had of course no artillery,

and soon tired of the idle siege : but the tribes which

now most frequent that part of the desert are engaged

largely in carrying bullrushes from the lakes across

the desert to the Delta for the making of mats : and

as they find the Coptic monasteries very convenient

places to replenish their scanty stock of food and

water, they are wise enough to remain on friendly

terms with the monks. The walls within have a

platform running round the whole circuit, with a

parapet : but the defenders seem never to have used

any other weapon but stones. Each monastery has

also, either detached or not, a large keep or tower,

standing four-square, and approached only by a draw-

bridge. The tower contains the library, storerooms

for the vestments and sacred vessels, cellars for oil

and corn;and many strange holes and hiding-places

for the monks in the last resort, if their citadel should

be taken by the enemy. Besides the well which

supplies the dair with water in ordinary times, there

is sometimes another in the keep.The four walls of Dair Macarius, or Dair Abu


Makcir, as the natives call it, enclose one principal

and one or two smaller courtyards, around which

stand the cells of the monks, domestic buildings such

as the mill-room, the oven 1,the refectory and the like,

and the churches. The mill-room, where they grindtheir corn, is a square building, roofed with a largedome : the mill-stones are driven by cogs worked byan ox or a donkey, and the flour, though very coarse

with the husk unsifted, makes a wholesome bread,

when baked as is the fashion in small round cakes.

The refectory is a long, narrow, vaulted chamber, with

a low stone bench or rather shallow trough runningdown the middle : the monks sit on either side the

bench, while one of their number reads a portion of

1Tischendorff, who visited these monasteries, is not more satis-

factory than Sir G. Wilkinson or other writers. He tells us a great

deal about the nitre, very little about the churches, and that little

mostly wrong. Here, for instance, he speaks of an ' oven behind

the sacristy' as being one of the peculiarities of arrangement which

struck him most;a remark upon which Neale, with his usual inac-

curacy, founds a statement to the effect that' in some part of the

Coptic church, especially in the Desert of Cells' (sic), a small

building with an oven is' attached to the east end of the sanctuary:'

as if sanctuary and sacristy were the same thing (Eastern Church,

Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 190). As a matter of fact the place of the

sacristy in these churches is quite indeterminate, and so is the

place of the oven. Similarly Tischendorff speaks of a 'grotto

chapel'

at Dair-as-Suriani which certainly does not exist;and calls

Anba Bishoi by the odd compound' St Ambeschun.' Of other

travellers, Russegger mentions two monasteries called' Labiat

'

and ' U-Serian'

(!) : Andrdossi gives the names Amba Bischay and

El Baramus : Sicard mentions four, and has the names nearly right.

See Travels in the East, by C. Tischendorff, tr. by W. E. Shuckard,

London, 1847, pp. 45, 46.

I have been at somepains to ascertain the names of the monasteries

correctly; and the names as given in the text may be taken as accu-

rate and final.


scripture all through the meal. Sometimes the old

garners are still used for storing corn;

but the

monks do not scruple to pile their wheat on the

cool paved floor of the nave in their larger churches.

For their oil they have large earthen jars, of the

kind common in all countries : wine they do not

keep, as it cannot be made on the spot nor broughtacross the desert

;but they make their sacramental

wine, like the rest of the Copts, from dried raisins.

Each dair has a few palm-trees, but not enoughto keep the monks in dates, of which they eat

largely. Their coffee comes with the corn by

convoy from the Delta, and is pounded in an

earthen mortar with a large club-like pestle of

wood to a coarse powder, which does not make a

good drink. At times of festival the corn and oil

and dates and coffee, which form the rude fare of

the monks, are varied with olives and oranges : and

their good cheer is at its height, when a luckless cowor sheep has been driven across the burning sands

to make them a Christmas dinner.

Round the court at Abu Makar are three churches.

The smallest of these is marked by a detached bell-

tower : it is called the church of Al Shiukh 1. Its

greatest length is from north to south, not from east

to west, and may be said to consist of sanctuaries,

choir, and narthex without any nave. The narthex

is divided from the choir by a row of three columns,

one of which has a late classical capital, and the

columns are joined by a screen. Arches springin all four directions from the pillars, and the roof

1

^j-~iJlas written for me by one of the monks

;the word is the

plural of the familiar'

Shaikh,' and means the Elders.


of the church is consequently a groined vaulting

except over the haikal, which has its own dome,while a second dome is placed over part of the choir

in front of the haikal. The haikal here, as in most

of the desert churches, has a pointed arch, which

corresponds to the English chancel-arch, but is due

of course to Byzantine influence. The church con-

tains nothing of interest except a latish picture of

St. Macarius, who is wrongly represented with a

jewelled epigonation.The church of Abu Makar is much larger and

finer. Like Al Shiukh, it must be styled Byzantinein character, and cannot boast of any nave or of any

very clear plan. It has three sanctuaries, a con-

tinuous choir partially walled off from the rest of the

church westward, and a western end very irregular

in shape. The chief interest here lies in the central

haikal, which is very remarkable, being no less than

25 ft. broad from south to north and 20 ft. long. It

is covered in with a splendid dome of fine brickwork,

which recalls the best period of Arab art. The small

windows in the dome contain remains of fine stucco-

work, set with tiny panes of coloured glass : and

though much of the plaster has fallen, enoughremains to show that the whole inner surface of

the dome was once adorned with fresco paintings.

The ancient doors of the haikal are finely carved

with arabesques in low relief: over the screen rises

a lofty chancel-arch, the soffit of which is cased

with wood, whereon are painted nine medallions en-

closing sacred scenes. The haikal here and without

exception in all the churches of the Natrun valley

is square-ended, a curious reversal of the rule

among the Cairene churches, in which the apse is

3OO Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

almost a universal feature. But the eastern wall

contains the usual central niche, which is covered

with faded frescoes;

it contains also one side niche

and two other recesses, which are square-headed :

while the north wall contains no less than five niches.

A tier of three large steps runs along the whole

length of the eastern wall, making a sort of tribune;

but it is doubtful whether it has more than a formal

value. The altar of course is of stone, and of

the usual description : but by a very remarkable

peculiarity, quite unparalleled in the churches of

Masr, it stands on a raised platform. This platformis loin, high and 12 ft. 6 in. square. In most of the

desert churches the altar either stands on a similar

detached platform, or is raised one step above the

westernmost part of the haikal : but I have not been

able to find any reason for this marked departurefrom the structure of the altar normal in the

churches of the Delta. There are two other pecu-liarities to notice in regard to these altars in the

desert : first, that they very seldom have any canopyor baldakyn overshadowing them

; secondly, that

they usually, as at Abu Makar, have two stone

candelabra standing close beside them, one at the

north and one at the south side. The latter

arrangement is doubtless in virtue of the earlycanon against the use of lights upon the altar.

The chapel adjoining the haikal on the north,

which is dedicated to St. John, is remarkable in

having a sort of inner choir. The outer screen is as

usual in a line with the haikal-screen, but at a distance

of about eight feet eastward from this outer screen

there stands a second, which serves as the icono-

stasis. I know no other example of an inner choir


stolen, as it were, from the area of a side chapel in

this manner. Of the two screens, that to the west-

ward is the more noteworthy : for it contains a

number of small vertical oblong panels carved with

exquisite arabesque devices in extraordinarily highrelief. Closely as the lines of the design are

grouped together, they stand out no less than i \ in.

from the background. Such carving surpasses any-

thing in woodwork in the Cairo churches, and is a

real triumph of skilful workmanship. The panels are

older than the screen in which they are framed, and

are probably not later than the eighth century.

The altar here stands on a raised platform, not

detached but running across the chapel into the

north and south walls. On the east wall are the

remains of some frescoed figures, now almost indis-

tinguishable, and there are traces of an interlacing

pattern in the recess. Between this chapel and the

haikal stands a partition wall, which is pierced to-

wards the westward with a door having an arched

heading of carved stonework. Nearly all the plaster

has fallen in from the north dome, but the fragmentsthat remain are coloured. Round the lower part of

the dome runs a border of conventional design clearly

visible by aid of a glass1.

The choir of the church of Abu Makar, like that of

Al Shiukh, contains a reliquary: the bones of St.

Macarius are said to rest in the latter.

1 Mr. Greville Chester, in his' Notes on the Coptic Dayrs in the

Wady Natrun,' speaks of '

fine Cufic inscriptions in red upon the

dome.' This is an error. There is not a letter of Cufic or Arabic

in the church, though in the dim light it is easy to mistake the

angular character of this design for Cufic writing.

3O2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vu;

The third church lies on the southern side of the

courtyard, and is dedicated to Abu Iskharun^, or St.

Ischyrion, a martyr of Alexandria. It is perhapsrather more basilican in structure than the other

churches, but not of a very decided type of architec-

ture. The choir and nave are almost covered byone magnificent dome of brick, the low pitch of which

secures a curve of great beauty. A door once lead-

ing into the north part of the choir is now blocked :

it is square-headed, and above the lintel there is set

a large panel of finely wrought mosaic of brickwork.

Ornamentation of this kind, no less than the noble

span and superblightness of these desertdomes, shows

that the ancient monastic builders possessed an un-

rivalled mastery over brickwork, and delighted in

producing effects on which western architects would

scarcely venture. The shell of these churches is

generally built of unhewn limestone, which is found

in large quantities in the desert hills : but the bricks,

which .are small and dark red in colour, must have

been carried on camels from the far-off cities of

Egypt.The north chapel of Abu Iskharun contains at

present no altar, but doubtless had one originally.

In the haikal there is an unusual feature : againstthe wall in the north-west corner is placed a sort of

small table of stone, which possibly may have been

designed as a credence, and close by it an unmistake-

able piscina. The latter is formed of an ordinaryearthenware jar, or kullah as the natives call it, with

the bottom broken out, and the mouth set downwardsin the wall, in which it is cemented. This is doubt-

>>.


less in replacement of a marble piscina, and there

is a proper drain to carry off the rinsings. In the

south cha el also is a curious fitting a sort of

small marble basin, half engaged in the wall at

the north-east corner. The monks told me that

it is used in making and consecrating the oleum

infirmorum.

We found posted on the wall by the haikal-screen

in this church a paper covered with finely written

Arabic characters, clearly denoting some sort of fes-

tival occasion. It proved to be a form of thanksgivingfor the entry of the English army into Cairo in the

year 1882.

Quitting Abu Iskharun and mounting a steep and

broken flight of steps, one comes to the drawbridgeof the kasr or tower. The drawbridge now rests

across the deep chasm which divides the tower from

the staircase, but can be raised by a windlass in case

of danger. One lands on the floor of the first story,

which contains three separate chapels.

The first of these, dedicated to St. Michael, con-

sists of a single room divided roughly into haikal and

nave by screens. In the nave stand five pillars, the

shaft of each composed of two small columns set ver-

tically one on top of another. Among them there are

two Doric capitals, and five late Corinthian, with

crosses carved among the foliage. The Corinthian

capitals, and one other of a graceful design not

assignable to any classical order, were picked out in

colours : touches of red and blue are still discernible.

On the south side of the chapel there are some rude

but ancient mural paintings, which represent horse-

men : they are executed in pale red and yellow shades,

and beneath them are Coptic inscriptions. The


haikal-screen, which is a fine piece of ivory inlaying,is surmounted by another inscription carved in ivory.

The haikal is square-ended and not remarkable,

except for a consecration cross, which is incised upona slender marble shaft placed against the eastern wall,

and for a curious collection of relics. No less than

sixteen patriarchs are here preserved in plain deal

boxes ! Eight cases, each containing two bodies, are

piled one upon another at the south side of the

altar: and so far from being hermetically sealed,

they are so loosely put together and so slender in

make, that one may clearly see the shrivelled forms

of the patriarchs lying like so many mummies in

their coffins.

Next comes the chapel of St. Anthony, which pos-sesses no attraction except in three very ancient

frescoed figures. Of these the dexter figure wears a

decided chasuble of yellow colour: the central

figure wears a white chasuble lined with red : while

the sinister figure is clad in a cope fastened by a

morse. All three wear glories.

The last of the three chapels is dedicated to a

saint called in Arabic Suah 1,who may possibly be

St. Sabas. Like St. Anthony, it contains some fres-

coes, which are interesting as preserving a record of

the vanished chasuble. Here there are nine figures,

of which the greater part show a chasuble with

rounded front falling a little below the girdle. One

figure has also a vestment possibly intended for an

epigonation ;but in the present state of the painting

one cannot affirm positively what would, if established,

be very remarkable testimony.

as written by the monks.


A sort of dungeon staircase leads down to the

ground floor of the tower, where there are manyempty vaults and chambers, and the church of Al

Adra, which is larger than the chapels on the first

floor, and contains three altars arranged in the usual

fashion. But the altars are not separated : they all

stand on one continuous raised platform, which is

7 ft. distant from the screen. An arch on each side

the haikal forms the only division here as at Al

Mu'allakah; and another point of coincidence between

the two churches is this, that the altar-tops are all of

the exceptional kind found at the great church in

Cairo. The south altar-top encloses a semicircular

slab of marble with a sunken surface and border, but

no outlet westward : the top of the haikal altar is a

marble slab of oblong form with a similar depression :

while on the north altar there rests another semi-

circular tray of marble, so large that it projects in

places five inches beyond the side of the substructure.

I thought here to recover the tradition of the usageor ceremony for which these curious altar-tops were

designed, and was disappointed to find that the

monks of the desert could tell me no more than the

priests of Cairo.

The foundation of this monastery is no doubt

rightly ascribed to the saint whose name it bears.

Rufinus 1 mentions 'two lights of heaven shining

there,' both called Macarius. Of these the elder

was surnamed the Egyptian ;the younger, or the

Alexandrian, flourished in the fourth century: and

the latter it was who founded the dair, distant twenty-four hours' journey from the Nitrian monasteries, at a

1

Rosweyde, Vitae Patrum, p. 367 seq.

VOL. i. X

306 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. VH.

place called Scithium. Rufinus adds that there is

no path or sign by the way to guide the traveller

thither : the monastery has little water, and that

bituminous and very foul of smell :

' sunt ergo ibi

viri valde perfecti! In proof of this perfection is told

the well-known story of the grapes given to Macarius,

and handed from monk to monk and at last returned,

all refusing to partake so sinful a luxury. Macarius

himself once killed a mosquito that was biting him,

and in sorrow for the deed retired naked to the

marshes where the largest and most venomous sort

abounded, and suffered six months' torment beneath

their stings : so that, when he returned to his monks,

they could not recognise his swollen face and body,but knew him only by the sound of his voice. This

legend, it may be noticed, is very remarkable in beingfounded on a trait rare in those early times, and

perhaps now rarer still in Egypt a tender regard for

animal life. He had a power of seeing visions, bywhich we are told he once beheld the evil thoughtsof the monks, in the form of littje black imps playingabout them in church ;

and when a bad monk putout his hand to receive the consecrated bread, one of

these 'Êthiops' placed hot coals in the monk's hand,

and the wafer flew back unaided to the altar. In

short Macarius by his virtues and powers, his fastings,

self-chastisements and abasements, gained a reputa-tion for saintly austerity which made him the wonder

of his own time, and carried his name all over the

Christian world after his death 1

.

1 For further details concerning him see Rosweyde, 1. c. ;Lord

Lindsay's Christian Art, vol. i. p. cxxxviii seq. ;Curzon's Monasteries

of the Levant, pp. 91-2.


Of the subsequent history of the monastery, next

to nothing is known. It was repaired and strength-

ened about the year 880 by Sanutius the patriarch,

whose body may be one of the sixteen mummies.

About the year IOOOA.D. one Joseph, a deacon of

Abu Makar, complains that this is the only place

where Christians 'come to the throne with confidence,'

i. e. during the great persecution. Abu-'l-Farag men-

tions it in his book of the Christian convents : and

Abu-'l-Birkat relates that in his day the Coptic

liturgy was used without Arabic at Dair Macarius,

implying that the monks still understood the ancient

language of their ritual. Quatremere1

, remarking on

this statement, is anxious to know whether it still

holds good ;but observes that travellers who have

visited the place since, are silent : and Sonnini, whotestifies to the use of both Coptic and Arabic at

Al Baramus, did not even visit Dair Macarius 2.

Of course there is not a grain of truth in the state-

ment as applied to present day practice ;and I very

much doubt whether it was true when Abu-'l-Birkat

wrote it.

At the time of my visit the number of monks at the

convent of Abu Makar was twenty, of whom twelve

were in priest's orders. They are allowed sometimes

to visit the patriarch, and even to see friends living

in Cairo, by special permission : but they must return

to live and to die in the desert.

1 Recherches Critiques et Historiques sur la Langue et la Litte'r-

ature de 1'Egypte ; par Etienne Quatremere. Paris, 1808.2

It was the sudden abandonment of his proposed visit to Abu

Makar, where an ambush of Beduins awaited him, to which

Sonnini owed his life.

X 2


Dair Anba Bishoi \

At our departure from the kindly shelter of Dair

Macarius, the monks escorted us without the walls,

and the kummus or abbot prayed for our safety,

spreading both hands palm-upwards towards the skies.

The surface of the valley proved very different from

that of the desert before we descended : the hard-set

ground covered with dark sheeny pebbles had now

given place to stretches of soft loose sand and beds

of broken limestone, while tufts of reedy grass and

low prickly shrubs relieved the utter deadness of

the wilderness. The ride takes only about four

hours, and is extremely picturesque ; especially as

the lakes come into view, and the strangely bril-

liant purple of their shining surface contrasts with

the dark reed-beds which encircle them, and with the

sombre hues of the desert sand. Here and there the

way is marked by little heaps of stone ranged in

a line, which once reached from the cells of Macarius

to the monastery of Anba Bishoi. The track is

called to this day the Path of the Angels : for

legend tells that angels made the road to guide the

hermits of Scete to church on holy days. At one

point on the route, after Dair Anba Bishoi and Dair-

as-Suriani, which stand within bowshot of each other,

have risen above the horizon in front, the white walls

of Macarius are still visible in the far distance

behind: while on either side the broad valley spreads

reposing in monumental silence.

Lol

CH. vii.]Desert Monasteries. 309

We had heard that Anba Bishoi contained the

best well of water of all the four monasteries, and weresolved therefore to make it our head-quarters for

the remainder of our visit, a decision which we had

no cause to repent. We found our arrival was not

expected : the iron-plated postern was closed, and wehad to ring some time at the bell, which is hung on

the convent wall and sounded by a cord swingingloose below. At last our Beduins and our beasts

were admitted within the dair, and our tents pitched

Fig. 20. Dair Anba Bishoi from the north-west.

in the main courtyard, which is an oblong, boundedon three sides by cells, and on the fourth by a church

dedicated to the patron saint of the convent. Thereare two other courtyards besides, in one of which is a

large well about fifteen feet in diameter, worked with

the usual Egyptian sakkiah or waterwheel and a

string of pitchers. Water pumped up by this rude

machinery, which doubtless dates from the days of

the Pharaohs, is made to irrigate the monastery

garden, which is almost a rood in extent, and

grows some palms, olives, garlic, capsicum, and other

vegetables, to the great pride of the monks.

The name Bishoi is no doubt an Arabic corruption

3io Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

of the Coptic Isa, which corresponded probably to

Isaiah. The Coptic article n was prefixed in com-

mon speech, making the name Pisa, under which

name Anba Bishoi wrote an ascetic treatise, the

original MS. of which Curzon claims to have pro-

cured 1. The Coptic form n<LHce is found in another

MS. of the fourth century2

. There seems no more

to be said on the matter : for a demand for informa-

tion on a point of philology or history has about as

much chance of a profitable answer from the monksas a demand for the philosopher's stone. Theycherish the body of their founder, but his spirit is

indeed departed.The principal church here, which bears the name

of Anba Bishoi, is an extremely fine building, the

main features of which are of the basilican order,

though the whole fabric is too Coptic in its mixture

of styles to be classed with any very definite form

of architecture. There are three entrances, one of

which on the north side is through a porch covered

in with a very fine dome of brick;another lies in

the corresponding position on the south side;while

the third is by a large central doorway in the west

end of the church. The body of the building con-

sists of nave, with north and south aisle, and returned

western aisle or narthex. The roof of the nave is

a lofty pointed-arched vaulting : the aisles are also

vaulted, and are separated from the nave by massive

piers, which carry lofty pointed arches. These arches

are now mostly blocked up to strengthen the nave

1 Monasteries of the Levant, p. 91.2Fragmentum Evangelii S. Johannis Graeco-Copto-Thebaicum ;

ed, A. Georgius. Rome, 1 789. Praef. p. xcii.


walls, which the thrust of the vaulting seems to have

endangered : for a similar reason doubtless two ad-

ditional piers have been thrown out laterally in the

middle of the nave, with the result of almost sunder-

ing it into two divisions. That this is not part of

the original design is proved by the fact that the

pier so thrown out on the north side is built across

the ancient stone ambon, entirely blocking the steps

by which it was mounted : and in replacement of the

ambon a wooden pulpit has been erected further

eastward. In the floor of the nave is set a small

marble basin, used at the ceremony of feet-washing.The outer walls of the aisles once contained small

windows, now blocked : but traces of the starlike

design in stucco-work, which enclosed panes of

coloured glass, still remain visible.

The choir is entirely walled off from the nave,

with the exception of a very lofty arched opening,the lower part of which closes with folding doors.

This is unquestionably part of the original arrange-ment of the church, and is very curious. It corre-

sponds with the arrangement in one or two western

monastic churches, where women were admitted to

the service, and were thus effectually separated from

the men;but probably no woman has ever visited

these monasteries since their foundation. The choir

doors are set with panels of fine carving in relief,

enclosed in ivory borders : similar doors, though not

so lofty, shut off the aisles also from the choir : but

there are no steps between, the choir and the nave

being on the same level.

Like the nave, the choir is vaulted : but instead

of the vaulting of the nave and aisles being con-

tinued over the choir, it stops short;and the choir


CHOIR.LATERAL VAULTING OVER

MARBLE BASIN

N M H! FOR MANDATUM ;

AMBON A

I d

Fig. 21. Plan of the monastic church of Anba Bishoi.

CH. vii.]Desert Monasteries. 313

has a separate vaulting at right angles to that of

the nave. A decayed fresco of St. George on the

south wall;the usual ostrich-eggs and a fine bronze

corona hanging before the haikal-screen;and some

small coloured windows of Arab stucco-work in the

north and south gables of the roof these are the

only points of interest in the choir. But there are

two satellite churches or chapels which open out from

the choir, and deserve notice. That at the north side

is dedicated to Al Adra, and contains the bones of

Anba Bishoi in a reliquary: it is vaulted east and

west, and has only a single altar. The other on the

south side is larger, and is covered in with a most

magnificent dome : the altar, which is dedicated to

Abu Iskharun, has for its slab a shallow marble tray of

oblong form. A narrow passage north of the altar

leads to the baptistery, which lies adjoining the

chapel on the east : it contains a plain round font

of the usual type, with a drain at the bottom to carryoff the water.

Both these satellite chapels lie outside the main

building, and are doubtless later erections;for the

large church has its own three independent altars.

The haikal is raised one step above the choir : the

altar is further raised one step upon a platform, three

sides of which stand clear, while the fourth runs into

the eastern wall, which of course is straight not

apsidal. Yet there is a tribune here of fine propor-tions. It consists of six steps, of which the lower

three are straight, the upper three curved. Thethrone is gone entirely : but the broken masonryshows a cavity underneath it, which may have been

intended for relics. All the steps are faced with

vertical strips of coloured marble : the spandrels of


the niche above the throne still bear rich traces of

the finest opus Alexandrinum : and above is a large

panel filled with mosaic of marble on a larger scale, a

design of crosses in blue enclosed in a white border,

and containing what looked very like traces of gilt

vitreous enamel. But I know no other instance of

this Venetian or Byzantine mosaic in Egypt, and the

impression is probably an illusion. The niche itself

was once ornamented with a mural painting, which

has now quite vanished : but the ceiling of the domestill retains its central cross, and many bright vestiges

of the graceful band of arabesques painted round it.

The peculiar structure of the haikal doors has already

been mentioned l. I have only here to add that in

addition to the ritual interest of their structure, theyare adorned with panels of the beautiful carving in

high relief noticed at the church of St. Macarius :oand above them rises a lofty arch of triumph.

There is a passage of communication between the

haikal and the two side-chapels. Of these that on

the north is very small : the altar is raised on a step

and overshadowed by a tiny dome, but not by an

altar canopy. The south side-chapel is likewise

domed, and rather larger.

All three altars at Anba Bishoi have their topsformed of marble slabs, that in the north chapel

being of oblong form with a horse-shoe depression,

that in the haikal and other chapel being simple

oblongs with a raised border at the sides. There

is no drain pierced through any of these altar-topshere or elsewhere, as one would expect if they were

designed with a view to the rite of washing the altar.


A bell-tower stands near the porch adjoining the

courtyard, but it contains only a single small bell.

One may follow the outer walls of the church round

on the eastern and the southern side : indeed, alto-

gether, it stands in greater isolation than any of the

other churches; yet there is no attempt whatever at

outside adornment or even finish. Unhewn stones

are used for the walls, which are left in the rougheststate externally, with all sorts of chance buttresses,

offsets, and inequalities. Even here, where there

would seem to be no reason for denying that orna-

mentation to the outside which was lavished within

the building, the Coptic architects, either from the

force of habit or from some curious canon of taste,

have entirely failed to produce a beautiful exterior.

The kasr contains little of interest except a series

of lofty vaulted chambers, which, judging from the

fragments of Coptic and Arabic volumes scattered

about the floor, once served as the convent library.

It has long since been ransacked : not a fragmentof any work remains here, or, I venture to say, in

any of the monasteries of the Natrun valley. Onthe top of the tower is a single chapel, dedicated to

St. Michael, as was customary in the case of a sacred

building raised on any lofty eminence, alike in eastern

and western Christendom. The chapel is but rudelyfurnished. The pictures on the iconostasis datingfrom the last century, shew the twelve apostles vested

in dalmatic, girdle, omophorion, and cope : but there

is nothing else which calls for notice.

The kummus or abbot of Anba Bishoi claimed

for his monastery an antiquity of fifteen hundred

years from its first foundation, but told me that the

buildings had been largely repaired about a century


ago. This was doubtless the time when the arches

between the nave and aisles were blocked, and the

cross-wall built in the nave of the principal church.

Regarding the date of this edifice it is extremelydifficult to speak with decision : for while the haikal

points on the whole to the sixth or seventh century,

other details, such as the enrichment of the loftier

domes, the coloured glass and stucco-work, and

possibly the structure of the nave, seem to belongrather to the tenth or eleventh century. The truth

probably is that different features of the church are

assignable to different epochs.

Dair-as-Suriani \

No one whose imagination has been kindled bythe romantic story of Curzon's visit to the monks of

the Natrun valley, could resist a feeling of keen

excitement as he neared the walls of Dair-as-Suriani,

where Curzon discovered that horde of ancient literary

treasure which alone would make his name famous.

The excitement is not lessened if the traveller carries,

as the present writer carried, about his waist a heavybelt of gold, wherewith he hopes to retrieve some

fragment of treasure still remaining : and even if the

sense of adventure were wanting, one could not

resist a novel feeling of fascination in surveyingthe singular beauty of the convent. For as the eye

j^ as dictated by one of the monks.

CH. VII.] Desert Monasteries.

follows it, half-climbing the gentle slope of a desert

hill, half-resting on the broad flat summit, its lines

are extremely graceful ; and while over the lower

walls a little forest of palm-trees is seen waving its

clustered foliage as in protest against the barren

sands without, the great white tower and the walls

above stand sculptured in azure clearness against the

desert horizon.

A. J. B.

Fig. 22.-View from the tower of Dair-as-Suriani, showing the interior of that convent, andthe neighbouring convent of Anba Bishoi.

The monastery seems to derive its name from a

colony of Syrian hermits, who either founded it or

occupied it very early. Traces of Syriac literatureremain there even to this day, and many priceless

Syriac MSS. were carried off by Curzon and Tattam.But there are no Syrian inmates now, nor are thereeither books or monks of Abyssinian origin, such asCurzon discovered.


The monks as usual received us with great kind-

ness, and were eager to show us over the monastery.

They pointed out to us the ancient and venerable

tamarind a rare but not unknown tree in Egyptwhich is said to have grown from a walking-stickthrust in the ground by St. Ephrem : and they told

us the legend, just as their predecessors have told it to

travellers for generations before them l. They gave

us tiny quantities of indifferent coffee, and peeled for

us dry dates with soapless fingers : they talked with

us about our journey and about their own life, theyled us into the churches and over the tower

; showedus their books, their corn and their oil : and, like their

brethren at the other monasteries, they refused to

take our money.There are two principal churches within the dair,

both dedicated to the Virgin : but as the term Al'Adra has already been applied distinctively to the

larger and finer building, the smaller will here be

called for clearness' sake Sitt Mariam an alterna-

tive allowed by local usage. The church of Sitt

Mariam then is aisleless and naveless, rather Byzan-tine in structure and nearly square in plan, and verydark. The entrance lies on the south-west. Overthe doorway a block of white marble is inlet, sculp-

tured with a very beautiful cross in low relief: and

on the pier dividing the haikal from the south chapel

within, there is another block of black marble, on

which a cross is carved with splendid arabesques,and enclosed in a circular moulding. These I think

are probably dedication crosses. The main divisions

1 See for example Huntingdon's Epistles, xxxix. Huntingdonvisited Egypt in 1695.


of the church are lateral, and include merely narthex,

choir and sanctuaries : unless what I have called the

narthex can be held to include a nave, in virtue of

the low stone screen which runs north and south,

making a sort of partition. But the screen is only

4 ft. high, and the part behind it is so very shallow

that it is more accurate to regard the whole as

narthex : moreover the whole church, except the

sanctuaries, is roofed with barrel-vaulting, in two

spans with lateral axes : of these one span covers

the choir, the other covers the remainder of the

church westward of the choir, and renders it an

architectural unit. A solid wall pierced with two

doorways separates choir from narthex, and helpsto carry the vaulting.

In the choir one may notice a bronze corona of

some merit, a reliquary, and an ancient pulpit, of

which the decayed remains show traces of ivory

figures of saints, which were once inlaid, one in

each panel. The haikal is rectangular, and has a

conventional tribune of three straight steps, a deepeastern niche, and an aumbry at each side. Thealtar is raised above the haikal floor by one step,

which comes at a distance of 4 ft. from the screen :

and at the four corners stand slender columns

upholding a baldakyn.

Altogether different in style and structure, and far

grander in design, is the magnificent church of Al

'Adra. Whereas Sitt Mariam is only about 4 oft.

by 40, Al 'Adra has about the same breadth with

a length of 90 ft. : and whereas Sitt Mariam maypossibly be called Byzantine, Al 'Adra belongs dis-

tinctly to the basilican order of architecture. In its

general arrangement it bears a strong likeness to the


church of Anba Bishoi, but from internal evidence

seems rather the model than the copy. By the

kindness of the monks I was enabled to make a

plan, which however defective is accurate as far as

it goes, and will serve to give a good idea of the

building. It will be seen that the main entrance is

on the north side by a porch, although there is a

small low western door somewhat singularly thrust

aside from the centre of the western wall. But the

church here is entangled in monastic chambers of

one sort or another;and it is clear that the western

doorway was not designed for a solemn processionalentrance. The fabric consists of nave and two aisles

with western returned aisle, choir, and sanctuaries :

but the choir is shut off from nave and aisles by a

thick and massive wall, which divides the church

into two separate portions. This separation is madeeven more effectual by a pair of lofty folding doors

(H), which close across the archway leading to the

choir. The floor of the whole church is of one

uniform level with the exception of the haikal,

which is raised two steps above the rest : all three

altars are also raised on a platform, one step above

the level of the chapels in which they severally stand.

The nave is roofed with a very handsome and

lofty vaulting, which runs from west to east and is

slightly pointed. It is carried on piers divided by

high pointed arches. The two westward piers are

extremely heavy, the rest are lighter : and all seem

to have massive columns more or less engaged. Alarge rib (L) further strengthens the vaulting : and

a low stone screen (I) runs right across both nave

and aisles, divided by open passages. Unfortunatelythe whole interior of the nave is so plastered with

R ETU R M E D A I S-L E

SCALE of F~EZT

Fig. 23. Plan of the Church of Al 'Atfra, Dair-as-Suriani.

VOL. I. Y


whitewash, that it is impossible to say whether any

part of the fabric is of later construction than the

rest.

Nearly in the middle of the nave floor lies a basin

for the Maundy feet-washing. It consists of an

oblong slab of marble, with a raised fillet round the

edges, and a small circular hollow in the centre, about

9 in. across. One may notice also two bronze coronse

suspended in the nave : each consists merely of a

flat plate of bronze, about 1 2 in. in diameter, piercedwith holes to receive cups of oil. At the east end

of the north aisle is a large wooden reliquary con-

taining some holy bones, and close by it two

aumbries.

At Anba Bishoi the choir, it will be remembered,is roofed with a vaulting at right angles to the nave

vaulting : but here a different plan is followed. Thechoir roofing consists of a fine central dome, which

covers the whole space before the haikal, and two

semidomes, one at either end northward and south-

ward. Each of these semidomes is adorned with

very rich fresco paintings, which are still in fair pre-

servation : northward the scene is the Death of the

Virgin (F), and southward two subjects are depicted

together, the Annunciation and the Nativity (G).

In the latter our Lord wears the nimb crucifer. There

is a large dome over the haikal altar; one of smaller

size over each of the side-altars;and in the centre

of the western returned aisle another semidome,frescoed with a scene representing the Ascension (K).In looking at the plan it is difficult to resist the

impression that, in spite of the rectangular character

of the church, the architect consciously studied a

cruciform arrangement with his domes and semi-


domes. Regarding the merit of the mural paintingsI may say at once that they are clear and strong in

design, true in drawing, rich and mellow in tone,

and, in a word, worthy of the church which theyadorn and of comparison with any like work in

Europe.

Curiously enough there is another stone screen

against the western wall of the choir, where it is

hard to say what purpose it can have served; for

the monks could hardly lean upon it, as they do in

ordinary cases. The doors between the choir andnave are evidently of extreme antiquity : they are

inlaid with ivory figures of saints, each on a separate

panel, but only the top panels are so decorated.

Round the posts and lintel of the doorway runs a

Syriac inscription, in raised letters, of a rude bold

character, which fixes their date as not later than the

seventh century of our era.

Between the haikal and the choir there intervenes

a lofty chancel-arch, the lower part of which is closed

by a pair of high folding-doors, each in three leaves.

The leaves fold backward into the sanctuary, openinga full view of the altar : and these doors, like those of

the choir, have their top panels inlaid in ivory with

holy figures, which serve as icons, while all the lower

panels are ornamented with geometrical designs in

ivory inlay. The detail of these designs is verymuch simpler and more archaic-looking than the

ivory designs at Abu-'s-Sifain : and is otherwise

distinguished from them by the entire absence of

the conventional acanthus, which is conspicuous no

less in work of the ninth century and later amongthe churches and mosques of Egypt, than in carvingsand illuminations of Anglo-Saxon, Irish, and other

Y 2


western artists. Here too a Syriac inscription runs

round the jambs and lintel, but the lettering is rather

later, although still of a kind not found subsequentlyto the eighth century. This church, then, claims the

extraordinary interest of possessing two wooden

screens, of which neither can be later than 700 or

800 A. D., and one must be considerably more ancient ;

an interest which is partly shared no doubt with the

neighbouring churches of Anba Bishoi and Al'

AdraDair al Baramus, but is otherwise unrivalled in all

that remains of Christian architecture throughout the

world.

There is no crewet-holder fastened on the haikal-

screen here, although it is usually found in the

desert churches, as in those of Cairo. The lintel

of the door may be rightly called a rood-beam, for

it carries in the centre a plain bronze cross. All

three altars are raised one step above their several

sanctuaries, but the platform is not detached at the

sides. The central altar stands higher than the side

altar, by reason of the steps before the haikal-screen,

and behind it there is a tier of straight steps againstthe eastern wall, forming a sort of tribune. Fourslender shafts at the four corners of the high altar

(D) support a baldakyn : and at each side, north and,

south, there stands a solid marble candelabrum, 4 ft.

6 in. in height, touching the altar (E). The domewhich roofs the haikal is high in pitch, and for somedistance upwards has vertical sides before the spring-

begins : both in the cylindrical part and in the domewindows are pierced, filled in with stucco tracery and

panes of coloured glass.

The interior ofthe haikal is most richly ornamentedwith designs in plaster of very elaborate and skilful


workmanship. The ornamentation begins at a heightof about 7 ft. from the ground, and consists of a belt,

4ft. broad, which runs round the three walls. Abeautiful border of a very original design runs alongthe lower edge of the belt : the remainder is divided

by vertical bands into panels, which are enriched

with the same design on a larger "scale, alternatingwith other designs no less sumptuous. The whole

of the work is finely moulded in plaster, and is cast

in high relief. In the eastern wall the niche (B) andan aumbry on either side of it (A) are surrounded

by work in the same style, but even more beautiful.

At each side of the niche stands a pillar half-engagedand covered with close flutes, which cross diagonally:beside the pillars, and round about the arched headingof the niche, runs a large and bold design of very

graceful arabesques ;and above the niche there is

a panel filled with crosses. Within the niche there

hangs a fine cross of bronze. The aumbries also

are roofed with circular arches followed round byelaborate mouldings, and the spandrels are filled

with fine enrichments : moreover the aumbries in

the north and south wall, as well as the round arch

of the doorway into each of the side-chapels, are

lavishly ornamented in the same manner. It

will be noticed that the north doorway has been

blocked.

There is no Epiphany tank in this church, and

none at either of the churches of Anba Bishoi. One,

however, is found in the church of Abu Makar, at the

monastery of that name, and one also in the restored

church at Al Baramus.

The refectory at Dair-as-Suriani contains nothingof special interest, except some rather rude and much


decayed frescoes : but it is worth remarking that

while all these desert monasteries contain a commonroom for meals, like the frater of our English monas-

teries, there seems no instance of a common roomfor sleeping, corresponding to the dormitory or

dorter. Each monk sleeps in his own cell, and

there seems no evidence of any other rule having

prevailed.It is well worth while to ascend the tower : not

for the chapel of St. Michael at the top, where there

is nothing to repay a visit except a fine bronze lamplike that engraved from Abu Kir wa Yuhanna at

Old Cairo : nor yet for the library, where all one's

hopes of hidden treasure swiftly vanish away : but

for the view, which opens in silent magnificence.

Nearly all the interior of the dair, with its churches,

cells, and garden of palms is visible : close by rise

the ancient walls of Anba Bishoi : farther to the

north, in the distance, the lakes flash like mirrors in

the sunshine : and all around the vast horizon is

bounded by desolate sands, more lifeless, more im-

passable, and more sublime than the ocean.

Dair A'I Baramus.

From our camp in the monastery of Anba Bishoi

to Dair al Baramus was a ride of about three hours,

over loose sand and shale and ridges of limestone

rock, which in some places rose in little hills, and

had evidently been quarried to furnish stone

for the monastic buildings of the neighbourhood.


Our guide and herald, deputed by the patriarch,

had gone on some way before us : and when on

mounting the last ridge we sighted the monastery,dark figures were faintly visible upon the distant

parapets. As we neared, the monks descended, and

stood grouped in clear relief outside, under the white

walls of their fortress. When we were within two

hundred yards of the gate, the monks advanced

towards us with waving banners. They kissed. our

hands as we dismounted : then formed a procession

in front of us, and advanced chaunting psalms and

Fig. 24. Dair al Baramus .

beating cymbals and triangles, while the great bell

of the convent clashed out a tumultuous welcome.

At the narrow doorway the banners were lowered,

and we bent our heads; but the bell still boomed,

and the chaunt continued, as we marched across the;

courtyard to the church of Al Baramus. There a

service of song was held in rejoicing for our safe

arrival;and when it was ended the abbot read an,

address of welcome such as is customary to read on.

1 The above woodcut is borrowed from Sonnini with trifling

corrections.

328 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. VH.

the arrival of any distinguished personage1

. Fromthe church we were led up to the guest-chamber,where we partook of the frugal fare offered by our

kindly hosts : and we spent the day in talking to the

monks, and in examining the various buildings.

1 The address is worth giving ;it runs as follows :

'

Rejoice with me to-day, O my fathers, my brethren, because of

these blessed people of Christ who have come to this wilderness, to

visit this monastery and these lordly monuments, being favoured

with all grace and divine blessing. Be glad with me to-day,

O Christian people, chief of the clergy, revered deacons and

honoured priests, and you, O blessed children, who come to-dayinto this wilderness, to these holy places which are bright with the

light of saints. Sing tuneful hymns and psalms of David, saying,"Thy habitations, O Lord of Hosts, are bright, my soul longeth

for thy courts," because herein the righteous fathers, saints without

guile, abode.' This is the convent of Al Baramus, in which abode Maximus,

Dumatius, Anba Musa, and the priest Ad Darus, and it bears the

name of Mary the Virgin. This is the dwelling of brave soldiers,

the place of heroes, who, being sons of kings and sultans, of their

own will chose rather to be poor and needy, refusing the pomp and

vanity of the world. They were lovers of Christ our God, and

walked in his footsteps, bearing his cross.' He who visits these mansions with firm faith, fervent desire,

true repentance, and good works, shall have all his sins forgiven.

Then, O my reverend fathers and my beloved brethren, come, that

we may pray for these our dear and honourable brethren, who are

come upon this visit and have reached these habitations. Let us

pray that Jesus Christ, who was with his servants in x every time

and every place, saving them through all evil and sorrow, may nowbe with his servants who have come upon this visit, and maydeliver them from all sins and iniquities. May he grant them the

best of gifts and full reward, recompensing them for all they have

endured through toil and peril and the weariness of the journey as

they travelled hither; give them abundance of blessing, of joy,

and of grace ; grant them length of days, prosperity, and highest

honour; bring them back to their homes in safety, in health of

soul and body, and after a long life transport them to the bright-


The church in which our solemn welcome washeld is dedicated to Al Baramus, a name of which

the origin is uncertain;but the first syllable is sup-

posed to be the Coptic article, and the remainder to

represent some name like'

Papalo?. Unfortunatelya restoration not quite finished had stripped the

church of every single feature of interest, and

apparently changed even the old lines of the build-

ing. An Epiphany tank has been constructed byraising the level of the ground in the narthex, a feat

of which the monks are decidedly boastful : and

every sign of antiquity has been swept away, exceptthe haikal-screen, which is of no great moment.

There is, however, a fine ancient church still

remaining, though not undamaged by the white-

wash, in which this monastery rejoices. It is dedi-

cated to Al 'Adra, and consists roughly of nave and

aisles, with the usual three eastern sanctuaries. Thenave is roofed with a pointed-arched vaulting, which

is strengthened by three stone ribs : but the structure

here is so far peculiar, not to say unique, that the

ribs instead of running down the nave-walls to the

ground stop short, and are received on corbels at

the spring of the vaulting. Each corbel, moreover,is marked by a fine cross within a roundel, modelled

ness of Paradise and the life of bliss, through the intercession of

our Lady the Virgin and of all our holy fathers. Amen.'

I may here note that the saints called Maximus and Dumatius

(^..^JLftjj.1 ^j^, :.--- ^--) were sons of a Greek emperor Leo, who

went into the desert of Scete, according to a fourteenth century MS.in the Bibliotheque Nationale. (Bib. Or. 258, fol. 16.)

This address seems a very ancient institution : see Rufinus, ap.

Rosweyde, p. 354 :

' ubi autem ingressi sumus monasterium, ora-

tione, ut moris est, data pedes nostros propriis manibus lavat,' sc.

Apollonius.


in plaster and raised in low relief. Besides these

six crosses, which unquestionably mark places signedwith the holy oil at the consecration of the church,

there are four other dedication crosses in the choir

on the western face of the piers between the haikal

and the aisle-chapels. These crosses in the choir

are each enclosed in a circular border, no less than

20 in. in diameter: they are of the form called patonce,with the end of every branch cleft into three leaves,

or rather a central pointed leaf between two half

leaves. Both crosses and borders are filled with

arabesques or other graceful tracery : the whole

design is in plaster.

Here, as at Anba Bishoi, the haikal-screen con-

sists of a pair of lofty folding-doors, each in two

leaves;and here also, instead of opening back and

showing the whole interior of the sanctuary, the four

leaves have been permanently fixed, and the two

inner leaves have been sawn through in such a

manner that while the upper part of each remains

immoveable, the lower swings open on hinges. Theresult of course is a fixed opaque iconostasis, with

a low doorway in the centre, agreeing with the

fashion which seems to have arisen in the eighthor ninth century. The carvings upon this screen

stand out in very bold relief, and, though purely

conventional, are singularly beautiful.

As usual, all three chapels are rectangular; but

the haikal contains a niche so large as almost to be

worthy the name of an apse. The floor of the niche

is, however, raised so far above the floor of the

haikal as to remove all doubt of the architect's

intention. In the north-west corner of this sanc-

tuary one may notice, embedded in the wall, a

OH. vii.] Desert Monasteries. 33 1

piscina of earthenware ;the monks told me that

the priest washes his hands here before the mass,

but after the mass at the altar. The three altars

are undivided except by screens a very unusual

arrangement in the desert churches;

but each

is overshadowed by a lofty dome.

On the whole one may call the church rather

basilican than Byzantine, rather Coptic than basi-

lican. The nave is divided from the aisles at pre-

sent by massive piers ;but these in some cases

obviously, and conjecturally in all cases, enclose

marble columns of fine proportions. In one or

two places capitals are dimly visible;and a very

splendid early Corinthian capital projects clearly

from the wall in one corner westward of the south

aisle.

Among the fittings of the church one may notice

that the basin for the Maundy feet-washing occu-

pies its customary place in the nave floor;there are

two bronze coronse hanging before the haikal, with

the usual ostrich-eggs ;and in the haikal a larger

corona, 5 ft. high, built in three diminishing tiers.

But not a fragment now remains of the magnificentArab lamps of enamelled glass, several of which

Curzon saw in the church at the time of his visit;1

nor does one single specimen survive in any of the

churches of the desert.

Attached to the church of Al Adra are two

satellite churches or chapels, dedicated to Mari

Girgis and Al Amir Tadrus respectively. Theformer of these lies to the westward of Al 'Adra,

and is entered by a door opening out of the north

1 Monasteries of the Levant, pp. 95-6.

332 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vu.

aisle. Though now used only as a granary, it has

still a small haikal : the body of the chapel is nearly

square, and is covered with a dome. Curiously

enough the western wall contains three decided

niches, arched recesses which cannot have been de-

signed for aumbries, but would seem to indicate

the possibility of there having been a western altar;

of this, however, there are no other traces whatever

remaining, and the niches may have been meant

merely for lamps. The haikal is very small, onlyabout 8 ft. square, and nearly the whole area is

taken up by the altar, about which there is just

room to move. Over the altar is built a low domewith graceful ornamentation

;the eastern niche bears

signs of an ancient mural painting ;the north and

the south wall each have a shallow flat recess, with

arched heading. But the most noticeable thing of all

about this chapel of Mari Girgis is that the altar-

top projects beyond the sides about 3 in., with the

under edge bevelling inwards. This method of con-

struction, so common as to be almost universal in

the early altars of our western churches, is so rare

in the churches of Egypt that I know of no other

example.Al Amir Tadrus very much resembles Mari Girgis

in size and structure, but contains nothing of interest;

it opens out of the middle of the north aisle, which

it adjoins. We may pass on to the refectory, which

lies south-west of Al Adra, and which is worth a

visit merely for the rude antiquity of its furniture.

The room is a long, dark, vaulted chamber, lighted

only by two unglazed holes in the roof; the walls

are, or once were, adorned with a profusion of simpleand clumsy frescoes

;the table is formed by a solid

CH.VII.] Desert Monasteries. 333

bench of stone running down the middle of the room,

with lower stone benches ranged along either side :

and near the entrance there stands a curious ancient

book-rest of stone in the shape of a thick-limbed

letter Y, with short branches, and a large cross

sculptured on the stem. I cannot think that this

refectory is later than the fifth or sixth century.

One more chapel remains, that of the Archangel

Michael, which is in the kasr or tower : a small plain

uninteresting building. Here, however, lies a pile

of loose leaves of MS., which cover nearly half the

floor of the^ chapel to a depth of about 2 ft. : and

here I thought at last was a real chance of undis-

covered treasure. So I spent some hours in digging

among the pile, in choking and blinding dust;armful

after armful was taken up, searched, sifted, and re-

jected. Here and there a tiny fragment of early

Syriac, Coptic, or even Greek on vellum;

half a

leaf of a Coptic and Ethiopic lexicon; several shreds

of Coptic and Arabic lexicons;countless pages of

mediaeval Coptic or Copto-Arabic liturgies : this wasthe only result of the most diligent search, and the

quest ended in final disappointment. The monkswere very good-natured, allowing me to take awaymy little pieces of worthless paper as memorials of

my visit, but declining with courteous firmness to

give or sell the whole collection of rubbish; for they

required the leaves, they told me, to bind their new

books, and all the paper in Cairo would not answer

their purpose so well.

We had much talk with the kindly old abbot, whowas in special distress because the lay council at

Cairo were threatening to sequester the revenues of

the monastery, and administer the estates as a sort

334 Ancient Coptic Churches. LCH. vn.

of ecclesiastical commission. The abbot had a greatidea of our influence with the English and Egyptian

governments, and surrounded his appeal to us for

counsel with some state and solemnity ;but our

answer conveyed cold comfort. The poor old manwas wearing a leathern girdle on our behalf, a more

serious matter than it sounds ;for it meant that

he was doubling all his offices, or, in other words,

making six hundred daily prostrations instead of

three hundred, and praying fourteen times a dayinstead of seven. He was, however, greatly pleasedto find that one of my clerical companions was also

wearing a leathern girdle ;and we spared him the

shock of discovering that it was only a revolver-belt.

Generally the monastery appeared more clean and

cared for than the others. Huntington found here

twenty-five monks two centuries ago, and the num-ber is about the same to-day. One among them is

remarkable for being able to read Hebrew and

Syriac ; for generally they have neither art nor

knowledge, beyond reading and writing Arabic and

sometimes Coptic. Certainly a great change for

the better has come over Al Baramus, since Son-

nini's visit one hundred years ago, if indeed one

can accept his obviously prejudiced story1

. He

1

Voyage dans la Haute et Basse Egypte. Paris, 1798; vol. ii.

pp. 179-207. Sonnini's account of his farewell to the monks of

Al Baramus is so amusing, and the work so little known in Eng-

land, that I may be pardoned for transcribing a few pages :

'L'un des Bddouins avoit tue' sur les bords d'un des lacs de

Natron un phdnicoptere, qu'il me prdsenta. Quoique ce fut un

assez mauvais gibier, il devenoit un mets de"licat pour gens qui

vivoient depuis plusieurs jours d'une rude abstinence. Mes com-

pagnons s'empresserent de le faire rotir : mais au moment ou nous

nous disposions a en faire un excellent repas, les moines se jeterent


tells, for instance, that the reliquary is full of

donkey and camel bones, gathered at random in

the desert;

that the chalice and paten used at

celebration are of ordinary table glass ;that the

services are exceedingly disorderly ;and that the

dessus avec une voracite" comparable & celle de chackals, animaux

carnassiers et immondes, ddchirant lachement une proie facile et

ddgoutante qu'ils n'ont pas eu le courage de ravir, et dans un clin

d'oeil notre oiseau disparut sous les ongles et les dents de ces chackals

enfroque's.

'En nous disposant de quitter d'aussi vilains notes, je me pro-

posois de kur faire quelque cadeau, pour le se*jour ddsagrdable quenous avions fait parmi eux. Je reconnus bientot que j'avois affaire

a des hommes plus dangereux que les Bedouins, francs et gEnereuxdans leur amitid et qui conservent dans 1'exercice me~me de leurs

brigandages une sorte de loyaute'. Le Superieur me dit qu'il con-

venoit que je donnasse d'abord pour le monastere, ensuite pourrembellissement de 1'eglise, puis pour les pauvres, et enfin pour lui-

me'me. J'e'coutois patiemment cette longue Enumeration de besoins,

et curieux a savoir jusqu'a quel point on en dleveroit la valeur, je

demandai quelle seroit la somme suffisante pour y subvenir. Apres

quelques instants de supputation, le moine me rdpondit que le cou-

vent ayant besoin d'etre blanchi en entier, il pensoit que cinq a six

cent sequins rempliroient tous ces objets. Bagatelle, sans doute,

pour une pension de cinq jours au pain de lentilles et aux lentilles

a 1'eau. Je fis a mon tour ma proposition. Ma bourse sortoit des

mains des Arabes, qui me 1'avoient presque toute e'puise'e ;il m'en

restoit six sequins, que j'offris au Supdrieur. Nous dtions un peuloin de compte : aussi le moine entra dans une fureur difficile a

peindre ;il se rdpandit en invectives, et jura les saints de son e*glise

que je ne tarderois pas a repentir de ce qu'il appeloit mon ingrati-

tude. Le miserable osa invoquer la justice du ciel sur laquelle il

fondoit des esperances sacrileges, et qui, disoit-il, ne manqueroit pasde lui amener bientot des Arabes auxquels il indiqueroit ma route,

et qu'il chargeroit de sa vengeance. A ce trait mon sang-froid

m'abandonna et j'allois assommer le coquin sur la place, si les

Bedouins qui e'toient venus me chercher ne 1'avoient enleve et

soustrait a. mes coups.'

Je sortis enfin d'un sdjour infernal et j'e'tois pret a monter sur


monks are unspeakably churlish, dirty, ignorant,and vicious. This highly flavoured description

doubtless owes much of its acidity to the fact that

Sonnini was robbed by the Beduins and narrowly

escaped murder, and that he quarrelled with the

monks. Altogether his journey seems to have been

extremely unpleasant, and his misfortunes soured his

remembrance. He got as far as Dair-as-Suriani,

which he says was better built,'

et les religieux m'ont

paru moins sales et moins stupidement feroces'(!),

and thence made his way back from the desert,

1'ane qui m'etoit destine quand le vieux moine me fit prier de lui

donner les six sequins que je lui avois offerts. Le scheick Arabe

s'e'toit charge de la commission, et a sa consideration je les remis.

Nous vimes alors le sce'le'rat faire, pour notre heureux voyage, une

priere au ciel, clont quelques minutes avant il invoquoit centre nous

toute la vengeance.' Get homme n'existe plus probablement : il e"toit deja vieux et

de'charne', et sa vilaine figure s'accordoit parfaitement avec la laideur

de son ame : son nom e*toit Mikael. Mais . . . il est tres important

de faire connoitre a nos concitoyens qui sont en Egypte, le carac-

tere de perfidie de ces pr^tendus religieux, car, a quelques nuances

pres, ils se ressemblent tous. Quels que soient les dehors qu'ils

affectent, Ton peut etre certain que leur haine contre les Euro-

pe*ens est plus profonde et plus atroce que celle des Mahometans, et

que leurs maisons dans le desert seront le point d'appui des excur-

sions des Bedouins, leur magasins d'approvisionnement, et le lieu

des deliberations propres a assurer le succes de leurs brigandages/Contrast this account with that of Rufinus, whose visit was in the

year 372 A.TX After telling how the monks ran out to meet him

with bread and water, escorted him in procession with chaunting to

the church and washed his feet, he remarks :

'

nusquam sic vidi-

mus florere charitatem, nusquam sic vidimus opus fervere miseii-

cordiae et studium hospitalitatis impleri. Scripturarum vero divi-

narum meditationes et intellectus atque scientiae divinae nusquamtanta vidimus exercitia, ut singulos paene eorum credas oratores in

divina esse sapientia.'


angrily disdaining a visit to Abu Makar. One mayquestion whether the Frenchman's temper was not

somewhat overweening ; but, however that may be,

although the ignorance of the monks is generally

deplorable, they are good kind-hearted people, and

welcome strangers with the utmost power of their

simple hospitality. And so far from being avaricious,

they declined the coins we proffered with a quiet but

decisive dignity.

Not far from the monastery of Al Baramus, in

a westerly direction, there lies the great valley or

channel which the Arabs to this day call' Al Bahr

bila Ma,' or the Waterless River. No doubt it

represents an ancient branch of the Nile once flow-

ing westward of the Libyan hills, and reaching the

sea near Lake Mareotis ;but whether it parted

from the main stream near Dongola, according to

the tradition current in the Sudan, or from someother point further north, has not been decided. Afew years ago, when the western branch of the Nile

burst its banks near Bani Salamah, the stream, in-

stead of passing down along the Delta, rushed

through a gap in the range of hills, and forced its

way along the Waterless River;and this fact proves

that even so far north there is still a considerable

difference of level between the present river and the

ancient channel. In prehistoric times, ere the Nile

left its old bed, the whole intervening desert was

doubtless rich cultivated land;and traces of its

richness may still be found in the gigantic trunks

which lie scattered about the sands at the'

petrified

forest' beyond Al Baramus. The monks have a

characteristic legend for the scene;

for they relate

that the Waterless River was dried up at the prayersVOL. I.


of St. Macarius, in order to punish the pirates, whose

depredations vexed the early Christian anchorites ;

and they point to the logs cumbering the groundas the wrecks of the pirate fleet, which was turned

to stone 1.

From Al Baramus we made our way back to our

camp at Anba Bishoi, whence we were to start di-

rectly on our homeward route across the desert.

Early on the morning of our departure the monks

requested us to attend a service in the church. Theymet us in the porch, their procession headed by a

large cross, which was wreathed in branches of olive

and palm and decked with burning tapers : and theywent before us singing and beating their cymbals,while the convent bell pealed, until we passed throughthe large church, and came to the chapel of Al'Adra.

We found the dim building illumined with scores of

tapers, which were planted on the lattice screen of

the choir and above the haikal door, and scattered

all over the reliquary containing the bones of Anba

Bishoi, or rather his body, which is said to rest within

it incorruptible. The cross was set upright in the

doorway of the haikal, and censers full of burningincense were swung till the air became heavy with

the fumes, while the monks united in chaunts and

prayers and earnest intercessions for our safety.

This little service was the last scene in our visit,

1 See Huntington, I.e., who however records little else of interest.

He describes Anba Bishoi as' non adeo rimis fatiscens ut cetera.'

Another traveller of not much later date, Le Sieur Granger, whovisited Egypt in 1730, is equally disappointing: giving little more

information than that neither at Abu Makar nor As-Suriani would

the monks allow him to enter the library. See Relation du Voyagefait en figypte, p. 179.


but not the least impressive. Among those whocame to bid us farewell were some brethren from

Dair-as-Siiriani, and one poor monk from Al Bara-

mus, whose presence was somewhat pathetic. Hewas the proud possessor of one of three venerable

watches owned by the monastery, but silent from

time immemorial : and, unknown to the abbot, he hadentrusted his treasure to me, begging me to take it

to the patriarch, and pray his holiness to have it

mended. When the abbot discovered what had

happened, he was very angry, and made the poor

Loga start on foot across the desert at three o'clock

in the morning to catch us before we left AnbaBishoi. There was no help for it : so I unpackedthe watch and gave it back to the monk, whoreceived it with touching sorrow, and who doubtless

often mourns in secret over his disappointment andhis broken toy.

When our camels were all loaded and our beasts

got out of the low postern of the dair, we exchangedour last farewells and compliments without the walls,

where the abbot gave us a parting prayer and blessing.Thence we rode down towards the lakes, distant about

an hour's journey, and found their surface covered

with hundreds of flamingoes and other waterfowl of

brilliant plumage flashing in the sun. As we looked,

the flamingoes all rose together in a scarlet cloud, and

swept away over the water. We passed among the

great reed-beds, where the Beduins cut the reeds

which they make into mats;round the south end of

the lakes;then upwards, ridge over ridge, till at the

summit we paused, turned our horses' heads, and

looked back over the beautiful desert valley. Wewere now eastward of Dair Macarius, which did not

z 2


lie quite on our homeward route, though it was still

the nearest in view : and all four monasteries were

visible together, Al Baramus just within the far

azure of the horizon. This was the view we had

missed on our arrival owing to the nightfall. It is a

sight beyond description, but never to be forgotten.

As we turned away, and the ridge behind us finally

closed the scene, shutting out the vast and shiningdesolation of the valley of the monks, we felt as if

we had been living with fifteen centuries of history

cancelled, moving in the ancient monastic world of

Egypt, undreaming of things to come : but now the

sense of reality rushed back upon us, and we found

ourselves alone in the desert.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Churches of Upper Egypt.

The Monasteries of St. Antony and St. Paul in the Eastern Desert.

The Convent of the Pulley. The White and the Red Monastery.Church at Armani. The Churches of Nakddah. Church at

A ntinoe. Miscellaneous.

P to this point the descriptions of churches

and places of interest in Egypt have been

drawn entirely from my own observation

and experience: but there now comes a

large branch of the subject which is still almost

absolutely unexplored, and to which I can unhappilycontribute nothing, except a collection of scantynotes derived from other travellers. The hurried

yet formal progress of the khedive, which I accom-

panied through Upper Egypt to the First Cataract,

did not give me a chance of a single visit to a

Coptic church : nor can I well hope ever again to

ascend the valley of the Nile. But it will be some-

thing to indicate some portion of the work which has

yet to be done, especially in these troubled times,

when the danger is lest a surge of Muslim fanaticism

should sweep away all the still unchronicled remains

of Christian antiquity, ere a'

learned rover'

can be

found to record them.

The number of monks and monasteries in UpperEgypt, from the fourth century onwards, seems to have

342 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

been prodigious. Rufinus relates that in the regionabout Arsinoe he found ten thousand monks : at

Oxyrynchus the bishop estimated his monks at ten

thousand, and his nuns at twenty thousand, while the

city itself contained no less than twelve churches.

Pagan temples and buildings had been turned to

monastic uses : the hermitages outnumbered the

dwelling houses 1: in fact the land 'so swarmed with

monks, that their chaunts and hymns by day and by

night made the whole country one church of God.'

If one can believe these and the like stories, Egyptat this time was one vast convent ;

and the wonder

is that the nation was not extinguished by universal

celibacy. But, with all due allowance for oriental

weakness in arithmetic, it is certain that every town

of importance along the valley of the Nile had its

churches and friars, while many parts both of the

country and the desert were occupied by vast mon-astic settlements.

Among the earliest and most interesting of these,

though unfortunately also the most inaccessible,

must be counted the monasteries of St. Anthony and

St. Paul in the eastern desert by the Red Sea.

St. Anthony is generally called the first monk, but St.

Ammon, or Piammon, as he is often called in Coptic,was contemporary, if not earlier. It is Piammon of

whom the legend is told that he saw an angel stand-

ing at the altar, and recording the names of such

among the monks as received the eucharist worthily,

1 See Rosweyde, pp. 350, 363, especially the passage' aedes

publicae et templa superstitionis antiquae habitationes mine erant

monachorum, ct per totam civitatem plura monasteria quam domus

videbantiv.'

CH. viii.] Upper Rgypt. 343

omitting the others : and when he died, St. Anthonyis said to have seen his soul ascending to heaven.

How soon monasteries, in our sense of the term,

were built upon the sites hallowed by St. Anthony'sdevotions in the desert, cannot be easily determined ;

but it may be conjectured that the first foundation was

not long after the death of the saint. At present Dair

Mari Antonios is the largest of all the dairs of Egypt:a fact which in itself perhaps militates against its

claim to the remotest antiquity.

As the monasteries of the Natrun valley have

their little bases of supply in the Delta, so those of

the eastern desert depend for provisions on somesmaller dairs upon the Nile, one situated near Bani

Suif, and another opposite the village of Maidumcalled after St. Anthony

1. The church of St. Anthony

has already been briefly mentioned 3. I may add, on

Mr. Chester's authority, that the domes here and in

the adjoining Abu-'s-Sifain are supported bycolumns ;

and that the church contains an ancient chalice, and

several porcelain ostrich eggs painted with crosses

and figures of the cherubim. These porcelain eggsare now very rare, but one or two with Muslim

designs may still be seen in the mosque of Kait Bey,

without the walls of Cairo.

Tradition relates that St. Anthony lived here, but

the throng of wayfarers for ever passing up and down

1 My information about the eastern desert monasteries is derived

from Mr. G. Chester's' Notes on the Coptic Dayrs

'

(Arch. Journ.

vol. xxix), and from Vansleb's 'Nouvelle Relation d'un Voyagefait en figypte/ Paris, 1698. To the latter author also I amindebted for much material concerning the other churches men-

tioned in this chapter.2 P. 7-


the Nile drove him to seek the seclusion of the

desert mountains : and Pococke heard from the

monks at the time of his visit that, owing to the special

sanctity of the spot, crocodiles were afraid to pass it,

and hence were never found in Lower Egypt. The

journey from Bush to the Red Sea monasteries

occupies about three days. According to Vansleb

there are two routes;of which the northern follows

the Nile for some distance, then turns to the right,

and passing a deep well in the natural rock filled with

water, leads in three easy stages to the convents.

The other, by which he himself travelled to avoid

encounters with hostile Beduins, trends south-east for

a day and a half, then due east, and requires four

stages. The monastery of St. Anthony lies on the

slope of Mount Kolzim, at the foot of a gigantic

precipice, and looks over the gulf of Suez to the

distant mountains of Sinai. It is oblong in shape,

girt by a lofty wall, and encloses about six acres of

ground. Unlike the Natrun monasteries, it has no

doorway at all, but man and beast are hoisted up by

pulleys on the wall. At the time of Vansleb's visit

the place was still in ruins, not having yet recovered

from the period of wreckage and desolation which

followed the murder of the monks, some four hun-

dred years ago, by the Muslim slaves whom they

iniquitously had purchased. But since that time

there has been a good deal of restoration. The

gardens are described as being very beautiful;

watered by a mountain stream, which gushes, clear

as crystal, from the rock ;and abounding in palms

and olives and the richest vegetation. Two hundred

years ago the monks had vines, from which theymade a sort of white wine, used at the mass and set

CH. viii.] Upper Egypt. 345

before any guest of distinction. Whether the vine

is now cultivated or not, I cannot say.

There are three churches within the monastery,besides the quite new church of Al 'Adra. That of

Anba Markus is dedicated to a brother of that name,an inmate of the convent in ancient times, who died

there in the odour of sanctity, and whose body is

preserved in the church. The building is roofed

with twelve domes. Similar in structure, but smaller,

is the church of the apostles Peter and Paul, which

Vansleb erroneously says is remarkable for possess-

ing the only bell in Egypt. Mr. Chester saw there

two ancient enamelled glass lamps, but nothing else

of interest is mentioned. Neither of these churches

is anterior to the period of abandonment : but the

third and most important, dedicated to St. Anthony,is extremely ancient

;indeed the monks aver that

St. Anthony was its builder. Even Vansleb is con-

vinced of its great antiquity, and remarks that it

is the only thing which escaped the violence of the

Arabs. Apparently1

it consists of narthex, nave,

choir, and haikal;the nave is divided from narthex

and choir by two stone screens : and the whole

church is covered by domes, except the choir, which

is vaulted. The altar stands at a considerable

elevation above the floor of the nave. All over the

walls of the church are remains of very rude and

early frescoes, which even in Vansleb's time were

blackened with smoke;which arose, not, as he thinks,

from ages of incense, but from the camp fires of the

Beduin. Yet a figure of Christ in glory encompassed

1 Mr. Chester's account is not as clear as could be wished.


by angels, and other figures in the eastern niche, are

still discernible : and it is probable that with careful

cleaning nearly the whole might be recovered.

The square tower, resembling those in the western

desert, contains a chapel dedicated to St. Michael, a

library of books which deserve examination, a fine

processional cross of silver, a silver-mounted shade

held over the silver gospel on the occasion of the

annual procession to the cave of St. Anthony, and 'a

fine bronze lamp of at least as great antiquity as the

foundation of the convent itself.'

St. Anthony's cave lies outside the monastery,

higher up the mountain : it is a natural cavern in

the sheer face of the cliff with a ledge in front, and

seems one of a number of caves inhabited by the

early anchorites.

Two days' journey south of this monastery there

lies another, dedicated to Mari Bolos or St. Paul

not the apostle, but the friend of St. Anthony and

fellow-anchorite. Here too the story runs that

slaves were purchased, and joined in the conspiracywhich annihilated the monks of the eastern desert.

But this far convent has scarcely ever been visited

by a European traveller : and its beauties and its

treasures must be left to their ancient silence.

Before however quitting this part of the subject, it

will not be out of place here to give some particulars

of the rule of life observed at Mari Antonios, at the

time of Vansleb's visit, and doubtless unchanged at

the present day. The monks renounce marriage,

kindred, and possessions : they vow to live in the

desert, to dress in woollen habits with a leathern

girdle, to eat no meat and drink no wine, to use

abstinence and fasting, to pray and to work. All

CH. vm.] Upper Egypt. 347

but the abbot and the sick must sleep on a mat on

the ground, never removing their dress or their

girdle. They must say the canonical hours, and

every evening must make one hundred and fifty

prostrations, falling flat on the earth with outspread

arms, and making the sign of the cross each time as

they arise. These prostrations are called metanoe

or penance. Seven additional prostrations are re-

quired at church, one before each of the hours.

The monastic dress consists of seven vestments :

(i) a shirt of white wool next the skin : (2) a tunic of

coarse brown wool, which does not open in front : (3)

a black serge overall with wide sleeves : (4) a small

close-fitting hood of black serge : (5) a girdle of

leather : (6) a large mantle of black stuff with white

lining, seldom used except on journeys ; and lastly (7)

the' askim V or '

angelic habit.' Those who wearthe angelic habit are as few and far between as the

very angels ;for the wearer is bound to make three

hundred daily prostrations, and to undergo a special

system of almost impossible fasting and mortification.

All carry a staff in the shape of a tau-cross, on which

they lean while walking or praying ;and their head-

dress consists of a tarbush wound round with a white

and blue turban.

On fast days they eat but once a day, at three

o'clock in the afternoon; they have two meals on

Saturday and on Sunday. Fish is not forbidden, but

very rarely seen among them, although the Red Seais within an easy distance. At Eastertide they are

1 The word seems derived from the Greek <ryi\^.a ;but the Arabic

isj^X-^l

and the Coptic niJULOp6"ri<L, :

is said by Peyron to mean a' monastic girdle.'


allowed eggs and milk, which are sent from the Nile

convents. Of the twenty inmates at the time of

Vansleb's visit only two were priests, the rest laybrethren ; and all were blind or deaf or lame, or

broken by age and by the terrible rigour of their

monastic rule1

.

Dair al Bakarah, or the Convent of the

Pulley.

We must now return to the valley of the Nile,

where the churches are legion, but for the most part

quite unknown. Some few, however, have been

visited from time to time by travellers, from whose

writings information may be gleaned enough to tan-

talize. Among the convents which have attracted

most attention is Dair al Bakarah 2,or the Convent

of the Pulley, which crowns the summit of a lofty

mountain rising sheer from the river. Gabal-at-

Tair, as the mountain is called, lies on the right bankof the stream, about halfway between Girgah andMiniah. The entrance to the convent is by a deepnatural shaft, cleft through the solid rock from the

summit to the base, where a cave opens on to the

river 3: and the ascent is generally made by a pulley,

whence the name of the monastery. The dair is a

1 Vansleb had the same unpleasantness with the monks at his

departure that Sonnini had when leaving Al Baramus; and, like

Sonnini, he encountered serious perils. See pp. 313-331.

See Curzon's Monasteries, p. 1 1 1 seq.


square enclosure, about 200 ft. each way, built ori-

ginally of hewn stone of Roman workmanship, but

showing considerable traces of Arab repairs.

The church is partly cut out of the solid rock, and

may be called subterranean. Curzon gives a plan of

it unfortunately without scale which I have bor-

rowed with a slight alteration, showing the southern

recess under the staircase. The body of the church

seems to lie in the open, only the choir and haikal

Fig. 25. Rock-cut Church at the Convent of the Pulley.

being actually hewn in the rock. Upon the columns

dividing nave from aisles and returned aisle there

rests a heavy wooden architrave. The choir is raised

about three feet above the nave, and is approached

by a double flight of steps a most unusual arrange-ment. Obviously the wooden screens of the choir and

of the haikal are mediaeval or modern;doubtless the

original haikal-screen consisted of folding-doors like

those still in use at Dair-as-Suriani. Deeply recessed

niches, showing as such on plan, are characteristic of

fourth century churches in Upper Egypt. Thechambers opening out of the choir north and south,


though not described as containing altars now, were

no doubt originally chapels ;so that the church

possessed the normal number of altars. The dedi-

cation of the church, and indeed of the whole

monastery, is to Al Adra or the Virgin, and the

monastic legend ascribes its foundation to the

Empress Helena.

There is no reason to doubt the truth of the

tradition : and there is a curious point about the

church hitherto unnoticed. I mean its resemblance

to the rock-cut temple of ancient Egyptian work at

the not far distant town of Girgah. There is the

same descent by a flight of steps in each case 1

: the

vestibule of the temple is marked off from the aisles

and returned aisle in precisely the same manner, and

by the same number of columns, as in the church :

there is an ascent of steps corresponding to those

before the choir: and, omitting merely the central

hall of the temple, one finds a space like the choir at

Al 'Adra with rock-hewn chambers opening north

and south, and three recesses eastward, which do not

greatly differ from the Coptic haikal with its three

niches. The comparison is further borne out in a

remarkable manner by the fact that only part of the

temple is subterranean, and the part which stands in

the open is the pillared vestibule, answering to the

pillared nave of the Christian edifice.

It is of course not surprising that Coptic architects

should have been influenced by the magnificent

buildings of the ancient Egyptians : the wonder is

rather that this influence should not have been more

decided. For while it is easy to understand a studied

avoidance of pagan models, one would still expect to

1 See plan in Baedeker's Lower Egypt, p. 168.


find more generally some sort of likeness, somedetails at least reproduced by unconscious imitation.

The White Monastery.

Quite the most remarkable instance of resemblance

between Coptic and ancient Egyptian architecture is

found in Dair al Abiad, or the White Monastery, so

called from the white ashlar of which it is built. It

lies at the foot of the Libyan hills as far south as

Suhag, with some miles of desert intervening betweenit and the present bed of the Nile. It is a large,

quadrangular fortress-like building, having its outer

walls finished off upwards with a fine cornice, after

the manner of the old Egyptian temples. This cor-

nice is of white marble. The walls are relieved bytwo rows of small windows like loop-holes, one half

way up, the other near the top : there are twenty-seven 1 windows in each row on the north and south

side, and nine in each row on the east. At present,

however, all the windows are blocked up. Eachstone of the ashlar is 3 ft. to 4 ft. long and i ft. broad.

There were six gates, not of white limestone but of

red granite ; now, however, only a single entrance on

the south has been left open, called the mule gate,

from a legend which tells of a pagan princess whocame riding on a mule to desecrate the church, whenthe earth opened and swallowed her up. Accordingto an authentic tradition, the White Monastery wasfounded by the Empress Helena. The external di-

mensions of the dair are variously given, but seem

1 Curzon gives the number as twenty.


to be about 240 ft. by 133*. Its dedication is to

Anba Shanudah 2. A splendid basilican church once

occupied the whole interior, with the exception of a

corridor along the southern side, in which were

crowded together the cells and other domestic build-

ings of the monks in two stories. The church had

133 -FEET - >

Fig. 26. Plan of the White Monastery.f

)

a true narthex with central western entrance : a cen-

tral passage divided the narthex into two portions

north and south, both of which were entirely walled

1 Vansleb makes the measurement 280 ft. by in; but this is

merely a rough calculation. Curzon gives 200 ft. by 90 ;but

Denon and Sir G.Wilkinson both give 250 ft. by 125.2 Pococke writes it 'Embeshnuda '; Sir G. Wilkinson, 'Anba

Shnoodeh or St. Sennode'

(!), deriving the latter name apparently

from Vansleb. Even Curzon is at fault about the name, calling

Sanutius a Muslim saint ! Doubtless this mistake arises from the

fact that the Copts, with prudent ingenuity, did manufacture a

Shaikh Abu Shanud for the benefit of their superstitious oppressors,

and so secured protection and reverence for the Christian shrine.

Shanudah, or cyeno*C"f~, as he was called in Coptic, lived in the

time of St. Cyril, and was famed for his theological writings.

CH. viii.] Upper Rgypt. 353

off the church. In the northern half of the nar-

thex are traces of the most magnificent decora-

tion, which roused the enthusiasm of Curzon, whose

description is quite worth quoting. It runs as

follows :

' The principal entrance was formerly at the west

end, where there is a small vestibule, immediatelywithin the door of which, on the left hand, is a small

chapel, perhaps the baptistery, about 25 ft. long, andstill in tolerable preservation. It is a splendid

specimen of the richest Roman architecture of the

later empire, and is truly an imperial little room.

The arched ceiling is of stone;and there are three

beautifully ornamented niches on each side. The

upper end is semicircular, and has been entirelycovered with a profusion of sculpture in panels, cor-

nices, and every kind of architectural enrichment.

When it was entire, and covered with gilding, paint-

ing, or mosaic, it must have been most gorgeous.The altar in such a chapel as this was probablyof gold, set full of gems ; or if it was the baptistery,

as I suppose, it most likely contained a bath of the

most precious jasper, or of some of the more rare

kinds of marble 1.'

From the arrangement of the chamber with its

apse and circlet of columns, one would rather imaginethat it served as a chapel than as a baptistery ;

and

this conjecture is made certain by the evidence of

Denon, who, in his adventurous travels during the

campaign of Bonaparte in Egypt, paid a visit to the

Red and White Monasteries, upon the day following

1 Monasteries of the Levant, p. 131.

VOL. i. A a

354 Ancient Coptic Churches. [OH. vm.

that on which they had been fired by the Mamelukes.

It is from Denon 1 that I have borrowed the plan in

the text, making such modifications or additions as

are warranted by his own or by independent infor-

mation : and it must be remembered that his de-

scription is thirty-nine years anterior to that of

Curzon. Denon very distinctly speaks of an altar

as standing within the apse of the narthex thoughit was adorned with neither gold nor gems in his

day : and not only does he place the baptistery in

the southernmost division of the narthex in the plan,

but in the text he expressly describes it as containinga '

superbe citerne/ a magnificent font or basin for

total immersion. This basin seems to have been

sunk in a platform of masonry, which was ascended

by a short flight of stairs. Here then it was that in

the days of the foundation of the church neophytesand proselytes were baptized, and immediately after-

wards received their first communion in the opposite

chapel : but it will be noticed that the baptistery has

its outer vestibule.

Regarding the adornment of the chapel, Denondoes not contribute much to our knowledge : but he

mentions that the columns round the wall were

joined by a circular architrave, with frieze and cor-

nice above, and that the whole entablature was

surmounted by a conch. Precisely the same archi-

tectural features are found in each of the three

eastern apses, which vary curiously from the usual

1 See Voyages dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte en 1798-9, par

V. Denon. London, 1807. The narrative is in vol. i. p. 157 seq. ;

the elevation and plan are given in the volume of plates, pi. x;the

description of the plate is in vol. ii.


disposition of the three eastern chapels in having a

sort of trefoil arrangement. The conch of the haikal,

as well as the conches of the other two apses, still

showed their original frescoes as late as half a cen-

tury ago : in the central conch was a large figure

of the Redeemer, while the paintings in the side-

chapels represented various saints. All three apseshad the curve broken by numerous recesses or

niches, which were very richly ornamented;and

if the plaster which now covers them were re-

moved, probably more frescoes or other ancient

decoration of great interest would be discovered

underneath.

The body of the church consists of nave and two

aisles, each aisle being divided from the nave by a

row of fourteen columns, carrying a classical archi-

trave. Most of the capitals are of late Corinthian

order, and Pococke remarks that many of them have

crosses carved among the foliage : but neither the

capitals nor the shafts seem to be uniform, as theywere taken from pagan buildings, and not designedfor the structure in which they are placed, as was the.

case in the adjoining Red Monastery. Vansleb ex-

presses great admiration for the capitals of the two

granite columns beside the door of the haikal. Headds that on one of the shafts was a Greek inscription,

recording the name of Heliodorus: while all over

the walls and the floor of the building, as well as on

the great staircase leading to the dormitories, one

might notice stones covered with hieroglyphics,

which were generally set topsy-turvy. At the time

of his visit all the columns were standing, although

the nave was already roofless.

If one may believe that the plan represents the

A a 2


original arrangement of the church, it contains an-

other feature no less exceptional than the trefoil

arrangement of the apses, namely the position of the

aisle-chapels. These seem in the present instance

to be an addition to the regular complement of three

chapels, so that the church contains a total of five

eastern chapels : and if the two apsidal chapels at

the side are remarkable in not standing more nearlyabreast of the haikal, these two rectangular aisle-

chapels are still more eccentric in the very same

particular, standing as they do in the body of the

nave. They have too this further irregularity, that

neither chapel has any western doorway, but one

opens southward, the other northward. From the

general structure of the basilica, it certainly looks as

if these aisle-chapels were not originally walled off

from the aisles, and in fact did not exist : or if theyexisted originally, it was as part of the choir, and

not as separate chapels. Yet, in face of Denon's

explicit testimony, one cannot press a mere con-

jecture.

The ambon for the epistle, which stood in the

middle of the north aisle, rested on four heavycolumns, and was ascended by a short stone staircase.

It is described as consisting of two enormous blocks

of granite, but further details of its construction are

unfortunately wanting. The spot marked in the

centre of the choir seems to denote the ambon for

the gospel : it is lettered in Denon's plan, but

the explanation has been altogether omitted. It is

however decidedly not an altar : and the ambon in

the north aisle is specially described as being'

for

the epistle.' Only the choir and the haikal nowremain intact, and are still used for services. All

CH. viii.] Upper Egypt, 357

that could perish by fire perished in the flames which

Denon saw smouldering.About two miles from Dair al Abiad lies another

monastery, almost exactly similar in plan, and called

Dair al Ahmar, or the Red Monastery, from the red

brick of which the outer walls are built. It lies in a

small village sheltered by palms, instead of standingisolated in the open desert : it is rather smaller than

the White Monastery, but has an additional building

covering the well, which seems to have lain outside

the original enclosure. Its patron saint is AnbaBishoi 1

. From the plan given by Pococke 2 the

church seems to contain an Epiphany tank in the

centre of the narthex, and a basin for the Mandatumnear the western entrance of the nave. The northern

half of the narthex is apsidal, the apse of course

being internal, and columns are set against the apsewall. Apparently Dair al Ahmar is in better pre-

servation than its neighbour : for Pococke gives a

section of the nave which shows a continuous woodenarchitrave resting on the columns, with rather highlystilted relieving arches above, one between every

pair of pillars. The columns used for both these

Christian churches were probably taken from the

ancient Egyptian towns of Aphroditopolis or Athribis

in the vicinity : but Vansleb remarks, that, while

those at the White Monastery are of different shapesand sizes, here at the Red Monastery all the columns

are of uniform design and of one thickness : here too

the details of the enrichment are finer, and the

1 Pococke calls it 'Der Embabishai/ vol. i. p. 79.2 Vol. i. pi. Ixxi. p. 246: but I am afraid Pococke's plans are

not very trustworthy.


capitals of the two pillars by the haikal-door Vansleb

declares to be the most beautiful he has ever seen.

The orientation of these churches is not exact, but

the axis points between N.E. and N.E. by E. in

both cases.

The buildings themselves are doubtless of the

fourth century, and must be ranked among the most

splendid remains of that epoch. It is curious that

Pococke, in mentioning them, should not class with

them the church at Armant, the ancient Hermonthis,near Thebes, which is built on almost precisely the

same model, and which Pococke insists upon regard-

ing as a pagan temple converted to Christian uses 1.

This church is of rectangular form, about 150 ft.

by 100 : it consists of narthex, nave, aisles, haikal,

and eastern chapels. The narthex and nave have

both a central western entrance : the narthex is

divided off eastward by a solid wall from the aisles :

but in the centre opposite the haikal the wall curves

out and forms a large apse projecting westward

into the narthex. It is therefore the external wes-

tern wall of the church, and the curve of this interior

apse which are divided by central doorways ; but it

is quite obvious that this western apse was designed

merely for symmetry, and can never have contained

an altar. The narthex itself shows a curious arrange-

ment, consisting of five chambers : of these, two on

the north and two on the south side are rectangular,

and were used probably for baptistery, places of

penance, or sacristies, while the central chamber is

of course irregular in shape, and served merely for

a passage. Although now in ruins this church must

1 Pococke gives a plan, vol. i. pi. xliv. p. 1 10.

CH. vin.] Upper Egypt. 359

have been extremely fine : for it has the advantageover the Red and White Monasteries in being a

double-aisled basilica, i. e. in having two parallel

aisles both north and south of the nave, and four

parallel rows of columns with eleven in each row.

Although the haikal wall is apsidal, the curve is

broken by five deep irregular recesses, and the apseis wholly internal. The side-chapels are rectangular.

The Churches of Nakadah.

About twelve miles north of Thebes, on the left

bank of the Nile, stands a very interesting group of

monasteries, just mentioned by name in Vansleb l and

Murray, but otherwise unknown in literature. Thefirst of these, which stands detached, is evidently a

Byzantine building, but differs in several particulars

1 Vansleb mentions (i) 'Deir il Salib,' or the Convent of the

Cross, (2)' Deir il Megma,' (3)

' Deir Mari Poctor,' and adds that

the two latter are uninhabited. Murray names four: (i) 'Dayr

es-Seleeb/ (2)'el Melak,' (3)

' Mari Boktee/ (4)' Mar Girgis.' If

Murray is right as against Vansleb in (2), the names should be as

follows: (i) Dair-as-Sullib, (2) Dair al Malak Mikhail, (3) Dair

Mari Buktor, (4) Dair Mari Girgis ;i. e. the monastery of the Cross,

the Archangel Michael, St. Victor, and St. George. For the plans

in the text I am indebted to Sir Arthur Gordon, who however has

been prevented by his absence in Ceylon from communicating in

time for this work the information needful to explain them. I have

not even been able to ascertain the dedication of the churches : but

the plans are so good and so interesting that I do not hesitate to

publish them : and from what Murray says one cannot be wrong in

identifying the second plan as that of Dair al Malak Mikhail.


from those hitherto noticed. For there seems to be

a narrow atrium at the western end, with a single

entrance into the church : the narthex and the nave

are of equal length, and each is covered with a single

large dome, but at the angles of the nave dome are

placed four semidomes. Moreover, although the

aisles, which once extended from the choir to the

western wall, are now walled off at the narthex, and

are merely coextensive with the nave, still each of

the remaining aisles north and south retains the

I ANCIENT.

SHEDI/tVAL OR MOUERM.

O RUINS.

CHURCH AT NAKADAH.

Fig. 27. (Communicated by Sir Arthur Gordon.)

original arrangement by which it was divided into

two portions, with an archway between, each portioncrowned with an elliptical dome. The choir also is

subdivided into three parts, each with a dome of its

own. Eastwards the church has a plain apsidalhaikal with two square side-chapels, and an arch of

triumph : but it is worth notice that the front of the

haikal seems to have been open originally, or closed


only with a folding screen, precisely in the same

manner as the haikals of the churches in the western

desert. At present the centre of the haikal archwayis blocked by a short. wall of modern masonry, which

leaves two side-doors, one against each pier an ar-

rangement perhaps copied from one of the churches

at Dair al Malak : but each of the other chapels was

built with a single central entrance. The baptisterylies at the south-east corner of the sacred building,

through which alone it is accessible.

Dair al Malak, as will be obvious from the plan,

contains in itself a group of contiguous churches, of

which the most important in the centre is dedicated

to St. Michael. This church is one of the most re-

markable Christian structures in Egypt, possessingas it does some unique peculiarities. There are

four churches, of which three stand side by side in

such a manner that they have a single continuous

western wall. Two of the four have an apsidalhaikal with rectangular side-chapels, while the other

two are entirely rectangular : but the two apsesdiffer from all other apses in Egyptian churches by

projecting on plan beyond the eastern wall, and by

showing an outward curvature. They form a solitary

exception to the rule that the Coptic apse is merely

internal, and so far belong rather to Syrian architec-

ture than to Coptic. The principal church showstwo other features which do not occur elsewhere in

the Christian buildings of Egypt, namely an external

atrium surrounded with a cloister, and a central

tower with a clerestory. Here again we may, I

think, trace the work of an architect more familiar

with Syrian than with Coptic models. Possibly the

same remark may apply to the structure of the


iconostasis, which has two side-doors and no central

entrance, though this arrangement is not quite un-

paralleled in the churches of Upper Egypt, and maybe a later alteration. It will be noticed that the

church has a triple western entrance from the

cloisters l.

The northernmost of the group of churches has

also some points which deserve remarking ;for it

seems to have contained four or more altars instead

of three, unless indeed one of the rectangular spaceswas rather a baptistery an unlikely supposition.

Again, the structure of the body of the church is

most peculiar, there being no sort of division into

nave and aisles, but merely a series of columns set

in quadrilaterals, and joined either by beams or

arches. Lastly, the church seems to have had no

western doorway, but several western windows, with

a considerable splay inwards.

Of the remaining two churches, one seems re-

markable for the subdivision of both nave and aisles

by walls or stone screens, each into three compart-ments : it is curious too that the north aisle is con-

siderably wider than the nave, and the nave than the

south aisle. But the whole building, apparently, is

in a ruinous condition, the altars having been

demolished, and all the domes but two havingfallen. In contrast to this irregular structure the

last of the four churches is beautifully symmetrical,

but entirely different from any of the three former.

1 The steps in the north aisle seem to indicate the ambon, but

I have not been able to refer to Sir A. Gordon for information.

The arrangement of the doorway by the steps appears in any case

awkward.


The nave is of unusual width in proportion to the

aisles, but the whole design is extremely gracefuland quite Coptic in character; except that here also,

as in the main church of St. Michael, the haikal-

screen is formed by a solid wall of masonry pierced

by a doorway at each side, but having none in the

centre. Towards the western end of the nave a

very fine Epiphany tank is sunk in the floor. Twocolumns and a pier divide the nave from each aisle,

one pair of columns standing against the western

wall, the other pair being detached. From the latter,

and from the isolated piers, arches spring in all four

directions, and carry domes above, which must be as

light and elegant in structure as they are beautiful

in design and arrangement. For of the nine, or

perhaps twelve, original domes eight are now re-

maining : of these only two are circular on plan, the

remaining six being elliptical. The elongation of

these ellipses is very bold and striking : indeed the

whole roofing of this church, as indicated in the plan,

is an architectural triumph.

The Convent of St. John, near Antinoe.

Two degrees further north than Nakadah, on the

right bank of the Nile, lie the ruins of the ancient

Antinoe, and near them the town of Madinah, where,

in an ancient quarry, may be found the subter-

ranean church of St. John, which is said to have

been built by the Empress Helena, the mother of

Constantine.

CH. VIII.] Upper Egypt. 365

Were there no mote of evidence besides to deter-

mine the truth of this tradition, the plan of the haikal

would decide it beyond question. The persistence

with which certain churches are ascribed to Helena,

by a people utterly ignorant of history or architecture,

CONVENT OF Si JOHNNEAR

ANTINOE

Fig. 29. (Communicated by Sir Arthur Gordon.)

is in itself remarkable : and it is still more remarkable

to find that these churches are always marked by a

particular form of haikal. Witness the Red andWhite Monasteries, the church at Armant, and manyothers. Indeed so regular is the coincidence, that a

deep apsidal haikal with recesses all round it, and


columns close against the wall, may be almost in-

fallibly dated from the age of Helena. In these

churches there is no communication between the

haikal and aisle-chapels, the front of the haikal is

open, and the apse is of course internal.

But the church of St. John differs from those at

the Red and White Monasteries, in being of the

Byzantine rather than the basilican order, or in

containing that admixture of the two orders, which,

even at this early epoch, seems often to have been

characteristic of Coptic architecture. For while

the general plan of the building seems at first sightrather basilican, the narrow aisles, with lateral divi-

sions, the heavy piers at either end and in the middle

of the nave, the arches joining them, and the manydomes and semidomes of the roofing, are decidedly

Byzantine features. The narthex at St. John's is

unusually large, and has a fine western entrance

approached by a modern flight of steps from above.

This church is very rich in mural paintings, the

walls being covered with New Testament subjects

and figures of saints, which have their legends in

Coptic. The same is true of the adjoining chapel.

A great number of vast caverns hewn in the

mountains of this neighbourhood still bear witness

to the zeal of the early anchorites who frequentedthem : the inscriptions, crosses, and figures carved

upon the walls have never been examined. About

a mile further is another Christian settlement, called

the Dair of the Palm-Tree.

CH. vni.] Upper Egypt. 367

MISCELLANEOUS.

THE other churches of Upper Egypt are, alas,

mere names and shadows of a name;and their

number is so great that I cannot pretend to givethem all, even in a dry and barren catalogue of

names 1. Vansleb speaks of a rock-cut church of

the Virgin on a mountain near Siut;and near it

are the ruins of a monastery dedicated to St. Se-

verus, where once there were three hundred and

sixty monks all engaged in alchemy, searching for

the philosopher's stone, 'belle occupation pour des

gens qui ont renonce au monde et aux richesses' 2,

as the traveller drily remarks. Ten leagues from

Dandarah, westward of the Nile, he saw an ancient

convent dedicated to Anba Balamun, and another

near it called after Mari Mlna. At Ballianah was

a very fine underground church of the Virgin ;and

two convents at Bahgurah. Near Asnah is a

monastery dedicated to the Holy Martyrs, and built

by the empress Helena 3. Vansleb mentions also

another subterranean church beneath the church of

St. Gabriel, in the monastery of'

Casciabe/ in the

Faium 4. The upper church is said to have been

built by a retired magician named Ur, the son of

a still more famous sorcerer, one Ibrascit, who

1It scarcely needs remarking that Neale's list of Coptic mona-

steries (Eastern Church, Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 119), which he calls

'correct,' and which gives twenty-six as the number for all Egypt,is ridiculously incomplete, and in itself a tissue of errors : for

example, it omits the desert monasteries altogether ;mentions six

only at Cairo, including one which does not exist;and gives such

names as ' The Two Swords,''

Beysheuy/ and ' Bersaun.'2

Voyage, p. 380.3

Ib. p. 406.4

Ib. p. 275.

368 Ancient Coptic Churches.[CH. vm.

married a king's daughter. Ur, abandoning his arts,

became bishop of the Faium and erected the church,of which the Virgin Mary laid the foundations,and St. Michael designed the choir and the other

details.

There are said to be several other ancient

churches in the Faium, such as those at the con-

vent of Kalmun 1: but their description has yet to

be written. It only remains to indicate a few other

sites of Christian buildings in Egypt and to close

this sadly imperfect chapter. At Bibbah, about

seventy miles south of Cairo, is a monastery to

which the Copts have attached the name of an

imaginary Muslim saint, Al Bibbawi, as their tal-

isman. The quarries of Suadi, opposite Miniah,

contain some remains of early Christian times.

Isbaidah, below Antinoe, is remarkable for someancient grottoes, in one of which a church has

been cut with an eastern apse. A few miles fur-

ther south the famous catacombs of Tal al Amarnashow frescoes, niches, and other traces of Christian

occupation. Dair al Kussair, on the same bank of

the river a little higher up, is said to date from the

time of Constantine. The Libyan mountains near

Siut are full of caves and tombs, once the dwelling-

places of Christian hermits. There is a Copticchurch at Tahtah, above Suhag. Akhmim was rich

in ancient churches, and the Convent of the Martyrs,mentioned by Al Makrizi, probably still exists. Thesame writer records a monastery of Musah, south

of Siut, and a church at Darankah dedicated to the

1 Al Makrizi says this is the only place where the famous Persea

grows. See Rev. S. C. Malan's Notes on the Coptic Calendar,

p. 6 1.


Three Children. Leo Africanus mentions the Con-

vent of Mari Girgis, at Girgah, as the largest and

richest monastery in gypt. Near Abydus is a

very ancient and curious monastery, within the ring-wall of what seems to be an old Egyptian fortress

or sacred enclosure ;it contains the church of Anba

Musas 1 and some satellite chapels, which togetherare roofed by no less than twenty-three domes. Thesanctuaries are all rectangular, and the architecture

generally Byzantine. The remains of another dair,

called the' Greek Court,' close to Anba Musas,

appear to be of the same antiquity.

In the Great Oasis of the western desert, which

lies a long way south-west of Abydus, the necropolis

by the temple of Al Khargah contains a Christian

church and many inscriptions in both Coptic and

Arabic, which have never been copied. Here, too,

among the most frequent devices on the walls of

the tombs, may be seen the tau-cross, the ancient

Egyptian emblem of life, which the early Coptsseem to have adopted before the Greek form of

the cross prevailed. Other Coptic and Arabic in-

scriptions are found in the Oasis, among the ruins

of Ad-dair.

Returning to the Nile valley one may remark, in

passing, a Coptic settlement at Hu, on the western

bank. A little further south was the island of Ta-

benna, where St. Pachomius retired with fourteen

hundred of his brethren and built monasteries;

but the shifting course of the river has long since

1

Murray's Egypt, vol. ii. p. 437. The spelling of the Arabic

names in Murray is unfortunately very haphazard, and the descrip-

tions of Coptic churches, where intelligible, are not as a rule

accurate.

VOL. i. B b


annexed the island to the mainland. Ad-dair below

Dandarah, as the name declares, is of Christian

origin. Kibt, the ancient Coptos on the eastern

bank, the town from which it is at least plausible

that the Copts are called, is still a mine of Christian

antiquities, although it never recovered from the

wreck of the Diocletian persecution. At Madinat

Habu, near Thebes, a Christian chapel was built

in one of the courts of the great temple ;and the

name Dair al Bahari, or the Northern Monastery,is an abiding witness to the site of other religious

buildings in the vicinity.

Two ancient monasteries still survive near Asnah,one dedicated to St. Matthew, the other to SS. Ma-naos and Sanutius. The latter church, which is said

to have been founded by the empress Helena, con-

tains some very ancient mural paintings of figures

with legends in Coptic, besides sepulchral inscrip-

tions, among which occurs a stone graven with the

labarum 1,

a symbol which does not occur else-

where in Egypt within the writer's knowledge.From this point down to the First Cataract even

the names of the churches are unrecorded, thoughso large a tract cannot be devoid of Christian anti-

quities ;for the traces of the religion of the cross

are found to the remotest south of Egypt. Part

of the great temple of Isis, on the island of Philae,

was turned into a Christian church, and dedicated to

St. Stephen, in the sixth century, as the sculpturedtokens on the walls still testify. Tafah, close uponthe tropic of Cancer, contains a temple, which was in

like manner converted to Christian uses; jupon the

1

Murray's Egypt, vol. ii. p. 506, is my authority for this state-

ment.


walls is graven a calendar, dating from the fourth or

fifth century. The temple at Amadah, near Korosko,is another instance of a pagan fane adapted to Chris-

tian worship ;and the region about Abu Simbal is

rich in monuments, which prove that even there the

religion of Christ was carried by the Copts, who fled

for shelter from the fury of Diocletian.

So must end the confused and broken tale.

Enough has been said, however, to show what workmust yet be done in order to give the world anythinglike a complete account of the Christian antiquities

of Egypt. Remains so vast in extent, so venerable

in years, so unique in character, so rich in knownand unknown possibilities of interest, are surely as

well worthy of research and exploration as the

colossal monuments of pagan Egypt. Yet day by

day they are perishing, unknown to western travel-

lers, and little regarded by the Copts themselves;

and nothing, absolutely nothing, has been done or

is doing to rescue them from oblivion, or to save

them from destruction 1.

1 There is an Arabic MS. of the highest interest in the Biblio-

theque Nationale (No. 307 in the new catalogue), the title of which

is'

History of the Monasteries of Egypt.' This precious document

is unique, and I have been unable to obtain a loan of it, or even to

consult it, in time for publication.

B b 2

INDEX TO THE FIRST VOLUME.

ABLUTIONS, pp. 16. 23.Acanthus 323.Address at monastery 328 n.

Alb, see Vestments.

Alchemy 367.Alms 134. 138. 218.

Aloe 207.Altar 1-36. 113. 196. 201. 202.

221. 240.300. 305.314.329.354-

-canopy, 60. 63. 68. 91. 113

seq. 120. 121. 193. 196. 223.

225. 235. 254. 300. 324.-

casket, see Ark.- slab 222. 228. 305. 332.Ambon 27. 50. .84. 218. 236.

3 11 - 356Amice, see Vestments.

Ammon, St. 289. 342.Amnis Traianus 178.Anchorites i. 51. no. 131. 147.

366.

Angelic habit 347.

Apse 33 seq. 107. 141. 153. 208.

221. 222. 239. 361. etC.

Architecture, ancient Egyptian350- 35 1 -

-Byzantine 5 seq. and passim.

-Syrian 34. 37. 183. 230. 361.

Architrave 18. 137. 188. 214. 237.

354- 357- etc.

Ark or altar-casket 67. 102. 109.

240. 255. 285.

Armlet, see Vestments.

Art, Coptic 69. etc.

Aster or asterisk 260. 268. 285.

Aumbry 62. 68. 198. 222. 325.

Babylon 155 seq. 171. 172. 179.

234-

Baldakyn, see Altar-canopy.Banner 239. 327.

Baptistery 17. 41 seq. 80. 115.

117. 138. 144. 149. 186. 203.22 5- 3i3- 354- 36j -

Barsum al 'Arian 77.Basilica 3 seq. 169. 359. etc.

Basin, see Ewer.

Beduin 289. 290. 293. 296. 354 n.

336. 339- 344- 345- 358-Bells 72. 138. 269. 285.315.327.

338. 345-Bema 32.Bird 170. 276.Burial 92.

Camel 242.Candelabrum 58. 84. 96. 102.

108. 130. 138. 239. 240. 253.260. 281. 324.

Carpet 101. 279.Cave 368.

of St. Antony 346.

Censer, see Thurible.

Centaur 277.Chair of patriarch 186.

Chalice no. 198. 234. 268. 285.

343-

Chapels, exterior 13.- side 40 seq. and passim.- western 183. 352-354.

Chasuble, see Vestments.

Choir 24 seq. 214. 300. etc.

Chrism 108. 112.

Chrismatory 74. 142.

374 Index.

Churchyard 45. 246.

Clerestory 21. 361.Cloister 361.Columns 79. etc.

Cope, see Vestments.

Coptic writings 57. 89. 108. 189.

225. 244. 303. 366. 369. 370.Corbel 329.Corona 67. 115. 259. 268. 313.

319. 322. 331.

Corporal 225. 268. 285.Cresset-stone 142.Crewet 239.Crewet-holder 141. 324. etc.

Cross, benedictional 260. 268.

281.

golden 54. 82. 186.

of consecration 137. 188. 215.216. 265. 274. 304. 318.

33--

processional 126. 198. 225.

234. 239. 255. 260. 338. 346.-

sculptured on capitals 229.

249. 274. 303. 355.

Crown, bridal, see Marriage diadem.

Crozier 54. 82.

Cruciform groundplan 6.

Crutches or staves 50. 347.

Crypt 78. 199.Curtain 29. 30. 89. 99. 193. 195.

196. 284.

Cymbal 138. 268. 327. 338.

Dalmatic, see Vestments.

Death of the Virgin 108. 322.

Dedication, inscription of 146.Desert monasteries 17. 127. 233.

234. 286-348.Diadem, sec Marriage.Diakonikon 32.

Dolphin 277. 282.

Dome 5 seq. 138. 145. 184. 197.

278.299. 302. 310. 313. 314.

322. 324. 331. 364.- eucharistic vessel, see Aster.

Door lo-n. 75. 76. 182. 257.

296. 309.

Door, folding 311. 323. 344. 361.Dosseret 150.

Dragon 58. 276. 282.

Eagle 112. 192. 242. 276. 279.

Embalming 92 n.

English in Egypt 303.

Entrance, greater and lesser 29.

Ephesus 5.

Epigonation, see Vestments.

Epiphany ceremony 81.

tank 17. 22-23. 4 2~43- 49- 81.

138.185.216. 325.357. 364.

Epitrachelion, see Vestments.

Eulogiae 207.Eusebius 30. 37. 40.

Evil eye 207.Ewer and basin 113. 141.

Exorcism 107.

Fan, see Flabellum.

Fasting 347.Fish 107.Flabellum 194. 198. 260. 266.

Font 62. 115. 117. 203. 226. 253.

354-

Fresco, see Mural painting.Frontal for altar 225.

for lectern 138.

Gallery for women 19. 79. 184.2 37-

Gazelle 170. 191. 242.Girdle 127. 334.

Girdle, see Vestments.

Glassworks 288.

Good Friday 188. 198.

Gospel, book of, see Textus.

carried in procession 126. 234.

Gospel-stand 62. 227.Griffin 242.

Grotesques 239.Guestroom 64. 77. 210. 237. 248.

295.

Hagioscope 29.

Haikal, see Sanctuary.

Index. 375

Hare 242.

Harpy 277.

Healing the sick 272.

Hieroglyphics 270. 355.

Holy water 208.

Hood, see Vestments.

Iconostasis 29. 30. 68. 323. etc.

double 32.

Illumination 99.

Images 36. 40.

Imposition of hands 272.Incense 29. 126. etc.

Ireland 14.

Ivory 87. 148. 220. 304. 323. etc.

Jesse-tree 269. 275.

Key 258.

Kissing curtain 29.

Korban 71. etc.

Labarum 370.Ladder 277. etc.

Lakes in desert 339.

Lamp 36. 55. 84. 89. 113. 154.

163. 197. 198. 228. 248. 259.

265. 268. 272. 279. 281. 331.

345- 346.Lectern 99. 138. 253. 284.

Legend 125. 126. 127. 207. 231

seq. 306. 308. 337. 342.

3 6 7-

Library 315. 326. 333. 346.

Lights, ceremonial use of 51. 82.

123. 272. 275. 282. 338.Lion 121. 131. 140. 242.Lotus 226.

Mandarah, see Guestroom.

Mandatum, see Washing of feet.

Marble 36 seq. 223. etc.

Marriage diadem 268.

Melkites 156. 157. 169. 179.

Mercurius, St. 76. 127. 306. etc.

Monastic buildings 14. 69. 252.2fi6.

Monastic churches, see Desert

monasteries.- dress 347.

Monasticism i.

Monuments 45-46.Mosaic 37 seq. 50. 84. 197. 223.

226. 302. 314.

Mosque 24. 36. 37. 39. 71 bis.

127. 179. 231. 232. 235.Mount Athos 24.

Mummy 91.Mural painting 61. 112. 139. 144.

186. 216. 225. 243 seq. 254.

259- 2 99- 30- ZOi-W'&fr314.322.326.332.345.355.366.368. 370.

Mushrabiah 63. 122. 131. 138.

144.Music 234.

Narthex i6seq. 352. 357. 366.etc.

Natrun lakes, see Desert monas-teries.

valley, see Desert monasteries.

Nave 15 seq. etc.

Niche 36. 300. 353. 355. 368. etc.

Nile, rise of 269.Nimb 90. 130. 153. 187. 193. 240.

322 etc.

Nitria 288.

Nunnery 128. 271.

Oasis, the Great 369.Oil of the sick 303.

Omophorion, see Vestments.

Opus Alexandrinum, see Mosaic.

Orb 140.

Orientation 10. 358.Ostrich egg 55. 163. 240. 281.

3i3- 33 1 -

of porcelain 343.

Outbuildings 43.

Oven for eucharistic bread 71.116. 297. 297 n.

Pall, see Vestments.

376 Index.

Palm 140. 207.Paten 261. 285.

Patrashil, see Vestments.

Peacock 242.Pictures 50-60. 101-108. 139-

140. 151-152. 189. 194. 219.222. 240. 280. 285. 315.

-glazed 1 02.

perspective of 94. 98.

Pilgrim 12. 69. 73. 269.Piscina 226. 302. 331.

Pottery, coping of, 65.- cruse or chrismatory 73.

Prayer, manner of 293. 308. 339.

Procession, 205. 327. 336. 338.Prostration 334. 347 bis.

Prothesis 32.

Pulpit (see also Ambon) 137. 188.

275. 277. 281. 311. 319.

Pyramid 144. 251.

Pyx 108. 195.

Refectory 297. 325. 332.Relics 78. 84. 139. 140. 219 bis.

223.240. 259. 282. 304. 313.

322. 338.

Relieving arches 18. etc.

Restoration 209. 236. 249. 287.Roman architecture 155 seq. 353.- mortar 156.- sewer 170. 177.Rood 275. 324.Roof 9-10. 80. 123. 136. 184.

310.

Rosary 131.Rubbish mounds 71. etc.

Rule of life 346.

Sacristy 83. etc.

Sakkiah 309.

Sanctuary 27 seq. etc.

Sanutius or Shanudah 352 n.

Screen 22. 28. 31. 190. 212. 220.

241. 301. 324. 330. 361.

364. etc.

- of stone 26. 30. 319. 320. 323.

Serpent 112. 279.

Service books 135. 265. 268.

Shamlah, see Vestments.

Shrine 145. 240. 269. 272. 275.282.

Sleeve, see Vestments.

Solea 25. 189. 214.

Spoon, eucharistic 120. 260. 268.

Star, eucharistic, see Aster.

Statues, see Images.

Stole, see Vestments.

Stoup 24.

Structure, general 1-46.Stucco work 311. 324. 325. 330.Subterranean church 349. 364.

367 ter. 368.Svastica 133.

Symbol, apocalyptic 93. 106. 114.etc.

- of Trinity 133.

Synagogue 169.

Syriac 31. 323. 324.

Tamarind 318.Tank for mandatum 23. 136. 185.

etc.

Tau-cross 369.Textus 89. 96. 255. 260. 266. 281.

Throne 35. 77. etc.

Thurible 96. 102. 108. 138. 195.

240. 260. 265.

Tiles, Damascus or Rhodian 112.

120. 121. 153. 163. 224. 276.

277.Tomb 45-46. 246. etc.

Tower 15. 298. 303. 315. 326.

333- 346.

Transept 215. 236.

Triangle 327.Tribune 35. 80. in. 141. 221.

276. 300. 313.Triforium 12-13. J 9- 2I - I 5-

255. 274.Tris 291.Turban 347.

Upper aisle, see Triforium.

Upper Egypt 2. 341 seq.

Index, 377

Vaulting, pointed 329.

wagon 9. 49. 63. 150. 1 60.

184. 215. 255. 274. 319.

Vaults, burial 135.Veil 134.

Vessels, gold and silver 232.Vestments-Alb 98. 153. 187.Amice 186.

Armlet or sleeve 187. 262-263.

SIS-Chasuble 98. 153. 187. 304 bis.

Cope 139. 153. 187. 304. 315.Dalmatic 89. 139. 153. 195!260. 266. 315.

-Epigonation 299. 304.

Epitrachelion or patrashil 98.

139. 262-263. 2 66.

- Girdle 187. 262-263. 3*5-- Hood 139.

Omophorion or pall 89. 108.

216. 315.

Vine in Egypt 344.

Wafer, stamped no.

Washing of feet 23. 81. 292.

311. 322. 329 n. 331. 336 n.

357-Waterless River 337.Well 44. 116. 135. 190. 201. 309.

357-Window n. 185.- in screen 29. etc.

of coloured glass 224. 225.

279. 299. 311. 313. 324.

Wine, eucharistic 298. 344.

Wine-press 115. 277.Women's place in churches 1 9-22.

43- 79- M7- 243-

Wood-carving 123. 163. 191. 241.2 99- 301 - 3 J 4- 330-

Zizyphus tree 130.Zoan 2.

END OF VOL. I.

GETTY CENTER LIBRARY

3 3125 00775 8887

THORNTOV X, <;

No.

No. OG-

l djlj J

DE [/INSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE

MUSEE COPTE

Billet d'entree au Musee

Prix 10 IVlilliemes

THE


f

VOL. II.

Uontron

HENRY FROWDE

OXFOKD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE

AMEN CORNER

A Coptic Painting.

THE


of Egypt

BY

ALFRED J. BUTLER, M.A. F.S.A.

Fellow of Brasenose College^ Oxford

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. II.

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1884

[ All rights reserved~\

CONTENTS

OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

PAGE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi

CHAPTER I.

THE COPTIC ALTAR. PORTABLE ALTAR. FITTINGS OF THE

ALTAR. COVERINGS OF THE ALTAR i

CHAPTER II.

EUCHARISTIC VESSELS AND ALTAR FURNITURE. CHALICE.

PATEN. DOME OR ASTER. SPOON. ARK OR ALTAR

CASKET. VEILS. FAN. EWER AND BASIN. PYX.

CREWET. CHRISMATORY. ALTAR -CANDLESTICKS.

TEXTUS. GOSPEL-STAND. THURIBLE. BRIDAL CROWN 37

CHAPTER III.

THE FURNITURE AND ORNAMENTS OF THE SACRED BUILD-

ING. AMBONS. LECTERNS. RELIQUARIES. LAMPS AND

LIGHTS. CORONAE. OSTRICH EGGS. BELLS. MUSICAL

INSTRUMENTS. MURAL PAINTINGS. PICTURES . . 64

viii Contents.

CHAPTER IV.

PAGE

THE ECCLESIASTICAL VESTMENTS OF THE COPTIC CLERGY.

PREVIOUS AUTHORITIES. DALMATIC. AMICE. GIRDLE.

STOLE. PALL. ARMLETS . , . . , .97

CHAPTER V.

ECCLESIASTICAL VESTMENTS (CONTINUED). PHELONION.

CROWN OR MITRE. CROZIER OR STAFF OF AUTHORITY.

PECTORAL CROSS. PROCESSIONAL CROSS. SANDALS.

BENEDICTIONAL CROSS. EPIGONATION. ROSARY . .173

CHAPTER VI.

BOOKS, LANGUAGE, AND LITERATURE . , , ,239

CHAPTER VII.

THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS. BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION.

EUCHARIST. PENANCE 262

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS (CONTINUED). ORDERS. MATRI-

MONY. ANOINTING OF THE SICK . . . . ,301

CHAPTER IX.

VARIOUS RITES AND CEREMONIES OF THE CHURCH. THE

HOLY OILS. CONSECRATION OF A CHURCH AND ALTAR.

CONSECRATION OF A BAPTISTERY. FESTIVAL OF EPI-

PHANY. PALM SUNDAY AND HOLY WEEK. SEASONS OF

FASTING 330

Contents, ix

CHAPTER X.

PAGE

LEGENDS OF THE SAINTS. LEGEND OF ABU-'S-SIFAIN.

ANBA SHANUDAH. MARI M!NA. MAni TADRUS. MARI

GIRGIS. ABU KlR WA YUHANNA. YAKUB AL MUÂTT'A.

THE FIVE AND THEIR MOTHER. ABU NAFR. ANBA

BARSUM AL 'ARIAN. THE VIRGIN'S ASCENSION. SIMAN

AL HABIS AL 'AMUDI. MAR!NA. TAKLA. ABU SlKHt-

RUN. ST. SOPHIA. ST. HELENA. THE FINDING OF THE

CROSS. GIRGIS OF ALEXANDRIA. ANBA MAHARUAH.

ST. MICHAEL. ANBA ZACHARIAS. PETER THE PATRI-

ARCH. ANBA MARKUS 357

INDEX TO VOL. n 405

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. II.

PAGE

A Coptic Painting . . . - . ... frontispiece

Coptic Altar'

. . . . . . . . 4

Marble Altar-slab . . ...... . 8

Altar-top showing marble slab inlet . ... . . . 8

Marble Altar-slab pierced with drain ... . . 9

Consecration Crosses"

. .21Silk Curtain with massive silver embroidery, before the Haikal

door at Al Mu'allakah . . . . . . . 31

Various pieces of Church Furniture .41The Hasirah or Eucharistic Mat . . . . . -45Flabellum in repousse silver . . . , . . . 47

Processional Flabellum of silver-gilt used by the Melkite

Church of Alexandria . .-

. .... 49

Textus Case of silver-gilt . . . . . . .58Gospel-stands with Prickets for Candles . .... -59Bridal Crown . . . . . . . . . . 62

Ivory-inlaid Lectern at the Cathedral in Cairo ... 66

Ivory-inlaid Lectern (back view) . . . . . .67Ancient Iron Candelabrum at Abu-'s-Sifain . . . .70Glass Lamp at Sitt Mariam . . . . . .72Bronze Lamp at Dair Tadrus -73Seven-wicked Lamp of Iron for the Anointing of the Sick . 76

Specimens of Altar Candlesticks . . . . . .76Embroidered Dalmatic . . . . . . . .noShamlah (back and front view) . 119

xii List of Illustrations.PAGE

Patrashil of crimson velvet embroidered with silver . .130

St. Stephen : from a painting at Abu Sargah . . . -137

Seal of the Coptic Patriarch . . . . . . . .151

Fresco at Al Mu'allakah .. 156

St. Michael : from a painting at Abu Sargah . . . . 159

Armlets at the Church of Abu ir . . . . . .167

The Crown of the Coptic Patriarch ...... 205

Priestly Cap 211

Coptic Crozier 220

Benedictional Cross and small Amulet Crosses . . . 232

Head of Processional Cross of silver 234

Wafer or Eucharistic Bread 278

THE


ERRATA.

Page 1 1 8, 1. 19, for and read or

163, 1. 2, for HI read ttl

281, 1. 23, for unfermented, and read not unfermented, but

,, 326, note 3, for Oo> read cioj (bis

376, 1. 32, for Ishac read Ishak

[Butler's 'Ancient Coptic Churches,'' Vol. II.}

1 G. P. Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. i. p. 228

(London, 1852).

VOL. n. B

xii List of Illustrations.PACK

Patrashil of crimson velvet embroidered with silver . .130

St. Stephen : from a painting at Abu Sargah . . . .137Seal of the Coptic Patriarch . . .>-,. . . -151

Fresco at Al Mu'allakah .. .

'

. . . . . .156St. Michael : from a painting at Abu Sargah . . . .159Armlets at the Church of Abu Kir . . . .' . .167

The Crown of the Coptic Patriarch ...... 205

Priestly Cap 211

Coptic Crozier 220

THE


CHAPTER I.

Of the Coptic Altar.

Altar. Portable Altar. Fittings of the Altar. Coverings of the

Altar.

ETYMOLOGICALLY

the Coptic term for

altar seems to correspond very closely with

the Greek. For JUL<LnepojU3Ocyi, which is

the ordinary word, means '

place of makingsacrifice': nor is the significance of this etymologylessened by the fact that the remote root in ancient

Egyptian, from which the Coptic cycoocyi is derived,

has rather the meaning of 'placing' or 'leaving*than of sacrifice. In point of usage ctjuxxyi con-

veyed the idea of sacrifice to the Copts and noother. Accordingly we find the corresponding Arabic

word used in the liturgies and in common speech is

*>&<* (madbah) derived from ^><3 which means to

slaughter, so that the idea is clearly that of a sacrificial

structure like the Bwiao-Tripiov of the Greek Church.

The same word madbah is used now by the Nes-

torians 1. The Greeks often call the altar the holy

1 G. P. Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. i. p. 228

(London, 1852).

VOL. II. B

Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

table (dy/a TpdVeâ), and in Latin the term ' mensa'

or 'sancta mensa' is sometimes used for 'altare.'

Thus in a letter of Pope Nicholas I.' mensa effici-

tur :' and Fortunatus 1

says the name is given'

quodest mensa Domini, in qua convivabatur cum disci-

pulis.' But the Copts are not apparently conscious

of any such symbolism, nor do they commonly if

ever speak of the altar as a table; although they do

regard it under two other symbolical aspects, as

representing the tomb of Christ and the throne of

God. The manner in which these types are figuredin the ritual and decoration of the altar will appearin the sequel.

Every altar in a Coptic church is invariably de-

tached, and stands clear in the middle of its chapelor sanctuary. Though the haikal and the side-

chapels are usually raised one step above the choir,

the altar is never raised further on other steps, but

stands on the level of the floor ; yet an exception to

this rule is found in the desert churches, where the

altar is elevated on a step or platform above the

floor of the haikal. The custom of attaching the

lesser altars to the wall in western churches is doubt-

less very ancient;

but originally the high altar

always stood clear, so that the celebrant might movearound it. This is proved by the words of the

Sarum Rite 2,

' thurificando altare circueat,' and again*

principale altare circumquaque aspergat.' So too

in the Ecgbert Pontifical 3 we read '

in circuitu ipsius

altaris.' Gradually, however, the altar was moved

up to the eastern wall, and became attached and fixed

there, which, of course, was the usual though not

1 De Ecclesiae Officiis, torn. iii. p. 21.2 C. 25 and 28. s P. 40.

CH. i.]The Altar. 3

invariable arrangement in our churches before the

reformation. In the seventeenth century, after the

destruction of the ancient altars, in many places adetached communion-table was placed in the chancel

with benches against the wall all round it. This

arrangement was distinctively Puritan in character :

it still survives in one or two churches, such as the

interesting little Saxon church of Deerhurst near

Tewkesbury, and the chapel of Langley, Salop.The Puritans were probably not aware of their re-

version to primitive practice : and their thoughts, of

course, were very far removed from processions andincense.

The Coptic altar is a four-sided mass of brickwork

or stonework, sometimes hollow, sometimes nearlysolid throughout, and covered with plaster. It ap-

proaches more nearly to a cubical shape than the

altars of the western churches. It is never built of

wood *

(though very curiously the high altar at Abu-'s-

Sifain is cased in wood), nor upheld on pillars. Asa rule the structure of the top does not differ from

that of the side walls, but contains an oblong rect-

angular sinking about an inch deep, in which is looselyfitted the altar-board a plain piece of wood carved

with the device of a cross in a roundel in the centre,

A above and fl below this, and the sacred letters of

Sanutius IH XP YC 9C at the four corners. This

arrangement, by which the chalice and paten stand

at the mass upon a wooden base, while the fabric of

1I have heard a traveller speak of a wooden altar at Girgah

in the form of a table. In remote places such violations of right

and custom may occur through indolence, ignorance, or indiffer-

ence. But the evidence is not very weighty. Vide Arch. Journ.vol. xxix. p. 125 n.

B 2

:

PUou

Fig. 1.

CH.I.] The Altar. 5

the altar is of stonework, presents a complete and

singular reversal of the Latin practice : for the Romanrubric enjoins that, even where wood is the main

material of the altar, a tablet of marble or stone

must be placed for the sacred elements to rest uponat consecration.

On the eastward side in every altar, level with

the ground, is a small open doorway showing an

interior recess or cavity. Whether or not this door-

way was originally closed by a moveable stone or

board is uncertain : but there is in no case any signof the opening ever having been blocked or closed,

and no door-stone or the like exists in any church

to-day. The cavity is of varying size;but very

often it is nearly co-extensive with the altar, which

in that case consists merely of four walls and a topof masonry. Where the masonry is more solid, the

recess is still large enough to denote a usage rather

different from that of the corresponding recess in

western altars, e.g. in the sixth-century altar at the

church of Enserune and Joncels in H6rault. Thesehave openings in the back or eastward face, but high

up under the slab and of small dimensions. Thenearest approach in structure to the Coptic altar

occurs at Parenzo in the altar of St. Euphrasiusascribed to the sixth century

1.

In the Latin Church the altar was generally a solid

structure, and the top, at least in all historic times,

was required to be of stone or marble as an essential

condition of consecration. The top too had to be a

single slab projecting on all sides and forming a shelf,

The Greek Church to the present day retains its

1 La Messe, vol. i. pi. xxvii and xxxiv.


ancient, more ordinary custom of supporting the altar-

top on four pillars. This top is of stone. Goarstates that the Greek altar was invariably a table,

open underneath and resting on four columns. But

in the office of dedication as given by the sameauthor 1

,it is expressly provided that the substructure

may be solid, consisting either of a single block of

stone, or of smaller stones in courses. But from the

earliest times the table-like form seems to have been

far more common. Thus Paul the Silentiary, in his

description of St. Sophia, says the altar of Constan-

tine was made of gold and silver and costly woods,and adorned with pearls and jewels. It was raised

on steps, and stood on golden columns resting uponfoundations of gold. The '

costly woods'

were doubt-

less used for some kind of inlaying or outer embel-

lishment, and cannot be taken to imply any sanction

of an entirely wooden altar, which does not seem to

have been canonical in any part of the Christian

world after the fourth century. Up to that date

wood was doubtless a common material in Africa.

Thus a wooden table is mentioned by Athanasius

and by Optatus bishop of Milevis c. 370 A.D.

Asseman states 2 that the altars of the Syrian

Jacobites and Maronites in the East were sometimes

of wood, sometimes of stone. So too in Gaul the

earliest altars were wooden. Yet stone altars were

used as early as the fourth century, and in more

historical times stone was the sole material recog-nized. Thus among the Nestorians wooden altars

are plainly prohibited by the canons : those of John,

fifty-seventh patriarch, in the tenth century ordain

that the altar must be fixed and made of stone in

1 Euchol. p. 832.2

Bibl. Orient, iii. 238.

.CH. i.]The Altar. 7

settled abodes and times of peace1. So too one of

the canonical judgments of Abu Isa is to the effect

that, where men are dwelling in a city free from per-

secution and peril, there the altar may never be

made of wood : but if they are in some place where

a stone altar is impossible, then a wooden altar may be

used by force of necessity. But a bishop may always

destroy an altar, if he think well 2. The wooden

altars mentioned by Mr. Warren 3,as used in the

early Irish church of St. Bridget and elsewhere,

were probably only an accident of the time whenthe whole fabric of the church building was merelyof wood: and in the Anglo-Saxon ritual it was

expressly forbidden to consecrate a wooden altar.

Both in the Greek and Latin ordinances it was pre-

scribed that the altar-top should project beyond the

sides or pillars of the altar;but there is only one

instance of such a projection in the altars of the

Copts. With them too the top is rarely formed of

a single slab. Commonly it is a mere plastered sur-

face, like the sides, with an altar-board 4 as described.

Where a stone slab is used, it is hollowed to a depthof two inches, leaving a border or fillet all round,and usually inserted thus in the masonry so that the

fillet is flush with the altar-top. These slabs, thoughcommon in the desert, are so rare in Cairo that I

have only seen four in all the churches there, three

1

J. A. Asseman, De Catholicis seu Patriarchis Chaldaeorum et

Nestorianorum Commentarius, p. 112. Rome, 1775.2 Id. p. ii 8, n. i.

3Celtic Church, p. 91.

4 The Arabic term for this altar-board is merely ,-j-UI,

'

the slab.'

A similar slab is prescribed as necessary in the constitutions of the

Church of Antioch by the patriarch Kyriakos ; see Renaudot, Lit.

Or. torn. i. p. 165.


being at Al Mu'allakah, and one at Abu-'s-Sifain.

Of the four, two are horseshoe shaped, one circular,

and one is rectangular, pierced with a hole in the

centre. They occupy the greater part of the top

surface, but not the whole summit of the altar, with

the possible exception of the rectangular slab, whichI only saw dismounted after the altar had been dis-

mantled. There are however three other small

rectangular slabs, which ought perhaps to be addedto the number, namely those on the floor of the re-

A.J.B

SCALE OF FEET

Fig. 2. (i) Marble Altar-slab. (ii) Altar-top showing marble slab inlet.

cesses or arcosolia in the crypt of Abu Sargah.From the position of two of the recesses in the north

and south walls instead of the east, it might be doubt-

ful whether these slabs were designed for altars, or for

some other purpose : but I think the analogy with

Roman arcosolia, and a comparison of these stones

with other stones described above, will tell in favour

of the belief that all the slabs in the crypt denote

altars. The design is at once so rare and so marked

that, wherever it is found, it may fairly be assumed

that the purpose is identical. In that case the num-

CH. I.]The Altar,

ber of Cairene altar-slabs of marble with raised fillet

will amount to seven : a very small proportion.

On the other hand the monastic churches of the

western desert abound in altars with slabs of this

description, which are, in fact, as normal there as

they are exceptional in the churches of the two Cairos.

It is not easy to understand this remarkable differ-

ence between the altars of the desert and the capital :

nor can one see why the examples in Cairo are fur-

nished by the three main altars at Al Mu allakah, by

SCALE OF FEET

Fig. 3. Marble Altar-slab pierced with drain.

the altars of the crypt at Abu Sargah, and by a

single altar in a small exterior chapel at Abu-'s-

Sifain. Of course where the altar-top is formed of

a marble slab in this manner, the ordinary loose

rectangular plank of wood graven with the sacred

monogram the altar-board as I have called it

does not occur. That the marble slab was designedwith special reference to the ancient ceremony of

washing the altar, cannot I think be doubted : for it

is proved by the presence of the raised moulding,

io Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. \.

by the break in the border generally found on the

western side of the slab to let off the water, and in one

example by a drain in the centre of the slab. Thecase is further strengthened by the hitherto unre-

marked but very striking coincidence ofwestern usage.At the church of Sta. Pudentiana in Rome there

is a rectangular slab, about 4ft. 6 in. by 4ft. 2 in.,

dating from the fourth century : it is surrounded bya raised moulding and pierced with two drains, one

of which is in the centre 1. Slabs unpierced and

surrounded with unbroken mouldings are of very

frequent occurrence from the earliest times in Europe.The fifth-century altar of St. Victor at Marseilles,

and the sixth-century slab of the Auriol altar, maybe cited among very early examples

2. The Society

of Antiquaries of the West of France possesses a very

interesting slab of this kind, found in the church of

Vouneuil-sous-Biard 3,and ascribed to the sixth cen-

tury: a seventh-century example is preserved in the

museum at Valognes4

: the altar of S. Angelo at

Perusia, built in the tenth century, of Vaucluse in the

eleventh, and at Toulouse in the twelfth, show howcontinuous in the West was the design of altar-slabs

framed with a raised moulding.Nor are we altogether without a western parallel

for the curious horseshoe or semicircular slabs of the

Coptic altar. In the museum at Vienna is a marble

1 La Messe, pi. xliv. On p. 1 1 2 M. de Fleury observes :' Les

trous qu'on remarque sur la surface doivent provenir d'un autre

usage qui n'a rien de commun avec son origine, ou servaieni au

lavage de Fautel.' The italics are mine : I think the Coptic

examples settle the point.2 La Messe, vol. i. pi. xlvi, xlvii.

3Id. ib. pi. xliv. p. 147.

*Id. ib. pi. xlv.

CH. i. The Altar. \ i

slab, said to be of Merovingian origin, dating from

the sixth or seventh century : it is semicircular in

form with three sinkings of different levels, the

outermost being six-lobed, the other two semicir-

cular;but all three have a broken angular line across

the chord, singularly resembling the Coptic model 1.

Another semicircular altar-slab is to be seen in the

museum of Clermont. I have no doubt that this

particular form arose from the desire of imitating the

table of the Last Supper, which in Coptic art is

sometimes figured in the same shape. A glance at

the Abu Sargah carving of the eighth century2

almost decides the matter. There our Lordis sitting with his disciples at a table of almost

exactly the same form as the Coptic horseshoe

slabs, and the table has a border or moulding round

it : moreover the intention is rendered quite un-

ambiguous by the canopy above the table and the

altar-curtains which are looped round the pillars.

Western art furnished abundant examples of the

same idea : thus the semicircular table is depictedin the catacombs of St. Calixtus, the mosaics of

St. Apollinare at Ravenna, on the columns of the

ciborium at St. Mark's, and in a miniature at

Cambridge3.

As in the western so in the Coptic Church, there

seem to have been no fixed dimensions for the altar.

English altars varied from 8 ft. to 14 ft. 6 in. in

length, but were usually 3 ft. 6 in. high. The Copticaltar is smaller: that for instance at St. Mark's

chapel in Al Mu'allakah is 3 ft. IT in. long by3ft. 3 in. broad-: the principal altar at Abu Sargah

1 La Messe, vol. i. pi. lii.2 See vol. i. p. 191.

3 La Messe, vol. ii. p. 164.


is 4 ft. 5 \ in. by 3 ft. 3 in. : at Abu-'s-Sifain the prin-

cipal altar is 7 ft. i in. by 4 ft. 3 in. The height too

varies considerably : thus the chief altar at Abu

Sargah is only 2 ft. loîn. high, and that at Abu-'s-

Sifain is 3 ft. 4 in.

The cavity, which has been mentioned as openingeastward in the altar, has doubtless a symbolicalreference to the martyr-souls seen under the altar

in the apocalyptic vision 1. In the early ages of the

church, in reminiscence of this vision, it was cus-

tomary to bury the bodies of saints or martyrsunderneath the altar, either in a vault or cryptbeneath the floor of the sanctuary, or else actually

within the fabric of the altar. One of the most

notable instances of this practice was at the ancient

patriarchal church of Alexandria, where rested the

body of St. Mark the Evangelist, before the church

was plundered and the sacred remains carried over

sea by the Venetians in the early middle ages.

And to this day the high altar of St. Mark's at

Venice encloses the body of the Evangelist, and

bears the inscription'

Sepulcrum Marci.' In more

tranquil times and places, when a new church was

built, and no famous martyr's body was ready to

hallow the sanctuary, the usage still prevailed of

placing within the altar relics of some saint or

anchorite. There is nothing to show that the

cavity in the Coptic altar was meant to be sealed

up, once the relics were deposited. On the contrary,

the probability seems that they were merely enclosed

in some kind of coffer, and then laid under the altar,

so as to be easily removable in rase they were

required for healing the sick, carrying in procession,

1 Rev. vi. 9.

CH. i.]The Altar. 13

or other ritual purposes. At the present day every

Coptic church possesses its relics, which are enclosed

in a sort of bolster covered with silk brocade and

kept in a locker beneath the picture of the patronsaint. At Al Mu'allakah, it will be remembered,there is a special wooden reliquary containing four

such cases besides a marble grill in the south aisle-

chapel : and some of the desert churches have

reliquaries enclosing entire bodies. But there can

be little doubt that the practice of keeping relics

in lockers or aumbries is of mediaeval origin, andthat originally their right place was in the cavityunder the altar. Two or three examples of Copticsubterranean altars have been cited in the foregoing

chapters of this work : but probably the clearest

instance of a confessionary crypt is at Abu Sargah,

though there is no direct evidence to show that it is

regarded as the tomb of any martyr. Still, inas-

much as tradition marks this under-chapel as the

resting-place of the Holy Family, and therefore con-

secrated in a special manner by a holy presence, the

building of the high altar of Abu Sargah above it

gives a close enough analogy to the western practice.

Moreover the eastern niche in the crypt bears a very

singular resemblance to the arcosolium in the tomb

of St. Gaudiosus at Naples1, dating from about

460 A.D., and to other arcosolia of the fourth and

fifth centuries at Rome, some of which undoubtedlyserved as altars : nor are the other recesses of the

crypt very different. The whole plan is singularly

like that of the crypt of St. Gervais at Rouen 2.

1 See La Messe, vol. i. pp. 106-7, and P1 - xx *v;

Sotteranea, vol. iii. p. 44.2 La Messe, vol. ii. p. 118.


At present, as far as I can ascertain, the chief if

not the sole use of the altar-cavity among the Coptsis on Good Friday, when a picture of the cross is

buried in rose leaves within it, to be uncovered on

Easter morning.In the Latin Church the use of relics for the con-

secration of an altar, and the association confusion

one might almost say between the ideas of sacrifice

and sepulture, reach back to the remotest antiquity.

Thus Jerome remarks 1

,' Romanus Episcopus . . .

super mortuorum hominum Petri et Pauli secundumnos ossa veneranda . . . offert Domino sacrificia et

tumulos eorum Christi arbitratur altaria.' The placewhere the relics were laid was called technically the

sepulcrum, and in England the sepulchre was alwaysin front or on the westward side of the altar : the

idea being that the congregation in the nave, andnot as in the Coptic arrangement the elders round

the apse, should be thus reminded of the'

souls

under the altar.' In the crypt under the south

chancel aisle at Grantham Abbey the cavity is 3 ft.

2 in. long by 2 ft. 4 in. broad. The cavity was alwaysclosed by a sealed slab engraved with five crosses,

such as may still be seen in the cathedrals of

Norwich and St. David's. A very early instance,

dating probably from the fourth century, occurs in

the church of San Giacomo Scossacavallo at Rome 2,

where the cavity is in the middle of the altar-top,

which legend says was once upon the altar of pre-

sentation in the temple of Jerusalem. This same

altar at S. Giacomo has a second sepulcrum or

confessio below, with an arched doorway very like

1 Tom. ii. adv. Vigilant, p. 153, quoted by Gibbon.2 La Messe, vol. i. pi. xxiv.


the Coptic arrangement. Other examples are fur-

nished by an altar at the church of Esquelmes in

Belgium, All Saints' chapel at Ratisbonne, and the

altar in the north transept of Jervaulx Abbey, where

the sealed slab was only 6^ in. by 7^ in. Thoughthe confessio or crypt below the altar is quite

distinct from the sepulcrum, yet the two terms are

sometimes used interchangeably. Thus in the

Ecgbert Pontifical 1 at the consecration of an altar

the bishop is directed to make a cross with chrism

in the middle and at the four corners of the'

con-

fessio,' where the slab of the '

sepulcrum'

is clearly

intended. So too in the Ordo Romanus exactly the

same form is prescribed in the words '

ponat crisma in

confessionem per angulos quattuor in crucem . . . tune

ponat tabulam super relliquias.' The true con res-

sionary or crypt seems to have been introduced into

England by the Roman missionaries, and is in fact

essentially Latin 2. It does not occur in any Saxon

churches, except such as were built under the influ-

ence of Italian models, and is quite unknown in

Ireland. Eadmer, c. 1000 A.D., describes that at

Canterbury as made expressly in imitation of the

crypt under the original basilican church of St. Peter

at Rome. In the high altar was buried the body of

Wilfrid of York, and in the Jesus altar the head of

St. Swithin : while in the confessionary were the

head of St. Furseus and the tomb of St. Dunstan.

At Canterbury and elsewhere there was a flight of

steps leading from the choir to the presbytery, the

stone floor of which was thus raised four or five feet

above the choir floor : underneath it was the subter-

1 P. 45-2 Hist. Eng. Ch. Arch. p. 47, &c.

1 6 Ancient Coptic Churches. LCH. i.

ranean chapel with its own altar and shrine !. The

name is clearly given in the Ceremoniale Episco-

porum2

: 'locum qui in plerisque ecclesiis sub altari

majori esse solet ubi et martyrum corpora requiescunt

qui martyrium seu confessio appellatur! The crypttoo was sometimes called confessorium, and Du Cangequotes from the ' Laudes Papiae apud Muratorem

'

as follows :

' Fifteen churches are found having very

large crypts with vaulted roofs upheld on marble

columns : these are called confessoria, and in them

bodies of saints rest within marble coffers.' Richard,

prior of Hexham, says of St. Wilfrid's church there,

about 1 1 80 A.D., that there were many chapels below

the several altars throughout the building. Mr.

Scott gives instances of Saxon crypts at Brixworth,

Wing, and Repton : and of later crypts at York, Old

St. Paul's, Winchester, Gloucester and elsewhere.

I may add that a very good instance of a confes-

sionary occurs in the church of St. Clement at

Hastings. But essential as the presence of relics

was considered in the early ages of the church, in

later times, despite the miraculous power of multi-

plying possessed by martyrs' bones, there seems

to have been a dearth of such remains, and altars

were consecrated without them. In a MS. of the

fifteenth century, now in the British Museum 3, may

be found a rubric providing that the practice of

placing relics inside the altar'

raro fiat . . . propter

relliquiarum paucitatem.' This ordinance, hitherto

unnoticed, was pointed out to me by Mr. Middleton.

Corresponding to the altar-cavity of the Coptic

1 See Rock, Church of our Fathers, vol. i. p. 219.2

Lib. i. c. 12.3Lansdowne, 451, fol. 137 a.


Church and the sepulcrum of the Latin, there was

always a place beneath the Greek altar (sub altari

locum excavatum*),

.called the sea, QdXao-a-a or

OaXao-o-iSiov. Here were thrown away the rinsings

from the priests' hands and the water used for

washing the sacred vessels;and here were laid the

ashes of holy things, such as vestments or corporals,

that were burnt by fire by reason of their decay.

These uses give some colour to the derivation of

the term propounded by Ligaridius, who says that

the idea comes from the lustral service of the sea,

because in the words of Euripides OdXaa-cra iravra

KXvgei. The thalassa no doubt was pierced with a

drain to carry off the rinsings, and so far corre-

sponded with the western piscina. Moreover, in

early times the piscina in English churches was a

drain at the foot of the altar on the westward side.

This is proved for instance by the words of the

Ecgbert Pontifical, according to which the holy water

that is left over after sprinkling a church at dedica-

tion is poured'

at the base of the altar.' There is

also a symbolical reason assignable ;for as the altar

figures the throne in heaven of St. John's vision,

so this thalassa figures the sea by the throne. Besides

the uses above given the thalassa had a further

purpose as a receptacle for vestments on the eve of

a festival, for which they were specially hallowed by

being placed under the altar 2. In the thalassa too,

as in the sepulcrum, relics were sometimes though

rarely placed : usually they were kept in separatechests or coffers, as became the later practice in the

Latin and the Coptic churches alike. Evagrius for

1

Goar, Euchol. p. 15.2

Id. p. 518.

VOL. it. C

1 8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

example1

speaks of a '

finely wrought shrine of silver*

used as a reliquary. Goar, after asserting that the

altar was merely a table on four columns, states that

the relics, which by the Greek canons were absolutelyessential to the dedication of a church, were placedeither inside the slab or else inside the pillars. But

I have already shown part of this statement to be

erroneous, inasmuch as the rubric for dedication

allows the altar to be built up as a solid structure.

When moreover we read of the thalassa being the

place in which the relics sometimes though rarely

were deposited ;the right conclusion doubtless is,

that where the rarer, i.e. the solid form of altar pre-

vailed, there the thalassa, being walled all round like

the Coptic cavity, served to give the relics a shelter

and security which they would not receive under the

open table-altar. The hollow form of the Greek

altar is expressly mentioned in early times. Thus

Ardon, Abb6 of Aniane, who died in 82 1 A. D., writes :

' Altare illud forinsecus est solidum, ab intus autem

cavum, retrorsum habens ostiolum, quo privatis

diebus inclusae tenentur capsae cum diversis relliquiis

Patrum V And of vestments we read :

'

vespera

praecedente, sanctum habitum suscepturi vestimenta

ad sanctum altare asportantur et in sanctae mensae

gremio seu mari (cV r<S 6a\a<rcri8ta> r^y ayfay rpaTre^y)

reponuntur3.' Conversely, altars supported on columns

are sometimes found in Latin churches. An altar

on four pillars is depicted in the mosaics of the

baptistery at S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna;

similar is the altar of St. Rusticus at Minerve in

1Hist. lib. ii. c. 3.

2Thiers, Les Principaux Autels des Eglises, p. 20. Paris, 1688.

3Id. ib. p. 33.


H6rault, dated 457 A.D. 1 The slab in the Vienna

museum rested on three 'supports : as did a slab in

the church of SS. Vincent and Anastasius at Rome.A single central pillar is found in the case of an

altar of the seventh century at Cavaillon, and another

at Six-Fours 2.

There seems to have been nothing in the structure

of Greek churches corresponding to the confessionary.Neither in the description of St. Sophia nor in anyother record, as far as I know, is any indication of

it : and this fact, taken in connexion with the .many

analogies existing between Greek and Coptic usage,so far bears out the idea that the arrangement of the

crypt at Abu Sargah is accidental, and is not a

martyr's shrine placed intentionally beneath the highaltar. It will be remembered too that the only other

example of a subterranean chapel in a Cairo church,

the chapel of Barsum al 'Arian at Abu-'s-Sifain, is

not merely not under the high altar but is outside

the main church altogether : while in regard to the

examples in Upper Egypt information is wanting.The church of Anba Bishoi in the Natrun valleyhas a curious cavity showing under the patriarchal

throne in the tribune, which may possibly have been

designed for relics.

One further point remains. In western Christen-

dom the altar was nearly always marked with five

crosses incised on the slab, one in the centre, and

one at each of the four corners. These are called

consecration crosses, and are sculptured in the placeswhere the bishop at dedication signed the sign of

the cross with chrism, and burnt over each spot a

1 La Messe, vol. i. pi. xliii.

2Id. ib. pi. Ivi and Ixxv.

C 2

2O Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.

little heap of incense and two crossed tapers. In

England most of the original altar-slabs were thrown

down at the reformation or in Puritan times, and

used as paving-stones or tombstones. Some few

remain in situ, such as on the high altar at Peter-

church in Hereford; in the parish church at Forth-

ampton, Gloucester; the collegiate choir at Arundel;

the chapels of St. Mary Magdalene and of Maison

Dieu at Ripon. A very good example was the

splendid slab on the high altar at Tewkesbury

Abbey (re-discovered and replaced by Mr. Mid-

dleton), but unfortunately the crosses have been

almost obliterated by a process of repolishing. Aslab used as a tombstone may be seen in the north

aisle of St. Mary's, West Ham, Pevensey, and ex-

amples are not uncommon elsewhere.

The Greek rite does not differ materially from

the English, except that the cross is marked in three

places instead of five on the slab and of the three

crosses one is in the centre, one at each side. The

crosses, however, are rather larger ;for the chrism is

poured out in the form of a cross, as at baptism.

Though the corners of the slab are not marked,

yet each of the four pillars upholding it is signed

by the pontiff with three crosses of chrism;and it is

probable that on all the places thus anointed the

figure of a cross was afterwards incised in the stone.

On the whole altar, therefore, there would be fifteen

consecration crosses.

The Coptic altar bears no incised crosses other

than those which are cut upon the slab of wood ;

and where this slab is wanting, the marble top does

not generally show the symbol of consecration,

though there is a single large cross sculptured on

CH. I.]The Altar. 21

two of the three slabs in the crypt at Abu Sargah.But the Egyptian custom is said to tally with the

Greek, three crosses of chrism being anointed on

the altar at its dedication in the name of the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Ghost respectively1

. Theuse of chrism for the consecration of the altar is

particularly mentioned by Renaudot, who, speakingof the church of St. Macarius in the Natrun valley,

says, '^cclesiae consecratio facta est episcoporum et

Fig. 4. Consecration Crosses. o1. On the columns of AI 'Adra, Harat-az-Zuailah. 2. On the columns at Abu Sargah. [2.6 I

3 and 4. On the slabs in the recesses of the crypt at Abu Sargah.

ipsius patriarchae ministerio, chrismatis tarn ad altare

quam ad parietes consignationibus factis 2.' This was

in the time of Benjamin, thirty-eighth patriarch, or

about 620 A. D. Even though Renaudot is some-

1 See Vansleb, Histoire de 1'Eglise d'Alexandrie, p. 220 (Paris,

1677).2

Historia Patriarcharum Alexandrinorutn, p. 166


what fond of assuming the existence of Coptic rites

on the analogy of the Latin, there is on this point

every reason for believing his testimony. For, apartfrom more direct evidence, since it is unquestionablethat consecration crosses were made on the walls

and columns, just as in the Greek and western rituals;

it is scarcely possible that the chrism should have

been used to anoint the fabric of the building, and

not used to anoint its most sacred part, the altar.

The rubric for the re-consecration of a defiled altar

in Gabriel's Pontifical 1

speaks of five crosses, appa-

rently one on the top and one on each of the sides.

But where exactly the crosses were made is uncer-

tain. There is, as was mentioned, a central cross

carved on the altar-board, which fits into an oblong

depression on all such altars as have not a marble

top. Probably one cross of chrism at least was

marked by the bishop upon the wooden slab,

though this would be against the western prac-

tice, which disallows* the use of chrism upon wood.

Indeed that the Copts did not scruple to use chrism

on a wooden surface seems proved by another pas-

sage in Gabriel's Pontifical, headed in Renaudot'

Consecratio tabulae ut altare fiat.' Subsequentlythe words ' benedic huic tabulae ligneae, ut fiat altare

sanctum et mensa sancta pro altari excelso et lapide

exstructo,' seem to point to the tabula decisively as

a portable altar, although possibly the word maydenote the wooden slab, which is the common

appurtenance of the stone altar. In any case the

rubric runs :

' tune accipiet chrisma sanctum et ex

eo signabit tabulam in modum crucis in quattuor

1Lit. Or. torn. i. p. 56.

'

Quinquies mensam et ejus quattuor

latera cruce signabit.'


ipsius lateribus;' though here again the points

anointed with the holy oil are not clearly defined.

Nevertheless, even though the slab be used on

occasion as a portable altar, the very fact that it

is detached from the stone structure and easily re-

moveable makes it unlikely that the symbols of

dedication should have been confined to that part.

We must imagine then that the chrism was anointed

on the top or walls of the altar itself, in places of

which no sculptured record is preserved.It has been already mentioned that a Coptic

church always possesses three altars in contradistinc-

tion to the single altar of the Greek ritual. Theside altars are, however, used only on the occasion

of the great festivals, namely, Easter, Christmas,

Palm Sunday, and the feast of the Exaltation of

the Cross 1. On these days more than a single

celebration is required ; and the result is obtained

without violating the Coptic canons, which forbid

a second celebration on the same altar within the

day. The altar, like the communicant, must be*

fasting,' as the Copts phrase it;and the same

expression is applied to vestments and vessels

which are used in the ceremonial of the mass.

So many points of resemblance may be noted

between Coptic and Armenian practice, that it is

not surprising to find the Armenian Church uphold-

ing the same canon, and consequently requiringthree as the normal number of altars 2

;there is,

however, this difference, that the side-altars in the

sacred buildings of the Armenians stand before the

1 Abu Dakn omits Easter, but seems wrong. See his History,tr. by Sir E. Sadleir (London, 1693), p. 13.

8 Fortescue's Armenian Church, p. 177.


sanctuary or in some other place, and not in a line

with the high altar and behind one continuous

screen, as usual in the Coptic arrangement. Yetthe Armenian church at Urfa is described as having'

three aisles,' i.e., nave and two aisles, 'and an altar

at the end of each aisle' 1;the bishop's throne is in

the north-east corner of the choir, and faces east.

Several altars seem to be allowed in the ritual of

the Syrian Jacobites, of the Nestorians, and of the

Maronites. Thus at Urfa a Syrian church of moderndate has a long narrow platform at the east end with'

several altars,' and before each a step for the cele-

brant. The Nestorian church at Kochanes has4

three tables or altars in the nave,' two of which are

called the'

altar of prayers' and '

altar of the gospel'

respectively, besides a small stone altar at the east

end. It is open to question, however, whether anybut the last-named are really eucharistic altars. At

Aleppo the Maronite church is described as havingfive altars 2

,and a throne against the east wall facing

west, according to the proper arrangement.

Quite enough then has been here written to show

the fallacy of Neale's generalization to the effect that'

throughout the whole East one church contains but

one altar 3.' Neale is very positive about the matter,

and adds ' nor is this peculiar to the church of Con-

stantinople : the rule is also observed in Ethiopia,

Egypt, Syria, Malabar, by Nestorians and Jacobites,

in short over the whole East :' though with curious

1Christians under the Crescent in Asia, by Rev."E..L. Cults;

London S. P. C. K. (n. d.), p. 83.3

Id. ib. pp. 84, 217, 48. The author is not very clear in his

evidence on the subject.3History of the Holy Eastern Church, Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 182.


inconsistency he admits, almost in the next sentence,

that examples of churches with several altars are not

wanting from the earliest times. However the ques-tion is one of rule, to be settled by rule. And, so

regarding it, one need only remark that the law of

three altars is not merely universal in Egypt at the

present time, but there is not a single religious build-

ing of the Copts, however ancient its foundation,

which does not bear the clearest structural proofs of

having been designed with a view to precisely the

same ritual arrangement. And though there is no

express evidence for Abyssinia, yet considering the

historical and actual dependence of the Church of

Ethiopia on that of Alexandria, one can scarcely

question that the same rule holds good there also.

The practice in Armenia is clear in upholding the

same custom : and if the practice in the Syrian and

Nestorian Churches is not quite clearly established

as identical with that of the Egyptian, Ethiopianand Armenian, yet obviously the truth lies rather in

the complete reversal of Neale's canon, and mustrather be expressed by saying that nowhere in the

whole East does a single church contain only a single

altar, with the exception of buildings belonging to

the see of Constantinople. The Greek Church re-

cognises one altar : all other Churches recognise a

plurality of altars.

PORTABLE ALTARS 1.

The Coptic clergy rarely make use of portable

altars, not from any canonical objection to them, but

1 Renaudot is quite wrong in his remarks about the Copticaltar. He says (Lit. Or. torn. i. p. 164):

' consuetude a multis seculis


merely because the necessity for their employmentseldom arises. Both in the capital and in most other

towns of Egypt churches are thickly scattered, and

the Christians have a way of clinging round them.

Being thus always within easy reach of a church,

those who are hale can resort to the celebration,

while the sick receive a portion of the korban which

is carried from the church by a priest. The rule

of to-day is that the korban must always be conse-

crated within the sacred building ; although in places

where there happens to be no church, in case of

emergency the priest is allowed to consecrate as he

judges necessary. I have found but one notice of

such an altar in Coptic history. When Zacharias,

king of Nubia, about 850 A.D. sent his son and heir

George to Egypt to settle a question of tribute

money, the royal envoy paid a visit to the patriarch

invaluit ut tabulas solas sive mensas haberenl, quibus insternebatur

mappa benedictionibus episcopalibus consecrata, aut tabula ad ipsius

altaris longitudinem, aut tandem altaria ut apud nostros vocantur

portatilia: laminae scilicet aut segmenta ex marmore quae facile

afferri et removeri possint . . . . Ita non modo Graecorum sed etiam

Latinorum disciplinae de sacris altaribus convenire deprehenditur

Orientalis disciplina.' It is this perpetual assumption by analogywhich vitiates so much of Renaudot's information. 'Graecae

Ecclesiae, cui aliae in Oriente similes sunt' (p. 166) is his maximin all cases of doubt. So he says that for the most part there is

but a single altar in one church, a conclusion reached as follows :

'Cum autem insignes olim ecclesiae multae in Aegypto essent,

jam omnino paucae supersunt, in quibus primaevae antiquitatis

obscura vestigia agnosci possint .... nihil ex antiquis Christianis

aedificiis residuum est unde conjectura de ecclesiarum aut al-

tarium forma capi queat ; nihilque vero propius quam ut illorum

forma ex Graecarum (sic) lineamentis intelligatur ; eadem enim

erat ulrarumque dispositio! The dangers of such a method are

obvious.


Joseph, then in the chair of St. Mark, to whom he

carried letters. Thence he proceeded to do homageto the khalif at Bagdad ;

and on his return to Cairo

was granted as a very great privilege by the patriarch

a portable altar of wood to carry to his father. Tra-

dition says that such a thing was never known before ;

and the concession was only justified by the peculiar

circumstances of the Nubians, who were restless

nomads and dwellers in tents, and whose life was all

fighting and foray1

. It is quite likely that this altar

was a board from one of the churches : indeed the

Copts of to-day allege that the portable altar used

in cases of extreme necessity is nothing else than

the wooden slab, which must therefore be conse-

crated with chrism. Moreover the entire disappear-ance of the altar-board from some of the minor chapelsin Cairo may well point to the fact that the board

was carried outside the building, and used as an altar.

It is curious to remark that the Nestorian canons,

while not apparently sanctioning the use of portable

altars, yet in cases of urgent need allow the eucharist

to be consecrated over the hands of a deacon, pro-

vided express permission be first obtained from a

bishop2

. The Syrians use consecrated slabs of wood,like the Coptic : or where neither an altar nor a con-

secrated slab is at hand, they allow the eucharist to

be celebrated on a leaf of the gospel3

.

About the practice of the Greek Church there is

no such ambiguity. The consecration of portablealtars or antimensia, as they are called, was a regular


2J. A. Asseman, De Cathol. seu Pat. Chald. et Nestor. Com,

p. 1 20.

3Renaudot, Lit. Or. vol. ii. p. 46.


part of the ritual for the dedication of a new altar.

The antimensia were laid on the altar;and after

olvdvQr) or scented wine had been poured upon them,and three crosses had been made upon each with

chrism, relics mixed with ceromastic to prevent the

loss of any of the holy fragments were brought forth,

anointed with chrism, and enclosed in a pocket behind

each tablet. The celebration of the eucharist com-

pleted the form of consecration for the antimensia,

which then were ready for use. Their employmentwas as common in the Greek as it was rare in the

Coptic Church.

Many examples might be quoted to prove the

custom of using portable altars in western Christen-

dom. In England the practice prevailed from the

earliest times, every large church possessing one or

more tablets of wood or metal, which the priests

could carry when they wished to minister to sick

people, or to celebrate in remote places where there

was no consecrated building. Perhaps the most

ancient extant specimen of the kind is the portablealtar used by St. Cuthbert, which is now preserved,

though in a mutilated condition, in the cathedral

library at Durham. It is a small wooden tablet

covered with a leaden casing which seems to be of

later date and bears some indecipherable Greek

characters.

THE FITTINGS OF THE ALTAR.

Over every high altar in the churches of Egypt,and sometimes also over the side altars, rises or

rose a lofty canopy or baldacchino resting on four


columns. The canopy, which is always of wood

though sometimes upheld by stone pillars, is gene-

rally painted in rich colours within and without,

and adorned with a picture of our Lord in the

centre of the dome and with flying angels and

emblematic figures. A full description of such a

canopy has been given in the chapter on the church

of Abu-'s-Sifain and need not here be repeated1

:

only it may be added that the domed canopy sym-bolises the highest heaven, where Christ sits throned

in glory surrounded by angels, and the four pillars

on which it is upheld typify either the four quartersof the globe, according to Germanus, or else the four

evangelists, whose symbols are also sometimes

painted within the canopy. The Coptic baldakyn is

invariably in the form of a cupola, never having a

pointed roof with gables, as in the church of St.

Anastasius at Rome;nor a flat roof, as in two

examples at St. Mark's, Venice ; nor a pyramidal

roof, as in a third example at St. Mark's, also in the

church of Sta. Potenziana near Narni, and that of

Spirito Santo at Ravenna 2. Yet it is curious that in all

cases where a canopy is now standing, the columns

which support it have, if I remember rightly, Sara-

cenic capitals. This is natural enough at Abu-'s-

Sifain, *which was built in Arab times, but more

surprising at Abu Sargah, where the columns of

the nave are Greek or Roman. In some cases

1 The description (vol. i. p. 114) may be compared with that of

the ciborium over the altar of St. Gregory built by Gebehard, bishopof Constance. M. de Fleury, in giving a cut of the ceiling which

shows the figures of the four evangelists, conjecturally inserts their

symbols. La Messe, vol. ii. p. 26.

2 La Messe, vol. ii. pi. ciii, civ, cix, xcvii.


the columns have disappeared altogether, and the

canopy rests on cross-beams driven into the walls.

No doubt the true explanation is, that in the ancient

churches the altar with its canopy received a morerich and sumptuous adornment than any other partof the church, and therefore specially attracted the

malice of Muslim fanatics engaged in plunder or

destruction of the Christian edifices. It seems how-

ever very possible that in some cases, where a full

dome roofed the sanctuary and overshadowed the

altar, a separate baldakyn on pillars was dispensed

with, in later times at any rate, after the disuse of

hangings. Certainly it would be quite wrong to

infer that the altar-canopy was a mediaeval innova-

tion among the Copts : for it is one of the earliest

traditions of primitive church decoration.

Between the four columns of the canopy run four

slender rods or beams, which should be painted with

texts in Coptic as at Abu Sargah. These beams

were meant originally to hang the altar-curtains upon.For in ancient times the altar was veiled with hang-

ings : and though there is no instance of such curtains

remaining in an Egyptian church, yet both the beams

themselves, and the rings with which they are some-

times (as at Abu-'s-Sifain) still fitted, prove that even

in the middle ages the practice of surrounding the

altar with hangings was not disused;

while the

seventh or eighth century panel at Abu Sargah, in

which they are figured, furnishes a good example of

earlier usage. At Abu Sargah two of the columns

stand at a distance of 2 ft. 9 in., two at 3 ft. 3^ in., from

the nearest corner of the altar;so that there remained

quite room enough for the celebrant to move round

the altar inside the curtains. At Abu-'s-Sifain the

CH. I.]The Altar.

shortest distance is 2 ft., which leaves rather a narrow

space for movement. No doubt the altar-curtains

were richly embroidered with texts and figures in

SCALE OF FEET

Fig. 5. Silk curtain, with massive silver embroidery, before the haikal door at

Al Mu'allakah.

needlework, or in tissue of gold and silver. To this

day a curtain always hangsbefore the doorof the haikal

embroidered either with a red cross or with figures.


In his description of the great church of St. Sophia,Paul the Silentiary relates that over the high altar on

four columns of silver gilt, which were spanned byarches, rose a lofty

* tower' or canopy, the lower part

of which was octagonal, while above it tapered off in

a cone. On the top of the cone was set a golden orb

and on the orb stood a cross of gold encrusted with

jewels. Between the silver pillars costly hangingswere spread ;

and on the curtain before the altar there

was wrought in glorious embroidery of gold the figure

of Christ in the attitude of benediction and holding a

book of the gospels in his left hand. This descrip-

tion is sufficient to prove the early practice of the

Greek Church: but Goar also mentions 1 the altar-

canopy as symbolical, of heaven, and in the same

place speaks of a curtain before the altar embroidered

with a figure of our Lord. These hangings too are

found depicted in early monuments : thus in the

splendid mosaics that adorn the dome of St. George'schurch at Salonica (now used as a mosque) may be

seen a fine representation of an altar shrouded in

curtains and covered with a canopy. The work dates

from about 500 A. D. A silver canopy, too, datingfrom the early fifth century, stood over the altar at

the neighbouring church of St. Demetrius. At the

present day such curtains are not used in the

Greek any more than in the Coptic ritual. Their

chief purpose, besides giving an air of mystic sanctity

to the precincts of the altar, was to veil the celebrant

at the moment of consecration. Accordingly theywere always drawn close during the recitation of the

canon. Their disuse is probably due to the fact that

the iconostasis formed an effectual screen in itself;

1

Euchologion, p. 15.


and if there were no express testimony to the contrary,

it would be natural to conclude that the iconostasis

is a more mediaeval arrangement, the adoption of

which did away with the necessity for altar-curtains.

At St. Sophia, however, Paul the Silentiary tells us

there was before the sanctuary a screen with three

doors, and on it were blazoned figures of angels and

prophets, while over the central door was wroughtthe cypher of Justinian and Theodora- There was

in fact even at that early date, coexisting with the

magnificent curtains, a true iconostasis. Neither the

Armenian nor the Nestorian churches have anyscreen before the high altar other than a curtain,

which is drawn across the whole chancel, and seems

to serve not merely as a screen but also as the

Lenten veil.

In the western Church, wherever the basilican

type of building prevailed, the altar was overshadowed

by a domed canopy and veiled with curtains, as for

instance in the old basilica of St. Peter and that of

St. Paul without the Walls at Rome. The baldakynat St. Peter's, presented by Gregory the Great, was

of silver ; so too was that given by Honorius I. to the

church of St. Pancratius. Rock * makes mention of

curtains hung at the north and south sides of the

altar to keep the wind off the candles : but this was

only a remnant of the earlier arrangement, which was

designed above all to screen the celebrant at the

moment of office. Indeed the essential part of the

baldacchino was the curtains, as the very name

proves, being derived from Baldacco the Italian for

Bagdad, as damask from Damascus, fustian from

Fustat, the ancient Arab name of Old Cairo. Baldac-

1 Church of our Fathers, vol. i. p. 230.

VOL. II. D

34 Ancient Coptic C/ntrc/ies. [CH. i.

chino, then, means properly a costly tissue woven in

the looms of Bagdad : in its anglicised form '

balda-

kyn'

it is not uncommon in our ancient church

records : but the name passed by an easy transition

from the hangings to the canopy above the altar.

The baldacchino was a common feature in our early

Anglo-Saxon churches. A very clear and fine

representation of an altar-curtain may be seen, for

example, in the South Kensington Museum on an

ivory tablet of Anglo-Saxon workmanship. The

subject is the Adoration of the Magi : the figures

are grouped under an arch, above which and in the

spandrels the structure of the temple is pourtrayed :

all round the arch runs a rod, on which hang curtains

looped and falling in folds. This tablet has somecurious points of resemblance with the carved panelat Abu Sargah. A similar arrangement is shown in

an engraving figured in Rock 1,and taken from an

illumination in Godemann's Benedictional. More-

over the Ecgbert Pontifical orders the curtain to be

drawn across between clergy and people at the con-

secration of an altar 2. There was no elevation of the

host before the congregation in the Saxon ritual, a

fact which Mr. G. Gilbert Scott connects, no doubt

rightly, with the use of altar-curtains. One may pushthe argument a step farther, and suppose that the

disuse of altar-curtains in the eastern as well as the

western churches was hastened, as the practice of

elevating the host won its way into predominance.This practice was unknown in the West before the

end of the eleventh century, and was not received in

England till the thirteenth century3

, though it very1 Vol. i. p. 194.

* P. 45.*

Rock, vol. iv. p. 155.

CH.i.j The Altar. 35

probably originated in the East much earlier. Yetit was about the end of the eleventh century, namelyin the time of St. Osmund, who was bishop of Sarumand Chancellor of England 1078 A.D., that the use of

the canopy was discontinued in this country. In

many cases however the two eastward columns and

the beam joining them were left standing *, and on

this beam was set a crucifix together with a vessel of

holy water, a box with singing-breads, wine, and the

like. The curtains which were hung north and south

of mediaeval altars have been mentioned : they were

suspended on rods driven into the wall and called'

riddles.' Another trace of the old usage was pre-served in the Lenten veil, which shrouded the altar

from the eve of the first Sunday in Lent till MaundyThursday during the mass, and was withdrawn onlyat the reading of the gospel. In some churches,

where the chancel-arch was narrow, the Lenten veil

hung across the entire width : in cathedrals it hungbetween the choir and the presbytery. It was madeof white linen, or sometimes of silk, and was markedwith a red cross.

COVERINGS OF THE ALTAR.

The ordinary covering of a Coptic altar (sitr) is

a tightly-fitting case of silk or cotton, sometimes

dyed a dim colour or brocaded with small patternsof flowers in needlework or silver. This reaches

to the ground, entirely concealing the fabric of the

altar. More splendid stuffs are used for great

1

Rock, vol. iv. p. 208.

D 2


festivals, and even in common use an outer cover-

ing is sometimes put over the first1. The only

other form of altar-vestment that I have seen is

a sort of frontal, about i8in. square, hanging on

the western side ; this is of costly material, and

richly embroidered with a cross in the centre and

figures in the corners. But even the most intel-

ligent of the Copts seem to have no information

concerning its usage.In our early English churches there were three

principal coverings: the cerecloth, fitting tightly

like the Coptic vestment and removed but once a

year, on Maundy Thursday, for the washing of the

altar;then a white linen cloth the size of the slab,

not falling over the sides, but having a super-frontal

attached;and thirdly, a cloth of fine linen covering

the top and hanging over the north and south sides ;

upon this were embroidered five crosses.

The Greek vestments were also principally three,

called the TT/OO? o-ap/ca or cerecloth, the cTrwSvo-is or

overall, and the dXr^rov or corporal (?) : but under-

neath all, at each corner of the altar, was hung a

narrow strip of embroidery worked with the figure

of an evangelist, and hence called cvayyeXio-Tifpiov2

.

The term evangelisterium is sometimes wronglyused for the textus or book of the gospels.

1 There is no distinction of name between the coverings, which

are simply called^>1U Û-kc.

2Thiers, Les Principaux Autels des Eglises. ch. xxi. p. 154.

CHAPTER II.

Euchavistic Vessels and Altar Furniture.

Chalice. Paten. Dome. Spoon. Ark. Veils. Fan. Ewer andBasin. Pyx. Crewel. Chrismatory. Altar-candlesticks. Textus.

Gospel-stand. Thurible. -Bridal Crown.

I~'N

the celebration of the eucharist the Coptsuse five instruments chalice*, paten, dome,

spoon, and ark. None of the extant chalices

that I have seen are very ancient or interesting.

They are usually of silver, though the church

of Al Amir Tadrus had one of plain white

Venetian glass gilded. As a rule the bowl is small

and nearly straight-sided ;the stem long and ending

downwards in a round knop, below which the base

slopes away rather abruptly, but the foot is relieved

with plain mouldings and is always circular. The

shape thus differs from that of the English chalice

in two chief particulars : the bowl, in being moreconical and less hemispherical, more nearly resembles

that of the Elizabethan communion-cup ;and the

knop is below the stem instead of dividing it in

the middle, and is less prominent. Moreover, in

England the base of the chalice was changed from

circular to hexagonal after the fourteenth century,

1 Arabic îXJI, Coptic ni noTHpIOIt.


owing to a rubric which ordered the chalice to be

laid on its side to drain after the celebration : and

the hexagonal base obviated the danger of rolling.

But a chalice with an angular foot is never found

in the churches of Egypt. The Nestorians some-

times use for a chalice a plain bowl of silver.

Glass chalices only came into use when the more

precious vessels had been plundered or destroyed

by the Muslims. Thus it is recorded that about

the year 700 A. D. so great a spoliation of the

churches took place, that glass chalices and wooden

patens were substituted for the lost vessels of silver

and gold1. As regards western practice, Durandus

says that Zephyrinus in the early third century

enjoined the use of glass chalices, but pope Urban

prescribed metal. About the same time, 226 A.D.,

the Council of Rheims forbade the use of glass. In

England horn and wood were forbidden materials

on account of their absorbent qualities. The canons

of Aelfric mention gold, silver, glass, and tin as per-

missible : and glass chalices were used in the very

early Irish Church, though afterwards disallowed 2.

In the thirteenth century tin was forbidden by the

Constitutions of Archbishop Wethershed 3. But in

eastern and western ritual alike gold or silver

seems to have been the normal metal for the

chalice. Renaudot relates that about the year 1210

the khallf Malik Al 'Adal, hearing that there were

great treasures buried in a well at Dair Macarius

in the Natrun desert, sent and discovered, amongother things, a silver chalice and paten, which were


' Warren's Lit. and Kit. of the Celtic Church, p. 143.3

Archaeological Journal, vol. iii. p. 133.

CH. ii.]Eucharistic Vessels. 39

carried off, besides a silk embroidered curtain for

the haikal-door valued at 3000 gold pieces. The

story adds that when the Copts pleaded, and provedfrom the inscriptions and the Book of Benefactions,

that the vessels and the hanging were special offer-

ings made to the church, the khalif generouslyrestored them, and they were carried in chests on

camels to Old Cairo surrounded by companies of

men singing and bearing lighted tapers. Forty

years later, when Al Mu'allakah was spoiled, a fine

chalice of ancient workmanship was found buried

under one of the altars, i. e. doubtless hidden awayin the sepulcrum. I have not seen any cross or

engraving of the crucifixion upon the foot of a

Coptic chalice, such as was usual in western

mediaeval chalices, though not in those of a more

primitive epoch. The donative inscription is gene-

rally round the base.

Patens 1 are. as a rule, plain, flat, circular dishes,

with a vertical raised border round. They have

not any depression in the middle, nor any engraved

figure of the Veronica, like our fourteenth and

fifteenth-century patens ;nor have they any stem

or foot like those of the Elizabethan and later

periods. In fact both chalice and paten correspondin their simplicity of design, if not altogether in

shape, more closely with the earliest extant speci-

mens of the like vessels in western Christendom.

The dome z,or kubbah as it is called in Arabic,

consists of two half-hoops of silver crossed at right

angles and rivetted together. At the celebration of

mass the dome is set over the consecrated bread

Arabic ..;îl, Coptic *f~!XlCKOC.

4o Ancient Coptic CJmyches. [CH. H.

in the midst of the paten, and the corporal which

covers the dome -is thus held clear above the housel.

The Greek Church makes use of a correspondinginstrument termed the

'

star,' do-rePIO-KOS or darrjp,

said to have been introduced by St. Chrysostom..The name 'star' is given from the shape of the

instrument perhaps ;but when it is placed over the

host, the priest recites the words,' And there came

a star and stood over where the young child was 1.'

The spoon2

is employed for administering the

Coptic communion;

for the custom is to put the

wafer into the wine, and to administer both kinds

together. The bowl of the spoon is hemispherical,the handle consists of a straight even strip of metal,

on which is usually graven a dedicatory inscription.

In the Armenian ritual a spoon is used some-

times, though very rarely3

. The Greek custom

as regards the administration is precisely similar to

the Coptic. A spoon (Aa/3ty) is used to take out

of the wine the crumbs of bread, or'

pearls' as

they are called, which are given to laymen. Eccle-

siastics, however, and the czar at his coronation,

receive the two kinds separately. In England the

mention of sacred spoons is common in church in-

ventories;thus among the ornaments of Richard

II.'s chapel at Windsor in 1384 are mentioned a

golden chalice, paten, and spoon. But these spoonswere used rather for mixing water with the wine,

1 Renaudot in his Liturgiarum Orientalium Collectio (vol. ii. p.

60, 2nd ed., Frankfort, 1847) sa>'s that tne Orientals, including the

Syrians and Egyptians, do not use the Aster. As regards the

Egyptians, of course, he is wrong.2 Arabic q.iAl, Coptic *fKOKXl^-pIOIt, *fJULTCTHp,

'fjULTCOHpI.3Fortescue's Armenian Church, pp. 177, 180.

SACRAMENTAL SPOON WITHDEDICATORY INSCRIPTION IN

ARABIC. OF BASE SILVER.

WOODEN CUPTO HOLD

WINE CRUET

CLASS LAMP OF

ARAB FORMCH OF ABU SARCAH

TEXT US -STANDSHUT UP

CHURCH OF AMIR-TADRUS - OLD CAIRO

SIZE. ABOUT29X22"

WOODEN TEXTUS STAND WITH PRICKETS FOR CANDLES

< 8 >

WOODEN CHRISMATORY WITH REVOLVI NC LIDCHURCH OF ANBA SHANUDAH OLD CAIRO

6" * 8"

IRON DOOR-KEY AT DAIR TADRUS

Fig. 6. Various pieces of Church Furniture.


or as strainers to remove flies and the like from

the chalice ; while the analogue of the eastern

spoon in the early Latin Church was the tube or

pipe, such as is recorded in an inventory of vessels

given to Exeter church c. 1046. The use of the

tube, which lingered on at St. Denis, Cluny, and

other monasteries, now survives only with the

pope1

.

Besides the above vessels every Coptic altar is

furnished with a wooden ark or tabernacle 2, differ-

ing both in structure and in purpose from those of

the Latin Church. With us the tabernacle was

used to guard the housel, which was commonly en-

closed in a pyx within it. The tabernacle was veryoften made in the form of a tower, and wrought of

precious metals adorned with jewels. But in Egyptthe practice of reserving the host, which once pre-

vailed, has long been discontinued, owing chiefly,

no doubt, to the compactness of the Coptic com-

munities, which made it easy to find a priest at

hand to consecrate in case of sickness. There is,

however, a lurid legend which accounts for the

discontinuance of the practice by relating that the

housel was once found to have been devoured bya serpent in the night. The Coptic tabernacle is a

regular instrument in the service of the mass, and

at other times lies idle upon the altar. It consists

of a cubical box, eight or nine inches high ;the top

side of which is pierced with a circular opening just

large enough to admit the chalice. At the conse-

cration the chalice is placed within the tabernacle,

1 Vide Journal of Archaeology, vol. iii. p. 132.2 Called in Arabic ^-ISJI <e-J~ or simply ^--/XJI,

i. e. 'the

chalice-stand'

or ' the stand :' in Coptic

CH. ii.] Eucharistic Vessels. 43

and the rim when it is thus enclosed is about flush

with the top, so that the paten rests as much on

the tabernacle as on the chalice. The four walls

of the tabernacle are covered with sacred paint-

ings, our Lord and St. John being the most fre-

quent figures. Most of the tabernacles now in use

are modern and artistically worthless, but one beau-

tiful ancient specimen I discovered at Abu-'s-Sifain,

and of this a full description is given in another

place *.

There can, I think, be no doubt that this taber-

nacle or altar-casket of the Copts is the mysterious'area' which has puzzled liturgical writers from Re-

naudot to Cheetham 2. Renaudot quotes a prayer

preceding the Ethiopic canon entitled'

Super arcam

sive discum majorem,' and thinks that the ark was

a sort of antimensium. But the title is at once

explained if we remember the Coptic practice of

placing the chalice inside and the paten on the

box, a practice from which the Ethiopic was doubt-

less derived. The very words of the prayer, taken

in connexion with the Coptic custom, really set the

vexed question at rest. They follow the dedica-

tion of chalice, paten, and spoon ;and are, as ren-

dered by Neale 3:

' O Lord our God, who didst

command Moses thy servant and prophet, saying,Make me precious vessels and put them in the taber-

nacle on Mount Sinai, now, O Lord God Almighty,stretch forth thy hand upon this ark, and fill it with

the virtue, power, and grace of thy Holy Ghost, that

in it may be consecrated the Body and Blood of Thine

1 Vol. i. pp. 109, no. 2Diet. Christ. Ant. s. v.

3 Eastern Church, Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 186.

44 Ancient Coptic Churches, [CH. n.

only begotten Son our Lord.' Neale himself comes

to the conclusion that this ark is'

simply used for

the reservation of the blessed sacrament;' but the

words of the prayer which I have just cited, (the

italics are mine,) leave no doubt whatever that

the ark at its dedication is intended not for the

reservation but for the consecration of the host;

and even if this deduction were doubtful, it is ren-

dered absolutely certain by the analogy of Coptic

usage, of which both Renaudot and Neale are quite

ignorant. It may be true, as Neale alleges, that in

the Ethiopian Church the host actually is some-

times reserved in the ark;but that is an accident,

and a perversion of the original intention.

The Copts have no instrument corresponding to

the holy lance of Greek ritual for the fraction or

division of the wafer.'

A special appurtenance of the Coptic liturgical

worship is the little mat or 'plate'1 as they call it,

numbers of which are used in the celebration of the

korban. They are circular in form, five or six

inches in diameter, and made of silk, strengthened at

the back with some coarser material. Each mathas a cross embroidered or woven upon it : and

sometimes, as in the woodcut, smaller crosses are

set between the branches. The mat here given is

of cloth of gold with designs embroidered in thread

of silver gilt, an ancient example from the church of

Abu Kir wa Yuhanna at Old Cairo. Red, pink and

green are equally common hues, there being no re-

gulation as to colour. The manner in which these

1

<j-JJI ori>j*<& ;

in Coptic TTIOOJUL : it seems to correspondwith the 'minus velum' mentioned by Renaudot, Lit. Or. torn. i.

p. 304.

CH. II.]Eiicharistic Vessels. 45

mats are used at the mass will be explained in

another chapter.

Before the commencement of the mass the sacred

elements are covered with a veil or corporal called

sJUJJi in Arabic, and ni npoc^pm 1 in Coptic. Theveil is of white or coloured silk, generally about 18 in.

square ;the middle is embroidered with a cross

;

Fig. 7 The Hasirah or Eucharistic Mat.

and tiny bells are sometimes attached to the centre

and the corners. This lafafah seems to answer to the

1 Renaudot (I.e.) remarks that this, the 'velum majus/ is called

anaphora'

praecipue in Syriacis Ritualibus.' Nauphir is no doubt

the term used by the Syrians, but the Coptic name is that given in

the text.


of Greek ritual, while the hasirah or

tabak corresponds in some mea .ure to the Greek

chalice veil. But the Copts employ only these two

eucharistic veils, and have nothing analogous to the

Greek drjp or ve<f>e\rj.

The use of the fan1 or flabellum no doubt origin-

ated in the sultry East, where being almost a neces-

sity of daily life, it passed very early into the service

of the Church. Its employment in Coptic worshipdates from a great antiquity.

In the Liturgy of St. Clement, translated from the

Apostolical Constitutions, a rubric runs thus :

' Two1 deacons on each side of the altar hold a fan made' of thin vellum, fine linen, or peacocks' feathers, to'

drive away flies or gnats, lest they fall into the'

chalice.' Costly fans are mentioned in the yearA.D. 624

2. These doubtless, as was usual later, were

made of metal, either gold or silver. A common

type is that given in the illustration, a disk of silver

fitted with a silver socket, into which is fastened a

short wooden handle. The disk is surrounded anddivided across by dotted bands, and upon it are

worked two rude figures of the seraphim. The whole

of the design is repousse. At the church of Al AmirTadrus there were four of these flabella : but their

purpose is so far forgotten, that they are only used

as ornaments upon the occasion of the silver textus-

case being set in the choir. The textus-case then is

placed upright upon a sort of stand, which has at

each corner a short pricket to receive the wooden

2

Gregory the Great's Liber Sacramentorum, ed. H. Menardus,

Paris, 1642, p. 319, where several authorities are cited.

Fig. 8. Flabellum in repouss^ silver.


handle of the flabellum 1. A taper is further stuck

or crushed upon the upper part of the disk and

lighted; so that the fan seems to serve only as an

elaborate candlestick. It may well be, however, that

this usage betrays a consciousness of some such

mystic symbolism as undoubtedly is attached to the

fan in the Greek ritual. At Abu Sargah, where the

ritual, or at least the worship, has suffered less decaythan at the deserted Tadrus, similar silver fans exist,

and are, I believe, used at solemn festivals, if not in

the regular celebration of the mass. Upon the altar

at Anba Shanudah I found a rude axe-shaped fan of

woven rushes, such as the Arabs wave to cool their

faces;and the fact that this fan is still employed,

either regularly or in the hot season, for the service

of the altar, proves that the right use of the flabellum

is not entirely forgotten.In the office for the ordination of the patriarch of

Alexandria, the rubric speaks of a procession throughthe church with crosses, gospels, tapers, and fans or

figures of the cherubim. Flabella were waved bythe deacons in the Syrian Jacobite, and probablyalso in the Coptic rite for the ordination of a priest

at the laying on of hands. In the ritual of the Mel-

kite Egyptians to-day a metal flabellum is sometimes

used : thus at the ancient church of St. George on

the tower at Old Cairo two fans stand upon the

altar. More often, however, they use a fine linen

cloth or corporal, such as is employed also for the

same purpose in the service of the altar at the Copticmonasteries in the desert, and is called al lafafah. Yet,

even where a veil or corporal is used to fan the sacred

elements, the original metal flabellum survives still as

1 See illustration, page 41 supra.

CH. II.] Eucharistic Vessels. 49

J1.J.B

Fig. 9 Processional Flabellum of silver-giltused by the Melkite Church of Alexandria.

VOL. II.

a processional ornament

among the Melkites, as

will be seen from the illus-

tration.

We constantly read of

fans carried in processionin the Coptic ritual, as well

as in the Armenian. In

both cases there was prob-

ably a special form of the

instrument for processions

corresponding to the Mel-

kite flabellum : but this

form has long since disap-

peared among the Copts.In the Greek Church the

fan, or purtSiov, seems to

have departed altogetherfrom its original purpose,and to have a ceremonial

rather than a practical

value. The one given in

Gear's illustration is madeof wood, and consists of a

small carved image of the

seraphim mounted on a

short handle, an instru-

ment which could be of

little service in driving

away gnats and flies. It

is just after the pax and

hymn of victory, and again

just before the diptychs in

the Greek rite, that the

fan is employed; and on


both occasions the deacon solemnly fans the elements,

signifying a wafting of divine influence upon them.

Moreover, on Good Friday, at the consecration of

the chrism, when the box with the holy oil is carried

in procession, seven deacons move on each side of it,

every one holding a fan above it. In the absence of

a proper flabellum, the Greek rubric sanctions the

use of a napkin or corporal to fan the oflete.

That the same usage existed among the Copts is

clear from a MS. in the Vatican 1,which describes

the procession for the consecration of the chrism as

consisting of twelve subdeacons carrying lamps,twelve deacons carrying fans, twelve priests carrying

thuribles, and the bishop with the vessel of oil covered

by a white pall which is borne by deacons;and round

the bishop a throng of clergy moves, all carrying in

their hands 'cherubim,' i.e. fans, and crosses. Theword employed in the Coptic rubric seems to be

piTUCTHpiort, a mere transliteration of a form still

found in the Greek.

The Maronite and the Armenian Churches both

employ a metal flabellum silver or brass having a

circular disk surrounded with a number of little bells.

These bells are no doubt meant to call attention to

the special part of the office which is being performed :

and I may repeat that they are occasionally fastened

in the same manner on a Coptic corporal, stole, or

dalmatic.

A full and interesting account of the Armenian

use of the flabellum is given in the Rev. S. C. Malan's

introduction to his translation of the Divine Liturgy

1 Ordo consecrationis chrismatis et olei catechumenorum, ex

cod. Vat. 44, ed. Tukio, quoted by Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium,

torn. i. p. 251.

CH.ii.] Eticharistic Vessels. 51

of St. Gregory the Illuminator. We read there that'

the bishop before celebrating goes round the church

preceded and accompanied by clergy having fans and

banners, holding in his hand the cross, with which he

blesses at the end of every prayer said aloud up to

the Song of the Cherubim.' Another passage speaksof the waving of the fans at the trisagion as sym-bolical of the quivering wings of the seraphim : and

a Russian eyewitness of the ceremony mentions ' the

noise of silver fans' as being strange to.him, but not

disagreeable. The noise of course arises from the

bells;for the flabellum without bells is a familiar

instrument in Greek worship.In Georgia the flabellum was used in early times,

as is proved by an ancient fresco at Nekre"si, in

which two angels are shown beside the altar, each

holding a long-handled flabellum, the disk of which is

ornamented with a figure of the seraphim, but has no

bells.

The flabellum found its way at an early date into

the western churches 1. Cardinal Bona quotes an

instance of its use in the sixth century. Two figureswhich seem to be flabella are incised on an eighth-

century altar, which stood in the church of St. Peter

at Ferentillo 2. In an inventory at St. Riquier near

Abbeville, 831 A. D., occurs a '

silver fan for chasingflies from the sacrifice.' In 1250, at Amiens, is men-tioned a 'fan made of silk and gold': in 1253 the

Sainte Chapelle at Paris possessed' duo flabella,

vulgo nuncupata muscalia, ornata perlis': and 'esmou-

1 See paper in Archaeological Journal by the late Albert Way,vol. v.

2 La Messe, vol. i. pi. Iviii, and p. 171.

E 2


choires'

are given in an inventory of 1376. In the

Library at Rouen is an illuminated thirteenth-centurymissal with two illustrations of a deacon waving a

flabellum over the celebrant at the altar.

Coming to our own country, a Salisbury inventoryof 1214 mentions two fans of vellum and some other

stuff, perhaps silk. In 1298 the chapel of St. Faith

in the Crypt of St. Paul's had a'

muscatorium,' or

fly-whip of peacocks' feathers. About the year 1400one John Newton gave to York minster a silver-gilt

handle for a flabellum : and even in remote parishesthe use of peacocks' feathers was not uncommon.Thus in the churchwardens' accounts at Walkerwick,in Suffolk, there is an entry of

'

ivd . for a bessumeof pekok's fethers.'

From the connection of the Irish Church with the

East, it is not surprising to find evidence for the use

of the fan as early as the sixth century in the sister

island. The Book of Kells has an illumination

representing angels holding flabella, which closely

resemble those of the Maronites : in the Gospelsof Treves l the curious figure of the conjoined

evangelistic symbols holds a flabellum in one

hand and a eucharistic knife or lance in the other.

This figure belongs to the eighth century : and in

another Hiberno-Saxon MS. of the eighth centurySt. Matthew is figured holding in his hand a fla-

bellum 2.

In the western Church, according to Rock 3,the

flabellum was used after the consecration and before

1Westwood, Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and

Irish MSS., pi. xx.2 Warren's Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 144.3 Vol. Hi. pt. 2. p. 194.


the pax. The consciousness of its symbolical value

was rare and late in growth ;and the idea, where

existent, differs from the Greek idea of waftingdivine influence, being rather that of driving away

light and wandering imaginations. By the sixteenth

century the fan seems to have fallen into disuse

entirely ;for in the

' Missae Episcopates,' drawn upfor general guidance by order of the Council of Trent,

and published at Venice in 1567, no mention is madeofany such instrument. At the present day the sole

reminiscence in the West of the liturgical flabellum

is furnished by the large fans of peacocks' feathers

sometimes carried in procession before the pope1. But

in the Greek Church the fan is still delivered to the

deacon at ordination as the symbol of his office.

The ewer and basin for the washing of hands at

the mass are part of the complete furniture of a

Coptic altar, and in ancient times were doubtless

made of precious metals. At the present time how-

ever a common pitcher of clay and tin bowl serve

the purpose in most cases. At Abu-'s-Sifain there

is a bronze basin of Arab work with some medal-

lions or bosses upon it of fine enamel. The ewer of

the same kind belonging to the basin seems to have

disappeared within the last five or six years. Thebasin generally rests upon a low wooden stand at

the north side of the altar. At the cathedral in

Cairo there is a ewer of silver, which I have seen

used in a curious manner. After the celebration of

the korban an acolyte pours water from the ewer

over the hands of the priest, who sprinkles first the

haikal, then other priests or. attendants, then mounts

1 Diet. Christ. Antiq. s. v. Flabellum.


a bench outside and scatters drops of water over the

congregation, who crowd round with upturned faces

eager to catch the spray. This is a near approachto the use of holy water. In the Latin church the

basin was called aquamanilc, and was delivered as

an emblem of office to the deacon at ordination, just

as the ewer or urceolus was delivered to the acolyte.

Thus in St. Osmund's Consuetudinary1 an acolyte

after the entrance of the mass is ordered to bring

'pelves cum manutergio.' Rock, however, says that

the deacon at ordination received ewer, basin, and

towel 2, remarking that the vessels were of precious

metal. The Greek vessel corresponding to the aqua-manile is called xepviftov.

Receptacles for the reserved host in the Copticchurches must have been common when the practice

of reservation prevailed ;but as on the whole the

canons discountenanced reservation, so naturally the

evidence for the use of vessels like the pyx is

very scanty. Renaudot in relating a legend about

Philotheus, LXIII patriarch of Alexandria, mentions

incidentally an '

arcus seu ciborium quod altari im-

minebat.' The same writer alleges, however, that

although reservation was permitted in case of great

necessity, the host was ordered to remain on the

altar with lamps burning near it, and a priest watch-

ing3

. Still this arrangement would not preclude the

use of a separate vessel. Later, about the year 1000

A.D., a complaint was lodged against certain priests,

that they broke the canon in keeping the oflete a

whole week, lest they should weary themselves with

1 C. 93.2 Vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 34 n.

3Lit. Or. vol. i. p. 116.

CH. ii.] Eucharistic Vessels, 55

daily consecrations. Now the host is never reserved,

and no Coptic church I believe contains any sort of

pyx, unless it be possible that what I have called the

tabernacle or altar-casket may anciently have held

the reserved host, as among the Abyssinians. AtAbu Sargah, however, there is a very interesting

painting of St. Stephen, to be figured hereafter, in

which that saint is represented holding in his left

hand upon a corporal a beautifully jewelled vessel in

the form of a circular crown-like casket surmounted

by a cross. This may possibly represent a pyx, but

is more probably a box for incense. The paintingis by no means recent, and I have seen no other

like it, though it may be a copy of some traditional

design. It was not customary, as far as I can dis-

cover, to suspend the reserved host over the altar at

any time, unless Renaudot's remark can be taken to

imply the custom ; nor had the Copts anything cor-

responding to the eucharistic dove, which hung over

the altars of western Christendom.

Crewets of gold or silver were probably amongthe appurtenances of an altar in olden times

;but

now nothing but the most commonplace vessels of

glass is to be found. But there is one singular

usage of the Copts, which has been already noticed.

In several of the churches, Mari Mina, for example,

though not in all, a small glass crewet filled with

unconsecrated wine may be seen resting in a cuplikewooden crewet-holder, which is nailed on to the

haikal-screen outside, and usually towards the north.

There is no such arrangement in the Cairo cathedral,

nor does the position of the crewet connect at all

with any point of the present ceremonial. One can

only surmise that it is the relic of some forgotten


ritual practice. At Sitt Mariam Dair Abu-'s-Sifain

there are two such crewet-holders on the screen.

The use of crewets in the West amae, amulae,

ampullae dates from an early period. Two silver

crewets, 7 in. high, belonging to the fifth or sixth

century, are preserved in the Museo Cristiano at the

Vatican. John III., c. 560 A.D., is related to have

ordered crewets among other vessels for the shrines

of the martyrs in Rome. They are mentioned in

the Ordo Romanus : and Gregory the Great speaksof crewets made of onyx, or perhaps glass resembling

onyx.The word ampulla was used also to signify the

vessel used by the Latins for the holy chrism. Nosuch specific vessel remains among the Copts of

to-day ; who, while retaining the use of the chrism,

seem to have forgotten its former sanctity, and its

distinction from the other sacred oils. Yet the chrism

may be found here and there, lying about in a small

glass phial stuffed with a rag and thrust into a dustycorner. Moreover the church of Anba Shanudah

contains an ancient chrismatory, a curious round

wooden box with a revolving lid. The box is solid

throughout, but has three holes scooped out inside,

in each of which is deposited a small phial of oil.

But even the priest does not now know that the

original purpose of the box was to hold the three

distinct kinds of oil used in the church ceremonial 1.

In regard to altar-lights the most ancient custom

seems to have been to place a pair of candles close

against the altar, but not upon it. Evidence of this

still remains in the monastic churches of the desert,

in some of which the pair of stone candelabra, which

1 See illustration on p. 41 supra.

CH. ii.] Eticharistic Vessels. 57

held the lights, still stand almost touching the altar

on the north and south side. But the prevailing

custom of the Copts at present is in harmony with

that of the western churches. Two candles and no

more are allowed upon the altar, though any number

of lamps or candles may be lighted round about it.

The candlesticks are often, especially in the side-

chapels, of wood with iron sockets somewhat resem-

bling the ancient candlesticks in the hall of St. Cross

near Winchester ;and various designs in bronze are

common. Silver was once the usual material, and

silver candlesticks are still used at the cathedral.

It is curious to note that while only the two lights

are suffered to stand upon the altar, acolytes with

tapers in their hands move round it at the mass, and

sometimes hold their tapers over the altar. This

practice also had its counterpart in the Latin Church,

as recorded by Isidore of Seville 1 in the seventh

century. Of the various lamps found in the churches

of Egypt an account is given elsewhere.

The crucifix is unknown to the altars or churches

of the Copts, though upon every altar is found lyingdown (not set upright) a small hand-cross for cere-

monial use. This cross, anciently of precious metal

and set with jewels, is now usually of base silver : it

has a peculiar design, to be given in a woodcut here-

after. The only exception that I know to this form

of altar-cross occurs in the south chapel at Anba

Shanudah, which has a tiny cross of wood inlaid with

medallions of mother-of-pearl.

Among the altar-furniture of the Coptic churches

may be counted the book of the gospel, whose usual

resting-place is upon the altar at all times except at

1

Etym. vii. xii. 29.


the reading of the gospel. This book consists of a

MS. enclosed in a wooden case, and covered all over

with plates of metal nailed tightly down. Thus the

writing is sealed against all opening. The outer case

* .13.0

Fig. 10. Textus case of silver-gilt.

is generally of silver, though copper is found, and

embossed with Coptic lettering and designs of cheru-

bim, flowers, and crosses. Some are of extreme

beauty, such as the fine large one belonging to AbuKir given in the engraving; but the average size is

CH. II.] Eucharistic Vessels. 59

much smaller, being about 7 in. by 4 in. The metal

cases were of course devised originally for security,

at a time when copies of Holy Writ were scarce, and

they must have been meant to open : then as copies

multiplied, the older and more precious MSS. were

sealed up entirely, and retained as venerable relics.

Yet as none of the existing cases date farther back

than the fifteenth century, it is doubtful whether

they still contain MSS. of any great antiquity or

AJ.B

Fig. 11. Gospel-stands with prickets for candles.

value. One or two which have been opened revealed

nothing but a loose leaf or two of a gospel and some

fragments of silk tissue. But the meaning of the

cased textus is not forgotten ;for at the present day,

before the reading of the gospel at the mass, an

acolyte brings the silver book from the altar and

delivers it to the deacon, who places it reverently

upon the lectern : and when the gospel is finished,

the silver-book is carried back again to the altar.

The same symbolical usage of the sealed textus is

found at baptisms and other ceremonies in which the


curious gospel-stand is employed. The gospel-standis sometimes a mere board, square or octagonal,sometimes a four-legged table, but fitted always with

a socket to receive the silver book which stands on

end in the centre. All round the gospel-stand iron

prickets are fastened, upon which burn lighted tapers:

and sometimes crosses of metal or wood are set at

the corners or even, as at Al Amir Tadrus, silver

fans. The silver-cased gospel is also frequently used

for the kiss of peace like the Latin pax ;and it is

carried in all solemn processions, with censers, tapers

and crosses a custom to which allusion is made in

the time of Ephraim, c. 980 A.D., and again at the

institution of Macarius, about 1 100 A.D.

The Armenian practice in this regard may be

noted among the many coincidences between Arme-nian and Coptic usage. For in the churches of the

Armenians the gospel is bound in silver and often

encrusted with jewels : it has also a silver case in

which it is kept, and it rests upon the altar. TheNestorians also use a cover of some kind for the

gospel, though I cannot ascertain its exact nature :

it seems however more nearly akin to the Irish

cumhdach than to the sealed case of Coptic usage.Allusion to it may be found in the rubric for the

ordination of a bishop, which directs the archdeacon

to open out the cover of the gospel above the back

and head of the bishop, and to lay the gospel on the

cover in such a way that the book may face him

who is to read out of it1

.

That the sealed textus is exclusively Coptic seems

proved by the fact that it is not found among the

1

Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium, torn. ii. p. 271.

CH. ii.] Rucharistic Vessels. 6r

Melkite Egyptians belonging to the orthodox church

of Alexandria. For example, in the treasury of the

church of St. Nicholas in Cairo, while there is

nothing corresponding to the Coptic gospel-cover,there are many books in the most sumptuous bind-

ing, gospels and psalters and liturgies, bound in solid

plates of gold and silver, studded with gems, and

closed by jewelled clasps.

Though in our own Church the gospel was not

hermetically sealed, yet we read of a copy' bound

up between thick sheets of solid gold and studded

with gems1.' Another, as quoted from Eddius in

the life of St. Wilfred, was likewise enclosed in plates

of chased gold and adorned with jewels. At Salis-

bury in 1222, the cathedral had a textus bound in

solid gold with sixty-two precious stones : while

Canterbury cathedral possessed, in 1315, no less than

seven similar gold-cased books and many in silver.

Many too were at St. Paul's, St. Peter's in York,

Lincoln, and other places2

. But the resemblance of

the Coptic to the ancient Irish practice seems closer

and more curious. As early as the sixth century in

Ireland,' metal cases of embossed bronze or silver

(cumhdachs) for enclosing copies of the gospels or

other MSS.' were in common use 3. Fine examples

are the Book of Armagh, the Psalter of St. Columba,now in the Royal Irish Academy, the Book of DimmaMac Nathi, and the Miosach now at the college of

St. Columba, Rathfarnham 4. The Stowe missal has

a metal case of eleventh-century workmanship : so

1Rock, vol. i. p. 272.

2Id. ib. p. 297.

3 Warren's Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 21.

4 Westwood's Miniatures, &c., pp. 80, 82, 83, 84.

62

:**.- {***

- ^ v^ 4--

w v:

Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. n.

that the practice lasted for seve-

ral centuries. It may be taken

as another point of correspond-ence between the Irish Church

and the East, in addition to

those adduced by Mr. Warren.

A silver box for incense is a

common belonging of the altar,

though none now seem left of

any great artistic interest. AtK. Burbarah there is a small

wooden incense-box with high-relief carving of great merit.

Thuribles also or censers of

bronze or silver abound in all

the churches. Silver is the more

common metal, and some of the

silver censers are of very beau-

tiful workmanship, resemblingthose used in the fourteenth and

fifteenth centuries in the West.

Some indeed are of plain

bronze with a mouldedbase, anda donative inscription round the

rim : but gold was a commonmaterial in ancient times, and

now in most ofthe churches the

thuribles are of silver, decorated

with open-work or repousse de-

vices, and swung by chains with

or without little bells attached.

An example maybe seen figuredin the illustration of St. Stephenin a later chapter.

Lastly may be mentioned as

Fig. 12.

Bridal Crown.


a proper appurtenance of the altar the marriage-diadem. This is a coronet of silver or gold, adorned

with texts, crosses, or other suitable ornamentation :

it is bound upon the brow of bride and bridegroomalike at the wedding ceremonial in the church. The

example here figured is of silver-gilt with designs in

repousse" : a cross in the centre : an Arabic text

signifying'

Glory to God in the highest' arrangedon either side : the whole between two double bands

of pellets. The ground is covered with fine tooling,

and a brief donative inscription is engraved at either

end by the rings.

The use of the crown, wKich at the outset was re-

garded as a heathen ornament, dates notwithstandingfrom so early an epoch, that it was sanctioned and

enjoined by the Church in the fourth century. In

Greek ritual, as in the Coptic, bride and bridegroomare both crowned : the same custom holds with the

Armenians, who however use a wreath of flowers in

lieu of a metal diadem. In our own country there

is not much evidence for the crown as part of the

altar furniture. Rock mentions a wreath of jewelscalled a '

paste' for brides to wear at the altar, and

quotes from some churchwardens' accounts'

paid for

a serclett to marry maidens in iii/.' in the year 1540.A decree of the council of Exeter in 1287 ordered

that every church should possess a marriage-veil1

.

Some Danish marriage-crowns are preserved in

the South Kensington Museum.

1 Church of our Fathers, vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 174.

CHAPTER III.

The Furnitiire and Ornaments of the

Sacred Building.

Ambons. Lecterns. Reliquaries. Lamps and Lights. Coronae.*

Ostrich Eggs. Bells. Mitsical Instruments. Mural Paintings.

Pictures.

OLYGONAL pulpits closely resemblingwestern models are neither of modern

date nor of rare occurrence in the Egypt-ian churches : but the Coptic ambon has

a distinct character of its own. It differs

from the western pulpit in having a straight-sided

balcony attached to the circular preaching place.

The balcony always runs east and west : both bal-

cony and pulpit are usually of white marble, carved

with flowers or enriched with exquisite marqueterieor mosaic of coloured stones. Sometimes a flight of

steps leads up to the ambon, yet often a moveable

ladder is the only means of mounting. It is doubtful

whether any remaining ambon dates further back

^

than the tenth century, though presumably those at

VÂl Mu'allakah and Abu-'s-Sifain, of which illustra-

tions have been given, may claim as great antiquity.

It must always be remembered that the Arabs in

Egypt borrowed most of their arts from the Copts :

and that the arts, once developed, had a mechanical

persistence, which renders any argument from resem-

blance of style to parity of date uncertain and

Furniture. 65

perilous. One cannot therefore safely determine

the date of Coptic work by comparison with like

Arab work of which the date is ascertained. But

there is an octagonal wooden pulpit in one of the

churches of the Natrun valley, which must be as old

as the eighth century.In England pulpits' were not used before the thir-

teenth century, previous to which the sermon was

delivered from the roodloft : but in neither our ownChurch nor the Coptic does the ambon seem to have

been known precisely in the form which was commonin early Greek buildings, and in early Latin basilicas,

which occurred for instance at St. Sophia in Con-

stantinople, and may still be seen at S. ApollinareNuovo in Ravenna, S. Clemente in Rome, and at

Torcello near Venice, namely the form with two

low flights of steps, a double entrance, and two short

balconies without the circular area. This form is

the usual one in pourtrayals of the ambon in tenth

and eleventh century Italian miniatures. Whereas,

too, the Latin ambon generally stood in the middle

of the nave, the Coptic pulpit, like that of our own

churches, is placed on the north side of the nave

near the choir.

The lectern in use among the Copts is a moveable

wooden desk about 15 in. square and about 4ft. high,

furnished with a sloping book-rest. The lower part is

made as a cupboard to contain the books of service :

the upper half is sometimes open, showing only the

corner-posts. The lectern is adorned with geometri-cal designs, and sometimes inlaid with ivory carvingsof the richest and most intricate workmanship. Thefinest example is that now at the cathedral in Cairo,

but once belonging to Al Mu'allakah : it may date

VOL. II. F

66 Ancient Coptic CJinvches. [CH. m.

Fig. 1?. Ivory-inlaid Lectern at the Cathedral in Cairo (front view).

CH. in.] Furniture.

Fig. 14. Ivory-inlaid Lectern (back view).

F 2


perhaps from the tenth or eleventh century, and is a

really beautiful work of art, the ivory enrichments

being wrought with the utmost conceivable delicacyof finish. The crosses and tablets chased with

Arabic inscriptions are solid blocks of ivory with

the designs in relief. The illustrations are from

photographs. The lectern always stands in the

choir before the haikal door, which was the position

occupied by the ambon at St. Sophia. Occasionallytwo lecterns are found, but in such cases one belongsof right to a side-chapel. The reader stands facingthe East with his back to the congregation.

Coverings of silk or some rich material are some-

times used for the lectern. That at Anba Shanudahcovers the sloping desk, and reaches halfway downthe front or western side

;and the frontal is embroi-

dered with a cross. An illuminated psalter is gen-

erally left upon the lectern;and under the desk, on

an open shelf or in the cupboard, are often kept

alms-trays of rushwork or of metal, and the musical

instruments used in divine service, i.e. cymbals,

triangles, and small tongueless bells struck with a

metal rod. Close beside the lectern there stands a

tall and highly ornamented bronze candelabrum with

a pricket, clearly recalling the graceful column which

stood beside the ambon in the Greek and Latin

churches, and served as a candlestick for the paschal

candle 1. The censer in common use may generally

be seen hanging from the circular plate below the

pricket of the lectern candlestick.

Although the worship of relics is forbidden by the

Coptic Church, yet the faithful have a firm belief in

1 See the illustrations of this in La Messe, vol. iii. pi. cxciv-cci.

The examples figured are mainly Italian.

CH.in.;] Furniture. 69

their sovereign virtue. Hence every church has

its relics, generally those of its patron saint. - -But

instead of being made a gazing-stock, they are -care1-

fully shrouded from view and sewn up in bolster-fike

cases which are covered with silk or some rich tissue,

embroidered or shot with gold. What these cases

contain teeth, bones, hair, or shreds of raiment-

can only be conjectured, as they are never opened.

They are kept in lockers or aumbries underneath

the picture of the saint or martyr to whom they

belonged, or rarely, as at Al Mu'allakah, in separatemoveable reliquaries. In the churches of the Harat-

ar-Rum, women may often be seen sitting on the

floor and nursing a case of relics, which is passedfrom one to another as they chat unconcernedlyabout their worldly matters

;for they have recourse

to the healing powers of the relics for the slightest

ailments. In the same way I have seen a priest

laying his hands and making passes on the head of a

boy who was troubled with headaches. If ever the

Coptic churches had relic-cases of metal or costly

work, like the sumptuous enamelled and jewelledshrines of western mediaeval art, they have long ago

perished, and their memorial with them. But while

the Copts retain the common early faith in the

efficacy of relics, they do not and never did pay 'to

them the same idolatrous honour that was often

bestowed in the church of Rome : and so doubtless

they did not lavish the same skill and wealth in

making shrines to contain them.

The lamps and lights of the Egyptian churches

are of such variety and beauty as to deserve a full

notice. First of all to be mentioned only with

sorrow and regret come the ancient lamps of glass

yo Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

enamelled with splendid designs and bands of Arabic

writing in the most lovely colours. These, the workof thirteenth-century artists, were once hung before

the haikal in many Coptic churches, but have now

entirely disappeared : one or two specimens however

may be seen at the British Museum and at South

Kensington. Each lamp hadthree handles by which it was

suspended, and formed really

only a case for an inner ves-

sel of oil. The effect of the

light shining through and

throwing out all the enamel-

led colours was superb. Thesame form of lamp in plain

glass still lingers in one or

two churches, as at Abu

Sargah, where it is hidden

away and only used once a

year, on Good Friday1

: there

is another at Sitt Mariam byAbu-'s-Sifain. The churches

in the monasteries of the

desert, and many of the

ancient mosques of Cairo,

were quite lately adorned with these magnificent

lamps : but shortly before the war all that remained

were taken down by order of the then prime minister,

Riaz Pasha, and stowed away in packing cases in

the public library. It is a relief to hear that now they

have been placed to the number of eighty in the

museum of Arab art in the mosque of Al Hakim,

. 15 Ancient Iron Candelabrumat Abu-'s-Sifain.

See the illustration on p. 41 supra.

CH. in.] Furniture. 71

from whence four have been sent on loan to the South

Kensington Museum. These latter date from the

fourteenth century, and are extremely beautiful.

Three of them belonged originally to the mosque of

Sultan Hassan, and are inscribed with the titles of

that sovereign, who reigned about 1 350 A. D. ;and the

fourth bears the name of Al Malik az-Zahir Barkuk,about 1390, the first of the Circassian Mamelukesultans. The three former lamps have a text from

the koran, enamelled round the neck, and runningas follows :

' God is the light of the heavens and the

earth : his light is as a niche in which is a lamp :

the lamp is in a glass : the glass is as it were a

glittering star.' Cobalt and a dark red are the pre-

dominant colours in these enamels : white and olive

green are also used in slighter touches.

There can be no question that most of the extant

specimens of enamelled lamps are of Arab manufac-

ture, and that there were large glassworks in the

middle ages at or near Damascus, and possibly also

at Cairo. But whether these lamps are really Arabor Venetian in origin, whether the art of enamellingon glass passed from Venice to Cairo and Damascus,or arose first in the East, is a moot point which I

shall not attempt to settle. There are however

some waifs and strays of evidence, which seem to

indicate that the flow of the current was eastward

rather than westward. Another form of pensile

lamp with a globed body, short neck, broad lip, and

stem built of rings successively tapering downwardand ending below in a fluted drop, seems to me of

distinctly Venetian origin. The body too is decked

with medallions, each enclosing a lion's head in highrelief a form of ornamentation in glass almost

J2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.MH;

exclusively Venetian. I have only found two of these

lamps in all the churches one, figured in the illustra-

tion, in an aumbry at Sitt Mariam by Abu-'s-Sifain,

and one hanging before the altar screen at Al 'Adra,in the Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah. They are not unlike

some of the gabathae used in the western churches.

Fig. 16 Glass Lamp at Sitt Mariam.

Almost identical with these in form, and not less

Venetian in character, are the graceful silver lampsof which examples may be seen in the Harat-ar-Rum

and in many other churches. Dair Tadrus is par-

ticularly rich in them. They vary from 4 in. to Sin. or

. III.] Furniture. 73

10 in. in height, and the beauty of their shape is en-

hanced by pierced designs which give them an air of

great lightness and elegance. Many of the specimensare quite modern and of base silver

;for though the

art of working in glass is lost, metal-working still

flourishes in Cairo, and these

copies in metal of the old

glass shapes have been

handed down to the present

day.

Yet another kind of metal

hanging lamp differs from the

last in having a broader and

fuller body and no stem be-

low : moreover instead of

being hung by chains, it is

upheld by three short metal

rods which are loosely at-

tached to the three handles

on the body and are joined

by a cross piece above : theyare also ornamented with

loose spherical bosses. Alamp of this description is

very rare, but I have seen

two or three in Dair Tadrus.

^Tlf Bell -shaped cups and

rimmed bowls of plain whiteFig. 17. Bronze Lamp at Dair ladrus.

glass suspended by chains

are common in all the Coptic churches, and are

hung before paintings, before the altar-screen, or

in the niche of the eastern wall.

In the middle ages there was in use a very beauti-

ful form of lamp, of which I have never seen a perfect


specimen surviving. It was modelled roughly after

the common pattern of classical earthenware lamps,but differed in having a spheroid body, from which

arose a short broad-lipped funnel, joined to the body

by a handle : the spout was long, narrow, and open.

Though made of earthenware, the lamp was covered

with a very rich and lovely glaze or rather enamel,

generally of a most exquisite turquoise blue colour,

though sapphire blue and many very beautiful shades

of green are also found. Fragments of these lampsare pretty plentiful among the rubbish-mounds of

Old Cairo ;and I discovered one specimen very little

mutilated, and not long disused, in an outhouse be-

longing to the Dair-al-Banat by Abu-'s-Sifain.

Of a pharos, or tower for lights, I have seen but few

specimens. One example, a wooden structure, taper-

ing upwards in four polygonal tiers or stages, is at

Abu-'s-Sifain lying overthrown in the dust behind

the wall pictures on the south side of the nave. The

light-tower was common in the West, and is often

mentioned in the Liber Pontificalis of Anastasius

among the gifts to churches. Something of the

same kind is the silver tower described by Paul the

Silentiary as belonging to St. Sophia. There was a

golden phare at the cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle.

Pope Sylvester also had one made of pure gold1

,and

Adrian I. a cross-shaped phare to hold 1370 tapers.

A tenth-century painting showed two Byzantine-

looking light- towers as belonging to Canterburycathedral. Splendid works of the same kind were

also at Cluny and St. Remy. The term pharos is

1 Lenoir's Architecture Monastique, ii. 137. quoted by Texier

and Pullan.


of course derived from the great lighthouse of

Alexandria, and it lingers, little changed, in the

modern Arabic '

fanus.'

Coronae or crown-like chandeliers, once existed in

the churches of Cairo in great profusion, and were

doubtless made of precious metals. The few that

remain are of pierced bronze or copper, and are

flung away disused into dark corners. Two .belong

to Mari Mina, one to Abu-'s-Sifain, and one to Dair

Tadrus. Regarding the English use of the corona,

one cannot do better than quote the words of Rock 1

,

who, after saying that the pyx hung under the altar-

canopy in the form of a dove or a covered cup, adds :

' Round it in most if not in all churches there shone a

ring of ever burning lights fastened upon a hoop of

silver or bright metal, hanging also by a chain from

the inner roof of the canopy/ Bede speaks of a

large bronze hoop studded with lamps surrounding a

silver cross;and in the eighth century in Ireland

' crowns of gold and silver'

hung over the shrine of

St. Bridget in her church at Kildare. But I think

that in the churches of the Copts the corona never

hung from the canopy over the altar : its place was

either before the haikal-screen, or possibly within the

haikal eastward of the altar.

Of the curious seven-wicked lamp of iron at Abu-

's-Sifain, the cresset-stone at Anba Shanudah, the

standard candlesticks and gospel-stands in various

churches, the various altar - candlesticks, and the

beautiful dragon-candlestick at M&ri Mina, descrip-

tions will be found in their several places elsewhere.

I will only add a rough parallel to the last mentioned

1Vol. i. p. 200.


JLJ.B

Fig. 18. Seven- wicked Lamp of Iron for the Anointing of the Sick.

i

TTFig. 19. Specimens of Altar-candlesticks.


from an Anglo-Saxon ritual 1. The fire which was

kindled at the church door on each of the three last

days of passion week, was caught by a candle set in

a dragon-candlestick, and from it all the other taperswere lighted. This candlestick however was merelya serpent so mounted on a staff that its mouth formed

the single socket : and it further differed from the

many-lighted dragons of Mari Mina in being portableinstead of fixed. But the symbolism is doubtless the

same in both cases. Rock 2gives a woodcut of a

candle set in a dragon's head from the SalisburyProcessional of 1528 A.D.-

The ostrich-egg is a curious but common ornamentin the religious buildings of the Copts, the Greeks,and the Muslims alike. It may be seen in the ancient

church of the Greek convent in Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah,and in most of the mosques of Cairo, mounted in a

metal frame and hung by a single wire from the roof.

In the churches it usually hangs before the altar-

screen : but at Abu-'s-Sifain an ostrich-egg hangs also

from the point of the arches of the baldakyn. Hereand there it hangs above a lamp, threaded by the

suspending cord, as in the church of the Nativity at

Bethlehem : and sometimes it hangs from a wooden

arm, fastened on to the pillars of the nave, as in the

Nestorian church of At-Tahara at Mosul 3. Some-

times instead of the egg of the ostrich, artificial eggsof beautiful Damascus porcelain, coloured with de-

signs in blue or purple, were employed. These have

almost entirely disappeared : in the churches of the

1 See Warren's Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 53.2 Vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 244.* See the illustration in Dr. Badger's work, The Nestorians and

their Rituals (London, 1852), vol. ii. facing p. 20.

j8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

two Cairos there is I believe not one left : but a few

still remain in the churches of Upper Egypt, and in

the mosques. The tomb-mosque of Kait Bey without

the walls of Cairo contains some fine specimens.These porcelain eggs are considerably smaller than

an ostrich-egg, but larger than a hen's egg. In the

British Museum there is a porcelain egg from

Abyssinia with cherubim rudely painted under the

glaze. It clearly belonged once to a Christian placeof worship.The 'griffin's egg' was a common ornament in our

own mediaeval churches. In an inventory of 1383A.D. no less than nine are mentioned as belongingto Durham cathedral 1

,and Pennant speaks of two

as still remaining in I/So2

. These griffins' eggswere hung up with other curiosities such as the' horn of a unicorn

'

before the altar or round St.

Cuthbert's shrine. They were merely rarities

brought by soldiers or pilgrims from foreign lands,

and presented as offerings of devotion to the church :

and in some chancels special aumbries with locked

gratings were provided for them. Many of the richer

churches had quite large collections of curiosities, and

served as a sort of museum. But in our own countrythe ostrich-egg does not seem to have had any sym-bolical import or to have been regarded as a distinctly

ecclesiastical ornament. From the fact that marble

eggs are said to have been discovered in some early

martyrs' tombs at Rome, and that in all Christian

lands eggs are associated with Easter-time, somethink that the egg was regarded as emblematic of

the resurrection. An entirely different explanation

1 Raine's Tomb of St. Cuthbert, pp. 123-127.2 Tour in Wales, vol. ii. p. 228.


of the symbol, one current among the Copts them-

selves, was given to me by the priest of Abu'-s-

Sifain. In contradiction to common belief, he said

that the ostrich is remarkable for the ceaseless care

with which she guards her eggs ;and the people have

a legend that if the mother-bird once removes her

eyes from the nest, the eggs become spoiled and

worthless that instant. So the vigilance of the

ostrich has passed into a proverb, and the egg is a

type reminding the believer that his thoughts should

be fixed irremoveably on spiritual things. This

explanation seems rational;for the devotion of the

ostrich to its brood is, I believe, in accordance with

the facts of natural history, and the use of the egg

may well have arisen in Africa where the habits of

the bird are better known. At any rate it is the

best solution of a vexed question.

Bells, though for the most part long since

abolished, were once in common use in the Copticchurches. Apollinarius, the emissary of Justinian,'

rang the bells'

on the first day of the week in

Alexandria to call the people together to hear the

king's letter 1. The present patriarch told me that

when the churches of Alexandria were destroyed,

many of the bells were rescued and carried off to the

Natrun monasteries where they still remain. Onein particular he described as having the figures of

the four Evangelists engraved upon it and an inscrip-

tion round the border. A church bell hung in a

niche in the western wall is still used at Dair Mikhail

towards Tura; but the church stands in open country,

where the ringing of the bell can wound no Muslim

prejudice. The same remark applies to the bell at

1 Al Makrizi, Malan's trans, p. 65.


Mari Mina, but no church bells besides are used nowin Cairo or Old Cairo. It is more than a thousand

years since their voice was silenced by order of the

conquerors, and the silence remains unbroken. Nowit is only in the solitudes of the desert that the clangis ever heard of a church-bell ringing from afar.

After the formal prohibition of bells in 850 A.D. a

board struck with a mallet was employed for the

same purpose an instrument which continues in

usage to-day, though that too was forbidden in 1352A. D. To this day the monks on the top of Tchad-

Amba, a mountain in Abyssinia, use in place of bells

three curious gongs which preserve the tradition of

the board. They are merely flat stones suspended

by leather thongs to the branches of a tree, but

when struck with smaller stones they give out a

pleasant metallic sound l.

In the Greek Church the use of bells was not

known before about 900 A. D., and is said to have

been derived from the Venetians 2. The mallet and

board however are frequently depicted in the paint-

ings at Mount Athos. The Maronites use two boards

which form a sort of large clapper. Instead of woodwe sometimes find a plate of iron or brass hung bychains 3

,which was called

' sementron' or 'semantron.'

Gongs of this kind are figured in Curzon's Monas-

teries 4;and they are mentioned by Leo Allatius, who

cites some ancient Byzantine authorities for their

employment. The semantron was suspended in the

1 The Wild Tribes of the Soudan, by F. L. James ; London,

1883, p. 236.2 Goar's Euchol. p. 560.

3Lenoir, i. p. 155.

4 On the title-page a monk is shown beating a wooden seman-

tron, and another wooden gong and also one of iron are given on

p- 300-


narthex or atrium : for bell-towers to hold a chime of

bells were quite unknown in the East before the

middle ages ;and even the Coptic churches had never

more than a pair of bells, each about eight or ten

inches in diameter. The familiar peal of our Englishchurches is scarcely older than the buildings fromwhich it resounds, and it carries to the ear no clear

echo of early Christian times.

Yet even in England the wooden gong was used

instead of bells l on the last three days of passion

week, the '

still days' as they were called for that

reason.

Handbells are still rung, or rather beaten, as partof the regular musical accompaniment of the chants

in the Coptic service. Renaudot 2 relates that the

bishops who accompanied George, the son of the

king of Nubia, on his mission to Egypt, used to ringbells at the elevation of the host, adding that the

practice was in conformity with the early usage of the

Church. This was about 850 A. D. But the custom,if ever it was in vogue among the Copts, has nowdied away completely : there are no handbells be-

longing to the altar.

In the records of the early British and Irish

churches handbells are mentioned as early as the

sixth century : and there seems some reason for the

opinion that even larger church bells were in use at

the same period in Ireland, and that the round towers

in some cases served as belfries. The handbell was

part of the regular insignia of an Irish bishop de-

livered to him at his consecration; and a bell of this

1Cf. Udalric, lib. i. Consuet. Clun. c. 12, quoted by Ducange,

and Amalarius de Eccl. Off. lib. iv. c. 22, quoted by Rock.2 Hist. Pat. Alex. p. 282.

VOL. II. G


kind attributed to St. Patrick is still preserved at

Dublin. For a fuller account of the matter, the

reader is referred to Mr. Warren's Celtic Ritual l.

It does not however appear that these bells

were used at the elevation of the host;nor is there

any evidence to show that the practice of elevation

was introduced into the western churches before the

eleventh century, though it had existed for manycenturies previously in the East. In English records

the mention of handbells is late and scanty. Bythe constitutions of Êgidius de Bridport, bishop of

Sarum 2 in 1265, they were ordered to be carried in

procession in the visitation of the sick : the same

usage prevailed also in funeral processions. The use

of the handbell, or sacring bell as it was called, at

low mass, and the ringing of the sanctus bell at high

mass, date no doubt from the thirteenth century,

when the custom of elevating the host first began to

be adopted in our own country. The Coptic hand-

bell is always tongueless, and is sounded by beingstruck with a short rod of iron.

The wild and somewhat barbaric clash of cymbals,which accompanies the chanting in every ancient

church of Egypt, is probably a relic of pagan rather

than of Jewish tradition. The very sound seems to

bridge over the gulf of ages, and to carry the imagi-nation back to the days of Bacchic dances and

frenzied rites of Cybele, in much the same manner

as the sound of church bells at home seems to place

one back in the England of five centuries ago. But

beyond this romantic interest the cymbal seems to

have little history : eastern in origin and orgiastic in

character, it seems never to have been widely adopted

1

Pp. 92-94.2Rock, ii. 462, n. 31.


as an instrument in the worship of the West. Yet

cymbals are mentioned now and again as used in Latin

churches. A gift of cymbals to a church is quoted

by Du Cangel

,and allusion to cymbals is not un-

frequent in the Ordo Romanus. Sometimes no

doubt their usage corresponded rather to that of

bells, as they summoned the people to worship or

sounded at funerals : yet there is clear though scantyevidence of their employment in the choral service

of the church 2.

Staves or crutches shaped like a tau-cross may be

seen in many of the old churches, where there are no

seats to relieve the aged or ailing among the con-

gregation during the long services. Similar crutches

were allowed, according to Rock 3,in the early days

of the western Church- to certain ecclesiastics;but it

was customary to lay them down during the readingof the gospel. This usage lasted till the middle of

the twelfth century.

MURAL PAINTINGS.

That the churches of Egypt were once rich in

wall-paintings is proved no less by the fine remains

existing than by the testimony of history. Accordingto Al Makrizi 4

,the patriarch Cyril, c. 420 A.D., was

the '

first to set up figures'

(i.e. paintings and not

'

statues or images' as Mr. Malan rendersit)

'

in the

churches of Alexandria and in the land of Egypt.'

1 From the Acta Episc. Cenoman. p. 303.2 Beletus de Div. Off. c. 86.

3 Vol. ii. p. 134, n. 22. It should be noted however that the

authorities cited are all French.* Malan's transl. p. 56.

G 2


There is not the smallest evidence that the Copts at

any period sanctioned the use of statues or sculp-tured images for the adornment of their religious

buildings, and there is decided evidence to the con-

trary. Three centuries later, we read l that one

Usama ben Zald pulled down churches,' broke the

crosses, rubbed off the pictures, broke up all the

images:' but as it is clear that 'pictures' here can

only mean wall-paintings, so I believe that by'

images'

the writer intended what we call pictures ;

for the Arabic in such cases is usually ambiguous,the same term applying to both statues and pictures.

Again, about 860 A. D. Theophilus' ordered all

pictures to be effaced from the churches, so that

not a picture remained in any one church 2 '-- words

which again seem clearly to convey the idea of wall-

painting. Even as late as the eleventh century the

art had not entirely perished : for Renaudot relates

that in the Field of the Abyssinians3 near Old Cairo

was a church dedicated to Mari Buktor, which in the

days of Abu Salah 4 the Armenian had a Coptic

inscription, stating that the wall-paintings were done

in the year of the martyrs 759 or 1043 A. D. Not a

stone, not a trace, not a rumour of Mari Buktor nowremains : and we have no means of comparing any

eleventh-century wall-paintings, which were perhapsthe last effort of the art before its final extinction in

Egypt, with those earlier works which still adorn

many of the churches. For no one of the numerous

1 Al Makrizi, p. 77.2

Id. p. 84.3 This name has quite vanished ;

and the most diligent enquiries

among the Copts of to-day failed to produce anything but a con-

fession of blank ignorance.4 The spelling JL y\ is given in MS. 307. Bib. Nat. Paris.

CH. m.] Furniture. 85

paintings that survive has a date clearly fixed by an

inscription or other evidence : yet several of them

cannot be later than the eighth century, and some

original frescoes remain from the days of Constantine.

All these paintings are done upon dry plaster or

marble, and not on fresh plaster ;and the colours are

mixed with some viscous medium : they are, in fact,

distemper paintings, and should not in strict accuracybe called frescoes. But I have already claimed for

convenience sake to use the term fresco in the wider

sense conferred upon it by popular usage.The parts of a church most commonly beautified

with these paintings are the pillars of the nave, and

the curved wall and the conch of the apse. I have

no doubt that where we now find the apse-wallencrusted with marble and set with fine mosaics,

the same space was originally occupied by fres-

coes, which were replaced when decayed by the

later style of decoration. Thus at Abu Sargahthe principal apse is covered with this marble

work, while the dim and disused western chapelstill retains in its apse some of its original eighth-

century paintings. Moreover on the eleven pillars

in the nave which are unaltered, the colour and

outline of the figures once blazoned upon them

are still dimly discernible. All the figures in this

church are five or six feet high, and are specially

interesting as showing the resemblance of the early

Coptic vestments to those of the western Churches.

In style there is little difference to be detected

between the various specimens surviving. All are

Byzantine in character, with set faces, conventional

drapery, and stiff outlines. But there are signs of

more life and freedom sometimes to be found in the


rare examples of grouped figures, which exist for

instance in the satellite church of Al Mu'allakah and

in the triforium of K. Burbarah. In Al Mu'allakah

itself there remains only one single incomplete figure

on a pillar. Anba Shanudah has also one figure

on a pillar, and some very rude uncoloured frescoes

in the chapel of Mari Girgis above it. Traces of a

monochrome design of the Baptism of our Lord maybe seen also on the eastern wall of the chapel of

Sitt Mariam over the mandarah of Abu-'s-Sifain.

Besides the foregoing examples, most of the niches

in the sanctuaries and other chapels contain a fresco

figure of Christ in glory, his right hand raised in the

attitude of benediction. This figure, found in the

tombs of Urgub in Cappadocia and common all over

the East, may be seen also in some Roman and

Lombard churches, but not elsewhere in the West 1.

The Latin Church preferred to depict Christ crucified.

All over Egypt the same practice of decorating the

church walls with figures of saints and angels seems

to have prevailed. Not merely in the churches

dotted along the banks of the Nile, to the very farthest

boundary of Egypt in the south, may ancient frescoes

still be traced upon the walls;but wherever the

monks penetrated the remotest desert, there theycarried with them the art of mural painting. In the

western desert the monasteries of the Natrun valleyhave many examples still remaining, as for instance

the refectory at Dair-as-Suriani, and the nave of the

church dedicated to Anba Bishoi : while in the

eastern desert by the Red Sea the ancient church

of Mari Antonios has its walls nearly covered with

dim and venerable frescoes.

1 Texier and Pullan, p. 42.


PICTURES.

The ordinary paintings on panel or canvas havebeen described so very fully elsewhere that a few

general remarks here will be sufficient. Panel-

pictures are older and generally more interestingthan those on canvas a material which has onlybeen used during the last two hundred years : and

the painters on canvas were so childishly wanting in

all power of design and colouring, that their works

may be dismissed in one sentence as worthless.

The paintings on panel are rather difficult to classify,

either by date or style, owing to the persistence of

Bvzantine methods and traditions. Yet there are a*

small number of pictures clearly dated, and these

serve as marks by which a certain order of progress,or rather decadence, can be noted.

There are no remaining pictures, I believe, older

than the thirteenth century, and only one that can

be assigned beyond question to that period the

beautiful tabernacle or altar-casket at Abu-'s-Sifain.

This forms a class by itself, being distinguished by a

luminous softness of chiaroscuro and a depth of

idealised expression, both very surprising in an

oriental picture. The date, 1280 A. D., is determined

by a clear inscription in Coptic. So much has been

said already about the picture, that I will only add

that this solitary work of art is enough by its sole

evidence (if no other picture can be assigned to the

same epoch) to establish the existence in Egypt of a

school of painters far superior to contemporaryartists in Italy. Possibly the large painting of the

\M-* Life of our Lord in the same church may belong to

the same period : or even if somewhat later, it is


little inferior in execution. Both pictures, and in

fact all the older pictures in Coptic churches, are

painted on panel prepared in a peculiar manner.

The wood is sometimes (but not generally) overlaid

with canvas to prevent it splitting ;on the canvas

is spread a thin coating of gesso ;and the gesso is

then covered with gold. The golden background,

therefore, common in these early paintings, is not

put in separately, but is merely that part of the

prepared surface which is not covered in with colours.

This point is proved by many examples by two

pictures for instance in the writer's possession in

which flakes of colour have fallen off revealing a

surface of gold below. The gold seems to have

been burnished to a high degree of brilliancy, gleam-

ing like pure metal, as in our best manuscript illu-

minations. In some cases the principal outlines of

the design were engraved on the gold with a steel

pointel, being doubtless transferred in this manner

from paper sketches : and sometimes ornamentation

of scrollwork or dotwork especially upon the nimbus

of saints is stamped into the gesso. The picture

from which the frontispiece is taken bears in Arabic

the signature of '

the pilgrim Nasif/ and dates from

the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It is remarkable

for a most beautiful effect which shows upon the cover

of the gospel, on the tunic of St. Mercurius, and in

other places, a lustre of the most brilliant and pel-

lucid ruby-colour, as pure and as metallic as the lustre

of the finest Gubbio ware. This effect is produced

by overlaying a fine clear pigment on a ground of

burnished gold. The use of canvas as the material

for receiving the colours, which did not begin till the

eighteenth century, marks the last stage in the decline


of Coptic painting. No pictures of the last or present

century have any value, except as preserving in a

sort of mummy-like embalmment the lifeless tradi-

tions of the past.

There is reason to believe that the art of paintingon panel existed from a very early period in Egypt :

and if one remembers how for ages the Copts and

their churches were harried by fire and sword, and

how their Muslim persecutors hated not only the

religion of Christ, but all delineation of divine or

human figure ;the wonder is not so much that all

more ancient pictures have perished, as that any

paintings dating from so remote a period as the

thirteenth century should have survived the devasta-

tions of six hundred years. It is however quitecertain that such a work of art as the tabernacle at

Abu-'s-Sifain never arose in full perfection as a

sudden growth of chance. The power it betokens

was not developed within the limits of a single life-

time, but followed upon long antecedents of trained

skill and practised imagination. How early the

painting of panels began we do not know : but the

story told by Vansleb proves at least that the Coptsclaimed a tradition of art ascending to the very time

of the apostles. He relates 1 that in the church of

St. Mark at Alexandria there was two centuries agoa picture of St. Michael, said to have been painted

by the hand of St. Luke the Evangelist. The legendis that the Venetians seized it, and put out to sea

meaning to carry it away : but five times they were

driven back to harbour by tempests, until at last

they relinquished the picture. Next some Beduins,

hearing the story of its value, broke into the church,

1

Voyage fait en Egypte, p. 183.


thinking to steal the icon and sell it to the Venetians.

But, once in the building, they found their feet holden

by some miraculous power, as often as they tried to

go out with their booty. So they too failed in their

unholy enterprise. Whatever be the worth of this

legend, extant remains of mural painting prove that

in the fourth century at least Coptic artists possessedsuch skill in design and colour as might by a natural

process of development, if unchecked and unarrested,

achieve very great results. It is true no doubt that

Coptic art generally has a certain large leaven of

Byzantine elements, and true that Byzantine art in

Europe preserved a crystalline fixity of style and

merit for centuries together : yet the Coptic paint-

ings that remain, instead of indicating a single type

immutably permanent, show a steady continuous

order of change ;and although this change is a

change of disintegration and decay, it proves never-

theless that the art contained organic vitality and

vigour. So we may reason backwards, and from the

splendour which we can witness slowly waning

through six centuries, we may infer a dawn far

beyond our ken, and watch the light growing larger,

in stages at least as slow as those by which we have

seen it diminish.

Of pictures with fixed dates there are two sets

belonging to the fifteenth century, both at Sitt

Mariam in Dair Abu-'s-Sifain. One of these, on the

south wall of the choir, contains three pictures the

Baptism of our Lord, Abu Nafr, and Anba Shanudah :

these are dated 1179 of the Coptic era or 1462 A.D.

Close beside them on the haikal-screen of the south

aisle-chapel is a very interesting set of five paintings

with a date corresponding to 1477 A.D. In com-


parison with the art of the thirteenth century, the

faces in these pictures have lost somewhat in lifelike

expressiveness : the features have become more set,

and the folds of the drapery more conventional :

there is not the same masterly softness of outline,

the same delicate gradation of light and shadow.

Yet the technical manipulation of colour is still

admirable : only it seems as if -the spiritual qualities

had in a great measure gone out of the painting.Works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

are tolerably common;but there is a marked su-

periority in the former, in which the stiffness of

decay is far less conspicuous. Good examples may be

seen in Abu Sargah, Al Mu'allakah, Al Amir Tadrus,and other churches. From the sixteenth centuryonwards the decline in power and originality becomes

more and more decided : till the last stage is reached,

after the lifeless daubs of the last century, in the dead

cessation of painting at the present time.

To sum up : Coptic art seems never to have been

tied and bound by rigid laws of tradition in the same

manner as the art of the Greek Church. There is

no analogy in Cairo to the experience of Didron,

who fifty years ago saw the monks of Mount Athos

reproducing by rule of thumb the designs and colours

of the fourth or fifth century, and who found a school

of painters'

painting by instinct, as the swallows

build their nest or bees their honeycomb.' Nor are

there to-day in Egypt, as in Russia, artists who still

paint in the manner of the thirteenth century.

Further, it is not merely in style that the Coptic

painters indicate their independence and individuality.

The variety of subjects is no less striking than the

variety of treatment of the same subject. The arch-


angel Gabriel is painted sometimes with a sword,

sometimes with a cross, sometimes with a trumpet :

sometimes in a single flowing robe, sometimes in

full pontificals. The Annunciation and the Nativityare seldom rendered twice with the same details : and

while, generally speaking, the subjects correspondin frequency and variety with those early Christian

paintings in the West, yet there are some curious

exceptions and differences. While, for example, in

the catacombs at Rome the commonest subject of

all is Christ as the good shepherd!

,I do not re-

member a single instance of the same figure depictedon any Coptic wall or panel. Not less remarkable

is the absence of many of the most familiar symbolsof western Christendom. Birds eating grapes, and

stags, occur in one or two wood-carvings ;there is

one solitary instance of a dolphin carved in marble :

the ship and the fish are found neither in carvingnor painting, although Clement of Alexandria is the

first to bear witness to the use of IXOUC as a

Christian symbol. On the other hand the churches

abound in paintings of scenes and persons distinc-

tively Coptic, martyrs like the Five and their

Mother, saints like Mari Mina, patriarchs like AnbaShanudah, and hermits or ascetics like Antony, AbuNafr, or Barsum al 'Ariin. Some of these, and

only some, left a renown that travelled beyond the

borders of Egypt ;but all received more honour in

their own country, where their heroic deeds and

sufferings are still told in legend, and their forms

are still blazoned upon the panels of the sanctuary.

There is yet another remarkable difference be-

1 Roma Sotteranea, transl. by Northcote and Brownlow, Lond.

1879, vol. ii. p. 45.


tween Greek and Coptic painting, and it is a pointwhich should not be passed in silence

;for it dis-

tinguishes Coptic art not only from Greek but also

from all art of western Christendom. The Coptsseem to be the only Christians who do not delightto paint the tortures of saints on earth or sinners

in hell. Our ancient English churches abound in

frescoes of skulls and bones and hideous devils. It

was a common thing to depict the Last Judgmentover the chancel-arch

;and nothing could be too

revolting to embellish the scene. The church at

Lutterworth, for instance, has this fresco still in

good condition; round the Lady chapel at Win-

chester cathedral malignant imps, enacting dreadful

scenes of torture, may still be traced upon the faded

surface of the walls;and over the western door of

Amiens cathedral the Resurrection and Judgment,

sculptured in stone, display the same horrors as the

illuminations of the Utrecht Psalter, the frescoes of

Andrea Orcagna in the Campo Santo at Pisa, and

the mosaics of the Duomo at Torcello. So too in

the monasteries of Mount Athos every church has

its Last Judgment painted in the porch, with details

of horror which Curzon has described with keen

humour 1

. Elsewhere the same author remarks,' These Greek monks have a singular love for the

devil and for everything horrible and hideous ;

I never saw a well-looking Greek saint anywhere2.'

In the Coptic Church these horrors have no

counterpart. In no part of the world do they

belong to the early ages of the Church, but are

the outcome of a diseased taste in the middle ages.

1 Monasteries of the Levant, pp. 301-302.2

Id. p. 258.


Mr. Ruskin indeed thinks that the mosaics at Tor-

cello may be as old as the seventh century'

;but

if so, there is a wide gulf of time between themand the like delineations elsewhere. The frescoes

at Mount Athos are in some cases quite modern;

but the subject, if not the work, carries back for

some centuries. Texier and Pullan 2 record other

examples of the Last Judgment, but none of great

antiquity. The more refined and tender feeling of

the early Church, while delighting to paint our Lord

in glory surrounded by triumphant saints, yet left

the doom of the wicked to the silence of imagina-tion. This wise reserve, this refusal to pourtray in

colours the torments of hell, or to countenance a

religion of terror, has been and is now the con-

tinuous characteristic of Coptic art as opposed to

all other Christian art whatsoever. If then Texier

and Pullan are right in thinking these horror-

paintings exclusively Byzantine in character, and in

deriving their origin from the soul-weighing and

other legends of the ancient Egyptian mythology ;

it is at least very curious that for the first six

centuries of our era the time when the worship of

Isis and Osiris was still practised there should be

no trace and no mention of such paintings, and that

Egypt itself should be the one country distinguishedfrom all others by the absence of such paintings at

all epochs of Christian history. Rather, if the time

and place nearest the supposed connexion prove to

be the only time and place conspicuously wantingin all sign of it, common sense and common logic

demand some other explanation. It would surely

1 Stones of Venice, vol. ii. App.2

Byzantine Architecture, p. 41.


be just as reasonable to dwell upon the extraordi-

nary resemblance between the mediaeval paintingsof hell throughout Europe and the place of torment

depicted in the Buddhist paintings of India 1

,and

to frame from this resemblance a theory of the con-

nexion of Byzantine art with Buddhist. But there

is no need, I think, of any recondite searching.

Similar phases of belief and of artistic utterance

may have quite independent origins and develop-ments. One has only to remember how as time

went on the primitive idea of Christian life and

thought hardened down to an intolerant dogmatismin theology, while its spirituality was sapped bya vulgar craving for artistic realism

;and it is then

easy to understand how, from the slender material

furnished by Holy Writ, a depraved taste and a

diseased imagination, working in an age of super-

stition, devised and painted in colours horrors worse

than those of any heathen Tartarus.

Passing now from subject to form, one may note

that the Copts do not share the Byzantine or Greek

practice of overlaying their panel pictures with platesof silver, or setting them in metal frames. In most

of the Greek churches to-day such pictures may be

seen or rather conjectured ;for the whole panel is

covered except the faces of the figures, which peer

through holes in the silver, while the drapery andother details of the scene are rudely engraved in

outline upon the surface. It is uncertain whenthis custom began, but it seems of some antiquity.

Curzon mentions, among other pictures treated in

this manner, two portraits of the empress Theodora,

1 See Lord Lindsay's Sketches of the History of Christian Art,

vol. i. p. xxxiii.

g6 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. m.

and two other paintings brought from Constanti-

nople in the middle of the fifteenth century. Theseare at the monastery of Vatopede, Mount Athos !

.

Of course the silver casing is designed as a safe-

guard against the damage which would arise from

the custom of kissing pictures. From time to

time there seem to have been outbreaks of icono-

clastic violence against the pictures in the churches

of Egypt. Thus as late as 1851 the patriarch

Cyrillus, the tasteless builder of the present hideous

cathedral in Cairo, considering that too much rever-

ence was shown to pictures, and being determined

to put down the superstition, ordered paintings to

be brought from all quarters, and made a grandbonfire of them. No doubt many of the oldest

and best thus perished, though in many other cases

the order was fortunately disregarded.The Copts have a certain number of religious

pictures in their houses, mostly of small merit.

They pray before them, and burn tapers before

them, as offerings in fulfilment of a vow ;and

although the Church forbids prayer to saints, the

practice is not uncommon among the women, whoare of course more ignorant and superstitious than

the men. The saints so worshipped are chiefly

St. Michael, the Virgin Mary, St. George, and St.

Mercurius 2.

1 Monasteries of the Levant, p. 326.2

It may be useful to give in Arabic the three different eras by

which the date of Coptic pictures is marked. They are

(1) b^-*-H ^-+*ithe Coptic era of the Martyrs, which com-

mences in 284 A. D.

(2) j->^- or **"- *, the era of the Messiah or of the

Nativity, = A. D.

(3) sjs*, the Mohammedan era of the Flight.

CHAPTER IV.

The Ecclesiastical Vestments of the Coptic

Clergy.

Previous Authorities. Dalmatic. Amice. Girdle. Stole. Pall.

Armlets.

ARIOUS writers who have ventured to

treat of Coptic ecclesiastical vestments

have admitted the difficulty of reaching

any conclusions at once lucid and final,

and have for the most part, unconsciously as well

as consciously, exemplified and intensified the

obscurity with which the subject is beclouded. Themethod I propose to follow now is, first, briefly to

review and compare together all the chief written

evidence upon the matter, and by the light of myown information to decide, if possible, what really

are the canonical vestments : then to take these one

by one, describe them, and compare them with cor-

responding vestments in other Churches eastern and

western : and, finally, to make mention of one or two

forms of vestments unrecorded by previous writers,

forms for which the evidence is rather pictorial than

written.

The first list to be given here is quoted from the

VOL. II. H


Arab historian Abu Dakn 1,as rendered in English

by Sir E. Sadleir in 1693. I strongly suspect that

this English translation is second-hand work, beingtaken direct from the Latin version of the same

author, published at Oxford in 1675. It is not sur-

prising that mistakes arise in such a process of

translation and retranslation, even if the liturgical

terms in the original authority are technically accurate

and clearly distinguished, which is seldom if ever the

case. A further source of error, no less frequentthan vexatious, is the ignorance of lexicographers,

who seem to have not the smallest understanding of

liturgical language2

. But to proceed : Abu Dakn

gives as the priestly vestments the following :

1. A woollen'

ephod' about the head. This is

clearly the amice, though Abu Dakn remarks that it

is worn not only by priests but by all who enter the

church, a statement not easily intelligible unless it

refers also to the turban ; but another explanationwill be suggested presently.

2. Dalmatic. A long linen garment reaching to

the feet and set with jewels in the form of a cross

upon the back, breast, borders, and cuffs of the

sleeves, or, if the church be poor, with silk embroideryinstead of jewels. This is one of many testimonies

to the great splendour of the ancient Coptic ritual.

3. Girdle.

4. Maniple carried by the priest only in the left

hand and not allowed to deacons or inferior orders.

This statement is extremely doubtful.

1

History of the Jacobites, tr. by Sir E. Sadleir, London, 1693.a

It is a matter of great regret that even the best and most recent

Arabic lexicons, such as Lane's and Dr. Badger's, are so remarkablydeficient in this respect.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 99

5. Cope. The Latin rendering is 'pallium cum

cucullo,' and the vestment is stated to be used at

solemn times by priest, deacon, or subdeacon for

the mass, when no bishop is celebrating. The hood

goes over the amice. The cope was and is worn bythe Coptic clergy, and may be rightly so called here.

6. Stole. About this vestment the Latin version

remarks.

'

nulli ferunt nisi pontifices,' which becomesin the English translation

' none wear the stole ex-

cept bishops!' an absurdity which needs no refu-

tation.

Let us now turn to the list given by Vansleb *, wholived in Cairo in the years 1672-1673, and was for

the most part a careful observer. He gives seven

as the number of priestly vestments, viz.

1. Aid, called in Arabic tuniah.

2. Amice. A long band of white linen which

priests and deacons wear twisted round the head.

Arabic 'teleisan ;' Coptic niXoviort.

3. Girdle of silk.

4 and 5. Sleeves or armlets.

6. Stole.

7. C^(chappe)which must have a hood (chaperon)for bishops but not for priests. The vestment seems

clearly marked by the hood as that mentioned byAbu Dakn, but the two authorities are at hopelessvariance as regards usage : for whereas Abu Dakn

assigns the cope with hood to priests and deacons,to the exclusion of bishops, Vansleb makes the

hooded cope as opposed to the hoodless distinctive

of bishops as opposed to priests. Vansleb gives'

al burnus' as the Arabic equivalent.

1 Histoire de 1'figlise d'Alexandrie, p. 60.

H 2

ioo Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

Renaudot 1 in his wonderfully learned work on

the Oriental Liturgies cites two authorities for the

Coptic vestments, Gabriel and Abu Saba. Gabriel,

the LXXXVIII patriarch of Alexandria, in his book

on ritual, published in 1411 A.D., enumerates the

vestments as follows :

1. Aid or dalmatic of silk.

2. Epomis or amice of white silk.

3. Stole.

4. Girdle.

5 and 6. Sleeves.

7. Cope (pallium seu cappa) of white silk.

Similarly Abu Saba gives seven :

1. Aid or dalmatic (vestis longa sive tunica).

2. Epomis or amice, like the ephod of Aaron.

3. Girdle.

4 and 5. Sleeves.

6. Stole or 7nrpaxÂtoi>, which the priest hangsfrom his neck.

7. Chasuble or cope (?) :

' Camisia sive alba,'

which for bishops has an orfrey of gold or precious

embroidery round the neck, but not for priests. If

we compare this statement with Vansleb's, it seems

quite possible that the vestment, called of course'

camisia sive alba'

quite erroneously, is rather a copethan a chasuble

;and that the hood having disap-

peared is merely indicated by embroidery, in strict

analogy with a common western practice.

Renaudot, after remarking that it is extremelydifficult to give a clear account of these several

vestments, owing to the fact that the terms are so

ill understood even by lexicographers, proceeds to

1

Lilurgiarum Orientalium Collectio, second edition, Frankfort,

1847, 410., vol. i. pp. 161-163.


discuss them in order a process which it will be

convenient to follow with a rough translation.

1 .

' This is a long robe reaching to the ancles. A bu

Sabd 1 calls it djabat, the patriarch Gabriel tunta.

It is the Greek xiT( vlov or rather a-riyapiov, and is

worn by all orders down to subdeacon : it is tight-

fitting and of white colour?

There can be no doubt that Renaudot's account

is quite accurate, and the vestment is what we call

a dalmatic.

2.' This is called in Arabic Tilsan, the Coptic

equivalent being GTUJDJUUC, corruptly T ^.nojuuc, or in

someglossaries niXovion. Here it must be understood

ofa vestment or ornament worn on the shoulders, and so

nearer a superhumeral than rational. But it seems

capable of being aptly explained as the (paivtoXiov or

chasuble of the Latins'

This last remark of Renaudot's, though apparently

agreeing with Du Cange, is unfortunate. Neale has

adopted the blunder from Renaudot without acknow-

ledgment, thus stamping it with his own authority.

He states flatly that the chasuble is named tilsan bythe Copts

2. Abu Dakn and Vansleb are both quite

clear that the amice is a Coptic vestment, and the

latter identifies the word under discussion by givingthe Arabic and Coptic names, 'teleisan' and mXovioit.

There can be, therefore, no shadow of reason for

confounding amice with chasuble, or for allowing any

uncertainty as to the meaning of the 'tilsan': it is

established beyond question by Renaudot's own

1 This writer is constantly called Abu Sebah by Renaudot and

others, but the spelling in the text seems correct : it is taken froman Arabic MS. which gives L*-

j>\.* Eastern Church, Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 309.

IO2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

authorities, as well as by the independent autho-

rities which I have cited. A point that does demandsome notice is the confusion between amice and

rational, a point which Renaudot passes over with-

out explanation. The truth is that from the earliest

times there was the closest association between ephodand breastplate, or superhumeral and rational. Thus

St. Jerome in his letter on the sacerdotal vestments 1

remarks,'

the ephod or superhumeral is so coupled to

the rational that it may not be loose nor unattached,

but that both may be closely joined and be a mutual

help, each to other:' and again2 he describes the

rational as' woven in gold and fine colours, the same

as the ephod.' In another place3 St. Jerome notices

that the corresponding word in the Septuagint is

7ro>/>uy. Now there is some evidence that the

breastplate or rational was used as a regular Chris-

tian vestment in the East. Marriott gives an en-

graving of a leathern breastplate, found in a coffin in

the church of the Passion at Moscow 4,which cannot,

he says, be older than the tenth century, and is a'

wholly exceptional instance of a direct imitation of

the Jewish"rational.'" He quotes however a state-

ment from King5

,that Russian metropolitans wear

two jewelled ornaments upon the breast, which are

imagined to be taken from the Urim and Thummimon Aaron's breastplate. But the strongest evidence

is offered by another eastern Church, the Armenian,where to this day amice and rational are not only

found, but found attached together, as St. Jerome

1 Marriott's Vestiarium Christianum, p. 23.2

Id. p. 17.3

Id. p. 14.4 Vest. Christ, pi. Ivii. and p. 245.

6 Greek Church, p. 39.


describes the ephod and breastplate. The varkass

is defined as a small amice having a stiff collar, and

sometimes a breastplate of silver or gold attached 1.

It seems then very probable that at some rather

early period in the Coptic Church both the amice

and rational may have existed : and if, like the cor-

responding Armenian vestments, they were actually

fastened together, it is easy to understand how the two

names enu3JULic and niXovion may have been used

almost interchangeably, and finally, when the rational

disappeared from use entirely, have given rise to an

apparent confusion. Or this confusion may be ex-

plained in a different manner. In the western Church,

at any rate, the amice was originally of square or

oblong shape, and was worn with two of its corners

overlapping each other across the upper part of the

breast;and the strings after being carried round the

body were fastened in front. The amice thus worn

actually formed a kind of breastplate or rational ;

and, if the practice of the Egyptian Church was

analogous, it is quite natural that the terms enojJULic

and niXonon should sometimes have been used as

synonyms.

3.' The Girdle needs no explanation: it has the

authority of all antiquity, and a special meaning

among the Christians of the East since the Moham-medan conquest, having been prescribed by several ofthe khalifs as a secular distinction between Christian

and Muslim. A I Hakim and Saldh ad-Din were

very rigorous in the imposition of this mark of

ignominy ; for such it was regarded by the laityy

while ecclesiastics vied with each other in praise of so

1 Fortescue's Armenian Church, p. 133. .

IO4 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

honourable a vestment. From the fact that the

Christians of Egypt were distinguished by this zone,

they were often called"Christians of tJie Girdle?

a name which has given rise to many foolish inter-

pretations'There is little need to alter or qualify the foregoing

remarks. The girdle was used not merely as a

priestly vestment, but it had its place in the cere-

monial both of baptism and of marriage. The title

(Christians of the Girdle

'

seems to have been givenfirst by the Venetians. The secular ordinance en-

joining upon the Christians the wearing of a girdle,

to distinguish them from the Muslims, was first issued

not by Al Hakim, but a century and a half before

that time by the khalif Mutawakkil.

4 and 5.' The two Sleeves are probably the same as

the knifiavLKia which the Greeks, as Goar remarks, wearloose with a silk string to tighten them on the arms.

The f-rripaviKia correspond under anottier form to the

maniples of the Latin rite. But the Coptic sleeves,

judging by native descriptions, may be of a different

shape, though on this point we can give no certain

information.1

The identification of maniple and epimanikia is, I

think, a mistake. The '

certain information,' which

Renaudot desired concerning the form of the Copticsleeves, will be found elsewhere in this volume.

6. 'The Stole is hung from the neck. Abu Sabas

ignorance of Greek has led him to offer an extraordi-'

nary etymology : he says that Bitarchil means ' a

thousand rocks' The glossaries give cKopîort as

an equivalent to this Arabic word, but that is a term

unknown in ritual!

The etymology is absurd enough, but Renaudot,


by misquoting the Arabic, makes it appear still moreridiculous. I am inclined to think that Abu Sabaknew a little Greek : the word he starts with is not

bitarchil but patrashil, or petrashil, which he derives

doubtless from 7rer/>a and \i\ios. He adds that the

stole is thus symbolical of the 'thousand rocks' which

beset the course of the Church, and demand ceaseless

vigilance on the part of the priests who pilot her !

His real ignorance lies in this, that he failed to see

that patrashil is a mere corruption of the Greek

term tirnpayj}\iov. It will be noticed that Renaudot

says nothing of the form of the stole, of which moreanon.

7. ^Last comes Al Burnus, or Kaâo-iov, as the Coptstinderstand it, a term which often answers to the

Camisia, or alb of the Latins, but here denotes rather

a vestment corresponding to the ancient chasuble, comingon the top of the other vestments and encircling the

whole body. The upper part has a border of gold or

rich embroidery (called 'f'KOKXi^L in Coptic, kaslet in

A rabic] like the Greek vestments carefully described byGoar. The Burnus is usually of silk: but Abu 7Birkat relates that many monks and priests of Cairo

wear a plain chasuble of white wool without anyborder, such as the Carthusians use at the altar. Themonks of St. Macarius did not use the chasuble in the

service of the altar, but only at public prayers.'A II these vestments have symbolical meanings very

like the Greek. Authorities are confused, owing to

the reckless interchange ofArabic terms and the want

of a definite nomenclature, Coptic or Greek, corre-

sponding to the Arabic : they will not repay study, as

they are not clear about the ancient form of the vest-

ments, and the present form, perhaps a little changed,


must be settled by observation, and not by written

evidence.

'But it is clear that all the Coptic vestments answer

very closely to the Greek. The Burmis answers to tlte

<f>aiv6\iov or faXoviov as figured by Goar, and to the

casula or planeta of the Latins. The first on the

list answers to the western alb, and the a-Ti\dpiov : the

Christian Arabs have kept tlie latter term which

Echmimensis explains as kamis or camisia. The

Sleeves or firifiaviKta are tightened by silken strings,

whence it is obvious that they are made in the Greek

fashion. The Tilsan or Epomis is the Amice, as

before remarked, and has a hood attached, according to

Echmimensis. The Stole is placed about the neck, anddescends crosswise over the shoulders, as in Goars

illustration. Mention is made also by Echmimensis ofa priest's cap (cidaris] ornamented with small crosses.

'These vestments were once, and are still, a,s rich

and costly as the several churches can provide. Theyare jealously guarded, and may not be removedfromthe church or tJte sacristy, as ordained in the most

ancient canons and confirmed over and over again.

They are consecrated, like every appurtenance of the

sacred service, by the bishop's benediction. If used byheretics or persons of a different communion, they are

considered as profaned, and must be purified by set

prayers or else consumed by fire. Thus in the life of

Chail, the fifty-sixth patriarch, we read that the Ja-cobitesgot leavefrom the sultan to burn the sacerdotal

vestments of six Melkite bishops. There is scarcely any

difference of actual form between a bishop's and a

priesfs vestments for the celebration : they are distin-

guished, as among the Greeks, by embroidered circles,

orfreys, and crosses'

CH. iv.]Ecclesiastical Vestments. 107

The question of the seventh vestment Renaudot

thus decides in favour of the chasuble almost without

discussion : and he is doubtless right. The cope in

the Coptic ceremonial, as in the West, was rather an

ornament for great festivals and solemn processions,

than a regular vestment to be worn in the service

of the altar. Renaudot points out the confusion

between alb and chasuble caused by the identifica-

tion of the Burnus with the Greek Kafida-iov or Kapfoiov,

a confusion which is the less easy to understand as

the alb is called in Arabic kamis. But Renaudot

himself seems as inconsistent as the authorities he

discusses. After stating that the Greek fcrjyMp&M

were furnished with silken strings, but that he had

no certain information about the Coptic sleeves, on

the next page he coolly remarks that the Copticsleeves have silken strings and therefore are like

the Greek ! Again, in the passages quoted above

he mentions several times over without question the

amice (amiculum) as one of the seven vestments :

yet in another place* he sweepingly alleges that the

amice (amictus) is unknown in the eastern Church.

The statement, quoted from Echmimensis, that the

amice had a hood attached, either points to a time

when the original form had so far been altered that

it consisted virtually of two distinct parts, or else is

a mere misapprehension arising from the manner in

which the amice was worn over the head, and which

is rightly described by Vansleb.

Between Renaudot and Denzinger, who publishedhis

' Ritus Orientalium' in 1863, there is so long a

lapse of time, that one might fairly expect the

1 Vol. ii. p. 55.

io8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

interval to have added something to our knowledgeof the subject. But such is not the case. Denzinger

merely reproduces the very words of Renaudot and

the earlier authorities in a slavish manner, mildly

correcting Renaudot's mistake about the amice,

wrongly doubting his interesting testimony about

the Coptic priest's cap ', but adding otherwise not a

word of original criticism, and leaving, if possible, the

old confusion worse confounded than ever. Den-

zinger's work is, of course, in many ways extremelyvaluable : it contains masses of citation and transla-

tion from those oriental and other writers, who must

remain the principal sources of our knowledge for

the ancient eastern ritual : but on the subject of the

Coptic vestments he has produced a very quagmireof inconsistent evidence. He neither attempts to

reconcile the conflicting statements of previous

writers, nor does he add on any single point the

testimony of one single fresh observer.

Having thus passed in review the several author-

ities who have written about the sacred vestments

of the Church of Egypt, and having balanced one

authority against another, in order as far as possibleto reconcile their contradictions, we may conclude

this much for certain that there were at least seven

canonical vestments which may be fitly rendered bythe English equivalents dalmatic, amice, girdle, two

sleeves, stole, and chasuble. This list tallies almost

exactly with the number and name of the vestments

in usage at the present moment, although the modern

practice has become somewhat lax, and the full tale

1 ' Cidaris . . de quo tamen varia nobis dubia occurrunt, vide-

turque nihil aliud esse nisi pilogion'(l) i.e. the amice. Ritus

Orientalium, ed. H. Denzinger. Wirceburgi, 1863 : torn. i. p. 130.


of vestments is not worn for ordinary celebrations,

but only on great festival occasions. Such dis-

crepancies as exist between past and present custom

will be noticed in due order.

THE DALMATIC.

(Coptic ni noTHpion, ni cyeirroo, -fjm^pim^ or

-fjULîm^. \ Arabic5oo>yO|.)

In most of the eastern Churches the vestments

of the celebrant were required to be of white colour

in accordance with primitive custom 2. Thus Ibn al

'Assal quotes a canon of Basil that' vestments for

the celebration must be of white and white only/and the Imperial Canons similarly enjoin that

'

the

priestly vestments must reach down to the ankles

and be white, not coloured.' In both the passagesthe principal reference is doubtless to the dalmatic,

which then as now was the most essential vestment

for the holy office, though in the West at any rate

the name '

alb,' connoting the prescribed colour,

seems more ancient than '

dalmatic.' The genericname of course is tunic alb being merely tunica

alba and dalmatic tunica dalmatica: and it is this

generic name which has survived in the term bywhich the vestment is now denoted among the Copts

tunlah. The name dalmatic is here retained

1 The Coptic name of the vestments is generally that given to

me by Abuna Philotheus, Kummus of the cathedral in Cairo, and

the most learned of the Copts in such matters. Where two or

more distinct names are given, all but the last are derived from

MS. authority. TlOTHpIOIl is obviously from the Greek Tr

2 See Marriott, Vestiarium Christianum, Introd. chap. iv.

no Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

as being perhaps the nearer of the two;but it is

important to remember that the Coptic form of the

vestment does not accurately correspond to the

Latin form, but rather to the earlier colobion. Thedalmatic was a tunic with long full sleeves

;the

colobion had short close-fitting sleeves ]: and the

colobion is said to have been abolished in favour of

the dalmatic by Sylvester, bishop of Rome, in the

time of Constantine 2. It is therefore interesting to

Fig. 20. Embroidered Dalmatit.

find that Egypt, which never fell under the sway of a

Roman pontiff, retains to this day in the ministration

of the altar the form of tunic disused by the Latins

fifteen centuries ago. It will be seen that the

dalmatic figured in the illustration has rather a full

body but short close sleeves. It opens by a slit

along the left shoulder which is fastened by a loop

and button. The seams have no ritual meaning, but

1 So Marriott, p. Iv: yet the same author, p. in. n. 220, calls

the colobion ' a tunic without sleeves.'

2Vest. Christ, p. Ivii.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. \ \ i

probably denote that the vestment has been pieced,

where soiled or decayed, from some other dalmatic

in like condition but less valuable.

The embroidery upon this vestment corresponds

very closely in arrangement with the description

given by Abu Dakn. On the breast is a figure

of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Saviour on

her left arm : below this is a rude figure of Mari

Girgis slaying the dragon, and a dedicatory inscrip-

tion in Arabic. On each sleeve is the figure of an

angel with outspread wings : a border enclosingsome beautiful crosses runs round the edge of the

sleeves, and a fine cross is also worked upon the

back of the vestment. Various soft colours are

blended together in this needlework, which is

wrought in fine stitches with silk, harmonising well

with the white or rather cream-yellow ground on

which it is embroidered. The ground is of linen,

and the yellow tinge is merely an accident of age.

The white short-sleeved dalmatic embroidered in

the manner set forth above is the principal vestment

worn at the celebration of the korban by the Coptic

clergy of to-day ;and the distinction between the

dalmatic as worn by the priest and the deacon

respectively is a distinction not of form but of

ornamentation. The priestly dalmatic has the figureof the Virgin on the breast and of an angel on each

sleeve, embroidered in gold or silver or fine needle-

work : while instead ofVirgin and angels the deacon's

dalmatic has merely small coloured crosses.

At the time when the ordinary dalmatic was

decked with borders and crosses of costly jewels,

as recorded by Abu Dakn, the ground was often

of rich white silk as well as linen : and silk is

1 1 2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv,

the material most commonly mentioned in ancient

writings. I have been unable to find any evidence,

pictorial or written, for the use in olden times bythe Copts of the dalmatic with stripes, or clavi, such

as are figured in the early mosaics of the West for

instance at the church of S. Vitale at Ravenna and

in early frescoes of the Greek Church. These

stripes descended one from each shoulder before

and behind : they were originally black, but in later

times, in the seventh century, were often purple :

and it was perhaps about the same period that the

sleeves began to be adorned with small stripes, which

were soon conventionalised into such a border as

survives now in the Coptic form of the vestment

White then seems to have been the universal

colour for the dalmatic in the early ages of the

Church both eastern and western. White is the onlycolour mentioned in the early Irish canons l

,arid in

this the British and Gallican practice probably

agreed with the Celtic. Yet towards the end of

the seventh century we find that St. Cuthbert wasburied in a purple dalmatic, although this may havebeen in special attribution of kingly honour to that

saint, and does not necessarily imply the recogniseduse of purple as an ecclesiastical colour : and in the

eighth century in Ireland albs are represented, as onthe shrine of St. Maedoc 2

,with embroidered borders

or apparels. But in . mediaeval times the use of

various colours in the vestments of the Latin Church

became systematic special colours being set apartfor special seasons or festivals. In England it was

only after the Norman conquest that embroidered

1 Warren's Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 124.1

Id. p. 114.


and coloured dalmatics came into use l. For the

latter, I think, there is no clear authority in Coptic

liturgical history. That the Copts adorned their

dalmatics with the most gorgeous jewels and

embroidery, has been already shown : but I have

not seen in actual usage any such vestment madeof red, purple, or other coloured material. Coloured

dalmatics, however, abound in the paintings which

adorn the churches. Thus St. Michael in a picture

at Abu Sargah is robed in a crimson dalmatic tricked

with gold : the figures round the apse at Abu-'s-Sifain

wear alb and dalmatic both coloured : and the sameis true of the apostles on the iconostasis, and the

figures on the screen of the south chapel, at Al 'Adra

Damshiriah. Red and green are the favourite colours.

In some of the embroidered dalmatics the work is

spread all over the ground in so lavish a manner as

almost to give the idea of a coloured vestment. Anexample of a dalmatic, cream-coloured and covered

with small embroidered flowers, may be seen at the

church of St. Stephen in Cairo : another is figuredin the woodcut which represents St. Stephen, and is

taken from a painting at Abu Sargah done in the

fifteenth or sixteenth century. Here the vestment

has a white ground, but is almost entirely covered

with beautifully embroidered roses, each with a tiny

branch and foliage attached. It should be noticed,

moreover, that the dalmatic opens by a slit in the

front on the chest, and that the neck and the openingare adorned with a rich orfrey, while another border

of jewelled work runs round the lower hem : the

cuffs also have their special embroidery. The sleeves

of this dalmatic are, as usual, close-fitting ;but it is

1Rock, vol. ii. p. 100.

VOL. II. I

ii4 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

worth remarking that instead of being cut short theycover the entire arm. It is very possible that the

custom was for deacons to wear the long-sleeved

dalmatic, while priests wore shorter sleeves by reason

of the fact that the epimanikia covered their fore-arm.

This distinction however does not seem to have been

observed in the ancient pillar-painting at Al Mu'al-

lakah, which is not later than the eighth century.

There the archbishop or patriarch who is figuredwears a fine dalmatic embroidered all over with

small circles, but the sleeves of the dalmatic reach

to the wrist;unless indeed, as is possible from the

drawing, the sleeves do not belong to the dalmatic,

but are detached epimanikia, only made of the same

material as that vestment, and adorned with the like

embroidery.One other example of the Coptic dalmatic deserves

special mention. At the church of Abu-'s-Sifain, on

the north side of the nave near the ambon, are two

paintings representing Constantine and Helena re-

spectively. Each of these figures is vested alike,

and they have both the alb and the dalmatic. Herethe alb is long and rather loose, while the dalmatic

is not merely extremely short reaching only a little

distance below the waist but is further remarkable

for having two broad indentations in the lower hem,

making thus a sort of zigzag instead of an even line.

These indentations may perhaps remind one of the

side-slits usually figured in western dalmatics. Therecan be no doubt of the ecclesiastical character of the

vestments : whether their pourtrayal is accurate, is

another question, to which unfortunately no answer

can be given. This much only is certain, that the

authorities make no mention of the two vestments as


distinguishable and capable of being worn together :

nor does present practice in any way confirm such a

distinction.

The tuniah of the Copts corresponds, as Renaudot

rightly remarks, to the sticharion (vnydpiov or o-rot-

Xaptoj/) of the Greek Church, and indeed the very word

seems to be found in the full form cTorx>Lplon and

in the mutilated cmf^x^pi in Coptic rubrics *.

The vestment is described by the Greek patriarch

Germanus, perhaps the first of that name, early. in

the eighth century, as follows 2:

' The sticharion

being white signifieth the splendour of Godhead,and the bright purity of life which becometh Chris-

tian priests. The stripes of the sticharion upon the

wristband of the sleeve are significant of the bands

wherewith Christ was bound . . . the stripes across

the robe itself signify the blood which flowed from

Christ's side upon the cross.' The stripes here

referred to are probably the two shoulder-stripescommon also to the Roman dalmatic. Marriott

quotes! a good example of these stripes in an

eastern vestment from the very ancient fresco at the

rock-cut church of Urgub, as mentioned by Texier

and Pullan : another good instance is the fresco at

Nekresi in Georgia, figured by Rohault de Fleury :

and examples abound in the East and West alike.

There is, however, a slightly different form of sti-

charion worn by bishops, in which there are not two

but several vertical stripes4

. For this form, as for

the ordinary striped sticharion, no strict counterpartexists in Coptic usage, although the Greeks have a

1Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. pp. 40, 49.

2Marriott, Vest. Christ, p. 85.

8Id. xxxvii. note.

* See the figure of St. Germanus in Marriott, pi. Iviii.

I 3

u6 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

kind of sticharion without stripes, long-sleeved, and

sometimes covered with rich embroidery, which

answers to the Coptic dalmatic as worn bydeacons. Among the treasures of the orthodox

Alexandrian church of St. Nicholas at Cairo is a

splendid ancient sticharion of pale blue silk, almost

smothered with embroidered flowers and medallions

blent in a bold and beautiful design. The flowers

and the medallions, which enclose figures of saints,

are all marked out with tiny pearls strung close

together, which follow the lines of the pattern.

The dalmatic worn by the patriarch at great festi-

vals to-day is woven of gold tissue. It agrees with

the much older vestment just described ia being

quite open at the sides almost up to the arm, and in

having little bells attached.

Like the Copts and the Greeks, the Syrians also

used the white tunic whether alb or dalmatic as

a priestly vestment. Their term for it is kuttna,

derived, as Renaudot remarks *, from the Greek

\iTtoviov. But Renaudot is perhaps wrong in stating

that the Arabic tuntah is a mere corruption of this,

instead of connecting it with the independent Arabic

tun, ô, or the Latin tunica. The Syrians retained

the orthodox colour, white, though Renaudot speaksalso of dalmatics of other colours represented in

some rude miniatures of a Florentine MS.

Lastly, we find the same vestment, an alb of white

silk, in use at the present day among the Armenian

Christians, who call it the shapich2

. Thus all parts

of the Christian world unite in supporting the ancient

tradition that the ministers of the altar should be

1Lit. Or. vol. ii. p. 4.

2 Fortescue's Armenian Church, p. 133.


robed in a white tunic. But beyond the embroideries

already noticed, there seems no analogue in the

eastern Churches for the square apparels which

formed a regular part of the adornment of the alb

in our western ritual.

THE AMICE.

(Coptic m n.Xin, ui &<LXXm, ni Xovion 1

,ni

ecf>oTT2

: Arabic cxs^l *UM, t/LuLvy 1

3.)

We have found Abu Dakn speaking of the amice

as a woollen, or more probably linen, ephod worn

about the head by priests and '

all who enter the

church.' I cannot help thinking that' church

'

here

is a mistranslation for the Arabic '

haikal,' which,

literally signifying'

temple,' may have been rendered' church

'

by a translator ignorant of its technical

limitation to the'

holy of holies,' or sanctuary about

the altar. If the amice were worn merely as

part of an ordinary laic's church-going dress, AbuDakn would hardly have enumerated it in a list of

distinctively sacerdotal vestments. Vansleb more ex-

plicitly describes the amice as a long band of white

linen, worn twisted round the head by priests anddeacons. I emphasise the latter point, because it

seems to bear out the idea of a mistranslation of

1 Notice that XoVIOft or Xdytnr is the word used by St. Jeromeand subsequent writers to denote the 'rational' or breastplate of the

Levitical priesthood. (Marriott, Vest. Christ, p. 17.)2 The name ecÔTfT is given in Peyron's Lexicon.3 This orthography, which, of course, is correct, gives the right

English spelling tailasan, and not 'tilsan

'

or'

teleisan,' as Renaudotand Vansleb have it.

Il8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.

Abu Dakn, as suggested above. Deacons, of course,

do enter the haikal at certain parts of the celebra-

tion : so that if we take Abu Dakn's statement to

be that the amice is worn by'

priests and all whoenter the haikal,' it will then tally almost exactly

with Vansleb. Lastly, the patriarch Gabriel men-

tions white silk as the right material for the amice,

and Abu Saba simply records the vestment without

adding to.our knowledge about it.

By putting together these small pieces of infor-

mation, we shall arrive at the fact that the amice is

a long band or scarf of white silk or linen, worn

twisted round the head by priests and deacons.

This definition answers almost word for word with

the amice as worn by the Coptic clergy to-day : the

authorities, however, seem mistaken in allowing the

use of the amice to deacons, the truth being that it

is distinctly a sacerdotal vestment. In Arabic the

amice is called either shamlah and balltn indifferently :

but although the terms are in common speech quite

synonymous, yet str ctly speaking the two vestments

are distinct distinct in colour and mode of usage,

though similar in point of shape. For the shamlah

is a long band of white linen embroidered with two

large crosses, and worn by priest and arch-priest or

kummus : while the balltn is made of grey or other

coloured silk, embroidered with texts and manycrosses, and is worn by patriarch and bishops.

Again, the shamlah is twisted like a turban round

the head, and while one end hangs down the back

of the priest, the other is passed once round his face

under the chin, and then is fastened on the top of his

head : but the ballin is put on in quite a different

manner as follows. First, it is doubled and then


hung over the bishop's head from the middle, so

that the ends hang evenly in front;each end is then

passed across the breast under the opposite arm, and

thence across the back over the opposite shoulder

and straight down under the girdle. It thus forms

a hood for the head as the shamlah does : but

Fig. 21. Shamlah, back and front view.

whereas the ballin is arranged crosswise both uponthe breast and back, the whole length of the shamlah

is used up in the hood or head-dress, leaving onlyone end free which hangs down the middle of the

back. Upon this straight piece there shows an

embroidered figure of a cross, and a similar one is

visible over the crown of the head upon the hood.

The shamlah is usually of white linen or white

1 20 Ancient Coptic CJntrches. [CH. iv.

silk, and the crosses upon it are often embroidered

in gold. As a rule its length is about 8 ft. and

breadth i ft. : but a specimen in the writer's posses-sion measures no less than i6ft. 8 in. in length and

i ft. 4 in. in width;the embroidered crosses, which are

3 ft. 4 in. and 2 ft. 6 in. respectively distant from the

nearest end, are worked in red and yellow silk, and

have the Coptic sacred letters in the angles. There

is no fringe to the vestment, but each end is markedoff by a single red line of needlework.

The tailasdii, where distinct from the shamlah, is

merely a conventionalised form of the same orna-

ment, and consists of a broad strip of linen or silk,

which hangs down the back and ends upwards in a

hood, instead of being twisted round the neck and

over the head, as the shamlah. It is only uponspecial occasions, such as Good Friday, that the

patriarch wears the ballin, never during the celebra-

tion of the mass. Metropolitans and bishops how-

ever wear it during the mass, whenever they do not

wear the crown or mitre : outside their own dioceses

too, and at such times within their dioceses as the

patriarch happens to be present, they wear the

ballin : the use of the mitre being on such, occasions

prohibited. It scarcely needs remarking that the

cope is seldom worn with the ballin.

The amice in ordinary use now is not adorned

with any magnificent orfrey, or apparel embroidered

with jewels and gold, such as was common in the

richer churches of the West. Yet in this as in every

particular there is reason to believe that the Copticritual rivalled or even outrivalled the splendourof our western services. In ancient Coptic pictures

however, and in modern alike, one searches vainly


for a single clear pourtrayal of the amice. Such an

example as that in the painting of Anba Shanudah

at the church of that name in old Cairo is perhapsnot to the purpose ;

for the head-dress there is rather

a hood. Yet the vestment may be meant for the

tailasan ;and the amice is found represented as a

hood, though rarely, even in English monuments, as

on the effigy of a priest in the church of Towyn in

Merionethshire, and on an effigy in Beverley Minster1.

The more frequent form of the amice on western

tombs and brasses is a rich collar standing about the

neck : and for this there is a possible parallel in

Coptic usage. For what may be an amice in the

form of a richly embroidered collar is representedon the neck of the patriarch in the very interesting

seal of the patriarchate of Alexandria, which will be

given in a woodcut below. And even if evidence

were wanting, we might be sure that at a time whenas a matter of course the dalmatic was adorned with

a wealth of precious stones, the amice did not fall

short of it in richness, whether its adornment was in

the form of orfreys or of jewelled crosses.

To what antiquity the use of the amice in the

Coptic Church ascends, is a question which I fear

cannot be answered. In the West the first mention

of it seems to be made early in the ninth century

by Rabanus Maurus. Originally it was a square or

oblong piece of linen fastened across the shoulders

and breast, and, like the Coptic vestment, it had

usually a large cross embroidered upon it2

. It is

1 Bloxam's Ecclesiastical Vestments, p. 47 (eleventh edition).2 See Chambers' Divine Worship in England, p. 34, and the

illustration there given of an amice once belonging to St. Thomas

of Canterbury.


not till the twelfth century that we hear of the amice

being worn over the head, and it was then regardedas an emblem of the helmet of salvation, accordingto Durandus. When so worn veiling the head, the

amice was nevertheless lowered on to the chasuble

at the moment of consecration. A sort of amice,

though sometimes called a fanon, was worn over the

head by the pope when celebrating mass, and the

same ornament was used instead of the mitre on

Holy Thursday, when the pope performed the

ceremony of feet-washing.The rational, though not the amice, is mentioned

among the ancient ornaments of the Celtic bishops1

:

but it is quite possible that the amice too may have

existed at an earlier date than is generally assignedto it, though from its natural association with the

rational no separate early mention of it is clearly

recorded. Yet no such vestment as the amice seems

known in the practice of the Greek Church, althoughthere the rational survives in a breastplate of gold or

silver, worn over the chasuble by patriarchs and

metropolitans, and called the Trtpio-TriQiov2

. On the

other hand, the amice or varkass is still worn by the

Armenian clergy, amongst whom it is small with a

stiff collar, as described above, and sometimes has

attached to it a breastplate of precious metal. Theamice without a rational is also a familiar vestment

in the Syrian Jacobite and in the Maronite Churches,

where it is one of the ornaments with which a

bishop is attired at ordination, as may be seen in the

rubrics 3.

1 Warren's Lit. and Kit. of Celtic Ch. p. 113.2 Id. p. 114.

3

Denzinger, Kit. Or. torn. ii. pp. 93, 157.


Seeing then that not merely the Coptic but also

the Maronite, Syrian, and Armenian Churches still

recognise the amice as a priestly vestment, and that

it has in all cases at least a respectable antiquity,

even if it does not ascend to the first few centuries

of our era, we may feel some surprise that ecclesio-

logists from Renaudot to Marriott should deny its

existence as an eastern vestment. Renaudot has

already been refuted above out of his own lips :

Marriott rightly says* there is no corresponding

vestment in- the Greek Church,' but quotes with

approval the far more sweeping statement of M.

Victor Gay1

:

' Les Orientaux plus stricts observa-

teurs des traditions du costume primitive ne 1'ont

jamais adopteV Even Neale, while admitting the

existence of the Armenian amice, remarks that it'

is

unknown in any other part of the eastern Church,

and seems to be adopted from the Latin amice 2;'

thus sealing afresh the error.

It is precisely because the orientals are so conser-

vative in their practice, and because the Copts are

perhaps more conservative than all other orientals,

that the Coptic use of the amice constitutes a. strong

argument for the high antiquity of that vestment. In

default of direct evidence, the date of its adoption in

the church of Egypt can only be matter of con-

jecture : but I think it far more likely that it origi-

nated there, where the heat of the climate would soon

make the necessity felt of such a protection for the

neck. Again, it is not less but more natural that the

close association of the amice with the Levitical

ephod or breastplate should have arisen in the

1 Vest. Christ, p. 2 1 2 n.

2 Eastern Church, Gen. Introcl. vol. i. p. 306.


East, an association stamped on the very name of

the Coptic vestment.

On the whole, then, not only is the statement quiteuntenable that the amice is unknown in the eastern

Churches, but a balance of probabilities seems to

show rather that it first arose in the East and passedover to the West, than that it came as a fresh gift

from the ritual of Rome to the ritual of Alexandria.

THE GIRDLE.

(Coptic ni ^cnrit.pion, ni ofit^pion : Arabic

Though the penal use of the girdle as a secular

distinction of dress between Christian and Muslim

in Egypt has long since passed away, yet to this

day Christian and Muslim alike wear it for the

sake of convenience, and afford a living illustra-

tion of the manner in which it was worn in the

most ancient times, before it was adopted as a

sacred vestment of the Church. For, as in the

ministration of the Church the girdle is worn over

the alb or dalmatic, so in daily life at Cairo now it is

worn by prosperous merchants or venerable sheikhs

to confine a robe which only differs from the dalmatic

in being open down the front. The analogy between

the two sets of vestments is so striking to view, and

so well founded in fact, that one cannot understand

how it should have received so little recognition from

1 This word,'

zinnar,' and the two Coptic terms are obviouslyalike derived from the Greek


ecclesiologists. Much labour and ingenuity have

been spent in deriving the various forms of ecclesi-

astical vestments from styles of classical costume

recorded in literary or sculptured monuments : while

oriental costume has been quite neglected, althoughthe early Christians, like the Jews, were mostly

orientals, and eastern dress is much the same to-dayas it was two thousand years ago. A well-dressed

Arab from the bazaars of Cairo is a better illustra-

tion of the origin of Christian vestments than all the

sculptures of Athens and Rome.As the burnus or chasuble of the Copts is the

burnus or overall cloak of the Egyptian Arab;and

as the dalmatic or camisia is the long robe worn

underneath by the Arabs and called kamis;so the

sacred girdle is the native mantakah or hazam, i. e.

belt or sash ; and the amice has its analogue in the

well-known kaffiah. Like most of the priestly vest-

ments, however, the girdle is only worn to-day on

great ceremonial occasions, and not as part of the

ordinary ministering dress for the altar. The dal-

matic is always worn for the celebration of the

korban, and generally amice and stole are worn also :

but the rest of the canonical vestments, thoughretained by the Church and used for high festivals,

are not now considered essential for the holy office.

An ancient and very beautiful example of a girdle of

crimson velvet with clasps of niello silver exists, and

has already been described in the account of the

church of Abu Kir wa Yuhanna at Old Cairo : it

probably dates from the sixteenth century. Thatworn by the present patriarch is of yellow silk, and is

fastened by large pear-shaped clasps of filigree silver-

work set with precious stones.


The use of the girdle as a sacred vestment is not

distinguishable from the use of the other vestments

in point of antiquity. There is no reason whatever

for considering it a later addition, or anything but

the natural companion of the dalmatic. It is clearly

figured in the pillar-painting at Al Mu'allakah alreadymentioned

; which, whether it belong to the eighth

century or to an earlier epoch, certainly representsan ecclesiastical costume of a fixed and developednot of a rudimentary character. In this painting the

girdle is not a mere loose sash, but a belt with

embroidered edges and with a clasp, thus closely

resembling the girdle at Abu Kir wa Yuhanna. It

seems then reasonable to infer that at the time whenthis fresco was painted, the girdle was already a

thoroughly familiar and thoroughly conventionalised

vestment, and consequently that the use of the girdle

in the Coptic Church is more ancient than in the

Churches of western Christendom.

This idea is further borne out by the fact that

the first clear mention of the girdle as a sacerdotal

ornament is made in the eighth century by St.

Germanus of Constantinople, an eastern and not

a western writer. Nearly a century later it is

found in the western catalogue of vestments given

by Rabanus Maurus : and from that time forward

allusions to it are frequent. The girdle was often

of great magnificence, being made of the most costly

gold embroidery, and studded with precious jewels.

In the Latin Church to-day it is still used by bishops,

but is sometimes a mere cord with dangling tassels.

Goar mentions it as among the vestments of the

Greek patriarch, but not as belonging to other

orders. In the Armenian Church it is a part of

CH.IV.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 127

the regular ministering dress of priests, and is worn

over the stole. The Armenian name for it is kodi.

The Syrian priesthood also wear a girdle, resemblingthe Coptic in form, and fastened by clasps : and in

the Maronite Church the priest at ordination is girt

with a girdle, which thenceforth becomes one of his

regular vestments for the celebration. Among the

Nestorians also the girdle still lingers, and is called

by the same name as among the Syrians, sunndra 1,

obviously a reminiscence of the Greek favdptov. Wemay say, therefore, that the girdle is universally-

recognised in the eastern Churches as part of the

liturgical costume.

THE STOLE.

(Coptic ni uop^pion, m c.xopîon : Arabic

All the authorities which are cited above for the

Coptic vestments go wrong together in failing to

distinguish the ordinary stole from the patriarchal

pallium or pall, and in failing even to notice the

existence of the latter. Yet neither its existence,

nor its difference from the stole, nor its antiquity,can be called in question for a moment, as will be

shown in the sequel. Here I have merely raised

the point in order to reserve it, because it is one

that should be remembered from the outset, althoughwe are chiefly concerned at present with the sacred

dress of the priesthood.

1 G. P. Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. i. p. 225.


But, leaving aside the pall, the authorities entirely

omit the fact that the priestly stole has two forms

quite unlike each other; and, worse still, granting

that the Copts do wear a stole, by a strange con-

spiracy of silence they leave the reader to shape it

out of his imagination. Abu Dakn is made by his

translators to remark that it is worn only by'

ponti-

fices,' i.e. 'bishops.' Doubtless 'pontifices' should

be rendered 'celebrants;' but it is hard to see how

any credit given for mistranslation can redeem the

original statement from mere error. Vansleb and

Gabriel say nothing at all;while Abu Saba notes

that the stole or kinrpa.yj\\iov is' worn from the neck

by the priest,' an observation which is true as far

as it goes, but not a brilliantly clear account of the

whole matter. Renaudot makes no effort to illu-

mine the darkness. This is a good sample of the

amount of information to be derived from previouswriters on Coptic subjects, and of the ignorancewhich prevails even now amongst more recent eccle-

siologists.

I have said that there are two forms of the stole.

Both these forms, as well as the patriarchal pall, are

called by the generic name '

patrashil,' an Arabic

corruption for the Greek kTtiTpa.yj]\iov \ and both

seem called in Coptic by the same name ujpA.piort.

While, however, the pall has also its own distinc-

tive term, the two kinds of stole do not seem to be

distinguished in name;and this fact has doubtless

given rise to a confusion and perplexity which partly

accounts for the silence of the authorities. Of the

two forms, one corresponds to the Greek tiriTpa.yj}-

Ato*/, or irtpiTpayjiXiov as it was also called;the other

approaches nearer to the Greek <0pdpioi> and to the


stole of western usage. For the sake of clearness,

in the following pages I shall use the name epitra-

chelion, or the kindred 'patrashil,' to denote the

former shape exclusively, and reserve the familiar'

stole'

for the latter.

i. The epitrachelion proper consists of a single

band or scarf about 9 in. broad and 6 ft. in length ;

the upper end is divided by an opening throughwhich the head passes, so^that the vestment hangsdown the middle of the dalmatic in front. Fromthe neck downwards the epitrachelion is embroi-

dered either with gorgeous crosses, or with the

figures of the twelve apostles in six pairs, one pair

above another; and the dedicatory inscription is

often woven above this adornment. Some idea of

the splendour of this vestment in bygone times maybe formed from the illustration, which represents a

patrashil of crimson velvet woven with silver em-

broidery, which belongs to the church of Abu Kir

wa Yuhanna. Even now the patrashil is often of

great magnificence; sometimes it is nearly i8in.

wide. Blue silk; ornamented with richly coloured

crosses, scrolls or figures, is a common material.

But it is worth remarking that the patrashil without

figures is called by a separate name sudr. Aglance will show the origin of the, present form of

the vestment. It is quite clear that originally the

epitrachelion passed, like the western sacerdotal

stole, once round the back of the neck and hungin front over both shoulders. The two pendantswere subsequently brought together, and fastened

close from the collar downwards by loops and

buttons;and finally, as this usage was established,

the epitrachelion was made of a single broad pieceVOL. II. K

Fig. 22. Patrashil of Crimson Velvet embroidered with Silver.


with an opening for the head. And the conscious-

ness of this origin is still sometimes betrayed bythe arrangement of the embroidery : for the lines

down the centre of the vestment in the woodcut

preserve the idea of two bands joined together,

though in reality there is no seam in the material.

On the other hand the epitrachelion as worn byConstantine in the painting at Abu-'s-Sifain shows

under the short chasuble no indication of a

vertical division ;it is rather narrow, and has

three crosses embroidered and divided off byhorizontal lines

;it has also a fringe which is

not often found on the epitrachelion. After the

foregoing explanation of the origin of the patrashil,

it scarcely needs remarking that the vestment in

this form belongs solely to priests and bishops, whoof course wore the unconnected stole over both

shoulders, in contradistinction to deacons, who wore

it only over the left shoulder. Precisely the samevestment with the same name, the same shape and

origin, and the same limits of usage, is found in

the Greek Church. An example is given by Mar-

riott in an illustration 1;but that author does not

give any clear account of the matter, nor state

whether the epitrachelion figured is made of a

single straight piece, or is joined by a seam or byfastenings down the middle. In another plate

2 St.

Sampson and St. Methodius are represented as

wearing the single united epitrachelion : yet Mar-riott remarks that

'

the ends of the peritrachelion . . .

are seen pendant,' implying that there are two ends

capable of separation ;and in the same plate the

1 Vest. Christ, pi. Ivi.2

Id. pi. Ivii,

K 2

132 Ancient Coptic ChnrcJies. [CH. iv.

vestment, as worn by St. Germanus, is parted and

stands asunder the whole way down without any

sign of union. It might seem probable, therefore,

that the Greeks only attach the two edges of the

stole together loosely to form the epitrachelion, and

that they have not gone a step further with the

Copts and abolished the central joining.

Yet the learned writer in the Dictionary of Chris-

tian Antiquities1

speaks confidently of the Greek

form as having' a hole for the head to pass through

'

and ' a seam down the middle ;' so that it would

only differ from the Coptic shape in actually retain-

ing the seam, instead of merely indicating it by an

embroidered ornament. Moreover, Neale's account

of the epitrachelion is exactly similar 2. The ortho-

dox Alexandrian church of St. Nicholas at Cairo

possesses several ancient and extremely beautiful

specimens of the epitrachelion richly worked with

gold embroidery. I saw one with a blue grbund,two with yellow, one crimson, and one crimson and

green. All are of silk;

all have the figures of

apostles or saints inwrought, except one, which is

covered with a design of crosses;and most, though

not all, have a fringe at the bottom. From these

examples it is obvious that the closure in front is

a matter of indifference with the Melkites;

for in

some cases the closure is so complete that the vest-

ment has merely a seam down the middle ; even

this seam has quite vanished in some modern speci-

mens, which are made of a single piece of stuff

1Diet. Christ. Ant. s. v. Stole.

2 Eastern Church : Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 308 : see also the

illustration there given.


covered with a large branching design ;while in

other cases the central division is left entirely open.I may add that some of these epitrachelia are

adorned with tiny bells.

The close correspondence in the shape and usageof the Greek and Coptic form of the vestment war-

rants, I think, the inference that the epitrachelionhad been adopted and settled as part of the sacer-

dotal dress before the rupture between the Jacobiteand Melkite factions in the Church. At that time

the vestments of the Constantinopolitan Greeks and

of the Alexandrians would be one and the same;

but it is in the last degree unlikely either that the

Greeks should have subsequently borrowed the

patrashll from the Jacobites, a supposition refuted

by the very name, or on the other hand that the

Jacobites should have been beholden to the despisedand detested Melkites.

This theory will, of course, give the epitracheliona much higher antiquity than can be claimed for

the corresponding vestment, the stole of the western

Churches;and being such, it only falls in with and

strengthens my general contention, that the forms

of the ecclesiastical vestments were fixed, and defi-

nitely consecrated to the service of the Church, at

a much earlier period in the East than in the West,and possibly earliest of all in the Church of Alex-

andria. At the same time it is not of course denied

that the epitrachelion, however ancient, is only a

secondary developed form of the original stole or

orarion.

Before quitting this part of the subject, it maybe mentioned that the form of the epitrachelion is

expressly defined in the rubric for the ordination of

134 Ancient Coptic Chtirches. [CH. iv.

a bishop1 as given by Renaudot. It is there laid

down that the vestment must be of silk, and must

be embroidered with the figure of the Saviour and

of the disciples. Yet there is nothing to show that

this special form of adornment belonged to bishops

only, or that the epitrachelion decked with crosses

was given specially to priests. Other communities

which use this form of ornament, besides the Greeks,are the Malabar 2 Christians

;the Armenians 3

, amongwhom it is called pour-ourar obviously a remi-

niscence of orarion and is described as a costly

brocade of silk studded with jewels ;and possibly

the Maronites.

2. The orarion or common stole seems only dis-

tinguishable from the epitrachelion by a convention;

for in the rubrics orarion is found even for the stole

as worn by the patriarch4

,which is undoubtedly the

patrashll. The word 0-7-0X77 is of frequent occurrence

in Graeco- Coptic pontificals, but never in the sense

of 'stole;' it always means 'dress' or 'vestments,'

a sense which did not give place to the technical

'stole' until the ninth century even in western

Christendom; where it is first clearly identified with

the orarion by Rabanus Maurus about 820 A.D. Into

the hopeless controversy concerning the etymologyof the word orarion I do not propose to enter : I shall,

however, for the present decline to believe that either

1

Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. p. 28.2Howard, Christians of St. Thomas, p. 133.

3Fortescue, Armenian Church, p. 133.

4Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. p. 49. Marriott is therefore wrong

in saying that the orarion is only used of the deacon's stole, not of

the corresponding vestment as worn by priests. See Vest. Christ.

p. 84, note 144.


the vestment or its name was originally Latin. The

adoption of a Roman vestment by the eastern

Churches would be a process against all analogy ;

and the name orarion is found in the East just two

hundred years before it is mentioned in the West.

The canons of the Council of Laodicea, about

363 A. D., forbade the orarion to orders below the

diaconate;whereas in western history it is not till

the second Council of Braga in Spain that the

orarion is mentioned, and deacons are commandedto wear it plainly showing on the left shoulder, and

not under the dalmatic. This council was held in

the year 563 A.D.

The orarion is, of course, older in point of usagethan the epitrachelion ;

but there seems some reason

to think that, even after the priestly manner of wear-

ing the orarion over both shoulders had given rise

to the epitrachelion as a distinct vestment, the orarion

still continued to be used by the Coptic priesthoodside by side with the epitrachelion. The latter was

required to be an ornament of some splendour;and in the poorer churches it would of course be

much more easy to provide a plain band or scarf

of linen, embroidered with crosses, to be wornover both shoulders. It is then very possible that

the co-existence of the two methods of wearingthe stole permissible to priests may have caused

the names to be used almost interchangeably.For as the patrashtl was styled orarion in the

rubric quoted above, so undoubtedly the orarion

as worn by priests is called patrashll at the present

day.

The prohibition of the Council of Laodicea seems

never to have affected the Church of Alexandria;


for in the Tukian 1 Pontifical there is a rubric direct-

ing the investiture of the subdcacon with the orarion

at ordination. Similarly the subdeacon 2among the

Syrians, and even the reader 3among the Maronites,

at ordination receives the orarion. In most of these

cases the stole is worn over the left shoulder only,

in the manner prescribed for deacons ;but in the

Maronite Church the practice is somewhat different.

There 'the reader at ordination has a folded orarion

laid across his extended arms, the subdeacon has

it placed about his neck presumably with the ends

hanging behind 4,

while the deacon has it taken

from the neck and put upon the left shoulder. There

can be no doubt that originally the orarion was worn

by deacons hanging free before and behind ; so that

the Coptic practice agreed with that of the Greekand Latin Churches. In the West this arrangementwas found inconvenient, and one end of the stole

was fastened at the right hip for greater security.

The same difficulty gave rise to various ways of

wearing the orarion in Egypt, some no doubt formal

and legal, others fanciful or haphazard, setting all

customs and canons at defiance, like the lax and

slovenly usage of the present century. In the figure

of St. Stephen already referred to, the intention of

the stole hanging over the left shoulder in front is

conspicuous ;but instead of hanging loose behind,

the stole passes close under the left arm, downwards

across the breast to the right hip, round the back,

and from the left hip upwards to the right shoulder,

over which the end hangs behind. From the care

1

Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. p. 6.

2 Id. ib. p. 82.3

Id. ib. p. 118.

4Id. ib. pp. 229 and 233: but the rubric is obscure.

CH. iv.j Ecclesiastical Vestments. 137

bestowed on this picture, the splendour of the vest-

ments, and the universal recognition of St. Stephen as

a typical deacon, it is probable that this way of wear-

ing the orarion was habitual and lawful. It will, of

course, be noticed that the stole is really crossed

upon the breast, and that this fashion of wearingthe vestment requires it to be of much greater

length than the Latin stole. Very possibly it repre-sents a special arrangement of the stole previous to

Fig. 23. St. Stephen : from a painting at Abu Sargah.

communicating, such as Goar 1 tells us was usual in

the Greek Church;for a Greek deacon, when about

to receive, so altered the orarion that it formed a

cross on both breast and back, and a sort of girdleround the waist. This custom of changing the

orarion may perhaps also account for the fashion

of the Coptic stole as worn by subdeacons a

fashion which will be described presently. Yet

1

Euchologion, p. 146 : see also illustrations, p. 147.

138 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. \\.

sometimes the deacon's stole is represented as wornin the ordinary way, merely placed upon the left

shoulder : St. Stephen himself, for instance, is de-

picted so wearing it in a painting on the choir walls

of the church of Abu-'s-Sifain. Yet a third fashion

is shown in a third picture of the same saint at the

church called after him adjoining the cathedral in

Cairo. Here one end is seen hanging behind the

right shoulder, over which the stole passes ;hence it

falls in front straight down the right side to the hip ;

there it loops, and passes diagonally across the chest,

under the left arm, and out over the left shoulder.

The end which thus hangs from the left shoulder in

front is carried in the left hand as a maniple. Curious

as these three fashions seem, the last is distinctly

recognised at the present day as the right way of

wearing the orarion for archdeacons. A somewhatsimilar practice obtains in the orthodox Alexandrian

Church of Egypt, where the deacon carries in his left

hand one end of the stole, which hangs over the left

shoulder before and behind;while the archdeacon

wears it crossing the breast from the left shoulder

to the right side. The choristers and subdeacons

of the Coptic Church at the present day wear the

orarion in a peculiar manner. The centre part of the

stole is placed on the waist in front forming a sort

of girdle ;the ends are then drawn behind, crossed

over the back, and brought one over each shoulder

to the front, where they fall straight down and passunder the portion which girds the waist 1

. Theorarion thus worn forms a sort of H in front and

1

It appears that the name i&Jt, which applies properly to the

girdle, is sometimes used to denote the deacon's stole as thus worn.


X at the back, and recalls, half in resemblance and

half in contrast, the stole as worn, not by deacons

but by priests, in our own Church before the

reformation.

The priestly stole in the West passed from the

back of the neck over both shoulders, was crossed

upon the breast, and confined at the waist by the

girdle. Owing to the fact that in most monumentsthe chasuble hides this particular arrangement, so

that nothing more is seen of the stole but the ends

depending, clear illustrations are somewhat uncom-

mon. There is, however, a good brass in Horsham

Church, Sussex 1,in which the crossed stole is visible ;

it may be seen also in a window painting represent-

ing the marriage of Henry VI. with Margaret of

Anjou, now in the east window of the Bodleian

Library at Oxford. Viollet-le-Duc gives a goodillustration of the crossed stole from a twelfth cen-

tury MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale 2; and the

same arrangement is figured in Rock's Church of

our Fathers 3. Perhaps the first clear ordinance on

the subject is that issued by the third Council of

Braga, enjoining that every priest at the altar

should wear the stole of even length over each

shoulder, and should pass it crosswise over the

breast.

The Coptic practice then of wearing the orarion

as both girdle and stole is not very different from

this western custom, though obviously it demandsa scarf of greater length. But I may repeat that

neither priests, nor even deacons, among the Copts

1

Figured in Waller's Monumental Brasses.2

Mobilier, vol. iii. p. 375.3 Vol. ii. p. 89. See also vol. i. p. 421.


now wear the stole in this manner, but only sub-

deacons and inferior orders;while the priests in ordi-

nary celebrations at the present day are distinguished

by the arrangement of the amice described above,

without either epitrachelion or orarion. The stoles

of the subdeacons are narrow in shape, and usuallymade of silk or other rich materials

; they are of

various hues, purple, yellow, red, and green,

usually having three or four colours side by side

in longitudinal bands;and they are adorned not

only with crosses but also with flowers finely em-

broidered. In ancient times the deacon's orarion

too, like the epitrachelion, was made of silk or cloth

of gold, and set with jewels, just as in the Westthe original white linen gave place to more showyand costly materials

;for by the ninth century

stoles of various colours, and decked with gold,

were familiar in the churches of Spain, Gaul, and

Italy1.

Many magnificent examples of mediaeval stoles

are still extant, some of the best being in the South

Kensington Museum. One of Sicilian work, datingfrom the thirteenth century, is described as being

'

of

gold tissue profusely decorated with birds, beasts,

and Roman letters and floriated ornaments :

'

while

another of Italian make, fifteenth century, is of'

deep purple silk brocaded in gold and crimson with

flowers V Old inventories too abound with such

descriptions.

The Syrians use the stole, which they call uroro,

a corrupted form of orarion, which adds its evidence

1

Marriott, Vest. Christ, pp. 215-6.2 Chambers' Divine Worship in England, p. 51.

CH. iv.] Rcclesiastical Vestments. 141

in favour of the eastern origin of the word. Ap-parently the same ornament is used both for priests

and deacons, though the rubrics given by Morinus

are not very lucid. In ordaining a deacon the

bishop'

accipit orarium et circumfert circum caput,'

and then subsequently lays the stole upon the left

shoulder *. In the case of a priest the bishop'

accipit

orarium quod super ipsum positum est et traducit

illud super humerum eius dexterum a parte anterior} 2.'

It is clear that the deacon wears the stole upon the

left and the priest upon the right shoulder : and the

second rubric seems to imply that the priest wears

it upon both shoulders. The action of the bishopis doubtless as follows : the candidate for the priest-

hood being vested as deacon, with the orarion hang-

ing loose over the left shoulder before and behind,

the bishop takes the end which hangs at the back,

and brings it round (traducit) over the right shoulder.

When the ac-tion is complete, the stole would show

both ends in front, one hanging over each shoulder.

So far the process tallies with that described in all

the English pontificals. But upon the questionwhether the bishop crosses the stole upon the breast

of the priest after bringing it round the neck, the

Syrian rubric is silent. It seems fairer to conclude

that the stole was not crossed ;and this conclusion

seems borne out by Asseman, who describes it as'

hanging from the neck before the breast on either

side V The Syrian stoles in the miniatures of the

Florentine MS. cited by Renaudot 4 are either divided

by bands of embroidery, or else adorned with small

1

Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. p. 70.2

Id. ib. p. 73.3 Bibl. Orient, torn. Hi. pt. ii. p. 819.

4Lit. Or. torn. ii. p. 54 seq.


coloured crosses;but the bishop's stole is always of

the latter kind. Renaudot says nothing about the

epitrachelion, for the use of which by the Syriansthere seems to be no evidence : and Neale is there-

fore wrong in identifying the uroro with the epi-

trachelion on Renaudot's authorityJ

.

The deacon's stole in the Armenian Church is

worn in the orthodox manner, and is called ossorah

possibly another corruption of orarion. We have

already noticed the survival of the term in pour-

ourar, the Armenian designation of the epitrache-

lion : but there is no law or limit to the forms which

a classical word may take in passing into an oriental

language. The Armenian stole is generally plain,

unlike the Greek, which is embroidered with the

trisagion or the word AT IOC thrice repeated.

The Nestorian clergy, both priests and deacons,

recognise precisely the same usage of the orarion as

the Syrians. There is however this difference as

regards subdeacons, that in the Syrian Church the

subdeacon wears the orarion hanging from the left

shoulder as well as round the neck : whereas in the

Nestorian ordination service for a deacon, the dis-

tinction of the two orders is made by the removal

of the stole from around the neck of the subdeacon,and the placing of it upon the left shoulder. But

it is far from clear in what manner in either case

the subdeacon wore the orarion' about the neck,'

whether it was twisted round and round, as seems

most probable, or whether it hung behind 2. The

1 Eastern Church : Gen. Introd. vol. i. p. 308.1 The rubric for the Syrian ordination of subdeacon, as given by

Renaudot, is as follows :

'

Episcopus . . . circumdat orarium collo ejus

demittitque super humerum ejus sinistrum.' In the corresponding


Nestorian name for the stole, hurrdra *, agrees with

the Syrian name in its descent from the Greek term

wpdpiov.

THE PALL.

(Coptic ni twjuLocôpiort, ni n,&.XXut : Arabic

Renaudot in his account of the Coptic vestments

ignores, as was remarked above, the very existence

of any ornament corresponding to the archiepiscopal

pall of western usage, or the Greek omophorion.Yet not only is the pall represented in the earliest

Christian frescoes of Egypt and in many pictures,

but Renaudot himself gives rubrics which mention

it in the office for the ordination of the patriarch of

Alexandria. Nevertheless it is extremely difficult,

if not impossible, to understand the various rubrics

which relate to the investiture of the patriarch, or

to reconcile the apparent repetitions and inconsis-

tencies in a single version of the office. Much of

this confusion is doubtless due to mistranslation,

which might be removed by careful study of the

originals ;but these unfortunately are inaccessible.

Abu '1 Birkat mentions only three vestments-

dalmatic, omophorion, and chasuble (couclo sive

Nestorian rite, as given by the younger Asseman, the rubric runs

thus :

' Orarium accipit eoque collum ejus circumdat :

'

while in

the case of deacons it is'

turn tollit orarium de collo eorum,' i. e.

which they wore as subdeacons, 'et ponit illud super humerumsinistrum.'

1 G. P. Badger, Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. i. p. 225.

144 Ancient Coptic Clmrches. [CH. iv.

casula) ; the list is correct as far as it goes but

obviously deficient. According to the Tukian

Pontifical1

,when the patriarch elect first approaches

the altar at the beginning of the ordination service,

he is vested in dalmatic and amice only, or as theyseem to be termed in the original CTi^^piortand Xermoit. There follows a long ceremony,until the prayer of invocation is reached, which

contains these words,' Clothe him with the alb

'

(podere, noTHpiort)'

of thine own holy glory : laythe mitre upon his head, and anoint him with the oil

of gladness/ After the proclamation, the senior

bishop arrays the patriarch elect in dalmatic, stole,

and chasuble (c"roix^-PIOIt. twpA-piort, 4>eXomon).

Then came the decree of the synod and several

more prayers : after which '

princeps episcopus induit

eum omophorio (cujmocbopion) symboli2

(cnrJUL&oXon)

1

Ap. Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. p. 40 seq.2 Sic. I can only conjecture that '

symbolo'

should be read, and

that it refers to what follows, viz., linteum. The rubric will then

run omophorio et symbolo, etc., and the meaning as follows :

' Vests

him with the pall ;and with the sign of the apostolic gift which is

the amice hanging from the head;and with the epicheri upon his

shoulder.' The words of Greek origin in these rubrics are given

as they octur; and though Denzinger prints them in Greek

characters, I have thought it better to give the original Coptic.

What the epicheri may be, is quite uncertain. Denzinger quotes

an opinion that it seems to be a sort of veil hanging over the hand,

i. e. presumably a maniple, an opinion obviously based on the

supposed etymology of the word, but supported by no external

evidence whatever. There is nothing corresponding to the maniple

in Coptic ritual, nor even to the Greek eyxftpioi/: moreover the

rubric in both cases expressly states that the epicheri is worn over

the shoulder, which is not a likely place for the maniple. Nor is

the maniple likely to be distinctive of the patriarch.

I can offer no suggestion except the following. In the 'Systatical

OH. iv.] Rcclesiastical Vestments. 145

doni (^cupe<L) apostolici (<LTiocT'oXi]<ort) quod est

linteum (Xerrrion) a capite eius dependens, et epicheri

(eni^xepi) super humerum ems.' The language of

this rubric, marvellous as it seems, is surpassed bythe next :

' Et cum indutus est (cj>opeilt) omni habitu

archisacerdotali (^.p^xiep^TiKort) : morphotacio

(jULOp$oTLiaori) et phelonio (cbeXomon) et pha-cialio (4>.Ki.Xion) quod a capite eius dependet,

omophorio (uujULocbopion) i.e. morphorin

4>opm) habitus (CTOXH) et epicheri

super humerum eius,' &c. The absurdities of the

various foregoing rubrics scarcely need pointingout. First, the patriarch is robed in dalmatic and

amice : the mitre is mentioned in the prayer of

invocation, but the rubrics contain no hint of such

an ornament : next, the patriarch is invested with

Letter' or decree of the synod, read by the deacon from the

ambon or pulpit, setting forth, amongst other matters, the duties of

the patriarch, it is expressly mentioned that he is to perform the

office of feet-washing on Maundy Thursday. For this office a

towel would be used, doubtless of fine embroidery ;and I think it

very possible that epicheri may mean a towel (cf. Lat. mantile, Germ.

handtucK). Such a towel, gorgeously woven with silver or gold,

may well have been laid upon the patriarch's shoulder at his ordi-

nation, in token of this special duty of feet-washing, to which it is

clear the Church attached great importance. Such an explanation

removes all difficulties, but cannot claim to be more than a conjec-

ture. The epicheri then would not be a regular vestment, corre-

sponding to the Latin maniple, and worn by all orders : nor would

it even be part of the patriarch's pontifical apparel : but merely a

special symbol worn but once on the occasion of his ordination.

The natural place for such a towel would be the shoulder.

It will be noticed that Denzinger's translation, as far as it has anysense at all, makes the omophorion the same as the linteum : but

the rubric so running refutes itself, for the pall would in no wise be

described as'

hanging down from the head.' Vide Rit. Or. torn. ii.

PP- 56, 57-

VOL. II. L


dalmatic, stole and chasuble : thirdly, with pall,

amice, and the mysterious epicheri. Then, after

twice putting on the dalmatic, twice the amice,

besides stole, chasuble, and pall, he comes out

arrayed in the dress of an archpriest, to wit, chas-

uble, pall,'

morphotacion,''

phacialion,' and '

epi-

cheri'

! Truly a wonderful metamorphosis : and

it must be a strange kind of a figure which the

patriarch presents, when at last he is apparelledin full pontificals.

Renaudot's account of the matter is simpler, but

by no means free from perplexity. At the com-

mencement of the service the new patriarch wears

dalmatic and amice. Renaudot here translates

Xerrriort by mantile, instead of by linteum as

Denzinger1 renders it, and is rightly thinking of

the amice; whereas Denzinger in another place

2

applies the term linteum to the archiepiscopal pall' Est autem omophorium linteum sive species

quaedam stolae similis pallio.' The truth is that

amice and pall are as inextricably confused in

language as in usage.As regards the second process in the investiture,

Renaudot agrees with the Tukian Pontifical

that the patriarch is robed in dalmatic, stole, and

chasuble.

The third process is far more intelligible in

Renaudot. It is as follows :

' Then the chief bishop

places on him over his head the omophorion which

is the mark of his rank, and it shall hang in such a

way as to fall over the breast.' And instead of all

the barbarous jargon that ensues in the Tukian

1 Tom. ii. p. 40.2 Tom. i. p. 130.


Pontifical, Renaudot has the words,' Then he shall

be arrayed in full archiepiscopal*

vestments, namelymitre, omophorion, and orarion.' There is nothinghere about morphotadon, phacialion, or epicheri : but

cutting away what might seem to be mere repetition,

we get as the vestments of the patriarch dalmatic,

amice, stole, chasuble, pall, and mitre. There is

however reason to think that during the ceremonyof ordination some of the vestments are actuallyremoved and replaced. Which of the vestments are

so removed, cannot be determined : and it is natural

that the fresh enumeration should look like a clumsy

repetition. But in the corresponding service in the

Maronite Church, after the new patriarch has been

robed in alb, inferior orarion, sleeves, amice and

chasuble, there elapses a considerable time spent in

prayer and various rites;and then, according to the

rubric,'

the bishops bring him before the altar andtake offfrom him the chasiible and amice of the priest-hood:' subsequently he is vested in mitre, chasuble,

and orarion, the last being either the epitrachelionas opposed to the inferior orarion above, or else the

omophorion : and the chasuble here mentioned seems

a richer vestment than that which was put on and

removed in the first instance.

From this analogy we may, I think, conclude that

there were five distinct stages in the investiture of

the Coptic patriarch. First, he wears only dalmatic

and amice : next, the priestly stole and chasuble are

added : thirdly, amice and chasuble being removed,a more splendid chasuble and probably a finer amice

1It is quite clear that Denzinger's archisacerdolali is a mere

mistake. The original is ^.pîep^.TIKOIt, which elsewhere

the same author repeatedly renders, and rightly, by archiepiscopalis.

L 2


are put on : then over the chasuble the patriarchal

pall is lowered : and finally the mitre is placed uponthe head. It is, however, very singular that neither

girdle nor sleeves are mentioned in the ordination

service : and I do not feel at all confident that the

account I have given of the process of investiture

is accurate, inasmuch as both girdle and sleeves are

undoubtedly part of the patriarchal costume for

celebration at the present dayl

.

1 Without attempting to settle decisively the meaning of mor-

phofaa'on, phacialion and the like, which cannot be done without

reference to the text, I may call attention to the criticism of Den-

zinger, who, with the text before him, is not merely helpless in

himself and to his readers, but literally abounds in error. Speak-

ing of the Coptic patriarchal vestments, he says (torn. i. p. 130)

they are'

a-n-âpiov (Arabs: tunica [sic]), wpdpiov, (piXwiov hoc est

</>mi>oXtoi', quae sunt presbyterorum vestes : praeterea vero ex ordi-

nationis textu Renaudotiano <ano$6piov quod est super caput et

pendet ita ut descendat super pectus ejus, ex textu autem Tukiano

fu>p<j)oTaKioi>, <f)(\ouot>, hoc est penula sive casula, (paxtaXiov quod a

capite ejus dependet, scilicet de homophorio (sic), et Epicherion

(tnixfpi) super humerum ejus. Phakialion absque dubio erit mitra,

quae in orationibus memoratur ut insignium patriarchae peculiarium

pars quaedam. Est autem Omophorium (sic) linteum sive species

quaedam stolae similis pallio, crucibus insignita, collo et humeris

circumvoluta.'

Now Renaudot's text does not say that the omophorion'est

super caput,' which would be a description equally false and

ridiculous of the manner in which the pall is worn : but the words

are '

episcopus imponet ei homophorium (quod est insigne digni-

tatis) super caput ejus,' meaning of course that the pall is lowered

over the head, not that it rests upon the head.

Denzinger makes no remark about the morphotacion, and

indeed there seems nothing to give a clue to its meaning: but

over the phacialion he blunders strangely. The rubric, it is true,

describes this vestment as hanging from the head : and Denzinger,

having just placed the omophorion on the head instead of round

CH. iv.] Rcclesiastical Vestments. 149

But whatever else remains secret in the mysteriousrubrics I have cited, this much at least is clear. that

they offer abundant evidence for the existence of the

the shoulders, now explains the position of the phacialion by

saying that it hangs down from the omophorion ! Had I not cited

his words accurately, it would seem incredible that his next step is

to identify the phacialion with the mitre in the most confident

manner (absque dubio). So then the initre hangs down from the

head, where it is fastened to the omophorion or pall ! The learned

German has very singular notions of ecclesiastical costume. But

a still more extraordinary statement remains. Two pages later

(p. 132) Denzinger enumerates among the Nestorian vestments,'

Maaphra quod et dicitur Phakila et Kaphila, quod est pallium in

modum pluvialis nostri quo totum corpus ambitur, estque Grae-

corum $aoXioi/.' Now it is quite certain that QaKioXiov and $aKid-

Xioi/ must be the same thing : and here we are told that the phacia-lion is no longer a mitre but a cope ! But what authority is there

for the existence of a Greek vestment called <aicidXioi> resemblingthe Latin cope ? I know of none. The patriarch Germanus in

his account of the Greek vestments uses the word <f)aKi6\iov or

$aa>Xiof to mean a bandage, remarking that the peritrachelion is

typical of the bandage wherewith Christ was bound when led awayfrom the High Priest : but there is not the smallest authority in

this passage, nor, I believe, in any other, for speaking of the

(fraicioXiov as a Greek vestment at all, much less for identifying it

with a cope. The cope can hardly be said to exist in the Churchof Constantinople : for the patriarch's pavftvas, which comes nearest

to it, is part of his secular and not of his ecclesiastical apparel.

Du Cange in his Glossarium ad Scrip/ores Mediae et InfimaeGraecilatis gives the several forms <aKeo>Xioi/, QaiceoXiov, <f>aici6\iov,

and (f>aKu>\is : and defines the word as'fascia qua caput involve-

bant olim Saraceni atque adeo Graeci ipsi Byzantini ut hodie

Turci/ i. e. a sort of turban. The primary meaning seems to be

a long band or bandage, such as still is wound round the head to

make a turban. Hung over the shoulder, it might resemble a

stole;and accordingly there is some questionable evidence to

show that the term phacialion may have been used as equivalent

to orarion by one or two loose writers. Goar cites a definition

from Coresius Chiensis,'

âKewXij tiara est et militum pileus, pro*.

150 Ancient Coptic C/iuyc/ies. [en. iv.

omophorion as an essential vestment of the Coptic

patriarch. It is a question whether metropolitansand bishops, as well as the patriarch, wear the

omophorion. Analogy would seem to answer the

question in the affirmative : and Marriott *

says

prie inquam capitis KaAurrrpa, Turcicae persimilis, qua caput velut

zona vel cingulo circumcingitur.' It is stated too that one of the

several early patriarchs of Alexandria called Timotheus was sur-

named craAa$a/a'oXo? because he wore a white head-dress. It seems

then probable, on the whole, that the phacialion, though not resem-

bling in any way the Latin mitre, was some kind of eastern head-

dress, more like a turban, with a lappet hanging over the back of

the neck, by virtue of which it is described as '

hanging down from

the head' in the difficult rubric of the Tukian Pontifical. Very

possibly it is neither more nor less than what Vansleb calls the

bellin, which he describes as a long band of white linen, a foot

wide and four ells in length, which is worn above the turban, woundround the neck, and with ends falling over the shoulders (vide His-

toire de 1'Eglise d'Alexandrie, Paris, 1677, p. 9 seq.). The bellin he

assigns to the patriarch only : but in the rubric for the ordination

of a bishop in the Tukian Pontifical, one of the priestly vestments

is called Tl.Xin, which Denzinger translates by pallium, an

ambiguous word, possibly denoting the omophorion. I have

no doubt that the bellin and the FULXllt are identical, and that

they are simply the amice, as worn in the peculiar manner described

in the text above (p. 118). I have there mentioned that the namebattin (which is the correct form of the word) survives to-day as

the name of the turban-like amice worn by the Coptic priesthoodat the altar, and of another vestment worn by bishops. Takingthis fact along with Vansleb's description of the tailasan or

Xoviort as 'a long band of white linen wound turban-wise

around the head,' it can scarcely be doubtful, that the terms

ballin, n<O\IIt and XoTIOtt are used for the same thing, though

originally denoting two distinct vestments.

As regards the other word morphotacion, I can find no hint of its

meaning or even of its existence in either Byzantine or Coptic

lexicons. It may perhaps be connected with the Coptic root

JULOp, to bind, and signify a girdle.1Vest. Christ, p. Ixxiv.


decidedly that' from the fifth century, if not from

an earlier time, down to the present, it has been

worn by patriarchs and metropolitans, and by almost

all bishops in the East.' There is, however, as

far as I am aware, no warrant for extending this

generalisation now over the Church of Alexandria.

For the omophorion, un-

less the ballin be so re-

garded, is not clearly men-

tioned in any of the known

Coptic pontificals as used

in the investiture of either

bishop or metropolitan : a

singular omission, if the

pall were really the orna-

ment which distinguishedall prelates from inferior Fig - 2*-Seal of the Coptic Patriarch -

orders. Nor is there any pictorial evidence to

associate the omophorion with any other rank than

patriarchal. On the other hand, in the seal of the

Alexandrian patriarchate, while the pontiff is shown

wearing a pall, there is no sign whatever of such

a vestment on any one of the twelve figures which

surround him. The evidence then of this designtells rather in favour of the pall being considered

distinctive of the patriarch, as in the Roman Church

it is distinctive of an archbishop.Yet it is not at all inconsistent with the fore-

going remarks to suppose that in ancient times and

originally the omophorion may have been worn by

bishops in the Coptic as in the Greek Church.

St. Isidore of Pelusium, himself an Egyptian, wholived in the early fifth century, speaks of the'

omophorion of the bishops'

in language which

152 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. \\.

seems unmistakeable : though the earliest mention

of the vestment is in connexion with a patriarch

some twenty years previously, Theophilus of Alex-

andria. The words of St. Germanus in speaking of

the Greek ecclesiastical vestments l seem to denote

a different form of omophorion, though called by the

one name, for patriarch and bishop : and this mayhave been the case also in the Church of Egypt.Yet there is scarcely justification enough in the

Greek text for the arrangement of paragraphs in

Marriott's translation ; by which it is made to appearthat the episcopal is distinguished from the archi-

episcopal omophorion by having crosses embroidered

upon it, though the distinction is neither clearly

formulated by that writer, nor borne out by anyother evidence literary or monumental.

Coming now to the form of the Coptic omophorion,we are met by a very curious coincidence

; for it

resembles far more closely the later shape of the

Roman pallium than the common form of the Greek

omophorion. There can be no question that origin-

ally this vestment consisted of a single long woollen

band or scarf, which hung in a loop over the breast

in front and over the shoulders behind, and showed

one end hanging in front over the left shoulder, and

one end hanging behind. This form remains with

scarcely any change to-day in the Church of Con-

stantinople, although the pendant now falls in front

down the centre of the body, instead of falling from

the left shoulder, and the loop is drawn up higherround the neck instead of hanging so loosely as to

allow the right hand to rest upon it, as was the case

1 See Marriott, Vest. Christ, pp. 84-86.


in ancient times. Such variation from the primitiveform as has taken place may be readily seen by

comparing plates xli and Iviii in Marriott's Ves-

tiarium Christianum : and it will be noticed at

once that the modern Greek form bears only a

distant resemblance to the modern Roman pall, andthis resemblance is merely accidental. Any sus-

picion of Roman influence in determining the form

of the Egyptian omophorion is at once refuted bythe fact that the vestment as illustrated on the

patriarchal seal to-day is almost precisely the sameas that figured in the earliest known representationof the omophorion, and that representation is oriental,

not Roman. For the mosaics of the mosque of St.

Sophia at Constantinople, dating from 537 A. D. and

therefore sixty years anterior to the well-known Roman

figure of St. Gregory, still preserve the forms of St.

Basil and four other bishops who lived in the fourth

century, and these are all arrayed in white sticharion,

white phelonion, and white Y-shaped omophorion1.

It is this Y-shaped vestment which the omophorionof the Coptic patriarch almost exactly resembles.

These sixth-century mosaics prove of course alreadya fixed conventional formation of the omophorion,and consequently a considerable previous antiquity.

Subsequent monuments, however, show that the

form fluctuated from time to time, the original

flowing scarf being never definitely abandoned. It

is curious therefore to find the conventional form

engraved on the seal of the Coptic patriarch identical

with the conventional form depicted on the walls of

St. Sophia.

1Marriott, Vest. Christ, pi. Ixxv.


In the West also the records of early art provethat the pall was originally a scarf worn precisely as

in the East. A fresco of the eighth century recentlydiscovered at Rome l shows St. Cornelius and St.

Ciprianus both vested in a pall, which is the same as

the Greek omophorion figured in the ninth-centuryGreek miniature belonging to a MS. in the Biblio-

theque Nationale, and representing the second

General Council of Constantinople. I i this minia-

ture, which is given by M. Rohault de Fleury, and

in the similar one of the tenth or eleventh century

given by Marriott, and representing the seventh

General Council, all the bishops assembled wear

the omophorion over the breast, and with one end

hanging from the left shoulder. There is howevera decided difference in the arrangement of the vest-

ment in the two pictures. In the earlier, the

omophorion droops over the breast much lower and

looser than in the later delineation, where it is

drawn up more closely round the neck, more like

the present fashion. Further, it is curious to remark

that in the ninth-century MS. the omophorion has

apparently only two crosses, one on each side of the

loop : there being no sign of the third cross, which

is figured on the straight piece hanging from the

shoulder in Marriott's illustration and generally in

all Greek miniatures. But this Greek way of wear-

ing the pallium soon gave way in Rome to what has

been hitherto regarded as a distinctively Romanfashion. How easily the transition was effected

may be gathered from a glance at the well-known

1

Marriott, Vest. Christ, pi. xxx, from De Rossi's Roma Sotter-

ranea.


figure of Gregory the Great 1

dating from about

600 A.D. There the pall is already worn across the

shoulders;and the ends, after passing through the

loop before and behind, hang down the centre of

the body. As the consciousness of the original was

lost, the pendent pieces were merely tacked on to

the circular band which was put over the shoulders,

so as to form the T-shaped or Y-shaped pall commonin miniatures of the West from the ninth centurydownwards 2

. It is true that for some time the

Greek is found side by side with the Latin shapeof the pall. Thus in a ninth-century mosaic

at the Triclinium Lateranum the vestment of St.

Peter is still an omophorion : and even as late as

the twelfth century a very decided omophorion is

figured as worn by St. Ambrose in a mosaic of the

church called after him at Milan 3. Possibly however

the Byzantine character of the whole composition,

indicating the work of a Byzantine artist, maydetract from the value of this mosaic as evidence

for contemporary Roman custom.

The frequent destruction or defacement of the

Coptic churches after the Arab conquest has un-

fortunately swept away nearly all the pictorial

monuments which recorded the earliest forms of

ecclesiastical costume. It is, however, remarkable

that the most ancient representation of the omo-

phorion which I have found shows already a fixed

and conventionalised form of the vestment, nearly

1Marriott, Vest. Christ, pi. xxv.

2 See for example, Marriott, pi. xxxix; Westwood, Miniatures,

pi. 50.3 Rohault de Fleury, La Messe, vol. i. pi. xvii.

156 Ancient Coptic Churclies. [CH. iv.

resembling the Latin pallium of later usage. Thenameless pillar-painting on which this omophorionis figured has escaped by some accident the destruc-

tion which has overtaken the like paintings on the

other nave-columns at Al Mu'allakah. There is

no doubt that the nimbus, the mitre, and the pall

denote some patriarch, whose name has been effaced

or forgotten. The pall is T-shaped and consists of

an unbroken band placed low across the shoulders,

with another band hanging from

the centre and concealing the claspof the girdle. Curiously enoughthere is no sign of any cross uponthis pall : each side of it has a

narrow embroidered border, and

the space between is filled with a

design of interlacing circles or

ovals : but the large crosses, charac-

teristic alike of the Greek omopho-rion and the Latin pallium from the

earliest times to the most recent,

are entirely absent. It has been

mentioned that the same inter-

lacing design adorns the mumbarof a mosque built in the fourteenth

century at Cairo : notwithstanding which I aminclined to refer the fresco to the eighth or

ninth century. In any case it is the earliest piece

of monumental evidence for the use of the omo-

phorion. In panel pictures of a later date the vest-

ment is sometimes though not very often pourtrayed.

Occasionally the Coptic pall may be seen arranged in

a manner nowise differing from the early Greek wayof wearing the omophorion, i.e. with an angular loop

Fig. 25. Fresco at AlMu'allakah.


or fold upon the breast, and one end hanging from

the left shoulder : upon it are three large crosses.

This form of the vestment is illustrated, for instance,

in the oft-mentioned picture of St. Nicholas *. In the

north part of the choir at Abu-'s-Sifain, in the picture

representing the Death of the Blessed Virgin, all

the apostles thronging round the bier wear the

omophorion precisely in the Greek fashion 2. The

adjoining church of Al 'Adra or Sitt Mariam contains

a picture of St. Mercurius in which a bishop is re-

presented wearing a Greek omophorion over the

chasuble. But on the iconostasis of the same church

the twelve apostles are all arrayed in alb, dalmatic,

chasuble, and Y-shapedomophorion, and carry crosses

and gospels. As I have already noticed, the omo-

phorion on the patriarchal seal is also Y- shaped and

rather Roman than Greek in character : it hangsclose about the neck and reveals in front three

nearly equal oblong divisions in each of which is a

cross. Probably a similar arrangement is concealed

rather than displayed in the very curious paintingsround the apse wall at Abu-'s-Sifain, where each of

the figures is vested in a cope which falls over

and hides the loop of the omophorion ; and yetit is impossible to confuse omophorion and epi-

trachelion, because both vestments are represented,the latter showing over the alb and under the

shorter dalmatic. Puzzling as this arrangement

appears, it is not uncommon in Coptic pictures;

though sometimes again, where alb and dalmatic

are both given, the epitrachelion is worn over the

1 See frontispiece.2 Vol. i. p. 108,


latter, as in the fifteenth-century paintings at Sitt

Mariam.

The fact, then, that the Y-shaped pall was de-

veloped out of the early Greek form, seems proved

by the testimony of mediaeval Coptic monuments,and the process is easy to understand

; but the

same monuments prove no less clearly that the

ancient form continued in vogue side by side

with the later omophorion. But this is not the

whole account of the matter;

for besides these

two forms, both more or less familiar even in

the West, the Coptic paintings give evidence of

a peculiar and characteristic usage. For some-

times the Coptic pall appears much longer than

in the ordinary arrangement, and shows besides

the ordinary Y-shaped vestment a band of the

same material and colour, marked with similar

crosses, passing across the waist from the right side

to the left : at the left side the end falls over the

wrist or is held in the hand. Illustrations of this

manner may be seen in the seventeenth-century

picture of St. Mark attired as patriarch at the

church of St. Stephen by the cathedral in Cairo,

and in the figure of our Lord in the midst of the

row of paintings on the choir screen at Abu-'s-Sifain.

It seems from this arrangement that one end of the

omophorion is imagined as passing from the left

shoulder behind, across the back, to the right side,

and thence in front of the wearer across the waist,

whereas of course in the usual arrangement the end

hung behind over the left shoulder. Yet another

method of wearing the omophorion is one depicted,for instance, in the painting of the archangel Michael

at the church of Abu Sargah. There also the scarf

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. '59

Fig. 26. St. Michael : fromat Abu Sargah.

painting

is of great length, and it will be easier to follow its

disposition by beginning with that end which hangsover the left wrist. From the left, as in the figure of St.

Stephen, it passes across to

the right side, thence behind

the back, under the left arm,across the breast to the right

shoulder, round the nape of

the neck, over the left shoul-

der. From the left shoulder

it passes half across the

breast, where it is pinnedunder the other cross-piece,

and thence the end or por-tion remaining hangs downthe middle of the dalmatic

in front. Thus it recalls in

a way the Y-shaped vestment, but presents also a

curious variation.

These peculiar arrangements of the Coptic omo-

phorion are not very easy to account for. But

perhaps the most noticeable thing about them is the

length of scarf required ;and I cannot help thinking

that they represent the transition from the ancient

omophorion to the modern ballin as worn by bishops.For the pictorial evidence of this peculiarly Coptic

pall is comparatively late, dating no further back

than the sixteenth century at the earliest;while the

episcopal ballin is so recent as never to have been

received into the domain of art, and its likeness will

be sought in vain in any Coptic picture. This con-

jecture is perhaps made surer by the fact that neither

the lengthened omophorion nor the episcopal ballin

rests on the sanction of any rubric or other formal


authority. But if it be true that the modern ballin

is the representative of the ancient omophorion, and

was developed from it, doubtless the process of de-

velopment was chiefly a process of confusion con-

fusion between the shamlah or priestly amice, the

orarion, the epitrachelion, and the omophorion, vest-

ments whose points of difference were easily disre-

garded in the long darkness which has settled on

the Coptic Church. It must be owned with reluct-

ance that much of this confusion is likely to persist,

and cannot be quite dispelled by any reasoningfounded upon such evidence as remains. It should

be remarked, however, that the Melkite or orthodox

Church of Alexandria retains to the present day the

ancient usage of the omophorion, and knows nothingof the ballin 1

.

Concerning the antiquity of the patriarchal pall

there is little to add to the information already

brought together. In the East we have seen the

vestment first mentioned in connexion with a patri-

ot.AAI It is not a Coptic word by etymology, and is doubt-

less derived from the Latin pallium through the Greek form TraXX/ov,

which occurs now and then in early Byzantine writers. Stephanus in

his Thesaurus (s. v. tmxapiov) says that Gregory of Nazianzen in his

will left toEvagrius the deacon Kapavov tv, (Tt\apu>v tv,ira\\ia 8vo: cf. also

Epiph. II. 1 88 B. The form naXXiv (or ? n-oXXtv) actually occurs in

Porphyrius. In Byzantine Greek, however, the word merely means

a cloak or mantle, and was never used to denote the omophorion.It is therefore by a mere accident that the na\\iov among the Copts,

like the pallium among the Latins, was specialized to denote an

ecclesiastical ornament. By a precisely analogous change of

meaning the early Byzantine Ka^daiov (or jcd/maoi/), which meant

some sort of undergarment, became in Coptic ritual KJUl<LCIOIt,which, as we shall see presently, means sleeve or armlet. So wide

is the departure of the Coptic from the Byzantine sense in each

case, though the sound is scarcely altered.


arch of Alexandria, about 385 A.D. In the West,

omitting the doubtful instance of the bestowal of the

pall upon the bishop of Ostia by the bishop Marcusof Rome (c. 330 A.D.), we have no mention of it

until about 500 A.D., when Symmachus granted it to

Theodore, archbishop of Laureacus in Pannonia.

A century later Gregory the Great, in writing to

Vigilius, bishop of Aries, terms it a matter of

ancient custom for a bishop to petition the see of

Rome for the pallium and for the vicarial authoritywhich it carried. While, however, there is not di-

rect testimony enough to solve the question whether

the use of the pall first arose in Rome or in Alex-

andria, yet the first undoubted mention of that

ornament is from the pen of an Egyptian writer. Weknow' that in the sixth century, at least, it was cus-

tomary for a new patriarch to take the pall of

St. Mark from the neck of his deceased predecessorbefore burial, as part of a solemn rite. Moreover

the omophorion in both the Greek and the EgyptianChurches has existed and continued in use down to

the present moment, without any record of Latin

interference.

All this tells strongly against the claims of Rometo regard the pall as an exclusively Roman privilegeto be granted as a mark of honour and received as

a token of allegiance. There seems some reason

from a decree of the Council of Macon in 581 A.D.,

that no archbishop should celebrate without a pall

to think that this pretension was not fully acknow-

ledged by the Gallican Church in the sixth century;but it is needless to trace its growth, and needless to

repeat that neither Copt nor Greek in any way con-

fesses the supremacy of the Roman pontiff.

VOL. II. M


All over the Christian world the pall is rightly

made of wool and not of linen, to remind the wearer

that he is the spiritual shepherd of his flock. Both

the material and the symbolism are mentioned bySt. Isidore

;and to this day the benediction of the

white lambs destined to furnish the wool takes place

yearly on the day of St. Agnes, at the church called

after her in the Via Nomentana at Rome. After

the ceremony the lambs are kept in a convent till

the time for shearing is come. The palls made of

their wool are placed to rest all night upon St. Peter's

tomb on the eve of the apostle's festival, and on the

day following are consecrated upon the altar 1.

An omophorion resembling the Greek in form, but

wider, is worn by prelates among the Armenians ;

among the Maronites also and the Syrians it is

recognised as part of the patriarchal investiture.

It is, of course, only by reference to the original

manner of wearing the omophorion, that our ownancient rubrical directions for fastening the pallium on

the chasuble can be rightly understo'od. For we read

that it was ' fastened with a pin before and behind

and on the left shoulder 2/ i. e. at the lowest point

of the curve or loop both on the breast and on the

back, and at the point where the ends crossed each

other on the left shoulder. If we attempt to applythis direction to the T-shaped or Y-shaped pall, it

becomes meaningless : it is an intelligible and neces-

sary arrangement as applied to the omophorion or

the pall as worn in the primitive fashion.

1 Cate"chisme de Perseverance par TAbbe* I. Gaume, vol. vii.

p. 234 (4th edition, Brussels, 1842).8 Bloxam's Ecclesiastical Vestments, nth edition, p. 5.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical yestments. 163

THE ARMLETS.

(Coptic ni KJUL.cioK : Arabic

In speaking of the next ornament of the Coptic

priesthood, the sleeves or armlets, it is well at the

outset to guard against any identification or con-

fusion of them with the maniple. The latter is so

familiar a vestment in the usage of the western

Church, that one may well feel surprise if nothing

exactly corresponding to it can be discovered in

Greek or Coptic ritual. Even allowing that the

Greek ty\tipiov both in name and purpose offers a

kind of parallel, there is no such ornament as this

napkin mentioned in the pontificals among the

Coptic vestments. The nearest approach that I

can find to any such appurtenance in Coptic cere-

monial apart from the veil or sudarium belongingto the pastoral staff, of which more hereafter is a

kerchief of some kind mentioned in a rubric as pre-

sented with the cross to a bishop at ordination.

The rubric runs '

dabitque illi crucem et mantile'

in

Renaudot's translation;but while the word ' mantile

'

is obscure, the original text is inaccessible, and this

is the one solitary allusion to the existence of such

a kerchief, whatever its nature, in either the Copticor the Syrian or the Nestorian pontificals. Thecross delivered is, of course, the small hand-cross

used for benediction and not a crozier, so that the' mantile

'

in this case cannot possibly correspond to

the veil or pannicellus. It has already been men-tioned that in both the Jacobite and the Melkite

M 2

164 Ancient Coptic Churches. ICH. iv.

branches of the Church of Alexandria one end of

the stole is carried in a way strongly suggestive of

the western maniple. This custom would perhapsin itself rather tell against the existence of the man-

iple as a distinct vestment, though betraying a con-

sciousness of it, and possibly explaining its origin.

Yet it is only fair to recall here the fact that AbuDakn (if his English translator can be trusted) does

mention a maniple among the Coptic sacred vest-

ments as carried in the left hand \>y priests, and not

allowed to deacons or inferior orders. This state-

ment, however, stands alone, entirely unsupported

by external evidence : it is against all analogy, and

it is discredited by Abu Dakn's inaccuracy in other

matters. On the other hand, although the rubrics

are silent on the question whether a napkin was

ever used by the Copts, there is pictorial evidence,

slight in amount but decisive in character, provingthe existence of this appurtenance of worship.Thus in the painting of St. Stephen at Abu

Sargah1

,the sacred vessel carried in the saint's left

hand, whether it be a pyx or merely a coffer for

incense, rests upon a napkin which saves it from

actual contact with the fingers. It was doubtless

from precisely such a napkin in the West, designedfor the more reverent handling of the eucharistic

vessels, that the maniple arose. While, however,

in the Latin Church it became an essential, amongthe Copts it remained an accident of the altar ser-

vice. Hence in the one case the original intention

of the maniple was forgotten, and it was exalted into

an ornamental vestment : in the other case it re-

1 See illustration, p. 137 supra.

CH. iv. j Ecclesiastical l/estments. 165

tained its original and more lowly purpose, being so

little honoured or regarded that the very fact of its

existence has required to be demonstrated. Granting,however, the existence of this napkin, we must still

consider it as absolutely distinct from the sacerdotal

sleeves both in origin and in purpose.The Coptic armlets correspond so obviously

in all respects with the Greek empaviKia, that

I shall not hesitate to use that term for them,wherever convenient. Marriott has an illustration *

of the epimanikia worn by the Russian bishop Nikita

in the twelfth century; but unfortunately no scale is

given with the drawing, and the author says nothingto determine whether the ornaments are merely short'

cuffs/ as he terms them, or are real sleeves coveringthe forearm. Yet Goar 2 describes the epimanikia

explicitly enough as reaching -from the wrist to the

elbow. Whatever may be the case in the Greek

Church, the Coptic sleeves undoubtedly cover the

whole forearm, being broadest at the elbow and

tapering away towards the hand. They differ from

the Russian epimanikia just mentioned in being for

the most part entirely closed and having the seamconcealed ; whereas those figured by Marriott look as

if they were intended to open, and were fastened on

to the arm by strings or buttons. Goar distinctly

alleges that the Greek priests use silken strings to

tighten the epimanikia on their arms, and his state-

ment seems to bear out the inference suggested byMarriott's illustration, that the cuff when unfastened

would open out flat. I have already joined issue

with Renaudot for first disclaiming all knowledge on

1 Vest. Christ, pi. Ivi.2Euehologion, p. in.


the subject, and subsequently assuming the very

point in question, namely the correspondence in'

shape between the Greek and Coptic epimanikia.

Neale 1 describes the Syrian sleeves as differing en-

tirely from the Greek epimanikia without further

explanation : but he adds that the latter'

hang downin two peaked flaps on each side the arm, and are

fastened under the wrist with a silken cord run alongthe border, by which they are drawn in and adjustedto the arm.' This account is not so lucid as could

be desired, but seems to show that the epimanikionis merely a napkin or cloth fastened round the arm,

and not a sleeve or cuff in the true sense of the

word. Neale, however, remarks that in some mosaics

on the walls at Nicaea, the vestment '

is representedunder quite a different form and approximates to

the sleeve of a well-made surplice.' Here againthere is surely some confusion in the language.One cannot imagine the epimanikia as resemblingin any way the loose flowing sleeve of a surplice,

however ' well-made ': surely the tight-fitting sleeve

of an alb or dalmatic is meant. But whatever be

the right reading, we are still left in the dark as re-

gards the length of the sleeve, whether it covers the

whole arm or merely the forearm. It is therefore

difficult to speak positively about the Greek form of

epimanikion ;but as far as I can discover the Greek

and Coptic forms are rather different. The Copticsleeves are longer than the Greek : they are generallysewn up and closed altogether, pains being taken to

hide the joining : and they are not fastened on, or

tightened, by silken strings. A pair at the church

1 Eastern Church: Gen. Introd., vol. i. p. 307.


of Abu Kir wa Yuhanna are made of crimson velvet,

richly embroidered with stars and crosses wrought in

massive thread of silver. Round either end runs a

double border enclosing designs, and while one

sleeve is ornamented with a representation of the

Virgin Mary and her Son, the other has a figure of

an angel with outspread wings. Nothing can exceed

the fineness of the needlework and the delicacy of

the colours in which these figures are embroidered.

The extreme richness of the work denotes that this

Fig. 27. Armlets at the Church of Abu Kir.

pair of sleeves belonged to a bishop, doubtless the

bishop of Babylon : indeed I believe that the mere

presence of figures, as opposed to crosses, is dis-

tinctive of the sleeves as an episcopal ornament.

The Greek epimanikia, as belonging to the two

orders bishops and priests, are apparently not dis-

tinguished in the same manner. Like the dalmatic

and other vestments of the Church of Alexandria,

the Coptic armlets were in bygone times not merelymade of the richest materials, and decked with the

most costly embroideries, but they were also em-


bellished with jewels of much splendour. None of

these, I fear, are now remaining ;but in the painting

of St. Nicholas, to which I have referred, the cuffs

of the sleeves are shown as of gold or cloth of gold,

studded with gems of great value.

The epimanikia now worn by the Melkite or

orthodox Alexandrian clergy in Egypt are decidedly

cuffs, not sleeves, and are made indifferently either

close or open : in the latter case they are fastened

with strings.

The Coptic sleeves, though still part of the canon-

ical dress of priests, bishop, and patriarch, at the

present day are seldom used except in the ceremonyof investiture at ordination, and consequently can

be seen with difficulty. The specimens figured in

the illustration are still at the church of Abu Kir waYuhanna in Old Cairo, and date probably from the

sixteenth century. Modern examples likewise are

often of crimson velvet, covered with gold or silver

embroidery, in which designs of flowers and the six-

winged seraphim are the most usual ornaments.

Although generally they are entirely closed like

gauntlets, yet some examples are open and fastened

by loops and buttons, not by strings.

No satisfactory explanation has been given of the

origin or purpose of the epimanikia. The patriarch

Symeon describes them as symbolical of the divine

strength, citing the words '

Thy right hand, O Lord,

is glorified in strength/ and '

Thy hands made meand fashioned me '

: he adds also that they figure

the consecration by our Lord of his mysteries, and

the binding of his hands at the Passion. But such

an assignment of mystical meanings, characteristic

of a mediaeval writer, is no help whatever towards

CM. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 169

solving the purely antiquarian question of the originof a sacerdotal vestment. It is faintly possible that

as the maniple in the Latin Church was convention-

alised into a mere strip of brocade with a loop at one

end to go over the wrist, so in the Coptic Churcha corresponding napkin, laid in like manner on the

arm, may have been conventionalised into a sleeve,

and another added for the sake of symmetry. But

this account, which sounds decidedly improbable, is

rendered still more unlikely by the fact that both in

the Greek and in the Armenian Church the napkinis always described as hanging not over the left

wrist but at the girdle. The tyyttpiov is so men-tioned by the patriach Germanus 1 as worn upon the

girdle by deacons, and lasted in this form until the

eleventh century, when it became the lozenge-shaped

piece of stiff material called now epigonation, from

its position as worn near the knee, but still hung bya cord from the girdle. It is questionable whether

the use of the epigonation is entirely confined to

bishops, as stated by Neale 2 and Marriott 3, though

no doubt it is principally an episcopal ornament,while the lyyeipiov was worn by priests. But the

inherent difference between the sleeves and the

maniple or napkin is more convincingly illustrated

in the Armenian practice : for the Armenian clergystill wear a napkin, for wiping the hands, attached to

the zone, while at the same time sleeves also, called

pasbans, form part of the ecclesiastical apparel. It

1

Marriott, Vest. Christ., p. 87.2 Eastern Church: Gen. Introd.,vol. i. p. 311, where the epigo-

nation is figured.3 Vest. Christ., p. 171 n.


is true that the pasbans have now degenerated into

mere slips of brocade ! worn one upon each wrist :

but the coexistence of maniple and sleeves in the

same ritual tells strongly against the suppositionthat the sleeves are a mere development from the

napkin, although Fortescue does not hesitate to call

the pasbans maniples, just after enumerating the

maniple as a separate vestment of the Church. It

must be acknowledged, however, that there is scarcely

a jot of positive historical evidence bearing uponthe question, or tending even to guide conjecture.

The use of sleeves seems almost universal in the

eastern Churches : for besides the Coptic, Greek,and Armenian custom already mentioned, armlets

are found also among the Syrians and the Nes-

torians. The Syrian term for them is zendo* or

zenda, according to Renaudot 2, who remarks that

they correspond to the epimanikia or manicae,' de

quarum forma inter orientales Christianos nihil certi

affirmare possumus.' He adds that in a miniature

of the Florentine MS. a priest is represented as

wearing a kind of epimanikia, which enclose the

arms above the elbow : and these, he says, have

nothing in common with the Greek form. Hence it

would appear that he imagines the Greek epimanikiaas short sleeves or cuffs : but there is nothing to

cancel his direct confession of ignorance. Equally

ignorant but less ingenuous is Denzinger3

, who in

treating of the Nestorian vestments merely mentions'

brachialia'

as an ornament worn by both priests

and bishops.

1Fortescue, Armenian Church, p. 133.

2Lit. Or., torn. ii. p. 55.

3Rit. Or., torn. i. p. 132.

CH. iv.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 1 7 1

Coming now to western Christendom, Rock 1

hazards a conjecture that sleeves or armlets were

part of the sacerdotal dress in the early Church of

Britain. This however he admits to be a mere

inference from the analogy of early Gallican custom,

and as a pure guess has no serious weight. In

Gaul however ' metal bracelets, or cuffs of silk or

other handsome texture V were undoubtedly worn

among the ecclesiastical vestments in the sixth

century3

, according to the explicit evidence cited

by Mr. Warren :

' manualia vero, id est manicas,

sacerdotibus induere mos est instar armillarum quas

regum vel sacerdotum brachia constringebantur.'This testimony is extremely interesting as pre-

serving the record of a now forgotten ornament

once adopted by the early Church of Gaul. Whetherthese armlets were subsequently disused from mere

indifference, or were actively discountenanced byRoman missionaries, cannot now be determined.

But no one, I imagine, will venture to maintain that

the eastern armlet was derived from Gallic examplein the far West. Unless, therefore, we take refugein the theory of a quite independent origin for this

peculiar priestly ornament in the eastern Churches

and in the Church of Gaul, we are driven to the

conclusion that the epimanikia were brought from

the East perhaps by some colony of Egyptianmonks, such as we know came over to Gaul and

to Ireland in the earliest Christian times and were

deliberately adopted by the Gallic clergy. If this

idea of eastern influence be correct, it is not merely

1 Church of our Fathers, vol. i. p. 438.2Warren, Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 117.

3Id. ib. note 3.


curious when taken in connexion with other tokens

of the same influence in the early British and Irish

Churches ; but it furnishes also an argument for the

extreme antiquity of the Coptic sleeves as a sacred

vestment. Moreover if the sleeves had passed from

Egypt to Gaul, and there become an habitual orna-

ment by the sixth century ;not only must they have

been in use in the Church of Alexandria for someconsiderable time previously, but the proof of the

original distinctness of the sleeves and the manipleor napkin, for which I have contended above, is

rendered quite conclusive.

According to the testimony of Goar the use of

sacred armlets still lingered on as late as the seven-

teenth century in some of the French churches, and

was particularly maintained by the Dominican order

of Preaching Friars, of which he himself was a

brother. Such being the case, it is singular that so

remarkable and ancient an appurtenance of church

worship should be so entirely ignored by French

and other liturgical writers.

CHAPTER V.

Ecclesiastical Vestments (continued],

Phelonion. Crown arMitre. Crozierer StaffofAuthority. Pectoral

Cross. Sandals. Benedictional Cross. Epigonation. Rosary.

THE PHELONION OR SUPERVESTMENT.

(Coptic ni cfceAomon, m KOTKXiort, ni jui$opiort :

Arabic

iHILE it is necessary at the outset to use

a vague term like'

supervestment'

to

denote the outer garment of the Coptic

priesthood, concerning which there is

the most bewildering conflict of authorities, I shall

endeavour to show that this conflict of evidence,

pointing now to a chasuble, now to a cope, does not

arise from any mere misunderstanding of terms, but

indicates a real confusion of usage.

From a brief review of the writers cited above for

the Coptic ministerial dress we may gather the fol-

lowing statements about the supervestment. AbuDakn, if rightly rendered, describes it as '

palliumcum cucullo,' worn not only by priest but even bydeacon or subdeacon at the korban, when no bishopis celebrating. Vansleb, writing towards the end of

the seventeenth century from personal observation,

has no hesitation in calling the outer robe a cope,and adds that the vestment as worn by priests is

plain, but that the episcopal cope is hooded. He


further identifies the vestment by giving the Arabic

na.me,a/6urnus. The Ritual of the patriarch Gabriel,

dating from the beginning of the fifteenth century,

speaks of a '

pallium seu cappa e serico candido,'

according to Renaudot's translation ; but the same

writer is responsible for rendering Abu Saba's term

for the Coptic supervestment by the Latin'

camisia

sive alba.' Finally, Renaudot himself alleges that

by al burnus is meant a vestment corresponding to

the Latin chasuble, called apparently KAJU.A.CIOK T

in the Coptic pontificals. With characteristic in-

difference he quite ignores the fact that, by his own

testimony, the same vestment is called a cope in

Gabriel's Ritual.

So much for the direct literary evidence, which

obviously is not very cogent. Now the weightiest

authority here quoted is that of Gabriel. It is

extremely disappointing that one must remain in

ignorance of the actual word used by the patriarch,

and rendered '

cope'

by Renaudot. '

I have scarcely

any doubt that in this instance the word should be

translated not'

cope'

but '

chasuble.' The merefact that the material is white silk tells rather in

favour of the chasuble;for all the ordinary priestly

vestments were originally ofwhite colour according to

the canons, whereas the cope, being a festal robe

worn in processions and great ceremonies, might be

of any colour. Again, Abu Sabd, who wrote about

a century earlier, calls the supervestment by a

1 This of course seems inconsistent with the present use of

KJUl.CIort to denote the armlet, as stated above : though

obviously it would a priori be the more natural application of the

term. But the Copts are responsible for the inconsistency.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 175

name which unquestionably is wrongly rendered'

alb'

by Renaudot : yet the confusion may be par-

doned if KJUL<Lcion is really the Coptic term for

chasuble, as the word bears so close a resemblance

to (^.A*i> (kamis), the popular Arabic term for the

alb or dalmatic. In any case I think it impossibleto construe Abu Saba's evidence as establishing

decisively the use of the cope as a regular part of

the ministering dress. It must be remembered that

both Gabriel and Abu Sabd speak with some

authority, if only their language were clearer,

Gabriel being the primate of the Coptic Church,and Abu Sabd a native writer deliberately com-

posing a treatise on ecclesiastical matters. It maybe taken for granted, therefore, that their testimonywill agree exactly with that of the other Coptic

pontificals, where it is intelligible, and is to be

explained by them where it is doubtful. Unfor-

tunately here again we are met by ambiguities,as the words '

pallium album,''

cappa alba'

are

found used of the last vestment put on by the

bishop at his ordination, in the Tukian Pontifical *.

Yet both names apparently denote one and the

same vestment, and that is apparently the chasuble.

That the chasuble is meant, seems proved by the

rubric at the end of this same office for the con-

secration of a bishop, which runs 2,

'

Quando danda

est ultima benedictio ad dimittendum populum,

patriarcha induct novum episcopum cappa nigra

praeter candidam et invitabit eum ad benedicendum

populum seorsim. Denique procedunt ad cellam

patriarchalem.' Now if by'

cappa' a cope is meant

1

Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. pp. 29, 31.2 Id. ib. p. 32.

1 76 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

in both cases, we have to imagine the new bishop

weighted with two copes : but the mere task of

arranging two copes in a becoming manner uponthe same person would not be easy, apart from the

intolerable burden of wearing them in a climate like

that of Egypt. But if the last liturgical vestment

with which the new bishop is invested the '

pal-

lium album'

or '

cappa alba'

be really a chasuble,

then it is easy to understand how, after the com-

pletion of the ceremony of ordination, the bishopis finally arrayed in a dark-coloured cope (nigra) for

the procession to the patriarch's residence a pro-

cession which we know from other sources was one

of great magnificence. But even if we must putaside this doubtful evidence, there is happily no

question whatever that the chasuble is definitely

mentioned in the rubrics and elsewhere. For in

his work called' A Light in the Darkness

' Abu '1

Birkat, a Coptic priest of the fourteenth century,

mentions the chasuble as part of the patriarchal

vestments 1 under the term '

couclo sive casula' This

word may be another form of the' KorXX<L

'

which

occurs in the pontificals, and seems to mean either

a hood, or more probably a hooded chasuble such as

existed in early times in the western Churches 2. But

more decisive still, in the Tukian Pontifical in the

office for the ordination of a patriarch3 the chasuble

is mentioned along with stole and dalmatic, and is

here called cJ>iXomon, which is obviously the sameword as the familiar faXoviov or chasuble of the GreekChurch. Indeed in the curious rubric a few pages

1Renaudot, Lit. Or., torn. i. p. 396.

2Marriott, Vest. Christ., p. 227.

Denzinger, Kit. Or., torn, ii, p. 49.

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 1 77

later in the same service \ the Coptic term corre-

sponds exactly with the Greek 4>eXonion. Wefind, then, that, in the only cases where our authori-.

ties cite the original Coptic, the vestment is unmis-

takeably determined as the chasuble.

This conclusion is borne out by pictorial evidence.

Thus the figure of Constantine in the painting at

Abu-'s-Sifain shows a chasuble with a short rounded

front barely reaching to the waist : while the con-

siderably earlier picture of St. Nicholas in my pos-

session represents the outer robe as a very full

flowing garment2

. The arms raised one in the

attitude of benediction, the other holding the bookof the gospel show the folds of the chasuble very

clearly, though unfortunately, as the figure is only

half-length, one cannot see whether the lower edgein front was rounded or pointed. About the openingfor the neck there runs a richly jewelled orfrey,

which is doubtless the' border wrought in gold or

other fine embroidery,' mentioned by Renaudot as

belonging to the chasuble, and called ^KOKXi^. in

Coptic, kaslet in Arabic. It will be rememberedhowever that, according to Abu '1 Birkat, both

monks and priests at Cairo in the fourteenth

century, whether from poverty or simplicity, wore

a woollen chasuble without any orfrey, instead of

the proper silk vestment : and the monks of St.

Macarius in the desert disused the chasuble en-

tirely in the service of the altar, retaining it onlyfor their times of public prayer.At this day, within the kasr or keep of this very

convent, there may still be seen upon the walls of

1Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. p. 57.

2 See the frontispiece to this volume.

VOL. II. N


the little church dedicated to St. Antonius some veryancient frescoes representing three nimbed and vested

figures, one of which wears a yellow chasuble, another

a white chasuble striped with red, the third a copefastened by a fine morse. In the church of St.

Michael in the tower of Dair Anba Bishoi the

apostles on the iconostasis are all robed in copes.

Returning to Cairo, one finds the cope depicted in

two pictures of Anba Shanudah in the church called

after him, on the figures round the apse-wall at

Abu-'s-Sifain, and in many other places : while true

chasubles may be seen in the paintings of the twelve

apostles on the central iconostasis, and in the fif-

teenth-century paintings on the south iconostasis, at

Al 'Adra Damshiriah. In the same church on the

north wall of the choir there is a picture of St.

Mercurius, which shows a bishop wearing chasuble

and Greek-like omophorion : and in the villagechurch at Tris in the Delta there is a picture

showing St. Macarius clad in a green chasuble.

On the whole, however, the chasuble is of muchrarer occurrence than the cope in such paintings as

have survived from Muslim iconoclasts.

In many of the Coptic pictures a chasuble, exactly

resembling that worn by priests or saints, is repre-sented as the outer garment of the Virgin Mary or

other holy women, the only difference being that in

this case a hood is attached to the chasuble, and is so

arranged in the painting as to make a graceful head-

dress. Very often however the Virgin wears a

beautifully embroidered cope, fastened with a goldenmorse, and having a rich orfrey on the hood which

covers the head. This ecclesiastical style of female

costume, it may be remarked, is characteristic of


Coptic painting, and differs altogether from the

nameless flowing draperies in which the Italian

painters for the most part array their madonnas.

But wherever the chasuble is depicted, it seemsto differ widely from the Latin chasuble, and to

approach much more nearly to the Greek model.

No doubt originally it was a complete coveringor overall, such as is seen in the figure of St.

Sampson in the illustration given by Goar and

adopted by Marriott. But between eastern and

western usage a distinction arose, when the vest-

ment came to be cut away over the arms for the

sake of greater lightness and freedom of movement.For while in the West the chasuble became in

course of time almost equally reduced both before

and behind;the reduction in the East was less

marked, and amounted only to a slight curtailment

in front and over the arms, with scarcely any altera-

tion at the back. Viewed from behind, therefore, it

presented the form of a full flowing robe reaching

nearly to the ground, while in front it resembled

rather the corresponding Latin vestment. The

change of course was gradual in both cases. Wefind the large flowing chasuble in the fresco of

S. Clemente at the altar, and in the well-known

miniature of St. Dunstan \ both dating from the

eleventh century: while in a twelfth-century mosaic

at St. Nicholas in Urbe at Rome, Silvester and

Anastasius are represented in long full chasubles

exactly like that worn by St. Nicholas in the Coptic

picture figured above. But the changes under-

gone by the Latin chasuble only tended to differen-

1Marriott, Vest. Christ., pi. xliii and xliv.

N 2

i8o Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

tiate it more completely from any other vestment :

whereas the Coptic chasuble, changing only in the

front, approximated more and more closely to the

form of the cope. And this, I think, is the secret

of the confusion between the two vestments.

For it is impossible to reject the evidence of

Vansleb concerning the existence of the cope as a

ministerial vestment in his own time in Cairo, even

if Abu Dakn's testimony has a doubtful ring. Wefind too that the cope is clearly depicted as worn bya patriarch in one of the earliest monuments sur-

viving the pillar-painting at Al Mu'allakah. More-

over at the present day the cope unquestionably is

worn. I have mentioned a beautiful cope as existingat the church of Al 'Adra, Dair Abu-'s-Sifain : and

there are some splendid specimens of coloured copesenriched with silver-embroidered hoods and fine

needlework at the church of St. Stephen by the

cathedral in Cairo. Moreover the vestment nowdenoted by the term al burnus among the Copts is

decidedly a cope, and not a chasuble. I have never

seen a chasuble in any of the Coptic churches,

though I have heard of a dalmatic split up the sides

and made into a sort of vestment probably intended

to resemble a chasuble, as if the tradition of its use

were still alive. This was in a remote church in

Upper Egypt.It is now possible to state the problem under

discussion more succinctly and more clearly, if not to

solve it. Setting aside all ambiguous testimony, wecan now bring face to face two apparently contra-

dictory conclusions each supported by unmistakeable

evidence. On the one hand, we find the ancient rubrics

and independent observers alike bearing witness


to the chasuble as the supervestment of the Coptic

priesthood : on the other hand, we find contemporary

usage and observers as far back at least as the seven-

teenth century agreeing that the supervestment is a

cope, and not a chasuble. And pictorial evidence

may be adduced to favour either conclusion.

What seems the true solution of this problemhas already been briefly indicated. It is impossibleto doubt either that both chasuble and cope have

been recognised as canonical vestments, or that the

chasuble has now practically disappeared : and I

have no doubt that the explanation of the whole

matter is to be found in the gradual transformation

suffered by the chasuble. From the first it retained

its original flowing form at the back and sides;but

the process of lightening in front went on, until the

part of the chasuble across the breast was so far

diminished, that both for appearance and for con-

venience' sake it was entirely severed by a vertical

division down the front;and the vestment was abso-

lutely assimilated to the cope. This explanationseems to remove all difficulties : moreover it is

supported by the strongest analogies. For an

exactly similar process of transformation may be

traced in the history of the Greek chasuble or

phenolion, although the process has been arrested

just before the last modification seen in the Coptic

vestment, and a slight portion of the material

still stretches across the breast instead of beingdivided. But the change has gone so far, that it

would be easy on a careless view to mistake the

phenolion for a copeT

. For the front has been

1 See G. Gilbert Scott, Essay on the History of English Church

Architecture, pi. xxii, figs. 12 and 13, and text, p. 116, note n.


almost entirely cut away, while the back part is

quite unaltered. As in the West, so in the East,

it is chiefly the custom of elevating the host

which has given rise to the mutilated form of the

chasuble. On this point I cannot refrain from

quoting the admirable remarks of Mr. G. Gilbert

Scott, who says,'

In the early ages during the canon

the priest was concealed from view by the altar-

veils. The adoration of the people did not therefore

take place at the moment of the sacrifice, as is nowthe custom of the western church, but at a later

point in the service, when, the veils being withdrawn,

the celebrant advanced, and while presenting the

eucharist to the worship of the people, gave with

it the solemn blessing. This, the primitive mannerof the eucharistic adoration, has never been aban-

doned by the easterns, and as it does not requirethe celebrant to raise his arms above the level of

the breast, the mutilation which the oriental pheno-lion has undergone is confined to the front of the

vestment.' Apart from the mistake, almost universal

in writers on oriental ecclesiology, of generalising' Greek

'

into'

eastern'

custom, no better or briefer

account of the change in the form of the chasuble

could be given. This account however will not

apply in letter, but only in spirit, to the Copticchasuble as affected by Coptic ceremonial. For

although the elevation of the host takes place nowas in ancient times not at the moment of office, but

at the end of the service, just before the thanks-

giving ; yet in the Egyptian rite the sacred elements

are raised now not merely to the level of the priest's

breast, but over his head. Such an action would

have been awkward or impossible, so long as the


arms of the celebrant were cumbered with the heavydraperies of the ancient chasuble : and it is obvious

that such a change in the ritual would necessitate a

change in the vestment. If, therefore, the Greeksretain the ancient manner of elevating the host

breast-high ;and if notwithstanding the phenolion

has been so curtailed in front as almost to resemble

a cope ;it is not surprising that the Copts, in raising

the point of elevation, have so changed their chasuble,

that it resembles a cope, not almost but altogether.How easily this transformation may have taken

place, can be judged from a glance at even an

ancient Coptic chasuble, such as that worn by St.

Nicholas in the picture already mentioned. For the

opening for the head is not circular merely as was

the case in the Latin vestment, but is extended by a

slit down the middle of the breast for eight or ten

inches : and the only orfrey with which the chasuble

is adorned runs round the neck and down both sides

of this slit. Once imagine the vestment curtailed

in front, and the slit or division carried a little down-

wards to reach the hem, and the result is a robe

in no wise distinguishable from a cope, unless pos-

sibly the hood may have been a later addition. But

even this is doubtful;

for the hooded chasuble is

certainly not unknown and may have been common :

and on the other hand, the hood is not invariably

found on the Coptic cope, but is a distinguishing-

mark of the episcopal and patriarchal as opposed to

the priestly form of the vestment. The cope worn

at solemn festivals by the present patriarch is of

crimson velvet decked with heavy gold embroidery:the hood of like material has a gold tassel hangingfrom the point, and is fitted inside with a sort of cap,


which may be worn instead of the mitre. It mayhere be mentioned that there is no parallel in any

Coptic chasuble, for the elaborate orfrey which

branched over the western chasuble, and is madefamiliar to English eyes in many ancient brasses

and monuments.

If there is any shadow of doubt still resting on the

history of the Coptic supervestment, as here given, it

will, I think, be dispelled by a consideration of the

exactly similar transformation which has befallen the

Armenian phenolion. For the phenolion, though it

existed in the early Church of the Armenians, as in

every eastern Church, has now entirely vanished from

their ceremonial, and, as in the Coptic rite, has been

replaced by the cope. When one remembers that

one of the questions put to an Armenian bishop at

ordination is,' Dost thou anathematise Eutyches and

all his following ?' one may feel surprised at the

number of close analogies that exist between Arme-nian and Coptic practice, analogies which will be

multiplied, when we come to treat of rites and cere-

monies. The native term for the cope is sciursciar

according to Denzinger1

,shoochar according to For-

tescue 2, while Neale alleges that they have retained

the name phenolion*, after changing the vestment.

Neale cites no authority for his statement, which is

very interesting if true : but of course it is possiblethat the Greek name may linger on in the rubrics

or in ecclesiastical treatises, though lost to the ver-

nacular. He adds that the chasuble had been aban-

doned, at least as long ago as the time of the

1Rit. Or., torn. i. p. 133.

* Armenian Church, p. 134.3 Eastern Church : Gen. Introd., vol. i. p. 309.


Katholikos Isaac, who comments severely on the

fact in his work upon the errors of the Armenians.

This would be in the twelfth century : but Neale

seems to have mistaken the sense of the passagereferred to, which censures the priesthood for not

using the phenolion, but says nothing about any

change in the form of the vestment.

The true nature of the eucharistic supervestmentseems no less difficult to determine in the case of

the other eastern Churches. Neale, indeed, is bold

enough to state that '

the other branches of the

eastern Church have retained the usual form'

of the

phenolion1

: but once more he seems in error. Totake the Syrian practice first. There can be no doubt

that originally the chasuble existed among the Syrians,

and was called by a name derived from the Greek

phelonion. In ancient rubrics and the like, the

Syrian word employed is phelono or phaino. ThusSeverus Alexandrinus, in his work on the Ritual

of the Syrians, notes that the priest in apparellinghimself for the altar puts on dalmatic, stole, sleeves

(the left before the right), and then the phaino or

chasuble ; though Boderianus absurdly renders the

word by 'amictus' in his Latin translation2

. The

Syrian lexicographer, too, Isa-bar-Hali, gives the three

forms faino, filono, and phaino ; explains the term to

mean the eucharistic vestment worn by priests, as

opposed to the kutino or dalmatic worn by deacons;

and renders it by 'al burnus' as the Arabic equivalentfound in Copto-Arabic writings

3. In the illuminated

1 L. c.

2 Severus Alexandrinus, De Ritibus apud Syros, etc.;

ed. Guido

Fabricius Boderianus : Antwerp, 1572.3Renaudot, Lit. Or., torn. ii. p. 55.


Syrian pontifical at Florence, cited by Renaudot, the

phaino is represented as a full flowing vestment,

resembling the early Roman chasuble : it is gen-

erally of uniform colour purple in three examples,and green in one

;but there is also a miniature in

which the phaino is depicted as covered with em-

broidery of flowers. Moreover in a still moreancient Syriac MS. dated 580 A.D., the figure of

Eusebius is represented in a miniature as draped in a

perfectly formed ecclesiastical chasuble of the early

type, and the hole for the neck is already marked bya square orfrey

1. So far the evidence in favour

of the unchanged phenolion or chasuble seems explicit

enough. But as we come down to more recent times,

we find equally explicit evidence to the contrary.

Thus Asseman writing in the early eighteenth cen-

tury, remarks that the phaino, while corresponding in

name to the Latin penula and the Greek phenolion,

yet is open down the front, resembling the western

cope and not the chasuble : and this information

may be based on a Syrian pontifical in the autographof the patriarch Michael 2

. The Syrian rubrics

frequently use the word phaino, and sometimes

define it as white : but of course do not explain the

form of the vestment. It is only fair, however, to

remember that Asseman seems clearly to be writing

from his own observation ;and even if such be not

1 Bibliothecae Mediceae Catalogus, Cod. I, tab. iii : Florence,

1742. Marriott has adopted the illustration (Vest. Christ., pi. xxvii)

but not very faithfully.2Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. i. p. 131, and torn. ii. p. 73 n. The

note, however, is very difficult to follow as it speaks of a '

pallio

seu casula,' used instead of the dalmatic, and distinguishes this

from '

phaino, h. e. penula, quae est phenolium .... ad instar

pluvialis Latinorum.'

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments, 187

the case, there is much to confirm and nothing to

discredit his evidence.

Whether among the Maronites the cope has been

substituted for the chasuble, is a question on which

I can find very little information. This much onlyis certain, that the same name for the vestment

phaino obtained in their pontificals. Asseman 1

indeed alleges that this phaino is like the ma-

aphra or phakila of the Nestorians, in other words

is a cope and not a chasuble : but it is extremely

probable that, even if the character of the vestment

had been thus entirely changed by the seventeenth

century, the original or at least the modified Romanform of the chasuble has been restored by subse-

quent Roman influence.

Regarding the Nestorian practice at the present

day, it is impossible to speak precisely. Denzinger2

indeed declares twice over that the phelonion, as

worn by the Nestorians, resembles the western cope :

but the whole paragraph which he devotes to the

Nestorian vestments is a matchless puzzle, of which

he retains the key3

. Or perhaps the key is to be

1 Bibliotheca Orientalis, torn. Hi. pt. 2. p. 68 1 : Rome, 1728.2 Rit. Or., torn. i. p. 132.3 In the passage just cited he says that the priest wears dalmatic,

orarion over both shoulders, a 'pallium' (whatever that means)called gulta, and over the orarion a phelonion or cope (ptuvi'ati)

instead of a chasuble. The ornaments which bishops and priests

wear in common are, (i) the maaphra, called also phakila and

kaphila, which is a '

pallium'

like the western cope, enveloping the

whole body and corresponding to the Greek <f)aKi6\iov (sic) ; (2)

biruna, a cap or head-dress like the amice; (3) sciuscefo, or veil

(velum).I have elsewhere pointed out the absurdity of comparing with the

imaginary Greek vestment (f>aKi6\iov our cope or any other western


found with Asseman, whom he has quoted without

understanding. Asseman however uses decisive lan-

guage, identifying with the cope a patriarchal vest-

vestment. Asseman is really responsible for this blunder: but

Denzinger ought not blindly to have adopted so obvious a fallacy.

Now there is a prayer in the ordination service for bishops to be

said at the moment of investiture with the maaphra, where Denzin-

ger renders the original thus :

' Induat te Dominus/>0//z'0 (seu casula)

lucis,' &c. (torn. ii. p. 247). A rubric also in the ordination service

for a patriarch is as follows :

' Tune afferunt Kaphilam et princeps

metropolitarum illam super caput ejus demittit'

(ib. p. 255). Wehave therefore first the word maaphra rendered as chasuble and

secondly the kaphila (which is identical with the maaphra) described

as being lowered over the head a description which obviously

will not apply to a cope, and suggests irresistibly a chasuble. Yet

another rubric (ib. p. 272), with the prayer of investiture that fol-

lows, may be taken to establish the identity of the maaphra with

the chasuble : for there the vestment is described symbolically as.

'the garment of celestial glory,' and the prayer continues ' TheLord arm thee with the mystical armour of the spirit, adorn thee

with the works of righteousness, and enrich thee with the gift of

chastity : that without spot or blemish thou mayest feed the sheep

entrusted unto thee in the fear of God and in all holiness, now and

alway.' This passage cannot fail to recall the corresponding words

and symbolism used in western pontificals at the point of investiture

with the chasuble. There is then ample ground for believing that

at the time these rubrics were written, which is probably not later

than the ninth century, the phenolion was still the recognised super-

vestment at the Nestorian celebration of the mass.

Reverting now to Denzinger's statement concerning the 'pallium'

or gul/a, we may, I think, explain it by reference to Dr. Badger's

mistake in the text above, which Denzinger has seized with his

usual avidity for blunders. The truth is that the so-called 'pallium'

is nothing but the dalmatic;and because Dr. Badger, being igno-

rant of the right term, uses a wrong one,'

surplice,' in English,

Denzinger out of this manufactures an entirely new vestment for

the Nestorians. This will be made quite clear by a comparisonof torn. i. p. 132, 'Presbyter orarium habet collo impositum . . .

supra tunicam albam, . . . et pallium quod dicitur gulta, et super


ment called maapkra, which he remarks'

apud

Syros Nestorianos pro phenolic seu phelonio Grae-

corum et penula, casula, planeta Latinorum sumitur,

quae tamen ante pectus aperta sit et pluvialis formam

repraesentet1.' The question seems so far settled for

that period : and there is a distinguished orientalist

of our own times, Dr. Badger, whose evidence oughtto be worth quoting. In describing the Nestorian

vestments which he saw at Ashitha 2, he mentions

two which he calls'

surplice,' and '

chasuble,' respec-

tively : but he defines the'

surplice'

as a sort of

shirt with short sleeves, by which it is clear that he

means a dalmatic;and the

' chasuble'

he explains as

orarium induitur (sc. presbyter) phelonio sive pluvial!/ with torn. ii.

p. 266, where he remarks upon the '

pallium'

or dalmatic which

the bishop lays on the left shoulder of the priest at the very begin-

ning of the ordination service,'

Anglice est Surplice. Posuimus

vocem ab Assemano usurpatam. Est gulta, quae super orarium

induitur.' Now in the first of these passages the position of the

gulta as worn is left to the imagination, but it seems to come over

the orarion : in the second passage we are told plainly that it does

come over the orarion. But what the first passage states unam-

biguously is this, that it is the supervestment which comes directly

over the orarion. What then becomes of the guild or surplice?

Obviously it must disappear, and merge back into the tunica alba

or dalmatic, from which it has been conjured up by a process of

mere misunderstanding. Were this conclusion doubtful, it would

be rendered certain by the rubric on the next page as follows :

' tune episcopus pallium sumat de humeris eorum et eo induat eos,

et sumat stolam de humero eorum sinistro et circum colla appendat.'

This proves finally that the priest at ordination was invested with

the 'pallium' or gulta first, and that the orarion was then placedover the 'pallium ;' in other words, that the 'pallium

'

and dalmatic

or sticharion are identical.

1Bibl. Or., 1. c.

2 The Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. i. pp. 225-6 : London,

1852.


'a plain square cloth with a cross inscribed (? em-

broidered) in the centre, which is thrown over the

head and shoulders, and the two parallel corners (sic)

held between the thumb and forefinger of each hand.'

Were this a chasuble, there could not be a cross in

the centre, for there the hole for the head must come :

moreover a chasuble could not rightly be described

as' thrown

'

over the head and shoulders, but as so

placed or lowered : and there could be no reason for

holding a chasuble by the'

corners,' whatever that

term could denote. It is much to be regretted that

so learned a scholar should be so ignorant of liturgi-

cal terms as to confuse a dalmatic with a surplice, and

to call a '

plain square cloth'

a chasuble : but the

same ignorance is displayed in his magnificent work,the English-Arabic lexicon, and his authority as a

ritualist is nothing. Dr. Badger adds that the vest-

ment which he terms a surplice is called peena in

Syriac, a name which suggests the phaino orpkaina,but may of course be a mistake in borrowing on the

part of the Nestorians, and that the'

chasuble'

is

called estla or shoshippa. The latter word might be

akin to shouchar, which, as we have seen, is the Ar-

menian term for a cope. But on the whole, Dr.

Badger's testimony cannot be taken as of serious

value : indeed, if it stood alone it would be so per-

plexing as to be worse than useless. But there is a

later writer 1 than Dr. Badger, who very decidedlyaffirms the long disuse of the chasuble by the Nes-

torian clergy. He adds that the Nestorian deacons

wear the alb or dalmatic, called soudra, 'with red and

purple crosses sewn on the breast,' girdle, and a

1 See Christians under the Crescent in Asia, pp. 219, 220.


short stole over the right shoulder : while priests

wear dalmatic, girdle, stole falling over both shoulders

and crossed on the breast; moreover, at celebration

the priest has also a chadra(i.

e. tent), a large squareof white linen with coloured crosses at the upper

angles. This chadra is' thrown over the shoulders

and held in front by one hand : at certain places in

the service it is raised so as to cover the head, at

others stretched out so as to form a screen between

priest and people.' The chadra is obviously identi-

cal with Dr. Badger's shoshippa or chasuble : but is

neither cope nor chasuble, but a nameless vest-

ment peculiar to the Nestorians. But Mr. Cutts

states positively that the Nestorian clergy wear the

cope instead of the chasuble : for although he

strangely calls the vestment 'pallium,' he describes it

clearly as resembling the cope, which the canons of

1603 require the celebrant to wear in our Englishcathedrals. Thus the evidence of Asseman seems

established.

Yet one branch of the oriental Church still remains

faithful to the tradition of the chasuble, the ancient

orthodox Church of Alexandria in Egypt. There the

cope is still worn too, but only as a processionalvestment. Thus on great festivals the patriarch,

entering the church in solemn procession, wears a

cope of richly coloured and embroidered silk, but

lays it aside when he is vested for the mass. Thechasuble worn by the patriarch differs in form from

that of the priest ;for the latter is a true chasuble,

rather of the Russian form, very much curtailed in

front, and barely reaching to the girdle : but the

patriarchal phenolion or phelonion, as they by pre-

ference call it, reaches nearly to the ground both


before and behind, and so far recalls the ancient

shape of the vestment. Yet it has been so far

changed and conventionalised, that at the sides and

under the arms it has formal openings, which are

loosely fastened together with silken strings or rib-

bons. The front is not pointed, as in the English

chasuble, but rather shield-shaped, the lower edge

being horizontal and the corners turned in curves :

and the vestment when laid out flat would be in

the form of a cross, in which the upper and lower

limb are much larger than the two side branches,

and all the angles are rounded off. This cruciform

chasuble is obviously the result of a long process of

mutilation;and the difference between the patriarchal

and priestly shape probably arises from the mereneed of lightness in the former, owing to the greater

weight of vestments which the patriarch has to carry.

The treasury of the church of St. Nicholas in Cairo

still possesses some chasubles of the fifteenth or six-

teenth century, which are nearer in form to the old

models, and which for sumptuous splendour of ma-

terial and colour, for boldness of design and for

delicate fineness of work, must rank among the mostbeautiful known embroideries.

Seeing, however, that the phenolion has fallen into

more or less final disuse in the Nestorian, the Ma-

ronite, the Syrian, and the Coptic Church, though

originally deemed essential by all, and still recognised

by the canons;there seems not a single stay left to

support Neale's assertion, that the usual form of the

phelonion has been retained by the other branches of

the eastern Church, excepting only the Russians, whohave mutilated it, and the Armenians, who have aban-

doned it. On the contrary, the disuse of the chasuble

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments; 193

is one of the most marked and most universal depar-tures from primitive custom among all the liturgical

changes in the East. We have seen that it had a

long canonical existence, an existence indeed never

formally terminated, and its origin is lost in the

mists that veil the dawn of Christian ceremonial.

Like most vestments, however, it seems to have

arisen from some form of ancient oriental costume,a statement which is scarcely weakened by the admis-

sion that some vestments may seem more directly

copied from classical models : for classical costume

was eminently oriental. In Greek the name for the

chasuble appears as 0eA6i/iov, 0ei/6Atop, fyaiXoviov, (f>at\<o-

viov, <fxx.iv6\Lov, (paivwXiov, (f)aii/6Xr]s, &c. The word meant

some sort of heavy overall made to envelop the whole

body. It is, of course, impossible to discuss seriouslythe question raised by Cardinal Bona and others,

whether the (j>ai\6vri$ left by St. Paul at Troas wasa eucharistic chasuble. The idea is a mere ana-

chronism;for both the ritual and the apparel of the

eucharist were slow developments, as usage after

usage, fostered by reverence, was received and con-

secrated by the Church. Thus the phenolion is not

found recorded before the fourth century, and even

then the evidence is not literary but pictorial. Themosaics in the church of St. George at Thessalo-

nica 1,

said to have been built by Constantine,

represent several figures clothed in sticharion and

phelonion, which vestments seem decidedly of an

ecclesiastical character, although there is little or

nothing to distinguish the dress of bishop, presbyter,

physician, or slave. Yet the fact that each one of

1 See Marriott, Vest. Christ., pi. xviii-xxi, and notes pp. 236-7.

VOL. II. O


the figures is represented as standing before the

altar in an attitude of intercession, renders it pro-bable that all the martyrs after their death were fitly

regarded as ministers in God's service, and so were

alike represented as vested in sacerdotal costume,and performing a sacerdotal duty.

' Sacerdos vocari

potest sive episcopus sit sive presbyter,' says Ra-

banus 1

; so too Pope Celestine, St. Gregory, and

other early writers speak of 'sacerdotes' where theymean bishops ;

so that in the fourth century, whenthese mosaic pictures were made, the sacerdotal

character of the saints depicted may have been

considered the one thing essential to represent, as

opposed to the accidental distinction of higher and

lower orders. Marriott, indeed, alleges unwaver-

ingly that these mosaics ' do not represent a dress

of holy ministry2,' and most recent writers agree in

this opinion. There is, however, one point which

they seem to have overlooked. On examining the

details in the background of the pictures, it becomes

clear that the altars there figured are arranged and

furnished in a manner which already betokens a fixed

system of decoration, and a considerable elaboration

of ritual. The steps in front of the altar;the four

columns at the four corners, and the altar-canopy

above ; the curtains running on rods between the

columns;

the apses, the hanging lamps, and the

screens, all these denote a well-established cere-

monial, and are indeed the very characteristics of

altar decoration which lasted in the eastern churches

for full a thousand years later, and may now be seen,

little changed, in connexion with the Coptic altars

1

Marriott, Vest. Christ., p. 46, note 71.2

Id. ib. p. Ixxv.

CH..V.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 195

of Egypt. If then the ritual was so far developed,when these mosaics were designed, is it not reason-

able to conclude that the dress of the priesthoodalso was specialised, and distinguished from the dress

of common life ? It seems to me easier to believe

even that the artist was inaccurate in certain details

of the drapery, than that the priests who ministered

at such altars as he has reproduced wore no vest-

ments clearly distinctive of their office.

I have already mentioned the white phenolia de-

picted in the sixth-century mosaics of St. Sophiaat Constantinople, and the phenolion in the Syriac

miniature, dating about 580 A.D. But it is not till

nearly a century and a half later that we find the

vestment distinctly mentioned as such in any writing.

Then the patriarch Germanus speaks of the phenolionas emblematic of the scarlet or purple robe in which

our Lord was arrayed before the crucifixion. Fromthis time onward notices of the supervestment are

numerous. Thus Goar 1 mentions that Nicephorus,

patriarch of Constantinople about 800 A.D., sent to

the Roman pontiff a chestnut-coloured phenolion, as

well as a seamless white sticharion, gifts no doubt

which could be used in the Latin service, and not

mere curiosities. This is one more proof of the fact,

which becomes clearer and clearer as we penetrate

deeper into the past, that Roman and Greek vest-

ments were originally the same, or rather that the

vestments, like the ritual and the language of divine

worship at Rome, were adopted from eastern originals.

As regards the colour of the Greek ministering dress,

Goar remarks that red or purple vestments are used

1 Euchol. p. 113.

O 2


through the season of Lent, but that white is the

normal colour for the rest of the year; and he

cites Symeon of Thessalonica to this effect. Purple

vestments, however, seem to have been regarded in

general as befitting mournful rites, and to have been

worn during the office for the burial of the dead.

Besides the ordinary chasuble now in vogue amongthe Greeks there is a particular kind of phelonion,called the TroXvo-ravptov, worn by bishops ;

it is dis-

tinguished by being thickly sown with small em-broidered crosses.

As regards the origin and use of the western

chasuble, the materials for its history are so well

known, and have been so thoroughly winnowed byvarious writers 1

,that it is needless here to speak

at length. Suffice it to remark that up to the ninth

century planeta was the term used to designate the

ministerial supervestment ; that from this point the

term casula appears, and ere long the two namesare used interchangeably ;

and that, finally, the later

term, from which our 'chasuble' is derived, so far

prevailed as to extinguish the older planeta. Thetransition from the secular to the ecclesiastical gar-ment seems slow and hard to mark

;but it is not

surprising to find the most ancient testimony for the

use of the planeta, as the distinctive vestment of

priests and bishops at the altar, in a remote countrylike Spain, where probably the common dress differed

widely from those classical models which in Italy both

1 See Marriott, Vest. Christ, App. C, and p. Ix seq. G. Gilbert

Scott, Essay on the Hist, of Eng. Ch. Archit, p. 113 seq. Cham-

bers, Divine Worship in England, p. 60 seq. Bock, Geschichte

der Liturgischen Gewander, i. 427. Rock, Church of our Fathers,

vol. i. p. 317, &c.


ruled the fashion of daily life and determined the

form of clerical costume. If, for example, the priestly

attire in Rome during the second century, which

doubtless differed only slightly from lay attire,

were introduced into less civilised places like Spainor Gaul at that epoch, it would at once be markedoff as distinctively sacerdotal by contrast with a

different type of dress in common use among the

Spaniards or the Gauls. Thus an impetus would be

given to the development of an exclusively ecclesi-

astical costume, and a certain fixity would be obtained

earlier among remoter communities than at the veryfountain-head, whence they drew their inspiration.

It is in the Acts of the Council of Toledo (633 A.D.)

that the planeta is first recorded as the priestly super-

vestment, though even there it is only mentioned inci-

dentally as the familiar ornament of the presbyter,with nothing to suggest that it may not have been

in use for generations. There is artistic evidence that

the chasuble was worn in Ireland as early as the

eighth century ;for to that date belongs the reli-

quary of St. Maedoc, on which are represented

figures draped in full flowing chasubles with em-

broidered orfreys1. In Scotland priests in chasubles

are found upon some very ancient sculptured stones;

and in the Book of Deer, dating from the ninth

century, chasubles are worn by the evangelists there

depicted2. France is rich in sculptured evidence

for the chasuble of the same epoch ;for almost

every plaque in the ivory covers of the Sacra-

mentary of Drogon has one or more examples of

1Warren, Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 1 1 2.

2Westwood, Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon and Irish MS., pi. li.

igS Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

the vestment, and the Sacramentary at Tours, also

belonging to the ninth century, bears further testi-

mony to its prevailing use. England is rather

destitute of early ecclesiastical art-remains ;but the

chasuble is found mentioned, apparently as long

established, in the eighth-century Pontifical of Ecg-bert. It is curious to find, in confirmation of the

Coptic usage as described by Vansleb, that up to

the tenth century, at least, the episcopal chasuble

was distinguished from the sacerdotal by its hood ;

a tradition dating from very early times, as is proved

by the fact that St. Isidore of Seville speaks of the

casula as 'a garment provided with a cowl/ or hood 1

;

and by the very name for the chasuble in Coptic,

KoifKXlott, which is clearly derived from the Byzan-tine Greek KovKovXXiov, which occurs in the writingsof Pachomius, Evagrius, and Palladius a word

ultimately traceable to the Latin cucullus. The

elaborately embroidered maniple which was found

in the tomb of St. Cuthbert, at Durham, bears

still upon it the figure of St. Sextus, an early

bishop of Rome, arrayed in a chasuble, which

already has suffered some curtailment as comparedwith the ancient form, although the figure belongsto the tenth century. This is said to be the

earliest English example of the chasuble. Others

are contained in the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold

(c. 970 A. D.), the miniatures of which display several

fully vested figures2

;and in the somewhat later

pontifical of the Anglo-Saxon Church, now in the

Rouen Library, there is a bishop depicted wearing

1Marriott, Vest. Christ., pi. Ixvi.

2Bloxam, Ecclesiastical Vestments, pp. 14-16.


a chasuble which, like that of St. Sextus, is consider-

ably shorter in front than behind. Another bishop in

the same pontifical is represented in a cope ;and

this is the earliest instance known to Bloxam of

that vestment. But surely an example some five

hundred years earlier may be found in the mosaics

of S. Apollinare in Classe near Ravenna, where

the figure of Melchisedech, who is breaking bread

at an altar, on which lie wafer and chalice, is robed

in a violet cope, clearly defined by its golden border

lines and fastened over the breast by a morse, in the

fashion usual to this very day. A similar vestment

is seen in a mosaic at the church of S. Vitale, Ra-

venna, worn in this case also by Melchisedech 1,but

not so distinctly shown, owing to the sideward posi-

tion and the uplifted arms of the celebrant.

But although the shortened chasuble appears thus

early in our own country, it had not in Anglo-Saxontimes arrived at that pointed form, with which our

mediaeval monuments have made us familiar. This

further alteration arose not from general reasons of

convenience, but from the specific requirement of

more freedom of action in elevating the host, so that

it might be seen by the people over the head of the

celebrant, who stood with his back towards them.

In Italy the priest faced the people at the momentof elevation, so that there the same cause did not

operate. Yet even the Roman chasuble has suffered

great diminution, as is proved for instance by the

well-known eleventh-century fresco of St. Clement at

St. Mark's, in Venice. On the other hand, there is

an overwhelming mass of evidence to show that the

ancient ample vestment continued in use in Rome1 See La Messe, vol. i. pi. iii. and pi. ii.

2OO Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

down to the year 1600 A. D.1

: and even at the pre-

sent day the Roman rubrics require the full flowingchasuble. There are also in our own churches manysepulchral effigies and brasses, which bear witness to

the fact that the ancient chasuble lasted side by side

with the mutilated form of the vestment, almost upto the period of the reformation.

These chasubles in our own and in all Christian

countries were not always of white : pale and golden

yellow, crimson and purple, were not uncommoncolours. The richest materials, too, were employed,such as silk, velvet, and cloth of gold ;

and these

were embroidered with beautiful orfreys, sometimes

having costly jewels inwoven, or even covered en-

tirely with flowers and other designs in the finest

needlework. No pains or cost were thought too

great to adorn the apparel used at the service of

our altars, and our churches were unrivalled in the

splendour and number of their vestments, as manyrecords still remaining testify.

THE CROWN OR MITRE.

(Coptic -fJULHTp^.2

, ni KX^JUI, ni

Arabic

Both branches of the ancient Church of Alexandria

in Egypt recognise the mitre as part of the episcopal

1 G. Gilbert Scott, Hist. Eng. Ch. Archit, p. 117 n.

8Denzinger, ii. 48.

3Peyron's Coptic Lexicon has also 6*pHTTe, diadem or (rKfjirrpov.

If (TKfinrpov is the etymology of the word, we have another instance

of an entire change of meaning in present usage of the Coptic as

compared with its original.


insignia ;and in both the mitre is worn by the, patri-

arch as well as by bishops. There is no reason for

doubting the tradition which derives the use of the

mitre by the patriarch of Alexandria from the presi-

dency of Cyril at the Council of Ephesus1

,in the

year 431 A. D. : or, if that be too precise a statement

to please historic minds, it may at least be main-

tained that the legend points to a very early use of

the mitre in Egypt. Moreover, if we remember the

deadly feud which, twenty years later, rent asunder

the two branches of the Church and kept them in per-

manent antagonism ;and if we think how likely it is,

on the one hand, that both lines of patriarchs should

cling to all their ancient privileges, and how unlikely,

on the other hand, that either line should borrow an

innovation from its unorthodox rival ; then the fact

that both the Jacobite and the Melkite Churches do

acknowledge and retain the mitre may be taken as

strengthening the legend, and almost establishing

the existence of some sort of distinctive head-dress

for the patriarch of Alexandria, at least as early as the

first half of the fifth century, before the separation.

There is an antecedent probability that the use

of the mitre arose early in the East, where the

covering for the head has always been a matter

of great dignity and importance, and where the

modern tarbfish or fez still remains as the direct

descendant of the ancient Phrygian cap, which the

earliest mitres both in the East and the Westseem to have imitated. It is true that the evidence

upon the question is not very copious; but enough

may be mustered to repulse all Roman claims to the

mitre as an exclusively Roman vestment. Goar

1Goar, Euchol., p. 314.

2O2 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

himself cites Allatius as authority for a pontifical

Ka\vTTTpa, and further quotes from Coresius of Chios

a story of a dispute between Theophilus, a patriarchof Alexandria in the tenth century, and the Greek

emperor, who, to settle matters in a friendly way,conferred a royal crown upon the patriarch, and washimself received among the members of the patri-

arch's sacred college. We are told, too, that up to

869 A. D. the patriarch of Jerusalem wore on solemn

occasions the mitre of St. James.

Turning now to the various rubrics, we find the

mitre clearly mentioned as one of the insignia puton by the patriarch of Alexandria at his consecra-

tion. This is in the Tukian Pontifical. It is worth

remark that none of the ancient Coptic versions of

the order for the consecration of bishops contain

very explicit evidence for the use of the crown or

mitre. The fact may however be accounted for

either by the utter confusion on the subject of the

head-dress, which marks the rubrics in their presentform

;or by the supposition that the privilege of

wearing the mitre was extended to bishops at a late

epoch ;or possibly by the custom now holding, by

which bishops are forbidden to wear the mitre in

presence of the patriarch. Yet in the ritual of the

Syrian Jacobites the imposition of the mitre on the

head of the new bishop is the most solemn act in his

investiture by the patriarch. The mitre is twice men-

tioned in the order as given by Morinus 1,and twice

also in the text of Renaudot 2. Renaudot asserts too

1

Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. pp. 74, 75.aDenzinger cites from Renaudot the words '

imponit illi cidarim

seu mi/ram, alligalque illi epomidem,' but adds in a note ' ornamentum

de quo agilur (sc. mitre?) est Maznaphlho, amictus phrygio opere

CH. v.j Ecclesiastical Vestments. 203

that in several Syriac manuscripts the mitre is men-

tioned under the name '

togo'

(obviously the sameas the Arabic '

tag ')as one of the episcopal orna-

ments. Asseman is therefore probably mistaken in

denying the mitre to Syrian bishops ;and there seems

no question that it was worn by their patriarch.

It is extremely unfortunate that nearly all the

really ancient Coptic paintings have perished, and

that bronze or stone monuments carved shrines or

effigies of great ecclesiastics are simply unknownin Coptic history. Yet from such scanty relics as

the hand of time has spared some little evidence

may be gathered for the early use of the mitre.

Thus one of the saints whose figures are carved uponthe panels now in the iconostasis at the church of

Abu Sargah seems to wear some kind of head-dress

ornatus? thus asserting that by' mitra

'

of the text is meant an

amice with an embroidered orfrey. This mistake is sufficiently

refuted by the remainder of the sentence quoted from the rubric'

alligatque illi epomidem.' Epomis is obviously the amice, and is

quite distinct from the 'cidaris seu milra! The synonym too

proves that the mitra answers to our mitre. As regards the patri-

archal mitre, there is no conflict among our authorities. I think,

therefore, that Mr. Cutts must be mistaken in stating that the

Jacobite Syrian patriarch' does not wear a mitre but a veil on his

head, which is thrown off at the reading of the Gospel.' (Chris-

tians under the Crescent in Asia, p. 84.) He describes this veil as

'set with plates and bosses of silver/ Doubtless it correspondswith the Coptic ballin, and is the common vestment of the patriarch,

whereas the mitre is only used on great festivals. It is a mistake

into which a traveller might fall very easily from seeing the patriarch

celebrate without a mitre, and from failing to find any example of

such an ornament. In the same way, the Coptic patriarch seldom

wears the crown to celebrate, and in all the scores of visits that

I have paid to various churches I have only seen one example of

any mitre. Yet beyond all shadow of doubt the mitre is worn, not

only by the Coptic patriarch, but also by the bishops.

2O4 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

resembling a low diadem. They date from the

eighth century, and may be denoted as patriarchs

by the cross upon the long spear-like staff which

they carry. Probably of the same date, or a little

later, is the ancient pillar-painting at Al Mu'allakah *,

now much defaced, but still showing very clearly

the patriarchal pall, and a nimbed head wearing a

jewelled diadem. The diadem consists of a band of

silver or gold divided into tiny compartments, each

enclosing a precious stone something like the dia-

dem on the head of Justinian in the mosaic picture at

S. Vitale, Ravenna, and the intention is so obvious

that, if this monument stood quite alone, it wouldalone suffice to prove the use of the crown as a

distinctly recognised vestment at a time when the

metal mitre at least was quite unknown in Europe.Between this fresco and pictures on panel, datingfrom the fifteenth or sixteenth century, there is a

gulf void of artistic evidence. But thenceforward

patriarchs, and patriarchal figures of St. Mark and of

our Lord, become common : and they generally wear a

golden crown beset with jewels. The shape howeverof the crown had by this time changed : and instead

of the low diadem, a narrow band or fillet of metal

encircling the brow, we find a solid covering for

the head more resembling the royal crown of moderntimes. There is no instance in Coptic painting of

the two-peaked mitre, familiar to us in Roman usageand in our own brass effigies and heraldic designs.

But though the mitre of western shape is quiteunknown to Coptic bishops, the exact form of their

own head-dress is not fixed after any rigorous model.

1 See illustrations, vol. i. p. 191, and vol. ii. p. 156.

CH. V.] Ecclesiastical Vestments. 205

The Copts in fact do not, strictly speaking, use the

word ' mitre'

at all : with them the mitre is a tag or

crown : and the crown may be made after manypatterns, so long as it preserves the essential idea of

a kingly head-dress, the symbol of sovereign power.

Fig.' 28. The Crown of the Coptic Patriarch.

Nor is there any recognised or necessary difference

in the form of the crown as worn by bishops and

as worn by the patriarch. The only distinction is

one of usage, which forbids a bishop either to wear

his crown or to hold his staff outside his own

diocese, or during the presence within it of the

patriarch, by whom his authority is overshadowed.


It must therefore be clearly understood that the

form of the patriarchal crown given in the illustration

has been determined by the artist's fancy, and has

no symbolic or ritual significance whatever. The

crown, which is of solid silver gilt and is covered with

various enrichments, was sent as a gift from king

John of Abyssinia, by whose order it was made, to

the present patriarch Cyril. Much of the work uponit is extremely fine, and the whole produces an effect

of real, though somewhat barbaric, magnificence.The body of the crown is cylindrical : the top is

domed : and above the dome, which ends in a beau-

tiful boss of filigree work, rises a little open tower

supporting a cross set with five large diamonds.

The cylindrical part is divided into two sections bythree horizontal fillets or bands of raised work : each

band is thickly studded with paste jewels of various

colours separated by finely wrought metal bosses : a

profusion of short tiny chains with pendants hangfrom the lower rim of every band, while on the upperrim stands a delicate open parapet of very minute

workmanship. Vertically, the walls of the crown are

divided by raised bands into eight sections, which are

alternately filled with a spiral design of filigree workand chased with rude engravings of the Virgin and

Child or other sacred figures. The front of the

crown is distinguished by a small curved projection

upon the lowest fillet. The dome is ornamented bya number of lines radiating from the centre, and the

spaces between them are filled with a chased designof very graceful scrollwork. A glance at the illustra-

tion will show the triple character of this pontifical

crown : but that character is due merely to a local

accident, the affectation of this form of crown by


the kings of Abyssinia1

,and must not suggest

any comparison with the triple crown of the Roman

pontiff.

The practice of the Melkite Church of Alexandria

agrees with that of the Coptic Church in granting the

mitre or crown to bishops, as well as to the patriarch ;

but dissents in having a specific form of mitre for the

patriarch, different from the episcopal crown, andcalled by a distinguishing name. For the patriarchalmitre is called tiara, the episcopal mitra : and the

distinction of shape is this, that the tiara is lofty and

conical, resembling the western mitre without anycleft or horns at the top ;

while the mitra is a real

crown, low, and rather globular than conical. It is

impossible to say when this distinction arose, or for

what reason. The only tiara which I have seen in

Cairo is quite modern : it is made of crimson velvet,

with a zone of silver or gold about an inch broad

encircling the head, and from this zone four metal

bands rise and meet at the top of the cone, uponwhich there stands a jewelled cross. Each of the

four vertical divisions of the tiara encloses a porcelain

medallion, painted with sacred figures, and set round

with precious stones. The mitra has all the charac-

teristics of a royal crown : it is generally made of

silver gilt, more rarely of very rich velvet, covered

with elaborate gold embroidery, and studded thick

with jewels. The mitra, though of metal, is never of

openwork : the ground is a solid plate of silver or

gold, casque-like in this regard, and not a circlet with

1 The gold crown of king Theodore, captured at Magdala, has

the same peculiarity. It may be seen at the South Kensington

Museum.

2o8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

bands of metal coming down from the top to meet it.

There is at the church of St. Nicholas in Cairo

a large collection of these crowns, some of which are

ancient and exceedingly beautiful. The oldest there

is a most magnificent specimen of silver-work and

jewellery. The head-piece is of solid silver : round

the bottom runs a circlet enclosing an exquisite

design of small flowers repousse\ Immediately above

this is another zone of the richest blue enamel, in

which is wrought some sacred writing in Greek

characters. Above this comes a third narrow band

of delicate work, raised, and standing out from the

ground ;and all the points and angles of the design

enclosed are set with lustrous jewels. The globeor main body of the crown is marked off into four

equal compartments by vertical bands descendingfrom a circlet near the top. These bands are of

open silver work, soldered on to the ground, like the

third of the narrow circlets just mentioned. In the

centre of each compartment, and slightly raised, is an

oval medallion of superb enamel, in which the Virgin,our Lord, and other sacred figures are wrought in

soft yet resplendent colours, red, green, and blue;and

round every medallion runs a border of costly gems.The circlet round the top of the crown, too, which

receives the four vertical bands, is richly jewelled on

the edges, while the interior consists of blue enamel

enclosing a text from Holy Writ in Greek letters.

But the topmost point is covered with a large boss,

which tapers upwards in three low stages, all set

with precious stones, and on the summit stands a

small cross. From the style of the enamelling and

of the workmanship generally, I think that this most

sumptuous and splendid mitre may be assigned to

CH. v.] Rcclesiastical Vestments. 209

the eleventh or twelfth century: but no descriptionand no picture can convey any idea of its beauty.

In the same treasury I saw several other crowns, all

of rich metal work or jewelled embroidery, and someof them ancient. In every case the crown is sur-

mounted by a cross, which is a characteristic feature

of the bishop's head-dress, both Greek and Coptic.It is, then, very clear that in both branches of the

Church of Egypt the use of the mitre is not merelyknown, but ascends at least to a very considerable

antiquity. It is clear, too, that Neale's account of the

matter is very inadequate, when all he tells us is that'

the patriarch of Alexandria employs a cap resemblinga crown, and never removes it during the liturgy

1.'

The Melkite patriarch of Alexandria wears no sort

of cap, but only the tiara : and the Coptic patriarch

wears a crown on all solemn occasions, and the onlykind of cap which ever covers his head is a sort of

tarbush concealed within the hood of the. cope.There is, however, a cap recognised as a liturgical

vestment at the present day, and dating from a veryremote epoch. It is first mentioned by a Copticwriter of the twelfth century, a bishop of Akhmlm 2

,

who gives it in a list of sacerdotal vestments

and describes it as' adorned with small crosses/

Renaudot merely cites this very interesting passagewithout criticism 3

, having no further evidence uponthe subject. For a like reason, doubtless, Denzinger

1 Eastern Church: Gen. Introd., vol. i. p. 313.2 This author is repeatedly cited by Renaudot, as

' Echmimensis.'

Denzinger gives his full name as '

Ferge Allah Echmimi,' which

should doubtless be Farag Allah Akhmimi.3

Lit. Or., torn. i. p. 163. 'Mentio fit praeterea cidaris quarrt

sacerdos imponit capiti et quae cruciculis ornata est,'

VOL, II.

2io Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

prefers to reject the Coptic bishop's testimony, and

to explain away the priest's cap as a mere mis-

understanding of the epomis, or amice 1

. Such a

confusion is extremely improbable, for the same

authority mentions the amice in his list as a separatevestment of the priesthood. When all known au-

thorities beside are absolutely dumb on the subject,

and when not a grain of evidence could be found in

any quarter, it was only natural for Denzinger to be

suspicious of so isolated a statement : nevertheless

the bishop was right, and the critic is wrong. The

proof of this is remarkable, but quite modern : it has

to leap across seven centuries of silence;but I think

it strong enough to pass with an electric flash of

conviction. For a cap exactly answering the descrip-

tion of the Coptic writer seven hundred years ago is

now used in the service of the Church, not as a rule

by priests, whose heads are generally covered by the

shamlah or amice, but by deacons. For instance, in

the church of Abu-'s-Sifain among the vestments is

a cap of crimson velvet, shaped like the ordinary

tarbush, but having the upper and lower rim encircled

by a band of silver lace, and the sides divided

into four compartments by vertical bands of lace :

within each compartment is a cross of solid

silver with smaller starlike crosses between all

the branches, and another cross of silver lace

is fastened on the top. A very similar cap of

crimson velvet with four divisions may be seen

at St. Stephen's church by the cathedral : but

1Kit. Or., torn. i. p. 130.

' Mentio fit etiam teste Renaudotio

apud Echmimensem cidaris cruciculis ornatae, quam sacerdos

capiti imponit, de quo (sic) tamen varia nobis dubia occurrunt,

videturque nihil aliud esse nisi pilogion.'


in this example only two of the divisions are filled

with crosses, the other two containing each a figure

of the six-winged seraphim. But in every case the

predominant impression is that the cap is' adorned

with small crosses,' precisely as described in the

twelfth century. I have no doubt at all that the

vestment was originally a priest's cap exclusively-such as existed in our English ritual of old, thoughtraces of it are not common in our monuments 1

;

and as the use of the shamlah prevailed more and

AJB

Fig. 29. Priestly Cap.

more, was relegated to deacons, just as the priestly

mode of wearing the stole seems to have descended

even to sub-deacons. Indeed it is very probable that

the priestly cap itself is a descendant from the earlier

episcopal crown : and the mere fact that priests were

able to wear in the twelfth century the'

cap adorned

with small crosses'

obviously a head-dress of some

splendour constitutes in itself a powerful argumentfor the antiquity of the Coptic mitre.

1 There is a brass in Hackney church, dated 1521 A.D. (figured

in Waller's Monumental Brasses), in which a priest is shown wear-

ing a low rather closefitting cap with a point on the top.

P 2


It is worth while dwelling a moment on the curious

gap in the history of the priestly cidaris as an illus-

tration of what may be called the accidents of evi-

dence upon questions of ritual. Had Farag Allah's

statement stood absolutely alone, as Denzinger

thought, the temptation to reject it, as he does, is

almost irresistible : it seems so much safer to argue

that, if such a vestment had existed, it must have

been noticed by other writers. If, on the other hand,

the mere existence of the cap as a present appurten-ance of worship were the sole fact known about it,

while pictures and books of the past were silent;

then the critic would conclude with a great show of

reason that the cap was a mere modern invention of

no authority. Thus in either alternative, however

faultless the logic, the conclusion would be wrong :

and it is only the accidental coincidence of the two

facts, divided by seven centuries, that establishes

the truth, which either singly would seem to deny.It remains to touch lightly on the use of the

crown or mitre in other Churches of the East and in

the West. I have already spoken of the Syrians as

recognising the mitre, on the testimony of Renau-

dot and Morinus;and although Denzinger alleges

Jacques de Vitry and Asseman against Renaudot,he is, as usual, uncertain and even contradictory, and

his reasoning is quite unable to shake the solid

authority of the great French ritualist '. Or even

1

Briefly Denzinger writes as follows (Rit. Or., torn. i. pp. 131-2):Renaudot mentions among the bishop's ornaments the

'

Thogo, corona

sive mitra? According to Asseman ' mitras non deferunt SyriJaco-bilae

'

except the Catholics. Renaudot speaks of1 mitram sive cidarim'

which is doubtful. Doubtful too is Morinus' rendering of the Syriac'

Maznaphtho'

or amice by cidaris. Jacques de Vitry expressly states


if there be not sufficient evidence to prove conclu-

sively the use of the mitre by Syrian bishops, there

is no question that the tiara is worn by the patriarch,

both Jacobite and Maronite;and this fact creates a

strong presumption that the privilege of wearing a

crown was granted to bishops also, a presumptionwhich is rendered almost certain by the identity of

the Syriac togo, as given by Renaudot, with the

Arabic tag, the name for the episcopal crown in

the two languages.The mitre is a customary ornament of the bishop

among the Maronites, and is placed on his head at

ordination, according to ancient rubrics. Regardingthe Nestorian practice there is some ambiguity

arising from the difficulty of interpreting the terms

used in the pontificals. Denzinger says plainly,'

Mitras non gerunt nisi Chaldaei Romanae ecclesiae

uniti 1'. Yet, from the close conjunction of the

biruna with the pastoral staff in the rubrics, it is

hard to doubt that the biruna means some sort

of head-dress resembling a mitre, rather than an

amice as alleged by Denzinger. Thus we read,

thai Syrian bishops, except the Maronites, do not use mitre or ring.

Then follows immediately the list of the Syrian patriarch's pon-tifical vestments, which I give word for word : Apud Syros Maro-nitas et JacoUtas patriarcha insignitur Masnaphta (sic) seu amictu

simili Birunae Nestorianorum, Phaina seu Phainolio, orario seu

epitrachelio pontificio ad instar omophorii seu pallii Graecorum, tiara

seu mitra, et baculo pastorali : and in the same page the Biruna is

denned as cidaris phrygio opere ornata instar amictus, and the

Maznaphtho as amictus phrygio opere ornatus. It is clear at least

that Denzinger has no argument to bring against Renaudot's state-

ment: and that when he charges Morinus with confounding,cidaris and amictus, he reserves the right of the same confusion as

his private privilege.1

Rit. Or., torn. i. p. 132.


'episcopi . . . ordinati birunis et baculis':'

induit

birunam et tradit virgam in manum eius dexteram':'

ornati birunis et baculis': 'episcopi suo ornatu et

birunis induti et baculos tenentes':*

patres vero

ornantur maaphris. birunis, baculis':'

princeps me-

tropolitarum . . . induit eum biruna, et tradit illi

baculum 1.' These passages cannot, of course, prove

the usage of what we call a mitre, but they do provethe usage of some closely corresponding ornament.

Among the Armenians the mitre is said to have

been first adopted in the eleventh century. How-ever that may be, at the present time their bishopswear both mitre and ring ~, and are singular in the

latter usage among all the oriental Churches. But

the infulae or strings, which once depended from the

mitre, have now become detached, and, curiously

enough, are represented by strips of brocade fastened

on to the shoulders of the cope3

. None of the

other Churches of the East ever had anything

corresponding to the western mitre-strings, their

head-dress being rather a crown than a mitre : and

the singularity of the Armenians in using this mitre

of western form, together with the episcopal ring,

seems to give point to the legend which makes this

mitre in the first instance a gift from Rome. TheArmenians however agree with the Copts in the use

of the priest's cap, which they term '

sagavard.'Both bishops and priests remove their head-dress

from the Cherubic Hymn to the end of the service.

1

Denzinger, Kit. Or, torn. ii. pp. 238, 244, 245, 249, 250, 255.2

Id., torn. i. p. 133.'

!

Fortescue, Armenian Church, p. 134. The reason of this

change may be conjectured from a perusal of Neale's remarks,

Gen. Introd.,vol. i. p. 313.


As regards the Greek Church proper, Neale states

that the mitre is unknown, but bishops wear ' a kind

of bonnet,' which he illustrates by a woodcut, but

does not further describe, nor even name. Except for

the absence of the cross on the top, it bears consider-

able likeness to the crown of the orthodox Alexan-

drians, but presumably it is of some soft material

and not of metal. This seems borne out by Rock 1,

who calls the Greek head-dress a round hat or cap,

and states that it is known by the name '

tiara'

Turning our eyes now to the West, we shall find

the closest analogy with Coptic practice in the

earliest times and in the remotest countries.' The

Celtic bishops wore crowns instead of mitres VWhat a change of world is wrought by the changeof two letters, from Coptic to Celtic ! In the sixth-

century life of St. Sampson that saint is representedas having seen in a dream '

three eminent bishopsadorned with golden crowns/ Mr. Warren mentions

the figure of 'an Irish bishop thus crowned on a

sculptured bas-relief of great antiquity, part of a

ruined chapel in the valley of Glendalough,' and

is of opinion that the crown was used in the Anglo-Saxon Church up to the tenth century. Thus in the

Benedictional of St. Ethelwold an ecclesiastic is

depicted wearing a golden and jewelled diadem.

Rock 3 too says that the early bishops wore crowns

of gold set with jewels ;but adds that a kerchief

or head-linen was also borne by the Anglo-Saxon

1 Church of our Fathers, vol. ii. p. 62.2 See Mr. Warren's Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church,

p. 119, and the interesting notes on that and the following page,from which I have freely quoted.

3 Church of our Fathers, vol. ii. p. 9 1 .


prelates : it was tied with a fillet, the ends of which

hung behind. The figure of St. Dunstan in the

Cottonian MS. l

, painted in the eleventh century,is shown wearing a round cap with two latchets

hanging behind. In an eleventh-century fresco at

S. Clemente in Rome the papal mitre is representedas a high conical cap

a. There is a twelfth-century

enamel in the Louvre in which Melchisedech, stand-

ing at the altar and administering the cup and wafer

to Abraham, wears dalmatic, alb, chasuble, and a

crown upon his head : but the crown here is doubt-

less rather a symbol of kingly than of priestly

dignity. A sculptured figure over the portal of

St. Denys of the same epoch shows a low but

decided mitre 3, having already indications of the

horns, which started about that time;and in a

contemporary mosaic at St. Mark in Venice a pre-

cisely similar mitre is depicted. From the twelfth

century onward the mitre is of frequent occurrence

in pictures, brasses 4,and monuments of all kinds,

and the gradual evolution of the form now most

familiar is very distinctly traceable. Ever since the

mitre has been formally recognised as an ecclesias-

tical vestment in the West, the custom has been for

the bishop to wear it at the mass, removing it onlyat the moment of office. Its usage nevertheless was

1Westwood, Facsimiles, pi. 50.

2 La Messe, vol. i. pi. xii.s

Id. ib.,-pl. xiii, xiv.

4 The earliest known brass is that of Archbishop Ysowilpe, in

the church of St. Andrew, at Verden, near Bremen, who died 1231.

He wears a low flat mitre, yet with two decided peaks. Next in

date comes the brass of Bishop Otto, of Hildesheim (1271), in

which the mitre is slightly higher, but the peaks still are wide

apart. About a century later we find the peaks sloping inwards

and nearly meeting, as at present.


not confined by the church walls, but it was wornout of doors on festival occasions.

THE CROZIER OR STAFF OF AUTHORITY.

(Coptic ni cy&urr1

: Arabic jlXx) I.)

The Coptic patriarch and all his bishops carry the

pastoral staff; but the same rule which controls the

wearing of the mitre by bishops, limits also the usageof the staff. For it is only in his own diocese, andwhen that diocese is not overshadowed by the

visible presence of the patriarch within it, that a

bishop may carry the staff, which the Copts call

emphatically 'the staff of authority.' In the Westthe symbolism of the staff has always been a matter

of some controversy : among the Copts both the

term by which the staff is known, and the limitation

placed upon its usage, agree in determining the

emblem as that of jurisdiction. There seems no

idea of pastoral care associated with the staff : and

in fact the rod carried by the Coptic bishop denotes

a royal sceptre, just as his head-dress denotes a

kingly crown.

Accordingly the episcopal staff never under anycircumstances has the crook-like form familiar in all

western monuments. Its shape will be understood

at once from the statement that it resembles the

Greek and not the Latin type of crozier 2,

i. e. that

the upper end terminates as a tau-cross with two

1 This again is a foreign word, but curiously enough nearer

Hebrew than Greek: it corresponds to B3K>.

2 The use of this word is sometimes, but wrongly, limited to

the archiepiscopal cross as opposed to the episcopal staff in the

218 'Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

short symmetrical branches, instead of rounding off

to a crook or spiral volute. But in the Copticcrozier these two branches are nearly always in the

form of serpents' necks with heads retorted, and in

the centre between the two heads is a small round

boss surmounted by a cross. By a curious coinci-

dence with western usage a flag or veil the Latin

pannicellus is fastened on to the staff near the topat the natural place for grasping it. The veil is

made of silk, and often of a green colour.

Enough has been now said to indicate the points of

difference between the Greek and Egyptian crozier,

and the peculiarities of the latter. First, if Neale

is to be trusted l, the Greek pastoral staff

'

in walk-

ing is used to lean upon, and is not much higherthan the hand.' Curzon 2

, though not very clear

upon the point, seems also to speak of a short patri-

archal staff. Both authors give cuts showing the

'pateressa' or 'patritza,' as they variously call it,

but unfortunately without any scale of measure-

ment. Neale's woodcut, however, is obviously taken

from Goar's 3figure of the patriarch Bekkos in walk-

ing costume, and there the staff can only be about

3 ft. 6 inches in height. Goar's words, too, in another

place4

, point to the same conclusion :

'

pastorali autem

virgae Pontifex innititur progrediens : eius summa

pars juxta manum transverse ligno sive eboreis ser-

pentibus in sese capitibus mutuo retortis, ayxvpnv

est ornata.' Again, he remarks 5 that the

West. I shall not scruple to employ the term in its broader sense.

For etymology, see Smith's Diet. Christ. Antiq. s. v. Pastoral Staff.

1 Eastern Church : Gen. Introd., vol. i. p. 314.- Monasteries of the Levant, p. 299.3

Euchol., p. 115.4

Ib.. p. 314."'

Ib., p. 313.


'pateressa' (appropriately so called 'a paterna sol-

licitudine'), or'

dikanikion,' i.e. emblem of jurisdic-

tion, is carried by bishops and abbots;

it is, moreover,

shorter than the Latin crozier, and not so richly

adorned with precious metal or gems, and conse-

quently is used in walking. All this is different

from the Coptic staff, which is usually about 5 ft. 6 in.

long, and is not used except as an ornament of

church ceremonial. The patriarch, when he drives

abroad, for to walk is beneath his oriental dignity,

has with him a servant who carries a tall, plain,

silver-headed staff or mace, but does not take his

crozier. Another difference is this, that while the

Coptic form agrees with the Greek in the character-

istic design of the serpents' heads, the little cross

between the heads seems an Egyptian peculiarity.

A third point of contrast is the veil, of which I can

find no mention in accounts of the Greek pateressa.

It is, however, interesting to find that in the other

branch of the Church of Egypt, the orthodox Greek

or Melkite, the form of the episcopal staff exactly

corresponds with that of the Coptic bishop's : for it

has the cross and the veil, and is from 5 ft. to 6 ft.

in height. Examples of the Jacobite crozier are so

rare that I have never seen a single ancient speci-

men;but the Melkites, by better fortune or more

careful reverence, have preserved from past times

several beautiful staves, which are now in the trea-

sury of the church of St. Nicholas at Cairo. In

every case these staves have the lower end pointed,

while the rod is divided into five portions by four

knops or bosses at about equal intervals. These

knops, and the serpents' heads, are generally en-

riched with jewels. I saw one staff of ancient ivory

22O Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. v.

with silver bosses finely jewelled ;another of ivory

stained green with jewelled silver bosses;two or

three of ebony with silver bosses

and silver serpents ;and another

of solid ivory most superbly carved,

the bosses also of ivory, the cross

above standing on a little crown

of delicate pierced work. As a

rule the stem between the bosses

is hexagonal, not round.

Though I have called these ex-

amples ancient, it is not likely

that any of them go back morethan three or four centuries, for

they are distinctly mediaeval in

character and correspond closelywith croziers pourtrayed in mediae-

val Coptic paintings1

. There is,

for instance, in the church of St.

Stephen by the cathedral in Cairo,

a painting of St. Mark, robed as

patriarch of Alexandria, and hold-

ing in his left hand a crozier of

this kind. But although no very

antique example of the crozier

now remains, I have no doubt

that the design dates from the

early days of Christianity. It

has already been sup-crested2 that

Fig. 30. Coptic Crozier. J

1

Occasionally, however, the Coptic staff is depicted merely with

a double volute, i. e. without the snakes, as at Mari Mina. On the

patriarchal seal the staff has a single snake-headed volute : but this

design is unknown elsewhere.* Diet. Christ. Antiq. s.v. Pastoral Staff.


the western pastoral staff should be referred for its

prototype not to the shepherd's crook, or the royal

sceptre, but rather to the lituus or augur's wandof classical times. Similarly, I think the eastern

crozier may be referred to the herald's wand, the

o-KfjTTTpov or pd(38o$ of Hermes, the caduceus of

the Latin Mercury, and referred with a certainty

greater in proportion as the resemblance is closer

and more striking. For in early as well as late

classical works of art the rod of Hermes is repre-

sented as entwined with two serpents whose uplifted

heads face each other 1. This coincidence of design

1 See Adam's Roman Antiquities (loth edit., London, 1839),

p. 220, pi. ii; and Smith's Classical Dictionary, pi. opposite p. 336.

Dr. Smith is wrong in his statement about limiting the occurrence

of the snakes to late works of art. His words are,' In late works

of art the white ribbons which surrounded the herald's staff were

changed into two serpents' (p. 313). Now in the very earliest

works of art the wand appears with a head in the form of the figure $,

which may or may not be intended for the pair of snakes, but can-

not possibly be meant for ribbons. This form, for example, is

frequent on coins of the sixth century B.C. : it occurs also on a

vase in the so-called Chalcidian style about 550 B.C. Perhaps the

earliest certain instance of the serpent-wand is on the Francois

vase, which cannot be later than 500 B. c. (see Monumenti Inediti,

iv. liv.) : here it is carried by Iris, while Hermes carries a staff of

the same design, but not apparently finished off with serpents'

heads. There is now in the British Museum a KijpvKfiov of bronze,

about 2 ft. long, on which the snakes are distinctly figured : from

the lettering of the Greek inscription upon it, it must be as early

as 450 B.C. For the foregoing information I am indebted to Mr.

Cecil Smith, of the British Museum.

It is quite clear, then, that the snake-headed wand was familiar

long before even the foundation of Alexandria : and I have no

doubt that its adoption in the mystic cults of the Great City

accounts for its presence at this day in the ritual of the Coptic

Christians.


is obviously much stronger than in the case of the

lituus, where the comparison depends merely on

the vague fact that the lituus was curved. More-

over, the comparison in the one case is weakened

by the fact that the augur was obliged to carry his

wand in the right hand; it is strengthened in the

other case by the fact that Hermes is always de-

picted carrying his staff in the left hand. Whatwas the exact symbolism of the two serpentsattached to the herald's wand among the Greeksis not very certain ; but this much is clear, that the

wand was carried by heralds and ambassadors in

virtue of their office, and as an emblem of peace1.

1 See Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Antiquities, p. 218, and

the cut there given from Millin's Peintures des Vases Antiques,where the KrjpvKnov is about 4 ft. long on the scale given by the

figure. This length contrasted with the shortness of the lituus is

another point in which my comparison has the advantage of the

other. Hyginus says the- serpents were regarded as an emblem of

peace, because Mercury once found two serpents fighting and

separated them with his staff. Macrobius derives the symbolismfrom Egypt : (Saturn. I. xix.)

' In Mercuric solem coli etiam ex

caduceo claret, quod Aegyptii in specie draconum mart's ei Jeminae

figuraverunl'

: alluding apparently to the winged disk of the sun

with the Uraeus serpent on either side. In a note Preller cites

Schol. On Thuc. i 53 n^ntaaat <OTI v\ov opQbv (ôv fKarfpudev 8vo

o<ptis Trfpiircrr\(yfi(vovs KOI avTiirpoframovs Trpos d\\fj\ni's Kfipfvovs; onfp

(latdafft <pfi>fiv ol KTjpvKts pfT avruiv. This wand was not used byRoman heralds. Thus Pliny remarks, 'Hie complexus anguium et

efferalorum concordia causa videtur esse quare exlerae gentes caduceum

in pads arguments circumdata fffigie anguium fecerini. Neque enim

cristatos esse in caduceo mos es/.' (Nat. Hist. xxix. 12 fin.) Ofcourse it is possible that the Greek KrjpvKnov may, after all, have

derived its form from Egypt, and be a relic of some early ophidian

worship : or the tau-cross, which seems to have been used from a

very high antiquity in Egypt, may have become associated with


Its official character alone may have caused it to

be adopted by the Church of Alexandria as their

bishops''

staff of authority ;' and as an emblem of

peace, it is at least not unsuitable to the heralds

of the gospel message.Another interpretation associates the eastern

crozier with the idea of the brazen serpent raised

aloft by Moses. This seems to me both less

probable and less appropriate. Yet it is only fair

to remember that in the West at least the symbolof the brazen serpent had an ancient place of honourin church ceremonial

;it is found, for instance, in

an Anglo-Saxon ritual, and was retained, even in

England, up to the sixteenth century1

. For on

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Eve,after the singing of nones, a procession went to the

church door carrying a staff which ended upwardsin a serpent ;

in the serpent's mouth was set a taper,

which was solemnly kindled, and from this all other

candles were lighted1

. A similar ceremony seems

clearly implied by a rubric in the Mozarabic liturgy,

and the serpent-rod was used at Rouen as late as the

eighteenth century. It is worth enquiring whether

the curious serpent candlestick at Mari Mina, of

which I have given an illustration elsewhere 2, may

the serpent in the symbolism of some sect of early Egyptian

mystics. The tau-cross in its Egyptian form was undoubtedly

adopted as a religious symbol by the primitive Christians of

Egypt.1

Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 53. The expression in the

note ' hasiam cum imagine serpentisj seems to suggest a reference to

the brazen serpent. I have quoted largely from this page of Mr.

Warren's work.2

Vol. i. p. 59.


not originally have been intended for the same

ceremonial usage on Easter Eve; but there is no

decisive evidence on the point forthcoming. Nodoubt the express comparison made by our Lord

of his own uplifting on the cross to the uplifting of

the brazen serpent sufficed to coin the emblem, and

to coin it with a very clear impression. Thus St.

Ambrose distinctly says,' The brazen serpent is a

figure of the cross, and a fitting symbol of the bodyof Christ;' and even Tertullian admits its appro-

priateness. But, granting both the existence and

the fitness of the emblem in itself, what one does

not see is its suitability as applied to the episcopal

office. It would seem something very like arrogancefor a bishop to appropriate so obviously sacred a

symbol.Yet a third interpretation remains in the case of

the Coptic crozier as faintly possible but extremely

improbable. It is just conceivable that the idea

might be that of the triumph of the cross over the

dragon, the victory of Christ over the power of the

Evil One. This, however, would imply that the

second serpent was merely added for the sake of

symmetry, and it would imply also an entire differ-

ence of symbolism in the Coptic and Greek crozier,

there being no cross upon the latter, and any such

difference is in the last degree unlikely. On the

whole, then, it seems fairest to suppose that the

eastern episcopal staff has come down in unbroken

succession from the herald's wand of pagan Hellas.

There is thus not the slightest necessity for tracingits development back to the ordinary crutch or walk-

ing stick. Such a supposition would quite fail to

account for the serpents, and is decidedly weakened


by the fact that the crutch in the form of a tau-cross

remains side by side with the crozier to this daya familiar appurtenance of worship in every Copticchurch. Nor is its use confined, as was originallythe case in England, to

'

aged and sickly ecclesi-

astics,' as Rock declares a

; but the length of the

Coptic services, and the general absence of seats,

make it welcome even to the young and hale.

Had it once been consecrated to the bishop's office,

it would scarcely have continued in the hand of

every layman.It is curious that the rubrics in the known Coptic

pontificals are silent on the subject of the crozier.

The reason of this no doubt is that when the ordina-

tion is accomplished, and the bishop or patriarch is

seated on his throne, he is required to hold, not the

staff, but the book of the gospel ;and similarly this

book is a more common ornament than the staff in

Coptic paintings. But that the staff really formed partof the bishop's investiture, we learn from Vansleb

;

who relates that after the ordination service the

bishop proceeds to the patriarch's abode, and is there

presented with a '

small bronze cross and with a staff

in the form of the letter T.' The same author tells us

that when the patriarch is fully arrayed at his inves-

titure, he takes from the altar'

a large iron cross

which serves among the Copts in place of the

pastoral staff.' It may be true that such a cross

figures in the ordination ceremony, but it is not true

that the patriarchal staff differs from the episcopal in

the manner alleged. St. Michael is sometimes painted

1 Church of Our Fathers, vol. ii. p. 184, note 22. Rock says

that the use of the crutch lasted till the middle of the twelfth cen-

tury : but notice that his authorities are all French.

VOL. ir. Q


carrying the Jerusalem patriarchal cross with three

transoms : and in the eighth-century carved panelsat Abu Sargah each of the three horsemen, probablySt. George, St. Mercurius, and St. Demetrius, carries

a long staff ending upwards in a cross, and almost

exactly resembling that borne by St. Gregory, as

figured in the Hierolexicon 1: but the staff here is

probably only a spear with a fanciful embellishment.

Evidence such as this is not sufficient to refute the

express testimony of present custom, and of the most

ancient paintings, in favour of the serpentine designof the patriarchal staff. Moreover, Vansleb's words,

if true, would prove too much, denying the familiar

form of crozier altogether.

As regards the other eastern Churches, the inves-

titure with the pastoral staff is a matter of some cere-

mony among the Syrian Jacobites : it is delivered

to the bishop during the service, with the words,' The Lord hath sent thee a rod of strength out of

Sion.' When the patriarch is being ordained, every

bishop present grasps the staff with his right hand,

and all hold it together : then the senior bishopraises the patriarch's hand above all the others, and

rests it on the top of the staff, and the rite is thus

accomplished2

.

Among the Maronites the staff is allowed to'

peri-

odeutae 3,' as well as to bishops and patriarch

4.

The words and the ceremonies used at the delivery

of the staff, in the case of the two latter orders, are

the same as those used among the Syrians. The

1 See Smith's Diet. Christ. Antiq., p. 1566.2

Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. pp. 75-77.Id. ib., p. 176,

4Id. ib., pp. 203, 208, 223,

CH. v.] Ecclesiastical Vestments, 227

crozier is mentioned along with ring and pall in the

eleventh century1

.

For the Nestorian staff I have already cited suffi-

cient evidence. The Armenian Church grants the

staff to vartapeds at their ordination, first with words

which make it symbolical of the power of rescuingsinners from the snares of the Evil One, and turningthem to repentance : again with words which em-

phasise the duty of preaching : and thirdly, with

words which recall the pastor's office of comfortingthe mournful and afflicted. In the same service it is

called the'

priestly staff,' with a direct allusion to the

good shepherd, and the'

royal sceptre2.' At a fur-

ther stage of the vartaped's ordination it is made

suggestive of preparing the way of the Lord : againof climbing the hill of Sion : and lastly, of strengthand courage. There is therefore a very ornate

symbolism and ritual connected with the delivery of

the staff to the vartaped at the various stages of his

ordination. In the case of a bishop, the crozier is once

delivered with the words,' Receive this bishop's staff,

that you may chastise and punish the froward, and

govern and feed those that obey in the law and teach-

ing of God always3.'

The rubrics, of course, say nothing about the form

of these eastern croziers : but fortunately there is some

independent evidence. The Jacobite Syrian Church

seems to employ both the crook and the tau-cross

staff : thus at the church belonging to that communityat Urfa there is 'a double-headed bishop's staff, the

volutes being of serpents, and like our Anglo-Saxon

1Gerhard, De Eccl. Maronitarum, Jena, 1668 (not paged).

2

Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. p. 324.3

Id. ib., p. 337.

Q 2


style of design1

'

(sic), and also 'a single-headedcrook of more modern type.' The same authoritymentions a long

'

ivory crutch, looking like a patri-

archal staff,' in the Nestorian church at Kochanes 2.

This, presumably, is a tau-cross without serpents, but

is not by any means determined as the normal form

of crozier by evidence so ambiguous. Among the

Armenians the crooked pastoral staff of Romanform is used by patriarch and bishops, while the

ancient serpentine crozier is still retained by the

lower order of vartapeds3

.

In the West the first mention of the pastoral staff

is in the acts of the Fourth Council of Toledo,

633 A.D.;but it is there mentioned with the ring in

an incidental manner, which must rather than maypoint to already long established usage. And there

is no doubt that in the Celtic and British Churches

the staff goes back to the very beginning of cere-

monial worship. The Latinised Saxon or Celtic

name for the staff was cambutta, or sometimes cambo:

it is found for example in the Gregorian Sacramen-

tary, now in the library of the college at Autun, andin the Ecgbert Pontifical. Tradition tells of a goldenstaff adorned with gems as borne by St. Patrick :

and two of his followers, St. Dagaeus and St. Asic,

as well as St. Columba, are said to have been veryskilful makers of the staff in precious metals 4

. Thestaff covered with plates of gold and enriched with

1Christians under the Crescent in Asia, p. 84.

2Id. ib., p. 218.

3

Fortescue, Armenian Church, p. 134. Yet Denzinger says,1

Episcopi baculum pastoralem adhibent similem Graecorum,' vol. i.

P- 133-4Warren, Lit. and Kit. of the Celtic Church, pp. 115-116.


glorious designs in pearls, which St. Columba re-

ceived from St. Kentigern, was still found at Ripon in

the fifteenth century. The shape of the Anglo-Saxonand Irish crozier was peculiar. Originally it seems

to have been quite short, rather like a sceptre than a

crook. The volute at the top was less stronglymarked than in the later and more familiar type : in

fact the form may be roughly compared to that of a

note of interrogation1

. ProfessorWestwood, however,mentions a very curious and unique example, now in

the museum of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society :

it is in the form of a tau-cross,'

having a boat-shapedhead with the ends recurved and terminating in a

dragon's head.' This surely is a very striking coin-

cidence with eastern usage, and adds another link to

the evidence connecting the early Irish and oriental

Churches. Even in later examples of the staff, Irish,

English, and continental, the dragon or serpent in

some form or other is a very common ornament of

the whorl. Thus the top of a staff found in the

ruins of Aghadoc cathedral ends in a dragon's head,

which is seizing the leg of a man, and is itself seized

by another dragon. An extremely fine crozier sold

in the Castellani collection 2 was of gilt bronze enam-

elled, and had in the whorl a figure of St. Michael

and the Devil, the knop being of open work with

lacertine monsters.

It is easy to trace the development of the staff

from the simple crook, which is illustrated, for

instance, in an illuminated eleventh-century MS. in

the library of Troyes3

,in a fresco of the same period

in the church of S. Clemente at Rome, in the mosaics

1 See Westwood's Minfatures, p. 152, pi. 53.2 See Academy, March 15, 1884.

z La Messe, vol. i. pi. 10.


of St. Mark's at Venice, or in our own country in the

twelfth-century effigy of Bishop Joceline in Salisburycathedral. The next stage was to fill the whorl with

a vine-leaf or some simple foliated ornament, such as

appears in the crozier on another stone monument in

Salisbury cathedral, that of Bishop Egidius in the

thirteenth centuryl

. Finally, figures and grotesqueswere worked in with elaborate skill

;and it is possible

that the frequent use of the serpent was due to con-

siderations of artistic fitness rather than of religious

imagery. The veil or pannicellus on the stem of the

crozier does not seem to be figured in very early

monuments, though the mere fact of its use on the

Coptic episcopal staff is some argument for its an-

tiquity. The veil is represented on a brass of Arch-

bishop Grenfeld in York minster, dated 1315 A.D., on

that of Abbot Eastney at Westminster, 1498, and

that of Bishop Goodrich at Ely cathedral, I5542

.

Oxford has two good examples of the veiled crozier

on painted glass one in the east window of the Bod-

leian Library, the other in the north aisle of Christ

Church cathedral, where is a window containing an

interesting figure of the last Abbot of Osney.A cross, generally of Greek or nearly Greek form,

is characteristic of an archbishop as opposed to a

bishop in the West. An early instance is furnished

by the fresco at S. Clemente referred to above,

where both the crook-headed and the cross-headed

forms of the crozier may be seen together ;and for

an English illustration one may mention the late

fourteenth-century brass of Robert Waldeby, arch-

bishop of York, in Westminster Abbey. Except for

,

1 See Bloxam's Ecclesiastical Vestments, pp. 22, 28.

2Waller, Monumental Brasses.


the doubtful evidence of Vansleb, there is no ana-

logy in Coptic usage for the cruciform staff of the

archbishop or patriarch.

MINOR ECCLESIASTICAL ORNAMENTS.

Of the other ornaments worn by the Coptic clergyit is not necessary to speak at any length. Priests,

bishops, and patriarch alike, in both branches of the

Church of Alexandria, wear the pectoral cross even

in their ordinary attire, but concealed according to

ancient custom in the folds of their raiment. Thesecrosses are usually of silver

;and though I have not

actually seen any enclosing relics, I have no doubt

that originally in Egypt, as in all other parts of the

Christian world, they were often used as reliquaries.

In fact there are three or four reliquary crosses,

which may have been worn on the breast, thoughsomewhat large for the purpose, among the treasures

at the orthodox Alexandrian church of St. Nicholas

in Cairo. They are beautiful specimens of Byzantine

goldsmith's work, and richly covered with jewels.

The Greek name for the pectoral cross is tyKoXiriov.

Nikephorus, patriarch of Constantinople, mentions

an elaborate golden enkolpion in the ninth century ;

and the patriarch Symeon, more than five centuries

later, records it as among the bishop's insignia.

In the West we read of a silver cross worn bySt. Gregory

J

,and in England by St. Elphege of

Canterbury ;while in bishop Lacy's Pontifical its

use is enjoined as obligatory. St. Aidan's cross

was among the relics at Durham in the fourteenth

1

Rock, Church of Our Fathers, vol. ii. p. 176.

232 îndent Coptic Churches.[CH. v.

centuryl

. No doubt in many cases, and more

especially in the very early days of Christianity,

the pectoral cross was worn largely by laymen as

well as by clergy, and served both as a token of

Fig. 31. Benedict ional Cross and small Amulet Crosses.

the faith, and among the more superstitious as a

talisman or amulet. The cut shows five small Copticamulet crosses, three at least ofwhich are of extreme

1

Warren, Lit. and Kit. of the Celtic Church, p. 1 1 5.


antiquity. Three are of bronze, one of stone, and one

of horn or bone. The designs are of a rude archaic

simplicity, and the bronze specimens are patinated.The most ancient example perhaps is a small cross

of solid bronze with four nearly equal branches,

rounded, but slightly tapering inwards. The second

bronze cross is rather of Latin form, but made from

a tiny oblong plate with the angles cut out so as

to leave four broad short branches. Two other

examples have diagonal lines cut on the surface and

deepened at the angles. All the crosses have small

projections pierced to form a ring for suspension.

They may date from the second or third centuryof our era.

Processional crosses are found in all the churches;

the designs are very varied, and often beautiful.

Sandals cannot be reckoned among the Copticecclesiastical ornaments. It is a rule that all whoenter the haikal put off their shoes at the door, and

this applies even to the celebrant. Renaudot *

ques-tions the statement of Severus, bishop of Ashmunain,

supported as it is by one independent manuscript,that sandals were worn by the Syrian clergy. TheNestorian celebrant however does not approach the

altar barefoot, but retains his shoes 2: while the

Armenian priests3 wear special sandals or slippers.

The Armenians also use the ring, which they mayhave borrowed from the West, as it does not seemto be recognised in the other oriental Churches. It

is not surprising that the episcopal gloves, which do

not appear in the West till the twelfth century,

should be unknown among eastern ecclesiastical

1Lit. Or., vol. ii. p. 54. *

2 Christians under the Crescent, p. 220."

Fortescue, Armenian Church, p. 134.


vestments. But the Coptic clergy possess one

ornament not found in western Christendom which

,

%K,I

Fig. 32. Head of Processional Cross of Silver.

may fitly be mentioned here, the hand-cross.

Patriarch, bishops, and priests 'alike employ it to


give the benediction ;it is also used in the baptismal

ceremony, and in other solemn acts of worship.The patriarch when seated on his throne in the

church, and not actually celebrating, holds in his

right hand a golden cross, and in his left the crozier :

and it will be noticed that the small cross figured on

the seal of the patriarch has two keys attached as

symbols of his supreme office. The ordinary bene-

dictional cross is of silver : sometimes of base metal

or bronze. It is generally engraved with a dedi-

catory inscription, and is nearly always of the form

given in the woodcut above. The Melkite patriarch

also uses a cross of gold, or of silver-gilt enamelled,

to give the benediction.

Lastly, some mention must be made of the epi-

gonation, if only to deny its existence as a Copticvestment. It is frequently found depicted in late

Coptic paintings. Any one entering the cathedral

at Cairo, and finding that all the ecclesiastical figures

on the panels of the iconostasis wear the epigonation,

might reasonably number it among Coptic vestments :

and if further he found the same ornament not merelyin new pictures, like those at the cathedral, but in

others a hundred years old, and not merely in Cairo

but in a remote and unfrequented Delta village like

Tris, and even at the monastery of St. Macarius in

the desert, his conclusion would seem certain. YetI venture to say that it would be quite erroneous.

In the desert, in the Delta, and in Cairo I have

closely questioned priests and laymen, and never

found a single Copt who knew even the name of the

epigonation in any language, much less its meaning.When I pointed it out, it was always noticed with a

sort of surprised curiosity : no one could give the


smallest reason for its presence, but all agreed in

denying that it was an ecclesiastical vestment.

Similarly the rubrics are entirely silent on the sub-

ject ;nor is there one particle of literary evidence

to show that the Copts ever acknowledged the

epigonation. The pictures, as I have said, are verylate painted, in fact, at a period when the Cop s

were entirely dependent for their sacred pictures on

the Greeks. A glance at the cathedral iconostasis

will show that it, like the whole building, is the

work of Greek and not of Coptic artists. The

Copts of to-day and the Copts of a hundred years

ago alike have been too inartistic to paint their own

pictures, and too ignorant or too careless to check

the painters whom they hired. The Greek artists

have naturally followed Greek tradition, and have

flooded the Coptic churches with pictures pourlray-

ing peculiarly Greek vestments. Thus it is that all

recent pictures in the sacred buildings of the Coptsare absolutely worthless as evidence for ritual.

Moreover, it is specially easy to understand howthis particular vestment was familiar to the Greeks

in Egypt : for they had not to go to Constantinopleto discover it, but saw it and still see it continuallyin their own Melkite Egyptian churches. The

epigonation, of course, in its present stiff lozenge-like form, dates only from mediaeval times : and

it would therefore be an unheard-of thing, if the

Jacobites adopted it from the Melkites so long after

the Churches had been sundered. We have alreadyseen that both communities retained such vestments

as were in use at the time of the separation, but did

not borrow from each other subsequently. But it

was natural that the Melkites should fall rather


under the influence of Constantinople, while the

Copts never bowed their stubborn independence.Thus the Melkites readily received the epigonation,and the Copts firmly rejected it

;until by the negli-

gence of these latter times it has seemed, and seemed

falsely, to creep in unawares. For, though all the

pictures in Egypt were to bear witness in its favour,

the custom of the Coptic Church and her canons

alike disown it altogether.

Some very beautiful epigonatia belonging to the

Melkite Church may be seen at the treasury of

St. Nicholas in Cairo ; and as they are finer than

anything of the kind yet described in English, I

may be pardoned for giving some details about

them \ The best are from two to three hundred

years old;and all are lozenge-shaped. One has a

ground of crimson velvet, and is delicately wroughtover in gold embroidery. A border runs round the

edges : within the lozenge a circle is described cut-

ting off the four corners or spandrels, which are filled

with the four evangelistic symbols. The circle

itself or rather circular zone, about two inches broad,

is decked with fourteen medallions, of which the

topmost contains the Trinity, the lowermost a

prophet, and the others each an apostle. Within

this zone the Resurrection is depicted forming the

main design. Every medallion and every outline is

marked out with tiny pearls. Another examplebears date 1673 A.D., and, like the last, has a circle

described within the lozenge. The spandrels are

1 Neale gives a diagram of an epigonation, Gen. Introd., p. 311.

It is also figured by Goar, Euchol., pp. 114 and 115. None of

these engravings convey any idea of splendour. The descriptions

are very meagre.


filled with scroll-work : the circle is set round with

fine large pearls : within the circle is a most splendid

design of the Magi bringing gifts to the Holy Child.

The whole is embroidered in gold with extreme fine-

ness. Angels above in the air descending head

foremost are represented with really wonderful fore-

shortening. All the drawing is true and graceful,and all the figures wrought as delicately as with a

brush. The drapery is natural and flowing: the

pose admirable : the general effect that of a soft yet

sumptuous picture. Altogether, it is one of the most

beautiful pieces of needlework in any country.

Laymen, as well as monks and ecclesiastics, carrya rosary, which properly consists of forty-one beads,or sometimes of eighty-one. But the Copts are not

so careful about the number as their Muslim fellow-

countrymen. For the Muslim rosary consists very

strictly of ninety-nine beads, divided by marks into

three sets of thirty-three : each set as it is told is

accompanied with the words '

Praise be to God '

or

some like prayer ;whereas the Coptic formulary is

'

Kyrie Eleeson,' repeated as in the service forty-onetimes. The priest's rosary should be distinguished byhaving a little cross attached : but laymen sometimes

usurp the symbol. In the West the rosary does not

seem to date earlier than mediaeval times : but in

the East and in Egypt it goes back to the furthest

antiquity. Palladius mentions a hermit who carried

pebbles and cast one away for every prayer: and

St. Antony is sometimes depicted as wearing a

rosary at his girdle in Coptic paintings. Thereis even some reason to suppose that the rosarywas worn in the East before the Christian era.

CHAPTER VI.

Books, Language, and Literature of

the Copts.

BOOKS.

F the priceless literary treasures which

Ml) be l nged to tne churches of Egypt somevJJJ few have been rescued, many have been

destroyed, and some few possibly remain

to reward research. Every monastery, and probably

every church, once had its own library of MSS.;

and to this day there is no such thing as a printedbook used in sacred service. Curzon's discoveryof most precious MSS. at the monasteries of the

Natrun desert, as recorded in his thrilling narrative,

is too well known to need repetition here 1. The

same writer mentions books of less value in the

rock-cut church of the Convent of the Pulley in

Upper Egypt including one book with a rude

illumination, which Curzon may be pardoned for

deriding, as it is the only one he ever saw 2. He

mentions also books found at Madtnat Habu 3,

and at the White Monastery near Suhag4

. At the

latter the priest spoke of above one hundred parch-ments destroyed in 1812, when the place was

1 Monasteries of the Levant, pp. 97-110.2Id, p. 116.

3Id, p. 123.

*Id., p. 132.

240 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. M.

pillaged by the Mamelukes. So, too, among the

lonely mountains in the far eastern desert by the

Red Sea, the monasteries of Antonios and Bolos 1

once contained libraries, so rich in ancient treasures

that their loss is little less deplorable than the more

distant destruction of the great library at Alex-

andria by 'Amr. For it is only four hundred years

ago since the slaves employed by the degeneratemonks at these two monasteries rose one night

against their masters and slew them ; and after

awhile, tiring of a dull life so far out of the world,

abandoned the place altogether. For eighty yearsthe buildings remained deserted, or visited only by

wandering Beduins, who plundered all that was worth

plundering in the churches, burnt all that was worth

burning and the books, by a fatal ignorance, were

placed in the latter category and destroyed all that

was capable of destruction. But in course of time

other monks slowly drew back to the ruins, repairedthe churches, and rebuilt the walls. Since then the

monasteries have passed three tranquil centuries, in

which the daily sound of chaunt and cymbal has

never ceased, and the inmates' life has never varied,

except when some phenomenal traveller has soughta night's shelter, or some tribe of wild horsemen have

dashed in vain against the fortress walls. Thereare still some books in the tower or keep of Dair

Antonios;and though apparently they do not date

further back than the reoccupation, yet they deserve

a more careful scrutiny than they have received.

For the monks in returning may very well have

1 Arch. Journ., vol. xxix. p. 129. Vansleb too mentions books

here.

CH. vr.] Language and Literature. 241

brought old books with them. Dair Bolos, which

lies two days' journey awayt from Dair Antonios, is

also said not to contain a single ancient MS., since

all perished at the time of the slaves' insurrection or

the abandonment ; and the prevalence of this report

has deterred travellers from the tedious and danger-ous pilgrimage. There are, however, reasons for

doubting the accuracy of this rumour.

Very few of the remaining MSS. are on vellum,

or go back beyond the sixteenth century. The paper

employed is cotton paper or carta bombycina, as it

is technically called, a beautiful vellum-like material

of great antiquity. A sixth-century MS. on this

paper exists in the museum of the Collegio Romanoat Rome 1

,and Curzon speaks of a Coptic MS. in

his possession on the same material dated 1018. The

fact, therefore, of being written on paper instead

of vellum is by no means decisive against the ageof a manuscript, although doubtless the majority of

ancient writings are on vellum.

The MSS. are all written with a reed pen, such

as the Arabs use to-day, and such probably as has

been in use in Egypt ever since writing began. Thecharacters are bold uncials, there being no cursive

in Coptic. Black and red ink are both employed

freely, for the red is by no means confined to the

rubrics. Most of the missals and lectionaries have

large ornamental capitals and an illuminated cross

at the beginning : and some have a considerable

amount of other ornament. Both Professor West-wood 2 and Messrs. Silvestre and Champollion

3 have

given facsimiles of Coptic illumination, and their

1Curzon, Monasteries of the Levant, p. 123.

2Palaeographia Sacra Pictoria.

3Universal Palaeography.

VOL. II. R


remarks are well worth reading. It may be ad-

mitted at once that for, the most part these illumi-

nations are, though well designed, rather rude in

execution, and will not bear comparison with the

finest miniatures of the West. Still they deserve

more notice than they have received, being often

extremely curious and original. The followingaccount of a MS. perhaps of the fourteenth cen-

tury brought by the writer from Egypt, and nowin the Bodleian Library, may serve to give someidea of Coptic miniature painting in general, though

unfortunately the book is not in good condition, and

the illuminations have in many places been blurred

and spoiled by the English binder, who pasted tissue

paper over them to strengthen the pages. It differs

from earlier MSS. in containing not a single human

figure, a result which one would be inclined to attri-

bute rather to unconscious Muslim influence than to

want of skill in this branch of art, were it not for the

continuous practice of painting pictures and icons for

the churches. Birds, however, are depicted in the

most extraordinary varieties of grotesque attitudes.

Sometimes it is a creature with large red head and

stiff, wingless, mummy-like body, reaching down the

whole side of the page. It has tiny legs or none at

all;the body is divided by vertical bands and covered

with black and yellow scrollwork ;in its mouth it

carries something which may be a fruit or a jewel.

Sometimes, again, it has a long thin serpentine form

winding about the margin of the page, and makingin several convolutions pouches which contain un-

fledged nestlings ;while other strange little birds

are pecking at various parts of their remarkable

mother. The little ones in the pouches are often

CM. vi.] Language and Literature. 243

so roughly indicated as to look like nothing but

the relics of a spider's den a mere heap of random

legs and wings. Some of these birds are plainly

plucking at their own breast, and there can be little

doubt that they are meant for pelicans, and repre-sent the familiar Christian emblem

;but it is by a very

singular confusion that the serpent and the bird

the antitheses of the symbol are here blent together.Smaller birds with retorted drooping heads, which

are common, may be meant for doves, but look morelike ducks; other birds are seen tumbling about,

standing on their heads, and very rarely flying. In

the fine genealogy of our Lord in this volume there

is a sort of broad pillar down the left side of the

page, and every name is written between a bird's

head on the one side and a golden rose on the other.

Gilt is sparingly used in these illuminations, the chief

colours being red, pale yellow, olive green, and black;

azure blue and cobalt are rarer.

No other animals are drawn in this volume, and

there is scarcely a sign of flower-painting beyonda doubtful sort of tulip design in black, and one or

two clusters of blossoms, or grapes, or some other

fruit at which birds are pecking.

While, however, the birds unenclosed in borders

are scattered at random up and down the pages, far

the greater part of Coptic ornamentation is purely

conventional and systematic. These conventional

designs may be divided into two classes the geo-

metrical, which consist of narrow ribbons interlacing

in endless variety, and the foliated, which comprise

many forms of the acanthus. Interlacing work is

employed chiefly for elaborate borders at the begin-

ning of a prayer or lection, and for large crosses at

R 2


the end. The borders are usually made up of concen-

tric squares or oblongs in order round the page1,or

of ribbons in long parallels with plaited knots at

intervals-', or of small crosses in twisted bands 3.

The large crosses which generally fill a page are

not more often of the Greek than of the Latin

form 4. There is one example of a cross in a

quatrefoil5

.

The best specimen of the acanthus pattern is at the

beginning of our Lord's genealogy6. At the right

side medallions filled with acanthus are enclosed bybands of interlaced ribbons. The ribbon-work on

the left side is in gold ;the medallions on the right

have a blue ground with gold designs. The oblong

space across the top is surrounded with a blue and

gold band of acanthus work; the ground within

being part red and part blue, worked over with like

foliage in gold. This illumination is really of high

merit, approaching to the fineness and splendour of

the best work in the early mediaeval copies of the

koran in the public library at Cairo. The acanthus

has always been a favourite subject with eastern

artists of all kinds. It is found in luxuriant pro-

fusion in the stucco-work, carved woodwork, and

marble of the ancient mosques ;in the splendid early

ivories of the Coptic churches; and in the trays,

lamps, and inkstands which the Cairo workers in

brass may be seen every day chasing in the Khanal Khalili. Nor is it at all uncommon in the minia-

ture painting of the West. Thus it occurs in an

early form in the Latin Gospels at Trinity College,

1 Bodleian MS., p. 29.2

Id., p. 42.3

Id., p. 107.4

E.g. id., p. 145.5

Id., p. 41.6

Id., p. 164.

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 245

Cambridge, dated the end of the tenth century1

;

and it is frequent in a more conventionalised form

in the eleventh century, for example in the Arundel

Psalter 2.

It would be very interesting, if it were possible,

to trace in the ornamentation of their books one

more link of connexion between the Churches of

Egypt and Ireland. One is met at once, however,

by a serious stumbling-block in the fact that the

acanthus, which, as I have shown, is very frequentin Egyptian design, is never found in Irish orna-

mentation 3. Again, for the slender spiral lines in

complex coils, for the squares filled with cross-

lines in Chinese-like patterns, and for the red dotted

outlines, which are three of the main characteristics

of Irish work, there is no counterpart in Copticillumination. Nor can the uncouth bird designsdescribed above be considered a fair analogue for

the great variety in Irish MSS. of lacertine animals

and birds with bodies '

hideously attenuated * '

and

necks, legs, tails, and tongues drawn out into long

interlacing ribbons. There remains, then, by this

method of exhaustion, only one prominent character-

istic common to the two schools, namely a love of

borders designed in very ingenious and intricate

plaitwork ; though even here it should be noticed

that the Irish are more fond of rounded angles than

the Copts. The western MS., with ornamentation

1Westwood) Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon and Irish Ornaments,

pi. 42.2

Id., pi. 49-3Westwood, Palaeographia Sacra Pictoria, chapter on Book

of Kells, p. 2.

4 Id.ib.


nearest the Coptic style, is perhaps the Psalter of

St. John at Cambridge, belonging to the ninth cen-

tury1

;but on the whole, the resemblance between

Egyptian and western art is too slight to bear the

weight of any serious theory.The matter, however, is somewhat changed, if we

pass from the inside to the outside of these service-

books. The likeness between the metal cases in

which the Coptic gospels are enclosed and the Irish

cumhdachs has been already brought out ; more-

over the Irish practice of enclosing missals and other

books for carrying about in leathern cases, called

polaires2

,is exactly paralleled by the Abyssinian, if

not the Coptic, custom, as described and illustrated byCurzon in the narrative of his visit to the monasteries

of the Natrun lakes 3. As a rule, however, at the pre-

sent time Coptic MSS. are merely bound in brownor red calfskin, with arabesque devices stamped uponthe covers and on the flap which protects the front

edges. Sometimes, in the absence of a flap, the

book is kept closed by leather strings fastened in

the place of clasps and serving the same purpose.These service-books belong only to the churches

;

or, if the people have them for private devotion in

their own houses, they never bring prayer-books or

missals to public worship, where they follow the

words as they fall from the priest's lips with rever-

ence and intelligence, and keep their eyes fixed uponthe sanctuary.

*: 1Westwood, Facsimiles, pi. 30.

2Warren, Lit. and Rit. of Celtic Church, p. 22.

8 Monasteries of the Levant, pp. 105-6.


THE COPTIC LANGUAGE.

The Copts can boast of no great poets, historians,

philosophers, or men of science. Their only litera-

ture is religious : and the fact that they have neither

witchery of speech nor treasures of knowledge to

offer has caused their language to be treated with a

strangely undeserved indifference. For there is no

language with a higher antiquity, a more abnormal

structure, or a more curious history. The records

of five thousand years ago chiselled on the monu-ments of Egypt still remain sculptured, though

standing in. everlasting silence;

the very words

uttered by the great men of Hellas are still heard

sounding, though no longer written in the ancient

manner of writing : yet these two, the lost utterance

of the old Egyptian speech and the lost character of

the old Greek writing, are united and preserved in

the Coptic of to-day. The romance of languagecould go no further than to join the speech of

Pharaoh and the writing of Homer in the service-

book of an Egyptian Christian. Now, however,

the study of Coptic is likely to be rescued from the

neglect which it has long suffered by the kindred

study of hieroglyphics, as philologers are shamed

and forced out of their indolence by the zeal of

historians and antiquarians.

A subject of this nature requires, of course, a

large treatise to itself a treatise for which the

materials are as yet hardly ripe, and which would

besides be somewhat out of place in these volumes.

The present notice therefore will be as brief as the


state of the materials at hand and the scope of the

writer's purpose demand.

The Coptic language to-day is no doubt virtually

the same tongue that was spoken by the builders of

the pyramids : and it still retains many words

scarcely changed from that epoch. The vocabularyhowever is neither purely Aryan nor purely Semitic,

but a mixture of both. In the same way the gram-matical structure of Coptic is half Semitic, half akin

to the African languages. It was probably in very

early Christian times that Coptic became fixed in

the form that survives, although it was not until the

sixth century that Christianity became definitely the

established religion. Up to that date the worshipof Osiris had lingered on, particularly in remote

country places, where the gospel was unheard or

awoke but faint echoes. Then however the bishops

began to wield secular power, and amongst other

signs of government they took the important office

of distributing corn to the people out of the hands

of the city prefectsx

. It was at this period, accord-

ing to Messrs. Silvestre and Champollion, that Coptic

writing began : but it is difficult to understand for

what reasons they assign the beginning of letters to

so late a period. In the third and fourth centuries

the monasteries of the desert were thronged with

monks, many of whom could talk no language but

their native Coptic. Thus St. Antony, who knewno Greek, was first set thinking on monastic life by

hearing the gospel read in Coptic ;and Palladius

speaks of regular service and celebrations 2,which he

1 Universal Palaeography, by Silvestre and Champollion, trans-

lated by Sir F. Madden, p. 122.2Rosweyde, Vitae Patrum, lib. viii. p. 712.

GH. vi.] Language and Literature. 249

witnessed, and which must imply set forms written in

the vernacular. We know moreover that the Psalms

were translated into Coptic about the year 300 A.D.

by Pachomius : and although this is perhaps the

earliest date assignable with certainty, it is extremelydifficult to conceive that the need for setting down

liturgical forms in writing did not assert itself irre-

sistibly some time before that. It is of course

possible that the most ancient forms of prayer in

the Coptic vulgar tongue may have been written

not in Greek but in demotic characters : but, interest-

ing as the fact would be, there is not sufficient

evidence to establish it, though there is reason to

think that in some way or other demotic writingwas preserved in use among the Copts for full a

thousand years into the Christian era. There seems

no decided point of contact between Coptic and

hieroglyphic writing. Long before the Persian con-

quest the knowledge of hieroglyphics was limited to

the priests : even as early as the fourteenth century

B.C., the scribes who visited Bani Hassan could not

understand the inscriptions, and those of the twenty-first dynasty blundered hopelessly in their copies of

the Book of the Dead. So that it is matter of

surprise rather than otherwise to find that hierogly-

phics were not entirely disused in the time of Clement

of Alexandria, and were even partially understood a

century later. But their pagan character doubtless

excluded them from recognition by the Christians.

There is a contemporary story that at the time of

Chosroes' invasion of Egypt, about 600 A. D., a saint

who took refuge in a tomb was able to read the

ancient inscriptions on the walls : but the probability

is that the writing was demotic not hieroglyphic.

250 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vr.

The White Monastery in Upper Egypt, which wasbuilt by the empress Helena with massive ex-

terior in the style of ancient Egyptian architecture,

contains many hieroglyphic stones, with inscriptions

mostly upside-down, and therefore probably unintel-

ligible to the builders. Vansleb mentions an inscrip-

tion on the altar-stone of a little chapel dedicated to

St. Michael in the convent of St. Matthew near

Asnah '

characters which were not hieroglyphics,and in a language that we know nothing about 1

.'

There can, I think, be little doubt that the inscription

was demotic though there is nothing to fix the date

and, if so, the fact is extremely interesting as tend-

ing to show the existence of a demotic Christian

ritual.

Concerning the collision and interaction of Copticwith Greek and with Arabic more evidence is obtain-

able evidence which goes to prove that Greek

did not exercise nearly so powerful an influence

as Arabic over the indigenous Egyptian. Origenfor instance remarks that if a Greek wanted to

teach the Egyptians, he would have to learn their

language, or his labour would be vain 2. The

emperor Severus collected vast numbers of books

on magic and shut them up in Alexander's tomb :

and Diocletian, enraged at a revolt and fearing lest

the people should grow rich again, gathered together

1 The convent is dedicated to Matthew the Poor, not to the

evangelist as Vansleb implies. The former is a Coptic saint,

commemorated on the 3rd December.2 The material of this and the following paragraphs is borrowed

mainly from the learned work of tienne Quatremere, Recherches

Critiques et Historiques sur la Langue et la LitteYature de 1'figypte.

Paris, 1808.

CH. vi.] Language and Literature. 25 1

with great care all books on alchemy written by the

old Egyptians* and burned them in public. These

writings were presumably in the demotic character.

In early Christian times Greek was spoken by a few

of the well educated natives. Thus, while St. Paul

the hermit spoke Greek 1,St. Antony knew only

Egyptian, and letters of his in that language, written

to the monasteries, were extant in the time of Abu'1 Birkat. We read too of St. Athanasius' letters

being translated into the vernacular. In the Syriaclife of St. Ephrem it is related that when the holyman visited Egypt to see the famous Anba Bishoi,

the two worthies were unable to converse, each

knowing only his mother tongue : but each there-

upon received a miraculous gift of speech. Theauthor of an Arabic note upon a Coptic MS. states

that before the Arab conquest the lessons were

read in Greek, but explained in Coptic. Abu 1

Muhassan relates that one 'Abdullah, son of 'Abdal Malik, governor of Egypt, ordered the registersof the divans or public offices to be kept in Arabic

instead of Coptic in the year A.H. 96 : but to this

day the system of book-keeping in Egypt is a tradi-

tional mystery in the hands of the Copts. Severus,

bishop of Ashmunain, who compiled a history of the

patriarchs of Alexandria from Coptic and GreekMSS. in the monastery of St. Macarius, says in his

preface that he made the translation into Arabic,

because Arabic was everywhere spoken, and most

of the people were ignorant of Greek and Copticalike. This seems to have been in the ninth

century. Yet in the ninth century Coptic was byno means unknown : for Joseph, the LII patriarch,

1

Rosweyde, Vitae Patrum, p. 18.


at his trial about 850 A. D., addressed the assembly in

Coptic, and was understood even by Muslims whowere present.

By the eleventh century doubtless Coptic hadbecome less generally intelligible

x, though it lin-

gered on for centuries afterwards. The constitu-

tions of the patriarch Gabriel n., c. 1140 A.D.,

ordered bishops to explain the creed and the

Lord's prayer in the vulgar tongue, i.e. in Arabic.

The Vatican MSS. are covered with marginal notes

in Coptic : and Al Makrizi, writing in the earlyfifteenth century, constantly implies that Coptic is

a living language. In speaking, for example, of the

monasteries near Siut, he avers that the monksthere use the Sahidic dialect, and that the womenand children of Upper Egypt talk scarcely anythingbut Sahidic. So of Darankah he remarks that ' the

inhabitants are Christians : all, great and little, speak

Coptic and interpret it in Arabic.' Another Arab

author, Abu Salah, in his history of the monasteries

of Egypt tells of a custom at Asnah still existing,

by which Christians assist at Muslim weddings, and

head the procession of the bridegroom through the

streets, reciting Sahidic texts and maxims. Vansleb,

visiting Egypt in 1672, conversed, as he alleges, with

the last man who spoke Coptic as his mother tongue.Such briefly are the facts, which bear witness to a

slow process of extinction. Yet in face of such

evidence, it is curious to find what wild mistakes

about the Coptic language are made by graveauthorities upon Church matters. Thus Denzingerdeclares that

' uno aut altero seculo post Arabum

tyrannidem vernaculus linguae Aegyptiacae usus



prorsus interiit 1 '

a swiftness of decay, or rather

destruction, unparalleled in the history of language.Neale errs no less in the opposite direction in gravely

recording a diocese in the south of Egypt 'where the

Copts are better educated than in any other portionof the patriarchate, and the Coptic language is

generally spoken, whereas not above two personsunderstand it in Cairo V Coptic is, of course, still

the language of ritual. The mass and most of the

prayers are recited in Coptic : the gospel is first

read in Coptic and then rendered in the vernacular

Arabic : some parts of the service are in Greek :

while the rubrics where they are found, as well as

some of the prayers and the psalms, are in Arabic.

Generally, however, one may say that the text of the

service-books now used is Coptic : and the earlier

among them have no other language. But as the

ritual language decayed from common use, we find

rubrics, marginal notes and headings, and finally

parallel translations in Arabic. It is worth remark-

ing that there seems to be no example of a Copticand Cufic MS. : which would seem to show that the

need of a vernacular translation was not felt until

after the Cufic had given way to the present cursive

form of Arabic writing. Indeed the only instance

of Cufic employed in any sacred building of the

Copts, as far as I am aware, is the inscription on

the ancient cedar screen at Al Mu'allakah. Yet

curiously enough some traces of Cufic survive in

encyclical or other ceremonial letters of the Church

even at the present day. Thus in a letter from the

patriarch of Alexandria to the archbishop of Canter-

1Rit. Or., torn. i. p. i.

2 Eastern Church: Gen. Introd., vol. i. p. 118.


bury, written forty years ago, while the title and

address are in ordinary Arabic of a very ornamental

style, the formal greeting is in Cufic, and there are

some words of Cufic at the end.

Coptic MSS., then, fall naturally into three classes

each with its own historical significance. First,

anterior to the Arab conquest, come bilingual MSS.in which the literary Greek and the vernacular

Coptic stand side by side together. These are

generally written on papyrus, and go back to the

sixth century or possibly earlier. Sometimes more-

over the two languages are found together inscribed

on tiles or stone : and apparently there was a time

when such inscriptions were common.

Next, the Greek text was omitted, and the Copticstood alone. This change began with the settle-

ment of the Arabs in Egypt, when the Jacobite

faction among the natives sided with their conquerors

against the Melkites, and strove with equal vigourfor the destruction of Melkite churches and the

suppression of the Melkite language. Still it is not

till the tenth century that Graeco-Coptic MSS.

disappear entirely. At that period Greek cursive

writing became general, but the Copts never adopted

any form of cursive : probably because Coptic was

already assuming a hieratic character, and was there-

fore not to be degraded to the uses of common life;

while the Arabic was passing from the beautiful but

stately Cufic to its present fluent and graceful form,

and thus became adapted to the needs of business

or friendly intercourse.

The third class of MSS. is that in which

Arabic has been formally acknowledged as the

vulgar tongue, and is received into the text side


by side with the dead or dying Coptic. These MSS.date from the thirteenth century, or even earlier, andcontinue up to the present time, although the lan-

guage of the mass has been unspoken for twohundred years ;

and even among the priests who haveto read it, there are but few who read with under-

standing.To this day, however, there remain sundry phrases

and fragments of Greek, like fossils embedded in the

Coptic ritual language. Thus the KYpie eXeHConis a familiar word in the mouth of the present wor-

shippers at various parts of the service : most of the

proclamations uttered by the deacon to the peopleare still in Greek, ^.cnêcee A-XXiiXoifc en$iXHJUL/ri <LYICU, eic <Lit^.ToX

other sentences in the canon, as o K*rpiocn<LrtTUm TJULUm, K<LI JULGTA. TOTCOT, 2^0<L IT<LTpI K<LI TIIO K<LI A.VI

and particular words, as n<i,p<L2acoc,

n.peenoc, KOCJULOC, ^.it^cT^-cic, o

n.rrroKp<LTCUp. The eucharistic bread is still

stamped with the trisagion in Greek <LYIOC

JCXTPOC ^-Vioc <Le<Lrt.&.Troc ^.vioc o eeoc,

although the Coptic word for God is of ancient

Egyptian origin.

A word concerning the dialects of the Egyptian

language will not be out of place here 1, (i) The

Memphitic or Coptic proper was the language of

Lower Egypt, and derives its name from Memphis,the ancient capital, which stood a little south of the

modern Cairo. Nearly the whole Bible exists in this

dialect, and the Pentateuch, Book of Job, the Psalms,

1 See Dr. Tattam's Compendious Grammar of the Egyptian

Language, and edit., 1863.

256 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vr.

the Prophets, and the New Testament have all been

published. (2) The Sahidic is so called from the

Arabic jÂjuJ!1 the name given to Upper Egypt, or

the district of which Thebes was capital, whence the

dialect is also termed Thebaic. It is curious to remark

that the Sahidic, though more remote from the

centre of Greek life, yet adopted more Greek words

than the nearer Coptic ; and both in Coptic andSahidic writing Greek words are very often found

where the native language had a perfectly good equi-valent. In Sahidic it is much more usual than in

Coptic to express the vowels by lines above the con-

sonants. In the Sahidic dialect almost an entire

version of the scriptures, including a complete NewTestament, exists, though it is only in MS.

; and,

owing to the dormant state of Coptic scholarship in

England, nothing has been done towards collation

since the close of the last century. (3) The Bash-

mtiric dialect, so called from Bashmur a provincein the Delta, has distinct analogies with Copticand with Sahidic, but is of a ruder character,

as was natural from the wild nomadic habits of

the people by whom it was spoken. Only a few

fragments exist in this dialect, and they have been

published.The study of the language in modern times dates

from Kircher's ' Prodromus Coptus/ which was pub-lished in 1636. Eighty years later Blumberg issued

a Coptic grammar; and in 1778 a Coptic bishop of

Arsinoe, named Tukl, published an Arabic and Latin

treatise called' Rudimenta Linguae Copticae.' But

1

Strictly it should rather be Saidic, as there is no h in the

Arabic; but the conventional form is the most convenient.


the first scientific grammar of the three dialects wasthat written by Tattam, and published in I83O

1.

1It would ill become a writer on this subject, and most of all an

Oxonian, to pass over in silence the great and memorable services

rendered by Oxford to the study of Coptic. The zeal of the learned

was first awakened in the matter by the rich collection of oriental

MSS. presented by the traveller Huntington to the Bodleian Libraryin the seventeenth century. Dr. Marshall, rector of Lincoln College,who is described as a master of eastern languages, and who pub-lished a translation of Abu Dakn at Oxford in 1675, worked at

Coptic with such success that he was on the point of bringingout an edition of the New Testament in that language, with

Latin translation and notes. But when only a single sheet was

through the press, the rector's task was ended by an untimelydeath. Thereupon Dr. Fell, bishop of Oxford, who had already

paid for a fount of Coptic type for the work, summoned from

Cambridge a learned scholar named Thomas Edward; who, after

sundry discouragements, at last brought out, not the New Testa*

ment, but a Coptic lexicon. About the same time Witsen, the

burgomaster of Amsterdam, sent a fount of Coptic type as a gift

to the University Press at Oxford: and in the year 1716, D. Wil-

kins, a German by birth despite his Anglicised name, published a

Coptic and Latin New Testament at the expense of the University.

Jablonski worked for some time at Oxford copying MSS. : and

after his death the well-known Dr. RadclifTe purchased many of

his treasures from his son.

Dr. Cumberland, bishop of Peterborough, began the study of

Coptic with rare enthusiasm at the age of eighty : and GeorgeWhiston copied and translated into Latin the Pentateuch ;

two

Englishmen, though not Oxonians, whose names may be recorded.

In 1765 M. Woide, having obtained from Scholtz at Berlin

extracts from a lexicon, grammar, and essays on the Coptic lan-

guage, showed them to Dr. Durell, then vice-chancellor of Oxford :

and Drs. Durell and Wheeler together finally secured the publica-

tion of all three works at the charges of the University. Woide

was next entrusted with the publication of the Sahidic version, and

far advanced the work, but never lived to see it finished. It was,

however, promptly taken up by Professor Ford, the professor of

Arabic at Oxford, who revised and corrected the whole with the

VOL. II.' S

258 Ancient Coptic Chtirches. [CH. vr.

Coptic literature has been already described as

essentially religious. There is, however, I believe,

no example of a complete Coptic Bible, nor are all

the books of the Old Testament found quite entire,

even in a detached condition. But besides the ver-

sions of scripture before mentioned, there exist also

several apocryphal gospels and gnostic works of

various descriptions ;while lives and acts of the saints,

sermons, homilies, and martyrologies abound 1. But

while all the churches in or near Cairo have their

own collections of books, the only library properly so

called, and housed in a separate apartment, is that

belonging to the patriarch. It has, I believe, recently

been examined and catalogued by a French savant,

who does not seem however to have discovered any

pearl of great price2

. The books in the churches

are all service-books of one sort or another. A goodidea of their nature may be formed from the follow-

ing list of MSS. found in a church at Asnah, near

Luxor :

i. Canons of the Coptic Church, i2th century.

help of the original documents;and the text was issued from the

Oxford Press in 1799.Since that date very little has been done for the study of Coptic

in England, and not much in Oxford : but the University Press

published in 1835 Tattam's Coptic Lexicon, in 1836 his Minor

Prophets, and his Major Prophets in 1852. Yet few know what

Oxford scholars have done for the language in the past : so lost

are the achievements of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

in the oblivion of the nineteenth.1 For a list of such works, see Catalogus Codd. Copt. MSS. in

Museo Borgiano : 410. Romae, 1810.2 The patriarch of the orthodox Church of Alexandria has also a

library of Greek MSS. at the church of St. Nicholas, in Cairo : it

contains one ninth-century MS., several of the thirteenth, but

nothing remarkable.


2. Book of the gospels, i3th century.

3. Lectionary, I4th century.The above are on vellum : the rest on paper.

4. Consecration of monks, 1358.

5. Consecration of the various orders in the church;

to wit, psalmodos, anagnostes, subdeacon, deacon,

archdeacon, priest, hegumenos, chorepiscopos, and

lastly, bishop, metropolitan, and patriarch which

three have the same service 1,

i6th century.6. Psalter for the canonical hours, i6th century.

7. Euchologion or benedictional, i6th century.8. Minor prophets, i6th century.

9. Funeral service, i6th century.10. Mystagogia or confessio, i6th century.11. Consecration of chrism and oil of the lamp,

1 6th century.

12. Order of baptism and consecration of altar-

vessels, 1 7th century.

13. Consecration of altars and fonts, i8th century.

14. Many copies of gospels, epistles, the three

liturgies, and the various consecration services 2.

Every church has specially attached to its service

a book called in Coptic'

s^naxar,' i.e. <rwagdpiov, or

lives of the saints, from which a portion is often read

at matins, in accordance with a very ancient custom

sanctioned, for instance, at the third Council of

Carthage in 397 A.D. This book corresponds

closely to the passional of our English churches,

from which the lessons at matins were sometimes

1 This is not the case in Renaudot's MS. The Syrian Jacobites

and the Maronites have the same service for bishop and metro-

politan, but that for patriarch is different: so generally in the

Church of Alexandria.2 See Academy, Dec. 28, 1882, article by J. H. Middleton.

S 2

260 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.VI.

taken, or to the martyrology, which was read at the

end of prime-song1

. The synaxar is confined within

the sacred walls, and there is no copy of it in any

private person's possession. It has, of course, been

rendered into Arabic for .use at service : and the

legends printed at the end of this work, which are

from the Arabic version, will serve to give an idea of

the miraculous traditions to which the faithful still

listen with unquestioning reverence.

The liturgy or book of the mass is called in Arabic*

khulagi,' which is a corrupted form of'

euchologion.'The lectionary for the year, or

'

kotmarus,' is a term

of less certain origin. One may mention also the4

agblah'

or psalms for the canonical hours and for

festivals, there being a distinct arrangement for

regulars and seculars, and also a separate psalmodyfor the feast of our Lord and of the Virgin. Twoother books, namely,

' kitab al paskah,' or the office

of Holy Week, and the'

disnari,' or hymns of saints

and martyrs, are said to have been compiled byGabriel, LXX patriarch, about the year H35 2

. The

synaxar is ascribed to one Anba Butros, bishop of

Mallg.In addition to the foregoing books every church

possesses a careful inventory of all its sacred ves-

sels and other belongings, which are verified once a

year by the wakll or overseer. In this too all gifts to

the church are entered, sometimes, though not always,with the donor's name added. It is called the Offering

Book, and resembles in some ways the book of bene-

factors which belonged to some of our great English

1Rock, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 212.

8 See Vansleb, Histoire de l'glise d'Alexandrie, p. 62.


churches in olden times, though it is not kept in the

same place of honour, nor bound in the same costly

materials. For at Durham cathedral, for instance,

we read that the book of benefactors ' did lye on the

High Altar, an excellent fine Booke, very richly

covered with gold and silver, conteininge the namesof all the benefactors towards St. Cuthbert's Church

from the foundation thereof :

'

and again,'

there is

another famous Booke yett extant conteininge the

reliques, jewels, ornaments, and vestments, that were

given to the Church by all these founders 1.'

It is greatly to be hoped that these Coptic inven-

tories will some day be examined by an Arabic

scholar with sufficient tact, patience, and skill to getat them and to decipher them. None knows better

than the writer what it will cost in time, temper, and

money, before they are rendered accessible. But if,

as is certain, they correspond in some ways to our

own church inventories;and if, as seems highly

probable, some few at least among them can boast a

considerable antiquity, they ought to yield results of

the greatest interest to ecclesiology, and to repay in

the richest manner the largest expenditure of time

and trouble.

1 Durham Rites, ed. Surtees Society, pp. 14, 15.

CHAPTER VII.

The Seven Sacraments.

Baptism and Confirmation. Eucharist. Penance.

since the dawn of

Christianity the Copts seem to have

acknowledged seven canonical sacra-

ments, namely baptism, confirmation,

eucharist, penance, orders, matrimony, .and unction

of the sick. Of the particular nature of these

mysteries, as interpreted by the Church of Alexan-

dria, much has already been written, but rather in

times past than in our generation, and rather bycontinental 1 than by English authorities. Some-

thing therefore yet remains which may fitly find a

place in this work;inasmuch as no mere description

of sacred buildings can be complete without some

account of the ceremonial for which they were

designed. For architecture is, of course, ancillary

to ritual. Yet the present writer cannot pretendto do more than touch lightly on liturgical mat-

ters, recording the testimony of others, and addingfacts which have fallen under his own observation.

Baptism2 of infants is allowed no less by present

custom than by the ancient canons : which, founded

1 The Assemani, Vansleb, Renaudot, Denzinger, &c.2Baptism is called juÛ : confirmation, c*^*^Jl.

The Seven Sacraments. 263

on the Mosaic law of purification, make the ageof forty days necessary for male children, and

eighty days for females, before they can receive

the rite. For these are the periods in which the'

days of purification are accomplished'

: and it is

necessary for the mother to be present in the church l.

Where however there is peril of death, or other

extreme necessity, the child may be baptised at once

without regard to age. The Jewish practice of circum-

cision on the eighth day is general, but neither compul-

sory nor counted a religious ceremony : yet circum-

cision after baptism is very strongly prohibited. Thesame canon of age for infant baptism prevailed in the

Ethiopian, Syrian, and Nestorian Churches : but

the Armenians and modern Nestorians fix the cere-

mony for the eighth day after birth, and we read of

the same custom holding even in Cairo. But although

Coptic history records many violations of primitive

practice at various epochs, the canons are never

really changed or abrogated. Thus about 750 A.D.

the patriarch Khail i. reenforced the regulation

enjoining the baptism of infants. Christodulus three

centuries later forbade the two sexes to be baptisedin the same water

;and ordered that, according to

ancient custom, infants should receive the com-

munion fasting at their baptism. So Macarius n. and

Gabriel n., both in the twelfth century, denounced

circumcision after baptism. Indeed it is only from

1 Pococke is wrong in giving the age as twenty-four days for a

girl: see Description of the East, vol. i. p. 246. Barhebraeus

(Chronicon Ecclesiasticon, ed. Abbeloos et Lamy, Louvain, 1872)

says thirty days for a boy, and so apparently a Vatican MS., quoted

by Asseman, though agreeing about the age of eighty days for a

girl : but there is no real doubt on the subject.


these stringent enactments, as a rule, that we dis-

cover from time to time the prevailing laxity of

practice.

Certain seasons of the year are appointed and

others forbidden for the exercise of the rite, but

exception is always made in cases of danger. Thewhole of Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide are con-

sidered unsuitable times for baptism. Macarius,

bishop of Memphis in the eighth century, relates

that at Alexandria during the early ages of the

church, baptism was conferred only once a year on

Good Fridayl

: but the statement is mixed with legendand seems apocryphal. The canons of Christodulus

prohibit baptism on Easter eve and during the season

of Pentecost. From the remotest antiquity to the

present day the season most commended for baptismis the feast of Epiphany : but Abu Dakn 2

,an un-

trustworthy authority, but possibly right in this

instance, gives Easter day and Pentecost as the

times at which baptism was conferred in the seven-

teenth centurv./

We have already seen that scarcely a single

church in the whole of Egypt possesses a baptisteryexternal to the sacred building : and that while in

many of the fabrics the Epiphany tank is at the

western end near the principal doorway, yet now in

most cases the baptistery proper and the font are

found in various positions, which would necessitate

the entrance of the infant into the church before the

accomplishment of the ceremony. There is however

one monument remaining, which illustrates with

singular clearness the ancient custom of administering

1

Vansleb, Histoire de l'glise d'Alexandrie, p. 83.2 P. 16.

CH. viz.] The Seven Sacraments. 265

the rite without the church, yet in a building speci-

ally consecrated for the purpose. A glance at the

plan of the fourth-century church of the White

Monastery1 will show the earliest known arrange-

ment in strict accordance with the most primitiveritual. There the candidate was received first into

a small vestibule, then led into the baptistery ;and

when the rite was ended, he passed into the opposite

chapel, still without the church, and received the

eucharist;which completed his initiation, and gave

him the right henceforth to enter the place of worship.The next step was to remove the baptistery and the

chapel just within the western wall of the church, so

that they occupied the narthex, but were still prob-

ably walled off from nave and aisles, or at least from

the latter. Such an arrangement seems to haveexisted originally at Abu Sargah, as the western apsewith its frescoes still remaining testifies. Finally, as

the rigidity of early custom slackened, the partition

between the baptistery and the church was removed :

the need for a neophyte chapel disappeared : and the

position of the font became a matter of accident andindifference 2

. But in all cases the Copts disallow

the baptism of infants in private houses. It is a

matter of necessity that all should come to the con-

secrated building. The font is often called the

'Jordan'; but the ancient Coptic name 'fKoXTJUL-

is, of course, of Greek origin.

Bernard of Luxemburg, Jacques de Vitry, and

1 See vol. i. p. 352.2

Denzinger is wrong in saying that the Coptic baptistery oughtto be '

versus orientem ex parte sinistra ecclesiae.' Rit. Or., torn. i.

p. 25.


others have spread a ridiculous story that the Copts

baptise their children with fire1

by branding a cross

on the forehead after baptism. The story is a pure

fiction, but may have arisen from the Ethiopiancustom of gashing and tattooing the face. All over

the world baptism is performed by natural water :

but the Copts, in common with the catholic custom,

require that the water be specially consecrated. Andthis consecration takes place each time that the cere-

mony has to be performed with fresh water : whereas

in the Latin Church the benediction of water is a

more solemn service, held but once or twice in the

year, and the water so consecrated is reserved to be

used as occasion arises. Abu Dakn agrees with all

the authorities in stating that after baptism the

water must be let off by a drain : and though Tukt

asserts that at one time the priests in Cairo reserved

a small quantity for use in case of emergency2

,the

canons rather show that no ceremonies were requiredwhere the life of a child would be in danger from

delay. Of the same tenour is a well-known legend,

which tells of a certain woman who, in crossing the

sea to Alexandria with two young children, was

caught in a furious storm : so being in great peril,

and fearing lest her children should perish unbaptised,she drew blood 3 from her breast and sprinkled them,

repeating the formula. Subsequently, when she took

1 Rit. Or., vol. i. p. 14. In treating of the Coptic rites and cere-

monies my obligations to Denzinger are so great that I once for all

acknowledge them to save the trouble of perpetual reference.

2 Neale affirms this absolutely of present practice (Gen. Introd.,

vol. ii. p. 977) : of course erroneously.3

Denzinger says sea-water was used : but the legend as given

at the end of this volume speaks of blood.

CH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 267

her children to the bishop in Alexandria to be regu-

larly baptised, the water in the font became frozen

or petrified, to prevent the repetition of a ceremonythus declared lawful. Lastly, any remaining doubt

concerning the reservation of the hallowed water is

removed by the words at the end of the service,

which pray that the water may be changed again to

its former nature, and return to earth deconsecrated ;

and the rubric orders the priest to pour in a little

fresh water;to let off the water of baptism ;

and to

take care that none use it thereafter.

Immersion is the only form of baptism recognised

by the Christians of Alexandria, who thus differ from

the Greeks. For in the Greek rite, though immer-

sion is used, aspersion is regarded as of equal, if

not superior, importance. There is some ques-tion regarding the manner of the Coptic immersion,

whether each of the three immersions or only the

last is total;for about the trine immersion there is

no controversy. Originally it is probable, from the

silence of the canons, that the child was plunged

wholly under water thrice;but for the last three or

more centuries the custom has been for the priest to

dip the body first up to the middle, the second time

up to the neck, and the third time over the head.

Vansleb declares that in order to make the form of

a cross the priest takes the child's right wrist and

left foot in one hand, and left wrist and right foot in

the other l;which may have been 'true, but sounds

like a species of torture. Among the Nestorians

the candidate stands in water up to the neck, and

the priest thrice dips the head under;but the

1Histoire, p.8i.


Armenians and other eastern communities mingleaspersion with the rite of immersion. All, how-

ever, seem to agree, and the Coptic canons on this

point are very explicit, that in case of a weak or

sickly child immersion shall not be judged neces-

sary, but the sacrament may be duly administered

by trine aspersion.The same doctrine is laid down clearly in what

seems to be the earliest extant account of Christian

baptism, the'

Teaching of the Apostles/ which maybelong to the second century

1. There it is com-

manded to'

baptise in living or fresh water in the

name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the HolyGhost. If living water fails, use other water ;

anduse warm water, if cold would be hurtful. If neither

warm nor cold be obtainable, then pour water thrice

upon the head in the name of the Father, and of the

Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Before baptism let

both him who baptises and him who is to be baptised

fast, and all others who may ; you shall commandhim who is to be baptised a day or two before.'

While the essentials are the same, considerable

advance is made on the foregoing ritual, or at least

in explanation of it, in the earliest authentic account

of the sacrament as administered in the Church of

Alexandria. This account is found in the Apostolical

Constitutions, which date probably from the fourth

or fifth century2

. Here it is enjoined that the candi-

dates for baptism are to fast on the preparation of

1 See AtSa'xq roav 'ATTooroAaw by bishop Bryennios, Constanti-

nople, 1883, pp. 27-29.2 See Tattam's Apostolical Constitutions, London, 1848, p. 52

seq. for Coptic and English version: and Bunsen's Christianity

and Mankind, London, 185*4, vol. vi. p. 465, for Greek version.

CH. vir.] The 'Seven Sacraments. 269

the sabbath;and on that day are to assemble before

the bishop and kneel down. Then, laying on his

hands, the bishop is to exorcise from them everyevil spirit ;

to breathe upon them;and to seal them

upon the forehead, the ears, and the nose. Theykeep the vigil in reading and exhortation.

Early next morning, at cockcrow, comes the bene-

diction of the water, which must be drawn or flowinginto the font

; or, if water be scarce, they may use

any water available. The meaning of this obscure

passage doubtless is that the water should, if pos-

sible, be drawn from the sacred well, such as wehave seen is found in Abu Sargah and most of the

Egyptian churches. Sponsors are required for those

too young to answer for themselves, and the sponsorsare to be parents or kinsmen. The bishop is to givethanks over the oil, which he is to place in a vessel

or crewet, and to call it the 'oil of thanksgiving'the name 'myron' not being used here; and a

second oil he is to exorcise, and call it the 'oil of

exorcism.'

A deacon, holding the oil of thanksgiving, is to

stand on the right hand of the priest ;and another

deacon with the oil of exorcism on his left. Thenfollows the renunciation ;

after which the candidates

are to be anointed with the oil of exorcism, and to

pass unclothed and to stand in the water. Each

now repeats the confession of faith, during which

he is dipped three times; he is then taken up out

of the water, and anointed with the oil of thanks-

giving or holy chrism;

is clothed, and enters the

church. There the bishop lays his hand upon them,

and with a prayer anoints each one upon the head,

and seals his forehead, saluting or kissing him;and

2jo Ancient Coptic Churches. [OH. vn.

all are to'

say peace with their mouths.' Thus the

rite of confirmation is ended.

The '

seal,' here and elsewhere, seems to meanthe sign of the cross : by

'

saying peace' the formula

of the pax is no doubt intended.

Immediately after baptism and confirmation fol-

lows the holy communion. The bishop is enjoinedto give thanks over the bread and over the cup ;

and to bless also milk and honey. When the bread

has been divided, the bishop gives each a portion,

saying,' This is the bread of heaven, the body of

Christ Jesus;' and with the cup he says, 'This is

the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord.' Likewise the

milk and honey are given to every one.

So much for the Apostolical Constitutions. Let

us turn now to another version of the ceremony,written two or three centuries later by Severus 1

,

patriarch of Alexandria in 646 A. D. The ceremony

begins with a'

mixing of the waters,' a phrase which

is not further explained here, but means that the

priest stirs or moves the water with his hand. Next

comes a burning of frankincense, with a prayer againstthe

'

princes of the power of the air ;' after which the

priest blows thrice with his breath on the water.

He then makes the sign of the cross, without oil,

thrice on the forehead of every child, and exorcises

him, making several more crosses upon the face.

The children turn to the west to make the renun-

ciation, and back to the east again ;and the priest

makes three crosses on each one's forehead with

olive oil, obviously the oil of exorcism, or oil of

the catechumens.

1 See Maxima Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, Lyons, 1677, torn,

xii. p. 728.


Incense is now kindled, and then come the prayersfor the benediction of the water. The priest insuf-

flates upon the surface in the form of a cross, andwith several invocations makes four crosses on the

water with his finger, signing each cross from east

to west and from north to south. Then from a

phial or crewet he pours chrism, or oil of thanks-

giving, upon the water in three crosses. Next he

pours olive oil over the head of each child, placeshim in the font, lays his right hand upon the head,and with his left thrice lifts the child from the water,

saying,' N. is baptised in the name of the Father,

Amen;in the name of the Son, Amen ;

and in the

name of the Holy Ghost, Amen.' The wording of

the ritual here signifies that the child is dipped three

times under water, and nothing is said about anydifference in the manner of the three immersions.

After the formula the child is taken out of the

font, and anointed three times on the forehead and

on all his members with holy chrism;

is dressed in

his own clothes;and brought to the altar, where

he receives the eucharist. The whole ceremony is

brought to a conclusion by the priest crowning the

newly baptised children with garlands.Here confirmation is rather implied than stated,

and nothing is said about the giving of milk and

honey. Bishop Macarius, whom I have cited above,

and who lived a century later, mentions the custom

as belonging to the early Church. In olden times,

he says1

, baptism being administered only on Good

Friday at Alexandria, the patriarch and several

bishops met in the church of the Evangelists, un-

covered the font, and read the exhortation. Next

1

Vansleb, Histoire, p. 85.

272 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.VH.

day they assembled in the same building, where the

patriarch consecrated both the chrism and the oil of

exorcism or galilaeon, i.e., t\aioi> ayaAAtao-eooy, as theycall what the Latins term the

' oleum catechumen-

orum.' This accomplished, they proceeded to the

baptistery, where the patriarch baptised three male

children;and when the bishops had baptised the

rest, the patriarch anointed them all with both

kinds of oil. Mass was now celebrated;and after

the newly baptised children had received the bread

and wine, they received also milk and honey mixedin the same chalice 1

.

At the present day the ceremonies do not differ

appreciably from those recorded by Severus. Atthe commencement of the service a prayer of purifi-

cation is said over the mother of the child, and she

is anointed with oil on the forehead : and thoughthis rite is not recorded in any ancient documents

before Vansleb, it is in the last degree unlikely that

it has arisen in modern or even mediaeval times.

Silence in questions of ritual is always a dangerous

argument : it is so very difficult for a writer, and

specially for an early writer, not to omit some detail,

as Severus quite wrongly omits all mention of milk

and honey. The exorcism, benediction of the water,

and anointing with oil, are still customary: but the

first oil used is pure olive oil, which is blessed by the

priest. The child is unclothed, raises his hands in

1 Neale strangely denies that there is any trace of the giving of

milk and honey in Coptic ritual (Gen. Introd., vol. ii. p. 971): but

states that it existed in the Church of Carthage, and is still retained

in that of Ethiopia. Rock (vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 102) says that milk

and honey were given in our own Church after the eucharist on

Maundy Thursday, and anciently to the newly baptised on Holy

Saturday.


the form of a cross to make the renunciation, turningto the west, and recites the creed turning to the

east l. All his limbs are again anointed with the

second oil or the galilaeon. The burning of incense,

the insufflation, the three crosses of chrism on the

water, the trine immersion, the laying-on of hands or

confirmation, the anointing with chrism, all havetheir place in the service of to-day. The chrism is

anointed on forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, ears,

hands, feet, knees, back, shoulder, arms and heart :

then the priest breathes crosswise on the face of the

child, who is dressed in a white robe, crowned with a

crown, and girt with a crossing girdle about his waist.

He receives the holy communion : or, if too young to

take it, the priest dips a finger in the chalice, and

moistens the infant's tongue : and after the eucharist

he receives milk and honey mingled.

During all this ceremony, which with many prayersand chaunts and lessons from the scriptures occupiesa long time, the sealed copy of the gospel is restingon the gospel-stand

2 in the baptistery : tapers are

set about it, and are kindled during the greater partof the service. After the celebration of the mass,

the clergy arrayed in their most gorgeous vestments

move in procession thrice round the church. Thechild is carried by the bishop or priest, before whomwalks an acolyte bearing the cross of benediction 3

,

upon which are fastened three lighted tapers : the

other clergy follow, and acolytes bearing candles and

beating bells and cymbals.

1 Vansleb (Histoire, p. 204) states that the priest writes the

child's name on a piece of paper and throws it into the water.2 See illustration, vol. ii. p. 60. 3

Ib. p. 232.

VOL. II. T


On the eighth day after baptism, and not before *,

the girdle is loosened with a good deal of ceremonial :

for the act is regarded as the completion of the rite

of baptism. The ceremony is held in the baptistery

of the church, and not at private houses as Vansleb

alleges. A vessel of pure water is placed on the

gospel-stand, with a cross lying upon the rim and

tapers kindled around. Incense is burned, and

various prayers and portions of scripture recited.

The water is signed thrice in the form of a cross

by the priest, who then removes the girdle, and

washes the child and his clothes.

Though the use of lights at the baptismal service

is thus recognised by the Church of Egypt, the priest

does not hand a lighted taper to the candidate, as

was customary in western ritual.

It will be observed that the practice of the Copticdiffers from that of the western Church in the union

of confirmation with baptism, although they are

regarded essentially as two sacraments, not as one;

in the use of the holy chrism for confirmation;and

in allowing confirmation by the priest as well as bythe bishop. In all these particulars the Copts have

reta ned the early teaching of the catholic Church,which the westerns have abandoned 2

.

1 Abu Dakn makes the rite take place on the third day : and in

the same passage he affirms that salt is mingled with the chrism bythe Copts, a monstrous statement. Some Syrians in Cairo

adopted this heretical practice in the time of Christodulus, but not

the Copts The Malabar Christians mingled oil and salt with

their eucharistic bread, as recorded in Govea's account of the

Portuguese mission : see the French translation published, at

Brussels in 1609.2 The words of St. Basil regarding baptism should be remem-

bered. He says :

' Consecramus autem aquam baptismatis et


THE EUCHARIST l.

To discuss fully the ceremonies appertaining to

the Coptic celebration of the mass would require a

voluminous treatise in itself. But such discussion

being beyond the scope of this work, and in somesense beside its purpose, it must suffice here to

indicate the most prominent or peculiar points of

Coptic usage, avoiding altogether all questions con-

cerning authenticity of texts and order of prayers in

the various liturgies, questions which are too well

known to the world to require restating, and too

little studied by the writer to make his remarks

other than incompetent.No minister beneath the rank of priest is allowed

to celebrate the korban : but a simple priest cannot

communicate a bishop or any higher dignitary2.

When the patriarch celebrates, he administers the

oleum unctionis, praeterea ipsum qui baptismum accipit, ex quibus

scriptis ? Nonne a tacita secretaque traditione ? Ipsam porroolei unctionem quis sermo scripto proditus docuit ? lam ter im-

mergi hominem unde est traditum? .... Nonne ex privata et

arcana hac traditione?' See Divi Basilii Magni Opera, p. 3243.

Paris, 1566. So St. Augustine remarks : 'Unless this sign be used,

whether on the forehead of believers, or on the water whereby theyare regenerated, or on the chrism whereby they are anointed,

nothing is rightly accomplished.'1 Arabic ^b^lll or the offering, ^-IJ'llI the mass, ius.-^.DI the

sacrifice, oriu^-e^ j^si s-sr^.jJl the bloodless sacrifice : Coptic,

*f~npOCcJ>Op.. The first of these names,'

korban,' is identical

with the word used by our Lord, as given in the English version :

it answers to our '

oflete.'

2Vansleb, Histoire, pp. 202-3.

T 2

276 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. \-n.

oflete first to himself and then to the other clergy

according to their orders : but if, when a priest is

celebrating, the patriarch wishes to communicate,

he goes to the altar after the fraction, repeats the

prayer of absolution and the confession, and com-

municates to himself and to any others whom he

pleases. Every bishop has the same right in his

own diocese. A kummus in communicating takes

the spoon himself, but receives the wafer from the

priest, who places it in the spoon : a priest re-

ceiving from a priest does not touch with his hand

any part of the sacred elements, nor any vessel.

The celebrant must wear dalmatic and amice on

ordinary days, and all the seven vestments on highfestivals.

At the present day those who receive are allowed

within the haikal ;but originally entrance seems to

have been denied to all below the rank of deacon.

The deacon stands not beside the priest but fronting

him, i. e. on the eastern side of the altar, and facingthe people. This custom is said to have originatedin the times of feud between the Jacobite and Mel-

kite factions, when it was no uncommon thing for a

Melkite mob to rush into a Coptic church, slay the

priest at the altar, and scatter the sacred elements.

If ordered by the priest, the deacon may give the cupto communicants, as appears from the ApostolicalConstitutions and from later authorities.

We have already seen that infants are admitted

to the communion immediately after baptism and

confirmation : and at any ordinary celebration to-

day one may see children in arms receiving.Previous fasting is indispensable to a right com-

munion, and this canon applies even to children :


it is a rule beyond question and without exception.

The time of fasting dates from vespers of the daybefore the celebration. Bodily cleanliness is a

further necessity both on the part of the peopleand the priest : the latter is specially required to

wash his feet before entering the church. Com-munion is not to be administered to persons un-

known, i.e. to any strangers whom the priest has

not examined concerning their profession of faith,

for fear lest an infidel receive it unawares. ThePontifical of Gabriel specially cautions the priest

to be careful about women, as they come veiled to

mass. Confession also is rigidly enforced, and

penance inflicted in case of sin : and the severity

of the penance is doubtless the reason why so few

to-day partake of the holy mysteries.All receive the korban standing and not kneeling :

indeed kneeling is altogether against the Coptic

custom, except on the day of Pentecost, their attitude

of humility being prostration. A communicant is

not allowed during the rest of the day to eat or

drink with a Jew or Muslim;nor may he remove

from his mouth anything which has once entered

there;

nor may he smoke tobacco. Anciently,

according to Vansleb, it was also customary to eat

lupines directly after the celebration, as a measure

of defence against certain Sabaeans, who frequentedthe Coptic churches, but to whom any fruit grownon an angular stalk was an abomination.

The bread used for the korban is of the finest

wheaten flour specially purchased out of the church

moneys. It must be baked in the oven attached for

that purpose to most if not all of the sacred build-

ings : and the baking must be done by the door-

2j8 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vn.

keeper or sacristan \ who during the process mustchaunt fixed portions of the psalms in a solemn

manner 2. The bread must be leavened : it must be

baked on the morning on which it is required for the

mass, and must be made up into round cakes or

wafers, each about three inches in diameter and an

inch in greatest thickness;and it must be stamped

on the upper surface with a device of crosses, round

which runs a sacred legend in a band. Denzinger3

gives a cut in which the legend is A.VIOC

fr .noc >J ^xprpioc ^ C4L&eurr (it should, of course,

1Called, therefore, *-JQl. Women are specially forbidden to

prepare the wafer.

8Possibly for a similar reason the oflete was sometimes called

'

singing-bread'

in England.3

Kit. Or., torn. i. p. 81. The Diet. Christ. Antiq. has the

same cut.


be Kvpioc) : Neale l

reproduces the same illustra-

tion, which is taken from Sollerius, to whom all

statements concerning the form of the Coptic oflete

seem ultimately traceable. Vansleb 2 however givesthe same inscription omitting the c^JieooT ;

and

it is possible that the versions of the legend so

recorded were actually found : but undoubtedly the

inscription at present used differs, and is >%? <LVIOC

ic.X"*Poc * ^-Vioc .e.rt.Toc >fc A.VIOC o eeoc,as rendered in the accompanying woodcut, which is

from a photograph of a wafer made at the cathedral.

Nor have I seen any variation from this form at anyof the churches. The diagrams given by Neale

and Denzinger are further inaccurate : for within

the band of writing, which should not be quite on

the edge of the wafer, there are twelve equal crosses

each marked off in a square of its own, the whole

arrangement forming one large cross. Neale indeed

speaks of twelve crosses : but his figure gives eightin little detached squares, and eight more in a largercentral square. Denzinger's design is the same :

but he gives another rather different cut, which pro-

fesses to represent the back of the wafer. This, I

think, is a mistake : for the wafer is never stamped

upon the back.

The inmost square of the wafer, consisting of four

smaller squares, is called in Coptic icBiO^lKOit,

ic&<L2aKort, or ciioTîKoit, a name rightly explained

by Renaudot as a corruption of the Greek SwrroTiKov,

sc. cr&fia, i.e.' the body of the Lord.' The isbodikon

is reserved for intinction in the chalice.

1 Patriarchate of Alexandria, vol. ii. p. 214. It is obvious here

how the mistake of^ f r K arose.2

Histoire, p. 100.


Greek custom is not far removed from the Coptic,as regards the wafer. For the Greeks use a small

round cake stamped with a square, called the a/m>y,

which is divided into four smaller squares which

contain the letters Tc "XC Nl KA. The dfivfo stands

out above the wafer, and is cut off in the prothesis : at

consecration it is broken into four portions, of which

FC is put into the chalice, X~C is given among the

clergy, and the rest among the laity.

The Armenians also stamp the housel, but merelywith a figure of our Lord. The wafer is unleavened,

and is baked in an oven attached to the church on

the morning before celebration. All the four parts

into which the consecrated wafer is broken are putinto the chalice.

Among the Nestorians the wafer is made of fine

flour from wheat gleaned by young maidens, which

is ground in a handmill and mingled with leaven.

The leaven is prepared by the clergy, and the bread

made, within the precincts of the sacred building.

The Nestorian wafer also is stamped with a device :

it resembles the Coptic bread in size, but is muchthinner.

In our own country the wafer was sometimes

stamped. Rock J cites Eldefonso for the statement

that the inscription should be ^FT TTTc or US, the

only variation being XPC AH: but other varia-

tions are certainly found 2. A wooden mould for

1 Vol. i. p. 149, note 24.2 M. de Fleury has sent me a drawing of some breads from a

ninth-century missal in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Two of these

are covered with various inscriptions, one containing REX DSIBS XFS VERITAS LUX PAX GLORIA VIA, and the cyphersof the four evangelists disposed round a large central cross.

TH. vii.j The Seven Sacraments. 281

such breads is preserved in the museum at Dublin :

but sometimes the mould was of iron, and was called

a singing-iron for a reason analogous to that sug-

gested above. Thus in 1429 at York there were be-

queathed 'tria instrumenta ferri, vocata syngyngirons,

ijalia instrumenta ferri pro pane ad eucharistiam or-

dinando 1.' That the practice of stamping the housel

is very early seems proved by the continuous testi-

mony of artistic monuments. The wafers figured in

the sixth-century mosaics at Ravenna, in S. Vitale

and S. Apollinare in Classe, are designed with a

central cross : on the golden altar of Milan, datingfrom the ninth century, St. Ambrose is figured

standing behind an altar, on which are four crossed

wafers : a like wafer is shown in the eleventh-

century missal of St. Denys2

: and wherever the

wafer is painted in Coptic pictures, it is representedwith a single cross in the same manner. This fact

in no way militates against the antiquity of the

present Coptic design, being attributable merelyto the smallness of the scale on which the wafer

has to be rendered 3.

The eucharistic wine is unfermented, and is madefrom the juice of dried grapes or raisins, which are

left to soak for a considerable time in water, and

then crushed in a wine-press. A press of the kind

1

Raine, York Fabric Rolls, Glossary, p. 353.2 La Messe, vol. i. pis. viii, xiii.

3 In the Coptic MS. of the fourth century, to which allusion has

been already made, the prayer of consecration varies from all other

known MSS. in having between the words '

didst give thanks'

and

'didst break' the expression ^.KCcbp^Tiê, i.e. 'didst seal':

and though the term is commonly used in Coptic to denote the

making of the sign of the cross, yet in this connexion it seems to

suggest that the wafer in use at that period was stamped.


at Abu-'s-Sifain has already been described : but

the wine is usually made at Cairo in the satellite

church called by the same name in the Harat-az-

Zuailah. There it is distributed to the churches in

large wicker-covered jars, holding three or four

gallons apiece, some of which I saw stored in a

deep aumbry. The wine is made of sufficient

strength and in sufficient quantity to last the -whole

year round. Raisin-wine is prohibited rather than

enjoined by the canons : but the use of it doubtless

arose partly under pressure in times of persecution,

and partly from the cultivation of the vine becomingobsolete in Egypt. In case of necessity even date-

wine is allowed. But whatever wine is used must

be pure, untrampled by the foot, and free from all

acid flavour. Offerings of wine * for the mass were

common in ancient times : and there is a special

canon forbidding the priest to receive it in the vessel

brought by the layman. Most of the churches nowhave a small crewet or phial of unconsecrated wine

kept on a little bracket attached to the haikal-screen.

Wine of the same kind and made in the same manner

was found in use by the Christians at Malabar about

the year 1600: but that sect mingled oil and salt

with their eucharistic bread, a practice strongly

denounced by all Coptic authorities.

Three liturgies seem to have been used from very

early times by the Church of Alexandria, the

liturgy of St. Basil, of St. Gregory of Nazianzen,

and of St. Cyril : the last is also called by the name

1 When a new cask was broached, the first of the wine was

often given to the church. In the Coptic liturgies, for this reason,

the wine is often called "f'A.nA.pH, or the first-fruits.


of St. Mark. On ordinary occasions the liturgy of

St. Basil is recited : that of St. Gregory is reserved

for three solemn festivals, the midnight masses of

Epiphany, Easter, and Christmas : and that of St.

Cyril is used during the seasons of the Great and

the Little Fast, i.e. Lent and Advent 1. The hour

for ordinary mass on Sunday is always tierce: no

second celebration is allowed on the same altar

during the day, and no vestment or vessel which

has served once at the mass may be used again till

the day following.

At the commencement of the service all whoenter the church salute towards the altar, and kiss

the hem of the veil which hangs before the door of

the sanctuary, or else prostrate themselves before

the threshold. This custom of course does not

apply to women, who worship apart in the galleries

or other place appointed. It is usual now for the

choir to chaunt the'

Hymns of Moses'

while the

altar is being prepared by the deacons. Besides

the ordinary covering, which is generally coloured,

the altar must have a second vestment, which

shrouds the whole fabric. All the vessels, such as

the chalice, paten, dome, ark, and spoon, must be in

readiness upon the altar, upon which also are two

candlesticks with tapers.

Before the prayer of preparation the priest must

examine all these vessels, and see that the altar-

board is firm in its place beneath the coverlets ;and

he must set the ark or coffer upon it, and the chalice

within the coffer. After the prayers of preparation

and thanksgiving he goes to the door of the haikal

1 Lord Bute states that this liturgy is only used once a year, viz.

on the Friday before Palm Sunday (Coptic Morning Service, p. ii).


to take the oflete from the hand of the deacon.

Three wafers are brought upon a tray: the priest

touches them to see if they are freshly made, wipes

them, and waves his hand over them : then he

selects one of the three, which is carried to the altar

together with the crewet or phial of wine. This

ceremony seems to correspond with the greaterentrance of the Greek liturgy : but it is not

now attended with the same pomp in the Copticas in either the Constantinopolitan or the Melkite

Egyptian ritual. Tapers are next kindled, and held

by the deacons beside the altar : one also holds the

crewet, and another a vessel of water. Thus a pro-

cession moves round the altar with tapers and thuri-

bles, the priest carrying the wafer in a small silken

corporal, or, as is more usual, upon one of the tinymats described above. Having made the circuit of

the altar the priest stands in his own place before

the altar, facing eastward, and turning his back to

the congregation. A little cold water is now mixed

with the wine in the chalice, not warm water as in

the Greek celebration. During the prayer of obla-

tion, which follows, the priest signs both the elements

with the sign of the cross : and when the prayer is

ended, he places upon the chalice the little mat or

tabak, which serves as its cover, and which answers

to the lesser veil of the rubrics. Similarly he places

immediately over the wafer a small round veil markedwith three crosses : above it he sets the dome or

star : and then, placing the paten upon the ark, so

that it rests also on the chalice l,he covers the whole

elements with the larger veil, which is of silk, and

1 The ark is just high enough to hold the chalice : the rim of

the chalice is flush with the top of the ark.


has a large cross embroidered upon it. This accom-

plished, the priest kneels and kisses the altar.

At the prayer of absolution to the Son, the

celebrant and his attendants kneel outside the

haikal in a circle before the door, bowing from

time to time. Then taking the censer, he stands

holding it before the altar during the prayer of

incense : he waves it over the elements : and walks

round the altar swinging the thurible, while the

choir sing the three anthems of the incense. Hethen descends, and stands before the door facing

eastward, and scatters the fumes about the doorway :

after which he turns about and swings the censer

towards the people in every part of the church,

while chaunt and song continue;and as the priest

moves censing them, the people rise and bend their

heads.

The epistle is now read in Coptic from the lectern,

which stands a few feet from the haikal door in the

choir, and the reader faces eastward, having his back

to the people. During the reading clouds of incense

are still arising in the haikal ; and when it is finished,

and the choir have sung a brief chaunt, the samelesson is read in Arabic

;but the reader now stands

on the steps before the haikal and faces the congre-

gation. A lection from the Acts is read in the samemanner

; or sometimes in lieu a chapter is recited

from the history of the Church, or the life of a saint.

And when the reading is ended, the reader kneels

and bows his head to the ground before the door of

the sanctuary. The first gospel is read by the priest,

who stands before the people holding the book in his

left hand, and in his right a lighted taper.

From this point processions round the altar con-


tinue with burning of incense up to the trisagion,

which is chaunted by the choir. Then comes the

prayer of the holy gospel, said by the priest facingeastward

;and after it the deacon, coming out at the

door of the haikal, shouts aloud,' Stand ye people

for the holy gospel.' Hereupon the celebrant

censes the sealed silver book of the gospel, and de-

livers it to another priest, who, after kissing it and

laying it upon the lectern, sings the gospel in Coptic,

facing eastward. As he sings, the celebrant stands

facing westward before him, and censes the textus

continually ;a deacon on each side of him holds a

lighted taper, and a candle is burning upon the tall

standard candlestick, which is always set up for this

purpose beside the lectern 1. An Arabic version of

the same passage is then given from the doorway,the deacons still holding their tapers by the reader,

who now faces the people ;and the celebrant still

waves the thurible. Deacons and acolytes, who

generally wear the tarbush, as do all the people duringthe service, remove it at the reading of the gospel.When the gospel is thus finished, the priest and

all the clergy kiss the silver book;and in olden

times the gospel was wrapped in a silken veil, beingcarried in procession about the church, and even

given to kiss to the people2

. The lights are ex-

1 See illustration on p. 66 supra.2

It is possible that this custom may account for the practice of

enclosing the textus in a complete shell of metal. This procession

and return to the haikal correspond to the lesser entrance of the

Greek ritual. In the West the custom of lighting a candle at the

reading of the gospel was general as well as 'per tolas orientis

ecclesias.' (Hieron. adv. Vigilant, iii. 13.) Rock mentions that in

our own country after the lection the subdeacon took the book for

the bishop to kiss, then to priests and people : and that the tapers

OH. vii.] The Seven Sacraments. 287

tinguished and the gospel borne back to the sanc-

tuary. All the ministers stand round the door while

the prayer after the gospel is recited inaudibly.Notices of services and other matters are here given ;

and if there be no homily, at this point occurs the

dismissal of the catechumens.

The choir now sing an anthem, after which the

priest falls down and kisses the threshold of the

sanctuary, while reciting in a low voice the prayerof the veil or the curtain. Then, ascending to the

altar, the priest kisses it, while the choir stand with-

out the door, singing in antiphons. Next, after the

prayer for the catholic Church of Christ, and for

the congregation, the creed is repeated by all together;

whereupon the priest washes his hands thrice, and

turning round wrings them dry before the people.

Then, after bowing to the other clergy and makingthe sign of the cross over the congregation, he utters

the words ' Peace be unto all,' and recites the prayer

were then extinguished (vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 32). The Ordo Romanus

says that the deacon received the gospel from the subdeacon, and

held it to be kissed by clergy and laity. Pope Honorius III in

the thirteenth century forbade the gospel to be kissed by any lay-

man except an anointed prince, quite forgetting the meaning of

the ceremony. In Russian and Greek churches the kiss is allowed

generally to laymen, as with the Copts. In Egypt, however, the

book seems originally to have been kissed while open by priests, and

to have been closed for the people. This kissing the gospel is, of

course, quite distinct from the pax or kiss of peace, which seems

to have been first used in England in the thirteenth century. The

pax is mentioned as an instrument first in the constitutions of arch-

bishop Gray, of York. It was abandoned gradually after the refor-

mation, owing chiefly to disputes about precedence. Yet the gospelwas sometimes kissed in England instead of the pax, and the cross

in Germany. (See Lay Folks' Mass Book, ed. Canon Simmons,

pp. 221, 296.)

288 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.VH.

of the kiss of peace. Meanwhile he removes the

greater veil or corporal from the oflete, and the

paten from the chalice;and on the top of the chalice

one may see now the lesser veil l

resting, while the

priest holds high over his head a like veil or tabak

of green colour with a golden cross for all the peopleto see. At the words ' Greet one another with a

holy kiss/ the priest turns westward, and bows slowly

to all the people ;and the people salute each other,

each turning to his neighbour and touching his hand.

The triumphal hymn follows, and the people shout'

agus, agus, agus,' retaining to this day the ancient

words. Now the lesser veil, or red tabak, is removed

from the chalice;and the priest taking it in his right

hand, holds also the green tabak in his left, and raises

his arms. And in like manner he takes many more

little mats, which are upon the altar, and holds them

with outspread arms 2, during the commemoration of

the Redemption. It may be that the mats are so

consecrated for subsequent usage at the communion.

At the institution, the celebrant first holds his

hands over the smoke of the thurible, which is pre-

sented by the deacon ;then signs the oflete thrice,

and breaks it into three portions, which, however,

1 The lesser veil, shown in this manner, is usually a small

round red mat, embroidered with a cross in gold.2

I cannot find any explanation of this custom in the rubrics,

but merely record what I have witnessed. In Lord Bute's'

Coptic

Morning Service,' p. 80, the rubric directs the priest to remove the

chalice-veil;

to sign himself, the deacon, and the people with it;

and so replace it. The work cited is not however quite an accurate

guide to the Monophysite ritual;but there is a very general agree-

ment, because the converts to the Church of Rome among the

Copts are prohibited from becoming Latins, and bidden to retain

their national liturgy.

CH. vn.] The Seven Sacraments, 289

remain contiguous. The chalice is signed in the

same manner, and moved in the form of a cross

before the priest. During this ceremony a lighted

taper is held by deacons on either side of the cele-

brant, and all the deacons, acolytes, and choristers

remove their tarbushes. Just before the invocation

all the congregation bend low their heads, murmur-

ing words of adoration, and rise and bend again.

After a sentence or two from the priest all the

people cry'

Kyrie eleeson.' It is at this pointthat the offertory is made. Two acolytes moveabout the church, each bearing an alms-dish, and

a taper which is specially lighted for the purpose,doubtless in emblematic remembrance of the familiar

text. Chaunts continue to be sung by the choir duringthe prayer of intercession, and the commemoration

of the living, and the diptychs of the dead 1;and

during the same period the celebrant from time to

time holds aloft in either hand one of the little mats,

which lie in great numbers upon the altar. Thecover of the elements is also changed ;

and for the

saffron-coloured veil which rested before over them,

another of deep crimson with a white border is

1It is customary among the Copts once every year, in the season

of Lent, to write on a piece of paper the names of living and dead

relatives, whom they wish commemorated at the mass. I have

known laymen go round all the churches of Cairo in one day,

leaving at each a paper in which is wrapped a fee varying accord-

ing to the means of the supplicant. The usual form of com-

memoration is,'

Remember, O Lord, thy servants, whose names

are here written, in the kingdom of heaven;the living, M. or N. :

the dead, M. or N.' Special prayers for special cases are some-

times added: thus for a son dismissed from his employment a

father will ask intercession in the words, 'Loosen, O Lord, the

perplexities of Yusuf.'

VOL. II. U


substituted, and the people are signed with the sign of

the cross. Now comes the preface to the fraction ;

and when the priest says' The holy body,' he takes

the housel, and, placing it in his left hand, lays his

finger on the spot where it is broken. And at the

words 'The precious blood' he removes his finger

from the bread, and dipping it lightly in the wine,

makes the sign of the cross upon it. With the same

finger he now signs the isbodikon and another part of

the housel, so that three crosses in all are made uponthe sacred element. After the pax commences the

prayer of the fraction, during which the priest breaks

the housel into five portions, which he arranges on

the paten in the form of a cross, leaving the isbodikon

unbroken in the centre;and the smaller portions are

again broken up into little pieces, which are called'

pearls,' as in the Greek ceremonial.

Next all the people say the Lord's prayer, not, of

course, kneeling, but standing and stretching out

both hands and looking upwards, according to

ancient custom. At the ' sancta sanctis'

the priest

elevates the isbodikon over his head, lowers it into

the chalice, and with it makes the sign of the cross

upon the wine. Taking it out he signs the remainder

of the housel with it, and so accomplishes three

crosses of the bread upon the wine, and of the wine

upon the bread : whereupon the isbodikon is placedin the chalice. When the confession of faith has

been recited, the veil is placed upon the housel, and

the priest kisses the altar, reciting a sentence of

adoration. On the removal of the veil which

follows, the star or dome is seen resting on the

paten, and under it a small green veil embroidered

with crosses, which covers the wafer. Suddenly the


priest takes the paten in his hand, and raising it

over his head, turns towards the people, and stands

in the doorway of the sanctuary thus holding it aloft,

while all the people shout '

Blessed is he that comethin the name of the Lord.' During the consecration

a deacon stands on either side of the priest holding a

burning taper.

The celebrant himself communicates, and ad-

ministers to the other clergy, and to the laity in

order. Each one as he receives holds in his handone of the little mats

;and when he has partaken,

he wipes his lips with the mat carefully, lest anyparticle fall upon the ground. The communion is

administered by means of intinction with the spoon,but the isbodikon is specially reserved for the

ministers of the altar. If a bishop be present, he

communicates himself, dipping the spoon into the

chalice. Even little children receive, and are

admitted into the haikal. Women however are not

so admitted l

;but the priest comes down from the

sanctuary and administers to them in their own

place, whether in the gallery or at the west end of

the church. Communicants now are very few, andfor the most part children. They walk round andround the altar, and continue receiving until all the

wafer is consumed. Then the priest drinks to the

dregs what remains in the chalice : wipes the inside

1 In the Celtic rite, women were not allowed to receive unless

they were veiled, an eastern custom ordered to be observed in the

Apostolical Constitutions, and still remaining with the Copts. Mr.

Warren mentions also an Irish church in North Munster, where

women were forbidden to enter, as was the custom at AnbaShanudah : and another church, where they were not allowed to

approach the altar. See Lit. and Rit. of Celtic Church, pp. 136-

138-

U 2


with his finger and licks his finger : washes out the

chalice with water, and drinks the rinsings. In like

manner the paten is washed, and the rinsings are

drunk by the deacon. I have seen a deacon after

the celebration place the spoon repeatedly upon his

lips and eyes and forehead, a custom which carries

one back, very curiously, through fifteen hundred

years to the time of Cyril of Jerusalem, who, in the

middle of the fourth century, wrote in his directions

for communicants as follows :

'

Further, touchingwith thy hands the moisture remaining on thy lips,

sanctify both thine eyes and thy forehead and the

other organs of sense 1.' What other Church pre-

serves in so startling a manner the minutiae of

primitive tradition ?

Finally, when the vessels are washed and the

blessing given, water is sprinkled by the bishop, if

he be present, over the altar and in the air about the

sanctuary and over the ministers. Then the bishopcomes out from the haikal preceded by a deacon,

who carries a silver basin and ewer : the deacon

pours water over the hand of the bishop : and the

bishop scatters it in all directions over the people,who throng round holding up their faces. Eulogiae,or unconsecrated wafers, are now distributed, and

the congregation disperses. These wafers are of

the same size and form as that used for consecration,

and neither smaller nor mingled with salt, as Vanslebz

1 My note of this custom was written in the very words more

than three years before I knew of the passage from Cyril. (Catech.

Mystag. 22.)2

Histoire, p. 100. The statement, however, is open to question.

The term employed in the Greek rite for this wafer is dvridcapov :

in Latin '

panis benedictus.' In our own Church the blessed bread


with doubtful truth alleges to have been customarytwo centuries ago. The Copts do not use salt in

any part of their ritual whatever.

So far I have not mentioned the use of the fan

or flabellum : partly because it is not mentioned in

the rubrics, and partly for another reason. For in the

elaborate ceremonial of the mass to-day, inasmuch

as generally little more than the celebrant is visible

through the narrow opening of the haikal-door, and

the celebrant's movements are rendered obscure byhis eastward position, and sometimes also by clouds

of incense, it is very difficult to follow intelligently

the action of the ritual, and to ascertain what happensat any particular moment 1

. Moreover, as the fan

now in use is merely a corporal or veil, and the

number and usage of the veils are somewhat per-

plexing, it is the more troublesome to decide at what

point a veil is waved in place of the flabellum. I

believe however that the elements are fanned just

before and just after consecration2

: but repeat that

conclusive observation of all the details in the

eucharistic service is next to impossible.Reservation of the consecrated housel is not

practised in the Church of Egypt, which therein

differs from the Church of Constantinople. For the

Greeks enclose the reserved host in a casket of silver

and kiss of peace were forbidden to notorious sinners. See Rock,vol. iii. part 2. p. 185.

1 Rubrics tallying more or less with parts of the foregoing

description of the mass, may be found in Hammond's Liturgies,

pp. 195-233; and Renaudot, Lit. Or. torn. i. pp. 153-302, where

much valuable information is collected.2 The canons of Athanasius partly imply this: see Vansleb,

Histoire, p. 288 fin. It agrees too with the rubrics in the liturgy

of St. Chrysostom.


or wood, which is wrapped in a silken veil, and hungup against the eastern wall of the sanctuary, with a

lamp burning before it. Among the Copts it was

ordered that if a crumb of the wafer were found after

the priest had drunk the rinsings, it should be givento a deacon, or even to a layman who had not drunk

water : but if not even a layman were forthcoming,the particle was to be wrapped in a veil, and placedbetween two burning tapers with the eastern lamp in

the niche also burning. The priest was then to

watch beside the host till the mass on the following

day, to receive the crumb fasting, and to undergo a

severe penance for his negligence. In the eleventh

century the monks of Dair Abu Makdr in the

western desert were in the habit of reserving the

host from Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday.When the patriarch Christodulus l discovered this

practice he forbade it, as against the rule of the

Church, under pain of excommunication. The

monks, however, persisted, and insolently asked

whether he were better than his predecessors, whohad allowed the custom : whereupon Christodulus

withdrew into the library in the tower of the

monastery, and composed there a treatise, which was

read publicly by a bishop, and proved so convincingas to silence opposition. Henceforth the custom

was abandoned. Renaudot, in relating this anecdote,

remarks that the reservation here spoken of does

not mean the reservation for the communion of the

sick, which was always customary, the isbodikon

being reserved after its immersion in the chalice

at consecration. It cannot however be questionedthat this distinction is quite erroneous : neither the



isbodikon nor any other part of the housel was or is

reserved for the communion of sick persons1

,nor for

mingling in the chalice at a subsequent celebration,

as was customary in both Greek and Roman ritual.

The legend of the devouring of the eucharist by a

serpent and the consequent discontinuance of reser-

vation has already been mentioned.

Consecration must always take place in a sacred

building, except in cases of extreme necessity in

regions where there are no churches. As regardsthe communion of sick persons, no doubt there have

been times in Coptic history when the korban was

kept over the day of celebration for their advantage ;

or rather for the advantage of the priests, who were

thus saved the trouble of consecration at unforeseen

moments. Nevertheless, where this practice pre-

vailed, it was distinctly an abuse : for the canons

strictly order that, in case of need, when the sick

person is unable to come to the church, the conse-

cration must notwithstanding be accomplished within

the sacred walls and there alone;then the priest is

to go in procession, bearing the korban and accom-

panied by deacons and acolytes, who carry thuribles

and tapers. And although now the ceremony is

shorn of all its pomp, still both rule and custom are

that the priest takes a portion of the consecrated

wafer, which has been signed with the wine, to the

house of the sick person. There if, as sometimes

happens, he finds that the invalid from causes either

physical or moral is unfitted to receive the eucharist,

he does not carry it back to the church, but consumes

1 So Vansleb, Histoire, p. 130. So also Pococke, vol. i. p. 248,

states that none of the Copts, not even those who have joined the

Church of Rome, reserve the host. I can vouch for present custom.


it forthwith himself. In order that he may be readyfor this contingency, he is obliged to go to the house

fasting. The housel is only given to the sick after

confession, and in no case where sense or conscious-

ness is failing.

Great reverence and care are required of those

who handle the sacred elements. In the Pontifical of

Gabriel a young and unpractised deacon is forbidden

to hold the cup or to administer with the spoon,for fear lest he might spill a drop of the wine, or let

fall an atom of the wafer. If the spoon slips into

the chalice, the deacon must so leave it, and use

another. Similar cautions abound in the canons

from the earliest times. Negligence on the part of a

priest who lets fall an atom of the housel is punished

by forty days' inhibition from the service of the altar

and from communion, fasting to be enforced duringthat period, and fifty prostrations to be made nightly.

The doctrine of the real presence, of the change of

the bread and wine into the very body and blood of

our Lord, is held by the Copts in its most physical

literalness. When Gabriel, the LXX patriarch, went

to the Natrun monasteries to be proclaimed there,

he had a dispute with the monks regarding the

confession of faith preceding the eucharist. It ran

thus :

'

I believe and confess that this is the bodyof our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which he

received from the mother of God, the holy Virgin

Mary, and made one with his Godhead' Some of

the monks refused the last clause, on the groundthat it was a later addition : but finally agreed to

receive it when further qualified by the words '

with-

out sundering, mingling, or confounding.' This is

the form which remains in use at present : and it is

CH. viz.] The Seven Sacraments. 297

preceded by the words ' The holy body, the precious,

pure and true blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of our

God. The body and blood of Emmanuel, our God,this is in unity of substance.' The invocation too

prays that the Holy Spirit may come and ' makethis bread the body of Christ and this wine his blood.'

And the reality of the belief is shown by a legend of

the eleventh century. It is related that a certain

anchorite named Peter had his forefinger bound upfor fifteen years ;

and when he came to die, two priests

attending him with great importunity prevailed uponhim to show the finger. When he took off the wrap-

ping, his finger was seen to be red, as if coloured

with fresh blood. Peter then told them that once

when saying mass in church (apparently at the Red

Monastery), when he came to the consecration of

the chalice and touched the surface of the wine with

his finger, he said within himself,' Will this indeed

become the blood of Christ?' Thereupon the wine

rose in the chalice so as to cover his finger, and

stained it with a stain of blood, which remained

indelible. From that day forward he never con-

secrated again.

Masses for the repose of the souls of the dead in

the Romish sense are entirely unknown in the Church

of Egypt, for the simple reason that the Copts have

no belief whatever in purgatory. Apparently theyhold that the soul after death continues in an inter-

mediate state, awaiting judgment, during a periodof forty days : and during this period, or indeed after

it, prayer for the dead and mention at the mass is

not discouraged. But there is no expiation of sin

after death by suffering, and no traffic in the terrors

of eternity.


PENANCE OR CONFESSION '.

The sacrament of confession was held in the early

Church of Egypt, and is held unwaveringly as a

point of doctrine at the present day. But, needless

to say, doctrine and practice have conflicted at

various points of Coptic history. In the middle of

the twelfth century John, the LXXII patriarch, is

even said to have abolished the sacrament altogether :

and about 1174 Markus ibn Al Kunbiri made a

great stir throughout Egypt by preaching that there

could be no forgiveness of sin without confession.

More than two centuries earlier Sanutius, the LV

patriarch, spoke very clearly upon the point : for in

sending letters of absolution to a certain deacon he

wrote,'

the bonds of this deacon are loosed by myword, nor is there cause why any of the faithful

should hinder him from the eucharist': and subse-

quently he gave his opinion, that whosoever receives

the holy communion without confession of sin onlymakes his sin the greater.

Confession can only be made to a priest : and in

these days it is only the kummus or archpriest whocan give absolution. After hearing the confession

the kummus enjoins such penance as he deems fit :

and this must be accomplished before absolution is

granted. A general confession of sin is not regardedas sufficient

;nor could the priest mete out the due

measure of penance for sin veiled in general expres-sions. Silent confession over the smoke of burning

1 Arabic


incense is said to have been substituted for open ad-

mission of guilt, when John abolished the sacrament :

and the same custom spread to the Ethiopians. But

that departure from canon law was only temporary,

though the neglect of right confession lasted for a

long period. The form of absolution seems to be

the same that is contained in the prayer of absolu-

tion to the Son, and is deprecatory.The penitent stands before the priest with bended

knees and bowed head. Both say the Lord's prayer

together; and after some other prayers the priest

gives the absolution and his blessing. During the

orisons the penitent makes three prostrations before

the altar, and one before his father confessor, whosefeet he kisses beseeching his prayers. Penance fol-

lows, and must be strictly carried out, the penitent

rendering account of all his thoughts and actions to

the priest. When the penitent has accomplished all

that was enjoined, the priest says over him a second

prayer of absolution, ere he can be admitted to par-

take of the holy mysteries. In the Church of

Abyssinia it is said to be customary to touch the

penitent with a spray of olive : and the same prac-

tice, once common in western Christendom, still

prevails in some of the larger churches at Rome.When an apostate or notorious evil-liver is re-

ceived again into the communion of the Church, the

priest pronounces the benediction in the name of the

Trinity over a vessel full of water, and pours in chrism

thrice in the form of a cross. Lections are then read

from the scriptures : the priest pronounces the prayerof absolution over the penitent, blesses the water

again, and makes over it the sign of the cross. The

penitent is now unclothed, and sprinkled thrice by

300 Ancient Coptic Churches. CH. vn.

the priest with the words '

I wash thee, in the nameof the Father, and of the Son, and of the HolyGhost.' When the penitent has resumed his clothes,

the priest recites other prayers and the form of abso-

lution, dismissing him with the words ' Thou art

healed : go thy way, and sin no more 1.'

Confession and absolution are specially necessaryat the point of death.

1 See Vansleb, Histoire, p. 190. The account seems to contain

some needless repetition.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Seven Sacraments (continued).

Orders. Matrimony. Anointing ofthe Sick.

ORDERS l.

^COGNITION is given at present to the

following orders in the hierarchy of the

Coptic Church : patriarch, metropolitan,

bishop, chief priest or kummus, priest,

archdeacon, deacon, reader 2. The sub-

deacon also is a distinct order, and his position is

clearly defined as inferior to the deacon;but his

rank is not distinguished by a special name in

common parlance. To these orders that of monk 3

is to be added : and the rubrics mention also singer,

and doorkeeper or sacristan, as officials of the

church, though these do not receive ordination at

the hands of the bishop4.

1 Arabic2 Arabic

dyî-Jlor

tsJ^kJI, ^lall, i_ia-ill,

-iJI<_po,, u-U-iJl, and

3 Arabic t^LJl.4 In a fourth-century MS. the orders given are patriarch, bishop,

priest, deacon, subdeacon, reader, monk;which occur in the com-

memoration at the mass : see Fragmentum Evangelii S. Johannis

by A. Georgius, pp. 308-9 (Rome, 1789, 4to.). Precisely the same

list is mentioned by Joseph, deacon of Abu Makar, early in the

eleventh century : see Quatremere, Recherches Critiques et His-

toriques sur la Langue et la Litte"rature de 1'Egypte, p. 248.


The Patriarch.

The full style and title of the patriarch is' The

most holy Pope and Patriarch of the Great City of

Alexandria and of all the Land of Egypt, of

Jerusalem the Holy City, of Nubia, Abyssinia,

Pentapolis, and all the Preaching of St. Mark.'

Renaudot gives the title differently, adding'

et

Fostati Babylonis,' which obviously can only date

from Mohammedan times. The name '

pope'

or* baba or papa

'

has given rise to much controversy,but may probably be derived from the Coptic ni

<Ln<L or ni .&&.. Renaudot of course assumes

that the title came from Rome to Alexandria l:

but Al Makrlzi says that the bishop being called

al ab, or father, the patriarch was called by pre-eminence '

father of fathers'

or al baba 2,and that

the title was borrowed by Rome, having been in

use at Alexandria since the time of the first

patriarch : and the account given by Eutychiusis substantially the same. The Copts however

acknowledge three other ecumenical patriarchs,

those of Rome, of Ephesus, whose seat is now

changed to Constantinople, and of Antioch. The

pope of Rome would preside in an ecumenical

council : the patriarch of Alexandria bears the title

of '

J udge of the World,' and has authority to deter-

mine the date of Easter;the patriarch of Antioch

is'

Judge between the Patriarchs,' and would have

the privilege of consecrating the holy chrism, if all

the patriarchs happened to meet together for the

1Lit. Or., vol. i. p. 349.

8 See Malan's History of the Copts, pp. 27 n. and 28 n.

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 303

Maundy Thursday service. Besides the foregoing,the Copts recognise three honorary patriarchs, those

of Jerusalem, Bagdad, and Abyssinia. In an as-

sembly of patriarchs he of Jerusalem would carrythe cross : Bagdad preserves the faith, and is judgein any difference between the religions of the East 1

.

Formerly, of course, the seat of the patriarchate

was at Alexandria : but after the Mohammedan

sovereigns had fixed their capital at Cairo, the

chair was transferred thither for reasons of practical

convenience. Al Mu'allakah is, strictly speaking, the

cathedral church of the two Cairos : and the resi-

dence of the patriarch was established there first

after the removal. But as Abu Sargah and even

Abu-'s-Sifain seem to have contended at various

times for the cathedral supremacy, so also the

residence of the patriarch seems to have varied.

In the last century it was fixed in the Harat-ar-

Rum : but after the French invasion the then

patriarch built the present cathedral in the Azbikiah

quarter of Cairo, and the adjoining dwelling which

still serves as the *

palace/

Concerning the election of the patriarch in the

earliest days of the Church, the twelve presbytersordained by St. Mark, and the thorny statement of

Eutychius, there has been enough of controversy2

.

Suffice it here to remark that all historical evidence

establishes the election by means of a council com-

prising the chief among the clergy and the chief

among the laity. The patriarch was chosen by a

synod of bishops, and their choice was ratified by1Vansleb, Histoire, pp. 9-10.

2 See Renaudot, Lit. Or., torn. i. p. 360 seq. : Neale, Alexandria,

vol. i. p. 9 seq.


the people : or the people might put forward a can-

didate, and the bishops confirm the election. Before

the year 700 A. D. the election always took place at

Alexandria : then, when the seat of the patriarchatewas removed to Cairo, the election was generallyheld at Cairo until about 1000: next came a period

during which the honour was taken in turn by the

rival cities : and finally Cairo made good an absolute

claim to preeminence. Yet even when Cairo was

recognised as the place of election, the ceremony of

enthronement was always held at Alexandria, and

was followed by a formal proclamation at Dair

Macarius in the desert. Indeed on rare occasions

the patriarch was elected at that monastery.

Immediately after the death of the pontiff, letters

notifying his decease are sent from Alexandria to

all bishops, monasteries, and chief laymen, summon-

ing an assembly to meet together. The first care

of the council is to appoint the senior bishop as

president, to obtain leave from the temporal sovereignfor the election, and to prepare themselves by solemn

prayers and fasts and vigils. When the assemblywas held at Alexandria, the chief priest of the church

of St. Mark had the right of nomination : and thoughin Cairo the right of proposal is said to have rested

with the Cairenes, some more or less phantasmal

prerogative seems always to have accompanied the

representatives of Alexandria. Often the nomineewas received with acclamation by all parties, more

particularly if he had been designated by the will or

word of the late patriarch. But in case of disagree-ment decision was sometimes very difficult

; until,

as the story goes, the Mohammedan vizier in the

eleventh century recommended the Copts to follow


the Nestorian custom 1. From the year 884 A. D.

the Nestorians in electing a new patriarch chose

first of all one hundred candidates, who were reduced

through a process of elimination by voting to fifty,

twenty-five, ten, and three. The three names were

written on separate slips of paper, and placed togetherwith the name of Christ on the altar : and after cele-

bration an innocent child drew one from among them.

If the name of Christ was drawn, all three candidates

were rejected as unworthy ;and the whole process

was repeated, until the matter was settled. This

method, first adopted in Egypt for the election of

Sanutius, the LXV patriarch, was afterwards used

occasionally in doubtful cases. A similar methodwas even used for the election of a bishop, whenMacarius LXIX refused to nominate to the vacant see

of Masr. In the Coptic practice, however, the nameswere placed under the altar, not upon it. When the

candidate was thus chosen, whether by acclamation

or lot, the senior bishop solemnly proclaimed his

name in the church, and the assembly shouted aioy,

agios.

It was required of a patriarch that he should be

of free birth, the son of a 'crowned' mother, i.e. bya first husband : for a widow is not crowned if she

remarries. He must moreover be sound in body,

unmarried, not less than fifty years of age, and

never stained by bloodshed : he must be a learned

person, of blameless life and pure doctrine, a dweller

in the desert, and no bishop. The last limitation

was enforced with such unvarying rigour, that from

the time of St. Mark to the days of Cyril LXXV in

1 This story is perhaps open to question, as John XLVIII is said

to have been chosen in the same manner.


1235 A.D. no single instance occurs of a pontiff

raised from the episcopate. But the requirement of

monastic life is not justified by the most ancient

canons or traditions of the Church. In 609 A.D.

Andronicus was elected, being a deacon of Alexan-

dria : and amongst others who were not monks

may be mentioned Agathon about 663 A. D., and his

successors John and Isaac : John XLVITI in 775 ;

Ephraim LXII in 977; Zacharias in 1002; Gabriel in

1131, deacon of Abu-'s-Sifain;and Markus in 1163.

Now however the requirement is essential, though

obviously prejudicial to the welfare of the people.

For how can a mere recluse, who has lived far

apart from the thought and movements of his time,

who has had no practice in dealing with men, and is

often as ignorant of letters as of life, how can such

a man hope to know and rule the spirit of the Church,

or with helpless hand to guide the vessel in these

times of storm and peril ?

If the new pontiff was present at the assembly, he

was placed in the midst and his election confirmed :

but if, as more often happened, he was in the desert,

a deputation of bishops and laymen was sent to bringhim from the monastery, whence, according to a

curious custom, he was brought in chains. This

custom is said to date from the latter part of the

second century. For the story is that when Julianxi was dying, he had a vision of a man bringing

grapes to him : and in the morning there came an

ignorant rustic, saying that he had found a very fine

bunch of early grapes in his vineyard1

,and had

brought them as an offering to the patriarch. When1 The legend is interesting as bearing witness to the cultivation

of the vine in Egypt at that epoch.


Julian saw him, he exclaimed,' This is the man whom

the angel of the Lord hath shewn unto me.' Sothe countryman was seized, and protesting violentlyhis unfitness for the office, he was placed in fetters,

and so ordained. In the ninth century we read

that Joseph LII on his election refused to quit the

monastery, and was dragged away in chains. Sanu-

tius LV, being chosen against his will, was taken in

chains to Alexandria for his enthronement;and the

same thing is recorded of Ephraim LXII. Indeed it

is stated that the practice of fleeing into the wilder-

ness and being brought back in irons formed a

regular part of the ceremony of installation. Vansleb

puts the matter differentlyl

: he remarks that the

office was so disliked, that when the day of election

drew near, any one who thought himself likely to be

chosen forthwith went into hiding ;and the council

got janissaries from the Muslim ruler to hunt downthe fugitives, and to bring them in fetters to Cairo !

No doubt there were times when the burdens and

dangers of the office were enough to alarm the

strongest spirits ; though at other times, in the

eleventh century for instance, the primacy was the

object of a violent competition, in which no methodwas too unscrupulous. No doubt too the fear of

election sprang in many cases from a real sense of

unworthiness, or from that counterfeit form of the

same virtue which is characteristic of the Egyptians,the dread of responsibility.

After the decision had been made, and the new

patriarch elected, an inquisition was often held into

his life and character, to ascertain that he fulfilled

the requirements of the canons. Sometimes also he

1Histoire, pp. 12, 13.

X 2


was compelled to sign a solemn bond and covenant

engaging to perform certain acts on his accession.

Thus Michael LXVIII promised, among other things,

to pay the annual tribute to Alexandria;to eschew

and to anathematise the practice of simony; and to

restore the churches of Al Mu'allakah and Al AdraHarat-ar Rum to their bishops ;

for these churches

had been usurped by Christodulus. But no sooner

was Michael seated on the throne than he tore upthe deed, laughing in the face of Sanutius, bishop of

Masr, who demanded his church, flatly denying his

covenant, and threatening to excommunicate anywitness who dared come forward against him : and,

finally, he excommunicated Sanutius for celebratingon the same day at Abu Sargah and Al Mu'allakah.

If the chosen candidate had attained no higherorder than monkhood, he passed through all the

other necessary orders on successive days before

the day of consecration, which must be a Sunday.He was made deacon on the Thursday, priest on

Friday, and kummus or chief priest on Saturday:but he was never made subdeacon, and never con-

secrated bishop. If, on the other hand, before election

he were deacon or priest, but had never become a

monk, it was essential for him to be ordained monkbefore receiving the higher orders. For this purposehe was invested with the whole angelic raiment,

the robe, the hood, the leathern girdle, and the

hermit's cloak. As perpetual celibacy and a life of

special holiness were required of the patriarch, so

doubtless the requirement of monk's orders, signify-

ing death to the world, was in accordance with the

most primitive tradition. But it is one thing to dress

the new pontiff in the angelic habit as a symbolical

CH. viii.]The Seven Sacraments. 309

act of ritual, and quite another thing to make anterior

monkhood an essential of election. The latter is a

vulgar act of realism, and a perversion of ancient

custom.

On the day of consecration the patriarch elect is

brought in chains to the church, properly to the

church of St. Mark in Alexandria, having passedthe preceding night in vigil by the tomb of the evan-

gelist. But in later times, when the body of St.

Mark had been stolen and the church destroyed, the

patriarch seems to have kept the vigil by the side of

his predecessor, from whose neck he took the patri-

archal pall. The ordinary matins service is sung,and is followed by a solemn mass, in which the

senior bishop pontificates. After the reading of the

lessons the chains are loosed;and when the passage

from the Acts is finished, a procession is formed to

the altar. First come deacons bearing uplifted

crosses, burning tapers, and flabella : then a priest

swinging a thurible, and behind him another priest

bearing the silver or golden gospel : next the arch-

deacon : the senior bishop followed by the other

prelates walking two and two : the patriarch elect,

vested in dalmatic and amice, and moving with

bowed head between two priests : and lastly all the

other priests in due order. Thus they advance with

music and chaunts to the haikal, where all salute the

altar. After the first gospel the senior bishop sits

on the throne, and all the bishops sit on the bench

of the tribune beside him, facing westward : but the

patriarch stands below between the altar and the

throne, and faces eastward, a priest holding him on

either side : and all the priests and deacons sit on

the lower steps below the prelates. Then the senior

3io Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

bishop gives the decree or instrument of election to

a deacon, who takes it to the ambon, and reads it

aloud. All the bishops subscribe their consent : after

which three priests and three deacons of Alexandria,and either the abbot of Dair Macarius, or the ruler

of Alexandria or Babylon, i.e. Cairo, sign the docu-

ment.

Now the bishops come down and stand by the

altar. After various hymns and prayers with incense

the senior bishop lays his right hand in silence on

the head of the patriarch, while the archdeacon

makes a proclamation : again he lays on his hands,

and recites the invocation, while all the bishopsstretch forth both hands, and lift their eyes above.

Then the bishop signs the patriarch with a cross 1

upon his head, proclaims him 'archbishop in the

holy Church of God of the great city of Alexandria,'

and vests him with the patrashil and chasuble. All

return to their places in the tribune, while the sys-tatical letter or instrument of ordination is read bya deacon from the ambon. Very long prayers fol-

low, until the bishop proclaims the patriarch, whenall the people shout ato?, <&-toy. Then the gospelis placed four times successively on the patriarch's

head : the chief bishop and all the bishops lay ontheir hands : and when the patriarch has received

the pall and cope, crown and staff, he is led up to

the throne, and thrice made to sit upon it. The

bishop next proclaims in Greek his name and title,

while all the bishops doff their crowns. The patriarch

1 The language of the rubric here rather suggests the use of

chrism, but is not clear upon the point : indeed there is no plain

evidence for the practice of anointing at ordination in the Church

of Egypt.

CH. viii.]The Seven Sacraments. 3 1 1

sits on the throne, holding the book of the gospel,and bishops, clergy, and laymen all salute him. Thenthe patriarch proceeds to celebrate the korban. Hereads the gospel himself, and at the words '

I am the

good shepherd' all the people cry again aôy, atoy :

at the end of the service he gives the peace, and

retires in procession to the sacristy, where his litur-

gical vestments are put off, and he is apparelled in

a dark cope. So returning to the throne he givesthe benediction, and passes from the church to the

patriarchal palace, or'

cell,' as it is called in signi-

ficant contrast1

. He rides on his own mule in a

great procession, all the clergy going before him,and the lay folk following after. At the head of

the procession three crosses are carried, and the

picture of St. Mark and his banner. In olden times

at Alexandria the procession made a station in the

midst of the city, where prayers were recited;and

thence with renewed chaunting they moved on to

the patriarch's dwelling. There all the clergy and

notables of the people came to pay homage ;and

a three days' festival was celebrated, first in the

church of the Gospel, next in that of St. Michael,

and finally in that of St. Mark. At the last service,

when mass was ended, it was customary for the

patriarch, sitting on the throne, to hold the head of

St. Mark instead of the gospel, and to place a newveil or covering upon it.

That venerable relic has long since disappeared.

1 The ceremonies of installation are given rather differently byVansleb (Histoire, pp. 162-9), wno mentions a large cross of iron

as laid on the altar under the paten, and taken by the patriarch

instead of the crozier, when he assumes his pontifical robes. But

interesting as the fact would be, I can find no other evidence for it.


The story is that early in the seventh century an

Arab crew broke into the church and carried off the

coffer in which it was preserved, thinking it held some

great treasure. But the vessel was unable to leave

the port ;and 'Amr, sending to know the reason,

discovered that they had taken the head. When it

was brought again to land, the ship glided out of

harbour. Then 'Amr wrote to Benjamin the patriarch,

who had fled to Upper Egypt, recounting what had

happened, recalled him, and gave him 10,000 dinars

to build a church in honour of the event;and that

church is called Al Mu'allakah l.

At the present day the patriarch lives in a simple

manner, having the income of an average country

living in England. A lay council has been created

to assist him in the management of the church

revenues; indeed there is some likelihood of all the

endowments, ecclesiastical and monastic, being placedin commission. Great reverence is shown to the office

of the patriarch, however unworthy the person of him

who occupies the chair. It is still customary to 'wor-

ship' before him, i.e. to fall prostrate on the ground,

laying the forehead in the dust, and then to kiss the

pontiff's hand.

Metropolitan and Bishop.

There are four metropolitans, or archbishops,under the jurisdiction of the Coptic patriarch,

1 So Vansleb, Histoire, p. 169: but there is obviously some mis-

take in the name.

A great part of the materials used above is taken from

Renaudot's treatise De Patriarcha Alexandrino.

CH. viii.]The Seven Sacraments, 313

those of Alexandria, Manufiah or Memphis, Jeru-

salem, and Abyssinia1

. All these receive their

consecration at the hands of the patriarch ;but the

ritual differs in no way from that used at the con-

secration of a bishop, except that the service in

the case of a metropolitan ends with a special invo-

cation on his behalf.

A bishop may be recommended or elected bya council of clergy and laity, but his ordination must

be at the hands of the patriarch. It is considered

better, perhaps, that he should never have been mar-

ried;but the only requirement essential is that he

should not have been married a second time. Whena candidate is presented to the patriarch, the latter

makes enquiry of six or seven witnesses, who answer

for the piety and learning of the bishop designate.Sometimes a deacon is chosen, and the interveningorders of priest and archpriest are conferred on con-

secutive days ; moreover, as in the case of the patri-

arch, if the bishop designate is a secular, he must

receive the angelic raiment and the order of monk-hood. Vespers must be kept on Saturday precedingthe Sunday of ordination, and the night passed in

vigil, during which the new bishop repeats the whole

of the psalms and the gospel of St. John. The neigh-

bouring bishops, clergy, and laity are summoned to

attend the ordination ceremony.When the office of matins is over, the patriarch

and bishops enter the church in solemn procession,and moving to the choir, wait there while the mass

1 Vansleb mentions only three, Damietta, Jerusalem, and Ethi-

opia. No doubt the see of Damietta was once metropolitan : but

it is not so at present owing to the diminished importance of that

city. The cathedral too was seized by the Muslims about 1670.

Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.

commences ;then all enter the haikal, and take their

seats upon the tribune. Meanwhile the candidate

stands at the south side of the choir with a burning

taper before him; and on the altar lie the episcopal

vestments, including a silk epitrachelion, embroidered

with the figures of the twelve apostles. After the

lection from the Acts, the patriarch comes downfrom his throne and stands in the doorway of the

sanctuary with the bishops around him;and when

he has given them the cross to kiss, he sends

three of their number to the bishop designate, whomakes a prostration before them. Then a pro-

cession is formed, the three bishops holding the

stole of the candidate, and passes round the church

and into the choir again. The instrument of

election is formally delivered to the patriarch,

who hands it over to a deacon to read from the

ambon.

Turning now eastward to the altar, the pontiff

takes from it the dark-coloured ballin, and placesthis on the new bishop instead of the shamlah 1

,

having thrice signed it with the sign of the cross.

In like manner the epitrachelion is given, and the

wearer signed thrice on the forehead. Another pro-

cession now moves down the church ;and at the

western end the new bishop sits or kneels upon the

ground during the singing of a hymn. Then, singing

still, they pass to the door of the haikal ; and the

bishop falls down before the altar, and kisses the

1 This seems to be the meaning of the rubric in Renaudot : but

it is quite impossible to be certain about it. It will be remembered

that the ' black hood'

in the painting of Anba Shanudah has three

white crosses upon it.

CH. vin.] The Seven Sacraments. 315

cross at the hand of the patriarch, who signs his

forehead thrice crosswise. The kyrie is sung here,

and the bells are rung.After prayers and the pax, the senior deacon

cries,'

Lift up your hands, O bishops ;' whereuponthe prelates all raise their hands, and lay them onthe shoulders of their new brother, while the patri-

arch lays hands upon his head. In the subsequent

prayers the patriarch turns eastward;but faces west-

ward again to sign the cross thrice on the forehead

of the new bishop, and to vest him in full episcopal

apparel. When the bishop is fully arrayed, the patri-

arch delivers to him the small cross wherewith to givethe benediction : and after a prayer lifts his handover the bishop, crying a'ioy, to which all assembled

answer &io$.

The next part of the ceremony takes place in the

choir, all the clergy standing there, while the admo-nition is read to the new bishop ; who, after hearingit, kisses the threshold of the sanctuary. Thence he

is taken back to the haikal, where he kisses the altar;

and so he is led up the steps of the tribune, and takes

his seat on the right hand of the patriarch, holdingthe book of the gospel. Mass forthwith commences,and proceeds in the accustomed manner, except that

some special versicles are used at the kiss of peace.The patriarch communicates himself, confesses the

new bishop, and administers, giving the wafer and

the cup separately into the bishop's hand. Thenthe corporal is placed over the sacred elements

;the

bishop retires to the doorway, and the patriarch,

turning westward, places the book of the gospel on

his head, saying the pax. Then the deacon pro-

claims the reading of the gospel from the ambon,


and the patriarch reads a passage from St. John1

.

After the words '

Jesus stood in the midst and said

unto them," Peace be unto you,"

'

the patriarch holds

out the gospel over the head of the bishop ; again,at the words ' As my Father hath sent me, even so

send I you/ he does the same thing, crying out

ioy. Then he resumes, and at the words ' Receive

ye the Holy Ghost/ he breathes in the form of a

cross upon the face of the bishop, crying again <toy,

and the cry is taken up by the clergy and the people,

the choir singing and the bells ringing ;and lastly,

at the words '

They are retained/ all the people shout,' A hundred years.' The patriarch and bishop return

to the altar, remove the veil, and administer the

communion to the rest of the clergy and laymen ;

while the choir sing the benediction. At the end

of the service, when the benediction is to be givenfor the dismissal of the congregation, the patriarch

robes the bishop in a dark-coloured processional

cope, and invites him to give a separate benison.

All then proceed to the patriarch's dwelling,and a three days' festival is kept. Here, too, the

patriarch often presents the new bishop with a small .

hand-cross and with a crozier ; but that is not a

necessary part of the ceremony of ordination. It

is, however, necessary for the bishop to fast duringthe week which follows his consecration 2

,and during

that time to study diligently the duties of his office;

and meanwhile the pontiff sends letters commendatoryto his diocese.

The installation of the bishop at his own church

1 C. xx.2Vansleb, Histoire, p. 172. Yet the same writer gives three

weeks as the period of fasting in another passage. See p. 33.

CH. viii.]The Seven Sacraments. 317

must take place on a week-day, and three other

bishops at least must be present to accompany him.

When he arrives at the village or dair nearest his

own town, the people come to meet him in proces-

sion, and prostrate themselves before him. Thenthe clergy read a chapter from St. Matthew 1

,and

conduct him with chaunts and music through the

town to the church. The senior bishop says set

prayers before the door, recites Psalm cxvii. and partof another chapter of St. Matthew 2

; other prayersand forty kyries follow, and they enter. Just within

the door the senior bishop reads the prayer of abso-

lution over the new prelate ;then come more lessons,

and the procession moves to the haikal, where all

fall down before the altar, and the new bishop takes

the lowest seat on the tribune. After matins, the

bishops put on their liturgical vestments and beginthe mass, the new bishop reading some of the prayersand censing the altar. They invoke upon him the

gifts of the Holy Spirit, and lead him in processionround the church. On returning to the haikal they

lay their hands on his shoulders, and then take him

up to the throne, where the senior bishop makeshim sit, thrice replacing him as he tries to rise, andthe choir all cry d'toy. Thus sitting on the throne

the bishop holds the book of the gospel in his hand,the prelates and priests kiss him in order, while the

deacons chaunt to music. He descends and reads

the gospel, during which the chief bishop places the

silver book upon his head three times;then return-

ing to the altar he accomplishes the celebration. Theinstallation, like the consecration, is followed by three

1 C. xxi. 1-7.2 C. xvi. 13-19.


days of festival, but the bishop's fasting is now turned

to feasting.

The number of episcopal sees under the jurisdic-

tion of the patriarch of Alexandria is at present four-

teen;but in ancient times was far greater. Vansleb

in 1673 transcribed a catalogue of the sees from an

old MS. shown to him by the then bishop of Siut ;

in this there are nearly one hundred given, and that

number falls far short of the total which can be

found recorded in church documents. In his owntime Vansleb mentions fifteen as still existing :

i. Nakadah, 2. Girgah, 3. Abu Tig, 4. Siut, 5. Man-

falut, 6. Koskam, 7. Malafah and Miniah, 8. Bahna-

sah, 9. Atfiah, 10. Tahta and Ashmunain, 1 1. Faium,12. Bilbais, 13. Mansurah, 14. Damietta, 15. Manuf,

Bahairah, and the port of Alexandria, which are

united. At present there remain the following:i. Gizah, 2. Faium and Bahnasah, 3. Miniah and

Ashmunain, 4. Sanabu and Koskam, 5. Manfalut,

6. Siut, 7. Girgah and Akhmim, 8. Abu Tig, 9. Kai-

nah, Kuss, and Nakadah, 10. Asnah, 1 1. Al Khartum,

12-14. three dioceses in Abyssinia under the metro-

politan.

Kummus.

There are two senses in which the term kummusis used, or its Coptic equivalent /*vojuienoc, which

is a slightly corrupted form of the Greek 1770^61/09.

The secular kummus, or archpriest, has a position

somewhat corresponding to that of an English rector ;

he is the chief priest in charge of a church, to which

there may be other priests as well as deacons attached.

The name applies even to the superior of the cathe-

dral. In its other meaning it signifies the head or

CH. vm.] The Seven Sacraments. 319

abbot of a monastery. It is very difficult to decide

whether any particular church was originally secular

or religious : and therefore it is not surprising to find

that the superior in both cases is called by the same

name; though in all probability the term hegumenos

was once distinctly monastic.

When a priest is to be ordained kummus, he is

brought to the church, and set in the choir arrayedin his sacerdotal vestments. Two archpriests lead

him between them in procession round the church,

and bring him to the door of the sanctuary, where

the bishop is standing. All bow before the altar,

and the bishop says the prayer of incense;then

after other prayers lays his hand upon the priest's

head. Moreover, the bishop signs his head thrice

with the sign of the cross;the priest kisses the

altar;and the korban is celebrated. After commu-

nion a form of exhortation is read, admonishing the

new kummus of his spiritual duties.

Priest.

For the ordination of a priest the canonical ageis thirty-three years. Testimony is required from

the clergy that he be of good character and under-

standing, lawfully married, and a deacon in holyorders. If not already a deacon, he must be madereader and deacon on successive days previous to

the day of ordination. When the day has come,he must be vested as deacon, wearing a dalmatic,

and the orarion over his left shoulder, and be

brought to the choir, the bishop being within the

haikal accompanied by a priest. The candidate is

led in procession round the church;then bows low


before the altar, while the bishop, facing eastward,

proceeds with the prayer of morning incense. Atthe prescribed moment the bishop turns to the west,

and lays his hand on the candidate's head, repeat-

ing an orison. Resuming the eastward position he

continues praying ;then turns westward again to

sign the candidate's forehead with a cross. The

proclamation of the candidate as priest follows,

whereupon the bishop makes three more crosses

on his forehead, and vests him in sacerdotal apparel.

After the thanksgiving a priest delivers the exhor-

tation;there is also a special admonition concerning

the duty of confessing the people and of exercising

great discretion in dealing with penitents. The new

priest kisses the book containing the exhortation,

and the threshold of the haikal, and the hand of

the bishop. Then he receives the communion, and

the bishop's hands are thrice laid upon his head,

and all the people shout agios with the name of the

priest and his cure. According to Vansleb the

bishop also breathes upon his face, saying,' Receive

thou the Holy Ghost;' but the rubrics do not seem

to mention insufflation.

Ordination is followed by a fast of forty days, the

fast lasting from sunset till three o'clock in the fol-

lowing afternoon.

Deacon.

For the ordination of the deacon the ceremonial

is almost the same as that appointed for ordination

of the priest : except that the deacon wears no stole

when he is presented to the bishop, and that the

process of investiture with the insignia of the order

CH. viii.] The Seven Sacraments. 32 1

consists in the placing of the orarion upon the left

shoulder. Vansleb records that the eucharistic spoonis likewise delivered to the deacon as a symbol of

his office, and held all through the mass;and that

at the end of the service the bishop breathes uponhis face. The aôy is called thrice by the clergy.

When an archdeacon is ordained, there is a special

additional form of prayer, and a particular arrange-ment of the orarion, as described in the account givenabove of the ecclesiastical vestments

;but otherwise

the service and ritual do not differ from those of the

inferior order.

The subdeacon stands at the door of the haikal

without dalmatic or other ornament. The bishopdoes not ordain him by imposition of hands : but

after the prayer of morning incense places one handon each temple, so that the thumbs meet on the

forehead, and so recites an orison. The sign of

the cross is also made on the subdeacon's forehead

once, and subsequently thrice, as in the case of the

higher orders;and the orarion is placed over his

left shoulder. He kisses the altar, and receives the

eucharist;but the bishop at no time lays hand upon

his head.

As the deacon holds the spoon, so the subdeacon

holds a lighted candle in his hand all through the

celebration of the korban.

Reader.

The candidate for the office of reader in the

Church stands before the haikal without .dalmatic,

with head uncovered and bowed low. He is brought,as usual, in procession, and presented to the bishop,

who stands in the doorway. The bishop asks,' Do


ye bear witness that this person is in very truth

worthy of the order?' and the answer is, 'Of a

truth, our father, he is worthy.' Then the bishop,

with a pair of scissors, cuts a large cross throughthe hair of the candidate, and a smaller cross in

the angles between the branches. After a prayer

westward, and another towards the altar, the bishop,

again facing to the west, holds the temples of the

candidate during another orison;then he delivers

the book of the gospel, and administers the eucha-

rist;but the ordination is accomplished without the

imposition of hands.

There is no other form of tonsure than that just

mentioned recognised by the Coptic canons or prac-tised by any order. Something of the same kind is

done at the ordination of the subdeacon in Abys-sinia 1

, according to Alvarez; and the subdeacon is

made to touch the keys of the church, a veil is

placed upon his head, and a cruse of water is de-

livered as his symbol of office.

No reader, nor subdeacon, nor singer may enter

the sanctuary, though they receive the eucharist

before the laymen.The singer is signed with the sign of the cross,

and receives a benediction from the bishop, of course

without imposition of hands.

Monk.

Three years of noviciate are required before the

order of monkhood is conferred. Then the abbot,

standing at the door of the haikal, bids the novice

lie prostrate on the ground, and reads over him

1

Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. p. 6 note.


the burial service in token of his death to the

world. The crosswise tonsure is made upon the

monk's head, and the abbot vests him with tunic,

hood, and girdle, accompanying each investiture

with the appointed orisons. Then, unless the monkdemand the asklm or angelic habit, the abbot pro-

nounces absolution and gives his benediction. Forthe angelic habit a separate service is appointed,and the monk receives a kind of cloak resemblinga cope ;

the cross is laid upon his head, and a

"special exhortation is read explaining the ardu'ous

duties involved in the assumption of this garb of

asceticism.

MATRIMONY 1.

Marriage is not allowed to be celebrated duringthe season of Lent

;but the most common time now

is just before the fast commences. The sacrament

of matrimony in the Coptic Church is surrounded

with much solemnity, and retains some traces of

ancient and even pre-Christian custom which have

disappeared from western ritual.

It is the duty of the priest to ascertain that both

parties to the marriage are acting of free will and

not of compulsion. On the appointed day the bride-

groom and the bride are separately escorted in pro-cession with music through the streets to the church.

When the bridegroom reaches the door, the deacons

bearing tapers and bells and the priests meet him

there, singing' Blessed is he that cometh in the

1 Arabic s-

Y 2


name of the Lord.' Other chaunts follow, and the

bridegroom is then conducted to the choir. Similarlythe bride is welcomed with the

'

Ave, Maria' at the

door, and led to her place in the division or galleryfor women. All the clergy are dressed in white :

and if the patriarch perform the office of benediction,

the clergy escort him to the church in procession.The raiment destined for the bridal, a golden cross,

a golden ring, a girdle, and incense, are placed on a

tray in the choir : and sometimes also a new silken

cope, which it is customary for the bridegroom to

present to the patriarch, who puts on the gift for the

service. The service comes just after matins.

The penitential psalms are first recited, and incense

is burned : then the patriarch or celebrant is solemnlycensed by the other clergy. Kyries, alleluias, and

psalms are next sung and followed by the epistle :

then the choir is censed, and the gospel read in

Coptic and Arabic with the customary ceremonies.

Several orisons from the liturgy are now said endingwith the prayer of absolution to the Son : after which

the tray of vestments is unveiled, and the patriarch

blesses each one singly. In these the bridegroomis arrayed, being clothed first in a white silken tunic

reaching to the feet, then with the girdle about his

waist, and with a white covering on his head : more-

over the patriarch places the ring on the ring-finger

of the bridegroom's right hand, and pronounces over

him his benediction.

The celebrant now moves down from the choir

leading the man to the place where the woman is

waiting, and bids him give to her the ring, to which

also a crown is fastened. And when the woman putsforth her hand to take them, she thereby signifies


her willingness to become his wife, and the cele-

brant inclines their heads together. Thence the

man and woman go to the doorway of the choir, and

the bride stands at the bridegroom's right hand.

Thus standing they are covered by the priest with

a single veil of white silk or fine linen, symbolical of

pure and holy union. Appropriate prayers are re-

cited, and hymns are sung, accompanied by the

burning of incense, and divided by a lection from the

gospel. When they are finished, the priest or

patriarch begins the benediction of the bride and

bridegroom ;and whenever -he mentions their names,

he signs them with the sign of the cross1

. Litur-

gical prayers continue with music;and after the pax

the priest blesses a vessel of oil, and anoints both

bride and bridegroom on the forehead and on the

wrist : he blesses also the crowns, and after an

orison places them on their heads, and cries in a

loud voice,' With glory and honour the Father has

crowned them, the Son blesses them, the HolyGhost crowns them, comes down upon them, and

perfects them'

: and other forms of blessing follow,

varying with, the customs of the several churches.

Then the man and woman stand with their arms

crossed before them, and the golden cross is laid

upon their heads, while the priest pronounces over

them the absolution. This is followed by an exhor-

tation, at the end of which the priest delivers the

bride to the bridegroom, joining their hands, and givesanother benediction. During some versicles which

1 In the previous benediction of the bridegroom, according to

Vansleb, the priest stands behind him facing eastward, and touches

the back of his head with the silver or golden cross. See, however,

Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. ii. p. 364 seq.


follow, a procession is formed, and moves round the

church with lights burning and music playing.

When they have returned, the canon of the mass

begins. Man and wife partake of the holy eucharist,

and are then escorted in procession to the doors of

the church, and so through the streets homewards.

On the eighth day after marriage a solemn service

is held for the removal of the crown. Certain

prayers and lections are recited in due order;and

when they are finished, the priest takes off the

crown from the head of the bride and bridegroom,and dismisses them with his benediction.

It will be seen, then, that the Coptic marriageservice corresponds in its main features, particularly

in the coronation and removal of the crown, with

the same service in the Greek, as given by Goar l.

It corresponds also with the Latin rite, as recorded

in the ninth century by pope Nicholas, who brings out

four points as essential the offerings to the church,

the benediction, the veiling, and the crowning2.

ANOINTING OF THE SICK.

In the Arabic names for this sacrament, which

signify'

oil of the lamp'

or '

oil of the sick V there is

1Euchol., pp. 396, 400.

2 For other ceremonies connected with the Coptic marriage, see

Lane's Modern Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 290 seq. Lane's account of

the Copts is fairly accurate on the whole, though warped by that

morbid prejudice which disfigures most English writings about

them. See, for example, the thoroughly unjust article on the

Copts in the new Encyclopaedia Britannica.3

JjJuiiJ oo, or


nothing to denote that it is to be administered solely

as the last rite of the Church to those who are

departing. So far therefore the Coptic differs from

the Romish practice.

In the Pontifical of Gabriel the rites of the sacra-

ment of unction are described as follows. A lampwith seven branches 1

is filled with purest olive oil

of Palestine, and placed on a stand before a picture

of the blessed Virgin : near it also are set a cross

and the silver book of the gospel. Seven priests,

or any other convenient number, assemble in the

church. The service commences with a thanks-

giving, followed by burning of incense, a portion of

an epistle, and some appropriate orisons. Then the

chief priest lights one of the wicks, making the signof the cross over the oil, while his brethren sing

psalms. Other prayers follow;and at a time

appointed the second priest likewise makes the

sign of the cross over the oil, and kindles the second

wick : and so on with intervals of prayer and chaunt

until the whole seven wicks are kindled in order.

When all the prayers and lessons belonging to the

lighting of the lamp are thus accomplished, the sick

person, if he be in such a condition that he is able to

take part in the service, advances to the door of the

haikal, facing to the east. There the chief priest

holds the silver gospel and the cross high above his

head, and then lays his hands upon the sick man's

temples : but while the chief priest alone recites the

orisons, all the priests severally give their benedic-

tion, recite the Lord's prayer, and open the gospel,

reading the passage on which they chance to open.

1 See the illustration of such a lamp on p. 76 supra:

328 Ancient Coptic Chiirches. [CH. vm.

Moreover the creed and other prayers are uttered :

the cross is again uplifted over the sick man : and a

procession is formed and passes round the church,

bearing the seven-wicked lamp and lighted tapers,

while they sing, praying to God that the sick man

may be healed through the intercession of saints

and martyrs. At the end of the procession the sick

man returns to the choir, and standing at the door

of the haikal, as before, is anointed with the oil. In

case the sick person is too ill to endure the long and

fatiguing ceremony of the service in the church, a

substitute is put in his place, but the service is not

performed outside the consecrated building, and is

intended as an intercession for the recovery of the

sick, and not as the Church's final benediction of a

soul passing to eternity.

The Armenian rite for the anointing of the sick

closely resembles the Coptic in its use of a seven-

wicked lamp : but differs in allowing the service to

be held at the bedside, in cases where the sick

person is unable to go to the-church.

This practice of anointing the sick with oil from a

church lamp is extremely ancient. St. Chrysostom

clearly speaks of persons who had been anointed in

faith with oil from such a lamp, and had been cured

of divers diseases. Oil of the lamp is also mentioned

as used for unction of the sick in the life of Nilus

the younger1

: and monks and others are said to

have been healed of evil spirits in this manner, the

anointing being given at the hands of a priest. Thesame custom and the same expression are also found

in Greek ritual, which contains a prayer for the

1Vita, viii. 58, 59: Boll. Sept. 26, quoted in Diet. Christ.

Antiq. q. v.


anointing of the sick with oil of the lampl. Seven

priests also are required, as in the Coptic ritual;

and the oil is kept burning in a seven-wicked lampbefore the principal icon of our Lord in the church :

but wine is used in this lamp in lieu of water 2.

1Euchol., p. 842.

2Id., p. 436.

CHAPTER IX.

Various Rites and Ceremonies of the

Church.

The Holy Oils. Consecration ofa Church and Altar. Consecration

of a Baptistery. Festival of Epiphany. Palm Sunday and HolyWeek. Seasons ofFasting.

THE HOLY OILS.

ORMAL usage and canon law in the Westalike recognise three distinct kinds of oil

as employed in the service of the Church,

called chrism, oil of the catechumens, oil

of the sick. There are many vestiges in Copticrubrics showing that three kinds of oil have been

used from time immemorial in the ritual of Egypt :

and there still exists at the church of Anba Shanudahin Old Cairo a chrismatory containing three crewets,

one for each of the several sorts. But the cor-

respondence is rather in practice than in theory :

for it is doubtful whether the Church of Alexandria

ever formally recognised more than two kinds of oil,

each having a specific and separate ritual name and

purpose. In the early fourth-century fragment of a

Coptic MS., published by Georgius, two kinds are

mentioned, and called ^.VJon JULTpon and ^.viort

eX<s,ioit;and so perpetually we find chrism and

Various Ceremonies. 331

olive oil distinguished. The latter was also called

in Greek ayaAAiao-eoo? eXaioj/, whence, by a curious

corruption, the term galilaeon1 was formed in Coptic,

and constantly stands in the rubrics and prayersfor the secondary oil. There is no difficulty what-

ever in understanding the use of three oils in

practice and the recognition of two in theory by the

Egyptians : for while the galilaeon answers generallyto the ' oleum catechumenorum

'

of the Latins, and

the oil of the lamp answers to the' oleum infir-

morum,' yet the material of these two oils, namelythe galilaeon and the oil of the lamp, is precisely the

same in both cases, pure olive oil of Palestine.

They are therefore virtually one and the same oil,

and stand together in contrast to the myron2 or

chrism, which is an elaborate compound.The most essential ingredient in the composition

of the holy chrism is balsam grown in the garden

by the Virgin's well at Matariah, the ancient Helio-

polis. It was here, according to the legend, that the

Holy Family rested on their flight into Egypt: and

it is related that they hid in the hollow of a tree,

across which a spider wove his web, and so deceived

the pursuers. A mediaeval Arab writer thus cites

a mention of the balsam of Matariah :

'

in vicinia

Fostatae sunt ab austro vicus Menf et a septentrioneurbs nominata Ainschemes . . . dicunturque ambaehorti fuisse Pharaonis, cui Deus maledicat. In

Ainschemes provenit balsami arbor, quod nullibi

terrarum nisi hie nascitur V As a matter of fact the

1 An intermediate form is also found, A.V^.XXieX^.Iort.2 The term is in use at present in the Arabic form

^j^-Jil.3 See Descriptio Êgypti, translated from the Arabic by J. D.

Michaelis, Gottingen, 1776, p. 127.

332 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. ix.

balsam-tree is found also in Arabia, and though the

last tree in Egypt is said to have perished in the

great inundation of 1615, it may very well have

been restored. Tradition, however, insists that the

balsam grew only in the garden at Matariah, and

required to be watered from the well in which the

infant Christ was washed. There is a story that in

the twelfth century a certain Jew, who had becomevizier to the sultan 'Aziz, son of Saladin, flatly denied

this truth; and, to prove his contention, had another

well dug close to the Virgin's fountain. For a yearthe balsam trees were watered only from the newwell

;and the result was that they yielded not one

drop of balsam. Next year the vizier caused them

to be watered in equal quantities from both wells :

and they produced then half the usual amount of

balm. The third year, when the water of the

Virgin's well alone was used, the yield of balm

recovered, and attained its full measure 1.

Several boilings are required for the myron, and

each is a process precisely ordered. The amount of

every drug used is defined by rigid prescription, and

portioned by weight and measure. At the first

boiling the various herbs and spices, which include

lilies and cassia, are put in a pot, and covered with

fresh water, and so left to steep for a day. Next

morning eight pounds of pure oil, which has never

been contained in any vessel of leather, is poured

upon the spices, and made to boil all day over a

moderate fire, the fuel for which is olive wood or

decayed church pictures2

. While the mixture is

1 See also Evangelia Apocrypha, ed.Tischendorff, 2nd edit. p. 193.

(Evang. Infant. Arab. c. xxiv.)2 This custom recorded by Vansleb (Histoire, p. 91), still con-

CH. ix.] Various Ceremonies. 333

boiling the whole of the Psalms are recited. Fromtime to time the spices are stirred with a wand of

olive ;and as the water fails, it is replenished. In

the evening the pot is taken off the fire, and the oil

left to cool all night till the following morning, whenit is strained through linen.

Then red roses of Persia, white sandal-wood, and

other aromatics are placed in a cauldron of fresh

water and left for six hours;when the oil of yester-

day is placed with them, and the whole is boiled for

four hours over a slow fire, and strained again.For the third boiling other spices are chosen,

steeped, boiled with the oil resulting from the day

preceding, and strained as before. Next day white

storax, saffron, aloe-wood, and more red roses are

used with other things, and boiled as before until all

the water has evaporated ;when the remaining

mixture is clarified by straining. This on the fifth

day is added to a decoction of yellow amber and

storax or balsam, and boiled over a slow fire madeof oak charcoal, until the amber and the storax are

dissolved. Then the chrism is passed through a

linen strainer into a clean vessel, and is stirred

daily for seven days, when it is ready for conse-

cration *.

According to ancient custom the hallowing of the

myron should always, if possible, take place at the

church of St. Macarius in the western desert.

Originally it was done in the church of St. Mark

tinues : it accounts for the disappearance of all really early paint-

ings from the churches.1 The manner of making chrism as described by a Coptic prelate,

in answer to a demand from the Maphrian of Mosul, is given in a

MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. (XIV. No. 100.)

334 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH.IX.

at Alexandria, and when the change took place it

is impossible to say, but probably not later than the

seventh century. There seems too some ambiguity

concerning the day proper for the consecration,

whether it should be Maundy Thursday, as in the

western rite, or Good Friday. But the Coptic legendis that the day was changed to Good Friday, and

the place to Dair Macarius, c. 390, by the patriarch

Theophilus, in obedience to the command of an

angel seen in a vision. The same angel taught

Theophilus the right spices to use for the chrism,

and the right manner of its preparation. Theo-

phanius LX is said to have restored the custom of

consecrating on Good Friday, which had been

abolished by his predecessor c. 950 A.D. Duringthe thirty years which followed, the practice varied

between Thursday and Friday, until Ephraim LXII

by an ordinance settled Thursday as the right dayfor ever. Thursday, of course, is the day recognised

by the Church all over the world for the consecration

of the chrism;and if the Copts ever changed it, they

were doubtless conscious of error. Hence the sup-

posed sanction of the change by an angel's voice, as

in the legend. As regards the change of place, it

may very well have followed close upon the Arab

conquest ;for the ceremony required great pomp

and great preparation, and it is no wonder that the

scene was changed from the alarms and persecutionsof the city to the unbroken quiet of the desert

monastery.When the day has come, the patriarch and a great

number of bishops and clergy and laity assemble at

the church of St. Macarius. The two oils which

await consecration, the myron and the galilaeon, are


placed in separate vessels on the high altar l. Service

begins with a thanksgiving accompanied by incense,

and a prayer is recited by the patriarch. Thenfollow several lessons, during which the pontiff is

seated on his throne, and when they are ended a

procession is formed, which passes round the church.

At the head a processional cross is carried : then

come twelve subdeacons each bearing a lighted

lamp : twelve deacons with silver flabella : twelve

priests with censers of burning incense : the patri-

arch walking under a white silken canopy, upheld

by four deacons, and carrying the vessel of holy oil

covered by a white veil : and on either side of the

patriarch and behind him are other ecclesiastics

bearing flabella and crosses. As they move, all

sing,' Behold the ointment of the Lord

' 2: and

when they return to the haikal, the patriarch placesthe myron again upon the altar 3

, and proceeds with

the long but beautiful consecration service. After

the benediction of the oils the korban is immediatelycelebrated : and when it is over, the myron and the

1

According to Vansleb the'

mystagogia/ which he defines as

the creed of the apostles, is placed between them. The same

writer mentions two '

altars'

of wood specially made, one on each

side of the high altar : but the term is obviously inaccurate, mere

pedestals being required if anything, and no mention being madeeven of these in the rubrics. The statement doubtless arises from

a misapprehension : I think it possible that altar-boards may have

been used as stands for the vessels but placed upon the high altar.

See Histoire, p. 231 seq.3 The Copts say that the chrism represents the balm used at the

entombment.3

According to Vansleb the myron is placed on one of the wooden

pedestals, and the galilaeon on the other : but see the rubric in

Denzinger, Rit. Or., torn. i. p. 251, where nothing of the kind is

mentioned.


galilaeon are both placed in the cavity under the

high altar, where they remain until Tuesday in

Easter week. On that day after mass the patriarchdistributes to the bishops sufficient quantities to last'

them for the coming year. It should be noticed

that in the prayers of benediction, where the uses of

the chrism are specified, the anointing of regenera-tion is mentioned, and the anointing of bishops and

priests, and the consecration of altars : but in the

benediction of the galilaeon it is stated that'

priests

and martyrs' have been anointed with it. Fromthe tenour of the prayers in the latter case, it is

clear that the galilaeon is regarded as possessing a

mystic virtue against idolatry and witchcraft, a

power of defence against the assaults of the devil,

and a power of healing for soul and body. It is

therefore needful in some way to all the faithful :

and accordingly we find that to this day all folk,

whether cleric or lay, are anointed once a year in

the season of Lent with the galilaeon.

But present practice has departed somewhat from

the primitive tradition. For while the galilaeonseems almost to have disappeared through a con-

fusion with the oil of the sick, which is hallowed

from time to time as required ;the consecration of

chrism has become an extremely rare occurrence.

Not that its worth has been in any way depreciated :

on the contrary it is regarded still as no less neces-

sary than sovereignly precious : but for the last two

or three hundred years at least it seems to have

been made in larger quantities, and consequently at

longer intervals. For the ceremony, which should

be annual, now takes place once in every thirty

or forty years. According to Pococke a definite


interval of thirty years is prescribed ;but this is not

the case. A list of dates, for instance, at which the

consecration was held in the thirteenth century shows

irregular intervals varying from six to fifteen yearsl

.

The myron is now used only at confirmation, and at

the dedication of a new church, altar, picture or

vessel, according to the testimony of the present

patriarch.

There is a close resemblance between Coptic and

Greek usage as regards the myron : for the sameterm is used in both languages. The preparation is

as elaborate : for the Greeks use oil, wine, balsam,

myrrh, storax, cassia, cinnamon, marjory, and in all

some thirty-six aromatics 2. Moreover the consecra-

tion is attended with much the same ceremonial.

The oil is carried in procession in an alabaster box,

which is covered with a veil;before it move deacons

with lighted tapers, and on each side of it are seven

deacons carrying fans, which they hold above the

vessel. But the pontiff instead of carrying the holyoil receives it from the chief priest or bishop at the

door of the sanctuary, and places it on the altar.

In the West the chrism was made merely of oil

and balsam. The three oils were consecrated

together, the chrism being borne in a vessel of gold,while the oleum sanctum and oleum infirmorum

were held in silver vessels : and the procession

through the church resembled that of the oriental

ritual. Chrism was used for the latter unction at

baptism and for confirmation;for the consecration

of a church, altar, and bells;for the consecration of

1 The MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale gives the years 1299,

1305, 132, i330> J 340, and 1346 A.D.

2Goar, Euchol., p. 637.

VOL. II. Z


bishops, priests, and kings ;and it was placed on the

hands of the deacon, and on crucifixes at their bene-

diction. But in the Latin rite the chrism and balsam

were set on the altar separately : during the service

the bishop mingled a portion of the oil with the

balsam on the paten, and then replaced it in the

golden vessel. Curiously enough exactly the samemethod of mingling the chrism is found in the

Jacobite Syrian ritual, which otherwise tallies rather

with the Coptic, particularly in the details of the

great procession, and in the prominence given to

the use of flabella. The Syrians recognise only two

oils, and call the second the'

oil of anointing'

: it is

used for the first unction at baptism, and for the

healing of the sick.

THE CONSECRATION OF A CHURCH AND ALTAR.

The Coptic order for the consecration of a church

having never been published, it is impossible to give

anything like a complete description of the ceremonies

customary. In giving therefore such points of usageas can be ascertained, others no less essential will

have to be passed in silence owing to want of in-

formation.

The service commences with vespers on the even-

ing before a Sunday, and lasts through most of the

night, the act of consecration being reserved for

Sunday morning. A great number of clergy and

bishops assemble with the patriarch in the building ;

but it does not appear whether there is any ceremonyat the western door, such as was usual in our own

country. Seven earthen vessels of water are ranged


in front of the haikal, and the neck of every vessel is

wreathed with leaves of a plant called 'silk' 1. Seven

lamps also are burning before the haikal, and seven

censers of incense between the vessels of water and

the screen. A large portion of the psalter is then

sung, and followed by a long series of lessons;and

after every lesson a hymn is chaunted. Next the

patriarch censes the building, while the clergy singanother hymn. Prayer after prayer continues, varied

only with kyries from the people and portions from

all the four gospels. When the moment comes for

the benediction of the water, all kneel down until the

orison is finished.

Then all rising, the clergy form a long processionheaded by the patriarch : the vessels of water are

borne along in this procession, and the clergy, whoall wear their most splendid vestments, carry tapers,

thuribles, flabella, and a magnificent book of the

gospel. They go first into the haikal, where the

patriarch or bishop sprinkles the walls and top of

the altar with water, which he takes from the earthen

vessel in a gourd : then he sprinkles in like mannerthe walls of the haikal, particularly the eastern niche,

and also the pillars and dome of the altar-canopy.

From the haikal the procession passes round the

whole church ;and the pontiff sprinkles in the same

way the walls, angles, columns, and, where possible,

the roof, saying at each place,' The holy consecration

of the house of God.'

After the first procession a second is made, in

which the places sprinkled are signed with the silk

1

Apparently white beet. See Vansleb, Histoire, p. 215. It is

questionable whether the plant is not rather used as the instru-

ment of aspersion.

Z 2


leaves in the form of a cross. Finally, there comes

a third procession, in which a vessel of holy chrism

is borne before the pontiff, who signs the myronwith the sign of the cross upon the altar, walls,

columns, and all the places that were touched with

the leaves, and sprinkled with the hallowed water.

The consecration of the church is now accomplished,and the marks of consecration are sometimes recorded

by the incision of crosses. Thus all the pillars at

Abu Sargah have dedication crosses cut into the

marble : others are seen in Al Muallakah, Al Adra

Harat-az-Zuailah, and elsewhere : and the crosses

often cut on the architrave joining the columns of the

nave may have the same origin. It seems, however,

an invariable rule that no record was preserved of

chrismal crosses signed upon plastered surfaces.

In the foregoing account no mention is made of a

procession round the outside of the church : and I

have no doubt that such a procession never formed

part of the ceremonial, for the simple reason that

there is scarcely a single church in Egypt which is

so far detached on the outside as to render an ex-

terior circuit possible. In our old English ritual the

procession passed round the church outside, as well

as inside, and the bishop made twelve crosses with

chrism upon the walls externally, and twelve in-

ternally. On the outside, the places where the

chrism was signed were often marked by an incised

cross in a roundel : and inside, where the chrism

was placed upon a plastered surface, the spot was

marked by a similar design painted. In the British

Museum there is a French miniature l

representing a

bishop on a ladder making a cross upon the wall of

1 Add. MSS. 18,143.


a church. The Ordo Romanus prescribes twelve

as the. total;but twenty-four was the more usual

number;and the full number was marked upon any

chapel added to an earlier building. Nine of the

inside crosses remain in Henry VII/s chapel at

Westminster : outside crosses are tolerably common.In England the size and shape varies : thus largeand fanciful devices may be seen outside Salisbury

cathedral, and on the church of Ottery St. Mary the

crosses are held by angels. The Coptic form is

generally that given in the woodcut 1 a Greekcross having the upper and lower limbs slightly

elongated and having all the branches hollowed

with sloping sides. The nearest approach to this

form in England is found at Chichester cathedral.

In the Anglo-Saxon ritual as recorded in the

Ecgbert Pontifical, the bishop, pausing at the western

door on his arrival, strikes it with his staff and is then

admitted. A hymn was sung outside, and a litany

within the nave : then the bishop wrote the alphabeton the floor, and passing to the altar exorcised and

blessed salt and water, blessed also some ashes, and

mixing salt and ashes, made a cross with the mixture

on the water. Wine also was mingled with the

water ; and the bishop, dipping his finger in the

water, first signed the cross on all the corners of the

altar, and then walked seven times round the altar

sprinkling water upon it with a branch of hyssop.In the same way he walked all round the church,

inside and outside, sprinkling the walls;and he

sprinkled also one large cross the length and breadth

of the building. Then the hallowed water was

poured away, and the altar dried with a cloth :

1P. 2 1 supra, figs, i and 2.


incense was offered, and a cross with oil was made

in the centre and at each corner of the slab;and the

same five places were subsequently anointed with

chrism. Crosses of chrism were made also on the

walls. Special prayers and rites for the consecration

of the altar and all the sacred vessels followed :

relics were enclosed in the altar or in the slab : the

bishop placed two small crossed tapers and a little

heap of incense and kindled them together over the

five spots marked by the crosses of chrism : and the

service was brought to an end by the celebration of

mass l.

Ceremonies not very different in kind, thoughdifferent in order, are prescribed in the Greek office

for the dedication of a church ; but there is no men-

tion of writing the alphabet on the floor. Moreover,

when the bishop after knocking has been admitted

to the church, he proceeds at once to set up the

altar-slab on the pillars which form the usual sub-

structure. Then the slab is washed with lustral

warm water, which is poured on crosswise, and in

the same way with wine : after which three crosses of

chrism are poured on the slab, and from these the

whole slab is anointed. Three crosses are likewise

marked with chrism, on each pillar. The anti-

mensia are consecrated at the same time;and when

they are removed, the altar is vested in its three

normal coverings. Not till this is accomplisheddoes the bishop go round the church, marking all

1 The Roman ritual for the dedication of a church continues, for

the most part, unchanged to the present day. A full account, with

illustrations, may be seen in the Pontificale Romanum dementis

viii ac Urbani vni jussu editum, inde vero a Benedicto xiv recog-nitum. Mechlin, 1873.


the walls and columns. The relics are depositedafter a separate entrance in grand procession to the

church. They are placed in a hole in the foundation

of the altar between the two easternmost pillars : or,

if the altar happen to have a solid substructure, theyare placed in a cavity in the middle of the eastern

face of the altar. Chrism is poured upon the relics,

and the hole is fastened up with lead or with the

cement which is used for the slab, and which consists

of mastich, wax, and marble dust. This done, the

mass proceeded.The Greeks also, like the Copts, use chrism to

anoint the eucharistic vessels and church pictures at

their dedication.

The consecration of the altar follows that of the

church in the Coptic ritual, which therefore so far

agrees rather with western than with Greek custom.

For in Egypt when the pontiff has consecrated the

church, he returns, and standing before the altar

censes it, while psalms and orisons are chaunted.

Then he makes upon it three crosses of chrism,

saying,' We anoint with myron this altar, which is

built in honour of St. -,in the name of the Fa-

ther >%*, and of the Son <%*, and of the Holy Ghost <%*.'

After many more prayers he prostrates himself

before the altar, and all the clergy do the same :

then the altar is vested with its covering, and the

cross and the book of the gospel are laid upon it,

while the clergy and the people sing. A processionis formed and passes with sounds of music three

times round the altar;

and mass is celebrated.

Afterwards the patriarch breaks the gourd and the

water-vessels, and the fragments are taken away andcherished by the people.


THE CONSECRATION OF A BAPTISTERY.

Such rubrics relating to the position of the bap-

tistery as survive prescribe that it should be at the

south-east corner of the church. These rubrics,

however, which are of mediaeval date, not onlyshow a departure from the original custom, which

placed the baptistery at the south-west corner in the

narthex;but are in themselves of no great authority.

For I have already shown that, once the baptisterywas removed within the body of the church, no

inflexible rule for its position was known or followed.

It is, however, essential that the picture of our

Lord's baptism should be placed against the wall, or

in a niche near the font.

The consecration must take place on Sunday, if

possible, and at the preceding vespers the font must

be well washed. Eastward of the font three lamps,filled with pure oil of Palestine, must be kindled at

the rising of the sun. Three water-pots filled with

fresh water must be provided ; also an instrument of

aspersion made of palm twined with leaves of silk ;

some basil;a new sponge ;

and candles burning on

candelabra. The service commences in the church,

where, after various psalms and lessons with prayers,

the pontiff censes the altar saying the prayer of

incense. Then the pontiff sits upon his throne,

while the catholic epistles are read ;after which a

procession with incense passes round the church

into the new baptistery, where the bishop signs the

font and each of the three water-vessels with the

sign of the cross, and blesses the water. At the

CH. rx.] Various Ceremonies. 345

prayer of absolution to the Son the bishop putson his crown or ballin ; and when it is ended, casts

the hallowed water into the font, and breaks the

vessels. Then he takes the aspersory of palm, and

dipping it in the water sprinkles the whole font in

crosses, saying,'

Alleluia,' to which the clergy answer,

'Alleluia.' In the same way he sprinkles all the

walls of the baptistery ;and then, while psalms and

other chaunts are sung, he washes the inner part of

the font with the basil. Next the water is let off

from the font, which is sponged out and dried.

This done, the bishop, receiving a vessel of chrism

covered with a veil, opens it, and signs with the

holy oil five crosses on the interior of the font, one

at each side and one in the middle. At the east he

exclaims,'

I consecrate ^ this font for the baptismof the Holy Spirit': at the west, 'I consecrate >

this font in the name of the Holy Trinity, of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost': at

the north,'

I consecrate +k this font after the manner

of the fonts of our holy fathers the apostles'

: at the

south,'

I consecrate ^ this font after the manner

of the font of St. John the Baptist': and lastly,

when he signs the cross upon the middle, he says,' Blessed +k be the Lord God, now and for ever 1

.'

According to one rubric, when the bishop has

made the five crosses, he also makes two circles

with the chrism, one round the lower and one round

the upper part of the interior. The service ends

with the benediction.

1

Denzinger, Rit. Or. torn. ii. pp. 236-248.

346 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.\.

THE FESTIVAL OF THE EPIPHANY '.

Volumes would be required to give an account in

detail of all the religious customs of a people so

much given as the Copts to ceremonial. Here it

must suffice to sketch lightly some of their moresolemn observances.

Of all the festivals of our Lord, one of the most

characteristic in its mode of celebration is that of

the Epiphany, which the Copts call the Theophany,or more familiarly the Festival of the Tank. This

happens about the i6th January at night. The

midnight office is recited in the narthex beside the

greater tank, which has been filled with water.

After the office the patriarch or bishop retires to

the sacristy, and is vested in full pontifical apparel.

He returns in procession with the other clergy, and

a cross of iron is carried before him by a deacon.

Special psalms and special hymns are then sung,and beside the tank is placed a candelabrum with

three tapers which are lighted2

. Then comes the

benediction of the water, various prayers and lessons

being recited over it : moreover the pontiff censes it

and stirs it crosswise with his pastoral staff, as do

also all other bishops present in due order. This

benediction lasts about two hours; but when it is

over, the patriarch blesses also all the clergy and the

congregation, sprinkling them with the holy water.

Originally the custom was for the people to rush

tumultuously into the water, each striving to be one

or2 An illustration is given above, p. 70, of the very candlestick

seen by Vansleb at this ceremony. See his Voyage, p. 342.


of the three whom the patriarch dipped thrice, and

who were thus supposed to receive a special blessing.

Those who failed of that distinction dipped them-

selves : and when the men had finished, they retired

to the choir, while the women came and disported

themselves, according to Vansleb, quite drapeless.

It is not surprising that such a custom led to scenes

of unseemliness, which caused its abolition.

After the aspersion follows the ordinary office of

matins, and a festival celebration of the korban.

The gospels and epistles which are read during the

service relate to the baptism of our Lord in the

river Jordan ; as, of course, for every festival special

epistles and gospels are appointed.The origin of this curious Epiphany custom goes

back to the remotest Christian antiquity. The

early Christians near the Jordan are said to have

commemorated the festival by bathing in the river ;

and the place where our Lord is supposed to have

been baptized was specially frequentedl

. St. Chry-sostom remarks on the practice of consecratingwater at night on the feast of Epiphany ;

and other

early evidences might be cited. It is probablethat at first in Egypt some spot on the bank of the

river N ile was chosen for the ceremony ;and in

remote places any stream or well of water served

the purpose. Later, and more particularly after the

Arab conquest, when the open performance of the

rite was rendered dangerous or impossible, the bene-

diction of the water took place within a sacred

building, and it became customary to build the largetank generally found in the narthex. Quite in

1It is one of the duties of the Copt, on his pilgrimage to Jeru-

salem, to bathe in the Jordan.

348 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. i.\.

accordance with this theory, we may notice that the

earliest churches of all those distinctly anterior to

the Muslim invasion have no such tank. Such, for

instance, are the church of the White Monasteryand most of the churches of the desert ; while, on

the other hand, buildings decidedly later than the

Mohammedan era, such as Abu Sargah and Abu-'s-

Sifain, have a tank which is plainly part of the

original structure. That anciently in Egypt the

festival of the Epiphany was associated specially

with the sacrament of baptism admits of no question ;

but what was the exact nature of the association, howfar the Epiphany tank was used as a font for bap-tismal immersion, and for what period such usage

lasted, are problems which seem beyond solution.

But the presence of the lighted candles at the

ceremony of consecration looks like a baptismal

reminiscence, as was also the unclothing of those

who plunged in the water.

The Melkites retain the Epiphany consecration of

water in a somewhat different form. A small cross

decked with sprays of olive or some leafy shrub is

blessed, and thrown into a river or any convenient

water, after a service of prayer held by the bishopover the water. The bishop and his clergy are

arrayed in full processional vestments, and so march

down to the riverside, followed by the multitude of

the people. When the cross is thrown into the water,

a number of men plunge in, and struggle for its

possession ;for it is supposed to bring to the owner

a blessing for the coming year. There is a Melkite

church and community at Port Said, where I have

seen the ceremony performed, for want of fresh

water, on the quay of the harbour.


The like ceremony lingers to this day also in

Armenia. There, after the liturgy on the feast of

Epiphany, a large metal vessel of water is set up in

the choir, and a procession passes round the church.

In this procession the priests carry a taper and a

gospel, deacons carry a taper and a thurible, the

subdeacons a taper only. Last comes the celebrant,

who carries a large cross. When they return to the

choir, the celebrant hallows the water, dividing it

crosswise with the cross, and pouring upon it chrism

in like manner. After the service the people carry

away the water to sprinkle their houses, wells, and

streams;but the same form of benediction is re-

peated on that day in the open air over all rivers

and fountains in the vicinity.

PALM SUNDAY AND HOLY WEEK.

Osanna Sunday is the name given by the Coptsto the feast of palms, which, doubtless, was celebrated

by them long before a similar celebration found its

way into western ritual. There is a solemn mid-

night1 service held in the church, at which the

bishop blesses branches of palm. A grand proces-sion then forms, the clergy bearing crosses and

tapers and palm branches : they sing as they move,and make a station singing before every altar and

all the principal pictures and reliquaries. Passing

1 The Coptic hours are (i) Midnight or Matins. (2) Dawn or

Lauds, at 6 a.m. (3) Tierce, at 9 a.m. (4) Sext, at noon. (5)

Nones, at 3 p.m. (6) Vespers, at 6 p.m. or sunset. (7) Compline,at 7.30 p.m.


thus round the church they return to the haikal,

where the mass is accomplished. The lessons read

are those appointed for the dead, because all

obsequies are, if possible, avoided during HolyWeek. In olden times, before the days of persecu-

tion, and sometimes even after the Arab conquest,a great procession passed from the principal church

at Alexandria through the town bearing the blessed

branches. To this day the people carry them home,and weave from them baskets and other like things,

which they send to their friends. In the Nestorian

and Armenian rituals Palm Sunday is celebrated

with the same benediction of branches.

At one o'clock in the night following Palm Sundayin Egypt the prayers of Eastertide begin, and oughtto be continued without ceasing until Easter morn-

ing. The mass is not celebrated on the Monday,

Tuesday, or Wednesday ;and all the prayers are

recited in the choir, while the door of the haikal is

closed.

On Maundy Thursdayl

tierce, sext, and nones

are duly recited;after which, if there be no conse-

cration of the holy oils to come first, a procession is

formed to the small tank in the nave, where the

patriarch blesses the water with ceremonies similar

to those ordained for Epiphany : but the gospels and

hymns on this occasion dwell upon the subject of

our Lord's washing the feet of his disciples. At the

end of the prayers the patriarch gives his benison

to the assembled priests and people, sprinkling them

with water from the tank : then also he washes

the feet of sundry persons, both cleric and lay, and

1 Called juioJI u-f+ or Thursday of the Covenant.


dries them with a towel. On this day, immediatelyafter the washing of feet, the door of the haikal is

opened for the celebration of the holy communion,after which it is closed again : but in this mass the

kiss of peace and the commemoration of the dead

are omitted.

In the Armenian rite for Maundy Thursday a

vessel of water is placed in the choir, and chrism is

poured crosswise upon it at the benediction. Whenthe bishop has washed the feet of clergy and people,he also anoints them. Then, resuming the cope,which was laid aside for the feet-washing, he is lifted

up on high, and dispenses the people from fasting

during Eastertide.

The churches continue open all night with cease-

less services, in which the hymns, orisons, and lec-

tions relate to the Passion. On Good Fridayl

morning at tierce a small cross is set up in the nave;

but at the eleventh hour the cross is replaced by a

picture of the crucifixion. The nave meanwhile is'

illuminated with a great number of tapers and lamps.Then the priests put on their vestments, and offer

incense before the picture, singing the praises of the

Crucified. All the hymns and chaunts on this dayare very slow and mournful in tone : the gospels all

commemorate the crucifixion. Prayers for all the

faithful are recited at the end of the sixth, ninth,

eleventh and twelfth hours : and a certain numberof genuflexions are made by the congregation at

various places, where the name of Christ is named.

When the twelfth hour is over, the bishop or kummus

uplifts the cross, on which three tapers are burning,

or Great Friday.


while the people cry one hundred kyries towards

each of the cardinal points. Then a processionforms and passes three times round the church,

carrying the picture of the crucifixion, which theytake to the altar. Upon the altar a silken veil is

lying ;and the cross, which was set up in the nave,

and the picture, being placed on the veil, are covered

with rose-leaves and myrrh and basil ; then the veil

is folded over them, and thus they are removed and

buried underneath the altar. This ceremony of

course typifies the entombment of our Lord, and

corresponds to the burial of the rood in the Easter

sepulchre, as practised in our ancient English Church.

While it is enacting, the congregation pray; and whenit is finished, they go to their homes and break their

fast.

Here again a comparison of Armenian custom is

interesting. A representation of the tomb of our

Lord is set up in the midst of the choir on Good

Friday : on it is a cross engraved or painted with

a figure of Christ, which the people kiss. It remains

in this position until the commencement of the mass

on Easter eve.

On the night of Holy Saturdayl the whole psalter

is recited. There is also a procession through the

church, in which stations are made, while the choir

sing the song of the Three Children : the story of

Nebuchadnezzar is also read. Mass is celebrated as

on Good Friday, except the lessons, half of which

or Saturday of Light. The name points to the

custom of kindling Easter fire as practised in the Greek Church :

but I cannot ascertain positively that the Copts agree with the

Greeks in this particular.

CH. ix.j Various Ceremonies. 353

are read in a mournful tone, half in a tone of joy.

After mass all the gospel of St. John is read, and

the silver book of the gospel is carried in processionround the church : a great number of hymns follow,

and the service lasts all through the hours of

darkness.

On Easter l

morning the psalms and hymns of

the resurrection are sung, and after them come the

censing of the altar and the office of matins. Im-

mediately following matins the celebration of the

korban commences : but on this occasion it is neces-

sary for the priest to wear all the liturgical vest-

ments at matins as well as at mass. As soon as the

epistles are ended, and before the gospel of the mass

is begun, the doors of the haikal are closed : then,

the priests standing within the sanctuary, and the

deacons without in the choir, all together sing the

hymn of the resurrection. It is apparently at this

point that the cross and the picture of the crucifixion

are disentombed from the cavity under the altar.

When the hymn is finished, the doors of the haikal

are thrown open again, and priests and deacons passthree times round the church in solemn procession.

They chaunt appropriate music as they move, and

they carry with them the picture of the resurrec-

tion. On their return to the choir the picture is

put in its accustomed place, and the remainder of

the service is performed in the manner usual on

Sundays.

i. e. the Festival of the Resurrection, or

i. e. the Great Festival.

VOL. ii. A a


THE SEASONS OF FASTING.

The Copts have been at all times noted for the

number and severity of their seasons of abstinence :

nor even at the present day has the general recogni-

tion of such seasons in any way diminished, thoughnow, as before, there are many individual examplesof laxity. Lent is, of course, the most important time

of fasting, and so is called the Great Fast l in con-

tradistinction to Advent or the Little Fast 2. In

ancient times Lent began on the day after the feast

of Epiphany, and lasted for forty days. Holy Weekwas then a separate season, some six weeks later

than the end of Lent, and coinciding with the JewishPassover. But tradition relates that the Coptic

patriarch Demetrius at the end of the second centuryfixed the time for Lent as at present, and joined on

to it the season of Holy Week.The Coptic Lent begins on Monday, and lasts up

to Palm Sunday. During this time the people are

forbidden to eat meat or eggs or fish, or to drink

wine. Coffee also is forbidden. Moreover no food

or drink whatever may be taken between the hours

of sunrise and sunset : but in cases of special weak-

ness a dispensation is granted of such a kind as maybe needful. The Mohammedan fast of Ramadansomewhat resembles the Christian Lent in its regu-

lations, and was probably borrowed from it. DuringLent mass is celebrated at nones except on Saturdayand Sunday.The greater part of Holy Week is also observed

i>t^XJl ftwtî . . .a.!' .l + <o.^ "r

" * ~\

"

CH. ix.j Various Ceremonies. 355

as a fast by the Copts, and every Friday up to the

hour of nones.

It was, and still is to some extent, customary

during Lent for the Copts to undertake a great

pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The journey on camels

occupied about fifteen days, and great numbers went

together *. They reached J erusalem for Palm Sunday,

spent the week in visiting the holy places, and on

Easter morning attended mass in the church of the

Holy Sepulchre. A pilgrimage to Jerusalem formed

also one of the canonical penances.Advent lasts for forty days preceding the feast of

the Nativity2

,and is rather less severe in its regu-

lations than Lent, fish for instance not being pro-

hibited. But on Christmas eve, as well as on the

eve of Epiphany, a fast is appointed until sunset.

Another fast is that called the Fast of Heraclius.

The legend is that on his passage through Palestine

that emperor all along his route promised safety to

the Jews : but when he arrived at Jerusalem, he

was entreated by the Christians there to massacre

the Jews, in revenge for cruelties practised by them,and particularly for the pillage of the Holy City, in

which the Jews had leagued with the Persians.

Heraclius, hesitating to break his promise and to

cancel the bond given even in writing, was over-

persuaded by the Christians, who all engaged for

themselves and their posterity to fast a week for

him to the end of the world. So the massacre was

ordered, and the fast continues. It preceded Lent,

but now has been incorporated with it, the first

1

According to Abu Dakn as many as 60,000 Copts sometimes

started from Cairo : but the estimate is obviously exaggerated.

A a 2


week of the great fast being called the Fast of

Heraclius.

The third great fast of the Coptic Church, called

the Fast of the Apostles, begins with Pentecost and

lasts for about forty days : but the time of its dura-

tion varies. Another period of abstinence for three

days, which is called the Fast of Niniveh, comes

about a fortnight before Lent : and a fifteen days'

fast in honour of the Assumption of the Virgin is

observed, beginning on the first day of August.

CHAPTER X.

Legends of the Saints^.

LEGEND OF ABU-'S-SIFAIN OR ST. MERCURIUS.

N this day died St. Mercurius, who was of

the city of Rome. His grandfather andfather were hunters of wild beasts : who

going out upon a certain day, as was their

wont, were met by two men with faces of dogs2

,who

slew the grandfather. And when they were fain to

slay the father also, the angel of the Lord preventedthem, and said,

' Touch him not, for from him shall

come forth good fruit.' Thereon the angel sur-

rounded the men with a fence of fire;and they being

straitened besought the father of Mercurius, and did

worship before him : and God changed their hearts

into meekness, so that they became as lambs, andentered with him into the city. After that Mer-

curius was bestowed on him of God, but his father

called him Philopater. As for the dog-faces, theyabode in that house a long time and were converted,

abiding until Philopater grew to man's estate and

became a soldier. They were wont to go with himinto the wars, and none could withstand them,because their faces remained as aforetime. After-

ward they died.

1 See pp. 259, 260, supra.2 Sic : it seems to be an expression denoting the heathen.

358 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

As for the saint, he became one of those to whomGod gave power and courage : and the people of the

city called his name Mercurius. At this time there

was at Rome the king Dacius, who was a worshipperof idols ;

and a flock of barbarians coming upon his

city, he gathered together his army, and went out to

meet them. But, seeing their multitude, he becameamazed and affrighted. Howbeit Mercurius went

forward unto him and said,' Fear not : God will

destroy our enemies, and will deliver them into our

hand/ When he left the king, a man of light robed

in long white raiment appeared unto him : in his

hand was a sword which he gave unto Mercurius

saying,'

If thou dost vanquish thy enemies, rememberthe Lord thy God.' Wherefore when Mercurius

prevailed over them, and went back as a van-

quisher, the angel appeared unto him, and broughtto his mind to remember the name of the Lord.

So when the war was ended, and the king wished to

worship his idols, together with his soldiers, Mer-

curius went not to worship. King Dacius hearingthereof made htm come, and was astonished when he

saw that the love of Mercurius to him was changed.But Mercurius cast in the king's face his garment and

his girdle, saying,'

I will not deny my Lord Jesus.'

Whereupon the king was exceeding wroth, and

commanded to beat him with palm rods and with

scourges : but fearing that the people would rise

against him for Mercurius' sake, he led him bound

with iron chains to Caesarea, and ordered that his

head be taken there.

So was his holy war accomplished, and he wonthe crown of life in the kingdom of heaven.

.

May his intercession be with us.

CH. x.j Legends of the Saints. 359

After his martyrdom, in the days of Julianus the

heathen king, who persecuted the believers, St. Basil

asked Mercurius with great beseeching to avengehim on the heathen king : wherefore the Lord sent

St. Mercurius, who pierced the king with his spear,

and slew him. Before the departing of his soul, he

filled the palm of his hand with blood, and sprinkledit towards heaven, saying,

' O Lord, receive the soul

which thou gavest me/And his image is under him *.

May his prayers be with us and preserve us.

Amen.

LEGEND OF ABU-'S-SIFAIN 2.

On this day we feast for the consecration of the

church of the great martyr, lover of his parents,

Mercurius Abu-'s-Sifain, hero of Jesus Christ.

His father was of Rome, a hunter of wild beasts,

and this martyr was bestowed upon him by the wordof the angel of the Lord. His name was at the first

Abadir, and he was brought up among the faces of

dogs.When he grew up, he became a soldier

;and in

the reign of the king Dacius, a heathen king and

worshipper of idols, Abu-'s-Sifain went to him andthrew down his girdle before his face; and then girded

himself, and said,'I do not deny my Lord and my

God Jesus Christ.' The king ordered him to be

1I. e. the figure of Julian is under St. Mercurius in the pictures.

Abu- s-Sifain is so called because of his many battles : he is

generally depicted brandishing two swords.2 Another version of the same story.


beaten with palm rods and scourges ; then sent him

to Caesarea, where he was beheaded : and his war

was completed, and he obtained the crown of life.

After his martyrdom they built churches in his

name.

In the time of St. Basilius there was a king, a

hypocrite, whose name was Julianus. This king im-

prisoned Basilius and went to war abroad. Basilius

saw in his prison some other Christian prisoners,

for whom he went to pray ;and while he prayed he

looked on the wall, and saw a painting of Mercurius

riding on a horse and carrying in his hand a

spear. St. Basilius besought him to kill the king,and to deliver the people of Christ from the royal

tyranny. Then the picture vanished from the wall,

and at once returned, and in it Mercurius showed

his spear dripping with blood. Thereupon Basilius

asked,* Hast thou slain him?' He bowed his head.

This is the reason that the painters always paintMercurius leaning down his head, and St. Basilius

before him.

May his prayers be with us, and save us from the

enemy till the last breath. Amen.

LEGEND OF ANBA SHAN<JDAH.

On this day died the holy father, the monk, the

worshipper Anba Shanudah, the archimandrite from

the city of the Cataracts in Akhmim. His father

was a tiller of the soil and kept a flock of sheep ;

these sheep he gave to his son to watch. Sha-

nudah's custom was to give his food to the other

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints, 361

shepherds, and then going down to a lake of water

in the winter, when it is very cold, in this lake he

stood and prayed. A holy old man said that he

saw the ten fingers of Shanudah shining like ten

lamps.His father took him, and went to his uncle Anba

Yagul, that he might bless him. Howbeit Yagultook the boy's hand, and put it upon his own head,

saying,'

Bless thou me;

for thou shalt be a greatsaint for a great multitude.' So his father left him

with his uncle. On a certain day a voice was heard

crying from heaven and saying,' Anba Shanudah is

hallowed archimandrite for all the world.' ThenShanudah began from this time to do many devout

things and many worshippings. At his uncle's death

he was put in his place ;and he became a light to all

the country, and made many discourses and rules for

monks, abbots, laymeri, and women. He went to the

Council of the Two Hundred at Ephesus with the

Father Cyrillus. His disciples did not wish to take

him in the ship ; so a cloud carried him, and he

passed before the patriarch, who was in the ship, and

greeted him. All were amazed.

Jesus Christ came many times to speak with him,and he washed Christ's feet and drank the water. TheLord revealed to him many hidden things, and he

prophesied many prophecies, and lived like Mosesone hundred and twenty years. At his death he

saw an assembly of saints who came behind him : hesaw also our Lord Jesus Christ, and said,

' Hold me,that I may worship the Lord.' They lifted him up,and he worshipped. Then said he unto them,

' Fare-

well in the Lord.' He left with the young manycommandments : and he died in peace.


May the blessing of his prayers be with us.

Amen.

LEGEND OF MARI MINA.

On this day we feast for the holy father Mari

Mlna. He was born at Mareotis near Alexandria.

The finding of his body after burial was on this wise.

None knew where he was buried : but the Lord

wished to show where the holy body lay. It came

to pass that a certain shepherd, watching his flock

near a hill, saw a lamb with a soreness bathinghimself in the river, and then rolling in dust over

that place where the body of the saint was buried;

and at once the lamb was cured. The shepherdwas amazed, and took every lamb which had the

same sickness to that place, made them bathe, and

then roll in the dust. All were cured forthwith.

He did likewise with sick men; and all sick personswho put the dust upon them were made whole.

Howbeit none knew the reason of this thing.

Now the king heard of the shepherd; and havinga leprous daughter he sent her to the shepherd, who

wrought on her the same cure by the same means.

When she wished to know the reason of this thing,

Mari Mina appeared to her in a vision, and said unto

her,'

My body is in this place : the Lord bids thee

to dig, and to bring it forth.' Being awakened, she

did according to this word, and brought forth the

noble body, and built on the spot a church.

Then the king bade all chiefs and notables to

build houses near the place ;and the city was called


Mareotis. Many wonders were shown from this

body. The patriarch and bishops came and con-

secrated the church, and the fame of its wonder

spread on every side. All this was wrought by the

power of the martyr Mari Mina.

May his blessing and intercession be with us.

Amen.

.. LEGEND OF MART TADRUS.

His father was called Yuan, who came from the

village Shatb in Upper Egypt. He was taken

prisoner to Antioch ; where he dwelt, and married

a daughter of the place, who worshipped idols, and

knew not God's worship. She bore him this saint

called Tadrus. But when she wished to presenthim to the house of idols, and to teach him her

worship, the father was angry and suffered her not.

So she drove him away from the house, and keptthe boy with her. The father prayed without

ceasing that God would lead his son in the wayof salvation.

When the saint grew up, he learned science and

wisdom;and God enlightened the two eyes of his

heart, so that he went to a bishop, who baptised him.

His mother hearing thereofwaxed very wroth. The

boy asked if his father was dead or no, and a servant

of the house told him that his mother drove him

away for being a Christian. Tadrus became a soldier

of the king, and then a captain of an army. Whenthe king went to make war with the Persians, he

took this saint with him to accompany his son. In

the city of Ukhaitus (sic] there was a great dragon,


which the people of the city worshipped ;and they

were wont to offer him year by year some one that

he might eat him. There was a Christian widow in

the city who had two children;and it came to pass

that the people took the children, and offered themto the dragon, at the time when Mari Tadrus wasthere. The woman stood before him and wept,

telling him her matter. When he knew that she

was a Christian, he thought' This widowed woman

is persecuted, and God will avenge her.' Then he

got down from his horse, and turned his face to the

east and prayed ;and he went towards the dragon,

all the people watching him from the walls. The

length of this dragon was twelve cubits : but the

Lord gave Tadrus power against the dragon, and he

pierced him with his spear and slew him. Thus he

delivered the widow's two children. Thence he

went to Upper Egypt to look for his father. There

he found him, and knew him by means of tokens

which his father showed him. He abode in that

place until his father died : then he went back to

Antioch, where he found the king had become a

heathen, and was persecuting the believers in Christ.

So he went to the king, and confessed before him

the Lord Jesus Christ. Ere this the priests of the

idols had slandered him to the king, and the peopleof Ukhaltus told the king

' This is the man that

killed the dragon, our god.' Thereupon the kingcommanded to torture him. He was punished byinstruments of torture, but the Lord strengthenedhim. Then the king commanded to burn him

;so

they threw him in the fire, and beheaded him. His

martyrdom was accomplished.A woman of the faithful took his body, which she


purchased for a great sum, and hid it in the house,

till the end of the persecution. Then she built

churches in his name. Howbeit some say that this

woman was his mother.

May his intercessions be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF MARI GIRGIS, OR

ST. GEORGE.

This saint was born in the year 280 of the

Messiah. He was of noble parents and brought

up with a good education. When he was fourteen

years old, his brother died, and he became a

captain in the army at Dicaeopolis. Then he

fought and slew the great dragon, and delivered

the king's daughter, on whom the lot fell a certain

year to be given up to the dragon. Whereupon the

king for his good courage made him vizier, not

knowing that he was a believer in Christ. He is

called the first martyr under Diocletian. Now on a

certain day Mari Girgis saw a proclamation againstthe Christian religion, and tore it down publiclywith great anger. Henceforth he scorned office and

all worldly things, and prepared to defend the faith.

So he distributed his wealth, freed his slaves, and

went to the court : there he spoke to the king and

chiefs saying,'

How, O king and chiefs, durst yemake such proclamation against the religion of

Christ, the true religion ?'

The king was wroth,

but hid his anger, and signed to the consul Magnetius

(sic) to answer for him. The consul said,' Who

emboldened thee to do this thing ?'

Mdri Girgis

366 Ancient Coptic CJmrches. [CH. x.

answered and said,'

I am a Christian, and come to

witness to the truth.' Then the king told him

under threat of torture to worship his idols : whenMari Girgis refused, the king ordered him to be

driven out and pierced with spears. Howbeit the

spears nowise hurt him. Then he was cast into

prison, where they tied his feet, and put a paving-stone upon his breast. He continued till next day

thanking God ;and on the morrow, being brought

before the king, he persisted in his faith. Then the

king ordered him to be tied by thin ropes on a

board set with iron spikes, so that the cords cut his

flesh : also a cupboard with knives inside it was puton his breast. But Mari Girgis endured this torture,

thanking God.

So the king, fearing he would die, loosed him,

and told him again to believe in the heathen gods.But Girgis refused. And a dark cloud appearedwith thunder and lightning, and a voice came out of

the cloud saying,' Fear not, O Mari Girgis : I am

with thee : whereat astonishment fell on the by-standers. Next he was put in a tank full of hot

plaster, where he remained three days without

suffering any evil. Thus far, then, the torments of

the saint : now shall come his wonders.

A sorcerer once presented to him a magic cup.

Girgis made the sign of the cross on it, the life-

giving cross which belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ,

to whom be glory. When he drank of the cup, he

took no hurt. The sorcerer seeing this believed in

our Lord Jesus Christ.

By power of prayer accepted before our Lord the

thrones on which the heathen kings were sitting

blossomed into leaf and flowers.

CH. x.j Legends of the Saints: 367

By prayer also he once cured a widow's son.

May his .prayers and intercessions be with us.

Amen.

LEGEND OF ABU KIR AND YUHANNA, OR

SS. CYRUS AND JOHN.

Abu Kir was of the city of Damanhur, near to

Abu Sir west of the Nile. He had a brother called

Philipa : and both were very rich. They agreedwith two priests called Yuhanna and Abtulmaz, and

the four went to Kartassah, where was the governor.Before him they confessed the Lord Jesus Christ.

He commanded them to be shot upon with arrows;

but the arrows came not nigh them at all. Next he

commanded them to be cast into a burning fiery

furnace;but the Lord sent his angel, and delivered

them from the fire. Then the king commandedthem to be bound to the tails of horses, and to be

dragged from Kartassah to Damanhur. All this

was done to them, and they took no hurt. At last

the king commanded them to be beheaded by the

sword outside the city of Damanhur. Their mar-

tyrdom was accomplished, and they obtained its

crown. Some men came from Sa al Haggar, and

took the body of Abu Kir, and built thereover a

church. But the bodies of the other three saints

were taken by people of Damanhur, who wrappedthem in goodly apparel, and placed them in

Damanhur.

May the prayers of all be with us, and save us

from the evil enemy till the last breath. Amen.Afterwards an angel appeared to the patriarch


Cyrillus of Alexandria, bidding him take away the

bodies of Abu Kir and Yuhanna. So the peoplewent and dug them out, and carried them with

honour to the church of St. Mark at Alexandria

by the river. There they built a church over

them.

Near this church was an underground labyrinthof the idols, where the heathen were wont to meet

every year to make a feast to the idols. Whenthey saw the wonders that were shown from the

bodies of these two saints, they left their idols and

their labyrinth, and became Christians.

LEGEND OF YAKUB AL MUKATT A, OR ST. JAMES

WHO WAS CUT TO PIECES.

On this day won martyrdom Mari Yakub al

Mukatt'a. He was of the soldiers of Sacratus, son

of Safur king of Persia. He was greatly beloved

by the king, who took his counsel in many things ;

and for that reason he inclined the heart of this

saint from the worship of Jesus Christ. His mother

and wife and sister hearing of this wrote unto him a

letter, saying,' Why hast thou forsaken the faith in

Jesus Christ, and followed the created elements, to

wit fire and sun ? Know that if thou dost persist

herein, we shall be as strangers unto thee hence-

forward.'

When he read this letter, he wept with bitter

weeping, and said,'

If my kinsfolk are estrangedfrom me, how can I be estranged from the Lord

Jesus ?' From this time forth he began to read in


Christian books ;and he wept, and forsook the

king's service. But when certain persons told the

king about him, he bade him come;and seeing that

what they reported was true, he commanded to

scourge him with grievous scourgings. Howbeit this

changed not his belief. Then the king commandedto cut him with knives. So they cut off the fingers

of his hands, then the toes of his feet, and his legs,

and his hands and his arms, and they cut him into

thirty-two pieces. Whenever they cut a limb from

him, he sang hymns, and said,' O God of the

Christians, receive unto thee a branch of the tree in

the greatness of thy mercy : for if the vine-dressers

dress the vine, it will blossom in the month of Ni-

sann 1

,and its branches will spread abroad.'

When nought remained save his breast, his head,

and his waist, and he knew that the time drew near

for the deliverance of his soul, he asked of the Lordto have mercy on them, and to pity them, saying,

'My hands are not left unto me, that I may lift them

up unto Thee, and here my limbs are thrown around

me : wherefore receive, O Lord, my soul.'

Forthwith Christ Jesus appeared unto him, and

comforted him, and strengthened him, and he was

glad. Ere he gave up the ghost, he made haste and

took his holy head (sic] and went to the places of

light to Christ who loved him. His body was taken

by God-fearing men, who wrapped it well, and put it

in a goodly place. His mother and wife and sister,

hearing of his martyrdom, rejoiced exceedingly; and

came to the place of his body, and wept thereon, and

put upon it costly apparel and spices.

1I. e. in the springtime. Nisann corresponds to April.

VOL. ii. B b


In the reign of Arcadius and Honorius, two good

kings, a church and monastery were built upon it.

The king of Persia hearing of this monastery, and

of the martyrs and of their bodies, and the miracles

which were shown from them, commanded to burn

the bodies of the saints in every place throughouthis kingdom. Then some of the believers took the

body of St. James, and coming with it to Jerusalem,

placed it with St. Peter the bishop of Rahui. With

him it continued till Marcian became king. At that

time St. Peter took it and came into Egypt, unto a

city called Bahnasah. There he abode some days,

and with him certain monks. While they were

singing hymns at the sixth hour near the body,St. James appeared unto them with a multitude of

Persian martyrs, who were clad in Persian raiment.

And they sang hymns with them and blessed them.

Afterward the saint said unto them,' My body shall

lie here according to the Lord's commandment.'

Then Peter the bishop, wishing to return to his own

country, took with him the body and bare it to the

sea : thus he disobeyed the word of the saint. But

the body was caught away from their hands to the

place where it was before.

May his intercession preserve us for ever. Amen.It was said that his body in Persia, when there

was a feast and the people were gathered togetheraround it, was wont to move in its coffin till the end

of the feast. Where the body of the saint now is

none knoweth.

May his prayers be with us. Amen.


LEGEND OF THE FIVE AND THEIR MOTHER.

This day we make the feast of Kosman and

Dimian and their brothers Antinous, Laudius and

Ibrabius, and their mother. These were from the

city of Daperma in the Arab country. Their mother

was called Theodora. She was a God-fearing woman,a widow, and kind of heart. She taught her children

medicine, and they visited all, and chiefly the poor,

without money or price. When the king Diocletian

became heathen, he heard that these heroes did

break upon the worship of the idols. He bade

them to come, and tortured them with all manner of

torture, such as beating, burning with fire, and

casting them into bath furnaces during three daysand three nights. From all this the Lord madethem arise without scathe. Their mother continually

comforted them, and strengthened them to bear the

torment.

Then she blasphemed the king to his face, and

all his wicked gods also. The king commanded to

behead her, and she won the crown of life. Her

body remained after her death cast away, and none

dare bury it ; but her son Kosman cried and said,' O people of the city, have ye no pity in your hearts

to carry the body of this old widowed woman to

burial ?'

Hearing this one called Buktor, son of Romanus,took the body, wrapped it in a shroud, and buried it.

Then the king ordered him to be banished to Egypt,where he died.

As for her children, the next day they also were

B b 2


beheaded and obtained eternal life. When the perse-

cution was over, the people built to them churches,

which were consecrated on such a day as this;and

from them were shown many miracles.

May their prayers be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF ABU NAFR.

On this day died the good father, the master of

fair report and of good old age, the saint Abu Nafr,

the wanderer in the wilderness of Upper Egypt.This is according to the word of St. Bifnutius, whodesired to see the wanderers, who are servants of

God. He saw some of them, and wrote their story;

among whom was this saint.

He saith, that when he entered the wilderness, he

saw a fountain and a palm-tree, and the saint AbuNafr coming towards him

;he was naked, and the

hair of his head and of his beard covered his body.Bifnutius seeing him was afraid, and thought that he

was a spirit. Abu Nafr crossed before him, and

prayed the prayer of the gospel, which is' Our

Father which art in heaven.' Then he said to him,'

Welcome, O Bifnutius.' When he heard himself

called by his name, and heard also the prayer, his

fear departed. Then the two began to pray together ;

after that they sat and communed together about

the marvels of God. Bifnutius asked Abu Nafr to

tell him what was the reason of his coming to this

place, and where he had been before that ?

He answered and said,'

I had been in a mon-

astery, in the which are pious and good monks.

One day I heard the monks speaking about the

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints. 373

dwellers in the wilderness, namely the wanderers,and praising them for every kind of excellence.

I asked them," Why are they better than you ?

"

They said," Because they dwell in the wilderness,

but we are near to the world : and if one day weare angry, we find some person to comfort us

; andif we are sick, we find those who visit us

;and if we

are naked, we find those who clothe us; anything

whatsoever we desire we can obtain;but all these

privileges are not for the dwellers in the wilderness."

When I heard them speak thus, my heart burned

within me;and in the night I took a little bread, and

went out from the monastery : then I prayed, andasked our Lord for a place to dwell in. So I walked

on. The Lord directed me to a place where I found

a holy man, and with him I abode till he taught methe way of wandering. Thus I came to this place,

wherein I found this palm-tree, which gives every

year twelve clusters of dates, and every cluster is

enough for one month. This is my food, and mydrink is from the water of this fountain. It is nowthree score years that I am here. All this time

I have not seen any face of man but thine only.'

While they were speaking the angel of the Lord

came before them, and ministered unto them the

body of our Lord and his blood. After that theyate very little food. Then the colour of the saint

Abu Nafr was changed, and became like fire, and

he bowed his knee and worshipped before God.

Then to Bifnutius he said,' Fare thee well,' and gave

up the ghost1

. The saint Bifnutius wrapped himin a piece of linen, and buried him in a cave. Hesore coveted to dwell in his place ;

but as soon as he

1 The Arabic idiom is the same exactly.


buried him, the palm-tree fell and the fountain was

dried up. This came to pass by the device of God,

that he might enter again into the world, and preachthe knowledge of the holy wanderers whom he had

seen, but specially of the saint Abu Nafr. In truth

he came to the world, and told the story of this

saint, and the day whereon he died.


LEGEND OF ANBA BARSOM AL ARIAN.

On this day died the holy father and the great,

Anba Barsum al 'Arian, who is naked from all vice

and clad with virtue;who is perfect among the

saints and in the love of God. This saint was of

Egypt ;his father's name was Wagu, a scribe to

the Tree of Pearls 1. His mother was daughter to

Al Tab'aun. His parents were very rich;and when

they died, the uncle of the saint seized upon all their

possessions. Howbeit Barsum made no quarrel with

him, but left all the wealth of this world, and lived

the life of the good men and of the wanderers. Hepossessed nought of this world's goods, and alwayswent naked, abiding in the church of the great

martyr Mercurius at Old Cairo 2 in a grotto dark and

swampy, underground. He prisoned himself therein,

and abode there nearly twenty years, praying alway

day and night without ceasing. His food was beans

moistened with unsavoury brine;his drink also was

brine. He was a very devout man, and there was

1 The sister of the last khalif of the Fatimite dynasty was called' The Tree of Pearls,' A.D. 1000.

8 See the plan of the church of Abu-'s-Sifain in vol. i.


no manner of worship but he did it. God gave him

power over devils, and was with him in secret and

in public; because this saint showed himself at the end

of time, when men could not achieve virtue by reason

of their weakness and feeblemindedness. So Godshowed forth this father, who excelled many saints

in his devotion, his eating and his drinking, his

patience and his modesty, his charity for all men and

well-doing for all, his pity upon them and uponall creatures, and his making all men equal before

him in whatsoever they asked. He murmured not

at any, but was long-sufferingl and of good patience.

With him great and small were one, poor and rich,

bond and free : all were equal before him in charity.

All this that he might accomplish and make perfectall that was written about the saints that went before :

that men might know of a surety, by seeing and not

by hearing.So when he came out from the cave, he went on

the roof of the church;there he abode suffering

heat and cold during winter and summer. And he

always tormented himself, staying in the sun all the

days of the summer, so that his skin became black;

and this he did for devotion and for worship, and for

torture of nature, which he ever suffered. On the

roof he remained nigh fifteen years. At this time

arose in Egypt a great persecution, wherein all the

churches of the Copts were shut, and the Coptswere obliged to wear blue turbans of ten cubits in

length ;also their other raiment was changed.

They were dismissed from their offices, and were

compelled to ride the wrong way, and to put on a

kind of shoe which is called'

thasuma,' and when-

1 The Arabic is literally'

long-minded/

376 Ancient Coptic CJiurcJies. [CH. x.

ever they entered the bath they had to put little

bells round their necks. So that they were in sore

need in all things. They were persecuted and de-

spised by the vulgar, who erewhile honoured them;

and the khallf of this time was resolved to kill them

all, but God did not empower him. The reason of

all these things was their sins : for the apostle saith,' Sin being accomplished begetteth death.'

But this father Barsum was always praying and

beseeching God with a fervent heart for the brethren.

He fasted forty days continually, till God took awayagain his anger from them. Then the governorof Egypt took him out from the church, and per-

secuted him and imprisoned him ; but Barsumforeknew this one day before it happened. Whenhe was in prison, he neither ate nor drank, but

whatever the believers brought him he gave to his

fellow-prisoners. When some of them asked of him,' When shall we be delivered from prison ?

'

he

answered,' On this day': and so it was.

Then they took him out of prison, and led him

into exile to the monastery of Sharan. There he

stood on the roof, as he was wont in Egypt. Noman without God's help could excel him in devotion,

worship, austerity, and suffering the torture of nature.

For his food was of the things that are maggoty, and

was shown openly to venomous reptiles ; yet he ate

it very delicious and sweet by the grace of God.

And this is as the holy old man, full of innocence,

hath said in his book :

' God changed the bitterness

of their torment into sweetness:' and also as the

holy Mari Ishac Suriani and Mari Siman al 'Amudi

say, that' God clothes his saints with a garment of

light ; so that they feel neither heat nor cold.'


This saint all his life never lay on the ground but

with naked skin. He was comforter to every be-

liever or unbeliever who took refuge with him.

He changed not his turban to blue, but God kepthim from all his adversaries. Most of the governorsof this time, princes and judges to wit, were wont to

resort unto him;and they saw him wearing a white

turban;and God protected him from their enmity.

None dare force him to wear the blue turban. Heconverted many souls to salvation, and that out of

despair. He used alway to say that all sins are

forgiven after repentance. He always spake in holy

similitudes, which were not understood save by those

enlightened of God. He was a great comforter to

the people, because by his prayers God put awayhis anger. Churches were opened, men rode the

right way, and were employed in office, and their

raiment was made right, and all the aforesaid changeswere abolished save only the blue turbans.

The brethren were suffered to ride horses in

journeys; and God destroyed every one who wished

to kill them, so that men might glorify God the Al-

mighty; and God was pleased with his people, and had

compassion on them. These things were caused bythe prayers of this father, Barsum. God gave him the

grace of prophecy, healing of bodies and souls, and

knowledge of things to come;and he was accom-

plished in all holiness. His look drew all men to

gfood works, and whosoever saw him did not wish tooleave him. This was for the grace and kindness and

love which were in him. He hated the glory of this

world, and feigned madness. But God has shown to

all that he is the wisest of men, whose single aim

was the love of God and doing his commandments.


BarsOm was alway comforted by the Holy Spirit,

which dwelt in him. Ever he looked to God, to the

innocent angels of light, to the prophets, apostles,

martyrs, and saints. He went in the spirit to their

dwelling of light, as he showed to those whom he

trusted well. This father dwelt in the monasteryfifteen years, and his age was sixty years. His old

age was good and pleasing to God ; and when he

accomplished his good works, he died unto the Lord

who loved him, and inherited the lofty dwellings of

light with the holy saints. His body was buried in

the monastery of Sharan, known also by the name of

Abu Markura. This was in the year 1033 of the

martyrsl

.

May his prayers be with us till the last breath.

Amen.

LEGEND OF THE VIRGIN'S ASCENSION.

On this day we feast the feast of the ascension of

the body of the immaculate Lady the Virgin Morto-

mariam 2, Mother of Christ the Son of God, the Word

made flesh from her. After her death our fathers

the apostles were sorely grieved for loss of her, and

the Lord promised them that he would show her to

them in the flesh. On a certain day they saw her

in the flesh sitting at the right hand of him who was

made flesh from her, and she was in great glory.

She stretched forth her hand, and blessed every one

of the disciples ;and she was girt round by a great

1 If this date is correct, the ' Tree of Pearls'

is wrongly identi-

fied at the beginning of the legend.2 The Arabic is


company of angels and saints. David the prophet

praised her, and said,' The queen stood at thy

right hand in raiment of gold.' Then the souls of

the disciples were glad, and they fell on their faces,

and returned full of joy.

This feast was appointed in the Church for the

everlasting remembrance of the Mother of God.

May her intercession be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF SIMAN AL HABIS AL AM^JDI, i.e.

SIMEON THE PRISONER OF THE PILLAR,

OR SIMEON STYLITES.

On this day died Simeon the Prisoner of the Pillar.

He was of Syria. When he was a child, he kept

sheep for his father, and he went to church every day.After that the grace of the Lord moved him. So he

arose, and came to a monastery, wherein he continued

alway worshipping God with great devoutness and

diligence.

He was wont every day to carry dust and ashes

on his head, and he vexed himself with fastings and

great thirst. Then he bound his two sides againstthe flesh with a rugged rope, till it ate its place away,and an evil smell came forth. The monks could not

abide this evil smell, and would not suffer him to

come nigh them. Seeing the monks misliked him,

he came out from the monastery and went into a dry

pit, where he stood. The abbot of the monasterysaw a vision as it were of one saying unto him, 'Ask

of my servant Simeon' ;and in this vision he saw also

that he who appeared rebuked the monks for the


departure of the saint from the monastery. Theabbot told his vision to the monks, who were sore

amazed, and soon came out searching after him.

Thereupon they found him in the pit, without food

or drink, and worshipped him, asking forgiveness of

him;and they brought him back with them to the

monastery. When he saw them giving him gloryin the monastery, he could not suffer it

;but went

out, and came to a rock where he stood sixty dayswithout sleeping. Thereafter the angel of the Lord

appeared unto him, and said unto him that the Lord

had received his prayers for the salvation of his ownsoul and of many others. Then he stood on a pillar

thirty cubits high for the space of fifteen years.

The Lord wrought at his hand many wonders;and

he was wont to exhort all who came unto him. His

father searched after him, but found him not, and

died without seeing him. As for his mother, she

knew where he was after many years, and came to

him while he was on the pillar. She wept greatly,

and then fell asleep under the pillar. The saint

asked of God to do good unto her, and she died

in her sleep. They buried her under the pillar.

Howbeit, Satan had malice against Simeon, and

smote him in the legs with grievous sores. Hecontinued most of his time standing on one foot for

many years, until his leg was full of worms, which

fell down under the pillar. Once there came unto

him the chief of the robbers, and passed the night

nigh him. Simeon asked of God to do him evil : so

the robber died not many days after. Then he asked

of God, and God brought forth a fountain of water

under the pillar. After this he went to another very

high pillar, where he stood nigh thirty years : and

CH. x.] Legends of the Saints, 381

when he accomplished forty-eight years in prayer,

the Lord wishing to give him rest from the weari-

ness of the flesh, he exhorted men and turned manyheathen to the Lord Jesus : then he died and went

unto the Lord.

The patriarch of Antioch, hearing of his death,

came and bore him to Antioch with great glory.

May his prayers be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF MAR!NA.

On this day died the chosen saint, bride of Jesus

Christ, Marina.

She was the daughter of a heathen father and

mother, and her father was a priest of idols in

Antioch. He loved her very much, and she was

very beautiful to look upon. When she came to

the age of fifteen years, her mother died; whereupon

her father brought her to a Christian woman, at

whose house she stayed till her father's death.

One day she heard her foster-mother telling of the

troubles of the saints and their martyrdoms, how

they shed their blood for the name of Christ. So,

desiring to become a martyr, she asked God to giveher power and help, that she might conquer the

heathen. At this time there came to the throne a

heathen king, known by the name of prince Valerius,

who came from Asia to Antioch to the end that he

might seize the Christians. It came to pass that

when St. Marina came out with her hired servants

and handmaids, the heathen prince saw her beauty,and his heart departed out of him. He commandedhis soldiers to lay hands on her, that he might take


her unto him to wife. When the soldiers desired to

take her, she made the sign of the cross upon her

body, and said,' Have mercy on me, O Lord, and

forsake me not.' The soldiers returned to the

governor, and told him,' We were not able to take

the damsel, because she called on Jesus Christ.'

When he heard that, he commanded them to bring

her, and he questioned her of her faith. She answered

and said,'

I am a Christian, believing in Jesus of

Nazareth, who will deliver me from thine unbelief

and from the wickedness of thy heart.' Then the

prince, being wroth in his soul, straightway offered

a sacrifice to his abhorred gods ;and made her

stand before him, and told her,*

Know, Marina, that

I have pity upon thee : so follow thou my counsel,

and offer sacrifice to the gods, and thou shalt have

great honour.'

She answered and said,'

I do not waver from the

worship of God, my God, but I offer the sacrifice of

thanksgiving to my Saviour Jesus Christ.' He said

to her,* To this Galilean who was crucified of the

Jews ?' and threatened her with many punishments.She did not obey him, but said she was ready to be

tormented and to rest with the wise virgins. So he

became angry, and commanded to beat her with

rods, and her blood ran upon the ground. Then

they combed her flesh with sharp knives, and threw

her into a dungeon. The Lord always cured her from

all this suffering. While she was in the dungeon

praying, a great dragon came out upon her, openedwide his jaws, and swallowed her. Her soul was

ready to depart from her;

but she stretched out

her hands, and made the sign of the cross in the

dragon's belly. Forthwith the mouth of the dragon


gaped open, and she was delivered, and came out

in great safety. Then she turned and saw some-

what like unto a black man, putting his hands

on his knees, and saying unto her,' Cease to pray,

and obey the king's commandment.' When she

heard that, she caught him by the hair of the head,

and took a cudgel which she found in a corner of

the dungeon, and smote therewith the devil's head.

Thus was the devil tormented by her, and besoughther to lighten his suffering. She answered him' Shut thy mouth

'

: then she made the sign of the

cross upon him, and the earth opened and swallowed

him up.

The next day the king commanded her to be

brought before him, and bade her worship the idols.

She spake roughly unto him;whereon he com-

manded his soldiers to hang her up, and to kindle a

fire under her to burn her. After that they threw

her into the water to drown her : but she asked of

the Lord that this water might be a baptism unto

her. So a dove came down upon her carrying in

his mouth a crown of light. She plunged in the

water thrice. Many persons believed at that hour :

and their heads were taken by the sword. Howbeit

the prince grew weary of torturing her, and said,'

If

I leave her alive, all the people of Antioch will

believe.' So he commanded to take her head. Theexecutioner led her outside the city. There seeingthe Lord, to whom be glory, and angels of light, she

said unto the swordsman,' Wait that I may pray' :

and when her prayer was ended, she said,' Do

thy bidding.' Howbeit he would not;but she said,

' Unless thou accomplish it, thou hast no lot or part

with me.' He went up to her exceeding sorrowful,


and made the sign of the cross upon the sword, and

took the head of the saint. Thus she won the crown

of martyrdom. The executioner went hastily to the

prince, and smote his own neck with the sword, con-

fessing the Lord God of this martyr, and won ever-

lasting happiness.


LEGEND OF TAKLA.

On this day died the apostolic and holy Takla.

This saint lived in the days of St. Paul: and it came to

pass that when St. Paul went out from Antioch into

Iconia, there was at Iconia a believer called Sifarus,

who took him to his house;and a great multitude

came together to hear his doctrine.

This virgin, Takla, when she heard the apostle

speaking, looked from a window that she mightlearn his doctrine, and continued in this estate

three days and three nights, neither eating nor

drinking. His words went down to the depthsof her heart and her soul. But her parents and

her servants became exceedingly sorrowful, and

desired her to change this way of thinking. It

came to pass that her father met Dimas and

Armukhanis, and he complained unto them of his

daughter. They made him ask help of the prince

against Paul, who bade Paul come, and examined

his doctrine and his estate. He found no cause

against him, but commanded to bind him.

As soon as the saint Takla heard thereof, she putoff her jewels, and went to the apostle in the dungeon,


and bowed herself before his feet. When her own

people found her not, they knew that she was at the

apostle's feet. So the prince ordered to burn her.

Her mother also cried out saying,' Burn her,' that

all women might take warning of her example ;

because many noble women believed the word of

Paul. Then the prince commanded also to burn

Paul with her. So they brought them forth out

of the dungeon. As for Takla, her mind and her

eyes were with St. Paul. She beheld St. Paul

praying : and he ascended with his body throughthe heaven. So, making the sign of the cross on

her body and her face, she cast herself into the fire.

Then the women who were standing by wept for

her;but the Lord sent forthwith much rain and

lightning, and the furnace became like cold dew;

and she was delivered from the fire, as one that

comes out of a garden. She went at once to the

place where St. Paul was hidden, and asked himto cut her hair, and suffer her to be his handmaid.

He did this thing for her sake. When she went to

Antioch, one of the Batarka saw her, and finding her

very beautiful, desired to marry her : howbeit she

spake roughly unto him. Wherefore he stirred upthe ruler of the city against her

;who commanded

them to throw her unto the lions. She stayed

among the lions two days, and the lions licked her

feet. Then they bound her between two oxen, who

dragged her through all the city: and when this

did no harm unto her, they let her go free. She

went unto St. Paul, who comforted her, and increased

her in the faith, and bade her go and preach of

Christ. So she went to Iconia, where she preachedChrist

;and then she went to her own country.

VOL. II. C C


There she converted her father and her mother

to believe in Christ Jesus; and after that, inasmuch

as she had accomplished her apostolic strivings and

her accepted warfare, the Lord desired to give her

rest from the troubles of this world. So she died,

and won the crown of them that confess and preach.

It is said that her body is now in Singdr, as it is

written in the History of the Patriarchs.

May her prayers be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF ABU

On this day won martyrdom the noble saint AbuSikhirun, who was of Kalin in the Gharbieh, a soldier

of Ariana, ruler of Ansina. When the command-ment of the heathen king Diocletian came to worship

idols, this saint stopped in the midst of the assemblyand spake scorn of the king and his gods. Nonedare torment him by reason of his warlike strength :

but they imprisoned him in the ruler's prison. Whenit happened that the ruler of Ansina came to the

city of Siut, they brought Abu Sikhirun unto him

and five soldierswith him,whose names are Alphanus,

Armasius, Aikias, Petrus, and Kiranius;these agreed

with Abu Sikhirun to shed their blood for the nameof the Lord Jesus. When they came before the

ruler, he commanded to cut their girdles, and to

torture them. Some of these five were crucified,

and of some the heads were taken;but it was com-

manded that the saint Abu Sikhirun should be

beaten gloriously. Next, it was commanded to tear

off the scalp of his head even unto the neck : and

he was bound to the tail of a mule and dragged


through the city. Then he was cast into a tank full

of lead, and the tank was covered;next he was

crushed together and thrown into a bath furnace.

But in all of these punishments the angel of the

Lord came unto him, encouraged him and madehim whole, comforted him and gave him much

patience. When they were perplexed by his torture,

they called a great magician, named Iskandaru, who

feigned to bewitch sun and moon, to ascend up into

the sky, and to have dealings with the stars. Heordered the door of the bath to be shut : then he

took a snake, and as he uttered certain words the

snake was split asunder into two pieces : next, he

took its poison and its fat and its liver, and put them

into a brazen cauldron, and brought them unto the

saint. Then he made him enter into the bath, and

gave him to eat of this cooked poison. But the

saint cried aloud saying,' O chief of devils, do all

thy power upon this son of Christ';and he suffered

no harm. The sorcerer was greatly astonished, and

the saint said unto him,' The devil, whose help

thou dost implore, will torment thee by the powerof my Lord Jesus Christ.'

Forthwith the devil came, and began to buffet the

magician, until he believed in the Lord Jesus. Theruler hearing thereof, took the head of the sorcerer,

and his wrath was greatly multiplied against the

saint. He tormented him with many torments, the

saint always thanking the Lord Jesus. At last he

commanded that his head should be taken by the

edge of the sword. So he won the crown of ever-

lasting bliss.

May the intercession of this saint be with us, and

guard us, and save us. Amen.c c 2

388 Ancient Coptic Churches, [CH. x.

LEGEND OF ST. SOPHIA.

On this day died the saint Sophia.This saint went to church with some Christian

neighbours, and she believed in the Lord Jesus.

She went to the bishop of Manuf, who baptised her

in the name of the Father, the Son, and the HolyGhost, one God

;and she continued in going to the

church. But a certain man went and told unto

Claudius, the ruler, that she was baptised. Hetherefore made her come to him and questioned her

of the matter : and she confessed and denied it not.

He punished her with many punishments. First, he

beat her with thongs of cowhide : then he passed a

hot iron over all her joints, and hung her up. Duringall this she was ever crying aloud,

'

I am a Christian.'

So the ruler commanded to cut off her tongue, and

to lead her back to prison ;and he sent his wife unto

her, who began to speak softly and promised manypromises : but the saint heeded not. At last he

commanded to cut off her head. Then St. Sophia

prayed a long prayer, in the which she asked of Godto forgive the ruler and his soldiers for her sake.

Then she bowed her head to the swordsman, whocut off her head with the edge of the sword

;and she

won the crown of martyrdom and immortality in the

kingdom of heaven.

A Christian woman took her holy body, which she

purchased for a great price, and wrapped it in manyprecious wrappings, and put it in her house, and

here many wonders were shown from it. Peoplesaw on the day of her festival a great light uponher body, and much frankincense come forth there-


from. When Constantine became king of Constan-

tinople, and heard of the body, he sent and trans-

ported it to the city of Constantinople, and built to

her a great church in the which he placed her body.

Many miracles were shown from it.

May her prayers and blessings be with us, and

save us from the wicked enemy. Amen.

LEGEND OF ST. HELENA.

On this day we feast for the consecration of the

temple of the Holy Resurrection 1.

The holy queen Helena in the twentieth year of

the reign of her son Constantine, after the assemblyof the holy council at Nicaea, took great riches and

said to her son,'

I have made a vow to go to the

Holy Resurrection, and to seek for the body of the

cross which giveth life.' The king was very glad,

and sent with her soldiers, and gave unto her muchwealth. When she came there and had taken a

blessing from these holy places, she began to search

for the cross, and she found it after much weariness.

She glorified it with great glorifying, and worshippedit with great worship. Then she set to build the

temples of the Resurrection, and Golgotha, and

Bethlehem, and the Cavern and the Height, and

Gethsemane and all the temples, and to overlaythem all with jewels, and gold, and silver. At

Jerusalem was a holy bishop who counselled her

not to do this thing, and said unto her,' After a

little time the heathen will come and spoil the

1I. e. the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.


places, and throw them down, and take away all

thy doing. Thou oughtest to build rather with

such good building as is customary, and give what

remains of the money to the poor.' She hearkened

to this counsel, and gave him much money, and

charged him so to do. When she came to her son,

and told him what she had done, he was greatly

rejoiced and sent other money, and straitly urgedthem to build, and commanded wages to be givenin full tale to the workers at the end of every day,lest they should become weary and God be againsthim. When the building was accomplished, in the

thirtieth year of the reign of Constantine, he sent

many vessels and much precious apparel, and chargedthe patriarch of Constantinople to take with him

bishops, and sent to Athanasius, patriarch of Alex-

andria, to take with him also bishops, that they

might assemble with the patriarch of Antioch and

of Jerusalem, and consecrate the temples that were

built. All were assembled and bode until the six-

teenth day of the month Tot. Then they consecrated

the temples which were built : and on the seventy-

eighth day they passed all round these places carry-

ing the cross, and worshipped the Lord, offering

the mysteries and glorifying the cross. Then they

departed to their own homes.

May their intercession be with us till the last

breath. Amen.

THE FINDING OF THE CROSS.

On this day is the remembrance of the glorious

cross of our Lord Jesus. This was discovered by


the God-loving queen Helena, mother of Constan-

tine, when she cleared away the heap at Golgotha.Now the reason of this heap is, when the miracles

were shown from the holy sepulchre, such as raising

of the dead and curing of cripples, the Jews waxed

wroth, and cried out in all Judea and Jerusalem that

every one who sweeps his house or who has dust

must cast it upon the sepulchre of Jesus of Nazareth.

They continued in doing this above two hundred

years, so that the heap became a mountain;

till

St. Helena came and took the Jews, of whom she

imprisoned one Juda till he revealed unto her the

place. Then she discovered the holy cross, and

built for it a church, which was consecrated. Theyfeast unto the cross on the seventeenth day of the

month Tot;and all the Christians were wont to

make pilgrimage to this church at the feast of the

Resurrection.

It came to pass that Isaac of Samra, while he was

walking with some men in the way, waxed athirst

and found no water. They passed nigh unto a pit

wherein was bitter water of an evil savour. The

people were greatly straitened, and Isaac of Samra

began to mock them. The priest waxed zealous for

zeal of God and disputed with Isaac ;but Isaac said

unto him,'

If I behold power in the name of the

cross, I will believe in Christ.' Then the priest

prayed over the bitter water, and it became exceed-

ing sweet, so that all the people drank thereof and

their cattle also. Howbeit Isaac, when he wished to

drink, found the water which he had put in his bottle

full of worms. He wept, and bowed himself before

the priest Ogidos, and believed in Christ, and drankof the water, in the which was the virtue to be sweet


unto believers and bitter to unbelievers. Moreoverin the water was seen a cross of light. They built

upon the pit a church : and when Isaac came to

Jerusalem, he went unto the bishop and was baptised

by him, he and all his family. The cross was found

in the tenth day of the month Barmahat;and as this

day falleth in time of fast, the feast was made on the

day of the consecration of the church, which is the

seventeenth day of Tot.

Glory and worship to our Lord Jesus Christ for

ever and ever. Amen.

LEGEND OF GIRGIS OF ALEXANDRIA.

On this day obtained martyrdom Mari Girgis of

Alexandria. His father was a merchant of Alexan-

dria : and having no son, he went to the church of

Mari Girgis on the day of his feast (which was on

the seventh day of Hator), and asked this saint to

intercede for him before the Lord, that he mightbestow on him a son. The Lord heard his prayer,and gave him a son whom he called Girgis. Themother of this saint was sister to Armenius, governorof Alexandria.

His parents died, and he remained at his uncle's

house. His age was then twenty-five years; and

he was loving to the poor, and merciful and kind.

Armenius had an only daughter, who went on a

certain day with her friends to walk. It happenedthat she saw outside the city a monastery, in which

were hidden monks who were praising God with

sweet voices. Their praise was rooted in her heart,

and she began to ask the young man Girgis, her


aunt's son, the meaning of these hymns. Hedeclared it unto her, and declared also the punish-ment of sinners, and the reward of the righteous.When she returned to the house, she avowed to her

father that she believed in Christ Jesus.At the first he spake smoothly unto her to return

from that way, but she hearkened not;

then he

commanded to take her head, and she won the

crown of martyrdom. Howbeit certain men told

the governor that Girgis was the cause of all these

things. So he took him and tormented him very

hardly, and then sent him to the village of Ansina,where he was tormented with all sorts of torments :

and at the last they took his head, and he won the

crown of martyrdom. A deacon called Samuel took

the holy body and went unto Memphis. When his

uncle's wife knew that, she sent and took his body,and put it with the body of her daughter.

May their prayers and intercessions be with us.

Amen.

LEGEND OF ABBA

On this day won martyrdom Abba Maharuah, whowas from Faium, a God-fearing man. When he

heard the news of the martyrs, he came to Alexan-

dria desiring to die in the name of Christ Jesus.

It was told him in a vision,'

It is destined for thee

to go to Antioch.' While he was thinking after this

vision how he could reach Antioch, and was seekinga ship, the Lord sent unto him his angel, who carried

him on wings from Alexandria to Antioch, and madehim stand before Diocletian the king, and confess


before him Christ Jesus. The king asked him of

his name and his country, and was astonished at his

presence; and offered him many rewards and benefits,

the which he refused. Then the king threatened

him, but the saint feared not : so he commanded to

torment him. They tormented him once;once they

let loose upon him lions;once they burned him in

fire;once they put him in a large cauldron of copper.

Thereafter they took his head by the edge of the

sword, and he won the crown of martyrdom. Hewas made an exchange for all the martyrs of

Antioch who won martyrdom in Egypt.

May his intercession be with us. Amen.

LEGEND OF THE ANGEL MIKHAIL (MICHAEL).

On this day we feast for the angel Michael, chief

of the angels, the merciful angel who makes inter-

cession for all mankind.

This angel was seen of Joshua, the son of Nun,in great glory in the likeness of a soldier of a king.

He was afraid and bowed before him, saying,' O sir,

art thou with me or against me ?' The angel

answered and said,'

I am the chief of the powersof heaven, and on this day I will deliver the

Amalekites into thy hand, and give thee dominion

over Arlha.'

This is the angel who comforts and strengthensthe saints, and makes them longsuffering, until their

war is accomplished. Charities and feasts were

made unto the saints in his name on the twelfth

day of every month : because this angel asks of


the Lord the fruits of the earth and the rise of

the Nile, that the Lord may make them perfect.

Once a man called Dorotheos and his wife Theista

were wont to feast to the angel Michael, on the

twelfth day of every month;and for this cause God,

by the intercession of the angel, granted them riches

out of poverty : for these holy persons finding noughtwherewith to make the feast, took their clothes to

sell them in order to make the feast. The angel

appeared to Dorotheos, and commanded him to goto the seller of sheep and buy from him a lamb for

one-third of a dinar, and to a fisherman to buy from

him a fish for one-third of a dinar : and not to openthe fish. Then he must go to the seller of wheatand take from him all that he needs, and not sell his

clothes. When the man made the feast, as he was

bidden, and called the people as was his wont, he

went to search for a little wine in a cupboard, andwas astonished to find much wine, more than he hadneed of. When the guests went away, the angelcame in the likeness which he had when he appearedto Dorotheos, and bade him open the fish, in which

he found a parcel containing three hundred dinars

and some gold. The angel said to them,' This is

the price of the sheep, and the fish, and the meat,and the gold is thine : because the Lord rememberedthee and made mention of thy charities. So hath

he rewarded thee in this world, and he will reward

thee in the world to come.' While they were

astonished, he said unto them,'

I am Michael, one

of the angels, who have delivered thee from all thytroubles, and offered thy charities before the Lord/

They worshipped him, and he vanished out of their

sight, and rose up into heaven.


This angel has wrought many wonders.

May his intercession be with us for ever. Amen.

STORY OF ANBA ZACHARIAS.

On this day died the father, the patriarch AnbaZacharias.

This saint was of Alexandria, wherein he was a

priest. He had a good repute, chaste in body, meekin behaviour, venerable in years. When the patri-

arch Anba Philotheos died, the bishops were gathered

together with the Holy Ghost to choose under God's

counsel one who should be convenient. While theywere at the church of St. Mark the Apostle, seekingfor the one convenient, they heard that a certain man,

having procured by power of station and money a

letter from the sultan, was coming and bringing with

him servants, thinking to be patriarch. Therefore

being sorely grieved against a man who would fain

become patriarch by power of money and place, theycontinued in prayer to God that he would choose for

them a patriarch. During that time Zacharias,

while he was coming down from the staircase of the

church, carrying in his hand a bottle of vinegar, let

slide his foot, and fell rolling down to the lowest

step ; howbeit the bottle of vinegar in his hand

remained whole and unbroken. The bishops and

priests were sore amazed hereat, and asked the

people of him, both great and small. Inasmuch as

all men ascribed unto him great virtue, the laityl

1 The laity (notables) always have a voice and meet with the

bishops in council for the election. The khedive has a veto.


agreed with the bishops to make him patriarch, and

he was chosen.

Many sorrows accompanied him; amongst the

which a monk sued him at law before the governor,who took him and bound him and threw him to

lions : but the lions wrought him no harm. The

governor took vengeance on the keeper of the lions.

Then he made the lions hungry and slew a beast in

sacrifice, and smearing the patriarch with its blood

threw him to the lions. Yet they wrought him no

evil. Then the governor bound him in prison bythe space of three months, and threatened him,

sometimes with killing, sometimes with casting to

lions, and with burning by fire, if he would not

forsake his faith. None of these three things madehim afraid. Then he promised great reward, vowingto make him judge of judges of the Muslims ; but

all these promises bent him not. And when the

governor brought him out from the dungeon, he

also vexed him in many things : among which manychurches were demolished. And the persecutionendured for nine years. Then the Lord God the

Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, made all these

troubles to vanish away, and the governor com-

manded the saint to repair the churches, and to

restore unto them all things whatsoever were taken

away from them. The churches were built again,

and Zacharias also set to build other churches :

and it was ordered that cymbals be beaten in the

churches.

Thus the things appertaining to the churches and

to the faithful became straight, and this father lived

thereafter twelve years, and was chief during twenty-

eight years.


Then he removed to the Lord.

May his prayers be with us and preserve us all.

Amen.

LEGEND OF PETER THE PATRIARCH, THE LAST OF

THE MARTYRS.

On this day won martyrdom Anba Butros,

patriarch of Alexandria, who is the last of all the

martyrs.

His father was an assistant to a priest in

Alexandria, and he was called Theodosius. His

mother's name was Sophia.Both feared God greatly; and they had no son.

On the fifth day of the month Abib, which is the

feast of the two saints Peter and Paul, the womansaw a company of Christians walking with their sons

before them, all dressed in goodly raiment. Shewaxed exceeding sorrowful, and wept, and asked

the Lord Jesus with tears before the holy altar to

bestow on her a son. That night Peter and Paul

appeared unto her, and told her that the Lord had

heard her prayers, and would give her a son whoshould be called Peter

;and they commanded her to

go to the patriarch that he might pray over her.

When she awakened she told her husband, who was

greatly rejoiced. Then she went unto the patriarch,

and asked of him to pray over her, telling him the

vision. He gave her his blessing, and after a little

while a son was given to her, this saint Peter.

When he was seven years old, they delivered him to

the patriarch, as Samuel the prophet was delivered.

He became as the patriarch's own son, and was


consecrated by him, first reader, then deacon, then

priest. He helped him greatly in the business of the

church ;and when the patriarch who is called Anba

T'auna was dying, he counselled that Peter should

be chosen in his place. So when he came to the

chair, the church was filled with light from him.

This came to pass in the days of Diocletianus.

Now there was at Antioch a patriarch whofollowed the king's counsel, and he had two sons.

Therefore their mother, being unable to baptisethem in their own country, took them with her to

Alexandria. But while she was yet at sea the

waves became furious;and fearing that her sons

might die in the water without being baptised, she

wounded her breast, and with her blood she madethe sign of the cross upon the face of her two sons,

and baptised them in the name of the Holy Trinity.

Howbeit, they were delivered from the waves, and

came to Alexandria;where they were brought to be

baptised with other children ;but whenever the

patriarch wished to baptise them, the water becamestone. This came to pass thrice. So the patriarch

asked her of the matter, and she told him all that

had happened in the way. He was astonished and

glorified God, saying,' Thus saith the Church, that

there is only one baptism.'In the days of this Peter, Arius, the disobedient,

was excommunicated of the patriarch, because he

hindered him and was stubborn. When Arius

heard that St. Peter was always teaching the peoplein every place not to worship heathen gods, he sent

messengers to take his head;who caught Peter and

bound him. When the citizens heard of this thing,

they took their swords and their armour, and came

4oo Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. x.

to the dungeon to fight with the king's messengers

(sic\ When Peter saw that many would be killed

for his sake, he wished to die for his people and to

be with Christ : so he sent to bid all the people

come, and comforted them, and counselled them to

abide in the true faith. Howbeit Arius, knowingthat Peter was going to the Lord leaving him ex-

communicate, besought the chief of the priests to

make intercession with the patriarch to loose him;

but Peter would not. Then he told unto them a

vision which he saw in the night ;wherein he beheld

Jesus, his raiment parted asunder, and his hand

covering his body with the robe. And Peter said,* O Lord, who hath parted thy raiment ?

' And he

answered, 'Arius ; because he hath parted me from

my Father. Wherefore beware thou of him.'

Thereafter the patriarch asked of the king's mes-

sengers in secret to break through the prison wall

from within and from without, and to take him to

accomplish the king's order. They did as he com-

manded; they took him out to the city to the place

where was buried St. Mark the Evangelist. There

he prayed ;and after greeting all the people he gave

himself up to the swordsman, and prayed, saying,' O Lord Christ, suffer my blood to extinguish the

worship of idols.' A voice from heaven came unto

him and was heard by a holy virgin, the voice as of

one saying,f

Amen, be it unto thee according to thywish.' The swordsman took his holy head, and his

body remained standing upright by the space of two

hours, till the people came ; who came in haste, being

nigh to the dungeon, yet not knowing what had

happened unto him, until one told them. So theytook St. Peter, and wrapped him, and made him sit


on his chair, on the which none ever saw him sit

before while he was in life. For while he was alive

he said,*I sit not thereon, because I see the power

of the Lord sitting upon it.' Then they buried himin the place of the bodies of the saints. He waseleven years on the throne.

May his prayers and intercessions be with us.

Amen.

STORY OF THE PATRIARCH ANBA MARKUS,

about 1800 A.D.

On this day died the patriarch Anba Markus, the

cviu of the patriarchs of Alexandria.

This father was of a village called Tammah, andfrom his youth loved ever to wander in solitude.

Since therefore, by exceeding love for loneliness, hedesired to become a monk, he went to the monasteryof St. Antonius, father of monks. There he became

monk, and waged much spiritual warfare. When the

patriarch Anba Yuanls 1 the cvn died, all the bishopsand priests assembled in Cairo, and made a drawingof lots to find the person meet for the office. Whenthey had prayed to God to guide them in choosingthe man most worthy, the lot fell upon Markus. So

they sent after him the abbot of the monastery, whowas accompanied by a troop of Beduin, and broughthim to Cairo, albeit against his will, bound with iron

chains. The fathers, the bishops, and the priests

came together, and made him patriarch of the chair

of St. Mark of Alexandria. His name before he

was made patriarch was John, and they gave him

1 A Coptic form of Yuhanna or John.

VOL. n. D d


the name of Mark l. During his bishopric there

were many afflictions and many adversities, and this

chiefly, that two years after his coming to the chair

a multitude from the Frank countries, called the

French, came and took possession of Egypt. Theinhabitants of Cairo rose against them, and there

was war between them for three days. Then the

patriarch changed his house from the Harat-ar-Rum

to the Azbiklah. Then a vizier from Turkey came,

accompanied by certain English folk, and theydraveout the French from Egypt. The people suffered

very much at the hand of the French : many placeswere laid waste, and many of the churches madedesolate. The patriarch also suffered many adversi-

ties ; for which cause he left Harat-ar-Rum, and cameto the Azbiklah, where he built a large precinct and a

large church in the name of St. Mark the Evangelist.This is the first who inhabited the Azbiklah. Hewas always repairing churches and monasteries which

were in ruin;and was ever awake to preach to the

people, and to teach them night and day. Moreoverhe consecrated many bishops. And when the metro-

politan of Abyssinia died, and certain monks and

priests came with a letter from the king of Abys-sinia asking a metropolitan, Markus consecrated for

him one who went with the Abyssinian priests, and

also sent to them books of sermons and of doctrines,

because he had heard that certain of them had

become heretic. A wonder was also wrought bythis father on this wise. One year the river Nile

did not overflow its borders ; wherefore the viceroy

1 This was only because his predecessor was called John. Mark

is not an official title.


asked of the Coptic patriarch and the other patri-

archs to pray for the rise of the water of the Nile.

So Markus and all the priests and Christian peoplecame together and prayed to God, who hearkened to

their prayers, and made arise the water of the Nile

higher than its wont.

When he was sick with the sickness of death he

called unto him the chief of the bishops, and said

unto him,'

My time is come to leave this world : so

must thou and thy brethren meet together and

consecrate a patriarch : neglect it not.' After three

days his soul departed to the Lord, and he was

buried in the church of Azbikiah which he had

built;and great was the pomp of his burial. He

sat on the chair thirteen years and four months.

May his blessing be with us till the last breath.

And to our Lord be praise for ever. Amen.

D d 2

INDEX TO THE SECOND VOLUME.

ACANTHUS, pp. 243. 244. 245.

'Arjp 46.

Alb, see Vestments.

Alchemy 251.Alms-dish 289.Altar 1-36.- board 3. 7. 283.-

canopy 28 seq. 194.-

casket, see Ark.-

cavity 305. 352. 353.-

coverings 35-36. 283.-

lights 56.of wood 6-7.

-portable 25-28.slab 7 seq.

Ambon 64. 314.

Amice, see Vestments.

'AJAVOS 280.

Ampulla 56.Amula 56.

Angelic habit 308. 323.

Anointing the sick 326 seq.

Antimensia 27.

Apostolical Constitutions 268.

Apse 194.

Aquamanile 54.Arcosolia 8. 13.Ark 42 seq. 55. 283.Armenian altar 23. 33. 60.

usage 49. 50. 263. 280. 328.

349- 350- 35i- 352.vestments 122. 126. 142. 162.

169. 184. 214 bis. 227. 233.

Armlet, see Vestments.

Aspersion 268. 292. 339. 345.Aster or dome 39.

Aumbry 78.

Babylon 167.

Baldakyn, see Altar-canopy.

Ballin, see Vestments.

Balsam 331.Banner 311.

Baptism 262 seq. 388. 399.of fire 266.

Baptistery 264. etc.

Basin, see Ewer.

Beduin 240.Bell 45. 50. 79. 273. 316. 323.Benediction 292. 316. 327.

of oil 333 seq.- of palm 349.- of water 266. 271. 272. 339.

344- 346. 350- 39 1 -

Biruna 213.Books 239-246.

Bowing before altar 309. 319.Bread, eucharistic, 277.

Breastplate 102. 123.British usage 171. 198. 215.Burial of the rood 352.

Burnus, see Cope and Chasuble

(Vestments).

Cambutta 228.

Candelabrum 68. etc.

Cap of priesthood 209 seq.Casula 196.Chains put on patriarch 306. 309.

401.Chalice 37 seq.Charta bombycina 241.

Chasuble, see Vestments.

Chrism 19 seq. 269. 271. 299.

337- 340- 343- etc.

VOL. II. D

406 Index.

Churches built over martyrs'bodies 362. 367. 368. 369.

388.dedicated to martyrs 360. 365.

Cidaris 203 n.

Circumcision 263.Colobion no.Coloured vestments 112. 113. 195.

196. 200.

Confession 277. 296. 298. 315.

320.

Confessionary, see Crypt.Confirmation 262 seq.Consecration of altar 343. etc.

- of baptistery 344 seq.- of bishop, see Orders.- of church 338 seq. 363. 372.

39- 39 1 -

Cope, see Vestments.

Coptic language 247-257.dialects of 255.

Corona 75.

Corporal 17. 45. 48. 50. 315. 335.Crewet 55. 271.

Cross, amulet 233benedictional 57. 234-235.2 73- 3i5- 3 2 3- 325-

- of consecration 19. 21. 22.

340.-

pectoral 231.-

processional 233. 234. 309.

335-

Crown, baptismal 273.- bridal 63. 305. 325.-

episcopal, see Vestments.

Crucifix 57.Crutch or staff 83. 225.

Crypt 13 seq.Cucullus 198.Cufic writing 253.Cumhdach 246.Cursive writing 241.Curtain 30 seq. 39. 194.

Cymbal 82. 240. 273. 397.

Dalmatic, see Vestments.

Demotic writing 249. 250. 251.

Dikanikion 219.

Diptychs 49. 289.

8iarKOKa\vfifJ.a 46.

Dome, eucharistic, see Aster.

Dove 383.

231.

*yxf'

lplov 144 n. 163. 169.

Egyptian mythology 94.Elevation of host 82. 182. 183.

291.Emblems 92.

Enamelling on glass 70-71.

Ephod 98. 102. 123.

fTTifiaviKia 104. etc.: see Vestments.

Epiphany ceremonies 346 seq.- tank 349.

128 etc.: see Vest-

ments.

iis 102. 203. etc. : see Amice

(Vestments).Eras, Arabic terms for, 96 n.

Ethiopia 25. etc.

Eucharist 275 seq. 373. etc.

Eulogiae 292.Ewer 53.Excommunication 399, 400.Exorcism 269. 272.

Fan, see Flabellum.

Fanon 122.

Fasting 23. 276. 296. 316. 320.

354-Flabellum 46 seq. 292. 309. 335.

339--

processional 49.Font 271.

Fresco, see Mural painting.Frontal for lectern 68.

Gabathae 72.

Galilaeon 272. 273. 331.Gallican usage 161, 171.

Georgia 51.Girdle 359. 386 (see also Vest-

ments).- at baptism 273. 274.

Index. 407

Girdle at marriage 324.Glove 233.

Gong 8 1.

Good Friday 50. 351.

Gospel, book of, see Textus.- stand 59. 60. 273. 274.

Greater entrance 284.Greek altar 6. 20. 23. 25. 32-36.

language 255.

usage 44. 80. 169. 215. 280.

293. 328. 337. 342-43 etc.

vestments passim, see chapterson vestments.

Griffin's egg 78.

Handbell, see Bell.

Hasirah, see Mat.

Hieroglyphics 249.

History of the Patriarchs 386.Hood 183.Hours of prayer, Coptic 349n.

Iconostasis 32. 33. etc.

Illumination 241 seq.

Images 83-84.Immersion 267. 383.

Imposition of hands 310. 315.

320. 321. 322.Incense 270. 285. 286. 325. 335.

etc.

- box 62.

Infulae 214.Insufflation 271. 273. 320. 321.Irish usage 51. 60. 61. 81. 112.

171. 197. 215. 229. 245.Isbodikon 279. 290. 291.

Jewelled vestments 98. 168. 177.

Jordan 265.

2O2.

Kiss of peace, see Pax.

Kissing altar 287. 315. 321.

bishop 317.cross 314.curtain 283.

gospel 286.

Kissing threshold of sanctuary,

287. 315.

Kneeling 277. 290. 339.

Xfpvtfiov 54.

\IT(0I>IOV IOI.

Labyrinth 368.

Lafafah, see Corporal.

Lamps 69 seq. 194. 327.

Lance, eucharistic 44.

Language, Coptic 247-257.Lectern 65 seq.

Legend 89. 266. 297. 306. 312.

355- 357 seq.

Lenten veil, see Veil.

Lights, ceremonial use of, 39. 55.

96. 273. 274. 284. 285. 286.

289. 294. 321. 323. 326. 328.

335- 344- 346. 35i-

Liturgies 282.

Magician 387.Malabar Christians 134.Mandatum 350.Maronite altar 24.- usage 50. 80.- vestments 122. 127. 134. 136.

147. 162. 187. 213. 227.

Marriage crown 63.

Marriage of clergy 305. 313. 319.Mass for the dead 297.

Mat, eucharistic 44. etc.

Matrimony 323.Melkite community 48. 49. 61.

106. 133. 276. 348.- vestments 116. 132. 138. 160.

168. 191. 207. 219. 237.Mention at the mass 289 n.

Milk and honey, 270. 272. 273.Miracles 388.

Mitra, 207.

Mitre, see Crown (Vestments).Monuments 203.

Mosque 77.

Mount Athos, 80. 91. 93. 96.Mural paintings 83 seq. 360.

408 Index.

Myron 330 : see also Chrism andOils.

Napkin 164.Nestorian altar 6. 24. 33.

chalice 38.

usage 77. 263. 280. 305.- vestments 127. 142. 170. 187.

227.

Ne0eX?7 46.

Nile, rise of 395. 403.

Oils, holy 56. 269. 270. 272. 325.

327. 331 seq. : see also

Chrism and Galilaeon.

olvdvdt) 28.

Olive branch 299.Orders 301 seq.

archdeacon 321.

archpriest or kummus 318.- bishop 313.deacon 320.

-metropolitan 312.

- monk 308. 322.-

patriarch 302seq. 396. 401. etc.

priest 319.- reader 322.- sacristan 301.-

singer 301. 322.- subdeacon 321. 322.

Osiris, worship of 94. 248.

Ostrich-egg 77.

Oven 277.Oxford University and the study

of Coptic 257 n.

1 60 n.

Palm 344. 349.

Sunday 349.Paschal candle 68.

Paten 39. etc.

Patriarch, see Orders.

Pax 49. 60. 270. 286. 315.Pelican 243.Penance 277. 298.

irepi<rTf)6ioii 122.

Persecution 375.

Persian martyrs 369.

(j)aivu>\ioi> etc. IOI .

(j>iKu>\iw 1 49 n.

Phare 74.

Pictures 87 seq. 311. 349.

Pilgrimage 355. 391.Piscina 17.Planeta 196.

jroXuoravpioi' 196.

Pope, title of 302.

Prayer before altar 398.- to saints 96.

Procession 48. 49. 176. 191. 273.

309. 311. 313. 3*14- 3 X 9 bis -

321.326.328.335. 339.340.343- 349- 350. 352. 353- 39-

Prostration 296. 343.

Pulpit 65.

Purgatory 297.Purification 263.

55-

Real Presence, doctrine of 296-297.

Relics 12 seq. 68. 311. 342.

3 6 9-

Reservation of host 54. 293.- of hallowed water 267.

Ring 214. 233. 324.

ijuriSiw 49.

Rosary 238.

Sacraments, the Coptic 262-329.Sacred letters of Sanutius 3.

Sacring bell 82.

Sagavard 214.

Salt, use of 274 n. 282. 292.

34i-Sanctus bell 82.

Sandals 233.Screen 194. etc.

Sees, the Coptic 318.Semantron 80.

Sepulcrum 17.

Serpent 218. 219. 223. 224.Service books 258 seq.

Sick, communion of the 295.

Index. 409

Sign of the cross 270. 274. 287.288. 299. 315. 319. 320.

322.325.344.345. 366. 382bis. 383. 384. 399.

Singing-irons 281.

Spoon, eucharistic 40. 276. 291.

321.

Stamping the housel 279-280.(rri\apiov I o 1 . 115.

Stole, see Vestments.

Synaxar 259.

Syrian altar 24. 27.-

usage 48. 263. 338.vestments 122. 136. 140. 141.

142. 162. 166. 170. 185. 202.

212. 226. 227.

Tabak, see Mat.

Tailasan, see Vestments.

Tarbush 201.

Teaching of the Apostles 268.

Textus 57 seq. 273. 309. 310.

317. 322. 327. 339.Ba\acra-a I 7.

Throne 309. 317.Thurible 309. 339. etc.

Gwiaarripiov I.

Tiara 207. 215.Tonsure 322.Tower 81.

Tribune 309. 314.Turban 375. 377.

Urceolus 54.

Varkass 122.

Vartaped 227. 228.

Veil,.eucharistic, 45. 285. 286. etc.

- Lenten 35.- of crozier 219.

Vestments 17. 97-238.- Alb 99.

Vestments.

Amice 98-100. 117 seq. 276.Armlet or sleeve or epimani-kion 99. 100. 104. 114. 163

seq. 165.Ballin 118.

Chasuble 101. 105. 173 seq.

199.- Cope 99-100. 173 seq. 199.

Crozier or staff 217 seq. 346.- Dalmatic 98. 109 seq. 276.-

Epigonation 169. 235 seq.- Girdle 98-100. 103-104. 124

seq.

Maniple 98. 138. 144 n. 163.

164.- Mitre or crown 120. 156. 184.

200 seq.

Omophorion or pall 143 seq.162.

- Rational 101. 102. ii7n. 122.- Shamlah 118 seq. 314.

Stole 99. 127 seq.

epitrachelion or patrashil128. 129 seq.orarion 128. 134 seq. 321.

Superhumeral 101. 102.

Tailasan 120.

Vestments, eastern origin of 125.

Wafer 278 seq.

Wanderers of the desert 372. 374.

Washing the altar 9. 342.- of eucharistic vessels 292.

of hands at mass 287.- of feet 122. 145 n. 350. 361.

Water mixed with wine 284.

Wine, eucharistic, 281.- for lamp 329.- other use of 341.Women 277. 291.

Worshipping the patriarch 312.

THE END.

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Butler_Alfred Joshua 1884 Ancient Coptic Churches

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