culprit and to hear the Roman Legate (Paschasius, Bishop of Lilybæum) pronounce sentence on him: "The most holy and blessed Bishop of the great and elder Rome, Leo, through us and through the holy Synod here present in union with the blessed Apostle Peter, who is the corner-stone of the Catholic Church, deposes Dioscur from the office of bishop, and forbids him all ministry as priest" (Chalc. Sess. III). The Patriarchate of Alexandria never recovered from that humiliation. Dioscur refused to accept his deposition, and his Egyptians, always frantically loyal to their Pharaoh, supported him. But it was at the cost of separation from the Catholic world. Dioscur was banished to Paphlagonia, where he died in 455. Proterius was appointed Patriarch, and was supported by the Emperor's[1] soldiers. But Egypt hated equally Chalcedon and Cæsar. It was the old national feeling, the old hatred of the Roman power lurking under the dispute about one or two natures in Christ. As soon as Marcian died (457) the storm burst. They drove the soldiers into the temple of Serapis and there burned them alive; they murdered Proterius, and set up as Patriarch a fanatical Monophysite, Timothy the Cat.[2] It is from Dioscur and Timothy the Cat that the present national (Coptic) Church of Egypt descends. It has been ever since the 5th century out of the communion of both West and East, Rome and Constantinople. Meanwhile the party of the Government carried on another succession of Patriarchs, forming the "Melkite"[3] community in union with Constantinople and (until the great schism) with Rome, but bitterly hated by the Copts. Neither of these rival Patriarchs ever attained anything like the influence of the old line from which both claimed to descend.
In 641 came the Moslems under Amr and swept them all away. So greatly did the Copts hate the Melkites that they supported the Arabs in the invasion. But they gained little by their
- ↑ Marcian (450–457) had accepted the decrees of Chalcedon as the law of the Empire, and everywhere enforced them by his civil power.
- ↑ Τιμόθεος Αἴλουρος.
- ↑ Malik (Heb. Melek) is the Arabic for king. It was used by all the Semitic peoples (like the Greek Βασιλεύς) for the Emperor. Melkite then means βασιλικός, Imperial. Melkites are Christians on the Emperor's side, Imperialists.
