Page:Lesser Eastern Churches.djvu/281

Rh Athens, evidently preferring the danger of Orthodox teaching to that of Protestantism.

The present Patriarch is Cyril V. His family name is Maṭar. The last Patriarch, Demetrios II, died in 1873. At that moment the agitation for reform was very strong. The reformers had drawn up a scheme for the establishment of councils, composed of both clergy and laity, to administer the property of each diocese. For two years the throne was vacant while the reformers and conservatives struggled, each for their own representative. At last, in 1875, Cyril V was chosen. He was the candidate of the reformers; at his election he promised to admit the councils and to introduce all necessary reforms. But he has bitterly disappointed his party. Soon he abolished the councils, shut up schools, and showed himself in every way the most hardened conservative. He is fiercely opposed to all reforming societies; he has excommunicated their leaders, and has always used his authority to put down every "Anglicizing," modernizing, or Protestant tendency. Both he and his rivals have constantly appealed to the Government against each other. All reforming Copts, pupils of English or American schools, imbued with modern Western ideas, will tell you that there is no hope of improving the state of their Church while Cyril V lives. On the other hand, of course, the old-fashioned people say that this ardent spirit of reform, this eager desire to adopt English ideas, really means a Protestant tendency which is a grave danger to their venerable Church. Lord Cyril V still reigns, a very old man. If the reformers succeed in making one of their party Patriarch when he dies, there will probably be startling changes.

2. The Coptic Faith

Copts are Monophysites. There is not the least doubt about this, though their Monophysism is of the more moderate (and less