Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/617

Rh took a jouniey to Damascus and there had an audience with the caliph, wlioni he succeeded in convincing that he was in the true line of the ancient patriarchate of Alexandria, and so got several of the churches taken from the Copts and given up to him. It was a most unhappy revival of the old intrusion of the Greek Church in Egypt, and one more trouble for the much afflicted native Church. After this the Copts had great difficulty in electing a patriarch for their own communion. When they had succeeded in coming to an agreement on Chail, the governor loaded them with fresh money exactions, in order to pay which some sold their cattle, and some even their children. Many bishops fled and hid in the monasteries.

In the year 748 a new governor, Hassan, was appointed, and for a time he was friendly towards the Christians. It is pitiable to see that one consequence was that both parties—the Melchites and the Copts—appealed to the government in a dispute about the possession of a church—St. Mennas in the Mareotis. This appears to be the first case in which two bodies of Christians have brought their quarrel into a Mohammedan court of law. The emir gave his decision in favour of the national Church. The glint of favour was but transient. A little later the emir threw Chail into a dungeon, together with three hundred Christians of both sexes. The patriarch was only liberated in order to undertake the weary work of collecting money for their ransom in Upper Egypt.

The emir became so tyrannical that he drove the Copts in Upper Egypt to another rebellion. Both the patriarchs, Cosmas the Melchite and Chail the Copt, were taken prisoners; the former was let off on payment of a ransom, and the latter was employed to use his influence with his flock in bringing them to submission. The war was complicated by the quarrels now going on among the Mohammedans, and the Christians joined the faction of the Abbasidæ. Their success brought immediate relief to the Church.

A curious sidelight is thrown on the status of the