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254 All Copts obey their one Patriarch (of Alexandria). In theory they admit seven Patriarchs, four greater ones, of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Ephesus, which they count as transferred to Constantinople, and three lesser, merely titular, ones: Jerusalem, Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and Abyssinia. But of these, all, except Alexandria, Antioch (of course the Jacobite see) and Abyssinia, have fallen into Dyophysism and the wicked heresies of Chalcedon; so they are separated from the true Monophysite Church. The Coptic Patriarch is elected by the twelve bishops who form his court. He is always a monk, generally abbot of one of the chief monasteries. He may not already be a bishop. The Copts keep the old law which forbids the transference of a bishop from one see to another. He must be celibate, the son of a father who was his wife's first husband. He must be a native Egyptian, and at least fifty years old. What happened in practice till quite lately was that the monks of a chief monastery proposed someone (usually their abbot) and the bishops elected him. Often there was only one candidate. The Patriarch had to lead an exceedingly abstemious life; so the dignity was not much coveted. Indeed, one hears of the elect being seized by force and chained up in Cairo till they ordained him. The election was made by lot. The names were written on slips; a slip was added inscribed