COP 



204 



COP 



Copernicus at the indifference with which the church of Rome wit- 

 II nessed the propagation of a system so adverse to the prin- 

 Copt?. c jp] e9 f;t s faith- More than a century afterwards, when 

 ""~ Y ~"™' civilization and liberal sentiment had made considerable 

 progress, Galileo was persecuted for holding the same 

 opinions which Copernicus had propagated with impu- 

 nity. We cannot allow ourselves to imagine that the 

 church was less vigilant in 1530 than in 1634, or that 

 the doctrine of the earth's immobility was less hereti- 

 cal at the one period than at the other. We are there- 

 fore led to consider the persecution of Galileo rather as 

 the consequence of his personal imprudence, than of his 

 astronomical opinions, and to imagine that the cardinals 

 had seized the opportunity which the publication of his 

 dialogues presented, of gratifying a private resentment, 

 which might possibly have been well-founded Upon 

 what other supposition can we account for the extreme 

 severity of the church against the Pisan philosopher, 

 and for its total indifference to the same crime in the 

 canon of Ermeland. The publication of Copernicus's 

 system gave no shock to the public mind ; the reli- 

 gious feelings of no individual, and the watchful jea- 

 lousy of no tribunal, were alarmed. The most dis- 

 tinguished members, on the contrary, of the Catho- 

 lic church, encouraged and promoted the propaga- 

 tion of the new system. The Cardinal Nicolas 

 Schonberg pressed Copernicus to publish his disco- 

 veries. The Bishop of Culm employed his influence in 

 the same cause. The work was dedicated to the Pope 

 himself, t The King of Poland even proposed him a 

 candidate for the vacant bishopric of Ermeland ; and 

 38 years after his death, Cromerus, Bishop of Erme- 

 land, erected a monument to his memory. The charge of 

 heresy was never preferred against Copernicus either du- 

 ring his life, or after his death ; and we have never been 

 able to discover, that the slightest disapprobation had 

 been either cherished or expressed against his system 

 of the universe. Had Galileo been canon of Ermeland, 

 and Copernicus professor of mathematics at Pisa, reli- 

 gion would never have been degraded by the persecu- 

 tion of the philosopher, nor science afflicted at the ig- 

 nominious compromise by which it was averted. See 

 Gassendi Nicolai Copernici Varmiensis Caitonici Astro- 

 ■nomi illustris vita, published at the end of the life of 

 Tycho Brahe ; and Bernoulli's Travels, vol. iii. page 

 18. (/3) 

 : COPIAPO. See Chili. 



COPPER. See Chemistry, Mines, and Oryctog- 

 nosy. 



COPROSMA, a genus of plants of the class Polyga- 

 mia, and order Monoecia. See Botany, p. 343. 



COPTS, a name given to the descendants of the an- 

 cient Egyptians, who profess the Christian faith, accord- 

 ing to the Jacobite or Eutychian heresy. They con- 

 sider the name Copts as a nickname, and call themselves 

 by the name of Jacobites, from Jacobus Zanzales, bi- 

 shop of Edessa, who travelled over a great part of the 

 East, to propagate the doctrine of one nature in Christ, 

 and died in the year 578. 



The Copts have a patriarch, or metropolitan, at Alex- 

 andria, who is head of the whole Coptic church, and is 

 said to have one hundred and forty bishoprics in Egypt, 

 Syria, Nubia, and other countries, subject to his patri- 

 archate, besides the Abuna of Abyssinia, who is also no- 

 minated and consecrated by him. The Coptic church 

 has been so grievously oppressed by the government, 

 that both clergy and laity labour under the most miser- 

 able poverty, attended by its usual associate, deplorable 

 ignorance. 



Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, was the first who 

 maintained the Monophysite doctrine, or the doctrine 

 of one nature in Christ ; for which he was excommu- 

 nicated, and died in exile. Shortly after, however, his 

 party, with Dioscorus at their head, called a council at 

 Ephesus, in opposition to that of Chalcedon, which had 

 condemned Eutychius ; and, in their turn, excommu- 

 nicated the pope, and all the bishops who adhered to 

 him. This is the origin of the fatal breach between the 

 Latin and Alexandrian churches, which has continued 

 ever since, in spite of all the efforts of the church of 

 Rome to effect a union. Dioscorus did not long enjoy 

 his triumph ; he was anathematized, and banished ; and 

 Prolerus, whom the court of Constantinople had nomi- 

 nated his successor, was assassinated in the cathedral 

 on Good Friday, 477, on a sedition raised by the Mo- 

 nophysites, who had already chosen another patriarch. 



From that time there have been two patriarchs ; the 

 one of the Greeks, styled orthodox, the other of the 

 Copts, called schismatics. The Greek party continued 

 for a considerable time to maintain the ascendency, till 

 the doctrine of the Copts was revived, and their party 

 strengthened, by the preaching of Jacobus Zanzales, 

 from whom they assumed the name of Jacobite*. The 

 Jacobites were always discountenanced by the govern- 

 ment, and denounced as heretics by their more power- 

 ful rivals in the church, till the invasion of Egypt by 

 the Turks ; when, in hopes of being revenged on the 

 Greeks, or of obtaining better terms from the Infidels, 

 than under the government of professing Christians, 

 they readily joined the invaders, and, it is said, outdid 

 the Turks in their hatred and cruelty to the Greeks. 

 In consequence of this alliance with the conquerors, 

 they obtained a confirmation of all their former privi- 

 leges, and enjoy, from the Turks, a superiority of re- 

 gard over their rivals the Greeks. 



With respect to the rites of the Coptic church, cir- 

 cumcision is universally adopted, and considered so es- 

 sential, that it is administered to both sexes. (See Cir- 

 cumcision.) Baptism is not considered as so necessa- 

 ry. Confession is admitted • but instead of a private, 

 auricular, and particular confession of sins, a public 

 and general one is admitted ; and the sinner obtains 

 absolution on very easy terms. The Copts are particu- 

 larly strict in then fasts, during Lent and Advent, when 

 they eat neither flesh, fish, fowls, nor eggs, and use 

 neither butter nor oil. Children of ten years of age, 

 and also the sick and the dying, are compelled to ob- 

 serve the same strict abstinence, which is, in some de- 



Copts 



t There is a curious passage in this dedication, where Copernicus states, that the reason of inscribing his book to his Holiness was, 

 ..hat the authority of the pontiff might put to silence the calumnies of some individuals, who attacked his system by arguments drawn 

 from passages of scripture twisted for their own purpose. As the passage is peculiarly interesting, our readers will be gratified with 

 the original words. ■' Ut vero pariter docti, atque indocti viderent, nullius omnino subterfugere judicium, malm tuae sanctnati, 

 uuam duiquam alteri has meas lucubrationes dedicate; propterea quod et in hoc remotissimo angulo tense, in quo ego ago, ordinis 

 lignitate et literarum omnium, atque mathematices etiam amore eminentissimus habearis; ut facile tua uuctomtatt et judicio calumm- 

 ontium morsus reprimere possis ; etsi in proverbio sit non esse remedium udversus sycophants! morsum. Si fortasse erant ftxTaiolcyti, 

 qui cum omnium mathematum ignari sint tamen de illis judicium sibi summit propter altquem locum Scriptural male ad suum propositum 

 detortum, avsifuerunt mcum hoc institutum reprehendise ac insectari ; illis nihil moror, adco ut etiam illorum judicium, tanquam te- 

 oierarium contemnam," * 



