248 DISTINGUISHED CHURCHMEN
Mark s preaching aroused the hatred and venge ance of the Egyptians. The Evangelist, we are told, was subjected to gross cruelty, and dragged through the town by a rope tied round his neck, until death overcame him and delivered him from his tormentors. St Mark, let it be added, was buried in the Church which he had built at Baucalis, where for many centuries the election of the patriarchs took place by the side of his tomb.
The unhappy dissensions which arose in the Christian Church during the fifth century, and the subject of the Mohammedan Conquest, are dealt with at great length, the spread of Mohammedanism being closely followed through twelve centuries. About the change which came over Egypt Mr Fowler offers trenchant criticism. " Had Chris tianity," he says, " been able to oppose a united front to the new crusade, it is more than probable that the teaching of Mahomet would have died with him ; but the complete departure from the principles laid down by Jesus Christ for the government of His Church, and the absence of that spirit of brotherhood and life which He advocated, both by His words and example, drew down upon mankind the scourge of a false religion, against which Oriental Christianity has struggled in vain."
A glimpse at the feeble work of the Coptic Church in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen turies, and at the endeavours of the Anglican
�� �
