Walter Frederic Adeney (London Stereoscopic & Photographic Co. Ltd., date unknown)
The Copts are distinguished by a terrible but heroic reputation, and that is being the most repeatedly and continuously persecuted body of Christians all down the ages of history. These are not my words, but the words of the English biblical scholar and Church historian, Walter Frederic Adeney (1849 – 1920). Adeney was a Congregationalist (a Protestant branch) minister famous for writing many books; but perhaps his greatest book is The Greek and Eastern Churches,[1] which was published in 1909, covering the history of the Eastern and Oriental Churches, including the Coptic Church.
The book is extensive, made of 634 pages, and comprised of five divisions, with each division subdivided into many juicy chapters. His review of the Coptic history is excellent, although one does not necessarily agree with all he has written.
Adeney writes, inter alia, about the suffering of the Copts throughout history, and what he has written drew my attention. I simply reproduce it below:
“The Church in Egypt has the terrible but heroic distinction of being the most repeatedly and continuously persecuted body of Christians all down the ages of history, from the second century almost to our own day. These much tried people endured at least their full share of persecution under the Romans during the two or three centuries when Christianity was always illegal and at intervals fiercely assailed. Neale says that the Dominitian persecution does not appear to have reached Egypt, but that possibly there was some persecution there under Trajan. But the first persecution of which we have any information is that under Septimius Severus, which was concentrated with exceptional severity in this province, when Leonidas, the father of Origen, suffered martyrdom, a persecution to which the romantic story of Potamiciena belongs. Till this period the history of the Church is a blank. The Decian, which was the first of the really great persecutions deliberately designed to destroy Christianity on lines of seriously planned State policy, fell with exceptional force on the Christians of Egypt. Then many fled to the desert, only to be seized as slaves by the Arabs. The Diocletian persecution was also severely felt in Egypt. In the year 311, Peter the bishop of Alexandria was beheaded without a trial by order of Maximin. So effectually were the horror and the heroism of this persecution branded into the memory of the Church that the Copts named the new era of Diocletian “the era of martyrs.” Of course Egypt shared in the quiet of the breathing time under Galienus’s edict of toleration, and in the peace of the Church that came in with the edict of Milan. But this peace proved to be disappointing and delusive. Persecution soon revived in new forms, now claiming Christianity itself as an excuse for harshness to Christians. The Arian heresy first appeared in Alexandria, and the worst of the consequent troubles were felt in that city, under the infamous rule of George the Cappadocian, whom Constantius forced on the Church, ordained, as the impartial pagan historian Ammianus says, “against his own and the public interest.”[ Amm. Marc. xxii. 11] Athanasius tells us that “virgins were thrown into prison; bishops were led away in chains by soldiers; the houses of orphans and widows were plundered,” etc.[De Fuga, 6] According to Sozomen, George “imprisoned and maimed many men and women,” and was “accounted a tyrant and became an object of universal hatred.”[Hist. Eccl. iv. 10] It is difficult to be very severe on the murderers of such a tyrant. They were pagans—not Athanasian Christians, as the Arians tried to show.
Arianism was suppressed; but new heresies disturbing the peace of the Church brought their train of troubles to Egypt. After the severance of the Monophysite party from the Greek Church, the imperial displeasure made life so hard for the Copts that they were ready to welcome the Arab invasion as a relief. But it was not long before they became the victims of Mohammedan persecution. With every change of masters they have hoped for better times; but whether under Arab, Kurd, or Turk, the Christians have always been the sufferers from each new invasion and fresh conquest of Egypt, in additional exactions, restrictions, wrongs, and insults. This went on until modern Europe interfered with Egyptian affairs, and, last of all, England brought equal justice to all classes and freedom in religion for all faiths.”[2]
I find myself in total agreement with Adeney: The Coptic nation, in my opinion, has suffered throughout history more than any other nation on earth. I know it is controversial but I think it is true. The writer does not want to minimise the suffering of other nations though.
Although Adeney ends his passage with a happy note, that Coptic persecution ended under the British control of Egypt, it was not the end of Coptic persecution in history: the Copts are still a persecuted nation up to this very day.
[1] W. F. Adeney, The Greek and Eastern Churches (New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909).
[2] Ibid, pp. 556-558.