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that he was threading a "path between several churches, with their surrounding priestly establishments, each of which contained treasures that in antiquity and artistic merit permit few rivals in the East. A Coptic church is like a Mohammedan harîm-it must not appear from the outside. Just as the studiously plain exterior of many a Cairo house reveals nothing of the latticed court within, surrounded by rooms where inlaid marble dados, foliate tiles, carved and painted ceilings, and magnificent carpets, shine in the soft light of the stained-glass windows; so the Coptic church makes no outward show. High walls, of no particular shape or workmanship, hide everything from view. This is, however, due more to the fear of attracting the notice of hostile rulers, and evoking the fanaticism of the multitude, in less tolerant times, than to any sense of the decency of seclusion. In the desert a Coptic monastery might have a tower and bells; but within hearing of the followers of the Prophet who said that the bell was the devil's muëzzin,' it would have been death to risk such prominence. Therefore the Babylon churches are invisible from without, all glorious though they be within; and it demands patience and the penetrating of some passages before the interior is to be seen.

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When an entrance has been effected to the church, of which the exterior and vestibule are so unpretentious, the first thing that strikes the visitor is the dim religious light of the interior. A Coptic church has practically no windows, for the slits that admit a narrow streak of light high up in the roof scarcely deserve the name, and have seldom the merit of being studded with jewel-like panes of coloured glass, like the kamarîyehs of Cairo. A Coptic church, like all other ancient churches, is intended to be seen by the light of lamps, not of day. As the eye becomes used to the dimness, the peculiar construction of the building grows clearer. The shape is generally basilican: nave and north and south aisles, each terminating with choir and altar, are almost universal. The nave is divided by parallel carved or lattice screens from north to south one behind the other as you look towards the altar in the east end. The westernmost division is the narthex, the place of the catechumens, and also of the large Epiphany tank used for those trine immersions which were more common in primitive times than they are now. In front of the narthex, and separated by a screen, is the women's division, an innovation of probably the ninth or tenth century; for the women had previously been confined to the triforium or upper aisle, which

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corresponds to the galleries of an unreformed parish church, or rather to the broad triforium of Westminster Abbey. In front of the women's division of the nave, and similarly screened off, is the men's place, and in front of the men's, raised a step, is the choir, which is also shut off by a carved or lattice screen. The choir is not, like many of our chancels, a long narrow passage, but the reverse; since the distance between the choir screen and the altar is only some ten or twelve feet, while in width the choir extends across the entire church, though the central altar is generally divided from the side. altars by partition screens, with or without communicating doors. There are always three altars-a number chosen, of course, with reference to the Trinity, but also due to the Coptic principle that an altar must be fasting' at each of the three celebrations of the mass. The altar is screened off from the choir except during the celebration, when the rich embroidered curtain that hangs before the screen is drawn, the two inlaid doors are flung back, and the congregation is allowed to behold the sanctuary or haikal of which the altar is the principal feature. But the altar itself is very plain and simple, and it is in the setting that the beauty of the jewel consists. Dodos of variegated marble, porphyry, and other stones, laid in geometrical patterns, run round the haikal; and above, and also above the screens in the nave, and often turning round at the sides, are long friezes of pictures representing the saints of the Coptic church, or scenes from the Bible story, framed with bands of Arabic and Coptic inscriptions in shining gold. It is not difficult to imagine how splendid the effect must have been in the old days of the church's prosperity, when the lamps of silver were still suspended, and the censer was swinging before the sanctuary, and the bishop sat on his tribune in the apse above the altar, surrounded by the elders of the church.

The roofing is characteristic: it is generally waggon-vaulted throughout its extent, a feature it shares with the early churches of Ireland, and with these only; and the altars are each placed in an apse, which is in most cases surmounted by a complete (not semicircular) dome. The curve of the apse is internal only, and from the outside the east end appears plain and rectangular. The aisles have generally a second story of upper aisles, broad as themselves, and screened off from the view of those below by a high front. Here, as has been said, the women used to attend the services of the church, but since they obtained a footing in the body below, the broad triforium or upper aisle has been converted into subsidiary

chapels, or have, unhappily, been turned to account for the priest's bedrooms. There are no transepts, no clerestory, no tower; the position of the baptistery varies, but there generally is one; and there are invariably a number of other buildings, chapels, priests' chambers, &c., all placed together in confused heaps, which exactly remind one of the tangled groups of buildings which the early missionaries constructed for their monastic settlements in Ireland.

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Such, in bare outline, is a Coptic church, which Mr. Butler has for the first time made familiar to us in all its details. Its architecture, it will have been seen, is extremely simple and plain. The columns which support the upper aisles are seldom ornate; there are no mullioned windows or lofty archways to need decoration; whatever adornment there is must be not in construction, but in the furniture and partitions of the church. The numer ous screens form a special subject for rich ornament. Some, indeed, are of simple turned lattice-work; but in the better churches they are marvels of ingenious inlay. choir screen at Abu-s-Seyfeyn is constructed of elaborately moulded panels, inlaid with ivory tablets and crosses richly chased, reminding one of the best style of Cairo mosque pulpits, but even richer and more costly. Sometimes these screens contain panels of carved wood representing warrior saints and other subjects, and these are probably of early date. In one example the inlaid ivory panels are so thin that when the lamps behind them were lighted they must have given a rosy opal light, singularly beautiful to look upon. The splendour of these carved and inlaid screens is enhanced by the bands of golden texts which surmount them, and by the row of pictures which the texts divide. These pictures are of very various merits and dates. Some few are early, and these are valuable in affording trustworthy representations of the ecclesiastical vestments of the time. Others, tolerably numerous, are of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and some of these are really fine productions. The process, much in vogue with Coptic artists, of painting on a surface of gesso, over which a layer of gold leaf has been spread, lends a fine iridescence to many of their works. On the other hand, the large majority of the paintings which surround the churches and fringe the screens are of the last century, when Coptic art was at its lowest.

The pulpit or ambon, which stands at the north-east corner of the men's division of the nave, is a subject for elaborate decoration. Its sides are often composed of finely contrasted

coloured marbles standing on delicately carved pillars, and ornamented with pendentives. The lectern, which is placed in the choir, is a rectangular desk, of little structural elegance, but made of the beautiful carved and inlaid ivory and woodwork, in small panels, which is familiar in the mosques of Cairo. Among the utensils of the church, which are subjects for the artist's skill, may be mentioned the flabellum, with which flies are dispersed from the chalice, which is often finely worked in rich repoussé silver; the lamps, the ark to contain the chalice, &c., and especially the silver textus case, which, like the Irish Cumhdach—such as the beautiful casket which contains the Psalter of St. Columba, once the standard of the O'Donnells, and now preserved in the collections of the Royal Irish Academy-holds the copy of the Gospels, are also frequently ornamented.

Not less interesting or less richly adorned are the vestments of the various orders of the Coptic church-patriarch, metropolitan, bishop, chief-priest, priest, archdeacon, deacon, and reader. These preserve their ancient forms for the most part unaltered, as a comparison of existing vestments with early pictures proves. Mr. Butler has an interesting theory as to the origin of these garments, which many have sought to derive from classical costume. He says they are simply the clothes of the Arab, and that an ordinary well-dressed Arab in a Cairo bazaar is a better commentary on the origin of ecclesiastical vestments than all the classical models in the world. The chasuble of the Coptic priest is but the burnus or outer robe of the Arab; the dalmatic or camisia is the Arab kamîs; the girdle, zounarion, is the Arab zenâr or mantakah; the amice has its counterpart in the kûfîyeh, and so on. There is a certain à priori likelihood that the vestments of the early church, first adopted in a hot climate, should resemble the garments which long experience had proved to be most suited to the conditions of life; and Mr. Butler's view is supported by actual resemblance as much as by the inherent probability of the hypothesis. Many of these robes are splendidly adorned with gold and silver embroidery and precious stones. Before leaving the subject of decoration, mention must be made of the illuminated manuscripts which once formed part of the library of every Coptic church. These cannot be said to rival the illuminating art of the West, but in their way they are good. The designs are generally of conventional scrollwork, acanthus pattern, and geometrical arrangements in the Mohammedan style. Sometimes pelicans and other birds are woven into a border, but human figures are rare. Gilt is

sparingly employed, and the chief colours are red, green, yellow, and black.

This is not the place to enter into the doctrine and ritual of the Coptic church. A good deal of interesting information about the seven sacraments, especially the holy communion, is to be found in Mr. Butler's volumes, though they do not profess to treat of more than the churches themselves and their furniture. The appalling fasts of the Copts-that of Lent lasts fifty-five days, and involves total abstention from food from sunrise to sunset during each of those days-no doubt suggested the only less rigorous Muslim fast of Ramadan. The Coptic sacrament of matrimony has certain elements of the grotesque in it, which Mr. Lawrence Oliphant brought out only too relentlessly in his 'Land of Khemi;' but most of the ceremonial of the church possesses a dignity and the sweet savour of antiquity which must redeem any minor absurdities. No one can stand unmoved in a Coptic church during the celebration of the Mass, or hear the worshippers shout with one voice, as they did some fifteen hundred years ago, the loud response, 'I believe This is the Truth,' without strong emotion. Through fiery persecution they have clung to their truth with a heroism that is only the more wonderful when we consider their weakness; and however partial and ignorant their interpretation of truth, we cannot withhold the respect that is due of those who have come out of great tribulation and remained steadfast to their faith.

S. LANE-POOLE.

ART. IV. Tithes, Ordinary and Extraordinary.

In his 'Recollections and Suggestions' the late Earl Russell refers to the agitation which took place in the early part of this century with respect to the payment of tithes. After describing the mischievous results attending the unsettled state of the question, the efforts of Pitt in the last century, and of Peel in this, to effect a satisfactory settlement, he, in tones of evident self-complacency, goes on to state what he believes to have been the effect of a measure, in the framing of which he had a large and important share.

All the evils of the tithe system (he says) were the subject of fair compromise and permanent settlement by the Act of 1836. Three Commissioners, two of whom were appointed by the Crown, and one by the

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