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172 The case of Egypt is peculiarly important for the glaring proofs it affords of the suicidal policy of the Church and State in preparing for the final collapse of the power of both in this province. Chosroes had done great mischief in his invasion; but this came and went, while the oppression of the imperial government was almost more intolerable, because it was continuous. As Monophysites the Copts were disowned by the Church and persecuted by the State. In comparison with the Byzantine intolerance the yoke of the Mohammedan government seemed easy. To these ill-treated Copts the invader came as a deliverer. It was the policy of the Arabs to favour the schismatics and heretics among the Christians in order to weaken the empire's power of resistance. These people have been accused of directly aiding the infidels. While it cannot be denied that in some cases they did so, the wholesale charges brought against them by their opponents go beyond verifiable facts. All down the course of history we have to be on our guard against the libels perpetrated against heretics by the narrow-minded, passionate champions of orthodoxy. But for the purposes of an invader mere passivity and non-resistance would be almost as serviceable as direct assistance. There was no question of patriotism. From time immemorial the Egyptians had lived under tyrannical masters, and certainly they had little reason to cultivate a sentiment of loyalty to the Greek despot at Constantinople who lent his forces to aid the Church of the empire in punishing them for what they regarded as their higher loyalty—their loyalty to Christ and truth.

Thus it came about that the Nestorians in Syria and the Jacobites in Egypt—both out of favour with the Greek government, because out of communion with the Greek Church—found rest and protection under the ægis of Islam. This fact needs to be grasped in all its wide-reaching significance if we would account for the success of the Mohammedan movement. But even at first the rest was often disturbed and the protection accompanied by irksome conditions, and it was not long before the mild sway of the