the coptic contribution to christian civilisation - Fatherjacob.org

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The primitive Coptic churches appear to have retained this tripledivision, which may still be witnessed in some of the historicchapels of the ancient convents. The innermost area behind theiconostasis was the sanctuary (haikal) where priests anddeacons alone were admitted to officiate the mystery of theSacrament. Outside the sanctuary, the central part of the churchwas reserved for baptized Christians, while a third section at theentrance was left open for the unbaptised catechumens. Thisarchitectural arrangement fits the Coptic offices to perfection.Indeed the Coptic liturgy is subdivided into three parts, namely,the liturgy of the catechumens, the liturgy of the faithful, andthe Anaphora. Whereas the catechumens were expected todepart after the first stage, the screen was drawn after thesecond to conceal the mystery of sanctification of the PreciousBody and Blood before Holy Communion.At an unknown date, the distinction between the baptizedfaithful and the unbaptised catechumens began to disappearwith the elimination of the latter through the spread ofChristianity, and it became meaningless to retain the threetransverse divisions of the church. Instead the perpendiculartriple division of nave and aisles was substituted for thetransverse sections of bygone days. In this way, the basilicalstyle began to assert itself in Coptic ecclesiastical architecture.St. Mena's cathedral, built by Emperor Arcadius (395-408) inthe district of Mareotis west of Alexandria, the ruins of themagnificent cathedral at Ashmunayn in Middle Egypt, and themajestic churches of the Red and White Monasteries of St.Shenute at Suhug are fourth and fifth century examples of thisimminent change which was gradually adopted by the rest of theChristian world. It would, however, be a mistake to assume thatthe change was sudden even among the Copts. The irregularityof church forms in Old Cairo proves that the definitive style ofthe basilica must have been an extended process. But it is an29
inescapable conclusion that these architectural developments inEgypt are tied with basilical forms throughout Christendom.OBLIVION AND REDISCOVERYOne of the most disastrous events in Christian annals came topass at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Its condemnation ofthe Coptic patriarch Dioscorus I, and its interpretation of St.Cyril the Great's formula of the physis or hypostasis of Christ -contrary to the Coptic profession led to the irreparable cleavageof Christendom into two hostile camps; Eastern and Western, ormonophysite and diophysite. To this day, Chalcedon isacrimoniously remembered by the Coptic natives of Egypt and,for that matter, also by the Jacobite Syrians, the Ethiopians, andthe Armenians who followed the example of Egypt. Theimmediate outcome of Chalcedon, however, was more keenlyfelt in Egypt. The Byzantine Emperors who aimed at unitywithin the Church as the sole bearer of cohesion in the Empirestopped at nothing to impose that unity by brutal force on theEgyptian people. It was thus that a new wave of gruesomepersecution was inaugurated to obliterate all vestiges ofseparatism in Egypt. For effective action, the Emperorcombined the civil, military, and ecclesiastical authority in thehands of one man, the Prefect Apollinarius, who was governor,army general and patriarch of Alexandria at the same time. Thisoffered him immense powers to force the Chalcedonianprofession of faith on the obstinate Copts who were adamantagainst the Greek dictates. In opposition to this military rule ofthe Church, the natives elected their own national patriarch whowas pursued by the legionaries of the Melkite patriarch while hemoved in secret from monastery to monastery. Unbearablyexcessive taxation, together with the most horrible torture and30
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Page 11 and 12: followers of Arius and Athanasius,
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