yptiens et les Chinois, (tom. ii. p. 192, 193,) and appears more
probable than the 600,000 ancient, or 15,000 modern, Copts of Gemelli
Carreri Cyril Lucar, the Protestant patriarch of Constantinople, laments
that those heretics were ten times more numerous than his orthodox
Greeks, ingeniously applying Homer, (Iliad, ii. 128,) the most perfect
expression of contempt, (Fabric. Lux Evangelii, 740.)]

[Footnote 149: The history of the Copts, their religion, manners, &c.,
may be found in the Abbe Renaudot's motley work, neither a translation
nor an original; the Chronicon Orientale of Peter, a Jacobite; in
the two versions of Abraham Ecchellensis, Paris, 1651; and John Simon
Asseman, Venet. 1729. These annals descend no lower than the xiiith
century. The more recent accounts must be searched for in the travellers
into Egypt and the Nouveaux Memoires des Missions du Levant. In the last
century, Joseph Abudacnus, a native of Cairo, published at Oxford, in
thirty pages, a slight Historia Jacobitarum, 147, post p.150]

VI. The Coptic patriarch, a rebel to the Caesars, or a slave to the
khalifs, still gloried in the filial obedience of the kings of Nubia and
Aethiopia. He repaid their homage by magnifying their greatness; and
it was boldly asserted that they could bring into the field a hundred
thousand horse, with an equal number of camels; [150] that their hand
could pour out or restrain the waters of the Nile; [151] and the
peace and plenty of Egypt was obtained, even in this world, by the
intercession of the patriarch. In exile at Constantinople, Theodosius
recommended to his patroness the conversion of the black nations of
Nubia, from the tropic of Cancer to the confines of Abyssinia. [152]
Her design was suspected and emulated by the more orthodox emperor.
The rival missionaries, a Melchite and a Jacobite, embarked at the
same time; but the empress, from a motive of love or fear, was more
effectually obeyed; and the Catholic priest was detained by the
president of Thebais, while the king of Nubia and his court were hastily
baptized in the faith of Dioscorus. The tardy envoy of Justinian was
received and dismissed with honor: but when he accused the heresy and
treason of the Egyptians, the negro convert was instructed to reply
that he would never abandon his brethren, the true believers, to the
persecuting ministers of the synod of Chalcedon. [153] During several
ages, the bishops of Nubia were named and consecrated by the