Page:Lesser Eastern Churches.djvu/280

258 ḳummuṣ is only a higher title, given (as is that of archimandrite among the Orthodox and Melkites) to priests who are not really abbots at all; or, as we have monsignori, honorary officials of the Pope's court. There is also a special rite for making an Archdeacon, who is a kind of vicar general to the bishop. Both these ranks of ḳummuṣ and the archdeacon are always counted as orders of the hierarchy. There are a few convents of nuns.

Lately there has been a strong movement among the Copts for reform in many directions. The reforming party demand better education for the clergy and a lay right of control in certain matters, particularly in finance. This is undoubtedly due to European, especially to English, influence. The conservative party denounce the reformers as Anglicized Semi-Protestants. American Presbyterians also have been active among the Copts. In 1890 they opened the flourishing Tiufik school, which educates numbers of Coptic boys, but is said to leave them with diminished loyalty towards the national Church. The English Church Missionary Society and an "Association for the furtherance of Christianity in Egypt" have done the same kind of work. The Patriarch is bitterly opposed to these. Forced by their rivalry, he has at last opened a theological school at Cairo, and has even sent two students to the Rhizarion school at