ABSTRACT
Alexandria, and he also appointed to the church there twelve presbyters, from whom a successor to Ananius was to be elected; the patriarch was at that time called BaM or Papa. Anani:.Js was succeeded by Minius or Philetius (A.D. 87), who was succeeded by Cerda (A.D. 99), during whose.rule a fierce persecution of the Christians took place by the order of Hadrian j his successor was Primus (A.D. IIo), during whose rule the persecution of Hadrian was continued. This emperor caused the Christians to be mass.lcrea in large numbers, and well nigh exterminated them in Egypt j he destroyed also the Christian churches in Jerusalem. After Primus came Justus (A.D. 1I8), Eumenius (A.D. 133), Marcianus (A.D. 143). Claudianus (A.D. 153), Agrippinus (A.D. r67), Julianus (A.D. 179), Demetrius (A.D. 190), during whose rule Severianus slaughtered large numbers of the Christians in Egypt, and overthrew their churches. This persecution was continued in the time of Theoc\as (A.D. 231), but was relaxed in that of Cresar Philipp us. During the rule of Dionysi.us (A.D. 244) the Christians in Egypt suffered much at the hands of Decius; about this time St. Anthony the Great retired to the desert and taught men to lead there an ascetic life. After Maximus (A.D. 266) Theonas became patriarch (A.D. 282); under his rule a church in honour of the Virgin Mary was built at Alexandria, and the Christians worshipped therein openly j his successor Peter (A.D. 28q) was slain in Alexandria, and his disciple Achillas (A.D. 295) who was elected patriarch after him, only sat for six months. The persecution of the Christians by Diocletian was very severe,
and the Copts commemorate it by dating their documents according to the" Era of the Martyrs," which was made to begin with the day of the Emperor's accession to the throne, i.e., August 29, 284. Under the patriarch Alexander (A.D. 295) the great Arian controversy took place. Arius was born in the north of Libya about A.D. 256, and was ordained deacon and presbyter by the patriarchs Peter and Achillas respectively; with Achillas he was a candidate for the patriarchate. He taught that God is eternal, unchangeable, good, wise, and unbegotten; that He created the world not directly, but by means of the Logos, who was created for this express purpose; that the Son of God was created before all time, and before the world, and before all created things in it, and was in every respect the perfect image of the Father; and that He created the world and became in this sense God and the Logos. Christ, however, Arius declared to be a creature, and not eternal, and not unchangeable, and further declared that there was a time when He did not exist, and that He was not made of the essence of His Father, but out of nothing. Arius ascribed to Christ a human body with an animal soul, and not a rational soul. The controversy between Arius and the patriarch Alexander began in 318, ani lasted, with brief interrals, for marly one hundred years. Arius was excommunicated in 321 by one hundred bishops, aJ~d again at the CEcumenical Council of Nicrea in 325, and was banished by Constantinr. In 33 I Constantine ordered that he be restored to the communion of the Church, but Athanasius refused to receive him. Five years later Constantine repeated his order, but Arius died on the Saturday preceding the Sunday on which it was arranged that he should be received into the communion of the Church His death was attributed by some to poison, but, judging by the account given by Socrates and Sozomen, he seems to have perished by a violent nttack of cholera.
